Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, it would appear that a lot of people in this Guild are interested in mythology, so...I thought I'd make a thread for it! Share your favorite myths from all around the world, discuse them, and hey maybe we'll find out what the heck the seven is all about! scream lol

The only limits I press is that you don't flame and keep it within the bounds of normal Gaian tolerance. Blah, blah, blah, we all get the gist.

There are also seven heavenly virtues.

eek The Dark Side of the Moon...

On a much lighter note, I love stories about coyote, and this one is one of my favorites.

Iktome, the wicked Spider Man, and Coyote are two no-good loafers. They lie, they steal, they are greedy, and they are always after women. Maybe because that are so very much alike, they are friends, except when they try to trick each other.

On day Iktome invited Coyote over for dinner at his lodge. He told his wife: "Old Woman, here are two fine, big buffalo livers for my friend Coyote and myself. Fry them up nicely, the way I liek them. And get some timpsila (wild turnips) on the side, and afterwards serve us up some wojapi (berry soup). Use chokecherries for that. Coyote always likes something sweet after his meal."
"Is that all?" asked Iktome's wife
"I guess so; I can't think of anything else."
"There's no third liver for me?" the wife inquired.
"You can have what's left after my friend Coyote and I have eaten," said Iktome. "Well, I'll go out for a while; maybe I can shoot a fine, plump duck too. Coyote always stuffs himself, so one liver may not be enough fo rhim. But watch this good friend of mine; don't let him stick his hand under your robe. He likes to do that. Well, I go now. Have everything ready for us; Coyote never likes to wait."

Iktome left and his old woman got busy cooking. "I know who's always stuffing himself," she thought. "I know whose hands are always busy under some girl's robes. I know who can't wait--it's that no good husband of mine."

The fried livers smelled so wonderful that the wife said to herself: "Those greedy, stingy, overbearing men! I know them; they'll feast on these fine livers, and a few turnips will be all they leave for me. They have no consideration for a poor woman. Oh, that liver here looks so good, smells so good; I know it tastes good. Maybe I'll try a little piece, just a tiny one. They won't notice."

So, the wife tasted a bit of the liver, and then another bit, and then another, and in no time th eliver was gone. "I might as well eat the other one too," the wife said to herself, and she did.

"What will I do now?" she thought. "When Iktome finds out, he'll surely beat me. But it was worth it!"

Just then, Coyote arrived. he had dressed himself up in a fine beaded outfit with fringed sleeves. "Where is my good friend Iktome?" he asked. "What's he up to? Probably nothing good."
"How are you, friend?" said the woman. "My husband, Iktome, is out taking care of some business. he'll be back soon. Sit down, be comfortable."
"Out on business--you don't say!" remarked Coyote, quickly sticking his hand under the woman's robes and between her legs.
"Iktome told me you'd try to do that. he told me not to let you."
"Oh, Iktome and I are such good friends," said Coyote, "we share everything." He joked, he chucked the woman under the chin, he tickled her under the arms, and pretty soon he was all the way in her, way, way up inside her.
"it feels good," said the woman, "but be quick about it. Iktome could be back anytime now."
"you think he would mind, seeing as we are such good friends?"
"I'm sure he would. You'd better stop now."
"Well, all right. it smells very good here, btu I see no meat cooking, just some timpsila. Meat is what I like."
"And meat is what you'll get. One sees this is the first time that you've com ehere for dinner; otherwise you'd know what you'll get. We always serve the guests the same thing. Everybody likes it."
"Is it really good?"
"It's more than good. It's lila washtay (very good)."
Coyote smaked his lips, his mouth watering. "i can't wait. what is it? Tell me!"
"Why, your itka, your susu, ypur eggs, your balls, your big hairy balls! We always have the balls of our guests for dinner."
"Oh my! This must be a joke, a very bad joke."
"It's no joke at all. And I'd better cut them off right now with my big skinning knife, because it's gettign late. Ikto gets mad when I don't have his food ready--he'll beat me. And there I was, fooling around with you instead of doing my cooking. I'll do it right now; drop your breechcloth. You won't feel a thing, I do this so fast. I have practice."
The woman came after Coyote with the knife in her hand.
"Wait a bit," said Coyote. "Before you do this, let me go out and make some water. I'll be right back," and saying this, he ran out of the lodge. But he didn't come back. He ran as fast as his feet would take him.
Just then Iktome came back without any ducks; he had caught nothing. He saw Coyote running away and asked, "Old woman, what's the matter with the crazy friend of mine? WHy is he running off liek that?"
"You're friend is very greedy. He doesn't have the sharing spirit," his wife told Iktome. "Never invite him to dinner gain. he has no manners. he doesn't know how to behave. he saw those fine buffalo livers, which I cooked just as you liek them, and he didn't want to share them with you. he grabbed both and made off with them. Some friend!"
Iktome rushed out of the lodge in a frenzy, running after Coyote as fast as he could, shouting, "Coyote! Kola! Friend! leave me at least one! Leave one for me! For your friend Iktome!"
Coyote didn't stop. he ran even faster then Ikto. Running, running, he looked back over his sholder and shouted: "Cousin, if you catch me, you can have them both!"

(American Indian Myths and Legends Selected and edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz)

Wow, she's tricky. I have heard that story before, except it was called "Clever Gredal" and it was chicken. I suppose it's a bastardization of the myth.

