Download Limericks and Legends: Greek and Western

K. McDermott
Content Investigations
Holes and Goals Products
Fall 2010
Limericks and Legends: Greek and Western Mythology Poems
Most of these poems are based on the more widely-accepted Homerian and Olympian versions of
the Greek myths. I created several limerick poems, but a few of them are not in this form.
Limericks are short, five-line poems with an a-a-b-b-a rhyme scheme. Traditionally, these
poems are meant to be witty and obscene.
The sing-songy rhythm of the limerick may make it a good mnemonic device for some students
to remember basic plots or information for tests. Like the haiku, the limerick forces the student to
condense essential information into a few lines.
Total Poems: 18; each based on a Greek Myth unless otherwise indicated
Please read me Homer’s Illiad,
And maybe Virgil’s Aeneid
Those Greek epic poems
make me swoon and then moan—
the dactylic hexameter drives me mad!
Oedipus loved his own mother
A little too much like a lover—
He killed off his dad,
And then he felt bad,
He gouged out his eyes and he suffered
“Oedipus and the Sphinx,” after a Greek pottery image (1890s?)
Archimedes, the very good thinker,
Found solutions to mathematical stinkers
When taking a bath
He let out a laugh:
―Eureka! The volume is silver!‖
(Greek legend)
Dear Daedalus, Dad,
I thought you were smarter—
You crafted a dance-path
for King Minos‘ daughter;
Inventor and master of artisan feats
You built Minotaur‘s Labyrinth
on Island of Crete
But Icarus, I,
flew too near to the sun
On your wings made of wax
Gee thanks, Dad,
You‘re dumb!
“Daedalus constructs wings for Icarus,” after a relief in the Villa
Albani, Rome (Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888).
Zeus was the rageful king-father
of deity sons; goddess daughters—
The youngest of Rhea,
was married to Hera,
but had Aphrodite with Dione
“The Chariot of Zeus,” from an 1879 Stories from the Greek
Tragedians by Alfred Church
Athena, the goddess of Wisdom,
Was wisest in all of the kingdom—
In birth she was had
From the head of her dad;
The Athenians thought her quite winsome
"Athena," Charles Mills Gayley,
The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art
(Boston: Ginn and Company, 1893)
Odysseus travelled from Troy
To get to his wife and his boy—
In Ithaca met them,
After ten years of bedlam
With Cyclops and sirens ahoy!
Penelope waited for Oddy;
afraid he‘d end up a dead body
Propositioned for marriage
By that cat, Mnesteres,
She waited ten years for her hubby
Odysseus Overcome by Demodocus' Song,
by Francesco Hayez, 1813-15
King Arthur, he had a round table,
composed of all knights who were able—
At the good king‘s behest,
he like Lancelot best
‗til Sir and Gwen did him most shameful!
(British legend)
Statue of King Arthur, Hofkirche, Innsbruck,
designed by Albrecht Dürer and cast by
Peter Vischer the Elder, 1520s
Gessler to William Tell said,
―If you shoot your son‘s eye out, you‘re dead!‖
The arrow did soar
Through the red apple‘s core
And the Tells got to walk free instead
(Swiss legend)
Persephone, picking some flowers
Was abducted by Hades, the coward
Demeter was sad,
He made wheat-fields go bad,
And all the Greeks starved by the hour
Helios saw with his eye
When Persephone let out her cry
―Hades has got me!
He‘ll rape me and rob me!
Send Hermes to save me or I‘ll die!‖
Hades had tricked her to eating
The seed of a fruit from the ceiling
―You eat underworld grub,
Well, now, here‘s the rub:
Each winter you‘ll visit me, sweetie!‖
The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton, oil painting, (1891)
Nymphs enjoyed fun and flirtation,
And muses gave men inspiration;
When writing their views
Poets called to the muse:
―O Muse!‖ was the great invocation
Calliope was a great muse
By poets she was often used
Homer would boast
That she liked him the most—
Gave the Odyssey and Illiad fuel
Orpheus, father of songs
Sang and played lyre all day long
Followed his wife
Down to hell when she died—
His dirges brought tears to the gods
Eurydice, wife of this piper
Had died when attacked by a viper—
Hades‘ deal, Orpheus took,
But he turned back and looked
And Eurydice vanished forever
Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, Orpheus and Eurydice, 1806,
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
Sources:
Buxton, R. (2004). The complete world of Greek mythology. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Untermeyer, Louis. (1964). The world's great stories: 55 Legends the live forever. New York: M. Evans Company.
