Passing Strange

ojiisanholic:

facingthewaves:

“I want to speak to a manager,” the middle-aged woman said in her stern I-used-to-be-a-soccer-mom-ten-years-ago voice, looking down at me over the top of her Gucci reading glasses.

A wicked grin split across my face and the gates of Hell opened up behind me, releasing a gust of hot wind that whipped my apron around my body and forced the woman to shield her face. Demons came forth, dancing around in flames with songs of, “She wants to speak to a manager. Did you hear that? She wants to speak to a manager!” before erupting into earsplitting shrieks of laughter, none louder than my own cackling.

I took in the woman’s look of utter horror before my eyes rolled back into my head and I growled,

“I am the manager.”

a thing for one of my favorite posts on this site

(via atamajakki)

• 23 Dec 2018
• 1303649

Greek Gods You’ve Never Heard Of, Part IV

hereticalheraldry:

More Personified Concepts

Dike/Dice (f) “justice”, moral order, fair judgment, socially enforced norms, conventional rules. Young slender woman carrying a scale with a laurel wreath. Represented in the constellation Libra. Roman: Justitia

Astraea/Astrea/Astria (f) “star maiden/starry night” Virgin goddess of innocence and purity, and associated with Dike (justice). the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Golden Age. Abandoned earth during the Iron Age. Became Virgo, next to Libra.

Adikia/Adicia (f) injustice, wrongdoing. Opposite of Dike

Angelia (f) daughter of Hermes, daemon of messages, tidings, proclamations (if this sounds like the word “angel”, it’s because our word angel comes from the same root: Greek “angelos”, meaning “messenger”)

Harmonia (f) harmony and concord. opposite of Eris (strife). (Also the name of a nymph of the Akmonian Wood, mother of the Amazons.) Wife of Cadmus, first king of Thrace. Sister of—–>

Iasion/Iasus/Eetion, founder of the mystic rites on Samothrace; with Demeter fathered Ploutos, Philomelus, and Corybas, who gave his name to the Corybantes/Koribantes, dancing priests of Phrygia

Hedone (f) pleasure, especially sensual pleasures. daughter of Eros and Psyche; opposite of the Algos (pains). Roman: Voluptas

—–Four winged enforced siblings stood in attendance at Zeus’s throne: Zelus, Bia, Kratos, and Nike, children of the titans Pallas (m) and Styx (f). Along with their mother, they helped Zeus in the war against the Titans and became his constant companions after he triumphed.

• Kratos/Cratos (m) daemon of strength
  
• Nike (f) “victory,” goddess of victory, strength, speed. Associated with Athena. winged goddess. Roman: Victoria 
  
• Zelus/Zelos (m) “zeal.” Zelus and Bia were less famous than Cratos and Nike.
  
• Bia (f)  “Power, force & Might” was the personification of force and raw energy. when Prometheus was punished and was to be chained to a rock,  Bia and her brother, Kratos, were sent to carry out this task, but Bia was the only one strong enough to actually bind Prometheus to the rock with the unbreakable chains.
  

Lampetia (f) “shining,” daemon of light. daughter of Helios (sun) and Neaera (nymph of Thrinacia), she and her sister Phaethusa guarded the ageless and deathless sheep and cattle of Thrinacia.

Phaethusa (f) “radiance”, daemon of the brilliant, blinding rays of the sun

Mnemosyne (f) memory. a titaness, mother of the Muses. Roman: Moneta

Polemos (m) “war,” daemon of war. Roman: Bellum

Pandia/Pandeia (f) “all brightness”, associated with the full moon. daughter of Zeus and Selene (moon)

Agon (m) struggle, contest

Phthonus (m) jealousy, envy, especially in love

the Horae/Horai/Hours (f, plural) “seasons,” goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time. sometimes goddesses of order in general, and natural justice. usually 3: Thallo, Auxo, and Carpo (the order of nature); or Eunomia (good order, lawful conduct) and her sisters Dike (justice) and Eirene (peace). in Argos there were two, winter and summer: Auxesia (possibly Auxo) and Damia (possibly Carpo).

