Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Amma (an African tribal deity) Dogon religion

“Amma is an African tribal deity – the supreme creator god in the Dogon religion. The Dogon story of the creation of the world relates that the sky god Amma mated with the earth goddess, and because Amma was prevented from joining the goddess’s clitoris in the form of a giant termite mound, he produced only an imperfect offspring – a desert fox or jackal – and therefore eventually removed the termite mound. Leaving the earth, he instituted the religious ritual of female circumcision. After removing the termite mound, the god Amma with the earth goddess continued procreating and begat humans. Duality is central to Dogon religion, the heavenly forces also have a dual character: the supreme god Amma has androgynous characteristics. The birth of twins is celebrated among the Dogon with a special religious ritual, as twins refer to the original dual structure of creation and to the harmony between earthly and heavenly.” ref

Creation Myth of Twins

“Key figures in Dogon religion are the twins Nummo and Nommo, primal spirits of Dogon ancestors, sometimes seen as deities. These are hermaphroditic water creatures, seen similarly to water deities (to-vodun) in West African vodun; they can be depicted with a human body and a fish tail. Nommo is supposed to be the first living creature created by the supreme god Amma. Shortly after his creation, Nommo spawned into four pairs of twins, with one pair defying the order established by creator Amma. To restore order, the god Amma sacrificed another creature, whose body he cut up and scattered throughout creation. A shrine for the god Amma was to be built at each place where a fragment of the body landed.” ref

“The cult of the god Amma – like the entire Dogon religion – is closely tied to the Bandiagara cliff where the Dogon live. The cult of the god Amma is geographically defined by this cliff, it is not practiced elsewhere. The Bandiagara cliff is a sandstone terrain fault approximately 150 km long, reaching a height of up to 500 m in some places. The Dogon inhabit mud villages built on the upper edge of the cliff, villages directly attached to the cliff at its lower edge, but also at various heights in the wall, also villages scattered under the cliff, and a labyrinth of caves right in the cliff. The architecture of the villages and the religiously motivated urban arrangement of mud houses centered on the hogon priestly building is unique in the context of the whole of Africa. The Dogon language forms an independent branch of the Niger-Congo language family and is not closely related to any other language.” ref

“Legend says that a long time ago in China there were immortal twins, one who brought harmony and the other, union. So artists made figurines showing the twin brothers, called ”He-He. ” They often were pictured and given to brides, because it was thought they brought a happy marriage.” ref

“He-He Er Xian, translated as the Immortals of Harmony and Union and as the Two gods of Harmony and Union, are two Taoist immortals. They are popularly associated with happy marriages. He and He are typically depicted as boys holding a lotus flower (荷, hé) and a box (盒, hé). There are a number of legendary tales behind two celestial beings of He and Ho, among them there is one regarding the two monks living a secluded life in Tiantai Mountain in the Tang dynasty by the name of Hanshan and Shide and no one know about their subsequent whereabouts. The story is based on Poems of Hanshan and Shide composed by Lv Qiuyin. They were officially canonized as the God of Harmony and the God of Good Union in the first year of Yongzheng rule in the Qing dynasty. They are widely regarded as gods who bless love between husband and wife.” ref

“The Divine Twins are youthful horsemen, either gods or demigods, who serve as rescuers and healers in Proto-Indo-European mythology. Like other Proto-Indo-European divinities, the Divine Twins are not directly attested by archaeological or written materials, but scholars of comparative mythology and Indo-European studies generally agree on the motifs they have reconstructed by way of the comparative method.” ref

• dual paternity;
• mention of a female figure (their mother or their sister);
• deities of fertility;
• known by a single dual name or having rhymed/alliterative names;
• associated with horses;
• saviours at sea;
• of astral nature;
• protectors of oaths;
• providers of divine aid in battle; and
• magic healers.” ref

“Although the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) name of the Divine Twins cannot be reconstructed with certainty based on the available linguistic evidence, the most frequent epithets associated with the two brothers in liturgic and poetic traditions are the “Youthful” and the “Descendants” (sons or grandsons) of the Sky-God (Dyēus). Two well-accepted reflexes of the Divine Twins, the Vedic Aśvins and the Lithuanian Ašvieniai, are linguistic cognates ultimately deriving from the Proto-Indo-European word for the horse, *h₁éḱwos. They are related to Sanskrit áśva and Avestan aspā (both from Indo-Iranian *Haćwa), and to Old Lithuanian ašva, which all share the meaning of “mare“. This may point to an original PIE divine name *h₁éḱw-n-, although this form could also have emerged from later contacts between Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Balto-Slavic speakers, which are known to have occurred in prehistoric times.” ref

“Represented as young men rescuing mortals from peril in battle or at sea, the Divine Twins rode the steeds that pull the sun across the sky and were sometimes depicted as horses themselves. They shared a sister, the Dawn (*H₂éwsōs), who is also portrayed as the daughter of the Sky-God (*Dyēus) in Indo-European myths. The two brothers are generally depicted as healers and helpers, travelling in miraculous vehicles to save shipwrecked mortals. They are often differentiated: one is represented as a physically strong and aggressive warrior, while the other is seen as a healer who rather gives attention to domestic duties, agrarian pursuits, or romantic adventures.” ref

“In the Vedic, Greek and Baltic traditions, the Divine Twins similarly appear as the personifications of the morning and evening star. They are depicted as the lovers or the companions of a solar female deity, preferably the Sun’s daughter but sometimes also the Dawn. In the majority of the stories where they appear, the Divine Twins rescue the Dawn from a watery peril, a theme that emerged from their role as the solar steeds. During the night, the Divine Twins were said to return to the east in a golden boat, where they traversed a sea to bring back the rising sun each morning. During the day, they crossed the nocturnal sky in pursuit of their consort, the morning star. In what seems to be a later addition confined to Europe, they were said to take a rest at the end of the day on the “Isles of the Blessed”, a land seating in the western sea which possessed magical apple orchards. By the Bronze Age, the Divine Twins were also represented as the coachmen of horse-driven solar chariots.” ref

“The Gaulish Divanno [de] and Dinomogetimarus are said to be protective deities and “the Gallic equivalents” of the Greek Dioskouroi. They seem to be represented in monuments and reliefs in France flanked by horses, which would make them comparable to Gaulish Martes and the Germanic Alcis. Scholars suggest that the numerous Gallo-Roman dedicatory epigraphs to Castor and Pollux, more than any other region of the Roman Empire, attest a cult of the Dioskoroi. Greek historian Timaeus mentions that Atlantic Celts venerated the “Dioskouroi” above all other gods and that they [Dioskouroi] had visited them from across the Ocean. Historian Diodorus Siculus, in the fourth book of Bibliotheca historica, writes that the Celts who dwelt along the ocean worshipped the Dioscuroi “more than the other gods”. The conjecture that it refers to the Gallic gods Divanno and Dinomogetimarus has no firm support.” ref

“In one of the Irish myths involving Macha (the Dindsenchas of Ard Macha), she is forced to race against the horses of King of Ulster while in late pregnancy. As a talented rider, she wins the race but starts giving birth to Fír and Fial immediately after crossing the finish line. The archetype is also partly matched by figures such as the Gallic sun god Belenus, whose epithet Atepomarus meant “having good horses”; Grannus, who is associated with the healing goddess Sirona (her name means “star”); Maponos (“Son of God”), considered in Irish mythology as the son of Dagda, associated with healing, The Welsh Brân and Manawydan may also be reflexes of the Divine Twins.” ref

“Comparative mythologist Alexander Haggerty Krappe suggested that two heroes, Feradach and Foltlebar, brothers and sons of the king of Innia, are expressions of the mytheme. These heroes help the expedition of the Fianna into Tir fa Thuinn (a realm on the other side of the sea), in a Orphean mission to rescue some of their members, in the tale The pursuit of the Gilla Decair and his horse. Both are expert navigators: one can build a ship and the other can follow the wild birds. Other possible candidates are members of Lugh‘s retinue, Atepomarus and Momorus (fr). Atepomarus is presumed to mean “Great Horseman” or “having great horses”, based on the possible presence of Celtic stem -epo- ‘horse’ in his name. Both appear as a pair of Celtic kings and founders of Lugdunum. They escape from Sereroneus and arrive at a hill. Momorus, who had skills in augury, sees a murder of crows and names the hill Lougodunum, after the crows. This myth is reported in the works of Klitophon of Rhodes and in Pseudo-Plutarch‘s De fluviis.” ref

“The Polish deities Lel and Polel, first mentioned by Maciej Miechowita in 1519, are presented as the equivalents of Castor and Pollux, the sons of the goddess Łada (counterpart of the Greek Leda) and an unknown male god. An idol was found in 1969 on the Fischerinsel island, where the cult centres of the Slavic tribe of Veleti was located, depicting two male figures joined with their heads. Scholars believe it may represent Lel and Polel. Lelek means “strong youth” in Russian dialect. The brightest stars of the Gemini constellation, α Gem and β Gem, are thought to have been originally named Lele and Polele in Belarusian tradition, after the twin characters. According to Polish professor of medieval history, Jacek Banaszkiewicz, the two Polabian gods, Porevit and Porenut, manifest dioscuric characteristics. According to him, the first part of their names derives from a Proto-Slavic root -por meaning “strength,” with first being “Lord of strength” – the stronger one, and the other “Lord in need of support (strength)” – the weaker one. They both have five faces each and appear alongside Rugiaevit, the chief god.” ref

“During childbirth, the mother of the Polish hero twins Waligóra (“Mountain Beater”) and Wyrwidąb (“Oak Tearer”) died in the forest, where wild animals took care of them. Waligóra was raised of by a she-wolf and Wyrwidąb by a she-bear, who fed them with their own milk. Together, they defeated the dragon who tormented the kingdom, for which the grateful king gave each of them half of the kingdom and one of his two daughters as a wife. The sons of Krak: Krak II and Lech II also appear in Polish legends as the killers of the Wawel dragon. Amphion and Zethus, another pair of twins fathered by Zeus and Antiope, are portrayed as the legendary founders of Thebes. They are called “Dioskouroi, riders of white horses” (λευκόπωλοι) by Euripides in his play The Phoenician Women (the same epithet is used in Heracles and in the lost play Antiope). In keeping with the theme of distinction between the twins, Amphion was said to be the more contemplative, sensitive one, whereas Zethus was more masculine and tied to physical pursuits, like hunting and cattle-breeding.” ref

“The mother of Romulus and Remus, Rhea Silvia, placed them in a basket before her death, which she put in the river to protect them from murder, before they were found by the she-wolf who raised them. The Palici, a pair of Sicilian twin deities fathered by Zeus in one account, may also be a reflex of the original mytheme. Greek rhetorician and grammar Athenaeus of Naucratis, in his work Deipnosophistae, Book II, cited that poet Ibycus, in his Melodies, described twins Eurytus and Cteatus as “λευκίππους κόρους” (“white-horsed youths”) and said they were born from a silver egg, a story that recalls the myth of Greek divine twins Castor and Pollux and their mother Leda. This pair of twins was said to have been fathered by sea god Poseidon and a human mother, Molione.” ref

“Another possible reflex may be found in Nakula and Sahadeva. Mothered by Princess Madri, who summoned the Aśvins themselves in a prayer to beget her sons (thus them being called Ashvineya (आश्विनेय)), the twins are two of the five Pandava brothers, married to the same woman, Draupadi. In the Mahabharata epic, Nakula is described in terms of his exceptional beauty, warriorship and martial prowess, while Sahadeva is depicted as patient, wise, intelligent and a “learned man”. Nakula takes great interest in Virata’s horses, and his brother Sahadeva become Virata’s cowherd. Scholarship also points out that the Vedic Ashvins had an Avestic counterpart called Aspinas. The pair of heroic brothers and main characters of the Albanian legendary epic cycle Kângë Kreshnikësh – Muji and Halili – are considered to bear common traits of the Indo-European divine twins.” ref

“The Armenian heroes Sanasar and Baldasar appear as twins in the epic tradition, born of princess Tsovinar (as depicted in Daredevils of Sassoun); Sanasar finds a “fiery horse”, is more warlike than his brother, and becomes the progenitor of a dynasty of heroes. In an alternate account, their mother is named princess Saṙan, who drinks water from a horse’s footprint and gives birth to both heroes. Scholar Armen Petrosyan also sees possible reflexes of the divine twins in other pairs of heroic brothers in Armenian epic tradition, e.g., Ar(a)maneak and Ar(a)mayis; Eruand (Yervant) and Eruaz (Yervaz). In the same vein, Sargis Haroutyunian argues that the Armenian heroes, as well as twins Izzadin (or Izaddin) and Zyaddin (mentioned in the Kurdish Sharafnama), underlie the myth of divine twins: pairs of brother-founders of divine origin.” ref

“The mytheme of the Divine Twins was widely popular in the Indo-European traditions; evidence for their worship can be found from Scandinavia to the Near East as early as the Bronze Age. The motif was also adopted in non-Indo-European cultures, as attested by the Etruscan Tinas Clenar, the “sons of Jupiter”. There might also have been a worship of twin deities in Myceanean times, based on the presence of myths and stories about pairs of brothers or male twins in Attica and Boeotia. The most prevalent functions associated with the twins in later myths are magic healers and physicians, sailors and saviours at sea, warriors and providers of divine aid in battle, controllers of weather and keepers of the wind, assistants at birth with a connection to fertility, divinities of dance, protectors of the oath, and founders of cities, sometimes related to swans. Scholarship suggests that the mytheme of twins has echoes in the medieval legend of Amicus and Amelius. In Belarusian folklore, Saints George and Nicholas are paired up together, associated with horses, and have a dual nature as healers. The veneration of the Slavic saint brothers Boris and Gleb may also be related.” ref

“Lugal-irra (𒀭𒈗𒄊𒊏) and Meslamta-ea (𒀭𒈩𒇴𒋫𒌓𒁺𒀀) were a pair of Mesopotamian gods who typically appear together in cuneiform texts and were described as the “divine twins” (Maštabba). There were regarded as warrior gods and as protectors of doors, possibly due to their role as the gatekeepers of the underworld. In Mesopotamian astronomy they came to be associated with a pair of stars known as the “Great Twins”, Alpha Geminorum and Beta Geminorum. They were both closely associated with Nergal, and could be either regarded as members of his court or equated with him. Their cult centers were Kisiga and Dūrum. While no major sanctuaries dedicated to them are attested elsewhere, they were nonetheless worshiped in multiple other cities. Lugal-irra’s name was most commonly written in cuneiform as ^dLugal–GÌR-ra. It can be romanized as Lugalirra as well. It has Sumerian origin and can be translated as “the strong lord”. The variant Lugal-girra, ^dLugal-gír-ra, reflects a late reinterpretation of the name as “lord of the dagger” and is no longer considered an indication that ^dLugal-GÌR-ra was ever read as Lugal-girra. Despite the phonetic similarity, the second half of Lugal-irra’s name is most likely unrelated to the theonym Erra (variant: Irra), and its Akkadian translation was gašru according to lexical lists.” ref

“Twin deities manifested integrating or opposite natural elements in ancient Egypt. Two identical falcons represented Horus and Seth. Isis and Nephtys were also a divine twin of the same gender. Shu and Tefnut were an example for unlike-sexed divine twins. The souls of Osiris and Re were the twin children of Horus. This research studies the Egyptian divine twins beside the Greek twin deities which appeared in Egypt on a limited scale. Some of them had an Egyptian origin such as; the sign of Gemini which was inspired from Shu and Tefnut. Apollo and Artemis were also venerated in Egypt.” ref

“Twins in mythology are in many cultures around the world. In some cultures they are seen as ominous, and in others they are seen as auspicious. Twins in mythology are often cast as two halves of the same whole, sharing a bond deeper than that of ordinary siblings, or seen as fierce rivals. They can be seen as representations of a dualistic worldview. They can represent another aspect of the self, a doppelgänger, or a shadow.” ref

“Twins are often depicted with special powers. This applies to both mortal and immortal sets of twins, and often is related to power over the weather. Twins in mythology also often share deep bonds. In Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux share a bond so strong that when mortal Castor dies, Pollux gives up half of his immortality to be with his brother. Castor and Pollux are the Dioscuri twin brothers. Their mother is Leda, a being who was seduced by Zeus who had taken the form of a swan. Even though the brothers are twins, they have two different fathers. This phenomenon is a very common interpretation of twin births across different mythological cultures. Castor’s father is Tyndareus, the king of Sparta (hence the mortal form). Pollux is the son of Zeus (demigod).” ref

“This brothers were said to be born from an egg along with either sister Helen and Clytemnestra. This etymologically explains why their constellation, the Dioskouroi or Gemini, is only seen during one half of the year, as the twins split their time between the underworld and Mount Olympus. In an aboriginal tale, the same constellation represents the twin lizards who created the plants and animals and saved women from evil spirits. Another example of this strong bond shared between twins is the Ibeji twins from African mythology. Ibeji twins are viewed as one soul shared between two bodies. If one of the twins dies, the parents then create a doll that portrays the body of the deceased child, so the soul of the deceased can remain intact for the living twin.” ref

“Without the creation of the doll, the living twin is almost destined for death because it is believed to be missing half of its soul. Twins in mythology are often associated with healing. They are also often gifted with the ability of divination or insight into the future. Divine twins in twin mythology are identical to either one or both place of a god. The Feri gods are not separated entities but are unified into one center. These divine twins can function alone in one body, either functioning as a male or as male and female as they desire. Divine twins represent a polarity in the world. This polarity may be great or small and at times can be opposition. Twins are often seen to be rivals or adversaries.” ref

• Nut and Geb, Dualistic twins. God of Earth (Geb) and Goddess of the sky (Nut)
• Osiris – Isis’ twin and husband. Lord of the underworld. First born of Geb and Nut. One of the most important gods of ancient Egypt.
• Isis – Daughter of Geb and Nut; twin of Osiris.
• Ausar – (also known by Macedonian Greeks as Osiris) twin of Set. Set tricked his brother at a banquet he organized so as to take his life.

• Mawu-Lisa – Twins representing moon and sun, respectively. Ewe-Fon culture.
• Yemaja – Mother of all life on earth. Yoruba culture.
• Aganju – Twin and husband of Yemaja
• Ibeji – Twins of joy and happiness. Children of Shango and Oshun.

• Gluskap and Malsumis – A cultural hero and its evil twin brother for the Wabanaki peoples.
• Hahgwehdiyu and Hahgwehdaetgah – Sons of either Iroquois sky goddess Atahensic or her daughter Tekawerahkwa.
• Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé and Yolkai Estsan – Navajo goddesses.
• Monster Slayer and Born-for-Water – Navajo Hero Twins.
• Jukihú and Juracán – Twin sons of Atabex (Mother Nature), the personifications of Order and Chaos, respectively; from the Taíno Arawak nation which once stretched from South America through the Caribbean and up to Florida in the US.
• Hun-apu and Ixbalanque, the Maya Hero Twins – Defeated the Seven Macaw
• Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl or Tezcatlipoca
• Kokomaht and Bahotahl – Good and evil forces in nature.

• Inanna and Utu.

• Divine
  • Helios and Selene – God and Goddess, children of Hyperion and Theia
  • Apollo and Artemis – God and goddess, children of Zeus and Leto
  • Hypnos and Thanatos – Sons of Nyx
  • Despoina and Arion – Goddess and immortal horse, children of Demeter and Poseidon.
  • Palici – Sicilian chthonic deities in Greek mythology and Roman mythology.
  • Phobos and Deimos – Sons of Ares and Aphrodite
  • Eros and Anteros – Sons of Ares and Aphrodite
• One divine, one mortal
  • Heracles and Iphicles – Though their mother was Alcmene, Hercules was son of Zeus while Iphicles was son of Amphitryon.
  • Castor and Pollux, known as the Dioscuri – Though their mother was Leda, Castor was mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus.
  • Helen and Clytemnestra – Sisters of the Dioscuri, they were the daughters of Leda by Zeus and Tyndareus, respectively.
• Children of a god or nymph and a mortal
  • Atlas and Eumelus/Gadeirus, Ampheres and Evaemon, Mneseus and Autochthon, Elasippus and Mestor, and Azaes and Diaprepes – Five sets of twins, sons of Poseidon and Cleito, and Kings of Atlantis in Plato‘s myth.
  • Belus and Agenor – Sons of Poseidon and Libya.
  • Aegyptus and Danaus – Sons of Belus and Achiroe, a naiad daughter of Nile.
  • Aeolus and Boeotus – Sons of Poseidon and Arne.
  • Lycastus and Parrhasius – Sons of Ares and Phylonome, daughter of Nyctimus of Arcadia.
  • Amphion and Zethus – Sons of Zeus by Antiope
  • Centaurus and Lapithes – Sons of Ixion and Nephele or Apollo and Stilbe.
  • Pelias and Neleus – Sons of Poseidon and Tyro.
  • Romulus and Remus – Central characters of Rome’s foundation myth. Children of Rhea Silvia by either the god Mars, or by the demi-god Hercules.
  • Eurytus and Cteatus – Sons of Molione either by Actor or Poseidon
  • Ascalaphus and Ialmenus – Sons of Ares and Astyoche, Argonauts who participated in the Trojan War.
• Mortal
  • Kleobis and Biton – Sons of a Hera priestess in Argos
  • Iasus and Pelasgus – Sons of Phoroneus or Triopas
  • Proetus and Acrisius – Rival twins, children of Abas and Aglaea or Ocalea.
  • Porphyrion and Ptous – Sons of Athamas and Themisto
  • Thessalus and Alcimenes – Sons of Jason and Medea.
  • Cassandra and Helenus – Children of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy with prophetic powers.
  • Procles and Eurysthenes – Great-great-great-grandsons of Heracles, sons of Aristodemus and Argia.
  • Sisyphus and Salmoneus – Rivals who angered Zeus with their deceit and hubris. Sons of King Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete.

• Arsu and Azizos – Gods of the evening star and morning star.

• Freyr and Freyja – God and goddess, children of Njörðr
• Baldr and Hodr – “The Shining One” and “The Blind God”, Children of Odin and Frigg
• Móði and Magni – Courage/Bravery and Strength. Although not Twins in every Source, they often come in a pair. In some iterations, Twin sons of Thor and Sif.

• The Ashvins – Sons of the sun God, Surya. Represent dualities such as building and destroying.
• Koti and Chennayya – Twin heroes
• Yama and Yami – God and Goddess of death.
• Lava and Kusha – Children of Rama and Sita.
• Nakula and Sahadeva – sons of the last born of the Pandavas
• Lakshmana and Shatrughna – Children of Dasharatha and Sumitra
• Indra and Agni – Mirror twins
• Nala and Nila Ramayan

• Jacob and Esau – Sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Represented two nations.

• Ahura Mazda and Ahriman – Twins of opposing forces: good and evil.

• Akhshar and Akhsartag – one of the main characters and progenitors of the Nart saga

• Marassa Jumeaux – The divine, children twins in Vodou.
• Ibeji – Twins of joy and happiness. Children of Shango or Sango and Oshun.

• Izanagi and Izanami – God and Goddess, creators of the Japanese islands.

