Did I open up Pandora's Box?
Aug. 23rd, 2002 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiSo, while we were in the Girl Scout store last week, Elayna made some comment about a stuffed animal being "a pegasus." As with bad grammar, I pretty much instinctively correct factual errors Elayna makes, so I said that there was actually only one Pegasus, and that all others are just winged horses. This led to some discussion about the idea of mythology, and I promised to tell her some myths.
I told her the story of Demeter and Persephone (and Hades, of course) last night, and she loved it. And wants myths every night.
Which, on the one hand, is very gratifying. At her age, I'd already read every book on Greek myths I could get my hand on, and was on the verge of discovering the Norse (most impressive, since they didn't want to be found). And I still love mythology, and want Elayna to get into it.
On the other hand, Elayna is a bit more sensitive than![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shadesong and I are. And although I'm willing to skip some sections of myths, I'm not willing to alter events. And a lot of stories (including Pegasus, who is directly tied into the whole nasty Perseus/Medusa thing) have nasty moments. In this case, it's no big deal -- I can skip the origin of Pegasus, and the death of the Chimera isn't going to bother Elayna. With Theseus (who is going to be the subject of the next few nights), I'm simply going to skip Procrustes -- she can handle most of the other details (and the eventual trip to Hades to kidnap Persephone might be a nice tie-in with last night's tale).
But I'm eventually going to have to tell some stories with Zeus in them. And eventually, I'm going to have to tell Zeus's origin, or the story of Perseus, or Hereakles, or another tale. I may try to tell the stories to her during the day, if possible. I dunno. I fret -- she had a nightmare a couple of weeks back as the resulf of Courage the Cowardly Dog, a show that makes me laugh hysterically, but never really scares me, and wouldn't have scared me at her age. So I feel like I need to be super careful. But I don't want to put her in a bubble.
Anyone have any favorite Greek myths they like to tell their kids?
I told her the story of Demeter and Persephone (and Hades, of course) last night, and she loved it. And wants myths every night.
Which, on the one hand, is very gratifying. At her age, I'd already read every book on Greek myths I could get my hand on, and was on the verge of discovering the Norse (most impressive, since they didn't want to be found). And I still love mythology, and want Elayna to get into it.
On the other hand, Elayna is a bit more sensitive than
shadesong and I are. And although I'm willing to skip some sections of myths, I'm not willing to alter events. And a lot of stories (including Pegasus, who is directly tied into the whole nasty Perseus/Medusa thing) have nasty moments. In this case, it's no big deal -- I can skip the origin of Pegasus, and the death of the Chimera isn't going to bother Elayna. With Theseus (who is going to be the subject of the next few nights), I'm simply going to skip Procrustes -- she can handle most of the other details (and the eventual trip to Hades to kidnap Persephone might be a nice tie-in with last night's tale). But I'm eventually going to have to tell some stories with Zeus in them. And eventually, I'm going to have to tell Zeus's origin, or the story of Perseus, or Hereakles, or another tale. I may try to tell the stories to her during the day, if possible. I dunno. I fret -- she had a nightmare a couple of weeks back as the resulf of Courage the Cowardly Dog, a show that makes me laugh hysterically, but never really scares me, and wouldn't have scared me at her age. So I feel like I need to be super careful. But I don't want to put her in a bubble.
Anyone have any favorite Greek myths they like to tell their kids?