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My own most enduring experience of the greater universe is of its perfect indifference to our fears or desires. Looking back, it seems that this experience may have been alien to ancient Greek culture - as it is shown in myths. There it seems to have been assumed that where there was a famine...

I just made somebull-roarers from a pattern from Australia. Anyone know anything about how they were used?

i was reading the description in the Illiad of the shield of Achilles (that Hephaestus makes for him). the description gives a story - maybe a couple of stories. Like - there's a town, and around it are a beseiging army, and then the warriors from the town go outside and set up and ambush, but...

Reading the Iliad I found that Nestor's female captive makes the guys a drink from wine, grated goats cheese and barley meal. With it she serves a snack of onion. Does anyone have any idea how this drink might be made so that it's pallatable? Onion can become quite pleasant if its chopped and...

does anyone know if there's a link between the illness and the star sign, and the crab? Also, are there any mythological stories where someone has what we can identify as cancer? F.D.

Hi, I can't think of a story from the Greek world where there's a rainbow. Does anybody know of one? Thanks

I sometimes wonder if weather was a bit cooler a few thousand years ago. I worked for a while in Crete by the sea, and there were some basins in the rock of the sea bed that were said to have been Minoan grain stores, but the sea levels have risen and now they'r under water. And I read the same...

I was thinking about old age, and who were the old people of the Greek myths. One person who came to mind was the one who asked for immortality and was granted it, but the catch was that he didn't stay young. So he got more and more decrepit without an end. Does anyone know who this was though...

I was reading Robert Graves' account of how Apollo persued Daphne and her escape from him. I checked his sources as I have a copy of Apollodorus and also Hygnus here. And not all of what he says is there in the source texts. Perhaps some of it was direct revelation? But I find his account has...

I heard somewhere that there are farmers of livestock in east africa who harvest blood from their cattle - opeing a vein and then closing it again after they've tapped some. i also heard that this used to be much more common practice long ago when cattle were too valuable to just kill and eat...

I had an idea that it would be good to climb Mount Olympus. I haven't checked how feasible this is. Does anyone know about it? Anyone fancy coming too?

I read some of Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of England". Of course the first people to arrive here in England after the giants were some Trojans fleeing ruined Troy - or so he says at any rate. When they sailed west out of the mediteranian sea they passed through the pillars of...

A while ago I went to have a bath and found a caterpillar in the tub. It was alive and i dropped it off in the woods later on. I doubt it survived; too cold, and I don't know if i put it on the right type of plant. It struck me as a thing out of time and place - in a bath, in mid-winter. So I...

i make wooden furniture/ architectural elements/ carvings. mostly carvings though. i've always traded under my own name but i'm really tired of this. it makes me feel like - bored and boring. So i thought of appointing a patron(ess) spirit and naming my company from them. These days I'm using...

are there any myths about law? Or courts - trials?

it just occured to me that there doesn't seem to be any magic in the greek stories i know. there are diviners / prophets, but no magicians. Isn't this a bit odd? I mean doesn't everyone like a bit of magic?

I read Joseph Campbell's interviews (I forget the titleof the book) - he talks about virgin births being a common occurance in many cultures' mythologies. What are they? Does it mean a birth where there was no male at all? Or does it mean one where the father is supposed to be divine? I didn't...

I was reading the Odyssey and found Athena talking to Telemachus. She's in disguise as a mortal, and says something like "I will prophesy to you even though I am not a prophet. I will tell you what the gods tell me".Then she tells him that his father is alive and will return and various other...

i have a notebook computer. a couple of weeks ago the mythforum website started to be shown in my browser with the whole page on screen - so that the writing is so tiny I can hardly read it. Does nayone know how I can get back to a normal size? Thanks, F.D.

do the gods nead translators ? Somehow I don't believe that they can undsersatnd any language. does anyone know a story where a god neads a translator?