I wonder...

I wonder...

What is the story of Jason?

Jason's story starts off on a low note and does not get much higher either. Jason was a royal-born child, the son of the King of Iolus. Jason's half-uncle Pelias sought to take the throne from Jason's father, Aeson, and he succeeded. Aeson was thrown into a deep dungeon. The royal successors of Aeson were all thought to be killed, except Jason. Jason's mother had taken him to a cave thinking it would save him from the wrath of the new king. In the end, it did. Jason's mother faked his death to Pelias and he believed her. But the cave, it was home of Chiron the Centaur.

Centaurs were often seen and known to be short-tempered drunks, in one word; uncivilised. Chiron was quite different though. He was intelligent and a teacher of many other famous heroes including Ajax, Achilles, Heracles and others too.

Hera wanted Jason to grow and overthrow Pelias for a single reason, Hera hated Pelias. Hera hated the new king because while he worshipped all of the gods, he ignored her, brushed her off, this angered Hera beyond rage. This insult was worthy of death. But, Hera decided to do this carefully. She needed a true hero, and Jason was her hero. Once she knew that he had a gold heart, then and only then did she bestow all of her divine aid to help him. Jason left Chiron’s care and set off to reclaim his throne. At this point, Hera decided to test the young boy. On his way to his kingdom, Jason came across Hera, disguised as an old woman, who asked for help crossing the stream. It was up to him to continue his course and pay her no mind or help the old lady.

Jason, with a heart of gold, helped Hera across the stream by taking her on his back.  Not long after this, he began to feel like he would not be able to complete the task because the old woman was heavier than he imagined he even lost one of his sandals. Once he had crossed the river Hera secretly blessed Jason and openly thanked him. 

Losing one of his sandals would not have been such a big deal if Pelias had not consulted an oracle. The oracle said that Pelias should be aware of a stranger with a single sandal. Jason, blind to the fact that he had just met the Queen of Olympus and she had blessed him, continued on his journey.

When Jason arrived in Iolus he found Pelias still a king and the rightful king, his father, still imprisoned. He made his intentions very clear to the king, saying he was there to reclaim his land. Once Pelias noticed that Jason had only one sandal, he was invited to dine with the king, and Jason let his guard down.

Pelias asked his nephew if he thought he was fit to be a king.

Jason said that he could handle whatever situation that might be presented to him.

The king asked him about the kinds of dilemmas that rulers of kingdoms find themselves in. 

One thing that King Pelias asked his nephew was how he would get rid of a person who was giving him trouble without killing him.

Jason, being eager to prove himself worthy of a title such as king, suggested that such a person should be sent on a quest to obtain The Golden Fleece.

Saying this Jason had laid out his own future. Pelias suggested that to prove himself, why doesn't he go on a quest to obtain The Fleece. Pelias knew how many hadn't succeeded in this mission and believed that a mere mortal, was not going to be the first. 

Pelias told Jason that this would be his quest, a quest to make him a hero amongst all and a king amongst his own people, and after thinking about the idea, Jason agreed to his proposition.

One of the things Jason was missing, was a ship and a crew. Many heroes joined him, including Heracles himself. Hera had asked that Athena, goddess of craft, would make sure that the ship was worthy, and Athena decided to help. The newfound group of heroes was called the Argonauts and the ship named, Argo.

When all preparations are finished they set sail for Colchis, where an inhabitant is the Golden Fleece. The ships first destination was an island called Lemnus, where they found only women because the women killed all the men. This happened after Aphrodite cursed them after they worshipped her wrong. The crew stayed the night and stayed some months afterwards, laying with the woman and creating a race called the Minyans.

Their next stop was an island called Doliones, where the people welcomed them warmly, by King Cyzius. The king told them that supplies could be found past Bear Mountain, where a race of Gegeines lived. Thankfully, Heracles was able to kill them before they got to the ship.

Jason set sail shortly after their battle but made a mistake, it may have been a storm, that caused them to go back to Doliones. The good people of this land, confused by the night, thought Jason and his crew were enemies. They attacked the crew and many of them died in the midst of the confusion. The Argonauts stayed for their funeral before continuing.

