In many religions, Hell is a place of punishment after physical death. Many religions consider the time spent in Hell as everlasting and endless. In some religions Hell is a period between incarnations. Historically Hell is beneath the Earth’s surface and often there are entrances to Hell from the land of the living. The other places the afterlife are Heaven, Purgatory and Limbo.
Hell is sometimes viewed as being controlled by demons that torment those punished and sent to Hell. There is usually a God of death such as Hades, or in the Christian and Islamic faiths Satan or Lucifer.
Punishment in Hell is related to the sins committed during life. Hell is customarily fire and sulfur painful, and full of suffering. Hell in a number of religions is considered to be made up of zones of hot and cold hells as in Buddhism.
The Styx is a river in Greek mythology that was a border line between Earth and the Underworld The gods made promises on the river Styx; Zeus swore to give Semele whatever she wanted and when her request lead to her death he still had to fulfill it. The river Styx supposedly had miraculous powers; according to one Grecian myth, Achilles was as a child his mother bathed him in it and was invulnerable; however she neglected his heel; in the expression of Achilles heal means a place that is a weak point.
The ferryman Charon was believed to carry the souls of the dead across the river Styx into the underworld. In ancient times placing a coin in the mouth of the deceased, was believed to help pay the toll for the ferry to cross the Styx River which would lead into one of the entrances of Hell.
There are many stories trying to explain life after death and Hell is one of the major themes in not only life but death. In the overwhelming accounts of beliefs and religions the death myth is an attempt to understand and explain the unknown and the death myth is one of them.
The fear of death and the belief of life after death are phenomena found in all cultures. Scientists interested in the questions of how the similarities and the differences in the views of death of different cultures are explained, and the common order of similarities and differences. Shedding light on the ancient beliefs of death and life can be carried over to our own beliefs of death and the afterlife.
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Labels: anceint history, bywena, Mythology, religion
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Fountain of Youth
The Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that has been said restores the youth of anyone who drinks from it. Tales these fountains have been told in narratives across the world for thousands of years.
Eternal youth is the belief of human physical immortality free of aging. The term youth is meant to be a reduction of the negative signs of aging, rather extending the lifespan.
A fountain with an extraordinary type of water is located in Ethiopia, which gives the Ethiopians their exceptional long lives. A story of the Water of Life describes the crossing the Land of Darkness to find the restorative spring. These beliefs were very popular in Spain during and after the period of Moorish rule, and several explorers journeyed to America in search of the magical water.
Eternal youth is a gift frequently desired in myth and legend, and it remains a popular theme in fiction. Stories of things such as the elixir of life are common throughout Europe and elsewhere. Eternal life and eternal youth although they differ in actual meaning is a recurrent theme in Greek and Roman mythology. The elixir of life, also known as the elixir of immortality is a legendary drink that grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth. Many magicians and witches have pursued it. The elixir of life was also said to be able to create life. In Norse mythology it is described as providing the Gods apples that grant them eternal youthfulness.
Various myths tell the stories about the quest for rejuvenation. It was believed that magic or intervention of a supernatural power can bring back the youth and many mythical adventurers set out on quests for themselves, their relatives or some authority that sent them.
The stories continued well into the 16th century. A famous Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León led an expedition around the Caribbean islands to Florida to find the Fountain of Youth; many of the seekers perished in the attempt. The Fountain was nowhere to be found as locals were unaware of its exact location.
In some religions, people were to be rejuvenated after death prior to entering heaven.
The Fountain of Youth is a mythic spring that would supposedly grant eternal life and vigor to whoever drank from it. Legends and myths about the tale have existed since ancient times. However so far, achieving eternal youth remains beyond the capabilities of man. Unbelievably there is much research currently being conducted in the field of genetics which may prove to be an agent in reducing the process of aging at some time in the future.
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Labels: anceint history, bywena, Mythology, religion
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Great Flood Myths
In countless cultural myths and religions there seems to be a common thread of a Great Flood. While some of them are the result of colonization and conquering of the various civilizations it is still too common for it to be completely disputed as myth.
