Character Riddles

Icarus

Icarus

• Son of Daedalus creator of the labyrinth

• Escape from a labyrinth because of minotaur.

• Father warned him to not fly to high because of the sun or to low that his wings get wet

  • Decides to ignore this and he fly to close to sun and then plummets to his death

    • Hubris – Pride

Cronos

• Youngest and leader of the first generation of titans, descendant of Uranus and Gaia

• Overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological golden age

• Devouring his children because of the prophecy (fear) that they will overthrow him

  • Ate each of his children at birth.

• Saturn in Roman Mythology

• Considered Father Time

• Wife tricked him into thinking he’s eating Zeus but he is actually eating a stone and the prophecy then comes true

• Thrown into prison.

Cupid and Phyche

• means soul or Anima.

• The tale comes form the roman writer Apuleius’s the Metamorphoses

• she is a princess that Aphrodite becomes jealous of, instructs her son cupid to make her fall in love with a hideous monster as revenge but instead falls in love with her himself

• Becomes her unseen husband that only visits her at night, psyche disobeys his orders to not look at him and as a result loses him.

  • To see him she uses a hot lamp and when she sees him she spills hot oil on him that wakes him up, flees to protect his identity

• Searches for him and undertakes a series of cruel and difficult tasks  set by Venus in hopes of seeing him again

• he can no longer take it to see her suffer or be apart from her and goes to Zeus.

• Council of the gods grants cupid his request and tells Venus to back off

• she becomes an immortal and the lovers are married in heaven

  • When their child is born their child is called pleasure.

Jason and the Golden Fleece

• Ancient Greek mythological hero and the leader of the argonauts

  • Known for the quest for the golden fleece

• Son of Aeson, the rightful king of lolcos

  • Great grandson for the god Hermes through his mother’s side

• Married to sorceress Medea.

• Jason appears in various literary works like the Aeronautica, tragedy Medea and inferno

• Connection outside the classical world being the mythical founder of the city of Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia

Odysseus

• Also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of homers epic poem the odyssey

• Also plays key role in homers Iliad during the trojan war

  • Idea for the trojan horse

• He blinds the cyclops polyphemus.

  • Son of Poseidon

• Incurs the wrath of Poseidon as he attempts to return home to Ithaca

Robin Goodfellow /Puck

• From English folklore, mythical character is a domestic and nature spirit, demon or fairy

• “Rob” Goblin = “Hob” Goblin (Robin short for Robert

• The term pixie derived from puck.

• For scots, the term brownie is used.

• Puck in a midsummer night dream the vassal of the fairy king Oberon (Mischievous)

King Arthur

• Historical figure- led the defense of Britain against the Saxons in the late 5th/ early 6th century

• Lives in Camelot with his queen Guinevere, surrounded by noble knights.

  • Had an affair with Lancelot.

• Popular because of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account of Arthur.

• Usually seen defending against villains and supernatural forces

• Pulls sword from the strong (placed by merlin) and becomes king

• His Legend: Built on a substructure of Celtic mythology (deals with a lot of witches, cauldrons, venture into the otherworld tow win some precious prize the Holy Grail

  • Reality: He never went on the quest his knights did.

• Affair between Sir Lancelot and Guinevere leads to his downfall

Quetazalcoatl

• Aztec god of wind and learning whos name means feathered serprent (flying reptile) around 400 BC – 600 AD

• Creator deity of mankind

• Since the 16th century it has been widely held that the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II initially believed the landing of Hernan Cortes in 1519 to be this character

Siegfried (Originally Sigfurd)

• A central figure of the German epic Nibelungenlied (circa 1203) and of Wagner Ring cycle

  • Kills dragon Fafnir, wooed Kriemhild sister of Gunther, the Burgundian King, Gunther granted this character her hand in marriage in return for his help in winning him the Amazonian queen Brunhild.

Viracocha

• The great creator deity in the Incan mythology

• Sun as a crown

Mama Cocha

• Sister wife goddess of the sea and fishes, guardian of sailors and fishermen

• Mother of inti (sun) and Kilya (moon)

• Live in lake Titicaca (Peru/Bolivia)

Kachina

• Spirits or personification of things in the real world, believed to visit the Hopi villages during the first half of the year

• Can represent the natural world or cosmos from a revered ancestor to an element

• Within the hopi culture they would dress up as these spirits or carve them into dolls

• Although not worshipped each is viewed as a powerful being who, if given veneration and respect, can use his particular power for human good.

  • Bring rainfall, healing, fertility, or protection.

Shango (change or Xango)

• orisha=a spirit who reflects one of the subordinate manifestations of the supreme divinity in the Yoruba religion

• He is considered one of the most powerful rulers in Yoruba land and is noted for his anger

  • Haiti: Voodoo god

• Candomblé: In Brazil, ______ took on strong importance for his qualities of strength, resistance, and aggression. He is noted as the god of lightning and thunder

Sun Wukong: The Monkey King

• A trickster god who plays a central role in the Chinese classical novel journey to the west

• Found in many later stories/ adaptation in both film and television, one of the most enduring Chinese literary characters with a varied background and colorful cultural history

• Due to populatrity of the Chinese novel various interpretations/ adaptations/ variations exist

  • Found in Dragon ball Z Goku has a son names Son Goku which can be translated from Japanese to mean Sun WuKong or Monkey King

The Jade King

• Represents the first God or ruler of the heavens.

