Elements of The Story Kind of Fiction: Legend I. The Characters: A. Major: Protagonist Antagonist

MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE: HOW MANKIND WAS CREATED
Elements of the Story

Kind of Fiction: Legend
I. The Characters:
A. Major:
 Protagonist
Zeus (King of Gods)
 Antagonist
Cronus (King of the Titans and the god of time, in
particular time when viewed as a destructive, all-devouring
force.)
Typhon (100 heads covered with flame)
B. Minor:
 Confidant
Gaea (Mother Earth)
Cyclops (has one huge eye)
Hekatoncheires (hundred hands and fifty heads)
Poseidon (God of the Sea)
Hades (God of the Underworld)
Hestia (Goddess of the Earth)
Demeter (Goddess of crops and harvest)
 Foil
Ouranus (earth’s child and husband)
Prometheus (forethought)
Epimetheus (afterthought)
 Stock/type
Tartarus (underworld) Hera (Goddess of Marriage)
Pandora (first woman)
Deucalion (Greek equivalent of Noah and son
of Prometheus )
Pyrrha (daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora and wife of
Deucalion)

II. Plot:
Exposition
In the beginning of the universe there is only Chaos. Chaos somehow
gave birth to night, darkness, love and light and day. Mother earth and father
heaven gave birth to Cyclops and Hekatoncheirs and the Titans. . One of
them, Cronus, kills Father Heaven, and the Titans rule the universe. From the
blood of Heaven spring both the Giants and the avenging Furies
Rising Action
Next came a dramatic coup. Powerful Cronus, learning that one of his
children is fated to kill him, eats each one as he or she is born. His wife Rhea,
upset, hides one baby by replacing it with a stone for Cronus to eat instead.
This infant eventually grown and became Zeus who forces Cronus to vomit
his brothers and sisters through a potion. The siblings band together against
the Titans. With the help of one sympathetic Titan, Prometheus, and the
monsters whom the Titans had enslaved, Zeus and his siblings won.
Conflict
Prometheus and his scatterbrained brother Epimetheus are put in
charge of making humans. Epimetheus bungles the job and gave all the
useful abilities to animals, but Prometheus gave humans the shape of the
gods and then the most precious gift of all—fire, which he took from heaven.
Later, Prometheus helps men by tricking Zeus into accepting the worst parts
of the animal as a sacrifice from men.
Climax
Zeus, outraged at Prometheus’s treachery in giving humans fire and
helping them cheat the gods with their offers of sacrifice, decides to punish
men. He created Pandora, the first woman, who, like the biblical Eve, brings
suffering upon humanity through her curiosity. The gods gave Pandora a box
and tell her never to open it. She foolishly does, however, allowing all the evils
of the universe pent up inside to rush out. The one thing she manages to
retain in the box is Hope, humans’ only comfort in the face of misfortune.

Resolution
This time, Zeus, angry at the wickedness of the world, sends a great
flood to destroy it. Only two mortal beings survive: Prometheus’s son,
Deucalion, and Epimetheus and Pandora’s daughter, Pyrrha.

Conclusion
After the flood, a voice in a temple orders the two to walk about and
cast stones behind them. These stones became the first ancestors of the
humans now inhabiting the earth.
III. Point of View:
Third person omniscient
IV. Other Story Elements
1. Foreshadowing
Cronus was prophesized to be overthrown by his child also.
2. Imagery

 Sense of sight
“bright garlands of blooming flowers” p.7
“blazing bolts” p.8
“white wings of the snow” p.8

 Sense of touch
“temple all slimy” p.9

3. Moral
Don’t do unto others what you don’t want them to do to you
4. Symbol
Cannibalism (it is always used as a method of revenge or punishment)
5. Theme
The theme is where there is darkness, there is light. This can be seen
with Chaos to love, Cronus and Zeus, Pandora and her box, the flood and the
stones, and so on.

Figure of Speech
 Hyperbole/Metaphor
- (Atlas is sentenced to forever bear the weight of the world on
his shoulders as his punishment.
-Cronus vomits his children
- wept tears of blood
 Personification
- bolt that never sleeps
THE TWO GREEK GODS OF THE EARTH
I. Summary
II. Family Tree
III. Elements of a Short Story
IV. A. Characters
b. Plot
c. Point of View
d. Imagery
e. Mood
f. Moral
g. Symbol
h. Theme
i. Tone
V. Reference

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MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE: HOW MANKIND WAS CREATED

Elements of the Story

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