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Mythology Quotes

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Mythology Quotes

“When earth is called the wife of Odin, the mother of Thor, when wind is styled the son of Fornjót and the sea is conceived as Ran, the wife of Ægir, the myths are not anthropomorphism or personification in the modern and Alexandrian sense. Human-likeness is joined to the other qualities of natural phenomena or, more truly expressed, human appearance enters as a quality among other qualities into the soul of earth, wind and sea, but it does not in the least interfere with the impersonal workings of the forces of nature. There is no contradiction between subject and verb in the scald's description of the winter gales: “Fornjót's Sons began to whirl,” nor is there really any breach of common-sense in a storm scene such as this: “The gusts carded and twined the storm-glad daughters of Ægir.” The moon gives birth, the earth is a mother, stones bring young into the world, and that is to say that these beings beget, conceive and are delivered, for thus all procreation takes place under the sun. But this does not imply that earth must transform itself to a human being and seek a couch to bring forth its children. The little we know as to our forefathers' practical relations with the world about them indicates, as will soon appear, that they did not appeal to the objects of nature as pseudo-personalities; like their primitive brethren all over the world, they tried to win the friendship and power of animals and trees and stones by much surer means. When the poet lets Frigg send messengers about to fire and water, iron and all kinds of ore, to stones, earth, trees, sicknesses, beasts, birds, to get them to swear they will never harm Balder, he has plainly no idea in his mind of such messengers going out to knock at the doors of nymphs and demons; his hearers must have been familiar with a method of appealing directly to the things themselves, to the souls.”

SoulMythologyThorOdinHeathenry
Book:The Culture of the Teutons: Volumes 1 and 2
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“Our destiny is aligned with our heart's innermost longing, a longing embedded within our soul before birth. This longing is a unique pattern or configuration reminiscent of the constellations in the night sky. When we express (press out) our unique configuration, it shines through us with an otherworldly luminosity, manifesting abundance in our lives and the lives of others. Our sole task is to yoke our inner destiny, thread it through our lives and weave it into the world. All else is just shadows and dust.”

InspirationalDestinyFateMythologyMemoirDepth Psychology
Book:Running Into Myself
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“But after he had been singing awhile, mist and shadows seemed to gather about him, sometimes coming out of the sea, and sometimes moving upon it. It seemed to him that one of the shadows was the queen-woman he had seen in her sleep at Slieve Echtge; not in her sleep now, but mocking, and calling out to them that were behind her: 'He was weak, he was weak, he had no courage.' And he felt the strands of the rope in his hand yet, and went on twisting it, but it seemed to him as he twisted, that it had all the sorrows of the world in it. And then it seemed to him as if the rope had changed in his dream into a great water-worm that came out of the sea, and that twisted itself about him, and held him closer and closer, and grew from big to bigger till the whole of the earth and skies were wound up in it, and the stars themselves were but the shining of the ridges of its skin. And then he got free of it, and went on, shaking and unsteady, along the edge of the strand, and the grey shapes were flying here and there around him. And this is what they were saying, 'It is a pity for him that refuses the call of the daughters of the Sidhe, for he will find no comfort in the love of the women of the earth to the end of life and time, and the cold of the grave is in his heart for ever. It is death he has chosen; let him die, let him die, let him die.”

LoveDeathStarsFateSeaMythologyIrelandFaerieFolkloreSidhe
Book:Stories of Red Hanrahan
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“Because I am not a monster or a goddess; I am not a prophet or a princess, a gorgon or a priestess. I am not Aphrodite or Athena, Arachne or Medusa. I did not emerge from a seashell, or the inside of a head; I do not have to weave my story, over and over again, and it is not--and never should be--told by other people. My fate is not written in time, or sand, or stars, or in a tapestry, or a spider's web, and it never actually was. I am Cassandra: the future was always in me.”

