TALES FROM

MYTHOLOGY
Fact is everybody’s truth. Fiction is nobody’s
truth.
Myth is somebody’s truth.
Cost of wisdom
■ Odin was the king of the Aesir tribe, simultaneously god of
war and earth as well as god of sky, wisdom, poetry and
magic. He was shamanic, a lover of ecstasy, and trance,
and often ‘effeminate’, embarrassing the Viking warriors
who preferred his masculine side. One of the most striking
attributes of his appearance is his single, piercing eye. His
other eye socket is empty – the eye it once held was
sacrificed for wisdom. He gave it up so he could drink from
the well of wisdom.
■ Odin hung on the world-tree Yggdrasil for nine days and
nights, receiving no form of nourishment from his
companions, sacrificing himself to himself, so that in the
end he perceived the runes, the magically-charged
ancient Germanic alphabet that was held to contain many
of the greatest secrets of existence.
■ Odin often appears as a
leader of the Wild Hunt, a
ghostly procession of the
dead through the winter sky.
He rides a horse that has
eight legs and travels with his
raven and a wolf, who give
him information about what is
happening in every corner of
the world.
■ From another name of Odin,
Wotan, comes the name
‘Wednesday’, linked
astrologically to the solid-
liquid ambiguous Mercury, a
planet that is somewhere in
between the masculine Mars
and the feminine Venus.
The spider trickster

■ Anansi, in the form of spider, once decided to hoard the entire

world’s wisdom in a pot for himself. When he succeeded, he
attempted to hide the pot at the top of a tree where nobody
could find it. He tied the pot in front of him and tried to climb the
tree, but kept sliding and losing his grip. His son, who had
followed him, suggested he tie the pot to his back so he could
climb more easily. When Anansi tried to implement his son’s
suggestion, the pot slipped and fell to the ground. The wisdom
fell out and a sudden rainstorm washed it into the river and from
there to the waters of the ocean, so that everyone in the world
now owns a little bit of it.
From beauty to war……
■ All the Olympian gods were invited to the wedding of
Peleus and Thetis except Eris, the goddess of discord.
Angry, Eris decided to teach the assembled Olympians a
lesson. She threw amongst them a golden apple on which
was engraved the words, ‘For the most beautiful.’ Three
goddesses – Hera, goddess of household, Athena, goddess
of skills, and Aphrodite, goddess of beauty – claimed the
apple and fought over it. No god, not even Zeus, dared
judge who of the three goddesses was the most beautiful,
and hence worthy of the apple. Finally, the goddesses
were told to go to Paris, prince of Troy, known for his
understanding of female beauty and his fair judgements.
The three goddesses presented themselves to Paris and
tried to impress him with their beauty. When he could not
decide, each tried to bribe him secretly. Hera promised to
make him ruler of the greatest kingdom in the world.
Underworld
■ There were two sisters who hated each other: Inanna who ruled the world,
land of the living, and Ereshkigal who ruled the underworld, land of the
dead. Inanna decided to visit the underworld. She told the gatekeeper of
the underworld that she wanted to attend her brother-in-law’s funeral
rites. But perhaps she actually wanted to conquer the underworld. Before
she left, Inanna instructed her minister Ninshubur to plead with the gods
Enlil, Nanna, and Enki to save her if anything went wrong, and dressed
elaborately for the visit. Her garments, unsuitable for a funeral, along with
her haughty behaviour, made the queen of the underworld suspicious.
■ Following Ereshkigal’s instructions, the gatekeeper told Inanna she could
enter the first gate of the underworld, but she had to hand over a piece of
clothing. She asked why and was told, ‘It is just the way of the
Underworld’. She obliged.
■ Inanna passed through a total of seven gates, each time removing a piece
of clothing or jewellery she had been wearing at the start of her journey.
When she arrived in front of her sister, she was stark naked and
vulnerable. Ereshkigal turned Inanna into a corpse and hung her on a
hook.
■ Three days and three nights passed and Ninshubur, following
instructions, went to Enlil, Nanna, and Enki’s temples and
demanded they save the goddess of life, love and living. The
first two gods refused, saying it was her own mess, but Enki
was deeply troubled and agreed to help. He created two
sexless figures (neither male nor female). He instructed them
to appease Ereshkigal and, when she asked what they
wanted, ask for Inanna’s corpse and sprinkle it with the food
and water of life.
■ Things went as Enki said and the two sexless beings were
able to revive Inanna. But Ereshkigal’s demons followed
Inanna out of the underworld and said she wasn’t free to go
until someone took her place. They first came upon Ninshubur
and asked her to take Inanna’s place. Inanna refused, saying
she had helped her as she had asked. They next came upon
Dumuzi, Inanna’s husband. He was enjoying himself though
his wife was supposedly still missing in the underworld.
Inanna wasn’t happy and said the demons could take him.
Dumuzi tried to escape his fate but a fly told Inanna and the
demons where he was. It was then decreed that Dumuzi
would spend half the year with Ereshkigal in the underworld,
and the rest of the year with Inanna.
Killing the mother
■ Tiamat was the great mother of all gods; in her body
resided all her children. All was well until the children
made so much noise that the old gods demanded the
destruction of the new gods. The first time this happened,
Tiamat warned her children. The second time this
happened, Tiamat ordered her consort to destroy the new
gods. The new gods rallied around Marduk who, after a
furious fight, defeated Tiamat and her consort and all the
old gods who sided with them. From the body of Tiamat,
Marduk created the earth below and the sky above.
Tiamat’s tears became the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
The blood of her consort was mixed with the red earth and
from this was created humankind. As the spawn of the old
gods, humanity was forced to serve the new gods forever.
Creatures of the sea

