




"My culture, your culture, our culture".
For Erasmus+ team
Salomé Oliveira ,Portugal

Legends and Myths of Europe






LEGEND AND TRADITION
Legends and traditions exist in every country and in every place. The legends of each people were transmitted by word of mouth and reaching to the present day. Their value and importance are enormous as they contribute to the preservation of the tradition of our place and our cultural education.
All these stories from ordinary people have something important to teach us. The effort of the ancients to protect themselves from evil through their stories and to give explanations to events is something that teaches us and still inspires us. Some of them there are in movies or in books nowadays !

The myth of Europe!
( The godmother of Europe!)
Aginoras , son of Poseidon and Libyan was king in the famous city of Sedona in the very far East.
In this city you could find everything that you want.
In rich Sedona , Aginoras was married the beautiful Tilefassa and they have got six children.
Five boys and one daughter, Europe.
Europe was so pretty and even the goddess of beauty Venus was jealous of her beauty.
When Zeus, the king of Gods, heard about the beauty of young Europe, he was very curious to meet her. He transformed into a while bull with golden horns and he went to field where Europe picked up flowers and danced with her friends.



When he saw her, he was fallen in love with her. He put Europe on his back and he run fast, flying far away.
As they were flying above the sea, Poseidon calm down the waves with his trident, so the handsome bull with his daughter could pass. Europe was crying and asked for help ,but Cupid, the little flying god, fills her heart with love.
When they arrive to Crete the bulls low down gently and let Europe in the ground.
A huge giant Tallow was responsible to quad her. Zeus returns to Olympus but he very often visit Crete to live with love close to Europe. So, beautiful Europe lived happily ever, after in Crete with the love of Zeus.
She born Minoa, who will be later the rich and famous king of Knossos in Crete and he will create the bright Minoan civilization.
Ever since, Crete, Greece and all the land around Greece were called Europe.

The myth of Asclepius
According to ancient mythology
Asclepius was born and lived in
Ancient Trikki ( Trikala) and his
status is the emblem of
Trikala city !
Nowadays the ruins of the ancient
Asclepieion exist in a very
central part of the city!



The birth and death of Asclepius
The famous "healing god", as he was worshiped in ancient Greece, Asklepios, had - according to the legend - a birth as tragic as his death. His mortal mother, Koronida, sided with the god Apollo and became pregnant in Asclepius. In the meantime, however, she met another man in Thessaly, who was considered the father of the fetus.
When Apollo learned that Koronida was with another man , he became so angry that he broke out in his white messenger bird, the white crow. From the curse, the crow turned black, and has remained so ever since. Then he asked by his sister Artemis to kill this man with an arrow and set Koronida on fire.

However, she appeared, like a machine god, at the last moment
and took the newborn Asclepius out of her burning body.
Asclepius became a great physician-therapist with tremendous abilities, who even went so far as to heal many Argonauts, but also the resurrection from the death of so many others.
But this doesn't like at all to the god of the Underworld, Pluto, who, seeing his clientele diminish, dropped the lightning of Zeus and killed Asclepius. Apollo, in order to avenge the god of Hades, killed the Cyclops, who had given Zeus the deadly lightning. In order to restore balance to the ranks of Olympus, Asclepius, at the same time as Hercules, was admitted after death to the palace of the Twelve

The myth of Daphne
Daphne was a beautiful young nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus, that crosses the plain of Thessaly.
Part of region of Thessaly is also Trikala city.
Daphne was a hunter and had devoted her life to Artemis, the goddess of hunting.
As the goddess so she refused to marry. She was surrounded be many admirers but she rejected them all, even the powerful son of Zeus Apollo.
Apollo fell in love with Daphne and when she refused his proposals he run after her through the trees.
Daphne was afraid and prayed to her father to help her.



So then her father told her that he would protect the metamorphosis to tree roots will the bank of the river, (the famous laurel us).
When Apollo came looking Daphne, his father told him that she was transformed into a tree.
Apollo after this ,made the laurel his sacred plant.
Apollo very sad cut some branches and wove a wreath to remember for ever the beauty of Daphne and his love for her.

The myth of Alcyone


According to the myth, Alcyone, before she became a bird, she was a beautiful woman, daughter of God of the winds Aeolus and Enarete.
She was married to Kifka.
They were very happy together that they started to think that were not like common people.
Gradually they began to think that they were equal to Gods. Alcyone and Kifka would often refer themselves as “Zeus” and “Hera”.

