1. Love Goddesses:
Aphrodite, Ishtar and Freiya are all “love goddesses” in the sense that their
provinces and sometimes behaviors encompass and demonstrate the powers of love,
sex and fertility. Compare and contrast these deities, considering such issues
as: In what ways does the goddess’s behavior reflect her function as love
goddess? What is her status relative to the other gods of her pantheon? In
what ways does her status reflect the importance of love in her world? What are
her other provinces (if any) and how do they integrate with her function as a
love goddess? What cultural elements provide the underpinnings for each
goddess’s role? You may conclude with an overview of the position of these
goddesses in their own cultures.
2. Heracles, Gilgamesh and Thor Many parallels have been noted
between Heracles, Gilgamesh and Thor – yet there are also significant
differences. Discuss these three
heroes in relation to one another, attending (to the extent possible) to
different levels of the stories: motif/story patterns, “message” of their
stories about the fate of humans and/or the world, popularity and role of these
figures within their culture, how their stories are told.
3.
Trickery
Each of the mythologies we have studied
has trickster figures: Prometheus and Hermes, Inanna, Odin and Loki. Bearing
these figures in mind, but referring to other figures or incidents if you like,
discuss the roles of trickery in the mythologies of these cultures. Is
trickery more significant in some cultures than in others? What about the
status of tricksters, or the outcome of their actions? Is there more or less
respect for, or tolerance of, trickery in some than in others? And how does
trickery affect the development of culture, the society of the gods, and the
lives of humans?
4. Superhuman
Monsters: In Greek myth there
are gorgons, harpies, sirens, snake-like monsters such as Ladon or Argus or
Ceto, and miscellaneous half-human creatures such as centaurs and satyrs. In
Norse myth, there are frost-giants, Irmungand, Fenrir, and a few other key
figures that often oppose the gods. In Mesopotamian myth, there are
creatures such as Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. Compare the “monster-worlds” of Greek
,
Norse, and Mesopotamian myth (you may focus on two of the three if you like), considering such elements as: What role do the monsters play in the
myths that are preserved from each culture? Are they central or peripheral to
the world order maintained by the gods? Do they initiate heroic stories, and in
what ways? Who fights them? How dangerous are these monsters to the stability
of the world? And whatever other questions the contrasts or similarieites in
these figures suggest.
5. Gods of the Afterlife
Greek, Mesopotamian and Norse mythology all have deities who preside over an
underworld afterlife, while Greek and Norse myth offer other possible fates
of the soul and other deities responsible for overseeing realms of the
dead. Compare and contrast the roles of several of these afterlife
deities. Are they frightening, grim, approachable, content, happy,
miserable? In what manner do they rule the humans who ultimately come to
them? What do these myths about death offer the people who believe in them?
6. Comparative Myths: Isis and Osiris
The following story is
preserved
in the Greek source, Plutarch, describing how the Egyptian
goddess Isis wandered looking for her lost husband Osiris. Osiris eventually became king of the
underworld. Footnote this
passage
with 10-15 notes,
pointing out similarities to
(and differences from) other myths we have read this semester that have similar
themes and motifs. Your footnotes should
be coherent sentences or
paragraphs
that impress me with your knowledge of
mythology and your insights into themes, ideas, and story
patterns.
The story:
One day Osiris
held a big banquet for his court and as he was kind and just Seth was also
invited. This was the moment Seth had long waited for. Together with his accomplices
he could set his plan in motion. He began to
describe a wonderful coffin that he had been given, and soon enough he was
asked to have it brought in for people
to see. It was indeed beautiful, made of the finest wood and gilded and painted.
He promised to give it as a gift to whomever fitted exactly into it. And as he already had
acquired Osiris´measures, the king was the only one that fitted into the
coffin, and when he was persuaded into taking place
in it, Seth´s accomplices quickly nailed the
lid to it and while the rest of the court was held back, it was taken away and
thrown into the Nile where the current carried it away.
Isis
was overcome with grief and cut off a length of her hair, dressed herself in
mourning clothes and went on her way to look for the coffin with her husband's
body. She wandered everywhere and searched all over Kemet and beyond without
finding a trace, until she heard some children saying that they had seen the
golden coffin being thrown into the waters.
She wandered for a long time, weeping
and searching for the casket, and often she heard rumours that a golden casket
had been seen floating by some village. So she kept
following after until she left Egypt
and came into the land of Byblos.
Here the rumours spoke about a wonderful tree
that suddenly had started to grow on the shore. Isis
understood then that the coffin had floated ashore and gotten stuck in a bush.
Nurtured by the divine presence of Osiris´
body, the bush had sprouted and grown into a
large tree which the king of Byblos
had let cut down and used in the buildings of a palace.
When Isis
reached the place, she was shown to the palace
by the villagers. She waited outside the palace
until she met the Queen's maidens. She told them she was an Egyptian
headdresser and pleated their hair and
breathed on them so that a divine scent surrounded them. And they brought her
before the queen who took a liking to her and asked her to take care of her
young son, the prince. Soon enough she found
the tree trunk that enclosed her husband's coffin. Isis
stayed there, and every night while the little prince
slept, she went into the room where the pillar
enclosing the coffin with her husband's body was and she wept
and mourned for him. And every day she looked after the little prince,
and shortly she became so fond of him, that she decided to make him immortal.
In the night she
brought him to the pillar where the casket was
hidden. There she lit a fire and speaking
the magic words she laid down the sleeping boy
in the flames. The fire started to burn away all that was human in him, but she
did not watch over him, she turned herself into a swallow and began to fly
around the pillar, wailing and mourning over
her dead husband. The queen, who slept nearby,
was woken up by the sound of the flames, and
hastened to the room. When she saw her child surrounded with flames, she raised
a cry of horror and the swallow turned into woman again and the magical fire
died. Isis then revealed herself to the queen and told
her that now it was impossible for the prince
to become immortal. The queen then regretted her ignorance and asked how she
could repay Isis. And Isis
asked for the pillar with the coffin. She
instantly hewed it into pieces so that the
coffin could be taken out, then she drenched the bits of wood in oil, wrapped
them in fine linen and asked the queen to keep
them in the temple
of Byblos.
Then she left Byblos
by boat and headed for Egypt.
After a long journey, when she finally could bring the casket ashore by the Nile
again, she opened it and embraced Osiris and
wept for him. He looked as if he was only sleeping.
Then the coffin was closed again and she continued on her way home through the
marshlands to bury him.
But that one night
Seth and his men were out hunting nearby. When he happened
upon the casket, he recognized it, realized
his treachery had been found out and feared that Isis
would punish him. While she slept
he broke into it and tore Osiris´ body into several pieces
which he spread out all over the land. Only
then did he feel safe that Isis would not be able to
find them.
When Isis
saw the empty casket, her cry of anguish shook
heaven and earth. She called out to her sister Nephtys
who came to console her and once more she went on her way, now with Nephtys
by her side. For many long, sorrowful years they searched the lands together.
Wherever they found a piece of Osiris´ body,
they erected an altar, giving thanks to the gods. When at last all the parts
had been assembled, Isis made Osiris into the first
mummy. She then proceeded to use her powerful
magic and breathed new life into Osiris and so she was able to conceive the
child Horus. After this Osiris became in time the King of the Land of the Dead,
while Horus fought against his uncle Set and won his father´s throne and became
the Living King of Egypt.