THE USE OF KNOWLEDGE :
THE INTERFACE
BETWEEN SOME MAJOR MYTHOLOGIES AND THEIR LEGACY FOR
A NUMBER OF
MODERN WORLD RELIGIONS
By S. V. Roy Ph.D.
Perusing the countless-events-dotted, at least 20.000-years-of
–human-history-spanning vista all the way, we cannot help noticing that the
main factors which triggered off the various mythologies globally were non-other than the age-old human fear and admiration for the unknown and the
wonderful, also what seemed to be beyond mankind’s grasp of physical and mental
faculties as well as that which played a pivotal role in life yet often seemed
too difficult to command without support from a superior power. From the Mayas
and Aztecs' grimly anthropomorphic pantheon to the totemic portrayals of gods
and demons of Polynesia and Oceania to the Greek mercurial and seductive
Olympians, the life-and-death balancing Egyptian deities and the
extraterrestrial connections-evoking Mesopotamian Annunakim as well as all the way
to the Chinese imperial authorities of Heavens and Earth, the dominant reason why
people personified natural or seemingly supernatural powers was the drive to
pay their respects to entities whose favor, sympathy and forgiveness they
could never dispense with. Weather elements, the sky, the sea, unexplored
expanses of woodland, fire, peace, war, love, diseases, harvest, the Goodness
and Evil among others, and of course Death and the mysteries surrounding the
afterlife, all had their commanding deities who either closed ranks or warred
against each other very much like the corresponding natural or social elements
they stood for. It is just as undeniable that the human inability to cope with the
unknown and supernatural and the tendency to fear and idolize what exceeds
human standards can be considered among the most powerful agents in engineering
religious concepts as well in all civilizations and hence underlie all myths
and religions granting them related aspects which should nevertheless be not
necessarily taken to suggest tribal influence or relations; what sets religions
off from myths, elevating them to a more spiritual and revered level, is the
moral dispensation of the former serving as their timeless foundation and usually
considered as a revelation of divine doctrine to people through an initiate or
messiah. The similarities however between certain Levantine and Near Eastern
mythologies and religions as well as between Hindu theology and Hindu as well
as other myths strongly point to a notable interaction and this Paper will
attempt to give an account of some of the most important ones and also
demonstrate how a number of mythological convictions filtered through the
narratives of major religions prevalent in later and even modern times. Eurycoma,
the supreme deity in the Pelasgian version of Cosmogony and Theogony during the
pre-greek (early Neolithic to early Middle Bronze Age, i.e c. 6000-2000 ) times
in the Aegean area and a powerful reflection in mythological-religious terms of
the matriarchal spirit of that time, has fourteen Titans,seven of either sex, to
guard the seven sacred planets of the Kosmos she had created, allotting a pair
(one male,one female ) to each one (1);
granted the respective earlier Chaldean- Babylonian as well as Canaanite
cosmological myths contained the concept of seven deities guarding the seven
sacred planets and the seven days corresponding to each of them, the whole
concept being inspired from the seven day stellar Babylonian calendar, it is
very likely that its Greek mainland equivalent was adopted from the Babylonian
original along with the seven –day –stellar calendar, following their
introduction in the Aegean area by what seems to be an inrush in Greece of
Anatolian and Palestinian tribes between c. 3000-2000 (early Bronze Age in
Aegean terms). Matriarchy being the dominant religious and cosmological aspect
in the Aegean area at that time, seven female deities were added to the equal
number of deities guarding the sacred planets, six of which were of male gender
in the Babylonian version, the ensuing total becoming fourteen; this cult was
sanctioned later as the Titans worship by the first Greek-speaking tribes who
arrived in the Aegean area at a time marking the beginning of the Middle Bronze
Age there ( c. 2000), only to be superseded by the 12-major gods-Olympian
pantheon at c. 1600-1500 (early Mycenaean era ), the number of the Olympians probably
reflecting the introduction of the new, 12 - signs-of-the zodiac cycle-based
stellar calendar, a combination pointing at this new calendar’s first application
also at that time (c. 1600-1500). The seven-day-planetary calendar was
reinstated in Greek classical times, the seven planets (one for each day)
bearing the names of mostly male Olympians, according to the then dominant,
patriarchic social and religious model and was subsequently adopted by the
Romans who gave the seven planets the Latinized names of their own gods.
