Myth Into History, Week 2: The Gods You Thought You Knew (But Didn't) [Thurs. 1st Period]

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

Today, like last week, the Danger Shop was programmed to look like the interior of a canvas tent on a dig site, with long tables and folding camp chairs set up in two rows for the students to take their seats. Among the simulated artifacts laid out on these tables were a small golden bell, a large diamond, and a perfectly ordinary-looking set of quills and parchments, one for each student. Notable, though, were the plates of brownies and cookies perched on a stack of crates near the door; apparently Janice had taken Dr. Wilson's suggestion to heart.

As for Janice herself, was chomping on her usual cigar, notably irritated that it wasn't lit, as she waited for the students to arrive.

"Okay," she said once everyone was seated. "Now that we've gotten the useless formalities out of the way and I know exactly how much all of you have to unlearn, we're going to start studying the two gods who figure into the Xena Scrolls the most: Ares and Aphrodite. The gods of war and love. Not too surprising, right? Get used to those themes. You'll be seeing a lot of them. The first thing you need to know, though, is that the gods were petty little bastards. Even the rest of the academic world agrees on that, but they don't have the insight I do."

She stepped out from behind her desk and paced around the tent, stopping to affectionately pat the unloaded Gatling gun. "Now, Xena had a lot of dealings with the gods, and a real gift for pissing them off, so she got to see a lot of that pettiness firsthand. And thanks to the Scrolls, we now have an idea of just what little bitches they could be."

"Take Ares, for example," she continued, picking up the tattered remains of an elaborate leather vest. "You'd think the God of War had some pretty big things on his plate to worry about, right? Wrong. He was a god. He had all the time in the world to get himself into some pretty stupid situations. Some of the Scroll fragments we've retrieved seem to hint that he might be Xena's father. Others indicate that they were once lovers. And well, it's Ancient Greece we're talking about. Those two aren't necessarily exclusive. Ares wasn't above manipulating the warlords of the Mediterranean into doing his bidding until they no longer served his purposes. That was fine while they all feared him, but when he became mortal for a while? Yeah, that was a real bitch, and you bet your ass it was Xena who bailed his ass out. She even forced him into hiding once, but that's a story for another time."

Janice moved on to a seven-foot-tall pillar swathed in canvas, and pulled the tarp back to reveal a gaudy golden statue of a woman clad in what could only be described as Victoria's Scantiest. "Aphrodite," she intoned. "Goddess of Love. You want to talk petty? No one did petty better. There's nothing she loved more than herself, and Xena didn't exactly make her look good most of the time, so Aphrodite retaliated by being the ancient world's biggest five-year-old pain in the ass. Bonus points if she could get some laughs out of it. There are examples in your reading, like the time she turned a guy from a useless bumbling fool to a suave hero and back again every time he heard a bell ring."

Janice's grin turned malicious at that. No, it wasn't directed toward Joxer; that's just a trick of the light. "That's a personal favorite of mine. Or when she stole the North Star so she could make it part of her own new constellation, and just to throw Xena and her friends off the trail made all of them obsessed with the first thing they laid eyes on. And then there was the incident with Gabrielle's enchanted scroll, which is what we'll be studying in depth in today's exercise. But first, let's talk a little about last week's exercise."

When everyone had completed today's activity, Janice clapped her hands together. "Your assignment for next week is to think about what you just did. Next discussion will be about whether you think Aphrodite would have done something like this. If your answer is no, you're still wrong, but I want to hear your reasons anyway. That's all for today. Now get out of here."

[OOC: OCD up -- play away.

ETA: Ping me in the OOC thread if you want your character to get detention for anything you write down. *g*

Class Info/Syllabus/Roster]

Comments

Sign In (MiH, Week 2)

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

Collapsey fashion, but no collapsing the dig site Danger Shop.

Re: Sign In (MiH, Week 2)

[joxertehmighty.livejournal.com]

Joxer the Miiiiiiighty!

Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

Because she expects you to do this part, at least.

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

Zack took notes throughout the lecture.

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[likethegun]

Sam made sure his notes were legible, so that he'd be able to share them with Dawn.

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

Broots typed his notes. Whether they had anything to do with class or not was questionable.

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe took notes on everything she was hearing... and then pondered asking some other people for further clarification.

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[untouchableskin.livejournal.com]

Marie took notes and was still of the opinion that her teacher was a little on the crazy side. But considering one of her teachers had green skin, she figured crazy was relative.

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[chasingsnitches.livejournal.com]

Cedric took notes and scowled when his pen ran out of ink and his spare pencil broke.

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[janet_fraiser]

Janet rolled her eyes about the god part. A lot. Because really, her teacher was just a little egotistical if she thought she was the only one who knew just how petty and arrogant the 'gods' could be.

Hm. Introducing Dr. Covington to Daniel would be...interesting. They'd either hate each other, or get along entirely too well.

But she still took a lot of notes. And was probably open to complaining about the teacher chatting during class.

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

D'anna has given up on note-taking in the classroom of the crazy midget.

Instead, she's trying to work out how to best fly paper airplanes at the professor's head without getting caught. Because it's entertaining and she wouldn't want all that shiney new paper to go to waste!

Re: Talk/Take Notes/Pester Each Other (MiH, Week 2)

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

None of what Dr. Covington was saying was surprising him all that much. He found he really liked that vest.
He was using the margins of the handouts they'd gotten last week for his notes.

Ares: Prick, snappy dresser :P

Aphrodite: goddess of love? or lust? Mutually exclusive?

Xena: Female interpretation of Hercules? Mary Sue omg!

