Part II
Myths of the Gods
i) Gods as Archetype
1) The Androgynous Gods
a) Both Male and Female, so having power of creation alone. Oriental Yin Yang (WM90)
b) Splits into original pair: Heaven (male) and Earth (female) form the necessary primal couple for life, creation (see genealogies in Lemming page 96 and 99)
c) Masculine becomes political and military power: war gods or patron of King
d) Feminine becomes nurturer and life giver (Eve in Genesis 4 as mother of all life=old memory of Mother Earth)
e) Universal Forms of Gods (nature and human imagination
f) Ethnocentric (Genders alternate) but universal (Example: Israelite monotheism= male god vs. the fertility goddesses of the Canaanites (identity issue for monotheism)
2) The Great Mother
a) Represents Nature as benevolent and violent (Tiamat in Mesopotamia c/c hurricanes)
b) Replaced with agricultures/ vegetation goddess; need to explain winter>stories where she must go to the Underworld (grave, womb) to rescue husband (Egypt, Mesopotamia) or daughter (Greek)
c) Folktale=Mother Nature
d) Modern: Gaia as Earth (Leeming 145)
i) Gaia as living ecosystem (demythologized)
ii) Gaia as machine (Symbol of industrial age?!)
ii) The Dying God
1) Egyptian: Osiris and Isis
a) Ethnocentric: Osiris gave Egyptians first laws, worship rituals, agriculture, horticulture (fruit trees), alcohols, (+writing and architecture)
b) Social Truth: Killed by Brother Seth= rivalry in royal
c) Etiology: why is the delta so fertile? Seth cut body into 14 pieces and genitals land in the delta
d) Etiology: Why are there so many replicas of Osiris body part? The replicas were placed I temples around Egypt (relics for safety)
e) Etiology: Why do we mummify the dead? Anubas taught secrets of...