The wound motif

The wound motif of the mythological victim assumes many forms, ranging from the violently horrific portrayals of castration and dismemberment, as suffered by Osiris, to more subtle symbolic forms of death, such as induced sleep and the curse of blindness, both inflicted upon the Cyclops Polyphemus. Occasionally the mythological victim will enter the realm of death directly in a form of underworld/otherworld or oceanic journey, like Odysseus, where the dividing line between death and life – as in the motif of the sleeping god – tends to become blurred. This state between death and life is also evident in the motif of the maimed god, who remains alive, yet perpetually suffers from an incurable wound, as in the case of the grail/fisher King from Arthurian romance.

Typically, the fate of the mythological victim is bound up in some form of physical injury. The three most prominent wound motifs in this category, are dismemberment (Osiris, Zagreus, Purusha, Orpheus, Pangu, Ymir, Avalokiteshvara), castration (Shiva, Attis, Adonis, Osiris, Izanagi, Ouranos), and an injury to the foot (Bran, seed of the woman ‘Genesis 3:15′, Philoctetes, Centaur Cheiron, Centaur Pholus, Talos, Krishna, Diarmaid, Achilles, Ra), specifically to the heel.

Lunar beasts (part three)

The Mysteries of Mithras

Those initiated into the mysteries of Mithras achieved cosmic release by way of the revolving planets, which appear in Mithraic Iconography, each planet (Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Moon, and Sun) according to Celsus (Origen: Against Celcus 6:22), corresponding with a ladder of seven celestial gateways, surmounted by an eighth gateway, most likely transcendent of the celestial realm. The so-called Mithras Liturgy mentions that the pathway of the visible gods (i.e: the planets), is illuminated by the disc of the sun, the emblem of the indestructible god and gateway to the realm of the gods beyond (545-625). According to Jerome (Letter ‘to Laeta’ 107:2), there were eight stages of initiation (raven, bridegroom, soldier, lion, Perseus, sun, Crab, and father), presumably corresponding with the eight gateways.

In antiquity, numerous writers claim that the mysteries of Mithras took place within a cave and the god himself was born from a rock. Mithraic temples, called Mithraea (known collectively as Mithraeum), were windowless underground structures, evidently imitative of natural caves, and particularly of the mythological cave that enclosed the cosmos. In certain Mithraea, pumex stone was used to imitate the natural appearance of a cave, stars were painted on the ceiling, and the use of artificial light to replicate the heavenly bodies have all served to create the illusion of the celestial realm, according to Mithraic cosmology.

Statues depict Mithras birth, fully grown, from a rock, sometimes enclosed by a coiled serpent, reminiscent of the Orphic creation myth of the birth of the double-sexed being Phanes (Meaning ‘light’, also known as Protogonus ‘firstborn’, among other names), hatched from a serpent entwined cosmic egg. The rock-born motif appears to represent a paradoxical double truth, that Mithras birth within the cosmos and the cosmic creation itself were simultaneous events.

Also associated with the Mithraic cult was the statue of a lion-headed figure (leontocephaline), whose body was entwined by a spiraling serpent. This statue, I believe, represents both the lunar-temporal reality, corresponding with the revolving (serpentine) planetary path leading to cosmic release, and the solar-eternal reality, corresponding with the eighth gate mentioned by Celcus, as the indestructible lion’s head. The serpent also corresponds with the image of the Ouroboros that encircles the world, that in Greek mythology was Oceanus, who himself appears frequently in Mithraic iconography.

The central mystery involved Mithras slaying a bull within a cosmic cave. Leading up to this image of cosmic sacrifice is a sequence of iconic images of Mithras capturing and wrestling the bull. The bull slaying scene itself, known as the Taruoctony, depicts Mithras with his left knee pressed down upon the beast’s arched back, while With his left hand the god pulls back the bull’s head by the nostrils, and cuts the creature’s throat with a knife. The posture of the bull is reminiscent of the waxing crescent moon, while the god himself (the eternal god born within the temporal realm), is like the rising sun.

