THE DIVINE HERO
The myth of Saint George is
very well-rooted in the mythical and religious western medieval culture. In my
opinion, this myth is rooted much deeper, and I think the myth origins back to
archetypical times to the mythical symbols of heavenly Gods and Goddess in star
myths and even to the myth of Creation.
A medieval picture of St. George
fighting the Dragon compared to a Swedish rock carving.
A Star Atlas with the contours of
the Northern and Southern Milky Way.
In my opinion, one can easily
accept the idea that the contours of the Milky Way can symbolise a male figure
on the northern Sky and that the southern Milky Way contours can symbolise a
female figure. These to symbols from the northern and southern hemisphere are
divided by the pole positions of the Earth rotation and are therefore
mythological and religious said to be "in opposition to each other".
The male contours of the Milky Way
and the female figure of the southern Milky Way is mythological sometime
mentioned to be humans and sometime to be animals and sometimes as a human and
an animal. For instant many cultures have a Heavenly Cow as a symbol for the
southern Milky Way contours, and it is in this concept the myth of St. George
shall be interpretated.
2 scenes from the Danish ritual
cauldron of Gundestrup and a scene from a Braktheatre.
Mythological the story telling
about the northern and southern Milky Way contour figures are build up by a
story of the meeting of 2 great mythological forces of powerful beasts or the
meeting of the male and female force of creation.
The story telling also can
symbolise the meeting and melting together of the 2 psychological and
physiological qualities in a male and female in an ritual transition in order to
gain spiritual cosmological knowledge to the benefit of personal and social
growth.
If such an meeting an melting
together of forces is succeeded, the Hero first of all wins his spiritual
Princess, namely his alter ego, and the society in which the Hero lives,
benefits of the gained cosmological knowledge which is for the Hero to arrange
the seasonal rituals for agriculture as well of the ritual transition periods of
every individual in the village.
Descent to the underworld
The theme of mythical
deities and Heroes "descending to The Underworld is of course very
global since it deals with the the Southern Earth Hemisphere and
especially with the southern Milky Way contours and the Great Mother
Goddess and the archetype of the Milky Way center.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_to_the_underworld
Harrowing of Hell, an icon by
Dionisius, from the
Ferapontov Monastery.
The descent to the underworld is a
mytheme of
comparative mythology found in the
religions of the Ancient Near East up to and including
Christianity. The
myth involves the death of a youthful god (or goddess:
Persephone,
Inanna, for instance) who is a
life-death-rebirth deity, mourned and then recovered from the
underworld by his or her consort, lover or mother.
Katabasis
Main article:
katabasis
One meaning of katabasis is the epic convention of the hero's
trip into the
underworld.[1]
In
Greek mythology, for example,
Orpheus enters the underworld in order to bring
Eurydice back to the world of the living.
Most katabases take place in a supernatural underworld, such as
Hades or
Hell — as in
Nekyia, the 11th book of the
Odyssey, which describes the descent of
Odysseus to the underworld. However, katabasis can also refer to a
journey through other dystopic areas, like those Odysseus encounters on
his 20-year journey back from
Troy to
Ithaca. Pilar Serrano[1]
allows the term katabasis to encompass brief or chronic stays in
the underworld, including those of
Lazarus and
Castor and Pollux.
Mythological characters
Mythological characters who make visits to the underworld include:
Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Greek and Roman
Ancient Sumerian
-
Enkidu, in a tablet of the
Epic of Gilgamesh usually considered a later addition to the
tale
-
Gilgamesh descends to the underworld to meet
Utnapishtim in a quest for immortality.
-
Inanna descends to the underworld with gifts to pass through the
seven gates of the underworld.
Judeo-Christianity
Norse paganism and
Finnish mythology
Other
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