Dominican Myths

Myths and Legends/ Mitos y Leyendas

Folclore de la República Dominicana/ Folklore of the Dominican Republic

Chupacabra/ Goat Sucker or Evil thing

The chupacabra is (supposedly) alien in origin and was brought here by a UFO. It is a living creature that looks like a hunched alien with a line of sharp spikes down the middle of it’s back exactly where the spine is located. It has gray skin that is part fur and part feathers. It has short arms ending with long nasty claws. Its legs are like a kangaroos.

The chupacabra is said to be about 4 feet tall when standing erect. This gray being has huge red elongated glowing eyes, the better to see you with. They are said to be very powerful and people have reported seeing the chupacabra fly.

Creatures fitting this description were said to be spotted first in Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s. Then, a few years later, the chupacabra started showing up in Mexico, South Florida, Central America, and South America including Dominican Republic. Although few people have actually claimed to seeing a real chupacabra many claim to have seen the works of this blood sucking alien being.

Moor Eyes of Aisa

Moirai

In Greek mythology, the Moirai (Μοῖραι) (mɪrˌiː), often known in English as the Fates (Latin: Fatae), were the white-robed incarnations of destiny; their Roman equivalent was the Parcae (euphemistically the “sparing ones”). Their number became fixed at three:
– Clotho (spinner),
– Lachesis (allotter) and
– Atropos (unturnable) [also called Moira, Morta or Aisa].

The Moirai controlled the mother thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without obstruction. The gods and men had to submit to them, although Zeus’s relationship with them is a matter of debate.

Some sources say Zeus is the only one who can command them (the Zeus Moiragetes), yet others suggest he was also bound to the Moirai’s dictates. In the Homeric poems Moira or Aisa, is related with the limit and end of life, and Zeus appears as the guider of destiny. In the Theogony of Hesiod, the three Moirai are personified, and are acting over the gods. Later they are daughters of Zeus and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order and law.

Dionysus

Dionysus – Tyrant and Liberator
From Myth and More, 2013

Recently I was asked a question about Dionysus and what weaknesses this god had. In this post I will create a short profile of Dionysus and address fatal flaws or “Achilles’ heel” for this god.

The Story

While pregnant, Semele, the mother of Dionysus, falls to her death when she gazes upon the unprotected vision of the father of her child, Zeus. To allow the unborn child to continue to grow, Zeus places the child in his thigh secured with a golden clamp. When it was time for the child to be born, Zeus opens the clamp and gives birth to the infant Dionysus, the “twice-born.”

To protect him from the wrath of Hera, the wife of Zeus, Dionysus is raised by nymphs and dressed as a girl. In adolescence, Dionysus discovers wine, rejects his feminine disguise and is found by Hera. At this point, Dionysus goes mad. The myth is rather vague whether his madness is from Hera’s vengeance, the onset of adolescence, or the wine. But, whatever the cause, he wanders across Greece, Egypt, and Syria in his madness.

Telete

TELETE

Greek Name Τελετη
Transliteration Teletê
Latin Spelling Telete
Translation Consecration, Initiation (teletê)

TELETE was the daimona (spirit) who presided over the initiation rites of the Bacchic orgies. She was a daughter of the god Dionysos.

PARENTS
DIONYSOS & NIKAIA (Nonnus Dionysiaca 16.392)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 30. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
“[In the sanctuary of the Mousai (Muses) on Mt Helikon in Boiotia:] First [there are] images of the Mousai . . . by the side of Orpheus stands a statue of Telete, and around him are beasts of stone and bronze listening to his singing.”

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 16. 392 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :

NGC 1333: Stellar Nursery in Perseus

TonyJCronin

NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud. This striking close-up spans about two full moons on the sky or just over 15 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with hints of contrasting red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. via NASA http://ift.tt/1Ppv2vc

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Furies

Erinyes

In Greek mythology the Erinyes (Greek: Ἐρῑνύες, plural of Ἐρῑνύς, Erinys), also known as Furies, were female deities of vengeance; they were sometimes referred to as “infernal goddesses”. An oath in the Iliad invokes them as “those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath”. They correspond to the Dirae in Roman mythology, and some suppose that they are called Furies in hell, Harpies on earth, and Dirae in heaven.

According to Hesiod’s Theogony, when the Titan Cronus castrated his father Uranus and threw his genitalia into the sea, the Erinyes as well as the Meliae emerged from the drops of blood when it fell on the earth (Gaia), while Aphrodite was born from the crests of sea foam.

Prometheus

Prometheus

In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Greek: Προμηθεύς, meaning “forethought”) is a Titan who sided with Zeus and the ascending Olympian gods in the vast cosmological struggle against Kronos and the other Titans. Prometheus was on the conquering side of the war of the Greek gods, the Titanomachy, as Zeus and the Olympian gods ultimately defeated Kronos and the other Titans.

Ancient myths and legends relate at least four versions of the narratives describing Prometheus, his exploits with Zeus, and his eternal punishment as also inflicted by Zeus. There is a single somewhat

Pan’s Flute

Pan: The God of All
By Jason Mankey, 2013

(As an aside, “Pan: The God of All” makes a great title for workshops and blog postings, but it’s not literally true. Also this is probably the oldest thing I’ve ever shared with a large audience, my writing has improved greatly since first putting this together many, many, years ago.)

In Modern Greek the word pan translates to “everything” or “all” but it’s much more likely that the god Pan derives his name from the Greek word root “pa” which translates to “Guardian of the flocks.” Pan’s first role has always been that of the shepherd, the guardian between civilization and the wild.

Pan has always been among the most popular of the ancient Greek gods, and the god-form that usually springs to mind when people talk about The Horned God, but that’s been a mixed blessing. Pan was extremely

Pan the Seducer

Greek God Pan

In Greek religion and mythology, Pan (/ˈpæn/; Ancient Greek: Πάν, Pan) is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Ancient Greek language, from the word paein (πάειν), meaning “to pasture.”

Pan has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is also recognized as the god of fields, groves, and wooded glens; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring. The ancient Greeks also considered Pan to be the god of theatrical criticism.

In Roman religion and myth, Pan’s counterpart was Faunus, a nature god who was the father of Bona Dea, sometimes identified as Fauna. In

Month December

December–The Tenth Month

December had two names among the English Saxons: “Wintermonath” meaning winter month, and “Heligmonath” meaning “holy month”, as Christmas falls in this month.

The chief festival of this “tenth” and last month of the year was the Saturnalia, held on the seventeenth of the month in honour of Saturn, the father of Jupiter. [Charles I and II]

Saturn the Cronos, was one of the Titans, the six giant sons of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). Uranus ruled before the days of Man, but he was overthrown by his son Saturn, who became for a time the supreme ruler of the universe. Uranus prophesied that Saturn would one day himself be overthrown by his children, and in order to avoid this, Saturn, when his first child was born, immediately swallowed him!