THE AMERICAN LEGENDS JOURNAL HALL OF FAME
The Hopi emergence
By Michalis Tsiogkas (1563201200271)
In the beginning there was Taiowa
The creation of the universe and the emergence of life and humanity in it have been the first mysteries every complete religious narrative had to have an explanation for. People needed to be provided with an all-encompassing spiritual context into which their existence acquired meaning; a cosmic order giving purpose to their lives and a universal wisdom to base their values and moral codes upon.
Although every creational myth expresses, to some extent, the culture of the people who created it, there are, as we can see by examining the Hopi emergence tale, a number of universal human values, fears and hopes that are reflected in similar ways in the myths of otherwise entirely different peoples.
So, where from, and how, did the world start? In a way that reminds us of the
Genesis, in the beginning of the Hopi universe there existed only the wisdom of God dwelling in a timeless, spaceless chaos like that of Hesiod’s cosmogony. Time, space and matter were then created when they were conceived by God’s mind. The governing principle of the Cosmos, then, is not matter or energy but sentience. The supremacy of the spiritual over the material becomes apparent in the way Sotuknang creates the worldly elements:
From endless space he gathered that which was to be manifest as solid substance…
...gathered from endless space that which was to be manifest as the waters…
Matter is seen as a manifestation of what exists primarily as an idea in a superior, purely mental world that reminds us of Plato’s world of ideas and its supremacy over the world of forms.

As the wisdom of the supreme sentience is in full control of the material world, everything that happens in the latter, happens in compliance with the course of events that the former has predetermined.
…life and its movement to complete the four parts, Tuwaquachi, of my universal plan.
In a deterministic world order that reminds us that of the Bible, everything is part of God’s plan. Although sin and injustice might seem to happen on their own account, on a deeper level they, too, are elements that serve to move the world forward, towards the final stage of the salvation of the chosen ones. Those who enslave, torture and murder God’s nation are only pawns in His hands, employed to test His people’s faith and lead them to their final destination. This thought must have been as useful to the Indians during European colonization as it was to the Jews or the first Christians living under Roman rule.
Alongside the similarities to other cultures, there are also those elements that express the particular psyche and worldview of the Indians. Unlike the Christian God who, for the most part, remains unseen and mysterious, the Hopi God manifests as an element of the natural world. And unlike the fierce gods of other religions who will appear in our world as the tremendous thunder or the lethal maelstrom, the God of the
Hopi, the peaceful ones, manifests as the loving, life-giving sun. Like a caring father,
Taiowa is there every day to watch over his children; he gives them the light so that they can see and sustains all life around them with his warmth.
And if the sun is people’s father, their mother is the earth. They are made out of her substance (soil) and she feeds them from her breasts. This completes a picture that is perfectly compatible with the Indian culture of harmonious coexistence with the natural world. The natural elements are seen neither as enemies of man, nor as disposable objects put there by God so that the man will fully exploit them to his benefit; they are seen as members of a great family man, too, is a part of. Nature is the worldly form of deity – it is deity, and man partakes in its mystery on equal terms.
The Indian can enjoy the gifts of nature, but he has to do so while living in harmony and reciprocity with it and without disturbing its sacred balance.

The Iroquois Creation Story
By Giasemi Seliami (1563 2014 00293)
Having read the Iroquois Creation Story, I was filled with emotions and thoughts.
Firstly, being a mother myself ,I totally sympathize with the woman who strives to carry out what is meant to be the miracle of life. I feel proud of being a woman since at the beginning of the story her place is dominant at the creation of the world. She suffers a lot and needs someone to share this heavy burden with.
But why a turtle? What can probably symbolize? At first I perceived it as a symbol of endurance or longevity ...or maybe both of them! After a second thought I considered it to be a symbol of protection. With its hard shell a turtle protects its self like a mother protects her offspring. And then ''Man became'' like every one of us with two sides, the good and the bad one. It is a matter of various factors which side will prevail. All of us tend to be creative and productive and kind to others but under certain circumstances we can show our bad self who is always there simmering and waiting to emerge. To my mind, it is true that when people behave in a good manner, they become more sensitive and fragile, that is probably the reason why the good mind appears to form two images of dust by breathing in their nostrils
(as God did according to the Bible).Dust can easily be dissolved into the air.
What about the bad mind? It created two images of clay which is harder because when our bad self arises we become tough against others. The representation of the two brothers envying one another surely reminds me of Cain and Avel but in contrast to the Biblical version , here, although not entirely, the good wins .
What I surely reaped from the story is that there is both a ''Cain'' and an ''Abel' inside us and there is a continuous battle on which of the two ill dominate.
The Ojibwa Corn Hero
By Maria Georgia Achladianaki (15632013000292)
Having read The Ojibwa Corn Hero, from the very beginning of the tale we start noticing similarities between the young boy Wunzh and Jesus or biblical figures and motifs in general, like Jacob’s wrestling with the angel.

We watch him during his fast meditating in nature, thinking that things should have been created much easier for his people and not rely on occasional fish caught or hunting for food and feels the urge to help his people. He, in a way, manages in the end to multiply food for his people just like Jesus did with fish and bread. The fasting also brings in mind Jesus’ fast in the desert.
Suddenly, when in his thoughts and doubts, a spirit shows up on his third day of fasting. The figure is dressed in yellow, green and has golden feathers. In colour semiotics yellow and gold is associated with the sun, brightness, warmth and signifies a divine, heavenly body and power, whereas, green is associated with Spring , growth, renewal and rebirth. So, apart from assuming that the colours are just the colours corn has, we observe what corn signifies for the people through the colours of the spirit that showed up to Wunzh and taught him how to grow food for his people.
The boy doubts on his strength and ability to fight but decides to do so and gains courage. We witness a fight parallel with the one that Jacob fought with an angel or God in Genesis. The biblical tale informs us that Jacob returning to Canaan, fights with an unknown man, a spirit that is either an angel or God Himself. Through the struggle he finally wins and asks for a blessing although he does not know with whom he fought. He faced God and lived. I find a connection between the two fights in that we witness the boy in a weak state, giving all his powers to pass through the challenge of the corn spirit. The weaker he gets the more determined we see him till he wins, just like a true hero. I find it very interesting that both Jacob and Wunzh tend to follow a hero pattern. They gather powers, then, at some point are at their weaker state, nearly die, and again, find their powers to fight and finally win.
We also come across holy numbers or numbers that have always had a significant meaning in Bible or mythology such as 3 and 7. The boy was fasting for 7 days and fought the spirit 3 times. After the win, he has to bury the beaten spirit in a certain way taught by the spirit itself. Taking good care of his former friend as narrated, a plant grows from the ground. Corn spirit, becoming a corn plant is some kind of a resurrection such as Lazarus or similar in Eastern religions.
This was the reward for the struggle both Jacob and Wunzh went through,
Jacob to be blessed and Wunzh to have the blessing of giving corn to his people.
These stories and myths people have in different cultures are above all good examples for them to learn from in their lives. Since the hero fought and won, so can they. Corn came to Wunzh but he had to fight to finally be able to keep it and share it with his

people. Both, had to fight alone to learn from the experience. Finally, there is not much importance if the stories were true or not since they were believed by a certain culture and transmitted through time. They now are powerful stories and used as examples for future generations, giving hope in a sense that God is always testing their will so they must never give up.
Works Cited
An American Legends Reader —PDF format. Ed. Christina Dokou. Athens: UoA,
2007.
The Ojibwa Corn Hero
By Elpida Ziavra (1563201300052)
I have only recently been initiated to certain Native American myths for the purposes of this course. What mostly strikes me is the thick web of mythology and the rich worldview of a people thought of as primitive and uncivilized by the Western settlers.
The particular story of The Ojibwa Corn Hero was very interesting in its complexity and originality as well as in its echoing of patterns already known to me through mythology and religious teaching.
As pointed at the introductory note of the myth, Wunzh’s fight with the figure alludes to Jacob’s biblical tale of fighting an angel. In both cases, the men receive news and face the messengers of the Great Spirit or God, the ultimate being.
However, the victory of the weakest against all odds could also draw an analogy between Wunzh and David in his unequal battle with Goliath. Moreover, the young boy assumes the role of the benefactor and savior of his people, like Moses did for the
Israelites. Even the fast has a direct relation to the Christian religion, leading to a purification of the body and, subsequently, the soul. In addition, Wunzh’s seclusion and meditation at a remote location away from earthly distractions for his selffulfillment, reminds me of other religions, such as Buddhism.
The entity that Wunzh fights turns out to be no God, but a humble plant born from mother earth, the corn. However, it is of great importance for the people who struggle for survival and aim at taming the wilderness and nature. With the cultivation of corn, they no longer depend entirely on hunting or fishing but have a stable source

of food, agriculture. Thus, it is not surprising that the Native Americans have opted for deifying a plant that provides them with food and facilitates their life. The spiritual attributes assigned to the corn, point at the close relationship of Native Americans to their land. Evidently, the knowledge on how to cultivate corn, choose only the edible plants, and the herbs that are useful in medicine, is something that demands great patience and effort and a profound knowledge of your territory. All this knowledge is acquired in a very difficult way, as presented in the symbolic tale of The Ojibwa Corn
Hero . The ancient Greeks created a similar story about the adventures surrounding the acquisition of fire and the benefactor of the human race, Prometheus, who acted in order to make people’s lives easier.
In addition, I found the description of the corn’s clothes with the different shades of green and yellow, very amusing because it alluded to the actual plant. It seems to me that color was of a great symbolic significance to the Native American culture. Another element that impressed me was the repetition of the fight for several days before the knowledge of the cultivation of corn was given to Wunzh. However, I cannot come up with an explanation of this repeated confrontation.
Finally, I have chosen to discuss this myth because of the unexpected similarities with patterns I had already come across in completely different sources.
This is another proof for me that human cultures are interconnected, however secluded and virtually intact they might seem at first.
The Ojibwa Corn Hero
By Nikolaos Gorlas (1563201400275)
While reading "The Ojibwa Corn Hero" some questions arose concerning fasting, spirituality and sacrifice. Namely, I started wondering why fasting plays such an important role in so many cultures and religions, how it is connected with spirituality and last but not least, why, in this context, there always has to be some kind of sacrifice in order to improve your life and well-being.
Wunzh was sent to a remote place so he could fast and find his meaning in life. He chose to begin this journey in Spring, the month of the rebirth of the land, so as to achieve the same result for his soul. Therefore, in many cultures, the deprivation of food and nutrition is somehow connected with the achievement of spirituality.

Even in Christianity, fasting leads to spiritual strength. It is the way in which human beings get closer to the God and prepare themselves to receive his blessings. Wunzh, himself, feels that "the weaker his body was, the greater his courage and determination". So, it seems that the weakening of the body strengthens the spirit and that this struggling has as a result a gift from the Great Spirit.
This metaphysical aspect in this deprivation was probably found due to the fact that this abstinence from food, inevitably led to dizziness and illusions. Wunzh feels weak and dizzy and at the end of the story he tells his father that he had dreams during his fast which provided the solution to help his people. Consequently, by putting his encounter with the Spirit from the sky in the realm of dreams he manages not only to win the fight with his logic but also to reassure himself with the presence of God and that his fastening was not without reason.
Which leads us to the other question about why in order to achieve this wellbeing there always has to be a sacrifice. Wunzh had to fight, not only his weakness but also Mondawmin, the spirit of corn. And all these struggling comes from a completely selfless motive that drives him to the completion of his task, though he is near to death. So, why do Gods always want something in return? Let alone, when we are willing to fight not only for our benefits but also for the benefit of others. It would be so much easier to blame the Gods for everything but I believe that this motive starts inside each and every one of us, not because some God ordered us but because we need to feel that all our efforts are not fruitless and that when we see no fruition it's just God being cruel on us. This is the point where my initial question on sacrifice turns into a question about reward. We need to feel that everything we do is not in vain and that when we try hard many kinds of rewards await us.
Therefore, we fight, we fast, we struggle, we put all our efforts having the wishful thinking that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Wunzh was rewarded with corn after all his suffering and perseverance. The Great Spirit rewarded his efforts leaving him not only with food for his people but also with the gift of reaching a higher level of spirituality. All these stories create the motive and hopefulness that if we try hard for the well-being of our people our own private stories will always have a happy ending, having as a final scene a fest with all our loved ones around us, filling our bellies with corn.

The Odjibwa Corn Hero
By Irene Demetra Bourontzi (1563201400285)
This story is a typical myth regarding a hero going on a quest in order to achieve greatness, spiritual clarity or even to acquire an object that has magical properties.
Upon reaching a proper age our young protagonist named Wunzh set out to find his guardian in life alone in the woods. Thus, he achieved the stage called
‘’departure” when someone urges the hero to go on an adventure , in this case the father of the hero invites him to a procedure reminding us the rite of passage that most figures in literature have to succeed in , in order to reach adulthood.
Moreover, Wunzh travels in a forest where he must obtain spiritual clarity, inspiration and ultimately salvation. Consequently, he must meditate, fast and even admire the beauty of nature and benefit from the knowledge of herbs that will help him in his life in general. In this stage of “initiation” he must overcome certain difficulties and adventures, in this case with the aid of a supernatural creature descending from the sky, after Wunzh prayed for a dream seeking guidance for the help of his people.( ask and you shall receive , as long as your purpose isn’t selfish) .
The corn spirit Mondawmin promised to help our young hero after having to wrestle him 3 times (symbolic number). Wunzh managed to win the trials set upon him even though his body was famed, his spirit was strengthened (mind over body). After his
7 th
day of fasting Mondawmin gave him instructions that he followed to the letter and through “human “sacrifice he grew the first corn.
In the end, he returns victorious as a hero of everyday life and spiritual awareness. This stage of fruitful “return” is a proof of his success and the whole story seems like an optimistic analogy for life itself.
Much like the young Indian hero Wunzh there are several other mythical heroes that survived the ‘’ Quest”. The story of Gilgamesh and his search for the secret to eternal life is one of the eldest. Medieval mythology with its romanticism and idealism includes myths about knights like Sir Gawain and the challenge of the
Green Knight, Sir Galahad and the Quest for the Holy Grail and we mustn’t forget much recent examples like Frodo in Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Percy
Jackson.

All in all, humanity may have evolved but certain motifs exist from the beginning of time till modern day since human beings and their needs remain unchanged.
“From The Winnebago Trickster Cycle”
By Vladimir Tudakov1563201300219
My reaction paper will focus on certain elements from the “Winnebago Trickster
Cycle” which I consider interesting. I shall briefly discuss the presence of a Trickster figure, the theme of nature vs humans and the use of off-colour humour.
Studying the Winnebago Trickster Cycle story, I became familiar with the
Trickster figure , which is a type of character I could instantly recognise since its presence can be traced extensively in various works of world-literature. Ancient
Greek Mythology often had stories of mythological creatures and gods, such as
Hermes, that behaved in an obscene manner, similar to how Winnebago behaved in the story in question. We may therefore understand the Trickster figure as a Jungian
Archetype , and perhaps one of the most characteristic instances of a Jungian
Archetype considering its widespread use in folklore. Their role is to cause mischief, violate rules with unconventional behaviour and provoke comical situations. The fact that the Trickster figure constitutes an archetype denotes the importance that almost every culture attaches to comic relief, shock value and rule-breaking in folklore.
A prevalent theme in the “Winnebago Trickster Cycle” is the primacy of nature and natural forces over man.
Towards the end of the excerpt, the Trickster displays excessive confidence for his superiority over the properties of the “laxative bulb” he encounters. It’s a very classic example of a folkloric character who is eventually self-humiliated because of his arrogant and irreverent behaviour towards nature. In this story, nature both humiliates and saves the trickster, since it is the trees who provide guidance towards a source of water. Such instances often instil wisdom to the characters and serve as useful lessons against presumptuousness for the audience. Native American life was, after all, deeply characterised by love and respect of nature.
Finally, I would like to draw some attention upon the use of scatological humour , which pervades, at a shocking degree, the story with the laxative bulb.

