You decipher the cryptic symbols and follow the clues left behind, each step taking you closer to the hidden treasure you seek. As you journey deeper, the sunlight filters through the canopy, casting a magical glow on the path ahead. 

And then, as if by some stroke of luck, you stumble upon a clearing bathed in golden light. Before your eyes lies a sight straight out of a dream—a magnificent city with towering temples dressed with dazzling jewels and vibrant golden pillars stretching toward the heavens. 

The cobblestone pathways shine with gold, illuminating each step you take. Emeralds, rubies, and sapphires create a mesmerizing display of colors atop each building.You can hardly contain your amazement almost in disbelief. This is it. This is the lost city, the legendary El Dorado.” 

Have you ever heard of the legend of the City of El Dorado? It’s a tale that has captured the imagination of people for centuries and has even made its way into popular culture, including the animated Dreamworks movie called “The Road to El Dorado.”

This city of gold has become a symbol of adventure and riches, inspiring many stories, books, and movies.

But what is the true story behind the legend of the Golden City? Is it really out there? El Dorado was a mythical city that people believed was hidden deep within the unexplored lands. 

Imagine a place with streets made of pure gold, temples that glimmered like the sun, and mines filled with sparkling gold and silver. People couldn’t resist the thought of this unimaginably rich city, and adventurers from all over Europe set out on daring expeditions to find it.

From the 1530s to around 1650, brave explorers ventured into the dense jungles, vast plains, towering mountains, and winding rivers of South America, all in search of the mystical El Dorado. They were determined to discover its hidden secrets and claim the incredible treasures for themselves. But the journey was perilous, and many explorers even lost their lives in the pursuit of this legendary city.

Some believe El Dorado was nothing more than a product of people’s wild imaginations! The city has never been found, making El Dorado one of history’s greatest mysteries.

The roots of the El Dorado myth can be traced back to the gold discovered in Mexico and Peru during the 16th century. The Spanish conquistadors played a role in the creation of this tale. 

Do you know what a conquistador is? Spanish conquistadors were explorers and soldiers from Spain who lived a long time ago. They embarked on daring adventures to discover new lands and find treasures in the Americas, across the ocean from their home. When these conquistadors arrived in the Americas, they encountered different civilizations, such as the Incas and the Aztec Indians.

In 1519, a Spanish conquistador named Hernán Cortés led an expedition to Mexico where he captured Emperor Montezuma who was the King of the mighty Aztec Empire, after he captured Montezuma he stole all of his gold! The conquerors gained large amounts of gold and silver, becoming very wealthy when they returned to their homes in Spain. Their successes inspired others to dream of riches in the Americas.

In 1533, Francisco Pizarro embarked on a journey that led him to the Inca Empire in the Andes of South America. Following in Cortés’ footsteps, Pizarro captured the Inca Emperor Atahualpa, holding him for ransom. Holding someone for ransom is when a person is captured or taken against their will, and the captors demand something in exchange for their release. Usually, they ask for something valuable, like money or treasures. They wanted something valuable, like gold or silver, to be given to them in exchange for the release of the captured Atahualpa. Through this cruel act, Pizarro became very wealthy.

Other civilizations in the New World, such as the Maya also had treasures that the Spanish Conquistadors wanted. The tales of these conquests gave birth to the legend of El Dorado. 

As a result, many European adventurers traveled to the New World eager to discover gold. Although they were very poor, these daring individuals possessed immense ambition. However, many of them were men driven by violence, greed, and ruthlessness, with nothing to lose; their ultimate goal was to gain riches through the discovery of gold in the New World, even if it meant risking their lives. 

These hopeful conquerors flooded to the Americas and followed even the smallest rumors about where it might be hidden.

Like any legend, there is often some kernel of truth in the wild stories. In present-day Colombia, there was a group of people called the Muisca. Their kings had a special tradition. They would cover themselves in a sticky sap and then sprinkle golden powder all over their bodies. 

The king would then get into a canoe and go to the middle of Lake Guatavitá. Thousands of people would watch from the shore as the king jumped into the lake and came out completely clean. Afterward, everyone would celebrate with a big festival.

