Daily Deities: Boreas

     We've been experiencing some very cold weather where I live. So I decided to talk about Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind and the god of winter.

    Boreas is one of the Anemoi (roman Venti), who are the four gods of the four winds: north, east, south, west. They are the sons of Eos and Astraeus, dawn and dusk respectively. They're one of the historically oldest Greek gods to exist, proving the importance or significance of the wind to the Greeks. Have you ever looked at an old-fashioned map and seen men in the four directions made of wind and blowing wind? Those are the Anemoi.

    Boreas, aside from being the Northwind, was also the god of winter. He was said to have a quick temper. Sometimes he was said to have wings, and sometimes he was said to have a snake tail. He once fell in love with a princess named Orithyia, who was the daughter of Erechtheus, the mythical founder of Athens. He attempted to woo her but failed. So, he abducted her and made her his wife. She turned into the goddess of cold mountains winds. They had two sons, Calais and Zetes, who both had wings and became heroes. They also had a daughter, Khione, who became the goddess of snow.

    Due to having married into the Athenian royal family, Athens always considered Boreas to be a relative of sorts. They would pray to Boreas and Orithyia to give them good winds, or to deflect enemies with bad winds.

    That's basically it for Boreas. Is winter bad where you are too? What do you think of the Anemoi? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Daily Deities: Skadi

    With all the snow and cold weather, I decided to talk about Skadi, the Norse goddess of winter and skiing.

    Skadi is a bit different from the other Norse gods. She is neither Aesir nor Vanir but is a Jotunn/giantess. Skadi's story starts off with her dad, Thjazi, who pisses off Loki and begins carrying him in the form of an eagle. Loki begs to be put down and Thjazi agrees, on the condition that Loki should lead Idunn, the goddess of youth, out of Asgard. Loki agrees, leads Idunn out of Asgard (as well as her apples of youth), and Thjazi kidnaps her and carries her to Jotunheim (the realm of the dwarves). Without her apples, the gods began to grow old and they had last seen her with Loki, so they confronted him and threatened him to rescue her. So, Loki borrowed Freya's falcon jacket/cloak, became a falcon, and flew to Jotunheim. He rescues Idunn, and Thjazi turns into an eagle to chase them. The other gods see Loki coming with Thjazi at his tail and so they kill him.

    To celebrate, The gods have a party, but Skadi crashes the party because she wants revenge for her father's death. But before she does something drastic, the gods calm her down, apologize, and say that they'll make her a goddess just like them. They also say that they'll let her choose a god to be her husband. But, she has to choose them by looking at their feet. So, she looks at all their feet and sees a pair of beautiful feet. Assuming they belong to Baldr, she chooses the man with the beautiful feet. But it isn't Baldr. It's Njord, the god of the sea and fishing. So they get married and seem to have had a good relationship, but for some reason, they split later on. Skadi doesn't really have many stories outside of that, but she was the one who placed a snake overtop Loki to drip poison on him for all eternity until Ragnarok. That's really it.

    What do you really think about Njord and Skadi? Any thoughts? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Daily Deities: Hel

    I've recently learnt about a lot of "dark-themed" things. I recently learnt about Goth and Punk fashion and philosophy. I wanted to know where they came from and why they're different. I also learnt about Gothic literature. I also learnt about Noir fiction and what defines it. I've also been listening to Gothic and Noir music to help me relax recently, and overall, I've been experiencing a very morbid vibe. So I decided to talk about one of my favourite topics: Chthonic gods! Specifically Hel.

    Now, Hel is spelled with one "L", but it's pronounced like "hell". Hel is the Norse goddess of death and the ruler of Helheim, the Nordic realm of the dead. She is the only daughter of Loki and is described as being half-woman, half-corpse; split down the middle. She is also one of those misunderstood gods in mythology and so I want to talk about her today.

    Loki was the trickster god of Norse mythology and he had three children with the jotunn/giantess Angrboda. His three children consisted of Jormungandr (a snake), Fenrir (a wolf), and Hel (a goddess). Well, Hel is technically half a goddess. She's also half a giantess/jotunn. Loki tried to hide his kids from the other Aesir gods, but they found out eventually. But, unfortunately for Loki and his children, there was a bad prophecy about them. Odin has many magic advisers and seers who spoke of a prophecy in which Loki's children will be the cause of Ragnarok (the Norse apocalypse). Not wanting Ragnarok to happen, Odin decides to deal with Loki's children. The gods throw Jormungandr in the Midgard ocean, turning Jormungandr into the giant World Serpent that he's known to be. The Aesir tricked Fenrir and tied him to a rock, losing Tyr's hand in the process.

    Once Hel was banished to Helheim, she was trapped. She became one of the most powerful goddesses in the Norse pantheon, but she couldn't leave her realm any better than the dead souls she welcomed. The road to Helheim was guarded by Hel's guard-dog Garmr. She was also the only goddess who could control the dragon Nidhogg. Helheim may sound like "hell", but there is no evidence to suggest that it was a terrible place. Dead warriors would go to either Valhalla or Folkvangr, while people who died of old age and sickness would go to Hel. Helheim isn't a place for sinners, it's just a place for all people who didn't die in battle. Why would it be a terrible place for them?

    The only story where Hel plays a small role is in is the death of Baldr. Baldr was the son of Odin and was the god of light, purity, happiness, love, forgiveness, and basically all good things. Everybody in the nine realms loved him. But then he started having nightmares about his coming death, and so his mother Frigg got everything in existence to swear not to hurt him. All except mistletoe (because mistletoe, am I right?). Because of this, Baldr was basically invulnerable. So, at parties, the Aesir would play games in which they threw all kinds of dangerous and non-dangerous things at him, which would all bounce off him and not harm him. Now, Loki (who likes nothing better than causing trouble) makes an arrow out of mistletoe and gives it to Hodr (Baldr's blind twin brother). Hodr may be blind, but he's actually a very good archer. He shoots Baldr and kills him. Odin then has a child with a giantess named Vidar, who avenges Baldr by killing Hodr. Baldr and Hodr both go to the underworld. Hel welcomes them very warmly with many festivities and wealth (further proof that Helheim wasn't THAT bad).

    Everyone was sad about Baldr's death, and so Hermod (the messenger of the gods), went to Hel to see if he can persuade her to return Baldr. Hel agreed to let Baldr go if everything in the nine realms wept for him. And everything did. Everything except for one giantess, Thokk. "Thokk" was actually Loki in disguise. So, Baldr had to stay in Helheim with Hodr and Hel. He would return after Ragnarok, to rule in the new world.

    Loki would be punished for what he did, but all of these events would lead up to Ragnarok. Loki, Fenrir, and Jormungandr would be free, and Loki would take Hel's army of the dead to attack Asgard. Hence, Loki's children would be the cause of Ragnarok. Strangely enough, this actually places Odin and Loki's children in the mythical motif of the "prophecy". This is a  motif in which a king hears about their doom at the hands of a relative, they try to stop it and in the process, they give the person in question EXACTLY what they need to fulfil the prophecy. Odin heard a prophecy about his doom, then tried to stop it, but ended up giving Loki's kids exactly what they needed to fulfil their role in the prophecy. Jormungandr never would have grown so big if he wasn't thrown into the Midgard ocean. Fenrir wouldn't have been so angry if he hadn't been tricked into being chained up. Hel would have never had an army of the dead if she hadn't been made the queen of the dead in the first place. In trying to stop Loki's children, he gave them EXACTLY what they needed to fulfil the prophecy of Ragnarok (in which Odin dies).

    Odin could make an easy antagonist since the Aesir gods aren't really GOOD PEOPLE. They always get drunk, cause problems, ask Loki to fix it, and if it goes wrong, they blame Loki for it. This bad representation could be because of Christian bias. The only primary source we have for Norse mythology (The Prose Edda) was written by Christian Icelandic mythographer Snorri Sturluson. He wrote it from a heavily biased perspective. We don't have any sources before that, so we don't know how much of Norse mythology is legit or not. But, on the topic of Hel, a lot of scholars have come to the conclusion that Hel probably didn't exist in Pre-Scandinavian-Mythology. They have theorized that Snorri very likely created her as the personification of the underworld that was also called Hel. But who knows?

    Thanks so much for reading! In my opinion, I think Hel is nice and I like her. I also hardcore ship Hel and Baldr. No regrets. :)

    What do you think of Hel? Good, bad or neutral? Do you think she existed pre-Snorri? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Daily Deities #7: Anubis

    I don't know why I am thinking about Anubis today but for some reason I am. I guess I like him like I do with all chthonic gods.

    The idea that the ancient Egyptians were OVERLY OBSESSED with death is actually a myth. They weren't THAT obsessed with death, but it did play an important role in the lives of the Egyptians. I guess it makes sense that in order to understand life, it would be important to understand death as well. Hence, the ancient Egyptians knew a lot about death and believed that the soul was immortal and needed help to reach the afterlife after it left its body.

    Considering how important death was, it makes sense that Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death and mummification, would be a very important figure for the ancient Egyptians. Anubis was the son of the gods Nephthys and Osiris. The story goes that Nephthys looked a lot like Osiris's sister-wife Isis, and so tricked him and gave birth to Anubis. Sometimes this affair is said to be the inciting incident for Set's reign of terror over Egypt. Sometimes, it happens because Set is jealous of Osiris and Isis and so neglects his wife Nephthys, causing her to seduce Osiris. Whatever the outcome or reason, Anubis is born as the son of Osiris and Nephthys and hence, is rejected by his stepfather Set.

