BLADDER DEMON

BLADDER DEMON

"Over him something hung in the air which looked like a gigantic bladder covered with countless crabs’ claws and scorpions’ stings, and with black clods of earth hanging from it."

Nikolai Gogol, The Viy

RUSALKA

RUSALKA

"Maidens who have lost their souls rise up one after the other from the depths of the Dnieper, their green tresses stream over their shoulders, the water drips splashing to the ground from their long hair;"

Nikolai Golgol, A Terrible Vengeance

"'Look, look!' She said quickly, 'she is here, she is on the bank, playing games among my maidens, bathing herself in the moonlight. She is sly and cunning, she has taken the form of a drowned maiden;'"

"But they were pale; their bodies looked as thought molded out of transparent clouds, and it seemd as though the moonlight shone through them."

Nikolai Gogol, A May Night

"Descriptions of rusalki from all over Russia present them as attractive young women, insubstantial beauties with delicate, pale faces and translucent skin, an indication both of their ghostly nature and of their long residence deep under the waters of river or lake, far from the light of the sun. The rusalki often had green hair, like the water weeds and the grasses along the river banks where they frolicked on moonlit nights. More significantly, the rusalka wore her hair unbraided and uncovered, a state that the Russians associated with the supernatural -witches did not cover their hair either - or with liminality, for a bride's hair was unbraided on the eve or her marriage as was the hair of a dead woman in her coffin."

Elizabeth Warner, Russian Myths

VED'MA

VED'MA
"It is not for nothing that God has given each some special peculiarity; the learned maintain that every witch has a little tail."

"'Every old woman is a witch,' said a grey-headed Cossack quite seriously"

"But she looked quite blue, and her eyes sparkled like fiery coals. She seized the child, bit its throat, and began to suck its blood."

"He even thought he saw a tear roll from under the eyelash of her right eye, but when it was half-way down her cheek, he saw it was a drop of blood."
Nikolai Gogol, The Viy

"More often than not there was little to distinguish the born ved'ma (witch) physically  from ordinary women. Her supernatural provenance might, however, be revealed by a small, furry tail, which grew longer as she matured."
Elizabeth Warner, Russian Myths

CHORT

CHORT

"How could anyone let a devil into a tavern? Why, thank God, he has claws on his paws and horns on his head."

"But the pigs with legs as long as stilts climbed in at the windows and so revived him in an instant with a three-thonged whip, making him skip higher than this ceiling."

"The rest of the sentence died away on the speaker's lips: there was a loud rattle at the window, the panes fell tinkling on the floor, and a frightening pig's snout peered in through the window, roll it its eyes as though asking, "What are you doing here, folks?'"

Nikolai Gogol, The Fair At Sorochintsy

 

"In pre-Christian central and eastern Europe, the chort was a demon used to personify evil forces. He would be pictured as walking on two legs in an erect position, but with horns, hooves, a tail and often the bottom half of a goat. Sometimes he would have a pig face. Chorts would often live in hollow willow trunks or abandoned buildings, like mills. It’s the pre-Christian, pre-gentrified version of a savage, country-style devil. 

Luiza Oleszczuk, European Folklore Rife With Halloween Costume Inspiration

LESHII

 

LESHII
"Those forests on this hill are not forests: they are the hair that covers the shaggy head of the wood demon."
Nikolai Gogol, A Terrible Vengeance

"Even today, no Russian living at the forest's edge will take the forest for granted."

"Many stories about him stress his affinity with the vegetation of the forest. His skin might be gnarled like the bark of a tree, his hair and beard green as grass."

"Iconographic influences may be detected in some descriptions of the leshii's appearance, which endow him with a shaggy body, cloven hooves, a tail and horns."
 Elizabeth Warner, Russian Myths

EROS

 

EROS

"A comly youth, in with and learning great, 

Skill'd in each art, and master of debate- 

Yet pensive now, since Eros' cruel dart 

Had pierc'd his own, but not his Delia's, heart."

