Mysterious fairies named Bereginyas, Berehynias, or Brzeginias are referenced in The Lay of St. Gregory the Theologian of the Idols, which was preserved in a manuscript from Novgorod in the fifteenth century. The Lay is an anthology of translations from Greek sources that a Kievan monk from the 12th century annotated. The literature mentions Bereginyas as the first entities worshipped by the Slavs, even before the cult of Perun was brought in their regions; nonetheless, it appears that later scribes made significant revisions to it. There is no information provided concerning Bereginyas, leaving plenty of room for conjecture of all kinds. Boris Rybakov explains that the term refers to Slavic mermaids, but unlike Rusalkas, they were kindhearted. The term is related to the Slavic word for riverbank. Following the release of the findings by Rybakov, Slavic neo-pagans have come to favor the Bereginya, viewing it as a potent pagan goddess as opposed to a simple water sprite
[Information Credit : Supernatural_beings_in_Slavic_religion, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_beings_in_Slavic_religion ]
[Image Credit : Andrey_Shishkin, Wikipedia]
[Image : Bereginya by Andrey Shishkin]
[Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License; (Please Relate to Individual Image URL for More Usage Property)]
[License-Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en ]
[Wikipedia-Image-Source-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bereginya_by_Andrey_Shishkin.jpg ]
#Mythology
The mother goddess of Anatolia, Cybele, may have had an early Neolithic ancestor in Çatalhöyük. She was likely the national divinity of Phrygia and is the only goddess known to exist there. There is no extant tale or literature that describes the original nature or characteristics of the Phrygian cult of Cybele. She might have developed from a kind of statuary from Anatolia called Çatalhöyük, which dates to the sixth millennium BC and is thought by some to be a mother goddess. It depicts a corpulent, fertile female figure surrounded by big cats. The cult features of the Phrygian mother-goddess, seen in 8th-century BC Phrygian art, include attendant lions, a prey-bird and a little vase for her offerings or libations. Around the sixth century BC, Greek colonists in Asia Minor took up and modified her Phrygian cult, which they then brought to mainland Greece and the farther-flung western Greek colonies. Cybele had a mixed response when she arrived in Greece. She began to adopt characteristics of the harvest-mother goddess Demeter, the Earth-goddess Gaia, and her potential Minoan counterpart Rhea. Her most famous Greek ceremonies and processions portray her as an inherently alien, exotic mystery-goddess who arrives in a lion-drawn chariot to the accompaniment of wild music, wine, and an agitated, ecstatic following. However, some city-states, most notably Athens, invoked her as a protector. She held a eunuch mendicant priesthood, which was unique in Greek religion. Rituals to a divine Phrygian castrate shepherd-consort Attis, who was most likely a Greek fabrication, were part of many of her Greek religions. In Greece, Cybele came to be connected to mountains, city walls, lush surroundings, and untamed animals, particularly lions. Cybele earned the title Magna Mater or Great Mother, in Rome. Once the Sibylline oracle in 205 BC urged her conscription as a crucial religious ally in the second war of Rome against Carthage between 218 and 201 BC, the Roman state adopted and developed a specific form of her cult. Roman mythographers reinterpreted her as a Trojan goddess, and thus an ancestral goddess of the Roman people through the Trojan prince Aeneas. Romanized versions of the cults of Cybele spread throughout empire as Rome eventually consolidated dominance over the Mediterranean region. Greek and Roman writers argued and argued over the morality and significance of her cults and priesthoods, topics that are still contentious in contemporary scholarship
[Information and Image Credit : Cybele, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybele ]
[Image : Cybele in a chariot driven by Nike and drawn by lions toward a votive sacrifice (right); above are heavenly symbols including a solar deity, Plaque from Ai Khanoum, Bactria (Afghanistan), 2nd century BC; Gilded silver; Wikipedia-Image-Author : World Imaging assumed (based on copyright claims)]
[The copyright holder of the work(Image), released the work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: the copyright holder grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law. The work (Image) is also in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 100 years or fewer; (Please Relate to Original Image URL for More Usage Property) ] [Wikipedia-Source-Image-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AiKhanoumPlateSharp.jpg ] #History#Art
A prominent figure in Welsh mythology, Rhiannon first appears in the First Branch of the Mabinogi and then reappears in the Third Branch. She is without a doubt the most iconic female character in all of human literature, according to Ronald Hutton, who also referred to her as one of the greatest female personas in world literature. Rhiannon, a strong-willed Otherworld woman in the Mabinogi, selects Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, or West Wales, as her consort over another man she is previously engaged to. She is renowned for her charity and money, as well as being politically astute and attractive. Her son with Pwyll is the brave Pryderi, who subsequently becomes the lord of Dyfed. When her newborn is kidnapped, she suffers tragedy and is charged with infanticide. After becoming a widow, she weds Manawydan, a member of the British royal family, and goes on further magical adventures. Rhiannon, like several other characters from Welsh and British literature, might be a reflection of an earlier Celtic goddess. Her name seems to come from the rebuilt form of Brittonic *Rīgantonā, a derivative of *rīgan- i.e. queen. Rhiannon and her son Pryderi have a strong bond with horses in the First Branch of the Mabinogi. It is commonly believed that she is related to Epona, the horse goddess of Gaul. She is frequently shown as a mare and her son. She occasionally sits on her horse in a serene, stoic manner, much like Epona. While most Mabinogi and Celtic studies scholars agree that Epona is connected to this, paganism historian Ronald Hutton is not convinced
[Information and Image Credit : Rhiannon, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhiannon, Wikipedia]
[Image : Rhiannon riding in Arberth. From The Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest, 1877]
[The media file (Image) is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1928, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)]
[Wikipedia-Image-Source-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charlotte_Guest_Rhiannon.jpg ] #Mythology
One of the most well-known and revered gods in the Hindu pantheon, Lord Ganesha is also known by the names Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar. He is also the Supreme God according to the Ganapatya sect. India is covered in images of him. He is worshipped by all Hindu sects, regardless of affiliation. Ganesha worship is widespread and spreads outside of India to Jains and Buddhists. Although Ganesha has various characteristics, his elephant head makes him easy to recognize. He is commonly regarded as the creator of knowledge and wisdom, the patron of the arts and sciences, and the remover of impediments. He is also considered to bring good fortune. He is honored at the beginning of rituals and ceremonies since He is the God of Beginnings. During writing sessions, Ganesha is frequently referred to as the patron of learning and the written word. Several texts include anecdotes about his birth and accomplishments. He is described in Hindu literature as the son of Parvati and Shiva in the Shivaist tradition, although he is a pan-Hindu god that can be found in all of the different traditions of the religion. Ganesha is regarded as the Supreme Being in the Ganapatya doctrine of Hinduism. The Ganesha Purana, Mudgala Purana, and Ganapati Atharvasirsha are three of the main works about Ganesha
[Information and Image Credit : Ganesha, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha ]
[Image : A 13th-century statue of Ganesha, Hoysala-style, Karnataka]
[Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic; (Please Relate to Original Image URL for More Usage Property)]
[License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en ]
[Wikipedia-Source-Image-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:India_ganesha.jpg ] #Mythology
Abundantia, also known as Abundita or Copia, was a deity who represented wealth and abundance in the religion of the ancient Romans. Abundantia is Latin for plenty or wealth. This name is appropriate since Abundantia was a goddess of wealth, abundance, luck, fortune, valuables, and success. She would aid in safeguarding your investments and savings. Abundantia would even help with significant purchases. She was one of the religious depictions of virtue that portrayed the emperor as ensuring Golden Age conditions. Thus, Abundantia appears in literature, worship, and art but has little actual mythology. She might have survived in some capacity in medieval France and Roman Gaul. Thus, Abundantia appears in literature, worship, and art but has little actual mythology. She might have survived in some capacity in medieval France and Roman Gaul. Abundantia would go with a cornucopia loaded with grain and money. She occasionally left some of her grain or cash as a gift at home of someone. In the legend of Acheloüs, the river deity, whose horn Hercules tore from his forehead, the Augustan poet Ovid gives Abundantia a role. The Naiads took the horn and turned it into the cornucopia they gave to Abundantia. She was equated with Annona, who represented the grain supply, and Ceres on Neronian currency. Different aetiological myths offer diverse theories for the origin of the cornucopia. Abundantia was a virtue in action in places like the waterfront, where grain entered the city, similar to Annona. She is shown on Roman coins either holding the cornucopia or emptying it of the richness of its contents. On rare occasions, she is shown standing on a ship or holding a stalk of wheat. What her presence on ships denotes is uncertain. This can represent the wealth that the Roman Empire gained via its conquests. The deity is seen sitting and holding a cornucopia as a representation of the affluence that stems from act of Mithras in Mithraic imagery on a vase from Lezoux in the Roman province of Gallia Aquitania. A Pompeii fountain also included an image of Abundantia. Numerous medals of emperors feature Abundantia as those of Trajan, Antoninus Pius, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Severus Alexander, Gordian, Decius, Gallienus, Tetricus, Probus, Numerian, Carinus, Carus, Diocletian and Galerius, to name a few
[Information and Image Credit : Abundantia, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundantia ]
[Image : A painting of Abundantia made by Peter Paul Rubens] [The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The author died in 1640, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 100 years or fewer. The Work (Image) is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928. (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)]
[Wikipedia-Image-Source-Link :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Abundance_(Abundantia)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg ]
#Mythology
In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, Medb—later written Meadhbh, Méabh, and Méibh—and frequently anglicized as Maeve—is the queen of Connacht. Although she had a number of spouses prior to Ailill mac Máta who were also rulers of Connacht, he is the man she is married to in the central stories of the cycle. She had authority at Cruachan, which is modern-day Rathcroghan in the County of Roscommon. She was the rival of Conchobar mac Nessa and also his previous spouse. She is most remembered for initiating the Táin Bó Cúailnge to seize the prized stud bull Donn Cailnge of Ulster. The classic warrior queen, Medb was strong-willed, ambitious, clever, and promiscuous. Some people think she is a manifestation of the goddess of sovereignty. The Tara sovereignty goddess Medb Lethderg and Medb of Connacht are likely the same person, and there may also be a connection to the Morrígan. Táin Bó Cúailnge - meaning the driving-off of the cows of Cooley, often known as The Táin or less frequently as The Cattle Raid of Cooley, is an epic from Irish mythology. The Táin is frequently referred to as The Irish Iliad, despite the fact that it is written in prosimetrum, or prose with sporadic inserts of verse written by the characters, like the majority of other early Irish literature. The Táin describes a war that Queen Medb of Connacht and her husband King Ailill plan to wage against Ulster in order to take the stud bull Donn Cuailnge. Only the child demigod Cú Chulainn is able to repel the invaders because of a curse placed upon the king and Ulster warriors. The Táin, the main text of a collection of tales known as the Ulster Cycle, is customarily set in the first century, during a pagan heroic age. In manuscripts from the 12th century and later, it can be found in three written forms or recensions: the first is a collection that was primarily written in Old Irish, the second is a more coherent work written in Middle Irish, and the third is an Early Modern Irish version. Irish literature and culture have benefited from The Táin. It is frequently referred to as national epic of Ireland. The Táin is preceded by a number of remscéla, or pre-tales, that give the backdrop on the primary characters and explain things like why certain Ulster characters are in the Connacht camp, why the remaining Ulstermen are temporarily unable to fight due to a curse, and how the bulls Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach got their magical origins. There are numerous more stories that have been referred to as remscéla to the Táin, some of which are only distantly related to it. Ailill and Medb are seen gathering their army in Cruachan at the start of the first recension; the reason for this military build-up is assumed for granted. In the second revision, a prologue is added in which Ailill and Medb compare their wealth and discover that the only thing that sets them apart is that Ailill owns the extraordinarily fertile bull Finnbhennach, who was born into the herd of Medb but despised being owned by a woman and chose to move to that of Ailill. To match the wealth of her husband, Medb resolves to obtain the similarly potent Donn Cuailnge from Cooley. She is able to work out a one-year rental agreement with the owner of the bull, Dáire mac Fiachna. However, Medb intends to take the bull by force if she is not allowed to borrow him, as her inebriated messengers reveal. When the agreement falls through, Medb gathers an army, including exiles from Ulster led by Fergus mac Róich, and sets out to seize Donn Cuailnge. The ces nonden, which is literally translated as debility of nine (days), is a disease that appears to be afflicting the men of Ulster but actually lasts for several months. According to a different story, this is the result of the curse of Goddess Macha, which she placed after being made to race against a chariot when heavily pregnant by the king of Ulster. Only seventeen-year-old Cú Chulainn is qualified to protect Ulster, but he lets the army surprise Ulster by going out on a tryst instead of keeping an eye on the border. With the help of his charioteer Láeg, Cú Chulainn engages in a guerilla war against the oncoming army before stopping it at fords by using the right of single combat and taking out champion after champion in a standoff that lasted months. He is powerless to stop Medb from catching the bull, though. The magical characters of the Tuatha Dé Danann both help and hinder Cú Chulainn. Before a battle, the goddess of war, Morrígan, appears to Cú Chulainn in the appearance of a lovely young woman and professes her love. However, Cú Chulainn rejects her. She then makes herself known and makes a threat to become involved in his upcoming fight. She performs this three times, first as an eel that trips him in the ford, then as a wolf who stampedes livestock through the ford, and finally as a cow leading the stampede. However, in each of these appearances, Cú Chulainn injures her. When he wins the battle, the Morrígan reappears to him as an elderly woman milking a cow with wounds that are an exact replica of those that Cú Chulainn inflicted on her in her animal incarnations. She extends to him three milk sips. He blesses her with each cup, and the blessings