Cain and Abel, the First Human Brothers in the Bible 

“In the biblical Book of Genesis, Cain and Abel are the first two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. The brothers made sacrifices, each from his own fields, to God. God had regard for Abel’s offering, but had no regardfor Cain’s. Cain killed Abel, and God cursed Cain, sentencing him to a life of transience. Cain then dwelt in the land of Nod (נוֹד, ‘wandering’), where he built a city and fathered the line of descendants beginning with Enoch.” ref

“The story of Cain‘s murder of Abel and its consequences is told in Genesis 4:1–18:

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain,

“Why are you angry,
and why has your countenance fallen?
If you do well,
will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well,
sin is lurking at the door;
its desire is for you,
but you must master it.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city, and named it Enoch after his son Enoch.” — Book of Genesis, 4:1–18

“Since they cannot be linked together to a common linguistic origin, other reflexes found in the Indo-European myths are less secure, although their motifs can be compared to that of the Divine Twins. Three Indo-European traditions (Greek, Indic and Baltic) attest the mytheme of equestrian twins, all associated with the dawn or the sun’s daughter. Although their names do not form a complete group of cognates, they nonetheless share a similar epithet leading to a possible ancestral name or epithet: the ‘sons or descendants of Dyēus‘, the sky-god.” ref

• (?) PIE: *diwós suHnū́ (‘sons of Dyēus’), or *diwós népoth₁e (‘descendants of Dyēus’),
• Vedic: the Divó nápātā (the Aśvins), the “sons of Dyaús“, the sky-god, always referred to in dual in the Rigveda, without individual names,
• Lithuanian: the Dievo sūneliai (the Ašvieniai), the “sons of Dievas“, pulling the carriage of Saulė (the Sun) through the sky,
• Latvian: the Dieva dēli, the “sons of Dievs”, the sky-god,
• Greek: the Diós-kouroi (Castor and Pollux), the “boys of Zeus“, the sky-god.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_twins
• Italic: both Paelignian Ioviois Pvclois and Marsian Ioveis Pvcles are interpreted as a calque of the Greek theonym Diós-kouroi.” ref

“Comparative mythologist Alexander Haggerty Krappe suggested that two heroes, Feradach and Foltlebar, brothers and sons of the king of Innia, are expressions of the mytheme. These heroes help the expedition of the Fianna into Tir fa Thuinn (a realm on the other side of the sea), in a Orphean mission to rescue some of their members, in the tale The pursuit of the Gilla Decair and his horse. Both are expert navigators: one can build a ship and the other can follow the wild birds. Other possible candidates are members of Lugh‘s retinue, Atepomarus and Momorus (fr). Atepomarus is presumed to mean “Great Horseman” or “having great horses”, based on the possible presence of Celtic stem -epo- ‘horse’ in his name. Both appear as a pair of Celtic kings and founders of Lugdunum. They escape from Sereroneus and arrive at a hill. Momorus, who had skills in augury, sees a murder of crows and names the hill Lougodunum, after the crows. This myth is reported in the works of Klitophon of Rhodes and in Pseudo-Plutarch‘s De fluviis.” ref

“There is possibility that Ūsiņš (alternately, Ūsinis), a Baltic god mentioned in the dainas, is a reflex of the mytheme in Latvian tradition. He is associated with horses, the light and sun, and possibly one of the sons of Dievs. Historical linguist Václav Blažek argues he is “a functional and etymological counterpart” of a minor Vedic character Auśijá- (a servant of the Vedic twins and related to bees) and the Aśvins themselves. Also, according to David Leeming, Usins appears as a charioteer, conducting a chariot pulled by two horses across the sky.” ref

“It has also been argued that Auseklis is the other reflex of the mytheme in Latvian. Auseklis is referred to as male in the context of the dainas (folksong), and is seen as the groom of Saules meita (“daughter of the sun”), who came all the way to Germany to court her. In addition, according to scholar Elza Kokare, Auseklis belongs to a group of heavenly deities that take part in a mythological drama about a “celestial wedding”. Auseklis is seen as a groom of Saules meita, a daughter of Saule, the female Baltic sun. Sometimes, he is deprived of his bride (Ausekļa līgaviņa and variations) because of Meness’s quarreling. In other accounts, he is a guest or member of the bridal cortege at the wedding of Saules meita with another character. He is also said to own a horse, bought by him or for him. According to Marija Gimbutas‘s analysis, Auseklis is a “dievaitis” (‘little god’) that appears with a horse the Sun gave him, and falls in love with the daughter of the (female) Sun (“Saules dukterims”).” ref

“Dualism or dualistic cosmology is the moral or belief that two fundamental concepts exist, which often oppose each other. It is an umbrella term that covers a diversity of views from various religions, including both traditional religions and scriptural religions. Moral dualism is the belief of the great complement of, or conflict between, the benevolent and the malevolent. It simply implies that there are two moral opposites at work, independent of any interpretation of what might be “moral” and independent of how these may be represented. Moral opposites might, for example, exist in a worldview that has one god, more than one god, or none. By contrast, duotheism, bitheism or ditheism implies (at least) two gods.” ref

“While bitheism implies harmony, ditheism implies rivalry and opposition, such as between good and evil, or light and dark, or summer and winter. For example, a ditheistic system could be one in which one god is a creator and the other a destroyer. In theology, dualism can also refer to the relationship between the deity and creation or the deity and the universe (see theistic dualism). That form of dualism is a belief shared in certain traditions of Christianity and Hinduism. Alternatively, in ontological dualism, the world is divided into two overarching categories. Within Chinese culture and philosophy the opposition and combination of the universe’s two basic principles are expressed as yin and yang and are traditionally foundational doctrine of Taoism, Confucianism and some Chinese Buddhist Schools.” ref

“Many myths and creation motifs with dualistic cosmologies have been described in ethnographic and anthropological literature. The motifs conceive the world as being created, organized, or influenced by two demiurges, culture heroes, or other mythological beings, who compete with each other or have a complementary function in creating, arranging or influencing the world. There is a huge diversity of such cosmologies. In some cases, such as among the Chukchi, the beings collaborate rather than compete, and they contribute to the creation in a coequal way. In many other instances the two beings are not of the same importance or power (sometimes, one of them is even characterized as gullible). Sometimes they can be contrasted as good versus evil.” ref 

“They may be often believed to be twins or at least brothers. Dualistic motifs in mythologies can be observed in all inhabited continents. Zolotarjov concludes that they cannot be explained by diffusion or borrowing but are rather of convergent origin. They are related to a dualistic organization of society (moieties); in some cultures, the social organization may have ceased to exist, but mythology preserves the memory in more and more disguised ways. Moral dualism is the belief of the great complement or conflict between the benevolent and the malevolent. Like ditheism/bitheism (see below), moral dualism does not imply the absence of monist or monotheistic principles. Moral dualism simply implies that there are two moral opposites at work, independent of any interpretation of what might be “moral” and—unlike ditheism/bitheism—independent of how these may be represented.” ref

“For example, Mazdaism (Mazdean Zoroastrianism) is both dualistic and monotheistic (but not monist by definition) since in that philosophy God—the Creator—is purely good, and the antithesis—which is also uncreated–is an absolute one. Mandaeism is monotheistic and Gnostic, and in its cosmology, the World of Light (alma d-nhūra) that is good, is contrasted with the World of Darkness or underworld (alma d-hšuka) that is evil. Zurvanism (Zurvanite Zoroastrianism) and Manichaeism are representative of dualistic and monist philosophies since each has a supreme and transcendental First Principle from which the two equal-but-opposite entities then emanate. This is also true for the suppressed Christian gnostic religions, such as Bogomils, Catharism, and so on. More complex forms of monist dualism also exist, for instance in Hermeticism, where Nous “thought”—that is described to have created man—brings forth both good and evil, dependent on interpretation, whether it receives prompting from the God or from the Demon. Duality with pluralism is considered a logical fallacy.” ref

“Moral dualism began as a theological belief. Dualism was first seen implicitly in Egyptian religious beliefs by the contrast of the gods Set (disorder, death) and Osiris (order, life). The first explicit conception of dualism came from the Ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism around the mid-fifth century BC. Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion that believes that Ahura Mazda is the eternal creator of all good things. Any violations of Ahura Mazda’s order arise from druj, which is everything uncreated. From this comes a significant choice for humans to make. Either they fully participate in human life for Ahura Mazda or they do not and give druj power. Personal dualism is even more distinct in the beliefs of later religions. The religious dualism of Christianity between good and evil is not a perfect dualism as God (good) will inevitably destroy Satan (evil). Early Christian dualism is largely based on Platonic Dualism (See: Neoplatonism and Christianity). There is also a personal dualism in Christianity with a soul-body distinction based on the idea of an immaterial Christian soul.” ref

“When used with regards to multiple gods, dualism may refer to duotheism, bitheism, or ditheism. Although ditheism/bitheism imply moral dualism, they are not equivalent: ditheism/bitheism implies (at least) two gods, while moral dualism does not necessarily imply theism (theos = god) at all. Both bitheism and ditheism imply a belief in two equally powerful gods with complementary or antonymous properties; however, while bitheism implies harmony, ditheism implies rivalry and opposition, such as between good and evil, bright and dark, or summer and winter. For example, a ditheistic system would be one in which one god is creative, the other is destructive (cf. theodicy). In the original conception of Zoroastrianism, for example, Ahura Mazda was the spirit of ultimate good, while Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) was the spirit of ultimate evil.” ref

“In a bitheistic system, by contrast, where the two deities are not in conflict or opposition, one could be male and the other female (cf. duotheism^{[clarification needed]}). One well-known example of a bitheistic or duotheistic theology based on gender polarity is found in the neopagan religion of Wicca. In Wicca, dualism is represented in the belief of a god and a goddess as a dual partnership in ruling the universe. This is centered on the worship of a divine couple, the Moon Goddess and the Horned God, who are regarded as lovers. However, there is also a ditheistic theme within traditional Wicca, as the Horned God has dual aspects of bright and dark – relating to day/night, summer/winter – expressed as the Oak King and the Holly King, who in Wiccan myth and ritual are said to engage in battle twice a year for the hand of the Goddess, resulting in the changing seasons. (Within Wicca, bright and dark do not correspond to notions of “good” and “evil” but are aspects of the natural world, much like yin and yang in Taoism.)” ref

Divine couples in religion

“One of the most ancient concepts in religion is that of the divine couple. In Sumeria the divine couple appears as part of perhaps the earliest notion of Trinity. God the Father was symbolized as the Sun, his consort was symbolized alternately as either the Moon or the Earth, and the king was viewed as their offspring: the Son of the Sun; a living representative (or emanation) of God on Earth. In many traditions the gods and goddesses who comprise the divine couple are not seen as being separate or distinct entities, but rather as differing aspects of one another, or even emanations of one another. In this we see traces of an even more ancient tradition, God as the primordial androgyne. Such a notion has been part of many theologies, although the idea has largely been forgotten or (perhaps) ignored.” ref

Yin and yang

“Yin and yang (English: /jɪn/, /jæŋ/), also yinyang or yin-yang, is a concept that originated in Chinese philosophy, describing an opposite but interconnected, self-perpetuating cycle. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary and at the same time opposing forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts and the parts are important for cohesion of the whole.” ref

“In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and yang form and matter. ‘Yin’ is retractive, passive and contractive while ‘yang’ is repelling, active and expansive; in principle, this dichotomy in some form, is seen in all things in nature—patterns of change and difference, such as biological and seasonal cycles, evolution of the landscape over days, weeks, and eons (with the original meaning of the words being the north-facing shade and the south-facing brightness of a hill), gender (female and male), as well as the formation of the character of individuals and the grand arc of sociopolitical history in disorder and order.” ref

“Taiji is a Chinese cosmological term for the “Supreme Ultimate” state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potential, the oneness before duality, from which yin and yang originate. It can be contrasted with the older wuji (無極; ‘without pole’). In the cosmology pertaining to yin and yang, the material energy which this universe was created from is known as qi. It is believed that the organization of qi in this cosmology of yin and yang has formed many things. Included among these forms are humans. Many natural dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang. This duality, as a unity of opposites, lies at the origins of many branches of classical Chinese science, technology and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine, and a central principle of different forms of Chinese martial arts and exercise, such as baguazhang, tai chi, daoyin and qigong, as well as appearing in the pages of the I Ching.” ref

“The notion of duality can be found in many areas, such as Communities of Practice. The term “dualistic-monism” or dialectical monism has been coined in an attempt to express this fruitful paradox of simultaneous unity and duality. According to this philosophy, everything has both yin and yang aspects (for instance, shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation. The yin and yang symbol (or taijitu) shows a balance between two opposites with a portion of the opposite element in each section.” ref

“In Taoist metaphysics, distinctions between good and bad, along with other dichotomous moral judgments, are perceptual, not real; so, the duality of yin and yang is an indivisible whole. In the ethics of Confucianism on the other hand, most notably in the philosophy of Dong Zhongshu (c. 2nd century BC), a moral dimension is attached to the idea of yin and yang. The Ahom philosophy of duality of the individual self han and pu is quite similar to yin and yang of Taoism. The tradition was originated in Yunnan, China and followed by some Ahom, descendants of Dai ethnic Minority. The Chinese characters 陰 and 陽 are both considered to be phono-semantic compounds, with semantic component 阝 ‘mound’, ‘hill’, a graphical variant of 阜—with the phonetic components 今; jīn (and the added semantic component 云; yún; ‘cloud’) and 昜; yáng. In the latter, 昜; yáng; ‘bright’ features 日; ‘the Sun’ + 示 + 彡; ‘sunbeam’.” ref

Dogon people

“The Dogon are an ethnic group indigenous to the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa, south of the Niger bend, near the city of Bandiagara, and in Burkina Faso. The population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000. They speak the Dogon languages, which are considered to constitute an independent branch of the Niger–Congo language family, meaning that they are not closely related to any other languages. The Dogon are best known for their religious traditions, their mask dances, wooden sculpture, and their architecture. Since the twentieth century, there have been significant changes in the social organisation, material culture and beliefs of the Dogon, in part because Dogon country is one of Mali’s major tourist attractions.” ref

“The blind Dogon elder Ogotemmeli taught the main symbols of the Dogon religion to French anthropologist Marcel Griaule in October 1946.Griaule had lived amongst the Dogon people for fifteen years before this meeting with Ogotemmeli took place. Ogotemmeli taught Griaule the religious stories in the same way that Ogotemmeli had learned them from his father and grandfather; oral instruction which he had learned over the course of more than twenty years. What makes the record so important from a historical perspective is that the Dogon people were still living in their oral culture at the time their religion was recorded. They were one of the last people in West Africa to lose their independence and come under French rule.” ref

“The Dogon people with whom French anthropologists Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen worked during the 1930s and 1940s had a system of signs which ran into the thousands, including “their own systems of astronomy and calendrical measurements, methods of calculation and extensive anatomical and physiological knowledge, as well as a systematic pharmacopoeia“. The religion embraced many aspects of nature which are found in other traditional African religions. The key spiritual figures in the religion were the Nummo/Nommo twins. According to Ogotemmêli’s description of them, the Nummo, whom he also referred to as “Water”, had green skin covered in green hair, and were formed like humans from the loins up, but serpent-like below. Their eyes were red, their tongues forked, and their arms flexible and unjointed.” ref

“Ogotemmêli classified the Nummo as hermaphrodites. Their images or figures appeared on the female side of the Dogon sanctuary. They were primarily symbolized by the Sun, which was a female symbol in the religion. In the Dogon language, the Sun’s name (nay) had the same root as “mother” (na) and “cow” (nā). They were symbolized by the colour red, a female symbol.” ref

“The problem of “twin births” versus “single births”, or androgyny versus single-sexed beings, was said to contribute to a disorder at the beginning of time. This theme was fundamental to the Dogon religion. “The jackal was alone from birth,” said Ogotemmêli, “and because of this he did more things than can be told.” Dogon males were primarily associated with the single-sexed male Jackal and the Sigui festival, which was associated with death on the Earth. It was held once every sixty years and allegedly celebrated the white dwarf star, Sirius B. There has been extensive speculation about the origin of such astronomical knowledge. The colour white was a symbol of males. The ritual language, “Sigi so” or “language of the Sigui”, which was taught to male dignitaries of the Society of the Masks (“awa”), was considered a poor language. It contained only about a quarter of the full vocabulary of “Dogo so”, the Dogon language. The “Sigi so” was used to tell the story of creation of the universe, of human life, and the advent of death on the Earth, during both funeral ceremonies and the rites of the “end of mourning” (“dama”).” ref

“Because of the birth of the single-sexed male Jackal, who was born without a soul, all humans eventually had to be turned into single-sexed beings. This was to prevent a being like the Jackal from ever being born on Earth again. “The Nummo foresaw that the original rule of twin births was bound to disappear, and that errors might result comparable to those of the jackal, whose birth was single. Because of his solitary state, the first son of God acted as he did.” The removal of the second sex and soul from humans is what the ritual of circumcision represents in the Dogon religion. “The dual soul is a danger; a man should be male, and a woman female. Circumcision and excision are once again the remedy.” ref

“The Dogon religion was centered on this loss of twinness or androgyny. Griaule describes it in this passage:

Most of the conversations with Ogotemmêli had indeed turned largely on twins and on the need for duality and the doubling of individual lives. The Eight original Ancestors were really eight pairs … But after this generation, human beings were usually born single. Dogon religion and Dogon philosophy both expressed a haunting sense of the original loss of twin-ness. The heavenly Powers themselves were dual, and in their Earthly manifestations they constantly intervened in pairs …” ref

“The birth of human twins was celebrated in the Dogon culture in Griaule’s day because it recalled the “fabulous past, when all beings came into existence in twos, symbols of the balance between humans and the divine”. According to Griaule, the celebration of twin-births was a cult that extended all over Africa. Today, a significant minority of the Dogon practice Islam. Another minority practices Christianity. Those who remain in their ethnic religion generally believe in the significance of the stars and the creator god, Amma, who created Earth and molded it into the shape of a woman, imbuing it with a divine feminine principle. Today, at least 35% of the Dogon practice Islam. Another 10% practices Christianity. Those who have accepted one of these two monotheistic religions have abandoned their worship of fetishes (idols) which had been prevalent amongst them. Dogon society is organized by a patrilineal kinship system. Each Dogon village, or enlarged family, is headed by one male elder. This chief head is the oldest living son of the ancestor of the local branch of the family.” ref

“Each large district has a hogon, or spiritual leader, and there is a supreme hogon for the whole country. In his dress and behaviour the hogon symbolizes the Dogon myth of creation, to which the Dogon relate much of their social organization and culture. Their metaphysical system—which categorizes physical objects, personifies good and evil, and defines the spiritual principles of the Dogon personality—is more abstract than that of most other African peoples. Dogon religious life is heightened every 60 years by a ceremony called the sigui, which occurs when the star Sirius appears between two mountain peaks. Before the ceremony, young men go into seclusion for three months, during which they talk in a secret language. The general ceremony rests on the belief that some 3,000 years ago amphibious beings from Sirius visited the Dogon.” ref

Periyachi Amman (Amman meaning “mother”)

“Periyachi (Tamil: பெரியாச்சி, IAST: Periyāchī) is a ferocious aspect of Parvati in Hinduism. She is also known as Periyachi Amman (Amman meaning “mother”) and sometimes called as Periyachi Kali Amman as she is associated with the goddess Kali. According to some accounts, the deity is a Guardian form of the Mother Goddess, who is prayed to in order to prevent misfortune during childbirth. Periyachi is said to be the protector of children, and is associated with childbirth and pregnancy, and is a deity revered in Singapore, The Caribbean, Malaysia and Réunion Island.” ref

“There was once a Pandya king named Vallalarajan Raja who evilly tormented his subjects. It was said that if his child touched the earth then this act would bring an end to the king. When the queen went into labour, the king could not find a mid-wife. He had to choose a woman named Periyachi. This stern woman successfully completed the delivery of the child and held it up so that it did not touch the earth. The king wanted to kill the newborn, in the intent to preserve his own life. The king did not know that Periyachi was the goddess Adi Parashakti, and so he was surprised when she took on her true form. Using her multiple arms, she trampled the king under her foot. Then, she killed the king using her weapons. At the same time, the queen also wanted to kill the baby, as she considered the child the death of her king, but Periyachi killed the queen, ripped out her stomach and ate her intestines, and saved the baby. Therefore, Periyachi was known as the protector of babies and expectant mothers. The baby is said to have grown up under Periyachi’s care and later became the Pandya king, He later built many temples and shrines for Periyachi Amman.” ref

Pangu

“Pangu (Chinese: 盤古, PAN-koo) is a primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology and Taoism. According to the legend, Pangu separated heaven and earth, and his body later became geographic features such as mountains and roaring water. The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was thought to be Xu Zheng during the Three Kingdoms period. However, his name was found in a tomb predating the Three Kingdoms period.” ref

“In the beginning, there was nothing and the universe was in a featureless, formless primordial state. This primordial state coalesced into a cosmic egg for about 18,000 years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of yin and yang became balanced and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. Pangu inside the cosmic egg symbolizes Taiji. Pangu is usually depicted as a primitive, hairy giant with horns on his head. Pangu began creating the world: he separated yin from yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the earth (murky yin) and the sky (clear yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the sky. With each day, the sky grew ten feet (3 meters) higher, the earth ten feet thicker, and Pangu ten feet taller. This task took yet another 18,000 years.” ref

“In some versions of the story, Pangu is aided in this task by the Four Holy Beasts (四靈獸), the Turtle, the Qilin, the Phoenix, and the Dragon. In others, Pangu separated heaven and earth, which were already yin and yang, with his axe. After the 18,000 years had elapsed, Pangu died. His breath became the wind, mist and clouds; his voice, thunder; his left eye, the Sun; his right eye, the Moon; his head, the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood, rivers; his muscles, fertile land; his facial hair, the stars and Milky Way; his fur, bushes and forests; his bones, valuable minerals; his bone marrow, precious jewels; his sweat, rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became animals. n other versions of the story, his body turned into the mountains.” ref

“Three main elements describe the origin of the Pangu myth. The first is that the story is indigenous and was developed or transmitted through time to Xu Zheng. Senior Scholar Wei Juxian states that the Pangu story is derived from stories during the Western Zhou dynasty. He cites the story of Zhong (重) and Li (黎) in the “Chuyu (楚語)” section of the ancient classics Guoyu. In it, King Zhao of Chu asked Guanshefu (觀射父) a question: “What did the ancient classic “Zhou Shu (周書)” mean by the sentence that Zhong and Li caused the heaven and earth to disconnect from each other?” The “Zhou Shu” sentence he refers to is about an earlier person, Luu Xing (呂刑), who converses with King Mu of Zhou. King Mu’s reign is much earlier and dates to about 1001 to 946 BC. In their conversation, they discuss a “disconnection” between heaven and earth.” ref

“Derk Bodde linked the myth to the ancestral mythologies of the Miao people and Yao people in southern China. This is how Professor Qin Naichang (覃乃昌), head of the Guangxi Institute for Nationality Studies, reconstructs the true creation myth preceding the myth of Pangu. Note that it is not actually a creation myth:

A brother and his sister became the only survivors of the prehistoric Deluge by crouching in a gourd that floated on water. The two got married afterwards, and a mass of flesh in the shape of a whetstone was born. They chopped it and the pieces turned into large crowds of people, who began to reproduce again. The couple were named ‘Pan’ and ‘Gou’ in the Zhuang ethnic language, which stand for whetstone and gourd respectively.” ref

“19th-century comparative religion scholar Paul Carus writes:

P’an-Gu: The basic idea of the yih philosophy was so convincing that it almost obliterated the Taoist cosmology of P’an-Ku who is said to have chiseled the world out of the rocks of eternity. Though the legend is not held in high honor by the literati, it contains some features of interest which have not as yet been pointed out and deserve at least an incidental comment.

P’an-Gu is written in two ways: one means in literal translations, “basin ancient”, the other “basin solid”. Both are homophones, i.e., they are pronounced the same way; and the former may be preferred as the original and correct spelling. Obviously the name means “aboriginal abyss,” or in the terser German, Urgrund, and we have reason to believe it to be a translation of the Babylonian Tiamat, “the Deep.”

The Chinese legend tells us that P’an-Ku’s bones changed to rocks; his flesh to earth; his marrow, teeth and nails to metals; his hair to herbs and trees; his veins to rivers; his breath to wind; and his four limbs became pillars marking the four corners of the world, which is a Chinese version not only of the Norse myth of the Giant Ymir, but also of the Babylonian story of Tiamat.

Illustrations of P’an-Ku represent him in the company of supernatural animals that symbolize old age or immortality, viz., the tortoise and the crane; sometimes also the dragon, the emblem of power, and the phoenix, the emblem of bliss.

When the earth had thus been shaped from the body of P’an-Ku, we are told that three great rivers successively governed the world: first the celestial, then the terrestrial, and finally the human sovereign. They were followed by Yung-Ch’eng and Sui -Jen (i.e., fire-man) the later being the Chinese Prometheus, who brought the fire down from heaven and taught man its various uses.

