extra credit: Reading notes: Dantes Inferno: part B

The inferno 

 Image by di Fruosino

These are a few notes to help me keep track:
The seventh level is violence all kinds whether acts of violence, self violence(suicide), or violence towards god.
The eighth level is full of liars and schemers. To make sure I understood I looked it up and it the level of fraud. Dante reached this level on the back of Greyon (a creature)
From the looks of it the ninth level of hell is treachery and contains Satan himself


I will write the last two parts of my stories using these final 3 levels of hell with some leeway. I may go back and rethink the way I want to set the story up. I think I will make the final level of hell its own story for it contains treachery and Satan making those who committed the greatest treacheries suffer the most. And I may have the eighth and seventh level together. The thing I may have to do is skip a level or two such as purgatory and gluttony level 3. I would mention them but I don't see the best way to fit them into the story. I know I will not stick with many of the original creatures to make the story my own but I also can not include every detailed areas from the original story for it would make it too long. I will put my own modern twists on the features of hell but keep to the original sins that got people there such as lust greed and so on.But with each levels sin I will add modern people who would be there and the modern ways of committing these sins. I will also add creatures of my own for the sins. i want to keep Cerberus in the mention of level 3. So to tally up, I will start my journey, mention the purgatory and traveling through it, then I will describe lust level which is level 2, and mention gluttony because I believe level 3 is just a subcategory of level 4 which is greed and would be described in detail next. These will be the first story. The second will contain detail on level 5 and 6 which are anger or wrath then heretic. The third story will contain levels 7 and 8 which are violence then fraud. To end I will discuss the ninth level which is treachery which contains Satan himself for betraying god.

Bibliography: Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline

The dreaded cyclops

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There was once a great man name nicholas. He was a man that even the gods smiled upon. He was on a journey home, by sea, from the great war of troy . He was passing a land that he saw. He had noticed that he and his men were running low on supplies and decided to stop. They brought their boat ashore. When they arrived on the land and they noticed that it was fertile and full of lots of free roaming goats. That nights Nicholas and his men gathered goats and ate their fill.

The next day Nicholas Arose. He grabbed some of his sweetest wine to drink. He set out to look at the land. A little way away from his men he noticed a rock move and many goats leave. After the goats had all left a cyclops the size of fifteen men came out of the cave. Seeing this nicholas returned to his men. He made them all wake up and said, “ The strongest of you men who have no fear come with me.”

Twelve of his men followed. Soon they arrived upon the a cave where the rock had been moved. He and his men entered the cave and waited for the cyclops to come back. The reason he waited is he wanted to speak with the cyclops. He wanted to see if the giant creature was friendly and intelligent or a savage. Later that evening the cyclops arrived and all of the goats that were there also came in with him. Then suddenly after the last goat came it he covered the same with the giant rock. After this the creature saw the nicholas and his men in the cave and then spoke, “he said who has intruded in my cave.”

Nicholas was about to speak but before he could speak the cyclopes said, “It doesn’t matter. I shall eat you.”

Then he grabbed three of the men and gobbled them down quickly. This is when Nicholas realized the creature was intelligent and smart. But nick had a plan to try to outsmart the creature. Sadly the cyclops had ate all but two of his men before he had finished thinking of this plan. Fearing for his last two men he walked over to the giant and said, “Would you like some of this wine I have with me?”

Without even answering the cyclops took the wine and drank it all. Within a 30 minutes the cyclops was completely drunk. At this point Nicholas drew his sword and stabbed the creature’s single eye. It screamed out in pain. Then said, “these creatures are trying to kill me.”

The he removed the rock blocking the cave and told his flock of goats to run. In the chaos of the goats fleeing. Nicholas and his two men ran out. As running a little bit away from the cave, Nicholas Said, “I am Nicholas and I have defeated you foul creature.”

Hearing this the cyclops knew where they were and ran after. Nicholas and his men arrived with the rest of their men. Then they set sail as fast as they could. They left right before the giant arrived. Be full of pride from the escape nicholas turned around and yelled, “you have failed to foil our escape and will now suffer with eternal blindness.”

To hearing this the cyclopes lifted a giant boulder along above his head that he found on the shore and was about to throw it towards where he heard the sound. Then suddenly he slipped and the boulder left his hand and struck his head. The blow killed him instantly. After this Nicholas felt like a king for he believed he defeated the cyclops. From there Nicholas and his men sailed into the sea towards home.


Author's notes: the sources story is from Odyssey. In the story Odysseus and his men were on a journey home from the battle for troy. The came on an island they knew had cyclops. He and his men went into a cave to meet one of the cyclopes while it was out. The creature started to eat his men for his for his meal. Then odysseus tricked the creature and blinded it to save his remaining three men. All they did was blind the creature and it did not die in the end. Only cursed him with the wrath of Poseidon. They also stole his whole flock.


bibliography: source story and author: Homer’s Odyssey by Tony Kline

Reading notes:Myth-Folklore Unit: Homer's Odyssey, part B

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As I had stated in my previous post about the Odyssey the language is more difficult to read and I want to tell a story with a more modern flowing language. The second half of the story that was provided had too much information to write a single story within the limits and I would not want to leave out any of the important parts. I also can not think of a way to leave out parts to make it shorter without skipping important plot parts. There were just way too many character ghost that Odysseus spoke to that had been sent to Hades at death. I think I will write my story based off the first encounter of his adventures. I would like to put my own twist on the encountered with the cyclops as I had suggested in my last post. I will either tell the story from the point of view of the cyclopes or tell the story with a few plot changes. The plot changes may be that the cyclopes actually dies or kills himself by accident or change the way that Odysseus escapes with his men. This is the story I plan on telling and how I plan to change it.

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey, Translated into English by Tony Kline

Reading notes:Myth-Folklore Unit: Homer's Odyssey, part A

Circe By Wright Barker: link

The language of the stories is not terribly difficult to read but it is an aspect I would would change. I would write the story in a more flowing language that does seem to have such a old language tone to it. I could rewrite the part of the story for the giants or Circe’s point of view. If I were to do this, I would make it look like they were not in the wrong but rather they were doing something that is normal and they see no evil in it. I could also do a retelling of the stories with some plot point changes. An example would be in stead of the giant being blinded he is kill in the escape by his own mistake or clumsiness. I could also make it where Odysseus fails and dies. I could also write the story with a modern touch completely changing the plot but keeping the characters the same. There also seemed to be a lot of repetition in the stories, like when Odysseus is mentioned they always say a few lines after that are repeated on multiple occasions. I see no need for this and would leave this out. The story I will right will have have more of a flowing language but keep the same entertaining aspect of the story even if I do a plot change.

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey, Translated into English by Tony Kline