Mythology Anthology

Enuma Elish . . . the song of Marduk

2008-05-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Enuma Elish is the Babylonian Creation Myth. It is based on metaphors and symbols that were universally accepted. This creation myth varied depending on which Gods your tribe/city/locality worshiped. The version shared here was written in the 12th century BC on 7 clay tablets. It is the Akkadian version that would have been widely shared in the city of Babylon the citizens of which worshipped Marduk therefore he features in the role of honor. Other versions have Anu, Enil and Ninurta as the heroes. This would suggest that Babylon myths where told to justify the religious practices of the different cults.

This animation comes from Mythic Journeys:
Click here to visit them.

If you don't like or want to watch the movie Here is a text version of the myth which can be downloaded as a Word.doc by clicking the link at the end of the movie:

BABYLONIAN CREATION

From the Enuma Elish, 2050-1750 BC

Before anything had a name, before there was firm ground or sky or the sun and moon there was Apsu, the sweet water sea and Tiamat, the salt water sea.

When these two seas mingled, they created the gods Lahmu and Lahamu, who rose from the silt at the edge of the water.

When Lahmu and Lahamu joined, they created the great gods Anshar, Kishar and Anu.

From this generation of gods there arose mighty Ea and his many brothers.

Ea and his brothers were restless - they surged over the waters day and night. Neither Apsu nor Tiamat could get any rest. They tried to plead with the gods to tread softly, but powerful Ea didn’t hear them.

Apsu decided the only way to have some peace was to destroy Ea and his brothers. He began to plot their demise with some of the first generation gods.

But Ea heard of their plans and struck him down first. This began a war among the gods.

Tiamat was furious that her mate was killed, and she began producing great and ferocious monsters to slay Ea and his brothers. She created poisonous dragons and demons and serpents. She created the Viper, the Sphinx, the Lion, the Mad Dog and Scorpion Man.

The chief of them all was called Kingu. He led the army of Tiamat’s monsters into heaven against Ea and his brothers to avenge Apsu’s death.

While Tiamat fashioned her army, Ea and the goddess Damkina created the great god Marduk. Marduk was the most powerful creation ever. He towered over the others. He had four eyes and four ears and could see and hear everything in creation.

His eyes flashed with lightning and when he spoke he breathed fire. He was fearless and radiant. The gods cowered before him. “You are the Great Sun!” they cried.

Ea and the gods told him of the advancing army. They needed his help to defeat them. “I will fight for you but after the war is over I shall rule the universe on high!”

The gods agreed. Marduk made ready for battle. He gathered the four winds to clear the path to Tiamat.

Marduk burst out of the sky in his flaming chariot pulled by his team Killer, Crusher, Unyielder and Fleet. He held the royal scepter and ring, covered in golden armor. He rode into battle bearing his bow and arrows and a mighty thunderbolt.

Marduk was glorious to behold. He struck fear in the hearts of all of Tiamat’s brood.

The sea waters of Tiamat swirled together and formed a vast and fearsome dragon. She opened her mouth wide to scream.

Before she could utter a word, Marduk cast a hurricane into her mouth. She swallowed it and the hurricane almost burst her apart from the inside.

Before she could cast a single spell, Marduk let one of his arrows fly; it cut her neatly in half. Tiamat’s monsters trembled as she died. Marduk raised half of her body to the heavens to form the sky and the other half formed the earth.

Marduk was victorious, and now the undisputed king of the universe. No one ever questioned his rule.

He created the days of the year, the planets and their paths in the heavens, the stars and their constellations and the moon and her moods. He became the sun and gave all the gods their responsibilities.

After a time he decided to create a creature that could serve the gods and bear the burden of hard work looking after the earth.

Marduk first created a structure from bone, left over from the bones of the dead monsters from the war. Then he formed the flesh around it and breathed life into it.

Man was given his name. He took up residence on the earth while the gods ascended to heaven. Thus the gods were freed from eternal labor.

