Category Archives: Mythology

April 22, 2014 · 6:58 pm

HITTITE MYTHOLOGY: THE TOP DEITIES

Hittite empireThe Hittite Empire spread throughout Anatolia, covering a large part of what is now Turkey and Syria as well as some parts far eastward and southward of there (accounts vary). The scarce remains of the texts regarding the deities worshipped by the Hittites are tantalizingly fragmentary but reflect and/or influenced myths from Mesopotamia across the west to ancient Greece and south to Canaanite territory.

ARANZAH – The god of the body of water that bore his name – the Aranzah River. The Aranzah is better known as the Tigris, which begins its journey southward from the Taurus Mountains in what is now eastern Turkey. This deity was a brother of the storm god Tarhun (Teshub to the Hurrians) and like him was born in the belly of the god Kumarbi.

ISTUSTAYA and PAPAYA – The Hittite goddesses of destiny. The two deities sat by the shores of the Black Sea where they would spin the threads that are each mortal’s destiny, taking special care with the fates of kings. The two left their seaside location only for special occassions like conferences of all the gods. Collectively the two were called the Gulses by the Hittites and the Hutena by the Hurrians. The ancient Greeks added a third to their number and called them the Morae (Fates).    Continue reading →

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April 1, 2014 · 12:03 am

CLOUDS WITHOUT WATER (1909): ALEISTER CROWLEY’S LITERARY PRACTICAL JOKE

Clouds Without WaterWhat better way to mark April Fool’s Day than by commemorating one of the wittiest and most daring of practical jokes, one perpetrated by Aleister Crowley in those brilliant years before drugs and/or self-delusion fogged his mind. Decades before the pathetic “Peekaboo Crowley” of much renown Aleister was still churning out some very enjoyable poetry – some of it brilliant. The Sword of Song and Konx Om Pax are my favorite volumes of verse by “the Laird of Boleskine” … AFTER Clouds Without Water, that is.  

Clouds Without Water was not Crowley’s only literary practical joke, of course, but the humor of it resonates to this very day, thanks mainly to the never-changing air of pious self-righteousness that afflicts most of the world’s clergy-members. And not just pious self-righteousness but a habit of condemning in the strongest language works of art which their self-limited minds clearly don’t understand.

THE JOKE: Clouds Without Water was published under one of Crowley’s pseudonyms – Reverend Charles Verey. It was circulated to various ministries and teaching colleges allegedly as a condemnation of “the type of atheism and socialism” that the young and the bohemian were embracing. Crowley – writing as Reverend Verey – wrote a foreward and a closing prayer for the volume of poetry as well as (when you know the full story) HILARIOUS footnotes expressing the kind of simplistic moral outrage that only the most narrow-minded of holy-rollers can spout. 

Under another assumed identity Crowley ALSO wrote the sonnets being condemned by his Reverend Verey alter ego. On the surface the poems were written by a college professor scandalously celebrating an extramarital affair with one of his female students, a young woman named Lola. The sonnets reflect the supposed couple’s flouting of social and sexual conventions until the affair ends in tragedy for all concerned. Crowley’s fictional persona Reverend Verey was denouncing the poems and the lifestyle reflected in those poems in the strongest possible terms. Continue reading →

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March 30, 2014 · 5:35 pm

LEGENDS OF THE SPRING: A LOOK AT THOSE SEASONAL MYTHS WHICH HAVE THE SAME THEME

Persephone and pomegranateSpring keeps trying to arrive but this bitter winter refuses to give up just yet. Our nationwide longing to be liberated from the tyrannical grip of winter made this a good time to examine some of the ancient myths about winter and the coming of spring. The celebration of those myths at this time of year plus the fact that many of those myths centered around dead and resurrected deities necessitated Christianity’s attempt to superimpose its OWN dead and resurrected deity over top of those older stories. Hence the celebration of Easter in springtime. (And it’s not just Christianity that behaved that way – other religions also would superimpose their own celebrations over top of those held in honor of the previously dominant gods in their region. I’ll cover the behavior of those other belief systems – especially Islam and the Incan faith – another time.)

Not all seasonal myths conformed to the following pattern. I’m limiting this list to the ones that did.

PERSEPHONE

Pantheon: Greek (The Romans called her Proserpine)

The Tale: Persephone was the beautiful daughter of the goddess Demeter (Ceres to the Romans). Persephone caught the eye of Hades, the god who ruled over the realm of the dead. Overcome with lust Hades (Pluto to the Romans) emerged from his subterranean domain and stole Persephone away to his realm to become his Queen.

The Savior: Demeter went searching for her daughter throughout the world, often assuming the form of a mortal woman. Her search wore on and on with no results, causing Demeter to fall more and more deeply into despair. Because she was the goddess of nature that despair manifested itself in colder weather, in the leaves falling off the trees, other vegetation dying and some animals hibernating or migrating to flee the cold.  Continue reading →

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March 25, 2014 · 10:23 pm

THE BEST BOOKS EXAMINING ISLAM THE WAY OTHER RELIGIONS GET EXAMINED

MuhammadIt’s your old buddy Balladeer, but you can call me “the puppet of Jews” like the Muslim fanatics who threaten me do! My regular readers are used to the fact that I treat ALL religions as mythology including Islam, the blood-soaked bully on the block. Just deal with it, Muslims. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Wiccans and others may get uncomfortable with critical examinations of their belief system but they’ve learned to live in the 21st Century so no matter how angry they get they don’t threaten with the regularity that Muslims do.

