Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Mythology Book

["NORTHERN EUROPE 149 See also: Creation of the universe 130\u201333 \u25a0 War of the gods 140\u201341 \u25a0 The adventures of Thor and Loki in J\u00f6tunheim 146\u201347 \u25a0 The twilight of the gods 150\u201357 brother, the blind Hod. To prevent He convinced the Aesir to He tricked the goddess Idun this from coming to pass, Frigg offer the goddess Freyja into taking her apples of youth sought promises from everything in return for the building of to the Aesir, thus allowing her in the world not to harm Baldur. Loki, who was jealous of Baldur\u2019s a defensive wall. to be kidnapped. popularity, learned that Frigg had failed to extract a promise from the Loki's tricks often hurt the other gods. unobtrusive mistletoe. Unaware of this, the Aesir gods entertained He cut the golden hair of He made Hod kill Baldur themselves by playing a game in Sif, the wife of Thor, who and refused to join the Aesir which they threw all manner of forced Loki to replace it. gods in weeping for him. things at Baldur, who always remained unharmed. Loki then fashioned an arrow from mistletoe, placed it in Hod\u2019s hand, and guided the blind god\u2019s aim so that the mistletoe struck and killed Baldur. Frigg hoped to save her son, and sent the god Hermod to Hel to plead for Baldur\u2019s release from the Underworld. (Hel was both the name of the realm and the being who presided over it.) She agreed to release Baldur, but only if all things wept for him. Loki's punishment All things did weep for Baldur, bar one, a giantess who was none other than Loki in disguise. Baldur was thereby forced to stay in the Underworld. The Aesir gods took vengeance on Loki by chaining him to a rock beneath the open jaws of a serpent so that the snake\u2019s venom dripped onto his face. Loki\u2019s faithful wife, Sigyn, held a bowl over him to catch the venom, but whenever she turned to empty the bowl, the venom dripped onto Loki\u2019s face, causing earthquakes as he writhed in agony, punished for his trick. \u25a0 Loki causes the death of Baldur, as depicted in a 17th-century manuscript of the Prose Edda by Icelandic farmer Jakob Sigurdsson for his foster father, the Reverend \u00d3lafur Brynj\u00f3lfsson.","SLAYERBFAIRNGOHDTTHBBERREOWTHHIILESRL THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS","","152 THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS IN BRIEF T ime was cyclical in Norse Fate is heard in the note mythology; nothing lasted of the Gjallarhorn; loud THEME forever, not even the gods. The end of the world This universe would one day come blows Heimdall. to an end at Ragnar\u00f6k (the doom Poetic Edda SOURCES of the gods), a final climactic battle Poetic Edda, Anonymous, between the gods and the giants It is unlikely that the Norse religion 10th\u201313th century ce; that would destroy the world and ever had a defined canon about Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson, annihilate the beings who lived Ragnar\u00f6k and its aftermath. ca.1220 ce. in it. The cataclysm would not be \u201cGylfaginning,\u201d despite being more final, however. A few survivors complete than \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1,\u201d still left SETTING would be spared, emerging from many questions unanswered. But The nine worlds. sheltered refuges to repopulate while neither version predicted a new and better world. when Ragnar\u00f6k would happen, KEY FIGURES each warned its approach would Heimdall Watchman of the There were two detailed be heralded by a varying series of Aesir gods. accounts of Ragnar\u00f6k. The oldest catastrophic events. made up the second half of the Odin The high god. prophetic eddic poem \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1\u201d Ragnar\u00f6k in \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1\u201d (\u201cThe Seeress\u2019 Prophecy\u201d), where According to \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1,\u201d a summer J\u00f6rmungand The Midgard a v\u00f6lvur, a seeress, raised from Hel, would come during which the serpent; son of Loki. told Odin the terrible series of sun would turn black. When this events that would destroy the world. happened, Eggther, the giant who Loki The trickster. tended the wolf Fenrir, would sit on The newer account of Ragnar\u00f6k Surt A fire giant. appeared in \u201cGylfaginning\u201d (\u201cThe Beguiling of Gylfi\u201d), the first book Fenrir A wolf; son of Loki. of Snorri Sturluson\u2019s Prose Edda. Snorri\u2019s account\u2014an equally Vidar Son of Odin; god of awesome picture of the end of the vengeance. world\u2014was a synthesis that drew on (but often contradicted) Thor The thunder god. \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1\u201d and many other eddic poems, and probably other lost sources and traditions as well. Prophecy in Norse religion Freyja, goddess of fertility, The inevitable fulfillment of Seidr was practiced by both searches for her gleaming necklace prophecies played a central role humans and mythical beings, stolen by Loki in the Prose Edda in a in Norse mythology. Prophecy mostly by women who were 1930 illustration by Katharine Pyle. came through the practice of seidr, known as v\u00f6lvur (wand- a shamanistic form of magic that carriers). Followinga ritual meal was associated with the Vanir of the hearts of whatever group of deities. This form of animals were at hand, a v\u00f6lva magic gave select individuals the would use chants and spells to ability to communicate with the invoke spirits, who could then dead and see into the future. be questioned about the future. Freyja, the Vanir goddess of The term seidr survives to fertility, taught Odin seidr: using this day in the modern English it, he raised a seeress from the word \u201cseer\u201d\u2014this Anglo-Saxon dead so that she could tell him term for a prophet derives from about Ragnar\u00f6k. the Old Norse.","EUROPE 153 See also: Odin and the world tree 134\u201339 \u25a0 War of the gods 140\u201341 \u25a0 Treasures of the gods 144\u201345 \u25a0 Death of Baldur 148\u201349 Warning sounds heralded the end of the world in \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1.\u201d The giant Eggther A cockerel woke A bird crowed at A third bird played his harp. the dead warriors the gates of Hel; crowed in Gallows her dog bayed. of Valhalla. Wood. The war of the gods began and the earth was annihilated by fire. a mound and play his harp with The Aesir god Heimdall blows his Surt would slay the fertility god delight at what was to come. Three Gjallarhorn. The vigilant watchman Freyr. As the battle raged, the birds would then crow to announce was known for his acute vision and sun would turn black and the stars the beginning of Ragnar\u00f6k. First, hearing. He was the first to know about would disappear from the sky. Gullinkambi (\u201cGolden Comb\u201d), who the coming of Ragnar\u00f6k. Steam and flames would shoot as lived in Valhalla, would awaken the high as the heavens as the ravaged sleeping einherjar (\u201cdead warriors\u201d) and countless terrified souls would land finally sank beneath the sea. so they could prepare for their final descend to Hel. Hrym would lead battle. An unnamed rust-red bird the frost giants from the east; A return to tranquility would crow at the gates of Hel to J\u00f6rmungand, the Midgard serpent, Soon, a new world would rise from rouse the underworld, and the would churn up the sea in his rage; the waves, eternally green and with third bird, Fjalar, would crow in and eagles would shriek and feast crops that grew without sowing. \u276f\u276f the foreboding G\u00e1lvidur (\u201cGallows on corpses. The sinister Naglfar Wood\u201d). The goddess-giant Hel\u2019s would set sail with fire giants on watchdog, Garm, would bay loudly, board from Muspelheim, the home break the rope that tethered it to its of the giants. Loki would be at the cave, and run free. helm with his giant brother Byleist alongside him. Surt, the greatest of Reigning chaos the fire giants, would advance from Human society would then begin the south. Rocky cliffs would split to break down as brother slayed open, spilling troll women from their brother and incest and adultery crevices. The sky would crack as flourished. No man would spare elves and dwarves howled in terror. another. Heimdall, the watchman of the gods, would blow the alarm on According to the Poetic Edda, his horn, Gjallarhorn, while Odin this would herald the start of battle. would go to consult the preserved Loki\u2019s son, the monstrous wolf head of the wise god M\u00edmir. The Fenrir, would kill Odin, only for earth would start to shake, and the Odin\u2019s son Vidar to avenge his world tree Yggdrasil would shudder death by thrusting his sword into and groan, but it would not fall. the wolf\u2019s heart. Thor would slay Giants would go on the rampage J\u00f6rmungand, but stagger just nine steps before dropping dead himself.","154 THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS The Poetic Edda The Prose Edda The seeress saw an eagle fishing near a waterfall, and other bucolic One summer, the sun Three hard winters images. Some of the Aesir gods (the turns black. lead human society to fall. poem didn\u2019t say how many) would The Great Winter heralds meet again on the plain of Idavoll, Three birds announce where Asgard had once stood. They the start of Ragnar\u00f6k. the start of Ragnar\u00f6k. would talk about Ragnar\u00f6k and Wolves swallow the remember their past. Baldur and his Human society sun, moon, and stars. killer Hod would return from the breaks down. Loki and the giants dead, reconciled, and live in peace. advance on Asgard. Heimdall sounds The gods and giants Omens and allusions the alarm. annihilate each other Some humans, the sons of two unnamed brothers, would also Loki and the giants in battle. survive, and their kin would spread advance on Asgard. Surt spreads fire over the over the world. \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1\u201d went on The gods and giants to say that virtuous folk of the land annihilate each other ravaged earth. would then live their days happily at a new, beautiful, gold-roofed in battle. hall called Giml\u00e9. At this point, a \u201cpowerful mighty one, who rules over everything,\u201d would come from the heavens. \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1\u201d did not identify this mysterious figure, but many commentators have claimed that this was an allusion to the Christian Last Judgment. \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1\u201d then ended with the reappearance of the serpent Nidhogg\u2014before Ragnar\u00f6k, this creature had gnawed endlessly at the roots of the eternal world tree Yggdrasil. Nidhogg would now fly over the new world carrying a cargo of corpses in its wings. \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1\u201d did not elaborate, but The ravaged earth The earth sinks There shall come that sinks below the sea. below the waves. winter which is called The Great Winter. The Prose Edda A new world rises from the sea.","NORTHERN EUROPE 155 Cyclical time from a few milliseconds to rope that tethered the Hel hound trillions of years. They believe Garm to his cave would snap, In Christian cosmology, time is that a complete cycle from unleashing the animal. seen as a linear process that creation to destruction lasts begins with creation and ends exactly 311.04 trillion years. Asgard under threat on the Day of Judgment. Other Since Hindu cosmology also The giants and their allies would religious traditions, including embraces the concept of now advance on Asgard. Huge thatof the Norsemen, see time multiverses, there are an ocean waves would surge over the as a cycle of repeated creation infinite number of time land as raging J\u00f6rmungand, the and destruction. However, the cycles and an infinite number Midgard serpent, twisted and Norse did not have advanced of universes being created thrashed his way ashore. The rising calendrical knowledge, so and destroyed at any sea would loose the dreadful descriptions of the timescale one time. Naglfar (Nail Ship) from its of this cycle were vague. moorings. The largest of all ships, Modern physicists continue Naglfar was made from the In Hindu cosmology, by to ask whether time is indeed fingernails and toenails of dead contrast, time is precisely linear, cyclical, or simply illusory. people. It had been prophesied that calibrated in cycles lasting The answer remains unresolved. Ragnar\u00f6k could not happen until the ship was completed. Since both Nidhogg\u2019s survival was clearly summers. Then Sk\u00f6ll, the wolf who gods and humans would like to a bad omen for the future. It may used to chase the sun, would finally have seen Ragnar\u00f6k delayed as have implied that the new world, catch his quarry and swallow it. long as possible, Snorri advised like the old, was also ultimately Meanwhile, his brother Hati that no one should be allowed to doomed to destruction. Hr\u00f3dvitnisson would catch and die with untrimmed nails, as swallow the moon. The stars these would provide materials Snorri\u2019s Ragnar\u00f6k would disappear from the sky, for the ship. Naglfar would be The account of Ragnar\u00f6k in Snorri swallowed by another monstrous steered by Hrym, leader of the Sturluson\u2019s \u201cGylfaginning\u201d clearly wolf, M\u00e1nagarm. army of the frost giants. displayed a debt to \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1,\u201d and even quoted from it in places, As darkness engulfed the world, The wolf Fenrir, Loki\u2019s son, but his work also differed from the the earth would begin to shake, would now advance, his mouth earlier poem in a number of ways. uprooting trees and toppling gaping so wide that his lower jaw mountains. The bonds and fetters