Share a Story with Stella Partheniou Grasso

Stella has been studying the art of oral storytelling with Storytelling Toronto since 2019. She focuses on stories from Ancient Greek mythology, folktales from Cyprus and the Mediterranean Basin, and family stories.

Challenge at the Acropolis

Join Stella as she travels back in time to the city of Cecropia, which was ruled by a benevolent leader named Cecrops, a being born of Gaia who was half snake, half man. The community he led showed such promise that it garnered the attention of two of the Olympian gods, Poseidon, dark haired Olympian of the sea, and grey-eyed Athene, goddess of wisdom, industry and military strategy.

When the gods challenge each other for naming rights to this new city Cecrops is charged with deciding whose gift is superior.

Becoming Medusa

Medusa’s name often evokes visions of a vengeful snake-haired monster who was beheaded by Perseus. She has been portrayed throughout the ages as a villain, a vixen and a victim but to understand who she really is, we need to understand her pre-Hellenic roots. She was once worshiped as a fertility goddess and protector through birth, life, death and rebirth. Some say she was a queen from the region of Libya and that the story of her beheading was symbolic of the local customs being replaced by a dominant Greek culture.

Traditional Cypriot Folktales and Family Stories

When my family and I fled our village of Argaki in 1974 we took only the essentials that we needed to survive, a couple of changes of clothes, some blankets and food to get us by until we could return to the village. Books and photographs were a luxury we had no room bring along. The books might have been left behind, but our stories came with us. Now I have the chance to share those stories with others.