Venus: The Goddess of Love and Beauty

During my twentieth time on Tumblr today I came across this lovely picture:

I proceeded to find out where it came from and I discovered it's from a French comic book called Venise Céleste. I was unable to figure out the meaning of the picture from the comic book because unfortunately I do not speak French. Anyway it reminded me of Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon: 

which made me think about the Roman goddess Venus. I wanted to look at the basic similarities between Venus, Sailor Venus and the image from the French comic book. The woman in the comic book resembles the goddess Venus because of her beauty and lack of clothing. In many pictures Venus is either nude or in a revealing dress. Sailor Venus is the "girly-girl" of the Sailor Scouts; she is very much into her appearance and boys. Her character is very similar to the goddess of love and beauty. I think it's interesting that in both images the magic they use is a bright yellow color, which seems to be symbolic of the actual planet Venus, the brightest planet in our solar system. 

On a side note... I really wish I could find out more about the comic book because look at these pictures!! The colors are amazing! 

Female Creatures in Myth

I'm a sucker for a story featuring a strong female character/creature/being, which is why I really liked the article "Magical Femininity: Womanly Creature That Kick Ass" from mysticfiles.com. The author brings up an idea from some of the readings, that "[female] magical beings may take on the negative aspects of womanhood as viewed by men or adapt certain scary or intimidating creatures into their feminine physique..." I find this concept intriguing because while some may say it's sexist or demeaning I find it to be empowering in a way. It shows that men are scared of females because they don't completely understand them, and they should be scared! (haha). 

Some of my favorite creatures mentioned in the article were gorgons, valkyrie, the sphinx. Gorgons just look so cool and the fact that their gaze can turn people into stone brings a whole new meaning to the "female death stare". Valkyrie are kind of the definition of a female badass. They are powerful and strong and are able to choose who lives and who dies in battle. I've always been fascinated with sphinxes because I am obsessed with all things cat (or half-cat I should say). I was first introduced to sphinxes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I remember seeing the illustration in the book and thinking how majestic she looked. Though Halloween is a long way off, I'm thinking about dressing up as one of these awesome female creatures this year...

Gorgon

Valkyrie 

Sphinx

I Wish I Was a Mermaid...

I was on Tumblr last night and I saw this picture...

and I decided I wanted to dive into the history of mermaid myths (haha). When my sister and I were younger we would pretend to be mermaids in our pool for hours. For me being a mermaid was right up there with being a princess or a witch like Hermione Granger. Thinking about it know, it seems odd that a little girl would wish to be a half-fish creature. But anyway, where did the idea of mermaids originate? Some scholars think that people mistakenly took manatees to be mermaids, especially when they emerged from the surface of the water with seaweed on their heads (this actually sounds adorable). But even before this, ideas of mermaids were present in Syria and Babylonia in the form of water gods. And of course in Greek mythology in the form of Poseidon. In Japan, consuming the flesh of a mermaid was thought to prevent death (yikes!). It's interesting to note that mermen are normally depicted as unattractive, the complete opposite of the alluring mermaids. 

So back to the idea of it being odd for little girls to want to be half-fish, half-woman. I think that even though mermaids can't ever walk on land (unless of course they sell their soul...) there is something powerful in being able to lure men to their death. While many young girls don't know this side of the mermaid myth, I personally think they should. I think the myth of the mermaid is one of the few myths in which females have agency and they aren't demonized for it. 

Source: newworldencyclopedia.org

The Unicorn

Of all the fabulous mythological creatures, I would say my favorite is the unicorn. There is just something so fascinating about a majestic, magical horse with a glittering horn on it's head. In Harry Potter, the blood of a unicorn makes the drinker immortal but cursed. According to the song/poem, "The Unicorn", by Shel Silverstein, unicorns aren't around today because they didn't make it onto Noah's ark. In the infamous youtube video "Charlie the Unicorn", unicorns can talk and apparently are  extremely annoying.

"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)



"We're going to Candy Mountain, Charlie!" 

So where did this idea of a unicorn come from? The myth of the unicorn was first seen in Mesopotamian artwork. In Greek literature the unicorn was most likely based off of a rhinoceros, but was described as being "the size of a horse, with a white body, purple head, and blue eyes, and on it's forehead was a cubit-long horn coloured red at the pointed tip, black in the middle, and white at the base" (britannica.com). References to unicorns even appear in the Bible; some writers considered the unicorn to be a symbol of salvation and Christ. In Chinese mythology the unicorn, or Ch'i lin as they call it, was a gentle, wise creature who brought good fortune. (Read more)

The unicorn stands out from the majority of mythological creatures because instead of being frightening and dangerous, it is beautiful and majestic, representing light and goodness.