Ancient Wears

29/05/2024

The Aesir - Vanir War

The Vanir goddess Freya was always the foremost practitioner of the art of seidr, a form of magic principally concerned with discerning and altering the course of destiny. Like historical seidr practitioners, she wandered from town to town plying her craft for hire.
Under the name Heiðr (“Bright”), she eventually came to Asgard, the home of the Aesir. The Aesir were quite taken by her powers and zealously sought her services. But soon they realized that their values of honor, kin loyalty, and obedience to the law were being pushed aside by the selfish desires they sought to fulfill with the witch’s magic. Blaming Freya for their own shortcomings, the Aesir called her “Gullveig” (“Gold-greed”) and attempted to murder her. Three times they tried to burn her, and three times she was reborn from the ashes.
Because of this, the Aesir and Vanir came to hate and fear one another, and these hostilities erupted into war. The Aesir fought by the rules of plain combat, with weapons and brute force, while the Vanir used the subtler means of magic. The war went on for some time, with both sides gaining the upper hand by turns.
Eventually the two tribes of divinities became weary of fighting and decided to call a truce. As was customary among the ancient Norse and other Germanic peoples, the two sides agreed to pay tribute to each other by sending hostages to live among the other tribe. Freya, Freyr, and Njord of the Vanir went to the Aesir, and Hoenir and Mimir went to the Vanir.
Njord and his children seem to have lived more or less in peace in Asgard. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of Hoenir and Mimir in Vanaheim. The Vanir immediately saw that Hoenir was seemingly able to deliver incomparably wise advice on any problem, but they failed to notice that this was only when he had Mimir in his company. Hoenir was actually a rather slow-witted simpleton who was at a loss for words when Mimir wasn’t available to counsel him. After Hoenir responded to the Vanir’s entreaties with the unhelpful “Let others decide” one too many times, the Vanir thought they had been cheated in the hostage exchange. They beheaded Mimir and sent the severed head back to Asgard, where the distraught Odin chanted magic poems over the head and embalmed it in herbs. Thus preserved, Mimir’s head continued to give indispensable advice to Odin in times of need.
The two tribes were still weary of fighting a war that was so evenly-matched, however. Rather than renewing their hostilities over this tragic misunderstanding, each of the Aesir and Vanir came together and spat into a cauldron. From their saliva they created Kvasir, the wisest of all beings, as a way of pledging sustained harmony.

14/05/2024

Lernean Hydra

The Lernean Hydra was a monster in Greek mythology. It had many heads and every time someone would cut off one of them, two more heads would grow out of the stump.
Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, sent the demigod Heracles to slay the Lernaean Hydra as one of a set of labours that the hero had to complete, in order to redeem himself for killing his wife and his children in a fit of madness. When Heracles reached lake Lerna, he had to cover his nose and mouth with a cloth, in order to protect himself from poisonous gases that were emitted.
After he managed to lure the monster out of its lair, Heracles quickly cut one of its heads off, only to realise in despair that two new heads had grown back.
But with the help of his nephew Iolaus they made a plan to use fire to cauterise the stump as soon as the head is cut off.
When only the immortal head remained, Heracles cut it off too and buried it under a heavy rock. Further, he dipped his arrows in the beast’s poisonous blood (or venom) to be able to inflict fatal wounds.

08/05/2024

Ancient scroll reveals new story of Plato's death!

Plato is one of the world’s best known and most widely read and studied philosophers. He was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, and he wrote in the middle of the fourth century B.C.E. in ancient Greece.
He may be one of the most famous philosophers of all time, he was the thinker who came up with the theory of forms and founded the first academic institution. Yet we know little about his life, such as how he died, or where he might be buried.
But spectacular new recent research on papyri from Herculaneum by The Greek Philosophical Schools-project in Italy has provided new answers to those questions. Carbonized papyrus scrolls, discovered in the 18th century in a Roman villa located near Herculaneum (between Naples and Pompeii) contain so much knowledge we have yet to uncover.
Reading the 1,800 scrolls has proved quite challenging. While their carbonization after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 preserved the scrolls, they are very brittle and very problematic to unroll.
Among these scrolls is a book by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus of Gadara, about the history of Greek philosophy, with the title Arrangement of the Philosophers.
Thanks to hyperspectral imagining it has become possible to distinguish between the black ink and the dark surface of the carbonized papyrus. We can now read approximately 30% more than we previously could.
These sources and others already gathered say that Plato was buried somewhere on the grounds of the Academy, a semi-public park-like area outside the city walls of ancient Athens that Plato had bought and where he had his school. From the new edition of the papyrus, it seems that Plato was buried in the garden near the mouseion. This garden was a more private part of the Academy, while the mouseion refers to a shrine of the Muses, the goddesses of music and harmony, that Plato himself had erected.