Although it’s rarely examined from an academic viewpoint, off-colour humour is very much present in folk tales that go back to antiquity. In Ancient Greece, for example, the comedies by Aristophanes were often filled with excremental jokes and were very popular. Flatulence humour can be traced in innumerable literary works in almost every culture that has ever existed. This type of “offensive” humour is widely present even in contemporary pop-culture, in TV-shows like “South Park” and “Family Guy”.
The popularity of vulgar humour can be attributed to both its obvious amusing quality and its attempt to go against political correctness and break the society’s taboos.
Works Cited
" From The Winnebago Trickster Cycle.” The Norton Anthology of American
Literature . Gen. ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol. A. New York: Norton, 2012.
Print.
From the Winnebago Trickster Cycle”
By Maria Drakouli (1563201300043)
After I had finished reading Winnebago’s story, “From the Winnebago Trickster
Cycle”, I was so ecstatic about it, as I find it hard to believe that ancient Native
American stories could be that funny, innovative and “provocative”, as far as morality is concerned.
First of all, “The Foolish One” trickster Wakjankaga seems to be a very unconventional, comic and immoral figure, that strikes great resemblance to Zeus of the ancient Greek mythology, who even though was the father of Gods, was engaged to all kinds of sinful acts. For instance, Zeus used to change his original form, in order to sexually take advantage of various women and so, the trickster does the same thing by taking advantage of the chief’s son. This indicates that people were aware of the fact that there are no perfect beings; even god-like figures can lose their moral high ground and succumb to desire and curiosity. That way, they could justify themselves for their faulty actions and atone for their “sins” easier, by saying to themselves:
“Even Gods make mistakes!”
From a similar point of view, I think that this story implies important things about what notions Native Americans had of sexuality, as the actions of the trickster would

seem absurd to western culture. Having the ability to alter his sex at will is what makes trickster such a “provoking” and innovative figure; he has intercourse with animals and with a man, who they get him pregnant. In my opinion, this can imply two things: First, Native Americans were familiar and tolerant of homosexual activities (even inside the chief’s family) and they were aware of the fact that sex is not a restriction for people; the fact that someone is a man does not mean that he is obliged to only have intercourse with females. Second, they depict men conceiving and giving birth just because they could not possibly do it in real life; men, even though were strong and with full capacities, could not do the most important thing of all: create a human being, just like nature does. So, this could be an effort to
“convince” men that someone of them had done it.
In addition, the human relationship with nature and all its creations appears to be a very important element of Native American stories. For example, the trickster shares a lodge with a fox, a jay and a nit, even though they do not belong to the same species and therefore, do not have the same survival needs. As it seems, living with company and sharing with others is a practice of much cultural significance for Native
Americans; there is no notion of ownership or privacy in their culture, because everything is a creation of nature and as a result, it belongs to all creatures. Trickster attempts to defy nature by eating that bulb, despite the fact that it warned him not to and he pays the price, as nature is presented as a powerful force that it either destroys or saves; if it were not for the help of the trees, the trickster would have died a tragic death.
Trickster stories were narrated not only for entertaining reasons, but for didactic purposes as well. The abnormal, unexpected behavior of the trickster is only the “tip of the iceberg”; an effort of making someone focus on the aim of the story and wonder why all these happened. He is so thoughtless that he is almost killed, while he does unbelievable things that humiliate him and make him look like a fool. He has left his family to travel, he ignores the social norms and conventions, he humiliates the chief’s family by tricking his son to marry him and he defies nature. He is an antihero figure, who is more likely to get disliked. So, people who listen to that story cannot identify with him as a character and they do not try to imitate him; he is a must-avoidfigure.

To conclude, Winnebago stories from the “Winnebago Trickster cycle” are very important examples of the Native American’s culture and specifically, of their notions about nature, sexuality and morality.
From “The Winnebago Trickster Cycle”
By Evrypidis-Pavlos Katsionis (1563201300077)
The initial reflection after reading this story is how much apposite this fable may be for queer theory. Considering the fact that this narrative derives from an era much before contemporary capitalism, it can provide us with crucial information of how people would perceive non-heteronormative or cisgender identities into an altogether dissimilar socioeconomic condition.
To begin with, we are not sure if Trickster is actually a human or an animal.
Notwithstanding this ambiguity, we are ensured that he possesses male genitalia up to a point, since he “took an elk’s liver and made a vulva from it” and “he took some elk’s kidneys and made breasts from them”. At this point, we should pay particular heed to the element of fluidity, more specifically, the sex fluidity. He alters his biological sex so plainly and turns from a man to a woman in such a metaphysical manner. It’s a myth after all. Nevertheless, it is not just that. Following the modification of his biological sex, he changes his clothes from male-signified garment to female-signified attire. Thus, a change in gender ensues and implications of the social construction of gender are posited. Dress belongs to thοse components that constitute gender performativity of a female individual, according to the dominant discourse at least. Furthermore, it is important to underline the fact that the narrator is still using the male personal pronoun in order to refer to Trickster, even after his switch. Maybe that is because he wants to make it apprehensible to whom he is referring to in the story or probably because it is postulated that the kernel of the body that bears a particular sex doesn’t change, even after a switch. Continually, he (the usage of “he” or “him” is for reasons of coherence) goes as bold as grass to the chief’s son in order to espouse him. The son is deceived and he truly gets to marry him. Then, lies the real transcendence of sexes; the Trickster gets pregnant and goes into labor.
That itself elucidates that Trickster managed to transcend sexual binary.

Drawing on Derrida’s theory of differánce, where the interdependent relationshipof the opposites is underlined, sex is deconstructed since the huge narrative of what constitutes gender has collapsed with this exact paradigm of the
Trickster who firstly changes sex, then gender, and eventually bears not one but three babies. Throughout this process, transsexual identities are indicated and not kept surreptitious, in juxtaposition with western tales where masculinity and virility are assumed to be desirable qualities of a brave and vigorous man.
All in all, I was really confounded by the tale. It’s uncommon and unconventional content truly left me transfixed.
Black Elk Speaks: XXIV The Butchering at Wounded Knee
By Chrysavgi Anastouli (1563 2014 00 270)
I chose to write about this story because I read it last.
First I read the myths about the creation of the universe and I was really stunned by their implication that the Creator was actually a she and not a he! Then I was amazed at the fact that these people really respected Nature and tried to live in harmony with it! I even found the stories about Trickster –though too scatological for my taste-really thought-provoking: an artificial woman or an animal-like persona having sexual intercourse with everyone in order to get pregnant? Are you kidding me?? And all these stories created by a race that was thought of as inferior, crude, or even stupid? You have watched a lot of American movies, I told myself. Native
Americans can’t have been that creative, that ahead of their time….But indeed they were. And these stories have shed light to what has been so well hidden and blurred , at least in my perception about them. They were philosophical, genuine and worth of admiration since they had neither education nor all the other privileges of our
‘civilized ’world. I started admiring, I even narrated a couple of the stories to my children before they went to bed. I started feeling awe…..
Until I started reading Black Elk’s narrative…I formed the picture in my mind: an old man, sitting on a rocky chair, smoking his pipe, an old man full of scars, both from wisdom and bullets. His speech plain, no figures of speech and verbalistic expressions, just the truth….I could hear the screams of the women and children being slaughtered….I could see the baby trying to suck from the bloody breast of the

mother..I could hear the horses galloping and the cannons firing mercilessly against innocent human beings. I could hear the warriors-and not soldiers-singing ‘You shall live’. I could sense Black Earl’s desperation, his anxiety to salvage whatever could be saved. I even supported his belief that the afterlife might be better for his butchered people. I could see the whites’ readiness to cause bloodshed in the whole territory, I could even see the excitement in their eyes.
And I felt shame. Shame because a handful of greedy, ‘civilized’ Europeans exterminated these tribes. (Arrogance or fear? What was the real reason? What was all that menace for?) Shame because I belong to the white race, a race which thinks is superior and has the right to destroy everything in the name of progress. Shame because I, as a member of this despicable race, ‘ experienced’ the story of extermination again when a pervert named Hitler wiped out the Jews during World
War II, he was white too. And there is no end. Modern, more sophisticated wars, wars with euros and dollars as weapons have broken out, and they all have to do with power and domination and control, and they all got started by the whites. There must be something wrong with our race, there must be a kind of genetical deficiency.
When shall we learn from our mistakes? I guess that is a question even the wisest of
Indians would never have been able to answer.
Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World!
By Aggeliki Katevaini (1563201300278)
Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World!
allowed me to establish a better understanding of the ideologies that prominent figures of the Puritan society attempted to develop in order to justify the Salem witch trials. Mather’s references to the women suspected of participating in witchcraft contrast with the description of the
‘innocent’ Puritan community, nevertheless the writer attempts to portray his viewpoints as unbiased, merely stating the facts.
Firstly, I found that the manner by which the Puritans are conveyed to be exaggerative, when it comes to the ‘innocence’ (Mather 330) of the people.
Specifically, Mather describes them as being ‘a people of God’, ‘poor’ and ‘good people’ (329), to emphasise their humble nature. I believe the writer’s description could be considered inaccurate and, to some extent, selectively oblivious to the crimes

committed during the witch trials, in the name of protecting the ‘land’ (329) against ‘a more gross diabolism than ever the world has saw before’ (330). In contrast, the
‘witches’ (332) are characterised as ‘the terrible plague of evil angels’, ‘the delusions of Satan’ and ‘demons’ (329). Once more, I considered Mather’s writing to be misrepresentative and overemphatic, however at the time when religion was an integral part of life, most of his readers would have been convinced.
Additionally, I found the author’s attempt to enhance his credibility and objectivity an interesting part of the extract. Mather’s ‘nor ever had I any personal prejudice’(330), as well as the line: ‘I report matters not as an advocate, but as an historian’ (330), to be rather intriguing, as it implies that some would have been suspicious of the text’s purpose and reliability. After all, the idea of the existence of witchcraft was solely based on the ‘preternatural’ (329) and no solid findings, thus bold positions had to be taken so as to support and justify the fight against it. Also, the exaggeration in the line: ‘so many most voluntary harmonious confessions’ (329) raises interesting questions as to how ‘voluntary’ and ‘harmonious’ these confessions really were.
Overall, the extract was enlightening with regard to the beliefs of the New
English Puritans of the time. The powerful writing of Cotton Mather was, undoubtedly, an influence to his readers, however from today’s perspective, his ideology could be considered as being dogmatic.
Works Cited
Mather, Cotton. “From The Wonders of the Invisible World!
.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature . Vol. A. 8 th
ed. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New York and
London: Norton, 2013. 328-333. Print.
Cotton Mather’s “The Trial of Martha Carrier”
By Foteini Paila (1563201100185)
“For my own part, I was not present at any of them; nor ever had I any personal prejudice at the persons thus brought upon the stage”, clarifies Cotton
Mather before he begins to relay the facts of some of the Salem witch trials. And

further down a few lines, he adds, “and I report matters not as an advocate, but as an historian” (Mather 310).
As I went on to read the facts of Martha Carrier’s trials, I found Mather’s abovementioned statement to be true. He makes what can be viewed—to a certain extent—as a promise, i.e. to “report matters […] as an historian,” and he keeps that promise—all throughout sections I to XI. But then— then —he decides to add a memorandum. A memorandum that is overall yet another relay of information pertinent to the trial, written in the same formal and perceivably detached style of writing as the rest of the text, but for those two words: “rampant hag” (Mather 313).
Martha Carrier is a rampant hag. She is rampant or, according to the Collins
English Dictionary, “unrestrained or violent in behaviour, desire, opinions, etc.” She is a hag or, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, “an old woman considered to be ugly or frightening; a witch or a sorceress; a female demon.” Martha
Carrier was said to be 33 years old during the Salem witch trials. Of course, three centuries ago, the times were different, the conditions of living had people aging and dying at much younger ages than today. But “a hag” is what you call the evil cannibalistic witch in the story of Hansel and Gretel, not a 33-year-old woman. And if
Mather’s intention in using “hag” was to merely refer to the fact—to what was determined to be fact by the court
—that Martha was a witch, he could have used the actual word “witch” like he had done before. Furthermore, the dictionary clearly states that the use of the term “hag” is offensive, and I doubt the negative connotation wasn’t attached to the word even back then. But let’s also examine “rampant” and the definition given by the Collins Dictionary, because that definition pinpoints exactly one of the primary reasons so many women were accused of, tried and executed for witchcraft during those years: “unrestrained or violent in behaviour, desire, opinions.”
That’s what those so-called witches were: women who did not conform to the expectations and roles set by society. Women who had an opinion and dared to voice it. Women who dared to speak up, when someone wronged them. (Women, too, who wanted to be doctors—who had the right talent, the right skill, but the wrong gender.
So, in those times, there were male healers and they were of high intelligence and skill and they were called doctors and admired throughout the community. And there were female healers and they were of unnatural intelligence and impossible talent and they were called witches and feared throughout the community.) What we need to make sure we absolutely understand here is this: nowadays, you’d call “rampant” a

raving lunatic or a deviant criminal. In those days, they called “rampant” a woman who did not stand by while people wronged her family or who offered her opinions in matters thought better left to men to deal with.
I researched Martha Carrier a couple of years ago. I remember reading that she came from an old family but had an affair and eloped with a man of lower class. She returned home years later with her family and, shortly after, she lost some of her children to an epidemic. Martha is said to have been accused of witchcraft because not all her children died in that epidemic. She is said to have been accused of witchcraft because of her deviance from social norms, and because she had a disagreeable character. Some say that there was a political conspiracy at play. What
I’ve gathered from what I’ve read, however, is that she sure as all hell wasn’t accused of witchcraft because she actually hexed people.
Witchcraft is pretty fascinating. It gets a bad rap, but I think that in reality, so to speak, it’s nothing more than a force—maybe of nature or maybe of something beyond it; either way, I understand it a lot like water, for example. Water is sort of a neutral force. It can be used to quench your thirst, to wash your clothes or clean your wounds, to put out a fire. You can swim laps in it to exercise or just for the heck of it.
But you can also very well use it to drown your archenemy, and it’s precisely this multipurpose character of water that makes it so awesome.
Maybe if some of those women had actually been witches, we’d be living in an entirely different world today. And putting aside for a moment the tragic consequences of those witch trials, I get a sort of enjoyment from the association of witchcraft with that specific type of people, because it reminds me of a quote by Peter
Grey, in his book Apocalyptic Witchcraft , that interprets or explains witchcraft— whichever you like best, and I’m closing with this—in the following way: “Witchcraft is the recourse of the dispossessed, the powerless, the hungry and the abused. It gives heart and tongue to stones and trees. It wears the rough skin of beasts. It turns on a civilization that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing” (14).
Works Cited
Mather, Cotton. “From
The Wonders of the Invisible World
.”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature.
Gen. ed. Nina Baym. Vol. A. 7th ed. New York:
Norton, 2007. 308-13. Print.
Grey, Peter. Apocalyptic Witchcraft.
Scarlet Imprint, 2013. Print.

