The article actually says “explanation of the origin of the Milky Way within the context of creation myths”, meaning that the Milky Way had got its name because it looked like a splash of milk in water, and the myth was then invented as an explanation.

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A very large percentage of people laughing at this believe angels are real.

Edit- See?

Breaskmilk, now with vitamin R

And also that’s how we got to the word “galaxy” in general- the ‘gala’ came from the Greek word for milk!

Ahh, yes... breaskmilk.

That was my forth time writing it as I kept getting auto moded ughhh...

An entire galaxy created with one errant divine mammary emission

In that case those are some fat tiddies

I need this hung up in my living room

Evidently Hera was touched out.

Pics or it never happened

This is pretty common with myths. For instance, and I am by far not an expert so I may butcher some of this, but the reason that we have winter is because the Goddess of the harvest had her daughter tricked by Hades and has to spend 4 months out of the year in the underworld. Her mother is so distressed by this that she refuses to let things grow during that time.

"Breaskmilk?" Who wrote this, Popeye?

I like the hubris that the ancients had in creating their myths. A baby is pulled away from a teat and innumerable gallons of milk drenches the entire night sky. Or Zeus got angry at Prometheus, so he chained him to a rock and had an eagle eat his liver for thirty years...until he was saved by Hercules.

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I remember when I was taught about that American myth Paul Bunyan the giant lumberjack who created the grand canyon by dragging his axe or made the Minnesota lakes with his footsteps. Even 8 year old me was like uh why aren’t there more lakes or craters next to the grand canyon then if he was walking next to it.

Right?

This is slightly different from what I learned.

Hades had basically kidnapped Persephone (the daughter of Demeter), which made Demeter cause fall and winter, where crops died and refused to regrow.

Around the “start” of spring, Persephone returns bearing news. She says after spending time with Hades, she fell in love, and both Hades and Persephone agreed to Persephone spending a few months of the year with Demeter (spring and summer), and a few months with Hades (fall and winter).

This is apparently why the seasons change. Demeter is overwhelmed with joy during spring and summer, which causes bountiful greenery. During fall and winter, she falls into a depressive state, which causes plants to die and trees ti lose their leaves.

theres a lot of versioms of the myth, there is no one "true" version. most people learn slightly different verions just by chance

I kind of enjoy that property of myths. They can share a similar plot, but small differences can change the story drastically.

It's not fair to have neighbours with cool names like Andromeda and Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte while we're stuck with 'Mommy Milk'

And if you look at current greek yoghurts, there's still "gala" on them.

Well one of them is bound to be true. It's gotta be, because we have seasons.

/s

It’s the reason for the season

"Yeah you know Bocephus, we're gonna hold off on publishing that one... I'm still getting a lot of flak for that shit about Oedipus..."

"Hey fuck you Micheal, you know there's only 3 people who can write at all asshole. Use your gifts motherfucker!"

I have a little drunk history rendition of this happening in my head 🙏

sounds preferable to me

Yeah. Most myths seem to be either morality plays, explanations of things people had no other way to understand, or garbled renderings of their tribe’s history.

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Ah yea, wholesome Malk

Roman and Greek versions of the mythos perhaps

This is why I love Greek mythology. The story’s used to explain things are so visual and beautiful. You can see the stories in the sky every night.

no, as in there were multiple versions in Ancient Greece because it was a living religion that changed by region and time

Interestingly, Hinduism also calls the Milky Way 'The Great Milky Ocean' but there creation myth states that instead of a breastfeeding mishap, the Universe/galaxy was formed and is sustained by the great serpent Nagini being captured and wrapped around an oar which was thrown into the Great Milky Ocean, whereupon the Denizens of Light and Darkness continuously pull at Nagini's head and tail to twist the oar and churn the milky cosmic ocean's waters, leading to creation and dynamism.

I think the “Persephone is cool with it” angle tends to be a somewhat more modern take on the myth.

I read that in Mike Tyson’s voice

Just wait till the veguns hear about this!!!!! I'm vegan btw

Persephone has to stay down there 6 months out of the year because of the 6 pomegranate seeds she ate when she got kidnapped.

I assume the edit is from the downvotes you've received. Has it occurred to you that they're not stemming from their actual belief systems, but the arrogance of the insult?

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Just keep in mind that while the Milky Way was known as the galaxias kyklos ("milky circle") the ancient Greeks didn't understand that it was a galaxy in the modern sense of the word.

They didn't realize when they looked up at it that it was a partial, edge-on view of a huge, spiral system of billions of stars of which the Sun is one that sits near the edge.

is it Cambodian?

Interesting theory, but I'm skeptical.

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You'll also have the chance to learn another thing today.

It's H E R A C L E S, which is the Hellenic God(original one) not H E R C U L E S(Roman copy).

:-)

Ha 😁

Fourth

Just ew

Well THAT'S a mouthful

So... Our galaxy... Is made out of titty sprinkles?

It's Heracles though, right? As in Hera's glory. He was renamed in her honour.

Also propaganda.

That’s some powerful titty milk

Ohh, that’s a good point.

I like your version because she's in love, but brother you still gotta remember not to eat anything in the event you find yourself in the Hellenic Greek underworld

One of my favorite explanations for the mysterious "races of man who came before us" and figures like the Niphilim are literally just our ancestors remembering Neanderthals existing and then suddenly "vanishing".

That or they were tripping balls and thought they saw giants.

Breaskmilk??? Fucking bots...

