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Daedalus & Icarus
The father and son duo trapped into the maze that Daedalus had created himself. Will they manage to ever escape? Do they manage to gain their freedom? I have not included an ending in this story, leaving it up to you guys. Let me know what you all come up with in your comments.

Father & Son

Arachne & Athena
Pride and ego can ruin a lot of things but knowing when to back off can help save you. In this story I did not write the ending because I wanted you guys to make your own. Let me know what you all come up with in your comments.

Competition

Pyramus & Thisbe
This is the story of two lovers that could never meet. They never saw each other but through the eyes of their hearts they fell in love through a small crack.

Mulberry Tree by Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

Storytelling: Arachne & Athena

Arachne was a great weaver and had woven beautiful tapestries. She was not of noble blood instead she came from a small family that people did not really know about. Arachne, however, was known throughout Lydia for her work. Nymphs would leave their stuff to come see her work or just do anything related to the subject. They were all mesmerized by her talent and she took pride in that.

Water Nymph: You have such a wonderful talent. You do your work so beautifully that it is easy to tell that you have been taught by the great Athena, goddess of weaving.

Arachne: How dare you even suggest that? No one has taught me anything. This talent of mine is self-taught. No one deserves credit for it, not even Athena.

Athena decided to give the girl a chance for offending her. Arachne was talented and it was easy to see that. Athena had heard a lot about her and even her refusal for being compared to Athena. Athena changed herself to look like an old lady. She had grey hair on her head, her skin was kind of sagging and she even had a stick to use as support when she walked. She looked like a very fragile, typical old lady.

Old Lady: You have great skill no doubt but listen to my advice. Get rid of your pride and thank Athena for blessing you with such talent. You can be great among the humans but admit that Athena is still better than you. Let go of your pride.

Arachne: You have turned old and senile. Tell your daughters and daughters-in-law to listen to your crazy talk. I am smart enough on my own. No one asked for your advice and I certainly do not want it. If Athena thinks she is so good let her come here and have a competition with me. Why is she afraid of me? Does she think she will lose? Guess she is not as great as she thinks she is.

Old Lady: That is enough!

She transformed herself into her normal goddess self.

Athena: I have heard enough from you. You are too prideful of your work. You no doubt have talent but how dare you compare yourself to me? You think I am afraid of you. Ha! Let's have this competition and everyone can see how much better I am than you.

Arachne: Finally! I thought you must have been too afraid to come here, but now that you are let us not waste any more time. Let me compete with you and show you that I have more talent.

The both of them did not waste any more time and sat in their corners. It was a huge room with comfortable chairs for them to sit on. There were lots of paintings and pictures scattered throughout the room for the guests to admire. The walls were painted a pale yellow and there was even a table with some flowers on it for decoration. There was also a huge window that let the sunlight in and kept the wind flowing in the room. They had unlimited supplies and time. They both started worked on their tapestry quickly and everyone around them was just mesmerized with their work. You could barely see their fingers move since they were so fast. The treads kept disappearing into the work and reappearing in their basket. Athena had the twelve gods featured on hers, along with their special characteristics. In the four corners she showed what happens to the fate of those that decide to challenge the gods and goddesses.

Arachne, on the other hand, had the crimes that the gods and goddesses had committed towards the humans. She showed how their actions ruined the lives of humans and yet they continued to do so.

Ovid's Metamorphoses  Book 5-7 by Tony Kline (2000)

Author's Note: This story is how the original story goes except that in the end Arachne tries to hang herself. Athena out of pity decides to turn her into a spider and she continues to weave webs forever. I just added more details in there about how this happened and even a couple of conversations between Athena and Arachne. I did not really change anything except that I left the end out of my story. Sometimes I think it is better to leave things to the imagination than to say everything about the story. I also wanted people to imagine their own endings and see what they could come up with for this situation. I chose this image because it accurately showed the scene and what happened in the competition. There were people that came to watch the competition surrounding the two competitors, leaving all of their work behind just to see what would happen between the two. They wanted to see how this would end between the human that was great at weaving and a goddess that know known for weaving.

Athena Wins

Storytelling Week 5: Daedalus & Icarus

Father & Son Duo by Tony Kline (2000)

The room is dark, cold, and just gives off an eerie feeling. There is no light in the room other than the moonlight that is coming in from the window. Daedalus knew that there was no way to escape. He himself had designed this labyrinth so that no one could ever leave. He and his son were both stuck here forever just because of one mistake. It was not even his fault. How was he supposed to know that someone would be able to escape? Minos should have punished his daughter instead of the two of them. She was the one that helped Theseus get out of the labyrinth. He had nothing to do with and yet he was the one paying the price for it.

Icarus: Dad, this is just cruel. We did nothing and yet we are the ones paying for it. We need to find a way to leave this place. Ariadne should be the one to get punished.

Daedalus: I know son. I made this maze which is why he has trapped us in here. Minos needs to punish someone since his own daughter ran off with him.

Icarus: That is not fair. You need to think of a plan to escape. We cannot be in here forever like he has told us to do.

Daedalus: I have thought of a way, I just do not know if it will work or not. It is very dangerous and never been tried before.

Icarus: What is it? I am sure you can do it, you are the smartest man I know. You built this place yourself. I know your plan will work.

Daedalus: I am thinking about making wings out of feather and join them together with wax to create wings. That will help us fly away from here and go off to another island or some place far away from here.

Icarus: Dad this is outrageous! I have never heard anything like it. A man flying. Is this even possible?

Daedalus: I have thought it all and I know it can work. I am just going to start making the wings, this will take me a couple of days to make. We cannot talk about this in front of the guards or anyone. No one must know.