First triad of the Horae, children of Aphrodite and Zeus:

• Thallo/Thalette “the one who brings blossoms”, spring, buds, blooms, protectors of youth. Roman: Flora
  
• Auxo/Auxesia “increaser”, summer, vegetation, plants, growth, fertility
  
• Carpo/Carpho/Xarpo, the one who brings food, autumn, ripening, harvesting. Guarded the way to Mount Olympus
  

Second triad, children of Themis and Zeus

• Dike “Justice”, moral justice, ever-young woman dwelling in the cities of man, Virgo. Roman: Iusticia (see Dike, Astraea: above)
  
• Eunomia “order”, goddess of law and legislation
  
• Eirene/Irene “peace”, peace and wealth, beautiful young woman carrying cornucopia, scepter, and torch or rhyton. Roman: Pax
  

Third triad:

• Pherusa, substance, farm estates
  
• Euporie/Euporia, abundance
  
• Orthosie/Orthosia, prosperity
  

The Horae as the four seasons:

• Eiar (spring), Theros (summer), Phthinoporon (autumn), Cheimon (winter)
  

The Horae as the hours: tutelary goddesses of the times of day

9 hour system: 

• Auco/Auxo, Eunomia, Pherusa, Carpo, Dike, Euporie/Euporia, Eirene/Irene, Orthosie/Orthosia, Thallo
  

10 or 12 hour system:

• Auge (first light) not original to the set
  
• Anatole/Anatolia (sunrise)
  
• Mousike/Musica (morning hours of music and study)
  
• Gymnastike/Gymnastica/Gymnasia (morning hours of education, training, exercise)
  
• Nymphe/Nympha (morning hours of ablution/bathing)
  
• Mesembria (noon)
  
• Sponde (libations poured after lunch)
  
• Elete (prayer, first of the afternoon work hours)
  
• Akte/Acte/Cypris (eating and pleasure, 2nd of the afternoon work hours)
  
• Hesperis (end of the afternoon, start of evening)
  
• Dysis (sunset)
  
• Arktos/Arctus (night sky, constellation) not original to the set
  

(See the rest of the series)

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• 5 Dec 2018
• 127

Greek Gods You’ve Never Heard Of, Part V

hereticalheraldry:

The Titans

Giant offspring of Uranus (heaven) and Gaia (earth). Male Titans are Titanes; female Titans are Titanides.

Hyperion (m) “the high one”. with Theia, fathered Helios, Selene, and Eos

Theia/Thea/Thia/Euryphaessa (f) “goddess/divine” or “wide-shining”. with brother-consort Hyperion, parents of Helios (sun), Selene (moon), and Eos (dawn).  

Coeus/Koios, (m) “query, questioning”. with his sister Phoebe, fathered Ceto and Asteria. Rational intelligence. With Phoebe, primal font of all knowledge in the cosmos. Roman: Polus, embodiment of the celestial axis around which the heavens revolve (the north/south pole).

Phoebe (f) “shining,” associated with the moon. Consort of Coeus. 2 daughters: Ceto had Apollo and Artemis, and Asteria had Hecate. Associated with the Delphic oracle.

Crius/Kreios/Krios (m) “ram”. with Eurybia, fathered Astraiois, Pallas, Perses.

Eurybia (f) “wide-force”, daughter of Pontus (sea) and Gaia (earth). Consort of Crius. “Had a heart of flint within her.” goddess of mastery of the seas or power over them (winds, constellations, etc)

Iapetus/Iapetos/Japetus (m) “the piercer”. god of mortality. with Oceanid Clymere or Asia, father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius, the ancestors of mankind (and associated with mankind’s four great faults (excessive daring, crafty scheming, foolish stupidity, violent anger/rash action)

Oceanus/Ogenus/Ogen (m), daemon of the sea, which in Greek mythology was an enormous river that encircles the world (and is therefore fresh water!). Upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns made to look like the claws of a crab. lower body of a serpent. his consort is Tethys. in some versions, Oceanus and Tethys are the primordial gods.

