Excalibur

A sculpture of the sword given to King Arthur by the Lady of the Lake, in the lake of Kingston Maurward gardens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, often said in traditional and contemporary¹ lore to have magical powers.

In Malory’s Morte d’Arthur the young boy Arthur succeeds in pulling the sword from a stone, a seemingly impossible feat which not even adults can accomplish. In another account the sword is given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake.

As Arthur is dying he commands Sir Bedivere to toss the sword into the lake and a mysterious hand grasps it, drawing it under the surface. In an older version of the legend by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Arthur’s sword is known as Caliburn.

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¹ Such as the TV series Merlin »  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1199099/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_%28TV_series%29

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Eurydice

George Frederick Watts – Orpheus and Eurydice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Eurydice is a female figure in Greek myth. Among variants, the best known Eurydice in Greek myth is a tree or water nymph and wife of Orpheus. When the god Aristaeus tried to rape her, she fled to escape his advances. While fleeing she was bitten by a poisonous snake, died within hours and descended to Hades.

Her husband Orpheus later journeyed to Hades hoping to rescue her. Orpheus used the musical beauty of his lyre to wrest Eurydice from the underworld’s Lord of Death, the giant three-headed dog Cerberus. But like Lot’s wife, and against a dire warning to not look behind while escaping, Orpheus cast a glance backward, losing Eurydice forever.

The name Eurydice first appears on pottery in the 4th century BCE.¹ Although possibly orally present for centuries, they myth of Orpheus’ descent into the underworld to rescue Eurydice was not fully written down until the  first century BCE, when Roman poets immortalized the tale through written verse.²

Plato criticizes Orpheus in his Symposium for trying to rescue Eurydice through music instead of sheer courage.³

In other variants of the myth Orpheus attempts to save Eurydice from Persephone. The scene of Orpheus attempting to rescue Eurydice is depicted in Neoclassical art, most notably by Nicolas Poussin.

Eurydice is also known as one of the daughters of Apollo.
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¹ Richard L. Hunter “Eurydice” The Oxford Classical Dictionary, © Oxford University Press 1996, 2000.

² Sarah Hitch “Orpheus and Eurydice” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Ed. Michael Gagarin. © Oxford University Press 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome: (e-reference edition). Oxford University Press. Toronto Public Library. 22 May 2012 http://www.oxford-greecerome.com/entry?entry=t294.e907

³ Ibid.

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Ereshkigal

Statue c. 1792 – 1750 BC that represents an ancient Babylonian goddess, possibly Ishtar or Ereshkigal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ereshkigal is a Sumerian goddess and ruler of the underworld. Her sister is the heavenly Inanna/Ishtar. Her husband Nergal, an earth god scorched by the summer sun, forced her to share her power with him.

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Faeries

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing via Wikipedia

Faeries are said to be supernatural beings that can appear and disappear at will. Usually smaller than human beings, Faeries may be helpful or malicious.

They are generally portrayed as living underwater (e.g. mermaids), underground (e.g. gnomes), in a magical forest region or in some far away land.

Some faeries enter into physical, enchanted or possibly mystical love and ethereal sex relations with human beings.

Various legends and theories try to account for their origin. Some say that fairies derive from animistic beliefs in which objects are said to contain spirits. Others see fairies as emerging from a belief in spirits of the dead residing in the underworld. The Celts, especially, saw Faeries as beings who fled from invading humans, taking refuge in the underworld.

Fairies have also been suggested to derive from the Furies of Greek and Roman myth.

Prince Arthur and the Fairy Queen via Wikipedia

Christians have seen Faeries as the unbaptized. Taking many forms worldwide, the actual term faery – indistinguishable from fairy – comes from  “fay-erie”, originally an enchanted land.

In Victorian England there’s a rich body of faerie art and literature—this unique style of Victorian art is still popular today, cropping up in illustrated books,  relaxation cd’s and many new age and holistic health products. And a more updated Faerie look appears in a good deal of fantasy fiction and movies.

Some scholars say the term “fairy tale” is misleading because the beings involved are often not fairies, per se. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist Carl Jung and Jungians like Marie-Louse Von Franz believe that the mythic structure of these stories reflects the archetypal nature of the individuation process—that is, the quest for ‘wholeness’ as Jung sees it.

