Si Malakas at si Maganda

Retold by: Teofilo del Castillo

A long time ago, there was no land. There were only the sea and the sky. A bird was them flying in the sky. Soon
she grew tired and wanted to rest. But she could not. As she was smart, she made the sea throw rocks up at the
sky. And the sky turned very dark and poured down water. That was how the island came about. Now the waves
break on the shore and can never rise as high as the sky again.

Horrified by the unusual downpour of rain, the bird flew away as fast as she could. She saw the land just created.
And on that land, she could see tropical trees, throwing up their naked shoulders. These green things were merely
bamboos.

As the bird was flying all the time, she became thirsty. But she could not quench her thirst with the salty sea water.
She, therefore, looked for rivulets. Unfortunately, there was none. Realizing that some water was stored in the
bamboo joints, she alighted, and started to peck on the bamboo clumps.

“Peck harder, peck harder,” a weak voice cried, the moment her bill struck the bamboo. The bird was extremely
frightened, and was about to fly away. But like a curious woman, she restrained herself. She wanted to know that
voice really was. Gathering her courage, she pecked, pecked, and pecked.

“Peck harder, peck harder,” the weak voice complained again. The bird became he more curious. She pecked and
pecked with all her might. But as her pecking was ineffectual, she snatched a piece of rock nearby and dropped it
on the bamboo. The bamboo was broken and split in two. In the wink of an eye, a man and a woman stepped out
of the bamboo joint, the man bowing politely to the woman. The woman gave recognition to the man; then they
walked away hand in hand.

The appearance of the human beings frightened the bird. She forgot her thirst and flew away, hardly realizing that
she saw the first human beings, and had a role in their creation.
The Story of Adam and Eve...

Bible story by Leanne Guenther and Sharla Guenther

God took some clay from the ground and made the shape of a man. Then He breathed gently into the
shape. The man's eye's opened and he began to live. God called him Adam.

The Lord made a beautiful garden for him to live in. The garden, called Eden, was full of many
wonderful things. Beautiful flowers grew everywhere. Birds sang in the trees, streams flowed through
the valley and animals roamed across the fields.

God had made the man in His image to keep Him company and look after the world.

God brought all the animals to Adam one at a time to be given their names. "Elephant", he would say,
or "Tiger", or "Porcupine".

But God felt sorry for Adam. "None of these animals is really like him," thought God, "he needs
someone to share his life. Someone who cares for him and who he can care for."

That night, God took a rib from Adam's side and made a woman. When Adam awoke the following
morning, he found a wife, Eve, lying asleep beside him. Adam was so happy. He took her hand and she
woke up. She looked up at him and smiled.

God told the man and woman that it was their job to take care of their new home. God blessed them,
saying, "All this is for you. Help yourself to anything you like. But never touch the tree in the middle of
the Garden. That tree gives knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat its fruit, you will die."

God did not mean that Adam and Eve would drop down dead the moment they ate the fruit from the
tree. He meant that in time they would die with out His Spirit dwelling in them.
One day, Adam and Eve were gathering berries for dinner when she heard a silky voice behind her.

"Has God told you that you can eat the fruit from all the trees?" the voice asked softly. Eve turned
around to see a snake talking to her.

"God has told us we can eat all the fruit except for what grows on The Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil," Eve told the serpent.

"Oh come now, that's silly! I hardly think such a lovely fruit would do you any harm," the serpent lied.
"God knows that if you eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you'll become just like God,
and will be able to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong."

The woman looked at the fruit and thought how tasty it looked. She thought how wonderful it would be
to be as wise and powerful as God. She believed the serpent's lie and ate the fruit and also gave some
to Adam, who was with her, and he took a bite as well.

She felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She fidgeted and wondered what was wrong with
her. Suddenly she realized that she was feeling guilty -- she had disobeyed God and knew she'd done
something wrong.

As soon as they ate the fruit a change came over Adam and Eve. They became unhappy and fearful of
God.

Adam and Eve heard God calling them. Without thinking, they dived into the bushes, but God knew
where they were. When God asked them if they had eaten from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil that He had told them not to touch, they blamed each other for their sins.

God was sad that Adam and Eve had disobeyed them. He told them that they had to leave the Garden
of Eden, "From now on you'll have to scratch a living from the soil. You'll need to make clothes and
grow food. Nothing will come easily -- not even childbirth. And one day, you will die."
In the beginning, there was only Chaos, the gaping emptiness. Then, either all by themselves or out of
the formless void, sprang forth three more primordial deities: Gaea (Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld),
and Eros (Love). Once Love was there, Gaea and Chaos – two female deities – were able to procreate
and shape everything known and unknown in the universe.

