Elizabeth DiSalvatore - Myth-Folklore

I had so much fun reading through Italian Fairy tales! I read several from The Pentamerone. Most of them involved animals, which is an element that I really enjoy! The She-Bear    was a fun read! A dying queen begs her husband to only remarry if the women is as beautiful as she was. After many years the King decided that he could only marry his daughter because only she was as beautiful as his first wife. The daughter did not want to marry her father so an elderly woman gave her a chip of wood that was suppose to change her into a bear. When she was summed to marry her father she ate the piece of wood. While the daughter was in the woods, she met a prince who was astounded by her gentleness and he took her home. One day, the daughter took out the piece of wood and the prince saw her and fell in love. The princes mother did not understand why he loves this bear, and ordered the bear to be killed. However, the servants were also taken with her gentleness and released her into...

The Fall of Man  by Michelangelo - Source: Wiki Images And I thought, "I shall depict both scenarios in my painting. One of temptation and one of protection." So I painted a tree as the focal point. The branches would represent good and evil. On the left I painted a serpent man, calling out to Eve, tempting her to join him in the knowledge of good and evil. On the right I painted an angel, guarding Adam and Eve from the tree. I debated placing a sword in her hand, for most angels are not thought of with a sword, but in the end decide it was appropriate. I gave her a soft face, one that a loving mother would give a son after he made a mistake. Now I need to paint Adam and Eve on each side. In the light I painted Adam first. To keep in context of the story, he would need to be naked, but not ashamed of his appearance. I painted the sword the angel was holding up to Adam's next. Adam's face showed a look of remorse as his head turned away from the tree. I pain...

I have enjoyed reading stories from The Forgotten Book of Eden ,  edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr (1926).  The story, The Beasts of the Creation , was my favorite one to read. The story starts with Adam and Eve weeping to God and forming a parental type bond with Him. God has pity on them and reminds them that He has not forsaken them. Adam pleads with God and tells Him that he is terrified of leaving the garden, for surely the beasts of the world would devour him. God reassures Adam that He is in control, and commanded all the beasts to be familiar with Adam and Eve. All the beasts, except the serpent came to Adam and Eve. After leaving the garden Adam and Eve noticed a river that came from beneath the tree of life. Adam and Eve were at an all time low and considered falling in that river to remove themselves from creation and end their lives. The chapter ends here. If you did not read the end of the chapter, you would think that this was a morbid end to a story a...

For this week's reading I decided to dive into the topic of Adam and Eve and the creation. For part A I read The Creation and The Fall from Genesis, King James Bible . The rest of the stories were from The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909). I found the story The Ideal Man   very interesting, for it described Adam in far more detail than any version of the bible I have read. The story talk about Adam's decedents, describing features of Adam that they inherited, but none of them compared to him. Even his wife Eve was "but an ape compared with Adam". The story continues to tell the story of God breathing life into Adam, and placing all these responsibilities on him. This story gives Adam a lot more credit than the Bible does, alluding that it was Adam who vented language, writing, named all the animals, and even decided which part of the world people would inhabit! I think it would be fun to write a version of the Creation story of Adam and Eve from Mi...