Happy Spring Equinox!

It is now officially spring, regardless of whether any bears, badgers or groundhogs saw their shadows. I don’t have a new post, but I’ve updated my Candlemas post, with many small changes, a brand new section on ancient Greek and Roman spring holidays, and a “See also…” section.

(Actually, I’m still working on it… should be done in a couple days.)

Book Tip: The Rumpelstiltskin Problem

Every now and then, on this blog, I will be posting a book recommendation, like this one. Admittedly, this is partly because I have an Amazon Associates account (meaning I get a small commission when you buy something from Amazon through one of my links), but these are all books I would have recommended anyway.

And here's a really fun one: The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Van Velde. It's a collection of alternate tellings of the Rumpelstiltskin story that correct the logical flaws the author sees in the story.

From the introduction:

There's a game we used to play when I was in school that kids still play, though it has various names. We called it Gossip. Somebody would whisper something to one person, who was supposed to whisper the same thing to the next person, who whispered it to the next, and so on until the last person said it out loud, at which point everyone would laugh because little by little along the way bits and pieces had been left out or misheard, other words had been added, details were lost, the sense changed—and the final message was usually totally different from the original.

That's the way it is with fairy tales. In the beginning they were told, not written down. And over time, as the stories were repeated by different people in different situations, they constantly shifted and changed—the way your story might shift and change, for example, if you were caught putting shaving cream on your cat. How you justified the situation to your parents might differ sharply from what you told your friends, which would probably be different from any explanation you might offer to the cat.

That's why we sometimes have completely different versions of the same story. But in some cases, so many details have been lost that the story stops making sense.

That's how I feel about the story of Rumpelstiltskin—it makes no sense.

The story starts with a poor miller telling the king, "My daughter can spin straw into gold."

We are not told how the miller has come to be talking with the king in the first place, or why the miller chooses to say such a thing. In any case, to my mind the reasonable answer for the king to come back with would be: "If your daughter can spin straw into gold, why are you a poor miller?" But the king doesn't say that; he says, "Then she shall come to my castle and spin straw into gold for me, and if she does, I'll make her my queen."

Now, no matter the reason the miller said what he did, you'd think that in reality he would have noticed that his daughter doesn't actually know how to spin straw into gold. (Unless she's lied to him. In which case you'd think that now would be the time for her to set things straight.) But still he brings her to the castle to show off a talent he knows she doesn't have—which doesn't sound to me like responsible parenting.

At the castle the king locks the girl into a room and tells her, "Spin this straw into gold, or tomorrow you shall die."

Not my idea of a promising first date.

The girl seems smarter than her father. She knows that she can't spin straw into gold, so she's worried. But what does she do? She starts crying. Not a very productive plan.

Still, along comes a little man who, by happy coincidence, knows how to do what everyone wants. "What will you give me to spin this straw into gold for you?" he asks her, and she offers him her gold ring.

Now think about this.

Here's someone who can spin an entire roomful of straw into gold. Why does he need her tiny gold ring? Sounds like a bad bargain to me.

And so on. (Why is she surprised when he shows back up to claim the baby? Why does he agree to the name-guessing contest—what does he get out of the bargain? Why does he give it away by dancing around a fire shouting his name? Etc.)

This is followed by six short stories, each telling different new version of the story.

Why do I particularly recommend this book? Because once, on a road trip, I started reading it to my nephew, who was about seven at the time, and he loved it (even though it was not written as a children's book). He seemed to be fascinated that you could tell so many different versions of the same story, and by the idea of stories changing through time. After this, he wanted to hear more and more fairy and folk tales, and he would point out to me the parts that didn't make sense, or the stories that were similar to each other and could have come from the same source.

So, if you want the children in your life to talk to you about folklore, read them this book. (Plus, it's just a light, entertaining, fun book.)

Spinning wheel
(CC image by rachaelvoorhees)

Incidentally, later on we read a story called "The Laziest Girl in Ireland" and we wondered whether something like that might be the origin of the Rumpelstiltskin story. Or maybe it's someone else's attempt at making the story make sense.

In this story, a woman is beating her daughter (who is the laziest girl in Ireland), when the Prince happens to pass by. The Prince falls in love with the girl, and asks why she is being beaten. The mother, seeing an opportunity to get the girl married off, says she's beating her because she works too much. The Prince thinks, "Just the sort of girl my mother wants me to marry!" and takes her with him.