When the Spanish explorers arrived in 1537, the Muisca had stopped practicing this tradition. But rumors about it had already spread among the greedy explorers in cities all across the continent. 

The Spanish explorers started calling this king “El Dorado,” which means “the gilded one” in Spanish. It was because he covered himself in gold. 

Once the land of the Muisca was taken over by the Spanish, they became very interested in finding the legendary gold of El Dorado. They thought they would discover huge amounts of gold when they looked in the Lake Guatavitá. While they did find some gold, it wasn’t as much as they had hoped for. So, they thought maybe the Muisca people weren’t the true kingdom of El Dorado. They believed that somewhere out there, the real El Dorado was waiting to be found.

So did explorers ever find El Dorado? Well, the answer isn’t very straightforward. The conquistadors followed stories about El Dorado to a place called Cundinamarca, but they didn’t believe they had found the legendary city, so they kept searching. What they didn’t know was that the Muisca civilization was the last major native culture with riches. The legendary El Dorado they were looking for after 1537 turned out to not exist. But they didn’t give up easily. Many expeditions continued to explore South America and while they didn’t find gold, they did uncover many ruins and we now realize that the Maya and many of these civilizations were huge, complex, and very powerful. At some point, they did probably have large amounts of gold, but as the cities turned to ruin, the riches disappeared.

The legend of El Dorado has remained a popular folktake. People love the idea of lost cities of treasure, just like they seek out lost pirate treasure and sunken ships.

Archeologists still hunt for these places today, although the goal is to learn more about ancient people and how they lived, not in search of gold!

The post The Legend of El Dorado for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

These are all questions about identity, something that was of great interest to the famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. She was known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and other paintings inspired by nature and the culture of Mexico. Much of her work today is seen as explorations of identity; who we are when viewed by ourselves and by others.

 Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico, at her family home called La Casa Azul, or The Blue House. She had three sisters. Her father was a photographer. 

When she was six years old, Frida contracted polio, which weakened her legs severely, even making her right leg shorter and thinner than the left. While she was getting better, she had to be alone, although Frida was able to spend much of the time with her father, who taught her many subjects, including nature, good books, and photography. He also encouraged to play sports as a way to regain her strength and movement after her illness. While she was learning from her father, Frida was able to help him with his photography, performing tasks like retouching, developing and coloring his photos. 

Frida went to a special school called the National Preparatory School. Its students focused on learning science with the goal of eventually becoming a doctor. At the time, the school had just started accepting women. Frida was a very smart student, read many books, and became very interested in Mexican culture. 

At school Frida was hurt very badly when a bus she was on hit an electric streetcar. Among other injuries, her pelvic bone was fractured, her spine was broken in three places, her right leg was broken in eleven places, her right foot was crushed and dislocated, and her collar bone was broken. Frida would br stuck in bed for three months as she underwent recovery to heal from the accident. Because of her injuries and the amount of time it took to recover from them, Frida would not be able to continue on with her plans of becoming a doctor. During this time Frida found joy in art, and took up her childhood hobby of painting again. Her mother made her a special easel that she could use while laying in bed, and Frida placed a mirror above the easel so that she could see herself. She said “I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best.” For her paintings, Frida preferred to paint things as she saw them with her own eyes. Frida also painted portraits of her sisters and her school friends.

In 1928, Frida met another artist named Diego Rivera. She asked him to give her his opinion of her work, and he was impressed. He called Frida “an authentic artist.” They would later marry and settle in Cuernavaca, where Diego had been asked to paint murals at the Palace of Cortes. Her parents referred to Frida and Diego as “the dove and the elephant” in regards to the great difference between their sizes. 

While they were in Cuernavaca, Frida continued to paint and drew even more inspiration from Mexcian culture and other Mexican artists. While murals (these are large paintings often featuring big groups of people or other subjects) were very popular at the time, Frida Kahlo chose to paint in the style of small portraits, modeling her work after retablos, religious paintings on small metal sheets. She continued to focus on painting her subjects (herself included) realistically, including items from Mexican culture and nature to express herself and her ideas about herself and others. 

