Episode 127 – I’m Not Lion – Myths Your Teacher Hated

Episode 127 Show Notes

Source: Catalonian Fairy Tale

This week on MYTH, we’re gonna look for lions in unexpected places. You’ll learn that it’s surprisingly hard not to lose a herd of cows, that it’s surprisingly easy to find a hidden palace, and that human hair makes great thread. Then, in Gods and Monsters, we’ll discover that help can come from the most unexpected of places. This is the Myths Your Teacher Hated podcast, where I tell the stories of cultures from around the world in all of their original, bloody, uncensored glory. Modern tellings of these stories have become dry and dusty, but I’ll be trying to breathe new life into them. This is Episode 127, “I’m Not Lion”. As always, this episode is not safe for work.
This week’s story comes to us once again from Andrew Lang’s Pink Fairy Book from 1897, though it was originally collected by D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros in Cuentos Populares Catalans from 1885. As the name implies, it comes from Catalonia, in what is now modern Spain. As an aside, Barcelona in the heart of Catalonia, is one of my all time favorite places.
Once upon a time, there lived a girl so poor that she had literally nothing to live on. As such, she was forced to rely on the charity of others and wander the world begging for whatever scraps people could spare. One day, the poor girl’s wandering brought her to a thatched cottage in the middle of nowhere (presumably in Catalonia). She knocked on the door and, when the farmer answered, she asked if he had any work that she might do to earn a meager living. He thought for a moment and decided that he did indeed need someone to herd his cattle for him. Thus, the girl became a cowherd.
One morning, she was driving said cows through the fields and the meadows when she heard a deep, anguished moaning coming from the tall grass. It sounded like a man in terrible pain, so she hurried over to see if she could help. Imagine her shock when, instead of an injured man, she found a full grown fucking lion laying there instead. Are you shocked? I’m shocked. It turns out that lions did once live in Europe, but not since at least 300 BCE so I’d definitely be shocked.
She considered just running the fuck away but the poor lion looked so pitiful that she couldn’t help but feel bad for him. She’d been in plenty of shitty situations and she was only doing better now because someone had taken a chance on her, so she decided to pay it forward. She crept up carefully and soon saw that the lion had a huge thorn in one of its paws that was making it impossible to walk. It was embedded way too deep for the lion to get it out by himself. He eyed her warily as she approached but he didn’t growl or snap at her so she carefully picked up the wounded paw. Her hands were steady as she gently plucked out the thorn and soothed the injured limb. Grateful, the lion licked her tiny hand with his rough tongue and sashayed away.
Satisfied with her random good deed for the day, the girl smiled and headed back to her herd of cows. You know, so she could herd them. It’s confusing that you herd the herd. English is weird. Anyway. She went back to where she’d left the cows, but there were alas no cows to be found. She searched high and low, hunting across the meadows and fields but she had no luck. The cows were gone.
Her good mood evaporated and she trudged home to tell the farmer that she had lost his cows. He was understandably pissed that she’d somehow misplaced a whole bunch of cows and he yelled at her a whole lot. That didn’t make him feel better, so he decided to beat the everloving shit out of her. Not a fan of that. Dock her pay or some shit, man. Once he had vented his rage, he stood there panting. “Alright then. Since we don’t have any cows to herd anymore, you’ll look after the jackasses instead, you jackass.”
From that point forward, she took the donkeys out to the woods every day to feed until one morning, almost exactly one year after losing the cows, she heard a familiar, human-sounding groan. Suspecting it might be her old buddy, she hurried over to the spot where the sound came from to find that it was indeed the lion. He was stretched out on the ground once again, this time with a deep gash across his face.
That’s a bit harder to treat than a thorn in the paw, but she was up to the task. She wasn’t afraid this time, so she rushed straight over. She washed out the wound, made a poultice of medicinal herbs, and bound the whole thing up as best she could. Once again, the lion licked her hand in thanks and sashayed away. She returned promptly to her drove of donkeys only to find that, just like last time, they had vanished without a trace. She searched everywhere but could find no sign of them. Well, fuck. Nice girls finish last, I guess.