touched the earth and his upper The first sign of Ragnar\u00f6k\u2019s of both Loki and his son, the wolf jaw was against the sky. Flames approach would be three hard Fenrir\u2014who until now had been would burn from his eyes and winters followed by a complete chained up by the gods\u2014would nostrils. Alongside him, his brother breakdown of human society. As in shatter, setting them free to do J\u00f6rmungand would spew venom \u276f\u276f \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1,\u201d wars would break out their worst. As in \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1,\u201d the everywhere and ties of kinship would count for nothing: adultery, incest, and fratricide would flourish during this time. Hard on the heels of this period would come Fimbulwinter (\u201cThe Great Winter\u201d), during which the sun would dim and ice and snow would grip the world for three solid years with no Odin visited the head of M\u00edmir for advice and guidance during the gods\u2019 final battle with the giants during Ragnar\u00f6k. Drinking from M\u00edmir\u2019s Well bestowed knowledge.","156 THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS across the sea and sky. To add to cross Bifrost, the rainbow bridge would be there, together with Hrym the turmoil, the sky would split spanning the gap between Asgard and his frost giants, while the fire apart and the fire giants of and Midgard, shattering it in the giants of Muspelheim would form Muspelheim, led by Surt, would process. The troops would then their own battle line. ride out surrounded by burning fire. gather on the field of V\u00edgrid (\u201cBattle Light would blaze more brightly Surge\u201d), which stretched for a The gods rally from Surt\u2019s sword than from the hundred leagues in all directions. Snorri wrote that Heimdall would sun. The giants\u2019 armies would Fenrir, J\u00f6rmungand, and Loki then sound Gjallarhorn to awaken the gods to their danger, and Odin would ride to M\u00edmir\u2019s Well to consult with the wise M\u00edmir\u2019s head. Meanwhile, the branches of Yggdrasil would tremble, filling everything that lived in the nine worlds with fear. Then the Aesir and the dead warriors would march out to do battle on the vast plain of V\u00edgrid, led by Odin. Carrying his spear, Gungnir, and wearing a golden helmet and mail coat, Odin would take on Fenrir with Thor at his side. J\u00f6rmungand would attack Thor before the god of thunder could help Odin. Freyr would fight Surt, who would defeat and kill him. The minor war god Tyr and the evil Hel hound Garm would fight each other to the death. Although Thor would kill J\u00f6rmungand, he would only step nine paces away from his foe before he, too, would fall down dead from the venom the serpent had spat at him. Without Thor\u2019s support, Odin would be swallowed by Fenrir. Odin\u2019s son V\u00eddar would immediately avenge his father\u2019s death, stepping down on Fenrir\u2019s lower jaw with one foot, grasping the wolf\u2019s upper jaw in one hand, and tearing him apart. Loki and Heimdall would battle together and kill one another. After this, mighty Surt would hurl fire, burning the whole world, after which it would The sky splits and releases the fire giants of Muspelheim in an engraving of Ragnar\u00f6k (Downfall of the Aesir), published in an 1882 book of Norse gods and heroes.","NORTHERN EUROPE 157 The Valkyries, Norse maidens who decided who lived or died in battle, head to war in Arthur Rackham\u2019s 1910 illustration The Ride of the Valkyries. sink beneath the sea, taking the the waves, where crops would grow Then the powerful, gods, the battle dead, and all without having been sown. The mighty one, he humankind with it. The inrushing surviving Aesir would begin to who rules over waters would put out the flames. gather on Idavoll, where Asgard used The fate of other beings\u2014the to stand: the only thing that would everything, will come frost giants, elves, and dwarves\u2014 remain would be some golden from above. was not mentioned, but it is gaming pieces lying in the grass. Poetic Edda probably safe to assume that they Odin\u2019s sons V\u00eddar and V\u00e1li would too would perish. arrive first, followed by Thor\u2019s sons The new world would be lit by a Modi and Magni, having rescued new sun, because the old sun A brighter future Thor\u2019s hammer from the destruction would have given birth to a fiery Similar to \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1,\u201d in Snorri\u2019s of the old world. Last, Baldur and Hod daughter moments before being account a beautiful new world would return from Hel, complete with swallowed by Sk\u00f6ll the wolf. would soon shoot up from beneath the serpent Niddhogg. The heavens, too, would survive, and virtuous folk This regeneration of the (who had presumably died during earth and sky contrasts with the Ragnar\u00f6k) would feast in the halls of foreboding at the end of \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1.\u201d Giml\u00e9 and Brimir. Snorri\u2019s optimistic vision of the future world, however, may possibly Two humans, a woman called have been as a result of his L\u00edf (\u201cLife\u201d) and a man called Christian beliefs. The \u201cV\u00f6lusp\u00e1\u201d is Leifthrasir (\u201cThriving Remnant\u201d), likely a truer vision of the way the would survive Ragnar\u00f6k and Surt\u2019s Norse traditionally saw the fire by hiding within the branches future\u2014as an endless cycle of of Yggdrasil. They would sustain creation and destruction. \u25a0 themselves on the morning dew and they would go on to have so many descendants that the earth would be completely repopulated. Christ and Ragnar\u00f6k stone, considered the country\u2019s The Jelling rune stone, c.965 ce, earliest Christian monument, sometimes referred to as \u201cDenmark\u2019s In the early stages of the depicted Christ on the cross birth certificate,\u201d combined both conversion of the Norse to entwined by foliage. This was Christian and old Norse iconography. Christianity, monuments intended to draw a parallel such as preaching crosses between Christ and Odin, who combined Christian symbols hanged himself from the world with scenes from old Norse tree Yggdrasil. myths, such as Ragnar\u00f6k. Other monuments reminded The Norse often accepted converts that the old gods were Christ as simply one more deity mere mortals, doomed to die, among many, but Christianity by juxtaposing the cross\u2014the required a convert to believe symbol of Christ\u2019s resurrection\u2014 that there was only one god. with scenes of Ragnar\u00f6k. The The monuments were created to message: Christ alone was aid the conversion process. For eternal, and only he could offer example, Denmark\u2019s Jelling rune his followers eternal life.","158 HCWWIOMAHMTEEIENNRST,TTHSHOEMETWIHTHEOEEARRMT SIGURD THE DRAGON SLAYER IN BRIEF S igurd Fafnisbane was the story of Otter\u2019s Ransom, a pile one of the most popular of gold the Aesir gods paid to THEME legendary human heroes Regin\u2019s father Hreidmar, king of the Hero versus monster in Norse mythology, and the dwarves, as compensation for central character of the Saga of killing Regin\u2019s brother, Otter. (At SOURCES the V\u00f6lsungs, which was written the time, Otter had been in the V\u00f6lsunga Saga (\u201cThe Saga of down in Iceland around 1260 ce. form of the creature bearing that the V\u00f6lsungs\u201d), Anonymous, name.) The gold, however, had been c.1260 ce. Sigurd was the posthumous son cursed by its original owner, the of the hero Sigmund\u2014the son of dwarf Andvari, after the trickster SETTING king V\u00f6lsung, from whom the saga Loki forced him to give up a gold Late Iron Age; Denmark takes its name\u2014and was fostered ring to complete the ransom. or Germany. by Regin, a highly skilled dwarf smith. One day, Regin told Sigurd Otter\u2019s curse unfolds KEY FIGURES Regin\u2019s brother Fafnir murdered his Sigurd Fafnisbane Son of father to get the gold and turned the hero Sigmund. into a dragon to guard it. Regin also wanted the treasure, so he Regin A dwarf smith. urged Sigurd to kill Fafnir, plotting to murder the hero afterward. To Otter Regin\u2019s brother. ensure Sigurd\u2019s success, Regin forged the magical sword Gram Andvari A dwarf, who can and gave it to him. After killing change into a fish. Fafnir, Sigurd accidentally drank some of the dragon\u2019s blood, gaining Fafnir Regin\u2019s brother, who the ability to understand the can turn into a dragon. speech of birds. From them he learned of Regin\u2019s treacherous Brynhild A Valkyrie. A carved portal from Hylestad stave Grimhild A queen; mother of church, Norway, depicts Sigurd slaying Gudrun, Gunnar, and Guttorm. the dragon Fafnir. Such scenes were popular subjects for wood and stone Gudrun Sigurd\u2019s wife. carvers in the late Viking Age. Gunnar Gudrun\u2019s brother.","NORTHERN EUROPE 159 See also: The adventures of Thor and Loki in J\u00f6tunnheim 146\u201347 \u25a0 The death of Baldur 148\u201349 \u25a0 The twilight of the gods 150\u201357 intentions and beheaded him, Otter\u2019s ransom Andvari, The Aesir taking the gold for himself. As the passed hands many a fish dwarf, gods paid new owner of the cursed treasure, times after Loki forced put a curse on the ransom to Sigurd was now doomed as well. Andvari to give it up. the treasure as Hreidmar The gold cursed all he gave it to for the death Having proved himself a great who took possession of the god Loki. warrior, Sigurd became betrothed to it, including the Aesir, of Otter. the Valkyrie Brynhild. However, he who were doomed to Fafnir, a Hreidmar, forgot Brynhild after drinking a die at Ragnar\u00f6k. shape-shifter, king of the potion from queen Grimhild\u2014who was killed by dwarves, was wanted the treasure for her family\u2014 Regin was killed in battle and he married Grimhild\u2019s daughter beheaded by Sigurd for by his son, Gudrun instead. Gunnar, Gudrun\u2019s Sigurd, who Fafnir\u2019s brother brother, then sought Sigurd\u2019s help in he had plotted Fafnir. winning the hand of Brynhild, whose Regin. hall was protected by a ring of magic to murder. Gunnar fire through which only Sigurd could Sigurd was broke the curse pass. Made to switch forms with murdered by by leaving the Gunnar, Sigurd wooed the Valkyrie Guttorm, the gold in a cave, for his brother-in-law, but Brynhild where Andvari was enraged to learn that she had brother of recovered it. been deceived and ordered Gunnar Gunnar. to kill Sigurd. Gunnar\u2019s brother Guttorm agreed to do the deed and fatally wounded Sigurd, at the cost of his own life. Heartbroken, Brynhild threw herself on Sigurd\u2019s funeral pyre. Gunnar alone avoided the treasure\u2019s curse by abandoning the gold in a cave. \u25a0 Dragon statues mark the boundary Dragons in myth including the story of the of the City of London, in reference to Babylonian god Marduk slaying the story of England\u2019s patron saint Common in many mythologies, the sea dragon Tiamat. The St. George and the dragon. dragons are serpentlike, often creature also appears in early winged, reptilian creatures Christian stories, such as that capable of breathing fire or venom. of St. George and the Dragon, In Indo-European stories, dragons where the dragon becomes a are usually malign creatures symbol of Satan. eventually killed by divine or human heroes. In Vedic Hinduism, In contrast, the dragons for example, the dragon Vritra, of Chinese mythology are a personification of drought, is revered beneficent creatures, slain by the god Indra. In Norse associated with authority, mythology, the god Thor kills the power, and wisdom. They world-encircling Midgard serpent. possess powers over natural A dragon-slaying hero appears forces, specifically those to do in Near Eastern mythologies, with water; they can control rain, tsunamis, and floods.","160 IN BRIEF INPMWTLOAOEBRGNNRTIDTCIHNEYLSGRADAFTNOMUODELPSOT,HE THEME National epic THE KALEVALA SOURCE Kalevala (\u201cLand of Heroes\u201d), compiled by Elias L\u00f6nnrot, 1835. SETTING Kalevala (now Finland and the Karelian lands) and Pohjola, a land to the north. KEY FIGURES Ilmatar Daughter of the Air, creator goddess. V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen The first man, a wise old sorcerer and singer. Ilmarinen A blacksmith. Lemmink\u00e4inen A warrior and explorer. The maiden of Pohjola A beautiful woman. Louhi Ruler of Pohjola. T he poems of the Kalevala, land of heroes, were compiled by folklorist Elias L\u00f6nnrot in the mid-1800s. He wove together the numerous myths and legends of the Karelian and Finnish peoples, most of which had never before been written down. The poems, formalized in printed form, became the definitive Finnish epic at a time when Finland\u2019s culture and language were under threat, with the nation\u2019s declaration of independence from Russia still decades away. The poems explore themes of creation, heroism, sorcery, violence, and death, and concern, among other things, the struggle of the heroes to","NORTHERN EUROPE 161 See also: The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371 \u25a0 The legend of King Arthur 172\u201377 \u25a0 The epic of Gilgamesh 190\u201397 \u25a0 The Ramayana 204\u201309 These three magical objects are central to the Kalevala. The Sampo A boat made from Elias L\u00f6nnrot grinds flour, a weaving shuttle produces salt, and carries heroes to Born in 1802, in Sammatti, forges money. Finland\u2014at that time part Pohjola. of Sweden\u2014L\u00f6nnrot studied medicine and worked as the The Kantele district medical officer in enchants listeners Kajaani. A founding member and puts them into of the Finnish Literature Society, he was passionate a deep sleep. about his native tongue and developed an interest in the acquire the legendary Sampo, a bemoaning that she could not yet relationship between philology mysterious talisman which gave its give birth. There, a bird laid seven and folklore. He visited remote owner endless prosperity. eggs on her knees, and when she areas of Finland, Lapland, and moved, the eggs fell and broke, and Russian Karelia, listening to The Kalevala recounts the the pieces formed the world. For \u276f\u276f traditional songs and tales adventures of V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, the passed down orally through first man; the blacksmith Ilmarinen; Ilmatar on her bed of waves, as generations. He eventually and the warrior Lemmink\u00e4inen. It painted by romantic artist Robert compiled them into the epic begins with the story of creation, Wilhelm Ekman (1860). A virginal which became the Kalevala. when the goddess Ilmatar lay down spirit, she gave birth in the sea. in the sea, heavily pregnant but There was controversy about how much editing L\u00f6nnrot undertook in order to fit these myths of varying origins and ages together. Still, he was celebrated for his final version, published in 1849, and appointed to the Chair of Finnish Literature at the University of Helsinki. The Kalevala comprises 50 poems in trochaic tetrameter, known as the \u201cKalevala meter.