Norse Mythology From A To Z:

Greek mythology from A to Z:

[I] - Icarus was the son of the famous craftsman Daedalus.

Daedalus managed to create two sets of wings for himself and his son, that were made of feathers glued together with wax. He taught Icarus how to fly and warned him not to fly too high, which would cause the wax to melt, nor too low, which would cause the feathers to get wet with sea water. Together, they flew out of the tower towards freedom. However, Icarus soon forgot his father’s warnings, and started flying higher and higher, until the wax started melting under the scorching sun. His wings dissolved and he fell into the sea and drowned.

I've just re-read the short lived duel that Aeneas and Achilles have in Book 20 of the Iliad and it's actually the most hilarious fucking thing.

So it starts out with Apollo disguising himself as Lycaon, one of Priam's many sons, and telling to have a go at Achilles. Keep in mind that this is post-Patroclus Achilles. Aka: berserk Achilles. Aka: so fucking mad he would fight a literal river Achilles.

Aeneas, who is capable of critical thinking, says he doubts he can actually take him on. He also references a time when he was herding cattle on Mount Ida and Achilles ambushed him, adding that the only reason he survived then was because Zeus gave him enough strength to book it (cracking up the official times that he's been saved by a god from certain death to 3, you go dude!).

However, after a bit of back and forth and a ton of hyping up on Apollo's part, Aeneas decides to try anyway.

Like, what could possibly go wrong?

Achilles notices Aeneas charging at him and he begins to taunt him. It's something among the lines of: "I'm sorry, are you, background trojan character #61, actually gonna try and beat me? And then what? Do you think that Priam will reward you in some way? Maybe making you king after him? Well it's BULLSHIT, because Priam fucked so much that your chances of succeeding him are basically 0. Ahah. Loser."

Now, you'd think that maybe Aeneas got enraged at the comment and attacked him, or maybe he even got scared and backed down, but NOPE. What does Aeneas do?

Well, first of all, he insults Achilles' insults, comparing his bickering to that of a child. Literally, "I heard third graders do better than that." And then he decides to list his and Hector's entire fucking family tree.

You know that part of the Bible that's like "this guy sired this other guy, and this other guy sired yet another guy" and so on? It's basically that.

So after he's done with all that, Aeneas states that while he'd love to have a battle of insults with Achilles, because according to him he's actually very good at insulting people (his words, not mine), they should probably throw hands now. Achilles agrees.

The duel is shortlived and Aeneas gets his ass handed to him. Badly. As expected. And he's about die when ✨️POV shift✨️ we're not on Olympus where Poseidon, Hera and Athena are watching this absolute train wreck go down.

Poseidon, pitying Aeneas, suddenly goes on a rant. It's something among the lines of: "come on guys, look at him, he's just a little guy! He literally has no stakes in this war, he doesn't deserve to die here! He even gives us lots of gifts and sacrifices, he's literally such a nice guy. How can we do this to him!?

...oh and also he's part of some prophecy, Zeus would get mad if he died."

The fact that the way it's worded makes it sound like Aeneas being part of a literal prophecy is an afterthought to him absolutely floors me, Poseidon is literally just attached to a random dude that's fighting on the opposite side to his because he thinks he's nice.

After all that Hera is pretty unimpressed and states that she really doesn't care if our man lives or dies as neither her or Athena have ever saved a Trojan from death, she however adds that Poseidon is free to do whatever he wants.

The literal moment Hera stops talking, Poseidon lunges down from Olympus and onto the battlefield to look for the two combatants. When he does, he saves Aeneas like only he can do.

You know how when Diomedes first tries to kill Aeneas, Aphrodite gently folds her hands around him to shield him? There's none of that here. Poseidon just runs up to him and literally flings the motherfucker.

It literally says that he flies "high in the air". It's like a Looney Toons sketch.

So Aeneas lands and, while he's obviously a bit dazed, Poseidon proceeds to call him a madman and essentially tells him to never do something stupid like that again and just wait until Achilles is dead, then he'll be able to murder Achaeans to his heart's content. Aeneas is fine with that.

Achilles, who just saw his opponent just get yeeted into the fucking sky, just shrugs and goes "welp, guess that guy's off limits, I'm gonna go kill someone else now I guess lol".

This entire scene is pure fucking gold and the fact that I've literally never seen anyone talk about it just breaks my heart.

Norse mythology from A to Z:

[I] - Iðunn is a beautiful goddess with long golden hair, she is the goddess of spring and eternal youth, she guards the apples of youth.

Zephyrus, the Wind of the West, pursues the goddess Flora, making her drop her flowers onto the Earth below Date circa 1640.

Automedon: *running into the room* GUYS-

Achilles: shh, can’t you see Patroclus is sleeping?

Automedon: *whispering* sorry

Achilles: it’s fine, why are you yelling anyway?

Automedon: *still whispering* the kitchen is on fire

Slavic mythology from A to Z:

[A] - Alkonost and Sirin (Алконост и Сирин)

Alkonost in Russian legends is a bird of paradise with the head and hands of a girl. Legends say that Alkonost carries eggs to the depths of the sea in the middle of winter. Alkonost is singing so beautifully that the one who has heard it forgets about everything in the world.

In the medieval Russian legends, Sirin is definitely considered to be a bird of paradise, which sometimes flies to the earth and sings prophetic songs about future bliss, but sometimes these songs can be harmful to humans. Therefore, in some legends, Sirin acquires a negative value, so that it is even beginning to be considered a dark bird, the messenger of the underworld.

Youthful Dionysus, god of wine and theatre, among other things. 🎭 🌿 twitter | print available 🌿

Norse mythology from A to Z:

[A] - the Alfes (Nordic elves)

The Ljósálfar (Light Elves) live in Álfheimr, and the Dökkálfar (Dark Elves) live in Svartalfheim.

*Phobos passing by with a knife*

Ares: Is that for your brother?

Phobos: Yup.

Ares:I don't think so...

*Ares passes him a bigger knife*

Phobos: Thanks dad!

Aphrodite *following him behind*: Wait! No killing your brother!

Devotional art of grand Lady Leto and Her blessed twins (inspired by Her statue)