Myth Association

[DL Lycan]

Just an Idea I came up with, should horde a vast amount of info if done properly...Basically , I'll start with a myth/legend...the next person needs to provide at least a short description of it an then posts their own to be described. To start of I'll do Fenrir.(Just to say it doesn't have to be a creature, it can be anything mythological that can be described)

Fenrir (or Fenris) is a gigantic and terrible monster in the shape of a wolf. He is the eldest child of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. The gods learned of a prophecy which stated that the wolf and his family would one day be responsible for the destruction of the world. They caught the wolf and locked him in a cage. Only the god of war, Tyr, dared to feed and take care of the wolf.
When he was still a pup they had nothing to fear, but when the gods saw one day how he had grown, they decided to render him harmless. However, none of the gods had enough courage to face the gigantic wolf. Instead, they tried to trick him. They said the wolf was weak and could never break free when he was chained. Fenrir accepted the challenge and let the gods chain him. Unfortunately, he was so immensely strong that he managed to break the strongest fetters as if they were cobwebs.

After that, the gods saw only one alternative left: a magic chain. They ordered the dwarves to make something so strong that it could hold the wolf. The result was a soft, thin ribbon: Gleipnir. It was incredibly strong, despite what its size and appearance might suggest. The ribbon was fashioned of six strange elements: the footstep of a cat; the roots of a mountain; a woman's beard; the breath of fishes; the sinews of a bear; and a bird's spittle.

The gods tried to trick the wolf again, only this time Fenrir was less eager to show his strength. He saw how thin the chain was, and said that was no pride in breaking such a weak chain. Eventually, though, he agreed, thinking that otherwise his strength and courage would be doubted. Suspecting treachery however, he in turn asked the gods for a token of good will: one of them had to put a hand between his jaws. The gods were not overly eager to do this, knowing what they could expect. Finally, only Tyr agreed, and the gods chained the wolf with Gleipnir. No matter how hard Fenrir struggled, he could not break free from this thin ribbon. In revenge, he bit off Tyr's hand.

Being very pleased with themselves, the gods carried Fenrir off and chained him to a rock (called Gioll) a mile down into the earth. They put a sword between his jaws to prevent him from biting. On the day of Ragnarok, Fenrir will break his chains and join the giants in their battle against the gods. He will seek out Odin and devour him. Vidar, Odin's son, will avenge his father by killing the wolf. (Taken from the Encyclepedia Mythica)

Next word. Phoenix

[Shield_Wulf]

In ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology, the phoenix is a mythical bird and associated with the Egyptian sun-god Re and the Greek Phoibos (Apollo). According to the Greeks the bird lives in Arabia, nearby a cool well. Each morning at dawn, it would bathe in the water and sing such a beautiful song, that the sun-god stops his chariot to listen. There exists only one phoenix at the time.

When it felt its death approaching (every 500 or 1461 years), it would build a nest of aromatic wood and set it on fire, and was consumed by the flames. When it was burned, a new phoenix sprang forth from the pyre. It then embalmed the ashes of its predecessor in an egg of myrrh and flew with it to Heliopolis ("city of the sun"). There it would deposit the egg on the altar of the sun god.

In Egypt is was usually depicted as a heron, but in the classic literature as a peacock, or an eagle. The phoenix symbolizes immortality, resurrection, and life after death. In that aspect it was often placed on sarcophagi. It is associated with the Egyptian Benu, the Garuda of the Hindus, and the Chinese Feng-huang.

Judaic lore mentions that the phoenix achieved its unique status as an immortal bird because it refrained from bothering the overburdened Noah during the Flood voyage (Sanh. 108b).

Next word: Manticore

[53048337439craig]

The manticore is a mythical creature, a kind of chimera with the head of a man — often with horns, gray eyes, three rows of iron teeth, and a loud, trumpet/pipe roar — the body of a (sometimes red-furred) lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion, which may shoot out venomous spines or hairs to incapacitate prey (thus confusing its imagery with the cryptozoology of a porcupine, though real tarantulas do something similar with their hairs). Occasionally, a manticore will possess wings of some description. Size reports range from lion-sized up to horse-sized.

The manticore was of Persian origin, where its name was "the Eater of People" (from early Middle Persian martya "human, mortal being" and xwar- "to eat"). The English term "manticore" was borrowed from Latin mantichora, itself borrowed from Greek mantikhoras - a erroneous pronunciation of the original Persian name. It passed into European mythology first through a remark by Ctesias, a Greek physician at the Persian court of King Artaxerxes II in the fourth century BCE, in his notes on India ("Indika"), which circulated among Greek writers on natural history, but have not survived.

The Romanized Greek Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, recalled strange animals he had seen at Rome and commented,

The beast described by Ctesias in his Indian history, which he says is called martichoras by the Indians and "man-eater" by the Greeks, I am inclined to think is the tiger. But that it has three rows of teeth along each jaw and spikes at the tip of its tail with which it defends itself at close quarters, while it hurls them like an archer's arrows at more distant enemies; all this is, I think, a false story that the Indians pass on from one to another owing to their excessive dread of the beast. (Description, xxi, 5)

Pliny the Elder did not share Pausanias' skepticism. He followed Aristotle's natural history by including the martichoras — mistranscribed as manticorus in his copy of Aristotle and thus passing into European languages — among his descriptions of animals in Naturalis Historia, c. 77 CE.

Pliny's book was widely enjoyed and uncritically believed through the European Middle Ages, during which the manticore was sometimes illustrated in bestiaries. The manticore made a late appearance in heraldry, during the 16th century, and it influenced some Mannerist representations — sometimes in paintings but more often in the decorative schemes called 'grotteschi' — of the sin of Fraud, conceived as a monstrous chimera with a beautiful woman's face, and in this way it passed into the 17th and 18th century French conception of a sphinx.

Nowadays, the manticore is said to inhabit the forests of Asia, particularly Indonesia. The manticore can kill instantly with a bite or a scratch and will then eat the victim entirely, bones and all. Whenever a person disappears completely, it is said that the locals consider it the work of the manticore. An authentic eastern manticore tradition would clearly have to refer to the creature as a "manticore".

The manticore is also known as the "manticora", the "mantichor", or by a folk etymology, even the "mantiger". Outside occultist circles, the manticore was still an arcane creature in the Western world when Gian Carlo Menotti wrote his ballet The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore in 1956.

Next Word: Cerebrus

[DarkWolf]

I'm going to assume you mean Cerberus?

Greek mythology. Three headed and dragon tailed dog that guards the entrance to the underworld. He would not prevent anyone from entering but would stop those wanting to leave.

He is sometimes shown to have many more heads (in some cases up to fifty) and a mane of snakes.

Cerberus even has a brother: a two-headed dog named Orthrus. Both have had encounters with Heracles (Hercules) though his labours. Cerberus was captured and taken from the underworld by Heracles as his 12th labour while Orthrus was slain by Heracles in his 10th labour when he was asked to bring back the cattle of the monster Geryon. The cattle was guarded by Orthrus and the herdsman Eurytion.

Next creature: Typhon.

[brighteyed]

In Greek mythology, Typhon (Typhaon, Typhoeus, Typhus) was the final son of Gaia, the earth, this time by Tartarus, the cavernous void beneath:

But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven,
huge Earth bare her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of
Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite. —Hesiod, Theogony 820-868.
The Homeric Hymn to Apollo makes the monster Typhaon at Delphi a son of archaic Hera in her Minoan form, produced out of herself, like a monstrous version of Hephaestus, and whelped in a cave in Cilicia and confined there in the enigmatic land of the Arimi— en Arimois (Iliad, ii. 781-783). It was in Cilicia that Zeus battled with the ancient monster and overcame him, in a more complicated story: It was not an easy battle, and Typhon temporarily overcame Zeus, cut the "sinews" from him and left him in the "leather sack", the korukos that is the etymological origin of the korukion atron, the Korykian or Corycian Cave. The region of Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia had many opportunities for connection with the Hittites to the north. Walter Burkert and Calvert Watkins note some close agreements with the Hittite myth of Illuyankas.

The inveterate enemy of the Olympian gods is described as a vast grisly monster with a hundred heads and a hundred serpents issuing from his thighs, who was conquered and cast into Tartarus by Zeus, or confined beneath Mount Etna (Pindar, Pythian Ode 1.19 - 20; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 370). where "his bed scratches and goads the whole length of his back stretched out against it," or in other volcanic regions, where he is the cause of eruptions.

Typhon is thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces, as Hephaestus (Roman Vulcan) is their Olympian manifestation. Amongst his children by Echidna are Cerberus, the serpent-like Lernaean hydra, the Chimaera, the hundred headed dragon Ladon, the half woman half lion Sphinx, and the Nemean Lion.

Typhon is also the father of hot dangerous winds (Greek "typhein" to smoke), hence it is considered to be a possible etymology for the word typhoon, supposedly borrowed by the Persians as طوفان Tufân and Arabs to describe the cyclonic storms of the Indian Ocean.

Since Herodotus, Typhon was identified with the Egyptian Set (interpretatio Graeca). In the Orphic tradition, Typhon leads the titans when they attack and kill Dionysus, just like Set is responsible for the murder of Osiris.

In a more recent time, religious scholars have identified him with the Archangel Sandalphon.

Next creature:Kelpie

[Lady Macbeth]

The Kelpie is the supernatural shape-shifting water horse that haunts the rivers and streams of Scotland. It is probably one of the best known of Scottish water spirits and is often mistakenly thought to haunt lochs, or lakes.

The creature could take many forms and had an insatiable appetite for humans; its most common guise was that of a beautiful tame horse standing by the riverside - a tempting ride for a weary traveller. Anybody foolish enough to mount the horse - perhaps a stranger unaware of the local traditions - would find themselves in dire peril, as the horse would rear and charge headlong into the deepest part of the water, submerging with a noise like thunder to the travellers watery grave. The Kelpie was also said to warn of impending storms by wailing and howling, which would carry on through the tempest. This association with thunder - the sound its tail makes as it submerges under water - and storms, may be related to ancient worship of river and weather deities by the ancient Celts, although this is difficult to substantiate.

One of the other forms assumed by the Kelpie was that of a hairy humanoid, who would leap out from the riverside vegetation to attack passing travellers. Their grip was said to be like that of a vice, crushing the life out of anybody unfortunate enough to come within the Kelpies clutches.

Next Word: Shiva

[53048337439craig]

Shiva is known as the destroyer in the Trimurti. He is the husband of Parvati and their children are Kartikeya and Ganesha.

Shiva’s appearance is quite awesome. He wears a snake Vasuki around his neck. He is also known as Neelkanth (blue-throated), for he holds Vasuki’s poison in his throat. The legend dates back to the time when the gods churned the oceans. Vasuki’s poison threatened the world. Only Shiva could take the poison in his mouth. He held it in his throat forever and earned his name Neelkanth.

Also known as Pashupati, Lord of the animals he sits on a tiger skin subduing aggression. He holds a damru (a small drum) a symbol of creative activity. One hand is raised in the abhaya-mudra, for he is the benevolent force of destruction.

He wears a pair of unmatched earrings that symbolise his being Ardhnarishwara (half man and half woman). One earring is a Kundala, worn by men and the other a Tatanka worn by women. Shiva unites the sexes in his being. The love of Shiva and Parvati (his wife) fused together, they become one, the single creators.

Historically, Shiva reveals himself in secular as well as religious texts. A Dravidian king he married Sati a daughter of an Aryan king. (Sculptures from The Indus Valley Civilisation depict Shiva).

Sati’s father, Daksha opposed their union. After the wedding, at a yagna (sacrifice), being performed by Daksha. Shiva was ignored by his father in law who found him ‘uncivilised’.

Sati couldn’t bear this humiliation of her husband, jumped into the sacrificial fire. When Shiva came to collect her ashes he could only express his deep pain and grief through a violent dance called the Tandav. He terrified all creation as he danced around the earth seven times.

When nothing would pacify Shiva the gods feared his sorrow could destroy the earth. They decided to revive Sati and she was born as Parvati (daughter of the mountains).

