Week 14 Wiki Trails: Saint Walpurgis Night

 

John William Waterhouse - Magic Circle

 

 

Walpurgis Night

I saw this on the course announcments page. I didn't know what it was, so I followed the link and read about it. This feast commemorates the canonization of Saint Walpurga and the movement of her relics to Eichstätt, both of which occurred on 1 May 870

 

Witchcraft

The festival above celebrates an end of witchcraft. Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling "pest, rabies and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft." I was curious what constitutes as witchcraft so I followed the link and read it up. This lead me to the etymology of the word "witch"

 

Witch (word)

The word witch derives from the Old English nouns wicca [ˈwittʃɑ] ('sorcerer, male witch, warlock') and wicce [ˈwittʃe] ('sorceress, female witch'). The word's further origins in Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European are unclear.

 

The Magic Circle (Waterhouse painting)

This painting is lovely. It was on every page regarding witches and witchcraft, so I became curious. Waterhouse made like five different versions of this painting. I would love to have a print of it

Week 11: Wikipedia Trail

 

The mušḫuššu is a serpentine, draconic monster from ancient Mesopotamian mythology with the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird.^[55] Here it is shown as it appears in the Ishtar Gate from the city Sourceof Babylon
Source

 

Dragon

I've been very interested in dragon myths lately. I decided to start here because there's so many interesting pages associated with dragons. This led me to Mesopotamian mythology — Mushussu

Mušḫuššu

When I saw the name of this, I thought of Mushu from Mulan. There wasn't anything to indicate that Mushu had been named after this mythological creature, but based on it's description I wouldn't doubt it. The image is mushussu taken from the Ishtar Gate.

Ishtar Gate

This gate is the eighth inner gate in the city of Babylon. It's absolutely gorgeous, and is meant to look like lapis lazuli. It's made of glazed bricks and cedar. King Nebuchadnezzar II commissioned the gate, and named it after to goddess Ishtar (Ianna).

Ishtar


Ishtar is the Mesopotamian goddess of love, beauty, sex, war, justice and political power. She was originally worshiped in Aratta and Sumer under the name "Inanna", and was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians under the name Ishtar.


Inanna/Ishtar's most famous myth is the story of her descent into and return from Kur, the ancient Sumerian Underworld, a myth in which she attempts to conquer the domain of her older sister Ereshkigal, the queen of the Underworld, but is instead deemed guilty of hubris by the seven judges of the Underworld and struck dead. Three days later, Ninshubur pleads with all the gods to bring Inanna back, but all of them refuse her except Enki, who sends two sexless beings to rescue Inanna. They escort Inanna out of the Underworld, but the galla, the guardians of the Underworld, drag her husband Dumuzid down to the Underworld as her replacement. Dumuzid is eventually permitted to return to heaven for half the year while his sister Geshtinanna remains in the Underworld for the other half, resulting in the cycle of the seasons.- wiki