Feminist critique of ancient myths

Animism: Sacred Mythology

7/24/2023

Animism was commonplace in the ancient world, and resonates today as a means of reconnecting with our living world. The world of Kolkha (the setting of my fantasy novels-in-progress), is informed by animism as well as the more familiar historical mythology of polytheism (multiple gods).

“The color of the sky, the rush of waves--every aspect of the earthly sensuous [can] draw us into a relationship fed with curiosity and spiced with danger.” So says David Abram in The Spell of the Sensuous, his exploration of animism, oral traditions, and the philosophy of phenomenology.
He urges us “to wander and bask in the scents drifting up from the nightriver...it’s the unfathomable otherness of things--the strange perspective of an orb-weaving spider spinning the cosmos out of her abdomen; the outrageously different sentience of a humpback whale or an albatross; the complex intelligence of an old-growth forest dank with mushrooms…that makes any attentive relation with such beings a genuine form of magic”

Animism (from Latin anima, "breath, spirit, life") is a religion that recognizes places and creatures as having distinct spiritual essences. The sacred oak groves of Celtic druids, the dryads and naiads of ancient Greece, Skythian gods of sky, rain, and fire--these all harken to a time when the world was experienced as a living place full of spirits.
This mystic unity with the natural world resonated in all areas of society:
Self-identity among animists is based on relationships with others. Instead of focusing on the "individual," persons are viewed through social relationships (one among many), some of which are with non-humans.

Anyone who has formed a deep friendship with a cat, dog, horse or other companion animal has experienced a non-human social relationship.
Our animist ancestors would have had similar bonds with the forests and fields, the sky and rivers, with ravens and bears, and the earth.

Rupert Sheldrake asks “If nature is alive, if the universe is more like an organism than a machine, then there must be self-organizing systems with minds at all levels, including the earth, the solar system, and the galaxy--and ultimately the entire cosmos.”
“Our direct experience of nonhuman nature can lead us beyond our limited selves to a direct connection with the more-than-human world and the more-than-human consciousness that underlies it.”

Neil Price gives a visceral description of animism in Children of Ash & Elm: A History of the Vikings:
“The Vikings…shared their world with…a whole host of beings, spirits, and creatures….The Vikings didn’t believe in these things…they knew them.”
The same is true of many oral cultures embedded in the natural world.
I strive to recreate this sacred animism in my stories, to give my readers a chance to know the magical, living world surrounding us.

Dragon Moon Origins

6/26/2023

“Dragon Moon” is one of many myths created for my novels-in-progress based on my fantasy world Kolkha.
I used my background in Anthropology and extensive reading in feminist analysis of world mythology to craft the mythological background of Kolkha. The world of Kolkha is inspired by the archeological and historical record of the ancient kingdom of Qulka (Colchis in the Greek).

The sky god Tiamar is a blend of the native Georgian sky goddess Tamar and the Mesopotamian Tiamat.
Waves of migrants from Andoulu (Anatolia) would have brought their own gods, including Tiamat, a primodial water god associated with Spring. In “Dragon Moon,” I chose to modify the myth of Tiamat and Marduk, inspired by the resilience of Tamar in Georgian myth.

For example, in one version of myth, the lightning-sky god Kopala is transformed into a smith, solidifying Tamar’s role as the premier firmament/sky and weather god.
Similarly Kukhili (Thunder) also known as Perkhili (Thunder-shaker-striker), was demoted from a sky god to become the name of Tamar’s sword.

Invading nomadic horse archers off the northern steppe likely imported their preeminent fire goddess Tabiti and their father-sky god, who also must have been absorbed by Tamar.
Tabiti plays a critical role in my third novel, which reimagines the ancient Greek myth of Medea.
More? Download my illustrated, three-page PDF outlining the imaginary mythology of Kolkha.

Formidable: Grendel’s Mother in Beowulf

4/27/2023

I recently read two very different translations of the ancient Angle-Saxon epic, Beowulf, which spurred me to do a deeper dive into the character of the antagonist Grendel’s unnamed mother.
The poem tells the story of a Nordic hero, Beowulf, who travels to Denmark to defeat the monster Grendel, who is murdering warriors of a Danish king. Beowulf wrestles Grendel bare-handed and gives him a mortal wound. The next night, Grendels’ mother kills one of the Danish king’s advisors to avenge her dead son. She is then killed the next evening by Beowulf according to the text.

