Tag: myths

Horus

Photographer Unknown, Horus

Horus, in the ancient Egyptian religion, was one of the most important deities. The god appeared in the form of a falcon, whose left eye was the moon, representing healing, and whose right eye was the sun, representing power and the intrinsic substance of the heavenly bodies. Falcon cults were evident in late predynastic times and became widespread throughout Egypt. 

In the beginning stages of Egypt’s ancient religion, Horus was believed to be the god of war and the sky. As the religion progressed, Horus was seen as the son of Osiris and Isis, the divine child of the holy family triad. He is depicted as a falcon wearing a crown with a cobra, and later, wearing the Double Crown of the united Upper and Lower Egypt. The hooded cobra, worn by the gods and pharaohs on their foreheads, symbolized light and royalty. 

One of the oldest cultures in human history, ancient Egyptians are well-known for pioneering the fields of art, medicine, and the documentation of discoveries as mythological tales. The Egyptians mastered the integration of anatomy and mythology into artistic symbols and figures. The Eye of Horus was used as a sign of prosperity and protection, derived from the myth of Isis and Osiris. Comprised of six different parts, each an individual symbol, the Eye of Horus has an astonishing connection between neuroanatomical structure and function.

For those interested in the possible scientific speculation of the ingenuity of ancient Egyptians’ insight into human anatomy and physiology, a treatise, entitled “The Eye of Horus” by Karim ReFaey, Gabriella C. Quinones, William Clifton, and others can be found at the Cureus site, located at:https://www.cureus.com/articles/19443-the-eye-of-horus-the-connection-between-art-medicine-and-mythology-in-ancient-egypt

Alfred-Ernest Robaut

Alfred-Ernest Robaut, “The Education of Achilles”, 1879, Lithograph on Heavy Wove Paper, Image 37 x 46 cm , Private Collection

This lithograph engraved by Alfred-Ernest Robaut was printed in 1879 in Paris by the Lemercier and Cie company, after the 1862 pastel drawing by Eugène Delacroix now in the Paul Getty Museum collection. The subject, the centaur Chiron teaching the young Achilles how to hunt, was also painted by Delacroix on a pendentive supporting the cupola dedicated to Poetry in the library of the Chamber des Députés at the Assemblée Nationale in Paris.

Born in Douai, France, in 1830, Alfred-Ernest Robaut was a French designer and engraver. He is best known as the author of the first catalog of works by painters Eugéne Delacroix and Jean-Baptiste Corot, whom he greatly admired.

After brief studies, Robaut enter his father’s printing press in Douai, taking it over in 1853 and marrying the daughter of Constant Dutilleux, a painter and long-time friend of both Delacroix and Corot. As a draftsman and engraver, Robaut devotes himself mainly to reproduction engraving but also publishes numerous art history articles of his own writings.

From the 1860s, Alfred Robaut devoted himself to the reproductions of drawings and autographs by Delacroix and Corot, collecting testimonies, photographs, and documents on their lives. He died in Fonternay-sous-Bois, France, in April of 1909.

 

Phyllis Stapler

Phyllis Stapler, “The Moon Hare”

“Dream is the personalized myth, myth the depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic in the same general way of the dynamic of the psyche. But in the dream the forms are quirked by the peculiar troubles of the dreamer, whereas in myth the problems and solutions sown are directly valid for all mankind.”

         Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Austen Henry Layard

Austen Henry Layard, “Depiction of Anzu (Tiamat) Pursued by Ninurta (Marduk)”, 1853, from the Book “Momuments of Nineveh”, Second Series, Plate 19/83, J. Murray Publisher, London

In Enûma Elish, a civil war between the gods was growing to a climactic battle. The Anunnaki gods gathered together to find one god who could defeat the gods rising against them. Marduk, a very young god, answered the call and was promised the position of head god.

To prepare for battle, Marduk makes a bow, fletches arrows, grabs a mace, throws lightning before him and fills his body with flame. He then makes a net to encircle Tiamat within it, gathers the four winds so that no part of her could escape, and creates seven powerful new winds such as the whirlwind and the tornado. Raising up his mightiest weapon, the rain-flood, Marduk then sets out for battle, mounting his storm-chariot drawn by four horses with poison in their mouths. In his lips he holds a spell and in one hand he grasps a herb to counter poison.

First, he challenges the leader of the Anunnaki gods, the dragon of the primordial sea Tiamat, to single combat and defeats her by trapping her with his net, blowing her up with his winds, and piercing her belly with an arrow.

