Diana and Actaeon

The myth of Diana and Actaeon is kind of a disturbing myth. Just why do people have to suffer for no fault of theirs? Mythology is replete with examples where characters undergo trials and tribulations for no fault of theirs, but this one still seems to be different.

Diana (also known as Artemis sometimes) was the virgin goddess of hunting and wildlife. From an early age she had decided to remain a virgin and thus as a goddess she remained unattached and was also at times worshiped as the goddess who protected girls who had not attained puberty.

Actaeon was the son of King Cadmus and was at the peak of his youth. He was brave and strong and was fond of hunting. Once he led a hunting expedition to the forests with his friends and hunting dogs. After a tiring day, all of them decided to take some rest. Actaeon, moved away from the group in search of water. Unknown to him, there was a secret place of Diana, who would come to rest and pamper herself in a spring. On that fateful day, Diana had just dipped herself in the pool and begun to let her attendants take away her clothes. Her bow and arrow and javelin were parked far away and Diana had just begun to relax her tired body, when Actaeon, unknown to the forest landed at the exact spot.

Not used to men, her attendant’s shrieked and all tried to cover the bare body of Diana, by using themselves as shields. But Diana was tall and beautiful and the attendants could not cover her enough. Actaeon had never seen such divine beauty and even before decency could enable him to shift his gaze, Diana threw some of the waters from the spring at him and said that he would never be able to tell any mortal what he saw. What she uttered was a curse, and no sooner had she completed her statement, Actaeon found himself running from there.

A painting by Titian

While running, Actaeon suddenly grew antlers and from two legs he had gone on four. When he reached a spring, he saw his reflection and shouted in disbelief, he had turned into a stag! But his voice had changed into the call of a stag. Soon he realised that he had reached close to where he had left his friends and the hunting dogs had heard his call. His friends had started chasing the stag and the dogs were after him, unaware that it was none other than their leader and friend. Actaeon had now suddenly become the object of the sport that he was leading till a few hours back. Soon, the dogs caught up with him and tore him to pieces without anybody even realising what had happened and why.

Death of Actaeon

As I mentioned earlier, this is a disturbing myth. Was Actaeon to be blamed for what he saw, unintentionally? Nowhere are his thoughts on what he saw mentioned. Did Diana act in haste? Let us understand the myth slightly better and understand the lesson it tried to impart, to the Greeks then.

This myth can be interpreted in different ways. This can be seen as the malevolent powers of the feminine power, especially of the one who is the embodiment of chastity. It tells man, that the beauty of a female has the power to trap and sometimes lead to ultimate destruction. Such beauty can make the hunter the hunted, even before the hunter realises it. It also serves as a lesson to the wayward not to take the feminine spirit as benign and for granted.

According to Greek mythology, stags were associated with spiritual qualities and were supposed to the favourites of the goddess Diana. Here Actaeon being changed into a stag seems ironic, especially when the very form leads to its destruction by dogs. However, the dogs represent the unconscious lust that is hiding deep inside every man’s secret thoughts, and such thoughts have not spared even those who have sought spiritualism.

In Hindu mythology, we see a similar malevolent aspect in goddess Kali. Even in her devastating form, she is referred to as Mother. She spares none, who have evil in their heart and actions. The all pervasive benevolent Mother changes into a malevolent form in no time and rests only on drinking the blood of the evil.

Olympic Games

The world will usher in the next Olympics being held in London later today. As we all know that the Olympics were first held in Greece, and anything Greek, has to have its origin in Greek mythology. Before we look at the mythical origins of the Olympics, let us understand the Olympics as they were, which is better known as the Ancient Olympic Games as against the present format of the Games which we refer to as the Modern Olympics.

The Ancient Olympics were first held in 776 BC as per the available documented records. They were held in a city by the name of Olympia, a district in Southern Greece and were held every four years which began around the Summer Solstice. This four year period was referred to as Olympiad and was also used as a reference point for many important events in the Greek calendar.

