Hi all! Bet you didn't expect to see me here! :) The reason I'm here is because Alyndria graciously decided to allow me to contribute a guest column on one of my very favorite subjects, and however could I refuse that. That subject, of course, is mythology and how it can figure into your writing. I hope I don't bore you too much! ;)
First off, I'd like to offer a simple primer on my own "area of expertise," Egyptian mythology. We all have our particular favorites--some Norse myths, some Greek myths, some others. This is the one I know, and I would like you to know about it also. Then, I'll go over some ways that you can work mythology into your own writing. Doesn't that sound like fun! ^_^ Here we go...
To understand Egyptian mythology, you have to understand the ancient Egyptians a little bit. According to their customs, the royal bloodline ran through the female side of the family--and so if a prince wished to become king, he had to marry his royal sister. Marriage of siblings and close relatives was common among the royalty, and it was no different among their gods. Not only this, but they possessed gods for virtually everything; a complete listing has never been compiled. There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of gods, demigods, and demons in the Egyptian pantheon. Thus you'll find that making a concise family tree of the Egyptian gods (or neteru, as they were called) is impossible--especially since divine family ties varied from region to region due to political reasons. ("Our god is better than your god," to be exact.)
This having been said, here is a short listing of the most important gods in Egyptian mythology, and what they're known for.
First we have the gods of the Ennead (a group of nine), or as the Egyptians called it, the Paut Neteru (Company of the Gods):
Shu
Tefnut
Geb
Nut
Osiris
Isis
Set
Nephthys
The number of gods in the Paut Neteru always varied; so "Ennead" is a misleading term! Often, other gods such as Thoth, Horus, or Anubis were added. Those in the Paut Neteru are known as the Heliopolitan cycle of gods, as the center of Ra's worship was in Heliopolis--and Ra ruled over the company.
Ra: Ra, the hawk-headed sun god, was the leader of the gods, who created mankind (according to the Heliopolitan priests--every major city had its own story of who created mankind). He was born from Nunu, the primordial chaos, and daily battled Apophis, an evil serpent who sought to destroy the sun. As at first he had no wife, he took it upon himself to start the royal family and created the gods Shu, Geb, Tefnut, and Nut. (According to some stories, he created only Shu and Tefnut, who gave birth to Geb and Nut.) He possessed a secret name which was the source of his power--and which Isis figured out by sending a snake to bite him, and refusing to heal him until he had told her. Ouch!
Shu: Shu was the god of wind and the air. He was created by Ra and took over rulership after Ra abdicated the throne. When Ra wished for Geb and Nut to be separated, Shu was the one who performed the task, stepping between the two to form the atmosphere. It was he who held up the sky. Sometimes he is listed as the brother of Geb and Nut, other times as their father. He wore a white ostrich feather upon his head.
Tefnut: Tefnut was the goddess of rain and moisture, and the wife of her brother Shu. She sometimes had a lioness's head, and helped her husband hold up the sky.
Geb: Geb was the god of the earth. (In Egyptian mythology, the "Father Sky/Mother Earth" archetype is reversed.) Sometimes he is listed as the son of Ra, other times as the son of Shu; I prefer to consider him the former. He fell in love with his sister, Nut, but Ra forbade the union. The sun god sent Shu to separate the two--but Nut was already pregnant. Geb became the father of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys.
Nut: Nut was the goddess of the sky, and was often depicted arching over the reclining body of her brother while Shu held her up with his hands. When her father, Ra, discovered she was pregnant by Geb, he cursed her, saying she would not be able to bear her children in any month of any year. Thanks to a trick of the god Thoth, who gambled with the moon and won enough light to form five extra days to add to the year, she gave birth to her children anyway.
Osiris: Osiris was the first of the gods to become "mortal," to walk upon earth as a human. He was the son of Geb and Nut, and the husband of his sister Isis. He traveled throughout Egypt civilizing the savages there, and became a beloved king. His brother Set, however, was intensely jealous of his popularity--and Osiris also became the first to pass over to the underworld, which he then ruled as judge and king. His son, Horus, would rise to take his place on earth. He appeared as a mummy wearing a tall white crown.
Isis: One of the most popular Egyptian gods, Isis was the sister and wife of Osiris, and a very powerful magician. When her husband was murdered by Set, she sought out his body and brought him back to life--only to have Set kill him again, cutting him into pieces. She then scoured the land until she had found every last one, and Anubis reassembled them to create the first mummy. Isis was known for her wandering about the swamps as she raised her child, Horus, by herself (the first single mother? ;) ), and also for an incident in which she tricked the great god Ra into telling her his secret name--by means of extortion. She possessed a great heart, but was not one to be trifled with.
Set: The younger brother of Osiris, Set was even born in violence, breaking his way out of his mother's womb before he was due. The popularity of his brother drove him into a fit of rage and he murdered him, twice. When Osiris's son Horus arrived to challenge him for the throne, Set ended up defeated; but he was awarded a loser's prize of two foreign goddesses, and was allowed to ride in Ra's sun boat and fight the demon serpent Apophis. He was the god of storms, chaos, and the desert, and was depicted with the head of an unknown, doglike animal.
