Parallel Myths

by J. F. Bierlein

  From his blood came the white flower called the narcissus, which recalls his great beauty.

  TANTALUS

  The story of Tantalus is a lesson for gluttons and social climbers. King Tantalus was of both mortal and divine parentage and may even have been, according to some versions, a son of Zeus himself, fathered on one of the god’s many mortal lovers. In any case, Tantalus was, for a time, a favorite of the gods. He was allowed to feast in the halls of Olympus on nectar and ambrosia, which were usually reserved only for the gods. When he was there, he gorged himself.

  Tantalus decided that his neighbors would be most impressed if he invited the gods to his own home at Corinth for dinner. In checking his larder, he found that he did not have enough food to go around. Having once invited the gods, he could hardly retract his invitation, so he committed a terrible crime; he killed his own son and made him into stew.

  As if that wasn’t wicked enough, Tantalus stupidly thought that the gods would think the meat came from a young goat. But of course they knew better. And the punishment suited the crime.

  Tantalus lost his kingdom and was killed by Zeus himself. In the Underworld, Tantalus spends all eternity hanging in a tree laden with fruit, but as soon as the fruit is close enough to pick, it moves out of reach. At his feet are the sweetest waters in the universe; they continually rise up to his chin but, as he bends down to take a drink, they subside. Thus, Tantalus is forever hungry and thirsty in the midst of plenty.

  One good thing that Tantalus did, however, was give us the English word tantalizing.

  * Silenus is sometimes depicted as Baechus’s foster father.

  8. Four Parallel Stories

  THE STORY OF TWO BROTHERS

  (Blackfoot Indian)

  There were once two brothers, Nopatsis, the elder, and Akaiyan, the younger. Nopatsis was married to a thoroughly evil woman, who lusted for Akaiyan and wanted to see the younger brother ruined. This shrew of a wife pestered Nopatsis day and night to send his brother away. At the same time, she made seductive advances toward Akaiyan. She then resorted to the most evil and wretched thing she could do.

  One day when Nopatsis returned home, he found his wife with her clothing ripped and her hair in a mess. The wife told him that Akaiyan had tried to “have his way” with her. Nopatsis was livid and sickened by this report. He then resolved to do away with his brother.

  Every summer, the waterfowl molt, leaving thousands of feathers on the surface of the lakes. The people gather the small feathers to make fletching for their arrows. It so happened that Nopatsis lived on the shores of such a lake, and it was only natural for the two brothers to gather the feathers together. Nopatsis and Akaiyan went out in a buffalo-hide boat to an island in the middle of the lake, far from shore, where the feathers were usually quite dense.

  While Akaiyan was busy gathering feathers, Nopatsis left him to die on the island. This lake was deep, prone to sudden storms, and the island was too far from the mainland for a person to leave without a boat. Thus it was pointless for Akaiyan to try swimming home. As Akaiyan looked toward home, he saw Noptasis jeering and uttering curses at him. Nopatsis repeated the terrible lie that his wife had told him, shouting it across the lake. Akaiyan cried out that he was innocent, but it was now too late.

  Deeply hurt, Akaiyan looked into the water and began to cry. He prayed to the nature spirits to help him. He called to the Sun and the Moon to vindicate him. Then he built himself a shelter made of branches and a bed made of feathers. He learned how to make clothing for himself from the skins of ducks and geese, taming some of them and feeding them in order to have food for the winter. He lived in this way for many months.

  One day a little beaver came and invited Akaiyan to visit his family’s den. Akaiyan was by now very lonely, and gladly accepted. When he entered the lodge, the Great Beaver, so old that his fur was white, treated Akaiyan as an honored guest, asking how he came to be living on the island. Akaiyan then told the story of his wicked sister-in-law. The Great Beaver was outraged by the injustice done to Akaiyan and vowed to do whatever he could on behalf of this innocent young man. At the gracious invitation of the beavers, Akaiyan spent the winter in the warmth of their lodge, learning all the medicine and magic of the beavers.

