KONOHANA – Also called Sengen-Sama, Konohana was the goddess of flowers and cherry blossoms and is the wife of the god Ninigi.That god had come to Earth from Takamagahara, the High Heavenly Plain, at the command of his grandmother, the sun goddess Amaterasu.

Konohana’s father, the mountain god Ohoyama, offered Ninigi a choice between Konohana and his other daughter, Ihanaga, the goddess of stone which endures for ages.

If Ninigi had chosen Ihanaga all of their descendants would have had the fortitude and long life of stone but since he instead chose Konohana all of their descendants were doomed to have the fragility and short lives of flowers. This condemned humanity to its current state of vulnerability to the elements, disease, etc and to its comparatively short life span. As Sengen-Sama she is also considered the goddess of Mount Fuji.

 The exaggerated stories that surround the figures of the American West appeal to me as a classic example of the human tendency toward embellishment. In my non-believer’s heart I genuinely feel this tendency lies at the core of nearly all the superstitious nonsense in each of the world’s “holy” books and in all of ancient mythology.

After all, these figures of the Wild West were in action less than 200 years ago, yet look at all the superhuman deeds  that are ascribed to them and the outrageous drama that we’re told their lives were filled with. These real-life characters who were often just thugs and criminals have been  posthumously transformed into icons whose sagas now bear little resemblance to their actual lives.

I feel that serves as a blueprint for how all mythic belief systems operate. When you magnify the distortions of just 200 years by 10 times or more you can see what tiny little kernels of truth may actually lie buried in the accounts of gods and demigods who are said to have roamed the world ages ago.

All of which brings me back to the annual Frontierado holiday on the first Friday of August each year. I have never denied the need for escapism, I just object to it ever being presented as indisputable reality the way traditional religion and secular political propoganda insist on presenting heroic fantasies to us.

In my Frontierado posts examining neglected figures of the Wild West I openly point out that I’m dwelling on their mythic storylines. For this post, which examines the really big names of the Wild West I’ll take the opportunity that public familiarity with their tales affords to briefly contrast their saga’s  mythic elements with what can actually be verified.

7. ANNIE OAKLEY (also see photo above left) – “Little Sure Shot”, as Oakley was called, is the least objectionable western icon from a real-world sense. Her low position on this list stems only from the fact that her story was the least overblown, with only the 1950′s television series presenting her corraling criminals on a regular basis.

MYTH: Annie honed her marksmanship as a child shooting game to feed her impoverished family in post-Civil War Ohio.     REALITY: Annie did not kill game to feed her family but to earn money and she was so successful she had paid off the mortgage on her family’s farm by age 15.   

MYTH: In 1875, when Annie was 15, she outshot 25 year old Frank Butler, the professional sharpshooter with a traveling show. Frank and Annie fell in love and married less than a year later.     REALITY: That is true.  

MYTH: The couple traveled for years with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show during which time Annie frequently stood beside male members of the show driving off war parties of Native Americans as the Wild West Show roamed the unsettled west.      REALITY: The Wild West Show never had verifiable armed encounters with Native Americans during its travels in the west but Buffalo Bill was a master at public relations and spun tales just to keep his touring troupe being talked about.  

MYTH: Annie had a tense rivalry with Lillian Smith, another female sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill’s show and eventually drove her away.     REALITY: Annie left the Wild West Show herself because of the rivalry with Lillian Smith and returned only after Smith was gone.  

MYTH: After a career which included performing for the crowned heads of Europe, Annie was injured in a train crash in 1901 and left show business.     REALITY: Oakley did not leave the business for good after the 1901 train wreck, but took to the stage and continued winning shooting contests into her declining years. Oakley died in 1926.

6. TOM HORN – This gunman, who was a contemporary of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (though they never met), has been played in movies by Steve McQueen and David Carradine.  

MYTH: Horn served as an army scout in many campaigns against Native American tribes and helped bring in Geronimo himself.      REALITY: Tom Horn’s service as an army scout has been well-established but there is no evidence that he was part of the final campaign against Geronimo.

MYTH: Tom served in the Spanish-American War as one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Roughriders in the Cuban theater of operations.     REALITY: Horn saw action in Cuba during the Spanish- American War but NOT as a member of the Roughriders.

MYTH: Horn once met heavyweight champion Gentleman Jim Corbett in a saloon and wound up brawling with the famous boxer.     REALITY: No reliable proof exists supporting the  contention that the famous gunman ever brawled with Jim Corbett. The only thing that makes it seem even slightly plausible is the fact that the accounts claim he LOST to Corbett.    

MYTH: Tom served as a hired gun in two range wars – the Pleasant Valley War and the Johnson County War – and protected families from Land Barons.      REALITY: Horn made his biggest name as a killer for hire but not in a romantic sense, more like a forerunner of modern-day hit men killing whoever he was paid to kill. He really did see service in this capacity in Pleasant Valley, AZ and Johnson County, MT during their notorious range wars but never “protected” anybody.    

MYTH: The notorious gunslinger was completely innocent of the murder for which he was hanged in 1903.     REALITY: Yes, it is very likely that Tom did not kill the young man whose murder he was hanged for. Indications are that he was framed by one of his high-powered clients to shut him up when Horn was shooting his mouth off too much about the gangland- style Range Wars he served in. He was a self- confessed killer for hire, however, so its hard to shed any tears over it.    

5. CALAMITY JANE – Jane Cannary (sometimes spelled Canary) is as much a household name as Annie Oakley. She is lodged forever in the national consciousness as a rugged woman in buckskins, appealing to successive generations of American women as a  virtual pioneer of feminism.  

MYTH: Born sometime between 1848 and 1852, Jane ran away from her parents’ Montana  home and by 1869 was living in Cheyenne, Wyoming, making a name for herself as a female mule team runner.     REALITY: That much is true.    

MYTH: Clad in fringed buckskin, Jane became legendary for shooting as well and drinking as much as any of the men transporting supplies around the west, often using her guns to keep her overly aggressive suitors in line.     REALITY: As with the male legends of the west Jane’s shooting ability is incredibly overblown.    

MYTH: In the early 1870′s, when Wild Bill Hickok was a lawman in Kansas he and Calamity Jane got drunk and got married one night. By 1873 Jane gave birth to Wild Bill’s daughter, Jean.     REALITY: Calamity Jane’s romance with and alleged marriage to Wild Bill Hickok is hotly disputed and largely dismissed as a fabrication on her part. Oddly, though, her daughter Jean was officially recognized as the daughter of Jane and Hickok in 1941 by the U.S. Office of Public Welfare.    

MYTH: Jane eventually gave her daughter up for adoption and in 1875 became an army scout for General Crook and saw much action in his campaigns against Native Americans.     REALITY: How much action Jane supposedly saw with General Crook’s forces is questionable. However, the issue does present a textbook example of how mythology changes according to societal attitudes. Back when it was still considered “heroic” to have fought Native Americans Jane’s reputation as an Indian fighter was accepted and probably embellished. Now that it’s much less socially acceptable to have taken part in the campaigns against American Indians Jane’s role is dismissed to spare our mythic heroine from potentially unpleasant associations.    

MYTH: Calamity Jane toured the U.S. and Europe with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show and the Palace Museum Show but was fired from both for drunken lapses in her performances. She was fired from the Pan American Exposition in 1901 when she drunkenly shot up a bar and resisted arrest.     REALITY: Jane’s substance abuse problem and the public problems it gave her may be exaggerated a bit, but they seem to be as believable as the rowdy behavior of modern-day celebrities on binges.  

MYTH: In Terry, South Dakota, Calamity Jane died on August 2nd, 1903, the 27th anniversary of Wild Bill Hickok’s death. Mourners honored her last wish – to be buried next to Wild Bill.     REALITY: Jane is indeed buried next to Wild Bill, but one of Bill’s friends, subscribing to the claim that the two were never romantically involved, supposedly said “It’s a good thing Bill’s dead. He’d never stand for that if he was alive.” The quote itself is sometimes dismissed as fictional, providing another example of the circles within circles of myths about these figures.

4. BILLY THE KID – William Bonney, to use just one of the Kid’s aliases, was the major gunfighter to emerge from the Lincoln County War. He’s been portrayed on the big screen by Emilio Estevez, Paul Newman, Jack Beutel and others too numerous to mention.  

MYTH – Billy the Kid’s prowess with guns almost single-handedly kept the outnumbered and outmoneyed Tunstall-McSween faction competitive in the Lincoln County War for as long as they were.     REALITY: Because of the Kid’s fame there is a popular misconception that his side of the Lincoln County War must have been “the heroic underdogs” but in reality both sides were pretty ugly and the conflict was more like a modern-day gangster war with no good guys.

MYTH: Billy and his fellow gunmen on the Tunstall/ McSween side held off their foes for several days in the besieged McSween house.     REALITY: That is true, believe it or not.

MYTH: The Kid came forward to heroically testify as a state’s witness during some of the trials following the Lincoln County Range War.     REALITY: Billy was willing to testify to try to save his own neck, like any other criminal does when they give evidence against their fellow crooks. Given the “snitches get stitches” mentality I can’t believe Billy gets a free pass on this.

MYTH: The Kid killed 21 men – 1 for each year of his short life.   ###     REALITY: As with all the other big-name gunfighters the Kid’s real kill total is unknown and in Billy’s case may have been under 10. The “one kill for each of the years of his young life” business sounds good and, in keeping with the theme of this post, I’ll point out that a tale that sounds good will get much more circulation than a fact that’s less romantic.

MYTH: The Kid’s betrayal by his former friend Pat Garrett when Garrett became a lawman is one of the great tragedies of the west.     REALITY: This ain’t Pancho and Lefty. True, Garrett and the Kid had been friends off and on since Pat’s buffalo hunting days, but they didn’t have a long, continuous friendship like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Billy was still an outlaw, Pat had become a lawman, period.

3. BELLE STARR – This colorful and capable woman lived an action-filled life of crime in which she rubbed elbows and often more with the James- Younger Gang, Sam Starr, Jim Reed, Blue Duck and other famous outlaws of the west.

MYTH: Belle’s father and brother were officers in the Confederate Army during the United States Civil War.     REALITY: Belle’s father and brother actually served with Confederate bushwackers, who were more like looters and plunderers.    

MYTH: Belle’s first experience riding with a gang of outlaws came when she hooked up with the Sam Bass gang in Texas.     REALITY: Belle’s first experience riding with a gang of outlaws DID come in Texas, but with her first husband Jim Reed and the gangs he hooked up with, including the James- Younger Gang. Belle may never have even met Sam Bass.

MYTH: Belle cut a striking figure alongside her husband in criminal exploits, wearing black and shooting up a storm at lawmen and vigilantes in Texas and Arkansas, all while riding side-saddle.     REALITY: Believe it or not, this is supported by contemporary accounts. 

MYTH: Belle married her second husband Sam Starr when he killed her first husband for leadership of the outlaw gang.     REALITY: Jim Reed was killed in Paris, TX in August 1874 by lawmen. Belle by this time was living in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) with the Starr family – Native Americans who ran a crime faction involved with whiskey hijacking, rustling and stealing horses. Sam was part of that established outfit and did not take over any gang Jim Reed was affiliated with. 

MYTH: Belle was married to Confederate Diehard Outlaw Cole Younger for three weeks in 1878.     REALITY: Like Calamity Jane’s alleged marriage to Wild Bill Hickok this has never been confirmed. She did, however, definitely marry Sam Starr in 1880.

MYTH: Belle Starr was a criminal mastermind who never served a day in prison.     REALITY: By the time of her marriage to Sam Starr Belle was serving as the brains of the Starr Family Crime Faction and managed their criminal enterprises in Indian Territory, Texas and Arkansas so well they could afford to “own” lawmen and politicians, just like modern- day organized crime outfits do. In 1883 she and Sam were sentenced to prison by a judge they did NOT own – “the Hanging Judge” himself, Isaac Parker. Belle was released on good behavior after nine months in a Detroit prison.

MYTH: Belle went straight after she saw her husband Sam shot to death before her very eyes in a battle with lawmen.     REALITY: Sam Starr did indeed die in a firefight with the law in December of 1886 in Texas, but Belle was back home in Indian Territory at the time. She did go straight, however, but scandalized the community by having affairs with Blue Duck, Jim French and others before marrying her late husband’s brother Jim, who was fifteen years younger than she was.

MYTH: Belle Starr was killed by her jealous husband Jim Starr in 1889.     REALITY: Belle’s real killer has never been established and may have even been her own son by Jim Reed.

2. DOC HOLLIDAY – The lasting appeal of the Doc Holliday saga lies partly in the romantic image of him as “a dying man with nothing to lose,” and as an erudite, exiled aristocrat among roughnecks.

MYTH: Doc’s tuberculosis, which caused him to move west to avoid a very early death in the humid east (or so it was thought by the physicians of the time) forever separated him from his one true love.     REALITY: The woman he left back in Georgia was his cousin, which I know wasn’t as gross- sounding back then as it is today, but still. And if she was his “one true love” she could have moved west with him.     

MYTH: Doc Holliday became friends with Wyatt Earp in Dodge City, KS and the two remained close until Doc’s death in 1887.     REALITY: The locale of Doc’s initial encounter with Wyatt is often disputed and some sources claim it was really Morgan Earp that Holliday was close friends with, not Wyatt. That could be the real motive for Doc participating in the revenge killings following Morgan’s death and his separation from Wyatt not long after. Earp’s famous book about Doc in this context would be like today’s celebrity biographies written by people who weren’t really as close as they pretend to the dead icon they wrote about.

