A Guide to Mythology

by Helen A. Clarke

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.