Parallel Myths (36 page)

Blue Jay set out on this journey and arrived at the first village of the Supernatural People. They asked him, “How long has she been dead?” “Only a day,” he answered. The Supernatural People of the first village then informed him that there was nothing they could do to help him; he must go on to the village where people who were dead for exactly one day were revived.

Blue Jay arrived at the second village the next day and asked the people to revive his wife. The people here too asked him how long she had been dead. “Two days now,” he replied. “There is nothing we can do; we only revive those who were dead exactly one day.” So Blue Jay went on.

He reached the third village on the day after that and asked the people to revive this wife. “How long has she been dead?” they asked. “Exactly three days now.” “Most unfortunate,” they replied. “We can only revive those who have been dead exactly two days.” And so it went on from village to village until Blue Jay finally came to the fifth village, where the people could at last help him. The people of the fifth village liked Blue Jay and made him a chief. But the trickster tired of the Underworld and wanted to take his newly revived wife back to the land of the living.

    When Blue Jay arrived at home with his wife, her brother saw she was alive once more and ran to tell their father, an old chief, who demanded that Blue Jay cut off all of his hair as a gift to his new in-laws. When there was no response from Blue Jay, the chief became angry and led a party of male relatives to find him. Just as they nearly caught him, Blue Jay assumed the form of a bird and flew off again to the land of the dead.

At this, his wife’s body fell to the ground, lifeless. She went to meet her husband in the land where he was now an exile.

IOI AND THE GHOST HUSBAND

T
he ghosts went in search of a wife and one of them fell in love with Blue Jay’s sister Ioi. They brought animal teeth as gifts and the night after the wedding feast they disappeared, taking Ioi with them.

Blue Jay did not hear from Ioi for an entire year. He then decided to visit the land of ghosts in order to see her again. He went about the villages and among the animals asking for directions, but none would answer him. Finally, he found someone who would guide him there in return for payment.

In the land of ghosts, he found Ioi standing amid piles of bones that were introduced to him as Ioi’s in-laws. At times the bones would leap into normal human form, but they would return to piles of bones when a loud noise was made.

Ioi asked Blue Jay to take her young brother-in-law fishing. The boats of the ghost people looked terrible; they were full of holes and covered with moss. Finding that a shout would turn his fishing companion into a pile of bones, Blue Jay had great fun. Among his many pranks, Blue Jay took the bones and mixed them up, placing the skull of a child on an adult torso, then laughing when the strange thing came to life.

The next time Blue Jay went fishing with Ioi’s young brother-in-law, they kept what they caught, which looked to Blue Jay like branches but which were actually fine salmon in the ghost world. Another time the ghost people became very excited: A “whale” had been found beached. But to Blue Jay’s eyes it did not look like a whale, but rather like a large log. The ghost people began stripping the bark off the log, praising it as the richest whale blubber they had ever had. Knowing that by shouting he could reduce them all to bones, he did so, and then took the blubber for himself—but in his hands it still looked like tree bark.

The ghost people tired of Blue Jay’s pranks at their expense, and Ioi’s husband begged her to send the trickster home. So Ioi sent her
brother up to the world of the living to put out five prairie fires. She gave him five pots of water, but—as usual—he ignored his sister’s instructions, claiming, “Ioi always tells lies.” So he poured the water on the fires without taking care to see how much was needed for the job. By the time Blue Jay reached the fifth fire, there was no water left. The fire consumed him and he died. But the dead don’t know that they are dead right away.

Upon arriving in the land of the dead, Blue Jay did not believe that he was dead. When Ioi sent her canoe to greet him—a canoe that had looked before to Blue Jay as miserable and full of holes—he said, “What a fine canoe! I have never seen one this fine.” When the people brought him fine salmon—which had seemed before to Blue Jay to be mere tree branches—he said, “What excellent salmon; I have never seen any so fine.”

The people in the land of the dead tried to convince Blue Jay that he was actually dead, but he refused to believe it, saying, “Ioi always tells lies.” Remembering his tricks with the ghost people, Blue Jay shouted. However, now the ghosts did not reduce to piles of bones; in fact, nothing happened.

Still not convinced that he was actually dead, Blue Jay went to pester the medicine men in the land of the ghosts. They became annoyed with him and made him insane. When Ioi found him, he was dancing on his head.

Ioi told the people, “My brother is now very dead—he has lost his mind.”

At death, the soul leaves the body and travels to the Underworld, guided by the god Hermes. At first it arrives on the banks of the River Styx (meaning “hateful”). Mourners are well advised to place a coin in the mouth of the deceased in order to pay Charon, the ferryman, to take the soul across this river. Without the proper fare, the soul may wander for a hundred years as a ghost.

