Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 21

The story of Little Red Riding-Hood _is mutilated in the English version_. The original story was that the little maid, in her _s.h.i.+ning Red Cloak_, was swallowed by the great _Black Wolf_, and that _she came out safe and sound_ when the hunters cut open the sleeping beast.[80:10]

In regard to these heroes remaining _three days and three nights_ in the bowels of the Fish, _they represent the Sun at the Winter Solstice_.

From December 22d to the 25th--that is, _for three days and three nights_--the _Sun_ remains in the _Lowest Regions_, in the bowels of the Earth, in the belly of the Fish; it is then cast forth and renews its career.

Thus, we see that the story of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish, meant originally the Sun swallowed up by Night, and that it is identical with the well-known nursery-tale. How such legends are transformed from intelligible into unintelligible myths, is very clearly ill.u.s.trated by Prof. Max Muller, who, in speaking of "the comparison of the different forms of Aryan Religion and Mythology," in India, Persia, Greece, Italy and Germany, says:

"In each of these nations there was a tendency to change the original conception of divine powers; to misunderstand the many names given to these powers, and to misinterpret the praises addressed to them. In this manner some of the divine names were changed into half-divine, half-human heroes, _and at last the myths which were true and intelligible as told originally of the Sun, or the Dawn, or the Storms, were turned into legends or fables too marvellous to be believed of common mortals_. This process can be watched in _India_, in _Greece_, and in _Germany_. The same story, or nearly the same, is told of G.o.ds, of heroes, and of men. The _divine myth_ became an _heroic legend_, and the _heroic legend_ fades away into a _nursery tale_. Our nursery tales have well been called the modern _patois_ of the ancient sacred mythology of the Aryan race."[81:1]

How striking are these words; how plainly they ill.u.s.trate the process by which the story, that was true and intelligible as told originally of the _Day_ being swallowed up by _Night_, or the _Sun_ being swallowed up by the _Earth_, was transformed into a legend or fable, too marvellous to be believed by common mortals. How the "_divine myth_" became an "_heroic legend_," and how the heroic legend faded away into a "_nursery tale_."

In regard to Jonah's going to the city of Ninevah, and preaching unto the inhabitants, we believe that the old "Myth of Civilization," so called,[82:1] is partly interwoven here, and that, in this respect, he is nothing more than the Indian _Fish Avatar of Vishnou_, or the Chaldean _Oannes_. At his first Avatar, _Vishnou_ is alleged to have appeared to humanity in form like a fish,[82:2] or half-man and half-fish, just as Oannes and Dagon were represented among the Chaldeans and other nations. In the temple of _Rama_, in India, there is a representation of _Vishnou_ which answers perfectly to that of _Dagon_.[82:3] Mr. Maurice, in his "Hist. Hindostan," has proved the ident.i.ty of the Syrian _Dagon_ and the Indian Fish Avatar, and concludes by saying:

"From the foregoing and a variety of parallel circ.u.mstances, I am inclined to think that the Chaldean _Oannes_, the Phenician and Philistian _Dagon_, and the _Pisces_ of the Syrian and Egyptian Zodiac, were the same deity with the Indian _Vishnu_."[82:4]

In the old mythological remains of the Chaldeans, compiled by Berosus, Abydenus, and Polyhistor, there is an account of one _Oannes_, a fish-G.o.d, who rendered great service to mankind.[82:5] This being is said to have _come out of_ the Erythraean Sea.[82:6] This is evidently _the Sun rising out of the sea_, as it apparently does, in the East.[82:7]

Prof. Goldzhier, speaking of Oannes, says:

"That this founder of civilization has a _Solar character_, like similar heroes in all other nations, is shown . . . in the words of Berosus, who says: '_During the day-time_ Oannes held intercourse with man, _but when the Sun set_, Oannes fell into the sea, where he used to pa.s.s the night.' Here, evidently, only the _Sun_ can be meant, who, in the evening, dips into the sea, and comes forth again in the morning, and pa.s.ses the day on the dry land in the company of men."[82:8]

_Dagon_ was sometimes represented as _a man emerging from a fish's mouth_, and sometimes as half-man and half-fish.[82:9] It was believed that he came _in a s.h.i.+p_, and taught the people. Ancient history abounds with such mythological personages.[82:10] There was also a _Durga_, a fish deity, among the _Hindoos_, represented as _a full grown man emerging from a fish's mouth_[82:9] The Philistines wors.h.i.+ped Dagon, and in Babylonian Mythology _Odakon_ is applied to a fish-like being, who _rose from the waters of the Red Sea_ as one of the benefactors of men.[83:1]

On the coins of Ascalon, where she was held in great honor, the G.o.ddess Derceto or Atergatis is represented as a woman with her lower extremities like a fish. This is Semiramis, who appeared at _Joppa_ as a mermaid. She is simply a personification of the _Moon_, who follows the course of the _Sun_. At times she manifests herself to the eyes of men, at others she seeks concealment in the Western flood.[83:2]

The Sun-G.o.d Phoibos traverses the sea in the form of a fish, and imparts lessons of wisdom and goodness when he has come forth from the green depths. All these powers or qualities are shared by Proteus in h.e.l.lenic story, as well as by the fish-G.o.d, Dagon or Oannes.[83:3]

In the Iliad and Odyssey, Atlas is brought into close connection with Helios, the bright G.o.d, the Latin Sol, and our Sun. In these poems he rises every morning from a beautiful lake by the deep-flowing stream of Ocean, and having accomplished his journey across the heavens, plunges again into the Western waters.[83:4]

