In Greek mythology, the goddess and witch Circe lived on the remote island of Aeaea. It was here that she gathered and used her magic herbs to turn men into pigs, and also where she spent a year with the hero Odysseus. Madeline Miller's fabulous novel 'Circe' retells the myth from Circe's perspective. More info about the book here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35959740-circe #MythologyMonday@mythology@folklore
🎨'Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses' - John William Waterhouse.
In #Norse cosmology, there is no such thing as "the world".
Creation myths explain how parts of the cosmos were created (e.g., the sky is the skull of Ymir¹) and that several worlds are separated from each other. To be precise, there are nine.
Shamans can travel with the soul, but it should be physically possible too. Often, the methods described are quite strange, but fascinating:
• Walking on the rainbow
• Diving in some pools of water
• Walking in the dark
• Through memorial barrows²
• Traversing inaccessible forests and mountains
Also, gods have such powers that can break the barriers among them.
It was said, for example, that the lightning was #Thor striking Jötnar (the giants) with its hammer, and the thunder was the sound of the creature falling apart.
Our world, thus the reality we see, is called Midgard³, inhabited only by humans.
Interestingly, the other worlds don't have a specific direction (e.g. to the West) – they're just "far away".
At the center of Norse cosmology there is Yggdrasil⁴, a huge #tree (maybe an ash tree) which connects all the worlds. Its name could mean "Horse of the Terrible One" because Odin used its branches to quickly move among the worlds.
Here is a quick list:
Asgard – home of the Æsir gods
Jotunheim –home of the evil giants
Alfheim – home of the elves, (never described in any resource)
Nidavellir – where dwarves lived
Vanaheim – home of Vanir gods (never described!)
Hel – the underworld
Muspelheim – a world made of Fire
Niflheim – a world made of Ice
Midgard – our world, the only one not part of the "Otherworld"
It is extremely confusing, and in the past, people who tried to join the lines were confused, too! Here is a scheme from XIX century, which does not help at all 😅
There is quite a bit of inaccuracies here. From the obvious confusing Mímir with Ýmir to the idea that all of these bits of information, which likely represent a small part of the beliefs of many different groups at various times, seen through the eyes of later Christian writers form a coherent cosmology.
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is work.
Four deities spring to my mind when I think of work: #Demeter, #Hermes, #Hephaistos, and #Athena. #AncientGreece was an agricultural society with 80% of the population being involved in this line of work. In Greek mythology, it was Demeter who invented agriculture but according to Diodorus Siculus she burnt all the grain when her daughter #Persephone vanished out of grief and anger.
@ElysiaMacht It does look like a modern wheelchair, doesn't it?
It is a chariot, probably too clunky in real life to be used as a wheelchair, but if Hephaistos invented the wheelchair based on these kinds of chariots it would make total sense!
Thanks, all, for your tales of WORK this week! This is your host @independentpen signing off. Join us again next week for a new #MythologyMonday topic!
Welcome back! I'm your host @independentpen and our theme this week is WORK. Tell a story from world mythology in the body of your toot, tag it #MythologyMonday, and I'll RT all day in Pacific Time 😘
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is healing. The God of Healing is #Apollon but there are other gods who share in a subset of his power. Apollon's son #Asklepios famously brought dead people back to life. Deified after his untimely death by Zeus' thunderbolt, he received a cult of his own, the Temples of Asklepios serving as hospitals. Asklepios had children of his own, among them Panacea (Cure-all), and Hygieia (Health).
But he is not the only healing god associated with Apollon.
Hi folks! This is your host @independentpen signing off. Thanks for your tales of HEALING today – join me here again next week for a new #MythologyMonday topic!