The games were not just a set of games, but also a religious event for the people then. A temple dedicated to Zeus, the King of all gods, at the site of the games had a huge 42 feet high, gold and ivory idol of Zeus, which was also a part of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. During the games, no city-state could go for wars or even execute criminals. Part of the activities during the ancient games was altar rituals and sacrifices in honour of gods. In the middle of the games, about 100 oxen were sacrificed in honour of Zeus in an extravagant ritual known as the ‘hecatombe’.

The Ancient Games did not have too many events, except for a few races, jumps, discus and javelin throws, wrestling and boxing and horse-riding and chariot races. In all events, there was only one winner and his prize was a crown of leaves, olive or laurel leaves. Participating and winning in the Olympics was considered to be very prestigious. Many of the victors were treated like heroes and were accorded a very high status and some were taken care of and fed by the state for the rest of their lives. A victor could have his statue erected and even have poems written on him. They not only brought fame to themselves and their families, but also to their ‘poleis’ or city-states. Besides this, the participants were also trying to impress and win favour of some god or the other.

The Games were stopped by Theodosius in AD 393, after an existence of more than a thousand years, as he was a champion of Christianity and wanted to impose the same as the state religion. Part of his religious imposition meant bringing an end to such games which were held in honour of Greek Gods. The site of Olympia where the Games were held was destroyed in an earthquake in the 6^th Century AD. The Games were later reinstated in 1896 in the city of Athens.

Next, we will see the mythical origins of the Olympic Games.

Homosexuality and Mythology - Part 2

Greek mythology is replete with references of relationships of same-sex. There are a number of references that can be given, like the relationships between Achilles and Patroclus,  Apollo and Hyacinthus, or some of the escapades of Zeus himself.

Zeus (as eagle) and Ganymede

Let’s take the case of one such relationship of Zeus. Ganymede was a handsome mortal and the son of Tros, the Lord of the Trojans. Tros loved his son so much that he ensured that he was brought up well under special tutors who taught him wrestling, riding and swimming amongst many of the sports. Once Zeus saw Ganymede from the heavens resting with his friends at Mount Ida and instantly fell in love with him and in the guise of an eagle, swooped down to the earth. He created a storm and turned the day into darkness and tenderly caught hold of Ganymede and flew away with him. Soon they reached the heavens, where Zeus took his original form and took him to bed. Soon all the gods were delighted with the looks of Ganymede and his presence and he was thus appointed the cup-bearer where he would serve wine to all the gods, not before pressing his lips to the cups before handing the cup over to the gods. Back on the earth, Tros was sad and sunk in sorrow, so much so that even Zeus felt sad for him. To make up for the loss of Ganymede, Zeus presented him with a pair of white mares who could walk on water, which filled Tros with the joy as he rode the mares! In the meanwhile, Hera, Zeus’s wife was jealous of this new found love of Zeus and she decided to destroy the Trojans (this is a different myth). Zeus who was enamoured by Ganymede decided to make place for him in the heavens and thus was put among the stars as Aquarius – the water bearer, who till date stands tall and handsome, pouring nectar!

Apollo and Hyacinthus

Another very important myth is that of Apollo and his mortal lover Hyacinthus, the son of the King of Sparta. Apollo was in love with Hyacinthus and the god would come down to the earth to spend time with his mortal lover, listening to music and indulging in boyish pastimes and learning gymnastics from Hyacinthus, an art form supposed to have been developed from the Spartans. During one such visit to earth, both of them applied oil to their glistening bodies and started to try out throwing the discus, where each tried to outdo the other, in throwing it higher and higher. Once Apollo threw the discus very high and the when the same came hurling down to earth, Hyacinthus was hurt in the head, trying to catch it. His head started bleeding. Apollo tried in vain but could not stop the bleeding and soon Hyacinth was dead. Apollo mourned and soon a red flower rose at the spot where Hyacinthus’s blood dropped and the flower was henceforth called the Hyacinth. Painters and scholars have depicted this story of love and death in full pathos, but the fact that this was same-sex relationship has never been denied like many others in the Greek Mythology.

