Hi I'm creating a fantasy world where rivers of "lava" are common place across the land, I keep referring to it as lava in my notes because it's the closest thing to what I can describe it as but I want to name it something else or something that's a known life giving type liquid in some mythology or else name it after a type of lava like pahoehoe which I thought sounded like it could be an interesting name for it, it's similar to the depiction of lava in cartoons where it is always a bright reddish orange as if it just erupted and never hardens over at the top just keeps flowing freely, some of the mythical creatures like dragons and a golem type rock creature consume it like how other animals drink from rivers, are there any kinds of mythical liquids that sound similar to this? At first I thought of Ambrosia since it would kind of fit what I'm after but I'm not sure. So far the majority of creatures and things are from either Celtic mythology folklore / European folklore so I'm not sure if adding something from Greek mythology might confuse the feel of the world know what I mean? I know lots of other works of fiction do it successfully though so I'm not sure, any feedback would be appreciated thanks
In The Divine Comedy Dante describes a river made of light. and I saw light that took a river’s form— light flashing, reddish-gold, between two banks painted with wonderful spring flowerings. Which is meant to intentionally parallel Revelation 22 where it describes the "River of Life:" Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Not exactly lave per se, but still kinda neat.
Lahars are flowing mud that come down off volcanoes like rivers when the shaking mountain liquifies ash and pumice. They can be dangerously hot or cold depending on the activity of the volcano. Lahars move rapidly down valleys like rivers of concrete.
Maybe Greek fire? It was first developed c. 672. The Byzantines used it in naval battles with great success. Greek fire was very hard to put out, it even floated on water and kept burning. More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire
There might be something you could find in stories of Pele (Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes). Or maybe something with Hephaestus, although I guess not, if you're thinking of avoiding the Greeks...
Here's some Celtic fire gods/goddesses, maybe you could name it after one of them? Belenus, bright god of the sun and health who rides his chariot in the sky Brigit, Irish goddess of fire, poetry, arts, and crafts Grannus, god of fire, health, water springs, and the sun Nantosuelta, goddess of fire, nature, fertility, rivers and the earth