Jason's remaining crew made it to the next destination, Thrace, where they met King Phineus. The king was cursed by Zeus to have a band of harpies follow him and prevent him from eating. The crew assisted the king with his problem and Phineas decided to help the crew in return, he told the Argonauts where Colchis lay and how to pass through the Symplegades, the Clashing Rocks. These were huge rock cliffs that would move and crush anything that passed between them. Phineus told Jason to release a dove and see if it would make it through, an omen for what would happen to the ship. The dove successfully passed, losing only a few tail feathers; so, when the ship travelled through the rocks, only minor damages were caused to the ship.

The band of the Argo eventually reached the land ruled by King Aeetes, Colchis. The Golden Fleece was in the possession of the king, gifted to him by Phrixus when he reached Colchis on a flying golden ram. Aeetes said he would give the fleece to Jason if he succeeded in completing three seemingly impossible tasks.

1. Plough a field with a team of Khalkotauroi, fire-breathing oxen.
2. To sow dragon teeth and fight the stone warriors that emerged.
3. Take the Golden Fleece from a sleepless dragon.

Hera, still in favour of Jason, decided to ask a favour of Aphrodite to make Medea, daughter of King Aeetes, fall in love with Jason. Aphrodite forewarned Hera of Medea's power as a sorceress, but no further did she intervene. Medea, madly in love with Jason, assists Jason with each of the tasks.

She gives him a fire-proof salve to protect him from the Khalkotauroi's fire.

She tells him how to defeat the stone warriors, she told him to discreetly throw a rock into the crowd to make the army all turn on each other.

For the final task, she gives him a sleeping potion to spray into the mouth of the dragon just a the dragon attempts to eat him.

The pair take the fleece and flee to the Argo, where Medea joined them, Aeetes tried to pursue them, but Medea killed her brother his corpse falling into the ocean, knowing her father would give his corpse kept for a proper burial, this stopped Aeetes pursuit of the Argonauts. Zeus was angered by the murder and sent a number of storms to throw the ship off of its course. To redeem themselves, they stopped at the island of Aeaea, where the nymph Circe lived to be purified of the murder. 

On their continued voyage, they also met the Sirens that caused ships to crash onto the reefs, as their captivating voices mesmerised the crew; Orpheus, however, played the lyre and completely covered their voices, managing to evade the ill fate. Near Crete, they met Talos, a giant bronze man, who guarded the island and threw stones at anyone who dared approach. Medea cast a spell on him and the crew managed to remove the plug that kept Talos' ichor (divine blood) in his single vein. Leaving him to bleed to death.

Jason returns to Iolcus after his long journey marching to the king holding The Golden Fleece. Pelias refused to give up his throne so Medea devised a plan to get Pelias’s own daughters to kill him. Medea said she could restore youth and demonstrated on Jason’s elderly father Aeson and promised to do the same for Pelias, his daughters killed him and she ignored them. Medea and Jason were banished from Iolcus as murderers by Pelias’s eldest son Acastus, who took the throne.

The couple fled to the kingdom of Corinth, where Jason after ten years of a happy marriage and raising children with Medea, fell in love with the king's daughter, Creusa and they got engaged. Medea and Jason had been married on the voyage (I had trouble with this part) and this angered Medea after everything she had sacrificed and done for him. As a revenge, Medea killed Creusa by giving her a dress that stuck to her and set her on fire, her father Creon was also burned while trying to save his daughter. Medea then killed her sons that she had with Jason, fearing he would kill them as retaliation. She then abandoned Jason, flying to Athens on a dragon chariot sent by her grandfather, the sun god Helios.

Years later, Jason managed to reclaim the throne of Iolcus with the help of his friend, Peleus who later became a king and father of Achilles. However, he remained lonely, having lost the favour of Hera after breaking his vows to Medea. He died while sleeping under the stern of his ship Argo, which had rotted, fell on him, killing the great hero, Jason.

Now I wonder...

What is the story of Heracles?

(P.S this was 1716 words including this)

I wonder...

I wonder... 

What was the origin of the five primordial beings, Gaia, Tartarus, Erebus, Night and Eros? And some of their godly children?

These beings came into existence after Chaos, believed to be born from Chaos itself. They soon came into beings and each became primordial deities. Gaia became the Mother Earth, Tartarus became the worst part of the underworld, where all the monsters and most horrible people got sent, those who deserved worse than the Fields of Punishment, Erebus became the darkness that covers the underworld, Night became the darkness to cover Earth, and finally Eros, Primordial being of Love, in other stories he can also be known as not a primordial being, but a son of Aphrodite, and he is the god of sexual desire.