Amongst many of the same-sex relationships there are mentions of a few like the relationships that Aphrodite has with other goddesses and there are references of her being identified as the patron goddess of lesbians. It would be pertinent to mention here that there are more references of gay relationships than that of lesbians. This however, could be explained by the fact that such myths were written/related/orated by men and from the angle of man in general. I wouldn’t ascribe this to anything beyond this.

There are many pictures of paintings and sculptures which have made the above and many other relationships artistically immortal, but due to the moral facade that modern human beings maintain, I am not uploading them. However, those interested and ask for them directly.

Next time we will discuss some references of same-sex relationships from other mythologies. Keep reading …….

The Third Sex - In other Mythologies

Reference to gods or goddesses like that of Bahucharaji is not very common to find in the other mythologies. But there are two different aspects to be observed in this case. One aspect is that of Bahucharaji as the universal mother goddess and the other is the aspect of Bahucharaji as the goddess of the third sex/trasvestites.

Similarity with Mother Goddess in other mythologies abounds and is not new to students of mythologies. One can compare Bahucharaji with any prime Goddesses of other mythologies.

What is of interest is parallels with Bahucharaji as the goddess of the transvestites. What does not exist is an exact replica or in the likeness of the goddess herself. However, there does exist references of gods or goddesses who are themselves of transgendered nature. References to ‘sex-less’, hermaphrodite, or castrated gods does exist in different mythologies, and some myths can get as gory as gory can be!

We will not get into details of all of them, but will refer to some of them by name and a brief description of them.

Issue of Male and Female – Hermaphrodite

In the earlier cultures some sort of a reproductive deformity or abnormality was seen as a state of blessedness. In the hunter-gatherer societies of the Neolithic era, such deformities were respected and were allowed to choose the sex that they wanted to play roles in and were considered to be a good omen. They were considered to be advocates of the gods and thus believed that such people were good.

In Babylonian culture such abnormalities were seen as gods way of reducing the population on earth, the basic reason of the flood, i.e the Flood of the Atrahasis, and thus were respected and never despised or looked down upon.

The Egyptians used the gods to symbolize the various combinations of gender and sex. According to their creation story, the first god, that was both male and female was Atum, which means asexual reproduction is divided in two, Shu and Tefnut, who in turn gave rise to Geb and Nut, Earth & Sky.

The Phoenicians worshiped the goddess Atargatis, who was hermaphrodite, whose priestesses, the kelabim, men were born, but had assumed a feminine role. The goddess, also known as Astarte, was transformed by Christianity in the devil Astaroth.

In classical mythology transsexual influence is evident in the description of the goddess Venus Castina as the goddess who attends and meets the aspirations of women's souls are in male bodies.

Some native American tribes had (and still do) the concept of the “two-spirited” person. These were considered both male and female. The female side was from the earth and the male side was of the spiritual world. Either way, both the male and female sides of a person are honoured and seen as both necessary for a person to be whole. In many cultures the “two-spirited person” is often valued as a shaman, a person who can walk in both the earthly world and the spiritual world. They are the “gatekeepers” to help people cross over to the spiritual world and back again to earthly, practical living.

Besides the above, there exist some very direct references of such Gods who we will describe in brief:

Hermaphroditos

In Greek Mythology, Hermaphroditos was the god of hermaphrodites and of effeminate men. He was numbered amongst the winged love-gods known as Erotes. Hermaphroditos was a son of Hermes and Aphrodite, the gods of male and female sexuality.

Some say he was once a handsome youth who attracted the love of a Naiad nymph named Salmakis. She prayed to be united with him forever and a god, in answer to her prayer, merged their two forms into one. At the same time her spring acquired the property of making men who bathed in its waters soft and effeminate.

In Greek vase painting Hermaphroditos was depicted as a winged youth with male and female attributes: usually female thighs, breasts, and style of hair, and male genitalia.

