My last post was about foreign poetry and now this one is about a foreign book about a not so foreign subject.
I've gotten back into mythology after a long time (I think the last time I read something centered on Greek mythology was probably the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series back in sixth grade. That was a long time ago and a time best forgotten... *shudders*). I never really read a full book on mythology so the knowledge I've picked up about it is mostly through my own curiosity and the world wide web-- namely Wikipedia.
To some people, mythology gives insight into a group of people's beliefs and culture. And to others it provides explanations of natural events that the group may not have known the scientific reason for and decided to make a creative story out of.
As one of my English teachers once said, "Think about mythology like Ancient Greek campfire stories." << Those are pretty violent and sometimes downright strange campfire stories.
The cover:
As I have found it, the book isn't really an "Indian" retelling, but mostly a retelling of Greek stories (in the basic sense of the word). At the end of most chapters (at least the ones with some kind of parallel in Indian mythology), there is a section where Pattanaik briefly goes over some events from mythological works or deities/figures with an equivalence in Hindu mythology. Since that section is so brief, I personally see it as a retelling of Greek myths with some parallels drawn to Hindu mythology.
This review is going to be somewhat different from my usual reviews because this is not a fiction work (but the mythology was originally fiction so that makes this a non-fiction work about fiction if that makes any sense at all) and I can't really talk about it the same way as I would a regular YA novel. So I've decided to talk about some common themes and popular stories that you may have come across in popular culture and referenced to in other books.
#1: Oedipus
While staying in Pisa, King Laius of Thebes broke the rules of hospitality and was given a horrible truth to wrestle with for the rest of his life: The foresight that his son would kill him.
King Laius married Jocasta, who wanted children. Laius refused, knowing that this was the only way to preserve his life. However, one night Jocasta got him drunk and forced him to give her a son.
Out of fear for his life, Laius took the newborn child, pierced his ankles with a hook and hung him to a bar the way that game is hung when it is hunted. He gave the boy to his gamekeeper and told him to hang him from a tree as food for the animals. Luckily, the boy was discovered by another hunter from Corinth who took him to the childless king, who raised him like his own son.
The boy was named Oedipus, meaning "large feet" because his ankles were swollen.
Oedipus grew up completely unaware that he was adopted until an incident where a beggar called him a "foundling". So he went to the Oracle at Delphi and she told him an even more frightening truth: That he would kill his father and marry his mother.
Thinking that he could change his fate, Oedipus left Corinth.
On his travels, Oedipus found himself at a bridge that had only room for one chariot to pass at a time. When he was almost at the other side, he was met by a king (Laius) on his chariot who demanded the right of passage. The two got into a fight and Oedipus killed Laius, not realizing that it was his father.
Laius was on his way to see the Oracle because his kingdom was being held hostage by the Sphinx, who demanded that anyone who wanted to enter the city had to answer all of her riddles correctly or face death. Oedipus too had to face this challenge.
The Sphinx asked him, "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening? Answer or die!" (I encourage you to close your eyes and think about this riddle if you haven't heard it already) To which he replied, "Man, because he crawls on all fours as a child, walks on two legs as an adult and takes the help of a cane in old age."
Getting frustrated, the Sphinx asked him another question, "Who are the sisters that give each other birth?" (This is one you should try too because I think it's a little bit trickier) To which Oedipus replied, "Day and night."
The Sphinx was defeated and killed herself, allowing Oedipus to enter Thebes.
He was greeted with great cheer as he had saved the people from imminent starvation (The Sphinx would not allow anyone into the kingdom-- including farmers and shepherds and traders). They decided to wed him to Jocasta, the widow of Laius, and make him the new king of Thebes.
And with that, Oedipus had fulfilled his fate of killing his father and marrying his mother-- both of which without even knowing he had done it.
--A recurring theme in Greek mythology is the idea that we cannot escape our fate and as much as we try to avoid it, fate will catch up to us at some point. Both Oedipus and Laius try to avoid their undesirable fate and neither of them succeed.--
(**This happens several times to particularly kings, like for example, King Midas of Crete. I guess royalty from really anywhere hasn't yet caught up to the whole "the Oracle kinda knows what she's saying and it's definitely gonna come true" thing)
This idea brings about the age old question of whether we are free to choose the outcomes of our lives or if it is pre-determined and our only purpose is to live it out.
According to the Greeks, the latter is true. The three fates weave the web of threads that is human interaction and influence, determining what will happen to every person. It is made clear that we cannot escape what will happen to us, even if that fate is ugly.