Some of the godly children of these deities include the children of Night and Erebus, Hemera the goddess of day, Aether the god of heavenly air, Nemesis the goddess of divine retribution and revenge, Hypnos the god of sleep, Geras the god of old age, Momus the god of satire, mockery and poets, Philotes the goddess of affection and friendship, Eleos the goddess of pity, mercy and compassion, Phôs the god of light, Moros the god of Doom, Thanatos the god of Death, Achlys the goddess of Misery, Dolos the god of Deceit, Eris the goddess of Discord and even more.

There are other children too, the child of Gaia, Ouranos, Gaia's husband. He was the god of the sky and had a total of eighteen children with his wife, the three Cyclopes, Brontes, Arges and Steropes, the three Hecatonchires, Briares, Cottus and Gyges, all-powerful giants. Scared that his children would overthrow him, he imprisoned them in the belly of Gaia. They then went on to have the other dozen children, six males and six females. The males were named Kronos, Krios, Coeus, Hyperion, Iapetus and Oceanus, the six girls were named Rhea, Pheobe, Themis, Theia, Tethys and finally Mnemosyne. He was less wary of these children, and let them roam free. This eventually led to his downfall. 

Gaia still angered and physically pained of her first children's imprisonment, devised a plan with her Titan children, to overthrow her husband. When her husband next descended to her, Krios, Coeus, Hyperion and Iapetus held him down at the four corners of the Earth, while Kronos wielded the scythe and castrated his father. Kronos allowed his father to ascend to the heavens, Ouranos, no longer with the strength, relinquished his 'duties' as the supreme deity. His castrated parts were cast to the ocean, with that the last child of Ouranos was born, the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite.

Gaia had other children too, Pontus, a primordial deity, a sea-god. By her son, Gaia bore the sea-deities, Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia. 

When the children of Gaia, the Titans, were cast to Tartarus, Gaia gave birth to her next children. The Gigantes, each bred to go against a certain god. Another war then raged against Olympus, when the war was lost, Gaia had her last child, Typhon. Typhon was the most powerful monster in the entirety of Greek Mythology, pictured with a hundred dragons' heads.

Along with Typhon, Tartarus had Kampê the jailer of Tartarus, the monstrous ally of Kronos and the one who kept the hecatonchires and cyclopes imprisoned, until Zeus killed her to release the prisoners she held. She was the first foe vanquished with Zeus’ Master Bolt. Kampê has a human head, with snakes for hair, like Medusa. She has a half human body, like a centaur, but with reptilian skin and a dragon half, with gigantic claws. The dragon half is said to have white stripes down it's back. She has huge dark reptilian wings, a ginormous venom-dripping scorpion tail, and at the point where her halves meet, her skin bubbles and morphs, producing mutated animal heads that are constantly changing shape (bear, boar, wombat, tiger, crocodile, wolf, etc.) like a gruesome, monstrous belt. Hundreds of violent darting vipers are sprouted from her legs.

Now I wonder...

What is the story of the other gods who came to be part of the twelve Olympians?

Mao Zedong, A Communist (And Arguably A) Dictator

Chairman Mao Zedong

How did he die?

Mao Zedong died of a heart attack on the 9th of September, 1976, in Beijing, China.

What political party was he part of?

He was the Former Chairman of the Communist Party of China.

What were his beliefs?

He created his own form of beliefs known as Maoism, the followers known as Maoists.

When the Chinese communists took over in 1948, they bought a new form of Marxism, renamed after their leader. His thought was complicated, a Marxist type of analysis combined with the permanent foundations of the Chinese people's thought and culture.

What were his goals?

Created by Mao, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China, it is stated the goal was to preserve ‘true’ Communist ideology in the country.

When did his reign of Maoism end?

Although many of the people of China are capitalists and the country has adopted some capitalist laws, the country officially is still communist.

Where was he from and when was he born?

Mao was from Shaoshan, China and born on the 26th of December, 1893.

What were his original job-related goals?

Mao studied to become a teacher so he could have an income and then became a politician

after being inspired by his idols and writing countless documents and publishing them.

What kind of life did he live before becoming a politician?

He came from a peasant and attended a normal school while working in his families fields.