After her husband’s work was completed in Cuernavaca, Frida and Diego moved to San Francisco, where he was asked to complete more murals, or large paintings. Frida spent time in Detroit and New  York City as well, and became more comfortable talking about herself and her work. It was in San Francisco that Frida showed off one of her paintings for the first time. 

In 1934 Frida returned to Mexico City, but she was not able to paint because of her poor health. About three years later she painted more, and her art continued to be shown off in galleries. It was also during this time that Frida made her first major sale of art, and received recognition from the French painter Andre Breton. Breton convinced Frida to open her first solo exhibition in New York City. An exhibition is when you show off your artwork. Frida’s Paris exhibition was not as successful as her New York showing; however, the Louvre museum purchased her work entitled The Frame, which gave Frida the honor of being the first Mexican artist to be featured in their collection. Frida Kahlo has a piece of her art hanging in the same museum as the Mona Lisa!

Frida Kahlo also spent her time to furthering the education of the Mexican people about their heritage and culture. She became a founding member of the Seminario de Cultura Mexicana, a group of twenty-five artists asked to spread public knowledge of Mexican culture. Her work with this group included planning shows and attending conferences on art. 

In 1943, Kahlo took a teaching position at a school in Mexico City. Here she helped her students to gain a greater appreciation for Mexican popular culture and folk art. She encouraged her students to take inspiration from the people and things around them, and to portray them as they saw them in real life – or ‘on the street.’ As her health got worse, Frida was unable to teach at the school, so she began teaching classes from her home, La Casa Azul. Four of her students devoted themselves to learning from and helping care for Frida – they were referred to as ‘Los Fridos’ for their dedication to their teacher.

Frida finally had the chance for her own solo exhibition in Mexico, in 1953, towards the end of her life. Her health was so poor that the doctors advised her against attending the gallery and the showing, but she felt so strongly about her art that she insisted on having her bed moved from her home to the gallery. She was transported there by ambulance and spent the evening of the exhibition in her bed in the gallery. 

Frida passed away in her home the following year at the age of 47.

It might be difficult to believe, but Frida Kahlo’s popularity and the world’s appreciation for her work has only grown after her death. Mexico has declared her paintings part of their national cultural heritage, and several of her paintings have sold for millions of dollars each at art auctions. Her home is now a museum that is visited by around 25,000 people a month. There is also a park with a bronze statue in it dedicated to her in Mexico. She was the first Mexican woman to be featured on a US postage stamp. She has been the subject of movies, ballets, operas, and she even appeared as herself in the Disney movie Coco.

People are interested in Frida Kahlo  because of the way she lived her life and how she approached her works of art. Frida believed that people should be seen as they are, and let her portraits speak for themselves. She painted art when she was in pain, when she was happy, and when she was sad. Frida Kahlo’s art helped her express herself, and helped people see her as she truly was. 

That’s one of the great things about art; when you look at it, you can decide how it makes you feel, and even let it help you express your feelings. 

The post History of Frida Kahlo for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Not surprisingly, Paris is one of the most popular cities to visit in the world. People from all over the globe come to stroll its wide streets, eat at its famous cafes, and take pictures in front of the shining Eiffel Tower. Some call it “The City of Love.” Others think of it as “The City of Light.” 

But Paris hasn’t always been the beautiful and magical place that many people consider it to be today. The city and its people have survived devastating plagues, invasions, and revolutions that threatened to destroy it entirely. But it’s actually this eventful history that makes Paris such a cool and fascinating city.

So what do you say we take a trip through the streets of Paris together? We’ll tour some of its famous buildings and landmarks, learn a little bit about why they have become so well-known, and discover some of the city’s many secrets.     

To really understand Paris, we have to start our tour on the River Seine. This river flows for almost 500 miles throughout France, but it is perhaps most known for snaking its way through Paris. [1] In the heart of the city sits a famous island that divides the river. It’s called Île de la Cité. In English, this means Island of the City.