There is a lot of fascinating symbolism in this story you can recognize some of the themes of contemporary religions echoed here like the separating of the earth from the sky, The breath of life, Man formed from the earth, mans call to serve God(s), etc... These similarities a re shared with the Abrhamic religions, Egyptian, etc...

You can find a translation of the 7 clay Tablets from which this story is taken here:

http://www.cresourcei.org/enumaelish.html

Egyptian Origins

2008-05-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Today I have chosen to focus on the Creation Myth from ancient Egypt. This story is one of the earliest creation stories. It conveys many of the themes that have been repeated in other creation myths over the centuries. As you read it my be an interesting exercise to see how many similarities the creation story you believe has with the story from ancient Egypt.

An ancient Egyptian origin myth holds that in the beginning, the universe was filled with the primeval waters of chaos, which was the god Nun. The god, Re-Atum appeared from the Water as the land of Egypt appears every year out of the flood waters of the Nile. Re-Atum spat and out of the spittle came out the deities Shu(air)and Tefnut(moisture). The world was created when Shu and Tefnut gave birth to two children: Nut(Sky) and Geb (the Earth). Humans were created when Shu and Tefnut went wandering in the dark wastes and got lost. Re-Atum sent his eye to find them. On reuniting, his tears of joy turned into people.

Geb and Nut copulated, and upon Shu's learning of his children's fornication, he separated the two, effectively becoming the air between the sky and ground. He also decreed that the pregnant Nut should not give birth any day of the year. Nut pleaded with Thoth, who on her behalf gambled with the moon-god Yah and won five more days to be added onto the then 360-day year. Nut had one child on each of these days: Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus-the-Elder.

Osiris, by different accounts, was either the son of Re-Atum or Geb, and king of Egypt. His brother Seth represented chaos in the universe. He murdered Osiris by tricking him to fit inside of a box, which was the nailed shut and thrown into the Nile. After killing Osiris, Seth tore his body into pieces. Isis rescued most of the pieces for burial beneath the temple, but first she resurrected Osiris so she could copulate with him to create their child Horus . Seth made himself king, but was challenged by Osiris's son - Horus. Seth lost and was sent to the desert. Osiris was mummified by Isis and became god of the dead. Horus became the king and from him descended the pharaohs.

Another version, this one by Plutarch states that Set made a chest that only Osiris could fit into. He then invited Osiris to a feast. Set made a bet that no one could fit into the chest. Osiris was the last one to step into the chest, but before he did, Set asked if he could hold Osiris's crown. Osiris agreed and stepped into the chest. As he lay down, Set slammed the lid shut and put the crown on his own head. He then set the chest afloat on the Nile. Isis did not know of her husband's death until the Wind told her. She then placed her son in a safe place and cast a spell so no one could find him. When she searched for her husband, a child told her a chest had washed up on the bank and a tree had grown up. The tree was so straight the king had used it for the central pillar of his new palace. Isis went and asked for her husband's body and it was given to her. The god of the underworld told her that Osiris would be a king, but only in the underworld.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_religion#Old_Kingdom

There are strong themes here Water as the source of creation, chaos giving way to a new order, symbolism in the natural world, the separation of earth and sky, resurrection, just to name a few.

Osiris is often contrasted with the figure of Christ, because he dies and is resurrected and sits in judgment of the dead.

Rebirth following a flood id an interesting theme as well which is common in many world religions.

The final point of note is the roots of our modern day calendar as described in this myth, the Egyptian calendar was very accurate very early and it resembles the calendar we use today.

Ask & Embla - A Myth from the North

2008-05-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

Today's story comes from the North, it is the creation Myth from Norse mythology:

According to Norse myth, in the beginning there was fire and ice, which exsisted in two worlds: Muspelheim(Fire) and Niflheim(Ice). Between the two was a chasm known as Ginnungagap. The combination of the warm air from Muspelheim against the cold ice of Niflheim, formed the giant Ymir and the icy cow Audhumla. Ymir's foot bred a son and a man and a woman emerged from his armpits, making Ymir the progenitor of the Jotun, or giants. While Ymir slept, the intense heat from Muspelheim made him sweat, and he sweated out Surtr, a giant of fire. Later Ymir woke and drank Audhumbla's milk. While he drank, the cow Audhumbla licked on a salt stone. On the first day after this a man's hair appeared on the stone, on the second day a head and on the third day an entire man emerged from the stone. His name was Búri and with an unknown giantess he fathered Bor, the father of the three gods Odin, Vili and Ve.

