World Mythology -Science Project (due at the end of year)

Have you ever have been interested in stories from the past, how the ancient people created or heard stories to scare their kids. Many of this stories have been past from generation to generation. Some of them are really interesting because of their facinating fiction and amazing reality. That's the reason of this blog, because the creativity of the art of mythology. I'm not saying that myths are not true, but I'm just saying that they are really interesting. If you keep reading this blog, be prepared to take a tour the all the world's most facinating, scariest, ugliest, and boring myths. I'm might even learn something new, too.

Ancient Egypt:
Well, here’s one Egyptian myth that signifies the mistreatment, injustice, and viciousness of the a family (the names used in all of the myths in this blog post may not show the difference between if it’s a female or male name, so I will try often putting a very brief description of that name to not confuse the reader): Horus was a fierce and proud Egyptian god, but before him taking this powerful occupation, he had to pass through many obstacles. Before his birth, his future father Orisis, the god of the air and the earth, and her future mother, the goddess Isis, were in the throne. But the maliciousness of his Uncle Seth of wanting the throne forced Seth to kill his dad and Seth’s brother, Orisis. Seth took over the throne, but to assure power, he checked that Isis didn’t have any children or got pregnant. However, Isis (Orisis’ wife) was pregnant already and she hid it from Seth. Iris gave birth to Horus (the description of him in the beginning). Horus grew up in secrecy, but when he got older, he challenged his Uncle Seth. In the fierce battle, Horus loss an eye. The assembly of gods was informed of this and they were fair with Horus. The assembly gave Horus the throne because of his father’s heritage. The assembly also forced Seth to restore Horus’ eye, but Horus, in honor of his father Orisis, gave the eye to his father. Horus covered his eye wound with a divine serpent, Uraeus. That’s the reason why the serpent is considered the emblem of the Egyptian pharaohs. Horus became the king of Egypt under the rule of the sun god Re.

Here’s another myth that I thought was really interesting because it describes the injustice to a romance and it also explains something really cool: Millions of years ago, Heliopolis, a city lower of Egypt, worshipped an earth god named Geb. Geb was described with a beard and a goose on his head. People thought that Geb was a crop and earthquake maker and a healer. People also feared him because people thought he had the power to prevent people from having another life in the afterworld. According to the myth, Geb married his sister Nut. Nut was the Egyptian sky goddess. She was described as a giant, naked woman who lifted the sky with her back which her body, people said, was light blue like the sky and covered with stars. Written papers describe how every night, the sun went into Nut’s mouth and it passed through her body till it got out of her womb where each morning was born. Well, Geb and Nut got married without permission of the sun god Re. Re’s anger at Geb and Nut was so big that it forced Geb and Nut’s father to separate them. Supposedly, this might explain why the earth and the sky are separated. To make sure of the separation, he prevented Nut from getting pregnant in any month of the year. But Nut’s friend Thoth, the divine scribe, decided to help her. He seduced the moon to play a game of draughts with him where the prize was the moon’s light. Thoth won a lot of moon light in the game. It was so much light that the moon had to add 5 new days to the calendar. Those 5 days were a glory to Nut because she could get pregnant during those 5 days every year. And she did, she had four children- Orisis, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys.

• If you want to learn more about gods and myths, go to http://www.egyptianmyths.net/

Aztec:
If you already had gotten a World History class during your education years, you would probably have heard of the Aztec culture. In the Aztec culture, mythology was a big part of it. I say this because their mythology was mainly composed of gods that the Aztec culture was (the Aztecs thought) dependable on. I also say that mythology is a big part of their culture because when I try remembering something about the Aztecs, the only thing that pops out in my head is their rituals and human sacrifices to their gods meaning that their gods was a big part of their culture. Well, without giving you any more boring Aztec history background, here’s some Aztec myths (there’s only one big myth and 2 god descriptions, this is because the Aztec gods didn’t really had a story or life adventure background, there were only a few like the one I’m going to show next):