MYTH: Doc’s girlfriend Big-Nosed Kate Elder once set fire to a building to cause a distraction so she could free the jailed Doc.     REALITY: Variations of this story also show up in the sagas of other western legends and their significant others. None of the accounts have been verified.

MYTH: Doc Holliday and the Earp Brothers cleaned up Tombstone, AZ, which was under the thumb of the Clanton- McClaurey Crime Faction.     REALITY: Doc and the Earps were also a crime faction running some gambling and prostitution in Tombstone. They were the upstarts to the established Clantons and McClaureys who also controlled rustling and political graft in the area. The Holliday- Earp faction DID win the gunfight at the OK Corral and made headlines with the gangland- style executions of several of their enemies after Morgan Earp was killed. However, the Clanton faction won in the end, with Doc and the Earps fleeing Arizona Territory. It’s fun watching how badly movies twist the facts to present Doc and company as the victors of that gang war. 

MYTH: Doc Holliday gunned down John Ringo during the war in Tombstone.     REALITY: Nobody knows who really killed John Ringo or even if he commited suicide.

MYTH: Doc Holliday was one of the finest lawmen of the west.     REALITY: Doc was more like a western gangster than a lawman. When Holliday was jailed for tampering with a horserace in Denver after fleeing Arizona, a newspaper war broke out over the controversial figure, who was in danger of being extradited to Arizona Territory where his old enemies could easily engineer his death in prison. Doc naturally cooperated with the anti- extradition newspapers pushing him as a heroic lawman figure against the pro- extradition newspapers depicting him as a criminal. Many myths about Doc Holliday, especially about him being a lawman, had their origin in this outrageous tabloid war. 

MYTH: Doc Holliday lived to a ripe old age.     REALITY: Doc died at age 35 or 36.    

1. WILD BILL HICKOK – This veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War was possibly the most famous lawman of the old west, even though his story is incredibly overblown, just like the sagas of “lawmen” like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. 

MYTH: Wild Bill Hickok was the legendary Marshal of iconic Dodge City, KS.     REALITY: In real life Hickok wore a badge in various Kansas locales, but never Dodge City.  

MYTH: Wild Bill and the future Buffalo Bill Cody both served as mail carriers in the legendary Pony Express.     REALITY: Bill Hickok worked as a teamster for the parent company of the Pony Express, not the Pony Express itself. He and Buffalo Bill’s paths really did cross several times over the years, though.

MYTH: Hickok was the fastest draw in the west.     REALITY: The notion of it being a benefit in a gunfight to be “a fast draw” has been debunked thoroughly over the years, but that applies to instances where you intend to shoot. As a lawman a “quick draw” in reality was a lifesaver since rapidly having a gun in your hand would discourage the other party from even trying to draw theirs. It’s a small, but major, distinction. Hickok wore his guns loosely stuffed into the crimson sash he wore as a belt to facilitate his fast draw.

MYTH: Wild Bill was an island of honesty in a frontier crawling with outlaws and corrupt town bosses.     REALITY: Lawmen were usually corrupt out west, behaving more like redneck sheriffs in the south do. Hickok was no different. Wearing a badge AND owning a saloon, as Wild Bill often did,  meant you could ruthlessly enforce the laws against your competitors but overlook your own establishment’s violations. However, in general that and acceptance of bribes marked the extent of his dishonesty.

MYTH: After accidentally shooting his own deputy Hickok never pinned on a badge again, but remained active as a gunfighter.     REALITY: In fact, Hickok was so distraught over the accidental shooting of Deputy Mike Williams that he seems to never have drawn his gun again, let alone kill anyone, no matter what you see in fiction.

MYTH: After he was shot from behind by Jack McCall, Wild Bill Hickok’s poker hand of a Full House, aces over eights, became famous as the Dead Man’s Hand.     REALITY: Hickok’s final poker hand was two aces and two eights, with the fifth card unknown, but the Full House story is pretty catchy, so naturally it gets a lot of exposure.

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© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

HACHIMAN – The Shinto god of war. As Emperor Ojin he was born to the Empress Jingo, who was said to be carrying the child within her womb for three years while she finished successfully conducting her late husband’s war against the three kingdoms of Korea. (This is an interesting parallel to the birth of the Vietnamese god Thach Sanh, who was also said to be gestating for three years) The Korean invasion referred to when Jingo’s husband the Emperor Chuai died would be the one of approximately 200 C.E.  

Hachiman was seen not just as a god of proactive, offensive war but also as the protector of children and as the deity of the general prosperity that was thought to come from military strength. He might also be said to embody the concept known as “peace through strength”. Oddly to us in the West, white doves are a symbol of this god of war and are often his messengers in Shinto myths. Hachiman was also regarded as the patron god of spies since during his human life as Emperor Ojin he would often pose as a commoner to discover what was really going on in the country.

The god of war was said to have a high regard for the Minamoto ( aka Genji) Clan, one of the warring factions in the Japanese epic known as The Heike Monogatari. By some accounts Hachiman was really the father of the early Minamoto hero Yoshi-Iye and offered that hero divine assistance during his campaigns against Ainu tribes. The most famous incident involved Yoshi-Iye praying to his divine father to provide water for his dehydrated troops. Hachiman answered the prayer by having Yoshi-Iye shoot an arrow into a rock, causing a spring to burst forth.  A hair from the head of Yoritomo, the last Minamoto Shogun, was planted on the grounds of Hachiman’s temple at Kamakura and the deity caused the hair to grow into a gingko tree as a monument to the period of Minamoto influence.

FOR MORE SHINTO DEITIES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/category/mythology/ 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

IZANAGI AND IZANAMI – These two parents of most of the rest of the deities in Shinto myths always need to be mentioned in one entry. Before life on Earth existed the two of them stood on Ukihashi, the floating bridge between Earth and Takamagahara, the High Plain of Heaven where the gods lived. From there they stirred the primordial juices here on Earth with a jeweled spear and created the Japanese islands and a shrine still stands on Onokoro, the tiny island that legend held was the first landmass created by the duo.

Their first coupling spawned either one slug-like creature or all of the demons and monsters in Shinto mythology (accounts vary). Beginning with their second mating the woman, Izanami, began giving birth to various landmasses, animals and humans as well as gods and goddesses like the sun goddess Amaterasu, the moon god Tsukuyomi, the storm god Susanowo, the rice god Inari, the dance goddess Uzume and countless others. Their son Sarutahiko they named the guardian god of Ukihashi, the floating bridge, and for a weapon gave him the jeweled spear they had used to stir the primordial broth on Earth.

Their last-born child was Kagatsuchi, the god of fire, and the trauma of his flaming birth proved potent enough to kill even a goddess like Izanami. She became the goddess who ruled over Yomi, the land of the dead just like the slain god Osiris in Egyptian myths became the ruler over the dead. Longing to be reunited with his wife, Izanagi journeyed to Yomi to visit Izanagi. He encountered her in the realm she now ruled over, deep within the Earth. She still had eight deities in her womb when Kagatsuchi’s birth caused her to die and those entities became the eight earthquake goddesses, who roar like thunder from the subterranean land of Yomi.

When Izanami, who was now in the form of a perpetually rotting corpse failed to trick Izanagi into bringing her back to the world of the living with him, she vowed to drag one thousand living souls down to the world of the dead with her every day. Izanagi countered this by causing one thousand five hundred new souls to be born each day. In the Kojiki it was not until after this encounter and his escape from Yomi that Izanagi alone gave birth to the sun, moon and storm gods from his eyes and nose. I prefer the version of the myth in the Nihongi, in which BOTH he and Izanami are their parents. 

FOR MORE SHINTO DEITIES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/category/mythology/ 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

FUNADAMA – Shinto goddess of ships and boats. Like Toyota she was a daughter of the sea god Watatsumi. (Remember, I mostly go by the Kojiki and the Nihongi, the earliest written accounts of Shinto myths. Those two books refer to the humanoid Watatsumi as the god of the sea. Ryujin the dragon god of the sea came from later traditions. ) Sailors, fishermen and all travelers by sea, river or lake would pray to her for protection and there is still a festival dedicated to Funadama on August 15th of each year in Saitama prefecture. The festival commemorates the goddess’ protection of travelers on the Ara River who prayed for safe transport from Chichibu to Edo in the Tokugawa period, 1603-1867.

Women’s hair, dice and/or money would be inserted into the masts of ships to invoke the protection of Funadama.

FOR MORE SHINTO DEITIES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/category/mythology/ 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

As a followup to my earlier list of The Top 12 Deities in Choctaw Mythology here’s a look at two additional figures from that same pantheon.

IMMA – The Choctaw goddess of war. Unlike most war deities Imma did not participate in actual combat herself, but was the idealized woman to whom Choctaw warriors dedicated all their battlefield heroics. She was the most beautiful goddess in the Choctaw pantheon and, like her husband, the hunting god Hatakachafa, Imma was originally a mortal raised to godhood in the afterlife by the supreme deity Nanishta. He did this after Imma died from grief after Hatakachafa was given up for dead during his year-long struggle to return home to her. When Imma’s true love at last returned home astride his giant white wolf and learned she was dead he too died of grief. The two were reunited in the afterlife as husband and wife. 

OKLATABAHSHIH – The patron god of canoe builders. In addition to building the first canoes for the Choctaw people Oklatabahshi invented all the tools necessary to build them. In addition to the usefulness of canoes in everyday life these inventions of Oklatabahshih also helped preserve the lives of countless Choctaw and Chickasaw people during the flood that permanently separated the two into separate but kindred tribes. After contact with Europeans Oklatabahshih was often distorted into a Noah figure and the Flood of Separation was instead referred to as the Great Flood from other myths. 

FOR MY ORIGINAL ARTICLE ON THE TOP 12 CHOCTAW DEITIES CLICK HERE: CHOCTAW INDIAN MYTHS – http://glitternight.com/2012/06/03/the-top-twelve-deities-in-choctaw-mythology/

The original five tribes of the Iroquois Confederation were the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga and Cayuga. They were later joined by the Tuscarora.

As with Inuit mythology the exact names and roles of the major Iroquiois deities varied a bit from tribe to tribe but there is an overall pantheon that is recognized as belonging to the Iroquois belief system. I will be using deity names selected from each of the nations of the Iroquois League so be aware that when looking into the beliefs of one particular tribe the names may be different from the ones I use here.

As always my goal is to restore the figures from these neglected pantheons to their rightful place alongside other world deities like Isis, Odin, Aphrodite and others. The following entries are done in the same style as my examination of gods and goddesses of the Navajo, Choctaw, Polynesians, Vietnamese and many others.

15. DOENDZOWES – The Iroquois earthquake goddess. She lived in a longhouse lodge in a large crack in the ground caused by one of the tumultuous tremors she controlled. Earthquakes were caused by the wild dancing that often took place in her lodge. Her son Thagonhsowes had a handsome face that was split down the middle by a scar like the crevices that Doendzowes’ earthquakes tore in the ground. The swan goddess Oweeyegon had her two daughters bake Marriage Bread and sent them to marry the earthquake goddess’ son. After a suitable time Doendzowes invited Oweeyegon to come live in the longhouse lodge with them and join in the raucous dancing that causes earthquakes. “Doendzowes’ parties are NUTS, dude!” 

14. OTGOE – The wampum god. Otgoe’s tears, mucous and vomit were wampum, like the white shells found in sandy deposits near bodies of water. When he smoked from his pipe and then spit the spittle also turned into wampum. As highly prized as wampum was Otgoe was a very valuable deity and was once kidnapped by an evil and very powerful medicine man to provide wampum for him and the malevolent tribe he ruled over. The tribe did this by prodding him with firebrands to make him cry wampum tears. Eventually he was freed by his brother, Hodadeion the god of magic. Later Otgoe was devoured by a gigantic bird, who from that point on grew feathers made of wampum. The storm god Heng slew the bird to stop it from feeding on the Iroquois, shattering it into countless pieces with one of his lightning bolt arrows. The Iroquois then gathered up the slain monster’s wampum feathers.

13. GENDENWITHA – The goddess of the Morning Star (actually the planet Venus) and the most beautiful goddess of the Iroquois pantheon. Gendenwitha was originally a mortal woman beloved by the hunting god Sosondowah. The dawn goddess Doyadastethe was jealous of Sosondowah’s love of Gendenwitha and of the fact that the mortal woman was often described as more beautiful than she herself was. In anger she elevated the woman to godhood and fixed her in the sky as the Morning Star so that Sosondowah and all the other admirers of Gendenwitha could forever see her beauty but be unable to reach her. In some Iroquois tribes the Morning Star is a male deity, however. 

12. GEHA – The wind god and father of the good and evil twin deities whose battle represents a large part of the Iroquois Creation Epic. Geha mated with the goddess Eithinoha to produce those twin sons. Like the wind god Sila in Inuit myths Geha is also looked on as the source of sounds and music, especially music produced by wind instruments since they are blown with human breath, an approximation of the wind.

The wind god has always lived in a longhouse lodge under the sea since wind was on the Earth even before there was any land. The lodge is entered by diving into its doorway which floats on the waters. In Iroquois myths the wind is often depicted as the whisperings of Geha, who frequently offers advice to the heroes of those myths. In addition to advice he often provides new weapons and also aids heroes in winning races by blowing them along past their opponents and by blowing trees or other obstacles into the path of those opponents. This benevolent deity is also the protector of orphans.