When they get to the castle, the Prince presents the girl to his parents, and tells them the story. His mother is suspicious. She wants the girl to prove she's a good worker. So she locks her into a room with a spinning wheel and tells her to spin a certain amount of cloth by morning.

The girl cries, because she does want to marry the prince, but she doesn't know how to spin because she's been avoiding work all her life. An old fairy woman hears her crying and feels sorry for her, and does the spinning for her.

The same happens on the next two nights, with two other fairy women.

The Prince's mother is appeased, and the two are married. At the wedding, the three fairy women show up, one at a time, claiming to be the girl's relatives. The first one has an enormous foot, which, when asked, she says is due to a lifetime of using the pedal on her spinning wheel. The other two have other maladies that they blame on spinning. The Prince is alarmed at this, and declares that his wife is never going to work again. And they live happily ever after.

This story makes sense! We know why the mother lies, why the girl is being tested, why the helpers help (out of pity), and why she doesn't have to keep spinning after her initial trick. (In Rumpelstiltskin, it's not clear why the king is satisfied with three nights-worth of gold). We can also see why someone might have wanted to make changes: the moral "keep being lazy and the fairies will help you" is not particularly instructive.

See also...

The Name of the Helper, at Folktexts: A Library of Folktales, Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Mythology by D. L. Ashliman. Rumplestiltskin in an example of Aarne-Thompson tale type 500, The Name of the Helper. Here are many other tales of the same type.

Tales Similar to Rumplestiltskin at SurLaLune Fairy Tales. Another collection of Rumpstiltskin-esque stories.

Vivian Vande Velde. The author's web site. I notice that she's got another, similar book now about Little Red Riding Hood: Cloaked in Red, as well as many young adult fantasy novels.

How to make crepes without wheat or dairy

It’s Pancake Day. (Or Shrove Tuesday, Carnival, or Mardi Gras). I didn't have time to prepare a post, which is unfortunate, because this is one of the holidays where we get processions of wild men.

Like this!

But I did figure out how to make crepes that I can eat, without wheat or dairy. So here is the recipe! Even if you don’t have any dietary restrictions yourself, these crepes are as good as any I’ve ever had, and well worth trying.

Shrovetide straw bears like my crepes.

Ingredients
2 cups brown rice flour	1 cup water
5 eggs	4 tablespoons coconut oil (melted), plus a little more later for cooking with.
1 1/4 cup coconut milk (the watered-down meant for use as a milk substitute, not the thicker kind that comes in cans. I used Trader Joe's brand.)	a little salt

Try to be in a warm room when you prepare it, or the coconut oil will start to re-solidify. Mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl. Spoon out about 1/4 cup at a time into a frying pan greased with coconut oil. Cook about 30 seconds per side.

This recipe makes thin, eggy crepes similar to those at IHOP. If you like more pancake-ish crepes, use only four eggs and 1 cup of coconut milk.

I ate mine with baked cinnamon apples.

.

Happy February 2!

1. What is today? (Groundhog Day, Bear Day, Candlemas)

If you're an American, you know that today is Groundhog Day, and that if the groundhog, upon coming out of his hole, sees his shadow (that is, if it's a sunny day), there'll be six more weeks of winter. (Why six weeks? Because that's how long until the spring equinox.)

This tradition was brought over by German immigrants in the 19th century. In Germany, it's badgers who are supposed to come out of hibernation on February 2 and predict the weather. But there weren't any badgers in Pennsylvania, where they settled, so they started depending on groundhogs.

In Europe, badgers can predict the weather.

A variety of different hibernating animals can serve this function in other European countries. In England, it's hedgehogs; in France, Spain and most of Eastern Europe it's bears.

It seems likely that bears were the original animal associated with this custom. (At least, that's often asserted to be the case, and it would make sense given that they're the animal we most associate with hibernation.) Bears used to be much more common in Europe than they are now; perhaps when they got scarce people had to turn to other animals for their prognostication needs, much as they turned to the native wildlife when coming to America. We will see examples of several bear-related events that occur on February 2, later in this post.

It is also claimed (for instance, in this book and this book) that this custom is a remnant of ancient bear worship. I will talk more about this in upcoming posts.

