Ethan Kahn Storybook Favorites
Tales from the Underworld
The imagery used in this story was amazing! Each and every description, one right after the other, was flawlessly detailed. Despite the setting being abstract and otherworldly, I felt like I was there and had actually seen the things being described! The description of Charon's eyes appearing like "rings of flames" was foreboding. I loved the description of the River Styx and how "the water behaved more like air." The whispering screams coming from the River were very imaginable and unsettling.
The Egyptian Goddess Isis
I was really cheering for Isis in this one as she struggled over many trials to bring her husband Osiris back to life. She tried so many different things to accomplish the task. Such as searching out her husband's coffin. Striking it out of a tree with lightning and hiding it in a jungle once she found it. Then, after Set found Osiris' body and scattered his body parts across the Nile, Isis went through the tedious effort of finding every little piece and putting her husband back together. The only part of Osiris' body that was still missing was his nose. Set hid it in a deep chamber of his palace that even he didn't know the location of. Luckily, Isis' son Horus was being trained to fight Set by Uazit and Thoth. Horus ended up defeating Set and Set's servants gladly showed Isis the way to Osiris' nose. It was so relieving to finally have Isis bring the full-bodied Osiris back to life. The two then ruled Heaven and Earth side by side as one big happy family with their son.
Women in Constellations
This Storybook featured four stories of women who, for one reason or another, ended up among the stars. The first story was heartbreaking. A mortal women named Dike was sent by Zeus to keep the mortal humans in check. At that time, life on Earth was perfect. Humans experienced eternal spring, eternal life, and an intimate connection with the Gods. However, Zeus thought this was all too perfect. Humans needed to be brought down a notch. So he created the four seasons. No longer was there eternal spring. People now experienced the brutal heat of Summer, the decay of Fall, and the harsh cold of Winter. This changed the humans internally. They went into survival mode and started killing one another. They also became angry with the gods and would no longer listen to Dike. Dike was saddened by the hate and malice that had grown between her fellow mortals. She was even more saddened at how she couldn't help them because they didn't want her help. So she left Earth, went up to live among the stars, and became the constellation Virgo.
The next story was about the Pleiadian Sisters. I liked how this story was very symbolic. The Sisters escaping up into the stars was used as a symbol for breaking away from whatever is chaining you down. It's a story that inspires true freedom.
The final two stories are intertwined. One is about Queen Cassiopeia while the other is about her daughter Andromeda. The two are opposites and receive opposite fates. Cassiopeia is a beautiful queen whose boastfulness almost gets her daughter killed. She's put up in the stars as an eternal and unforgettable punishment for angering the gods. Andromeda, on the other hand, escapes the horrible fate that her mother almost laid out for her. She's saved from the monster Cetus by a hero named Perseus. The two get married and have children. They live happily with their family whilst traveling the world. When they die, Athena puts them up in the stars to honor them. For me, these two stories demonstrate that we are ultimately tied down to nobody's fate but our own.
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