Icarus: Ok dad, I will never talk about this again. Not even with you so no one else can hear of it.

Daedalus started working during the same night. He used the wax from the candles to join the feathers together. He got the feathers from the birds that would fly close to the windows or rest there for some time. It took him three nights to build them since he could not work on them during the day The next day he gave them to his son and put the two of them put them on.

Daedalus: I need you to listen to me. This is very important. Do not fly too high or close to the son, the wax will start to melt and you will fall. Do not fly too close to the water or the waves in the sea, the feathers will get wet and then you will not be able to fly. Do not forget this.

Icarus: Yes dad, I will be very careful and remember this. Do not worry, we will we fine. I am confidant that this will work and we will finally be able to get out from here.

Author's Note: I decided to stop the story right as they were about to jump from the window and escape. This way the readers could image their own ending, whether it was their escape or if they died. Maybe they get caught by the guards before this could happen or if they are found later on. I think this was better than telling everyone what actually happened and spoil the ending. I used this picture to show Daedalus telling his son to be careful while putting on his wings. The other images gives away what happens and so I did not want to use that. Sometimes it is better to find your own ending than to break that image of the happily ever after that we always want to see. I have read this story before and so it was easy to write about. I did say exactly what happened from the source into my story except I added the conversation between the father and the son. In the original version all you hear about it how he told his son to be careful and they fly off. you do not get much about what happens before that other than the scene with Theseus. Here I added the frustrations that they could have had with their situation and how they came up with their escape plan. I also used more of a modern language instead of the olden style since people sometimes get bored of that.

Daedalus & Icarus

Storytelling: Pyramus & Thisbe

The two lovers had never met in real life. There were no phone calls, email, letters, or even text messages exchanged between the two. The only way for them to communicate with each other was through the crack in the wall that looked like it had formed just for the two of them. No one knew about the crack and the kids had only discovered it by accident while they were playing. Even their parents did not approve of them being together because the families did not get along so they devised a plan one night.

She had gone into the room in the corner of their house to pick up the ball that had fallen there. There were boxes everywhere in the dusty old room, and it looked like no one had been in there for years. Old chairs and books were covered in a layer of dust. The cobwebs were hanging like ornaments in the ceiling and were surrounding the pillars like vines. There were little spiders crawling around in the room, and you could even hear the chirping of the crickets from the outside. It was dark and gloomy in there with only a small window for the moonlight to shine in. She finally noticed that her ball had gone under one of the chairs by the wall and the closer she got she noticed light coming from a little crack. When she looked into the crack she saw that it opened into another room and it looked like it was a boy's room. His room had a small bed with a lantern next to it. There was a table with a chair on the side of the room, along with toys that were scattered throughout the room. There were wooden cars and little trains. She was surprised and amazed by the boy that appeared to be a couple of years older than her. He was playing with his toys on the floor when she called out to him. She was curious as to who he was. She had heard from her parents that a boy lived next door but she had never seen him before.

Thisbe: Hi.

*He appeared to be very confused and looked around for a few seconds before going back to his toys.*

Thisbe: Hey, I am by the wall.

*He looked even more confused and then went towards the wall. It took him a couple more seconds before he finally noticed her. It surprised him that he had never seen this crack before.*

Pyramus: Who are you? What is going on? What is your name?

Thisbe: I am the girl living next door to you. I was looking for my ball when I saw the crack and found you through it. My name is Thisbe. What is your name?

Pyramus: My name is Pyramus.

This is how they first met and after talking for a couple of hours they decided to talk again the next day. This continued for a long time, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into years. They were growing up and before they knew it their friendship had turned into love. The constant talking and sharing everything about them made them realize just how much they meant to each other. They could not live without talking to the other even for a day.
Once Thisbe was seventeen and Pyramus was twenty they decided to tell their parents about the other so they could finally be together. It did not matter to them that they had never really seen each other. They had a strong emotional connection and they knew they wanted to be together forever. Their parents were against it as they did not get along with each other at all. They told their children to stop talking to each other and made plans to cover the crack in the wall as soon as possible. They met again that night before their parents could seal their way of communication forever.

Thisbe: What are we going to do now? Our parents have forbidden us from ever seeing each other again. They are even planning to seal this crack forever.

Pyramus: I have a plan.

Thisbe: What is it? Oh please tell me soon. I cannot wait any longer.

Pyramus: We can run away tomorrow night away from our parents and be together forever. We can spend the rest of our lives together. Meet me tomorrow after nightfall under the mulberry tree by the forest and the grave of Ninus.

Thisbe: I will meet you there but I am going to miss my parents. Will I ever be able to see them again? I think this might be our only chance to be together and hopefully after our parents will understand why we did this.

I wanted to stop here and have everyone imagine their own endings.

Author's Note: This is the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The original story talked about how the two met and how they decided to run away together. It also had the part about what happened to them once they did run away and how they met their tragic end. In the original story she hid from a lioness that had been hunting but Pyramus mistook the blood to be hers and killed himself. She also ended up killing herself from the same sword as he did. In my story I decided to explain the back story and how they met for the first time. I ended the story with their plan instead of how their story actually ends. I chose this picture because it shows the tree that they decided to meet at and how that place became the place of their end. This picture was also really pretty to look at, and some of the other images they had gave away the ending. It was also a bit too violent to use and did not go with the flow of my story. I did not want to include their death in my story so instead I just left it before that part so every can imagine their own ending to this story.

Ovid's Metamorphoses : Pyramus & Thisbe by Tony Kline (2000)

Mulberry Tree  By Vincent Van Gogh (1889)