-There was once an earth goddess of life and death. Her name was Coatlicue, which meant “Serpent Skirt”. She was described as a woman wearing a necklace of hearts torn from sacrificial victims and a skirt of snakes and also for giving a horrible appearance when she appeared. She was also described as a woman with flabby breasts and sharp claws in her hands and feet. Mixcoatl, the cloud serpent and god of the chase, was Coatlicue’s husband. She was also known for loved and wanted millions of human sacrifices to her. One day, she was in a temple where she was sweeping. Then a ball of white feathers fell from the heavens and touched Coatlicue’s breast. Coyolxauhqui (Coatlicue's daughter) was informed of this and she wanted to kill her mother with hers brothers and sisters. When the four hundred siblings were about to kill her, Coatlicue (the mother) gave birth and when the human came out of her womb, it wasn’t actually a baby, it was a man fully armed that came out! She later named this man Huitzilopochtli. Well, going back to the story, Huitzilopochtli came out and he instantly killed all of his brothers and sister! He then chopped Coyolxauhqui (her sister)’s head off and he kicked it up in the sky and her head turned into the moon.
Huitzilopochtli turned into the Aztec god of the sun and the war. He was described as a full armed, blue man with hummingbird feather decorations on his head. His name meant "Blue Hummingbird on the Left". He was known as the patron deity of the Aztec Mythology.
Her sister, Coyolxauhqui, turned into the moon goddess when Huitzilopochtli (his brother) kicked her head to the sky and turned into the moon. Her name, Coyolxauhqui, means “Golden Bells”.

• What a weird myth! And let me tell you that when I first read this myth, it made it sound as in one second Coatlicue got pregnant. In the 2nd second, sons and daughters were informed. In the 3rd second, the 400 siblings were about to kill mother. And in the 4th second, Huitzilopochtli was born and he killed all his siblings. Please write a comment about what you think of this strange myth!
• Her's a video that I made for you guys so you can have an image of this myth of Coatlicue, but you must read the myth in order to understand this video.

In Aztec mythology, there was a god that represented rain and fertility. This god was Tlaloc. Tlaloc was described as a man wearing foam sandals, a crown of heron feathers, a net of clouds, and for carrying rattles to make thunder. He created and turned into king of a paradise used for those who have drowned which its name was Tlalocan. In the first month of the Aztec year (which was the period between February 12 to March 4), children with names of special days were sacrificed to the Tlaloc. Priests took these children to the top of some mountains that surrounded the valley of Mexico City and there they were sacrificed. The tears of those children’s mothers were said that they meant the prediction of receiving rain in the future. People also believed that Tlaloc’s lighting bolts made people get ill. Also, people believed that in Tlaloc’s possession, he had four jugs of water. When the first one was emptied by him, it would bring life to plants. The second one was going to cause blight. The third one would bring on frost. And the fourth one would bring completely destruction.

In Aztec mythology, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is the god that represents Venus (the planet) and the appearing of the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl. The meaning for this long word Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is "Lord of the House of Dawn”. The twelfth hour of the day’s lord was him. Most of the rituals was done when the sun (Huitzilopochtli) was in a position that looked like the position of the planet Venus (known as Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli) according to the Aztecs that studied detailed the movement of the sun and the stars. Also, the temple of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (which is located at Tula, an important archaeological site in Mexico) was dedicated to the planet Venus.

• If you want to learn more about more myths and more gods, go to http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/aztec-mythology.php