The Prometheus myth is not indigenous to Greece, where it received the artistically classical form under which it is best known to us. The name, which by an ingenious afterthought is explained as “the fore thinker,” is originally the Sanskrit pramantha and means “twirler” or “fire-stick,” being the rod of hard wood which produced fire by rapid rotation in a piece of soft wood.

We cannot deny that the myth must have been known also in Mesopotamia, the main center of civilization between India and Greece, and it becomes probable that the figure Sui-Jen has been derived from the same prototype as the Greek Prometheus.” ref

“The missionary and translator James Legge discusses Pangu:

P’an-ku is spoken of by the common people as “the first man, who opened up heaven and earth.” It has been said to me in “pidgin” English that “he is all the same your Adam”; and in Taoist picture books I have seen him as a shaggy, dwarfish, Hercules, developing from a bear rather than an ape, and wielding an immense hammer and chisel with which he is breaking the chaotic rocks.” ref

“ Chinese creation myth: The Pangu myth appears to have been preceded in ancient Chinese literature by the existence of Shangdi or Taiyi (of the Taiyi Shengshui). Other Chinese myths, such as those of Nüwa and the Jade Emperor, try to explain how people were created and do not necessarily explain the creation of the world. There are many variations of these myths. According to Bouyei mythology, after Pangu became an expert in rice farming after creating the world, he married the daughter of the Dragon King, and their union gave rise to the Buyei people. This is celebrated by the Bouyei people on June 6, as a holiday.” ref

“The daughter of the Dragon King and Pangu had a son named Xinheng (新横). When Xinheng disrespected his mother, she returned to heaven and never came down, despite the repeated pleas of her husband and son. Pangu was forced to remarry and eventually died on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar. Xinheng’s stepmother treated him badly and almost killed him. When Xinheng threatened to destroy her rice harvest, she realized her mistake. She made peace with him and they went on to pay their respects to Pangu annually on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar. This day became an important traditional Buyei holiday for ancestral worship. This legend of creation is one of the main characteristics that distinguishes the Buyei from the Zhuang.” ref

“Pangu is worshipped at a number of shrines in contemporary China, usually with Taoist symbols, such as the Bagua. The Pangu King Temple (盤古皇廟 or 盘古皇庙) built in 1809 is located in Guangdong Province, northwest Huadu District (west of G106 / north of S118), north of Shiling Town at the foot of the Pangu King Mountain. The Huadu District is located north of Guangzhou to the west of the Baiyun International Airport. The term for the primordial supercontinent pangea is translated as Pangu in Chinese, referring to the creation myth.” ref

Ogdoad Egyptian Deities

“These were four frog gods and four snake goddesses of chaos. Together they represented balance in infinity. Their names were Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad are a group of eight deities (divine beings) worshipped in Hermopolis. The gods of the Ogdoad were mostly seen as humans with the heads of animals, or just depicted as snakes and frogs. They were arranged in four male-female pairs, with the males associated with frogs, and the females with snakes. Their story is part of the Egyptian creation myth.” ref

“The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis). These were four frog gods and four snake goddesses of chaos. Together they represented balance in infinity. Their names were Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). The chaos existed without the light, and thus Kek and Kauket came to represent this darkness. They also symbolized obscurity, the kind of obscurity that went with darkness, and night. The Ogdoad were the original great gods of Iunu (On, Heliopolis) where they were thought to have helped with creation, then died and retired to the land of the dead where they continued to make the Nile River flow and the sun rise every day.” ref

Prajapati creator-god Brahma

“Prajapati (Sanskrit: प्रजापति, lit. ‘Lord of creation’, IAST: Prajāpati) is a Vedic deity of Hinduism. In later literature, Prajapati is identified with the creator-god Brahma, but the term also connotes many different gods depending on the Hindu scriptures, ranging from being the creator god Brahma to being the same as the following: Vishvakarma, Agni, Indra, Daksha, and many others, reflecting the diverse Hindu cosmology. In classical and medieval era literature, Prajapati is equated to the metaphysical concept called Brahman as Prajapati-Brahman (Svayambhu Brahman), or alternatively Brahman is described as one who existed before Prajapati.” ref

“Prajapati (Sanskrit: प्रजापति) is a compound of “praja” (creation, procreative powers) and “pati” (lord, master). The term means “lord of creatures”, or “lord of all born beings”. In the later Vedic texts, Prajapati is a distinct Vedic deity, but whose significance diminishes. Later, the term is synonymous with other gods, particularly Brahma. Still later, the term evolves to mean any divine, semi-divine or human sages who create something new. Prajapati is described in many ways and inconsistently in Hindu texts, both in the Vedas and in the post-Vedic texts. These range from being the creator god Brahma to being same as one of the following: Agni, Indra, Vishvakarma, Daksha and many others.” ref

“The origins of Prajapati are unclear. He appears late in the Vedic layer of texts, and the hymns that mention him provide different cosmological theories in different chapters. He is missing from the Samhita layer of Vedic literature, conceived in the Brahmana layer, states Jan Gonda. Prajapati is younger than Savitr, and the word was originally an epithet for the sun. His profile gradually rises in the Vedas, peaking within the Brahmanas. Scholars such as Renou, Keith and Bhattacharji posit Prajapati originated as an abstract or semi-abstract deity in the later Vedic milieu as speculations evolved from the archaic to more learned speculations.” ref

Protogonos is the Orphic mythology equivalent of the Vedic Prajapati in several ways: he is the first god born from a cosmic egg, he is the creator of the universe, and in the figure of Dionysus—a direct descendant of Protogonos—worshippers participate in his death, and rebirth — Kate Alsobrook, The Beginning of Time: Vedic and Orphic Theogonies and Poetics” ref

“According to Robert Graves, the name of /PRA-JĀ[N]-pati/ (‘progeny-potentate’) is etymologically equivalent to that of the oracular god Phanes at Colophon (according to Makrobios), namely /prōtogonos/. The cosmic egg concept linked to Prajapati and Protogonos is common in many parts of the world, states David Leeming, which appears in later Orphic cult in Greece. His role varies within the Vedic texts such as being one who created heaven and earth, all of water and beings, the chief, the father of gods, the creator of devas and asuras the cosmic egg and the Purusha. His role peaked in the Brahmanas layer of Vedic texts, then declined to being a group of helpers in the creation process. In some Brahmana texts, his role remains ambiguous since he co-creates with the creator goddess Vāc.” ref

“In the Rigveda, Prajapati appears as an epithet for Savitr, Soma, Agni and Indra, who are all praised as equal, same and lord of creatures. Elsewhere, in hymn 10.121 of the Rigveda, is described Hiranyagarbha (golden embryo) that was born from the waters containing everything, which produced Prajapati. It then created manas (mind), kama (desire) and tapas (heat). However this Prajapati is a metaphor, one of many Hindu cosmology theories, and there is no supreme deity in the Rigveda. One of the striking features about the Hindu Prajapati myths, states Jan Gonda, is the idea that work of creation is a gradual process, completed in stages of trial and improvement.” ref

“In the Shatapatha Brahmana, embedded inside the Yajurveda, Prajapati emanated from Purusha (cosmic spirit) and Prajapati co-creates the world with Vāc It also includes the “golden cosmic egg” mythology, wherein Prajapati is stated to be born from a golden egg in primeval sea after the egg was incubated for a year. His sounds became the sky, the earth and the seasons. When he inhaled, he created the devas, fire, and light. When he exhaled, he created the asuras, and darkness. Then, together with Vāc , he created all beings and time. In Chapter 10 of the Shatapatha Brahmana, as well as chapter 13 of Pancavimsa Brahmana, is presented another myth wherein he, Prajapati is a mother, who becomes self-pregnant with all living creatures self-generated, then Mrtyu seizes these beings within his/her womb, but because these beings are part of the eternal Prajapati they desire to live long like him.” ref

“The Aitareya Brahmana offers a different myth, wherein Prajapati, having created the gods, turns into a stag and approaches his daughter Ushas who was in the form of a doe, to produce other earthly beings. The gods were horrified by the incest, and joined forces to produce the angry destructive Rudra to punish Prajapati for “doing what is not done”. Prajapati was killed by Rudra. The Kausitaki Brahmana tells another myth, wherein Prajapati created Agni, Surya, Chandra, Vayu, Ushas and all deities released their energies and created the universe.” ref

“In section 2.266 of Jaiminiya Brahmana, Prajapati is presented as a spiritual teacher. His student Varuna lives with him for 100 years, studying the art and duties of being the “father-like king of gods”. Their creative role varies. Pulaha, for example, is the Mānasaputra of Brahma and Sarasvati is a great rishi. As one of the Prajapatis, he creates animals and plants. Hindu temples in Bali Indonesia called Pura Prajapati, also called Pura Mrajapati, are common. They are most associated with funeral rituals and the Ngaben (cremation) ceremony for the dead.” ref

“Prajapati appears in early Upanishads, among the most influential texts in Hinduism. He is described in the Upanishads in diverse ways. For example, in different Upanishads, he is presented as the personification of creative power after Brahman, the same as the wandering eternal soul, as symbolism for unmanifest obscure first born, as manifest procreative sexual powers, the knower particularly of Atman (soul, self), and a spiritual teacher that is within each person.” ref 

“The Chandogya Upanishad, as an illustration, presents him as follows:

The self (atman) that is free from evils, free from old age and death, free from sorrow, free from hunger and thirst; the self whose desires and intentions are real – that is the self that you should try to discover, that is the self that you should seek to perceive. When someone discovers that self and perceives it, he obtains all the worlds, and all his desires are fulfilled, so said Prajapati. — Chandogya Upanishad 8.7.1, Translator: Patrick Olivelle” ref

“In Chandogya Upanishad 1.2.1, Prajapati appears as the creator of all devas and asuras. “The gods and goddesses and the demons are both children of Prajapati, yet they fought among themselves.” (Sanskrit: देवासुरा ह वै यत्र संयेतिरे उभये प्राजापत्यास्तद्ध, IAST: devāsurā ha vai yatra saṃyetire ubhaye prājāpatyāstaddha). In the Mahabharata, Brahma is declared to be a Prajapati who creates many males and females, and imbues them with desire and anger, the former to drive them into reproducing themselves and the latter to prevent them from being like gods. Other chapters of the epics and Puranas declare Vishnu or Shiva to be Prajapati.” ref

“The Bhagavad Gita uses the epithet Prajapati to describe Krishna, along with many other epithets. The Grhyasutras include Prajapati as among the deities invoked during wedding ceremonies and prayed to for blessings of prosperous progeny, and harmony between husband and wife. Prajapati is identified with the personifications of Time, Fire, the Sun, etc. He is also identified with various mythical progenitors, especially (Manusmriti 1.34) the ten lords created beings first created by Brahma: Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Vasishtha, Daksha, Bhrigu and Narada.” ref

“In the Puranas, there are groups of Prajapatis called Prajapatayah who were rishis (sages) from whom all of the world is created, followed by a Prajapatis list that widely varies in number and name between different texts. According to George Williams, the inconsistent, varying and evolving Prajapati concept in Hindu mythology reflects the diverse Hindu cosmology. The Mahabharata and the genre of Puranas call various gods and sages as Prajapati. Some illustrations, states Roshen Dalal, include Agni, Bharata, Shashabindu, Shukra, Havirdhaman, Indra, Kapila, Kshupa, Prithu, Chandra, Svishtakrita, Tvashtr, Vishvakarma and Virana. In the medieval era texts of Hinduism, Prajapati refers to legendary agents of creation, working as gods or sages, who appear in every cycle of creation-maintenance-destruction (manvantaras). Their numbers vary between seven, ten, sixteen or twenty-one.” ref 

Phanes

“In Orphic cosmogony Phanes /ˈfeɪˌniːz/ (Ancient Greek: Φάνης, romanized: Phánēs, genitive Φάνητος) or Protogonos /proʊˈtɒɡənəs/ (Ancient Greek: Πρωτογόνος, romanized: Prōtogónos, lit. ’Firstborn’) is a primeval deity who was born from the cosmic egg at the beginning of creation. He is referred by various names, including Erikepaios “Power” /ˌɛrɪkəˈpiːəs/ (Ancient Greek: Ἠρικαπαῖος/Ἠρικεπαῖος, romanized: Ērikapaîos/Ērikepaîos) and Metis “Thought.” ref

“In Orphic cosmogony, Phanes is often equated with Eros or Mithras and has been depicted as a deity emerging from a cosmic egg entwined with a serpent: the Orphic egg. He had a helmet and had broad, golden wings. The Orphic cosmogony is quite unlike the creation sagas offered by Homer and Hesiod. Scholars have suggested that Orphism is “un-Greek”, even “Asiatic”, in conception because of its inherent dualism.” ref

“Chronos is said to have created the silver egg of the universe out of which burst the first-born deity Phanes, or Phanes-Dionysus. Phanes was a male god; in an original Orphic hymn he is named as “Lord Priapos“, although others consider him androgynous. Phanes was a deity of light and goodness, whose name meant “to bring light” or “to shine”; a first-born deity, he emerged from the abyss and gave birth to the universe. Nyx (Night) is variously said to be Phanes’ daughter or older wife; she is the counterpart of Phanes and is considered by Aristophanes the first deity. According to Aristophanes, in a play where Phanes is called “Eros”, Phanes was born from an egg created by Nyx and placed in the boundless lap of Erebus, after which he mates with Chaos and creates the flying creatures.” ref

“In Orphic literature, Phanes was believed to have been hatched from the world egg of Chronos and Ananke “Necessity, Fate” or Nyx in the form of a black bird and wind. His older wife Nyx called him Protogenos. As she created nighttime, Phanes created daytime and the method of creation by mingling. He was made the ruler of the deities. This new Orphic tradition states that Phanes passed the sceptre to Nyx; Nyx later gave the sceptre to her son Ouranos; Cronus seized the sceptre from his father Ouranos; and finally, the sceptre held by Cronus was seized by Zeus, who holds it at present. Some Orphic myths suggest that Zeus intends to pass the sceptre to Dionysus.” ref

“According to the Athenian scholiast Damascius, Phanes was the first god “expressible and acceptable to human ears” (“πρώτης ητόν τι ἐχούσης καὶ σύμμετρον πρὸς ἀνθρώπων ἀκοάς”). Another Orphic hymn states:

You scattered the dark mist that lay before your eyes and, flapping your wings, you whirled about, and throughout this world you brought pure light. For this I call you Phanes, I call you Lord Priapos, I call you sparkling with bright eyes.” ref

“The Derveni papyrus refers to Phanes:

Of the First-born king, the reverend one; and upon him all the immortals grew, blessed gods and goddesses and rivers and lovely springs and everything else that had then been born; and he himself became the sole one. Protogonos is also romanized as Protogenus. In the Orphic Hymns, Phanes-Protogonus is identified with Dionysus, who is referred to under the names of Protogonus and Eubuleus several times in the collection.” ref

Hiranyagarbha

“Hiranyagarbha (Sanskrit: हिरण्यगर्भ, lit. ’golden womb’, IAST: Hiraṇyagarbha, poetically translated as ‘universal womb’) is the source of the creation of the universe or the manifested cosmos in Vedic philosophy. It finds mention in one hymn of the Rigveda (RV 10.121), known as the Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta, suggesting a single creator deity (verse 8: yo deveṣv ādhi devā eka āsīt, Griffith: “He is the God of gods, and none beside him.”), identified in the hymn as Prajāpati. The concept of the “golden womb” is first mentioned in the Vishvakarma Sūkta (RV 10.82.5,6) which picturized the “primeval womb” as being rested set upon the navel of Vishvakarman. This imagery was later transferred to Vishnu and Surya.” ref

“The Upanishad calls it the Soul of the Universe or Brahman, and elaborates that Hiraṇyagarbha floated around in emptiness and the darkness of the non-existence for about a year, and then broke into two halves which formed the Svarga and the Pṛthvi. In classical Purāṇic Hinduism, Hiraṇyagarbha is the term used in the Vedanta for the “creator”. Hiraṇyagarbha is also Brahmā, so called because it is said he was born in a golden egg (Manu Smṛti 1.9), while the Mahābhārata calls it the Manifest. Some classical yoga traditions consider a person named Hiraṇyagarbha as the originator of yoga, though this may also be a name for Sage Kapila.” ref

“The Matsya Purāṇa (2.25–30) gives an account of initial creation. After Mahāprālaya, the great dissolution of the Universe, there was darkness everywhere. Everything was in a state of sleep. There was nothing, either moving or static. Then Svayambhu, self-manifested being arose, which is a form beyond senses. It created the primordial waters first and established the seed of creation into it. The seed turned into a golden womb, Hiraṇyagarbha. Then Svayambhu entered into that egg. The Nārāyaṇa Sūkta exclaims that everything that is, visible or invisible, all this is pervaded by Nārāyaṇa within and without.” ref

“The Īśvara Upaniṣad says that the universe is pervaded by Īśvara (God), who is both within and without it. He is the moving and the unmoving, He is far and near, He is within all these and without all these. The Vedānta Sūtra further states that Brahman is That from Whom this Universe proceeds, in Whom it subsists, and to Whom, in the end, it returns. The Saṃkhya school holds that there are only two primary principles, Puruṣa and Prākṛti, and creation is only a manifestation or evolution of the constituents of Prākṛti due to the action of Puruṣa’s Consciousness.” ref

“The Bhagavata states that Nārāyaṇa alone was in the beginning, who was the pious of principles of creation, sustenance, and dissolution (also known as the Hindu Trinity of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Shiva) – the Supreme Hari, multi-headed, multi-eyed, multi-footed, multi-armed, multi-limbed. This was the Supreme Seed of all creation, subtler than the subtlest, greater than the greatest, larger than the largest, and more magnificent than even the best of all things, more powerful, than even the wind and all the gods, more resplendent than the Sun and the Moon, and more internal than even the mind and the intellect. He is the Creator, the Supreme. The term can also mean as He who, having become first the Creator, has come to be considered as the womb of all objects.” ref

“The Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta of the Rigveda declares that God manifested Himself in the beginning as the Creator of the Universe, encompassing all things, including everything within Himself, the collective totality, as it were, of the whole of creation, animating it as the Supreme Intelligence. In the Rigveda (RV 10.121) it is also mentioned that at the creation of the world the cosmic egg was separated in to two halves, one part became the sky and the other the sun.” ref

Alectryon (mythology)

“Alectryon (from Ancient Greek: ἀλεκτρυών, Alektruṓn pronounced [alektryɔ̌ːn], literally meaning “rooster“) in Greek mythology, was a young soldier who was assigned by Ares, the god of war, to guard the outside of his bedroom door while the god took part in a love affair with the love goddess Aphrodite. Alectryon however failed at his job when he fell asleep, allowing Helios, the god of the Sun, to see the two lovers and alert Hephaestus, the husband of Aphrodite, who then caught the two lovers in the act. Enraged with Alectryon’s incompetence, Ares changed him into a rooster in anger. In his effort to reconcile, Alectryon never skipped on alarming people of Helios’s arrival thereafter.” ref

“The story is an aetiological myth that attempts to explain both the origin of the roosters and the reason why they crow each morning at dawn, warning of the Sun approaching. The myth is not mentioned by Homer, who first related the story of Ares and Aphrodite’s infidelity in his Odyssey, but rather it was interpolated later by various authors. According to Lucian, Alectryon was said to have been ‘an adolescent boy, beloved of Ares, who kept the god company at drinking parties, overindulged with him, and was his companion in lovemaking’. Ares, fearing that his affair with Aphrodite would be found out and then he would be told on by Helios, the sun god, especially because of his suspicions that he would tell Hephaestus, the god of forgery and the husband of Aphrodite, commanded Alectryon to stand outside his door and watch for Helios, the god of the sun who saw everything, or anyone else, to bear witness to his affair.” ref

“So Alectryon stood guard outside of his room as the two made love. But one day he fell asleep during watch duty and Helios discovered them the next morning. The sun-god then informed Hephaestus, to the choices of the two, who then created a net to ensnare and then shame them. Furious, Ares punished Alectryon by transforming him into a rooster which never forgets to announce the rising of the sun in the morning by its crowing, his own way of apologizing to Ares for falling asleep on the job, but this failed to make amends. According to Pausanias, the rooster is Helios’ sacred animal, always crowing when he is about to rise.” ref

“Both the words Alectryon and Halcyon might have been corrupted from Halaka, one of the old Persian appellations of the sun. In the ‘Vendidad‘ it is said that the sacred bird Parodars, called by men kahrkatak, raises its voice at the dawn; and in the Bundahishn, the sun is spoken of as Halaka, the cock, the enemy of darkness and evil, which flee before his crowing.” ref

First Egg?

