VAUGEH – The goddess who embodied female physical beauty for the Tupari people who lived near the Rio Branco region of what is now Brazil. Her spouse MPOKALERO was her counterpart, the god who embodied male physical beauty. The two of them were also the patron deities of sexual desire and caused carnal attraction between people.
In Tupari beliefs when a Continue reading
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Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know that I consider all religions to be mythology, which people are usually fine with unless it’s their own personal religion I’m examining. At any rate En No Ozunu is revered as the founder and most active mythical figure in the belief system called Shugendo, and in some offshoot cults of Shugendo as a virtual patron deity of ninja practices and ancient weather forecasting.
Practitioners of the Shugendo faith are called Yamabushi and their belief system fuses elements of Shinto, Ainu, Buddhism and Taoism along with features of shamanism and the ancient Japanese reverence for mountains, all of which are considered sacred ground in Shugendo. The ninja connection is very big in popular culture but actually the Ainu are more technically the originators of many ninjutsu practices. For an even bigger pop culture tie-in there are versions of the En No Ozunu myth in which he is the father of Sadako (Neil Sadako?), the female figure in the Ringu novel plus its Japanese and American film adaptations.
En No Ozunu supposedly began his existence on Earth when he was born to a mortal woman who was Continue reading
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PART 2 – THE WASP-MEN – (Hodadeion was the son of the creator god Tharonhiawakon and a mortal woman, the same mortal woman who bore him Hodadeion’s siblings. Those siblings were Otgoe, the wampum god and Yeyenthwus, the future goddess of chestnut trees.)
Hodadeion ventured to the north despite his sister Yeyenthwus’ warnings. He came across a few more villages that were now deserted like his own and he realized how far-reaching was the reign of terror of the cannibalistic wizards who had decimated the population of Continue reading
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In the tradition of Balladeer’s Blog’s previous looks at neglected epic myths from the Navajo, Vietnamese, Dinka, Greek and Chinese pantheons I will examine the saga of the Iroquois god of magic Hodadeion. This will be done in the same style as my examinations of the Navajo war god’s battle with the Anaye, the war between the Vietnamese jungle and monsoon gods and the Chinese Divine Archer Yi’s adventures.
1. Hodadeion was the son of the creator god Tharonhiawakon and a mortal woman, the same mortal woman who bore him Hodadeion’s siblings. Those siblings were Otgoe, the wampum god who loved chestnuts and Yeyenthwus, the future goddess of chestnut trees.
Tharonhiawakon was gone for years at a time attending to other matters in the world and while Otgoe was a toddler and Hodadeion and Yeyenthwus in their teens an entire village full of cannibalistic humans led by a Continue reading
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Anguta, the god of Pugtulik Island in the Inuit pantheon of deities had had it with his daughter Sedna. Originally he had shown patience with her since she had not yet reached her apotheosis, had not yet manifested her true level of godly power or given evidence of what aspects of the world she was destined to control.
Enough was enough, however. First she had refused all suitors, dismissing gods and heroes alike when they had tried to court her and thus embarrassing him and his wife Isarrataitsoq. Magnifying that insult she had taken to Continue reading
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Munume – The weather god of the Banyoro people of Bunyoro. He was invoked in time of drought or conversely when there was too much rain. The Continue reading
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THACH SANH – A son of the supreme deity Ngoc Hoang. His father forced him to incarnate as a human and in this demi-god form he fought monsters, rescued the son of the chief sea god Long Vuong, vanquished his evil foster-brother and married a beautiful princess. Filed under Mythology
Filed under Mythology
Previously Balladeer’s Blog examined Cypria and Aethiopis, two of the neglected Greek epics. Cypria recounted the events leading into The Iliad while Aethiopis picked up the tale of the Trojan War after the death and funeral of Hector at the end of The Iliad. The neglected epic I’m examining today is Iliad Minor, the next in line chronologically. The author is speculated to have been either Lesches, Thestorides, Diodoros, Kinaithon or even Homer himself.
ILIAD MINOR – Also called Iliad Mikra and The Little Iliad this neglected epic opens up with the Continue reading
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TALHAE – Also called Tarhae. The wife of King Hamdalpa of Wan-Ha in Yongsong had been married to him for seven years but had yet to produce an heir to the throne. She prayed to the gods for a child and at length she produced a large egg, from which a handsome boy named Talhae emerged.
King Hamdalpa’s advisors told him a child born unnaturally from an egg was a bad omen and that he should get rid of the child. Hamdalpa had the boy placed in a large floating chest along with seven treasures plus a male and female slave. A red dragon arose from the sea to guard the chest, a red dragon sent by a dragon god who was Talhae’s real father. The chest floated at sea for seven days, during which time Talhae grew to adulthood and stood a full nine feet tall.
Disembarking at Continue reading
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