Parallel Myths

by J. F. Bierlein

  Apollo

  His name, which is the same in Latin, means either “apple man” or “destroyer.” The son of Zeus by Leto, Apollo is a sun-god, driving the chariot of the sun across the heavens. He is the patron of both athletic contests and the arts. He speaks through the oracle at Delphi, called “the Pythoness.” His twin sister is Artemis.

  Apollo supplanted an earlier Greek sun-god, Helios (Sol), who was a personification of the heavenly body. One of his names is Phoebus, meaning “the shining one.”

  Artemis (Diana)

  Twin sister of Apollo, a moon goddess, patroness of small children and hunters, she is a perpetual virgin. Among her names is Phoebe, the feminine version of Phoebus. Sacred to the people of Ephesus, she is prominently mentioned in the account of Saint Paul’s mission to the Ephesians in the biblical Book of Acts.

  Ares (Mars)

  His name means “warrior.” He is the bloodthirsty, hard-drinking, dishonest, and temperamental god of war, thoroughly unpopular among the other Olympian gods. His sister is Eris, meaning “discord.” He is said to be a brother of Zeus and Hera.

  Hestia (Vesta)

  Her name means “hearth,” and she is the patroness of the home and hearth. She is as gentle and kind as Ares is cruel. She never causes strife and is said to have invented the arts of home building.

  Poseidon (Neptune)

  Robert Graves claims that Poseidon’s name is a derivative of potidan, or “he who gives to drink.” Poseidon is the god of the sea, brother of Hades and Zeus.

  Hades (Pluto)

  His name means “blind.” A brother of Zeus, he is the lord of the Underworld, the home of the dead. His Latin name, Pluto, means “rich” in Greek, reflecting that all the wealth of the mines under the earth is his. He is also therefore the god of wealth. His wife is Persephone or Kore, Proserpina in Latin.

  Athena (Minerva)

  According to Graves, her name comes from the Sumerian anatha, or “queen of heaven.” Another of her names, Pallas, means “maiden” in Greek. She was said to have been born in a curious way: Zeus was suffering from a terrible headache and Athena emerged from his head, fully grown, wearing a suit of armor.

  The patroness of the city of Athens, she is the goddess of wisdom and the inventor of the flute, the trumpet, the plow, the rake, the ox yoke, the horse bridle, the chariot, and the ship. She created numbers and mathematics, as well as cooking, weaving, and spinning. She is also the goddess of justice, and is the only Olympian to have ever defeated Ares in battle. She is a perpetual virgin, and the owl, still considered “wise,” is her symbol.

  Hephaestus (Vulcan)

  His name may be a contraction of hemero-phaestos, or “he who shines by day.” He is the son of Zeus and the husband of Aphrodite.

  Depicted as ugly, he is the lame god of the forge, inventor of metalworking, and patron of smiths. He is the force behind the volcano, which comes from his Latin name, Vulcan. Today, the process of making rubber durable, stable, and strong by heat treating is called “vulcanization.”

  The Two Earth Gods

  Demeter (Ceres)

  Her name means “barley mother.” She is the goddess of agriculture and may well be a survival of an ancient mother goddess. The word cereal comes from her Latin name, Ceres, as does the modern Spanish word cerveza, meaning “beer.” It is she who makes the seeds grow.

  Dionysus (Bacchus)

  His name means “lame deity.” He is the god of the vine, grapes, and wine, as well as the god of theater. His temple at Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Drunken revelries are still called “Bacchanalia,” recalling an ancient Roman celebration in his honor. Dionysus is a root of the common man’s name Dennis or Denis.

  The inclusion of Demeter and Dionysus in any list of important deities tells us much about the Greek way of life.

  Bread and wine were staples of the Greek and Roman diets. In the myths, one reads of someone becoming drunk by drinking “unmixed” wine, as wine was customarily cut with water to reduce its potency for ordinary household use, as is still common in France and Spain today.

  A Modern Pantheon?

  … though the West is nominally Christian, we have come to be governed, in practice, by the unholy triumdivate* of Pluto god of wealth, Apollo god of science, and Mercury god of thieves. To make matters worse, dissension and jealousy rage openly between these three, with Mercury and Pluto blackguarding each other, while Apollo wields the atomic bomb as if it were a thun derbolt; for since the Age of Reason was heralded by his eighteenth-century philosophers, he has seated himself on the vacant throne of Zeus (temporarily indisposed) as Triumdival Regent.

  —Robert Graves, The White Goddess

  THE NORSE PANTHEON

  Odin (in German, Wotan)

  Odin is the one-eyed ruler of the gods. He has one eye after bartering the other for a drink at Mimir’s well of wisdom. Two ravens fly around the world gathering information for him. He is portrayed as wise and generally just.

  Frey

  The German and Scandinavian god of agriculture, trade, and peace. The modern German words frei and Freiheit—and their English counterparts, free and freedom—are related to his name.

  Freya, Freja

  The sister of Frey, a goddess of beauty and love.