In Celticmythology the story is that Heaven and Earth were great giants, and Heaven lay on the Earth their children were gathered between them, and the children and their mother were sad in the darkness. The bravest sons led his brothers in cutting up Heaven into pieces. His blood caused a great flood which spurted in waves and killed all humans except for one single pair, who were saved in a ship made by a compassionate Titan. The waters settled in hollows to become the oceans. The boldest son who had led in the destruction of Heaven was a Titan and became the king, the Titans and gods hated each other, and the king was driven from his throne by his son, who was born a god. The Titan went to the land of the departed. The Titan who built the ship also went there.
The Welshbelieved that the lake of Llion ruptured, flooding all lands. Dwyfan and Dwyfach escaped in a ship with pairs of every living creature. They landed in Britain and proceeded to repopulate the world.
In Lithuanianthe myth is that from his heavenly window, the supreme God saw nothing but war and injustice among mankind. He sent two giants, water and wind, to destroy the earth. After twenty days and nights, the earth was more or less destroyed. The supreme God, Pramzimas, watched the progress. While at his window he sat eating nuts and he discarded the shells by throwing them down. One landed on the peak one of the tallest mountains, where a few people and animals had found refuge. They climbed into the shell and in this way survived the flood. God's wrath lessened and, he ordered the wind and water to subside. The people scattered, except for one elderly couple who stayed where they landed. God then sent the rainbow and told them to jump nine times over the bones. When they did nine other couples bounded up and from this came the nine Lithuanian tribes and their descendents.
In Grecian myth, Zeus sent a flood to destroy the men of the Bronze Age. Prometheus counseled his son Deucalion to build a chest. All other men perished except for a few who escaped to high mountains. The entire world beyond the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overcome. Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha after floating in the chest for nine days and nights, landed on Parnassus. When the rains ended, he sacrificed to Zeus. Zeus ordered that he should throw stones over his head; they became men, and the stones which Pyrrha threw became women.
The first race of people was completely destroyed because they were extremely wicked. The waters of the deep opened, the rain fell in torrents, and the rivers and seas rose to cover the earth, killing all of them. Deucalion survived due to his goodness and faithfulness and was the link to the first and second race of men. He loaded his wives, children and all animals into a great ark. The flood waters overflowed into a chasm opened in Hierapolis.
This common theme of Great floods in the past civilizations suggests to some that the story of a universal beginning of life on the earth is a fact and not just a conjectuire.
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Labels: anceint history, bywena, Mythology, religion
The Gods role in the Trojan War
Throughout the Trojan War the Gods played a major part on both warring sides the Olympic Gods, Goddesses, and Demigods fight and play great roles in the human warfare. Paris had the favor of Aphrodite while the Greeks had Poseidon, Ares and Athena as there allies. Aeneas was the son of Aphrodite. Achilles was the son of Thetis and won honor and fame in the Trojan War; but also suffered death through the deceit of Paris. Many of the other Gods sided with one or the other side as the whim struck. Hera Sided with the Greeks as did Hephaestus and Poseidon. Apollo and Ares were on the side of the Trojans with Artemis. Zeus and Hades remained neutral for the most part. Even some of the minor Gods enjoyed meddling in the war Eris with the Trojans as did Leto.
The Greek society attached so much emphasis on the Gods to the point that the success of the warriors and kings during the Trojan War and other warfare of the time depended on the role of the gods and goddesses.
The famed Trojan War existed between the Trojans and the Greeks. During the time of when the war occurred, the people had a strong connection to the gods and believed that all their actions, activities were predestined by the gods. The Gods’ influence on the nature and characteristics of human beings in the way they think, act and believe was also a significant part of the culture.
The gods and goddesses played a key role in determining the winners during competitions or wars between parties .The heroes in these wars were at the mercy of the gods who imposed their anger to disobedient and disrespectful acts by humans or by impulses of amusement. The Gods were at times fickle and their reaction of deliberate or accidental offences were punished by the offended God or Goddess. The Gods determined the heroines and heroes of the wars and in the human existence in the Greek society.