This brings us the next step in this subject, the homosexuals. Is there a reference of homosexual relationship in mythology? Keep reading to find answers to this question.

Twins – A case of peaceful co-existence.

The last few articles have been focusing on twins in mythology. It must be mentioned at the onset, that the theory of twins in mythology is a subject by itself. But we will avoid the intricacies of the theory and discuss the concept from a mythical perspective.

Twin birth was an intriguing subject for the mythologists of yore. Explanations for the normal itself were a task, and over that something out of the line taxed ones capabilities to the hilt. However daunting the task be, they did try to explain the phenomenon.

Nearly all the mythologies of the world have instances of twins. The Greeks had Artemis and Appolo, Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome,Castor and Pollux who went on to represent the Gemini twins, to name a few. The Bible hasEsau and Jacob, Cain and Abel. The Sumerians had Utu and Innana, while the Egyptians had the twin brothers Danus and Aegyptus. The Hindu myths have a host of twins, in the form of the Ashwins the twin gods of healing; Yama and Yami, Lakshaman and Shatrughan, and Luv Kush from Ramayan are just a few of them.

The concept of twin births was complicated and not understood well. This brought up the confusion of either double paternity or divine paternity. Divine paternity led to an element of mystery and magic, but at the same time it also gave a sort of sanction or rather a divine sanction.

In the earlier series, we have seen instances of conflict and rivalry; let us now examine a few cases of harmony and peaceful co-existence.

Castor and Pollux

A good example of the above is seen in the Greek myth of the twin birth of Castor and Pollux who go on to become the Gemini twins. Castor and Pollux were the result of two impregnations, one by Zeus who fell in love with the mortal and the married Leda. Leda on the same night got impregnated by her husband and thus the offspring were twins, one being divine and the other being a mortal. This reiterated the belief of the times of dual paternity and thus the offspring bearing the traits of the father. However, this myth is not quite of conflict as they two brothers were quite devoted to each other, to the extent that when the mortal brother was wounded the divine one asked for immortality for the other. The request was granted in a manner that when one brother was in Mount Olympus, the abode of the gods, the other brother would in Hades, the underworld, and thereafter they would exchange their positions.

Some Greek mythologists have explained the myth of Narcissus in the theory of twinship (refer to the article The Romance of Echo and Narcissus dated December 15, 2010, in this Blog). According to this interpretation, Narcissus had a twin sister who he lost and he would keep looking for her everywhere. After she died Narcissus would keep consoling himself by looking at his own reflection in the water, to keep her memory alive; it was not his love for himself as is better known! The myth of the more famous twins of Greek Mythology, Apollo and Artemis is also that of love and harmony and not that of hatred and jealousy

Ashwins

Horse-faced Ashwins

A similar situation is found in the Hindu myths too. Amongst the most famous of the twins are the Ashwins – the twin gods of healing. Ashwins were Vedic gods, portrayed as divine horsemen and there are more than 400 references of the god in Reg Veda. They were supposed to be the children of Sun god and an there is an interesting myth of their birth. It is said that the Sanjana the wife of Sun god could not bear the luminosity of her husband and to avoid the heat and the glare, she took the form of a mare and ran away to a shaded area. Sun god decided to change himself to a horse and followed her to the shaded area. The offspring of this mare and horse were the divine horsemen, the Aswins. This is also seen as an act of accommodation and benevolence on the part of the Sun god towards his wife. The Ashwins are thus also depicted as horse-faced gods. The Ashwins are thus seen as benevolent gods who are known for their medical feats and the ability to cure and give life to anyone who needs it, much to the chagrin of the other gods of the pantheon. (Here we can compare the acts of the Ashwins with the Greek Prometheus who goes against the gods to give the art of fire to mankind). The Ashwins are also considered to be the fathers of the twins Nakul and Sahadev in the epic Mahabharata, where Nakul was the most handsome of all and Sahadev was the most knowledgeable of all. Again we see that the offspring have the traits of the father as we have seen in the earlier myth of Castor and Pollux.

