Week 5 Story: Turtle Myths

There once a turtle who lived with his brother turtle. They were the best of friends, but the younger turtle saw his older one as a father, rather than even a brother. Thus, when the older brother got married, the woman became a mother in their little family. 

(Photo of a baby turtle: Wikimedia Commons) 

The turtles had a little operation running where they would scavenge around people, grabbing the food that these dirty humans kept throwing on the ground. Whenever these turtles were near the eyes of the humans, they would retract in the shell because their rock hard shell looks like a rock to the unknown eye. This was their trade for many years with the younger brother distracting the humans with his elegant shell, while the older brother steals the food from behind. The younger brother would go back to their little cave in the woods and organize the food, sometimes even remaking the food to a special dish. Everything the older brother asked, the younger brother did without complaining. After all, they only had each other left after their parents died in an unsuccessful food heist by getting picked up by the humans and being transported to a land unbeknownst to them all. 

One day, there was this couple walking the woods of the Rocky Mountains, where these turtles live. They were a nice old couple who wanted to see nature at its finest before they die. As they was walking, they spotted this beautiful rock on the ground, they reached down and picked it up. This "rock" was the younger turtle! Seeing this, the older brother bit the couple and both turtles crawled as fast as they can away! The younger brother got into the house first and carried a big tub of water out to drink after their exhausting debut. The wife of the older brother saw how strong and manly he was and tried to seduce him. 

"No, this is not right," the younger turtle said. "Pretend this never happened". 

She didn't say anything as he walked out, but when her husband walked in, she fell slumped onto him, crying, "Oh honey, a terrible thing has happened. Your brother has tried to make me unfaithful, but I would never do such a thing. Thus, he has wounded me". 

The trick was that her husband was walking up to the door when he heard the whole thing unfold. He heard his wife's talk with his brother and is furious. He, however, didn't reveal that, but he led her out to where the old couple was and told her to hide in her beautiful shell while he goes and gets her a surprise present to make up for his brother's rash behavior. 

Thus, he left and didn't come back. The old couple saw this beautiful rock and then carried it off, away from her home forever. 

Author's Note: In the original Egyptian myth, the brothers worked by planting seeds. The same relationship is the same though. The younger brother, Bata, saw his older brother, Anpu, as a dad. Everything else is pretty much the same, except the scene with the "mom" and the younger brother happened as a result of Bata carrying out 5 measures (weight measurement) of seeds. I changed the ending a little. Instead of Anpu believing what was told by his wife and then seeking revenge by trying to slay his brother, I made it so the wife died. However, in the original story, the desire to slay Bata helps carry the rest of the story as Bata is forced to escape the land. 

Bibliography:
"The Two Brothers: Part 1" from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907)