This angered Zeus, so while the Kifka was with his ship to the open sea, Zeus threw a thunderbolt and crushed his ship to punish him .Kifka helpless as he was, fall into the raging waves and drown.
When Alcyone learned the fact, went anxiously at the shore, looking for her husband . Μaybe he was alive.
But the only thing that she found was a few broken wood that water had washed up. She started crying inconsolable days and nights lamenting the loss of her beloved.



Out of compassion, the gods changed Alcyone into bird named after her. Because Alcyone was laying her eggs in the heart of the winter and hatched them on the rocks of the coast, the waves rush ashore, climbed the cliffs and destroyed her nest and the eggs.
Zeus feeling sorry for her again , he create a period of 14 days in winter where storms never occur and during which Alcyone
( kingfisher in English) laid her eggs and made her nest on the beach. During this period her father Aeolus, god of the winds, restrained the winds and calmed the waves so she could do so in safety.

These days, are sunny days without clouds and winds and called "Alcyonides days" for the sake of Alcyone’ egg laying.
Their name came from the halcyon birds which that time of year they lay their eggs.
During this period her father Aeolus, god of the winds, restrained the winds and calmed the waves so she could do so in safety.




Eglė, Queen of Serpents
One warm summer day, Eglė, the youngest daughter of a local farmer, went bathing in the sea with her two sisters. Afterwards, returning to the shore to get dressed, she found a serpent in her clothes. To her surprise, the serpent spoke to her in a man's voice and demanded that she promise to become his wife for the return of her clothes. Faced with an immediate need to get dressed and not thinking about possible future consequences, Eglė agreed.
Three days later a great number of serpents pulling a wagon showed up at Eglė's parents' farm to claim the bride. Eglė's family tried to trick the serpents by giving them one of their farm animals, but each time a cuckoo warned the serpents about the deception. Finally, wise to the trickery, serpents succeeded in taking Eglė with them to their master.
At the seashore they were met by Žilvinas, a handsome young man, the Serpent King, who took Eglė to a nearby island and then to his palace under the sea, where they wed.



Eglė and Žilvinas lived together happily and had three sons, Ažuolas, Uosis and Beržas, and a daughter, Drebulė, their youngest.
One day the children started asking about their mother's former home. Eglė became homesick and asked Žilvinas to allow her and the children to visit her parents' farm. Žilvinas was against it and set a number of what he thought were impossible conditions - to spin a never diminishing amout of silk, to wear out a pair of iron shoes, and to bake a pie without kitchen utensils.

Eglė, however, with the help of a local sorceress, was able to accomplish them and Žilvinas had to allow Eglė and the children to go.
The reunion with the family was such a happy event that Eglė's family did not want to let them return to the sea and decided to kill Žilvinas. But first, they needed to know how to get Žilvinas to appear from the sea.They demanded that the children reveal the family secret. Sensing danger, the sons refused to comply, but the youngest daughter Drebulė became frightened and revealed the secret call.

Eglė's twelve brothers rushed to the seashore, called Žilvinas, who appeared in serpent form, and killed him with scythes.
Not knowing her husband's fate and ending her stay with her parents, brothers, and sisters, Eglė returned to the seashore and called Žilvinas. In reply only a bloody foam appeared.
In her grief, after she realized that Žilvinas was dead, Eglė transformed her family into trees - her sons into an oak, an ash and a birch, her daughter into a trembling aspen, and herself into a spruce.


Gediminas' Dream
Gediminas, ruler of Lithuania from 1316 to 1341, went hunting in the forest of Šventaragis' Valley. Lithuanian forests were renown for their primeval state and abundance of game - a true hunter's paradise. Before Gediminas realized how late it was getting, night fell and he had to spend the night in the forest.

During the night he dreamt about a large wolf in iron armor howling with a voice of a hundred wolves on a nearby hill.

In the morning, puzzled by the dream, Gediminas sought out the help of Lizdeika, a local sage, to interpret the dream for him.
Lizdeika told him that the wolf's iron armor and loud voice meant that a powerful fortress would be built on the hill and that its fame would be heard far and wide.
Gediminas promptly gave orders to build a fortress on the hill and moved his headquarters to this new site. The city of Vilnius, the current capital of Lithuania, grew up around it.