■ Sedna was a beautiful young woman whose father, a

widower, was constantly trying to marry her off, but she
would have none of it. She kept rejecting her numerous
suitors. One fateful day, a sea bird promised to take her away
to his “comfortable, luxurious” home. The impulsive young
girl eloped with the bird but the “comfortable, luxurious”
home turned out to be a filthy, smelly nest. And, to make
matters worse, her new husband treated her like a slave.
Sedna begged her father to come and take her back home,
and he agreed. But as they headed across the waters, a flock
of sea birds surrounded the boat. The incessant flapping of
their wings caused a tremendous storm to arise and their
small vessel was tossed from side to side. Fearing for his own
safety, Sedna’s father threw her into the ocean to appease
the angry birds. When Sedna tried to climb back into the
boat, he cut off her fingers. As she struggled to use her
mutilated hands to try again, he cut off her hands and threw
The true heir
■ In the beginning there was nothing but waters of Nu in the
world from which emerged the first pyramid-like mound,
just like the earth that appears when the waters of the
Nile recede. On this mound stood Atum who produced the
god of air Shu and the goddess of moisture Tefnut, who in
turn produced Geb, the earth-god, and Nut, the sky-
goddess, who produced Isis and Osiris, the first queen and
king of human civilisation. Atum is sometimes described
as masculine, for he masturbates to create his male and
female children. But he is also referred to as ‘the Great
He-She’, acknowledging the androgynous nature of life
before the arrival of the two genders.
■ Osiris became first king of the Nile valley and he
established a great kingdom, but his brother, lord of the
desert, became jealous of him and invited him to a meal
and then showed him a box. ‘Is the box smaller or bigger
■ Osiris was not sure, so Seth asked him
to lie in the box and check. Osiris got
into the box without suspecting a
thing. Seth immediately sealed the
box and buried Osiris alive. He then
cut his body into tiny pieces and threw
them in the Nile.
■ Isis searched the lands for various
parts of her husband, and put them
together. She then used her magic
powers to resurrect her husband long
enough to give her a child and this
child was named Horus who was
Osiris’ true heir. But Horus had to fight
many battles to establish his
supremacy over Seth.
Creation
■ Maui was the fifth child of Taranga. Some say he was born
dead, others say since he was born prematurely, he was
said to be a carrier of bad luck. So his mother threw him
into the sea, wrapped in a tress of hair from her top-knot.
■ Ocean spirits found the child, revived him, wrapped him in
sea weed and gave him to the care of Rangi, the sky-
father, who took the child to the celestial realms and
nourished him to adolescence.
■ One day Maui found the hair of his mother and,
recognising it, decided to descend from the celestial world
of his foster father and search for her in the world of
humans. But he was always out of place both in the world
of his mother, Taranga, and in the realm of his adoptive
father, Rangi. Maui realised the days on earth are too
short to get the work done. With the help of his brothers,
he caught the sun in a noose and beat him severely with a
■ Maui then hauled up a great
island that lurked below the
sea in the form of a fish,
using blood from his nose as
bait. When it emerged from
the water, Maui went to find
a priest to perform the
appropriate ceremonies and
prayers, leaving his brothers
in charge of the fish. They
did not wait for Maui to
return and began to cut up
the fish, which immediately
began to writhe in agony,
causing it to break up into
mountains, cliffs, and
valleys. If the brothers had
listened to Maui, the island
would have been a level
The first couple
■ The primal human couple, Izanagi, the man, and Izanami,
the woman, were responsible for churning out islands from
the sea which they populated with their children, the
many deities who populate the Japanese countryside.
Izanami died while bearing the fire-god and Izanagi was so
distraught that he was determined to bring her back. So
he went to Yomi, the shadowy land of death, to fetch his
wife. Unfortunately, Izanami had eaten the food of Yomi
and so could never return.
■ Izanagi lit a torch, desperate to see his wife. To his horror,
he found that her once beautiful body had decayed and
was covered with maggots. He ran out of the underworld
in fear, chased by Izanami who missed her husband and
wanted him to stay. Izanagi finally reached earth and
covered the entrance of the underworld with a huge
boulder. His angry wife yelled, “I will kill a thousand living
Original Sin

■ God created the world out of nothingness in six days and

rested on the seventh day. He created the first man,
Adam, in his own image, and the first woman, Eve, from
Adam’s rib. He told Adam and Eve to enjoy the wonderful
garden of Eden, but not to eat the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge. That was the Forbidden Fruit! Adam and Eve
obeyed God, but the Devil, in the form of a serpent,
enchanted Eve and got her to take a bite of the Forbidden
Fruit. She then convinced Adam to eat it too. Suddenly,
innocence was gone. The humans became aware of their
nakedness and tried to cover themselves. God was
disappointed with his creations and cast them out of Eden
for this original sin, the first act of disobedience. He also
decreed that woman would be answerable to man, and
that the children of Adam and Eve – all of humanity –