Oddities - The Eaten Heart Legend

         Do you remember the ancient Greek myth according to which Dionysus was dismembered and pieces of his body boiled in a cauldron and then pierced with spits and roasted?  Those who did such an abominable thing were the Titans. Luckily, he was later reborn from the one organ they didn’t consume, his heart.

Well today I bring you a story that was told over and over again-  the legend of the Eaten Heart.  Scholars collected about 24 distinct versions of this story. For many years, it was thought that this story came from Europe. Most of the versions came from European literary traditions in England, Germany, France, and Italy. There was also one Swedish version. 
In the 1880s, a scholar found a version of the story that included all the key elements in the Punjab district of India, and everyone studying this story had to scramble to account for that. Was the Indian version derivative of the European versions, or vice versa? No one place could definitely lay claim to this story—it’s just a classic.

Some even go as far as to consider it as an aside in the story of Tristan and Iseult. It happened during the Middle Ages, in Europe. In the most basic version of this story, a married woman takes a lover, and her husband finds out. When the lover dies or is killed, the husband takes possession of his heart, cooks it, and feeds it to his wife, who dies shortly after.

 Vessel in the form of a heart held by a hand; 16th century Wellcome;Wkimedia

There are two main variations, dealing with how the lover dies. In one version, the husband tracks down the lover and kills him. In the second, the lover dies some other way, usually when he goes off to the Crusades. He wants his heart removed and sent back to his lady love, (this was a popular gesture at the time), but while the heart is en route, the husband intercepts it. No matter what, the wife eats the heart. That’s a key bit. She almost always dies after that, usually by throwing herself out the window or refusing to eat, sometimes both. Occasionally she dies of grief. When she survives, which is rarely, she ends up in a convent. Although she’s always in love with the dead man, in some versions of the story, her love is innocent and never consummated. More often, though, she’s an unrepentant adulteress.

Besides being a thrilling tale about a woman or women being tricked into cannibalism, the legend of the eaten heart is a story about power. Who wins in the end, the husband or the wife? Different versions have different answers to that question: sometimes the husband is explicitly punished for his transgressive act by a vengeful relative of his wife or by being exiled from his home.

Mysterious Romania (V) Spooks in Dracula's Country

  Ghosts - reality or imagination
Let me ask you something. Do you believe in ghosts, phantoms? Is science able to explain them?

Ghosts belong to the most mysterious phenomena studied by parapsychology. Objects that are moved from their places by unseen forces, knocks in walls, sounds of footsteps made by invisible beings, misty human figures. All these are usually explained by scientists as a form of psychokinesis. There's also mention of a "memory of objects". The most interesting explanations come from the field of  quantum physics. Modern physics has dematerialized matter. What we call the "other world” is nothing but a world beyond our perceptions, but not beyond our reality.
Ancients had meals with the dead

 There are numerous references to ghosts in the Hebrew Bible, in Mesopotamian religions as well as in ancient Egyptian culture. The belief that we are visited by the ghosts of the deceased friends and relatives was common among those peoples. In  ancient Athens, Greece, the end of February was dedicated to deceased relatives, as Greeks believed that ghosts came from Hades and mingled with the inhabitants on earth. For three days in a row, there were rich meals with special dishes served to the dead. There are all kind of traditions similar to this one. I can compare it to Romanian 'parastas'or 'pomenire' when relatives of a deceased person give food to other people, especially poor ones, with the belief that the dead person will eat from it too.
 Message from the other world

 They say that a ghost comes with a message for the relatives left behind on earth, a piece of info to help the dear ones who are alive, or to appease their suffering.

The people involved in studying the phenomenon speak about two types of apparitions: ghosts linked to people and ghosts linked to places. The former last only for a few weeks. With the latter type of ghosts, things are more complicated. Haunted locations are usually old castles or houses.The ghosts are noticed in the same location for generations."The Gray Lady", the British ghost, is a perfect example. The author Conan Doyle was very interested in this phenomenon and his book "The Edge of the Unknown" is dedicated to it, though he couldn't find an explanation.

Frequently, the apparition of a ghost is preceded or announced by a feeling of cold, by a freezing drought. This confirms the theory that ghosts use energy to take shape. They absorb the ambient energy and the temperature drops down. Creepy, isn't it? 

Haunted Romania

My country, Romania, known to many as Dracula's country,  has its haunted places too. It has, in fact, according to all kind of reports, a long tradition of haunted places, of houses regularly visited by ghosts and tragic stories that lead to dark legends. Paranormal is at home in Romania. Chiajna Monastery in Bucharest, the Parliament House in Bucharest,
Hotel Cismigiu in Bucharest, Hoia Baciu Forest near Cluj, Poenari Castle and many others; the places have included reports of ghostly apparitions, poltergeist activity, shadowy figures, orbs, spirit possessions, EVP's, and other unusual phenomena.

  Ghosts with exquisite taste for accommodation 

The image posted  here stirred the enthusiasts’ imagination. It was taken in Romania, at Herculane Bai, at a hotel by a guest spending the vacation there. The image is that of a woman dressed in white. Decebal Hotel is one hundred and fifty years old and many say that deep down, at its foundations, Dacian and Roman treasures wait to be discovered. The hotel was closed for five years for renovations. It seems that some people tried during this time to dig and find the awesome ancient treasures. The ghost – that according to some would belong to a Dacian priest, appeared to protect the alleged treasure and to drive the looters away. I don’t know what credit can be given to the picture but in 2008 it was the headline in newspapers and television news.
 Passion crime leads to haunting
 Braila, my town, has its haunted places too. Bellow is the image of the famous "house with ghosts" in Braila, situated on Aslan street.
They say the house belonged to an old wealthy Greek trademan, Nicolachi Mavrocordulas, who married a young  beautiful woman, Voica, the daughter of a peasant from Insuratei village. The sixty year old Greek bought Voica  from her family, and had a large mansion built for her. The Greek had no idea or ignored the fact he'd bought Voica but not her heart that was given to a young man from her village. She didn’t love him and, one day, when he returned home, found her in the arms of her young lover. Nicolachi shot Voica, buried her in the wall of the house and left Romania, after selling the house. None of the people who bought the house could stay there for long. Soon the rumor that the house was haunted  by Voica’s  ghost spread in the town.The house was turned into an old people's home as no willing customer appeared any more.
 Weeping apparition frightens residents
Even nowadays the elderly people living  in this house or the nursing staff speak of a nightly apparition. A woman, heavily veiled, passes from room to room, crying and calling what they take to be her lover’s name. Witnesses say it  always happens at the time of the year when Nicolachi killed Voica. The  ghost harms nobody, yet people are distressed  and frightened by her wails and sobs.
 Touching ghost story
I do believe that ghosts exist. They are souls that haven't fulfilled their mission on earth and are still haunting the places they lived in. If you read my paranormal Shadows of the Past you'll find out why Genevieve's ghost haunts the forest where Anne and Neil get lost. Tell me what you think, then!
Find the book here:
Solsticepublishing 
Amazon.com/Shadows-Past