MYTHOLOGY: HADES

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More Greek stuff. I need to read more about Nordic mythology, but I have no time LOL /cries
 Hades was the King of the Underworld, the god of death and the dead. He presided over funeral rites and defended the right of the dead to due burial. He was also the god of the hidden wealth of the earth, from the fertile soil with nourished the seed-grain, to the mined wealth of gold, silver and other metals.
 Hades was devoured by Kronos as soon as he was born, along with four of his siblings. Zeus later caused the Titan to disgorge them, and together they drove the Titan gods from heaven and locked them away in the pit of Tartaros. When the three victorious brothers then drew lots for the division of the cosmos, Hades received the third portion, the dark dismal realm of the underworld, as his domain. Hades desired a bride and petitioned his brother Zeus to grant him one of his daughters. The god offered him Persephone, the daughter of Demeter. However, knowing that the goddess would resist the marriage, he assented to the forceful abduction of the girl. When Demeter learned of this, she was furious and caused a great dearth to fall upon the earth until her daughter was returned. Zeus was forced to concede lest mankind perish, and the girl was fetched forth from the underworld. However, since she had tasted of the pomegranate seed on the Underworld, she was forced to return to him for a portion of each year.
 Source:  http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Haides.html

That's it :B

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BRAZILIAN CULTURE: TUPÃ

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More Brazilian stuff, YAY
 Amerindian myth (American Indian), from the Tupi-Guarani group. Tupã was the character of the thunder, the storms, the flames and rays, called "the Spirit of Thunder." Tupã is the creator of heaven, earth and seas, as well as from animals and plants. In addition to teaching men agriculture, crafts and hunting, he gave the shamans the knowledge of medicinal plants and ritual magic cures. In the Tupi-Guarani mythology, however, he was a second-order character. The catecúmenos (those preparing to receive baptism; new Christians) began to value it as an entity similar to God. It is essential therefore to distinguish the Amerindian myth, where Tupã is just a demon that produces rain, lightning and storms, and a civilizing mission among men, and the myth of Tupã-syncretic God.

That's it

See you

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MYTHOLOGY: EROS

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Mythology day, YAY! \o/

 Greek stuff again this week :3

 Eros, the Greek god of love and sexual desire (the word eros, which is found in the Iliad by Homer, is a common noun meaning sexual desire). He was also worshiped as a fertility god, believed to be a contemporary of the primeval Chaos, which makes Eros one of the oldest gods. In the Dionysian Mysteries Eros is referred to as "protagonus", the first born.According to Aristophanes (Birds) he was born from Erebus and Nyx (Night); in later mythology Eros is the offspring of Aphrodite and Ares. Yet in the Theogony, the epic poem written by Hesiod, it mentions a typified Eros as being an attendant of Aphrodite, but not her son. Another legend says that he was the son of Iris and Zephyrus.From the early legend of Eros it is said that he was responsible for the embraces of Uranus (Heaven or Sky) and Gaia (Earth), and from their union were born many offspring. It was also written that Eros hatched our race and made it appear first into the light. Although one of the oldest gods, he was a latecomer to Greek religion. He was worshiped in many regions of Greece, at Thespiae there was an ancient fertility cult, and in Athens he and Aphrodite had a joint cult. Also in Athens the fourth day of every month was sacred to Eros. Sometimes Eros was worshiped by the name Erotes (which is the plural of Eros); this personified all the attractions that evoked love and desire, this included heterosexual and homosexual allurements. Anteros (the Returner of Love also known as the god of Mutual Love) was the brother of Eros, which comes from the version of which Aphrodite and Ares are said to be the mother and father of Eros. Eros is usually depicted as a young winged boy, with his bow and arrows at the ready, to either shoot into the hearts of gods or mortals which would rouse them to desire. His arrows came in two types: golden with dove feathers which aroused love, or leaden arrows which had owl feathers that caused indifference. Sappho the poet summarized Eros as being bitter sweet, and cruel to his victims, yet he was also charming and very beautiful. Being unscrupulous, and a danger to those around him, Eros would make as much mischief as he possibly could by wounding the hearts of all, but according to one legend he himself fell in love. This legend tells us that Eros was always at his mothers side assisting her in all her conniving and godly affairs. The legend goes on to say that Aphrodite became jealous of the beauty of a mortal woman named Psyche. In her fit of jealousy Aphrodite asked Eros to shoot his arrow into the heart of Psyche and make her fall in love with the ugliest man on earth, but on seeing her beauty Eros fell deeply in love with Psyche himself. The Romans borrowed Eros from the Greeks and named him Cupid (Latin cupido meaning desire). Eros has been depicted in art in many ways. The Romans regarded him as a symbol of life after death and decorated sarcophagi with his image. The Greeks regarded him as most beautiful and handsome, the most loved and the most loving. They placed statues of him in gymnasiums (as most athletes were thought to be beautiful). He was depicted on every form of utensil, from drinking vessels to oil flasks, usually showing him ready to fire an arrow into the heart of an unsuspecting victim.