Remember, just because I’m not a Conservative it does NOT mean I’m a Liberal. Unlike American Liberals I have a backbone and I won’t refrain from mentioning Islam’s homophobia and misogyny no matter how many threats I get. At any rate here are some of the best books I’ve come across that regard Islam with a critical eye:


Which KoranWHICH KORAN? VARIANTS, MANUSCRIPTS, LOGISTICS – By Ibn Warraq. This is similar to the many books that analyze differences in the Bible, which is supposedly “divinely inspired” like the Koran. Warraq examines the significance, context, extent and meaning of the different versions of the Koran that are used throughout the Muslim world. A very thought-provoking book that is long overdue.

Continue reading →

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March 24, 2014 · 12:14 am

PART TWO OF THE TOP SIX ALTERNATE GOSPELS AND SCRIPTURES

As promised, here is the second part of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at the top six apocryphal gospels, meaning the rejected and obscure gospels outside of the four accepted by mainstream Christianity as “authentic”  (snicker). I’ll be examining different versions of the Koran soon, too, so start those death threats coming in again, Muslim fanatics! 

Those four gospels I mentioned are, of course, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There were dozens of others and I’ve selected the six that provide the best opportunities for comparative mythology.

3. THE GOSPEL OF THE SAVIOR – The narrative of this gospel centers around dialogues between Jesus and his apostles in the last few days before his arrest and crucifixion. Some of the material is similar to the Gospels of John and Matthew, but some isGnostic, with references to discarding the useless garment of the body so the soul can return to the empyrean realm.

The most striking departure in this gospel comes in the Garden of Gethsemane segment, when Jesus, as God the Son, traditionally prays to God the Father to spare him the ordeals that lay ahead. In The Gospel of the Savior Jesus transports himself and his apostles to the throneroom of God the Father  where he Continue reading →

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March 23, 2014 · 2:52 pm

THE TOP SIX ALTERNATE GOSPELS AND SCRIPTURES: 6-4

Everyone but the most sheltered Christians have known for centuries about the alternate, or apocryphal gospels. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were the four canonical or “official” gospels that were accepted by the mainstream church but there were dozens of other gospels with wildly varying versions of the story of Jesus. (I’ll also be covering alternate versions of the Koran in the near future, so start those death threats coming again, Muslim fanatics!)

With my love of mythology I first got into those other gospels when I was 18 and that was long before Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code fouled the territory by attracting countless conspiracy kooks to the subject of these obscure writings. It complicates conversations now because when  many people hear you discussing the apocryphal gospels they think you’re a paranoid crackpot looking for the  descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene around every corner.

At any rate it’s fun to wonder what form Easter celebrations would have taken if the following rejected gospels had been accepted as “official.”

6. THE ACTS OF THECLA – Since the Gospel of Mary has gotten so much attention following the success of Dan Brown’s writings and their screen adaptations I decided to throw a spotlight on the neglected woman named Thecla instead. Thecla supposedlybecame a follower of the man called “Saint” Paul after hearing him speak in Iconium. In this book Paul is depicted as Continue reading →

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March 17, 2014 · 8:20 pm

TUPARI MYTHOLOGY: KARAM THE SUN GODDESS

Tupari live near the Rio BrancoKARAM – This deity was the sun goddess of the Tupari people who lived near the Rio Branco in Brazil. Karam was much more pwerful than her husband Puepa the moon god and Continue reading →

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March 13, 2014 · 9:52 pm

TUPARI MYTHOLOGY: THE GODDESS VAUGEH AND HER SPOUSE MPOKALERO

Tupari live near the Rio BrancoVAUGEH – The goddess who embodied female physical beauty for the Tupari people who lived near the Rio Branco region of what is now Brazil. Her spouse MPOKALERO was her counterpart, the god who embodied male physical beauty. The two of them were also the patron deities of sexual desire and caused carnal attraction between people.

In Tupari beliefs when a Continue reading →

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March 9, 2014 · 3:30 pm

SHUGENDO MYTHOLOGY: A LOOK AT EN NO OZUNU

En No OzunuRegular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know that I consider all religions to be mythology, which people are usually fine with unless it’s their own personal religion I’m examining. At any rate En No Ozunu is revered as the founder and most active mythical figure in the belief system called Shugendo, and in some offshoot cults of Shugendo as a virtual patron deity of ninja practices and ancient weather forecasting.

Practitioners of the Shugendo faith are called Yamabushi and their belief system fuses elements of Shinto, Ainu, Buddhism and Taoism along with features of shamanism and the ancient Japanese reverence for mountains, all of which are considered sacred ground in Shugendo. The ninja connection is very big in popular culture but actually the Ainu are more technically the originators of many ninjutsu practices. For an even bigger pop culture tie-in there are versions of the En No Ozunu myth in which he is the father of Sadako (Neil Sadako?), the female figure in the Ringu novel plus its Japanese and American film adaptations. 

En No Ozunu supposedly began his existence on Earth when he was born to a mortal woman who was Continue reading →

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March 2, 2014 · 4:01 pm

IROQUOIS EPIC MYTH: PART TWO OF HODADEION, THE GOD OF MAGIC

Iroquois longhouse lodge village

PART 2 – THE WASP-MEN – (Hodadeion was the son of the creator god Tharonhiawakon and a mortal woman, the same mortal woman who bore him Hodadeion’s siblings. Those siblings were Otgoe, the wampum god and Yeyenthwus, the future goddess of chestnut trees.)

Hodadeion ventured to the north despite his sister Yeyenthwus’ warnings. He came across a few more villages that were now deserted like his own and he realized how far-reaching was the reign of terror of the cannibalistic wizards who had decimated the population of Continue reading →

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