Nephthys: Though the wife of Set, Nephthys loved her brother Osiris, and tricked him into sleeping with her. The result of this was the god Anubis. Isis harbored no anger over her husband's infidelity, however, and took Anubis as her servant when Nephthys abandoned him to be raised by a family of greyhounds. When Osiris was murdered, Nephthys assisted her sister in finding the parts of his body. She was the goddess of night, the desert, and sterility, much like Set, as the other two siblings were deities of light and fertility.
Horus: Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis, who was born after Osiris was brought back to life for the first time. Isis raised him alone in the swamps following his father's second murder. He once almost died when a scorpion stung him, but lived to return to Egypt and fight Set for the throne. He lost an eye in the battle, but triumphed. Every pharaoh claimed descent from Horus, who was depicted as a hawk. The "Eye of Horus" became a symbol of healing and protection.
Anubis: Anubis was the illegitimate child of Osiris and Nephthys (though there are some differing accounts of his parentage), who served Isis by embalming his dead father to prepare him for the afterlife. As such, he became the god of embalming, and weighed the hearts of the dead when they were judged before Osiris. Those whose hearts were equal in weight to a feather (the feather of Maat, goddess of truth) were allowed to pass on to paradise. Those whose hearts weighed more because of their sins, however, were cast to a monster, Ammut/Ammit or Amemit, to be eaten and destroyed. Anubis appeared as a man with a jackal's head. (And despite what a certain movie would have you think, he did not lead an army of evil jackal warriors! :P )
Hathor: Hathor was the goddess of both love and war. (Good combination, isn't it?) As Hathor, she bore the ears or head of a cow, carried a special rattle known as the sistrum, and was the goddess of romance, pleasure, fertility, and women. When angered, however, she transformed into her sister goddess Sakhmet, the lioness, and almost destroyed the whole of mankind before her father Ra stopped her by getting her drunk. She was both nursemaid and wife to Horus, and was head of a group of sister-goddesses known as the Seven Hathors, who were much similar to the Fates and predicted children's fortunes after birth.
Thoth: Thoth (or Tehuti ;) ) was the god of the moon, and wisdom, medicine, magic, and the arts and all manners of sciences. It was his voice that brought the world into existence. He could be just as tricky as he was wise, when he gambled to win light to form five new days which were added to the end of the year, so Osiris and his siblings could be born. He ruled over the eight primordial gods of creation and became known as the Lord of the Eight. He also oversaw the weighing of the heart in the afterlife, and wrote down the verdict. He appeared as a man with an ibis's head, and his sacred animal was the baboon. His wife was Maat, the goddess of truth and order.
These are just a few of the many gods of the Egyptians; of course there are others, such as Bastet, Sakhmet, Ptah, Khnum, Sobek, Selket, Bes, Upuat, etc. etc. (I know I will regret leaving one out!), but I can only go on about this for so long. :) This is just to give you an idea of the variety of the ancient Egyptian pantheon, and to illustrate how varying mythologies can be just as intriguing as those that are already well known (hinthintGreekhinthint).
Another point that can be made is the similarity between different mythologies. In the folklore of almost any region you will find several recurring themes--to name but a few:
* Brother Against Brother or Good Twin vs. Bad Twin
* The Great Flood or The Destruction Of Mankind
* The Resurrection or The Great Savior
If I were to ask you what religion these themes were from, what would be the first thing to come to your mind? If you're thinking what I'm thinking, then you would say the Bible. And you would be right. :) However, these are themes that are found in many other religions and mythologies as well. In Egyptian mythology alone, you have Brother Against Brother (Set versus Osiris), the Great Flood/Destruction of Mankind (Ra destroying mankind--and only stopping the slaughter by flooding the fields with beer!); and the Resurrection/Great Savior (Osiris's resurrection, and the return of his son Horus to save mankind). These are only examples from one mythology; I'm certain you can find many more in others.
Now what does all of this have to do with writing, you may ask? :)
We all use recurring, popular themes/characters, or archetypes, in our writing. (Some plot archetypes are listed above; some character archetypes would be the Hero, the Fool, the Mage, the Seductress, the Child, the Mother, the Wounded Healer, etc.) They say that nothing is 100% original, and this may be because of mythology itself. Why are there so many similarities between the religions of different ancient peoples? Because they had the same fears and hopes as the rest of us, and these were evident in the myths they told. Strife between siblings, a fear of death/destruction, and a hope for a new beginning are all very powerful themes even to this day. (Take a moment and compare the myth of Horus, to the plot of Hamlet, to the movie The Lion King.) Far from being clichéd or stereotypical, as long as an archetype is handled creatively, it can make for a great story--because it's that much easier to empathize with the characters involved. We know these people, and we feel their hopes, fears, etc. We've been feeling them for thousands of years, since the first myth was born.