“Hag.” American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
(2011). Retrieved October 16 2015 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hag.
“Rampant.”
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged.
(1991, 1994,
1998, 2000, 2003). Retrieved October 16 2015 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rampant.
The Skeleton Hand
By Georgia Simakou ( 1563201300198)
Judging from the title, “the Skeleton Hand”, I thought this was going to be another more or less stereotypical ghost story, or maybe something in the style of Pirates of the Caribbean . So I was surprised by its extraordinary depth and complexity. Every time I think of “The Skeleton Hand”, something more that can be said about it springs to my mind. Its most astonishing features are its rich symbolism and the reversal of
European and Christian narratives and motifs.
In the first place, the protagonist’s name is very significant. He is called Jacob
Schütz. The text itself offers an explanation of his German surname: “Schütz” means
“shooter” or “marksman”, which not only shows that he is a hunter, but also implies his tendency to set goals and go after them like an arrow or a bullet. His very name foreshadows that this story is about the pursuit of a goal, because the four goals that he sets amount after all to one and the same thing. But it is not only his surname that is significant. His first name, Jacob, is meant to draw an analogy to the biblical Jacob, even if in a reversed way. Another significant thing about Jacob is his origin, along with his linguistic repertoire. He is a German in America, and speaks German and
English while adding Indian and French words to his speech, something that points him out as a larger or extraordinary figure, a mixture, a symbol or the embodiment of all the races (except for the Spanish) that have inhabited North America. In that way, one might even go as far as to say that the myth leaves nationalities aside to show that there is a new identity, the American one. Jacob is America.
Aristotle had very justly said that a man who lives alone is either a god or a beast. Yet not only does Jacob live all alone, but the presence of another pioneer within ten miles of his log cabin makes him seek refuge deeper into the forest (and let us not forget that the forest symbolises the Great Mother Earth and that its darkness

and dangers also make it a symbol of the unconscious and its dangerous aspect)
(Cirlot, 186). In other words, he seeks safety deeper and deeper into himself as well as into Mother Earth’s dark, tomb-like aspect. All these are foreshadowings of death. So which of the two is Jacob: a god or a beast? Although one can easily understand that he is neither, the fact that he lives like a hermit and that he seeks supernatural experiences remains. He is a “fanatic”, a “madman”, which is not surprising as it is well known that heroes and saints verge on madness (Dokou, 52). If however he resented the presence of white men, he did not seem to be bothered by that of Native
Americans. More than that, he used their help to bring back the third beast. Maybe this is an indirect admission that the Native culture was superior to that of the whites or maybe the way the Indians lived close to nature rendered them more suitable for the hero’s spiritual quests.
The fact that Jacob lives alone and everything is made by his own hands and efforts also evokes the notion of self-sufficiency, which has always been a key notion of the American identity. This enhances his status as a purely American symbol.
As far as semiotics go, it is also important that his black horse is called Rabe
(raven). According to the Dictionary of Symbols ravens are linked, due to their black colour, to maternal night, primeval darkness and the beginning of birth. The fact that they can fly links them to the sky, to creative and spiritual power and they are often messengers from the gods (Cirlot, 304-305). So his horse is already a sort of metaphysical medium that will facilitate the hero’s quest. His dog is called Bold: is it a coincidence that his name is the hero’s most salient characteristic?
The story follows the pattern of a typical quest myth: he faces adventures and monsters-demons, he is successful but then commits hubris and he enters the underworld and faces death. He admittedly acquires great spiritual knowledge but he has to pay a price for it: he returns from the underworld as a “babbling dotard”
(Dokou, 60). In the beginning of the story, we learn that Jacob was not an ordinary hunter, but that he was only after the “fabulous” and the “supernatural” (Dokou, 56).
Thus from the very beginning we know not only that he has a quest, but also that it is going to be a spiritual and metaphysical quest, a quest for ultimate knowledge.
Jacob’s quest follows a climax. First he defeated the Great Fanged Death, the gigantic man-eating catamount, and then the Loup-Éclair, that is, a monstrous wolf. The Loup-
Éclair is certainly connected to the northern European mythological notion of wolves as evil creatures, and reminds me of the legend of the Loup-Garou, the werewolf. It is

to be remembered that werewolves stand for the secret irrationality of the lowest parts of human nature, as well as for the possibility that our darkest nature will awaken
(Cirlot, 334). The third beast he beat was the huge but harmless Gormagunt, who’s most striking feature are the two male and three female genitals. Thus, it is perhaps a symbol of sexual desires that have to be suppressed and overcome.
By easily beating creatures-symbols of evil and sexuality (which are perhaps in this context one and the same thing) he is ready and purged, so as to follow and fight the ultimate goal, the Great White Hart and its huge antlers. Traditionally, deers were associated with life, rebirth and rejuvenation, because their antlers bore a great similarity to the branches of the Tree of Life (Cirlot, 225). Here however this tradition is reversed: the Great White Hart is death himself (“c’est la mort”) (Dokou, 59). Many people try to dissuade Jacob from seeking the stag, but he does not listen to them and this is why he commits hubris: he goes after something that is meant for no (living) mortal. The region where he must seek the stag is a dark and huge, seemingly bottomless ledge leading into a forest. The symbols of the Great Womb-Tomb, the forest and the cave-like abyss, become interconnected, and our hero plunges even deeper into his unconscious. The pale moon (another foreshadowing of death) is shining and reveals the Great White Hart and the ghosts of those who dared hunt it.
No matter how hard Jacob rides, he cannot diminish the distance between him and the stag. This recalls Tennyson’s lines:
(Tennyson, 1123)Of course, Jacob cannot shoot the stag; death cannot be killed. At last, Jacob realizes the stag was never meant for him and turns back, but evil spirits try to pull him down into the abyss. His dog, Bold, is lost; so is indeed
Jacob’s boldness and courage. And even though he regains the land of the living, the skeleton hand still clutches his reins; no one can be touched by death and emerge as if nothing had happened. A part of death will always be with him/ her. Jacob never spoke again; his general breakdown was the price he had to pay for his hubris. The supposition that the stag is death is enhanced by the fact that when death called him,
Jacob said: “The stag is calling me” (Dokou, 60).
In the beginning of this paper, I said that European and Christian narratives are here used in a reversed way. This happens when Jacob meets the stag. On the one hand, the stag recalls the stag of Artemis that Hercules tried to hunt down. However, this tradition is reversed, since the stag in this story does not belong to a deity of fertility, but exactly the opposite. Or maybe there is life in death. On the other hand,

his struggle with the all spirits recalls the biblical story of Jacob’s wrestling with the angel. However, the Jacob of this story does not wrestle with angels, but with demons.
All in all, in spite of the characteristics which make Jacob a typically
American hero, his quest after universal values also makes him a symbol of humankind in general and its restlessness, its quest for ultimate knowledge.
Works cited
Cirlot, Juan-Eduardo. Diccionario de Simbolos. Trans. Rigas Kappatos. 1995. Athens:
Konidari, 1995. Print
Dokou, Christina, ed. Web page. An American Legends Reader. Dept. of English
Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
Athens, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Tennyson, Alfred. “Ulysses.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 2. Ed.
Stephen Greenblatt. 8 th
ed. New York: Norton, 2006. 1123-1125. Print.
The Skeleton Hand
By Ioanna Patoula (1563201100205)
The story I chose to write about is “The Skeleton Hand”, a story about a strong man,
Jacob Schutz, who leads the life of a hermit but goes beyond all limits and destroys his own life. The question that was in my mind while reading the myth was how far is one willing to go to pursue his goals, and what limits can they defy to satisfy their
“hunger” for more?
Jacob Schutz is a man that lives as a wild animal in nature, leading a very simple life away from civilization, hunting for his nourishment, and being dressed with the pelts of animals. He almost leads the life of a hermit; he is very pious and prays to God every day. That is not far from the life of a hermit, who has willingly chosen to stay away from temptations of the secular world and the interaction with other people. He is also like the primitive man, living among the wild animals and being one with them and nature.
But this changes when he decides to go after four of the most dreadful animals which no human ever dared to hunt. When he manages to kill the three of them, after months of preparation and hardships, he aims at the ultimate “prize” ; the Great White
Hart, the “Lord of the Mountains”. He will stop at nothing; he is even willing to sell

his soul to the devil in order to have it. After warnings and months of wandering he enters a very dark place where one can fall into the abyss. There the stag manifests itself to him and he is filled with awe and repentance as it is as if he had seen God himself. But the hubris has been committed. When one crosses human limits and try to fight nature or the gods they have to pay a toll. Hubris is the ultimate sin. We have seen it since the ancient times in tragedies and it is always punished, many times with the loss of one’s life.
Jacob here has to pay with his life; but not with his life being given to Death, but with his life taken while he is still alive. He leaves as a rigorous, and robust young man and returns old. Time cannot be reversed; it is something poets and writers have lamented for over the centuries whet lost. And not only did Schutz get old, but he did not live his youth. For many this is a fate worse than death.
I chose this text because it has many themes. One is the obvious theme of blasphemous pursuits, human greed, and the desire for more. It is about the willingness to stop at nothing when it comes to personal satisfaction and fulfillment.
And the morale is that when ambition becomes vanity, it should be punished. But I think that this myth also raises philosophical questions about time, repentance, forgiveness. Schutz says at the end “the stag is calling me”. Is that a call of salvation and release from the miseries of the mortal life? Did Schutz pay and now is freed?
Maybe these are manifestations of the metaphysical anxieties that we all face in life.
The Skeleton Hand
By Angeliki Katevaini (1563201300278)
The legend of The Skeleton Hand provides its reader with interesting insights on several significant ideologies regarding the perception of the a hero, the attitude towards Native Americans in what was then the French colony in the New World, and the Christian belief system. I found that Jacob Schutz, the main character, can be interpreted as symbolic of the idealised typical, Christian, white male, yet his development raises questions as to whether the author takes an approving or a critical stance toward the ideologies that the character represents.
The description of Schutz and his way of life fulfils the requirements of a hero figure. Initially, he is presented as the ‘solitary hunter’¹(59) on a quest to encounter

‘terrifying beasts’ (58) and ‘hostile Indians’, daring to travel ‘into the untamed wilderness’ (59), thus demonstrating the typical hero traits of bravery, mystery and uniqueness. Also, it is mentioned that ‘[Schutz] had no use for a woman and children of his own, who would have been in the way of his one and only passion’ (56). The particular line, apart from implying woman’s role as being an obstacle to man’s greatness, also indicates the character’s devotion to a sole purpose. Furthermore, a hero engages in grandiose, mighty acts that none can surpass such as slaying the Loup
Eclaire, which was ‘supernaturally swift’ (57). By undertaking a beast whose abilities were ‘supernatural’ the character is no longer a mere mortal. Additionally, his diet, his
‘scarred body’ (57), his cabin, his stallion and his sidekick dog, all combine to further enhance the hero in Schulz. His habit of claiming ‘troph[ies]’ (57) may also be considered as the act of a hero or better yet, a champion, nevertheless it can also be seen as a means to certify his claim over the conquered. For instance, ‘the eightlegged skin [that] adorned the hunter’s cabin’ (58) portrays the character’s claim over the monster, that I perceive as an act of egocentrism and self-praise.
However, Schutz’s capture of the Gormagunt could be symbolic of the colonization of the New World. To be specific, during the capture of the ‘beast’, it is described as docile, [letting] itself to be dragged along’, yet according to colonists it is claimed that ‘it has with great difficulty been tamed’ (58). Undoubtedly, the aforementioned contradictory statements cannot be coincidental. My interpretation is that the author is satirical of the colonizers effort to misrepresent facts to assure profit, while taking more credit than deserved in their overall ‘achievements’. Also, I believe the exploitation of the Natives is evident. In the narrative, the Native Americans spent
‘over two months of labor’ after being ‘commanded’ (59) by Schultz in exchange for paint, beads, brandy and mirrors. The use of intimidation by the colonizer and meagre payment can be interpreted as a form of slavery. In addition, I found that the culture of Native Americans was undermined. The Gormagunt may be seen as symbolic of the Indian’s culture. To begin with, it was identified by ‘an old Indian’ who had heard of the beast by his ‘father’ (58). In this sense, the Gormagunt’s long history define it as an integral part of the Indian culture; however for Schutz, the typical, white,
Christian, male imperialist it ‘was nothing’ (58), hence depriving it of its cultural, historical significance. This reduction of almighty beasts into simple rugs or, in the
Gormagunt’s case, into a spectacle for profit indicates their ‘nothing[ness]’ in the colonizer’s eye.

Furthermore, I found that the hunter may also be representative of colonial ideology when it comes to the insatiable appetite to slay or conquer, respectively.
Schutz’s ‘I must have them!’ (58), referring to the countless beasts he has killed or tamed, illustrates his greed. Under this light, the Natives may be seen as the wild and
‘hostile’ beasts that Europe is attempting to civilise. Earlier in the text, Schutz is described as being ‘a fanatic, a madman even’ (57), which clearly states the author’s disapproval of the insatiability of human nature. The writer implies the futility of such an endless urge to possess or to conquer by using several metaphors when Jacob
Schutz seeks to find the Great White Hart. The description of the setting include: ‘the endless rock ledge’, ‘a bottomless abyss’ as well as the line: ‘no matter how fast he rode, he could never come nearer’ (59) demonstrate the infinite strain of an unsettling, overambitious mortal mind, which no matter how heroic, can never possess ‘the
Great’. Moreover, ‘the stag’ is said to ‘belong to no man’ (60), thus rendering it unreachable to mortals, nevertheless the hunter becomes obsessed with its pursuit.
From a Christian point of view, the writer could be referring to the offense mortals make in the face of God when attempting to overcome their limitations and His greatness. Consequently, the text could be condemning greed through the character of
Schutz, illustrated by his deterioration after he visits the Great White Hart, in order to create a moral ending which celebrates Christianity, while at the same time raising questions as to how Christian-oriented imperialism is when the sin of greed overtakes entire communities, not merely fictional characters.
Finally, I find The Skeleton Hand an interesting text as it uses the function of the hero traditionally at first, only to demystify him towards the end, as a means to address political and religious themes. My interpretation of the text consists of the writer’s unfavourable approach to imperialism though the character of Schutz. Also, I think the author creates intriguing metaphors and symbolism to support his Christian belief system, nevertheless the gender roles and stereotypes that are promoted cannot be ignored.
Works Cited
“The Skeleton Hand”.
American Legends Reader . Ed. Christina Dokou. The National
Kapodistrian University of Athens. Accessed: Nov. 28, 2015. PDF.

“The Skeleton Hand”
By Maria Drakouli (1563201300043)
“The Skeleton Hand” is one of the tall tales the Europeans brought with them by migrating to America, which of course, were altered and adjusted to the new
American reality for entertaining and didactic purposes. As a reader, I was left with some unanswered questions and a sense of a fear covered in mystery, as this is what usually happens with humans when the unknown or death is concerned.
First of all, Jacob Schutz appears to be a very strong, rough man, who is able to survive completely on his own and in no need of human company or help. His description gives readers the impression that this man is a perfect version of the human kind: independent, invincible, strongly determined, but also wild like an animal. His determination and goals are similar to the myth of Hercules’ and his12 labors; he wants to achieve the impossible, that which only Gods or God-like creatures are able to accomplish. However, the fulfillment of the first three goals does not seem to make him happy or content. On the contrary, his “hunger” for dangerous endeavors is growing more and more and despite the fact that he gets warned to stop, he never stops until it is too late.
Jacob’s attitude towards life seems to be very arrogant and his defiance of nature and death is what the ancient Greeks would call hubris; he goes too far by overcoming human nature and tragically forgets its limitations, which means that his punishment will be great (nemesis). After all, he is a simple human and as soon as he sees the
White Hart, which represents God, immortality and the divine element, he realizes his great mistake and he acknowledges his position as a mortal. Even the names of his dog and horse contribute to the general meaning of the story; his horse, named Raven, foreshadows the element of death that lies just around the corner, whiles the dog’s name Bold, may indicate that fearlessness can prove to be dangerous.
In addition, I believe that these stories were of great importance to the new
American population, as there was this sense of invincibility after the conquering of the new land and their survival in this strange, unknown world; even if they think highly of themselves as “legendary people”, they should always remember their limitations and not confuse themselves with God, because God in the Christian religion, punishes “sinners”. So, humans are not allowed to pursue the divine or the impossible, such as immortality.

A slightly different reading of this story could suggest that it is a comment on the vanity of the human nature. People, just like Jacob, are always interested in having the impossible, the one they could not possibly have. A feeling of a constant need for more that can apply to every culture in every time of the human history and it could be a subtle comment to the practices of the new Americans: their unsatisfied
“appetite” for more gold, more land, more, more, more…
Moreover, Jacob is very passionate about his four goals, until he accomplishes them; as soon as he explored, killed or captured his “targets”, he lost all interest in them. This could be a comment for discouraging young people to spend their lives seeking the legendary or the mythical, as revelations are not always what they expect.
In my humble opinion, the essence of the story is to teach people that what they should most value is not success, money or achieving the impossible, but valuing the most important thing they will ever have: life and the limited time they have on this planet. After all, no one will ever be able to escape death or gain anything more than simply living.
To conclude, Jacob is a symbol for the ambitious, fearless and restless human that overestimates himself and defies his mortality. God eventually punishes him and this makes him a character, which should not be imitated by the listeners of this story.
The Skeleton Hand, A Loup-Garou, or a Windigo, or Maybe a Carcajou, The
Windigo and He Ate All the Democrats of Hinsdale County
By Foteini Paila (1563201100185)
The stories of Jacob Schutz, Baptiste and Alfred Packer share a common theme: excess. “The Skeleton Hand”, “A Loup-Garou, or a Windigo, or Maybe a
Carcajou” and “He Ate All the Democrats of Hinsdale County”, reinforced by the short piece titled “The Windigo”, preach about the sin of “too much” and its consequences.
Jacob in “The Skeleton Hand” and Baptiste in “A Loup-Garou, or a Windigo, or Maybe a Carcajou” are described as men who survive on what they can find around them, by gathering and by hunting, and their lust for material goods doesn’t appear to be great or to even be there at all—e.g. they don’t seem to be after many or nice clothes, or a lot of money and an expensive and luxurious way of life (unlike Alfred

Packer in “He Ate All the Democrats of Hinsdale County,” who had decided to become rich right then and there, come hell or high water). However, both Jacob and
Baptiste, much like the very obvious case of Packer, committed a sin of excess by pursuing relentlessly more and more of what they were interested in.
To be more specific, Jacob Schutz was obsessed with the hunting of creatures that belong in myths (according to our reality, because they seemed to be real alright in the reality of Jacob Shutz’s saga). So, Jacob, to use telling terms from the text itself, “lusted after” (57) game that was “fabulous and supernatural” (56). Lust is a sin of excess. “Fabulous,” when defined, talks not only of the thing it describes as belonging to myth, to fables, but speaks also of something extreme (“extremely pleasing” tells us the American Heritage Dictionary). “Supernatural” enjoys an analogous use: it’s about something “super”, something that goes beyond the natural, and in many cases, it’s used metaphorically to describe something that exists in such excess, it couldn’t possibly be of this world—e.g. “supernatural beauty”. So, we see
Jacob hunting creature after creature, and he keeps succeeding, but it’s not enough for him. He keeps a list of things he wants to go after, and each creature he wants more than the one before (although there’s a bit of disappointment with the Gormagunt there). Finally, he reaches the last item on his list, the game he wants most—the one he truly has his heart set on, one might say. So he sets out to find it, and this hunt proves to be more taxing than the ones before, he cannot even find the so-called Great
White Hart, and no one is willing to help him. During his search, he sees signs that are bad omens and people tell him that he should stop his pursuit, but he ignores it all in favor of getting what he wants. In the end, he does find the Great White Hart, but he realizes what everyone’s been telling him: that this creature is not for him. This creature belongs only to God. Jacob sets off for home, but on his way back, on that dangerous ledge, he is attacked. Something tries to drag him and his animals down into the abyss that stretches below to one side of him. Jacob loses his dog, but manages to save his horse and himself at the last moment. He rides to safe ground, and come morning light, he sees a skeleton hand gripping tightly the reins of his horse. That scares him straight (if the entire experience that had come before that hadn’t), and Jacob returns home; however, though only a year has passed, he is no longer the “vigorous forty-year-old man” that he had been before setting out on that last journey of his (60). Rather, he is now a husk of a man.