Maria Dahvana Headley, in her wonderfully fresh Beowulf: A New Translation, notes that both the hero Beowulf and his nemesis Grendel are referred to by the term algaeca, usually translated as “hero” for Beowulf and “monster” when referring to Grendel--or his mother. According to Dahvana Headley, this word is “likelier to mean something akin to ‘formidable’.”
Grendel’s mother is referenced in the poem as ides, aglaec-wif, meaning “formidable noblewoman.”

Dahvana Headly says: “Grendel’s mother doesn’t behave like a monster. She behaves like a bereaved mother who happens to have a warrior’s skill.” Grendel’s mother “lives in a hall, uses weapons, is trained in combat, and follows blood-feud rules.”
In his extensive blog on Beowulf, Nicholas Zacharewicz adds that “Grendel’s mother only kicks into action once she learns that her son has been killed. So she’s plainly motivated by revenge and the sort of anguished sorrow that only a parent who loses a child can really know.”

In Grendel’s Heroic Mother, Kevin Kiernan observes that she "accepted and adhered to the heroic ethic of the blood-feud . . . exacting retribution for the death of her son. In heroic terms, her vengeance for the death of her kinsman Grendel." Blood-feud was considered an honorable exercise at the time, and would have been understood as such by the poem’s audience.

Kiernan further notes that Grendel and his mother belong to a class of people called eotens. He notes that Beowulf “destroyed a race of eotens” prior to the poem's action and was sent to Denmark as an eotenweard, a “guard against eotens.” The poem also mentions a hero Sigemund who had “slain with swords a great many races of eotens.” This suggests underlying racism driving the poem’s storyline.

I can’t help but wonder if Grendel and his mother, relegated to the fens and bogs on the outskirts of the Danish king’s land, were in fact the original inhabitants--demonized by their conquerors in the all-too-familiar trope of colonialism. Viewed through this lens, the actions of both Grendel and his mother against their oppressors become sympathetic--and their defeat at the hands of Beowulf (the true monster of the tale?) become tragic rather than easily justifiable.

Sibling Rivalry: Inanna’s Descent

2/16/2023

Inanna Queen of Heaven

I’d always considered the Sumerian myth of Inanna’s descent into the Underworld one of seasonal decline during the onset of winter.
Research for a short story revealed far more depth.
Inanna was the Queen of Heaven in Sumerian myth, and her sister Ereshkigal ruled the shadowy Underworld.
Inanna visits the Underworld to witness the funeral rites for her sister Ereshkigal’s deceased husband, the Bull of Heaven, who died defending Inanna’s honor.

Ereshkigal, not quick to forgive, bolts the seven gates against her sister. At each locked gate, Inanna is stripped of her symbols of power before she can pass until Naked and bowed low, Inanna entered the throne room.
The seven judges of the dead see through Inanna and recognize she intends to steal her sister’s throne and become Queen of Heaven and Earth. This infuriates Ereshkigal. Not only is her sister responsible for her husband’s death, now Inanna is trying to steal her throne.

Ereshkigal

In the myth:
Then Erishkigal fastened on Inanna the eye of death. She spoke against her the word of wrath. She uttered against her the cry of guilt. She struck her. Inanna was turned into a corpse, a piece of rotting meat, and was hung from a hook on the wall.
Inanna had arranged for her faithful servant to ask her three father gods for aid should she not return.
The first two father gods refuse, saying, “My daughter craved the Great Above. Inanna craved the Great Below. She who receives the me[h] of the underworld does not return. She who goes to the Dark City stays there.”
But the third father agrees to help. He forms two flies from the dirt under his fingernail and sends them to commiserate with Ereshkigal and seek Inanna’s release.
Ereshkigal agrees to give them Inanna’s rotting corpse.
The flies revive Inanna with the food and water of life.
But the Underworld judges insist that if Inanna returns to life, she must send someone to die in her place. As she ascends through her palace, the judges seize different servants, all of whom wear sackcloth in mourning.
Inanna refuses to give up any of her servants (including her hairdresser). Then she sees her husband Damuzi wearing fine clothes and sitting on her throne. She fastened on Dumuzi the eye of death. She spoke against him the word of wrath. She uttered against him the cry of guilt. 'Take him away! Take Dumuzi away!'
At the end of the myth, Damuzi’s sister volunteers to take his place and it’s decided that each sibling will spend six months a year in the Underworld, again suggesting a seasonal cant to the tale.

