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Post by mesper on Oct 13, 2014 8:09:14 GMT -9
Powers of Nature - Ancient Gods Origins?! Nike from Samothrace (Paris Louvre) Foto: Marie-Lan Nguyen Wikipedia Recent news - Sumatra Sinabund Volcano Eruption Foto: Sutanta Aditya / AFP Now imagine (some rough mouse lines added) - Volcano Goddes raised from fire and ashes:
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Post by squirmydad on Oct 13, 2014 8:18:15 GMT -9
Oooh! Pretty neat, wings made of roiling ash clouds bursting from a body of molten rock and living flame.
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Post by wyvern on Oct 13, 2014 9:29:54 GMT -9
There are certainly a number of ancient gods and monsters who apparently fit with elements found in volcanoes. A couple of examples. The ancient Sumerians described a huge monstrous creature/thing called The Asag in the Zagros Mountains, which run along the modern Iran-Iraq border, which was apparently immobile, yet commanded a force of warriors perhaps made of - though actually named as - different kinds of stone, and was virtually indestructible. Some of the descriptive passages in the myth sound very volcanic - for instance, lines 168-181: The Asag leapt up at the head of the battle. For a club it uprooted the sky, took it in its hand; like a snake it slid its head along the ground. It was a mad dog attacking to kill the helpless, dripping with sweat on its flanks. Like a wall collapsing, the Asag fell on Ninurta, the son of Enlil. Like an accursed storm, it howled in a raucous voice; like a gigantic snake, it roared at the Land. It dried up the waters of the mountains, dragged away the tamarisks, tore the flesh of the Earth and covered her with painful wounds. It set fire to the reedbeds, bathed the sky in blood, turned it inside out; it dispersed the people there. At that moment, on that day, the fields became black scum, across the whole extent of the horizon, reddish like purple dye -- truly it was so!Ninurta was the god who fought it in this myth, usually called something like "The Exploits of Ninurta" modernly (the Sumerian title was simply the first line, so sometimes the myth is found listed as "Lugal-E", which means roughly "O King"). This translation is from the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature from Oxford University, England. You can find the transliterated original Sumerian text via this page - it's myth 1.6.2. Similarly, the first, apparently gigantic, man (sometimes thought of as one of the Titans instead) in Greek mythology, Prometheus, was chained to the Caucasus Mountains as punishment for bringing fire down from Olympus to Earth. There, he was tormented by having his liver perpetually eaten every day by a monstrously gigantic eagle, only for it to grow back every night. There's a useful, very detailed, summary of Prometheus and his myths here on the Theoi.com website. It seems likely the spot he was meant to be chained to was Mount Kazbek, on the modern north-central border of Georgia and southern Russia, as Georgian folklore still preserves a legend that a very similar figure Amirani was chained to this peak for stealing fire from the gods, and who was punished rather like Prometheus too. Kazbek is a potentially active volcano - see this Wikipedia page for more, though other websites - like this one - have more useful finder maps.
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