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Introduction: How stories came to us
I. Greek Mythology (8 класс)
Introduction: How stories came to us
I. Greek Mythology (8 класс)
1. Prometheus
2. Pandora
3. Ortheus, the Divine Musician
4. Hercules and Cerberos
II. Medieval Stories: Robin Hood the Legend of Sherwood/Green Wood (7- 6 класс)
1. How Robin Hood Came to Live in Green Wood
2. The Meeting of Robin Hood and Little John
III. Tales of Africa (6 класс)
1. Why the Sun and the Moon live in the sky
2. Why Fire and Rain are enemies
3. Which is Better?
2. Pandora
3. Ortheus, the Divine Musician
4. Hercules and Cerberos
II. Medieval Stories: Robin Hood the Legend of Sherwood/Green Wood (7- 6 класс)
1. How Robin Hood Came to Live in Green Wood
2. The Meeting of Robin Hood and Little John
III. Tales of Africa (6 класс)
1. Why the Sun and the Moon live in the sky
2. Why Fire and Rain are enemies
3. Which is Better?
Introduction
HOW STORIES CAME TO US
The people say: "Once there was a mouse. The mouse goes everywhere - into rich people's houses and into the poorest houses, too. In the old good days the mouse made stories from all what she saw. Stories were her children. Each story-child had its dress - white (about peace), blue (about freedom), red (about love), green (about friendship) and black (about difficulties). The stories she made lived in her house. One day a sheep ran against the door of that house. The door of the house where the mouse lived was old, and it broke and...
...and all the stories ran out. And now they run up and down over all the Earth. Let's read some of them!
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I. Greek Mythology
PROMETHEUS
'I knew Zeus would punish me, and I must stand the punishment and the pain.'
Prometheus was the son of the Titan
Iapetus and the Nymph Asia. He was one of four children born to the
pair. The siblings of Prometheus are his twin brother Epimetheus(means “hindsight.”) ,
Menoetius, and Atlas, all of them Titans. The name Prometheus means
“foresight.” He and his brother Epimetheus were Zeus' and
Hera's cousins.They were not as powerful as
Zeus and Hera and their
brothers and sisters,
but still had some god-like powers, and were therefore half gods.
In the beginning of the world, the Titans lived on the earth. There
were no people yet, just the Titans and the animals.
Prometheus used to play with clay,
sometimes, and one day he made a lot of little people out of clay. He
showed them to his cousins, and Zeus liked the little people so much
he breathed life into them.
At first the people were very grateful to Zeus and they often gave him sacrifices. But then Prometheus, who loved jokes, told them how they could play a trick on Zeus. Prometheus said, "When you do a sacrifice, take the bones and guts, the parts you can't eat, and put them in a bag with a nice steak on the top. And in another bag, put all the rest of the steaks, with some bones and guts on top. And ask Zeus to choose which one he wants."
So the people did this, and Zeus chose the bag with the steak on top (The Greeks used this to explain why they ate the meat from animals they sacrificed to the gods). But when he found he had been tricked, he was very angry. To punish people, he took all the fire away from the earth. The people were very cold, and they could not cook their food.
Prometheus felt sorry for the cold people. And he felt it was pretty much his fault for suggesting this trick. So he snuck up to the sky and he broke off a piece of the sun and he brought it back to earth for people, and that is how people got fire.
When Zeus found out what Prometheus had done, he got mad all over again and chained Prometheus to a big rock. (He also punished the people by sending them Pandora). Every day a big eagle would come and eat Prometheus' liver. But because he was immortal and could not die, every night his liver grew back again, and then the next day the bird ate it again.
Prometheus suffered this torture every day for years and years, until finally Herakles (Hercules) released him.
So Hephaistos made a thing of love and hate that was beautiful and ugly at the same time and brought it to Zeus. Zeus got back at the people by getting Hephaistos to make a beautiful woman, whom he named Pandora (which means all-gifts).
Zeus sent Pandora down to earth and gave her as a present to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus. Zeus told Epimetheus that he should marry Pandora. Also, Zeus sent Pandora with a little box, with a big lock on it (Actually in ancient Greek versions of this story it is a sealed pottery vase). He said NOT to ever open the box, and he gave the key to Epimetheus.