His mother was a Buddhist who was willing to support him, but he experienced frequent arguments with his very strict father. Mao went to Changsha, the capital of Hunan where he learned a great deal about politics. Attending Peking University with very little money, Mao had to work while he studied. After graduation, he returned to Hunan and served as a primary school principal. Outside of his work, he spent countless hours publishing political documents. In 1908 he married his cousin Luo Yigu due to an arranged marriage by their parents, although Mao never saw her as his wife and never had any children with her, she passed away in 1910. He then married Yang K'ai-hu in 1920 and had three children with her, but she was executed, ten years later, by Chinese Nationalists. He married a second time in 1930 to a woman named Ho Tzu-Chen and had six more children, but he later divorced her in 1937 and then married another woman, Chiang Ch'ing.

Did he have any close family?

Mao’s mother and father were named Mao Yichang and Wen Qimei. His siblings were named

Mao Zemin and Mao Zetan. Mao also had his three sons with his second wife, Mao Anying,

Mao Anlong and Mao Anqing. He had his children with Ho Tzu-Chen, his daughter Mao Jinhua

(or Yang Yueheu), his son Mao Anhong, his daughter Li Min (Mao Jiaojiao) and two more sons and another daughter, and finally his last and forever wife Chiang Ch’ing, who never had children with him.

Why do people argue about him being a dictator?

It was the ‘Great Leap Forward’ that caused people to argue about this. Mao’s Great Leap
Forward was designed to largely improve the countries production. What it truly ended up doing was costing

millions of lives. Famine and poor harvests wound up crippling the country. Zedong lost power for a short time. When he regained the power he leads the ‘Cultural Revolution’. This continued even after Mao’s death and caused many many more lives to be lost.


And here's the presentation so you don't have to read all of that without pictures.

Health Assessment

Relaxing -

What I learnt:

Relaxing is needed, you can not even realise it, but you could be relaxing. We learnt that relaxing can be easiest when you’re just laying there, thinking about what has been happening today and in the past, recent or not, the best way, is to forget about it for a moment, let it go and take a moment to calm yourself with nothing going on around you.

Why this is important:

Because without relaxation you cannot properly enjoy a good night's rest. Your body will be constantly going and be moving, you could fall asleep at any moment. You would become very stressed and tired which will affect your well-being, both your physical and emotional. When you relax you take the thoughts that are causing you stress and anxiety and let them go. Relaxation can help you remember to be resilient and try to do your best.

How could I use this in my own life:

Relaxation is needed for everyone. I need to remember to take a moment and make sure I can continue my current activity, or if I need to take a moment to relax. I would most likely need to remember to relax when doing something along the lines of studying or finishing some homework.

A snip-it of my previous work:

Body Cues - 

What I learnt:

Body Cues are the signs that your body gives when you're either in a certain mood or thinking of a certain thing. For example, when you're happy, most people will have a smile on their face, their eyes will light up and the eyebrows will most likely be neutral, another example is when most people are angry their muscles tense and their face goes a shade of red, some even grit their teeth.

Why this is important:

Body Cues are important because they can show the mood of a person and how you should treat them. They show how a person may act. They show how they are feeling, maybe even what they are feeling about the current or previous situation. For example, if someone shows the body cues of happiness, you shouldn't greet them saying something to sadden them.

How could I use this in my own life:

I could use my knowledge of body cues to see how my friends and family are feeling. By taking this action, I will acknowledge how to treat them, and the current situation they are going through. 

A snip-it of my previous work:

Empathy -

What have I learnt:

Empathy is shown when you show similar emotions to someone else and relate to their current problem. Empathy is a way of supporting others. Some people find it better to be shown empathy than people trying to tell them it will be okay. 

Why this is important:

Without empathy, a lot of friendships and other relationships would not exist. Not only does being empathetic support others, there are benefits too. The benefits of being empathetic can be showing that you care about the well-being of others, you gain respect, trust and other aspects. This can build a stronger bond between the two people involved. 

How could I use this in my own life:

Empathy is a way of supporting others. What kind of friend can you be if you aren't there to support your friends through tough times? I would need to know what empathy means to support my friends when they go through rough times in their lives.

A snip-it of my previous work:

What Resilience is - 

What I have learnt:

Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from something. Being resilient is to 'bounce back' and never give up when faced with difficulties and toughness in life. Resilience is shown when you take action and never give up, whether it be when dealing with bullies or facing a hard test.