Tethys (f), consort of Oceanus, mother of the Potamoi (river nymphs) and Oceanids (sea nymphs)

Ophion (m) see part i. consort of Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus, and in some versions, they are the original gods.

Dione (f) oracular goddess, associated with Zeus

Mnemosyne (f), mother (with Zeus) of the muses, goddess of memory. Roman: Moneta

Themis, (f) ‘the lady of good counsel’, personification of divine order, fairness, law, natural law, custom. symbol: scales of justice. “divine laws” rather than human ordinance. that which is put in place. foresaw the future, an Oracle of Delphi, goddess of divine justice, sometimes shown with sword. not wrathful: that’s Nemesis. with Zeus, mother of Natura, goddess of the forest; the Horae; Astraea; the Moirai.

Cronus/Cronos/Kronos (m), leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans. overthrew his father Uranus and ruled during the Golden Age, until overthrown by his own son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus. Usually depicted with a harp, scythe, or sickle, with which he castrated and deposed his father Uranus. Patron of harvest. Roman: Saturn

Rhea (f) wife and sister of Cronus, mother of the gods (associated with Gaia and Cybele). 6 children with Cronus: Hestia (hearth), Demeter (grain), Hera (queen), Hades (death), Poseidon (sea), Zeus (king). Cronus swallowed his children so they couldn’t overthrow him, so Rhea, Uranus, and Gaia fed him a stone in swaddling clothes to hide Zeus away. her attendants, the Kouretes/Korybantes and Dactyls acted as Zeus’s bodyguards. Roman: Ops

the Dactyls (m, plural) “fingers”. an archaic race of male beings associated with the Great Mother (Cybele/Rhea). 10 spirit-like men. both ancient smiths and healing magicians. in some myths, they are in Hephaestus’s employ and teach metalworking, mathematics, and the alphabet to humans. Anchiale, a Cretan nymph, knew her time of delivery had come, so she went tot he sacred cave of Mt Ida. As she squatted in labor, she dug her fingers into the earth (Gaia), which brought forth the Idaean Dactyls. When Greeks offered a most solemn oath, they would press their hands against the earth as they uttered it. 

3 Phrygian Dactyls in the service of the Great Mother as Adraste, and invented metalworking:

• Acmon (the anvil)
  
• Damnameneus (the hammer)
  
• Celmis (casting)
  

An Idaean Dactyl, Herakles (thumb) originated the Olympic games by instigating a race among his four finger brothers:

• Aeonius (forefinger)
  
• Epimedes (middle finger)
  
• Jasius (ring/healing finger)
  
• Idas/Acesides (little finger)
  

(See the rest of the series)

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• 5 Dec 2018
• 79

Greek Gods You’ve Never Heard Of, Part VI

hereticalheraldry:

The Titans’ Siblings: the Earthborn

Kouretes/Korybantes, armed and crested dancers who worshiped Cybele, offspring of Thalia and Apollo, or result of rainwater falling on the earth (Uranus fertilizing Gaia)

the Telchines, original inhabitants of Rhodes. had flippers for hands, dog heads, known as “fish children”. excellent metalworkers (HOW DO YOU WORK METAL WHEN YOU HAVE FLIPPERS FOR HANDS???), made Poseidon’s trident and Cronus’s sickle. Brought hailstorms, snow, rain. shapeshifters (ohhh never mind). produced a substance poisonous to all living things. the gods eventually killed them because they used magic for malignant purposes, especially poison. List of names on Wikipedia, including women.

Echidna (f) “she-viper,” half-woman, half-snake

Typhon/Typhoeus/Typhaeon/Typhos (m) monstrous serpentine giant, most deadly creature in Greek mythology. son of Gaia and Tartarus. he and his mate Echidna were parents of many famous monsters. attempted to overthrow Zeus in a cataclysmic battle but was defeated and cast into Tartarus (or buried under Mt Etna). connected with Python. offspring include:

• Orthrus, the two-headed dog that guarded cattle of Geryon
  
• Cerberus, Hades’s guard dog
  
• Hydra
  
• Chimera
  
• Caucasian Eagle (ate Prometheus’s liver)
  
• Ladon (dragon of the Hesperides)
  
• Sphinx
  
• Nemean Lion
  
• Crommyonian Sow
  
• Gorgon (mother of Medusa)
  
• Colchian Dragon (guarded the golden fleece)
  
• Scylla
  
• Harpies
  
• Serpent of Lacoon

the Hecatoncheires (m, plural. singular: Hecatoncheir) “hundred-handed ones”. three giants of incredible strength and ferocity that surpassed all of the Titans, whom they helped overthrow. Each with a hundred hands and five heads, now guard the gates of Tartarus. giants of great storms and hurricanes.

