heart/cup/water/grail/belly of the whale

Dove

Jonah

(in the Bible) a Hebrew minor prophet. He was called by God to preach in Nineveh, but disobeyed and attempted to escape by sea; in a storm he was thrown overboard as a bringer of bad luck and swallowed by a great fish, only to be saved and finally succeed in his mission.

• a book of the Bible telling of Jonah

Jonah (Hebrew: יוֹנָה, Modern Yona Tiberian jon'ɔh,"dove"; Arabic: يونس‎, Yunus or يونان, Yunaan; Latin: Ionas) is the name given in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC, the central character in the Book of Jonah famous for being swallowed by a fish. The Biblical story of Jonah is repeated in the Qur'an.

Jonah is also the central character in the Book of Jonah. Ordered by God to go to the city of Nineveh to prophesy against it "for their great wickedness is come up before me" [1] Jonah seeks instead to flee from "the presence of the Lord" by going to Jaffa and sailing to Tarshish. A huge storm arises and the sailors, realizing this is no ordinary storm, cast lots and learn that Jonah is to blame. Jonah admits this and states that if he is thrown overboard the storm will cease. The sailors try to get the ship to the shore but in failing feel forced to throw him overboard, at which point the sea calms. Jonah is miraculously saved by being swallowed by a large fish specially prepared by God where he spent three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17). In chapter two, while in the great fish, Jonah prays to God in his affliction and commits to thanksgiving and to paying what he has vowed. God commands the fish to vomit Jonah out.

God again orders Jonah to visit Nineveh and to prophecy to its inhabitants. This time he goes and enters the city crying, "In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown." The people of Nineveh believe his word and proclaim a fast. The king of Nineveh puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes, making a proclamation to decree fasting, sackcloth, prayer, and repentance. God sees their works and spares the city at that time [2].

Displeased by this, Jonah refers to his earlier flight to Tarshish while asserting that, since God is merciful, it was inevitable that God would turn from the threatened calamities. He then leaves the city and makes himself a shelter, waiting to see whether or not the city will be destroyed.

God causes a plant (in Hebrew a kikayon) to grow over Jonah's shelter to give him some shade from the sun. Later, God causes a worm to bite the plant's root and it withers. Jonah, now being exposed to the full force of the sun, becomes faint and desires that God take him out of the world.

But God says to him,

Are you really so very angry about the little plant? (or "The good is what you are angry at!" - according to a traditional Jewish translation)^[citation needed^]

You were upset about this little plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day. Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals! (Jonah 4:9-11 NET)

Ishmael

(in the Bible) a son of Abraham, by his wife Sarah's maid, Hagar, driven away with his mother after the birth of Sarah's son Isaac (Gen. 16:12). Ishmael (or Ismail) is also important in Islamic belief as the traditional ancestor of Muhammad and of the Arab peoples.

Ishmael (Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Modern Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl; Greek: Ισμαήλ; Latin: Ismael; Arabic: إسماعيل‎, ’Ismā‘īl) is a figure in the Torah, Bible, and Qur'an. Jews, Christians and Muslims believe Ishmael is Abraham's eldest son and first born. Ishmael is born of Sarai's handmaiden Hagar (Genesis 16:3). Although born of Hagar, according to Mesopotamian law, Ishmael was credited as Sarai's son; a legal heir through marriage. (Genesis 16:2)[1] According to the Genesis account, he died at the age of 137 (Genesis 25:17).[2]

Islamic traditions consider Ishmael as the ancestor of northern Arab people[1], while Jewish traditions are split between those who consider Ishmael their ancestor and those, like Maimonides, who believe that the northern Arabs are descended from the sons of Keturah, whom Abraham married after Sarah's death.[3]

Judaism has generally viewed Ishmael as wicked though repentant.[1] Judaism maintains that Isaac (the father of the Jewish people) rather than Ishmael was the true heir of Abraham.[4] The New Testament contains few references to Ishmael. In some Christian biblical interpretations, Ishmael is used to symbolize the older—now rejected—Judaic tradition; Isaac symbolizes the new tradition of Christianity.[1] Islamic tradition, however, has a very positive view of Ishmael, giving him a larger and more significant role. The Qur'an views him as an Islamic prophet. According to the contextual interpretation^[citation needed^] of some early Islamic theologians (whose view prevailed later), Ishmael was the actual son that Abraham was called on to sacrifice, as opposed to Isaac.[1][5]

Cognates of Hebrew Yishma'el existed in various ancient Semitic cultures.[1] For example, it is known that the name was used in early Babylonian and in Minæan.[2] It is translated literally as "God has hearkened", suggesting that "a child so named was regarded as the fulfillment of a divine promise."[1]

mother of all monsters

"Echidna" from D'aulaires'Book Of Greek Myths (Buy it!)

I'm beginning to begin something big. I alluded to this with my twittergument 2.

The meditation is something like "Death is the Fire of Life". But it deals directly with "the heart of the matter" again. Thus, much of the post will be built upon the letter "H". What is the heart? What's the matter?