Fenrir and the Gleipnir

In Asgard, home of the gods, Loki the trickster birthed a son named Fenrir after eating the heart of the witch-giantess, Angerbotha. He had the form of an enormous wolf at birth. The gods received prophecies that Fenrir was a threat the gods became alarmed when he continued to grow. Soon, he towered high above them, and the gods became scared. To keep him from hunting in the world, they fed him, and only Tyre, god of justice was brave enough to do this. Later, as he became even larger, the gods conspired to get him out of the way. Killing him was out of the question because it would defile asgard, so they decided to trap him. They attempted to restrain him with two different iron fetters. The wolf broke the first, called Leyding, with a single kick. The second fetter, called Dromi, was twice as strong. The wolf strained a bit at this one but soon broke it as well. Then the gods became more afraid of the wolf's power. Odin sent Skirnir, Frey's messenger, down into the world of the dwarfs and had them fashion a magic restraint called Gleipnir. It was made of six ingredients: the sound of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, a bear's sinews, a fish's breath, and a bird's spittle. When it was done, Gleipnir was smooth and soft, like a silken ribbon. Skirnir brought it back to the home of the gods, and they took it to the island of Lyngvi by the lake Amsvartnir. They called the wolf, showed him the silky band, and challenged him to test his strength again.

Fenrir was suspicious because of the thinness of the band. The gods agreed to free him if he could not break out of the fetter himself, but Fenrir was still reluctant to have it put on him. He asked that someone put their hand into his mouth as a pledge that the gods were acting in good faith.

None of the gods was willing to take such a risk, knowing full well the deceit, but then Tyr stepped forward and put his right hand into the wolf's mouth, making the sacrifice that would keep the gods safe. Fenrir was bound with Gleipnir, and he tried with all his might but could not snap it. The gods laughed to see the wolf's distress--except for Tyr: Fenrir closed his mouth on Tyr's hand at the wrist.

Once the wolf was bound, the gods took a cord, called Gelgia, that hung from the fetter, and threaded it through a great stone slab called Gioll.They fastened the slab deep into the earth. Then they took a huge rock, called Thviti, using it for an anchoring-peg.

The wolf, in his anger, struggled violently and stretched its jaws frighteningly wide, trying to bite them all. The gods thrust a tall sword into Fenrir's mouth as a gum prop, with its hilt touching his lower gums and the point touching his upper gums. Fenrir continued to howl horribly, and saliva ran from his mouth. In this subdued condition, according to the myths, the terrible Fenris wolf would remain until Ragnarok, when the gods and the giants would fight to the death. (Mimri prophecises:His freedom will cause Ragnorak. By the time he is free, his maw shall stretch from the ground to the clouds, and He shall slay Odin. Odin's son will kill Fenrir. The indo-European god-king succession is perpetuated.

( The ingredients are baffling, I know. )

...That's really sweet.

Methinks my poems would be sweet once more,
If the miser in my chest wasn't quite so poor.
So I'll hoard that little treasure,
Knowing the real thing- and it,
can never measure.

Meh, those all powerful elemental gods are cool but I prefer embodiments of personality traits, like Wisdom or Justice, social elements

The true king is not he or she who is at the top of the wheel, but the middle of the wheel,so change revolves around them. Uranus and Chronos were at the top at one point, but they fell further as time went on. Ah, I'm ranting again... That's something I can't stand about Zeus, he's really strong, yet any pretty woman could enslave his senses, I swear, Athena must have taken his brains with her when she jumped out.

I like Apollo more than any other male god... but Athena and Artemis both beat him, in my eyes. In fact, there's no male god in greek mythology that's completely respectable other than Apollo that I've seen... Egyptian is different. Behold Dihuati, also known as Thoth

He was originally the deification of the moon in the Ogdoad belief system. Initially, in that system, the moon had been seen to be the eye of Horus, the sky god, which had been semi-blinded (thus darker) in a fight against Set, the other eye being the sun. However, over time it began to be considered separately, becoming a lunar deity in its own right, and was said to have been another son of Ra. As the crescent moon strongly resembles the curved beak of the ibis, this separate deity was named Djehuty (i.e. Thoth), meaning ibis.

Thoth became associated with the Moon, due to the Ancient Egyptians observation that Baboons (sacred to Thoth) 'sang' to the moon at night.

The Moon not only provides light at night, allowing the time to still be measured without the sun, but its phases and prominence gave it a significant importance in early astrology/astronomy. The cycles of the moon also organized much of Egyptian society's civil, and religious, rituals, and events. Consequently, Thoth gradually became seen as a god of wisdom, magic, and the measurement, and regulation, of events, and of time. He was thus said to be the secretary and counsellor of Ra, and with Ma'at (truth/order) stood next to Ra on the nightly voyage across the sky, Ra being a sun god.

Thoth became credited by the ancient Egyptians as the inventor of writing, and was also considered to have been the scribe of the underworld, and the moon became occasionally considered a separate entity, now that Thoth had less association with it, and more with wisdom. For this reason Thoth was universally worshipped by ancient Egyptian Scribes.

Thoth was also prominent in the Osiris myth, being of great aid to Isis. After Isis gathered together the pieces of Osiris' dismembered body, he gave her the words to resurrect him so she could be impregnated and bring forth Horus, named for his uncle. When Horus was slain, he gave the formulae to resurrect him as well. Similar to God speaking the words to create the heavens and Earth in Judeo-Christian mythology, Thoth, being the god who always speaks the words that fulfill the wishes of Ra, spoke the words that created the heavens and Earth in Egyptian mythology.

Mythology also accredits him with the creation of the 365 day calendar. Originally, according to the myth, the year was only 360 days long and Nut with sterility during these days, unable to bear children. Thoth gambled with Khonsu, the moon, for 1/72nd of its light (360/72 = 5), or 5 days, and won. During these 5 days, she gave birth to Kheru-ur (Horus the Elder, Face of Heaven), Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nepthys.

Now that is a fine example of a deity if I have any correct thoughts on the matter 3nodding