Aphrodite is today best-known as the ‘goddess of love,’ but among the ancient Greeks she was also important in maritime religion, trade and travel.
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Category Archives: Mythology
Chloris: Goddess of New Growth and Flowers (reblog)
Springtime: A time of renewal, warm breezes and the return of all things green! A time when the worries and drudgery of winter melt away and make room for the new, a promise of things to come. The ancient Greeks enjoyed the spring much as we do today, soaking up the warming sun and feeling their spirits rise as the world came back to life after a long, snow-capped sleep.
And naturally, they took the time to inhale the fresh scents of the blooming flowers that poked their way through the winter-weary soil, all courtesy of the little-known but oh-so-important goddess CHLORIS, the ancient Greek goddess of flowers!
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Image at top from from Couleur from Pixabay.
The Ambiguous Status of the Tuatha De Danann
My post on the Irish goddess Airmid provoked a discussion on whether the Tuatha de Danann were really deities, or just heroic individuals. The answer, of course, depends on who you ask.
How the new Wall gods came to be: the case of the Veteres (reblog)
There are some intriguing deities on Hadrian’s Wall. Some might have been ‘born’ or ‘re-born’ when incomers from foreign lands, trying to make sense of their new situation, created brand new ‘gods of place’. The enigmatic Veteres are possible candidates here. 61 altars to a god called Veteris (or to gods called the Veteres) have been found in Britain, with the great majority coming from the wall zone, including 13 from Carvoran and 11 from Vindolanda.
The Rex Nemorensis – King of the Wood: The Ghastly Priest who Slew the Slayer (reblog)
“From the still glassy lake that sleeps
Beneath Aricia’s trees –
Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign,
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain” (1)
Thomas Babbington Macaulay
These words by Thomas Babbington Macaulay succinctly sum up the deadly duel of life and death to decide the Rex Nemorensis, the legendary High Priest of Diana Nemorensis of the Sacred Grove of Lake Nemi. The Rex Nemorensis was a shadowy figure in ancient Greek and Roman myth and legend. Most versions of his story agree that he earned his title and role by winning a fight to the death to become the “ghastly priest” of the above verse. Here we shall briefly discuss the mythical goddess of the Sacred Grove, Diana Nemorensis, followed by a look at her high priest and his deadly duel…
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Airmid – Celtic Goddess of Healing and Herbal Lore (reblog)
Airmid, also known as Airmed or Airmeith, is the Celtic Goddess of the Healing Arts. She was a member of the Tuatha De Danaan, the most ancient race of deities in Ireland and just as they did, she had great magickal powers…
Image by Couleur on Pixabay.
Hestia: Domestic Goddess
At a time when we’re all staying at home and trying to find ways to make it interesting (provided we’re not ill), it might be worth taking a look at the hearth-goddess Hestia. She tends to be overlooked, and doesn’t have a lot of myths, but now is a good time for a reappraisal of this quiet but essential goddess.
Eir: Goddess, Valkyrie and Healer
Eir is a puzzling figure in Norse mythology. Snorri Sturluson, who set out to explain Norse mythology in his Prose Edda, explains Eir in two different ways in the two main books, Gylfaginning and Skaldskaparmal.
Grottasöngr: giantesses vs. the king
You wouldn’t expect a Norse myth to be a parable on economic exploitation, and how bad deeds rebound on the doer. Grottasöngr, a story of how king Frodi forced two giantesses to work a mill without cease, and thus wrought his own destruction, is an unusual myth.
Review of Women Who Fly (reblog)
Serinity Young’s Women Who Fly: Goddesses, Witches, Mystics, and Other Airborne Females, is a cross-cultural, multi-period, feminist study of flying women in myth, literature, ritual, and history. Through examination of sky-going females evident within the religions and iconography of the Ancient Near East, Europe, and Asia, as well as in shamanic, Judeo-Christian, and Islamic cultures, the author creates a typology of flying women through history that culminates in an examination of 20th century fictional airborne women and real female aviators.
Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash
We Are Star Stuff 