Letter from reader

Hello and best of wishes to all the PRSG team !

Firstly, I'm one of the tetamu biasa kat blog ni and really impressed dengan apa yang you all published kat main page. Memula saya drop by kat page you all ni... well i thought that takde group selain 'Seekers' kat MY tapi ada gak group yang buat Pranormal research blog untuk dikongsi bersama researcher yang lain.. Well Done to PRSG. Kebelakangan ni banyak dokumentari about this kinda stuffs... you all tak keluarkan apa apa video ke? kalau ada leh gak beli...:) And nak tanya.. kalau I ada article yang minta tolong untuk publishkan macam mana plak caranya? is it just email to either one of the email?

Selain dari tu I juga pernah ke Miri Sarawak dalam tahun 2001, tapi tak tau plak ada tempat-tempat mistik dan misteri :) Dan artikel yang paling saya suka adalah mengenai WW2 remnants eg crashed japs plane, bomb's crater, bunker etc.. tapi sayang sama gak dengan tempat-tempat kat MY yang lain dimana semuanya tak dijaga dengan cara yang sepatutnya... kalau nak dikatakan tempat bersejarah memang pun... kalau ler dapat di preserve kan elok.

Artikel tentang paranormal entiti yang lain pun seronok tengok... and yang latest tentang lokasi tentera jepun pancung kepala tu... ada photo yang berjaya korang shoot and evp tak? tak sabar nak tengok ;)

So, that's all my comments and keep up the great works of yours and waiting for the latest findings from PRSG. Yeeha!


K-rules
Muar Johor


(Seperti yang diemailkan ke PRSG )

Canada Hill apparition

Canada Hill is the place where the first oil well in Malaysia which famously known as the Grand Old Lady Oil Well No 1 located. Based on local resource, there's few cases where visitors who came there at night to see the night view of Miri City, claimed to saw dark apparitions crossing the road towards the bushes near the ravine. In some accounts, witness also claim to stumble upon a mysterious tall apparition which known to the local as Hantu Tinggi (Tall Ghost) standing in the middle of the road towards the historical monument. The PRSG team when there to investigate the stories and manage to captured some photo with a nightshot mode near the road entrance. The investigation took about 4 hours starting from 2300 until 0200 am on 14th March 2008 in order to capture any evidence of paranormal entities, apparition and also evp's.


Team members on Site:

R Iskandar @ Ezan
Goh T S @ Tee Tee

Apparition of a face taken with a nightshot camera


A close-up of the face apparition. A set of fangs or sharp front tooth is clearly seen after enhancement

Hasnida
PRSG AV

ParaCrypt RSG WW2 Haunted Execution Field Project

Old local government residential ruins

Former British and Japanese WW2 HQ from the distance

The location where the team saw apparition of WW2 Japanese soldier standing
( Sentry position)

Location near the haunting site

The roads where we managed to captured various EVP recording during

our night research

Nearby field not far from the location

The small road heading to the cliff where numbers of walking headless torso were spotted

Brief background

Located at Tanjong Lobang Miri, Sarawak. The location was known as one of the Japanese HQ during WW2 and the cliff and field at the back of the HQ was the place the execution of POW and Shell high ranks staff was beheaded and shot took place. Investigation was done by PRSG team and night haunting research was conducted recently with a positive result thou there's some unexplained incidents of malfunction equipment after being left behind for several hour. The investigation is still going on in order to get a very impressive findings.

Recent findings were the sound of WW2 fighter airplane in diving and hovering the area (A WW2 Japanese Zero fighter wreck was found in 1960's at the foot of the hill at the back of KTDTHB (Kolej Tun Dato Tuanku Hj Bujang which now already missing due to the scrap metal collecting activities done by local), rifle shot, apparition of headless torso (POW) and full torso of Japanese soldier- clearly visible and saw by team members, footsteps and whistling.

A further PRSG investigation will be done soon in order to capture and record more audio visual.

Vampires

A vampire is a mythical creature who overcomes death by sucking the blood from living humans. The most common variation of the myth portrays the vampire as a dead person who rises from the grave at night to seek his victim from the realm of the sleeping. The vampire is a popular theme of film makers who have started with Bram Stokers's novel (Dracula) and added a number of variations to the theme, e.g., the ability to fly (like the vampire bat); a lust for beautiful women as victims who then become vampires upon being bitten; fear of the symbol of the Christian cross; the repelling power of garlic or garlic flowers; and death by sunlight or by a special stake driven through the heart, a fitting death for a character commonly believed to be based on the 15th century warrior, Vlad the Impaler. However, according to Elizabeth Miller, author of Dracula:Sense and Nonsense (Desert Island Books, 2000), Bram Stoker did not base his vampire Count on Vlad the Impaler. He borrowed Vlad's nickname (Dracula) for a vampire character he had already conceived (and tentatively named Count Wampyr).