The depressed girl went home again and confessed that she had lost the donkeys just like she had lost the cows. The farmer took it exactly as well as he had the cows and beat the shit out of her. Once his rage had subsided, he stood there panting. “Now get out of here and go take care of the pigs.” At some point, I have to wonder how many animals she can lose before she loses her job instead.
On the other hand, she’s pretty damn good at her job when she’s not distracted by an injured lion. She took the pigs out and found such ideal grazing grounds for them that the pigs soon grew fat and happy. Another year went by and, on cue, she heard a familiar groan from the bushes as she was taking the pigs out to graze. More than suspecting what she would find, the young girl abandoned the pigs to hurry over to the place where her friend the lion was lying stretched out on the ground. I have to imagine that she knew she was leaving the pigs in danger of vanishing like the cows and the donkeys, but her soft heart was too powerful to care. The lion had been viciously wounded and was lying in the grass clearly dying. Without her immediate assistance, he would definitely be dead.
She dropped to her knees and began gently washing his wounds, one by one. That done, she made another poultice of medicinal herbs to lay upon his many injuries. Again, the lion gently licked her hand in thanks. Adding to the ‘this is not a normal lion’ theory, he then asked the girl to sit with him for a while. She wasn’t even phased by a talking lion but told him that she had to hurry back to watch over the pigs under her care. She needed to return before something bad happened to them.
She hurried back to where she had left them but, as before, they had vanished as completely as if the very earth had opened up and swallowed them whole. Sobbing in anticipation of the beating she would undoubtedly receive when she got back, she searched high and low for the missing pigs but she already knew it was hopeless. There was, as expected, no sign of the pigs. She whistled and called for them, but only the chirping of the birds answered her. Well shit.
She couldn’t face the prospect of another vicious beating and besides, who knew if the farmer would give her another job after fucking up three times in three years? She didn’t want to return home, not yet. Figuring that she might be able to see better from up high, she climbed the tallest tree she could find. She scrambled nimbly up the tree and seated herself on a branch. Peering out over the field, she saw something that drove any thought of the missing pigs right out of her head.
Coming over the hill was one of the most handsome young men she had ever seen. He followed the narrow path until he was almost to the base of the tree, then he pulled a rock aside and vanished behind it. He didn’t reappear on the other side. She shook her head, wondering if she had hallucinated the young man in her grief and exhaustion, but she knew what she’d seen. There must be an explanation to it all, so the girl resolved to stay there in the tree and watch until he returned. Nothing stirred all night but, at dawn, she finally spotted movement. It wasn’t the young man however, but a powerful lion.
When the lion had vanished from sight, she finally clambered down from her hiding place in the tree. Looking around cautiously, she slunk over to the rock and pushed it aside. Sure enough, there was a tunnel beneath the rock (which explained the disappearing young man). He hadn’t come out yet, so she decided to head into the hole. He might still be inside. He might even need help. There was a well-worn path inside. Following it, she found a beautiful house standing at its end. Or maybe it was actually a palace, given how large and grand it was, far fancier than anything she’d ever seen in her life. Huh, weird.
The young girl went inside and found it in need of some care. She swept the floor, dusted the furniture, and generally tidied up the place. It was well-stocked for food and she hadn’t eaten anything in almost a day, so she made herself a very nourishing meal from what she found and then snuck back out along the path and up into her tree. She waited there all day and finally, as the sun was beginning to set, she saw the same handsome young man walking cheerfully down the path. As before, he pushed aside the rock and disappeared behind it (presumably down into the secret tunnel).
Thoroughly absorbed by this mystery now, the girl waited there in the tree for another night. Sure enough, the next morning a lion once again emerged from behind the rock. He peered cautiously all around (though not up because, as we’ve seen in many, many stories, no one ever thinks to look up). Confident that he was alone and unobserved, the lion stalked off into the forest and vanished from view.