Greek vs. Roman Deities
I created a chart comparing the gods‘ names in Greek and Roman mythologies. I also composed
a limerick to help me remember its significance:
The Romans, they thought themselves chic:
They stole all their legends from Greeks
Their gods were the same,
But they had different names—
‘cept Apollo, the only un-tweaked
Major Gods and Goddesses
Greek Name:
Roman (Latin) Name:
Aphrodite
Apollo
Ares
Artemis
Athena
Demeter
Hades
Hephaestus
Hera
Hermes
Hestia
Kronos
Persephone
Poseidon
Zeus
Venus
Apollo
Mars
Diana
Minerva
Ceres
Pluto
Vulcan
Juno
Mercury
Vesta
Saturn
Proserpina
Neptune
Jupiter
Mythologies that are Similar Across Cultures and Faiths
Egyptian
Sacred
Texts
Creation
Stories
No unified
scripture
The Beginnings
Mesopotamian
The
Flood
The
Afterlife
Enuma Elish –
humans from clay
Gaia & primordial
gods emerge from
Chaos
Utna-pishtim
Deucalion &
Pyrrha
Lands of
the Dead,
Underworld
Generations of
man
Day of Yaweh;
Book of
Revelations
Day of
Resurrection
(Qiyama)
End of Kali age,
Vishnu return as
Kulki
Shambhala –
good triumphs
over evil, no
destruction
Gilgamesh
Hesiod‘s
Theogony
JudeoChristian
Muslim
The Torah
The Bible
Genesis - Adam &
Eve
Noah & the
ark
Heaven, Hell,
Purgatory
The Qur‘an
(Koran)
Qur‘an - Adam &
Eve
Noah & the
ark
Heaven, Hell
Hindu
The Vedas,
Upanishads
Manu
Buddhist
Mahayana
sutras;
Pāli Tipitaka
Multiple
Lord Vishnu and
the egg Anda,
Brahma
Samsara
Reincarnation
& Nirvana,
samsara
Reincarnation
& Nirvana,
samsara
Various: Navajo =
Spider Woman,
Mayan = Popol
Vuh
Popol -Vuh
Scientific
Big Bang Theory
Hero-Quest
Myths
Osirus
Greco-Roman
Native
American
The
Apocalypse
(Chines Yu)
(Hopi) The
emergence of
the 5th world
Theseus,
Odysseus,
Oedipus,
Aeneas
Abraham,
Moses
Abraham
Krishna
Gautama
Buddha, the
Bodhi tree
Wunzh,
Kutoyosis,
Quetzalcotl
meteorites,
environmental
disaster, entropy
Sources:
Campbell, Joseph. (1988). Historical atlas of world mythology. New York: Harper & Row.
Leeming, D.A. (1990). The world of myth: An anthology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Using Washington Post Magazine in the Classroom
Halsey, A and Parker, L. (2010). 18 hours. Washington Post Magazine. 28 Nov. 11-17.
Montgomery, D. (2010). The apollo kid. Washington Post Magazine. 28 Nov. 19-23
Oftentimes, in my 7th grade placement, my teacher gives reluctant male readers excerpts
from news or history articles. Many boys are reluctant to read fiction if it is not action-oriented
For example, she instructed one student to read an excerpt from a book about the bombing of
Pearl Harbor and also an article summary of the event. He had not been enthusiastic about his
book responses and had not completed any for the quarter, but he completed a response for this
reading. He also has severe ADHD and it helped him to read the information in chunks.
The article, ―18 Hours,‖ is a well written story about a group of people who survived the
fatal plane crash that Senator Ted Stevens died in. Newspaper magazine articles are often written
in a more narrative style that regular articles—this story about the crash employs suspense and
tension well. It almost reads like a Gary Paulsen story. Articles like these can be used to scaffold
reluctant or poor readers up to novels like Paulsen‘s.
In this issue, there is also an article about an 18 year old becoming a well-recognized
local musician through his hard work and dedication to practicing and performing. The young
man eventually played his guitar for a large audience at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. An article
like this may appeal to a very wide range of students: it is about pop music and perseverance and
it is particularly relevant because it is about a Maryland teenager achieving something in which
many students have an interest.
Analyzing Print Media: Parade Magazine Cover
Newman, Judith. (2010). Inside the teenagers brain. 28 Nov. 4-6.
Parade Magazine is written at a much lower reading level than the Washington Post
Magazine—both publications are good for teaching concepts of print because they contain a
wide range of writing types besides serious articles: food reviews, cartoons, advertisements,
how-to articles, advice columns, and interviews. The cover of this issue is for the main article,
―Inside the Teenager‘s Brain,‖ could make for an excellent writing prompt that encourages
students to think critically about the way people are portrayed in the media.
Students could be asked to write about both the image and the article and how they relate
to one another. Even middle schoolers need to be taught about the ways in which information is
framed and how that affects our reading. Possible response prompts: Describe what you see in
the cover photo. What kind of impression does the cover give about teenagers? Is this
representation of your generation fair? What does this make teenagers seem like? What does the
article say about teenagers? Why do you think the people who wrote the magazine decided to use
a controversial cover page for a reassuring article?