#2: Hades and Persephone
Persephone was the beautiful daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. She was ruler of spring, making flowers bloom and transition out of the harshness of winter. Hades was the cold god of death, unhappy with the way his brothers had treated him and resigned him to rule the underworld. When Hades saw Persephone for the first time, he was overwhelmed by her beauty and decided to make her his wife. So he threw on his helmet of invisibility to hastily abduct her and take her to the underworld.
Persephone knew nothing of the man who had kidnapped her, and definitely did not want to marry him as he proposed. Hades gave the the most beautiful room in his castle and everything she could ever want, telling her that in seven days he would show her everything that the underworld had to offer.
For six days they toured the underworld, where Hades showed Persephone every wonder of his kingdom. Slowly, she felt that she was beginning to like the god of death. However, she still refused to eat anything from him. On the sixth day, as she retired in her room, she broke her fast and ate six pomegranate seeds.
(**In some versions Hades shoves the pomegranate seeds in Persephone's mouth and forces her to eat them, highlighting the non-consensual aspect of their relationship better. I like this version better because it's not as awkward to tell and doesn't lead me to title this subsection "The Rape of Persephone" or something similar)
On Olympus, Demeter was sick with fear. She had always kept a watchful eye on her daughter and suddenly she was gone. In her fear, she had destroyed every crop on Earth, halting the growing season until Persephone was returned to her.
Persephone returned after the seven days, telling Demeter that she wanted to marry Hades. Demeter did not like this idea, but took it to Zeus to make the final judgement.
At his court, Zeus asked Persephone if she had eaten anything while she was with Hades, to which she mentioned the six pomegranate seeds. Zeus finally ruled that Persephone was to spent 6 months out of year with Demeter and the remaining 6 months with Hades.
When Persephone stayed with her mother, there were flowers everywhere and the weather was wonderful for growing crops. When she went to stay with Hades, Demeter killed the crops out of her loneliness and chilled the air so that no more could be planted until her daughter returned.
--This is an aspect of the explanation type of myth, where gods and goddesses are used to explain a natural phenomenon (In this case, the changing of the seasons). I picked this one in particular because A. It was the first one that came to mind and I didn't want to go looking for another one
AND
B. It's got an interesting idea that spring "marries" death for half the year and so that's why the weather is terrible for growing crops during the winter. It's by far one of the more understandable explanations that I've come across.
Happy Reading everyone!!!
Next is a super recent (like I mean published in 2017) WWII historical fiction book!
I've gotten back into mythology after a long time (I think the last time I read something centered on Greek mythology was probably the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series back in sixth grade. That was a long time ago and a time best forgotten... *shudders*). I never really read a full book on mythology so the knowledge I've picked up about it is mostly through my own curiosity and the world wide web-- namely Wikipedia.
To some people, mythology gives insight into a group of people's beliefs and culture. And to others it provides explanations of natural events that the group may not have known the scientific reason for and decided to make a creative story out of.
As one of my English teachers once said, "Think about mythology like Ancient Greek campfire stories." << Those are pretty violent and sometimes downright strange campfire stories.
The cover:
As I have found it, the book isn't really an "Indian" retelling, but mostly a retelling of Greek stories (in the basic sense of the word). At the end of most chapters (at least the ones with some kind of parallel in Indian mythology), there is a section where Pattanaik briefly goes over some events from mythological works or deities/figures with an equivalence in Hindu mythology. Since that section is so brief, I personally see it as a retelling of Greek myths with some parallels drawn to Hindu mythology.
This review is going to be somewhat different from my usual reviews because this is not a fiction work (but the mythology was originally fiction so that makes this a non-fiction work about fiction if that makes any sense at all) and I can't really talk about it the same way as I would a regular YA novel. So I've decided to talk about some common themes and popular stories that you may have come across in popular culture and referenced to in other books.
#1: Oedipus
While staying in Pisa, King Laius of Thebes broke the rules of hospitality and was given a horrible truth to wrestle with for the rest of his life: The foresight that his son would kill him.
King Laius married Jocasta, who wanted children. Laius refused, knowing that this was the only way to preserve his life. However, one night Jocasta got him drunk and forced him to give her a son.
Out of fear for his life, Laius took the newborn child, pierced his ankles with a hook and hung him to a bar the way that game is hung when it is hunted. He gave the boy to his gamekeeper and told him to hang him from a tree as food for the animals. Luckily, the boy was discovered by another hunter from Corinth who took him to the childless king, who raised him like his own son.
The boy was named Oedipus, meaning "large feet" because his ankles were swollen.
Oedipus grew up completely unaware that he was adopted until an incident where a beggar called him a "foundling". So he went to the Oracle at Delphi and she told him an even more frightening truth: That he would kill his father and marry his mother.