    Anubis leaves home and soon encounters his aunt Isis, who had just lost her husband Osiris and was trying to find his body. She took in Anubis and taught him magic. Once he had learnt, they parted ways and Anubis left for the Duat/the underworld. Anubis became the king of the dead and the god of death. He judged the dead souls on how good or bad they were in their life. Eventually, Isis and Nephthys found Osiris's dead body. They asked Anubis for help with resurrecting Osiris. So Anubis preserves Osiris's body and brings him back to life, making Osiris the first mummy; and making Anubis the inventor and god of mummification. Outside of that, Anubis doesn't really have any other stories about him.

    Now, just because he didn't have many stories doesn't mean he wasn't widely worshipped. He was one of the most popular Egyptian deities. His historical development goes as far back as before "Egypt" became official. The Egyptians have always buried their dead in tombs with many treasures to help the soul in the afterlife. Unfortunately, the buried goods attracted the attention of thieves. So, to scare the thieves away, the carved and painted black jackals on the walls of the tomb. Jackals were often seen near tombs and would scavenge and eat the remains of any dead body it finds. After connecting jackals with death, they began to worship a god with the head of a jackal in order to protect them from jackals. This figure would become Anubis.

    Anubis's head is specifically the head of an African golden jackal (as of 2015, due to observation and study, scientists have renamed it to wolf). At first, he was just depicted as a full jackal but soon morphed into a human with the head of a jackal. Anubis was the all-powerful king of the underworld and the god of the dead. He would judge souls and reward or punish them in the afterlife based on their deeds. But, with the discovery and invention of mummification and embalming, Anubis also became the god of mummification. embalmers would often wear Anubis/jackal masks while preserving or wrapping a body.

    Anubis was highly popular and worshipped all throughout Egypt as the god of death and the dead. At first, Anubis didn't have any parentage, so they made him the son of Ra, the most-important sun god. Eventually, He was given the whole Osiris-Nephthys birth story. As time moved on, Osiris would replace him as king of the underworld, and Anubis was reduced to a psychopomp and balancer of souls. When the Romans conquered Egypt, they syncretized Anubis with Hermes and Hades. In fact, a new god, Hermanubis, was formed. He's basically Hermes and Anubis combined.

    Anubis has been depicted in many different ways throughout pop culture. Sometimes he's a mysterious god who's tortured by the sins he committed for whatever reason. Sometimes he's a good guy and sometimes he's just neutral. Sometimes he's the divine sexy teenage love interest of the main character. Often he's portrayed as the sinister god of death and a merciless villain. This has ZERO precedent in the mythology and I wish it would stop. I hope to portray a nice version of him in the future.

Anubis: Picture credit link

    So that's my thoughts on Anubis. What do you think about him? Who do you think is a better king of the Egyptian underworld, Osiris or Anubis? What is your favourite portrayal of Anubis and why? Feel free to comment down below! (Comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome)

Daily Deities #6: Nikumbila/Narasimhi/Pratyangira

    I was in a bad mood recently. I was feeling very angry at myself for no reason. I was walking around and thinking to myself and so I did some research on Hindu goddesses, specifically the scary, angry ones. Whenever I look at the angry goddesses, there's always some form of good, powerful symbolism behind them and it makes me feel good. I stumbled upon one in particular who I found very interesting and so I wanted to share what I learned with you.

    I have watched and read the Ramayan on multiple occasions and I'd always heard that Ravan's son, Meghnad/Indrajit had gotten all his strength and magical power from a goddess named Nikumbila. I'd heard of how he performed Tantric rites in order to please her. I just never looked up this goddess to learn if she was an actual Hindu goddess. I sort of just assumed she was some kind of Rakshasa goddess who only appears in the Ramayan because I'd never heard her name anywhere else. Now, I had also heard of another goddess, Pratyangira, who was a form of Goddess Durga with a lion's head. I knew that she was one of the Matrikas, who are 7-8 forms of Goddess Durga who help the goddess fight in battle. The Matrikas each represent the energy and power of a god or an avatar of Vishnu (except for Chamunda, who has no male counterpart). Pratyangira is also called Narasimhi because she is the female energy of Narasimha, Vishnu's lion-man hybrid avatar. Narasimha is one of Vishnu's most powerful incarnations. His anger nearly destroyed the universe. So, if Narasimha is so powerful, just imagine how powerful Pratyangira is since she's the physical representation of his entire power.

    It wasn't until recently that I learned that Nikumbila was just another name for Pratyangira and it surprised me. She also goes by a couple of other names. In Vaishnavism, she is considered the wife of Narasimha. Narasimha literally means "human-lion" (Nara-simha). Narasimhi is the feminine version (name-wise). While she is often associated with Goddess Kali, she is also considered a form of Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu. Hence, she is also called Simhamukha Lakshmi ( lion-headed Lakshmi). In South India, she is known as Atharvani Bhadrakali, identifying her as the goddess of the Atharva Veda (which also makes her the goddess of magic and spells, since the Atharva Veda has magic spells in it). Prati means reverse, while Angiras means attacking. Hence, Pratyangira is the goddess who can reverse and protect oneself from black magic. She is the goddess of both offensive and defensive power.

    Her lion head on a human body is a representation of the balance between good and evil. She also rides a lion and sometimes has blue skin and fur with a wide-open mouth and lots of teeth. Her eyes are often red with anger and in her four hands, she carries a trident, a damaru (basically a hand-drum), a cobra snake as a noose (badass!), and a skull.

    Pratyangira has a couple stories. She is often present whenever Durga or Shiva summons the Matrikas to help them fight in battle, and she also helps Goddess Lalitha when fighting Bhandasura. One story states that some sages were performing a yagna to the Ashta-Lakshmis (the eight forms of Lakshmi). While doing so, they were attacked by a powerful demon. To protect them, Lakshmi transforms into Pratyangira and kills the demon.

    Another story states that when Narasimha killed Hiranyakashipu, he was still so angry, that his anger and power were burning the universe and threatening to destroy it completely. In fear, the gods all ran to Lord Shiva for help. So Shiva sent his incarnation Veerbhadra to stop him. Veerbhadra tried to explain to Narasimha, but when words and reason failed, the two started fighting. Shiva felt that things were getting out of hand and so he incarnated as Sharabha. Sharabha was a bird-lion monster who began to fight Narasimha, but neither could defeat the other. So, Pratyangira Devi burst forth from Sarabha's wings and nullified Narasimha's power in a second. JUST. LIKE. THAT. No fight or anything! If Narasimha is so powerful, just imagine how powerful SHE is.

    Remember that as we segway into how her devotee became so powerful thanks to her. In the Ramayan, Pratyangira made a cameo appearance under the name Nikumbila. Nikumbila is actually Ravan's Kuldevi (family goddess). Meghnad was given a boon by Brahma that gave him knowledge of her mantra and the Tantric rites that he should perform to get her power. He did so and became very powerful, especially in the magical arts (like sorcery and illusions, since Nikumbila is the goddess of magic). Using this power, Meghnad defeated Indra, earning him the name Indrajit. Indrajit caused tons of problems for Lord Ram and his army during the Ramayan. At one point, He caused Ram and Lakshman to fall unconscious, and also nearly killed Lakshman. But luckily, Lakshman survived thanks to Hanuman and returned to kill Meghnad. He attacked Meghnad at the cave where he worshipped Nikumbila. If he disrupted Meghnad mid-worship, then Meghnad would be vulnerable, because he hadn't completed his sacrifice. Lakshman killed Meghnad, giving Lord Ram the upper hand in the war.

    Considering how powerful Pratyangira is, I'm not really surprised that Meghnad was as powerful as he was. Anyone would be if they worshipped her at his level. Well, you know what they say: Behind every great man is a great woman.

Nikumbila: Picture credit link

Pratyangira: Picture credit link

    What do you think of Pratyangira? Which of her names is your favourite? Did you know about Meghnad and Nikumbila? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome)

Daily Deities #5: Hestia/Vesta

     Hestia is the greek virgin goddess of the hearth, the household, and domesticity. I decided to write about her because I was feeling very comfortable and cozy in my home. I also reread the Dark Phoenix Saga. Together, they gave me a Hestia vibe (I don't know). My brother and I are X-Men comic fans and we love Dark Phoenix, so whenever we think of a "fire-related person", we tend to think of "badass-phoenix-powerhouse". So, when I told him about Hestia, he completely ignored the domestic, household part of Hestia and only focused on the fireplace aspect. He thinks she is some kind of Dark Phoenix-like fire goddess, and it's hilarious.

    Hestia is the oldest child of the Titan Kronos and his wife Rhea and the first deity in the Olympian pantheon. Her name has Proto-Indo-European origins and literally means "fireplace", or "hearth". She was the first child to be eaten by Kronos and also the last to be vomited. Hence, she is the oldest AND the youngest. When the Olympian gods defeated the Titans and set up shop on Mt. Olympus, Hestia's role was tending the sacred flame. She was a peaceful, benevolent deity, and never meddled in the crazy affairs and bickering of the other gods. When the god Dionysus came to Olympus, Hestia gave her position as the 12th Olympian to Dionysus, arguing that her place was at the fireplace (This story is actually more modern, but it never actually happened. When people list the twelve Olympians, they'll either include Hestia OR Dionysus. As Dionysus became more popular with time, people kind of assume he "took her place", but there are no primary sources for this story).

