Monster's, Cryptid's and Yokai: The Jorogumo

 

 

 Today we talk about
Spider Woman....

aka  the Jorogumo..

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The Jouogumo is a Japanese spider yôkai  that can change its appearance into that of a attractive young woman in order  to lure in her prey, human men.

However even when she's in her human form her reflection will still show a giant spider.

She is immune to all kinds of poison and aside from shapeshifting is believed to have other magic ability's as-well...

The  Nephila Clavata, Or Golden Orb Weaver is  a real kind of spider and can get quit large.

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Stories of this lethal eight legged yokai can be traced as far back as the edo Period.

The name Jorogumo when written with kanji mean's “entangling bride.” though these characters were later added to her name  to change it from the original meaning: “whore spider.”


 
According to the myth, a beautiful woman would entice a man into a secluded shack of private room at an inn, she would then  begin to play a Biwa, a type of Japanese lute this was just a destruction.

While her soon to be victim was focused on the sound of the instrument, she would bind him in spider silk threads in order to devour the unsuspecting person as her next meal.
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The Orb Weaver spider is considered to be the spider form of this yokai.

According to most legends, when a spider turns 400 years old, it gains magical or supernatural powers.

Famous Edo period stories can be found in  "Taihei-Hyakumonogatari" and "Tonoigusa".

                                                   
In many of these accounts the Jorogumo changes its appearance into that of a beautiful young woman and would ask a samurai to marry her,
in other versions she will take the form of a young woman carrying a baby (which may turn out to be a spider's eggsack).

Drawings, like the one in Toriyama Sekien's book Gazu Hyakki Yako, depicts Jorogumo as a half-woman/half-spider surrounded by her spider children. 

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The jorogumo is the most well-known of the spider yokai.

They can be found all over the Japan, except for Hokkaido.

The golden orb weaver's body size averages between two to three centimeters long, though they can grow far larger as they age; some are so big  they can catch and eat small birds.

These spiders are well known for their large size, eye catching colors and the large sturdy webs they weave.

                             

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Her favorite prey is young men.

When a jorogumo sets her sights on a man she desires, she will invite him into her home, he is usually never seen again.
 

They can spin silk threads strong enough to trap a grown man and keep him in place.

She also has a strong venom that can slowly weaken a man day by day, allowing her to prolong her victims inevitable death  so she can savor his suffering.

In some versions she is believed to have the ability to control other, lesser spiders, even using magic fire-breathing spiders to burn down the homes of anyone
that grow suspicious of her.

If she is careful enough a  jorogumo can operate in secret  like this for years without detection, even in the middle of a busy city,  while the skeletons of hundreds of men eventually build up in her home/ nest.

They usually make their nests in old caves, forests, or empty abandon homes and buildings.

Jorogumo are highly intelligence but also very cold hearted , she see's humans as no more valuable then common insects only there to feed on.

They are powerful shapeshifters and usually spend  their lives in the form of a young attractive women.
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Jorogumo also appear in various manga and anime..

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                                                         Kirue ITOSHIGE - Yokai Girls Manga

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                                               Monster Musume/ Monster Girls Encyclopedia

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                                                  Jorōgumo from  Rosario + Vampire
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                                               Jorōgumo in NURARIHYON NO MAGO

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alright that's all for now, next post will be up soon. :)

Monsters, Cryptid and Yokai :.. Devil Monkeys

                                        .......   The Devil Monkey .........


The Devil Monkey, is a Baboon like canin cryptid, spotted in several state's through out  the United States, most recently in  the south...
 

An eye witness account claims  that she noticed her dog was acting very agitated when they we're on they're hike through Mt. Elden forest trail, when she noticed a small group of primate like creatures scurrying through the rocks.

She described them as 4-5 feet tall, very quick and agile.

 

There have also been other sightings in other states such as New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Unique breeds of monkey have been described as being about 3 to 4 feet tall, although some eyewitnesses have sworn that these things  can reach  a terrifying  height that is in excess of 7 feet tall.