Excess in Baptiste’s story exists in the aptly referred to as “orgy” (61) that he and his friends indulged in. Now, one might argue, that since this happened only about once a year, it was reasonable to allow things to get out of control, to allow themselves to have too much fun. Certainly, why not? But excess is excess and sin is sin, and the three-day-long “orgy of drinking, fighting, gambling, and wenching” is sin s plural and sins in excess . It’s almost like they were checking items off of a list whose title read “how to ensure a one-way ticket to hell” or “how to make a priest’s job 100% harder” (I may be indulging in a little bit of excess myself here, but it’s only a little bit, and it gets my point across, so there).
Last, Alfred Packer’s case is, as I said before, obvious . He wants gold, and he wants it immediately. He disregards all warnings, disrespecting the people (“We ain’t a bunch of goddamn red savages” (64)) that tried to save his life and the lives of his five companions, and in the end, not only does he not find any gold, but he ends up spending a few weeks in a snowy hell, where he and his companions resort to eating each in order to stay alive. So, Alfred Packer and company might not have been red savages, but they were definitely white ones.
I mentioned in the prologue that the short text titled “The Windigo” reinforces the point these stories are trying to make. There is a contrast in these tales between the too much and the too little that serves to carry the didactic message across in a brutal and thus more memorable manner. The constant wanting and pursuing of more and more is thrown into sharp contrast with the final inability to ever achieve satiation, and/or the loss of what one already has. Jacob Schutz loses himself after that last hunt.
He withers, he’s left a ghost of the man he once was, both physically and mentally.
And what about that great image of the skeleton hand? Jacob crossed that ledge in pursuit of more, and not only did he not get it, but his life was threatened by a physical manifestation of the less . What if that skeleton the hand belonged to was the first man to disregard all warnings and go after the Great White Hart? And now, he’s cursed to live on in the barest form of his body and punish others for their sin of lust, of greed. Baptiste, according to one of his companions, turned into a wendigo, and
Alfred Packer’s story is often told as a wendigo origin story. The physical appearance of a wendigo, aside from the beastly aspects of the fangs and the claws, and the terrifying size, has one more striking characteristic: a definitive look of emaciation. It embodies fully and truly the idea that the people who are cursed to be these creatures have constantly hungered and vied for so much more and more that they’ve reached a

state where they take that more, destroying other lives in the process, but they are never satisfied. A wendigo can eat a hundred people in a matter of days, yet not for a moment will it look anything but completely and thoroughly starved.
I’ve written some, and then some more (excess, excess, excess ), but I want to add just one other thing: a perceived connection to the ancient Greek notion of
“hubris”. Hubris also has to do with the idea of too much , of extreme and of excessive .
It is mainly linked to pride, but not exclusively. And, regardless, we do see Jacob
Schutz shaking off people’s warnings, thinking himself capable of anything. (He tells the preacher of his plan to go after the Great White Hart. “No, no, Jacob, […] do not wallow in sinful pride,” replies the preacher (59).) Baptiste indulges in a contest when he’s challenged to see who can eat more meat faster. Packer, too, disregards all warnings, thinking himself above the “red savages” and their superstitions, but also above nature, because he thought himself able to withstand whatever weather was to come his way. And as in the case of “hubris,” where the gods were the ones angered and the ones that meted out punishment, so it seems to happen here. And all men, in one way or another, seemed to turn to God for a measure of salvation, redemption, or relief. Jacob Schutz asked God to have mercy on him (60). Baptiste’s companions used a cross, a Bible and incantations to send the Loup-Garou away and return
Baptiste’s lower half to a human form again (63). Alfred Packer and his last companion, Bell, called to God as their witness when they swore to die of starvation rather than kill and eat the other. And Packer, in his latter years, took a vow of silence, which is a highly religious practice. Last, but not least, when we read “The
Windigo”, we read of a man having to go to great lengths, troubles and pains to defeat a wendigo ( we read here that through these sufferings, man can be saved—a religious belief through and through), and, furthermore, the rifle used in the kill needs to have been made by a “pious man”, the bullet needs to have the sign of cross edged into it, and so on and so forth (64).
It’s been a long three pages since I started this journal. I very much liked this theme of excess and, to my understanding, hubris. The message here, I guess, is to have measure. It’s not bad to want more things than are absolutely necessary to you.
Everyone needs that something more if you’re going to live, and not just survive, although this whole mindset can be attributed to consumerism, which is considered by all an affliction, so… Maybe we should just learn to avoid Alfred Packer’s “We aim

to git rich!” (64) when all signs point to it turning into a case of “get rich or die tryin’”
(thank you, 50 Cent).
Works Cited
“The Skeleton Hand.” American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou. Athens: UoA,
2007. 56-60. PDF file.
“A Loup-Garou, or a Windigo, or Maybe a Carcajou.” American Legends Reader.
Ed.
Christina Dokou. Athens: UoA, 2007. 60-63. PDF file.
“The Windigo.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou. Athens: UoA, 2007.
63-64. PDF file.
“He Ate All the Democrats of Hinsdale County.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed.
Christina Dokou. Athens: UoA, 2007. 64-66. PDF file.
“Fabulous.” American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
(2011). Retrieved October http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fabulous.
30 2015 from
The Jersey/Leeds Devil
By Anastasia Avastagou (1563201300001)
I chose to write about the legend of the Jersey/Leeds Devil because when I first read it, it didn’t really fascinate me. Weird, huh? To be honest, the legend seemed quite simple and I didn’t really find anything that struck me as odd or interesting in this story. I mean, sure, all the legends were concerned with various kinds of monsters, but that’s it. So I just dismissed it and continued on with the rest of the assigned legends.
That is until I came back and read it again and I saw the light.
I don’t know exactly why I couldn’t observe the things I did when I read the story the second time; maybe it was due to being exhausted or wanting to get things done quickly, so I could move further down my endless list of projects and assignments for this semester, or maybe it was due to mere laziness. In any case, I’m glad I went back and gave it a second chance because I found that although the story is about the Jersey Devil, this is not the only monster lurking in the shadows of this story, in my opinion at least. To be more specific, I found that the motif of women as the source of evil is used once again. In the legend, we learn the story of a woman

who did not really want to have another child (she already had ten or twelve! Can you blame her?). However, she wished that, in case she did bear another child, her child would be a devil. I am not really sure why she would do that; maybe she hoped that after giving birth to a devil, society would finally stop expecting her to have any more children. Needless to say, she got her wish alright. She gave birth to a baby, who then transformed into a monster that went on to wreak havoc for many years. But it is not only the child that is turned into a monster. The mother herself is depicted as a monstrosity. She is punished for not wanting any more children by bearing a devil and she is presented not only as a creator of life, but also an unpredictable, destructive force that is the source of woe inflicted upon the community. Let’s not forget that it is her womb, after all, that gives birth to this mysterious, disastrous creature (recurrent motif of women’s genitalia as being the source of life, knowledge, mystery, great power, but also danger and evil). Additionally, I should probably mention that the woman is also deemed to be a witch. God, women can never really catch a break!
As for the child devil itself, what I found really interesting was that the mischiefs it causes are mainly focused on nature. For example, in the legend it is said that “to sour the milk, to dry the cows, to sear the corn were its usual errands” and the devil is also described as killing the fish and eating sheep and other animals.
Furthermore, when the monster was gone, “the herds and henneries were not molested in all that time”. As far as I am concerned, all the nature-related disasters highlight once again the great importance early Americans attributed to Mother Nature, which they considered as divine and all-powerful. However, I believe that having the Devil be the culprit for all these disasters might have been a way for settlers to explain and make sense of the failure of their crops or the death of their cattle, showcasing the aetiological aspect of the legend.
Moreover, apart from the entertainment side of the story, there is also a didactic purpose behind it, as is usually the case with most legends. Anyone reading it can clearly hear the warning: be careful what you wish for because you just might get it (and no, just to be clear, I am not quoting The Pussycat Dolls). People are thus advised to make decisions and wishes after having taken every possible outcome into account, because otherwise these wishes might come back to bite them.
Last but not least, I would like to draw on the parallels I discovered between the clergyman, who “with candle, book and bell” managed to ban the Jersey Devil for numerous years, and the Pilgrims. Because when you think about it, weren’t the

Pilgrims the unwanted child? The ones that left from Europe? Just like the clergyman rushed to the rescue of the Leeds society and saved them from the devil through
God’s help, the Pilgrims traveled to a pure, uncharted and probably crawling with monsters and danger land to do God’s work and build a model society for the rest of the world. Therefore, the Pilgrims come off as the saviors and heroes that have to face the monsters in this strange, new land. But the question is, “Who is really the monster?” It is a fact that the Pilgrims did not go to America bearing gifts; they bore guns and tortured, butchered and eventually eradicated Native Americans, exploited and destroyed their land, crops and animals, all of which are not considered saving in my book.
In conclusion, this story turned out to be an eye-opener, after all. Monsters are everywhere and appearances can be deceiving. Even those that seem the most innocent, pure and kind can very easily turn out to be the devils. The point is, are we truly awake when this happens or do we just live with it under our noses because we are too blind to see the truth?
Works Cited
“The Jersey/Leeds Devil.”
An American Legends Reader . Ed. Christina Dokou.
Athens: UoA, 2007. PDF Format. Np.
“Johnny Appleseed”
By Vladimir Tudakov (1563201300219)
While reading about Johnny Appleseed, I kept struggling to figure out the reason why his story and, more importantly, the name “Johnny Appleseed” felt so familiar to me.
I had a vague memory of an old Disney cartoon and I later discovered that “The
Legend of Johnny Appleseed” is actually a segment from a 1948 Disney feature, called Melody Time. I also remembered my previous encounter with the name when I realized that Apple Inc., the world's largest information technology company, has been using it to advertise the iPhone and other devices in their demo keynote presentations and ads.
Some of the most prominent elements which are present in every variation of
Johnny Appleseed’s story I have read are nature, religion and the apple. Johnny is

described as a devout American martyr, whose suffering has turned his life into a mission of planting apple seeds. Throughout various works of folklore, this particular act is presented as a symbolically loaded religious gesture, where the wild american nature has the role of the receptor. The earth receives the seeds and subsequently turns his sowing into benefit for others. Through this process, man and nature acquire a special kind of relationship that almost brings procreation with sexual intercourse to our minds. If we consider the frequent use of the apple as a symbol of love, desire and sexuality, this interpretation doesn't seem very far-fetched.
But what is the significance of this sowing-reaping cycle? We may suppose that it is something that positively affected Westward expansion. By planting trees with edible fruits, which were also used to produce cider, Johnny encouraged communities to expand the boundaries our their settlements. It is an act of taming the wild and rendering it hospitable for the settlers. Jonny Appleseed, in that sense, was a religiously driven benefactor of the Westward expansion and an important figure in the “Manifest Destiny” belief.
Johnny Appleseed, a folk hero that still survives in the American collective memory, is the quintessential American pioneer. It makes sense that Disney paid tribute to this figure during a period, when the effects of WWII were still present on the American public morale. It also makes sense that a company such as Apple Inc., wants to associate itself with an American pioneer hero.
Johnny Appleseed: a portrait of an ambiguous western value system
By Sofia Chaita (1563201300311)
Reading about Johnny Appleseed I found his value system relevant to modern day issues concerning sustainable development. The relevance of the story today in the light of global issues such as climate change, food supply and its connection to over population and in turn migration highlight its complexity- the Johnny Appleseed story is more complex than what initially meets the eye. This is the case with many sustainable development issues, it is what intrigued me and informed my choice to write about it.
Initially Johnny’s own way of life and choices made appear exemplary of the change he preaches of in his “news right fresh from heaven”. He protects all forms

of life. Doesn’t eat meat. He protects biodiversity resisting the grafting of trees. He lives without waste. Wears reusable, recycled clothes. Respects all creatures, however small, and goes to great lengths so as not to disturb nature as in the instance of putting out the fire so as not to burn the insects attracted to it. He endures hardships and extends solidarity to others in need donating apple trees, animals, even his second hand shoes. He ‘transports’ his seed ecologically, mostly in bags which he carries, barefoot. He voluntarily ‘plants’ his apple trees, whole orchards, and then gives them away. Apples are a versatile source of food easily transportable, easily eaten. A single apple can supply the seeds for a number of apple trees which in turn can supply enough food for all, and yet more seeds for more apple trees thereby ensuring sustainable development.
The questions which come to mind are whether the ‘planting’ refers to apple trees alone or is it the ‘planting’ of people and overpopulation; the fact that the trees are planted and left illustrates an irresponsibility towards life, something which correlates with overpopulation. Is the object of the task of spreading apple trees synonymous with Christianity and sustainability or is it an example of exploitation and profit? There is an excess in the planting which in my mind conjures the image of overpopulation and sexual connotations along with profit. The apple itself has symbolic meaning which alludes to the possibility of further referencing other than food. It was an apple that Eve consumed in the garden of Eden. A symbol for knowledge, immortality, temptation, the fall of man and sin, all of which correlates to the notion that there is a deeper, darker side than the cheery, saintly, naive portrait of Johnny Appleseed; the portrait of John Chapman, the real life nursery man and entrepreneur.
Apple trees are not indigenous species in America. In his planting of apple orchards in such excess there appears to be an appropriation, a colonization of the land as he migrates west. This brings to question whether biodiversity is in fact protected or whether it is actually being exposed, tamed and ‘colonized’ by non- native American foreign elements. The imported apple trees denote imported habits which may allude to drinking habits and ownership habits, exploitation of those who succumb to these habits and as such, raises issues revolving around the object of the tree planting. Is it concern for food supply of or drink or land acquisition/real estate?”
One questions whether Appleseed’s infinitely cheery apple picking are telltale signs that he himself is a victim of such a habit, it seems possible that correlations can be

drawn between his compulsive tree planting and this habit.This is in line with the fact that his conviction to go West and plant the apple orchards was instigated by a dream like a vision of an angel figure who prompted this action and assigned meaning to his action while providing courage and strength to face any challenges that may appear along the way, whether they be wild animals or Native Americans.This higher power which he succumbs to brings forth the issue that it is something other than himself who is responsible for the outcome of his action, and in this sense he has no responsibility for it.
Finally one wonders if the Johnny Appleseed figure has been idealized to acquire ‘iconic’ status as a result of human need to construct an image of a man living harmoniously and at one with nature. A need which today appears to be more necessary than ever, if one considers the developments in current affairs.
Bibliography
Dokou, Christina, ed. Web page. An American Legends Reader. Dept. of English
Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
Athens, n.d. Web.27.11 2015.
Johnny Appleseed
By Nikolaos Gorlas (1563201400275)
Having to adjust to this new wild, dangerous and unknown environment that was the American land, colonizers had to find ways to transform this land into their new habitat. Consequently, they had to reform their beliefs in a way that would fit in this vast and unfamiliar place. After giving so much effort into fighting the natives, here comes the time when they need to redefine their identities as part of this land.
Johnny Appleseed, a Jesus-like figure, works as the agent of this difficult mission where new seeds needed to be planted in order to find the peace and stability that will lead to a formation of a new cultural identity, the redefinition of the
American. Therefore, Religion also had to be adjusted in order to correspond to this new land. Johnny Appleseed is the one that seems to have as his main goal the localization of Christianity in a way that would make Jesus more American.