 

Besides the Ashwins the other twins in the Hindu myths, i.e. Lakshaman and Shatrughan, and Luv Kush from Ramayan amongst the few of them are too not at loggerheads. There is no rivalry in such myths but seem to share a harmonious relationship.

Thus we can conclude that the issue of twins was not just of confusion, but also divine in some case. The divinity in some of them avoided the evil aspect as we have seen in some of the cases above and this is critical. This could be both cultural as well as a sense of accepting the unacceptable, inherent in the cultural milieu. What cannot be understood, need not necessarily have an evil connotation. So an amicable and an acceptable solution was arrived at, as we see in the above myths. In some of the Hindu myths, either one of the twin brother does not have a significant role (like in the case of Shatrughan) or the twins have an equal role to play (like that of Luv and Kush in Ramayan), but the conflict is not there.

Though this is a contradiction to some of the myths of conflict and rivalry as we have seen before, the issue of divine intervention runs as a common aspect in all of the myths.

The Indo-Pak Match.

Yesterday was the India-Pakistan Cricket match which was nothing less than a war. The tension was all around and palpable – streets deserted, offices empty, all appointments cancelled, stadium tickets at unbelievable prices and some even willing to pledge their organs to get to see the match!

Is this sports?

The match was between two all-time arch-rivals, which wasworth the bucks that were at stake. What is it that makes the two nations such strong adversaries? Till a few decades back we were a single nation with a single objective and similar outlook. The colonial past can be blamed for the strife, but if more than six decades have not got us together, then probably nothing will. What makes this animosity so strange? Is there a parallel so similar?

A similar strife can be found in the Roman history, between Athens and Sparta. Athens and Sparta were both Greek cities and their people spoke a common language. Athens was a city of busy trade. Sparta was an armed camp where people were soldiers for the sake of being soldiers. The people of Athens loved to sit in the sun and discuss poetry or listen to the wise words of a philosopher. The Spartans, on the other hand, never wrote a single line that was considered literature, but they knew how to fight, they liked to fight, and they sacrificed all human emotions to their ideal of military preparedness. Athenian life was a creative wonderland. Spartan life was simple. The focus was on obedience and war.

Both the nations had lots to join hands for, but the friendship did not last as a sense of insecurity overtook each soon. This led to conflicts and battles and ironically, in their quest for power over Greece, the two city-states caused each other's demise.

Another very significant example can be the enmity between the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the famous epic Mahabharata. Both belonged to the same ancestors, with no differences whatsoever, but were at logger-heads on everything from sharing of parental emotions to sharing of titles and land. Nothing could get them together, except a war. The final battle left nothing to covet, except a huge burden of guilt and an emptiness which was regrettable.

Yesterday’s intense tension and the build-up during the last few days belied all the feeble attempts to shake hands both in the name of sports and culture that the two nations were supposedly making. Be it at the levels of leadership and bureaucracy or at the grounds level, the animosity seems to be irreversible.

At the end of it all, I simply hope that the end is not similar to the Greek example or the Mahabharata example. A rank optimist will tell you that it’s never too late to make a fresh beginning, and if I were to toe the same line, then I would repeat the same.

Let a game remain so and let us not transform a stadium into a battleground. Don’t use such platforms for expressing patriotic emotions, and don’t make such simple sporting events into a do-or-die event. Individual emotional burdens cannot be offloaded on the national cricket team.

Saying ‘tathastu’ or ‘inshallah’ is up to you!

Demeter & Persephone

According to the Greek Mythology, Demeter was the goddess of vegetation and fruitfulness, especially of corn. She represented the products of soils and seasons and the generative forces that directed their abundance. Demeter was the goddess of the harvest and she taught man how to grow crops. Traditionally, the first loaf of bread of the season is sacrificed to her.

Demeter lived in the mountains and was known as the protector of the fields. She was known as the fair haired earth goddess who blesses all phases of the harvest. She walks the furrowed fields dressed in green.

