Portal:Mythology
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The word mythology (from the Greek μυθολογία "story-telling", from μῦθος muthos, "story, legend", and λόγος logos, "account , speech") refers to any body or cycle of myths – stories linked to the spiritual or religious life in the oral tradition of a particular culture, which often involve supernatural events or characters to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. Mythology is also branch of knowledge dealing with the collection, study and interpretation of myths or fables. A myth consists of irreducible plot elements identified as archetypes or mythemes and is not identical to any specific wording or retelling. C. S. Lewis identified Mythopoeia as an art form distinct from literature or poetry. An ala or hala (plural: ale) is a mythological creature recorded in the folklore of Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Serbs. Ale are considered demons of bad weather whose main purpose is to lead hail-producing thunderclouds in the direction of fields, vineyards, or orchards to destroy the crops, or loot and take them away. Extremely voracious, ale particularly like to eat children, though their gluttony is not limited to Earth. It is believed they can try to devour the Sun or the Moon causing eclipses; her success would mean the end of the world. When people encounter an ala, their mental or physical health, or even life, are in peril; however, her favor can be gained by approaching her with respect and trust. Being in a good relationship with an ala is very beneficial: she makes her favorites rich and saves their lives in times of trouble. The appearance of ale is quite diversely and often vaguely described in folkloric sources. A given ala may look like a black wind, a gigantic creature of indistinct form, a huge-mouthed, humanlike, or snakelike monster, a female dragon, a raven, etc. By certain descriptions, ale can in fact assume various human or animal shapes, and can even possess a person’s body. This diversity is probably due to the fact that the ala is a synthesis of a Slavic demon of bad weather and a similar demon of the central Balkans pre-Slavic population. In folk tales with a humanlike ala, her personality is strikingly similar to that of the Russian Baba Yaga.  In Greek mythology, Io was the daughter of Inachus, a river god. This painting by Correggio depicts her abduction by Zeus, who took the form of a cloud so as not to be found out by his jealous wife Hera.
 The Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor by the armies of the Achaeans, following the kidnapping (or elopement) of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in a cycle of epic poems of which only two, the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, survive intact. The Iliad describes an episode late in this war, and the Odyssey describes the journey home of one of the Greek leaders, Odysseus. Other parts of the story, and different versions, were elaborated by later Greek poets, and by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid. Established: December 5, 2005
Carlon 17:53, 7 January 2007 (UTC) Rirex Purge server cache
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