Bestiary |
Shoki
He was a doctor in China during his lifetime, and although Shoki is an entity of Japanese mythology, there is no mistake. Indeed, the god Zhong Kui arrived from the mainland to the Japanese islands in the sixth century along with Buddhism, which renamed itself after the gentleman named in the title, leaving most of the other attributes unchanged. Especially the main one, namely the transcendent vocation. Both Zhong Kui and Shoki are protectors against evil spirits and fighters against demons. This is especially noticeable on the fifth day of the fifth month, when families with young boys put up Shoki's effigy in front of the house, because on this day, the day of the Tango no Sekku festival, the air is full of evil demons. But the destroyer of ghosts doesn't just work one day a year; he is on full duty twenty-four hours a day, which is why you can see statues of Shoki outside many houses in Japan. He protects the home from whatever evil demons bring, especially disease.
In terms of appearance, the Shoki has not changed much in centuries of practice. He still wears heavy high boots, a hat, and a sword, usually a long one, but now and then he makes do with a short one. He is also safely identifiable by his fierce expression, angrily rolled eyes, and massive beard.
Attended xylography: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
2.6.2025 (16.1.2005)
A planet called Krasopani
When one says Venus, the associations are clear, though they usually go in two directions, depending on one's state of mind. Either one thinks of a planet, second from the Sun, with a thick atmosphere and a hellish surface, or of the Roman goddess of love, whether in a so-called abstract form, or in the shapes left and left by sculptors and painters, or the tooth of time, for most of you will still picture an incomplete statue of Aphrodite (Venus) of Melos.
I will not give in to the temptation, and look in the first, astronomical direction, though I will undoubtedly include the most famous Venus in the Bestiary sometime in the future. But not today. Today, we will present other representatives of the most exclusive planet in astronomical terms after the Earth and in mythological terms after the Moon. She appeared twice, as Evening Star and Morning Star, and so could not fail to come up. Let's start with the Czechs and Slavs.
Venus' Czech birth name, Krasopani (a Beautylady), corresponds to its Mediterranean counterpart. Although she survives only in folklore, the Slavic Venus Zora is also a beautiful maiden, a protector of love (and an expert in ensuring a bountiful harvest, the two have always been related), or a healer. She is seated on a golden throne, with a golden bowl in her hands and a red headdress – hence the foreglow. And she has various nicknames, Jitřenka (Morning Star) and Večernice (Evening Star) are well known and related to her profession, while (familiar from Eastern folklore) Sea Lady or Mistress of the Sun reveal more. The former address, the latter love relationships. Whether to the aforementioned Sun or to the Moon. Occasionally, history is more chaste and places Zora in the sun or moon family, but mostly it is about love after all. After all, the rising or setting sun is red precisely because a mischievous morning lover splashes sea water on it.
Yohle, known to the Indians of the South American rainforest, is red. One of the local legends tells how they got that color. As is usual in such cases, it is the work of people, in this case, young girls who wanted to find out what a certain hunter was hiding in a calebasa, and of course, there was Yohle, who, some time ago, listened to the Indian's desires and became his wife. I won't tell the whole story here, nor will I tell why or how it ended. For one thing, I can't fit it in here, and for another, I want to encourage you to read the stories, because they are quite different from similar stories from Europe and nearby.
A few thousand kilometres away and a few thousand metres above the sea, the Quechua knew a different Venus in their Inca religion. They called her Chasca, and like many other beauties, she was associated with the Sun. In this case, as his handmaiden, she ruled the twilight and dawn, and outside of this time-limited activity, she was given the responsibility of overseeing the virgins and maidens.
And yet, I will not give up and conclude with a glimpse of the Mediterranean, whose Venus I excluded from today's story at the beginning. I am not particularly contradicting myself, for the goddess Venus is one side and the eponymous planet the other, albeit of the same coin. Now, however, we are going to talk about the Morning Star herself, and she was not Venus in Rome, but Lucifer, well known to us by name. That is to say, the Lightbringer, known in Greece as Phosphoros. He was the son of Eos, the goddess of morning glows (Aurora in Rome) and his only function was to light up the day every day. This Lucifer was quite far from the Lucifer of Christian myth, first one of the highest angels and later the chief of the opposition.