Demeter had a very close bond with her daughter Persephone. Persephone was the goddess of the underworld, spring and harvest. She also represented all the elements of the earth.

Persephone was very beautiful. Once the God of the underworld, Hades saw Persephone and fell deeply in love with her. He trapped Persephone and abducted her to the underworld.

After the disappearance of Persephone, Demeter began to look high and low for her daughter. Demeter was so distraught, that she wandered the earth for nine days, denying herself of all forms of food, drink and comfort. She renounced her divine functions as a goddess of vegetation and fruitfulness, in search of Persephone.

Seeing this Zeus decided to intervene. He sent his messenger to speak to Hades to release Persephone from the underworld. But as luck would have it, Persephone who had revolted all these days by not having anything to eat or drink and had just tasted a few seeds of Pomegranate and had thus become one of the underworlds, as per the rules of the underworld.

So a compromise had to be struck, that Persephone would spend two-thirds of the year with her mother, Demeter, and one-third as the queen of the underworld.

From that day onwards, while Persephone lives with Hades, the days are short and dark and cold. Demeter, who could not forgive Hades, allows the earth to go barren during the months when Persephone resides with him. But her return to earth is marked by the spring season when there is the warm, bright light of summer, and the flowers start to bloom, the leaves to bud and the birds to sing in the sky.

Herein lies the secret of seasons, explained so painfully through the love of a mother and daughter!

Ophiuchus – 13th Sign of the Zodiac

Ophiuchus is the new and the 13^th Zodiac sign, which has been added between Scorpio and Sagittarius and is the sign for all born between Nov 29 and Dec17. We are told that an addition of a new sign is because of the shift of the earth’s axis. In technical terms, the earth has been on its axis for several thousand years and such a shift is not unexpected. But we will leave science here and move on to the mythical reference of Ophiuchus.

Ophiuchus in Greek means the Serpent bearer and that is why the sign is also sometimes known as the Serpentarius. The figure represents a man wrestling with a giant serpent ultimately dividing it in to two.

Ophiuchus was the illegitimate son of the god Apollo and the nymph Coronis. When Coronis was pregnant with Apollo’s son, she began courting a human. This got Apollo’s sister furious and she shot arrows at Coronis for cheating on her brother. When Apollo came to know about it, he managed to save the unborn child before the arrows hit Coronis. Apollo then took the child, named him Asclepius, and gave him to a centaur Chiron. Chiron was a wise and a kind centaur who excelled in the art of medicine.

Chiron then trained Asclepius in medicine, who went a step beyond his teacher and Asclepius soon mastered the art of raising people from death. This worried the god of the underworld, Hades, who did not want mankind to be immortal. He convinced his brother, Zeus, the King of Gods, and Zeus, hurled a thunderbolt at Asclepius and killed him. Later to honour Asclepius, Zeus put him in the sky and named Asclepius, as Ophiuchus.

The Egyptians believe that there lived a person by the name of Imphotep in the Ancient Egypt. Imphotep was a healer by profession and he introduced the concepts and the techniques of healing to mankind. The serpent or the snake symbol which today is used to symbolise the medical profession was used to represent Imphotep. According to the Egyptians, it is the same Imphotep, whom the Greeks later named Ophiuchus. The serpent symbol is also known as the Rod of Asclepius.

It is also said that the Hippocratic Oath that the physicians take, named after Hippocrates, was supposed to be the descendant of Asclepius.

Finally, Ophiuchus is the 13^th Zodiac sign, so does it bring bad luck to all born under this sign? Astronomers do not think so, rather, they feel that people with this new sign, are those who seek wisdom and knowledge and the year 2011, is going to prove to be a very good year for them. There, that does it. So keep your doubts at bay and move on the Serpentarians! This year belongs to you!!

The Sphinx

The moment someone speaks of Egypt, immediately two monuments come to our mind – the Pyramids and the Sphinx. With Egypt in the news for all the wrong reasons, I thought of discussing about the famous Sphinx, even though, it is found in places beyond Egypt.

