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19
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Do the seemingly random timespans in the Kalevala creation story have any significance?
The first chapter of the Kalevala always gives a specific number of years (sometimes multiple numbers) when describing time skips. The three examples I saw are quoted below. Is there any known significance to these numbers or time periods?
After…
Ixrec
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Did the word "fairies" originate after the creation of stories about fairies?
From Wiktionary: Fairy : Etymology
From Middle English fairie, from Old French faerie, the -erie abstract of fae, from Vulgar Latin Fāta (“goddess of fate”), from Latin fātum (“fate”)
This seems to indicate that 'fairies' is a term that was made…
Malady
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Who translated the Iliad or the Odyssey to Latin first?
Who was the first person to translate part or all of Homer's works, the Iliad and/or the Odyssey, to Latin? Have these translations survived to current times?
My original motivation for the question is the following: Devecseri Gábor has written an…
Matt Cloudy-grid
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18
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Why would Hades visit a battlefield?
Hades, apparently, was present in the battlefield when Hercules besieged Pylos:
And so suffered monstrous Hades even as the rest a bitter arrow, when this same man, the son of Zeus that beareth the aegis, smote him in Pylos amid the dead, and gave…
yannis
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Who was Arthur's sword, Excalibur, returned to?
Most versions of the Arthurian legend relates that, after the Battle of Camlann, a dying King Arthur ordered a surviving knight - usually Sir Griflet or Sir Bedivere - to dispose of Excalibur in a nearby lake. The knight however hides the sword…
Semaphore
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18
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Is Mjolnir actually capable of flying back into Thor's hand like a boomerang after being thrown?
This is something Marvel's Thor does all the time:
So I was wondering: Has Thor/Mjolnir ever done anything like this in actual Norse mythology?
Ixrec
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Why is the ferry toll for Charon placed in the dead person's mouth?
In Greek mythology, the deceased pays a ferryman, Charon, to take them across the river Styx. Apparently this reflects a common custom in the funeral rites of antiquity. Sometimes, though not always, a coin is placed in the deceased's mouth as a…
Semaphore
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What was the more prominent of Ra's origins stories?
I was browsing Wikipedia and came upon three different variations for Ra's origins:
In the former version, a mound arises from the waters. An egg was laid upon this mound by a celestial bird. The egg contained Ra. In some variants, the egg is laid…
yannis
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Is it Lucifer or Venus?
Which deity, according to Greek and Roman mythology, is represented by the planet that we call Venus? Is it the goddess Venus (Aphrodite in Greek) or is someone named Lucifer?
Reb Chaim HaQoton
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How did Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades decide who would rule what?
From Wikipedia article on Hades:
Zeus got the sky, Poseidon got the seas, and Hades received the underworld, the unseen realm to which the souls of the dead go upon leaving the world as well as any and all things beneath the earth.
I had read…
Ero Sɘnnin
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Were there some differences in mythology between the different city-states?
I have always wondered how the Greek city-states managed to keep the same mythology before they got united into the same country. There seems to be no central authority to maintain the beliefs (it is not really an organized religion) but every time…
meneldal
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Was Talos an intelligent machine?
I've been playing "The Talos Principle". In it, Talos is presented as a symbolic representation of an intelligent artificial being (a robot, if you're feeling less pretentious). The bronze giant from the Argonautica is certainly a reasonable…
femtoRgon
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How did Masih ad-Dajjal lose his eye?
In Islamic eschatology, Masih ad-Dajjal is a one eyed false messiah:
Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:
Allah's Apostle said. "While I was sleeping, I saw myself (in a dream) performing Tawaf around the Ka'ba. Behold, I saw a reddish-white man with lank…
yannis
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Who were the weapons-makers for the Norse gods?
Who were the weapons-makers for the Norse gods? Was there a specific god like in Greek mythology?
user28
17
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1 answer
What is the origin of the Japanese Kodama?
One of Studio Ghibli's (excellent) films, named Princess Mononoke, has depictions of kodama:
In Japanese folklore, kodama are tree spirits that inhabit trees that are older than 100 years.
In the collection of yōkai depictions, the Gazu Hyakki…
El'endia Starman
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