Eurycoma can be paralleled to the Sumerian goddess Iahu or Jahu whose
name can be seen in Jehovah, the Jewish male equivalent of the God–Creator;
Jahu’s demise by Marduk, the supreme god in Babylonian mythology, marks the
transition from matriarchy to patriarchy in Mesopotamia; an echo of the
supreme deity’s transcendental nature as in the case of early Zeus’ worship
which had retained some features of the preceding Titans’ cult can be seen both
in the Jewish worship in Jerusalem of a supreme being commanding the seven
divine powers of the planetary week - as in the earlier Babylonian version -symbolized
by the seven-branch -candlestick and the seven pillars of Wisdom, and also in
the case of a god in Heliopolis in Egypt; this latter deity held symbols of
the seven sacred planets upon his chest and of the Olympians whose names were
not given to the seven planets, on his back. It is therefore clear in this
case, as will also be seen later in this treatise, how elements of previous
mythological traditions infiltrated into cult concepts that formed aspects of
major religious dispensations.
A very interesting parallel to major components of the story about
Kronos’revolt against Uranus’, king of Heavens, in Hesiod’s cosmogony and about
some other incidents therein, is found in the respective Hittite myth where the
god Kumarbi, equivalent of Kronos in the Hesiodic version, cuts off god-of-heavens
Anu’s testicles with his teeth (Anu being the equivalent of Uranus who is also
castrated by Kronus with a sickle ) and spits some of the semen on the Katsura
mountain; the goddess of love is born, like her Greek equivalent Aphrodite,
from the fallen semen and is gestated by Kumarbi between his ribs until Ea,
Anu’s brother wrenches her from there and makes her his ally, a story repeated
with another deity, gestated in Kumarbi’s thigh after the fashion of the Greek
god Hermes who was sewn into Zeus’ thigh.
The Canaanite cosmological myth that preceded the Israelite Exodus
and was dominant in Palestine by the time the Israelites arrived there following
their Exodus from Egypt speaks of a female deity creating the Cosmos in a story
sharing many elements with the earlier Pelasgic cosmological myth which this
Canaanite version may have been influenced; a likely bearing of this
matriarchal Canaanite cosmological myth upon the biblical version of cosmology may
be seen in the Talmudic version of Genesis where the spirit of a female
deity-creator of the Universe “ hovers over the face of waters” pretty much
like Eurynomi does in the Pelasgic version; the name of Eve has there the meaning
of “Mother of all living creatures”, not of human beings only, a title never
granted to Adam, despite his God-awarded authority over Eve. Other parallels
between the Jewish cosmological narratives in the Old Testament and the
respective ancient Greek mythology versions can be seen again in the Talmudic
version of Genesis; there Archangel Michael, rather than God himself, molds Adam
out of earth’s dust only for God to breathe life in him just like Prometheus
does with Deucalion, the first man in the Hesiodic version of cosmogony with
goddess Athena bringing him to life; Eve, Adam’s consort, shares the role of
Pandora, Deucalion’s mate in Hesiod’s cosmogony, both women’s curiosity demoting
human race to a life of tribulation (2).
It is remarkable that both Greek and Biblical cosmological
traditions discriminate, as do later Greek philosophers, between the earliest
righteous human generations and the later, sinful ones which are destroyed by
the Flood in both cosmologies, because of their perverted nature; the righteous
generations of the Hesiodic and monotheistic versions of Greek tradition referred
to as the Golden race in the Hesiodic narrative. can be reasonably matched with
the so –called “ Sons of God” in Genesis, the earliest,bravest and noblest
generations of mankind, being partly of divine descent; the later generations, of inferior morality, in the Greek
tradition, referred to as the Silver Race in the Hesiodic version and as born
(like the Bronze Race)of the Earth in the Pelasgic and the Olympian versions-
and of the Ocean in the Homeric narrative- may have their equivalents in the
“Daughters of Men” in Genesis, generations, that is, whose earliest parts
overlap with the latest of the “Sons of God”, and are of a sex of inferior intellect
according to the prevalent Jewish patriarchal mentality ; the ensuing marriages
between the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men brought forth the Nephilim,
the O.T. equivalent of the demigods in Greek tradition, who may well be a match
for the mainstream of the Hesiodic Silver race ; the Nephilim are followed by
corrupt human races in the O.T., corresponding to the Bronze species in the
Hesiodic cosmology and are wiped out, like their Greek peers, by the Flood
whose only survivor is Noah and his family.
