Mythologies of the world

 Mythologies of the world

Dr. Swati Joshi

Gujarat 

 There are lots of mythologies of the different culture in the world. Every mythology discusses about their customs, society and traditions and also talked about their glorious and un forgettable past years. There are Biblical stories considered as mythology, Celtic mythology, Egyptian Mythology, Greek Mythology, Roman Mythology, Japanese Mythology, Mayan Mythology, Mesopotamian Mythology, Norse Mythology, Zoroastrianism Mythology, Arabian, Armenian, Aztec, Christian, Chinese, Guarani, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Korean, Polynesian, Romanian, Slavic, Turkic, and Micronesian Mythologies.

1 Biblical Stories-

 It is considered that Biblical Stories are from Bible. Bible is related with the religion of Judaism and Christianity. It has two parts. First is Tanakh (The Old Testament) which is related with Christian and second is The New Testament, which is related to Jesus. The Old Testament is having 24 books which are divided into 3 books. It is original written in Hebrew Language.

1 The Torah – It means to give instruction or act. It is again divided into five books as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

2 The Nevi’m – It deals with history of Jewish and divided into eight book as Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Twelve.

3 The Ketuvim – It talked about King David, King Solomon and the Prophet Jeremiah. It is divided into eleven books as Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Songs of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, and Chronicles.

 The New Testament is another next element of Christian Bible having 27 books, written originally in Greek. It has six pasts as Gospel, The Acts, The Epistles, Revelation and Apocrypha.

 Gospel has four narratives that talk about birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ. The Acts talked about the foundation of Christianity, talk about what is death and how it is related with new born, and renaissance of Jesus. The Revelation talked about Messiah, the end of Satan and the beginning of the peace in that era. The Apocrypha which means hidden writing describes the life of Jesus.

2 Celtic Mythology-

 As Greek and Roman Mythology the Celtic Mythology is not renowned in the world. There are lots of Celtic Gods and Goddesses. Even at the rise of the Roman Empire Celtic people maintained their religion and culture which converted into mythology. But after some time Celtic people merged with Roman and Germans. Celtic Mythology is having Goulish Mythology, Scottish Mythology and Irish Mythology. Gaulish Mythology again came together with Roman because of its nearby culture and traditions and of influence. It can be said that it is a part of French Mythology. Scottish mythology became the part of Celtic Mythologies because the myth and legend can be directly seen as only one of its kind or explicit to Scotland. Irish mythology deals with Mythological cycle, the Ulster cycle, the Fenian cycle and historical cycle.

3 Egyptian Mythology-

 Egyptian Mythology is completely based on animals because they worship animals as God and Goddesses. The Egyptians are of opinion that the sanctified god and goddesses turn into human appearances. Ancient Egyptians believed that the Earth is in the form of disc and the centre part is Egypt. For them underworld is under the water which symbolizes bad things. They have different opinion about the creation of the universe, one myth is about Ptah who created the universe and another is Khhum who did the same by using potter’s wheel. In Egyptian Mythology there are lots of characters who symbolize different myths. The characters of the Mythology are-

1 Amon- Amon is considered as the main God of Thebes. Nut was his wife and Khensu was his son. He is seen as the Sun in this mythology.

2 Atum- He is considered as the first who come directly himself. He had produced Shu and Tefnut.

3 Duat- Egyptian myths are divided into three categories the Earth, Sky, and Duat. It is believed that the sun wonders whole day and at night he fell down in Duat and then no one can see the sun.

4 Geb - It is believed that Geb is related with earth and called God of Earth. He is considered as the chief of the goose.

5 Hathor- She is believed to be the Goddess of love, productiveness, and the Carnivals. She is always seen in the form of cow.

6 Horus - It is believed that he is the God of sky, the son of Osiris and Isis. He killed his Uncle Set because his uncle killed his father.

7 Isis- She is the Goddess of nature, sister and wife of Osiris. When set killed his husband into 14 pieces she collected all the pieces and it is believed that she recreated his husband. She represented as cow.

8 Veith- She is considered as the Goddess of war and hunt.

9 Nut- She is Goddess of sky and the sister and wife of Geb. She was the mother of Osiris, Set, Isis and Nepthys.

10 Osiris- He was the God of underworld. He was the son of Geb and Nut. Osiris had brother set and sister Isis to whom he marry. He focused more on charity, services and cultivation. His brother set killed him and cut in 14 pieces and spread in Egypt. Osiris is also known as Serapis in Egypt Mythology.

