23 / The Norse Gods
No god of Greece could be heroic. All the Olympians were
immortal and invincible. They could never feel the glow of courage; they could
never defy danger. When they fought they were sure of victory and no harm could
ever come near them. It was...
недеља, 2. октобар 2016.
The Stories of Signy and Sigurd
22 / The Stories of Signy and Sigurd
I have selected these two stories
to tell because they seem to me to present better than any other the Norse
character and the Norse point of view. Sigurd is the most famous of Norse
heroes; his story is largely that of the hero of the Nibelungenlied,...
Introduction to Norse Mythology
21 / Brief Myths Arranged Alphabetically
AMALTHEA
According to one story she was a goat on whose milk the
infant Zeus was fed. According to another she was a nymph who owned the goat.
She was said to have a horn which was always full of whatever food or drink
anyone wanted, the Horn of Plenty (in Latin Cornu
copiae—also known as “the Cornucopia”...
The Royal House of Athens
19 / The Royal House of Athens
I have taken the Procne and
Philomela story from Ovid. He tells it better than anyone else, but even so he
is sometimes inconceivably bad. He describes in fifteen long lines (which I
omit) exactly how Philomela’s tongue was cut out and what it looked like as it
lay “palpitating” on the earth where Tereus had flung...
The Royal House of Thebes
18 / The Royal
House of Thebes
The story of the Theban family
rivals that of the House of Atreus in fame and for the same reason. Just as the
greatest plays of Aeschylus, in the fifth century, are about Atreus’
descendants, so the greatest plays of his contemporary Sophocles are about
Oedipus and his children.
CADMUS AND HIS
CHILDREN
The...