Much as the extent of the influence on Christian religion of
earlier mythological and religious traditions have not been settled yet, it is
undeniable that there is a number of striking similarities between Jesus’life
and those of earlier divine leading figures of religions including the likes of
Attis in Phrygia, Buddha in India, Dionysus in Greece, Mithras in
India-Persia-Rome, Crishna in India and Osiris in Egypt to mention some of the
most notable
examples; they all have a significant number of common aspects
with Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and above all the Egyptian god Osiris sharing
the most, that is, they are born on the 25th of December in a cave
or manger, their birth is attended by shepherds and wise men, they teach at a
temple at the age of 12, they lead a preaching-focused life devoted to
redeeming mankind from sin, they perform miracles, die a martyr’s death
(Krishna and Osiris were crucified )for three days and are resurrected at the
Vernal equinox, virtually, that is, at Easter time and finally they are all
called “Saviours”, “Redeemers”, “God’s anointed sons”, “Light of the World”,
“Alpha and Omega” etc; It is only reasonable to claim that a number at least
of these earlier mythological-religious aspects of those leading figures have helped
shape the pattern of Jesus life (4).
Turning now to the Hindu mythological and religious tradition, we
notice the unbroken continuity of the mainstream concepts from the earliest mythological
narratives all the way to the modern religious doctrines, a phenomenon that
unequivocally attests to a powerful
bond between mythology and religion in this country; yet there is
further evidence pointing to parallels between Hindu religion and other
mythological-religious traditions ; there is a notable similarity between the
Hindu cosmology concept in the narrative of
katapatha Brahmana and the respective one in the Egyptian mythology,
regarding the first steps taken to set primordial life in motion; in both cosmologies
water is the first and foremost element from which an egg is born that in turn
brings forth the first and ultimate deity, the one that will create the whole
Universe, namely Ra, Path or Ammon in Egypt and Prazapati in India. Likewise,
we perceive strong parallels between the Hindu cosmology and the Babylonian and
German / Scandinavian ones regarding the materials used for the creation of the
Cosmos; in all three the world is created from the various parts of the
mutilated body of a giant, namely the androgynous Purusa, the first colossal
human being in the Hindu story of Creation (hymn
from Rigbedda); alternatively of Tiamat, the goddess Marduk defeats and
dismembers in the Babylonian version (Enuma
Elis or the Poem of Creation); and of Ymir, the giant that the chief gods
Odin, Vili and Ve defeated and carved up to create the Universe in Scandinavian
and German mythology(poem of Voluspa). (5)
Other parallels between the Hindu and other mythological
traditions can be seen in the description of Suria or Savitri, the Hindu sun-god,
and the Helios or Sol, the Greek and Latin sun-gods respectively; their equipment,
daily ride through the sky, and abode present striking similarities as do the
appellations given to Suria/Savitri in the Hindu narratives and the respective Egyptian
ones (epic of Mahabharata for the Hindu
tradition, Ovidius Transformations for the Greek and Latin accounts). Another
striking resemblance between Hindu cosmology and its Greek,Biblical and
Egyptian equivalents,to mention but the most pronounced parallels, is to be
seen in the consideration of water as of paramount importance in creating the
cosmos ; water in Hindu cosmology, in the form of Narayana, the Indian
primordial Ocean, is the first and foremost source of life, created by Brahma
and used by him as his abode during his creation of the world (beginning of the Laws of Manu in
Darmakastra) ; in Homeric cosmology, the Ocean which embraces the whole
world is the procreator of all living things, while it is well known from
Genesis that the abyss that existed before Creation is seen as a vast,shapeless
mass of water over which God’s spirit
floated and that He created Heavens and Earth by separating the waters above
from the waters below; finally the Egyptian tradition has the golden egg,out of
which the first being came forth, to arise from a hillock that sprang from the
slime of a vast expanse of muddy water(6).
Quite interesting also are the similarities between the mythical
accounts of how the androgynous people in certain outstanding
mythical/religious traditions, were separated and mated to promote the human
race expansion; such traditions are the Greek (the related race account is in
Plato’s Symposium), the Hindu (in the account of Bursa, the first human being, in
Brandaraniaka Upanisada) and a Rabbinic version of Genesis ( featuring Adam
as an androgynous human being). There is also a notable likeness between the
accounts of the four Ages -corresponding to the four human races -and their declining
state of morality and endurance in rigorous living conditions, in the Hindu
text of Vayu Purana, Hesiod’s Works and Days, Plato’s Politician, Empedoklis’ Purifications and the oldest text of
all, a Sumerian poem of early 3rd millennium BC, called Enmerkar and the Lord of Arata.