Legends of bloodsucking creatures are found in many cultures throughout history. One of the more popular bloodsuckers of our age is the chupacabra. The vampire is also a popular literary subject. Hence, there are numerous descriptions of the origin, nature, powers, etc. of vampires. What seems to be universal about vampire myths is their connection with the fear of death and the desire for immortality. The ritual drinking of blood to overcome death has been practiced by many peoples. The Aztecs and other Native Americans, for example, ate the hearts and drank the blood of captives in ritual ceremonies, most likely to satisfy the appetite of their gods and gain for themselves fertility and immortality. Also typical were the rites of Dionysus and Mithras, where the drinking of animal blood was required in the quest for immortality. Even today, some Christians believe that their priests perform a magical transubstantion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ to be eaten and drunk in the quest to join God in eternal life.

We might say we've made progress in our ritualistic quest to overcome death. First, we sacrificed humans and drank their blood to keep the gods alive and happy, or to join them in overcoming death. We later came to substitute bulls or other animals for humans to achieve our goal. Finally, we progressed to a vegetarian menu of bread and wine. Even so, the basic truth is depressing: for anything to live, something or someone else must die. Whether this truth sets you free or not depends, I suppose, on your place at or on the dinner table. Since we are deep into metaphors, we may as well note here that the vampire has become a metaphor for those who define and create themselves by destroying others. People whose lives center on destroying other people's lives by disempowering them, who reduce their victims to dependent subjects to be lorded over, have been called spiritual vampires. Some of the therapists, ministers and gurus I've written about elsewhere in the Dictionary could be called spiritual vampires, very aptly.

This cultural link between vampirism and the quest for immortality seems to have been subordinated in literature and film, where other themes, such as blood for blood's sake, fear for fear's sake, or entrance into the realm of the occult, seem to dominate. One sign of the cultural deterioration of our ancestor's noble quest for immortality can be seen in the modern secondary meaning of 'vampire': a woman who exploits and ruins her lover. Another example of deterioration can be seen in the numerous WWW sites on vampires which appeal to occult or New Age interests such as entering the so-called dark side of reality, gaining power, establishing a unique identity as a special person or selling commercial products and games.

Apparently, role playing and masquerading as vampires is not enough to satisfy the bloodlust of some people, and covens or cults of "vampires" have emerged among some occultists. They seek blood to give them power, a sexual rush, or to establish a unique and special fictional persona based on creating fear and mystery in others. Unlike our ancient ancestors, their power is not sought because of fear based on ignorance and misunderstanding of nature, but on ignorance and misunderstanding of themselves. Like other occult cults these vampire covens are attractive to the young and the weak. Just a few years ago, such "vampyres" would have been considered ill or evil. Today, they are said to have an "alternative lifestyle."

A vampire myths also go back thousands of years and occur in almost every culture around the world. Their variety is almost endless; from red eyed monsters with green or pink hair in China to the Greek Lamia which has the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a winged serpent; from vampire foxes in Japan to a head with trailing entrails known as the Penanggalang, langsuir and pontianak in Malaysia and kuntilanak in Indonesia.

However, the vampires we are familiar with today, although mutated by fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the far East, and were transported from places like China, Tibet and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans and of course the Carpathian mountains, including Hungary and Transylvania.

Our modern concept of the vampire still retains threads, such as blood drinking, return from death, preying on humans at night, etc in common with the Eastern European myths. However many things we are familiar with; the wearing of evening clothes, capes with tall collars, turning into bats, etc are much more recent inventions.

On the other hand, many features of the old myths such as the placing of millet or poppy seeds at the gravesite in order to keep the vampire occupied all night counting seeds rather than preying on relatives, have all but disappeared from modern fiction and film.

Even among the Eastern European countries there is a large variety of vampires.

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SLAVIC VAMPIRES:

The Slavic people including most east Europeans from Russia to Bulgaria, Serbia to Poland, have the richest vampire folklore and legends in the world. The Slavs came from north of the Black Sea and were closely associated with the Iranians. Prior to 8th century AD they migrated north and west to where they are now.

Christianization began almost as soon as they arrived in their new homelands. But through the 9th and 10th centuries the Eastern Orthodox Church and the western Roman Church were struggling with each other for supremacy. They formally broke in 1054 AD, with the Bulgarians, Russians, and Serbians staying Orthodox, while the Poles, Czechs, and Croatians went Roman. This split caused a big difference in the development of vampire lore - the Roman church believed incorrupt bodies were saints, while the Orthodox church believed they were vampires.

The origin of Slavic vampire myths developed during 9th C as a result of conflict between pre-Christian paganism and Christianity. Christianity won out with the vampires and other pagan beliefs surviving in folklore.

Causes of vampirism included: being born with a caul, teeth, or tail, being conceived on certain days, irregular death, excommunication, improper burial rituals etc. Preventative measures included: placing a crucifix in the coffin, or blocks under the chin to prevent the body from eating the shroud, nailing clothes to coffin walls for the same reason, placing millet or poppy seeds in the grave because vampires had a fascination with counting, or piercing the body with thorns or stakes.

Evidence that a vampire was at work in the neighbourhood included: death of cattle, sheep, relatives, neighbours, exhumed bodies being in a lifelike state with new growth of the fingernails or hair, or if the body was swelled up like a drum, or there was blood on the mouth and if the corpse had a ruddy complexion.

Vampires could be destroyed by staking, decapitation (the Kashubs placed the head between the feet), burning, repeating the funeral service, holy water on the grave, exorcism.

