Posts tagged myth

Andromeda was the princess of Ethiopia, daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia was a boastful woman, and foolishly bragged that she was more beautiful than Juno, the queen of the gods, and the Nereids. In order to avenge the insult to his nymphs, Neptune sent a sea monster to ravage the Ethiopian coast. (Some accounts state that the constellation Cetus represents the sea monster, but a more common view of Cetus is that he is a peaceful whale.)

The horrified king consulted Ammon, the oracle of Jupiter, who said that Neptune could be appeased only by sacrificing Cassiopeia’s beautiful virgin daughter, Andromeda, to the monster. Andromeda was duly chained to a rock on the coast, fully exposed to the monster. Fortunately for her, the hero Perseus happened to be flying by on his way back from killing the Gorgon Medusa:

When Perseus saw the princess, her arms chained to the hard rock, he would have taken her for a marble statue, had not the light breeze stirred her hair, and warm tears streamed from her eyes. Without realizing it, he fell in love. Amazed at the sight of such rare beauty, he stood still in wonder, and almost forgot to keep his wings moving in the air. As he came to a halt, he called out: “You should not be wearing such chains as these—the proper bonds for you are those which bind the hearts of fond lovers! Tell me your name, I pray, and the name of your country, and why you are in chains.” At first she was silent; for, being a girl, she did not dare to speak to a man. She would have concealed her face modestly behind her hands, had they not been bound fast. What she could do, she did, filling her eyes with starting tears. When Perseus persisted, questioning her again and again, she became afraid lest her unwillingness to talk might seem due to guilt; so she told him the name of her country, and her own name, and she also told him how her mother, a beautiful woman, had been too confident in her beauty.

Before she had finished, the waters roared and from the ocean wastes there came a menacing monster, its breast covering the waves far and wide. The girl screamed. Her sorrowing father was close at hand, and her mother too. They were both in deep distress, though the mother had more cause to be so (Metamorphoses IV 674-692).

Perseus tells Andromeda’s parents that he’ll kill the monster if they agree to give him their daughter’s hand in marriage. They of course give him their consent, and Perseus kills the monster. (His exact method of doing so varies in different versions of the myth. Ovid has Perseus stab the monster to death after a drawn-out, bloody battle, while other versions have the hero simply hold up the head of Medusa, turning the monster to stone.) Andromeda is freed, and the two joyously marry.

Andromeda is represented in the sky as the figure of a woman with her arms outstreched and chained at the wrists.

Most ancient cultures saw pictures in the stars of the night sky. The earliest known efforts to catalogue the stars date to cuneiform texts and artifacts dating back roughly 6000 years. These remnants, found in the valley of the Euphrates River, suggest that the ancients observing the heavens saw the lion, the bull, and the scorpion in the stars. The constellations as we know them today are undoubtedly very different from those first few—our night sky is a compendium of images from a number of different societies, both ancient and modern. By far, though, we owe the greatest debt to the mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

The earliest references to the mythological significance of the Greek constellations may be found in the works of Homer, which probably date to the 7th century B.C. In the Iliad, for instance, Homer describes the creation of Achilleus’s shield by the craftsman god Hephaistos:

On it he made the earth, and sky, and sea, the weariless sun and the moon waxing full, and all the constellations that crown the heavens, Pleiades and Hyades, the mighty Orion and the Bear, which men also call by the name of Wain: she wheels round in the same place and watches for Orion, and is the only one not to bathe in Ocean (Iliad XVIII 486-490).

(Source: comfychair.org)

Draco

The Dragon

It is unclear precisely which mythological dragon Draco represents. There are, however, three main contenders.

One version—the least likely—of the Draco story is that the dragon fought Minerva during the wars between the giants and the gods. Minerva threw Draco’s twisted body into the heavens before it had time to unwind itself.