Family is the structure. Death is truth. It is the fire of life. But to get to where I'm going, which is "killing the witch", I first need to get the "history" out of the way. (So here is a bunch of monster backstory for you and yours. This should prepare us all from where I'm going. H is for ho! --Note that all of this comes from Wikipedia. It is mostly right for our purposes. It is good too keep in mind that mythology isn't literal and doesn't always follow a straight line. Many times there are multiple genealogies and varying stories. We just go with what "feels" right. And with the first stone in place we possibly can..) Find the origin. Of substance, of matter, of mother.

Gaia ("land" or "earth", from the Ancient Greek)is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth.

Gaia is a primordial and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess.

Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.

Family Tree

Gaia is the titan of Earth and these are her offspring as related in various myths.

• Through parthenogenesis
• Uranus
• Pontus
• Ourea

Uranus Is the Latinized form of Ouranos, the Greek word for sky. In Greek mythology Ouranos or Father Sky, is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth (Hesiod, Theogony).

the Titans were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. Their role as Elder Gods was overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Olympians, effected a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks borrowed from the Ancient Near East.[1]

There are twelve Titans[2] from their first literary appearance, in Hesiod, Theogony; Pseudo-Apollodorus. The six male Titans are known as the Titanes, and the females as the Titanides ("Titanesses"). The Titans were associated with various primal concepts, some of which are simply extrapolated from their names: ocean and fruitful earth, sun and moon, memory and natural law. The twelve first-generation Titans were ruled by the youngest, Cronus (Saturn), who overthrew their father, Uranos ('Sky'), at the urgings of their mother, Gaia ('Earth').

• With Pontus
• Ceto
• Eurybia
• Phorcys
• Nereus
• Thaumas

Pontus, (English translation: "sea") was an ancient, pre-Olympian (Titan) sea-god, one of the protogenoi, the "first-born". Pontos was the son of Gaia, the Earth: Hesiod [1] says that Gaia brought forth Pontos out of herself, without coupling. For Hesiod, Pontos seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho pontos, "the Road", by which Hellenes signified the Mediterranean Sea.[2] With Gaia, he was the father of Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea), of Thaumas (the awe-striking "wonder" of the Sea, embodiment of the sea's dangerous aspects), of Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and of the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia.

Cetus was a hideous sea monster, a daughter of Gaia and Pontus. She was the personification of the dangers of the sea, unknown terrors and bizarre creatures. Her name came from the neuter noun kētos, "sea monster", which gives us the term cetacean today. Her husband was Phorcys and they had many children, collectively known as the Phorcydes or Phorcydides. In Greek art, Cetus was drawn as a serpentine fish. Cetus also gave name to the constellation Cetus.

Phorcys, or Phorkys was one of the names of the "Old Man [or One] of the Sea", the primeval sea god, who, according to Hesiod, was the son of Pontus and Gaia.

the Phorcydes were the children of Phorcys and Ceto and include the Hesperides, the Graeae, the Gorgons, Scylla and other nymphs and monsters, mostly associated with the sea.

• With Tartarus
• Echidna
• Typhon

In classic mythology, below Heaven, Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus, or Tartaros (Greek Τάρταρος, deep place). It is a deep, gloomy place, a pit, or an abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering that resides beneath the underworld. In the Gorgias, Plato (c. 400 BC) wrote that souls were judged after death and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus. As a place of punishment, it can be considered a hell. The classic Hades, on the other hand, is more similar to Old Testament Sheol.

Like other primal entities (such as the earth and time), Tartarus is also a primordial force or deity.

Consorts and children of Ceto:

1. Phorcys
1. Echidna
2. Gorgons
1. Euryale
2. Medusa
3. Stheno
3. Graeae
1. Deino
2. Enyo
3. Pemphredo
4. Ladon
5. Scylla
6. Sirens
7. Thoosa

Echidna (Greek: Ἔχιδνα, ekhis, ἔχις, meaning "she viper") was called the "Mother of All Monsters". Echidna was described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered with her mate Typhoeus (or Typhon) every major horrible monster in the Greek myths

. . .her face and torso of a beautiful woman was depicted as winged in archaic vase-paintings, but always with the body of a serpent (see also Lamia). She is also sometimes described as having two serpent's tails.

Zeus allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes.

Typhon is the final son of Gaia, fathered by Tartarus, and is the most deadly monster of Greek mythology. Typhon attempts to destroy Zeus at the will of Gaia, because Zeus had imprisoned the Titans. Typhon was described in pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, as the largest and most fearsome of all creatures. His human upper half reached as high as the stars. His hands reached east and west and had a hundred dragon heads on each. His bottom half was gigantic viper coils that could reach the top of his head when stretched out and made a hissing noise. His whole body was covered in wings, and fire flashed from his eyes. He was defeated by Zeus, who trapped Typhon underneath Mount Etna.

Typhon and Echidna's offspring

The offspring of Typhon and Echidna were:

1. Nemean Lion
2. Ladon
3. Chimera
4. Sphinx
5. Lernaean Hydra
6. Cerberus