Bears!

If you're a Catholic, you also know that today is Candlemas, a.k.a. the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, or the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. This feast day occurs 40 days after Christmas, and is supposed to mark when Mary first presented Jesus at the Temple. By Jewish law, a woman was unclean for 40 days after giving birth to a son. (It was longer for a daughter). And as a firstborn son, Jesus had to be brought to the temple to be redeemed. Hence, Mary's purification, and Jesus's presentation, occur 40 days after Jesus's birth on Christmas.

It's called Candlemas because there are candlelight processions, and a blessing of the candles that will be used in the upcoming year.

Candlemas is also associated with predicting the weather, even without animals getting involved:

If Candlemas day be dry and fair
The half o' winters to come and mair
If Candlemas day be wet and foul
The half o' winter's gane at Yule. ³

2. What happens on Candlemas?

Here are some other things that go on:

In Armenia, there is a fire festival. (The text here is taken from The Golden Bough.)

The materials of the bonfire are piled in an open space near a church, and they are generally ignited by young couples who have been married within the year. However, it is the bishop or his vicar who lights the candles with which fire is set to the pile. All young married pairs are expected to range themselves about the fire and to dance round it. Young men leap over the flames, but girls and women content themselves with going round them, while they pray to be preserved from the itch and other skin-diseases. When the ceremony is over, the people eagerly pick up charred sticks or ashes of the fire and preserve them or scatter them on the four corners of the roof, in the cattle-stall, in the garden, and on the pastures; for these holy sticks and ashes protect men and cattle against disease, and fruit-trees against worms and caterpillars. Omens, too, are drawn from the direction in which the wind blows the flames and the smoke: if it carries them eastward, there is hope of a good harvest; but if it inclines them westward, the people fear that the crops will fail. ³

There is a carnival in Oruru, Bolivia, which features folk dancers, a pilgrimage to visit a sacred Condor, Snake, Toad, and Ants, and a play in which the Archangel Michael defeats the Devil and the Seven Deadly Sins. ⁵

On Crete, there is a cave called Arkoudospilios (Bear Cave). Every year on Candlemas, a festival is held there for Mary as Panagia Arkoudiotissa ("Our Lady of the Bear"). ¹ The locals spend the night in the cave and light fires. This story explains what's being commemorated:

According to legend, the bear was drinking the water. Monks from the nearby monastery had wondered why cistern was always empty, and decided to keep watch inside the cave. Suddenly a big bear darkened the entrance, and one of the monks invoked the Virgin Mary, who petrified the bear. ⁶

In the past, this cave was linked to Artemis, who has many associations with bears. I wonder whether she used to have a festival there at this time of year.

The inside of the the bear cave.
The large stalagmite is the bear that was
turned to stone by the Virgin Mary.

Continuing on with the subject of bears, there are Straw Bear festivals in Germany. Most occur on Shrovetide (which is the first day of Lent), but others are on Christmas or Candlemas (which is today!). They have processions of people dressed like this:

I'm sure this must have something to do with
Jesus's presentation at the temple.

3. What about yesterday? (Imbolc, Saint Brigid's Day, Chinese New Year)

Modern pagans celebrating Imbolc.
Here, Jack Frost is battling the Green Man

February 1 is Imbolc, which was one of the four Gaelic cross-quarter days (the others being Beltane, Samhain, and Lammas). Imbolc is about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and marks the beginning of spring. The name Imbolc has something to do with milking ewes, who are supposed to be pregnant at this time of year.

Saint Brigid's Cross

Imbolc used to be associated with the goddess Brigid; now February 1 is Saint Brigid's Day. (I shall assume that these are actually the same person, rather than it just being an interesting coincidence.)

Activities include making dolls of Saint Brigid out of corn husks, making Saint Brigid's Crosses (see left), visiting sacred wells, and lighting fires and candles. For more details on how this holiday is celebrated, see this excellent page.

There are weather and animal associations, just like for Candlemas/Groundhog Day: Serpents emerge from their holes, as this traditional song shows.

Early on Bride's morn
The serpent shall come from the hole,
I will not molest the serpent,
Nor will the serpent molest me.

(Bride is an alternate spelling of Brigid.)