Once she was sure the lion was gone and not coming back, the young woman clambered down from the tree and slipped into the secret tunnel. As she had the day before, she went into the hidden palace, tidied up, made herself a nourishing meal, and then vanished back up into the tree to hide. For three days, this pattern continued uninterrupted. She would clean up inside the palace, make herself food, and then hide again. For all the time she spent inside what was clearly the young man’s home, she got no closer to discovering the secret of this strange phenomenon. Having exhausted every other idea, the girl decided that the only thing left was to simply approach the young man openly and ask him what the fuck was up.
Thus, when she saw him strolling back along the path as usual that evening, she came down from the tree and went right up to him, begging him to tell her his name. This could easily have gone very, very wrong but instead, the young man smiled broadly at her. He wasn’t totally oblivious and had clearly figured out that someone was tidying up his luxurious bachelor palace. This young woman must be the sneaky maid. He told her his name (but the story doesn’t tell us, which is a tad frustrating) and added that he was a prince who had been enchanted by a cruel, powerful giant.
He was only allowed to take his own shape at night; during the day, he was forced into the terrifying visage of a lion. And, as you probably guessed, not just any lion but the very same talking lion she had helped several times in the past. He definitely remembered her from their previous encounters and was happy to discover that it was she who had learned of his curse. It turned out that the giant who had enchanted the prince was also the thief who had stolen the farmer’s cows, donkeys, and pigs. What’s more, he’d only stolen the animals as vengeance for her kindness to the transformed lion prince. What a dick!
The girl considered all of this new information. It certainly explained the talking lion, at least, and it made her feel a little less bad about losing the farmer’s animals three times over. “How can I help? Is there a way for me to break the giant’s curse and disenchant you?” The prince’s expression darkened. “It’s possible but it’s also very dangerous. You’ve already helped me so much to your own detriment – I couldn’t ask you to risk anything more.” The poor maid insisted and so he explained. “The only way to break the spell is to get a lock of hair from the head of a princess, spin it into thread, and make a cloak from that thread for the giant. He lives at the top of a high mountain, far above and hard to reach.”
The girl didn’t even hesitate. “Simple enough. I’ll head to the city, knock on the door of the king’s palace, and ask the princess to hire me as a servant. You’ve seen my housekeeping skills – it’ll be a breeze to get the job.” The lion prince saw her determination and so didn’t try to dissuade her further from her honestly clever and sensible plan. As far as fairy tale schemes go, it’s gotta be one of the most reasonable and practical I’ve ever seen.
She headed for the capital city where the king’s palace stood and walked about the streets crying “Who needs a servant? Who wants to hire me as a servant?” That’s not the most orthodox job application I’ve ever seen. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off. Many people stopped to consider her offer for the young woman was very attractive and, for a poor herdswoman, well-dressed and clean. None of them were quite good enough for her to accept employment. Her pickiness added to her mystique a bit as she continued to wander the streets asking who would hire her as a servant. It didn’t take long for the princess’ maid-in-waiting to hear about this potential servant and become intrigued.
She found the young woman and asked her what her skills were. The girl admitted that she was very good at basic cleaning and housekeeping but had no real skills beyond that. Still, being able to clean and tidy (two very different things) are quite useful in a large palace and so the maid-in-waiting offered to hire the young woman as a scullion maid, washing dishes and doing other dirty kitchen cleaning work. The young woman accepted this (it wasn’t quite serving the princess, but it got her foot in the door) and they headed to the palace to begin work.
The young woman put all her skill and effort into being the best scullery maid she could be. It was exhausting, tedious work and could be very dirty, but the young woman made sure to always clean up when she wasn’t actively working and to have her long, beautiful hair clean and luxurious. Everyone in the palace admired her work ethic and her immaculate appearance (and her own good looks didn’t hurt matters). It didn’t take too terribly long for word of this extremely diligent and very beautiful maid to reach the ears of the princess herself, who wandered into the kitchen to see for herself if the rumors were true.
