Co-mythologists? Haha, sounds like a dream, but it really is up to Strider. If not, I'll still be glad to toss you whatever I have.

I'm working on Eevee's evolutions, since you've got me curious. And [I'm hoping] I'm on to something with 135. Jolteon.

I didn't really find this anywhere easily, so I thought it would be interesting to look for it... besides, it's my fave Pokémon...



BASICS

As far as I can tell, this little psychic type was based off of the 'Vampire Cat,' a cat form that some vampires could take that had either two tails or no tail at all. The two tailed cats were said to have psychic powers.

The Cat of Nabeshima

Vampires have often taken feline form. A Japanese legend called "The Cat of Nabeshima" tells the story of an erotic cat vampire. The Prince of Hizen, a member of the honored Nabeshima family, had as his favorite concubine a charming woman whose name was O Toyo. One evening, the lovers wandered into the garden and stayed out enjoying the flowers until sunset. While returning to the palace, they realized that a cat was following them.

O Toyo retired to her own room and went to sleep. At midnight, awakening with a start, she became aware of being watched by a huge double-tailed crouching cat. Before she could cry for help, it sprang at her throat and throttled her to death. The cat then scratched a hole under the veranda, buried O Toyo, and assumed her form.

The prince knew nothing of this tragedy. He had no idea that the beautiful woman who came and made love to him every night was in fact a demon who was draining his life's blood. Day by day, the Prince of Hizen’s strength dwindled; his face became both pale and livid, as he appeared to be suffering from a fatal illness. He took all the medications prescribed by doctors, but none did any good.

Since his sufferings always increased at night, it was arranged for one hundred servants to form a guard every evening when he retired for bed. Each evening, the watchers took up their positions, but around ten o'clock they were overcome by drowsiness. The vampire would pretty upon her victim as usual. The prince's health deteriorated steadily each day. His counselors realized that they were against something supernatural. They turned to the chief priest at the temple, begging him for prayers for the prince's recovery. The prayers of the priest were disturbed by noises from the garden, a soldier called Ito Soda, who served in the infantry of Nabeshima. The young man begged to sit up one night with the prince to try to resist the drowsiness and detect the evil spirit.

Eventually his request was granted. However, as the others, at ten o'clock he felt drowsiness overcoming him. To ward off the sleep, he thrust his dagger deep into his thigh so that sharp pain would keep him awake.

As he watched, the sliding doors of the prince's room opened, and a beautiful young woman slipped into the room making her way to the bedside. Suddenly, she became aware of another presence. Though she called out, Ito refused to answer, staying hidden. Several times she attempted to cast her spells over the prince, but as long as Ito glared at her, she was unable to concentrate. Finally she retired in frustration to her own sleeping chambers, leaving the prince undisturbed. The following night the soldier again took up his vigilance and the same thing happened. After two undisturbed nights, the prince's health began to improve. Again and again the vampire returned, only to have fruitless attempts at the prince. Gradually the night guards ceased to be overcome by drowsiness.

It was obvious to Ito that the being who appeared at night as O Toyo was really a ghoul; he began making plans to kill her. At nightfall, the soldier went to her chambers, pretending to deliver a message from the prince. As he approached, he struck at her with his dagger but she sprang away. Finding herself no match for Ito, she formed herself into a cat, leapt to the roof, and escaped into the mountains.

The cat demon harried the local residents until one day the prince, having fully recovered his health, organized a great hunt for the cat. He succeeded in avenging his beautiful concubine, for the vampire of Nabeshima was finally destroyed. [Sorry that ending is kind of abrupt! But here's something interesting: a report was published in the Sunday Express in Japan on July 14, 1929 – The vampire cat of Nabeshima is once more about its nightly business, bewitching the beautiful wives of the descendants of the old twp-sworded fighting Samurai.]

HISTORY

The first cats were introduced to Japan by Fujiwara no Sanesuke, a nobleman at the court of Emperor Ichijo (987-1011). They were imported from China and were called "hand-fed tigers." They were very popular pets but were soon looked upon with suspicion and even fear. Besides being ungrateful, cats are destructive by nature. They tear straw tatami mats, make holes in paper shoji doors, and sharpen their claws on wooden pillars. They are also very fond of the oil in lamps and will often lap them dry.

The Japanese looked upon cats as being under a curse. Only the cat and the serpent did not weep at the death of Buddha. In fact, the cat killed the rat that was sent to get medicine.

Like foxes and badgers [of course], cats are able to bewitch human beings. Cats are also able to control the dead, even making them dance. It was generally assumed that if a cat was allowed near a corpse it would steal the soul and the dead person would become a vampire (remember, vampire cats were common in Japan but were easily recognizable as they had two tails).

Cats have a natural tendency to become nekomata, or "goblin cats." This can only be controlled by cutting off their tails, which was a common practice performed on kittens.

When a nekomata ages, it becomes an obakéneko. Obakéneko [sometimes called kaibyo] literally translates as "supernatural cat," though it is also called "ghost cat" or "vampire cat." There is no single Western equivalent to this creature. Not only old cats but also those killed or wronged by a person can become obakéneko to take revenge.

