Rhonda Tharp
Active Member
Besides Loki stealing Sif's hair, Theseus cutting his hair before his father quest, and Isis restoring vitality to Osiris with her hair, do you know of any other myths with hair references?
Found this in Walker's Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
"A comet was supposed to be a tendril of the Great Mother's hair appearing in the sky as the world was slowly overshadowed by her twilight shadow of doomsday. Most forms of the Death-goddess showed masses of hair standing out from her head, sometimes in the shape of serpents, as in the Gorgoneum of Medusa-Metis-Neith-Anath-Athene. On the magic principle of "as above, so below," women's hair partook of the same mystic powers as the Goddess' hair.
The same idea prevailed among prophetic priestesses or witches, who operated with unbound hair on the theory that their tresses could control the spirit world. Mother Goddesses like Isis, Cybele, and many emanations of Kali were said to command the weather by braiding or releasing their hair. Their corresponding mortal representatives could cause to be bound or loosed in heaven what they bound or loosed on earth - hence, the unflagging superstitious belief in Christian Europe that witches' hair controlled the weather. Churchmen said witches raised storms, summoned demons, and produced all sorts of destruction by unbinding their hair. As late as the 17th century the Compendium Maleficarum said witches could control rain, hail, wind, and lightning in such a way. Scottish girls were forbidden to comb their hair at night while their brothers were at sea, lest they raise a storm and sink the boats. A Syrian exorcism for werewolves invoked "that Angel who judged the woman that combed the hair of her head on the Eve of Holy Sunday," suggesting a connection between hair-combing women and the werewolves mythologized as dogs of doomsday."
Found this in Walker's Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
"A comet was supposed to be a tendril of the Great Mother's hair appearing in the sky as the world was slowly overshadowed by her twilight shadow of doomsday. Most forms of the Death-goddess showed masses of hair standing out from her head, sometimes in the shape of serpents, as in the Gorgoneum of Medusa-Metis-Neith-Anath-Athene. On the magic principle of "as above, so below," women's hair partook of the same mystic powers as the Goddess' hair.
The same idea prevailed among prophetic priestesses or witches, who operated with unbound hair on the theory that their tresses could control the spirit world. Mother Goddesses like Isis, Cybele, and many emanations of Kali were said to command the weather by braiding or releasing their hair. Their corresponding mortal representatives could cause to be bound or loosed in heaven what they bound or loosed on earth - hence, the unflagging superstitious belief in Christian Europe that witches' hair controlled the weather. Churchmen said witches raised storms, summoned demons, and produced all sorts of destruction by unbinding their hair. As late as the 17th century the Compendium Maleficarum said witches could control rain, hail, wind, and lightning in such a way. Scottish girls were forbidden to comb their hair at night while their brothers were at sea, lest they raise a storm and sink the boats. A Syrian exorcism for werewolves invoked "that Angel who judged the woman that combed the hair of her head on the Eve of Holy Sunday," suggesting a connection between hair-combing women and the werewolves mythologized as dogs of doomsday."