But Pandora was very curious about what was in the box. She begged Epimetheus to let her open it, but he always said no. Finally one day he fell asleep, and she stole the key (or broke the seal) and opened the box (or vase).
Oh! Out of the box flew every kind of trouble that people had never
known about before: sicknesses,
and worries, and crimes, and
hate and envy and all sorts
of bad things. The bad things all began to fly away like little bugs,
all over the place. Pandora was very sorry now that she had opened the
box! She tried to catch the bad things and put them back in the box
but it was too late. They all flew away.
Epimetheus found his wife in tears when he came home. She told him what happened, but he forgave her.
After some time she looked again into the box, and saw that there was still one little creature left. In fact it was beautiful. It couldn't get out because the little creature's wings were held between the gold edge of the box and the lid. And Pandora and Epimetheus understood that It was Hope, which Zeus sent to keep people going when all the nasty things got them down.
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When Hercules was still a little boy, he got into trouble with another god, Apollo.
But when Hercules grew up, he was really the strongest man in the world. He married a woman named Megara and they had two children, whom he loved very much. But Hera was still angry at Hercules. One day she sent a madness on him, so that he went crazy. He was so crazy that he killed his own children, and also his wife Megara.
When Hera let Hercules come to his senses, he screamed, "What have I done?!" He needed to find some way for the gods to forgive him for this terrible crime. He went to Delphi and asked Apollo what to do. Apollo said the gods would forgive Hercules if he did twelve hard jobs for Eurystheus, the king of Argos - we call these the twelve labors of Hercules...
For the last and toughest of his twelve labors, Hercules had to get the three-headed dog Cerberos from the underworld - the land of the dead. King Eurystheus was sure Hercules wouldn't be able to do this one, because nobody comes back from the land of the dead (except Orpheus).
Hercules found a dark cave and plunged into the underworld.
He explained his errand to the god Hades, the god of the underworld, and
Hades agreed to let him borrow Cerberos for a little while, if Hercules
could get him. Hercules wrestled with Cerberos, but he was so strong
that he was able to force the dog to come with him back to the palace of
King Eurystheus.
When Hercules got to the palace, King Eurystheus was very surprised to see him come back from the land of the dead, and even more surprised that he had Cerberos with him. Eurystheus was so scared that he hid inside a giant clay pot and wouldn't come out!
Eurystheus was so happy when Hercules agreed to take Cerberos back to the underworld that he agreed that Hercules was done with his labors and the curse was finally lifted.
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Persephone was the daughter of the goddess Demeter.
One day Persephone was dancing with her friends
in a sunny meadow, having a good time, picking flowers.
Suddenly Persephone's spooky uncle Hades (Pluto) burst out of the ground and grabbed her and pulled her into his chariot! He took Persephone under the ground to his kingdom, the land of the dead, and told her that he wanted her to be the Queen of the Underworld and marry him.
Persephone was very sad there under the ground. She wanted to go up into the sunshine again. But Hades would not let her. He thought: "She will be mine!". But Persephone was so sad that she would not eat nor drink.
Meanwhile, back up in the land of the living, Persephone's
mother Demeter was looking everywhere for
her and could not find her. She cried and cried. Finally she went
to her brother Zeus, who was also Persephone's
father, and asked him to help find Persephone. Zeus, sitting way up
there on top of Mount Olympus, was able to see where Persephone was.
He told Hades to give her back.
But Hades said he would only give Persephone back
if she had really not eaten or drunk anything from the land of the
dead. Persephone had not eaten much, but it turned out she HAD eaten six
pomegranate seeds. So they agreed that Persephone could spend six
months a year above ground with her mother, but she would have to
spend the other six months in the land of
the dead with her uncle/husband. And that is how it has been since
then, according to the story: that's why we have the seasons.
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II. Medieval Stories: Robin Hood the Legend of Sherwood (Green Wood)
_____________________________________________________________________
Tales of Africa
In the beginning of the world, the Titans lived on the earth. There
were no people yet, just the Titans and the animals.