The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians had likewise semi-fish G.o.ds.[83:5]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 5]

Jonah then, is like these other personages, in so far as they are all _personifications of the Sun_; they all _come out of the sea_; they are all represented as _a man emerging from a fish's mouth_; and they are all _benefactors of mankind_. We believe, therefore, that it is one and the same myth, whether Oannes, Joannes, or Jonas,[83:6] differing to a certain extent among different nations, just as we find to be the case with other legends. This we have just seen ill.u.s.trated in the story of "Little Red Riding-Hood," which is considerably mutilated in the English version.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 6]

Fig. No. 5 is a representation of _Dagon_, intended to ill.u.s.trate a creature half-man and half-fish; or, perhaps, a man emerging from a fish's mouth. It is taken from Layard. Fig. No. 6[84:1] is a representation of the Indian Avatar of Vishnou, _coming forth from the fish_.[84:2] It would answer just as well for a representation of Jonah, as it does for the Hindoo divinity. It should be noticed that in both of these, the G.o.d has a crown on his head, surmounted with a _triple_ ornament, both of which had evidently the same meaning, _i. e._, _an emblem of the trinity_.[84:3] The Indian Avatar being represented with four arms, evidently means that he is G.o.d of the whole world, his _four_ arms extending to the _four corners of the world_. The _circle_, which is seen in one hand, is an emblem of eternal reward. The _sh.e.l.l_, with its eight convolutions, is intended to show the place in the number of the cycles which he occupied. The _book_ and _sword_ are to show that he ruled both in the right of the book and of the sword.[84:4]

FOOTNOTES:

[78:1] Tylor: Early Hist. Mankind, pp. 344, 345.

[78:2] "En effet, quelques anciens disent qu' Hercule fut aussi devora par la beleine qui gurdoit Hesione, qu'il demeura trois jours dans son ventre, et qu'il sort.i.t chauve de ce sejour." (L'Antiquite Expliquee, vol. i. p. 204.)

[78:3] Bouchet: Hist. d'Animal, in Anac., vol. i. p. 240.

[78:4] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 638. See also Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 306, and Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Jonah."

[79:1] Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 296.

[79:2] See Hebrew Mythology, p. 203.

[79:3] See Tylor's Early Hist. Mankind, and Primitive Culture, vol. i.

[79:4] Chambers's Encyclo., art. Jonah.

[79:5] See Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77, and _note_; and Tylor: Primitive Culture, i. 302.

[80:1] Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 102, 103.

[80:2] This is seen from the following, taken from Pictet: "_Du Culte des Carabi_," p. 104, and quoted by Higgins: _Anac._, vol. i. p. 650: "Vallancy dit que _Ionn_ etoit le meme que Baal. En Gallois _Jon_, le Seigneur, Dieu, la cause premiere. En Basque _Jawna_, _Jon_, _Jona_, &c., Dieu, et Seigneur, Maitre. Les Scandinaves appeloient le _Soleil_ John. . . . Une des inscriptions de Gruter montre ques les Troyens adoroient _le meme_ astre sous le nom de _Jona_. En Persan le _Soleil_ est appele _Jawnah_." Thus we see that the _Sun_ was called _Jonah_, by different nations of antiquity.

[80:3] See Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, p. 148.

[80:4] See Tylor: Early History of Mankind, p. 845, and Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 102, 103.

[80:5] See Tylor: Early History of Mankind, p. 345.

[80:6] Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77.

[80:7] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 88, 89, and Mallet's Northern Antiquities.

[80:8] In ancient _Scandinavian_ mythology, the _Sun_ is personified in the form of a beautiful _maiden_. (See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p.

458.)

[80:9] See Fiske: Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77. Bunce: Fairy Tales, 161.

[80:10] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 307.

"The story of Little Red Riding-Hood, as we call her, or Little Red-Cap, came from the same (_i. e._, the ancient Aryan) source, and refers to the _Sun_ and the _Night_."

"One of the fancies of the most ancient Aryan or Hindoo stories was that there was a great dragon that was trying to devour the Sun, and to prevent him from s.h.i.+ning upon the earth and filling it with brightness and life and beauty, and that Indra, the Sun-G.o.d, killed the dragon.

Now, this is the meaning of Little Red Riding-Hood, as it is told in our nursery tales. Little Red Riding-Hood is the evening Sun, which is always described as red or golden; the old grandmother is the earth, to whom the rays of the Sun bring warmth and comfort. The wolf--which is a well-known figure for the clouds and darkness of night--is the dragon in another form. First he devours the grandmother; that is, he wraps the earth in thick clouds, which the evening Sun is not strong enough to pierce through. Then, with the darkness of night, he swallows up the evening Sun itself, and all is dark and desolate. Then, as in the German tale, the night-thunder and the storm-winds are represented by the loud snoring of the wolf; and then the huntsman, the morning Sun, comes in all his strength and majesty, and chases away the night-clouds and kills the wolf, and revives old Grandmother Earth, and brings Little Red Riding-Hood to life again." (Bunce, Fairy Tales, their Origin and Meaning, p. 161.)

[81:1] Muller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 260.

[82:1] See Goldzhier's Hebrew Mythology, p. 198, et seq.

[82:2] See Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 277.

[82:3] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 259. Also, Fig. No. 5, next page.

[82:4] Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. pp. 418-419.

[82:5] See Pilchard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 190. Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 87. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 646. Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 57.

[82:6] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 646. Smith: Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 39, and Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 57.