The Myth of the Hero

by Bill Butler

Revision: 20 July 2013 ONE

On every beach there is a ninety-seven-pound weakling. He crouches where the The hero, then, is generated by the needs of ordinary mortals. He is the answer tides recede, glaring at the retreating backs of his girlfriend and the bully who to our prayers and will do those things which we are completely incapable of has just kicked sand in his face. What is he to do? Who will help him recover doing for ourselves. The genesis of literature and myth in which there are heroes his girl and his manhood? is in human need. At one end of the spectrum there are such figures as the Revenger, the Avenger, the Destroyer, Mike Hammer and Travis McGee. At the The headlines are a disaster. The economic situation is worsening with the other are Maitreya Buddha, Jesus Christ, and the Messiah of the Jews. All share rats of right and left deserting the ship as fast as they can. If inflation and a common genesis in human need for a good guy to ride in out of the sunset. unemployment continue to rise, the result has to be a political crisis leading to What he will do when he has dismounted depends on the situation. The anarchy or a dictatorship. We need a leader. Revengers will all solve their (and our) equations with bloodbaths, providing answers which are similar to Alexander’s when confronted with the problem Up to her elbows in the dirty dishwater of seven strange men, Snow White sighs of the Gordian Knot. Even Christ and the Messiah will bring with them some for a prince to rescue her from the boredom of her forest life. bloodshed. Only Maitreya will come bearing the final credits, THEEND rolling up across the screen. In a political context such directness is intolerable. When Paladin, the Lone Ranger, Mao Tse-tung and Franklyn Delano Roosevelt have Each of these situations expresses a condition which may produce a good guy, a completed their calculations, the world will be a more orderly place whether it Hero. The ninety-seven-pound weakling will either train until he is musclebound is the world of Tombstone, Arizona, or Europe or Asia. For it is usually order enough to kick sand in other people’s faces or he will ally himself with someone that rides with these horsemen, if only the order imposed by the King of the heavy enough to do the job for him. If the people (the frogs) get anxious enough Frogs. for a leader (a king), one will be found for them; he will be named Wyatt Earp, John F. Kennedy, or Adolf Hitler. Snow White will be swept off her feet by Prince Charming. They will all achieve the hero which they need and deserve and he When the concept of the hero was first framed it was in myths which were will be found within a perfectly normal human, for example, in Clark Kent when vehicles of religious truth, history and custom. And in these myths the hero he steps into a telephone booth and takes off his glasses. Or, when stricken would have been produced, as in the situations outlined above, as a result by a fatal disease, he will suddenly discover resources of courage which were of prayer, explicit and dreamed. But prayer is not the sole cause of heroes. unknown before and which will enable him to bear his fate. In such instances Jesus Christ, Saoshyant, Heracles, Romulus and Remus, Siegfried and Jason all the individual becomes his own hero. became heroes at least partly as a result of heavenly meddling. God or the gods

1 determine that a hero is necessary; and wish is father to the man. resoundingly and satisfactorily defeated as one of life in toto, a process of dance The hero is an archetypal figure, a paradigm who bears the possibilities of life, where all, including Krishna, move in patterns which accord with their natures. courage, love — the commonplaces, the indefinables which themselves define In the war of the Bharatas these patterns are revealed as encompassing not only our human lives. Our reactions to the hero’s life, his struggles, his victory or his the valour of Arjuna and Dhritarashtra and the divinity of Krishna but also the defeat, are likely to be gut reactions, more comprised of intuition than intellect. treachery of Arjuna and Krishna and the cruelty of Dhritarashtra. Where he walks, the rules, the boundaries, and even the roles are forever subject War is not, however, the only human situation which generates myth and to change. The laws of this world do not apply. mythic heroes. Any condition of stress, and particularly any ‘frontier’ situation, Whether by prayer or by divine intervention (or by simply sending a wire to will serve as well, in both classic and contemporary myths. In medicine such Paladin, San Francisco) the good guy will appear at a crisis point: a time of doctors as Salk, Barnard, and Kildare counterposit the ancient figures of Aes- stress when the rules of the mundane world are inoperative or unknown. It culapius, Imhotep, and Enmenduranna. All of them inhabit both the ‘real’ and follows that those individuals who work on the frontiers of law are naturals to ‘mythic’ worlds of life and death; and their battles, as psychopomps, are on that become heroes for the mass of us who punch timeclocks. Such a frontier is any frontier which separates the two. battlefield, where the heroes may be the flagbearers at Iwo Jima in the Second Similarly the eighteenth and nineteenth century frontiers of America produced World War, originally a historic event, or Arjuna and Dhritarashtra fighting in such heroes as Paul Bunyan (logging), Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and Daniel the Mahabharata, which may be entirely myth. The Mahabharata is in fact Boone (pioneers), Buffalo Bill and George Armstrong Custer. All flourished on based entirely upon a single great battle, and to relate the causes, events, and the borders of law, order, and civilization which abutted on chaos, anarchy, and results of this conflict requires twelve or more volumes. howling savages. In such territory, where the frontiers are by no means as sure Because the membrane which separates order from chaos is so thin in times as they are sometimes made out to be, one would expect to find the myths and of war, because the subject of war is so plainly death with no disguise, many heroes which do exist. And specific to our own time but having precursors in of the world’s greatest myths and mythic heroes are creations of battle. The earlier eras, there are the nomadic drivers of the big transcontinental diesels Mahabharata, the Iliad, and the Niebelungenlied are all largely concerned with moving across America or across Europe into Asia. On the road (chaos) they not only the heroism but also the divine imperatives of conflict as are the Cid, the exist in an ambience which has nothing to do with the little woman and kids Song of Roland, Beowulf, the Norse Sagas, and many books of the Old Testament. waiting at home with the mortgage. And when at home (civilization) they do In the Bhagavad Gita, a section of the Mahabharata which is often published as not go into any great detail concerning the honky-tonks or any of the other a separate work, the holiness and necessity of strife, even between members of temptations of their road — not if they want to keep on having their cake and the same family, is as well expounded as it is ever likely to be by the character eating it too. of Krishna. To Western readers the personification of Krishna, often thought of The point of these examples is to illustrate what is not so much a conflict as a Hindu Christ and god of love, is a little confusing; for he appears in the between law and anarchy, an image which is usually presented, as a complicity. Bhagavad Gita or Song of God as a god of war, whose song is war. By whatever names the antagonists are called — law and anarchy or good and Considered carefully, however, the characterization is reasonable. The evil — they share a common ground, a common dynamic. Not surprisingly, some Hinduism of the Bhagavad Gita tends toward a polytheistic vision where God of the most important heroes who function in this no-man’s (for it is god’s) land is All — the deities of all the worlds, animal, vegetable, mineral — everything. are cops and robbers, and, to some extent, lawyers, judges, and any who are Such a vision not only includes the god of Christian love but also his counterpart, concerned with the manipulation and manufacture of law. Society constantly the angel of hell; and the dynamic is not so much one in which ‘evil’ will be seeks, whatever society, to establish the line between good and evil (law and

2 anarchy). It is for this purpose that the commandments of every religion, the that they were descended from the goddess Venus. For the Roman Senate to laws of every nation are written, yet in practice immediately a line is drawn it censure Caesar, a hero and a god, is as ridiculous and ultimately futile as the becomes subject to exception. The nearly universal prohibition against killing, condemnation of Nixon in America. Such men were created to be beyond the for example, becomes modified by justifiable circumstances: in a holy cause, to law, which is in this context a container fashioned for lesser mortals. For the defend property, to defend life, to avenge, punish, or prevent a crime, in a state hero, like gods and kings, can work no wrong. of war whether declared or undeclared etc. Also, it is obvious that the gods To a lesser extent the same immunity from blame is shared by police, lawyers, of men, whether Hindu or Christian or whatever, are not bound by their own and judges. They require it if they are to deal not only with the law but with commandments. that which is beyond the law. Strictly speaking, the actions of real and fictional Of course most people do not murder, except in their dreams and myths; but Perry Mason types may be unethical or even illegal; but that is hardly the point. they do conscientiously break the laws which they make for themselves. Another They are simply not subject to strict speaking but only to a record of acquittals nearly universal law, that against stealing, is modified in practice to become an and convictions. injunction against stealing from one’s friends. By constantly redefining ‘friends’ The police are measured by a similar yardstick, one of arrests and convictions. to suit changing situations, one is free to steal forever with no blame. Similarly, They employ the tools necessary to beef up the statistics. In a current American traffic laws concerning parking and speeding are evaded in the sure and certain television series, ‘Starsky and Hutch’, the heroes employ a level of violence in knowledge that a little bit won’t hurt, that whoever this law was made for, it every episode which is tolerated by no American law. In mythic terms they are, wasn’t me. as the producers realize, beyond law and beyond the fetters which restrain the The attitude toward human law is paradoxical; but it is also an essential rest of us. And, provided that it is kept within mythic terms (a newspaper, a constituent of myth, the terra incognita of the hero. For among the chief television set) or in mythic territory, society is willing to accept police violence characteristics of the hero is his right to establish the laws of Heaven on Earth, or any other form of lawbreaking. But when the actions of the police, who and the concurrent right to break any of those laws, including the most serious are mythic heroes, erupts out of the mythic television screen, when people are injunctions against murder, with impunity. For that is partially what a hero forced to know that the police do break the law, they do employ violence, people is: like the gods, both law-maker and law-breaker. Not surprisingly the roles do get killed, when the blood starts flowing over the living-room carpet, then the can become confused in myth as in reality. A man-made hero, a president for howls of civic protest can be heard in Hollywood or in city hall, whichever will example, can easily stray across the border from what is permitted to what is do the most good. For society wants its myths and heroes safely away, out on the not and never even know it. As one such hero ex-President Nixon believes to frontier and far from Rome; for when legends walk the streets the skyscrapers this day that what he did during the time that has come to be called Watergate of apple pie tremble on their foundations. was dictated by a necessity of which he was custodian and of which the rest of This ambivalence toward heroes, a mixture of (thank-you, Hunter Thompson) us peasants were unaware. For Nixon was a law-maker. That he arrogated to fear and loathing and love, is one of the integral reference points in considering himself the right to break the laws which he was supposed to uphold may seem them. Only by taking it into account can the ruthless exile of Oedipus, the unusual for a human; but it is commonplace for a hero who is, at least in this maiming and crucifixion of Christ, the exile or castration of many Western sense, more than human if less than divine. The same attitude may have been heroes be explained. We, the group, demand heroes to be first our examples Julius Caesar’s when he crossed the Rubicon in defiance of the Roman Senate. If and then to be our dinner. so, the sentiment would have contributed as much to Caesar’s later reputation as a hero and a god as much as the machinations of the Julian gens to prove The gift of the hero is salvation of the community or the tools or symbols of

3 that salvation. He is a solver of problems, whether they are his own or those of heroes. Because of it Hermes was able to fetch back Persephone from Hades others. But he is also, in a sense, a ‘Greek’. His gifts, like his self, are ambivalent and Quetzalcoatl was able to bring back the bone from the Aztec underworld in much the same manner as the original Greek gift, the Trojan horse which was from which life was re-created. But such a journey can lead to unforeseen left before the walls of Troy by wily Odysseus. In that horse were concealed the complications. To consider it in mythic terms, for example as it might have soldiers who unlocked the gates of the city and exposed it to plundering by the appeared in ‘Star Trek’: the USS Enterprise, Commander James Kirk, Spock Greek army. and the rest of the crew obey an order to deliver a cargo of rare Earth metal, This is not to say that all gifts of all heroes are fatal or treacherous; but they desperately needed by a certain planet, but at the same time unwittingly infect usually have more than one edge, and kill as often as they cure. For example, that planet with an unknown virus. Now the virus, in terms of the myth, can the most splendid of heroic figures bear courage which cheers the dispirited. represent just about anything — a bug, a weapon, an idea — but it originates The Seven Samurai, or in the American versions, the Magnificent Seven, bring outside the society and there is no defence against the changes it brings. In ‘Star guns, courage, and a sense of communal identity. They also bring lashings of Trek’, the consequence might be the accidental extinction of an entire culture. death for dessert. This is equally true of such historical symbols of courage and Provided that this dilemma occurs in ‘Star Trek’ or another myth it is an easy national identity as Churchill, Kennedy, Mao Tse-tung, Castro, Chiang Kai-shek, problem for the viewer to solve. If his sensibilities are affronted by the spectacle Jan Hus, Charlemagne, Joshua N’komo, and J’omo Kenyatta. Each is a heroic of an entire culture being wiped out, he can switch off or stop reading. But what figure, and each is an ambivalent blessing to his people. if the same sort of thing happens in real life? As a Bringer of Culture the hero exists in the folklore of most societies. Pro- In the seventeenth century, horses of the invading Spaniards escaped in Mexico metheus stole fire for the Greeks, Maui stole it for the Polynesians, and Raven and gradually made their way north into what is now the western United States. stole it for the Indian tribes of northwestern America. Boshintoi taught iron- The Plains Indians, nomadic hunting and food-gathering peoples for the most working to Siberian tribes, Haoshyangha taught the use of iron for agricultural part, became acquainted with these new beasts; and by the nineteenth century implements in Persia, and his grandson Jamshid (Yima) developed its use for most of the tribes were well-equipped with horses, which were for them both weapons. Even the Devil is credited as being a culture hero who brought the art status symbols and also working and hunting tools. Now, the Spanish had no of printing to France in the person of the publisher of the first Red-Letter Bible intention of infecting the Indians with horses; but nevertheless they did; and in that country. That particular tale doesn’t specify why the Devil should have the effect upon Amerindian life was catastrophic. been interested in propagating the faith. The bison (buffalo) of North America had already begun to die out before the Each of these contributions to civilization is believed to have been brought to arrival of Europeans in America. Those of the south-cast and the Gulf states were this (real, human) world from another (unreal, supernatural) one. When the extinct before the founding of Jamestown in the sixteenth century. However, the Djanggawul Brother and Sisters brought plants to the Australian Aborigines, they great herds of the American Plains were still alive and might have continued brought them from a mysterious land somewhere over the sea. When Prince so had it not been for the horse and the introduction of rifles, without which Arjuna brought weapons to his brothers before the great battle he obtained the Indians probably could have worked out a means of survival which was not them from the gods in Heaven. When Ivan Tsarovich brings the Water of Life in dependent upon the bison. Such an accommodation would have taken some Russian folklore, it is from an enchanted place or from the ends of the world. time; but without the rifle and the horse this would have been possible. With Similarly, in Christianity Eternal Life is brought to mankind by Christ from them it was not. Bison hunts, which before had been numbered in tens, could Heaven. now only be numbered in thousands. To make matters worse, Great White This ability to travel between worlds is an important characteristic of many Hunters swarmed west to participate in the carnage in a migration which seems

4 to have been as much a matter of deliberate government policy to ‘break’ the Furthermore a house was to be erected over the grave. That was the conclusion Indians as it was accident. Within a few years almost all the bison were gone, of the first vision. But that night there was a second, during which Djewme and within the same short period Plains Indian civilization was virtually dead and the spirit host promised to return for ever at some future time bearing gifts with not enough time to change. from the spirit world. Whereas in the old days these gifts would have been food An anthropologist might describe this as a clash between a nomadic, hunting and implements normally used by the tribe, on this occasion Djewme promised society and a more evolved agrarian and urban society. Such a definition would tobacco, machetes, axes, and greatest wonder of all, outboard motors. be made without regard to the moral issues involved; for what he would be News of these visions spread to other tribes in the area and great interest most interested in would be the recording of such a situation. Similarly, with the was aroused everywhere by the prospect of the imminent arrival of the ‘cargo’. study of myth, one is more interested in recording the stories themselves than in Storehouses were built for the specific purpose of keeping it once it arrived, the moral judgements. But patterns do begin to emerge just from such recording. and a rumour, a myth was circulated among the Airmati tribes to the effect that The same problem resulting from the exchange of deadly gifts occurs in myths although the Europeans had previously kept all the ‘factories’ to themselves, a from other cultures, both past and present. In one song from the late nineteenth new day was coming. Soon, very soon, there would be factories for all. This century, the death of George Armstrong Custer, Yellow-hair, is commemorated particular myth seems to have been told by one of the natives, Banni, who seems by one of his temporarily victorious opponents. In the texts of the Zoroastrians, also to have been somewhat better acquainted with the Europeans and their who were originally Persians, can be seen the clash of their settled, agrarian and culture than his fellows. Banni persuaded others to burn down their houses; urban society with the nomadic tribes that were sweeping across the country they would not need them, for when the ‘cargo’ arrived they would all live in a millennia before Christ. In those Zoroastrian myths one can read a solution brick dwellings. And when all the food was eaten in the expectation of the to the problem which is very similar to that employed in the American West of momentary delivery of new and better foodstuffs the result was temporary the nineteenth century, i.e. define the nomadic way of life as ‘evil’ and kill the starvation. But the pangs of this hunger were stilled by Banni’s explanation that nomads. the Europeans had stopped the ‘cargo’, it was their fault. Instead of the cult In Melanesia the clash between cultures is reflected in the growth of ‘cargo diminishing because it had not fulfilled its promises, it grew. cults’. These are movements in which the people of the islands see prosperity In all these tales the potential dangers which a hero may bear are implicit. He summarized in ‘cargo’, whether that cargo is Coca-Cola bottles, abandoned air- may be only a traveller who is going from one place to another on the surface craft, or any of the other implements of civilization. When contact is established of this world, Marco Polo for example; but however real he may once have between Europeans or Americans and these people, the results, as enshrined been, however real his description of the places which he has seen, his story can in their myths, can appear very strange indeed. There are, for example, the gather round itself, like a piece of grit in an oyster, such rumours as will turn it Semeira, who up until the middle of this century had experienced little contact into a pearl, a myth, something which could equally be fit for a crown or the with outside civilization. When one of the children of the tribe died in circum- cause of a war. stances which suggested that it might be murder, a sort of inquest was held, as It is an obvious ‘truth’ that heroes, like gods, should be human in form. was the tradition in the area, for the purpose of determining by divination who Obvious, but not truth. Though the easiest and probably most frequent of was responsible. Instead of finding out, however, who had killed the child, a constructs in myth and legend is that of the champion or deity in human shape, goddess appeared, Djewme, the ruler of the underworld, in company with a the form of the good guy has been varied through practically all of the available host of the souls of the dead. The relatives of the child were ordered to bury permutations. J. R. R. Tolkien made the Ents in The Lord of the Rings in the form the body at once, without waiting for decomposition to finish as was traditional. of trees, giving them motion and intelligence. To suggest an alien quality to their

5 thinking, Tolkien emphasized their differing conception of time, based on the hero who is among the commonest of mythic figures. Human here is defined much longer life of a tree rather than the comparatively short span of a human. as ‘us’, the people, the cognoscenti; and sub-human is anybody who is perhaps Some readers may find portrayals of trees as heroes too anthropomorphic for shaped as we are but is not nearly as clever. Often women in myth fall into this their liking; but if such images give them no understanding of trees, perhaps category; Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty come to mind. But there are also the they will at least serve to give further insight into the behaviour of humans. many fools of myth and folktale as well as the host of younger brothers. Each Which is another of the functions of the hero, to portray us to ourselves. of these figures in one of the most popular of all mythic situations, that of the The animal hero, as the sidekick of humans, as a creator, as culture hero, and tortoise and the hare, where the apparent loser from the very start of the race as a trickster, has been employed rather more often than the plant hero. In many ends up by winning it through trickery, goodness, cleverness, or some other areas of the world the most important myths are told concerning animals or characteristic which is ostensibly not valued by the society from which the tale humans whose attributes include parts of animal bodies. The mythology that is comes. known as Egyptian today is an aggregate of local tales from perhaps more than Cinderella is one such, a character who thrills the hearts of each young five thousand years ago. Each village seems to have been politically independent generation in spite of the fact that her mind seems moronic and that her sole at first, each with its own family of gods. The deities were often represented positive characteristics seem to be that she loves her mother and is ‘good’, as having the heads of animals or birds which were native to the Nile delta; so whatever that term may mean. What it means in the context of her story is that Thoth is sometimes shown with the head of an ibis, Horus with the head of a she wins, and that the cleverer people with which she is surrounded all come to hawk, Sebek with the head or body of a crocodile, and Isis occasionally is given grief. Although she seems to be a loser, she triumphs. Sleeping Beauty, another the head of a cow. As Egypt gradually became a nation, first the villages joined loser as hero, is an even greater social failure. In the original story, Sleeping with each other, amalgamating their families of gods — for nothing is ever lost Beauty is lying in her coma when she is raped by a passing handsome prince in myths. Eventually with the joining of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms, Egypt (no gentleman, he) who then abandons her. She only recovers consciousness became a nation which preserved, in one pantheon (literally, ‘all the gods’) the as she becomes the mother of twins. The remainder of her tale is devoted deities of each of the villages which had gone to make up the country. There to her quest to find her unknown lover and achieve the status of an honest were conflicts and contradictions which are still apparent in the myths of Egypt; woman. And again she wins through to applause from the gallery. After all, if and the deities continued to be sometimes portrayed as animals, but basically she, with all the strikes which she has against her can win, then so can we. For they were humans whose animal nature was but a mask. we know ourselves, secretly, to be as socially inadequate as Cinderella, as stupid A slightly different approach was taken by the American Indians and some- as Sleeping Beauty. times by the natives of Africa as well. There, many of the heroes and gods have For male heroes rape as a social handicap is somewhat uncommon. Substi- both human and animal forms; but no line seems to have been rigidly drawn tuted for it, however, is any of a number of drawbacks such as diminutive size, between the two, they were considered to be one thing. The resultant myths inferior social position, stupidity, foolishness, or occasionally physical disability. are sometimes confusing: it is, for example, difficult on occasion to tell whether Such heroes as the eponymous Jack in England, Jean in France, Ivan in Russia, Raven is wearing his feathers or not in some of the myths of the Indians of the and Hans in Germany often survive in spite of being handicapped at the begin- northwestern Pacific coast of America; but in most cases the animal characteriza- ning of a tale. Similarly David and Joseph in the Old Testament and younger tions are carefully considered and based upon very close observation of animals brothers from fairy tales from all over the world manage to win through because and their behaviour over a long period of time. of cleverness, trickery, wit, or nimbleness. And each of them gives us, in his Few commentators on myth seem to have noted the use of the sub-human exploits, a chance against whatever giants it is that we face.

6 In some cases the sub-human quality is emphasized still further, as in the death. On television in recent years there have been at least three series which Islamic stories of Mulla Nasrudin, where the hero is, by any social yardstick, an are built around so-called ‘Bionic’ heroes, that is, people who are part robot. The absolute idiot. But his folly reveals itself as wisdom in the end, he is the victor many robots which one can find in science fiction are also superhuman heroes toppling intellectual giants. of incredible strength, vast intelligence, and sometimes a built-in department There are, in all the heroes so far considered, limitations imposed by their an- of nifty tricks as well. Their metal structure and their frequent designation by imal or plant nature. Their solutions to problems are of necessity circumscribed number instead of name make them appear at first glance to be inhuman; but by their forms; and their nature is basically that of this world. But the nature only at first glance. For, like Travis McGee, robots have soul; in fact it is only that of the hero is such that there is always at least a hint of the uncanny, of worlds attribute which makes them soul-brothers to us who are acceptable as heroes. above or below this one; the exploits of a hero such as Mike Fink or Paul Bunyan With monsters in myth and literature the problem is much the same. As their are magnified by the storyteller. Similarly, when supernatural events occur in form wanders away from the ‘desirable’ matrix, that of human beings, there the myths of Jesus Christ or Maui, they may be placed there to entertain, as in are problems in giving them a common identity with mankind. Again, this is folktales, or they may be included to add solemnity to the lives of champions usually done by supplying them with a numinous (indescribable) soul. One who are also teachers by example. of the gimmicks which I remember with great affection from forties science The superhuman hero is far and away the most popular type in myths and fiction is the bug-eyed monster (an interstellar King Kong but brighter) who legends, if not in folktales where the sub-human hero has an edge. He owes grabs an eeking virgin and is about to take her into the darkness of interstellar his increased abilities to a variety of causes: parentage by a god, scientific space when he is cheated of his prey by the square-jawed hero. At this point the intervention, magic weapons, or perhaps birth on another planet; but whatever monster sheds a furtive tear; and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but at it is, this type of hero’s secret strength will give him an advantage over his least it proves to me that the space-beast and I are brothers under the skin. opponents. And it will also frequently create problems for the character as well. Thematically, this is the problem built into the superhuman hero: if he is Mary Shelley’s monster in Frankenstein is such a super-hero, made by Dr totally superhuman, then there is no point of identification. Soul provides one Frankenstein from the parts of old bodies which he had obtained by dubious answer, but it is only one of the avenues which are chosen to link the hero and means. The novel (and even to some extent the movies which it has spawned) is the listener or reader. Achilles, for example, was invulnerable except in his heel; unusual in that it is the monster who is the hero and the doctor, as creator, who Dr Strange, Master of Mystic Arts, is unbeatable except by the rare magician is the villain. The philosophy behind their relationship is straight existentialist whose mastery of magic is greater than his own; even Merlin could be defeated thinking which antedates Kierkegaard by at least thirty years. Dr Frankenstein by the charms of Vivien, the Lady of the Lake, or Nimue. is an analogue of god, a creator who is willing to animate beings towards which In hieratic myth but comparatively rarely in demotic folktales of the present he feels no responsibility, who will make bargains with his monster which he the Son of God is found as a hero. At one time this seems to have been one of is unwilling to keep, and who, like god in Christianity, initiates life in bodies the commonest single strains in myths where the central character was divine to which have no choice in the matter. Small wonder that the monster (the good be sure but tempered with mortality. His nature is bivalent, that which is deity guy) becomes nearly insane with anguish and sets out to destroy his creator in him usually deriving from his father, and that which is human descending and all that he loves. His success is greater than would be that of most heroes from his mother. From his father he inherits a nature which is sufficiently divine who rail against fate and the gods; for the monster is gifted with superhuman to make him stand out above other men and to make every aspect of his life strength, and his creator is absolutely mortal. unusual. From his mother he inherits a liability to death; but when he dies, if he The appeal of man-made superhuman heroes has grown since Frankenstein’s dies, he is then said to have rejoined his divine parent in Heaven. Jesus Christ,

7 Heracles, and Romulus all share this condition with many other heroes; and In Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde the battle is between the each of them is sufficiently human to be comprehended upon this earth, which two halves, two personalities of one character: the ‘good’ Dr Jekyll and his ‘evil’ is after all the place where myths are. Likewise such hero-gods as Thor and chemical creation Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll is elderly and mostly good with a few Rama and Huitzilopochtli have sufficient human qualities in them to be familiar minor vices, while Hyde is totally evil and possessed with a strength and youth to us. Their activities on earth in particular are so like our own pastimes (bloody, which he derives from the fact that the doctor has never given expression to his arrogant, cruel) that they are instantly recognizable as mirror images of our own baser impulses. Though the transformation is at first chemical from Jekyll selves which also happen to be gods. to Hyde, the creature gradually becomes stronger and capable of effecting the metamorphosis at will, with or without Jekyll’s permission. Indeed, it is only As a vehicle for displaying the hero in all of his aspects, from plant to god, by taking a counter-potion that the doctor is able to regain his form at all. This science fiction is perhaps the most successful medium in the Western world last avenue of escape is terminated for Dr Jekyll when he discovers that he can today. It is equally capable of tackling myth in its sacred and secular aspects; manufacture no more of his chemical. He is trapped forever as Mr Hyde, in the and it operates largely in the field which was once reserved for theology; that of form in which he has committed a particularly vicious murder and in which he speculation beyond the known world. Such speculation is, at least sometimes, is likely to be recognized, hounded, caught, and eventually executed. encouraged in science fiction, where the myths are those of the worlds of the Stevenson’s original draft of this story indicates that he was well aware of possible. This willingness to engage the mind with possibilities and to liberally the identity of the hero and villain as one and the same. In the first draft, Dr define the term ‘possible’ seems to me to be of some importance; for if the hero Jekyll, who has all his life been a rather good man, has always suppressed is to perform one of his primary functions, that of exemplar and psychopomp, longing to do nasty things. The person of Mr Hyde is created for the specific teacher, then one would wish to see him confronted with as many different purpose of enabling him to live it up. Unfortunately, Stevenson allowed himself problems as possible, not with as few. The central issue is one of imagination, to be persuaded by Mrs Stevenson that such a tale was too strong for delicate the heart of myths and legends, something which begins as fantasy and ends, Victorian sensibilities, and the story was altered, it could be said, for the worse. unexpectedly, as god’s honest truth. So close is the match between such antagonists that it is upon relatively minor The measurement of a hero, his definition, is in his confrontation with an differences’ between two aspects of the same individual that the battle will be antagonist. Without that meeting of what is both opposite and identical the good decided. And the hero loses. Or does he? Which of the two, Jekyll or Hyde, guy would consist of no more than human flesh and bone with the addition of a is the hero will very much depend on the viewpoint of the reader. Taking two few superlatives: greatest, biggest, strongest, smartest. And so the hero’s life is other antagonists as examples, the issue becomes clearer. If Muhammad Ali is one of test after test, imposed by the author, Fate, the gods, demonic powers, fighting Joe Frazier, it’s a safe bet that the bout will be billed as ‘The Battle of or potential fathers-in-law. In conflict is his delineation. In the eyes of his the Giants’ with the crowd very much divided as to whether they will cheer Ali antagonist he can see his own reflection. The ideal enemy for a hero is himself, or Frazier. To a non-partisan spectator, the two boxers are the same thing, both someone who can match every strength which he possesses. Strategically this heroes; both, if there are any, villains. And placing the contest in the realms of is an impossibility. A struggle between absolute equals would lead to endless myth does not change the situation at all. For example, in the contest between stalemate; so the character of one champion or the other is always weighted, Polydeuces and Amycus in The Voyage of Argo, neither is a hero in any sense if ever so slightly. The closest that one can come to the ‘ideal’ hero situation is more than the other. Polydeuces was presumably cheered by his shipmates and where he confronts some part of himself, usually where the antagonist is a ghost certainly favoured by the author of the book, Apollonius of Rhodes; but Amycus within his own mind. was just as likely to have been favoured by the people of whom he was king.

8 To each of the opposing sides the protagonist is a hero; and if, in the contest In other mythic systems the outcome of the battle is less clear and the con- of will between Hyde and Jekyll it is our projection of what we would like to clusion is by no means foregone. Exemplary of such twins are Osiris and think ourselves to be (Jekyll) who is vanquished, then that does not in any way Set, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, Heracles and Eurystheus, and Gluskap and detract from Hyde’s heroism, however degenerate we consider him to be. Malsum. (Eurystheus, it should be noted, was not Heracles’s literal twin, that The Jekyll dilemma is also the basis for Melville’s Moby Dick and for the post is reserved for Iphicles. But in the myths of Heracles it is Eurystheus legendary tradition of Don Juan. The Great White Whale is real, all right; but who works to thwart the hero, thus functioning as his spiritual if not physical he is also a projection of Ahab’s hatred. And it is Captain Ahab’s hate that kills twin.) In the enmity between these pairs, which are respectively Egyptian, Aztec, him and most of his crew. In the legend of Don Juan, the amorous nobleman is Greek, and Algonquian, the balance between opposites who are the same is led to his own destruction by insatiable lust, an antagonist from within himself more carefully preserved. This effectively emphasizes the kinship (identity) of which is quite as deadly and as sure as the hatred of Ahab and the ego of Mr the heroes and also hints at another theme which is implied, that of relationship Hyde. as a source of conflict. Historically, Don Juan seems to have been a Spanish grandee, one whose It would seem that in myths it was recognized long ago that the likeliest appetites should have qualified him for an Olympic gold medal in mattress source of antagonism (Greek, ‘contest against’) is within the bosom of love, events. His ithyphallic good nature, however, brought him to the attention of a the family. That truth would be recognized by any cop of our own time. The local monastery, the monks of which resolved to punish him as an example to likeliest suspects in any murder or crime of violence are the loved ones. Such others in the community. After enticing him within their cloistered walls, they mythic confrontations as those between Oedipus and Laius, Joseph and his murdered him, then hid his body where it would never be found, after which brothers, Maui and his brothers, Cronos and Uranus, and Zeus and Cronos, all they concocted a legend of his being carried off to Hell by the vengeful statue deal with the same primeval nightmare, that we may sleep beside one who of the father of one of the maidens he had wronged. Such a hard death (and carries an axe for us. A corollary of this is that we may be our own worst enemy. life) was not likely to remain unknown; the legend found favour with Mozart, In the mid-forties, this agonizing dilemma within was stated succinctly by the Richard Strauss, Bernard Shaw and many other makers of myth as well. Which homicidal maniac, William Heirens, who scrawled on the wall of one victim’s is not surprising: since Paris and Jason and even Heracles, the figure of the hero home in lipstick the plea: ‘For Heaven’s sake catch me before I kill again; I who is good in bed if sometimes good for little else has been a popular one. cannot control myself.’ One of the classic methods of having the hero confront himself, and thus To avoid forcing all mythic heroes and their followers to go through that equalize the struggle, is by making him a twin. The most familiar pattern horrendous knowledge it is conventional to express the enemy as an external to such pairs may be that of the light/creative/civilizing brother and his personality. And it is more comfortable. The distinctions between us (heroes dark/destructive/anarchic complement. When such twins appear in a Christian, all) and them (the bad guys) is emphasized; such differences as nationality, Judaic, or ultimately Zoroastrian context, they are usually not thought of as skin colour, religion, shape of eyes, sex, or whatever, are underlined. They equals. The battle is shaded always, however slightly, in favour of ‘good’. Thus (outside) are the enemy; we (inside) are gooder than good. One way of doing in the Zoroastrian myth of the conflict between Spenta Mainyu (Holy Spirit) and this is by treating the opponent as a manifestation of nature or the wild. Thus Angra Mainyu (Evil Spirit) we know that the good guy will win, in the interests Gilgamesh is pitted against the wild man, Enkidu, whom the king wrestles and of fair play no doubt. Similarly, in traditions of those schismatic Christian sects barely defeats. The pair, who are spiritually like Heracles and Eurystheus twins, which believed that Christ and Satan were twins or simply brothers, Satan never subsequently become fast friends. Similarly, when Hilary attempts Everest or really stands a chance. Scott tries for the South Pole, it is nature externalized that is the opponent. In

9 Zoroastrianism it is typified as ‘the wolf species’ and the nomadic tribes which are butchered, tend to be pretty uncertain. What, for example, does a dragon are to be opposed just as they were during the pioneering centuries of North look like, really? America and Australia. That this traditional antagonist is not yet conquered is In contemporary fiction the antagonist will more often be presented in such a indicated by the pride with which Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the way that he is completely real to the reader. The touch of reality implicit in soap moon and by the perennial hunt in the Himalayas for the Yeti and in western operas of crime and espionage goes a long way toward masking their essential North America for Sasquatch. The moon, the Yeti, and Sasquatch represent, nature — myth, legend. Simple details such as the vivid description of a gun each in its way, an aspect of nature to be known or to be conquered by the or the pattern of lipstick on an empty coffee cup convince the reader that what civilization of mankind. he is reading is happening now. The unlikelihood of the situation will never be Another similar class of antagonist comprises the giants, ogres, monsters noticed. The resemblance between the crime and spy fiction of today and the and dragons which lumber across the sets of science fantasy movies, fairy thrilling myths of yesteryear may be overlooked; but it is there. The James Bond tales, legends and myths with a mindless abandon. As mythic antagonists, that we read of now is a brother in blood to Heracles of Greece, each serving for however, they are rather more than their oversimplified natures would imply. his time and each possessing talents which are equally divided between the arts They are often described as present-day remnants of an earlier age, people and of death and those of sexual delight. monsters who have gone before and who are, inexplicably, resident in our time. With Bond, as with Heracles, the hero and his antagonists will have little Anachronisms. The suggestion here is once again the same conflict between philosophy about them; whatever the rewards of the game are, they will be civilization (us, here, now) and savagery (us or them, before, elsewhere), tangible. But with such other epic figures as Odysseus and Orpheus such simple between what we fancy ourselves to be today and what we are afraid we once enemies will not do. Though each of them confronts monsters or gods or other were and, if Heirens dreams true, still may be. humans, their primary antagonist is their quest, the journey in this world or In our myths and even in our literature we weigh the fabric of our dreams, we to another world which is the truest measure of a hero. The quest is also the measure nightmare and its horrors in vain attempts to rationalize, make sane, adversary of Parsifal in the Grail legends, and, as such, may be considered as the that which forever changes. If only we could make frontiers between ‘reality’ externalization of conflict within the protagonist who is arguing with himself. and ‘vision’ then we would feel safer; but it will not stay still, remain the same, Or it may be viewed as a test imposed by the gods to measure, to purify, to teach long enough for us to finish calculating. When we think ourselves done the a chosen one. It almost seems that the quest is not just an instrument of Heaven borders have moved again. Here the conflict is between what is and what is but that it is, in some manner, an incarnation of Heaven fulfilling its purposes in not. Which of us can say, sure and certain, where it is that we live? Am I a man itself and in the hero. dreaming that I am a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that I am a man? Properly speaking the reward which the hero receives for all that he has done Along the frontiers where that question was cogent wandered Boris Godounov should speak only when it is spoken to. And providing that what we’re talking and Hamlet. It does not matter whether the ghost of the Tsarevich which about is a sword or a heap of gold or a magic horse, this is not often a problem. haunted Boris was real or unreal, whether Hamlet’s father was there on the The prize does not in any way intrude upon the game. But in some instances battlements of Elsinore or not; their stories are acted out and their antagonisms the good guy finds that the prize for which he is competing is actively trying resolved in a realm that no man can forget. It is there that Macbeth can take to defeat him, not only is it a prize, but it is also an antagonist. The story of counsel from witches and, like Boris and Hamlet, confront his ghosts. Such Prince Calaf and the Princess Turandot comes to mind, where Turandot is not at antagonists are pretty insubstantial. Even the ponderous and fleshy monsters all neutral towards the prince’s suit. Throughout the entire opera she does her who confront the archetypical good guy, who grunt and hiss and groan as they damnedest to prevent her marriage to him and to get him killed.

10 The antagonism between hero and prize (bride) does not in all instances end treasure than her intrepid men. So, gung ho to the last, he leaped upon his with the champion victorious, at least not in the manner which he expected. In horse and galloped into the chasm, which thereupon burped and closed forever. the Arabian Nights Shahriyar has been deceived by his wife whom he discovers Marcus Curtius accepted the decree of Fate, almost with passivity; but in the in the arms of her lover. Shahriyar is so angry at this that he has the two of them Greek myth of Oedipus, neither he, nor his father Lais, nor his mother Jocasta executed on the spot and vows to take a new bride each evening, satisfying would submit to the fatal prophecies which each was given. Throughout the himself with his lady at night and executing her in the morning as a dying myth one watches the characters attempting to defy the goddess who may not monument to the perfidy of women. His plan goes very well indeed even to the be defied. But there is nothing they can do, their struggles are those of flies on point where his kingdom is running short of suitable brides. But the place is flypaper — unavailing, trapped. filled one evening by the daughter of his vizier, Sheherezade. Over her father’s Zoroastrian tradition suggests that the evil spirit, Angra Mainyu, defies Ahura protests she has insisted on marrying the king, telling the old man only that she Mazda (the Wise Lord) only because he is too stupid to realize that he has believes she has a plan that will end the bloodshed and give the king happiness. no chance whatever of winning. In later Jewish and Christian accounts of the Her stratagem is this: she obtains as a favour from the king permission to spend constant battle between Satan and Jehovah or Christ, some of the myths seem part of the night with her sister Dinarzade, who, by prearrangement asks her to have been influenced by Zoroastrian thinking. In them Satan is like Angra sister to tell her a story to pass the time until she is killed. To this the new queen Mainyu, stupid as Hell. In other versions, however, Satan deliberately chooses agrees, but spins the tale out to such a length that by the time morning and the evil and enmity to the Lord, believing that it is ‘better to reign in Hell than serve hour for her execution have arrived she has not completed the story. And such is in Heaven’. The attitude may be one of arrogant pride; but it is also one of some the curiosity of the king as to the ending that he graciously permits Sheherezade courage. Satan’s pose is a noble one, his character — heroic. a further twenty-four hours of life so that she may complete the narration on the following evening. By cunningly interweaving stories, by ensuring that no On the face of it there seems no reason why the divine hero should not be a story is complete at dawn, Sheherezade prolongs her life night by night to a woman. There are few heroines who are considered to be the ‘daughter of god’ total of one thousand and one. in the same sense that Heracles, Perseus, and others are the son of god. And there are few myths and folktales, comparatively speaking, where women are With the heroes considered so far either the odds are in favour of the champion the central character. Where they are, it is almost always in the role of underdog from the word go or at least fifty-fifty. But there are also examples of opponents hero, the Fool character, who is suddenly revealed to be the personification whose strength is such that the hero has absolutely no chance of winning, where of transcendent wisdom. The closest that one comes to the real thing among his defeat is obvious from the very beginning. If he doesn’t fight, then he is no women are world-wide traditions of Amazons, tribes of warrior ladies who hero, usually. But if, having reckoned the odds, realized he is going to lose, and behave in most essential respects like men. And there are of course the heroines then continued on into the fight anyway, the hero demonstrates that courage like Joan of Arc, who become heroines or rather heroes, only by dressing and which is close to being divine and which is commonly associated with him. In behaving as men, who are women in drag. The highest compliment that can Roman tradition such bravery is exemplified by Marcus Curtius. During an be paid such a woman in their infrequent myths, and it is seemingly never paid earthquake a great chasm opened up in the Forum of Rome. When oracles were with irony, goes something like, ‘By dingy-dongies, you act just like a man!’ consulted they said that the abyss would remain until Rome’s most valuable The commonest role for women in myths of the divine hero is that of the prize treasure was cast into it. Curtius reasoned that the oblique words of the oracle to be won, the maiden in distress. It is such a passive part that it must be pretty meant that a human sacrifice was demanded, for Rome could have no greater unsatisfactory; but again the women never speak.

11 There are exceptional heroines, however, who in their rarity only go to fleece. Nothing in her life had predisposed Atalanta toward marriage, which for prove the rule. In the Near East and Greece there is a nexus of myths which her virtually amounted to an unwanted change of sex; so she set up a test — a concern a mother/sister/wife goddess and her quest to the underworld for a race which no one was likely to win except her. But her attitude had grievously son/daughter/brother/lover. In some variants of these myths, for example with offended the goddess of love, Aphrodite, or in some versions Cybele, the Great Cybele, Demeter, and Ishtar, the goddess, who usually possesses few of the other Mother Goddess. Whichever it was, the goddess was personally offended that biographical attributes of the divine hero, is in the all-important motif of the Atalanta refused to accept her divinely ordained duties as wife and brood sow quest a hero who is searching for her beloved. In another version, however, and she was therefore determined to teach the huntress a lesson. (Readers are which exists both in the Hindu Mahabharata and in Egyptian myth, the woman reminded that this myth was written by and for men.) And so the love goddess or goddess is a sidekick, unexpectedly promoted to the rank of hero with the chose a husband for Atalanta, and gave him three golden apples, perhaps those death of her husband. She is most definitely a substitute. of the Garden of the Hesperides, which he was to drop one by one casually And in myths from other cultures there are women or goddesses who engage during the race. Atalanta was so intrigued by the pretty things that she stopped in quests, but who do not possess many of the other attributes of the hero. There her running, not once but three times, in order to gather them up. In so doing are, for example, Kuan Yin in China and Mary Magdalen in Christianity. Mary she lost the race but gained a husband. As this is a myth, she immediately Magdalen’s pilgrimage to the tomb on the first Easter Sunday is a quest for the fell into his arms, secure in the knowledge that this was what she had always beloved; and Kuan Yin’s pilgrimage to save her father’s life and her subsequent wanted to be — a woman. And the tale should end here, but it would appear sacrifice of her hands and eyes is another; but the myth of neither is as elaborate that some ancient mythmaker found the story a bit too much, even for a male as it might have been had they been males. chauvinist. For Atalanta and her lover became so wrapped up in each other that In Hindu, Celtic, and Finnish mythologies there are suggestions that this they neglected to make sacrifices of thanksgiving (thanksgiving for what?) to rather inferior status of women in myth has not always been the case. The the goddess of love. So piqued at this was the goddess that she transformed Hindu myths of Devi imply that she was thought to be very nearly the equal of Atalanta and her lover into lions. her consort, Siva. The legend of Cuchulainn presents both the woman Scathach, The contemporary heroine who tries to be a champion in a man’s world will and the goddess Morrigan (under her many disguises) as the hero’s equals. And have just as hard a time as did her predecessors in Ancient Greece. Some of her in the Kalevala, Louhi, the hag of North Farm, is the equal of her opponent problems will be external — no one will take her seriously; some will be internal Väinämöinen. But these figures are unusual in their strength. — she won’t really take herself seriously either. Raquel Welch is a case in point, Far commoner is the image of the Amazon, the man-hater, a warrior maiden especially as she appears in an interview by Timothy Ferris for Rolling Stone. She who needs only one thing to bring her to her senses. When she finds it, as in indicated just how she thought those good proportions of hers should be put to the operas Turandot, Die Walküre, and Gotterdämerung her strength deserts her use when she describes her early life: ‘I was happiest in fantasy. I wasn’t good and she becomes what she was always meant to be, only a woman. The best at dealing with reality. Telephone poles and the rest spoiled things. I wanted known of these myths is that of Atalanta the Huntress. Like other heroines, things to be perfect. I wanted a storybook life, to be Rapunzel and Cinderella she achieved her status by becoming one of the boys as a huntress, proving and Sleeping Beauty, all the beautiful ladies that wonderful men came along herself (and her ‘maleness’) by outdoing men in competitions for courage. She on their big white horses for and dragged away.’ In short, Raquel doesn’t really was, for example, the first to wound the Calydonian Boar in the great hunt for want to be a hero, she’s been conditioned to want to be a prize. The problems this wild beast. And she was additionally the only woman to accompany the of any female contemporary hero, outside perhaps the world of pop music, are Argonauts on the outward voyage to Colchis during the quest for the golden summed up in those sad words.

12 However, the contemporary woman as hero is most likely to appear in our myths not as Amazon, not as questing hero, not even as pneumatic dolly — but rather as soap-mother. It is she who sees that her family is clean, fed, sterilized in all the right places; and, as far as one can tell from the advertisements in which she appears, that is her sole concern. Her conversations are devoted to comparisons of brand names and anxiety over such world-shaking topics as ‘Which soap really does wash whiter?’ It is a quest of sort, the search for the treasure that will make everything whiter than white, and it may well be the only new myth to be developed by our civilization in ten thousand years or so. Her saga is both completely trivial and totally imperishable. She is an ideal monument for us all.

13 TWO

Heroes seem, in general, to fall into two categories: the superhuman, with 7. Sometimes part of a multiple or monstrous birth (twins, particularly) or a which this book is mainly concerned, and the subhuman, the Fool and the reincarnatory birth, which is a variation on twinship. Trickster, with which another book must deal. This is, of course, providing that 8. Of unusual strength or cleverness at or before birth. you believe in heroes. Fritz Lang, for one, does not. Interviewed by Philip Jenkinson, he said: ‘There are no heroes and no villains; just ordinary people In his preparation to be a hero he will be: put into extraordinary situations. They react. Some over-react. Some strike 9. Expelled or exposed shortly after birth or, in a rather frequent modern out. That is the interplay between good and evil.’ This no-nonsense practicality variation, be an exile from another world. ignores much of the world’s myth and almost all of the world’s religions. 10. Rescued or taught by wild or supernatural beings. So, if one accepts that there are indeed humans who are regarded as heroes, 11. Tested for fitness to be a hero. This test may be one of identity, character, what are their characteristics? They can be set out in an outline which a good or simply physical strength. public-relations man, for example St Paul, could use for constructing a Messiah. 12. Consecrated by acquiring weapons. Such an outline would also reconcile the opposing aspects of the divine or 13. Initiated by being given a name or recognized by his father or sometimes super-hero, his divinity and his humanity. his mother. He establishes that name. The divine hero is: His life is distinguished by: 1. Male (as we have already seen). 2. Preceded by legends which proclaim his imminent arrival. These may 14. Being more difficult than that of most people. The hero is also a constant originate either before or after the fact and will tend to prove his legitimate wanderer. claim. Genealogical proofs, i.e. that he will be of the House of David or 15. Larger-than-life actions, size, beauty, courage, intelligence, wit — with the that he will be descended from Amaterasu Omikami, are included here. corollary that he also enjoys both larger-than-life rewards and punishments. 3. Of unknown parentage (usually father), mysterious origin (the stranger Lightning strikes the hero, he is fortuitous, things happen to him in a way who rides into town), unknown identity, or with an unknown goal. that they don’t to other people. He can leap over walls and break laws; 4. Conceived miraculously or conceived in a wild place. often he is required, within the context of his myth, to do so. 5. The child of a miraculous pregnancy. 16. Possibly having to disguise his talent, sex, or identity. 6. Born miraculously or in a wild place, heralded by portents or signs at birth 17. The supernatural weapons which he wields. These can be swords and the or before assuming a throne. like, sorcery, or even something as humble as the phallus.

