Week 12 Review

My favorite item from this week's announcement is the post about the phrase "Achilles' Heel", originating from Greek mythology.  This is my favorite post because I have always loved Greek mythological stories and all of the characters and gods and goddesses that are involved.  Achilles was especially fascinating to me because of his expertise in fighting and his bravery.

Statue of the Dying Achilles

Reading Diary A: Gleanings from Indian Classics: Krishna and Kabir

For this week's reading, I have begun reading a book that introduces Krishna and the Buddha as wise and spiritual leaders.  I thought this book would be perfect for me to read this week since the theme of my portfolio is about Parashurama, the wise spiritual leader, and could greatly benefit from including other powerful spiritual leaders as well. The story begins by explaining the birth of Krishna, as his mother and father were held captive by the wife's evil brother, who is the tyrannical king of their village.  According to prophecy, the king's sister would give birth to eight children and the eighth and final son born would kill the king.  In order to prevent this, he locks up his sister and her husband in his palace and kills the first seven children born but they manage to get the eighth child out safely; this is Krishna.  Krishna eventually returns to this kingdom, knowing that the king wishes to kill him but once he arrives, slays the king on the spot and releases his father from prison to once again rule as a just leader.  This story is very interesting because the later part of Part A for this book merges Krishna with the 5 Pandava brothers from the Mahabharata.  It's like this book is from the same timeline of the Mahabharata, but starts with the point of view of Krishna and his back story, rather than from that of the 5 brothers.  I love this reading so far and can't wait to read more.

Krishna entertaining a maiden