Another possibility is that Draco represents the dragon who guarded the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides. One of the labors of Hercules was to steal these apples (some sources state it was his eleventh labor, others it was his twelfth). This was, according to Bulfinch, the most difficult labor of all…, for Hercules did not know where to find them. These were the apples which Juno had received at her wedding from the goddess of the Earth, and which she had entrusted to the keeping of the daughters of Hesperus, assisted by a watchful dragon. After various adventures, Hercules arrived at Mount Atlas in Africa. Atlas was one of the Titans who had warred against the gods, and after they were subdued, Atlas was condemned to bear on his shoulders the weight of the heavens. He was the father of the Hesperides, and Hercules thought might, if any one could, find the apples and bring them to him (Bulfinch’s Mythology, 136).

Hercules suggested this plan to Atlas, who pointed out two problems: first, he could not simply drop his burden; second, there was the awful guardian dragon. Hercules responded by throwing his spear into the garden of the Hesperides and killing the hundred-headed beast, and then taking the burden on his own shoulders. Atlas retrieved the apples and, reluctantly taking the burden onto his shoulders once again, gave them to Hercules. Juno placed the dragon in the heavens as a reward for his faithful service.

By far the most commonly accepted version of Draco’s arrival in the heavens, however, is that Draco was the dragon killed by Cadmus. Cadmus was the brother of Europa, who was carried off to Crete by Jupiter in the form of a bull (Taurus). Cadmus was ordered by his father to go in search of his sister, and told he could not return unless he brought Europa back with him. “Cadmus wandered over the whole world: for who can lay hands on what Jove has stolen away? Driven to avoid his native country and his father’s wrath, he made a pilgrimage to Apollo’s oracle, and begged him to say what land he should dwell in” (Metamorphoses III 9-11).

Cadmus followed Apollo’s advice and found a suitable site for his new city. He sent his attendants to find fresh water to offer as a libation to Jupiter, and they wandered into a cave with springs. As they were getting water, however, they were all killed by “the serpent of Mars, a creature with a wonderful golden crest; fire flashed from its eyes, its body was all puffed up from poison, and from its mouth, set with a triple row of teeth, flickered a three-forked tongue” (Metamorphoses III 31-34). After his companions did not return, Cadmus himself went into the cave and discovered the dragon. He killed it with his spear, and then (upon the order of Minerva) sowed the dragon’s teeth in the ground. From the teeth sprung warriors, who battled each other until only five were left. These five, along with Cadmus himself, were the first people of the city of Thebes.

It is interesting, however, to note that Ovid himself does not equate the dragon of Mars with Draco. In fact, in book III of Metamorphoses, he describes the dragon killed by Cadmus in terms of the constellation: “It was as huge as the Serpent that twines between the two Bears in the sky, if its full length were seen uncoiled” (45-47).

The Serpent described by Ovid is certainly the same one as we see today, twisting past Cepheus and between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor in the north, with its head beneath the foot of Hercules. Its location therefore seems to fit best with the myth that Draco was the dragon in the garden of the Hesperides.

(Source: comfychair.org)

fantasticallore:

Origin: Jewish legend

Type: Ox

Habitat: Willows of the brook

The Behemoth is a large and powerful creature with bones like iron and a tail like a tree trunk. It eats vegetation and is capable of drawing up the Jordan river into its mouth. He is the primordial creature of the land, and no one can kill it, except for the one who created it. At the end of the world, Behemoth and Leviathan will battle and kill each other, and those who survive will banquet on the creature’s meat.

The Graces were daughters of Zeus, the King of the gods, and the Oceanid Eurynome

~There were three Graces in Greek Mythology: Aglaia, the Grace that symbolized Beauty, Euphrosyne, the Grace of Delight and Thalia, the Grace of Blossom. According to Greek poet Pindar, these enchanting goddesses were created to fill the world with pleasant moments and goodwill.

~Usually the Graces were attending the Greek goddess of Beauty Aphrodite and her companion Eros and loved dancing around in a circle to Apollo’s divine music, together with the Nymphs and the Muses.

The Roman name of Charites is “Graces”

THE KHARITES (Charites) or Graces, were the three goddesses of grace, beauty, adornment, mirth, festivity, dance and song. A number of “younger Kharites” presided over the other pleasures of life, including play, amusement, banqueting, floral decoration, happiness, rest and relaxation.