11. DOYADASTETHE – The Iroquois goddess of the dawn. She often plays the role of the willful, spoiled and resentful “chief’s daughter” in myths. The other gods in the pantheon have learned to tolerate her impetuous demands and to accommodate her whenever possible. The most famous tale of the goddess’ often spiteful nature involved her relationship with the hunting god Sosondowah. The hunting god was obsessed with tracking down a giant elk and proved indifferent to the dawn goddess’ flirtations. She kept him tied up as a guardian outside her longhouse lodge in the heavens after he refused to guard her home willingly. When he rejected her because of his love for the mortal woman Gendenwitha Doyadastethe made the mortal woman the goddess of the Morning Star so that Sosondowah could forever see her but be unable to reach her. Doyadastethe’s father was Hawenneyu, the chief deity of the Iroquois pantheon.

10. HAWENNEYU – The chief deity of the Iroquois pantheon. He ruled over the land of the gods on the other side of the sky and his word was law for gods and men alike. He held court just outside his longhouse lodge which was situated right next to his sun-tree – a huge dogwood tree whose blossoms each glowed like a sun, providing light for the entire realm of the gods. In some versions this sunlight is eternal but in others the blossoms close up at the end of each godly “day”. Hawenneyu owned two giant white dogs who guarded the tree for him and helped him test the goddess Iagentci when she came to be his wife. The dogs’s tongues could inflict or cure wounds when they licked.

Hawenneyu was notoriously jealous of the attention that the meteor god Gasyondetha showed to his wife Iagentci and it was his suspicion that the meteor god might be the real father of his and Iagentci’s child. This suspicion gnawed at Hawenneyu and made him ill until he had a dream telling him how to cure himself.  He had his sun-tree uprooted and his wife thrown into exile on the world below (Earth) through the resulting hole in the sky. After exiling Iagentci in this way Hawenneyu had the tree returned to its upright position, blocking the hole. 

9-7. DEOHAKO – The collective name for the three goddesses who each protect corn, squash and beans, respectively. They are the daughters of  the vegetation god Akonwara. Their leader is the oldest sister, the corn goddess Onatha, who would often transform crop saboteurs into raccoons or other animals as punishment. The goddesses could often be glimpsed walking among the corn, squash and beans.

The three were considered sisters because of the way the Iroquois intertwined the planting of corn, squash and beans. Corn was planted first in little mounds then when the corn stalks began to appear the squash and beans were planted so that as the three crops continued to grow the corn stalks would form a trellis for the bean vines while the large leaves of the squash would cover the ground to form a weed barrier and to offer shade to the soil, thus conserving moisture. Onatha herself had to instruct the early Iroquois people in this proper way of planting her and her sisters. The harvesting of the three crops was celebrated in one joint festival each year.

6. AKONWARA – The god of all vegetation (except trees), including tobacco, mushrooms (which were considered plants by many ancient cultures) and those plants which are either medicinal or poisonous. This association with hallucinogenic mushrooms and pharmaceutical vegetation made him the patron deity of Iroquois medicine men, especially the False Face Society. The god was full of both “orenda” (positive life energy) and “otgon”  (negative life energy), making him the patron of both good and evil medicine men. Akonwara was known as the Defender partly because of his role protecting the plant life he was the lord of  from threats and menaces. Chief among those menaces were the huge flying heads of Iroquois myths. Those winged heads would bespoil crops, feed on human beings and cut down trees by whirling around so quickly that their long hair would act like a buzzsaw. 

When Akonwara first met Tharonhiawakon he boastfully pretended to be the creator of the world. Tharonhiawakon proved him wrong by challenging him to summon mountains to them, a task he himself was able to perform but which Akonwara failed to do. Acknowledging Tharonhiawakon’s supremacy, the vegetation god became his friend and ally, often aiding him in struggles with his twin brother, the malevolent deity Tawiskaron.

5. EITHINOHA – The daughter of Iagentci, the goddess who fell from the sky when her husband Hawenneyu banished her from the land on the other side of the sky. She was impregnated by the wind god Geha and gave birth to the benevolent deity Tharonhiawakon and the malevolent deity Tawiskaron. She died from the pain of giving birth to Tawiskaron due to his razor-sharp Mohawk “comb” or hairstyle made of flint, wounding her severely as he emerged. This is similar to the Shinto goddess Izanami “dying” while giving birth to the fire god Kagatsuchi. (see my Shinto myth articles)

Also like Izanami Eithinoha passed over to the land of the dead. Once there she arranged everything in the afterlife just as her mother had laid out the first land on Earth. Eithinoha not only “molded” the land of the dead but served as the psychopomp of the Iroquois pantheon. After death Eithonaha’s footprints leading to the afterlife would appear to the spirit of the deceased so they could follow those footprints to the land of the dead. That land remained perfectly flat for easy travel and had no mountains or valleys. As for Eithinoha’s dead body Iagentci cast her head into the sky as the moon and her body into the sky as the sun.    

4. HENG -  The Iroquois storm god and the chief monster-slayer of the Iroquois pantheon. Thunder is the sound of his voice and he shoots lightning- bolt arrows from his bow just like the Navajo god of war Nayanazgeni (see my Navajo myth articles). At other times Heng threw spears made of lightning. Giant poisonous snake creatures were the storm god’s most frequent foes, including a gigantic horned serpent who was the chief of all snake monsters. Among the other mythical beasts slain by Heng were an enormous porcupine with quills the size of trees, the giant Wampum Bird that devoured the god Otgoe, cannibalistic wizards who could assume animal form and a worm that fed on so many dead bodies it grew large enough to devour deer and humans and finally an entire village. 

Heng was married to the rainbow goddess and had children by her and by various mortal women. As with the storm god Susanowo in Shinto beliefs there is an entire cycle of myths that center around Heng and his family members. Most of his sons and daughters eventually became part of his entourage and helped him generate rain and storms, with the sons causing hard rain and the daughters mild rain.

3. TAWISKARON – The malevolent, destructive counterpart to the benevolent and constructive creator deity Tharonhiawakon, his twin brother. When the two deities were in their mother Eithinoha’s womb their conflict began with the good twin arguing that they should spring forth from their mother’s vagina and the evil twin insisting they should be born through her armpit. (This intra-uterine conversation parallels many African myths which feature deities in the womb discussing with their mother what body part they will emerge from. )

Tharonhiawakon emerged from Eithinoha’s vagina but Tawiskaron insisted on emerging from her armpit instead and his razor-sharp flint-like Mohawk “comb” or hairstyle slashed the goddess so badly she passed over to the land of the dead. Iagentci was furious at this but Tawiskaron lied and claimed Tharonhiawakon was the twin who had emerged in such a way that killed Eithinoha. In her angry grief over her daughter’s death Iagentci cast out Tharonhiawakon who grew up shunned by her. Later, when Tharonhiawakon was refining Iagentci’s creation (the Earth) by sculpting landmarks and by creating trees and animal life through “orenda” (positive life energy) Tawiskaron jealously distorted many of his brother’s creations, making monsters, poisonous lakes and deadly serpents through “otgon” (negative life energy). His brother banished most of the monsters far away.

Knowing that Tharonhiawakon wanted the human race he would soon create to be able to live off of the game animals the good deity had created Tawiskaron at one point stole them all and imprisoned them in caves, making game scarce. His brother freed them. The evil god also created ice and snow which took Tharonhiawakon some time to drive away, but eventually his indefatigable twin brother would bring it back, and would once again imprison the game animals in caves. All this was a myth explaining the change of seasons, with Tawiskaron bringing winter which drives various game animals into hibernation or migration to warmer climes and with Tharonhiawakon eventually restoring warm weather and freeing the game animals in spring and summer. 

Tawiskaron traveled by standing on a grey cloud from which snowflakes fell. Another of his perennial winter undertakings was an attempt to freeze the ocean into an ice bridge paving the way for the return of all the monsters he created but which Tharonhiawakon had banished. The good deity had originally intended for animals to come to humans to be killed voluntarily but Tawiskaron interfered, causing men to have to labor to hunt animals down. The earthquake goddess Doendzowes is one of Tawiskaron’s daughters.

2. THARONHIAWAKON – The benevolent and constructive counterpart to the malevolent and destructive deity Tawiskaron, his twin brother. When he was cast out by his grandmother Iagentci after Tawiskaron falsely accused him of causing their mother’s death the young god raised himself. When he came of age his father, the wind god Geha, invited him to his undersea lodge where he gave him the gift of a bow and arrow and instructed him on his role in the world.

Tharonhiawakon then set forth on his mission, roaming the Earth his grandmother had created and refining it into mountains, lakes, rivers and other landmarks. He also created all trees, beginning with maple trees, since maple syrup is an important food item for the Iroquois. Each year the rising of the sap in maple trees is looked on as an important indicator of the return of Tharonhiawakon as he brings in spring to drive away the winter caused by his evil twin brother. 

Next Tharonhiawakon created all of the land animals (sea and air animals had existed on the world even before Iagentci fell from the sky and in some versions were created by the wind god Geha) and as his final creation, he made human beings. As before, his brother Tawiskaron jealously tried to imitate him, but created nothing except monsters and evil spirits. The two brothers often clashed violently, with Tawiskaron’s blood drops turning into flint.

Once Tawiskaron went so far as to steal the sun and moon, binding them to a tree by his lodge in an attempt to imitate the sun tree of the twin brothers’ grandfather Hawenneyu in the land on the other side of the sky. Tharonhiawakon had all the powers of the animals he had created and used those powers to retrieve the sun and moon from his brother’s clutches and return them to orbit.     

1. IAGENTCI – Also called Ataensic. The goddess Iagentci was born in the land on the other side of the sky. Her father was the first god to “die” and he became the patron deity of Iroquois funerary practices, offering instructions from beyond the grave about the treatment of dead bodies and the rituals of mourning. Iagentci was the only goddess able to communicate with her father and he told her many prophecies of the things to come. 

At her late father’s urging Iagentci made Marriage Bread and went to visit the chief deity Hawenneyu. Their courtship established all of the customs that the Iroquois people would go on to observe in their own society. The courtship culminated with Iagentci stripping naked and cooking mushed corn, stoically enduring the spatters of hot meal that her naked form was assailed with from the open pot she used for cooking. 

Next Hawenneyu had the two gigantic white dogs that guarded his sun-tree come into his lodge and lick the spattered food from his prospective bride’s body. Their abrasive tongues wounded and bloodied her body further but she endured even this without flinching or making a sound. Hawenneyu then realized Iagentci was a fit bride, so he tended her wounds and agreed to marry her.

Eventually Iagentci became pregnant and Hawenneyu’s jealousy of the attention the war god and the meteor god paid to his beautiful wife consumed him. Suspicious that his wife might be bearing the child of one of his two rivals he banished her to the world below, casting her out through a hole in the sky created by temporarily uprooting his sun-tree. 

Iagentci fell from the sky toward the world below which was nothing but rolling seas at the time and was populated only by sea creatures and water-adaptable birds like ducks. The goddess summoned countless ducks to cushion her fall and lower her to the back of a gigantic continent-sized turtle she had ordered to rise to the surface and to use its shell to provide a resting place for her. Next Iagentci ordered all of the muskrats to swim to the bottom of the sea and retrieve soil for her in one of the many examples of “earth diver” myths in Native American beliefs. It took countless trips but Iagentci was eventually able to use the retrieved earth to create the known world (to the Iroquois) on the back of the enormous turtle. She even created a large monument of stone at the furthest limits of the world and this “rock at the end of the world” is often mentioned in Iroquois myths. 

Iagentci bore Hawenneyu’s daughter Eithinoha, who mated with the wind god Geha. Eithinoha bore his twin sons, the gods Tharonhiawakon and Tawiskaron, thus setting the rest of creation in motion.

FOR 6 MORE IROQUOIS DEITIES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/2013/02/05/six-more-iroquois-deities/

CHOCTAW INDIAN MYTHS – http://glitternight.com/2012/06/03/the-top-twelve-deities-in-choctaw-mythology/

KALLAK – Kallak was the first-born son of the Inuit Earth goddess Nunam and the wind and weather god Sila. When he came of age Nunam mated with Kallak and the two had a daughter. When that daughter came of age Kallak mated with her and the pair produced all of the original Inuit people. 

This myth is at odds with another myth which claims that Kallak and his daughter’s union produced the race of giants who warred with Sila and were killed by him in the end. Nunam brought the slain giants (who are her brothers, not her children in some versions) back to life. Sila insisted they be punished however, and shrunk the giants, who became the Ishigaq, the one meter tall Inuit version of elves.

Still another Inuit tradition says that the first Inuit were created when Sila sculpted their bodies out of sand and blew the breath of life into them.

FOR MORE INUIT GODS AND GODDESSES CLICK HERE:  http://glitternight.com/inuit-myth/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The reaction to my latest look at a neglected pantheon of deities has been through the roof! I’ll soon be examining an epic myth from Iroquois mythology but in the meantime here’s a look at six more deities of the various tribes in the Iroquois Confederation.

6. SHAGODIAQDANE – The Iroquois goddess of the summer. She was depicted as an old woman sitting cross-legged in the forest and she sang a song that only birds could hear and their own chirping and singing was considered to be their response to the goddess’ song. As summer started to turn into autumn the entourage of the evil winter god Tawiskaron began to return. First the winter god’s nephews would race through the forests shooting trees with their ethereal arrows with flint heads, causing the leaves to die and fall from the trees. Shagodiaqdane would stubbornly hold on as long as she could but would eventually be forced to leave, returning the following year.

5. OTSOON – The strawberry god and a son of the vegetation god Akonwara. He won the first strawberry patch on the Earth by destroying the four female wolf-monsters who considered it their own and would prey on people or on other animals tempted by the smell of the strawberries. Otsoon killed them by finding where they hid their hearts and destroying them. He then guarded over the strawberry bushes himself and would allow cuttings from them to be taken after proper rituals were observed. Thus strawberries spread to other places in the world.

