ADSactly Culture - Recurring Figures in European Mythology

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I've said this before and I will say it again many times over, stories define us. They have made us who we are, as a society, as people. Think back on the stories you heard as a child, whether it was that one funny family story about your grandmother getting drunk and doing something silly or Cinderella. They're all just basically the same thing, a retelling of events, something that unites us. The story about the grandmother happened in our family, it's something that we share. Cinderella is a story most popular with children, it's something we aspire to as little girls (maybe) and so, it unites little girls.
That's basically why we have passed down so many tales throughout history, some real, many not, because regardless if they're true or not, they unite the people who have heard the story, those who believe in it.

And there are no stories more fascinating in human history than the many mythologies that we believed in, at some point. In this post, I will be focusing on European mythologies, beliefs that were held here, in the place that is now Europe, mainly because these have always fascinated me and I know them best. I'm not saying that Aztec culture or Hindu myths or any other are less interesting, not at all, just that I would risk saying something stupid, as I'm not so familiar with those.
Something that I've always found fascinating in these varied tales is that there are certain common things, many elements that have made their way into more modern religion as well as into many stories that we now tell. Neil Gaiman's American Gods comes to mind, a book that would've never been written was it not for the Old Gods. Same with the whole Tolkien universe and countless others.

The Triple Goddess

One of the most compelling characters in most mythologies is the figure of The Three.

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The Morrigan, as she is known in Celtic culture, was the goddess of war, often appearing in the figure of a crow over the battlefield to foretell the deaths that would ensue. It's believed that the Morrigan sometimes showed herself in the form of three women, all sisters and facets of the same goddess (in some representations, the three stages of life – youth, adulthood and old age).

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The Moirai in Greek mythos, or the Fates, as we know them now, were the incarnations of destiny. It was believed that these three spun out a sweater, of sorts, that predicted the destiny of each and every human being. The three sisters (again, faces of the same deity) were called Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho was “the spinner”, she decided how much wool (life) every person got, Lachesis was “the allotter”, deciding how each of those lives went, what course was open to it. And finally, Atropos, of course, was “the inevitable” aka Death. It is believed by many that the Moirai were outside anyone's power, that even the gods could not sway or control them.

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The Norns of Norse mythology are a similar enough appearance as the Fates. It's said that there were more than three Norns, but that it was indeed three of them that existed at the root of the Yggdrasill (the tree of life that connects all the nine worlds existing in Norse mythology) and nourish it, getting water from the well to make sure its root do not die. So again, they are the images of life, as well as fate (because the death of the worlds is undoubtedly connected to everyone's fate). It's also believed that a Norn (although different from the three who care for the Yggdrasill) will appear at the birth of a child, predicting his fate.

Of course, these are not the exact same characters, but they all have huge similarities between them, prompting one to believe that they're all rooted in a common source, that they're all basically very similar figures. The idea of the three appears, of course, not just in these cultures, but these are the ones I want to focus on. Thinking back, the idea of the witches (or the fairies) that appeared at a child's birth to determine his or her destiny do ring a bell, being present in many of the fairy tales I heard as a child, such as Sleeping Beauty.

The Champion, the Warrior

The first one that comes to mind here is, of course, Hercules, who is a truly fascinating character.

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The son of the almighty Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, he was known for his impressive strength and power, as well as for his many adventures. He is often described as being able to kill a man and even a boar with his bare hands. And of course, this supernatural hero has many adventures to boast, such as the Twelve Labors or freeing Prometheus or holding up the sky to relieve Atlas.

And he is a figure that is very recurrent in many cultures, even in Greek. Take for example, Achilles, also the child of a supernatural being, the Nereid Thetis and the mortal king Peleus.

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A hero of the Trojan War, he was known far and wide for his strength, his military prowess and his invulnerability (except, of course, for his infamous heel). I suppose you could say that Hercules was closer to the gods, whereas Achilles was closer to mortals, but they were quite similar figures and they both represented the hero, the warrior for those who later told their story.