Source: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/eros.html

William Bouguereau - Young Girl Defending Herself against Eros

See you :)

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BRAZILIAN CULTURE : MACHADO DE ASSIS

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 Let's talk about one of the best Brazilian writers of all time? (Say "yes" u.ú )
 Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was born on 21 June 1839 in Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the Empire of Brazil (yeah, we were an Empire). His parents were Francisco José de Assis, a mulatto wall painter, and Maria Leopoldina da Câmara Machado, an Azorean Portuguese washerwoman. He was born in a country house, owned by Dona Maria José de Mendonça Barro Pereira, widow of senator Bento Barroso Pereira, who protected his parents and allowed them to live with her. He studied in a public school, but was not a good student.While helping celebrate masses, he met Father Silveira Sarmento, who became his Latin teacher and also friend.
When Machado was ten years old, his mother died, and his father took him along as he moved to São Cristóvão. Francisco de Assis met Maria Inês da Silva, and they married in 1854. The writer had classes in a school for girls only, thanks to his stepmother who worked there making candies. At night he learned French with an immigrant baker. In his adolescence, he met the mulatto Francisco de Paula Brito, who owned a bookstore, a newspaper and typography. In 12 January 1855, Francisco de Paula published the poem Ella (“She”) written by Joaquim, then 15 years old, in the newspaper Marmota Fluminense. In the following year, he was hired as typographer’s apprentice in the Imprensa Oficial (the Official Press, charged with the publication of Government measures), where he was encouraged as a writer by Manuel Antônio de Almeida, the newspaper’s director and also a novelist. There he also met Francisco Otaviano, journalist and later liberal senator, and Quintino Bocaiúva, who decades later would become known for his role as a republican orator.

 Francisco Otaviano hired Machado to work on the newspaper Correio Mercantil as a proofreader in 1858.[ He continued to write for the Marmota Fluminense and also for several other newspapers, but he did not earn much and had a humble life. As he did not live with his father anymore, it was common for him to eat only once a day for lack of money.
Around this time, he became a friend of the writer and liberal politician José de Alencar, who taught him English. From English literature, he was influenced by Laurence Sterne, William Shakespeare, Lord Byron and Jonathan Swift. He learned German years later and in his old age, Greek. He was invited by Bocaiúva to work at his newspaper Diário do Rio de Janeiro in 1860. Machado had a passion for theater and wrote several plays for a short time; his friend Bocaiúva concluded: “Your works are meant to be read and not played.” He gained some notability and began to sign his writings as J. M. Machado de Assis, the way he would be known for posterity.
His father Francisco de Assis died in 1864. Machado learned of his father's death through acquaintances . He dedicated his compilation of poems called “Crisálidas” to his father: “To the Memory of Francisco José de Assis and Maria Leopoldina Machado de Assis, my Parents.” With the Liberal Party's ascension to power about that time, Machado thought he might receive a patronage position that would help him improve his life. To his surprise, aid came from the Emperor Dom Pedro II, who hired him as director-assistant in the Diário Oficial in 1867, and knighted him as an honor. In 1888 Machado was made an officer of the Order of the Rose.