Other creatures accompany the sacrifice, including a crab and scorpion attacking the bull’s genitals (castration motif), and a dog and serpent attacking the bull’s bleeding throat. To the left and right of the bull slaying scene stand the twin torch bearers, Cautes and Cautopates, dressed Persian style like Mithras, with Phrygian caps. Above Cautes, whose torch points upwards (towards the realm of life) is an image of sol, the sun, who is sometimes riding an ascending chariot, while above Cautopates, whose torch points downwards (towards the realm of death), is Luna, goddess of the moon, sometimes riding a descending chariot drawn by bulls. Luna is also often depicted wearing a lunar headdress reminiscent of bull horns, and it is surely no coincidence that Mithras pulls back the head of the bull, as if transfixed and staring directly towards the moon, while the god himself looks towards the sun.

In various iconic representations, both Mithras and Sol are shown together, and Mithras himself was called Deus Sol Invictus. In one scene Mithras and Sol are sitting together partaking in a meal, presumably of bull flesh. In another scene Sol kneels before Mithras, and it seems apparent that the sun derives it’s power from Mithras himself.

The combined lunar-solar aspects of the god, represented in the leontocephaline, are distinct in the Taruoctony, and there is no other evidence that Mithras himself was ever thought to be both the lunar bull who is slain, as well as the solar god who slays. We find a similar distinction in the Zoroastrian creation myth (see part one). However, in the ancient lore of the mythological victim the god was clearly both.

Lunar beasts (part one)

Previously, I have referred to the bull and lion as the animal representatives of the temporal-lunar and eternal-solar aspects of divinity, and how both further symbolize their respective modes of existence in the cosmos and the world beyond. Whereas the solar representative is limited to mainly two animal forms (the lion and the eagle), the lunar representative has numerous zoological forms, including bull, serpent, stag (or other assorted horned beasts), and the boar (or pig).

The bull appears to be symbolic of the temporal nature due to it’s horns, being reminiscent of the crescent moon.The boar with it’s tusks and the stag’s antlers seem to be prototypical of the bull, while the serpent, with it’s association with water (a reoccurring cosmic motif), and the ability to shed it’s skin (rebirth motif), occupies a unique class of it’s own, although even the serpent is sometimes depicted with horns.

Here, I intend to focus on the lunar aspect of the divinity in theriomorphic form, although, due to the mutable nature of myth, and the interdependence of both the solar and lunar aspects of god, it is often difficult not to mention one without the other. For example, Dumuzi’s temporal-theriomorphic transformation is actualized through the power of the sun god Utu, and likewise the destruction of the temporal aspect of the vedic god Soma, produces the eternal-solar ambrosia. To entirely exclude references to the coinciding aspects of the temporal and eternal is both problematic and unnecessary, however I shall draw up a more wide-ranging presentation of the temporal-eternal interplay further on.

The cosmic bull sacrifice in Zoroastrian mythology

In the Zoroastrian Bundahishn (The Creation), the cosmic sacrifice is inadvertently performed by the evil Angra Mainyu, who, in the act of corrupting Ahura Mazda’s perfect creation, kills both the primal bull and Gayomart, the primal man. The seed of the bull is purified within the moon, giving birth to all living creatures (10.1-4; 14.1-5), while the seed of Gayomart is purified by the sun, engendering a double-sexed plant (Rivas), that becomes Mashya and Mashyana, the first human couple (15.1-5). At the end of time, the cosmic saviour Saoshyant will sacrifice another bull called Hadhayosh (Sarsaok), and mix it’s fat with haoma (Vedic: soma) to create Hush, the ambrosial food of immortality (30.25).

The Zoroastrian myth of cosmic sacrifice discriminates between the evil slaying of the primal bull, that plays a part in the creation of the cosmos, and the good sacrifice of the ambrosial bull, performed by the eschatological Saoshyant, at the end of the alloted cosmic span of twelve thousand years. Zoroastrian mythology introduces the idea of time as a straight line, the beginning and end of all creation being distinct, whereas, in the preexistent lore of the mythological victim, both the beginning and the end are bound together in cylindrical time through a single cosmic sacrifice, that also impartments the ambrosial boon of life, not at the resurrection at the end of the world, but actually within the temporal realm itself, here and now, which is exactly what we find in the earlier Vedic Soma sacrifice of India.