4. YEYENTHWUS – The goddess of chestnut trees. She was the sister of Otgoe the wampum god and of Hodadeion the god of magic. Hodadeion secured the first chestnut trees for her after a series of adventures and magically transported them next to Yeyenthwus’ longhouse lodge. She then oversaw those trees the way Otsoon oversaw strawberries. She could use chestnut bark in various magical ways as when she helped her brother Hodadeion walk across water on chestnut bark to escape a cannibalistic medicine man.    

3. AIRESKOI – The Iroquois god of war, identified with the Aurora Borealis. While other Iroquois would go to the conventional afterlife warriors slain in battle got to reside with Aireskoi in the heavens, their souls glowing with the grandeur of their battlefied heroics, thus accounting for the brightness of the Aurora Borealis. Aireskoi was one of the gods who tried to woo the goddess Iagentci when she was carrying her Marriage Bread to the chief deity Hawenneyu. Aireskoi was also associated with fire since the Iroquois used fire to torture captives taken in wartime. The war god’s son Djissaa was the god of fire and he would punish anyone who frivolously used fire, including one man who used it to kill snakes in a  famous myth.   

2. ONHDAGWIJA – The moose goddess. The most prominent myth featuring her depicts her falling in love with an Iroquois hunter. She assumes human form and begins preparing acorn bread for him in his temporary bark cabin while he is off hunting during the day. The hunter is curious about who is doing this and “stakes out” his cabin one day after pretending to go off on the hunt again. He catches Ohndagwija doing cooking and cleaning chores for him and she reveals her true identity to him. She promises to be his lover, to make acorn bread and other meals for him and to ensure that he catches large amounts of game. In return the hunter had to promise not to marry and never to reveal that she was helping him. Years go by and the couple have children together but ultimately the hunter yields to one of the many women throwing themselves at him because of his hunting prowess so Onhdagwija and the children turn back into moose and disappear into the forest forever.

1. GASYONDETHA – The Iroquois meteor god. Like the war god he tried to woo Iagentci when she was taking Marriage Bread to Hawenneyu. Gasyondetha was associated not just with meteors and comets blazing across the sky but also with ones that struck the earth in Iroquois territory. These fallen meteors were considered Gasyondetha’s teeth, which he would sometimes pluck out of his mouth as a show of fortitude and toss to the earth below. Many unusual rock formations that were NOT really meteors were mistakenly believed to be fallen meteors by the Iroquois in ancient times. Some stones that were believed to be meteors were said to talk and were the source of ancient stories about the world and the gods in a myth about the origin of Iroquois historical and religious tales.

One of the most famous myths involving Gasyondetha involved the god visiting an Iroquois man- Svengedaigea – in a dream warning him about monsters coming to devour everyone in his village. Nobody believed the man, not even his wife and family so Gasyondetha ordered him to abandon the village and all its inhabitants to their fate. The god led the man to a fallen meteor with a hole in it. Through the hole Svengedaigea witnessed the destruction of his old village and everyone in it. Next Gasyondetha had him shoot arrows into the hole and the arrows immediately pierced the images of the monsters in the image, killing them. 

The meteor god then gave Svengedaigea one of his teeth, which would enable him to assume animal form and other feats of magic. He commanded the Iroquois man to lead Gasyondetha’s ancient foe, the giagantic blue lizard Dzainos, on a merry chase. Eventually that chase led to a pit made by a meteor and that pit transported the man and Dzainos to the land of the gods on the other side of the sky. Once there Gasyondetha met his archenemy in final combat and at last destroyed the gigantic lizard forever. He then showed Svengedaigea some of the sights in the land of the gods, like their tree-sized corn and the sun-tree of the chief deity Hawenneyu. Finally Gasyondetha returned the mortal to Earth, where a new bride and a new home awaited him. 

FOR MY ORIGINAL LIST OF FIFTEEN IROQUOIS DEITIES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/2013/01/28/the-top-fifteen-deities-in-iroquois-mythology/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  

Balladeer’s Blog presents its latest examination of a neglected pantheon of deities. In the Americas alone I have previously written about gods and goddesses of the Navajo, Inuit, Hawaiians, Choctaw, Iroquois and Aztecs.

Those familiar with the Creek people are aware of how many different sub-classifications there are, so I will remind readers that this article deals only with the deities of the Muscogee Creek. In the future I will eventually do examinations of the gods of the Tuckabatchee, Yuchi, Tuskegee and others generally regarded as Creek.

9. NEREHVURESSE – The Muscogee Creek moon goddess. She was the wife of the sun god and, as with the moon goddess of the Choctaw people, it was said that she spent moonless nights having sexual relations with her husband. The differing phases of the moon were explained as Nerehvuresse covering her face in varying degrees of embarrassment over having all the world know when she had been sleeping with her spouse.

8. HVUSE – The sun god of the Muscogee. He was the father of the corn goddess and coupled with her to sire the hunting god. Fire was considered to be the manifestation of Hvuse on Earth and during Creek New Year festivals the entire community would renew their household fires from the main fire at the center of the village. Hvuse was associated with purity and when the very first Muscogee Creek people emerged from the subterranean world they eventually migrated eastward, toward the site of the sunrise, eventually settling in their ancient territory in what is now Alabama and Georgia. Eclipses were believed to be caused by a giant frog tring to swallow the sun god as he flew across the daytime sky. Loud noises were made during eclipses to help drive the monster away.

7-6. YAHOLA and HAYUYA – These two gods resided in the air and the clouds. They were the guardians of Muscogee people being given training in mysticism and the medical arts. Yahola and Hayuya were the two most prominent of the four Hiyouyulgee, divinities who tutored the ancient Muscogee about the use of fire and various plants, medicinal and otherwise. Yahola and his brother Hayuya endowed people with strength, creative inspiration and magical abilities.

Both deities presided over the Busk Ground Ceremonies, the most important rituals in the Muscogee holiday calendar. Yahola in particular had special sovereignty over curing illnesses and the delivery of children. He was also the patron deity of the intoxicating Black Drink consumed in mass quantities by the Muscogee Creek, who would cry out his name when feeling the effects of the drink he had given to them as a gift. 

Yahola, Hayuya and the other two Hiyouyulgee visited the ancient Muscogee Creek during their mass migration eastward, appearing to them on a “mountain of thunder” near the Red River. The Creek were attracted by the sound of singing from the highest peak of this mountain. Climbing to that peak they sacrificed a child and the four Hiyouyulgee then appeared to them. The tribe lived near the mountain for four years before resuming their journey to the east.   

5. KIKOMIHCI – The god who created human beings and animal life after the supreme deity Ibofanaga was finished creating the Earth, the heavens and the underground world. Kikomihci animated people and other animals with their “ghosts” which could leave their bodies at night in dreams and wander around, returning to their host body by morning to avoid causing illness. Ibofanaga was solely responsible for the actual “souls” of the beings Kikomihci created. Like the Inuit and other peoples the Muscogee Creek distinguished between an animating force and an actual “eternal” soul.

Kikomihci created humans in the underground world and it was from there that the ancient Creek people eventually emerged from caves near what we call the Rocky Mountains. The Muscogee called those mountains ”the spine of the world”  (although in some versions it is instead the Appalachian Mountains that are given that designation). The realm of the gods was on the other side of those mountains.

A giant tree grew near the Place of Emergence, a tree that grew all the way into the heavens above and was considered the Axis Mundi by the ancient Muscogee. Originally humanity and animals all spoke the same language until Kikomihci decreed it otherwise as punishment for the wickedness of the ancient Creek people. It was to seek purification from their wicked ways that the tribe began its mass migration toward the site of the purifying sun god’s ascent each morning.  After that decree Kikomihci withdrew from the affairs of the world and nevermore took any active role in the myths.

4. UVCE – The corn goddess of the Muscogee Creek people. Uvce created corn, beans and wormseed by scratching flesh from her body. She was the daughter of the sun god, and when she was an adult he went on to impregnate her with a child of her own. Uvce gave birth to a large clot of blood which she kept in a pot and which coalesced into a boy within a few days.

This son, the hunting god Fayetu, was incredibly successful at shooting game with his bow and arrows and provided their table with plenty of meat in addition to the corn and beans that Uvce produced. The corn goddess and her child lived in the realm of the gods on the other side of the mountains which formed the Spine of the World. As Fayetu grew into a man she had always warned him to never climb to the peaks to look down on the land of mortals on the other side.

After reaching manhood Fayetu disobeyed this command and, catching sight of how beautiful mortal women were, the hunting god told Uvce the time had come for him to leave her and seek a wife among humans. Saddened, Uvce made her son a headdress made of blue jay feathers and a flute that could summon any and all animals, even snakes. She told Fayetu to marry the first woman who cooked food for him and to make the world safe for his wife and her people by hunting down and eliminating monsters who preyed upon them.

After he had done so he was to return to his mother’s home in the land of the gods to receive a final gift from her. Years later, as instructed, the hunting god returned to that home only to find nothing but enormous fields full of corn and beans. He collected as much as he could and took these gifts back to humans as an eternal gift from his mother.

3. FAYETU – The Muscogee Creek hunting deity. He was the child of the sun god Hvuse and the corn goddess Uvce but was raised by his mother alone. From a very young age he was successful at hunting all manner of game animals and after reaching manhood he left his mother to seek a wife in the land of mortals.

As his mother instructed he married the first woman who agreed to cook food for him as he wandered among the ancient people. His wife was, of course, a member of the ancient Creek people. Her sister was married to the trickster deity Pasakola and this brother-in- law of Fayetu was often the source of trouble in myths. Here are some of the adventures the hunting god had among the ancient Creek:

a) Recovering his magic- imbued flute and headdress from Pasakola after the trickster deity stole them,  b) Teaching the ancient Creek people how to fish when a monster had wiped out all game animals in the area,  c) Chopping his wife in two to form twins so that he could have two wives, both as immortal as he was. When Pasakola tried to imitate this act by chopping his own wife in two she simply died,  d) Killing the man-eating giant cougar Istepaupau by kicking him into a deep pit and setting him on fire with flaming arrows,

e) Saving the ancient Creek people from a giant flying turkey who would devour one person each day during their mass migration eastward. After killing it in combat Fayetu decreed that all subsequent turkeys would be unable to fly and would be much smaller in size,  f) Slaying witches who would turn into human- sized owls at night so they could claw out the hearts of human beings and devour them, thus keeping themselves young,  g) Killing a carnivorous, stench- ridden giant who had eyes that opened and closed vertically instead of horizontally and who carried a huge wooden club, 

h) Slaying Nokosoma, a tusked bear whose head was where its genitals should have been and vice versa,  i) Wiping out the man-eating Wakomos, deadly cows (yes, cows) who traveled single-file to disguise their herd’s numbers and who were so fierce even wolves cowered before them,  and j) killing Atcukliba, lizard- monsters who formed inside of hollow trees and would suddenly dart their heads out through holes in the tree to feed on children or people sleeping near their tree home.

Fayetu’s sons were Chachusee, semi- divine chief of the ancient Muscogees, and Wikatca, the water god and lord of the snakes.

2. WIKATCA – The water god and lord of the snakes. He had the head of a cougar, the antlers of a deer, the wings of a bird and the body of a giant snake. Originally humanoid in form, Wikatca, then named Chatlahau, was hunting once with his brother Chachusee. Chatlahau was always dabbling in the forbidden and ate a taboo dish made from the brains of a black snake, a black squirrel and a wild turkey. Overnight he transformed into his hybrid form as the god Wikatca.

Wikatca’s scales shone like precious metal and his antlers were formed of bright crystal. Only skilled shamans could approach Wikatca, shaking rattles and singing four sacred songs, thus soothing him enough to let them scrape some of his horns into a powder that could be used in making various charms and weapons. The god lived in a deep lake and ruled over all the world’s snakes, from the ordinary to the Tie-snakes, gigantic serpents who were formerly human beings who had fed on taboo foods and transformed like Wikatca himself.

Once Wikatca coupled with a Creek woman who gave birth to his child. The woman and child were shunned by most of the inhabitants of their village, Coosa. The angry Wikatca had the mother of his child warn those few people of Coosa who had protected her and her offspring to evacuate. When they had done so Wikatca slithered out of his lake home, drawing floodwaters after him in a serpentine path and forever submerging Coosa, drowning all the remaining inhabitants. Whenever birds would fly over the waters where the village used to be a whirlpool would form and suck them down into it.

Another major myth involving Wikatca featured his nephew, son of the god’s young brother Chachusee. The ancient Muscogee that Chachusee ruled over were at war and the conflict was going very badly for them. Wikatca lured his nephew to his lake home, where on a temporary island formed entirely of the bodies of snakes he instructed the nephew on how the Muscogee could win the war.

Following the instructions of his returned son Chachusee mounted three assaults on three succesive days on the tribe with which he was at war. All three were repulsed, but on the fourth morning, as promised, Wikatca led an army of snakes against the foes of the Muscogee, defeating all of them and leaving them bound hand and foot by serpents.       

Wikatca also ruled over the water people, supernatural beings about four feet tall with very long hair. More of his subjects were the Wiofu, amphibious deer who spread disease if their meat was eaten.

1. IBOFANAGA – The supreme deity of Muscogee Creek myths. He created the heavenly Upper World which was his home. This realm embodied perfection, order, permanence and clarity. Next he created the Lower World which was home to various dark forces and which embodied imperfection, madness, chaos as well as, oddly enough, fertility and creativity. (?) If the Upper World and Lower World came into contact all of creation would be destroyed so Ibofanaga created the Earth as a Middle World or buffer zone between the two.