\u201d The emphasis on intonation is apt: almost every feat undertaken by characters in the epic is accomplished through incantation.","162 THE KALEVALA a time, Ilmatar was preoccupied in wait with a poisoned crossbow, Far away the news was with her creations, but after 700 intent upon avenging his sister\u2019s carried, far abroad years of pregnancy, she gave birth death, and shot V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen into to the first man: the fully-formed the sea. He was saved by Louhi, was spread the tidings V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen. Old and wise from who promised to return him to of the songs of birth, the hero is usually depicted Kalevala and give him her with white hair and a beard. daughter\u2019s hand if he created the V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, of the Sampo, a magical artifact. wisdom of the hero. The first challenge V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen offered to send the V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen wove magic spells blacksmith Ilmarinen to forge the Kalevala with his singing. Word of this skill Sampo, and hurried home. traveled to Pohjola, far to the north, made the Sampo out of white swan where a young minstrel named On his way, however, he met the feathers, the milk of greatest virtue, Joukahainen was consumed by maiden herself and proposed to her. a single grain of barley, and the envy. He challenged V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen She agreed, but said that first he finest lambswool. The epic never to a singing match, but when he must complete a list of seemingly clearly defines the Sampo. However, lost, he sank into a swamp. impossible tasks. While carving based on the description of its Panicking, he offered V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen a wooden boat from a spindle\u2014the purpose\u2014to grind flour and his sister Aino\u2019s hand in marriage last of the tasks\u2014V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen cut produce salt and gold\u2014it is thought in exchange for saving his life. But his knee with an axe and was to be a mill. When Louhi got the when Joukahainen returned home unable to complete the task. Sampo, she shut it inside a hill of and told his sister, she drowned rock and sent Ilmarinen home herself at the idea of marrying Ilmarinen\u2019s refusal without the maiden. such an old man. Returning home, V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen discovered that the smith Ilmarinen After this, V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen set out was unwilling to travel to Pohjola to to woo another woman: the maiden forge the Sampo. As a result, he of Pohjola, whose mother Louhi summoned a stormy wind to blow ruled the country. Joukahainen lay Ilmarinen there, and the smith Raised from the dead Meanwhile, the warrior and adventurer Lemmink\u00e4inen set off for Pohjola, but not before leaving a magic comb with his mother. If he died, the comb would supposedly drip blood. When Lemmink\u00e4inen arrived, he also set his sights on the maiden of Pohjola. To win the maiden, Louhi set him three tasks: to catch the demon\u2019s elk, bridle the demon\u2019s horse, and kill the swan of Tuonela (the land of the dead). Alas, Ilmarinen forges the Sampo, by Berndt Abraham Godenhjelm (ca.1860). The creation of the Sampo is just one of the tasks V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen is set in order to win the maiden\u2019s hand in marriage.","NORTHERN EUROPE 163 V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen fights Louhi, who is transformed into a bird, to defend the stolen Sampo. This battle is sometimes interpreted as a metaphorical fight for the soul of Finland. Lemmink\u00e4inen was killed by a herdsman, who scattered his body parts in the river. At that moment, the comb he left behind dripped with blood. His mother rushed to Pohjola and brought him back to life by reassembling his body, anointing it with an ointment acquired from the gods, and chanting magic spells. A second contest swordfight, Lemmink\u00e4inen killed heroes survived but the kantele V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen and Ilmarinen then the man and fled to an island full was lost in the water. Transformed competed for the hand of Louhi\u2019s of beautiful women. into a giant bird of prey, Louhi gave daughter, who preferred the young chase to the heroes\u2019 boat, and blacksmith to the wise old man. Stealing the Sampo during the battle, the Sampo, too, Before he could marry the maiden, The three heroes were reunited fell from the boat. It sank to the Ilmarinen had to perform three much later, after Ilmarinen\u2019s wife bottom of the sea, where it broke \u201cimpossible\u201d tasks: ploughing a was killed. Hearing of the wealth into pieces. Scattered in the depths field of vipers, hunting the bear of that the Sampo had brought to of the sea, they produced salt, and Tuonela and the wolf of Manala, Pohjola, the men decided to sail Louhi was left with only the lid. and fishing the great pike from the there to steal it. On the way, their Tuonela River. He completed the boat collided with a giant pike, In retaliation, Louhi sent nine tasks and a wedding feast ensued. which V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen killed. From its plagues to the people of Kalevala, jaw, he created a kantele (a type of but V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen cured them. She Only Lemmink\u00e4inen was not harp) which only he could play; the sent a bear to attack their cattle, invited to the feast. Furious at the magic instrument had the power to but he defeated it. Louhi then hid snub, he decided to settle the score enchant all living things. Using it, the sun and the moon inside a hill, by challenging Louhi\u2019s husband to he charmed the people of Pohjola and took the gift of fire from man. a duel. After a singing contest and to sleep and his companions rowed V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen fought the people away with the Sampo. of Pohjola but eventually asked And he saw the Ilmarinen to forge keys to the Sampo forming, As the three men fled, Louhi mountain of Pohjola to release with its brightly awoke and used her powers to send the sun and moon. Relenting, Louhi colored cover. obstacles to block their path. The finally set the sun and moon free. \u25a0 Kalevala","164 EKTIHIGNEHGDTSAYHGIYPDEAOAFRWSIARSIENLTAHNED A COMPLEX GOD IN BRIEF T he Dagda acted as both Morrigan, a goddess who could father-god and provider for influence the outcomes of battle THEME the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, a by her presence. However, the God, warrior, and king race of divine beings who were the Dagda\u2019s 80-year reign ended after mythical inhabitants of Ireland the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann fought the SOURCE before the Celts. Children of the Battle of Mag Tuired against the Lebor Gab\u00e1la \u00c9renn (\u201cThe goddess Danu, they settled there in divine but monstrous Formorians. Book of the Taking of Ireland\u201d), the 9th century bce and brought There, the Dagda \u201cdied of a dart of Anonymous, c.1150 ce. talismans with them, including the gore,\u201d a javelin thrown by a woman Dagda\u2019s Cauldron\u2014an enormous, named Cethlenn, who was the wife SETTING endlessly replenishing source of of Balor, king of the Formorians, Ireland, 9th century bce. food and drink. and also a prophetess. \u25a0 KEY FIGURES A god with two sides The Dagda\u2019s Cauldron drinking The Dagda A \u201cgood god\u201d While the Dagda\u2019s name meant the fountain in Tralee, County Kerry. The with magical powers, also \u201cgood god,\u201d his portrayal is more bronze sculpture shows the Dagda and known as Eochaid Ollathair complex. He was celebrated for his other ancient Irish deities. (Eochaid the All-father). wisdom, magical powers, and Leader of the Tuatha D\u00e9 physical prowess, but also depicted Danann: mythical figures who as a crude comic figure whose inhabited ancient Ireland. tunic was too short. Along with his cauldron of plenty, he carried a The Morrigan The goddess magical club; one end killed people, of war and fertility; one of the while the other brought them back Dagda\u2019s lovers. from the dead, emphasizing his life-giving powers. Danu Ancestral goddess of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. The Dagda was a fearsome fighter all his life thanks to a hearty Cethlenn Formorian queen diet of porridge. He was also helped and prophetess. by one of his many lovers, the See also: The war of the gods and Titans 28\u201329 \u25a0 The treasures of the gods 144\u201345 \u25a0 Izanagi and Izanami 220\u201321 \u25a0 The night barque of Ra 272\u201375","NORTHERN EUROPE 165 HOTAOSEFUWASCSOAHHOSEENDASATHSHEEHAEPEARTH, THE VOYAGE OF BRAN IN BRIEF B ran was a legendary Irish \u201cThere is nothing rough or hero who went in search of harsh, but sweet music THEME an otherworldly paradise. striking on the ear.\u201d Journey to the otherworld He learned of this place from an \u201cThe Voyage of Bran\u201d unnamed woman in strange garb The Book of Leinster SOURCE who appeared at his palace. She \u201cImram Brain\u201d (\u201cThe Voyage of mesmerized Bran and his court Bran\u201d), Lebar na N\u00faachongb\u00e1la by singing about a distant isle, a (\u201cThe Book of Leinster\u201d), place where sorrow and evil were Anonymous, c.1160 ce. unknown, and where there was an abundance of beautiful maidens. SETTING Ireland, 7th century ce. The Land of Women couple. One of the men, Nechtan, The next day, Bran set off by sea eventually grew homesick and KEY FIGURES with his men to search for this encouraged the others to return to Bran Hero and son of Febal. wonderful land. On the way, he Ireland with him. The women\u2019s met a figure in a chariot, who came leader warned them, however, that Woman An unnamed poet toward him across the waves. if they did so, they should not land. and seer, possibly one of the Named Manannan, the mysterious Sidhe, supernatural beings or charioteer sang to Bran, telling him When their ship drew near to goddesses. about his journey and a future son, their homeland, no one recognized who was destined to be a hero. He Bran and his men or knew who they Manannan A sea god, also said that Bran would soon were, as so many years had passed. charioteer, and son of Lir. reach the Land of Women. Nechtan, not heeding the woman\u2019s warning, jumped ashore and turned Nechtan Son of Collbran, When they arrived at the Land to ash. Bran\u2019s ship sailed away, a member of the ship\u2019s crew of Women, Bran was pulled to shore never to be heard of again. \u25a0 on Bran\u2019s voyage. by a strand of yarn, thrown to him by the leader of the women. He and his men were greeted with loving hospitality and a bed for every See also: The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371 \u25a0 The labors of Herakles 72\u201375 \u25a0 Aeneas 96\u2013101 \u25a0 The legend of King Arthur 172\u201377","166 LOCON\u00daNECGHWUFIOLLLRAIGBNEENTTING THE CATTLE RAID OF COOLEY IN BRIEF T he T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faailnge\u2014in supernatural powers. Refusing to English, The Cattle Raid be beaten, Queen Medb decided THEME of Cooley\u2014was the longest to find the only other magical bull National hero and most important tale from a in the land\u2014Dun, the Brown Bull group of texts known collectively as of Cooley. Dun\u2019s owner would not SOURCE the Ulster Cycle. The story focused surrender the bull, so Medb and T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faailnge (\u201cThe Cattle on the exploits of C\u00fachulainn, a Ailill invaded Ulster in order to Raid of Cooley\u201d), Anonymous, young Ulster warrior and one of the steal the animal. 7th\u20138th century ce. greatest heroes of Celtic mythology. On the eve of battle, Medb SETTING The tale opened with a contest learned that all the warriors of 1st century ce, the Kingdom between a wife and her husband: Ulster were mysteriously ill and of Ulster, Ireland. the goddess Medb, queen of the unable to fight, except for a province of Connaught, and Ailill, 17-year-old called C\u00fachulainn. KEY FIGURES Ireland\u2019s king. Arguing about Medb rejoiced that her victory C\u00fachulainn A warrior. which of them was wealthier, Medb would be easily accomplished, but discovered that it was Ailill, for he a prophetess foretold, \u201cI see very Medb A goddess and owned a white-horned bull with red, I see red.