Yu the great

According to Chinese belief, Yu the great was the founder of the Xia Dynasty (ca 2000 – 1500 BC), who tirelessly worked to save the land of nine regions from catastrophic floods. Originally it was his father Gun, who was appointed for the task by Yao, during whose reign the floodwaters had forced the people to seek refuge in the hills. Gun built dams to restrain the flood waters, but these failed, and Shun, Yao’s successor, finally executed Gun, appointing Yu to replace him.

For thirteen years, Yu toiled, careful not to repeat the mistakes his father made. Rather than erecting damns to stop the flow of waters, Yu channeled through mountains, cleared debris from the river beds and created new watercourses, diverting the floodwaters into the sea. Shun also appointed Yu co-ruler, and after his death, Yu became emperor.

Yu worked through all kinds of extreme weather. His appearance was disheveled, and his skin was blackened from the sun. He also developed a limp. It is said that Yu’s devotion to his task outweighed the importance of his family life, and on three occasions, he avoided passing by his house, taking another route.

Yu was either born Parthenogenically of his mother, or from the dead body of his father. He had the ability to transform into a bear, a form he would assume to channel his way through the mountains. His wife would bring Yu his meals whenever he beat his drum, but one day he accidentally struck the drum with a rock, and his wife, who was pregnant with Yu’s son, discovered Yu in bear form, and fled in terror. Yu chased after her, but his wife stumbled and was transformed into a rock. Yu cried out for his unborn child, and the rock burst open, producing his son, Qi.

The floods were said to be caused by the demon Gong Gong, who sent the nine headed serpentine Xiang Liu, to frustrate the peoples efforts to bring the waters under control. Yu succeeded in slaying Xiang Liu, but was unable to prevent the creature’s blood from polluting the soil.

Through Yu’s continual labour and self sacrifice, the waters no longer flooded the land, and the people became prosperous, and lived peaceful and healthy lives.

Yu remained active in the affairs of his people, who could summon an audience with Yu through the use of five musical instruments, hung upon the palace gate. Yu remained emperor until his death, during a hunting expedition.

Cocles and Scaevola

Livy (History of Rome), and Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Roman Antiquities) acknowledge Publius Horatius and Gaius Mucius for their exceptional heroics, during the Roman Etruscan war in the 5th century B.C.

Horatius was named Cocles, ‘one-eyed’, due to losing an eye in battle (Roman Antiquities 5.23), while Mucius, after plunging his arm into the fire in defiance of the Etruscan King Lars Porsenna (who Mucius had failed to assassinate), was afterwards named Scaevola ‘left-handed’ (History of Rome 2.12).

Cocles, who single-handedly fought the Etruscans upon the Sublician bridge, received many wounds, particularly a spear wound to the buttocks above the hip-joint, rendering him lame (Roman Antiquities 5.24).

Murder of the innocents

Like Astyages, Herod the Great attempted to kill the Messiah king whom the Hebrew scriptures foretold would one day rule the people of Israel. Unlike Astyages, Herod was ignorant concerning the new born king’s identity and ordered the wholesale slaughter of all the boys up to two years of age in and around the vicinity of Bethlehem, from where, according to the prophet  Micah (5:2–5), the Messiah would come.

The reign of the demon-king Kamsa is similarly threatened after he learns that the eighth child (Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu) born to Devaki, will destroy him. Kamsa imprisons both Devaki and her husband, slaughtering all the children born to them, all except Balarama, Krishna’s brother who is transfered to another womb, and Krishna himself, who is smuggled to safety and hidden among the cow herders of Brindaban.

Also Kronos was warned by Ouranos and Gaia that he would be dethroned by one of his own children, and so he ate them. When Rhea, his wife, gave birth to her youngest child Zeus, she hid him in a cave, where he was attended to by the Nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, and suckled by a the she-goat Amalthea (indicating the Triple-goddess). Rhea substituted Zeus with a stone dressed in baby clothes, which Kronos unwittingly gobbled up instead. when Zeus reached manhood, Kronos was given a potion causing him to vomit up, first the stone, and then the rest of his children, who finally, after a ten year battle, defeated their tyrannical father.