    One thing Hestia is known for is her virginity. Apollo and Poseidon both fell in love with Hestia and asked for her hand in marriage. But Hestia wanted to be unmarried for life. So, she went to Zeus and swore an oath to be unmarried and a virgin for all life. Because of this, Hestia is one of three goddesses whom Aphrodite has no power over. Once, the mother goddess Cybele was hosting a feast where gods, goddesses, satyrs ad nymphs were all invited. Hestia attended the feast, but Priapus (a minor fertility and wilderness god) saw her and became attracted to her. While she slept, he attempted to assault her, but Silenus's donkey started braying. Everyone woke up and rushed to defend Hestia and Priapus was chased away.

    One thing to note is that there is a small difference between Hestia and Vesta (her Roman counterpart). When people learn about the Greek and Roman gods, they tend to think they're the same gods, just with different names. That is only 70% true. The thing with the Roman deities is that they already existed before the Romans met the Greeks. The Roman deities evolved from various Italian tribal gods and from a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European Mythology (where the Greek gods also came from). The Roman gods had fewer stories about them but were still worshipped. When the Romans met the Greeks, they adopted a lot of their stories about their gods, and the two cultures heavily influenced each other. Hence, there is a difference between the gods.

    The difference between Hestia and Vesta is that Hestia isn't important in the Greek pantheon, but has a few stories about her. Vesta, meanwhile, is one of the most important Roman goddesses, but there are no stories about her (Vesta was more of an abstract goddess). Scholars can't seem to agree on where her name came from and what it means. Vesta wasn't depicted in human form and was represented by the sacred flame in her temple. The only people allowed in her temple were her priestesses, who were called Vestal Virgins. Their jobs were tending to the sacred flame. Assaulting them was seen as the worst crime in all of Rome. Vesta had almost no stories about her other than Vestal Virgins getting pregnant thanks to fire from a hearth (don't ask how).

    Vesta was the purest and good-mannered of the gods and was also seen as a fertility goddess and a mother goddess. She was represented by a fire stick in some fertility cults and was also a goddess of impregnation (ok? weird). Hence, in some versions, she played a role in the birth of Romulus and Remus (the mythical/historical founders of Rome). Because the fireplace and the earth both played an important part in the household (and because Vesta is a fertility goddess), Vesta has been linked to Terra, the goddess of the earth, by many scholars and poets. Thresholds were also sacred to Vesta. Hence, brides usually stepped over the threshold for good luck by not disrespecting Vesta. Both Vesta and Janus (the god of doorways) were present at all weddings and sacrifices and neither was fully depicted in human form.

    Vesta has always been one of the most important goddesses to the Romans and her worship goes as far back as the beginning of Rome itself, with her origins being even older. She was believed to be one of several Trojan gods whose worship was brought to Italy by Aeneas (ancestral Trojan founder of Rome). Her household worship expanded into a full-blown cult that was popular throughout Rome and regarded as the most important. All emperors were priests of Vesta from the title alone. But when Christianity began to rise in popularity, Vesta's popularity went down and was one of the last Roman cults to be deleted from existence.

    I like how Hestia is so calm and composed and that the Romans worshipped Vesta so much. Do you agree with my brother's Dark Phoenix representation? What do YOU like about Hestia/Vesta? DO you like Hestia/Vesta? Why or why not? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Daily Deities #4: Medea

    Medea is my favorite character in Greek Mythology and so I've decided to talk about her. Even though she's kind of framed as a bit of a villain in Greek Mythology, she's one of those rare strong female characters who had so much unique depth to her character rather than some pathetic damsel in distress. Also, it's fun to say "MEDEA THE WITCH!!!" for some reason. I don't know why.

    Medea's family tree is pretty simple by Greek mythological standards. Helios, the sun god had two children: Circe and Aeetes. Aeetes became the king of Colchis (a kingdom on the east coast of the Black Sea), and he is the father of Medea. All the descendants of Helios (including Medea), are all said to have golden eyes, and Medea is said to have very blonde hair (which is weird since all Renaissance painting versions of her show her with brown or black hair).

    Medea, like her aunt Circe, was a priestess of Hecate (the chthonic goddess of magic), which made her a powerful sorceress. Medea shows up all over the place in Greek mythology, but her main story comes to us from two written works. First, The Argonautica, an epic written by Apollonius Rhodes; and Medea, and play/tragedy written earlier by Euripides. The Argonautica focuses on Jason, the prince of Thessaly, whose uncle Pelias usurps the throne from his father and so Jason is raised in secret before returning to claim his throne. On the way, he helps an old lady cross a river. It turns out the old lady is the goddess Hera, who has a grudge against Pelias and so she helps Jason throughout the story.

    When Jason reaches Pelias, Pelias tells him he'll give him the throne if he can retrieve the Golden Fleece from Colchis. The Golden Fleece is the skin of a golden ram that is protected in Colchis. So to go to Colchis, Jason (with help from Hera), builds a ship called the Argo and assembles a team of famous Greek heroes who he dubs the Argonauts. They deal with many problems along the way but they eventually reach Colchis. Aeetes didn't want to part with his kingdom's most prized possession so he gave Jason some tasks to accomplish. First, he had to plow a field with fire-breathing bulls, then he had to sow the field with dragon's teeth and then defeat an army of warriors.

    While Jason thinks about how to do this, Medea falls deeply in love with Jason. She decides to help Jason by giving him an ointment to protect him and she also told him how to deal with the other tasks. Jason completes the tasks, and that night, Hera sends nightmares to Medea to warn her that Aeetes has found out about her involvement. So she runs to the Argo and warns them to flee from Colchis and take her with them. Jason promises to marry her when they go back to Greece and swears an oath to the gods to always love only her (remember that!). Medea then charms the snake guarding the Golden fleece to sleep, allowing them to steal it and run away. Medea's brother Absyrtus nearly catches them, but Medea lures him into a trap and throws his dismembered body parts into the ocean.

    So Jason and Medea arrive in Thessaly and give Pelias the Golden Fleece. But Pelias doesn't care. Meanwhile, everyone is amazed, since they'd never seen an Eastern woman before, let alone one skilled in awesome sorcery. The king's daughters watch Medea take a sick, old goat; butcher it, dump it in her pot of herbs and resurrect it. A young and healthy lamb comes out. The princesses think that's really cool so they try to do the same to their dad and fail. Due to being the center of a gruesome crime, Jason and Medea are kicked out of Thessaly and they move to Corinth.

    They have a pretty decent life in Corinth for ten years along with their two children. But then, Jason starts courting Creusa (princess of Corinth and daughter of king Creon), hoping that marrying her would secure the royalty of his lineage. Medea becomes crazy furious at this and so King Creon exiles her and her children to prevent Medea from murdering anyone. Medea pleads with him and he agrees to give her one whole day before she leaves. Medea is brilliant, clever, and powerful, and so starts carefully plotting her revenge (like the badass girlboss she is!).

    Now, being strategic, she starts planning an exit strategy, because she knows that if she just starts murdering people, she'll be wanted for murder with no safe haven to run to. She encounters Jason, who is angry at her for getting herself exiled and isn't even ashamed of his own behavior. Medea roasts him by reminding him of all the times she saved him and everything she sacrificed for him. She reminds him of how (in helping him) she's made enemies everywhere, making exile a death sentence for her. He tells her that she got more than what she gave since she's famous now (I think you mean infamous) and that she gets to live in Greece instead of her Eastern homeland. He also doesn't consider her his wife because she's a barbarian witch (who is crazy powerful and could kill you if she wanted to).

    Medea encounters Aegeus, the king of Athens, who sympathizes with her and offers her safety in Athens. Great! NOW she can enact her revenge plan. She takes a golden dress and crown (gifts from Helios) and covers them in a powerful poison. She also decides to kill her children (damn, she's going really far to hurt Jason). She calls Jason and pretends to be really sad about their argument and Jason buys it. She asks him to convince Creusa to convince Creon to at least let the children stay instead of joining her in exile. Jason agrees and Medea then gives the golden clothes to her children to give as wedding gifts to Creusa. Creusa wore the clothes and then caught fire! (Medea is badass, but where can I get poison like THAT?). King Creon laments, cradles Creusa's body, and also dies (haha!).

    Medea then appears, carrying her dead children, in a flying chariot pulled by dragon-snakes (awesome!). She taunts Jason about how she's taken everything from him and there's nothing he can do about it. He tries to tell her that she will be punished for her actions, while Medea roasts him, saying that he broke his oath to the gods and that she will purify herself of her sins. On the other hand, Jason would die a horrible, lonely death, crushed under the ruins of his only heroic achievement. Medea then flies off to Athens and marries Aegeus. Jason meanwhile, gets crushed by the rotting remains of the Argo (representing his only heroic achievement. Oof). Medea, meanwhile, had a son with Aegeus named Medes, then failed to kill Theseus, and then went into hiding. She helped Hercules deal with some mental insanity issues before people recognized her and Hercules bought her enough time to run off again. This time, she left Greece, and either went back Colchis and killed her father's usurper (badass girlboss!) or went as far as Iran, where her son founded the Medes tribe.