H.P. Lovecraft, Why the Trees Are Tall

"He is generally described as a son of Aphrodite; but as love finds its way into the hearts of men in a manner which no one knows, the poets sometimes describe him as of unknown origin 2), or they say that he had indeed a mother, but not a father. In this stage Eros has nothing to do with uniting the discordant elements of the universe, or the higher sympathy or love which binds human kind together; but he is purely the god of sensual love, who bears sway over the inhabitants of Olympus as well as over men and all living creatures: he tames lions and tigers, breaks the thunderbolts of Zeus, deprives Heracles of his arms, and carries on his sport with the monsters of the sea. His arms, consisting of arrows, which he carries in a quiver, and of torches, 

no one can touch with impunity."

"His arrows are of different power: some are golden, and kindle love in the heart they wound; others are blunt and heavy with lead, and produce aversion to a lover. Eros is further represented with golden wings, and as fluttering about like a bird. His eyes are sometimes covered, 

so that he acts blindly."

 Sir William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Mythology

ORPHEUS

ORPHEUS

"Thus Thracia's savage matrons wildly tore

The pensive Orpheus on swift Hebrus' shore."

H.P. Lovecraft, Why Trees Are Tall

"Kalliope was the mother of the bard Orpheus. When her son was dismembered by the Bakkhantes, she recovered his head and enshrined on the island of Lesbos."

"A man recovers the severed head of the poet Orpheus which has washed up on the shores of the island of Lesbos. The head is still alive and giving prophetic utterances."

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology

"But Venus, angry because she had not been granted what she thought was her right, stirred the women in Thrace by love, each to seek Orpheus for herself, so that they tore him limb from limb. His head, carried down from the mountain into the sea, was cast by the waves upon the island of Lesbos."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica

"His tongue though lifeless, uttered a mournful sound and mournfully the river's banks replied: onward borne by the river to the sea they left their native stream and reached the shore of Lesbos at Methymna."

Ovid, Metamorphoses

 

CALLIOPE

CALLIOPE
"Calliope and Clio rest their quills, 

As wise Urania at the chorus thrills."

H.P. Lovecraft, R. Kleiner, Laureatus, In Heliconem

"Kalliope was the eldest of the Muses, the goddesses of music, song and dance. In older art she holds a lyre. Kalliope was the mother of the bard Orpheus. When her son was dismembered by the Bakkhantes, she recovered his head and enshrined it on 

the island of Lesbos" 

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology

ZEUS

ZEUS

"May Zeus with thunders scourge the martial scene

Where Woden tramples o'er th' unhappy green"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Peace Advocate

"Zeus was the king of the gods, the god of sky and weather, law, order and fate. He was depicted as a regal man, mature with sturdy figure and dark beard. His usual attributes were a lightning bolt, royal sceptre and eagle."

"Leda a Queen of Lakedaimonia (in Southern Greece) who was seduced by Zeus in the form of swan. She laid an egg from which were hatched the Dioskouroi twins - one Polydeukes was the son of Zeus, the other Kastor the son of her husband Tyndareus. According to some, she was also the mother of egg-hatched Helene."

"Europa a Princess of Phoinikia (Phoenicia in West Asia) who was abducted to Krete by Zeus in the form of a white bull. She bore him three sons: Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthys."

"Danae a Princess of Argos (in Central Greece) who was imprisoned by her father in a bronze tower. Zeus seduced her in the form of a golden shower, and she gave birth to a son, the hero Perseus."

 Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology

"Zeus, the greatest of the Olympian gods, and the father of gods and men, was a son of Cronos and Rhea, a brother of Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, and at the same time married to his sister Hera."

Sir William Smith, Dictionary Of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology

HYPNOS

HYPNOS

"But always I shall guard against the mocking and insatiate Hypnos, lord of sleep, against the night sky, and against the mad ambitions of knowledge and philosophy."

H.P. Lovecraft, Hypnos

"HYPNOS was the god or spirit of sleep. He resided in Erebos, the land of eternal darkness, beyond the gates of the rising sun. From there he rose into the sky each night in the train of his mother Nyx."

"Hypnos was depicted as a young man with wings on his shoulders or brow."

"The god is depicted with winged sandals and brow. He holds a yew branch dripping with the somnulent waters of the river Lethe."

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology

"Himself too he bestirred both swift progress and his wind-torn temples [i.e. he had wings on his temples], and filling his mantle's folds with the chill dark air is borne in silent course through heaven, and from afar swoops down in might upon the Aonian fields."

Statius, Thebaid