Mythological Monsters: Did they ever exist?
Moira Kelliey:
Briareos as the "sea-goat" Aigaion
The sea-goat 'Aigaion "cannot be distinguished from Hesiod's Briareos"[2] In Virgil's Aeneid (10.566-67), Aeneas is likened in a simile to "Aegaeon," though in Virgil's account Aegaeon fought on the side of the Titans rather than the Olympians; in this Virgil was following the lost Titanomachy rather than the more familiar account in Hesiod.
In the Iliad (i.399) there is a story, found nowhere else in mythology, that at one time the Olympian gods were trying to overthrow Zeus but were stopped when the sea nymph Thetis brought one of the Hecatonchires to his aid, him whom the gods call Briareios but men call Aigaion ("goatish" Iliad i.403).[3] Hesiod reconciles the archaic Hecatonchires with the Olympian pantheon by making of Briareos the son-in-law of Poseidon, he "giving him Kymopoliea his daughter to wed." (Theogony 817).
In a Corinthian myth related in the second century CE to Pausanias (Description of Greece ii. 1.6 and 4.7), Briareus was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios, between sea and sun: he adjudged the Isthmus of Corinth to belong to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth (Acrocorinth) sacred to Helios.
unknown:
Moria
Great work
I love how you found all these wonderful pictures to go with the above par text.
You know some monsters that were thought to be mythical have turned out to be real, the mountain gorilla is a prime example.
Pagan:
Except she didn't mention the satyr! That is the most over-sexed mythological monster of the group. Can't we get a shout out for the satyr?
unknown:
hey!
rockessence:
From Boreas at AR:
My understanding is that the Greek Medusa is a paralell to the Roman Luxuria. They were both part of the old female "deities", in a culture where the highest of the royals - of both sexes - also functioned as deities.
Being the essential goal for the old offering-systems they received the the female serpents, bringing the "Water of Life" (Aqua Vita), also called the "Water of Wisdom", to the respective royal courts.
The Go+Ra+Go`n (Good+Ra+Good) says that the old deities, called Good-men, got and gave the Ra, representing the male Seeds of Knowledge and Water of Life. The rites of the old Spartans reflect the practice of these principles. But, with the defeat to the uprising Athenians the old nobility of Troy lost, and the more violent culture took over. Thus the old rites were altered and eventually completly denounced.
When the old culture - and the inherrited rights of it - were overthrown, this culture was abandoned and stigmatized. By the new rulers, - that were without this inherited right to receive the grace of the people. Thus the old funtion of the royal deities was given up, and eventually mystified.
It is interesting to see how the key-figures in the old culture - such as Medusa and Jezebel - soon came to be pictured as "devilish". The devil-figure was also part of the old practice of worship that created the serpent that once involved all members of the respective societies - with each other - and thus became the yearly blessing for the people - to their royal families and rulers of the land.
Go + R + Go + N
Good + Ra
Male Ra; Seed of Knowledge
Female; Water of Wisdom ("reflection").
Good + kNowledge (N also representing the North-star, with six angles (sextant) - symbolising higher knowledge and navigation.
Gorgon; Good Seed/Water; Good Knowledge.
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