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ROMANIA:

Romania is surrounded by Slavic countries, so it isn't surprising that their vampires are variants of the Slavic vampire. They are called Strigoi based on the Roman term strix for screech owl which also came to mean demon or witch.

There are different types of strigoi: strigoi vii are live witches who will become vampires after death. They can send out their soul at night to meet with other witches or with Strigoi mort who are dead vampires. The strigoi mort are the reanimated bodies which return to suck the blood of family, livestock, and neighbours.

A person born with a caul, tail, born out of wedlock, or one who died an unnatural death, or died before baptism, was doomed to become a vampire. As was the seventh child of the same sex in a family, the child of a pregnant woman who didn't eat salt or was looked at by a vampire, or a witch. And naturally, being bitten by vampire, meant certain condemnation to a vampiric existence after death.

The Vircolac which is sometimes mentioned in folklore was more closely related to a mythological wolf that could devour the sun and moon and later became connected with werewolves rather than vampires. The person afflicted with lycanthropy could turn into a dog, pig, or wolf.

The vampire was usually first noticed when it attacked family and livestock, or threw things around in the house. Vampires, along with witches, were believed to be most active on the Eve of St George's Day (April 22 Julian, May 4 Gregorian calendar), the night when all forms of evil were supposed to be abroad. St Georges Day is still celebrated in Europe.

A vampire in the grave could be told by holes in the earth, an undecomposed corpse with a red face, or having one foot in the corner of the coffin. Living vampires were found by distributing garlic in church and seeing who didn't eat it.

Graves were often opened three years after death of a child, five years after the death of a young person, or seven years after the death of an adult to check for vampirism.

Measures to prevent a person becoming a vampire included, removing the caul from a newborn and destroying it before the baby could eat any of it, careful preparation of dead bodies, including preventing animals from passing over the corpse, placing a thorny branch of wild rose in the grave, and placing garlic on windows and rubbing it on cattle, especially on St George's & St Andrew's days.

To destroy a vampire, a stake was driven through the body followed by decapitation and placing garlic in the mouth. By the 19th century people were shooting a bullet through the coffin. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as a cure.

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GYPSIES AND VAMPIRES:

Even today, Gypsies frequently feature in vampire fiction and film, no doubt influenced by Bram Stoker's book "Dracula" in which the Szgany gypsies served Dracula, carrying his boxes of earth and guarding him.

In reality, Gypsies originated as nomadic tribes in northern India, but got their name from the early belief that they came from Egypt. By 1000 AD they started spreading westward and settled in Turkey for a time, incorporating many Turkish words into their Romany language.

By the 14th century they were all through the Balkans and within two more centuries had spread all across Europe. Gypsies arrived in Romania a short time before Vlad Dracula was born in 1431.

Their religion is complex and varies between tribes, but they have a god called O Del, as well as the concept of Good and Evil forces and a strong relationship and loyalty to dead relatives. They believed the dead soul entered a world similar to ours except that there is no death. The soul stayed around the body and sometimes wanted to come back. The Gypsy myths of the living dead added to and enriched the vampire myths of Hungary, Romania, and Slavic lands.

The ancient home of the Gypsies, India has many mythical vampire figures. The Bhuta is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wandered around animating dead bodies at night and attacked the living like a ghoul. In northern India could be found the brahmaparusha, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood.

The most famous Indian vampire is Kali who had fangs, wore a garland of corpses or skulls and had four arms. Her temples were near the cremation grounds. She and the goddess Durga battled the demon Raktabija who could reproduce himself from each drop of blood spilled. Kali drank all his blood so none was spilled, thereby winning the battle and killing Raktabija.

Sara or the Black Goddess is the form in which Kali survived among Gypsies. Gypsies have a belief that the three Marys from the New Testament went to France and baptised a Gypsy called Sara. They still hold a ceremony each May 24th in the French village where this is supposed to have occurred.

One Gypsy vampire was called a mullo (one who is dead). This vampire was believed to return and do malicious things and/or suck the blood of a person (usually a relative who had caused their death, or not properly observed the burial ceremonies, or who kept the deceased's possessions instead of destroying them as was proper.)

Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would exhaust the husband. Anyone who had a hideous appearance, was missing a finger, or had animal appendages, etc. was believed to be a vampire.

Even plants or dogs, cats, or farm animals could become vampires. Pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood.

To get rid of a vampire people would hire a dhampire (the son of a vampire and his widow) to detect the vampire. To ward off vampires, gypsies drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. Further measures included driving stakes into the grave, pouring boiling water over it, decapitating the corpse, or burning it.

In spite of the disruption of Gypsy lives by the various eastern European communist regimes, they still retain much of their culture. In 1992 a new king of the Gypsies was chosen in Bistritz, Romania.

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BATS:

No discussion of vampires is even thinkable without talking about bats. They are integral to the modern day concept of the vampire, but this was not always the case.

Many cultures have various myths about bats. In South America, Camazotz was a bat god of the caves living in the Bathouse of the Underworld. In Europe, bats and owls were long associated with the supernatural, mainly because they were night creatures. On the other hand, the Gypsies thought them lucky - they wore charms made of bat bones. And in England the Wakefield crest and those of some others have bats on them.