14 18. The sidekick who accompanies him and is a wild man, a youth, an animal, dies under mysterious circumstances (Arthur of Britain), dies as a direct a god, a fool or, more rarely, a woman. result of his fame (Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Hendrix). Of all motifs of the 19. Wild beings or supernaturals as his chief opponents. They are, incidentally, hero, this one is perhaps the most important in the present day. the equal of the hero and should be thought of as in a sense identical with 27. Bodily assumption into Heaven, or a vanishing body. him. 28. Portents or signs at death. 20. Fighting his opponent honourably, for the most part. 29. Legends after death that he is either sleeping or hidden and that he will return. His purpose in this world is: 30. His cult. Though the hero may be the subject of a cult during his life, it will 21. The Quest. This is the chief activity of the divine hero. It is the journey to be magnified, at least for a time, with his death. the other world (death) and back again, or simply the journey from that This guide to the biography of the hero will fit few of such figures exactly. world to this. The important thing about the Quest is not simply that the And some points are of vastly greater importance than others. For instance, 3, hero makes the journey, but that the knowledge of that journey is received 7-10, 14-22 and 26 are more essential to the myth of the hero than some of the in this world. That knowledge acts as a map for others who will follow him; others. But the outline has been structured so as to be more or less inclusive; and it is only in this world that the hero can, as heavenly messenger boy and in general there are heroes whose lives correspond pretty closely with it: 22. Deliver his gift. All heroes are culture heroes. Which is to say that the Heracles and Christ are among the most prominent of these. As a skeleton key, purpose of the hero is to benefit the culture in whose myths he lives by such it provides a framework on which the myth of almost any hero may be hung, tangibles as the invention of writing, knowledge of agriculture, wealth, a from the establishment of a dynasty to the sketching out of a comic book. holy treasure, or by intangibles such as life, death, leadership (the Pied Plainly some of the points overlap. For example, in the myth of Theseus — as Piper). The gifts of the hero are often ambivalent, sometimes misunderstood in the myth of King Arthur — the test for fitness to be a hero is combined with by his culture, and very often dangerous to everyone concerned. the consecration by acquiring weapons. As well, there is the almost obsessive Other aspects of his life and death may include: importance that wild persons and places have in the myth of the hero. In the myth of Christ there is the wild man (John the Baptist) who baptizes and 23. A love-life which is non-existent or disastrous. Sometimes betrayal by his possibly teaches Christ; there are the shepherds who worship him; the farm wife or girlfriend (Samson, Heracles). animals in what must have seemed a wild birthplace, a stable; the wild people 24. A social life which is fatal. He can bring death to his friends as often as to who are possessed with devils and are healed by him. There are the days in the his enemies. He is dangerous to have around, which is why he is often, in wilderness, the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Sea of Galilee, Westerns and other myths, got rid of. Sometimes betrayed by his friends or and there is finally the place of skulls, Golgotha. his family. 25. Invulnerability except in one spot, by one method, from one person, or Nathan Söderblom, writing in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, devised a from a particular weapon. This motif ties in with the following. series of equations which are meant to apply to the idea of holiness, particularly 26. A supernatural or sacrificial death. There is something strange about the as it is defined in primitive religion. If one considers them, however, it is quickly hero’s death — he is unlikely to die in his bed of old age — and it has to be seen that not only do they apply to all religion but they also qualify myths of the seen as tragic in an extraordinary manner. He is executed (Christ), accident- hero. As a set they are ambiguous and contradictory as well as being equally ally killed (Krishna, Buddha), assassinated (Caesar, Kennedy, Kennedy), true. They are:

15 1. Holy=Unclean=Unsafe Perseus, to name but two, seem to have been accorded divine as well as heroic Profane=Clean=Safe honours. It might be possible to attempt a definition of the terms based upon their 2. Holy=Clean=Safe functions. Here a god would be said to perform certain duties, the main one Profane=Unclean=Unsafe being that of creation of the universe, or the world, or mankind, or life, or 3. Holy=Godlike death or whatever. And a hero would be one who battles monsters, rescues Clean=Common=Human maidens, kills the thing he loves, and goes on quests while his wife sits at home Unclean=Diabolical wondering who’s kissing him now. But although the definitions will work as interim tools, they are no better than temporary expedients. For too many gods If folklore, myth and religion would only develop along rational, linear pat- are also heroes, too many heroes also gods. Marduk was both the hero who slew terns then these three sets of equations would appear in sequence; but they do Tiamat, the chaos dragon, and also the deity who made the laws and civilization not. Remnants of all of them, however confusing they may appear together, of Babylon. In the Old Testament, Jehovah, who is commonly known by the are found in all religions; and in the tradition of the hero they explain some of rather anonymous name of ‘god’, is not only the creator of Heaven and Earth, the mistrust which heroes generate. For they are a bridge between the parts of the shaper of men, he is also the hero who demonstrates his powers to destroy, each equation, they do not fit comfortably into categories. And to us (clean and as in the Ten Plagues, and his powers work miracles, as in the parting of the Red common and human) a cuckoo in the nest who is partially as we are, partially Sea. When he gives Moses the tablets of the law he is playing the role of culture holy and therefore godlike, and finally unclean and therefore diabolical as well hero; and Moses, who is usually regarded as the central figure in these books of as intolerable. Yet, though he scares the wits out of us, we need heroes and our the Bible, is in actuality the sidekick, the stooge through whom God works his society continues to generate them. wonders of destruction. This is altogether a more believable role for Moses than Each time will receive those heroes which it deserves. In the time of King that of hero. Moses is only a vessel through which the angry power of Jehovah John and the robber barons (Normans) of England it was Robin Hood (Saxon) is poured out on the earth. who voiced the hopes of the Saxon peasantry when he stomped the shit out of Further evidence of the confusion, at least in the popular mind, between the feudal landowners, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. In our day the heroes and gods is supplied by Henry Fairlie in his book, The Kennedy Promise. nearest equivalent is likely to be somewhat different. Invert the image of Robin Hood, and we find the dope dealer or Mafia Don, glorying in doing openly what The people are encouraged to expect too much of their political in- Jesse James only dared to do in secret, saving a lot of time and trouble by giving stitutions and of their political leaders. They cease to inquire what to himself, giving to the rich. They bear god’s marks, the outward and visible politics may accomplish for them, and what they must do for them- signs (Cadillacs, Long Island estates, Swiss bank accounts) of an inward and selves. Instead, they expect politics to take the place which religion spiritual grace (money). once held in their lives; and their politicians to be, not just archbishops, as Harold Macmillan suggested, but cardinals, not just cardinals, but A distinction is often made in the study of mythology between heroes and gods, popes; not just popes, but saviours. This was the inevitable end of as if they were two separate kinds of beings. The origins of this fallacy may lie the political method of the Kennedys; and it was impossible to watch with the Greeks who paid different honours to the two classes. But even with Robert Kennedy among the mobs in the streets in 1968, without realiz- some of the major figures of Greek myth, confusion arises; for Heracles and ing that most of the people who surged around him would not have

16 been in the least surprised if he had walked upon the waters. As he and loners, and losers, is in their unwillingness to compromise, to give up, to rode above them on the roofs of cars, and they reached to touch his curl up and die as the rest of us have because we know it makes sense. The garments, it seemed an invitation to a crucifixion; and so tragically it Wild Bunch are defined as being ‘desperate men with a worn-out way of living was to be. locked in a doomed and brutal struggle against a new order’. There are those, however, who misunderstand Peckinpah. One of these is Pauline Kael who has In the triumphal ticker-tape processions through New York of Charles Lind- called Straw Dogs ‘a fascist work of art’; in her review she has arrived at the berg and more recently the astronauts of America’s space programme, in the definitive liberal put-down which totally ignores the reality in which any hero Nuremberg rally in the thirties or even on earlier occasions in history, crowds lives, which is that in which the rest of us would live if we had the guts to face have confused, blurred the line between divinity and heroism. It is an ancient it. Anger, frustration, violence, madness, killing — these are the realities of life. human tendency to deify heroes, to make gods of men. Why else do people in New York (or London, or Berlin) have chains on their doors, five-pin mortice locks to back up the chains, peepholes to back up the It has been said quite often that a hero is impossible in our time, that people locks, and doormen and intercoms to serve as early warning systems if all the will not believe sufficiently for the hero (Tinkerbell) to rise again from the stage locks are out of order? Peckinpah cuts loose with an honesty which Pauline Kael and fly at the end of Peter Pan. From Fairlie’s testimony this would seem to be and others find brutal. As things stand now it is only the hero, in Peckinpah and untrue. There are contemporary heroes; but sometimes they are so laid-back, so elsewhere, who is occasionally prepared to face life on its own terms. weird, or so deadly that it is difficult to recognize them in comparison with such One of the characteristics of the myth of the divine hero is that it can still good guys as St George. There is, for example, Bullitt in the movie of the same influence an individual to see himself as the chosen one. In 1977 I received a name, described by some as an anti-hero, presumably because his gift, which letter and handout from a Larry Beane in Iowa. In part the handout reads: ‘I often turns out to be death, is not life-enhancing. feel that you should understand that I was not treated well while I was going to Some of the most interesting of all present-day heroes come from Westerns school in Iowa, which is why the Holy Spirit would give these occult signs for and from the world of rock music. As rock musicians seem particularly prone, me.’ In the handout he lists some of the supernatural happenings: even for heroes, to dying nasty deaths, they are considered in greater detail in the later section of this book which deals with sacrificial death. The Western Another occult event involves my grandfather’s brother Burnice Bean heroes, both on and off screen, seem to live a little longer. Their lives may be who has a large display of crinoid fossils in the Iowa State Historical dangerous; but the fashion for dying before thirty isn’t as pronounced. Of them Society in Des Moines. They are displayed in the southeast corner all, John Wayne may well be the archetypical Western hero. His roles are as of the top floor of the building. My occult connection to this is that nameless as is Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Westerns (nameless in the sense Burnice Bean died in 1966 on the day of Judy Walker’s funeral. Judy of identifying him); but it scarcely matters, for John Wayne plays, in each and was a girl who lived across the street from me . . . and she died on every picture, the same role, John Wayne. It’s a character that people will pay a January 12, 1966. Since I was born January 11, 1943, Judy died the lot to see, time after time. day after my birthday and I have a further occult tie in that the movie The heroes in Sam Peckinpah’s films are men of violence, loners and, by being shown for January 11 and 12, 1966 was ‘Die! Die! My Darling!’ transformation of a single letter, losers. They are violent not because they are at the Grinnell movie theater which is the town I went to high school in. different from the rest of us, they aren’t in the least in their basic make-up; Furthermore, Judy was a teacher at Hubbard, Iowa where my mother but where they do differ from the mass of people, where they become heroes, was born, and she died near Marshalltown where Burnice Bean died.

17 In answer to the pretty normal question, ‘What does it all mean?’ Larry whose myth is mentioned occasionally in the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (circa Beane is coming up with answers which seem, at least to him, to indicate a ninth century BC) but more often in another Greek writer, Hesiod, who wrote pattern in his life. The meaning of the pattern, in turn, is that Larry Beane is about a century later. Elements within the Heracles myth, the dragon fight, the someone special, set apart. In the events of his life, in things that he reads in the journey to the otherworld, his miraculous conception are, however, much older. newspapers, he can see a series of communications from god, coded handouts They can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in myths of Marduk and Enlil, for the eyes of Larry Beane only. all from Mesopotamia, which may date in part from before 3000 BC. But the I had never heard of Larry Beane before this. It seems likely that few other first complete statement of the myth of the divine hero may well be in the story people have heard of him either. But in this handout and letter which he is of Heracles, son of Zeus. circulating are the beginnings of a myth, the birth of a hero or a god. Looking He is a figure of irony and paradox. Irony, in that his name means ‘Glory of for the significant event he is finding god’s purpose made manifest, the message Hera’, yet that goddess was his bitterest enemy. If there was any such glory in of the Holy Spirit revealed to him, and through him for us all. If he continues his life because of Hera, it was only because Heracles managed to transcend he will perhaps construct a genealogy for himself, divine origin as proof of his every defeat which the jealous goddess caused him. Their relationship has been heroic status. He will add to the test motif already present (‘I was not treated explained by Robert Graves as representing an initiation rite in which Heracles well while I was going to school in Iowa which is why the Holy Spirit would was the candidate and sacred king while Hera was his goddess/mother and give these occult signs for me’). He will gain other attributes of the divine hero, his bride. For the Dorians, the people whose hero he may have first been, this sidekicks perhaps, prophets who will be swept up in the myth of Larry Beane as interpretation seems possible. But three millenia and more have passed since it grows like a gathering cloud. And if this happens, Larry Beane in Iowa could the Dorians invaded Greece. Their traditions and those of a mother goddess well become another Joseph Smith, Savonarola, or Joan of Arc whose crusade who may have been overthrown by the patriarchal god of the invaders have becomes his quest. been largely forgotten since then. There are, however, alternative futures for such a home-grown hero. In one Graves’s theory does not explain why the figure of Heracles is still popular of them he is seen by his neighbours, by all who receive his letters through the now. There has to be some other link, an element within these myths which mail, as just another small-town crank, babbling of apocalypses that will never is as true now as it was three thousand years ago. And such an element, or come, seeing patterns that are seen by no one but himself. It is a question of rather elements, exists in the Heracles myth. The most prominent motif is that identity. of the stepmother, familiar in European folklore from the story of Cinderella; for the relationship between Hera and Heracles is that of stepmother and stepson. So, although Fritz Lang believes that there are no heroes at all, and although Other motifs which may have contributed to his popularity are his randiness and others have said that there are no heroes in our time, they are still, as we have his consistent courage. In general, however, it is the all-encompassing quality seen, believed by many people to exist. The dope dealer, the Mafia Don, the of the Heracles myth which has made it popular. It is one of the largest of Kennedys, Bullitt, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Kwai Chang Kane, the movies of Western heroic myths, which, as it stands now, gathers together the exploits Sam Peckinpah, Superman, Larry Beane and Lenny Bruce are all there to prove of six separate heroes according to Cicero or perhaps as many as forty-four, it. In Western culture (European, American, Australian) the myths of each of according to Varro. The result is a champion whose appeal is widespread. In these are related to two primary sources, Jesus Christ and Heracles. As noted the centuries before Christ there must have been few cities in Greece, Italy, Asia earlier, these two most closely correspond to the outline of the myth of the hero Minor, or northern Africa which could not claim some fragment of the Heracles who is the son of god, the divine hero. The earlier of the two was Heracles, story; and the result was a myth which is still popular.

18 Heracles, according to the general tradition, was the last of a series of planned a son. The ithyphallic ingenuity of Zeus was more than up to such a simple heroes, all of them fathered by Zeus on mortal women or on minor goddesses. challenge and through a window Zeus entered in the form of a shower of gold Another of the same group was Perseus. Nowhere is it explained in the myths which impregnated Danae. Waiting until she had given birth to Perseus, Acrisius why Zeus and Hera were together unable to produce these heroes which the imprisoned Danae and her baby in a securely bound chest and cast them into god so obviously wanted. All that we know is that for his hero-making Zeus the sea. would leave Hera at home while he slipped around. As is always the case, it was futile for Acrisius to try and wriggle out of his fate. This human side to the king of Heaven has caused many problems for writers Perseus and his mother were rescued, the hero was given magic weapons, he both ancient and modern. And it is difficult to reconcile the various sides of Zeus. slew the Gorgon Medusa and rescued Andromeda from a dragon before saving But perhaps, as he was a god after all, it wasn’t meant for mankind to be able his mother from the attentions of a dirty old man, and finally, accidentally, he to understand him. In any case, his wife doesn’t seem to have understood him killed his grandfather. either. Hera became jealous of her husband’s many loves and of the offspring Perseus should have been the ideal son for Zeus; but he seems not to have which they produced regularly. She was not helpless to do anything about it, nor been. The god was still determined to make a world hero, such a one as had was she condemned to sit at home knitting furiously and muttering to herself. never been seen. Heracles was to be that hero; and the chosen mortal vessel Far from it. Hera took almost as active a part as her husband in the affairs. When was Alcmene. That she was the new bride of King Amphitryon would not be he began the relationship with Leto which ended in that nymph’s pregnancy, the allowed to impede divine imperatives, even though Zeus was the guardian of jealous wife tormented the mistress with the serpent, Python, which pursued the laws, including marriage. His plan was abetted, unwittingly, by Alcmene her throughout the world. According to traditions still current in Greece, it was herself, who informed her new husband that she would not share his bed until on the island of Delos that Leto gave birth to the twins, Apollo and Artemis. he had avenged the murder of her eight brothers. Waiting until he knew that Magnificent as they were, both became members of the twelve major deities of Amphitryon had performed the task, Zeus transformed himself to the likeness Greece, Zeus was unsatisfied and he continued his efforts to sire the universal of Amphitryon and presented himself at Alcmene’s door before her husband hero. He fathered, according to some accounts, the gods Dionysus and Hermes, returned. Joyously she led Zeus to their marriage bed where they sported for the twins Castor and Pollux and perhaps Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra as three nights, magically compressed into the space of only one. Zeus was taking well, and the human heroes Tantalus, Aeacus, Minos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon, absolutely no chances. and Perseus among many others. From this short list it can be seen that the Zeus’ wooing of Alcmene was far more than just a simple seduction. In the term father-figure applies literally to him, and it was traditional in ancient Greek three nights which he had spent with her, he had fathered Heracles, while society to claim descent from one or another of the many sons of Zeus. This was Amphitryon, who returned shortly after, fathered Iphicles, the mortal twin of not simply a matter of bragging, it was also a matter of common sense. Then, as the hero. This pairing of a human with a divine twin is found throughout now, sons of the king of Heaven were likely candidates as heroes if not as kings world mythology; but in the traditions of Heracles an unusual complication is on Earth. introduced. Although in actuality he is the twin of Iphicles, born of the same The most famous descendant of Zeus, next to Heracles, among the human womb at almost the same instant, his brother figures hardly at all in his myth. heroes, was Perseus. He was the ancestor of Heracles, Iphicles, and Eurystheus In this cycle, the function of antagonism or comradeship is reserved for and the grandson of King Acrisius, who had received a prophecy that he would Eurystheus. Throughout the cycle it is Eurystheus who is Heracles’s mortal be killed by his grandson. To avert the doom, Acrisius imprisoned his only antagonist and the negative complement of the hero. Where Heracles is brave, child, Danae, in a dungeon where it would be impossible for her to conceive Eurystheus is a coward. Where Eurystheus is a king and politician, Heracles is

19 a tactless and rootless hero. Their relationship, in spite of the contrasts, is so King Eurystheus, he killed the Lernean Hydra. This beast is described as having close that some writers have suggested that they were lovers. There is some the body of a dog but additionally between eight and a thousand serpent heads. evidence for this suggestion, the results of the twelve Labours of Heracles, for Outside the Garden of the Hesperides the hero slew Ladon, the serpent placed example, could be treated as love-gifts to Eurystheus. But in the cycle as it exists, there to guard the garden by Hera. At Troy, having completed his tasks for it is plain that Heracles and Eurystheus are not lovers but rather twins in all Eurystheus and Hera, the champion saved a maiden by killing the sea monster but parentage. They were born within twenty-four hours of each other, they which had expected to devour her in an exploit reminiscent of Perseus’s earlier were both descendants of Perseus, and they were both contenders for the same slaying of the dragon which had come for Andromeda. In Lydia he dispatched throne, which Eurystheus won through a trick by Hera. a giant serpent for Queen Omphale. On yet other occasions the hero defeated Having sired Heracles, Zeus made the mistake of boasting on Olympus that a Periclymenus and Achelous, both of whom were notorious as shape-changers descendant of Perseus who would be born that day would become High King. and both of whom numbered the serpent-form in their repertoire. In another Hera tricked her husband into restating the prophecy as a promise which he episode he is said to have killed the twenty-four Gigantes. As their name suggests could not revoke. She then scurried from the heaven of the gods to find a they were a race of giants, human from head to thigh, but serpent below that candidate for the position which she could substitute for Heracles. Having done point. They had been born of Gaea, Earth, when she had been quickened with so, she then hastened the birth of Eurystheus, her chosen king, while retarding the blood of the mutilated Uranus. In this tale, as it is recorded by Robert Graves, the advent of Alcmene’s child. it is stated that only Heracles could kill these monsters, as the task was beyond Even the king of the gods was bound by law and by the Fates. What Hera had the power of any god, and of course any other mortal; for Heracles was, without accomplished could not be altered. She was consumed with her triumph, and question, the greatest hero of his own time if not of all time. All in all, Heracles so distracted by it that she allowed herself to be persuaded by her husband that battles at least thirty-two dragons or dragon-based monsters, and even this short once Heracles had performed twelve labours in her name, she would consent to list does not comprise the total number of serpent references within the cycle. his entrance into Olympus as a god. And it is primarily from those tasks that So obsessive are the episodes concerning the serpent tribe that we suspect Heracles may be called, ‘The Glory of Hera’. that the dragon exists within the Heracles myths as not just an antagonist but Though the labours are the centrepiece of the cycle, they are by no means all of rather as the antagonist for the hero. Only Heracles could be guaranteed to it; and the meaning of the twelve labours is made more significant by considering overcome the dragon, in whichever of the various forms the beast appeared. As these exploits in juxtaposition with his others, which fall into several categories: enemies, the two of them depend upon one another. tales of serpents, phallic myths, stories of his madness, and his encounters with Heracles inherited his father’s propensity toward lust in the cause of founding Hera. dynasties. If Zeus was a heavenly father on earth, his heroic son was a human The serpent, dragon, worm, sea-serpent, basilisk, and the snake are all semi- father cast from the same mould. Heracles’s third exploit, at the age of eighteen, mythical beasts which figure in most of the world’s mythologies. If they are was to sleep with the daughters of King Thespius. Only one daughter refused considered to be one composite family, they are probably the most common in him; but she was a consecrated priestess who atoned for her fault by serving all of the world’s hero tales. They are malevolent or friendly, but never in any as priestess of Heracles for the remainder of her life. The other forty-nine circumstances neutral. The dragon-fight is usually but a single episode in any performed as heroically as had their lover: each bore him a son except for the hero’s life, yet through the cycle of Heracles, the serpent’s track is one of the eldest and youngest who each gave birth to twins. primary themes. When he was a mere baby, he strangled the two azure-scaled The incident demonstrates the rustic side of Heracles’s nature; but there were serpents which had been sent by Hera to kill him. In the second of his labours for at least eighteen other women who enjoyed the same favour. In every instance

20 but one, the children of such liaisons seem to have been male. Like his father, insanity, together with the penances it incurred, is as weird as his several forays Heracles wasn’t in it solely for the pleasure; these are myths, after all, of a self- into petticoats if Heracles is considered as a human. But if he is a god and hero, consciously paternalistic society. Male primogeniture was all-important, proof his myths make their own logic; for as it is by gods and heroes that all law is of descent (and myth could count as such proof) would not only advance claims made, similarly it is only by gods and heroes that law may (must) be broken. to a crown or political prestige, it would also aid the career of any would-be Throughout the cycle, Zeus is the protector of Heracles, mainly through the hero. This, coupled with the accounts of his wide travels, explains how it came intervention at timely moments of his daughter Athene. And throughout the to be that the city of Tangier could claim to have been founded by Heracles, myths Hera is nearly as constant in her apparent hatred of her stepson. But a royal dynasty in Lydia made the same claim, and entire nations (the Latins, although Hera seems fairly consistent in her attitude to him, he is not so steady Scythians, and Tyrrhenians of Etruria) even believed that they were descended when it comes to her. Although antagonistic to her much of the time, he also from the great hero. In his reflected glory, they shone. No wonder they called destroys eleven of twelve children of one of her enemies, he builds a shrine to him Heracles the Saviour! her as Goat-eating Hera at Sparta, and the labours are sometimes thought of as Heracles typifies another less benevolent aspect of the hero, his madness. At having been towards her greater glory. All of which suggests the actions of a times throughout his life he performs acts which out of the context of his cycle favourite and not a foe. would be termed barbaric and sacrilege. His purifications, imposed by those who After his death, the immortal part of Heracles ascended to Olympus, where hear his cases, are bizarre. For the murder of his children he is condemned to he became one of the gods and was adopted by Hera as her son in a ceremony perform the labours for Eurystheus which had been arranged at his birth by Zeus which involved the goddess feigning childbirth before dragging him out from and Hera. For the murder of Iphitus, his guest, he is condemned to serve as the beneath her skirts. The entirety of this part of the cycle suggests that originally slave for one year of Queen Omphale of Lydia. This period of his life has been the Heracles myth may have been, as Graves suggests, a record of some kind represented in vase paintings with the champion (the epitome of masculinity) of initiation rite into the mysteries of the goddess. Originally Heracles may dressed in drag while Omphale wears his lion skin. For the mutilation of sacred have been the son of Hera. With the Dorian invasion, all this was changed in heralds (he cut off their ears, noses, and hands) he was not punished at all, favour of a more acceptable, male-chauvinist version, one of the archetypes of even when he compounded the sacrilege by tearing down the votive armour the old familiar tale, just a boy and his stepmother, just a boy and his mother. and weapons of the temples of Thebes to arm an expedition. He murdered Patriarchal they may have been, but they were not quite ready to go all the way the Egyptian priest and king, Busiris, before the altar on which Heracles was and call Hera in the new myth what she probably was in the old, his mother himself to have been sacrificed. In a fit of pique, he looted temple ornaments and perhaps his wife. from the shrine of the pythoness of Apollo, at Delphi, and marched away with Heracles is still remembered more for his twelve labours than for anything them, intending to found his own oracle. This was a direct challenge to his else. These exploits are so well known that they need no detailed telling; but stepbrother, Apollo, who appeared in person. Zeus had to part his wrestling several points do stand out which are worth noting. First, the number of labours sons with thunderbolts, and Heracles returned his loot. is usually given as twelve which corresponds to the number of the signs in the Judged in human terms, these acts are either criminal or insane. His madness Zodiac. This has led some writers to assume that all the labours, taken together, should have called down on his head the fire from Heaven; but that violence, form part of a solar quest. Second, the final two labours are concerned with which was often directed against his friends and perhaps against his own wife the winning of immortality and the life after death. In the obtaining of the and children, was nothing more than a physical expression of the divine reality Golden Apples of the Sun from the Garden of the Hesperides, several traditions of gods and heroes, a potential danger to everyone around them. And that of the afterworld are recalled. The generally accepted location of the gardens,

21 to the west, suggests the western paradises of Egyptian Osiris, Chinese Hsi Wang Mu, and Celtic Manannan. And the apple is itself of symbol of immortality. The harrowing of Hades (hell) by Heracles, when he released the captive hero Theseus, is a triumph over death. The implication clearly was that those who were guests of Hades (ruler of hell), such as Theseus, could not be compelled to stay there against their will provided that there was a hero, a psychopomp, to lead them forth. So, what is the myth of Heracles today if it is anything more than a simple narrative? It seems likely from the above significant points and others cited in the body of this chapter, that it is a quest cycle, combining fairy tale, myth, and legend together with irony, paradox and a few clues which indicate that Heracles’s original sponsor was Hera. Behind the apparent irony, the hero is truly, ‘The Glory of Hera’, a rebellious son who wounds his mother three times in the breast that fed him, who fights her, fights circumstances and fate; and at the end assumes the position for which he was intended, that of an Olympian god. His journey, from mortal to deity, is considerably more than a fireside tale. It is also a map for the soul and a pattern of initiation. Where Heracles once went, others have a chance to go.

22 THREE

Almost all of the points included in the outline of the life of the divine hero can essential to the myth of the hero. be applied to Heracles. The only motif which seems to be totally lacking is that In Buddhist myth, tradition says that King Suddhodhana received a prophecy of the sleeping king who will return. And even that is implied in the traditions before his son’s birth that the child would become either a Chakravartin (World concerning Heracles’s progeny, for each of his heroic descendants can be fairly Monarch) or a Buddha (Saviour). His wife, Queen Maya, dreamed that her considered to be, in a sense, a reincarnation, a return of the hero. womb had been entered by a winged white elephant, the form in which Buddha In the myths of none of the other heroes considered in this book will the determined while in Heaven that he would first appear in that incarnation, correspondence be so exact to the imaginary pattern, with the possible excep- although he was born as a normal, if supernaturally marked, child. To the tions of Christ, Buddha, and perhaps Quetzalcoatl. This is not to imply that prophecy and the dream was added a second prophecy before Gautama was the outline, if it ever existed, originated with the cycle of myths concerning born. This stated that the child to come would become the Buddha for that age, Heracles. Far from it. Almost all its elements can be traced to other sources, there was no way that King Suddhodhana could alter the fate of his son. As other mythologies which predate the Greek super-hero by up to two thousand frequently occurs in the motif of prophecy in which a child is destined to kill years or more. As we consider each motif the different emphases placed by each either his father or grandfather, King Suddhodhana’s efforts to bend Fate to his culture on the heroic myth will gradually become apparent as various heroes own will, to make his son the World Monarch, were as fruitless as those of King are defined and proven in the traditions of other people and other times. Laius, father of Oedipus. Though Laius, King of Thebes, had been married for some time to Jocasta Legitimizing the hero by giving him a heroic genealogy or a purpose ordained they had no children; so he went to Delphi, to consult the Oracle of Apollo in Heaven before his life on earth occurs in such myths as that of Christ. Five where the Pythoness, instead of prescribing the quick cure-all the king hoped passages from the Old Testament predict, rather specifically it seems now, the for, told him that he should be thankful for small mercies. Any son of his, she birth or life of Christ (Isaiah vii. 14, xi. 3, liii. 3, Jeremiah xxiii. 5, Micah v. 2). told the startled monarch, was destined to kill him. He returned home at once Even before the birth of John the Baptist, a way had been prepared among the and immediately discontinued sleeping with his wife. Jocasta, however, was a Jewish people. In the first chapters of Matthew and Luke, the prophecies of the resolute woman and quite capable of acting to save her marriage on her own Old Testament are considerably expanded. They are still considered prophetic account. One night at dinner she served him unmixed wine (it was the custom even though they were written down some time after Christ had been crucified. of the times to mix water with wine). Laius was completely unused to such Whether they be regarded as genuine prophecy or a fraud interpolated to prove strong drink and Jocasta dragged him off to bed with her and conceived the son, the Messiah, these passages in Matthew and Luke are included because they are Oedipus, who was destined to kill Laius.

23 In the Jain religion of India, which arose about the same time as Buddhism come back, an idea which was shared by participants in the widely-spread Ghost in the sixth century BC, a tradition exists which concerns the coming of the Dance Religion in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The hope that is Tirthankara, a world teacher, who is born at irregular intervals whenever he expressed in these and other myths of the millenium is one that is at the heart is needed in the world. His Buddhist equivalent is the Buddha, the teacher, of almost all religions. For those whose life on this earth is Hell, hope of a future of whom Buddhism teaches there have been many over the same vast period Heaven is all they have. of time as the Tirthankaras. And his Hindu counterpart may be found in the tradition of the ten incarnations of Vishnu. Nine of these have already appeared Unknown parentage, mysterious origin, unknown identity, and unknown goals and one is yet to come — Kalki, the White Horse, whose coming signifies the end on the part of the hero together form a complex motif in myth which establishes of this world as does the coming of the final Buddha, Maitreya. Although each of him from the start as an unknown quantity. Partially this is due to the illusion the Buddhas is a separate entity, and their number is limitless as is the potential created by names, the suggestion that once a name is public something real number of avatars of Vishnu, they are also each a part of the Adibuddha as the about a person is known. In folklore this is probably literally true; for names are avatars of Vishnu are all a part of him. generally believed to possess great power and the knowledge of names is often These various examples of prophecy before the birth of a divine hero are strictly controlled. Conversely, the terror of namelessness is, in many cultures, a all by way of an advertisement for him. In a less obvious manner, Japanese real thing. To be without a name is to be without family (particularly but not traditions that the emperor is descended from Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun universally a father), ancestors, social position, and possibly even a soul. And Goddess, do precisely the same thing. Not only is the present emperor proven anyone who is nameless is a wild card, in myth he could be anything from a by his descent from his mythical ancestress — which is recognized in The Kojiki demon to a deity and, whenever it forms an important part of a myth it is an or Record of Ancient Matters — but each son of the royal house, before birth, is indication that the subject is likely to be a god or the messenger of a god or at similarly recognized. Simply by having the right ancestors that child is born a the very least a disruptive influence in a society. divine hero. Appropriate both to this motif and that of virgin birth is the condition of The motif of prophecies before birth is closely associated with another motif bastardy. In some of the temples of the Mother Goddess in the Near East, par- in the myth of the hero, that of the sleeping king. This theme, to be considered ticularly those of Ishtar, Astarte, and Cybele, temple prostitution was practised in detail later in the book, concerns the hero who has died or vanished, leaving in which the human father would have been unknown but parentage would behind him a belief that he will reappear. It is an element in the Jain teaching have been ascribed to a consort of the goddess. Cultures which practised this concerning the Tirthankaras, Buddhist tradition of future Buddhas, Christian seem to have attached no stigma to such children. But even where bastardy was myths of the Second Coming of Christ, Zoroastrian scriptures which tell of the considered a disgrace the term can be used in a somewhat ambivalent fashion. birth of three heroes in the final ages of the world: Aushedar, Aushedar-mah and William, the Norman Conqueror of England, was the illegitimate son of Robert Saoshyans, plus the resurrection of Yima from an underground garden where the Devil, Duke of Normandy. By others he was called William the Bastard in he is sleeping at present. contempt; by himself the name was used with pride. The Return of the King, to borrow a title from Tolkien, is not confined to the In a Quiche Mayan myth which is taken from the Popol Vuh, the virgin Xquic myths of India, Iran and the Near East, however. Similar traditions are recorded (Little Blood) is said to have conceived when a talking skull which was hanging in Aztec Mexico concerning Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. And among the in a calabash tree spat into her hand. When he noticed that she was pregnant, Wanapum Indians of eastern Washington members of the Smohalla (Dreamer) her father accused her of being a whore which she denied, saying truthfully if Cult believed that a time was coming when all their heroic ancestors would somewhat evasively that she had never been with a man. Refusing to believe

24 her or to wait for an explanation, her father had her condemned to death. Xquic son of Mathonwy. When she failed, she lost the position of foot-maiden to bargained for her life with her executioners and survived to give birth to the Math and became so angry at this that she refused to recognize either child as twin heroes, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. hers. However uncertain the paternity, what is sure is that Gwydion, Arianrod’s Legends of Alexander the Great are known throughout Europe, the Near East, brother, took a strong protective interest in Llew; he raised him, taught him, India, and Northern Africa. According to the Ethiopian recension of The Book and eventually saved his life. of Alexander the Great his parentage was more than a little murky. Philip of Cheyenne Indian legends tell of Falling Star, a hero born of a Cheyenne Macedon, his putative father, was said to have been away on military campaigns woman and her husband Evening Star. Heavily pregnant with her son she was at the crucial time. Nectanebus, the Egyptian king and priest of Ammon, was killed in falling from the sky while on the way home to visit her family. Falling a refugee at Philip’s court and may have fathered the hero after coupling with Star was born even as his mother died; and like many heroes, he seems to have Olympias, Alexander’s mother, in the form of a snake. Or the father may have never known who his father was. been the Egyptian god Ammon himself, incarnate either in snake form or in the Two accounts of the conception of Romulus and Remus from Roman myths person of his priest. Alexander, himself, seems to have believed this; for some ascribe their origin to the influence of a deity. In one, the commoner of the two, years later when Alexander visited the shrine of Ammon in Egypt he was in they were said to have been the twin sons of the god Mars which would not turn identified with the god and at the same time was described as being his only explain their nature but that of the nation which Romulus founded and descendant. which was named for him, Rome. In the other tradition, they were the sons Irish Celtic myths tell of the three births of the hero Cuchulainn. In the first of a ghostly apparition, that of a phallus which arose from the hearth of their of these he is the son of an unknown mother and father. grandfather’s palace. Both of these mythic origins may be taken as euphemistic, While Conchobor and his troops are sheltering for the night in a lonely cottage Romulus and Remus were bastards. But euphemisms work in two ways. Bastard, the woman of the house gives birth to Cuchulainn. In the morning Conchobor as a term, is also a euphemism for one who is of divine origin. and the rest awaken to find that the cottage, its inhabitants, everything is gone. The Arthurian romances of Wace and Layamon, written during the Middle Only the newborn child remains. Cuchulainn’s second birth, as mysterious as Ages, tell how both Arthur and his magician, Merlin, were of uncertain origin. his first, occurred after Deichtine, the sister of Conchobor, swallowed a mayfly Vortigern, nominally king of England, had fled from the country in fear of the in a cup of wine. The mayfly was thought to have been the god Lugh. But in a Saxon, Hengist, whom the king had once welcomed to his court. To protect scurrilous version of the tale these two births were in reality one, caused when himself, Vortigern put the waters of the Severn between himself and the Saxon; Conchobor and his sister, drunk, slept together. The third birth of Cuchulainn is, but he still didn’t feel safe, so he decided to build a mighty tower in Wales. from a genealogical point of view, legitimate. He is the son of Deichtine and her But when Vortigern’s masons began to work they found that whatever stones husband Sualdam (or Sualtam); but even his parentage is only putative. His were raised by day fell down by night. The higher they built beneath the sun, real father, no matter what people said, was a god, probably Lugh. For how else the more there was to tumble underneath the moon. Vortigern’s magicians to explain the beginnings of one who was destined to become the greatest hero consulted their texts and looked through the smoke of their spells and decided of Ireland? that to bind the stones the blood of a human sacrifice was necessary from a man In Wales, another Celtic legend, from the Mabinogion, does not state explicitly whose father was none of earth. just who was the father of the twin heroes Llew Llaw Gyffes and Dylan. What The frightened king sent messengers throughout Wales to seek out any who is certain is that their mother was Arianrod and that the twins were born as would fit the description given. And in the town of Caermerdin (possibly she was attempting to pass a virginity test which had been set for her by Math, present-day Carmarthen, the Castle of Merlin according to one etymological

25 derivation) they found two youths quarreling, the one insulting the other with the Saxon invaders of Britain. The dragons were discovered, as Merlin foretold. his bastardy. On inquiring further, they learned that even the youth’s mother, By truly seeing them Merlin established himself as one of the most powerful of once the daughter of a king but now a cloistered nun, knew nothing and saw magicians and saved his own life. The question of his birth was never finally nothing of the being that had begotten a child upon her. Wace has her say, resolved in his legends. The mystery which surrounds him and his origins is ‘This I know for truth, and to its truth will I pledge my oath. At that time part of the reason why he is a hero. when I was a maid growing tall, I cannot tell whether it was a ghostly man, but Merlin’s friend and pupil, Arthur, was of an origin not quite as mysterious something came often to my chamber, and kissed me very close. By night and as that of the magician, but it was still somewhat irregular. Nominally Arthur day this presence sought me, ever alone; but always in such fashion as not to be was the son of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall and his wife Igerne. But in fact his perceived. As a man he spoke soft words in my ear; as a man he dealt with me. father was Uther Pendragon, king of the Britons, who had taken such an obvious But though many a time he had speech with me, ever he kept himself close. He fancy to Igerne that Gorlois had fled the court and shut Igerne up in a castle at came so often about me, so long were his kisses on my mouth, that he had his Tintagel for safe-keeping. He had no desire to be a cuckold, even to his king. way, and I conceived; but whether he were man in no wise have I known. I had When Uther confessed his pain to Merlin, the sage concocted a plan which of him this varlet; but more I know not, and more I will not say.’ would allow Uther to satisfy himself. While Duke Gorlois was besieged elsewhere The poet Wace does not say any more; the matter is shrouded in mystery, in Cornwall by the armies of Uther, Merlin transformed Uther into the likeness and so it was presented to Vortigern. The king could not decide but called for of Gorlois. As it was plotted, so it was done. Uther was admitted to the castle one of his clerks (magicians) named Malgantius or Magan and asked him what at Tintagel where everyone, including Igerne, believed him to be the absent the lady’s tale could mean. Malgantius was no surer than anyone else; but he Gorlois, and fathered Arthur upon the duchess. Unfortunately, Gorlois died in was willing to hazard the guess that Merlin’s mother had been visited by an battle on the same night and, when this news reached Tintagel, it was obvious incubus, a kind of spirit which was believed to be part human, part divine, and that the duke could not have been in two places at the same time. If so, who which inhabited the region which lies between the moon and the earth. ‘They had visited Igerne? Gradually, however, the speculation was almost forgotten; know well how to clothe themselves in human shape, for their nature lends and, after a decent interval but before her child was born, Igerne and Uther itself marvellously to the deceit,’ he said. ‘Many a maid has been their sport, were wed. There was still, however, another side to the bargain between Merlin and in this guise has been deceived. It may well be that Merlin was begotten by and the king which had yet to be fulfilled. The magician wanted to supervise such a being, and perchance is of a demon born,’ he concluded darkly. the rearing of the child. And so, in the middle of the night, the infant Arthur So runs the story in the Roman de Brut of Wace and the Brut of Layamon was taken from the castle of Tintagel secretly and handed to Merlin who took written a few years later. But the traditions contained within the tale are far him away. older. The child who was without a father, a bastard or the child of a god or The conception of Arthur, in sin, is closely related to the concept of bastardy demon, was one who by his unknown origin was demonstrated to be someone and an inversion of the idea of conception of a divine hero by a god. Within the unusual. Had the king’s magicians been wiser they might have considered that legends of Arthur it serves as a note of foreboding which finds a dark echo in the remedy they proposed, the killing of such a one, might be more difficult than Arthur’s relationship with his own son, Mordred, and with Guinevere, his queen. it seemed, that the cure might be too dangerous for them to handle. So it proved to be. Merlin had seen, in a vision, two dragons — one red, the other white — There is, as these myths and legends have shown, believed to be a power residing fighting in a pit or cave beneath the tower’s foundations, and, according to this in the knowledge of names and origins. That belief is probably at least as old as tale, they foreshadowed wars between King Arthur who was yet to come and the earliest Egyptian dynasties, circa 3000 BC. In the funerary cult of Egypt, as

26 recorded in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the soul, on leaving the body, had Man of Steel and make his life hell by chasing him for autographs, and no one to pass a series of tests before it could even be admitted before the gods who who will see in the wealthy socialite, Bruce Wayne (Batman), the nemesis of would judge its life on earth. These tests were all name tests. The doorway crime and attempt somehow to use that information against him. It is a freedom through which the soul would pass had a name. So did the walls. So did the that would have been envied by Elvis Presley and Howard Hughes. ceiling. All the deities which the soul encountered had names; and the soul was required to know all of them, or it would not be allowed to pass. The miraculous conception of the hero is the most important part of his quality Similar beliefs are found in Melanesia in the Pacific and Mayan Yucatan. In as an unknown, an undefinable, together with the other motif of his disguise. the Popol Vuh, when Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hanahpu journey to Xibalba, the The causes of such conception are virtually infinite, they enter through every underworld, they are confronted with a group of fourteen motionless figures; orifice of the body to cause it, or they do not enter a body at all; but the two alone are statues, the rest are living gods. Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub- result is often heroic and sometimes hilarious in unexpected ways. In a Vedic Hunahpu are required not only to distinguish between the living and the artificial myth from India the two deities Mitra and Varuna were said to have one day but they must also greet each of the gods with his proper name. When they beheld the water nymph Urvasi. So beautiful was she that the gods ejaculated cannot do this they fail the test. simultaneously into a water jar which conceived the Rishi (holy man) and hero, If there is power in knowing names, such as the power which the Egyptian Agasti, who was born in the shape of a lustrous fish. goddess Isis wielded on the occasion when she coerced the sun god Ra by the Suetonius, to the disgust of Robert Graves, quotes a Roman tradition which use of his name as a weapon, there is also a power residual in namelessness. In said that the Emperor Augustus was conceived when his mother Atia, while the twentieth century part of the mysterious power of such folk heroes as the visiting the Temple of Apollo, dreamed that a snake had glided up to her and Lone Ranger, Batman and Robin, Superman, and masked wrestlers everywhere entered her. It was further stated that afterwards she was marked with a sign is involved in the fact of the mask. They are without identity. Similarly, the that resembled a serpent. As snakes were sacred to Apollo and were often seen masks of carnival confer a nameless and in some ways socially irresponsible in his temples, this is a rather oblique way of saying that Augustus was the son of status on their wearers. Wearing the disguise they become above good and evil, the sun god. He was already reckoned to be descended from Venus (Aphrodite) gods, answerable to no one, accountable for nothing. While wearing the mask via Aeneas and from Mars via Romulus; so his ancestry would seem to have everything is permitted, there are no laws; and the chaos which results is that been above reproach. Adding Apollo to the list does seem to be overdoing things of the gods, erupting into this world in exactly the same way that the Romans, a little. normally a fairly staid people, went to the other extreme at Saturnalia, when The Namaqua tribe of Hottentots had a myth that their god and hero, Heitsi- slaves could for a time live like kings, and kings could, if they wished, become eibib, had been conceived in his first birth when his mother chewed a bit of slaves. grass and swallowed the juice. His second birth, to a cow, occurred in the same The masked wrestler — a survival into modern times of ancient custom — fashion, when she also chewed grass. and the participant in a carnival procession have discovered the freedom in Some of the other traditions of miraculous conception are: from Egypt, the disguise. It is the freedom enjoyed by such comic book characters as Superman goddess Isis, unable to find the phallus of her husband, Osiris, made one of wood and Batman and Robin. Each of these also possesses another kind of freedom, and conceived from it; from China, the virgin mother of Hou Chi, legendary however, that of being an orphan. There is no one to tell Dick Grayson (Robin) ancestor of the Chou Dynasty, conceived when she walked in the footprints that he really should stay home tonight and study his homework when he wants of a god; from India King Yuvanasva conceived within himself when he drank to go out and fight crime; no one to recognize in the worm Clark Kent the mighty some holy water; from Finland, Ilmatar conceived the hero Väinämöinen when

