By the Gods!

dahliafyodorovna:

“Perun” by Andrei Klimenko
Often compared to Thor of the Norse mythological world, Perun was considered the highest of all gods and was one of Svarog’s three sons. Perun was seen to be the creator and master of rain, lightning, and thunder (and anything that had to do with hurricanes and storms), Perun’s name is even based off the old Indo-European root “parg” meaning ‘to strike’, much like lightning would. In fact, the Polish word for ‘thunderbolt’ is Piorun. He possessed the ability to shoot lightning strikes from a bow as well as create storms to aid farmworkers.
As well as being associated with weather, he is known for his attribution to war, believed to be a fearsome and unforgiving god who through his leadership of the military maintained order in the world. During times of war or hardship, the ancient Slavic people looked towards Perun, who they sought to punish their enemies or grant life and fertility to them through rain.
It is said Perun was born to the Mother Sva (or the goddess Lada), after she consumed a Pike fish containing an embodiment of Rod, the creator god. The Book of Kolyady contains possibly one of the only known myths on the birth of Perun:
“The sky rings with thunder, Then the clouds shined with lightning And he appeared into existence, as if by lightning The son of Svarog, Perun the Thunderer!”

Hey! I found a delightful little blog on Slavic mythology, for those of you who’ve been asking.
Also, we’ve got an old post on Perun ourselves, if you’re interested.

“Perun” by Andrei Klimenko

Often compared to Thor of the Norse mythological world, Perun was considered the highest of all gods and was one of Svarog’s three sons. Perun was seen to be the creator and master of rain, lightning, and thunder (and anything that had to do with hurricanes and storms), Perun’s name is even based off the old Indo-European root “parg” meaning ‘to strike’, much like lightning would. In fact, the Polish word for ‘thunderbolt’ is Piorun. He possessed the ability to shoot lightning strikes from a bow as well as create storms to aid farmworkers.

As well as being associated with weather, he is known for his attribution to war, believed to be a fearsome and unforgiving god who through his leadership of the military maintained order in the world. During times of war or hardship, the ancient Slavic people looked towards Perun, who they sought to punish their enemies or grant life and fertility to them through rain.

It is said Perun was born to the Mother Sva (or the goddess Lada), after she consumed a Pike fish containing an embodiment of Rod, the creator god. The Book of Kolyady contains possibly one of the only known myths on the birth of Perun:

                              “The sky rings with thunder,
                          Then the clouds shined with lightning
                   And he appeared into existence, as if by lightning
                         The son of Svarog, Perun the Thunderer!”

Hey! I found a delightful little blog on Slavic mythology, for those of you who’ve been asking.

Also, we’ve got an old post on Perun ourselves, if you’re interested.

Reblogged 10 hours ago from dahliafyodorovna

329 notes

mythology, myth, slavic, slavic mythology, scandinavia,

allmesopotamia:

Stone statue of Kurlil

From Tell al-‘Ubaid, southern Iraq
Early Dynastic period, about 2500 BC

“

This limestone statue was excavated in 1919 besides the ruins of the temple at Tell al-‘Ubaid dedicated to the Sumerian fertility goddess Ninhursag. A very damaged sculpture was found alongside it, with only the upper part of the body surviving. A cuneiform inscription identifies it as Kurlil, an official in the city of Uruk who had dedicated the image to the goddess Damkina at Tell al-‘Ubaid. A cuneiform sign on the right shoulder of this statue, though very worn, can be identified as part of Kurlil’s name. The figure is therefore probably another donation by him.

The statue is typical of figurines set up in a temple to pray on behalf of the donor, though Kurlil’s cross-legged pose here is unusual.

An inscription tells us that Kurlil was responsible for building work on the Temple of Ninhursag.”

Reblogged 6 days ago from allmesopotamia

37 notes

mesopotamia, mythology, ancient, sumer, sumerian,

archaeologistforhire:

URUK RISES AGAIN IN DIGITAL 3D

Uruk: 5000 Years of the Megacity that marks the 100th anniversary of the first excavations at Uruk

The Staatliche Museen’s Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East) and the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim collaborated with the German Archaeological Institute’s Orient Department and the German Oriental Society to create a comprehensive display, featuring objects from the Vorderasiatisches Museum’s own collection and the Uruk-Warka collection of the German Archaeological Institute, which is maintained by the University of Heidelberg. The German-held works will be supplemented by further extraordinary objects from other museums, including the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris.

The exhibition – along with these stunning digital models of the buildings promises to be an impressive demonstration of the emergence and blossoming of one of the oldest known cities in human history and will reveal how the many facets of urban life known to have first evolved in Uruk impacted not just on the ancient Near East, but the wider world as a whole.

Photo © artefacts-berlin.de; Scientific material: German Archaeological Institute (DAI)

Cool video at source too!

Reblogged 6 days ago from allmesopotamia

87 notes

unhistorical:

May 7, 1915: A German U-boat sinks the RMS Lusitania.

The sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania was one of the most infamous events of World War I, carried out by the SM U-20 as part of Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare against Great Britain and its allies. The event, which took the lives of nearly 1,200 people (including 128 American citizens), enraged the British and Americans, provided the basis for effective war and recruitment propaganda in the future, and turned public opinion in the United States against Germany so quickly that the country’s carefully preserved neutrality threatened to collapse. It did not, at least not until 1917, when Germany declared its intention to resume its practice of unrestricted submarine warfare, which reignited Americans’ lingering anger over the Lusitania.

