Mythology Central

Egyptian God Ra

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:24:10 +0000

Ra (Pronounced Rah) (Rê and later Amun-Ra; reconstructed as *ri:ʕu) is the ancient Egyptian sun god. He is a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion by the fifth dynasty. Identified primarily with the mid-day sun, though he was said to be the sun in one form or another at all times. The chief cult centre of Ra first was based in Heliopolis (ancient Inunu) meaning “City of the Sun”. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was subsumed into the god Horus, as Re-Horakhty (and many variant spellings). He commanded sky, earth, and underworld. He was associated with the falcon. Pharaohs were considered to be the children of Ra.

According to E. A. Wallis Budge, he was the one god of Egyptian monotheism, of which all other deities were aspects, manifestations, phases, or forms. Ra itself, however, was also a monotheistic god. A Hymn to Rah (approx. 1370s BC) was written to stress the pantheistic nature of Rah to combat encroaching polytheism. In it, several deities are described, not as beings in their own right, but certain forms of Rah. For example:

“Praise be unto thee, O Ra, thou exalted Power, who dost enter into the habitations of Ament, behold [thy] body is Atum.”
“Praise be unto thee, O Ra, thou exalted Power, who dost enter into the hidden palace of Anubis, behold [thy] body is Khepera.”

Ra is most commonly pronounced ‘rah’. It is more likely, however, that it should be pronounced as ‘rei’, hence the alternative spelling Re rather than Rah. It is not known for sure what Ra’s name means, but it is thought it may be a variant of or linked to ‘creative’, if not an original word for ’sun’. As his cult arose in the Egyptian pantheon, Rah often replaces Atum as the father, grandfather and great-grandfather of the deities of the Ennead, and becomes the creator of the world. Ra then was seen to have created Sekhmet, who becomes Hathor, the cow goddess, after she has sufficiently punished mankind as an avenging Eye of Ra, and so he is often said to be the father of both and brother to the god, Osiris. Nearly all forms of life were supposedly created by Ra, who called each of them into existence by speaking their secret name. Eventually, humans were created from Ra’s tears or sweat, leading to the Egyptians calling themselves the “Cattle of Ra.”

Source: Wikipedia

Mythology Central

What is an Urban Legend?

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:45:50 +0000

An urban legend is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them. The term is often used to mean something akin to an “apocryphal story.” Like all folklore, urban legends are not necessarily false, but they are often distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized over time.
Despite its name, a typical urban legend does not necessarily originate in an urban setting. The term is simply used to differentiate modern legend from traditional folklore in preindustrial times. For this reason, sociologists and folklorists prefer the term “contemporary legend.”

Urban legends are sometimes repeated in news stories and, in recent years, distributed by e-mail. People frequently allege that such tales happened to a “friend of a friend”—so often, in fact, that “friend of a friend,” (”FOAF”) has become a commonly used term when recounting this type of story.

Some urban legends have passed through the years with only minor changes to suit regional variations. One example is the story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo. More recent legends tend to reflect modern circumstances, like the story of people ambushed, anesthetized, and waking up minus one kidney, which was surgically removed for transplantation.

Source: Wikipedia

Mythology Central

Egyptian Goddess Bast / Bastet

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:38:17 +0000

In Egyptian mythology, Bast (also spelled Ubasti, and later Bastet) is an ancient solar and war goddess, worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty. In the late dynasties, the priests of Amun began to call her Bastet, a repetitive and diminutive form after her role in the pantheon became diminished as Sekhmet, a similar lioness war deity, became more dominant in the unified culture of Lower and Upper Egypt. In the Middle Kingdom, the cat appeared as Bastet’s sacred animal and after the New Kingdom she was depicted with a woman with a cat’s head carrying a sacred rattle and a box or basket.

Bast or Bastet was the cat goddess and local deity of the town of Bubastis “Tell or Per-Bast in Egyptian, where her cult was centered. Bubastis was named after her. Originally she was viewed as the protector goddess of Lower Egypt, and consequently depicted as a fierce lioness. Indeed, her name means (female) devourer. As protector, she was seen as defender of the pharaoh, and consequently of the later chief male deity, Ra, who was a solar deity also, gaining her the titles Lady of Flame and Eye of Ra.

The goddess Bast was sometimes depicted holding a ceremonial sistrum in one hand and an aegis in the other – the aegis usually resembling a collar or gorget embellished with a lioness head.

Bast was a goddess of the sun throughout most of Ancient Egyptian history, but later was changed to a goddess of the moon by Greeks occupying Ancient Egypt toward the end of its civilization. In Greek mythology, Bast is also known as Aelurus.

Source: Wikipedia

Mythology Central

Greek God Ares

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:58:44 +0000

In Greek mythology, Ares (Ancient Greek: Ἄρης [á.rὲεs], Μodern Greek Άρης ['a.ris]) is the son of Zeus and Hera. Though often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, he is more accurately the god of savage warfare, bloodlust, or slaughter personified: “Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war.”Rather than a brave soldier, he is often depicted as somewhat cowardly, although he is already an important Olympian god in the epic tradition represented by the Iliad. The reading of his character remains ambiguous, as in a late sixth-century funerary inscription from Attica: “Stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos/ Whom raging Ares destroyed one day, fighting in the foremost ranks”.

The Romans identified him as Mars, the god of war and agriculture, whom they had inherited from the Etruscans; but, among them, Mars stood in much higher esteem. (See also Athena.)

Among the Hellenes, Ares was always distrusted. Although Ares’ half-sister Athena was also considered a war deity, her stance was that of strategic warfare, whereas Ares’s tended to be one of unpredictable violence. His birthplace and true home was placed far off, among the barbarous and warlike Thracians, to whom he withdrew after his affair with Aphrodite was revealed.

“Ares” remained an adjective and epithet in Classical times, which could be applied to the war-like aspects of other gods: Zeus Areios, Athena Areia, even Aphrodit Areia.

In Mycenaean times, inscriptions attest to Enyalios, a name that survived into Classical times as an epithet of Ares. Vultures and dogs, both of which prey upon carrion in the battlefield, are sacred to him.

Source: Wikipedia

Mythology Central