Meanwhile, Shiva had renounced the world and gone to Mount Kailash where he had began a hard penance. When Parvati reached Mount Kailash, Shiva was so involved in his meditation that he was immune to Parvati’s presence.

Parvati did all she could to entice Shiva but his meditation was powerful. Finally she asked Madan/Kama (the god of love) for help. Kama told her to dance in front of Shiva. When Parvati danced, Madan shot an arrow laced with flowers at Shiva, whose penance broke.

When Shiva opened his eyes his first sight was Parvati dancing before him. Shiva fell in love with Parvati and became her loving husband. Parvati became his shakti (creative force).

In Mount Kailash their ardour was intense, The Gods worried about the child who would be born from this union. Shiva’s seed dropped on the banks of the Ganga (the river which flows through his matted hair). This lingam is worshipped all over India.

Their first child was Kartikeya or Subramanya. Kartikeya would fight the demon Taraka rescue the world and then return to Parvati and Shiva.

The birth of Parvati’s second child was far more prosaic, Parvati wanted to bathe in privacy and she created a son from the sweat of her body. She asked him to guard the door.

When Shiva returned and walked towards the bathing area, Ganesha blocked his path. Shiva was angry and offended by the impudent new guard who had the nerve to question him. In the battle of wills Shiva beheaded Ganesha.

Parvati was furious and demanded Ganesha be brought back to life. Shiva sent Nandi (his bull) to bring back the first head of an animal who was sleeping with his head to the north.

Nandi brought back the head of Airavat, Lord Indra’s elephant. After this single cosmic misunderstanding the family Shiva, Parvati, Kartik and Ganesha lived together happily.

Somvar (Mondays) are dedicated to Shiva, on every Monday of the year people observe a fast for Shiva.

Next word: Hephaestus

[Shield_Wulf]

Hephaestus, the god of fire, especially the blacksmith's fire, was the patron of all craftsmen, principally those working with metals. He was worshiped predominantly in Athens, but also in other manufacturing centres. He was the god of volcanoes. Later, the fire within them represented the smith's furnace. Hephaestus was associated with Mount Etna, which is on the island of Sicily. Known as the lame god, Hephaestus was born weak and crippled. Displeased by the sight of her son, Hera threw Hephaestus from Mount Olympus, and he fell for a whole day before landing in the sea. Nymphs rescued him and took him to Lemnos, where the people of the island cared for him. But other versions say Zeus threw him from Mount Olympus after Hephaestus had sided with his mother in a quarrel. This legend says that Hephaestus fell for nine days and nine nights, and he landed on the island of Lemnos. It was on Lemnos where he built his palace and his forges under a volcano.

To gain revenge for his rejection by Hera, Hephaestus fashioned a magic throne, which was presented to her on Mount Olympus. When Hera sat on the throne, it entrapped her, making her a prisoner. The gods on Mount Olympus pleaded with Hephaestus to return to their heavenly domain, as to release Hera, but he refused. Dionysus gave the smith god wine, and when Hephaestus was intoxicated, Dionysus took him back to Mount Olympus slumped over the back of a mule. This scene was a favorite in Greek art. Hephaestus released Hera after being given the beautiful Aphrodite as his bride. Dionysus was rewarded by being made one of the Olympian Pantheon.

Hephaestus is known as the son of Hera and Zeus, although Zeus had nothing to do with the conception. Hephaestus was parthenogenetic, meaning he was conceived without male fertilisation. Hera was jealous of Zeus after he had an affair with Metis, from which the goddess of prudence was pregnant with Athena. However, Gaia had warned Zeus that Metis would bear a daughter, whose son would overthrow him. To prevent this, Zeus swallowed Metis, so he could carry the child through to the birth himself, although Zeus could not give birth naturally. For retribution Hera produced (parthenogeny) Hephaestus, and legend says, that Hephaestus split the head of Zeus with an axe, from which Athena appeared fully armed.

One particular legend says that Hephaestus wished to marry Athena, who was also a patron of smiths, but she refused because she found him ugly. Another legend says that Athena disappeared from their bridal bed but Hephaestus did not see her vanish, and spilt his seed on the floor. In a similar version the semen fell from Athena's thigh and from it was produced Erechtheus, who became a king of Athens. (This relates to Erechtheus being the son of Gaia, Earth.)

Aphrodite, in some versions, was the wife of Hephaestus, and he was suspicious that Aphrodite had been committing adultery. To catch her being unfaithful he fashioned an extraordinary chain-link net, so fine and strong no one could escape from it. Then one day he surprised Aphrodite and the war god Ares as they lay together in bed. He threw his magic net over them and hauled them before the Olympian gods and exhibited them as they were, naked and wrapped in each others arms. Hephaestus asked the assembled gods for just retribution, but they did the total opposite. The gods roared with laughter at the sight of the naked lovers, after which they allowed the couple to go free. According to Homer's Iliad Hephaestus had a wife called Aglaea, who was one of the Charites (Graces).

Being a great craftsman Hephaestus manufactured wonderful articles from various materials, primarily from metal. With help from the Cyclopes, who were his workmen and assistants, he fashioned the thunderbolts for Zeus and his sceptre. He made weapons and armour for the other gods and heroes. For Athena, he made her shield or aegis and for the god of love, Eros, he made the arrows. The wonderful chariot which the sun god Helios rode across the sky was made by Hephaestus and in some versions it was a golden cup or goblet. He also fashioned the invincible armour of Achilles. Hephaestus helped to create the first woman, with the assistance of other gods, after Zeus had ordered that there be a new kind of human. Zeus plotted against Prometheus because he and his race of mortals had only included one gender, which was male, and so Hephaestus formed the first woman from clay. Her name was Pandora (all gifts) and from a supernatural jar, she released the evils of the world on mankind.

Hephaestus is usually shown as an animated cripple bent over his anvil. He wears a beard and is normally depicted as being ugly, and in some art forms he walks with the aid of a stick. Homer describes Hephaestus as lame and walking with the aid of a stick. Hepheastus was worshiped mainly in Athens, where the Temple of Hephaestus and Athena (the Hephaesteum, also known as the Theseum) still stands. It is the most complete example of a "Doric" temple (one of the three orders in Greek architecture). It was built in 449 BCE and stands on a hill close to the Agora at the foot of the Acropolis. Hephaestus and Athena Ergane (protectress of craftsman and artisans) were honoured with the festival "Chalceia" on the 30th day of the month Pyanopsion. The Romans took Hephaestus as one of their own gods attaching the myth and cult to their god of fire and calling him Vulcan (Volcanus).

Next one: Roc

[53048337439craig]

A roc or rukh (from Persian رخ rokh) is a mythical white bird of enormous size and strength that is reputed to have been able to lift and eat elephants.

The origin of the myth about the roc is unknown, and it is possible that the myth originated from an actual bird, with references to it being known from early as the 8th century from Middle-Eastern authors. There are reported sightings of this bird as recently as the 16th century by an English traveller who visited the Indian Ocean.

Another source could be the enormous Aepyornis or elephant bird from Madagascar, an extinct three-meter tall flightless bird. One theory is that the existence of rocs was postulated from the sight of an ostrich, which because of its flightlessness and unusual appearance, was mistaken for the chick of a presumably much larger species.

The Rook chess piece may originally have been based on a roc, although the dominant hypothesis is a siege tower mounted on an elephant.

The legend of the roc, popularized in the West in the 1001 Nights' tales of Sindbad the Sailor, was widely spread in the East; and in later times the home of the bird was sought in the region of Madagascar, whence gigantic fronds of the raffia palm very like a quill in form appear to have been brought under the name of roc's feathers (see; Yule's Marco Polo, bk. iii. ch. 33, and Academy, 1884, No. 620). Such a feather was brought to the Great Khan, and we read also of a gigantic stump of a roc's quill being brought to Spain by a merchant from the China seas (Abu Hamid of Spain, in Damiri, s.v.).

The roc is hardly different from the Middle-Eastern `anqa "عنقاء"(see phoenix); it is also identified with the Persian simurgh, the bird which figures in Firdausi's epic as the foster-father of the hero Zal, father of Rustam.

Going farther back into Persian antiquity, there is an immortal bird, amrzs, or (in the Minoi-khiradh) slnamurv, which shakes the ripe fruit from the mythical tree that bears the seed of all useful things. Sinmartt and simurgh seem to be the same word. In Indian legend the garuda on which Vishnu rides is the king of birds (Benfey, Panchatantra, 98). In the Pahlavi translation of the Indian story as represented by the Syrian Kalilag and Damnag (ed. Gustav Bickell, 1876), the simurgh takes the place of the garuda, while Ibn al-Molaffa (Calila et Dimna, ed. De Sacy, p. 126) speaks instead of the `anl~a. The later Syriac, curiously enough, has behemoth -- apparently the behemoth of Job transformed into a bird. The ziz of Jewish tradition is also a giant bird.

Next word: Zuiyo-Maru

[53048337439craig]

Since no one is replying to the Zuiyo-Maru for days I guess I'll do it myself.

One of the most prominent cases of a misidentified "globster" reported as a sea monster took place in April 1977, on board a Japanese fishing boat named the Zuiyo-maru. About 30 miles off the coast of Christchurch, New Zealand, the trawler's nets snared a huge animal carcass of an indeterminate sort. The crew hauled the monstrous body out of the ocean and up over the deck, and at first they thought it was a rotten whale. But after a closer look, they weren't so sure.

The creature was 33 feet long and weighed about 4000 pounds. It had a snake-like head at the end of a long, slender neck, making it seem rather unlike a whale. Some crew members commented that it looked like a giant turtle without a shell, and it also had a strong resemblance to a plesiosaur. Although they recognized that this was possibly a scientific discovery of historical proportions, the crew of the Zuiyo-maru agreed that they had to throw the carcass back into the sea. If they kept the decayed creature on board it could contaminate the catch of fish that was more valuable to them than any scientific find. Besides, the awful stench coming off the carcass was unbearable.

But as the crew attempted to wrangle the beast back into the water, it unexpectedly fell through the supporting ropes and crashed to the deck. This delay allowed Michihiko Yano, the ship's assistant production manager, the opportunity to take some quick measurements of the creature and shoot several photographs (one of which is shown on this page http://www.creationresearch .org/crsq/articles/38/38_1/Cryptid.htm). Yano also had the forethought to excise samples of "horny fiber" from one of the fins of the carcass, to help in later identifying the creature. Then the stinking monster was thrown overboard, for good.

The fish company for which the Zuiyo-maru worked was very excited about the sea monster story and the striking photos, and they publicized the event with great fanfare. The resultant hoopla created a national craze over sea monsters throughout Japan, encompassing wind-up toy replicas and a postage stamp depicting a plesiosaur, which is what many scientists initially proposed the creature to be. But analysis of Yano's photos and tissue samples led to the conclusion that the creature was a decomposed basking shark.

Despite this solution to the Zuiyo-maru mystery, there are those who persist in believing that the carcass was actually a plesiosaur or some other unknown animal, citing supposed inconsistencies in the creature's skeletal structure or other characteristics. These indefatigable believers can always point to the fact that the crew rashly threw the precious evidence overboard, and thus we will never know absolutely for sure what it was. Or at least, that gives us a reason to pretend not to know.

Next: Leprechaun (come on you gotta get this one)

[Hoplite]

As no one is replying, i wanted to come forward...though i'm copying and pasting ;)



Very small sprites who sometimes live in farmhouses or wine cellars. They are known to aid humans and perform small labors for them. Sometimes they ask humans for supplies and furniture, for which in return they give objects which bring luck and fortune. Leprechauns are called fairy cobblers, for they make shoes for elves (but always one shoe, never a pair). They are seen quite often by humans and are described as merry little fellows gaily dressed in old-fashioned clothes; green, with a red cap, leather apron, and buckled shoes.

When they finish their daily tasks, leprechauns like to organize wild feast, during which time they are referred to as cluricauns. These (often drunk) cluricauns can then be seen riding in moonlight on the back of a dog or a sheep.

