The Story of Athena

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a small village. Each morning, you could see the men, in their heavy animal skin coats, herding the sheep up to the mountain pastures. These rugged men, with their long beards and fierce eyes would be accompanied by their half tamed dogs. The men would stay up in the mountain pastures for the day, with only their dogs as companions. When their sons were old enough, the sons would take part of the herd to a different pasture to graze.

Down in the small village, the women, dressed in their drab clothing, would tend the garden, do chores and prepare the evening meal. When the girls were old enough, they would help with the chores around the small house. The girls fed the chickens, collected the eggs, helped wash the clothes in the small stream that meandered by the village.

Sometimes there was a conflict with neighboring villages, as all the men wanted the best pasture land for their herds. None of these people had any idea of weapons. When there was a fight, it was usually with fisticuffs.

Men from another place invaded this small pastoral land. These other men had weapons. They used bows and arrows, killed some of the villagers and stole some of their herds. Then these invaders demanded payment for leaving the villages alone. Some of the young girls were taken as prizes for these roving bands of marauders.

This situation went on for a long time. One day, a woman appeared in this village. She was tall, had black hair and green eyes just as fierce as the men of the village. The villagers immediately did not trust this newcomer. They had never seen anyone with green eyes before.

The men gathered to challenge her as they believed she was really a spy the invaders had sent. When one of the men went to strike her, she immediately set him on his hindquarters. When another man tried to strike her, she did the same to him. The men were taken back. A woman could best them was a shock to them. After all, women were weak and belonged in the home. They were not supposed to know how to fight. The men demanded answers from this strange woman.

She told them she came from a far off land. When her home was destroyed, she became a wanderer. As she liked mountains, she decided to come to their area. The men decided she would be allowed to stay for a little while. When asked her name, she simply said my name is Attene.

Attene had been in the village for a few days, when the marauders returned. She watched, but said nothing as they took part of the herd, and two young girls. After the marauders left, she questioned why the villagers allowed this to occur. The villagers told her about the weapons the marauders had and how they had already killed some of the men of the village. Attene told them all the invaders had were bows and arrows. She would teach the men how to use these weapons also. The men were shocked. This woman not only knew how to use these new weapons but was also willing to teach them. The men accepted her offer.

The next time the villagers saw the marauders advancing to their village, they quickly went to Attene and told her. She positioned the men around the village, in various hiding spots. They could see the marauders, but the invaders could not see them. Attene stood in the middle of the village and waited. The marauders rushed up to her, demanding to know where the men were and where their payment was. Attene told them the payment had stopped and they should leave immediately. When the chief of the marauders made a threatening gesture toward her, she pulled out a knife and killed him. The men of the village saw this, gained courage and used the bows and arrows she had taught them to make and use. They felled most of the marauders and the rest scattered, never to return to that village.

Attene stayed in the village, and taught them many things. She showed the women how to use herbs as cures. She gave counsel to disagreements that occasionally occurred. She became the wise woman of the village. Surrounding villages heard of her and came to learn also. Soon the length and breath of that far away land knew of Attene and her wisdom.

Attene was a very old woman when she died. The villagers buried her in a place of honor. Many generations from that time on, bowed in respect as they passed her resting place. The story of Attene was handed down from generation to generation, of her wisdom, and her ability to win battles. Of course, over time the stories became more and more exaggerated.

Her resting place was forgotten, but not the story of Attene. The story became legend, and the legend became myth. Her name changed over time, and she began to be called Athene. Athene gradually changed to Athena.

This is why the Greek goddess Athena is the goddess of wisdom and of war.

She is the only one of the Greek gods that sprang full grown from the head of Zeus. Mythology tells us she had no mother. This is because she was once a real person who had gone to Greece after her home was destroyed.

Athena was a high priestess in Atlantis. She carried the knowledge of that ancient civilization with her when she left. She was safely away when her home sink beneath the sea.

Athena_Louise

The Story of Athena

P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

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P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

From the Grammy Nominated album The Truth About Love available now - smarturl.it Music video by P!nk featuring Nate Ruess performing Just Give Me A Reason. (C) 2012 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

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P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

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Ruskin Bond's Short Stories

Ruskin Bond's short stories are like photographs. They give us a picture in an instant, almost like the flash of a camera. With Bond, each story is also an experience. There are two ways in which these experiences have been unfolded; firstly through the experiences of Bond as a boy and secondly through his experiences as an adult. The experiences could be of some passing incident of life, uniquely remembered though; or it could be just a vision, a glimpse, a happening or a passing relationship.

In The Woman on Platform No. 8 for instance, it is just a woman who suddenly mothers him as a boy, fusses over him and thus becomes etched in the memory of the child. In The Coral Tree on the other hand, where he is an adult, just the experience of climbing a tree makes him nostalgically think about his grandfather's house and he suddenly longs for childhood.