2.6.2025 (23.1.2005)
Astra Planêta
The planets of our solar system are known by the names of their patrons. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and... and that's it, folks. Uranus and Neptune, not to mention the reprobate Pluto, are stellar youth from the human perspective. (Of course, Uranus has been known about for a long time. But it was still considered one of the myriad stars, and not a very special one at that.)
The celestial bodies themselves, however, were not direct embodiments of the Olympian gods; their appearance was too regular and constant for that - and, unlike the movement of the Sun and the illumination of the Moon, unimportant too. We can't ask high-ranking gods to spend every night in the sky. (Judging by the considerable number of descendants, they had completely different interests after dusk anyway). But those bodies were obviously up there, out of the crowd of simply shining points, and so people had to deal with it somehow.
According to the old Mediterranean beliefs, they were beings in their own right. Astra Planêta to the Greeks, Stellae Errantae to the Romans consisted of five brothers, the sons of the Titans Astraios and Eos.
Let's introduce them in order. In astronomical order.
Mercury was actually named Stilbon. “Small and brilliant,” remarked the author of the ancient (and only officially published during the Renaissance) work De Astronomica. Which is about all we know about him.
Venus is more interesting. Because it appears in two astronomical roles, as both morning and evening star, it originally had two faces. Eosphoros (Phosphoros) was up in the morning, and we know him even more by his Roman name, Lucifer. Hesperos then represented the planet in the sky at the end of the day. Over time and the evolution of knowledge, however, the two merged.
Pyroeis (the Fire one), also known as Mesonyx, is already an easily identifiable Mars by name. The Midnight Star, incidentally, was not only associated with the warrior Mars; another of the gods to whom the red planet belonged was Hercules.
Jupiter's incarnation, Faëthón, bears the same name as the son of Helios, whom Zeus (Jupiter) had to knock out of the sky so that he would not set the world on fire with his mad ride in his father's solar chariot. The story is sometimes added to the planetary namesake (exposing the foolish young man to the sky by Helios' intercession or as a warning to others), in my humble opinion, mainly because of the same names.
Finally, Saturn. In ancient Greek terms, actually, Phainon. Apart from the officially-taken away registry record (the parents Astraios and Éos didn't stop at begetting this five/six, they gave life to all the stars, and not only to them, there was no space or time to deal with the history of each of their children), we know another version of his origin.
The aforementioned Astronomica states that its creator was Prometheus, who modeled humans out of clay. He did not spread the results in any way, but the Phaenon was so good at it that Eros noticed it, spoke of it above, whereupon Hermes made the young man introduce himself to Zeus. The supreme of the gods then made the handsome young man immortal and elevated him to the embodiment of a stellar object.
2.6.2025 >16.10.2022
Vecui
In Latin this nymph was called Begoe or Vegoia, but her name is Etruscan and belongs to the Etruscans, of course. Even as one of the very important Teachers.
For she gave them one of the important parts of the disciplina Etrusca, the art of divination from the entrails and interpretation of lightning, so much admired by the Romans. Vecui took care of the latter, for the interpretation of lightning is no simple matter. The Etruscans developed the art further and, fortunately, also wrote it down in books, so that information about it survived not only them but also the Roman Empire.
As a bonus, Vecui then taught a certain Arruns Veltymn the art of surveying.
2.6.2025 (6.2.2005)
Preas Eyn
Many, many years ago in ancient Cambodia, the old Khmer people would occasionally catch a glimpse of their thunder god, Preas Eyn, throwing lightning bolts while riding a three-headed elephant. Since India is not so far away in the legends, it is not surprising that Preas Eyn seems to be related to the Hindu supreme god Indra. If only because lightning is overwhelmingly crushed by the supreme gods.
2.6.2025 (6.2.2005)
The Blue Men of Minch
A supernatural species living in the waters of the strait separating the Hebridean islands from the mainland is behaving exactly as one would expect. Its members drown sailors, either selectively, piece by piece, or with the help of conjured storms that send entire ships to the bottom.
This being Scotland, it's no wonder these blue-skinned watermen live in clans like their landlubber neighbors. They are said to be fallen angels.
2.6.2025 (20.2.2005)
Abbey Lubbers
In the fifteenth century, they were found in a number of English monasteries, especially in wine cellars. A favorite activity of these bogeymen was to incite gluttony and drunkenness, their target understandably being the monks. How they coped with the events of 1534, when Henry VIII abolished the monasteries, I do not know.
