IROQUOIS EPIC MYTH: HODADEION PART EIGHT

Iroquois

Part 8: Niagara Falls Death Trap  – As part 7 concluded Hodadeion, the Iroquois god of magic, was alarmed to find that the twin enchantresses who were in reality two giant white herons had flown him in a huge basket to a rock at the top of what is now called Niagara Falls. They had stranded him there surrounded by a massive volume of water roaring its way past the small outcropping of rock the demigod was on, ultimately descending in a loud roar of falling liquid.

Hodadeion did not know what fate awaited him in that precarious position, or what dire menace the Heron Maidens expected to assault him in his perilous situation but he had no intention of waiting around to find out. Reaching into his pouch of magic implements (typical of villains in fiction the Heron Maidens had neglected to strip the hero of items that could potentially save him from a death trap) Hodadeion extracted a few elm seeds and, moistening them with his spittle, he attached them to the head of one of his arrows. (Okay, even for an ancient myth not taking his bow and arrows away from him was REALLY stupid on the part of the story’s villains.)

Taking up his bow Hodadeion aimed the arrow at a patch of dry land far below near where the plummeting falls crashed onto the rocks to continue their journey. Whispering his magical instructions to the arrow he then fired and the arrow obediently hit precisely where he had instructed it to on the dry land.

Next the god of magic sat down to concentrate and began singing and chanting until slowly but surely the seeds and the arrow produced a rapidly-growing elm tree. Hodadeion knew that if danger struck while he was engrossed in enchanting the elm tree he was finished, but he also knew he dared not stay on that small outcropping of rock where he had no mobility and was nearly helpless. Ignoring the roar of the water thundering past him he sang and chanted on. 

Eventually the tree had grown to an impossible height and the god of magic mystically coaxed its highest branch into extending itself until it reached him. Climbing onto the branch Hodadeion clambered over to the trunk of the now-enormous tree and climbed down to the ground below. As he caught his breath he noted that the sun, which was really the glowing dead body of the goddess Eithinoha, was setting and the moon, Eithinoha’s decapitated head, was peeking over the horizon.

As night officially fell the waters at the very bottom of Niagara Falls began churning and bubbling until a monstrous figure erupted from the water and flew into the moonlit sky, hovering, roaring and gazing down at Hodadeion with a look of unbridled hatred and fury.

Vague memories of the tales told to him by his mortal mother stirred in the demigod’s mind, chilling his spine as he remembered her warnings about the dread and powerful abominations the gods of the distant past had overcome. If the colossal figure above him had only ever fallen in combat with full-blooded gods what chance did he, with only a  half-divine heritage, have against it?

PART 9 COMING SOON! FOR MY ORIGINAL LIST OF IROQUOIS DEITIES CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/2013/01/28/the-top-fifteen-deities-in-iroquois-mythology/

CHOCTAW INDIAN MYTHS – https://glitternight.com/2012/06/03/the-top-twelve-deities-in-choctaw-mythology/