The Soma Sacrifice

The lunar God, King Soma, was personified as the Plant of Immortality, which in turn was equated in the Rig Vedic hymns (I am using the Ralph Griffith 1896 translation) with the mythical World Tree (Axis-Mundi) that upheld the sky, like a cosmic temple column (9.74.2), separating heaven and earth (9.70.2,5) at the centre of the world (9.72.7; 9.86.8). The identity (or identities?) of the plant remains an academic enigma, although it was certainly narcotic. In the hymns it was praised as the tree that “yields heavenly milk” (9.12.7), sacrificially served up at the banquet of the gods (9.20.1), as the ambrosia from which they derived their power (9.104.5; 9.25.1).

During the Soma sacrifice, large quantities of the plant were swiftly and continuously crushed with mortar stones upon an ox hide (9.30.2; 9.79.4), releasing the ‘solar’ juice (9.63.13; 9.86.34) from the temporal plant who, “freeing himself he flows away leaving his body’s severed limbs” (9.14.4), elsewhere described as shedding his skin like a serpent (9.86.44), and then filtered through a woollen fleece.

The dynamic of the ceremony resides in the perpetual moment of purification. It is then that Soma rightfully becomes King; “May those his beautiful rays be ever free from death, inviolate…rays wherewith powers of men and gods are purified. Yea, even for this have sages welcomed him as King” (9.7.3). Self-purified (9.111.1), he enters the immortal realm (9.25.4), attaining the priestly power to purify (9.67.22), who is then, in turn, paradoxically purified by his worshippers (9.86.12), his body becoming pure and free from stain (9.70.8) in eternal (non-linear) and blissful beautification.

In acquiring sovereignty through purification, Soma “containeth in his hands all treasures”(9.18.4), “winning all precious things at once” (9.29.4) which he liberally showers upon all his worshippers (9..40.5–6; 9.62.11); such as rain (9.8.8), cattle (9.67.6), clothing (9.72.8), food, warriors, horses, and the spoils of war (9.42.6), as well as the gift of immortality. “Immortal in his self he has entered mortals” (8.48.12) through the drinking of the divine Soma (8.48.3).

Soma also separates good and evil (9.97.18). “the worlds expand to him who from aforetime found light to spread the law of life eternal” (9.94.2) “Attaining purity,” he “plunges through the foe, making his ways all easy for pious men” (9.86.26). He vanquishes all enemies (9.48.2; 9.55.4) by crushing fiends (9.37.3; 9.53.1), destroying demons (9.63.28–29), slaying sinners (9.28.6; 9.61.19), and banishing curses, making a way for prayer (9.62.11; 9.96.10). With the powers of darkness he also banishes sickness (9.85.1); “all that is sick he medicines; the blind man sees, the cripple walks”(8.68.2).

Soma’s prime animal form is the bull (9.64.1–2; 9.69.3–4; 9.70.5–7). He is believed to impregnate cows during his purification (9.19.5), and provide them with milk (9.33.4). “The cows have sung with joy to him, even as a woman to her love” (9.32.5). He is also a bird of prey, who acts as guardian of the heavenly law (9.48.4), and embodies the Soma juice in the drinking bowl (9.96.19). Compare Anzu and the Sumerian lion-bird. Soma is described as the ”watchful guardian of the mead, the lion” (9.89.3). Soma is Lord “of all that is” (9.31.6); “of heaven” (9.89.3); “of the multitude” (9.101.7); “of Holy Law” (9.35.6); “of strength” (9.36.6); “of cattle” (9.72.4); “of speech” (9.101.5); “of song” (9.99.6); “of hymns” (9.86.19); “of the world” (9.86.5); “of heros”; “of riches”. Soma is immortal (9.84.2), eternal (9.72.6), and infallible (9.97.38); omnipotent (9.101.5; 9.96.10), omniscient (9.20.3; 9.71.9), and omnipresent (9.97.38; 9.86.5). He upholds the universe (9.76.1), sometimes, as we have already seen, in the form of a cosmic tree. He is victorious (9.24.4; 9.35.4), unconquered (9.4.8; 9.27.4), full of joy (9.47.1), forgiving and full of grace (8.48.9; 8.68.7–8; 9.29.5), and a faithful friend of friends (9.48.4; 9.66.1–4; 9.78.5). Once purified, the Soma juice runs down into a wooden vat (9.66.11; 9.21.3), or is collected in jars (9.63.3, 13; 9.72.1), which appear to be personified by the God Indra (9.37.6; 9.60.3). All through the Soma sacrifice these hymns are sung, empowering (9.64.16) and empowered (9.64.25) by the God himself.