mend her wounds. Cú Chulainn claims to the Morrígan that he would not have rejected her if he had known her true identity. Cú Chulain is visited by Lug, another otherworldly being, who reveals himself to be father of Cú Chulainn, after a particularly taxing battle. For three days, Lug puts Cú Chulainn to sleep so that he can receive his recovery. The Ulster youth corps come to help of Cú Chulainn while he is sleeping, but they are all killed. When Cú Chulainn wakes up, he experiences a stunning ríastrad or distortion, during which his body twists in its skin and he transforms into an unrecognisable creature that has no concept of friend or foe. Cú Chulainn attacks the Connacht camp viciously and exacts sixfold retribution for the slaughter of the young corps. The series of single combats resumes after this exceptional episode, though Medb repeatedly violates the agreement by sending more warriors against Cú Chulainn at once. When his foster father Fergus is dispatched to battle him, Cú Chulainn consents to submit to him on the condition that Fergus submits to him the following time they encounter each other. Finally, Medb calls Ferdiad, the foster brother of Cú Chulainn, into the fight, promising him the hand of her daughter Finnabair and her own friendly thighs in exchange. Chulainn begs Ferdiad to end the conflict because he does not want to kill his foster brother. The hero and his foster brother engage in a three-day battle that is both physically and mentally taxing. Ferdiad is eventually defeated by Cú Chulainn, who uses the fabled Gáe Bolga spear to kill him. Cú Chulainn, who has been severely wounded and is unable to continue fighting, is carried away by the healers of his clan. The paralysed Ulstermen begin to stir, first one by one and then collectively. King Conchobar mac Nessa swears that he will return every cow to its stall and every kidnapped woman to her house as long as the sky is above and the Earth is beneath. The crucial conflict gets going. Cú Chulainn initially observes the battle while healing from his wounds. Fergus now had Conchobar at his mercy, but Cormac Cond Longas, son of Conchobar and foster-son of Fergus, stops him from killing him. Enraged, Fergus then uses his sword to sever the tops of three hills. Chulainn pushes his injuries aside, enters the conflict, and confronts Fergus, compelling him to fulfill his word and submit to him. Fergus leaves the area and removes all of his troops. The rest of friends of Connacht flee in fear, forcing Medb to withdraw. When Medb was apparently having her period, Cú Chulainn now appeared before her (Is and drecgais a fal fola for Meidb, i.e. Then Medb began to experience the blood issue.). Chulainn however spares her because of her cries for life and also watches over her escape. Now Donn Cuailnge was returned to Connacht by Medb, where the bull confronts Finnbhennach there. The bull defeats him, but is severely wounded. He then wanders over Ireland, dropping parts of Finnbhennach from his horns and giving those locations their names. Finally, the bull returns home and eventually passes away from fatigue [Information Credit : Medb, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medb ]
[Information Credit : Táin_Bó_Cúailnge, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A1in_B%C3%B3_C%C3%BAailnge ]
[Image Credit : Medb, Wikipedia] [Image : Queen Maev by J. C. Leyendecker]
[The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The author died in 1951, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is th life of author plus 70 years or fewer. The Work (Image) is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928]
[(Please Relate to Individual Image URL for More Usage Property)]
[Wikipedia-Source-Image-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maev.jpg ] #Mythology
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), a famous Victorian poet, wrote the poem Ulysses in 1833 in blank verse form and included it in his well appreciated second volume of poetry in 1842. It is an iconic instance of the dramatic monologue and a poem that is frequently referenced. The mythical hero Ulysses, facing old age, recalls his dissatisfaction and restlessness upon returning to his homeland, Ithaca. Ulysses longs to go once more despite his reunion with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Ulysses, or Odysseus as he is known in Greek, has been extensively discussed in literature. Tennyson draws on account of Homer regarding journey of Odysseus in the poem. The exploits of Odysseus were first told in Iliad and Odyssey, written around 800–700 BC. However, the majority of critics believe that Ulysses by Tennyson evokes Ulisse by Dante from his Inferno, written around 1320. Ulisse is sent to hell with the false counselors in the retelling of the story by Dante because he sought knowledge that was beyond the scope of human understanding and because he invented the ruse of Trojan horse. For a significant portion of the existence of the poem, readers admired Ulysses for his resolve -- To Strive, To Seek, To Find, and Not To Yield, and they saw him as a hero. The comments of Tennyson on the poem and the personal circumstances—the passing of his best friend—that inspired it lend credence to the idea that he envisioned a heroic character. In the 20th century, numerous fresh readings of Ulysses drew attention to potential ironies. They challenged more favorable views of the character of Ulysses by showing how he mirrors problematic protagonists in older literature. They suggested, for instance, that Ulysses intends to selfishly abandon his kingdom and family
[Information and Image Credit : Ulysses_(poem), Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(poem) ]
[Image : A Roman mosaic depicting a maritime scene with Odysseus (Ulysses), from Carthage, 2nd century AD]
[The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 100 years or fewer] (Please Relate to Source-Image URL for more Usage Property)] [Wikipedia-Source-Image-URL : https://shorturl.at/eoAFH ] #Poet
Mithra, also known as Mehr or Mithras among Romans, is an ancient Iranian deity of covenants, light, oath, justice, the sun, contracts, and friendship. In addition to being a divinity who makes contracts, Mithra is also a judge, an all-seeing guardian of the truth, and a defender of the waterways, the harvest, and the livestock. The Mithraic enigmas were explained by the Romans using the Zoroastrian Persian texts. Both the Gathas, the oldest literature of Zoroastrianism and traditionally attributed to Zoroaster himself, and the Yasna Haptanghaiti, a seven-verse portion of the Yasna ritual, do not however specifically mention Mithra. In the Iranian Ahuric Triad, which also includes Ahura Mazda and Ahura Berezaiti or Apam Napat, Mithra is a respected figure. In his role as the Divinity of Contract, Mithra is unshakeable, without flaw, alert at all times, and never at rest. Furthermore, Mithra is the protector of livestock, and his company name is Wide Pastures. He ensures that the pastures receive enough water in his capacity as the guardian of water. Several royal Achaemenid inscriptions mention the god, despite the absence of Mithraic imagery at this time. In the Zoroastrian calendar, Mithra protects and honors both the sixteenth day of the month and the seventh month of the year. Since the Iranian civil calendar adopted the Zoroastrian month names in 1925, the seventh month of the year has also been referred to as Mihr. The first day of the second half of the month and the first month of the second half of the year are, respectively, the sixteenth day and the seventh month, reflecting the place of the Mithra in the hierarchy of the Divinities. In Zoroastrian literature, Mithra is distinguished from the divinity of the Sun, whose name is Hvare-khshaeta, which means Radiant Sun and in Middle Persian is the source of the word Khorshed for the Sun. Nevertheless, in Zoroastrian mythology, Mithra developed from an all-seeing figure, and therefore loosely related with the Sun, into a divinity co-identified with the Sun itself, thereby effectively replacing Hvare-khshaeta. It is unclear how, when, or why this happened, although it is frequently attributed to confusion with the Greek deity Apollo and/or the Babylonian solar god Mithra, with whom Mithra shares a number of traits, including a judicial role and a connection to the solar. Because Mithra/Mitra is related with sunrise in the Atharvaveda and the Indic Rigveda has solar deities that are similar to them, this trait is a part of Indian heritage of Mithra. Even in modern times, sun salutations are performed daily around the world in Yogic activity and are preceded by the chanting of OM Mitraya Namaha, where Mitraya is one of the 108 names for Lord Surya/Sun God. Mithra-related royal names can be found in the dynasties of Parthia, Armenia, Anatolia, Pontus, and Cappadocia. Images from other Iranian cultures during the Parthian period, such as Commagene on the boundary between Roman and Parthian civilization and the Kushan Empire on the Indo-Iranian border, feature a young Mithra in the style of Apollo [Information Credit : Mithra, Wikipedia] [Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra ] [Image Credit : Mithraism, Wikipedia] [Image : A Roman tauroctony relief from Aquileia (c. 175 CE; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported ; Wikipedia-Image-Author : CristianChirita; (Please Relate to Source-Image URL for more Usage Property)] [License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en ] [Wikipedia-Source-Image-URL : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KunsthistorischesMuseumMithrabulSacrifice.jpg ] #History
Roman mystery religion Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was based on the god Mithras. The Roman Mithras is associated with a new and distinctive imagery, with the degree of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice being disputed, despite being inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian god (i.e., yazata) Mithra. From around the first through the fourth century CE, the mysteries were a favorite among the Imperial Roman troops. The seven levels of initiation and shared ceremonial meals were part of a complicated system used by Mithras worshippers. Syndexioi, those -- United by the Handshake, was the name given by initiates. They met in one of the several Mithraea, or underground temples, that still exist today. The worship is thought to have originated in Rome and spread throughout the western half of the empire, including Roman Africa and Numidia in the south, Roman Dacia in the east, Roman Britain in the north, and to a lesser extent Roman Syria in the east. Early Christianity is perceived as competing with Mithraism. Christians later persecuted Mithraists throughout the fourth century, and by the end of the century, the religion had been outlawed and suppressed in the Roman Empire. Throughout the Roman Empire, numerous archaeological discoveries, including gathering sites, monuments, and artifacts, have added to our current understanding of Mithraism. The most well-known images of Mithras depict him emerging from a rock or dining with the god Sol, or the Sun. There would have been at least 680 mithraea in Rome, according to estimates. Limited information may be gleaned from the inscriptions and fleeting or passing references in Greek and Latin literature; no written narratives or theology from the religion have survived. The interpretation of the tangible evidence is still up for debate [Information and Image Credit : Mithraism, Wikipedia] [Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism ] [Image: Mosaic (1st century CE) depicting Mithras emerging from his cave and flanked by Cautes and Cautopates (Walters Art Museum)] [Image : The work (Image) is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer. This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Walters Art Museum. Walters Art Museum grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law] [Wikipedia-Image-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_-_Fragment_of_a_Mosaic_with_Mithras_-_Walters_437.jpg ] #History
The Hyperboreans were a legendary race described in Greek mythology as existing in the far north of the known world. Their name appears to have been derived from the Greek phrase ὑπέρ Βορέᾱ that means Beyond Boreas, also known as the God of the North Wind. However, other academics favor borrowing from a different Greek term - ὑπερφέρω, with a similar meaning. The Hyperboreans were thought to reside in a realm that was sunny, temperate, and blessed by the Gods, despite being in a region of the earth that was generally cold. They were depicted in several stories as residing north of the Riphean Mountains, which protected them from the chilly North Wind. The earliest tales describe them as favorite people of Apollo, and some ancient Greek writers believed the Hyperboreans to be the founders of the mythological temples of Apollo at Delos and Delphi. Later authors had different ideas about the existence and location of the Hyperboreans; some believed they were myths, while others made connections between them and actual people and locations in northern Eurasia, such as Britain, Scandinavia, or Siberia. The Hyperboreans came to represent remoteness and exoticism in literature from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. According to contemporary researchers, the Hyperborean myth is a synthesis of old utopian concepts such as legends about the edge of the earth, the cult of Apollo, and extravagant accounts of northern European events, such as the Arctic Midnight Sun. According to Pausanias, who called the area -- The Land of the Hyperboreans, Men living beyond the Home of Boreas, the Hyperboreans were thought to reside beyond the snow-covered Riphean Mountains
[Information and Image Credit : Hyperborea, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperborea ]
[Image: An Arctic Continent on the Gerardus Mercator map of 1595. ]
[The work (Image) is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer. The work (Image) is in public domain in the United States as well. ]
[Wikipedia-Image-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mercator_Septentrionalium_Terrarum_descriptio.jpg ] #Mythology
The Irish Wolfhound is one of the biggest dog breeds and is a giant sighthound. G.A. Graham created it in the late 19th century with the intention of resurrecting the old Irish wolfhounds, which were thought to be extinct. These were utilised as guard dogs and for wolf hunting, and their appearance and impressive size served as inspiration for literature, poetry, and mythology. Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, a Roman Consul who received seven Canes Scotici as a gift to be used for hunting lions and bears, made mention to giant dogs in 391 AD when he wrote, that all of Rome viewed them with wonder. A Latin term for the Gaels or early Irish is Scoti. In Irish laws and literature from the sixth century, or, in the case of the Sagas, from the ancient Irish period, AD 600-900, dogs are referred to as Cú. The term Cú was frequently used as an epithet for both kings and soldiers to indicate that they were deserving of the adoration and devotion of a dog. The fabled warrior Cú Chulainn, whose name translates to Hound of Culann, is thought to have acquired this moniker as a youngster after killing vicious guard dog of Culann . He offered himself as a replacement as compensation. The Irish zoo-archaeologist Finbar McCormick however emphasised that no dogs of Irish Wolfhound size are known from sites of the Iron Age period of 1000 BC through to 1200 AD in his discussion of the systematic evidence of historic dog sizes in Ireland. Based on the historical dog bones available, it appears that dogs of the current Irish Wolfhound size are a relatively recent development. Hunting dogs were prized, and wealthy people and foreign aristocrats frequently received them as gifts. In or around 1210 A.D., King John of England gave Llywelyn, the Prince of Wales, an Irish dog by the name of Gelert. This hound was written about in a poem by the poet The Hon. William Robert Spencer. Edmund Campion provides an account of the hounds used to hunt wolves in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains in his Historie of Ireland, which was finished in 1571. The Irish Wolfhound was mentioned in the eighteenth century, and references to it describe its tremendous size, power, and greyhound-like appearance as well as its rarity. Bewick identified it as the largest and most attractive breed of dog in his writings from 1790. It stands approximately thirty-six inches tall, is often white or cinnamon in colour, and resembles the Greyhound but is more robust. He claimed that because of their power and gentle demeanour, they were vastly superior than the Mastiff or Bulldog in battle!