11 Ptah- It is believed that Ptah has produced universe and considered the principal God of the Memphis people.

12 Ra- Ra is believed as the God of Son. It is believed that he can be seen in form of hawk and lion. He was like king and performed his duties well but when he become old he had to send the Goddess Hathor to the Earth in the form of Eye. Then Thoth became his heir when Ra was doing his journey towards Duat. Geb and Osiris became the replacement of Ra.

13 Set – He was Evil God. He killed his brother Osiris and set was killed by Horus the son of Osiris.

14 Tefnut- It is believed that Atum created him.

15 Thoth- Thoth is considered as the God of Wisdom, magic and arts. It is believed that he was the creator of literature, geometry, and astronomy.

4 Japanese Mythology-

 It is believed that Japanese Mythology is based on Shinto religion but another belief is that Buddhism influenced this mythology and after some time they adopted Buddhism. The Japanese God and Goddess are-

1 Amaterasu- It is believed that she is the goddess of sun. It is considered that Jimmu the grandson of Amaterasu, went to earth before 3,000 years after this incident Jimmu is considered as the first sovereign of Japan. The three goddesses were produced by Amaterasu at the time of the struggle with her brother. In this struggle Amaterasu ran away and hid her in a cave. There was darkness in Japan because of her nonexistence. This incident resulted in the death of crops and suffering of people was at their highest point. God then decided to call Amaterasu on her position.

2 Izangi Izanami - Izangi means a male give invitation and Izanami means a female gives invitation. They are the 7th generation in Shinto’s religion and they got place to live in a form of island Onogoro. They both decided to marry and wanted to create new generation. For marriage they have done marriage rituals but in excited Izanami spoke which was bad omen. As per the rule a female should not speak a word during the rituals. The result was distorted infant in a shape of parasite. Izangi and Izanami both decided to find out the reason and went to heaven where they have done again the marriage rituals. From that ritual they have created eight big and small islands in Japan. After this event they both produced divine being of sea, wind, mountains, rivers, trees. After remarriage Izanami gave birth to the fire as God but because of fire Izanami burned herself while giving birth and then she died. Death created many God burns and the tears in the eyes of Izangi turns into anger, cut Kangutuchi into pieces. The pieces became God and blood converted into the stars of Milky Way. Izangi wanted his wife back and for that he went to the Yomi, the underworld where her wife refused to come back because she has eaten the black food of Yomi. Izangi tried to see her in the darkness with the torch light and frightened because at that time her body was decaying. He tried to run away but Izanami stopped him. Izangi created barricade between the living and dead world. Then Izanami asked for 1000 living in a day if he will go. Then Izangi replied that he will provide her 1,500 living every day. Because of that incident the death occurs on the Earth. Inzangi captures himself into the river and from his left eyes Goddess Amaterasu got birth, from his right eyes Tuskiyomi came out and Susono came from his nose. It is the myth that Izangi is still resting on the island of Honshu and even today he is worshiped by the people.

3 Yamata no Orochi- Orochi was in form of a serpent dragon with 8 heads, eight tails and it is believed that Orochi’s huge body can cover 8 valleys and 8 hills. At the time of the banish of Susano saw that one couple was crying because every year Orochi eat their daughters and today is their last daughter Kusinada who has to be ready for Orochi. Susano offered marriage proposal for Kusinada to save her. She became ready for the marriage and then Susano converted her into a comb and keep her in his hair. At last Susano killed Orochi.

4 Susano- Susano was the brother of Amaterasu and Trukiyomi and he is created and after some time banished by Izangi. Susano did not like earth and wanted to go to the underworld of Yomi. Izangi asked him to go but before that say farewell to your sisters. Then Susano went to the earth where his sister Amaterasu became insecure. She asked for competition. But after competition Susano become furious and Amaterasu tried to hide herself in the cave and then Sun also hide. So it is now compulsory to take back Amaterasu from the cave. Finally she came out and Susano went to the Yomi.

5 Tsukiyomi – She is created by Izangi and she is given the authority of night sky and moon. She shared the sky with her sister Amaterasu, the goddess of the Sun.

5 Mayan Mythologies-

 It is considered that Mayan Mythology is prior to the European world. Now a day’s Mayan Mythology is known for its creation of the calendar method. At the end of the classic period Mayan religion turn down with the reasons as overpopulation, mutiny, battle, disease, and draught. After this incident many building recreated but some of them are more focused on Yucatan Peninsula united, one law for all. The contact between Maya and Spanish happened in 1511 but around 40 years Spanish took over the Maya region. After this defeat Christianity became main religion of Mayan community. It is believed that among all the cultures of the world only Mayan had developed written language. Mayan Mythology had the contact with Aztecs and Mesoamerican religions. The characters of Mayan Mythology are-

1 Horaca- Horaca was the God of Strom and it is believed that he was always the part of humanity when it was created. He did all the work of humanity with the help of Kukulkan and Tepeu. Horaca the word means one legged. It is believed that the word Hurriacane comes from the word Horacan.

