Storybook by Erika Mitchell-DeLuca
The Olympian Gods
Contents: Zeus and Hera Hera's Revenge Peleus and Thetis Hephaestus and Aphrodite Eros and Psyche
Storybook Project Introduction:
Marriages of the Gods
Upon first choosing a topic, I
thought that wedding customs would be a fun and interesting topic to
explore as I could learn
about wedding customs from other countries and religions and the myths and folklore’s that go along with them. However, upon doing further research, I came across some stories on the weddings of different Gods… What an interesting topic! These stories are interesting to all, they are not limited to the romantic at heart. I have found stories of the wedding of Achilles parents, gifts that have been given to the brides, and fights that have occurred at weddings. There are so many wonderful, different wedding stories of the gods. From these stories, one will see that it is not only mere mortals who have marital problems as seen with Hera and Zeus or not only mortals have hateful mother-in-laws as Psyche found out from her husband, Eros', mother Aphrodite. In the featured stories, linked above, one will see several different marital relationships with several different endings. Upon reading the stories, one will see a happily ever after ending along with an ending where the desired bride would rather hide in a tree than marry. Up until my research this evening, I had never really thought about the gods having weddings. For some reason, that thought never entered my mind, so I am very excited about exploring the different weddings and marriages in hopes of learning a lot about a whole other perspective of mythology that I had never thought of until now. I would also like for the reader to take away from the storybook that even Gods have difficult marriages at some point and that marriages have a broad range of happiness, deceit, and livelihood.
about wedding customs from other countries and religions and the myths and folklore’s that go along with them. However, upon doing further research, I came across some stories on the weddings of different Gods… What an interesting topic! These stories are interesting to all, they are not limited to the romantic at heart. I have found stories of the wedding of Achilles parents, gifts that have been given to the brides, and fights that have occurred at weddings. There are so many wonderful, different wedding stories of the gods. From these stories, one will see that it is not only mere mortals who have marital problems as seen with Hera and Zeus or not only mortals have hateful mother-in-laws as Psyche found out from her husband, Eros', mother Aphrodite. In the featured stories, linked above, one will see several different marital relationships with several different endings. Upon reading the stories, one will see a happily ever after ending along with an ending where the desired bride would rather hide in a tree than marry. Up until my research this evening, I had never really thought about the gods having weddings. For some reason, that thought never entered my mind, so I am very excited about exploring the different weddings and marriages in hopes of learning a lot about a whole other perspective of mythology that I had never thought of until now. I would also like for the reader to take away from the storybook that even Gods have difficult marriages at some point and that marriages have a broad range of happiness, deceit, and livelihood.
I hope to look at both the weddings and
the marriages of the gods and see how their lives of marriage
were. Another interesting aspect I plan to focus on is how the
different gods show up in others' relationships. Many stories
show Zeus being an active character in setting up marriages and several
others involve Hera and/or the children of Hera and Zeus. I am
anticipating retelling the stories of the gods marriages and weddings
from various sources in a child verse with a commentary at the
beginning of each story. I think simplifying the stories and
bringing them to life will be very exciting and fun. There are
several stories that I have come
across with separate characters and others with many of the same
characters. I have also found some wonderful
images for visual interpretation from the sources below:
Encyclopedia Mythica http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/thetis.html
This is such a wonderful site as there are pages upon pages of information on my chosen topic and all others. This would be a great site for anyone to use! One of the stories that I plan on doing is of the Wedding of Thetis found here. She was admired by Zeus who in turn gave her to a mortal to marry and just wait until you find out who their son was!
http://www.mythfolklore.net/aesopica/oxford/508.htm
This site, translated by Laura Gibbs herself speaks of Zeus and the turtle, another story that I intend on focusing on as Zeus invited all of the animals to his wedding although the turtle was missing. What a great point being made as the fable shows that,” often people like to live simply at home as opposed to lavishly in someone else’s home.”
http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/cat64.shtml
This site not only has a wonderful poem of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, but it also has a wonderful set of genealogical tables. This really helped me as I have been getting confused as to everyone’s place in mythology.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodamea
Hippodamea’s wedding is another one that I would like to focus on as the female guests were almost abducted by the centaurs. This will add a little twist to the whole “wedding ceremony.” This web site tells of how many of her suitors were killed by being beaten in chariot races. This web site is also a great source as it has many topics including forces of nature, personification, etc.
http://www.mythweb.com
This site is a useful source as it covers all of the topics mentioned above along with many others in mythology.
Image Bibliography:
N.A. Monsiau 1754-1837: The Olympians. Photo @ Maicar Forlag-GML.
Websource: http://homepage.mac.com/cparade/GML/OLYMPIANS.html
Email Me, Erika DeLuca.