[Information and Image Credit : Irish_Wolfhound, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Wolfhound ]
[Image : Irish Greyhound in a mountainous landscape (1804), Philip Reinagle ]
[Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (Please Relate to Original Image URL for more Usage Properties] [License Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en ]
[Wikipedia-Image-Source URL : https://shorturl.at/clxAQ ]
Táin Bó Cúailnge - meaning the driving-off of the cows of Cooley, often known as The Táin or less frequently as The Cattle Raid of Cooley, is an epic from Irish mythology. The Táin is frequently referred to as The Irish Iliad, despite the fact that it is written in prosimetrum, or prose with sporadic inserts of verse written by the characters, like the majority of other early Irish literature. The Táin describes a war that Queen Medb of Connacht and her husband King Ailill plan to wage against Ulster in order to take the stud bull Donn Cuailnge. Only the child demigod Cú Chulainn is able to repel the invaders because of a curse placed upon the king and Ulster warriors. The Táin, the main text of a collection of tales known as the Ulster Cycle, is customarily set in the first century, during a pagan heroic age. In manuscripts from the 12th century and later, it can be found in three written forms or recensions: the first is a collection that was primarily written in Old Irish, the second is a more coherent work written in Middle Irish, and the third is an Early Modern Irish version. Irish literature and culture have benefited from The Táin. It is frequently referred to as national epic of Ireland. The Táin is preceded by a number of remscéla, or pre-tales, that give the backdrop on the primary characters and explain things like why certain Ulster characters are in the Connacht camp, why the remaining Ulstermen are temporarily unable to fight due to a curse, and how the bulls Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach got their magical origins. There are numerous more stories that have been referred to as remscéla to the Táin, some of which are only distantly related to it. Ailill and Medb are seen gathering their army in Cruachan at the start of the first recension; the reason for this military build-up is assumed for granted. In the second revision, a prologue is added in which Ailill and Medb compare their wealth and discover that the only thing that sets them apart is that Ailill owns the extraordinarily fertile bull Finnbhennach, who was born into the herd of Medb but despised being owned by a woman and chose to move to that of Ailill. To match the wealth of her husband, Medb resolves to obtain the similarly potent Donn Cuailnge from Cooley. She is able to work out a one-year rental agreement with the owner of the bull, Dáire mac Fiachna. However, Medb intends to take the bull by force if she is not allowed to borrow him, as her inebriated messengers reveal. When the agreement falls through, Medb gathers an army, including exiles from Ulster led by Fergus mac Róich, and sets out to seize Donn Cuailnge. The ces nonden, which is literally translated as debility of nine (days), is a disease that appears to be afflicting the men of Ulster but actually lasts for several months. According to a different story, this is the result of the curse of Goddess Macha, which she placed after being made to race against a chariot when heavily pregnant by the king of Ulster. Only seventeen-year-old Cú Chulainn is qualified to protect Ulster, but he lets the army surprise Ulster by going out on a tryst instead of keeping an eye on the border. With the help of his charioteer Láeg, Cú Chulainn engages in a guerilla war against the oncoming army before stopping it at fords by using the right of single combat and taking out champion after champion in a standoff that lasted months. He is powerless to stop Medb from catching the bull, though. The magical characters of the Tuatha Dé Danann both help and hinder Cú Chulainn. Before a battle, the goddess of war, Morrígan, appears to Cú Chulainn in the appearance of a lovely young woman and professes her love. However, Cú Chulainn rejects her. She then makes herself known and makes a threat to become involved in his upcoming fight. She performs this three times, first as an eel that trips him in the ford, then as a wolf who stampedes livestock through the ford, and finally as a cow leading the stampede. However, in each of these appearances, Cú Chulainn injures her. When he wins the battle, the Morrígan reappears to him as an elderly woman milking a cow with wounds that are an exact replica of those that Cú Chulainn inflicted on her in her animal incarnations. She extends to him three milk sips. He blesses her with each cup, and the blessings mend her wounds. Cú Chulainn claims to the Morrígan that he would not have rejected her if he had known her true identity. Cú Chulain is visited by Lug, another otherworldly being, who reveals himself to be father of Cú Chulainn, after a particularly taxing battle. For three days, Lug puts Cú Chulainn to sleep so that he can receive his recovery. The Ulster youth corps come to help of Cú Chulainn while he is sleeping, but they are all killed. When Cú Chulainn wakes up, he experiences a stunning ríastrad or distortion, during which his body twists in its skin and he transforms into an unrecognisable creature that has no concept of friend or foe. Cú Chulainn attacks the Connacht camp viciously and exacts sixfold retribution for the slaughter of the young corps. The series of single combats resumes after this exceptional episode, though Medb repeatedly violates the agreement by sending more warriors against Cú Chulainn at once. When his foster father Fergus is dispatched to battle him, Cú Chulainn consents to submit to him on the condition that Fergus submits to him the following time they encounter each other. Finally, Medb calls Ferdiad, the foster brother of Cú Chulainn, into the fight, promising him the hand of her daughter Finnabair and her own friendly thighs in exchange. Chulainn begs Ferdiad to end the conflict because he does not want to kill his foster brother. The hero and his foster brother engage in a three-day battle that is both physically and mentally taxing. Ferdiad is eventually defeated by Cú Chulainn, who uses the fabled Gáe Bolga spear to kill him. Cú Chulainn, who has been severely wounded and is unable to continue fighting, is carried away by the healers of his clan. The paralysed Ulstermen begin to stir, first one by one and then collectively. King Conchobar mac Nessa swears that he will return every cow to its stall and every kidnapped woman to her house as long as the sky is above and the Earth is beneath. The crucial conflict gets going. Cú Chulainn initially observes the battle while healing from his wounds. Fergus now had Conchobar at his mercy, but Cormac Cond Longas, son of Conchobar and foster-son of Fergus, stops him from killing him. Enraged, Fergus then uses his sword to sever the tops of three hills. Chulainn pushes his injuries aside, enters the conflict, and confronts Fergus, compelling him to fulfill his word and submit to him. Fergus leaves the area and removes all of his troops. The rest of friends of Connacht flee in fear, forcing Medb to withdraw. When Medb was apparently having her period, Cú Chulainn now appeared before her (Is and drecgais a fal fola for Meidb, i.e. Then Medb began to experience the blood issue.). Chulainn however spares her because if her cries for life and also watches over her escape. Now Donn Cuailnge was returned to Connacht by Medb, where the bull confronts Finnbhennach there. The bull defeats him, but is severely wounded. He then wanders over Ireland, dropping parts of Finnbhennach from his horns and giving those locations their names. Finally, the bull returns home and eventually passes away from fatigue
[Information and Image Credit : Táin_Bó_Cúailnge, Wikipedia]
[Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A1in_B%C3%B3_C%C3%BAailnge ]
[Image : From 1911 book Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race by T. W. Rolleston, with an image by J. C. Leyendecker, C. Chulainn in combat] [The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The author died in 1951, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 70 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.]
[Wikipedia-Source-Image-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cuinbattle.jpg ] #Mythology
The Gaelic May Day festival is known as Beltane. It is customarily celebrated on the first of May, which falls around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice of northern hemisphere. In Gaelic Ireland, the name of the festival is interchangeable with the month that ushers in summer. In the past, it was frequently observed on the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Ireland. The celebration day is known as Lá Bealtaine in Irish. Early Irish literature makes reference to Beltane, which is connected to significant moments in Irish mythology. Cattle were driven to the summer pastures at the start of the season, also known as Cétshamhain, or -- First of Summer. Rituals were carried out to promote growth and to safeguard livestock, people, and crops. It was customary to start special bonfires whose flames, smoke, and ashes were believed to have protective properties. The people and their animals would pass by bonfires or walk around them, occasionally leaping over the embers or flames. The Beltane bonfire would be used to relight all home fires after they had been extinguished. A feast would accompany these reunions, and some of the food and beverages would be offered to the Aos Sí. Yellow May flowers would be used to adorn doors, windows, byres, and livestock—possibly because they represent fire. A May Bush is often a thorny shrub or limb that has been decorated with flowers, ribbons, brilliant shells, and rushlights in some regions of Ireland. While Beltane dew was believed to bring beauty and preserve youth, holy wells were also frequented. In some regions of Great Britain and Europe, many of these traditions were a part of May Day or Midsummer festivals [Information Credit : Beltane, Wikipedia; Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane ] [Image : Artistic Imagination of Beltane Festival] #Mythology
In Greek mythology, Europa was the mother of King Minos of Crete and a Phoenician princess of Argive Greek descent. She may have inspired the name of the continent of Europe herself. It is thought that the legend of her kidnapping by Zeus in the form of a bull is a Cretan tale. Europa first appears in literature in the Iliad, which is generally regarded as having been written in the eighth century BCE. Another early mention of her can be found in a section of the Oxyrhynchus-found Hesiodic Catalogue of Women. According to the Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Zeus decided to seduce Europa because he was in love with her. He became a friendly white bull and blended in with the herds of her father. Europa saw the bull as she and her companions were collecting flowers, stroked his flanks, and eventually climbed up onto his back. Zeus seized the chance, dashed into the water, and swam to the island of Crete while carrying her on his back. Europa became the first queen of Crete after Zeus disclosed his actual identity. She received gifts from Zeus which included a necklace created by Hephaestus, the Greek God of Blacksmiths, a bronze robot guard named Talos, a javelin which never missed and a hound named Laelaps who never failed to catch his quarry. Later, Zeus reshaped the white bull into what is now known as the constellation Taurus in the heavens. The Raptus myth, also known as The Seduction of Europa and The Abduction of Europa, was incorporated into Roman mythology, although Zeus was replaced there with Jupiter!
[Information and Image Credit : Europa_(consort_of_Zeus), Wikipedia;
Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(consort_of_Zeus) ]
[Image : The Abduction of Europa by Rembrandt, 1632]
[The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The author died in 1669, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer. The work (Image) is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928. (Please Relate to Individual Image URL for More Usage Property)]
[Wikipedia Source Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_-_The_Abduction_of_Europa_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg ] #Mythology
Swedish artist August Malmström (1829–1901) created a painting titled Dancing Fairies (Swedish: Älvalek). In the moonlit scene of the picture, fairies can be seen dancing above the water. One of the fairies bends over the river to catch a glimpse of herself as the others dance in the meadow in the lovely dusk. The morning mist transforms into fairies in this surreal painting, which shows the spirits of primeval nature. Elves are frequently depicted as having fair hair and wearing white clothing in Romantic art and literature. In its native Sweden, Dancing Fairies by August Malmström is a well-known piece of work of art. One of the Swedish artists who aimed to develop a distinct national Swedish art was Malmström, a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. He used elements from both Norse mythology and folklore, and many of his paintings featured fairies and other natural spirits
[Information Credit : Dancing_Fairies, Wikipedia;
Wikipedia-Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Fairies ]
[The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The author died in 1901, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 100 years or fewer. The Work (Image) is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928. (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)]
[Wikipedia-Source-Image-URL :: https://bit.ly/3YlI3gD ] #Art#Mythology
The Turul is a mythological bird of prey that is frequently represented as a falcon in both Turkic and Hungarian culture. It is also the national symbol of Hungary. The Turul is most likely modelled after a big falcon. The name Turul in the Hungarian language, which denoted a particular species of falcon, is currently believed to have Turkic roots. The Turul is described in the legend of Emese, which is described in the Gesta Hungarorum and the Chronicon Pictum, as happening to Emese in a dream while she was already pregnant. This was regarded as impregnation in earlier literature, although the text is explicit. The Turul plays the part of a protector spirit, guarding the defenceless newborn Álmos from harm. This theme is strikingly similar to the function of Simurgh in the Iranian epic Shahnameh. The chief of the Hungarian tribes had a second dream in which eagles struck their horses and a Turul intervened to save them. The Norse Vedfolnir, who also was perched on the tree of life like it, shares similarities with the Turul in terms of appearance and function. According to legend, the Huns also made use of the eagle as a sign of the leader. In Saka-Scythian culture, the representation of a raptor was very prevalent. More generally, this image was prevalent among Central Asian nomads. The coupling of a falcon and a woman is strongly rooted in a shamanic religious and mythical understanding of cosmos, as opposed to being associated with a specific ethnic background, and it was common throughout the steppe. The eyes of falcons are thought to ward off devils who assault pregnant women at childbirth in some regions of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where Kazakhs and Kyrgyz keep falcons within the yurt during birthing [Information and Image Credit : Turul , Wikipedia; Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turul ] [Image: Turul bird on the Royal Castle, Budapest, Hungary] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic; Peter Brown, from Dublin, Ireland (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URLs for More Usage Properties)] [License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en ] [Wikipedia-Source Image URL : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Turul_buda_castle1.jpg ] #Mythology
Imbolc, also known as Imbolg, is an ancient Gaelic celebration. In addition to being the first day of spring, it is also feasting day of Saint Brigid, the patroness saint of Ireland. On February 1st, which is roughly midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, the festival takes place. Its customs were traditionally broadly observed in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. The four Gaelic seasonal holidays are Bealtaine, Lughnasadh, Samhain, and Imbolc. Early Irish literature makes reference to Imbolc, and there is some evidence to imply that it was a significant holiday in the past. Imbolc is thought to have originated as a native holiday honouring Goddess Brigid and the lambing season. In order to ward off fire, disease, and evil spirits, Brigid crosses are woven on Saint Brigids Day and put over doorways and windows. A Brigid doll was also constructed, and girls would parade it through the neighbourhood occasionally with strawboys. On the Eve of Saint Brigid, Brigid was rumoured to pay homeowners a visit. People would prepare a bed for Brigid, provide her food and drink in exchange for her blessings and place clothing outside for her to bless. In addition to visiting holy wells and enjoying a special meal, this day was historically associated with weather legends. It is still honoured as a religious holiday in addition to being a cultural one, despite the fact that many of its customs disappeared in the twentieth century. In certain regions, many of the traditions have been restored. Imbolc will become an annual official holiday in the Republic of Ireland starting in 2023.