The Kharites were attendants of the goddesses Aphrodite and Hera. One named Kharis, was the wife of Hephaistos. Another, Pasithea, was married to Hypnos (Sleep). The three Kharites were usually depicted in classical sculpture and mosaic as three naked women, holding hands and dancing in a circle. They were sometimes crowned with myrtle and held sprigs of myrtle in their hands.

In Greek vase painting a bevy of younger Kharis personifications form the retinue of Aphrodite.

Regional differences

Although the Graces usually numbered three, according to the Spartans, Cleta, not Thalia, was the third, and other Graces are sometimes mentioned, including Auxo, Charis, Hegemone, Phaenna, and Pasithea. An ancient vase painting attests the following names: Antheia, Eudaimonia, Paidia, Pandaisia, Pannychis - all referring to the Charites as patronesses of amusement and festivities.

Pausanias interrupts his Description of Greece (book 9.xxxv.1–7) to expand upon the various conceptions of the Graces that had developed in different parts of mainland Greece and Ionia:

“The Boeotians say that Eteocles was the first man to sacrifice to the Graces. Moreover, they are aware that he established three as the number of the Graces, but they have no tradition of the names he gave them. The Lacedaemonians, however, say that the Graces are two, and that they were instituted by Lacedaemon, son of Taygete, who gave them the names of Cleta and Phaenna. These are appropriate names for Graces, as are those given by the Athenians, who from of old have worshipped two Graces, Auxo and Hegemone… It was from Eteocles of Orchomenus that we learned the custom of praying to three Graces. And Angelion and Tectaus, sons of Dionysus, who made the image of Apollo for the Delians, set three Graces in his hand. Again, at Athens, before the entrance to the Acropolis, the Graces are three in number; by their side are celebrated mysteries which must not be divulged to the many. Pamphos (Πάμφως or Πάμφος) was the first we know of to sing about the Graces, but his poetry contains no information either as to their number or about their names. Homer (he too refers to the Graces ) makes one the wife of Hephaestus, giving her the name of Grace. He also says that Sleep was a lover of Pasithea, and in the speech of Sleep there is this verse:—

Verily that he would give me one of the younger Graces.

“Hence some have suspected that Homer knew of older Graces as well. Hesiod in the Theogony (though the authorship is doubtful, this poem is good evidence) says that the Graces are daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, giving them the names of Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia. The poem of Onomacritus agrees with this account. Antimachus, while giving neither the number of the Graces nor their names, says that they are daughters of Aegle and the Sun. The elegiac poet Hermesianax disagrees with his predecessors in that he makes Persuasion also one of the Graces.” [2]

In art

On the representation of the Graces, Pausanias wrote,

“Who it was who first represented the Graces naked, whether in sculpture or in painting, I could not discover. During the earlier period, certainly, sculptors and painters alike represented them draped. At Smyrna, for instance, in the sanctuary of the Nemeses, above the images have been dedicated Graces of gold, the work of Bupalus; and in the Music Hall in the same city there is a portrait of a Grace, painted by Apelles. At Pergamus likewise, in the chamber of Attalus, are other images of Graces made by Bupalus; and near what is called the Pythium there is a portrait of Graces, painted by Pythagoras the Parian. Socrates too, son of Sophroniscus, made images of Graces for the Athenians, which are before the entrance to the Acropolis. Also, Socrates was know to have destroyed his own work as he progressed deeper into his life of philosophy and search of the conscious due to his iconoclastic attitude towards art and the like. All these are alike draped; but later artists, I do not know the reason, have changed the way of portraying them. Certainly to-day sculptors and painters represent Graces naked.”

During the Renaissance, the Roman statue group of the three graces in the Piccolomini library in Duomo di Siena inspired most themes.

The Charites are depicted together with several other mythological figures in Sandro Botticelli’s painting Primavera (above right). Raphael also pictured them in a painting now housed in Chantilly in France. Among other artistic depictions, they are the subject of famous sculptures by Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen.

A group of three trees in the Calaveras Big Trees State Park are named “The Three Graces” after the Charites. [3]