Example of Epic

The Odyssey 
ten years after the Fall of Troy, and twenty years after the Greek hero Odysseus first set out from
his home in Ithaca to fight with the other Greeks against the Trojans, Odysseus’
son Telemachus and his wife Penelope are beset with over a hundred suitors who are trying to
persuade Penelope that her husband is dead and that she should marry one of them.
Encouraged by the goddess Athena (always Odysseus’ protector), Telemachus sets out to look
for his father, visiting some of Odysseus’ erstwhile companions such as
Nestor, Menelaus and Helen, who have long since arrived home. They receive him sumptuously
and recount the ending of the Trojan War, including the story of the wooden
horse. Menelaus tells Telemachus that he has heard that Odysseus is being held captive by the
nymph Calypso.
The scene then changes to Calypso’s island, where Odysseus has spent seven years in captivity.
Calypso is finally persuaded to release him by Hermes and Zeus, but Odysseus’ makeshift boat is
wrecked by his nemesis Poseidon, and he swims ashore onto an island. He is found by the young
Nausicaa and her handmaidens and is made welcome by King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the
Phaeacians, and begins to tell the amazing story of his return from Troy.
Odysseus tells how he and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms, and how they
visited the lethargic Lotus-Eaters with their memory-erasing food, before being captured by the
giant one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus (Poseidon’s son), only escaping after he blinded the giant
with a wooden stake. Despite the help of Aeolus, King of the Winds, Odysseus and his crew
were blown off course again just as home was almost in sight. They narrowly escaped from the
cannibal Laestrygones, only to encounter the witch-goddess Circe soon after. Circe turned half of
his men into swine, but Odysseus had been pre-warned by Hermes and made resistant to Circe’s
magic.
After a year of feasting and drinking on Circe’s island, the Greeks again set off, reaching the
western edge of the world. Odysseus made a sacrifice to the dead and summoned the spirit of
the old prophet Tiresias to advise him, as well as the spirits of several other famous men and
women and that of his own mother, who had died of grief at his long absence and who gave him
disturbing news of the situation in his own household.
Advised once more by Circe on the remaining stages of their journey, they skirted the land of the
Sirens, passed between the many-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, and,
blithely ignoring the warnings of Tiresias and Circe, hunted down the sacred cattle of the sun
god Helios. For this sacrilege, they were punished by a shipwreck in which all
but Odysseus himself drowned. He was washed ashore on Calypso’s island, where she
compelled him to remain as her lover.
By this point, Homer has brought us up to date, and the remainder of the story is told
straightforwardly in chronological order.
Having listened with rapt attention to his story, the Phaeacians agree to help Odysseus get home,
and they finally deliver him one night to a hidden harbour on his home island of Ithaca.
Disguised as a wandering beggar and telling a fictitious tale of himself, Odysseus learns from a
local swineherd how things stand in his household. Through Athena’s machinations, he meets up
with his own son, Telemachus, just returning from Sparta, and they agree together that the
insolent and increasingly impatient suitors must be killed. With more help from Athena,
an archery competition is arranged by Penelope for the suitors, which the
disguised Odysseus easily wins, and he then promptly slaughters all the other suitors.
Only now does Odysseus reveal and prove his true identity to his wife and to his old father,
Laertes. Despite the fact that Odysseus has effectively killed two generations of the men of
Ithaca (the shipwrecked sailors and the executed suitors), Athena intervenes one last time and
finally Ithaca is at peace once more.

Example of proverbs
 The harder you work, the luckier you get.
 Persuasion is better than force.
 Learn to walk before you run.
 Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
 Better to be poor and healthy rather than rich and sick.
 Two heads are better than one
 A friend in need is a friend indeed
 Where there is a will, there is a way
 A chain is only as strong as its weakest link
 Look before you leap
Example of Legend
The Legend of Makahiya
Long time ago, there was a couple in Barangay Masagana (Pampanga today) who
wanted a daughter. Their wish was granted and the wife gave birth to a baby girl.
They called her Maria. Maria was very beautiful but very shy that she wouldn't go
out from their house.

Weeks later, Spaniards came to their town. The Spaniards were very cruel that they
get everything they wanted. They rob houses and kill everyone who gets in their
way and who refuses to give what they wanted.

The couple was very frightened to lose their daughter so, they hid Maria in the
bushes so the Spaniards couldn't find her.

After the Spaniards left their town, the couple tried to look for Maria but they
couldn't find her even in the bushes where they hid her, instead they found a little
plant that is very sensitive that when you touch it, it would immediately close.

So they thought it was their daughter, Maria. They called the plant "Makahiya" that
means "touch me not," like their daughter who was very shy.