#mediterranean mythology

[evilios]

H E R M E S - Divine shepherd, pastor of herdsmen and heralds, quick-witted assistant of men. God of chance and lucky draw, he who oversees rustic divination and pastoral music of the countrymen.

Hermes is a lot of things, ever caught in-between the world of the living and the land of the dead. A friend, a guide, a companion on the windy roads. A hero of many stories, a messenger within many myths, a bringer of friendly havoc and a disobedient child.

🕊️ / 🕊️ / 🕊️ 🕊️ / 🕊️ / 🕊️ 🕊️ / 🕊️ / 🕊️

P. S. Gif overlay/editing by me. I have posted it before.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Vlaho Bukovac (Croatian, 1855-1922) Andromeda, n.d. National Gallery of Slovenia

[illustratus]

The House of Asterion by Piero Vettori

[firnen-the-teragram-teabag]

[flaroh]

Dancing through the eras ✨👭🏺 Happy  #WomensEqualityDay everyone!🧡 Today I'm thinking of all the women of the Ancient Mediterranean, whose lives and dreams we still continue to learn about today with every discovery✨

[mythologyofthepoetandthemuse]

A walk in the historical centre of Athens

Photos by Vera Bousiou

[calabria-mediterranea]

Sirens of Greek Myth Were Bird-Women, Not Mermaids

Bottle-askos in the shape of a siren (2nd half 6th century BC) from Locri / Southern Italy's Calabria. National Museum of Magna Graecia (Reggio Calabria, Italy).

In the wine-dark expanse of the Mediterranean Sea, far from the halls of civilization, there was once a small island—or so Homer, the famed poet of Ancient Greece, wrote in his epic The Odyssey. No buildings occupied its flowery meadows; no fisherman worked its shores. Those who passed in their black ships heard only voices, twining over the windless waves, singing a song that promised knowledge of all things. Once they heard it, they were enchanted; they had no choice but to land and seek out the singers. Those who did never left the island; their bodies remained, rotting amid the flowers, for none who heard the Sirens' song could escape it.

The story of the Sirens has inspired writers, poets, and artists for millennia. But somewhere along the way their form was confused. Today, Sirens are almost always represented as voluptuous mermaids, whose beauty and sexuality lure men to their deaths. But the Classical Greeks understood the Sirens differently: as bird-women, creatures that Mediterranean cultures traditionally associated with hidden knowledge.

Sirens first appear in the literary record with the Odyssey (written around 750 BCE) in a segment that’s much briefer than you’d think considering the cultural impact of these mystical, singing creatures. It goes like this: Odysseus, warned by the enchantress Circe of the danger posed by the Sirens’ song, orders his crew to stuff their ears with wax. But, curious to a fault, he has himself bound to the ship’s mast so he can listen without flinging himself into the sea. The Sirens promise him tales of all that had occurred during the war at Troy, and everywhere else besides; enchanted, he begs his crew to release him. He rants, raves, and threatens, but to no avail. His crew sails on until the song fades in the distance, and so saves his life.

Homer doesn’t describe the Sirens’ physical appearance in his epic poem, Wilson says. But in ceramic paintings and tomb sculptures from the time of writing, and centuries after, Sirens were usually depicted with taloned feet, feathered wings, and a beautiful human face. The bird-body of the Siren is significant to Wilson: In the eyes of traditional peoples all across Europe, birds were often graced with an otherworldliness associated with gods, spirits, and omens.

They inhabit the water, the air, and the earth. They’re also associated with song; they have voices that are not human voices, and kinds of movement that are not the same as human kinds of movement.

The Sirens’ role in tomb art is particularly telling. In ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures—as far back as 7,000 years ago—birds were often depicted carrying spirits to the underworld. In Southern Italy's Calabria, archaeologists unearthed several Greek askos (unguentary vessel) in shape of sirens, most commonly found in tombs.

Bronze askos in the shape of a siren (5th century BC) from Crotone, Calabria, Italy - Archaeological Museum of Crotone.

Jump ahead a few millennia to 1,550 BCE, by which time Ba-birds, depictions of departing souls as human-faced birds, began appearing in Egypt. That connection between birds and dead souls seems to have then hopped over to Greece: Writing in the 5th century BCE, the playwright Euripides described the Sirens as at the beck and call of Persephone, one of the rulers of the underworld, while other writers identified the Sirens as rivals and dark echoes of the Muses, those goddesses of creativity.

These are the Sirens the Ancient Greeks would have recognized: bird creatures of the underworld, bridging the human world and what lies beyond. The Sirens—and their fateful songs—then offered a glimpse behind the veil, a chance to hear how earthly glories would echo in eternity. The question of what song the Sirens sing, what is this forbidden knowledge, what's wrong with it, what's the temptation—the text leaves a lot of open space there. Therein lies the seduction.

