Aphrodite

Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty.  She rose from the sea on soft pillows of sea foam.  In a previous blog post, I wrote that Cronus sliced Uranus to pieces.  The pieces of Uranus fell into the sea and created sea foam which made Aphrodite.  She was brought ashore by some nymphs and was dressed in beautiful clothing and jewelry.  She was sent to Mount Olympus.  When she arrived there, all of the gods were overwhelmed by her beauty.  Zeus was worried though.  He didn't want the other gods to fight over her marriage, so he quickly chose Hephaestus as her husband.  Hephaestus, overjoyed by his luck, gave her a lot of beautiful jewelry he made himself.  Aphrodite did not have children with Hephaestus, but had one child with Ares, the god of war.  Their son was named Eros, or Cupid, in Roman mythology.


I think Aphrodite is an amazing goddess.  How about you?

-Julie Shiroma

Athena

Athena is the goddess of weaving, strategy, and arts and crafts.  She is the daughter of Zeus and Metis. Metis, Athena's mother, lives in Zeus's head as a fly.  This is because Mother Earth warned Zeus that if he had a son with Metis, that he would overthrow him. Zeus could not let that happen so he asked Metis to turn herself into different creatures.  When she turned into a fly, he swallowed her.  She lived in his head.  After a while Zeus got terrible headaches from Metis pounding and making armor.  At last, Hephaestus took an axe and cut open his head.  Out sprung Athena.  She was in full armor with a spear in her hand.

Athena is a very fierce goddess.  She once had a contest with a girl named Arachne and turned her into a spider.

I think she is a very interesting goddess.

Orange County Fair

On Wednesday, I went to the Orange County Fair with my friends Alec, Margot, and Sophie.  We went on fun rides and bought yummy snacks.  One of the rides that I went on spun you around and moved you in a U shape.  It was scary, but fun.  A less scary ride was the Cliff Hanger.  You would lay on your stomach and it felt like you were on hang-glider.  I did most of the rides with Alec and Sophie.  I went on the Yo-Yo with Margot and my sister, a ride that takes you high and spins you around.  I also went on the Sky Rider ride with everyone. This was a ride that took you high and across the fairgrounds.  After the rides, we got funnel cake and chocolate covered bacon.  It was a great day.

-Julie Shiroma

Fun Times

This week has been fun, but tiring. On Monday, we went on a day trip with our friend Hanna. We went to the Water Court at the California Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. We ate lunch there. The Water Court is a peaceful place where people watch water shows and have lunch. After lunch, we rode Angel's Flight. From there, we went to the Central Library.  At the library, I read about Norse and Greek mythology. We also played some games on the library computers.  Monday's day trip was fun.

Today we had beach day with Alec, Margot and Sophie. We did a lot of bodysurfing, made a fort, and played in the waves. While we searched for sand crabs, we saw a crustacean that looked like a crab. We scooped it up with a bucket, looked more closely and thought it looked more like the body of a lobster.  The day was fun.

Tomorrow we are going to the Orange County Fair.  After the fair we will go see a movie.

The Twelve Olympians

I ended with the Titans' defeat in my last post.  If you have not yet guessed, Zeus is now the lord of the universe.  Powers were given to different gods.  Zeus got the universe, Poseidon got the ocean, and Hades got the underworld, and so on.  They were built a palace by the Cyclopes' on the highest mountain in Greece, called Olympus.  There were twelve Olympian gods, whose backgrounds I will explain later.  The gods were: Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Hermes and Apollo.  The goddess' were: Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Demeter, and Artemis.  All of the gods and goddess' but Hades lived on Olympus.  Some were children of gods, and the others were the original gods.  These are the major gods.  They ran Olympus.  Read about the backgrounds of all of the Olympians in future posts.  I will explain all of the gods and goddess' except Zeus.  I already explained Zeus's past in previous posts.

-Julie Shiroma

Beach Day!

Today, I went to Torrance Beach with my three longtime friends, Alec, Margot, and Sophie.  First, we had a lunch from Chipotle Restaurant.  After that, Margot, Alec and I went in the water to bodysurf.  It was cold but we got use to it.  My sister, Katie didn't go in because she was building a fort of sand near the water.  After a while we joined her. We made a mini plumbing system and a wall to protect a small fort.  We protected Katies' fort, called Fort Ocean, from the water.  The  plumbing system was constructed to drain out the water and the wall was created to protect the fort itself.  The system worked for a little while but we gave up after a few failed attempts. Alec and I went boogie boarding and bodysurfing.  A while later it was time to leave, but when we were packing up, my mom saw something that appeared to be a tortoise. When the mysterious object washed up we realized it was a dead pelican.  I won't go into how it possibly died. Let's just say it was gruesome, but we honored the dead bird and left.

I enjoyed the day.  See you!