• Briareos “strong”/Aegaeon
  
• Kottos “strike/punch”
  
• Gyges/Gyes “limb” or “curved”
  

the Cyclopes (m, plural. singular: cyclops) “round-eyed/circle-eyed”. builders, blacksmiths, craftsmen. Brontes “thunder”, Steropes “flash of lightning”, and Arges/Acmonidea/Pyraemon “bright” were sons of Uranus and Gaia and brothers of the Titans. Zeus releases them from Tartarus and they provide his thunderbolt, Hades’ helmet of darkness, and Poseidon’s trident, with which they defeat the Titans.

the Meliae (f, plural). tree nymphs or nymphs of the ash tree. born from the drops of blood that fell on Gaia when Cronus castrated Uranus. the ash tree/Melian nymphs were the progenitors of the race of men of the Bronze Age (according to Hesiod). nurses of infant Zeus.

Python. the serpent living at the center of the earth, at Delphi

the Gigantes/Giants (plural. singular: Gigas), race of great strength and aggression (though not necessarily great size!). Engaged in a battle with the Olympian gods called Gigantomachia. offspring of Uranus’s blood that fell on Gaia. in the Archaic and Classical periods, were depicted as man-sized hoplites. After 380 CE, were shown with snakes for legs, which must’ve been awkward. were buried under volcanoes, where they became the causes of eruptions and earthquakes.

the Erinyes (f, plural. singular Erinys)/Furies, deities of vengeance, infernal goddesses. an embodiment of the act of self-cursing contained in an oath. also emerged from Uranus’s blood on Gaia. live in Erebus, hear complaints of mortals against the insolence of the young to the aged, children to parents, hosts to guests, householders or city councils to suppliants, and punish them by relentless hounding. Depicted as crones with snakes for hair, dogs’ heads, coal-black bodies, bat wings, and bloodshot eyes. carry brass-studded scourges. their number is indeterminate; Virgil recognizes 3:

• Alecto/Alekto “endless”, punishes moral crimes (anger, etc)
  
• Megaera “jealous rage”, punishes infidelity, oath-breakers, theft
  
• Tisiphone/Tilphousia “vengeful destruction,” also a by-name of Demeter. punishes murderers
  

Cybele/Kybelis. Phyrgian: Mater Kubileya/Kubeleye. “Kubeleya Mother” or “Mountain Mother”. Lydian: Kuvava. An Anatolian mother goddess, Phyrgia’s only known goddess, adopted by Greek colonists of Asia Minor. Partially assimilated into aspects of Gaia, Minoan equivalent Rhea, and Demeter. seen as a foreign, exotic mystery-goddess, arrives in a lion-drawn chariot to the accompaniment of wild music, wine, and a disorderly ecstatic following. uniquely in Greek religion, had a eunuch mendicant priesthood. Phrygian castrated shepherd-consort Attis. Associated with mountains, town and city walls, fertile nature and wild animals, especially lions. Roman: Magna Mater.

Second-Generation Titans

Children of Hyperion and Theia:

Helios (m) “sun” young man crowned with the shining aureole of the sun, drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to Oceanus, and returned through the world-ocean to the east at night. later, his horses were named Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon. AKA Panoptes, “all-seeing”. his son Phaeton stole his chariot and set the world on fire, and Zeus killed him with a lightning bolt to stop him. associated with Apollo and Zeus. The Colossus at Rhodes was a statue of Helios. parented many children by man mothers. Roman: Sol. Etruscan: Usil. 