So how did bats end up becoming associated with vampires? There are only three species of vampires bats in the entire world, all of which occur in Central and South America. During the 16th century the Spanish conquistadors first came into contact with them and recognized the similarity between the feeding habits of the bats and those of their mythical vampires. It wasn't long before they began to associate bats with their vampire legends. Over the following centuries the association became stronger and was used by various people, including James Malcom Rhymer who wrote "Varney the Vampyre" in the 1840's. Stoker cemented the linkage of bats and vampires in the minds of the general public.

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EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VAMPIRE CONTROVERSY:

Today everyone is familiar with vampires, but in Britain very little was known of vampires prior to the 18th century. What brought the vampire to the attention of the general public? During the 18th century there was a major vampire scare in Eastern Europe. Even government officials frequently got dragged into the hunting and staking of vampires.

This controversy was directly responsible for England's current vampire myths. In fact, the word Vampire only came into English language in 1732 via an English translation of a German report of the much publicized Arnold Paole vampire staking in Serbia.

Western scholars seriously considered the existence of vampires for the first time rather than just brushing them off as superstition. It all started with an outbreak of vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Austro-Hungarian empire from 1725-1734.

Two famous cases involved Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole. Plogojowitz died at the age of 62, but came back a couple of times after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the next day. Soon Plogojowitz returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.

In the other famous case Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who had been attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After death people began to die and it was believed by everyone that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours.

These two incidents were extremely well documented. Government officials examined the cases and the bodies, wrote them up in reports, and books were published afterwards of the Paole case and distributed around Europe. The controversy raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural people having an epidemic of vampire attacks and digging up bodies all over the place. Many scholars said vampires didn't exist - they attributed reports to premature burial, or rabies which causes thirst.

However, Dom Augustine Calmet, a well respected French theologian and scholar, put together a carefully thought out treatise in 1746 which said vampires did exist. This had considerable influence on other scholars at the time.

Eventually, Austrian Empress Marie Theresa sent her personal physician to investigate. He said vampires didn't exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies. This was the end of the vampire epidemics. But by then everyone knew about vampires and it was only a matter of time before authors would preserve and mold the vampire into something new and much more accessible to the general public.

Yulia

PRSG member

Sleep Paralysis-- The Scientific Explanation

The medical establishment is quite aware of this phenomenon, but has a less sensational name than "old hag syndrome" for it. They call it "sleep paralysis" or SP (sometimes ISP for "isolated sleep paralysis").

So what causes it? Dr. Max Hirshkowitz, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Houston, says that sleep paralysis occurs when the brain is in the transition state between deep, dreaming sleep (known as REM sleep for its rapid eye movement) and waking up. During REM dreaming sleep, the brain has turned off most of the body's muscle function so we cannot act out our dreams - we are temporarily paralyzed.

"Sometimes your brain doesn't fully switch off those dreams - or the paralysis - when you wake up," Hirshkowitz told ABC News. "That would explain the 'frozen' feeling and hallucinations associated with sleep paralysis." According to his research, the effect only really lasts from a few seconds to as long as a minute, but in this half-dream half-awake state, to the victim it can seem much longer.

In her article, "Help! I Can't Move!," Florence Cardinal, About.com's Guide Sleep Disorders, writes: "Sleep paralysis is often accompanied by vivid hallucinations. There may be a sense someone is in the room, or even hovering over you. At other times, there seems to be pressure on the chest, as though someone or something perched there. There may even be sexual attacks associated with the hallucinations. The sound of footsteps, doors opening and closing, voices, all can be a very frightening part of sleep paralysis. These are known as Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Experiences and they are what make people dread an episode of sleep paralysis."

- For all their explanations, however, the sleep experts still do not know what causes the brain to screw up like this, or why some people experience it more than others. But there are some theories:

- "Episodes of paralysis can occur when the body is in any position, but happen most frequently when the sleeper is lying flat on his or her back. Intense fear is common, but sometimes other strong emotions, such as sadness or anger, are present," says Florence Cardinal in "The Terror of Sleep Paralysis."

- For some, SP is often brought about by not getting enough sleep or being overtired.

- Likewise, disrupted sleep schedules or circadian rhythm disturbances can produce an episode of sleep paralysis.

- It is more common in people who suffer from severe anxiety or bipolar disorder.

- Some research shows that SP is five times more likely to occur with people who are taking such anti-anxiety drugs as Xamax or Valium.

- A study found that 35 percent of subjects with isolated sleep paralysis also report a history of wake panic attacks unrelated to the experience of paralysis.

How can you prevent sleep paralysis? According to clinical research, you may be able to minimize the episodes by following good sleep hygiene:

- get enough sleep
- reduce stress
- exercise regularly (but not too close to bedtime)
- keep a regular sleep schedule

"For some people this may not be possible, however," says Florence Cardinal, "so instead let's look at ways to escape from the grip of sleep paralysis. The best remedy is to will yourself to move, even if it's only the wiggling of your little finger. This is often sufficient to break the spell. If you can manage it, scream! Your roommate may not appreciate it, but it's better than suffering through a long and fear-filled episode. If all else fails, seek professional help.

"Sounds like good advice. The bottom line is that you really have nothing to fear, in a paranormal sense, from sleep paralysis. That old hag you feel perched on your chest may be nothing more than the anxiety of living in a stressful world.