According to popular belief, a leprechaun possesses a treasure (usually a pot of gold) which a human may obtain if he succeeds in capturing one, which is extremely difficult. Even after capture, a person may not take his eyes off of him for an instant, for then he will vanish. Leprechauns are mainly found in Irish folklore.

Kabouter is the Dutch variant of the leprechaun. They are friendly little beings, about 15 cm. in height.




next one: Horus

[53048337439craig]

Aah Horus... one of my favorite egyptian gods.

Other Names: Heru, Hor, Harendotes/Har-nedj-itef (Horus the Avenger), Har-Pa-Neb-Taui (Horus Lord of the Two Lands)

Patron of: the living Pharaoh, rulers, law, war, young men, light, the sun, many others depending on the particular variant.

Appearance: His most common form is that of falcon-headed man, but he is also shown as a falcon, a lion with the head of a falcon, or a sphinx. He is also shown as a falcon resting on the neck of the pharaoh, spreading his wings to either side of the pharaoh's head and whispering guidance in his ear.

Description: It is nearly impossible to distinguish a "true" Horus from all his many forms. In fact, Horus is mostly a general term for a great number of falcon gods, some of which were worshipped all over Egypt, others simply had local s. Yet in all of his forms he is regarded as the prince of the gods and the specific patron of the living ruler.

The worship of Horus was brought from the outside by neighboring tribes who invaded and then settled into Egypt. He was their god of war, but was quickly absorbed into the state religion, first as a son of Ra, then changing to become the son of Osiris. He was the protector and guide to the pharaoh and later pharaohs were believed to be his avatar on earth. Horus was also the patron of young men and the ideal of the dutiful son who grows up to become a just man.

The most popular story of Horus is the one in which he grows to manhood to avenge the of his father Osiris by battling against his cruel uncle Set. In many writings, he is said to continue to battle Set daily to ensure the safety of the world.

Worship: Worshipped widely throughout all of Egypt, even his variant forms were widespread.

Variants:

Harmakhet
God of the dawn and of the morning sun, he is also worshipped as a keeper of secret wisdom. Harmakhet's form is that of a sphinx or a sphinx with the head of a ram, often depicted as a companion to Khephri. It is thought that the Great Sphinx, staring at the eastern horizon, represents him.

Har-Pa-Khered/Harpokrates
Rarely found depicted without his mother Isis. He is shown as a nursing infant with the royal sidelock or sometimes even with a crown, thus strating his right ship from the moment of his birth. His worship became very popular in the New Kingdom, spreading even into the Greek and Roman civilizations.

Har-Sa-Iset/Harsiesis
This is the form of Horus that is most familiar, the son of Osiris and Isis. He was conceived magically after the of Osiris, and Isis hid him away on an island to protect him from Set. In this form he is worshipped as an infant and is beseeched to gain his mother's protection for the worshipper.

Horus Behudety/Horus of Edfu
God of the noontime sun. This particular variant was first worshipped in the western Delta and spread south, a center being established at Edfu. He is represented by a winged sun or as a lion with the head of a hawk. Horus Behudety fights constantly against Set and an army of darkness to ensure that the sun rises each day.

Horus the Elder (Haroeris)
An early form of Horus, when his was still new in Egypt. A god of light, his left eye was the sun and his right eye the moon. He was the brother of Osiris and Set, and the husband of Hathor.

Ra-Harakhte
A combined god of Horus and Ra, he was the god of the sun and took it on its daily path across the sky. He is represented as a falcon or a falcon-headed man wearing the solar disk and the double crown. Sometimes he is pictured wearing the atef crown and the uraeus.

Next: Anubis (you know you know him :D)

[DL Lycan]

Anpu, or Anubis
Nephthys gave birth to a son called Anpu, or Anubis, and that his father was, according to some, Set; from another point of view he was the son of Ra. The animal which was at once the type and symbol of the god was the jackal, and this fact seems to prove that in primitive times Anubis was merely the jackal god, and that he was associated with the dead because the jackal was generally seen prowling about the tombs. His worship is very ancient, and there is no doubt that even the earliest times his cult was general in Egypt; it is probable that it is older than that of Osiris. In the text of Unas {line 70} he is associated with the Eye of Horus, and his duty as the guide of the dead in the Underworld on their way to Osiris was well defined, even at the remote period when this composition was written, from we read, Unas standeth with the Spirits, get thee onwards, Anubis, into "Amenti {the Underworld}, onwards, onwards to Osiris." In the lines that follow we see that Anubis is mentioned in connection with Horus, Set, Thoth, Sep, and Khent-an-maati. From another passage of the same text we find {line 207 ff} that the hand, arms, belly, and legs of the deceased are identified with Temu, but his face is said to be in the form of that of Anubis. The localities in which Anubis was especially worshipped are Abt, the Papyrus Swamps, Sep, Re-au, Heru-ti, Ta-hetchet, Saint, {Lycopolis}, Sekhem, {Letopolis}, etc. In the Theban Recesion of the Book of the Dead he plays some very prominent parts, the most important of all being those which are connected with the judgment and the embalmed the body of Osiris, and that he swathed it in the linen swathing which were woven by Isis and Nepthys, that it resisted the influences of time and deacy. In the vignette of the Funeral Procession the mummy is received by Anubis, who stands by the Book of the Dead the god is seen standing by the side of the mummy as it lies on its bier, and he lays his protecting hands upon it. In the speech which is put into the mouth of Anubis, he says, "I have come to protect Osiris." In the text of Unas {line 219} the nose of the deceased declares, My lips are the lips of Anpu." From various passages it is clear that one part of Egypt at least Anubis was the great god of the Underworld, and his rank and importance seem to have been as great as those of Osiris. {See Chapter liii.}

In the Judgment Scene Anubis appears to act for Osiris, with whom he is intimately connected, for it is he whose duty it is to examine the tongue of the Great Balance, and to take care that the beam is exactly horizontal. Thoth acts on behalf of the Great company of the gods, and Anubis not only produces the heart of the deceased in the act of receiving a necklace and pectoral from Anubis, who stands by grasping his scepter; in the vignette of the Chapter on the Papyrus of Nebseni Anubis is seen presenting the heart itself to the deceased, and in the text below Nebseni prays, saying, "May Anubis make my thighs firm so that I may stand upon them." In allusion to his connection with the embalmment of Osiris the god Anubis is called Am Ut, i.e., "Dweller in the chamber of embalmment;" as the watcher in the place of purification wherein rested the chest containing the remains of Osiris he was called Khent Sehet, i.e., "Governor of the Hall of the god;" and one of his names as the god of the funeral mountain was "Tep-Tu-f," i.e., "he who is upon his hill." In the cxlvth Chapter of the Book of the Dead the deceased says, "I have washed myself in the water wherein the god Anpu washed when he had performed the office of the embalmer and bandager;} and elsewhere the deceased is told that "Anpu, who is upon his hill, hath set thee in order, and he hath fastened for thee thy swathings, thy throat is the throat of Anubis {clxxii. 22} and thy face is like that of Anubis" {clxxxi. 9}.

DUTIES OF ANUBIS

The duty of guiding the souls of the dead round about the Underworld and into the kingdom of Osiris was shared by Anubis with another god whose type and symbol was a jackal, and whose name was Ap-uat, i.e., the "Opener of the ways;" formerly Anubis and Ap-uat were considered to be two names of one and the same god, but there is no longer any reason for holding this view. In the vignette to the cxxxviiith Chapter of the Book of the Dead we find represented the scene of setting up the standard which supports the box that held the head of Osiris at Abydos. On each side of it are a standard with a figure of a jackal upon it and a pylon, on top of which lies a jackal; and as it is quite clear from the groups of objects on each side of the standard that we are dealing with symbols either of the South and North, or the East and the West, we are justified in thinking that one jackal represents Ap-uat and the other Anubis. Moreover, from the cxlvth Chapter we find that the xxist Pylon of the House of Osiris was presided over by seven gods, among whom were An-uat and Anpu, and as in the xviiith Chapter {F.,G.} we have both gods mentioned, and each is predicated in the form of a jackal-headed man, we may conclude that each was a distinct god of the dead, although their identities are sometimes confused in the texts. The function of each god was to "open the ways," and therefore each might be called Ap-uat, but, strictly speaking, Anubis was the opener of the roads of the North, and Ap-uat the opener of the roads of the South' in fact, Anubis was the personification of the Summer Solstice, and Ap-uat of the Winter Solstice.

ANUBIS

Anubis is called in the texts Sekhem Em Pet, and is said to be the son of Osiris, and Ap-uat bore the title Sekhem Taui, and was a form of Osiris himself. When, therefore, we find the two jackals upon sepulchral stelae, we must understand that they appear there in character of openers of the ways of the deceased in the kingdom of Osiris, and that they assure to the deceased the services of guides in the northern and southern parts of heaven; when they appear with the two Utchats thus, they symbolize the four quarters of heaven and of earth, and the four seasons of the year. On the subject of Anubis Plutarch reports {44, 61} some interesting beliefs. After referring to the view that Anubis was born of Nephthys, although Isis was his reputed mother, he goes on to say, "By Anubis they understand the horizontal circle, which divides the invisible, to which they give the name of Isis; and this circle equally touches upon the confines of both light and darkness, it may be looked upon as common to them both--and from this circumstance arose that resemblance, which they imagine between Anubis and the Dog, it being observed of this animal, that he is equally watchful as well by day as night. In short, the Egyptian Anubis and the Dog, it being observed of this animal, that he is watchful as well by day as night. In short, the Egyptian Anubis seems to be of much the same power and nature as the Grecian Hecate, a deity common both to the celestial and infernal regions. Theirs again are of opinion that by Anubis is meant Time, and that his denomination of Kuon does not so much allude to any likeness, which he has to the dog, though this be the general rendering of the word, as to that other signification of the term taken from breeding; because Time begets all things out of it self, bearing them within itself, as it were in a womb. But this is one of those who are initiated into the worship of Anubis. This much, however, is certain, that in ancient times the Egyptians paid the greatest reverence and honor to the Dog, though by reason of its devouring the Apis after Cambyses had slain him and thrown him out, when no animal would taste or so much as come near him, he then lost the first rank among the sacred animals which he had hitherto possessed." Referring to Osiris as the "common Reason which pervades both the superior and the inferior regions of the universe," he says that it is, moreover, called "Anubis, and sometimes likewise Hermanubis {i.e., Heru-em-Anpu}; the first of these names expressing the relation it has to be superior, as the latter, to the inferior world. And for this reason it is, they sacrifice to him two Cocks, the white one,as a proper emblem of the purity and brightness of things above, the other of a saffron color, expressive of that mixture and variety which is to be found in these lower regions."

[DL Lycan]

Strictly speaking, Anubis should be reckoned as the last member of the Great Company of the gods of Heliopolis, but as a matter fact his place is usually taken by Horus, the son of Isis and of Osiris, who generally completes the divine part; it is probable that the fusion of Horus, with Anubis was a political expedient on the part of the priesthood who, finding no room in their system for the old god of the dead, identified him with a form of Horus, just as they had done with his father Set, and the double god possessed two district and opposite aspects; as the guide of heaven and the leader of souls to Osiris he was a beneficent god, but as the personification of death and deacy he was a being who inspired terror. From an interesting passage in the "Golden Ass" of Apeleius {Book xi.} we find that the double character of Anubis was maintained by his votaries in Rome even in the second century of our era, and in describing the Procession of Isis he says, Immediately after these came the Deities, condescending to walk upon human feet, the foremost among them rearing terrifically on high his dog's head and neck----that messenger between heaven and hell displaying alternately a face black as night waving aloft the green palm branch. His steps were closely followed by a cow, raised into an upright posture----the cow being the fruitful emblem of the Universal Parent, the goddess herself, which one of the happy train carried with majestic steps, supported on his shoulders. By another was borne the coffin containing the sacred things, and closely concealing the deep secrets of the holy religion."