    It's also interesting that a pivotal character like Medea didn't have a story about her death. Her story is proof that despite being a nuanced villainess, SHE was the one who always had the tacit approval of the entire pantheon of Greek gods, and not Jason (the "hero"). Jason's heroism began when he won the favor of Hera, the goddess of MARRIAGE and FAMILY. She was his patron god and Zeus was known for punishing OATH BREAKERS. Then Jason BETRAYED HIS WIFE, and ABANDONED HIS CHILDREN, and BROKE HIS DIVINE OATH of loving only Medea. Medea was honestly, completely justified in doing everything she did. Jason would have never succeeded in his quest without Medea, but because of her murderous methods, he ended up failing to claim the royalty he had been after in the first place. The royalty he then tried to obtain through Creusa. But in casting aside Medea, he made a TERRIBLE enemy. I mean, I would LOVE to have a badass, girlboss, SORCERESS wife! Medea could have helped him gain royal status again through her cunning tactics WITHOUT him having to cheat on her! I mean, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING JASON?!!!

    You can tell how much I love Medea by my enthusiasm in this post. What do YOU think about Medea? Do you consider her a girlboss or a supervillain? Or something in between? Comment below! (Comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Daily Deities #3: Ariadne

My little brother drew and colored a picture of what he thought Ariadne looked like. :)

     Basically, Zeus had a son with the mortal princess Europa named Minos, Europa married Asterion, the current king of Crete at the time. Asterion raised Minos as his son, and Minos became the king after Asterion died. Because of him, even in real life, the civilization on Crete, which is the oldest civilization in Greece, was called "Minoan". Minos married Pasiphae, the sorceress daughter of Helios, the sun god. Ariadne was their daughter. One day, Minos prayed to Poseidon, the god of the ocean, to send him a bull that he promises to sacrifice to the gods. So, Poseidon sent a huge bull from the sea. It became known as the Cretan Bull. But, Minos only did this to prove to his brothers that the gods wanted him to be the king of Crete. He became the king, but then he kept the bull for himself and sacrificed a different bull. Poseidon was angry at this and so got Aphrodite to make Pasiphae fall in love with the bull (EWW!). Pasiphae asked Daedalus to make her a bull costume so she can get near the bull. It works and soon enough, she is pregnant with the bull's son (EWW!). She soon gave birth to the Minotaur, who was half-man and half-bull. But, he also ate humans, and so Minos had a labyrinth built under Crete, where the Minotaur was kept. Ariadne was the Mistress of the Labyrinth

    Soon, Minos would win in a battle against the city of Athens as revenge for the death of his son, and Minos decreed that every 9 years, Athens would have to send 7 boys and 7 girls to Crete to be sent in the Labyrinth to be eaten by the Minotaur. If this sounds a lot like the Hunger Games, well it should, because this story was a partial inspiration for the Hunger Games. Theseus, an Athenian demigod, soon came to Crete to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and agreed to help him on the condition that he would make her his wife when he returned to Athens. She then gave him an ball of string to unwind as he enters the labyrinth so that he wouldn't get lost. Theseus ended up killing the Minotaur and sailed away from Crete with Ariadne and her sister Phaedra, who had also fallen in love with Theseus. But when sailing past Naxos, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos while she was sleeping and only married Phaedra. Athenians retconned this story to say that a god, either Athena or Dionysus told Theseus to abandon Ariadne, because they didn't want to believe that their hero Theseus would abandon his wife like that.

    Ariadne was sad at first, but then Dionysus came to her and she married Dionysus instead. They lived happily on Naxos had had many children. Dionysus also gave her a special crown on their wedding, and when she died, Dionysus was very sad, but he placed her crown in the sky as a constellation. He then went into the underworld to get her and his mortal mother Semele up to Olympus to live with him forever.

    One interesting thing I just learned about Ariadne is how she could have been worshipped on Crete as one of the oldest ancient Greek goddesses. We know that the Minoan civilization is the oldest civilization in Greece and scholars have theorized that due to her many connections with thread, string, and weaving, that she may have been a goddess of weaving. Some even think that she might be the person represented by snake goddess statues that archaeologists have found in Crete. The theory that she might have been a very important Minoan goddess is strengthened by the fact that the Minoan women had very prominent roles in Minoan Crete and due to the fact that Ariadne's epithet "Mistress of the Labyrinth", seems very much like a epithet given to a great goddess of the Minoan civilization. And in an early version of the story from the Iliad, it's said that Daedalus made the Labyrinth for Ariadne, before the Minotaur, as a dancing path.

    I was researching Dionysus earlier and decided to learn more about Ariadne out of curiosity, and the fact that she may have been a Minoan mother goddess is so rad and cool, and so I wanted to share what I learned to you.

    Did YOU know that the Hunger Games were partially based off the story of Theseus? Do you think Theseus abandoned Ariadne on his own, or by the instructions of a god? Do you think Ariadne might have been Minoan Goddess? Should I make more posts about these subjects? Please comment down bellow and tell me! And, don't be afraid to ask questions, because I love answering people's questions. Your questions let me know what people are interested in knowing and learning about.

Daily Deities #2: Sun Wukong

    Today's Daily Deity is Sun Wukong. It's not actually a topic I've been thinking about, but is one that my little brother Neel has been thinking about. So I decided to talk about Sun Wukong today.

    Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, is a character from Chinese Mythology. He comes to us by way of The Journey to the West, one of China's four great classical novels. Sun Wukong is a stone monkey who was born from a magic rock on a mountain called Flower Fruit Mountain. When the wind blew over him, he came to life and already knew how to walk and talk. This origin story could have been based off of that of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god of bravery, courage, and devotion. Anyway, Sun Wukong proves himself to be the bravest amongst the monkeys and becomes their king. One day, when one of his monkey citizens dies, he gets sad and so goes to a Taoist immortal to teach him knowledge and how to become immortal. He then uses an iron pillar from the palace of the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, which he uses as a weapon.

    Sun Wukong is then taken to the underworld, which makes him angry, so he erases the names of all the monkeys that he knows from the records of the underworld, making them immortal. To control him, the Jade Emperor, the ruler of all deities in the Chinese heaven, gave Sun Wukong different positions in heaven. But, each time, Sun Wukong would abandon his post for some reason and cause tons of chaos in Heaven. Soon, the Jade Emperor is forced to send the entire heavenly army and their most powerful divine warriors and gods to fight and take down Sun Wukong, but they all fail. So Guanyin, a powerful Bodhisattva, suggests that they send Erlang Shen, a powerful warrior monk, to go and fight Sun Wukong, who he defeats with the help of Lao Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher who founded Taoism. They then fail to execute him many times before he escapes and starts causing more destruction in heaven. The Jade Emperor is finally forced to turn to Buddha himself. The Buddha is the enlightened founder and main deity, or focus, of Buddhism. Buddha easily uses his powers to test, and then trap Sun Wukong under a mountain for 500 years.

    Sun Wukong stays under the mountain until Guanyin meets him and tells him that a pilgrim will come and free him from the mountain, after which he must help the pilgrim get where he's going. The pilgrim who comes is the Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang (or Tripitaka), who has been sent on a journey to the western heaven to obtain Buddhist scriptures. He frees Sun Wukong, who is then forced to help him on his journey. At first, he's kind of unhappy at this, but soon he takes the journey and it's purpose more seriously. Throughout the journey, demons kept trying to abduct Tripitaka to eat him, because it was believed that if he was eaten, then his flesh would grant them immortality. So, Sun Wukong was basically his bodyguard and constantly had to fight all kinds of demons throughout the story. By the time he had finished the journey, Sun Wukong had become fully enlightened. He got to meet Buddha again and achieved Buddhahood.

    That is the basic gist of it. The reason my brother is thinking about Sun Wukong today is because he was feeling a sense of mischievousness and fun, which reminded him a lot of the story of Sun Wukong, who was a very impulsive, incontrollable, and powerful trickster, and also very funny. Thank you for reading! Do you have a favorite character from The Journey to the West? Do you have a favorite story from The Journey to the West? Why? You're free to comment down bellow!

Daily Deities #1: Hades and Persephone

     Happy Valentines Day! This is Dev. This will be the first of a longish series of Daily Deities, where I take a moment to talk about a certain god or concept or something from mythology that I've been thinking about that day and why. I know that it's called "Daily" Deities, but I won't always have time to make one of these posts every day, since I have a limited amount of computer time a day, even on weekends. During weekdays, I have schoolwork to do and so I may not always write one of these every day, but I will try. I also might not write one of these if my head is still stuck on the previous topic.

    With that out of the way, let's talk about Hades and Persephone, who have both caught my attention recently, and both of whom I've been thinking about lately. Recently, Valentines Day happened and it made me think about love stories in mythology. My mind moved to Greece, since they have their fair share of love stories, most of which, unfortunately, end terribly. So, a question came to mind: "what are some really good love stories in Greece that have a happy ending and are actually functional?" I've only been able to determine two couples: Eros and Psyche, and Hades and Persephone. If you find any more, please comment down below.

    Eros is the god of love in Greek mythology and he shoots arrows to make people fall in love. Psyche was his beautiful wife, whom his mother Aphrodite was jealous of and did her absolute best to keep them separate. Eventually she gave up and Eros and Psyche were happily married, and unlike most Greek gods, Eros remained totally faithful to his wife.

    Hades and Persephone, instead, got off to a rough start. Demeter, the goddess of the harvest was very overprotective of her daughter Persephone, who was also Zeus's daughter. So, when Hades fell in love with her, knowing that Demeter would refuse, he asked Zeus for permission to marry Persephone, and Zeus specifically told him to kidnap her, which he did. In reality, this wasn't some terrifying assault, but instead, an arranged marriage. Demeter didn't respond happily to the disappearance of her daughter and refused to let anything grow on the earth unless she got her daughter back. Zeus sent Hermes to go get Hades to release Persephone. Hades and Persephone had actually gotten along well and when Hades heard what Demeter was doing, he actually told Persephone to return to her mother to sort things out. But he promises her that she will be his queen and that he will try to be the best husband for her. Persephone returned to earth, and then admitted to her parents that she had eaten some food in the underworld and so she had to stay there for one third of the year, while she spent the rest of the year with her mother. When Persephone was with Hades, Demeter would become sad again and it would become winter, and when Persephone was with Demeter, she would be happy and spring and summer would occur.

