The History and Significance of the Furies

The Furies, from the Roman name Furiae, were the avenging Greek goddesses from Greek mythology and were more commonly known as the Erinyes (‘The Angry Ones’). Their names were Tisiphone, Megaera and Alecto and they dwelled in the Underworld where they were the attendants of the gods Hades and Persephone.

There are several versions as to whom they are the children of; according to Hesiod’s Thegony, they were born from the blood of Ouranos that fell on Gaia; in Aeschylus’ Eumenides they were they children of the goddess Nyx; and in the Orphic Hymns they were the children of Hades and Persephone.

In art, the Furies were commonly depicted as fearsome women – often dressed in black clocks soaked in blood, wielding whips, sometimes made of scorpions, holding flaming torches and sometimes shown with snakes for hair.

We can see the picture that the ancient Greeks painted of these goddesses. In the play Oresteia, Apollo states to the Furies, “Hence get you gone, out of my house.... It does not befit such as you to draw near it. Your dwelling is where heads are struck off, and eyes gouged out; where the manhood of the young is maimed in the destruction of the seed; where nails are torn off and men are stoned to death; where is the piteous moaning of those that are impaled” (Grene, p.6).

Like with many ancient Greek deities, the Furies had a duel role; not only were they the avenging goddesses, ruthless and pitiless to mortals who had wrongly shed blood, but they played good spirits in Aeschylus’ Oresteia. In the Orestia, Orestes was persecuted for the murder of his mother in revenge for her killing his father.

The Furies are persecuting Orestes as he had just performed matricide. If Orestes can be purified of matricide by Apollo, the envoy of the New Gods, then the Furies as Old Gods have lost their authority. This authority embraced all homicides committed among people of kindred blood. As a result, the Furies hunt Orestes to the death, because son is connected to mother in blood, while they remain unconcerned to the murder of Agamemnon by his wife because this pair is not blood related.

The trial then involves the argument of Old Gods against the New, under the chairmanship of Athena, the “establishment of a change in the possibility of purification, the pleading of a new importance of male over female because the male is the only true parent of the child and to him the child's duty is owed, and finally the setting up of a human jury to determine the facts and significance in cases of murder, rather than to have the whole matter decided by the automatic claims of kindred bloodguiltiness” (Grene, p.13).

It was after the trail when Orestes was acquitted of matricide, that Athena turns them into good spirits, renaming them the Eumeniades (‘The Soothed Ones’) by acknowledging the legitimacy of their claims and giving them a place of honour.

It is believed by some scholars that the Furies were neither anarchic, primitive spirits of violence nor servants of Zeus, but Zeus' unseen collaborators as guardians and enforcers of those laws that are an essential part of the cosmic order that the father of gods and men administers (Bacon, p.50).

Greek mythology has always held a moralistic message for their ancient audiences, and even today, this message still holds. The Furies are integral goddesses to this message and allow us to view the world in the same light that the ancient Greeks saw it themselves.

Bibliography:

Bacon, Helen H. (2001) The Furies’ Homecoming, Classical Philology, the University of Chicago Press.

Grene, David (1983) Aeschylus: Myth, Religion and Poetry, History of Religions, the University of Chicago Press.

Pasiphae in History and Mythology

Greek mythology has given us some of the most amazing and diverse individuals – benevolent deities who turn on mortals in a heartbeat, semi-divine heroes who conquer vast lands and creatures that are both fascinating and terrifying. One of these creatures was the Minotaur who was born to Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, king of Crete.

Like with many characters from Greek mythology, Pasiphae was the daughter of a god. Like that of her brother Aeetes and her sister Circe, she was the immortal offspring born from the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perse. She was believed to have several children by Minos, including the princess Ariadne who helped Theseus escape the labyrinth which held the Minotaur.

Pasiphae is mostly famous for the conceiving of the Minotaur. In the beginning, Zeus swims to Crete with the Thracian princess Europa on his back and it is here that she gives birth to Minos and Rhadamanthus. Minos and his brother were brought up on the island by the king Asterion. Minos asks Poseidon, god of sea and earthquake, to signify his right to succeed Asterion. Poseidon sends, then, his bull from the sea but Minos enthroned fails to sacrifice that bull in thanks as he considered it too beautiful to kill. Poseidon maddens the bull and inflicts on Minos' wife Pasiphae a lust for it.

In order for Pasiphae to fulfil her lust for the bull, she instructed Daedalus, Minos' master-craftsman, to construct a wooden cow frame. Climbing inside, she was able to conceive the bull-headed child that was later placed in an underground labyrinth.