2.6.2025 (20.2.2005)
Chimbley Charlie
Chimbley Charlie resides in Somerset's Holman Clavel Inn and is one of a large family of house spirits. Although they tend to be hard-working and helpful creatures, there are some mischief-makers among them who enjoy pranks and jokes more than cleaning. Chimbley Charlie is by all accounts one of these mischievous demons.
2.6.2025 (20.2.2005)
Janus
Two faces, one looking forward, the other looking back, because the end is the beginning of the next, this is the most common image of the Roman god Janus. He is one of the oldest deities and was perhaps originally just the protector of the front door, perhaps later elevated to the god of the solar cycle and light, but today he is known as the god of the beginning of all things and the protector of doors and gates.
According to tradition, he was a Latin king whose castle stood on one of the seven legendary Roman hills, and whose present name, Gianicolo, is convincing evidence of this, being a modern Italian version of the original Ianiculum. As a god, he was benevolent, celebrating his main feast on New Year's Day, or the first of January. He also had the first prayer, symbolized by the gate and the key. For the Romans, he really represented the beginning of all things, especially the day.
2.6.2025 (27.2.2005)
Pygmies and Cercopes
Today the word denotes some African tribes, known for their lower stature, or - which is closer to us and has already been mentioned - is the name of the elementals belonging to the land. But the original Greek Pygmaioi were a nation of Asia Minor dwarfs, small in stature but great in audacity and courage, with which, for example, they stole the armour of Hercules himself. As this story is sometimes attributed to the Kerkops, another miniature race, we prefer to believe the statement that the pygmies live on the shores of the Okeanos itself. After all, there are many overgrown and dangerous things lurking in the known world.
Even in classical times, cranes were among the greatest enemies of the Pygmaioi. This information survived into the Middle Ages, but similar scenes can be found on ancient vases.
The Kerkôpes, an Asia Minor people turned into dwarves by Zeus for unspecified reasons, are more famous for their stories than their names. Not that there are many, but there are. Like the one about how they tried to rob Hercules at Ephesus. Or how they tried to rob Hercules at Thermopylae.
The latter case has names. They were the Kercopian twins Olos and Eurybalos (or Sylos and Triballos, or Passalos and Akmón, as is common in Greek myth, sources differ on the names), notorious swindlers. They were the sons of Okeanos and Theia, it is inherent in mythology that all the featured characters have documented ancestry, the better the higher up they come into conflict with. The mother warned her misguided offspring not to mess with Hercules - the Black Bottom. Well, they didn't listen. In the form of flies, they pestered the sleeping hero for so long that the latter caught them and, transformed into their normal form, and tied them upside down to a pole. As he carried it thus over his shoulder, the twins found themselves staring at the blackened skin of the hero's buttocks, which Heracles' garment of the skin of a Nemean lion did not conceal. Despite being in a precarious situation, the Kerkôpes could not stand it and began to laugh. Eventually they made even Hercules laugh, and he let them go.
The tricksters did not end well, however; it is said that when they try practical jokes to Zeus himself, he turned them into stone or into monkeys. Which kind of goes against the probable truth, the twins were goblins - nightmares, it was Hercules in his divine form who had the power over such bad dreams, and the ancient Greeks chased away nightmares by pleading with him.
2.6.2025 (6.3.2005)
Moddey Dhoo
There has already been talk of black dogs running loose in the British Isles. Barghest, for example. Even Moddey Dhoo, or Mauthe Dog, take your pick, is a member of this phantom pack. This harbinger of death does its job on the Isle of Man, where it represents the aforementioned English Barghest or Scottish Cu sith.
At Peel Castle, it used to haunt the guardhouse, where it moved in after dusk and disappeared at dawn. This was an unpleasant restriction for the guards - they were not allowed to speak while on duty. Which one drunken soldier failed to do.
Within three days, he was dead. The phantom hasn't appeared in the castle since.
2.6.2025 (13.3.2005)
Black Shuck
I've found one more canine, for this one roams English Norfolk, it's the size of a calf and its green glowing eyes are - don't expect anything original - like saucers. Which is again a description straight out of a Brothers Grimm story. Whoever meets that specter will not fare well. In East Anglia, by the way, it's been avoided since Viking times.