Why this is important:

To be resilient is important, if you give up all the time, you are never going to achieve anything. Getting a job or achieving the reality of a dream, without resilience, you couldn't do either. If he had not been so resilient and given up, Thomas Edison would've never invented the light bulb. Without resilience, we would not have any of the things we have today.

How could I use this is my own life:

If I want a job, I will have to be resilient, I will have to overcome the challenges of having that job so I could earn some money. If I want to go to university, I will have to be resilient, I will have to work as hard as I can to get good grades and get a degree. Everyone with a job, a degree, has worked to get there, and has been resilient and not given up.

A snip-it of my previous work:

Mindfulness - 

What I have learnt: 

Mindfulness I being aware of the things that are being said and what is going on around you. To be mindful is to pay attention to what someone is doing or saying, being non-judgemental and trying to be completely focused on what they are talking about. Sometimes a persons body cues show what they are actually feeling over what they are saying. For example, they say they're not afraid, but they're shaking, as their voice it too.

Why this is important:

To be mindful is important, to have any basic communication you need to pay attention and be mindful of the current situation, show empathy and support others if they need it. You need to see what side of the story you're hearing and what their body cues are explaining.  If you pay attention to what they're saying and offer your opinion on it, this supports them and shows that you care. If you are mindful of others, you can maintain a strong relationship with them.

How could I use this is my own life:

To be a good friend I need to be mindful of the situation my friends are going through, and show some sensitivity. I would need to know everything going on. I would need to be mindful of what I say to make sure I don't hurt them in the midst of cheering them up. I would need to be mindful of my friends all of the time to show that I really do care and have a good relationship with them.

A snip-it of my previous work:

I wonder...

I wonder… 

What is the story of the most well-known Greek Gods?

The story of the most well-known Greek Gods starts with the Titans, children of the Primordial deities, Gaia and Ouranos. Kronos, the youngest of his brethren, had married Rhea, who had sired his six children, all of them, gods, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. When Zeus was in hiding, however, there was also another child of Kronos born, Chiron the Centaur, born of the Titan King, Kronos and a nymph Philyra. While the gods, their godly children and other gods and goddesses before them would rule Olympus in the near future, Chiron would be a trainer of heroes.

Kronos ruled the galaxy during what is now known as the Golden Age. Kronos was the king of the Titans and the god of time. He soon learned of a prophecy, that his son would overthrow him, he found a solution to this problem, he swallowed each of his children as they were born. His wife Rhea, betrayed her husband and hid the last child, Zeus, on the island of Crete. Feeding  Kronos a rock wrapped in a babies garments. Years later, Zeus confronted his father, forcing his him to release his siblings, who had grown up in the stomach of their father.

This started the Titan war that lasted ten long years, Zeus’ siblings had joined him, and when Zeus released Kronos' brother cyclopes and hecatonchires because of a suggestion from Gaia, they sided with Zeus. The newly released brethren of Kronos constructed the three most powerful weapons given to the three biggest or most powerful gods, for Zeus, his lightning bolt, for Poseidon, his trident, and for Hades, his helm of darkness. All of these useful when Kronos and his army attacked, eventually losing, all of the Titans except the two, Prometheus and Themis, who had supported Zeus, were imprisoned in the earth as the cyclopes and the hecatonchires had been. Atlas, a Titan, who had been a major supporter of Kronos, had been sentenced to a worse punishment, being forced to hold up the sky.

Now, this makes me wonder…

What is the story of the other gods and goddesses, the ones that had been there since the beginning?

http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanKronos.html

https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/Chiron/chiron.html

https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/myths/titanomachy/

Exactly one hundred words, with three language features, and five random words.

So, we did this again except we had to use five specific words, each randomised for each person, mine was -

Needle
Gas
Brick
Maximum
Ant

My language features were a hyperbole, metaphor, and alliteration.

Here it is

I was an ant, compared to him. He towered over me, his eye the size of a brick. You could give him a needle, he wouldn’t notice. And he wasn’t even at his maximum height, he still had growing to do. He could swipe us aside like we were a gas. In years to come, I would be retold my own story and I wouldn’t believe them. I took a deep breath and tried to slip behind the group of people, I couldn’t look. He heaved hundreds of huge rocks and moved them aside. He hadn’t yet noticed his audience.