“In the beginning, there was nothing, no earth, no matter, no wind, no life, no death, no time, not even void just The Word. But all of a sudden, from that nothing, came an egg, it is unknown whether it was an actual egg or just a metaphorical being called an egg, no one would be faulted for thinking that being or “egg” was the supreme being, even if only for that moment.” ref

“But eventually this egg hatched, and from that hatching came two of the most powerful beings within the multiverse; Ouroboros, the pre-existential embodiment of endlessness and infinity, and Vitriol, the pre-existential embodiment of hunger and oblivion. This made the once plane of non-existence into something, with God and other creator deities creating more and more until the universe as we know now exists.” ref

“Typically, the cosmic egg is described as a beginning of some sort, and the universe or some primordial being comes into existence by “hatching” from the egg, sometimes lain on the primordial waters of the world. The Cosmic Egg is a metaphor of potentiality. It is the pre-creation held within chaos, waiting to become the cosmos. This duality, then, sets up a conflict found throughout world mythology, the duality of chaos and order, good and evil, light and dark, love and hate.” ref

“Some depictions make it that cosmic egg is said to contain an unborn universe, which takes millions or billions of years to develop as a whole. The cosmic egg is made of up of the purest form of creation and life, enough to where it is believed to contain the essence of God. In fact, many have attempted to acquire the egg in order to attain omnipotent power. It is also shown that cosmic eggs divide from a branch universe, a branch of the Tree of Life which is its own coursing flow of time and space, undergoing a form of what is dubbed as “meiosis” where the yet-to-be-born universe develops much like how diploid cells undergo DNA replication.” ref

“This process is also applied to Primordial beings as it is believed that the egg contains an unborn Primordial being. This shows that the Primordials can simply procreate by acquiring the necessary equation of life in order to create a new Primordial. The egg can contain even more than one Primordial. Upon full development and maturity within the egg, the parent Primordial sends the egg off, where it will soon hatch and eventually allow the newly born Primordials to roam free and become aspects of that particular universe itself when they finish its design. Eggs symbolize the unification of two complementary principles (represented by the egg white and the yolk) from which life or existence, in its most fundamental philosophical sense, emerges.” ref

“Bahuchara Mata (Hindi: बहुचरा माता, romanized: Bahucharā Mātā; Gujarati: બહુચર માતા, romanized: Bahuchara Mātā) is a Hindu goddess of chastity and fertility in her maiden aspect, of the incarnation of the Hinglaj. The goddess grants favours, especially to male children, and cures diseases. Like other divinities in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Bahuchara is of Charan an origin. She is also considered the patroness of the hijra community. Her primary temple is located in Becharaji town in Mehsana district of Gujarat, India.” ref

“Bahuchara was born in the Detha clan of Maru-Charanas in Ujala (Ujlan) village in present-day Jaisalmer district. Her father was Bapaldan Detha of Kharoda (Umerkot) while her mother Deval was from Ujlan. As per Gadhavi Samarthdan Mahiya, she lived around 1309 CE. Bahuchara was one of the eight sisters, thus named: Bahucarā, Būṭa, Balāla, Vīru, Hīru, Rāmeśvarī, Khetū, Pātū. Her mother Deval is herself considered a sagat and worshipped as a patron goddess by Detha Charanas and Sodha Rajputs.” ref

“Her father Bapaldan was a renowned poet who obtained a jagir in sasan in Saurashtra and founded Bapalka. After Deval’s passing in Kharoda, he sent his servants to bring Bahuchara, But, and Balal. While on the way, their caravan was attacked by Bapiya, a koli bandit, at Shankhalpur or Shakatpur in the Chunval region. Enraged at the attack, Bahuchara and her sisters proceeded to commit trāgā, a Chāraṇa practice of suicide by ritual mutilation, and thus cursing Bapiya to lose his manhood and become a eunuch. Bapiya begged to be forgiven, but the curse called through trāgā could not be recalled. He went down on his knees and said beseechingly, “It was not my fault. I lived out of robbery, but I never targeted Brahman and Chāraṇa. I unfortunately happened to target Chāraṇa’s carriage without knowing it.” ref

“Showing mercy, Bahuchara ordered him to build a shrine to her and worship her at the place, and proclaimed if a “naturally emasculated man” wearing women’s clothing worships her, then they would achieve her blessings and find a place in her abode after death. Bapiya built her shrine under a varakhada tree in Shankhalpur. Thus, Bahuchara came to be worshipped in the Chunwal town, now known as Becharaji; But Bhavani at Arnej, near Kot; and Balal Devi at Bakulkoo, near Sihor.” ref

“Bahuchara Mata is shown as a woman who carries a sword on her bottom left, a text of scriptures on her top left, the abhayamudra (“showering of blessings”) on her bottom right, and a trident on her top right. She is seated on a rooster, which symbolizes innocence. This iconography symbolizes a balance between violence (sword), creation trinities (trishul), knowledge (Shri scripture), and blessing (abhay hasta mudra) in Bahuchara Mata’s mythology. The sword signifies her self-sacrifice, the trishul represents the balance of creation principles, and the scripture reinforces her legitimacy in the Charana caste. Moreover, the pseudo-divine status of the Charana community meant that Bahuchara’s curse was legitimized by virtue of her being a Charani and not only, in fact, because she was a Goddess.” ref

Shinshi

“Shinshi (神使, lit. ’spirit envoy’) are animals in Japanese mythology that are believed to be associated with a kami, a divine being. These animals are also known as kami no tsukai or tsukawashime. In ancient texts such as Kojiki and Nihongi, there are tales of special animals that acted on behalf of the kami to transmit the divine will or to bear oracles. Over time animals were connected to certain shrines. It became a custom to take care of these animals when they were found within the area of the shrine. Normally, each kami had only one animal familiar, but sometimes, there were some exceptions where a kami had more than one. Even some of the “Seven Lucky Gods” like Daikokuten (a mouse) and Benzaiten (a snake) had animal familiars.” ref

“Later the kami’s animal familiar became a common symbol of the kami itself. For example, the foxes at Inari shrines was worshipped as a manifestation of Inari Ōkami. These creatures were thought to be extraordinary spiritual beings, and this perception, combined with their relationship with the specific kami, likely gave rise to this phenomenon.” ref

“It probably originated in shamanic practices, where animals aided shamans in traveling to the spirit world. Different deities have different associated animals, such as foxes for Inari Okami and deer with Kasuga. Many tribal communities viewed their shaman’s familiar as an ancestor, and this may have influenced the connection between animals and spirits in Shinto. For example the Kamo clan believed that Yatagarasu was their ancestor Kamotaketsunumi no Mikoto.” ref

“At Ise Jingu, roosters roam around and are believed to be the assistants of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. They wake her up every morning, according to folklore. Some experts believe that the rooster may be the bird depicted on the torii gate, a gate that marks the entrance to a shrine. They are believed to call up the dawn with their sounds. Inari Okami‘s fox messengers are considered to be her, although both Shinto and Buddhist priests discourage it. Rice food sake and other offerings are given to them for her.” ref

“World tree”, “Cosmic tree”, or “Eagle and Serpent Tree”

“The world tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European, Siberian, and Native American religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the terrestrial world, and, through its roots, the underworld. It may also be strongly connected to the motif of the tree of life, but it is the source of wisdom of the ages. Specific world trees include Égig érő fa in Hungarian mythology, Ağaç Ana in Turkic mythology, Kenac’ Car^[1] in Armenian mythology, Modun in Mongol mythology, Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, Irminsul in Germanic mythology, the oak in Slavic, Finnish and Baltic, Jianmu (Chinese: 建木; pinyin: jiànmù) in Chinese mythology, and in Hindu mythology the Ashvattha (a Ficus religiosa).” ref

“Scholarship states that many Eurasian mythologies share the motif of the “world tree”, “cosmic tree”, or “Eagle and Serpent Tree”. More specifically, it shows up in “Haitian, Finnish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Norse, Siberian and northern Asian Shamanic folklore.” The World Tree is often identified with the Tree of Life, and also fulfills the role of an axis mundi, that is, a centre or axis of the world. It is also located at the center of the world and represents order and harmony of the cosmos. According to Loreta Senkute, each part of the tree corresponds to one of the three spheres of the world (treetops – heavens; trunk – middle world or earth; roots – underworld) and is also associated with a classical element (top part – fire; middle part – earth, soil, ground; bottom part – water).” ref

“Its branches are said to reach the skies and its roots to connect the human or earthly world with an underworld or subterranean realm. Because of this, the tree was worshipped as a mediator between Heavens and Earth. On the treetops are located the luminaries (stars) and heavenly bodies, along with an eagle’s nest; several species of birds perch among its branches; humans and animals of every kind live under its branches, and near the root is the dwelling place of snakes and every sort of reptiles. ” ref

“A bird perches atop its foliage, “often …. a winged mythical creature” that represents a heavenly realm. The eagle seems to be the most frequent bird, fulfilling the role of a creator or weather deity. Its antipode is a snake or serpentine creature that crawls between the tree roots, being a “symbol of the underworld”. The imagery of the World Tree is sometimes associated with conferring immortality, either by a fruit that grows on it or by a springsource located nearby. As George Lechler also pointed out, in some descriptions this “water of life” may also flow from the roots of the tree. ” ref

“The World Tree has also been compared to a World Pillar that appears in other traditions and functions as separator between the earth and the skies, upholding the latter. Another representation akin to the World Tree is a separate World Mountain. However, in some stories, the world tree is located atop the world mountain, in a combination of both motifs. ” ref

“A conflict between a serpentine creature and a giant bird (an eagle) occurs in Eurasian mythologies: a hero kills the serpent that menaces a nest of little birds, and their mother repays the favor – a motif comparativist Julien d’Huy dates to the Paleolithic. A parallel story is attested in the traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, where the thunderbird is slotted into the role of the giant bird whose nest is menaced by a “snake-like water monster. ” ref

“Romanian historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, in his monumental work Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, suggested that the world tree was an important element in shamanistic worldview. Also, according to him, “the giant bird … hatches shamans in the branches of the World Tree”. Likewise, Roald Knutsen indicates the presence of the motif in Altaic shamanism. Representations of the world tree are reported to be portrayed in drums used in Siberian shamanistic practices.” ref

“Some species of birds (eagle, raven, crane, loon, and lark) are revered as mediators between worlds and also connected to the imagery of the world tree. Another line of scholarship points to a “recurring theme” of the owl as the mediator to the upper realm, and its counterpart, the snake, as the mediator to the lower regions of the cosmos. Researcher Kristen Pearson mentions Northern Eurasian and Central Asian traditions wherein the World Tree is also associated with the horse and with deer antlers (which might resemble tree branches). ” ref

“Mircea Eliade proposed that the typical imagery of the world tree (bird at the top, snake at the root) “is presumably of Oriental origin”. Likewise, Roald Knutsen indicates a possible origin of the motif in Central Asia and later diffusion into other regions and cultures.

• Among Indigenous Mesoamerican cultures, the concept of “world trees” is a prevalent motif in Mesoamerican cosmologies and iconography. The Temple of the Cross Complex at Palenque contains one of the most studied examples of the world tree in architectural motifs of all Mayan ruins. World trees embodied the four cardinal directions, which represented also the fourfold nature of a central world tree, a symbolic axis mundi connecting the planes of the Underworld and the sky with that of the terrestrial world.
• Depictions of world trees, both in their directional and central aspects, are found in the art and traditions of cultures such as the Maya, Aztec, Izapan, Mixtec, Olmec, and others, dating to at least the Mid/Late Formative periods of Mesoamerican chronology. Among the Maya, the central world tree was conceived as, or represented by, a ceiba tree, called yax imix che (‘blue-green tree of abundance’) by the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. The trunk of the tree could also be represented by an upright caiman, whose skin evokes the tree’s spiny trunk. These depictions could also show birds perched atop the trees.
• A similarly named tree, yax cheel cab (‘first tree of the world’), was reported by 17th-century priest Andrés de Avendaño to have been worshipped by the Itzá Maya. However, scholarship suggests that this worship derives from some form of cultural interaction between “pre-Hispanic iconography and [millenary] practices” and European traditions brought by the Hispanic colonization.
• Directional world trees are also associated with the four Yearbearers in Mesoamerican calendars, and the directional colors and deities. Mesoamerican codices which have this association outlined include the Dresden, Borgia and Fejérváry-Mayer codices. It is supposed that Mesoamerican sites and ceremonial centers frequently had actual trees planted at each of the four cardinal directions, representing the quadripartite concept.
• World trees are frequently depicted with birds in their branches, and their roots extending into earth or water (sometimes atop a “water-monster”, symbolic of the underworld).
• The central world tree has also been interpreted as a representation of the band of the Milky Way.
• Izapa Stela 5 contains a possible representation of a world tree.” ref

“A common theme in most indigenous cultures of the Americas is a concept of directionality (the horizontal and vertical planes), with the vertical dimension often being represented by a world tree. Some scholars have argued that the religious importance of the horizontal and vertical dimensions in many animist cultures may derive from the human body and the position it occupies in the world as it perceives the surrounding living world. Many Indigenous cultures of the Americas have similar cosmologies regarding the directionality and the world tree, however the type of tree representing the world tree depends on the surrounding environment. For many Indigenous American peoples located in more temperate regions for example, it is the spruce rather than the ceiba that is the world tree; however the idea of cosmic directions combined with a concept of a tree uniting the directional planes is similar. ” ref

“In 20th-century comparative mythology, the term axis mundi – also called the cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, center of the world, or world tree – has been greatly extended to refer to any mythological concept representing “the connection between Heaven and Earth” or the “higher and lower realms”. Mircea Eliade introduced the concept in the 1950s. Axis mundi closely relates to the mythological concept of the omphalos (navel) of the world or cosmos. Items adduced as examples of the axis mundi by comparative mythologists include plants (notably a tree but also other types of plants such as a vine or stalk), a mountain, a column of smoke or fire, or a product of human manufacture (such as a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase, a maypole, a cross, a steeple, a rope, a totem pole, a pillar, a spire).” ref

“Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are chiefly religious (pagoda, temple mount, minaret, church) or secular (obelisk, lighthouse, rocket, skyscraper). The image appears in religious and secular contexts. The axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced “urban centers”. In Mircea Eliade‘s opinion: “Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred above all.” ref

“Specific examples of cosmic mountains or centers include one from Egyptian texts described as providing support for the sky, Mount Mashu from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Adam’s Peak which is a sacred mountain in Sri Lanka associated with Adam or Buddha in Islamic and Buddhist traditions respectively, Mount Qaf in other Islamic and Arabic cosmologies, the mountain Harā Bərəz in Zoroastrian cosmology, Mount Meru in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmologies, and Mecca as a cosmic center in Sufi cosmology (with minority traditions placing it as Medina or Jerusalem). ” ref

“Ancient symbols such as the axis mundi lie in a particular philosophical or metaphysical representation of a common and culturally shared philosophical concept, which is that of a natural reflection of the macrocosm (or existence at grand scale) in the microcosm (which consists of either an individual, community, or local environment that shares the same principles and structures as the macrocosm). In this metaphysical representation of the universe, mankind is placed into an existence that serves as a microcosm of the universe or the entire cosmic existence, and who – in order to achieve higher states of existence or liberation into the macrocosm – must gain necessary insights into universal principles that can be represented by his life or environment in the microcosm.” ref

“In many religious and philosophical traditions around the world, mankind is seen as a sort of bridge between either: two worlds, the earthly and the heavenly (as in Hindu, and Taoist philosophical and theological systems); or three worlds, namely the earthly, heavenly, and the “sub-earthly” or “infra-earthly” (e.g., the underworld, as in the Ancient Greek, Incan, Mayan, and Ancient Egyptian religious systems). Spanning these philosophical systems is the belief that man traverses a sort of axis, or path, which can lead from man’s current central position in the intermediate realms into heavenly or sub-earthly realms. Thus, in this view, symbolic representations of a vertical axis represent a path of “ascent” or “descent” into other spiritual or material realms, and often capture a philosophy that considers human life to be a quest in which one develops insights or perfections in order to move beyond this current microcosmic realm and to engage with the grand macrocosmic order.” ref

“In other interpretations, an axis mundi is more broadly defined as a place of connection between heavenly and the earthly realms – often a mountain or other elevated site. Tall mountains are often regarded as sacred and some have shrines erected at the summit or base. Mount Kunlun fills a similar role in China. Mount Kailash is holy to Hinduism and several religions in Tibet. The Pitjantjatjara people in central Australia consider Uluru to be central to both their world and culture. The Teide volcano was for the Canarian aborigines (Guanches) a kind of axis mundi. In ancient Mesopotamia, the cultures of ancient Sumer and Babylon built tall platforms, or ziggurats, to elevate temples on the flat river plain.” ref

“Hindu temples in India are often situated on high mountains – e.g., Amarnath, Tirupati, Vaishno Devi, etc. The pre-Columbian residents of Teotihuacán in Mexico erected huge pyramids, featuring staircases leading to heaven. These Amerindian temples were often placed on top of caves or subterranean springs, which were thought to be openings to the underworld. Jacob’s Ladder is an axis mundi image, as is the Temple Mount. For Christians, the Cross on Mount Calvary expresses this symbol. The Middle Kingdom, China, had a central mountain, Kunlun, known in Taoist literature as “the mountain at the middle of the world”. To “go into the mountains” meant to dedicate oneself to a spiritual life.” ref

“As the abstract concept of axis mundi is present in many cultural traditions and religious beliefs, it can be thought to exist in any number of locales at once. Mount Hermon was regarded as the axis mundi in Canaanite tradition, from where the sons of God are introduced descending in 1 Enoch 6:6. The ancient Armenians had a number of holy sites, the most important of which was Mount Ararat, which was thought to be the home of the gods as well as the center of the universe. Likewise, the ancient Greeks regarded several sites as places of Earth’s omphalos (navel) stone, notably the oracle at Delphi, while still maintaining a belief in a cosmic world tree and in Mount Olympus as the abode of the gods.” ref

“Judaism has the Temple Mount; Christianity has the Mount of Olives and Calvary; and Islam has the Ka’aba (said to be the first building on Earth), as well as the Temple Mount (Dome of the Rock). In Hinduism, Mount Kailash is identified with the mythical Mount Meru and regarded as the home of Shiva; in Vajrayana Buddhism, Mount Kailash is recognized as the most sacred place where all the dragon currents converge and is regarded as the gateway to Shambhala. In Shinto, the Ise Shrine is the omphalos.” ref

“Plants often serve as images of the axis mundi. The image of the Cosmic Tree provides an axis symbol that unites three planes: sky (branches), earth (trunk), and underworld (roots). In some Pacific Island cultures, the banyan tree – of which the Bodhi tree is of the Sacred Fig variety – is the abode of ancestor spirits. In Hindu religion, the banyan tree is considered sacred and is called ashwath vriksha (“Of all trees I am the banyan tree” – Bhagavad Gita). It represents eternal life because of its seemingly ever-expanding branches. The Bodhi tree is also the name given to the tree under which Gautama Siddhartha, the historical Buddha, sat on the night he attained enlightenment. The Mesoamerican world tree connects the planes of the underworld and the sky with that of the terrestrial realm.” ref

“The Yggdrasil, or World Ash, functions in much the same way in Norse mythology; it is the site where Odin found enlightenment. Other examples include Jievaras in Lithuanian mythology and Thor’s Oak in the myths of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis present two aspects of the same image. Each is said to stand at the center of the paradise garden from which four rivers flow to nourish the whole world. Each tree confers a boon. Bamboo, the plant from which Asian calligraphy pens are made, represents knowledge and is regularly found on Asian college campuses. The Christmas tree, which can be traced in its origins back to pre-Christian European beliefs, represents an axis mundi. In Yoruba religion, oil palm is the axis mundi (though not necessarily a “world tree”) that Ọrunmila climbs to alternate between heaven and earth. ” ref

“Sacred places can constitute world centers (omphaloi), with an altar or place of prayer as the axis. Altars, incense sticks, candles, and torches form the axis by sending a column of smoke, and prayer, toward heaven. It has been suggested by Romanian religious historian Mircea Eliade that architecture of sacred places often reflects this role: “Every temple or palace – and by extension, every sacred city or royal residence – is a Sacred Mountain, thus becoming a Centre.” ref

“Pagoda structures in Asian temples take the form of a stairway linking earth and heaven. A steeple in a church or a minaret in a mosque also serve as connections of earth and heaven. Structures such as the maypole, derived from the Saxons‘ Irminsul, and the totem pole among indigenous peoples of the Americas also represent world axes. The calumet, or sacred pipe, represents a column of smoke (the soul) rising from a world center. A mandala creates a world center within the boundaries of its two-dimensional space analogous to that created in three-dimensional space by a shrine. ” ref

Kagu-tsuchi

“Kagutsuchi (カグツチ; Old Japanese: Kagututi), also known as Hi-no-Kagutsuchi or Homusubi among other names, is the kami of fire in classical Japanese mythology. Kagutsuchi’s birth burned his mother Izanami, causing her death. His father Izanagi, in his grief, beheaded Kagutsuchi with his sword, Ame no Ohabari (天之尾羽張), and cut his body into eight pieces, which became eight volcanoes. Kagutsuchi’s corpse created numerous deities, which typically includes Watatsumi, Kuraokami, Takemikazuchi, Futsunushi, Amatsu-Mikaboshi, and Ōyamatsumi.” ref

Kagutsuchi’s birth, in Japanese mythology, comes at the end of the creation of the world and marks the beginning of death. In the Engishiki, a source which contains the myth, Izanami, in her death throes, bears the water goddess Mizuhanome, instructing her to pacify Kagu-tsuchi if he should become violent. This story also contains references to traditional fire-fighting tools: gourds for carrying water and wet clay and water reeds for smothering fires. The name Kagutsuchi was originally a compound phrase, consisting of kagu, an Old Japanese root verb meaning “to shine”; tsu, the Old Japanese possessive particle; and chi, an Old Japanese root meaning “force, power.” ref

Benzaiten

“Benzaiten (shinjitai: 弁才天 or 弁財天; kyūjitai: 辯才天, 辨才天, or 辨財天, lit. “goddess of eloquence”, Benten, Chinese: 辯才天, Biancaitian) is an East Asian Buddhist goddess (technically a Dharmapala, “Dharma protector”) who originated mainly from the Hindu Indian Saraswati, goddess of speech, the arts, and learning. Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the sixth through eighth centuries, mainly via Classical Chinese translations of the Golden Light Sutra (Sanskrit: Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra), which has a section devoted to her. Benzaiten was also adopted into Shinto religion, and there are several Shinto shrines dedicated to her.” ref

“While Benzaiten retains many of the Indic attributes of Saraswati (as patron of music, the arts, eloquence, knowledge), she also has many unique aspects, roles and functions which never applied to the Indian goddess. As such, Benzaiten is now also associated with dragons, snakes, local Japanese deities, wealth, fortune, protection from disease and danger, and the protection of the state.” ref

“Saraswati (Sanskrit: Sarasvatī; Pali: Sarassatī) was originally in the Rigveda a river goddess, the deification of the Sarasvati River. She was identified with Vach (Skt. Vāc), the Vedic goddess of speech, and from there became considered to be the patron of music and the arts, knowledge, and learning. In addition to their association with eloquence and speech, both Saraswati and Vach also show warrior traits: Saraswati for instance was called the “Vritra-slayer” (Vṛtraghnī) in the Rigveda (6.61.7) and was associated with the Maruts. She was also associated with the Ashvins, with whom she collaborates to bolster Indra‘s strength by telling him how to kill the asura Namuchi. In a hymn in Book 10 of the Rigveda (10.125.6), Vach declares: “I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion. I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven.” ref

“Saraswati, like many other Hindu deities, was eventually adopted into Buddhism, figuring mainly in Mahayana texts. In the 15th chapter of Yijing‘s translation of the Sutra of Golden Light (Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra) into Classical Chinese (Taishō Tripitaka 885), Saraswati (大辯才天女, pinyin: Dàbiàncáitiānnǚ; Japanese: Daibenzaitennyo, lit. “great goddess of eloquence”) appears before the Buddha‘s assembly and vows to protect all those who put their faith in the sutra, recite it, or copy it. In addition, she promises to increase the intelligence of those who recite the sutra so that they will be able to understand and remember various dharanis.

She then teaches the assembly various mantras with which one can heal all illnesses and escape all manner of misfortune. One of the Buddha’s disciples, the brahmin Kaundinya, then praises Saraswati, comparing her to Vishnu’s consort Narayani (Lakshmi) and declaring that she can manifest herself not only as a benevolent deity, but also as Yami, the sister of Yama. He then describes her eight-armed form with all its attributes — bow, arrow, sword, spear, axe, vajra, iron wheel, and noose. The poem describes Saraswati as one who “has sovereignty in the world”, as one who is “good fortune, success, and peace of mind”. It also states that she fights in battlefields and is always victorious.” ref

“One key concern of the Golden Light Sutra is the protection of the state, and as such, Saraswati here also takes on some form of a warrior goddess, similar to Durga.^[13] Bernard Faure also notes that the Vach already had martial attributes, which may have been retained in some form. Saraswati became the Chinese 辯才天 (Bencaitian) or “great eloquence deity” (大辯天). This became the Japanese 弁財天 (Benzaiten). In East Asian Buddhism, she is one of the Twenty-Four Protective Deities (Chinese: 二十四諸天; pinyin: Èrshísì Zhūtiān). She remained associated with wealth, music, and eloquence and also took on aspects of a fierce protector of the state (due to the influence of the Golden Light Sutra which promises to protect a country where the sutra is chanted).” ref

“During the medieval period onwards, Benzaiten came to be associated or even conflated with a number of Buddhist and local deities, including the goddess Kisshōten (the Buddhist version of the Hindu Lakshmi, whose role as goddess of fortune eventually became ascribed to Benzaiten in popular belief). As such, she was eventually also worshiped as a bestower of monetary fortune and became part of the set of popular deities known as the Seven Lucky Gods (shichifukujin).” ref

“Benzaiten is depicted a number of ways in Japanese art. She is often depicted holding a biwa (a traditional Japanese lute) similar to how Saraswati is depicted with a veena in Indian art, though she may also be portrayed wielding a sword and a wish-granting jewel (cintāmaṇi). An iconographic formula showing Benzaiten with eight arms holding a variety of weapons (based on the Golden Light Sutra) meanwhile is believed to derive from Durga’s iconography. As Uga Benzaiten, she may also be shown with Ugajin (a human-headed white snake) above her head. Lastly, she is also portrayed (albeit rarely) with the head of a snake or a dragon. It’s worth noting that Benzaiten’s worship also spread to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period, and she is still venerated in certain locations in Taiwan, such as the Xian Dong Yan temple in Keelung City.” ref

ref

The Origins of Torii Gates

What is a torii? 

