A Guide to Mythology

by Helen A. Clarke

THE WAY OF THE GODS

(Japanese)

Listen, my children, to the true story of the Beginning of the World.

When there was neither Heaven nor Earth, nor Sun nor Moon, nor anything that is, there existed in Infinite Space the Invisible Lord of the Middle Heaven. With him were two other Gods.

By their miraculous power, a Thing whose shape cannot be described came into existence in the midst of Space, in appearance like a Floating Cloud. Forth from it sprang, as it were, a Flowering Rushsprout, rising from the water—pure, translucent, and bright—which grew and grew and widened and widened infinitely, till it spread over all things and became the Canopy of Heaven. Then downward from the Floating Cloud grew the Under-region—the Realm of Night—which is the Root-region of the World and the abode of Departed Spirits.

And the center of the Floating Cloud became the Earth, which was still liquid and formless and without life.

After this were born in Heaven seven generations of Gods, and the last and most perfect of these were Izanagi and Izanami. Now, Izanagi and Izanami were the Parents of the World and all that is in it. And it happened in this wise: the Gods of the High Plain of Heaven said to Izanagi and Izanami:

“Descend and make of this drifting mud and ocean a firm and beautiful Land, and fill it with living things.” And the Gods placed in their hands a mystic jewelled Spear.

Now, in these days the heavens were near to the earth, and the space between was spanned by a Heavenly Floating Bridge. So they set forth bravely on their journey, and, looking down into the space beneath them, they saw in the depths the green plain of the Sea. They held counsel together and said, “Is there not a country beneath?”

And Izanagi pushed the jewelled Spear down from the Floating Bridge and stirred the green sea round and round, and some say that is why the earth turns round and round to this day. Then the brine went curdle-curdle, and they drew up the Spear, and the brine that fell from the end of the Spear dropped down and became an island. This island was called Onogoro, and is one of the Everlasting Islands of the Land of Sunrise, of the Land of Fertile Reed-plains, which is Japan.

Now, the Gods stepped down on to the Earth, and it was strange and desolate, and they shivered, and felt lonely and afraid.

Suddenly sounded a whirring of wings; two tiny Sekirei—wagtails—swept by and fluttered to the ground. It was early springtime; the living air thrilled warm and sweet. With little pecks and cheeps, full of busy pride, the pair sought twigs and grasses and wove them deftly into a downy nest. Quivering with rapture, the lover-bird hovered round his mate, and sang of love and joy and happy days to come.

While the Great Gods watched, a warmth crept round the heart of Izanagi, and in Izanami’s eyes was a mist of tears. She whispered softly, “Let us, too, make a house to dwell in!” Then Izanagi plunged his spear into the ground, and round them rose a great and glorious Palace, and the Spear was the Heart-Pillar thereof. And they were hidden from the sight of Heaven and Earth.

Then, moving round this Pillar, they met and gazed on one another with charmed eyes. The Mother of Mankind cried joyfully: “Behold! I have met with a lovely Youth!” And Izanagi cried back: “Behold! I have met with a lovely Maiden!”

So the Sekirei first taught the Gods the ways of Love, and are honored and cherished in Japan to this day.

But Izanagi remembered how Izanami had been the first to speak, and in his displeasure said wrathfully: “I am a Man, and should by right have spoken first!”

When the first child born to them was ugly and deformed, they put him in a boat made of camphor-wood, and he sailed away to sea and became the God of the fisherfolk. His children are the hairy men who live in some of the islands of Japan to this day.

Then the Gods passed round the Pillar a second time, and Izanagi spoke first. So his anger was appeased, and they lived greatly content.

Together they made the eight islands of Japan, and placed them at the summit of the globe. But the land was hidden—becovered with mists—so Izanagi sent forth the God of the Winds. He, blowing lustily, rent the clouds, and the earth lay as a bride unveiled, shimmering with silver dew on her green pastures.

Next came the Food-Spirit to comfort mankind, the Sea Gods, the Mountain Gods, the Gods of the River-mouths, the Tree Gods, and the Earth Goddess. Last of all was born the fierce Fire God, Kagu-tsuchi. Now, this God was of such a hot and fiery temper that he burned his Great Mother, and she suffered change and departed to the Lower World.

Then Izanagi was wroth, and cried aloud: “Oh, that I should have given my Beloved in return for a single child!”

And his sorrow was so great that he crawled round her head and her feet, and from the tears that he shed sprang up the Goddess of Weeping. Then he took his ten-span sword and hewed Kagu-tsuchi in three pieces, and each piece sprang into life as the Spirit of Thunder, the Spirit of Mountains, and the Spirit of Rain.