And it is the day when Cailleach, the hag of winter, gathers her firewood for the rest of winter. If she's planning to make the winter last a lot longer, she makes February 1st a bright, sunny day, so that she can gather plenty of firewood.

(Did it also have to do with bears? Francine Nicholson's article says that "In his carefully documented study, Ó Catháin suggests that the rituals originally associated with Imbolc were part of a cult of bears, honey, and mead." ⁷)

Brigid herself may be a personification of spring. There is a story (which you can read here) in which Angus mac Og brings spring into the world by rescuing Brigid from Cailleach (the aforementioned Hag of Winter), who is imprisoning her. And, there is a Catholic song titled "Brigid Brings the Spring":

We sing a song to Brigid,
Brigid brings the spring
Awakens all the fields and the flowers
And calls the birds to sing.

All were welcome at her door,
no one was turned away.
She loved the poor, the sick and the sore,
She helped them on their way.

She laid her cloak out on the ground
And watched it grow and grow,
In wells and streams and fields of green
St. Brigid's blessings flow. ⁸

The day before yesterday was Chinese New Year.

It is the year of the Wood Horse.

The exact date varies from year to year, but it is always about this time, late January or early February. Like in the Celtic year, the cardinal points of the Chinese year are the midpoints between the soltices and equinoxes. And, on both Imbolc and Chinese New Year, people are supposed to clean their houses. (I did not clean my house on either of those days. But I did eat crepes on Candlemas.)

4. What about tomorrow (and after)? (Saint Blaise and bear festivals)

Saint Blaise coming out of his cave,
with his animal friends.

February 3rd is the feast day of Saint Blaise, who is (among other things) the patron saint of wild animals. And a story goes that he was living as a hermit in a cave, surrounded by wild animals, when some hunters happened upon him, and chained him up and dragged him back to town. Because he would not recant his Christianity, he was beaten, his flesh torn with wool combs, and finally he was beheaded.

Then, on the next Sunday after Candlemas, in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, there are dramas enacted about women and bears.

(Note that the "Wild Man" referred to below is dressed as a bear, and called a bear. But we will hear more about wild men in a later post.)

[...] a human maiden lures the Wild Man from his forest [...] where the nubile human Rosetta enters the woods to lure the ferocious Wild Man into the hunters' trap. Unsuspecting, the hairy creature approaches the maiden. He sees the trap too late, and the hunters surround him quickly, placing the growling, protesting bear in massive chains. The hunters lead the creature back to the town square, where the people have constructed a plaster cave for him. Here he takes Rosetta - to mate with this woman, to imbue her with his ancient life force. A shot rings out, and the god lies dead. But it is too soon; the marriage has not been consummated, and the groom revives. After the sex act, the Wild Man is shot again, this time to remain dead as the community celebrates. ⁹

(So, both the bear and Saint Blaise are brought back to town in chains and killed. Interesting.)

5. Old February holidays (Lupercalia, Eleusinian Mysteries)

On Lupercalia, naked young men whip women with leather thongs to promote fertility.
[Photo by ketrin 1407 / CC BY]

Are there any links between the modern February holidays and older, Greek and Roman holidays? Maybe.

Valentine's Day and Candlemas are both sometimes claimed to be based on the Roman Lupercalia festival. Lupercalia used to take place on February 15.

(Now, an important note about the dates: The Gregorian calendar (which we use today) was invented in 1582. It was a correction to the Julian calendar introducted by Julius Caesar. When the calendar changed, the dates of some holidays changed. A seasonal holiday that used to take place on February 15 would now take place on February 2.)

It probably started off as a fertility festival for shepherds, to increase their flocks ¹¹, and was also associated with fertility in humans (hence the possible link to Valentine's Day). It was abolished by Pope Gelasius in the 5th century, and some say he replaced it with Candlemas, but, as far as I know, there's no evidence of this (either that Candlemas was originated by Pope Gelasius, or that it was intended to replace Lupercalia).

There is a quote from Pope Innocent XII (who lived in the 17th century) on the origin of Candlemas:

Why do we in this feast carry candles? Because the Gentiles dedicated the month of February to the infernal gods, and as at the beginning of it Pluto stole Proserpine, and her mother Ceres sought her in the night with lighted candles, so they, at the beginning of the month, walked about the city with lighted candles. Because the holy fathers could not extirpate the custom, they ordained that Christians should carry about candles in honor of the Blessed Virgin; and thus what was done before in the honor of Ceres is now done in honor of the Blessed Virgin.