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Gilgamesh

Library of Ashurbanipal / The Flood Tablet / The Gilgamesh Tablet by Fæ via Wikipedia

Gilgamesh is a legendary Mesopotamian king of ancient Sumer as depicted in the Epic of Gilgamesh, written around 2000 BCE in cuneiform on twelve tablets of clay.

Renowned for his matchless strength, Gilgamesh went into combat with a rough monster-man, Enkidu who was sent by the Gods to keep Gilgamesh in check.

Although Gilgamesh won the bout, the harrowing battle did humble him. He and Enkidu eventually became friends. The Gilgamesh epic also portrays several accounts, some fragmentary, of a Great Flood.

Ea, the Lord, says he will cause a flood and tells Atramhasis to

Enter [the ship] and shut the door…[Bring in] to it thy grain, thy goods and chattels; Th[y wife], thy family, thy relations, and the craftsmen. [Game] of the field (and) beasts of the field, as many as eat herbs, [I will s]end unto thee, and they shall guard thy door.”¹

This is similar to the Biblical account of Noah, and to some extent the Hindu story of Matsu.

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¹ Alexender Heidel.  The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1946, p. 110.

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Gaia

Anselm Feuerbach: Gaea (1875). Ceiling painting, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna via Wikipedia

Gaia (also Ge) is the Greek Goddess of the Earth who arose from Chaos. She was worshipped at Delphi, where her temple was guarded by a Python. The temple was rededicated to Apollo after he destroyed Gaia’s serpent.

Gaia gave birth to the Furies, assisted by heavenly intervention. She was also the mother of Uranus, with whom she gave birth to the Titans and the Cyclopses. She also gave birth to the Giants and other monsters. Her Roman equivalent is Tellus.

Some anthropologists believe that Gaia was worshipped in Neolithic times as a Great Mother, although this academic position has been disputed by most contemporary scholars. Gaia’s Roman counterpart is Tellus.

In the 1970s, the British scientist, author and environmentalist James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis, where the planet Earth, itself, is seen as a self-regulating entity geared toward sustaining life.

In his own words, Gaia is

a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.¹

Today, Neopagans revere Gaia as The Goddess.

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¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis

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Hercules

Hercules and the Nemean lion in Villa Farnesina ceiling, Rome via Wikipedia

Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek demigod and incredibly strong Heracles. He is the son of Jupiter (in Greece, Zeus) and the mortal Alcmene.

Generally regarded as a hero, he was born a destroyer, par excellence. Hercules vanquished two snakes while still in the cradle and killed a lion in his boyhood. This disturbed Hera (Juno in Rome) who drove him insane, which lead him to murder his wife and children.

Hercules consulted the Delphic Oracle to find out how to redeem himself. In some versions of the myth, the Oracle instructs him to visit King Eurystheus. Because Hercules was so physically powerful, Eurystheus couldn’t think of any tasks too demanding for him. So he consulted Juno on how best to redeem him through physical penance.

Together,  Eurystheus and Juno conceived of 12 Labors for Hercules to undergo in order to restore his good standing among the gods and mankind. However, in other versions of the myth, the Oracle itself prescribes the 12 Labors.

Detail of Roman sculpture of seated Hades, showing Cerberus via Wikipedia

The 12 Labors which Hercules must complete are:

1. Kill the Nemean Lion: He strangled it.
2. Kill the nine-headed Hydra: This was a difficult job because two heads grew back for each one destroyed. Hercules burnt eight heads and threw one under a rock.
3. Seize the Hind of Ceryneia: This was tricky because Ceryneia was Diana‘s pet deer. He pursued the deer for several months before succeeding
4. Seize the Erymanthian Boar and bring it to King Eurystheus: “The Erymanthian Boar was a giant fear-inspiring creature of the wilds that lived on Mount Erymanthos, a mountain that was apparently once sacred to the Mistress of the Animals, for in classical times it remained the haunt of Artemis (Homer, Odyssey, VI.105).” ¹
5. Cleanse the huge and filthy stables of King Augeas of Elis: Hercules succeeded by diverting a nearby river.
   
