Tuesday, April 23, 2013

MyLadyWeb Presents the Showers of Books 2013 Giveaway Hop

My Paranormal Romance


  Is Available For Sale


Showers of Books
Giveaway Hop
April 24, 2013 through April 30, 2013 
And To Celebrate


I am providing several gifts just to thank everyone for stopping by... 
If you would like to say Thank You In Return... 
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Gift Books In PDF format
 A Little Book Of Fairy Lore 
Athena Queen of Storm and Air 
Before There Were Ewoks, There Was: H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy 
 Hand Shadows: A Sweet, Old-Fashioned Activity To Share With Children
Jane Austen's Emma (Takes A While To Load)
Georgette Heyer's The Black Moth 
Shadows In A Timeless Myth Complimentary Short Story 
 
Gift Musical Jigsaw Puzzles
 A Hand Shadows Musical Jigsaw Puzzle 
Fairy Flight Musical Jigsaw Puzzle 
 Happy In Fairyland Musical Jigsaw Puzzle
A Knight and His Lady Musical Jigsaw Puzzle  Jane Austen Jigsaw Puzzle 
 Shadows In A Timeless Myth Musical Jigsaw Puzzle

The Gifts Are All Free

However, If you would like to enter to win
PDF copies of my old-fashioned Regency Romance
A Very Merry Chase
with a personalized inscription, 
please leave a comment below telling me what number you were when you
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On Amazon 

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There are also lots of free gifts available at 
LadySilk's Regency Romance Revival 
On Our Complimentary Bookshelf
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So be sure to bookmark us so you can come back after
The Showers of Books Giveaway Hop Is Over. 

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Smiles & Good Fortune,
Teresa
************************************
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915

Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Lamia Mythological Monsterous Woman

The Lamia

The Lamiæ are mythological monsters of Africa, with the face and breast of a woman, the rest of the body like that of a serpent; they allured strangers, that they might devour them; and though not endowed with the faculty of speech, their hissings were pleasing. Some believed them to be evil spirits, who, in the form of beautiful women, enticed young children, and devoured them; according to some, the fable of the Lamiæ is derived from the amours of Jupiter with a beautiful woman, Lamia, whom Juno rendered deformed, and whose children she destroyed; Lamia became insane, and so desperate, that she ate up all the children which came in her way.

Topsell, before entering upon the natural history of the Lamia, as an animal, tells the following story of it as a mythological being:—“It is reported of Menippus the Lycian, that he fell in love with a strange woman, who at that time seemed both beautifull, tender, and rich, but, in truth, there was no such thing, and all was but a fantastical ostentation; she was said to insinuate her selfe, into his familiaritie after this manner: as he went upon a day alone from Corinth to Senchræa, hee met with a certaine phantasme, or spectre like a beautifull woman, who tooke him by the hand, and told him she was a Phœnician woman, and of long time had loved him dearely, having sought many occasions to manifest the same, but could never finde opportunitie untill that day, wherefore she entreated him to take knowledge of her house, which was in the Suburbes of Corinth, therewithall pointing unto it with her finger, and so desired his presence. The young man seeing himselfe thus wooed by a beautiful woman, was easily overcome by her allurements, and did oftimes frequent her company.

“There was a certaine wise man, and a Philosopher, which espied the same, and spake unto Menippus in this manner, ‘O formose, et a formorsis, expetitie mulieribus, ophin thalpies, cai se ophis,’ that is to say, ‘O fair Menippus, beloved of beautiful women, art thou a serpent, and dost nourish a serpent?’ by which words he gave him his first admonition, or incling of a mischiefe; but not prevayling, Menippus proposed to marry with this spectre, her house to the outward shew, being richly furnished with all manner of houshold goods; then said the wise man againe unto Menippus, ‘This gold, silver, and ornaments of house, are like to Tantalus Apples, who are said by Homer to make a faire shew, but to containe in them no substance at all; even so, whatsoever you conceave of this riches, there is no matter or substance in the things which you see, for they are onely inchaunted images, and shadowes, which that you may beleeve, this your neate bride is one of the Empusæ, called Lamia, or Mormolicæ, wonderfull desirous of commerce with men, and loving their flesh above measure; but those whom they doe entice, afterwards they devoure without love or pittie, feeding upon their flesh.’ At which words the wise man caused the gold and silver plate, and household stuffe, cookes, and servants to vanish all away. Then did the spectre like unto one that wept, entreate the wise man that he would not torment her, nor yet cause her to confesse what manner of person she was; but he on the other side being inexorable, compelled her to declare the whole truth, which was, that she was a Phairy, and that she purposed to use the companie of Menippus, and feede him fat with all manner of pleasures, to the extent that, afterward, she might eate up and devour his body, for all their kinde love was only to feed upon beautiful yong men....

