Mediteranean Myths
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TIAMAT comes from Babylonian legend and was one of the original gods of the world. Depicted offen as a beautiful DRAGON queen. In modern times lovers of animated cartoons will know of TIAMAT from the series DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.This five headded dragon was said to be able to breath fire,ice,wind and acid as well as able to resist magic! |
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Of all of the babylonian gods one rose to be supreme, this was MARDUK . In a desperate act the other gods relinquised all thier powers to MARDUK and he set out to confront TIAMAT. With him he took bows and arrows, a flash of lightning and a huge net filled with air. He found TIAMAT sitting on a large rock in the ocean. When she saw marduk comming towards her she began lauging at him, unperturbed MARDUK kept on coming. Now anoyed Tiamat let out a mighty roar and flew at MARDUK. Unflinchingly Marduk cast his net over Tiamat & let the winds lose.The net trapped one of Tiamat's huge jaws open and Marduk first cast the lightning bold down her throat followed quickly by an arrow. The arrow pierced Tiamat's heart and killed her immediatly. Now dead Marduk proceded to cut the body into two pieces, one became the earth and the other the heavens. Thus ended the babylonians legend of the way the world was created, as with most stories a classic tale of good triumphant over evil.
As far as is known there was only one Minatour in the world, and acording to Greek legend was the son of Queen Pasiphae of Crete and a beautiful white bull that Neptune had brought from the sea.Poseidon(Neptune) had sent the bull to king Minos as a sacrifice, but the King had refused to kill the bull. So insulted was Poseidon that he put a spell on Queen Pasiphae to make her fall in love with the bull. When the queens child was born it had the head and horns of a bull and the body of a man, so hiddeous was it to look at that the Queen had a maze built to hide the monster she had born. So cleverly built was the maze or labyrinth that once inside it, the Minatour had no hope of escape. Similarly anyone else finding themself on the inside would be in the same plight and would have no hope of escape. After a while the Minatour came to refuse any type of food except human flesh so King Minos now had the problem of finding victims for the monster in the labyrinth below his palace.
Theseus was determined to do something to stop the Minatour and told his father King Aegeus that he also would sail in the black ship. Despite his fathers pleas not to Theseus joined the ship, heartbroken the king was sure he would never see his son again and asked his son that should he manage to return to Athens to change the sail on the ship from black to white.
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The following morning the Athenians were taken to the great bronze door that was the entrance, upon entering it was firmly locked behind them. Theseus explained his plan to his companions and bade them stay hidden near the entrance and then set off to find the Minatour. Unwinding the wool as he went Theseus traveled deep into the labyrinth until almost at the end of the wool he heard the bellowing of the hungry Minatour.needless to say he killed the monster and eventualy returned to the entrance where his companions were hiding.Ariadne as aranged had taken the key to the bronze door and let them out, quickly they made thier way to thier ship and set sail for Athens. Sadly fate was to take a final twist as Theseus had forgotten his promise to his father King Aegeus and the black sail was still above the ship,at the sight of this the king grief striken threw himself off the cliffs & drowned. The sea to this day is named after him as the Aegean.
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This legendary creature, usually represented in literature and art as having the head, beak, and wings of an eagle, the body and legs of a lion, and occasionally a serpent's tail. The griffin seems to have originated in the Middle East, as it is found in the paintings and sculptures of the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians. The Romans used the griffin merely for decorative purposes in friezes and on table legs, altars, and candelabra. |
Among the myths of ancient Greece and Rome are the stories of the Lamias who were said to live in North Africa. They were beautiful women from the waist upwards but writhing serpents from the waist down. They were greatly feared as witches and also as monsters,the Lamias were unable to speak but could make a beautiful whistling sound in order to lure travellers to thier doom in a similar fassion to that of the Sirens.
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The first Lamia on record was said to be that of the beautiful Queen of Lybia, who is was said to have been loved by the Greek god Zeus. Strangely the gift that he gave her was the power to pluck people's eyes and replace them as she saw fit! It wasn't long before Zeus's wife Hera (who also happened to be his sister!) found out about his passion for another woman and in a rage had all of Lamia's children murdered. Lamia's fury and bitterness at this deed caused her to take on the shape of a serpent woman and for ever after that eat every child that crossed her path. It was said that she even had the ability to spirit babies from the wombs of pregnant women.
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The Satyr's were sometimes regarded as gods or demons of the forest and usualy associated with fertility. The Greeks called them Satyrs while the Romans called them Fauns, Pans or Sylvans. Most pictures usualy show them as having the hindquarters of a goat and a human body, head and arms. They were thickly covered with dark curly hair and usualy had short horns on thier heads,pointed animal like ears and hooked noses. Satyrs were supposed to live on the three islands of Satirides somewhere near India where they inhabited underground caves. High spirited in nature they would rush out of thier caves frightening sailors who landed on thier islands. They would enjoy pouncing on Nymphs, dancing, and playing thier ever present flutes, they were also well known for thier drunkenness. Country people used to offer them the first fruits of thier harvests and even sacrificed lambs in thier honour. |
The sphinx is a fabled monster. It has a human head and a lion's body. In ancient Egypt, where the idea originated, the head was usually a portrait of the reigning pharaoh. It also represented the sky-god Horus. The Egyptians always pictured their kings as calm and stately, with wide-open, staring eyes. The lion's body symbolizing courage is crouched with its front feet outstretched.
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From Egypt the idea of the sphinx spread to the Syrians and Phoenicians and finally to the Greeks. These peoples gave the creature the head and bust of a woman. They added an eagle's wings to represent majesty and a long serpent's tail to indicate wiliness. In later Greek literature the sphinx was no monster, but a beautiful, wise, and mysterious woman.
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The Great Sphinx at Giza was carved in about 2600 BC. It stands near the three great pyramids, gazing across the Nile, to the east. The head is a portrait of Khafre, a pharaoh of the Old Kingdom. Near the sphinx rises Khafre's tomb, the second of the three great pyramids From the Egyptians the Greeks borrowed their idea of a sphinx. According to a legend this monster put a riddle to all those who passed by and devoured those who failed to guess it. After many had died in this way, the Theban hero Oedipus answered the riddle correctly and so caused the monster's death.
In ancient Egypt and in classical antiquity, the phoenix was a fabulous bird associated with the worship of the sun. The phoenix was said to be as large as an eagle, with brilliant scarlet and gold plumage and a melodious cry. Only one phoenix existed at any one time, and it was very long-lived no ancient writer gave it a life span of less than 500 years. As its death approached, the phoenix fashioned a nest of aromatic boughs and spices, set it on fire, and was consumed in the flames. From the pyre miraculously sprang a new phoenix, which, after embalming its predecessor's ashes in an egg of myrrh, flew with the ashes to the City of the Sun, in Egypt, where it deposited them on the altar in the temple of the Egyptian god of the sun. The phoenix was understandably thus associated with immortality and the allegory of resurrection and life after death. The phoenix was compared to undying Rome, and it appears on the coinage of the late Roman Empire as a symbol of the Eternal City.
Material Copyright © 2000 f. parker