The Indian pantheon is cool for a lot of reasons. First, it's still 'alive' today, unlike the Egyptian and Classical gods and goddesses. Secondly, there is a more palpable spiritual aspect to it. I think I just personally really dig the symbolism, and it's shared characteristics with lots of other traditions make it that much more interesting. There is Brahman, the soul of the world. It's separate and greater than any one person, but every person is connected to it. It's also represented by three personifications--Brahmin (creator), Vishnu (preserver), Shiva (destroyer). Sounds kind of like another Trinity. The goddesses are amazing too, specifically Kali, a warrior goddess who is unbeatable in battle and too busy being a badass to date. The story of her victory over the Buffalo God was literally amazing. I really want to look up more Hindu/Indian mythology stories after hearing just that one.
 |
| "Shiva" siobanhill via Pixabay |
The Norse pantheon obviously has gotten more attention than the Indian and African pantheons because of the Thor comics/movies, but you really can't beat the original. I have never read Norse mythology, outside of what you can kind of pick up from Neil Gaiman's American Gods (great book, highly recommend it). But in the video, the descriptions taken from an old Scandinavian author named Snorely have a really distinct tone, and I'm into it. For example, Heimdal (Idris Elba's character in the movie, with the cool gold eyes) can "see far in the night and in the day," and "hear the grass growing and a wolf walking and everything that makes sound" or something...cool stuff. The Norse myths in general seem less symbolic and more relatable and simply entertaining. The video describes the theft of Thor's hammer by a giant, and his and Loki's harebrained scheme to dress Thor in a wedding dress to get it back. They get away with it thanks to Loki's lies, even though Thor eats all the food and it should have been incredibly obvious that he was not, in fact, a woman. Then he gets his hammer back, kills every giant, including the women and children, and the story ends: "and so Thor won his hammer back." You gotta love the Norse pantheon.
 |
| "Ah, what a lovely maid it is!" Elmer Boyd Smith via Wikimedia |
The African pantheon was also really cool, but I can kind of understand why it isn't as well-known as some other traditions. For one, Africa is really big, with hundreds of individual cultures, languages and ethnic traditions and stories. They're also really big on oral tradition, so it's harder to have a one uniform source, unlike Classical mythology which has poets like Ovid and Homer. Also, the Orishas, which the video highlights because the tradition is easier to track, are very different in nature to the gods we're more familiar with. In almost every culture, gods and goddesses are just born with their domains. They don't earn them, generally. But in the African tradition, the Orishas had to get their own powers from their leader Olorun or his son Orunmila. They asked for powers to help Orunmila, so that he wouldn't need to fix all their problems for them. But he valued them all equally, so he didn't know how to distribute them. After speaking with a wise chameleon, he decided to give all the Orishas notice and just rain down the powers on them. He gave each of them a fair chance, and gave them powers when he didn't have to. I think that says a lot of the culture.
 |
| "Changó" Paul K via Flickr |
I really enjoyed the videos, I always do. I originally needed to catch up on some points to maintain my desired grade, but I think I could honestly just kick back and watch these Crash Course videos.
No comments:
Post a Comment