The first reported encounter with this fast, dangerous predator occurred in 1934, in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee.


According to the reports — which were allegedly published in national newspapers — eyewitnesses described a mysterious beast that could “leap across fields” with “lightening speed.” This ability to jump great distances — up to 20 feet according to some accounts — have led some to speculate that these animals may have something in common with the Kangaroos that have  allegedly been seen throughout the United States for decades.

The suggestion is that those who think they’re seeing kangaroos from a distance are, in fact, seeing Devil Monkeys. While these 1934 encounters may or may not be associated with this phenomenon, the first “official” Devil Monkey sighting occurred in 1959, while a couple by the name of Boyd were driving through the mountains near their home in Saltville, Virginia.

According to their account, an ape-like animal  attacked their car, leaving three scratch marks on the vehicle.

The Boyd’s daughter, Pauline, described the terrifying attacker:  It had light, taffy colored hair, with a white blaze down its neck and underbelly… it stood on two, large well-muscled back legs and had shorter front legs or arms.” Boyd went on to describe a second Devil Monkey encounter that occurred just days later in the same region: “Several days after this incident, two nurses from the Saltville area were driving home from work one morning and were attacked by an unknown creature who ripped the convertible top from their car.” Luckily the nurses — though surely frightened out of their wits — were unharmed.

In 1969, esteemed mystery ape researchers Johnn Green looked into accounts of a long-tailed “monkey” beast that eyewitnesses claimed was lurking near Mamquam, British Columbia.

 This creature was said to have left a series of distinctive, three toed tracks — much like those attributed to Devil Monkeys as well as the legendary Bigfoot— in its wake.

In 1973, famed cryptozoologist and author Lauren Coleman investigated reports of three, black bushy-tailed “giant monkeys” that were said to have slaughtered livestock in Albany, Kentucky. Coleman mentioned the event in an interview with Animal Planet: “I investigated that case in depth. I interviewed the people, who were very sincere.

 In the whole context of devil monkey reports, it seemed extremely sincere.

 You have these reports of hairy, monkey-like creatures with tails, very different from Bigfoot.” In 1979, there was a spate of reported encounters with a bipedal, monkey-like critter known as the Bigfoot which hailed from the rural depths of Georgia. One female eyewitness described it as: “The ugliest looking thing I've ever seen… (it had a tail) like a beaver’s, but it’s bushy.” She also claimed in bore “a face like a dog.” These traits are all known to be Devil Monkey characteristics.

 There have been several  eyewitnesses that have describe this cryptid  as resembling a wild dog at a distance, which would suggests that they  may be capable of   both bipedal and quadrupedal movement...

Monsters, Cryptids and Yokai: the Kuchisake Onna or Slit Mouthed Woman.

 

 i love myths and folklore from all over the world.

Japan  is  full of interesting yokai, today's post will be about the Kuchisaki- onna or slit mouthed woman.


The slit mouthed woman is a well know yokai and has been seen in several popular modern shows and movies.

She can also be found in several  manga, live-action movies, anime and video games throughout Japan.

She was in the 1994 animated film Pom Poko, produced by Studio Ghibli, and would later appears in the 1996 live-action
short film titled " Kuchisake-onna", directed by Teruyoshi Ishii.
   

The 2007 horror movie "Carved" (also known under the titles Kuchisake-onna or A Slit-Mouthed Woman), directed by Koji Shiraishi  and featuring Miki Mizuno as the Kuchisake-onna,  The film was then followed by a sequal Carved 2: The Scissors Massacre  (also known as Kuchisake-onna 2) and The Slit-Mouthed Woman: The Beginning (or Kuchisake-onna Biginingu), released in 2008.

 Another movie in 2012 called Kuchisake-onna Returns,  

As well as in the occult/supernatural webcomic Mob Psycho 100.