    What I find which I thought was pretty nice, was that Persephone did end up loving Hades, and Hades did keep his word. Him and Persephone never cheated on each other, and Persephone was in the rare position of getting to share equal power in the underworld with her husband. This was not standard in Ancient Greece, because Greece considered women to be very unimportant and less than men. So, knowing that Persephone was being treated equally by her husband makes me feel good inside, because that's how relationships should be like, and it's good know that Hades isn't a bad guy at all. When people think of Hades, they either make him a default Satan analog, or you think of the Hades interpretation in Disney's Hercules movie. These versions are both inaccurate, since Hades has never done anything cruel ever. He is a good person who does his job and loves his wife. So, I really hope that somewhere along the line, we will get a modern interpretation of Hades that matches his good original characterization, which is the characterization that I like. My current favorite adaptation of the story is Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus Webcomic. I'm a huge, hardcore fan.

    I hope you enjoyed my first Daily Deity, and I'll try to write more of these as the time goes by. I hope this has reshaped how you think about Hades and Persephone and I hope you are all safe at home during this pandemic. Please wear your masks and socially distance where necessary. We'll get through this together!

The Osiris Myth: The Story of Horus and Set

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This story continues from Egyptian Mythology: Osiris Myth: Osiris and Isis

     Isis had to make new privates for Osiris out of clay (Eww!). She then joined his entire body together, and with Anubis' help, mummified Osiris for the first time. Suddenly, an ibis came by and made a small sound with it's throat. Isis didn't understand at first, but soon, she understood. The ibis was Thoth, the god of knowledge and magic. He was teaching her some magic. She made the exact same sound with her throat, and the magical incantation resurrected Osiris. She woke him up by kissing him (eww!) and both were happy to be with one another. That night, Osiris had to leave for the underworld, where he took over Anubis' role as the ruler of the underworld. After being a good king to the living, it was time to be a good king to the dead. Anubis gladly forsake his role for Osiris and instead, became the judge of dead souls. In the underworld, Osiris created Babi, the bloodthirsty god of baboons. He's also the god of the dead. He's bananas like that.

     Isis woke up and realized two things: Osiris is gone, and she is pregnant. She had to do everything in her power to protect her child and make sure he claimed his birthright. So, while Nephthys helped Isis with her pregnancy, Isis also took magic lessons from Thoth so that she could be powerful enough to protect her son from all threats. Nephthys then left Isis and became the goddess of service. Like the camels, she learned how to breathe in the desert air and she also learned how to breathe fire. She used her new-found powers to become the goddess of protection.

     Soon, Isis gave birth to Horus, the falcon-headed god of war, vengeance, and kingship. She gave birth to him and hid in a papyrus thicket. When Isis was gone, Horus would be looked after by the snake goddess Wadjet. Isis would travel everywhere and beg people to help, while hiding the fact that she was a goddess. She would leave some deities to take care of Horus and she was protected by scorpion deities when she travelled. Once, when a woman refused to help her, one of the scorpions stung her son, and Isis, being kind and compassionate, helped the woman by curing her son with magic.

    Horus was very innocent and vulnerable as a child. Throughout Horus' childhood, Set would send many scorpions or snake to bite him, but Isis was always able to heal him. Because Horus was bitten many times by snakes, the ancient Egyptians had a great fear of poison and snakebite. Osiris' spirit sometimes visited Horus and taught him both warfare and how to properly govern a kingdom. Horus soon grew up into a strong and valiant prince.

     Horus soon challenged his uncle for the throne of Egypt and so they basically had a huge court battle. In the trial, where were three judges. Ra and Atum were judging because they were the creators of kingship and the first kings. Geb was the third judge, since he was the previous king before Osiris and both Set and Osiris were his sons. Finally, Thoth sort of acted as Horus' lawyer, and served as an assistant to the judges. Isis secretly used her magic to try and tip the odds in her son's favor. From here, we see Isis become extremely cunning and we get to see some of the intelligence she had as a queen. In fact, she was said to be so intelligent that her intelligence and cunning surpassed that of a million gods/men. Meanwhile, in the trial, the gods all have mixed feelings about choosing sides. You're probably wondering "How could it possibly be hard for the gods to see al the bad things Set has done and instantly side with Horus?!".Well, the thing is, Horus may be the rightful heir to the throne that Set deceitfully stole, but Set is also Ra's chief lieutenant and protects him from the serpent Apophis/Apep. Hence, the trial lasted for eight years.

     They weren't getting anywhere with the trial, so while the trial continued, they had some contests. One time, they decided that they would fight each other as hippopotami under the water, but they would have to stay underwater for three months. Throughout all the battles to come, Isis is always secretly using her magic to help her son behind the scenes. She's totally his "Glinda, the Good Witch". So, when Set and Horus declared their hippo war, Isis created a bow and some harpoons. She then flew into the sky and aimed for Set. She shot one harpoon, but it Horus by accident. She then shot several at Set, but missed. Soon enough, she hit him and he cried out in pain. Isis took pity on him, pulled him from the river and nursed him back to health

     They included things like boat racing and fighting in the form of hippopotamuses. It eventually turned into a straight out war. Horus managed to defeat Set, take him as a prisoner, and left his mother to watch him. Set used cunning words to make Isis feel sorry for him and release him. When Horus learned what his mother had done, he chopped off her head in anger. Thoth replaced Isis' head with that of the cow goddess Hathor, who was Horus' wife. This was why Isis wore a headdress with cow horns. To punish Horus for treating his mother in such a way, Ra tortured him.

     Horus then returned to fight, where he badly hurt Set and Set tore out Horus' eyes. Thoth made a new eye for Horus out of moonlight. Hathor fixed the other eye by pouring milk from the Milky Way into his eye socket. Hence, Horus got both of his eyes back and his eye was seen as a symbol of protection in ancient Egypt. Horus is also known as the god of the sky and the air. So, it was said that his right eye was the sun while his left eye was the moon.

     Meanwhile, Horus the Elder was jealous of his more famous nephew and so joined the fight against Set. He turned into a sun disk and blinded the sight of Set's soldiers. Set's soldiers couldn't see what they were doing in the midst of battle, they all killed each other, giving Horus the Younger the advantage. Horus the Elder became the protector of Egypt.

      Ra called the council of the gods to ferry themselves to a middle-heaven-island where they would judge between Horus the Younger and Set again. Ra told their fisherman, Nempti, to not allow passage to any woman who looked like Isis, wince he wanted a fair trial and didn't want Isis using her magic to affect the outcome. So the gods reached the island and tried to peacefully negotiate things. Isis was afraid that Set would win against Horus and so tricked Nempti by turning herself into an old woman. She paid him a gold ring to ferry her to the island. Once she reached the island, she turned herself into a beautiful woman to attract Set. Set left the meeting to go to her. She told him that her husband had died and that a stranger had taken all his possessions and was going to beat her son. She asked Set to be her son's protector. Set felt bad for her and ironically claimed that the stranger should be brutally punished and her son to inherit his father's place.

     Isis then turned into a bird and flew into a tree. She said that even his mind and mouth had judged him cruel. Set, humiliated and furious, complained to Ra about Isis' manipulation. Ra said exactly what Isis said. OH!!! Sucks to be you Set!!! Set said that the ferryman Nempti should be punished and so his toes were removed. Nempti never accepted any form of gold ever again.

     So, after a bunch of more battles, Horus the Younger defeated Set and was crowned the rightful king of Egypt. Set was banished to the far barren deserts of Egypt and continued being Ra's lieutenant. Sometimes, Set had the head of a falcon just like Horus when fighting Apophis/Apep. Forever angry at his dethronement, Set would scream in anger, causing thunder. Then, Isis, Nephthys, Anubis, and Horus all rushed to Osiris' temple where they attempted to reassemble Osiris again. Finally, to resurrect him, Horus fed him one of his magical eyes (beyond gross!). Anubis built a ladder for Osiris, who ascended to the heavens Isis and Nephthys by his sides. Osiris became the main judge of the dead in the underworld.

     Horus married Hathor and Serket, the goddess of scorpions, magic, and medicine. They had four sons (two from each goddess), though some say that their mother was Isis. They were born from the Nile in a lily flower and they were all mummies with different heads. Their faces were placed on canopic jars from which they protected certain body parts after death. When they were born, they began to drown, and so they were saved by Sobek, who pulled them onto dry land with a fishing net. They were Duamutef, with the head of a jackal, was the god of the east and protector of the stomach. Imest, with the head of a mummified human, was the god of the south and protector and liver. Hapi, with the head of a baboon, was the god of the north and protector of the lungs. Qebehseneuf, with the head of a falcon, was the god of the west and the protector of the intestines. Each of the four gods were protected by goddesses Isis, Neith, Nephthys, and Serket, respectively. From them descended the line of the pharaohs (Ancient Egyptians God-Kings), who were worshipped in Ancient Egypt, since they believed that they descended from the gods.