A similar figure is Cuchulainn, the Celtic version of Achilles, if you will, although he also bears a striking resemblance to Hercules.

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He was a fearless young warrior, who embarked on countless quests.

Cuchulainn was the Irish Achilles, a larger than life fighter whose bouts of temper often caused grief to himself and others.
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In one such moment of anger, he even kills his own son (as Hercules kills his family being possessed by a god-sent fury). He was a man of great cunning as well as strength and was hailed as the champion of Ireland.

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And then of course, there's Thor,the Norse god of thunder, again blessed with overpowering strength, who fights countless battles and goes on many adventures of his own, notably his fight with the giants (the jotnar).

Thor's exploits, including his relentless slaughter of his foes and fierce battles with the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr—and their foretold mutual deaths during the events of Ragnarök—are recorded throughout sources for Norse mythology.
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What's worth noting is that bravery itself was deemed crucial in a mortal's life. One would not get into Valhalla (warriors' heaven in Norse myth) unless they died in battle, proving their courage. The Celtic believed in a magic cauldron overfilled with plenty of meats and other delicious food, from which no hero went hungry, but a coward would never get his fill. Greek warriors were protected by the gods, who took a very active role in human warfare.

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There are a lot of recurring elements in all these mythologies and many more,such as the idea of the supreme ruler – Odin, Zeus, the Dagda etc – or the role of women in all these cultures, which was huge, since they were set on the same place with the men, at least in the myths. Many, many similarities that can be discussed for days and have been discussed in books, but one I would like to focus on, in closing is the element of magic in these cultures.

Sourcery, spells and other shenanigans

As I mentioned earlier, Celtic mythology has many magical elements within it, particularly many cauldrons – there was a magic one that could bring back the dead (Bran's Cauldron of Rebirth), or the cauldron of plenty I spoke of, and of course, this idea of the cauldron of eternal knowledge and spiritual insight culminates in the idea of the Holy Grail.
Appearing to the knights of the Round Table, it showed them visions, made them wiser than ever before (much like the Ceridwen's cauldron whose magic endowed Taliesin with all-knowing insight) and filled their bellies, a throwback to the Dagda's Cauldron of Plenty.

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Enchantment again has a huge role in Celtic mythos as well as other cultures. It was quite common for druids to cast spells and bewitch their enemies with magical illusions. A very powerful story that keeps popping up in Celtic myth is that of the bewitching spirit – La Belle Dame Sans Merci – who was in fact a banshee, an otherworldly creature taking the form of a beautiful woman and bringing men to their deaths. Even the wise Merlin was enchanted by the Lady of the Lake, allowing himself to be bound beneath a heavy stone.

The Norse Allfather, Odin himself, is a profoundly magical being, who learns, throughout lifetimes (much as human sourceres and shamans) many tricks. A popular Norse tale is how Odin hung himself upside down from the tree of life to learn the secrets of the dead.
And as with all stories back then, myth mingled with reality, gods with humans, so it was believed that humans had learned magic from the gods. It may not seem like a big deal now, but back in medieval times even, Norwegian kings actually forbade their people to sail over into Finland to consult magicians.

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In Greek myth, an interesting magical appearance is that of the witch Circe, encountered by Odysseus in his journeys, who uses a magic wand (sound familiar?) to turn his men into swine. This is a good representative of this magic that goes against nature that was quite popular at the time. In fact, Odysseus' grandfather, Autolycus, was rumoured to be a werewolf and while this may not be true, what's fascinating is the fact that people back then were willing to believe this. That the idea that a god could come down to earth and perform all sorts of trickery, that men could turn into beasts, that spirits hid in the forests....all of these things were real. Or deemed to be real, which just goes to show that all these cultures had a much stronger belief in magic than we do now.

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As I said, there are many cultures that resemble these, I'm sure. And there are many elements that deserve to be discussed and studied, and while we only have a limited space in such a post, I do hope this inspires you to learn more about these myths that have shaped our world today.

Authored by @honeydue

References: Wikipedia ; The Encyclopedia of Mythology

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