\u201d The next day, a queen of Connaught, an bloody battle ensued. Irish province. The first warp-spasm seized Victory against the odds Ailill King of all Ireland, also C\u00fachulainn, and made him Medb watched as C\u00fachulainn, known as King of Connaught. transformed by a \u201cwarp-spasm\u201d into a monstrous thing, into a terrifying giant, slaughtered Ferdiad An exiled friend hideous and shapeless, her troops one by one. The goddess of C\u00fachulainn. continued to send the best soldiers unheard of. in the land to fight him, but they Lugaid King of Munster T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faailnge were no match for the boy\u2014his and slayer of C\u00fachulainn. deadly spear could shoot 24 darts able to pierce every body part. At Morrigan The war goddess. the height of the battle, C\u00fachulainn found himself locked in a three-day combat with a former friend, Ferdiad, an Ulster man in exile in Connaught. C\u00fachulainn emerged","EUROPE 167 See also: The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371 \u25a0 Aeneas, founder of Rome 96\u2013101 \u25a0 A complex god 164 \u25a0 King Arthur 172\u201377 victorious but exhausted. He was perished in the battle. The men The Hound of Chulainn unable to go on. The Ulster warriors conspired to kill C\u00fachulainn and then woke from the spell that had Lugaid threw the fatal spear. Originally named S\u00e9tanta, laid them low and forced Medb and C\u00fachulainn was the nephew her troops to retreat. C\u00fachulainn washed his wound of King Conor of Ulster and and drank water in a nearby lake. possibly the son of the sky god The death of C\u00fachulainn Barely able to stand, but refusing to Lugh. He earned his new Despite losing in battle, Medb die lying down like an animal, he name when, as a boy, he managed to capture Dun, the tied himself to a standing stone attended a banquet with his Brown Bull of Cooley. The two bulls and then died. His enemies feared uncle at the house of the were then set against each other him too much to get close enough blacksmith Chulainn. and Ailill\u2019s white-horned bull was to see if he was still alive. Three killed. Mortally wounded, Dun days later, the goddess Morrigan Having lagged behind on found his way back to Cooley but appeared as a raven\u2014a Celtic the way to the banquet, when died when he got there. Medb\u2019s symbol of death\u2014on C\u00fachulainn\u2019s he finally arrived at the house, pursuit had caused carnage and shoulder, confirming he was dead. S\u00e9tanta found himself facing death throughout the kingdom, yet Chulainn\u2019s ferocious guard she could not accept defeat. She A hero\u2019s legacy dog. When it attacked him, convinced the sons of those slain The fact that C\u00fachulainn\u2019s story S\u00e9tanta killed the hound in by C\u00fachulainn to seek revenge. is still widely told to this day is self-defense. To make amends Among them was Lugaid, the king testimony to the Irish people\u2019s to Chulainn, S\u00e9tanta promised of Munster, whose father had empathy with their hero. During to take the dog\u2019s place as the 20th century, he came to protector of the Kingdom of Morrigan signals C\u00fachulainn\u2019s represent defiance in the face of Ulster. He then became known death. The vibrant mosaic of the Tain British rule. Ulster unionists, as the \u201cC\u00fa Chulainn\u201d (\u201cHound Wall in Dublin by Desmond Kinney however, prefer to focus on his of Chulainn\u201d). (1974) depicts scenes from the tale. defense of the province of Ulster from enemies to the south. \u25a0 C\u00fachulainn was a truly formidable foe, but his skills as a warrior eventually led to his undoing. Before he married, a Scottish woman, Aife, bore him a son in secret. Years later, a young man appeared and challenged C\u00fachulainn. Only after defeating the stranger did C\u00fachulainn realize he had killed his own son. Distraught, he was a broken man when he met his death at the hands of Lugaid, the king of Munster.","168 IHBANEENIIDHNRGAEBSLRTAAHTNVHEDEESSNTTRAMOMANENGOEFST IN BRIEF FINN MACCOOL AND THE GIANT\u2019S CAUSEWAY THEME I n Celtic mythology, the of stones so he could cross the sea Warring giants creation of the Giant\u2019s and fight Benandonner; but as he SOURCE Causeway, Northern Ireland\u2019s traversed the bridge, Finn caught Tales and Sketches, William natural wonder, was the result sight of his would-be opponent. Carleton, 1845. of a conflict between giants. SETTING The Scottish giant was truly Ancient Ireland. The rivalry in question was enormous, and far larger than Finn. KEY FIGURES between the Irish giant Finn Fearing that he would be defeated, Finn MacCool A giant from MacCool, who lived in Ulster with Finn fled back to Ireland and hid in Ireland. his wife, Oonagh, and a Scottish his home. Such was his haste that Oonagh Finn\u2019s wife. giant called Benandonner, who he left one of his boots stuck in Benandonner A giant from taunted him from across the sea. the ground\u2014a boot-shaped rock Scotland. Finn, who was normally peaceable, can still be seen today. With grew so angry that he grabbed a Benandonner in hot pursuit, Finn\u2019s huge clod from the ground to fling situation appeared dire. Fortunately, at Benandonner. He missed; the his wife devised a plan. clump of earth landed in the Irish Sea, forming the Isle of Man, while In plain sight the hole it left formed Lough Neagh. Oonagh baked iron griddles Finn then constructed a causeway inside loaves of bread and made some cheese curds. She then Just lie there snug, constructed a giant cradle and told and say nothing, but Finn to lie in it. Benandonner found their house, and Oonagh invited be guided by me. him in. When Benandonner Tales and Sketches demanded to see Finn, Oonagh replied that her husband was out\u2014 though in fact, he was lying quietly in the cradle, disguised as a baby. The Scottish giant settled down to wait. Oonagh offered him a loaf of bread. As he bit into it, the iron griddle inside broke two of his teeth. When he complained of its toughness, Oonagh replied that she","NORTHERN EUROPE 169 See also: A complex god 164 \u25a0 The voyage of Bran 165 \u25a0 The cattle raid of Cooley 166\u201367 \u25a0 Blodeuwedd 170\u201371 The Giant\u2019s Causeway is located in Antrim, Northern Ireland. Geologists trace its formation back to the rapid cooling of lava displaced by volcanic activity 50\u201360 million years ago. was only serving him what Finn always ate. His pride insulted, Benandonner tried another loaf and shattered two more of his teeth, roaring with pain. Oonagh chided him for being weak, saying that her baby regularly ate the same loaves. She handed Finn one she had baked without a griddle inside. To Benandonner\u2019s surprise, Finn was able to eat it easily. Running scared down his hands. Stunned by this be even more fearsome. Terrified, Oonagh then challenged display of strength, Benandonner Benandonner fled the house before Benandonner to show his strength reached into the baby\u2019s mouth to Finn could return and find him. by squeezing water out of a white test the sharpness of his teeth, and Such was Benandonner\u2019s fear of stone. Try as he might, it was Finn savagely bit down on his little Finn that he deliberately smashed impossible. The disguised Finn finger. Benandonner was now the crossing between Ireland and then took the stone, but secretly alarmed; if the baby was so large Scotland, creating what is now swapped it for the cheese curds and strong, his father would surely known as the Giant\u2019s Causeway. \u25a0 Oonagh had made. When he squeezed them, clear whey ran Young Finn meets his father\u2019s old The Fenian Cycle leader. As an adult, Finn won warriors, hiding in a forest, in an acclaim by killing Aillen, a illustration from T. W. Rolleston\u2019s In Irish and Welsh mythology, fire-breathing being from the The High Deeds of Finn (1910). Finn MacCool is best known not Underworld. He then assumed as a giant, but as a hero who was leadership of the Fianna and said to have lived in the 4th guided them through many century ce. Finn and his band of exploits and adventures. Finn\u2019s warriors, the Fianna, formed the son, the poet Ois\u00edn, is the chief subject of a series of stories called narrator of the Fenian Cycle. the Fenian Cycle, which was first documented in the 12th century ce. In some myths, Finn never died, but retreated to a hillside As a boy, Finn\u2019s first great cave to sleep, ready to awaken exploit was to catch the Salmon of at the hour of Ireland\u2019s greatest Knowledge, which was full of the need. The Fenian Brotherhood, world\u2019s wisdom after eating formed in the mid-19th century hazelnuts from a holy tree by the with the goal of independence River Boyne. When Finn then ate for Ireland, took their name from the fish, he acquired its powers the Fianna, as did the political and knowledge, becoming a great party Fianna F\u00e1il in 1926.","170 BPSTRHLOOOETMDSHUSEACOYMEMTDASOIFODARNKEONDTMHE BLODEUWEDD IN BRIEF In ancient Welsh mythology, tynged, or curse, applied to him Blodeuwedd\u2014meaning \u201cflower- by his own mother, Arianrhod. She THEME faced\u201d\u2014was the wife of the was embittered at the loss of her Mythical woman great hero Llew Llaw Gyffes. She virginity\u2014of which the presence was not a real woman, but was of her son was a constant reminder. SOURCE instead made from the flowers of Arianrhod was also angered by a Math fab Mathonwy (\u201cMath, broom, meadowsweet, and oak by series of tricks and humiliations son of Mathonwy\u201d), The Four the magicians Math and Gwydion. she was subjected to by Math and Branches of the Mabinogi, Blodeuwedd was a key figure in his nephew Gwydion. As a result, 12th-century Welsh folktales. the \u201cMath fab Mathonwy,\u201d a book she placed three curses upon Llew, full of magic and invention, which the last of which stated that he SETTING was the last of the mythical The would never have a wife from any Gwynedd, northwest Wales, Four Branches of the Mabinogi. race on the earth. c.1060\u20131200 ce. Llew Llaw Gyffes could only However, the cunning Math KEY FIGURES marry with the help of magic or and Gwydion eventually managed Blodeuwedd A woman divine intervention, due to a to break this last curse by magic: made of flowers; wife of they created Blodeuwedd and Llew Llaw Gyffes. betrothed her to Llew Llaw Gyffes. The couple were married and given Llew Llaw Gyffes Son of a palace to live in together. Gwydion; Blodeuwedd\u2019s nearly immortal husband. The tree was a gift Love at first sight from a merciful god, One day, while her husband was Math A magician; son of its roots lapping up the away on business, a man pursuing Mathonwy, Lord of Gwynedd. blood to hold the spirits a stag arrived at Blodeuwedd\u2019s for blessed release into home. He was Gronw Pebyr, Lord of Gwydion Nephew of Math; another, brighter age. Penllynn. Being of a charming and also a magician. Math fab Mathonwy hospitable disposition, Blodeuwedd welcomed the visitor. However, as Gronw Pebyr Lord of soon as they looked into each Penllynn; lover of Blodeuwedd. other\u2019s eyes, the pair fell in love. After this, the couple commenced an affair and, determined to be together, they began to plot the","NORTHERN EUROPE 171 See also: The founding of Athens 58\u201359 \u25a0 Arachne and the spider 115 \u25a0 The voyage of Bran 165 \u25a0 C\u00fachulainn 166\u201367 [Llew Llaw Gyffes] flew Blodeuwedd met Gronw Pebyr as take back his lands from Gronw up in the form of an eagle, he hunted a stag near her home. They and Blodeuwedd. The latter fled, and gave a fearful scream. are depicted here by British artist but Gwydion hunted her down and Ernest Wallcousins for Charles Squire\u2019s turned her into an owl. He told her Math fab Mathonwy 1920 book, Celtic Myth & Legend. that she would never see the light of day again and would be alone death of Llew Llaw Gyffes. There and he revealed to her that he could for eternity. Her name would forever was one major obstacle for the be killed at dusk, wrapped only in a be Blodeuwedd\u2014which in the lovers: Llew\u2019s immortality. net, with one foot on a trough and modern Welsh language now one on a goat, beside a river bank, simply means \u201cowl.