27 she was impregnated by the east wind, and Marjatta conceived Little Flower demons but that it was restored later by the angel Farrah-i-Izad or Splendour of when she swallowed a blueberry; from Polynesia, Maui was conceived when God, who beat off the fiends. During the struggle Zoroaster calmed his mother, his mother, Taranga, cast her topknot into the surf; from Greece, Perseus was telling her not to be afraid, he was being well looked after. conceived when the god Zeus, in the form of a shower of gold, visited his mother Chinese myths tell of the virgin Tai Yuan who was so holy that she subsisted Danae; from Aztec Mexico, both Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli were said to entirely on clouds and air. She was impregnated by the dwarf-creator, P’an Ku, have been conceived when a goddess either swallowed a bit of jade or emerald who entered her in the form of a ray of light. For twelve years she gestated the or placed a ball of feathers in her bosom. The Teutonic hero Rerir was childless foetus, at length giving birth to T’ien Pao via the spinal cord. Twelve years is, and prayed to Freya for a son. She answered his prayer by sending the goddess however, by no means the record. That appears to be still held by Ilmatar, whose Ljod to him in the form of a crow which dropped an apple into his lap. When gestation of Väinämöinen, according to the Kalevala, was 739 years. Even then the hero gave this to his wife she conceived and bore a son seven years later, the child was only born because he got tired of his long confinement and forced after the death of Rerir. his way out. In the Western world of our time, it is a little harder to convince people of the truth of a miraculous conception than it may once have been. And yet the The birth of the divine hero will be the first major event in most of his myths. It idea is still around. There is, for example, a woman in northern England who is is partially an explanation, how such a marvellous person or even tribe came to convinced that the ectoplasmic ghost of the singer Jim Reeves, who died some be, and partially a proof that the hero is what he is said to be. The manner of his years ago, has fathered her son. The Holy Ghost is, as you can see, alive and birth may be unusual, as in the myth of T’ien Pao who entered the world from well and living in Nashville. his mother’s spinal cord; or it may be in a wild place (Christ in the stable); it may be by totally extra-human means; or it may be surrounded by such supernatural For such heroes as we have been considering so far, the pregnancy will be no signs (earthquakes, etc.) that it is clearly an event sanctioned by Heaven. It more ordinary than anything else about him. Sometimes the hero will move may even be a symbolic rebirth, in which an individual is so transformed by an around inside his mother talking to her, sometimes he will go on trips to the experience that to all intents and purposes a new human being has been born. outside world, frequently the birth will be delayed, by a day as in the case of Clues to the hero’s identity are found in those tales of birth by an unusual Heracles and Iphicles, or by years as in the case of other heroes. doorway. Volsung, in Norse myths, is described as having been born like Caesar According to some versions of the Maui legend, the hero’s gestation was and MacDuff by Caesarian section. Gautama was similarly born in an unusual unnaturally long — thirteen months. He amused himself by leaving his mother, manner, from the side of his mother Queen Maya, as she stood beneath a Sal Taranga, or Hine, to go swimming or to wander about the Hawaiian islands in tree on which she supported herself. the form of a ghost. While he was gone, Hine’s belly would grow flat as a board, A common form of mythic hyperbole states, for example, that the god Tezcat- resuming its normal swollen shape when he re-entered her. And even when he lipoca of the Aztecs was born in a cloud and dropped from Heaven on a spider’s was at home, Maui was hardly ever still. He talked with Hine, who didn’t like web. In a Masai story from Africa we are told of an old man who gave birth to the feeling at all. twins from a swelling on his knee after lancing it when it was eight months old. Another unborn son who talked to his mother was Zoroaster, who had been In each of these stories the intention of the mythmaker is to say, ‘Watch out. The conceived when the Khwarenah or Kingly Glory, said in some accounts to have person who is about to happen is something else.’ been lost by Yima the first king, entered into his mother. In her fifth month of Similarly, in Hawaiian myth, Maui is said in the Kumulipo Genealogy to have pregnancy, the mother-to-be dreamed that the child had been torn from her by been born in the form of an egg. Mithras, in the traditions of the hero-god

28 worshipped by many Roman troops during the Empire, was described as having animals in a ruined cattle shelter off in a far field. been born from an egg or a stone. Castor, Pollux, Helen, and Clytemnestra were Portents or signs will frequently underline the advent of a divine hero. At all born from eggs. Gautama’s birth, musical instruments were heard to sound of their own will, This motif is found in stories of the creation of the first man or the first rivers ceased flowing in order that the waters might contemplate the child, lakes tribal group — also a heroic event. For not only are there no parents for the became suddenly covered with lotuses in full bloom, there were earthquakes, first children (the egg, in myth, came first) but the first people are themselves and the ocean was transformed from salt to sweet. regarded as being heroic simply because they were the earliest arrivals. The Zoroastrian traditions say that the Prophet Zoroaster laughed at birth, the explanations of how to give birth to something from nothing are many; but first child to do so. And the Roman writer Pliny, reporting legends that were some of the concepts may be reflected by myths from some American Indian current some five and a half centuries later, said that the newborn infant’s head tribes. The Chemehuevi and Mojave Indians of southern California, for example, palpitated so that it would repel any hand which approached too closely to it. believed that they were born parthenogenetically from coyote’s shit. All other Other portents of the Zoroastrian holy man’s greatness included supernatural Indians, according to the same tradition, were born no less miraculously from illumination of the house when he was born (something also attributed to the the union of coyote and louse. Among the Navajo, the first man, Aste Hastin, birth of Heracles) and unspecified rejoicing of all of the creation of the Wise was created in the underworld from white maize by the four winds and his wife Lord, Ahura Mazda. In China, ancient legends said that the birth of an emperor was made from yellow maize. was heralded by the appearance of the Ch’i-lin, a mythological beast which The Yuracare tribe of South America believed that the first man was made corresponds to the European unicorn. On the occasion of the birth of Confucius, from the toenail of a god. The Jivaro thought that the first man came from an however, the signal honour of the appearance of the Ch’i-lin was granted to egg. Among the Cashinawa tribe of South America, mankind was said to have the woman, who became so upset at it that she vomited forth a jade tablet on descended from worms, while among the Tucuna from the same continent, it which were inscribed details of the philosopher’s life. Eagles cried and holy was fish that were man’s progenitors. Another Yuracare myth said that man waters streamed from the mountains according to a Norse legend concerning was created from a clay image which had been brought to life — a tale which the birth of the hero Helgi. But according to the Ethiopian Book of Alexander the resembles that in Moslem, Jewish and Christian traditions of Adam. It was a prodigies which accompanied his birth were earthquakes, thunder, and lightning belief which was also shared by the Inca of Peru, who also thought that man throughout the world. might have come from stones. These miraculous events figure almost obsessively in the Roman writer, Yet another method of marking the birth of the hero and setting him apart Seutonius, whose Lives of the Twelve Caesars is filled with minutiae which from his fellow men is that of having him born in a wild place. In Islamic myths predict the births, accessions to the throne, and deaths of these emperors and the Prophet Abraham was said to have been born in a cave after Nimrod received their immediate predecessor, emperor in all but name, Julius. Such information an oracle that a hero was about to be born who would not only destroy the idols may appear to us to be trivia; but it probably is as much a part of the myth as of the king, but who would also kill off his majesty himself. In an attempt to the ‘historical’ accounts of the lives of the heroes. Many of the same portents are avert this the king ordered the execution of 70,000 male infants; but Abraham’s still, over fifteen hundred years later, in common usage. The people of ancient mother had fled the city and given birth to her son in a secret cave where she times were not so different after all from ourselves, a human mixture of the abandoned him. And in the Kalevala, when Marjatta, the virgin who swallowed profound and the piddling. a blueberry and became pregnant, was expelled by her parents who accused her The earliest of the portents relating to Augustus Caesar is dated hundreds of of being a whore, she gave birth to her son, Little Flower, among the heat of the years before his birth and comes from Velitrae, the town where he was born. It

29 seems that on one occasion a lightning bolt struck the city walls and demolished except the lion in all its various forms and colours. As a national emblem it a part of them. When priests were consulted, they interpreted the sign to mean was used at one time by the following: Albania, Austria, the Austro-Hungarian that a citizen of Velitrae would rule the world and an immediate war was begun Empire, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Liechtenstein, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, against Rome which concluded in the near massacre of all of Velitrae’s citizens. Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Tzarist Russia, South Yemen, Spain, Syria, Troy, Obviously, someone had misunderstood the message. Closer to Augustus’s own the United Arab Republic, the United States, West Germany, and Zambia. It was time there was an unspecified portent which was believed to mean that Heaven similarly employed by the Emperor Constantine, the Canton of Geneva, and the was preparing to produce another Roman king. As this was just about the time Holy Roman Empire. of Caesar’s assassination, partially because it appeared to the senators that he These traditions have been enumerated in such detail to underline the fact wished to become a king, the idea was none too popular. But the Senate took that when an eagle flies into a Roman myth, it is there as a symbol which is the prophecy quite seriously and passed a law that for the period of one year, shared by much of the rest of the world. It is not simply Caesar’s eagle, it is also no newborn male infant should be allowed to live. All that the law needed to ours. become effectual was for it to be ratified by being lodged at the Treasury. There Augustus is but one example. In all of the myths of the twelve caesars the was, however, an influential group of senators each of whom hoped that it would writer, Suetonius, has started from the premise that each of them was apparently be his child who would become king; and so they prevented the ratification of human as the rest of us; but by the signs they were marked out as being the law. During that year Augustus was born and allowed to live. somehow special and under divine protection or disfavour. The signs may be Augustus’s father was also the recipient of indications that his son was going regarded as mere superstition; but this seems scarcely the point — they were to be something pretty special. In a dream, in prophecies from the astrologer sufficiently believed so as to be capable of altering the course of one of the Publius Nigidius Niger and from the priests of Dionysus in Thrace, Octavius mightiest empires the world has ever seen. They cannot simply be brushed learned that his son had been marked for greatness. In a second dream the aside as trivial. Additionally they are one way of showing that someone who is magnitude of that greatness was foreshadowed when Octavius beheld his son apparently human is in reality a super hero. crowned with the regalia of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the supreme god of the Elsewhere there are other methods of explaining how it was that the hero Roman State, riding in a triumphal chariot drawn by twelve white horses. This, came by his marvellous attributes, one of which is recorded in Layamon’s Brut. at least, is pretty explicit and could be translated by anyone. ‘. . . Then was Arthur born. So soon as he came on earth,’ says Layamon in Perhaps the most important of all the portents concerning the birth and Eugene Mason’s translation, ‘elves took him; they enchanted the child with accession of Augustus, however, was one given to the future emperor while magic most strong, they gave him might to be the best of all knights; they gave he was still a young man. It happened that one day he was sitting beside the him another thing, that he should be a rich king; they gave him the third, that Appian Way eating his lunch when an eagle swooped from the sky, snatched a he should live long; they gave to him the prince virtues most good, so that he crust of bread from his hand, flew away with it, then returned to give back that was the most generous of all men alive. This the elves gave him, and thus the which he had taken. Suetonius did not interpret this omen; perhaps he felt it child thrived.’ So wrote an English priest of the thirteenth century. was unnecessary, for the eagle was, above all other animal totems, the symbol A parallel to this motif of the elves’ gifts comes from Perrault’s La Belle au Bois of Rome, as a monarchy, a republic and, finally, as an empire. It was the bird of Dormant, the first tale in a book of fairy stories published in 1697. The hero of Jupiter, the Roman god who corresponds closely to the Greek god Zeus, as king this story is, of course, Sleeping Beauty; and the gifts which she receives are of heaven. In heraldry and vexillology (which may be described as the study of such as will suit her naturally inferior status in life — ‘all the Fairies began to flags and flag-waving) the eagle occurs more frequently than any other symbol give their gifts to the Princess. The youngest gave her for gift that she should be

30 the most beautiful person in the world; the next that she should have the wit of Aztec myths concerning Quetzalcoatl say in some passages that he was a an angel; the third, that she should have an admirable grace in everything she twin of Xolotl, a god whose name contains a root meaning twin, and in others did; the fourth, that she should dance perfectly well; the fifth, that she should it would appear that Tezcatlipoca was his twin. The twinship of these two, sing like a nightingale; and the sixth, that she should play upon all kinds of Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, is strictly one of lifelong opposition. Where musick to the utmost perfection.’ Quetzalcoatl represents life, Tezcatlipoca is a personification of death. They are closely associated with each other in a way that one of Quetzalcoatl’s other twins Twinship, multiple births and reincarnatory births are identical in their implic- — he has several - is not. Although Xolotl’s name implies ‘twin’ - as does that ations, differing from each other only in their time structure. Reincarnatory of Yima (in Zoroastrianism) and Yama (in Vedic teachings) — his myths seem births or, as they are sometimes termed, avatars, are sequential as events; and to have little to do with those of the Feathered Serpent. Apart from incidents multiple births as we usually conceive them to be are simultaneous. If, however, where either Quetzalcoatl or Xolotl was said to have performed a certain action, the results of these births are heroes (semi-divine people) or gods, then it can Xolotl functions pretty independently. make no difference to their myths whether they are born at once or in a straight In Zoroastrian tradition, the warfare between Spenta Mainyu and Angra line. After all, to such beings time is not the linear thing it is to us mortals, but Mainyu, sons of Ahura Mazda according to the Avesta, was intense. In a much rather something which is both simultaneous and eternal, all of creation taking later Zurvanite version of the myth Ahura Mazda, who has been syncretized with place in the twinkling of god’s eye. Amesha Spenta, is made the twin of Angra Mainyu and their common father When twins occur in myth they are sometimes regarded as being similar or is given as Zrvan Akarana, Infinite Time. Both recensions, however, postulate identical (Romulus and Remus or Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu) while the eventual decisive defeat of Angra Mainyu (evil) and the total victory of sometimes they are seen as opposites (Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, Osiris sweetness and light. and Set). In the Roman traditions Romulus and Remus, the twin ancestors of Another pair of twins, Cautes and Cautopates, is found in Mithraism, late Rome, were identical; but those same traditions also tell of Romulus’s successor worship of a god who is also found in Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. As so few to the kingship of the city, Numa Pompilius. With the myth as a whole, Romulus texts relating to Mithraism have survived little is known of their function within and Numa figure as opposing twins, each generating part of the spirit of Rome. the myth of the bull-slayer; but they figure in the representations of the sacrifice From Romulus, who gave his name to the city, came the martial impetus which as light-bearers, one holding a torch which points toward the heavens, the other resulted in the Roman Empire. From Numa came the laws and institutions of holding one which points to the earth. the city. Together they were two halves of the same thing. In Greek myth there are many sets of twins: Apollo and Artemis, Castor and In the Quiche Mayan myths which are related in the Popol Vuh Hun-Hunahpu Polydeuces, Heracles and Iphicles to name but a few. Somewhat less well-known and Vucub-Hunahpu are the first set of a series of twins. The sons of Hun- are Amphion and Zethos and Neleus and Pelias. Amphion and Zethos were the Hunahpu were first of all Hun-Batz and Hun-Chouen, who were twins; and twin sons of Antiope, fathered either by her uncle Lycus or, like many other then, after his death, Hun-Hunahpu fathered Hunahpu and Xbalanque, also heroes, by Zeus. At birth they were exposed on Mount Cithaeron by Lycus; but twins. The parentage of these last is a little unclear, for while they are said in they were rescued by a shepherd and returned to Thebes, city of their birth, just one passage to be the sons of Hun-Hunahpu alone, elsewhere they are described in time to save their mother from being torn to pieces by wild bulls. as being the sons, jointly, of Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu. Furthermore, Neleus and Pelias were the grandsons of King Salmoneus, who believed from the way that the antagonists of the heroes are presented in the book, in a himself to be a god. It was this king’s curious habit to rattle through the streets list of pairs, it would appear that they too were twins. of his capital, Salmonia, in a brazen chariot, dragging cauldrons behind him

31 and throwing firebrands about him as he went. These odd gestures were meant limitless. In an attempt to absorb Buddhism into the worship of the god, the to convince his people that he was an incarnation of Zeus, the thunder god. At ninth avatar of Vishnu was claimed to be Buddha, and as the number of Buddhas length Zeus grew tired of being impostrophized and showed Salmoneus what a is itself thought to be without limit, the avatars of Vishnu are indeed infinite. real thunderbolt was like by blasting him and his chariot. A less well-known myth concerning reincarnation of a divine hero, however, Salmoneus had a daughter, Tyro, born even as his first wife died. Like is found in the Jain religion of India. It tells how Prince Parsvanatha became Cinderella she was cruelly treated by her father’s second wife, Sidero. In the twenty-third Tirthankara and of his many existences before he reached that her misery, and it would seem out of her mind, she fell in love with a river, state of holiness. His first birth was as Marubhuti, the son of a prime minister the Enipeus. The situation was too opportune for Poseidon, the god of the to a king. His second was as the elephant Vajraghosa, Voice of Lightning. His sea, to pass up. With the perpetual randiness of the Greek deities, Poseidon third was as the god Sasi-prabha, Splendour of the Moon. His fourth was as transformed himself into the likeness of the river or its god and fathered twins Prince Agnivega and his fifth was as an un-named deity. His sixth was as Prince upon the lovesick lady. Tyro was not at all amused and exposed her twin sons Vajranabha, Diamond Navel, who became a Chakravartin or World Monarch. on a mountain slope (the mountains of ancient Greece must have had more His seventh was as the god Aham-Indra. His eighth was as Prince Anadakumara. bastards of gods than wild poppies) where they were later found by a horse-herd. His ninth was as the Indra-god who reigns in the thirteenth Heaven. And his Subsequently, in revenge for their mother’s humiliation, Pelias killed Sidero as tenth and final incarnation was as Prince Parsvanatha. It will be noted that the she clung for sanctuary to a statue of the goddess Hera, an insult which the series roughly alternates human or animal experiential existences with celestial goddess later repaid with her patronage of Pelias’s half-nephew Jason. or heavenly reward periods. It is, as Pavlov would have recognized, teaching by In the Welsh Celtic myth of Taliesin we see reincarnation, a miraculous the carrot. series of births, as a central motif together with the transformation flight. The pattern, in this myth, is provided with a counterpart. Throughout all of Transformation is itself a form of miraculous birth; so in this tale the point his incarnations Prince Parsvanatha had an antagonist in the person of the god is doubly made concerning Taliesin’s greatness. The bard Taliesin was the Samvara. His first birth was as Kamatha, Marubhuti’s brother and his murderer. reincarnation of the boy Gwion Bach. When Gwion accidentally tasted three His second was as the serpent which killed the elephant Vajraghosa. His third drops of the brew in Ceridwen’s Cauldron of Inspiration and spoiled it he knew was as a prisoner in the fifth Hell. His fourth was again as a serpent, in which that she would try to kill him. In the flight which followed Gwion Bach and the form he killed Prince Agnivega, and his fifth was as a prisoner in the sixth Hell witch successively transformed themselves (amongst many other forms) into a in punishment. His sixth was in the form of the wild tribesman who killed Prince hare pursued by a greyhound, a salmon chased by an otter and a thrush harried Vajranabha, for which he was condemned in his seventh incarnation to be a by a hawk. Finally Ceridwen, in the form of a black hen, swallowed Gwion Bach, prisoner in the seventh Hell. His eighth birth was as a lion, his ninth was again now in the form of a grain of wheat. She conceived from her meal of vengeance as a prisoner of the fifth Hell, and this existence was followed by several in and bore a child which she cast into the waves wrapped in a leather bag. Found which he achieved some merit in animal form, and then a tenth incarnation as by Elphin and his men, he was named Taliesin, Radiant Brow, when one of them King Mahapala followed by a final birth as the god Samvara. It will be seen that exclaimed as he saw the baby, ‘Behold a radiant brow!’ this series follows the rough pattern of crime (karma) and punishment (karma Hindu mythology is particularly rich in the concept of reincarnation which again). And it is, as Pavlov would also have noted, teaching by the stick. figures most prominently in connection with traditions of Vishnu, the preserver, The miraculous birth or rebirth of the hero is not perhaps as popular in who is said to have had ten major existences, nine in the past and one in the modern myth as it was in classic sources; but it does still exist. For example, future. In other accounts, however, the number of his avatars is described as in the Marvel Comics version of the Norse god, Thor, updated to our time, Don

32 Blake, a crippled American doctor vacationing in Norway, accidentally picks up individuals, one human, one heroic. Each of them is in a sense a pair of twins. a piece of wood in a hidden cave. It is in reality the magic hammer Mjölnir, And each of them represents a method in modern myth of expressing the divinity which can be wielded only by a righteous person. Each time Dr Blake picks of twins, without actually dealing with the reality of them as it was employed up the hammer, he is transformed into the ancient thunder god; whenever he in ancient myths, where one twin was often believed to be mortal while the releases it he becomes once again the crippled doctor. The situation is one of other was said to be divine. Even the fact of multiple birth was disturbing to symbolic rebirth and death. And it is one shared by other characters in comics, many cultures where the twins, and in some cases the mother, might be killed. whether like Batman, Robin, and Superman they put on costumes to effect the Elsewhere twins or multiple births were regarded as divine and received special change or, like Billy Batson, say a magic word to transform themselves into a treatment. hero such as Captain Marvel. Further variations on the theme of twinship are provided by the motif of The myth of Batman incorporates another origin-motif which is fairly popular parthenogenetic birth, that of the caul, that of the afterbirth, and that of the particularly in crime fiction, that of the catastrophic change. Expressed simply, mixed conception or birth not only of a hero but also of implements, weapons, this motif occurs when the central character is at first shown to be a perfectly or companions (often animal) of his life. All so-termed ‘virgin’ births are normal human, possessed of no super powers, no superhuman drive whatsoever. parthenogenetic as are births from men; so the child of Mary is, in a sense, her Then suddenly a criminal strikes at someone he holds dear, an act so vicious twin, as are the children of Zeus, Athene and Dionysus, both of whom were that the character is metamorphosed instantly into a hero. With Bruce Wayne born from his body, Athene from the head and Dionysus from his thigh. (Batman), socialite, wealthy playboy, this happened when he was only a child While the caul or amniotic sack in which a foetus is enclosed is a normal and his parents were killed. feature of gestation, it is not usual for a child to be born with part of the caul Behind the image there lurks, not very well disguised, another, older image: adhering to it. When it happens a supernatural significance is often attached that of the hero struck by the lightning bolt of Zeus. to the event. In some areas, for example Siberia, Britain, and France, birth Although in Greek myth the lightning bolt always occurs as an offensive with a caul is believed to confer luck, second sight, or the abilities of a shaman. weapon, there is no reason why it could not equally create. Symbolically it is And a piece of the caul, if preserved, will give protection throughout the child’s nothing more than an implement expressing power and causing a transformation. life from drowning. But elsewhere, for example in parts of South America and So in Hawaiian myth we read of a dead person being resuscitated by lightning; Central Europe, it is believed to indicate diabolic conception or vampirism and and when Billy Batson, as he originally appeared in the comic books of the may lead to the child’s death. But the caul may also be thought to be the actual forties, said the magic name, ‘Shazam’, lightning transformed him into his twin of the child. There is, for example, an Irish myth in which a worm or super-persona, Captain Marvel, known to his enemies as ‘The Big Red Cheese’. monster-snake results from the caul of a newborn child. More commonly it is the Metamorphosis, from human to semi-divine, implies that within each of us afterbirth or placenta which is regarded as the twin of a child, in some instances is a hero sleeping who waits only for the catastrophic act that will free him, its soul. Such stories were told by the Wichita, Pawnee, Cherokee, and the Creek allowing the psychopath or the saviour to emerge like a butterfly from a pupa. In Indians of North America. In the Creek version the twins are mischief-makers, Sam Peckinpah’s Ballad of Cabel Hogue the catastrophic act is the abandonment Bead-Spitter (the human child) and Thrown-Away (his afterbirth brother). of Cable by his two ‘friends’ in the desert. Under conditions in which he should Bead-Spitter was born after his mother had been devoured by a monster. Only have died he finds water (symbol of life and perhaps as well resurrection here) her womb remained uneaten. Turkey-Killer, her husband, slit open the womb where none should have been and finds himself a hero. and removed his child, then took away the afterbirth and threw it under some There are in Cable Hogue, in Billy Batson and in Bruce Wayne, two separate bushes. From the afterbirth came Thrown-Away, who continued to live in the

33 bushes, known to his twin but unknown to his father. Turkey-Killer only learned flesh and the other side iron. A Dusun legend from Borneo relates how a boy of the existence of his other son when Bead-Spitter demanded of him two of was born with only the right half of his body who became complete when he everything, two bows and two separate sets of arrows. A variation on this tale, found another boy who had been born with only a left half. And in a Chinese from the Natchez tribe, says that it was the umbilical cord from which the twin myth we are told of a child born with nine arms, nine feet, and nine faces. of Bead-Spitter came. One final variant remains to be considered of this motif of multiple and There remains only one way in which the hero is manifested at or before monstrous birth, that of the child born or conceived along with the implements, birth, the demonstration of his powers, his strength. Such demonstrations are weapons, or companions of his life, a variant of which is the child born deformed sometimes frivolous as in the case of Maui who grew bored with being a foetus or mutilated in some way. In Greek myth an example occurs when Perseus and left his mother to go swimming and haunt the neighbours; but more often decapitates the Gorgon Medusa and from her dead body spring the winged they are serious revelations of those powers which will characterize the hero in horse, Pegasus, and the giant warrior, Chrysaor. Among the Irish, the legend of later life. Cuchulainn also contains implications of multiple birth. His first birth was said In the Ethiopian Book of Alexander the world hero’s strength must have been to have been coincidental with that of two horses which he used in later life. considerable, for he killed Nectanebus at the age of seven for claiming to be Similarly, at the same moment Gautama Buddha was born, so too was Kanthaka his real father. Alexander may have been strange in another way at birth; but (his horse until the Great Renunciation), Chandaka (his charioteer and teacher), the references on this point are somewhat unclear. In the Koran and other Yasodhara (his future bride and mother of his son Rahula), Ananda (his friend sources he is called ‘The Two-horned’. This has been taken to mean by Budge and greatest disciple), Parileyyaka (his elephant), and the Bo Tree under which and others that Alexander had assumed a title of Ammon, the god who was he attained Buddhahood. There is no suggestion that his mother, Queen Maya, sometimes said to have fathered him. ‘Two-horned’ was a title of this deity. herself gave birth to all these. Another interpretation of this would be that Alexander literally possessed horns Elsewhere, however, such peculiar multiple births are taken for granted in on his head, a condition which is by no means unknown in medicine and which myth. An early Irish tale relates how a childless queen was enabled to conceive also figures in myth. Dionysus, for example, was said to have been a horned through the blessing of St Finnen. As a result she gave birth to a lamb, a trout god. This inference is born out in the Book of Alexander when Darius refers to and finally to Aed Slane. Similarly, in the Norse Hervararsaga Hlödr Heidreksson the conqueror as ‘this deformed man’. To Darius and others horns may indeed was said to have been ‘born with helmet, sword, and horse’. Grimm takes this have appeared to be a deformity, although to the makers of myth they would to mean that the arms were forged and the horse born simultaneously with the have more likely been interpreted as signalling divine honours. hero. Equally, the words may be taken to mean exactly what they say, that Hlödr Zoroastrian traditions tell not only of the Prophet Zoroaster, who spoke to was part of a hero’s monstrous birth. Such was the tradition among the Mbamba his mother in reassurance while only a five-month foetus, but also of the sage tribe of Northern Angola, who claimed that the hero-twins Sudika-mbambi Aoshnara. So wise was he that even before his birth he was able to teach; and Kabundungulu were born together with their swords, knives, staves, and the twenty-third and twenty-fourth Tirthankaras of Jain religion of India were kilembe-tree life-tokens. In his massive study, The Legend of Perseus, E. Sidney also apparently thought to have spoken before they were born. And Buddhism Hartland cites tales from most European areas in which horses and dogs and contains the motif of the child who walks at birth in the myth of Maitreya, the 1 even weapons were said to have been born congenitally with a hero. final Buddha , who at his birth will take three giant steps encompassing all of Equally, those human births in which the child itself is unusual are indicators creation. of the coming of a hero. In a Kaffir tale from Africa a boy is born with one side 1“Buddah” in original

34 Usually the hero is said to be exceptionally strong at birth; but the converse his life. If he conforms exactly to the outline he will have been preceded is also sometimes true. The Russian folk-hero Ilya Murometz or, as he is also by prophecies or omens, unknown in some respect, miraculously conceived, known, Ilya Ivanovich, was anything but strong. Completely paralysed at gestated, and born, part of a multiple birth and unusually powerful as an infant. birth he lay at home growing for up to thirty-three years, according to various But, more likely, one or more of these motifs will form part of his myth or legend accounts, unable to move. He was transformed by two mysterious holy men, as a sort of annunciation, an advertisement for the life which is to follow. who gave him enough power to lift half the world. In the Mabinogion, in its telling of the births of Dylan and Llew Llaw Gyffes, both were unusually strong at birth. Dylan leaped into the sea which was to be his home as soon as he was born; and Llew, hastily thrust into a chest by his uncle and protector Gwydion, not only survived the confinement but once released from his captivity grew amazingly. This same swift growth forms part of the Cuchulainn legends of Ireland. In some versions he is said to have taken arms, learned warfare, and been married at seven years, killed his son at only fourteen, single-handedly held off the combined armies of Maeve and Ailill at seventeen, and died at twenty-seven. Two episodes from the Heracles myth of Greece and the Mediterranean area generally reflect the same strength as well as a precocious sense of humour. When, shortly after his birth, the lifelong enemy of the hero, the goddess Hera, was tricked into picking him up and giving him suck, the sweet little thing retaliated by biting her, hard, at which she dropped him, causing the milk in his mouth to spurt across the sky and form the Milky Way. And when, not long afterward, Hera sent two serpents to kill him in his cradle, Heracles took the deadly vipers to be playthings and gleefully strangled them in his chubby fists. In yet another Greek myth, Asclepius, the divine physician, was described as possessing an aura of light at birth which was so powerful that it was seen by the goatherd Aresthanas who rescued him. In Africa, the Mbamba legend of Sudika-mbambi and his twin Kabundungulu tells how they sang to their mother before birth and grew amazingly quickly once they were born. But at least they were born, as some people say, at a very young age. That is not always true. In the Kalevala, Väinämöinen, having spent 739 years in gestation, was eventually born as an already old man, though an amazingly strong old man, for he was born in mid-ocean and was able to swim for eight years until he reached land. With these demonstrations of strength at or before birth the hero begins

35 FOUR

Few heroes are equipped at birth to become champions. Those few who are, own lovemaking, she should neither send him away nor expose him, but pre- are frequently said to be gods. Huitzilopochtli in Aztec Mexico and Apollo in serve the child and raise him secretly. Aegeus’s reason was that in spite of two Greece come to mind as two who apparently underwent no process of initiation. marriages he was childless, and should the fifty giant sons of his brother, Pallas, But for most there is a period of preparation during which the raw meat of the discover that he now had a legitimate heir, they would do their best to kill him. human child is shaped into the champion that he must be if he is to succeed Theseus must therefore be raised in secret, educated in secret, but at the same on his quest. In general the greater the quest, the greater will be the champion time treated in a manner that was fit for the son of a king. Then, when he had who can perform it and the more arduous his training. reached his full strength, he was to be shown a huge rock, under which Aegeus This period of preparation for the hero’s life consists of well-established had placed a pair of sandals and a sword. If Theseus could lift the rock and themes, episodes in which he is cast out of whatever comfort he is born into, retrieve these, then he was a true son of Aegeus and would be so welcomed at abandoned or hidden, rescued or taught by the wild beings who will likely be Athens, if he ever could get there. his life’s companions, tested and twisted out of shape by acquiring his weapons As instructed, Aethra brought her son secretly into the world and raised him whether they are those of the world monarch or the world saviour, and finally at her father’s court, where it was allowed to be known that he was the son of initiated by being awarded his name or by being recognized by one of his parents Poseidon. And let people make of that story what they might. The boy displayed or by someone else who has the power to admit him to society. his heroism when only seven years of age on the occasion of a visit by his cousin As in the myth of Heracles, the myth of Theseus from Greek tradition demon- Heracles. The hero had draped his lionskin over a stool in such a manner that strates how some of these motifs can work together. Although the hero is said it appeared exactly like a living beast, which caused the other children at the by some writers to have been a twin, his brother Perithous plays no important court to flee in terror. But not young Theseus. Seizing an axe, he made ready to part in his story. Theseus was conceived jointly by Aegeus and by the sea-god, attack the lion, thus demonstrating the precocity for which heroes are famed. Poseidon, both of whom lay in one night with Aethra. It was Aethra’s father, When he reached his teenage years, Aethra took him to the stone under which Pittheus, who contrived to bring Aegeus and Aethra together by making him Aegeus had buried the sword and the sandals. As he was fated to, Theseus drunk, then sending him to her bed. In the middle of the night Aethra left lifted it easily, armed and shod himself and set off for Athens. On the journey Aegeus, still sleeping, and, in response to a dream sent to her by Athene, went he was forced to prove both his strength and his cleverness as he defeated a to a nearby tomb where she made a sacrifice to the shade of its heroic occupant series of opponents. His weapons were brute force, which he employed in the before, with Athene’s connivance, being raped by Poseidon. Aegeus, who knew art of wrestling which he was said to have invented; the sword; a brass-bound nothing of this rape, charged Aethra that if a son was born as a result of their club which he took from one of his victims; and a certain cunning with which

36 he served all whom he defeated exactly as they had served others before him. become the first priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries. And the office of Hierophant, Needless to say, he was victorious in every encounter. Having proven himself, or High Priest which he established, remained in his family for 1200 years. the way was clear for the sixteen-year-old boy to enter Athens as a hero who Although Poseidon was not above a little fun and games himself he seems would be well able to look after himself and who could therefore be recognized to have maintained one set of standards for himself and another for his family, by his father and given his name. particularly his daughters. When Evadne conceived by Apollo she was so afraid In this short extract from the myth of Theseus, one can see how the different of her father’s anger that she exposed the baby on a bed of violets where he was themes go together to make his saga. He is miraculously conceived, he is part of protected by two grey-eyed snakes sent by Apollo. At length he was discovered a multiple birth, he displays his courage at an early age, he finds his weapons, there by his grandfather, who was not at all as angry as Evadne had feared, and finally he finds both his father and a name for himself at Athens. perhaps because he recognized the divinity in the child by the light which shone The first two of the various motifs which go to make up the hero’s preparation round him. At any rate the infant, Iamus, was preserved and became a famous are so inextricably linked that they are sensibly considered together in analysing seer and ancestor of the Iamidae, the prophets at Olympia. He had acquired the most myths. They are the expulsion, exposure, or abandonment of the hero by ability when the tongues of the snakes or the powers of his father had touched his parents or grandparents and his subsequent rescue or education by a wild his ears. person. This expulsion when it occurs is normally for the purpose of killing the The exposure of a child in Greek myth is not always for the sole purpose of child; and it is usually an evasive action. Rather than kill the infant outright, getting rid of an unwanted bastard. Jason was placed under the care of the the parents usually either leave the infant in a lonely place or entrust the job Centaur Cheiron for ten years by his father Aeson to avoid his being murdered to a shepherd or some other such person. The final decision as to whether the by his uncle. Oedipus was exposed to prevent him from living to kill his father. child lives or dies is therefore left up to the gods. Perseus was placed in a box with his mother and thrown into the sea to keep him In classic myths this motif is expressed in the lives of many heroes such as from killing his grandfather. And Priapus was exposed because he was so ugly, Achilles, whose name, ‘Without Lips’, has been interpreted to mean that he was with so enormous and grotesque a set of genitals that his mother abandoned not nursed by his mother Thetis but instead turned over shortly after birth to him on a mountainside and fled shrieking. Shepherds — who function in these the Centaur Cheiron who educated him. In another Greek myth, Aegisthus, tales as a sort of rescue service for abandoned children — saved him. the eventual murderer of Agamemnon, was the child of the unwitting incest of The tradition of the exposed child is reflected in Roman myth in the story of Thyestes with his own daughter. Aegisthus was exposed at birth, once the facts Romulus and Remus, who were ordered to be thrown into the Tiber by their were known; but, as you can’t keep a good man down, he was saved by a goat grandfather or great uncle. The executioner chosen for this nasty task could and went on to murder his uncle Atreus, seduce his cousin Agamemnon’s wife, not go through with it and instead placed them in a basket under a fig tree and then crown his career with the death of the hero who had just returned where they were found first by the she-wolf which suckled them and then by from Troy. the shepherd Faustulus who took them home to his wife. One of the main reasons why so many children were exposed in Greek tales Although most familiar as a theme from Greek myth, this motif has enjoyed a seems to have been illegitimacy. When Chione, the daughter of Boreas, gave healthy life in most other cultures in one form or another. In a Kodiak Eskimo birth to Eumolpus after an affair with Poseidon she simply didn’t wish to know. tale a boy is placed in a box and cast into the sea, like Perseus and others, by Throwing the infant into the sea she forgot all about him, with the apparent his uncle. From the Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya of Central America comes thought that his father could look after him as well as she. Poseidon accepted the story of Hunahpu and Xbalanque who as infants were taken by their jealous the responsibility, rescued his son, and took him to Ethiopia where he survived to older brothers, Hun-Batz and Hun-Chouen, first to an ant hill and later to a

37 thorn thicket in an attempt to kill them. Later in the story the twins attempt The wild-man character of the teacher, Merlin, is emphasized more clearly to become farmers, clearing their father’s field. They are taught at this point than elsewhere in the myth of the hero and incorporates elements of other that they are not meant to be farmers by wild animals which each night replace wild-man heroes; thirteenth-century Irish tales, for example, of Suibhne and the vines and trees the twins have cleared by day. They capture and torture the Ealadhan and the Scots Celtic tale of Lailoken. Each of these is a hermit in the rat which tells them that what they should really be doing is playing ball with woods; but each is also much more than a simple recluse from human society. their parent’s ball-playing equipment, and before long they will be invited to They flee some horror, the loss or betrayal of love, the disasters of war. They the underworld of Xibalba where they will have a chance to avenge the murder become mad and perhaps, like Suibhne, flit from tree top to tree top eluding of their father and uncle. But farming? Not a chance. capture. They prophesy, and in so doing they teach. The expulsion of the Aztec god and hero Quetzalcoatl takes place, not as Merlin fits squarely into this tradition of the wild man, madman as teacher. is usual at the beginning of his life, but rather at its end when he is forced That his madness was divine, inspired is implicit in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita to abandon his city of Tula to Tezcatlipoca, the wild man in the tales of the Merlini. T. H. White’s Merlin in The Once and Future King is less madman than Feathered Serpent. One of the curious features of the entire cycle of Quetzalcoatl amiable eccentric; but he is still a man of the forest whose teaching is its lore. myths is the fact that Tezcatlipoca (Smoking Mirror) is at one and the same In The Sword in the Stone, young Arthur is transformed into a perch, merlin, ant, time the antagonist, teacher, twin, and alter-ego of the hero. When he opposes owl, goose, and finally a badger plus some other beasts which White does not Quetzalcoatl it is for the purpose of teaching him, when he destroys him it is name. The strength that Arthur draws from these experiences, the knowledge, for the purpose of giving him life. The paradox and the combination of roles is what enables him to remove the sword from the stone, a feat which can be within one persona suggest that had the Aztec–Nahua religion been allowed to performed by no one else. What Arthur learned from Merlin and the animals develop instead of being cut off by the bloody Spanish priests then something was precisely that lesson which it seems the hero has always had to learn from very like Zen Buddhism might have arisen in Central America where there are a wild man or a sorcerer or a centaur or a god, anyone at all, in fact, who knew to this day remnants of the old Aztec religion surviving in such sources as Carlos the lessons and the laws of life beyond the walls. Castaneda’s works, particularly in Tales of Power. Another banishment at the Other European heroes who were exposed or taught include the Germanic end of a quest is given in a Mexican myth: the Zapotec teacher Wixepecocha Dieterich of Berne, who, like Romulus and Remus, was given suck by a she-wolf, was said to have come from over the sea. His life was celibate, his teachings of and the Danish Havelock. He was orphaned while an infant, then set adrift in penance and expiation for sins; but by his preaching he incurred the displeasure the open sea in a boat by those who should have been his guardians. In the of first one, then another group of people. Driven from place to place, at last he medieval romances about him he survived and was rescued by the Lincolnshire made his way to the summit of Mount Cempoaltepec, where he vanished like a fisherman, Grim. When in later life the English nobles seek to degrade their shadow, ‘leaving only the print of his feet upon the rock’. princess by marriage to a mere fisherman, their effort rebounds on them when European variations of the myth of the hero who is exposed or expelled and Havelock discovers his true identity, recovers his own kingdom in Denmark and then taught or rescued by wild beings found popularity and variation throughout that of his wife in England. the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages which followed. For example, in a medieval The ultimate form of expulsion is death, which is what this motif is really Spanish romance there is the hero Amadis, a bastard who was cast away at birth talking about; but it is, like many of the facts which lie concealed in myth, a but who was rescued at sea and survived to become a champion. hard one. Seldom is it stated baldly, which makes the myth of Kullervo in The In Britain and France perhaps the most powerful cycle of legends was that of Kalevala refreshing for its honesty. When the infant was heard, at the age of King Arthur, his teacher Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table. three months, making a vow that he would kill his uncle and all his family in

38 revenge for the killing of his own people, the uncle attempts three times to kill named him, lured the eagle into his lap, where he was able to touch the wound the infant: by drowning, burning, and hanging. Each try meets with no success with his wand and restore Llew to his rightful shape. whatever. Untamo, the uncle, then gave Kullervo three tasks; but all of them None of the remnants of Continental Celtic myth have survived to our time, were deliberately botched by Kullervo. Finally Untamo sells his nephew as a except perhaps in corrupt form within folktales. But the tradition of the expelled slave to the craftsman, Ilmarinen. It is interesting that Untamo’s first thought child and his subsequent rescue by one who is supernatural does occur in for dealing with the problem is to kill Kullervo. Only when that fails does he medieval French romances in a variation which is also popular in Irish and try to put him to work and make a useful member of society of him. And when Welsh traditions, that of the child who is kidnapped. One of Charlemagne’s that too fails he has no choice but to get rid of him by selling him into slavery, a knights, for example, Maugis, the son of Duke Bevis d’Aygremont, was stolen form of expulsion which ultimately serves Untamo no better than has anything while an infant by a female slave. As she fled through the forest with the child else he has tried, for Kullervo returns at length and fulfills his vow. she made the mistake of resting for a time beneath a whitethorn, where she was At two points in the tale of Llew Llaw Gyffes as it is given in The Mabinogion discovered by a lion and a leopard which dined on her before killing each other the hero is rescued by his father Gwydion, a wild man in the sense that he in an argument over the baby as dessert. is certainly outside the laws which apply to normal society. In one incident In The Mabinogion the kidnap variant of this motif occurs where it is told how Gwydion assists in a rape, in others he displays powers as a shape-changer and Rhiannon bore Pwyll Lord of Dyfed a son, Pryderi. Although she had six women magician as well as a healer. Additionally, in punishment for his part in the rape, in the chamber with her for the birthing, all were asleep before midnight and Gwydion underwent a series of transformations in sex and animal shapes; an woke only with the dawn to find that although the birth had taken place the experience which few others can have shared and from which Gwydion cannot child was nowhere to be seen. Lest they be punished for neglecting their duty, have helped but learn something. He can fairly be described as socially a wild they smeared Rhiannon with the blood of some newborn pups and proclaimed man. that she had destroyed her own child. Precisely what happened to the child The first rescue of Llew occurs when Gwydion’s sister Arianrod drops what is the Mabinogion never tells, but the infant reappeared as strangely as it had described as a ‘small something’ on the floor during a virginity test which she vanished. The lord of Gwent Ys Coed, Gwent Under the Woods, at that time was has just failed by giving birth to Dylan. That ‘small something’ — probably a Teirnon. In late April every year, on May Eve, his prize mare foaled; but before euphemistic rendering of what, in earlier versions of the tale, would have been morning the foal had disappeared without trace. That year Teirnon determined called by its proper name, afterbirth — turns out to become Llew. Become is the to remain in the stables throughout the night and see what it was that was operative verb here, for Gwydion can scarcely have failed to notice if the ‘small stealing his foals. No sooner had the mare cast her foal when Teirnon heard a something’ which he picked up off the floor was a child. And if it had been a great noise, a rushing in the air outside, and a giant claw reached in, seizing child at that point, it is not likely that Gwydion would have done what he did the colt by the mane. Teirnon had no time to consider this wonder but, sword next, which was to wrap the ‘small something’ in a piece of velvet, thrust it into in hand, managed to sever the claw from its unseen body, causing claw and a chest, and forget about it until such time as he was reminded of its existence colt to fall within the stable. Then he rushed out into the darkness, but could by the sound of an infant’s cry, and found the child Llew. hear nothing but the sound of something as it fled in pain, crashing through the Much later in his life, Llew was treacherously wounded by his wife’s lover, night until it was gone. On returning to the stable he was amazed to find not Goronwy Pebyr. Llew is not killed but is transformed into the shape of an eagle only the colt and the claw but an infant, still wrapped in its birth-clothes, royal which flies off desperately wounded. After a long search throughout Wales, by their appearance, and the child healthy and alive. A wonder! Teirnon and Gwydion was led to Llew by a sow, and using three charms, each of which his wife could not but connect the child so strangely found with the mysterious

39 disappearance of the newborn son of Rhiannon when they heard about it some become a man, a human. years later. In the meantime the child had grown miraculously, a hero’s growth; Dejected and alone Enkidu returns to Ukhut for further rescuing, which takes before he was four he could hold his own with the stable lads and was given the another seven nights. He is then ready to take the ‘place in society’ which has colt born on the night of his strange arrival. And eventually he was restored to been prepared for him before his birth by Aruru and the other deities. He learns Rhiannon and Pwyll. to wear clothing, eat bread and meat, and even to drink beer. After seven pots of In the Middle East, the myth of the exposure of the divine child is found it, Enkidu is very rescued indeed. Having been made presentable (and safe) in attached to the traditions of many heroes including, among the Persians, those society, Enkidu goes to Erech and meets and wrestles with Gilgamesh, teaching of Achaemenes. Although exposed at birth, he was fed and protected by an eagle, and taming him in much the same way as he has himself been rescued. The which is a popular saviour in the area. It also figures in the myths concerning pair subsequently become friends and lovers, going off on several adventures Gilgamesh which were known to the Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Hurrians, together before Enkidu sickens and dies. Semites and Akkadians. The Greek writer Aelian related a version of the birth As Enkidu lies dying he curses the harlot for having taken him from the forest of Gilgamesh in the third century AD in which he said that King Seuechoros (or to die in the city. Shamash, the sun god, reproves him, apparently intending no Senechoros) had received a prophecy that his daughter would bear a son who irony whatsoever when he lists the benefits which the wild man has received by would overthrow him. Although the king attempted to prevent this, when she coming to Erech. In sum these equate to a life of royal luxury. The voice of the did bear the destined child he simply ordered his guards to cast it from the walls sun god here is the voice of urban civilization, while that of the unknown poet which they did, only to behold the infant seized in mid-air by an eagle which of The Epic of Gilgamesh would seem to be that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, heard bore it away and gave it to a gardener who raised it. four and a half thousand years before that French philosopher’s birth. That part of this complex motif in which the hero is taught by a wild man The view of the gods which is expressed in this episode, as in the rest of occurs twice in the Gilgamesh epic as if to underline its importance. Its first the cycle, is one of immense coldness, absolute disassociation from the affairs appearance concerns Enkidu, the wild man of the forests, who had been chosen of humans on earth. Over Enkidu, and over Gilgamesh himself, the gods roll by the gods to tame Gilgamesh when he became unmanageable. But first of serenely, like inexorable machines, irresistible, inflexible. Their purposes are all they had to teach Enkidu. The person chosen for this task was Ukhut, a those of heaven, infinite, divine, and theirs alone. prostitute in the Temple of Ishtar at Erech, who may be regarded as both a wild Enkidu’s education, by a harlot, is perhaps unique in myth. The hero’s teacher card in her own right as a woman and also as an aspect of the goddess. It is is only rarely a goddess and never a mortal woman and seldom from a city, such Ukhut who ‘rescues’ Enkidu from a happy, peaceful life in the wild, less from as Erech was even when this ancient myth was bright and new. More normally, mercy than from divine necessity; for if Enkidu remains in the forest he will the teacher or rescuer of the hero, outside the city, is himself resident beyond never meet up with Gilgamesh, the encounter for which he was made. And the walls because by nature he belongs there. Such a teacher was the dervish so the gods interfere in the savage, happy, but socially unproductive life of the who lived on Mount Alberz in Hindustan and was said, in Zoroastrian tradition, wild man. Ukhut is instructed thus: ‘O harlot, undo your breasts, open your to have educated the hero Feridun or Thraetona. But a goddess does figure in an bosom to him, let him take of your voluptuousness. Be not ashamed, take of his Egyptian2 myth of Horus the Younger. When he was abandoned by his mother lust.’ Ukhut’s actions have an immediate effect. The wild man discovers girls Isis in a boat or chest on the River Nile while she was fleeing from his uncle, Set, and abandons his animals for seven nights, but when he attempts to return to the infant was saved by the goddess Uatchet. And in a Hebrew myth which may the wild it is impossible. He cannot run as quickly as his former companions, nor will they approach him; for in the process of becoming saved he has also 2“Eguptian” in original

