Topic Brainstorm

    The first possible topic I could potentially do my project on this semester is Mermaids. I'm intrigued by this topic because I've always been fascinated by the concept of mermaids, especially as an adolescent. I watched many documentaries on potential mermaid sitings and it's interesting to compare the version often seen in pop culture to the versions seen more so mythology. Much of what I know about mermaids fall under their other name, sirens. I know that they can be associated with floods and shipwrecks because they use their song to lure sailors to crash on their rocky shores. I think it would be interesting to look at stories about shipwrecks associated with sirens and tell them from the perspective of the mermaid, or even classic stories like the little mermaid and turn her into more of a siren type figure rather than a loving mermaid. A possible source I could use for this topic would be The Little Mermaid and other Tales by Hans Christian Anderson.

(Gustav Wertheimer (Austrian, 1847-1904), 'The kiss of the siren' by sofi01)

    The second possible topic I would like to look into to do my project is Greek Gods and Goddesses, specifically those of Olympus. I could play around with this one a bit, focusing on either Gods like Poseidon, Zeus, and Aries or take the route of Goddesses, looking at Aphrodite, Athena, and Artemis. I know much of the basics about the Gods and Goddesses like their different powers, what they rule over, and some of the hierarchical aspects, but I don't know many of the specific stories associated with each specific God and Goddess, which is something I would like to learn more about. I could either pick a specific God or Goddess and center my project around them or look at the group of them and potentially and do a retelling of a classic story by forcing them into some type of modern scenario. A potential source I could use would be Lucian's Dialogues; namely, The dialogues of the gods, of the sea-gods, and of the dead; by Howard Williams (1888).

    The third possible topic for my project is the Greek Underworld. Hades, brother of Zeus and Poseidon, is the well-known ruler of the Greek Underworld. I know the story of the abduction of Persephone as his bride by force and how she was forced to return to him for a portion of each year due to the fact that she had tasted of the pomegranate seed. I hope to learn more about specific stories involving Hades and Persephone and could mess with the point of view in some of the retellings, possibly incorporating some of the Olympian Gods to be able to explore a little bit of both topics. A possible source I could use is The Mythology of Greece and Rome by O. Seemann.

    The final possible topic I could do my project over is Vampires. Like mermaids, I have been very interested in them since my adolescence and I think it would be fun to dive into some of the folklore surrounding them, especially comparing that to their representation in pop culture. I know about specific qualities vampires have, like immortality and bloodlust, and how to repel them, light and garlic. There are a lot of discrepancies in different descriptions of them depending on where you look. While I know a lot about what vampires are and a lot of the characteristics of what they have, I don't know a lot of the specific folklore surrounding them outside of their representation in pop culture and literature and I would like to learn more about that. This webpage has a lot of information on vampires that I could use to supply some of the information on them.