As it turned out, they very much were, and the princess was very taken with the girl’s spirit and, even more, with her impeccable hair care. She had an elegant but surprisingly complicated hairstyle, especially for a maid, and the princess was intrigued. She asked the young scullery maid to come up to her room to comb out and style the princess’ own hair, which was long and thick and the same buttery gold as sunlight on a spring day. The young maid smiled and said she would be honored to do so.
She combed and brushed the princess’ golden locks until they shone like the sun itself then pinned it up into a gorgeous style. The princess was thrilled with her new look and asked the young maid to come up to her room every day to style her hair from there on in. This she did for weeks until she and the princess had established a rapport. As you may know, there is something very intimate about brushing someone else’s hair, and the maid was hoping this would make the next bit easier. “Princess, your hair is so unbelievably beautiful and I’ve come to treasure the time I get to spend brushing it. Would you consider cutting off just one single lock of those glorious tresses for me to have as a memento?”
The princess was understandably a little weirded out by this request and besides, she was very proud of her gorgeous hair and didn’t like the idea of cutting any of it off. Partly, she didn’t want to lose any of it and partly she didn’t want to have to deal with one lock of oddly short hair ruining her up-dos. Politely but firmly, she told her maid no. The young woman, determined to help the lion prince, refused to give up hope. Each day, after she finished brushing the princess’ long hair, she would ask again for just a single lock. Eventually, the princess became fed up with the constant asking and lost patience. “You know what? Sure, you can have a lock of my hair, but only if you agree to go find the handsomest prince in the world to be my husband!”
I’m guessing the princess expected her maid to find this task too difficult for a poor servant girl to accomplish, but instead she just smiled. “Easily done, your highness.” Surprisingly a noble of her word, the princess did indeed cut off a lock of long golden hair for the scullery maid. The young woman then promptly went and wove it into a coat that glittered like golden silk (which means she did actually have a skill that she either forgot about or, more likely, deliberately didn’t mention as she figured a scullery maid would more easily come in contact with the princess). She hurried back to the hidden palace and presented this coat to the lion prince.
He was surprised but thrilled that this diligent young maid had accomplished what he thought was something of a fruitless task. “You’re incredible! All you need to do now is take this coat up the mountain to the giant. Make sure that you call out to him from a long way off telling him what you are bringing for him or he’ll attack you and run you through with his huge, wicked sword. And that’s not a euphemism. I would hate to lose you to a misunderstanding.” She promised that she would remember and set out for the mountain with the hair coat.
She began her ascent up the tall but not terribly steep mountainside. It wasn’t exactly easy going, but she hadn’t exactly lived an easy life and so she managed just fine. Before she reached the top, the giant heard strange footsteps on his mountainside and suspected treachery. Taking up his greatsword, he leapt off the peak and onto the path. He roared as he rushed the tiny, unarmed woman, flames bellowing from his open throat. In one hand he held a sword that would have been a challenge for even the strongest of men to swing; in the other, he carried a club that was every bit as enormous and deadly. Forewarned is forearmed and so the young maid called out loudly (and just a little desperately) that she came bearing a gift for the lordly giant.
The enormous enchanter might be a cruel thief, but he did enjoy both flattery and gifts. Considering his foe, who looked very small and nonthreatening, he decided she wasn’t here to kill him and invited her into his home. He was clearly impressed with the finely cut coat that shone like liquid gold but, when he tried it on, it fit across his shoulders but barely came down to his belly button. Cursing, he cast the coat aside and declared it too short and therefore worthless. Picking up the discarded garment, the young maid returned dejectedly to the king’s palace and her work as a scullery maid. She’d been so close!