Firstly, the description of the land as a vast territory full of ferocious beasts, venomous reptiles and immense forest trees, gives the impression of a place where everything needed to be tamed. However, Johnny Appleseed is not scared of this land.
Not only does he try to permeate this belief into his people's conscience, but he also seems to acquire characteristics that resemble the beliefs of the Natives. He shows respect towards the land, he protects the animals and he advocates the importance of reconnecting with Nature. His predilection for barefoot walking suggests that need to feel always connected with the land, something that is closely associated with the
Indians.
Secondly, everyone seems to adore him, even the Indians: was this a manifestation of the colonizers' wishful thinking that they can be accepted, without any reluctance, by the natives, as cohabitants, while at the same time acknowledging their superiority over and exploitation of them? As much as we feel that Johnny
Appleseed desperately tends to be presented as the peacemaker that will help in the coexistence of both groups, we understand from different points in the narration that
"his loyalty to the white man" was never lost. Therefore, his friendly interaction with the Natives, and the adoption of their cultural respect towards Nature, works as a smokescreen concealing his true intention which is the Native's conversion to their beliefs and religion. His warnings of Indian attacks clearly denote his preference towards the Christians. His several pieces of his book of religion, act also as "seeds" that are spread and planted throughout the land making him a medium between God and human, a God that through his words starts forming American characteristics.
Finally, while reading the story, I had this strong feeling of an era in the
American history, just in the beginning of the necessity of the formation of an
American identity. Johnny Appleseed seems like the precedent of Walt Whitman, a representative of the understanding that life as they knew it won't thrive in this new land, unless it transforms, a figure that planted the seeds of an "apple tree" that is called American identity.
Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie stories
By Foteini Paila (1563201100185)

There were quite a few things of interest about this week’s assigned readings on Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, whether one studies each personage apart from the other two, or works comparatively.
I think one of the things that stands out is the sharp contrast between the lifestyle of Johnny Appleseed and the lifestyles of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.
While the last two undoubtedly have many differences, too, I think they also share a similar overall arc. Johnny Appleseed lived a frugal life. He did not indulge in extravagance, most times he refused to possess even a pair of shoes, which would be the barest necessity to someone like us, if we decided today to undertake the same trips Johnny had, in those same areas and conditions. But, of course, this frugality is more of a direct consequence of the thing that characterizes Johnny’s life the most: benevolence. Johnny consumed—whether that means eating, wearing or owning— only what he needed in order to keep going and doing the good work he had devoted his life to: growing apple trees to help feed the people, a work that spread over a hundred thousand square miles by the time of his death (105). But that’s not all he did; because of the nature of the mission on which he had started himself, he was able to help people by alerting them to imminent attacks by the Indians. And wherever he went, animals that were to be put to death, due to sickness or disability, would be spared and saved, because he would pay to have them looked after till they either recovered (at which point he would make sure they ended up in good hands to be put to work), or until springtime, when he could pick them up and take them to fields to let them live out the rest of their lives.
Of course, Johnny’s good character and benevolence manifested themselves in more ways, like his kindness towards people and children, and to animals as well, be it bears or insects, refusing to kill them for any reason, and even denying himself the comfort of the necessity that, one could argue, is fire, so as not to disturb a bear and her cubs or allow more mosquitos to burn in the flames that attracted them (104). So, all of this comes now into a very sharp contrast with the lives that Davy Crockett and
Jim Bowie lived. Crockett and Bowie indulged in extravagance whenever and wherever they could afford to, and even when and where they couldn’t
. Everything that they did, they would do in extremes: drinking, gambling, sex, and even murder.
They could talk aka manipulate their way into things, or out of things, and if words or sneaky doings were not effective, they would not hesitate to let their weapons do the talking.

One of the things that I sort of perversely enjoyed—and I say perversely because of the manner of politicians we’ve had to endure since we can probably remember ourselves as a political species—were the three stories revolving around
Davy Crockett and his political career. Crockett not only used copious amounts of alcohol to gain votes by buying drinks repeatedly for an entire crowd, but he didn’t even actually buy the drinks; he instead cheated the bar owner out of them through trickery, because of course he was broke due to his reckless and way too carefree lifestyle—a lifestyle that should forbid someone to hold office. (34-35) And as if that weren’t enough, when accused of drinking, gambling, and adultery, his response was not an apology, a withdrawal of his candidacy, or a self-enforced removal from the position he held; instead, he said that it’s not drinking if he does not end up drunk, it’s not gambling if he makes good on his debt, and it’s not adultery if the woman joining his bed is willing, regardless of her marital status (34). And on top of all that, in the short text that comes before the two previous stories, he also cautions people not to fall for the friendly demeanour and smile of his opponent, and give him their votes without his truly deserving them (34). Is this an American legend? Is this political satire? Is it both? My mind is reeling a bit.
A final thing I would also like to draw attention to is the way the stories of
Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie are written. As I was reading the texts, I noticed a distinct praise awarded to Johnny for his way of living, for his goodness and charity, and why not? But in the cases of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, there also seems to occur a tipping of the hat to them for their craftiness, their skill in manipulation that has repeatedly gained them things they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, and I think that one could definitely go as far as noting a glorification of violence and murder. I mean, those were some enthusiastic descriptions of their feats, and their trophies from said feats, and their deaths, talking of slashing and cutting and maiming—and “knife” or “blade” are good enough terms to use when referring to, you know… a knife or a blade. But man-slicer? Widow-maker (36)?
To conclude this journal, I also need to mention that I very much liked how the text on Jim Bowie kept reminding the reader every ten or so lines, in what seemed to me as an enjoyably obnoxious and didactic manner, that what we’re reading needs to be taken with less a grain, more a sack of salt—it’s rumours, it’s hearsay, it’s legend. And it goes very nicely, I think, with the nature of politics that was previously commented upon—that you can never be certain as a voter about the people asking

for your vote and support; because you’re British, and you wake up one rainy day and hear or read about your Prime Minister, that you or at least the majority of your fellow
Britons have supported, and how, in his college years, he had allegedly—because true or not, you just don’t know—participated into an initiation into some secret club that involved the practice of a form of bestiality. Just Google “David Cameron and pig”, or simply “Piggate”, and read up. In other words, go figure .
Works Cited
“Johnny Appleseed: A Pioneer Hero.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina
Dokou. Athens: UoA, 2007. 100-105. PDF file
“The Irrepressible Backwoodsman and Original Humorist.”
American Legends
Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou. Athens: UoA, 2007. 32-33. PDF file
“Grinning the Bark off a Tree.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou.
Athens: UoA, 2007. 34. PDF file
“Davy Crockett on the Stump.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou.
Athens: UoA, 2007. 34. PDF file
“The Drinks Are on Me, Gentlemen.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina
Dokou. Athens: UoA, 2007. 34-35. PDF file
“Jim Bowie and His Big Knife.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou.
Athens: UoA, 2007. 35-38. PDF file
John Henry, Casey Jones and Joe Magarac: Working-class Heroes
By Georgia Simakou (1563201300198)
Despite some surface similarities between these stories and the early tall tales of the
American settlers, all three of them left me a bitter taste, not because the protagonists of all three tales die, but rather because of what they represent, and what they die for.
The most significant element about them is that they represent two different voices and identities that inevitably merge into one .On the one side, each one stands for a
“minority”, or rather for an ethnic group that lives beside the dominant American
Anglo-Saxon population. At the same time, they stand for the working class and its plight.

To begin with, John Henry is an Afro-American version of Paul Banyan. His prodigious hunger, his almost miraculous birth and titanic strength are strikingly similar to the Paul Banyan stories. It is mentioned that to Afro-Americans he incarnates the ideal of brute strength, as well as the tragedy of man vs. machine (73).
Indeed, his strength is nothing but a desperate effort to defend the precarious position of so many workers against the invasion of machines, by proving that men can be as efficient as machines. That is, John Henry consciously objectifies himself; he makes a machine out of himself. This is enough to show how the capitalistic production system ignores human beings, seeing them as machines or turning them into such.
But, of course, John Henry is not a machine and the result of his sacrifice is that he dies from a bursted blood vessel in his head (75).
Casey Jones is a locomotive engineer that manages to give an individual touch to his work, through his particular method of blowing a whistle and his skill. He likes his job and dies in the line of duty (72-81).
Joe Magarac is a Slav worker in mills that make steel. Obviously objecting to the boss’ decision to pull down the old mills to make new and more profitable ones, he sacrifices himself by letting himself melt along with the steel, so that perfect steel be produced. Upon reading this, I could not help remembering the Greek tradition about the building of the bridge of Arta, according to which the master builder had to build his wife alive into the bridge, so that it would stop falling. Human sacrifice and objectification seems to be perceived by all civilisations as an intrinsic part of
“progress”. At the same time, he reminds me of Sinopoulos’ poem “the Burning
Man”, about a man who set fire to himself as a form of protest. Again, like John
Henry, Joe Magarac objectifies himself, by willingly turning himself into steel (82).
Upon the whole, these stories show that working-class people cannot identify with the impossible strongmen of the past; they need to create their own heroes and they do so by adapting American material into their own particular reality. However, these heroes are not subversive: they denounce capitalism and the way it works, but they don’t actively rebel. Instead, they prefer to be martyrs. Then, they have another side: they seem to love their work, they are proud it. So, they will sacrifice themselves rather that lose it or let themselves be overrun by “progress”. It is curious that the heroes needed are martyrs rather than revolutionaries. They seem to imply that resistance is futile or undesirable, whereas sacrifice to the system is preferable. At the

same time, they personify the daily sacrifice of so many people, who although they might not actually die in such spectacular ways, are trampled by society.
Last but not least, these stories are particularly characteristic of American identity. Namely, they are the stories of three ethnic groups, which are not the culturally or politically dominant groups in the United States: the Afro-Americans, the
Irish and the Slavs respectively. All three groups shape legends and folklore using distinctly American material and models. Their legends manage to stand side by side with those of the dominant Anglo-Saxons in such a way that they mingle and are no longer distinguished as belonging to different ethnicities. However, this does not take place only at the level of legends. This depicts and embodies the essence of what
America is: a place where innumerable ethnicities and cultures are subsumed into one, to create a new, separate and distinct American identity.
John Henry
By Vladimir Tudakov (1563201300219)
John Henry, the steel-driving man, is an African-American folk hero, surrounded by a legend which heavily addresses the theme of man vs technology . He carries the characteristics of a traditional hero who struggles against insurmountable odds and challenges the seemingly superior, showing immense physical strength and endurance. By contextualizing and interpreting the nature of Henry’s challenge, I will briefly analyse certain very interesting elements that his mythical legacy contains.
Throughout the course of history, technological advancements of various kinds have positioned humans against their own achievements, generating a conflict that, till this day continues to inform a great number of cultural phenomena. On a more basic level, machines threaten to replace human physical labour and that is exactly the instance of rivalry that lies in the center of John Henry’s mythos. Henry challenged a steam drill to a contest, because it threatened to surpass his prowess as a steel-driver.
But with the increasing complexity of tasks, technologicalization has moved this conflict to a higher, more intricate level, trespassing into the territory of consciousness and intelligence . Artificial intelligence is continuously racing forward and the transhumanist idea is steadily becoming a reality. It is probable that just as

John Henry defended his role as a working man in a world of labourers, humans may soon have to defend their role as thinking individuals, whose intelligence might no longer be considered adequate.
I believe it is important to make this distinction between man vs artificial strength and man vs artificial intelligence in order to understand John Henry’s position in the conflict as a black man. One can easily observe that John Henry acquires a legendary status that contains almost religious dimensions; he reaches a kind of apotheosis that is very uncommon for non-white folklore figures. But the truth is that his mythical status derives from his physical strength and abilities, not his intelligence nor his wit. He didn’t outsmart a machine for example, or even a white man. He became a hero but still remained within the limitations of his social position, as well as those of his own mortality. He defended his role as a labourer, not as a politically active equal individual for instance, because that was all that defined his existence.
Reflections on John Henry’s legend
By Maria S. Blana (1563201400284)
“Grit, sweat and love”: now this may sound as a Sakis Rouvas’ quote, yet it is a John Henry tribute song verse, the song going like this: “I broke my chains / you can’t stop this train / I’m running home / grit, sweat n’ love” (Whitestone Motion
Pictures). Reading the story of John Henry, or, some tall tales inspired by him, various thoughts came to me that I will try to put in words herein.
To begin with, one could discuss the symbol John Henry made of the afro-
American strongman, the muscular and tireless labor worker who never rests or quits; thinking of this, I couldn’t help wonder how free John Henry is different than an enslaved John Henry, who, as a slave, would also have to work all day long, ceaselessly and tirelessly, till his death. But, then again, forging a hero, an American hero, out of a free black man who is willing to work non-stop, even though he is not forced to, would of course make an example for other men (black or white) to follow and be productive, boosting their performance along with their ego, perhaps. Some narratives tell us that John Henry wished to join the railroad workers to obtain his own piece of land as a payment, others that his prize on the day of his famous race

against the steam-drill was one of 100 bucks. But regardless of a pragmatic motive,
John Henry’s almost …mechanical determination was one of a kind. He was, in a sense, a pioneer, but, one of progress, not land-expansion: in the way Johnny
Appleseed plants apple-trees, John Henry plants steel nails in the earth, that, one by one, pave the way towards industrial progress and profit, on the brink of a new era.
This is the peak of the industrial era and, like Paul Bunyan, John has at some point to face the mechanical monstrosity of a machine that threatens to surpass his capacity. Unlike Paul, though, John Henry beats the machine, becoming a labormovement hero, a living proof of how humanness is indispensable for progress, and, consequently, of how human labor power cannot simply be pushed aside and disregarded or substituted by machines. This is a position by which I abide and I must say I find it most up to date: today, on the dawn of the robotic era, human abilities and intelligence are more than ever questioned and challenged by new technological developments, and labor rights are more than ever endangered and disregarded.
Machines and robots are here and beat out human workers more and more: rather than
Bartleby the scrivener there’s a photocopy machine in a dim office corner; rather than a kiosk retail assistant, there’s an automatic sales machine; in the place of the factory worker, there’s another one of those mechanic devices that produce on a rate that no human worker could ever produce (of course this kind of analysis refers only to that civilized part of the world where labor rights have been fought for, won, secured, written down into laws and collective agreements, only to be gradually ripped apart again today – I cannot refer to that part of the world where human labor, such as child labor, for example, is still an alternative much cheaper than equipping industries with machines). It comes naturally, then, that John Henry became a symbol for the labor movement, as the man who won the race against a machine… but, did he, really, win?
Reading about how other drill workers struggled to follow his example and strived to surpass him, even though they knew his “athlos” lead to his death, made me reflect on how the battle of man vs machine, became, in the years to follow, a battle of man vs man. As aforementioned, John Henry’s legend was used to boost productivity and performativity. Paul Bunyan, an earlier hero, doesn’t care that much so as to die for the cause of beating a machine; instead, he accepts his loss and moves to Alaska with his companion, Babe, enjoying a playful retirement. By the time of John Henry, the bar has risen: one must outreach one’s self, offer their body and mind completely to the cause of progress - only then will he be considered a hero. Thinking about how

