Parallel Myths

by J. F. Bierlein

  When Siegmund was killed in battle, the dying Sieglinde gave birth to her son, Siegfried, entrusting him to a dwarf named Mime. Mime raised the lad as his own son, knowing the prophecy that Siegfried would be the Walsung (“world”) hero who would redeem the Niebelungen treasure and recover the Ring.

  As young Siegfried grew to manhood, there were many questions about his true identity. Since his earliest days, Siegmund had called Mime “Father,” but the tall young hero was certainly not a Niebelung. Mime had always hidden the truth from Siegfried in the hope that he, Mime, and neither Wotan nor Alberich, would be the possessor of the Ring and the treasure. Finally, Siegfried grew tired of the inconsistencies in Mime’s story and threatened the dwarfs life in order to force a true account.

  One day Wotan, the one-eyed king of the gods, was wandering on earth and came to the home of Siegfried and Mime. He wore a traveler’s cloak to hide his missing eye and conceal his true identity. In his hand he carried a walking stick carved with sacred runes and made from a branch of the ash tree, Yggdrasil, that supported the entire universe. The runes were the laws that governed all who lived in the universe, whether man, dwarf, giant, or god.

  Wotan had lost an eye by giving one of them up at Mimir’s well of wisdom in exchange for a drink of the sacred waters. With his dearly bought wisdom, Wotan knew of the inevitability of the Twilight of the Gods, when his rule of the universe would be overthrown. Wotan also knew that the mission of the young Siegfried would only hasten the Twilight.

  Mime asked Wotan many questions, as the traveler exuded wisdom: “Who lives on the surface of the earth?” Wotan answered, “Human beings.” “Who lives beneath the earth?” Wotan responded, “The Niebelungen.” “Who lives above, in the heavens?” Wotan replied, “The gods, who rule the universe, Wotan, Donner [Thor, the thunder god], Freja [Freya, the goddess of beauty], and the rest. They are attended by the Walküre [Norse: Valkyries] who carry slain heroes from the battlefield into the feasting hall of the gods at Walhalla [“the hall of the slain”].”

  Wotan could speak only the truth, and Mime persisted in his questions: “Who are the greatest and most beloved among human beings?” Wotan replied, “The Walsungs, Siegmund and Sieglinde, and their son, the world hero who is to come. Only a Walsung can slay the dragon Fafner and win the Ring. It is said that Wotan himself broke the sword Nothung that is the only means to slay this dragon. Fate decrees that he who reforges this sword will be the world hero.” Siegfried, listening carefully to the traveler’s words, now realized his own identity and what mission he was ordained to fulfill. Then the stranger slipped quietly into the deep forest.

  As Wotan disappeared, Siegfried ordered Mime to reforge Nothung so that he, Siegfried, might fulfill his mission. Mime protested that even his great skill could not reforge the magic sword. So, pushing Mime aside, Siegfried himself took the shattered fragments of the sword and began to reforge them at Mime’s anvil. He accomplished this with little difficulty. With the last stroke of the hammer, the anvil disappeared deep within Erde, the goddess of the earth. Erde was a goddess and the sister of Wotan; she was quick to tell her brother of what she had witnessed.

  The next day Siegfried set out into the forest on the first of his tasks—to slay Fafner and reclaim Alberich’s treasure and the coveted Ring. He came to a glade where Fafner had coiled his tail around an ancient ash tree. Around the tree was a protective circle of fire. Fafner himself breathed flames and the blood of hapless victims dripped from his teeth. Siegfried fearlessly walked through the flames unharmed and Fafner then recognized who this brave mortal was. With one blow, Siegfried slew Fafner. As the dragon lay dying, he asked Siegfried who had reforged the magic sword, and was told, “It was I, Siegfried the Walsung.”

  The blood of Fafner had dripped down the sword onto Siegfried’s hand, and he touched his lips to the blood. This enabled Siegfried to understand the prophetic language of the birds.

  The birds told Siegfried that Alberich’s treasure was in a nearby cave. He went into the cave and, having no interest in the treasure, took the Ring as a souvenir of his exploit. Siegfried did not understand the full significance of his possession of this Ring, which made him master of the universe. But the Ring also bore a curse: Alberich had ensured that any holder of the Ring other than himself would be doomed to die through the treachery of another. Now Siegfried had unwittingly sealed his own tragic fate.

