[Antares]

Culture hero
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A culture hero is a historical or mythological hero who changes the world through invention or discovery. A typical culture hero might be credited as the discoverer of fire, or agriculture, songs, tradition and religion, and is usually the most important legendary figure of a people, sometimes as the founder of its ruling dynasty. The hero is sometimes said to be still living, but is often instead a star, constellation or purely spiritual in nature.

In many cultures, particularly Native American, the mythical figure of the trickster and the culture hero are combined. To illustrate, Prometheus, in Greek mythology, stole fire from the gods to give it to humans. He is more of a culture hero than a trickster. In many North American Indian mythologies, the coyote spirit stole fire from the gods (or stars or sun) and is more of a trickster than a culture hero. Natives from the Southeastern United States typically saw a rabbit trickster/culture hero. The Greek Prometheus is especially famous as the bringer of fire, while the African trickster spider Ananse is also widely-disseminated.

The term is sometimes used to describe great authors or artists in a metaphorical sense (i.e. Mzwakhe Mbuli, a South African poet)

[Antares]

Earth Mother

The idea that the fertile earth itself is female, nurturing mankind, was not limited to the Mediterranean. In Norse mythology the Great Mother, the mother of Thor himself, was known as Jord, Hlódyn, or Fjörgyn. In Lithuanian mythology Gaia - Žemė is daughter of Sun and Moon. Also she is wife of Dangus (Varuna). In Pacific cultures, the Earth Mother was known under as many names and with as many attributes as cultures who revered her for example Maori whose creation myth included Papatuanuku, partner to Ranginui - the Sky Father.

[Antares]

First man or woman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Various creation stories have a first man, the first human being. This was generally either a male, or a pair, one male and one female.

[Antares]

Life-death-rebirth deity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The category life-death-rebirth deity also known as a "dying-and-rising" god is a convenient means of classifying the many divinities in world mythology who are born, suffer death or an eclipse or other death-like experience, pass a phase in the underworld among the dead, and are subsequently reborn, in either a literal or symbolic sense. Such deities might include Osiris, Adonis, Jesus, and Mithras. Females deities who passed into the kingdom of death and returned include Inanna and Persephone, the central figure of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Historically, this category has been most strongly associated with two different approaches to the study of religion. The first, which might be labelled the "naturalist" approach, seeks to explain such myths in terms of parallels with natural processes. The second, which might be labelled the "internal" approach, seeks to explain such myths in terms of individual spiritual transformation.

The naturalist approach

Of the two major life-death-and-resurrection approaches to hermeneutics, the naturalistic explication has more support in ancient sources. These rituals were closely linked to the cycle of seasons, as when Athenian women planted "gardens of Adonis" in pots and then, when the young green growth withered in the heat of the summer, wept for the dead young god. Already in Antiquity, the rationalizing approach of Aristotle could be elaborated to a rigidly naturalistic interpretation of myth origins as explanations of natural seasonal phenomena. Such a reductionist interpretation was apparently epitomized by Euhemerus (late 4th century BC), giving the term "euhemerist". Rational Stoic Romans like Cicero and Seneca, who saw the official and civil nature of ritual as paramount, were prepared to explain the myths and festivals of Attis, Adonis and Persephone in terms of natural phenomena. The abduction and return of Persephone, Cicero argued, was symbolic of the planting and growth of crops.

In the late eighteenth century, the naturalist interpretation took on renewed vigor, as freethinkers like Richard Payne Knight sought to explain all religious phenomena in terms of solar activity. Thus the tribulations of Jesus and Osiris were both taken to represent the course of the sun through the day, night, and dawn (Godwin, 1994).

The naturalist hypothesis reached a further apogee in the works of James Frazer and Jane Ellen Harrison, and their fellow Cambridge Ritualists. In their seminal works The Golden Bough and Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Frazer and Harrison argued that all myths are only echoes of rituals, and that all rituals have as their primordial purpose the manipulation of natural phenomena by means of sympathetic magic. The rape and return of Persephone, the rending and repair of Osiris, the travails and triumph of Baldur would therefore all be rooted in primitive rites to renew the fertility of withered land and crops.

The internal approach

By the Victorian era, the solar-phallic ideas of Payne Knight along with the less risqué work of scholars like Max Müller had taken strange turns as they made their way into popular discourse. Groups like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn were using scholarly parallels between Christ, Osiris and other putative solar dying-and-rising gods to build up elaborate systems of mysticism and theosophy.

By the twentieth century, this spiritualized turn to the universal-dying-god hypothesis had made its way into the sunlit uplands of academic discourse. From his studies of alchemy and other spiritual systems, the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung argued that archetypal processes such as death and resurrection were part of the transpersonal symbolism of the Collective Unconscious, and could be utilized in the task of psychological integration. Jung's line of argumentation has been followed, with modifications, by scholars like Karl Kerenyi and Joseph Campbell.

[Antares]

Lunar deity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In the study of mythology, a lunar deity is a god or goddess associated with or symbolizing the Moon: see Moon (mythology). These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related to or an enemy of the solar deity.

[Antares]

Mana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mana refers to a supernatural force said to exist within all things, sometimes associated with maternal or lunar magic in mythology.

Related cultural concepts

The concept of a life-energy inherent in all living beings seems to be a fairly universal archetype, and appears in numerous ancient religions and systems of metaphysics (in addition to having been borrowed by George Lucas's science-fiction films).