Next word- Gaia

[Shield_Wulf]

Gaia, known as Earth or Mother Earth (the Greek common noun for "land" is ge or ga). She was an early earth goddess and it is written that Gaia was born from Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe, and with her came Eros. She gave birth to Pontus (the Sea) and Uranus (the Sky). This was achieved parthenogenetically (without male intervention). Other versions say that Gaia had as siblings Tartarus (the lowest part of the earth, below Hades itself) and Eros, and without a mate, gave birth to Uranus (Sky), Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea).

Gaia took as her husband Uranus, who was also her son, and their offspring included the Titans, six sons and six daughters. She gave birth to the Cyclopes and to three monsters that became known as the "Hecatonchires". The spirits of punishment known as the Erinyes were also offspring of Gaia and Uranus. The Gigantes, finally, were conceived after Uranus had been castrated by his son Cronus, and his blood fell to earth from the open wound.

To protect her children from her husband, (the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, as he was fearful of their great strength), Gaia hid them all within herself. One version says that Uranus was aghast at the sight of his offspring so he hid them away in Tartarus, which are the bowels of the earth. Gaia herself found her offspring uncomfortable and at times painful, when the discomfort became to much to bear she asked her youngest son Cronus to help her. She asked him to castrate Uranus, thus severing the union between the Earth and Sky, and also to prevent more monstrous offspring. To help Cronus achieve his goal Gaia produced an adamantine sickle to serve as the weapon. Cronus hid until Uranus came to lay with Gaia and as Uranus drew near, Cronus struck with the sickle, cutting the genitalia from Uranus. Blood fell from the severed genitals and came in contact with the earth and from that union was born the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants and the Meliae (Nymphs of the manna ash trees).

After the separation of the Earth from the Sky, Gaia gave birth to other offspring, these being fathered by Pontus. Their names were the sea-god Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia. In other versions Gaia had offspring to her brother Tartarus; they were Echidna and Typhon, the later being an enemy of Zeus. Apollo killed Typhon when he took control of the oracle at Delphi, which Gaia originally provided, and then the "Sibyl" sang the oracle in Gaia's shrine.

It was Gaia who saved Zeus from being swallowed by Cronus, after Zeus had been born, Gaia helped Rhea to wrap a stone in swaddling clothes, this was to trick Cronus in to thinking it was Zeus, because Cronus had been informed that one of his children would depose him, and so to get rid of his children he had swallowed them, Gaia's trick worked and Zeus was then taken to Crete.

Gaia being the primordial element from which all the gods originated was worshiped throughout Greece, but later she went into decline and was supplanted by other gods. In Roman mythology she was known as Tellus or Terra.

Hati & Skoll (the go together)

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The Legend of Hati and Skoll

Hush now, for it was foretold by the Norsemen ages ago. The wolves Hati and Skoll chase the sun and the moon across the heavens each day, but it shall not always be so. The time of the Ragnarok will come, the time of the Gotterdammerung, when the world shall be plunged into a winter as it has never known. This is the Fimbulvetr. There shall be three such endless winters, winters of unspeakable cold that will freeze the hearts of men and gods alike, for this is the beginning of the end. The wolf Skoll shall devour the sun and his brother Hati , the moon. The world will know no light. Yet, there is a wolf still more terrible, and he is called Fenrir.

For it shall come to pass, that the Earth itself shall tremble,and all the terrible beings that the gods have imprisoned and fettered within the bowels of Earth shall be freed. Fenrir shall be freed. Heimdall shall sound his trumpet summoning the Gods to the final battle. So great is Lord Odin that he shall engage Fenrir in combat, though he knows his end. Fenrir shall seize Odin and swallow him up. Then the blood revenge will swell in the veins of Vidar, Odin’s son. Vidar shall grab Fenrir by the jaws and with his bare hands rend him in twain.

It is only then that Surt will rain fire upon the Earth, burning all and everything. In the end the Earth will sink into the sea. The fires will be extinguished, and all light will be gone from the nine worlds. The time of the Gods and of men shall pass forever.

Yet, Norsemen comforted their children, assuring them that this is not truly the end, for the world shall be reborn, and a new age will dawn. It shall be an age of great bounty, where men and gods shall dwell together in peace. The descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir shall inherit the Earth.



Next: Audhumla (try this one) :D

[Remaniox]

Audhumla
The primeval cow on whose milk the Giant Ymir fed. She was created from the melting ice at the beginning of time. She sustained herself by licking the salt and hoar frost from the ice of Niflheim


Lamastu

[Shield_Wulf]

An Akkadian demoness who causes puerperal fever and childhood diseases. Lamastu is portrayed with bare breasts on which a dog and a pig feed themselves. She is equivalent to the Sumerian Dimme.


Next: Raktavija

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A hindu general of a demon army,fought with Kali,As Kali, the Goddess fought with Raktavija, the lord of the Asuras (Demons). But for every drop of Raktavija's blood that touched the Earth, a thousand demons sprang up. Kali in Her divine madness solved this by licking up every drop of his blood with Her tongue, and won the day. Wild with joy, She continued to dance her dance of destruction until the gods begged Her to stop; but She did not listen. Finally Her husband Shiva came to implore Her--still crazed, She did not recognize Him and instead threw Him on the floor with the corpses and danced over Him.

Next:Yemaya

[DL Lycan]

I'll ignore the previous post, Yemaya....

Yemaya lives and rules over the seas and lakes. She also rules over maternity in our lives as she is the Mother of All. Her name, a shortened version of Yey Omo Eja means "Mother Whose Children are the Fish" to reflect the fact that her children are so numerous that they are uncountable. As modern sciences has theorizes and ancient cultures have known, life started in the sea. As an embryo we all spend the first moments of our lives swimming in a warm sea of amneotic fluid inside our mother's womb. We must transform and evolve through the form of a fish before becoming a human baby. In this way Yemaya displays herself as truly the mother of all, since she is the seed of all the paths or manifestations. Joined with Yemaya in the Yoruba tradition is Olokun, the source of all riches and unfathomable power. Yemaya dresses herself in seven skirts of blue and white and like the seas and profound lakes she is deep and unknowable, but also caring and nurturing. In Candomble, Santeria and Ifa Yemoja is considered the ultimate matriarch symbol. Yemoja embodies all characteristics of motherhood, caring and love. This maternal source of divine, human, animal, and plant life is most widely symbolized by the ocean. However, in Yoruba land, Yemonja is the deity of the Ogun river, which is the largest river within the territory of the ancient Yoruba. In the new world Yemonja is the deity of the top part of the ocean and has incorporated many of the characteristics of Olukun. In all cases Yemoja represents the birthplace of life on earth. In ancient Yoruba river was the largest, most powerful body of water; therefore belief held that in the rivers was life spawned. As Africans of the Ifa religion came in contact with the ocean during their forced migration to the New World, Yemoja evolved with greater proportions, and consequently, the ocean became her symbol, the womb of the world. As a result of the middle passage Yemonja became one of the most prominent and worshipped deity in the New World. For instance in Brazil, specifically in the African derived religion, Candomblé, Yemaya is considered a national deity and savior for having protecting their ancestors during the middle passage. Among the Orisha, she is the mother of the most powerful orishas including: Shango (God of thunder and lightening), Ogun (God of iron), Oya (goddess of the winds) and many others. Interestingly some of her orisha children did not endure the middle passage or were simply left behind in Yoruba land. In general these lesser children of Yemonja were more obscure, or location specific so that when Africans in the New World consolidated their orisha many of these smaller orisha were forgotten or blended with other, more powerful orisha. As a result of the middle passage, Yemoja changed from goddess of the great Ogun river to goddess of the ocean. With the forced infusion of Catholicism and the resulting sycrentism of African religions, Yemanya has been canonized in the form of the Virgin Mary. In the Gelede Cult Yemaya is considered the ultimate female power. In general Yemaya's ocean domain is confined to the top layer which contains the most life and is universally considered the womb of life. The origin of Shango, Oya, and Ochun can easily traced back to the ocean. As water evaporates from the ocean surface because of the sun's heat, it rises and forms clouds. Winds (Oya) carry theses clouds across the land. These clouds transform into thunderheads and lightening providing rain for everything to live. This rain is then brought back to the ocean via her daughter, Ochun. Although barely noticed and perhaps incorporated within Yemanya is her male counterpart, Olukun. Indeed without Olukun much of Yemanya power would not be known.

Next word- Basilisk

[Shield_Wulf]

In Greek and European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk (from the Greek basiliskos, a little king, in Latin Regulus) is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power of causing death by a single glance. According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk is a small snake that is so poisonous that it leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its wake, and its gaze is likewise lethal.

There are three descriptions to the image of the basilisk: a huge lizard, a giant snake or a three-foot high cockrel with a snake's tail and teeth, all of which are shared with the cockatrice. It is called "king" because it is reputed to have on its head a mitre- or crown-shaped crest. Stories of the basilisk place it in the same general family as the cockatrice. The basilisk is fabulously alleged to be hatched by a cockerel from the egg of a serpent (the reverse of the cockatrice, which was hatched from a hen's egg incubated by a serpent's nest). In Medieval Europe, the description of the creature began taking on features from cockerels. Geoffrey Chaucer featured a basilicok (as he called it) in his Canterbury Tales.

Stories gradually added to the basilisk's deadly capabilities, such as describing it as a larger beast, capable of breathing fire and killing with the sound of its voice. Some writers even claimed that it could kill not only by touch, but also by touching something that is touching the victim, like a sword held in their hand. The Basilisk is also the guardian creature of the Swiss city Basel.

Next word- Gilgamesh

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Gilgamesh

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(gĭl´gmĕsh) , in Babylonian legend, king of Uruk. He is the hero of the Gilgamesh epic, a work of some 3,000 lines, written on 12 tablets c.2000 and discovered among the ruins at Nineveh. It tells of the adventures of the warlike and imperious Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu. When Enkidu suddenly sickened and died, Gilgamesh became obsessed by a fear of death. His ancestor Ut-napishtim (who with his wife had been the only survivor of a great flood) told him of a plant that gave eternal life. After obtaining the plant, however, Gilgamesh left it unguarded and a serpent carried it off. The hero then turned to the ghost of Enkidu for consoling knowledge of the afterlife, only to be told by his friend that a gloomy future awaited the dead.

Next: Beowulf

[Hoplite]

Beowulf
by Brent P. Newhall
About one thousand to twelve hundred years ago, an unknown author put pen to paper and transcribed an epic that had already been circulating for about two centuries. The work which he wrote was a sweeping Anglo-Saxon tale entitled "Beowulf." It is the oldest piece of English literature extant today, though it nearly did not make it here; it was almost destroyed by King Henry VII along with the monastery in which it was housed. A library fire threatened to take in 1731 before it was finally put in the British museum in 1753, where it remains today.
Beowulf is an epic poem that simply chronicles the adventures of its namesake, as he battles various and sundry fell beasts. It is divided into three major parts, or battles: Grendel, Grendel's mother in the lake, and the dragon.

The beginning of the poem details the trials and tribulations of Hrothgar, king of the Danes; his beautiful hall Heorot is besieged by the demon Grendel. When Beowulf hears of this, he comes straightaway to Heorot and battles the monster, ultimately ripping its arms off. The resulting celebration is cut short when Grendel's mother, in a frenzy of grief, kills several of the revelers. Beowulf then follows her to a lake, where he descends into the depths and battles her with a sword he finds there, killing her.

The third part of the tale jumps forward many years. Beowulf is now an ageing king of his people, and a dragon is enraged and begins to ravage the land. Good king that he is, Beowulf meets the dragon in battle, defeating it but receiving a death-blow in turn. The funeral of this great hero marks the tragic end of the tale.

One of the most remarkable facets of Beowulf, and one of the reasons for its popularity, is its use of kennings, or extreme personification. For example, rather than use the term "ocean," the poem would use "swan-road;" rather than "water-churning boat," "foamy-necked floater." This makes for an extremely interesting read, as many things are referred to in a roundabout way.