Yet today, mermaids or beautiful sea nymphs replace the dark, winged Sirens of ancient times.

It is during the Middle Ages that the image of the siren began its shift from bird-woman to mermaid . With the transformation of the siren's image, the attributes associated with female monsters shifted. This suggests a change in the traits that were considered monstrous in women. The siren's movement from a frightening bird-woman to a beautiful mermaid represents female beauty becoming monstrous. Throughout the Middle Ages sirens increasingly represented a male fear of female seduction, suggesting a growing fear of female sexuality.

For medieval Christians, sirens were heavily associated with female sin.

However it happened, the identification of Sirens with mermaids seems to have affected later translations of the Odyssey, and ultimately common knowledge of Sirens. Translators in the 19th and 20th centuries cast the Sirens in a sexualized light. In one prose translation, the Sirens speak of “the sweet voice from our lips,” despite the word στομάτων directly translating to the less sensual “mouths.” Another adds flowery descriptors of “each purling note/like honey twining/from our lips.” But unlike the Odyssey’s other island temptresses, Circe and Calypso, the Sirens get no admiring description of their faces or hair. Only their voice is described, and their field of bones and flowers.

That’s a pretty strong indicator that the Sirens are not meant to be read as offering a sexual temptation. You can kiss lips; mouths devour.

Folklore and mythology move on, given enough time. Today, the Siren is just another word for mermaid, and is likely to remain so. But there’s something richly thematic about the Sirens of Classical Greece that deserves to be remembered: in-between creatures on a lonely island, floating between the boundaries of life and death, and offering an irresistible song of both. Water-temptresses are a dime a dozen; the Sirens offer wisdom.

Follow us on Instagram, @calabria_mediterranea

[useless-catalanfacts]

Medes islets (Illes Medes), off the coast of L'Estartit in Comarques Gironines, Catalonia. Photo from Getty Images via Traveler.

According to local legends, the palace of the queen of mermaids is deep under these islets. The palace is made of glass and is entered through a cave made of pink coral.

People from Cap de Creus (the area where L'Estartit is) used to say that, every year around October, a special mermaid wakes up. She's different from the rest of her species because she's more beautiful and her singing voice is the sweetest and most harmonious that anyone will ever hear. But her songs can only be heard by fishermen and sailors, because she sings only for them.

[cryptidbait]

✨ MORTAL KOMBAT MYTHOS AU ✨

Bi Han and Kuai -Nine sons of the dragon

Bi Han (yàzí or Ya Zi)

Kuai Liang (Bi An)

Hanzo (shinigami)

Kenshi (Hakutaku/ Bai Ze)

Johnny (the descendants of Mediterranean cult —Demi god es que)

I was genuinely so excited to do this!! I don’t really draw creatures, dragons, etc often so this was was a serious art exercise

[voyage-of-venus]

FREE | Greek and Roman Art Study Guide Notion Template

[clepysdra]

Aegean Set 2.0

Revisiting Ariadne and Phaedra to give them some clothes! And also a tunic for Theseus. The outfits are based off of ancient Minoan and Mycenaean clothing (with huge inspiration taken from the reconstructions by Dr. Bernice Jones; I don’t think I’d be able to visualize their shapes from the ancient frescos alone), although some swatches are more historically accurate than others.

~You can find the first half of the Aegean set here.~

Ariadne Dress (UPDATED 1/2/24)

Long dress category

15 swatches

Base game compatible

Feminine

Theseus Tunic

Short dress category

17 swatches

Base game compatible

Masculine

DRESS DOWNLOAD - Dropbox (no ads)

TUNIC DOWNLOAD - Dropbox (no ads)

~Also, the Manthos sword on Theseus’ hip is by the amazing @kyriat-sims~

[heliomanteia]

Kind of ironic but Will goes through the same mischaracterization within the fandom as Apollo goes through within myth communities.

"Sunshine boy" gets slapped on Will and successfully erases every other personality trait he could potentially have in the already scarce and poorly put together canon. Will, in the majority of Will-containing content, is either a function aimed at making other characters feel better, "Nico's boyfriend", or someone who exists entirely as an antithesis to a well-written character ("sunshine to his gloom" kinda rhetoric where the "gloomy guy" defines Will through opposition).

Apollo gets the "dumb blond man" treatment despite, like, nothing within Mediterranean mythology implying he's so much carefree. I am convinced that RR does at most bare minimum "research" into cultural topics he writes on but making Apollo the dumb and chill guy who only cares about poetics of love is, like, genuinely going against his entire myth narrative. Already ranted about this before but even Apoline aspect of being a "patron of music" is a deeply class-tied sociopolitical phenomenon. I'm aware TOA attempts at going from carefree to more aware and serious but that just feels artificial, like myth retellings that take away characters' agency to then show their "growth".