the railroad companies were of the first major capital and fund-based industries, we have here, the very first indication of the race-like antagonistic frenzy workers and employees are ever since confronted with up until today, within the mechanisms through which capitalism and multinational companies run. Man has to transform into a machine, in the way John Henry transcended himself into beating the machine, he became a man of steel. He died of course, being the first species to confront such a task. The generations to follow, were required to evolve in this direction. If we think of more recent, fictional heroes such as Superman, Ironman, the Terminator,
Robocop, Transformers, etc, we can deduct that the main characteristic of these heroes, is that they are genetically meddled-with, in order for them to acquire mechanical strength and powers. John’s battle may look like a David vs Goliath battle, but what his tale also tells us is that to win, one must give something up (he gave his life, his humanness, to turn into an immortal legend, a “man of steel”) and acquire something more, something new; something, that might resemble the one standing against us.
WORKS CITED
Whitestone Motion Pictures, “John Henry and the railroad – The true tall tale” , written and directed by Brandon McCormick, music by Nickolas Kirk. Online video clip. YouTube, 6 March 2014. Web. 27 November 2015. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3LVFdWBHVM.
Dokou, Christina, ed. Web page. An American Legends Reader. Dept. of English
Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
Athens, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2015, p. 35-40.
The Labours of Pecos Bill
By Georgia Simakou (1563201300198)
There is one word which, I think, sums up well the saga of Pecos Bill: it is preposterous. Hercules would have blushed to find that all his labours were child’s play for Pecos Bill. What is really incredible, though, is the way in which Americans managed to subsume European, Native American, and early and later American legends and symbols into one single figure. It is this aspect of Pecos Bill that I would like to point out in this journal. It is hardly surprising that such a demigod should be

the father and creator of the greatest of all American legends, that is, of the cowboys and the Wild West. At the same time, his machismo has gender as well as politicalideological implications.
Pecos Bill “wasn’t a man of flesh and blood; he was an idea, a vision, a cowboy demigod” (117). It is thus fitting that he should be compared to Hercules. He wrestles with a rattlesnake when he is just a newborn baby, and beats and rides a lion
(119, 121). It is perhaps more significant that he was rescued and raised for several years by coyotes. This could have been influenced by European traditions as well, both by Rudyard Kipling’s
The Jungle Book, and by the real story of the wild boy of
Aveyron. There is, however, a Native American influence as well, since it is probable that the pack of coyotes is meant to stand for the Trickster tradition of Native
Americans. It will be remembered that the Tricksters were often portrayed as coyotes.
Thus, the old, wise coyote called Methuselah, by taking care of little Bill, conveys to him more supernatural qualities than he was graced with upon his birth. From one point of view, Pecos Bill manages to live as a natural man, in an age when more and more people lived in organized settlements or big cities. The allusion to the Trickster is very important, inasmuch as it establishes him as a demigod, and also shows that he inherits Native American traditions and wisdom. He even comes to be the champion of the coyote pack, the best Trickster of all. Moreover, he is a terraformer (125). He learns to be astute, cunning and resourceful like a Trickster, though, like the good
American that he is, he will use this knowledge to exterminate Native Americans, a point which is highly ironic (118, 125).
However, the Trickster tradition is not the only Native American legend that
Pecos Bill has subsumed. His saga reminds me of the Ojibwa Corn Hero. In the same way that the Ojibwa Corn Hero teaches agriculture to his people, and so secures their survival, Pecos Bill teaches his people how to round up cattle herds properly, fathering thus one of the greatest American legends, and at the same time enabling the
American expansion and capitalistic growth. It is explicitly said that the notion of a cowboy did not exist before he himself invented it. Not only did he invent it, but he seems to have invented and named all the activities of a cowboy’s job, the “roping”, the “roundup” and the “rodeo” to name but a few (199). The way this is presented is also significant. Pecos Bill appears in this scene as a God creating the world and giving a name and a function to all things: “From now on you’re cowboys”
(199) indicates that he seems to have the power to create something by naming it, by the

power of Word, like God in the Christian narrative. This also reminds one of the power of those journalists and writers of dime novels who by the power of written word created both the legend of Pecos Bill and the legend of the Wild West. The saga of Pecos Bill is like a series of concentric circles of creators, each one of whom is contained within the others. One should also not forget that a saga is like an epic, and that both of these words are etymologically related to the verb “to say”. At the same time, epics are poems, that is, creations, according to the Greek original etymology of the word. To cut a long story short, the saga of Pecos Bill shows both at a linguistic and a semiotic level the power of Word as Creation.
As far as references to other legends are concerned, it may also be said that
Pecos Bill is formed after the model of Paul Bunyan. Both heroes handle axes from their infancy, have a prodigious appetite and face gigantic insects (121). More importantly, both function as advertising trademarks for industry: Paul Bunyan for the logging industry and Pecos Bill for the cowboys. In this way, both become a synecdoche for capitalist economy.
There is however an element that allows another reading of the Pecos Bill stories, and that is his machismo. He is born the quintessential American macho of the
Southwest. Upon his birth, his voice is already manly, he is hairy, and will drink nothing but the strongest drinks. By the age of three, he is already “a hell of a poker player” (117). He was a killer of the bad men, and a bad man himself according to some accounts. By supposedly inventing the six-shooter, train robbing and most of the popular crimes of the old West, he virtually invents the West. In the second place, the time he spent along with the pack of coyotes reminds us of what the loners and desperados of the “glorious” West were: a bunch of beasts, which needed to be brought back to civilisation. It is characteristic that when Bill rides with the cowboy away from the coyotes, he “rejoins the human race” (118). It is only to be expected that such a macho cowboy, should possess an extraordinary horse, to symbolise both his sexual and his patriarchal potency and power. This is indeed the case, and his horse is significantly called “Widow-Maker” (119).
In addition, Pecos Bill falls for Slue-Foot Sue, who is something of an amazon herself. This is precisely why she needs to be tamed, as the title “The Taming of
Pecos Bill’s Gal Sue” informs us (120). When Sue attempts to ride Widow-Maker, he throws her up as far as the moon, and she keeps bouncing up and down, over and over again, under the amused gaze of Pecos Bill, until she promises never to disobey him

again (123). Is it a coincidence that the description of the taming recalls sexual intercourse? The taming of the snake is another reflection of the taming of women
(119). It should be remembered that snakes have always been traditionally considered symbols of matriarchy. Thus, Pecos Bill continues the tradition of Indo-European and, later, Christian narratives, as the powerful male knight who needs to beat the serpent.
Pecos Bill’s machismo, however, may not be directed solely against women.
In the scene where he chops off with an ax the stings of the mosquitoes, he appears as an incarnation of the castrating Big Father (121). This notion is enhanced, if one considers that, after successfully massacring the Native Americans, he decides to seek a new country, where hard men can still thrive (125). This is reminiscent of the way in which the Big Father, that is, the US government decided to seek new territories in the
Southwest, once the western expansion had been concluded. Furthermore, again like the US government, he cheats and, in a sense, castrates the Mexicans who have worked for him (126). His machismo forms, thus, another set of concentric circles, from the Big Father to the US government and its imperialistic capitalism, and from patriarchy and the powerful Anglo-Saxon male to the stereotypical Western hero. In short, his machismo has gender, as well as political and ideological implications.
Fortunately, Pecos Bill may well be a demigod, but he is not a God. Whether he laughed himself to death or exploded into pieces after drinking nitroglycerine, the fact is that he died a mysterious death, according to the monomyth model (120).
Whether this is a foreshadowing for the fate of all the things that he stands for is another issue.
Works Cited
Dokou, Christina, ed. Web page. An American Legends Reader. Dept. of
English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University
of Athens, Athens, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Calamity Jane Stories
By Paraskevi Tsoliakou (1563201300231)
Reading about Calamity Jane I couldn’t stop thinking that she is the most interesting female character I have encountered in this course. I read Jane as the first original

feminist of pre-capitalist America; an amazon of the 19 th
century; a woman in men’s clothes or a man with a woman’s appearance as some would name her. But what made such an unattractive woman who used to play with guns and knives instead of taking care of home and husband so legendary?
I think that the question is its own answer! Men desired her because she was free and untamable. She was the one they could not subjugate. The fact that she was the master of her own body and her own life made her special and unforgettable to all of the men she had met or slept with.
But then, I was thinking of something else while I was reading. All of these stories were created, narrated, written by men. What if a woman was narrating the story of Jane in the 19 th
century? Would this narrator be of the same opinion with the other male ones? Or would she say that not only she was not a woman afore of her era but a model of woman nobody should admire?
Nevertheless, as a reader of the same sex in the 21 st
century, I have a totally different point of view. Jane would be a leader for all the women of the 19 th
century.
As the model of the modern American capitalist man was just rising, Jane could be the female counterpart to it. She could actually contradict this role model. I mean that if a woman was able to find success on her own, needing no assistance from a man, wouldn’t this take some prestige away from the males?
Finally, I would like to explain why Jane is my favorite female legend in this course. Well, as I have already mentioned above, I think Calamity Jane was free. She was not behaving according to the norms. But what is most important is that her legend is of a different kind. Other women were trying to escape their troublesome family background like La Lorona did. Others like the Warrior Woman were trying to defend their family name. But this particular woman was different from everyone else because was a free mind not accepting the established family and society rules.
To sum up, Jane was a real “Calamity”. She was calamity in the sense that she was causing serious damage to every hostile man she met. And definitely, she was a threat to the subordinate position of women in the masculine society of her era.
Works Cited
“Born Before Her Time.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou. Athens:
UoA, 2007. 112- 113. PDF file.

“Calamity Jane Meets a Long- Lost Lover.”
American Legends Reader . Ed. Christina
Dokou. Athens: UoA, 2007. 115-116. PDF file.
“How Old Calam Got Her Name.”
American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou.
Athens: UoA, 2007. 113- 115. PDF file.
Calamity Jane Stories
By Evangelia Polychronidi (1563201000219)
Of all the stories about Calamity Jane, the one that interested me the most was that on how she gained her moniker. In this tale, it appears that the nickname ‘Calamity’ was coined for her by Captain Egan in 1873, Goose Creek Valley, Wyoming. However, we also get to know that the real person behind the legendary frontierswoman was
Jane Cannary. In a world of men for men, Jane becomes famous for her scouting skills and devilish ways in the wild American frontier. In the story she comes to the rescue of Captain Egan from the raging Indians with fierceness and bravery, and afterwards she tenderly treats his wounds.
The intriguing characterization ‘Wildcat of the plains’ given to Jane by Egan is certainly a suggestion to the kindness with which she rescued everyone who needed her, but reading the story, I couldn’t ignore that both in name and courage this Jane reminded me of the plain Jane Eyre, the famous character from Charlotte Bronte’s novel. Both Janes exhibit compassion to others, especially to those in need. Both
Janes talk in a straightforward manner and behave as equals towards men. They both are described in terms of great inner beauty, but one concealed under harsh and somewhat tiresome visages of women that have dealt with many difficulties in their lives. Last but not least, both Janes save men that would forever change their life:
Calamity in this story gained her infamous nickname by Captain Egan, given to her like a badge of honour and valour is bestowed on a soldier after a battle. This name would forever on link her to the legendary myths of the frontier in the minds of
American people.
Another thing worth discussing in this story is Jane’s attire. She is described wearing short trousers with moccasins, a velvet vest and a Spanish fashioned hat. She was practically a legendary cross-dresser figure that engaged in military conflicts against the Native Indians. A tomboy, one could say, whose stories present gender roles as socially constructed rather than natural norms. Living out on the frontier, of

course, Jane simply has not learned how to be a woman. This particular notion on the other hand is exactly what debunks the very idea of fixed gender identities. Most importantly, though, Calamity Jane seems to stand for the possibility of a more fluid gender and sexual identity all women needed in time and place when gender oppression was more of a reality than a mere historical fact.
Calamity Jane is described here as generous, helpful, and willing to undertake demanding, even dangerous tasks to help others. This particular story offers a reversed version of the frontier legend hero. Bold and mighty in the most masculine manner possible, Jane connects feminine power to such myths that hold the frontier values of the patriarchal American culture.
Calamity Jane: “Born Before Her Time”
By Elpida Ziavra (1563201300052)
Calamity Jane is one of the folklore figures of the West, known for their drinking habits, shooting for no particular reason and killing whoever bothers them. What is special about her, though, is the mere fact that she is a woman in a man’s world, the
Wild West, favoring wild men but forgetting to mention the position of women. The role of the latter was limited to either that of submissive wives left at home to take care of the kids or of prostitutes. So, Calamity Jane’s androgyny and her defiance of female characteristics might be a good reason for her popularity, the exaggeration over her beauty, her idealization and idolization. Women in the East admire the fearless Amazon that is just as good as men; she becomes, thus, a profitable market product for dime novels and pamphlets. Her participation in the Indian wars qualifies her as a new “Joan of Arc” or a sort of “Warrior Woman,” a model of bravery and transgressing the fixed gender limits.
However, there are, in her story, some subtle indications of a different understanding of her singularity. First of all, her promiscuity is condemned, while the male folk figures are celebrated for their seductive skills. Then, she is described as a
“white devil,” once again linking the woman to the “horror vacui” of the white color, pointing at her uncontrollability and unpredictability. In addition, for Jane to survive in such a homosocial environment, she has to become androgynous and adopt male features of dressing, talking and behaving. But even when she tries to assimilate, her

suppressed femininity surfaces when she is sober, echoing the “Triple Goddess” motif. Her precarious state as a woman appears in her last words, when she feels the need to identify herself through her relationship to a man, Bill Hickok. A wild woman, she is characterized as an angel, a devil, an erotic nemesis, pointing to the inability of male authority to fully comprehend her. Her legend still provokes awe and admiration for her achievements, but also enlightens certain bleak spots of the patriarchal Wild West.
Calamity Jane
By Foteini Paila (1563201100185)
“Born Before Her Time” tells us that Martha Jane Cannary, better known as
Calamity Jane, was a part-time prostitute, and a woman who had “married” quite a few men, slept with many more, and given birth to several children. It also tells us that Calamity Jane had a less than appealing face, terrible skin texture, “and a body resembling that of a down-and-out wrestler”—which is code for “it displayed features typical of male physique that are considered by men undesirable when found on the female body” (the men, in this case, are of the kind that believe their opinions should shape women’s existence). The author, then, goes on to explain that Jane’s success with the opposite sex can be easily explained by the fact that, in her days, “men in the
West outnumbered women by about twenty to one”, and then he describes Jane’s choice attire, which was typical of a man in those days, but most definitely not typical of a woman (112).
The above reference to “Born Before Her Time” does not serve—in this journal—as a jumping-off point for a journey into the deep, dark abyss widely known as “patriarchy”—in spite of the fact that the stories of Calamity Jane are built so that it’s inevitable they spark this kind of discussion. No, instead, I am going to call this journal a “happy place,” and talk about something… that, on second thought, I really wouldn’t be talking about, if equality had been a reality in Calamity Jane’s time, and if it were a reality in our time, as well.
So, the thing. Well, the thing (that I want to talk about) is this very lovely, very funny, and very entertaining reversal of the conventional man-saves-woman type of story. In both “How Old Calam Got her Name” and “Calamity Jane Meets a Long-

Lost Lover”, we see two different men in two very dangerous situations, and Calamity
Jane coming to their rescue. Now, it is very important that these stories show a woman capable of mounting such daring rescues, as it is also very significant that the narrative never belittles either man for needing a rescue and, more importantly, for ending up being rescued by a woman. But this is not the thing that hit me as I read these stories, because today, we are not short on kick-ass female characters.
Superheroines, queens, geniuses, superspies, witches, con artists. We have many women (although still not enough ) that are written as excelling in every aspect that men do. However, there are certain troubling patterns. For example, these strong female characters tend to be either young and beautiful and thus “reasonably” desirable to the men they aid or save, or they are of ages considered too old to make them acceptable love interests (because it seems to be vital that they end up as a man’s love interest). And in many occasions, you have this incredibly beautiful, incredibly attractive, strong, intelligent and skillful woman that saves the guy who is marketed as so far from good-looking, popular and cool—so, they are in a sense what is often classified as a “nerd”—and the woman genuinely falls for the guy, feels genuine attraction for him, when she’s “not supposed to”, because somebody has to love even that guy, right? And beyond even that, the message here is that every man, regardless of their appearance, character and personality, can be loved by a woman like that—and the way men are raised, this translates into a sense of entitlement in their heads.
But I’ve digressed. Here’s the thing: in a conventional man-saves-woman story where the woman does not, at first, feel attracted to the man, after he saves her, stuff kicks in, and she sees him in a brand new light. It can happen; someone jumps in front of a bullet for you, something might shift inside you. Near-death experiences can be quite the roller-coaster. So, in this story, the female character falls for the man, even if he is old enough to be her grandfather, and ugly enough that, realistically, not even a near-death experience would make her feel attracted to him (this would not have been the case if the genders of the characters had been reversed). Now—and this is me bringing it home, hopefully—in the two stories of Calamity Jane’s heroics that saved the lives of Captain Egan and Charley Davis, Jane is called beautiful, and when both men get to look at her, after they are safe and far from danger, they are immediately attracted to her. Egan’s eyes see a woman full of grace and beauty in spite of the marks of a hard life. Charley’s only objection is about Janes’ clothing;

otherwise, he tells her that she has changed for the better, and he’s saying that to a woman he intended to marry a few years ago. Now, one could argue that Jane’s ugliness was exaggerated in “Born Before Her Time”. However, for the purposes of this journal, Calamity Jane wasn’t a woman attractive enough to catch Captain Egan’s eye on a regular day. And the things she had been through have diminished her beauty in a way that would make Charley not feel attracted to her any more. So both men, in this case, looked at their female rescuer through the rose-tinted glasses that a woman typically sees a man through in a conventional man-saves-woman story, and I think that’s beautiful.
I’m going to leave you with this: in the stories of Calamity Jane’s heroics,
Jane is the “lone slim figure, watching from a hilltop” (114), the hero that stands high above the rest and comes forth from the shadows, at the very last moment, as a deus ex machina, to save the day. Jane is the dare-devil. Jane is the carefree and easy charm that says her name and follows with an “at your service”— ma’am
. (116) Jane is the noir hero, with the dark and rough past, and the abuse of alcohol and sex. Jane throws see-you-later’s over her shoulder as she rides off into the sunset, while you’re wondering whether she meant she goes where trouble is or trouble springs up wherever she goes. Quite the reversal, eh?
Works Cited
“Born Before Her Time.” American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou. Athens:
UoA, 2007. 112-3. PDF file
“How Old Calam Got Her Name.” American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina Dokou.
Athens: UoA, 2007. 113-5. PDF file
“Calamity Jane Meets a Long-Lost Lover.” American Legends Reader.
Ed. Christina
Dokou. Athens: UoA, 2007. 115-7. PDF file
Calamity Jane
By Anastasia Avastagou (1563201300001)