Before people rush out to dig for Plato's grave, however, a word of caution is in order as some words in the scroll such as "buried" are still being debated.

archeo

02/05/2024

Stonehenge

It is not clear who built Stonehenge. The site on Salisbury Plain in England has been used for ceremonial purposes and modified by many different groups of people at different times. Archaeological evidence suggests that the first modification of the site was made by early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. DNA analysis of bodies buried near Stonehenge suggests that some of its builders may have come from places outside of England, such as Wales or the Mediterranean.
The oldest part of the Stonehenge monument was built during the period from 3000 to 2935 BCE. It consists of a circular enclosure that is more than 330 feet (100 metres) in diameter, enclosing 56 pits called the Aubrey Holes, named after John Aubrey, who identified them in 1666.
In 2013, a team of archaeologists excavated the cremated remains of 50,000 bones at the site, belonging to 63 men, women and children. These bones date back as early as 3000 BC, though some are only dated back to 2500 BC. This suggests that Stonehenge may have been a burial ground at the start of its history.

According to Arthurian legend, the wizard Merlin removed Stonehenge from Ireland, where it had been erected by giants, and rebuilt it in England as a memorial to 3,000 nobles slain in battle with the Saxons.

26/04/2024

Were the Romans really descended From the Trojans?

Foundation myth? Or something more??

26/04/2024

Nereids, (sea nymphs)

The Nereids were sea nymphs in Greek mythology, fifty in total, daughters of Nereus and Doris. Mistaken for simple mermaids but these were much more, Doris was an Oceanid, a sea nymph, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Nereus, also known as "the old man of the sea", was the son of Pontus and Gaea, and father of the Nerites as well as the water nymphs Nereids .
They helped sailors on their voyages when they faced fierce storms.
They lived with their father in the depths of the Aegean Sea. One of the better known Nereids was Thetis, who was the mother of the hero Achilles.

Sounds a lot like the little mermaid, yes we know.

26/04/2024

Ares (Greek mythology)

Ares was the god of war, he represented the raw violence and untamed acts that occured in wartime, in contrast to Athena, who was a symbol of tactical strategy and military planning.
He was the son of Zeus and Hera and was one of the twelve Olympians. He was disliked by both his parents. Whenever Ares appeared in a myth, he was depicted as a violent personality who faced humiliation through his defeats more than once.
Ares’ worship was largely in the northern areas of Greece, and, although devoid of the social, moral and theological associations usual with major deities, his cult had many interesting local features. At Sparta, in early times human sacrifices were made to him from the prisoners of war.
He was associated with Aphrodite from earliest times, in fact, Aphrodite was known locally as a war goddess, apparently an early version of her character. Occasionally, Aphrodite was Ares’ legitimate wife, and by her he fathered many children.

Although Ares is seen as a powerful strong deity, it seems his fellow gods weren't fond of him, nonetheless he was accompanied in battle by his sister Eris (Strife) and his sons Phobos and Deimos (Panic and Rout).

26/04/2024

26/04/2024

The Four Cycles of Irish Mythology

The Mythological Cycle

The Mythological Cycle of Irish legends is made up of stories about former gods and the origins of the Irish. One of the most popular stories from the Mythological Cycle would be Children of Lir, a tragic story of a step-mother jealously over 4 children that she had turned into swans. Other stories from this cycle include The Wooing Of Étain, Cath Maige Tuireadh and The Dream of Aengus.
Although The Mythological Cycle is the least preserved out of all the Irish Legend cycles sources can be found in Metrical Dindshenchas or Lore of Places and the Lebor Gabála Érenn or Book of Invasions.

The Fenian Cycle

The Fenian Cycle is also referred to as Finn Cycle or Finnian Tales and is stories based around the Irish mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warriors, Fianna Éireann. The Fianna Éireann was warriors who lived in forests as mercenaries, bandits and hunters.
People also refer to the Fenian Cycle as the Ossianic cycle as Fionn mac Cumhaill’s son, Oisín, was supposed to have written most of the poems found in the cycle.
The famous story Salmon of Wisdom is part of the Fenian Cycle. This is when Fionn is admitted to the court of the High Kings at Tara after passing three major tests which then he became leader of the Clan Bascna. Fionn mac Cumhaill went onto be leader of the Fianna Éireann after killing a goblin by the name of Aillén mac Midgna. Every Samhain Aillén would terrorize the people on the Hill of Tara by playing music on his harp leaving every warrior helpless. Fionn used a magic spear that left him immune to the music and killed the goblin.

The Ulster Cycle

The Ulster Cycle is about legends and heroes of Ulaid, eastern Ulster and northern Leinster. They are written in manuscripts from the Medieval period but some early stories can be dated the Early Christian period in Ireland. Events in the Ulster cycle are to have taken place during the time of Christ with some historians believing the Ulster Cycle to be historical when others believed they were actually purely mythical.
The most important story of the Ulster cycle was the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley). The story tells of a war against Ulaid (Ulster) by the queen Connacht Medb Medb and her husband Ailill. They set out to steal to steal a stud bull by the name of Donn Cuailnge.
There is also Deirdre of the Sorrows that tells a story of beauty, lust, and the death of Ireland’s most beautiful woman.

Historical cycle/King cycle

During the medieval period in Ireland professional poets (bards) would record the history of the family or king they served. They did this in poems mixed with mythological and history resulting in stories that make up the Historical cycle.
Stories from the Historical cycle included High Kings such as Labraid Loingsech or Brian Boru and also included stories such as The Frenzy of Sweeney (Buile Shuibhne).