  As Siegfried was preparing to leave, Mime and Alberich arrived on the scene. Now able to read the motives of Mime’s heart, he saw through his foster father completely. Mime’s words of flattery were merely a cover for his own evil plans. Siegfried knew that Mime intended to kill him and take the treasure for himself. With a blow of Nothung, Siegfried slew Mime. Alberich laughed cruelly and regained the treasure Siegfried was leaving behind. Remembering the curse that he, Alberich, had placed on the holder of the Ring, he allowed Siegfried to continue wearing it, confident of the hero’s impending destruction.

  The birds then told Siegfried of another task. A beautiful maiden, not a mortal but a Walküre named Brünnhilde, had been put to sleep by her father, Wotan, for disobedience. She slept on a great rock, encircled by flames. Only a Walsung hero born without fear could rescue her, waking her with a kiss. Siegfried seized the opportunity for adventure.

  What was Briinnhilde’s crime? Before the birth of Siegfried, his parents, Siegmund and Sieglinde, fought bravely as the champions of the Niebelungen against Wotan. After Siegmund was slain in battle, the then-pregnant Sieglinde begged Brünnhilde for help. The Walküre had whisked her out of danger. Although Brünnhilde had acted out of compassion, she had given comfort to her father’s enemies. Thus was Brünnhilde placed into a deep sleep. Wotan had ordered Loge, the trickster and god of fire, to make a circle of flames to detain mortals from rescuing her.

  As we have said, the young hero did not grasp the full meaning of his possession of the Ring, nor the significance of rescuing Brünnhilde in defiance of Wotan. As he approached the rock, Wotan—still in the disguise of a traveler—dissuaded him from rescuing Brünnhilde. This time Wotan did not carry a walking stick but a spear. Siegfried now knew that this stranger was none but Wotan. This spear was the very one that had shattered Nothung in the hands of his father, Siegmund. Wotan, however, knew that Siegfried had possession of the Ring and therefore he did not engage the hero in combat. Words were now the only weapons in the arsenal of Wotan, and Siegfried continued on toward the rock.

  Siegfried arrived at the great rock and passed through the wall of flames. He saw what appeared to be a sleeping warrior in battle armor. But as he drew closer, he saw that it was the beautiful Brünnhilde. He kissed her and she awoke. However, in removing her helmet, Siegfried had transformed her from a Walküre into a mere mortal woman. Siegfried placed the Ring on her finger as a token of his love, and vowed to return for her.

  Siegfried then rode to the land of the Giuchungen [Norse: Giukungur], who were ruled by the cowardly and treacherous King Gunther with the aid of his wicked mother, Griemhild, a sorceress.

  Siegfried’s brave deeds were now well known throughout the world, and Griemhild knew who the young hero was. The sorceress wanted Siegfried to be the husband of her own daughter, Gutrune, and Brünnhilde would then be the bride of Gunther.

  When Siegfried arrived, Gunther gave a great feast and swore an eternal oath of blood loyalty with Siegfried. Griemhild slipped a magic potion into Siegfried’s drink that made him forget about Brünnhilde. Then the young hero married Gutrune, per Griemhild’s plan. To complete her scheme, Griemhild enchanted Siegfried into assuming the appearance of Gunther, and sent him back for Brünnhilde. She thought that a new hero, and not Siegfried, had come to rescue her. Siegfried, as Gunther, spent three nights with the Walküre, his sword chastely separating them.

  Siegfried brought Brünnhilde back to the palace of the Giuchungen, and he assumed his own appearance once again. Brünnhilde now believed that the cowardly Gunther had rescued her, not brave Siegfried,
and she was bitter that Siegfried had “forgotten” his vow to her and married another.

  In the course of a quarrel with Gutrune, however, Brünnhilde learned the truth: Gutrune let out that Siegfried had actually rescued her, but it was too late, as the hero was Gutrune’s husband now and Brünnhilde could never have him.

  To create discord, Brünnhilde went to Gunther and told him that Siegfried had, in fact, made love to her during their three nights together. Brünnhilde demanded that Gunther kill Siegfried and defend her honor. Gunther replied that he could not do this, as he had sworn the eternal blood oath with the hero. However, he dispatched his brother, Hägen, to kill Siegfried. During the night, as Siegfried slept with Gutrune, Hägen stabbed the hero to death.

