Parallel Myths (2 page)

For most people, “mythology” means Greek or Norse mythology. However, this book goes beyond these sources to include myths from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Exposure limited to European literature does not allow the reader to see the fascinating parallels that exist among the myths of widely separated cultures.

Such parallels demonstrate that human beings everywhere have much in common; the “primitive” and the “modern” are not all that different as we might think. In reading these myths, the gaps between cultures narrow to reveal what is constant and universal in human experience.

I hope that you discover this fascinating bond of humanity while being thoroughly entertained.

—J. F. B
IERLEIN

What is myth? Let’s begin by telling one.

Centuries ago in China, a young boy asked his grandfather how the world was created. The grandfather responded in the same way that his own grandfather had many years before:

Within our own century a strikingly similar view of the creation was presented as a scientific theory. Harold S. Urey, the 1934 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, speculated that the origins of life might have been in the action of some kind of energy, perhaps lightning, on the primordial atmosphere of the earth. Whether or not Urey was familiar with this Chinese myth we do not know, yet his explanation echoed the one told by the Chinese grandfather.

In 1953, a graduate student of Urey named Stanley L. Miller put this theory to the test in an experiment. He prepared two glass globes, one of which contained the gases believed to have composed the early atmosphere of the earth, and the other to collect gases formed as a result of his experiment. He activated the gases with “lightning” in the form of 60,000 volts of electricity. To his surprise, some of the materials that gathered in the second globe included nucleotides, organic components of the amino acids that join together to make DNA, which is the basic building block of all life. This was the first time that nucleotides had been produced in any manner independent of a living organism.

On first reading, the Chinese myth sounds quite primitive. It is anthropomorphic; that is to say, the characters are natural forces personified. The two elements that form lightning are referred to as “emperors,” and chaos is portrayed in human form. This “primitive” myth, however, converges with advanced and sophisticated speculations on the origins of life. This becomes our first clue as to what myth is. It is the earliest form of science: speculation on how the world came into being.

To the man on the street, however, the word
myth
brings to mind lies, fables, or widely believed falsehoods. On the nightly news, a health expert speaks of the need to “eliminate commonly held myths about AIDS.” In this context,
myth
is used to mean “a misconception”—in this case, even a dangerous misconception. But
myth
, in the sense that we use it in this book, often stands for truth.
A myth is often something that only begins to work where our own five senses end.

If myth were only a collection of stories, of falsehoods, why then does it continue to fascinate us? Why has myth persisted for centuries? As we shall see, a single definition of
myth
is never adequate, for it is many things operating at many levels.

As we have seen, myth is the first fumbling attempt to explain
how
things happen, the ancestor of science. It is also the attempt to explain
why
things happen, the sphere of religion and philosophy. It is a history of prehistory, telling us what might have happened before written history. It is the earliest form of literature, often an oral literature. It told ancient people who they were and the right way to live. Myth was and still is the basis of morality, governments, and national identity.

Myth is hardly the sole property of the “primitive, prescientific” mind. Our lives today are saturated with myth, its symbols, language, and content, all of which are part of our common heritage as human beings. Fables, fairy tales, literature, epics, tales told around camp-fires, and the scriptures of great religions are all packages of myth that transcend time, place, and culture. Individual myths themselves are strikingly similar between cultures vastly separated by geography. This commonality helps us to recognize the beauty of the unity in human diversity: We share something with all other peoples in all other times.

Now we can begin to make some very general statements about myth.

• Myth is a constant among all human beings in all times. The patterns, stories, even details contained in myth are found everywhere and among everyone. This is because myth is a shared heritage of ancestral memories, related consciously from generation to generation. Myth may even be part of the structure of our unconscious mind, possibly encoded in our genes.
  

• Myth is a telling of events that happened before written history, and of a sense of what is to come. Myth is the thread that holds past, present, and future together.
  

• Myth is a unique use of language that describes the realities beyond our five senses. It fills the gap between the images of the unconscious and the language of conscious logic.
  

• Myth is the “glue” that holds societies together; it is the basis of identity for communities, tribes, and nations.
  

• Myth is an essential ingredient in all codes of moral conduct. The rules for living have always derived their legitimacy from their origins in myth and religion.
  

• Myth is a pattern of beliefs that give meaning to life. Myth enables individuals and societies to adapt to their respective environments with dignity and value.
  