And several other mentions and appearances in various manga's and shows.

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According to the urban legends, children walking alone at night may encounter a woman wearing a surgical mask, which is not an unusual
sight in Japan as people wear them to protect others from their colds or sickness.

The woman will stop the child and ask, "Am I pretty?" If the child answers no, the child is killed with a pair of scissors which the woman
carries. If the child answers yes, the woman pulls away the mask, revealing that her mouth is slit from ear to ear, and asks "How about now?"
 If the child answers no, he/she will be cut in half. If the child answers yes, then she will slit his/her mouth like hers. It is impossible to
run away from her, as she will simply reappear in front of the victim.

When the myth reappeared, the late 1970s rumors of ways to escape her soon followed. Some sources say she can be confused by the victim answering
her question with ambiguous answers, such as "You are average" or "So-so". Unsure of what to do, her victem will have enough time to escape while
she is lost in thought. Another way too  escape her is simply to tell her you have a previous engagement; she will pardon her manners and excuse herself.
In some variations of the tale, she can be distracted by fruit or candies thrown at her which she will then pick up, thus giving the victim a chance to run.
 

Another way is for the child to ask her if the child is pretty; she will get confused and just leave.

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The Origins ===
======================
The Kuchisake-onna was a woman who was mutilated during her life, with her mouth being slit from ear to ear,and became a vengeful yokai after death.

In some versions of the story, the Kuchisake-onna was the unfaithful wife of a samurai during her life.
As punishment for her infidelity, her husband sliced the corners of her mouth from ear to ear.

Other versions of the tale claim her mouth was mutilated during a medical or dental procedure,
or that she was mutilated by a woman who was jealous of her beauty and one that stats her mouth is actually filled with several sharp teeth and her mouth
is split to accommodate them.

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Regardless of how her mouth became split, after her death, the woman would return as a vengeful spirit, or onryo.

As an onryo, she covers her mouth with a cloth mask  (often specified in modern tails as a surgical mask), or in some iterations, a hand fan or even just a handkerchief.  

She also carries a sharp instrument with her, in some versions  a knife, others its  a machete, or a scythe, but the most well know versions  she uses a large pair of scissors.
 

In every version of the legend, she is said to ask potential victims if they think she is pretty often phrased as "Watashi, kirei?"  (which translates to "Am I pretty?" or "Am I beautiful?").  If the person answers "no", she will kill the person with her knife,  and if the person answers "yes", she will reveal her mutilated mouth.

She then repeats her question  (or asks "Kore demo?",  "Even with this?" or "Even now?") and if the person responds with "no" or screams  in fright, she will kill the person immediately .

If the response is "yes", she will slice the corners of the person's
 mouth from ear to ear, so that they will look like her.

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===escape====
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An individual can survive an encounter with Kuchisake-onna by using one of several methods. like the ones listed above.

In other versions of the myth, the Kuchisake-onna will leave the potential victim alone if they answer "yes" to both of her questions, though in other tales, she will visit the individual's residence later that night and murder the person  while they sleep.  

Other survival tactics include replying to her question by describing her appearance as "average", giving the individual enough time to run away;  distracting her by giving or throwing  money or hard candies (particularly the kind of candy known as bekko ame, made of caramelized sugar) in her direction, as she will stop to pick them up; or by saying the word "pomade" three times.
.
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older versions
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When rumors of alleged sightings began spreading in 1979 around the Nagasaki Prefecture, other sightings soon spread throughout Japan and  caused panic in several towns.

Though the original myth is believed to date back as far as the Edo piriod, the modern version of the  Kuchisake-onna can be  traced back to as early as 1979.

Several articles reported sightings of this malevolent yokai, the Gifu Prefecture newspaper Gifu Nichi Nichi Shinbun on  January 26, 1979,
 

the weekly publication Shukan Asahi on  March 23, 1979, and the weekly news magazine Shukan Shincho on  April 5, 1979.