  Now Brünnhilde had made certain that her Siegfried would never live with another woman. She had fulfilled the curse of Alberich. Brünnhilde threw herself on Siegfried’s funeral pyre to join him in eternity, and the flames engulfed the whole of Walhalla.

  THESEUS

  (Greece)

  The myth of Theseus is an example of the power of the myth as an allegory of human life. Theseus must pass many tests and endure many trials before he faces his most significant challenge: defeating the bull-man Minotaur in the middle of the Labyrinth, a vast maze. Our own lives at times seem like mazes going nowhere. However, by knowing where he has been Theseus finds an escape from the maze. For us, myth is one way for modern man to know where he has been, and to work through the “maze” of our perplexing existence.

  There is an intriguing historical perspective to this myth. During the 1890s, Sir Arthur John Evans excavated the royal palace at Knossos, Crete. There was, in 2000 B.C., an enormous difference in the level of development on Crete in comparison to that in mainland Greece. Interestingly, Evans found flush toilets and advanced plumbing in the palace, advancements that would not come into common use in Western Europe until the end of the nineteenth century. More important to our investigations, the labyrinthine hallways of the palace, the many depictions of bullfights, and evidence of commerce with the mainland of Greece all add veracity to the story of Theseus, an early king of Athens.

  To a simple visitor from Bronze Age Greece, the vast corridors of the palace must have seemed like a maze; the sight of men riding bulls would have easily given rise to the Minotaur—a half-man, half-bull monster.

  One of the best sources for the story of Theseus is the account presented by the ancient biographer Plutarch in his Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Another excellent treatment of the story, by a modern author, is Andre Gide’s Theseus.

  THE YOUTH OF THESEUS

  King Aegeus of Athens had two wives, Melite and Chalciope, neither of whom gave him an heir. Aegeus traveled to Corinth, where he consulted with the sorceress Medea. She agreed to provide him with the magic necessary to sire a son in exchange for his promise that he would offer her protection and asylum in Athens, to which he readily agreed.

  At the town of Troezen, en route back to Athens, Aegeus had an affair with Aethra, a woman of the blood of the royal house of Athens. He warned her that if this liaison were to produce a son, she must keep the child in Troezen and secretly raise him there. Aegeus then placed his sandals and sword under a rock sacred to Zeus: His future heir would prove himself by finding this “deposit” [the Greek word is thesaurus, basis for the English words thesaurus and treasure]. The true son of Aegeus would be able to lift the rock and bring the tokens to Athens as a demonstration of his claim to the throne.

  Unknown to Aegeus, Aethra gave birth to a boy, naming him Theseus [“deposited”], recalling the tokens of kingship that her lover had deposited under the sacred rock. The child grew strong and wise, showing that he had the favor of the gods. With great ease he lifted the rock and removed the tokens of kingship. He then set out for Athens to make his claim to the throne. But the roads between Troezen and Athens were plagued by bandits, and thus Theseus had his first heroic task to perform.

  The first bandit he met was Epidaurus the Lame, reknowned for killing hapless travelers with a brass club and taking their money. When Epidaurus tried to attack Theseus, he had met his match at last. Theseus seized the brass club and slew Epidaurus.

  The second bandit was the wretched Sinis Pityocamtes [“Sinis the Pine-bender”]. This psychopath used to bend the tops of pine trees low with his great strength, then ask travelers to give him a hand in his work. When the traveler had a good grip on the tip of the pine tree, Sinis would let go. The traveler would then be flung through the air only to fall to his death. Theseus killed Sinis in the same manner that Sinis slew his victims.

  Then there was Sciron [“parasol”], who forced his victims to wash his feet, then when they were bent down, he kicked them into a steep gorge into the sea, where they were eaten by turtles. Theseus meted Sciron the same fate.

  Theseus was considered by the Athenians to be the father of Greek wrestling, after demonstrating his mastery of Cercydon, an evil bandit who challenged every traveler to a wrestling match that always concluded with Cercydon dashing his opponent’s head against a rock. Cercydon met the same fate as his victims at the hand of Theseus. Just as Theseus neared the outskirts of Athens, he also killed a fierce wild boar that had claimed many human lives.

  News of Theseus’s exploits preceded him to Athens, where the people were thrilled to be rid of the bandits and the boar.