Like father like son I guess.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Charles Amable Lenoir (French, 1860-1926) The Death of Sappho, 1896

[illustratus]

The Minotaur by George Frederic Watts

[evermore-grimoire]

The Evermore Grimoire: Mermaids of the Seven Seas

The Mediterranean Mermaids are a pod of fierce and fiery mermaids who thrive in the warmth of their namesake, the Mediterranean Sea. Just like the Caribbean Mermaids, they are exceptionally beautiful which is also reflected in the burning shades of yellows and oranges of their tails. Once upon a time though, they were mostly known for helping local fishermen with their catches by driving the fish to the surface with their power of Hydro-Thermokinesis, and in return the fishermen vowed to never hunt them down. Thus creating a peaceful co-existence between two worlds. However as the centuries passed, the Mediterranean slowly became a tourist attraction for the surface world, making it difficult for the mermaids to stay hidden and for the fisherman to successfully fish in peace. As technology also advanced, so did the exposure to this part of the magical world with footage of the Mediterranean Mermaids becoming more prevalent. Some mermaids became started to lose hope that their life and home beneath the surface would ever return to what is was before it became a tourist hotspot. So they took decision to give up their magic and who they were born to be in favour of a life hidden in the surface world as mortals. Their decision to give up their lives as mermaid as well as their magic sent a ripple through the pod, creating a permanent and deep rift between the mermaids. Those that opposed the idea of living on land decided to keep fighting for their underwater world believing that they could win and drive out the surface world forever. However it was all in vain as more of the surface world became attracted to warmth and sun of the Mediterranean and the ocean itself. What happened to the rest of the pod is a mystery but it is believed that if you spot a ring of bubbles in the ocean and the surface temperature suddenly become extremely hot, it’s the Mediterranean Mermaids reminding you, you are not welcome in their ocean.

original artwork by Vlad Stankovic

[katerinaaqu]

I have a question I've had for a while now and i was wondering if you had any insight on it. In the Odyssey, Sicilian people are mentioned a couple of times, like Laertes' maid. Then we have Trinacria, the island of Helios with the ancient name of Sicily, as well as the island of the Cyclopes (?). So I was wondering, what reality is Homer (or the earlier tradition) trying to describe here? Sicilians as indigenous people prior to historical Mycenaean and later colonization or as Greek citizens of the forming Magna Graecia of his time? Would these Sicilians have shared their land with Cyclopes and/or the Sun god in myth?

That is a very good question. Arguably Homer mentions various locations by name for example Egypt (not only as the place of shipwreck of Menelaus but also in the Iliad Achilles says that "even if you gave me gifts as rich as in Egyptian Thebes" ) while other locations are either hinted (Tynisia for Lotus Eaters for example) or not named as some official name we recognize (Scheria, Ogygia etc) and Sicily is a famous place to check as well which is probably yet another reason why Butler suggested the theory that the woman he believed that wrote the Odyssey lived in Sicily (see my other ask)

Trinacria is by general decision placed indeed at a small island off the coast of Sicily and some accounts and researchers believe that the isle of Sicily itself is the land of Cyclops as well as the passage between South Italy and Sicily is said yo be the passage of Skylla and Charybdis due to the dangerous currents there I even had done a small research on the area while studying on greek colonies at university at postgraduate degree. The area around it is also linked to myths like the sirens as well. So yeah it does seem like Odysseus did a tour around Italy many times over hahaha 😆 even the land of Kimeria is mentioned most likely to the passage between Italy and Spain. In fact there are many people who place the land of Scheria off the coasts of Spain instead of the isle of Corfu (Kerkyra) because of the location being too far from Ithaca and fitting the homeric description.

The area of South Italy and Sicily is a precious area for the ancient Greeks for it was one of the most famous area they built their colonies (earning the name Magna Grecia aka Big Greece). The are is linked to various of myths as well including Titanomachy (Zeus vs Typhoon), Skylla and Charybdis, Sirens even as you said the Land of Helios and Aeolia. Some of the earliest colonies the Greeks had in the area was the one I studied, the placed named Pythekoussai right off the coast of modern day Napoli and was inhabited already by Homer's time.

I would say your question has one possible answer; both!

We do know the area was known to Greeks before otherwise they wouldn't have inhabited it so early. We also know that the Mycenaeans traveled a lot across the Mediterannean sea by the zenith of their palatial system (around 15th century BC). In fact people from nowadays Greece were traveling around. We discover pottery from the renounced Kamares of Minoan times to North Africa and Egypt as far back as Middle Kingdom. Depictions of Ramses's favorite wife, Nefertari, show the queen wear a silver earring that resembles a Minoan axe in shape as well (and by the way Silver was mostly an imported good in Egypt for Egypt was poor in silver) We even discovered a papyrus that is estimated to depict Mycenaean warriors working in the pharaonic army. They are drawn obviously in an egyptian style but this yellowish helmet is estimated by some to represent the boar tusk helmet.