Source-Encyclopedia Mythica

Next one-Chimera

[Hoplite]

Beowulf begins with the story of King Hroðgar, who built the great hall Heorot for his people. In it he, his wife Wealhþeow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating, until Grendel (angered by the singing) attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel's attacks, abandon Heorot.

Beowulf, a young warrior, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and, (with his king's permission) leaves his homeland to help Hrothgar.

Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. After they fall asleep, Grendel enters the hall and attacks, devouring one of Beowulf's men. Beowulf, feigning sleep, leaps up and grabs Grendel's arm in a wrestling hold, and the two battle until it seems as though the hall might fall down due to their fighting. Beowulf's men draw their swords and rush to his help, but there is a type of magic which aids Grendel and makes it impossible for swords to hurt him. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body and Grendel runs home to die.

[edit]
Second battle: Grendel's mother
The next night, after celebrating Grendel's death, Hrothgar and his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's Mother appears, however and attacks the hall. She kills Hrothgar's most trusted warrior in revenge for Grendel's death.

Hrothgar, Beowulf, and their men track Grendel's Mother to her lair under an eerie lake. Beowulf prepares himself for battle; he is presented with a sword, Hrunting, by a warrior called Unferth. After stipulating a number of conditions (upon his death) to Hrothgar (including the taking in of his kinsmen, and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf dives into the lake. There, he is swiftly detected and attacked by Grendel's mother. Unable to harm Beowulf through his armour, Grendel's mother drags him to the bottom of the lake. There, in a cavern containing her son's body and the remains of many men that the two have killed, Grendel's mother fights Beowulf.

Grendel's mother at first prevails, after Beowulf, finding that the sword (Hrunting) given him by Unferth cannot harm his foe, discards it in a fury. Again, Beowulf is saved from the effects of his opponent's attack by his armour and, grasping a mighty sword from Grendel's mother's armoury (which, the poem tells us, no other man could have hefted in battle), Beowulf beheads her. Travelling further into the lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse; he severs the head, and with it he returns to Heorot, where he is given many gifts by an even more grateful Hrothgar.

[edit]
Third battle: The dragon
Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. One day, late in Beowulf's life, a man steals a golden cup from a dragon's lair. When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning up everything in sight. Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but only one of the warriors, a brave young man named Wiglaf, stays to help Beowulf, because the rest are too afraid. Beowulf kills the dragon with Wiglaf's help, but dies from the wounds he has received. The dragon's treasure is taken from its lair and buried with Beowulf's ashes. And with that the poem ends.

A further note: according to Seamus Heaney's translation (Beowulf: A New Verse Translation) Wiglaf says this to the cowardly warriors who fled the battle.

So it is goodbye to all you know and love
on your home ground, the open-handedness,
the giving of war swords. Every one of you
with freeholds of land, our whole nation,
will be dispossessed, once-princes from beyond
get tidings of how you turned and fled
and disgraced yourselves. A warrior will sooner
die than live a life of shame.


Source- Wikipedia

Next one- Chimera

[Shield_Wulf]

In Greek mythology, the Chimera is a monster, depicted as an animal with the head of a lion, the body of a she-goat, and the tail of a dragon (sometimes it has multiple heads). It is a child of Typhon and Echidna. It terrorized Lycia (in Asia Minor), but was eventually killed by the Corinthian hero Bellerophon.

Next: Ryujin

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"Luminous Being". The Japanese dragon god of the sea. Ryujin lives in Ryugu his palace at the bottom of the sea. His daughter Otohime (Toyo-Tame) married prince Hoori. The sea-king is depicted with a large mouth. Turtles are regarded as his messengers.
Ryujin controls the tidal flows with the magical Tide Jewels. Many centuries ago the Empress Jingo planned an invasion of Korea. She prayed to Ryujin and sent the beach-god Isora to his temple. There he was given the Tide Jewels for the empress. The Japanese fleet then set sail towards Korea and the Korean fleet sailed out to confront them. When she saw the approaching fleet, Jingo quickly threw the Low Tide Jewel into the sea so that the tide receded at once and the Korean fleet was beached. The Koreans all jumped out onto the mudflats but at that moment the empress threw the High Tide Jewel and a tidal wave drowned the men. The tidal wave carried the Japanese fleet on to the coast, into the harbor and to victory. Later Ryujin personally presented the Tide Jewels, on a beautiful pink shell, to Prince Ojin, Empress Jingo's son.

Next:Odin

[Hoplite]

Odin
by Micha F. Lindemans

The chief divinity of the Norse pantheon, the foremost of the Aesir. Odin is a son of Bor and Bestla. He is called Alfadir, Allfather, for he is indeed father of the gods. With Frigg he is the father of Balder, Hod, and Hermod. He fathered Thor on the goddess Jord; and the giantess Grid became the mother of Vidar.

Odin is a god of war and death, but also the god of poetry and wisdom. He hung for nine days, pierced by his own spear, on the world tree. Here he learned nine powerful songs, and eighteen runes. Odin can make the dead speak to question the wisest amongst them. His hall in Asgard is Valaskjalf ("shelf of the slain") where his throne Hlidskjalf is located. From this throne he observes all that happens in the nine worlds. The tidings are brought to him by his two raven Huginn and Muninn. He also resides in Valhalla, where the slain warriors are taken.

Odin's attributes are the spear Gungnir, which never misses its target, the ring Draupnir, from which every ninth night eight new rings appear, and his eight-footed steed Sleipnir. He is accompanied by the wolves Freki and Geri, to whom he gives his food for he himself consumes nothing but wine. Odin has only one eye, which blazes like the sun. His other eye he traded for a drink from the Well of Wisdom, and gained immense knowledge. On the day of the final battle, Odin will be killed by the wolf Fenrir.

He is also called Othinn, Wodan and Wotan. Some of the aliases he uses to travel icognito among mortals are Vak and Valtam. Wednesday is named after him (Wodan).

Old Norse: Odínn



next one: Echidna

[DL Lycan]

(Just so you know, Odin drank nothing but mead, not wine :P)

Source- Wikipedia.

In the most ancient layers of Greek mythology Echidna (ekhis, meaning "she viper") was called the "Mother of All Monsters". Echidna was described by Hesiod (Theogony) as a female monster, who mothered with Typhon every major monster in the entire Greek mythos. Usually considered offspring of Uranus and Gaia, or sometimes Ceto and Phorcys or Chrysaor and the naiad Callirhoe. She had the face of a beautiful woman but the body of a serpent (see also Lamia). When she and her mate, Typhon, attacked the Olympians, Zeus beat them back and punished Typhon by sealing him under Mount Etna. However, Zeus allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes. She was ageless, but not immortal as she is killed by Argus Panoptus, the 100-eyed giant.

Next word- Argus.

[53048337439craig]

ARGUS PANOPTES

Argus is a monster with a hundred eyes. He was thus a very effective watchdog, as only a few of the eyes would sleep at a time; there were always several eyes still awake. Argus was Hera’s servant; Her last task for him was to guard a white heifer from Hera’s husband, Zeus. Hera knew that the heifer was in reality Io, one of Zeus’ many girlfriends. To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. Hermes succeeded in putting all of Argus’ eyes asleep with boring stories, being disguised as a shepherd. To reward good service, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in the tail of a peacock.


next:Janus

[Shield_Wulf]

Janus is the Roman god of gates and doors (ianua), beginnings and endings, and hence represented with a double-faced head, each looking in opposite directions. He was worshipped at the beginning of the harvest time, planting, marriage, birth, and other types of beginnings, especially the beginnings of important events in a person's life. Janus also represents the transition between primitive life and civilization, between the countryside and the city, peace and war, and the growing-up of young people.

Janus

One tradition states that he came from Thessaly and that he was welcomed by Camese in Latium, where they shared a kingdom. They married and had several children, among which the river god Tiberinus (after whom the river Tiber is named). When his wife died, Janus became the sole ruler of Latium. He sheltered Saturn when he was fleeing from Jupiter. Janus, as the first king of Latium, brought the people a time of peace and welfare; the Golden Age. He introduced money, cultivation of the fields, and the laws. After his death he was deified and became the protector of Rome. When Romulus and his associates stole the Sabine Virgins, the Sabines attacked the city. The daughter of one of the guards on the Capitolian Hill betrayed her fellow countrymen and guided the enemy into the city. They attempted to climb the hill but Janus made a hot spring erupt from the ground, and the would-be attackers fled from the city. Ever since, the gates of his temple were kept open in times of war so the god would be ready to intervene when necessary. In times of peace the gates were closed.

His most famous sanctuary was a portal on the Forum Romanum through which the Roman legionaries went to war. He also had a temple on the Forum Olitorium, and in the first century another temple was built on the Forum of Nerva. This one had four portals, called Janus Quadrifons. When Rome became a republic, only one of the royal functions survived, namely that of rex sacrorum or rex sacrificulus. His priests regularly sacrificed to him. The month of January (the eleventh Roman month) is named after him.

Janus was represented with two faces, originally one face was bearded while the other was not (probably a symbol of the sun and the moon). Later both faces were bearded. In his right hand he holds a key. The double-faced head appears on many Roman coins, and around the 2nd century BCE even with four faces.

Next Aka Manah

[Hoplite]

Aka Manah
by Micha F. Lindemans
Aka Manah is one of the Daevas. He is the personification of sensual desire who was sent by Ahriman to seduce the prophet Zarathustra. His eternal opponent is Vohu Manah.


next one - Achilles (though he's not a myth creature)

if Achilles doesn't qualify then

Nemesis

[DL Lycan]

By James Hunter

Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus and the Nereid Thetis. He was the mightiest of the Greeks who fought in the Trojan War, and was the hero of Homer's Iliad.
Thetis attempted unsuccessfully to make her son immortal. There are two versions of the story. In the earlier version, Thetis anointed the infant with ambrosia and then placed him upon a fire to burn away his mortal portions; she was interrupted by Peleus, whereupon she abandoned both father and son in a rage. Peleus placed the child in the care of the Centaur Chiron, who raised and educated the boy. In the later version, she held the young Achilles by the heel and dipped him in the river Styx; everything the sacred waters touched became invulnerable, but the heel remained dry and therefore unprotected.

When Achilles was a boy, the seer Calchas prophesied that the city of Troy could not be taken without his help. Thetis knew that, if her son went to Troy, he would die an early death, so she sent him to the court of Lycomedes, in Scyros; there he was hidden, disguised as a young girl. During his stay he had an affair with Lycomedes' daughter, Deidameia, and she had a son, Pyrrhus (or Neoptolemus), by him. Achilles' disguise was finally penetrated by Odysseus, who placed arms and armor amidst a display of women's finery and seized upon Achilles when he was the only "maiden" to be fascinated by the swords and shields. Achilles then went willingly with Odysseus to Troy, leading a host of his father's Myrmidons and accompanied by his tutor Phoenix and his close friend Patroclus. At Troy, Achilles distinguished himself as an undefeatable warrior. Among his other exploits, he captured twenty-three towns in Trojan territory, including the town of Lyrnessos, where he took the woman Briseis as a war-prize. Later on Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, was forced by an oracle of Apollo to give up his own war-prize, the woman Chryseis, and took Briseis away from Achilles as compensation for his loss. This action sparked the central plot of the Iliad, for Achilles became enraged and refused to fight for the Greeks any further. The war went badly, and the Greeks offered handsome reparations to their greatest warrior; Achilles still refused to fight in person, but he agreed to allow his friend Patroclus to fight in his place, wearing his armor. The next day Patroclus was killed and stripped of the armor by the Trojan hero Hector, who mistook him for Achilles.

Achilles was overwhelmed with grief for his friend and rage at Hector. His mother obtained magnificent new armor for him from Hephaestus, and he returned to the fighting and killed Hector. He desecrated the body, dragging it behind his chariot before the walls of Troy, and refused to allow it to receive funeral rites. When Priam, the king of Troy and Hector's father, came secretly into the Greek camp to plead for the body, Achilles finally relented; in one of the most moving scenes of the Iliad, he received Priam graciously and allowed him to take the body away.