Egyptian Sphinx

The Sphinx is a mythical creature which is half human and half animal. In Egypt, it has a body of a lion and the head of a human. It was a prominent figure which was known to guard the temples, palaces and the pyramids along with the secrets of the temples. The Sphinx was supposed to be a later day manifestation of the ancient Hathor, the goddess of birth and death. It was also supposed to be the guardian of the distant horizons, and faced the East, i.e. the rising Sun. It was a prominent figure of solar worship that existed during the ancient culture.

There are no major myths associated with the Sphinx, and today it exists more of a structural marvel. However, in some depictions it is shown as crushing some objects under its feet, used to depict the crushing of Egypt’s enemies. It is worth mentioning, that there has been intense speculation over the broken nose of the Sphinx. Some say, that it was broken by cannon ball struck at the nose by Napoleon’s soldiers, when they had attacked Egypt in 1798 (uncertain date). Some Egyptian historians attribute the loss of nose to acts of vandalism by Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a Sufi fanatic, who was outraged when he saw some Egyptian farmers making an offering to the Sphinx for want of a good harvest.

Greek Sphinx

The Sphinx existed in the Greek mythology too, except that it did not hold a place of veneration, like it did for the Egyptians. The Greek Sphinx had the head of a woman, the body of a lioness and the tail of a serpent. She was evil and guarded the gates of Thebes and asked a riddle to all who wanted to enter the gates of Thebes, failing which they would be devoured. This Sphinx features in the tale of Oedipus and she repeats the riddle to Oedipus too. The famous riddle was – Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be? To this Oedipus was supposed to have answered – Man - who crawled on all fours as a baby, walked on two feet as an adult, and then used a stick in old age. On hearing the answer, the sphinx is supposed to have killed itself, thus freeing Thebes of the menace of the Sphinx. However, the Greek Sphinx was a greedy and an evil creature, and does not find any mention elsewhere.

Purushamriga

In India, there exists a sphinx like creature known as Purushamriga, meaning man-beast. It is found in many South-Indian temples and is engraved at the entrances of the temples, whose main duty is to take away the sins of the people who entered the temples. Sometimes such figures are also found near the entrance to the sanctum-sanctorum of the temples. The Greek Sphinx is also quite similar to the Sharabha form of Lord Shiva (please refer to the article   dated 29/12/2010 from the Archives). It is important to mention that one should not confuse the Sphinx with the Narasimha (avatar of Vishnu), which is an exact opposite. The Narasimha has the body of a male and the face of a lion as against all the Sphinxes that we have been speaking about.

Sphinxes are also found in many of the Buddhist art forms in some of the South-Asian countries like Philippines, Thailand, Burma and even Sri Lanka. The Sphinxes are also found in the Freemasonry architecture. But it is definitely the Egyptian Sphinx that remains as such overbearing sculptures or landmarks which has captured the mind-space of each one of us.

Maat – Egyptian Goddess of Truth and Justice

Maat, in Egyptian language literally means ‘truth’. Maat is the Egyptian goddess of Truth and Justice. Besides truth and justice, she also represented law, order and a sense of balance. She was also credited by bringing a sense of stability to the universe, post creation. She was considered to be the opposite of Isfet who was credited to represent chaos, deceit and violence, all things that destroy the balance or equilibrium.

She has been depicted as a young woman with an ostrich feather as her headgear. She was considered to be the daughter of Sun-god, Ra and was the female counterpart of Thoth, who was the god of wisdom and learning. Together with Thoth, both represented divine wisdom and all aspects associated with it.