With so many new sightings of the Kuchisake-onna spreading throughout Japan, mass hysteria soon followed to the point  that younger children would sometimes be accompanied by members of parent–teacher association groups while walking home from school. to keep them safe.

The police even  increasing their patrols to ease public concern.
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==More recent sightings====
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In 2004 here were many new  reports in South Korea about a woman wearing a red mask who was frequently seen chasing children, and in October 2007, a coroner allegedly found some old records from the late 1970s about a woman who was chasing young children.
 

She was then hit by a car, and died soon after. Her mouth was reportedly ripped from ear to ear.



so be weary of strangers, and maybe keep some hard candy as a decoy just in case lol..

Monsters, Cryptids and Yokai: Batsquatch

 

batsquatch

Sightings of strange humanoid creatures can be found all over the world. The Sasquatch / bigfoot of North America, The Alma of Siberia Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp, the Mothman of Point Pleasant  West Virginia  or  the Owlman of Cornwall. And what about the mysterious “bat-woman of Viet Nam”, spotted by three U.S. soldiers during the war in Southeast Asia, The Ahool and the Orang Bati and so on......

Unidentified creatures stalking the woods is a scary thought in and of itself, but Flying Humanoids
have also been sighted hundreds if not thousands of time's at this point and some encounters are
far more terrifying in nature then the random bigfoot sighting.. (Flying Humanoid post coming soon)

So what would you do if you encountered one of these larger then life beings that just so happened to have  the ability to  fly?..

 

........

One such encounter took place near Mount St. Helens back in the 1980s.

The creature is now commonly referred to as Batsquatch !   
 

The eye witness account describes the beast as standing at least 9 feet tall with yellow eyes, a wolf-like
muzzle, blue fur, sharp teeth, bird-like feet and large leathery bat-like wings that span up to at least
fifty feet.

Brian Canfield was the first person to actually have his name associated with a Batsquatch sighting.

He was also the one that first called it “Batsquatch”. 

Brian’s friends and family testified that he was an ordinary and dependable man with no bad habits or traits. Of course, many had a field day with his report and he was smeared as a drunk or a drug addict when investigation revealed neither of those traits.

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It all started on On April 1994, when  Brian Canfield was driving in Washington's Pierce County when his truck suddenly died.
 
Brian believed this creature had the ability to effect cars and had somehow stopped his vehicle.(
(The ability to affect electronics/ motors is also similar the the mothman)

Canfield said a large creature landed in front of him an it was human-like, 9 ft tall with batlike wings and blue fur.

 

 

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..Other Sightings..
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1994 was also the year that a mountain guide and liquor store owner Butch Whittaker reported an encounter with Batsquatch. Whittaker claimed to have been flying a small plane to Mt. Rainier when he saw the devilish humanoid flying close to the plane. Whittaker says he was able to snap pictures of the winged beast but as is typical in paranormal stories, the photos remain unseen. Many take Whittaker’s claims with an extra large grain of salt.

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Another possible sighting was reported in 2009 near Mt. Shasta in California.
Several hikers witnessed a  Very Large creature with leathery wings (spanning possibly up to 50 ft.) fly out of a crevice in the mountain.
 

At first, an eye-witness described the creature as having a head similar to a pterodactyl, however upon reconsideration the witness claimed
it was more like a bat or a fox.

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In June 2011 Pheonix Tieraz-(pseudonym) was in his yard walking his dog.

He went to pick up the dog when he saw something in the sky. He said the following-------

 "I saw something flying the the sky.
  It had bat wings, blue fur and had a face similar  to a bats with glowing red eyes.
  It was about 9 feet tall at the least, after I watched, it just flew away. "
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On April 14, 2014 at Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron OH, a second period Spanish class spotted a giant black mass zip by the  window of the classroom at incredible speed.

The class claims it was about 9 feet tall with a 20-30 foot wingspan.

