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FataleVrouwen

Mythology

Eve

Eve-Snake

the first woman.

TheGraeae

Mythica:Graeae
The three “old women” or “gray ones” from Greek mythology. They are the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, sisters and guardians of the Gorgons. They were gray-haired from birth and have only one eye and one tooth, which they share among them. They are Enyo (“horror”), Deino (“dread”) and Pemphredo (“alarm”).

TheFates

WikiPedia:Moirae
In Greek mythology, the white-robed Moirae or Moerae (Greek Μοίραι — the “Apportioners”, often called the Fates) were the personifications of destiny (Roman equivalent: Parcae, “sparing ones”, or Fatae; also equivalent to the Germanic Norns). They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal and immortal from birth to death (and beyond). Even the gods feared the Moirae. Zeus himself may be subject to their power, as the Pythian priestess at Delphi once admitted. The Greek word moira (μοῖρα) literally means a part or portion, and by extension one’s portion in life or destiny.

The three Moirae were:-

TheFuries

In Greek mythology the Erinyes (Ερινύες) or Eumenides (or Furies in Roman mythology) were female personifications of vengeance. When a formulaic oath in the Iliad (iii.278ff; xix.260ff) invokes “those who beneath the earth punish whoever has sworn a false oath.” The Erinyes are simply an embodiment of the act of self-cursing contained in the oath” (Burkert 1985 p 198). They were usually said to have been born from the blood of Ouranos when Cronus castrated him. According to a variant account, they issued from an even more primordial level—from Nyx, “Night”. Their number is usually left indeterminate. Virgil, probably working from an Alexandrian source, recognized three: Alecto (“unceasing,” who appeared in Virgil’s Aeneid), Megaera (“grudging”), and Tisiphone (“avenging murder”). Dante followed Virgil in depicting the same three-charactered triptych of Erinyes. The heads of the Erinyes were wreathed with serpents (compare Gorgon), their eyes dripped with blood, and their whole appearance was horrific and appalling. Sometimes they had the wings of a bat or bird, or the body of a dog.
WikiPedia:Erinyes

TheMuses

According to Pausanias there were three original Muses: Aoide (“song”, “voice”), Melete (“practice” or “occasion”) and Mneme (“memory”) (Paus. 9.29.1). Together, they form the complete picture of the preconditions of poetic art in cult practice. In Delphi three Muses were worshipped as well but with other names: Nete , Mesi and Hypate which are the names of the three chords of the ancient musical instrument lyre

In later tradition, the fourth Muse, Arche, was also considered.

The canonical nine Muses are:

  1. Calliope (epic poetry)
  2. Euterpe (music)
  3. Clio (history)
  4. Erato (lyric/love poetry)
  5. Melpomene (tragedy)
  6. Polyhymnia (sacred poetry)
  7. Terpsichore (dancing)
  8. Thalia (comedy)
  9. Urania (astronomy)
  10. Sappho (some would say)

WikiPedia:Muse

Sappho

Sappho-CharlesAugustMengin

left fragments of poetry
WikiPedia:Sappho

BabaYaga

When a visitor enters her hut, (not too often) Baba Yaga asks them whether they came of their own free will, or whether they were sent. (One answer is the right one!)

Psyche

Persephone

Kali

Ophelia [the page Ophelia also exists]

http://boingyboingy.com/jump/ophelia.html

DEATH OF OPHELIA (IV.7)

QUEEN GERTRUDE: There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

woman floating in water (like Ophelia)
one of the Seven Wonders of Leuven
[Margrietje wordt door rovers meegenomen] buiten de stad waar zij haar (wellicht na een poging tot collectieve verkrachting) doden en in de Dijle werpen.
Haar lichaam zinkt echter niet. Vissen dragen het lichaam zodat het boven water blijft. Tegen de stroom in en omgeven door een wonderbaarlijk licht drijft het lichaam terug richting Leuven. [...]
Naar aanleiding van de legende is er een hele Margaretha-cultus ontstaan. Pelgrims treffen elkaar aan de in een transkapel van de St.-Pieterskerk ingebouwde Margaretha-kapel. Deze kapel is eveneens van buitenaf te bewonderen. ( http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiere_Margrietje )