 In 1868 Machado met the Portuguese Carolina Augusta Xavier de Novais, five years older than he. She was the sister of his colleague Faustino Xavier de Novais, for whom he worked on the magazine O Futuro. He married Carolina on 12 November 1869; although her parents Miguel and Adelaide, and her siblings disapproved because Machado was mulatto and she was of purely European ancestry.They had no children.
 Machado managed to rise in his bureaucratic career, first in the Agriculture Department. Three years later, he became the head of a section in it.
He wrote several romantic novels, such as: Ressurreição, A Mão e Luva, Helena and Iaiá Garcia. The books were a success with the public, but literary critics considered them mediocre. Machado suffered repeated attacks of epilepsy, apparently related to hearing of the death of his old friend José de Alencar. He was left melancholic, pessimistic and fixed on death. His next book, marked by “a skeptical and realistic tone”: Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, also translated as Epitaph for a Small Winner), is widely considered a masterpiece. By the end of the 1880s, Machado had gained wide renown as a writer.
 Although he was opposed to slavery, he never spoke against it in public. He avoided discussing politics. Machado was caught by surprise with the monarchy overthrown on November 15, 1889.
The birth of the Brazilian republic made Machado become more critical and an observer of the Brazilian society of his time. From then on, he wrote “not only the greatest novels of his time, but the greatest of all time of Brazilian literature.” Works such as Quincas Borba (1891), Dom Casmurro (1899), Esaú e Jacó (1904) and Memorial de Aires (1908), considered masterpieces, were successes with both critics and the public. In 1893 he published "A Missa do Galo" ("Midnight Mass"), considered his greatest short story.

Machado de Assis, along with fellow monarchists and other writers and intellectuals, founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was its first president from 1897 to 1908, when he died. For many years, he requested that the government grant a proper headquarters to the Academy, which he managed to obtain in 1905. In 1902 he was transferred to the accountancy’s directing board of the Ministry of Industry.His wife Carolina Novais died on October 20, 1904.

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

That's it :) I really think you should read :)
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RANDOM POST ABOUT RANDOM THINGS

Hej guys :)

 My uncle just came back from Croatia (I think he went to Austria and Bulgaria too, but I'm not sure. I know he visited other countries, but idk which ones. Whatever) and he gave me some flags and coins and a lot of magazines and travel brochures AND a Croatian/English dictionary. I'm so happy (∩^ω^∩)

Flags on my desk LOL because they're beautiful ☺

Magazines and my dictionary ☺

And that's it :)

I have some ideas for some random posts. But I'll be really busy this week (er, tests) so I'll post them next week. 

 And right now "Croatia" is on the Trending Topics on Twitter because of the Euro Cup (?) LOL

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MYTHOLOGY : PSYCHE

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 Another Greek myth this week because I found a paiting about Psyque when I was searching about Pandora. :3

 Psykhe (Psyche) was once a mortal princess whose beauty earned the ire of Aphrodite when men turned their worship from goddess to girl. Aphrodite commanded Eros make Psykhe fall in love with the most hideous of men, but the god himself fell in love with her and carried her away to his secret palace. However Eros hid his true identity, and commanded her never to look upon his face, but she was eventually tricked by her jealous sisters into gazing upon the face of god, and he abandoned her. In her despair, she searched throughout the world for her lost love, and eventually came into the service of Aphrodite, who commanded her perform a series of difficult labours which culminated in a journey to the Underworld. In the end Psykhe was reunited with Eros and the couple wed in a ceremony attended by the gods.
Source:  http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Psykhe.html

PSYCHE (Psuchê), that is, "breath" or "the soul," occurs in the later times of antiquity, as a personification of the human soul, and Apuleius (Met. iv. 28, &c.) relates about her the following beautiful allegoric story. Psyche was the youngest of the three daughters of some king, and excited by her beauty the jealousy and envy of Venus. In order to avenge herself, the goddess ordered Amor to inspire Psyche with a love for the most contemptible of all men : but Amor was so stricken with her beauty that he himself fell in love with her. He accordingly conveyed her to some charming place, where he, unseen and unknown, visited her every night, and left her as soon as the day began to dawn. Psyche might have continued to have enjoyed without interruption this state of happiness, if she had attended to the advice of her beloved, never to give way to her curiosity, or to inquire who he was. But her jealous sisters made her believe that in the darkness of night she was embracing some hideous monster, and accordingly once, while Amor was asleep, she approached him with a lamp, and, to her amazement, she beheld the most handsome and lovely of the gods. In her excitement of joy and fear, a drop of hot oil fell from her lamp upon his shoulder. This awoke Amor, who censured her for her mistrust, and escaped. Psyche's peace was now gone all at once, and after having attempted in vain to throw herself into a river, she wandered about from temple to temple, inquiring after her beloved, and at length came to the palace of Venus. There her real sufferings began, for Venus retained her, treated her as a slave, and inmposed upon her the hardest and most humiliating labours. Psyche would have perished under the weight of her sufferings, had not Amor, who still loved her in secret, invisibly comforted and assisted her in her labours. With his aid she at last succeeded in overcoming the jealousy and hatred of Venus; she became immortal, and was united with him for ever. It is not difficult to recognise in this lovely story the idea of which it is merely the mythical embodiment, for Psyche is evidently the human soul, which is purified by passions and misfortunes, and is thus prepared for the enjoyment of true and pure happiness. In works of art Psyche is represented as a maiden with the wings of a butterfly, along with Amor in the different situations described in the allegoric story.
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Psyche Entering Cupid's Garden by John William Waterhouse

