In the mythology of the Aboriginal people of northern Australia (specifically the Arrernte people), Karora is a bandicoot ancestral deity. According to one legend, during the Dreamtime Karora lay sleeping in the earth when from his head rose a tall pole called a tnatantja. It was a living creature, its bottom resting on his head and its top reaching up into the sky. From his armpits and navel emerged bandicoots, who dug their way out of the earth just as the first sun rose into the sky. Karora followed them, seized two of the animals, then cooked and ate them. His hunger sated, he lay down to sleep again and a bullroarer emerged from under his armpit. It took on human form and grew into a young man, and when Karora woke his son danced around him. It was the very first ceremony.
Karora's son hunted for bandicoots, which they cooked and ate, then Karora slept again and created two more sons. This continued for some time, with many more sons emerging. Eventually, all of the bandicoots Karora had created had been eaten, and the men became hungry. They hunted, but could find no game. On their way back they heard the sound of a bullroarer, and as they searched for the source of the noise they caught sight of a sandhill wallaby. They threw their tjuringa sticks at it and broke its leg, and the sandhill wallaby called out that he was now lame and a man like them, not a bandicoot. He limped away.
The hunters continued on their way and saw Karora approaching them. He led them back to the waterhole, and as they sat at the edge of the pool a great flood of honey from the honeysuckle buds engulfed them. Karora remained at the pool, but the sons were washed away to where the sandhill wallaby man they had lamed waited for them. The place became a great djang (sacred) place, and to this day one can see the brothers grouped around the sandhill wallaby man's body — a group of rocks positioned around a great boulder.
Karora is said to remain at the waterhole, where he lies in eternal sleep. Those who come to drink there must carry green boughs, which they lay down on the banks before quenching their thirst. [1]
 | This article about a deity is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article relating to a myth or legend from Australia is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
In Greek mythology, Litae were personifications of prayers offered up in repentance and were ministers of the god Zeus. They were described as hobbling, old women. Their opposite number was Ate, the spirit of delusion and folly, in whose wake they followed.
In Norse mythology, Ymir, also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar. Ymir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, in the Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century, and in the poetry of skalds. Taken together, several stanzas from four poems collected in the Poetic Edda refer to Ymir as a primeval being who was born from venom that dripped from the icy rivers called the Élivágar, and lived in the grassless void of Ginnungagap. Ymir was both male and female, and gave birth to a male and female from their armpits, and their legs together begat a six-headed being. The grandsons of Búri, the gods Odin, Vili and Vé, fashioned the Earth from his flesh, from his blood the ocean, from his bones the mountains, from his hair the trees, from his brains the clouds, from his skull the heavens, and from his eyebrows the middle realm in which mankind lives, Midgard. In addition, one stanza relates that the dwarfs were given life by the gods from Ymir's flesh and blood.
Lakota mythology is the body of myths and legends that belong to the Lakota people also known as Teton Sioux.
Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime, songlines, and Aboriginal oral literature.
The Wawalag sisters, also written as WauwalukWawilakWaggilak, Wagilag, or Wawalik, are ancestral creator beings whose story is part of "the most widespread" sacred rituals in the Aboriginal culture from Arnhem land, Northern Territory, Australia. Their story takes place in Dreamtime, a period of time in Aboriginal belief where ancestral beings created the land as well as the social and linguistic structures in it. The sisters are said to have helped draw linguistic and social differences amongst the clans in Arnhem Land, but the ceremonies associated with their stories create cultural unity.
In Māori mythology, Wahieroa is a son of Tāwhaki, and father of Rātā.
The bullroarer, rhombus, or turndun, is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances. It dates to the Paleolithic period, being found in Ukraine dating from 18,000 BC. Anthropologist Michael Boyd, a bullroarer expert, documents a number found in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia.
Fables and Parables, by Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801), is a work in a long international tradition of fable-writing that reaches back to antiquity. Krasicki's fables and parables have been described as being, "[l]ike Jean de La Fontaine's [fables],... amongst the best ever written, while in colour they are distinctly original, because Polish." They are, according to Czesław Miłosz, "the most durable among Krasicki's poems."
There are many myths and legends about the origin of the Milky Way, the crowd of stars that makes a distinctive bright streak across the night sky.
There have been many accounts of the origin of language in the world's mythologies and other stories pertaining to the origin of language, the development of language and the reasons behind the diversity in languages today.
Melanesian mythology is the folklore, myths and religion of Melanesia — the archipelagos of New Guinea, the Torres Strait Islands, the Admiralty Islands, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Professor Roland Burrage Dixon wrote an account of the mythology of this region for The Mythology of All Races, which was published in 1916.
The Bidawal were an Australian Aboriginal tribe of Gippsland, Victoria. According to Alfred William Howitt, the Bidawal were composed of "refugees from tribes".
Inca mythology includes many stories and legends that attempt to explain or symbolize Inca beliefs.
Bluetongue Lizard is an old man in Australian Aboriginal mythology. He is a trickster and a powerful sorcerer, as well. The myth involving him is the wellspring of the Warlpiri fire ceremonies. He is often regarded as a deity, but this notion is not exactly true.
The Gugu Badhun are an Aboriginal nation whose country is located in the Upper Burdekin region of northern Queensland. Gugu Badhun country is approximately 220 km northwest of Townsville and includes the small township of Greenvale as well as a number of pastoral stations. The most comprehensive and up-to-date description of the nation is found in the book Gugu Badhun: People of the Valley of Lagoons, published in 2017.
The Wik-Mungkan people were the largest branch of the Wik people, an Aboriginal Australian group of peoples, speaking several different languages, who traditionally ranged over an extensive area of the western Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.
The Ngugi are an Aboriginal Australian people, one of three Quandamooka peoples, and the traditional inhabitants of Moreton Island.
The Bardi people, also spelt Baada or Baardi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people, living north of Broome and inhabiting parts of the Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They are ethnically close to the Jawi people, and several organisations refer to the Bardi Jawi grouping, such as the Bardi Jawi Niimidiman Aboriginal Corporation Registered Native Title Body (RNTBC) and the Bardi Jawi Rangers.
The Wanman are an indigenous Australian people of Western Australia's Pilbara region.