Prometheus used to play with clay,
sometimes, and one day he made a lot of little people out of clay. He
showed them to his cousins, and Zeus liked the little people so much
he breathed life into them. At first the people were very grateful to Zeus and they often gave him sacrifices. But then Prometheus, who loved jokes, told them how they could play a trick on Zeus. Prometheus said, "When you do a sacrifice, take the bones and guts, the parts you can't eat, and put them in a bag with a nice steak on the top. And in another bag, put all the rest of the steaks, with some bones and guts on top. And ask Zeus to choose which one he wants."
So the people did this, and Zeus chose the bag with the steak on top (The Greeks used this to explain why they ate the meat from animals they sacrificed to the gods). But when he found he had been tricked, he was very angry. To punish people, he took all the fire away from the earth. The people were very cold, and they could not cook their food.
Prometheus felt sorry for the cold people. And he felt it was pretty much his fault for suggesting this trick. So he snuck up to the sky and he broke off a piece of the sun and he brought it back to earth for people, and that is how people got fire.
When Zeus found out what Prometheus had done, he got mad all over again and chained Prometheus to a big rock. (He also punished the people by sending them Pandora). Every day a big eagle would come and eat Prometheus' liver. But because he was immortal and could not die, every night his liver grew back again, and then the next day the bird ate it again.
Prometheus suffered this torture every day for years and years, until finally Herakles (Hercules) released him.
PANDORA
Now Zeus wasn't yet pleased. He thought and thought how he could take away the gift of fire from men. At last he thought of a plan. "I'll give these mortals new gift, but this gift will bring the only evil and suffering." He sent for Hephaestus and said to him: "I want you to make a thing for me, - a beautiful thing, very beautiful and good, and it must be evil too.""I know that it's a woman's nature to be curious."
So Hephaistos made a thing of love and hate that was beautiful and ugly at the same time and brought it to Zeus. Zeus got back at the people by getting Hephaistos to make a beautiful woman, whom he named Pandora (which means all-gifts).
Zeus sent Pandora down to earth and gave her as a present to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus. Zeus told Epimetheus that he should marry Pandora. Also, Zeus sent Pandora with a little box, with a big lock on it (Actually in ancient Greek versions of this story it is a sealed pottery vase). He said NOT to ever open the box, and he gave the key to Epimetheus.
But Pandora was very curious about what was in the box. She begged Epimetheus to let her open it, but he always said no. Finally one day he fell asleep, and she stole the key (or broke the seal) and opened the box (or vase).
Oh! Out of the box flew every kind of trouble that people had never
known about before: sicknesses,
and worries, and crimes, and
hate and envy and all sorts
of bad things. The bad things all began to fly away like little bugs,
all over the place. Pandora was very sorry now that she had opened the
box! She tried to catch the bad things and put them back in the box
but it was too late. They all flew away. Epimetheus found his wife in tears when he came home. She told him what happened, but he forgave her.
After some time she looked again into the box, and saw that there was still one little creature left. In fact it was beautiful. It couldn't get out because the little creature's wings were held between the gold edge of the box and the lid. And Pandora and Epimetheus understood that It was Hope, which Zeus sent to keep people going when all the nasty things got them down.
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ORPHEUS, THE DIVINE MUSICIAN and EURYDICE, THE NYMTH
"Don't turn around!"
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HERCULES and CERBEROS
According to the Greeks, Hercules was the son of a woman named Alcmene and the god Zeus. He was a great hero, and very strong. Even when he was only a few days old, Hercules was very strong. The goddess Hera was angry, because Zeus was her husband and she didn't want him to have children with other women. So she sent two huge snakes to strangle the little baby. But Hercules just sat up and grabbed those snakes and strangled them!"What have I done?!"
When Hercules was still a little boy, he got into trouble with another god, Apollo.
But when Hercules grew up, he was really the strongest man in the world. He married a woman named Megara and they had two children, whom he loved very much. But Hera was still angry at Hercules. One day she sent a madness on him, so that he went crazy. He was so crazy that he killed his own children, and also his wife Megara.
When Hera let Hercules come to his senses, he screamed, "What have I done?!" He needed to find some way for the gods to forgive him for this terrible crime. He went to Delphi and asked Apollo what to do. Apollo said the gods would forgive Hercules if he did twelve hard jobs for Eurystheus, the king of Argos - we call these the twelve labors of Hercules...
