Week 3 Story: Why You Shouldn't Be Too Fond of Yourself

     A day that was much like any other day (sunny with mild weather and temperature) found two wood nymphs relaxing by a pond, catching up on the latest gossip (after all, with the Greek gods there is always much to gossip about). 

     One said to the other, “Did you hear about what happened to Narcissus last year?”

     “No,” was the response, “last I heard anything to do with him was that poor Echo pined for him and faded away, but that over a year ago. I knew her once, a long time ago. Nice girl. Shame she made Hera angry.”

    “Well you’ll find this interesting,” said the first, a fir wood nymph. “So you know how Narcissus basically rejects everyone who likes him? Like, no matter if they’re human, nymph, demigod, whatever, he just turns them away?”

     “Everyone knows that,” replied the other, whose home was an olive tree. “He’s always been so full of himself, thinking he’s all that. He’s just good looking. That’s not uncommon at all in mythology.”

     “Well I guess he made the wrong person mad,” said the fir nymph. “Someone cursed him! Said that he should fall in love with himself and fail to be loved back, and Nemesis heard him.”

     The olive nymph let out a snort. “The same Nemesis who hurts anyone who seems to be too lucky? Sure she wasn’t just eavesdropping? That goddess does love her gossip, just like the rest.”

     “Hey, I’m just telling you what I heard. I’ll stop if you don’t want to hear it.”

     “Alright, I’m sorry, I’ll be quiet. What happened after Nemesis got involved?”

     “Well, she did what was asked of her. The next time Narcissus was out hunting, when he went to drink from a pond he saw his reflection and fell in love with himself, and – “

     “Hold up, you expect me to believe that?” cried the olive wood nymph. “I know Narcissus went back for seconds of looks instead of getting in line when they were handing out intelligence, but surely even he wasn’t that dumb. I mean, animals can recognize that their reflection isn’t real!”

     The fir wood nymph held up her hands defensively. “I swear it’s true! My cousin’s boyfriend’s sister’s aunt saw him! He was sitting by the pond, weeping and reaching down to touch the surface, moaning at the fact that he couldn’t caress his reflection’s face. I swear it actually happened.”

     The olive wood nymph let out a snort. “Whatever you say. Did he ever manage to drag himself away from his own reflection?”

     The fir nymph shook her head. “He just stayed there. Supposedly he knew that it was his reflection, and that he was being stupid, but he still stayed there and just looked at himself. Just wasted away. Someone told me Echo was there, watching it all happen. Not that she could do anything to help him. He finally died after a while. Kind of a sad way to go, if you ask me. Longing so much for what you can’t have.”

     The olive nymph let out another snort. “This is Ancient Greece. People die in tragic ways all the time. Trust me, that’s nothing new.”

     “Yeah, but I didn’t tell you the best part,” said the fir nymph. “His sisters went to bury his body, but they didn’t find it! They found a flower instead next to the pond, white with a yellow center, and it kept bobbing towards the water as if it was trying to look into it. Supposedly Echo stayed with him until the end too.” She sighed. “I know Greek mythology always has tragic endings, but this one really sucks, if you ask me.”

     The olive wood nymph rolled her eyes again, and moved to stretch her arms. As she did, something by the edge of the pond caught her eye. There was a white flower, with a yellow center. As she watched, the flower kept nodding down at the top of the water, as if the wind was pushing it down. But the olive nymph realized that all the other plants were still, that there was no wind. The flower was the only plant in sight that was moving. 

     The olive wood nymph turned back to her companion, and saw that the fir nymph saw the flower as well. With a few muttered words to each other, they jumped up and moved quickly back down the path towards their trees, with only the echo of their words remaining in the clearing with the pond and the flower.

(Source: Ceil on DeviantArt)

Author’s note: This version of the story of Narcissus comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Like a lot of Greek myths, this one ends in tragedy. There’s not really a happy ending for anyone involved. Echo, who was cursed by Hera to repeat the last words someone spoke to her, was reported to have faded away after she was rejected by Narcissus, leaving only her voice behind. Narcissus (who was the subject of a prophecy that he would only be in danger if he were to find himself) was so arrogant in rejecting everyone that he attracted the attention of Nemesis (the Greek goddess of revenge who was known to go after those she felt had too high an opinion of themselves).

As should be evidenced, Narcissus is the root of the word ‘narcissism,’ a personality disorder where someone feels they are the best, and everyone who disagrees with them is their enemy. In other words, someone who is so in love with themselves that they disregard all others. Additionally, this story provides an explanation for the existence of two things: the echo, and the Narcissus flower (which really does exist).

I liked the idea of the story being told as gossip. The ending where the nymphs realize they’re by a pond with an oddly moving flower didn’t occur to me until I was almost done. But I like where the story ended up; it makes the tale a little somber, and gives it a ghostly feel that I think is befitting.

Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphesis, Part B

As often happens with Greek/Roman myths, the main character/occurrence in the story makes its mark in the English language by becoming the root of a common word. Here, we see why Narcissus (this version of the myth is from Ovid's Metamorphoses) is the root for the word narcissism, and all the other words that derive from that.