What celebration is he referring to? The Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries took place in the spring, in the Greek month Anthesterion, but not much is know about it. (More is known about the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries, which took place in the fall). I am not sure what date this would correspond to in our calendar, but it was a lunar calendar so it would be different from year to year. According to Wikipedia, Anthesterion corresponds to February/March.

Rockwell¹, in his book about bears, says that February 2 is the day Persephone returns from the Underworld. If that is so, it is an interesting parallel with the bears emerging from hibernation, and with Brigid bringing the spring. But I'm not sure where he gets this date.

Persephone returning from the underworld.
These goddesses are wearing saffron robes.

6. What does it all mean?

What are all these holidays about? Well, it's the beginning of Spring. Or, rather, there are animal arbiters that decide whether Spring starts at this time, or six weeks later at the equinox. But clearly there is an association with the start of spring.

It is Bear Day, the time that bears (or other animals) come out of hibernation. Possibly, in the past, it was a time when an annual bear hunt ritual occurred; I will talk more about bear rituals in a later post.

Many of the festivals involve fire (in the form of candles, bonfires, or hearth fires). This may not mean anything in particular, since there are a lot of holidays throughout the year that have traditionally been celebrated with fires. But some say it has to do with the return of warmth, or light, with the spring.

7. Things I'm not so sure about

I've seen some statements about things that happen on February 2 that were very interesting, but that I haven't been able to verify.

In several books I've seen the assertion that February 2 is the date of the Sacred Marriage. For example:

February second is Candlemas, the date of the Sacred marriage. Called Groundhog Day in America, it is considered Bear's Day in Austria, Hungary, and Poland, the day when bears emerge from their dens to look for their shadows.

What sacred marriage? Between whom? (Judging from the contexts, I would guess it's supposed to be a marriage between a girl and a bear, but this is not explicitly spelled out.) In what cultures? How do we know it took place on February 2?

Pastoureau² says that Arthur (whose name means "bear") pulled the sword from the stone on Candlemas, or Christmas, or both (according to different authors). I have not read all versions of this story. But in Robert de Boron's version, and Thomas Mallory's version, he pulls the sword from the stone on a whole series of holidays, starting with Christmas and ending with Pentecost. Does he really have any special link to Candlemas?

Do you know the answers to any of these questions? Please post them in the comments!

References

¹ Rockwell, David B. Giving Voice to Bear: North American Indian Myths, Rituals, and Images of the Bear. Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart: Distributed by National Book Network, 2003. http://www.contentreserve.com/TitleInfo.asp?ID={08E28958-B9ED-40DB-A491-1880E80A973F}&Format=50.

² Pastoureau, Michel Holoch George. The Bear: History of a Fallen King. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.

³ Frazer, James George. Balder the Beautiful, Volume I. A Study in Magic and Religion: The Golden Bough, Part VII., The Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul, 2004. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12261.

⁴ "If Candlemas Day Be Dry and Fair Nursery Rhyme Lyrics, Origins and History." Accessed February 2, 2014. http://www.rhymes.org.uk/a41-if-candlemas-day.htm.

⁵ "Carnaval de Oruro." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, January 15, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carnaval_de_Oruro&oldid=585007917.

⁶ "Arkoudiotissa Cave." The Megalithic Portal. Accessed February 2, 2014. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=35336.

⁷ "Imbolc in Yesterday's Ireland & Scotland." Celtic Well. Accessed February 2, 2014. http://www.applewarrior.com/celticwell/ejournal/imbolc/yesterdays.htm.

⁸ "We Sing a Song to Brigid." GodSongs.net. Accessed February 2, 2014. http://www.godsongs.net/2012/11/we-sing-song-to-brigid-bridget.html.

⁹ Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas, Spanning 50,000 Years. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997.

¹⁰ Brown, Gary. The Bear Almanac, 2nd: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bears of the World. Globe Pequot, 2013.

¹¹ James, E. O. Seasonal Feasts and Festivals. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1961.

¹² “Ancient Greek Festivals.” Accessed March 21, 2014. http://www.carnaval.com/greece/festivals/#Anthesteria.

See also...