It was on this tiny island that the city of Paris began! The first king of France lived here thousands of years ago. [2] Living in the middle of the river was not only fun, it was pretty practical. It let the king trade easily with nearby cities. It made it hard for anyone to invade without warning. And it had the best soil for growing crops. Pretty nice place to start a city, right?

Today, the island boasts a large cathedral called Notre Dame built there between 1163 and 1345 A.D. If you do a little subtraction, you’ll realize that this means it took almost 200 years to build this one church! [3] But if you are ever able to see it in person, you’ll likely agree that it was time well spent  In fact, Notre Dame is considered one of the most beautiful Catholic cathedrals in the world. It was also once known as “point zero” because it was used to measure distances within Paris and to other places in France. [3]  

Next on our tour is a museum. An art museum, to be exact. Actually, it’s the most popular museum in the world. It’s known as the Louvre.  About 7.5 million people come to appreciate the art within its walls each year. [5]

And there is plenty to see! The Louvre is home to hundreds of thousands of pieces of art. [15] The most famous piece, however, is the Mona Lisa, which was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1500s. [6]  People stand in line for hours sometimes to see this woman and her mysterious smile! Visitors can also wander through the four floors of the museum to see pieces from artists from all over the world and throughout history. Some of the art in the Louvre is 9,000 years old. [15]

The Louvre wasn’t always a museum though. In the 1100s, a guy named King Philip II built a mighty fortress where the Louvre sits today to defend against some unwelcome invaders. [6] Then, about 400 years later, King Francis I tore it down and built a palace. [6] 

Every king that came after Francis decided the palace was just a tad too small and had a new addition built. But hey, that just means it has plenty of room for all that really cool art today! Eventually, King Louis XIV decided that he did not want to live in the middle of such a crowded city, so he left and had his own palace built outside of Paris. [7] 

It took another 200 years before somebody said, “Wait! This old castle would make a great museum!” or something like that anyway. The French government found a bunch of art and added a beautiful garden for museum-goers to stroll through. Even more recently, they had a modern artist create a glass pyramid as the entrance to the museum. [7]  

Just a short walk from the Louvre is a wide boulevard called the Champs Elysees. This mile-long street is filled with shops, museums, restaurants, and even movie theaters. Every year, a famous bike race known as the Tour de France finishes on the Champs Elysees, too.

The Champs Elysees was built in the 1600s. But for two hundred years, it was just a street like any other in Paris. [8] It took a revolution to make it famous. It all started with a bunch of angry people throwing furniture in the streets of Paris. 

In 1789, French people were super angry with their king. To show him just how mad they were, they barricaded the streets. Remember they didn’t have a lot of money to build anything fancy. So, they basically gathered furniture, trash, and pretty much anything else they could find and piled it up to block the narrow streets. [11]  

Eventually, the people managed to overthrow the king. [12] A number of years later, a guy named Napoleon III came to power in France. At the time, the population of Paris was growing so fast that it was hard to get around. Plus, the crowded narrow streets made it far too easy for a plague or disease to spread. Paris needed wider streets, Napoleon decided, to bring in more sunlight.

There was also that nasty barricading business during the revolution. To make sure that the people of Paris could not block all the streets and overthrow him – and well, make a few needed upgrades, too– he asked a guy named Georges Haussmann to redesign the entire city. Later nicknamed “the demolisher,” he tore down a lot of stuff. Then, he widened the streets, designed new apartment buildings, and figured out a way to bring clean drinking water to the city.  

Haussmann may not have known it at the time, but the world would come to see one magnificent boulevard – the Champs Elysees – as representative of all Paris has to offer. Many luxury fashion designers, like Louis Vuitton and Dior, have stores there. The street is also lined with spectacular restaurants where top chefs serve delicious French dishes. 