The Binding of Fenrir

The Midgard Serpent, Hel, and the wolf Fenrir, were the terrible children born to Loki and the giantess Angrboda, each destined to initiate the destruction of the gods. Odin cast the Midgard Serpent, known also as Iormungand, into the depths of the ocean that encircles the world. He tossed Hel down to Niflheim, investing her with power over the nine realms of creation, where she provides for all who died contemptibly of sickness and old age. Fenrir, however, remained with the Aesir at Asgard, cared for by Tyr, who alone had the courage to feed the great wolf.

As Fenrir grew, the gods, reflecting upon the prophecy of their destruction, became increasingly alarmed, and decided that the wolf needed to be permanently restrained. A strong chain, called Laedingr, was forged, and they challenged Fenrir to prove his strength. Unperturbed, Fenrir allowed himself to be fettered, and effortlessly broke free. The Aesir fashioned a second chain, double the strength of the first, called Dromi. They convinced Fenrir, that if he were to escape from such a powerful chain, he would acquire great fame. Fenrir, liked this idea, and as he had grown considerably since breaking free from Laedingr, he consented. The wolf struggled furiously, smashing the chain and pushing down hard upon the ground with his feet, until he finally managed to break free. Fenrir’s double display of strength, became proverbial, and it is said ‘to break free from Laedingr’, or ‘to escape from dromi’, is to overcome difficult or impossible tasks.

To the god’s dismay, it appeared that the great wolf would never be restrained, and so Odin dispatched Fray’s messenger Skirnir, to the realm of the dark elves, to the dwarfs, who forged Gleipnir, a chain as soft as silk, comprised of a cat’s footsteps, a woman’s beard, roots beneath a rock, bear sinew, fish breath, and bird spit. All six ingredients forever removed from the natural world.

The Aesir brought Fenrir to the island of Lyngvi, surrounding by a lake known as Amsvartnir, and there they challenged the wolf for a third time. The gods, themselves unable to rend the silken chain, agreed that no one other than Fenrir could break it. Fenrir grew suspicious, and refused to be bound. What fame could be gained from breaking free from such a fragile looking chain? The Aesir persuaded Fenrir saying that he would easily escape from this chain as before, and should he fail, they would set him free again. Fenrir, doubted their words, but unwilling to appear as a coward, agreed to submit himself on the condition that one of the god’s placed a hand inside the wolf’s mouth, as a pledge of good faith.

The Aesir looked at one other in defeat, as none of them dared place a hand between the wolf’s enormous jaws. Then Tyr stepped forward and courageously placed his hand inside Fenrir’s mouth. Fenrir struggled fiercely, and the more he exerted himself, the chain would contract, growing tighter than before. All the god’s laughed, except Tyr, who lost his hand, at the point afterwards known as the Wolf-Joint (the wrist).

When it became clear that Fenrir was subdued, the Aesir took hold of the chain called Gelgja, attached to Gleipnir, and bound the wolf to the rock called Gjoll, driving it deep into the earth. And with an additional stone called Thviti, sank it further still, using it as a fastener. Struggling, Fenrir tried to bite them, and so the gods wedged a sword between the wolf’s gaping jaws. Fenrir howled, and the saliva that ran down his mouth, formed the river Von. There the great wolf remained, the Aesir unwilling to desecrate their holy sanctuary with his blood, despite the prophecy that at Ragnarok Fenrir will slay Odin (Prose Edda: Gylfaginning 25, 34).

Hati and Skoll

The moon wolf Hati, is described as a son of Fenrir in both Poetic (Grimnismal 39) and Prose (Gylfaginning 12) Eddas. He is the progeny of a giantess, an inhabitant of the the forest Ironwood, from whom numerous giant wolves (Fenrir’s offspring) sprung, including the sun chaser Skoll.

Both Skoll and Hati pursue the sun (Sol) and her brother moon (Mani), respectively, and will eventually devour both at Ragnarok (doom of the gods). In the Poetic Edda, it states that Fenrir himself will devour the sun (Vafthruthnismol 46), as well as mighty All-Father Odin (Voluspa 53; Lokasenna 58).