Original article from TAPS

Nida

Ancient Greek Gods

The Immortals

Name	Description/(Keywords)	Roman Name
Aphrodite	Aphrodite, the golden goddess of Love; born of the blood of Ouranos (the Heavens) and the foam of the sea. (Aphrodite, Venus)	Venus
Apollon	Apollon, the son of Zeus and Leto; the brother of Artemis. (Apollo, Apollon, Phoibos Apollon, the Striker from Afar)	Apollo
Ares	Ares, the god of War; the son of Zeus and Hera. (Ares, Aries, Mars, God of War)	Mars
Artemis	Artemis, Diana (Artemis, Diana)	Diana
Athene (Athena)	Athene, the goddess of Wisdom; the daughter of Zeus and Metis; the virgin goddess of intellect and invention. (Athene, Athena, Pallas Athene, Tritogeneia, Glaukopis, Minerva)	Minerva
Demeter	Demeter, the goddess of the Harvest; the daughter of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea). (Demeter, Ceres)	Ceres
Dione	Dione, the Mother Goddess of Mount Olympos (Olympus). (Dione)
Eos	Eos, the Dawn; mother of the Winds. (Dawn, Eos, Erigeneia)
Enyo	Enyo, one of the Graiai (the Gray Sisters); the daughters of Keto (Ceto) and Phorkys (Phorcys). (Enyo, Bellona, Gray Sisters, Graiai)	Bellona
Erida	Erida, the wearisome goddess of Hate. (Erida, Hate)
Erinyes	Erinys, the Mist-Walking and the Kindly One; punisher of the unfaithful. (Erinyes, Erinys, Furiae, Furies, Tisiphone, Megaera, Alecto, Alekto)	Furiae
Eris	Eris, the goddess of Discord and Strife. (Eris, Discordia, Discord)	Discordia
Eros	Eros, the primal god of Love; using arrows of gold and lead, he would wound the hearts of mortals and Immortals alike. (Eros, Cupid)	Cupid
Eurynome	Eurynome, one of the many daughters of Ocean; the mother of the Graces. (Eurynome)
Fates	The Fates, the Daughters of Necessity; born of Zeus and Themis. (Fates, Morae, Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, Klotho, Lakhesis, Moiras, Keras, Moirai, Moira)	Morae
Gorgons	Gorgons, the daughters of Phorkys and Keto (Ceto); with snakes about their heads and wrists, Medusa, Sthenno and Euryale were so hideous, the shock of seeing them would turn anyone to stone. (Gorgon, Medusa, Sthenno, Euryale)
Graces	Graces, the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome; the attendants of Aphrodite (goddess of Love) and the incarnations of Grace and Charm. (The Graces, Graces, Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Thalia, The Charities, Charities)	Charities
Hades	Hades, Lord of the Underworld; the son of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea). (Hades, Underworld, Pluto)	Pluto
Hebe	Hebe, the goddess of Youth; the daughter of Zeus and Hera; the wife of Herakles (Heracles). (Hebe, Youth)
Helios	Helios, the Sun; the son of Hyperion and Eryphaesa; he sees everything his light touches. (Helios, Sun God, the Sun)	Apollo
Hephaistos (Hephaestus)	Hephaistos, the god of the Smith; the son of Hera and artificer of the Olympians. (Hephaistos, Hephaestus, Vulcan)	Vulcan
Hera	Hera, the daughter of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea); the wife to Zeus; the most beautiful of the Immortals. (Hera, Juno)	Juno
Herakles (Heracles)	Herakles, the ultimate hero; the son of Zeus and Alkmene (Alcmene). (Herakles, Hercules, The Twelve Labors)	Hercules
Hermes	Hermes, the wing shod messenger of the Olympians; the son of Zeus and Maia. (Hermes, Mercury, Argeiphontes)	Mercury
Hestia	Hestia, the virgin goddess of the Hearth and humble domestic joy. (Hestia, Vesta)	Vesta
Hyperion	Hyperion, the Titan; father of Helios (the Sun), Eos (the Dawn) and Selene (the Moon). (Hyperion)
Hypnos	Hypnos, the god of Sleep; a child of Nix (Night) and the brother of Thanatos (Death). (Hypnos, Somnus)	Somnus
Io	Io, the Heifer-Maiden who rejected the love of Zeus. (Io, Heifer-Maiden)
Iris	Iris, the Wind-Footed messenger of the Immortals. (Iris)
Kalypso (Calypso)	Kalypso, the queenly Nymph and lover of Odysseus. (Calypso, Kalypso, Nymph, Nymphs)
Kheiron (Chiron)	Kheiron, the most righteous of the Centaurs; the powerful master of many arts and sciences. (Cheiron, Kheiron, Centaurs, Centaur, Eurytion)
Kirke (Circe)	Kirke, the Dread Goddess; the daughter of Helios and the mistress of potions and spells. (Circe, Kirke)
Kronos (Cronos)	Kronos, the Titan; father of the Olympians. (Kronos, Cronos, Cronus, Saturn)	Saturn
Leto	Leto, the consort of Zeus and mother of Apollon and Artemis. (Leto)
Muses	The Muses attend the festivals on Olympos and entertain and inspire the other gods with their wit and charm. (Muses, Mousai)
Nereids	The Nereids, the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. (The Nereids, Nereids, Thetis, Agaue, Aktaia, Amphinome, Amphithoe, Apseudes, Dexamene, Doris, Doto, Dynamene, Galateia, Glauke, Halia, Iaira, Ianassa, Ianeira, Kallianassa, Kallianeira, Klymene, Kumodoke, Kumothoe, Limnoreia, Maira, Melite, Nemertes, Nesaie, Oreithyia, Pherousa, Panope, Proto, Speio, Thaleia, Thoe)
Odysseus	Odysseus, the hero of the Trojan War and the long suffering traveler in The Odyssey. (Odysseus, Ulysses)	Ulysses
Orai, The Hours	Orai, the three sisters, Eunomia (Harmony), Dyke (Justice) and Eirene (Peace) assist the Olympians by organizing the Seasons and adding balance to Nature. (Hours, The Hours, Eunomia, Dyke, Eiren, Horae, The Horae, Orai)	Horae
Pan	Pan, the Goat-God; he prances through the fertile countryside in the company of Nymphs playing his seven-reed pipe in wild abandon. (Pan, Faunus, Goat God)	Faunus
Persephone	Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus; the wife of Hades and queen of the Underworld. (Persephone, Proserpina)	Proserpina
Poseidon	Poseidon, the lord the Sea; son of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea). (Poseidon, Neptune)	Neptune
Prometheus	Prometheus, the rebel god; in defiance of Zeus, he gave fire and other comforts to the mortals on the earth. (Prometheus)
Rheia (Rhea)	Rheia, the wife of devious Kronos (Cronos) and mother to the Olympians. (Rheia, Rhea)
Rivers	Rivers; the children of Okeanos (Ocean); Immortals who have chosen rivers as their earthly bodies. (Rivers, Acheloios, Akheloios, Aiseopos, Alpheios, Asopos, Axios, Boagrios, Grenikos, Gyge, Hermos, Hyllos, Hypereia, Karesos, Kephisos, Lykia, Maiandros, Messeis, Minyeios, Ocean, Okeanos, Parthenios, Peneios, Rhesos, Rhodios, Sangarious, Satnioeis, Simoei, Skamandros, Spercheios, Styx, Titaressos, Xanthos)
Skylla	Skylla, the man-eating she-beast with six heads. (Skylla, Charybdis, Kharybdis)
Styx	Styx, the eldest daughter of Okeanos (Ocean) and Tethys; any Immortal who pours the waters of Styx and swears an oath, is solemnly bound to tell only the truth. (Styx)
Thanatos	Thanatos, the god of Death; a child of Nix (Night) and the brother of Hypnos (Sleep). (Thanatos, Death)
Thetis	Thetis, one of the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris; the wife of Peleus and the mother of Akhilleus (Achilles). (Thetis)
Winds	The Winds are Immortals who have chosen the air as their earthly bodies. (Winds, Eos, Boreas, Eurus, Notus, Zephyros, North Wind, East Wind, South Wind, West Wind, Kaikias, Caicias, Apeliotes, Lips, Skiron, Sciron)
Zeus	Zeus, the Olympian; the son of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea); lord of the Sky. (Zeus, Jupiter)	Jupiter