It is on this famous street that we find another landmark: the Arc de Triomphe. This means the Arch of Victory in English. It’s a giant arch that symbolizes France’s history of military strength. It was built by a well-known emperor named Napoleon Bonaparte who wanted to honor all the soldiers who died fighting for France.[13] 

The Arc de Triomphe took a long time to build. In fact, Napoleon died before it was finished. Today, it serves as a rallying place for the French military [13] who are often seen marching around and through it. It also creates a traffic nightmare, but that’s another story.

A tour of Paris is not complete without a final stop at the most famous structure of all: the Eiffel Tower. This tall tower is shaped like the letter A and is known as the “Iron Lady.” It is more than 1,000 feet high. When it was first built, it was the tallest building in the world. [14] Over 7 million people come to Paris to see this tower each year. [14] From its balconies, you can see the most amazing views of the entire city.

The tower was designed by the French architect Gustave Eiffel for the Paris World’s Fair in 1889. [14] A world’s fair is supposed to show off new architecture, art, and inventions for people from around the world to see. What better way to show off all the beauty and extravagance of Paris than a giant tower?

The Eiffel Tower is often considered one of the most romantic places in the world. But people come there for more than just a romantic stroll. Daredevils have walked up its hundreds of stairs on stilts. Trapeze artists have swung off of it. [14] It was even used by spies during World War I [14] to intercept enemy messages. [14] Today, the Eiffel Tower is lit up by over 20,000 lights every night that make it shine and sparkle for all of Paris to see. [14]

Paris is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If you are lucky enough to visit someday, make sure you stroll down the Champs Elysees, check out the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, and climb the more than 600 steps of the Eiffel Tower to snap a selfie with all of Paris behind you. You might want to grab a baguette first though. All those steps are sure to make you hungry! 

1- https://www.britannica.com/place/Seine-River 

2 –https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Paris/345991

3- https://kids.kiddle.co/Notre-Dame_de_Paris 

4- https://zipfslaw.org/2016/05/02/why-there-are-so-many-churches-in-paris/  

5 – https://presse.louvre.fr/7-8-million-visitors-to-the-musee-du-louvre-in-2022/ 

6- https://kids.kiddle.co/Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre

7- https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Louvre-Museum/394560

8- https://www.britannica.com/place/Champs-Elysees

9-https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Eugene-Baron-Haussmann

10- https://www.ducksters.com/history/french_revolution/causes_of_the_french_revolution.php

11- https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/French-Revolution/353712

12- https://www.ducksters.com/history/french_revolution/causes_of_the_french_revolution.php 

13- https://kids.kiddle.co/Arc_de_Triomphe

14- https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/eiffel-tower 

15- https://www.louvre.fr/en/explore 

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What would be left after thousands of years? A few crumbled buildings or maybe just walls? Pieces of statues or paintings? How would you know whether this was the land you’d heard about? How many details would need to match up for you to be convinced?

Many archeologists and explorers have dreamed of discovering such a land: Atlantis. 

Maybe you’ve heard of the “Lost City of Atlantis” and wondered where it really was, and where the story of this lost civilization even came from. The second question is actually pretty easy to answer. The first one–where it was and even whether it really existed–is a bit harder. 

We actually only know about the story of Atlantis from one source. It was written down by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, about 2,400 years ago. 

That’s it.  

Plato is one of the most famous philosophers ever, but he wasn’t a historian. He also wasn’t a poet or storyteller who was trying to keep the old myths of Greece alive. He was interested in why the world exists and what it’s made of; what the best kind of government was and how people could live happy lives. He usually wrote in dialogues, or conversations where two or more people talked about important philosophical issues. He mentions Atlantis in two dialogues: Timaeus and Critias (those are the names of the people he talks to in each dialogue).

Plato describes Atlantis as a vibrant civilization that existed 9,000 years before his time (so, over 12 thousand years ago for us!), near a place the Greeks called “the Pillars of Hercules.” The Pillars of Hercules were the place where the Mediterranean Sea met the Atlantic Ocean – a narrow strait passing between Spain and North Africa. There’s an island there with a large, rocky hill jutting into the air– one of the “pillars” in the name. Now, this island is called Gibraltar,
The other pillar was probably a mountain in Africa, now called Jebel Musa. 