The legend of Calamity Jane (aka Martha Jane Cannary) left me frustrated, as all stories swarming with misogynistic elements do, because it reminded me of the fact that women have to strive to even be taken seriously, which is something that I find both mentally and physically exhausting, not to mention completely unfair and utterly ridiculous, considering that no one thinks less of you when you are a man.
Nevertheless, it provided valuable insight into the role of women during Cannary’s time, which I believe is worth-discussing.
To begin with, Martha Jane Cannary was an American frontierswoman and
“the West’s foremost femme fatale”, admired, but also feared, for deviating from standard feminine behavior and possessing androgynous characteristics, exceling at skills and activities typically associated with men, such as “wearing pants, smoking, drinking, being sexually promiscuous”, “brawling, gambling, swearing”, as well as handling a gun and being an excellent marksman.
Another aspect of Cannary’s identity which I find to be very important is the nickname she was assigned, although accounts on how she got the moniker of
“Calamity Jane” can vary significantly. I will, thus, propose my own interpretation of her moniker in hopes that it will shed some light on how Cannary was perceived, since I am of the opinion that names are crucial to defining one’s identity. According to the Collins English Dictionary, a calamity is defined as “a disaster or misfortune, especially one causing extreme havoc, distress, or misery”, which I feel is exactly how Cannary was viewed: as a destructive force. After all, the motif of women as evil forces or monsters that wreak havoc and are the source of misery and woe is omnipresent in folklore. Calamity Jane lives isolated and is constantly on the road; she is hence essentially away from civilization and has in this way become an unpredictable, uncontrollable monster, “something more than mortal”, a “wild Jane”, the “Devil of Yellowstone”, which combined with a “repulsive form and figure”, animal-like qualities, such as “ a face like a horse” and “a body resembling that of a wrestler”, serves as a perfect example for the teratogenesis that takes place when individuals are secluded and not part of a civilized, institutionalized society. Besides, let us not forget that the American identity is complicit with a true American being at least part monster.
However, Calamity Jane is not always exclusively depicted as a monster, but is rather described as being half-monster and half-angel. In different variations of the legend, she is represented as “graceful and womanly”, with “a face that was

particularly handsome and attractive”, “magnetic eyes” and “a regally beautiful head”.
Furthermore, she is described as an “angel of mercy” who “bought candy for kids, nursed soldiers and miners back to health” and came to the rescue of those in need.
The duality of the human nature is, therefore, exhibited as the good and evil, light and dark sides of the human soul become intertwined and enter a constant, incessant battle against each other.
Elaborating on the aforementioned point, it is possible that Calamity Jane didn’t bring calamities, at least not to the extent that is assigned to her. This, however, does not matter because what made Calamity Jane legendary and established her name as “the daredevil Wildcat of the Plains” was the fact that she made people believe that the above allegations were true. She constructed the image of a powerful, potentially lethal woman and knew exactly how to market herself and maintain her legendary status. She was “a self-promoting tourist attraction”, participated in “the
1901 Pan-American Exhibition” and “toured with Wild West shows.” (Encyclopædia
Britannica, 2015)
Moreover, what I loved about the legend was that Calamity Jane was the knight in, well, cowboy armor; she doesn’t need to be rescued because she is no damsel in distress. One the contrary, she is the one who saves the day by coming to the rescue of her male counterparts. And yet, all she gets for saving their lives is being hit on or having to answer deep, meaningful questions about why she doesn’t dress in a more feminine way. Talk about respect and gratitude! In addition, Calamity Jane, like another Mulan or Joan of Arc, has to be “disguised as a soldier” in order to join the army and she obviously must not get her “dainty hands bloody”, despite the fact that “were she a man, she would have risen to be a general”; she’s a fragile, “little woman”, after all. However, Calamity Jane always manages to be a hero and kill the bad guys, never staying in one place. She’s constantly in motion, riding off into the sunset and looking for the next big adventure ( “whar there’s mischief, there you’ll find me”), an image synonymous with America and its pursuit of progress westward, where better opportunities await.
To conclude, I would like to draw attention to the title of one of the stories about Calamity Jane, reading “Born Before Her Time”. One might find it an insightful title, corresponding to the heroine’s great achievements, but all I could think was “But really, when would her time be?” Women are always born before their time because, if we think about it, their time has yet to arrive. They are still not considered equal to

men, despite claims supporting the opposite, and discriminations against them take place left, right and center. I think this has been going on for quite enough years now.
When will people finally realize it’s time for a change?
Works Cited
“Calamity.” Collins English Dictionary . Collins, 2015. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/calamity>.
“Calamity Jane.” An American Legends Reader . Ed. Christina Dokou. Athens: UoA,
2007. PDF Format. Np.
“Calamity Jane.” Encyclopædia Britannica
. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.britannica.com/biography/Calamity-Jane-Americanfrontierswoman>.
Calamity Jane
By Chrysavgi Anastouli (15632014 00270)
Martha Jane Cannary, known as Calamity Jane, is definitely a woman “Born Before
Her Time”. She is a dual personality, blurring the lines between what is considered to be feminine and what masculine and represents the androgyny of the time, a personality who bends the genders and tries to survive in a “man’s world”. Moreover, she could be seen as a pioneer of the Women’s Rights Movement and a symbol against the suppression of women and in favor of equal treatment for all.
Calamity Jane seems unwilling to comply with the socially constructed roles.
With her unconventional way of life, she completely deconstructs the idea of what means to be a woman in the 19 th century in America. She drinks heavily, swears, uses guns and knives not only to defend herself but others as well, secretly participates in the army and takes part in raids against the Natives. She is strong, determined and fearless and in some occasions braver than men. Dressed in pants and not concerned about fashion, she does not suppress her sexual desires and brags about her accomplishments in an exaggerated way. These characteristics are typically attributed to men but Calamity Jane refuses to accept this racist notion. Therefore, she is the androgyne, a being that combines characteristics from both genders and uses them according to her needs at a specific time. She is harsh, strong and determined when

she has to defend herself or others who are in danger and sensitive, generous and loving when she has to help people in need, like she does with soldiers and miners suffering from smallpox.
This legendary woman was born in 1852, four years after the first movement for equal rights for women was organized in New York, a movement which primarily demanded the right to vote but later also advocated the need for women to “expand their sphere of activities further outside the home”(web). In this sense, Calamity Jane is one of the first feminists of the era but I believe that she is not only that. She is a pioneer, a radical supporter of the emancipation of women and their liberation from whatever suppresses their creativity, sexuality and sensuality. Her personality and lifestyle would be much appreciated in our era as well, although the real emancipation of women has not entirely been accomplished, not at least in Greece. Our society is still hypocritical when it comes to sexual liberation and the choice people should have to live their life however they desire. That is why some people show contempt for homosexuals and drag queens and that is what has to change if we want to be called a modern, democratic society.
Finally, I believe that the name “Calamity” does not suggest a person who has faced disasters or helped others in disastrous situations. With her way of life and her choices, this irrepressible woman is a destroyer herself: she destroys whatever stereotypical notions there are concerning gender, sex and behavior, suggesting new approaches to what being open-minded really means.
Works Cited
“Women in Congress: An Introduction.” History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of
Representatives, Office of the Historian, Women in Congress, 1917–
2006.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2007. http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-
Essays/Introduction/Introduction/
Calamity Jane stories
By Angeliki Katevaini (1563201300278)

The legend of Calamity Jane provides interesting insight considering the role of woman and gender in the late 19 th
century. Through contradictory descriptions of
Martha Jane Canary, the reader comprehends society’s confusion with anyone digressing from traditional gender roles.
At first glance, the legend liberates women from the passive, silent figure that is enhanced in patriarchal values. Calamity Jane saves cowboys from definite death, she is a “muleskinner”, “an Indian fighter”, “an army scout”, a “rider”, “a stagecoach guard” (112). Old Calam further defies gender roles in her encounter with Charley
Davis. When Charley asks her if she is a woman her reply redefines gender: “Well, yes, I reckon I am in flesh but not in spirit, o’ late years...I turned out to be a gal instead of a man, which I ought to hev been” (116). In this line, Calamity Jane differentiates the “flesh” from the “spirit” implying that being born a woman does not come with a particular mindset and behaviours. In short, gender is not biologically determined, reminding the reader of de Beauvoir’s: “essence does not precede existence” (1269).
However, the significance given to the external appearance of a woman is irrefutable. It is mentioned that “she was ‘married’ several times” and “had many lovers” which is described as “surprising” (112) taking her appearance into account.
Thus it is demonstrated that, in order for a woman to have any sort of relation with a man, whether inside wedlock or not, it is imperative that she is considered goodlooking. Any relation formed under different circumstances was “surprising”, reducing women to mere objects that ought to be pleasant to the eye. The author is so much “surpris[ed]” by Calamity Jane’s “popularity with the opposite sex” that he justifies it as a result of “the men in the West outnumber[ing] the women” (112) suggesting that those who did have a relation with her, or any other woman thought to be unattractive, were driven by necessity not by choice. Consequently, the role of woman is further demeaned and objectified.
Calamity Jane’s sexual promiscuity also raises questions regarding the rights of man and woman at the time. It is mentioned that Calamity Jane “doubled as a parttime prostitute”, she was the “femme fatale” of the West (112) and is later described as “such a woman” (113). The particular phrase indicates the author’s disapproval of her unwomanly or “unmaidenly” (117) behaviour as unnatural and controversial to biological determinism. Nevertheless, were Calamity Jane a Calamity John, this sexual promiscuity would be praised and admired. An instance is Pecos Bill who is

said to have “used [the girls] up at a prodigious rate” (122) without a single condemnatory remark from the author. Hence men and women did not enjoy the same rights when it came to sexual promiscuity, rather men were admired for “us[ing] up” as many girls as possible, while women were expected to stay loyal. In this sense, the legend highlights the patriarchal value system.
Nonetheless, the stories also contain an alternate description of Jane Cannary.
She is also described to have been “beautiful”, “wild”, “graceful”, “womanly”,
“proper”, “girlish”, “faultless” (114). This oppositional description to the one initially introduced to the reader, in addition to the contradictory portrayal of “angel” and
“imp” bearing an “erotic nemesis” (113), all result to society’s mixed feelings regarding this unique, marginal figure. On the one hand, Calamity Jane is celebrated; on the other she remains evil, mysterious and unmapped. Society’s inability to respond to women deviating from the standardised behaviour associated with gender roles is demonstrated. In consequence, the “feminine ‘mystery’” is developed to further reduce women as the incomprehensible, “inexplicable” “Other” (De Beauvoir
1268).
To finalise, the legend of Calamity Jane contains information that empowers women by defying gender roles and objectifies them simultaneously. Although her accomplishments remind the reader of the unnecessary differentiation between male and female professions, at the same time the constant criticism of her appearance and her sexual life diminish the sense of equality between the two sexes.
Works Cited
“Calamity Jane Stories”. American Legends Reader . Ed. Christina Dokou. The
National Kapodistrian University of Athens. Accessed: Dec. 15, 2015. PDF.
De Beauvoir, Simone. “The Second Sex.” 1949. The Norton Anthology of Theory and
Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al. 2 nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 1268-
1269. Print.
Calamity Jane
By Iphigeneia Skalioti (1563201300202)

Τhe legend is about a girl/woman with "masculine" manners. She smokes, she wears trousers in a time when the only acceptable dress-code for a female was a dress or skirt, she drinks alcohol, she knows how to use a gun and knife and she has a lot of sexual relationships without being married - everything that an (American) man does.
We can see the social construction of gender roles in each one of her stories - more specifically, roles that seem to be taught to and learned by people. Even though sometimes other people seem to accept Calamity Jane, they also try to convince her to be more feminine and act like "she is supposed to", like someone she is not. This is often achieved through the practice of shaming. They ask her to change her clothes and cannot seem to accept the fact that she wants to be that way.
The surprising fact is that even Jane herself seems to be confused about it and appears to be certain that she ought to have been born as a male. She claims that her spirit is that of a man though her body is not. She has made peace with it and is not even afraid to announce it to other people proudly. She refuses to accept the fixed gender identity that was given to her and embraces herself, a truly inspiring event for a person (especially a female) at that time.
Even further, it is obvious that women were really repressed during that time
(they could not even smoke or wear pants) and C. Jane had the courage not only to step over these sexist approaches, but to admit, first to herself and then to everyone else, that she felt like a male although she had the body of a woman - exactly as a transgender person would.
Concluding, it is rather unexpected and pleasant to see a woman to overcome the social norms of her epoch and actually feel happy in her own skin, being able to feel free, not caring about anyone else's complaints or objections.
On Buffalo Bill
By Michalis Tsiogkas (1563201200271)
Buffalo Bill’s America: The great and not-so-secret show 1
America.
1 Paraphrasing the title of Clive Barker’s novel The Great and Secret Show.