Another myth that concerns the immortal queen is her involvement in poisoning her husband. Minos had been unfaithful many times throughout his marriage to the anger of his wife, and in a rage, she cursed him. Minos ejaculates scorpions and snakes from his body that kills the women he makes love to. Procris, an Athenian princess, healed Minos with an herb given to her by Paisphae’s sister, Circe. She sleeps with him herself, bribing him with a javelin that never misses its mark and a hunting dog that never misses its prey.

Myths have different meanings for different people at different times in history. In this case, the myth of Pasiphae symbolizes abhorrent female eroticism in ancient Cretan society. By Pasiphae's passion, Minos is drawn into an atmosphere of corruption, thus of moral implications. Female lust - to Cretan imagination - was radiantly bestial, which resulted in Pasiphae giving birth to the Minotaur, leading to the shame of Crete and her downfall. Whatever the labyrinth comes to mean in myriad contexts (did it once represent the Cretan palace as it struck mainland Greek imaginations?), it is essentially a hiding place for the devouring monstrous expression of Minoan civilization and its passionate involvement with the bull.

Bibliography:

Padel, Ruth (1996) Labyrinth of Desire: Cretan Myth in Us, Arion, Trustees of Boston University.

Will, Frederic (1962) Notes from Crete, Arion, Trustees of Boston University.

Mika – Jar Deities in Japanese Mythology

Japanese mythology contains a vast amount of deities, creatures and demons, all who had a deep impact on the religious and cultural lives of the Japanese people throughout history. Even today we can still see traces of the importance these deities have in our modern time. It is my intention to explore the Jar deities in Japanese history and to explain their symbolism and significance.

Let us first determine what we mean by ‘jar deities’. ‘Mika’ derives from a Chinese character meaning ‘jar’, but in Japanese it is meant to replace the word ‘Ika’, which translates as awful, stern or wondrous (Fairchild, p.81). Due to the intense nature of these deities, which I will explain in more detail, this term is apt. Subsequently when we use the term, Jar Deities, we do not mean that these deities were depicted or worshipped in the form of a jar; instead we use it as the symbolic name of these deities.

There are two main versions of the myth that tells of their births. In the Kojiki, known in English as the The Records of Ancient Matters, the goddess Izanami and Izanagi had several children who were the islands of Japan, but also others. She bore a fire deity, but was burnt and became ill. In her feverish state, her vomit was transformed into several metal deities, and “her faeces became male and female clay deities; her urine became a water goddess; and then she gave birth to the goddess of vegetation” (Fairchild, p.82).

The first mention of mika is the fire god that burnt Izanami, Mika-no-hayabi-no-kami, whose name translates as ‘Terrible Swift Fire Deity’ (Holtom, p.67) or ‘Fire Burning Fast Male Deity’ (Fairchild, p.82). Another god she gave birth to was Take-mikadzuchi-no-wo-no-kami, whose name means ‘Fierce Thunder Male Deity’ or ‘Brave Striker Deity’.

However, in the Nihon Shoki, translated as The Chronicles of Japan, it states that Fierce Thunder Male Deity was the son of Hi-no-hayabi-no-kam, ‘Swift Fire of Fire Deity’, which could establish the relationship between thunder and lightning.

Other mika gods include, Take-mika-Tsuchi-no-kami (‘Brave Jar Mallet Deity’), Mika-haya-hi-no-kami (‘Jar Fast Sun Deity’), Haya-mika-no-ta-ke-sa-ha-ya-ji-nu-mi-no-kami (this name has not been identified correctly, but has been taken to translate as ‘Fast Jar? Deity’), Ame-no-mika-nushi-no-kami (‘Heaven Jar Ruler Deity’) and Mika-nushi-hi-ko-kami (‘Jar Ruler Sun’).

The Kashima Shrine, located in Kashmira in Ibaraki, is the most well-known shrine to Take-mikadzuchi-no-wo-no-kami. It is here that his character has taken on the aspect of ancestral worship, in which “he has become the patron deity of valor” (Holtom, p.69).

Today, Japanese mythology still holds a deep respect for the Japanese people and the deities mentioned here are a vital part, not only of their myths, but of their culture and the rest of the world’s mythology as a whole.

Bibliography:

Fairchild, William P. (1965) “Mika”- Jar Deities in Japanese Mythology, Asian Folklore Studies, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.

Holtom, Daniel C. (1926) A New Interpretation of Japanese Mythology and Its Bearing on Ancestral Theory of Shinto, The Journal of Religion, The University of Chicago Press.