Japanese:
Well, next is the Japanse mythology. This mythology has a lot of gods and when i say a lot, I mean a enormous amount. I don't have room to put description of all of those gods, but I will expose some a cool myth that involves 3 gods and an interesting story:
According to the oldest Japenese religion called Shinto, 3 siblings were born from the primeval being Izanagi. Amaterasu (female) was born from Izinagi's left eye. She turned into the sun goddess. Tsuki-Yomi (male) was born from Izinagi's right eye. Tsuki-Yomi was the moon god. Susanowo (male) was born from Izinagi's nose. He had a fierce a fierce temper. Even his name means "impetuous". He had the ability to create storms that could cause serious damage and furious tsunamis. Tsuki-Yomi and Amaterasu lived in the heaven. One time, Amaterasu asked Tsuki-Yomi if he could go and visit Uke Mochi, the food goddess in represantion of Amaterasu. Tsuki-Yomi went to Uke Mochi's palace and Uke Mochi started a celebration for the occasion. Uke Mochi offered Tsuki-Yomi a wonderful meal created from her mouth and nose.Tsuki-Yomi felt that it was so disgusting that he murdered Uke Mochi (food goddess). Amaterasu was informed of this and she got really angry. Her anger was so big that she didn’t want to see his brother again. To not see his brother again, she hid herself in the cave of heaven. Since Amaterasu was the god who produced light to the world and she hid herself, the darkness would surround the world. Evil creatures would live their hiding places. The assembly of the gods was informed of this and came up with an idea of making a party to induce her to come outside. They put a huge mirror in front of the cave. Then Uzume, the goddess of laughter, started to make a dance with beautiful music. Amaterasu couldn’t control her curiosity of what was going on outside so she gave a look outside. When she looked, she directly looked at the mirror’s reflection. When she saw her reflection, she was amazed of how much beautiful light she carried. Because of that, she decided to come out and the world was brilliant again. Amaterasu still didn’t want to see his brother so that’s why day always follows after the night.

• Here's a video that I made for you people so you can have an image of this Japenese myth of Tsuki-Yomi and Amaterasu, but you must read the myth in order to understand this video.
  
• If you want to learn more about the Shinto religion and how Izanagi was created, go to http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00875/text/JapanC.htm

QUIZ!!! if you get all the questions right, I'll give $3.oo to that person. Just put your answers in the comment section with your name and Gmail address and I'll send you a message telling you if you got them right! Only for SSC Middle school people. YOU CAN ONLY TRY ONCE!!!!!!
1.) What was Uke Mochi's special meal for Tsuki Yomi in the video? A.) Hot dog weenie B.) chihuahua C.) Chicken flavor weenie D.) normal flavor weenie
2.) How many children did Coatlicue have? A.) 400 B.)401 C.) 402 D.) 403
3.) How many gods were mentioned in my mythology blogpost? A.) 35 and above B.) 23 C.) 18 D.) 22
IF YOU ANSWER THIS ONE RIGHT AND THE OTHER ONES, I WILL GIVE YOU 2 EXTRA DOLLARS!
4.) Which one do you think is the most realistic myth from the whole mythology blogpost?(it has to be the one I'm thinking on!)

RELATING MYTHOLOGY TO OTHERS.....
Well, it is really important that you relate things that you learn to other topics because it helps you a lot to use something that you learn into another thing in an emergency. For example, you if you learn something in history, let's say a holocaust information then in your english class you start a lesson about the holocaust. Now this lesson in english class will be easier thanks to what you already know previously.
To what topics can we relate mythology? well, I can relate them to school subjects (some better than other, but stil in some way).
SCIENCE: Well, I think mythology relates to science because in my point of view, mythology might be the religious explanation for things that science can explain, too. For example, in the myth about Tlaloc in the Aztec mythology, Tlaloc makes rain with sacrifices, but there is no evidence for that (that is the religious explanation). But for science, rain is caused by the precipitation of the water cycle. So mythology and science ineract sometimes badly or positively.
MATH: Well, I think mythology is related to math only in numbers, I don't think in equations or math rules.
Mythology might use math (numbers) to count how many gods there is in one religion. Also to count how many sons a god had. Every thing involves math so maybe there is a bunch of things that involve math with mytholgy, but I just haven't thought that deeply so if you think of good ideas, post them in the comment section so I can post them here!
HISTORY: Well, I thint that mythology relates to history a lot. Specially world history, I say this because if you have taken a world history class, they talk about different countries. In these countries, religion is a big part of it. In religion, mythology might be a big part. I know in the Greek religion, their mythology is what they are known for.
READING: I think mythology involves in reading in a way that makes you learn how to read more efficiently.
I've heard from people that the more you read, the more you get good at it. And since mythology is really interesting, it will be no problem for someone to read a 20 page myth.
LANGUAGE ARTS: Well, I think mtyhology relates to L.A. like in reading. The more you read myths, you might learn more vocabulary and even newer words and that might help you look intelligent in a language arts class.