Re: Religion

Christopher wrote in relation to

> >The 'child of the water' myth is obscure. The Greek reflex is

Theseus

> >plunging into the sea to recover a ring, then being escorted to

the court

> >of Amphitrite. Vergil, in one of his Georgics, the one about

Aristeus,

> >also preserves elements of this. There are reflexes in Avestan and
> >Sankrit. It also seems to come part-and-parcel with a 'fire in

water'

> >myth. Whatever it means, it would seem to be of PIE status.
>
> This is interesting to me, for Theseus also has a myth where he

recovers his

> father's sword from underneath a stone. This is a rare motif which

seems

> close to King Arthur's removal of the sword in the stone. Arthur

shares

> certain other characteristics which link him to some Celtic

Apollonic gods

> (Irish Fraoch, for instance) that were closely associated with the

waters.

> It would be very interesting if we could add Arthur to the list of

PIE

> "child of the waters" types.

The recovery of sacred objects beneath the waters all appear to stem
from a Sumerian source. I would refer you to the Epic of Gilgamesh
in which Utunapishtim informs Gilgamesh that the flower of
immortality blooms beneath the waters. There is a description of how
the hero ties boulders around his ankles to retreive the blossom,
that seems to have been the source for later myths such as that of
Theseus.

There is also a link between the mythic descent to the underword and
the descent into water, as a symbol of the unconscious realm of
dreams and the imagination. I would strongly suggest people check
out Joseph Campbell's "Hero of a Thousand Names" here.

Regards

John