These are real places, but we can’t tell based on the story exactly where Atlantis was supposed to be. Atlantis was said to control a huge area, spanning almost the entire Mediterranean, as big as “Libya and Asia” combined. Its main city though–the place explorers imagine and long to find–was an island. Not just an ordinary island though: this city was a marvel of engineering and architecture. It was made up of three rings of land, each one a little smaller than the last, that all surrounded a central island. There were moats of water between the rings, and bridges connecting the rings. The Atlanteans built canals that cut through the ring islands, so boats could sail right up to the circular island in the center. 

On this central island stood a grand temple to the sea god, Poseidon. Legend held that the god had married a local girl named Cleito, and the descendants of their ten sons (five sets of twins) were the rulers. For centuries, this civilization was wealthy and strong. They had everything they needed: fresh water, rich soil for crops, a mild climate, and reserves of a precious metal called orichalcum. They developed art and technology, crossed the sea to trade with their neighbors, created tools from iron and bronze, and paid tribute to Poseidon through sacrifices and prayers. 

But over time, Plato says, the Atlanteans began to lose their way, becoming greedy, deceitful, and power-hungry. They wanted to take over all the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece! But the Athenians led an army of Greeks to fight back against the Atlanteans. It’s no coincidence that Plato is from Athens, and of course, they win, a victory of the noble underdogs from a small city-state over a giant empire. The Greeks liberate all the people and lands that the Atlanteans had captured. 

Even though Athens had repelled the attack, the gods–Poseidon included–were still angry with the Atlanteans. Shortly after the war, the gods sent earthquakes and giant waves that destroyed Atlantis, burying its glittering capital under the deep, churning waters of the ocean whose name would hint of their past glory. 

That’s a great story, but was Atlantis really real, or did Plato make it up to try to teach his audience a lesson? Plato wasn’t a historian, but a philosopher. He was trying to debate ideas and important questions in his dialogues, and not everything was meant to be taken literally. 

But the mystery is irresistible, and people have wondered about it for 2,000 years. Not only have they wondered about it, but they’ve also looked for real places and events that might give us clues about the location of the real Atlantis! 

Plato certainly knew that earthquakes and volcanoes could destroy cities. It’s possible he had even heard stories of ancient volcanoes and earthquakes that helped destroy civilizations and reshape Greek islands in the vibrant blue waters of the Mediterranean. One such island, Thera, was partially destroyed by a volcanic eruption in the 17th century BCE. The volcano transformed the square-ish island into a horseshoe shape, with another, small, round island in the middle. Sounds a little like Atlantis, doesn’t it? And this eruption was ancient in Plato’s time, happening around 1600 BCE. 

Thera and another nearby island, Crete, had been home to a civilization called the Minoans. The Minoans had some things in common with the Atlanteans. They were seafaring people with sophisticated art and architecture, beautiful palaces, and thriving trade with other societies. 

The Minoans also disappeared, victims of mysterious forces that are largely lost to history. Though Crete was the center of Minoan civilization, the volcanic eruption on Thera and the tsunamis it caused may have helped end their civilization in both places. Could these islands have been the fabled Atlantis?

Not so fast! Let’s check a map. These Greek islands aren’t anywhere near the Pillars of Hercules off the coast of Spain. And it doesn’t seem the Minoans were conquerors bent on dominating the entire Mediterranean. Plus, 1600 BCE isn’t 9 thousand years before Plato’s time, only about 1 thousand. So anyone who believes that Plato’s Atlantis was really real would have to look elsewhere. 

Others have looked closer to the spot Plato gave for the civilization, proposing that Atlantis once stood on the southern coast of Spain. They’ve sent divers to search for evidence of ancient debris from when the sea swallowed the country. They’ve found a few stone anchors underwater, and evidence of an ancient tsunami in southern Spain. Today this is a vast area of mud flats, but thousands of years ago it may have been a bay with islands. People have suggested that some of them made up the ring-shaped capitol city of Atlantis. 

