Norse Mythology – An Introduction

Norse Mythology refers to the mythology of the Scandinavians, i.e. the modern day Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and parts of Germany.

The Norse people lived from about A.D. 200 to 500 in northern Europe & Scandinavia. After A.D. 700, the Norse migrated in search of new lands, settling in parts of the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland and East into Russia. From this period on, the Norse are known as Vikings. Needless to say that one of the most famous Vikings known and loved the world over was the famous comic character, Hagar the Horrible!

Their mythology reflects the Nordic men’s love of battle and conflict. Death and violence are rarely far away, for that was the only life that he early warriors knew.

There isn’t too much of original writing now available except for some short runic inscriptions on wood, bone, stone or metal. However, majority of the stories and myths are based on the Christian writers. Majority of the myths are based on the poems and prose written by such writers. Amongst the prominent sources are:

1.     Saxo Grammaticus who wrote in heavy Latin style

2.     Snorri Sturluson wrote in native Icelandic, especially his Prose Edda

3.     Some precious manuscripts called the Codex Regius found in an Icelandic farmhouse, and better known as Elder or Poetic Edda.

Besides the above, there are references in Archaeology, architecture and art, which gives glimpses of the times and their heroes.

We also get an occasional glimpse of the life of Vikings and their religious customs thru the eyes of Latin or Arab travellers who visited their settlements and trading centres.

The Principal gods of the Norse were Odin, Thor, Freya, Balder, Freyr and Loki to name a few. In the centre of the world in the Tree of Life, Yggdrasill, around which everything in the universe revolves. The gods lived in Asgard and mankind lived in Midgard. Another interesting place in the Valhalla, which was the Hall of the Heroes who were all preparing for the final war, known as the Ragnarok.

Over the next few days, we will go through each one of them in more details.

Helen of Troy – A Greek Romance

For all those who are suffering from yesterday’s hangover of love and romance, here is another romance of mythical times.

All of us have read, or heard or even seen on celluloid the Greek romance of Helen and Paris of Troy. So what is it that has made the romance so well known that generations later, people recount it again and again?

Many of us know about the romance leading to war, but not many might know as what led to the romance in the first place. So let us start at the very beginning i.e. with the root cause of the romance which led to the massive war in which gods sided with mortals, something quite unheard of.

Apple of Discord

It all started in the heavens, with the episode better known as the Judgement of Paris. Eris was an evil goddess of Discord (conflict) and due to her nature; she was not invited to the heavenly gatherings. During one such gathering, she was the lone goddess who was not invited. She decided to avenge the insult by creating trouble, and trouble she did! She threw in the banquet hall a golden apple, on which was written ‘For the Fairest’. Quite predictably all the goddesses laid claim on it, but eventually it narrowed down to three of them, viz. Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. They asked Zeus, the King of Gods, to arbitrate, but better sense prevailed and he suggested that they go to Mount Ida and meet Prince Paris, who was supposed to be a good judge of beauty and let him decide.

Before we move further, Paris, though a son of the King, was guarding the sheep as his father was told that he would be responsible for the destruction of his country. The King had thus sent him away to the mountains, to keep him away from the country, lest the prophecy became true. The three goddesses reached Mount Ida and asked Paris to arbitrate on the celestial problem. Paris was amazed at the job, and could not believe his luck. However, his judgement did not rest on the actual beauty of the goddesses, but on the bribes that each offered to him. Hera promised to make him the Lord of Europe and Asia. Athena offered him victory of the Trojans against the Greeks, leading to the ruin of Greece. Aphrodite offered him the love of the fairest of all mortals (which was none other than Helen). Paris offered the golden apple to Aphrodite, much to the disappointment of the others. It is this judgement, due to which the great Trojan was fought.

Helen’s beauty was a subject of heavens and was the mortal daughter of Zeus from Leda. Every prince in Greece wanted to marry her and when all had assembled to ask for her hand, it was a gathering of who’s who amongst the rich and powerful. Helen’s father, or rather the husband of her mother, was scared to choose one, lest he offended the rest and invite the collective wrath of the mighty. He then extracted an oath from all, that all of them would stand by Helen’s husband, whoever he be, and if he faced any problem, then all would unite with the husband and fight the enemy. Each agreed as each wanted to be the husband. Helen’s father then selected, Menelaus and also made him the King of Sparta.

Aphrodite having won her title of the fairest took Paris straight to Sparta where he was received by Menelaus and Helen. To cut short the story, before anybody realised, love had blossomed and Helen had eloped with Paris. When Menelaus came to know about it, he called on all the chiefs of Greece, and sought their help to get Helen back. They all responded as they were bound by the oath.

