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Welcome to POTM

Pith of the Myth is all about myths, folklore, legends and everything in between. January 1, 2020 will be the first pod drop but, in the meantime, I'll be making posts here, on Twitter and on Facebook. They will follow the daily theme below and/or a theme of the day itself. 

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Saint Nicholas Feast Day

One of the best known Christian saints around the world is Nicholas of the Ancient Greek (now part of Turkey) coastal city, Myra, as he is tied into the Santa Claus mythology. December 6th is set for his Feast Day as that is when he was believed to be the day he died though in the Orthodox religion it is on the 19th. Lots about the real saint have been lost but 200 years after his death, he had a strong band of followers...actually known as the cult of St. Nicholas. The cult entwined Christianity aspects with Greek mythology (why Krampus is at home being St. Nick's wing man). So, though there is very little left to tell us about the real Nicholas, he lived in a time and place where Christianity was constantly being attacked and documentation was done on parchment which wasn't always stored right, there are two stories about Nick that solidified his status as a child protecting generous giver: The first shows his altruistic side. A poor man with 3 daughters was very...
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Giving Tuesday - Oshun, The Yoruban Orisha of Sweet Waters

Giving Tuesday, is the modern holiday set aside to give to charity after a few days of mass consumerism. I wanted to give this day to one of the "Mother" deities and while I was looking I came across Oshun, of whom I have been meaning to read up on. Oshun (or Osun but also prevalent in the Caribbean religion, Santeria, as Oxum or Ochun) is a river orisha (a minor deity), who represents love, sensuality, African sweet (fresh) water, and fertility. She is one of the most favorite of the people and other gods, such as the Supreme God, Olodumare. The story of how Oshun came to be Olodumare's favorite started with the orishas rebelling against their Supreme God because they felt he was too neglectful of the people he left his them to look after. He could have decided to just end the nonsense by killing the orishas but being comfortable with his status and realizing that if he smote his emissaries he'd have to deal with the pesky humans needs, he opted to make it sto...
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National Tie One On Day - Pan, The Greek God of the Wild

November 27th is National Tie One On Day according to my trusty internet search so I’m going to take this time to talk about the Greek god, Pan. I get that he is better known for his pick up artist ways, but don’t sell him short on the partying. I mean his best bud was none other than Dionysus, god of debauchery and all things fun. OK, so, Pan was a satyr which means he was 65/35 goat/human and he sure liked the ladies of the forest, aka, the nymphs. The story goes that he ba sically stalked this one nymph, Syrinx, so bad that the river nymphs gathered and turned her into a bunch of reeds to hide her. Pan, not to be deterred by the new form the object of his desire took, grabbed a handful of reeds and made his flute...thus creating the pan flute.  Ugh, I feel like I should have prepared a spiffy sign off like..."and that’s the Pith of the Myth" or something. I’ll work on it ;)
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