“The word “torii” is the combination of two kanji: 鳥居. 鳥 means bird, and 居 which means existing. If you travel to Japan, you will inevitably see at least one. Indeed, Torii are the gate of every Shinto shrine. These gateways are made from wood and symbolize the barrier between the profane world and the deities’ world. When you go through a torii gate, be careful to always walk on the sides and never in the middle, which is the path reserved for deities.” ref

“When you hear the word “shrine”, the first image that comes to your mind is probably the “torii” gate. It is probably the same for us Japanese. It’s one of the icons that easily reminds us of Japan, isn’t it? The “torii” gate is the entrance to the Shinto shrine, and represents the boundary between human society and the sacred realm. As a matter of fact, we don’t know the detailed origins because there is nothing definite… There are a lot of theories. To name a few representative theories… This is one of the episodes in Japanese mythology. When Amaterasu-Omikami, one of the gods of Japan, was locked up in Amanoiwato (it is rock door), the other gods crowed chickens to make her open the door. One theory is that “Torii” is modeled after the perch where the chicken used to perch.” ref

“The other theory is that the name “Torii” came from the meaning of the word “Tohriiru(passing through)”. Even though it is very familiar to Japanese people, there are still many unknowns about it. Well, it’s one of those cultures that has been handed down for such a long-ago time. “Torii” can be classified into several categories according to the characteristics of each part. Originally, the shape of the “torii” was determined by the lineage or character of the deity being enshrined. However, due to the influence of various architectural styles, including Buddhist architecture introduced from the continent, the architectural styles of shrines have also diversified. That is why today, except for a few “shrines”, the shape is not so strictly defined.” ref

“Shinto shrines are easy to recognize when traveling around Japan. If you see a red gate, it means that you are in front of a sacred place. The variety in size and locations of Shinto shrines in Japan is amazing: One can not only find shrines of all dimensions, from small to enormous ones, but also in exposed as well as inconspicuous places, such as in a neighborhood garden or next to a bustling street. Similar torii-like constructions when visiting South Korea or Thailand. In India, there is an ornamental gate called ‘torana’, which was used for ceremonial purposes in the Hindu and Buddhist architecture. With the spread of Hindu and Buddhist traditions, the torana were brought to other countries, such as China, Korea, Thailand, and Japan. The name used for this ornamental gate was not the same in these countries, indeed in China, the gate is known as ‘pailou’, in Korea as ‘hongsalmun’, and as ‘sao ching cha’ in Thailand.” ref

“In Japan this gate is called torii. If you look at the kanji of torii in Japanese, the meaning of the first kanji is ‘bird’ and the second refers to ‘existence’. Now the first question is why the name of a gate has nothing to do with ‘gate’ or ‘entrance’. The second question is why the word torii contains ‘bird’ when it does not even have the shape of a bird… Well, there is a story behind the use of these two kanji 鳥居. As mentioned before, there is a variety of views regarding the origin of the torii. In the following, we will have a look at one version including the sun goddess Amaterasu. In Japanese mythology, Amaterasu is the daughter of the two creator deities Izanami and Izanagi. She is radiant, kind and brings joy to life; characteristics which stand in contrast to her brothers the moon deity Tsukuyomi and the storm god Susanoo.” ref

“The episode, which presents a possible explanation for the word torii, occurs shortly after Susanoo was banished from heaven by Izanagi. Before leaving Susanoo went to bid Amaterasu farewell. As Amaterasu did not trust her brother, she proposed a contest to prove his sincerity. But Amaterasu tricked him and won the challenge. Out of frustration Susanoo destroyed Amaterasu’s loom and her rice fields and killed her favorite attendant. Amaterasu was incredibly upset and hid herself away in the ama-no-iwato (天岩戸 ‘heavenly rock cave’). Due to Amaterasu’s status as the sun goddess, hiding in a cave resulted in an eclipse, and the people worried that they would never see sunlight again.” ref

“An old wise man advised to build a large wooden bird perch, placing all the roosters of the towns there. As they crowed, the big noise reached Amaterasu who was still inside the cave. Driven by curiosity, she took a peek out of the cave, and as soon as she opened the cave, strong gods quickly pushed the boulder aside, which was blocking the sun goddess and thus saved the world. The torii became a symbol of the entrance to the sacred, a gate that brings one from darkness into light. According to this story a bird perch was the first torii gate, which explains the two kanji ‘bird’ and ‘existence’. As the world has been blessed with light again due to the very first torii, they have become a symbol of prosperity and good fortune in Japan.” ref

Amaterasu

“Amaterasu Ōmikami (天照大御神, 天照大神), often called Amaterasu for short, also known as Ōhirume no Muchi no Kami (大日孁貴神), is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. Often considered the chief deity (kami) of the Shinto pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan’s earliest literary texts, the Kojiki (c. 712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki (720 CE), as the ruler (or one of the rulers) of the heavenly realm Takamagahara and as the mythical ancestress of the Imperial House of Japan via her grandson Ninigi. Along with two of her siblings (the moon deity Tsukuyomi and the impetuous storm-god Susanoo) she ranks as one of the “Three Precious Children” (三貴子, mihashira no uzu no miko / sankishi), the three most important offspring of the creator god Izanagi.” ref

“Amaterasu’s chief place of worship, the Grand Shrine of Ise in Ise, Mie Prefecture, is one of Shinto’s holiest sites and a major pilgrimage center and tourist spot. As with other Shinto kami, she is also enshrined in a number of Shinto shrines throughout Japan. The goddess is referred to as Amaterasu Ōmikami (天照大御神 / 天照大神; historical orthography: あまてらすおほみかみ, Amaterasu Ohomikami; Old Japanese: Amaterasu Opomi₁kami₂) in the Kojiki, while the Nihon Shoki gives the following variant names:

• Ōhirume-no-Muchi (大日孁貴; Man’yōgana: 於保比屢咩能武智; hist. orthography: おほひるめのむち, Ohohirume-no-Muchi; Old Japanese: Opopi₁rume₁-no₂-Muti)
• Amaterasu Ō(mi)kami (天照大神; hist. orthography: あまてらすおほ(み)かみ, Amaterasu Oho(mi)kami)
• Amaterasu Ōhirume no Mikoto (天照大日孁尊)
• Hi-no-Kami (日神; OJ: Pi₁-no-Kami₂)” ref

“Amaterasu is thought to derive from the verb amateru ‘to illuminate / shine in the sky’ (ama ‘sky, heaven’ + teru ‘to shine’) combined with the honorific auxiliary verb -su, while Ōmikami means ‘great august deity’ (ō ‘great’ + honorific prefix mi+ kami). Notably, Amaterasu in Amaterasu Ōmikami is not technically a name the same way Susanoo in Susa no O no Mikoto or Ōkuninushi in Ōkuninushi no Kami are. Amaterasu is an attributive verb form that modifies the noun after it, ōmikami. This epithet is therefore, much more semantically transparent than most names recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, in that it means exactly what it means, without allusion, inference or etymological opacity, literally ‘The Great August Goddess Who Shines in Heaven’. This usage is analogous to the use of relative clauses in English, only different in that Japanese clauses are placed in front of the noun they modify. This is further exemplified by (1) an alternative epithet, Amateru Kami (天照神, ” ref

“The Goddess Who Shines in Heaven’), which is a plain, non-honorific version of Amaterasu Ōmikami, (2) alternative forms of the verb amaterasu used elsewhere, for example its continuative form amaterashi (天照之) in the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, and (3) similar uses of attributive verb forms in certain epithets, such as Emperor Jimmu‘s Hatsu Kunishirasu Sumeramikoto (始馭天下之天皇, ‘His Majesty Who First Rules the Land’). There are, still, certain verb forms that are treated as proper names, such as the terminal negative fukiaezu in ‘Ugayafukiaezu no Mikoto’ (鸕鷀草葺不合尊, ‘His Augustness, Incompletely-Thatched-with-Cormorant-Feathers’)” ref

“Her other name, Ōhirume, is usually understood as meaning ‘great woman of the sun / daytime’ (cf. hiru ‘day(time), noon’, from hi ‘sun, day’ + me ‘woman, lady’), though alternative etymologies such as ‘great spirit woman’ (taking hi to mean ‘spirit’) or ‘wife of the sun’ (suggested by Orikuchi Shinobu, who put forward the theory that Amaterasu was originally conceived of as the consort or priestess of a male solar deity) had been proposed. A possible connection with the name Hiruko (the child rejected by the gods Izanagi and Izanami and one of Amaterasu’s siblings) has also been suggested. To this name is appended the honorific muchi, which is also seen in a few other theonyms such as ‘Ō(a)namuchi‘ or ‘Michinushi-no-Muchi’ (an epithet of the three Munakata goddesses). ” ref

“As the ancestress of the imperial line, the epithet Sume(ra)-Ō(mi)kami (皇大神, lit. ’great imperial deity’; also read as Kōtaijin^[) is also applied to Amaterasu in names such as Amaterasu Sume(ra) Ō(mi)kami (天照皇大神, also read as ‘Tenshō Kōtaijin’) and ‘Amaterashimasu-Sume(ra)-Ōmikami’ (天照坐皇大御神). During the medieval and early modern periods, the deity was also referred to as ‘Tenshō Daijin’ (the on’yomi of 天照大神) or ‘Amateru Ongami’ (an alternate reading of the same).” ref

“The name Amaterasu Ōmikami has been translated into English in different ways. While a number of authors such as Donald Philippi rendered it as ‘heaven-illuminating great deity’, Basil Hall Chamberlain argued (citing the authority of Motoori Norinaga) that it is more accurately understood to mean ‘shining in heaven’ (because the auxiliary su is merely honorific, not causative, such interpretation as ‘to make heaven shine’ would miss the mark), and accordingly translated it as ‘Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity’. Gustav Heldt’s 2014 translation of the Kojiki, meanwhile, renders it as “the great and mighty spirit Heaven Shining.” ref

“Both the Kojiki (c. 712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki (720 CE) agree in their description of Amaterasu as the daughter of the god Izanagi and the elder sister of Tsukuyomi, the deity of the moon, and Susanoo, the god of storms and seas. The circumstances surrounding the birth of these three deities, known as the “Three Precious Children” (三貴子, mihashira no uzu no miko or sankishi), however, vary between sources:

• In the Kojiki, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo were born when Izanagi went to “[the plain of] Awagihara by the river-mouth of Tachibana in Himuka in [the island of] Tsukushi” and bathed (misogi) in the river to purify himself after visiting Yomi, the underworld, in a failed attempt to rescue his deceased wife, Izanami. Amaterasu was born when Izanagi washed his left eye, Tsukuyomi was born when he washed his right eye, and Susanoo was born when he washed his nose. Izanagi then appoints Amaterasu to rule Takamagahara (the “Plain of High Heaven”), Tsukuyomi the night, and Susanoo the seas. ” ref

“The main narrative of the Nihon Shoki has Izanagi and Izanami procreating after creating the Japanese archipelago; to them were born (in the following order) Ōhirume-no-Muchi (Amaterasu), Tsukuyomi, the ‘leech-child’ Hiruko, and Susanoo:

After this Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto consulted together, saying:—”We have now produced the Great-eight-island country, with the mountains, rivers, herbs, and trees. Why should we not produce someone who shall be lord of the universe?” They then together produced the Sun-Goddess, who was called Oho-hiru-me no muchi. […]” ref

“The resplendent lustre of this child shone throughout all the six quarters. Therefore the two Deities rejoiced, saying:—”We have had many children, but none of them have been equal to this wondrous infant. She ought not to be kept long in this land, but we ought of our own accord to send her at once to Heaven, and entrust to her the affairs of Heaven.”
At this time Heaven and Earth were still not far separated, and therefore they sent her up to Heaven by the ladder of Heaven.” ref

• “A variant legend recorded in the Shoki has Izanagi begetting Ōhirume (Amaterasu) by holding a bronze mirror in his left hand, Tsukuyomi by holding another mirror in his right hand, and Susanoo by turning his head and looking sideways.
• A third variant in the Shoki has Izanagi and Izanami begetting the sun, the moon, Hiruko, and Susanoo, as in the main narrative. Their final child, the fire god Kagutsuchi, caused Izanami’s death (as in the Kojiki).
• A fourth variant relates a similar story to that found in the Kojiki, wherein the three gods are born when Izanagi washed himself in the river of Tachibana after going to Yomi. ” ref

Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi

“One of the variant legends in the Shoki relates that Amaterasu ordered her brother Tsukuyomi to go down to the terrestrial world (Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni, the “Central Land of Reed-Plains”) and visit the goddess Ukemochi. When Ukemochi vomited foodstuffs out of her mouth and presented them to Tsukuyomi at a banquet, a disgusted and offended Tsukuyomi slew her and went back to Takamagahara. This act upset Amaterasu, causing her to split away from Tsukuyomi, thus separating night from day. Amaterasu then sent another god, Ame-no-Kumahito (天熊人), who found various food-crops and animals emerging from Ukemochi’s corpse. ” ref

“On the crown of her head there had been produced the ox and the horse; on the top of her forehead there had been produced millet; over her eyebrows there had been produced the silkworm; within her eyes there had been produced panic; in her belly there had been produced rice; in her genitals there had been produced wheat, large beans and small beans. Amaterasu had the grains collected and sown for humanity’s use and, putting the silkworms in her mouth, reeled thread from them. From this began agriculture and sericulture. This account is not found in the Kojiki, where a similar story is instead told of Susanoo and the goddess Ōgetsuhime.” ref

“When Susanoo, the youngest of the three divine siblings, was expelled by his father Izanagi for his troublesome nature and incessant wailing on account of missing his deceased mother Izanami, he first went up to Takamagahara to say farewell to Amaterasu. A suspicious Amaterasu went out to meet him dressed in male clothing and clad in armor, at which Susanoo proposed a trial by pledge (ukehi) to prove his sincerity. In the ritual, the two gods each chewed and spat out an object carried by the other (in some variants, an item they each possessed). Five (or six) gods and three goddesses were born as a result; Amaterasu adopted the males as her sons and gave the females – later known as the three Munakata goddesses – to Susanoo.” ref

“Susanoo, declaring that he had won the trial as he had produced deities of the required gender, then “raged with victory” and proceeded to wreak havoc by destroying his sister’s rice fields and defecating in her palace. While Amaterasu tolerated Susanoo’s behavior at first, his “misdeeds did not cease, but became even more flagrant” until one day, he bore a hole in the rooftop of Amaterasu’s weaving hall and hurled the “heavenly piebald horse” (天斑駒, ame no fuchikoma), which he had flayed alive, into it. One of Amaterasu’s weaving maidens was alarmed and struck her genitals against a weaving shuttle, killing her. In response, a furious Amaterasu shut herself inside the Ame-no-Iwayato (天岩屋戸, ‘Heavenly Rock-Cave Door’, also known as Ama-no-Iwato), plunging heaven and earth into total darkness.” ref

“The main account in the Shoki has Amaterasu wounding herself with the shuttle when Susanoo threw the flayed horse in her weaving hall, while a variant account identifies the goddess who was killed during this incident as Wakahirume-no-Mikoto (稚日女尊, lit. ’young woman of the sun / day(time)’).” ref

“Whereas the above accounts identify Susanoo’s flaying of the horse as the immediate cause for Amaterasu hiding herself, yet another variant in the Shoki instead portrays it to be Susanoo defecating in her seat:

In one writing it is said:—”The august Sun Goddess took an enclosed rice-field and made it her Imperial rice-field. Now Sosa no wo no Mikoto, in spring, filled up the channels and broke down the divisions, and in autumn, when the grain was formed, he forthwith stretched round them division ropes. Again when the Sun-Goddess was in her Weaving-Hall, he flayed alive a piebald colt and flung it into the Hall. In all these various matters his conduct was rude in the highest degree. Nevertheless, the Sun-Goddess, out of her friendship for him, was not indignant or resentful, but took everything calmly and with forbearance.” ref

“When the time came for the Sun-Goddess to celebrate the feast of first-fruits, Sosa no wo no Mikoto secretly voided excrement under her august seat in the New Palace. The Sun-Goddess, not knowing this, went straight there and took her seat. Accordingly the Sun-Goddess drew herself up, and was sickened. She therefore was enraged, and straightway took up her abode in the Rock-cave of Heaven, and fastened its Rock-door.” ref

“After Amaterasu hid herself in the cave, the gods, led by Omoikane, the god of wisdom, conceived a plan to lure her out:

[The gods] gathered together the long-crying birds of Tokoyo and caused them to cry. (…) They uprooted by the very roots the flourishing ma-sakaki trees of the mountain Ame-no-Kaguyama; to the upper branches they affixed long strings of myriad magatama beads; in the middle branches they hung a large-dimensioned mirror; in the lower branches they suspended white nikite cloth and blue nikite cloth.” ref

“These various objects were held in his hands by Futotama-no-Mikoto as solemn offerings, and Ame-no-Koyane-no-Mikoto intoned a solemn liturgy. Ame-no-Tajikarao-no-Kami stood concealed beside the door, while Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto bound up her sleeves with a cord of heavenly hikage vine, tied around her head a head-band of the heavenly masaki vine, bound together bundles of sasa leaves to hold in her hands, and overturning a bucket before the heavenly rock-cave door, stamped resoundingly upon it. Then she became divinely possessed, exposed her breasts, and pushed her skirt-band down to her genitals. Then Takamanohara shook as the eight-hundred myriad deities laughed at once.” ref

“Inside the cave, Amaterasu is surprised that the gods should show such mirth in her absence. Ame-no-Uzume answered that they were celebrating because another god greater than her had appeared. Curious, Amaterasu slid the boulder blocking the cave’s entrance and peeked out, at which Ame-no-Koyane and Futodama brought out the mirror (the Yata-no-Kagami) and held it before her. As Amaterasu, struck by her own reflection (apparently thinking it to be the other deity Ame-no-Uzume spoke of), approached the mirror, Ame-no-Tajikarao took her hand and pulled her out of the cave, which was then immediately sealed with a straw rope, preventing her from going back inside. Thus was light restored to the world.” ref

“As punishment for his unruly conduct, Susanoo was then driven out of Takamagahara by the other gods. Going down to earth, he arrived at the land of Izumo, where he killed the monstrous serpent Yamata no Orochi to rescue the goddess Kushinadahime, whom he eventually married. From the serpent’s carcass Susanoo found the sword Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (天叢雲剣, ‘Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven’), also known as Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (草薙剣 ‘Grass-Cutting Sword’), which he presented to Amaterasu as a reconciliatory gift. ” ref

“After a time, Amaterasu and the primordial deity Takamimusubi (also known as Takagi-no-Kami) declared that Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni, which was then being ruled over by Ōkuninushi (also known as Ō(a)namuchi), the descendant (Kojiki) or the son (Shoki) of Susanoo, should be pacified and put under the jurisdiction of their progeny, claiming it to be teeming with “numerous deities which shone with a lustre like that of fireflies, and evil deities which buzzed like flies”. Amaterasu ordered Ame-no-Oshihomimi, the firstborn of the five male children born during her contest with Susanoo, to go down to earth and establish his rule over it. However, after inspecting the land below, he deemed it to be in an uproar and refused to go any further.” ref

“At the advice of Omoikane and the other deities, Amaterasu then dispatched another of her five sons, Ame no Hohi. Upon arriving, however, Ame no Hohi began to curry favor with Ōkuninushi and did not send back any report for three years. The heavenly deities then sent a third messenger, Ame-no-Wakahiko, who also ended up siding with Ōkuninushi and marrying his daughter Shitateruhime. After eight years, a female pheasant was sent to question Ame-no-Wakahiko, who killed it with his bow and arrow. The blood-stained arrow flew straight up to Takamagahara at the feet of Amaterasu and Takamimusubi, who then threw it back to earth with a curse, killing Ame-no-Wakahiko in his sleep.” ref

“The preceding messengers having thus failed to complete their task, the heavenly gods finally sent the warrior deities Futsunushi and Takemikazuchi^[d] to remonstrate with Ōkuninushi. At the advice of his son Kotoshironushi, Ōkuninushi agreed to abdicate and left the physical realm to govern the unseen spirit world, which was given to him in exchange. The two gods then went around Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni, killing those who resisted them and rewarding those who rendered submission, before going back to heaven. With the earth now pacified, Amaterasu and Takamimusubi again commanded Ame-no-Oshihomimi to descend and rule it. He, however, again demurred and suggested that his son Ninigi be sent instead.” ref

“Amaterasu thus bequeathed to Ninigi, the sword Susanoo gave her, along with the two items used to lure her out of the Ame-no-Iwayato: the mirror Yata-no-Kagami and the jewel Yasakani no Magatama. With a number of gods serving as his retinue, Ninigi came down from heaven to Mount Takachiho in the land of Himuka and built his palace there. Ninigi became the ancestor of the emperors of Japan, while the mirror, jewel, and sword he brought with him became the three sacred treasures of the imperial house. Five of the gods who accompanied him in his descent – Ame-no-Koyane, Futodama, Ame-no-Uzume, Ishikoridome (the maker of the mirror), and Tamanoya (the maker of the jewel) – meanwhile became the ancestors of the clans involved in court ceremonial such as the Nakatomi and the Inbe. ” ref

Primordial Waters

“All cultures naturally recognize water as a necessary source of life and survival, making it a useful symbol of creative fertility – spiritual and psychological fertility as well as physical fertility. At the same time, large masses of water are uncontrollable and, therefore, aptly representative of chaos – the chaos that precedes creation. Together, these two symbolic functions lead us, like the cosmic egg symbol, to the idea of potential, as yet unformed reality. The primordial waters figure strongly in creation myths from all corners of the world. The waters speak to the larger metaphor of creation as birth. We are all born of the maternal waters, and so, in creation mythology, worlds are typically born of the waters. In the earth diver type of creation myth, a diver, usually a humble animal, is sent by the creator to the depths of the waters to find soil with which to begin the creation of Earth. In several Native American myths, a toad, for instance.” ref

“A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths – metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness. Creation myths often share several features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions. They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily. They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore (‘at that time’). Creation myths address questions deeply meaningful to the society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context. Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions; found throughout human culture, they are the most common form of myth.” ref

“In comparative mythology, sky father is a term for a recurring concept in polytheistic religions of a sky god who is addressed as a “father”, often the father of a pantheon and is often either a reigning or former King of the Gods. The concept of “sky father” may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics, such as Ra. The concept is complementary to an “earth mother. “Sky Father” is a direct translation of the Vedic Dyaus Pita, etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity name as the Greek Zeûs Pater and Roman Jupiter, all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity’s name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr. While there are numerous parallels adduced from outside of Indo-European mythology, there are exceptions (e.g. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).” ref

“A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmological role of a creator- and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, and/or the life-giving bounties thereof in a maternal relation with humanity or other gods. When equated in this lattermost function with the earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as the Mother Earth or Earth Mother, deity in various animistic or pantheistic religions.  The earth goddess is archetypally the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky Father or Father Heaven, particularly in theologies derived from the Proto-Indo-European sphere (i.e. from Dheghom and Dyeus). In some polytheistic cultures, such as the Ancient Egyptian religion which narrates the cosmic egg myth, the sky is instead seen as the Heavenly Mother or Sky Mother as in Nut and Hathor, and the earth god is regarded as the male, paternal, and terrestrial partner, as in Osiris or Geb who hatched out of the maternal cosmic egg.” ref

“In Egyptian mythology, sky goddess Nut is sometimes called “Mother” because she bore stars and Sun god. Nut was thought to draw the dead into her star-filled sky, and refresh them with food and wine. In Kongo religion, the Sky Mother, Nzambici, was the female counterpart of the Sky Father and Solar god, Nzambi Mpungu. Originally, they were seen as one spirit with one half male and the other half female. After the introduction of Christianity to Central Africa, the description of Nzambi changed to Creator God and Nzambici to his wife, “God the essence, the god on earth, the great princess, the mother of all the animals, and the mystery of the Earth.” ref

“In Hinduism, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Radha, Parvati, Durga and other goddesses represents both the feminine aspect and the shakti (power) of the supreme being known as the Brahman The divine mother goddess, manifests herself in various forms, representing the universal creative force. She becomes Mother Nature (Mula Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms and nourishes them through her body. Ultimately she re-absorbs all life forms back into herself, or “devours” them to sustain herself as the power of death feeding on life to produce new life. She also gives rise to Maya (the illusory world) and to prakriti, the force that galvanizes the divine ground of existence into self-projection as the cosmos.” ref

“The Shakti sect is strongly associated with Samkhya, and Tantra Hindu philosophies and ultimately, is monist. The primordial feminine creative-preservative-destructive energy, Shakti, is considered to be the motive force behind all action and existence in the phenomenal cosmos. The cosmos itself is purusha, the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality that is the divine ground of all being, the “world soul”. This masculine potential is actualized by feminine dynamism, embodied in multitudinous goddesses who are ultimately all manifestations of the one great mother. Shakti, herself, can free the individual from demons of ego, ignorance, and desire that bind the soul in maya (illusion). Practitioners of the Tantric tradition focus on Shakti to free themselves from the cycle of karma. The worship of the mother deity can be traced back to early Vedic culture. The Rigveda calls the divine female power Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33) which means “great mother.” ref

“A list of earth deities. An Earth god or Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth associated with a figure with chthonic or terrestrial attributes. There are many different Earth goddesses and gods in many different cultures mythology. However, Earth is usually portrayed as a goddess. Earth goddesses are often associated with the chthonic deities of the underworld. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra, Indic Prithvi, etc. traced to an “Earth Mother” complementary to the “Sky Father” in Proto-Indo-European religion. Egyptian mythology have the sky goddesses, Nut and Hathor, with the earth gods, Osiris and Geb. Ki and Ninhursag are Mesopotamian earth goddesses.” ref

• Tlaltecuhtli, the earth deity whose body created the world
• Tezcatlipoca, Aztec deity associated with the earth, the night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, obsidian, enmity, discord, rulership, divination, temptation, jaguars, sorcery, beauty, war and strife.