There was also a palace that I studied during my postgraduate degree when we studied the cultural exchanges in Mediterannean sea in northern Egypt that has a Minoan decoration and is dating from the time of Hatsepsut and Tuthmoses III. It is estimated the designer must have been Minoan and either temporarily or permanently living at the area when he was commissioned this building's decorations possibly by an Egyptian.

When the Mycenaeans extended their areas of exploring in order to exchange goods they probably followed known roads. We do discover in Neolithic times for example obsidian that came only from the small island of Melos all over Europe. Probably Mycenaeans already knew some of the roads and based on products and new cultivated plants they probably did reach the coasts of Spain if not already Gibraltar (given how Atlas is said to hold the sky there). We also know or we estimated that local populations already lived there when they arrived. We do not have too many pieces of information on colonies already built at that time like remains of Cities purely greek or anything but it does seem that the locals and the Greeks interacted in various occasions.

I believe one crude way you can use to distinguish when we talk about Greeks or at least Greek influence in Sicily or any other place Odysseus visited vs totally local foreign populations is the custom of Xenia. If Odysseus visited a place and was offered hospitality according to the custom of Xenia then it seems like Homer insinuating Greeks or Greek influence to the locals. If the locals offer some different form of it or not at all or abusing it then we talk about local populations that either never met the Greeks or if they did they rejected them and their customs.

Another crude way would be to see if the area or the people are linked to some Greek God. For example Polyphemus and the Cyclops are definitely linked to Greeks through the myths such as Poseidon or the several genesis myths in mythology but they also represent the locals who know nothing of Greek culture or that they deliberately reject it aka a threat to the Greeks that are linked to possible conflict or wars between locals and Greeks when they tried to establish their culture or their commerce in the area.

For example Odysseus visiting the land of Lotus Eaters we can talk of a land that never interacted deeply with Greeks before because they are naturally hospitable people but do not know the custom of Xenia for they do not ask the strangers who they are or where they come from or offer them food and a place to stay but rather hospitable people that simply give you what they have (lotus) but they do not follow the customs. Scheria is definitely the opposite. Their story even implies a colony as they do seem to travel there and establish their city and civilization there. The customs of Xenia are impeccable in the Odyssey as they treat Odysseus eactly as the Greek Customs of Xenia. And they even recognize the employing ritual (see my other post here) when Odysseus makes a plea to the queen Arete. Polyphemus and the cyclops on the other hand represent the exact opposite. They have almost nothing of what the Greeks estimate as civilization such as agriculture and looming. Polypemus is a son f a greek god and he is aware of the laws of Xenia but he mocks them and even twists them beyond recognition. He knows what it is (he even mocks Odysseus with it when he gets drunk by asking his name after he receives his gift and then says that his own gift back is to "eat him for last") so maybe here we have a clear representation of Greeks being in the area but the local populations antagonizing or even fighting them. Circe and Calypso COULD be added to the category since both are technically goddesses thus Greek gods in the area=Greek presence in the area. Both goddesses though seem to abuse the laws of hospitality for example Circe does invite his en according to custom but she twists it and turns them into pigs holding them hostage (a possible hint of struggles between Greeks and locals and the existence of hostages? Perhaps). Odysseus has to act accordingly to save his men. But Circe is aware of the laws for not only does she do it all emplying ritual and eventually she honors the custom of Xenia to the T (perhaps a hint that the greeks eventually passed their culture in the area? Perhaps that would be me taking stuff out of a magic hat here XD)

Of course one needs to keep in mind that by the time Homer synthesized his poems, Greeks were already forming colonies. We do not know for sure if that was a thing in Bronze Age but we know they moved around for as I said before we can trace the products, toponyms such as Egypt or Ethiopia in Linear B tablets as well as the rare occasions when we discover shipwrecks (one was discovered off the coast of Turkey from Cyprus and, loaded with bronze for commercial purposes towards the Mediterannean sea, possiby Crete)

(here's an experimental replica) and we do find similar findings in the sea to connect the dots of history. So it could be partially Homer's anachronism but judging from the data he is surprisingly accurate according to period. Maybe is too early to assume that there were actual colonies of Greeks in the areas as Scheria seems to hint but I have no doubts that Greeks were already in regular contact with populations there even potentially have small settlements for better distribution of goods to the several ports.

I hope this answers your question. Sorry for the long answer.