Where Did Groundhog Day Come From? at mental_floss. A funny, informative article about Groundhog Day.

Imbolc, (Saint) Brighid's Day, Candlemas and Groundhog Day: history and relationship: Part 1 of 3 and Part 2 of 3 at examiner.com. Another good article on Groundhog Day et. al.; the names suggest there is a Part 3, but alas, I couldn't find it.

Lupercal, at romanreligion.org. This site has stories about ancient Romans celebrating their holidays. Very interesting and informative!

The Lupercalia in the Fifth Century by William M. Green. Reprint of an article from Classical Philology, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jan. 1931). This is about Pope Gelasius's letter to Andromachus about the abolition of Lupercalia.

Greek Festivals at Carnaval.com. This interesting article about ancient Greek festivals answered some of the questions I had previously posted in my "Things I'm not so sure about" section.

Some examples of people who wear saffron robes

ἡ ἄρκτος, by Lisa Cunningham

One of my Pandora stations plays a song called "Saffron Robe", by the band Centipede Eest. The chorus goes as follows:

I was wearing a knife in my back
You were wearing a saffron robe
Then you set yourself on fire
This situation's burning out of control

Who are these people, and why are they doing these things? I don't know. But these are the people I know of who wear or have worn saffron robes.

This is saffron. It's a spice. It can also be used
to dye clothes a bright yellow-orange color.

1. Some Buddhists monks.
   
   
2. Hindus who have renounced the world. According to Wikipedia, "Symbolically, a sannyasi casts his physical body into fire by wearing saffron robes when entering this phase, signifying purification of body through fire thus freeing the soul while the body is still alive."
   
   
3. Students at the School of Metaphysics, at their graduation ceremony. (Or so one of them told me.)
   
   
(* Apparently it was also worn for other functions in classical Greece. The Liddell-Scott lexicon defines krokoton as "a saffron-colored robe for state occasions, as for the festivals of Bacchus". There is also a verb, krokotophorein, meaning "to wear a saffron robe.")
4. Little girls in classical Greece, while doing a dance called the arkteuein ("acting like a bear") during a rite of passage at the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron.^{1, *}



These girls are doing the bear dance.

5. Priestesses of the Minoan goddess on the island of Thera, before it exploded.² The frescoes there also show girls harvesting crocuses and presenting them to the goddess, which suggests that it's considered sacred to the goddess. Other frescoes show robe presentation ceremonies.
   
   
6. Eos, the goddess of Dawn, according to Homer: "Dawn in her saffron robe came spreading light on all the world..."³
   
   
7. Hekate, according to an Orphic hymn: "Celestial, Chthonian, and Marine One, Lady of the Saffron Robe."⁴

This is a crocus. Saffron comes from its stigmas.

My initial observations are just that most of these examples are associated with either religions that started in India, or with goddesses in the Aegean. Do you know of other examples, or the reason, or what the song I mentioned is about? Please post it in the comments.

References

¹ Rockwell, David B. Giving Voice to Bear: North American Indian Myths, Rituals, and Images of the Bear. Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart : Distributed by National Book Network, 2003: 168.

² Castleden, Rodney. Atlantis Destroyed. New York: Routledge, 1998: 67.

³ Homer, Fitzgerald Robert. The Iliad. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1974: 175.

⁴ “Orphic Hymn to Hekate.” Accessed January 29, 2014. http://www.hermeticfellowship.org/OrphicHymnHekate.html.

See also...

After writing this, I found these two interesting, informative series of articles about saffron.

Saffron Mother, by Elatia Harris, at 3 Quarks Daily. An extremely well-written series of three articles; the first part is about the use of saffron on Thera and includes pictures of the frescoes that I mentioned.

Ancient Cultic Associations of Saffron Crocus, by Paghat. An exploration of saffron symbolism in mythology. Among other things, it shows pictures of Hindu goddesses wearing saffron-colored clothing. Her site has articles about the lore of many other plants as well.

Why does this blog exist?

I will be using this blog to do the following things:

• To post topics that are somehow connected to mythology and folklore, that I find interesting, or funny, or confusing.
• To try to work out what I know, while I still know it. (I tend to forget things I read if I don't write them down.)
• To review or summarize books or articles I have read.
• Often, I will be hoping that somebody with more information will happen upon my blog, find my questions and explain it all to me.