Yes, hares supposedly bring bad fortune.
Legend has it that witches transform themselves into hares, so crossing a hare’s path may mean meeting up with a witch.
Further, hares have been believed by some to be melancholy creatures; thus, eating a hare can ruin your day.
One reason spilling salt is considered bad luck is because salt was once valuable and difficult to obtain. According to an old Norwegian superstition, a person is doomed to shed as many tears as it takes to dissolve the spilled salt. Another reason is the belief that spilled salt refers to the devil. In the…
They were giants born of Uranus (Sky) and Gaea (Earth). Each of them had the characteristic single eye in the middle of the forehead. The most famous Cyclops, Polyphemus, ate some of Odysseus’s crewmen in The Odyssey. Others, Brontes, Steropes, and Argeswere famed for having fashioned Zeus’s thunderbolts.
Ishtar was the great mother goddess of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Her concerns included fertility, healing, sexuality, and lust.
Priapus, a Greek god of animal and plant fertility, was known for his enormous phallus. He was usually described as the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, though sometimes his mother was said to have been a local nymph. To sophisticated city-dwellers, Priapus often became the subject of racy humor, but rural people adopted him as…
According to legend you get the gift of eloquence when you kiss the Blarney Stone in Ireland. To reach the Blarney Stone, go to the southern wall of Blarney Castle in the village of Blarney, County Cork, Ireland. The stone is under the battlements there. Be warned: You have to hang head downward to kiss…
The Muses were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Originally there were only three, associated with memory. Their number was expanded to nine to represent each of the individual arts. They are: 1. Calliope, muse of epic poetry 2. Clio, muse of heroic poetry or history 3. Erato, muse of love poetry 4. Euterpe,…