In humanities, we have been learning about Greek gods and goddesses. We had a chart where we collected information about all the myths. We had to notate character traits, morals, and we had to observe the civilization through GRAPES. (Geography, religion, achievements, economics, and social structures.) Then, Mr. J had us each choose a god or goddess. I chose Selene, minor goddess of the moon. We then were given a small card in which we had to write information about the god, for example-
- Who are they related to?
- Why are they worshipped?
- Quotes by god or about god
- Moral of the story
Then, we were assigned to read three non Greek myths. I read three myths, two Norse, the other Brazilian. The Brazilian one that I read was called
The Creation of Night. I found Norse myths to be extremely interesting, so I read two, one entitled
Twilight of The Gods and the other
The Creation of Thor's Hammer. In both, the main character in the mischiveous Loki. My favorite was
The Creation of Thor's Hammer.
In the Greek myth, Selene is the protagonist. She is gentle and kind and worshipped. She is the goddess of the moon, thus the sister of Helios, the Sun. On one of her nightly rounds, her gaze falls upon the sleeping Endymion. She wishes eternal sleep to him so that she can always watch him. Loki, however uses his time for things other than love. He enjoys causing trouble for the other gods. They are different because where Selene is looking for love, Loki is looking to cause some mischef. For example, in The Creation of Thor's Hammer, Loki decided to cut off Sif, Thor's wife's hair. Or, when Selene pleads Zeus for eternal sleep for her love, Loki bets his head on the fact that the two expert metal-workers Brokkr and Sindri cannot fashion creations as good as Ivaldi's sons had fashioned.
I think that these two myths were both written for entertainment and so that you can learn something at the end of it. I think that both of the myths were entertaining, I did not find them boring. I also think that we were meant to learn a lesson. For example, what I got out of Selene's myth was that you should always think your decisions through. With Loki's myth of the other hand, I thought that the moral was to know when enough is enough.
I have been enjoying this unit so much because I had never thought to look at the under currents of myths. It has given me a new perspective on stories.
Student Led Conference Reflection
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| This is my card of Selene |