Puntukas
Near the town of Anykščiai next to a pine forest there is a very large stone called Puntukas. It is 23 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 19 feet high. Locals say that Puntukas used to be in the forest, but when the people built the local church on a path used by Velnias, ruler of the Underworld, he became very upset and decided to block the entrance of the church with Puntukas.


It took a major effort for Velnias to move the stone, but with the help of all the evil spirits under his command he was able to lift it and to start carrying it. They were working at night and in secret. However, just as they got to the edge of the forest, the first rays of dawn appeared in the east and a rooster started to crow. Velnias and his helpers were so startled, that they dropped Puntukas at its present location and ran away.Unconvinced, scientists argue that Puntukas was carried here by glaciers during the last Ice Age from Scandinavia.


The legend of Punta Campanella:
the submerged bell

One bad day the Saracen pirates attacked the city of Sorrento. Terrible hours followed during which the invaders killed many citizens, plundered churches and palaces, devastated and burned. Having gathered the huge booty, the Saracen leader, however, was not satisfied and exclaimed loudly "I also want the bells". Thus the bell towers of the churches of Sorrento were stripped of their bells.
Plundered everything and leaving only devastation behind, the corsairs set out on their journey.




The bells were all very beautiful but the most beautiful was the bell of the Church of Sant’ Antonimo. And it was this that the corsair chose and had the flagship hoisted over.
The ship began its journey, but a mysterious force blocked it not making it continue. The corsairs then lightened the ship as much as possible, but nothing seemed to work, the ship did not move. Then the chief, exasperated, said to throw the beautiful bell into the sea.




Legend has it that as soon as the bell was thrown into the sea a sudden and very strong wind rose and the ship reached the others in a few moments. There are still those who argue that every February 14, the feast of the patron saint of Sorrento, the bell is heard ringing underwater.


The legend of the mermaid Partenope

Partenope, Leucosia and Ligeia were three beautiful mermaids, daughters of the Muse of Tragedy Melpomene and the Archeoo River, the most important watercourse in all of Greece. All three sisters were beautiful: their charm had no limits, but unfortunately there was a terrible curse on them. Indeed, a man's refusal would have sentenced them to death.



The legend tells of an incredible number of fishermen, who heard the enchanting and irresistible voice of the sirens, threw themselves into the sea, hoping to reach them. But, the current of the sea carried them inexorably against the rocks, killing them. The Greek hero Ulysses, who had been warned by the sorceress Circe, about the danger of the magnetic song of the three sirens, covered his ears. He did the same to his companions, who also asked to be tied to the mast, to be sure not to give in in any way and, therefore, not to jump into the water.


The boat passed near the rocks where the three beautiful enchanting sirens lived, but that time no one jumped into the sea. Mad with despair, they let themselves die.



Partenope was dragged by the current to Megaride, in the Gulf of Naples. His beautiful body, now lifeless, was transformed by the gods into an enchanting landscape: what is now the extraordinary Gulf of Naples, one of the most beautiful points of the entire Italian peninsula. This is why the city of Naples, in ancient times, was known as Partenope.


The Munaciello of Cilento

In a small village in Cilento, Santa Maria di Orria, a very poor family of three people lived in a house outside the center: Assunta, Dionigi and her eleven-year-old daughter Mena. When the family's conditions worsen more and more, one evening, the woman invoked the figure of the munaciello who appeared to her, fulfilling her every request. Every evening the woman went to the attic and in exchange for a hot meal she received coins with which to buy what she needed to support the family.


In a few years his conditions improved, stirring envy and murmuring among the inhabitants of the town.



When the curious husband let the secret be revealed, the munaciello stopped granting his favor.



LEGEND OF ALMOND TREES
IN FLOWER

It was in 1189 that D. Sancho I, second king of Portugal, with the nickname of Povoador, conquered the Arabs the city of Chelb, today Silves, the main city of one to region known as Al-Gharb, which today is the well-known Algarve.
The legend of almond trees and flower counts- inwhich, many years before D. Sancho I had arrived in Chelb, there was a young king, very brave, called Ibn-Almendin, whose art was war.
After winning a battle in northern Europe, the young king brought several prisoners to Chelb, among whom was a girl with blond hair and blue eyes named Gilda.

Ibn-Almendin, who was a good king, commanded her to set her free so that she might live in the city and want her.
Ibn-Almendin visited her often. I admire Gilda for her hair and her eyes, whose color he did not know, for her beauty and kindness.
Almost a year later, Gilda tells him she is coming home. Ibn-Almendin is shattered and asks that, instead of leaving, marry him.



