#the wolf motif? the Cerberus guardian of the Underworld motif? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

onceklaudiaspiechowicz · 4 years

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Guardians of The Underworld

Cerberus

“Cerberus – also known as the “hound of Hades” – was the multi-headed dog who guarded the gates of the Underworld, preventing the dead from leaving, and making sure that those who entered never left. A child of Typhon and Echidna, he was part of a monstrous family, which included Orthus, the Lernaean Hydra, and the Chimaera as well. Only on three occasions Cerberus was tricked by visitors of Hades: Heracles did it with his strength, Orpheus with his music, and the Sybil of Cumae with a honey-cake.”

“Descriptions of Cerberus vary, including the number of his heads. Cerberus was usually three-headed, though not always. Cerberus had several multi-headed relatives. His father was the multi snake-headed Typhon, and Cerberus was the brother of three other multi-headed monsters, the multi-snake-headed Lernaean Hydra; Orthrus, the two-headed dog who guarded the Cattle of Geryon; and the Chimera, who had three heads: that of a lion, a goat, and a snake. And, like these close relatives, Cerberus was, with only the rare iconographic exception, multi-headed.”

Zmey

“A Zmei Gorynich or zmey and byliny (Russian epic poetry), is a dragon or serpent, or sometimes a human-like character with dragon-like traits.

“The word zmei in Russian is the masculine forms of zmeya, a feminine noun, meaning "snake".”

“The dragon in Russian folk fiction may be female, in which case she is called zmeya. The tendency is for the prose folktale versions to have male dragons, and the byliny poetry to have the females. This will affect the behavior of the dragons. For instance, only the male dragons will capture or captivate a princess or a maiden as a love interest.”

“The zmei is often depicted with multiple heads, and the number of heads may be 3, 6, 9, or 12. A three-, six-, nine-, and twelve-headed dragon are defeated on successive nights by the hero of the tale "Ivan the Peasant's Son and the Little Man the Size of a Finger". The twelve-headed one was hardest to kill, and although the hero beheaded it nearly completely, the last head had to be taken by six men provided to Ivan by the Tsar.”

“A Slavic dragon is any dragon in Slavic mythology, including the Russian zmei, known in Ukraine as zmiy, and its counterparts in other Slavic cultures: the Bulgarian zmei, the Slovak drak and šarkan, Czech drak, Polish żmij, the Serbian and Croatian zmaj, the Macedonian zmey. The Romanian zmeu is also a Slavic dragon, but a non-cognate etymology has been proposed.

A zmei may be beast-like or human-like, sometimes wooing women, but often plays the role of chief antagonist in Russian literature. In the Balkans, the zmei type is overall regarded as benevolent, as opposed to malevolent dragons known variously as lamia, ala or hala, or aždaja.

The Polish smok (e.g. Wawel Dragon of Kraków) or the Ukrainian or Belarusian smok, can also be included. In some Slavic traditions smok is an ordinary snake which may turn into a dragon with age.

Some of the common motifs concerning Slavic dragons include their identification as masters of weather or water source; that they start life as snakes; and that both the male and female can be romantically involved with humans.”

Garmr

“In Norse mythology, Garmr or Garm (Old Norse "rag”) is a wolf or dog associated with both Hel and Ragnarök, and described as a blood-stained guardian of Hel's gate.”

“In Norse Mythology, Garm is a giant wolf, or the “greatest of dogs” in the eddic poem Grimsnisal. He makes his most dramatic appearance in the gods’ end of the world, Ragnarok, where he is left tied up and howling. Snorri Sturlson pits him against the god Tyr in the great battle.

Mythology being what it is, Garm, Hel’s hound (as in Loki’s daughter Hel), and Fenrir all get a bit mixed up at times depending on whose version of the stories you read. This, of course, totally justifies my reasoning to use “Garm” as the name of my wolf shapeshifter guardians in the Nine World. (I wrote that last sentence with my tongue firmly in my cheek… ) Fenrir, however, is a lot better defined in Norse myth and thus kept his identity in my books.”

To be honest when I only started looking into this Knew both Greek and Norse mythologies had guard dogs for the underworld and I thought Zmey the dragon stood out a lot but as soon as I searched up Zmey and had a look at pictures and how he’s depicted I realised he had three heads just like Cerberus. I found this overlap really interesting as now two mythologies had guardians with 3 heads and it really seems like a pattern. Now I feel that Cerberus is the perfect mix of the two other mythologies turning the wold and three headed dragon into a three headed dog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garmr

http://www.loridevoti.com/fenrir-garm-wolves-norse-myth/?doing_wp_cron=1600937334.8865990638732910156250

https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/Cerberus/cerberus.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zmei_(Russian)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_dragon

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