Crow's Paradise

After sailing on the sea for an unknown length of time, the bone ship finally arrived at its destination.

It was a huge island of bones.

"Death Island."

Captain Splitskull spoke the name of the island.

However, during this unknown number of days of sailing, Captain Split Skull also explained the news about the "Island of Death".

This huge island is made of bones.

However, to be precise, it should be called "Ship Island".

This Death Island was actually formed by the gathering of bone ships.

It itself is not fixed on the sea, but also mobile.

Arriving at this island made up of countless bone boats and docking at the port, Yao Yan saw figures one by one.

Similar to him, each one was shrouded in black robes, and each one wore a bone mask with various black marks as logos.

However, when they were silent, the scene formed by the combination of this scene and the diffuse fog, according to his memory, might be more suitable in a horror movie.

After the bone boat docked completely, a figure appeared beside the boat:

"Splitskull, you took a long time this time."

Yao Yan followed the sound and saw a man in black robes with a slender figure standing there quietly in the shadow that penetrated another cabin and on the straight road formed by the deformation of the hull bones.

There are black lines on the mask's mouth.

However, the black robe on him was, to be precise, not consistent with the black robe on them.

Because the shape of the "clothes of death" on this black-robed man has changed, and the outline is more "fitting". The black shadow that originally covered the skull like a hood has also formed a three-cornered hat. shape.

However, more importantly.

Under the opponent's mask, the neck is not a complete skeleton, but a blue, translucent shape.

Rather than "skeletons", terms like "ghosts" and "undead" would be more appropriate.

However, the voice made by the man in black robes had a high "pitch" and was more "female".

Captain Split Skull looked at the other party quietly after he spoke.

The fourth level, "Dead Sea Banshee".

Yao Yan got the news from the captain "Split Skull".

From the first to the third level, the power of the deceased continues to grow stronger. Because of the "voice of the heart", memory and cognition will continue to recover, and the understanding of the self will gradually be completed.

At the fourth level, the deceased will gradually "form" themselves and construct a "spirit body".

However, there are only "females".

Yao Yan's eyes fell on the black-robed spirit wearing a three-cornered hat.

He saw a lot of feather-like things on the other party's body.

At this moment, the black-robed spirit raised his hand——

arm?

No, it was more like a bird wing, a chiropteran.

Yao Yan looked at the spirit body shrouded in black robes, flapped its winged hands vaguely wrapped in wide sleeves, flew up from the shadows, and disappeared into the mist.

Such a gesture reminded Yao Yan of a legendary creature——

Hubby.

To be precise, it should be Harpie.

As part of Greek mythology.

"Monsterization", which can also be said to be "demonization", is a process that occurs in the evolution of many myths.

In the era of Yaoyan, the well-known "Greek mythology" system ultimately formed a family-style pantheon with the god-king Zeus as its core.

However, as far as Yao Yan knew, the formation of this mythological system was due to the mythological construction of the "Olympus Religion".

Mythological systems are not created overnight, they all have a process of evolution.

Various versions of the myth are circulated among the people.

And often, when "religion" appears, an "integrated" version appears.

In the construction of this integrated version, there are some sayings that it is selected from society and various legends circulated and kept intact, some sayings are changed after selection, and some sayings are completely new.

There are local legends and myths from the ruled areas, and there are also legends and myths from external areas. Specifically, even the builders of religious myths cannot fully confirm the origins of which parts.

But in any case, when such a religion is formed, the general structure and a relatively complete mythological system framework are formed.

Of course, there is more than one religion, and there may be more than one religion in the same region, and the same religion may also have different sects.

The intricate real-life interest relationships and thinking have built an intertwined system.

Some parts agree, some parts contradict, and some parts completely diverge.

Such situations all exist.

In the age of animism, people were afraid of nature and all kinds of dangerous creatures. In various ideas, the mythical creatures imagined by people were often simply spliced ​​together.

Chimeras and other monsters that stitch together the images of different creatures are perfectly normal.

Some people who lack the foundation of mythology knowledge and have a desire for expression may sneer at this sutured image, but it is precisely this sutured image that best represents people's thinking in the animistic era.

Not only animals, but also the splicing of human and animal images is the norm.

For various reasons, perhaps to show one's courage and strength, perhaps to intimidate the enemy, perhaps because of fear, or perhaps just because of a dream.

Because of these complicated reasons, people combine various images.

Such as Zhu Jiuyin, such as Fuxi Nuwa.

However, with the evolution of the times, under the influence of simple thinking such as literal meaning, "candle dragon" will be taken for granted as "dragon head and dragon body".

Even if some people know it, they will make mistakes, and some people will "traverse the origins" and "restore history."

However, mythological images are inherently fictitious and have many versions.

In mythology, every image has meaning.

Rumor, distortion, reconstruction, deconstruction, interpretation.

These are all part of mythology.

Because these all have practical significance and background, but simply "tracing things back to their origins" will destroy their practical significance.

For example, a certain image started out as a spliced ​​animal pose, with a simple shape and a vicious form, and it was just an image.

This represents the roughness of the painting techniques at that time and the roughness of the splicing, which in itself can clearly show the origin of each part.

The first evolution, this image, was recorded in writing for the first time.

Being recorded in words, what does it mean? Perhaps it represents the beginning of writing in this era, or it may be the first time that writing in this era incorporates this image.

The former is simple and clear, while the latter may represent the conquest of one force by another.

In the second evolution, a certain part of the image was replaced by another animal.

This may be a problem with the recorder himself. He has never seen such a creature and describes it "almost" based on his own experience. This may mean that the recorder's class is completely out of touch with life practice, or it may be the origin of some kind of animal. Complete extinction, perhaps due to geographical changes or shifts, or possibly due to the impact of climate

In the third evolution, the image of this animal was refined, but the image was more inclined to goodness, and there was no change in the written record.

Or it may be the subjective thoughts of the recorder, or it may be that people in this era are completely out of touch with this creature and this mythical image, or it may be the change of this image's status in this power, this culture, and this civilization.

In the fourth evolution, the image of this legendary animal became more ferocious and worse, and some evil deeds were also included in the records.

This may represent an image conflict between the painter and the recorder, or it may be one-sided, with the painter drawing based on the description, or the recorder describing based on the picture.

It is also possible that the recorder heard about many unexplained deaths in the society at that time, and even around the recorder, and then connected them with this thing.

These are things that folklore and mythology need to study.

In Yaoyan's era, there were many people who re-depicted the images of these gods and monsters with the idea of ​​"tracing back to their origins".

Their images are more refined, but why?

Why do they depict these images?

This may be a manifestation of a social trend of thought, such as reversal of verdict literature, or people's aversion to rumors and fallacies.

The birth of a thing has various reasons.

The "monsterization" in religion and mythology cannot be generalized.

A certain religious religion is highly xenophobic, so it has a higher degree of rejection of gods and monsters from systems other than its own, and there are more descriptions of "evil".

Such descriptions will also be more severe if a religion promotes intimidation-based preaching methods.

Different degrees of monsterization represent different realistic meanings.

As for the image of Harpie, according to what Yao Yan understood, it may itself be a god that appeared before the emergence of Olympus.

The image of a human head and a bird's body is a simple splicing feature of the animistic era. However, in the process of humanistic development, there is a difference between the sublimity of the deified image and its inclusion and monsterization as a pagan thing.

Harpie has experienced both.

However, in that era, "human head and bird body" meant "human head" and "bird body" instead of covering the human body with feathers, using humans as the main body, and taking on the characteristics of birds.

Coquettish and beautiful humanoid postures were quite common in Yaoyan's era.

Harpie, with this attitude, at least means one thing.

"era".

ocean, death.

The era in which this world and this human-like posture was formed should at least be before and after the era in which Yao Yan lived.

ps: Taking advantage of the Chinese New Year, I read the mythology and folklore books I bought before again.

If you are interested, you can also take a look.

"Stories of Monsters of Country Z", "Compilation of Local Chronicles and Folklore Materials of Country Z, Southwest Volume/Northwest Volume/East China/North China"

"Greek Mythology", "Theogony", "Library", "Metamorphosis", "Chronicle of the Years"

I have only read these during this period. There are many others. I won’t describe them one by one. You can take a look at them all.

Oh, of course, I recommend that you try to figure out the psychology of the author/translator when reading, and try to figure out the reasons for the different versions based on the wording and sentence habits in the text description.

Of course, it would be better to speculate on the reasons for the evolution of mythical images and the differences between different versions based on historical books and descriptions of the era.