Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

The Divine: Susano and Orochi 

The story that was the most interesting to me was the Japanese legend about the eight headed monster. It reminded me of a lot of other myths and legends I've read about from Western culture - Beowolf, Odysseus, and even some of the Canterbury tales. Divine beings masking their true identities, saving the "damsel in distress," and slaying a monster are all common themes in mythology. This particular story has an interesting detail - Susano turns the princess into a comb to keep in his hair during the battle. For some reason, I keep turning this little detail over in my mind and trying to figure out why he did that. It was mentioned so casually that maybe it wasn't intended to be noteworthy, but it stuck out as strange to me. It made me wonder what the experience of the princess was during this whole story, and what her thoughts on everything would have been. 

Plot:
- Susano comes across a beautiful young princess and her two parents
- the monster Orochi has killed all their other daughters and is about to kill this one too :(
- Susano agrees to slay the monster if he can marry the princess
    - he reveals that he is a god --> they agree
- Susano turns the princess into a comb that he keeps in his hair and prepares for the battle
    -why did he do this?
- he tricks Orochi into drinking a lot of sake and he falls asleep
- Susano cuts of Orochi's heads and marries the princess

Response:
- why does Susano turn the princess into a comb? 
- what was the response of her parents?
- what did the princess think about all this?

Bibliography "The Eight Forked Serpent of Koshi," Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917). https://sites.google.com/view/mythfolkloreanthology/the-divine?authuser=0

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