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Deadly clothing (2)

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Posted on 2016-05-27 in
Lichas_bringing_the_garment_of_Nessus_to_Hercules

The shirt of Nessus.

Those surprised by the striking parallels between legends of the Basque Country and India should be still more amazed to hear in them echoes of age-old myths such as the shirt of Nessus, Medea’s poisoned dress or Harmonia’s cursed necklace, all of them fabled objects capable of inflicting a most painful death to those who, unconscious of their fatal effect, have the temerity to wear them. A summary of the story of the centaur Nessus by the great French mythographer Pierre Grimal will provide us with a higher basis for comparison: (more…)

Deadly clothing (1)

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Posted on 2016-05-20 in
Aurangzeb_reading_the_Quran

Aurangzeb reading the Quran.

Dominica Zalbidegoitia, from Dima, Arratia (Bizkaia), was the woman who (a century ago, give or take a decade) related the following oral legend to Resurrección María de Azkue:

The tail of the snake

There lived two brothers in Bargundia, a farmstead in Dima. One day, once their daily labour in the fields was completed, the two brothers returned to the house each with a stack of wheat on the shoulders, and on resting it down, a snake crawled out. One of the brothers started to beat the snake. The other told him:

─Leave it. It is God’s creature, so leave it in peace. (more…)

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