  As summer returned, the Great Beaver asked Akaiyan what gift he would like to take with him. Akaiyan responded that he would like to take his host’s youngest son as a companion. The Great Beaver was reluctant to grant this, as this son was his favorite. But, at last, the Great Beaver agreed, also giving Akaiyan instructions for building a sacred beaver lodge when he returned to his home village on the mainland. The knowledge of the Great Beaver had such powerful magic that Akaiyan now had supernatural powers on his side; there was nothing more for him to fear, whether on the island or at home on the mainland.

  In several months, Nopatsis returned to the island, expecting to find the bones of Akaiyan, who had long been given up for dead. While Nopatsis was busy looking around, Akaiyan carried the little beaver in his arms and then got into Nopatsis’s boat, which he took to the mainland. The roles were reversed; it was now Nopatsis who pleaded with his brother across the water.

  On his return to the mainland, Akaiyan was well received by the people of the beaver lodge. As the Great Beaver had instructed, Akaiyan built a sacred beaver lodge and taught the people the dances and chants of the beavers.

  After this had been accomplished, Akaiyan returned to the island to bring the little beaver back to his family. He also found the bones of Nopatsis and buried them. The Great Beaver was so pleased that Akaiyan had returned his son that he gave him the sacred peace pipe as a sign of his gratitude.

  THE STORY OF TWO BROTHERS

  (Egypt)

  NOTE: This story is from The Ancient Near East, volume I, edited by James B. Pritchard and translated by John Wilson.

  There were two brothers, Anubis, the elder, and Bata, the younger. Anubis had a very wicked wife who was determined to destroy Bata. Bata, however, was a rare young man, handsome, wise, and good. The two brothers farmed together and tended a fine herd of cattle.

  One day when they were out working in the fields, Anubis sent Bata back to the house to get some seed to plant. When Bata arrived there by himself, his sister-in-law said how strong and handsome he was, and she took his arm and pulled him toward her body. She told him that Anubis wouldn’t miss him if he returned to the fields a few minutes late. She then asked Bata directly to make love to her.

  Bata was horrified by this suggestion from his brother’s wife. He told her, “You have been like my own mother, and Anubis, like my own father. How could you even think of such a wicked thing?” He then ran away, bringing the seed to Anubis in the fields.

  When Anubis came home from the fields, he found his wife in disarray. She made herself look disheveled; she had eaten grease and fat to make herself vomit. She lay on the bed, sobbing. When Anubis asked what the matter was, she told him that Bata had raped her. She told Anubis, “If you let your brother live, I will kill myself.”

  Anubis was outraged and disgusted. He took his spear, hid behind the door of the stable, and waited for Bata to return.

  Bata still had work to do in the fields, and had said nothing to his brother of what had happened at the house. He also knew that his wicked sister-in-law would tell lies, so he was very cautious as he returned home. As he approached the stable, he saw Anubis’s feet under the door, waiting for him. Bata fled. The door of the stable burst open and Anubis chased after his brother with the spear, ready to hurl it.

  As Bata was running, he prayed to Ra, asking the sun-god to preserve him from his brother, to punish the wicked, and to vindicate him. At that moment, just as Anubis was closing in on Bata, the god caused a river to flow between them. To ensure that Anubis would not be able to ford the river, Ra planted many crocodiles. So Anubis was on one side of this river, unable to cross, while Bata remained safely on the other.

  Bata shouted to his brother, “Ra is my protector
. Wait until he appears at sunrise. At that time, the gods will show you who is innocent and who is guilty.” At sunrise, Bata told the story and this time Anubis listened. Then, to confirm his vow and make a sacrifice to Ra, Bata cut off his penis and threw it into the river, where it was swallowed by a fish sacred to Ra.

  Bata bled to death. Anubis returned to his house, deeply grieved. He killed his wicked wife and fed her to the dogs.