Originally the Middle World consisted entirely of water and air, populated only by creatures who could inhabit those two elements. Eventually Ibofanaga had crawfish serve as earth-divers, retrieving enough soil from the bottom of the ocean for him to form land masses with. Kikomihci created humans and other land animals, animating them via “ghosts” which were entirely separate from “souls”, which were the creation and province of Ibofanaga.

Ibofanaga created the Milky Way to be “the Soul’s Path”, which leads to the afterlife. Along the way the soul must avoid being eaten by a giant, ethereal eagle. Eventually it reaches a deep river with a log bridge over it. If the soul led a virtuous life it crosses successfully, if not it falls into the water to be devoured by the celestial alligator in the river. A dog waits at the other end of the log and if the soul ever killed a dog while alive the dog will not let it pass. Souls falling to the eagle, the alligator or the dog would wind up condemned to forever wander the western part of the world. Another way to damn a soul to eternal wandering was to scalp its corpse.

Various myths detail the role Ibofanaga will play in the end of the world. He will supposedly cause all of the Creek women to be taken away to a far off island. Following this a war will break out between the Creek people and the rest of the world. Fire will consume most of the Earth and the dark forces of the Lower World will emerge from beneath the Earth and run rampant. In some versions those Creek who have preserved their customs and ceremonies will be summoned back underground at the Place of Emergence to wait out the destruction. In other versions when all the Creek have been killed in the chaos on the surface Ibofanaga will destroy the Earth to prevent the forces of the Lower World from possessing it. Individual souls will then face their ultimate fate along the Soul’s Path.         

FOR MY LIST OF FIFTEEN IROQUOIS DEITIES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/2013/01/28/the-top-fifteen-deities-in-iroquois-mythology/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

MULWINDA – The goddess who protected the royal clan. Each of the 46 clans of Bunyoro had its own protective deity. They each also had their own totem-name which could be an animal, e.g. Kiroko (hippopotamus) or a plant, e.g. Bulo (millet), a utensil, e.g. Kaibo (basket), or a part of the body, e.g. Amara (stomach). No one was allowed to marry a member of their own clan except the royal clan. Kings could only marry their own cousins and it is known that several married their sisters. Mulindwa was said to be a half-sister to the god Ndaula.

FOR MORE BUNYORO DEITIES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/bunyoro-mythology/

A reader asked me a question about Egyptian mythology being influenced by other cultures. Since I get occassional e-mails asking me similar questions I figured I would post my answer in the spirit of an FAQ. 

My Answer:  This sort of inter-cultural influence is pretty standard in mythology. No belief system springs from a vacuum. It springs from previous belief systems in the region and also from appropriating elements of belief systems of other cultures they come into contact with. The process is called syncretism.

Even the big three religions have done it. Zoroastrianism predates Christianity, Islam and Judaism and all three of those belief systems borrowed heavily from it and from other regional mythology – for Christians it was Zoroastrianism,Gnosticism, Judaism, Mithraism and pretty much ALL of the Mystery Religions of the region. For Judaism, in addition to Zoroastrianism it was Canaanite and Ugaritic myths, For Islam it was Zoroastrianism, Persian mythology and the countless deities of the Arabian peninsula about whom so little is known thanks to Islam’s ruthless, brutal efficiency in wiping out those Pre-Islamic beliefs.

And for other similarities to how the Egyptians appropriated earlier belief systems: the Romans did nothing but RENAME the Greek deities and absorb their mythology whole (Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek Herakles, Mercury is the Roman name for the Greek Hermes, Minerva is the Roman name for the Greek Athena, etc.).

The dual-faced god Janus (the god January is named after) is regarded as virtually the ONLY purely Roman deity. The Inca people appropriated the myths of the cultures they conquered and presented them as their own, like with so many other religions. The Aztecs appropriated the myths of their predecessors like the Toltecs and the Olmecs. Huitzilopochtli is often considered the only purely Aztec deity. 

The Greeks themselves appropriated many of the myths of the Hittites. In my entry on the Navajo war god Nayanazgeni taking on the Anaye I often mentioned how the Navajo appropriated elements of that myth from other tribes they came into contact with during their wanderings.

The process is ongoing, too, because Mormonism is basically a fusion of Christianity and Rosicrucianism. (Before any Mormons send me outraged e-mails read the 1620′s Rosicrucian work titled Christianopolis first to see where Joseph Smith got a lot of his ideas) The beliefs of the Hare Khrishna folks are a fusion of Christianity and Hindu myths, with Jesus presented as an incarnation of Vishnu. Voodoo beliefs are a fusion of Yoruban, Fon, Christian and Caribbean belief systems.

Sometimes the process is incomplete because of the course of history. The leader of China’s Taiping rebellion during the mid- 1800′s was convinced he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ incarnated in human form to establish a “Kingdom of Heavenly Peace”. The belief system his followers embraced combined elements of Christianity, Confucianism and Buddhism.

If the Taipingis, as they were called, had prevailed not only would the following years in China’s history have been entirely different, but we might have the Taipingi faith as one of the world’s major religions today. With my odd sense of humor I love reading the historical documents the Taipingi left behind, especially the ones in which their leader refers to “my elder brother Jesus”. Hey, I guess he figured if his big brother could incarnate as a Jewish philosopher in the Roman- occupied Middle East, he could incarnate as a Chinese revolutionary if he wanted to. 

To go back to the current Big Three religions, even their belief in Savior Figures was influenced by Zoroastrianism. The Jewish notions of a Messiah, the Christian belief about Jesus Christ being a Gnosticized version of that Messiah and Islam’s savior figure called the Mahdi are largely appropriated from Zoroastrianism’s savior figure Soter. The study of savior figures in all the world’s mythologies is even called Soteriology in honor of Soter since he’s the oldest KNOWN savior figure.

FOR MORE ON MYTHOLOGY CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/category/mythology/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

SOSONDOWAH – The Iroquois hunting god. From a very young age Sosondowah was able to stalk and kill any game that he set his mind on. The myths depicting him as a little boy godling include the “catechism of game animals” like the tales of various other Native American tribes included about their hunting god’s younger years. These catechetical stories would feature the mother of a tribe’s hunting deity subjecting the child to a series of descriptions of game animals and taboo animals with the young god having to correctly identify each animal.

Such myths recounted aloud to younger members of a tribe seem to have served the educational purpose of familiarizing the next generation of hunters with those animals the tribe preyed upon for food and which ones their belief system required them to regard as taboo. The myth of the Muscogee Creek hunting god Fayetu provides another quick example of this theme.

Sosondowah’s tracking skills were such that he could even trace the course an arrow had taken across the sky. A gigantic deer (in some versions an antelope) proved to be the most elusive quarry the hunting god ever attempted to track down. His obsession with hunting the beast prompted him to ignore the romantic overtures of the goddess of the dawn Doyadastethe. That goddess was the daughter of the chief deity Hawenneyu, and when Sosondowah ignored her flirtatious request that he guard her longhouse lodge in the heavens (and look at her etchings no doubt) Doyadastethe had her father leash the hunting god outside her lodge against his will.

This ancient b&d experiment also failed to win Sosondowah’s heart, however, and when he fell in love with the beautiful mortal woman Gendenwitha the dawn goddess spitefully elevated Gendenwitha to godhood as the deity of the Morning Star. She fixed her permanently in the heavens where Sosondowah and all the former mortal’s other lovesick admirers could forever see Gendenwitha but be unable to reach her.

FOR MY LIST OF FIFTEEN IROQUOIS DEITIES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/2013/01/28/the-top-fifteen-deities-in-iroquois-mythology/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.    

In the tradition of Balladeer’s Blog’s previous looks at neglected epic myths from the Navajo, Vietnamese and Chinese pantheons I will examine the saga of the Iroquois god of magic Hodadeion. This will be done in the same style as my examinations of the Navajo war god’s battle with the Anaye, the war between the Vietnamese jungle and monsoon gods and the Chinese Divine Archer Yi’s adventures.

1. Hodadeion was the son of the creator god Tharonhiawakon and a mortal woman, the same mortal woman who bore him Hodadeion’s siblings. Those siblings were Otgoe, the wampum god and Yeyenthwus, the future goddess of chestnut trees.

Tharonhiawakon was gone for years at a time attending to other matters in the world and while Otgoe was a toddler and Hodadeion and Yeyenthwus in their teens an entire village full of cannibalistic humans led by a powerful but evil medicine man was preying on the people in their mother’s village. One by one then in groups the cannibals had carried off and devoured all the villagers until only Hodadeion, Yeyenthwus and little Otgoe were the only ones left.

The three huddled together and kept hidden in their mother’s longhouse lodge in the now- empty village. Hodadeion and Yeyenthwus kept their plight from little Otgoe as best they could. Eventually they had exhausted their food supply and Hodadeion realized he would need to venture beyond the confines of the abandoned village and find food for himself and his siblings, despite whatever dangers he may face.

PART TWO COMING SOON – For my original list of Iroquois deities click here: http://glitternight.com/2013/01/28/the-top-fifteen-deities-in-iroquois-mythology/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.  

Everyone but the most sheltered Christians have known for centuries about the alternate, or apocryphal gospels. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were the four canonical or “official” gospels that were accepted by the mainstream church but there were dozens of other gospels with wildly varying versions of the story of Jesus.

With my love of mythology I first got into those other gospels when I was 18 and that was long before Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code fouled the territory by attracting countless conspiracy kooks to the subject of these obscure writings. It complicates conversations now because when  many people hear you discussing the apocryphal gospels they think you’re a paranoid crackpot looking for the  descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene around every corner.

At any rate it’s fun to wonder what form Easter celebrations would have taken if the following rejected gospels had been accepted as “official.”

6. THE ACTS OF THECLA – Since the Gospel of Mary has gotten so much attention following the success of Dan Brown’s writings and their screen adaptations I decided to throw a spotlight on the neglected woman named Thecla instead. Thecla supposedly became a follower of the man called “Saint” Paul after hearing him speak in Iconium. In this book Paul is depicted as an advocate of refraining from all sex, even when married, which points to the probable Gnostic origins of The Acts of Thecla.

Thecla abandons her fiancee and her family to follow Paul. In Antioch she finds herself in trouble for rejecting the sexual advances of a highly placed official. Thecla is arrested for this (on a charge of “felony cockblock” I’m assuming) and undergoes a series of persecutions. Naturally she prevails in the end and in her ballsiest (as it were) move she baptizes HERSELF, and not just in any old body of water but in a pool filled with ravenous seals. Take that, John the Baptist, with your prissy “seal-free” baptisms. Thecla is at last reunited with Paul, who authorizes her to share fully in spreading the word of Jesus.

5. THE INFANCY GOSPEL OF THOMAS – I like to refer to this enjoyable book as “The Young Jesus Christ Chronicles”. This banned gospel deals with the infancy and childhood years of Jesus in much greater detail than any of the other gospels, official or otherwise. Much of the Infancy Gospel centers around a toddling Jesus getting used to his godly power and being reproached by his parents when he shows off by performing miracles like molding clay pigeons and then bringing them to life. He also uses his power to deal with bullies, mess with his teachers and do his chores. I’m serious. Various African myths also deal with  their demigods coping with their extraordinary abilities during childhood.  

This gospel should not be confused with The Coptic Gospel of Thomas, which consists of 114 (yes, Rosicrucian conspiracy kooks, 114) sayings attributed to Jesus. Most are fairly unique, while others bear similarities to Jesus’ teachings in the canonical gospels. There is also The Acts of Thomas, describing Thomas’ deeds as a Christian missionary in India after the Crucifixion. If you’re also into Manichean and Hindu myths this book of acts makes for some nice comparative mythology, especially regarding the “enlightening twin” of Mani’s teachings. (Remember, Thomas was sometimes considered Jesus’ twin)

4. THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS – Yes, it’s the “tell-all” memoir of the figure remembered as the traitorous apostle. Among the many explosive aspects of this gospel is the credence it gave to the long-argued possiblity that Judas  lived on for a time after Jesus’ death and may have even had disciples of his own, like the other followers of Jesus when they dispersed. The other gospels generally depict their attributed author (yeah, right) as being the apostle who was closest to Jesus and who understood his teachings the best. The Gospel of Judas plays the same game, even going so far as to imply that Judas alone was privy to a particularly secret teaching of Jesus.

This “secret” is a full-on, flat-out Gnostic interpretation of Jesus and his mission. Jesus is shown laughing at the disciples’ misunderstanding of who he really is and identifies the god of the Old Testament with the Demiurge. The “Savior” is even referred to in connection with the goddess Barbelo from Gnostic myths. The gospel gives us a Judas who is the only apostle who understands the real  nature of the cosmic drama that Jesus is taking part in, and that he needs Judas to betray him to his death in order to facilitate his return to the Pleroma, Gnosticism’s version of Heaven ( to simplify the concept for the sake of brevity)  

This is also one of the alternate gospels that deals with Docetism – the belief that Jesus did not have an actual physical body. Christ is presented here appearing to his apostles with the body of a child at some times and as an adult at others.            

FOR THE REMAINING TOP ALTERNATE GOSPELS CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO: http://glitternight.com/2012/04/01/the-top-six-alternate-gospels-and-scriptures-part-2/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.       

As promised, here is the second part of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at the top six apocryphal gospels, meaning the rejected and obscure gospels outside of the four accepted by mainstream Christianity as “authentic”  (snicker).

Those four are, of course, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There were dozens of others and I’ve selected the six that provide the best opportunities for comparative mythology.

3. THE GOSPEL OF THE SAVIOR – The narrative of this gospel centers around dialogues between Jesus and his apostles in the last few days before his arrest and crucifixion. Some of the material is similar to the Gospels of John and Matthew, but some is Gnostic, with references to discarding the useless garment of the body so the soul can return to the empyrean realm.