When Odin (Woden) killed Ymir. His blood flooded the world and drowned all of the giants, except two. But giants grew again in numbers and soon there were as many as before Ymir's death. Then the gods created seven more worlds using Ymir's flesh for dirt, his blood for the Oceans, rivers and lakes, his bones for stone, his brain as the clouds, his skull for the heaven. Sparks from Muspelheim flew up and became stars.

One day when the gods were walking they found two tree trunks. They transformed them into the shape of humans. Odin gave them life, Vili gave them mind and Ve gave them the ability to hear, see, and speak. The gods named them Ask and Embla and built the kingdom of Middle-earth for them and to keep the giants out the gods placed a gigantic fence made of Ymirs eye-lashes around Middle-earth.

The völva goes on to describe Yggdrasil and the three norns (female symbols of inexorable fate; their names - Urðr (Urd), Verðandandi (Verdandi), and Skuld - indicate the past, present, and future), who spin the threads of fate beneath it.

Norse Mythology is generally darker, but it impacts your life 4 out of the 7 days of the week if you live in the English speaking world.

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Tuesday: The name Tuesday comes from the Old English Tiwesdæg (pronounced [ti.wes.dæg] or [ti.wes.dæj], meaning "Tyr's day." Tyr (in Old English, Tiw, Tew or Tiu) was a god of combat and heroic glory in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism.
Wednesday: The name Wednesday comes from the Old English Wōdnesdæg (pronounced [woːd.nes.dæg] or [woːd.nes.dæj) meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden (Wodan), more commonly known as Odin, who was the highest god in Norse mythology, and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other places) in England until about the seventh century. In Old Norse myth, Odin, is associated with poetic and musical inspiration.
Thursday: The name Thursday comes from the Old English Þūnresdæg (pronounced [θuːn.res.dæg] or [θuːn.res.dæj]), meaning the day of Þunor, commonly known in Modern English as Thor, the god of thunder in Norse Mythology and Germanic Paganism.
Friday: The name Friday comes from the Old English Frigedæg (pronounced [fri.je.dæg] or [fri.je.dæj]), meaning the day of Frige, the Germanic goddess of beauty, who is a later incarnation of the Norse goddess Frigg, but also potentially connected to the Goddess Freyja.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_the_week

Of note in this story is the symbols of fire and water in the creation of the world, Fates that weave our destiny, a pantheon of gods with specific roles in the creation of the world and specific roles in interacting with the human race, and a flood to cleans the world.

On this "Woden's" Day I hope you enjoy this story.

Original Sin in Islam

2008-05-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

Islam is one of the Abrahamic religions along with the Christian, Judaic, and Baha'i faiths (the principal Abrahamic religions) All three have a telling of the following story which is connected to the creation myth. The following is the telling of the story of Adam and Eve. I am using the translations From USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts: They use three different translations of the Quran so I have included all three to give the ability to compare and contrast

Yusuf Ali:

Chapter 7 Verse 19
"O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and enjoy (its good things) as ye wish: but approach not this tree, or ye run into harm and transgression."

Chapter 7 Verse 20
Then began Satan to whisper suggestions to them, bringing openly before their minds all their shame that was hidden from them (before): he said: "Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest ye should become angels or such beings as live for ever."

Chapter 7 Verse 21
And he swore to them both, that he was their sincere adviser.

Chapter 7 Verse 22
So by deceit he brought about their fall: when they tasted of the tree, their shame became manifest to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: "Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?"

Chapter 7 Verse 23
They said: "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls: If thou forgive us not and bestow not upon us Thy Mercy, we shall certainly be lost."