Some scholars have looked even further afield, to the Azores, islands lying almost a thousand miles to the west of Europe in the Atlantic Ocean. Until recently, people thought these islands were too far out for ancient seafarers to reach, but now archeologists have found evidence that people may have lived there, building temples and burial chambers in the sides of mountains and sailing between the islands and maybe even Europe. 

People have suggested many, many other places. Locations in Morocco, Tunisia, and Malta have been proposed. When Columbus sailed to the Caribbean in the 15th century, and then the Europeans learned of the existence of North America, people speculated that one of these places might be the long-lost Atlantis. One 19th-century scholar even wrote a 4 thousand-page tome claiming that Sweden was Atlantis! (Not surprisingly, he was Swedish.) And of course, since Atlantis was supposedly swallowed up by the sea, people have looked underwater in both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, using a combination of sonar and scuba divers. 

Still, it’s hard to say whether any of this really proves that Atlantis was “real.” Sometimes facts and fiction, real and imaginary, get mixed up and blended together. Plato wasn’t trying to tell history.  He probably took bits and pieces of other stories and wove them into his own story to try to make a point. Still, Atlantis is such a captivating story, many people have wanted it to be true, and dreamed of finding it. 

But just because a story might not be true, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be told. To Plato, there was something more important than Atlantis being a real place you could find hidden under the earth or sea. He wanted to talk about important ideas, like how societies need wise and just leaders who try to make the best decisions for their people. Maybe he wanted to warn his fellow citizens that any country might stray from that ideal. Even though the Atlanteans had everything they needed, even a god on their side, their rulers became greedy and tyrannical, and the whole country was destroyed because of it. And that’s a lesson you don’t need to dig or dive for!

Sources 

Albert, Liv (2022). Deconstructing Atlantis: Finding Atlantis in the Depths of Plato’s Imagination (Part 1). Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby: Greek and Roman Myths Retold. Jan. 11, 2022. https://www.mythsbaby.com/atlantis 

Karst, Ken (2015) Enduring Mysteries: Atlantis. Creative Education: Mankato, MN.

Plato, Critias

Plato, Timaeus

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plato

https://www.livescience.com/26275-peaceful-minoans-surprisingly-warlike.html

https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/the-edges-of-the-earth-1/

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna420724 hub69 

https://www.thoughtco.com/platos-atlantis-from-the-timaeus-119667

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location_hypotheses_of_Atlantis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato

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Have you heard of Frankenstein? Maybe you’ve seen this pretend monster in movies or books. He is often depicted as being tall and strong with dark hair, green skin, and stitches holding him together since he was created by Dr. Frankenstein. That’s where Frankenstein actually got his name, from the Mad Scientist who created him, Dr. Frankenstein. 

“Farewell! I leave you and in you the last of humankind whom these eyes will ever behold. Farewell, Frankenstein!”

These are the lines from the novel Frankenstein, written around 200 years ago. That’s how old the story of Frankenstein is! Did you also know that the novel is one of the most famous pieces of writing in history? Now let’s take a closer look at the woman behind the novel named Mary Shelley.  

Mary Shelley was born in London in 1797. Her mother was a philosopher and writer named Mary Wollstonecraft and her father, William Godwin, was a philosopher, novelist, and journalist. Both her parents were well-known thinkers who challenged how things worked in the late eighteenth century: Mary Wollstonecraft spoke out for women’s rights, and William Godwin criticized the British government system, especially the monarchy, which means a country run by kings and queens.

Sadly, Mary’s mother died shortly after she was born. This left William to raise Mary, along with her older half-sister, Fanny, alone. Her father wrote a book about his wife, and later Mary was able to read it. Later, she also read the books her mother had written and was brought up cherishing her memory. Overall, Mary’s earliest years were happy ones. 

Mary’s father gave her an education that was different from her time. Mary briefly attended a boarding school, but for most of her childhood, she had a governess and a daily tutor. Her father, William, also taught her about a wide range of subjects. William ran a publishing company, and Mary grew up surrounded by the books, games, and maps that the company sold. She learned Roman and Greek history by reading the books her father published. Her father also had a large library and many interesting, well-educated friends with who Mary got to meet and interact. A few of these friends were very well-known, such as the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the former Vice-President of the United States, Aaron Burr. William also enjoyed taking his children on field trips as part of their education!  