The highway pierces through the vast wilderness, reaching as far as the eye can see, and then further. Sheltered behind one of the scarce bushes near the highway, a snake hisses enviously as the monstrous Harley Davidsons roar by. On the motorcycles, handsome, masculine men, beards, sunglasses, leatherskin jackets, black boots and all, ride magnificently, their eyes calmly fixed on the horizon, as the valley shudders with a ZZ-Top tune, the guitar riff hoarse and repetitive with an industrial quality that makes it sound as if played by the Harley's engine itself.
“Rumors spread around,
In that Texas town...”
2
The wild-wild west.
Cowboys on horseback masterfully catching calves with their lassoes, cow-girls cheering in approval. A saloon at night. The place is filled with smoke and the bellows of drunken rogues with forefingers that get itchy every time a turned back is within shooting range. All that keeps them in order is the pair of deep, righteous eyes that watch them calmly from a lonely corner of the saloon; eyes that cannot help but looking as if they come with hands that can shoot a rabbit's tail from a mile, if justice demands it.
Big city charms.
In lavish offices at the top floors of state-of-the-art skyscrapers, before windows that command a view on a futuristic metropolis, golden boys and girls looking like modern Adonises and Aphrodites claim their share on human progress by making millions with every mouse-click, while living life to its fullest. From the open window, a repetitive bass-drum sound is heart from a distance. It is the hip-hop music from the nearby ghetto, where, in the middle of the street, athletic black rappers vigorously sing rimes that drip testosterone, while gorgeous black women with enticing curves dance seductively on the tops of luxurious cars whose tinted window glasses equally seductively reflect the skyscrapers.
That’s America. Or is it?
“But now, I might be mistaken –
haw, haw, haw, haw!”
3
The images that come to most people's minds when they think of the country
America are mostly scenes from a massive multimedia show that goes by the same
2 Lyrics from the song La Grange, by ZZ-Top.
3 Same as 2.

name. This show is, of course, made by using the true American experience as raw matter, but this raw matter becomes part of the show only after having been skillfully softened and molded into something much more presentable and sellable than the real thing. The final product is so grandiose, so enticing, that it looks like the real thing no more than a thirty-feet-high, God-like statue of a third-world dictator looks than the petty little man himself. This image, or rather, collage of images, has been so effectively sold, not only to the rest of the world, but also to America itself, that it has, at least partially, replaced experienced reality in people's heads. Rarely does one hear of a perception of America that does not entail some fictional elements in it. To paraphrase Baudrillard, America did not take place.
Exaggerating reality until it acquires mythical dimensions and then mixing it up with experienced reality is not something that Americans discovered. It happens and has happened everywhere. The Great Constantine was not that great a Constantine in reality, but we still deem him great; Greek archaeologists who, time and again, make us all proud as roosters by announcing that they discovered Agamemnon's tomb, throne, i-phone and the like, always forget to explain how Agamemnon could be in possession of any of these items when he hasn't existed in reality any more than
Spiderman has; yet, nobody cares. And who can forget how, a few years ago, the
Anders Breivik incident in Norway destroyed the decades-old myth about the utopian character of Scandinavian societies?
All perception is, at least partly, based on myth, and all behavior is, at least partly, performance. This is true for individuals as much as for cultures and nations.
The difference with Americans is their unprecedented ability to, firstly, turn reality into an irresistibly luring product and, secondly, effectively sell this product to, literally, anybody.
The American skill in creating highly enticing and entertaining pop art is notorious – so much so, that it can introduce us to a fictional world in comparison to which the real world seems dull and boring. As we leave a theater where we have just watched a good European film, we ponder life, history, politics, human relations, art, etc. But if the film has been a Hollywood blockbuster, as we leave, we just think that our lives suck, and we should be one of the characters in the film. After enough exposure to the stimulus, this desire becomes part of our subconscious self, and so we start running to gyms, malls, beauty centers, interior designers and the like, and we change our hair, and we replace half the vocabulary of our mother tongue with fixed

Americanisms, and we keep buying and buying in hopes that sooner or later we will buy ourselves into a lifestyle that will resemble that of a Hollywood film character, while our actual life, shamefully hidden under a pile of fancy items, secretly rots and decays like Dorian Gray's portrait. Of course, these phenomena are largely products of our own cultural inadequacies and failures – nevertheless, they also demonstrate how strong the influence of the American pop culture can be.
Another important aspect of the American way of turning reality into show is that, sometimes, the raw matter of reality and the final product are combined into one and the same thing, so that reality and performance are indistinguishable. New York and Las Vegas are real cities but, to some extend, they are also made intentionally as entertainment parks. Their fictional aspect is part of their existence. This, of course, applies to people too. When Tsitsanis, Lucio Dalla or Ravi Shankar play music for their audience they are still themselves. But when Billie Gibbons of ZZ-Top sings and plays the guitar on the stage, what we see is a theatrical version of Billie. A plethora of American artists, such as the screenwriter Charlie Kauffman or the stand-up comedian Luis CK, have created fictionalized versions of themselves that can hardly be distinguished from their actual selves. And the two last Presidential elections were won by the fictional character Barack Obama, played by the actor Barack Obama.
And this is where, finally, Buffalo Bill comes (literally) on stage. If he is historically significant, it is because he was perhaps the first American to effectively make a profitable persona of himself. Others before him created shows inspired by the wild west; others before him used theatricality and sold themselves; but Buffalo Bill was the first one who consciously, intentionally, created a show starring himself as the leading actor and the main character at the same time. He incorporated actual facts of his life to the fictional character. This fictional character became globally famous perceived not as a fictional character but as a real person, and Buffalo Bill nurtured the deception. He created a fictionalized version of the wild west that is, to this day, perceived by the majority as a historical reality. He taught his fellow Americans that all life can be turned into a profitable entertainment business, and they learnt the lesson very well. In a way, America is a Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, extended version .
But I should not conclude before referring to another important aspect of
Buffalo Bill's show business, which is its democratic element. There was no room for discrimination in this celebration of performative life. Except from the cowboys, not

only Indians, but also Turks, Tartars, Arabs (no Greek Tsolias again, damn!) paraded in his show and were given an opportunity to demonstrate their distinctive ethnic elements. But they were only given this opportunity provided that they could present their culture in the form of a fancy, sellable caricature. No interest for anything deeper than appearances, nor for anything that could not be turned into consumable performance. This is another characteristic of America as a whole: anything you are can be acceptable, but you have to be able to sell it, by turning it into a product suitable for the American profit-making mechanism. If not, you are still acceptable but of no interest to anybody. Nobody will kill or torture you, but neither will anybody guarantee your daily meal.
Democracy of the markets, then. I am not against the markets, and a market democracy is still a democracy and better than oppression, backwardness and
Kafkaesque statism. Nevertheless, as long as it fails to grow to a full democracy, it is a crippled, incomplete democracy because, in it, a person's right to exist and express themselves is secured, but their means to do so are not. These have to be bought; and to buy, first you have to sell; and to sell anything, first you have to sell yourself; and to do that, your self has to be made sellable. In conclusion, you can survive and enjoy full rights only as long as you fulfill the requirements to qualify as an exhibit in the great show.
Pecos Bill Stories
By Despoina Tantsiopoulou (1563201300214)
In the time of the people who carried themselves into legendary status, Pecos Bill is a legend created out of thin air. He "wasn't a man of flesh and blood", he was invented in such a manner that there was no questioning his manhood and ability with everything he did, being attributed the invention of "lasso" and the "rodeo" tradition.
But those are not the only things that make Pecos Bill a legendary figure of America.
As one of the stories states, even before his birth he needed a drink, not only displaying a yearning for alcohol that is related to machismo and great masculinity, but also by showing superhuman abilities by speaking from the inside of the womb.
The latter is actually a very good way of showing a developed sense of independence, considering that the condition of being carried in one's mother's womb is viewed by

psychoanalysis as the state to which everyone strives to return to throughout their lives. However, Pecos Bill does not want anything -not even his own mother- between him and his manhood, a fact that makes him lethal by detaching him of every other man's weakness.
Later on, on his birthday, everyone can see, apart from guessing, that he is, in fact, an extraordinary being, as he is born with a "full set of teeth, a full head of red hair and seven bristly hairs on his chest", as though he has gone through puberty in his mothers belly and was born as a grown man. In a different story he is born with an erection, a picture reminding vividly of an invert sexual contact with his mother, which gives him a stature of someone who has seen and done all at the moment of his birth.
Never having been a baby, Pecos Bill is undoubtedly more than human and has less weaknesses than most men, because he has skipped the stage of innocence and emotional attachment to his mother, which means that his fear of castration from an overly loving mother is non-existent. It is also worth mentioning that he is born with red hair, a feature often associated with evil and mischief. Ginger people are traditionally thought to have no soul and to be sorcerers and disciples of Satan, so Bill is terrifying in all respects.
Even Pecos Bill, though, is terrified by "a decent woman", and this is a turning point for him. On meeting Slue-Foot Sue he encounters one weakness that will eventually lead to his destruction. This woman is equally, maybe even more, petrifying than he is in the sense that even he is unable to avoid her. At first sight she is marvellous. She is "every bit as red-haired as Bill", meaning probably as mischievous and dangerous and she is also "beautiful", having an hourglass figure that he could not resist. Devoid by womanly love because of his early separation from his mother, he finds this woman's love to be one of a kind and is unable to deny any of her requests, which is what makes her so deadly. Sue is a femme-fatale who gets everything she wants, despite the cost, a trait highly disagreeable to men like Bill, who, however, helps her after every mischief and disobedience.
Nevertheless, when Sue is thrown to outer space by his own wild horse, he becomes mortally sad. Looking for a drink that would quench his thirst and being unable to find one that could relieve his well-accustomed throat, he drinks nitroglycerine, which does the job at first. On the second glass, though, he explodes,

leaving behind only his trousers and his boots still standing on the floor. As any respectable hero, though, his death remains uncertain and his legend stays immortal.
Pecos Bill’s Gal Sue
By Charalambia Karagouni (1563201300068 )
In this final journal, I decided to comment on "The Taming of Pecos Bill's Gal Sue", due to its more detailed take on Sue's character. I believe it is worth analysing, because it contains a lot of sexist remarks that can go unnoticed upon first glance. It is true that this story is quite old, thus it is only to be expected that it does not portray women in the most positive light possible, but that is not much of an excuse. After all, if we are to excuse every inaccurate or derogatory description of that kind on the basis of it being "expected", how are we to ever rid ourselves of such erroneous views.
To begin with, Slue-foot-Sue, as she was called, is first presented as a "famous rider" and a "first-class horsewoman" in two out of the three stories on Pecos Bill; it only in this one that any report of her being exceptionally talented at anything at all is omitted. Instead, we are given a rather typical and bland description of her as being
"very pretty, and spunky, and great fun". That is not to say, of course, that the previous story did not focus on her physical appearance; in fact, she is pointedly referred to as possessing several physical characteristics that usually make a woman desirable, such as "ruby red lips", a "wondrous hourglass figure" and "green eyes".
However, both "Saga(s) of Pecos Bill" attribute Bill's initial admiration of her to her unusual and heroic feat of riding the Great Fur-bearin' Rio Grande catfish, which was twice as big as a whale" down the river "with only a surcingle". In other words, it is not just a matter of him liking her looks; her actions and skill is what made the difference. Otherwise, she would have probably been one of the girls that he "had used up […] at a prodigious rate", as is mentioned a line or two later, and be subjected to the terrible fate of being referred to as some sort of material goods that one wastes or spends too much of. Not that she is not treated as disposable already; in the version where Bill is forced to shoot her, we are told he "never got over it" and yet this did not in any way prevent him from remarrying several times after.
Going back to the omission of her riding skills, I think it wouldn't be farfetched to claim it was deliberate; the reason why being that it did not serve the story's

purpose. To put it differently, it did not fit in the mission specially reserved for Sue's character, which is to be presented as the epitome of foolishness that is supposedly inherent in the female gender. From beginning to end, Sue is an accurate representation of all kinds of stereotypes about women. She is implied to be vain, always wearing her fanciest clothes when she goes riding, "trying to make an impression on the menfolks", as if it is only through her beauty that she can surpass them in any way. She is notoriously indecisive and vague as well; it is no accident that she insists on saying "Maybe I won't" every time Bill asks her not to repeat her mistakes. Her replies either perplex or lull her husband into a false sense of security, until she goes ahead and messes up again.
Sue is continuously portrayed as careless, disobedient and unruly, a stark contrast to the level-headed Pecos Bill who always puts things in order, be it by inventing roping and teaching men how to keep their cows under control or taming the untamable horse, the Widow-Maker. It is stressed as much as possible that she had one great flaw; she was "very bossy" and as such, "in any kind of relationship she wanted to wear the chaps". This is obviously the most unfortunate thing that could happen to a husband; time and time again, Sue refuses to heed Bill's sage advice and chooses to do the wrong thing anyway, despite knowing she should have given it more thought. It is then the turn of the wise man to take matters into his own hands and rectify the situation.
It should be noted that this is a recurrent theme in the story, not simply a onetime occurrence. Sue tries to rise above the role enforced on her, namely that of the obedient wife, but this attempt at assuming control always gets her into trouble. Every time she fails to learn her lesson, the trouble escalates, advancing from nearly drowning, to almost being killed by a hundred Mescaleros and finally ending up stranded on the moon, a pretty serious consequence for simply wanting to ride a horse. These disasters form a triad too, which is a typical example of the age old pattern of the use of the number three in myth; it is on the third day of her wedding that she tries to ride Widow-Maker and this third mistake is the gravest of all.
What about the moral of the story, then? Well, that is made quite clear in its conclusion. Slue-Foot-Sue doesn't grow in wisdom at all, despite her three horrible adventures, as is evident by her final words of "Maybe I will". She becomes the paradigm of the troublesome wife that should be tamed and controlled for her own

good, a goal that is for her husband to pursue, until she finally promises never to disobey him again.
Miss Liberty, Uncle Sam, Yankee Doodle, Manifest Destiny: The mosaic of
American patriotism
By Maria S. Blana (1563201400284)
Studying the material for the final part of this course, I couldn’t pick one icon/legend to work on. It seems to me that most of the legends of this section are closely interrelated.
Ladies first: Miss Liberty, the American Caryatid: a(n) (old?) lady who was born in Europe, crossed the Atlantic heavy with the wisdom, decisiveness and style of
Greek and Roman antiquity, Italian Renaissance, French Enlightenment, reached the
New World and was idolized soon as she set her foot there; yet as it seems her ticket was aller-retour: for she leans forward not to explore the openness of the New World nor to shed light on its’ riches and wonders, but to take a leap back into the ocean, towards her motherland. It seems as if she reached N.Y.C., took her torch out of her robe, lit it and is now ready to take off to bring this light to the old world, as if the latter caught the middle-ages once again. Focusing on her bits, parts and gadgets, one can see that: she steps on broken chains, that is, she (i.e. America) broke the bonds with her dominating parent (i.e. Europe) and stood up as a new, better and more promising and futuristic proposal in this world. She wears a spiky, sort of gothic crown: she’s the queen of the globe, of all continents and oceans. Her heavy scripture: she bears a new testament, commands for a new law to be established. In a sense, she embodies the flows of Europeans who kept cramming on the American soil and who, having left behind belongings and ethnicities, were re-baptized in the new nations’ ideals and culture, which of course they thought better and greater than the ones of the old world (we are aware of how Americans considered themselves “God’s people”, the ones who’d rebuild His kingdom on earth), thus embracing Manifest Destiny, that is, the theory of America’s rightful prerogative of expansionism, power and control over the rest of the world.
Speaking of control, Uncle Sam comes naturally under our scope – a paradox that was, since he is “the tallest figure on this mundane sphere”! A perfect match for

“Aunt” Liberty - she goes by many names suggesting both her divine nature and her universality - Uncle Sam is a pop icon that somehow reminded me of the Orwellian
Big Brother who’s “watching YOU”, the same way Uncle Sam “wants YOU” and watches you. Dressed up in the USA flag colors, with his goat-like beard and whiskers, he also is a fine illustration of the Yankee Doodle, though his serious and fixed eye-gaze is indicative of much more power and cunningness. In fact, he is mentioned in the original “yankee doodle” song lyrics, as early as 1775:
“Old Uncle Sam come there to change
Some pancakes and some onions,
For 'lasses cakes, to carry home
To give his wife and young ones”
He’s the lion and the lamb and the eagle. He is all symbols that express power and divinity in the Bible; who knows, he might have chosen the lion as his alter-ego and companion, rather than an eagle, if that wasn’t already taken by the British. The eagle however, another emblem of America that was also established in the late 18 th century, serves him right as a predatory and untamed giant bird, whose flight provokes owe, and whose sight catches even the slightest move on earth while he flies wild and in perfect balance up in the heavenly skies: traits that fit a self-appointed world policeman. While searching for more information about Uncle Sam I found a blog in which he is presented as the personification of Satan himself (as Baphomet) and associated with freemasonry, which reminded me of the course’s source text quote: “he is the embodiment of all that is most terrible”. But he’s also “cool as a cucumber”, and “meek as Moses”. He’s got qualities of a trickster, an evil god, a predator, a control freak and he’s also cool in appearances, as would be, for example the American Psycho. He too stares at Europe seizing the moment to go for it and make it yield. He is then, as in ancient myths, the bad side of the soul, while Aunt
Liberty is the good one, which makes as aforementioned a perfect match for those two: they are the mother and father figures of the American people, who rises mentally and physically above other nations, stretching and monitoring the globe because it needs more space, like baby Paul Bunyan.
Imperialistic expansionism and intervening attitude in the name of global piece, precautionary measures and well-being is the result of Americans growing with

such two parental figures who reshaped the idea of patriotism into an aggressive notion, rather different than that of the heroic days of Paul Revere.
WORKS CITED
An American Legends Reader, Dokou, Christina, ed. Web page . Dept. of English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, n.d. Web. 3
Jan. 2016, p. 107-112 & 137-138.
Statue of Liberty: 50 fascinating facts, by Sophie Christie, published online: 28 Oct. 2015,
Web. 3 Jan. 2016, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/northamerica/usa/newyork/10157989/
Statue-of-Liberty-50-fascinating-facts.html
Uncle Sam Recruiting Poster was Modeled after Satanic Baphomet, published online: 26
May 2012, Web. 4 Jan. 2016, available at: http://www.freerangehumans.net/unclebaphomet-aka-uncle-sam/
Uncle Sam, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, last modified on 23 Dec. 2015, Web. 4 Jan.
2016, available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam
Seal of the President of the United States, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, last modified on 29 Sept. 2015, Web. 4 Jan. 2016, available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_President_of_the_United_States