[Information-Credit : Imbolc ; Wikipedia; Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc ]
[Image : Cross of Brigid; Wikipedia Image Author: Culnacreann]
[Image Availed Under the License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URL for More Usage Properties)]
[License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en ]
[Wikipedia-Source-Image URL : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Brigid%27s_cross.jpg ]
Trinity College or the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth is the only participant college of the University of Dublin, which is a Research University in Dublin, Ireland. The college was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, being modeled after collegiate universities of Oxford and Cambridge. However, in contrast to these connected institutions just one college was ever formed as -- The Mother of a University. Consequently the names Trinity College and University of Dublin are typically equivalent for practical applications. Trinity College is the most esteemed university of Ireland, in part because of its lengthy and illustrious history, which has led to it being widely regarded as one of the elite universities of Europe. It has 23 schools spread across three faculties that offer degree and certificate programmes at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The college is especially well-regarded in the humanities, law, and literature, and admissions are solely based on academic ability. A graduate of Dublin, Oxford, or Cambridge may receive an equivalent degree at either of the other two institutions by virtue of their affiliation. This is because Trinity College Dublin, St Johns College, Cambridge and Oriel College, Oxford are sister colleges. It also conducts considerable research in immunology, mathematics, engineering, psychology, politics, and English, as well as in nanotechnology, information technology, and other fields. Initially the Trinity College was built outside city limits of Dublin. It was established in part to solidify the control of the Tudor monarchy over Ireland. In 1904, the college initially allowed women to enrol as full members. In 1904, the college initially allowed women to enrol as full members. The Book of Kells, which arrived at the college in 1661 for safekeeping following the Cromwellian raids on religious institutions, is one of the great amounts of manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, which serves as a legal deposit library for both Ireland and Great Britain. It has approximately 7 million printed volumes. A unique copy of the 1916 Proclamation of Independence of the Irish Republic may be found in the Long Room collection, as well as a wooden harp from the fifteenth century that served as inspiration for the present flag of the country. The library is the most significant in Ireland with more than 500,000 visits annually [Information – Credit : Trinity_College_Dublin, Wikipedia; Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College_Dublin ] [Image : Trinity College in Dublin ; Image-Credit: JustPhotof, Pexels ; (Please Relate to Source Image-URL for More Image Usage Property and License) Image-Source-Link : https://www.pexels.com/photo/trinity-college-in-dublin-5459746/ ]
Old Norse literature describes berserkers as people who battled in a trance-like rage; this trait later gave origin to the contemporary English word -Berserk - meaning ferociously violent or uncontrollable. Numerous Old Norse sources mention berserkers. The word was Berserkr in Old Norse, plural Berserkir. It most likely means Bear-Shirt, meaning -- One who wears a Bear-Skin coat, when compared to the Middle English term Serk, meaning Shirt. The term was originally interpreted by historian Snorri Sturluson in the thirteenth century to mean Bare-Shirt, which meant that the warriors engaged in combat without armour. However, this interpretation has since largely been disproved. Some writers argue that hunting sorcery is where the northern warrior culture got its start. The bear, wolf, and wild boar arose as the three principal animal rituals. Scenes from Conquest of Dacia by Trajan in 101–106 AD are depicted in the bas relief carvings on the column of the same name in Rome. His Roman soldiers are seen in the pictures together with auxiliary troops and allies from the frontier areas of Rome, including tribal combatants from both sides of the Rhine. There are warriors affiliated with the Germani who are shown to be barefoot, bare-chested, and carrying weapons and helmets. Some of these soldiers are depicted in Scene 36 of the column standing together, some wearing wolfhoods and others bearhoods. Germanic bear warriors and wolf warriors were never seen fighting alongside one another in history until the account of the Battle of Hafrsfjord in 872 AD by Thórbiörn Hornklofi, when they did so in support of Norwegian King Harald Fairhair. Four cast-bronze dies, known as the Torslunda plates, were discovered in a mound on the grounds of farm No. 5 Björnhovda in Torslunda parish, Land, Sweden, in the spring of 1870, one of them depicting what looks to be a Berserker rite. Some sources assert that the Berserkers were followers of the ancient bear worship, which was once quite popular throughout the northern hemisphere, and that they derived their strength from bears. Notwithstanding their superior fighting skills, the berserkers kept to their religious traditions. The Svarfdaela epic recounts a one on one duel that a berserker delayed until three days after Yule. Before their funeral rites, the deceased bodies of the Berserkers were spread out in bearskins. The bearskin caps that the guards of Danish monarchs wear today still have the bear-warrior image. The berserkers experienced bouts of rage during combat. They would froth at the mouth, howl like untamed animals, and gnaw the rims of their shields. t is said that they were resistant to fire and steel during these outbursts and wreaked havoc among the enemy. They were frail and subdued after the fever subsided. There are accounts about this in the sagas
[Information Credit : Berserker, Wikipedia; Wikipedia-Link :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker ]
[Image :
Painting by Nicholas K. Roerich – Sorcerers -- In which Ulfheðnar is shown conducting a ritual (1905) ; The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The Work (Image) is in the public domain in Russia according to article 1281 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The work was originally published before January 1, 1928. The work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928. (Please Relate to Source Image-URL for More Image Usage Property and License) Wikipedia-Image-Source-Link :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sorcerers-1905.jpg ] #Mythology
Great Irish warpipes are the equivalent of Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe in Ireland. The bagpipes are referred to as píb mhór in a poem by Seán Neachtain, 1650–1728 A.D., which marks the first time the Gaelic name was used in Ireland. The bagpipe is first mentioned in Irish literature in 1206 A.D. or about thirty years after the Anglo-Norman conquest. A manuscript that was produced between 1484 and 1487 A.D. and contains an Irish Gaelic rendition of Fierabras has what is arguably the earliest mention of bagpipes being used in battle. The pipe is frequently utilized by the Irish, according to musician Vincenzo Galilei, the father of scientist Galileo in a 1581 volume. According to Him, to the sound of the pipe, those unconquered ferocious and warlike people march their troops and inspire one another to deeds of valour. They also use it to escort the deceased to the grave, generating sombre noises that they drive onlookers to cry. In the poem of John Derricke -- The Image of Ireland --, which was published in the same year of 1581, it was suggested that the pipes were already being used to transmit messages in battle-fields. The use of the pipes in peacetime, such as for playing of hurling teams, is documented from the late 17th century. However, it might be challenging to determine whether the pipes mentioned in an 18th-century reference are píob mhór or another instrument. Numerous accounts exist of pipers serving in Irish regiments of the British Army in the 18th century. By the 19th century, the Irish warpipes had either completely disappeared or at the very least faded into obscurity. However, a rebirth of interest in the warpipes appears to have occurred at the same time as the overall renaissance of Irish nationalism and Gaelic culture in the second half of the 19th century. Up until the pipes became widely used in both military and civilian applications, the art resumed again. There are many local bands spread out across both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and pipe bands of the same kind as the well-known Highland version are now a normal feature of British regiments with Irish honours and the Irish Defense Forces. [Information and Image Credit : Great_Irish_warpipes, Wikipedia] [Image-Left (1) : An image of an Irish piper playing unusually huge bagpipes was copied from a woodcut from 1578. Image Right (2) : The missal painting] [Both the Files (Images) in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of no more than the life of the author plus 100 years]
[Wikipedia Source-Image-Links ::
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Derrickepiper.jpg
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosgall.jpg ]
Nótt is the representation of night in Norse mythology. Nótt is described as the daughter of a character by the moniker of Nörvi and is affiliated with the horse Hrímfaxi in both the Poetic Edda, assembled in the 13th century from earlier conventional records, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century. The Prose Edda also includes details about lineage of Nótt, which include her three marriages. Even though some document versions mention Jörð as wife of Dellingr and mother of Dagr instead, the third marriage of Nótt was to the deity Dellingr, and their son Dagr, the personification of day, was the outcome. The word Nótt emerges in Old Norse literature as a proper noun. In both the Prose and Poetic Edda, Nótt is personified. Nótt is the daughter of a Jötunn from Jötunheimr by the designation of Norfi or Narfi, according to the exalted figure of High in chapter 10 of the Prose Edda. Nótt, who is characterised as Dark and Swarthy, has been married three times. Her first marriage to Naglfari resulted in the birth of a son named Auðr. The consequence of second marriage of Nótt to Annar was their daughter Jörð, who represents the earth. Finally, Nótt marries the god Dellingr, and the couple has a son named Dagr who is brilliant and fair like his People of His Father. Odin placed Nótt and her son Dagr into the sky with a chariot and a horse each, and they travel around the world every 24 hours. Nótt comes before Dagr, and foam from her horse bit of Hrímfaxi sprays the earth! [Information and Image Credit :: Nótt, Wikipedia] [Image : Nótt rides her horse in this 19th-century picture by Peter Nicolai Arbo] [The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The Work (Image) is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 100 years or fewer. The Work is in Public Domain in the United States as well. (Please Relate to Wikipedia Source Image URL for More Usage Properties)] [Wikipedia-Source-Image-URL :: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Nicolai_Arbo_-_Natten_-_Nasjonalmuseet_-_NG.M.03666.jpg ] #Mythology
A Dís is a feminine divinity, apparition or spirit connected to Fate in Norse mythology who may be friendly or hostile toward people. Dísir could serve as the guardian spirits of Norse clans. Their reverence may have originated from the worship of the dead, but it is also probable that they served as fertility goddesses who were the focus of both personal and public worship, known as Dísablót. The Dísir are invariably referred to combinedly in existing sources, just as the Valkyries, Norns and Vaettir. Some historians assume that the West Germanic Idisi and the North Germanic Dísir are connected because of linguistic and mythical commonalities; nevertheless, there is little concrete evidence linking Anglo-Saxon and Continental German mythology. Some scholars have argued that the term Dísir is a general one that encompasses the other entities since the Dísir performs duties in Norse literature that are similar to those of Fylgjur, Valkyries, and Norns. The Dísir and the West Germanic Idisi have been compared by scholars, who believe that the beginning I- was deleted early in Old or Proto-Norse. Although the likeness clearly had an impact on Old Norse poetic use, other researchers do not believe the words to be directly connected. Other academics classify all female divinities and spirits connected to conflict under the headings of Idis, Dís, Valkyrie and other names, such as Sigewif i.e. Victory-Women, associated by the Anglo-Saxons with a Swarm of Bees and find the similarities in language as well as in surviving myths and magical enchantments to be adequate justification for putting all differences on this topic from various Germanic cultural contexts together. [Information and Image Credit : Dís, Wikipedia] [Image: Idise (1905) by Emil Doepler] [The Work (Image) is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 70 years or fewer. The Work (Image) is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927. (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URL for More Usage Properties)] [Source Image URL ::
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Idise_by_Emil_Doepler.jpg ] #Mythology
In the Hindu system of four life stages known as Ashramas, Sannyasa, which is also occasionally spelled Sanyasa, refers to the life of renunciation of the individual. The first three Ashramas are Brahmacharya i.e. of bachelor studentship, Grihastha i.e the family-man and Vanaprastha i.e. the forest dweller or who has retired from family-life. However, young Brahmacharis have the option to forego the householder and retiree phases, forsake earthly and material pursuits and dedicate their lives to spiritual activities. Sannyasa is typically thought to be for men or women in their later stages of life. Sannyasa is a type of asceticism with the aim of devoting the life in tranquil, spiritual activities. It is characterised by the renunciation of earthly pleasures and biases, which is symbolized by a state of apathy and dissociation from material life. In Hinduism, a person participating in Sanyasa is referred to as a Sannyasi for man or Sannyasini for woman. In the early Vedic literature, a Muni is described as having traits similar to those of later Sannyasins and Sannyasinis. The principles underlying the Sannyasa notion as well as the antiquated Brahmacharya philosophy were certainly inspired by these Munis, their way of life and their quest of spirituality as bachelor studentship i.e. Bramhacharya. A Sannyasin leads a straightforward life that is usually detachment, nomadic and involves wandering from place to place without any material belongings or emotional ties. They frequently dress in yellow, saffron, orange, ochr, or soil-colored clothing and may carry a strolling stick, a book, a container or jug for food and drink. They are typically vegetarians and they could have long hair and look disorderly. In Indian religions, sannyasa has traditionally been a stage of renouncing, Ahimsa i.e. non-violence, a tranquil and modest existence, and spiritual inquiry. However at the face of alien religious invasions in Indian Sub-Continent and criminal bigotry, that the ascetics manifested itself into a military order, where they pioneered guerilla warfare techniques, military tactics and martial arts to save and protect the Inidc Religion and Civilization. [Information and Image Credit : Sannyasa, Wikipedia] [Image : Adi Shankara (788-820 A.D.), founder of Advaita Vedanta, with disciples)] [The Work (Image) is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 70 years or fewer. The Work (Image) is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927. (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URL for More Usage Properties)] [Source Image URL :
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shankara-Disciples-River.jpg ] #Mythology
There is a unique place for Mount Damavand in Persian mythology and folktales. At 5,671 metres, Damvand is the tallest mountain peak in Iran and Western Asia, the tallest volcano in Asia and the second highest volcano in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is a significantly an active stratovolcano. A notable mountain in Persian mythology is Damavand. The three-headed dragon Aži Dahāka was imprisoned inside Mount Damvand in Zoroastrian literature and mythology, where he would stay till the end of the world. Later on in the same narrative, after being vanquished by Kāveh and Fereydūn, the tyrant Zahhk was also bound in a cave somewhere within Mount Damvand. This incident is described in the masterpiece by the Persian Poet Ferdowsi, the Shahnameh. In t he Alborz ranges, Mount Damavand is situated near the center. It is located in Amol County, Mazandaran Province, 66 kilometres northeast of Tehran, close to the southern coast of Caspian Sea. The second most recognizable summit in Asia after Mount Everest is Mount Damvand, which is the 12th most notable mountain peak in the entire planet. It is a part of the Volcanic Seven Summits Mountaineering Challenge. The Shahnameh claims that the mountain has mystical powers and serves as a metaphor for Iranian struggle to authoritarianism and colonial occupation. The spot from whence the legendary hero Arash fired his enchanted arrow to define the boundary of Iran during the border dispute between Iran and Turan has also been identified as Damvand Mountain in the Iranian tale of Arash. [Information and Image Credit : Mount_Damavand, Wikipedia] [Image : The Southern Side of Mount Damavand, Mazandaran province, Iran] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International ; Wikipedia-Image-Author : Safa . daneshvar (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URL for More Usage Properties)] [License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en ] [Source Image URL : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:981012-Damavand-South-IMG_9861-2.jpg ]
