To go in viking was to kill and plunder. Lysir Eyvindsson, chieftain in Bralund, leads a raid on Kurland to avenge his brother - because his brother was killed while attacking Kurland! This cannot be right action. Gangleri (Odin) gets Hadding (the incarnation of Njord) to join Lysir's expedition. We expect better from the gods than this.
Somewhere on this blog, I listed my favourite gods, regarding them as "higher fictions," to use Alan Moore's phrase. Here is another attempt at a list:
Indra released rain;
Prometheus stole fire;
Krishna taught karma yoga;
the Buddha (not a god but he taught them) taught meditation;
Jesus preached the kingdom;
Odin sought wisdom;
Thor killed giants.
Seven is a sacred number so maybe I should stop there?
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But these nonentities worshiped by the Scandinavians were pagan gods, so we should not expect them to be BETTER than their devotees.
If you want to see SOME philosophic and theological depth in some none-Biblical/revealed faiths, I suggest looking up the Amon hymns dating from the XIX Dynasty of Egypt. In them we see some thinkers straining the limits of polytheism and coming gropingly close to monotheism.
Ad astra! Sean
"Amon hymns dating from the XIX Dynasty of Egypt. In them we see some thinkers straining the limits of polytheism and coming gropingly close to monotheism."
I'm surprised you don't mention the XVIII dynasty Aten hymns. My understanding is that Aten worship *was* montheistic.
Have you heard the opera "Akenaten" by Phillip Glass about that Pharaoh who tried to impose monotheistic Aten worship on Egypt? Listen particularly to the "Hymn to the Sun". The words to that are a translation into English of the original Egyptian words allegedly writen by Akenaten.
Indra brings rain; so did Thor. And Indra "rends fortified cities as the rushing passage of time rends cheap cloth". Also "I am become Death, breaker of worlds."
Kaor, Jim!
But I did think of Pharaoh Akhenaten (or Amonhotep IV) and the cult of the Aten that he fostered in the late XVIII Dynasty. There were reasons why I did not stress his example. One being that worship of the Aten was overthrown Akhenaten's and the worship of Amon and the other gods were restored by his son Tutankhamon after his death. Another thought I had was thinking the cult of the Aten was too short lived and unpopular for the sole god preached by Akhenaten to inspire much thought and reflection of the kind seen a century later in the Amon hymns.
Ad astra! Sean
I'm not familiar with the Amon hymns you mentioned, but I wonder if they were written by people who had some sympathy with Aten worship, but wrote Amon instead of Aten to keep their heads on their bodies.
Kaor, Jim!
I will rectify my too brief comments. The hymn I had in mind was quoted by Fr, Georges Auzou on page 17 of his book THE FORMATION OF THE BIBLE (H. Berder Book Company, 1963. From an Egyptian text called the Papyrus of Leiden. From what I saw in a quick google online, it dates from the XIX Dynasty, but copied a much older text text stemming from the late XII Dynasty. I will quote the excerpt given: "Unique is Amon, hidden from the gods, his appearance is not known. He is higher than the heavens, deeper than hades; he is too mysterious for his glory to be revealed, too great to be examined, too powerful to be known. One would fall dead with fright on the instant, if one were to pronounce his secret name which none may know"..."Hidden soul is his Name, so mysterious is he"..."He possesses eyes and ears, for him whom he loves; he hears he supplication of him who invokes him. He comes from afar in an instant for him who cries to him."
So elevated conceptions of Amon existed long before the Amarna period and the Aten cult.
Ad astra! Sean
Thank you for expanding on that information.
It sounds like the Aten cult & the post Akhenaten exalted conception of Amon were both influenced by these earlier ideas from at least as far back as the XII dynasty.
Kaor, Jim!
That is possible, I agree.
I don't know if you have read them, but the journalist and novelist Allen Drury wrote two novels in the 1970's called A GOD AGAINST THE GODS and RETURN TO THEBES, dealing with Akhenaten, Amon, and the Aten. Dated in some respects, but worth reading.
Ad astra! Sean
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