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The Osiris Myth: The Story of Osiris and Isis

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      After Ra retired to the heavens (Egyptian Mythology: Story of Sekhmet/Ra's Eye), Osiris became the king of Egypt and married his sister Isis. In ancient Egypt, red was the color for evil and chaos instead of black. Black was actually a very good color because it represented the blackness of Nun. It also represented the dark, fertile soil of the Nile river after its annual flood. Red reminded everyone of the infertile red desert ruled by Set, and so was a symbol of Isfet (chaos).

     Set hated Osiris for how much he was loved by his family and his people. Osiris once kicked him in their youth and from then on, his hate was fueled by his very existence. Set was also jealous of the love shared between Osiris and Isis. Set would rather have married the beautiful Isis and rarely paid any attention to his wife Nephthys, whom he unwillingly married.

     Nephthys desperately wanted a child, so she first seduced Ra, and then seduced Osiris, which was easy, since she looked almost identical to Isis. She later gave birth to Anubis, the jackal god of funerals and mummification. He had the head of a jackal, like the jackals that are found near the burial grounds. Nephthys's affair with Osiris gave Set another reason for hating Osiris. Set didn't care about Anubis, who had a big liking to Osiris. So, when Anubis left to rule the Duat (Egyptian underworld), Set was actually happy. Who needed such a stupid son who liked Osiris more than his own father?

     The kingdom of Egypt at the time was called Kemet, which means "The Black Land", referencing the rich black spoils around the Nile. At the time, humans hadn't discovered agriculture and so turned to cannibalism. This made them very war-like and bloodthirsty. This caused much distress for Isis, who then solved the problem after she discovered barley, and wild wheat, which grew throughout the land. She then helped Osiris abolish cannibalism and they taught the people agriculture and farming. Osiris taught the people poetry, music and dance. Osiris then taught the people how to turn the barley into beer and the wheat into bread. This gave them a better food supply, and Egypt thrived under Osiris's rule. Osiris then left Egypt for a while and, alongside satyrs and the Nine Muses, he moved towards the Orient (the eastern hemisphere), to spread his knowledge to more of the world. While he was travelling, Isis ruled Egypt as the queen. She was very intelligent and watchful and so Set made no attempt to take the throne during her rule. Isis was known far and wide for her beauty and her sweet fragrance. This angered Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, who felt like she wasn't being respected as much as she should be. She told her father Ra about it.

     "Father, how can it be that Isis is known for sweetness because of her fragrance, when sweetness is a taste not a smell?"

     "Tefnut..."

     "No father, call me Tefnut the beautiful, or Tefnut the sweet one."

     "Tefnut, you know that Isis is already the one known for beauty and sweetness, why don't you go and spread some rain?"

     "How dare you!"

     Tefnut went to her husband Shu, and the two of them got into an argument, that ended with Tefnut leaving Egypt and going to Nubia as a lion. Nubia was just south of Egypt. Rains stopped falling in Egypt while Nubia flooded. Tefnut devoured any human or god who came to her. So, Shu sent Thoth to calm her and bring her back. So, Thoth turned into a baboon ad convinced her to come back. Since then, Tefnut was properly worshipped for her life bringing rain.

     Meanwhile, while Osiris was on his travels, Set gathered 72 people and the evil queen of Ethiopia who were willing to help him in taking down Osiris. When Osiris slept, Set secretly took his body measurements. Then he and his followers built a box of ebony and cedar based on his measurements and, when Osiris returned for his birthday, Set presented a contest. Whoever fit perfectly in his box would earn as much gold as the box could carry. All of the other gods were either too big, too small, too fat, or too skinny. Osiris was the one who fit perfectly. The moment he sat in the box, Set shut the box and poured liquid lead and ivory over the box, which then hardened, completely sealing the box. Set then threw the box far into the Nile river.

     There are two different versions of the murder. In one  version, Set turns into either a crocodile or a bull to kill Osiris, and then denies his death. Another version is similar to the more famous one, in which Osiris is shut in a box and thrown into the Nile, their souls were considered sacred.

     There are two different versions of the murder. In one version, Set turns into either a crocodile or a bull to kill Osiris, and then denies his death. Another version is similar to the more famous one, in which Osiris is shut in a box and thrown into the Nile, only he dies from drowning instead of suffocation. This is one reason why when people drowned in the Nile, their souls were considered sacred.

     Isis screamed and ran after it down the Nile river. The box was carried far away from her reach down the fast currents. She didn't care. She kept running until her feet bled and she was insanely dizzy. She eventually fell down on the bank of the river and stayed there until her dizziness calmed down. Meanwhile, Osiris' box went upriver, out to the ocean, and eventually stopped near Byblos, a city in Phoenicia. By this time, Osiris had died from suffocation. Tons of reeds grew around the box and soon grew into a fresh cedar tree, completely concealing Osiris' box inside its trunk. The king of Byblos and his queen Ishtar saw the tree and decided to take it back to their palace, where it would serve as a pillar.

     Isis' dizziness eventually dissipated and coming to the conclusion that her brother-husband was dead, Isis cried and lamented. Her tears flowed into the Nile river until it flooded. This led to the annual flooding on the banks of the river Nile. Soon, Isis continued her journey down the river until she came upon Anubis, who was also grieving Osiris' death. Isis comforted him and taught him magic. Anubis then left to rule the Duat, or the underworld. Anubis married Anput, the jackal-headed goddess of funerals and the seventh Nome of Egypt, and also the protector of Osiris' body. They had a daughter named Kebechet, the serpent goddess of liquid and fertility.

     Meanwhile, Isis continued her journey down the Nile, asking everyone of they had seen a box, but no one had seen it. She soon came upon some children who told her that they had seen it and where it had been carried off to. Out of gratitude, Isis blessed the children that they should always speak the truth and always speak words of wisdom. Soon, she reached Byblos, in Phoenicia. Isis saw some handmaidens bathing in the river. She took the form of an old woman and taught them how to make their hair into plaits. The handmaidens then returned to the palace and they were accompanied with a special fragrance. The queen Ishtar noticed this and asked them what happened and they told her the whole story. So, she went to Isis who was busy crying over her dead husband. Ishtar took pity on her and tasked her with taking care of the baby prince, and for a while, she was happy. She was always happy when she took care of the prince.

     But one day, she realized that the baby prince would also die and leave her like Osiris did. So, she concocted a plan to do a magic fire ritual that would burn away the baby's mortal bits and make him immortal. She snuck into the courtyard with the baby and created a magic fore and placed the baby in the fire, ignoring his cries. She then turned into a kite (a kind of bird), and flew above the fire, protecting it. Ishtar burst with her guards and snatched the baby from the fire before the spell could be completed.

     Isis angrily revealed herself in all her glory. She demanded to have possession of the box inside the palace pillar. The soldiers broke open the pillar and the box came out, much to their shock. Hearing the box fall with a hollow, lifeless sound, She lamented to the sky, which was so loud that it killed the baby prince. Ishtar and her husband fell at Isis' feet and begged for forgiveness. She forgave them and allowed them to keep the tree, which was revered from that day forth, since it had contained the body of a god.

     Isis took Osiris' box and returned to Egypt, where she hid it amongst some reds. Meanwhile, lush Egypt had turned into a dry desert under Set's rule. The goddess Neith tried to make him nicer by giving the goddesses Astarte and Anat to him as wives, but it didn't work. Meanwhile, Isis kept the chest safe with her and she hid from Set. Set learned that Isis had Osiris' body and wasn't willing to let her bring Osiris back with her great powers. Set forced Nephthys to tell him where the body was and in the dead of night, Set found the box, opened it, and chopped Osiris' body into 42 pieces, which he spread throughout the 42 Nomes of Egypt.

     The next day, Isis and Nephthys both flew all over Egypt, finding Osiris' body parts, while mourning simultaneously. They gathered all the pieces, but weren't able to find his privates (gross). A fish told them that it was eaten by a crocodile (even more gross!). The crocodile just so happened to be Sobek, the crocodile god of the Nile. He didn't know that the privates belonged to Osiris. As a punishment, the gods cut his tongue, which is why crocodiles have small tongues. But since a crocodile ate it, Egyptians found it sinful to eat fish or crocodile meat. In a different version of the story, Osiris's privates were eaten by a fish instead of crocodile.

This story continues in Egyptian Mythology: Osiris Myth: Horus and Set

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Sekhmet and The Eye of Ra

     This post outlines the importance of the Egyptian symbol of Ra's eye and why it is seen as a powerful and important symbol of protection. The Eye of Ra was a symbol of protection because it symbolized Ra's female protectors. Almost all of Ra's female relatives are considered to be an Eye of Ra. Some goddesses who are said to be an Eye of Ra include: Sekhmet, Bastet, Hathor, Isis, Mut, Mehet-Weret, Tefnut, Serqet, Nekhbet, and Wadjet, to name a few. This story is the story that set this concept into Egyptian beliefs.

     As I mentioned in the previous post: Egyptian Mythology: Creation Story, Ra had started to become older and lazier, such that he began drooling. This was what allowed Isis to eventually get his secret name.

     Ra continued to rule Egypt and got older, lazier, and crazier over the years. But, he still refused to retire from his throne for Osiris. Due to the fact that he was getting crazier, people lost belief in his power and authority, and some humans began to plan a rebellion against him. Rumors of the rebellion reached the ears of Ra, who became enraged at this and the fact that he was getting weaker because people weren't worshiping him anymore. So, Ra went to Nun, and asked him for advice on what to do about it. Nun told Ra to take out his third eye, which Ra did. His third eye became a bloodthirsty lion-goddess named Sekhmet. He told Sekhmet to go and punish all the people who wished to overthrow him. Sekhmet gladly did this and killed tons and tons of humans. She also began to kill humans who never thought anything wrong about Ra. The other gods were totally freaked out about this and Ra told Sekhmet to stop. But, she didn't listen, since her blood lust was too strong to resist. So, Ra called all the gods and remaining humans together to make a really strong beer that looked and smelt like blood. The beer was brewed by Tenenet, the goddess of beer, brewing, and childbirth.

