|
Love Myths from Cultures Around the World Part 1 |
Enclosed are the plot summaries of love tales from ancient and modern cultures. After a unit on Classical mythology you may want to have your students compare the Greek and Roman stories to tales from cultures around the world. Students will be interested to find many parallels such as transformations, trips to the Underworld, impossible tasks, and magic charms. This booklet contains only brief samples, so there is plenty of room for further research as well as creative projects to portray similarities and differences in myths. Students can also do further research on the culture in order to relate the elements of the myth to their cultural context.
|
|
Egyptian: Osiris and Isis Osiris, son of Earth and Sky, was the husband-brother of Isis, goddess of the earth and moon. Set, Osiris' evil brother and god of darkness, trapped Osiris in a coffin and threw him into the Nile. Grief-stricken Isis found the coffin on the Phoenician coast where it had washed and become encased in a tamarisk tree. Isis retrieved her husband's body, but inspite of her attempts to hide it in Egypt, Set found it again and cut it into fourteen pieces which he scattered throughout the land. Isis searched unwaveringly. When she found the parts, she rejoined the fragments, and restored the god to eternal life with the first use of the rites of embalment. Babylonian: Ishtar and Tammuz Ishtar, sometimes
considered a war-goddess and sometimes a goddess of love and
voluptuousness, in her youth loved Tammuz, god of the harvest.
According to Gilgamesh her love caused Tammuz' death and she
was stricken with such tremendous grief that she vowed to descend
into the Underworld to rescue Tammuz. After threatening her way
through the door of the Underworld, she preceded through the
seven precincts. At the gate to each she was forced by Allatu,
queen of the Underworld to remove one piece of her dress: her
crown, her earrings, her necklace, the jewels from her breast,
her girdle of birthstones, her wrist and ankle bracelets, and
finally the garment covering her nakedness.
When Ishtar entered the
realm of Allatu in a rage, Allatu ordered her to be imprisoned
forever among the dead. The earth became desolate, and the
heavens mourned. The god Ea sent a man to Allatu with a magical
spell that forced her to sprinkle Ishtar with the water of life
and return her to the earth. As Ishtar exited the gates, she was
bestowed the adornments she had lost.
Phoenician:
Adonis (Eshmun) and Aphrodite
Adonis' mother
transformed herself into a tree from which Adonis was born a most
beautiful child. Aphrodite placed him into a coffin which she
entrusted to Persephone, goddess of the Underworld. When
Aphrodite returned to retrieve the coffin she discovered that
Persephone had opened it and claimed the handsome child for
herself. Zeus, forced to intervene in the dispute between the two
goddesses, decided that Adonis should spend half the year on
earth and half in the Underworld.
In another version of this
myth Adonis was an avid hunter. Because Aphrodite deeply loved
Adonis, she tried to persuade him to give up the dangerous sport.
Adonis refused and was killed by a wild boar or bear. In the
sixth century the Phoenician name for this character was
discovered. He was the agricultural divinity named Eshmun.
Persian:
Zal and Rudabeh
Zal, son of a Feridun
chief named Sam, was born with snow white hair. This curious
condition aroused fear that he might be a daeva's son, and
Sam was forced to abandon the boy on a mountaintop. A simurgh, a
bird with magic powers, snatched up the crying baby and raised
him with its own nestlings.
Upon dreaming that his son
still lived, Sam prayed to be reunited. The simurgh instructed
Zal that he must return to his father, but gave him a feather
that would ensure Zal's safety if he were ever in danger.
Sam welcomed his son and eventually put him in charge of
Zabulistan where he performed his duties well. Zal regretted his
ignorance of world, however, and decided to visit other places
including Kabul. The chief of Kabul was a descendant of Zohak, an
enemy of Zal's father Sam and the king of Persia. Zal knew
that he should avoid contact with the chief, yet he yearned to
meet the chief's daughter Rudabeh who was described as
"fair as the moon with ringlets of dark hair that reached
her feet and whose presence made men think of heaven."
Rudabeh in turn had heard of Zal's exceptional white hair
and strange upbringing. Her attendants sensed her interest in Zal
and ventured to gather roses in a stream bed by his camp. When
Zal shot a bird rising from the waters, he received a message
that Rudabeh could be his if he were worthy. The maidens returned
to Rudabeh with gems, robes, and rings from Zal. She invited Zal
to her palace retreat. After calling to him from a balcony, she
let down her tresses which Zal climbed. The two realized their
great love for each other, but feared their families'
enmity.
The days that followed
were grim because the king of Persia vowed to destroy all
descendants of Zohak. When Zal confessed his love for Rudabeh to
his father, Sam consulted astrologers, and learned that the
offspring of the two lovers would become a great conqueror. He
sent Zal with a letter fo the king of Persia beseeching
permission for the marriage. When the king received the same sign
from the astrologers, he consented, and Rudabeh and Zal were
married on the palace balcony. The king of Persia also made peace
with the ruler of Kabulistan.
When Rudabeh was ready to
bare her child, she became gravely ill. Zal placed the simurgh
feather on the fire. The simurgh appeared and instructed that
Rudabeh be drugged with wine. Her side was opened, her child
drawn out, and the incision rubbed with an herb and another
feather from the simurgh's wing. The child named Rustam
revealed himself immediately to be a hero and the fulfillment of
the simurgh's prophecy.