2.6.2025 (13.3.2005)
Pugut
In the Philippines, the Pugut, an otherwise large nocturnal creature, sometimes transforms into the form of a wild dog or black cat, walking on rope legs and now and then, in private, unseen by anyone, devouring people. It seems to like metamorphosis, as it is sometimes seen without a head, but with smoke and light effects.
2.6.2025 (13.3.2005)
Kahango
You, Kahango, if it is you who are keeping off the rain, accept this sacrifice and let the rain come. If it is not you, then give this man strength to get up and walk back to us. 1)
When it did not rain for a long time in Uganda, the Basoga there dealt with it in a straightforward manner and without complex considerations. They simply offered a human sacrifice to their god Kahango. The whole ritual had a clearly defined course: the sacrifice, determined by divination, was placed on the edge of the pit in which Kahango dwelt. In order not to disturb their god, the bearers (members of the special clan whose duty it was) went aside and waited, mostly in vain, because the sacrifice did not return. In such a case, they slaughtered and ate the goat they had brought along for that purpose. That was it, Kahango admitted to the drought, sent rain for the victim, and there was peace until the next climatic disturbance.
1) J. Frazer: Aftermath: a Supplement to the Golden Bough
2.6.2025 (20.3.2005)
Chinkang'onme
He looks like a snake with a lion's mane and is the Tumbuka god of East Africa. He Sometimes takes a wife from the tribe, unlike other cultures where similar brides have lost their lives in the wedding ceremony, this looks good for the chosen lady among the Tumbuka. Jen moves aside, she is considered a deity incarnate, revered among her people. She never marries again, but that's sort of considered a trait in a celebrity wife.
2.6.2025 (20.3.2005)
Ser-Ovi
I always like to include a water demon in my collection.
In this case, it's a water fairy of the caucasian Mountain Jews. Ser-Ovi is a white gentle girl who guards the water springs at night. Either she has years of experience with people who don't treat wells and nature in general well, or she doesn't deny the nature of water demons, she just attacks people now and then. Of course, only the elderly, she leaves the ones who are not yet too affected by life alone.
Like many supernatural beings, this fairy shies away from iron, which is why the highlanders wear steel rings, and when they have to fetch water at night, they secure themselves with some iron, which they wave around.
2.6.2025 (20.3.2005)
Hoppa
The usual ghost of Czech legends - an evil estate manager struck down by lightning. His name was Hoppa, and when alive he was the reeve of a castle near the eastern Bohemian town of Polička. During the ghost's time, he rode through the countryside in a carriage and brandished a whip. Although he was later exorcised by a Hartmanice priest, he survived for a long time as a local pedagogical bogeyman.
2.6.2025 (27.3.2005)
Dund
The headless Dund rides through India, being a pure demon, with no consequence of fate. He's incomplete in other ways too, even the hands and feet are missing. His head is tied to the saddle.
He travels from house to house and invokes their inhabitants; whoever answers him runs the risk of death or madness.
2.6.2025 (27.3.2005)
Fama
A horrible monster described by Virgil as a feathered, large-winged monster, swift as woe, and with as many eyes, mouths, and tongues as it has feathers. Faster than anything else and, when inflated, larger than any other creature. She lives in a high castle from which she dispatches her minions all over the world; to keep traffic as smooth as possible, Fama's mansion has no doors, so that Credulity, Error, Gossip, Delight, Whisper, Fear, and other faithful servants are free to set out on their missions with speed.
The personification of the rumor is said to be the daughter of the Roman goddess of Earth, Terra, so one might also assume Greek counterparts in the form of a mother, Gaia (sometimes Elpis), and a daughter called Pheme (sometimes Ossa), whom the inhabitants of the Peloponnese imagined somewhat more soberly: as a winged figure with a trumpet. Her original home in this case, of course, is the Apennine Peninsula, and as is clear to all but perhaps the most gullible readers of Thunder, her career certainly did not end with the fall of the Roman Empire.
2.6.2025 (1.4.2005)
Neria
While the previous lady was not lost in the world, there is not much left of the goddess Neria. We know that she used to be the wife of the god of war, Mars. And that's about all.