There is a well-known story of the obakéneko of Saga Castle. During the Edo Period, Lord Nabeshima, an avid player of the board game go, challenged a blind champion, Matahichiryo Ryuzoji, to a game. When it appeared that he was going to lose, Lord Nabeshima lost his temper and killed Matahichiryo. The blind man left an aged mother who, learning of her son's death, killed herself in grief. He also left a pet cat, Tama, who lapped up the mother's blood and became an obakéneko and, to this day, is responsible for strange occurrences in the castle.

Not All Cats Are Regarded With Malice

Sailors prized cats, especially the three-colored mikeneko. People who drown at sea never find rest but lurk in the waves and shout and wail as ships go by and extend their arms in the whitecaps in an effort to grab a victim. Cats, with their control over the dead, can keep those spirits away.

The manekineko, or "beckoning cat," is found in a spot of honor in many shops, because the cat with its raised paw invites customers in.

The Sleeping Cat carving of Nikko Shrine, the burial place of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, is said to keep the area free of mice and will wink its eye with approaching rain.

[I know this was long... thanks if you actually read it, LoL!]

Hey! Mythology's the reason I was hired on the staff!

Really, though, that's quite interesting... Do you have anything on the other Eevee forms, or is Espeon the only fabled creature of them?

Oh, you were?

Haha, well fluff then. Guess I'm not needed here.

Umm... that one took me like 2 hours [because, as jctenn would say, Kiana is an imbecile!!! B) ]. The only reason I started on it was so I could get your job and since it's my fave Pokémon. If you'd like, I could look, though no guarantees for anything. ^.^

[edit]
The only other Pokémon I've ever researched for myths/legends/et cetera are the commonly known ones, I guess. And some I stumbled on purely by accident. *shrugs* How about you?
[/edit]

I like mythology period, so I'm researching the following:

Ho-oh
Lugia
Mew
Moltres
Articuno
Zapdos
Entei
Raikou
Suicune
Rekkuza
Groudon
Kyogre
Unown
Arcanine
Ninetales
3-Reji

Possibly more as they turn up...

And hey, why don't you apply? Maybe we could be the co-mythologists!

Be nice to find out if there's any purpose to that hair-band reject pet from the 80's other than it being insanely fast and pretty good... :P

LoL, yeah.

Well... here's summat. A lead but not really much to go on from. *sigh* I can't find a whit of information on him. He's to dodgy.

Apparently, there's a Tinguian [folk from the mountains of Luzon, a Phillipine island] god of thunder who lives in the sky named Tadaklan. He has a pet dog, named Kimat, the lightning dog.

If that's not Jolteon, then I don't know what is.

It's the closest thing so far.

Raikou's a tiger...

Hmm... I don't know much else. The ones I know the most about [learned from the past]:

Golduck [Kappa, the Japanese sea monster]
Ho-oh [Houou, the Japanese phoenix]
Ninetails [Kitsune, the nine-tailed fox]

Then there are others I've tried to make connections with, but just not working. You can learn a lot, though, at the Pgamers Pokémon and Mythology page.

Girafarig-Kirin (I've done an article on this one, I'll try to have this up as soon as possible).

Arbok - Basilisk?? (Arbok's glare paralyse people, Basilisk glare petrifed people)

Ampharos (Denryuu) - The name translated to Electric Dragon I think. (Ryuu is Dragon in Japanese)

Houndoom - Cerbero?? (guards dog from hell)

Lapras - Loch Ness monster??

Girafarig... I never really thought about this one. What's Kirin? If I had to brainstorm, my best guess would be the okapi, but it still doesn't really fit in. And I have an article about Arbok somewhere, stemming from the basilisk... and for Houndoom, it's Cerebrus, the Greek mythology dog with three heads that guards the gates to the Underworld. There's a fairly good article at PGN here.

What's the deal with the Loch Ness monster? I read about Lapras' origins being from that thing, but it just doesn't sound right when you're comparing it to the Pokémon, because the latter is just so cute and sweet looking, and the word "monster" doesn't ring a bell. What IS the Loch Ness monster... :huh:

I believe it excists...

but how could he stay alive in the water for 65 million years?

Maybe it was preserved in ice at the bottom of the ocean :blink:

Meowth:

not just an ordinary cat. Meowth is from a Maneki Neko, a cat figure that supposedly gives a different kind of luck depending on what paw is raised. "Maneki Neko" means "lucky cat" in Japanese. i have one myself :D

in Japanese, the attack "Payday" is "neko ni koban". that translates roughly to 'im a gold coin cat', but in the anime Meowth says it like 'we're gonna be rich'.

Meowths Japanese name is Nyarth..."Nyar" is the Japanese equivalent of "meow", and the 'th' comes from the English word "mouth.
his American name is basically the same exact thing except the English "meow" is used.

Lapras is based on the dinosaur thing, at least, that's what an article about it says...
And for what I know about them, Ho-oh and Moltresd are based on the mystic fire birds, called Phoenix. Thay are said to bring live to the loved and missed fallen ones and bring good fortune to all those who see it...

The regi's are based on the old giants who might have created the earth possesing Rock, Water (regice) and Steel (???)...

All I know about the three dogs/cats are that they were sent by ho-oh to protect the order of live and they will only leave when pokemon and men are counted as equal by each other.

that's it, soory to interupt your research like this but I hope it will help...

This has nothing to do with any of this, but how long does it take yall to look uo all this stuff? :huh:

hmmm...I love wasting time instead of maken homework...

:lol: me too!

Hah! you'r my kind of customer!( Okay let's get back to the subject...)