The two married and were happy for some time, until Gilda fell ill, became pale, starving and unwilling to live. The doctors found no reason for such a disease and the king was desperate. One day, he asked to speak to the oldest prisoner in the same camp where Gilda had been. The man, advanced in age and friend of Gilda, heard the king and asked to see her.

After a few minutes, the old prisoner reportedly said that Gilda suffered from nostalgia, of longing for the snow that covered his country every winter. Ibn-Almendin was quieter and remembered the white flowers of almond trees that bloomed every spring, making the city white.
Without delay, he had almond trees planted everywhere, from the palace gardens to the city gardens and in the fields that the view could cover.


On the first day of the following spring, Ibn-Almendin took his wife in his arms and took her to the balcony. Gilda, seeing all that whiteness that reminded him of the snow of his country, smiled and thanked that gift. Every day, Gilda went to the balcony and every day improved a little.
When the longing for the snow disappeared, Gilda was healed.
From then on and during the many years they lived happily, Ibn-Almendin and Gilda never ceased to appreciate the wonderful spectacle of almond trees in bloom.


The Legend of the Castle of Almada
and the moorish Fátima Oureana


My dear Salome don t post in this book about the myth of Europe .
We will make another book because this is too big! Thank you!
The legend spread in Ourém, published by Friar Bernardo de Brito in the "Chronicle of the Order of Cisterer" (Book VI, Chapter I), however says that Fatima was either the daughter of the villager or the Moorish king of Alcácer do Sal (2), however Frei Francisco gives another version that we transcribe below:
"June 24 – XI. Gonçalo Hermiges, illustre Cavaleiro Português, from the time of our first King, was no less understood, that illustrious, and noless hard-working, that understood.

Guerreiro Gonçalo Hermiges and the Moorish Fatima Oureana.


He did the verses with more elegance, and culture, than one might expect from the rudeness of that age, and for them he was at the Esteemed Court, and applauded with vents to those of his sphere. In value equaled in the campaign to the most fearless. Had against the Moors such a fiery aversion, which in seeing them, but who were, or Embaixadores, or captives, jumped his heart in the chest with such aforehand,that the signs of wrath were divided on his face.

LEGEND OF THE COAST OF CAPARICA
(Adaptation of the book by Mário Neves
”Tu, Costa Minha! ... The past and the present”)

Once there was a beach that sometimes had a calm sea, sometimes it had a sea with very big waves. Sometimes the sea had fish, other times it didn't.
As soon as the fishermen started to take the boats to this beach, a very beautiful girl appeared, with a bag all patched up and a rich old cloak that shone in the distance.
Every day this girl would get her feet wet and cool off in the waters of the sea, then sit on the dry sand listening to the sea and watching the colors of the sunset.

He wore the rich cloak to protect it, because every day at sunrise he would beg the nearest villages for alms, keeping everything, he earned in his patched bag.
One day an older fisherman who went fishing alone, going after the apparatus at the tide of the tide, approached the girl:
- What is this I'm hearing?
Very quietly, the girl said:
- Oh the sea gives fish to fishermen on the coast!

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"My culture, your culture, our culture".
For Erasmus+ team
Salomé Oliveira ,Portugal

Legends and Myths of Europe






LEGEND AND TRADITION
Legends and traditions exist in every country and in every place. The legends of each people were transmitted by word of mouth and reaching to the present day. Their value and importance are enormous as they contribute to the preservation of the tradition of our place and our cultural education.
All these stories from ordinary people have something important to teach us. The effort of the ancients to protect themselves from evil through their stories and to give explanations to events is something that teaches us and still inspires us. Some of them there are in movies or in books nowadays !

The myth of Europe!
( The godmother of Europe!)
Aginoras , son of Poseidon and Libyan was king in the famous city of Sedona in the very far East.
In this city you could find everything that you want.
In rich Sedona , Aginoras was married the beautiful Tilefassa and they have got six children.
Five boys and one daughter, Europe.
Europe was so pretty and even the goddess of beauty Venus was jealous of her beauty.
When Zeus, the king of Gods, heard about the beauty of young Europe, he was very curious to meet her. He transformed into a while bull with golden horns and he went to field where Europe picked up flowers and danced with her friends.

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