Gods, Goddesses, and Myths of Creation
It is the last Sunday of the month so I am looking at religious stuff, making this weeks book Gods, Goddesses, and Myths of Creation by Mircea Eliade. This really won’t take very long, the book was only 150 pages... So let’s do this.
This book was...not quite what I expected. I was expecting more discourse on how various myths related to each other...like the parallels between Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses, and how like every group has flood myths. While there was some discussion of the flood myths, that was….incidental.
So what was this book? It was a collection of excerpts from world myths. And that’s it. It’s literally excerpts from other works, describing various gods, goddesses...and creation myths.
Now, while I was expecting discourse, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, since you can read for yourself what various cultures believed and see the comparisons directly. However...there were not always comparisons. And this was not all inclusive.
Like he would include myths from very specific Native American tribes, but certainly not ALL tribes. He included some snippets from Greek myth, and large excerpts from the Poetic Edda, but not necessarily the same passages I might have chosen to show the parallels in belief.
Parallels, not direct similarities. Which is fine, the reason it’s parallel beliefs is because each culture found their own voice in creation and belief.
There are excerpts in here from Africa and Egypt, and yes I know Egypt is IN Africa, but because of proximity to Greece and Rome, and the fact that Egypt, through the Greek Ptolemies was STRONGLY parallel to Greek myth and culture, Egyptian myth is accounted differently from African High Gods, as the section is called in the book. The North American Indians (book was originally published in 1967, so Indian was the terminology of the day) are accounted for under both the “Divinities of Primitives” section and the Myths of Creation and Myths of Destruction.
But again, only certain tribes. A simple Google search shows there are 575 Federally recognized tribes in the United States. I believe Eliade provides myths from like 10 of them...that’s including Polynesian tribes and Aztec, Mayan, and Incan tribes.
But there were myths from India, Persia, Egypt, Africa, North and South America, Japan, and Greece. Again...all abbreviated excerpts from well known texts, like the Prose Edda, Homer, Rig Veda, Upanashinads, the Quran, and Zoroastrianism….specific Zarathustra text was Gatha: Yasna? I think I have the Avestra.
And all of the excerpts were interesting, but very frustrating because...well, you’re clearly not getting the whole story, just what the author chose to include. It did, however, highlight the importance of reading multiple translations, when what you’re reading is not in the original language of authorship. Because he included a rather large excerpt from Gilgamesh that was WAY more detailed and considerably longer than the section on the flood that I read in the copy of Gilgamesh I read back in November. And I was cautioned on that, @someinteresting commented on my Gilgamesh video that the George edition is better and I immediately put that on my wishlist and now feel like I definitely need to read it to get the full story of Gilgamesh.
The real value in this book is the detailed foot notes for each excerpt and the citations saying which source was quoted from. Because this gives you a jumping off point for further research into any one of these myths. I will say my favorite myth was God and the Five Women: A Myth of the Origin of Earth, Fire, Water and Woman from the Thompson Indians of the North Pacific Coast.
This one was condensed and paraphrased from James A Teit Mythology of the Thompson Indians from 1912.
So, the Old One or Chief comes down from the upper world on a cloud to the surface of the great lake which was all that existed. The Old One pulls five hairs from his head and throws them on the water and they become five, perfectly formed, beautiful young women. And he asks each one in turn what they want to be.
The first one says “A woman to bear children. I shall be bad and foolish, and seek after my own pleasure. My descendants will fight, steal, kill, and commit adultery.” The Chief responds that he is sorry for her choice because her choice meant death and trouble would come to the world.
The second one says “A woman to bear children. I shall be good and virtuous. My descendants will be wise, peaceful, honest, truthful, and chaste.” The Chief commends her, and tells her that her way would triumph in the end.
The third chooses to become the Earth. From her, Old One says, everything will grow, and to her it would return in death.
The fourth chooses to become Fire, in grass, trees, and all wood, for the good of man.
The fifth chooses to become Water, to “cleanse and make wise” the people. “I will assist all things on earth to maintain life.”
Then the Chief transformed them all. First Earth, then Water, then Fire. He placed the two who chose to remain women, good and bad, on the earth and impregnated them, telling them they would be the parents of all the people. The evil would be more numerous at first, but the good would prevail eventually, he promised. Then the end will come: all the dead and living gathered together, Earth, Fire, and Water will resume their original forms, and all will be transformed and made new.
And that’s the legend. Which neatly makes it both the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.
So what was MY take away from this legend? First off...choice. The Old One asks them...What do you want to be? Make your choice. One chooses the darkness. One chooses the light. And the others choose service. Literally. Earth chooses to be mother to all, feeding the masses. Fire, rightly feared, is also brutally necessary. It is needed for warmth in the cold of winter. And also a necessary precursor to new life. There are ALOT of plants that only bloom in the ashes of a fire, something the Native American tribes were well aware of. Water, of course, is needed for all life. So Earth, Fire, and Water are in balance. Good and evil start off imbalanced...the Old One tells them as such.
Second...well, we’re kind of there, aren’t we? I mean….look at any social media outlet, and you’ll see evil seems to be in the lead, with people, both men and women, choosing indolence and vice, choosing to fight, steal, kill, and commit adultery. But...well, the Old One promises that in the end, good will win. Virtue wins out, wisdom, peace, honesty, truthfulness, and chastity win. Chastity, I don’t believe, means virginity. It means refraining from sexual activity that is immoral...and yes, SOMETIMES that means abstaining entirely. But...well, you can’t have the next generation without sex. So the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
But the point is….good wins! Truth, honesty, integrity...ultimately these things win. Which...well, I’m a sucker for a happy ending.
Anyways, while this book wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be, I recognize the value of the resource as a jumping off point for further research.
