Re: [tied] Re: Greek Gods I : APOLLO

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 9696
Date: 2001-09-23

>Or could be a trickery of trickster, messenger, transmorphic, fire-god
>(Hermes), raiding the cattle of Sun (Seilenos or Apollo).

Well yes, Hermes has "fire" connections and as I stated earlier,
he would have the ability to morph as well as to travel between
worlds. As we all know, Hermes is a traveler as well as a trickster,
fitting the "fire god" persona well. However, I don't believe
it was originally Fire that stole the cattle, nor do I think that
it was the Sun who owned the cattle. Clearly, _people_ own cattle,
not celestial bodies, and it's not too difficult to believe that
the original tale was about _people_ and _human_ strife.

*Manus, a god made _human_ (or a "fallen angel", if you will), must
be the one who owned the cattle in the first place. The strife
(a water serpent and other ordeals) would come to him as punishment
for his fratricide. It all fits nicely together. From what else
could all these myths derive??

From there, *Manus, the first human, is eventually glorified as
the big Hero and connected with the Sun, partly because of his
parentage and partly because the sun is beautiful and bright like
a good, brave deity should be. The stealing of cattle is a
"tricky" thing to do, so is it any wonder that Fire ends up with
this role over time? Originally, I believe it was the wife of
*Dye:us that served as the physical embodiment of "justice" to
torture *Manus. It's all so symmetrical!

-------------------------------------------------
Glen Gordon
Webdeveloper

home: http://glen_gordon.tripod.com
email: glengordon01@...
ph: (604)904.0320
-------------------------------------------------


Maybe a parallel
>to Ulysses stealing the cattle of Hyperion, the Homeric Sun-God.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Joseph S Crary <pva@...>
>To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Friday, September 21, 2001 2:58 AM
>Subject: [tied] Re: Greek Gods I : APOLLO
>
>
> >
> > Cort
> >
> > I think the Cattle Raid of Hermes is a myth about change, lunar
> > eclipses and seasonal. Here Hermes plays the part of the underworld
> > god. The bovines are lunar cattle that pull the cart that the moon
> > and/or sun god drives. It seems that Initially, the myth was about
> > the IE deity Silen-os. This is a name that can mean both moon and
> > sun, as in solar. Later Silenos is reduced in status, while remaining
> > the myth's main action figure. As the Apollon deity usurped Silenos
> > by the time the myth was recorded, the former was simply inserted
> > into the cattle raid story to explain why he also was a god of music.
> >
> > This appears to be a primeval IE myth with Hemes the god of death and
> > winter, and Silenos a fertility god. Whats interesting about this
> > myth is that Hemes and Silenos have attributes also found in Lugh,
> > Angus, Belenos, Ing, and Frey. This suggests that each deity within
> > this later group represent the condensation or composite of several
> > earlier forms.
> >
> >
> > JS Crary
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
>http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
>


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