when we were in madrid, we went to the prado museum. my favorite paintings were the ones that depicted myths and legends. not because of the paintings themselves, i must confess, but because i was captivated by the stories.

i love myths and legends. i always have. some of them were old favorites, but some were new.

want to hear my absolute favorite story?

hercules was the son of zeus (the king of the gods) and the nymph alcmene. alcmene was mortal, so hercules was mortal when he was born. in order to make his son immortal, zeus held baby hercules to his wife hera’s breast while she was asleep. when she woke up and saw a strange baby at her breast, she pulled away and the spurting breast milk formed the milky way.

isn’t that the best story! as soon as i read it, i ran around the wing looking for helen so i could tell it to her immediately.

i cannot see the milky way now without thinking about that story.