Between 29 and 19 BC, Virgil penned the Latin epic poetry known as The Aeneid, which recounts the narrative of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the collapse of Troy and made his way to Italy, where he eventually settled and became the ancestor of the Romans. It has 9,896 dactylic hexameter lines. The first six of the twelve books of the poem describe the wanderings of Aeneas from Troy to Italy. The second part of the poem describes the eventually successful fight of the Trojans against the Latins and under name of Aeneas the Trojan followers are bound to be absorbed. Due to his appearance in the Iliad, the hero Aeneas was already well-known in both Greek and Roman myths and legends. The fragmented accounts of wanderings of Aeneas, his hazy connection to the establishment of Rome and his explanation as a figure of no fixed character-traits other than a scrupulous pietas, were used by Virgil to create the Aeneid, a persuasive foundational tale or national epic that linked Rome to Trojan legends, justified the Punic Wars, extolled conventional Roman virtues and established the Julio-Claudian monarchy as legitimate successors of the Champions, Founders and Gods of both Rome and Troy. One of the best pieces of Latin literature and largely recognised as masterpiece of Virgil is thus The Aeneid. [Information and Image Credit : Aeneid, Wikipedia] [Image : Aeneas Flees Burning Troy, by Federico Barocci (1598). Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy] [ The Work (Image) is faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, Public Domain Work of Art; The work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer. The Image is in Public Domain as well in the United States] [Original Source Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aeneas%27_Flight_from_Troy_by_Federico_Barocci.jpg ]
#Mythology
In the Matter of Britain, the corpus of mediaeval literature and mythology connected with the legend of King Arthur, the term or title — Lady of the Lake —is referred to a number of spell casters who are either fairies or fairy-like but mortal. They had important parts in several stories, such as giving Arthur the Excalibur sword, slaying Merlin, raising Lancelot after the passing away of his father and assisting in getting the dying Arthur to Avalon. Since at least the Post-Vulgate Cycle, various sorceresses identified as the Lady of the Lake have made simultaneous appearances as distinct personalities in some accounts of the mythology. The Lady of the Lake is better known now as Nimue or one of the many scribal spellings for Ninianne and Viviane. Different varieties of the latter were generated by mediaeval writers and copyists. In one of the many origin stories, an unidentified Lady of the Lake makes an appearance in the Post-Vulgate narrative to present Arthur with the legendary Excalibur magic sword from Avalon. She is portrayed as a shady early benefactor who gave King Arthur Excalibur and its unique scabbard after his primary, unidentified sword is damaged during the battle with King Pellinore. King Arthur is guided and led to her by Merlin. This occurs while Merlin is still by the side of Arthur and before Viviane is introduced in the same narrative. This Lady of the Lake is however abruptly executed in the court of King Arthur by Sir Balin as a consequence of a family dispute between them, later in the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin. However, contemporary renditions frequently make her the very same individual as Viviane and typically leave out that incident. [Information Credit : Lady_of_the_Lake, Wikipedia] [Image: A Fantasy Description of the Lady of the Lake] #Mythology
A wizard is an individual who employs or practises magic drawn from supernatural, occult or esoteric sources. Other names for wizards include magician, enchanter/enchantress, mage or magic-user, archmage or sorcerer/sorceress, spell-caster, warlock a or witch. Magicians have a rich heritage in mythology, folk-stories, fiction and folklore as a result of which they are frequently depicted in works of fiction, such as fantasy literature and role-playing games. Merlin from the King Arthur legends is a perfect illustration of a wizard who frequently assumes the role of a wise old man and serves as a mentor in mediaeval knightly romance. The character of the wizard is commonly incorporated as a protagonist in contemporary fantasy. Contemporary fantasy has expanded on this motif, frequently featuring wizards as heroes on independent missions. Such heroes might also have a wizard as a guru. Wizards can be compared to the forgetful professor in that they are both stupid and prone to making mistakes. They have the capacity for powerful magic, both good and bad. Wizards are frequently portrayed as elderly men with white hair and long, impressive beards that can occasionally house nocturnal forest entities. Due to its origins in the conventional picture of wizards like Merlin, this representation predates the contemporary fantasy genre. Grimoires are old books with magical potential that are typically used by magicians to learn spells. Enchanters frequently use a sort of magic that has no tangible impact on things or people but instead deceives the viewer or target by creating illusions. Particularly enchantresses use this kind of magic frequently for seduction. When a magician is being discussed is a relatively malevolent one, the term sorcerer is more usually employed. This may be a result of its application in Sword and Sorcery, where the hero would be the one wielding the blade while leaving the wizardry to his adversary. The capacity to wield magic is either innate and frequently rare or acquired via extensive study and practise, which is a prevalent theme in almost all novels. [Information and Image Credit : Magician_(fantasy), Wikipedia] [Image: A Magician uses magic to survive in — The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo from 1889 by Marie Spartali Stillman] [The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, Public Domain work of Art. The author died in 1927, so the Image Work is in the Public Domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the Life of Author plus 80 years or fewer. The Image work is in the Public Domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927. (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)] [Source Image URL : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Enchanted_Garden_of_Messer_Ansaldo_by_Marie_Spartali_Stillman_(1889).jpg ] #Mythology
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, a collection of 34 essays and small tales by American author Washington Irving, include the gothic tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was initially released in 1819 and was written while Irving was a foreign resident of Birmingham. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, along with companion work of Irving i.e. Rip Van Winkle, is one of the earliest works of American literature that has maintained iconic status, particularly around Halloween because of a figure known as the Headless Horseman who was thought to be a Hessian soldier whose head was severed by a cannonball during combat. The story took place in 1790 in a remote valley known as Sleepy Hollow, in the countryside near the Dutch hamlet of Tarry Town i.e. the actual Tarrytown, New York. Sleepy Hollow was well known for its ghosts and the eerie ambiance that captures both its residents and imaginations of the guests. Some locals thought that the village was cursed when the Dutch first settled there, while others assert that an ageing Native American chief was to blame for the eerie atmosphere. The citizens of the town appeared to experience a variety of eerie and paranormal phenomena. They frequently experienced eerie sights, music and voices right from the thin air as well as trance-like visuals. Due to the strange incidents and eerie ambiance in Sleepy Hollow, the locals were attracted by local folklore, haunted sites and nightfall superstitions. The Headless Horseman served as the most notorious ghost in the Hollow and suggestively the commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air. According to legend, He was the restless ghost of a Hessian soldier whose head was amputated by an errant cannonball during some unidentified battle of the American Revolution and who rode forth to the place of battle-site in nightly pursuit of his severed head. [Information and Image Credit : The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow, Wikipedia] [Image: The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane (1858) by John Quidor] [The Work (Image) is a Faithful Photographic Reproduction of a Two-Dimensional, Public Domain Work of Art. The author died in 1881, so the work (Image) is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer; (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)] [Source Image-Link :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Quidor_-_The_Headless_Horseman_Pursuing_Ichabod_Crane_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg ] #Mythology
The fox is a symbol of cleverness, shrewedness or as an acquainted animal with magical abilities that is occasionally linked with metamorphosis in the folklore of many civilizations, but mainly those of Europe and East Asia. From Russian and Bulgarian folklore, Kuma Lisa is a female fox that frequently assumes the role of the trickster. Another figure known as Kumcho Vulcho, a wolf that is opposite of Kuma Lisa and frequently falls victim to her antics, is confronted by Kuma Lisa. The majority of the foxes in Russian folktales are female since the word лиca i.e. Lisa in Russian has a feminine grammatical gender, in contrast to Western European folk stories where words connected to foxes, such as French —Renard, have a masculine grammatical gender. In Scotland, the trickster fox or Tod as is called in traditional Scottish, was portrayed as Lowrence, as in Morall Fabillis by . The fox is typically portrayed as a crafty trickster, but rarely as an evil creature, in Finnish mythology. Even though it is weaker, the fox ultimately outwits both the vicious and nasty wolf and the powerful but not particularly intelligent bear. It stands for the triumph of reason over both malice and physical force. The fox is one of the holy animals of the goddess Ninhursag in early Mesopotamian mythology. In a way, Her messenger is the fox. Foxes are strong spirits that are well-known for their exceedingly clever and mischievous disposition in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean folktales. They frequently assume the guise of female humans to entice males. According to African Dogon mythology, the fox is either a messenger for the gods or the trickster deity of the desert who personifies chaos. The ancient Peruvian Moche people revered animals and frequently portrayed the fox in their artwork. The Moche people thought that the fox was a warrior who would fight with his mind. The fox thus would only utilise mental attacks; never physical ones. Consequently, the folkloric image and reputation of foxes are frequently reflected in such forms in literature, cinema, television, games, music and other forms of cultural expression. [Information Credit : Foxes_in_popular_culture,_films_and_literature, Wikipedia] #Mythology
Similar to the Knights of Western Europe, Bogatyr is the equivalent mythical hero of the mediaeval East Slavs. According to the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, the Sanskrit term - Baghadhara is the source of the word Bogatyr. The Indo-Iranian term Bhaga, which means God or Lord, is perhaps the initial constituent of the word. Another theory links the word to the Turkish-Mongolian word Baghatur, which means Hero. Bogatyr chiefly appears in the epic poem Bylinas by the Kievan Rus. They were historically born as members of the prestigious Druzhina warrior order under King Vladimir the Great, the Grand Prince of Kiev from 980 to 1015. According to legend, Bogatyr was a superb warrior with courage, gallantry and power. They are renowned for having a loud voice and for wanting to defend Russia against both its foes outside and their own religious ideals. The word Bogatyr in contemporary Russian refers to a valiant hero, an athlete or a physically powerful man. The epic poems are typically separated into three collections: the mythical and ancient legends, which were gathered from eras before Kiev-Rus was created and feature magic and the supernatural. The following is from the Kievan cycle, which contained the most Bogatyr tales, then is from the Novgorod cycle. Stories about these warriors were extensively featured in numerous epic poems of Kievan Rus i.e. the Bylinas, as well as multiple chronicles, such as the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle from the thirteenth century. While certain Bogatyrs, like the enormous Svyatogor, are purportedly mythical creations descended from Slavic paganism while other Bogatyrs are assumed to be historical individuals. Numerous authors and artists in Russian literature and art have been influenced by Bogatyrs and their noble stories, including Victor Vasnetsov, Andrei Ryabushkin as well as Alexander Pushkin, the author of the legendary fairy-lore poem Ruslan and Ludmila from 1820. [Information and Image Credit: Bogatyr, Wikipedia] [Image: In 1898 painting — Bogatyrs by Victor Vasnetsov , Three of the Most Well-Known Bogatyrs—Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets and Alyosha Popovich—are depicted together.] [The Work (Image) is faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, Public Domain Work of Art. The author died in 1926, so this work is in the Public Domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 95 years or fewer. The work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927; (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URL for More Usage Properties)] [Source Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Viktor_Vasnetsov_-_%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8B%D1%80%D0%B8_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg ] #Mythology
In Nordic folk-tradition, notably Norse mythology, a troll is a supernatural entity. Trolls are creatures that appear in Old Norse literature. According to these texts, they live in solitary places like caverns, mountains or rock outcroppings. Trolls evolved into beings in their own capacity in later Scandinavian legend, where they dwell far away from human civilization, are not Christianized and are regarded as hazardous to humans. Their looks vary significantly depending on the source of origin; trolls may be hideous and dimwitted or may also act and appear just like humans, lacking any notable repulsive characteristics. In Scandinavian folktales, trolls are occasionally connected to specific locations, which might occasionally be explained as being created when a troll is exposed to sunlight. Trolls appear in a range of contemporary contemporary cultural media. Troll is a term used to refer to Jötnar in Norse mythology and is present all through the Old Norse literature, just like Thurs. Trolls are reported to reside in solitary mountains, rocks and caves, occasionally live in pairs, typically as mother and son or father and daughter and are infrequently portrayed as helpful or pleasant in Old Norse literature. An interaction between an unknown troll woman and the ninth skald (Poets who composed Skaldic Poetry) Bragi Boddason is detailed in the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál. In later Scandinavian legend, trolls are referred to be a specific kind of entity. The Proto-Germanic neuter noun *trullan gave rise to the Old Norse nouns troll and trǫll, which have variously been translated as Fiend, Demon, Werewolf and even Jötunn, and the Middle High German troll and trolle. However, it is unknown where the Proto-Germanic term came from Trolls are frequently depicted in numerous stories as being very ancient, very strong but also slow and buffoonish. They are also occasionally characterised as man-eating and as also turning in to stones when exposed to sunlight. Trolls, however, are also reported to have a close similarity to humans, not being particularly repulsive in appearance living far from human civilization, and typically possessing some kind of social structure. Numerous Scandinavian folktales contain the Scandinavian folk conviction that lightning scares away trolls and Jötnar. This concept may be a late manifestation of the role of the god Thor in battling these creatures. According to Scandinavian folklore, smaller trolls reside in mountains and burial mounds. These entities are known as troldfolk, bjergtrolde or bjergfolk in Denmark and as troldfolk and tusser in Norway. The name Troll, given to a Norwegian research outpost in Antarctica, derives from the rocky mountains that surround it and resemble trolls. It has a ground station for tracking polar-orbiting satellites. [Information and Image Credit : Troll, Wikipedia] [Image: Look at them, troll mother said. Look at my sons! You would not find more beautiful trolls on this side of the moon. (1915) by John Bauer ] [The Work (Image) is faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, Public Domain Work of Art. The author died in 1918, so this work is in the Public Domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer. The work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927; (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URLs for More Usage Properties)] [Source Image URL : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Bauer_1915.jpg ] #Mythology