40 relate to the Egyptian one, Moses was said to have been similarly saved by the which, like the Phoenix, is unique. The Simurgh is of incredible age, so old in daughter of the Pharaoh, who would have been, whether the Hebrews regarded fact that it has seen the world destroyed three times and built again since its her as such or no, a goddess to the Egyptians by virtue of being the daughter of first creation. their living god. The deluge legend as it exists in Greece and the Middle East is a variant on In another Hebrew myth, which also figures in Islamic tradition, Ishmael is the myth of the hero’s expulsion. In it the hero is no infant, almost invariably he described as being the son of Abraham by Hagar, his concubine. Because of the has a wife and sometimes a family as well. The deluge often marks the end of enmity of his legitimate wife, Sarah, Hagar and her child are driven forth into one world and the expulsion of the hero and whoever accompanies him from the desert so that Ishmael will not share in the inheritance of his half-brother, a water-world into a new one and parallels the universal experience of birth. Isaac. For the journey Hagar is given only a single loaf of bread and a jug The rescuer, when he appears in the myth, is often a god or an animal. The of water; and when these supplies are exhausted Hagar abandons the child myth at heart would seem to be the same: Noah and Deucalion on the flood are beneath a bush and goes away lest she be forced to watch the death of her own identical, symbolically, with Moses and Sargon. infant. She is interrupted in her misery by an angel, who tells her to take up Less well-known, however, may be the older story from Sumerian and other the child again for he will be made a great nation. And a well of sweet water is mythologies of the deluge as it happened in Mesopotamia. The hero of this shown to her which enables her to survive with the infant. ‘And God was with version of the tale was Utnapishtim, who was warned by the god Ea that all the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.’ The the deities had decided to send a flood which would eradicate mankind. But explanation for the abandonment of the child, that of starvation, is the same as Ea didn’t pass the message directly; rather, he whispered it to the reed walls is given in the European folktales of Hansel and Gretel. But it is also a common of Utnapishtim’s house. As was intended Utnapishtim overheard the advice motif in the United States among American Indians, whose lives were often so together with the instructions on how to build an ark. He was even told, by precarious that starvation was a reality which became incorporated into their the reed walls, how he was to fob off questions from curious neighbours who myths. wondered why he was building a boat in the middle of the city. He was to tell The most popular expulsion variants in the Middle East appear to be those in them that as he had lost favour in the sight of the gods, he had been commanded which the child, like Moses and Horus the Younger, is placed in a boat or cast to leave the city, but for all who remained behind there would come a rain of from a high place and rescued by an eagle or a similar bird, as in the myths fishes and grain from heaven which would demonstrate to the people just how of Achaemenes and Gilgamesh. The boat variation forms part of the myth of pleased the gods were with them. Sargon of Akkad, king perhaps 2700 years before Christ and who therefore In time Utnapishtim’s ark was ready, according to Ea’s instructions; and the antedates the probable time of Moses by 1300 years. According to the fragment deluge came, such a fierce storm that even the gods were terrified and repented which is known of Sargon, his mother was possibly a temple priestess. When of their decision. But it was a little late; everyone was dead but Utnapishtim and she gave birth to a son, perhaps as the result of temple prostitution, she placed his family and the animals which had been preserved. When the rain stopped, him on the Euphrates in a reed ark. He was rescued from the river by Akki, a he sent out a dove which circled over the waters and returned to the ark, then a libation priest, and subsequently became King of Akkad. swallow which did likewise, and finally a raven which did not come back. The bird variation is found in an Iranian myth concerning the hero-god, In all essential elements except two the deluge legend according to the Zal. Because he was born with unnaturally white hair, it was assumed he Sumerians corresponds with that of Noah. Those two are these: Utnapishtim was descended from a deer; so his father exposed him on the mountain Hara and his wife were granted eternal life by the gods, as we are told in The Epic of Berezaiti. There he was found and nourished by the Simurgh, a gigantic bird Gilgamesh, and the story is much older than that of the Jewish Patriarch. In fact

41 it is probably the oldest version of a tale which is found in all cultures except the birds and flies. those of the Egyptians and Japanese, and even they have myths of creation from Although in contemporary myth it is usual to have the hero’s expulsion occur a watery world; and it is also found occasionally in Africa. Such widespread in his teens or adulthood — Batman and Robin, for example, are both orphans distribution suggested at one time there may have been a universal flood, of but not infants — it is still possible to exploit the traditional form as it is found in which this myth was a racial memory. More recently, experts have tended classic myth. Superman, for example, is orphaned by the explosion of the planet to believe that each culture recorded in their myths a local flood or floods, Krypton which kills his parents as he journeys towards Earth in a rocketship expanding it by hyperbole and exaggeration into a world catastrophe. Neither launched at the last minute by his father. He is thus expelled from his home as theory explains the near universality of the theme. well as turned into a visitor from another world. In nineteenth-century myths Variants of the expulsion motif occur in other cultures than those already of the American West the same situation would have been described, perhaps, considered. In Indo-Chinese legend, Byat Ta and Byat Twe were two brothers in terms of an Indian raid upon a white settlement or a wagon train and the found floating on a wooden tray in a river. And Byat Ta’s twin sons, Shwe subsequent abduction or exposure of a white infant which was then raised by Pyin-gyi and Shwe Pyin-nge, were put at birth by their mother into two golden Indians. jars and floated down the river until they were rescued by a king. In The So far I have considered only involuntary expulsion and teaching of the hero. Kojiki, Japan’s most ancient source of myth, Piru-go, the first child of Izanagi It is the only way that a legend can be structured when the infant hero is too and Izanami, was placed by his parents in a reed boat. In Chinese myth the young to choose for himself. Universal though this motif is, it seems to be legendary hero Kao Hsin is exposed three times by his mother — the last occasion far less important, at least in historical terms, than the voluntary expulsion, on the ice of a frozen river. He is saved by a bird which spreads its wings over abandonment of the city and civilization by a hero who realizes that what he him, so that he does not freeze. has to learn may only be taught outside the walls, in a wild place or from a wild In Hindu tradition Kama is exposed by his mother, Pritha or Kunti, together person. As a motif, this variation, so important that it has overtaken its parent, with the arms and armour with which he had been born, on the banks of is found in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, American Indian religions, the Yamuna River. He is found and raised by a charioteer. Also in Hindu and has probably formed a part of every religion. myth is found the variant in which a child is kidnapped and then exposed by As this motif of voluntary expulsion occurs in Jain teaching in the legend demons. The child was Pradyumna, said to be both the son of Krishna and of Parsvanatha, he is, in successive incarnations, a prince, a king, or a world the reincarnation of Kama, the god of love. He was only six days old when monarch (Chakravartin) who renounces his throne to become an ascetic. King he was stolen by the demon Sambara and cast into the ocean. There he was Aravinda, Prince Agnivega, Vajranabha the Chakravartin, Prince Anandaku- swallowed by a fish (Jonah, Joshua) which in turn was caught and brought to mara, King Mahipala, and Prince Parsvanatha all choose asceticism rather than Maya-devi, Sambara’s mistress, who saved the boy and raised him as something monarchy, making the obvious point that a holy (wild) life is preferable to a more than a son. Pradyumna defeated Sambara; then, taking Maya-devi as his wealthy or powerful one in worldly terms, and implying the corollaries that a wife, returned to his father, Krishna. life spent in the wild is preferable to an urban existence and that what he has Finally, Maui, the trickster hero of Polynesia, is, in the more commonly accep- to learn is probably only available far from civilization. Where the heroes of ted versions of his tale, abandoned even before he is born for he is conceived by folktales and many legends have this particular truth thrust upon them, many the action of the waves when his father throws a loincloth into the sea. In other indeed not appearing to recognize it at all, the heroes of some legends and versions it is the top knot of his mother. In both instances, the foetus is shaped many myths not only recognize the truth but embrace willingly the experience by seaweed which grows upon it and by jellyfish, which together protect it from which follows. In the forest or on the mountain, what such heroes as Gautama,

42 Parsvanatha, Christ, St Francis, Muhammad, and Quetzalcoatl learn is to be unable to unravel this riddle, Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu were punished wild men themselves. Once they have learned it they are ready to rescue or to by being sacrificed. teach other heroes. Hun-Hunahpu’s twin sons, Hunahpu (Hunter) and Xbalanque (Little Jaguar) fared somewhat better. They crossed the rivers and passed the crossroads safely. The hero’s testing occurs within his myth for two purposes: to identify him as a Their third test, that of distinguishing the statues from the Lords and addressing hero and not just another human, and to refine him, burn away that part of him them by name, they passed with the aid of Xan, the mosquito. He flew ahead of which is mortal and leave only that which is divine. Obvious examples of the them and stung all fourteen figures. Only the first two were motionless when hero’s test, therefore, occur in myths of both Isis and Demeter who attempted stung by Xan. The other twelve not only jumped, but as each one moved his unsuccessfully to confer immortality (hero and divine status) on infants under neighbour inquired solicitously of him, giving his name. Xan not only learned their care. Both were interrupted, both infants died, and both may be said to which of the statues were gods, he also learned their names so that Hunahpu have failed the test. It is interesting to note that the person giving the test, and and Xbalanque could greet them properly. frequently the hero himself, is not always aware of the full significance of what Confronted with the hot seat, the twins refused to sit on it, knowing it to is going on. be heated, and in the House of Gloom, instead of lighting their pine torches, In some myths, such as that of Hun-Hunahpu, Vucub-Hunahpu, Hunahpu they used brilliant red macaw feathers, which convinced the watching guards and Xbalanque in the Popol Vuh, the test element is preponderant. Here it that the torches were being consumed. Instead of smoking their cigars, they begins with the journey of the elder twins, Hun-Hunahpu (One Hunter) and employed fireflies to create an illusion of sparks. Thus they passed this test. Vucub-Hunahpu (Seven Hunter) to Xibalba, where they have been summoned by Having passed these preliminary tests, Hunahpu and Xbalanque were now the Lords of that Underworld to play ball in the stone ball court of the demons. deemed fit to play ball with the Lords of Xibalba. The ball game itself was a On the way they came to three rivers, the third of which was one of blood. All further test — the twins won the first day, on all subsequent days they drew. The these they crossed without drinking and thus passed the first test. Their second Lords of Xabalba test them yet again when they place them in various houses, test was when they came to the intersection of the red, black, white and yellow each designed to kill the twins, the House of Knives, the House of Cold, the roads. When the black road spoke to them they listened to it, and this they House of Jaguars, and the House of Bats. Each time the twins survive the trap. should not have done. Next, in Xibalba itself, they came upon the twelve seated Their final test, again one of fire, was one which the twins deliberately Lords of Xibalba with two statues. Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu were appeared to lose. When they were ordered to come and play a game with Hun- unable to distinguish the statues of wood from the seated demons, and they Came and the others, in which all of them would take turns in jumping over were unable to name or to properly address the demons, and so they suffered a fire, the twins recognized the invitation to be a thinly disguised opportunity their second defeat. for murder, which indeed every game in Xibalba had been. Rather than fight Then Hun-Came (One Death), the high lord of Xibalba, offered them a place it overtly, they decided to take a more subtle line and voluntarily jumped into to sit; but when they sat upon it they discovered that it had been heated to such the blaze, hand in hand, where they were seen to be destroyed. They were, a temperature that they burned themselves, and suffered their third defeat. The however, only fooling, playing the same sort of deceptive game which the Lords final test was that of Quequma-ha, the House of Gloom, where the twins were to themselves had practised all along. Hunahpu and Xbalanque had left detailed spend the night. It was, as its name suggests, a dark place; but they were given instructions with the sorcerers of the Lords as to how their bodies were to be torches to light it and cigars to smoke, and commanded to use them. However, treated after death, knowing that the Lords would surely ask those priests. And both torches and cigars were to be returned in the morning unused. For being when the Lords followed the directions to the letter, Hunahpu and Xbalanque

43 were resurrected as fish-men who returned in disguise to the demon city of be said in any way to sanctify him, as did for instance the tests of Buddha and Xibalba and defeated its terrible Lords forever. Parsvanatha, then presumably the people for whom his legends were told felt no A little to the north and west of the Maya culture of Yucatan and Guatemala, such need. In the first, Cuchulainn, aged seven, sought Scathach, the Amazon the Aztec civilization also propounded myths which demonstrated the testing of warrior whom he wishes for a teacher. She actively discourages him by means the hero. Virtually all the encounters between Tezcatlipoca, the bloody god who of her magic in a series of tests but he passes every obstacle easily. The final was called the Smoking Mirror, and Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, may one was a bridge between the mainland and Scathach’s island, which had the be regarded as simple confrontations between enemies, the rivalry of differing nasty habit of rearing itself up in the air and throwing any who walked upon it. religious cults as expressed in the persons of their primary deities, or as a series Cuchulainn passed this bridge by two giant leaps, the first to the centre of the of tests of Quetzalcoatl, designed to refine him, transform him from a monarch span and the second on to the island itself before the bridge had even begun to of this world into a god of the next. move. In the Babylonian myth of Marduk the test motif is presented in much the His second series of trials were those which he undertook in company with same terms as an audition for a magician in a nightclub act. When Marduk Laegaire the Triumphant and Conall Cernach the Victorious after Bricriu’s Feast, was called by Anshar, the horizon god and heretofore king of the gods, to lead for the championship of all Ulster. This was not an empty title; for the Champion them to war against Tiamat, Marduk accepted on the condition that he should of All Ulster could expect what was called ‘The Champion’s Portion’ at every become High Mucky-muck, and king of the gods. Anshar accepted with such feast, the best cut of the meat. The three were sent first to Queen Maeve and indecent haste that one wonders how he ever managed to become king of the her husband Ailill at Cruachan; but they refused to judge the matter, being well gods himself, until it is remembered that this myth was recorded by priests of aware that they could choose but one hero and would thus win the undying Marduk who had a vested interest in glorifying their god and thus exalting the enmity of the other two. The three next went to the Dun of Curoi mac Daire position of Babylon as sovereign city of Mesopotamia. To test Marduk’s fitness in Munster; but he was not at home, and Laegaire and Conall both refused to for the position which he demanded, an apparition was conjured up before an accept a verdict from Curoi’s wife. Finally, however, Curoi appeared at Emain assembly of the gods and Marduk was told that if it was to be his word from that Macha, the court of Conchobor, king of Ulster, to impose the test. A magician time on which would create, destroy, and ordain the law, they would like to see of considerable powers, Curoi came disguised and challenged any man present a little sample, please, before committing themselves further. Contemptuously to cut off his head that night, while on the following night he, Curoi, would Marduk complied, flicking the apparition on and off like a ‘Vacancy’ sign in front return and cut off the other’s head. The only heroes present who were willing of a motel. And by that sign the gods were persuaded that they would conquer. to accept the dare were Laegaire, Conall, and Cuchulainn; and first Laegaire cut He got the job. off Curoi’s head. The torso of the magician reached out its arms and groped Throughout the myths of Gautama the Buddha he is tempted by Mara to around the floor for its missing head, then taking it strode from the hall. But either renounce his Buddhahood and become a Chakravartin, or alternatively on the following night when Curoi reappeared, apparently in the best of health, to renounce teaching in this world and voluntarily enter Nirvana, the blessed Laegaire discovered a sudden and understandable disinterest in the competition. state after life. The first of these temptations occurred when Gautama had just A similar thing happened with Conall when it was his turn to lose his head. made the Great Renunciation but before he achieved Enlightenment. The last Only Cuchulainn was willing to go through with what he had promised. When was over forty-five years later, only three months before his death. Curoi appeared to remove Cuchulainn’s head, he found the hero waiting for In the Irish Celtic legends of Cuchulainn the hero undergoes two major tests, him somewhat silently. Curoi twitted him for this, but Cuchulainn simply told to determine his fitness to be called a champion. If neither of these tests can him to get on with it and stop talking. The magician let fall his great axe and

44 missed the hero deliberately before proclaiming Cuchulainn the Champion. The to admit Pythagoras to the most intimate knowledge of their faith; but at the incident, by the way, parallels one in the Arthurian Romance of Sir Gawain and same time, no foreigner had ever been initiated into their Mysteries. If they the Green Knight. could help it, none would ever be. So they decided to inflict such austerities There is another group of tasks which Cuchulainn must perform for Emer upon him that he would be forced to quit after a short time — but the barbarian before she would consent to marry him. The first was that he would kill possessed even more stubbornness than the Egyptian priests and they had to one hundred men at every river ford along the Ailbine. Throughout his cycle admit him after all. fords are one of the commonest places for combat; but to Cuchulainn they are Throughout The Kalevala the motif of the hero’s test is emphasized so strongly particularly important, for he possessed a secret weapon, the gae bulga, the use that it forms one of the most important elements in this cycle of heroic poems. of which was known to him alone of the heroes of Ireland. It was a sort of spear This is particularly true of the relatively minor hero, Kullervo, who was first which could be launched only in water. Emer’s second condition was that he tested when he was only three months old by his uncle Untamo who attempted should be able to perform the salmon-leap while carrying his weight in gold, his three times to kill him and failed. From the outset, Untamo seems to have weight in silver and additionally striking down three groups of nine men in such misunderstood Kullervo. Having failed to kill him, he tried to employ him as a a way that all but the centre man in each group was killed. This salmon-leap slave. Neither was possible; for the boy was no man’s slave, he was a hero, as of the hero, which derives its name from the movement of salmon upstream Untamo might have known from the simple clue of his speech from the cradle, to spawn, was, like the gae bulga, a speciality of his. With it he was able to and his childish exploits are scarcely the doings of a common slave. Untamo clear walls at a single bound, or, as in the crossing to Scathach’s island, leap the never understood this. bridge in two strides. And her third condition before she would marry him was Once reunited with his parents, things went no better for Kullervo. He still that he should remain awake between the ancient festivals of Samhain, Imbolc was misunderstood. His father at once put him to work, giving him three tasks, and Beltane to Lughnasadh, a span of about nine months. as had his brother Untamo. Although Kullervo’s father, Kalervo, regarded these In the Greek and Roman myths the fifth-century BC Greek philosopher3 as three simple jobs of work, Kullervo himself thought of them as tests of his and mathematician Pythagoras was gradually transformed from a historical prowess and behaved accordingly. When, in performing the first two of them, personage into a legendary hero. According to Porphyry, the philosopher was he proved himself to be a hero, his proof was misconstrued not only by his tested when he sought initiation into the Egyptian Mysteries, the central part father but also by the poets and commentators on The Kalevala who universally of their religion which at that time was revealed to few of the Egyptians and seem to take them as yet further proof of Kullervo’s insanity. They are, in fact, no foreigners whomsoever. Pythagoras had a letter from King Amasis which traditional both within Finnish culture and also within The Kalevala, as will be enjoined the assistance of the priests; but the priests at Heliopolis begged off seen. By the way Kullervo does his work he is proven, as surely as if he had the task, saying that the temple at Memphis further up the river had an older been haloed with light, to be a hero, something more than human; but his acts and far more interesting rite. At Memphis Pythagoras was given much the same are always translated as madness or simple malice. runaround. It was not possible for him to be initiated at Memphis, oh no. He His first job for Kalervo was to go out one morning with the fishermen, to would have to journey 330 miles further upriver to Thebes; their rite was even row the boat for them. Before they left, Kullervo asked his father whether he older. At Thebes, the priests were caught in a cleft stick. There was nowhere should row the boat according to his strength or according to the strength of further to send this importunate Greek. They were commanded by their Pharaoh his materials. He is told that he should row according to his strength. Kullervo did precisely as he was told, and his strength was such that he broke the oars, 3“philospher” in original the boat, the oarlocks into splinters which floated rather sadly on the lake. The

45 next day he was assigned another task, that of beating the fish into a net with Kullervo had, by his weird over-achievement in these two tasks, given his a long fir pole. Again Kullervo asked whether he should beat according to his father ample opportunity to recognize him, not so much as his son, a fact which strength or that of the materials. And again he received the same disastrous Kalervo knew, but as the vehicle of a divine, and therefore in human terms, answer. Obediently he beat until he had churned the lake into a pulpy sludge of irrational and incomprehensible power which had to be treated with exceptional nets and splinters of pole, of mangled fish and water, of mud and weeds until it care. Furthermore, any bearer of that power was likely, by his very nature, to was a soup that was of use to none. call down the fire of Heaven upon himself and all around him; for simply by Obviously neither Kalervo nor any of his men had understood Kullervo’s being the hero makes things happen. Kalervo understood none of this at all. He question on either day. It was a simple formula, which they should have decided that Kullervo was no use as a fisherman and, as the third task, sent him recognized. What is strange is that the poets of The Kalevala didn’t understand off to deliver the taxes. Kullervo’s trip to the taxman went off without incident, the formula either. Within the poems they refer to Kullervo as mad, his brains the first time that anything he did turned out as others expected. Yet even this addled by being improperly rocked as a baby. But elsewhere in the poem in journey ended disastrously. On the way home, he unknowingly seduced his Rune 48, the same formula appears when a little man, perhaps Ahto, Master of own sister. When they exchanged names and genealogies in the morning both the Sea, offers to help Väinämöinen with his fishing. In Magoun’s translation realized what a horrible crime they had committed through ignorance. She at the relevant passage goes: once killed herself, and Kullervo toyed with the idea as well, but was talked out of it for a time by his mother. So, filled with self-disgust and hatred, Kullervo A little man rose up out of the sea, a fellow came up out of the waves; tore off to his uncle’s farm instead where he massacred all there. he stands on the surface of the sea. Then he uttered these words: As performed by Kullervo, tasks have a way of turning out wrong. He is ‘Is there need for a beater, for a plier of a long pole?’ scarcely your common or garden hero who performs tasks as a means of proving Steadfast old Väinämöinen uttered these words: himself and whose proofs are understood, nor is he the hero who performs ‘Indeed there is need for a beater, for a plier of a long pole.’ tasks to pass a test, often a bride test, which are performed by other heroes of The little man, the tiny fellow grabbed a tall evergreen from the shore, The Kalevala. Ilmarinen, Lemminkainen, and Väinämöinen each go to Pohjola a long tree trunk from a pine grove, attached a boulder as a weight. to woo the daughter of North Farm and each is given a series of tests which He inquires, he speaks: ‘Shall I beat according to my strength, really he must pass before he is accepted as a suitor. Väinämöinen is the first to go according to my strength, or shall I beat according to the equipment?’ and is given three tasks by the maiden herself. Despite the fact that Louhi, the Wise old Väinämöinen uttered a word, spoke thus: ‘If you beat accord- hag of North Farm, has agreed to help him, providing he sends a craftsman, ing to the equipment, there will be plenty of beating there!’ Ilmarinen, to forge the Sampo for her, a wondrous mill which will make her wealthy, he fails on the third task. Lemminkainen is the next to try. His tasks, The question is the same in both episodes. But the answer is different; three again, are set by Louhi this time. North Farm, or Pohjola, seems to have for Väinämöinen is wise enough to know that no one but a divine hero or a been regarded by the men of Kaleva’s Land as being very close to the land of god would ask such a thing. And if he had not the wit to read the words by death, bordering both on Death’s Dominion and that of the Demon as well, and themselves he had the additional clues provided by a little man who stood upon partaking somewhat of the natures of both these places. Louhi is, in addition, a the water, who lifted an entire pine tree by himself, and who attached a boulder sorceress of considerable powers, and Lemminkainen too fails on the third task. to it without aid. By answering wisely, Väinämöinen ensured that his fishing, Ilmarinen, the last to court the daughter of North Farm, was also the first of unlike that of Kalervo, went according to plan. the three heroes to win her. Although Louhi had promised her in payment for

46 the Sampo which Ilmarinen had forged for her, when the blacksmith actually the pike except the head, despite Ilmarinen’s shouts and threats. Still, even the appeared, ready to collect on the deal, the Mistress of Pohjola reneged upon her head would prove to Louhi that he had caught the pike; so off went Ilmarinen word. Before Ilmarinen could claim his bride he had to perform — you guessed to Pohjola where he presented the great hunk of stinking fish to Louhi, with the it — three tasks. The first of these was to plough an adder-infested field which comment that perhaps she would be able to make a chair for herself from the had previously only been furrowed once, by Lempo (the Devil) using a copper bones. plough. Ilmarinen’s help came from what may seem an unexpected quarter, The same pattern of the task motif appears in Greek myth in one part of the from the daughter of North Farm, who had decided that she did, after all, wish story of Jason and the Argonauts. The chief source for this tale is The Voyage to marry and had chosen Ilmarinen. She advised him to forge a plough of gold of the Argo by Apollonius of Rhodes. When Jason attempts to claim the throne and decorate it with silver, a task which was an easy one for a blacksmith; and of Iolcus, to which he had every right, his uncle Pelias proposes the Quest to he ploughed the field quite easily with this implement after he had put on the Colchis to bring back the bones of Phrixus and the fleece of the miraculous added adder protection of a suit of armour, iron gloves, and boots. golden ram. His motive is twofold: his kingdom will know no prosperity until The craftsman had no sooner finished the job, however, than Louhi had the treasures are brought to Iolcus; but on such a journey Jason is more than another one ready for him. He was to bridle the wolves and bears of the likely to be killed. Either way, Pelias will surely find some advantage. But Aeëtes, wilderness of Tuonela (Death’s Dominion). The daughter of Pohjola was once king of Colchis, had received a prophecy that he should live and prosper only so again forthcoming with help. He was to forge iron bridles and bits using a stone long as the golden fleece remained where it had been hung when the ram died, which stood in the water of three rapids as his anvil. Following her counsel, in the sacred grove of Ares, god of bloody war. Faced with such a heroic mob as Ilmarinen made the bridles and bits and used them to lead the bears and wolves the Argonauts, he could hardly give a straight ‘no’ to Jason’s petition, however, as if they had been spring lambs. so he equivocated. Jason could have the relics and the golden fleece, but first Louhi has not been idle while Ilmarinen has been away performing this task. the hero would have to perform three tasks for the king. The first was to yoke She has thought up yet another which he must perform for her, one final job Aeëtes team of fire-breathing bulls and plough a four-acre field with them. The before she yields her daughter. Ilmarinen must catch the pike which swims in second was to sow that field with the teeth of a dragon. And the third was to the river of Tuonela and he must do it without using a net to land the fish. Again kill the crop which the field would then produce, an army of warriors. All three with the assistance of Louhi’s daughter, the blacksmith made an eagle out of of these tasks were to be performed within the space of one day. iron; he hammered it as he was told upon the rock which stood in the water of Jason had neither the necessary strength, speed, nor wit to perform these three rapids; and when he was done the bird was large enough to carry him tasks. As a hero he was quite an ordinary man, with only one heroic attribute, to the riverside, where he began to drag the waters for the pike which swam his ability with women. The goddess, Aphrodite, patroness of love, was one there. But there was a peril waiting in those waters of the stream by Death’s of Jason’s sponsors on the quest; and it was her son Eros who out of mischief Dominion. A water demon arose and attempted to drag Ilmarinen down with it, inflamed Medea, the daughter of Aeëtes, with love for Jason. The princess told for a guided tour of the muddy bottom of the river. The craftsman was rescued Jason how best he might achieve her father’s tasks. She knew, as priestess of by the eagle which put the demon firmly in its place, head downward where Hecate, a potion which she gave to him. He was to anoint his weapons, his it would have taken the blacksmith. Then up swam Tuoni’s pike, prepared to armour, and his body with it at dawn on the morning of the contest, having make a meal of Ilmarinen. Though it was gigantic, the craftsman’s eagle was first sacrificed a black ewe and honey to the goddess at midnight on the night larger still, quite large enough to battle with the pike and eventually to lift it before. When he had anointed himself, Medea promised him that he would from the river and carry it to a high tree, where the eagle proceeded to eat all of have a strength and speed which he had never known before, his mind would

47 burn with the fires of Hecate and work more quickly than it ever had, and mind that of Atalanta and the three golden apples, she would not have lost the contest and body together would enable him to do what Aeëtes had demanded. and become a bride except through her own fault. She can be fairly said to have When Jason stepped ashore on the day appointed for the tasks, the man assisted in her opponent’s victory. whom King Aeëtes had treated with ill-disguised contempt a few days earlier Second, the pattern of the tasks is usually set by the first two; and it is often now appeared to be a god, one completely capable of performing the king’s unexpectedly varied by the third, which is also the one in which, if the hero three tasks. When he went to harness the bulls, they tried to gore him; but his is going to fail at all, he will. With the third task will come either the hero’s shield had been so strengthened by Hecate’s potion that it stood up to their fury victory or his defeat. In the myths which have been described in this section, with no problem. With breaths of fire they tried to sear him; but the ointment Kullervo’s third task for his father results in his seduction of his sister and the was proof against that as well. Jason wrestled with them, forcing each into the tragic consequences which follow their unwitting incest. Jason’s most dangerous yoke of the plough. Once under the yoke the bulls complied with the gentle task is to ‘harvest’ the Plain of Ares when it sprouts blood-crazed warriors. When hints from Jason’s spear and moved off with alacrity. As he ploughed, Jason cast he does so successfully he has, at least theoretically, won the right to possess the deadly seed behind him, sowing the freshly turned earth with the dragon’s the golden fleece, the bones of Phrixus, and incidentally Medea. Similarly, when teeth and keeping a sharp eye out at the same time lest the crop should come up Ilmarinen fetches the pike’s head from the river of Death, he wins the maiden of faster than he expected. The ploughing took until mid-afternoon. Then Jason the North Farm. released the bulls, and rested a little before the coming battle. All too soon The third task moreover is likely to be a confrontation with death, not simply the field began to stir with warriors, as if an army of the dead was rising from a grand battle between the hero and an antagonist, but something more. It is the world below. Jason seized a gigantic boulder, so big that four men would often presented as if what is happening is not so much a feat of strength as it is scarcely be able to lift it, and heaved it as far as he could into the centre of the a form of teaching. The hero may learn something about himself (Kullervo with army that was springing from the field. This so stirred the warriors with anger his sister) which he needs to know. that each turned on his neighbour and began to fight, believing himself to be It is not only the third task, however, in which lessons are implied. The earlier under attack. The sons of the dragon’s teeth were evenly matched, brothers tasks, in which the hero may confront the wild in the form of some animal, may from the same evil worm. Many killed off each other, leaving little for Jason’s also be educational. But in the episodes where animal symbols are used, one goddess-strengthened sword to do but finish off the wounded and dying, leaving has the feeling that much of the one-time significance of these myths has now the Plain of Ares in a gory shambles, a sacrifice to the god of war. The three been lost. To people of our own time who may have never seen an adder, for tasks were done. instance, it simply cannot mean the same thing as it would have done long ago These extracts from The Kalevala and The Voyage of the Argo suggest some to farming people who were personally aware of the dangers of such beasts. of the rules which may apply when the motif of the three tasks appears. First, Similarly, the symbolism of three has largely vanished in our time. There still the tasks are unlikely to be completed to anyone’s satisfaction without help. are remnants of its former mystical significance in religion (Trinities) and in folk Particularly this is often true in the case of bride-tasks; unless the maiden belief (deaths come in threes, for example); but the meaning which it would herself gives assistance the work may not be performed. In the wooing of the have had for ancient storytellers in Greece, Finland, and elsewhere can only be maiden of North Farm by Väinämöinen, Lemminkainen, and Ilmarinen it is only guessed at. Partially it may be a storyteller’s device: the structure appears to the blacksmith who succeeds because it is only he who has the maiden’s help. be moving in one direction with the first two tasks; but in the third an entirely Indeed, she works actively against Väinämöinen when she sets him tasks, hoping different meaning is revealed. But it may as well be a mystical device, binding by them to rid herself of such an old man as a suitor. Even in such a myth as a story which is told in this ‘real’ world to a mystical, perfect one in which

48 completion could be witnessed in, for example, the three phases of the moon Gilgamesh himself says, ‘I have not yet established my name stamped on brick and in the three seasons of the year as reckoned in many ancient cultures. In as my destiny decreed . . . I will set up my name where the names of famous that sense the three in the task motif can be said to complete a charm, as a result men are written . . . ’ — an early example of ‘Kilroy was here’. of which change will occur in the hero, or in the listener by the fire. The only reason which Gilgamesh gives for his expedition is to establish his name. Likewise, the only reason for Kilroy’s scribbling was to let people know The consecration of the hero by acquiring weapons, and his initiation by ac- that he had been there and that he existed. He wanted to be recognized. So, quiring a name or perhaps a status, are the final steps in his training before in a hero’s life, there comes a time when he will want to be acknowledged by he is ready to perform his work, the quest. The two themes are closely linked, parents, priests, gods, by a sign, a name or a weapon. It will prove to himself and their sequence often varies. In many cultures, for example, it is customary that he is not simply daydreaming, and it will prove to others that he is what he to give an infant that name which he will bear throughout life at birth; but in claims to be. myths from many different areas there is evidence that although children may In Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions Moses is consecrated with the rod have been given names at birth these were only a temporary convenience until by the Lord in Midian. It is with this tool that he and his brother Aaron will such time as the child or a shaman or the gods were able to find a real identity. work their miracles, not so much as sorcerers but rather as apprentices to the Normally initiation is performed by a parent, a priest, or a god, sometimes by real hero of this part of his myth, the Lord. A similar consecration of a hero another hero. But in some instances an individual, who recognizes in himself occurs in Malory and other sources when Arthur removes the sword in the stone, divine attributes and who is anxious that everyone else should know them as the inscription of which proclaims that whoever is able to remove the weapon is well, initiates himself. Throughout the Middle East and in Rome during the rightful King of England. Arthur is the only hero able to do this, though many period of the empire, it was common practice for victorious kings and generals to try, and when he does so he not only acquires a miraculous weapon but he also sing, immodestly, their own praises. On occasion this was taken to considerable miraculously initiates himself with the title ‘king’, which is only confirmed by extremes. For instance there was Amenhotep III, a pharaoh of Egypt who reigned his subsequent coronation. approximately 1400 BC. He established his own worship at the temple of Soleb In Malory the sword in the stone is not Excalibur, although it would appear to in Nubia, where he was adored as the god Nebmare. His sanctuary was lavishly be so in T. H. White’s The Once and Future King. In the earlier source, King Arthur decorated by sculptures which show Amenhotep worshipping himself. That is consecrated twice by receiving weapons, the first time when he removes the should have been enough, but lest anyone misunderstand what he intended, the sword from the stone, and the second time when he is presented with Excalibur pharaoh had the sculptors include inscriptions which dedicated the friezes to by the Lady of the Lake. the glory of the god and went on to tell anyone who might have been interested In The Mabinogion those episodes in the life of Llew Llaw Gyffes which treat just how very much the god loved himself in his living image upon earth. of his initiation and consecration are of particular importance, forming one In as much as every hero is partially divine, whether said to be the son of of the main parts of his story. Llew’s mother Arianrod did not wish to be god or not, such self-recognition will form a part of his myth. It may be forced reminded of his existence for it proved her to be other than a virgin. So when on him, as it is sometimes said to be on shamans and other priests who are Gwydion, her brother and the father of the boy, brought him before her Arianrod coerced by their god into a vocation, but recognition of the hero as a hero will refused to acknowledge the child. In fact she grew so angry that she condemned first come within himself as it does in The Epic of Gilgamesh when, after the Llew to remain forever nameless unless she herself should give him a name, king of Erech has been tamed by Enkidu, the wild man, he determines to go to something which she had no intention of doing. Gwydion, angry at her refusal, the Forest of Cedars where he will conquer its giant guardian, Humbaba. As determined that Arianrod would name the boy. Transformed by Gwydion’s

49 magic into the appearance of shoemakers, they set up shop on a ship in the (wheel or discus) and also fourteen supernatural jewels which were considered harbour and soon gained a reputation in the town for being fine craftsmen. And as both tangible evidence of his power and of his splendour. That Chakra in there Arianrod visited them to have her feet measured for a pair of shoes. While Jain religion is probably identical to the weapon of Krishna in the Hindu faith, the elder shoemaker, the master, was busy measuring her feet, the younger a discus also called Vajranabha. The power symbolized by the Chakra and the sat by watching, idly fingering a bow and arrow. A wren dared to light upon fourteen jewels was not simply secular; it was acquired in Heaven. the mast and with one sure but casual arrow the boy pierced the small bird. The consecration of Gautama, before he became the Buddha, occurred when Arianrod observed the feat with approval. ‘Well aimed by the lion with the he was given the Eight Requisites of a Holy Man by a divine being as he crossed steady hand,’ she said. At once the shoemaker at her feet stood up, all his the river after leaving his father’s kingdom. His initiation took place on two leathers and patterns promptly turning into bits of seaweed and sedge-grasses. separate occasions. The first of these was when he achieved enlightenment ‘Well, Arianrod,’ he said, ‘you have given him a name as I said you would. Not under the Bo tree, when he became the Buddha; and the second shortly before the best of names, but it’s not the worst, either. Llew Llaw Gyffes, Lion With a his death when he entered Nirvana, the state of blessedness which he had first Steady Hand.’ envisaged beneath the tree. The first initiation is thus a recognition of the ‘real’ By a similar trick, Arianrod unwittingly gives Llew his weapons, and although state of existence, while the second is entry into that reality. she vows that Llew will never have a wife, Gwydion plots to find a way round Geza Roheim, quoted by Joseph Campbell in The Flight of the Wild Gander, that too, although it will take him a long time. has said that ‘Death and rebirth are the typical contents of all initiation rites’. Before beginning his twelve labours for Eurystheus, Heracles was given arms Roheim was drawing upon wide experience among Australian Aborigines when by the Olympian gods which included a sword from Hermes, bow and arrows he said this; but his statement is as true in Sumeria of the twenty-seventh century from Apollo, breastplate from Hephaestus, robe from Athene, horses from before Christ as it is in Australia of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries after. Poseidon, and a shield from Zeus. Useful although these might have been, According to The Epic of Gilgamesh Enlil was at first angry when he discovered Heracles abandoned all but the bow and arrows in favour of a club made of wild that Utnapishtim and his wife had survived the deluge which the gods had olive which he cut for himself, and the skin of the Nemean Lion, slain during planned for mankind. But rather easily the other deities talked Enlil around to his first labour. By so doing, Heracles proves himself to be so great that only he a more temperate frame of mind; and he ended up by laying his hands upon and Apollo can be said to be magnificent enough to be given the privilege of Utnapishtim and his wife in blessing, thereby conferring immortality upon them awarding him arms. Although his given name was Palaemon, he won the name and ushering them into the company of the gods. It is a symbolic rebirth, similar by which he is known after he killed, in a fit of madness, six of his own sons to that of Heracles in Greek myth. and two sons of his twin, Iphicles. When he went to Delphi to be purified of Cuchulainn, in Irish legends, received his name when, at the age of six, he this crime the Pythoness said that no longer should he be known as Palaemon. went visiting the forge of Culann the Smith. A feast was prepared, but Setanta, His name should be Heracles, ‘Glory of Hera’, for through the twelve labours as he was originally named, was late; and Culann, thinking all his guests were which he would perform for Eurystheus in expiation of the crime he would win safely within his doors, loosed his vicious dog to patrol the vicinity. The boy was undying glory for Hera, the author of all the hero’s misfortunes. absorbed in playing with his spear, running to catch it before it came to ground, Consecration and initiation, which were linked in the myth of Llew Llaw Gy- and did not see the dog until it sprang at him. According to different versions ffes, are apparently connected in the stories of Parsvanatha, the Jain Tirthankara, Setanta either throttled it with his bare hands, or hurled his ball down its mouth one of whose incarnations was as Vajranabha, a world monarch or Chakravartin, so hard it came out the other end carrying the dog’s innards with it. Either way, whose name means Diamond Navel. As a Chakravartin he possessed the Chakra it was dead. Culann was in a foul temper over this, and was appeased only by

50 Setanta’s offer to remain at the smithy doing the dog’s work, until Culann could Partially because of this enormous common human reservoir, today’s comic raise another watchdog — and that’s how he got his name Cuchulainn, Culann’s books are able to telescope the separate episodes of the hero’s life into the space Hound. of a few frames. Batman achieves, virtually simultaneously, his name, disguise, He received his weapons about a year later from Conchobor, the king, in mission, and weapons. He is a complete, one might almost say instant, hero. the following way. Having overheard the Druid Cathbad remark, ‘Good for And in Captain Marvel the first transformation is even easier. When Billy Batson, the man who takes up arms today. His life may be a short one; but his name a ten-year-old newsboy, meets an old man in what looks like an underground will live forever in the legends of Ireland for what he does with his few years,’ temple, he is told to speak the old man’s name, ‘Shazam!’ Instantly he becomes Cuchulainn went immediately to Conchobor and asked for arms. But everything a costumed crusader, complete with cause, strength, intelligence, everything that Conchobor gave him he shattered, until the king was compelled to give his he needs. The secret is in the lightning which strikes him and in the name, own two spears, sword and shield. In a similar manner, Cuchulainn splintered Shazam, an acronym which not only powers Captain Marvel but reveals that the every chariot the king gave him, until Conchobor offered his own, with which writers had a nodding acquaintance with mythology. For the letters of the name the boy was satisfied. are the initials of Solomon (wisdom), Hercules (strength), Atlas (endurance), Maui, like Llew, was named by his mother according to the Maori cycle of Zeus (power), Achilles (courage), and Mercury (swiftness). Just as easily, of myths. As this particular recension is recorded in Sir George Grey’s Polynesian course, the writers could have chosen other attributes of these same gods which Mythology, Maui was named by Taranga when he told her how he was formed would have made up an entirely different hero, for example: Solomon (pride), by the action of the waves, seaweed and jellyfish upon her topknot when she Hercules (madness), Atlas (stupidity), Zeus (randiness), Achilles (effeminacy), abandoned it. She names him Maui-tiki-tiki-a-taranga, translated by Grey as and Mercury (thievishness). What a marvel that hero would have been. Maui-formed-in-the-topknot-of-Taranga. Maui’s putative father, Makea-tu-tara, performed the actual initiation rite upon the boy, but neglected to perform the ritual properly, thus flawing him and providing the reason why Maui was unable at the end of his life to conquer his ancestress, Hine-nui-te-po, who was Death. The first heroic myths, orally related, cannot be dated. The beginnings of myth in writing are about 3000 BC both in Mesopotamia and the Orient, based on an oral tradition which is literally ‘shrouded in the mists of antiquity’ — a horrendous phrase but here absolutely applicable. In those first myths, the form of the hero’s biography was probably very much as we know it now, as it has been established in religion, in legend, in fireside tales. So for example, we find the dragon fight, the encounter with the giant, the quest to the afterlife or the underworld not only in modern sources (Tolkien, for example) but also in the oldest literatures in the world from Mesopotamia. The stories and rules which they embody were laid down perhaps five thousand or more years ago, giving everyone ample time to become familiar with the form. By now they are known to anyone who has read any myth or legend whatsoever, whether it be that of Jesus Christ or Batman.

