Indian Epics

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Week 6 "Extra" Reading, Mahabharata Part A.3

(Image courtesy of https://giphy.com/gifs/class-textbook-Fs2BifYzB9dzG.)

I had to track through the rest of Part A. I'm still confused why the Pandavas were introduced as such douchebags if they're supposed to be the protagonists of the story.

Bibliography

Narayan, R.K. The Mahabharata, 1978. University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Week 6 Story Lab: "Vengeance of the Sun God, Part 1" Notes for Revision

(Image courtesy of ClipArt Library

How do I get Icarus out of Crete in the first place?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus

Hellenistic writers give euhemerizing variants in which the escape from Crete was actually by boat, provided by Pasiphaë, for which Daedalus invented the first sails, to outstrip Minos' pursuing galleys, and that Icarus fell overboard en route to Sicily and drowned. Heracles erected a tomb for him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daedalus

The most familiar literary telling explaining Daedalus' wings is a late one, that of Ovid: in his Metamorphoses (VIII:183–235) Daedalus was shut up in a tower to prevent the knowledge of his Labyrinth from spreading to the public. He could not leave Crete by sea, as the king kept a strict watch on all vessels, permitting none to sail without being carefully searched. Since Minos controlled the land and sea routes, Daedalus set to work to fabricate wings for himself and his young son Icarus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasipha%C3%AB

Pasiphae was the daughter of Helios, the Titan god of the sun, and Perse,^[3] of the Oceanids. ^[4] Like her doublet Europa, her origins were in the East, in her case at Colchis; she was the sister of Circe, Aeëtes and Perses, and she was given in marriage to King Minos of Crete. With Minos, she was the mother of Acacallis, Ariadne, Androgeus, Glaucus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Xenodice, and Catreus. She was also the mother of "starlike" Asterion, called by the Greeks the Minotaur. In the Greek literalistic understanding of a Minoan myth,^[7] in order to actually copulate with the bull, she had the Athenian artificer Daedalus^[8] construct a portable wooden cow with a cowhide covering, within which she was able to satisfy her strong desire.

Daedalus ends up on the island of Sicily.

His father cried, bitterly lamenting his own arts, and called the island near the place where Icarus fell into the ocean Icaria in memory of his child. Some time later, the goddess Athena visited Daedalus and gave him wings, telling him to fly like a god.

Further to the west Daedalus arrived safely in Sicily, in the care of King Cocalus of Kamikos on the island's south coast; there Daedalus built a temple to Apollo, and hung up his wings, an offering to the god. In an invention of Virgil (Aeneid VI), Daedalus flies to Cumae and founds his temple there, rather than in Sicily; long afterward Aeneas confronts the sculpted golden doors of the temple.

The island on which his body was washed ashore was later named Icaria.

Matsya

Proteus

Feeling guilty about how fulfilling her lust with the Poseidon (the white bull) caused her faithful servant Daedelus to be condemned and imprisoned, Pasiphae called on her mother Perse to bring a ship close to the shore and called on the Hippocampus of Poseidon to take the boy to the ship (when you accidentally father a Minotaur, you let your girlfriend use your sea hore for favors). The dagger that Icarus carries bears a resemblance to Athena's weapon to mark him as a Metonied and has a hilt made of Minotaur horn so the hippocampus can identify him as the individual that needs to be taken to the ship.

As the daughter of Helios, Pasiphae is the connection to why Icarus and Daedelus would recognize Helios. I just have to figure out how Helios would encounter the two before the big conflict.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Reading Notes, Mahabharata Part A.2

(Image courtesy of Giphy.)

I had to read the first part of the reading twice. There are a lot of characters that are introduced and a lot of back story that is rushed through. Here's a rundown:

King Succession line:

Santanu

Should be Devaratha, son of Ganga, but it isn't

Chitrangada, son of Satyavathi

Vichitravirya

Should be Dhritarashtra, son of Ambika and Vyasa (but considered son of Vichitravirya) but

abdicates the throne

Pandu, son of Ambalika and Vyasa (but considered son of Vichitravirya)

Dhritarashtra ascends the throne after Pandu dies

Dead by Chapter 2:

may Santanu, it is unclear if he died or if he just retired.

Chitrangada

Vichitravirya

Pandu

Pandu's second wife Madri

Pandu's children that were actually fathered by gods:

Birthed by Kunthi

Karna- son Surya, of the Sun God (sent floating down the river and was adopted by a charioteer and

his wife)

Yudhistira- Son of Yama, God of Death and Ultimate Justice

Bhimasena- Son of Vayu, God of Wind

Arjuna- Son of Indra, Chief of Gods

Birthed by Madri

Nakula and Sahadeva- Twin Sons of the Aswins, Twin brothers who are sons of Surya.

Set-up for Chapter 2:

King Dhritarashtra and his uncle Bhima (formerly known as Devaratha) have taken in Kunthi and her five demigod children.

Dhritarashtra's wife Gandahari somehow has managed to give birth to one hundred boys. The poor woman.

Bibliography

Narayan, R.K. The Mahabharata, 1978. University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Currently Reading:

A Raisin in the Sun

by Lorraine Hansberry

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Reading Notes, Mahabharata Part A

(Image courtesy of 123RF.)

Bibliography

Doniger, Wendy. Foreword. The Mahabharata, by R.K. Narayan, 1978. University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Currently Reading:

A Raisin in the Sun

by Lorraine Hansberry

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Famous Last Words-Week 5

(Image Courtesy of IMGBIN.)

I had a lot of papers due in the early part of this week. It was pretty stressful. I was nervous about missing the Tuesday/Wednesday notes assignments for this class, but I was glad that the reading options were just more versions of the Ramayana. I was able to read through parts of these versions and use a couple of the extra credit options to make up for the points I lost. I have a couple of instructors in the College of Ed that preach against offering extra credit. They insist that it just makes more papers to grade and that the only students who take advantage of the extra credit are the students that don't need it anyway. Lies! It's all lies! Sometimes you need those extra credit points available because life happens and students need options to adjust.

Although I struggled to produce my other writing projects, this week's story came easily to me. Probably because while I was slogging through papers that had narrow prompts and stuffy rubrics, the creative part of my brain was mulling over the story for this class. Having the freedom to write creatively was cathartic. It was like the Once-ler got ahold of my story and it kept biggering and biggering in my brain, and now I have a huge story that's coming together. I'm enjoying it, though.

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Comment Wall

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https://mrsedenela.oucreate.com/indianepics/

Thanks for your comments!

Week 5 Wikipedia Trail

(Image courtesy of ClipArt Library.)

My Wikipedia Trail centers on Jatayu and Sampati. I looked up a lot of Indian landmarks because I am trying to figure out how to get Icarus/Sampati's body from the Aegean Sea to India. I think Makara is going to be a big player in this move. I'm also trying to figure out why Jatayu is the king of the eagle clans, but he's called a vulture. Sampati is legitimately a vulture, so I think that's going to play into why Daedalus didn't believe in the great eagles, but he didn't think that Icarus would confuse the great eagles for the vulture brothers.

Included are my notes from The Divine Archer. They should be listed in the Extra Credit reading blog, but I put all of my notes together, and I divided the Archer notes between the two blog posts.