  Frigga

  A German and Old English version of Freya or Freja, who may have been a separate goddess at one time. The Norse Frigga is the wife of Odin, a separate deity from Freya.

  Tyr, Tiw

  The god of war. He was more popular among the Germans and Anglo-Saxons, as he seldom appears in Scandinavian mythology.

  Loki (in German, Loge)

  A trickster, the source of deception and harm to the gods.

  Hel

  Odin’s sister, who oversees the Underworld, where the dead dwell. She is the source of the German word Hölle and its English counterpart, hell.

  THE GODS OF INDIA

  The great absolute and eternal God is Brahman, called the Divine Self. However, Hinduism may take monotheistic forms, in that Brahman is ultimately considered by most Hindus as God, or even the “great force” behind God and the gods, and polytheistic, in that Brahman is manifested through many avatars, or incarnations, that are worshipped by the masses.

  The Trimurti (“threefold statue”), or “trinity,” of the Hindu godhead consists of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. All three of these are but mere incarnations of Brahman, the Eternal and Absolute, and all are male deities who have female counterparts, or “shaktis.” The shakti of Shiva is Mahadevi (The Great Goddess), who is also called Jagan-Mata (“Mother of the World”). The Great Goddess is worshiped as the Supreme Being by certain sects in India. The shakti of Brahma is Sarasvati, while that of Vishnu is Lakshmi. All of these shaktis are worshiped by their own small sects.

  The two great Hindu epics are The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, the latter made famous by a modern dramatization by Peter Brook. In both epics, Vishnu has taken human form to preserve mankind, as Rama in the first one, and as Krishna in The Mahabharata.

  There are other Hindu deities:

  Brihaspati, the planet Jupiter, priest of the gods.

  Indra, the sky-god.

  Varuna, a Sanskrit name closely related to the Greek Uranus, and the chief of the early Hindu pantheon; also called “Father Heaven.”

  Kubera, a god of wealth.

  Rudra, the storm-god, also an avatar of Shiva that destroys the world.

  Pushan, the guardian of the flocks.

  the three sons of Shiva and his shakti, Parvati (or Mahadevi):

  Ganesha, the very popular elephant-headed god of wisdom (in India, when a statue of Ganesha is turned upside down, it means that a shop has gone bankrupt).

  Skanda (or Kumara), a god of war.

  Kamadeva, a god of love, and his wife, Rati (“sexual desire”); Kamadeva literally means “love god,” and the ancient Indian sex manual, The Kamasutra, means “love chapters.”

>   How Many Gods Are There?

  From the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, translated by R Max Müller.

  Then Vidagdha Saklaya asked him: “How many gods are there, O Yajnavalkya?” He replied with this very Nivid (Sanskrit: “saying”): “As many as are mentioned in the Nivid of the hymn of praise addressed to the Visvedevas, … three and three hundred, three and three thousand.”

  “Yes,” he said and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

  “Thirty-three,” he said.

  “Yes,” he said and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

  “Six,” he said.

  “Yes,” he said and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

  “Three,” he said.

  “Yes,” he said and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

  “Two,” he said.

  “Yes,” he said and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

  “One,” he said.

  THE EGYPTIAN PANTHEON

  The Ennead

  The word ennea means “nine” in Greek, and the principal Egyptian gods are nine in number. Ra, the ruler of the gods and the sun-god, emerged from the Watery Abyss to create the world. His children are Shu, the god of the air, a life spirit; and Tefnut, or moisture, the goddess of the world order. Their children are Geb, the earth god, and his wife, Nut, the sky-goddess, who in turn produced Osiris and Isis, who are husband and wife; and Set and Nephthys, who are also husband and wife.

  Osiris, whose story is given later in this book, is the god of the dead. Isis is a goddess of wisdom and beauty. Set is the evil god of the desert, while Nephthys is the goddess of dusk. Osiris and Isis are the parents of Horus, the patron of the reigning pharoah.

  Other Egyptian gods are:

  Bast, the cat goddess who is the patroness of love and “feminine” things.

  Hathor, the goddess of vengeance, the “eye” of Ra.

  Maat, the goddess of justice.

  Ernutet, patroness of women in childbirth.

  THE HAWAIIAN PANTHEON

  The Polynesians, including the Hawaiians, Tahitians, Maori, and others, divide all forces in the universe into “Ao” (the masculine force, day, and the sky) and “Po” (the feminine principle, night, and the earth). The Ao god is Ku, whose name means “rising upright,” an allusion to both the sun and the phallus. The Po goddess is Hina, whose name means “leaning down,” an allusion to the setting sun. Prayers to Ku are thus said facing east, and those to Hina are said facing west.

  Ku is the god of agriculture, and is also invoked by fishermen for an abundant catch. Hina is the queen of the Underworld, patroness of women. Ku and Hina are the primordial parents of the gods:

  Pele is the volcano goddess.

  Kanaloa is the sea god, a squid god, who is invoked for healing and by travelers.