“To leave therefore these fables, and come to the true description of the Lamia, we have in hand. In the foure and thirty chapter of Esay, we do find this called a beast Lilith in the Hæbrew, and translated by the auncients Lamia, which is threatened to possesse Babell. Likewise in the fourth chapter of the Lamentations, where it is said in our English translation, that the Dragons lay forth their brests, in Hæbrew they are called Ehannum, which, by the confession of the best interpreters, cannot signifie Dragons, but rather Sea calves, being a generall word for strange wilde beasts. How be it the matter being wel examined, it shall appeare that it must needes be this Lamia, because of her great breastes, which are not competible either to the Dragon, or Sea calves; so then, we wil take it for graunted, by the testimony of holy Scripture, that there is such a beast as this Cristostinius. Dion also writeth that there are such beasts in some parts of Libia, having a Woman’s face, and very beautifull, also very large and comely shapes on their breasts, such as cannot be counterfeited by the art of any painter, having a very excellent colour in their fore parts, without wings, and no other voice but hissing like Dragons: they are the swiftest of foote of all earthly beasts, so as none can escape them by running, for, by their celerity, they compasse their prey of beastes, and by their fraud they overthrow men. For when they see a man, they lay open their breastes, and by the beauty thereof, entice them to come neare to conference, and so, having them within their compasse, they devoure and kill them.

“Unto the same things subscribe Cælius and Giraldus, adding also, that there is a certaine crooked place in Libia neare the Sea-shore, full of sand like to a sandy Sea, and all the neighbor places thereunto are deserts. If it fortune at any time, that through shipwrack, men come there on shore, these beasts watch uppon them, devouring them all, which either endevour to travell on the land, or else to returne backe againe to Sea, adding also, that when they see a man they stand stone still, and stir not til he come unto them, looking down upon their breasts or to the ground, whereupon some have thought, that seeing them, at their first sight have such a desire to come neare them, that they are drawne into their compasse, by a certaine naturall magicall witchcraft.... The hinderparts of the beast are like unto a Goate, his fore legs like a Beares, his upper parts to a woman, the body scaled all over like a Dragon, as some have affirmed by the observation of their bodies, when Probus, the Emperor, brought them forth unto publike spectacle; also it is reported of them, that they devoure their own young ones, and therefore they derive their name Lamia, of Lamiando; and thus much for this beast.”

Compiled From Sources In The Public Domain.


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Smiles & Good Fortune,
Teresa
************************************
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915

Saturday, April 13, 2013

The Amazons Those Ancient Warrior Women Of Legend

According to Herodotus, the Greeks, after having routed the Amazons, the Greeks sailed away in three ships, taking with them as many Amazons, as they had been able to capture alive—but, when fairly out at sea, the ladies arose, stood up for women’s rights, and cut all the Greeks in pieces. But they had not reckoned on one little thing, and that was, that none among them had the slightest idea of navigation; they couldn’t even steer or row—so they had to drift about, until they came to Cremni (supposed to be near Taganrog), which was Scythian territory. They signaled their landing by horse-stealing, and the Scythians, not appreciating the joke, gave them battle, thinking they were men; but an examination of the dead proved them to be of the other sex. On learning this, the Scythians were far too gentlemanly to continue the strife, and, little by little, they established the most friendly relations with the Amazons. These ladies, however, objected to go to the Scythians’ homes, for, as they pertinently put it, “We never could live with the women of your county, because we have not the same customs with them. We shoot with the bow, throw the javelin, and ride on horseback, and have never learned the employments of women. But your women do none of the things we have mentioned, but are engaged in women’s work, remaining in their wagons, and do not go out to hunt, or anywhere else; we could not therefore consort with them. If, then, you desire to have us for your wives, and to prove yourselves honest men, go to your parents, claim your share of their property, then return, and let us live by ourselves.”

This the young Scythians did, but, when they returned, the Amazons said they were afraid to stop where they were, for they had deprived parents of their sons, and besides, had committed depredations in the country, so that they thought it but prudent to leave, and suggested that they should cross the Tanais, or Don, and found a colony on the other side. This their husbands acceded to, and when they were settled, their wives returned to their old way of living—hunting, going to war with their husbands, and wearing the same clothes—in fact they enjoyed an actual existence, of which many women nowadays, fondly, but vainly dream. There was a little drawback however—the qualification for a young lady’s presentation at court, consisted of killing a man, and, until that was effected, she could not marry.

Sir John Mandeville also wrot about them, although he did not pretend to have seen them, and this is what he wrote. “After the land of Caldee, is the land of Amazony, that is a land where there is no man but all women, as men say, for they wil suffer no man to lyve among them, nor to have lordeshippe over them. For sometyme was a kinge in that lande, and men were dwelling there as did in other countreys, and had wives, & it befell that the kynge had great warre with them of Sychy, he was called Colopius, and he was slaine in bataill and all the good bloude of his lande. And this Queene, when she herd that, & other ladies of that land, that the king and the lordes were slaine, they gathered them togither and killed all the men that were lefte in their lande among them, and sithen that time dwelled no man among them.

“And when they will have any man, they sende for them in a countrey that is nere theyr lande, and the men come, and are ther viii dayes, or as the woman lyketh, & then they go againe, and if they have men children they send them to theyr fathers, when they can eate & go, and if they have maide chyldren they kepe them, and if they bee of gentill bloud they brene(burn) the left pappe(breast) away, for bearing of a shielde, and, if they be of little bloud, they brene the ryght pappe away for shoting. For those women of that countrey are good warriours, and are often in soudy(at war) with other lordes, and the queene of that lande governeth well that lande; this lande is all environed with water.”



Please take a moment to "Like" Shadows In A Timeless Myth on Amazon.
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Smiles & Good Fortune,
Teresa
************************************
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915