After the Honda Odyssey made an appearance in the last Myth In Life, I thought i might be able to sneak one or two more into the next segment. Well the more I looked, the more i found myself stumbling upon a whole theme. Buckle your seatbelts!
Avalon
We’ll start with a familiar one. Avalon has already made an appearance in the “Whining About Myths” section. Avalon, also known as Apple Island, Island of Blessed Souls, Island of Glass, is the home of Morgan Le Fay. Supposedly the sacred sword Excalibur was forged on the island by the faery folk. When King Arthur was mortally wounded, he was taken by boat to Avalon to be healed.
In other myths Avalon is the hiding place of Ogres who guard sacred Golden Apples which they have stolen from the Gods.
Titans
Those well familiar with Greek Mythology know that the Titans were the big dogs before the classical pantheon. The leader of the Titans was Chronos who rose up against his father Uranus and castrated him. Later, in fear of the same fate, Chronos ate all his children immieditly after they were born. With a little trickery, Zeus escaped this fate and was able to free the rest of his siblings who usurped their predecessors.
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Chronos Devours his Children, Goya
Mazda
Mazda, or Ahura Mazda is the Zoroastrian creation God of Persian culture. When Zoroaster was in his thirties he received a vision of Ahura Mazda told him about the Good Religion. Zoroaster returned to his people and explained that Ahura Mazda was the only god to be worshipped and that his antithesis, Angra Mainyu, was the source of all sin and evil.
Mercury/Hermes/Thoth
Mercury is the Roman name for Hermes, the Greek God who in his first day of birth stole Apollo’s Cattle and created the Lyre to make piece with him. Some believe that in return for the Lyre, Apollo gave him the caduceus (the winged staff entwined with serpents), others believe Zeus gave him the staff along with the winged sandles and cap when Hermes became Harold to the Gods.
He is also known as Hermes Cthonius. This name respects his magical powers and it is said the only being more powerful was Hecate.
In the realm of scholars and alchemists he is known as Hermes Trismegistus, who has the Egyptians call Thoth.
Pleiades
Its easy to just quickly glance at the Subaru logo and not think to much about it. Its just a bunch of stars. But which stars are they? Turns out they reference a start cluster known as Pleiades, and that actually means a lot!
In Greek Mythology, Pleiades represents the Seven Sisters who were changed into seven doves to escape the relentless pursuit of Orion.
Pleiades had a "Staring" role in the Nebra Sky disk. Its the cluster in the upper right
The Inuit refer to cluster as a group of hunters and dogs who went chasing a great bear, while the Blackfoot tribe say they are lost children who had nothing here, so they went and found a home in the sky. The Cherokee say it is the home of the Anitsutsa, or star-spirits.
Pleiades is also the name given to the sisters who guarded Hera’s Golden Apples with the dragon Ladon.
Groups of UFOoligists credit Pleiades as the home of a Scandinavian Alien race.
Osiris
There are quite a few who believe that the Chrysler symbol is a reference to Osiris, the Egyptian God of the Dead. In the Egyptian Myth, A kingdom was divided between two brothers, Osiris and Set. Set wanted the whole thing, so he put Osiris in a casket and tossed him in the Nile. The body eventually found a resting place where a tree grew around it. When the tree was cut down, the body was discovered and returned to Osiris’s wife/sister Isis. While mourning, she conceived Horus.
Not liking where this was going, Set got a hold of Osiris’s body, cut it into little pieces and tossed them in the Nile. Isis recovered the pieces, all except his penis(bummer), and restored him to life. After all this, Osiris decided to retire and rule the underworld, leaving Horus in charge of both kingdoms.
*an interesting side story, Set gouged out one of Horus’s eyes. Thoth(Hermes) restored it
Well thats it for this round. As always, your own Myth in Life pictures are more than welcome at mythblogogy@gmail.com. I’ll leave you with this. Its anothe rendition of Ahura Mazda, compare it to Osiris…
Nate's Myth Blog 