"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."
The artist of this painting was born at Alexandria, Egypt, from English parents but he spent most of his childhood in American after his father died and his mother moved closer to her family. He was adopted by his aunt after his mother died too,...
Manea was an Etruscan goddess of the dead, of spirits and of chaos, of Oscan origin, associated with the Genetai group. Later Latin mythology incorporated her into their systems of belief, making her the mother of ghosts, of the undead, the night spirits, the Lares...
Nun-gal, literally the Great Princess, was a Sumerian goddess of prisons, mercy and the underworld, worshipped in the Third Dynasty of Ur (Neo-Sumerian Empire, from 2112 to 2004 BC) in cities such as Nippur, Lagash, Umma, Susa, and Ur itself. Today on my Patreon, we take a...
Tuonetar is the Queen of the Underworld in Finnish mythology, and I promised you we'd talk about her when we saw her daughter Kalma, who's tasked to prevent the dead from escaping their tombs. She brews one kick-ass beer, and she's today's profile on my...
Kalma's name, the Finnish goddess associated with death and decay, possibly means "The Stench of Corpses," which is enough of a declaratory statement in itself. Narratives revolving around her, often find her lingering in graveyards and cemeteries so much that the Finnish word for graveyard,...
The asphodelus is a perennial plant with tall, white clusters of flowers that resemble a pinecone, and Homer’s Odyssey indicates it as a plant connected to Hades and the afterlife. When the Romans thought the Greek vision of the afterlife was a tad too bleak...
Vanth was a female demon in the Etruscan underworld, frequently depicted alongside other manifestations of the same figure (two Vanths are better than one, apparently) or another underworld demon known as Charun (later referred to as Charu). She lacks a direct equivalent in Greek mythology...
In Roman mythology, Laverna was the goddess of thieves, cheating gamblers and the underworld, and you would gain her favour by pouring wine towards the outside with your left hand, a gesture that's still considered offensive in some parts of Italy. According to Horatius, a pious...
In Hellenistic and Roman mythology, Kyparissos was one of the many boys loved by Apollo, like Hyacinth and just as lucky. The myth of his transformation into the mourning tree is connected with either Apollo or Silvanus, with an unfortunate deer and with the endless...
Mefitis was a Samnite and Oscian goddess from before Roman times, presiding over poisonous gases emitted from the ground, particularly in swamps and volcanic vapours. The area of her sanctuary is mentioned by Virgil as the entrance to the Underworld, boars were sacred to her,...