Psyche Opening the Golden Box by John William Waterhouse

That's it, I hope you like it :)

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BRAZILIAN CULTURE: THE HEADLESS MULE

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More Brazilian stuff today (YAY), and it means, basically, something they tell us when we're 5 years old and we forgot because we never hear about it again.
The origin of this legend is unknown, but quite evident throughout Brazil, but some researchers say that it's part of the culture of the population living on the domain of the Catholic Church.
The mule is literally a headless mule, which releases flames by the neck, where his head should be. Has in his hooves, horseshoes that are silver or steel and have brown or black.
 According to legend, any woman who fell in love with a priest would be transformed into a monster. Thus, women should see the priests as a sort of "saint" and not as a man, if they thought about sins with the priest, they would eventually turning into a headless mule and the spell can only be broken if someone takes the bit of iron that the headless mule loads, so a woman will appear repentant for their "sins."

That's it. I hope you like it :)

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CREEPY VIDEO

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Um, someone said something about this video on Twitter and I'm like "WTF?". I think it's the most disturbing/weird video I've ever seen.

Well, that's it. 
See you guys Thursday :)
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MYTHOLOGY: PANDORA'S BOX

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OK, starting with the mythology thing. I'll write every single Saturday of my life from now on (unless I need to do something else, but I'll tell you).
This week's myth: Pandora's Box: 



At one time the only mortals on the earth were men. Prometheus had made them, Athene had breathed life into them and Zeus did not like them.
One day Prometheus was trying to solve a quarrel that was raging between the gods and the men. At a festival the men were going to sacrifice a bull for the first time. They asked him which parts of the bull should be offered to the gods and which should be eaten by men. Prometheus decided to play a trick on Zeus. He killed the bull, skinned it and butchered it. He split it into two portions, in one he put the best, lean meat. In the second he put bones followed by a thick layer of fat, and then offered both to Zeus to take his choice. Zeus looked at both portions, one looked good but was rather on the small side, the other was much larger and covered in a layer of fat which Zeus felt must cover the best, tastiest portion of meat. He chose that one. When Zeus realised that he had been tricked he was furious. He took fire away from man so that they could never cook their meat or feel warm again.
Prometheus flew to the Isle of Lemnos where he knew Hephaestus had fire and carried a burning torch back to man. Zeus swore vengeance and started making an evil plan:he set Hephaestos the task of creating a clay woman with a human voice. Hephaestos worked and worked and created a masterpiece. Athene, goddess of wisdom and Zeus' daughter liked the clay figure and she breathed life into it. She taught the woman how to weave and clothed her. Aphrodite the goddess of love made her beautiful. The god Hermes taught her to charm and deceive.
Zeus  named the woman Pandora and sent her as a gift to Epimetheus. Epimetheus had been warned by his brother Prometheus that he should never accept gifts from Zeus because there would always be a catch, but he fell in love with Pandora and married her. Zeus, pleased that his trap was working, gave Pandora a wedding gift of a beautiful box. There was one condition however...that was that she never opened the box.
For a while they were very happy. Pandora often wondered what was in the box but she was never left alone so she never opened it. Gradually over a while she began to wonder more and more what was in the box. She could not understand why someone would send her a box if she could not see what was in it. 
Finally she could stand it no longer. One day when everyone was out she crept up to the box, took the huge key, fitted it carefully into the lock and turned it. She lifted the lid to peep in but before she realised it the room was filled with terrible things: disease, despair, malice, greed, old age, death, hatred, violence, cruelty and war. She slammed the lid down and turned the key again...keeping only the spirit of hope inside.
Source: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/carolrb/greek/pandora.html

