peppercyanide:

xfossax:

She of the Jade Skirt

Chalchiuhtlicue

Chalc-heeu-tlee-quay

(via clampvulture)

mythologyrules:

In Greek mythology and religion, The Lernaean Hydra was the second labour (out of twelve labours) of Heracles.
The Hydra was the offspring of Typhon, the father of monsters, and Echidna, the mother of monsters.
For each head cut off, two more took its place.
Heracles, with the help of his nephew, Iolaus, slayed the creature.

30 Day Greek Mythology Challenge: Day 5, Monster Slaying Myth.

(Source: sinful-sofie, via midjungards)

Sigyn and Loki

Here’s my post on Skadi.

(Source: myths101, via midjungards)

primordialwinds:

Odin and Frigg | F. Leeke | c. 1985

She looks rather unimpressed.

(via fragilityofart)

Veles, from Slavic mythology

Glaucus and Scylla

ifsatanwasalady:

Rán, Goddess of the sea

Ran is not in eddic verses, but in skaldic poetry she is encountered fairly frequently, in kennings having to do with the sea. The thulur list Ran among the asynjur, but she is never seen among them or the gods in general in the materials that were left us. Snorri reports in Skaldskaparmal that Ran is the wife of Aegir and that they have nine daughters whose names have to do with the waves. More interestingly, he also says that she has a net with which she hunts men who go to sea. The prose header to the eddic poem Reginsmal and Volsunga saga say that Loki went to Ran and borrowed her net in order to capture the dwarf Andvari, who had changed himself into a pike and was sporting in the river.

But the net was surely primarily used to drag the drowning to their deaths. This conception, or something like it, appears to be realized in a line from one of the most famous skaldic poems, Egil Skallagrimsons’ Sonatorrek (Loss of Himself). According to Egil’s saga (which many critics believe was written by Snorri himself), Egil composed this poem after his son Bodvar was drowned in the nearby flood. The saga says that Egil’s other son had previously died, and that after the loss of Bodvar, Egil wished to die. but that his daughter Thorgerd tricked him into taking some nourishmen and then coerced him into composing a memorial poem for Bodvar. In the seventh of the 25 extant stanzas, Egil says something like this,

Much has Ran harried about me,

I am wholly bereft of beloved friends,

The sea tore the bonds of my family,

A powerful thread right out of me.

As the poem ends, Egil complains of Odin’s treatment of him but admits that the gift of poetry is a consolation.

If the text of Sonatorrek as we have it is genuine, it would date from around 960 (Egils saga is from the first half of the thirteenth century, but the full text of Sonatorrek is only retained in the seventeenth century copies of a fifteenth century manuscript). Verses from Fridthjofs saga, which is post classical, play on the idea of drowing as visiting Ran and refer to her as an ill-bred or immoral woman. 

(via midjungards)

thefaeriefolk:

The Nine Muses by wegs

(via mythologyrules)

Charon, ferryman of the dead

northfury:

Bestla

In Norse mythology, Bestla  is the mother of the gods Odin, Vili and Vé by way of Borr, the sister of an unnamed being who assisted Odin, and the daughter or, depending on source, granddaughter of the jötunn Bölþorn. Bestla is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds.

Some scholars have theorized that Bestla’s unnamed brother is Mímir.

One moon of Saturn is named after her.

(via tremblingcolors)

northfury:

Þrymr

In Norse mythology, Þrymr (Thrymr, Thrym; “uproar”) was king of the jotnar. In one legend, he stole Mjollnir, Thor’s hammer, to extort the gods into giving him Freyja as his wife. His kingdom was called Jötunheimr, but according to Hversu Noregr byggdist, it was the Swedish province Värmland, then a part of Norway.

Þrymr was foiled in his scheme by the gracefulness of Heimdall, the cunning of Loki, and the sheer violence of Thor. Thor, son of Odin, later killed Thrym, his sister, and all of his jotnar kin, which had been present at the wedding reception. The poem Þrymskviða gives the details of how Thor got his hammer back. Bergfinnr is a son of Thrymr, the Giant of Vermland.

(via tremblingcolors)