PEGASUS

Pegasus (from the Greek Pégasos: Πήγασος), the famed winged horse of Greek myth was, according to lore, created at the death of Medusa. How exactly Pegasus was created varies, as does the idea that Poseidon; the Greek god of the sea, and of horses, is his father. In some myths Pegasus springs from Medusa’s neck after her head has been severed by the hero Perseus. 

In others Pegasus is created by the merging of Medusa’s blood with sea foam, it seems unclear however whether this would make Poseidon or Oceanus his father. In yet other tales Pegasus is created when Medusa’s blood mixes with the earth – this version of the myth goes against the idea of Oceanus or Poseidon's paternity. 

The account given in Hesiod's Theogony is that Pegasus sprang from Medusa's neck along with Chrysaor, and that he was so named because he was born beside the waters of Oceanus - the river which encircled the world.

Pegasus was, for a while, the steed of the Greek hero Bellerophon, aiding him in killing the Chimera and defeating the Solymians and the Amazons. However, Bellerophon grew arrogant and attempted to ride Pegasus to Mount Olympus. For his impiety, Zeus sent a gadfly to bite Pegasus, causing him to rear and throw Bellerophon off. In some myths, after this incident, Pegasus became the carrier of Zeus’ thunderbolts.

Pegasus is often associated with the nine Greek muses, sources of inspiration for the Greek world. He created the spring Hippocrene, on Mt Helicon – home of the muses - by striking the rock with his hooves to command the mountain to return to its normal size on the orders of Poseidon, after Mt Helicon swelled with pleasure during the singing contest between the muses and the Pierides.

The presence of the ‘sus/sos’ in his name suggests a pre-Greek origin, allowing Pegasus to be dated back to around the middle of the Bronze Age.

Since then, 'Pegasus' has come to mean for many people, any winged horse, sometimes referred to as pegasi (plural), pegasuses (pl.), or pegas (single, family, or herd). However, some people dispute these names and argue that 'Pegasus' refers specifically to the winged horse of Greek mythology, and that the racial name is 'pterippi'.

As with most legendary characters from Greek mythology, Pegasus eventually became a constellation, this constellation makes up one of our 88 modern constellations, belonging to the northern hemisphere and visible in Autumn. It is often viewed in an upside down position, giving it the appearance of emerging from the ocean.

Today Pegasi are more closely associated with the fantasy genre and are one of the more popular and widely known mythical creatures. They can often be found in both fantasy fiction and art.

Source: www.elftown.com/_Pegasus

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Highgate Vampire

Highgate Cemetery, London.

The Highgate Vampire was a media sensation surrounding reports of supposed supernatural activity at Highgate Cemetery in London.

Many popular books on ghosts, like the book called "The Highgate Vampire", mention a vampire which purportedly haunted Highgate Cemetery in the early 1970s. The growth of its reputation, which can be traced through contemporary media reports and subsequent books by two participants, Seán Manchester and David Farrant, is an example of modern legend-building. The most academic account is given by a folklore scholar, 

Professor Bill Ellis, in the journal Folklore. He writes from the viewpoint of sociological legend study; this concerns public perceptions of a real or purported event, and how these are shaped into a narrative by processes of rumour, selection, exaggeration and stereotyping.

Other narratives which treat these purported happenings as fact are available in the books and websites of Seán Manchester and David Farrant.

The publicity was initiated by a group of young people interested in the occult who began roaming the overgrown and dilapidated cemetery in the late 1960s, a time when it was being much vandalised by intruders.[2] On 21 December 1969 one of their members, David Farrant, spent the night there, according to his account written in 1991. 

In a letter to the Hampstead and Highgate Express on 6 February 1970, he wrote that when passing the cemetery on 24 December 1969 he had glimpsed "a grey figure", which he considered to be supernatural, and asked if others had seen anything similar. On the 13th, several people replied, describing a variety of ghosts said to haunt the cemetery or the adjoining Swains Lane. 

These ghosts were described as a tall man in a hat, a spectral cyclist, a woman in white, a face glaring through the bars of a gate, a figure wading into a pond, a pale gliding form, bells ringing, and voices calling. Hardly two correspondents gave the same story.