  BELLEROPHON

  (Greece)

  Bellerophon was accused of killing both the wicked Bellerus (hence the name Bellerophon, which means “murderer of Bellerus”), as well as Bellerophon’s own evil brother, Deliades. Bellerophon then fled to the palace of King Proeteus of Tiryns, seeking asylum. As Bellerophon was of royal blood, King Proeteus gladly granted asylum. Proeteus’s wife, Anteia, was a wicked woman who fell in love with the young visitor and tried to seduce him many times. But Bellerophon chastely refused her advances. Anteia, however, told Proeteus that Bellerophon had tried to rape her. Proeteus now wanted to kill him.

  But it would have violated protocol for the king to kill a guest of royal birth. So Proeteus sent Bellerophon to King Iobates in Lycia, accompanied by a sealed letter explaining that Bellerophon had tried to violate Anteia, Iobates’s daughter. The letter asked for Iobates’s assistance in killing Bellerophon.

  However, Iobates also thought it bad protocol to kill a visitor of royal blood. So he decided to give Bellerophon a dangerous, possibly fatal, task. Iobates asked Bellerophon to kill the horrible monster the Chimera. This was a fire-breathing monster that had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and a serpent’s tail. But before taking up the task, Bellerophon spoke to a seer who told him that the job would be simple with the help of Pegasus, the flying horse.

  So Bellerophon found and tamed Pegasus, and killed the Chimera with ease.

  Iobates, still wishing to see Bellerophon dead, did not reward the young hero for this, but rather sent him to defeat two fierce armies, one of which was that of the Amazons, a race of women warriors. By flying over them, mounted on Pegasus, Bellerophon defeated both armies with ease.

  Iobates continued to plot the demise of Bellerophon, and did not reward the young hero for his great deeds, and Bellerophon did not understand how the king could be so ungrateful. Offended, Bellerophon rode Pegasus to visit the sea god, Poseidon. Poseidon decided to punish Iobates by causing a great tidal wave to strike the kingdom of Lycia. When the waves were in sight, the people of Lycia begged Bellerophon to call them off. The promiscuous Lycian women stood along the shoreline and lifted up their skirts, offering themselves to Bellerophon in the hope that he would call off the tidal wave. But Bellerophon’s high morals kept him from taking advantage of their offer. Flying high over Lycia on the back of Pegasus, Bellerophon asked Poseidon to call off the tidal wave.

  After this brush with destruction, Iobates was certain that Bellerophon was innocent of the alleged seduction; the gods would not have defended the young man were he guilty. Iobates asked Bellerophon to see him, producing the letter and demanding a true account of what happened from his daughter. When it was apparent that Anteia had lied, Iobates offered Bellerophon an apology and the hand of another daughter, Philonoe, in marriage. With that, Bellerophon became the heir to the throne of Lycia.

  However, it was pride, not sex, that proved Bellerophon’s undoing. He tried to fly Pegasus to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. As Bellerophon neared the palace of the gods, Zeus became angry. The king of the gods sent a fly to bite Pegasus. The flying horse threw Bellerophon, who plunged to the ground. Now Zeus is the owner of Pegasus.

  Bellerophon, however, did not die of the fall. He landed in a mass of thorn bushes, thoroughly humiliated. He spent the rest of his days walking the earth as a beggar.

  JOSEPH AND POTIPHAR’S WIFE

  (Genesis 39)

  Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar the Egyptian, one of Pharaoh’s officials and commander of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. Yahweh was with Joseph, and everything went well with him. He lodged in the house of his Egyptian master, and when his master saw how Yahweh was with him and how Yahweh made everything succeed that he [Joseph] turned his hand to, he was pleased with Joseph and made him his personal attendant; and his master put him in charge of his household, entrusting everything to him. And from the time he put him in charge of his household and all his possessions, Yahweh blessed the Egyptian’s household out of consideration for Joseph; Yahweh’s blessing extended to all his possessions, both household and estate. So he left Joseph to handle all his possessions, and with him at hand, concerned himself with nothing beyond the food he ate.

  Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and it happened some time later that his master’s wife looked desirously at him and said, “Sleep with me.” But he refused and answered his master’s wife, “Because of me, my master does not concern himself with what happens in the house; he has handed over all his possessions to me. He is no more master in this house than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How could I do anything so wicked, and sin against God?” Although she spoke to Joseph day after day he would not agree to sleep with her and surrender to her.

  But one day Joseph in the course of his duties came to the house, and there was not a servant there indoors. The woman caught hold of him by his tunic and said, “Sleep with me.” But he left the tunic in her hand and ran out of the house. Seeing he had left the tunic in her hand and left the house, she called her servants and said to them, “Look at this! He has brought us a Hebrew to insult us. He came to me to sleep with me, but I screamed, and when he heard me scream and shout he left his tunic beside me and ran out of the house.”

  She put the tunic down by her side until the master came home. Then she told him the same tale. “The Hebrew slave you brought us came to insult me. But when I screamed and called out he left his garment at my side and made his escape.” When the master heard his wife say, “This is how your slave treated me,” he was furious. Joseph’s master had him arrested and committed to the jail where the king’s prisoners were kept.

  And there in jail he stayed. But Yahweh was with Joseph. He was kind to him and made him popular with all the prisoners in the jail, making him responsible for everything done there. The chief jailer did not need to interfere with Joseph’s administration, for Yahweh was with him, and Yahweh made everything he undertook successful.

  * * *

  We have presented four parallel myths here, one from the Blackfoot Indians of the North American plains, one from Egypt, another from Greece, and the Bible story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. All four have the same basic plot.

  It is easy to argue that the Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew stories may be examples of interborrowing; all three nations were on the shores of the Mediterranean and connected through trade. However, it is difficult to explain the parallel between these myths and the Blackfoot story.

  9. Some Brief Myths of the Hero

  THE STORY OF SIEGFRIED

  (Norse/Germany)

  The story of Siegfried is ancient and corresponds with hero myths in many other cultures, such as the myths of Herakles (Hercules), Perseus, and Theseus in Greece; Quetzalcoatl in Mexico; and others in virtually every culture. Siegfried is one of the best known mythical heroes, especially famous for his place in the “Ring” cycle of operas by Richard Wagner.

  This myth, like all myths concerning heroes, presents an allegory of the trials all humans face. Siegfried’s story is all the more poignant in that he defies the gods and heroically faces his own inevitable death. It is a good example of the hero myth because it contains all the key elements of that kind of tale.

  The version of the Siegfried myth given here is based on several sources including the Norse Volsungasaga, in which Siegfried is called “Sigurd,” as well as the German epic, the Niebelungenlied. The treatment of the story is derived from such German writers as Karl Goedeke (1814-1887) and A
ugust Tecklenburg (1863-1930), as well as the poet Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862). This narrative resembles the story of the Wagnerian opera (whose libretto Wagner wrote himself) with some minor differences in detail. The Norse Brynhild is the German Brünnhilde; the Norse Oithinn or Odin is the German Wotan; the Norse Gunnar is the German Gunther; and Krimhild or Kriemhild becomes Griemhild in German, as she is named in the Wagnerian opera. The Norse Gudrun is Gutrune in German.

  Siegfried, whose name means “Victory-Peace,” was the son of the warrior hero Siegmund (“Victory-Mouth”) and his wife, Sieglinde (“Victory Linden Tree”). Siegmund was the great champion of the Niebelungen and their king, Alberich.

  Alberich had a Ring in his possession which gave its owner mastery of the world. He had the potential power to defeat even Wotan, the king of the gods. As king of the Niebelungen (dwarves who lived beneath the earth, working as miners and metalworkers), Alberich was master of a vast treasure of underground gold.

  A giant, Fafner, guarded the treasure of the Niebelungen, including the Ring, in the form of a fierce dragon. Wotan’s interests were served by having the Ring in the hands of a giant and not in the hands of his opponents, the dwarves. Fafner and Wotan both knew that their days were numbered, that a hero would be born with a sacred mission to cause their downfall.