Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths & Stories, Part A


Glass sculpture of a crocodile

Out of the stories in Part A, the ones that most interested me were "The Wax Crocodile" and "The Green Jewel", as I was already largely familiar with the aspects of Egyptian mythology/folklore that were told in the rest of the section.

"The Wax Crocodile" was probably the more interesting of the two. I think that story offers a lot to potentially work with. It might also be a fitting story for my portfolio, since it again has a bond between human and monster. 

It might be interesting to explore about the young man a bit more, since he somehow survived for seven days just fine, and then simply stood there before the pharaoh and scribe after having been released by the crocodile. That might be one of the things I would change if I end up retelling the story, since it didn't make a lot of sense.

"The Green Jewel" reminded me a bit of the story of Moses parting the Red Sea, only for something completely frivolous. The entire story just really highlighted how different the life of a pharaoh was, where asking something like this was not plausible, but perceived as normal. 

But if I rewrote that story, I'd likely make it a bit more interesting and climactic rather than just having it be a nonchalant feat of magic like in the original story. With the way it was written, it almost made the act seem somewhat mundane.

Story Sources:

"The Wax Crocodile" by Donald Mackenzie

"The Green Jewel" by Donald Mackenzie

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