Legends and Mythology

The remains of an ancient Greek city submerged beneath the waves and dating back over 5000 years may have been the basis for Atlantis and is proving to be one of the mostimportant finds of its kind anywhere in the world."The secrets of a lost city that may have inspired one of the world"s most enduring myths – the fable of Atlantis – have been brought to light from beneath the waters off southernGreece."

View: Full Article | Source: GuardianUnlimited.

In the tales of the supernatural, cats have always played a prominent role. If a black cat crosses your path, it is a sign of bad luck. And stories about witches and witchcraft usually center around a black cat also. Here in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, we have the legend of the Wampus Cat. This fearsome creature has been talked about for hundreds of years. It was a part of Cherokee Indian mythology that was later passed on to the white settlers and included in their folklore. The legendary beast that is today called the Wampus Cat was once known as Ewah by the Cherokees. Just the sight of this creature was enough to drive people insane, they said. The ancient tale about the Wampus Cat maintained that it was actually a Cherokee woman who did not trust her husband. One night, her husband went out with a group of fellow warriors to go on a hunt. His suspicious wife put on a mountain lion fur coat and went out to spy on him. When she was found out, the medicine man punished her by forcing the woman to wear the coat forever. Her spirit still wanders the Southern Appalachians in the form of the Wampus Cat, according to a Web site. There is another ancient Cherokee tale about the Wampus Cat. A long time ago, the creature had been terrorizing the villages and causing all kinds of misery for the Cherokees. One young warrior decided that his people had endured enough. He went out in search of the Wampus Cat in order to kill it. However, when he finally encountered the creature, he was driven insane. His brave and devoted wife decided she would take care of the problem herself but use a different tactic. She put on a mask and went up into the mountains searching for the creature. She managed to sneak up behind it. The cat turned and saw her fearsome mask. The creature was so terrified it ran away and was never seen again. However, it is said that the spirit of the young woman still wanders the mountains wearing her mask. As the white settlers moved into the Appalachians, they learned about the legend of the Wampus Cat and it became a part of their lore. To this day, folks living in Knoxville and other parts of east Tennessee claimed to have seen it. They report that it is.

By Shane Dayton

Virtually every western religion or mythos has an end of the world story, an episode in which all the evil of the world comes against all the good, and man and god alike often suffer and even die. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all have an end of the world story, and a story of restoration afterwards. Greek mythology and Roman mythology both also contained end of the world stories. The world's end does not set Ragnarok, the Norse version of the world's final days, apart from other belief systems but the dark language of this event in this Norse legend, the same tone taken in many of the Norse myths, along with the way in which the world does end, are among several factors that do tend to make Norse mythology appear much more pessimistic than its counterparts.

Norse myths are known for the dark tone of voice, and the constant pointing towards Ragnarok and the destruction of the world. H.A. Guerber, in Myths of the Northern Lands, comments on the unique aspects of Norse mythology by saying: "The most distinctive traits of the Northern mythology are a peculiar grim humor which is found in the religion of no other race, and a dark thread of tragedy which runs through the whole" (5). In this paper I will study the theology of the Norse, and attempt to help shed light on what exactly gives their religion the darker and more pessimistic reputation it holds. One strategy to bring a stronger sense of understanding to Norse mythology is to understand the culture it comes from and compare it to a more familiar belief system. In the Book of Genesis, there is one God who simply speaks the world into existence. There is a void, and God's mere words fill it, and build it. Man is made from the sand, and woman is made from the rib of man, but with no negative consequences to that man. The Norse explanation of how the world came to be, by contrast, is filled with violence, blood shed, and the beginning of a war that will last through all of time until the final confrontation at Ragnarok...

For years researchers have attempted to piece together the possible whereabouts of the fabled Atlantis. Several different locations have been considered, Doug Fisher believes the evidence points to South America as the most probable."Doug Fisher:Like a fingerprint, Plato establishes a complex and very specific array of Atlantis" geographical features comprising alignments, relative positioning and dimensions, which limit the site for Atlantis to only one possible location.

A fresh new attempt to identify the lost continent by the strictest adherence to these specifications reveals South America was almost certainly Atlantis while also revealingthe possible location of the ringed city and insight into its fate."

View: Full Article | Source: AtlantisMaps