Greek Myths are all that’s left of the ancient Greek religion. About 1200 b.c.e., the residents of, what we would call, Greece and Asia Minor shared a common belief in a group of deities that came to be known as The Olympians.

The distillation of the various regional beliefs into a coherent central religion was probably not as tidy and uniform as we would prefer, but it’s fair say that the stories of the Olympians survived because they had the largest number of followers and, most importantly, The Olympians did not forbid or punish the pursuit of knowledge. Beauty, poetry and creative activities are the blessings of The Immortals and are a vital part of the Greek tradition.

The Olympians are descended from the primal, self created gods, begining with Kaos. The Olympians are ruled by Zeus. He is the strongest and, as you will see, without him, the other Olympians would still be held captive inside their devious father, Kronos. The Olympians are only a small part of the family of Immortals that rule the earth and sky. The various rivers, mountains and forces of nature are the ‘bodies’ of the Immortals and proper respect must always be shown if you wish to have peace at home and safe passage when you travel.

The ancient texts we call Greek Myths are mostly from the period known as Classical Greece, circa 500 b.c.e. The stories behind the myths are from a much earlier time but written versions don’t exist before Classical times.

The oldest myths can be traced to three main sources: Homer, Hesiod and The Homeric Hymns, circa 800 b.c.e. That means that by the time they were written down, these works had survived 400 years of additions, subtractions and mutations to finally become the versions we now call ‘authentic’. The Greek Myths are our window into the distant past, a view of a world that existed not only in the mind of the Greek poets but in the hearts of the humble and long suffering natives of ancient Greece.

The names are NOT hard to pronounce, The Greeks don’t use C’s... they use K’s instead. For example, Aphrodite is known as Our Lady of Kypros because the island we call Cyprus is sacred to her. Also, Herakles (HERA klees) is the famous Greek hero who is often confused with the Roman hero, Hercules (HER ku lees).... it’s important to make the distinctions.

The most famous legend in Greek Mythology

Herakles or Hercules?

Was the Greek Herakles the same hero that the Romans worshiped as Hercules? The answer devolves from Yes to Maybe and then No.