A fairy is a supernatural entity or mythical figure that may be found in the folklore of several European cultures, such as Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English and French folklore. A fairy, also known as Fay (Fae, Fey) Fair-Folk or Faerie, is a type of spirit that is frequently referred to as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural. Fairy myths and tales are a synthesis of common beliefs from several sources rather than having a single foundation. Fairies have been portrayed as deities in Pagan religions, souls of the deceased ancient people, spirits of nature and more in many folk conceptions regarding their beginnings. The term Fairy has occasionally only been used to describe a certain type of mystical being with human-like features, magical abilities and a propensity for playing tricks. In other cases, it has been designed to refer to any mystical being, including gnomes and goblins. The adjective fairy has occasionally been employed to denote —Enchanted or Magical, respectively. It is also used to refer to the nation from whence these beings hail, the realm of Fairy. The necessity to use protective charms to ward off fairies is a frequent theme in fairy tales. The four-leaf clover, wearing clothes backwards, church bells and food are typical instances of such charms. Fairies were occasionally believed to inhabit particular places and misdirect tourists with will-o-the-wisps. Apart from their traditional roots, fairies were also frequently depicted in Renaissance literature and Romantic art. During the Victorian and Edwardian period, fairies were particularly well-liked in the United Kingdom. Fairies were recognised as a mainstream component of Celtic cultural legacy during the Celtic Revival. Apart from their traditional roots, fairies were also frequently depicted in Renaissance literature and Romantic art. During the Victorian and Edwardian period, fairies were particularly well-liked in the United Kingdom. Fairies were recognised as a mainstream component of Celtic cultural legacy during the Celtic Revival. Some historians also claim that the Peris of Persian mythology were the source of the adoption and impact of Fairies. As early as the Achaemenid Empire, Peris or celestial beings, were attested in ancient Persia. Later, the Peris were extensively discussed in numerous Persian texts, such as Shahnameh of Ferdowsi. A Peri was depicted as an exuberant, lovely and beautiful nature spirit that was supported by wings. This might have been communicated through early contacts or encouraged via the migration of Germanic and Eurasian people into Europe. Another explanation for the parallels is a common Proto-Indo-European mythology. [Information Credit : Fairy, Wikipedia] [Image : AI Generated Image of Fairy from Text] #Mythology
The Middle-Earth serves as the imaginary backdrop for much of the fantasy writing of English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The phrase is akin to the Middangeard of Old English literature including that of Beowulf and the Miðgarðr of Norse mythology. There are various names for the world of Men in early Germanic mythology. Due to its Germanic roots, the Old English word Middangeard has cognates such as the Old Norse word Miðgarðr, which is now known as Midgard in modern English. In the envisioned mythological events of Tolkien, the Middle-earth refers to the middle continent of the Earth that is home to Humans and serves as their dwelling land. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, two of the most popular books of Tolkien, are fully set in Middle-earth. The phrase Middle-Earth has also come to refer to fantasy genre of Tolkien, his extensive collection of fantasy writings and his complete imagined universe. In the Third Age as given by Tolkien, which ended approximately 6,000 years ago, Middle-earth served as the major continent of the Earth (Arda) in the fictional past. The northwest of the continent received the bulk of the attention in all stories regarding Middle-Earth. The Shire and its surroundings, which included the town of Hobbiton at its centre and were at the same latitude as that of Oxford, are evocative of the West Midlands in England. This region of Middle-earth is indeed comparable to north-west of Europe. In Middle-earth, in addition to Men, there were also Elves, Wizards, Dwarves, Ents and Hobbits, as well as various beasts including Dragons, Trolls, and Orcs. Through the envisioned narrative, all other races disappear, migrate or otherwise change until, by the end of the time frame depicted in the books, only Men remain on earth. [Information Credit : Middle-earth, Wikipedia] [Image : Image of Gondor Created by AI Image Generator from Text. AI Used: https://creator.nightcafe.studio/ ] #Mythology
A strong and enigmatic enchantress from the King Arthur legend, Morgan le Fay is known by a variety of names and spellings. Most frequently, she and the legendary king are siblings. Morgan first appears in Arthurian literature, but her character is only briefly described as a goddess, fairy, witch or a sorceress who is tied to Arthur as his magical rescuer and guardian. Her moral ambiguity and prominence both grew with the history of tales, and in some texts, she evolved into an adversary, especially as it is depicted in cyclical literature like the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle. The volatile personality of Morgan, with the capacity for doing both good and bad, is a key element in many of her mediaeval and later versions. She may have drawn inspiration from other historical persons and other old traditions, in addition to Welsh mythology. The Isle of Apples (Avalon), where Arthur was taken after being mortally wounded at the Battle of Camlann, is mentioned in connection with Morgan as the head of the nine enchanting sisters who are unrelated to Arthur in the earliest known account of Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which was authored around 1150 CE. The main function of Morgan in those works, as well as in the early chivalric romances of Chrétien de Troyes and others, is that of a renowned healer. Countless and frequently unnamed fairy-mistress and maiden-temptress characters might likewise be regarded as representations of Morgan in her various guises. These characters can be found throughout the Arthurian romantic storylines. [Information and Image Credit : Morgan_le_Fay , Wikipedia] [Image : Morgan le Fay by Frederick Sandys, 1864] [The Work (Image) is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The author died in 1904, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer] [Original Source-Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sandys,_Frederick_-_Morgan_le_Fay.JPG ] #Mythology
In the Matter of Britain literature cycle, the Knights of the Round Table are the knights from the company of King Arthur. The Knights are a fraternity committed to maintaining the peace of the kingdom of Arthur. After an early fighting period, they were later given the responsibility of engaging in a mysterious quest for the Holy Grail. The Knights first appear in literature around the middle of the 12th century. The Round Table, where they gathered, was a representation of the equality of its participants, who span from mighty kings to lowly lords. A variety of knights from Great Britain and other places abroad, some of them even from outside of Europe, were featured in the numerous storylines of the cycles. Far away relatives of Arthur like Agravain and Gaheris, as well as his accommodated foes and those he conquered in combat, such Galehaut and Lot, were frequently found in the ranks of the Round Table. The most famous knights, such as Bedivere, Gawain, Kay, and Yvain were modelled after older figures who were connected to Arthur in the Welsh version of the narrative. Numerous knights, including Gawain, Lancelot, Perciva and Tristan, frequently showed up in knightly romances as the main character or the title character. Galahad, a saintly knight who succeeded Percival in obtaining the Holy Grail and Mordred, a disloyal son of King Arthur, were among the other notable members of the group. After the infidelity of Lancelot with wife of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, was made public toward the conclusion of the Arthurian prose cycles, the knights got divided into rival factions. The Knights of the Queen, i.e. the own exclusive order of youthful warriors and knights of Guinevere, were depicted alongside her in the same manner. Some of these love interests recount the history of the Knights of the Old Table, led by Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur, while other stories centre around the representatives of the Grail Table, who were the adherents of early Christian Joseph of Arimathea, whose Grail Table later served as the model for the subsequent Round Tables of Uther and Arthur. [Information and Image Credit : Knights_of_the_Round_Table , Wikipedia] [Image : The Arming and Departure of the Knights,The Holy Grail-themed 19th-century tapestries by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, and John Henry Dearle] [The work (Image) is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 70 years or fewer. The Image is also in Public Domain in the United States] [Original Image Source-URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holy_Grail_Tapestry_-The_Arming_and_Departure_of_the_Kniights.jpg ] #Mythology
The Battle of Camlann is the fabled conflict in which King Arthur fought alongside or against Mordred, who also died fighting, and either perished or was gravely wounded. The earliest tale of Camlann, which was allegedly based on an incident that happened in Britain in 537, is only briefly mentioned in a number of mediaeval Welsh literature that date from the 10th century or earlier. Since the 12th century, significantly more accurate representations of the fight have arisen, usually based on the devastating combat depicted in the pseudo-historical-chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae. The subsequent French knightly romantic heritage, in which it became known as the Battle of Salisbury, is where the further substantially inflated variants come from. The Welsh annals Annales Cambriae from the 10th century contain the oldest dateable mention of the conflict. The occurrence of the battle is mentioned in a record for the year 537. It is argued that the conflict is real and that it followed the famine brought on by the terrible weather disasters that occurred in 535 and 536. However, the majority of historians believed that Arthur and the Battle of Camlann were mythological. In the Arthurian chivalric romances, further legends concerning decisive conflict of Arthur are formed. Arthur was subsequently transported from the Camlann battlefield to Avalon, a frequently unearthly and magical island, in the hope that he could be healed. Geoffrey had Taliesin, under the direction of Barinthus, deliver Arthur to Morgen (Morgan le Fay) in Avalon. Later writers of the prose cycles included Morgan herself, frequently travelling in a fairy boat with two or more other women, coming to pick up the king. Many later works, such as the Old French Post-Vulgate Cycle and the Middle English Stanzaic Morte Arthur, included adaptations of the final conflict of Arthur. [Information and Image Credit : Battle_of_Camlann, Wikipedia] [Image : Battle Between King Arthur and Sir Mordred by William Hatherell]
[Faithful Photographic Reproduction of a Two-Dimensional, Public Domain Work of Art. The Work (Image) is in the Public Domain in its Country of Origin and other Countries and Areas where the Copyright term is the Life of Author Plus 90 years or Fewer; The Work (Image) is in Public Damain in the United States as well; (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URLs for More Usage Properties)] [Source Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_Between_King_Arthur_and_Sir_Mordred_-_William_Hatherell.jpg ] #Mythology
A mythical entity from Manx tradition is called Glashtyn. Others assert that the Glashtin is a type of goblin assumes the form of a colt or is related to the water horse known as Cabyll-Ushtey and that it emerges from its underwater environment to interact with the islanders. Another version also asserts that the Glashtin was a half-bovine, half-equine water-bull called Tarroo-Ushtey in Manx. The classic depiction of escaping by severing the skirt hem is used in various tales or folklore to describe the pursuit of Glashtin after women; albeit in one recent retelling, the woman is freed by the crowing of a rooster. In another account, the Glashtin poses as a handsome-looking man but is exposed by his horse-ears. The classification of Manx Glashtin as a shape-shifter allows for the reconciliation of the two contradictory stories presented above. According to current literature that supports this theory, the equine Glashtin occasionally assumes human shape but reveals his true nature when he fails to cover his ears, which are pointed like those of a horse. One contemporary fairy-lore also tells the story of the daughter of a Scarlett fisherman outwitting a foreign-speaking but dusky and handsome-looking outsider who she recognised as Glashtin by those horse-ears. She was aware of her danger because legend had it that the Glashtin had a bad tendency of changing into a water-horse and carrying women out to sea. Although the Glashtin could appear to be a typical horse, it actually had backward-facing hooves. The creature was rumoured to be extremely curious about ladies, torment them in a rather prankish fashion, grab hold of them and rip off bits of their clothing. There are various stories in Manx lore about a helping Glashan as well. The woman who told the story recounted a person or thing that worked beside her as a farmhand, performing activities like gathering sheep from the fold and threshing corn stalks that had been left unbundled. It was also claimed that the Glashtin stopped appearing once the islanders began crossing their indigenous horses with outside breeds. [Information and Image Credit : Glashtyn, Wikipedia] [Image: Depiction of a Glashan on Irish Folktale – Illustration Willy Pogany. Colum, Padraic (1916)] [The Work (Image) is in the Public Domain in the United States because it was Published (or Registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927 ; (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URLs for More Usage Properties)] [Source Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Colum-KOIS(Holt1916)-Pogany-illustr-p226-glashan.jpg ] #Mythology
In Germanic mythology and culture, an Elf is a particular kind of human-like supernatural entity, particularly in North Germanic mythology and folk-tales. Elves appear to have been viewed in mediaeval Germanic-speaking societies as entities with magical abilities and extraordinary beauty who were indifferent toward common people and capable of either aiding or hurting them. The specifics of these ideas, meanwhile, have developed in both pre-Christian and Christian cultures and have changed significantly across time and geography. All of the Germanic languages contain the word Elf, which appears to have initially meant just -- White Being. However, the Old and Middle English, mediaeval German and Old Norse texts written by Christians played a significant role in rebuilding the older idea of an Elf. These connect the Elves in different ways to the Deities of Norse mythology, to the ability to inflict disease, to magic, to beauty and allurement and more. After the Middle Ages, the name Elf tended to become less prevalent throughout all of the Germanic languages, losing ground to loanwords like Fairy, being borrowed from French into most of the Germanic languages and alternative native meanings like Zwerg (i.e. German for the meaning Dwarf) and Huldra (which is North Germanic for Hidden Beings) . Nevertheless, Elven superstitions remained during the early modern era, especially in Scotland and Scandinavia, where Elves were perceived as mysteriously powerful individuals coexisting with regular human populations while typically remaining invisible. They kept getting blamed for spreading diseases and making sexual harassment. For instance, a number of early modern songs from Scandinavia and the British Isles that date back to the Middle Ages show Elves attempting to woo or kidnap human people. From the early modern age onward, Elves became more prevalent in the literature and art of intellectual elite. These fictional elves were pictured as beings that were small and joyful. This idea of the Elf impacted German Romantic writers in the eighteenth century, who brought the English word Elf back into the German language. The Elves of popular culture that appeared in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were inspired by this romantic notion of the Elves. Following the publication of works by authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, who helped re-popularize the notion of Elves as human-shaped and human looking entities, Elves made their way into the high fantasy genre of the twentieth century. Elves continue to be a common element in modern fictional entertainment. [Information and Image Credit : Elf, Wikipedia] [Image : Ängsälvor i.e.Swedish for Meadow Elves by Nils Blommér (1850)] [Faithful Photographic Reproduction of a Two-Dimensional, Public Domain Work of Art. The Work (Image) is in the Public Domain in its Country of Origin and other Countries and Areas where the Copyright term is the Life of Author Plus 100 years or Fewer; (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URLs for More Usage Properties)] [Source Image URL : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%84ngs%C3%A4lvor_-_Nils_Blomm%C3%A9r_1850.jpg ] #Mythology