\u201d \u25a0 Blodeuwedd\u2019s betrayal and by a special spear forged for There seemed to be no way in one year during the hours when which Blodeuwedd\u2019s husband could everyone should be at Mass. be killed. He had previously told her that he could not be killed during Armed with this information, the day or night, not indoors nor Blodeuwedd arranged for Llew\u2019s outdoors, neither riding nor demise. She and Gronw prepared walking, not clothed and not naked, an ambush, but things did not go nor by any lawfully made weapon. according to plan. When Gronw However, Blodeuwedd soon tricked threw the spear, it hit Llew, Llew into giving away the secret, wounding him but not killing him. In that split second, Llew turned himself into an eagle and flew away. Gwydion, Llew\u2019s father, eventually discovered the severely wounded eagle perched high in an oak tree. Realizing that the bird was Llew, he transfigured his son back into human form. Gwydion and Math then nursed Llew back to health, before mustering an army to The reverse side of an ancient Owls Owls are also found in Irish Greek coin. This owl represented the mythology. The heroine and goddess Athena, whose head was Regarded as sacred in many dark goddess Echtach was a depicted on the other side. cultures, the nocturnal owl is both ghostly owl whose screeches a symbol of wisdom\u2014because it were heard in midwinter, after can see in the dark\u2014as well as of sunset. She was said to haunt death and spiritual renewal. the region where her sister Echthge, a cannibal, lived. In ancient Welsh mythology, these birds had a dark and Athena, the ancient Greek foreboding significance. Gwydion goddess of wisdom and war, turned Blodeuwedd into an owl was often depicted with a little because, due to her plot to kill her owl, which was regarded as a husband, he believed she should good omen. The Roman goddess never see the light of day again. of wisdom and arts, Minerva\u2014 He knew that other birds\u2014fearful Athena\u2019s counterpart\u2014was of owls\u2014would attack her if she depicted with an owl perched appeared during daylight. on her right hand.","OWUHTOTSHOISPUSLWLOERTHD IKSITNHEGRIGBHOTWRISNE OF ALL ENGLAND THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR","","174 THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR IN BRIEF K ing Arthur has a semi- The ruins of Tintagel Castle remain historical status as the today. This castle was built in the 13th THEME warlord who ruled Britain century ce, but archaeological findings Kingship and heroic quest during a period of chaos created by suggest it was the site of an impressive the departure of Roman forces from fortress in the time of Arthur. SOURCES Britain. The Welsh Christian monk Le Morte d\u2019Arthur (\u201cThe Death Nennius, who wrote the Historia legend came from Thomas Malory, of Arthur\u201d), Sir Thomas Malory, Brittonum (\u201cHistory of the Britons\u201d) who wrote his version from inside 1485 ce. in c.828 ce, was the first to mention London\u2019s Newgate Prison. Malory Arthur, writing about him as the based his 1485 work Le Morte SETTING victorious leader of 12 battles d\u2019Arthur (\u201cThe Death of Arthur\u201d) Southwest Britain, that culminated in one at Mount on such sources as The Alliterative late 5th\u2013early 6th century ce. Badon (c. 490 ce) against the Morte Arthure (a Middle English invading Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. poem from c.1400 ce), the Vulgate KEY FIGURES The cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth Cycle (a series of 13th-century Arthur King of Britain, a great later included a wily warrior King French romances), and the works warrior with a loyal following Arthur in his Historia Regum of the poet Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes. of knights. He became king Britanniae (\u201cHistory of the Kings after proving himself by of Britain,\u201d 1136 ce), in which the Fateful conception drawing a sword from a stone. king conquered Denmark, Iceland, Le Morte d\u2019Arthur was split into 21 Norway, Gaul, and more. books by printer William Caxton in Merlin A sorcerer and later 1485. The first concerns the events advisor to King Arthur. The Arthurian legend enjoyed that lead to Arthur becoming King a surge in popularity in the 12th of Britain. Fate dictated every Mordred Arthur\u2019s illegitimate century thanks to the Queen of aspect of Arthur\u2019s life\u2014even his son by his half-sister; Mordred England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, conception, which was aided by usurped the throne and later who, inspired by the romantic the dark arts of the wizard Merlin. killed his father. stories of knights and chivalry, Arthur\u2019s father, King Uther brought troubadours into her court Pendragon, had been obsessed Guinevere Arthur\u2019s wife, to tell Arthurian tales. One of the with Igraine, the wife of a Cornish who committed adultery with most famous contributions to the the knight Lancelot. Lancelot du Lac A knight of the Round Table, who was in love with Guinevere. Arthur himself was the military commander. Historia Brittonum Nennius, Welsh monk (c. 828 ce)","NORTHERN EUROPE 175 See also: The labors of Herakles 72\u201375 \u25a0 Aeneas 96\u2013101 \u25a0 The Kalevala 160\u201363 \u25a0 The cattle raid of Cooley 166\u201367 duke named Gorlois. To avoid led to the conception of a bastard The gallant Galahad, one of the Uther\u2019s advances, Igraine hid in son, Mordred, who Merlin had three knights to hold the Holy Grail, Tintagel Castle, on a precipice on prophesied would destroy Arthur pulls Excalibur from a stone to prove the Cornish coast. Merlin struck and all his knights. his worth\u2014just as Arthur himself once a deal with Uther: he would make did\u2014as the king and his court look on. Uther look like Gorlois and spirit The sword in the stone him into Igraine\u2019s chamber if Uther Despite being Uther\u2019s son, Arthur 4 square feet (0.4 square meters) agreed to hand over the foretold did not become king through a in size appeared in a London child of the union to Merlin to raise simple process of succession. churchyard, with a steel anvil in as he saw fit. The deed was done Instead, he had to prove his worth. the middle of it. A fine sword was and, according to Malory, Arthur According to Malory, one day after stuck in the anvil, and the blade was conceived three hours after the death of Uther, a great stone was inscribed with gold letters that Gorlois\u2019s death in battle. Because read, \u201cWhoso pulleth out this sword the widowed Igraine then married of this stone and anvil, is rightwise Uther, this meant that Arthur could king born of all England.\u201d It was later claim legitimacy. destined to be taken from the stone only by the true king. As Uther had agreed, he gave the baby to Merlin, who took The Archbishop of Canterbury Arthur away to be raised by Sir called for a tournament, hoping Ector, a \u201ctrue and faithful\u201d knight that this would shine some light on with a son, Kay, about Arthur\u2019s own who the rightful king was. Even the age. Arthur was raised ignorant of strongest men could not withdraw his parentage\u2014which later proved the sword from the anvil. Many his undoing. Arthur lusted after knights, including Ector\u2019s son, Sir and eventually slept with King Lot\u2019s Kay, went to London hoping to wife, Morgause, who was also the prove their worth. Upon arrival, daughter of Igraine and Gorlois. however, Kay lost his sword, and With this affair, Arthur committed sent Arthur to fetch another. conscious adultery but also Noticing the sword in the stone, unconscious incest. Their union but unaware of its significance, \u276f\u276f Thomas Malory write his work, sometimes He shall be king and described as the first English overcome all his enemies; The author of Le Morte d\u2019Arthur novel. Malory finished Le Morte and he shall be long king was born in 1416, the son of Sir d\u2019Arthur in 1469, and had it of all England, and have John Malory of Newbold Revel, printed by William Caxton under his obeisance Wales, Warwickshire. Raised a country in 1485. gentleman, Thomas Malory Ireland, and Scotland. inherited the family title and The identity of Thomas Le Morte d\u2019Arthur estate in 1434. He was an Malory has long been the educated man, yet by 1451 he subject of debate. While most was serving time in prison for today believe that the Malory an astonishing array of violent of Le Morte d\u2019Arthur was the crimes, including robbery, man from Warwickshire, the extortion, and rape. It is likely lack of information supplied that he used his time in by Malory himself led some prison\u2014several stretches 19th-century scholars suggest amounting to 10 years\u2014to that he was actually a Welsh poet.","176 THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR Lancelot and Guinevere depicted by Herbert James Draper (c.1890). After Arthur\u2019s death, Guinevere became a nun, believing that their affair caused the destruction of the Round Table. for all those assembled before it disappeared again. Arthur and his knights then dedicated themselves to searching for the Grail. Arthur easily pulled the blade from by the \u201cLady of the Lake.\u201d After Tragic romances the anvil. After proving several seeing the magical sword and The Round Table was a wedding times that he could withdraw the scabbard in the middle of a lake, gift from King Leodegrance to sword, Arthur was hailed as the raised up by an ethereal hand, Arthur, who married the king\u2019s rightful king of Britain. Arthur promised the Lady a future daughter Guinevere. This table is a gift in exchange for them. key element of the legend\u2014during The sword in the stone was Pentecost, King Arthur gathered not the only famous blade in the Grail quest his chosen knights in Camelot (his tale of Arthur. The sword named Books 13\u201317 of Malory\u2019s account castle and court) and granted them Excalibur appears in many of the contain the quest of Arthur and his seats at the Round Table in exchange Arthurian legends, with some knights for the \u201cSangreal,\u201d the \u201choly for their fealty. Each knight swore suggesting this is the very sword grail.\u201d This aspect of the Arthurian an oath, promising never to take up he pulled from the anvil. In Malory\u2019s legend was a popular subject in arms in \u201cwrongful quarrel\u201d for the tale, Arthur was given the sword medieval French accounts, such as sake of love or worldly goods. the Vulgate Cycle. Malory based Merlin warned the king his information on the Holy Grail on Despite this, many of the books covertly that Guinevere was a story from this cycle: La Queste of Le Morte d\u2019Arthur contain tales del Saint Graal (\u201cthe quest for the of quarrels over love, which often not wholesome for him to holy grail\u201d). According to this ended in tragedy. This was the take to wife, for he warned account, the Grail appeared on the case for Sir Tristan, who loved the him that Lancelot should love Round Table during the Christian \u201cbelle Isolde\u201d and was eventually feast of Pentecost, which celebrates killed by her husband, a king. her, and she him again. Christ\u2019s disciples being endowed The most famed romance in the Le Morte d\u2019Arthur with the Holy Spirit. The Grail brought forth food and drink Excalibur is returned by Bedivere to the Lady of the Lake. In Malory\u2019s tale, there were two women with that title: the maiden who held the sword, and Nimue, ruler of the Isle of Avalon.","NORTHERN EUROPE 177 legend is that between Guinevere, Twelve knights of the Round Table Arthur\u2019s wife, and his best knight, are named in all medieval tellings of the Sir Lancelot du Lac. The pair had legend. Different sources suggest an affair, but were so indiscreet numbers ranging from a total of 12 to 250 that many schemed to expose their knights of the Round Table. adultery to the king, including Arthur\u2019s bastard son, Mordred. Lancelot du Lac Lamorak Once the affair was exposed, the King Arthur Bedivere king was forced to declare war on Percival Lancelot, thus dividing the Round Geraint Kay Table as he pursued his own knight back to France. However, while Arthur fought in France, Mordred usurped his throne. This treason reunited Arthur and his knights. The death of Arthur Gareth Galahad As its title suggests, Le Morte Gaheris d\u2019Arthur ends with Arthur\u2019s death. Arthur and Mordred wounded each Tristan other fatally at the Battle of Camlann. Gawain As he lay dying, the wounded king Bors de Ganis ordered Sir Bedivere to throw Excalibur into the lake. When he did so, up rose the arm of the Lady of the Lake, who waved the weapon three times before she disappeared again. Bedivere carried Arthur to the lake, where he was met by women in black hoods, who took Arthur away in a boat. Malory left it open as to whether the \u201conce and future king\u201d might one day return. \u25a0 The Holy Grail overcome sinfulness. Although The Holy Grail is depicted in the Lancelot was a knight without middle of the Round Table. The Grail The Grail was supposedly the peer, the sin he committed with was variously imagined as a chalice, same vessel Jesus drank from at Guinevere made him impure, bowl, or stone. the Last Supper and that had and therefore unable to achieve caught blood from his wounds true knowledge of the Grail. during the crucifixion. According to Malory, it had been taken to In the early tales, the Grail Britain by Joseph of Arimathea. was not explicitly called \u201choly,\u201d The Holy Grail first appeared to but it was associated with Arthur\u2019s knights covered by a Christianity. Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes rich white cloth, accompanied described it as an elaborately by thunder and lightning. decorated bowl that contained a single wafer for a Catholic Malory emphasized that the Mass. Some scholars believe knights\u2019 quest was a journey of that the idea of the Grail can the soul as well as the body\u2014 be traced back to the mystical spiritual effort was required to cauldrons of Celtic mythology.","ASIA","","180 INTRODUCTION The earliest The fall of Greek writer Herodotus The written tablets containing the Babylon marks the portrays the ancient Chinese script is Epic of Gilgamesh end of Babylonian traditions of Persia standardized under and Akkadian rule and other cultures in the Qin dynasty. are inscribed in his Histories. ancient Mesopotamia. in Assyria. CA.2100\u20131800 BCE 539 BCE 440 BCE 221-206 BCE CA.1595\u20131157 BCE CA.450 BCE CA.400 BCE CA.140 BCE The Enuma Elish, an Attributed to the sage The oldest preserved Prince Liu An ancient Babylonian text, Valmiki, the Hindu parts of the anicent discusses mythology depicts the creation of epic Ramayana and the ideal social expounds on the Hindu epic, the order in a series of the universe by the duties of mankind. Mahabharata, are essays, the Huainanzi. primeval gods. written down. I n around 4000 BCE, the first flourished from 550\u2013ca.330 BCE. Its spread from India across the large cities emerged in Sumer, myths revolved around the ideas of continent, influencing the myths in southern Mesopotamia. good and evil\u2014also evident in of nations such as Japan, China, Soon after, the peoples of the region Zoroastrianism, the imperial state and Korea. From the 1st century BCE developed cuneiform writing. This religion from 600 BCE to 650 CE. onward, it became increasingly enabled them to record myths\u2014 common for tales to be recorded such as that of the fertility goddess, Myths from major faiths in these parts of Asia. Myths were Inanna\u2014that had previously been The Hindu faith that developed recorded in Sanskrit, which passed down orally. This region on the Indian subcontinent starting became the major written language was home to the Epic of Gilgamesh, around 1900 BCE created much of of Hinduism, Buddhism, and other one of the oldest of all surviving the framework for Indian myths. faiths that originated in this region. literary works, dating to 2100 BCE. Originally, these were passed The tale was recorded on clay on orally\u2014including India\u2019s two Written narratives tablets discovered in the Library greatest epic poems, the Ramayana The first royal dynasty in China of Ashurbanipal\u2014named after the and Mahabharata, which described emerged around 2200 BCE. Over the 7th-century BCE king\u2014during an the lives of the gods. However, centuries, the political reach of archaeological study of the ancient Hinduism was not the only faith to these rulers extended from their city of Nineveh. The Enuma Elish, influence mythology in India and power base in central China a 16th-century Babylonian creation across Asia. Siddhartha Gautama across Asia. During the 2nd myth, was also recovered there. was born in modern-day Nepal millennium BCE, Chinese script was around the 6th century BCE. developed. This allowed Chinese Another civilization to emerge Becoming the Buddha, he gained scholars to record myths and in the Middle East was that of the many followers, and his teachings legends in works such as The Persians. The first Persian Empire","Shan Hai Jing, or Avesta, the O no Yasumaro\u2019s ASIA 181 \u201cThe Classic of sacred book of Kojiki, composed at Mountains and Zoroastrianism, Empress Genmei\u2019s Wu Cheng\u2019en\u2019s Seas,\u201d compiles praises the god Journey to the West Chinese myths. Ahura Mazda. behest, explores Japan\u2019s origins. tells the story of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. 1ST CENTURY BCE CA.309 CE 712 CE CA.1592 CE 3RD CENTURY CE 5\u20137TH CENTURY CE 1277 CE 1849 CE Historical Records of The Devi Mahatmya Samguk Yusa The Royal Library the Three Sovereign follows the valiant charts the rise of the of Ashurbanipal, Divinities tells the goddess Durga as Three Kingdoms of containing the Epic she wages war on Korea through myth story of Pangu\u2019s of Gilgamesh, is creation of the world. the forces of evil. and history. discovered in Nineveh. Classic of Mountains and Seas and establish order by defeating attacked with aging, sickness, and later Xu Zheng\u2019s Historical Records the demonic forces of chaos and death. Ahriman and Ahura Mazda of the Three Sovereign Divinities naming all things in the universe. are twin deities who are exact and the Five Gods. The Japanese This quest for balance appears in opposites: creator and destroyer. chronicle, Kojiki, was written in a stories such as that of Pangu, who form of Chinese, as was the Korean emerges from an egg\u2014a theme Gods and founders Samguk Yusa. that reemerges in the Korean myth The idea of deities taking multiple of Jumong\u2014to bring order to a identities or forms is common in In some parts of Asia, myths formless universe and ensure many strands of mythology across were only written down in the balance between the forces of Yin the world, but especially in Asia. 20th century, at the instigation of and Yang. The concept of dharma\u2014 Vishnu, a principal Hindu god and explorers from the West. The Ifugao living in balance with the cosmos the preserver in the Trimurti, has of the Philippines, for example, and the world\u2014is a major theme multiple avatars that he embodies continued to transmit their myths in the story of the Hindu god to restore order to the world. orally for more than 1,000 years, Rama. The Japanese myth of the creating many different versions, rivalry between the gods Legendary founding figures are which only began to be documented Amaterasu and Susanoo also another common theme in Asian by anthropologists in the 1940s. displays this clash between mythology. Some are gods who disorder and harmony. created entire countries. Others are Order and chaos mythical human figures, such as A major theme in Asian mythology Zoroastrian mythology is based Dan\u2019gun Wanggeom, who founded is the quest for balance, both on the idea of cosmic dualism. The the first Korean Kingdom, or Yi, the in heaven and on Earth. Marduk, god Ahura Mazda created a pure fabled archer who saved the world the Babylonian god, helped to world, which the spirit Ahriman from 10 blazing suns. \u25a0","GODDESSFROM THE GREAT HEAVEN THE SGERT EHEARTMIBNDELONOTWHE THE DESCENT OF INANNA","","184 THE DESCENT OF INANNA IN BRIEF M esopotamian civilization called The Descent of Inanna, was essentially urban, which relates how she, the Queen THEME with people living in of Heaven, determined to visit her Fertility and the seasons walled cities, yet it had an agrarian widowed sister Ereshkigal, Queen focus, too. Citizens had plots of land of the Underworld. SOURCE either within a city or outside its The Descent of Inanna, walls. If they had livestock, people Inanna hoped to attend the Anonymous, 3500\u20131900 bce; A would take the animals out to funeral rites of her sister\u2019s husband, Hymn to Inanna, Enheduanna, graze, but return them to the city knowing that her actions had led to 2285 and 2250 bce; Ishtar\u2019s at night, often keeping them in his death: Inanna had offered her Descent into the Underworld, their own houses. In such a society, hand in marriage to the heroic Anonymous, 7th century bce; the fertility of humans, animals, demigod Gilgamesh, only to be met Inanna: Queen of Heaven and the land had great cultural with rejection and mockery. She and Earth: Her Stories and significance. The people had had asked her father Anu, the sky Hymns from Sumer, Diane shrines to fertility gods in their god, to send the Bull of Heaven\u2014 Wolkstein and Samuel Noah homes, sometimes decorated with the deity Gugalanna, Ereshkigal\u2019s Kramer, 1983. figurines. Many myths, including husband\u2014to seek revenge on The Descent of Inanna, featured the Gilgamesh. Visible in the night sky SETTING cycles of the seasons and fertility. as the constellation the Romans The Underworld. called Taurus, the bull had the Revenge and death power to consume crops, dry up KEY FIGURES Inanna was a great Mesopotamian rivers, and cause the earth to shake. Inanna Goddess of fertility deity, representing the realities and war; Queen of Heaven. around which life then revolved\u2014 Anu agreed and sent the bull, fertility, procreation, sensuality, and but Gilgamesh, who possessed Ereshkigal Queen of the love, but also war. The goddess is superhuman strength, killed and Underworld; Inanna\u2019s sister. mentioned in the earliest texts from dismembered it. Because she felt the 4th millennium bce, when she responsible for his death, Inanna Gilgamesh A demigod. was the patroness of the important city of Uruk in Sumer (southern The slaying of the Bull of Heaven Anu The sky god; father of Iraq). Inanna was the subject of is also recounted in The Epic of Inanna. several ancient myths and a poem Gilgamesh. This illustration of it comes from Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, Gugalanna The Bull of by Donald A. Mackenzie (1915). Heaven; first husband of Ereshkigal. Ninshubur Inanna\u2019s attendant. Enlil Lord of the gods. Nanna God of the moon. Enki God of water. Dumuzid Inanna\u2019s husband; a shepherd-god and god of fertility; later became the Babylonian god Tammuz. Geshtinanna Dumuzid\u2019s sister, who takes his place.","ASIA 185 See also: The abduction of Persephone 50\u201351 \u25a0 Orpheus and Eurydice 53 \u25a0 Osiris and the Underworld 276\u201383 Hymn to Inanna had the strength of a bull and soaked the weapons of her The Hymn to Inanna was enemies in blood and gore. In written in the 3rd century bce the hymn, Inanna\u2019s battle cry by Enheduanna, high priestess shook the earth and the gods of the city of Ur in Mesopotamia prostrated themselves at her (now southern Iraq). She was feet. \u201cHer wrath is a devastating the daughter of Sargon, the first flood which no one can king of the Akkadian Empire, withstand \u2026 she abases those and she was the first author whom she despises.\u201d in the world that we know by name. In her hymn to Inanna, Edheduanna was a prolific the priestess described the writer, composing a set of Queen of Heaven as having temple hymns and dozens of powers greater than the highest poems on many themes. She of the gods\u2014a powerful was influential in politics, too, goddess of destruction who and at least once fled a rebellion but was restored to power. wanted to mourn with her sister in a pectoral over her chest named Inanna is often depicted with wings the Underworld. However, in some \u201cCome, man, come,\u201d and adorned and standing on two animals, as in interpretations of the story, Inanna her hand with a golden ring. As this terracotta relief from the 2nd intended to conquer her sister\u2019s Queen of Heaven, she also clasped millennium bce. She is also wearing realm, so that she could extend her the lapis lazuli rod and tape used her cone-shaped crown. power into the Underworld. for measuring the boundaries of her realm. Inanna\u2019s fine robes, attractive chief Mesopotamian deity, who An unwelcome guest ornaments, and the mascara\u2014 had set down the decrees that For the Mesopotamians, the called \u201cLet a man come, let him established the foundations of Underworld was not unlike the come\u201d\u2014that she wore to make her civilized society. Before leaving real world, except that it was irresistible, represented sexuality, heaven, Inanna told her attendant always dark, people were naked, beauty, and fertility. The rod and Ninshubur to seek the gods\u2019 help and the bread and beer were stale. tape were instruments of her if she did not return. Named Kur, this realm was neither authority\u2014acquired from Enlil, the good nor bad but existed between When Inanna reached the heaven and earth, where the dead When she entered the seventh entrance to the Underworld, the remained trapped between the two gate, the pala dress, the gatekeeper ran to tell Ereshkigal planes of existence. garment of ladyship, was and was told to immediately lock removed from her body. the seven gates against the new Inanna knew that her descent The Descent of Inanna arrival. To gain entry through each into the Underworld could also gate, Inanna had to relinquish her lead to her death. As protection, divine powers. Item by item, she she equipped herself with seven was compelled to remove her divine powers\u2014symbolized in turban and ornaments, and to give items that she wore and held. up the rod and measuring tape. Inanna put on a turban, described Finally, at the last gate, she also as \u201cheadgear for the open country,\u201d had to take off her clothes, so that and hung lapis lazuli beads around she was naked like everybody else. her neck. She wore twin egg- shaped beads on her breast, In the Akkadian version of the donned a fine pala dress, placed story, something else happened when Inanna descended into \u276f\u276f","186 THE DESCENT OF INANNA ca.3500\u20131900 bce: A 415-line poem called ca.5300\u20132335 bce: \u201cThe Descent of Inanna\u201d The first records of is written in Sumeria. Inanna are depictions of the goddess on vases from the city of Uruk. ca.2285\u20132250 bce: ca.2334\u20132218 bce: The priestess The popularity of Inanna influences the cult of the Enheduanna writes about Akkadian goddess Ishtar. Inanna after Sumeria became part of the The two are merged. Akkadian Empire. The Mother Goddess Ishtar, by ca.1300\u20131000 bce: ca.700 bce: Evelyn Paul (1916), portrays Inanna in Inanna features in A 145-line poem, all her finery before her descent into the \u201cGilgamesh, Enkidu, \u201cIshtar\u2019s Descent into Underworld. Ishtar is the Babylonian and the Netherworld,\u201d the Underworld,\u201d is name for the same goddess. an episode in The Epic written in Akkadian. the Underworld: the world above of Gilgamesh. Underworld. There they recited the lost its ability to be fertile. Animals ritual words that Enki taught them, and humans would not reproduce, Underworld judges are thought to refusing the gifts of rivers of water and the land became barren. If the symbolize fundamental aspects of and fields of grain in exchange for world descended into chaos, so, too, nature as ordained by the gods, and finding Inanna. They asked: \u201cGive would the heavens. Mesopotamian possibly relate to life, death, and us the corpse hanging on the hook.\u201d religions created a hierarchy and the rule of divine law. Gala-tura scattered a life-giving structure of the heavens and Earth plant over her body, and kur-jara in which the two must coexist. A soul for a soul sprinkled it with life-giving water, In the Sumerian version of the restoring Inanna to good health. Inanna\u2019s fate narrative, Inanna\u2019s loyal attendant, When Inanna reached Ereshkigal\u2019s Ninshubur, went to the gods to ask Just as Inanna was leaving the throne, she sat on it in her sister\u2019s for help freeing Inanna. Enlil, lord Underworld, the Anuna appeared place. The Anuna, the seven judges of the gods, and Nanna, the moon again and declared, \u201cIf Inanna is to of the Underworld, appeared and god, did not want to help her; only ascend from the Underworld, let her gave the goddess a \u201clook of death,\u201d Enki, the wisest of the gods and provide a substitute for herself.