     They took this blood-beer and spread it all across the land. When Sekhmet saw this "blood", she drank it all of it. She then collapsed, too drunk to move, and slept for three days. While she slept, Ra then pulled out a huge portion of her essence and made two new goddesses: Bastet (Bast) and Hathor. Bastet was the goddess of cats, perfume, oil, fragrance, music, dance, protection, war, and pleasure. She is one reason why cats were considered extremely sacred in ancient Egypt. Hathor was the goddess of cows, rainbows, mother, wives, queens, women, joy, delight, and love. Hathor had a son named Apis, the bull god. Sekhmet woke up, but was no longer ferocious as she was before, because a huge chunk of her essence was gone and now she only killed cruel people for the purpose of protecting good people and her father Ra.

     Now, Sekhmet was finally calmed and became not just the goddess of vengeance, but also the goddess of healing. Sekhmet then moved more south to the city of Memphis. Here she married Ptah, the god of craftsmanship, and a form of Ra. Sekhmet touched Ptah's forehead with a blue lotus flower and they had a son named Nefertem, the god of beauty and makeup. She also had another son named Maahes, the lion-headed god of protection, war and weather. Apis became Ptah's herald and Ptah also married Bastet.

     Another version of the story states that to punish humans, Ra turned his third eye into Hathor, who then turned into Sekhmet and the rest of the story continues as before. In another version of the story, Hathor doesn't turn into Sekhmet and instead, makes Ra laugh by getting naked and dancing in front of him. Whenever Hathor wasn't with Ra, Ra became depressed, but when Hathor was with Ra, he would stop sulking.

     After Sekhmet's incident, Ra finally decided that it was probably best if he retired into the heavens and took his place as the sun. This paved the way for Shu, then Geb, and then Osiris to become king, and as we all know, that went "perfectly well". To know what I mean, read about Osiris' rule over Egypt and the most famous Egyptian story in Egyptian Mythology: Osiris Myth: Osiris and Isis and Egyptian Mythology: Osiris Myth: Horus and Set

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Egyptian Creation Story

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     In the beginning, there was only Nun, the primordial ocean of chaos. The ancient Egyptians believed that Nun was an ocean, but you might know it by another name: space. Nun was made up of eight deities. There was the god Nu and the goddess Naunet, who represented the water of Nun. The god Huh and the goddess Hauhet, who represented the infinite expanse of Nun. The god Kek and the goddess Kauket represented the darkness of Nun. And, the god Amun and the goddess Amaunet represented Nun's difference from the living world. These eight deities were known collectively as the Ogdoad. The four gods were frogs, while the goddesses were snakes. They merged, causing a huge upheaval in the water of Nun. Then, from Nun's waters, there came a little hill in the shape of the first pyramid. It was called Benben.

     One of Nun's waves was a cow named Mehet-Weret. Mehet-Weret was the goddess of the milky Way, which came from her ears, Nun and Mehet-Weret together created a beat, which louder and louder until Ra came into existence (Ra can be replaced by Atum, Amun, or Ptah). Ra was the sun god, and rose from the top of Benben, like the rising sun. Ra further willed himself into existence by creating a heart around the beat, and then a voice box so that he could speak for the first time. Ra realized that words held great power. So, from words, he created a primordial island for him to live on. He then turned from a bennu into a man with the head of a falcon and one all-seeing eye. He then spat (or sneezed). From his saliva came his daughter Tefnut, the lion-headed goddess of mist and moisture. From the breath that propelled the moisture came his son Shu, the god of air.

     While they were living on the island, Tefnut and Shu got lost and they couldn't use their powers to see in the dark. Like any father, Ra began to feel very nervous and became scared for their safety. At the time, Ra had only one eye. So, he plucked out his eye and sent it to find Shu and Tefnut. But, while he waited, he realized that if they came back to him, then he would not be able to see them, so he created a second eye for himself. The second eye was the symbol known as "The Eye of Ra".

      Meanwhile, Ra's first eye found Shu and Tefnut and led them back to Ra. Ra embraced his children and began to cry out of happiness. His tears fell on the ground and they became humans. When Ra's first eye saw that Ra had replaced it, it became furious and tried to corrupt mankind. Hence, cruel qualities were born. Ra saw this and to comfort his first eye, he created a sun disk on his head named Aten, a form of Ra. He then turned his first eye into a snake and placed it on top of Aten. This was a position of great honor, and so Ra's first eye was calmed. Through his first eye, Ra could see the past, the universe, and the future. Ra also created a third eye for himself, so as to have a pair of eyes under his forehead, like most animals and humans.

     Ra then had a daughter named Ma'at. Ma'at is the order of the entire universe. Her opposite was Isfet, the total chaos of the universe. Ra then created Thoth from his tongue to help him create the world. Thoth was the god of knowledge and magic, and he had the head of an ibis (or baboon). Thoth was also a god of the moon and was also the one who invented writing and hieroglyphics Thoth married Ma'at and had a daughter named Seshat, the goddess of writing. Thoth helped Ra to create all animals and plants. Ra then became the first king of the Earth/Egypt.

     Another goddess that came from Nun was Neith. Neith became the goddess of hunting until she saw how her people grew old and died. So, she changed her role and instead became the goddess of weaving. Neith wove and wove and wove, until she ended up weaving most of the world into existence. She then married Khnum, a form of Ra with the head of a ram. Khnum was also said to have come from Nun. Khnum was the god of the source of the Nile, and from his potter's wheel, he makes babies before they are placed into their mothers. Neith and Khnum had three children: Sobek, the crocodile go of the Nile, which he made from his sweat; Tutu, the god of demons and strength; Serqet, the goddess of venomous creatures (mostly scorpions and snakes); and Apophis (Apep), the cosmic serpent of chaos, and the eternal enemy of Ra.

     Sobek married Renenutef, the snake goddess and had a son named Neper, the god of grains. Neper married Nepit, the goddess of grains; and Tayt, the goddess of weaving and textiles. Sobek also married Meskhenet, the goddess of the Ka (spiritual essence) of the soul.

     Khnum was also married to Heqet, the goddess of frogs and fertility; Satet, the goddess of hunting; Menhit, the goddess of lions and war; and Nebtuwi, goddess of desert oases. Khnum and Satet had a daughter named Anuket, the goddess of gazelles. Khnum and Menhit had a son named Heka, the god of medicine and magic. Khnum, Satet, and Anuket became the main triad worshiped at Elephantine.

     From his blood, Ra created Sia, the god of sight; and Hu, the god of creativity. Ra also had a lion-headed son named Anhur, the god of war. When another lion-goddess named Menhit ran away to Nubia, Ra sent Anhur to go get her back. Anhur fell in love with Menhit and when he brought her back, he got Ra's permission to marry her.

     Amun, a form of Ra, married the goddesses Amunet, Wosret, and Mut. Mut was a mother goddess and she and Amun had a son named Konshu, the moon god. It is Mut's job to make sure that the sun (Amun) and the moon (Konshu) are always happy with one another. Amun, Mut, and Konshu are worshiped as the triad of the city of Thebes.

     Shu and Tefnut got married and merged to form the mist. They gave birth to Geb and Nut, who were born clinging to one another. Geb was the earth god and Nut was the sky goddess. They got married. A prophecy said that the son of Geb and Nut would become the king of Egypt. To stop this from happening, Ra forced Shu to separate his children. Shu did it because he knew that Geb and Nut had to be separated so that life could thrive on Geb. So, Shu tore them apart and spread his daughter's body in a huge arch, making the sky and the earth separate to this day. This was also how the atmosphere was created. Now, whenever Nut released rain upon Geb, plants sprouted up from his body, and whenever Geb laughed, it resulted in earthquakes.

     Geb gave birth to Hapi, the god of the Nile river. Geb and Renenutet had a son named Nehebkau, the god of funerals. Nehebkau married a goddess named Nehmetawy. Geb is considered to be the father of all crops, geese, and snakes.

     Unfortunately for Ra, Nut was already pregnant at the time of the separation and so Ra used his power to make it so that Nut can't give birth on any month of the year. At the time, the year consisted of 360 days, like in the degrees of a circle. Nut was in great pain and she desperately had to give birth soon. Thoth took pity on her and so gambled light with Konshu. His moonlight was just as bright and powerful as Ra's sunlight. Thoth won enough times to take the light he won and add five extra days to the calendar, making 365 days in a year. Because of the light he had lost, Konshu had to wax and wane every month. To thank Konshu, Thoth made his ibis beak curve like the crescent moon.

     One the five days, one by one, Nut gave birth to five children: Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis, and Nephthys, respectively. Osiris was the god of agriculture, and the afterlife. Horus the Elder was a sphinx deity, and was the god of the sun disk and the protector of Egypt. Set was the god of storms, desert, chaos, and evil. Isis was the goddess of magic, love, and motherhood. Isis was such a great goddess that even the Romans worshiped her. Nephthys was the goddess of protection, water, rivers, skulls, nature, night, sleep, lamentation, and camels.

     Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys were all known as the Enhead, and were the nine gods worshiped in Heliopolis.

