mythology

Ben Hellman

Sep 23, 2023

The Privilege of Hubris

A medieval miniature of Alexander the Great being lowered into the sea in a bathysphere, from Le Livre et le vraye hystoire du bon roy...

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Teaching Gluskabe: Wrestling with American Values

Ben Hellman

Sep 19, 2021

Teaching Gluskabe: Wrestling with American Values

Gluskabe turning man into a cedar tree. Scraping on birchbark by Tomah Joseph 1884. (Image from Wikipedia). I never read a piece of...

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Timely Lessons from the Land of the Coming of the Light

Ben Hellman

Sep 6, 2021

Timely Lessons from the Land of the Coming of the Light

Just before dawn, Rockport, Maine August 26 (photo by author). The Native tribes of New England formed the Wabanaki Confederacy....

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Into the Mouth of American Kitsch: Wisconsin’s House on the Rock

Ben Hellman

Jun 28, 2021

Into the Mouth of American Kitsch: Wisconsin’s House on the Rock

The author contemplating another round of phantasmagorical excess at the House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin. Photo by Rachel...

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Immortal Queer; LGBTQ+ Narratives in Mythology

Ben Hellman

Jun 17, 2021

Immortal Queer; LGBTQ+ Narratives in Mythology

Loki consumes the female Gullveig’s heart, and is impregnated, an illustration of lines from Hyndluljóð, or Song of Hyndla, by John...

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Sons of Earth and Fire; The Strange Case of the Narts’ Metallic Men

Ben Hellman

Jun 1, 2021

Sons of Earth and Fire; The Strange Case of the Narts’ Metallic Men

Batraz blasts down from the heavens, landing in the hearth of the Narts, the force of it burying him to his thighs, by artist Andrew...

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Stealing Fire: John Colarusso and the Tales of the Narts

Ben Hellman

Mar 29, 2021

Stealing Fire: John Colarusso and the Tales of the Narts

A fountain in Vladikavkaz, Russia with the Nart Sosruquo, dancing on the edge of a magic bowl. (Image courtesy Lhiten Hatko.) A range of...

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Daylight for the Win; A Folklorist’s Notebook Celebrating Equinox

Ben Hellman

Mar 19, 2021

Daylight for the Win; A Folklorist’s Notebook Celebrating Equinox

An arrival of daffodils in our yard in Southern New Hampshire, March 19. Photo by my wife, who helped uncover them a bit yesterday. In...

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NASA Channels its Inner Goddess; Breaking Boundaries with Artemis

Ben Hellman

Feb 10, 2021

NASA Channels its Inner Goddess; Breaking Boundaries with Artemis

NASA-produced art representing woman on the moon from the Artemis program marketing campaign: “Her features are abstract enough that all...

184 views2 comments

Toying with Ancient Stories; Uncovering the Tales of the Old English Poem “Widsith”

Ben Hellman

Jan 25, 2021

Toying with Ancient Stories; Uncovering the Tales of the Old English Poem “Widsith”

Danish King Hrothgar with his nephew Hrothulf, cutting down the Heathobards as Heorot Hall burns, following the failed wedding union...

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Seldom Told Tales; Unraveling Viktor Rydberg’s Norse Mythos

Ben Hellman

Dec 8, 2020

Seldom Told Tales; Unraveling Viktor Rydberg’s Norse Mythos

Freya and Svipdag, by the illustrator John Bauer. This is one of several stories I had never read about before reading Viktor Rydberg's...

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Ben Hellman

Nov 23, 2020

Discovering the Dawnland

The Abenaki's Promethean Gluscabe, outside the Millbrook Heritage Centre in Nova Scotia, Canada, part of the ancient lands stretching as...

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The Endless Hunger; Confronting Grief With Gilgamesh

Ben Hellman

Nov 10, 2020

The Endless Hunger; Confronting Grief With Gilgamesh

Statue of Gilgamesh at the University of Sydney (based on an ancient bas-relief at the Louvre) and Herbert Mason's Epic of Gilgamesh. If...

221 views1 comment

Noodling through Norse Myths; Folklorist's Notebook

Ben Hellman

Oct 31, 2020

Noodling through Norse Myths; Folklorist's Notebook

Some of the books I've been moving to and from various end tables, usually not as neat as this. It has been a week of Norse myth study...

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A Roundup of Mythology News; Folklorist's Notebook

Ben Hellman

Oct 22, 2020

A Roundup of Mythology News; Folklorist's Notebook

An avenging Medusa, Abenaki Folklore, a new Beowulf, a fascinating take on Norse Mythos, and the 2020 winner of the Nobel Prize for...

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Ben Hellman

Oct 17, 2020

Orpheus and Eurydice Go Shopping

(She really didn't want to go in the first place). Edward Poynter's 1862 "Orpheus and Eurydice" altered by the author's brilliant wife....

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Divinity and Identity: Xu Zhen's Guanyin

Ben Hellman

Oct 15, 2020

Divinity and Identity: Xu Zhen's Guanyin

“The European Thousand Armed Classical Sculpture,” by artist Xu Zhen at the National Gallery of Australia's Xu Zhen exhibition, “Eternity...

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Kathleen Herbert and the Lost Gods of the Harvest

Ben Hellman

Sep 6, 2020

Kathleen Herbert and the Lost Gods of the Harvest

(Left to right) Kathleen Herbert’s Looking for the Lost Gods of England; an epitaph for John Barleycorn in my wife's family cabin, dated...

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Ben Hellman

Aug 24, 2020

The Mahabharata for the Intimidated

An Illustration to the Mahabharata: The Pandava and Kaurava armies face each other, circa 1700, Mewar, India; courtesy of Wikimedia. To...

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The Protester and the Power of Ancient Ireland

Ben Hellman

Aug 18, 2020

The Protester and the Power of Ancient Ireland

Portland protester, photographed by Dave Killen, Oregonlive.com and a Sheela-na-Gig (Lavey, Cavan) found in a churchyard in 1842 and...

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