STORYTELLING WITH ANTO

After Hermes had explained how to face the goddess, Odysseus started walking up the hill, thinking dark thoughts about what was to come. He grasped the Moly root in his hand and listed all the things Hermes had told him, so as to not forget them. "The Moly will ward off the spell, point my sword at her, have her swear an oath, and sleep with her" he muttered under his breath. "Moly, sword, oath, sex..." he continued to repeat all the way up to the goddesses' door. "Moly, sword, oath, sex...Moly, swor--" he stopped himself just in time to raise his hand and knock on the door.  "Come in brave warrior," said a sweet female voice from the inside, as the door slowly swung open of its own accord. Odysseus took a hesitant step, clasping the Moly in one hand and his sword in the other. "You must be thirsty from your travel. Please, join me for a drink and then we shall have some supper." The goddess Circe then handed Odysseus a golden

The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis Story source: Homer's Odyssey , translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004). Ulysses and the Siren by Draper Herbert James Scylla & Charybdis by Alessandro Allori Circe tells Odysseus to have his men plug his ears with wax to avoid listening to the Sirens and thus avoid their danger. Odysseus decides he wants to listen to them so he has his men tie him to the mast. They sing about great knowledge and try to lure him. Odysseus cries to his men to turn the ship towards the Sirens, but they manage to escape without harm. 

The Moly Defeats Circe Story source: Homer's Odyssey , translated into English by Tony Kline. (2004). Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus After Eurylochus returns from losing his men, Odysseus goes to Circe's house to confront her and save them. On his way, he is stopped by Hermes who warns that he will not return unless he uses a special herb to protect himself from Circe's magic. He is also told to swing his sword at her after being pointed by her wand, and to lay in bed with her, but only after having her swear an oath not to harm him. Hermes then gives Odysseus the Moly herb, and he goes back to Olympus.  Odysseus does as told. Circe is impressed by him not falling under her spell so she kneels before him and begs him not to kill her; she then invites him to her bed. He is cared for by the Goddesses' handmaidens but refuses to eat until he sees his men freed. Circe agrees and turns the pigs back into men. They cry and thank Odysseus and even Circe pities

Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head Something I liked about this post is that it wasn't a generic self-help article, but rather referenced the real-life experiences of one of the author's clients, which made it much more relatable. I enjoyed that it provided some good advice on how to combat self-doubt and self-criticism without feeling condescending. I also appreciated that one of the tips was so straightforward and simple, a five-to-one ratio of positive to negative voices. I think this is a great way to visualize negative thoughts when they feel like they are crowding your mind, it allows you to consciously find five positive thoughts to outnumber the negative one. This is a great activity to force you to focus on the positive. I also like that it talked about the ways in which we minimize ourselves and our achievement by disregarding it as being lucky or having lots of help. This is something I constantly struggle with, so I like that the article mentioned it and th

Sayona statue in Venezuela Topic 1: Venezuelan Myths and Legends As you now know from my introduction, I am from Venezuela, so something I am really interested in is writing about some of the indigenous myths and legends from my country and other Latin American countries. I do many traditional Venezuelan stories, such as El Silbon (The Whistler)  and La Sayona , but I would love to learn more about them and write a project based on my own culture. That being said, I don't know whether this is possible because these legends are not covered in this course, and I do not have any specific books or legitimate websites to refer to.  Topic 2: Latin American Indigenous Legends Same idea as before, I am Latina so I would love to take this opportunity to do something about Latin America. Because Venezuelan legends are not as well documented as others I would like to explore some Incan and Aztec legends, as well as even some Mexican stories. Some of the possible sources could be

Pygmalion was a young and handsome man that lived in the ancient city of Paphos and dedicated his life to sculpting. He was kind and liked by all, but was perpetually alone. He had chosen to steer clear of love after seeing the Propoetides, daughters of Propoetus, selling themselves to any man, disrespecting their divine bodies. Pygmalion had seen this and lost faith in ever finding a woman that would measure up to his high expectations, to what he thought he deserved. For his hubris, Venus decided to seal his fate and make fall in love with someone with whom he could never be. And so beautiful Venus planted an idea in his mind, that of a young woman so beautiful that would rival her own charms, one whose eyes would entrap anyone that would view them.  That morning Pygmalion awoke with one thought and one thought only, to sculpt this beautiful woman he had dreamed of. He labored for hours, even days without rest until he was satisfied. He then looked at his creation, and without h

Full Moon from  Wikimedia Commons The Man in the Moon by Katherine Neville Fleeson (1899) A blacksmith does not like his job, so he asks to be a stone. A stonecutter came to cut him, which hurt, so he asks to be a stonecutter. He became too tired, so he asked to be the sun, but it was too warm, so he asked to be the moon. Finally, he asked to be a smith again, but the wise man was tired of his attitude, so he left him to forever stay as the moon.  The Indian Who Wrestled with a Ghost by Katherine Berry Judson (1913) A man walks alone in the woods, he lays down for the night. He is woken up by a woman crying out for her son, then the woman approached to check on him and pulls a knife. He then confronts her and she ran for the woods. Another night a ghost singer comes and asks him for food, he gives him dinner and a pipe but sees nothing but bones. The ghost then challenges him to wrestle. The man won because day broke, and he made the fire stronger, thus making the ghost we