After the death of Hector, Achilles' days were numbered. He continued fighting heroically, killing many of the Trojans and their allies, including Memnon and the Amazon warrior Penthesilia. Finally Priam's son Paris (or Alexander), aided by Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel with an arrow; Achilles died of the wound. After his death, it was decided to award Achilles' divinely-wrought armor to the bravest of the Greeks. Odysseus and Ajax competed for the prize, with each man making a speech explaining why he deserved the honor; Odysseus won, and Ajax then went mad and committed suicide.

During his lifetime, Achilles is also said to have had a number of romantic episodes. He reportedly fell in love with Penthesilia, the Amazon maiden whom he killed in battle, and it is claimed that he married Medea.

Next word- Dragon (Try and do this one justice ;) )

[Shield_Wulf]

Few creatures of folklore and mythology conjure up the mental images of the dragon. Also known as wurm, wyrm and firedrake, these mercurial creatures pervade almost every pantheon of classical mythology and have become an integral inclusion of an entire genre of fantasy literature.

Descriptions of the beast's benevolence vary from the playful Puff (of Peter Yarrow's song) to the sinister Smaug in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". Babylonian legends portray the Queen of Darkness as a multi-headed dragon - Tiamat. Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty features a battle between Prince Phillip and the evil Maleficent and the Germanic myth "Die Nibelungen" climaxes with the battle between Siegfried and the giant Fafnir, who has transformed himself into a wyrm in an effort to become more frightening.

Physical characteristics of dragons also vary but several consistencies are usually present. The beasts are typically depicted as huge lizards, larger than elephants on average. Long fangs are generally accepted as are twin horns of varying length. Western cultures generally include large bat-like wings giving the dragon the capability of flight. But eastern dragons, usually wingless, use a more magical means of flying. As well, eastern dragons tend to be more snake-like in nature, albeit with front and rear legs.
Most dragons will be covered in scales, although there are some with a leathery skin. Coloring ranges the entire gamut of the spectrum but red, green, black and gold appear to be the most common. It is also generally accepted that most dragons are magical creatures in nature and have the ability to breathe fire (as a weapon). Some dragons may have a modification in this breath weapon (frost, lightning, gas) but this appears to be purely a fabrication of fantasy role-playing games and the myths they spawn. (From Encyclopedia Mythica).

A dragon is a legendary creature, typically depicted as a large and powerful serpent or other reptile, with magical or spiritual qualities. Mythological creatures possessing some or most of the characteristics typically associated with dragons are common throughout the world's cultures. Western representations typically have wings, whereas Eastern ones typically do not.
The various figures now called dragons probably have no single origin, but were spontaneously envisioned in several different cultures around the world, based loosely on the appearance of a snake and possibly fossilized dinosaur and Tertiary mammal megafauna remains.

Although dragons (or dragon-like creatures) occur commonly in legends around the world, different cultures have perceived them differently. Chinese dragons (Simplified Chinese: 龙; Traditional Chinese: 龍; Pinyin: lóng), and Eastern dragons generally, are usually seen as benevolent, whereas European dragons are usually malevolent (there are of course exceptions to these rules). Malevolent dragons also occur in Persian mythology (see Azhi Dahaka) and other cultures.

Dragons are often held to have major spiritual significance in various religions and cultures around the world. In many oriental cultures dragons were, and in some cultures still are, revered as representative of the primal forces of nature and the universe. They are associated with wisdom—often said to be wiser than humans—and longevity. They are commonly said to possess some form of magic or other supernatural power. In some cultures, they are said to be capable of human speech.

Dragons are very popular characters in fantasy literature and video games today, especially in role-playing games.

The term dragoon, for infantry that move around by horse, yet still fight as foot soldiers, is derived from their early firearm, the "dragon", a wide-bore musket that spit flame when it fired, and was thus named for the mythical beast.
Symbolism

In medieval symbolism, dragons were often symbolic of apostasy and treachery, but also of anger and envy, and eventually symbolised great calamity. Several heads were symbolic of decadence and oppression, and also of heresy. They also served as symbols for independence, leadership and strength. Many dragons also represent wisdom; slaying a dragon not only gave access to its treasure hoard, but meant the hero had bested the most cunning of all creatures. In some cultures, especially Chinese, or around the Himalayas, dragons are considered to represent good luck.
Saint George versus the dragon, Gustave Moreau, c.1880. This small one has the look of a griffin or a wyvern.
Enlarge
Saint George versus the dragon, Gustave Moreau, c.1880. This small one has the look of a griffin or a wyvern.
[edit]

In Christianity

The Latin word for a dragon, draco (genitive: draconis), actually means snake or serpent, emphasising the European association of dragons with snakes. The Biblical identification of the Devil and the serpent thus gave a snake-like dragon connotations of evil. The demonic opponents of God, Christ, or good Christians have commonly been portrayed as dragons.

In the Book of Job Chapter 41, the sea monster Leviathan, which has some dragon-like characteristics, is described as God talks about the "king of beasts" that lived upon the Earth at a former time.

In Revelation 12:3, an enormous red beast with seven heads is described, whose tail sweeps one third of the stars from heaven down to earth (held to be symbolic of the fall of the angels). In some translations, the word "dragon" is used to describe the beast.

In iconography, some Christian saints are depicted in the act of killing a dragon. This is one of the common aspects of Saint George in Egyptian Coptic iconography [1], on the coat of arms of Moscow, and in English and Aragonese legend. In Italy, Saint Mercurialis, first bishop of the city of Forlì, is also depicted slaying a dragon.
Possible historical bases for dragons

Some believe that the dragon may have had a real-life counterpart from which the legends around the world arose—typically dinosaurs are mentioned as a possibility—but there is no evidence to support this claim. Another less common claim is that they are based upon some sort of flying machines possessed by some ancient, unknown culture. Both of these hypotheses are widely considered to be pseudoscience.[citation needed]

Another hypothesis by a Canadian research team states that dragons may actually exist. It specifically suggests that all cultures have had dragons in their mythology. Another fact that supports this evidence is that due to "dragonslayers", dragons completely despise humans, and want to remain transparent. Sadly, if dragons ever did exist, this report states, they must be extinct due to no evidence from field studies in the last 200 years. If they are real, they say, they will probably ignore us and be passive until we start attacking them. Then, the problems will start.

Somewhat more plausibly, dinosaur fossils were once thought of as "dragon bones"—a discovery in 300 BC in Wucheng, Sichuan, China, was labeled as such by Chang Qu.[1] It is unlikely, however, that these finds alone prompted the legends of flying monsters,[2] but may have served to reinforce them.

In 2005 researchers from Ohio State University proposed that primitive humans in Africa—specifically the Taung child—were the prey of large eagles.[3] Studies have shown that it is possible over several generations to breed an instinctive fear into a population.[4] This early predation may therefore account for the universality of dragon legends, as well as the relatively common fear of birds, ornithophobia.

Herodotus, often called the "father of history", visited Judea c.450 BC and wrote that he heard of caged dragons in nearby Arabia, near Petra, Jordan. Curious, he travelled to the area and found two living, winged dragons that had been caught and held in an iron cage. He described them as ferocious beasts that would wipe out all of humanity if released.[citation needed]

According to Marco Polo's journals, Polo was walking through Anatolia into Persia and came upon real live flying dragons that attacked his party caravan in the desert and he reported that they were very frightening beasts that almost killed him in an attack.[citation needed] Polo did not write his journals down — they were dictated to his cellmate in prison—and there is much dispute over whether this writer may have invented the dragon to embellish the tale.[citation needed] Polo was also the first western man to descibe Chinese "dragon bones" with early writing on them. These bones were presumably either fossils (as described by Chang Qu) or the bones of other animals.

It has also been suggested by proponents of catastrophism that comets or meteor showers gave rise to legends about fiery serpents in the sky. (From Wikipedia)

Next- Loki (ya I know an easy one)

[Remaniox]

Loki Norse Gog of mischief and trickery

He was born of the giants Laurfey and Farbauti. He became brothers with Odin
After this Loki tricked the other gods. He was concieved as a fire spirit. He was father of Fenrir the wolf, Jormungandr the sea serpant and hel queen of the underworld. He convinced Baldr's blind brother Hoor to use an arrow made of
mistletoe on his own brother. Mistletoe was the only object that could harm
Baldr. Loki's trickery led him to the be bounded down by his son Narfi's guts.
Skadi placed a snake over Loki's head which shot venom at him. Signy hi wife collects the venom in a wooden bowl and empties it. While signy empties the bowl the snake still poisons loki. Baldr's murder was a sign of Raganok's coming in which Loki should be freed

Next one: Atropos

[sai-fujiwara]

(Copied and Pasted.)

In Greek mythology, Atropos was one of the three Moirae, the Fates, the female deities who supervised fate rather than determine it. Atropos was the fate who cut the thread or web of life. She was known as the "inflexible" or "inevitable" and cut this thread with the "abhorred shears." She worked along with Clotho, who spun the thread, and Lachesis, who measured the length. They were the daughters of Zeus and Themis (the goddess of order.) It is not clear whether the fates were superior to Zeus or if he was subject to them as mortals were. The Roman name of the fates are Nona, Decuma, and Morta.

Next word: Lilith

[Remaniox]

Lilith Goddess akkadian demoness possibly sumerian goddess of fertility first wife
of Adam
"The angles who are in charge of medicine: Snvi, Snsvi, and Smnglof. After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone' (Gen. 2:18). He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while am to be in the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angles to bring her back.


"Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, fine. If not she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.'

"'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.' "When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers."

Her other origins are obscure. Due to little knowlege of sumerian and akkadian
languages she is thought to be a goddess of fertility in sumerian tradition and in akkadian she is believed to be demonic. She is known to be the mother of
all incubi and succubi. Lilith is no longer seen in the christian bible but is left
in the jewish bible

Next one : Mammon

[Hoplite]

Mammon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mammon is used in the New Testament to describe material wealth or avarice.


Etymology
Mammon is a word of Aramaic origin, means "riches", but has an unclear etymology; scholars have suggested connections with a word meaning "entrusted", or with the Hebrew word "matmon", meaning "treasure". It is also used in Hebrew as a word for "money" - ממון.

The Greek word for "Mammon", mamonas, occurs in the Sermon on the Mount (during the discourse on ostentation) and in the parable of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:9-13). The Authorised Version keeps the Syriac word. John Wycliffe uses "richessis". Other scholars derive Mammon from Phoenician "mommon", benefit.

The word is used in contemporary language with the same meaning in at least Finnish (mammona), Danish (mammon), and Polish (mamona). This is extremely likely to be a result of biblical influence.


Personifications

Mammon from Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire InfernalIn the Bible, mammon is personified in Luke 16:13, and Matthew 6:24, the latter verse repeating Luke 16:13. In some translations, Luke 16:9 and Luke 16:11 also personifies mammon; but in others, it is translated as 'dishonest wealth' or equivalent. In some spanish versions, it is said as "Mamón", but in others, as "Dinero".

Early mentions of mammon appear to stem from the personification in the Gospels, e.g. Didascalia, "Do solo Mammona cogitant, quorum Deus est sacculus"; and Saint Augustine, "Lucrum Punice Mammon dicitur" (Serm. on Mt., ii). Gregory of Nyssa also asserted that Mammon was another name for Beelzebub.

During the Middle Ages, Mammon was commonly personified as the demon of avarice, richness and injustice. Thus Peter Lombard (II, dist. 6) says, "Riches are called by the name of a devil, namely Mammon, for Mammon is the name of a devil, by which name riches are called according to the Syrian tongue." Piers Plowman also regards Mammon as a deity. Nicholas de Lyra (commenting on the passage in Luke) says: "Mammon est nomen daemonis" (Mammon is the name of a demon).

No trace, however, of any Syriac god of such a name exists, and the common literary identification of the name with a god of covetousness or avarice likely stems from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, where Mammon oversees a cave of worldly wealth. Milton's Paradise Lost describes a fallen angel who values earthly treasure over all other things. Later occultist writings such as De Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal describe Mammon as Hell's ambassador to England.

