#incorrect celtic mythology

[mytholots]

Ares: Are oranges named orange because oranges are orange or is orange called orange because oranges are orange?

Tyr: Which came first, the orange or the orange?

Athena: Orange was first used to refer the fruit 1280 years ago but was not used as a color until 1000 years ago.

Neit: What was the color called before then?

Bellona: There was no color, duh! Everything was black and white!

[godsofhumanity]

[Hermes, Apollo, Ares get the wrong house and trash Dagda's] Odin: Listen, I'm not going to make excuses for these kids, but, life has dealt them a very cruel hand and they're living with a very serious condition. Dagda: oh? Hermes, Apollo, Ares: ?? Odin: The truth is, Dagda... they're from Olympus. Dagda: Ohhh..

[15pantheons]

Bres: When I first met you, I did not like you.  Lugh: I'm aware of that.  Bres: But then you and I had some time together.  Lugh: Uh-huh?  Bres: It did not get better. 

[nysus-temple]

Arthur: You're coming with me? No offense, Morgana, but I don't need backup.

Morgana: It's not backup, it's babysitting.

[zoethehead]

Mythological crackship time!(bizarre and not canon to either celtic or mesopotamian mythology)

Nothing to do with the fate series, sowwy.

Yes, cu chulainn x enkidu.

I sound dumb rn, but yeah.

Also, for reasonable purposes; cu chulainn is aged up to be an adult.

If you dunno; I came up with an idea; enkidu was put into a long deathlike sleep in order to trick gilgamesh into finally believing the whole "yolo" thing because he didn't believe it before since he's a demigod. But enkidu was built to be an immortal being, only waking up thousands of years later.

And as for cu chulainn; I essentially did a whole "They die but ascend to godhood mid-death" which explains the big blast of light that ended with lugaid losing an arm.

Basically, I took a page from heracles' book

[gsirvitor]

Can you explain the Hyperboera theory please? Is it the white people version of the Yakub thing?

The Hyperborea theory is actually more based in reality than the fantasy of Yakub, and like all good things, we begin with Greek Myth.

In Greek myth, Hyperborea was a land located to the far north of the known world, it was so remote it was considered even beyond the North Wind.

There a legendary race known as the Hyperboreans lived, and worshipped the sun god Apollo.

Herodotus wrote that the 7th century BC, the poet Aristeas wrote of the Hyperboreans in a poem called Arimaspea, about a journey to the Issedones, who are estimated to have lived in the Kazakh Steppe.

Beyond these lived the one-eyed Arimaspians, further on the gold-guarding griffins, and beyond these the Hyperboreans.

Herodotus assumed that Hyperborea lay somewhere in Northeast Asia.

Homer placed Boreas in Thrace, and therefore Hyperborea was in his opinion north of Thrace, in Dacia.

Heraclides Ponticus and Antimachus in contrast identified the Riphean Mountains with the Alps, and the Hyperboreans as a Celtic tribe (perhaps the Helvetii) who lived just beyond them.

Aristotle placed the Riphean mountains on the borders of Scythia, and Hyperborea further north.

Hecataeus of Abdera and others believed Hyperborea was Britain.

Later Roman, and Greek sources continued to change the location of the Riphean mountains, the home of Boreas, as well as Hyperborea, which was supposedly located beyond them.

However, all of the sources agreed the locations of the mountains and Hyperborea were far north of Greece and southern Europe.

Simmias of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC connected Hyperborea to the Massagetae and Posidonius in the 1st century BC to the Western Celts, but Pomponius Mela placed them even further north in the vicinity of the Arctic.

This final connection was what stuck in the minds of those who would later propose a location for Hyperborea.

However, later writers disagreed on the existence and location of Hyperborea, with some regarding it as purely mythological, and others connecting the Hyperboreans to real-world peoples and places in northern Eurasia (ie. Britain, Scandinavia, or Siberia).

In medieval and Renaissance literature, the Hyperboreans came to signify remoteness and exoticism.

Modern scholars consider the Hyperborean myth to be an amalgam of ideas from ancient utopianism, "edge of the earth" stories, the cult of Apollo, and exaggerated reports of phenomena in northern Europe known as the Arctic or "midnight sun."

Since Herodotus places Hyperborea beyond the Massagetae and Issedones, both Central Asian peoples, it appears that his Hyperborea may have been in Siberia.

Heracles sought the golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Hyperborea. As the reindeer is the only deer species of which females bear antlers, this would suggest an arctic or subarctic region.

This has led some to believe that the Chinese are Hyperboreans, while others deny this as Reindeer also appear in Northern Europe, meaning Heracles could have sought the thr golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Scandinavia, meaning Hyperborea could have been Norse.