  THESEUS IN ATHENS

  Many years had passed since King Aegeus had been in Troezen where Theseus was conceived. The king did not know that he had such a son. Meanwhile, Medea had been driven out of Corinth and fled to Athens, where Aegeus had assured her asylum. Aegeus took Medea as his third wife and they had a son, Medus, whom Aegeus erroneously considered the son and heir Medea had promised.

  News of Theseus had spread to the palace. Aegeus had no idea that this hero might be his son, and he was afraid that Theseus would prove a rival to his rule. Medea knew exactly who Theseus was, and feared that the hero would take the throne away from her son. Aegeus and Medea knew that they had to welcome Theseus to Athens, but they also wanted to kill him. So Medea prepared some poison from the wolfbane plant and placed it in a cup of wine.

  During the feasting, Theseus took his sword from the scabbard and used it to cut some meat; it was the sword that Aegeus had deposited under the rock many years before. Aegeus recognized the sword and knew that Theseus was his son and true heir. He immediately knocked the poisoned wine onto the floor and rejoiced, proclaiming Theseus as his heir. Moreover, as Aethra, Theseus’s mother, was of the royal blood of Athens, there was no way that Theseus’s claim to the throne could be contested. Medea was angry with this and was driven into exile for her treachery.

  THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR

  Crete is an island off the coast of Greece that was ruled by King Minos. Minos had sent his only son on a diplomatic delegation to Athens. The Cretans were known throughout the world for their skill with bulls, and King Aegeus asked the Cretan prince, Androgeus, for help in killing a particularly fierce bull that plagued the countryside near Athens. In the process, Androgeus was killed.

  Minos demanded revenge. He invaded Athens and vowed to destroy the city unless the Athenians offered a tribute. The only tribute that could compensate for the loss of the Cretan heir to the throne was for the Athenians to send their seven finest young men and as many young women to Crete once every nine years. The young Athenians never returned; in Crete they were murdered by a horrible monster, the Minotaur.

  The story of the Minotaur is yet another example of human stupidity toward the gods. King Minos had been given a beautiful white bull by the sea god, Poseidon, who expected it to be returned to him as a sacrifice. Instead, Minos prized the bull and refused to let go of it. Poseidon was angry and caused Pasiphae, Minos’s wife, to fall in love with the bull. She later gave birth to the horrible Minotaur, who was half human, half bull, and the fiercest creature alive. Minos did not kill the Minotaur. Rather, the king asked Daedalus, the world’s greatest bu
ilder, to construct a Labyrinth, a maze of corridors, in which the monster could be safely kept, and Minos would give the Minotaur human beings to eat. The young Athenians were placed in this hopeless maze and murdered by the fierce man-beast.

  Theseus arrived in Athens during the ninth year of this human sacrifice. He stepped forward and offered to be one of the seven young people chosen to go to Crete. His father despaired of sending the heir to the throne on such a mission, but Theseus assured Aegeus that he would kill the Minotaur and end the slaughter of Athenian youth. So Theseus boarded the ship and left for Crete. It was understood by the Athenians that they should watch the sail: If the ship returned with a black sail, then the young Athenians had all perished. However, if the ship returned with a white sail, the young Athenians had been spared and were aboard this ship home.

  Upon arriving in Crete, the Athenians were paraded through the streets. Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, fell instantly in love with Theseus and went to Daedalus for assistance in saving the handsome Athenian. She then gave Theseus a ball of string to unwind behind him: By knowing where he had been, Theseus could retrace his steps and escape the Labyrinth. Fortunately for the other thirteen young Athenians, Theseus was the first of their party to encounter the Minotaur, whom the hero easily killed with his bare hands.

  Thus the fourteen young Athenians escaped unharmed. Ariadne had received a promise from Theseus that he would take her to Greece with him, where they would marry. On the way, however, she became violently ill and Theseus dropped her off on the island of Naxos.* Another version of the story is that she became tiresome and nagging during the voyage and was simply left there. In any case, the ship returned to Athens with all fourteen Athenians on board.

  In their haste to return, however, someone forgot to replace the black sail that had graced the ship on its outward journey with the white one that indicated that the young Athenians were safe. For months, King Aegeus had watched the seas for a sign of this ship. When he saw the black sail as the ship returned, he thought that his son and heir had perished in Crete. In despair, he threw himself to his death in the sea, which is now called the Aegean Sea. Thus, upon the ship’s return to Athens, Theseus found himself king.