Mammon is somewhat similar to the Greek god Plutus, and the Roman Dis Pater, in his description, and it is likely that he was at some point based on them; especially since Plutus appears in The Divine Comedy as a wolf-like demon of wealth, wolves being associated with greed in the Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas metaphorically described the sin of Avarice as "Mammon being carried up from Hell by a wolf, coming to inflame the human heart with Greed".


Appearances in popular culture
On the television show The Simpsons, plutocrat Montgomery Burns lives on Mammon Lane.
In the Mozilla Firefox browser, when a user views the page "about:mozilla": And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror. Book of Mozilla, 7:15. In this case, Mammon is believed to be a reference to Microsoft, the creator of the Internet Explorer web browser.
In the SNES game Chrono Trigger, the Mammon machine channels the energy of Lavos to give Queen Zeal access to unbelievable power.
In Secret of Mana, it is the name of the king of an island completely plated in gold.
In the 2005 Warner Bros. motion picture Constantine (based on the main character from the DC Vertigo graphic novels Hellblazer), Mammon is the name of the Antichrist, the son of Satan. Mammon's goal was to cross over to the mortal plane using the Spear of Destiny in order to bring a worse dominion to the world than that of his father in Hell.
Mammon is a villain character in the comics Spawn, who manipulates Simmons to become a pawn for his own purposes.
In Past and Present (1843), Thomas Carlyle entitled chapter III,2 of his essay : "Gospel of Mammonism", establishing a parallel between Mammonism and Diettantism and associating Mammonism with the moral law which defines "Not succeeding" as the new Hell.
In the Frederick Forsyth novel The Phantom of Manhattan, Mammon is worshipped by Erik and Darius as "the god of gold who permits no mercy, no charity, no compassion and no scruple".
In the game Dungeons and Dragons, Viscount Mammon is an archdevil and the Lord of the Third Hell, Minauros.
Mammon also appears as the final boss in the game Holy Magic Century which is the U.K. title of Quest 64 for the Nintendo 64.
Mammon is a thematic element in Cormac McCarthy's novel "No Country for Old Men", 2005, in which greed and acumulation of wealth in the hands of the wrong people are leading the degradation of society.
In the MMORPG Ragnarok Online, Mammon is depicted in a skill called "Mammonite", which belongs to the Merchant classes and uses a certain amount of zeny, the currency in that game, to deal damage on the enemy.
Many readers believe the unnamed god of wealth in Las Vegas in Neil Gaiman's American Gods to be Mammon, though Gaiman himself refuses to disclose the identity of the deity.
Mammom is used as the name of a merchant in the MMORPG Lineage 2. He is very hard to find due to the fact that he teleports from one dungeon to another.
Mammon is the name of a demon in the online multiplayer rpg LambdaMOO, who must be passed in order to gain a powerful item.
Mammon is the name of a god invoked by a young coven of teenage girls in the 1996 movie "The Craft".
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammon"



Next one - Angra Manyu

[sai-fujiwara]

(that took way too long for someone to post, so I shall do it.)

from http://www.dreamers.com/lichlair/modulos/severance02.htm

Angra Manyu (intermediate god, aka "Prince of Darkness")
Alignment: lawful evil.
Clerical alignments: lawful evil, neutral evil, lawful neutral.
Domains: Darkness, Evil, Trickery, Death, Tyranny.
Favorite weapon: morning star.

Angra Manyu is the prince of tyranny. Forges plots and conspirations to dominate the whole world, always trying to get one step ahead of both his brother Spenta Manyu and his sister Ianna, who with their permanent watch make the whole deal quite difficult.

His very cunning and intelligent, having refined his conspiratory skills during thousands of years, trying to get advantages to defeat the gods of light. It was his fault, when he gave life to the Lord of Chaos, when he unleashed an uncontrolled power who (unlike himself) wants to destroy the whole world. Even then, he's worked with him many times, trying to take advantage of his power, betraying him in the appropriate moments with subtle stratagems, furthering his own cause and above all avoiding the Lord of Chaos' success (what could happen if someday the Lord of Chaos realized those deceptions and betrayed Angra Manyu as well!?)

He's worshiped under a few names by most of the evil humanoids of the world, guiding them (and using them) to get absolute dominion.

Nest word (you better get this one)

Philosophers Stone

[DL Lycan]

Not really alot to post on this one...(Source- Wikipedia.com)

The philosopher's stone, in Latin philosophi lapis, is a mythical substance that supposedly could turn inexpensive metals into gold and/or create an elixir that would make humans younger, thus delaying death. It was a longtime "holy grail" of Western alchemy. In the mystic view of alchemy, making the philosopher's stone would bring enlightenment upon the maker and conclude the Great Work. It is also known by several other names, such as materia prima.

Next word- Leviathon

[Shield_Wulf]

Leviathan (לִוְיָתָן "Twisted; coiled", Standard Hebrew Livyatan, Tiberian Hebrew Liwyāṯān) was a Biblical sea monster referred to in the Old Testament (Psalms 74:13-14; Job 41; Isaiah 27:1).

The word leviathan has become synonymous with any large monster or creature. In Modern Hebrew, it simply means "whale".

Judaism

The word "Leviathan" appears five times in the Bible:

1) Isaiah 27:1: "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."

2) Psalms 74:14: "Thou didst crush the heads of the Leviathan, thou didst give him for food to the desert people."

3) Psalms 104:25,26: "O Lord, how manifold thy works, in wisdom you have created them all. So is this great and wide sea... there go the ships and the Leviathan which you have created to play with";

4) Book of Job 3:8 "Lo let the night be solitary, let no joyful cry be heard in it. Let them curse it who curse the day who are ready to awake the Leviathan";

5) Book of Job 41:1-34: "Can you draw out a Leviathan with a hook or press down its tongue with a cord? Canst thou put a hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a bridle ring? Will he make many supplications to thee? Will he speak soft words to thee? Will he make a covenant with thee? To take him for thy servant forever? Will thou play with him as with a bird? Or wilt thou bind him for thy girls? Will the tradesmen heap up payment for him?... Lay thy hand upon him, thou will no more think of fighting. Behold the hope of him is in vain, shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that dare stir him up. who then is able to stand before me?...Who can open the doors of his face? His teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is near to the another, that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered. By his [sneezing] a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth....His heart is as firms as stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone....He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble....He maketh the deep to boil like a pot....he is a king over all the children of pride."

The word Leviathan is also mentioned in Rashi's commentary on Genesis 1:21: "God created the great sea monsters - Taninim." Jastrow translates the word "Taninim" as a "sea monster, crocodile or large snake". Rashi comments: "According to legend this refers to the Leviathan and its mate. God created a male and female Leviathan, then killed the female and salted it for the righteous, for if the Leviathans were to procreate the world could not stand before them."

In the Talmud, the Leviathan is mentioned a number of times:

1) Avoda Zara (3b): "Rav Yehuda says, there are twelve hours in a day. The first three hours God sits and learns the Torah, the second three hours he sits and judges the world. The third three hours God feeds the entire world... the fourth three hour period God plays with the Leviathan as it is written: "the Leviathan which you have created to play with".

2) Moed Katan (25b): "Rav Ashi said to Bar Kipok: what will be said at my funeral? He answered: "If a flame can fall a cedar, what hope does a small tree have? If a Leviathan can be hooked and hauled to land, what hope has a fish in a puddle?"

The festival of Sukkot (Festival of Booths) concludes with a prayer recited upon leaving the sukkah (booth): "May it be your will, Lord our God and God of our forefathers, that just as I have fulfilled and dwelled in this sukkah, so may I merit in the coming year to dwell in the sukkah of the skin of Leviathan. Next year in Jerusalem."

A commentary on this prayer in the Artscroll prayer-book (p. 725) adds: "The Leviathan was a monstrous fish created on the fifth day of Creation. Its story is related at length in the Talmud Baba Bathra 74b, where it is told that the Leviathan will be slain and its flesh served as a feast to the righteous in [the] Time to Come, and its skin used to cover the tent where the banquet will take place."

There is another religious hymn recited on the festival of Shavuot (celebrating the giving of the Torah), known as Akdamut, wherein it says: "...The sport with the Leviathan and the ox (Behemoth)...When they will interlock with one another and engage in combat, with his horns the Behemoth will gore with strength, the fish [Leviathan] will leap to meet him with his fins, with power. Their Creator will approach them with his mighty sword [and slay them both]." Thus, "from the beautiful skin of the Leviathan, God will construct canopies to shelter the righteous, who will eat the meat of the Behemoth [ox] and the Leviathan amid great joy and merriment, at a huge banquet that will be given for them." Some rabbinical commentators say these accounts are allegorical (Artscroll siddur, p. 719), or symbolic of the end of conflict.

Legend has it that in the banquet after the end of conflict, the carcass of the leviathan will be served as a meal, along with the behemoth and the ziz.

Leviathan may also be interpreted as the sea itself, with its counterparts behemoth being the land and ziz being the air and space. Some scholars have interpreted Leviathan, and other references to the sea in the Old Testament, as highly metaphorical references to seafaring marauders who once terrorized the Kingdom of Israel. Others liken the mention to Tiamat and other similar monsters who represented the sea as a foe to the gods in myths of nearby cultures.

The Biblical references to Leviathan appear to have evolved from the Canaanite Baal cycle involving a confrontation between Hadad (Baal) and a seven headed sea monster named Lotan. Lotan is the Ugaritic orthograph for Hebrew Leviathan. Hadad defeats him. Bibilical references also resemble the Babylonian creation epic Enûma Elish in which the storm god Marduk slays his mother, the sea monster and goddess of chaos and creation Tiamat and creates the earth and sky from the two halves of her corpse.

Christianity

The Christian interpretation of Leviathan is often considered to be a demon or natural monster associated with Satan or the Devil, and held by some to be the same monster as Rahab (Isaiah 51:9).

Some biblical scholars considered Leviathan to represent the pre-existent forces of chaos. In Psalm 74:13-14 it says "it was You who drove back the sea with Your might, who smashed the heads of the monsters in the waters; it was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan, who left him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. (JPS edition)" God drove back the waters of the pre-existent Earth (Genesis 1:2 "the earth being unformed and void with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water-" [JPS edition]) and destroyed the chaotic marine monster Leviathan in order to shape the unformed and void Earth in his liking.
Picture of Leviathan often found in grimoires, by an unknown artist.
Enlarge
Picture of Leviathan often found in grimoires, by an unknown artist.

Leviathan also appears in the Apocryphal Book of Enoch, giving the following description of this monster's origins there mentioned as being female, as opposed to the male Behemoth:

And that day will two monsters be parted, one monster, a female named Leviathan in order to dwell in the abyss of the ocean over the fountains of water; and (the other), a male called Behemoth, which holds his chest in an invisible desert whose name is Dundayin, east of the garden of Eden. - 1 Enoch 60:7-8

Some interpreters suggest that Leviathan is a symbol of mankind in opposition to God, claiming that it and beasts mentioned in the books of Daniel and Revelation should be interpreted as metaphors. The usage of Leviathan in the Old Testament books (Isaiah 27:1) would seem to be a reference to a Semitic mythological beast mentioned in Ugaritic literature (of Ugarit, a city-state in North Syria). According to Canaanite myth, the Leviathan was an enemy of order in Creation and was slain by the Canaanite god Baal. The word Leviathan to the ancient Jews became synonymous with that which warred against God's kingdom. This especially included nations warring against Israel such as Assyria and Egypt. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament,1985, SP Publications Inc.)