It would be this connection that stuck.

Hyperborea in Greek myth however was not an icy land, it was a warm, sunny land that existed beyond Boreas, who was credited for creating cold climates.

However, the idea of Hyperborea being in the Arctic is the idea that stuck.

Now, this ask was in context to the Indo-European hypothesis, which stipulates that the people who became Indo-Europeans came from Hyperborea, which is correct and incorrect, while yes, the Indo-European people's all come from the same tribal lineage, we did not emerge from the Arctic during an ice age.

Now, this idea stuck itself in the minds of both Russian and Indian nationalists, this was inspired by the works of Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his The Arctic Home in the Vedas, and the Austro-Hungarian ethnologist Karl Penka in his Origins of the Aryans.

Soviet Indologist Natalia R. Guseva and Soviet ethnographer S. V. Zharnikova, influenced by the works, argued for a northern Urals Arctic homeland of the Indo-Aryan and Slavic peoples.

This never caught on outside of Russia and India.

All of this, right now, is plausible, Indo-European people's did come from the same tribal bands of Proto-Indo-Europeans that swept across, and subsequently conquered Eurasia, and North Africa, they did originate from either the steppes of central Asia or the mountains of eastern Europe, their land would have been an alien landscape to the ancient Greeks who would hear of this land beyond Boreas through oral traditions, and so on.

Now, we get into the part that makes the Hyperborea theory, like the Yakub theory, and like all absurd things, we can thank the French.

Robert Charroux first related the Hyperboreans to an ancient astronaut race of "reputedly very large, very white people" who had chosen "the least warm area on the earth because it corresponded more closely to their own climate on the planet from which they originated".

This stuck, and then evolved over the decades to become the modern Hyperborea meme, which claims white people were created, or are aliens, destined to rule the world from beneath the Arctic, or the moon, and the Nazis are also there;

[moiraimyths]

Your game looks beautiful, but as an Irish person who's seen their country's myths and language misused and exploited by non-Irish several times before, I wanted to ask: are there any Irish people on your team? Or do you have Irish cultural consultants or something? I can't find anything about this on your website and it makes me a bit wary. Thanks!

Thank you for the question! We understand the hesitance, and if the absence of Irish team members dissuades you from supporting our game, we totally understand. We do have an Irish language consultant and cross-compare our translations/pronunciations on Teanglann, since none of the core team is fluent in Gaeilge, but regardless we tend to approach our use of the language with our limitations in mind. Most of the phrases we use are very basic, for that reason.

As lovers of history, mythology, and philosophy, we are very aware of the exploitation you reference, and for that reason we aim to represent these myths thoughtfully, with historical and colonial contexts being kept in mind. We would even go so far to say that the exploitation and erasure of Irish Celtic history and religion is a recurring theme in our game. Of course, we're not perfect, so we are open to someone letting us know if any of our information is egregiously incorrect! Our lore and world-building is largely inspired by Lebor Gabála Érenn, with other tales from the other cycles (as well as miscellaneous folklore) scattered throughout. We intend to do the spirit of the myths justice and as accurately as possible, bearing in mind multiple interpretations/variations on certain myths, and the fact that some tales are irrevocably changed due to colonial meddling, i.e. the Christianization of the pantheon. You can also learn more about each of the Fates and our approach to storytelling from our Press Kit!

[thedrarrylibrarian]

Hello, I hope this is okay. I would like to make a recommendation for the Memory Loss requester justawolfstarshipper:

"The Stars Have Courage" by fantalf.

It's absolutely beautiful and soul crushing. I cried through one and a half chapter. It also has a very interesting take on magical theory and Celtic mythology. Within the story, the story is told like a double track line. Which is suited the story very well and is a style not often used in that way, I think. And of course, despite all the tears, it has a happy ending!

~ waterfalls-moon

PS: If this is not okay, please feel free to ignore. I wish you a nice day anyway. :3

Hello and Happy Friday! We're going to keep on with the theme of this week's rec list - Memory Loss.

Thank you so much to @waterfalls-moon for sending us a donation. Donations (or community given recommendations) are ALWAYS welcome in the library. If you want to make a donation, check out this link to learn more about the library's donation policy.

This week's Happy Hour fic is The Stars Have Courage by @fantalfart (85,146 words, rated M)

Draco can’t breathe, can’t think, can’t move. He can’t hear anything besides the buzzing in his ears. The walls are closing in. The world becomes smaller, narrowing itself to the pain in his chest, and it becomes the only thing that makes sense. He tries to cry. Maybe he is crying, but there are no tears anymore.

Luna’s words echo endlessly in his brain. Harry doesn’t remember. Harry doesn’t love Draco. Repeating ceaselessly. Infinite, Harry used to say.