For the last and toughest of his twelve labors, Hercules had to get the three-headed dog Cerberos from the underworld - the land of the dead. King Eurystheus was sure Hercules wouldn't be able to do this one, because nobody comes back from the land of the dead (except Orpheus).
Hercules found a dark cave and plunged into the underworld.
He explained his errand to the god Hades, the god of the underworld, and
Hades agreed to let him borrow Cerberos for a little while, if Hercules
could get him. Hercules wrestled with Cerberos, but he was so strong
that he was able to force the dog to come with him back to the palace of
King Eurystheus.When Hercules got to the palace, King Eurystheus was very surprised to see him come back from the land of the dead, and even more surprised that he had Cerberos with him. Eurystheus was so scared that he hid inside a giant clay pot and wouldn't come out!
Eurystheus was so happy when Hercules agreed to take Cerberos back to the underworld that he agreed that Hercules was done with his labors and the curse was finally lifted.
____________________________________________________________________________
PERSEPHONE
"She will be mine!"
Suddenly Persephone's spooky uncle Hades (Pluto) burst out of the ground and grabbed her and pulled her into his chariot! He took Persephone under the ground to his kingdom, the land of the dead, and told her that he wanted her to be the Queen of the Underworld and marry him.
Persephone was very sad there under the ground. She wanted to go up into the sunshine again. But Hades would not let her. He thought: "She will be mine!". But Persephone was so sad that she would not eat nor drink.
Meanwhile, back up in the land of the living, Persephone's
mother Demeter was looking everywhere for
her and could not find her. She cried and cried. Finally she went
to her brother Zeus, who was also Persephone's
father, and asked him to help find Persephone. Zeus, sitting way up
there on top of Mount Olympus, was able to see where Persephone was.
He told Hades to give her back.
_____________________________________________________________________
II. Medieval Stories: Robin Hood the Legend of Sherwood (Green Wood)
Tales of Africa
WHY THE SUN AND THE MOON LIVE IN THE SKY
And the Sun built a very big house and then asked Water to come to him. Water came with all the fish and water animals.
Long, long ago the Sun and the Moon lived together on the earth. Water was their best friend, and they often came to see her. But Water never went to see the Sun and the Moon in their house.
"Why don't you come to see us?" the Sun once asked him.
"I have too many friends," Water answered, "they will come with me.
I' m afraid there will be no place for them in your house."
I' m afraid there will be no place for them in your house."
"But I'll build a new big house," the Sun said.
And the Sun built a very big house and then asked Water to come to him. Water came with all the fish and water animals.
"May I come in with all my friends?" Water asked.
"Yes, come in," the Sun said.
Very soon Water in the house was knee-deep for the Sun.
Then in a minute Water was up to the Sun's head, and came higher and higher with all the fish and water animals. At last Water was so high in the house that the Sun and the Moon went on to the roof and sat there. But soon Water came up on to the roof. What could the Sun and the Moon do? Where else could they sit? And they went up to the sky. They liked the place and began to live there. Ever after.
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Fire and Rain were friends from the childhood. They came to the chief's house, because the gossips about beauty of a young chief's daughter spread out quickly. As soon as they entered the house and saw the chief's daughter, they immediately fall in love. Both! At the same girl! Next day the chief organised the competition between the strongest and cleverest people and said them:
"Tomorrow will be the day of my daughter's marriage."
"To whom?" - there was a question.
"To the winner of a race. To him I'll give my treasure," - he replied.
On the day of the race many people came to the town. They all wanted to see the race. Some of them said:
"Fire will win.His heart is hot, he loves her. He is brave and strong, stronger than Rain".
But the chief's daughter thought:
"I want to marry Rain. He is gentle, and his eyes are as blue as mine! And I know, he loves me. Fire is not my type and he is very impulsive."
When it was time to begin, the drummers beat the drums... But where was Rain? Nobody saw him... To tell the secret, the Wind was Fire's friend and he didn't like Rain at all, so before the race, he blew and changed the road sign.