Discussion (MiH, Week 2)

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

"So, last week's activity," said Janice, crossing her arms over her chest. "Did you think it was plausible? Especially when you take into consideration that, according to the story (http://www.whoosh.org/epguide/cradle.html#syn1), the kid in question is being protected because he's prophesied to overthrow a king?"

She gave the cigar another vicious chomp or two, then continued, "Any other stories you know of about the gods being petty? Share 'em if you want."

Re: Discussion (MiH, Week 2)

[bookyeve.livejournal.com]

"Um, well..." Evie's trying to be diplomatic here. "Not really. I mean, I suppose it is *possible* for someone to throw the baby, catch it, and dodge all those balls. Someone with acrobatic training. However, I think Janet had a good point when she said it wouldn't be good for the baby." She took a deep breath. "It could be metaphorical, though? Perhaps Gabrielle was referring to, to, um, different challenges of the kingdom?"

She let out her breath. "And one of the more petty myths I know involves the Eye of Ra."

Re: Discussion (MiH, Week 2)

[grenfelzer.livejournal.com]

"Maybe if they had magic and could make the baby fly or something," Carmela says with a shrug. As for petty gods? Well, *maybe* Macchu Picchu counted? She was pretty sure biting people's ears at random constituted as "petty". But how to explain that the only god she'd ever met personally had spent ten years in a macaw costume followed by a couple sharing a body with a surly celto-goth teenager?

Re: Discussion (MiH, Week 2)

[chasingsnitches.livejournal.com]

"I had trouble trusting myself to catch the baby," Cedric admitted. "Perhaps, I thought about it too much. As for gods being petty, my world doesn't tend to deal with gods of any kind. At least, not that I know of."

Re: Discussion (MiH, Week 2)

[likethegun]

"Do I think it's plausible? Maybe. Especially if the child is being protected," Sam said. "Do I think it's smart? Not really. As for petty gods...well, most people only believe in one god where I come from, and it usually comes down to his followers being more petty than he would be."

Re: Discussion (MiH, Week 2)

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

"If Xena was actually the daughter of a God it might be possible." Billy admitted. "But catching the kid on the way down without hurting it? I've got my doubts."

Re: Discussion (MiH, Week 2)

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

"No," said a D'anna who was being to wonder about the effects of this class on her mental state. "It's not plausible with out special effects equipment and slow frame-by-frame replay."

Activity: Enchanted Scrolls, or Why Purple Prose Is Dangerous (MiH, Week 2)

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

Janice pointed to the parchments and quills (http://mikes-images.com/eps/quill/pages/quill_5_mq_142cd.htm) on the tables in front of the students, then punched a button on the Danger Shop remote so that the tent and all its trappings disappeared. This left the students sitting in a camp clearing with a banked fire pit. "Write yourselves into a short story on these scrolls, and see how your stories come true. Work alone or in groups, if you want."

Her grin turned slightly evil at that. "I dare you to get poetic."

Once the exercise was done, she punched another button and set the Shop back to its normal classroom/tent appearance.

[[Please see OOC note below for specifics.]]

Re: Activity: Enchanted Scrolls, or Why Purple Prose Is Dangerous (MiH, Week 2)

[joxertehmighty.livejournal.com]

Joxer thought for a second, and wrote what first came to mind.

Re: Activity: Enchanted Scrolls, or Why Purple Prose Is Dangerous (MiH, Week 2)

[bookyeve.livejournal.com]

Evie stared at the scroll, dismayed. Oh, dear. Well. If no one but the teacher saw it... it wouldn't really matter, would it?

The brave adventurer, Evelyn Carnahan, strode into the jungle, clad in armor of purest shining light, a sword in her hand, a song in her heart, and a mission on her mind. To find the source of the ...

Evie paused, trying to think of something that hadn't been discovered yet. Right.

...City of El Dorado, Kingdom of Gold, Seat of Learning, and...

She frowned, wishing she'd studied South America a bit more.

Re: Activity: Enchanted Scrolls, or Why Purple Prose Is Dangerous (MiH, Week 2)

[twohalvesofaphd.livejournal.com]

Zack frowned briefly, then started writing.

Zack Addy, super genius extraodainare, looked up as Special Agent Keely Ruth came into the lab. "Zack, thank god you're here, I need you-"

Zack frowned again as the quill ran out of ink and started looking for more.

Re: Activity: Enchanted Scrolls, or Why Purple Prose Is Dangerous (MiH, Week 2)

[chasingsnitches.livejournal.com]

Cedric thought about this for a long while. Creative writing wasn't a particularly strong point of his.

As the crowd cheered, Cedric Diggory, the best Quidditch player in all the land, flew out on his golden broom. Girls swooned, men screamed, and the stadium shook on its foundation. Of course, this turned out rather badly as the foundation crumbled and Cedric Diggory, the best Quidditch player in the world, had to save everyone from the rocks from heaven.

Cedric stared.

OOC

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

A note on the enchanted scrolls: think bad Mary Sue fanfic. Think flowery prose. Think figures of speech that can have really comedic results when taken literally.

The "Gabrielle's enchanted scroll" link above contains an episode synopsis, but for a few canon examples of what you can do with the scrolls:

- "Gabrielle awoke with a jerk" -- Xena is gone in the morning, and Joxer has mysteriously arrived in her place.

- "War lost all its power" -- Ares crashes down out of the sky, suddenly mortal.

- "Drinks are on the house" -- yep, beer pouring from the ceiling.

Mod the results yourself if you like, and just have fun with it -- ping me here if you'd like a few prompts from the Shop as well, or any questions.

Re: OOC

[joxertehmighty.livejournal.com]

Awoke with a jerk? I don't get it...