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Showing posts with label I Wonder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I Wonder. Show all posts

Friday, 30 November 2018

I wonder...

'For, when the sun is at it’s darkest,
And all that are left are the twinkling fairies in the absent sky,
That is when I will dance across the sky, while it is at it’s blackest;
And when you will dance along the lights with my heart,
I hope that we will dance until our hearts are starless'

I wonder how many poems I can write during this period.

Well, let's run a test. :)

'Leaves forever fall,
though it can not be seen,
leaves forever fall,
we will never see it,
but whenever a leaf may fall,
a tree slowly comes apart'

'Colour grows,
then it wilts and whithers away,
colour grows,
but it will never forever stay,
colour grows,
and then people throw it away,
colour grows,
but then it is wrong and we leave the sky grey'

'The tears we shed litter the ground,
they return home with Mother Earth,
when we shed our tears the Mother has drowned,
but not in the tears we shed, never in the tears the people shed,
only the tears of her eyes that have been wept as ours, but as her own, they are found'

This was entirely just an excuse to write poems. :)

Tuesday, 27 November 2018

I wonder...

How did Theseus' story begin?

Theseus' story begins with King Aegeus and his wife, Aethra, the parents of Theseus. Aethra became his wife by the means of her father, Pittheus, giving her over to his good friend Aegeus, because him, even having been married twice, had no heirs to the throne. After their secret wedding and having lain with the King, Aethra took a walk in the moonlight, which took her through the shallow waters of the sea to the Sferia island. There she met with the god, Poseidon, where he seduced her and took her on the exact same night that the king had. This was the result of Theseus' divine qualities. Soon after his son's birth, the king left to return to Athens, but not before giving Aethra instructions about 'his' son, the instructions he told her were to take Theseus, once he had reached manhood, and move the boulder the king had put his sandals and sword underneath. These items would prove useful later on to prove the boy's heritage. 

Once Theseus had reached the appropriate age his mother took him to the boulder and asked him to move it. Theseus completed this task with ease, lifting the boulder like a pebble, then fetching the sandals and sword of his fathers at his mother's request. His mother then told him that he needed to journey to Athens and meet his father. Aethra and her own father, who had helped raise Theseus, begged for him to travel to Athens through the sea, but Theseus denied them, taking the robber-and-thief infested roads instead, feeling no fear of the thieves and robbers that littered the road like trash.
Soon enough, Theseus encountered the first of his difficulties along his path, he had reached Epidaurus, a place sacred to the god Apollo and his son Asclepius. There he met the son of Hephaestus, Periphetes, known to bash the brains out of travellers with a club. Theseus was able to recognize Periphetes on site, as his grandfather, Pittheus, had described him to Theseus in detail. Periphetes, also known as The Cudgel Man, brandished a thick club, and upon seeing Theseus he told him of how he was going to kill him with the weapon. But, before he could strike Theseus began to complement the club. Periphetes, who often bragged, told the youth of how it was made entirely of brass. Though Theseus was not as dumb as he may have seemed, he countered how it couldn't have been made of entirely brass, proposing that it was actually made out wood, and covered in a sheet of brass instead. To prove him wrong, Periphetes handed the club to Theseus so he could inspect the club himself. As soon as he had the club though, Theseus delivered a strike to Periphetes' head, knocking him onto the ground straight away. Theseus decided to keep the club to use later.
Theseus soon encountered his next challenge, a man named Sciron blocked his path, demanding that to be let through, Theseus must wash his feet, claiming that the domain near the cliff's belonged to him. Curious, Theseus questioned the consequences of not doing as Sciron asked. Sciron soon replied that the consequence would be that he would cut Theseus' head off. Even so, Theseus could sense the man's weakness, and, smartly, agreed to wash the man's feet. As began to wash the man's feet, with the cliff face behind him, he looked into the water below him, seeing a gigantic turtle waiting at the bottom of the cliff face. As soon as he made the conclusion that this was the man who would most likely attempt to kick him down straight into the turtle's mouth, he grabbed onto Sciron and threw him down to the turtle instead.
The next challenge Theseus encountered included pine trees, even more attempted murder and a real murder. The man who caused such a challenge was none other than Siris, the Pine-bender (don't worry I've never heard of him either). As soon as the strange man looked upon Theseus he asked for help with an even stranger task, he asked Theseus to help him hold down a bent pine tree, but as soon as Theseus had a good grip on the pine Siris leapt back. The man expected the pine to catapult Theseus into the air, but he did not expect him to be able to hold such a tree down. Believing the pine must have snapped he walked behind the tree, but then Theseus let go, let the pine hit the man, knocking him out. Theseus then took two more pine tree's tying Siris' arms to one and his legs to the other, just as Siris had done to his own victims, letting him go to finish him off, his upper body being torn from his lower.
At this point, the sun had started to set, and it would soon be nightfall for Theseus. Thankfully, Theseus soon came across a house. Hoping the people inside would be kind enough to let him stay, he approached the home. After knocking on the door the man who answered introduced himself as Procrustes, and told Theseus that he had a magic bed that he could stay in for the night. But Theseus had heard of Procrustes and his 'magic' bed, the bed would fit anyone six feet perfectly, but if you were too short you would be bound to the posts and stretched to size, and if you were too tall you would be cut to size. But Theseus followed Procrustes to the room that held the bed. But as soon as they reached the room Theseus forced his host down onto the bed, cutting off his legs, and, to ease his pain, his head.
Travelling through the night Theseus soon reached the beautiful city of Athens. But, his father had married a sorceress named Medea, who predicted that Theseus would cause a problem between the king's relationship with her and how she wanted her own son, Medus to ascend to the throne. Because of her jealousy, she convinced Aegeus that Theseus had come to kill him, and suggested to invite him to a banquet and poison his wine, Aegus quickly agreed as he didn't recognize Theseus as his own son. Theseus eagerly attended the banquet, but as he went to drink the wine, Aegeus recognised the sword that hung off his belt, ordering for him to stop, finally recognising his own son. While Theseus and Aegeus celebrated at the discovery, Medea escaped, as to not be punished by the king.