\u201d shouted at her, and proclaimed her god of water, agreed to help. He The goddess would not be allowed guilty of arrogance. Inanna was created two figures, called the to escape scot-free. The Underworld transformed into a rotting corpse gala-tura and the kur-jara, who demanded a soul for a soul. and hung on a hook. could slip like phantoms into the The repeated use of the number seven is intentional, as the number represented completion. The seven divine powers, the seven gates of the Underworld, and the seven","She does not return. She handed him over to the demons. ASIA 187 who goes to the Dark City Dumuzid prayed to the sun god, his brother-in-law Utu, to turn him Priests of Inanna stays there. into a snake, but in spite of this Inanna: Queen of transformation he was captured Often identified as being Heaven and Earth and taken to the Underworld. neither male nor female, the role of the priests and Returning to earth, Inanna was Inanna, however, missed her priestesses of Inanna was to accompanied by a band of demons husband. His sister Geshtinanna promote the fertility of the anxious to seize someone to take agreed to take his place for half the land. If they did not have her place. Inanna met members year, so that Dumuzid could return sexual intercourse, it was of her family and faithful servants, to Inanna in spring and the land thought that the land would including Ninshubur, and did not would become fertile again. When no longer produce. They want to let any of them go. Instead, the crops had been gathered, served at her temple in Uruk, she told the demons to follow her to Dumuzid returned to spend the the principal center of worship, a great apple tree on a plain. barren winter in the Underworld, and at numerous other shrines thus giving the world its seasons. and temples to the goddess Humanity and mortality throughout Mesopotamia. Under the apple tree sat Inanna\u2019s Humanity and mortality husband, Dumuzid\u2014a mortal king The story of Inanna not only As the goddess of fertility, who had been deified and had explained the seasonal cycle, but Inanna was sometimes become the god of fertility and also gave an insight into what it depicted as both male and shepherding. Dumuzid was meant to be human and how life female, and was said to have \u201cclothed in a magnificent garment was ordered. On Earth, humans the ability to transform men and seated magnificently on a were the children of the gods; into women and women into throne.\u201d Furious that her husband when they died, they became men. People who did not had not mourned her, Inanna the children of Ereshkigal. This conform to Mesopotamian determined how they lived their gender norms were often lives. They believed it was good to made into priests of Inanna. be clothed, to have good food, and Such gender ambiguity also to be surrounded by loved ones. \u25a0 made Inanna an accessible deity, as both men and women Cylinder seals provide important could identify with her. pictorial evidence of life and lore in Mesopotamia. This example from In one ritual known as ca.2250 bce depicts the god Enki with \u201csacred marriage,\u201d to ensure life-giving water flowing from his body. prosperity, a king would take the role of Dumuzid in an elaborate ceremony. This would include having intercourse with the high priestess of Inanna, herself impersonating the goddess.","188 CAANBODOMUMRTEA-ANCNDRNAEIHNATIDLIOABTNRIIONNG MARDUK AND TIAMAT IN BRIEF T he Enuma Elish (\u201cWhen Enuma Elish comes from the on High\u201d) is a collection of opening line, which acted as THEME seven tablets recovered in a declaration of spatial location, Order over chaos 1849 from King Ashurbanipal II\u2019s expressing the belief that the gods library in Nineveh, Iraq. The tablets were above everything that would SOURCES shed light on Babylonian beliefs exist. There are also frequent Enuma Elish (\u201cWhen on about creation. Their purpose, reminders that of all the things in High\u201d), Anonymous, 17th\u201311th however, in charting the rise of heaven and on earth, \u201cnone bore a century bce; Before the Muses: Marduk as the chief god of Babylon name.\u201d To the Babylonians, nothing An Anthology of Akkadian was also to reinforce the power in the world could exist unless the Literature, Ben Foster, 1993. of the city\u2019s king as the god\u2019s gods had named it. representative on earth. The title SETTING Family of gods The heavens and Babylon. According to the Enuma Elish, in the beginning there was nothing KEY FIGURES except sweet water and salt water. Apsu Father of the gods. The sweet water was the god Apsu, and the salt water was the Tiamat Mother of the gods; goddess Tiamat. When the two goddess of the sea. waters mixed together, they gave birth to the first generation of gods. Qingu Tiamat\u2019s warrior Disturbed by the noisy chatter of husband. the new gods, Apsu decided to kill what he and Tiamat had created. Ea Husband of Damkina and father of Marduk. When the most intelligent god, Ea, discovered his father\u2019s plot, he Marduk King of the gods in preempted it by killing Apsu and the Babylonian religion; son built a water temple out of his body. of Ea and Damkina. Marduk kills Tiamat, the sea goddess in dragon form, in this illustration by Evelyn Paul from Lewis Spence\u2019s Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria (1916).","ASIA 189 See also: The war of the gods and Titans 32\u201333 \u25a0 The epic of Gilgamesh 190\u201397 \u25a0 Ahura Mazda and Ahriman 198\u201399 If indeed I am to champion power, the gods needed someone and made humankind from his you, subdue Tiamat, and save to defeat Tiamat. Ea and his wife, blood. The gods were puzzled by Damkina, had a son, Marduk, who this, but Marduk explained that your lives, convene the was filled with greater strength and humans would be useful servants. assembly, nominate me wisdom than either of his parents. He then created Babylon to be the He was also said to have a divine earthly home of the gods and their for supreme destiny! radiance\u2014called melammu in entrance to earth from the heavens; Before the Muses Akkadian, the language of Babylon. Babylon (or Babilim in Akkadian), means \u201cgateway of the gods.\u201d When Tiamat discovered that Apsu A new leader had been killed, she made terrible Marduk convinced the other gods In contrast with its initial monsters and demons rise up and that he could defeat Tiamat if they emphasis on the namelessness of vowed to destroy every one of the gave him their power and made everything, the myth ended by gods. She created a warrior named him their king. After much debate, declaring Marduk king of all the Qingu, made him her husband, and they agreed. Marduk attacked gods and proclaiming all of his 50 gave him the Tablet of Destinies Tiamat, capturing her in his net names, many of which were related that held the fate of all living and killing her. Marduk then ripped to gods whose power he had taken. things. Fearing their mother\u2019s her body in two, and made the Its dominant theme of Marduk\u2019s heavens from one half, and the supremacy may mean that the work Earth from the other. Marduk used dates from the 17th century bce, her eyes to form the Tigris and when Babylon was the great capital Euphrates rivers\u2014hence the Greek of Mesopotamia, or later, when the name, \u201cMesopotamia,\u201d which city was being rebuilt and seeking means \u201cbetween the rivers.\u201d After to reestablish its status. As a text, defeating Tiamat, Marduk attacked the Enuma Elish illustrates how the and destroyed her husband, Qingu, Babylonians viewed creation as a triumph of the gods over chaos. \u25a0 Akitu festival of Babylon. The king would go Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, one of several to the temple to greet Marduk Babylonian kings who bore the god\u2019s The city of Babylon celebrated and kneel before his statue. The name, and his dagger bearer Adad-etir the Akitu festival at their New high priest would then strike on a 9th-century bce stone stela Year in the month of March or the king on the cheek, hard dedicated to the king by his eldest son. April. The word Akitu means enough to bring tears to his \u201cbarley,\u201d which was harvested eyes\u2014a sign of the king\u2019s in spring. During this festival, humility and a reminder that the which occurred over 12 days, an king ruled by Marduk\u2019s authority elaborate enactment of the and was subject to the god. Enuma Elish was performed. The statue of Marduk, the city\u2019s Everyone in Babylon took main deity, was paraded around part in the festival, regardless of the streets and taken to a their class. In doing so, people \u201chouse\u201d outside the city to the came together to reaffirm their north. This was to signify the beliefs. The Akitu rituals date time in which chaos ruled. To back to the 2nd millennium ce or reestablish order, Marduk was even earlier, and continued into marched back into the city from the Common Era. The Roman the house to his throne in the emperor Elagabalus, a Syrian Esagila, his temple in the center (r.212\u2013222\u00a0ce), is said to have introduced the festival into Italy.","KINGLYWHO CAN RIVAL HIS STANDING? THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH","","192 THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH IN BRIEF T he story of Gilgamesh Gilgamesh and Enkidu wrestle follows the eponymous with lions to show their strength in an THEME hero as he wrestles with impression made by a 3rd millennium Mortality the inevitability of death, discovers bce Sumerian cylinder seal. SOURCES true friendship, and comes to Tablets found in the Library of understand the responsibilities animals, ate grass, and lived apart. Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria of kingship. The long poem known In ancient Mesopotamia, if you (ca.668\u2013627 bce), at Nineveh; as The Epic of Gilgamesh is among lived outside the city walls or as a The Epic of Gilgamesh, the world\u2019s earliest known works of nomad, you were considered not Benjamin Foster, 2001. great literature, and weaves only uncouth but dangerous. Until SETTING together a series of tales thought to Enkidu was brought into civilized Uruk, a city in Sumer, have been inspired by a king who society, he could not fulfill his role southern Mesopotamia, ruled the Sumerian city of Uruk of taming and aiding Gilgamesh. after the Great Flood. between 2800 and 2500 bce. KEY FIGURES When Enkidu upset the traps Gilgamesh King of Taming the tyrant of a local hunter, the man went to Mesopotamia. King Gilgamesh loved to walk the the king and urged him to provide Enkidu Close friend of walls of Uruk, measuring the size Enkidu with a prostitute who Gilgamesh. of his kingdom. It was said that a would be able to subdue his wild Shamash God of the sun king who knew the extent of his temperament. Gilgamesh sent a and of justice. walls was noble and good. In temple prostitute called Samhat Ishtar Goddess of fertility reality, however, Gilgamesh was to have sex with Enkidu for seven and war. abusive toward his subjects and days. After this, when Enkidu Utnapishtim An immensely was a sexual predator who knew no tried to run with the animals, they wise, immortal man. bounds. When the people appealed ignored him. Enkidu realized that to their gods for help in restraining something had changed\u2014through The goddess Aruru, their king, Anu, the sky god and his sexual awakening, he had she washed her hands, supreme ruler of heaven, decided started to become civilized. Gilgamesh needed a companion Samhat then took Enkidu to the took a pinch of clay, who could tame his wild nature. city of Uruk, where she clothed and threw it down \u2026 him, fed him bread, and gave him Anu handed the task to Arura, beer to drink. Treated like a man in the wild, she the goddess of creation, who made for the very first time, Enkidu\u2019s created Enkidu. Enkidu. At first, Enkidu was a transformation from animal to The Epic of Gilgamesh savage man who ran with the human was complete.","See also: The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371 \u25a0 The descent of Inanna 182\u201387 \u25a0 ASIA 193 Marduk and Tiamat 188\u201389 Written in clay Meanwhile, Gilgamesh had Humbaba\u2019s mouth is fire; his dreamed of a being whom he would roar is the floodwater; he The clay tablets from which love more than a woman\u2014someone the fullest version of the as strong as himself. Gilgamesh\u2019s breathes and there is death. Gilgamesh epic have been mother, Ninsun, a minor goddess The Epic of Gilgamesh pieced together were found in and a priestess in the temple, 1853 during excavations of the interpreted the dream and told him forests, and on stealing the tallest Library of Ashurbanipal II, in he would meet a man who would trees to take back as valuable the ancient Assyrian city of be an equal to him and a timber for Uruk. Both man and Nineveh. Building on an oral companion in his adventures. beast, Humbaba was a formidable tradition and on earlier written opponent: his strength was versions of the myth, the 12 Gilgamesh and Enkidu immense and he could breathe fire. tablets combine many different eventually met when Enkidu Gilgamesh armed himself to the stories about Gilgamesh into a blocked Gilgamesh from entering teeth and sought blessings from the single epic poem. While some the quarters of a new bride. The temple priests. Alarmed, the city verses from the epic date to two men wrestled, and although elders warned Gilgamesh that he \u276f\u276f ca.2100 bce, the most recent Gilgamesh beat Enkidu, the king version of the text, composed acknowledged Enkidu as an equal in Akkadian cuneiform, an and as a brother. ancient Semitic form of writing from Mesopotamia, dates to Hunting Humbaba the Neo-Assyrian period Gilgamesh had long wanted to go (9th\u20136th century bce). on a quest to prove his strength. He set his sights on vanquishing Gaps in the Ninevite Humbaba, the divinely appointed version of the poem have been demon-protector of the cedar filled by text from the