Non-binary Sumerian priests

Inanna was worshiped in Sumer as early as 4000 BCE, and may have originally been the Hurrian mother goddess Hannahannah.
By the mid 600s BCE, under the name Ishtar, She was the most widely venerated god in Mesopotamia.
Her non-binary priests are often described as “homosexual transvestites” or “androgynous hermaphrodites.” These gala, individuals of neither male nor female gender, made up a significant number of the personnel of both temples and palaces in ancient Sumerian society.

God Wars: Tiamat versus Marduk

11/29/2022

Gudea, Sumerian ruler 2080-2060 BCE

I’m fascinated by how myths change over time as different cults and religious factions gain or lose political power.
One such myth is that of the Babylonian war god Marduk, and his usurpation of the Sumerian goddess Tiamat.
The ancient Sumerians, who referred to themselves as "Black-Headed People," started settling ancient Mesopotamia around 6500 BCE (over 8,500 years ago).
Sumer lasted until the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur around 1950 BCE.
However, Sumerian religion and culture influenced later Mesopotamian dynasties for millenia.

Tiamat of the Sea

The Sumerian goddess Tiamat was a primordial goddess of the salt sea. She was also referred to as "Ummu-Hubur who formed all things."
Through her marriage with the freshwater god Abzu (the personification of groundwater), Tiamat peacefully created the cosmos: filling the cosmic abyss with primeval waters and giving birth to the first generation of deities.
Tiamat’s fecundity echoes our modern understanding of the ocean as the source of life on this planet.

Sea Dragon Tiamat, courtesy of Pixaby

Tiamat's husband Abzu realized the younger gods were planning to kill him, so he made war on them and died. Enraged, Tiamat took the form of a massive sea dragon to avenge her husband.

Marduk of the Sky

Marduk in Battle

Around 1800 BCE, as Babylon rose in political power, the storm god Marduk (or Marutuk, "bull calf of the sun god Utu") also gained prominence. By 1100 BCE, Marduk was the patron god of Babylon and head of the Babylonian pantheon. Scholars note that Marduk’s promotion paralleled the rise of Babylon from city-state to empire, and was used to justify Bablylonian political influence over Mesopotamia.

The myth of Tiamat was reframed to support this new political reality. Now, to avenge her husband, Tiamat created eleven “monsters.” Marduk captured and bound the creatures, transforming them into protective charms adorning the doors of palaces. He then sliced Tiamat in half and made the vault of heaven and earth from her ribs. Tiamat’s weeping eyes created the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, and her tail became the Milky Way.
Although Tiamat was “defeated” in this new myth, her connection to water persisted (becoming the source of the two greatest rivers in Mesopotamia). Water was vitally important to the people of this arid land. Tiamat and her husband Abzu had personified water for possibly 5,000 years before the military aristocracy of Babylon promoted Marduk to advance their political agenda (empire building).

Water Serpent of Spring

In a parallel myth from northern Mesopotamia, Illuyanka, a serpent-dragon was slain by the storm god Tarhunz (or Teshub). Their battle occurred during Puruli, the New Year festival that occurred around Spring Equinox.
In ancient Mesopotamia, winter was the rainy season. By spring, the rivers would have swollen into fat silver serpents.

I imagine Tiamat--described as the glistening one, a sea dragon in early myth like Illuyanka, her tears the source of the rivers--rising to power every spring like a watery serpent.

Assyrians celebrating spring New Year

Marduk’s Babylonian empire fell to the Achaemenid dynasty (forerunners of Persia) in 539 BCE. The festival of Puruli was adapted by the Assyrian Empire to the north, where it was called Akita.
Today, the New Year festival is still celebrated as Kha b-Nisan by indigenous Assyrians on April 1, and as Nowruz on the equinox by modern Persians.
In this sense, Tiamat, the water-serpent of spring, has been celebrated in the arid lands of Mesopotamia for over 8,000 years--and Marduk has been largely forgotten.