  Maui is the trickster, the son of Kanaloa.

  Lono is an agricultural deity.

  THE AZTEC PANTHEON

  Onteotl, the eternal and supreme god behind and above all gods.

  Tlaloc, the rain god, leader of the rain spirits, the Tlaloques, who live on mountaintops.

  Ehecatl, god of the winds, a form taken by Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent hero-god of the Aztecs.

  Xipe Totec, god of the spring.

  Xochipilli, god of flowers.

  Tlatzoteotl, goddess of sexual desire and, curiously, the goddess to whom the confession of sins is addressed.

  Huitzipochtli, the sun-god and patron of the Aztecs at war.

  The Lesser Aztec Gods

  Teteoinnan, mother of the gods; Coatlicue, “she who wears the snake-skirt;” Cihuacoatl, “snake-woman;” and Itzpapalotl, “obsidian butterfly,” are all goddesses of fertility and childbirth.

  Huehueteotl, the fire god.

  Centeotl, the god of maize.

  Ometochtli, the god of drunkenness.

  Chalchiuhtilicue, “the one who wears the jade skirt,” the goddess of fresh water, and her sister, Huixtochihuatl, the goddess of salt water and the ocean.

  * Triumdivate, triumdival: A collection of three separate gods of three separate essences. This is in contrast to the Christian “Trinity” or the Hindu “Trimurti” of three personages that are in essence one God.

  PART TWO

  THE MYTHS

  3. Beginnings—The Creation Myths

  When Science from Creation’s face

  Enchantment’s veil withdraws

  What lovely visions yield their place

  To cold material laws.

  —Thomas Campbell,

  Scottish Romantic poet,

  “To a Rainbow”

  CREATION MYTHS OF INDIA

  THERE WAS NOTHING

  NOTE: This is the classic Nasadiya, or “There Was Not,” hymn contained in the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Rig Veda. The source for this is Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism.

  There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water bottomlessly deep? There was neither death nor immortality then. There was no distinguishing sign of night, nor of day. That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond. Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning; with no distinguishing sign, all this was water. The life force that was covered with emptiness, that One arose through the power of heat.

  Desire came upon that One in the beginning; that was the first seed of mind. Poets seeking in their heart with wisdom found the bond of existence in non-existence. Their cord was extended across. Was there below? Was there above? There were seed-placers; there were powers. There was impulse beneath; there was giving-forth above.

  Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of the universe. Who then knows whence it has arisen? Whence this creation has arisen—perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not—the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows—or perhaps he does not know.

  THE THOUGHTS OF BRAHMA

  NOTE: The source of this story is the Brahamanda Purana, one of the earliest Hindu scriptures. In this myth, Brahma, the Creator, assumes various kinds of bodies made from the three elemental substances: darkness (tamas), energy (rajas), and goodness (satva).

  Brahma has created and re-created the world many, many times. No one knows how many worlds there have been before this one or how many will come after it. There are four ages or yugas that together make one kalpa or eon. At the end of each kalpa, the creation is destroyed and returned to its transition state as a watery chaos.

  As Brahma meditated, beings were born from his mind. He assumed a body made of darkness, and out of his rectum came a wind—thus were the demons born. Then Brahma discarded this body of darkness and the discarded body became night.

  He then assumed a new body that was made mostly of goodness and light. Out of his mouth now came the shining gods or devas. He cast off this body, which became day. Even today, it is during the daytime that people visit the temples and worship the gods.

  He took a third body that was all satva [goodness]. Brahma happened to be thinking fond thoughts of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and thus the “ancestor spirits” were born. These spirits appear in the dusk and the dawn, where day and night meet.

  Brahma then cast off his third body and assumed a fourth that was made of the energy that emitted from his mind. With these thoughts, human beings, the thinking creatures, were created. Then he discarded this body and it became the moon. To this day human beings love the moonlight for dancing, singing, and making love.

  Brahma now had a rather strange thought as he assumed a fifth body made of both energy and darkness, which caused him to emit horrible creatures that wanted to devour the primordial sea of chaos; these were the ogres.

&
nbsp; Brahma was so disturbed by this last creation that all the hairs on his head fell out. These hairs became all the creatures that crawl around on their bellies, the snakes and other reptiles. They recall their origins by hiding in swamps, brush piles, under rocks, and other dark places.

  Brahma was still troubled about creating the ogres and, thinking dark thoughts, he created the horrible Gandharvas, or ghouls.

  By this time Brahma had again regained his composure and began thinking pleasant thoughts. His mind went back to the peaceful and happy time of his youth. In this state of happiness, the birds were created. Now from the body of Brahma, much more sprang forth: mammals, plants, and other forms of life.

  The qualities that all living things have today are the products of what Brahma’s thoughts were when they were born, and these features remain constant as long as the present world lasts.

  BRAHMA IS LONELY

  NOTE: This very ancient myth comes from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which may date from 1500 B.C., and the telling of this myth is based on the translation by F. Max Müller.