Analogies to mana in other societies include:

* Egyptian mythology : ka
* Greek mythology : ichor
* Inuit mythology : inua, sila
* Leni Lenape mythology : manetuwak
* Norse mythology : mana
* Yoruba mythology : oloddumare

Also related are the philosophical concepts of:

* Chinese philosophy : qi (or chi), Tao
* European alchemy and philosophy : aether, (or ether), quintessence

[Antares]

Psychopomp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Many sets of religious beliefs have a particular spirit, deity, demon or angel whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife, such as Heaven or Hell. These creatures are called psychopomps.

[Antares]

Sky father
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The sky father is a recurring theme in pagan and neopagan mythology. The sky father is the complement of the earth mother and appears in some creation myths, many of which are European or ancient Near Eastern. Other cultures have quite different myths; Egyptian mythology features a sky mother and an earthly dying and reviving god of vegetation. Shinto gives precedence to a sun goddess. A sky father also relates to a solar deity, a god identified with the sun.

In Maori mythology, Ranginui was the sky father. In this story, the sky father and earth mother Papatuanuku, embraced and had divine children.

In China, the Abrahamic god is sometimes called the Sky Father or Heavenly Father.

[Antares]

Solar deity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A solar deity is a deity who represents the Sun. People have worshipped the Sun and solar deities for all of recorded history. Hence, many beliefs and legends have been formed around this worship. Although many sources contend that solar deities are generally male, and the brother, father, husband and/or enemy of the lunar deity (usually female), this is not cross-culturally upheld, as sun goddesses are found on every continent. The dualism of sun/male/light and moon/female/darkness is indeed found in European traditions that derive from Orphic and Gnostic philosophies, but many other European cultures saw the sun as a maternal force, as did many other cultures. In some cultures, such as the Scandinavian, some scholars have misread the primary texts in order to declare a male divinity the "sun god."

[Antares]

Trickster (I've noticed lots of talk about the "trickster" on this forum.)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In the study of mythology, folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit or human hero who breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously (for example, Loki) but usually with ultimately positive effects. Often, the rule-breaking takes the form of tricks (eg. Eris) or thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both; they are often very funny even when they are considered sacred and are performing important cultural tasks.

In many cultures, such as Slavic folktales and American Indian lore, the trickster and the culture hero are combined. To illustrate, Prometheus, in Greek mythology, stole fire from the gods to give it to humans. He is more of a culture hero than a trickster. In many North American Indian mythologies, the coyote spirit stole fire from the gods (or stars or sun) and is more of a trickster than a culture hero. This is primarily because of other stories involving the coyote spirit; Prometheus was an Titan, whereas a coyote is usually seen as a jokester and prankster.

Among the First Nations of North America, the trickster figures often exhibit gender variability, changing gender roles and engaging in same-sex practices. These personages are said to have a two-spirit nature.

The Trickster is an example of a Jungian Archetype. The Fool survives in modern playing cards as the Joker.

[Antares]

Underworld
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In the study of mythology and religion, the underworld is a generic term approximately equivalent to the lay term afterlife, referring to any place to which newly-dead souls go.

[passingover]

Carl Jung explored this extensively. Basically the thought the archetypes are a result of the collective unconscious. To him, a product of heredity. That this is passed down from human to human, thus the common figures and connections.

Trickster. Even Enki of sumerian mythology can be seen be by some vaguely as a sort of trickster figure in some of the earlier myths. Particularly Enki and Ninhursaja, http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl....1.1&charenc=j# and Enki and Ninmah, http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl....1.2&charenc=j#

See Jung "Archetypes and the collective unconscious" , "On the psychology of the trickster figure" for much more broad info.


Solar deity. Yes, it is common to many early systems that trace pre written history. Particularly in egypt and sumer too. You are right about the moon not always being maternal. For instance the moon god Nanna/Sin.

Sky father.
Here it is quite striking, in ancient egyptian and sumerian beleif once again. An interesting trait you might see is that these dieties are usually way out of reach with interaction among the people. And not seen as being the main gods despite that often they are considered the father or mother. The main gods worshipped were usually more close to the people, witht he sky father being seen as very distant or ealy on. Often the other dieties might reference them int he mythology however as their father and appeal for justice or something of the sort. But interactions between the sky father and people in these cultures were rare.

Psychopomp.

The ferryman, boatkeeper. Or the gatekeeper who guards the entrance to the underworld, for instance. Or modern times, the angels and guides who guide the souls into the hereafter, yes.

First man or woman

I find the simularities of being created from the dust or clay of the earth to be striking.


Earth Mother.

The most interesting of all. The so-called venus figurines all over the place where humans once were. The mother the common motif. The cave paintings with the pregnant mother, the acknowledgement of the source of life, fertility.
So beautiful, so much.. This was probably the first one that we came to know as people. As an archetype it is amazing how deep rooted it is within us, despite what you ultimatly believe about its external reality. I am in awe abouti it with the more i see. Extrmely strong in any human.

[Antares]

Related to this are the studies of Northrop Frye.

Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton University Press, 1957) is an attempt to formulate an overall view of the scope, theory, principles and techniqiues of literary criticism as a structure of thought that exists in its own right. Quite consciously Frye omitted all specific and practical criticism, to offer his classically-inspired theories of modes, symbols, myths and genres, in what he termed "an interconnected group of suggestions," but which informed a work that was highly influential in the decades before deconstructivist criticism and other expressions of Post-Modernism.

Frye's four essays are sandwiched between a "Polemical Introduction" and a "Tentative Conclusion." The book evolved out of an introduction to Spenser's The Faerie Queene: "the introduction to Spenser became an introduction to the theory of allegory" Frye allowed (p. vii).

The four essays are on historical criticism, providing a theory of modes; on ethical criticism, providing a theory of symbols; archetypal criticism, providing a theory of myth, and rhetorical criticism's theory of genres.