Queen of the Night

QueenOfNight
from Mozart’s The Magic Flute

Nyx

Mythology FataleVrouwenNyx, the Spirit of the Night, was spawned from the primordial Chaos. After mating with Erebus, Nyx birthed the Upper Air (Aether) and Day (Hemera). On her own she gave birth to Doom (Moros), Death (Thanatos), Sleep (Hypnos), the Fates, and Nemesis. Her power is said to be great, overwhelming even Zeus. She lives in the palace of Tartarus and goes forth onto the world each night, traversing the heavens until daybreak.


Nut

Mythica:Nut
The ancient Egyptian sky-goddess, one of the Ennead of Heliopolos. She is the personification of the sky and of the heavens, the daughter of Shu and Tefnut.
Nu was the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in this world. The god Re was said to enter her mouth after setting in the evening and travel through her body during the night to be reborn from her vulva each morning. She also swallows the stars and have them reborn later. In the death cult she plays a part in the resurrection of the dead; she is portrayed on the inside of the lids of the sarcophagi. The pharaoh was said to enter her body after death, from which he would later be resurrected.
As sky-goddess Nut was portrayed as a naked woman covered with painted stars, held up by Shu. Thus she forms the firmament above her husband Seb, the earth. Her fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or directions. The principal sanctuary of Nut was at Heliopolis.

Delphic Oracle

Oracle-Waterhouse

Hecuba

Hecuba of the Amazons?

HecubaPainting

Mythica:Hecuba
http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/hecuba.html
http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/hecuba.html
gave birth to the death of Troy
After the war, Hecuba was given to Odysseus.

Robert Bell writes of Hecuba’s encounter with Polymestor after the fall of Troy:

The body of Polydorus washed up on the shore of the plain of Troy near the tents of the captive women. Still a boy at the start of the war, Polydorus had been sent to his half-sister Iliona, who had married Polymestor, king of the Chersonese. Polymestor had received part of the Trojan treasury to be held in trust for Polydorus. When Polymestor saw the way things were going, he decided to appropriate the treasure for himself and killed Polydorus, throwing the body into the sea. Hecuba quickly sent a message to Polymestor, who was unaware of her discovery, telling him she knew where more treasure was hidden and that he should recover it for her son. When Polymestor arrived with his two sons, Hecuba’s companions murdered the boys while Hecuba tore out the eyes of Polymestor. (Bell, 222).

There are different variations as to the death of Hecuba. Some say she was stoned to death by Greeks angry with her for killing Polymestor, others say that she jumped overboard off of Odysseus’ ship. One possible end, which Robert Bell calls “symbolic of her total descent” is that she was turned into a dog as she fled from Polymestor’s companions (222).

Lamia

LamiaSculpture

( Mythica:Lamia, Img:Lamia, Gog:Lamia )
She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue,
Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue;
Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard,
Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr’d;
And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed,
Dissolv’d, or brighter shone, or interwreathed
Their lustres with the gloomier tapestries—
So rainbow-sided, touch’d with miseries,
She seem’d, at once, some penanced lady elf,
Some demon’s mistress, or the demon’s self.

Upon her crest she wore a wannish fire
Sprinkled with stars, like Ariadne’s tiar:
Her head was serpent, but ah, bitter-sweet!
She had a woman’s mouth with all its pearls complete:
And for her eyes: what could such eyes do there
But weep, and weep, that they were born so fair?
As Proserpine still weeps for her Sicilian air.
Her throat was serpent, but the words she spake
Came, as through bubbling honey, for Love’s sake,
And thus; while Hermes on his pinions lay,
Like a stoop’d falcon ere he takes his prey.