Chapter 7 Verse 24
(Allah) said: "Get ye down. With enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling-place and your means of livelihood,- for a time."

Chapter 7 Verse 25
He said: "Therein shall ye live, and therein shall ye die; but from it shall ye be taken out (at last)."

Marmaduke Mohammad Pickthal:

Chapter 7 Verse 19
And (unto man): O Adam! Dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden and eat from whence ye will, but come not nigh this tree lest ye become wrong-doers.

Chapter 7 Verse 20
Then Satan whispered to them that he might manifest unto them that which was hidden from them of their shame, and he said: Your Lord forbade you from this tree only lest ye should become angels or become of the immortals.

Chapter 7 Verse 21
And he swore unto them (saying): Lo! I am a sincere adviser unto you.

Chapter 7 Verse 22
Thus did he lead them on with guile. And when they tasted of the tree their shame was manifest to them and they began to hide (by heaping) on themselves some of the leaves of the Garden. And their Lord called them, (saying): Did I not forbid you from that tree and tell you: Lo! Satan is an open enemy to you?

Chapter 7 Verse 23
They said: Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If thou forgive us not and have not mercy on us, surely we are of the lost!

Chapter 7 Verse 24
He said: Go down (from hence), one of you a foe unto the other. There will be for you on earth a habitation and provision for a while.

Chapter 7 Verse 25
He said: There shall ye live, and there shall ye die, and thence shall ye be brought forth.

M. H.Shakir:

Chapter 7 Verse 19
And (We said): O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the garden; so eat from where you desire, but do not go near this tree, for then you will be of the unjust.

Chapter 7 Verse 20
But the Shaitan made an evil suggestion to them that he might make manifest to them what had been hidden from them of their evil inclinations, and he said: Your Lord has not forbidden you this tree except that you may not both become two angels or that you may (not) become of the immortals.

Chapter 7 Verse 21
And he swore to them both: Most surely I am a sincere adviser to you.

Chapter 7 Verse 22
Then he caused them to fall by deceit; so when they tasted of the tree, their evil inclinations became manifest to them, and they both began to cover themselves with the leaves of the garden; and their Lord called out to them: Did I not forbid you both from that tree and say to you that the Shaitan is your open enemy?

Chapter 7 Verse 23
They said: Our Lord! We have been unjust to ourselves, and if Thou forgive us not, and have (not) mercy on us, we shall certainly be of the losers.

Chapter 7 Verse 24
He said: Get forth, some of you, the enemies of others, and there is for you in the earth an abode and a provision for a time.

Chapter 7 Verse 25
He (also) said: Therein shall you live, and therein shall you die, and from it shall you be raised.

*These translations can be found here:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/007.qmt.html

Islam does not believe in the concept of original sin. Everyone is guilty for their own sins and responsible for living in accordance with God's rules. Ultimately their own deeds are recorded and God judges them accordingly.:

Chapter 17 Verse 15:

YUSUFALI: Who receiveth guidance, receiveth it for his own benefit: who goeth astray doth so to his own loss: No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another: nor would We visit with Our Wrath until We had sent an messenger (to give warning).

PICKTHAL: Whosoever goeth right, it is only for (the good of) his own soul that he goeth right, and whosoever erreth, erreth only to its hurt. No laden soul can bear another's load, We never punish until we have sent a messenger.

SHAKIR: Whoever goes aright, for his own soul does he go aright; and whoever goes astray, to its detriment only does he go astray: nor can the bearer of a burden bear the burden of another, nor do We chastise until We raise a messenger.

*This verse can be found here:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/017.qmt.html

Another interesting note about this story is that Eve is not blamed for the fall of Adam. They both committed the sin, they both asked for forgiveness, and they were both forgiven. In the Islamic accounts it was Satan that did the tempting. This reinforces the principle that each person is guilty for their own sins and can be forgiven by God if they will submit to his will.

From this Myth we learn that we are all responsible for our own actions and that we are not guilty for others sins nor should we condemn someone for other's sins.