The war between the Greeks and the Trojans was war of the epics. Heroes were made and killed. Gods sided with the central characters during the war. Gods like Zeus, Achilles, Athena, Hera, Apollo, etc. all took sides. Heroes like Odysseus, Menelaus, Hector were made and some died heroic deaths. The Trojans were destroyed (episode of the Trojan Horse, is etched in our memories) and the Greeks were victorious. I will spare the details of heroism of the bloody war, as our subject is still love and what’s a better love story than the one which has a happy ending?

Helen goes back to Menelaus, and the initial prophecy was proven that Paris would bring destruction to his country.

Needless to say, that the gods were behind the mortal destruction, all for vanity of three goddesses, which I thought, was a human emotion!

Radha Krishna – A Divine Romance

On a day when love is in the air (besides being at the florists, the jewellers and all sorts of gift shops), it would be sacrilegious to talk of anything, but love. A romantic love story of mythical times, may be? Amongst all the love stories, it is that of Radha-Krishna which comes to my mind and why not? Radha-Krishna and their love has been a subject of much reverence as well as ridicule. The modern times sees the escapades of the two through the coloured glasses and with a wink of the eye.

So what is it about them, which though scandalous at times, grandparents do not shy away from sharing it with children? In a closed society like ours, why has such romance between the two been allowed and venerated? Even though the typical pictorial representation of Radha and Krishna has never showed the difference of age, it is well known that Radha was both older than Krishna as well as married.

To begin with who exactly was Radha? Some say she was Krishna’s maternal uncles wife (his maternal aunt to be precise), whereas some say she was just another, but a favourite gopi (milkmaid). Radha was considered to be the daughter of one Vrishbhanu and that she grew up in Barsana. Nothing much seems to be mentioned about her childhood. The most important thing to note is that there has been no mention of Radha as a character in any of the ancient literatures, be it Bhagavata, or the Vishnu Purana or Harivamsa or even the Mahabharata. There is no trace of Radha in any of the main texts even though Krishna is a prominent personality in all of them. Radha first appears in the Brahmavaivarta Purana but is not available for any significant reference.

Radha was brought into prominence by Jayadeva, the author of Geet-Govinda, around 12^th century CE. Jayadeva was from a village in Orissa and was the court poet of the-then King of Bengal, and wrote this poem during his alleged relationship with a devdasi, Padmavati. He is later supposed to have married her. His inspiration was both his personal love affair as well as his spiritual quest. The poem explores the relationship of Radha and Krishna in all the elements of a relationship, which is both a divine and an erotic exploration, with all the aspects of love. The poem brought in a momentum in the Vaishnav sect of the times and soon Bengal saw a series of spiritual writers like Vidyapati and Chandidas writing on the relationship of Radha and Krishna. Radha was on her way to deification.

The relationship raised eyebrows and the eroticism was more than evident. What did all this imply, especially when all know that Krishna’s stay at Vrindavan was part of his childhood? This divine relationship is to be seen through metaphysical glasses and it is then that the beauty of it all is so evident.

The root of the word Radha is ‘Radh’ * implies worship, adoration. To take this further, anyone who worships or adores Krishna is Radha. It seems that Radha was more of a concept than a person. The aspect of her love defines the love for god. Selfless devotion, not craving for a name to the relationship and forgetting herself in him, was the main aspect of this kind of devotion. Radha’s love did not arise out of a compulsion of being god-fearing, she loved Krishna in an absolute terms. It was not a love of subjugation, but a love of equality.

Another aspect of her love is the age factor, especially the difference. To see this in a different angle, god is ageless, so Krishna being a child was of no major significance. Needless to mention that even at that age, some of the acts performed by him were beyond his age. Radha being older is to be seen as her being an adult who knew what she was doing. This took the relationship beyond the realm of infatuation. One could not submit to someone without knowing what one was doing, and her being an adult made it more acceptable, than if she was portrayed as a child.

Finally, Radha being married was to be seen as someone who was married to the societal norms and responsibilities laid by the society at large. Her seeking Krishna was someone seeking redemption by being within the society and without shirking her immediate responsibilities. Nowhere do we get a sense of her marital life being unfulfilled.

This relationship defined a spiritual quest of a different kind. This was a love of equals and here god is treated at par. Krishna was not a god and Radha was not a goddess. I would end with a beautiful myth which epitomises the relationship. Once, the gopis, who were jealous of Radha, took boiling milk to her asking her to drink it as requested by Krishna. Radha gulped down the milk and got back to her work, which surprised all of them, but left without saying anything. Later when they met Krishna, they saw that he had burnt his mouth and throat! This could be stuff of poetic fantasy, but it epitomises the divine relationship.

This love story is not for all to tarnish, but to see the deeper meaning in the romance. At the cost of repetition, I must add – in myth lies the message.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

* ‘Krishna Charitra’ – By Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

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.