So how can YOU use myths to contribute to creative writing? I've wracked [sic] my little brain to come up with several different ways in which this can be done. I hope you find these of use. :)
After some thought, I came up with a short list of different ways that mythology can be used in your own fictional writing. Here they are:
Rewriting a known myth
Writing an original myth
Using mythological characters in a non-myth
Creating your own mythology
Here is how they work.
Paraphrasing a known myth: This is one of the easiest ways to work mythology into your own writing. Take a myth that is not of your own creation--whether well known or not, from any culture--and "paraphrase" it. That is, rewrite it in your own style and language, but keep most of the important details intact. Some things may be changed or embellished, as myths tend to be scanty in the form in which they've survived; but the main point, and the ending of the story, remain pretty much intact. I did this with the Egyptian myth of Horus; I've likewise seen it done with the myth of Hades and Persephone. This allows the writer to create their own story and experiment with characterization, while having the plot already laid out for them. Note! As myths are public domain, you don't have to worry about copyright. Sometimes I come across fiction with such disclaimers as "Zeus and Heracles don't belong to me, the Greeks created them, I'm just using them for my story so don't sue me!" Don't worry! :) These characters were created thousands of years ago, and nobody owns the copyright on them or their stories. You can do with them whatever you wish.
Rewriting a known myth: This is similar to the above--only with a twist. This is where the writer takes a known (or little-known) myth and rewrites it in their own words, as above, yet changes some important details. Most often this involves redoing the ending, or telling the story from a nontraditional point of view. In the traditional version of the myth of Horus, the sun god Horus is good while Set is evil, having murdered Horus's father, Osiris; naturally, Set and Horus are enemies. In a rewritten version I came across once, Set is the protagonist (and a sympathetic one at that), Osiris is a villain, and Horus and Set, while still rivals, are quite close to one another. Rather than wanting to point out all the "inaccuracies" of the story...I was hooked! It was something truly original. This type of myth-story can also include rewriting traditional fairytales to give them alternate endings--a story where Little Red Riding Hood is the bad guy, for example, while the poor Wolf is her victim. Rewritten myths are among the most intriguing fantasy items to be found, for the simple reason that they're so unexpected.
Writing an original myth: This is where the writer creates a myth of their own, whether using known mythological characters or ones of their own creation. A myth is a story used to explain something--why the world is the way it is, a natural phenomenon, the difference between men and women, where cats came from, why bluejays are blue, etc. Peruse the Mythology section here and you'll be sure to find many examples of original myths. These too can be fun to write. Simply take a natural event that you feel would have made ancient people wonder--a lunar eclipse, for example, or a rainbow, or the rising and falling of the tides--and come up with a creative explanation for it which involves gods and goddesses. You'll be certain to come up with plenty of original explanations, which can make for good stories.
Using mythological characters in a non-myth: Here is where I myself have been a bit misleading with my writing. While some of my stories are labeled "original myths," I believe this is the category most of them actually fall under. This is where a writer uses known mythological/folkloric characters (Zeus, Hades, Venus, Cupid, Osiris, Anubis, Robin Goodfellow, Cu Chulainn, Thor, Odin, Loki, Coyote, Thunderbird, etc.) and uses them in an original, yet non-mythological story. This can be any sort of story that you choose--a romance, a fantasy, even a modern-day story (imagine Coyote the trickster having to deal with sidewalk con artists in the big city!), which does not necessarily describe or explain a natural event. These stories may not always be as compelling as original myths, but they can certainly be interesting. In my opinion, the recent surge of Mummy-related stories can fall into this category, and I'm willing to bet there are many other examples.
Creating your own mythology: Out of the different ways to use mythology in your own writing, this is probably the most involved and difficult of all...yet it's done almost every day, when fantasy writers decide to create their own worlds and populate them with their very own gods and goddesses, each of which has his or her own story to tell. In fact, almost any fantasy writer who has become so involved in their own world that they can give the background details of its deities and peoples can be accused of having created their very own modern mythology. Tolkien and Lovecraft can fall into this category; one good sign of a writer creating their own mythology is the tendency to write more than just one story about their creations. They have to return again and again to tell yet more, to add on to the mythology that they've created. (To see modern myth in the making, visit any RPG worldbuilding sites to learn how this is done. A good place to start is http://directory.google.com/Top/Games/Roleplaying/World_Building/?tc=1 ) Ancient myths changed as they were told over the years--characters were added and subtracted, some became more or less important than others, details were modified or omitted, gods and worlds grew more and more complex the more people added to them. We fantasy writers do the same thing every day...when we set our minds to it. :)
It's a rather exciting thought, to think that you yourself might be creating your own mythology that could be talked about years from now. The only catch is that in order for this to happen, you have to get out that pencil or keyboard and set down the first words. Whether the characters are your own or those of the ancient Greeks, whether they're explaining how the moon came to be or are walking down a city street, you're going to be the one putting their stories into words. Think of what it must have been like for ancient peoples to have done the same thing that you yourself are now doing...and try to let that inspire you.
I hope that this helps you with some ideas! Tar for now, and thanks for allowing me to share! :)
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