By the Gods!

Doubting Thomas

Just a quick one for you today, mythfans. The picture above is one that I snapped personally on my recent trip to Paris, within Notre Dame cathedral (now that you know the source, the horrendous quality is explained; it’s dim in there, okay?).

Thomas was one of the apostles of Jesus of Nazareth according to the gospel of John in the New Testament. After Jesus’ death by crucifixion, he was believed to have resurrected and briefly returned to visit his buddies. Thomas, being a shrewd man, (by comparison) wasn’t willing to believe just anything. He decided to investigate the situation more closely by putting his fingers in Jesus’ wounds, taking their friendship to a new level.

Upon seeing that the wound was authentic, Thomas put his seal of approval on the resurrection. 

What I personally like about this story is skepticism and scrutiny on the part of ol’ Tom. At least for a single moment, he’s one of the only guys willing to use his noggin and raise an eyebrow at the seemingly magical.

Saint Christopher

Alright, friends: hearken to the tale of Saint Christopher, the patron saint of the traveler! As it happens, I’m heading out on a trip to the UK and France for a few weeks as of tomorrow, and I hereby invoke the power of all mythic figures associated with brave pilgrims such as myself.

Back to Christopher. Born in Canaan (according to Western accounts) in the 3^rd century CE, Christopher was a mammoth of a man. Almost 7 feet tall and built like a tank, Christopher served the Caananite King as #1 hired muscle. After seeing the king in a few moments of weakness, Christopher decided that only the greatest king there was was worthy of his services, so he decided to bounce out of Canaan. He found a king who called himself the greatest (unnamed in the story), but this king kept crossing himself out of fear of the Devil.

“Now hold on a second,” Christopher thought aloud, “if you’re afraid of the Devil, that means he’s greater than you! I’m gonna go work for that guy!” And so he set out to give Satan his resume. Eventually Christopher stumbled upon some bandits, and their leader referred to himself as “the Devil.” Not being one worried about checking sources, Christopher took this boast at face value, and took up employment with desert-bandit-satan. The problem with this boss, as it turned out for Christopher, was the he was constantly avoiding any wayside crosses. Since the devil was evidently afraid of Christ, Christopher made the decision to serve the good ol’ King of Kings, Christ himself.

Now, Jesus having died some centuries before, Christopher asked a hermit-priest how he could best serve his Lord. The priest suggested prayer and fasting, which Christopher thought was a lame suggestion and refused to do. Taking note of his immense size and rippling muscles, the priest told Christopher to help the puny people in the area to cross a particularly deep river by carrying them across.

For a while Christopher worked as the ferryman-hulk, and then a little child asked him for passage across the river. As soon as the kid clambered up on his back, Christopher almost buckled under his deceptively crushing mass. Staggering to stand with the child on his back, Christopher slowly grunted to the river, and made his way across the water, his muscles screaming the whole way. As the infinitely heavy child dismounted, Christopher said “You almost killed me with your girth, kid. Not cool.” The child replied “You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.” The magic baby then disappeared in a flash, and Christopher was left with the greatest bar story to tell his friends in the history of the universe.

A little later, a king ordered him to be killed for not shutting up about it. Bad luck for river-hulk.

Phooka

Original art by myself, influenced by the work of Brian Froud. :)

The Phooka is an Irish demon. It takes many forms and demi-forms. The most common are that of a horse, a goat, an eagle and a cow with long horns. The Phooka tricks weary travellers into accepting an invitation of a ride. Once upon the back of a Phooka, the rider is taken on a wild ride through the countryside until the Phooka dumps the rider into a marsh into a ditch. The sound of manic laughter afterwards is the laughter of the Phooka as it runs away.

View submitter’s personal blog here!

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Isis the goddess of of magic, motherhood, fertility and life.

She was the first daughter of Geb, who was the god of the Earth, and Nut, who was the goddess of the Overarching Sky. She had 3 siblings: Osiris, Set and Nephthys. She eventually married Osiris. As Nephthys and Set married.

Set was very jealous of his brother Osiris and one day, sent guards to get his exact measurements while he was sleeping. Set then made a wooden coffin/chest and held a party where he said whoever could fit inside it perfectly—can keep it. Osiris was encouraged to try, and the lid slammed shut on him and locked. He was then thrown into the Nile River. Isis then went to search for him, she found him in a tree in Byblos and brought it back to Egypt and hid it in a swamp. But Set went hunting that night and found the coffin. Enraged he then chopped Osiris’s body up into 14 pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt thinking Isis would never find them. Isis and Nephthys went looking for the pieces, but only found 13 of his 14 pieces. A fish swallowed the 14th piece which was his phallus.

Isis then used magic in which she tricked the god Amun-Ra into telling her his secret name, which then she had power of the deity…to make a new phallus out of gold and sang a song, to bring Osiris to life in which Isis conceived Horus—the falcon headed god. Osiris then became the god of the underworld.

A note from the Editor: Thank you so much for the awesome submission! And to the rest of you mythfans, feel free to put your own pieces together on gods, goddesses, heroes and legends, and submit them here!