Reading Notes

• This version is a lot more poetic than the story of Phaethon I read yesterday, it seems.
• Definitely this version was meant to be read out loud, not read from paper.
• Lots of poetic imagery, as usual.
• It's weird because Narcissus is aware that he's in love with his own reflection, but he doesn't care.
• In my initial reading, my thought was "Narcissus isn't that bright, to fall in love with his own reflection. After all, one feature of cognitive development in children is when they recognize that what's in the mirror is a reflection."
• But again, he does know what's happening, he just doesn't care.
• Also shows how in mythology, prophecies always come to pass, no matter what is or isn't done to avoid them.
• In the end, a tragedy for both Narcissus and Echo (who really didn't do anything wrong except to make Juno angry, but I digress).
• Both of them end up dying/unhappy
• Side note, apparently the flower Narcissus turns into is known for growing by water and bowing so it looks like it's looking at its own reflection. Therefore, it's Narcissus forever looking at the reflection of one he can't have.
• Also, basically it was someone Narcissus rejected who started the whole thing (so again, the gods just kinda doing stuff at their whim).

So in this picture, we have Narcissus looking at his reflection, while Echo looks at him (Source: Greek Myths & Greek Mythology)

Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphesis, Part A

This story comes from Tony Kline’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This story follows how Phaethon died, and the aftermath of how his family reacted. Phaethon had previously found out that the Sun God was his father, and after meeting him, demanded to drive the chariot of the sun, as was his birthright. His father, having said he’d grant any request that Phaethon made, tried his best to change his mind, but couldn’t succeed. Phaethon tried to drive the chariot, but because the horses were so wild, failed and let the sun chariot go wildly off course. As the heat of the sun chariot became unbearable, Earth called out to Jupiter for help. 

Reading Notes:

• Jupiter climbed up to the tallest mountain, and yelled for all the gods to witness that he had no other choice for what he was about to do.
• Jupiter threw a lightning bolt at the chariot, and hit Phaethon right in the head. 
• The horses broke free from the chariot and ran away, while Phaethon shot through the sky like a shooting star, eventually landing in a stream. 
• Some nymphs found his body and gave him a burial with a headstone announcing his fate.
• His father didn’t run the sun the next day, but resumed his duties the day after, as he wished to mourn his son.
• His mother and his sisters wandered the earth until he found his grave, and spent four days weeping and beating their chests.
• After the fourth day, although his mother tried to stop it from happening, his sisters turned into trees.
• Meanwhile, Cycnus, a friend of Phaethon, vented his grief in a similar manner, and turned into a swan because of it.
• Phaethon’s father swore that he wouldn’t pull the chariot again, and demanded that the others try and see how hard it could be.

The death of Phaethon (Source: Wikipedia)

Week 2: Thoughts on Feedback

In looking over the articles for the assignment, a few stood out to me. One of them was the graph for the Learning Process.

From the article

As we can see, learning is a continuous process, not a simple “A to B” trip. In our brains, as I’ve learned in my psychology classes, information is constantly being edited and refined with new information (or even with processing it after the fact). This is why your memory of an event may change over time, or, in relation to the current topic, how you view something may change over time.

Another article that I liked was the essay by John Cleese, titled “The Importance of Mistakes.” Cleese discusses how it’s important to recognize that, as long as someone reaches the end goal in the right amount of time, then the amount of mistakes they make along the way shouldn’t matter. Little mistakes are easily correctable, and having these small mistakes happen means that the goal is reached in the end. This rang a bell for me, since I’m encountering something similar at work. I was moved to start working in the accounting office, and my philosophy has become, “As long as I don’t make the same mistake twice, then I’m doing okay.” There’s a lot that goes into working in the office, and I’m the only one in there during my shift. Most of the time I end up texting one of my coworkers with a question, but I feel that as long as I don’t make the same mistake twice, then that means I am learning, and will eventually get to the point where I can reach the end goals without any help. 

This is something that can apply to life in general too. As long as I keep learning from my mistakes and avoid repeating them, then my end goal will be reached in the end.

But this is also me after 15 minutes of homework (Source: Growth Mindset Blog)

Topic Brainstorm: What to Choose

I already had the idea for one topic in mind, but I managed to come up with other topics to consider. Honestly, I may have issues with selecting which topic to go with! So, in no particular order:

Topic 1: Thread/Weaving Shop

(Source: Fancywork)

This is the first idea that I had: a shop that features textiles like yarn, thread, and woven things. Someone comes into the shop and asks about various items, and the proprietor tells the myth behind the item. This would definitely allow for exploration of various cultures, from Greek to Chinese to Native American, and as someone who likes to knit and crochet this would definitely be a topic I can write about. Also I hate my boyfriend because he came up with the perfect name for the shop: Spin Me a Yarn.

Topic 2: Mythological Pet Shop

(Source: Vector Cartoons)

At first I thought this could just be a pet shop where the animals are from different stories (example: Puss from Puss in Boots), but then I realized that was probably way too broad a topic, so instead we’re going to go with a mythological creatures pet shop, where Cerberus and Chinese dragons are waiting for someone to come adopt them. 

Topic 3: Psychology and Folklore

(Source: The Comic Strips)

So as a psych major this seems like a fun way to combine the class with my degree. It could be fun to look at the myths behind various terms in psychology. This may end up involving a lot of Greek/Roman mythology, since those were the main influences for a lot of the words used in English (for example: Narcissus, Oedipus, etc.), but I think there are some psychological terms that don’t come from Latin. I’d have to look more into that though.

Topic 4: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

(Source: Reddit)

Honestly I love the idea of the Four Horsemen. There’s a lot of modern stories that feature the Four Horsemen in some way, such as books or TV shows (any Supernatural fans out there?), but I don’t think there’s a lot of stuff that’s in the public domain, so this one may be a little hard to do. Still, it’s a fun idea and if I can play around with it enough I can probably come up with something (maybe the Four Horsemen telling stories of stuff they’ve done individually in other cultures? Hm…)