Cross-Cultural Goddess Myths Ishtar and Tammuz (Babylonian Myth)

Ishtar is a Babylonian goddess of dual character, associated with both love and war. She was thought to treat her lovers harshly, never remaining permanently faithful. The most important myth associated with Ishtar concerns her love for Tammuz, a young fertility god. In a way the myth leaves unclear, her love for him somehow causes his death. She grieves for him ceaselessly, and her grief is symbolized by the summer sun drying the vegetation. She descends into the underworld to retrieve him, and she is imprisoned there. At last Ea, god of water and wisdom, sends a creature armed with magic spells against the queen of the underworld. Her rescuer pours over her the water of life, after which she returns to earth, bringing Tammuz with her. Aphrodite and Adonis Adonis is a lovely boy born to Myrrha when she is inspired with a passion (Greek Myth) for her father as punishment for scorning Aphrodite (goddess of love). Aphrodite, who loves the boy, gives him to Persephone (goddess of the underworld) for safe-keeping, and Persephone refuses to give him back. When Zeus’ mediation is sought, he assigns Adonis one-third time to each woman, and permits him to spend the remaining time as he will. Adonis chooses to spend the time with Aphrodite rather than in the underworld. His period of time with Persephone thus closely coincides with the months in which the winter leaves the earth without vegetation. (In a variant of this tale, Adonis is killed by a boar sent by Aphrodite’s jealous lover, and Aphrodite’s grief is so great that the gods permit Adonis to spend six months of each year on earth). Isis is the sister/wife who loves her Isis and Osiris brother/husband Osiris, the sun god, by (Egyptian Myth) whom she conceives Horus. Before their son can be born, Osiris is slain by the forces of evil and his body set afloat in a box. Isis seeks her beloved and, finding his body, partially revives him. He is discovered again by his adversary (his evil brother Set), and this time his body is torn apart. Isis finds and reassembles the pieces, and Osiris lives again as judge of the dead. Horus revenges his father and replaces him as the sun god. In its bare outlines, Osiris, the sun, is overcome by Set, the night; he is resurrected by Isis, the eastern sun at dawn, who gives birth to Horus, son of the new day. Similarities in Myths and The Sun Also Rises

• Many myths (Ishtar, Aphrodite, Isis) are tales of love between an older woman and a younger man. • Brett is 34; Pedro Romero is 19 • Many represent a sexually voracious, but unfaithful woman • Myths often present danger to the younger man • Sometimes the Goddess causes the danger; sometimes she helps circumvent the danger • Myths involve fertility; explain the seasonal cycle • Fertility what’s lacking in the novel? (Both in a physical sense—Jakes’s wound and in a spiritual sense—a modern wasteland?) Circe

A goddess of magic or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress in Greek mythology. By most accounts, she was the daughter of the sun god Helios. Circe was reknowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into wild beasts. Some say she was exiled to the solitary island of Aeaea by her subjects and her father Helios for killing her husband, the prince of Colchis. In Homer’s Odyssey, she falls in love with Odysseus and turns his men into swine. The messenger god Hermes warns Odysseus to be careful when invited into Circe’s bed. She would take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not.