Selene (f) “moon”. drives the moon chariot across heaven. later associated with Artemis and Hecate. Selene was specifically the personification of the moon. AKA Mene. Mother of Ersa “dew”, Pandia “all-brightness”. 2 horses on chariot, snow-white (sometimes oxen or bulls). Selene has lovely hair and is benevolent. Sometimes rides sidesaddle on a horse, ox, mule, or ram. Roman: Luna

Eos (f) “dawn”, arose each morning from her home at the edge of Oceanus. rosy fingers/forearms as she opens the gates of heaven for the sun to rise. Saffron/colored robe embroidered with flowers, golden arms, crowned with a tiara or diadem, large white-feathered wings. exulting in her heart over the radiant horses, Lampus and Phaeton, that draw her chariot, scattering sparks of fire. preceded by the morning star. she is the genetrix of all the stars and planets; her tears are the morning dew. AKA Ersa/Herse. mother of the winds (Zephyrus, Boreas, Notus) and the morning star Eosphoros by father Astraeus. mother of Memnon by Tithonus. Roman: Aurora. Vedic: Ushas.

Children of Coeus and Phoebe:

Asteria/Asterie (f) “of the stars, starry one”. goddess of nocturnal oracles and falling stars. mother of Hecate. Zeus pursued her as an eagle, so as a quail she threw herself into the sea and became the island of Delos.

Leto (f) with Zeus, bore twins Apollo and Artemis, AKA the Letoides. In Pindar, she is Leto Chryselakatos, “Leto of the golden spindle”, shown enthroned (mixed with Cybele). Roman: Latona

Lelantos/Lelantus (m) with oceanid Periboia, father of the nymph Aura “breeze”

Children of Iapetus and Clymene or Asia (Oceanids):

Atlas (m) with brother Menoetius, sided with the Titans against the Olympians. condemned to hold up the earth in the west: Atlantic ocean means “sea of Atlas”’ Atlantis means “island of Atlas”. many daughters: 

• the Hesperides/Atlantides, nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets. “daughters of the evening”, “nymphs of the west”. 3, 4, or 7 of them. guarded the golden apples beyond the western ocean, in a blissful garden near the Atlas Mountains in North Africa by the ocean
  
• The Hyades “rainy ones”, nymphs who bring rain, also a cluster of stars in Taurus
  
• Hyas (m) an archer killed by his prey
  
• the Pleiades, companions of Artemis, associated with rain; the 7 sisters constellation
  
• Calypso (f) a nymph who trapped Odysseus
  
• Dione (f) “she-Zeus, divine one”, a Hyade, married King Tantalus, their daughter is Niobe
  

Epimetheus (m) “after-thinker,” representation of mankind with Promethus, but he’s the stupid one

Prometheus (m) “fore-thought”, trickster, created man from clay, stole fire from the gods and gave it to men. champion of mankind, punished by gods

Menoetius/Menoetes (m) “doomed might,” killed by Zeus’s lightning in the Titanomachy (war between the Olympians and the Titans) and banished to Tartarus. symbol of Hubris. Maybe god of violent anger and rash action

Children of Mnemosyne and Zeus, the Mousai (Boetian muses):

• Aoide: voice and song
  
• Melete “contemplation” thought and meditation
  
• Mneme: memory.
  

Later added:

• Arche “origin”
  
• Thelxinoe “the heart delighting”
  

the three Delphic muses were Nete, Mese, and Hypate, names of the 3 chords of the lyre

the three Apollonian muses (daughters of Apollo) were

• Cephisso/Kephiso
  
• Apollonis “of Apollo”
  
• Borysthenis
  

There was also the muse Polymatheia, “much knowledge”, accumulation and preservation of knowledge.