DestinyFateFutureMythologyCreate Your FutureCreate Your Destiny
Book:Cassandra in Reverse
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“As for the Economy, this new embodiment as I called it of Fate or the Gods, this global power that governs the lives of Chinese workers in village factories, Brazilian miners, children working cocoa plantations in West Africa, sex workers in Mumbai, real estate salesmen in Connecticut, sheep-farmers in Scotland or on the Darling Downs, disembodied voices in call centres in Bangalore, workers in the hospitality industry in Cancun or Venice or Fiji, keeping them fatefully interconnected, in its mysterious way, by laws that do exist, the experts assure us, though they cannot agree on what they are- it is too impersonal, too implacable for us to live comfortably with, or even to catch hold of and defy. When we were in the hands of the Gods, we had stories that made these distant beings human and brought them close. They got angry, they took our part or turned violently against us. They fell in love with us and behaved badly. They had their own problems and fought with one another, and like us were sometimes foolish. But their interest in us was personal. They watched over us and were concerned though in moments of willfulness or boredom they might also torment us as “wanton boys” do flies. We had our ways of obtaining their help as intermediaries. We could deal with them. The Economy is impersonal. It lacks manageable dimensions. We have discovered no mythology to account for its moods. Our only source of information about it, the Media and their swarm of commentators, bring us “reports,” but these do not help: a possible breakdown in the system, a new crisis, the descent of Greece, or Ireland or Portugal, like Jove’s eagle, of the IMF. We are kept in a state of permanent low-level anxiety broken only by outbreaks of alarm.”

EconomyFateSocietyMythologyThe Gods
Book:The Happy Life: The Search for Contentment in the Modern World
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“There are things in this world that have no explanation. When you come across these things, you have two options. Option one is to try to make things make sense. This is what most people do. They experience something and they try to mold the event to their experiences, to understand what happened using the filter of what they already know. This never works. It only leads to confusion and frustration, yes? The second option is to accept that strange things happen, that the impossible sometimes is real. When you accept it, you can move on with your life. Our ancestors invented gods for this reason and they were happier because of it.”

PhilosophyBeliefMysteryHuman NatureAcceptancePerspectiveMythologyExistentialCoping MechanismsUnexplained Phenomena
Book:The Devil Takes You Home
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“Voi, ielelor, măiestrelor, Duşmane oamenilor, Stăpânele vântului, Doamnele pământului, Ce prin văzduh zburaţi, Pe iarbă lunecaţi, Şi pe valuri călcaţi, Vă duceţi în locuri depărtate În baltă, trestie, pustietate, Ca spuma la soare, Iar capul cel deocheat Sa ramâie luminat, Curat, de boală scăpat, Ochii cei vătămători Şi de foc săgetători Înveliţi să fie cu perdele albe, Să nu mai privească la obraze dalbe. Descântece de iele Unde popa nu toacă, Unde fata nu joacă, Vă duceţi în gura vântului Să va loviţi de toarta pământului, Ieşiţi din mână, trup, picior, Şi să pieriţi sus într-un nor, Daţi omului sănătate Că sabie de foc vă bate!”

Human NatureMythologyRitualWitchcraftMonsterSpellTemptressDemon WomanIalaIele
Book:Legende și pasteluri
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“The trouble begins when a group of people are conditioned in different ways to believe that their heritage is superior to that of others. That is a dangerous kind of conditioning, especially in a country like ours that has a shared heritage. However, many people have convinced themselves about the supremacy of their mythologies over the ideas that their mythologies are trying to convey. So, while our epics warn us against arrogance, we embody the same arrogance to promote our religions. In a way, that is self-defeating. Many of us are stuck up in stagnancy of pride over our heritage, without taking the pain of diving deeper in ancient ideas to understand the essence of those epics. Only if we did, we would realize that in almost every country, majority of the population is brainwashed to commit the same mistake that their holy books warned them against, while ironically celebrating mythological as well as historical figures with empty hero worship.”

