o n ders y L i fe a ofW eryd v E Stor i e s and S EA R C H LIG H T Which of the following is a story about ordinary people doing unusual things a myth b fable c folktale 6
MYTHS AND LEGENDS FOLKTALES AND FABLES l D I D YO U K N O W Yo u r s c h o o l p r o b a b l y h a s i t s o w n i t s a b o u t a ikely teacherknownfor legend Most formerstudentor hisorherunusualoramazing b e h a v i o r C h e c k w i t h y o u r c l a s s r o o m toseeifheorsheknows teacher aboutaschool legend In very ancient times people needed help to explain the mysteries of life They didn’t have scientists or other experts to tell them why different things happened So the way they grew to understand these mysteries was through stories called myths Today when we call something a myth we usually mean that it isn’t true But that’s often because we don’t believe the very old stories People used to believe in myths very strongly Some of the most familiar European myths come from ancient Greece The gods and goddesses of Greek religion all had stories about them that explained just why things were the way they were World religions today have their own mythologies Hinduism for example is filled with wondrous tales of gods and heroes such as the elephant-headed god Ganesha who represents good luck One Bible story tells how Moses led the original Jews out of slavery in Egypt And the famous stories of Jesus stand as examples to Christians of a perfect life Myths are closely related to several other kinds of stories that teach us lessons These include folktales legends fables and fairy tales Folktales are very much like myths though they are usually about ordinary characters in unusual situations Legends resemble folktales and myths but they’re usually linked to a particular place or person real or imaginary Fables teach lessons by telling stories with animal characters Fairy tales sometimes carry a message about right and wrong But often they’re simply exciting magical stories LEARN MORE READ THESE ARTICLES A GREEK LEGEND ODYSSEUS AND THE CYCLOPS A JEWISH LEGEND THE GOLEM OF PRAGUE A NIGERIAN FOLKTALE THE MONKEY COURT Answer c folktale 7
ATLAS r e The Be a r ofth Long long ago Zeus the king of the ancient Greek e World EA R C H LIG S H T gods was very angry with Atlas one of the Titans children of Heaven and Earth He was angry because Atlas had tried to fight with him So Zeus ordered Atlas to stand forever holding all the heavens and Earth on his shoulders Atlas wanted to get rid of his tiresome job He almost managed to do it when the Greek hero Hercules came to ask for his help Hercules was supposed to get three golden apples that were guarded by a dragon in a garden Atlas agreed to get the apples if Hercules would hold the heavens and Earth on his shoulders while he was gone When Atlas returned he told Hercules to keep the Find and correct the errors in the following sentence Hercules agreed to get three golden apples for Atlas if Atlas would hold the heavens and Earth on his shoulders job Hercules agreed But he asked Atlas to hold the world for just a minute while he got a shoulder pad for himself As soon as Atlas lifted the world to his shoulders Hercules picked up the golden apples and ran away Some stories say that thunder is Atlas shouting after Hercules to come back Most pictures of Atlas show him carrying the world for a while This is an ancient Greek story But today when we want to learn about the world we look into a book called an atlas We can see the shapes of countries see which river flows in which country and see which continent is where LEARN MORE READ THESE ARTICLES A GREEK LEGEND ODYSSEUS AND THE CYCLOPS MYTHS AND LEGENDS FOLKTALES AND FABLES THOR THE THUNDER GOD D I D YO U K N O W is also the name of a range of in northwestern Africa In Atlas o n e s t o r y A t l a s w a s t h e k i n g o f t h a t mountains area But he was a bad host to the Greek hero Perseus Perseus punished Atlas by showing him the l monster Medusa head of the evi Looking at the head of Medusa turned men to stone Herculeswould hold the heavens and Earth on his shoulders for a Answer Atlasagreed to get three golden apples for Herculesif while 9