(See the rest of the series)

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• 5 Dec 2018
• 72

Greek Gods You’ve Never Heard Of, Part VIII

hereticalheraldry:

Aquatic Deities

Amphitrite (f) wife of Poseidon, queen of the sea. Oceanid or Nereid. Roman: Salacia, goddess of saltwater

Berthesikyme (f) “sea depth/wave”, daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite, wife of Enalos (a man from Lesbos, who also has another fascinating myth about him)

Brizo (f) “to slumber”, protector of mariners, sailors, and fishermen, worshiped by the women of Delos, who set out food offerings in small boats. also a prophet who specializes in dream interpretation

Calypso (f) a nymph, trapped Odysseus. daughter of Iapetus and Clymene or Asia

Phorcys (m), son of Pontus (sea) and Gaia (earth). fish-tailed merman with crab-claw forelegs and red, spiky skin. husband of Ceto. Children include the Graeae (three crones, Deino/Dino, Enyo, and Pemphredo/Pephredo, who share one eye and one tooth among them); the gorgons (snakes for hair), Echidna (half-woman and half-snake, mother of monsters), and the youngest, “the awful snake” who guards the golden apples of the Hesperides.

Ceto (f) “sea monster”, daughter of Gaia (earth) and Pontus (sea). bore a host of monstrous children to her brother Phorcys.

Glaucus (m) “grey-blue, blue-green, glimmering” a mortal who ate a magical herb and became immortal. prophetic sea god, comes to the rescue of sailors and fishermen in storms, having been a sailor himself.

the ichthyocentaurs (m, plural). upper body human, lower front of horse, tail of fish, lobster-claw horns on the head. the ichyocentaur brothers Aphros and Bythos were set in the sky as the constellation Pisces

Kymopoleia, daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite, goddess of sea and earthquakes, wife of Briares (one of the hundred-handed giants)

Leucothea (f) “white goddess”, one of the aspects under which an ancient sea goddess was recognized, usually a transformed nymph, sometimes Ino

Melicertes/Melacertes/Palaemon (m) son of prince Athamas and Ino, daughter of Cadmus. He and his mother were turned into sea gods.

Nereus (m) eldest son of Pontus and Gaia: with Oceanid Doris, fathered children with whom he lived in the sea:

• the Nereids (f plural), 50 ocean nymphs
  
• Nerites (m) a beautiful boy
  

Nesoi (f plural) goddesses of islands. Among the Protogenoi

Proteus (m) the Old Man of the Sea, an early god of rivers and seas. can foretell future, but will change his shape to avoid doing so.

Rhodos (f) personification of the island of Rhodes, wife of Helios (the sun god, also the Colossus of Rhodes)

Thaumus (m) son of Pontus (sea) and Gaia (earth). wife Electra, parents of Iris and the Harpies

Thetis (f) sea nymph or a Nereid. in early ages may have been worshiped as creator of the universe. Mother of Achilles.

Triton (m) messenger of the sea. son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, herald for his father. Merman. carries a trident, conch shell trumph to calm or raise the waves. sometimes plural, Tritones, daimones of the sea.

the Oceanids: 3,000 daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, each patroness of a particular spring, river, sea, lake, pond, pasture, flower, breeze, or cloud. there is a long list of them in Wikipedia, including:

• Styx, who rushed to help Zeus against the Titans, goddess of the River Styx of the underworld, and whose name became a binding oath for the deities
  
• Metis (f) “wisdom, skill, craft”, Titaness mother of wisdom and deep thought, trickster powers of Prometheus
  

the Potamoi: Oceanus and Tethys’ 3,000 sons, gods of rivers and streams. long list on Wikipedia. Includes the rivers of the underworld.

the Naiads (f plural): nymphs of fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks, bodies of fresh water. still freshwater for naiads, moving freshwater for Oceanids (remember that the “sea” was considered a freshwater river that ran around the edge of the world), saltwater Mediterranean for the Nereids, Potamoi for rivers. the edges of these categories tend to be very vague. naiads were very ancient spirits of still waters of marshes, ponds, lagoon-lakes. Greeks believed that all the world’s waters were connected, percolating from the “sea” in deep cavernous spaces within the earth. Long list of naiads on wikipedia.

Some kinds of Naiads:

• Eleionomae: marshes
  
• Crinaeae, fountains
  
• Limnades, lakes
  
• Potamides, rivers
  
• Pegaeae, springs (especially the springs that were created by the pounding of the hooves of Pegasus)

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• 5 Dec 2018
• 219