ReligionPoliticsHistoryHuman NatureMythologySocial IssuesRationalismBrainwashingMassesHero Worship
Book:Litost: Sliced Stories
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“God of The Blue Rock (Sonnet) God of the gaps cannot be God of the world, and God of the world should not be abused as god of the gaps. As puny apes on an insignificant blue rock in a tiny backwater of the galaxy, we know nothing about the origin of the universe, but I can tell you one thing for a fact of earth biology, it has nothing to do with the anthropomorphic god of all the scriptures. If all it takes is a couple of burning bushes, magic tricks and fairytales to quench your quest for truth, you have neither the brain, nor the backbone, or the heart to explore truth. Fairytales provide nourishment for the mind, but only as tales of fantasy, not of truth. Myths are crucial part of the social fabric, but they must never become the backbone of society.”

GodMythologyFundamentalismScience And ReligionIndoctrinationBlind FaithDogmatismPursuit Of TruthAstrophysicsNeurotheology
Book:Sonnets From The Mountaintop
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“Myths & Comics (The Sonnet) Some modern superheroes are green in color, Some ancient superheroes are blue in color. Some worship hulk, ironman, captain marvel, Some are fanatics of Zeus, Poseidon, Krishna. Mythologies are but comics of the old days, Just like comics are nothing but modern myths. Fiction is okay in its place, but trouble begins, When life is belittled and fiction is worshiped. Inspiration can come from anywhere, real or not, But all is useless, if it produces mindless savages. Even I've written fiction to explore some situations, Though based on reality, some of it is highly exaggerated. If it brings you back to life, only then it's worth it. Fiction is supposed to enhance reality, not enslave it.”

FaithHumanismMythologyDeitiesFreethoughtSuperheroesDeityComic BooksMythology PhilosophyPersonal God
Book:Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence
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“We have given to thee, Adam, no fixed seat, no form of thy own, no gift peculiarly thine, that thou mayest feel as thine own, have as thine own, possess as thine own, the seat, the form, the gifts which thou thyself shalt desire. A limited nature in other creatures is confined within the laws written down by Us. In conformity with thy free judgment, in whose hands I have placed thee, thou art confined by no bounds; and thou will fix the limits of nature for thyself. I have placed thee at the centre of the world, that from there thou mayest more conveniently look around and see whatsoever is in the world. Neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal have We made thee. Thou, like a judge appointed for being honourable, art the molder and maker of thyself.”

CreationHumanismMythologyManRenaissanceEpimetheus
Book:Pico della Mirandola: Oration on the Dignity of Man: A New Translation and Commentary
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“Civilizations are born from the marriage of bureaucracy and mythology. The computer-based network is a new type of bureaucracy that is far more powerful and relentless than any human-based bureaucracy we’ve seen before. This network is also likely to create inter-computer mythologies that will be far more complex and alien than any human-made god. The potential benefits of this network are enormous. The potential downside is the destruction of human civilization.”

HumanityInformationCivilizationMythologyAiBureaucracyNetwork
Book:Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
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“At one stupendous evolutionary moment in pre-history, one of nature's creatures separated himself from the unconscious flowing and burgeoning of nature and became conscious of himself. Prometheus stole fire. Adam ate the apple. Man sundered his bond with nature and set himself on a course of conscious individuation. In his mythologies, man has forever after felt guilt about that sundering. For when he became conscious of himself, man was able to choose between good and evil, and he realized that he was flawed, striving for good but prone to evil. He had taken a momentous step forward, but something in him, and in his myths, still longed for the half-remembered union with unconscious nature, that innocence lost long ago.”