The corpus of tales that originated with the Germanic people, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology and Continental Germanic mythology is known as Germanic mythology. Roman literature is among the earliest documented sources on Germanic mythology. Other reliable sources for information on Germanic mythology include archaeological evidence, Runic inscriptions and names of places. Germanic mythology is essentially a growth of Proto-Indo-European mythology, just as the Germanic languages evolved from Proto-Indo-European languages. Petroglyphs in Scandinavia and other archaeological artefacts indicate that Germanic mythology has persisted at least since the Nordic Bronze Age. Germanic deities and a multitude of other beings are the subject of stories found in the mythologies of the Germanic people. The first and most well-known poem in the Poetic Edda, Völuspá, tells the story of the creation and destruction of the universe. The seeress in Völuspá narrates how Ginnungagap, a vast magical emptiness, existed at the beginning of the world before Odin and his two brothers raised the Earth out of the sea. They discovered Ask and Embla, the tree trunks they later transformed into the first human couple. The accounts in Vafþrúðnismál and are contradicted to those in Völuspá. These claim that Odin made the universe from the corpse of the Giant Ymir. Búri, which had been formed by the primordial cow , was from where Odin and his brothers originated. Indo-Iranian religion has similarities to Germanic mythology that attest to its ancient Indo-European roots. The tree Yggdrasil serves as a focal point for the Germanic universe. The end of the world is foretold by Germanic mythology in the upcoming Ragnarök. The Vanir and the are two groups of Germanic gods that are attested in Old Norse literature. The former Vanir, who are gods of fertility and wealth, are subordinated by the latter , who are essentially gods of war. A crucial component of Germanic paganism was Germanic mythology. [Information and Image Credit : Germanic_mythology, Wikipedia] [Image : The Painting Nerthus (1905) by shows Nerthus, an early Germanic goddess whose name became among the North Germanic people] [The Work (Image) is in the Public Domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the Life of Author plus 70 years or fewer. The Image work is also in the Public Domain in the United States. (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)] [Source Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nerthus_by_Emil_Doepler.jpg ] #Mythology
The Gaelic holiday Samhain celebrates the completion of the harvest and the onset of winter i.e. the - darker half - of the year. Since the Celtic day began and finished at sundown, it is celebrated on November 1st, but festivities get underway on October 31st. This falls roughly in the middle of the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. In addition to Imbolc, Beltaine, and Lughnasa it is also one of the four Gaelic seasonal celebrations. In the past, it was frequently observed in Scotland, the Isle of Man, Galicia and Ireland (where it is pronounced as Sauin). The Brittonic Celtic people known as Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany also celebrated a similar holiday. While the classic Manx Gaelic name is Sauin, the name Samhain is used in modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Samhain serves as the root for the name of November in Gaelic. In Mythology of Ireland Samhain is listed as the first of the four seasonal celebrations of the year in the tenth-century story Tochmarc Emire. According to the literature, there would be a declaration of peace and crowded gatherings where people would hold discussions, feast, partake in alcohol consumption and compete. The scenes of early Irish stories frequently take place at these gatherings. According to the legend Echtra Cormaic, the High King of Ireland staged the Feast of Tara every seventh Samhain, at which new laws and obligations were enacted. Anyone who disobeyed these regulations would be exiled. While Bealtaine was a summer holiday for the living, Samhain was basically a celebration for the dead, according to Irish mythology, Samhain was a time when the doorways to the Otherworld unlocked, enabling supernatural entities and the spirits of the dead to enter our realm. During the Samhain feast, the fire-breather Aillen arrivesd from the Otherworld and after luring everyone to sleep with his music, burned down the palace of Tara. One Samhain, the young Fionn mac Cumhaill managed to stay awake and used a magical spear to kill Aillen, earning him the position of Fianna-leader. Some myths also claim that at Samhain, sacrifices or offerings were made. According to legend the feast of the Ulaid at Samhain, this included Samhain itself and the three days before and after it, lasted a whole week. It involved large gatherings where people held discussions, feasted, drank alcohol and participated in competitions. At Samhain, bonfires were also built on hilltops and ceremonies involved them, just like at Bealtaine. On the eve of Samhain, people in certain places put out their household fires. The neighbourhood came together as each family respectfully re-lit its fireplace using embers from the community bonfire. [Information and Image Credit : Samhain, Wikipedia] [Image : Painting of Daniel Maclise — Snap-Apple Night (1833) --depicting people in Ireland on October 31st performing divination games] [Images Availed Under Reproduction of a Two-Dimensional, Public Domain Work of Art; Work is public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of author plus 100 years or fewer; Work is in Public Domain in the US as well; (Please Also Relate to Individual Image URL for More Usage Property)] [Original Source Image URL:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG ]
Ancient Greek goddess of beauty and sexual love Aphrodite was known by the Romans as Venus. The Greek term Aphros means Foam, and Hesiod claims in his Theogony that Aphrodite was created from the white foam that was produced when genitalia-cut of Uranus (Heaven) were thrown into the sea by his son Cronus. Aphrodite was in reality revered in many cultures as a goddess of the sea, sailors, and particularly of war in Sparta, Thebes, Cyprus, and other locations. Though she occasionally oversaw marriages, she was largely revered as a goddess of love and fertility. Aphrodite and Hephaestus, the deity of fire, smithing, and metalworking, were wed in Greek mythology. Aphrodite constantly betrayed him and had other lovers; in the Odyssey, she is seen having an affair with the god of war, Ares. She woos the mortal shepherd Anchises in the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. Adonis, a shepherd who perished at the hands of a wild boar, also had Aphrodite as his substitute mother and lover. Aphrodite, who also appears prominently in the Iliad, was one of the three goddesses whose conflict led to the start of the Trojan War, along with Athena and Hera. As a representation of female beauty, Aphrodite has been used in Western art and literature on various occasions. In contemporary Neopagan cults like the Church of Aphrodite, Wicca, and Hellenismos, she is a central deity! [Info-Credit: Aphrodite-Greek-mythology , Britannica; Aphrodite, Wikipedia] [Source-Image-Link: https://cdn.britannica.com/77/133977-050-CFD2D61A/Venus-and-Adonis-oil-canvas-Titian-National.jpg ] #Art#ArtWork#Greek#Mythology
Druids were high-class members of ancient Celtic culture. Druids were religious leaders, judicial authorities, judges, traditional custodians, doctors, and political advisers. By custom, the Druids did not leave back any written accounts. Druids are accepted be very literate, but it was believed that their doctrine or practice prevented them from writing down their knowledge in written form. However, their rites and rituals, beliefs and practices are well documented by their contemporaries from other cultures and civilizations such as Romans and Greeks. The most ancient known references to Druids are dated back to the 4th Century BCE. Historically the oldest source of information comes from Commentarii de Bello Gallico (50s or 40s BCE) of Julius Caesar. Information about the Druids was also provided by other Roman writers such as Cicero, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder! After the invasion of Gaul by Rome, the order of the Druids were suppressed by the government of Rome under the first-century AD emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and by second century they have completely disappeared from written records. Graeco-Roman and native Irish sources have come to the same conclusion that Druids have played an important role in pagan Celtic societies. In the accounts of Julius Caesar it is mentioned that they were one of the two most important social groups in the region (along with knights and aristocrats), God-serving, priest-hooding, interpreting ritual-queries and fortune-telling in the communities of Gallia, England and Ireland. Caesar also mentions that they were responsible for organizing the judicial process. According to Caesar, the Druids followed the hierarchy of a single leader and only after the death of the leader would a new leader would be selected either by vote or through means of conflict. The first author to mention that Druid lessons were secret and took place in hideouts like caves and forests was Pomponius Mela. The lore of the Druids consisted of a number of poems memorized by heart, and according to Caesar it could take up to even twenty years to complete the course of indoctrination. The curriculum taught in those days to Druid sophomores is anywhere near hypothesis. The oral literature of the Druids, not even one certified ancient verse, is known to have survived the test of times, even in translated form. All the instructions given out were given out orally. However for general usage the Gauls did have a writing language in which they used Greek letters, as is attested by Caesar. [Info and Image Credit: Druid, Wikipedia] [Images 1) Imaginative illustration of -An Arch Druid in His Judicial Habit -, from The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands by S.R. Meyrick and C.H. Smith (1815) 2) Druids Inciting the Britons to oppose the landing of the Romans – from Cassells History of England, Vol. I – anonymous author and artists 3) The Druidess, oil on canvas, by French painter Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1890)] [Images Availed Under Public Domain Work of Art (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)] [Source Image URLs 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:An_Arch_Druid_in_His_Judicial_Habit.jpg 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Druids_Inciting_the_Britons_to_Oppose_the_Landing_of_the_Romans.jpg 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexandre_Cabanel_004.jpg ]
The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Saka Buddhist kingdom at the intersection of the Silk Road, which runs along the southern tip of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China) and had lasted for over 1000 years (~300 BCE - 1006 AD). The Saka people used Eastern Iranian Saka and Indo-Aryan Gandhari Prakrit, which is related to Sanskrit! From the 3rd century C.E., there was also a visible linguistic influence on the Gandhari language spoken in the Khotan royal-court. By the end of 10th CE, Kotanese Saka language had well established itself as the language of the Khotan Royal Court. The name Khotana was written in Kharosthi script while in Brahmi Script the name Hvatäna was written. There are four versions of the legend of the founding of Khotan. These can be found in the description by Xuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim and in the Tibetan translation of the Khotanese documents. All four versions suggest that the city was founded around the third century BC by a group of Indians during the reign of Ashoka. The Saka people were known as the Sai in ancient Chinese records. These records indicate that they originally inhabited the Ili and Chu River valleys of modern Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the Chinese Book of Han, the area was called the -- Land of the Sai --, i.e. the Saka. The Saka crossed the Syr Darya into Bactria around 140 B.C. Later the Saka would also move into Northern India, as well as other Tarim Basin sites like Khotan, Karasahr, Yarkand and Kucha. One suggestion is that the Saka became Hellenized in the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and they or an ethnically mixed Greco-Scythians either migrated to Yarkand and Khotan, or a bit earlier from Taxila in the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Later Khotanese-Saka language documents, ranging from medical texts to Buddhist literature, have been found in Khotan and Tumshuq (northeast of Kashgar). Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have been found in Dunhuang. The economy of Khotan was mostly based on availability of water from oases for irrigation and in the manufacture of traded goods. Such goods included silk, carpet, fine-felts, white and black jade. Khotan was the first place outside of China to begin growing silk. According to Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, the process of sericulture passed from China to Khotan and there from Khotan to India and then eventually to Europe. The lifestyle of Khotanese population was urban in character and was luxurious with use of silk clothing. Despite of having lack of arable lands, Khotan was fertile and abundantly produced cereals and fruits. As a medium of communication for cultural exchange with foreigners, languages like Sanskrit, Chinese, Classical Tibetan, Prakrit and Apabhramsas were used. According to Chinese pilgrim Faxian, the Kingdom was mostly associated with Mahayana Buddhism and there were some fourteen large and small Monasteries (Viharas) during his time in Khotan. This largely Buddhist kingdom existed for over a thousand years until it was conquered by KaraKhanid Khanate in 1006 AD [Info and Image Credit: Kingdom_of_Khotan, Wikipedia] [Image 1: Painting of Most-Probably Indian Deity Shiva on the Obverse of a Painted Panel; 2. Painting of a Persian Deity and Most-Likely Depicting Legendary Hero Rustam on the reverse of a Painted Panel; (Both Image 1 and 2 is attributed to Khotanese artist Yuchi Yiseng or his father Yuchi Bazhin Tang dynasty - 618-907 AD); 3. Depiction of a Man from Khotan Visiting Chinese Tang Dynasty Court, Wanghuitu, 650 AD; 4. Kingdom of Khotan as of 1001 AD; 5. Head of Buddha from Khotan 3rd - 4th AD] [Images Availed Under Public Domain Work of Art, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International and 3.0 Unported; (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)] [Source Image URLs : 1. https://bit.ly/3pAl8Py 2. https://bit.ly/3ADhURS 3. https://bit.ly/3Cm7mYo 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdom_of_Khotan.png 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Head_of_Buddha.jpg ]
Tocharians or Tokharians were part of Indo-European language group and were speakers of Tocharain language. They lived around northern edge of Tarim Basin (present day Xinjiang province of China) and the linguistic evidence of their language has been found between 400 - 1200 AD. The proto-Tocharian people are believed to be part of Afanasevo culture (South Siberia) to the north, which itself was an eastern branch of the Yamnaya Culture of Pontic-Steppe. However, Afanasevo culture predates Indo-Iranian-associated Andronovo culture by almost thousand years and is a reason for isolation of the Tocharian language from the Indo-European centum linguistic innovations. As known from Sanskrit texts, these people might have referred to themselves as Agni, Kuči, Krorän or Agniya, Kuchiya. Of these Kuči and Krorän were important kingdoms based around the ancient Silk-Road. The Tocharians largely accepted Buddhism as found from Buddhist sources. The frescoes found in Kizil caves of Tarim basin depicts stories from the Jataka(stories about previous birth of Gautama Buddha), Avadanas (type of Buddhist literature), the stories and legend of Buddha and the traditions of Hinayana school of Buddhism. According to Chinese Monk Xuanzang in 630 AD, the Tocharian King of Kucha Suvarnadeva, the heir and son of King Suvarnapushpa, was an ardent believer of Hinayana Buddhism. Though not much is known about the pre-Buddhist religion of the Tocharians, there are many similarities found between reconstructed Proto-Indo European Sun-Goddess and Dawn Goddess and many Chines Goddesses. Consequently it is suggested that Chinese belief system were influenced by some Pre-Buddhist belief system of the Tocharians. [Info and Image Credit: Tocharians , Wikipedia ; Image :: Group Around Buddha, Kizil Cave of Painters ; Image-URL :: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kizil_Cave_of_the_Painters,_Group_around_the_Buddha_and_upper_frieze_(reconstruction_from_black_and_white_original).jpg ]