Refusing to give up hope, the young woman returned the next morning to brush the princess’ hair. Working up her nerve, she asked the princess for a second lock of hair. “Are you shitting me? We agreed that you would find me the handsomest prince to be my husband if I gave you the one I already gave you.” “Yes princess, and I did indeed find him but I need a second lock of hair if you want me to actually bring him here to meet you.” The princess grumbled that this seemed like a pretty fine technicality to their deal but having already cut one lock off, a second wasn’t nearly so big a deal. Sighing, she gave the young maid the second lock as requested, but insisted that this time she actually bring the prince here to marry the princess.
The maid agreed, promising that this would all be worth it, and then went to spin the new hair into thread. This she added to the bottom of the coat to make it long and luxurious but still of the same gorgeous golden color. When it was finished, she carried it back to the mountain and the giant that lived there. He knew her this time and didn’t attack, inviting her in to see what gift she might have brought this time. She produced the coat again, promising that it had been altered to meet the giant’s exquisite sartorial taste. He tried it on and, to his delight, found that it was indeed a perfect fit. “This is the snazziest coat I ever laid eyes on. What can I give you in return for this incredible thing? Whatever you want that is in my power, you shall have.”
As we’ve seen before, promises have power and so she told the giant honestly that the only thing she would accept for the coat would be a way to lift the spell on the lion prince. For reasons that are not made clear in the story, this giant had a real beef with the prince and tried to convince her to ask for anything else – great wealth, magical power, a replacement for the animals he’d stolen – but she would accept none of it. Finally, he relented to the extremely strong-willed and persistent maid. “Fine, you’ve worn me down. You need to go find the prince in his lion shape and slit his throat yourself. Once he’s dead, you must butcher his body into very, very small chunks and then burn it all. Take the ashes from that fire and cast it out onto the water. The prince will emerge from the waves in his true form once more, free forever from the enchantment binding him.”
The young woman stumbled back down the mountainside and it took everything in her to avoid collapsing to the earth and weeping. She had her answer, but she didn’t know whether she could trust the giant to keep his word. There was nothing at all magical about his promise; keeping it was simply a matter of honor (which was something the wicked giant was somewhat lacking). She was terrified that she would carry out the giant’s instructions only to find that this did indeed restore him to his proper shape, but only as a very dead corpse. She couldn’t bear to kill him through her own naivete.
By the time she reached the hidden palace, her resolve had crumbled and she was openly weeping. It was with some difficulty that she found the rock and made her way inside. The prince found her and did his best to comfort her. When she’d calmed down a bit, she told him what the giant hold told her about breaking the curse. He listened intently and then nodded solemnly. “You’ve done the impossible, my friend. I am sorry to have to ask this of you, but I need you to carry out the giant’s instructions. I trust that this will work but, if it doesn’t, I want you to remember that this was my decision. If something goes wrong, you’re not to blame, okay?”
She wasn’t as sanguine about this as the prince seemed to be but she hesitantly agreed. It was his life and his curse, so it should be his decision, and she respected that. They stayed together in the palace that night (though only in a comforting way, not a sexy naked way). In the morning, when the prince once more turned into the lion, she picked up the knife they had selected the night before and slit his throat. A great gout of hot blood splashed her face and her resolve faltered but it was clearly too late to stop now. Sobbing quietly, she butchered the prince she’d grown to love into very small bits, burned them in the hottest fire she could build, and then gathered up his ashes.
Taking them up to a nearby pond, she cast the ashes out onto the water. For a moment, nothing happened and she was sure she’d murdered the prince but then the surface began to bubble and churn. Out of the midst of the boiling waves emerged the human prince, very much alive and as beautiful as a summer’s day. She wept for joy at his safe return and wrapped him up in a big bear hug. He returned the hug with equal fervor and thanked her passionately for saving him yet again. “You have done so much for me that I can never repay. You are truly the most incredible and kind woman I have ever met and I would have you as my wife. Will you marry me?”
