Reading Notes: a Divine Metamorphosis Trickster ....... that sounds like Loki doesn't it?

Susanoo battling Orochi by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (made in 1887)

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi: This is a pretty basic story out about a God slaying an evil being. Susanoo does most of the talking and the two elder deities talk some. Kushinada-hime does not speak at all in the tale which gives a lot of opportunity when rewriting. Overall, the basic nature of the tale and the lack of character development gives a lot of freedom in modifying the tale.


Pygmalion: Initial impression was that Pygmalion is crazy for devoting so much time and affection to a statue he made. The only characters are Pygmalion, the unnamed statue, and Venus. Plenty of opportunity to explore what happens after the statue becomes human. Likewise, it might be fun to consider that Pygmalion really was insane and the statue never became human.


The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal: I’ve always been fond of trickster stories since they generally rely more on wit than anything else. Main characters of this story are the brahman, tiger, and jackal. Other characters are most irrelevant and might not need to be present in a retelling. The Brahman does not say anything during the exchange between the tiger and the jackal, might be interesting to have him monologue his thoughts.