World Literature Blog 4/5

I know that myths are all made up I don’t believe that the stories I hear are true but I believe that they are probably based on actual events that have been fluffed up to sound better and make better stories for people to believe.

I think myths are still important to our culture but in a different way.  I think that we gossip more than share myths but it still serves the same purpose.  Most of the gossip that we hear is of bad things and those can create moral for people to follow by like what not to do or what not to wear.  Back then myths were much more important because they really believed myths explained several phenomena in everyday life, not just about who is wearing what and who did what to who like it is today.

I bellieve people thought up mystical explanations because they had no other way to describe what happened after death.  We still don’t today know what happens when we pass on.  They also didn’t know how the world was created becuase they did not have the scientific proof of evolution even though today that is still being debated.  They were confused and maybe it comforted them to have a widely known story about life and death.

Africa has changed since the 19th century in a lot of ways.  Before the 19th century, a lot of Africa was made out of tribes and during the 19th century Europe moved into Africa and created colonies that still exist today.  During the 19th century, islam was made the central religion of Africa and still remains so today. Since the 19th century, Africa has undergone a lot of terrible happenings.  Apartheid happened and Africa regained a lot of its power in south africa that it had lost. 

I don’t remember the name of the myth or the characters involved but there was a myth where the goddess of fertiliy had a daughter who was captured by the god of the underworld.  It was said that anyone who ate the food they were given by this man would stay down there with him forever and he tempted her to eat pomegranite seeds and she did and had to stay with him for half the year and that is why for half the year the earth is cold, for winter.  That relates to me because I am really easily tempted.

The folktale that i would most like to experience is the folktale the Odessy.  It has so much adventure and meaning to the Greek people.

What intrigues you about the middle ages that you would want to study it?

If I could go anywhere in the world I would go to Egypt in AFrica becuase I have always been fascinated by their ancient culture and the pyramids.  Every part of ancient Egypt was so carefully crafted like the the mumification process that it preserved human bodies for such a long time.  It has been shown that they even tried brain surgery up to six thousand years ago!  Their old stories of the gods like Isis and Osiris are really fun to learn about because of how they believed  the world revolved.  I would travel there about 1000 A.D.