Thraetaona (from Avesta), also noted as Fereydun, is an Iranian mythical figure, ruler and hero from the legendary Pishdadian dynasty. He is a symbol of victory, justice, and kindness in Persian literature. Ferdowsi`s Shahnameh suggests that Fereydun was one of the descendants of Jamšid and also the son of Ābtin. Fereydun along with Kāve, revolted against the tyrannical king, Zahāk, and eventually defeated him and then arrested him in the Alborz Mountains. After ruling for about 500 years, towards the end of his life, he divided his kingdom among his three sons, Salm, Tur, and Iraj. Iraj was Fereydun's youngest and beloved son, and thus inherited the best part of the kingdom, namely Iran! Salm inherited Anatolia ("Rûm" generally standing for the Roman Empire or the Greco-Roman world or just simply "the West"). Tur inherited Central Asia ("Turān" i.e. all the lands north and east of the Amu Darya, up to China). This caused envy among Iraj's brothers', and ultimately led them to murder him. After the murder of Iraj, Fereydun enthroned Iraj's grandson, Manučehr. The attempt of Manučehr to avenge his grandfather's murder led to the beginning of the Iranian-Turanian wars! The various forms of the name are all phonetically derived from Proto-Iranian *Θraitauna and Proto-Indo-Iranian *Traitaunas. Traitaunas is a related derivative of Tritas, a deity mentioned in both Vedic Trita and the Avestan Θrita. Both names adjectively interprets as "the third", a general coinage used for a minor deity associated with two other major deities to form a triad. In the Avestā, Thraetaona is regarded as the son of Aθβiya. He is mentioned as the executioner of the dragon Zahhak. (Credit: Fereydun, Wikipedia) [Image: Freydun, painted by Haji Aqa Jan – early 19th century]
The Kingdom of Khotan is an ancient Saka Buddhist kingdom at the intersection of the Silk Road, which runs along the southern tip of the Taklimakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China) and had lasted for over 1000 years (~300 BCE - 1006 AD). The Saka people used Eastern Iranian Saka and Indo-Aryan Gandhari Prakrit, which is related to Sanskrit! From the 3rd century C.E., there was also a visible linguistic influence on the Gandhari language spoken in the Khotan royal-court. There are four versions of the legend of the founding of Khotan. These can be found in the description by Xuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim and in the Tibetan translation of the Khotanese documents. All four versions suggest that the city was founded around the third century BC by a group of Indians during the reign of Ashoka. The Saka people were known as the Sai in ancient Chinese records. These records indicate that they originally inhabited the Ili and Chu River valleys of modern Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the Chinese Book of Han, the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka. The Saka crossed the Syr Darya into Bactria around 140 B.C. Later the Saka would also move into Northern India, as well as other Tarim Basin sites like Khotan, Karasahr, Yarkand and Kucha. One suggestion is that the Saka became Hellenized in the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and they or an ethnically mixed Greco-Scythians either migrated to Yarkand and Khotan, or a bit earlier from Taxila in the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Later Khotanese-Sakalanguage documents, ranging from medical texts to Buddhist literature, have been found in Khotan and Tumshuq (northeast of Kashgar). Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have been found in Dunhuang. This largely Buddhist kingdom existed for over a thousand years until it was conquered by KaraKhanid Khanate in 1006. (Credit: Kingdom_of_Khotan, Wikipedia)
The Kingdom of Khotan is an ancient Saka Buddhist kingdom at the intersection of the Silk Road, which runs along the southern tip of the Taklimakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China) and had lasted for over 1000 years (~300 BCE - 1006 AD). The Saka people used Eastern Iranian Saka and Indo-Aryan Gandhari Prakrit, which is related to Sanskrit! From the 3rd century C.E., there was also a visible linguistic influence on the Gandhari language spoken in the Khotan royal-court. There are four versions of the legend of the founding of Khotan. These can be found in the description by Xuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim and in the Tibetan translation of the Khotanese documents. All four versions suggest that the city was founded around the third century BC by a group of Indians during the reign of Ashoka. The Saka people were known as the Sai in ancient Chinese records. These records indicate that they originally inhabited the Ili and Chu River valleys of modern Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the Chinese Book of Han, the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka. The Saka crossed the Syr Darya into Bactria around 140 B.C. Later the Saka would also move into Northern India, as well as other Tarim Basin sites like Khotan, Karasahr, Yarkand and Kucha. One suggestion is that the Saka became Hellenized in the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and they or an ethnically mixed Greco-Scythians either migrated to Yarkand and Khotan, or a bit earlier from Taxila in the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Later Khotanese-Sakalanguage documents, ranging from medical texts to Buddhist literature, have been found in Khotan and Tumshuq (northeast of Kashgar). Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have been found in Dunhuang. This largely Buddhist kingdom existed for over a thousand years until it was conquered by KaraKhanid Khanate in 1006. (Credit: Kingdom_of_Khotan, Wikipedia)
The Chalukya dynasty was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynasty, known as the "Badami Chalukyas", ruled from Vatapi (modern Badami) from the middle of the 6th century. The Badami Chalukyas began to assert their independence at the decline of the Kadamba kingdom of Banavasi and rapidly rose to prominence during the reign of Pulakeshin II. After the death of Pulakeshin II, the Eastern Chalukyas became an independent kingdom in the eastern Deccan. The rule of the Chalukya dynasty is an important milestone in the history of South India and marks the golden age in the history of Karnataka. The political atmosphere of South India has shifted from a small kingdom to a great empire with the rise of the Badami Chalukya dynasty. A kingdom based in southern India took control and integrated the entire region between the Kaveri and Narmada rivers. With the rise of this empire, efficient administration, foreign trade and commerce were born, and a new style of architecture called "Chalukya Architecture" was developed. Kannada literature, which enjoyed royal support in the 9th-century Rashtrakuta court, found enthusiastic support for the Jain and Veerashaiva traditions of the western Chalukya dynasty. In the 11th century, Telugu literature was sponsored during the Eastern Chalukya Rule. (Credit: Info + Image Chalukya_dynasty , Wikipedia) [Image : 1. Vaishnava Cave Temple, Badami, 578 CE 2. Bhutanatha temple complex, at Badami 3. Virupaksha temple in Dravidian style at Pattadakal, built 740 CE 4. Aihole – Durga Temple ]
Druids were high-class members of ancient Celtic culture. Druids were religious leaders, judicial authorities, judges, traditional custodians, doctors, and political advisers. The Druid did not leave a written accounts. They were reported to be literate, but it was believed that their doctrine prevented them from writing their knowledge in writing. Their beliefs and practices are well documented by contemporaries from other cultures such as Romans and Greeks. The earliest known references to Druids date back to the 4th century BCE. The oldest detailed description comes from Julius Caesar`s Commentarii de Bello Gallico (50s BCE). They were described by other Roman writers such as Cicero, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder! After Rome invaded Gaul, Druid's orders were suppressed by the Roman government under the first-century AD emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and disappeared from written records by the second century. Graeco-Roman and native Irish sources agree that Druids have played an important role in pagan Celtic societies. Julius Caesar, in his account, mentions that they are one of the two most important social groups in the region (along with knights and aristocrats), serving, priest-hooding and fortune-telling in the communities of Gallia, England and Ireland. He wrote that they were responsible for organizing the judicial process. Pomponius Mela was the first author to say that Druid lessons were secret and took place in caves and forests. Druid lore consists of a number of memorized poems, and Caesar said it could take up to 20 years to complete the course. What was taught to druid novices anywhere is conjecture: of the druids' oral literature, not one certifiably ancient verse is known to have survived, even in translation. All instructions were given verbally, but for general purposes Caesar reports, the Gauls had a writing language in which they used Greek letters. (Credit: Druid, Wkipedia)
Paganism in Middle-Earth : Despite J.R.R. Tolkien's claim that The Lord of the Rings is essentially a Christian work, paganism appears in various forms in this book and elsewhere in his fictional Middle-earth world. These include the Pantheon of God-like beings like the Valar which acted like Norse mythological deities like the Æsir ; the wizard Gandalf, whom Tolkien stated as an "Odinic Wanderer" in his letter; the Elvish "Queen of the Stars" like Elbereth who resembled with Venus. Further animism was approved via the depiction of the way the natural world looked lively and the Beowulf-like "northern courage" which is determined to press on, no matter how bleak the outlook is. Tolkien was a philologist, a scholar of Old English and literature, especially Beowulf, and he used this poem extensively in his writings on Middle-earth. Middle-earth is part of the created world, Eä, dominated by the "only" god Eru Iluvatar, is monotheistic in principle, and therefore compatible with Christianity, but the God is remote to access. In reality, Middle-earth is dominated by Valor, a group of spiritual beings like the Pantheon, who act like the Æsir of Norse mythology. They are also typically associated in a pagan way with four ancient elements: fire, earth, air, and water. The Gandalf Wizard is constantly wandering around Middle-earth, wearing a tattered cloak and a traveler's hat. And in fact, Tolkien stated in a 1946 letter that he regarded Gandalf as "Odinic wanderer" ! Elbereth, the Elves` "Queen of the Stars", Varda the "Lofty", is linked with Eärendil's star, which Tolkien makes clear is the Morning and Evening Star, in other words Venus. In addition to polytheism, a distinctive feature of paganism is animism, the belief that animals, plants, and other objects are infiltrated with the spirit. In Middle-Earth, nature lives in many places, including trees with "feet" and mountains, expressing their anger by snowstorms. (Info+Image Credit; Wikipedia)
According to the major Sanskrit epic Mahabharata and the vast genre of Indian literature Puranas, Parikshit was a Kuru king who succeeded his grand uncle Yudhishthira to the throne of Hastinapur. Along with his son and successor Janamejaya, he played a decisive role in the consolidation of the Kuru state, the arrangement of Vedic hymns into collections, and the development of the orthodox srauta ritual, transforming the Kuru realm into the dominant political and cultural center of the then northern India. Parikshit is believed to be a reincarnation of Satya Yuga, the personified first yuga in Hindu mythology. After his coronation, he performed three sacrifices. While performing the sacrifices he traveled throughout the country. Once he saw a man beating a one-legged bull with a rod, and kicking a cow. He became angry at this sight and arrested the man. Parikshit was about to kill him when the man revealed his true identity as Kali. Kali begged forgiveness from Parikshit, who forgave him but ordered him to leave the kingdom. Kali obeyed this order and left Parikshit's kingdom. Satisfied, the cow revealed herself as the Prithvi, who was grief-stricken for Krishna had returned to his abode (Vaikuntha) and had left earth. The bull was Dharma whose other three legs were mutilated and and he now only stood one leg in the Kali Yuga. (Credit: Parikshit, Wikipedia)
According to the major Sanskrit epic Mahabharata and the vast genre of Indian literature Puranas, Parikshit was a Kuru king who succeeded his grand uncle Yudhishthira to the throne of Hastinapur. Along with his son and successor Janamejaya, he played a decisive role in the consolidation of the Kuru state, the arrangement of Vedic hymns into collections, and the development of the orthodox srauta ritual, transforming the Kuru realm into the dominant political and cultural center of the then northern India. Parikshit is believed to be a reincarnation of Satya Yuga, the personified first yuga in Hindu mythology. After his coronation, he performed three sacrifices. While performing the sacrifices he traveled throughout the country. Once he saw a man beating a one-legged bull with a rod, and kicking a cow. He became angry at this sight and arrested the man. Parikshit was about to kill him when the man revealed his true identity as Kali. Kali begged forgiveness from Parikshit, who forgave him but ordered him to leave the kingdom. Kali obeyed this order and left Parikshit's kingdom. Satisfied, the cow revealed herself as the Prithvi, who was grief-stricken for Krishna had returned to his abode (Vaikuntha) and had left earth. The bull was Dharma whose other three legs were mutilated and and he now only stood one leg in the Kali Yuga. (Credit: Parikshit, Wikipedia)
The Pāratarājas were a Ruling-Class of Parthian Kings, who ruled from their capital region of modern Balochistan of the then North-Western India. The Pāratas are considered to be similar with the Pāradas of Indian literature, the Parθava of Iranian literature and the Parthians of Greek literature. The dynasty is essentially known through their coinage, which have been primarily found in and around the district of Loralai, Balochistan. The coins exhibit the bust of a particular monarch on the obverse (having long hair within a headband), and a swastika within a circular legend on the reverse in Kharoshthi (usually copper coins) and sometimes in Brahmi (usually silver coins). In about 440 BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus had described a tribe named Paraitakenoi, who was ruled by Deiokes, a Median monarch. The Paratas may have originated in northwestern Iran, northern Iraq or even eastern Turkey, roughly in the areas where Kurds live today, around the 7th century BCE. They then migrated, so that Alexander the Great encountered them in the area of Bactria and Sogdiana. They then moved through Seistan to reach Baluchistan in the 1st century CE, where they settled, first on the coast, and then in the interior. Indian sources also locate them in the same general area, beyond the Indus river. The Paratarajas must have maintained a strong interaction with their neighbors to the West (the Indo-Parthians), and their neighbors to the east (the Western Satraps), perhaps having a role of intermediary. According to Isidore of Charax, the geographical area beyond Sakastene is called "Paraitakene", corresponding to modern Baluchistan and Seistan, possibly their new territory from that time (25-1 BCE). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE) describes the territory of the Paradon beyond the Ommanitic region, on the coast of Balochistan. (Credit: Paratarajas, Wikipedia) [Image 1: The Paratajas in 2nd century CE. 2: Paratarajas ruler Kozana 200-220 CE ]
Svarog is a Slavic god of fire and smithing mentioned in the Slavic translation of the Chronicle of John Malalas found in the Primary Chronicle as the Slavic equivalent of the Greek god Hephaestus. In the past, the predominant etymology was the Indo-Iranian one, according to which the name was borrowed from some language of that linguistic group. oday it is criticized by linguists and etymologists. Instead, native Slavic etymologies are proposed. The fire etymology was one of the first proposed by the Slovenian linguist Franc Miklošič (1875), who explained the theonym Svarog as consisting of the stem svar "heat", "light", and the suffix -og. He derived the root svar itself from the earlier *sur "shining". This etymology of the theonym, but with a revised etymology of the stem svar, was supported by Karel Oštir (1923). Formerly, the prevailing view in the literature was that the root svar- was borrowed from some language of the Indo-Iranian group. Here one points out, for example, the Avestan hvar "light of the sky, sun", Old Indian स्वर्, svar "radiance", "sky", "sun", स्वर्ग, svarga "heaven". Other scholars have suggested that the stem svar is related to Old Indian svar "sun", not as loan but as cognate. Still others have suggested an affinity with Germanic words meaning "sky", e.g. Old High German gi-swerc "storm clouds", Old English sweorc "darkness, cloud, fog", or Dutch zwerk "cloud, cloudy sky". (Credit: Etymology_of_Svarog, Wikipedia) (Image: Svarog, Andrey Shishkin, 2015)
Anandamath (Bengali: আনন্দমঠ Anondomôţh) (lit. The Abbey of Bliss) is a Bengali fiction, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and published in 1882. It is inspired by and set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 18th century, it is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature. Vande Mataram, Hail to the Mother India , first song to represent India - as the Motherland was published in this novel. The Most Iconic Depiction in the Novel revolved around Three Goddess Idols being worshipped in three consecutive rooms: -- 1. What Mother Was – An idol of Goddess Jagaddhatri
2. What Mother Has Become – An idol of Goddess Kali
3. What Mother Will Be – An idol of Goddess Durga (Credit: Anandamath , Wikipedia)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