51 FIVE

The hero’s life is not, by ordinary standards, a happy one. It is usually more maintaining in his mind at the same time the conviction of his victory. And difficult than the lives of other people and less settled; he is a constant wanderer heroes are called to account for their misdeeds. A president of the United who takes risks as a normal part of his existence. He is tormented, beset by States and a vice-president have both, in recent years, been forced to resign for enemies, lonely above all things for there are few who can possibly understand misdeeds. A governor of Maryland has been sent to prison for his. Lieutenant him unless they have shared his experience. At the same time the rewards of Calley was courtmartialled for his. None of which will change the heroic myth, the hero are somewhat greater than those which fall to most. What do heroes which is founded on paradox, and which results in almost certain destruction of have to provide in return for this? The classic requisite was often thought to the hero, his enemies, his followers, and his believers. be courage, yet it is not a conspicuous element in the myth of Jason, unless Lightning and thunder are significant symbols for the hero. He is a lightning one counts the dutch courage imparted by the potion of Hecate. Endurance, rod for synchronicity, luck, supernatural power, the heavenly power of god — as epitomized in the myths of Prometheus and Heracles, perhaps? But, as we the names are various according to scepticism or belief, but all of them speak shall see, this is not a requisite either. Beauty, such as that possessed by Apollo? the same thing: mana, embodied and potentially terrible power. For let it No, it is an attribute of few heroes. Are there, then, any universals whatsoever be remembered that in any absolute, objective sense the hero has nothing to which may be said to apply to all heroes? do with ‘good’ and ‘evil’. These terms are subject only to human definition; Heroes are required to be more, simply that. Existentially the myth of the hero and all heroes are sufficiently divine that such descriptions do not apply. By provides an escape for the rest of humanity who have discovered themselves accident what occurs around a hero may be good for us, by accident it may be to be standing in shit. By living in the hero, instead of within ourselves, we catastrophic. Neither has anything to do with the hero. can for brief times live above the human morass, become ‘super’, more than mortal, a god. In his myth we may strike knowing that we will have the last Heroes, then, are marked men. In some instances they may be distinguished by blow, conscious that because the rules are bent for us, we must win. Good (what their virtue, just as often it will be their vices; but more frequently it will simply we wish) will triumph; and no matter what our methods we will never be called be the magnitude of what they do, the sheer size of it. Thor’s heroic son was to account for them. named just that, Magni, large or great. Solomon is termed in Islamic tradition The contradictions implicit in all of that are enormous. For starters it is the Great or the Magnificent. Alexander is given the common epithet, the Great. obvious that heroes do not always win; on balance most of them lose, yet the Muhammad Ali is the Greatest. Elvis Presley was the King. game is played with full expectation of eventual victory. Achilles, before the The acts of such a one, no matter how trivial, are special, larger than life. His walls of Troy, fights in the certain knowledge that he is going to die there, yet physical characteristics become matters of wonder. He is often thought to be, in

52 some sense, ‘larger’ than the rest of mankind, either in the sense of literal mass his generosity had endowed. or as possessing a numinous charisma, a halo, a mandorla, the power; whatever Heroes are also often said to be physically different from other men. The ‘it’ is, the hero has it. Something of him rubs off on the fabric of every ordinary Teutonic champion, Studas, was described as having three hands and four day he passes through. The lives of those who meet him, see him, touch him elbows, or, alternatively, two hands and three elbows, and the Norse hero, are transformed miraculously just by proximity to him. Starkadr, is described in Saxo Grammaticus as having three pairs of arms. In In looking at the myths of some of the world’s heroes, some picture can be another source, the Hervarasaga, he is said to have had eight hands and the formed of just what it is that they actually do that makes them special. Maui, for ability to wield four swords at one time. example, is said by Polynesians from Australia to Hawaii to have invented the Heroes are often said to be larger in stature than other men. Heracles was said barbed fish-hook, designed the door for the eel-trap, brought the first kite to the to have been four cubits in height, which would have made him approximately world of men, stolen fire for mankind, transformed his brother-in-law into a dog, six foot tall, perhaps unusual for Greece 3000 years ago, but not impossible. snared the sun with a net of ropes so that it would go more slowly, stolen both Another tradition, ascribed to Pythagoras, makes him four cubits and one foot, the narcotic plant kava (or awa) and the strainer used in preparing it, fished or seven foot tall, which makes him at the very least a small giant. This is gone up land from the bottom of the sea which became islands the largest of which one better in the Welsh Mabinogion in which one of the heroes, Bran, is said to is New Zealand, rescued his wife or mother from a monster, murdered one have been so tall that when he crossed from Wales to Ireland he simply waded ancestress, murdered his uncles or brothers, and attempted to murder another the Irish Sea. ancestress. It is possible for a hero to be made entirely by reputation, that is, his myth Samson won a place in Jewish and Islamic myths, as well as those of the can grow totally independently of what is known of him. A recent example Christians, for slaying 2000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass and pulling is ex-President Richard Nixon, whose heroic myth seldom equated his reality down the Temple of Dagon (probably Ea) on top of 3000 others. But his most while he was in office. Another is the Greek Jason, who is commonly reckoned endearing exploit was the capture of 300 foxes to the tails of which he attached to be a hero. But in the account of his exploits by Apollonius of Rhodes his firebrands before releasing them among the harvest of the Philistines. distinguishing characteristics seem to be cowardice, stupidity, indecisiveness Everything the Irish hero Cuchulainn did was larger than life, particularly he and ineffectuality. There are two passages early on in the story where he does may be noted for his precocity as many of his greatest feats were accomplished display something more than his normal nothingness, when he meets Medea before he was eighteen. His single greatest deed, however, was to hold off the and when he performs the three tasks for Aeëtes; but in both instances he is entire army of the combined kingdoms of Ireland when they made war against under the direct influence of a deity. Ulster singlehandedly; for all the men of Ulster were unable to move because of But there is a point in the legend of Jason, not related by Apollonius, when a curse. Jason does become, for one moment, the hero which he had perhaps always One version of the life of Russia’s great hero, Ilya Murometz, says that he hoped to be. When the expedition to Colchis was done and Jason had returned singlehandedly defeated the Tartar (pagan) army, captured the robber Solovej home with Medea, he beached the Argo at Corinth, dedicating it to Poseidon. alive, so frightened a band of robbers in the forest by shooting an arrow into an There it was left to rot. Years later Jason found himself in exile, hated by the oak that they fell from their horses and fled from him, spurned the advances of gods for having abused the vows which he had sworn to Medea, hated by men a false queen, then rescued a company of knights, found a great treasure which for his weakness and for the evil which he had brought on Corinth when he he employed entirely for the building of a monastery, and then finally ended his returned home with a sorceress as his bride. He had outlived his time, a thing life in sanctity after being taken on an aerial tour of inspection of the monastery more fatal to a hero than any spear. And at length, Jason found himself back

53 at Corinth, on the beach where the Argo had been grounded. What glory had not only taller than any other god, he possesses a glory brighter than ten gods been his was long since gone; and Jason decided to hang himself from the prow put together. He has fifty names, each of which reiterates just how wonderful of his ship. But then for the last and possibly the only time the hero’s glory Marduk is, how blessed the world is to be governed by him. The exaggeration is touched him; for the prow of the Argo, disintegrating in the sun and wind and such that it would be hilarious were it not for the feeling that such adulation of rain, toppled forward upon him, crushing the wreck of the man. His death, heroes is not confined to the ancient Babylonians who didn’t know better. which might have been that of a hopeless suicide, became instead as great as What a hero should have, his single greatest characteristic, is generally that of any Viking, a hero’s end beneath the prow of the ship that had been his reckoned to be bravery. A thing some have, others don’t. In the first century BC own. In that moment, dying, Jason was a hero. If he was never a god, in that the writer Erycius of Cyzicus tells a rather short, sad story in a translation by brief, brilliant spark he was something more than an ordinary or mediocre man. Andrew Sinclair. Heroism, the heroic experience may be just that, a moment. It is not dying but the common ground where life and death are momentarily what they always Demetrius fled the fight in fear. were, one and recognized as such. And those who have shared the experience And lost his weapons. Once at home of such a moment, the survivors of the London blitz, for example, will talk His mother stabbed him with a spear about the war with a nostalgia incomprehensible to one who spent the same Through his side and said to him: years completely insulated from the realities of the conflict. On the thirty-sixth ‘Die. Let Sparta feel no shame. anniversary of the sinking of the Bismark on 27 May 1941 by the Dorsetshire a My milk fed cowards in her name.’ reunion was held to mark the occasion. It was attended not only by the surviving British sailors, but also by their former enemies, to whom the British sailors But there is the other side — the gutsy, the courageous, those whom John are bound by something which was summed up by one of the British survivors Dryden called ‘heroically mad’. In Scandinavia the legendary Norse warriors, when he said: ‘We have gone through an experience that no one who has not the Berserkers, were noted for their ferocity in battle. So frenzied did they gone through it can understand.’ What did those men say at that reunion, that become that they rolled their eyes, gnashed their teeth, fell into fits of wild fury the rest of us will never understand? What do the survivors of Hiroshima talk which absolutely terrified their enemies. They rapidly gained such a reputation about, among themselves? What are the words spoken among the survivors of for demonic fury that Norsemen came to be in great demand at the court of Auschwitz? the Roman emperors at Constantinople. Etymologically, their name has been Words from the dead. The ultimate words. Myth. derived from two sources, either from baresark, meaning without armour, or At this point, if you are really trying to tell it, you can go all tongue-tied, you from bear-shirt, meaning they wore bearskins or that they perhaps, as their can pray, you can tell stories in which the sheer size of events becomes such myths say they could, transformed themselves into bears or wolves before battle. that only children and saints and fools will understand you. In a Vedic story, Explanations of the origin of their fury have been sought in a variety of sources: from India of perhaps five thousand years ago, comes a bit of that exaggeration. religious ecstasy, alcohol or, recently, in the possibility that they may have The Rishi or holy man, Agasti, became so powerful by his praying, so charged ingested some hallucinogenic substance, perhaps Fly Agaric mushroom, before with divine energy, lightning, that he made the Vindhya Mountains to bow battle. There is, however, an even likelier explanation. Perhaps they were crazy themselves before him; and when they managed to straighten themselves up simply and solely because they were heroes, because someone in recording this again, they were never quite as tall. myth realized that it was a necessary condition — the madness of Kullervo, not An even taller story is found in the Babylonian Creation Epic. Marduk is because he was rocked in the cradle the wrong way, but murderous because he

54 was half human and half divine, a resident of that land of nightmare shadows heroes is that we are still ‘Neanderthal’? The ‘truth’ is that a law-abiding hero between life and death. would be a contradiction in terms intolerable in myth. And so within the world The madness of the hero. And it pops up in some pretty strange places. Arthur, of rock music, for example, the heroes are as violent as their music and their for example, is most often remembered as the epitome of knightly chivalry. But lives as lawless as the cops and robbers on television and in the movies. Such there is another side to his nature as it occurs in the Trioedd Ynys Prydein, the groups as the Rolling Stones and the Who are like the Hell’s Angels, largely Triads of the Isle of Britain as they are translated by Rachel Bromwich. One of media creations whose activities can be reported in the News of the World in the variant triads, number 26, says: ‘Three Red Ravagers of the Island of Britain: minute detail under the guise of pious horror while at the same time satisfying Rhun son of Beli, and Lle(u) Skilful Hand, and Morgan(t) the Wealthy. But there the public desire for extravagant lawlessness. They enable us to go outside the was one who was a Red Ravager greater than all three: Arthur was his name. law without breaking it ourselves. For a year neither grass nor plants used to spring up where one of the three In the Greek myth of Heracles, if you go through it examining some of his less would walk; but where Arthur went, not for seven years.’ The language is pretty admirable qualities, you find that in addition to performing good works he also: poetic; but the meaning is clear, a bastard lived inside the man we usually think killed his temporary music teacher, Linus; cut off the noses, ears and hands of of as almost a saint. the heralds sent to Thebes; attacked his nephew Iolaus and killed six of his own An obvious candidate for the mad hero of our century — Idi Amin, ex- sons and two of his brother Iphicles; killed Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons; president of Uganda, who, it has been claimed in both the Sunday Times (12 killed Sarpedon, Polygonus, Telegonus, Eurytion, Eryx, three of Eurystheus’s June 1977) and the Observer (1 May 1977) has not only killed people but eaten sons and Iphitus; plundered the Oracle of Delphi; shot and killed the Moliones, their internal organs — with pride. Another — the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle a pair of Siamese twins, and their cousin Eurytus; raped the priestess of Athene; Club who gradually became heroic figures first in California in the 1950s, and boxed Eunomus on the ears and killed him; struck Cyathus with only one finger were later emulated in Great Britain and the Continent in the late sixties. Rolling but it killed him; killed Teiodamus, then kidnapped his infant son, and killed Stone writer Tim Findley described them in December 1972 as ‘a throbbing Lichas for having brought him the poisoned shirt which killed him. Some of horde, half vulgar barbarians, half fascinating visages of wild unshackled glory. these inglorious episodes occurred while Heracles was in his madness, others People are afraid of them, but they are lured to watch them, to come as close while he was apparently himself. as they dare to the thrill of unpredictable violence [my italics] which waits like In the Popol Vuh the heroes Hunahpu and Xbalanque are, at least by present the evil, choking sound of an idling Harley ’74.’ The Hell’s Angels were a media day standards, sadistic as hell towards their animal helpers. The first time that creation, so effectively put over that eventually no festival of the peace-and- their tendency towards cruelty is displayed is when they capture and torture the love generation was complete without their hellish imprimatur. Newspapers rat. First they strangle it a little, then they poke at its eyes, and then they burn delighted in tales of Hell’s Angels’ barbarity. Gang-bangs, initiations, riots — its tail in a fire. From the standpoint of the story, it’s a good thing they didn’t whatever they did was news; and spurred on by perennial promises of more kill it or they would never have found out they were meant to be farmers. The lineage, the Angels obliged by escalating atrocity to the status of an art form. final cruelty in the myth occurs when Hunahpu has lost his head to the giant The violence (murder) of David Sumner in Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs was vampire bat Camazotz. The head is taken in triumph to the Lords of Xibalba and labelled ‘Neanderthal’ by the film reviewer in the same issue of Rolling Stone, suspended above the ball court. Xbalanque replaces the head on his brother’s while on the opposite page the violence (murder and suicide) of the Okie torso with a turtle, and while the Lords are distracted from the ball game by a speed-freaks depicted in the book Tulsa received the accolade ‘truth’. Is it only rabbit, Xbalanque climbs up and, substituting the turtle, retrieves Hunahpu’s serendipity which forces on us the conclusion that the ‘truth’ about us and our head and resurrects him. Yet a little later in the game, with no explanation at all,

55 Xbalanque hurls his ball at the turtle which had helped him, causing it to fall to was the king’s secret desire to have the three sons of Usnech killed before they the ground, the hard stones of the ball court, where it shatters into a thousand could reach his castle alive. To achieve his purpose, all that it was necessary pieces. Absolutely typical of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, and absolutely heroic. for Conchobor to do was to make sure that Fergus was invited to a series of Sometimes, when heroes are seen to break laws, particularly those of murder, ale-feasts, invitations which Fergus could not refuse because of a geas that was it is for dramatic purposes. It makes a story for a start. If Adam had never eaten upon him, as Conchobor knew. When Fergus absented himself, the three sons of of the Tree of Knowledge, he and Eve would still be living in blissful savagery in Usnech were treacherously slain. the Garden of Eden. There would have been no book of it, and no film of the Also in Irish legend is the death of Cuchullain which came about because book. If Bluebeard’s wife had left the last door alone, she would have faced no he broke two geasa, one upon himself personally, and one in general usage in horrible death and possible hanging like a side of beef. Again, no story. Irish and other cultures. On the way to his last battle, which had been foretold As part of the Robin Hood legends, the hero’s lawbreaking occurs for slightly by copious and bloody portents, Cuchulainn met three hags who offered him different reasons. It calls the Norman law into question, for Robin Hood was a a meal. Each of them was blind in the left eye, a sign plain to any hero that Saxon and could therefore be expected to defy the conquering Normans; but in their intent was treachery. When the hero at first refused to eat with them, they principle the issue is not Norman law but any law, particularly what is described dared him, saying that if their food were but a little grander he would eat soon as ‘unjust’ law. Such a term is relative and almost meaningless. enough. Throughout the tales, whenever he is dared to do anything, no matter The lawbreaker in myth and legend additionally serves as a vehicle for the how stupid a thing it is, he does it — he seems to be compelled to. This time is audience. He is a surrogate who has balls enough to ‘get away with it’ (whatever no exception, and Cuchulainn takes the food which the three offer him: roasted ‘it’ is) when we know ourselves to be impotent at getting away with anything hound, a meat which Cuchulainn is under a geas not to eat because of his name when confronted with Norman barons, big business, god, or the pure fatality of which means Hound of Culann. The sisters, furthermore, give him the meat life. Here the hero exorcises demons in us that might otherwise destroy us or with their left hands, in violation of a general geas, and he takes it with his left those around us. He, who is a lightning rod who serves to draw down the fire hand (in violation of yet another) and in recognition of the fact that he is aware from Heaven upon himself, is also a lightning rod to draw vicious energy from of what he is doing. us, a scapegoat. In a few instances the hero/lawbreaker may also function as Forcing Cuchulainn to break his geasa is not sufficient for the weird sisters, a model. When this happens it is used as an excuse by those who would ban however. They cursed him with their evil eyes, having already spiced the food certain types of literature to press their claims, ignorning the fact that more with poison, cast spells upon it, and roasted it on rowan twigs (which were people are likely to be decontaminated by heroes than are infected by them. sacred to the goddess of death, war, and all sorts of other horrible things). Elsewhere in heroic myth and legend the breaking of the law, in the form Cuchulainn accepted all of this, he took and swallowed their meat, then placed of a tabu, or as it is called in Ireland, a geas (pl. geasa), can become a nail on the naked bone of it beneath his left thigh, causing that entire side to go numb. which a tragedy is hung, investing an occurrence with supernatural foreboding. As a result, when he went into battle, Cuchulainn was paralysed down one side Generally, a tabu is, like some types of geas, a thing which must not be done. and had lost half his strength. That he knows what he is doing, yet still does But there are also tabus which must be broken for some particular reason. And it, is a measure of his heroism within his legends, part of the quality which there are geasa which are acts which must be performed should an opportunity sets Cuchulainn apart from other men and makes him the grandest of Ireland’s arise. An example of this last occurs in the tragic story of Deirdre and the three heroes. sons of Usnech, who were being accompanied back to Ireland by Fergus mac The tabu and its breaking can also form an identity test for a hero, separating Roich. Although Fergus had been ordered by Conchobor to guard the four, it out the wolves from the sheep and demonstrating that sometimes the hero

56 is required to break laws. In the legend of Tawhaki, when he went to visit in disguise; for no one will know who he is in street clothing. So, when Louhi his wife in heaven he was warned not to sit near his wife, a goddess, lest he in The Kalevala transforms herself to a hawk and flies about Ilmarinen’s forge, become tabued. As he was already tabued (in this context meaning holy), he spying on him, she is not only adopting a convenient form of transportation but did precisely what they said he should not do. In another Polynesian legend, the she may also be deceiving him as to her identity. niece of Ngatoro-i-rangi went to visit him unexpectedly. When she reached his Two other heroes in The Kalevala also appear in disguise of a sort, but one village ‘she saw the fence which surrounded his place, and she walked straight which masks their true identity as heroic figures. The first is in Rune 2, when on towards the wicket of the fortification; she would not however pass through a giant oak tree has grown so tall that it shadows the earth. In response to it like a common person, but climbed the posts, and clambered into the fortress Väinämöinen’s prayer for someone to fell the tree, a tiny man, armoured in over its wooden defences, and having got inside, went straight on to the house copper, appeared from the sea, bearing a tiny copper axe. Väinämöinen regarded of Ngatoro-i-rangi, entered it, and going right up to the spot which was sacred, this curious being with amused scepticism until the midget suddenly grew to from his sitting on it, she seated herself down there.’ Her action was a challenge prodigious size and easily felled the oak. And for that matter, Väinämöinen is to the unseen gods, but it is also the means by which Ngatoro-i-rangi knew that himself in disguise, in a way; for his prodigious age deceives young Joukahainen the visitor was a kinswoman of his. No one else would have been so bold as to into thinking that the old man will be a pushover for his spells. With the disguise, sit herself down where he himself was accustomed to sit. the old man lured the brash young one into a combat which he stood no chance In another Polynesian legend, entry over the walls is meant specifically as of winning. a challenge. When Hakawau, a young sorcerer, went to combat the two old Similarly, the hero may be disguised as a fool or a woman, having roughly sorcerers, Puarata and Tautohito, he approached their fortress and then ‘began equivalent inferior status in myths. When Utnapishtim, in the Sumerian Deluge to climb over the palisades of the gateway. When the people of the place saw legend, wished to deceive his neighbours as to what he was doing in building this, they were much exasperated, and desired him, in an angry manner, to pass the ark, he convinced them that he was not only in disfavour with the gods underneath the gateway, along the pathway which was common to all, and not but also that he was off his rocker and they let him alone. When Thor had to to dare to climb over the gateway of Puarata and of Tautohito; but Hakawau journey to Jötunheim to retrieve his hammer, it was in drag, so that the giant went quietly on over the gateway, without paying the least attention to the angry didn’t know the identity of his guest until he was almost dead. And there are words of those who were calling out to him, for he felt quite sure that the two two episodes in the Heracles myth in which that hero also disguised himself old sorcerers were not so skilful in magical arts as he was; so Hakawau persisted as a woman, and yet another in the myth of Achilles, while trying to avoid the in going direct to all the most holy places of the fortress, where no person who Trojan War. had not been made sacred might enter.’ There is, however, another theme which is closely connected with disguise, Challenged by a law, the hero may have to break it. In so doing he defines that of the power of the hero. For example, when Llew Llaw Gyffes was and tests himself; in measuring himself he also tests the law. wounded in the side by the treacherous spear of Goronwy Pebyr, he was instantly transformed into the shape of an eagle. And in that shape he remained, neither When the motif of disguise occurs in these legends it is often simply a device dying nor living as he had before until he was rescued by his father, Gwydion. which is used by the hero to keep from being recognized. Masked or costumed, The implication seems to be in this episode that not until Gwydion had followed like any of the pyjama-clad vigilantes from comic books, he can appear as the him, recognized him, charmed him, and then disenchanted him and restored hero and still have some semblance of a personal life as a human being. Like the to him his rightful form could Llew again be a hero. While he was an eagle his masked wrestler, he can to some extent escape responsibility for his actions while powers were suspended.

57 Another disguise which is frequently employed by heroes, and sometimes by of reckoning. gods, is that of the old man, a fool figure, but also a teacher. As a fool, Odin appears at the homes of giants and mortals, one-eyed, ragged, a figure of fun The most frequently encountered supernatural weapon of the hero is the magic until he reveals himself, perhaps in a contest of wits. In the encounters between sword, forged by dwarves or in another, older world, enchanted by the runes Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, the god of the Smoking Mirror often appears as upon it, made of a metal the working of which was a long-lost secret, and either an old man or an old woman, teaching both the Feathered Serpent and sometimes dangerous to the hero and his friends as it is deadly to his enemies. the hearers of the myths. One such blade was the magic sword, Tyrfing, which was forged by dwarves But the most important reason for disguise in myth is still probably what it for Angantyr in Norse legend. It possessed the property of fighting by itself always was, the desire on the part of the hero to ‘get away with it’. Charles Perry, without the guidance of a human hand and was invincible. Once drawn from writing in Rolling Stone in 1972, said of the original draft of Dr Jekyll and Mr its scabbard, Tyrfing could not be replaced until it had tasted blood. It was Hyde, ‘the potion Dr Jekyll drinks doesn’t change his personality, much less his furthermore a fatal weapon, one which brought death upon all who wielded metabolism. It only changes his appearance, so that the respectable doctor, thus it. On Angantyr’s death, Tyrfing was buried with the hero at his instructions; disguised, can go out and do the terrible things he consciously realizes he wants to for Angantyr had warned his daughter of the dangers of the blade. But Hervor do.’ [My italics.] defied her father’s warning and the fires which burned around his burial place Four years later in Rolling Stone appeared another article, on the CIA, by to seize for herself the doom-laden sword, thus bringing it back into the world Thomas Powers. It touched upon another motive for anonymity and invisibility, of men. the desire of the society which employs the hero to avoid responsibility for his The famous Japanese sword Kusa-nagi (Grass-mower) was found by Susa-nö- crimes. Powers discusses, in his article, why he believes that Richard Helms, wo in one of the eight tails of a dragon which he had slain. Thinking the find the former director of the CIA, was a less than informative witness when he a curious one, Susa-nö-wo presented it to his sister, Amaterasu, the Japanese appeared before Senator Fulbright’s Foreign Relations Committee. Powers’ sun goddess and ancestress of the Japanese royal family. She in turn presented contention was that to Helms the activities of the CIA in so far as they may the sword to Piko-po-nö-ninigi-nö-mikötö who brought it to earth as one of the have included political assassination, domestic operations in the United States, three sacred regalia of Japan. Enshrined at Ise, it remained in the temple until and the suppression of the inspector general’s report which listed some 693 the high priestess, Yamatö-pime, gave it to her nephew, Yamatö-takeru, who violations by the agency of its own rules, were legitimate provided that they were used it to mow down the tall grass surrounding him which had been set alight unknown [my italics]. He guesses that Helms may have thought: ‘If no one by his enemies. By a fatal mistake Yamatö-takeru left the weapon at home when knows what we did, then we aren’t that sort of country.’ he went to battle a mountain deity. Possession of the sword then passed to his This point is a good one; but there is another which Powers misses. The widow. CIA is the living-flesh exponent of a morality which is clearly stated in every Swords of heroes are normally described as invincible, symbols of the hero’s James Bond book. Bond is the agent who is ‘licensed to kill’, and, incidentally, eventual victory as in the Hunnish legend of the finding of the blade by Attila’s to perform any other action which political discretion requires to be kept secret. man in a field. But in the Anglo-Saxon legend of Beowulf swords were forever ‘M’ specifically warns his operative that in the event of his being caught he will failing the champion when he most needed them, they were anything but be disowned; for the society which pays his wages and which calls the tune is invincible. His sword Naegling, for example, had never disappointed him in unwilling to accept the responsibility for its own actions; it wants the power of battle, yet when Beowulf came to fight the fire-drake he found the weapon arbitrating life and death for all, but will not accept the corollary of a likely day useless; even the giant’s sword of his companion, Wiglaf, could not kill the

58 dragon and Beowulf was forced back on the weapon which he really seems to To such weapons, Tolkien added many others, most of which were swords. have preferred, the bear-hug. One of these was Narsil, first possessed by Elendil, then, broken when he died, There are many other magic swords in Norse legend — for example, Gram, it passed eventually to Strider or Aragorn and was renamed the Sword that was the sword thrust into the heart of an oak by Odin. None but Odin’s hero, Broken. Later it was reforged by the Elves and renamed Andúril, Flame of the Siegmund, could withdraw the blade; but in the war for its possession which West. Another was Sting, an Elf-blade, originally belonging to the Hobbit, Bilbo followed his gaining it, Siegmund was killed and the blade shattered. Later it Baggins, who found it in a troll-hoard. What its history had been before that was reforged by Regin (Mimir) and given by him to Siegmund’s son, Sigurd time was never known. Sting was given by Bilbo to his adoptive heir, Frodo, who (Siegfried) who used it to slay the dragon, Fafnir, and also to dispatch Regin in turn passed it on to his companion, Sam Gamgee, from whom it descended as who was plotting treachery. This theme, that of a magic sword, broken and then a family heirloom. Like so many ancient blades, Sting possessed properties not reforged to be used by the hero’s descendant, was used by Tolkien in The Lord known in blades forged in the Third Age of Middle Earth. Whenever an enemy of the Rings. Other Norse swords include Dainslef, Hogni’s weapon, which was was near it shone with a cold bluish light; and its edge was said to be sharper made by dwarves; and Mistelteinn, the sword or dart of mistletoe, which was than any but that of a weapon made in the ancient time. made by Loki and used to kill Baldur. Throughout Malory’s Morte Darthur the motif of the acquiring of the supernat- In an Italian poem, Orlando Furioso, Balisarda is a miraculous blade, made by ural weapon occurs, first in connection with Arthur himself in Book I, then with the sorceress Falerina and given to Rogero for the purpose of defeating Orlando. Balin in Book II and with Galahad in Books XIII and XVII. There is additionally And in a Hindu tradition there was the sword Asi which was originally made for a contrasting theme, that of the loss of the miraculous weapon in Malory’s final Brahma. From him the weapon passed to Rudra (Siva), then to Vishnu before book and elsewhere that of the loss of the scabbard of Excalibur, with fatal finally passing to Manu, the first man. That it was first possessed by three major consequences. deities, the Creator, Destroyer, and Preserver of Hindu mythology, cannot but To give a less familiar example at length — while on the quest for the Sangreal, have increased both its sanctity and its power. Galahad, Percival and Bors enter upon an enchanted ship among the marvels The Lord of the Rings and J. R. R. Tolkien’s earlier book, The Hobbit, furnish of which is a magic sword. Although Malory describes it as a different weapon many examples of swords which are consecrated by design to the service of from the one which Galahad already possessed, it seems to be the same from one owner, to be passed by him to an heir designate or buried with him on his its properties and from its history, being well and truly tangled in the Celtic defeat. Such weapons are stock implements from Norse and other mythologies knot that is the motif of the cursed weapon in Arthurian legends. The sword as we have seen. But Professor Tolkien also included another type of weapon, upon the ship was, as a maiden there told the three knights, a weapon that the Rings of Power, the mightiest weapons of all. The strongest of them was might be drawn only by one man; and then she told them of its history, showing the master Ring, forged by Sauron in the Mountain of Fire during the Second them its scabbard, its blade, its girdle, and the words that were written on each. Age of Earth. Through the strength of that Ring Sauron was able to control In one place it was written that whoever drew the sword should surpass all the wearers of the nine mortal rings, the Nazgul, who lost their humanity by others in chivalry; in another that whoever removed the sword from its sheath entering the service of the Dark Lord, becoming Ring Wraiths, with no shape would never fail from shame of his body or be wounded unto death. Elsewhere except that given them by their sinister cloaks. Against the might of Sauron’s the threat which had been forged into its steel was implied in words which Ring was counterbalanced the combined strength of the three Elf Rings, forged proclaimed that any who wielded the weapon should be stronger than all other by Celebrimbor out of mithril, the silvery metal which was the most valued men, if he bore the sword as truly as it deserved. And the body of such a one material in all of Middle Earth. was to be pure in all parts while he wore the girdle which held the scabbard

59 and the sword. Not only that, but the girdle was to be removed by a virgin, the leave the ship, lest they be found in mortal sin. Without waiting to see who was daughter of a king and queen, who remained sinless all her life in both word speaking or why, they did just that, embarking on Mordrains’s nearby vessel. and deed. The remaining inscription on the weapon read, ‘He that praises me Even as they did so, Nacien felt himself wounded in the right foot by an invisible most shall find me most to blame. He that believes me fair, shall find me to be blade so severely that he stumbled and fell; and both men heard a voice speaking foul.’ to them again, saying that the wound which Nacien had received was to requite The history of the sword, as the maiden related it, bore out the truth implied him for brandishing a blade of which he was unworthy. in the inscriptions. The first to tempt it, she told them, was one Nacien, the The next to hold the accursed blade was Hurlame, a newly christened Saracen brother-in-law of King Mordrains. At great distance over the sea from his country, who was at war with Labor, king of Logris and father of King Pelles. In a he came upon a ship which he boarded and found the sword. On reading the battle between the two armies, Hurlame’s forces were getting the worst of the inscription, he did not touch the weapon; however, on his ninth day on the ship, encounter when the Saracen suddenly beheld the sword, drew it, and with one a great wind rose and drove the ship with Nacien still on board to an island, stroke cleaved his enemy so severely that Labor and his horse both fell dead. where the hero was suddenly confronted with a horrible giant of monstrous And because of that stroke a pestilence came upon both their kingdoms, so size. Without means of defending himself and without thinking, Nacien seized great that neither grass nor grain would grow and the living water itself grew the sword and shook it in the air, daring the giant to come at him now that he dead. And since that time, the maiden said, men call that place the wasteland. was capable of fighting back. But no sooner had he praised the blade than it Hurlame replaced the sword in its scabbard, he put the scabbard on the ship; shattered in his hand, leaving him less than nothing with which to fight. Casting but he had touched the weapon and he too fell dead, struck down invisibly the weapon aside, Nacien leaped overboard in his despair, thinking that if he by its charm. Of all the doomed heroes who touched the blade, King Pelles was to be killed it would be better to get it over with quickly. But so great was drew it only partially from its scabbard before seeing the words on its blade his despair that it seemed to give him strength, and almost miraculously he and forebore to draw it further. Even so, he had touched the weapon for which defeated and slew his antagonist. he was unworthy, and thus incurred the wound he later received from Balin le Exhausted, he clambered back on board the ship and sank into a deep slumber, Sauvage. during which yet another wind arose and carried him still further across the In addition to this motif of the fatal weapon there is also its corollary, that of sea until he came by chance alongside a ship wherein was his brother-in-law, the weapon which heals, or, more specifically, healing from the weapon which Mordrains. The story of the giant and the broken sword was soon told, and has wounded. There is one episode, for example, in which Sir Galahad moistens Mordrains thought it wondrous indeed; but as for the sword, he was sure that his fingers in the still living blood of Christ upon the Spear, then, at Christ’s it had broken not because of its own weakness but rather because of some sin instruction, anoints his wounded grandfather, King Pelles, with it, thus healing on the part of Nacien. His words seemed to be proven when, picking up the him of the wound which he received so many years before from Balin. And jagged pieces of the weapon, he joined them together and the break instantly elsewhere in the book, Sir Launcelot found the body of Sir Gilbert laid out in the healed, the blade becoming one again. Mordrains placed the sword back in its Chapel Perilous, his sword beside him and but one dim lantern burning to keep scabbard and then set it down upon the deck. He wished to have nothing to do a vigil for the dead knight’s soul. Taking the weapon and a bit of the bloody with such a weapon. It seemed to him that it must be in some way accursed, shroud that covered the dead man, Launcelot left the chapel safely, although to have broken with no apparent cause and then to have healed itself just as threatened by thirty awful knights in black armour. Then with the sword and inexplicably. with the cloth, Launcelot healed Sir Meliot de Logres of a wound which he had His instinct was confirmed when both men heard a voice advising them to received from that blade until he was as well a knight as he had ever been.

60 The final sword motif in Malory is that of the relinquishing of the weapon, has been associated. What evidence there is shows that where the axe is found it Excalibur, when Arthur had been wounded unto death by Mordred. Mordred is a symbol of power pure and simple, certainly the power of death, but probably and those who sided with him had been killed in the fray, and almost all of also the power of life. In Greece it was associated with Cretan Dionysus and King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table were dead. At the end the king who particularly with Zeus. Similarly in Aztec Mexico it was an attribute of Tlaloc, a had conquered the other kings of England, who had forced even the might of rain deity. But it was also connected with Artemis, Athene, Gilgamesh, Apollo, Rome to kneel before him, had been brought down by the treachery of the man Ptah, the Halafian Mother Goddess, a bearded North Syrian god who may be who was his nephew, or, as some whispered, his bastard son. And there had Jupiter Dolichenus, with the Cretan Mother Goddess, and in association with been other treachery in Arthur’s life, for his sister, Morgan le Fay, had cast the bull sacrifice. Of all these only Zeus, Dionysus, and perhaps Jupiter Dolichenus scabbard of Excalibur far out over the waters of a lake, and in so doing she had can be said to have been thunder deities. So any definition of the axe, and its destroyed Arthur’s invulnerability to wounds in battle, his only so long as he near cognates, the hammer of such gods as Thor and Perkunas and the club possessed both sword and scabbard. of heroes such as Heracles, as a thunder weapon will not stand. It is, rather, Arthur the king was as mortal as other men; and now he was dying alone, a symbol of superhuman power or divine power. If that power is sometimes with but one knight, Sir Bedivere, to keep him company, and his thoughts expressed in the form of thunder and lightning, in the terror of the storm, then turned to how he had received his sword Excalibur from the hand of one who that does not mean that our ancestors regarded such heavenly tantrums as the brandished it above a lake. Back to a lake, perhaps the same, that sword should sole manifestation of deity any more than we would do ourselves. go. And so he commanded Bedivere to take Excalibur, cast it into a lake and As a supernatural weapon the club is often associated with giants. Historically then return to tell what he had seen. Sir Bedivere agreed readily; but as he it is a far more primitive weapon than the sword, and its rude physical charac- carried the marvellous weapon to the lakeside, he reflected on its beauty. It teristics seem to carry over to some extent to its possessors. There is, after all, seemed a shame to him that so great a treasure should be lost. So he hid it under little subtlety about being banged over the head by a heavy piece of wood or a tree and came back speedily to say that he had done the task commanded by stone. Probably because clubs are a lot less interesting, there are fewer myths in the king. ‘What saw you?’ Arthur asked. ‘Nothing but wind and water, ripples which clubs occur than in which the hero is armed with a sword. Once you have on a lake,’ answered the knight falsely. ‘Bedivere, do what I ask. Go throw the said that a giant carried a big club, you have just about said it all. There are, it sword as far out over the lake as ever you can, and then come back to me again.’ is true, tales of clubs which are extraordinary. There is, for instance, one from Again Bedivere hid the sword, again returned and lied, and for a third time was Iceland in which the weapon is so large that five men can barely lift it and from admonished by the dying Arthur to hurl the sword into the lake. Hawaii another in which 4000 men are needed to raise the club. He went back to the sword, picked it up quickly and threw it as far from him In European folklore there are clubs which return to the hand of the owner as he could, watching it as it spun slowly end over end. Its jewels, its precious or clubs which beat until commanded by the owner to stop. There is a winking metals glittered in the bitter light of that sad sunset until, as it began to fall, a club in North American Indian myths, and in Irish legend there is the club of the hand rose upward from the lake and caught it, brandished it three times, then giant Searbhan Lochlannach. Searbhan, one-eyed like Polyphemus, had been set took it down beneath the waters. All this the knight reported to his king. And of to guard the quicken or rowan tree, on which grew the berries which conferred the sword, Excalibur, nothing more is said. immortality on the Tuatha de Danann, the Irish gods. When the hero Diarmaid The axe is another of the primary weapons of heroes; and attempts have been asked for a handful of the berries, Searbhan, mindful of his duties, refused. And made to link its usage with thunder gods or with light deities. Neither theory so they fought for them. But the guardian of the tree could only be killed by fares too well, however, when one considers the gods and heroes with whom it three blows of his own iron club, to any other weapon he was invulnerable; so it

61 was not until Diarmaid had managed to secure Searbhan’s weapon and deliver for the precise purpose of giving the magician the knowledge of and conversation the three blows that he was able to kill the giant and take the berries. with his holy guardian angel. In this context angel does not of course mean In the Persian epic, the Shah Nameh we are told that the hero Feridun or a vision of goodness clothed in flaming white any more than it did to the Thraetona carried a mace, made for him by the blacksmith Kavah, the first man ancient Hebrews who borrowed their concept of angelic beings from a number to rebel against the tyranny of Zohak. The head of the mace was shaped like that of unlikely sources, including pre-Hebrew Sumerian and Akkadian religions. of a cow, in memory of the cow Purmajeh, which had nursed Feridun while he The term ‘cherub’, for example, appears to be etymologically and conceptually was an infant and which was butchered by Zohak’s soldiers when they searched derived from appellations and graphic representations of such deities as Ea and for the child, in an attempt to kill him. When the hero finally destroyed Zohak’s probably Marduk. power and fettered the monster it was with the mace as his weapon and the The conversation of such an ‘angel’, like the speech of animals, is similar to blacksmith apron of Kavah as his banner. the words of the dead. In The Lay of the High One, Odin, the chief of the Norse The caduceus is most often associated with Asclepius and Hermes in Greece gods, says that he can summon up the dead and compel them to answer his and with Mercury in Rome; but it is also symbolic of the power of Ea, Ishum, questions. What they hold is knowledge (power, a magic weapon) which is not and Ningishzidda in Babylonia and Assyria, and Serapis and Thoth in Egypt. In possessed by humans. And so in myths and legends and folktales their search form it is essentially a rod, around which coils a serpent or, more often, two (quest) for that knowledge leads heroes to the mouths of animals, devils, the serpents copulating or fighting. In connection with Asclepius the snakes have dead, the mad, the wild, and ultimately to the gods. been interpreted as having to do with the physician travelling from house to As a weapon this one is, like all of the weapons of heroes, a two-edged sword. house, a rather wild guess which ignores the function of snakes in temples of The power to understand the speech of a divine being must be coupled with the both Asclepius and Apollo as both healers and oracles. The conjunction of the ability to control and use the knowledge so gained in a wise manner, otherwise rod with the serpents poses a puzzle; for in some myths, for example the Biblical the wisdom may be useless or even dangerous to its possessor. So, although tales of Moses at the court of Pharaoh, the rod and the serpent are essentially Siegfried is able to forestall a first death at the hands of the dwarf, he is unable the same thing. The likeliest meaning of the caduceus, however, is that of power, to prevent a second death when it comes. And although Odin can compel the the serpent form, controlled by or channelled on to an axis, the rod, transmitting dead to speak and the sibyl, Voluspa, to tell him the future, the knowledge does healing from the gods to the sick. him little good, for he is unable to alter the coming final war, Ragnarok, in As animals are often regarded as possessing supernatural or divine powers, which even the gods will perish. knowledge of the speech of animals, particularly wild animals but domesticated Yet another type of supernatural weapon is that of divine light as symbolized ones as well, is equivalent to the knowledge possessed by the gods. Such wisdom in the Khwarenah or Kingly Glory of Zoroastrianism, and the halo or mandorla is often a weapon, as with Siegfried (Sigurd) who uses his knowledge of the which feature in Christianity, Buddhism, and other religions. The Khwarenah songs of birds to learn that a dwarf is planning to kill him. The commonest is described as royal and divine power, without which no king can rule. It was origin of this talent is in serpents or dragons, either by being licked by their also, however, a weapon which ordinary men, as well as gods and demons, tongues, by tasting their blood or by eating their hearts. In the Greek myth of might possess, one which conferred superhuman status upon its holder. The Melampus, the seer was said to have received his prophetic abilities from a nest characteristics of the Khwarenah are implied in several places in Zoroastrian of serpents which he had saved from his servants. With his oracular knowledge myths. In one of them, the mythical king, Yima, was said to have ruled for he was able to perform cures, and make himself wealthy. one thousand years, at the end of which he sinned and lost the Khwarenah The reason for some magical rituals, such as that of Abra Melin the Mage, was which apparently until that time had protected him from death, for shortly

62 afterwards he was caught by Azhi Dahaka (Zohak) and sawed in two by the familiar to many people from folk horror stories of the twentieth century, have demon Spityura. been reported from South and North America, Greenland, and from Polynesia. Elsewhere in the Zendavesta is reference to ‘the awful glory’ for which the Its complement, the toothed penis, has also been reported from India. But more Good Spirit (Spenta Mainyu) and the Evil Spirit (Angra Mainyu) and their allies usually when sex and the sexual organs occur in myth they are in myths of the contended, hurling spears at each other. Then forward came Atar, the son of male hero as symbols of prepotency, the champion as super stud. Hence Bran Ahura Mazda, thinking to seize the Khwarenah; but he was frightened off the (Irish Celtic), Heracles and Asclepius (Greek) were all reputed to have slept with attempt by Azhi Dahaka, the three-mouthed, who threatened to extinguish Atar, fifty women in one night. the spirit of fire, so that never more might he blaze up upon the earth. Next Azhi In a tale from the Polynesians of the Tuamotu Archipelago in the South Pacific Dahaka attempted to seize the Khwarenah for himself; but he also withdrew in occurs an epic of sexual contest between Maui and his rival Tuna. Hina, who fright when Atar said, ‘If thou seizest that glory that cannot be forcibly seized, was the archetypical wife and mother of Polynesian myth, was living with her then I will enter thy hinder part, I will blaze up in thy jaws, so that thou mayest husband Tuna, the eel god, at the bottom of the sea. Exactly why Hina grew never more rush upon the earth made by Mazda and destroy the world of the tired of Tuna the story does not say, but she decided to leave him. One day she good principle.’ At the last, the Khwarenah was seized by Vouru-Kasha, a being said she was going to fetch some food for them, but when she got outside, she described as ‘the Swift-horsed son of the Waters’ and the god who made man just kept right on going until she got on to dry land. She travelled through the and lives beneath the sea. And in his keeping it remained. territory of tribe after tribe, singing the praises of their menfolk and looking for Later in the same myth, Ahura Mazda tells Zoroaster that the Khwarenah a replacement for Tuna; but nobody wanted to know. They were not about to may be seized by any man, that it will confer upon him the knowledge and have anything to do with Tuna’s wife, it simply wasn’t worth dying for. When, power of a priest, but that it will also make him wealthy, strong and victorious. however, she passed the house where Maui was living with his mother, Huahega ‘Attended by that victory, he will conquer the havocking hordes; attended by (in this version), Huahega herself advised Maui to take Hina for his wife, which that victory, he will conquer those who hate him.’ So whatever the Khwarenah he did. is, it is more than just a religious symbol, it is a weapon in its own right, a In the meantime the people of Tuna’s undersea kingdom fell over themselves manifestation of power. In this it may be comparable to the concepts of the to let Tuna know what had happened. They urged him to avenge this insult and halo and mandorla, which are also found in Buddhism and other religions. As fight Maui. So Tuna sent a messenger to Maui to tell him they were going to these designs, a radiant effulgence from the head or entire body of a deity, are have a fight. ‘Let him come if he wants to,’ said Maui and went on about his generally recognized today, they are simply the outward and visible signs of an work. But Maui’s people were just as ready to stir up trouble as Tuna’s had been, inner and spiritual grace. But they may have been at one time regarded like the so Maui gathered up all his strength and prepared to meet Tuna and his allies. Khwarenah as more than just symbols, they may have been literally weapons, On the day of the contest the sky grew suddenly dark and a terrific wind similar in intention to the laser gun used by Flash Gordon, the lightning bolt or came up off the sea bringing a dilly of a storm. It scared the hell out of the Dorje used by Thor, Zeus, Indra, Vajrapani and other gods. All of them may be islanders. ‘It’s all your fault!’ they wailed to Maui. ‘If it hadn’t have been for you nothing more than variant symbols for the same weapon, the divine weapon of we wouldn’t be in this mess! the gods, by the aid of which men may sometimes become divine. Nobody ever fooled around with anybody else’s wife before you started it. Now Tuna will kill all of us!’ Sex and sexual organs feature rather more in myth than most collections of Maui calmed them while from the grey and angry waters came Tuna and a myths and legends would have us believe. Such concepts as the vagina dentata, host of monsters, creatures from the ocean depths. Tuna lifted his loincloth,

63 exposing his tool, and it was gigantic. The power of the gesture was enough the heroes. In the Mayan myth these characteristics are combined in roughly to cause a great wave to rise, catching up all of the monsters of the sea and animal form; Hunahpu and Xbalanque are consistently helped, guided, taught sweeping them in towards Maui and his allies waiting on the shore. ‘Quick!’ by various beasts which are then often rewarded by being tortured or killed. As shouted Maui’s mother, ‘show them yours or they’ll kill us all!’ And Maui did in many of the myths and legends from the Americas, the line between animal just that, pulled up his loincloth to reveal a weapon that was straight almost to and human and god is not very well drawn in these accounts. The animals the end, then bent. What a magic that was! One sight of Maui and the wave, speak, they are capable of supernatural feats; a buzzard, for example, darkens which a minute before had towered above them all, had drained back into the the face of the sun for the twins. The meadow lark which rescues Falling Star sea, leaving the sandy bottom of the ocean exposed farther than the lowest tide. in the Cheyenne Indian Legend feeds him all summer, then makes weapons for Tuna and his monsters were left stranded there while Maui finished every one him from her own feathers when it is time for her to fly south for the winter. of them off, except for Tuna. Maui didn’t really have any strong feeling about And in an Aztec myth, Quetzalcoatl is informed by a buzzard that his father, the Tuna at all, so took him home to live with his wife, his mother, and himself. Sun, has been murdered by the boy’s 400 or 4000 brothers. The bird also tells Quetzalcoatl where the bones may be found buried under the sand so that the In the myth of the hero the sidekick is there as his shadow. Whether an animal, hero-god, with an army of moles, a wolf, an eagle, and a coyote, can go to the a god, a youth, a wild man, a fool, or (rarely) a woman, the sidekick is there to spot, dig up the remains of his father, and resurrect him. None of these animals assist the hero with his quest, hand him his weapons, share in whatever spoils are altogether separate from human beings; even the names of some of the are going, and very occasionally to take over the quest for the hero. In Buddhist heroes, Xbalanque (Little Jaguar) and Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) suggest legend, Gautama has animal, human, and divine sidekicks who are there for the that the natures of man and animal can be combined into one personality. purpose of making sure that his meditation is undisturbed and that he wants A somewhat similar blurring occurs in the Irish Celtic legends of Cuchulainn, for nothing, to defend him, and at the end of his life to poison him. While the said in the Tain Bo Cuailnge and other sources to have been assisted by humans, Buddha was meditating, he was sheltered from a storm by the Serpent King, animals and gods. His chief human assistant is his charioteer, Laegh, described Mucalinda. The elephant, Parileyyaka, born at the same moment as Gautama, in the Death of Cuchulainn as the ‘King of the Charioteers of Erin’. As such Laegh fed him while he meditated in the forest. The gardener, Ganda, gave Buddha was expected not merely to drive like hell, but also to act as weapons-bearer, the ripe mango, from the seed of which grew a gigantic tree in one day. Indra, adviser, and satirist. One of the few weapons which affected Cuchulainn was Wind-cloud, and the Sun all assisted the Teacher against heretics. And at the satire, and it was employed on him by both his friends and his enemies. His end of his life it was Chunda, the blacksmith, who gave Buddha the dish of pork enemies used this method to force him to do things which were to his own which killed him, thus enabling him to enter Nirvana. This death of Buddha is disadvantage: for example, at the end of his life it was three satirists on the a sort of suicide, for it is made plain in the legend that the Teacher knew that Plain of Muirthemne who forced him by their taunts to yield, one by one, his the pork would poison him. When Chunda presented the food, Buddha warned three spears and so leave himself without weapons. His friends used the same that any leftovers should be carefully buried. Then, when he had fallen ill, he weapon to stimulate his battle frenzy, for only in that rage was the hero well-nigh instructed his disciple Ananda that Chunda was neither to blame himself for the invincible. Buddha’s death, nor was he to be blamed by others. In the character of the Morrigan and her sister, the goddess Macha, animal The Mayan myth of the hero-twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque from the Popol nature is blended with something other. As one of Cuchulainn’s horses is named Vuh, and that of Quetzalcoatl from the neighbouring Aztecs, both contain the the Grey Macha, there seems to be some identification between the horse which same mixture of animal, human, and divine characteristics in the assistants of weeps at his coming death and a goddess which seeks to encompass that death.