The most striking departure in this gospel comes in the Garden of Gethsemane segment, when Jesus, as God the Son, traditionally prays to God the Father to spare him the ordeals that lay ahead. In The Gospel of the Savior Jesus transports himself and his apostles to the throneroom of God the Father  where he makes his appeal in person. The apostles, who stay awake for once in this version, look on as Jesus and God the Father converse in this scene, which serves as this gospel’s substitute for the traditional transfiguration episode of other gospels.

In the end, as in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus resigns himself to the suffering he must endure. He addresses a mental image of the cross with the words “Oh cross, do not be afraid! I am rich. I will fill you with my wealth.”

2. THE GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS – Despite the title of this gospel, Nicodemus doesn’t even show up until section 5. This alternate scripture started out as The Acts of Pilate, and covered the story of Christ’s trial and execution from the point of view of Pontius Pilate. This half of the gospel serves the uber-propogandistic purpose of making Pontius Pilate look even more reluctant to prosecute Jesus than the canonical gospels do. Naturally, this makes Pilate – and therefore the Roman Empire – look better, and the Saducees and Pharisees – and therefore the Jews – look worse.

In later centuries a second part was appended to The Acts of Pilate and it became known as The Gospel of Nicodemus instead. This second part treats us to the most detailed account of Jesus’ descent into Hell to free the virtuous souls who have found themselves trapped there since the time of Adam and Eve. That journey is a treasure trove of material for comparative mythology buffs. There are echoes of descents into the Netherworld by goddesses like Inanna, Demeter, Frigga and others as well as themes reminiscent of Anat and Baal, Isis and Osiris, all the other dead and resurrected deities of the world.

In addition to parallels to all those seasonal myths of the pagan world this gospel features another intriguing element. Not only does it depict Satan’s reaction to Jesus the Redeemer’s invasion of his domain to free the wrongly damned, but Hell itself is presented as a sentient entity that actually speaks. The conversations and relationship between Satan and the infernal region that is both his prison and his kingdom make you wish more of such material had survived.

1. THE AQUARIAN GOSPEL OF JESUS THE CHRIST – Everyone familiar with the so-called “Jesus Sutras” knows the theory stating that Jesus taught for a time in India before returning to the Roman-occupied Middle East to face his destiny. This gospel goes to the Nth degree with such a concept and simultaneously fills in the 18 years of Jesus’ life left unaccounted for in canonical writings.

The work depicts Jesus spending those missing years roaming throughout Tibet, Assyria, Persia, India, Egypt and Greece, mastering the esoteric teachings behind all of the belief systems of those regions. After undergoing initiation ceremonies in each of those faiths to show a general respect for them, he then tutors his teachers in turn, showing them where their beliefs are wrong. In Gnostic terms he teaches those “holy men” that their major deities are really the Demiurge Yaldabaoth and instructs them how to escape Yaldabaoth’s trap of perpetual reincarnation in the flesh and free their souls forever.

Naturally Jesus knows that crucifixion awaits him when he tries to bring his teachings to the Middle East but he also knows it will allow him to demonstrate his message to the fullest. If you enjoyed the poet Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound, which used the Roman god Jupiter as a Yaldabaoth figure and Prometheus as the Jesus/ Sabaoth figure you should genuinely love The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ.

Over the years this has become my favorite Eastertime reading. It includes passages that can appeal to people like me who don’t belong to any of the world’s religions. Some of those sayings are “The clergymen cannot be reformed; they are already dead. The new age calls for liberty; the kind that makes each person a clergyman and enables him to go alone … “, “The chains that bind men to the carcasses of Earth are forged in fancy’s shop; are made of air and welded in illusion’s fires” and above all “The sons of men are looking up for greater light. No longer do they care for gods hewn out of wood or made of clay. They seek a god not made with human hands.” All that plus a Holy Trinity consisting of God the Father, God the Son and God the Mother. Check it out if you can!

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/2012/04/01/the-top-six-alternate-gospels-and-scriptures/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.       

Balladeer’s Blog’s mythology posts are among the most popular parts of this site. As a change of pace from my examinations of multiple deities from a single mythological pantheon this time I’ll do a light-hearted look at solar deities – both male and female – from around the world. Given the familiarity of the Greco- Roman sun god I’ll omit him and deal with less well-known deities.

11. SEQINEK

Pantheon: Inuit

Lore: Also called Malina, Seqinek’s home was in Udlormiut, the land that was on the other side of the sky. In Inuit cosmology the sky was the roof of the enormous ice- house (igloo) that enclosed the world and Udlormiut lay on the other side. By day Seqinek would leave her home and run across the sky, with the sun itself being the flame from the torch she carried as she ran. The goddess was forever fleeing her brother, the moon god Tatqim, whose partially burnt- out torch was the moon.

For more Inuit deities – http://glitternight.com/inuit-myth/

10. SURYA

Pantheon: Hindu

Lore: The sun was Surya’s chariot racing across the sky, pulled by seven shining horses who sported manes that burned like flames. In alternate versions Surya’s chariot is pulled by one giant horse with seven heads. Surya’s four hands hold a lotus, a mace, a conch and a wheel. The sun god’s daughter Ushas precedes him across the sky and is considered the goddess of the dawn. His wives were the goddesses Suranya and Chhaya. Though later considered an aspect of Vishnu, in the Rig Veda Surya was part of the original Trimurti, along with Indra the storm god and Agni the fire god.

For more Hindu deities – http://glitternight.com/2011/07/05/the-eleven-most-neglected-deities-in-hindu-mythology/ 

9. NYAKAKAIKURU 

Pantheon: Bunyoro

Lore: This sun goddess was depicted as an elderly woman carrying the sun across the sky by balancing it on her head, the way baskets and other burdens are carried in various cultures. At the end of each day after carrying her cargo in this manner to the west Nyakakaikuru would remove it from the top of her head. She would then devour all the solar “meat” off of the sun as her evening meal. The sun goddess would then toss the sun’s “bone” to Ruhanga, the supreme deity of the Bunyoro pantheon. Ruhanga, who was Nyakakaikuru’s husband in some accounts and her father in others, would cause a new sun to form around that bone overnight. In this manner each morning a fresh sun was ready to be borne across the sky by Nyakakaikuru.

For more Bunyoro deities – http://glitternight.com/bunyoro-mythology/

8. TONATIUH 

Pantheon: Aztec

Lore: Tonatiuh is the sun god of our current world, the Fifth World, according to Aztec cosmology. Each of the four previous worlds had their own individual sun gods who died along with those worlds. When the Aztec deities assembled to create this Fifth World two gods volunteered to become the new sun - Nanahuatzin – the previous world’s despised leprosy deity, and Tecciztecatl, the previous world’s wealth god. The lowly and humble Nanahuatzin outdid the haughty and boastful Tecciztecatl in the contests held and thus won the honor. He leaped into the sacrificial flames and was ignited as Tonatiuh, the new sun god. The Aztecs believed the rivers of blood from large- scale human sacrifices were necessary to slake Tonatiuh’s incredible thirst so he could keep moving across the sky.

For more Aztec deities – http://glitternight.com/2011/05/10/the-top-eleven-deities-in-aztec-mythology/

7. HASHTALI

Pantheon: Choctaw

Lore: Sometimes conflated with Nanishta, the creator god and supreme deity of the Choctaw pantheon, Hashtali was originally simply the sun god. He crossed the sky each day by riding on the back of an enormous buzzard. The Choctaw people would leave dead bodies in the sunlight so that Hashtali’s heat and his familiar buzzards could dispose of the remains, leaving the spirit of the deceased with no body to try to return to. Humans were given fire when the spider god Uncta stole some of Hashtali’s heat, and all fires are loyal to the sun god, telling him everything that occurs around them. Eclipses were caused by a giant black squirrel attacking the sun god, who would have to fight him off. Hashtali’s wife was the moon goddess Hvashi and their daughter was Ohoyochisba the corn goddess.

For more Choctaw deities – http://glitternight.com/2012/06/03/the-top-twelve-deities-in-choctaw-mythology/

6. MAT GA TRONG

Pantheon: Vietnamese

Lore: The sun was this goddess’ palanquin on which she regally reclined while six celestial bearers carried it across the sky each day. Mat Ga Trong’s palanquin was adorned with rooster images in some accounts and with crow images in others. She provides the world with light and heat while her attendants transport her across the sky. In summer her six attendants are young and virile males who take their time and flirt with the goddess as they carry her, hence the longer days in summer. In winter her six celestial attendants are old and worn males who rush with Mat Ga Trong across the sky so that they can get done with their work more quickly and rest, hence the shorter days in winter. Mat Ga Trong’s son is Ah Nhi the fire god and her sister is Trang Chim the moon goddess.

For more Vietnamese deities – http://glitternight.com/vietnamese-myth/

5. HAEMOSU

Pantheon: Korean

Lore: The sun was Haemosu’s home, a domain he claimed by retrieving the sun when it was stolen by a gigantic crow in the ancient past. The crow feathers that decorated Haemosu’s headdress were from that enormous beast that he had slain in order to restore the sun’s light and heat to the world. The sun god’s primary weapon was a solar sword that gleamed like the sun. Each day as the sun made its way across the sky Haemosu would let it take its course while he would fly to the Earth below via his chariot Oryonggeo. That chariot was pulled by five flying dragons. Haemosu would pass the day presiding over human affairs, hearing appeals from earthly kings just as kings heard appeals from their subjects. His wife was Yuhwa, the goddess of willow trees and their son was Jumong (also spelled Chumong), the most active figure in Korean myths.

For more Korean deities – http://glitternight.com/2011/03/24/the-top-11-deities-in-korean-mythology/ 

4. TSOHANOAI 

Pantheon: Navajo

Lore: Tsohanoai rode across the heavens on a sky-blue horse he created and the sun was the gleaming shield he carried with him on his journey. Originally he simply carried that shield across the sky but later invented horses for himself and for humanity to ride on. Tsohanoai’s home was a square house that floated on what we call the Pacific Ocean and upon returning to that house at sunset he would hang the sun on a peg for the night. His wife, the seasonal goddess Estsanatlehi, lived there with him. Among the other deities living in the sun god’s divine house in the west were Tonenili the rain god and Niltsi the wind god. Tsohanoai’s house was built by Niltsi’s father Hastsehogan. The sun god’s own children were numerous and included the war god Nayanazgeni and Nohoilpi, the god of gambling.

For more Navajo deities – http://glitternight.com/navajo-myth-clear/ 

3. MAUI

Pantheon: Hawaiian and other Polynesian pantheons

Lore: Thus far we’ve seen the sun depicted as a torch, a chariot, a palanquin, a shield and even as a meal in addition to other items. The depiction of the sun in regard to the god Maui was as a beast “tamed” by the deity. Originally the sun was fished up from the sea in a net by the sky god Rangi (though later myths attribute this act to the god Lono instead). Rangi set it in orbit but in later years Maui’s mother complained to him that the days were too short for her and for mortal humans to get all their work done. Rising to the challenge Maui lassoed the sun with vines from cocoanut trees and met the fiery beast in combat. After a monumental struggle Maui had ”tamed” the sun and ordered it to go across the sky more slowly, giving the world longer days than it originally had. Maui’s sister was Hina the moon goddess.

For more Hawaiian deities – http://glitternight.com/hawaiian-myth/ 

2. RA

Pantheon: Egyptian

Lore: Also called Amen-Ra, Re, Atum-Ra and other combinations. The sun was Ra’s ship, or ark, making its way across the sky, with a vast contingent of the god’s subordinate deities also on board. After a long day of sailing across the heavens Ra would navigate his ship the sun down into the subterranean land of the dead, lighting it by night as he had the land of the living by day. Every night Ra and his solar vessel would traverse the river leading through that netherworld and would face the dangers posed by the god Set as well as demonic entities like Apophis and others. When this nightly struggle for survival was over the sun would rise again in the east, beginning another day of providing light and heat for the Earth. Ra’s first- born children were Nut the sky goddess and Geb the Earth god.

For more Egyptian deities – http://glitternight.com/2011/08/15/the-eleven-most-neglected-deities-in-egyptian-mythology/

1. AMATERASU 

Pantheon: Shinto

Lore: Amaterasu was the sun itself, her beauty and radiance so dazzling and so intense she could light and heat the entire world by day. The sun goddess was the supreme deity of the Shinto pantheon. Amaterasu was the daughter of the god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami in the Shinto holy book Nihongi, but in the Kojiki she was said to have sprung from an eye of the sky god Izanagi alone. This odd tradition dates back to even older myths in which the sun was regarded as one eye of the sky god and the moon as his other eye. Amaterasu exiled her brother Tsukuyomi the moon god to the nighttime skies in her disgust over Tsukuyomi’s slaying of the food goddess Ugetsu. Susanowo the storm god, another brother of Amaterasu, often rebelled against his sister’s rule and once when he caused a storm so intense that it blotted out the sun for several days Amaterasu withdrew in anger to a cave. The other Shinto deities successfully convinced the goddess to return, so that the world would have light and heat. They also punished Susanowo by reducing his power and exiling him to ancient Japan. Through her grandson, the god Ninigi, Amaterasu is the divine ancestor of all the Emperors of Japan.

For more Shinto deities – http://glitternight.com/shinto-myth/

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Balladeer’s Blog presents its latest look at a neglected pantheon of gods and goddesses. The Tupari people live near the Rio Branco in Brazil and though they are far from numerous I find their mythology to be as riveting and full of rich details as the belief systems of any other group.