• Atsi tsien ke:ion (pronunciation Ageejenguyuon) meaning Mature flower – Sky woman who fell from the sky and created North America on the back of a turtle.
• Hah-nu-nah, the turtle that bears the world.

• Apu, a deity of the mountains
• Mama Pacha, the goddess of the earth
• Pachamama

• Alignak, in Inuit mythology, a lunar deity, but also god of earthquakes, as well as weather, water, tides, and eclipses

• Maka-akaŋ, the earth goddess

• Aganju, in Cuba, is a volcano deity for the practitioners of the Lucumi, Santeria religion

• Trengtrengfilu, Mapuche god of Earth and Fertility

• Spider Grandmother

Before the Sun: The Primordial Waters of Nun

The Concept of Nun in Ancient Egyptian Cosmology

“In the ancient Egyptian worldview, the cosmos began with a primordial state of limitless, formless waters known as Nun. This concept of Nun is central to Egyptian cosmology, representing the origin of all existence and the very foundation of the universe. Nun was not simply water, but a vast, watery chaos that held within it the potential for everything that would come to be. It was a state of infinite possibility, a void pregnant with the seeds of creation. It is a concept that echoes in similar creation myths around the world, reflecting humanity’s deep-seated curiosity about the origins of the universe.” ref

Nun: The Primeval Waters and the Origin of All

“The Egyptians saw Nun as the ultimate source of all things. It was a boundless, primordial ocean, a chaotic yet fertile expanse that existed before the creation of the world. From this watery abyss, the gods and goddesses emerged, and the universe itself took shape. Nun represented the absolute beginning, a state of pure potentiality, a cosmic womb from which everything, from the stars to humans, originated. This concept is rooted in ancient Egypt’s profound connection to the Nile River, which they viewed as a life-giving force, a symbol of fertility and renewal. The annual flooding of the Nile brought life to the land, mirroring the creation of the world from the waters of Nun.” ref

Nun as a Chaotic and Formless Abyss

“While Nun represents the source of creation, it was also associated with chaos and formlessness. The concept of Nun is not to be mistaken for a benign, peaceful ocean. It was a chaotic, watery abyss, a realm of darkness and unknown potential. It is in this formless void that the first god, Atum, emerged. This chaotic nature of Nun reflects the primal stage of the universe before order and structure arose. It is a testament to the creative power of chaos, the potential for order and beauty to emerge from the seemingly formless.” ref

The Role of Atum/Ra in Emerging from Nun

“From the depths of Nun, the self-created god Atum, later identified with the sun god Ra, emerged. Atum was the first being, the creator god who brought order and structure to the chaotic waters of Nun. He did this through a process of self-creation, birthing the world from his own being. This act of emergence is seen as a symbolic representation of the transition from a state of chaos to order, the beginning of the cosmic journey towards a structured universe. The concept of a single god emerging from chaos echoes across cultures, signifying the importance of order and structure in the face of the unknown.” ref

The Creation of the World from the Waters of Nun

“The creation of the world from Nun was not a violent or destructive act but a process of emergence and transformation. Atum, as Ra, brought light to the darkness of Nun, separating the waters above and below. From this act, the land, sky, and air emerged. This process of creation was often depicted in Egyptian mythology as a series of births, with Atum giving rise to the other gods and goddesses who, in turn, created the world and its inhabitants. This process reflects the Egyptian understanding of the universe as a dynamic and interconnected system, with every element playing a vital role in the cosmic order.” ref

The Significance of Nun in Egyptian Mythology and Ritual

“Nun’s significance in Egyptian mythology and ritual is immense. The waters of Nun were seen as a source of life and renewal, a sacred element that embodied the power of creation and the cyclical nature of existence. In rituals, offerings were made to Nun, seeking blessings and protection. The act of bathing in the Nile River was seen as a symbolic connection to the primordial waters of Nun, a way to cleanse and reconnect with the source of life. The concept of Nun underscored the Egyptian understanding of the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth, a belief that deeply influenced their daily rituals and worldview.” ref

The Symbolism of Nun: Water, Darkness, and Potential

“The symbolism of Nun is rich and multifaceted. Water, representing life and fertility, was the primary element of Nun. Darkness, associated with the unknown and the potential for creation, further defines Nun. Nun also symbolizes the potential for creation, the endless possibility that lies within chaos. The concept of Nun reminds us that everything, both beautiful and terrifying, ultimately comes from the same source. The journey from chaos to order, from the formless to the structured, is a central theme in many ancient creation myths and continues to fascinate and inspire us today.” ref

Nun’s Relationship with Other Deities: Geb, Nut, and Shu

“Nun played a significant role in the creation of other Egyptian deities. From the primordial waters of Nun, Atum/Ra gave birth to Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. These two deities, in turn, gave birth to Geb, the god of earth, and Nut, the goddess of the sky, creating the fundamental elements of the cosmos. This complex web of relationships highlights the interconnectedness of creation, where every god and goddess plays a vital role. It reflects how the universe is a complex system where each element, from the primordial waters to the air we breathe, is essential.” ref

The Enduring Influence of Nun in Ancient Egyptian Thought

“The concept of Nun exerted a profound influence on ancient Egyptian thought, permeating their mythology, religion, and daily life. The idea of a primordial ocean from which all things arose influenced their understanding of the universe, the cycle of life and death, and the very nature of existence. It also provided a framework for understanding the relationship between chaos and order, the power of creation, and the interconnectedness of all things. The memory of Nun, the primordial waters, remained a powerful symbol, reminding the Egyptians of their origins and their place in the grand cosmic order.” ref

Nu (mythology)

“Nu (“Watery One”) or Nun (“The Inert One”) (Ancient Egyptian: nnw Nānaw; Coptic: Ⲛⲟⲩⲛ Noun), in ancient Egyptian religion, is the personification of the primordial watery abyss which existed at the time of creation and from which the creator sun god Ra arose. Nu is one of the eight deities of the Ogdoad representing ancient Egyptian primordial Chaos from which the primordial mound arose. Nun can be seen as the first of all the gods and the creator of reality and personification of the cosmos. Nun is also considered the god that will destroy existence and return everything to the Nun whence it came. No cult was addressed to Nun. Nun’s consort (or his female aspect) was the goddess Nunut or Naunet (Ancient Egyptian: nnwt).” ref

“The ancient Egyptians envisaged the oceanic abyss of the Nun as surrounding a bubble in which the sphere of life is encapsulated, representing the deepest mystery of their cosmogony. In ancient Egyptian creation accounts, the original mound of land comes forth from the waters of the Nun. The Nun is the source of all that appears in a differentiated world, encompassing all aspects of divine and earthly existence. In the Ennead cosmogony, Nun is perceived as transcendent at the point of creation alongside Atum the creator god.” ref

“In the beginning the universe only consisted of a great chaotic cosmic ocean, and the ocean itself was referred to as Nu. In some versions of this myth, at the beginning of time Mehet-Weret, portrayed as a cow with a sun disk between her horns, gives birth to the sun, said to have risen from the waters of creation and to have given birth to the sun god Ra in some myths. The universe was enrapt by a vast mass of primordial waters, and the Benben, a pyramid mound, emerged amid this primal chaos. There was a lotus flower with Benben, and from this when it blossomed emerged Ra. There were many versions of the sun’s emergence, and it was said to have emerged directly from the mound or from a lotus flower that grew from the mound, in the form of a heron, falcon, scarab beetle, or human child. In Heliopolis, the creation was attributed to Atum, a deity closely associated with Ra, who was said to have existed in the waters of Nu as an inert potential being.” ref

“Beginning with the Middle Kingdom, Nun is described as “the father of the gods” and he is depicted on temple walls throughout the rest of ancient Egyptian religious history. The Ogdoad includes along with Naunet and Nun, Amaunet and Amun; Hauhet and Heh; and Kauket and Kek. Like the other Ogdoad deities, Nu did not have temples or any center of worship. Even so, Nu was sometimes represented by a sacred lake, or, as at Abydos, by an underground stream. During the Late Period when Egypt was occupied by foreign powers, the negative aspect of Nun (ie. chaos) became the dominant perception, reflecting the forces of disorder that were set loose in the country.” ref

“Nun was depicted as an anthropomorphic large figure and a personification of the primordial waters, with water ripples filling the body, holding a notched palm branch. Nun was also depicted in anthropomorphic form but with the head of a frog, and he was typically depicted in ancient Egyptian art holding aloft the solar barque or the sun disc. He may appear greeting the rising sun in the guise of a baboon. Nun is otherwise symbolized by the presence of a sacred cistern or lake as in the sanctuaries of Karnak and Dendara.” ref

“Nu was shown usually as male but also had aspects that could be represented as female or male. Naunet (also spelt Nunet) is the female aspect, which is the name Nu with a female gender ending. The male aspect, Nun, is written with a male gender ending. As with the primordial concepts of the Ogdoad, Nu’s male aspect was depicted as a frog, or a frog-headed man. In Ancient Egyptian art, Nun also appears as a bearded man, with blue-green skin, representing water. Naunet is represented as a snake or snake-headed woman.” ref

The Primeval Waters: The Source of All That Is

“The concept of the primeval waters, a vast and formless sea from which all existence emerged, resonates across cultures and time. From ancient myths to modern spirituality, this primordial ocean symbolizes the origin and potential of creation, holding the seeds of everything that is, was, and will be. Ancient civilizations across the globe wove tales of cosmic waters, often personified as powerful deities. In Mesopotamian mythology, Apsu and Tiamat, the freshwater and saltwater deities, respectively, represented the primeval chaos. From their union, the world was born, a testament to the creative power of the primordial waters. In Egyptian mythology, Nun, the boundless ocean of primordial waters, gave birth to the gods and goddesses, signifying the life-giving essence of the waters. The Greek concept of Chaos, a primordial void, embodied the chaotic potential of the universe before the emergence of order. From Chaos, Gaia, the earth goddess, rose, representing the birth of the physical world. Norse mythology tells of Ymir, a frost giant born from the primordial ice, a representation of the raw, unformed potential of the universe.” ref

The Waters as a Symbol of Fertility and Life

The life-giving properties of water have been recognized since time immemorial. Water is essential for all life, providing sustenance, nourishment, and the means for growth. This intrinsic connection to life and vitality makes water a powerful symbol of birth, renewal, and the cycle of creation. In many cultures, water is associated with the feminine principle, representing the nurturing and creative power of the mother goddess. This association reinforces the role of water as a source of life and the vital force that drives the world.” ref

The Waters as a Source of Mystery and Uncertainty

The primeval waters, as the origin of all things, represent the unknown and the unknowable. The vast, uncharted depths of the ocean symbolize the mysteries of the universe, a realm of endless possibilities and unfathomable secrets. The oceans are both a source of awe and fear, inspiring wonder and reminding us of our own insignificance in the face of the vast and unknown. Water, therefore, embodies the unconscious, the realm of dreams, and the hidden depths of the human psyche.” ref

The Waters as a Bridge Between Worlds

“In mythology and folklore, water serves as a medium for travel and transformation. Rivers and oceans connect different lands and cultures, acting as pathways between realms, both physical and spiritual. In many traditions, water is associated with the afterlife. For example, the river Styx in Greek mythology separates the world of the living from the realm of the dead, and the ocean in many cultures is seen as a gateway to the otherworld. The fluidity of water symbolizes the fluidity of boundaries and the possibility of shifting between different states of being.” ref

The Waters in Religious and Spiritual Traditions

“The symbolism of the primeval waters, finds expression, in various religions and spiritual traditions. Water baptism, a central ritual in Christianity, represents purification and rebirth, washing away sins and symbolizing a new beginning. In Hinduism and Buddhism, water is revered as a symbol of purity, enlightenment, and the cleansing of the soul. Indigenous cultures around the world hold water as a sacred element, acknowledging its connection to life, fertility, and the spiritual realm. In these traditions, water ceremonies and rituals are used to venerate the life-giving properties of the water, seeking blessings and purification.” ref

Cosmic Ocean

“A cosmic ocean, primordial waters, or celestial river is a mythological motif that represents the world or cosmos enveloped by a vast primordial ocean. Found in many cultures and civilizations, the cosmic ocean exists before the creation of the Earth. From the primordial waters the Earth and the entire cosmos arose. The cosmic ocean represents or embodies chaos. The concept of a watery chaos also underlies the widespread motif of the worldwide flood that took place in early times. The emergence of earth from water and the curbing of the global flood or underground waters are usually presented as a factor in cosmic ordering.” ref

“In creation myths, it is common for the primordial ocean to be separated into upper and lower bounds of water (i.e. cosmic bodies of water located above the sky or below the earth) by the creation of a solid structure known as a firmament. Some cosmologies depict the world plain as being surrounded by a circular ocean-river, such as Oceanus in Greek cosmology or Raŋhā in Zoroastrian cosmology. The cosmic ocean is also present in the mythology of Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Abrahamic, Ancient Indians, Ancient Persians, Sumerians, and Zoroastrians. It plays a prominent role in ancient near eastern, biblical, and other cosmologies.” ref

“In creation myths, the primordial waters are often represented as having filled the entire universe and are the first source of the gods. The act of creation is the establishment of an inhabitable space separate from the enveloping waters. The cosmic ocean is the shape of the universe before creation. The ocean is boundless, unordered, unorganized, amorphous, formless, dangerous, and terrible. In some myths, its cacophony is opposed to the ordered rhythm of the sea.” ref

“Chaos can be personified as water or by the unorganized interaction of water and fire. The transformation of chaos into order is also the transition from water to land. In many ancient cosmogonic myths, the ocean and chaos are equivalent and inseparable. The ocean remains outside space even after the emergence of the land. At the same time, the ability of the ocean to generate is realized in the appearance of the Earth from it and in the presence of a mythological creature in the ocean that promotes generation or, on the contrary, zealously defends the “old order” and prevents the beginning of the chain of births from the ocean.” ref

“Yu. E. Berezkin and E. N. Duvakin generalize the motif of primary waters as follows: “Waters are primary. The Earth is launched into the water, appears above the water, grows from a piece of solid substance placed on the surface of the water or liquid mud, from an island in the ocean, is exposed when the waters subsided, etc.” The idea of the primacy of the ocean as an element, from the bowels of which the Earth arises or is created, is universally prevalent. This representation is present in many mythologies of the world.” ref

“In North Asia and North America, the Earth diver myth is found. In this myth, a creator god dives into the cosmic ocean to bring up and form the Earth. A diving bird, catching a lump of earth from the primordial ocean, often appears in mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Samoyedic peoples. In totemic myths, bird people are often presented as phratrial ancestors. World eggs are a common theme in creation myths. A waterfowl extracts silt from the waters, from which land is gradually created. In Polynesian mythology, Maui fishes islands out of the ocean. In Scandinavian mythology, the gods raise the earth, and Thor catches the “serpent of middle earth“, which lives at the bottom of the ocean. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the Earth itself comes to the surface in the form of a mound. In the Brahmana it was said that Prajapati took the Earth out of the water, taking the form of a boar.” ref

“In the mythologies of many Asian countries, in which there is an image of an endless and eternal primordial ocean or sea, there is a motif of the creation of the Earth by a celestial being descending from the sky and interfering with the water of the ocean with an iron club, spear or other object. This results in condensation which gives rise to the Earth. In Japanese mythology, the islands of Japan arose from foam raised by mixing the waters of the ocean with the spear of the gods (Izanagi and Izanami). In the mythologies of the Mongolic peoples, the role of the compactor of the ocean waters is played by the wind, which creates a milky substance out of them, which then becomes the Earth’s firmament. According to the Kalmyks, plants, animals, people and gods were born from this milky liquid. Indian mythology has a similar myth about the churning of the Ocean of Milk.” ref

“Myths about the world’s oceans are universally accompanied by myths about its containment when the earth was already created, and myths about the attempts of the ocean to regain its undivided dominance. In Chinese mythology, there is the idea of a giant depression or pit that determines the direction of the ocean waters and takes away excess water. In many mythologies there are numerous narratives regarding the flood. The opposition of two types of myths is known (for example, in Oceania) – about the earth sinking in the ocean, and about the retreat of the ocean or sea. An example of the first type is the legend about the origin of Easter Island, recorded on this island. In the creation myth of the Nganasan people, at first, the Earth was completely covered with water, then the water subsided and exposed the top of the Shaitan ridge Koika-mou.” ref

“The first two people fall to this peak – a man and a woman. In the myth of creation of the Tuamotus, the creator Tāne, “Spilling Water”, created the world in the waters of the lord of the waters, Pune, and invoked the light that initiated the creation of the Earth. The motif of the cosmogonic struggle with the dragon or serpent is widespread in terms of suppressing water and chaos. The serpent in most mythologies is associated with water, often as its abductor. He threatens either with a flood or a drought, that is, a violation of the measure, the water “balance”. Since the cosmos is identified with order and measure, chaos is associated with the violation of measure.” ref

• “Ra-Atum fights the serpent Apep in ancient Egyptian religion
• Indra with Vritra the serpent in the historical Vedic religion
• Enlil or Marduk defeats the progenitor Tiamat, the wife of Apsû, the personification of the dark waters of chaos, who has taken the form of a dragon
• Enki, Ninurta, or Inanna contest the owner of the underworld, Kur in Mesopotamian religion
• Tishtrya (Sirius) with the antigod Apaosha in ancient Iranian religion
• The Bible describes the struggle of Yahweh with dragons and sea monsters that represent chaos (Rahab, Tehom, Leviathan)
• Yu the Great‘s heroic struggle with the cosmic flood ends with the murder of the insidious owner of the water Gungun and his “close associate”, –the nine-headed Xiangliu, in Chinese mythology.” ref

“The Genesis creation narrative has a much-reduced description of Yahweh and Tehom. The transition from the formless water element to land is the most important act necessary for the transformation of chaos into space. The next step in the same direction is the separation of the sky from the earth, which, perhaps, essentially coincides with the first act, given the initial identification of the sky with the oceans. But it was precisely the repetition of the act – first down, and then up – that led to the allocation of three spheres – earthly, heavenly and underground, which represents the transition from binary division to trinity. The middle sphere, the earth, opposes the watery world below and the heavenly world above. A trichotomous scheme of the cosmos arises, including the necessary space between earth and sky. This space is often represented as a cosmic tree.” ref

“Earth and sky are almost universally represented as feminine and masculine, a married couple standing at the beginning of a theogonic or theocosmogonic process. At the same time, the feminine principle is sometimes associated with the element of water and with chaos; usually it is conceived on the side of “nature” rather than “culture.” Mythical creatures personifying chaos, defeated, shackled, and overthrown, often continue to exist on the outskirts of space, along the shores of the oceans, in the underground “lower” world, in some special parts of the sky. In Scandinavian mythology, the jǫtnar, primordial giants, precede time and are located on the outskirts of the earth’s circle in cold places near the oceans.” ref

“In Sumerian mythology, there was an image of the original sea abyss – Abzu, on the site of which the most active of the gods Enki, representing the earth, fresh water and agriculture on irrigated lands, made his home. In the beginning, the entire space of the world was filled with an ocean that had neither beginning nor end. It was probably believed that he was eternal. In its bowels lurked the foremother Nammu. In her womb arose a cosmic mountain in the form of a hemisphere, which later became the earth. An arc of shiny tin, encircling the hemisphere vertically, later became the sky. In the Babylonian version, in the endless primordial Ocean there was nothing but two monsters – the forefather Apsu and foremother Tiamat.” ref

“In Ancient Egyptian mythology, in the beginning, the universe only consisted of a great, chaotic cosmic ocean, and the ocean itself was referred to as Nu. In some versions of this myth, at the beginning of time Mehet-Weret, portrayed as a cow with a sun disk between her horns, gives birth to the sun, said to have risen from the waters of creation and to have given birth to the sun god Ra in some myths. The universe was enrapt by a vast mass of primordial waters, and the Benben, a pyramid mound, emerged amid this primal chaos. There was a lotus flower with Benben, and this when it blossomed emerged Ra. There were many versions of the sun’s emergence, and it was said to have emerged directly from the mound or from a lotus flower that grew from the mound, in the form of a heron, falcon, scarab beetle, or human child. In Heliopolis, the creation was attributed to Atum, a deity closely associated with Ra, who was said to have existed in the waters of Nu as an inert potential being. Some strands of Egyptian cosmology appear to have also had the idea of a river-ocean encircling the earth, as one of the words used for sea, shen-wer, means “great encircle.” ref

“The concept of chaos is etymologically associated with darkness (kek), but primarily, chaos in the form of the primary ocean (Nu) or, in the Germanic version, five divine pairs representing its different aspects. The primary hill is identified with the sun god Ra. Water chaos is opposed by the first earthly mound protruding from it, with which Atum is associated in Heliopolis (as Ra-Atum), and in Memphis, Ptah. Initially, the existing ocean is personified in the image of the “father of the gods” Nu. In the historical era, the ocean, which was placed underground, gave rise to the river Nile. In the Heracleopolis version of the myth, an internal connection between the ocean and chaos is noted.” ref

“The ideas of early Greek cosmology about the ocean demonstrate a typologically more advanced stage, when the image of Oceanus becomes the object of “pre-scientific” research and natural philosophy. Oceanus is presented first of all as the greatest world river (Hom. Il. XIV 245), surrounding the earth and the sea, giving rise to rivers, springs, sea currents (XXI 196), shelter of the sun, moon and stars, which they rise from the ocean and enter it (VII 422; VIII 485). The Ocean River touches the sea, but does not mix with it. In the extreme west, the ocean washes the boundaries between the world of life and death.” ref

“In Homer, Oceanus is without beginning. In Theogony 282, Hesiod presents a folk etymology of the name Pegasus as derived from πηγή pēgē ‘spring, well’, referring to “the pegai of Okeanos, where he was born”. In Homer and Hesiod, the Ocean is a living being, the progenitor of all gods and titans (Hom. Il. XIV 201, 246), but Oceanus also had parents. According to Hesiod, Oceanus is the son of the oldest of the titans Uranus and Gaia (Theogony 133). Oceanus is the brother and husband of Tethys, from whom he gave birth to all the rivers and sources – three thousand daughters – oceanids (Theogony 346–364) and the same number of sons – river flows (Theogony 367–370). The gods revere Oceanus as an aged parent, take care of him, although he lives in solitude. Oceanus did not participate in the battle of the titans against Zeus and retained its power and the trust of the Olympians. Oceanus is the father of Metis, the wise wife of Zeus (Apollod. I 2, 1).” ref

“Known for his peacefulness and kindness (Euripides tried unsuccessfully to reconcile Prometheus with Zeus; Prometheus Bound 284–396). Herodotus contains criticism of the mythological concept of Oceanus as a poetic invention (Herodot. II, 23, cf. also IV 8, 36, etc.). Euripides called the ocean the sea (Orestes 1376). Since that time, a tendency has been established to distinguish between a large outer sea – ocean – and inland seas. Later, Euripides begins to divide the ocean into parts: the Ethiopian Ocean, Eritrean ocean, Gallic ocean, Germanic Ocean, Hyperborean Ocean, etc.” ref