Leviathan is also sometimes said to have been of the order of Seraphim. According to the writings of Father Sebastien Michaelis, Balberith, a demon who allegedly possessed Sister Madeleine at Aix-en-Provence, obligingly told the priest not only the other devils possessing the nun, but added the special saints whose function was to oppose them. Leviathan was one devil that was named and was said to tempt men into committing sacrilege. Its adversary was said to be St. Peter.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Leviathan is the demon of envy and the demon who is first in punishing the corresponding sinners. Some medieval authors, such as Collin de Plancy and Johann Weyer, considered Leviathan to be Grand Admiral of the maritime regions of Hell.
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[Shield_Wulf]

Satanism

In The Satanic Bible, subsequently the final section, the "Book of Leviathan", authored by Anton LaVey, and according to most Satanist groups, particularly LaVeyan Satanism, Leviathan is one of the "Four Crown Princes" and represents the number three, the color blue, man's carnal side and the human element chaos. There, Leviathan's element is water, water being that which human forms are primarily created of. This representing the unity of matter and anti-matter, chaos and order, yin with yang, and Leviathan's direction is west, west being used to represent chaos and disorder.

Leviathan as an animal

In the book of Job, both Behemoth and Leviathan are listed alongside a number of other animals that are clearly mundane, such as goats, eagles, and hawks, leading many Christian scholars to surmise that Behemoth and Leviathan may also be mundane creatures. The animal most often proposed for Leviathan is the Nile crocodile.

Like the Leviathan, the Nile crocodile is aquatic, scaly, and possesses fierce teeth. Job 41:18 states that Leviathan's eyes "are like the eyelids of the morning". Some have compared this verse to a crocodile's eyes, which rise out of the water before the rest of its head, invoking the image of the sun rising over the horizon.

The major difficulty of this view is that in Job chapter 41 Leviathan is described as breathing fire like a dragon. Proponents of this view respond by claiming that this is a poetic description of the crocodile's fierce hiss. They support this statement by showing that horses have been described as "snorting fire" since ancient times.

Another difficulty is that the crocodile does not seem to fit the descriptions of Leviathan given in other Bible passages, e.g. it does not have multiple heads. However, if (as some have suggested) Leviathan is a generic term for any sea monster, then the creatures described in Isaiah and the Psalms may be different, possibly mythical, creatures.

During sea-faring's Golden Age, European sailors saw Leviathan as a gigantic whale-like sea monster, usually a sea serpent, that devoured whole ships by swimming around the vessels so quickly as to create a whirlpool.
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Leviathan in literature
William Blake's painting The Spiritual Form of Nelson Guiding Leviathan, in which the monster is a symbol of military sea-power controlled by Nelson
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William Blake's painting The Spiritual Form of Nelson Guiding Leviathan, in which the monster is a symbol of military sea-power controlled by Nelson

Leviathan is the title of Thomas Hobbes' seminal work on the social contract and the creation of an ideal state - the Commonwealth.

The term "Leviathan" is often used as a generic term for anything large and all consuming.

Partly due to the influence of Herman Melville's classic, Moby-Dick, the Leviathan has come to be associated by many with the sperm whale. An example of this is in Disney's depiction of Pinocchio's being swallowed (a la Jonah in the Bible) by a Sperm Whale, despite the fact that in the original, Pinocchio was swallowed by a "Pesce-cane", translated as "dog-fish" or "shark".

In his book, In Search of Prehistoric Survivors, cryptozoologist Dr. Karl Shuker considers the Leviathan to be a myth inspired, at least in part, by sightings of a Mosasaur-type sea monster. Bernard Heuvelmans, in his book In the Wake of Sea Serpents (Dans le sillage des monstres marins) considered the entity to be of the "Marine centipede" type.

Some sources claim a similarity between Leviathan and the seven-headed Naga of Indian and Southeast Asian mythology.

In Milton's "Paradise Lost" he uses the term Leviathan to describe the size and power of Satan.

In the "Satanic Bible", Leviathan has been acknowledge as one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell, particularly that of the West, ruling over waters. He is the "serpent out of the sea. The oceans. Sex, love, desire, emotions. Coiled serpent. Twisted subconscious."

Leviathan is a summon spell in Final Fantasy games.

Next: Tatzlwurm

[53048337439craig]

Huge creature with wings, four legs, and claws and that can breath fire.

Likes to feast on lost children and meandering cattle.
Lives in the caves of the Alps.

The Stollenwurm has a face of a cat, lizard head, long ridge, warts, a very long tail, and scales with red veins and bristles
Stands on its hind legs to frighten people

Called a Tatzelswurm in the Alpine passes from France to Austria

Cat-headed serpents have even reported in Switzerland's
Frumsenberg Mounting in 1711 and Palermo, Sicily in 1954. "Perhaps a southern version of the tatzulwurm."


Next Word: Ogopogo

[DL Lycan]

(This is going well, Good work guys)
Over the years, many large unidentified sea creatures have washed up on ocean shores throughout the world. Certain fresh water bodies have also gained a reputation for containing sizable creatures often described as more prehistoric than anything else! The Lake Champlain monster is one example and of course "Nessie" of Scotland's Loch Ness is affectionately known around the world.

Canada's most famous water monster is Ogopogo of Lake Okanagan in the south central interior of British Columbia. Although Indian legends support a monster living in Okanagan Lake long before white men arrived in this country, Ogopogo is very much a present day phenomenon. Each year, sightings are reported of a creature some 20 to 50 feet long, with a horse shaped head and an undulating serpent like body! Okanagan Lake is about 80 miles long extending from Vernon at the north end to Penticton in the south with the fast growing city of Kelowna in the center. Sightings have been reported throughout the length of the lake but the monster appears to favour an area just south of Kelowna in waters near Peachland.


The first recorded sighting by a caucasion was by Mrs. John Allison in 1872 and such instances have continued to this day with many credible, rational and sober people becoming absolute believers. Indian folklore specifically places the lair of the lake monster which they called N'ha-a-itk, or lake demon, at a cave under Squally Point near Rattlesnake Island which is offshore from Peachland. The Indians would never paddle a canoe near this area without an offering because too often a storm would spring up and N'ha-a-itk would rise out of the waters to claim another life! When white settlers first came to this area in the mid 1800s, they were not superstitious but gradually changed their views with ongoing sightings of the monster. An early instance tells of two horses swimming behind a boat that were mysteriously pulled beneath the waves and the owner barely saving himself by cutting the rope attached to the horses! Today's sightings, often from modern power boats, indicate a much friendlier monster but still very large in size. It has been filmed a number of times but other than people agreeing there was something in the water, no absolute conclusions have been made. It is usually reported as dark blue, black or brown with a lighter underside. It can move with astounding speed but many sightings in calm weather have been made of the creature apparently feeding on either fish or aquatic weeds. People very close, between 50 and 100 feet, report seeing fins or feet on the animal.

Source- A canadian tour site

Next word- Djinn

[53048337439craig]

In Islamic mythology, the Djinn are fiery spirits, one of which was Iblis.From the Arabic junna, "Angry,possessed." The Jinn pre-existed in middle-eastern folklore before Islam, and were incorporated with the religion.The Djinn were creatures who lived on Earth before man; they were made out of "smokeless fire" whereas man were made from earth.

Next Word: Chupacabra

[Pickle Tickler]

Typically heard of as a mythical beast that devours goats in South America, the Chupacabra is also deadly to young children who stray upon it's path. Although numerous expeditions have been made to try and find whether it is reptilian or mammal, they have remained unconfirmed (due to the fact that it doesn't exist!). One legend is if you are scratched or by the Chupacabra, you shall become one as well.

Next word: the Wyvern and the Black Dog (can we do two?)

[53048337439craig]

A wyvern (or wivern) is a winged reptilian legendary creature often found in medieval heraldry. Its usual blazon is statant (standing). The wyvern is similar to a European dragon, but it differs in that it has only two legs (thus making it rather bird-like), cannot breathe fire, and has a barbed or snake-like tail. Occasionally, it is said to be smaller than a dragon or to be able to breathe fire. The wyvern is similar to another mythical creature, the cockatrice, which is similar to the basilisk. Its sounds are similar to the tone of a whisle or flute.[citation needed]

Variants of the wyvern include the sea-wyvern, which has a fish-like tail. Of the dragon-like creatures, wyverns are said to be the most feline, having a cat-like intelligence and temperament. During the Middle Ages, they were supposedly the most useful of all dragons to sorcerers, as they had the unique ability to work easily with spells.

Black Dogs

Ever heard of Dogs barking in the nights? Ever seen a horror movie with a back dog? It has gripped you with fear of a death of a holy soul. It is a mystifying myth which started with the folklore tales of many ancient pathways that are haunted with demon black dogs. These dogs seem to patrol ‘green lanes’ ancient grassed over roads that were boundaries to churches or country estates. These canines often disapper into bunglow, bridge or gateway or in the dark , a transition between mortal world and supernatural one. They are said to haunt the church yards, graveyards, lonely streets. Myth says that it has been an ancient practice of burying a sacrificed dog to guard a new graveyard! These dogs has different names like Trash, Padfoot, Dhoo, Moddey, Black Shuck etc. with blazing eyes , calf sized, dark and shaggy. In 1800s a man called Finch, Neatishead in Norfolk was once walking along a green lane when he mistool Black shuck for a family friend’s dog that had snapped him. He aimed a kick at it and his foot went straight through the phantom. On August 4, 1557, during a terrible storm, a black dog visited St. Mary’s church in Suffolk who wrung the neck of two parishioners and left a third one scratched almost to death. Even at Blythburg, it killed three people. It is believed that the claw marks of this dog is still seen at the door of the church.

Some say the Black dog is the ghost of prehistoric hound set to guard holy sites and wayside shrines common on roads all over the world. Others says it is the devil himself, perhaps looking for solitary and vulnerable travellers. It is said that when someone is dying ‘Black dog’ is at heels because it is the demon. Whatever be it, people believe these myths and whenever a dog cries especially during a winter night, it is a death of some soul.

Next: Craic

[53048337439craig]

Craic:
Blimey! The Aerosmith show at the Breslin Center is canceled, and the green eggs and beer breakfast at Crunchy's is already sold out.
But the luck of the Irish can still grant you a good time on St. Patrick's Day — no matter what your idea of fun is.

Dancing Irish jigs until your green socks fall down? Slurping down Shamrock Shakes until your brain explodes like a potato in the microwave? Drinking so many Guinnesses that you start speaking in Gaelic? Or quietly reading William Butler Yeats' poems fireside?

The MSU community has quite a diverse agenda for the holiday and plenty of local choices.

"I have big plans. I'm throwing a party at Snyder Hall as an alternative to the bar crawls and mass drinking that usually goes on," said sociology graduate student Temple Smith.

Smith, an assistant hall director at Snyder, believes a lot of students drink because they have nothing else to do on St. Patrick's Day. So she set up the "Shake Your Shamrock" party in the basement of Snyder Hall, which is being held tonight at 9 p.m.

Besides providing an alternative to drinking, the "Shake Your Shamrock" event will provide laminated cards with a list of taxi services to call on St. Patrick's Day.

Advertising junior Mike Whited has quite the opposite plans.

"I'm going to the bars," Whited said. "I usually get drunk by 3 p.m., sleep for a few hours, then do it again. It's a pretty tight schedule. You gotta get into the spirit of the thing."

Whited plans on getting into the right frame of mind at Rick's American Café, 224 Abbott Road, and The Riv, 231 M.A.C. Ave.

Rick's is opening at 9 a.m. and will have green beer flowing all day. The Riv also will serve green beer but will be opening an hour and half earlier at 7:30 a.m., serving breakfast and providing a DJ to spin booty-shaking tunes in the afternoon and into the evening hour.

Electrical engineering freshman Steve Shane is looking to hang low and stay clear of the hooligans.

"I'm going to be avoiding Grand River, especially all the bars," Shane said. "Other than that, I'll probably wear green and white and watch my back. Probably horrible Irish accents will be committed sometime that day."

Whatever your plans are it's good to know some St. Patrick's Day facts to impress your friends. It's important to what your celebrating or attempting to deny.

To sum it all up, wearing Green in Saint Patrick's Day for everlasting good luck, with the 3 leaf clover , etc.

Next:Huang Di

[Hoplite]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Huang Di)

Yellow EmperorThe Yellow Emperor or Huang Di is a legendary Chinese sovereign and cultural hero who is said to be the ancestor of all Han Chinese.

One of the Five Emperors, the Yellow Emperor is said by tradi