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Labels: anceint history, bywena, Mythology, religion
Death in Mythology
Death it is common to all humans, regardless of culture, creed, religion, or race. We are all mortal, our lives are limited, and all each in our own way, seek understanding of what happens after we die.
Most cultures have a god of death into their mythology or religion. Death, as with birth, is the major parts of human life. These Gods often are one of the most important Gods of a religion. In some religions with a single powerful deity is an antagonistic deity which wages war against an all powerful benevolent God.
In religions or mythologies which have a multifaceted system of Gods each governing various natural phenomena and features of human life, the occurrence of a deity who is designated with presiding over death is almost essential to the basis of the religion or myth.
Not much is known of the Celtic beliefs of the afterlife. The Celtic Otherworld was an underworld, which was perceived as be a great misty island such as Avalon or in some cases simply a universe parallel to our own. The Celt Otherworld is considered as a place happier Earth; yet resembles the world in which we live, it is peaceful where everything and everyone are carefree and there is no pain.
The Buddhist afterlife is a series of paradises, each one higher and more splendid plane of consciousness, and where each person goes to based on virtue and spirituality. Nirvana, the highest plane, is when there is the release of the soul from all things human where souls exist in a pure state. The soul may spend eras in the various paradises, it eventually returns in reincarnation.
The Egyptian beliefs in death and the afterlife and the practices regarding the dead are not easily understood. Most of it is still unknown to this day, the purpose of the enormous burial chambers the pyramids, and other theories are hidden and still have to come to light to scholars. The Egyptians believed in an underworld in that souls descend through burial. A great deal of their belief in the afterlife was associated with the pharaoh they worshipped, because the pharaoh was considered to be the representative of the gods. Proper & ceremonial burial of the pharaoh would ensure a place in a pleasing afterlife for each of his followers. The anointing and embalming of every body was a sacred ritual for the Egyptians, with priests of Anubis, God of the dead, wearing a death mask to perform the tasks. Most bodies were buried with personal items and riches that were cherished in life, so that the souls could take them with them to the afterlife.
The earliest Hebrew beliefs were pretty bleak. When the person died the soul was reduced to an insignificant wisp of psychic energy which descended into Sheol, a cavity beneath the Earth. The good and the evil both went to Sheol. After time that changed, the good being going to one place of the afterlife and the evil in another. In Christianity this concept in its beliefs of heaven, purgatory and hell was incorporated.
The afterlife of Islam also has a paradise for the good and a hell and punishment for those who do evil. After the dead are buried and the mourners have departed, two angels are believed to visit the spirit of the departed for judgment. Questions are asked of the individual and if the dead answer all the questions correctly, they enter paradise. If the questions are answered incorrectly, they are sent to hell. There is a belief in a Day of Resurrection souls, when the dead will be made to face God and to be judged. All actions from the deceased the good and bad weighed.
In ancient Greek the most commonly known of the ancient beliefs, the afterlife has similarities to the religions of today such as Christianity. The Greeks believed that the dead were accompanied to the Underworld, ruled by the God Hades, and had to pay coins to the ferryman Charon to cross the River Styx, and enter the Underworld. The Greeks buried their dead with a coin or coins in their mouths, for the fee to Hades. Once in the Underworld, the dead were judged to be good or evil. The good ascended to the Elysian Fields, or Elysium, a place of paradise. The evil descended to fiery Tartarus, where they were punished for eternally, but in some instances there was a sentence of repentance for periods of time before becoming worthy to enter Elysium. This seemed to be a belief in a state of limbo where souls who were not good enough for Elysium, but not evil enough for Tartarus, would stay. This limbo is Asphodel. The Greeks also believed in reincarnation, where judges at the gates of Hades decided the incarnation of each soul.
Life and death unknown states that can only be clouded with mystery and dreams. Idealistic ideas and conjecture can confront these obscure places where life continues on a higher plan and a happier existence.