Now, Izanagi loved his wife so greatly that he could find no rest or peace on earth; and, after wandering long in search of comfort and finding none, he determined to seek her, even in the realm of Departed Spirits. His way lay through a long and gloomy passage where few have trod, right through the center of the earth, till he came at length to the Gate of Everlasting Night, to the Kingdom of Yomi, the Ruler of the Under World. He knocked at the Gate and cried aloud:

“O my beloved Sister! come back to me!” And she answered him:

“O beloved Elder Brother! gladly would I come, but, alas! I have eaten of Yomi’s cooking and am bewitched. Let me return and speak to him, but do not thou follow me!”

So Izanagi waited anxiously without, till, growing impatient at her long delay, he broke a tooth off his comb, lighting it as a torch, and so dared to enter those terrible shades. Through dark and dreadful ways he wandered, and his heart quailed within him.

But Yomi was wroth with him for his daring, and smote Izanami so that when he found her she lay as one altered in death, with Eight Witches at her head and her feet. Then a great horror fell upon Izanagi; he turned and fled swiftly, and the Eight Ugly Women rose and pursued him. On he ran, through winding ways where icy blasts fly shrieking; and the Witches swept after him and would have caught him, but he seized the wreath from his head and flung it down, and it was changed into bunches of grapes. When the Witches saw these they stopped and greedily devoured them; then, gathering up their robes, rose and pursued again.

Izanagi felt the chill of their coming, and drew out a many-toothed comb from the right bunch of his hair and threw it behind him. Behold! as it touched the ground, there sprang up a hedge of young bamboo shoots across the path. The Witches swooped down, pulled up the young shoots, and ate them to the last one; then again gave chase.

Now, Izanami, too, was angered against him, for she had been put to shame; and she sent five hundred warriors from Yomi to pursue him. When the rush and the tramping drew nearer, Izanagi unsheathed his ten-span sword, and in his despair his breath failed as at the approach of Death. Then suddenly appeared before him the Gate of the Pass of Yomi; and hastily plucking some peaches which grew by the gate, he threw them, and scattered his pursuers, and himself passed through into the light. And he rolled a mighty stone across the mouth of the opening, so that none hereafter could move it.

The peaches that had saved him he named Their Augustness the Great Divine Fruit, and they are honored in some parts of Japan to this day.

Now, when he came back into the world again, Izanagi felt very weary, and searched for a clear stream to wash away the foulness of the Lower Regions which clung to him. When he had found one he bathed therein, and of this washing many evil gods were born; among them were the Gods of Crookedness, who love to plague mankind. Seeing this evil, he made the Gods of Straightening, to make crooked things straight.

Now, when he had rested and accomplished his purification, he created the greatest of his children in this wise:

Descending once more into the clear stream, he bathed his left eye, and forth sprang Amaterasu, the great Sun Goddess.

Sparkling with light, she rose from the waters as the Sun rises in the East, and her brightness was wonderful, and shone through Heaven and Earth; never was seen such radiant glory.

Izanagi rejoiced greatly, and said, “There is none like this Miraculous Child!”

Taking a necklace of jewels, he put it round her neck and said, “Rule Thou over the Plain of High Heaven!”

Thus Amaterasu became the source of all life and light; the glory of her shining has warmed and comforted all mankind, and she is worshipped by them unto this day.

Then he bathed his right eye, and there appeared her brother, the Moon God. Izanagi said: “Thy beauty and radiance are next to the Sun in splendor; rule thou over the Dominion of Night!”

When the two beautiful ones had departed, a third God came forth, whose name was Susa-wo. He was a god with a strange destiny, and could never be at peace, sweeping ceaselessly over hills and valleys with his long beard floating behind him. Izanagi gave him dominion over the sea.

But he was not content and neglected his kingdom, restlessly roaming over the earth, so that the green mountains withered and the rivers dried up. The murmuring of spirits he woke with his moaning was as the sound of innumerable bees.

So Izanagi in his wrath banished him to the Nether Regions, and, having accomplished his work, withdrew into an Island Cave, and abode there till the End.

CHAPTER VII
MOTHER-MYTHS AND CHILD-MYTHS

In all the myths we have learned about so far there has been very little of the purely human element of affection, yet it is true that reverence and love for the mother of all things was one of the earliest instincts in the mind of primitive man, as well as love and even reverence for children.

The idea of the earth as a mother is a very simple and natural one, and so we find everywhere that the earth has been personified as a mother.

Among the primitive people of America the Earth-Mother is a personage of much importance. The Peruvians worshipped her as Mama-Pacha or Mother Earth. The Caribs, when there was an earthquake said it was their Mother Earth dancing and signifying to them to dance and make merry likewise, which accordingly they did. Among the North American Indians, the Comanches call on the earth as their mother, while they regard the Great Spirit as their father.