HumanityNatureSinConsciousnessEvolutionGuiltGoodMythologyBiologyOriginal Sin
Book:Wagner's Ring Turning the Sky Round
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“You must be a myth that your lover can't grasp and you must chase the moon like a wolf in the night, as if it will show you something only you can understand. Everything you do is a ritual that can mean something more and you must connect and create bonds with the spirits both outer and inner. Seek the strange and mysterious, otherworldly explanations for yourself and things around. There is always more. Always more. Nothing is ordinary, and you must make love to him like his touch is your salvation. You must dare to love and lose and hear your heart break into a million little pieces, glittering like diamonds in the night. Don’t run into hiding when the rain hits us like planets shot down to see who wants to survive the most for you want to survive the most and you must not hide from madness. You must love and live and write like you're obsessed and possessed. Go mad for what you believe in.”

LoveWritingSpiritualFaithSpiritualityBeliefMagicMoonMadnessMythology
Book:Another Vagabond Lost To Love: Berlin Stories on Leaving & Arriving
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“The picture of the bacchante who stands motionless and stares into space must have been well known. Catullus is thinking of her when he tells of the abandoned Ariadne, who follows her faithless lover with sorrowing eyes as she stands on the reedy shore ‘like the picture of a maenad.’ Indeed, melancholy silence becomes the sign of women who are possessed by Dionysus. […] Madness dwells in the surge of clanging, shrieking, and pealing sounds, it dwells also in silence. The women who follow Dionysus get their name, maenads, from this madness. Possessed by it, they rush off, whirl madly in circles, or stand still, as if turned to stone.”

MadnessMythologyDionysus
Book:Dionysus: Myth and Cult
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“Corvid looked up at her. "Oh, hello Doris." "Gertie, dear," she said. "They call me Gertie." "You used to be Doris," Corvid said as a matter of fact. "Who?" She seemed unsure of what she was being told. "Doris, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys?" Corvid carried on when he saw her blank expression. "You must remember Nereus? Your husband?" Nothing. "You gave birth to fifty sea nymphs. I guess sea nymphs come out slippy and hydrodynamic, but even so, fifty of them? That must stick in the memory as the day before you felt really sore for a month or so?" Doris thought about it for a moment. "It does ring a bell. Sorry, who are you?”

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Book:Gods Just Want To Have Fun
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“Indigenous religious traditions around the world continue to provide an ancient yet living vision of nature as sacred, requiring human respect and entailing human responsibilities. Anymals are understood to be “people” living in community as humans live in community—all of whom are part of a larger community of living beings. Indigenous religious traditions teach people that we owe respect, responsibility, and compassion to our nonhuman kin, and remember a time of great peace, before predation began. Most indigenous peoples believe that all beings are endowed with souls. Anymals are generally thought to hold exceptional abilities and remarkable powers.”

CompassionMythologyVeganismIndigenous PeoplesAnymalsAnimals And ReligionReligion And AnimalsReligion And EthicsRespect For NatureRespect For Animals
Book:Animals and World Religions
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“-’Tell me’, he said, ‘who gives better offerings, a miserable man or a happy one’? -’A happy one, of course.’ -’Wrong. A happy man is too occupied with his life. He thinks he is beholden to no one. But make him shiver, kill his wife, cripple his child, then you will hear from him. He will starve his family for a month to buy yo a pure-white yearling calf. If he can afford it, he will buy you a hundred’. -’But surely, I said, you have to reward him eventually. Otherwise he will stop offering’. -’Oh, you would be surprised how long he will go on. But yes, in the end, it’s best to give him something. Then he will be happy again. And you can start over.”

SufferingMythMythologyGreek MythologyGodsCirceMiserable LifeDeity
Book:Circe
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“Finally I stopped in the ballroom that at night was the Heart of Water. My side ached from running and sweat prickled across my face. I sat down heavily and leaned back against the gold-painted wall to stare at the ceiling. Overhead, Apollo leered at Daphne, who fled from him in stylized terror; Persephone's silent screams looked much more genuine as Hades dragged her down to the underworld. But at least she had a mother who did not rest until she'd saved her.”

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Book:Cruel Beauty
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