2 Kukulkan- He is the God of Mayan Mythology. The name Kukulkan means “feathered Serpent.”

3 Popol Vuh- It is believed that it is the text of Mayan people. The text talked about the creation of myth, gave description about the stories of heroes as twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The end of the text talked about mythical past of the K’’iche’’ kingdom and it symbolizes relations with the divine. The Popol Vuh manuscript was evidence by catholic priest, Francisco Ximenez.

6 Mesopotamian Mythology-

 Babylonian, Assyrian, Akkadian and Sumerian considered as the part of Mesopotamian Mythology. In this type of Mythology every community has their own religion and belief but they are connected to each other in one mythology. This mythology is having influence of the Hittites and the Phoenicians. It is believed that the area between Tigris and Euphrates of southwestern Asia was the area of Mesopotamian Mythology. Today, we can call it Iraq. But in 1258 Mongols demolished the Mesopotamian. After that other religion like Islam, Judaism and Christianity came out. Abgal, Apsu, Anu, Dagon, Ea, Enlil, Enuma, Elish, Gilgamesh, Ishtar, Marduk, Nablu, Nimah, Ningizzida, Scorpion men, The, Shamash, Sin, Tiamat, and Zu are the characters of this mythology.

7 Norse Mythology-

 Germanic, Nordic or Scadinavian are the other words to define Norse Mythology. It is believed that for many years Scandinavian people stored the myths of this community in verbal form, after long time Norse mythology came in the written form. Ragnarok means pre fate death which is related with this mythology. Norse mythology talked about the main God Esir and Vanir and about lots of giant. The characters of Norse Mythology are,

1 Esir- Esir is related with war, energy and death where as Vanirs deals with expansion and productiveness.

2 Angrboda -a giantess and mistress of Loki. She has given birth to Fennir, Jourmungand and Hel.

3 Bestla- Bestla was also giantess, wife of Bor and mother of Odin, Villi, and Ve.

4 Bor was the son of Buri and a giant. But it is believed that his birth has lots of doubts and uncertainty.

5 Buri – She was in the form of cow Audhumla.

6 Einherjar was also the important part of Norse mythology. Einhejar means “Lone Fighters”.

7 Fennir- He was the son of Loki and frost giantess Angrboda. He was in the form of wolf and worked as the beast of Ragnarok, the disaster of the God. Fennir was very furious animal no one has dared to feed him, only Try can feed him.

8 Fjorgyn- She was considered as the Goddess of Earth and she has given birth to Thor.

9 Freyja- She was the daughter of Sea God Njord. She was considered as the goddess of Productivity, love and lust. She believed in the heroic death. It is believed that she has lost his husband.

10 Jormungand- He was known as Midgard Serpent. He was the son of Loki the fire God and giantess Angrboda.

11 Loki- He was the son of frost giant Farbauti and the Giantess Laufey. He was very mischievous and always interested in tricking others. It is believed that he has given birth to eight legged Sleiphir.

12 Njord- He was the considered as the God of Sea and father of Frey and Freyja.

13 Odin- He was considered as the main God Germanic Mythology. He was the son of Bor and Besta. He was very popular with the name of “Father of Slain”. Odin was killed by Woolf Fenir.

14 Ragnarok- Ragnarok was the place where Gods and the Frost Giants fought for the final epic battle. It marked the end of the war, end of old world and marked new world.

15 Thor- Another name for Thor is Thunder God; he was the son of Odin and Fjorgyn – the Goddess of the Earth. It is believed that he has got magical Hammer. Another chief myth about Thor is that on him name Thursday the name came as the fifth day of the calendar.

16 Try- He was the God of war and son of Odin and Frigg. It is believed that on his name Tuesday the name as the third day of the calendar.

17 Valhalla- This was the big hall of Einherjar created by Odin for the heroic death of warriors in the war. There were around 500 doors and they are very vast and great that 800 warriors could do march out together.

18 Vanir- She was the deities of lushness.

19 Ve- He was the son of Bor and Besta and brother of Odin and and vil.

20 Vigrid- It was the final battle field between God and Giants.

21 Villi- He was the son of Bor and Besta and brother of Odin and Ve.

22 Snorri Sturlson- He was the poet and historian whose works talked about Norse Mythology.

Dr. Swati Joshi

Gujarat