According to the great Hindu epic of Mahabharata and the way in Hindu tradition of measuring cosmic time
with Ugas, each Uga standing for an indefinite length of time –like the biblical
Genesis days- yet accounting for one whole Age, four Ugas adding up to one Maha
Uga, that is, a full cycle of cosmic time, the first Uga in human History, namely Krita
Uga, corresponds to the Golden Age in Hesiodic terms and lasted 4.800
conventional years ; the second Uga, called
Treta Uga lasted 3.600 years and
corresponds to the Silver Age, the third, known as Dvapara Uga, 2.400 years,being the equivalent of the Bronze Age and
the fourth and last, under the name of Kali
Uga, stands for the Iron Age in Hesiod’s epic and covers 1.200 years; the
striking similarities in both the descriptions by Hesiod and the Hindu epic habharata of the gradual moral decline
of the human race since the end of the Golden Age all the way to the still
ongoing Iron one serve to even further underscore the extent to which
mythological legacy has engrafted convictions in what would later serve as
background to patterns that have
survived through the centuries in religious doctrines, the Hindu one, in this
case (7).
Similarly, there is a sharp likeness between the accounts of the
Great Flood in the Hindu texts of Katapatha
Brahmana and Mahabharata, featuring
Manu as the biblical version of Noah, and the Sumerian tradition on the matter,
found in a Sumerian tablet from Nippur (early 3rd millennium BC) featuring
king Ziusundra as the only one spared; other strong parallels are to be found
in the account of the Flood in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh (c.2100 BC)with Ut
Napistim being its only survivor in a story upon which that of Noah must
have been patterned; also in the Iranian book of Videvdat, in Ovidius Transformations
featuring Deukalion and Pyrrha as the only ones who survived the Flood and
finally of course in Genesis with the
well known Noah and his family as the ones who are spared and bring about the
recreation of living creatures (8).
Yet the most undeniable evidence that mythological heritage has
served as a very instrumental cornerstone for the modern Hindu religion is the
fact that the fundamental and most revered deities of this religion in the
modern era are the same as those referred to as such in the early mythological
texts and worshipped from age-old times all the way to modern era in this
country; on top comes the supreme trinity of the gods Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva with
their consorts Laksmi, Sarasvati and Parvati or Urma or Ma Kali respectively, followed
by the likes of Indra, Suria, Agni, Aditi et.al, even Buddha himself, a native
prince of India who, after a life devoted to fighting temptation and injustice,
earned divine enlightenment and immortality; a whole series of divine beings,
that is, whose worship first in the mythological and then the religious attire has
endured all the rigors and ravages of time.
Endnotes
1. Homer,Iliad
v. 898 ; Apollonius Rhodius, ii.1232; Apollodorus.i. 1.3; Hesiod, Theogony 113; Aristophanes, Birds 692 ff.; Clement of Rome, Homilies vi. 4.72; Proklus on
Plato’s Timaeus ii. p. 307
2. Genesis ,
3.20 ; R.Graves, Greek Myths, 1st vol. 4. c. 2-3
3. Genesis vi.
2-4 ; idem (n. 2), 4.c. 4
4. The World
Book Encyclopedia; Library of the World Myths and Legends (Persian Mythology);
see also the studies on the matter by J.M. Robertson, T. W. Doane, F. Cument, J.
G. Frazer; D. Ulansey The Origins Of The Mithraic Mysteries
5. J. Lacarriere,
Au Coeur des mythologies – Eu Suivant Les Dieux, 2004. pp 43-44, 154.
6. Idem, pp. 27-8,
47, 97-8-9.
7. Book of Vayu Purana ; idem (n.5) pp 189-90,192-3-4;
Sumerian poem Enmerkar and the Lord of
Arata,
Plato’s Politician.
8. S.N Kramer,
History begins in Sumeria; Sumerian Nipur tablet; Gilgamesh Epic; Lucianus from Samosata
About the
Syrian god; Horacio, Songs; Katapatha Brahmana; Epic of Mahabharata.