The differences between the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses have become so blurred over the centuries that it is sometimes difficult to tell one from the other. Instead of comparing the Greek and Roman deities, many books and mythology web sites use the term "equivalent" as if the Greek and Roman deities were identical. There are numerous popular translations of ancient Greek literature in which the Greek gods and goddesses are never called by their Greek names! Zeus becomes Jove, Ares becomes Mars and Herakles becomes Hercules etc. The translators substitute the Roman names for the Greek names and no one seems to notice or care. The result has been that many people are convinced that the ancient Romans did not have an original religion at all and that the essence of their spiritual life was nothing more than a revival of the ancient Greek religion with the addition of a few Roman flourishes and new Latin names for the gods and goddesses. Both religions have been relegated to the category of myth and today it would seem that to quibble over their unique differences is unimportant. The ancient religions of Greece and Rome were not myths to their worshipers... the real myth is that we equate these two religions so willingly and completely.

One of the main problems with the heritage of the Roman deities is that there is no Theogony to document their interconnections. To refresh your memory, Theogony is a poem written by the Greek poet Hesiod in the mid-seventh century BCE in which he methodically lists the Greek gods and goddesses, their parents, their descendants, their role in the cosmos and, most importantly, their true names and pseudonyms. Sadly, our knowledge of the ancient Roman religion does not include a definitive text such as Theogony to delineate their gods and goddesses. I believe that this gap in our knowledge is one of the primary reasons we so easily confuse these two ancient religions.

It's true that the Greeks and the Romans saw forces of nature as the personifications of divine beings. It's also true that they both believed that their gods and goddesses could assume the guise of mortal humans. From these basic beliefs the Greeks and Romans each built an elaborate and distinctly different pantheon. The two pantheons were similar in many ways but not, as some would have you believe, the same gods and goddesses with different names. If we consider the difference in time, the difference in language and, most importantly, the difference in culture which separated these two civilizations, it should be clear that it would be impossible for them to have the same exact religion. Similar, yes. Identical, no.

There is a modern example of this concept that makes the differences between the Greek and Roman religions seem like night and day. In the Western Hemisphere, the most popular religion is Christianity. This religion is based on the Bible. Over the centuries, the Christian faith has splintered into numerous sects with different interpretations of the Bible. Some aspects of the Christian religion have diverged from their common heritage so dramatically that there have been schisms within some of the sects creating sub-sects that could easily qualify as cults. If the SAME religion can be splintered into dozens of different sects with drastically different belief systems, is it so hard to accept the probability that two SIMILAR religions, such as the Greeks and Romans practiced, could be distinctly different?

Most myth researchers are quick to say that the Greek Herakles was taken into the Roman pantheon directly from the ancient Greek religion and that, aside from the spellings of their names, there is no inherent difference between the Greek Herakles and the Roman Hercules. However, when we get to the details of his existence, the Roman Hercules becomes more and more Roman and less and less Greek.

The story of Cacus and the Roman Hercules is an example of the way in which the Romans incorporated the Greek Herakles into their pantheon and simultaneously made him a Roman. When the Roman Hercules was returning from his Tenth Labor (Taking the Cattle of Geryon), he encountered the half-human monster, Cacus, and slew him. Not surprisingly, Cacus lived in Italy on the Tiber River. He was the son of Vulcan, the Roman god of creative fire. Displaying the characteristics of his father, Cacus was gigantic and belched fire and black smoke. After the Roman Hercules had taken Geryon's cattle, he camped near Cacus' cave. Unable to resist any form of criminal behavior, Cacus stole four bulls and four heifers from Hercules' herd. Cacus must have been familiar with the Homeric Hymn to Hermes because he used the same trick Hermes had used when he stole the cattle of Apollon, i.e. he marched the cattle backwards into their hiding place so that their hoof prints would deceive anyone who tried to find them. Although well hidden, the stolen cattle began to bellow and Hercules soon found Cacus' cave. After a thunderous battle, Hercules drug the lifeless body of Cacus from the shattered cave, reclaimed his cattle and restored the accumulated plunder to the local inhabitants. This story is from the Aeneid (book 8, lines 255-410) and perfectly illustrates the way in which the Romans borrowed from previously tried-and-true legends to make their own beliefs seem more credible. It should be noted that the Greek Herakles did not encounter Cacus when he took the Cattle of Geryon.

Other lessons can be learned from the Aeneid about how the Romans disdained the ancient Greek religion and, in fact, did not adopt or admire the Greek gods, goddesses or traditions. The Aeneid was written by the Roman poet, Virgil, between the years 29-19 BCE during the reign of Augustus Caesar (a.k.a. Octavian). The Aeneid was an undisguised attempt to re-instill the noble values on which Rome had been founded and to give new faith to the people of Rome after the flagrant excesses of Julius Caesar and Marcus Antony. The Roman gods and goddesses portrayed in the Aeneid were not the same Immortals that the Greeks worshiped. The Romans were a different breed and so were their deities. In the Aeneid, Greek heroes, such as Menelaus and Diomedes, are depicted as butchers and cowards. Graceful Greek goddesses, such as Iris and Pallas Athena (Athene), were given a dark countenance that was both unflattering and semi-evil. The Roman goddess of Love, Venus, was no Aphrodite. She was not just a manipulator, like Aphrodite, she was a trickster in the most vile sense of the word. The Aeneid was not a celebration of the religion the Romans inherited from the Greeks. The Aeneid was a denunciation of Greek religious values and its institutions.