According to the Egyptian mythology, after death, Maat acts as the judge of morality. She would weigh the soul of the dead against her ostrich feather in a scale, and if the soul balances against the feather, then the soul reaches paradise. If it weighed heavier than the feather, a sign that it was a soul which harboured evil deeds, then it would be given to the crocodile headed goddess Ammut (some say she was lioness-headed), who would devour it and would be relegated to the underworld. This way the Egyptians believed that there would be balance, and just as the good would get rewarded, the evil would get punished. The concept of punishment after life is akin to many other cultures, including Hinduism. She was also said to regulate the movement of stars and the seasons, again leading to a sense of continuous change with balance at the core of all her activities.

The Pharaoh’s of the later day were often shown with the symbols of Maat, as they were seen as the upholders of the principles of Maat. Judges were also referred as ‘priests of Maat’. Many feel that Maat was less of a goddess and more of a concept. The concept of balance leading to equilibrium was passed on to the Greeks during the reign of the Greeks over Egypt. Many also feel that the present day image of the blind-folded Lady of Justice, holding the balance as the image of justice is a modern derivative of the Egyptian Maat.

                                                                                           

Unfortunately, Egypt today is fighting for the same, balance and justice.  The priest of Maat, who is sitting in judgement, has been sitting for too long now, and the children of Egypt feel that balance is tilted. The lack of equilibrium in today’s Egypt shows that the much needed concept of truth and justice is being thrown to the winds. Maat is much in need, and the sense of balance and justice and the resultant equilibrium needs to be restored soon.

Vasant Panchami

Vasant Panchami literally means the fifth day of the spring season (vasant ritu). This day is also considered as the day of Goddess Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning and wisdom. In earlier days, pre-school children were inducted to schools on this day, or were made to write from this day. In a country where education is a religion, this day has its own importance. In the Eastern parts of India, every household which has children in schools or colleges perform Saraswati Puja, besides the community ones held on this day.

Saraswati is the consort of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe and the originator of all knowledge in the form of Vedas. In the eastern parts of India, Saraswati is considered to be the daughter of Shiva and Parvati. She is clad in white, symbolising purity. The vahana or the carrier of Saraswati is a white swan and this too has its own significance. The swan is supposed to have the ability to separate water from milk, signifying that learning and wisdom enables man to distinguish good from bad.

Mythologically, Saraswati is the sister of Goddess Lakshmi (goddess of wealth), but both are considered to be poles apart. Saraswati is permanent, where is Lakshmi is temporary (chanchala – fidgety, and thus does not stay anywhere forever). Worshipper of Saraswati is blessed for life, but the worshipper of Lakshmi is wealthy till the whims of the goddess.

Saraswati has her counterparts in other mythologies too.

Athena

According to Greek Mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom and learning. She is the daughter of Zeus and is credited with inventing the flute, which symbolises her association with music and other fields of arts and craft.

Thoth

Besides the goddesses, the Egyptians had Thoth as the god of learning. Thoth was also associated with wisdom, writing, speech, etc. He was the chief counsellor to Ra, the King of all gods.



Odin



Odin was the god of wisdom in the Nordic mythology. He is supposed to have hung on the tree of knowledge pierced by his own spear to gain knowledge and wisdom. He is always depicted as one-eyed, as he is supposed to have traded his other eye for a drink from the Well of Wisdom, which enabled him to gain immense knowledge.

 Though there are many other mythologies which have gods and goddesses of wisdom, learning, poetry, arts, music, etc., the above are deities who are primarily associated with aspects of knowledge and wisdom.

We surely do live in times of dichotomy. Lakshmi or Saraswati? Wealth or Wisdom? To acquire wisdom, we need wealth, and the moment we acquire wisdom or learning, our objective turns to earn wealth. Somewhere, or the other, the pursuit of Saraswati seems to be to acquire Lakshmi. Serious worshippers of Saraswati have humble dwellings, and worshippers of Lakshmi live in palaces. Teachers travel in public transport while students come in chauffeur-driven cars. In the land of gurukuls and unflinching devotion to teachers, one needs to be a strong worshipper of Lakshmi to attain the blessings of Saraswati! Once the blessings of Saraswati are acquired, it’s time to appease Lakshmi again!

If this is not a serious dichotomy, then what is?