The Winged Demoness of Death: Vanth and the Etruscan Underworld
On the walls of a 300 BCE Etruscan tomb, Vanth, a winged demoness of dark and stern gaze, flanks a door to the Great Unknown.
On the walls of a 300 BCE Etruscan tomb, Vanth, a winged demoness of dark and stern gaze, flanks a door to the Great Unknown.
Through myth, fairy tale and legend, powerful women are depicted as dark, cruel and calculating, and they are often naturally associated with winter – a season where all warmth withdraws, and the land is covered with snow and ice, and life is no more than a battle of survival against the elements.
The Fairy Census: 2014-2017 is a collection of modern fairy sightings. These have been collected through an internet questionnaire via radio, magazines, newspapers and, crucially, social media. Five hundred men, women and children sent their experiences.
The first witch of Western literature, Circe lived what appears to be an idyllic, solitary life on the island of Aiaia. She spent her time honing her enviable magic spells, collecting herbs from the thick forest that fringed her land and doting on her magically docile pet lions and wolves.
“The ocean is not so strong as the waves of thy longing,” the fairy whispered to the man she desired as a human lover. Was she casting a spell on him?
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