"She [Gaia] prayed to the Titan #Helios with submissive voice: she begged of him one red hot ray, that with its heating fire she might melt the petrified water of Zeus, by pouring his kindred radiance over frozen Typhon."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 543
🎨 Roman silver relief of Sol from Pessinus in Anatolia, dated 3rd century CE. Today in the British Museum.
"Did Hermes also give you a name, beautiful?" #Peitho dipped a brush into the paint and drew gently across pearly lips, turning pink into a bright, seductive red.
"Yes. He called me #Pandora. Because I received a gift from every god that holds Olympos. What is your gift to me?"
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
Meet this beautiful Zeus Keraunios, Zeus of the Thunderbolt, from Apollonia. In the Archaic and Early Classical periods, numerous bronze statuettes of the thunderbolt-wielding Zeus appear at his cult centres of Olympia, Dodona, and elsewhere in Greece and other territories.
🏛️ Zeus statuette from the Greek colony of #Apollonia in Illyria
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"They say he [#Hermes] was responsible for #profit and an overseer of the businesses: consequently they set up the statue of him weighing a purse." #Suidas, Byzantine Greek lexicon, 10th century CE
🏛️ Hermes, Archaeological Museum of Nikopolis, Greece
THORFINN AND THE WITCH'S CURSE (Forerunner Series Book 1)
10-yr-old Finn is a normal boy in the #Viking Kingdoms of 9th-century England. When a #Witch curse comes alive, a mishap thrusts him into a realm beyond Midgard.
Meet this Roman stone statue of the god #Mars, found in #York. It was carved from local sandstone in the 4th century CE. #Eboracum was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia that became the city of York. Eboracum was a busy port and a provincial capital with residents from all over the Roman Empire.
Greetings, myth lovers! For the upcoming #BookLoversDay we are asking: what are your favourite mythology-themed #books?
Tell us about the #myth and the #book with the hashtag #MythologyMonday for boosts!
Let's swap some awesome recs, all right? 😊
Your host @AimeeMaroux is looking forward to all your #book reports! 😚
"Helios, the myth tells us [...] caused the water which had overflowed it [the island of Rhodes] to disappear. But the true explanation is that [...] the island was still like mud and soft, Helios dried up the larger part of its wetness and filled the land with living creatures."
🎨 Red-figure vase painting of #Helios in a chariot drawn by two #Erotes.
As an #indieAuthor who writes mythology #erotica that is funded entirely by people buying my #books and my #Patreon supporters, I am always looking for new #readers of my work 😊
In #Norse cosmology, there is no such thing as "the world".
Creation myths explain how parts of the cosmos were created (e.g., the sky is the skull of Ymir¹) and that several worlds are separated from each other. To be precise, there are nine.
Shamans can travel with the soul, but it should be physically possible too. Often, the methods described are quite strange, but fascinating:
• Walking on the rainbow
• Diving in some pools of water
• Walking in the dark
• Through memorial barrows²
• Traversing inaccessible forests and mountains
Also, gods have such powers that can break the barriers among them.
It was said, for example, that the lightning was #Thor striking Jötnar (the giants) with its hammer, and the thunder was the sound of the creature falling apart.
Our world, thus the reality we see, is called Midgard³, inhabited only by humans.
Interestingly, the other worlds don't have a specific direction (e.g. to the West) – they're just "far away".
At the center of Norse cosmology there is Yggdrasil⁴, a huge #tree (maybe an ash tree) which connects all the worlds. Its name could mean "Horse of the Terrible One" because Odin used its branches to quickly move among the worlds.
Here is a quick list:
Asgard – home of the Æsir gods
Jotunheim –home of the evil giants
Alfheim – home of the elves, (never described in any resource)
Nidavellir – where dwarves lived
Vanaheim – home of Vanir gods (never described!)
Hel – the underworld
Muspelheim – a world made of Fire
Niflheim – a world made of Ice
Midgard – our world, the only one not part of the "Otherworld"
It is extremely confusing, and in the past, people who tried to join the lines were confused, too! Here is a scheme from XIX century, which does not help at all 😅
In Chinese mythology, Sun Wukong, also known as Monkey King, is a legendary figure and one of the main characters in the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. Born from a magical stone, he possessed immense strength & supernatural abilities, including shapeshifting. Wukong had many adventures and became very powerful. Once, furious that he had not been invited to the Heavenly Peach Banquet with the Jade Emperor and Xiwangmu, he snuck in... #folklore#mythology@folklore@mythology
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It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
Figurine of Zeus Keraunos (Zeus of the Thunderbolt) from Dodona, one of his major cult centres. Homer describes Dodona as an oracle of Zeus. Priestesses and priests interpreted the rustling of the oak leaves in his sacred grove for divination.
🏛️ Zeus Keraunos bronze figurine from #Dodona, National Archaeological Museum #Athens
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
Meet this #silver figurine of Hermes-Mercurius, holding his iconic kerykeion or caduceus staff in his left. With the two snakes winding around it, it has been mistaken for the Rod of Asklepios, the symbol of medicine, when in truth the caduceus is the symbol of commerce.
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is work.
Four deities spring to my mind when I think of work: #Demeter, #Hermes, #Hephaistos, and #Athena. #AncientGreece was an agricultural society with 80% of the population being involved in this line of work. In Greek mythology, it was Demeter who invented agriculture but according to Diodorus Siculus she burnt all the grain when her daughter #Persephone vanished out of grief and anger.
While searching for #Persephone, Demeter was received by Eleusinian prince #Triptolemos and his family and after she had found Persephone, she taught him how to grow crops and provided him with a winged, serpent-drawn chariot to spread her gift across the earth. Triptolemus was the favourite of #Demeter, and it is said that he became the inventor of the plough. Pausanias even tells of a temple of Triptolemos at #Eleusis.
"Helios (the Sun), who is watchman of both gods and men [...] You [Helios] with your beams look down from the bright upper air (aitheros) over all the earth and sea."
Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter