To start, what do we already understand about satyrs?
They are horny.
Goat legs and horns. They chase and seduce nymphs.
The unknown, a level of human consciousness that has proven all pervasive throughout history, contact between cultures, especially those first contact moments, were often filled with misunderstanding evidenced by the example of the first contact between Europeans and Native Americans.
Cultures were originally much smaller than we know them today. Their understanding of the world and traditional practices much more constrained. We think of tradition as being just some quaint quirks of personality, culturally speaking, but in fact their every art, science and craft were likewise founded on that cultures tradition.
The crux of human evolution that was the Mediterranean and the Middle East gave rise to some very strange ideas and beliefs as if consciousness were emerging alongside the increasingly diverse cultures. The world was seen as we might see ours if waking up from a dream. It was difficult and strange to have to fathom things that were really beyond imagination at the time.
Ineffable? Yes.
Many cultures came to pass through the bottleneck that was Mesopotamia and stories of these cultures were often wildly imaginative. They didn’t know how to understand the truth of things like human beings with differing skin colour, or entirely foreign hair type, even strange technologies seemed magickal.
I think “Those Mesopotamians would have made good Texans.” They would have and indeed were even to the point of attempting to establish empirical dominion, example being the Babylonian empire, and it had the same outcome the conservative right wing’s efforts are having now, a vast breakdown in communication preceded in this case by the fall of towers. Perhaps a case of history repeating itself?
Black hair seemed like wool to them. Indeed, it did as did the dark skin. Many of the differing physical traits gave rise to strange stories of animal people or people with strange powers because they practised skill and sciences foreign to those of the culture that recorded stories of them. The early Israelite had no real grasp of ocean travel, for example, so those who seemed to be able to come and go as they pleased had to be engaged in something supernatural. Perhaps they were. What is invention if not supernatural?
The natural condition was one way, then human beings invent something and change it. Supernatural, beyond natural. We have done that for a very long time have we not?
So invention is beyond natural? There is very little invention in other species, but it would be just as supernatural when they do it as when we do it, no?
I guess it would. The gifts of the spirit by no means seem to favor human beings.
Now what of peoples living in vastly different ecosystems? How could you explain these different relationships when they have no parallel in your home region? It might seem perfectly natural to the foreigners, but it would be strange and scary to you, no?
Yes.
Horse domestication would be one example. The horse was a daunting animal and likely would have seemed almost impossible to approach. This is even related to some degree in Greek myth. One of Perseus’ great achievements being the taming of Pegasus.
And flipping one’s self over the horns of a bull, maybe? Indeed, they were not unfamiliar with animals, but the horse and its strange behaviour might have seemed quite supernatural, as if the herd actually had the ability to fly from place to place since it moved so quickly. Horseback riding might have even seemed like flying.
Just before the invention of the automobile, they honestly believed the speeds a car could travel at would have been impossible, and if they got the machine moving that fast, they honestly believed the passengers wouldn’t survive it. It was the laws of physics as far as they understood them.
15 mph seemed very fast to them.
The roads weren’t that great either.
It had to be communicated in ‘horse power’ so people could relate. Indeed. The earliest images of satyrs were shown with horse features and not goat. The goat imagery would only be applied to satyrs later, through the connection between Greek and Roman culture and their own legend of fauns. The original satyrs had horse features, and one of the legendary satyrs would have been Chiron, known for his many skills that were comparable to those of the gods. His wisdom was seen as beyond normal mortals. Another figure from satyr legend would be Silenus, an actual god seen as an advisor to the god Pan.
So satyrs came from centaurs? Like a half centaur?
Indeed.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~