In the footsteps of recreation

In Ge Hong’s (ca 280 – 340/360 AD) Baopuzi (master embracing simplicity) Neipian (Inner Chapters), the Pace of Yu (Yubu) is described in detail as a sequence of three movements comprising of nine steps (3X3), and is a ritual dance performed by daoist masters. This shamanic dance, also described as a limp, is modeled on Yu the great, who, walking by the ocean, witnessed some birds performing a dance, and used the same technique to overcome the floodwaters that threatened the country of nine regions.

It is also said that Yu’s limp was the result of an injury, caused by his unrelenting effort to control the floods. Yu also had the ability to transform himself into a bear, walking with a waddle known as a bears gait. The cosmic significance of Yu’s dance is further bound up in the ritual of Pacing the Big Dipper Constellation of 7 (+ 2 invisible = 9) stars.

The discovery of the Lo Shu magic tortoise square is also attributed to Yu, who witnessed a tortoise emerge from the Lo river, with a 3X3 shell pattern consisting of dot’s arranged from one to nine. when read either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, the Lo Shu calculated fifteen.

Nine was also the total of heads of Xiang Liu, killed by Yu. Xiang Liu had the body of a serpent, and was the servant of Gong Gong, the demon responsible for causing the Floods.

The defeat of the serpentine Xiang Liu is comparable with the slaying of the Hydra by Herakles, and in Norse Myth with the binding of the wolf fenrir, and, in particular, with the double-death of Thor and Iormungand, symbolizing the binding of cosmic chaos, and recreating existence in the revolving wheel of time.

Just as Yu attained complete mastery over the floodwaters, Thor (who also crushed the nine headed giant Thrivaldi) overcame the ocean serpent that surrounds the nine realms of the Nordic cosmos, and both through the act of self-sacrifice. After Thor crushed the head of Iormungand, he was engulfed in the venom of the serpent, and managed to take nine steps backward, before he fell down dead.

The Midgard serpent represents androgyny, the cosmos, and revolving time in particular, the head and the tail conjoining (The symbol of the Ouroboros) at the threshold of the old cosmic order and the new. As nine seems to represent the cosmic totality, it is a reasonable assumption to understand the nine symbolic steps of Thor after crushing the serpent’s head, as somehow taking him back to the beginning (the end and the beginning being one), and in the euhemerized version concerning Yu, the disaster of the land of nine realms (saved through nine sacred steps), was in fact, a mythological catastrophe of cosmic, rather than local, proportions. Again we have essentially the same idea in the Jewish Targum Onkelos, commenting on the protevangelium (proto gospel) of Genesis 3:15, regarding time’s end, known as Ikveta D’Meshicha, The Heels (or footsteps) of the Messiah:

He will remember what you did to him in the beginning, and you shall be observing him in the end.

According to Skaldskaparmal and the Ragnarsdrapa, Thor also had a previous encounter with the Midgard serpent, while on a fishing trip with the giant Hymir. Using an ox head as bait, Thor hooked the sea serpent, much to the distress of Hymnir, who, terrified, finally cut the line, and the serpent sank back down to the ocean’s depths, but not before receiving a blow to the head from the unshrinking Thunder god’s hammer Mjolnir. Comparatively, according to the Huainanzi, Yu, while crossing the Yellow river, was confronted with the appearance of a dragon, causing the boatman’s face to change colour. Yu, as resolute as his Norse counterpart, smiled, perceiving the dragon as a mere lizard. And with that, the dragon departed.