2.6.2025 (1.4.2005)
Honor
Third time from Rome. The name too, at least in some languages, speaks for itself, this time much more purely than Fama. Honor is an honor and its goddess. Indeed, the Romans worshipped her, most often paired with Virtus, the goddess of courage and martial prowess. The two ladies usually walked hand in hand, Virtus was not as revered without Honor, yet she had her own temple in Rome behind the Porta Capena, adjacent to her friend's shrine. The two together, despite the opposition of the patrician priests, then built the Templum Honoris et Virtutis by the Consul Gaius M. Marius in the year minus 101.
2.6.2025 (1.4.2005)
Andvari
When Andvari, son of Oinn (no, not the one from The Hobbit) was born, the Norns weren't exactly in top form. Not only was the newly born dwarf supposed to live in water, he was even supposed to be a fish. And about son´s future, the fate ladies tactfully kept quiet, who would want to hear that his offspring would be robbed by the gods themselves.
Which is what happened later. The Norse gods considered diplomacy to be an oriental kingdom, and once they lacked the proper cash with which to redeem themselves from the trouble they had gotten themselves into (namely, the murder of Hreidmar's son Otter), they sent the originator of the problem, Loki, to Andvari, for, as we know, dwarves can be pretty wealthy. Understandably, they didn't want to borrow, even interest-free. The goddess of the sea, Ran, gave Loki a magic net, Loki went to the lake where the dwarf was currently in fish form, cast the nets, and pulled Andvari out. Whereupon he told him the usual and simple demand: money or life.
The dwarf did not think long, yet he kept his composure in the face of death and tried to hide at least his ring in his armpit, which would allow him to regain his lost fortune. But the greedy Loki had taken even that from him. Andvari was left with one last thing - he cursed the ring (and all the treasure).
Yes, we are right there, namely in the legend of the Ring, not the literary one, but the much older piece of metal, in the tales and legends of the Niflungs. The supreme god Odin survived because even though he wanted to keep the ring, he had to redeem it along with the rest of Andvari's gold.
Hreidmar, thus the new owner of the ring, became the first victim of the curse, and then it was one by one. The story of Fafnir, the famous dragon and Hreidmar's other son, is well known, as are the other owners of the dwarf's jewel: Régin, Sigurd himself, Brynhild and Gunnarr.
But that's another story altogether.
(10.4.2005)
Menninkäinen
Forest gnomes from Finnish folklore, now employed in linguistics, as their name serves translators into Finnish as an equivalent for foreign-language terms for goblins and imps.
2.6.2025 (28.9.2014)
Yumboe
Small white silver-haired gnomes, no taller than half a meter, live in the hills and dance in the moonlight. They are said to welcome and entertain random passers-by with fish and couscous. Gnomes borrow fire and steal semolina from human dwellings in the evenings, but they catch fish themselves at night, as many observers have testified.
It would seem to be the good old familiar European myth, but the hills where the Yumboe live are located on the island of Gorée, off the coast of Senegal in Africa.
2.6.2025 (1.3.2015)
Thrummy Cap
A goblin that can be encountered in the cellars of old Northumberland castles. He is often described as a strange-looking old man, which is not particularly unusual for this species.
2.6.2025 (26.4.2015)
Gjenganger
A returnee from the grave. Although it does not always behave inappropriately, it is always a specter that is best avoided. As is customary, the restless dead are recruited from among murderers and their victims, suicides, as well as those who did not manage to complete a task, the unfulfillment of which prevents them from resting in peace. Most of these Norwegian ghosts look like they have been freshly buried (their Swedish neighbors use the name Gengångare, Danish Genganger), or appear in the form of skeletons, and they usually cause harm, for example by spreading infectious diseases (in Sweden, however, such disasters are brought about by Gast, a related but not entirely identical apparition, usually a skeleton).
In ancient history, a good swing of the sword was enough for the Vikings to get rid of the raging Gjenganger, but later both sides, the dead and the living, calmed down. To protect the family from an unwelcome visit from a deceased relative, Christian symbols or minor magic, such as a pile of stones or twigs at the place of death, were sufficient. Nevertheless, it is not recommended to take a nap near a cemetery, as the gjenganger may pinch you in your sleep.
The Danish Genganger (Genfærda) intending to drown his victim was painted by Thorvald Niss, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
2.6.2025 (28.2.2021)