Literally so she'd stop being mad. His birth name is actually Alcides. IIRC, his parents renamed him after they took him to a seer and discovered why he was strong enough to choke out two pythons as a baby and by whom those pythons had been sent.

Absolutely, it's aggressive, and even people who don't believe in angels could find it off-putting. But let's be honest...the comment isn't any less true just because it's arrogant.

There's this NFL behind-the-scenes show called Hard Knocks and one year a player on the featured team revealed that he actually believes in mermaids. Here in America he was roundly mocked and ridiculed, and it occurred to me that given the religious makeup of this country, a massive portion of those pointing and laughing at this guy were people who believe in literal Christian hell.

This TIL reminded me of the arrogance of those people, and as the Gospel of Matthew tells us, violence arrogance begets violence arrogance.

this is illegal in florida

I read that in Sean Connery’s voice.

Bots would probably spell the damn thing right...

yeah my favorite detail that changes with the hades and persephone myth is the context for it, it can be drastically different between versions and its interesting to see

Guy can’t catch a break can he?

Man, ancient creation myths are just so much fun. Nowadays when it comes to worldbuilding, everyone cares so much about believability and scientific plausibility.

I scrolled entirely too far to find this.

Omg titty sprinkles

There are aboriginal Australian myths about giant animals that were confirmed to be prehistoric wildlife by paleontologists

Must've been mighty dark in Hercules' childhood home.

You mixed Kshira Sagara and Akasha Ganga.

Also palazhi mathanam is just one event, not an ever going process.

It is Vasuki, who is a male king of serpents (Naga). Nagini is a female Naga.

aka The Big Boob Theory

Heracles in Greek, Hercules in Roman.

I thought it Atum created it when he...

"Splash of milk". Atum is sniggering.

I like that this is your first post in 7 years lol

It's not necessarily an either/or proposition.

Or an Egyptian God rubs one out.

That's what Atum said.

The Egyptians had a different take. It was a male god who created the Milky Way in their version...

You can always go with the Egyptian version instead.

That's how 8yo me felt in church lol. "Something sounds fishy here."

That's an interesting take. In the case of Egyptian version, the "Milky Way" was created when Atum rubbed one out.
"No animals were harmed in the creation of this galaxy."

the first time it shows up framed as an actual version of the myth is in the 1970s from a book called “Lost Goddesses of Early Greece” by Charlene Spretnak. Spretnak does not cite any sources.

All ancient sources (Homeric Hymn, Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus, even Ovid) have her taken unwillingly and tricked/forced into consuming the pomegranate seeds.

She does, ultimately, come to love Hades, as evidenced by other myths, but she never chooses to stay in the first place.

Alongside being a myth about the seasons changing, it would also be relatable to mothers and daughters in ancient Greece. Because daughters were essentially property of their fathers, neither they nor the mother had true legal control over who she would marry. I'm sure that there were plenty of men who did care about the wishes of their wives and daughters, but there was really no recourse if someone decided "Hey, we're marrying you off to this older man."

So, it's also a myth about marriage. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Helios tells Demeter that she should be happy that, out of all the people Zeus gave Persephone to, he chose someone so very rich and well respected. Persephone is frightened and distressed in the underworld, but later learns that it's not all that bad, and she enjoys an immense amount of power and respect. So, Greeks are told

• Your new husband may seem scary, but with time you will grow to accept and enjoy your role as a wife.
• You may be sad about the loss of your daughter, but she will be much more fortunate with a good husband.
• You can decide unilaterally to give your daughter to someone, but things go much more smoothly if your wife is consulted about it beforehand.

Lol, learning so casually that "humans evolved from apes" in 4th grade and talking about it as if my mind was blown did not go over well w my parents. I mean they arnt like fundamentalists, but they are christians and definitely were not down to answer my questions.

Excellent context. Thanks!

Neat! Thank you for the corrections 😊

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Because of that sort of logic, they ended up with the Pharaoh having a public wank into the Nile to make the crops grow.*

• Apparently not true, according to a quick Google.

It didn't help. Hera kept taking potshots at Heracles. She eventually made Heracles mad, and he slaughtered his wife Megara and their three sons.

I'm ashamed to admit that at first I thought this was about the candy bar.

That’s why the original recipe for Milky Ways had bread milk. Maybe that was Coke, can’t remember.

The idea that Persephone fell in love with Hades is actually pretty modern and really recent. Most Greek tellings put absolutely no epmpehsis on how Persephone felt because it wasn't important. Back then all marriages were basically a buiness agreement between the father of the bride and the groom and Women had no say at all in who they married.

The only version I know of that actually does put details on how persephone felt was Homer and that telling actually says that Persephone had no interest in Hades at all and that Hades forced her to eat the pomagranate so she could never fully leave the underworld.

Persephone and Hades are actually really minor figures in the myth and it's most just modern revisions that put more focus on it. Classical Greek myths put more focus on Demeter herself going on a quest to find her daughter

Those are some big ass tiddies.

Yup. This was literally a big part of the plot of the game Hades. Lol.

That was me in Catholic catechism class: So if killing is the worst sin, than why are there so many bloody wars in the Bible among Christians?

No wonder man has always dreamed of reaching the stars…for a taste of that goddess booby juice!

I wasn't saying yes or no. And you basically just affirmed my statement. I was saying there are multiple versions across the entire hellenistic period. And not one version is the true or original that we can absolutely say for a fact is the first.

Kick-ass that you did.

Probably wasn't public, and it's doubtful the intent was to make the crops grow. But otherwise it sounds likely.