6. Free the Stymphalian Lake of nasty birds that ate human beings
7. Capture the Cretan Bull
8. Capture the four beastly mares of the Thracian king Diomedes
9. Steal the golden girdle of the Amazonian queen Hipployte
10. Capture the giant Geryon’s oxen
11. Obtain the famous golden apples of the Hesperides
12. Capture Cerberus: Cerberus is a frightful three-headed dog and the guardian of the underworld ruled by Hades. Hercules had to bring him to daylight, which was no easy task because “Cerberus was the offspring of Echidna, a hybrid half-woman and half-serpent, and Typhon, a fire-breathing giant whom even the Olympian gods feared.”² And Cerberus’ job was to prevent people from escaping Hades via the river Styx, which was the link between Hades and the world of living mortals.

Herakles brings Eurystheus the Erymanthian boar. Side A from an Attic red-figure cup, ca. 510 BC via Wikipedia

The story of Hercules most likely resonates with anyone interested in the mysterious realm of what C. G. Jung called the collective unconscious. Jung, himself, said that delving into the collective unconscious could be wonderful and enriching but also hideous and revolting.

The downside of the journey into the so-called collective unconscious might be related to the idea of spiritual impurity, especially with regard to the 5^th Labor, which involves a great amount of pollution.

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¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erymanthian_Boar

² http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

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Isis

Isis giving milk, Musée du Louvre, photo by Rama via Wikipedia

Isis was the central goddess of ancient Egypt, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus.

Her cult spread throughout the ancient Greek and Roman world, where she was linked with many mystery cults that were popular at the time.

In sculpture she’s often seen suckling the infant Horus. From this, Isis is regularly (and arguably wrongly) equated with the Virgin Mary and Kwan Yin by writers like Joseph Campbell and others who believe it’s valid to lump together different mythic beings on the basis of a few similarities in artistic representation. (In this case what’s similar is a woman suckling an infant, which is hardly unique considering many women have done this through the ages after having a baby).

Some feminist and New Age writers also subsume the different figures of Isis, Mary and Kwan Yin into a general idea of The Goddess.

In the Star Trek mythos, Isis is the name of a telepathic black cat and female partner of a time traveler, Gary Seven, who travels to 20th century Earth to prevent nuclear war.¹

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¹ For more on this, see http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Isis

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Ishtar

BritishMuseum | Old Babylonian, probably 1792 - 1750 BC. The Queen of the Night represents an ancient Babylonian goddess, probably Ishtar or Ereshkigal. It might also represent Lilitu, called Lilith in the Bible - via Wikipedia

Ishtar is a Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, ‘sacred’ prostitution¹ and war, later associated with the planet Venus as a goddess of love.

In the Gilgamesh epic, Ishtar journeys to the underworld in an attempt to rescue her brother and lover Tammuz.

If thou openest not the gate to let me enter,
I will break the door, I will wrench the lock,
I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors.
I will bring up the dead to eat the living.
And the dead will outnumber the living.²

As she enters each successive door in her descent, she is commanded to take off a specific piece of jewelry or clothing item. By the time she reaches the abyss she stands entirely naked.

Joseph Campbell points out how this story has obvious Jungian implications. To attain knowledge of the inner self, one must dispense with (or, at least, gain a new perspective on) all the trappings of worldly life. Unfortunately, Ishtar does not succeed. The evil underworld queen Ereshkigal imprisons Ishtar and she becomes ‘one of the dead.’

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¹ Rightly seen as abhorrent today, the idea and practice of  ‘sacred’ or temple prostitution was widespread in the ancient world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_prostitution

² Parallel myths and different scholarly interpretations of Ishtar’s descent to the underworld shed more light (or perhaps create more ambiguity) on this ancient mythic theme: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar.

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Juno

Image: Andy Hay via Wikipedia

In ancient Roman religion Juno is the sister and wife of Jupiter with whom she guards and rules women throughout the course of their lives.

Juno also presides over female warriors. She is the Roman counterpart to the Greek Hera.

In the contemporary world, Juno is the name for Canadian music awards, as ‘Oscar’ is to Hollywood film awards.

And she’s been the object of much scholarly discussion by mythographers, as evidenced in this excellent Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_%28mythology%29

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