Mary enjoyed learning, and this homeschooling arrangement worked well for her. When she was 15, her father described her as “singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind. Her desire for knowledge is great, and her perseverance in everything she undertakes is almost invincible.” In other words, she was curious, dedicated, and maybe a little bit stubborn!

Mary first met the poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe (Bish) Shelley when she was in her late teens. He was a friend of her father’s and would visit the family often. Mary and Percy began meeting each other secretly at her mother’s grave in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church. Eventually, they fell in love. The couple secretly left for France together, and later married. 

A few years later, in 1816, Mary and Percy traveled to Geneva, Switzerland.  They planned to spend the summer at the home of the poet Lord Byron. It turned out to be a very strange, but very important summer for Mary. Mary and her friends spent their time writing, boating, and talking around the fire late into the night. The summer of 1816 was much colder and rainier than usual. This strange weather was caused by a volcanic eruption that happened halfway around the world, in Indonesia, that affected weather all over the world, but Mary and her friends did not know this. Stuck inside for days at a time, Mary and her companions would sit around the fire and tell each other German ghost stories. This gave Byron the idea to challenge his guests to each write their own ghost stories. 

At first, Mary could not think of a story. She was starting to become anxious. . Then one evening, the conversation turned to the idea that it might be possible to somehow bring the dead back to life. At the time, scientists were experimenting with frogs and had found that a dead frog’s legs would twitch if an electrical charge was run through them. They called this galvanism, and it would be the inspiration for Mary’s ghost story. She began writing that night, staying up well past midnight. That ghost story is the same one we talked about at the beginning of the episode: Frankenstein. Mary thought this would just be a short story that she’d share with her friends, but Percy encouraged her to keep writing. Frankenstein became Mary’s first novel.

We’ve already talked about how Frankenstein was actually the doctor who created the monster in the book, but another thing that might surprise you is that the monster wasn’t actually a bad guy at first either. In the book, that hulking, green creature was indeed scary to the people he met after he ran away from Dr. Frankenstein, but he really just wanted to learn about them and live his life. In fact, the monster secretly helps a poor family by gathering firewood for them and clearing the snow from their walkway at night. He hides in a shed and watches them for months. He learns language from them. He sees how kind and supportive they are towards each other, and starts to think of them as friends. But when he tries to talk to one of them, the family is terrified and attacks him. The creature only becomes a real monster after he realizes that people will always fear and chase him away because of how different he looks. In a way, the story is about how people treat others who are different from them, and what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong. Everyone feels out of place sometimes, and it’s important to be kind to those who look or act differently from us.

After she wrote Frankenstein, Mary Shelley went on to write several other novels and short stories, as well as books about her travels. Mary carried on writing and editing in order to support her family. She worked hard to make sure that her husband’s poetry continued to be printed, and that her son had a good education and life. Her son Percy loved Mary dearly and lived with her until she passed away.

Dozens of movies, TV shows, and plays have been based on the story of Frankenstein. In fact, the earliest movie version was a short silent film made in 1910. The filmmaker and comedian Mel Brooks made a musical comedy version, which was first performed as a play, and later made into a movie.  There was even a dance version created by the San Francisco Ballet. And of course, monsters based on Frankenstein’s creature appear in many Halloween-themed TV shows and costumes. Some even think the Marvel superhero Hulk may be based on Frankenstein, too. Both being green and strong.

Do you have a story to tell? An exciting adventure or even a make-believe world you have created in your mind? People can learn a lot by writing and reading good stories. Stories help us think about how people behave and feel, and how we should treat each other. And of course, a good story is fun to read or listen to! The world needs talented storytellers like you to take the time to sit down and write…

Thanks for listening to this episode about Mary Shelley and be sure to tune in for a new episode next Monday.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_in_popular_culture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley

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