Chaos and the Birth of the Cosmos

2008-04-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

This month I want to focus on creation myths, in honor of the creation of this Blog/Anthology.

"At the beginning there was only Chaos, Night, dark Erebus,
and deep Tartarus. Earth, the air and heaven had no existence.
Firstly, black-winged Night laid a germless egg in the bosom
of the infinite deeps of Erebus, and from this, after the revolution
of long ages, sprang the graceful Eros with his glittering golden wings,
swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest. He mated in deep Tartarus
with dark Chaos, winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race,
which was the first to see the light. That of the Immortals did not
exist until Eros had brought together all the ingredients of the world,
and from their marriage Heaven, Ocean, Earth and the imperishable race
of blessed gods sprang into being."- Aristophanes, Birds 685

There are many retellings of the story, this happens to be my favorite. Aristophanes wrote the play that contains this retelling in 414 BC It won second place at the drama competition that it debuted at. [1]

It centers around Chaos, as all Greek Creation stories do, She is the mother from whom all have sprung forth.

CHAOS (Chaos), the vacant and infinite space which existed according to the ancient cosmogonies previous to the creation of the world (Hes. Theog. 116), and out of which the gods, men, and all things arose. A different definition of Chaos is given by Ovid (Met. i. 1, &c.), who describes it as the confused mass containing the elements of all things that were formed out of it. According to Hesiod, Chaos was the mother of Erebos and Nyx. Some of the later poets use the word Chaos in the general sense of the airy realms, of darkness, or the lower world. [2]

What I like about this story is that love is the motivator of creation. Though this is argued by scholars of which I do not claim to be one:

EROS (Erôs), in Latin, AMOR or CUPI′DO, the god of love. In the sense in which he is usually conceived, Eros is the creature of the later Greek poets; and in order to understand the ancients properly we must distinguish three Erotes: viz. the Eros of the ancient cosmogonies, the Eros of the philosophers and mysteries, who bears great resemblance to the first, and the Eros whom we meet with in the epigrammatic and erotic poets, whose witty and playful descriptions of the god, however, can scarcely be considered as a part of the ancient religious belief of the Greeks. Homer does not mention Eros, and Hesiod, the earliest author that mentions him, describes him as the cosmogonic Eros. First, says Hesiod (Theog. 120, &c.), there was Chaos, then came Ge, Tartarus, and Eros, the fairest among the gods, who rules over the minds and the council of gods and men. In this account we already perceive a combination of the most ancient with later notions. According to the former, Eros was one of the fundamental causes in the formation of the world, inasmuch as he was the uniting power of love, which brought order and harmony among the conflicting elements of which Chaos consisted. In the same metaphysical sense he is conceived by Aristotle (Metaph. i. 4); and similarly in the Orphic poetry (Orph. Hymn. 5; comp. Aristoph. Av.

I love the idea that Chaos when introduced to and combined with Love brought forth the cosmos in its varied complex organization. It is replayed in the way we mate and recreate, when in the throes of passion brought on by love we create new life. It is often said that in the act of love we touch the divine. Greek mythology is full of examples that reinforce this concept.

Mythology is what we have looked to from the beginning of time to explain who and what we are. In this myth we are told a story that we can understand and experience ourselves.

[1] http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/aristophanes/birds.htm

[2] http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0690.html

[3] http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1158.html

Mythology Anthology

2008-03-26T15:19:00.001-07:00

The Mythology Anthology

My fascination with Mythology began when I was between 10 and 12 years old. My cousin was doing a "great brain" project at his school and he chose Mythology. The gist of the project was that they would become an expert (or as much of an expert as a 3rd/4th grader can become) on an topic of their own choosing. I have always been fascinated by new things to learn, and my brain is always hungry for a new topic. When I heard he was doing this I figured I would too, I didn't really know anything about it and knowing that someone else was learning was a great motivational tool.

As my life continued from time to time I was always picking up books on the topic, My knowledge on the subject has aided in the various humanities courses that I have taken, some in High School, and some in my college career.