There are two categories into which Bond's short stories could be divided. First are remembrances and memories. Bond pens down the past, when he was a child and which he remembers as an adult. These memories and experiences or childhood remembrances of the past or experience of the present, are such that in them nothing really happens.

The second category are the narratives, where something happens. In both cases Bond is lucid, clear and instant, so that the experiences are transmitted to us in their most original selves. Again, the experiences that he puts down, are at many times universal; like the boys playing cricket in The Photograph, which he recalls when he was a boy of ten.

To take up the remembrances or experiences first; certain features clearly emerge as the author pens them. It is the idiosyncrasies of the old that Bond depicts when his grandmother looks at the picture of a small girl in The Photograph again and refuses stubbornly to reveal the identity of the girl. Nothing happens in the story, except the last remark of the grandmother that keeps us guessing that it could be her own self. This story falls under the first category. Numerous other stories fall under this category. There are some odd sixty five stories of Bond's from which some selected stories could be commented upon. Under the categories of remembrances especially are stories like The Window, The Man Who Was Kipling,A Guardian Angel, The Prospect of Flowers, A Face in the Dark, The Cherry Tree and so on.

In The Window Bond remembers a window simply because of the view it had given; the quizzical encounter with Kipling in The Man Who Was Kipling or simply the sadness of life itself as in The Guardian Angel. In this story Bond presents the grotesque truth of his Aunt Mirium pleasing customers at night, the sadness of her life, and the broken piece of guardian angel that stood as her gravestone. This gravestone is remembered and it remains also in the memory of the reader. Certain features emerge from such stories; there are quite often encounters with little girls, when Bond was also a boy, or encounters with grandmotherly women or doting motherly figures, who could be an aunt or a teacher. In The Night Train at Deoli it is just an encounter with a girl and then as the train moves, she passes as a figure. In The Prospect of Flowers there is Miss Mackenzie and just a talk on flowers. A Face in the Dark is also the tale of a teacher. Little girls figure in Madhu or Binya Passes By. In My Father's Trees at Dehra, nothing really happens except that trees are planted, and that they will grow constitutes the enjoyment of it. Somewhat similar is the theme The Cherry Tree. As Time Goes By is again the remembrance of a pool in which Bond and his playmates used to play and enjoy as boys. From Small Beginnings has uniquely nostalgic and poignant moments of planting a cherry tree and friendship with Prem Singh. The most striking instance of a story which is the remembrance of experiences is perhaps in The Girl from Copenhagen that has an intimate beginning 'We made no promises- of writing or of meeting again. Somehow our relationships seemed complete and whole...'

Before passing on to the narrative stories, one could look in passing at some of the longer short stories, there are especially three stories of such a kind: Panther's Moon, Time Stops at Shamli and Dust on the Mountain with similar features as in the short stories. In the first one a panther is killed by the author's friend Bisnu, and the sheer excitement of the villagers is depicted; in the second one there is again an experience with trees and nostalgia for childhood. The Dust on the Mountain is a picture of the choking dust of mines and quarries. In these stories too nothing seems to happen, except experiences penned down. The first story however is a narration which brings us to the narratives.

In The Thief for instance the author himself is a thief and his exploit is narrated. The Death of a Familiar is the narration of the murder of his friend Sunil. There is the rather grotesque account of monkeys in The Monkeys who kill to take revenge for the death of one in their gang. A Job Well Done is narrator where Dukhi the gardener murders the Major and in The Fight he gives the account of Ranji's fight with the villagers on an issue of not obeying orders regarding swimming in a pool. The Tunnel again is just an experience. In Going Home something happens, Daya Ram finds back the lost purse which he had lost or which had been stolen on the train. Some of Bond's stories revolve round tigers which were his real life experience since he had grown up in Dehra Dun. Eyes of a Cat, and Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, are stories where the detailing of the description of the tigers is worth noting.

Ruskin Bond was also well known for his ghost stories. In The Haunted Bicycle the little girl changes ridiculously into a grown man. The other ghost story is Whispering in the Dark while stories like He Said it With Arsenic are written in the detective story vein.

Whatever it may be after reading the short stories of Bond the reader-author relationship seems to be as quoted before 'complete and whole.'

Ruskin Bond's Short Stories

P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

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P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

From the Grammy Nominated album The Truth About Love available now - smarturl.it Music video by P!nk featuring Nate Ruess performing Just Give Me A Reason. (C) 2012 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

P!nk - Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess

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From the Grammy Nominated album The Truth About Love available now - smarturl.it Music video by P!nk featuring Nate Ruess performing Just Give Me A Reason. (C) 2012 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

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Story Mountain

Ruskin Bond's Short Stories

Ruskin Bond's Short Stories
Ruskin Bond's Short Stories

Story Mountain


From the Grammy Nominated album The Truth About Love available now - smarturl.it Music video by P!nk featuring Nate Ruess performing Just Give Me A Reason. (C) 2012 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

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Story Mountain

The Story of Athena

The Story of Athena
The Story of Athena

Story Mountain