—

Draco waited five long years to watch his husband wake up from a coma. He's not ready to meet a Harry with no memory of anything that happened after he died at The Battle of Hogwarts, twelve years ago.

One of the things I was concerned about when I made my original Memory Loss list was that memory loss is a very real disability. I wanted to make a list that gave people looking for a quick funny read that opportunity while also doing justice to the fact that many people with severe memory loss don't magically regain their memories. I'm by no means an expert - I'm sure there's many different types of memory loss and that it impacts lives in many different ways.

The Stars Have Courage follows Draco as he falls back in love with his husband - a husband who doesn't remember their life together and is different than the one he knew previously, but still the same in so many ways. Parts are joyous, and parts are heartbreaking. I think the magical theory in this story was fascinating, especially in regards to Celtic mythology. The story is broken up into five chapters named for the stages of grief, and an epilogue.

There's a reason this fic touched me in particular. There was a period of time last summer and fall when I wasn't posting much. One of the reasons I was unavailable was because I was busy helping my family take care of my grandparents. My grandfather passed away in the fall, and we were coordinating so that my grandma had someone to visit her regularly after that. We've known for about five years that she has dementia. There are many things that are difficult about helping to care for someone with dementia - I worry there will be a day she doesn't recognize me. Sometimes she calls me her niece instead of her granddaughter. I listen to the same stories over and over, but now details she used to know easily are changed and incorrect. If I take her out to eat, she often can't remember what she wants to order.

There are parts that fill me with a bittersweetness too - I hear stories (though the details may be incorrect) that I've never heard before. There are times that she's struggling for my name, but I can see in her eyes that she knows I'm someone she loves and she's happy to see me. When she forgets what she wants to order at a restaurant, she looks to me with so much trust that I'll take care of it for her. She can't crochet anymore, but she is absolutely delighted when I bring my crochet over and show her what I've been making.

Fantalf's The Stars Have Courage isn't glossing over the hard parts of loving someone with memory loss. It's honest about the heartache it is to have someone you love not remember the time you've spent together, the ways your lives are intertwined. There were several parts that made me cry. But it's also beautifully hopeful - that there's the chance for new memories to be made and though a relationship has changed, sometimes that change brings people closer in unexpected ways.

❤️ As always, if you find a fic you enjoy, please remember to leave the author a kudos or a comment ❤️

Lots of Love and Happy Friday

[mytholots]

Apollo: If I fall…

Surya: I’ll be there to catch you.

Lugh: *looks at Sol* What if I fall?

Sol: Then I’ll fall with you, never leaving your side.

Huitzilopochtli: *watches these two interactions*

Huitzilopochtli, to Ra: And if I fall?

Ra: I’ll be the one who pushed you.

[godsofhumanity]

Ferdiad: That's a crazy idea, Cú Chulainn. Ferdiad: Absolutely insane. Ferdiad: It doesn't make any sense. None at all. Cú Chulainn: Cú Chulainn: So, you'll do it? Ferdiad: Of course!

[15pantheons]

Pwyll: You remind me of the ocean.  Arawn: Because I'm deep and mysterious?  Pwyll: No, because you're full of salt and you scare people.

[nysus-temple]

Arthur, holding his sword: I can't do it!

Morgana, standing next to a badly made clone of hers: You have to be kidding.

Arthur: You two look very alike!

Morgana: Arthur Pendragon—

Arthur: It's impossible to find a difference!

Morgana:

Morgana: Great, you know what? Stab me.

[thekingwhereitallends]

Avenger Diarmuid:I see,you have been summoned as well.

Avenger Diarmuid:(pulls out fragarach, summons chain of lugh and activates third eye of balor) I'm gonna enjoy tearing you to pieces.

Assassin Emiya:(ciggarette drops from his lips) FUCK THIS SHIT I'M OUT!

[oddnub-eye]

Lugh: If you could have sex with one dead person from history, who would you choose?

Emer: My husband.

Fand: I also choose this woman's dead husband.

[godsourvia]

Danae

(Gustav Klimt 1907)

According to the myth, Danae was the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. The King receives a prophecy from the Oracle, which foretells that he will be killed by Danae’s child. In an attempt to defy fate, he locks up his daughter in a cellar. However, the ever crafty Jupiter turns himself into golden rain and enters her room. The fruit of their union is Perseus, who years later, fulfills the prophecy and kills his grandfather.

In his painting, Gustav Klimt blends Symbolism with Art Nouveau aesthetics. In Danae, the figure of the young woman and the golden rain dominate the canvas. The purple cloth represents her royal origins and the Art Nouveau circular designs represent her female nature. The artist candidly explores female sexuality. However, the heavy ornamental style decreases the sexual tension of the piece.