The maid would have loved nothing more but she wept in sorrow, telling him that the price for the princess’ hair had been his hand in marriage. Being an honorable man, he agreed to keep her promise. He didn’t want her suffering dishonor because he wouldn’t do this small thing after she had risked so much for him. “Whatever you need me to do, of course. If I am to marry the princess, then I suppose we should be off. Come along with me and show me the way.”
They went together to the king’s palace and headed straight to the royal audience chamber to present the young man to the court. The king, queen, and princess were all there and their jaws dropped when they saw the young man walk in. Tears filled their eyes and they rushed to embrace him for he was none other than their eldest son who had been stolen away by a giant many years ago and lost. It’s unclear if the prince knew that the princess in question was his sister the whole time or if the enchantment had done something to his memory. I would think that he would have told the maid to mention that her hair was needed to free her brother if he’d known and been able to, so magic memory whammy makes the most sense to me.
Once everyone was done laughing and weeping and hugging, he stepped beside the beautiful maiden who had saved him and asked for their blessing to marry this brave, clever woman. Having heard the whole story of how she’d saved the prince, everyone was more than happy to agree. The princess was probably a little disappointed that she wasn’t getting her own happily ever after, but having her beloved brother returned offset the disappointment quite handily. The maiden became a princess and, in due time, a queen. She was beloved by her people and lived a long and happy life with her husband, the former lion prince.
I like this story since both the prince and the maid are good people who seem to genuinely care about the other and are willing to sacrifice their own happiness for the good of the other. It’s certainly a lot more uplifting than a lot of the stories we encounter (although the wicked giant is just sort of out there, still free to cause whatever mischief he likes so it’s not all sunshine and roses). With the lion prince freed of his curse and the maid duly rewarded for her diligence and good heart, it’s time for Gods and Monsters. This is a segment where I get into a little more detail about the personalities and history of one of the gods or monsters from this week’s pantheon that was not discussed in the main story. This week’s unlikely duo are the lion and the mouse.
We somehow haven’t encountered the Aesopica, better known as Aesop’s Fables, yet in this show. The actual Aesop lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. He was a slave and storyteller who, naturally enough, didn’t write any of his tales down. They instead lived on in the oral tradition, which, unsurprisingly, means that there are multiple versions of the stories (and probably plenty associated with his name that he never told). There are plenty of tales that don’t appear in the record until almost a thousand years after Aesop’s time, so he probably didn’t make those up. This particular story is considered to be the same story type as our main tale (Type 150 in the Perry Index, which catalogs the different stories attributed to Aesop and other stories with similar themes).
In the oldest version, there was once a lion sleeping in a field, his head on his massive murder mitts as he snoozed. Motionless as he was in the tall grass, he was almost invisible – which is why the tiny mouse didn’t see him until she was already on top of one of his huge paws. She let out a terrified squeak and bolted for safety, but she got turned around and ran smack into his nose instead. Well, shit.
This was more of a cat nap than a deep snoozle (pun intended), so this nose bonk was enough to wake the lion up. With the lightning quick reflexes of a big cat, the lion caught the mouse’s tail between his claws, pinning her down and preventing her from escaping. He brought his huge shaggy head close to the tiny, terrified rodent and snarled, a deep, throaty rumble that promised a slow, painful death. This mouse wouldn’t make even a midday snack, but this was less about hunger than about anger at being awoken.
“Please, great and terrible lion, spare my pitiful life! Let me leave so you can go back to sleep, and I promise that I will pay back your kindness one day.” The lion stared incredulously at the little mouse who he could literally crush to death with a single paw and he couldn’t help it – he threw back his head and roared with laughter. The thought of such a puny, insignificant creature helping a powerful, deadly beast like himself was so utterly ludicrous that his bad mood evaporated. “You know what, little mousie? Today is your luck day. Your absurd offer has made me laugh and so I’ll let you go. Because I’m generous you understand and not because I think your offer is at all meaningful. Now get out of here before I change my mind.”
