The origins of all our children's characters.

Medusa!! She is the mean octopus from Little Mermaid, she is gray haired and does everything possible to hurt Ariel. I was really scared of her. She is in fact part of Greek mythology, she is a Gorgon, which are monters that represent the terrors of the sea. Of course her characteristics are modified, she does not convert people into stone at her sight, but she is aterrible creature and does nothing else but harm to others, she is feared from everybody. She is finally dead.


Why is it that most mythology have the same characteristics? There are eternal enemies, extreme beauty (other adjectives..), death, punishment and death. The punishments that the characters, monsters, gods or mortals receive are way too harsh. For me the punishments that god, supposely, give to humans when we sin are harch as well, or at least they make it seem as the worst torture there could be. "You will go to hell and burn eternaly in flames and fire, without a day of joy!!" MEN! That's fearful.

There are also many names involved and a complex story behind each of them. They, I guess, are interpretations of the different kind of people there are in our society, obviously exagerated and overdimentioned. But they have the same feelings that humans do, like anger, jealousy, greed, and so on. They are a very important part of out history and popular knowledge. They usually try to give an explanation or a story behind the creations of certain things; the horse for example or the olives, given by Neptune and Minerva to win the rule of Athens.

Mr. Tangen, I don't see the point we should be getting at by reading these small stories. I am informing myself od the different mythological creatures and stories there are in Greek mythology. I hope we discuss this in class.