Rumplestiltskin

11/9/2022

The name Rumpelstilzchen in German literally means "little rattle stilt," a stilt being a support post. A rumpelstilt or rumpelstilz is a type of imp that makes noise by rattling posts and rapping on planks. The meaning is similar to rumpelgeist ("rattle ghost") or poltergeist, a mischievous spirit that clatters and moves household objects. The ending -chen is a German diminutive similar to English -kin.

Imps were initially viewed as mischievous but harmless sprites. Around 1600, during the height of the Inquisition (witch-burnings and persecution of other religious minorities by the Catholic church during the 12th through 19th centuries), imps became associated with demons and as witch’s familiars. Imps were sought as proof of witchcraft; often the so-called imp was merely a black cat, lizard, toad, or some other uncommon pet.

There are several varieties of fairy tales told about Rumplestiltskin. The basic plot is that the imp-man helps a young woman spin gold from straw in exchange for her firstborn child. She then marries the king and becomes queen. When her first child is born, Rumplestiltskin comes to collect the debt. When the queen provides his true name (instead of her child) he either flies away never to be seen again, stomps himself into the ground, or splits himself in two--depending on the version.

In one version, Rumplestiltskin is overheard revealing his true name in song:
"To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,
the next I'll have the young Queen's child.
Ha! glad am I that no one knew,
that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled."

In another variation:
“Tonight tonight, my plans I make,
tomorrow, tomorrow, the baby I take.
The queen will never win the game,
for Rumpelstiltskin is my name.”

Knowledge of a true name gives influence or magical power over another person according to European folklore. For example, in a legend of Saint Olaf, a troll builds him a church, but Olaf avoids payment by learning the troll’s true name.

Interesting that the imps (and trolls) are the ones vilified in these stories of humans reneging on their debts. A possible parallel to the ways European colonialists historically took from Indegenous cultures and from the Land without offering recompense?

The Lion-Dragon Mušḫuššu of Mesopotamia

10/24/2022

I’ve been researching Sumerian mythology for an upcoming submission.
My story features the lion-dragon mušḫuššu or Mush-kush-shu. The lion-dragon was one of eleven hybrid supernatural races created by the goddess Tiamat to vanquish the upstart gods who killed her husband.

Tiamat was a primordial creator-god, the shining personification of the sea.
Her name is linguistically similar to Akkadian word for the sea, tāmtu.

Mush-kush-shu was a scaled animal with the taloned hind legs of an eagle, and the chest and front legs of a lion.
They were shaped like a dragon-headed horse with a whip-tail and no wings.
Two sets of horns crowned their head: a curled set arcing behind their skull and two sharp spikes on their snout.

In later mythology of the war god Marduk’s cult, Mush-kush-shu helped Marduk (or Marutuk) defeat Tiamat.
By around 620 BCE, Mush-kush-shu was touted as Marduk’s servant and sacred animal.
It seems unlikely that a noble lion-dragon would willingly defy their creator/mother Tiamat and kill their own siblings (the ten other supernatural races Tiamat birthed) to advance a lesser god.
In my story, I explore how Mush-kush-shu might have felt about having their identity appropriated by a later war god's cult.
All myths are in a sense propaganda used by competing sects to advance their own agendas.
The ruling elite of ancient Mesopotamia promoted Marduk to justify (and divinely assist) their imperial conquests.
That the cult of Marduk stressed that god’s defeat of Tiamat and the subjugation of her most powerful offspring speaks more to the enduring power of Tiamat and her brood than the actual popularity of the Mesopotamian war god.

Sirens as Woman Empowered

8/5/2022

Feminist analysis of Siren and Mermaid myths: going beneath mythology

Ever since seductress sirens appeared in the Odyssey (at least 2,800 years ago in the 8th or 7th century BCE) they’ve been perennial villains, luring innocent sailors to their deaths.
But could this be a classic case of a femme fatale embodying male fears of female sexuality?
Nina Triaridou notes in the Classics forum Antigone that ancient Greek mythology abounds with terrifying female part-human/part-animal monsters, and sirens epitomize the seductive female predator.