The deities of the Tupari deserve to stand alongside the gods of the Greeks, Egyptians, Aztecs and others. A striking element of the Tupari belief system is the way in which the word “pod” is used the way “kami” is used in Shinto myths. Pod, like kami, can be used when referring to actual deities but also to lesser supernatural beings, so there is often debate over the exact status of an individual entity in the Tupari’s metaphysical heirarchy.

10. MULHER – The primordial Earth goddess from whom all the other deities descended. In the beginning when there was no life on Earth and no gods in the heavens Mulher existed alone. Her original form was that of an enormous black rock with a very smooth surface, much like Zoroastrian mythology describes the Earth before the evil god Ahriman ruined its pristine perfection. Mulher split open one day like an egg and her first child, the god Valedjad was born amid a stream of blood flowing from Mulher. Again she split open and her second son Vab emerged from within her in a similar blood stream. When earthquakes occur today it is Mulher splitting open again, but no more children are born – rather her blood - lava – flows like the blood from menstruating women.  

9. PATSIARE – The god who separated the Earth and the sky. He then created the poles that support the sky above the Earth the way similar poles support the domed roofs of the Tupari’s houses. In Tupari cosmology the world is shaped like a flat round plate with a raised rim. Patsiare’s poles, invisible to mere mortals, project upward from that raised rim that encircles the Earth. Patsiare forever maintains those poles as well, replacing some when necessary. Without the god’s efforts the sky-roof above would fall down upon us, killing us all.

8. VALEDJAD – This destructive storm deity was the first-born son of the primordial goddess Mulher. Along with his younger brother Vab, Valedjad made himself a stone axe which the pair used to cut down trees. Valedjad and Vab then killed a gigantic, monstrous agouti (a species of South American rodent) and used its front teeth as carving instruments, crafting their mates, the first tree goddesses, from the trees they had felled. With these wives Valedjad and Vab spawned the next generation of deities while their mother, Mulher, continued rupturing and giving birth to the deities of the air and the mountains and the seas until her form was no longer smooth but was dotted with the geographical features we know today.

7. ARKOANYO – The bird-creating deity who often protected his fellow divinities. The god Valedjad often grew so angry with his fellow deities that he unleashed powerful storms on them, sometimes destroying lesser deities who dared to oppose him. At one point he grew so angry he caused a storm so powerful it flooded the Earth, killing many of the other gods and goddesses. The surviving deities struggled to devise a way of at last ending Valedjad’s reign of terror. Arkoanyo, the bird-creating deity was the one who took action. 

The next time Valedjad was hunting down deities with the intent of killing them, Arkoanyo hid inside a hollow tree. As the storm god passed by Arkoanyo leaped from hiding and poured liquid beeswax on Valedjad, sealing up his eyes and nose and causing his fingers to stick together so that the evil god could not use his magic in any way. The bird god then created a series of birds to try to carry Valedjad off while he was still helpless but none were large enough. At last Arkoanyo created a parrot so gigantic that it was strong enough to do the job and he rode it as it carried Valedjad off to the north, where Arkoanyo imprisoned the storm god in a stone hut, stifling his power so much that, while Valedjad can still cause storms, none are powerful enough to slay gods or flood the entire world.

6. AUNYAINA – The wild boar god. Like Kamapua’a, the Hawaiian boar god, Aunyaina was a humanoid figure who had tusks like a boar. Unlike Kamapua’a, however, Aunyaina was an evil deity who delighted in eating the children of his fellow gods. Once again the bird-making god Arkoanyo came to the rescue. He created a mutum fowl to lure the hungry Aunyaina off to hunt it down (in some versions Arkoanyo assumes the form of that bird and lures Aunyaina away). With the boar god thus distracted Arkoanyo led the assembled deities to the heavens, climbing an enormous creeper vine that connected the Earth with the sky in those days. This is similar to many other mythical belief systems in which a tree or a mountain once connected the Earth and sky.

When Aunyaina returned from his wild mutum chase he realized that the other gods had abandoned the Earth, leaving him no more delicious divine children to eat. He tried following them to their new heavenly home, Kiad, by climbing up the creeper vine. Arkoanyo had his gigantic parrot fly down (or rode it down in some versions) and chew away at the vine while avoiding the arrows Aunyaina shot at him. The vine at last broke and Aunyaina fell to the Earth, crippled by the fall. Arkoanyo created vultures to chew away most of the evil god’s body but Aunyaina’s arms and legs turned into caymans and iguanas while his fingers and toes became smaller lizards of all kinds.

4 and 5. AROTEH and TOVA – The male (Aroteh) and female (Tova) deities of agriculture and civilization. With most of the gods now living up in Kiad Aroteh and Tova were two of the few deities still living on Earth. The couple created nuts, fields of corn and countless bushes of urucu, which was used as a spice and to make dye. The first human beings had been gestating inside the Earth goddess Mulher, and with their subterranean home getting crowded from the growing population some of them had taken to sneaking out of caves and stealing corn, urucu and nuts from Aroteh and Tova then retreating back underground to share the spoils with other humans.

Trailing the footprints of these thieves Aroteh and Tova were eventually able to locate the cavern entrance to the subterranean world. The two gods used their staffs to widen the cave entrance, causing a veritable flood of primitive humans to come pouring out from the world below. At length Aroteh and Tova felt enough humans had been let out and so they sealed up the cave entrance for good, keeping all the remaining humans in the underground world.

The early humans all had tusks and webbed fingers and toes so the two gods reshaped their teeth and removed the webbed flesh from between their digits, but the humanoids who remained underground, the Kinno, retained their tusks and webbed digits. In the future, when the human race has all died off, the Kinno will be let loose from their subterranean lair to become the new inhabitants of the surface world. Aroteh and Tova taught the early humans how to raise their own food, erect shelter, etc.  

The Tupari taught that as the human beings freed by Aroteh and Tova rose in numbers many groups began migrating to populate the rest of the world, which is how all the other nations of the world were founded. Since the Tupari remained the closest to the place of emergence they considered themselves the greatest people in the world. Once again we see that such ethnic chauvinism is universal.

Aroteh and Tova moved to the upraised rim surrounding  the world, where they resumed growing uruca and other crops. Only Tupari shamans in their astral forms are able to reach the far end of the world to visit Aroteh and his wife Tova and the deities often give advice or uruca seeds to those visiting shamans.

2 and 3. ANATBA and KOLUBEH – The twin goddesses of childbirth, who began gracing humanity with children after they left the underground world. In Tupari myths the only way women can become pregnant is for these two deities to visit them at night and place a baby in the woman’s womb. Before the baby’s presence in the body of the mother it forms from the otherworldly “flesh” of Anatba and Kolubeh, sometimes linking them like the joints that link Siamese twins. It is speculated that the birth of a set of real-life conjoined twins in the distant past inspired this depiction of Anatba and Kolubeh. 

No woman will ever give birth if the two goddesses do not choose to bestow a child upon her. Anatba and Kolubeh also insert some meat into the mother’s womb for her to feed on after the exhaustion of giving birth. (Eeewww) Now that’s the kind of fundamental courtesy you just don’t find in deities these days! It’s possible they also include a note that says “We’re so proud of you” in with this lunch they pack but I doubt it.

1. PATOBKIA – The god who rules over the afterlife. Like  many other groups of people the Tupari distinguished between an animating force and an actual spirit. While the spirit, or Pabid, proceeds to the land ruled by Patobkia the Kiapoga , the animating force or “ghost” remains in the heart of the dead human. Eventually it bursts from the heart like a bird from an egg. The village shamans clean the Kiapoga, shape its clay-like form to resemble the deceased, and then release the ghost, which forever floats invisibly in the air near the place of death.

The Pabid, meanwhile, journeys far away from the land of the living, completely blind as it makes its way. First it proceeds over the backs of two gigantic male and female crocodiles. The male crocodile attacks the moon god Puepa at times, causing eclipses of the moon, and the female crocodile attacks the sun goddess Karam at other times, causing eclipses of the sun. Though Puepa and Karam are both elderly they are still powerful – Karam more than Puepa in fact – and always drive the crocodiles away eventually.

Next the Pabid walks along the backs of two enormous serpents, again, one male and one female. These serpents are usually invisible to humans but after getting soaked from rainfall they are briefly visible as rainbows. Following this part of the journey the Pabid encounters two gigantic jaguars, male and female of course. The enormous jaguars try to frighten the Pabid away with their growls but as long as a Pabid does not allow itself to feel fear the jaguars cannot hurt it.

At last the spirit, still blind as yet, enters Patobkia’s village on the banks of the river Mani-Mani. A pair of fat worms eat their way into the Pabid’s stomach and then devour all of the spirit’s intestines, removing all traces of earthly foods. Then they crawl out again. Patobkia himself now welcomes the newcomer and sprinkles pepper juice in the Pabid’s eyes, and when the stinging stops the Pabid’s vision returns and it gets its first look at the afterlife.

Patobkia next hands the Pabid a bowl of chicha, the alcoholic beverage the Tupari brew. When the newly arrived spirit is done drinking the god of the dead leads him deeper into the village toward two other deities who are part of his divine court. The male deity is Mpokalero and the female deity is Vaugeh. If the Pabid is male it must have sex with Vaugeh in front of Patobkia and all the other souls of the dead. If the Pabid is female it must have sex with Mpokalero before the entire assemblage. Just as the two fat worms devoured all the last food of the living from the Pabid this sex act is the last lovemaking the Pabid will ever indulge in and it removes the last physical desire from the spirit.

The spirits all live in the same kind of large, round and domed huts the Tupari dwelt in while alive. They sleep standing up with their arms over their eyes. There is much singing and dancing and no work is ever required in the village or “maloca”. Patobkia waves his hands and causes all the farming, hunting, cleaning of the fields and gathering of other food to be accomplished with his magic. Various mystical fruits and vegetables grow in the land of the dead and Tupari shamans can send their astral forms there to obtain those items to cure the living. 

FOR MORE GODS FROM AROUND THE WORLD CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/category/mythology/                 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Lord Dunsany’s 1905 book The Gods of Pegana and its 1906 followup, Time and the Gods, are forgotten masterpieces of comparative mythology which introduced the author’s pantheon of fictional deities. Though neglected today Dunsany’s work inspired authors from H.P. Lovecraft to J.R.R. Tolkein to C.S. Lewis. (But oddly, NOT e.e. cummings, A.A. Milne  or H.R. Puff’n'Stuff.)

Like many of my fellow mythology geeks I spent a lot of time during childhood inventing my own pantheons of gods and breaking down their powers, cultural relevance and relations to their fellow divinities. We can all appreciate the fun Lord Dunsany had with the concept and the ingenious way in which he fused elements of Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Chinese mythology with his own ideas.  

Dunsany didn’t just dwell on surface details of the gods he created, he used their tales to reflect the philosophy, customs and taboos of the fictional land of Pegana, just like real-world belief sytems represent those aspects of the cultures that spawn them.

An additional benefit of Dunsany’s work is that it provides us with a consistent vision since it was all composed in the same time period. Real-world ancient myths often evolved or were “retconned” over the ages due to political or social reasons we have no written record of and we are therefore forced to speculate. In The Gods of Pegana mythology lovers are treated to a pantheon’s birth and can follow it through all the way to its eventual demise. In Time and the Gods plus a few tales from Beyond the Fields We Know that same mythos matures into a more sophisticated, almost medieval form.

Lord Dunsany’s skepticism of clergy members shines through all the tales as does his wry depiction of the way in which monarchs can force the clergy to change myths to suit the ruling class and not for any profound theological reasons. It is forever implied that priests and prophets who refuse to mold the nation’s myths to please the powerful are simply eliminated and replaced with priests and prophets who will. The same holds true today for both the official clergy and the nation’s secular myth-makers in the education, “news” and entertainment fields. 

MANA YOOD SUSHAI – The primordial god who created the universe and all the lesser deities. After these acts of creation Mana Yood Sushai rested. No god may disturb him and no mortals may pray to him. He will take no further part in the affairs of the cosmos until the day he awakens from his rest, and when that day arrives all of creation will come to an end, the lesser gods included. Mana Yood Sushai will laugh at the futility of gods and men as he destroys everything that is.

If any mortal dares to pray to Mana Yood Sushai they not only are erased from the world but no one ever even remembers that they existed in the first place. That is why none of the people who sinned in that way can be referred to by name.  

The entity called Trogool, who is neither god nor beast nor male nor female, was also made by Mana Yood Sushai. Trogool sits far beyond the Earth, among the rocks that the lesser deities did not use when they created the planets, moons and stars. Trogool turns the pages of an enormous book and all the events in creation are reflected in that book. The white pages represent days and the black pages represent nights. When Trogool reaches the last page of that book it will be the end of the universe.   

SKARL – The god who sits beside the slumbering Mana Yood Sushai and perpetually beats on his drums. The beating of Skarl’s drums soothes Mana Yood Sushai and helps him rest. Skarl has been beating his drums for millenia and when the day comes when he at last ceases the silence will awaken Mana Yood Sushai, ushering in the end of the universe.

The sound of Skarl’s drumming also forms the River Imrana which men call the Milky Way and is the river along which sails the ship of Yoharneth-Lahai the god of dreams, both daydreams and those that come when mortals sleep. Sirami, the god of forgetting, waits near the end of the river and wipes away all memories from those weary of life and willing to yield to oblivion.       

KIB – The god of life. After Mana Yood Sushai created the gods and the universe the lesser gods, Kib among them, talked among themselves, using only their hands in a form of sign language. The council of the gods decided to fill the empty universe with stars, planets, the moon and the Earth. These acts of creation are known as The First Game of the Gods. Kib now decided to play a game of his own and filled the Earth with all manner of plants and beasts. Mung, the god of death, began whittling down the numbers of those plants and beasts but Kib made them so fruitful that Mung never succeeded in wiping them all out.