     Isis wanted to become more powerful to be able to protect her husband and maybe one day, her child. So, she began to heal small wounds and worked her way up from there. But, it wasn't enough. By then, Ra had grown old over the years and he drooled a lot. So, Isis took some of his saliva, mixed it with sand, and created a very venomous snake. The snake bit Ra and he began to die. All the gods came to help him, but Ra would only accept help from Isis, due to her great healing abilities. Isis came and said that she couldn't save Ra unless he told her his secret name. Everything in existence had a secret name and to give Isis his secret name would give Isis dominion over him. He relented until he finally agreed to tell her his secret name, making her swear that she would not tell it to anyone except her son. She agreed and then was able to heal him. This made her the goddess of magic and she became one of the most powerful Egyptian.

     Over time, many more gods and goddesses appear, such as Nekhbet, the vulture goddess; Wadjet, a snake goddess; Hatmehyt, goddess of fish; Maftet, the mongoose; Tawaret, the hippo/lion/crocodile goddess; and her husband Bes, the god of dwarves and children.

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Lord Brahma's Family Tree

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     Lord Brahma gave birth to nine sages: Atharva, Bhrigu, Kratu, Marichi, Atri, Vashishta, Pulaha, Pulastya, Kardama, and a beautiful woman named Ahilya. He also gave birth to a man and a woman named Swayambhuva Manu and Shatarupa, respectively. Manu and Shatarupa got married and had three daughters named Akuti, Devahuti, and Prasuti. Devahuti married Sage Kardama and had six daughters, who married six of the seven sages. Shanti married Atharva, Gati married Pulaha, Havirbhu married Pulastya, Kala married Marichi, Khyati married Bhrigu, Kriya married Kratu, Shraddha married Angira, and Anasuya married Atri.

     Akuti married the sage Ruchi and they had a son and daughter named Yagna and Dakshina. Lord Yagna is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Dakshina is an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi. They got married and gave birth to twelve demigods called Tushitas.

     Atri prayed to Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, who all appeared before him. The boon he asked for what was that the lord of the universe would be born as his son. But he didn't know which of the three was the lord of the universe. They said that all three of them were the lords of the universe. Hence all three of them would be born as his sons.

     Lakshmi, Saraswathi, and Parvati wanted to learn pativratya from Anasuya. Pativratya is how a woman should treat her husband with love and respect. They sent their husbands to go and ask her. So Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva appeared to Anasuya disguised as sages and asked Anasuya to teach their wives pativratya. But she had to be very loving to the three sages while doing so.

     Thanks to her great yogic powers, Anasuya knew who the three sages actually were. So, she turned them into six-month old babies and lovingly fed them. The goddesses waited for days for their husbands to return until they decided to go to Anasuya's ashram. There they saw her lovingly feeding their husbands as babies. They asked her to turn their husbands back to normal, which she did. The three gods were pleased with Anasuya and offered her a boon. She asked that they should be born as her children, just like how her husband had asked.

     Once, the king's soldiers caught some thieves who were hiding in the ashram of sage Mandavya. The soldiers also kidnapped Mandavya and impaled him. When he met Yamaraja, he asked him why he was punished and died in such a manner. Yamaraja said that it was because he had killed an ant in his childhood. Mandavya was furious that he was punished for such an innocent act. So, he cursed Yamaraja that he would be born as the son of a maidservant. Because of this curse, Yamaraja would eventually be born as Vidhura, a wise and important character of the Mahabharata.

     Meanwhile, a sage named Kaushik was feeling very sick and his wife was helping him walk. On the way, he stepped on sage Mandavya's body, and was cursed by Mandavya's soul that he would die at sunset. But, his wife loved him so much that she made the sun stop moving. Because of this, Rahu was able to eclipse Surya for a long time. This caused tons of problems in heaven and the gods had to ask Brahma for help. Brahma went to Anasuya and Atri for help. Anasuya calmed Kaushik's wife and told her to allow the sun to move. The Atri pulled Surya away from Rahu and the sun peacefully set and Kaushik died as per his curse. But, Anasuya brought him back to life and cured him of his sickness. Brahma was very grateful and as a thank-you, he was born from Anasuya as Soma, the god of plants and vegetables.

     After the incident with Brahma and the pillar, Shiva was still angry, that all the demigods, including his wife, avoided him out of fear. When Shiva saw how scared everyone had become, he took away his anger and sent it into his incarnation, Anasuya's son. Hence, Shiva was born as Durvasa, the sage who is known for his great temper. and Vishnu was born as Dattatreya, a powerful sage whose physical appearance is a combination of all three gods. Anasuya and Atri also had a daughter named Subhatreyi.

     Shraddha and Angira had four daughters and two sons named Utathya and Brihaspati. Brihaspati married Tara, the daughter of Surya, and had a son named Kacha, who became a sage. Chandra, the moon god, kidnapped Tara, and she became pregnant. She gave birth to Budh, the god of the planet Mercury. Budh married Ila, a woman who used to be a king named Sudyumna. Budh and Ila had a son named Pururavas, who was the first king of the Chandravanshis (the moon dynasty).

     Utathya had a wife named Mamata. They had a son named Dirghatamas, who was born blind, but still became a great sage. He married a woman named Pradweshi, and they had a son named Gautama, who also became a great sage. Brahma had a daughter named Ahilya and had set up a contest: Whoever went around the earth three times the fastest would marry her. Indra went around the earth three times and then demanded Ahilya's hand in marriage. But Narada Muni said that Gautama went around the earth three times the fastest. It turns out that Gautama had circumambulated the divine cow mother Surabhi, who was pregnant at the time. A cow represented the bountiful earth and so, Ahilya married Gautama, much to Indra's jealousy.

     Gautama and Ahilya had three sons named Nodhas, Vamadeva, and Shatananda, who became a priest. They also had a daughter named Anjana, who would be the mother of Lord Hanuman.

     Mamata had an affair with Brihaspati and they had a son named Bharadwaja, who also became a great sage. Bharadwaja had a son named Drona, who is an important character in the Mahabharata.

     Kriya and Kratu gave birth to 60,000 sages known as Valakhilyas. Bhrigu and Khyati had two sons named Dhata and Vidhata. They also had a daughter named Bhargavi, who was an incarnation of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Bhrigu also had another wife named Puloma. When she was pregnant, a demon named Puloman saw her and fell in love with her. Agni told him that she was the wife of Bhrigu. Hearing this, Puloman turned into a boar and abducted her. Her child fell on the grass and Puloma died. The baby was glowing so brightly that Puloman got burnt. The baby was named Chyavana, and he would become a great sage. Bhrigu was angry that Agni had given away Puloma's identity and so cursed Agni that he would be burn and consume everything.

     Vidhata had a son named Mrukandu, and Mrukandu's son is Markandeya, who is a famous sage who became immortal. Markandeya had a son named Bhavana Rishi, who married Bhadra, the daughter of Surya. They had 101 children named the Padmashalis, who became the Telugu population of India. Bhrigu had a third wife named Kavyamata, or Usanas. She had a son named Shukracharya, the god of the planet Venus. He is also the guru of the asuras and always brings the demons back to life after battles with the demigod.

     Once, Shukracharya was off praying to Shiva, the demigods attacked the demons, who ran to get help from Shukra's mother Kavyamata. She used her powers to put all the demigods to sleep. Vishnu realized that she had to die for the universe to progress. So, he used his chakra to chop off her head. Bhrigu was so angry that he cursed Vishnu to be born on the earth 10 times. Bhrigu then revived Kavyamata.

     Shanti and Atharva had a son who was a great sage named Dadhichi. Dadhichi also had a son named Kunda. Kala and Marichi had a son named Kashyapa, who became a famous sage and the father of tons of creatures: humans, animals, gods, and demons. Pulastya and Havirbhu gave birth to the sages Agastya and Vishrava. Agastya married a woman named Lopamudra. Vishrava has two wives named Idavida and Keshini. Idavida was the daughter of Bharadwaja and gave birth to Kubera, and Keshini gave birth to Ravana, Kumbakarna, Khara, Dhushana, Vibhishana, and Shurpanakha, all of whom are famous demons in the Ramayana.

     Prasuti married the Chief Prajapati Daksha and had sixteen daughters. One of their daughters went to the underworld, and thirteen of them married the sage Dharma. Dharma, and one of his wives, Murti, gave birth to the twin-brothers incarnation of Lord Vishnu called Nara-Narayana. They performed lots of penance in Badrinath and became very powerful sages. Shiva wanted to show the world how powerful they were by throwing his Pashupatastra weapon at them. They were so powerful that the astra lost its power before it hit them.

     Once, Indra became very nervous because of Nara-Narayana's power that he sent Kama (love, desire), Vasant (spring), and beautiful nymphs to them to disturb them and stop their meditation. Narayana took a flower and placed it on his thigh. From his thigh came a beautiful nymph named Urvashi. She was the most beautiful nymph of all time and the other nymphs couldn't make themselves more beautiful. So they all went back to heaven along with Urvashi and Nara-Narayana continued meditating. Nara and Narayana eventually were reborn as Arjuna and Krishna from Mahabharata, respectively.

     One of Daksha's daughters, Swaha, married the fire god Agni and they had a daughter named Agneya, who married Uru, a descendant of Angira. Agni and Swaha also had three sons who carried offerings to and from heaven and yagnas on earth. They each had 15 sons, so there are 49 fire gods in total. The youngest daughter of Daksha, Sati, later married Shiva, but burned herself before she had any children.