fandomhigh | World Mythology - Monday, January 7th

Ghanima was sitting on her desk, absently eating lemon drops as she watched the students arrive. Once the last of the students arrived, her face lit up with a smile.

"Good morning,” she said, her voice carrying effortlessly. “I am Lady Ghanima Atreides, and this is World Mythology. You may call me Lady Ghanima or Miss Ghanima, whichever you are more comfortable with. The first person to call me Lady Atreides gets detention.” Ghani grinned wickedly. "Lady Atriedes is my grandmother, and I am nowhere near that old."

"This is a survey class, intended to give you a gentle introduction to various pantheons and mythologies around the world. We will not be covering any country in-depth, instead, consider this a whirlwind tour.”

“During this class, I’m going to ask you to keep in mind that many stories we consider today to be folklore or myths were originally part of a religion. I’m going to ask that you keep an open mind, and try not to let any ethnocentric biases show too badly. Yes, you may consider tales of the Tuatha de Danan or the Morrigan to be nothing more than fairy stories, but to someone else it may be a fundamental truth.”

“That said, you’ll hopefully have a syllabus next week, as ~~the mun~~ my desk had a tragic accident with a cup of coffee. Not that I actually promise to stick to the syllabus, but I hear students like to have them. Possibly for doodling on while they pretend to pay attention to me.”

“Today we will start with the definition of a myth.” Ghanima hopped off the desk and grabbed a stack of handouts, beginning to distribute them around the room.

“In the academic fields of mythology, mythography, or folkloristics, a myth (mythos) is a sacred story concerning the origins of the world or how the world and the creatures in it came to be in their present form. The active beings in myths are generally gods and heroes. Myths often are said to take place before recorded history begins. In saying that a myth is a sacred narrative, what is meant is that a myth is believed to be true by people who attach religious or spiritual significance to it. Use of the term by scholars does not imply that the narrative is either true or false."

"For the purpose of this class, myths are stories that originate in the beliefs of nations and races and present episodes in which supernatural forces operate. Some myths try to make visible and concrete ways that humans see nature, like the division of the year into seasons. Many myths show the ways that humans see the forces that control them, and often explain creation, religion, and divinities; they guess at the meaning of life and death, or at the cause for good and evil."

"Now, it is important to separate myths from other types of stories. Mythology is frequently confused with fiction, legend, fairy tale, folklore, fable, and urban legend, each of which has a distinct meaning in academia. There is also epic poetry, which may retell a myth, but not every epic poem is a myth – many are legends or folklore."

"The effective telling of a myth usually has some sense of dignity or simplicity, even for the entertaining or amusing ones, for it tries to re-create the spirit and intention of the original. When myths are poorly told, they condescend to or even insult the efforts of earlier societies to find meaning in life. When myths are well told, they appeal to something deep within us."

"And that is hopefully the most I'm going to talk all semester. I also find myself in need of a TA, since there are considerably more of you than I expected." Returning to her desk, Ghani picked up a metal bowl and waved it at them. "If you're interested in the job, please put your name in the dish and I'll draw a name after class. I believe in choosing my minions in a democratic manner."

"No smart comments from the peanut gallery, Mister Altman. I can see you back there."

"My office is number twenty-two, and I can be found there on Tuesdays. If there are no other questions, class is dismissed."

[~~Please to be waiting for my~~ OCD is up! Have fun! Large chunks of class stolen from Wikipedia and also from A Critical Handbook of Children's Literature, 8th edition, by Rebecca J. Lukens]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Name, class, and favorite myth!

Listen, pass notes, chatter, as you do.

In the OCD of the OCD below, feel free to ping in to each other's threads and debate/argue the topics therein.

How do you determine what is myth, what is legend, and what is a fairy tale?

In the sign-in, you told the class what your favorite myth is. Why? Give us a basic summary (just a sentence or two), and tell us why it's important to you.

Steal some of her candies, put your name in the TA bowl (TA has been pre-chosen, but feel free to submit yourself anyway), or just chat with the teacher.

For when the OCD gets to be too much!

Teddy Altman, Junior, Um... Hercules kinda actually exists where I'm from, but I like the myths about him?

"I like Hercules and the labours because he was looking for redemption and was able to find it..."

Teddy was really kinda crap at this.

S.T. Anders, Senior, the Tomb of Athena (http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Athena) from Colonial scripture

Anders decided he liked this teacher. Plus, he'd never admit it but he was totally getting his geek on with the terminology.

Apparently Professor Dream's classes his sophomore year had stuck with him.

"The Tomb of Athena doesn't technically exist in Earth mythology," Anders said apologetically, and yes, he did say Earth, and not Thirteenth Colony. It was a habit he was getting into. Apparently he'd gone native. "But I do like it because, well, it's kind of tragic, and the Lords of Kobol might be the same gods as the Greeks and Romans had but with different stories, and far as I can tell nothing like that happened in Greek or Roman legend. I guess I just like the idea that a god could despair that much over her people leaving. Makes them seem less . . . distant?"

Isabel Evans, Senior, Kokopelli

Edited 2008-01-07 16:19 (UTC)

While the class wouldn't have any practical bearing for Isabel's future, she was pretty sure it was going to be a big help when it came to improving her skill at Trivial Pursuit.

It's not that she was avoiding looking at Michael ~~when he finally turned up~~, it's just that she didn't want to crowd him while he was still mad at her.

Savannah Levine, Sophomore, Pandora

Savannah was cheerfully taking notes as she was going to enjoy this class.

"Kokopelli was a flute-playing fertility god associated with agriculture and childbirth," Isabel explained. "It's believed that his flute playing chases away Winter and brings on the Spring."

Adam Park, Junior, Prometheus

Adam was taking notes, making sure to get everything down. He had a feeling he was going to enjoy this class.

Katara, Junior, the Avatar. Only he's my best friend and not a myth.

"Um, my favourite myth isn't actually a myth anymore," Katara said uneasily. "When I was a kid, my story was the Avatar coming back to bring balance to the world. But then Sokk and I found him in an iceberg and he really is doing that."

Michael Guerin, Freshman, Prometheus.

Michael was ~~doodling in his notebook~~ paying attention.

"Guy stole fire from the gods. What's not to like?"

"So you enjoy your gods with less hubris and more humanity?" she asked, hopping off the desk. "Accessibility over aloofness."

"Which is interesting in the context, considering where the term 'deity' comes from." Ghanima grabbed a marker and started writing on the board. "The English word 'deity' derives from the Latin 'dea', meaning goddess, and 'deus', or 'god'."

"Related are words for 'sky': the Latin 'dies' (day) and 'divum' (open sky), and the Sanskrit 'div,' 'diu"' (sky, day, shine). Also related are 'divine' and 'divinity,' from the Latin 'divinus,' from 'divus.' All words that imply a remoteness or inaccessibility to the person in question. While the sky is a very open image, during these time periods it was also remote, due to the cultures lacking any sort of space flight."

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World Mythology - Monday, January 7th - 2th Period

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