Myths and Legends of the World

Although the ancient Roman holiday of Floralia began in April, the Roman month of the love goddess Venus, it was really an ancient May Day celebration. The holiday for Flora (as officially determined by Julius Caesar when he fixed the Roman calendar) ran from April 28 to May 3. Flora is the Roman goddess of flowers, gardens and spring. Flora embodies the beauty and riotous abundance of nature. She is associated not only with the flowering plants but also with the bloom of youth and its pleasures. Symbolically, this flowering pertains to the human spirit too, one that can appreciate beauty in the body without necessarily making it into a sex object. Romans celebrated Floralia with the set of games and theatrical presentations known as the Ludi Florales.  Roman public games (ludi) were financed by minor public magistrates known as aediles. The curule aediles produced the Ludi Florales. The ludi could be very expensive for the aediles, which used the games as a socially ac...

Gaia Mother Earth Mother of All Great Prophetess First Goddess of Fertility Gaia means land or earth and fittingly. Gaia is the Goddess of Earth in ancient classical mythology. She is the spiritual embodiment of the earth. Gaia is often referred to as the Mother of All or the Great Mother goddess, since she is the primeval being from which all other beings sprang forth. According to Greek mythology Gaia existed at the dawn of creation and came into being from chaos. Gaia is considered  the first Goddess of Fertility, evidently because she is quite fertile. Gaia's first creation was the Heavens ... she named him Ouranos (Uranus). Gaia gave birth to Ouranos to cover herself on all sides and to be her equal in all ways. Ouranos proved to be a difficult son ... he was devious and sometimes dangerous. Ouranos had absolute dominion over the Heavens but he became too concerned with the affairs of Gaia and, much to her disapproval, tried to dominate her as well. Gaia ...

According to tradition, on April 21, 753 B.C.E, Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, found Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf named Lupa as orphaned infants. The twin-brothers were the sons of Mars, God of War, and Rhea Silvia, the Vestal Virgin. The story begins with the deposition of Numitor (their grandfather and king of the ancient Italian city of Alba Longa), by his brother Amulius. Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, was made a Vestal Virgin by Amulius - which meant that she was made a priestess of the Goddess Vesta and therefore forbidden to marry. However, the God Mars came to her in the Temple of Vesta and with him she conceived her two sons, Romulus and Remus. They were unwanted because Amulius feared that the boys would grow up to overthrow him, so he had them placed in a channel and thrown into the River Tiber. At that time the river was flooded and when the waters fell, the trough still containing the two boys came ashore. They were found ...

Taurus is one of the oldest constellations is represented by the symbol bull. Taurus is the second sun sign of the western zodiac astrology. Taurus, nestled between the constellations Aries and Gemini, is prominent in the skies of the Northern Hemisphere. The position of the Taurus constellation plays a significant role in astrology. Taurus has many myths relate to it including the Minotaur. The Minotaur is one of the most well-known creatures of Greek mythology. Ask anyone about the Minotaur and most likely the will tell you that it is a creature that has the head of a bull and the body of a man. This story might be a bit disgusting, or humorous, to some people, depending on your own personality, but Greek mythology has some pretty strange stories. The Minotaur’s existence is one of those strange stories. Before Minos was the king of Crete, he must legalize his right to rule. He prayed to Poseidon, the Lord of the Sea and Patron God of Crete, for a white bull. Minos wo...