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Since I already wrote about Rainbow Brite today, I might as well keep the rainbow theme going with my weekly mythology post. In Greek mythology, the goddess of the rainbow is Iris, the daughter of the sea god Thaumas and the sky nymph Elektra. Like Hermes, she serves as a messenger for the gods, sometimes between themselves and other times with ( Read more... )

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While L. Frank Baum's mythology either replaced or subverted a fair amount of the classical stuff, he did reuse some popular legendary characters, mostly ones who had become ingrained in popular culture. Santa Claus and Jack Frost are two of the most obvious, but there were a few others as well. One is Father Time, who plays a major role in one ( Read more... )

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Yesterday, vilajunkie alerted me to a kind of magical black cat that I had omitted from my recent post, the Cait Sith of the Scottish Highlands. From what I've seen, this is pronounced "cat shee," and hence has no connection to the Sith from Star Wars. Then again, I've read that a giant green rabbit is a significant character in the comics based on the ( Read more... )

Everyone knows what an elf is, right? Well, you probably think you do, but in truth you could have a very different idea from someone else. As I mentioned here, the traditional elves of Scandinavian mythology, the Elves of Middle-Earth, and Santa's diminutive and industrious helpers are actually pretty different. Traditionally, elves were ( Read more... )