Reading Notes: Aesop's Fables: Lions (Part 1-2)

I've chosen to focus my notes on the first two readings due to the fact that they can be applied so heavily to one of my storybook topics that I've written about previously. In both parts of Aesop's Fables: Lions, the Lion is depicted in a different fashion than we are accustomed to (or at the very least, I am accustomed to). Lions are generally depicted as the fiercest, most feared animal of the wild, yet in a few of Aesop's stories, the Lion is seen in a different manner. As a matter of fact, the Lion is shown more as a victim in some of the stories. In Androcles and the Lion, the Lion is show to be a victim who is in need of saving from a small thorn. In another story, The Lion in Love, the Lion is depicted to be a victim of love, with two different narratives either ending in embarrassment or death. I really like this style of writing that gives us a different and unusual look into different characters that we already know. I've seen this style of writing in different comics, like where Superman is depicted as a scrawny, sheltered man instead of the muscular hero that we all know. I hope to write something similar into my storybook project, where Hercules transforms from one of the strongest, most revered demigods of all Greek/Roman mythology into a meek delivery boy with no real physical prowess. My goal is to create a character that is recognizable to the reader, yet make it so that this version of the character is far from being the character that we all know. The Lion being shown as vulnerable captures this unique style that I hope to be able to apply to my own story.

(The Lion in Love:

Myth-Folklore UN-Textbook)

Bibliography: Aesop's Fables by Joseph Jacobs; UN-Textbook link.