Then, he proceeds to defeat King, who Tiamat put in charge of the army and who wore the Tablets of Destiny on his breast, and “wrested from him the Tablets of Destiny, wrongfully his” and assumed his new position. Under his reign humans were created to bear the burdens of life so the gods could be at leisure.

The Messenger of Agartha

Photographer Unknown, (The Messenger of Agartha)

One of the most famous underground cities is the city of Agartha, a legendary city that is supposed to be in the centre of the Earth, the Earth’s Core.  Central Asia is the origin of those legends and the race inhabiting this underground realm was called the Agharti. Theosophists refer to Agartha as a vast complex of caves and an underground network supposedly made by man.

Image reblogged with thanks to https://captain-donut.tumblr.com/

The Attack!

Artist Unknown, (The Attack!)

The kraken is a enormous mythical cephalopod-like sea monster in Scandinavian folklore. According to Norse sagas, the kraken terrorized sailors off the coasts of Norway and Greenland. It has been a staple of superstitions and legends through the centuries, becoming a common ocean-dwelling monster in fictional works.

The word ‘kraken’ comes from the Swedish and Norwegian language, the definite form of the word “krake’ denoting an unhealthy animal or smoething twisted. ‘Krake’ (plural) and ‘kraken’ (singular) in modern German means ‘octopus’. ‘Kraken is also an old euphemism in Swedish for whales, a word once believed that would summon whales.

Benjamin West

Benjamin West, “The Death of Hyacinth”, 1771, Oil on Canvas, 229.87 x 190.5 cm, Swarthmore College

A popular mythological subject for classical painters, the story goes pretty much like this:  Apollo and his current boyfriend, Hyacinthus, were out frolicking, throwing a discus back and forth.  Apollo threw the thing one last time and his young beau ran to make the catch but missed and was, instead, hit by the discus and killed.  Where Hyacinthus’ blood fell, a flower sprang up and was watered by Apollo’s tears.

By any standard, Benjamin West enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist. This self-taught colonial painter settled in London during the golden age of English portraiture and not only made a name for himself, but became the king’s favorite.

He served as president of the Royal Academy of Arts – the titular head of the English art establishment – for 27 years during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a time when there were plenty of native-born artists worthy of the honor.

When he died in 1820 at the age of 81, West was the best-known artist in the English-speaking world. He has remained a fixture of American art history, even though he left the colonies in 1760 and, except for several years in Italy, lived the rest of his life in England.

Faoladh

Photographer Unknown, (Faoladh: Still Here But Now with iPhones)

“Laignech Fáelad, that is, he was the man that used to shift into fáelad, i.e. wolf-shapes. He and his offspring after him used to go, whenever they pleased, into the shapes of the wolves, and, after the custom of wolves, kill the herds. Wherefore he was called Laignech Fáelad, for he was the first of them to go into a wolf-shape.” – Coir Anmann, 215

Djinn

Artists Unknown, Djinn

According to pre-Islamic lore, the djinn are born of smokeless fire (which in modern terms could be plasma). They live very long lives but they are not immortal.  According to some accounts, they live with other supernatural beings in the Kaf, a mythical range of emerald mountains that encircles the Earth.  In modern terms, they live in a parallel dimension.

The djinn like to roam the deserts and wilderness and inhabit caves. They are usually invisible, but have the power to shape-shift to any form, be it insect, animal, human, or entity. They have long been regarded as malicious and dangerous, capable of bringing bad luck, illness, disaster and death. Even when granting favors, they have a trickster nature and can twist events for the worse.

Though the djinn can be conjured in magical rites, they are difficult to control. One individual said to have complete power over the djinn was the legendary Biblical King Solomon. God gave Solomon a copper and iron magic ring that enabled him to subdue djinn, and which protected him from their powers. In some accounts, the ring was inscribed with a pentacle, and in other accounts it was set with a gem, probably a diamond, that had a living force of its own. With the ring, Solomon branded the necks of the djinn as his slaves and set them to working building the first Temple of Jerusalem and even the entire city of Jerusalem.

Odin, the Allfather

Artist Unknown, “Odin, The Allfather, with His Ravens Hugin and Munin, as Well as His Wolves Geri and Freki”

In Norse mythology, Geri and Freki (Old Norse, both meaning “the ravenous” or “greedy one”) are two wolves which are said to accompany the god Odin. They are attested in the Poetic Edda, a collection of epic poetry compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds.

In the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál, the god Odin (disguised as Grímnir) provides the young Agnarr with information about Odin’s companions. Agnarr is told that Odin feeds Geri and Freki while the god himself consumes only wine:

Freki and Geri does Heerfather feed,
The far-famed fighter of old:
But on wine alone does the weapon-decked god,
Othin, forever live.