Yu is also a type of Flood hero, like Noah or Ziusudra, whose mythologies are closely tied with the careers of cosmic threshold gods, such as Thor, caught between the old world and the new, confronting universal destruction head on. The invention of alcohol, that is ascribed to Noah, is also said to of occurred during the reign of Yu, although the invention itself is accredited, either to Yu’s daughter, or a member of the emperor’s staff. Both Yu and Noah became drunk, which is a common motif, shared by many mythological victims. Noah’s nakedness may also be paralleled in an account from the Huainanzi, stating that Yu disrobed before passing though the Lo kingdom, to avoid disturbing custom. Yu’s limp, which is also a common motif, the result of either, an injury to the foot, or, as in the case of Jacob, to the hip joint, is also shared by Noah, in the Kabbalistic Sefer ha-Zohar, who was struck by a lion within the ark, and permanently lamed.

The nine step limping pace of Yu, based on the dance of birds, is also reflective of the Crane Dance (Geranos), mentioned by Plutarch in his account of Theseus. After rescuing the young men and women of Athens from the Minotaur, Theseus visited the island of Delos, and there they performed a dance, imitating the complexities of the labyrinth. Also in the Iliad (18:590) we have a reference to Ariadne’s dance floor at Cnossos, built by Daedalus, who also devised the Cretan Labyrinth, where again young men and woman performed their dance.

The labyrinth, is again, another representation of the cosmos, the beginning middle and end of all things, and like the androgynous Ouroboros serpent, the beginning and the end are one. Housed within the labyrinth is the bull, who like the snake, is an incarnation of the divine in temporal form. Labyrinth means ‘the palce of the double-axe’, and it is logical that it is by means of the double-axe that the bull is slain, but also reborn. Like Thor’s hammer, the double-edge nature of the weapon wields both death and life, and as in the case of the definitive battle with Iormungand, death and life occur simultaneously. This enigmatic cosmic act, where the divine partakes in the double nature of the universe, contains within the mystery of divine separation and reunion, represented by the cosmic opposites, including male and female, enacted in the mythos of the double-axe, by Ariadne (also the bride of the bull god Dionysos) and Theseus.

The slaying of Medusa interpreted as Cosmogonic myth

The slaying of Medusa, the cutting off of her head, mythologically re-enacts the primordial event of death, and the simultaneous creation of the temporal universe, from within the threshold of Death and Life.

Medusa and her two sisters, Euryale and Sthenno, were known as the Gorgons, and are the goddess in triple aspect. Medusa’s head of serpents symbolizes the Temporal realm, and she alone of her two sisters was said to be mortal. The blood of Medusa had the power to bestow life as well as destroy. It was from her severed neck that the winged horse pegasos, also symbolic of the temporal realm, was said to be born.

According to Hesiod, the name Pagasos derives from ‘Pegae’ meaning ‘spring’ and was so named because he was born near the waters of Oceanos, identifying Pegasos with the ever-revolving temporal realm.

Also, it is worth taking into account that it was upon Pegasos that the Hero Bellerophon attempted to ascend to Olympus. His efforts to achieve immortality were frustrated and was set crashing back down to earth, when a gad fly, sent by Zeus, stung Pegasos.

While it is true that the way back to Eternity is achieved via the temporal realm, it cannot be reached by that path alone. All attempts end in futility. As Alcmaeon of Croton once observed: “men die because they cannot join the end to the beginning” (frag.2DK).

The Lunar Ouroboros of time is held together by the indestructible power of the solar Hero, Chrysaor, who also sprang from the severed neck of Medusa, wielding a golden sword, that weapon of life and death, who both springs forth from the primordial event, and also, in the guise of Perseus, paradoxically sets it in motion.

Perseus was conceived when Zeus, in the form of a golden shower, impregnated his mother Danae. Both mother and son where locked up in a chest (in much the same way as other Mythological Victims caught within the threshold of death and life) and cast upon the ocean.