The Children of Chaos and Gaea

Chaos gave birth to Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). Erebus slept with his sister Nyx, and out of this
union Aether, the bright upper air, and Hemera, the Day, emerged. Afterward, feared by everyone but
her brother, Night fashioned a family of haunting forces all by herself. Among others, her children
included the hateful Moros (Fate), the black Ker (Doom), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), Oneiroi
(Dreams), Geras (Old Age), Oizus (Pain), Nemesis (Revenge), Eris (Strife), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Sexual
Pleasure), Momos (Blame), and the Hesperides (the Daughters of the Evening).

Meanwhile, Gaea gave birth to Uranus, the Starry Sky. Uranus became Gaea's husband, surrounding her
from all sides. Together, they produced three sets of children: the three one-eyed Cyclopes, the three
Hundred-Handed Hecatoncheires, and the twelve Titans.

The Castration of Uranus

However, Uranus was a cruel husband and an even crueler father. He hated his children and didn’t want
to allow them to see the light of day. So, he imprisoned them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's
womb. This angered Gaea, and she plotted with her sons against Uranus. She made a harpe, a great
adamant sickle, and tried to incite her children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid, except the
youngest Titan, Cronus.

Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush for Uranus. As he was preparing to lay with Gaea, Cronus castrated
him with the sickle, throwing his severed genitals into the ocean. It is unclear as to what happened to
Uranus afterward; he either died, withdrew from the earth, or exiled himself to Italy. From the blood
that was spilled on the earth due to his castration, emerged the Giants, the Meliae (the Ash Tree
Nymphs), and the Erinyes (the Furies). From the sea foam that was produced when his genitals fell into
the ocean, arose Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty.

Cronus Devouring His Children

Cronus became the next ruler. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires in Tartarus and set
the dragoness Campe to guard them. He married his sister, the Titaness Rhea, who bore him five
children. However, Gaea and Uranus had both prophesied that Cronus would eventually be overthrown
by one of his sons. So much like his father, Cronus maltreated his children, devouring each of them at
the time of birth. Rhea was distressed by Cronus’ treatment of her children and, just like Gaea before
him, plotted against her husband. On the advice of her mother, when it was time to give birth to her
sixth child, Rhea hid herself on Crete, leaving the new-born child to be raised by the nymphs of the
island. To conceal her act, she wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes and passed it off as the supposed
baby to Cronus, who, unaware of her intentions, swallowed it yet again.

The Return of Zeus

The child was Zeus. Raised by the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, and the she-goat Amalthea, he quickly
grew into a handsome youth in a cave on the Cretan Mount Ida. When the time came, he left Crete to
ask his future wife, the Titaness Metis (Wisdom), for an advice on how to defeat Cronus. She answered
by preparing a drink indistinguishable from Cronus’ favorite wine but designed to make him vomit for
ages. Zeus disguised himself as the gods’ cupbearer and, after a while, successfully slipped Metis’ drink
to Cronus. The plan worked perfectly: Cronus started vomiting and spilled out all of Zeus’ five siblings,
but only after throwing up the stone. Called Omphalos, or the Navel, the stone was later set up at Delphi
by two eagles Zeus sent to meet at the center of the world. Overwhelmed with gratitude, Rhea’s
children – Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon – recognized Zeus as their leader.

The Titanomachy

However, Cronus was still in command – and yet to be defeated. He was too old to protect himself from
the attacks of his progeny, but he enlisted the help of the faithful Titans, who also feared the new
generation of gods. This led to a decade-long war between the Titans and the Olympians, remembered
by generations hence as the Titanomachy. Atlas became the Titans’ leader and led his armies to many
victories. At one point, it even seemed that Zeus would be defeated. However, at the advice of Gaea, he
went to Tartarus and released the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. In gratitude, the Cyclopes provided
Zeus with his signature thunderbolt; they also made a trident for Poseidon and a helmet of invisibility for
Hades. The tables had turned.

However, as so many times before, the final victory would not be the result of brute force, but it would
happen due to a cunning little trick, possibly devised by Prometheus, who deserted from the Titans’
army beforehand. Armed with boulders, Hecatoncheires set an ambush for the Titans. At the right time,
Zeus retreated his forces, drawing the Titans into the Hecatoncheires’ trap. The Hundred-Handed ones
started raining down hundreds of boulders, with such a fury that the Titans thought the mountains were
falling down upon them. They ran away, and Zeus could finally consider himself the King of the Universe.

Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against him into Tartarus. He made an exception with Atlas,
though: being the leader of the opposing force, he was punished to hold the universe on his shoulders.

Zeus and Typhon

Zeus’ power would be challenged on few occasions afterward. Just after the Titanomachy, his
grandmother Gaea, outraged by the imprisonment of her children, issued forth one last child of her, the
monstrous Typhon. He was so fearsome that most of the gods fled the second they saw him; however,
Zeus didn’t hesitate. He faced the monster and using the power of his lightning bolts, he was able to
defeat it. Typhon was subsequently buried under Mount Etna in Sicily.

They say that you can still hear him growling under the volcano. And that someday in the distant future,
he will return to challenge Zeus once again.