Judith


( Img:Judith )

Judith-Caravaggio

Salome [the page Salome also exists]

Salome-1
Bible:Salome
( Mythica:Salome, Img:Salome, Gog:Salome )

Sphinx

( Mythica:Sphinx, Img:Sphinx, Gog:Sphinx)

Lorelei (Siren)

( Mythica:Lorelei, Img:Lorelei, Gog:Lorelei )
Related:
Mythica:Gua Langsuir1

Harpy

( Mythica:Harpy, Img:Harpy, Gog:Harpy )

Jaël

Yael-Palma

Yael received the fleeing Sisera at the settlement of Heber on the plain of Zaanaim. Yael welcomed him into her tent with apparent hospitality. She ‘gave him butter’ (i.e. ‘lebben’, or curdled milk)‘in a lordly dish’. Having drunk the refreshing beverage, he lay down and soon sank into the sleep of the weary. While he lay asleep Yael crept stealthily up to him, holding a tent peg and a mallet. She drove it through his temples with such force that it entered into the ground below. And ‘at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead’.
( Mythica:Jaël, Img:Jaël, Gog:Jaël )

Medea

child killer and great lady.

Medusa

In Greek mythology a Gorgon is a monstrous feminine creature whose appearance would turn anyone who laid eyes upon it to stone. Later there were three of them: Euryale (“far-roaming”), Sthenno (“forceful”), and Medusa (“ruler”), the only one of them who was mortal. They are the three daughters of Phorcys and Ceto.

The Gorgons are monstrous creatures covered with impenetrable scales, with hair of living snakes, hands made of brass, sharp fangs and a beard. They live in the ultimate west, near the ocean, and guard the entrance to the underworld.

A stone head or picture of a Gorgon was often placed or drawn on temples and graves to avert the dark forces of evil, but also on the shields of soldiers. Such a head (called a gorgoneion) could also be found on the older coins of Athens. Artists portrayed a Gorgon head with snake hair, and occasionally with a protruding tongue and wings.

Circe

Circe-Waterhouse

http://www.geocities.com/medea19777/circe.html
changed men into animals using potions.
shapeshifting.

Clytaennestra

ClytemnestraAfterTheMurder-JohnCollier

La Belle Dame sans Merci

Cleopatra

Nymph

Lillith

LillithSculpture

The first wife of Adam?
strong willed, left the garden and founded her own.
another child killer WikiPedia:Lillith
associated with Lamia also.

Helen (of Troy)

Delilah, Samson and

LadyMacbeth

LadyMacbeth-JohnSingerSargent

Related


Keats apparently wrote about many of these women.

Real Women

hm.
WikiPedia:Phoolan_Devi
WikiPedia:Elizabeth_Báthory

Slightly Related

http://pages.infinit.net/cadieux3/fairytail.html
ArmlessMaiden

Footnotes:

1. “Cave of the Sirens.” A famous cave on the island of Pulau Dayang Bunting (Malaysia). It overlooks a narrow sea channel between the island and the main island of Langkawi. The channel provides the easiest access to the open sea for fishermen.

A long time ago the cave was inhabited by three hideous female demons. They had the ability to assume the form of the most beautiful women, and would sing and behave in a provocative way whenever sailors of fishermen passed before them. The men would be so enchanted by them that they lost control and jumped into the roaring sea in order to swim to them. Most of men drowned and those who succeeded in going up to the cliff to be with the sirens would be tortured to a slow and painful death, later to be devoured. So the people wisely stayed away and the sirens were not getting any more victims and grew bored.

One day, a lone fisherman who was both deaf and short-sighted rowed out in his boat towards the sea. He passed the cave of the sirens without noticing them. He was fishing and managed to catch a lot of fish in this area, which was understandable since all other fishermen avoided the place. The sirens were overjoyed for at last they would have another victim. They went out of their cave, positioned themselves on the cliff in front, and started to sing. The fisherman, unable to see or hear them, went about his business. At first this surprised the sirens since they never experienced this before and no one could resist their charm. Then surprise became disappointment, thinking they had lost their charm, and surprise turned into fear. They were afraid men would climb the cliff to ravish them, or that the relatives of their victims would have their revenge on them. In their fear and confusion, the flew away from the cave never to return.

The men of Langkawi never knew who had saved them. And the deaf and short-sighted fisherman was unaware of his meritorious services to the people of Langkawi.