Shortly after being married my wife and I arranged to participate in her families "fairly annual" trip to Lake Siskyou in Northern California. At the time we (my wife and I) were living in Salt Lake City, Utah. It turned out that my wife was going to be in Southern California for work right before the trip so she arranged to ride up with her folks. So I ended up driving to the lake from SLC on my own. To keep myself company I went to the library to borrow a few "books on CD" as was a custom of my wife and I I got a few mysteries and novels, however I found a CD entitled "The Power of Myth". It is a collection of interviews of Joseph Campbell by Bill Moyers. To say that discovering this recording was life changing would be an understatement. Even my trip to the lake was profoundly affected by listening to this recording let alone my outlook on religion and spirituality. The journey of discovery that I started because I listened to these interviews shook the foundations of my spiritual core and woke me up from a slumber that I had been in for the first 20 years of my life.

Today I can no longer view religion and spirituality the way that I had before. I love spirituality I believe it to be a profound part of every human being. Religion however is a very different thing. Last Sunday was Easter, my wife and I took our kids and attended the service at the Unitarian Universalist church that we have been attending for the past few months and the pastors each gave sermons that churned the gears in my over active mind and I came up with an idea for this blog.

I don't believe in any religion anymore, however I don't fault anyone for believing in a religion. I have come to believe that Religion is a tool for providing hope and that we all need to find hope in our lives to work through the times of trial that inevitably will afflict us. Religion is mythology and mythology is a body of myths/stories that groups of people believe to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. We use mythology to answer the questions we have no answer to definable answer:

Who are we?

Why are we here?

Where are we going?

These three questions form the basis for every religion and every religion has developed a mythology to answer them. No offense to the Bible, the Quran, or Teachings of Buddha, in fact hopefully quite the opposite. In scholarly circles the calling a religious story a myth means that it is a religious story and nothing more it does not imply that it is true or false. In fact C.S. Lewis himself referred to the life of Jesus as a myth, that was also true (Lewis, God In The Dock, p. 66). All religions share the tradition of myth. Whether you read them in scripture or hear them told by elders, parents, and/or peers. They serve to bring us close to the divine, instruct us in the code of conduct we are to live by, and bring us hope. Myths can be categorized into the following types:

Creation Myths- These are the that generally establish the frame work for answering the three questions I posed earlier. They are generally the first to clash with science, and tend to stir up controversy between religious and scientific communities. The describe the origin of the universe and set up the theological basis for the religion that they serve as the base of.
Ritual Myths- These are the myths that establish the rituals of the religion for which they serve. These are important because these myths attach the meaning to the actions that religious practitioners participate and find peace and hope in.
Eschatological Myths- Myths that describe the end of the world in terms that inspire or warn the practitioners of the religion of which they are associated.
Etiological (origin) Myths- These myths provide explanation for customs, names, natural phenomena, etc... These generally are the easiest to be skeptical about and often came about for practical purposes or because no one had a better explanation.
Social Myths- These myths defend the traditions or practices that we hold dear. They reinforce our belief in and practice of these traditions.
Fable Myths- Often times these are referred to as trickster myths as they often describe pranks and tricks perpetrated by deity(ies). There is often a moral associated with these and were most likely devised as a way to encourage proper behavior for children.

These myths are powerful wonderful things and probably the greatest gift they give us is that they aid us to, as Joseph Campbell advises us, to "Follow (y)our bliss".

Regardless of religious preference we all have been subject to, heard of, or believe in myths. This weekend after long contemplation on the sermons that I heard the idea occur ed to me to create an anthology of religious stories/myths. I thought that a blog would be the ideal format as I could tag the stories with the traits they possessed making it easier to compare and contrast. Among the many reasons for this project are enlightenment, education, resource, research, spiritual growth, etc... However if this does nothing else I hope it helps to underscore that despite the many traditions we practice, the varied beliefs we practice, and the different places from which we come at our roots we are more similar than we realize.