The people cried: "Look, Fire is quite near the finish!"
But the Sky, Rain's friend, who came to the race early, knew about the Wind's scam and the Sky decided to help Rain. The Sky told Rain about dishonest action of Fire's friend Wind. Rain was in broken spirits. He repeated again, and again:
"How he could? How he could? It's not fair! My friend Fire is Lier!"
Then Rain began to fall from the Sky and put out Fire. So Fire couldn't finish the race. The people cried:
"Look! Rain, not Fire... Rain, Rain is the first! How wonderful! It's a miracle!"
So the chief gave his daughter to Rain, and they were very happy. But from that day on Fire and Rain are enemies.
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The second brother took out his
looking-glass, and they all looked into it. They saw their house and that the
girl was very ill.”
_______________________________________________________________________
WHY FIRE AND RAIN ARE ENEMIES
Once upon a time there was a chief whose daughter was as beautiful as a May flower. Many young men wanted to marry her, but the chief thought: " They are not very good for my daughter."Fire and Rain were friends from the childhood. They came to the chief's house, because the gossips about beauty of a young chief's daughter spread out quickly. As soon as they entered the house and saw the chief's daughter, they immediately fall in love. Both! At the same girl! Next day the chief organised the competition between the strongest and cleverest people and said them:
"Tomorrow will be the day of my daughter's marriage."
"To whom?" - there was a question."To the winner of a race. To him I'll give my treasure," - he replied.
On the day of the race many people came to the town. They all wanted to see the race. Some of them said:
"Fire will win.His heart is hot, he loves her. He is brave and strong, stronger than Rain".
But the chief's daughter thought:
"I want to marry Rain. He is gentle, and his eyes are as blue as mine! And I know, he loves me. Fire is not my type and he is very impulsive."
When it was time to begin, the drummers beat the drums... But where was Rain? Nobody saw him... To tell the secret, the Wind was Fire's friend and he didn't like Rain at all, so before the race, he blew and changed the road sign.
The people cried: "Look, Fire is quite near the finish!"
But the Sky, Rain's friend, who came to the race early, knew about the Wind's scam and the Sky decided to help Rain. The Sky told Rain about dishonest action of Fire's friend Wind. Rain was in broken spirits. He repeated again, and again:
"How he could? How he could? It's not fair! My friend Fire is Lier!"
Then Rain began to fall from the Sky and put out Fire. So Fire couldn't finish the race. The people cried:
"Look! Rain, not Fire... Rain, Rain is the first! How wonderful! It's a miracle!"
So the chief gave his daughter to Rain, and they were very happy. But from that day on Fire and Rain are enemies.
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WHICH IS
BETTER?
There was once a man who had three sons, and
all of them loved the same girl. Each of them asked the girl the same question,
“Will you marry me?”
All of them
were clever, handsome and strong.
One
day the girl said, “I want you will go on a long travel. While you are
travelling, you must look for a very, very useful thing. When you find it, you
will bring it home.”
The three brothers travelled for a
long time, and they bought three very useful things.
The first bought a magic carpet. And
he could fly to any place in no time. The second bought a magic looking-glass,
so he could see anyone and everything that he wanted to see. The third bought a
magic lemon. The juice of that lemon could save a life of a dying man or a
woman.
The three brothers came together and
showed their things to one another. Then one of them said, “We are far from our
home and from our father. Let us look into the looking-glass and see him.”
The second brother took out his
looking-glass, and they all looked into it. They saw their house and that the
girl was very ill.”
Then the first brother asked to sit
down on his carpet, and all of them were at their house in no time. The third
brother cut the lemon and gave the juice to the girl. She drank it, and she was
well again.
The brothers were very happy.
“Now which of us will you marry?” they
asked the girl.
“I thank you all, my dear friends,”
answered the girl. “One of you saw my illness in his looking-glass, and that
helped to save my life. His looking-glass is a very useful thing, and he will
have it forever. Another brother brought all three of you here on the carpet,
and that is also very useful thing, and he will have it forever. And one of you
gave me the lemon juice, but he has no lemon now. He gave all he had to save
me. I will be his wife.”
So they
did. And they lived happily ever after.
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