Going Into Mythology

Remember back in the days, when our parents or grandparents would tell us stories about legends and myths? How legends are defined as a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated; while myths are defined as a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. One of my favorites is the legend of how the Zodiac Calendar came to be. My zodiac sign is the Monkey. Did you know, people born in the year of the Monkey are often inventors, plotters, entertainers and 

the creative geniuses behind anything ingenious, including mischief? Hmmm…

I was excited when going into this class—expecting and wondering… What is this class really about? Will I uncover questions I have for the stories my ancestors once told me? Or will I find out what mythology really means? Mythology is a “story”. We are required three texts in this class. They are NOT textbooks. “Textbooks are for *******!” as our professor would say. The book on The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony is revealing the names I’ve heard over and over again since I was young. Last year, I learned about Europa and the White Bull in my Intro to World Culture class. (How the name Europe came to be!) Myths really do play their parts in history. Going through pages of this book was surprisingly difficult. I had to go back to previous pages to figure out how the story is playing out over again.