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Sworn Brotherhood
Blood brother can refer to two or more men not related by birth who have sworn loyalty to each other. This is in modern times usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where each person makes a small cut, usually on a finger, hand or the forearm, and then the two cuts are pressed together and bound, the idea being that each person's blood now flows in the other participant's veins. The act carries a risk due to blood-borne diseases. The process usually provides a participant with a heightened symbolic sense of attachment with the other participant. Cultures Scandinavia The Norsemen entering the pact of foster brotherhood ( is, :is:Fóstbræðralag, Fóstbræðralag) involved a rite in which they let their blood flow while they ducked underneath an arch formed by a strip of turf propped up by a spear or spears. An example is described in ''Gísla saga''. In ''Fóstbræðra saga'', the bond of Thorgeir Havarsson (Þorgeir Hávarsson) and Thormod Bersason (Þormóð Ber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the '' Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex texture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hajduk
A hajduk ( hu, hajdúk, plural of ) is a type of irregular infantry found in Central and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries. They have reputations ranging from bandits to freedom fighters depending on time, place, and their enemies. In the European lands of the Ottoman Empire, the term ''hajduk'' was used to describe bandits and brigands of the Balkans, while in Central Europe for the West Slavs, Hungarians, Romanians, and Germans, it was used to refer to outlaws who protected Christians against provocative actions by the Ottomans. By the 17th century they were firmly established in the Ottoman Balkans, owing to increased taxes, Christian victories against the Ottomans, and a general decline in security. Hajduk bands predominantly numbered one hundred men each, with a firm hierarchy under one leader. They targeted Ottoman representatives and rich people, mainly rich Turks, for plunder or punishment to oppressive Ottomans, or revenge or a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kul-Oba
Kul-Oba (; , crh, Kül Oba; meaning "hill of ash" in Crimean Tatar) is an ancient archaeological site, a Scythian burial tumulus (kurgan), located near Kerch in eastern Crimea, on the right side of the M25 road to Feodosiya. Kul-Oba was the first Scythian royal barrow to be excavated in modern times. Uncovered in 1830, the stone tomb yielded a wealth of precious artifacts which drew considerable public interest to Scythian world. Of particular interest is an intricately granulated earring with two Nike figurines, now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburgbr> The tomb was built around 400 to 350 BC, likely by a team of Greek masons from Panticapaeum. Its Plan is almost square, measuring . The stepped vault stands high. The timber ceiling seems to have been designed to imitate a Scythian wooden tent; it is decorated by a canopy with gold plaques. The body of the king lay by the east wall on a sumptuous wooden couch. His social position was highlighted by a diadem encircling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drinking Horn
A drinking horn is the horn of a bovid used as a drinking vessel. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity, especially the Balkans, and remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in some parts of Europe, notably in Germanic Europe, and in the Caucasus. Drinking horns remain an important accessory in the culture of ritual toasting in Georgia in particular, where they are known by the local name of ''kantsi''. Drinking vessels made from glass, wood, ceramics or metal styled in the shape of drinking horns are also known from antiquity. The ancient Greek term for a drinking horn was simply ''keras'' (plural ''kerata'', "horn"). To be distinguished from the drinking-horn proper is the ''rhyton'' (plural ''rhyta''), a drinking-vessel made in the shape of a horn with an outlet at the pointed end. Antiquity Both in the Greek and the Scythian sphere, vessels of clay or metal shaped like horns were used alongside actu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toxaris
''Toxaris'' or ''Friendship'' ( el, Τόξαρις ἢ Φιλία) is a dialogue-style work by the Ancient Greek novelist Lucian. The text is thought to have been written around 163 AD in Asia. The text is set up as a conversation between an Athenian, Mnesippus, and a Scythian friend, Toxaris. The conversation takes place somewhere in Hellas, but the location is uknown. Their discussion begins with Mnesippus questioning the Scythians' devotion to Orestes and Pylades, in whose honor the Scythians had constructed a temple. Mnesippus asks why the Scythians would ever honor two men who had attacked their city, stolen Iphigenia who was priestess of their temple to Artemis, and finally the statue of Artemis itself from the Scythian city of Tauris. Toxaris tells Mnesippus that the Scythians venerate Orestes and his companion Pylades because of their devotion to friendship. He claims that Scythians are masters of practicing friendship while the Greeks have mastered merely describing i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac, all of his extant works are written entirely in ancient Greek (mostly in the Attic Greek dialect popular during the Second Sophistic period). Everything that is known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings, which are often difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration ''The Dream'', he was the son of a lower middle class family from the city of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria. As a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become a sculptor, but, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an education in Ionia. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scythians
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism." * : "Near the end of the 19th century V.F. Miller (1886, 1887) theorized that the Scythians and their kindred, the Sauromatians, were Iranian-speaking peoples. This has been a popular point of view and continues to be accepted in linguistics and historical science .. * : "From the end of the 7th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C. the Central- Eurasian steppes were inhabited by two large groups of kin Iranian-speaking tribes – the Scythians and Sarmatians .. * : "All contemporary historians, archeologists and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loki
Loki is a god in Norse mythology. According to some sources, Loki is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mentioned as a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi or Nari and Váli. By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. In the form of a mare, Loki was impregnated by the stallion Svaðilfari and gave birth to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Loki's relation with the gods varies by source; he sometimes assists the gods and sometimes behaves maliciously towards them. Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents appears in the form of a salmon, a mare, a fly, and possibly an elderly woman named Þökk (Old Norse 'thanks'). Loki's positive relations with the gods end with his role in engineering the death of the god Baldr, and eventually, Odin's specially engendered son Váli binds Loki with the entrails of one of his son ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, and the runic alphabet, and depicts him as the husband of the goddess Frigg. In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, the god was also known in Old English as ', in Old Saxon as , in Old Dutch as ''Wuodan'', in Old Frisian as ''Wêda'', and in Old High German as , all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic theonym *''Wōðanaz'', meaning 'lord of frenzy', or 'leader of the possessed'. Odin appears as a prominent god throughout the recorded history of Northern Europe, from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania (from BCE) through movement of peoples during the Migration Period (4th to 6th centuries CE) and the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries CE). In the modern period, the rural folklore of Germanic E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lokasenna
''Lokasenna'' (Old Norse: 'The Flyting of Loki', or 'Loki's Verbal Duel') is one of the poems of the ''Poetic Edda''. The poem presents flyting between the gods and Loki. It is written in the ljóðaháttr metre, typical for wisdom verse. ''Lokasenna'' is believed to be a 10th-century poem. Loki, amongst other things, accuses the gods of moralistic sexual impropriety, the practice of ''seiðr'' (sorcery), and bias. Not ostensibly the most serious of allegations, these elements are, however, said ultimately to lead to the onset of Ragnarök in the Eddic poem ''Völuspá''. However, ''Lokasenna'' does not ''directly'' state that Loki's binding is as a consequence of the killing of Baldr. This is explicitly stated only in Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda''. Lee M. Hollander, in his introduction to his translation of the poem, claims that it was in no sense a popular lay and suggests we should not necessarily believe that the accusations of the "sly god" were an accepted part of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leitmotiv
A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglicization of the German '' Leitmotiv'' (), literally meaning "leading motif", or "guiding motif". A musical motif has been defined as a "short musical idea ... melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three", a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity." In particular, such a motif should be "clearly identified so as to retain its identity if modified on subsequent appearances" whether such modification be in terms of rhythm, harmony, orchestration or accompaniment. It may also be "combined with other leitmotifs to suggest a new dramatic condition" or development. The technique i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