The Kraken

The Fear of All Seamen: The Kraken

Kraken were also extensively described by Erik Pontoppidan, bishop of Bergen, in his Det første Forsøg paa Norges naturlige Historie “The First Attempt at [a] Natural History of Norway” (Copenhagen, 1752). Pontoppidan made several claims regarding kraken, including the notion that the creature was sometimes mistaken for an island and that the real danger to sailors was not the creature itself but rather the whirlpool left in its wake. However, Pontoppidan also described the destructive potential of the giant beast: “it is said that if [the creature’s arms] were to lay hold of the largest man-of-war, they would pull it down to the bottom.”

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, “Ulysses Fleeing the Cave of Polyphemus”, 1812, Oil on Canvas, 81 × 64 cm, Princeton University Art Museum

Christoffer Eckersberg’s biggest contribution to painting was through his professorship at the Danish Royal Academy of Art. He revitalized teaching by taking students out into the field, where they were challenged to do studies from nature. In this way it was he who introduced direct study from nature into Danish art. He also encouraged his students to develop their individual strengths, thus creating unique styles.

He developed an increasing interest in perspective on account of his marine paintings. He wrote a dissertation on the subject called “Linear perspective used in the art of painting” in 1841, and taught classes on the subject at the Academy. He made a small number of etchings that combine daily life observations with classical, harmonious principles of composition. This led the way to the characteristic manner in which Golden Age painters portrayed the common, everyday life.

One of a series of paintings and drawings Eckersberg made to illustrate episodes from Homer’s Odyssey, “Ulysses Fleeing the Cave of Polyphemus”, although a student work, demonstrates the artist’s talents for perspective, acute observation of nature, and nuanced treatment of light. It was painted in Paris, where his training in Copenhagen was supplemented by study with the leading French painter, Jacques-Louis David, whose life-drawing classes were the focus of his teaching. In French history painting, the body was the vehicle used to convey morally instructive tales from Greco-Roman antiquity and Christian sources, and here the young artist displays his mastery. After his stay in Paris, Eckersberg spent three years in Rome before returning to Copenhagen, where he taught the next generation of artists and became known as the Father of Danish Painting.

Thanks to http://hadrian6.tumblr.com

Tantalus

Artist Unknown, (Tantalus Wading Through the Pool of Water), Computer Graphics, Animation Gifs

Tantalus was a Greek mythological figure, most famous for his eternal punishment in Tartarus, the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans.  He was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink.

Tantalus was the father of Pelops, Niobe and Broteas, and was a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto. Thus, like other heroes in Greek mythology such as Theseus and the Dioskouroi, Tantalus had both a hidden, divine parent and a mortal one.

Many thanks to http://thesatyrsglade.tumblr.com for the great gif.

The Midgard Serpent

Artist Unknwon, (The Midgard Serpent Jormungandr: Disguised in the New Age), Computer Graphics, Animation Gifs

Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, was one of three children fathered on the giantess Angroba by Loki, the Norse god of mischief and trickery. The Midgard Serpent was cast by Odin into the ocean where she grew so huge that with her tail in her mouth she soon encompassed the whole world, and the churnings of her coils raise the tsunami and tempests that drown sailors.

Thor is destined to destroy Jormungandr at the time of Ragnarok, the end of the world, when heaven, earth and the underworld will be destroyed. Then the world will tremble and the oceans leave their beds. The heavens will be torn apart and eagles will feed upon humans still writhing in their death throes. Thor will crush the skull of his old enemy, the Midgard Serpent, but will himself be slain by her dying struggles. Creation and Time itself will be shattered in the last battle, but afterwards a new heaven and earth will rise out of the sea, in which humans and gods will live in perfect harmony and ease forever.

My many thanks to http://3leapfrogs.tumblr.com from whom I reblogged this gif. One of my favorite blogs.

Sköll and Hati

Dobie, “Sköll and Hati”

In light of the super blood moon eclipse from this week, here’s the Norse mythological tale about two wolves who wish to eat the Sun and Moon.

The monstrous wolf Fenrir had two sons; Sköll (Old Norse for “Treachery”) and Hati (“He Who Hates, Enemy”).

Sköll chases the Sun, and Hati, running ahead of the Sun, goes after the Moon. When either are caught, there is an eclipse. When this happens, Vikings used to rush to rescue the Sun or Moon by making as much noise as they can in hopes of scaring off the wolves.

Illustration by Dobie