64 Similarly, the Morrigan who works partially against the hero, partially as his ally, the listener. That at least holds true for the fools, wild men, and other human appears to him in the form of a raven. Among the gods, his chief supernatural assistants of the champion on his quest. And they also provided a certain comic assistant was Lugh mac Ethenn, his father. It was Lugh who saw to it that the relief from invulnerability and muscle-waving. boy Setanta (the hero’s first name) was gifted with the twin foals that were These ancient tales also included the prize, which was often a maiden to be coeval with him, and it was also Lugh who stood guard over Cuchulainn for rescued from the fire (Brunhilde), from a dragon (Andromeda), from a sleep three days and three nights when he was wounded, and healed him. worse than death (Snow White), or from the inability to love (Turandot). In Although the goddess Athene helped the hero Bellerophon to the extent of comics, where women are in general underplayed, part of the functions of the giving him the golden halter to throw over the head of the horse, Pegasus, it was prize in old-style myths has been taken over by the sidekick. For one of the chiefly that winged stallion which was his assistant. From the back of Pegasus things which the maiden could do was talk to the hero, give him a place where Bellerophon conquered the Chimaera, a monster which was composed of lion he could put his feet up after a hard day of dragon-slaying, and she could, of and goat and dragon. And it was with the help of Pegasus that he also conquered course, give him love or sex. Comics, however, are conceived in the purity of the Solymi, a tribe of vampires, and the Amazons, that tribe of female warriors the locker room; and while comic heroes may rescue maidens, there is none of who were so popular as stock antagonists for heroes in Greek myths. As his the ambiguity in comics which suggests that they go further with sex. In comics, reward, Bellerophon was given a princess as his bride, but being a wanderer when the masked hero has a youth sidekick, one of the things that youth can do he rode off on Pegasus in an attempt to fly to the top of Mount Olympus. Zeus, is listen, and ask the occasional question. What would be pillow-talk if masked offended by this presumption, sent a gadfly to sting the horse, pitching the hero heroes were allowed to be married, can be got across as man-to-boy stuff in the to earth. Pegasus, meanwhile, continued flying to the top of Olympus where privacy of the Batcave or whatever refuge the costumed character has where he he was royally received by the gods. Without Pegasus, Bellerophon was just can shed his long underwear and be himself. Additionally, there are occasions another cowboy on foot. Like Jason, he had been patronized by the gods for a where Robin, as sidekick to Batman, and Jimmy Olson, as assistant to Superman, while; and like that unhappy hero, he was ignored when he began to bore them. can actually help the father-figures out. Again giving the reader a chance to Depressed and broken, Bellerophon wandered Greece until he died, worn out, identify. unremembered, and alone. In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Sam Gamgee acts as sidekick to Frodo Although the hero’s sidekick is almost always in a minor role in the myth, Baggins, and at one point actually bears the burden of the Ring when Frodo is too there are occasions when the assistant is suddenly promoted by fate to the weak to carry on. But the qualities of the sidekick arc even better demonstrated position of hero, when the main character suddenly falls ill, dies, or is lost. by Gollum, who also incorporates into his part of the legend another motif which When this happens the sidekick is revealed to be a hero himself. Like all women is sometimes attached to the sidekick, that of the antagonist who is won over in myth Isis and Lemminkainen’s mother are both unlikely heroes, yet both are by the hero, usually by combat, and thereafter becomes his friend. Normally required to be so when their loved ones (husband and son respectively) are this friendship is fast and faithful; but Gollum really can’t make up his mind. dead. In contemporary folklore there is the common story of the understudy or Right up until his final scene Gollum is still wavering between an alliance with other artistic unknown called in at the last minute to head the bill at a major the angels (our side) and the devils (theirs). He also shares with many other theatre or perform as a soloist. This occurrence, called a ‘lucky break’, is nothing sidekicks a certain wildness, which surrounds his personality almost like a halo more than the hero’s lightning striking, the voice of god. or psychic b.o. In myths and legends originally the purposes of the sidekick may have been to display the hero alongside someone who would represent us, the reader, The hero’s antagonists are those animals, humans, or other beings who interrupt

65 his progress toward the goal of his quest. Heroes are, heroes have to be, single- Geryon, and the bringing back from Hades of the three-headed dog, Cerberus, minded in the pursuit of a prize. Anything which gets it in the way must be guardian of Tartarus (and sacred to Hades, Persephone, and possibly Hecate). disposed of as quickly as possible as an encumbrance, usually by killing it. And, In all but two of these labours, Heracles was required to bring the animal or of course, sometimes the killing of an antagonist is an end in itself, as in the animals back alive, suggesting that this hero may be connected with the familiar stories of Jack and the giants. Middle Eastern ikon motif of the Master or Mistress of Animals. This ikon, found Antagonists are, however, essential to the myth of the hero. Without them he in many variants, shows a male or female figure flanked by what are apparently would not exist. Not only must there be antagonists, however, but they must be subservient beasts, and its meaning appears to be that of domination of the wild, big ones, powerful ones, the biggest and most powerful that have ever been seen mastery over nature. anywhere. The greater the antagonist, the more enemies the hero has to face, Probably the earliest representation of this motif was found at Catal Hüyük in the greater the hero. It is as simple as that. Anatolia, dated to about the fifty-eighth century BC, and shows a seated goddess, Among the divine enemies of Heracles, Hera was easily the most prominent, her hands (in reconstruction) resting upon the heads of two leopards over being wounded three times in the right breast by the hero. If this had occurred which she has obvious and complete control. Later on, in Crete, the customs only once in his myth it could be dismissed as of no consequence; but it is of bull dancing and bull sacrifice to Poseidon, Zeus, Dionysus, or to the Mother emphasized so much that it is obviously an incident which is attempting to tell Goddess, indicate the same control and absolute power. Bull dancing was at us something about Heracles and Hera. The likeliest possibility is a mother and least potentially dangerous; frescoes of youths and maidens engaged in this son relationship. His other divine opponents are Apollo, whose temple Heracles sport indicate some familiarity with halfwild beasts and ability to manage them. pillages, and Ares, whom he bests on the field of battle, being specifically The sacrifice of animals was not simply a matter of publicly proclaiming forbidden to kill him. This injunction need not have been given unless Heracles wealth and piety; it also advertised control over those tremendously powerful was indeed capable of killing the god of war and goes some way towards beasts. In the Vedic horse sacrifice, the Asvamedha, a horse, which was at that implying the relative strengths of the two as antagonists. time an extremely valuable animal, was ritually slaughtered to procure fertility But it is wild beings, animals, monsters, and giants who are the chief antagon- (an expression of power, it should be remembered), but mostly in proclamation ists of Heracles and of all other heroes. These were the opponents which tested, of universal sovereignty. At the beginning of the sacrifice a chosen beast was measured, and taught him. His first enemies were the two serpents sent by Hera released in the spring of the year and allowed to roam for the next twelve to kill him when he was still in his cradle and which the hero strangled. Next months. If, during that time, it came into another kingdom the ruler could either was the Cithaeronian Lion which he killed when he was eighteen. Shortly after, choose to submit to the monarch performing the Asvamedha, acknowledging he began the series of twelve labours for his kinsman Eurystheus which have his power, or he could fight him. If the aspirant to the title of universal monarch immortalized his name. The first of these tasks was the killing of the Nemean was defeated by any such king, then that ended his claims to the position. If he Lion, from which he got the lionskin which is the only armour he wore. The were victorious with all of them, then the sacrifice was a visible confirmation of second of the tasks was the killing of the Lernean Hydra and its ally, a giant crab that fact. which lived in the same swamp. Subsequent labours included the capture of the In Zen teaching the motif of control over animals is expressed in the picture Ceryneian Hind of Artemis and the Erymanthian Boar of Apollo, the cleansing parable of the boy and his ox, in which the herdsman gradually tames the ox to of the Augeian Stables (probably sacred to Poseidon or Apollo), the driving off the point where he can ride it, then the ox — passion perhaps — vanishes, and of the Stymphalian Birds (probably sacred to Ares), the capture of the Cretan in the final frame of some versions of the series both have vanished. Absolute Bull (sacred to Poseidon), the taking of the Mares of Diomedes and the Cattle of control.

66 Bulls, as antagonists, are among the most popular of figures in myth because before the dawn of time. So in Anglo-Saxon legends, for example in Beowulf, of their power and their value. In Greece myths of Heracles, Jason, Theseus the heroes occasionally find weapons of giants, which are superior to any made and others concern bulls as enemies or prizes. In Ireland there was the Tain at that time, but of the giants themselves there is no trace. Irish Celtic tradition Bo Cuailgne or Cattle Raid of Cooley, about the fight over one prize bull. In tells of the Battle of Mag Tured, when the Tuatha de Danann, or the People of Babylonia Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed the Bull of Heaven. In Egypt, one of the Goddess Dana, defeated the Fomorians, a race of giants which had lived in the forms of Bata or Bitiou was that of a bull, and so was that of another god, Ireland until that time. Similarly, in Greek myth, the Gigantes, the Titans, and Apis. In Persia there was the primeval bull Geush Urvan, slain by Ahriman, the the Cyclopes were all pre-existent to mankind and gigantic in stature. bull Srishok watched over by Gopatshah, and the apocalyptic bull, Hadhayans, Among mythical beasts faced by the hero, the dragon and his near kin — which will be slain by the hero Saoshyans. The bull is also associated with the serpents, snakes, basilisks, cockatrices, sea-serpents and worms — are by far myth concerning the founding of Carthage, when Dido, its queen, was allowed the most common. There is no universal accepted representation of the dragon. as much land as she could cover with a hide. But cutting the skin into strips, Reading about them one finds that they possess or lack wings and legs, have she managed to evade the terms of the gift and stake out a fair-sized claim. one head or many heads, either have ears or do not, are voiceless, hissing, or In these and other myths of the bull, the meaning of the symbol would thundering in their roar, live underground, in forests, in caves, in the sea, in be obvious to any cattle rancher of Australia, Canada, the United States, or pools or whirlpools, in the clouds, in the sun or in the sky. They are creatures of Argentina. The bull is a pretty strong animal. Even when it’s tamed it is a far, fire or air or earth or water, they are scaly and dry or perhaps slimy and wet. far better thing you do if you don’t tangle with it. It is a valuable food animal to They are large, they are tiny. They are evil and inimical toward mankind, they many. And finally it is an obvious symbol of potency and fertility, as is typified by are good and benevolent. the mummy of an Egyptian princess buried in ancient times with the pizzle of a Is it because of their ambiguity that dragons are so popular with saints as bull for company. Such a metaphor is easy to understand, even in our own time. enemies? Or is it simply that for saints, like all other heroes since 3000 or more Such an antagonist, for a male hero, is nearly ideal, himself battling himself. BC, the dragon has come to represent the ultimate antagonist? Dragons are not, And the ideal antagonist for any hero would be, of course, himself. Only after all, as stupid as giants. In fact they are often credited with quite a high then could his full strength be displayed. Originally, giants may have been such degree of serpentine cunning if not genius. Whichever the reason the number of heroes, larger than other men because the hero was himself believed to be larger. saints who have killed a dragon, rescued a maiden or saved a city, then galloped But as we know such enemies of champions now are a race apart. In Jack and away into holy oblivion is considerable. It would include Saint George, Phillip the Beanstalk and in Jack the Giant Killer, giants are presented as much larger the Apostle, Florent, Cado, Mandet, Keyne, Michael, Samson, Clement of Metz, and more powerful than most men (herein the glory for the hero who can kill Romaine of Rouen and Pope Sylvester. such a one) and also totally without brains (herein the method by which they The worst thing that can happen to a maiden in myth is what is euphemistically are defeated). Like the great dinosaurs, perhaps, giants are, giants were too described as ‘a fate worse than death’. That doom is largely reserved for heroines; dumb to live. for it is rare that the fate which dares not speak its name befalls a hero. As The Book of Genesis, chapter vi says, ‘There were giants in the earth in those an alternative, the worst thing that can happen to a hero is probably being days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of eaten alive. In a variant of part of The Kalevala, Väinämöinen was swallowed men, and they bare children unto them, the same became mighty men which by a giantess and then voyaged from one end of her bowels to the other before were of old, men of renown.’ Perhaps the most common folk-belief regarding being vomited forth into the ocean. Elsewhere, Ilmarinen, the blacksmith, while giants is that they are in some way survivors of an earlier race which lived courting a maiden, was required to ‘walk along the sparse teeth of the Old Hag

67 of Hiisi’, who was probably Louhi. When the blacksmith rashly attempted the only indulging himself in a little Christian breast-beating; for Arthur appears, task, she swallowed him, then told him to come out via her mouth. Ilmarinen particularly in T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, to have been quite aware knew better than to take her up on her offer, perhaps for fear the old hag would of the hanky-panky going on between the two and to have connived at it at least employ what few teeth she had to crunch him like a louse. So, with the tools of to the extent of doing nothing. Neither of the two wished to see him dead, they his trade, he hacked a doorway in her side where none had ever been before. In only wanted to be alone . . . together. The worst that can be said of Launcelot, yet another variant, Ilmarinen was swallowed by a monster fish. In this episode and perhaps of Gawain, Arthur’s nephew and Mordred’s half-brother, is that he refused to come out by either of the likely exits, choosing instead to leap they distract the king’s attention from his real enemies. about within the monster until he ruptured its stomach and escaped. But Morgan le Fay and Mordred are an entirely different kettle of fish. In the Cheyenne legend of Falling Star, the hero allowed himself to be swal- Mordred, in particular, had good cause to hate his father/uncle. Malory’s lowed by two monsters, a horned lizard and a white ghost owl. The lizard took account, in Chapter XXV of Book I of the Morte Darthur reads, ‘Then King Arthur him in via its mouth, but the owl was a little stranger about the matter. It took let send for all the children born on May-day of lords and ladies, for Merlin told Falling Star in through its ear. King Arthur that he that should destroy him who should be born on May-day, Inside both monsters Falling Star found a tribe living which had been captured wherefore he sent for them all on pain of death. And so there were found many before him, all of whom he rescued by cutting his way out. lords’ sons, and all were sent unto the king, and so was Mordred sent by King Sometimes the hero’s antagonist is another person bent upon the same quest Lot’s wife, and all were put in a ship to the sea, and some were four weeks old for the capture or possession of the same object. In fairy tales this theme is often and some less. And so, by fortune, the ship drove unto a castle, and was all expressed as follows: three brothers set out for a far land in search of the Water to-riven, and destroyed the most part, save that Mordred was cast up, and a of Life or a beautiful maiden. Although the youngest (the underdog, disguised good man found him, and nourished him till he was fourteen year old, and then hero) completes the quest and wins the prize, he is cheated of his victory by the he brought him to the court.’ older brothers who claim credit for it at their father’s court, having attempted Malory does not say here what Arthur intended doing with the children. Nor to kill their younger brother. But just as they are about to be rewarded the does he say in this passage what Arthur’s relationship was with Mordred. But youngest brother arrives, having been saved by his purity of heart, reveals all, later in the book he does say that they were father and son, a relationship which claims the reward and usually, having neutralized his antagonists, forgives them. Malory is forced to explain in order to show why Arthur should hand over the More realistically, they are occasionally put to death in the most fiendish manner kingdom to a knight who throughout the epic shows himself to be unworthy of possible to encourage the others. knighthood, much less a crown. All in all the information given is pretty sketchy; Such antagonists, within the bosom of the family, are a way of stating the but at several points in the Morte Darthur Mordred is referred to as the son of essential identity of the hero and his enemies. They are not different in kind, King Arthur’s sister, Margawse, and in Chapter XIX of Book XX he is named as only in viewpoint depending on which side are the affections of the mythmaker Arthur’s son. Nothing more is known about Arthur and Margawse. Nor does and his listeners. Within Arthurian legend there are only two such, Arthur’s son Malory say what information Merlin had about the enemy that would destroy (and nephew) Mordred, and his sister Morgan le Fay, the enchantress. Launcelot the king. Did Arthur know that it was to be his own son, born of an adulterous and Guinevere, whose guilty love for each other forms much of the matter and incestuous union between Arthur and his sister? I think it is likely that of these tales, are never antagonists of the king, however great their passion. Arthur and Merlin intended to kill the bastard son of Arthur and Margawse in Although Launcelot believes that he has destroyed the king and the fellowship a shipwreck, along with a number of other lords’ sons who had to die lest the of the Round Table by messing about with Arthur’s queen, it is likely that he is secret of the king’s incest became common knowledge.

68 The most immediate parallel to this tender tale of parental love, if I am right, school in a nunnery: and there she learned so much that she was a great clerk is that found in the New Testament account of King Herod’s massacre of the [sorceress] of nigromancy [lit. black magic]’. And a little later, Merlin warns Innocents. One difficulty arises, however, in making a straight comparison King Arthur that he should keep his scabbard safely ‘for ye shall lose no blood between Arthur and Herod. Herod is presented as an out and out villain, as while ye have the scabbard upon you, though ye have as many wounds upon indeed are most of the other fathers and grandfathers who play a similar role you as ye may have. So after, for great trust Arthur betook the scabbard to in variants of the motif throughout many cultures. But King Arthur is a good Morgan le Fay his sister, and she loved another knight better than her husband guy! This problem leads to all sorts of evasions by Malory and other writers King Uriens or King Arthur, and she would have had Arthur her brother slain, who prefer to ignore the fact that this hero, one of the noblest in any folklore or and therefore she made another scabbard like it by enchantment, and gave the mythology of any time, committed incest and conspired to murder children. scabbard of Excalibur to her love. And the knight’s name was called Accolon. . . .’ Throughout Morte Darthur Malory gives little hard fact concerning Mordred’s Morgan’s next trick was to steal Excalibur, providing Arthur with an imitation life other than to note that he was a troublemaker, that he had ambitions to take while her lover, Sir Accolon, was given the original. Then she manoeuvred the over his father’s wife and throne, and that he finally died attempting to do so, two of them into a fight in which neither recognized the other. Accolon would killed by Arthur who simultaneously received his mortal wound from Mordred. have beaten King Arthur, and did indeed sorely wound him, but Nimue, one of Concerning Morgan le Fay, the writer says first that she was one of three sisters the Ladies of the Lake and Merlin’s bane, caused the sword to fly from Accolon’s of Arthur, the others being Margawse, queen of King Lot of Lothian and Orkney, hand, whereupon the king picked it up and forced his opponent to yield. When and Elaine, queen of King Nentres of Garlot. they had mutually recognized each other, Sir Accolon pleaded for mercy, which Of Elaine, nothing is said beyond her marriage; but of Margawse, Malory the king granted, saying, ‘I blame thee the less, for my sister Morgan le Fay by says that she was the mother of Gaheris, Gawaine, Agravaine, and Gareth by her false crafts made thee to agree and consent to her false lusts, but I shall be King Lot, and, of course, Mordred by Arthur. Margawse had her head cut off by sore avenged upon her and I live, that all Christendom shall speak of it. God her son Gaheris when he found her in bed with Sir Lamorak, the son of King knoweth I have honoured her and worshipped her more than all my kin, and Pellinore. Why Gaheris didn’t finish the job and kill Lamorak at the same time is more have I trusted her than mine own wife, and all my kin after.’ And so not made clear; but he and his brothers made up for the oversight later when the battle ended well for Arthur, for he had recovered both his sword and its the four of them attacked Lamorak and Mordred stabbed him in the back. scabbard at the cost of injuries from which he would soon recover. As for Sir So much family history (or soap-opera, depending upon one’s point of view) Accolon, he died; so the king despatched his body to Morgan le Fay at Camelot, is necessary before beginning with Morgan le Fay; for although Malory mentions saying that she should be told that it was a present for her and how he was sure her often, he never explains why she wants her brother dead. But as a member of that she would rejoice to know that he had recovered his weapons. a family where a son hates and would kill his father (Mordred versus Arthur), a Morgan le Fay, in the meantime was keeping herself busy at home. In the father who attempts to kill his son and finally succeeds (Arthur versus Mordred), belief that Arthur would have by now been killed by Sir Accolon, she was a stepson who attempts rape on his step-mother (Mordred upon Guinevere), plotting to kill her husband, King Uriens, and would have succeeded, had not a and another son who kills his mother (Gaheris versus Margawse), then Morgan servant warned her son, Sir Uwaine, what she was about. And just as she was le Fay would be strange indeed if she did not wish to kill her brother, sleep with going to strike, he caught her arm, forcing her to drop the weapon. ‘I should cut him, or both. off your head for this,’ he said; but Morgan le Fay pleaded for mercy, crying that In a passage written perhaps sixty years before the dissolution of the mon- she had been tempted by a devil, that she would never do it again, that her son asteries by King Henry VIII, Malory says of Morgan le Fay that she ‘was put to should spare her. She wept, she cried, she tore her hair until Uwaine, disgusted,

69 gave in and agreed to spare her life. back. Next she schemed to steal the sword Excalibur again. To this end she took Whereas in the early part of Malory the hero is simply constrained from herself to the nunnery where Arthur was recovering from the wound received kneeing his opponent in the groin (and in fact one of the recognition points of in battle with Accolon; but because the sleeping king firmly held on to the a true hero is that he does keep his knees to himself), from the eleventh book sword she had to content herself with the scabbard only — that part of the onward a new definition of true chivalry is introduced together with the motif weapon which made Arthur invulnerable. Morgan’s next scheme was to send of the Sangreal. Merlin had prophesised that three white bulls should achieve Arthur a reconciliation gift, a magnificently embroidered mantle designed to the Sangreal, of which two would be maidens and the third chaste. Although spontaneously combust when he put it on. The Lady of the Lake suggested that the words are all in symbols, the prophecy is reasonably plain: two of them will Morgan’s messenger try it on first, and fortunately for Arthur and unfortunately be virgins, and the third will be the next thing to it. Virginity has become at this for the girl, ‘she fell down dead, and never more spake word after, and burnt to point a requisite for beholding the Grail. And the Quest for the Grail is also a coals’. test of purity, separating the virgins out from the merely honourable. Throughout the rest of Arthur’s life Morgan seems to have plotted against It goes without saying that comic book heroes are by and large virgins. him with little effect; though she stirred up trouble, she never came very close Without saying because sex is unmentionable and does not exist. Honour, to harming him. But at the very end of his life she made an uncharacteristic however, remains. Comic book heroes fight fairly, they do not strike below the appearance after Sir Bedivere had finally cast away the sword Excalibur accord- belt; and the bad guys, when they show no such compunctions, only display ing to Arthur’s instructions. Bedivere carried the mortally wounded king to the their villainy and define their evil. And comic book heroes are also forbidden to lakeshore, then waited there with him as a barge drew near, draped in black carry weapons, at least of the conventional kind. Anything which is obviously and bearing three queens. Arthur was placed in the barge, and laid his head in lethal, like a gun, is verboten. In 1940, not too long after Batman was born, his the lap of one of the queens who said, ‘Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried creators made the mistake of having him shoot a criminal. The ink was hardly so long from me? Alas, this wound on your head hath caught over much cold.’ dry on that issue before their boob was pointed out by their readers who do And then they rowed away. not want their heroes to kill. Thus was formulated the rule that Batman does not carry a gun. He is not, like 007, licensed to kill. Nor for that matter are The notion that a hero fights fairly is almost certainly of comparatively modern comic book villains. They may talk a lot about killing, they may bluster and origin. It would not have occurred, for example, to Sargon I, king of Akkad in threaten the most fiendish of deaths; but they never do anything about it. They, about 2500 BC to treat his enemies fairly in battle or his prisoners honourably. too, are honourable to the extent of not revealing the unpleasant and sordid Sargon’s objective would have been solely to win, for he would have believed fact of death. True chivalry. that he had a god-given right to win. But by the time of Malory’s writing of the Morte Darthur the concept of a fair fight had been established as part of the code of knightly chivalry. And in Book X of Morte Darthur we are told, for example, of how Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris, and Mordred all fought at the same time with Sir Lamorak for three hours. This was itself a contravention of the code in which such a combat would have been a duel between two opponents only, not one man against four. But the evil of this fight was compounded when Mordred slew Sir Lamorak with a blow in the

70 SIX

The quest is the most important part of the myth of the hero. It is the journey that his wife had a new boyfriend — a sad tale but one that could have come from one world (ours) to another which every hero makes and from which he out of any war. brings to us, readers of myths, anything from entertainment to salvation. In For many people the quest is epitomized by that of the Knights of the Round myth, legend and folklore the quest is paradigmatic of life. Table for the Holy Grail or Sangreal. In a wider sense, however, every exploit in In general the rewards of the quest become less valuable to the hero personally Arthurian romance may be referred to as a quest, and Malory for one frequently as the benefit to humanity increases. A law of diminishing returns or perhaps does so. If a white hart wanders through King Arthur’s court, it is at once inverse proportions seems to apply so that where the goal or gift is transcendant, pursued by one of his knights; for the animal is a sign that ‘the game’s afoot’. i.e., salvation, peace, the rebirth of life, etc., the benefits to the hero may By the animal King Arthur and his followers know that somewhere there is a be negative or non-existent. Frequently he never even gets to bask in the damsel languishing in a giant’s castle or a knight imprisoned by a sorceress; satisfaction of a job well done. At the end of The Lord of the Rings Frodo says: there is a quest. Elsewhere, outside Malory, in the fragmentary Welsh sources ‘. . . it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are for example, there are references to other quests undertaken by King Arthur in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep himself, to the underworld of Annwn where he steals the Cauldron of Plenty or them.’ Inspiration (related symbolically to the Grail) as well as across Wales in pursuit of the sow Henwen. The point is well made. Some versions of the life of Odysseus say that when he finally reached home after wandering for years past the Fall of Troy, he In the New Hebrides, the quest is the journey which must be performed by had no sooner killed Penelope’s suitors and re-established himself than he was every dead soul and which is previously rehearsed in life. On the island of commanded by the Olympian gods to go into exile for a further ten years to Vao the dead man arrives before a cave on a seashore. There he encounters purify himself of the blood-guilt of his wife’s importunate wooers. And few Le-hev-hev, the dreaded Guardian Ghost. Before the cave entrance is a design of the other heroes of the Trojan War, which may well have been regarded in called ‘The Path’ which she has traced in the sand. As he comes up she erases its time as a war to end war, lived to enjoy their valour either. Almost all the half of it, which he must re-draw or be devoured. As he has memorized ‘The Trojans were exterminated, particularly those of the House of Priam, down Path’ during ceremonial dances he knows it and can redraw the missing portion. to the youngest child lest they someday take revenge on the Greeks. Their Then he walks the maze and at the cave entrance offers to Le-hev-hev the boar opponents fared scarcely better. Many of the Greeks died before they reached sacrificed at his funeral. She is persuaded to accept the boar in place of the soul their homes. In the case of Agamemnon we read the story of a hero who went who is then allowed to join his friends at the back of the cave. off to war, came home and was murdered before he had a chance to find out By his very nature the hero is both a leader of men, a psychopomp, and a

71 follower as well. His divine nature inspires others to follow him on his quest only gift. The account in The Kalevala of the hero Kullervo is also a tale of though his human part is quite as susceptible to the sound of distant drums as one whose road could have ended only in death for himself and for all who any of the rest of us. Prince Gautama, upon being shown the four forbidden knew him, friends and enemies alike. And there is also the tale of the twelve- things by his charioteer, Chandaka, abandoned his royal life, became an ascetic, year-old shepherd [sic] boy, Stephen, who in AD 1212 appeared before King and eventually discovered The Way which he then preached. In so doing he was Philip of France at Saint-Denis with a letter which he claimed had been given first one who was led, then one who guided others along a path which he had him by Christ and which commanded him to preach a Crusade to liberate perceived when it was invisible to them. This path is one which has been the Jerusalem from the Saracens. Philip, who seems to have been possessed of some cornerstone of every world religion. Its beginning is in this world in which we commonsense, uncommon then as always, advised the boy to go home and doubt and are unsure, and it leads to one where there are certainties, where the mind his sheep; but Stephen went instead to the abbey of Saint-Denis, where, concepts of good and evil have disappeared. perhaps in emulation of Peter the Hermit who had earlier led the disastrous This function of the psychopomp has nothing whatever to do with the char- ‘People’s Crusade’, he began to preach. Stephen’s vision was this: that he would acter of the soul-leader. It is his vision that men follow, not his skin. So one lead a mighty band of innocents, children who would by their righteous power authority can describe the eighth avatar of Vishnu, Krishna, as possessing a free the Holy City from the infidel. Before their holiness the seas would roll back character marked by ‘deceit, dishonesty and trickery’. It is not that these are and they would march, as Moses and the Israelites, across the Mediterranean to attributes which others should emulate but rather that there is a song which Jerusalem. Some contemporary reports say that 30,000 children waited with Krishna alone knows and which he plays upon his flute, a music that will take a him at Marseilles for the promised miracle. Some turned on Stephen, accusing listener from this world in which people starve and are cold to another where him of betrayal, but most waited patiently. Then, according to one account, there is enough for all. Stephen was approached by two ‘merchants’, named appropriately Hugh the At one extremity this vision is one of Nirvana, annihilation, in which there Iron and William the Pig. These two Christians offered to transport Stephen and is enough for all because there is nothing, no one; pain and strife have ended. his followers free of charge to Jerusalem. Much relieved by this offer of divine At another it is the golden steps of paradise which a leader sees and towards assistance, Stephen accepted their offer, seven ships were chartered, and the which he leads his people. In Saivism, the worship of Siva, this residence of the glorious band embarked, unwittingly, to be sold in slave markets across North god is called Kailasa, in Christianity it is Heaven, in Islam it is Paradise, in some Africa. Irish legends it is called the Isles of the Blest. At its best this vision can produce Another Children’s Crusade, led by a village boy named Nicholas, began in the finest that mankind is capable of, for example, J. S. Bach’s B-Minor Mass, Germany some weeks after Stephen began preaching in France. It fared no which in its final chorus expresses a certainty that transcends all possible doubt better than Stephen’s flock. Of 20,000 who set out to walk across the Alps to in its words Dona nobis Pacem —give us peace. Italy, approximately 7000 made it as far as Genoa. The Genovese, suspecting a Just as easily, more easily perhaps, what the hero sees may be a delusion, Teutonic plot, allowed them to remain within the city for one night only, then a mirage; and the heaven to which he takes his followers may be the most evicted them. The next day the sea refused to part for them also. Impatient, two horrendous of hells, hastily cosmeticized to resemble paradise for everyman shiploads of the company set sail from Genoa and were never heard from again. — Hitler’s vision of a racially pure, Aryan Europe at the end of a road which Nicholas himself, and others of his followers, were advised by Pope Innocent to led past the scenic wonders of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Belsen and Dachau, return home. Few made it. Of Nicholas, nothing further is known; but his father Mathausen and Ebensee. was lynched by a crowd of angry parents. Such heroes have, knowing or not, death as their quest and death as their This is emotive stuff, the sort of theme that sticks in people’s minds. And it

72 is perhaps the tragic series of Crusades, led by fools and swollen by innocents, upon another day when the piper lured the children through the mountain door. which was the basis for the legend known throughout Europe of the time, that of There is in world mythology a literal sense in which the psychopomp more the mysterious Pied Piper of Hamelin. Where he came from, none of the citizens often figures, as the soul-leader who guides the soul of the dead from this world ever knew; but he appeared when the town council were in despair caused by to the afterlife or, more rarely, from the afterlife back to this world. The most an invasion of rats. Nothing that they could do would rid them of the vermin, so, familiar of such leaders to most people will be Charon, who operates the ferry- when the piper presented himself as a ratcatcher for a fee, the council accepted service across the River Styx. He has analogues in many cultures, the closest of his terms at once. His method was strange: he merely tucked his bagpipes under which are Charun, the Etruscan death god who takes with him a hammer to the his arm and began to play, a music that pierced the very stones of Hamelin. It battlefield with which he finishes off wounded warriors, and the angel of death called from the granaries, from the larders, from the mills, and from the grocers’ in modern Greek folklore, Charos. shops rats of all descriptions. Entranced they followed him through the town to In Egypt both Anubis and Thoth seem to have been regarded as psychopomps the riverside where they were so mesmerized by everything he played that they as well as protectors of the newly dead. In Germany and Scandinavia there danced straight into the river Weser and were drowned. So Hamelin’s plague were the Valkyries, warrior maidens who took the bodies of slain heroes across of rats was ended. But the council decided to withhold the piper’s pay. What their saddles to Valhalla, where they were to fight on the side of the gods at he had done must have been sorcery, witchcraft. If he insisted on his payment, Ragnarok. In Celtic romance there are the three queens or the Palug Cat which they’d chain him to a stake and burn him. Against the crowd the piper could do take the body of the wounded Arthur to the Isle of Avalon, there to be healed or nothing; but he promised to return to Hamelin, bringing with him a different perhaps to die. All of these are psychopomps who help the traveller from this tune. world to the next. He was as good as his word. On the following Feast of St John, in the year But even more prominent in myth and folklore are those who attempt the 1284, the Pied Piper came back to Hamelin. But the tune he played upon his return journey, bringing one of the dead back to life. In Greek myth such a pipes was an altogether different one this time. It was so sweet it called all the quest is made successfully by Hermes who goes to Hades for Persephone and children of Hamelin from the fields and from the barns, from the pathways by unsuccessfully by Orpheus when he tries to resurrect Eurydice. Variations on the river to the market square. The particoloured piper began to walk and the this motif are found in Irish Celtic myth, as well as in tales from Scandinavia, children followed. Through the town out toward the mountains, they straggled Babylonia, Siberia, India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Polynesia and Melanesia, behind him while the sweet pipes echoed. When he entered a hole in the Greenland, Central and North America, and Africa. Its popularity rests upon the mountainside, the children were with him; the mountain closed behind them fact that the hero has a chance, or appears to have a chance, to do what each with a door of rock and the children were never seen again. Except two, one of us would like to do: beat the dealer. And as the myths are written the hero blind, the other deaf, who hadn’t been able to keep up with the others. They manages to do just that often enough to give us all hope. alone were left of all the children of Hamelin. Thus the Pied Piper evened up As noted earlier, the perfect hero for our time may just be the friendly neigh- his score with the councillors of the town. bourhood dope-dealer, the businessman who has learned the lessons of free The date given in this tale is a bare seventy-two years after the failure of the enterprise a little bit better than the rest of us. His quest will be in search of Children’s Crusade. The image, that of the children who walked away and were grass, hashish, cocaine or heroin. The other world to which he journeys is the never seen again, is the same in history and legend. Perhaps the music those jungle, whether that in which drugs are harvested or processed or that other in children heard, which no one else could hear that way, was the same when they the mean city streets where the deals are actually made. In either case it is a stood upon the shore of the Mediterranean waiting for the sea to open as it was foreign territory, the wild, a place of danger into which most of us would prefer

73 not to go. So we pay dealers, heroes, to run risks we dare not contemplate. its relation, three stories, from three different cultures, expressing the same Perversely, we also pay the cops, also heroes, to catch them. What is even journey. more perverse is that, having set up this myth situation in the real world, we then make myths about it, ballads, novels, television programmes in which the In Finland they say that after Ilmarinen the smith had forged the miraculous heroes of one side are glorified while those of the other are put down, giving mill, the Sampo, for Louhi things became very prosperous at North Farm. Once the audience some clue as for whom to cheer. the old hag had the treasure she desired from the mill which ground out salt This paradoxical concept of the dealer as hero is scarcely a new one; his and grain and money, her home changed from a place of barren frost to one of direct ancestors may be found in the Prohibition Era in the United States as warmth and wealth. For safe-keeping the mill had been placed inside the copper represented by such figures as Al Capone. And the antagonists of the dealers of mountain where, to a depth of nine fathoms it had struck three great roots, one that time, the lawmen, have also been immortalized in myth, for example, Izzy to the water’s edge, one deep into the mountain, and one into the ground near Einstein and Moe Smith, or Elliott Ness. All of them were engaged on quests, North Farm House. Louhi had also taken the precaution of fastening the door the crooks across the border of the United States and Canada in fast cars to of the cave with nine locks. There seemed little likelihood that anyone would bring back the water of life and the cops across the same border in the same attempt to steal it. fast cars to bring back the eternal verities of decency and apple pie or boredom. Väinämöinen had other ideas. He envied the wealth of North Farm which But the motif could have come from almost any time during the last millenium contrasted bitterly with the poverty of Kaleva’s Land. So he proposed a raid on or two. It is the quest of a man, a culture hero if you like, who is bringing a gift Louhi’s treasure to Ilmarinen. If they could not steal the Sampo, then perhaps from out there (the wild place) to here (home) where we can sit back and enjoy Louhi could be persuaded to share its wealth with them. They decided to go by it. land; but first Ilmarinen had to make the old man a new sword, fierce enough to withstand whatever trouble they found at North Farm. When he had finished, To fulfil his quest, the hero has to be pretty single-minded about it. Nothing can they mounted up and set out. As they rode along the shore they heard a sound be allowed to stand in his way. No antagonist may be permitted to thwart him. of weeping — they found no maiden crying there, only a boat, beached far He becomes obsessed with the journey and its goal. The hero is a man possessed from the water, moaning about its fate. It had been meant to be a ship of war, by a vision, of gold or salvation, it does not matter which. Thus, the location carrying warriors into glory, yet it was home to reptiles underneath, nests of of the quest can either be in the external world or it can be contained within birds in its masts, frogs hopping along its planks. the hero’s mind. In essence the quest of Jason to Colchis for the golden fleece, The singer of Kaleva’s Land was one who knew that things don’t happen by the quest of the Greeks to Troy to recover the bride of Menelaus, fair Helen, the chance. So instead of going by land it was decided to go by sea after all and quest of Odysseus to reach Ithaca, the quest of Falling Star downriver saving the boat was soon launched. Then Väinämöinen sang such charms as filled the his people at each village he passed, the quest of Quetzalcoatl for immortality boat with maidens and with youths, with older people too, until there were a and the quest of Jesus Christ for salvation for all mankind are precisely the hundred rowers, a thousand others in the ship as well. And he took his place at same thing. The object of the tale may be to entertain, in which case it can the stern and chanted another charm that should have caused the boat to move. be put down as a mere fireside tale, or it can involve the deepest philosophies But it would not budge. Only when Ilmarinen, who had not wanted to come of which man is capable, in which instance we call it religion, a mystery. But very much, took his place at the oars did the boat begin to move in answer to the separation of the two may cause more pleasure to mythographers than the old man’s song. understanding to people. So, to define the quest in the only way it works, in Lemminkainen at that time was at his home on Starvation Headland. Its name

74 gave an exact assessment of the worth of his land. He was passing the time When Väinämöinen had done with playing for a time, he put his harp away by making a boat in which he could sail away from the farm, go somewhere and they continued sailing to North Farm where Louhi, mistress of Pohjola, was where things were a little bit easier. When he saw the red boat sailing by him not at all happy to see them; she was still less pleased when she heard why they in the bay it seemed to the reckless Lemminkainen that it had come for him, had come. Väinämöinen wished to share the wealth of the Sampo with her, half not a moment too soon; and he hailed it. As soon as he heard where they were for North Farm, half for the people of Kaleva’s Land. If she would not agree, going, he volunteered, an offer which Väinämöinen quickly accepted, an extra then he and Ilmarinen and Lemminkainen would take the Sampo for themselves, pair of hands would always come in handy. Lemminkainen did not come empty leave the people of Pohjola nothing. The mistress of North Farm was not willing handed, however; he insisted on bringing some planks with him, just in case — to give up half her wealth just for the asking. She summoned up her men, her the sea might get rough and they’d need a freeboard. So he loaded them and youths, her warriors, and the people of Kaleva’s Land were soon surrounded by off they sailed. a ring of hostile men in armour, quite ready to go to war for the mill. Väinämöinen steered one day across the sea, a second day across a swamp, Väinämöinen had in mind another kind of war. He took his fish-bone harp, a third into rapids where he chanted charms to rocks and waters and gods to tuned the strings, and then began to play. But his tune was different from help the vessel. The stones of the rapids were turned to moss and the red boat the one before, at first joyous, then pensive and quiet, then a lullabye. The safely steered to a calmer, broader stretch of the river where they suddenly warriors began to dream, leaning on their spears, supported by their swords, ran aground. When Lemminkainen leaned over the side, he found they were sleeping to the soothing music of the harp. Old Louhi’s gap-toothed face wore a caught on the back of a great pike which had been sleeping on the river bottom. peaceful smile as she began to snore. Soon all who lived at North Farm were Ilmarinen had a go at cutting the pike with his own sword, but his blade snapped sound in slumber, enchanted by the music of Väinämöinen’s harp. And when against the stony scales of the giant pike. Then Väinämöinen, with the weapon the music died away they still slept, bound in ropes of heavy dreams. And then which Ilmarinen had forged, forced the sword point through the fish’s gills and Väinämöinen sang another song at the gates of the copper mountain, before the hauled it aboard, all but the tail which dropped back into the water. And the heavy doors protecting Louhi’s treasure. And Ilmarinen greased the locks and boat sailed on to a small island where they beached it while they had their lunch, hinges with lard; then he charmed and wriggled free the locks that clasped the eating the pike which the old man had caught. cavern shut. Magically, in silence, Louhi’s treasure was opened to the sun. Afterwards, the singer of Kaleva’s Land made a harp from the pike’s bones. Lemminkainen thought he could shift the Sampo with his arms alone, but, The frame was taken from the sharp jawbone of the pike, the tuning pegs from strain as he might, the Sampo did not move at all, so deep were its three roots. its teeth; but for the harp-strings the singer had to use the hairs of Hiisi’s fire- But the reckless lover was not beaten. Taking one of Louhi’s own steers from breathing gelding. With those hairs from the smoking mane of the Demon’s her herd, he ploughed the great mill’s three roots free of the soil, then carried horse, the instrument was ready to be tuned and played. Though everyone there the Sampo from the cavern to the boat. Still the hag of North Farm and all her tried to play the harp, none of them could make it sing, except Väinämöinen. people slept as the boat sailed away with the treasure. Väinämöinen steered Softly he began to touch the instrument. All listened to it and heard what they their course, singing charms to Ahto to make the waters smooth. They rowed wished to hear. The maidens knew it was a song of love. The youths could hear for two days; but on the third day Lemminkainen, the reckless one, began it calling them to battle. The old people heard it sing of drowsy afternoons. to tire of rowing; the task was hard, a song would make the work go easily. Animals of the forest, birds of the air, fish of the sea, and gods from everywhere Väinämöinen thought it wasn’t time for song yet. When they were close to all heard it, stopped to listen for a day, a second day, three days and never knew Kaleva’s Land would be the time for singing. But Lemminkainen persisted. He the time had gone. would sing himself if no one else would sing. But where Väinämöinen’s song

75 would put the world to sleep, Lemminkainen’s would wake the dead. Over the steadfast singer asked; but Louhi had no thought of compromise. She tried seven settlements that noise was heard, such a terrible sound it was that a crane to seize it with a claw, but the mill of wealth fell into the sea and broke in flapped away toward North Farm terrified. Even when it got there the bird was Ahto’s waves. All that she could keep was a part of the decorated lid, a piece still so frightened, so angry that it screamed noisily enough to waken Louhi from of the handle of the mill. And with that came an end to wealth at North Farm. her sleep. Prosperity was never seen again at Pohjola. The mistress of North Farm looked around. Everything was as it should be. Most of the bits of the Sampo sank to the bottom of the sea where they became Then she ran to the cavern where she kept the Sampo. Her treasure was not part of Ahto’s treasure with the fish-bone harp. But some of the lighter parts there. In her fury Louhi was a storm of words and spells and charms. Terhenetär, drifted in to shore, enough to bring prosperity to a portion of Kaleva’s Land the fog spirit, breathed a fog out for Louhi’s prayer; but the red boat managed where there had never been enough before. to get through. Then Turso, a demon of the sea, poked his head up beside the That quest, from Finland’s great epic, The Kalevala, is one of piracy pure and boat, thinking to drown the entire crew and take the Sampo back to Louhi; simple. Someone had a treasure, someone else wanted it, as easy as that. It is but Väinämöinen took him by the ears and only when Turso promised to leave told from the viewpoint of the pirates, as is Jason’s raid on Colchis and the raid men alone forever did Väinämöinen let him go. Louhi’s final prayer to Ukko, of the Greeks on Troy; but it could as easily have been told from the viewpoint god on high, awakened the storm which she had wished. The red boat was of the aggrieved party, as is the Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley. As battered by the wind and waves so terribly that the singer of Kaleva’s Land the basis for a quest myth it has been popular in most cultures and still is a lost his fish-bone harp overboard and it became one of the treasures of Ahto’s favourite motif. It is an amoral situation; but as a myth it is truer than many kingdom undersea. And the boat itself would have sunk, had it not been for moral fables. Lemminkainen’s foresight in bringing along the extra planking for the freeboard. With that protection and that of a charm which he addressed to the eagle and In Chapter III one version of the birth of Alexander the Great was given from to the raven the people of Kaleva’s Land were saved. the Ethiopian Book of Alexander. Alexander was, however, a popular mythic The time that they had lost was enough for Louhi to muster a force of men figure and was adopted by many cultures. Each of the peoples who took him on and set off in pursuit. It seemed no matter how hard the crew of Väinämöinen’s as a hero altered his character and the details of his life to suit themselves. In vessel rowed, the other ship continued to catch up, driven by Louhi’s fury. But some cases the myth bears small resemblance to the original; but then, that is the steadfast man groped about in his tinder box and found a bit of flint; then what myths are about, a great, trans-literal truth. According to the Persian epic, he took a pinch of tinder fungus and over his left shoulder dropped them into the Shah Nameh, written in 60,000 verses in the tenth century AD by Firdausi, the sea with a charm to make a reef of hard rocks to wait below the surface of the hero’s name was Sikander and his story and quest is this. the water for Louhi’s ship. The race appeared to be all but ended when suddenly Darab, King of the Persians, decided to invade Rum (Rome), the king of which the pursuing vessel ran hard on the submerged rocks, tore out its bottom, fell was Failakus (Philip of Macedon). Soundly defeated by Darab, Failakus took apart there in the sea. refuge in the fortress of Amur, from which he sued for peace on any terms Still Louhi was not beaten. She knew a spell that would cause dead wood whatever. Darab was as generous as he was courageous — the only ransom to have a sort of life and with this spell she made the wood a part of her, she which he desired was the daughter of Failakus, Nahid, for his wife. She must gave herself wings, a tail of wood; and she became a bird of such tremendous have been some beauty for the monarch to accept her in total settlement of his size that she could carry all her men with her wings. Like a harpy, she flew claim against Rum; for wars are seldom settled for a kiss as this one was. Darab, after Väinämöinen’s boat and lit upon the mast. ‘Will you not share the Sampo?’ however, may have been disappointed with his bride. However beautiful his

76 wife was, Darab found that she had a quality of which he had not been told. other. She had bad breath. Unlikely as this seems for a theme in a classic myth, it is Then out of Sikander’s camp came an envoy, protected by a flag of truce. all true, every word of it; for this story takes place in the legendary time before His ostensible mission was a final effort to settle the dispute without war; but Pepsodent. his real purpose was to reconnoitre the army of Dara and determine both his The physicians and priests of Darab’s court were at once consulted to see if strength and likely plans. But even the ambassador’s identity comprised a ruse; they could effect a cure; for if they could not, then Nahid would have to be for this was Sikander disguised, who would entrust such a vital mission to no returned to her father. Fortunately there was such a remedy, a particular rare one but himself. herb which had never been known to fail in such cases. Swift messengers were The king of Rum was received courteously by Dara who pledged his health at once dispatched throughout the land. Such a strange quest may never have in wine; but the ambassador did not return the cup, claiming that in Rum an been seen again before the television commercials of the twentieth century; and ambassador never returned a cup from which he had drunk. Three more rounds like them, it had a happy ending. The wondrous plant was found; and all lived lost Dara three more cups, which disappeared inside the envoy’s wallet. During romantically ever after. Their son was Alexander. the banquet that followed, it was observed that Sikander seemed unusually able Or, at least they lived happily together for a time; but as soon as Nahid for an ambassador; and furthermore, his manner suggested not so much that of discovered that she was pregnant, she excused herself from her husband on a messenger as that of a monarch. His interest in Dara’s army was noted, his the grounds that she wished to visit her father and returned home speedily. bearing, and at some point during the meal he was recognized by one of Dara’s Thus it happened that Sikander was born at Rum. Failakus was delighted in his men. Although Dara summoned guards to seize Sikander, he leaped on to the grandson, but concealed the fact of his existence from the world, only allowing back of a horse and galloped away into the night. it to be known that one of the women of his court had borne a child. Darab Sikander’s expedition to the camp of the Persian host provided him with waited patiently for Nahid’s return, but after several years he married again and enough information to defeat them, but even so it took seven days. Dara was fathered an heir to the Persian throne, Dara. forced to fly for his life while Sikander set about winning over the people of In Rum, meanwhile, Sikander was being raised almost as if he were Failakus’s Persia. Accompanied by a small troupe of loyal officers including two ministers, own son. The finest instructors were engaged for him, among them the sage Mahiyar and Jamusipar, Dara went into hiding. In a few small skirmishes with Aristatalis (Aristotle) who became Sikander’s lifelong adviser. Shortly before troops of Rumi scouts, Dara and his men were defeated every time. When Failakus’s death, he appointed his grandson to be his heir and the king of Rum, Dara’s wife and family were captured by Sikander’s men, instead of holding and then expired. Sikander adhered, for a time, to the moderate policies of his them to ransom or as security for Dara’s good behaviour, the Rumi monarch grandfather; but, in spite of the wise advice of Aristatalis, the king was proud. magnanimously refused to press the point and returned them. At one point When the time came to pay the annual tribute to Persia, he refused, saying that Sikander even offered Dara back his throne; but Dara refused to accept it if it it was now Persia’s turn to pay tribute to Rum. Should Persia be so rash as to meant that Persia would become a vassal-state of Rum. He would rather die refuse this, then Sikander would conquer Persia and then the rest of the world. than accept, and that is what he did, treacherously at the hands of Mahiyar This extraordinary communication left Dara, the son and heir of Darab, little and Jamusipar who hoped by a cowardly assassination to curry favour with choice but to prepare for war against a king who was, unknown to them both, Sikander. his elder brother. Dara advanced to the frontiers of Persia, where he awaited the In fact, the legend says that Dara died in the arms of Sikander, realizing before arrival of Sikander’s army. The two forces camped opposite each other, neither he expired that the king of the Rumis was his own brother. When Sikander side advancing while each king awaited a provocative or a false move from the vowed vengeance upon his murderers, Dara died happily, with one last request:

77 that his brother would marry his daughter, Roshung (Roxanna). After the rites It is also a twofold journey — in a general sense for all mankind and in a specific for Dara had been completed, Sikander’s first act was the execution of the sense for Gautama himself. It is primarily with this individual journey that the traitorous Jamusipar and Mahiyar upon his brother’s tomb. following myth deals. Sikander remained in Persia only long enough to wed Roshung, then restless- Prince Gautama’s father, King Suddhodhana, did everything in his power to ness disturbed him yet again, and he crossed the mountains into India. The ensure that his son became a warrior and a king; but it was not enough. Before governor of the country agreed to surrender providing he might be allowed to Gautama’s birth his mother, Queen Maya, dreamed that she had been entered keep four things which were especially precious to him: a goblet, a wise vizier, by a white winged elephant. Enquiring of holy men the interpretation of her a skilful physician, and a daughter as beautiful as an angel of paradise. But dream, the queen was told that she had thus conceived a son who would be Sikander, who wanted all or nothing, wrote that it was precisely those four either a Chakravartin (Universal Monarch) or a Buddha, one of the heavenly things which he most desired of India. India gave in. beings who manifest themselves upon earth at irregular intervals as teachers The ruler of Kanuj, the territory on which Sikander next bestowed his at- for the salvation of mankind. Suddhodhana was a member of the Kshatriya, or tentions, refused to submit to the Rumis. Against a force of 2000 elephants, warrior, caste and not surprisingly wished for his son to follow him. He decided Sikander’s army would not have stood a chance had not Aristatalis come up that the choice would be made as he desired it, in favour of the splendour of with a stratagem. He recommended that the king have made an iron giant the life of a Chakravartin. In his court, however, there was one holy man whose which would be placed upon an iron horse and the whole of this ponderous verdict was that the unborn child would be Tathagata, the One Thus Come, construction transported upon a wheeled cart. The interior of the statues should whether the father willed it or no. King Suddhodhana heard the prophecy in be filled with fireworks, which, when they were set off in the midst of the stubborn silence, his mind firmly made up. elephants, would stampede them. The invention was a smashing success. Half As Suddhodhana plotted his son’s future, the firmament, the earth and all the battle was won by the stampeding elephants; it only remained for Sikander’s of nature celebrated Gautama’s conception and coming birth. When he was army to finish it off. born there were forty-two miraculous events including earthquakes and other The Rumi conqueror then turned his attention to more peaceful pursuits. He portents. Of these the most wonderful was the transformation of the oceans visited the temples of Mecca and left valuable gifts there. He went to see a from salt to sweet. His mother gave birth while standing with no pain at all as pair of oracular trees which informed him that his life would be short. On a the baby appeared from her right side. And on the same day in different places mountain top he was told by a disembodied voice that he would die soon and, were born the horse, Kanthaka, the charioteer, Chandaka, the bride, Yasodhara, sure enough, he did. A few days later, Sikander, king of Rum, Persia, Hind, and the disciple and friend, Ananda, the elephant, Parileyyaka, and the Bo tree. With Kanuj died. He had not conquered all the world. all of these would the Buddha’s life be associated. In this short extract from the enormous mass of Alexander myths the dual Sages observed on the body of the child the lakshanas or marks of identity, nature of this hero’s quest is plain. He was first of all a conqueror, he wanted to which proved that he was indeed the One Thus Come. Among them were own the world. But he was not merely a warrior, he was also curious, he wanted thirty-two primary marks on his skin, sixty-five other signs on the soles of his to know things, he was insatiable for experience which might have been in a feet, and an additional eighty markings on his body. These included joined later time provided by a university. In a way he was the father of tourism. Were eyebrows, a bump of wisdom, a mark between and slightly above his eyes which he alive today his weapons would have been a camera and credit cards. indicated the third or ‘wisdom’ eye, and three fortunate lines on his neck. Seven days after Prince Gautama’s birth, his mother died. King Suddodhana The quest as it was practised by Gautama is in sharp contrast to that of Alexander. tried to raise his son to become a warrior and a king. But when the boy was

78 only twelve years old the earlier predictions were reinforced with yet another it was that the direction of his life was changed. It was clear to the prince that from the Brahmins. They stated that should young Gautama see an old man, a the terrible enigmas of age, disease and death could only be solved with means sick man, a dead man, and then an ascetic, that he would inevitably become more effective than kingdoms on earth. But when he tried to tell his father this, the Buddha. The king did everything that he could to thwart this outcome. All the Kshatriya king would not even let him finish. Gautama’s plea to be allowed aged and diseased people were banished from his city, which became a place to become an ascetic was refused peremptorily. of perpetual sunshine and health. Should anyone become sick he was spirited That night a sleep and mist such as none had ever seen descended on the from the place before the illness could spread and before it could be witnessed city. In the whole of the capital the only waking people were the prince and by the young prince. Likewise, as people grew too old they vanished discreetly his charioteer, Chandaka. While all was still, Gautama mounted Kanthaka, and, lest Gautama behold age. Only death could not be banished completely; but led by his companion, he left his father’s palace, the life of a warrior and the it was handled in such a way that it was invisible to the boy. As for ascetics, life of a king forever. In the forest Chandaka wept as he parted from his master. it was comparatively easy to exile them. In any case, few of them wished to By birth and throughout their lives he and the young prince had been bound be distracted by the many pleasures which King Suddhodhana thoughtfully together, but the bond was breaking then. It is said that Kanthaka, also bound provided for his son. He was surrounded with all the nautch girls he could to Gautama from birth, died of grief at being separated from his rider. possibly desire. He was taught the arts of war and excelled at them. He was No sooner had the future Buddha renounced his position and inheritance than betrothed, then married, to Yasodhara, as destiny decreed. In all of these things he entered upon what was to be a lifelong war with the Buddhist tempter Mara, Gautama was happy, knowing nothing of the prophecies affecting his life and an analogue of the Hindu Yama, lord of death, and of Satan in Judaeo-Christian for a time it appeared that King Suddhodhana might have cheated fate. tradition. Mara first tempted Gautama by offering him universal sovereignty Yet one day, while out riding Kanthaka, the young prince chanced to see an in only seven days. But Gautama’s resolution was firm. Mara ceased his soft aged man, perhaps one that had been overlooked, perhaps one of the immortals persuasion to follow the ascetic into the wilderness where other opportunities in disguise. When Gautama asked Chandaka what manner of person this could would present themselves. be, the faithful charioteer gave him a truthful answer, not being mindful of the Gautama spent the first seven days of his new life in Anupiya Mango Grove, king’s command. On another day, Gautama happened to see a sick man, and on meditating on the bliss of monkhood. From that place, bearing the Eight a third day a funeral procession. Each time he asked Chandaka the meaning of Requisites of a holy man which had been presented to him by a deity, he went what he had seen and each time the charioteer gave him a truthful answer. Thus to the capital of King Bimbisara at Rajagaha where he begged alms from door the heavens managed it that Gautama witnessed age, and sickness, and death, to door. Bimbisara, moved by his evident piety and breeding, offered him his the three signs which had been foretold. He considered what he had seen. kingdom. But the monk refused; his goal was enlightenment. But he did promise About this time the prince’s wife gave birth to their first child, a son who was that when he had become a Buddha he would return to teach in his kingdom. named Rahula, The Bond. That bond should have irrevocably fixed Gautama’s Gautama then went to the residence of the Yoga ascetics, Alara Kalama and mind on this world, yet he had seen the three predicted signs and his mind Uddaka Ramaputta, where he studied Yoga for some time. But even as he was troubled as he considered his life and the lives of all around him — where acquired knowledge he became convinced that the Yoga discipline was not likely they began and to what end they flowed. On a fourth day, while out riding to be the Way to Salvation. So, bidding a respectful farewell to his teachers, he Kanthaka, Gautama happened to see an ascetic. When he asked Chandaka what went to Uruvela. There in the company of five other monks, he practised the this strange man was all the plans of King Suddhodhana crumbled like so many most severe of austerities for six years. The tempter Mara was as determined ancient monuments. Glory forever fell as Chandaka told him truthfully, and so to change the monk’s purpose as Gautama was to keep it. And at this time he

79 returned, convinced the monk would be so weakened by his austerities that he for Buddha to repel than was the next when Mara appeared and attempted to would be an easy prey to persuasion. To make sure, he brought with him the persuade the Buddha to pass immediately into Nirvana, thus dying in this world. Nine Hosts, who personify vicious attachment to this world. Exaltation of Self, Even as the Tathagata rejected the suggestion he doubted whether his refusal Contempt for Others, Doubt, Lust, Hunger and Thirst — all of these there were was the right choice. At most, if he remained in this world, the Buddha wished and more. But neither they nor Mara could move the inflexible monk whose to have nothing to do with it, but rather devote himself to a life of inaction. His way was determined. They were rebuked by him and went away. mental struggle was resolved, however, when Brahma himself appeared and After so long a time Gautama was capable of the greatest austerities ima- reminded the Buddha that none could follow him unless they were taught. Out ginable; but even as he grew more proficient in these practices, he began to of compassion for mankind Gautama thereupon resolved to preach the Law. doubt whether such strict discipline was likely to be the Way of Salvation. He In those three tales is the quest, the heart of life, the power to hold the resolved to see if there was not another method, and his life now became that of world for a time, a thief in a misty night. It is often symbolized by such dream a mendicant beggar once again until one night he beheld five visions from which actions as flight, swimming, running, walking, driving, or by dreaming itself, he knew that he would achieve Supreme Enlightenment the next day. Early daydreaming and imagining. If there were a single graphic symbol of the quest the following evening he seated himself beneath the Bo tree which had, like it would probably be the spiral which looks towards the centre as does the quest Chandaka and Kanthaka, been born at the same moment as himself. There he of the Buddha and towards the world as does the quest of Alexander. It is a sign resolved to remain unmoving until he had achieved his goal, though his skin and that moves both ways all the time, a maze, a concentric eye. nerves and blood should dry up. Mara once again appeared, accompanied by Nine Rains, storms of Darkness, Wind, Rain, Mud, Sand, Rocks, Weapons, Hot The result of the hero’s quest is the gift which he brings to this world, himself or Ashes, and Blazing Coals. Miraculously none of these could harm Gautama who another. If his quest is within, his gift is likely to be an intangible, the teachings remained in meditation while the Nine Rains were miraculously transformed of a Buddha or of Christ. If his quest is in one of the wild places of this world, into flowers in signification of Heaven’s approval of his purpose. then it may be a treasure, a weapon which he brings. If his quest lies beyond Mara did not give up even at this sign but commanded the future Buddha to the seas, beyond the thrice seventh kingdom, as one formula goes, it may be the get up and leave the place. Gautama refused steadfastly, rebuking the Tempter, water of life or the maiden with which he returns. If he is a god or a mysterious who left in temporary defeat while the monk was gradually surrounded by a hero come from an unknown world his gift may be life, or death, or a part of company of heavenly beings who had come to watch with him as he obtained our culture. In any event the results of that gift may be blessing, damnation, or first Knowledge of Previous Existences, then the Gift of Supernatural Vision, both. and finally the Knowledge of the Causes of Craving, Rebirth and Suffering. In the various personas of Quetzalcoatl are a variety of gifts which he was With the knowledge and the gift Gautama became the Buddha for his time and said by the Aztecs to have brought. As the king, Topiltzin, he was a lawgiver. As achieved Supreme Enlightenment. His first act as the Buddha was to breathe the leader of the Chichimec peoples called Quetzalcoatl or Huitzilopochtli, he forth the Song of Triumph which is sung by all the Buddhas. At this frustration showed them the site for what is now Mexico City. As Cinteotl, the god of maize, of his designs, Mara sent an even greater storm than that which he had sent he was said to have brought to the Pre-Aztec Nahua peoples the knowledge of before; but again the Buddha was under divine protection and unharmed, being the cultivation of maize. Archaeologically this can be dated to no later than sheltered from the storm by the hood of the Cobra-King, Mucalinda. 2000 BC. As Ehecatl, the wind god, he was the bringer of music. As Nanautzin, The Evil One’s next temptation of the Buddha was in the form of his three the deformed god of leprosy and syphilis, he was the bringer to earth of the light daughters: Craving, Discontent and Lust. This temptation was somewhat easier and warmth of this fifth sun that shines on us today as well as exemplifying the

80 necessity for human sacrifice. As the Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcoatl, he was paradise, he remembered to seize a pair of tongs, an anvil, two hammers, and a the god who invented the calendar and the Nahua system of writing, founded needle with which he would be able to set up shop in the new world. laws, taught morality, and established agriculture. Another hero, Sido, was said to have given the natives of New Guinea lan- But the most important gift ever made to mankind by Quetzalcoatl and his guage and a number of plants, stocked some of their reefs with shellfish, and priests was probably when through this deity Central and Southern America fathered many important plants himself. Sido’s was the first death; and after were handed over to the Spanish on a platter. Cortez was identified by many his death he became first a trickster whose wanderings all men must follow and as the promised reincarnation of the Feathered Serpent; and the god then eventually the Chief of the Underworld. proceeded to betray his people, giving them, their lands, their culture, and their The gift of the hero Itje in Siberian myth results from the time he went religion up to the Conquistadores. after the giant Punegusse, to revenge himself for the deaths of his parents. In Arthurian legend the results of the quest are usually intangible, although But Punegusse was apparently immortal, for he came back to life again and there are remnants of an older tradition in which the gifts of the heroes might again until Itje had the bright idea of burning his body. From the ashes came have been similar to what they would have been in other legends, myths, and mosquitoes. folktales generally — cauldrons of plenty, heads of fabulous animals, and the In American Indian mythology, Coyote is often a culture hero who brings like. But the most important gift resulting from the heroes of Arthur’s court is mankind such gifts as order, fishing, hunting, and the like, but also the guide rather a state of mind which results in some of the tales from having seen or who brings men into this world, and often the trickster who by his choice or by touched or been fed by the Holy Grail and in others from having performed well his joke brings death into the world. in some chivalric adventure. In Aztec myths, most of the attention of scholars seems to have been devoted According to the Persian Dabistan, the first man in Parsee tradition was to Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, who in many ways is an analogue Mahabad, founder of the dynasty which bears his name and which existed during of Christ and little to his antagonist/teacher/brother/double, Tezcatlipoca or the Golden Age, a period lasting for a mere 6 × 1030 years. In this present cycle Smoking Mirror. This dark god is a gift giver too, in his own way. The gift which he and his wife became parents of the human race and he may additionally have he bears is not the corn or writing or calendar of Quetzalcoatl, but death, the become the champion culture-hero of all time. To him are credited the invention end of kingdoms, friendships, families, and possessions. And more than that, or development of medicine, metallurgy, weaponry, animal husbandry, sheep- this is not the nightmare life in death that one might expect, but rather the shearing, spinning, weaving, sewing, trade, commerce, cities, villages, streets, visionary life in death, the ecstatic knowledge of resurrection as the Morning palaces, laws generally but specifically those dealing with the protection of the Star or as the Sun. The act of dying to be born again belongs to Quetzalcoatl; the Zindbar or helpful animals and the destruction of the Tundbar or destructive concept that it is possible, the teaching of it, is one that rises from the Smoking animals, religion, and the knowledge of god. Perhaps his most useful gift to Mirror. mankind was the invention, in this myth, of the caste system. Many of the heroes who bring gifts to mankind are gods. It would be curious One of the most interesting facets of mythology is the occasional cross-over if the whole thing in world religion were based on a misunderstanding. What if that occurs between cultures, just as comic books occasionally feature the hero we were the gods and they were bringing us all these gifts — agriculture, cities, from one performing in the strips of another, Superman in Batman Comics, for weaving, death — as offerings. example. In myth this occurs when Alexander is incorporated into the myths of Persia or Ethiopia, and, from a European point of view, when Adam is a Muslim hero. Islamic tradition says, for example, that when Adam was expelled from

81 SEVEN

As homemakers, heroes are lousy. They’re good at fathering but deplorable as Aife, whom Cuchulainn killed. On the whole Cuchulainn’s relationships with fathers. Few of them ever held a steady job in their lives. On his wedding day, women are something more than the ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ formula which Gary Cooper, in High Noon, left his bride to do what a man’s gotta do. When seems to guide many champions. Women as both antagonists and as lovers the chips are down if it’s a choice between Grace Kelly and doing it, Grace Kelly stand out in his legends, particularly the Morrigan and the character of Maeve, comes second. Furthermore, she’ll never understand him. Come back Katy being something other than passive prizes to be won from dragons or giants Jurado, all is forgiven! and carried home like so many sacks of flour. Notwithstanding that, there is Although in general the hero’s lovelife is a disaster or, alternatively, is not an implied ithyphallic side to Cuchulainn. When he died he was said to have mentioned in his myths at all, there are a few shining exceptions. The Norse been mourned by the thrice fifty queens who had loved him. As the legends of god and hero Loki was in virtually all respects not very nice to know; he was the Cuchulainn were recorded within Christian times, however, that love has been archetypical Trickster whose caprices caused the death of Baldur and brought interpreted to be a courtly passion in which metaphor has a reality transcending about Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, as well. Set against this is his a mere physical experience. Earlier versions may have said otherwise. unusually happy lovelife with his wife Sigyn. She was absolutely faithful to her When one considers that many heroes’ marriages were founded on abduction husband. After one of his tricks, when he was seized by the gods who decided then it is not too surprising that many of their love-lives foundered. The law to imprison him forever, one of their two sons was transformed into a wolf and of rape, implied in those tales where the hero seizes a maiden from a dragon, compelled to kill his brother. The entrails of the dead son were then employed to where one rapist kills another for possession of a bedwarmer, doesn’t really make bind Loki securely beneath snakes whose venom dripped constantly into his face, for a marriage made in heaven. The situation in myth is, moreover, merely an causing him untold torment, his agonized writhings creating earthquakes in the echo of a belief which is still with us in society. Hoebel, in The Law of Primitive world above. Sigyn was, however, in spite of the loss of her sons, completely true Man, cites an Eskimo custom whereby the murderer of a man appropriates for to Loki. With a bowl she caught as much of the venom as she could, reducing himself the wife and family of his victim. The widow, presumably, receives no her husband’s pain. choice in the matter, as women in some ‘civilized’ countries where the disposal Irish myths also record the deeds of a hero who had a happy marriage: of a woman’s property is entirely at her husband’s discretion. Even the awarding Cuchulainn, whose relationship with Emer was both long and peaceful for the of a woman’s body may not be by her choice as is recalled from the incident in most part. Other than saying that they were happy, however, the tale gives little The Kalevala when Joukahinen, having lost a contest of spells with the old man, information about their life together. We are not told, for example, whether Väinämöinen, is enchanted into a bog by the singer of Kaleva’s Land and can they had children, although he did have a hero son by the Amazon warrior, only free himself when he agrees to give Väinämöinen his sister as a bride. The

82 bargain is made without Aino’s knowledge; and when she learns of it, rather Malory’s book and is perhaps a simplified version of an earlier Welsh variant than marry an old man whom she considers disgusting, she commits suicide. in which the king was said to have been married to three ladies, all named In a Mbamba myth from Angola, Sudika-mbambi wins for himself two wives Guinevere. Although information about these three is scanty, it’s an odds-on but refuses to share them with his twin, Kabundungulu, who nevertheless certainty that the three marriages conformed to the usual heroic pattern. In takes them during the daytime while his brother is out hunting. When the wives Morte Darthur Merlin’s warning to King Arthur was quite explicit, that Guinevere complain that they are being violated by their brother-in-law, a jealous argument would betray him with Sir Launcelot. In spite of this Arthur married her, and follows, then a fight in which neither brother is victorious. So the brothers turn Launcelot continued through much of the book to be one of the bravest of and walk away in opposite directions, one to the East and one to the West where his knights. Malory was apparently uncomfortable with this aspect of the tale, they become sky and storm gods. which is central to the break-up of the Round Table, the success of only three Another reason that the hero’s lovelife may be unhappy is because the lady of his knights in beholding the Sangreal, and to the battle between Arthur and may herself betray him. In The Epic of Gilgamesh several of the tragic love-affairs Mordred at Salisbury. He evades the issue somewhat, preferring episodes of of the goddess Ishtar are referred to, suggesting that it may have been as fatal chivalry to sordid intrigue between the knight and queen. T. H. White, however, to love her as it was to cross her. The wolf, for example, is described as having in The Once and Future King rises to the tragedy implicit in such a situation by once been a shepherd who had brought offerings of cakes and young kids to showing the helplessness of Arthur as he watches the whole affair, loving both Ishtar, but who was then transformed by her to wolf-shape, harried by his own his wife and his best friend. dogs. The hero Samson’s relationships with women, as given in The Book of Judges, In Arthurian legend both Arthur and Merlin were betrayed by their ladies. are impossible from beginning to end. His wife betrays him seven days after The king was warned by Merlin, even before his courting of Guinevere, that he their marriage, then, after he has given her away to a friend, she and her father should not marry her. And Merlin, so wise when advising others but helpless in are burned alive by Philistines. Then the Philistines attempt to use a harlot as his own affairs, fell for the nymph Nimue, one of the Ladies of the Lake, and bait for a trap for him, but fail because of his enormous strength. And finally was forced to follow her willy-nilly, although she did not want to be bothered. they worm from him the secret of that strength by means of Delilah, whom they When the king inquired of Merlin, since he knew what was to happen to him, have paid to trick him. Samson of course has his revenge; but it is one which why he didn’t rid himself of his love for her, the enchanter replied that he could kills him as well as his enemies. not. Heracles was murdered, inadvertently, by his wife Deianeira, who had sent Nimue eventually tired of having this doddering old wizard following her him a shirt which had been dyed in the blood of the Centaur, Nessus. Nessus, about the place and, having tricked all his magic secrets from him, she persuaded mortally wounded by one of the hero’s poisoned arrows when he attempted to him to go under a stone where she confined him by his own spells. This took rape Deianeira, advised her with his dying breath to use his blood as a love- place quite early in the Morte Darthur, and the consequence was that Merlin charm to hold her husband’s attentions should he ever stray. His words were, was unable to play any important part in the further adventures of the Knights of course, a method of revenging himself upon Heracles; for the Hydra’s bile of the Round Table, nor was he, like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings,actively which poisoned the weapons of the hero burned just as fiercely after it had engaged in a quest, although he was capable of speaking from his prison. His passed through the body of the Centaur as it did before. Other less well-known dialogue, however, was somewhat limited, being confined for the remainder of traditions concerning Heracles say that he gave away three of his wives: Megara the book to telling his would-be rescuers to let him be. to his sixteen-year-old nephew Iolaus, Hesione to his friend Telamon, and Iole to Arthur’s unhappy marriage to Guinevere lasted right up until the end of his son Hyllus. It has not been thought necessary to record the ladies’ opinions

83 of his generosity. but she conspired to kill him and nearly succeeded, and his mother hated him. Where the hero is a teacher, as in Buddhist, Jain, and other traditions, mar- His mother’s love was a problem which Llew apparently never resolved. His riage rarely enters into his life at all. As one Anglican bishop has said, the father, Gwydion, tricked his wife/sister into giving their son a name and arming implication is that such a hero — he was referring specifically to Jesus Christ — him; but he could not force Arianrod into loving or even acknowledging the may be a psychic homosexual. If so, as a theme it doesn’t figure in the recorded son she wished to forget. Three times Arianrod cursed Llew, and the third of myths of Jesus, Gautama, Parsvanatha or others considered here. What does these was that Llew should never possess a wife from any of the kingdoms of come across is not so much heterosexuality or homosexuality as detachment men, which revealed the extent of Arianrod’s ability to cast a blight on her son’s from the whole idea. Hence Gautama is able, according to the Dhammapada, life. With the help of their uncle Math, Gwydion, a trickster of the first order, to abandon his wife and newborn son without having ever seen the child. This fashioned a wife for Llew from three kinds of flowers — oak, meadowsweet renunciation of wife and love is also the central theme of the story of Nanda, and yellow broom. Blodeuwedd, whose name means ‘Flower-fair’, was as fickle whose wedding with a maiden named Country Beauty was being celebrated as her origin might suggest. First she betrayed Llew with Goronwy Pebyr, a when the Tathagata came to the house to beg for alms. Entering he placed hunter who passed their home one night while Llew was away; then she plotted his begging bowl in Nanda’s hands and so great was Nanda’s respect for the with Goronwy to discover the secret of Llew’s vulnerability. This secret was of teacher that he left the wedding to follow him, pleading with the Buddha to the ‘neither riding nor walking, neither clothed nor unclothed’ pattern which is take back the bowl. The teacher said nothing at all to Nanda until they reached familiar both from the legend of Agamemnon’s murder and from that of Lady the monastery, where he turned and accepted his bowl, at the same time asking Godiva’s ride through Coventry. the bridegroom if it wasn’t true that he really wanted to be a monk. In spite of Llew confided to Blodeuwedd, upon her pretence of concern for his welfare, himself, Nanda heard his tongue reply yes. That was the end of his marriage. that he could only be killed by a spear which had been a year in the making, In another myth, that of Achilles, the point is made quite simply that sexuality and made by a craftsman who only worked on Sundays during church services. of any kind is antipathetic to the hero’s life. The two chief loves of this hero But even if such a wonder should be made, Llew was invulnerable unless he were Briseis (female) and Patroclus (male). The loss of one led to the death of was neither within nor without, neither afoot nor on horseback, neither clothed the other, and that death led to the death of Achilles himself. When, during the nor unclothed. Trojan War, the captive maiden, Briseis, was awarded to Agamemnon instead of Blodeuwedd, whose solicitude for her husband knew no apparent bounds, to Achilles who fancied her, the hero sulked within his tent, refusing to fight. found this a fascinating riddle indeed. Was there no way then, she inquired, Patroclus, however, seeing that the Greeks were dispirited without their greatest in which he could be killed, one which would satisfy the terms of the riddle? hero, borrowed the armour of Achilles and went out to battle in his stead only to Llew appears to have been more muscle than mind, for he went on to explain be killed by Hector. In a fury, Achilles stormed on to the field where he rescued carefully to his wife in considerable detail just how the terms of the riddle might the body of his friend and killed Hector. But in his anger he uttered such boasts be complied with to encompass his own destruction. Llew assured her that only over the body of his enemy that Apollo and Poseidon together determined that if he were caught in an outdoor bath-house, with one foot on a buck’s back and Achilles would himself have to die; and it was by Apollo’s aid that the fatal the other on the rim of a cauldron, before he had finished dressing himself could arrow of Paris struck Achilles in his one vulnerable spot, his heel. all the conditions be fulfilled. When he had spoken, she clucked happily away; All of these heroes, whether they know it, whether they do not, have problems wasn’t it a good thing that it was so difficult to kill him? The conversation was with love. But in comparison with some of the others considered here, Llew Law concluded and, by Llew, forgotten. Blodeuwedd, however, repeated the details Gyffes from The Mabinogion had real problems. Not only was his wife unfaithful, to Goronwy, who made the spear as he had been unwittingly directed to do by

84 Llew. was, in October 1974, reported in Rolling Stone to be recovering from being One year later Blodeuwedd again went to her husband, with the same concern attacked with boiling hominy grits while getting out of his bath. His assailant over his death. Inexplicably he volunteered to show her precisely how he could appears to have been his girlfriend. be killed, the better to protect his wife from her fears. The motif here is one of Llew Law Gyffes lived to take his revenge, however. He was restored to his Fatal Gullibility, a fool being tricked into performing that specific action which right shape by Gwydion and spent months recovering from the wound he had will kill or maim him; and Llew’s experience parallels that of Osiris on the received from Goronwy’s poisoned spear. When he was healed his first thought occasion of his being cajoled into his coffin by Set. As a mythic situation it was revenge upon his wife’s new husband; and it was one which was quite is strange and fascinating, for the active cooperation of the victim is required appropriate for what had been done. Goronwy was to stand where Llew had in order for the plot to work. The narrative, both in the Osiris myth and that stood before, half-clothed, while Llew cast a poisoned spear at him. Goronwy of Llew, is up to this point pedestrian and human; but it suddenly becomes pleaded that as he had wronged Llew through the love of a faithless woman, he something quite different, trancelike, a drama in which the victim dances toward should be allowed some protection. Llew agreed, and Goronwy raised a great his end like a sleepwalker towards a sacrifice; and a relationship which but a slab of stone and held it before his body like a shield. As a defence the stone moment before might have seemed trite is now seen as tragic. helped him none at all, however; Llew’s spear went through it as if it had been Moving to the relentless music of his dream, Llew assumed the position in the softest of country butter and into Goronwy’s side. For that lover there would which he could be killed. He stood in that strangest of poses, one foot on the rim be no transformation, no rescue and no more wives of other men. Unlike Llew of a cauldron, one foot on a buck’s back, in an open-air bath-house and partially he dropped dead. clothed. Goronwy, who had been waiting for the moment, cast his spear. He For Blodeuwedd, Llew reserved another punishment. With her women she was leaving nothing to chance. Not only had he followed the instructions to fled to the mountain; but all except her were so terrified that they walked the letter as they had been relayed to him by the faithless Blodeuwedd, but backwards, watching for the approach of the vengeful Llew. In so doing, they he had also poisoned the tip of the weapon. As it pierced Llew the hero was neglected to watch where they were going, fell into a lake, and were drowned, transformed into an eagle which flew away grievously wounded, abandoning leaving Blodeuwedd alone. When Llew caught up with her he told her that the field and the treacherous lady to Goronwy. though he considered her the cause of all his trouble, still he would not kill her. In a similar fashion Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, was slaughtered Rather he would transform her, so that she who had been one of the fairest in his bath by his faithless wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. From creatures of the day should become one of the most feared creatures of the one account he seems to have been half in and half out of the tub when the night. With his words the lady changed. She who flower fair, flower fickle blows were struck, covered with a fishnet thrown over him by Clytemnestra, had betrayed her man became a feathered, taloned owl. Her sweet mouth was and, according to Robert Graves, possibly eating an apple at the same time. It metamorphosed into a cruel beak. Never would she kiss again. makes a pretty weird picture. Graves explains this farrago as being evidence that Agamemnon’s killing is related to a group of myths which incorporate a Heroes are, on the whole, pretty dangerous people to have around, even in the riddle, as we have seen in the story of Llew. In this instance the riddle goes families of heroes, in spite of the persistent societal myth of ‘happy families’ something like: neither on land or on sea (one foot out of the bath, one in), who live in a never-never land of smiles, with seldom a discouraging word. neither clothed nor unclothed (a fishnet is scarcely clothing), neither feasting The truth of the matter, that hatred is as likely as love within the family, is an nor fasting (the apple’s just a snack), and presumably neither here nor there. intolerable one; but it is also necessary to get the message across, somehow. The The life of a modern hero is no easier. There is, for example, Al Green, who conundrum of reconciling wishful thinking with cruel necessity is resolved in

85 myths by changing the names, making the villain of the piece not the mother his eighties, long past the time when he would have been expected as a hero to but a step-mother (Cinderella et al.) and not a father but a grandfather (Perseus have died, he wrote: et al.) or an uncle (Kodiak Eskimo tale). There are, however, numerous myths in which the names have not been My bald pate bobs and blunders, changed and the problem is presented fairly. In Norse tradition, we are told I bang it when I fall; of Agnar and his brother Geirrod in the Grimnismal. Geirrod was under the My cock’s gone soft and clammy protection of Odin, while Agnar was sponsored by Odin’s wife, Frigga, who And I can’t hear when they call. despised Geirrod, saying that he was so stingy with his food that he would rather let his guests starve than feed them. As generosity was accounted one of the His death, when it came in 990 AD was in the same spiteful frame of mind as highest of virtues by the Norse, hers was a strong insult. Having established had been his father’s some years before. After Egil and his father, Skallagrim, that Geirrod was a villain, it comes as almost an anticlimax when he attempts to had quarrelled about money, the father rode off at night by himself, carrying a drown his brother at Odin’s orders. But sincere though Geirrod’s effort was, it chest on his knee and a brass cauldron under his arm. What was in them no one was doomed to fail; for those whom Frigga loves she is able to protect; and on ever knew, Skallagrim could not tell; for later that night he rode back without this occasion she was able to save Agnar and thwart her husband’s will. seeing anyone, and in the morning he was found in his room still and stark, In general Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ was the only begotten son of fully clothed, and dead as a doornail. God. But in the teachings of a Bulgarian Christian sect he had an older brother, Even without the coins which Skallagrim had, so local legend said, thrown Satanael. And the enmity between the brothers they explain by saying that into a bog, Egil was a wealthy man, but when it came time for Egil to die he Satanael was the elder and disinherited son, and what should have been his had no heirs of whom he approved. Though he was blind he still had his wits went to his younger brother, Christ. about him; and he still had the English silver which he had received from King It is not, however, entirely due to family relationships that quarrels arise Athelstan, two chests full of it. Egil thought that he would have a little fun with between heroes and those who live with them. Many of them are just plain it at the Althing, the great annual Parliament of Iceland. What he had in mind ornery. One such was the Norse hero, Egil. He was unusual for a warrior in that to do was to take the chests of silver coin to the Althing, scatter it from the Law he was also, like the Greek Archilochos, a poet. One of his poems, from Egil’s Rock over the assembled crowd, and wait for their law and their equality to Saga as translated by Palsson and Edwards, says: dissolve in simple greed. Centuries later the Yippies tried a similar gesture in the New York Stock Exchange. Alone I fought eight men, But Egil’s kinsmen, when they discovered the plan, would not hear of it. In Twice took on eleven, fact they left him at home lest he cause trouble. And so when they had all I carved the wolf’s carrion departed, Egil summoned two of the house-servants saying that he wished to go And killed them all: to the bath-house, some distance away; and off they went, Egil on horseback Blows battered the shield, carrying two chests, the slaves leading the way. Nothing was seen of the old Blades clashed, man until the following morning, when he was observed some distance from the My hard hand Hurled the steel-flash. house leading his horse and feeling his way stone by stone. Of the chests and Egil lived a long life, first in Norway, later in exile in Iceland where he became slaves there was no sign. Nor did Egil himself ever tell, for later that autumn he a prosperous farmer at Borg, in the western part of the country. When he was in died. He was buried in a mound with his clothes and his weapons.

86 Another reason for the hero’s antagonism towards relations occurs in several had come a cropper, this plea succeeded. Zoroastrian legends in which a son slays his father or a father kills his son to The magnitude of his attempted crime was suddenly revealed to him and punish an impiety, for the heroism of a Zoroastrian champion must be above Alexander’s son was filled with remorse for all that he had previously attempted. mere family ties. One such is Ayin Tush, who pinned his father’s body against Falling to his knees, he begged his father’s pardon which was freely granted. that of the deer which he had just killed in defiance of orthodox Zoroastrian And thus father and son were reconciled, just in the nick of time. For it was not teaching. Another was Farhad, who killed his father for the double crime of long before Alexander the Great died, of natural causes. slaying a sheep while drunk. The violation of prohibitions against drunkenness One of the favourite motifs in myth and legend is that of Potiphar’s wife, and killing sheep was regarded as so serious that Farhad was not only forgiven which is familiar to many Europeans from the Book of Genesis, xxxix, and by the king but also promoted in the monarch’s favour because of his piety. in another version from Greek myth where it concerns Phaedra, the wife of Alexander the Great has so far appeared in this book as a tourist and as Theseus, and her step-son, Hippolytus. But an even older version is that of the a world conqueror as well as in his character of the divine hero; but he was Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers, which can be dated to between 1554 and 1085 also portrayed, in the Gesta Romanorum, in a somewhat different persona, that BC but may be even older. In this story not one wife but two are represented as of the Eternal Pupil, the little child before the knees of God. Alexander had, being unfaithful to their husbands. according to the story, married the queen of Syria, and they had a beautiful son The story concerns one Bata who lived with his brother Anubis, whose wife, of whom the hero was quite proud. But when the boy became a man he began one day, approached Bata with a proposition which she was sure that he would to attempt, by every means at his command, his father’s death. This saddened be unable to refuse. When he did, she became so angry that she falsely accused Alexander. In fact he became convinced that such unnatural behaviour could him of attempting to rape her. To prove his guiltlessness, Bata fled from his only be because the prince had been fathered by some other man. Yet, when he brother, and, once he had put a river between, shouted back his innocence, taxed the queen with this accusation, she protested her fidelity in such touching emphasizing it by castrating himself and throwing his parts to the crocodiles. terms, calling upon Heaven itself to witness the truth of her words, that the Anubis was horrified by this act and became convinced by it that Bata had been king was convinced of her truth. And she added that it was Heaven alone which telling the truth and his wife lying; so he went home, killed her and threw her knew why their son was so weird. body to the dogs. Bata, in the meantime, continued his wanderings, in the Thus reassured, Alexander called his son to him and attempted to reason with course of which he was given a wife by the gods. But although he may have him. He protested to the prince that he had always loved him as a devoted believed that his life had changed for the better, it had not. His new bride father, that after his death he would succeed him on the throne. To all of this the arranged for his murder so that she could become the wife of the pharaoh and young man listened sullenly. He heard his father’s tender speech in silence, then reckoned that she was well rid of a husband that she hadn’t liked all that much. quickly left the room to hasten that succession. Alexander escaped the homicidal It appeared as if everything was up for Bata until his brother, knowing by mercies of his son as if he had possessed the fortunes of a cat. And, although magic that something was wrong, went looking for his heart. When he found it, the son may have enjoyed the sport, the father did not. So again he summoned Anubis was able to resurrect Bata who then concocted a plan to revenge himself his son to him in one of the secluded apartments of the palace. ‘Things can’t go upon his wife. He transformed himself into a bull, a marvellous bull, and had on like this,’ said Alexander the Great, ‘at this rate you’ll be the death of me.’ Anubis take him before the pharaoh, to whom the beautiful beast was presented And with these words he drew his sword and placed it upon the table between as a gift. The wife, however, recognized her dead husband even in this different them. ‘Here is my sword. Use it now, secretly, that none may know my shame at form, and she wheedled, she cajoled until the pharaoh agreed that, yes, the bull being killed by my own son.’ Oddly enough, where pleading and sweet reason should be sacrificed. Even that was not the end of Bata, for in dying he managed

87 to shed two drops of blood, one on either side of the pharaoh’s doorway. And in replied that he had done as the emperor had asked and remonstrated with his almost no time at all they had sprouted and grown into two large persea trees, older brother. The emperor pressed Yamatö-takeru to explain. The Kojiki, in miraculously full-grown in just one night. Philippi’s translation, gives the following answer, ‘Early in the morning when Again the pharaoh’s wife recognized her dead husband in his new transform- he went into the privy, I waited and captured him, grasped him and crushed ation; and she insisted that the trees should be cut down to make furniture. him, then pulled off his limbs and, wrapping them in a straw mat, threw them Bata, however, had yet another transformation ready. In the form of a chip of away.’ Such an excess of zeal in obeying his orders terrified the emperor, who wood from one of the trees, he flew into the lady’s mouth and was swallowed by decided that for his own safety he had better send Yamatö-takeru away from the her, thus impregnating her. Nine months later he was reborn as the son of the court in the hope that he would be killed on a quest. So he ordered his son to pharaoh, who, when he was grown, succeeded his father as the ruler of Upper journey to the west of the country where there were subjects of his in rebellion. and Lower Egypt. His first act as the new pharaoh was to condemn his mother, Yamatö-takeru was successful on his mission, to the emperor’s dismay; and he his former wife, to death. His second was to summon his brother Anubis to the immediately despatched him to the east on a similar mission. This time his plans court where they were reconciled and Anubis was rewarded for his help. worked out more fortunately, for his son was beaten to death with hailstones. The motif of the hero’s disastrous relations with his family may be most The emperor’s dilemma is one that crops up frequently in Westerns, where the strongly emphasized in the Jain myth of Parsvanatha. In his first incarnation as good townfolk bring in a hired gun to clean up the place for them, then realize Marubhuti, he was so pious he was murdered by his brother Kamatha. In his that they have traded frying pan for fire and don’t like it. It is a theme which second incarnation he was the elephant Vajraghosa, bitten by his brother in the forms the basis of the films Warlock and A Gunfight. In Warlock no future for form of a poisonous serpent. In his fourth incarnation he was the meditating the gunfighter is proposed, other than death or riding out; but in A Gunfight the sage Agnivega who was bitten by another serpent but the same brother. In hero’s (Hobson’s) choice is either a life of decrepitude, prostituting his moments his sixth incarnation he was another meditating sage, Vajranabha, who was of glory for a few drinks, or a quick and dusty death. No choice at all. Death, killed by the arrow of a wild tribesman, an incarnation of his brother yet again. which is the especial gift of the hero, is in its turn given to him; and the ‘victor’ And in his eighth incarnation he was once again killed by his brother in the rides out to another town, then another, then another. In one of them he will form of a lion. All in all Kamatha murdered his brother in five incarnations and win the prize as well, in the front or in the back. attempted his death in a sixth. As a critique of fraternal relations this tale could Socially, the hero is a loser. But that is not the point of his existence. When he be described as pessimistic. chose the hero’s life he opted out of the crowd and its vicarious pastimes. His One of the reasons that heroes have such bad relationships with their families experience at least is first hand. And in that alone he wins — every time. and friends is because they are a source of danger to them. Heracles seems It may be that all heroes believe themselves to be invulnerable, invincible. to have killed those who loved him nearly as often as those who did not. In a Often, in mythic situations — movies for example — a hero (good guy or bad Japanese myth the same kind of hero causes his father to fear him and attempt guy makes no difference) will cry out at death, ‘You got me!’ in tones of real to kill him. surprise. Until that moment he has always believed in his heart of hearts that he When Emperor Keiko noticed that his son, Opo-usu-nö-mikötö (Great Pestle or will live forever. Perhaps only in that belief can heroes continue as heroes. And Great Mortar), had stopped attending at meals he despatched his youngest son when, for whatever reason, they lose this belief in their own immortality they Yamatö-takeru to remonstrate with him; but some days later, when he still hadn’t lose their nerve and, faced with the knowledge that they too are mortal, either seen Opo-usu at a meal, the emperor inquired of Yamatö-takeru how he was scramble back in fear to the safety of a riskless life, merely mortal, or turn to getting along with the request. Yamatö-takeru, at that point barely a stripling, face death itself, clinging to their own heroic vision. A death in life or a life in

88 death? they might never cease their bleeding until the best knight in all the world had A similar motif to that of the invulnerable hero is one in which he is almost searched the wounds with his hands. Even King Arthur himself is unable to invulnerable: he may be wounded only in one place or by one weapon or by give relief to the wounded knight. When Sir Launcelot arrives upon the scene one peculiar manner. In the legend of Llew Llaw Gyffes we have seen how he is reluctant to attempt the healing and refuses to do so until commanded the method of his wounding was so hedged around with conditions that it was to perform it if he can by Arthur. All the knights assembled pray Sir Launcelot difficult if not impossible for the event to take place, without the complicity of the to try; even Sir Urre rises weakly from his couch saying, ‘Courteous knight, I hero.Llew’s was an exceptional and complicated instance. More often in myth require thee for God’s sake heal my wounds, for me thinketh, ever sithen ye the same object is achieved far more simply by making the hero invulnerable came here my wounds grieve me not.’ except in one secret spot. So Siegfried, in Teutonic legend, was invulnerable Launcelot agrees and kneels by the side of the wounded man, lifting his eyes from bathing in the dragon’s blood except where a leaf had fallen between his to the east to pray silently for the grace and for the power to heal Sir Urre; and shoulder blades. In Hindu myth the Daitya (originally gods but later demons) when he probes the wounds, those three that are upon his head, those three Chandamahasena was vulnerable only in the left hand. Krishna, from the same that are upon his body, and that one that is upon his left hand are miraculously traditions, was vulnerable only on the sole of one foot. The Greek hero in the made well again. ‘Then King Arthur, and all the kings and knights, kneeled Trojan War, Ajax, was invulnerable from having had Heracles’s lion skin wrapped down and gave thanks and lovings unto God, and to his blessed mother, and around him as an infant — the only parts of his body not covered were his neck ever Sir Launcelot wept as he had been a child that had been beaten.’ and armpit. The Apache Metal Old Man was vulnerable only under one armpit. Sir Launcelot’s son, Sir Galahad, has the same holy power. His first cure is Bear Woman in Blackfoot legend was vulnerable only in the head and then only King Pelles, his grandfather, who has been maimed in the thighs by the spear when she was in her bear-shape. Gowila in the legends of the Yana tribe of with which Longius had once pierced the side of Christ. It had been long foretold American Indians was invulnerable, as was his dog, except in the little toe. And that it would be Galahad who would heal him, and when the knight dips his from Percy’s Reliques of English Poetry and also from Lancashire legends we learn fingers in the blood that still is fresh upon the spear he anoints the wounds with that the Dragon of Wantley was invulnerable except in a not directly specified it and they close miraculously. but fundamental place. From a reading of one of the ballads which deals with The healing of King Pelles combines at least three separate motifs, that of the dragon’s demise it would seem that this spot was the anus. healing by touch, that of healing by blood, and that of healing by means of Yet another variation, is that of invulnerability except through one weapon, the weapon which caused the wound in the first place. Which of the three had and its corollary, healing only by one weapon or by one hero’s hands. Superman primary importance is never specified in Malory, although it is plain that the is to all intents and purposes invulnerable, except to several varieties of Krypton- cure may be effected only by Sir Galahad, just as the cure of Sir Urre may be ite, material from the explosion of his home planet. In the hands of his enemies effected only by Sir Launcelot. this material or element becomes a weapon. And several times in the Mort One of the motifs here, that the hero may cure by touch, occurs frequently Darthur is found the theme that a wound may be cured only by one hero’s hands in the New Testament, where it is a power claimed for Christ. But it was or by his touch in some other manner. It is associated with Sir Launcelot when also attributed at one time to the kings of France, who were believed to have 110 knights of King Arthur’s court have assembled for the feast of Pentecost at inherited the ability from either Louis IX, St Louis, or from Clovis. Similarly Carlisle. All of them have tried in vain to heal Sir Urre of the seven wounds in Scotland, certain clans of the Highland MacDonalds were believed to have which he suffered in a battle seven years before. But these wounds will not the power of curing by touch and by a formula of words what was called easily heal. The mother of his opponent in that battle had cursed them so that ‘MacDonald’s Disease’. This illness, otherwise unnamed, attacked the chest and

89 lungs and may have been tuberculosis. And of course the kings of England were can still have the consolation of watching them as they inevitably fall into age, believed for a very long time to have similar powers. disease, decay of one horrible sort or another. In either case they die; and we All of this may seem a far cry from the theme of the hero and his invulnerabil- survive. Nothing, nothing at all succeeds like failure to cheer the rest of us up. ity; but the themes are connected. As the hero is a semi-divine person if he is As Clement Attlee watched Churchill’s coffin being carried down the steps of St wounded or ill in any way, it will often be spectacular. But, equally, the hero is Paul’s an expression of what I can only describe as malicious glee passed over a person in whom, by virtue of his semi-divinity, power resides. His hands are his face. The reaction was totally human. equally able to kill or cure. There are traces of this paradox in Dr Jekyll and Mr While the divine part of heroes may wish to die young, taking an early chance Hyde; but the idea is never fully explored. Even today the notion that a hero of being nearer my god to thee, the human part may well fight it. Elvis Presley may be able to cure has not completely disappeared. Elvis Presley is reported, was reported to have taken to carrying a small gun tucked inside his belt, even for example, to have believed he had within him the divine gift. during performances, after receiving a threat to his life. And ex-Byrd Roger Heroes die young. Such mottoes as ‘Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking McGunn is alleged to have had nightmares about being assassinated onstage. corpse’, ‘Born to lose’, and ‘Death before Dishonour’ epitomize them; they are When a hero does die in our culture, we are reluctant to believe that he shuffled tattooed upon their hearts forever. off this mortal coil like the rest of us. Presley was variously reported to have Rock singers, presidents, film stars, racing drivers, multimillionaires, the her- died of an ‘overdose’ or cancer. Perhaps the most perfect cause of Presley’s death, oes of our time. Everything they do in life becomes part of their myth, instantly however, at least in mythic terms, was that given by John Blake in the Evening gold-plated to be hung in the funky, folksy hall of fame from which we all draw News who said, ‘In the end, he died of loneliness and a broken heart.’ our inspiration, the place where myths are born and reborn. Although many of Even when the cause is known, as in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the other motifs of the hero’s life may be missing in tales of contemporary heroes, myths can be made concerning who dunnit and why diddit. The Report of one feature is often there, that of their sacrificial death. That’s the nitty-gritty the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy that really grabs us all. For having proven to the rest of us, the watchers, that was compiled with the express intention of putting paid to the rumours which they are the biggest, best, the greatest, that they are above the rest of us, the surrounded his death; but in the event it did nothing of the kind. Under such most satisfying thing of all is to watch them, the high-flyers, Icarus again, come chapter headings as ‘Investigation of Possible Conspiracy’ and ‘Speculations crashing down to earth, trapped flies in the amber of our common mortality. and Rumors’ the committee attempted, fruitlessly, to deal with fifteen separate Who do they think they are? And in answer to the prayer they are struck theories as to the source of the shots and twenty-eight theories as to the identity by lightning. They die in plane crashes, motorcycle accidents, car wrecks, of the assassin or assassins. Nothing that they could do would stop the flood prematurely of heart attacks, mysteriously of unknown causes, but they die, of myth which began with Kennedy’s death and which still continues. The they die; and we are left to gloat alive. They die embalmed in lonely houses Presidential Commission was unable to answer with logic such mythic questions behind bars and walls protected from mortality, shielded by bodyguards and as to why an army unit with responsibility for conducting funerals for deceased managers. They die forgotten as chambermaids or lushes or junkies; and we are heads of state should have begun rehearsals a week before Kennedy was shot. pious about it all — it was a judgement for their hubris, they flew too high. And Regarding the shooting of Kennedy’s alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, by at the same time we say that they will live forever in the condominiums of our Jack Ruby there were quite as many tales as there had been concerning Kennedy. hearts, the relics of their myths enshrined and purified in gold. A few of the low-flying myths which the commission was busily trying to put That, at least, is the ideal scenario. But what about those heroes who do down may be inferred from some of the questions which were put to Ruby in not have the common decency to die when it is convenient for us? Well, we hospital during a polygraph (lie detector) examination:

90 1. Did you shoot Oswald to silence him? Gold hung on the neck of the Captain, 2. Did any foreign influence cause you to shoot Oswald? Valiant Aelius the Roman. 3. Did you shoot Oswald because of any influence of the underworld? He remembered his past glory, 4. Did you shoot Oswald because of labour union influence? When he lay wasted with paralysis. 5. Did you shoot Oswald in order to save Mrs Kennedy the ordeal of a trial? He fell upon his sword, and said: ‘We die, Cowards by sickness, but men like this.’ Only to the final question did Ruby answer yes; and no matter what that answer means it involves myth, however truthful it may have been meant to be. And Tennyson, in his poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade wrote: Either Ruby was lying, in which case the myth and the truth of Oswald’s and Kennedy’s death remains unknown; or Ruby was himself the victim of a myth When can their glory fade? in which he saw Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy as a sort of hybridization of the O the wild charge they made! Mater Dolorosa and the American Mom who was so beautiful that she had to be All the world wonder’d. shielded from a jury trial for her husband’s killer. A somewhat different attitude towards such heroism is expressed in a poem Since then there have been other rumours, more myths. According to Thomas by the eighteenth-century English poet, William Collins; it has been completed G. Buchanan, Kennedy was killed at the orders of an unnamed Texas oil mil- by a later hand: lionaire. Other theories said that Kennedy was killed by the CIA, the army, and the South Vietnamese. Historians will have to worry it for many years before How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, they come up with their kind of truth; but the rest of us will be able to choose By all their country’s wishes blest! from the many myths which we have been offered which include virtually every They sleep but shortly, then they rot, possibility except, as far as I know, what would be the likeliest possibility of all While by their country they’re forgot. in any other murder, that he was killed by his wife. Two contrasting attitudes toward the hero’s early death are reported in differ- In terms of its importance in world history the complex of hero-myths which ent issues of Rolling Stone. Pyke Johnson Jr, reviewing Joseph Heller’s Nothing originated mainly in the Eastern Mediterranean and which deals with the life, Happened, said, ‘I want to die while I am still alive. It is too late to die when you death and resurrection of a hero is easily the greatest which the world has ever are dead. (My father died in instalments; when I saw him last only his eye was seen. The prototype for the myth may be Tammuz from Babylonia, Sumeria, still alive.)’ And Lee Marvin, in an interview, said, ‘Any day of the week I’d rather and Assyria or it may be an even older unknown god. Some of the deities who see a forty-five-year-old man get killed than I would a twenty-one-year-old. You share this myth are Adonis, Attis, Baal, Bel, Christ, Combabus, Kore/Persephone, could at least say the forty-five-year-old guy has had a crack at it, and he is what Marduk, Melkarth, Mithras, Moloch, Osiris, and Tammuz. They originate in he is — he’s not gonna change much. But with the twenty-one-year-old, you Greece, Phrygia (now Turkey), Phoenicia (now Lebanon), Assyria (Syria), Egypt know he hasn’t straightened yet to whatever direction he’s gonna point at.’ and Israel. Other than the bare bones of their myth, they have one fact almost Our attitudes towards heroic death are hardly new, they have been moulded in common. All except Kore/Persephone are male gods who die. over many thousands of years. In a first century AD poem by Apollonides, In Hebrew myth the death of Aaron forms the subject of a myth which says translated by Andrew Sinclair, the death of Aelius, a Roman captain is described that the people murmured when the place and manner of Aaron’s death were thus: unknown — that Moses, his brother, must have murdered him because of his

91 popularity. To disprove this accusation a vision was shown to all of the body all. But when his sleep began to be troubled with nightmares he consulted his of the High Priest floating in mid-air on a couch. Since then he is said to sit mother Frigga and the other gods and a Thing (Parliament, but in this context beneath the Tree of Life, where he instructs the priesthood. Islamic teaching more like an oracular college) was assembled which decided that his dreams concerning the same hero is somewhat different. Moses and Aaron were said to portended his death. As Baldur had never harmed any living thing, however, have climbed Mount Hor together, knowing that one of them was to die that it was decided that they would try to make him immortal. This they proposed day, but unaware of which it was to be. At the summit they discovered a coffin to do by going throughout the world and obtaining from everything living and which fitted Aaron and the choice of the Lord was thus indicated. In another dead a promise that it would not harm Baldur. myth Aaron is depicted as being transported to Paradise on a miraculous couch. This was done with one exception, the mistletoe, which was accounted of In India and the Far East the death of the Buddha conforms to the pattern of too little significance to be worth bothering with. Then the gods decided to put supernatural death for the hero in this manner. Buddha’s last meal was one of the strength of Baldur’s invulnerability to the test (hubris, perhaps?) and held what is usually described as pork, although the actual term used translates as a series of games in which the sole object was to try to kill the god. Everyone ‘pig food’. In either case it was unusual food: pork is widely forbidden or eaten tried by every means possible; and while all this was going on, Loki, disguised only under ritual conditions and pig food would only be eaten by pigs. It is also as an old crone, wormed the secret of the exception to his invulnerability from plain from this myth that the Buddha knew that the meal would be fatal, for he Frigg. Then, fashioning a dart or spear from a sprig of the humble mistletoe, carefully instructed its preparer to feed it to no one else but to bury it when he Loki placed it in the hands of blind Hoder and aimed it for him. Baldur fell had finished. Therefore, to Buddha the meal was in some way sacramental. This dead. is emphasized by the fact that it was prepared by a blacksmith, a member of a His mother refused to accept the verdict as final and attempted to rescue profession widely believed to have supernatural connotations in such diverse Baldur from Hel (the underworld but also its ruling goddess) to which the areas as Finland, Africa and Siberia. goddess agreed, providing that everything on earth, living and dead, mourned The signs at Buddha’s death in the heavens and on the earth are roughly for Baldur. Only then would Hel believe that Baldur was as necessary to life parallel to those which were said to have occurred at his birth. Sal trees, the on earth, as Frigga had pleaded, and release her prisoner. Everyone and every species beneath which his mother had given birth, bloomed out of season. thing did mourn, except for one old crone, Thokk, who refused to sorrow for Flowers and sandalwood powder rained from Heaven. Music and singing, from Baldur saying that alive or dead Baldur made no difference whatever to her, invisible sources, were heard everywhere. And from the ten thousand worlds he had done her no service. This crone, a giantess who lived in a cave, was the beings gathered to honour him. After his death the coffin containing the probably Loki in yet another of his many disguises; and it was thus the malice Buddha’s body could not be lifted until his mother, Maha Maya, appeared in of the trickster god of fire which decided the issue. Baldur remained dead, to be the skies. Only when his body arose from the coffin to do her honour could the resurrected only after Ragnarok, when a new age was to begin. empty box be moved. Similarly, when he had been placed upon the funeral pyre, At Ragnarok, both Thor and Loki, the father of Thor’s archenemy Jörmungandr the wood could not be ignited until the arrival of the disciple Kasyapa, when and of Hel, die as the world ends. On that day almost all of the gods, Aesir the fire miraculously lit itself. and Vanir, the giants, the Fenris Wolf, the Midgard Serpent, and the humans The death of the Norse hero-god, Baldur, parallels in some ways that of the of Middle Earth will die or have already died. The equivocation of tense is Near Eastern divinities mentioned earlier, Tammuz and the others. Baldur was necessary when referring to Ragnarok, for the Norse sagas, while referring to it the son of Odin and Frigga and a half or twin brother of Hoder, a blind god. His in the future tense, do not state whether it has already happened or is yet to life, an unusually long and happy one, was that of an innocent child, loved by occur. The deaths of Thor and Loki are both by duels, the thunder god with

92 Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, and Loki with Heimdallr, the guardian of the place in the desert, his end is a heroic joke which marks not only his own death Rainbow Bridge to Valhalla. Normally the duel between Thor and the Midgard but that of his world which is dying as he dies. Serpent is seen as the sacrificial death of the thunder god, necessary if good is It is not always possible for us to kill our heroes in so many words. Sometimes to prevail. But Loki’s death is also sacrificial, necessary that evil may prevail. we have to be satisfied with disgracing them, unsatisfactory as such compromises If one takes this eccentric view for just a moment and then considers the may be. In the spring of 1974 the Congress of the United States, goaded by the events of Ragnarok in its light, then the end of the world is not seen so much media and the electorate, deliberated while the cherry blossoms in Washington as a simple resolution of all that is evil and the triumph of goodness as it is came and fell, the impeachment of President Richard Milhous Nixon. In the end the cancelling out of an entire world structure, good and evil alike, a motif Nixon resigned, in disgrace it was said, Gerald Ford granted the ex-president a that is repeated so many times that it is difficult to miss. Thor (good) kills free pardon, and Nixon retired with his five o’clock shadow and Secret Service Jörmungandr (evil). Jörmungandr kills Thor. Loki (evil) kills Heimdallr (good). guards to San Clemente to nurse his grudges and his wounds. Heimdallr kills Loki. Odin (good) is swallowed by the Fenris Wolf (evil) which With complete justification. Richard Nixon had been had, in spades. From is then slain by Odin’s son, Vidarr. Tyr, the third of the great gods of Norse myth, his earliest days in California politics, when he ‘assasinated’ Helen Gahagan who has previously lost a hand to the Fenris Wolf, is swallowed by Garmr, the Douglas in 1947, the seamy side of Nixon had been well known. The plaintive hound which guards the road to Hel. But even in dying Tyr is capable of killing liberal query, ‘Would you buy a used car from this man?’ did nothing to prevent the dog. The sun is swallowed by the wolf Skoll or by the Fenris Wolf in another him being elected successively to the House of Representatives, to the Senate account; but before this she has borne a daughter who becomes the new sun. and the vice-presidency, and eventually to the presidency. Nothing had changed, Similarly the moon is swallowed by the wolf Hati and presumably, though this he was still the same Mafia hood that he had been in California; but his stage, is not stated, bears a daughter who will replace her. instead of being in Los Angeles where everything is fantasy anyway, was now There is, in this myth of Ragnarok, a whole lot of swallowing going on and the Oval Office of the White House. His voice was heard in the counsels of the such mutual extermination that what results is a new equilibrium, a new world. world, he travelled to Peking to meet Chairman Mao; and he was able, as a The final picture that one is left with is of ordained necessity that Thor and Loki shifty used-car salesman, to countenance Watergate as well. alike, along with almost all the rest, must die. Out of their collective deaths will The Washington Post revelations should really have surprised no one. Yet, come birth, a new world, a new day. And another chance. It is a vision which when the Post began its exposure, curious because the root of what was revealed was not unique to the Norse, it was shared by the Hindus and Jains of India was already known, momentum grew for impeachment, then for a trial or even and the Aztecs and Maya of Central America as well as by some Indian tribes of more. In a fairy story that momentum would have been satisfied by an execution. North America. It tells of a phoenix rising from the ashes of its parent. It will be Even in history such things have happened. Louis XVI was tried and guillotined no better, no worse in the long run than the one before. Plus ça change, plus c’est for treason. Like Louis, Nixon had a right to feel sorry for himself, and he was la même chose. These myths give some explanation as to what death was for the in a somewhat better position to do so; for he had kept his head. For who had hero in other cultures, other times. For us, now, it may be the death of Cable at been betrayed by either of them? Who had been deceived? Against whom was the end of Sam Peckinpah’s Ballad of Cable Hogue or the death of Monte Walsh there any treason? Richard Nixon did in the White House what he had done at the conclusion of Jack Schaeffer’s novel of the same name. In both the death in the used-car lot in southern California . . . chiselled, lied, connived, cheated. of the hero comes when his world, the mythic world of the West, collides with These dubious talents got him elected because, as most of us know for most of that of civilization. As a conflict it is the same as that expressed in Mark Twain’s the time, these are the talents which win the day in this world. And it is people Huckleberry Finn. When Cable Hogue dies, run over by a motorcar which has no who are willing to perform these acts who can grow up to be president of the

93 United States and be heroes. for Best Actor in 1976 (an award which Peter Finch received posthumously), Since his resignation, since his pardon, Nixon has been interviewed by David and by seeing that the award, his tragic death, etc., were all suitably publicized. Frost on television and has confessed that he ‘let down the American people’. That is perhaps even nastier. How, in God’s name? He gave them what they wanted, what he had always At 9:38 a.m. on 15 July 1974, television anchorwoman Chris Chubbuck been. But one can at least take satisfaction in the fact that he did not go on to scored the last exclusive of her career in television reporting when, on camera, confess his guilt, that he did not publicly beat his breast. This bothered many she said, ‘In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood critics, writing after the screening of the Frost interviews, who really wanted and guts in living colour, you’re going to see another first: an attempt at suicide.’ to see the former president’s nose rubbed in it if they couldn’t see him burned. Whereupon she killed herself, thus improving, though only temporarily, her low Nixon refused to jump. He was elected to connive. He was promoted by the position in the ratings. media to cheat; and he did both nobly. To watch him made a scapegoat might Death has a peculiar fascination in connection with pop music, whether the salve the consciences of those who promoted and elected him by distracting death of a group by a breakup or the literal death of one or more of its members. attention from themselves. They usually die, as the good die, far too young, in their twenties or thirties. But it is just possible that there is such a thing as divine justice. If so, Richard Their deaths are recorded in Rolling Stone and sometimes in other newspapers. Milhous Nixon has settled his score. In humiliation at being paraded like a The cause of death is usually something far out — a heart attack in their twenties, sacrificial goat and pelted with shit if nothing else. But for the rest of us, overdosing, a motorcycle accident. Whatever it is, they are remembered: Duane who made a hero out of him, who elevated back-street vices to a position of Allman, Marc Bolan, Tommy Bolin, Big Bopper, Graham Bond, Sam Cooke, Jim international virtue, forgiveness will be a long time coming. We’ll have the ghost Croce, Candy Darling, Mama Cass Elliott, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Holly, Janis of Richard Nixon, our hero, about for quite a while to kick us around. Joplin, Robbie McIntosh, Jim Morrison, Pamela Morrison, Berry Oakley, Elvis The specifically sacrificial death of the hero, depicted as an offering both to Presley, Vinnie Taylor, Danny Whitten, Chuck Willis. Marc Bolan, himself dead corporate television executives and to the public, is the central theme of the in an automobile crash a month after Elvis Presley, told Melody Maker, ‘I hope Paddy Chayevsky scripted film, Network, about the wicked world of television, he rests in peace now that he has gone to the great jukebox in the sky. I hope a medium which Hollywood has scant cause to love although television pays they’ve got all his records.’ The words could apply to almost all of these. many of Hollywood’s cheques these days. The movie shows to what incredible While the gods seldom appear in person in contemporary myths, their ghosts lengths television programmers will go in search of ratings: they will give an are still around. When Keith Relf, lead singer and founder of the Yardbirds, insane man air-time to make a fool of himself, they will use him as ‘The Mad Renaissance, and Armageddon, died it was through being electrocuted by his Prophet of the Airways’, and they will finally issue an executive contract on him guitar. If this had occurred in the Greek myth of Bellerophon, there would have to correct his falling ratings on the goggle-box by assassinating him on camera. been no doubt whatever that this was the lightning flash of Zeus. As it is, it’s That is indeed pretty nasty. one of those spooky coincidences which seems to mean something and from At this point real life took over. Shortly after the film was completed Peter which a myth could easily be made. Finch, who played Howard Beale, the Mad Prophet, died. After viewing his performance one can easily believe that this was due to exhaustion. The produ- In classic myths, when a hero had died, it was often stated as a part of his cers were more than willing to capitalize on the event, using the actor’s dead myths that his body had miraculously vanished or that he had been seen being body as the network had used that of the announcer, as a means of boosting the assumed bodily into Heaven. Chinese myths said that after his death Confucius all-important ratings, by seeing that he got nominated for the Academy Award was raised in his coffin to the middle of the air where his body was miraculously

94 suspended by the spirits of the four cardinal points. A similar tale occurs in dream, earthquake, and other portents (Tiberius); dream and the collapse of Islamic legends regarding Muhammad. In Greek myth the body of Heracles in a scaffolding around a statue of Jupiter (Caligula); comet and lightning bolt late account was said to have been taken from his funeral pyre by thunderbolts. (Claudius); lightning bolt, death of the grove of laurel and the flock of chickens As, however, this conflicts with earlier myths which said that the ghost of the (Nero); dream and other omens (Galba); dream (Otho); disastrous horoscope hero had been seen in Tartarus, he was split into two beings: a divine half at birth and other omens (Vitellius); comet, earth subsidence and other omens which was assumed into Heaven where he was a god, and a human soul which (Vespasian); and lightning, hurricane, horoscope and raven (Domitian). resided in Tartarus as a hero. And bodily assumption is also suggested in Irish There are similar portents incorporated into the myths of other heroes. In myth where, in The Phantom Chariot of Cuchulainn, it seems that the body of China it was held that a Ch’i-lin (the Chinese unicorn) had appeared about Cuchulainn was taken to Heaven after he had helped St Patrick convert King the same time as the death of Confucius only to be injured by a charioteer. Laegaire. This injury to the gentlest of creatures was interpreted to mean that a disaster This motif, which may be termed the ‘Indian Rope Trick’, is a favourite in was coming to the empire; for the Ch’i-lin was particularly associated with the religious myths where it is used to dispose of the corporeally inconvenient body emperors of China. of such a person as a messiah or his mother. What happens is this: in full view of In Irish myth Cathbad the Druid was said to have seen the banshee washing a crowd they climb up a rope, blow kisses in all directions, wave goodbye, and the grave clothes of Cuchulainn at a ford, the Grey Macha refused to allow then disappear into a cloud. After waiting around for a few hours everybody itself to be harnessed without a lot of persuasion, and the Morrigan broke usually goes home shaking their heads and saying, ‘Gee, it must have been a Cuchulainn’s chariot the night before his final battle in an effort to prevent his miracle.’ This tale and its variants have been used in a number of myths to going out. Though Cuchulainn was warned by all of these he persisted in going remove a corpse which someone might some day wish to exhume and test for to the fight which killed him; yet even after his death portents continued. In signs of mortality which would be fatal to the myth of the divine hero, son of death his right hand holding his sword fell and cut off the right hand of an god; but it also, by its supernatural and miraculous nature, sets a final Seal of enemy who sought to take his head. And an apparition of the hero was seen Approval on everything that has gone before. riding through the sky in his chariot by the thrice fifty queens who had loved There are those who believe that no religion is complete without the Indian him. Rope Trick. There are others who believe it is, like all Indian Rope Tricks, a con. In the Japanese Kojiki there are three parallel omens associated with the death of the hero Yamatö-takeru-no-miko. The first of these was the appearance of In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar there occurs a couplet which sums up the motif the deity of Asigara Pass in the form of a white deer. Yamatö-takeru casually of the portents that can occur at the death of a hero: tossed a bit of onion at this being, struck it in the eye, and killed it. The second When beggars die there are no comets seen; was the appearance of the deity of Mount Ibuki in the form of a gigantic white The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. sow. Yamatö-takeru failed to recognize this being as he had that of Asigara Pass, insulted it, and so angered the white sow that she caused a storm of hailstones The deaths of the rest of us pass unknown, separating ourselves from the semi- which killed him. And the third was the appearance of the soul of the dead hero divine heroes at whose death may be expected (taking Suetonius as an authority in the form of a white bird which guided his empress and children to the site concerning the caesars at least) the following: dreams of weeping horses; where he wished them to build his tomb. The triple repetition of the colour an apparition of what was held to be the Dioscuri or Heavenly Twins Castor white, in oriental tradition associated with death and universal symbol of the and Pollux; a comet (Julius); an eagle and the vision of an eagle (Augustus); supernatural in animals, underlines his meaning as a hero. It might be easy to

95 dismiss such elements in myth as archaic and quaint, were it not for the fact Theagenes, the Thasian athlete and last of the Heracleids or descendants of that parallel beliefs are still held. When Elvis4 Presley died recently several Heracles. The exact same motif is still current, three thousand years after the journalists, in writing of his death, felt compelled to mention such natural Greeks invented it. The American Country and Western singing star, Jim Reeves, phenomena as storms and earthquakes. One wonders if they recognized the who died some years ago has been cited as correspondent in a divorce action human necessity of which they were instruments at that time. in England by an aggrieved husband named Jim Marsh according to the Sun As noted earlier there is, in the myth of the divine hero, an element of social (London). Marsh claims that his wife would only make love with him with malice. Though such heroes are beloved, their societies take great pleasure a poster of Reeves affixed to the wall above. His wife Maureen once made a in seeing them degraded or killed, no matter how well this satisfaction is pilgrimage to the Texas grave of Jim Reeves where she spent a freezing night concealed. But occasionally, very occasionally, there comes along a hero who in lonely vigil. She also believes that her son, James Travis Reeves Marsh, was strikes a deeper vein of feeling. Among them are some of the grandest, the conceived by the ghost of the Country and Western singer who manifested greatest, the most banal heroes which man has ever produced. Arthur or James himself through her husband. The conception of Heracles by Zeus disguised, the Dean, they are the same, in some way their deaths were facts which no one conception of Theagenes by Heracles disguised, and the conception of James was prepared to accept. And so these few — Christ, King Arthur, Charlemagne, Travis Reeves Marsh by Jim Reeves disguised are each and all the same myth, James Dean, Adolf Hitler — have never died. It was a trick, an awful joke. They still going strong. are not dead; they sleep. The myth of the hero who returns via fatherhood may seem pretty strange, Hitler is perhaps the most curious of heroes to embody this motif, because of or even funny. But it can also lead, varied slightly, to considerable tragedy. another unconnected factor. Before and during the Second World War Hitler was Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent of the Nahua and Aztec peoples, is the primarily a hero to the Germans. Since the war, as far as one can tell they are central figure in a complex of legends which possess roughly the same theme. trying to forget that he ever existed, making their terror go away by dismissing The geographical distribution of the tradition is considerable, covering Mexico, it as a bad dream. At the same time he, and to a lesser extent Martin Bormann Yucatan, and Honduras in Central America, Bolivia and Chile in South America and others of his close associates, have become particularly popular heroes in and perhaps parts of other countries. The protagonist of the myth is variously America and Britain, countries which represented his enemies thirty-odd years named Quetzalcoatl, Votan, Con Ticci Viracocha, Sume, Paye-tome, Thonapa, ago. In the myth of Hitler and these others which is now current, they did not Bohica, Wixepecocha, Kukulcan, or Gucumatz. And his myth is this: that a die at the end of the war. They fled to South America (a variant on the Western teacher came to our people from over the sea, from across the mountains to the Paradise) where they are living in the jungle (Eden?) under an assumed name, east or west. He taught morality, brought gifts of knowledge such as agriculture, living on the proceeds of numbered Swiss bank accounts and planning their exemplified a divine way of life, was persecuted and then departed after miracles eventual return. which proved his divine nature, promising to return. If Jung’s concept of the More traditionally the hero is said to sleep beneath a mountain awaiting his collective unconscious is valid then the myth of the teacher who will return may return in the hour of his country’s greatest need or may have already returned be one of its most important elements. It has formed the basis of Islam, Judaism, as a ghost. For example, Pausanius tells us that the wife of one of the priests of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and some American Indian religions Heracles was visited by someone in the night, whom she took to be her husband including that of the Zuni of the southwestern United States. but who was in fact the god himself. The son subsequently born to her was The effects of such a belief are incalculable. It was one of the reasons for the relative ease with which the Spanish conquered most of Central and South 4“Elivis” in original America. For the teacher, often described as white skinned and bearded, hardly

96 typical of most natives of the Western Hemisphere, had promised that he would In The Kalevala when Väinämöinen has been defeated in a duel of logic by return. Prophecies existed before the Spanish landing of the date of his arrival. the infant, Little Flower, he leaves Kaleva’s Land in a little copper boat which One, which purports to be of the eleventh century, predicts, to the year, the date he sings into being. His temper has been caused not only by the verdict of the of Montejo’s landing on the eastern coast of Yucatan. It seems possible that judge, giving Little Flower the victory, but also by the fact that the child is then this particular prophecy was written after the conquest; but another, attributed crowned king of Karelia, presumably supplanting Väinämöinen. The old man to one Chilam Balam, the Prophet Jaguar or Ocelot, is less doubtful. In the leaves his harp behind for the world; and then he promises to return again when first decade of the sixteenth century this Mayan priest foretold that in Katun 13 his country has need of him to make a new harp, to bring a new sun and moon Ahau, that is, during the second decade of our sixteenth century, bearded men and Sampo. would come with a new religion. One variant of the Zoroastrian traditions concerning the end of the world says The knowledge terrified Chilam Balam, who wrote: that Yima, the first king, is sleeping together with his people in an underground vara or garden. From there he will return towards the end of the world to Eat, eat, thou hast bread; repopulate the earth. Drink, drink, thou hast water; Concerning the Prophet Zoroaster himself there is another variant of the On that day, a blight is on the face of the earth, motif. His seed is said to have been miraculously preserved in the icy waters On that day, a cloud rises, of a mountain lake since his death 600 years before Christ. At the end of the On that day, a mountain rises, world that seed will impregnate three virgins while they bathe. From the first of On that day, a strong man seizes the land, these virgins will be born the hero Ausedar. One thousand years later from the On that day, things fall to ruin, second virgin will be born Aushedarmah. And a thousand years after his birth On that day, the tender leaf is destroyed, will come the greatest of the heroes, Saoshyans, the final hero, whose reign will On that day, the dying eyes are closed, end the world. On that day, three signs are on the tree, Related to the motif of the teacher or the king who will return is that of the On that day, three generations hang there, hero whose bones are buried somewhere to protect the land. As long as they On that day, the battle flag is raised, remain undisturbed they will continue to guard the country which shelters them. And they are scattered afar in the forests. So, in the Welsh myth of Bran, the giant directed that his head should be buried in the White Hill in London, facing France, so that it should protect England That translation, by D. G. Brinton, parallels another in Mexico which predicted from invasion. King Arthur was said to have later disinterred the head, wishing the return of Quetzalcoatl in the person of someone white-skinned, bearded that England should rely on the force of its arms rather than the magic of its 5. Cortez, when he appeared, was recognized as that man, just as Montejo bones. His action could have been held by some to have been the cause of Saxon was recognized as the returning Gucumatz or Kukulcan, the Feathered Serpent. or Norman invasions of Britain. Certainly the Spaniards with their guns and horses, beards and fair skins seemed Similarly, in Sophocles’s play, Oedipus at Colonus, the exiled king was said to fit the bill. The myth may have been believed for only a short time — but that to have been granted sanctuary by Theseus at Colonus, a suburb of Athens. was long enough. By the end of that time the conquest of New Spain was an During the play’s action both Creon (the hero’s uncle and brother-in-law) and accomplished fact. Polyneices (his brother and son) — the relationships are very complicated — 5“beared” in original appeared to beg Oedipus to return with them to Thebes so that his bones may

97 be buried outside the city to safeguard it. He refused. Their motives had nothing of the tribe into which he was born, the Yadavas. On one such occasion the to do with love for him, they were unwilling to allow him to live in Thebes but Yadavas had fought eighteen battles against Jarasandha, the king of Magadha. only to die just outside it; and both of them had been only too willing to see No sooner had they obtained a brief respite from the attacks of Jarasandha, than him exiled. Instead Oedipus died at Colonus in the presence of Theseus alone, they were confronted by an enemy from another direction. This antagonist was leaving his bones hidden in an unknown grave where they would protect those Kalayavana, leading an enormous force of elephants, cavalry, chariots, and foot who had given him shelter when he needed it. soldiers. The Yadavas were in no condition to fight another battle immediately; Perhaps the commonest variant of the return of the hero is that in which he is so Krishna resolved upon a stratagem. He lured the invader, Kalayavana, into said to sleep beneath a mountain or in some other strange place, from which he pursing him personally in the hope of killing the god, and when Krishna fled into will return with his arms or his army when his country needs him. One such hero a cave, Kalayavana, forgetting that his quarry was, among other things, a deity was Muchukunda, who is said to have become, according to the Vishnu Purana of deception and trickery, followed him almost at once, only to behold in the and other sources, one of the mightiest of the early kings of India. He became gloom a prostrate, sleeping figure. Thinking that this was Krishna, Kalayavana so powerful, in fact, that he was called upon for assistance by the gods in one of kicked the sleeper to awaken him and force a duel. He didn’t even have time to their perpetual battles against the asuras or demons. So invaluable was his help realize his mistake; for the sleeping figure in the cave was not Krishna, who had in gaining the victory that Muchukunda was offered whatever favour he wished concealed himself, but Muchukunda. And when the fire of Muchukunda’s eyes in thanks for his efforts; but he wished for nothing whatsoever. He had children blazed forth Kalayavana was destroyed. and palaces and treasure, he had dominion without end, there was nothing Among other kings who have been believed to sleep somewhere awaiting that the gods could give him that he did not already possess to excess. Nothing, the hour of their return is the Greek god Cronus, who was dethroned by Zeus. except, peace and quiet. And so it was that which King Muchukunda requested, According to Plutarch he was exiled to an island in the far west somewhere near that he be allowed to sleep, to sleep and sleep, to sleep forever undisturbed. Britain. He was accompanied there by the Cyclopes, the Hecatoncheires (the What he wished was given him, to sleep forever in a cave, his mind and hundred-armed giants) and guarded by his brother Briareus. soul as still as a forest lake at dawn, mirroring everything but saying nothing An Armenian Zoroastrian tradition tells us of the legendary hero Meher, who of itself. And there would be no one who would dare to waken him from his still lives together with his horse in a cave called Zympzymps where he passes well-deserved rest; for the gods gifted him with a weapon which would protect the time by turning the wheel of fortune. His cave may be entered only on his slumber. If he were to be awakened, if he were to open up his eyes and gaze Ascension Night; and Meher himself will not leave it until the end of the world. on any who had dared intrude upon him, then that trespasser would instantly Another Zoroastrian hero who may be a hero who will return is King Khusraw or be incinerated. It was a godlike weapon, one which Siva himself possessed in Chosroes. According to a myth at the end of his life Khusraw resigned his throne his terrible third eye and with which he had blasted the god of love, Kama, for and went into the mountains of India accompanied by attendants. Although the daring to interrupt his meditation. The sleeper who possessed such power need king warned them of a coming blizzard, most of them refused to leave him but never fear that he would be rudely wakened. kept on climbing as the king climbed. The following spring their bodies were Many generations later the god Vishnu, in his eighth avatar, was born on found frozen stiff in the snow; but of the hero there was no sign. earth as Krishna. Like Christ he was both divine and human, as he is described A Teutonic legend says that Frederick Barbarossa (Frederick Redbeard) still in his myths. At times but a fraction of his power was all that was necessary to sleeps in a cavern either at Berchtesgaden (Hitler’s mountain retreat during the annihilate armies, yet there were occasions on which his weakness was such Second World War) or within the Thuringian Kyffhauser. There, accompanied that he had to resort to trickery if he were to save himself or the members by six of his knights, he sits at a stone table through which his beard has grown.

98 But he must continue to sleep there until his beard has grown long enough to At length every king will call me Taliesin wind around the table three times. That moment when his beard reaches its full growth will coincide with the hour of Germany’s greatest need. Frederick While Erich von Daniken would doubtless interpret this to mean that Merlin and his knights will waken, then with a thunderous roar sally forth from the was a space traveller, the words might well simply mean that some people mountain to save Germany and establish her rule over the entire world. identified Merlin and Taliesin. And when later on Taliesin says, ‘I shall be until In Britain various traditions say that Owen Lawgoch, one of the last of the the day of doom on the face of the earth,’ that statement may be taken to apply chieftains to fight the English during their takeover of Wales, is sleeping some- to Merlin as well. where in Dyfed County in South Wales. Another, from Scotland, says that In an appendix to her translation of The Welsh Triads, Rachel Bromwich lists Fingal (Irish: Finn MacCoul) is sleeping either in a hollow tree or in a cavern the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain (Tri Thlws ar Ddeg Brydain). There underground with his men. And in Ireland, Earl Gerald is said to sleep beneath are in all fifteen of these valuable objects as substitutions have been made in Mullaghmast Castle in a cavern together with his troops. variant manuscripts. The tradition appears to be that Merlin took these treasures Things could get pretty confusing in Great Britain if Owen Lawgoch, Fingal with him, either in a glass boat or to a glass tower or island. One authority and Earl Gerald all took it into their heads to awaken on the same day and (Lewis Morris, cited by Bromwich) suggests that with them he became the save their respective countries from the English. Or, because the idea is irresist- keeper of a sort of museum. ible once you consider it, suppose all the sleeping heroes in various countries The treasures are: awakened simultaneously. Suppose all the messiahs decided to return on the same day. What if all the monsters which are chained around the world were to Dyrnwyn (White-Hilt) which was the sword of Rhydderch the Generous. This break free simultaneously. What a myth! miraculous blade indicated the status of any man who drew it by bursting into In Arthurian legend many of the same motifs are attached to both King Arthur flames from its point to its hilt whenever a well-born man handled it. and Merlin the Enchanter. They are, in a sense, parallel heroes. Perhaps the most important of the themes which they share is that of the sleeping hero. With The Hamper of Gwyddno Long-Shank. Though food for only one man might be Arthur this idea is spelled out in considerable detail and will be familiar to many placed in it, when the box was opened there was enough for one hundred. people already from Malory’s Morte Darthur or T. H. White’s more recent The Once and Future King. But as it is applied to Merlin the theme is somewhat less The Horn of Bran the Niggard from the North. This drinking horn had the well-known, perhaps because it is also fragmentary. property of providing each man with his special poison. Number nine of Iolo Morganwg’s Triads of Britain refers to three disappear- ances by loss in the Isle of Britain. The second of these ‘were Merddin (after The Chariot of Morgan the Wealthy. Nearly instant transportation anywhere. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Merlin) the bard of Emrys and his nine attendant bards, who went to sea in a house of glass, and the place where they went is unknown’. The Halter of Clydno Eiddyn. This halter was stapled to the foot of Clydno’s bed. In Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation of The Book of Taliesin, incorporated in her Whenever he wished to ride he found the horse that he wished to ride magically edition of The Mabinogion, the bard says of himself in one passage: waiting for him in the halter.

my original country is the region of the summer stars; The Knife of Llawfrodedd the Horseman. Professor Bromwich’s note is to the Idno and Heinin called me Merddin, effect that ‘it would serve for twenty-four men to eat at table’.

99 The Cauldron of the Giant Dyrnwch. This was a test for bravery. If a coward’s when they drank as they wished, and when they had the weapons and the meat was put in it, it would never be done. That of a brave man, on the other transportation of their desire. But within the group there are also treasures of hand, was quickly cooked. a different kind, not as familiar from folklore and legend as the others. These are the treasures which perform a test: the Sword of Rhydderch and the Coat The Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd. Also a test for bravery: when a brave man of Padarn which tested for birth, the Cauldron of Dyrnwch and the Whetstone sharpened his weapon with this whetstone any opponent from whom he drew of Tudwal which tested for bravery, and the Mantle of Tegau which tested for blood was sure to die. But if a coward used the stone his sword became so dull virginity. In that golden age it was possible to distinguish the presence of all that he could not wound his enemy. The assumption also is that such a coward these virtues by means of the tools; and it follows that it is difficult if not would be killed. impossible to so distinguish now that they are gone. Yet another tradition of Merlin’s vanishing comes from a group of poems from The Coat of Padarn Red-Coat. This garment was a test for class: if a well-born Wales in which the sorcerer seems to have hidden himself in a tree, like the Irish man put it on, no matter what his size, the coat was right for him; but if a churl king, Suibhne. Merlin’s tree eventually became an apple tree which became the attempted to wear it, in no way would it fit. tree of invisibility. And as sure as if he had been wearing the Ring of Eluned or the Mantle of Arthur, Merlin could shelter unseen in the branches of the apple The Crock and Dish of Rhygenydd the Cleric. These were vessels of plenty, filled tree. with whatever victuals might be wished for. As R. S. Loomis pointed out in Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, one of Merlin’s common names, Merlin Ambrosius, is likely to mean Merlin the The Chessboard of Gwenddolau son of Ceidio. This board, which was made of Immortal (ambrosia in Latin). And when Merlin replies, to Vortigern’s question gold, and the silver men which were set upon it had the property of playing the in Nennius, ‘I am Ambrosius,’ he is perhaps speaking elliptically rather than game untouched by human hands. literally. Such a speed would have been consistent for a bard or a poet, and even 6 The Mantle of Arthur in Cornwall. This was a garment of invisibility, enabling more so for one who could say ‘I am called Immortal .’ the wearer to see without being seen himself. Malory, who seems a little confused by many of his characters throughout the Morte Darthur, gives at the beginning of Chapter I of Book IV the following The Mantle of Tegau Gold-Breast. This garment was a chastity test for ladies. precis: ‘How Merlin was assotted and doted on one of the ladies of the lake, and Worn by a virgin or by any wife who had been faithful to her husband, it would how he was shut up in a rock under a stone, and there died.’ In the body of the reach to the ground, covering her decently. But if it was put on by any woman chapter, however, he says no such thing. ‘And so on a time it happed that Merlin who had been unfaithful or by an unchaste maiden it would reach only to just shewed to her [Nimue] in a rock whereas was a great wonder, and wrought below her waist. by enchantment, that went under a great stone. So by her subtle working, she made Merlin to go under that stone to let her wit of the marvels there, but she The Stone and Ring of Eluned the Fortunate. This magic ring was one of wrought so there for him that he never came out for all the craft that he could do. invisibility, like the Mantle of Arthur. And so she departed and left Merlin.’ [My italics.] There is sufficient ambiguity here to permit either interpretation. It sounds These treasures taken together sound very much as if they might once have formed a part of a myth of a golden age, when men were fed as they wished, 6“Immotal” in original

100 very much as if he lived on in the cave or whatever it was; but it is just possible fields. There is no cultivation of the land at all beyond that which is Nature’s that he died. In Chapter V the confusion is resolved for the reader if not for work. It produces crops in abundance and grapes without help; and apple trees Malory. ‘So as Sir Bagdemagus rode to see many adventures, it happed him to spring up from the short grass in its wood. All plants, not merely grass alone, come to the rock there as the Lady of the Lake had put Merlin under a stone, grow spontaneously; and men live a hundred years or more.’ and there he heard him make a great dole; whereof Sir Bagdemagus would On that island, Geoffrey continues, there are nine sisters who ‘exercise a have holpen him, and went unto the great stone, and it was so heavy that an kindly rule over those who come to them from our land. The one who is first hundred men might not lift it up. When Merlin wist he was there, he bad leave his among them has greater skill in healing, as her beauty surpasses that of her labour, for all was in vain, for he might never be holpen but by her that put him sisters. Her name is Morgen. . . .’ The image of the nine sisters upon the island there.’ [Again my italics.] There is no misunderstanding this, Merlin was alive also awakens echoes of Merlin and the nine bards fleeing to the glass tower or and as well as could be expected for one who was living underneath a stone. the glass island, a place which seems to have been identified by the Welsh of Imprisoned he might have been; but Nimue, who had put him there, had the the twelfth century with Ynys Avallach, which perhaps translates Isle of Apples power to roll away the stone and free him. Whether she did we do not know. or Apple Orchards. Geoffrey continues, ‘It was there we took Arthur after the A Breton tradition cited by Loomis states that ‘Merlin was inclosed by his battle of Camlan, where he had been wounded . . . and Morgen received us with mistress in a tree on the Ile de Sein’. Another account says that it was Arthur due honour. She put the king in her chamber on a golden bed, uncovered his who was taken there, by Merlin, to be healed of his wounds. In other sources wound with her noble hand and looked long at it. At length she said he could cited by Loomis the sorcerer was confined to the Forest of Broceliande ‘in the be cured only if he stayed with her a long while and accepted her treatment. walls of air, which to others present only a thick mist but to him is the fairest We therefore happily committed the king to her care and spread our sails to tower in the world’, or ‘asleep in a cave’, or ‘in a tomb where his body wastes favourable winds on our return journey.’ away but his soul lives on for all who come’, or in an ‘esplumeor or cabin, and Elsewhere, twelfth century accounts from both Welsh and Breton sources that no one has seen him since’. indicate that it was commonly believed that Arthur would come again. Loomis, In fact, there are apparently only two sources, the Huth Merlin cited by Loomis in an essay titled The Legend of Arthur’s Survival, cites a passage from Verses on and the chapter heading in Malory, which imply that Merlin died as other men. the Graves, copied in the Black Book of Carmarthen about the beginning of the If one is to make a judgement based on a consensus of the various accounts, it thirteenth century, ‘A grave for March, a grave for Guythur, a grave for Gugaun would seem that Merlin never died. The episode of the Thirteen Treasures, if it of the Red Sword; concealed till Doomsday the grave of Arthur.’ is a part of the same Merlin’s myth, could be only a variation on the sleeping Wace, writing also in the twelfth century, says in Eugene Mason’s translation, king motif, in this case a sleeping curator. But none of these accounts seems to ‘Arthur himself was wounded in the body to the death. He caused him to be the definitive one; you can make the myth as you wish it to be. borne to Avalon for the searching of his hurts. He is yet in Avalon, awaited of Concerning Arthur the traditions are perhaps more solid, but just as contra- the Britons; for as they say and deem he will return from whence he went and dictory. In the Vita Merlini, a work by Geoffrey of Monmouth which appears to live again. Master Wace, the writer of this book, cannot add more to this matter have been at least in part based on genuine Welsh sources of the twelfth century to his end than was spoken by Merlin the prophet. Merlin said of Arthur — if I or earlier, it is to the Island of Apples or ‘Fortunate Island’ that King Arthur is read aright — that his end should be hidden in doubtfulness. The prophet spoke conveyed after the Battle of Camlan (elsewhere Salisbury). In Basil Clarke’s truly. Men have ever doubted, and — as I am persuaded — will always doubt translation of Geoffrey’s book it is said to derive its name ‘from the fact that it whether he liveth or is dead.’ produces all manner of plants spontaneously. It needs no farmers to plough the In Layamon, a slightly later source, the description given varies in small

101 respects from Wace. Arthur is wounded grievously and so gives over control of tradition the mountain is sometimes said to be in Germany and the king is the kingdom to Constantine, son of Cador, with instructions that he should keep described as inhabiting it with the Sibyl’s child and hundreds of knights. Their it safe. Then he says, ‘And I will fare to Avalun, to the fairest of all maidens, to life is in some accounts a passive one, where they live within the mountain Argente the queen, an elf most fair, and she shall make my wounds all sound; and are supplied with arms, horses, food, and drink. In other variants they are make me all whole with healing droughts. And afterwards I will come again to questing knights and it is from the mountain that Lohengrin, the Swan Knight, my kingdom, and dwell with the Britons with mickle joy.’ is sent by Arthur. Further on Layamon says: ‘The Britons believe yet that he is alive, and In England the tradition of the king who sleeps beneath the mountain has dwelleth in Avalun with the fairest of all elves; and the Britons ever yet expect survived particularly in the North. Folk beliefs concerning King Arthur have when Arthur shall return. Was never the man born, of ever any lady chosen, been recorded there in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the that knoweth of the sooth, to say more of Arthur. But whilom was a sage South of England it is the area around Glastonbury that remains the focal hight Merlin; he said with words — his sayings were sooth — that an Arthur point for Arthurian legends. The graves of King Arthur and his queen were should yet come to help the English.’ This belief, the commonest one concerning supposedly discovered at Glastonbury Abbey in 1191; but it would appear that King Arthur’s mysterious disappearance, is repeated, in the fifteenth century — the miraculous find may have been a political inspiration on the part of the Lydgate, in his poem The Fall of Princes, says that people believe that Arthur Plantagenet monarchs of England who were at that time trying to assert their ‘shall resorte as lord and sovereyne out of fayre and regne in Bretayne’. And sovereignty over all of Britain, particularly Wales, where myths of the king it is repeated again in Malory, who writes, ‘Yet some men say in many parts of beneath the mountain provided fuel for the stubborn Welsh in their resistance. England that King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu in So the finding of Arthur’s grave at Glastonbury may have been more timely than another place. And men say that he shall come again, and he shall win the holy true. In the Glastonbury area the legend persists that Arthur’s resting place, cross. I will not say it shall be so, but rather I will say, here in this world he sleeping or dead, has not been found. Near Cadbury Castle in the nineteenth changed his life.’ century an old man asked a party of antiquarians who had come to explore the On this basic theme variations began to be made and the myths of the once earthworks, if they had ‘come to take the king out?’ and future king spread throughout Europe. In an Italian poem, La Faula by Even after the efforts of the Plantagenets to prove Arthur dead, nobody was Torella, King Arthur remains forever young as he is fed by the Grail. The location really sure, least of all the royal family of the Tudors, when they came to the of his island paradise has also been transferred, to 500 miles east of Majorca in throne. Philip II of Spain, presumably on the occasion of his marriage to Mary the Mediterranean where the narrator is transported by a whale and deposited Tudor, successor to Edward VI, is described as having sworn an oath that he upon the shore. He meets Arthur, here described as a young man, and his sister would resign the kingdom in Arthur’s favour, should the king return. Morgain, a girl of sixteen. But not only is Arthur permanently at the best of Not all of the traditions concerning Arthur describe him as the king beneath ages, his health is also superb, his wounds have been healed when he bathed the mountain, however. There are beliefs, reported by Julian del Castillo and in the Tigris, traditionally in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim folklore one of the Miguel de Cervantes in the late sixteenth century as being current in England, rivers of Paradise. to the effect that King Arthur had been transformed into the shape of a crow, in Elsewhere the fortress of Morgain becomes Mount Etna in Sicily. This idea which form he haunted Britain. This theme recurs two hundred years later in is developed in the middle of the thirteen century by the author of Floriant et Cornwall where a tourist was chided for shooting a raven which just might have Florete. But even earlier, near the beginning of the century, Arthur had been been King Arthur. And still more recently, he is said to have become a seabird, placed by Gervase of Tilbury in a cavern in the depth of the volcano. In German a chough or puffin, perhaps. These are strange metamorphoses for the king of

102 Camelot to have to undergo. Elsewhere, however, the changes to the king were even odder. In a twelfth century mosaic at Otranto, King Arthur is depicted as riding a goat, a mount that must have been rarely dreamed of in all his chivalry. It is perhaps in this guise or something equally weird that he is to be thought of in those traditions which claim that King Arthur is the leader of the Wild Hunt, which is said to sweep across the stormy sky at night led by the former king of Britain. In a poem called The Complaynt of Scotland cited by Grimm, we are told that ‘Arthour knycht he raid on nycht with gyldin spur and canillycht’. His activity as Master of that Hunt, accompanied by either the hounds of Heaven or those of Hell, is not confined to Scotland either. It has been recorded from as far afield as England, Brittany, and in Savoy as recently as the nineteenth century. It forms an important part of the contradictory myths of the king who is both dead and living still. According to Malory, Arthur’s tombstone reads: Hic Jacet Arturus, Rex Quondam et Rex Futurus — Here lies Arthur, the Once and Future King. From the wording there may be some doubt as to whether Arthur lives yet or is dead, just as one may doubt the life or the heroism of any hero. But in such times as these of darkness and uncertainty, when confusion seems to have overtaken the world, it is perhaps better to believe Arthur and Merlin are still alive. The enchanter will return from the glass tower, bearing the Thirteen Treasures of the Isle of Britain. King Arthur will ride out from under the hill or embark from the Isle of Apples, Avalon, in the company of all his knights to reestablish Camelot and the Fellowship of the Round Table in the land. There will be Quests, there will be Glory once again. Perhaps they will bring back the Golden Age, when there is food enough for all, when there is drink, when knights bear magic weapons forged for them alone, when there is truth, when there is hope and faith, and when there is a way to tell the virgins from the rest.

EXPLICITLIBERPRIMUS bb 19 × 77

103 Bibliography

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