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So what do you think? is there a large flying bigfoot like creature stalking the sky's of North America, or is this  an  undiscovered giant bat specie's...

keep an eye on the sky... you never know whats flying just out of sight waiting to strick.......

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                                           ===========================

                            Batsquatch is also a beer :)

 

 

 

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                                                               Next post coming soon...
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Pagan Origins of Easter and The Easter Bunny

 

         -------------Happy Easter----------------

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                    🐰Hope everyone has a great Good Friday and an awesome Easter!🐰

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Like many modern Christian holidays, Easter  and the Easter Bunny can be traced back at least in part too older pagan traditions and celebrations .

 

The festival of Ostara / Ēostr

 

                                                

                                                         

                                                      

                                                        Goddess Ostara/ Easter...

 

In most Europe countries , the name for Easter is derived from the Jewish festival of Passover.

In Greek the feast is called Pascha, in Italian Pasqua, in Danish it is Paaske, and in French it is Paques,"

But in English-speaking countries, and in Germany, Easter takes its name from a pagan goddess from Anglo-Saxon England who was described in a book by the eighth-century English monk Bede.

Ostara otherwise known as Ēostre, is the Germanic  goddess of spring and dawn and fertility. 

 

On the old Germanic calendar, the equivalent month to April was called “Ōstarmānod” – or Easter-month.

Ēostre is attested solely by Bede  in his 8th-century work The Reckoning of Time, where Bede states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent of April), the pagan feasts in Ēostre's honor, but that this tradition had died out by his time, replaced by the Christian Paschal Month  a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

 Historic linguists  have also traced the name to a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn   Ausṓs from which descends the Common Germanic divinity from whom Ēostre and Ostara are held to descend.

 

 Scholars have also  linked the goddess's name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names in England, and, discovered in 1958, over 150 inscriptions from the 2nd century CE referring to the matrona Austriahenae.


There are several theory's that connect Ēostre with records of Germanic Easter customs  that alsoincl hares and Egg's. Particularly prior to the discovery of the matronae Austriahenae and further developments in Indo European studies, there have been several debates  among some scholars about whether or not the goddess was an invention of Bede. Ēostre and Ostara are sometimes referenced in modern popular culture and are venerated in some forms of Germanic neopaganism.

  ==============

During pre-christian times, people have celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices as sacred times

The spring equinox is a day where the amount of dark and the amount of daylight is exactly identical, so you can tell that you're emerging from winter because the daylight and the dark have come back into balance. The cycle of birth, death and rebirth...."People would plan out their whole life according to the patterns of nature.

Once Christianity took root across Euroup, the Easter period became associated with the resurrection of Christ.

In the first couple of centuries after Jesus's life, feast days in the new Christian church were attached to old pagan festivals,

Spring festivals  were to celebrate the end of winter and the retrn of warmer seasons, the main theme was new life and relief from the cold of winter this later became connected to the resurrected of Christ after the crucifixion.

 In 325AD the first major church council, the Council of Nicaea, determined that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox.

This is why the date moves and why Easter celebrations are sometimes referred to as "moveable feasts".

There's a defined period between March 25 and April 25 on which Easter Sunday must fall, and that's determined by the movement of the planets and the Sun.

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 Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny 

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Ostre is a goddess of fertility her main  animal symbols are bunny and eggs. 

Rabbits are  known for their high rate breeding as such they have traditionally symbolized fertility, and eggs represent new life.

 

It’s believed that decorating eggs for Easter dates back to at least  the 13th century. 

 People began decorating eggs and eating them as a treat following mass on Easter Sunday after fasting through Lent.this is still something that happens in modern times, especially in eastern European countries like Poland.

During the 19th century Russian high society also started exchanging ornately decorated eggs—even jewel encrusted one's on Easter.

                                  

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                   -----The Easter Bunny-----

 

 

According to some sources, the Easter bunny first arrived in America with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania..

