Skip to main content

SAGA — EIR — GEFJON — VAR — VOR — SYNSNOTRA

Kết quả hình ảnh cho SAGA norse mythology"
In the array of goddesses in the Prose Edda, Saga is found next after Frigg; possibly Saga is only another name for Frigg. Her house is known as Sœkkvabek;l cool waves wash over her dwelling, and here Odin and she drink each day from crocks of gold. Some generations since, it was a common opinion that she was the goddess of history, “saga”; but it is certain that her name was Sága and not Saga (with a short vowel). No more reasonable explanation has been proposed than that the name may have been formed from a root found in at sjá (Gothic saihwan) and thus has the meaning: she who sees — and knows — all things, in common with Odin. Eir is the goddess of healing, her name having originally been the common noun eir, “mercy.” Gefjon, according to Snorri’s Edda, was a maiden, to whom came after death all who died maids. Odin says of her in Lokasenna that she knows the fates as well as himself. It thus seems as if Gefjon, like Saga, corresponds to Odin’s wife Frigg. There is another myth having to do with a Gefjon who was one of Odin’s following. She asked king Gylfi of Sweden for as much land as she could plow around in one day, and he promised her the gift. She accordingly transformed her sons into oxen, put them before the plow, and with them she plowed loose all the land that once lay where now lies Lake Mälaren. This parcel of earth she drew out into the Baltic, and the land is now called Zealand; there she made her home, and there she was wedded to Odin’s son Scyld. Var hears the oaths of fidelity that men and women make to each other. Hence, if report be true, these promises are known as várar, and Var punishes those who break them. Vor is endowed with prudence; she searches into all things so that nothing remains hidden from her. Syn “guards the door of the hall” and prevents the unworthy from entering; she also hinders men from bearing false witness in courts of law; thence, says Snorri, we get syn, “the act of denying” (at synja). Snotra is wise and decorous of manner.

Ebook Banner

Essential Reads: Engaging Books You Can't Miss!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gorgon

In Greek mythology, a Gorgon  is a mythical creature portrayed in ancient Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus. The large Gorgon eyes, as well as Athena 's "flashing" eyes, are symbols termed "the divine eyes" by Gimbutas (who did not originate the perception); they appear also in Athena's sacred bird, the owl. They may be represented by spirals, wheels, concentric circles, swastikas, firewheels, and other images. Anyone who would gaze into their eyes would be turned to stone instantly. Essential Reads: Engaging Books You Can't Miss...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sisyphus

SISYPHUS, son of Aeolus, married Atlas ’s daughter Merope, the Pleiad, who bore him Glaucus , Ornytion , and Sinon, and owned a fine herd of cattle on the Isthmus of Corinth. b. Near him lived Autolycus , son of Chione , whose twin-brother Philammon was begotten by Apollo , though Autolycus himself claimed Hermes as his father. c. Now, Autolycus was a past master in theft, Hermes having given him the power of metamorphosing whatever beasts he stole, from horned to unhorned, or from black to white, and contrariwise. Thus although Sisyphus noticed that his own herds grew steadily smaller while those of Autolycus increased, he was unable at first to accuse him of theft; and therefore, one day, engraved the inside of all his cattle’s hooves with the monogram SS or, some say, with the words ‘Stolen by Autolycus’. That night Autolycus helped himself as usually and at dawn hoof-prints along the road provided Sisyphus with sufficient evidence to summon neighbours in witness of the th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Merope - Pleiades

Merope is one of the seven Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione . Pleione, their mother, is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and is the protector of sailors. Merope is the faintest of the stars because she was the only of the Pleiades to have married a mortal. Her sisters had relations with gods and bore them sons, but Merope married Sisyphus and lived on the island Chios. Merope gave birth to Glaukos, Ornytion, Almus, Thersander and Sinon. The star Merope is often called the "lost Pleiad" because she was at first not seen by astronomers or charted like her sisters. One myth says that she hid her face in shame because she had an affair with a mortal man, another says she went to Hades with her husband, Sisyphus . They were the sisters of Calypso, Hyas, the Hyades , and the Hesperides. The Pleiades were nymphs in the train of Artemis , and together with the seven Hyades were called the Atlantides, Dodonides, or Nysiades, nursemaids and teachers to the infant Di...
Post a Comment
Read more