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!

Comments

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...

Scylla And Nisus

MINOS was the first king to control the Mediterranean Sea, which he cleared of pirates, and in Crete ruled over ninety cities. When the Athenians had murdered his son Androgeus, he decided to take vengeance on them, and sailed around the Aegean collecting ships and armed levies. Some islanders agreed to help him, some refused. Siphnos yielded to him by the Princess Arne, whom he bribed with gold; the gods changed her into a jackdaw which loves gold and all things that glitter. He made an alliance with the people of Anaphe, but rebuffed by King Aeacus of Aegina and departed, swearing revenge. Aeacus then answered an appeal from Cephalus to join the Athenians against Minos . b. Meanwhile, Minos was partying the Isthmus of Corinth. He laid siege to Nisa, ruled by Nisus the Egyptian, who had a daughter name Scylla. A tower stood in the city, built by Apollo [and Poseidon ?], an at its foot lay a musical stone which, if pebbles were dropped upon from above, rang like a lyre-because Ap...

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...