 

The first association of the rabbit with Easter was a mention in  the "Easter hare"  a book by a German professor of medicine Georg Franck von Franckenau published in 1682.

He recalled a folk story that hares would hide the colored eggs that children hunted for, which would indicate that at least as early as the 17th century, decorated eggs were hidden in gardens for egg hunts.

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Von Franckenau taught anatomy, chemistry and botany in Jena and became a professor of medicine at the University of Heidelberg.

  In his "On Easter Eggs" essay, which he published around 1682, he considers ancientpagan symbols of life and fertility connected with religious traditions. 

 On the Easter bunny, he says this ---in Alsace, and neighboring regions, these eggs are called rabbit eggs because of the myth told to fool simple people and children that the Easter Bunny is going around laying eggs and hiding them in the herb gardens. 

So the children look for them, even more enthusiastically, to the delight of smiling adults. 

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These legends were preserved and improved upon by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who referred to the Bunny as the Oschter Haws. 

Beginning in the1680s, children around Germantown Pennsylvania would build nests out of hatsand bonnets, place them in the yard, or out by the barn and, on Easter morning, they would be found filled with colorful eggs. 

The decorated hats and bonnets eventually evolved into Easter baskets.

These custom's later spread across the U.S. and the bunny’s Easter morning deliveries would later  include chocolate and other types of candy and gifts, while decorated baskets replaced nests, children often leave out carrots for the bunny in case he gets  hungry from all his hopping.

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The Easter Bunny  or  Easter Rabbit 

This magic mythic bunny is believed to have  originated  among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" originally played the role of a judge(similar to Santa and his list), he would  determine  whether or not child's behavior  had been good or bad in at the start of the season of Eastertide. 

The Easter Bunny is sometimes depicted with clothes. In legend, he carries colored eggs, candy, and sometimes even toys in his basket  to the homes of children, another  similarity he shares   Santa Claus, they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holidays.

 

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Bunnies aren’t the only animal traditionally associated with Easter in every country. Some identify the holiday with other types of animals like foxes and even the  cuckoo birds.

whatever you believe in bunny fox or bird i hop you all have a great Easter weekend.

 

                      :) Happy Easter :)

Monsters, Cryptids and Yokai; The Hashihime

 

 

                          Pic by Grace iu on artstation..  https://grapejuice.artstation.com/projects/xJNxmW

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 Hashihime: The Maiden of the Bridge  or Lady of teh Bridge

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Hashihime (橋姫, Hashihime) is a yokai that first appeared in the Heian-period literature.

The hash'i from Hashihime means 'bridge', while hime means 'princess', therefore her name meaning "bridge princess". However, the word airashi (pretty, adorable) can also be said hashi, so her name has the second meaning of "charming princess". 

==============================

 

 

Hashihime are insanely jealous goddesses who inhabit bridges — in particular, very old and very long bridges. 

As goddesses, hashihime they can take different forms depending on the occasion, however they are commonly depicted wearing white robes, white face-paint, an iron trivet, and carrying five candles. This is a ceremonial outfit used to perform curses. 

 

Hashihime ferociously guard the bridges they inhabit. 

 

As with most gods connected to a location, they are very competitive and jealous. 

If one praises or speaks positively about another bridge while on top of a hashihime’s bridge, or if one recites lines from certain Noh plays that feature a woman’s wrath as the main theme, something terrible is likely to happen to that person.

Despite their fearsome nature, they are highly honored by the people who live nearby, and shrines are established in their honor near the bridges they inhabit. In times of war, residents will beseech their local hashihime to guard the bridge against invaders. In times of peace, hashihime are goddess of separation and severing, and are asked to aid people in things such as break-ups, divorce, and severing bad luck. So strong is their power of severing that it is considered taboo for lovers to pass in front of a hashihime shrine together, or for wedding processions to pass in front of one. If newlyweds need to cross a bridge inhabited by a hashihime, 

they will instead pass underneath it on a boat rather than risk cursing their marriage. 