Once across the Styx, the soul is taken to the three judges of the dead—Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus. It is said that Rhadamanthus judges the Europeans, Aeacus the Asiatics, and Minos, who lived on the earth as king of Crete, takes only the hardest cases. Based on the decision of its appropriate judge, the soul may then proceed leftward to the Hades of punishment, where one is repaid one hundredfold for the misdeeds of life. A good person may be conducted toward the right, whence he or she proceeds to the Elysian Fields—a place of perpetual bliss covered with sacred purple light (purple is the color of nobility). Plato tells us that every good deed is repaid here one hundredfold. Any soul in the Elysian Fields can be reincarnated and return to the earth as many as three times. However, before leaving, the soul must drink the water of Lethe, or “forgetfulness.”

ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE

O
rpheus was the greatest musician who ever lived. He was the child of a mortal father and the Muse Calliope, patroness of music. His aptitude for music was noticed early in his childhood and the god Apollo himself gave the child a lyre to play. As he grew into manhood, Orpheus fell in love with Eurydice and married her.

While they were still newlyweds, Eurydice took a walk near the river. A man attempted to seize her by force and she accidentally trod on a poisonous viper while fleeing. Orpheus was so filled with grief that he begged the gods to allow him to enter the Underworld to bring her back. His songs of mourning were so moving that the gods agreed; Apollo was his patron for the journey.

Upon arriving on the banks of the River Styx, the border between the world of the living and the Underworld, the sky went from sunshine to dark shadow. Orpheus began to play his lyre; Charon was so charmed by the music that he took Orpheus across the river, forgetting about the fare. The snarling guard of the gate to the Underworld, the three-headed dog Cerberus, stopped barking and listened to the
music. The three judges of the dead paused to listen as well, and the torments of the punished souls, including Sisyphus, ceased for a few moments.

Finally Orpheus met Hades, lord of the Underworld, and the music melted the heart of the king of the dead. He gladly granted Orpheus’s request on one condition: Orpheus must not turn to look at the face of Eurydice until they were both safely out of the Underworld and stood once again in the land of the living. Were Orpheus to look back but once, Eurydice would have to stay in the Underworld forever.

Understanding this, Orpheus began his ascent to the land of the living, with Eurydice behind him. He kept his eyes fixed firmly in front of him. But as thoughts of her filled his head, he could not bear it; he turned back and lost his wife forever.

AENEAS IN THE UNDERWORLD

U
pon his arrival in Italy, Aeneas,
*
ancestor of the Caesars, consulted with the Italian oracle, the Sibyl, for advice. She knew very well that Aeneas missed his late father, Anchises, and that the best advice for Aeneas could only come from his father. The Sibyl then agreed to conduct Aeneas to the Underworld to see his father.

The path to the Underworld was a gloomy one, shrouded in darkness. They passed the foul-smelling Lake Avernus until they encountered the black poplar trees that mark the border between the land of the living and the Underworld. The Sibyl suggested that Aeneas sacrifice four black bulls to Hecate, the goddess of the night. As the smoke from the sacrifice rose high, thunder sounded and the earth quaked. The Sibyl then pointed to a tree with a golden bough, advising Aeneas to break off the bough for his journey.

Then the Sibyl faced Aeneas squarely and said, “Now you will
need all your courage.” The two entered the mouth of the Underworld, walking past the horrible spirits of Discord, Disease, Hunger, and War, onto a field occupied by the hapless souls who had not been properly buried and must wander that shore for a century before entering the Underworld. The Sibyl and Aeneas came to the banks of the River Styx, where Charon, the ferryman, told them gruffly that the dead—and not the living—were his passengers. However, Aeneas showed Charon the golden bough; the ferryman then conducted them across the river.

The boat passed the field of mourning where tragic young lovers who had committed suicide wandered. They passed the seats of the three judges of the dead.

They now came to a fork in the river. From the left they heard the screams of the punished souls. To the right they saw the purple rays emanating from the Elysian Fields where the good and the great dwell in everlasting bliss. The Sibyl instructed Aeneas to place the golden bough in the rock wall opposite the fork in the river. Then Charon veered sharply to the right, toward the Elysian Fields. There Aeneas saw the great heroes, poets, sages, and others, including—at last—Anchises, his father.

Aeneas wept with joy at the sight of his father. When the ferry landed, father and son embraced. Anchises said that his son would be the founder of the greatest empire the world had ever known. As they parted, Anchises took Aeneas to the well of Lethe to drink of the waters of forgetfulness.

Then the Sibyl conducted Aeneas back to the land above the ground, where he fulfilled his fate.