Thinking that he could change his fate, Oedipus left Corinth.
On his travels, Oedipus found himself at a bridge that had only room for one chariot to pass at a time. When he was almost at the other side, he was met by a king (Laius) on his chariot who demanded the right of passage. The two got into a fight and Oedipus killed Laius, not realizing that it was his father.
Laius was on his way to see the Oracle because his kingdom was being held hostage by the Sphinx, who demanded that anyone who wanted to enter the city had to answer all of her riddles correctly or face death. Oedipus too had to face this challenge.
The Sphinx asked him, "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening? Answer or die!" (I encourage you to close your eyes and think about this riddle if you haven't heard it already) To which he replied, "Man, because he crawls on all fours as a child, walks on two legs as an adult and takes the help of a cane in old age."
Getting frustrated, the Sphinx asked him another question, "Who are the sisters that give each other birth?" (This is one you should try too because I think it's a little bit trickier) To which Oedipus replied, "Day and night."
The Sphinx was defeated and killed herself, allowing Oedipus to enter Thebes.
He was greeted with great cheer as he had saved the people from imminent starvation (The Sphinx would not allow anyone into the kingdom-- including farmers and shepherds and traders). They decided to wed him to Jocasta, the widow of Laius, and make him the new king of Thebes.
And with that, Oedipus had fulfilled his fate of killing his father and marrying his mother-- both of which without even knowing he had done it.
--A recurring theme in Greek mythology is the idea that we cannot escape our fate and as much as we try to avoid it, fate will catch up to us at some point. Both Oedipus and Laius try to avoid their undesirable fate and neither of them succeed.--
(**This happens several times to particularly kings, like for example, King Midas of Crete. I guess royalty from really anywhere hasn't yet caught up to the whole "the Oracle kinda knows what she's saying and it's definitely gonna come true" thing)
This idea brings about the age old question of whether we are free to choose the outcomes of our lives or if it is pre-determined and our only purpose is to live it out.
According to the Greeks, the latter is true. The three fates weave the web of threads that is human interaction and influence, determining what will happen to every person. It is made clear that we cannot escape what will happen to us, even if that fate is ugly.
#2: Hades and Persephone
Persephone was the beautiful daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. She was ruler of spring, making flowers bloom and transition out of the harshness of winter. Hades was the cold god of death, unhappy with the way his brothers had treated him and resigned him to rule the underworld. When Hades saw Persephone for the first time, he was overwhelmed by her beauty and decided to make her his wife. So he threw on his helmet of invisibility to hastily abduct her and take her to the underworld.
Persephone knew nothing of the man who had kidnapped her, and definitely did not want to marry him as he proposed. Hades gave the the most beautiful room in his castle and everything she could ever want, telling her that in seven days he would show her everything that the underworld had to offer.
For six days they toured the underworld, where Hades showed Persephone every wonder of his kingdom. Slowly, she felt that she was beginning to like the god of death. However, she still refused to eat anything from him. On the sixth day, as she retired in her room, she broke her fast and ate six pomegranate seeds.
(**In some versions Hades shoves the pomegranate seeds in Persephone's mouth and forces her to eat them, highlighting the non-consensual aspect of their relationship better. I like this version better because it's not as awkward to tell and doesn't lead me to title this subsection "The Rape of Persephone" or something similar)
On Olympus, Demeter was sick with fear. She had always kept a watchful eye on her daughter and suddenly she was gone. In her fear, she had destroyed every crop on Earth, halting the growing season until Persephone was returned to her.
Persephone returned after the seven days, telling Demeter that she wanted to marry Hades. Demeter did not like this idea, but took it to Zeus to make the final judgement.
At his court, Zeus asked Persephone if she had eaten anything while she was with Hades, to which she mentioned the six pomegranate seeds. Zeus finally ruled that Persephone was to spent 6 months out of year with Demeter and the remaining 6 months with Hades.
When Persephone stayed with her mother, there were flowers everywhere and the weather was wonderful for growing crops. When she went to stay with Hades, Demeter killed the crops out of her loneliness and chilled the air so that no more could be planted until her daughter returned.
--This is an aspect of the explanation type of myth, where gods and goddesses are used to explain a natural phenomenon (In this case, the changing of the seasons). I picked this one in particular because A. It was the first one that came to mind and I didn't want to go looking for another one
AND
B. It's got an interesting idea that spring "marries" death for half the year and so that's why the weather is terrible for growing crops during the winter. It's by far one of the more understandable explanations that I've come across.
Happy Reading everyone!!!
Next is a super recent (like I mean published in 2017) WWII historical fiction book!