======================================

 

The most famous hashihime story comes from Tsurugi no Maki, in The Tale of the Heike, and is retold in the noh play Kanawa.

A woman visited the the Kifune-jinja in Kyoto at the hour of the ox (roughly 2 am), filled with rage and jealousy towards her ex-husband who had thrown her away for another woman. Night after night she visited the shrine, praying to the gods enshrined there to turn her into a powerful demon. The woman wanted nothing else other than to see her ex-husband destroyed, even at the cost of her own life. After seven nights of pilgrimage, her prayers were answered: the gods told her that if she immersed herself in the Uji river for twenty-one nights, she would become a living demon.

The woman did as she was told. She donned a white robe and tied her hair up into five horns. She painted her face and covered her body in crimson dye. She placed an upturned trivet on her head and attached torches to each foot. She lit a torch on both ends and placed it in her mouth. She immersed herself in the Uji river and for twenty-one days she kindled the hatred in her heart. Then, just as the gods told her, after twenty-one days she transformed into a terrible kijo with supreme power. She had become the hashihime of Uji.

 

 

 That night, her husband awoke from a horrible dream with a premonition of danger. He quickly sought out the famous onmyōji, Abe-no-Seimei. Seimei recognized the dream as a sign that the man’s former wife would come and destroy the couple that very night, and promised to save them. He went to their house, recited magical prayers, and crafted two katashiro — magical paper doll representations of the man and his wife, meant to be used as substitutionary targets for the kijo’s rage. That night, as Seimei had predicted, the demon appeared. She attacked the two katashiro instead of the real couple, and Seimei’s magic worked: her power was reflected back upon her and she was driven away. The demon woman, realizing that she could not overcome Abe-no-Seimei’s magic, vanished, threatening that she would come back another time. 

Monsters, Cryptids and Yokai, Russian folklor, Alkonost, Gamayun and Shishiga

 

 ......................Today's post is mostly Russian based siren and harpy like cryptids.................

 

pic is by Viktor Vasnetsov's Sirin (left) and Alkonost (right) Birds of Joy and Sorrow (1896)

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Russian myths..

The Alkonost, Gamayun and Shishiga..

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In  Russian folklore the Alkonost is a woman-headed bird similar to the Greek Sirens
dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices
to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island..

Like the sirens the Alkonost is said to have a beautiful voice and those who hear these sounds
forget everything they know and want nothing more ever again.

The Alkonost lays her eggs on a beach and then rolls them into the sea. When the  eggs hatch, a thunderstorm
sets in and the sea becomes so rough that it's impossible to traverse.
She is also related to other birds like beings in Slavic mythology, namely the Rarog and Stratim.

The name Alkonost is derived from a Greek demigoddess named Alcyone.

In Greek mythology, Alcyone was transformed by the gods into a kingfisher....
==========

          

The Gamayun...

the Gamayun is usually depicted as a large bird with a woman's head, again simiar to the sirens.

Like the Alkonost, the gamayun is believed to originate from the Greek folklore and siren mythology.

However unlike the dangerous and often malevolent sirens, the Gamayun is a being of prophecy in Russian folklore. She  is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge.

She is said to live on an island in the mythical east, close to paradise.

According to legends she spread divine messages and prophecies, and she knows everything of all creation,  gods, heroes, and man.

 

........
 and our third cryptid is the Shishiga..

Shishiga are  sometimes called leshenka .

 

She is a female swamp (or forest) creature similar to the wood-goblin.

She  is often  described as, white, nude, and has tousled  hair.

She is known to harass people and bring misfortune to the drunkards.

She is also an  important figure in the mythology of the Komi people.

The Shishiga supposedly lives in the Kama River and often goes to the shore to comb her hair.

Seeing her is considered a very bad omen, as those who do sees her will soon drown or die by another cause.


The Shishiga also shares some similarity to the story of Artemis and Actaeon from  Greek mythology..


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