Growing up in France, we were taught Greek mythology and Greek lettering in our french classes, I always had a very strong connection and passion for the subject and really enjoyed the way my teacher would tell the stories, he was very enthusiastic about it as well. Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago due to a heart attack and so I thought why not create a project based on Greek Mythology in his honor. My favorite stories consist of Pandora’s Box where Pandora was gifted a box full of all the evils in the world and specifically told not to open the box, which of course she did and all the bad things were released into the world onto humanity.
The story of Athena - she was not bared by a mother, instead she fought her way out of Zeus’ skull and managed to make herself a full set of Armour whilst inside his hear, she was a special favorite of the Greeks as she was their protector, hence why their capital city is named Athens. She was named the Goddess of War and Wisdom which caused aggravation with her half Brother Ares, as he was named the God of War. however Athena used a more tactical and strategic approach to her practice whereas Ares was a lot more violent and barbaric. She was the one who gifted the Olive Tree to the Greeks, which is still a very big part of their culture today. I absolutely love how majestic and feminine she is.
The story of Medusa - Medusa had vowed to be celibate her entire life, however when she fell in love with Poseidon, he sexually assaulted her and so Athena punished her for breaking her vows by giving her a head full of snakes, which made her look ugly. She was once known as a beautiful maiden with lovely golden hair. I find this story to be very sad and it is the one thing I dislike about Athena as in reality Medusa did nothing wrong and so she should not have been punished. I do feel it gives her a lot more of an interesting story though as before I learnt about this I always saw her as someone who was just pure evil and turned people to stone for the sake of it, but really she has a very tragic back story.
Melissa the Honey Bee - Zeus and Hera decided to put together a small event where all of the creatures on planet earth would create a substance of their choice and whichever was the tastiest would be granted one wish. They tasted every single recipe, but the choice was really quite easy, Melissa the honey bee had created such a delicious substance that Zeus and Hera fell in love with it. When she was made the winner and asked what her wish was she explained exactly what was going through her mind. Being a honey bee is such hard work, he can take week to create just a teaspoon of honey, and at this point she was the only Bee there was. Her hard work would often be destroyed y bears of other creatures when they are looking for food. So her wish was to be given a lethal sting to get rid of anything trying to steal her honey.
Zeus was not impressed by her wish and he stated that she should not be so selfish and should share her honey. Anyway, they had a bit of an argument where Zeus obviously got very angry and momentarily refused to grant any wish. When he then decided, he would give her an alternative wish, he granted her a sting, however it would not be lethal to others, it would simply cause a slight prick, but it would however be lethal to her if used. He also gave her a colony of other bees in which she would be the Queen. This way the honey business would still be in place and more honey would be created for everyone to enjoy, although the Bees would not be able to sting anything or anyone without suffering severe consequences.
These are some of favorite stories, their are still many more, but this is just a taster of what funny and exciting things went on in this period. Interestingly the last story about Melissa the honey bee, explains exactly why bees, the very useful creatures which with whom we would not be able to live without were given a lethal sting to themselves, whereas Wasps an Hornets can sting people however many times they life! And they are no where near as useful as the honey Bee!!