Triaridou states: “The Sirens’ danger lies in their having a voice, contrary to patriarchal gender conventions: their ability to sing literally causes death, thus encapsulating the male fear of allowing women to speak in public.” In the Odyssey sailors plugged their ears with beeswax to protect themselves from these dangerous female voices.

Lest we think only feminists have equated sirens with actual women, Christian cleric Isidore of Seville claimed sirens were actually “prostitutes who led travelers down to poverty and were said to impose shipwreck on them" (quoted in Early Christians and Animals).
The Jesuit priest Cornelius a Lapide said of women: "her voice a siren's voice—with her voice she enchants, with her beauty she deprives [men] of reason—voice and sight alike deal destruction and death."
An damning quote from a theoretically celebate man, and not unlike the claims made against women during the infamous witch-trials of the Inquisition, in which tens of thousands were tortured and executed.

Some more positive views of sirens:
"All the stories about monstrous women, about creatures who are too gross, too angry, too devious, too grasping, too smart for their own good, are stories told by men,” Jess Zimmerman said in a CSM interview. Instead of heeding these cautionary tales that warn women not to overreach, she suggests we embrace them as role models in her book, Women and Other Monsters.
Olivia Gilbert adds, “One could argue that sirens are not evil, that they are simply biologically programmed to kill, similar to animals who kill other animals or humans. …Sirens are not humans after all, so they don’t have the same set of morals as we do.”
Gilbert writes on a website offering mermaid classes to those yearning to embrace their inner siren.

#MeToo Medusa

6/18/2022

Medusa as a feminist Icon and some fun short stories featuring Medusa

Medusa with the Head of Perseus by Luciano Barbati Image courtesy of JeseniasGoodieBag

What if Medusa returned and used her rageful gaze to fill the halls of power with statues . . .
Two excellent poems prompted me to revisit my 12/22/2021 post on Medusa: Gerri Lynn’s “Medusa Ups Her Game” in Pyre Magazine, and “Medusa Gets a Haircut” by Theodora Goss in Uncanny Magazine.
I’ve long enjoyed fictional retakes on Medusa's story, such as Michael Cadnum’s “Medusa” in the YA Firebirds anthology and an exceptional story about Medusa inside a statue of the Virgin Mary hiding from Perseus, whose title and author I cannot locate. Argh!
Please, please contact me if you know!

My fascination with Medusa began with an article by Emily Erwin Culpepper, “Ancient Gorgons: A Face for Contemporary Women’s Rage,” in Issue 3, Winter/Spring, 1986 edition of Woman of Power, a sadly defunct magazine of feminism, spirituality, and politics.

Culpepper said: “The Gorgon has much vital, literally life-saving information to teach women about anger, rage, power, and the release of the determined aggressiveness sometimes needed for survival.”

More recently, Medusa’s likeness has been retooled in popular media ranging from Rihanna’s sexually explosive pose for GQ magazine to the empowering sculpture by Luciano Garbati above, more aligned with the #MeToo movement and women's struggles for empowerment within patriarchy.

For a more in-depth discussion of Medusa as a feminist icon, check out this Boshemia blog.

I’ll close with this excerpt from an invocation to Medusa:
“I am Medusa, the Gorgon, Lady of Snakes . . . Heed me, for I challenge you to embrace your own power.”

Were the Scythian nomads "barbaric"?

5/2/2022

Scythian nomads were no more "barbaric" than their literate adversaries.
In fact, as Christopher I. Beckwith argues in Empires of the Silk Road, the Scythians and their Central Eurasian nomadic counterparts were far more interested in fostering peaceful trade than waging war.
The powerful chieftains required imported luxury goods (gold, silver, precious stones, silks, gilded armor) to reward the loyalty of their oath-sworn body-guard warriors. Luxury items were also given away potlatch-style to political allies.
Thus the nomads had a vested interest in maintaining peaceful trade and fostering economic prosperity.
As Beckwith notes: “But peace and prosperity were not the goals of empire builders. Their goals were uncontested, absolute power and the expansion of their territory and people under their rule to the maximum extent possible . . . .”
He goes on to note how literate empires (China, Persia, Greece) used the excuse of “barbarism” to justify invading Nomadic territories.
Yet another example of how myths and “history” (i.e: propaganda) are distorted by those who wrote them.
Have a favorite book on the Scythians or other Eurasian nomads? Please let me know!

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