In the mythology of the Finns, Lapps and Esths, the Earth-Mother is a divinely honored personage. One of the most primitive forms of the Earth-Mother is that of the Zulus. She is described as a very little animal about as large as a pole-cat, and is marked with little white and black stripes. The Zulus say of her that she is not commonly seen. We hear it said that primitive men knew her. No one existing at the present time ever saw her. In spite of this fact, however, they seem to have very definite ideas of her appearance, for upon one side of this little black and white animal there grow a bed of reeds, a forest, and grass. She always goes about followed by a large troop of children which resemble her, and in whose welfare she takes a great interest. The name of this goddess is Inkosa-za-na.

The oldest of all their gods in Polynesian mythology is a mother-goddess called Vari. She is the very beginning of things in the abyss. She is celebrated as the source of all from whom all beings claim descent. She sheltered the Earth-Mother, who in Polynesian mythology is called Papa, whose husband was Rangi, the Heaven. How these two came to be separated is told in the story of the “Children of Heaven and Earth.”

We see from this myth of Vari that the earth is not the only mother-goddess.

The very beginnings of things in night and chaos were frequently represented as mother goddesses. For example, the Egyptian Mother-goddess was Neith, the goddess of night. She is celebrated as the “Only One.” “Glory to thee! Thou art mightier than the Gods! The forms of the living souls which are in their places give glory to the terrors of thee, their mother; thou art their origin.” She is represented as self-existing. “I am all that was and is and is to be; no mortal hath lifted my veil.” In the Public Library in Boston the artist Sargent has made the vague, black figure of this goddess the background in his fresco, giving a symbolic representation of Egyptian religion. The face of Neith shows inscrutable calm, and she wears as a necklace the constellations of the Zodiac, and on her head the winged globe of the sun. She was said also to have been the mother of the sun.

The Hindoo, Aditi, mother of the gods, seems to have been a goddess of the same kind. She is said to represent free, unbounded infinity, and is the mother of twelve heavenly beings—sun-gods, called Adityas. Her kinship with other mother-goddesses is shown by the fact that she was invoked as the bestower of blessings on children and cattle.

In the naïve and poetical little myth of the Malayan Peninsula given later, the sun and moon both figure as mother-goddesses.

The worship of mother-goddesses among the ancient Mexican Indians was prominent. Hymns descriptive of two are given here. The first is to the goddess Teteoinan, the “Mother of the Gods.” She was also called Soci, “Our Mother,” and also by another name which signified “The Heart of the Earth.” This last name was given to her because she was believed to be the cause of earthquakes. She presided over the vegetable and animal world and her chief temple at Tepeyacac was one of the most renowned in ancient Mexico. The other goddess, Cihuacoatl, was the mythical mother of the human race, and was regarded with veneration on account of her antiquity. As well as being an Earth-Goddess, she was the Goddess of War.

It would be possible to give many illustrations of mother-tree goddesses, but we have space for only one, that of the Persian world-tree in whose midst dwelt the mother of all. “In Eridu a dark pine grew. It was planted in a holy place. Its crown was crystal white, which spread toward the deep vault above. The Abyss of Hea was its pasturage in Eridu, a canal full of waters. Its station was the center of the earth. Its shrine was the couch of Mother Zicam. The roof of its holy house like a forest spread its shade; there were none who entered within. It was the seat of the mighty mother, who passes athwart the heavens.”

The Norse earth-goddess, consort of Odin, appears in three forms—Jord, Frigg, and Rind. Jord is the original uninhabited earth, Frigg is the inhabited, cultivated earth, and Rind is the frozen earth of winter. The child of the first is Thor, the thunderer; of the second is Balder, the good or the beautiful; and of the third is Vale, who revenged the death of Balder. Of these, Frigg is more nearly like other mother-goddesses, though she seems to be somewhat withdrawn from active participation in the duties of the mother-goddess. These are handed over to her maid-servants, of whom she had seven—Fulla, Hlyn, Guaa, Snotra, Var, Lofu, and Syn. Fulla, with golden hair adorned with a ribbon, looks after harvests. Hlyn is the protectress who delivers people from peril. Guaa is the messenger who runs errands for Frigg. Var has charge of marriage, Lofu of love, and Syn of justice. The counterpart of Frigg in Greek mythology is Demeter (Roman name, Ceres), the daughter of another earth-goddess, Rhea. Like Frigg, she represents the bountiful life-giving aspects of nature. She is best described in the hymn written in her honor by Callimachus given later, and in which you will recognize another version of the story of Erisichthon.