-Julie Shiroma

Day Trip at Downtown

Today my friend, family, and I went on a day trip to downtown Los Angeles.  When we first got there, we went to a place called The Water Court.  There we had lunch.  My mom packed us some rice balls and meat, and our friend brought a Korean dish called kimbap.  Since we were near Angel's Flight, we decided to go ride it.  Angel's Flight is like a tram that goes up and down Bunker Hill.  It is a funicular.  My dad would joke and tell us we had a 50-50 chance of making it down alive, and when we got down safely we told him ''WE BEAT THE ODDS!''  After Angel's Flight we went to the Central Library.  It is a great library with tons of books.  I got a book about the trojan war.  Then, we hopped on the redline subway train and goldline and went to Chinatown.  We got a cool drink and went to a souvenir shop.  I bought three bracelets.  After an exciting day we jumped on the bus and went home.
It was a fun day and I hope you enjoy reading about it!

-Julie Shiroma

Gods vs. Titans

In my last blog post, I ended with Cronus' defeat.  Zeus still had problems though.  Cronus was angry at him and in time a war broke out.  The war was between the Gods and the Titans.  Only two Titans, Prometheus and his brother, joined the Gods.  The bloody war went on for ten long bitter years.  Zeus freed the Cyclopses in the wars. They were very grateful and gave them gifts that allowed the gods to win the war.  They gave thunderbolts to Zeus which he threw powerfully.  They gave the trident to Zeus' brother, Poseidon.  If he stuck it on the ground it would create an earthquake.  Lastly, they gave Zeus' brother, Hades, a helmet of invisibility.  Using these gifts they won the war.

This was a short blog post, but there will be more.  Remember keep reading !

-Julie Shiroma

The Defeat of Cronus

In my last blog post, I ended with Cronus being the lord of the universe.  This did not last for long.  After Cronus took command he married one of the other girl Titans, Rhea.  Gaea instructed Cronus to destroy his father, Uranus.  Even though he did this, Gaea was angry at Cronus because  he did not free his brothers, the Cyclopses like he promised.  Though she was angry she did not punish him for she knew that one day a son of his would overthrow him.  Unfortunately, Cronus knew this as well because each time they had a child he would swallow them.  He swallow several children, but Rhea decided to save her final child, for she could not bear to see her children being devoured by their father.  This was the moment Gaea had been waiting for.  When the child was born Rhea gave him to Gaea and she hid him on an island called Crete, far from Cronus.  In the meantime, Rhea wrapped a rock in blankets and gave it to Cronus.  As she thought, he swallowed it, because he thought it was the baby. She was now happy because she knew someday the little baby would overthrow him.  This baby's name was Zeus.

Mother Earth took baby Zeus to the island of Crete.  The nymphs in Crete took care of him, fed him nectar and ambrosia, the food of the gods.  The food came from a magical goat that had nectar pour out of one horn and ambrosia come out of the other.  He was well cared for and when he was grew older, he went back to his mother.  Together, they plotted Cronus' defeat.  Soon he was ready.  Zeus dressed up as one of Cronus' servants, and gave him a poisoned drink that Rhea made.  Cronus drank it, not knowing it was poisoned, and got very sick making him vomit up all of the now fully grown gods.  Zeus had saved them. This concludes the story of The Defeat of Cronus.

Remember to read my next epic tale!

-Julie Shiroma

The Beginning of Time

One of my topics this summer is Greek Myths and Legends.  I am going to write more about this, but I will first start with the beginning of time.  It all started like this.  Before anything there was complete nothingness called Chaos.  After a while, Earth was born from Chaos.  Her name was Gaea.  Earth did not have much on her yet.  She did not water, humans, or animals.  Soon though,  she fell in love with Uranus, the lord of the universe.  He loved her and rained water on her which created seas, rivers, ponds, lakes, and allowed plants to grow.  She became Mother Earth.  Gaea and Uranus had several children.  Their first set of children were three creatures that had fifty heads and one-hundred arms.  The second set were the one eyed Cyclopes.  These creatures were huge, good at blacksmithing, and had one eye in the middle of their foreheads.  There were six of these creatures.  One of the last children of Gaea were the twelve Titans (gods).  They were more human-like and were a bit wiser than their siblings.  There were six boys and six girls.  Mother Earth loved all her children, but Uranus was repulsed by the Cyclopses and threw them into the deepest pit in the Underworld, Tartarus.  Gaea was deeply saddened by the cruelty that was taken out on her children and decided to destroy Uranus.  She created a sickle and gave it to Cronus, the most powerful child of the Titans, and the god of time.  Cronus sliced his father to bits as his mother instructed him to do.  Finally, Uranus gave up his powers which made Cronus was the lord of the universe.  This was great, but he did not rule for long.
That concludes the first story, The Beginning of Time.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is not the end.  There will be more stories about these myths, but this is only the end of one.  Until next time!

-Julie Shiroma