“In Indian cosmology, there is an idea of darkness and the abyss, but also of the primary waters generated by night or chaos. Ancient Indian myths about the oceans contain both typical and original motifs. In Mandala 10 of the Rigveda, the original state of the universe is presented as the absence of existing and non-existent, airspace and sky above it, death and immortality, day and night, but the presence of water and disorderly movement. In the waters of the eternal ocean, there was a life-giving principle generated by the power of heat and giving birth to everything else. Another mandala of the Rigveda contains a different version: “Law and truths were born from the kindled heat…”, hence the surging ocean. Out of the tumultuous ocean a year was born, distributing days and nights.” ref

“The Rigveda repeatedly mentions the generative power of the ocean (“multiple,” it roars at its first spread, giving rise to creations, the bearer of wealth), its thousands of streams flowing from the depths, it is said that the ocean is the spouse of rivers. The cosmic ocean forms the frame of the cosmos, separating it from chaos. The ocean is personified by the Varuna, who is associated both with the destructive and uncontrolled power of the waters of the oceans and with fruitful waters that bring wealth to people.” ref

The churning of the ocean of milk myth contains the motif of the confrontation between the elements of water and fire. As a result of the rapid rotation, a whorl lights up – Mount Mandara, but trees and grasses emit their juices into the drying ocean. This motif echoes the Tungus myths about the creation of the earth by a celestial being, which, with the help of fire, dries up part of the primordial ocean, thus reclaiming a place for the earth. The motif of the struggle of water and fire in connection with the theme of the world ocean is also present in other traditions. Indian mythology is characterized by the image of the creator god (Brahma or Vishnu), floating on the primary waters in a lotus flower, on the nāga Shesha. Kurma, also known as “Tortoise”, is an avatar of Vishnu who is depicted as churning the cosmic ocean. Vishnu adopts the form of a tortoise to help hold the stick used to churn the cosmic ocean.” ref

“Vourukasha is the name of a heavenly sea in Zoroastrian mythology. It was created by Ahura Mazda and in its middle stood the Harvisptokhm or the “tree of all seeds”. Another cosmic ocean from Persian mythology is Fraxkard (Middle Persian: plʾhwklt, Avestan: Vourukaša; also called Warkaš in Middle Persian). According to the Vendidad, Ahura Mazda sent the clean waters of Vourukasha down to the earth in order to cleanse the world and sent the water back to the heavenly sea Puitika. This phenomenon was later interpreted as the coming and going of the tide. At the centre of Vourukasha was located the Harvisptokhm or “tree of all seeds”, which contains the seeds of all plants in the world. There is a bird Sinamru on the tree which causes the bough to break and seeds to sprinkle all around when it alights. At the center of the Vourukasha also grows the Gaokerena or “White Haoma“, considered to be the “king of healing plants”. It is surrounded by ten thousand other healing plants. In later times, Vourukasha was connected with the Persian Sea and the Puitika with the Gulf of Oman.” ref

“In the first creation story in the Bible the world is created as a space inside of the water or Tehom, and is hence surrounded by it. “God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from water.” God made the expanse, and it separated the water which was below the expanse from the water which was above the expanse. And it was so.” (Genesis 1:6). It is not clear as to if this upper water refers to the clouds or a “sky ocean” beyond the stars. There are hints though that indicate the cosmic ocean was enveloped in thick clouds.” ref

“In the Book of Exodus, the cosmic ocean is the Yam Suph and is mentioned in Exodus 15:4, the Song of the Sea. The army of Pharaoh was thrown into the “Sea of Extinction.” Yahweh rises Egypt up from this sea. Sargon II, ruler of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is said to have washed his weapons in the cosmic ocean. The cosmic ocean is mentioned again in Joshua 1:4 and signified as a boundary of the universe. In the myth of Noah’s Ark, after forty days and nights of rain, the cosmic ocean floods the earth.” ref

Greek Primordial Deities

“In Greek and Roman mythology, the primordial deities are the first generation of gods and goddesses. These deities represented the fundamental forces and physical foundations of the world and were generally not actively worshipped, as they, for the most part, were not given human characteristics; they were instead personifications of places or abstract concepts.” ref

“Hesiod, in his Theogony, considers the first beings (after Chaos) to be Erebus, Gaia, Tartarus, Eros and Nyx. Gaia and Uranus in turn gave birth to the Titans, and the Cyclopes. The Titans Cronus and Rhea then gave birth to the generation of the Olympians, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera and Demeter, who overthrow the Titans, with the reign of Zeus marking the end of the period of warfare and usurpation among the gods.” ref

“Hesiod‘s Theogony, (c. 700 BCE) which could be considered the “standard” creation myth of Greek mythology, tells the story of the genesis of the gods. After invoking the Muses (II.1–116), Hesiod says the world began with the spontaneous generation of four beings: first arose Chaos (Chasm); then came Gaia (the Earth), “the ever-sure foundation of all”; “dim” Tartarus (the Underworld), in the depths of the Earth; and Eros (Love) “fairest among the deathless gods”. (Although in other myths, Eros was the name of Aphrodite‘s and Ares‘s son.)” ref

“From Chaos came Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night). And Nyx “from union in love” with Erebus produced Aether (Light) and Hemera (Day). From Gaia came Uranus (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea). In Hesiod’s creation myth, Chaos is the first being to ever exist. Chaos is both seen as a deity and a thing, with some sources seeing chaos as the gap between Heaven and Earth. In some accounts Chaos existed first alongside Eros and Nyx, while in others Chaos is the first and only thing in the universe. In some stories, Chaos is seen as existing beneath Tartarus. Chaos is the parent to Night and Darkness.” ref

“Gaia was the second being to be formed, right after Chaos, in Hesiod’s theogony, and parthenogenetically gave birth to Uranus, who would later become her husband and her equal, the Sea, and to the high Mountains. aia is a mother earth figure and is seen as the mother of all the gods, while also being the seat on which they exist. Gaia is the Greek Equivalent to the Roman goddess, Tellus / Terra. The story of Uranus’ castration at the hands of Cronus due to Gaia’s involvement is seen as the explanation for why Heaven and Earth are separated. In Hesiod’s story, Earth seeks revenge against Heaven for hiding her children the Cyclopes deep within her.” ref

“Gaia then goes to her other children and asks for their help to get revenge against their cruel father; of her children, only Cronus, the youngest and “most dreadful” of them all, agrees to do this. “Gaia plans an ambush against Uranus where she hides Cronus and gives him the sickle to castrate Uranus. From the blood Gaia again become pregnant with the Furies, the Giants, and the Melian nymphs. Cronus goes on to have six children with his sister, Rhea; who become the Olympians. Cronus is later overthrown by his son, Zeus, much in the same way he overthrew his father. Gaia is the mother to the twelve Titans; Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, and Cronus.” ref

“Later in the myth, after his succession, Cronus learns from Gaia and Uranus that his own son (Zeus) will overthrow him, just as Cronus did Uranus. To prevent this, Cronus swallows all of his children as soon as they are born. Rhea seeks out Gaia for help in hiding her youngest son, Zeus, and gives Cronus a rock to swallow instead. Zeus later goes on to defeat his father and become the leader of the Olympians. After Zeus’s succession to the throne, Gaia bears another son with Tartarus, Typhon, a monster who would be the last to challenge Zeus’s authority. Sky and Earth have three sets of children: the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires.” ref

“Tartarus is described by Hesiod as both a primordial deity and also a great abyss where the Titans are imprisoned. Tartarus is seen as a prison, but is also where Day, Night, Sleep, and Death dwell, and also imagined as a great gorge that is a distinct part of the underworld. Hesiod tells that it took nine days for the Titans to fall to the bottom of Tartarus, describing how deep the abyss is. In some versions Tartarus is described as a “misty darkness” where Death, Styx, and Erebus reside. Eros is the god of love in Greek mythology, and in some versions is one of the primordial beings that first came to be parentlessly. In Hesiod’s version, Eros was the “fairest among the immortal gods … who conquers the mind and sensible thoughts of all gods and men.” ref

“In some variations of Hesiod’s Theogony, Nyx (Night) is told as having black wings; and in one tale she laid an egg in Erebus from which Eros sprang out. One version of Hesiod’s tale tells that Night shares her house with Day in Tartarus, but that the two are never home at the same time. However, in some versions Nyx’s home is where Chaos and Tartarus meet, suggesting to the idea that Chaos resides beneath Tartarus.” ref

“Hyginus also includes Epaphus and Porphyrion among Nyx’s children. Some accounts also include Hecate (Crossroads and Magic) among Nyx’s children. Aether, Hemera, and Eros are Nyx’s only children who are among the primordial gods. Hesiod says Nyx and Erebus together had Aether and Hemera, but Nyx had the other children on her own. Cicero and Hyginus say Nyx had all her children with Erebus. In Virgil‘s Aeneid, Nox is said to be the mother of the Furies by Hades.” ref

“Some authors made Nyx the mother of Eos, the dawn goddess, who was often conflated with Nyx’s daughter Hemera. When Eos’ son Memnon was killed during the Trojan War, Eos made Helios (the sun god) downcast, and asked Nyx to come out earlier so that she would collect her son’s dead body undetected by the Greek and the Trojan armies. The ancient Greeks entertained different versions of the origin of primordial deities. Some of these stories were possibly inherited from the pre-Greek Aegean cultures. The Iliad, an epic poem attributed to Homer about the Trojan War (an oral tradition of c. 700–600 BCE), states that Oceanus (and possibly Tethys, too) is the parent of all the deities.” ref

“Scholars dispute the meaning of the primordial deities in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. Since the primordials give birth to the Titans, and the Titans give birth to the Olympians, one way of interpreting the primordial gods is as the deepest and most fundamental nature of the cosmos.

“For example, Jenny Strauss Clay argues that Homer’s poetic vision centers on the reign of Zeus, but that Hesiod’s vision of the primordials put Zeus and the Olympians in context. Likewise, Vernant argues that the Olympic pantheon is a “system of classification, a particular way of ordering and conceptualizing the universe by distinguishing within it various types of powers and forces.” But even before the Olympic pantheon were the Titans and primordial gods. Homer alludes to a more tumultuous past before Zeus was the undisputed King and Father.” ref

“Mitchell Miller argues that the first four primordial deities arise in a highly significant relationship. He argues that Chaos represents differentiation, since Chaos differentiates (separates, divides) Tartarus and Earth. Even though Chaos is “first of all” for Hesiod, Miller argues that Tartarus represents the primacy of the undifferentiated, or the unlimited. Since undifferentiation is unthinkable, Chaos is the “first of all” in that he is the first thinkable being. In this way, Chaos (the principle of division) is the natural opposite of Eros (the principle of unification). Earth (light, day, waking, life) is the natural opposite of Tartarus (darkness, night, sleep, death). These four are the parents of all the other Titans.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Snake, Turtle, Fish, Alligator, Spider, Frog, and Bird

Animals That Lay Eggs

“All members of the avian world lay eggs. Here is a list of popular flight and flightless egg-laying birds. Animals vary from each other when it comes to the modes of reproduction. On this basis, one could classify them as oviparous and viviparous. Animals that lay eggs are called oviparous. In this case, the eggs’ fertilization and development don’t occur within the female’s body, and the eggs hatch outside. In the case of viviparous reproduction, the embryo develops in the mother’s body resulting in the birth of live young.” ref

“Ovoviviparous is the third form and a mid-way between the oviparous and viviparous methods. Here, the eggs are hatched in the mother’s body, fertilized internally, and the young are born. All birds lay eggs; however, when it comes to mammals, just a handful, including the platypus and echidnas, are egg-layers. When speaking of amphibians, reptiles, and fish, most are oviparous, while few are viviparous and ovoviviparous.” ref

“Animals that Lay Eggs but are Not Birds: Duck-billed Platypus, Echidnas, Alligators, Crocodiles, Turtles, Frogs, Salamanders, Seahorses, Sharks, Snakes, Lizards, Spiders, Crabs, and Centipedes.” ref

Sky Father and Earth Mother

First, Sky Father was a bird?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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In my prehistory art in this blog, I offer my speculations relating to art with possible religious/supernatural thinking which I think are loose, justified, or reasoned speculations/conjectures.

“My Holy Three thinking is me wondering if they have a 30,000-year belief connection so it may be loose speculations/conjectures.”

Trinity Evolution Started over 30,000 years ago, Maybe?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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1. Kebaran culture 23,022-16,522 Years Ago, 2. Kortik Tepe 12,422-11,722 Years Ago, 3. Jerf el-Ahmar 11,222 -10,722 Years Ago, 4. Gobekli Tepe 11,152-9,392 Years Ago, 5. Tell Al-‘abrUbaid and Uruk Periods, 6. Nevali Cori 10,422 -10,122 Years Ago, 7. Catal Hoyuk 9,522-7,722 Years Ago

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Sky Burials: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, and Paganism

“In archaeology and anthropology, the term excarnation (also known as defleshing) refers to the practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead before burial, leaving only the bones. Excarnation may be precipitated through natural means, involving leaving a body exposed for animals to scavenge, or it may be purposefully undertaken by butchering the corpse by hand. Practices making use of natural processes for excarnation are the Tibetan sky burial, Comanche platform burials, and traditional Zoroastrian funerals (see Tower of Silence).  Some Native American groups in the southeastern portion of North America practiced deliberate excarnation in protohistoric times. Archaeologists believe that in this practice, people typically left the body exposed on a woven litter or altar.” ref

Ancient Headless Corpses Were Defleshed By Griffon Vultures

Sky burial ( Animal Worship mixed with Ancestor Worship) is a funeral practice where a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop, elevated ground, tree, or constructed perch to decompose while be eaten by scavenging animals, especially birds. This Animal Worship (or Zoolatry) rituals may go back to the  Neanderthals who seem to Sacralize birds starting around 130,000 years ago in Croatia with eagle talon jewelry and oldest confirmed burial. Or possible (Aurignacian) “Bird Worship” at  Hohle Fels cave, Germany, early totemism and small bird figurine at around 33,000 years old, which had been cited as evidence of shamanism.

As well as possible ‘Bird Worship’ (in the Pavlovian culture/Gravettian culture) part of Early Shamanism at Dolní Věstonice (Czech Republic) from around 31,000-25,000 years ago, which held the “first shaman burial.” The shamanistic Mal’ta–Buret’ culture of Siberia, dating to 24,000-15,000 years ago, who connect to the indigenous peoples of the Americas show Bird Worship. The Magdalenian cultures in western Europe, dating from around 17,000-12,000 years ago have a famous artistic mural with a bird that I think could relate to reincarnation and at least bird symbolism. Likewise, there is evidence of possible ‘Bird Worship’ at  Göbekli Tepe (Turkey), dated to around 13,000/11,600-9,370 Years ago with “first human-made temple” and at Çatalhöyük (Turkey), dated to around 9,500-7,700 Years ago with “first religious designed city” both with seeming ancestor, animal, and possible goddess worship.

The Tibetan sky-burials appear to have evolved from ancient practices of defleshing corpses as discovered in archeological finds in the region. These practices most likely came out of practical considerations, but they could also be related to more ceremonial practices similar to the suspected sky burial evidence found at Göbekli Tepe (11,500 years ago) and Stonehenge (4,500 years ago). ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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43,000-33,000 years old Aurignacian Figurine Marks, like at the Swabian Jura caves in Germany

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Leda and the Swan: possibly relates back to 24,000–15,000 years old Mal’ta–Buret’ culture, Lake Baikal, Siberia? 

Leda and the Swan

“Zeus, disguised as a swan, seduces Leda, the Queen of Sparta. A sixteenth-century copy of the lost original by Michelangelo.” ref

“Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta.” ref

“In the W. B. Yeats version, it is subtly suggested that Clytemnestra, although being the daughter of Tyndareus, has somehow been traumatized by what the swan has done to her mother (see below). According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris.” ref

“The subject was rarely seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although a representation of Leda in sculpture has been attributed in modern times to Timotheus (compare illustration, below left); small-scale sculptures survive showing both reclining and standing poses, in cameos and engraved gems, rings, and terracotta oil lamps. Thanks to the literary renditions of Ovid and Fulgentius it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, with erotic overtones, in the Italian Renaissance.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

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24,000 Years Old Sacred Burial of a Siberian Mal’ta Boy

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Investigating Asian Shamanism: “Wu” (Chinese shaman) and (Chinese shamanism) “Wuism” or “Wu” religion as well as Others to Understand

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Based on the seeming evidence, I speculate that around 14,000 years ago, it could be possible Siberian Shamanism (along with dogs and a bird carving, different but yet possibly related to the bird carvings in Siberia dating from 24,000 to 15,000 years ago) was transferred to China, after “N” DNA reached Siberia bringing them pottery. Bird sculptures through ethnographic comparison at 24,000–15,000 years old Mal’ta with objects used by Siberian shamans, suggest a fully developed shamanism.

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“Similar looking signs and patterns are well known from the context of the local Natufian, a final Epipaleolithic period when sedentary or semi-sedentary foragers started practicing agriculture.” ref

“The engravings found in Ein Qashish South involve symbolic conceptualization. They suggest that the figurative and non-figurative images comprise a coherent assemblage of symbols that might have been applied in order to store, share and transmit information related to the social activities and the subsistence of mobile bands.

“They also suggest a level of social complexity in pre-Natufian foragers in the Levant. The apparent similarity in graphics throughout the Late Pleistocene world and the mode of their application support the possibility that symbolic behavior has a common and much earlier origin.” ref

“Evidence for symbolic behavior of Late Pleistocene foragers in the Levant has been found in engraved limestone plaquettes from the Epipaleolithic open-air site Ein Qashish South in the Jezreel Valley, Israel. The engravings were uncovered in Kebaran and Geometric Kebaran deposits (ca. 23,000 and ca. 16,500 BP), and include the image of a bird, the first figurative representation known so far from a pre-Natufian Epipaleolithic site, together with geometric motifs such as chevrons, cross-hatchings, and ladders.” ref

“Some of the engravings closely resemble roughly contemporary European finds, and may be interpreted as “systems of notations” or “artificial memory systems” related to the timing of seasonal resources and related important events for nomadic groups.” ref

 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Three-legged crow

“The three-legged (or tripedal) crow is a mythological creature in various mythologies and arts of East Asia. It is believed to inhabit and represent the Sun. Evidence of the earliest bird-Sun motif or totemic articles excavated around 5000 BCE from the lower Yangtze River delta area. This bird-Sun totem heritage was observed in later Yangshao and Longshan cultures. The Chinese have several versions of crow and crow-Sun tales. But the most popular depiction and myth of the Sun crow is that of the Yangwu or Jinwu, the “golden crow“.It has also been found figured on ancient coins from Lycia and Pamphylia.” ref

“In Chinese mythology and culture, the three-legged crow is called the sanzuwu and is present in many myths. It is also mentioned in the Shanhaijing. The earliest known depiction of a three-legged crow appears in Neolithic pottery of the Yangshao culture. The sanzuwu in a disc represents the sun and is also one of the Twelve ornaments that is used in the decoration of formal imperial garments in ancient China.” ref

“The most popular depiction and myth of a sanzuwu is that of a sun crow called the Yangwu (陽烏; yángwū) or more commonly referred to as the Jīnwū (金烏; jīnwū) or “golden crow“. Even though it is described as a crow or raven, it is usually colored red instead of black. A silk painting from the Western Han excavated at the Mawangdui archaeological site also depicts a “golden crow” in the sun.” ref

“In ancient Chinese depictions, the Chinese god of creation, Fuxi, is often depicted carrying the sun disk with the jīnwū (金烏; jīnwū; ‘golden crow’) while the Chinese goddess of creation, Nüwa, holds the moon disk which contains a gold stripped toad. The sanzuwu is also depicted with the Queen Mother of the West (Chinese: 西王母; pinyin: Xi Wangmu) who are believed to be her messengers.” ref

“According to folklore, there were originally ten sun crows which settled in 10 separate suns. They perched on a red mulberry tree called the Fusang (扶桑; fúsāng), literally meaning “the leaning mulberry tree”, in the East at the foot of the Valley of the Sun. This mulberry tree was said to have many mouths opening from its branches. Each day one of the sun crows would be rostered to travel around the world on a carriage, driven by Xihe, the ‘mother’ of the suns. As soon as one sun crow returned, another one would set forth in its journey crossing the sky.” ref

“According to Shanhaijing, the sun crows loved eating two grasses of immortality, one called the Diri (地日; dìrì), or “ground sun”, and the other the Chunsheng (春生; chūnshēng), or “spring grow”. The sun crows would often descend from heaven on to the earth and feast on these grasses, but Xihe did not like this; thus, she covered their eyes to prevent them from doing so. Folklore also held that, at around 2170 BCE or 4,192 years ago, all ten sun crows came out on the same day, causing the world to burn; Houyi, the celestial archer saved the day by shooting down all but one of the sun crows. (See Mid-Autumn Festival for variants of this legend.)” ref

Other tripedal creatures in Chinese mythology

“In Chinese mythology, there are other three-legged creatures besides the crow, for instance, the yu 魊 “a three-legged tortoise that causes malaria”. The three-legged crow symbolizing the sun has a yin yang counterpart in the chánchú 蟾蜍 “three-legged toad” symbolizing the moon (along with the moon rabbit). According to an ancient tradition, this toad is the transformed Chang’e lunar deity who stole the elixir of life from her husband Houyi the archer, and fled to the moon where she was turned into a toad.” ref

“The Fènghuáng is commonly depicted as being two-legged but there are some instances in art in which it has a three-legged appearance. Xi Wangmu (Queen Mother of the West) is also said to have three green birds (青鳥; qīngniǎo) that gathered food for her and in Han-period religious art they were depicted as having three legs. In the Yongtai Tomb dating to the Tang Dynasty Era, when the Cult of Xi Wangu flourished, the birds are also shown as being three-legged.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Trialetian culture (16,000–8000 years ago) the Caucasus, Iran, and Turkey, likely involved in Göbekli Tepe. Migration 1?

Haplogroup R possible time of origin about 27,000 years in Central Asia, South Asia, or Siberia:

• Mal’ta–Buret’ culture (24,000-15,000 years ago)
• Afontova Gora culture (21,000-12,000 years ago)
• Trialetian culture (16,000–8000 years ago)
• Samara culture (7,000-6,500 years ago)
• Khvalynsk culture (7,000-6,500 years ago)
• Afanasievo culture (5,300-4,500 years ago)
• Yamna/Yamnaya Culture (5,300-4,500 years ago)
• Andronovo culture (4,000–2,900 years ago) ref

Trialetian sites

Caucasus and Transcaucasia:

• Edzani (Georgia)
• Chokh (Azerbaijan), layers E-C200
• Kotias Klde, layer B” ref

Eastern Anatolia:

• Hallan Çemi (from ca. 8.6-8.5k BC to 7.6-7.5k BCE)
• Nevali Çori shows some Trialetian admixture in a PPNB context” ref

Trialetian influences can also be found in:

• Cafer Höyük
• Boy Tepe” ref

Southeast of the Caspian Sea:

• Hotu (Iran)
• Ali Tepe (Iran) (from cal. 10,500 to 8,870 BCE)
• Belt Cave (Iran), layers 28-11 (the last remains date from ca. 6,000 BCE)
• Dam-Dam-Cheshme II (Turkmenistan), layers7,000-3,000 BCE)” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Gobekli Tepe: “first human made temple” around 12,000 years ago

Ritualistic Bird Symbolism at Gobekli Tepe and its “Ancestor Cult” a Sacred Sky Burial Relationship between Birds and Spirits of the Dead

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

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Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city” around 9,500 to 7,700 years ago (Turkey)

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Around 7,000-year-old Shared Idea of the Divine Bird (Tutelary and/or Trickster spirit/deity), “Ritual” Motif

 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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I hear possible similarities to Proto-Indo-Eutopian mythology in China’s 7,022–6,522 years ago Hemudu culture as well as to 7,000-year-old ritual items found in the Balkans area such as the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture.

PIE Proto-Indo-Eutopian mythology: *Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr, the daylight-sky god; his consort/wife *Dʰéǵʰōm, the earth mother.