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4. Week 3: Homer's Odyssey Week 4: Jewish Fairy Tales Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5: Ancient Egypt Week 6: The Voyages of Sinbad Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.] Week 7: Japanese Mythology Week 9: Nigerian Folk Stories Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11. Week 10: Eskimo Folk Tales Week 11: British North America Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13. Week 12: King Arthur Week 13: Nursery Rhymes Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15. Week 14: Kalevala Week 15: Dante's Inferno As I was looking through the different units I found it very hard to pick for some of the weeks, there were just too many things I found myself drawn to. Thankfully I managed to narrow down my choices and told myself I can always read more if I want to and find the time for it. I am particularly exc

Time by  Sean MacEntee Not gonna lie, I'm a terrible procrastinator. I often leave things to the very last minute and then stress out over not having enough time to finish them. The issue, however, is that I do finish them, and I usually end up doing them well, so there is no incentive for me to change my behavior. That's why I would call myself a High Functioning Procrastinator. That being said, I have tried to encourage myself to have better daily habits; for example, when I have a long assignment due that is causing me anxiety, I will use an app blocker to prevent myself from going on websites and apps that usually distract me, such as Netflix and Youtube.  Because this is something I have been struggling with for a while, I have read many articles on time management and planning and I have never truly found anything that was particularly helpful. This is why I approached the two articles I chose with a grain of salt. I decided to read 11 ways unsuccessful people mism

Picture from  Pxhere I consider myself a pretty tech-savvy person. I may not be an expert, but I can figure my way around most programs and apps and can google the heck out of a tutorial if I need to. I have previously used several web-building programs such as Weebly and Wix, as well as image editing sites like Canva. I also have already downloaded a spellchecking and grammar extension for my browser called Grammarly which I have been using for about four years and has never given me any issues. I feel confident that I am prepared to use most of the tools listed for the class, and if not, I am ready to learn. UYJ flyer by Antonieta Hernández U This is a flyer I made with Canva a couple of years ago for an organization I was a part of

So I am pretty excited about this semester, and especially about this class. I am taking some really interesting classes, including my service-learning capstone, piano lessons, and this one, which combines two of my favorite things: reading myths and creative writing.  40 Hilarious School Meme in  BestLife I must admit that I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of assignment we have per week, but as I read through the descriptions that worry began to dissipate. I realized that most of the assignments are quite straight forward and that as long as I am doing the reading on time there should be no issues. Hopefully, I will be organized enough to not end up like this little guy.  I am also super excited about some of the extra credit opportunities. I am particularly excited about the microfictions and biographical writings. When I was a kid I used to write short stories all the time, and I always thought microfiction was super fun to write, so I am excited to get back into it

Picture from Pxhere Carol Dweck's theory of Growth Mindset proposes that our focus on pass-fail attitudes is preventing us from truly learning and achieving our potentials. She argues that the reason for this is that we focus too much on failing, which makes us feel worthless and inadequate, whilst focusing on the possibility for growth could change this. Instead of giving a child an F for failing an exam, Dweck argues that they should receive a  not yet , as they have not mastered the material  yet.  This would emphasize effort and progress, thus allowing children to take the time they need to master the concepts without feeling worthless if it is taking them a little bit longer because they will eventually get there.  I do agree with Dweck that our society puts too much effort on exams and passing grades rather than learning, so I understand how the Growth Mindset could be beneficial. I think that originally grades were created with good intention, as a way to gauge a st

Personal picture of me before cutting my hair Hola! Hello! That's me on the left, Antonieta Hernández, but everyone calls me Anto. I am from Caracas, Venezuela, which means I am an international student. I am here at OU in my junior year to get my bachelor's in psychology and a sociology minor.  Something everybody always asks is why I am here at OU, well, that is an interesting story. In 2015 I applied to something called the United World Colleges , a two-year international program where students from all over the world attend to. I was fortunate enough to be selected by the Venezuelan national committee, and I spent two amazing years studying in Italy. After that when it was time to apply to college I went looking for schools that support international students, and OU happened to have a great scholarship program for UWC alumni, so I applied and here I am! As I mentioned, I am studying psychology and sociology. I love my major and I am incredibly passionate about

Dear Sun, Sincerely Moon Graffiti Sun Moon -  Source This storybook deals with the idea that the sun and the moon constantly receive and sent out letters that are sorted by the interstellar mail room. The issue, however, is that the sun and the moon have been given thousands of different names throughout time, thus making the jobs of the interstellar mail workers that much harder. Each of the stories then acts as a letter written between the sun and moon but is based on different mythological from different cultures showing the origin stories of the sun and moon, and how they are related to each other.  The introduction was a fun way of introducing the concept of the sun and moon having different names and the fact that the stories were written as letters, but I would have liked to see more of the interstellar mail room. That being said, I loved that the stories were told through letters and that they represented the different origin stories of the sun and moon, including an Az

My name is Antonieta Hernández, and I am an international student from Caracas, Venezuela. I could not decide on my favorite place because there are so many beautiful places I have visited in my life, but I decided to narrow it down to two, one being the city I grew up in, Caracas, and the other one of Venezuela's most well'known places, the Angel Falls. Caracas, Venezuela This is Venezuela's capital and my home town. It is a beautiful city surrounded by the Avila mountain. The weather is around 73 degrees all year round, it is almost always sunny and never too hot. On the other side of the mountain, you can find the Caribbean sea, so I spent the majority of my childhood going to the beach whenever I got the chance. Also, recently the population of macaws (parrots) has grown a lot, so they have become used to being around people and often hang out around people's terraces to try and snatch some snacks! Caracas from the East.  Wikipedia Commons Personal

Hello! Anto here, just checking how this whole blogger thing works.