Myth Assignment
Myth: From the Greek mythos, “plot” or “narrative”. The verbal culture of most if not all
human societies began with stories, and certain stories have achieved a distinctive importance as
being connected with what the society feels it most needs to know: stories illustrating the
society’s religion, history, class structure, or the origin of peculiar features of the natural
environment. Though these “serious” myths link with one another to form an interconnected
body of stories (which we call mythology) there are also less serious myths told simply for
amusement.
TASK
Write a “serious” myth – one that illustrates and explains something that our society feels it most
needs to know (even if we already have an explanation). Your myth may focus on religion,
history, class structure, nature, or modern technology and may use existing myths as starting
points.
Length
Reminder
Format
no more than two double-spaced pages
this is a story; it needs a title, clear paragraph structure, and original thought
MLA
EXAMPLE
Zeus wanted a beautiful daughter for all mortal inhabitants to share. He ordered
Aphrodite (the goddess of love) to give birth to the most beautiful female ever created.
Aphrodite left Olympus, went down to the land of mortals, and planted the Seed of Beauty into
the soil. But Aphrodite injected so much beauty into the seed that even the bees fell in love with
it. The bees pollinated the seed and it spread over the entire earth. Instead of one beautiful
daughter, Zeus now had millions – all of equal beauty. All men loved her and her sisters and
spent hours kissing them (partly because of their exquisite beauty, and partly because they were
Zeus’ offspring). Zeus was pleased and decided to name off of his new daughters “Two Lips”
because all mortal men continually kissed them. Even the gods fell in love with them –
especially Winter, the god of cool breezes, but Zeus made sure that all the immortals were aware
that his daughters were for mortals only. Winter begged and pleaded, but to no avail. In a rage,
Winter decided to summon all his power and blew a cool breeze over the entire earth for 6
months. If he couldn’t have Two Lips, no one would. All of the daughters died. The all
powerful Zeus, however, made sure that his daughters would continually grow after Winter was
done exhaling, so he hired Summer, god of softness to rejuvenate them each year. After years of
this, Zeus became emotionally exhausted by the death and rebirth of his daughters, so he asked
Aphrodite and Permanence to work together to create a Seed that would outlive Winter’s cool
breezes. After nine months, Aphrodite and Permanence planted a new seed (again the bees fell
in love with her, pollinated her, and spread her across the land). The seeds grew to enormous
heights and flourished in both the warm months (when Winter inhaled) and in the icy cold
months (when Winter exhaled). Zeus was pleased and named his newest daughters Evergreen.