Hemudu culture mythology (5500 to 3300 BCE or 7,522-5,322 years ago): Hemudu’s inhabitants worshiped a sun spirit as well as a fertility spirit. They also enacted shamanistic rituals to the sun and believed in bird totems.

• Around 7,000-year-old Shared Idea of the Divine Bird (Tutelary and/or Trickster spirit/deity), “Ritual” Motif
• Nekhbet an Ancient Egyptian Vulture Goddess and Tutelary Deity
• Low Gods (Earth/ Tutelary deity), High Gods (Sky/Supreme deity), and Moralistic Gods (Deity enforcement/divine order)

Various schools of thought exist regarding possible interpretations of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology. The main mythologies used in comparative reconstruction are Indo-Iranian, Baltic, Roman, and Norse, often supported with evidence from the Celtic, Greek, Slavic, Hittite, Armenian, Illyrian, and Albanian traditions as well.

The mythology of the Proto-Indo-Europeans is not directly attested and it is difficult to match their language to archaeological findings related to any specific culture from the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, also known as the Eneolithic or Aeneolithic (from Latin aeneus “of copper”). Nonetheless, scholars of comparative mythology have attempted to reconstruct aspects of Proto-Indo-European mythology based on the existence of linguistic and thematic similarities among the deities, religious practices, and myths of various Indo-European peoples.” ref, ref

“In the Chalcolithic period, copper predominated in metalworking technology. Hence it was the period before it was discovered that by adding tin to copper one could create bronze, a metal alloy harder and stronger than either component. The archaeological site of Belovode, on Rudnik mountain in Serbia, has the worldwide oldest securely-dated evidence of copper smelting at high temperature, from c. 5000 BCE (7022 years ago).” ref

“The first copper/arsenic bronzes date from 4200 BCE or 6,222 years ago from Asia Minor/Anatolia within modern Turkey. The transition from Copper Age to Bronze Age in Europe occurred between the late 5th and the late 3rd millennia BCE. In the Ancient Near East the Copper Age covered about the same period, beginning in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasting for about a millennium before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age.” ref

7,022–6,522 years ago Hemudu culture Yuyao and Zhoushan, Zhejiang

“The Hemudu culture (5500 to 3300 BCE) was a Neolithic culture that flourished just south of the Hangzhou Bay in Jiangnan in modern Yuyao, Zhejiang, China. The culture may be divided into early and late phases, before and after 4000 BCE or 6,022 years ago respectively. The site at Hemudu, 22 km northwest of Ningbo, was discovered in 1973. Hemudu sites were also discovered at Tianluoshan in Yuyao city, and on the islands of Zhoushan. Hemudu are said to have differed physically from inhabitants of the Yellow River sites to the north. Some authors propose that the Hemudu Culture was a source of the pre-Austronesian cultures.” ref

“The Hemudu people lived in long, stilt houses. Communal longhouses were also common in Hemudu sites, much like the ones found in modern-day Borneo. The Hemudu culture was one of the earliest cultures to cultivate rice. Recent excavations at the Hemudu period site of Tianluoshan has demonstrated rice was undergoing evolutionary changes recognized as domestication. Most of the artifacts discovered at Hemudu consist of animal bones, exemplified by hoes made of shoulder bones used for cultivating rice.” ref

“The culture also produced lacquer wood. A red lacquer wood bowl at the Zhejiang Museum is dated to 4,000-5,000 BCE or 6,022-7,022 years ago. It is believed to be the earliest such object in the world. The remains of various plants, including water caltrop, Nelumbo nucifera, acorns, melon, wild kiwifruit, blackberries, peach, the foxnut, or Gorgon euryale, and bottle gourd, were found at Hemudu and Tianluoshan. The Hemudu people likely domesticated pigs but practiced extensive hunting of deer and some wild water buffalo. Fishing was also carried out on a large scale, with a particular focus on crucian carp.” ref

“The practices of fishing and hunting are evidenced by the remains of bone harpoons and bows and arrowheads. Music instruments, such as bone whistles and wooden drums, were also found at Hemudu. Artifact design by Hemudu inhabitants bears many resemblances to those of Insular Southeast Asia. The culture produced a thick, porous pottery. This distinctive pottery was typically black and made with charcoal powder. Plant and geometric designs were commonly painted onto the pottery; the pottery was sometimes also cord-marked. The culture also produced carved jade ornaments, carved ivory artifacts, and small clay figurines.” ref

“The early Hemudu period is considered the maternal clan phase. Descent is thought to have been matrilineal and the social status of children and women comparatively high. In the later periods, they gradually shifted into patrilineal clans. During that period, the social status of men rose and descent was passed through the male line.” ref

“Hemudu’s inhabitants worshiped a sun spirit as well as a fertility spirit. They also enacted shamanistic rituals to the sun and believed in bird totems. A belief in an afterlife and ghosts is thought to have been widespread as well. People were buried with their heads facing east or northeast and most had no burial objects. Infants were buried in urn-casket style burials, while children and adults received earth level burials.” ref

“They did not have a definite communal burial ground, for the most part, but a clan communal burial ground has been found from the later period. Two groups in separate parts of this burial ground are thought to be two intermarrying clans. There were noticeably more burial goods in this communal burial ground.” ref

“Fossilized amoeboids and pollen suggests Hemudu culture emerged and developed in the middle of the Holocene Climatic Optimum. A study of a sea-level highstand in the Ningshao Plain from around 7000 to 5000 years ago shows that there may have been stabilized lower sea levels at this time, followed by frequent flooding from around 5000 to 3900 years ago. The climate was said to be tropical to subtropical with high temperatures and much precipitation throughout the year.” ref

Three Pure Ones

“The Three Pure Ones (Chinese: 三清; pinyin: Sānqīng), also translated as the Three Pure Pellucid Ones, the Three Pristine Ones, the Three Divine Teachers, the Three Clarities, or the Three Purities, are the Taoist Trinity, the three highest gods in the Taoist pantheon. They are regarded as pure manifestation of the Tao and the origin of all sentient beings.” ref

The “Three” in Taoism

“From the Taoist classic Tao Te Ching, it was held that “The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things.” It is generally agreed by Taoist scholars that Tao produced One means Wuji produced Taiji, and One produced Two means Taiji produced Yin and Yang [or Liangyi (兩儀) in scholastic term]. However, the subject of how Two produced Three has remained a popular debate among Taoist Scholars. Most scholars believe that it refers to the Interaction between Yin and Yang, with the presence of Chi, or life force.” ref

“In religious Taoism, the theory of how Tao produces One, Two, and Three is also explained. In Tao produces One—Wuji produces Taiji, it represents the Great Tao, embodied by Hundun (Chinese: 混沌無極元始天王; pinyin: Hùndùn Wújí Yuánshǐ Tiānwáng, “Heavenly King of the Chaotic Never-ending Primordial Beginning”) at a time of pre-Creation when the Universe was still null and the cosmos was in disorder; manifesting into the first of the Taoist Trinity, Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn. Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn oversees the earliest phase of Creation of the Universe, and is henceforth known as Dàobǎo (道寶) “Treasure of the Tao.” ref

“In One produces Two—Taiji produces Yin Yang, Yuanshi Tianzun manifests into Lingbao Tianzun who separated the Yang from the Yin, the clear from the murky, and classified the elements into their rightful groups. Therefore, he is also known as Jīngbǎo (經寶) “Treasure of the Law/Scripture”. While Jīng in popular understanding means “scriptures”, in this context it also mean “passing through” [the phase of Creation] and the Laws of Nature of how things are meant to be. In the final phase of Creation, Daode Tianzun is manifested from Língbăo Tiānzūn to bring civilization and preach the Law to all living beings. Therefore, He is also known as Shībǎo (師寶) “Treasure of the Master.” ref

“Each of the Three Pure Ones represents both a deity and a heaven. Yuanshi Tianzun rules the first heaven, Yu-Qing, which is found in the Jade Mountain. The entrance to this heaven is named the Golden Door. “He is the source of all truth, as the sun is the source of all light”. Lingbao Tianzun rules over the heaven of Shang-Qing. Daode Tianzun rules over the heaven of Tai-Qing. The Three Pure Ones are often depicted as throned elders.” ref

“Schools of Taoist thought developed around each of these deities. Taoist Alchemy was a large part of these schools, as each of the Three Pure Ones represented one of the three essential fields of the body: jing, qi, and shen. The congregation of all three Pure Ones resulted in the return to Tao.” ref

“The first Pure One is universal or heavenly chi. The second Pure One is human plane chi, and the third Pure One is earth chi. Heavenly chi includes the chi or energy of all the planets, stars, and constellations as well as the energy of God (the force of creation and universal love). Human plane chi is the energy that exists on the surface of our planet and sustains human life, and the earth force includes all of the forces inside the planet as well as the five elemental forces.” ref

“As the Three Pure Ones are manifestations of Primordial Celestial Energy, they are formless. But to illustrate their role in Creation, they are often portrayed as elderly deities robed in the three basic colors from which all colors originated: Red, Blue, and Yellow (or Green) depending on personal interpretation of color origins by additive or subtractive means. Each of them holds onto a divine object associated with their task. Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn is usually depicted holding the Pearl of Creation, signifying his role in creating the Universe from void and chaos.” ref

“The Ruyi held by Lingbao Tianzun represents authority: the second phase of Creation where the Yang was separated from the Yin and the Law of Things was ordered in place. Lingbao Tianzun then took his seat on the left of Yuanshi Tianzun. Later, when all was complete, Daode Tianzun took his place on the right, with the fan symbolizing the completion of Creation, and the act of fanning representing the spreading of Tao to all Mankind.” ref

Chickens and Their Role in Mythology and Culture

“Chickens are more than just farm animals. They have been important in many cultures throughout history. In ancient Egypt, chickens were symbols of fertility and renewal. Egyptians believed that chickens could bring new life because they saw hens laying eggs, which turned into chicks. This process symbolized the cycle of life and rebirth. Chickens were often depicted in Egyptian art, and they played a role in various rituals and offerings to the gods. The chicken’s ability to lay many eggs made it a powerful symbol of abundance and prosperity.” ref

“In ancient Greece, chickens were admired for their courage. Greek soldiers used chickens in rituals before going to war, believing that the bird’s bravery would transfer to them. The rooster, with its bold crowing at dawn, was seen as a herald of new beginnings and a symbol of vigilance. In Greek mythology, the rooster was associated with the god Apollo, representing the sun and light. The Greeks believed that the rooster’s crow could ward off evil spirits, making it a protective symbol as well.” ref

“In Chinese culture, the rooster is one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. People born in the Year of the Rooster are thought to be honest, hardworking, and punctual, reflecting the rooster’s nature. The rooster is also a symbol of fidelity and punctuality, as it crows at the break of dawn, marking the start of a new day. During Chinese New Year, rooster imagery is often used in decorations to bring good fortune and ward off evil spirits.” ref

“In Japan, chickens hold a sacred place in Shinto beliefs. There is a famous myth about a chicken that crowed to summon the sun goddess Amaterasu, who had hidden in a cave, plunging the world into darkness. The rooster’s crow convinced Amaterasu to come out, bringing light back to the world. This story underscores the chicken’s association with the dawn and new beginnings. In many Shinto shrines, chickens roam freely as they are considered messengers of the gods.” ref

“The chicken (Gallus domesticus) is a large and round short-winged bird, domesticated from the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia around 8,000 years ago. Most chickens are raised for food, providing meat and eggs; others are kept as pets or for cockfighting.” ref

“Water or ground-dwelling fowl similar to modern partridges, in the Galliformes, the order of bird that chickens belong to, survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that killed all tree-dwelling birds and their dinosaur relatives. Chickens are descended primarily from the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) and are scientifically classified as the same species. Domesticated chickens freely interbreed with populations of red junglefowl. The domestic chicken has subsequently hybridised with grey junglefowl, Sri Lankan junglefowl and green junglefowl; a gene for yellow skin, for instance, was incorporated into domestic birds from the grey junglefowl (G. sonneratii). It is estimated that chickens share between 71 and 79% of their genome with red junglefowl.” ref

“According to one early study, a single domestication event of the red junglefowl in present-day Thailand gave rise to the modern chicken with minor transitions separating the modern breeds. The red junglefowl is well adapted to take advantage of the vast quantities of seed produced during the end of the multi-decade bamboo seeding cycle, to boost its own reproduction. In domesticating the chicken, humans took advantage of the red junglefowl’s ability to reproduce prolifically when exposed to a surge in its food supply.” ref

“Exactly when and where the chicken was domesticated remains controversial. Genomic studies estimate that the chicken was domesticated 8,000 years ago in Southeast Asia and spread to China and India 2,000 to 3,000 years later. Archaeological evidence supports domestic chickens in Southeast Asia well before 6000 BCE, China by 6000 BCE and India by 2000 BCE or around 8,000 to 4,000 years ago. A landmark 2020 Nature study that fully sequenced 863 chickens across the world suggests that all domestic chickens originate from a single domestication event of red junglefowl whose present-day distribution is predominantly in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Myanmar. These domesticated chickens spread across Southeast and South Asia where they interbred with local wild species of junglefowl, forming genetically and geographically distinct groups. Analysis of the most popular commercial breed shows that the White Leghorn breed possesses a mosaic of divergent ancestries inherited from subspecies of red junglefowl.” ref

“Middle Eastern chicken remains go back to a little earlier than 2000 BCE in Syria. Phoenicians spread chickens along the Mediterranean coasts as far as Iberia. During the Hellenistic period (4th–2nd centuries BCE), in the southern Levant, chickens began to be widely domesticated for food. The first pictures of chickens in Europe are found on Corinthian pottery of the 7th century BC. Chicken remains have been difficult to date, given the small and fragile bird bones; this may account for discrepancies in dates given by different sources. Archaeological evidence is supplemented by mentions in historical texts from the last few centuries BCE, and by depictions in prehistoric artworks, such as across Central Asia. Chickens were widespread throughout southern Central Asia by the 4th century BCE.” ref

 “There are numerous cultural references to chickens in myth, folklore, religion, and literature. Chickens are a sacred animal in many cultures, being deeply embedded in belief systems and religious worship practices. Roosters are sometimes used for a divination practice called Alectryomancy, a Latin phrase combining “rooster” and “divination”. This would sometimes involve sacrificing a sacred rooster during a ritual cockfight to communicate with the gods.” ref

“Chickens reached Egypt via the Middle East for purposes of cockfighting about 1400 BCE or 3,400 years ago and became widely bred in Egypt around 300 BCE or around 2,300 years ago. Three possible routes of introduction into Africa around the early first millennium CE could have been through the Egyptian Nile Valley, the East Africa Roman-Greek or Indian trade, or from Carthage and the Berbers, across the Sahara.” ref

“The Rooster is the tenth of the twelve animal symbols in the Chinese zodiac. In Taoism, the spring Hanshi or Cold Food festival was a traditional holiday in which fires were left to die down and then re-lit. Both fire and the rooster are symbols of yang and the sun. Thus, to have a rooster fight another rooster was the same in substance as the fire-renewal custom, and cockfighting was instituted as a springtime ritual. The Hanshi festival was eventually moved to coincide with the Qingming Festival (also called the Pure Brightness Festival), retaining the rooster and cockfights. Many roosters are found around Shinto shrines, with the rooster being associated with the sun goddess Amaterasu.” ref

“Indigenous beliefs on the veneration of spirits and deities still remain strong in Southeast Asia. The veneration of traditional spirits (Antio) still exists for practicing Christians. A popular form of fertility worship among most of Southeast Asia is the Animist belief in the rooster and the cockfight. In East Timor the cock is admired for courage and perseverance. Man’s courage is often compared with that of the cock, and cockfights are a regular occurrence. Many tais designs include the cock.” ref

“In Indonesia, many religions place symbolic importance on the rooster. A sect of Balinese Hinduism within the Toraja society called Aluk, or Aluk To Dolo, embraces rituals such as funeral ceremonies including a sacred cockfight. In several myths, the cock has the power to revive the dead or to make a wish come true. Kaharingan, an animist folk religion of the Iban branch of the Dayak people, includes the belief in a deity associated with the rooster and cockfighting, and the belief that humans become the fighting cocks of god. The Iban further believe that the rooster and cockfight was introduced to them by god. Gawai Dayak, a festival of the Dayaks, includes the cockfight and the waving of a rooster over offerings while asking for guidance and blessings; the rooster is then sacrificed. The Tiwah festival involves the sacrifice of animals such as chickens as offerings to the Supreme God.” ref

“Miao (i.e. Hmong) are animists, shamanists, and ancestor worshipers with beliefs influenced by Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity. At the Miao New Year, there may be domestic animal sacrifices or cockfights.  The Hmong of Southeast Guizhou cover the rooster with a piece of red cloth, then hold it up to worship and sacrifice. In Hmong Shamanism, a shaman may use a rooster in a religious ceremony; it is said that the rooster shields the shaman from evil spirits, as the evil spirits see only the rooster’s spirit. In a 2010 trial of a Sheboygan Wisconsin Hmong charged with staging a cockfight, it was stated that the roosters were “kept for both food and religious purposes”, resulting in an acquittal. In Vietnam fighting roosters or fighting cocks are colloquially called “sacred chickens.” ref

“The Bayon Temple in Cambodia is an ancient Buddhist temple which includes a depiction of a cockfight within its walls. During April, the Three Pagodas Pass becomes the site of the Songkran Festival, which includes cockfights. Many sacred Buddhist amulets depict Buddha with cocks in fighting stance. Cocks are also interpreted as a symbol of greed in Tibetan Buddhist murals.” ref

“In Greek mythology, Alectryon was the guard of Ares, waiting beside his door and alerting him if anyone came near while he was sleeping with Aphrodite, wife of Hephaestus. However, Alectryon once fell asleep, and Helios, the sun, saw the two lovers and alerted Hephaestus. In anger over Alectryon’s incompetence, Ares turned Alectryon into a rooster for his disobedience, thus fulfilling his promise to Ares for eternity. The rooster was one of Helios’ sacred animals.” ref

“In Ancient Greece, chickens were not normally used for sacrifices, perhaps because they were still considered exotic animals. Due to its valor, the cock is often depicted as an attribute of Ares, Heracles, and Athena. The alleged last words of Socrates, as recounted by Plato, were: “Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?”, signifying that death was a cure for the illness of life. The term “Persian bird” for the rooster appears to have been given by the Greeks after Persian contact because of their great importance and religious use among Persians.” ref

“The Greeks believed that even lions were afraid of roosters. Several of Aesop’s Fables reference this belief. The poet Cratinus (mid-5th century BC, according to the later Greek author Athenaeus) calls the chicken “the Persian alarm”. In Aristophanes‘s comedy The Birds (414 BCE) a chicken is called “the Median bird”, which points to an introduction from the East. Pictures of chickens are found on Greek red figure and black-figure pottery.” ref

“In Ancient Greece, chickens were still rare and were rather prestigious food for symposia. Delos seems to have been a center of chicken breeding (Columella, De Re Rustica 8.3.4). “About 3200 BCE chickens were common in Sindh. After the attacks of the Aria people, these fowls spread from Sindh to Balakh and Iran. During attacks and wars between Iranians and Greeks, the chickens of Hellanic breed came to Iran and about 1000 BCE Hellenic chickens came into Sindh through Medan.” ref

“The mythological basilisk or cockatrice is depicted as a reptile-like creature with the upper body of a rooster. Abraxas, a figure in Gnosticism, is portrayed similarly as well. The Romans used chickens as oracles, both when flying (“ex avibus“, Augury) and when feeding (“auspicium ex tripudiis“, Alectryomancy). The hen gave a favourable omen (“auspicium ratum“), when appearing from the left (Cic., de Div. ii.26), like the crow and the owl.” ref

“According to Cicero (Cic. de Div. ii.34) any bird could be used in auspice, and at one point any bird could perform the tripudium. Normally only chickens were consulted. The chickens were cared for by the pullarius, who fed them pulses or a special kind of cake when an augury was needed. If the chickens stayed in their cage, made noises, beat their wings, or flew away, the omen was bad; if they ate, the omen was good.” ref

“In 249 BCE, the Roman general Publius Claudius Pulcher had his sacred chickens thrown overboard when they refused to feed before the battle of Drepana, saying “If they won’t eat, perhaps they will drink.” He promptly lost the battle against the Carthaginians, and was heavily fined for impiety back in Rome.” ref

“In 162 BCE, the Lex Faunia forbade fattening hens on grain, a measure enacted to reduce grain demand. To get around this, the Romans castrated roosters (capon), which resulted in a doubling of size, despite a law in Rome forbidding the consumption of fattened chickens. According to Aldrovandi, capons were produced by burning “the hind part of the bowels, or loins or spurs” with a hot iron. Fattening chickens with bread soaked in milk was thought to give especially delicious results. The Roman gourmet Apicius offers 17 recipes for chicken, mainly boiled chicken with sauce. All parts of the animal are used: the recipes include the stomach, liver, testicles, and even the pygostyle.” ref

“The Roman author Columella advises on chicken breeding in the eighth book of his treatise, De Re Rustica (On Agriculture). He commented on various breeds of chicken and their uses in different functions, ideal practices of flock keeping, construction of chicken coops, what feed to use, and when to slaughter.” ref

“Plutarch said the inhabitants of Caria carried the emblem of the rooster on the end of their lances and relates that origin to Artaxerxes, who awarded a Carian who was said to have killed Cyrus the Younger at the battle of Cunaxa in 401 B.C “the privilege of carrying ever after a golden cock upon his spear before the first ranks of the army in all expeditions”. The Carians also wore crested helmets at the time of Herodotus, for which reason “the Persians gave the Carians the name of cocks.” ref

“The Khasi people of Northeast India believe the rooster is sacrificed as a substitute for humans, as it’s thought that the cock “bears the sins of the man.” in sacrifice. Kukkuta Sastra, or cock astrology, is a form of divination based on the rooster fight common in coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is prevalent in the districts of Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari and West Godavari and the Sankranti festival. Chickens are ritually sacrificed in the Santería religion which originated in Cuba and developed from native Caribbean culture, Catholicism, and the Yoruba religion of West Africa.” ref

“Hindu war god Kartikeya is depicted with a rooster on his flag. A demon Surapadman was split into two and the halves turned into the peacock (his mount) and the rooster in his flag. Balinese Hinduism includes the religious belief of Tabuh Rah, a religious cockfight where a rooster is used to fight against another rooster. The altar and deity Ida Ratu Saung may be seen with a fighting cock in his hand with the spilling of blood serving as a purification rite to appease the evil spirits. Ritual fights usually occur outside the temple and follow an ancient and complex ritual set out in the sacred lontar manuscripts.” ref

“Likewise, a popular Hindu ritual form of worship from North Malabar in Kerala, India is the blood offering to the Theyyam gods. Despite being forbidden in the Vedic philosophy of sattvic Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, Theyyam deities are propitiated through a rooster sacrifice in which the religious cockfight serves as an offering of blood to the Theyyam gods. Pongal or Makar Sankranti is a Hindu harvest festival. In the southern state of Tamil Nadu and the western state of Gujarat, one event of the celebrations is rooster fighting, also known as Seval Sandai or Kozhi kettu. It is also practised in Tulunadu. Kozhi kettu organized as part of religious events are permitted.” ref

“Yoruba oral history tells of God lowering Oduduwa down from the sky, the ancestor of all people, bringing with him a rooster, some dirt, and a palm seed. The dirt was thrown into the water and the cock scratched it to form land, and the seed grew into a tree with sixteen limbs, the original sixteen kingdoms. Ikenga, an alusi of the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria, requires consecration with offerings before religious use, which include the sacrificial blood of a rooster or ram for the spirit.” ref

“In many Central European folk tales, the devil is believed to flee at the first crowing of a rooster. In modern Greece, when laying the foundation of a new building, it is customary to sacrifice a cock, ram, or lamb, and let its blood flow on the stone of the foundation. The Imbolc festivities in honor of the pan-Celtic goddess Brighid included the ritual sacrifice of a rooster and cockfighting. In the 20th century, Imbolc was resurrected as a religious festival in Neopaganism, specifically in Wicca, Neo-druidry and Celtic reconstructionism.” ref