Create your own Greek God or Goddess

Hades-Illustration for Aunt Grizeldas Monstrous Myths

Gods and Goddesses

The Greek gods and goddesses had amazing powers. For example, Zeus, the king of the gods, was also god of the sky and thunder. (Ten pin bowling is fun, but imagine how much more fun it must be hurling thunderbolts across the sky!) Or how about his brother Poseidon? He was the god of the seas and also creator of earthquakes. Those two must have been pretty noisy guys to have around.

Some goddesses also had important roles. Athena was goddess of wisdom; the beautiful Aphrodite was the goddess of love; and Artemis was the goddess of hunting, which is why in statues she’s always got a hunting dog by her side and a bow in her hand.

Of course, some gods had less high-powered jobs: for example, Iris was the goddess of rainbows, and Morpheus was the god of sleep and dreams, which are pretty cool, but certainly not as demanding as controlling love, or wisdom, or the seas. But all in all, being any god at any level beats being a mortal. So, if you could choose, what would you be the god of?

Create your own Greek God or Goddess

Imagine you got the chance to become a brand-new god or goddess. What is your name? What is your special role? What are your supernatural powers? Illustrate your description with a picture and send it along to annabest@auntgrizelda.com and we’ll put it up in the fan art gallery. Have fun!

Something Fishy

Great-White-Woodland-Shark-copy illustration by Marit Cooper

(By the pricking of my thumbs) Something Fishy This Way Comes…

Inside the forest after dark,
There lurks the great white woodland shark.
It does not haunt the restless seas,
But glides around the woodland’s trees
With dead eyes searching for its prey –
Some hapless soul who’s lost their way.


Ghost Train

Many of you will probably have had a ride on a ghost train at an amusement park, and it can be pretty scary when weird figures loom out of the darkness and cold drafts send icy chills down your spine. But did you know that all over the British Isles and America there are tales of phantom trains that are downright terrifying!
Some, like the Roaring Train of Dalton-in-Furness, are invisible and people only spot them from the roar of their engines and the rush of air they cause as they hurtle by.  Others can be seen for a while, but then suddenly disappear, such as the Black Train of Lochalsh that roars along the tracks at night spitting fire before vanishing into the hills. Many of these engines run on tracks that are no longer there, following a route they knew when they were real. In America, a phantom funeral train runs regularly from Washington DC to Springfield Illinois around the time of President Abraham Lincoln’s death, stopping watches in the surrounding areas as it passes. Now that’s what I call a ghost train!

The Nightmare Express

Through the fog at midnight,
Along the East Ghost Line,
Roars the ghastly nightmare train,
Always dead on time.

Sitting at the windows,
With staring, bloodshot eyes,
Ghost and zombie passengers
Screech out their dreadful cries.

Never ever slowing down,
It thunders through each station.
Never ever getting to
Its final destination.

Quizzical Creatures

Vlad-the-Impaler illustration by Marit Cooper

A Creepy Creature Quizz

Vlad-the-Impaler illustration by Marit Cooper

So, you think you know your mythical monsters and creepy creatures of the night? Try this quiz to find out.

1) Count Dracula was from

a. Lewisham
b. Inverness
c. Transylvania

2) The three headed dog that guarded the underworld was called

a. Killer
b. Cerberus
c. Petal

3) A poltergeist is a ghost that

a. Makes a lot of noise
b. Carries its head under its arm
c. Sits in a corner and cries

4) Black Shuck is

a. A giant rabbit that kills its victims by jumping on them
b. A huge snake that crushes its victims to death
c. A black dog with fiery red eyes that haunts the lanes of East Anglia

5) The Loch Ness Monster has been described as looking like a

a. Stegosaurus
b. A plesiosaur
c. A tyrannosaurus Rex

6) The stare of the gorgon was terrible because

a. It could turn you into ice
b. It could turn you to smoke
c. It could turn you to stone.

1)=C 2)=B 3)=A 4)=C 5)=B 6)=C

Halloween Chant

The Haunted House

As the days slither ever closer to that spookiest time of the year- Halloween – you might be looking for a scary rhyme to get you in the mood. So, when you’re shivering around a very unlikely campfire (camping in October???), or in the kitchen, preparing sinister snacks for a party, get spines shivering with this chanted story in verse. One person tells the story and everyone joins in on the chorus. Enjoy…if you dare!

Who Dares?

A creepy house with spindly towers
Lurked on a windy hill.
The walls inside were black as coal,
The rooms were dank and chill.
A sign hung from the rusty gates,
With writing bloody red,
And oh! what terror stalked its lines,
For this is what it said –

Don’t go through the door!
Don’t climb up the stairs!
There’s ghosts and zombies and poltergeist
To catch you unawares!

The window frames held broken glass,
Storm-battered were the shutters,
And slimy little swampy things
Crawled in and out the gutters.
The children of the neighbourhood
Fled by with hurried tread,
And warned each other constantly
In whispers soft with dread –

Don’t go through the door!
Don’t climb up the stairs!
There’s ghosts and zombies and poltergeist
To catch you unawares!

But then, one day, a girl appeared:
“I’m not afraid,” she cried.
“I’ll spend the whole night in the house,”
And lo! she stepped inside.
The children gasped with horror,
As she disappeared from view,
And as one voice they called to her
The warning they all knew:

Don’t go through the door!
Don’t climb up the stairs!
There’s ghosts and zombies and poltergeist
To catch you unawares!

Next morning to the creepy house,
The village children came,
But found to their astonishment,
No single stone remained.
And nothing but a garden wild
Stood on that windy hill.
As for the girl, she’d disappeared,
Alas, she’s missing still!
But yet, upon a stormy night,
When passing by that way,
If people listen carefully,
They hear a girl’s voice say,

Don’t go through the door!
Don’t climb up the stairs!
There’s ghosts and zombies and poltergeist
To catch you unawares!

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