https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/myths/adventures-of-theseus/
https://www.greeka.com/attica/athens/athens-myths/theseus.htm
https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/Theseus_Adventures/theseus_adventures.html

Tuesday, 20 November 2018

I wonder...

Image result for artemis and apollo
I wonder...


What are the stories of Artemis and Apollo?

Artemis and Apollo are two of the most famous Greek gods and goddesses from Greek mythology. They are known as the twin archers as they both have a bow as their weapon of choice. Apollo is the god of music, archery, medicine and the sun (mainly), while Artemis rules over archery (as well), hunting, forests and hills, childbirth and the moon. The pair were children over the god Zeus and the Titan Leto and when Hera found out about Leto's children's father being Zeus, she flew into a rage and cursed Leto so that she may not give birth on any land, cursing her to forever be pregnant. Leto searched and searched, prayed to every god, but still, she could never give birth. Eventually, she found the island of Delos, a floating island in the sea, not rooted to the ground, therefore Hera had not cursed her to not give birth on this land. She gave birth to her twins Artemis and Apollo on Delos and it became the twin's sacred land. It is said that Artemis was born ten days before her brother, growing in age all most instantly after birth and serving as her mother's midwife, this is the story that entitled her to the title of goddess of childbirth. Soon enough, Apollo was born and also aged to the same physical form as his sister.
Artemis and Apollo have always been close, to each other and their mother, but they also are willing to defend their mother's honour, and here is how they did so. Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus, a king, and when she grew of age she married King Amphion, the king of Thebes. This led to many tragic events in her life, but soon she and her husband had fourteen children together, seven boys and seven girls. At a later point, she attended a festival that was in honour of Leto, the mother of the divine twins, Artemis and Apollo, in a fit of envy she began to brag about her children, soon addressing herself as better than the mother of the divine twins, as she had raised fourteen children while Leto had only two. When the divine twins heard of this insult they made their descent and confronted Niobe, the seven boys of Niobe were murdered by Apollo and the seven girls of Niobe murdered by Artemis. The dead bodies of Niobe's daughters laid unburied for nine days. There are two different spectacles of how Amphion's life was ended, some say he was so devastated and depressed he committed suicide, others say that he was also murdered by Apollo's arrows, with his seven sons. So saddened by her families death, Niobe ran to the top of Mount Sipylus, weeping and praying for the gods to end her anguish, Zeus felt pity, turning her body to rock and therefore, her feelings. But even in this form, she continued to cry and weep for her family. Her tears pouring from the rock like a stream, to forever remind people of her mistakes and regrets. 

Friday, 22 June 2018

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)

Wednesday, 13 June 2018

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?

Thursday, 7 June 2018

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?

Friday, 25 May 2018

I wonder…

So, for English we're are going to need to these 'I wonder...' blogs where we research our curiosity topic, picking a new one each week, today I was curious about The Cat's Eye Nebula. What is causing the Cat’s Eye Nebula to appear this way?




What the Cat’s Eye Nebula is currently going through is a phase of stellar evolution that the sun will experience several billion years from now. Each 'ring' is actually the edge of a spherical bubble seen the projected onto the sky, that's why it appears bright along its outer edge. When a star begins to lose fuel,
it becomes a red giant. In this phase, a star sheds some of its outer layers. A fast wind streams away from its hot core, ramming into the ejected atmosphere, pushing it, creating the graceful colours across the galaxy. In the case of the Cat’s Eye, material shed by the star is flying away at 4 million miles per hour. Eventually, the hot core left behind will finish its phase and collapse into a dense white dwarf star. The central star is surrounded by a cloud of multimillion-degree gas.


Now, this makes me wonder…


Are there any other planetary nebula that can compare to the size of The Cat’s Eye Nebula?


Facts…


  • The Nebula is thought to be 1,000 years old.
  • The Nebula has three names, The Cat’s Eye Nebula, NGC 6543 and Caldwell 6.
  • The Eye was discovered in 1786 by William Hershel.
  • It is thought that it was originally 5 times the mass of the sun.
  • The Cat’s Eye is believed to be around 3,300 light-years away
  • The Planetary Nebula is found in the constellation Draco, in the Northern Hemisphere.