At the time of its sinking, the Lusitania had officially been carrying as cargo war materials (ammunition, fuses, artillery shells), making it, in the eyes of the Germans, a legitimate military target, despite the fact that the ship was also at the time carrying 1,959 people. Of that number, 1,198 died when the ship was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland. The ship sank in 18 minutes, as opposed to the 2 hours 40 minutes it took for Lusitania’s White Star Line Rival, RMS Titanic, to sink, but like with Titanic, most of the deaths probably resulted from hypothermia, as survivors of the initial torpedoing awaited rescue floating for hours in the waters of the North Atlantic. In addition, the manner in which the Lusitania sank rendered most of its lifeboats unusable. The commander of the German U-boat, Walther Schwieger, was labeled by some a war criminal, although despite sparking outrage in the United States, the attack was not on its own enough to bring the country into the war. Three days later President Wilson made this comment in a speech:

There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

Y’all seen this blog? This here’s a blog worth a-followin’.

Reblogged 1 week ago from unhistorical

581 notes

history, europe,

*Lo

-Gustave Doré, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. 1855

Reblogged 1 week ago from curioustoned

35,555 notes

Found at my community’s used book sale.

Posted 1 week ago

67 notes

dburnham:

lonelyheartsdeathmetal:

TOO LATE, SPACE JESUS

Oh my god.

The universe is amazing.

(Source: astrodidact)

Reblogged 2 weeks ago from dburnham

100,238 notes

Westboro Baptists, Radical Zionists, and the Taliban

There are a lot of crazies out there, guys. Crazies who are out to cause as much pain as they can to those deemed “Other” based on the things drilled into their heads by deranged, wounded elders from a young age.

The New Testament, the Hebrew Bible, the Qur’an: these texts are not inherently evil, but are largely metaphorical, quasi-historical products of their time. Interpretation of these books can of course yield positive, peaceful, community-building action, as can nearly any book if you look at it the right way. But the fact remains that, taken at face value, as literally as possible, these books suggest a whole lot of bigoted, violent, and objectively evil behaviour.

The problem, of course, is in dealing with extremes. A fundamentalist is someone who approaches one of these texts with no room for interpretation outside the literal, except perhaps for the still more corrupted word of a psychotic demagogue in a position of spiritual or political leadership. These people are in the minority if we’re polling the entire religious world. One big problem, however (most popularly argued by Sam Harris) is that the continued participation of moderates in these religious communities endorses—whether through literal vocal endorsement, indirect financial aid, or simply the added density of the “religious population”—this behaviour, and these groups’ continued existence.

I understand that it’s a far throw to blame moderates for the actions of fundamentalists, but don’t you think we could do a lot of good by depriving these raging ignorant wildfires of some fuel? If you don’t literally believe that Jesus the seed of God, was brought back from the dead, and that the Christian community literally drinks his blood and eats his body every week, why continue to participate in the rituals and count yourself among that community?

Especially in a world of growing skepticism and critical thought, wouldn’t it be better to seek for that sense of community among similarly minded folk?

Please weigh in with your thoughts on fundamentalism, religious moderates, and atrocities committed in the name of ancient books. What say you?

Posted 4 weeks ago

63 notes

editorial, religion, mythology, radicalism, fundamentalism, christian, christianity, islam, muslim, judaism, jewish,

sundherstruck:

The Ippen Brothers and the Case of the Uncrackable Code.

…or something like that. Threw some flats down on an old drawing but didn’t get around to finishing up the shading. Figured I’d share anyway. If only for the real life Ippen brothers.

ALRIGHT GUYS.

This isn’t ~~really~~ at all related to mythology, but I really like it.

This is a drawing of me, Tom, (BTG editor-in-chief, in the purple) and my brother, Dan (Senior Executive Vice President/Grand Sultan, seen here in dapper orange ‘n green) drawn as boy/young adult detectives.

We basically look like this. Sorry, I wishI looked like this.

Drawn by Chelsea, Dan’s delightful lady-friend and visual interpreter.

Reblogged 1 month ago from sundherstruck

14 notes

art,

forlackofabettercomic:

Consider yourselves judged.

This is relevant to your interests.

The apocalypse is something that most scripture devotes at least a little time to. If you’re gonna write a beginning and a middle, might as well scribble together an ending, right?

The book of Revelations is a particularly heated peace of apocalyptic scripture for a few reasons.

First off, many of the predictions are so vague/historically abundant that it’s provided religious “evidence” of the end times’ approach to every generation between John the Apostle (the purported scribe of the book who few now believe to have been the true author) and today. Wars, disease, and celestial twinkles aren’t exactly something the human race has ever had to do without for more than a year or two.

Also, it’s worth noting that the Book of Revelations—all of it—was written specifically as a piece of anti-Roman propaganda. The oft-referenced beast with seven heads, for example, is a thinly veiled reference for the famed seven hills on which Rome was built. Also, any time the New Testament refers to Babylon, they’re talking about Rome. Mean ol’ Rome.

So, specifically, the powers of the Christian heavens are meant to come down, bringing swift justice upon the oppressive (to Christians) Empire. As some of you may know, that didn’t quite happen. And now we’re left with a book that the church could’ve quietly retired from the canon, but instead just repurposed for whichever political opponent of the day was up in their grill.

A whole lot of people are eagerly awaiting good ol’ Jesus riding in on his white horse (literally) while simultaneously appearing as a (literal) lamb, fighting a dragon, a seven-headed beast, and a magic lady riding said beast, and then fighting a long, painful war on the scorched remains of the earth. Suggestions of “are you perhaps familiar with the art of metaphor?” seem to fall on deaf ears.

Reblogged 1 month ago from sundherstruck

19,423 notes

myth, christianity, apocalypse, christian,