After his adoption into the Roman pantheon, the Roman Hercules was given an alter in Rome and it's been suggested that he replaced a less popular Roman tough-guy named Recaranus. The idea of a righteous strong-man or tender-hearted tough-guy seems to have always been a popular standard in Western thought and the Romans were quick to adopt the Greek Herakles and give him a Roman name, distinctly Roman attributes and a Roman father.

The Greek Herakles was the son of Zeus and Alkmene (a mortal woman). He lived and died a generation before the Trojan War and fathered scores of children. His descendants ruled many cities and regions of the Greek world for hundreds of years after his death. The cult of Herakles was popular throughout the prehistoric and historic Greek world. Greek historians such as Herodotus and Xenophon wrote of Herakles as if he was a flesh-and-blood man and made no apologies for their sincere beliefs.

In the ancient Roman religion, Jupiter is the father of Hercules. No matter how you bend and stretch the facts, Zeus and Jupiter can not be equated. The best argument I've seen which attempts to equate Zeus and Jupiter is strictly semantic and not very convincing. This argument assumes that Zeus' name was derived from the Indo-European word Dyeus which means Sky. It would follow that Jupiter's name was derived from Dyeu-Pater which might be read as Sky-Father. This argument adds assumption to assumption and seems to unravel when the same logic is applied to the Roman names of other gods and goddesses. How did Poseidon become Neptune or how did Athene became Minerva. It seems to me that if we are trying to make an Indo-European connection between the names for the Greek and Roman deities and declare that the names are equivalent, the correlations should apply across the entire spectrum of names and not just to one name. If we want to be as generous as possible, the correlations should apply to at least two or three names and not just one belabored example.

If we rely solely on the historical record we have more evidence that the Greek Herakles was forced into the Roman pantheon and not a natural part of it. The earliest date for the founding of Roman culture (not Rome itself) is circa 750 BCE. When the Trojan War was fought (circa 1250 BCE) Herakles had been dead for one generation. That would mean that Herakles interacted with the Roman deities 500 years before they were instituted. This would mean that the Roman Hercules died 500 years before his father was conceived.

There are many convincing arguments which theorize that religious beliefs have evolved along the same geographic paths as technology and culture. These theories assumes that ideas have generally migrated from the east to the west. If true, that would mean that the Egyptian religion had elements of the Sumerian and other Asian religions. In turn, the Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians. Likewise, the Romans used ideas from the Greek pantheon to create their own religion. With every step along the evolutionary road, religion, technology and culture have become more sophisticated. The Roman religion was thus more mature and refined than the ancient Greek religion and there are historical instances where the Romans banned certain Greek religious customs and traditions because they seemed barbaric to Roman sensibilities. The Bakkhanalia (Bacchanalia) is one example. The Bakkhanalia was a festival in honor of the god Bakkhus (Bacchus). It was fueled by wine and intended to incite frenzy in the participants. The Romans banned this longstanding Greek festival in the second century BCE because they considered the festivities to be of a depraved and wanton nature. Please consider what it might take to offend Roman sensibilities in those ancient times. Slavery, crucifixion and gladiatorial combat were common fare in Rome. The subjugation of the known world did not offend the Romans, why would wild revelry and drunkenness offend them? Perhaps it was not the behavior of the worshipers but rather the god which the Bakkhanalia honored that irritated the Romans. The Romans did not preserve and perpetuate the ancient Greek religion, they banished it.

Another example of how the Greek and Roman names have become interchangeable and confused might come from the worlds first historian, Herodotus. When Herodotus was traveling in Egypt and Asia Minor, he repeatedly referred to the local deities by their Greek names. He states that he visited the temple of Zeus and Ares and a host of other gods and goddesses with Greek names while he was in those foreign lands. What he was actually saying was that the Egyptians, Skythians, Babylonians and so forth, worshiped deities which reminded him of his own gods and goddesses and he simply used the Greek names for these foreign deities to make it easier for his Greek audience to appreciate what he was describing. This is essentially what has happened to the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, i.e. for the sake of convenience, not accuracy, the names of the deities of the two pantheons have been interchanged and, with the passing of time, the differences between the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses have become indistinguishable to the casual observer.

When the Greek Herakles was inducted into the Roman pantheon, his character and attributes were modified to suit the firmly established Roman culture. The underlying traits which made him such a powerful influence on the ancient Greek world were transplanted into the new fertile mythos of Rome and, as with any belief system, did not remain static but transmuted the old, dead Greek Herakles into the new, living Roman Hercules. The hero is dead, long live the hero.

By GnomeXGurl

Pocong

The photo taken by my bro during their trip to Terengganu. While having their dinner... Nuar was taking the video and picture of the family... after shown on tv set... the mysterious image resemble a 'pocong' visibly seen standing behind Azaf's back 2nd from the right with black T-shirt) . There nothing behind him except lake (dinner was on a floating terrace)


R Iskandar
Paracrypt Research and Study Group