purple_curtain's New Writeups

The Golden Key (thing)

2002-09-14T19:02:25Z

Der goldene Schlüssel

The concluding story from the fairy tale collection Children's and Household Tales, compiled by the Brothers Grimm. The tale ends openly; a nice metaphor invites the reader to discover the contents of the casket with their own key.

In the wintertime, when a thick blanket of snow lay on the ground, a poor young boy was forced to go out on a toboggan and fetch some wood. Now, when he had found and gathered some together, he wished, because he was freezing so, not to go straight home but first to make a fire and warm himself a little.
So he scratched away at the snow, and while he was clearing the ground thus, he found a small golden key. Now he thought: where the key was, its lock must also be, and he dug into the ground and found an iron casket.
"If the key would but fit!" he thought. "There are certainly expensive things in that casket." He looked, but there

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Cosmogony (idea)

2002-07-08T21:33:15Z

Cosmogonies from All Over The Place

Asterisks mark those which have been noded.

Tribal Cosmogonies:

African -

Boshongo (Bantu tribe of Central Africa)
Dogon (Mesopotamian)
Efik (tribe of Nigeria)
Ekoi (tribe of South Nigeria)
Fans (Bantu tribe)
Generic*
Shillluk (also called Shilluk)
Wahungwe (tribe of Rhodes Island)
Yoruba: Olurun & Obatala (tribe of Southwestern Nigeria)
Yoruba: Olurun & Oduduwa

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The Twelve Idle Servants (thing)

2002-06-13T11:36:22Z

A story from the fairy tale collection Children's and Household Tales, famously compiled by the Brothers Grimm.

Twelve servants, who had the entire day done nothing, would still not strain themselves in the evening, but lay in the grass and boasted to each other of their laziness.

The first said, "What is your laziness to me? I must concern myself with my own. Caring about my own life is my main occupation: I eat no little amount and drink still more. When I have taken four meals, I fast for a short while until I feel hunger again; that suits me best. Getting up early is not my thing; when it is around midday I look to rise from my resting place. When the master calls, I act as if I had not heard him, and when he calls for the second time I wait for a while longer till I arise, and then also go right slowly. Life like this is bearable."

The second said, "I have a horse to take care of, but I leave the bit in his mouth, and when I do not…

The Peasant's Clever Daughter (thing)

2002-06-11T19:11:28Z

A story from the fairy tale collection Children's and Household Tales, famously compiled by the Brothers Grimm.

There was once a poor farmer who had no land, only a small house and single daughter. His daughter said to him, "We should plead to the King for a small piece of land." And so the king heard of their poverty, and gave them a corner of grass, which the girl and her father hoed and wished to sow in it a little corn and one or two kinds of fruit.

Just as they were finishing hoeing the field, they found a mortar of pure gold in the earth. "Listen," said the father to his daughter, "because the King was so merciful to us and gave us this field, we must go and give him this mortar." But the daughter did not want to allow this, and said, "Father, if we have the mortar and not the pestle, we must also search for the pestle, and you had better keep quiet about it."

But he did not want to listen to her; he took…

Peplos (thing)

2002-06-03T16:06:34Z

One of the earliest forms of female dress, the peplos was worn by goddesses, housewives and slaves alike. The garment dates back to the 12^th century B.C., and gave rise to the chiton, a dress very similar in style. Its main difference was that the apoptygma, the top overfold, was shorter (about one foot, or at least enough to cover the breasts), but the style of the peplos tended to be narrower and more accentuating than that of the chiton. Additionally, the peplos would almost invariably be embroidered around the edges, whereas the chiton was usually plain.

There were two variants of the peplos, namely the ionic and the doric. These terms pertained to the two eras/styles of Greek architecture: the Doric, which was the later and plainer style of the two, and the Ionic, the style of which was more elegant and effeminate (cf. Ionia, the collective areas of Asia Minor occupied by the Greeks). In accordance with this the ionic peplos held smaller and more graceful…

Chlamys (thing)

2002-06-02T15:07:53Z

Allegedly invented by the 6^th century B.C. poet Sappho, the chlamys was the ancient version of a poncho. The cloak was a variation of the Thessalian cape, made from a circular or square piece of linen or wool, and was worn alone or over a chiton by respectable men. It was ideal for hunting, riding, fighting and travelling, as the draping was loose and allowed for much movement.

The chlamys was especially popular in the 7^th-5^th centuries (the classical period) and was one of the smallest garments for men, measuring 6 feet across and only around 2 feet long. The cloth was folded in half around the body and fastened at the front or at the right shoulder, covering one arm and exposing the other. The wearer of the cloak would have to be immodest - it exposed both legs and genitalia. (The chlamys is still worn in some naturist communities.) In later centuries, the chlamys lengthened and became the…