The vampire theory

A second local man, Seán Manchester, was just as keen as Farrant to identify and eliminate what he and Farrant believed was a supernatural entity in the cemetery. The Hampstead and Highgate Express reported him on 27 February 1970 as saying that he believed that 'a King Vampire of the Undead', a medieval nobleman who had practised black magic in medieval Wallachia (Romania), had been brought to England in a coffin in the early eighteenth century, by followers who bought a house for him in the West End. He was buried on the site that later became Highgate Cemetery, and Manchester claimed that modern Satanists had roused him. He said the right thing to do would be to stake the vampire's body, and then behead and burn it, but this would nowadays be illegal. The paper headlined this: 'Does a Vampyr walk in Highgate?'

Manchester later claimed, however, that the reference to 'a King Vampire from Wallachia' was a journalistic embellishment. Nevertheless, the 1985 edition of his book also speaks of an unnamed nobleman's body brought to Highgate in a coffin from somewhere in Europe.

In his interview of 27 February, Manchester offered no evidence in support of his theory. The following week, on 6 March, the same paper reported David Farrant as saying he had seen dead foxes in the cemetery, 'and the odd thing was there was no outward sign of how they died.' When told of this, Manchester said it seemed to complement his theory. In later writings, both men reported seeing other dead foxes with throat wounds and drained of blood.

Farrant was more hesitant in identifying the phenomenon he had seen. In some interviews he called it simply a ghost or spectre, sometimes he agreed that it might be vampiric. It is the 'vampire' label which has stuck.

The Mass Vampire Hunt of March 1970

The ensuing publicity was enhanced by a growing rivalry between Farrant and Manchester, each claiming that he could and would expel or destroy the spectre. Manchester declared to his associates that he would hold an 'official' vampire hunt on Friday 13 March—such Fridays are always ominous dates in British and North American superstition (Friday the Thirteenth), and are frequently chosen for items on occult matters in the media. ITV then set up interviews with both Manchester and Farrant, and with others who claimed to have seen supernatural figures in the cemetery. These were broadcast on ITV early on the evening of the 13th; within two hours a mob of 'hunters' from all over London and beyond swarmed over gates and walls into the locked cemetery, despite police efforts to control them.

Manchester's exorcism claims

In later years, Manchester wrote his own account of his doings that night (The Highgate Vampire 1985; 2nd rev. ed. 1991). According to his narrative, he and some companions entered the cemetery, unobserved by the police, via the damaged railings of an adjoining churchyard, and tried to open the door of one particular catacomb to which a psychic sleepwalking girl had previously led him; but try as they might, it would not budge an inch. Failing in this, they climbed down on a rope through an existing hole in its roof, finding empty coffins into which they put garlic, and sprinkling holy water around.

Some months later, on 1 August 1970 (Lammas Day), the charred and headless remains of a woman's body were found not far from the catacomb.[citation needed] The police suspected that it had been used in black magic. Soon after this incident, there was a noticeable surge in both Farrant's and Manchester's activities. Farrant was found by police in the churchyard beside Highgate Cemetery one night in August, carrying a crucifix and a wooden stake. He was arrested, but when the case came to court it was dismissed.

A few days later Manchester returned to Highgate Cemetery, but in the daytime, when visits are allowed. Again, we must depend on his own published book for an account of his actions, since neither press nor police were present. He claims that this time he and his companions did succeed in forcing open, inch by inch, the heavy and rusty iron doors of a family vault (indicated by his female psychic helper). He lifted the massive lid off one coffin, believing it to have been mysteriously transferred there from the previous catacomb. He was about to drive a stake through the body it contained when a companion persuaded him to desist. Reluctantly, he shut the coffin, put garlic and incense in the vault, and came out from it.

A later chapter of Manchester's book claims that three years afterwards he discovered a vampiric corpse (he implies that it was the same one) in the cellar of an empty house in the Highgate/Hornsey area, and staked and burned it.

Manchester's story is full of melodramatic details mirroring the Dracula mythos: the sleepwalking girl; the vampire transported to England in a coffin; a coffined corpse 'gorged and stinking with the life-blood of others', with fangs and burning eyes; his own role as a Van Helsing figure.

