In Greek myths, the satyr Marsyas claimed he could play the flute as well as the god Apollo could play the lyre. Though at first they were equal, Apollo then added his voice to the lyre's music, and so won. He flayed Marsyas alive, and nailed his skin to a pine tree.
🎨 José de Ribera
#LegendaryWednesday #Folklore #Mythology #Greece #Olympians #Apollo
#LegendaryWednesday: `Music has a magic all to itself, for it can transport us to different places and times with the strumming of a few notes. It can make us feel angry, or sad, or happy, or any one of a myriad of other emotions. But if you were to hear the music of an occult Sidhe instrument played by one of the fairy folk under a loon's moon, you might experience a different sort of magic – of the more tangible variety!` #Celtic
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/the-music-of-manannan
#LegendaryWednesday: This harp was owned by blind travelling musician Arthur O'Neill. There was renewed interest in the harp in the late 1700s, both as a musical instrument and a symbol of Irish patriotism. Harp festivals attracted United Irishmen and inspired cultural nationalism.` #Celtic
Source: Ulster Museum
Flutes are a human universal, with the oldest extant known flute being made from a bear's femur 45,000 years ago. Those that have survived are typically made of stone instead of wood, but flutes have taken on a mythic status in many places, like India. #LegendaryWednesday
After stealing Apollo's divine cattle, Hermes made amends by inventing the chelys lyre to make it up to him. Apollo was so bemused that as god of music, he forgave the newly christened god of thieves and the two became fast friends. #LegendaryWednesday 🖼️: T. McGrath
#WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday: `An old Limerick schoolmaster wrote of the #midsummer celebrations he witnessed in 1943:
“...old people of thirty years ago and more remembered how the fire used to be lit exactly at sunset and had to be watched and tended until long after midnight. Prayers use to be said to obtain God's blessing on the crops, then at the peak-point of summer bloom.
Round the fire gathered young and old. There was much fun and music; a dance was started and games were played while some young men competed in casting weights or in feats of strength, speed or agility. I gathered that it was mostly women who shared in the prayers for the gardens and for good weather. Neglect in this respect might lead to a bad harvest or cause "the white trout not to come up the river" as they usually did with the mid-summer floods.
Unless the weather proved too cold, summer swimming in the river began on St. John's Day and the observance of the festival was supposed to eliminate all danger of drowning.`
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/midsummer-bonfire-night-the-summer-solstice
In #JapaneseFolklore there's a belief that objects that are very old are able to gain a spirit and transform into a type of #yokai known as tsukumogami. In the case of musical instruments this can occur if they're stored away for long periods of time and are no longer played. #LegendaryWednesday 1/4
According to Norse mythology, Víðarr the Silent is one of the strongest gods and has a strange weapon: an unusually thick boot. At Ragnarök, Víðarr will slay the monstrous wolf Fenris by sticking his thick boot in the wolf's mouth to break its jaw.
🎨 Lorenz Frølich
#LegendaryWednesday #Mythology #Folklore #Norse #Vikings #Scandinavia
According to Norse mythology, Víðarr the Silent is one of the strongest gods and has a strange weapon: an unusually thick boot. At Ragnarök, Víðarr will slay the monstrous wolf Fenris by sticking his thick boot in the wolf's mouth to break its jaw. 🎨Lorenz Frølich #LegendaryWednesday
#LegendaryWednesday #WyrdWednesday: `#Despite the warning, #Conan mac Morna, the jester of the Fianna, broke the thigh of an old witch the Fians had killed. Forth from the crack crawled a small and hairy worm, which quickly grew into a mighty monster which ate all the cattle of Ireland. As it was Conán's fault he was blamed and insulted for this creature's existence, so in a fury he leapt into its mouth and slew it from within, staining the rocks around Lough Dearg red and giving the lake its name.
Other stories yet tell that she was not slain at all, but dwells still in the depths of Lough Dearg.` #Celtic
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/the-great-wyrms-of-ireland
#LegendaryWednesday: `Mesegdra was an earlier Irish king who had been killed in battle by Conall Cernach, and his brain had been scooped from his head, shaped into a sling stone and soaked in lime to preserve it as a trophy, a common practise at the time. The brain-ball was stolen and used to severely injure and eventually kill King Conchobar mac Nessa of the Northlands.` #Celtic
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/the-great-wyrms-of-ireland
#LegendaryWednesday #WyrdWednesday: „Some entrances to the #Celtic #Otherworld lay in the crystal waters of lakes and were guarded by monsters known as #péista. They were said to be as big as mountains and very fierce. #Fionn mac Cumhaill is said to have fought and killed a veritable horde of the beasts in various lake locations around #Ireland.“
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
https://hear-me.social/@NeuKelte/113624006780313185
#LegendaryWednesday #WyrdWednesday: `A monstrous serpent or reptile, the péist appears in a number of legends, including many in which it is overcome by St Patrick. Typically the péist (also called the Ollipheist) is associated with water. It can only be successfully killed when submerged.`
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`
https://genealysis.social/@MemsDead/114177186398758834
One normally does not associate Ireland with martial arts, and yet through boiscín, a centuries-old martial art of stick duels has endured. Evolved from spears and using staves and shillelaghs alike, young men would form "factions" and duke it out in public. #LegendaryWednesday
Among the samurai class, onna-bugeisha were the warrior women trained in the unique art of using the naginata, a long polearm with a blade at the end. Today use of the naginata is still a martial art, popular primarily among women. #LegendaryWednesday 🖼: K. Utagawa
#WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday: `#Fergus mac Léiti received a facial disfigurement after fighting the sea-serpent known as the Muirdris in Lough Rudraige (Dundrum Bay). Instead of sacrificing him for not being whole, his people decided to hide the truth from him, and removed all mirrors from his home. For seven years, he was unaware of his deformity, until one day he beat a servant girl and she maliciously revealed the truth. Fergus went back into the sea to kill the Muirdris once and for all and succeeded, but died from exhaustion soon after.` #Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
In #JapaneseFolklore there are believed to be terrifying #yokai spiders. They look exactly like regular spiders during the day but at night, when everyone is sleeping, they grow to an enormous size and develop supernatural powers. Yokai spiders shapeshift and take on... #LegendaryWednesday 1/4
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@folklorepod.bsky.social (cover art by me)🪄
#MythologyMonday #FairyTaleTuesday #WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday #FolkloreThursday #FolkyFriday #FolkloreSunday
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u6duqowlrnjw7pue3qmupnp3/post/3lqn25aoawk2m
#LegendaryWednesday #WyrdWednesday: `Foxgloves and St John's Wort were gathered, both for use as medicine and as protection against evil spirits. Fishermen's boats and nets were blessed by priests when the #midsummer fires were lit, and a communal salmon dinner served in coastal areas.`
Source: Midsummer Bonfire Night | Folk and Fairy Tales from the Emerald Isle