Indian: Sakuntala and Dashyanta
(A story told by an early Indian poet Kalidasa)
Sakuntala, the infant
daughter of a sage and a nymph, was abandoned in the forest where
she survived on food brought by birds. She was discovered by the
sage Kanva who raised her as his own daughter at a hermitage. One
day King Dushyanta was hunting in the forest, and having caught
sight of Sakuntala, fell in love. He persuaded her to marry him
and gave her a ring of commitment when he departed.
Unfortunately, Sakuntala, upon returning to the hermitage,
mistakenly offended the irritable sage Durvasas. He cast a curse
that she would be forgotten by her husband forever unless King
Dushyanta spied the ring he had left with her.
Eventually it was time for
Sakuntala to find her husband and she left the hermitage. When
she stopped to bathe in a sacred pool, Sakuntala dropped the
ring. In accordance with the curse, Dushyanta did not recognize
her when she arrived at the palace and denied their marriage,
although he did feel sorry for the grief-stricken girl about to
give birth to a child. Sakuntala sadly withdrew from the palace
only to be whisked away to a sacred grove by an apparition. There
she bore a son named Bharata.
When a fisherman later
found a ring inside a fish, he was taken before Dushyanta as a
suspect of theft. Upon seeing the ring Dushyanta realized his vow
to Sakuntala and anxiously sought her. The god Indra appeared in
his chariot and carried Dushyanta to the sacred grove. There
Dushyanta and Sakuntala were reunited and rejoiced in the heroic
destiny of their son Bahrata.
Chinese: The Heavenly Spinster, Chih-nii and the Cowherd
Chih-nii was the divine
daughter of the August Personage of Jade, and for him she always
spun seamless robes of brocade and clouds. As a reward, her
father married her to the Heavenly Cowherd whom she came to love
so dearly that she neglected her spinning. Her father became so
angry that he separated them by casting one to the right of the
Heavenly River (Milky Way) and one to the left. Chih-nii and the
Cowherd were allowed to see each other only once a year.
Another version of this story adds many colorful details.
It is a popular legend in China and the source of frequent poetic allusions:
The Cowherd, a simple-minded mortal, was advised by his ox (a genius in
disguise) that he could secure a beautiful wife cheaply by hiding
the clothes of a girl bathing in the river on a certain day. He
followed the ox's directions and hid a maiden's clothes
in the well. The maiden happened to be the Heavenly Spinster, who
had ventured to earth with friends for a little fun, but could
not return to heaven without her clothes. The Cowherd then took
the opportunity to marry her. After the couple had been married
several years and had born a son and daughter, the Heavenly
Spinster again sought her clothes. When the Cowherd revealed the
hiding place, to his surprise his wife put on her clothes and
immediately returned to heaven. The Cowherd and his children,
stricken with grief, consulted the ox which then bore them to
heaven. In heaven the cowherd told his tale to the August
Personage of Jade. When the August Personage of Jade verified the
story with the Heavenly Spinster, he made the Cowherd immortal
and lord over a star to the west of the River (Milky Way). The
Spinster ruled over a star to the East and the two had permission
to meet once every seven days. It was because of a
miscommunication that they thought they could meet only once a
year on the seventh day of the seventh month. That is what they
have always done, and on that day all magpies fly to heaven with
a twig to form a bridge so that the Spinster and Cowherd can
cross the river.
Japanese:
O-Kuni-Nushi and Suseri Hime
O-Kuni-Nushi was the god
of medicine who was credited with the invention of therapeutic
methods. As a reward for curing an ailing hare he was granted the
Princess Yakami. O-Kuni-Nushi's jealous brothers killed him,
but because his mother interceded with a goddess Kami-Musabi, he
returned to life as a strong young man. In order to hide him from
his brothers, his mother sent him to the god Susanoo in the
Underworld. When O-Kuni-Nushi met Susanoo's daughter
Suseri-Hime, they fell in love. Susanoo grudgingly welcomed
O-Kuni-Nushi and offered him a room full of snakes for his rest.
Suseri-Hime, however, gave him a scarf which spared his life. On
the second night the god offered him a room full of centipedes
and wasps, but once again Suseri-Hime rescued him with a magic
scarf. Desperate, Susanoo shot a hissing arrow into a meadow and
ordered O-Kuni-Nushi to find it. When O-Kuni-Nushi reached the
middle of the meadow, Susanoo burned the field, but a mouse
guided him to an underground shelter, then fetched the arrow.
These escapes impressed Susanoo, and he began to approve of
O-Kuni-Nushi. The god asked him to wash his hair, then fell
asleep. Instead of washing, O-Kuni-Nushi cleaverly tied the
god's long hair to the rafters of the house, stole his
weapons and his harp Koto, then fled with Suseri-Hime on his
back. The harp awoke Susanoo who pulled down his house with his
hair while attempting to stand up.
When Susanoo saw
O-Kuni-Nushi with his daughter in the distance and realized he
had no hope of catching up, he advised O-Kuni-Nushi how to
vanquish his enemy brothers with the stolen weapons and marry
Suseri-Hime. Susanoo then asked that O-Kuni-Nushi and Suseri-Hime
build their palace at the foot of Mt. Uka.
Sources:
|
| Copyright © 1996-99, KET | Webmaster |