If he did indeed act as he describes, it can be regarded as a good example of what folklorists (following terminology established by Linda Degh) now call 'ostension' and legend tripping. This means the real-life imitation of elements from a well-known tale, often involving role-playing, and sometimes leading to ritual acts of vandalism and desecration.

Aftermath

There was more publicity about Farrant and Manchester when rumours spread that they would meet in a 'magicians' duel' on Parliament Hill on Friday 13 April 1973, which never came off. Farrant was jailed in 1974 for damaging memorials and interfering with dead remains in Highgate Cemetery—vandalism and desecration which he insisted had been caused by Satanists, not him.

Both episodes kept memories of the Highgate affair vivid. In 1975 Manchester wrote a chapter about it in a book edited by Peter Underwood, a well-known popular writer on ghost lore. The Highgate Vampire is now regularly featured in books and internet sites on occult subjects.

The feud between Manchester and Farrant remains vigorous to this day; each claims to be a competent exorcist and researcher of the paranormal; each pours scorn on the other's alleged expertise. They continue to investigate supposed supernatural phenomena, and have both written and spoken repeatedly about the Highgate events, in every medium available, each stressing his own role to the exclusion of the other.

In her book, Blood Lust: Conversations with Real Vampires, published by HarperCollins in 1991, author Carol Page describes her lengthy interview with Sean Manchester, further questioning his credibility and describes his self-proclaimed activities as "the real evil in Highgate Cemetery."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highgate_Vampire


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Beauty and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians regarded beauty as a sign of holiness. Everything the ancient Egyptians used had a spiritual aspect to it, including cosmetics, which is why cosmetics were an integral part of their daily lives. In tombs, cosmetic palettes were found buried with the deceased as grave goods which further emphasized the idea that cosmetics were not only used for aesthetic purposes but rather magical and religious purposes.
Ancient Egyptians wore cosmetics regardless of gender or status, as they believed that cosmetics had magical power. They paid extra attention to eye makeup and they usually lined their eyes with a black galena, kohl (black eyeliner), that was placed in small kohl containers and applied with a wooden stick, creating an almond-shaped eye.

The almond-shaped eye resembles the falcon eye of the God Horus. The eye of Horus was believed by the Egyptians to have magical protective powers from the myth of the battle of Horus as revenge for his father Osiris, where it was said he lost his left eye which was later magically restored (Mannichie 34). Therefore, the ancient Egyptians wore the black kohl and used green eye paints under their eye to ward off evil spirits and as a way to keep their eyes protected from eye diseases. The use of eye paints played an important role as well in the afterlife of the ancient Egyptians. “Before presenting himself (the deceased) at the tribunal in the ‘Hall of Justice’ the candidate must purify himself, dress in white garments, make up his eyes and anoint himself. Only then may he enter the realm of Osiris”. The deceased had to line his eyes with kohl in order for him to face the judgment of Osiris and move on to the afterlife. Moreover, ancient Egyptians, especially royalty, wished to preserve their youthfulness and be always depicted in an ideal state in art as part of their divine nature. They used oils such as castor oil, sesame oil and Moringa oil in their daily skin care regimen to fight wrinkles . Their favorite colors were black, green and purple.

The two main forms of eye makeup were green eye paint and black kohl. The green eye paint was made of malachite, a green carbonate of copper, and the black kohl was made from a substance called galena, a dark grey ore of lead. The malachite was used in the early predynastic period, whereas galena was introduced in the late predynastic period (Lucas 41). Kohl has two components: laurionite and phosgenite. These two minerals were not readily available in Egypt, which means that the ancient Egyptians must have used wet chemistry in order to synthesize them by filtering of rock salt and natron (Spotts). Facial makeup included stain for cheeks and lips that was produced from red ochre from naturally colored clay that was mined and washed then dried in the sun or burnt to achieve the red pigment (Egyptian Make up). Henna, a naturally occurring plant, was used by the ancient Egyptians to paint their nails and dye their hair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_Co...n_Ancient_Egypt

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Walking On The Rainbow

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