Pandora (opening the box) by J.W. Waterhouse

That's it, I hope you like it because I can't be sure, no one says anything to me :)
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SNEEZING CATS COMPILATION

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Now your day is so much better ≧^◡^≦
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BRAZILIAN CULTURE: THE LEGEND OF THE DIAMOND

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I just remembered a cute native legend. I wish more people know this. Seems that the majority of Brazilians aren't proud of their culture :(
A looong time ago, there was a tribe of natives living next to a river. In this tribe, there was a couple: Itagibá and Potira. Itagibá, which means strong arm, was a warrior and Potira, which means flower, was a young and beautiful Indian woman. One day they started a war with another tribe and Itagibá had to fight. Potira waited a long time beside the river. One day, she was informed that her husband died in the war. By having this news, Potira lost his temper he had held so far and spent the rest of his life crying incessantly. His tears mixed with the white sands of the river. Her immense pain impressed Tupã, the king of the gods, who turned Potira's tears into diamonds, to perpetuate the memory of her great love. 
 I didn't find good images about ths legend, so I' just putting a picture of a Indian girl ^-^

That's it :)

YAY today I finished reading Hunger Games and studied Swedish, Norwegian and Italian *u*

A friend of mine just turned 17 and she wants to watch The Avengers again LOL obviously I'm going with her. Tomorrow will be a good day, I think :)
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STEEL TOES APPRECIATION POST

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June 1st I said I've been watching more movies than I usually do and today I decided to post about one of this movies c: It's name is STEEL TOES:

In Montréal, Michael Downey is accused of the brutal beating of Vikram, a South Asian man who eventually succumbed to his injuries. The authorities believe it was a racially motivated beating as Mike is a neo-Nazi white supremacist skinhead. The public defendant assigned to his case is Danny Dunkelman, a Jew. Mike and Danny don't like what the other represents, but Mike knows that a person like Danny can only help his cause, while liberal Danny's conscience won't allow Mike, who he sees as an otherwise intelligent young man, go through the process without fair representation. As Danny and Mike go through their defense, Danny forces Mike to be an active participant in truly understanding what he did and why he did it. As such, Danny hopes to be a part of Mike's redemption. The case also profoundly affects Danny's personal life, not only in his outward relationships with family and friends, but how he functions within society as a human being.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758017/plotsummary

That's it. c:

Now I'm going to study History, Chemistry, music AND Swedish. Wish me luck ★

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BRAZILIAN CULTURE: FESTA JUNINA

Hej guys 
 I just realized I didn't write about Brazilian stuff here. Not even a singe time. Ouch. 
Today I had a party/festival at school and I had a really good time so I'm going t talk about that. The name of the festival is Festa Junina (June Festival) or Festa de São João  for their part in celebrating the nativity of St. John the Baptist. There's lots of typical foods and dances and all and we wear typical (?)* clothes.
 The fact is: we have so much fun there. A friend of mine recorded the dancing thing, I'll ask her to send me the video so I can post it here, because I just have some pictures. :)

 This is Mary 〷◠‿◠〷 (and some other people, obviously) We were in the classroom at that time (yeah, we had lessons today)

 Mary, Victor, Vinícius, @ZombieBride_ and @Kellimy:B

Kellimy drew Tony Stark's beard on @YukitosSan LOL

 Vick, Kellimy, Mary and @janahpereira

 Kellimy LOL

Kellimy, Vick, Moacir (our Math teacher LOL), me and Mary


That's it. I'll post the video soon (I hope).
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*I don't think people really dressed like that, mostly because of the colors of the clothes. They just don't look like something that someone would wear to work.

RANDOM POST

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 Oh Lord, so much time without posting e.e
 I'm sorry guys, I've been really busy. The good news: my grades at school are getting higher, which means I probably won't have to do more tests than the rest of the people again :) AAND I've been watching more movies than I normally do (probably you have already seen The Hunger Games and The Avengers, right? I won't even post about them, even because I think I'm spamming to much on Tumblr and all LOL).
Tomorrow I'll have a party at school and Sunday I'll have another party at my music school. Whatever. The point is: I won't have time to post during the weekend, but next week I'll post something.
 I'm going to put a new poll here, if you want to vote. About writing weekly or monthly posts about mythology. Just saying. ;P
I think it's all by now.
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