Middle Babylonian period (15th\u201311th In myth In history century bce) found in other locations. The discovery of the tablets changed the way scholars understood daily life in ancient Mesopotamia. Worshipped as a Traditionally judge in the regarded as the Underworld fifth King of Uruk Sometimes Named in the linked to Sumerian King List Dumuzid the shepherd Supposed tomb discovered by In Sumerian King archaeologists Part of The Epic of Gilgamesh sources, the Gilgamesh is reproduced in this plaster cast brother of Ishtar in 2003 dating from the 9th\u20137th century bce. This tablet, the 11th of the (Inanna) famous 12, recounts the story of Utnapishtim and the Great Flood.","194 THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH Clay masks of Humbaba, the demon giant slain by Gilgamesh, have been discovered in the ancient city of Sippur, on the Euphrates river in modern-day Iraq. The dream has shown that misery at last comes to the healthy man, the end of his life is sorrow. The Epic of Gilgamesh was overestimating his abilities\u2014 On reaching the forest, Gilgamesh to give her the Bull of Heaven, so for the king even to reach the forest, and Enkidu were taunted by that she could send it to punish let alone fight Humbaba, he had to Humbaba, but before the demon the people of Uruk for Gilgamesh\u2019s take Enkidu with him. Heeding the could harm the pair, Shamash blew decision. Anu eventually relented, advice, Gilgamesh enlisted Enkidu\u2019s winds to trap Humbaba, and but warned his daughter that the help, and the pair left for the forest. Gilgamesh and Enkidu gained the beast would bring seven years of They were protected by Shamash, upper hand. Although Humbaba famine to Uruk. When the Bull of the god of the sun and of justice, begged for his life, Gilgamesh killed Heaven reached the city, the earth invoked by Gilgamesh\u2019s mother. him, cut down the cedars, made a was torn open, and hundreds of raft, and sailed home to Uruk. people fell to their deaths through Enkidu, whom I so loved, the cracks. The third time that the who went with me through Ishtar\u2019s fury Bull attacked the city, Gilgamesh every hardship, the fate of Back in Uruk, Gilgamesh washed and Enkidu butchered the animal. mankind has overtaken him. off the filth of battle and put on After sacrificing its heart to The Epic of Gilgamesh fresh robes. The Akkadian goddess Shamash, the two of them Ishtar was watching and asked contemptuously threw a piece Gilgamesh to be her new husband. of the animal\u2019s hind leg at Ishtar, If he agreed, she said, he would heedless of the disrespect this gain riches beyond his dreams. showed to the gods. Gilgamesh refused, referencing the fate of her previous husband, That night Enkidu had a dream Dumuzid, whom she had sent to hell. in which Anu, Shamash, and Enlil (the god who granted kingship Angered by this insult, Ishtar and had been Humbaba\u2019s master) went to her father, Anu, the god of discussed the deaths of Humbaba the sky. She pleaded with him and the Bull of Heaven. In the dream, Anu and Enlil decided that either Enkidu or Gilgamesh should be killed. Shamash protested, saying that the pair had only gone to the cedar forest under his","ASIA 195 protection. Despite Shamash\u2019s craftsmen in the land, Gilgamesh What can I do, best efforts, the gods decided built a golden statue of Enkidu in Utnapishtim? Where that Enkidu must die. his honor. He then abandoned can I go? Death lives in the civilization, put on animal skins, house where my bed is. Death and the quest and wandered the wilderness in The Epic of Gilgamesh Coming to grips with his own mourning. In doing so, Gilgamesh mortality, as foretold in the dream, mirrored the early life of Enkidu. at the assembly of the gods. Enkidu desperately prayed to Enkidu had been a wild man who Determined to discover the secret Shamash and cursed Samhat, learned to become civilized; upon to eternal life, Gilgamesh set out the temple prostitute, for showing Enkidu\u2019s death, Gilgamesh, once a to find Utnapishtim. him the way to Uruk. Shamash civilized man, became wild. rebuked him and told him to be On his way to the Underworld, glad of the adventures he had Gilgamesh then left Uruk on a Gilgamesh met an innkeeper experienced. He assured Enkidu quest for immortality, anxious not called Siduri, who tried to convince that Gilgamesh would give his to die like his soulmate. When he him to turn back. She told the king body the finest resting place. followed the path that Shamash that the journey was not safe for Soon after, Enkidu fell ill and took through the sky at night, he mere mortals. When he insisted died 12 days later. found the tunnel to the heavens. on continuing, she reluctantly By speaking to the guardians of gave him directions to Urshanabi, Lamenting his friend\u2019s death, the tunnels, he learned the story of who ferried people across the Gilgamesh enlisted all of the Utnapishtim, a survivor of the Great River of the Dead. Gilgamesh people and animals to mourn with Flood who, together with his wife, found Urshanabi, who agreed him. Calling together the finest had achieved immortality and sat to help him on his mission. Enkidu is created by the gods to subdue the As they crossed the river, oppressive ruler Gilgamesh. Urshanabi asked Gilgamesh why he had made the journey to the Evenly matched in battle, the two develop Underworld. Gilgamesh told him a passionate bond. how his grief at the death of Enkidu had driven him to find immortality. Enkidu\u2019s love for Gilgamesh inspires him to empathize His words convinced Urshanabi with his own people. to take him to Utnapishtim. Enkidu\u2019s death sends the grieving Gilgamesh on a When Gilgamesh eventually quest for immortality. reached Utnapishtim, the man who had achieved immortality remarked His mission a failure, Gilgamesh comes on how worn out the king looked. to terms with the inevitability of death. Gilgamesh explained his pain at watching his friend die and said he was afraid of his own mortality. In response, Utnapishtim asked why Gilgamesh would go on a futile quest instead of enjoying what he had been given in life: \u201cWhy, O Gilgamesh, did you prolong woe?\u201d \u276f\u276f","196 THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that only once; Gilgamesh would never could find him again, Utnapishtim humans could not be immortal. gain immortality that way. Seeking banished the ferryman Urshanabi, The gods, he said, decided the to prove this point to Gilgamesh, and sent Gilgamesh away. length of each human life, and who still believed himself worthy did not reveal the time of death, of immortality, Utnapishtim A parting gift so there was no point in searching challenged the king to stay awake Before Gilgamesh and Urshanabi for a way to avoid it. for a total of six days and seven left, Utnapishtim\u2019s wife, who was nights, instructing his wife to bake also immortal, convinced her The immortal man a loaf of bread for every night that husband to give Gilgamesh a Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that Gilgamesh slept, so that he could present. He told the king that he had earned immortality by not deny his failure. if he wanted youth, a flower at the saving humanity during the Great bottom of the lake could provide it. Flood. Such a thing could happen Gilgamesh accepted the challenge, but immediately fell Hungry for this gift, Gilgamesh Utnapishtim and his wife are asleep. When he finally woke up, tied stone weights to his feet, dived believed to be the subjects of this Utnapishtim rebuked the king for into the lake, and retrieved the devotional gypsum sculpture from his arrogance, noting that while plant. Cutting the weights free, he 2600 bce, excavated from beneath he wanted to overcome death, resurfaced, found Urshanabi, and a shrine at Nippur, Iraq. he was not even able to overcome told him that he would test the his desire for sleep. So that no one plant on the oldest person in Uruk before using it on himself. On his way home, however, Gilgamesh stopped to bathe in a spring. Just at that moment, a snake stole the flower from his grasp, shed its skin, and was young again. Heartbroken, Gilgamesh realized that youth, like immortality, had escaped him. Now, he was fated to age and die. The king\u2019s story ended as it had begun, with Gilgamesh walking the walls of his city, surveying his domain. Although The eternal life you are seeking you shall not find. When the gods created mankind, they established death for mankind, and withheld eternal life for themselves. The Epic of Gilgamesh","ASIA 197 So someday you will depart, but \u2019til that day, sing and dance. Eat your fill of warm cooked food and cool jugs of beer. Cherish the children your love gave life. Bathe away life\u2019s dirt in warm drawn waters. The Epic of Gilgamesh Gilgamesh could not become The boat built by Utnapishtim to The innkeeper\u2019s immortal, he had become a good survive the Great Flood is described wisdom king, who could describe not as having six decks, equivalent to just the limits of his city, but the 180 feet (55 m) high, and being in the Some scholars argue that the limits of human endeavor. His shape of a giant cube. redemption of Gilgamesh was acceptance of mortality and of due to his encounter with the his own humanity left a lasting the gods consented to his plan\u2014 immortal Utnapishtim. Others impression on the people of but Ea, the god of wisdom and cite Siduri, the innkeeper Uruk, who passed his story water, enabled Utnapishtim who lived on the edge of the down through the generations. and his wife to survive. Ea told sea. From her remote tavern, Utnapishtim to fashion a boat, Siduri saw a man, Gilgamesh, Great Flood myths take aboard the seeds of all living dressed in animal skins The tale of how Utnapishtim and things, and eventually repopulate approaching from the horizon. his wife survived the Great Flood the earth. When the boat was At first, she locked the door in is similar to other flood myths of finished, Utnapishtim took fear, but then took pity on him. the ancient Near East, such as the animals, food, and beer onboard. She offered him food, but he Sumerian flood myth of Ziusudra, refused, saying he no longer the biblical tale of Noah, and the The flood raged for seven days had such needs because he myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha in and seven nights, and when the was in search of immortality. Greek mythology. Each of these rains stopped, the boat drifted to revolves around a figure who rides a halt atop Mount Nimush, known Siduri told the king that out the flood in a large boat. today as Pir Omar Gudrun in Iraqi death was part of being Kurdistan. There, Utnapishtim human. Instead of seeking The story told in the Epic of released a swallow, then a dove, immortality, he should take Gilgamesh is remarkably similar to and finally a raven to find dry delight wherever he could. the biblical story of Noah and the ground. When none of the birds She said he should be proud ark. Utnapishtim tells how he had returned, Unapishtim knew it was of his children, rejoice in them once been the king of a beautiful safe to leave the boat. He made a holding his hand, and share city called Shuruppak. Enlil argued sacrifice to the gods; to thank him his happiness with friends. for the destruction of humankind for his deed, just like in the story of These things, she said, were and, while his motives are unclear, Noah, they created a rainbow. \u25a0 what it meant to be human.","198 EGWTVWOOIOLORD,DS,I,NTPAHITNREHDITOOSDUT,EGHOEHEDNRTE, AHURA MAZDA AND AHRIMAN IN BRIEF A ccording to a particular finally, the \u201cgood mind\u201d\u2014the branch of ancient essential goodness of every THEME Zoroastrianism known being and thing in the world. Good versus evil as Zurvanism, Zurvan, the god of time, existed before anything else In reply, evil Ahriman resolved SOURCES in the universe and had the ability to make a world of his own. Hating Avesta, Anonymous, to create beings out of nothingness. all things good, he created the very collected ca.3rd century ce; opposite of his brother\u2019s works, Bundahishn (\u201cPrimal Zurvan longed to have children, producing demons and dangerous Creation\u201d), Anonymous, so he created twin sons, Ahura creatures. Through his malicious ca.8th\u20139th centuries ce. Mazda and Ahriman. They were work, disease, suffering, and death the fundamental and opposite entered the world. Ahura Mazda SETTING aspects of nature\u2014the light and was determined to thwart the The beginning and end the dark, the good and the evil\u2014 works of his evil brother. of time. that were essential to the balance of the universe. Ahura Mazda was The first humans KEY FIGURES infinitely good and created light, Ahura Mazda fashioned Zurvan The first being. the world, the moon, and stars, and humankind, designing them to be fundamentally good creatures. Ahura Mazda A god who This snarling beast may be a He first created Keyumars, or lived in the light; creator of lion-griffin symbolizing evil Ahriman. Gayomard, a human who some everything good. Made by metalworkers around the Zoroastrian sources call the first 2nd century ce, it was found near king to rule the earth. Ahriman Ahriman A dark god and Helmand River in Afghanistan. tried his best to destroy his brother\u2019s Ahura Mazda\u2019s twin brother; creation, finally succeeding when the creator of everything bad. he poisoned and killed him. Gayomard\u2019s death meant that Saoshyant The savior of the humankind would always be world. mortal\u2014yet his remains fertilized the ground, producing two rhubarb Zoroaster\/Zarathustra plants. Ahura Mazda took a soul Prophet of Ahura Mazda; and breathed it into the plants. author of Zoroastrian texts. They became Mashya and Mashyoi, a man and a woman considered the ancestors of all humanity. Ahura"]