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Labels: anceint history, bywena, Mythology, religion
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Mythological Monsters
The Cetos of Troy
The Cetos of Troy was a gigantic sea-monster sent by Poseidon to plague the land of Troy as punishment for King Laomedon's refusal to pay him for the building of the city's walls. When Laomedon built Troy, Poseidon and Apollo, who had lost favor with Zeus, were punished to serve Laomedon for wages, and accordingly Poseidon built the walls of Troy, while Apollo attended to the king's flocks on Mount Ida.
When the two gods accomplished their tasks, Laomedon refused to recompense them as he had promised and expelled them from his dominions. Poseidon in return for the breach of promise by sent a marine monster into the territory of Troy, which ravaged the whole country. By the command of an oracle, the Trojans were obliged to sacrifice a maiden to the monster; and on one occasion it was decided by lot that Hesione, the daughter of Laomedon himself, to be the victim.
Fortunately for Hesione Heracles was returning from his expedition against the Amazons, and he promised to save the maiden, if Laomedon would give him the horses which Tros had once received from Zeus as a compensation for Ganymedes. Laomedon promised to give them to Heracles, but again when Heracles had killed the monster and saved Hesione he did not keep his word. Heracles waged war against Troy, and killed Laomedon, with all his sons, except Priam and gave Hesione to Telamon.
The Python
PYTHON was a monstrous serpent which Gaia , Mother Earth, appointed to guard the oracle at Delphi. The beast was said to have been born from the slime left behind after the great Deluge. He lived in the caves of mount Parnassus.When Apollo claimed the shrine as his own, he killed the dragon with his arrows. The oracle and festival of the god were then named Pythian after the dreaded beast.
The Dragons of Medea
The Dragons of Medea born of the blood of the Titans; were a pair of winged Dragons which drew the flying chariot of the witch Medea. She summoned them to escape from Korinthos following the murder of King Kreon, his daughter Kreousa and her own children by Jason.
The Ismenian Dragon
The Ismenian dragon was a gigantic serpentine monster which guarded the sacred spring of Ismenos near Thebes. It was the offspring of Ares the God of war. When the hero Cadmus came to find water in order to found Thebes, he killed the ugly serpent by casting a stone.
The goddess Athena instructed him to sow the dragon's teeth in the earth, which harvested an army of warriors, called Spartan, five of who became the ancestral lords of Thebes.
Out of revenge Ares, the father of the dragon, transformed Cadmos and his wife into serpents.
The Hydra
The HYDRA LERNAIA was a gigantic, nine-headed serpent, which dwelled the swamps of Lerna. It is said that it was born of Typhoon and Echidna. Heracles was sent to destroy her as one of his twelve labors, but for each of her heads that he decapitated, two more were grown back. He used burning torches to the severed stumps, preventing them from regenerating. In the battle he also destroyed a giant crab who assisted the Hydra.
The Hydra and the Crab were placed in the skies as the Constellations Hydra and Cancer by Hera.
The Chimera
The Chimera was a huge beast which wreaked havoc on the countryside of Lycia in Anatolia. It was a creature with the body and head of a lion, a goat's head rising from its back, and a serpentine tail.
The hero Bellerophon was commanded to slay it by King Iobates. He battled with the beast on the back of the winged horse Pegusus and, drove a lead-tipped lance down the Chimaira's flaming throat and destroyed it. The Chimera was the result of the union of Typhoon and Echidna. It is said that the Sphinx the Nemeian Lion were the monster children of the Chimera.
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Labels: anceint history, bywena, Mythology, religion
Monday, May 14, 2012
Gods and Heros
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Labels: anceint history, bywena, Mythology, religion
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The Titans were born of Gaia, Mother Earth, and her son Uranus and, 18 children were born: The 3 Giants: Cottus, Briareus and Gyges....
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The Fountain of Youth
Great Flood Myths
The Gods role in the Trojan War
Death in Mythology
Mythological Monsters
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wena indlovu
I also go by the signature of bywena I am a novice writer I write blogs about mental illnesses you can also find comments posted on google as wena, bymypoles and tomorrowschild these were made at various support groups which I choose to share with you since they were put on the internet for the public viewing I am currently using another blog site called wordpress.com you can find old and new topics there
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