After a million years Kib modified some of the beasts into men, and thus humanity was born. The other deities inquired of Kib with their hands, asking him what he had done. Kib explained, not with his hands, but rather with the gift of speech, and men heard the words and learned to express themselves in the same way. To prevent  mortals from gleaning any more secrets of the gods the other divinities created Ignorance as a veil.      

SISH – The god of time. He was always accompanied by his leashed hound the Devourer of Hours. As he and his hound make their way along all things age and wear away in their wake. The only place on Earth where time does not flow is the lost Garden of Wornath-Mavai, where the gods lived before Kib created life. Sish and his hound may not enter the garden and even Mung, the god of death may not intrude. It is foretold that one day the hound of Sish will turn upon its master and then upon the other gods as well, ushering in the end.

At the end of the world the lesser gods will try to escape down the River Imrana in golden galleons but waiting for them at the very end of the river will be the dead Sish’s hound waiting to devour them all.

YOHARNETH-LAHAI – The names of many of the gods of Pegana make me wonder if Dr Seuss was also influenced by Lord Dunsany. At any rate Yoharneth-Lahai was the god of dreams, both of the day and the night. His ship sailed the River Imrana. The ship’s timbers were made of dreams dreamed long ago, the masts were formed by the imaginings of poets and the rigging was made from people’s hopes. The ship’s rowers were all the figures from the world’s fiction and fairytales.

Yoharneth-Lahai is in such a hurry to distribute all his dreams before daybreak that he sometimes gives the dreams of royalty to the poor and the dreams of the poor to royalty.

LIMPANG-TUNG – The god of comedy, drama, music and all the other creative arts. Limpang-Tung thrived on providing humanity with distractions to take their minds off the inevitability of death. The sky was his canvas on which he painted forever-changing patterns of clouds and the events of the world were both a tragedy and a farce depicting the ultimate futility of human endeavor.

Limpang-Tung had carved an enormous organ for himself in a cavern on a remote mountain. From within the cavern he would often play that organ and the music would be the winds that roamed the world. This god was also responsible for the musical sound of streams and rivers and the songs of all the birds, whom he led in their performances like a conductor.  

EVENING – Lord Dunsany did not assign this goddess an alternate name and just referred to her as Evening, the goddess of the night. Evening had an elaborate entourage of subordinate deities who would accompany her as she brought darkness to the world on a daily basis. Triboogie the god of dusk is part of her nocturnal court as is Hish, the god of silence and father of all the world’s bats.

Another of Evening’s attendant deities is Wohoon, the god of all the sounds of the night, from the howls of wolves to the sounds that mortals think they hear and that make them uneasy as they try to sleep. Still another is Pitsu, the goddess who is seen in the night only by cats, which sometimes run to her so she may pass the night stroking their fur. Others are Habaniah, the god of glowing embers in the hearth and Gribaun, the elderly goddess who turns the burnt wood in the hearth to ashes. 

SLID – The god of the seas and all the rivers and streams. He also owns all the pearls and treasures lost at sea. When Slid first unleashed his waves upon the world there was nothing but land and the sea god had to fight a war with the other gods for every mile of territory his waters spread along. Slid’s aquatic army first conquered the winds and then began eating away at large rocks that stood between the sea god’s forces and more territory he desired.

The advance of Slid’s aquatic army was checked momentarily when the other gods of Pegana sent the white cliffs of the lowlands to stop him. Slid pretended to be halted before these high cliffs but in the meantime caused rivers and springs to form behind the lines of his opponents. As the rivers and springs sought the sea to join up with their commanding general they wore away at the cliffs and the lowlands fell, with their highest peaks reduced to mere islands in the area conquered by Slid until even those islands were drowned.

Slid now unleashed all the creatures of the sea as an army of occupation and they all made their homes in territory that had once been nothing but forests and deserts. Much more than half the world had already been conquered by the sea god at this point and Tintaggon the god of the black marble mountain attempted to stop Slid’s advance. After a lengthy clash Tintaggon stood firm against the sea god’s forces and enabled other mountain gods to rally and prevent Slid from submerging the entire world.          

INZANA – This goddess of the dawn had power over most of the heavens. The sun and moon were two balls that she played with. Inzana was the favorite of all the other gods and they indulged her every whim. They even created the sun and moon in the first place just to be her toys. The daytime was caused by Inzana throwing her sun-ball across the sky and the nighttime by her throwing her moon ball across the sky.

Once when the dawn goddess’ sun ball had vanished she sent the storm god Umborodom into the netherworld to retrieve it. The pack of hounds that Umborodom holds on leashes are the rains, hail, snow and lightning. Umborodom overcame the forces of the netherworld and returned Inzana’s sun-ball to her.

Another time the cloud gods stole the sun and Inzana sent the North Wind to retrieve it. With his sword in hand the North Wind successfully returned Inzana’s toy to her. On three other occassions the dawn goddess called upon the gods Limpang-Tung, Slid and Yoharneth-Lahai to recover her missing toys for her.       

MUNG – The god of death. When all things that die come unexpectedly face to face with Mung he makes his sign with his hands and their life fades from them. No one knows where or when they will encounter Mung, who will take their lives no matter how much they plead or attempt to bribe him. The only words of comfort this cold deity offers is that when one’s life fades so too will their sorrow at losing it.

One myth features Mung being called upon by the other deities to put down the rebellion of the river gods. Three river gods, Eimes, Zanes and Segastrion, defied the will of Slid and all the other gods of Pegana. Declaring themselves superior to those deities the trio overflowed their banks and boasted that they would play with the lives of humanity the way the higher gods did. Mung dispatched his subordinate deity, Umbool the god of drought, to show his power over the rebellious rivers and reduced them to a mere trickle and less over the course of a month. The three river gods surrendered and were allowed to resume their flow.  

Once a prophet name Yug boasted that he and he alone could foresee Mung’s coming, but Mung suprised him one day and took his life. The people forgot Yug and followed the new prophet Alhireth-Hotep. This prophet boasted that he and Mung were friends and when a stranger from the crowd came forward and revealed himself as the god of death everyone realized Alhireth-Hotep had been lying, or else he would have recognized Mung. This prophet too died.

The people next were persuaded to follow a prophet named Kabok. Full of his own hubris Kabok claimed that Mung took lives or permitted them to continue purely at Kabok’s behest. Mung took to visiting the prophet on a daily basis at unexpected times or would intrude in Kabok’s bedroom at night, unnerving him but not killing him. After months of this had reduced Kabok to a trembling wreck the prophet at last begged Mung to take his life and the god obliged.

Now a prophet named Yun-Ilara led the people and dared to curse Mung to his face. For a time all were in awe of Yun-Ilara because of the way he cursed Mung and was never taken to task for it. This awe began to subside as Yun-Ilara grew older and older over the years and became more and more helpess. He became so aged and infirm that he eventually begged Mung to kill him but Mung refused, over and over again. Supposedly there is somewhere a withered skeleton named Yun-Ilara lying in the desert, starving, thirsting, diseased and in agony. He prays for Mung to end his life but Mung will go on refusing to answer his request until the end of the universe arrives.       

HONORABLE MENTION

GRIMBOL, ZEEBOL and TREHAGOBOL – These three mountain goddesses were the mothers of the three rebellious rivers that Mung and Umbool were called in to defeat. Their peaks blew with the cool winds  produced by the beating of the wings of all the butterflies that had ever lived. A blue pond lies hidden somewhere among those mountains, a blue pond in which souls on their way to the afterlife can see reflections of all their deeds in life, both evil and virtuous.   

DOROZHAND – The god of destiny who drives gods and men alike to fulfill his plans for them. Dorozhand does this either by standing before them and encouraging them to follow him along the path he has chosen for them or by standing behind them and whipping them if they prove reluctant. Events that force people to accept their destinies are “the lash of Dorozhand”.

ZODRAK - A mortal shepherd who became a god. Zodrak was known for his sense of humor and once the gods of Pegana summoned him to them to amuse them. When it was time for him to go Zodrak instead asked to become one of the gods. He was granted this wish and tried to use his new powers to ease the sorrow-filled lives of humanity.

He sent riches into the world and with it came even more suffering and more evil. He sent love into the world and with it came heartbreak and the pain of loss. Zodrak next sent wisdom into the world but with it came the pain of understanding and the discontent of realizing how little one really knows, no matter how wise they are.

Zodrak once encountered the prophet Imbaun and asked for humanity’s forgiveness. Imbaun granted it and Zodrak told the prophet that no matter how much humanity sins against the gods the gods sin against humanity many times over.

FOR MORE GODS AND GODDESSES CLICK HERE: http://glitternight.com/category/mythology/      

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

When it comes to gods and/or demigods who slay monsters Hercules, Thor and Gilgamesh get the bulk of the attention. Vishnu and Shiva’s roles slaying monsters in Hindu myths are well-known, too. Balladeer’s Blog as usual will show some love for those figures who get neglected simply because their pantheons are not as familiar to most of the world.

8. HENG

Pantheon: Iroquois

Chief Weapon: Spears made of lightning.

Rogues Gallery: This storm god destroyed an enormous porcupine with tree-sized quills, a giant bird with feathers made of wampum, a worm large enough to engulf an entire village, cannibalistic wizards plus a gigantic horned serpent and its army of equally large serpents.

For more Iroquois deities: http://glitternight.com/2013/01/28/the-top-fifteen-deities-in-iroquois-mythology/

7. LAC LONG QUAN

Pantheon: Vietnamese

Chief Weapon: His ability to transform into a giant sea-dragon.

Rogues Gallery: This son of the sea god killed a gigantic carp, an enormous fox with nine tails running up its spine, a huge tree-monster which used its long branches like tentacles to seize and devour people, a giant black vulture, an enormous tiger, a 100 foot long sea serpent and a giant with snakes for arms and two more snakes that would emerge from its ears.

For more Vietnamese deities: http://glitternight.com/vietnamese-myth/

6. FAYETU

Pantheon: Muscogee Creek

Chief Weapon: A bow and arrows plus a flute-like instrument which could summon any and all animals.

Rogues Gallery: This hunting god slew a man-eating cougar, a gigantic flying turkey, witches who turned into human-sized owls, a stench-ridden and club-wielding giant, a tusked bear whose head and genitals were switched, a herd of killer cows that were deadlier than wolves, and killer lizards who grew inside hollow trees.

For more Muscogee Creek deities: http://glitternight.com/2013/03/05/the-top-nine-deities-in-muscogee-creek-mythology/ 

5. KIVIOQ

Pantheon: Inuit

Chief Weapon: A harpoon.

Rogues Gallery: Kivioq, a powerful hunter and shaman who could hibernate and thus “regenerate” himself periodically, was noted for destroying whale-sized caterpillars, a giant clam, a huge omnivorous head on two legs, giant spiders with the heads of human females, a ten-legged polar bear, a monster who strangled people with its exposed intestines, and a magical boy who could draw pictures of creatures and bring them to life.

For Inuit deities: http://glitternight.com/2011/06/06/the-top-12-deities-from-inuit-mythology-2/

4. HATAKACHAFA

Pantheon: Choctaw

Chief Weapon: A blowgun and a bow and arrow.

Rogues Gallery: The hunting god killed a one-eyed forest monster, a giant baby-devouring eagle, a headless ghost that decapitated people, a telepathic shape-changer, a creature with a shriveled face, the body of a human and the legs of a deer, a giant black cow (yes, more bovine trouble), fish people who stole children and an evil medicine man with a deadly menagerie of bears, cougars and alligators.  

For more Choctaw deities: http://glitternight.com/2012/06/03/the-top-twelve-deities-in-choctaw-mythology/ 

3. YI THE DIVINE ARCHER

Pantheon: Chinese

Chief Weapon: A bow carved from the bone of a giant tiger and arrows formed from a dragon’s tendons.

Rogues Gallery: Nine of the ten giant crows who carried suns across the sky, a giant tiger, a dragon, a huge leopard with a dragon’s head, a bi-pedal creature with indestructible teeth, a nine-headed cave monster, a  monstrous boar, a serpent as long and thick as a tree, a gigantic six-headed bird and a swarm of giant bees.

For Yi’s full story: http://glitternight.com/2012/03/17/mythology-the-neglected-epic-myth-of-yi-the-divine-archer/  

2. MAUI

Pantheon: Hawaiian and other Polynesian Island groups

Chief Weapon: Magic and a large mace.

Rogues Gallery: Maui became a sun god by roping and overpowering the sun-beast, and was famed for slaying a giant eight-eyed bat, the eel god Tetuna and his entire legion of sea monsters, cannibal cultists, giant lizards and other monsters while racing through the realm of Milu, the death goddess.

For more Hawaiian deities: http://glitternight.com/2011/02/20/the-top-eleven-deities-in-hawaiian-mythology/ 

1. NAYANAZGENI

Pantheon: Navajo

Chief Weapon: A bow with lightning bolts for arrows and a knife made of solid sunlight.

Rogues Gallery: This Navajo god of war destroyed a two-faced giant who rode a gigantic cougar, a forest of living cacti, a living canyon that crushed wayfarers, a giant serpent made of rock which bled water, an enormous cloud-devouring antelope, two thunderbirds and all their hatchlings, a cannibal monster with long hair rooted into the side of a mountain plus the cannibal’s wife and children, subterranean creatures who killed with lightning from their eyes, a gigantic polar bear and the evil deity Yeitso, the powerful chief of all the dark gods called the Anaye.   

For more Navajo deities: http://glitternight.com/navajo-myth-clear/ 

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