Our language is permeated with terms taken from the myths, especially Greek and Roman myths, that we use daily without ever thinking of their origins. To drive into the city, you may have to deal with the
chaos
(from the Greek myth describing the primordial state of things before creation) of traffic, while listening to the top-40 song “I’m Your
Venus”
(from the name of the Roman goddess of beauty) or thinking about buying
Nike
(named for the Greek goddess of victory) athletic shoes or perhaps a
Mars
bar (named for the Roman god of war). No doubt the tires on your car are made of
vulcanized
rubber (from Vulcan, the Roman patron god of metalworking). On your journey, you may pass a
museum
(named in honor of the Muses, patroness spirits of culture in Greek mythology); perhaps next
Saturday
(named for Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture) you will find some time to stop in.

The news comes over the radio. In
Europe
(named for Europa, a mortal woman who had a liaison with the Greek god Zeus), preparations are being made for the
Olympics
(a modern revival of the games held at Olympus, the home of the Greek gods), even as diplomats in
London
(named for Lugh, a Celtic sun-god) are discussing what will happen to all those
Thor
(the Norse thunder god),
Titan
(named for Greek giants), and
Jupiter
(the Roman name for Zeus) missiles.

When you are at the office, a moody co-worker may be described as
mercurial
(from Mercury, the Roman messenger of the gods). You may have
erotic
(from Eros, the Greek god of sexual love) thoughts about someone with whom you work. However, in these harassment-sensitive times, making an amorous advance to a colleague might prove the
Achilles’ heel
*
to your otherwise honorable career. You may even be concerned about
venereal
disease (from Venus, the Roman love goddess). Oh, what the
hell
(from Hel, the guardian of the dead in Germanic mythology).

Modern technology allows almost instant communication around the world via fax, phone, and modem. But, whether you live in
Lyons
, France (named for the Celtic sun-god Lugh);
Athens
, Georgia; or
Gimli
, Manitoba (for Gimli, the highest heaven in Norse mythology), you are also linked to centuries past by myth.

Myth itself demonstrates a unique use of language. It uses objective words depicting concrete things to describe concepts that transcend our five senses, things even beyond our comprehension.

In many cultures, there is a generic term for the forces that are greater than ourselves or unseen, for the spiritual power of things that surpass our understanding, such as the Sioux
wakanda
, the Iroquois
orenda
, the Bantu
mulungu
, and the Latin word
numen
. In modern times, it is something along the lines of the “higher power” spoken of in Alcoholics Anonymous. We may not feel that we are directly able to relate to this power.

Ancient Romans, when dealing with an unknown deity, a “numen,” addressed this force
si deus si dea
(“whether you be god or goddess”). Interestingly enough, in a quantum leap from culture to culture, the general term for a usually nonpersonified greater power was translated by missionaries as referring to God. For instance, the
name of the Finnish sky deity, Jumala, is also the modern Finnish word for God, as is the case with
mulungu
in Bantu and
Manitou
in Chippewa. “The powers that be” became a term for a monotheistic deity.

Anthropomorphism is the projection of human features or qualities on the divine. It may be properly called “making a god in man’s image.” The king of the Greek gods, Zeus, was depicted as a henpecked husband, and for good reason, as he was constantly involved in affairs with both goddesses and mortal women. The sun was not merely the heavenly body but was personified as a god with a definite humanlike life history. In Greek mythology, the sun was at first the god Helios (Greek for “sun”) and later was the chariot driven by the god Apollo. As we shall see, in many mythologies the marriage of “Father” sky and “Mother” earth produces all life.

In many of the myths contained in this book, the anthropomorphic element is obvious.
*
Human beings prayed to gods who looked like them; acted like them (sometimes with very poor morals); and had the very human traits of vanity, jealousy, hatred, and passion. The Jewish prohibition on making graven images had its origin in the need to separate its deity, beyond all human description, from the anthropomorphic gods of Semitic and Egyptian neighbors. The story of the Golden Calf in the biblical Book of Exodus is very likely an expression of “thieromorphism,” the depiction of a god in animal form,
in this case the Egyptian sacred bull Apis, or perhaps the goddess Hathor, who was depicted as a cow.

The personification of abstract concepts as gods was also common. Nike, the name of the Greek goddess of victory, also means “victory” in Greek. Eris was the Greek goddess of discord, and
eris
means “discord” in Greek. Iris, the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow, means “rainbow” in Greek—as well as in modern Spanish
(arco iris)
. This word is also the source of our word
iris
for both the flower and the colored portion of the eye, and the word
iridescent
. In French, the verb
iriser
means “to give off colors as through a prism.” The Greek Uranus
(ouranos)
meant both the “Father” sky deity and the word
sky
, as did its Sanskrit (Indian) cousin,
Varuna
.

The names of the gods make a great deal more sense when one understands their linguistic derivations. Wotan, the German form of the name of the god known as Odin in Norse mythology, is reminiscent of the modern German word
wüten
, meaning “to rage.” One of the names of the Greek god Apollo, Phoebus, means “the shining one,” a reference to his role as sun-god.