• Governs the cosmos and resides in a magnificent palace in the highest part of heaven along with his large family and entourage of ministers and officials.

• Knowns as the lord of the heaven

Pan Gu

• His story has to do with the creation of how the world came to be

  • The universe within an egg with forces of yin(dark/female/cool) and yang(light/male/hot) interacted w/ each other.

• He is inside the egg and formed from forces for 18,000 years, when he awakens, he breaks the egg and the heavier elements from the egg form the earth and the lighter ones float to form the sky.

• In between the earth and sky was_________, as the earth and sky__ grew so did _________

• Torso limbs become mountains, eyes become moon and sun, his flesh the land, his hair the tree and plants, his breath the wind, his tears the sea, his voice the thunder and lighting, and the fleas become humanity

Anansi(a-nahn-see)

• Often takes shape of spider considered the spirit of all knowledge of stories.

• Most important characters of western Africa and Caribbean folklore

  • Comes from the Akan people of present in Ghana, Anansi is Akan and means spider

• Could look like an ordinary spider, spider wearing clothes or with a human face or like a human with spider elements.

Yoki

• Ghost, phantom, strange apparition

  • A class of supernatural monsters, spirit and demons in Japanese folklore

• Range from malevolent to mischievous, occasionally bring goof fortune to those who encounter them.

• Often possess animal features, other times they can appear mostly human, look like inanimate objects and others have no discernible shape.

  • Usually have spiritual or supernatural powers, shapeshifting being the most common

Forty-Seven Ronin

• A legendary/historical even in Japan in which a band of lordless samurai avenged the death of their master (1703)

• Story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless after their daimyo (feudal lord) Asano Naganori had to perform seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a powerful court official named Kira Yoshinaka

• Avenge the death of their master knowing full well that the authorities would likely not tolerate this vendetta completion and put them to death.

Kaiju

• Monsters and creatures from ancient Japanese legends (where monsters are animals or plants of abnormal, strange, or terrifying shape and size – fall largely withing the fantasy realm).

• Usually used for theatrical effects, in japan

• Apart of japans ancient dramatic art, and Bunraku, Japanses puppet theater, can be found in Kaiju eiga ( films)

  • Drew on special effects concept of tokusatsu, earliest origins of which trace themselves to Japan’s third traditional dramatic art. Kabuki.

Godzilla

• Originally a Jurassic creature that evolved from a sea reptile into a terrestrial monster, is awakened by mankind’s nuclear weapons tests in the inaugural film in 1954

• ________and other creatures in the efilms have become metapohors for social commentary on the real world. _ and his fellow kaiju monsters are more than mere entertainment icons- they have come to embody the emotions and social problems of our times

• …….. , in Japanese, is Gojira, which combines the Japanese words gorira (gorilla) and Kujira (whale), owing to the fact that in one planning stage, was described as a cross between a gorilla and a whale , due to its size, power and aquatic origin.

Anguirus

• Ankylosaur-like dinosaur

• First monster to challenge to Godzilla in Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

• Ultimately killed by Godzilla but a second iteration debuted in the film Destroy All Monsters in 1968

• Become a friend and ally to Godzilla, loyally fighting alongside him to fend off alien monsters such as King Ghidorah and Gigan

Rodan

• Giant prehistoric reptile, flying at the speed of a hypersonic aircraft

• First appeared as the title character in Ishiro Honsa’s 1965 film

• Rodan (Japanese)= a contraction of Pteranodon. The spelling of Radon corresponds to the name of Ladon, the dragon guarding the Hesperides in Greek mythology (there is no distinction between l and r in Japanese).

Mothra

• Gigantic female butterfly protector of nature, escorted by two tiny fairys

• First appeared in the 1961 film --------

• Recurring character in the Godzilla series

• Largely heroic character having been variously portrayed as a protector of her own island culture, the earth and Japan

• The most popular monsters and second only to Godzilla in her total number of film appearances

• Typically ------- = popular among Japanese women who were the largest demographic among Japan’s movie – going audience

Gamera

• Giant turtle (Kame + ra) / rival of Godzilla

• A giant, fire breathing, prehistoric turtle monster, mutated by exposure to nuclear weapons

• Initially is aggressive and destructive (1965 film)

• As the film progresses, -------- takes on a more benevolent role, becoming a protector of humanity and especially children, from extraterrestrial races and other giant monsters.

Varan

• A prehistoric reptilian creature that has back spines and lives in a saltwater lake and is able to glide/ fly

  • The name from “father of lizards”

• Defeated by Japanese military tricking it into eating bombs

Ghidorah

• Three headed golden dragon, Godzilla’s archenemy, seven origin stories, foe of Mothra, inspired by hydra, unicorn, Pegasus and c