Every so often over the next few days, the little mouse looking up at him with her tiny tearful eyes would pop back into his head and make him chuckle yet again. He had to push the laughter down a few days later though so he could effectively stalk some hapless prey. Focused on the whatever it was, he didn’t notice the net trap until it dropped around him, the heavy coils and heavier weights pinning him to the earth. He roared in panic and flailed desperately, but his great strength wasn’t nearly enough to free him from the ropes.
His panicked roaring grew louder and angrier (but also more terrified, even if he’d never admit it). He knew it was only a matter of time until the hunter who had set this trap came back to slit his throat and end his feline life. Some ways away, the little mouse heard the familiar roaring and sensed a chance to repay her life debt. She scurried through the tall grass until she found the lion trapped in the heavy ropes. Squeaking at him to hold still, she rushed over to the net at his face and began to gnaw on it. The heavy strands parted easily under her sharp teeth and, in no time at all, enough had fallen away for the lion to wriggle out and escape. “You laughed when I promised to repay your benevolence for sparing my life. Now you can see that even a mouse can help a lion.”
Now, if you’re anything like me, your first thought was that the mouse removes a thorn from the lion’s paw, right? Well, that’s actually a different Aesop story that has been combined with this one in popular culture and the popular imagination. That’s because the story in question has a slave named Androcles removing a thorn from the lion’s paw, not a mouse. As in our main tale, Androcles stumbles across a lion in the forest, though this man is on the run from the slave owner he just escaped. He finds the lion moaning on the ground and flees, but when the lion doesn’t pursue, he creeps back. He sees the injured paw and carefully removes the thorn, bandaging the wound up.
The lion took the runaway slave to his cave and brought him meat to live on for the next few days. Alas, it wasn’t long before Androcles was tracked down by the slave owning asshole who captured the lion as well just for shits and giggles. In punishment for fleeing his captivity, the slave was sentenced to death by lion in the arena (which sounds a lot like the Colosseum, which didn’t exist until well after Aesop died, so this is probably not an original). The lion meant to be his death was, as you guessed, the very same lion he was captured with (which seems like something of an oversight, since the lion hadn’t already murdered him).
The lion refused to kill Androcles, walking over to him instead and licking his hand gently. The emperor (who just so happened to be in attendance at this execution) was intrigued by this unexpected reaction and called the slave up to explain what had happened. After hearing the whole story, the emperor was impressed by his bravery and kindness and pardoned him then and there. The lion too was freed and allowed to return to his native forest, thus proving that gratitude is the sign of noble souls. These two stories are very similar both in message and structure, so it’s not really a surprise that they got combined the way they did (plus pulling out a thorn is a lot easier to show than chewing through a net, making it a more interesting take for comics and cartoons). So if you’re out and about and find an animal in distress, maybe stop and help them out. You never know how it might come back to help you in unexpected ways. And in that vein, consider fostering an animal from your local shelter. These organizations are often underfunded and overfilled, so a little kindness can make a world of difference in a deserving animal’s life.
That’s it for this episode of Myths Your Teacher Hated. Keep up with new episodes on our Facebook page, on iTunes, on TuneIn, on Vurbl, and on Spotify, or you can follow us on Twitter as @HardcoreMyth, on Instagram as Myths Your Teacher Hated Pod, and on Tumblr as MythsYourTeacherHated. You can also find news and episodes on our website at myths your teacher hated dot com. If you have any questions, any gods or monsters you’d want to learn about, or any ideas for future stories that you’d like to hear, feel free to drop me a line. I’m trying to pull as much material from as many different cultures as possible, but there are all sorts of stories I’ve never heard, so suggestions are appreciated. The theme music is by Tiny Cheese Puff.
Next time, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…it’s shark week here on MYTH. You’ll learn how to trick an entire shark king’s court, how to drown a ghost, and how to start a fire in the middle of the ocean. Then, in Gods and Monsters, you’ll see that a vegetarian diet is the best way to keep your baby from becoming a bloodthirsty man-eating monster. That’s all for now. Thanks for listening.