Zephyr

A Zephyr is defined as a west wind; a breeze from the west; a gentle breeze. The word Zephyr is derived from the Greek word Zephyrus, the god of the west wind. In Greek mythology, the Anemoi (in Greek, aνεμοι — "winds") were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction, from which their respective winds came, and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. They were sometimes represented as mere gusts of wind, at other times were personified as winged men, and at still other times were depicted as horses kept in the stables of the storm god Aeolus, who provided Odysseus with the Anemoi in the Odyssey. Astraeus, the astrological deity sometimes associated with Aeolus, and Eos, the goddess of the dawn, were the parents of the Anemoi, according to the Greek poet Hesiod.

Of the four chief Anemoi, Boreas was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, Notus was the south wind and bringer of the storms of late summer and autumn, and Zephyrus was the west wind and bringer of light spring and early summer breezes; Eurus, the east wind, was not associated with any of the three Greek seasons, and is the only one of these four Anemoi not mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony or in the Orphic Hymns. Additionally, four lesser Anemoi were sometimes referenced, representing the northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest winds.

The deities equivalent to the Anemoi in Roman mythology were the Venti (in Latin, "winds"). These gods had different names, but were otherwise very similar to their Greek counterparts, borrowing their attributes and being frequently conflated with them.

Zephyrus is believed to live in a cave on Thrace. He is the son of Eos and Astraeus and the brother of Boreas, Eurus and Notus. He abducted the goddess Chloris and gave her dominion over flowers. In Roman myth, he is Favonius, the protector of flowers and plants.

Yeti

The Yeti has lived in the Himalayas as a mystery for many years. Known as "the rock living animal" (Yah means rock and teh means animal) in Sherpa, and popularly known as "the abominable snowman" in the west, the sightings of Yeti have been reported since the late 1800s.

In 1889, a British army major named L. A. Waddell found large footprints in the snow in northeastern Himalayas.

In 1921, a British expedition team climbing Mount Everest noticed a dark figure moving on the snow at an altitude of 17,000 feet. The Sherpas travelling with the British expedition called it "metoh-kangmi" and translated by Tibetans as "abominable snowman."

In 1925, an expedition led by a Greek photographer N. A. Tombazi noticed a human-like creature about 300 yards away. The creature disappeared before Tombazi could take a picture.Captain d'Auvergue, the curator of the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, India, reported an encounter of the Yeti in 1938. He was snow-blinded while traveling in the Himalayas. He was rescued by what he thought to be a nine foot tall Yeti that nursed him before he could return by himself.

British mountaineers Eric Shipton and Michael Ward took some of the best pictures of "the footprints of the Yeti" in 1951. Each footprint was thirteen to eighteen inches long. The pictures were published in the UK Times on December 6, 1951.

Several expeditions were mobilized to search for this elusive creature which was thought to be a huge ape-like animal. One of the expeditions included that of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit Mount Everest. His expedition of 1960-1961 did not find any evidence of Yeti's existence.

The Sherpas living in the high Himalayas believe in the existence of the Yeti. They say that the Yeti can make itself invisible and appear at will.

Nobody has yet encountered the Yeti face to face. Various incidents reported by several expedition teams have led to the belief that the mystery of Yeti more than just a fairy tale. The existence of yeti remains inconclusive to this day.
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Wyvern

Wyverns are dragons with one pair of wings and one pair of legs (usually front legs). In the past, there was more confusion about the number of wings and legs. Some authors used wyvern, cockatrice and lindworm interchangably, or to mean different things. This eventually standardized into the wyvern that is recognized today.

These dragons are common in heraldry. They can symbolize envy, war, pestilence and viciousness. A drop of their blood can give humans the ability to understand bird-speech. Their skin, if eaten, can impart knowledge of the natural world. Their claws make powerful taslimans.

A German tale from the 1200s tells of a lindworm that lived near Klagenfurt. Flooding threatened travelers along the river, and the presence of a dragon was blamed. A Duke offered a reward for anyone who could catch it, so some young men tied a bull to a chain, and when the lindworm swallowed the bull, it was hooked like a fish and killed.

In 1335, when the skull of a wooly rhinoceros was found in a cave nearby, it was believed to be the dragon's skull and is currently on display in Klagenfurt. You can also see the Lindwurm fountain in Neuer Platz at the city centre.

Wyverns are not as large or as intelligent as dragons. They do make fierce gaurdians. Some cryptozoologists have theorized that wyverns are evidence of surviving pterosaurs, a large flying reptile thought to have gone extinct around 65 million years ago. There are alleged sightings in remote areas of pterosaur-like creatures known as the Kongamato in Africa. But this may be a different species altogether.

A poem by Pamela Johnson Parker

Come see a poem by Pamela Johnson Parker with art by Kevin Morrow. Go to
http://www.broadsidedpress.org/qa/2009/09april.shtml
& click on the pdf. download at the bottom of the page for a larger view.

Vespertilio

The Vespertilio, also known as Chauve-souris is a bird that gives birth to living young.

General Attributes:

The Vespertilio is not a noble bird. It is unlike other birds in that it gives birth to live young instead of laying eggs, and it has teeth. The Vespertilio gather together and hang from high places like a bunch of grapes; if one falls, all the rest also fall.

Sources (chronological order):

Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 10, 81): The Vespertilio is the only flying creature that bears live young and feeds them with its milk; it also carries its children in its arms as it flies.

Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 7:36): The Vespertilio, unlike other birds, is a flying quadruped, resembling a mouse. It has its name (vespertilio) from the time when it flies, after twilight. It flies about driven by precipitate motion, hangs from fragile branches, and makes a sound like a squeak.

Vampire ATC

Vampire myths go back to the dawn of time and occur in nearly every culture around the world. The variety of form is almost endless; red eyed monsters with green or pink hair in China; the Greek Lamia which has the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a winged serpent; vampire foxes in Japan; a head with trailing entrails known as the Penanggalang in Malaysia.

The vampires we are familiar with today, made famous by fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the far East, and were transported from places like China, Tibet and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans and of course the Carpathian mountains, including Hungary and Transylvania.

Our modern concept of the vampire still retains original concepts (blood drinking, resurrection, nocturnal human-hunting) in common with the Eastern European myths. However many things we associate with vampires; the wearing of evening clothes, capes with tall collars, turning into bats, are modern inventions.

On the other hand, many features of the old myths such as the placing of millet or poppy seeds at the gravesite in order to keep the vampire occupied all night counting seeds rather than preying on passersby, have all but disappeared from modern fiction and film.

I was told as a child that witches and vampires could not enter a house unless invited. But I was also told that they could call to you in your sleep and trick you into bidding them welcome while you lay in a trance. The only thing preventing their entry was the screen on the door. Each opening had to counted so that the witch or vampire could divide their body into tiny enough particles to infiltrate the screen and gain entry.

I lost a lot of sleep as a child…

Troll by parkerart

Trolls are closely related to orcs and ogres. Generally large and stupid, most lack the ability to speak, communicating through grunts and gestures. Some have been used as guardians and warriors, but training is an arduous task. Trolls are generally divided into sub-species: mountain trolls, river trolls, and forest trolls. All trolls travel at night, and must avoid the sunlight because it turns them into stone. If cornered by a troll, it is best to avoid physical confrontation. Outwitting them is easy enough for humans. Stalling them until daybreak is usually your best bet.