Myth of death and disease

From our discussion of the myth of death and disease this week, my group and I have come up with a couple of interesting stories. I will pick some really meaningful myths that our group has discussed and explained what is the symbolism behind these stories. Let’s get started!

Yaramurud’s Really Insistent Mother

Natives of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean say the first person to die was a man named Yaramurud, who lived with his mother and brother. One day he returned from an unsuccessful pig hunt, so his mother brought him some pork from their hut. But when he went to get his knife from the sheath on his back he accidentally cut himself.

His disgusted mother told him: “You are dead now. You had better go away. We do not want you here anymore.” She then picked him up, took him into the woods and buried him. But when she returned home, Yaramurud dug himself out and followed behind her. “Mother, I did not die. Why did you bury me?”

“Oh! I thought you had gone,” exclaimed his mother, in one of the most impressive displays of passive-aggression in world mythology. She then tried to bury him two more times, but each time he came back home.

Getting quite fed up, his mother decided to try a different tactic. She took Yaramurud back to the forest, but this time kicked a hollow tree and asked her son to get inside it. When he did so, she asked him to listen to see if he could hear the spirits. When he realized he could, she declared he was now gone forever and went home satisfied. A few days later, Yaramurud returned as a spirit and killed his brother Toau. Death had now been brought into the world, and as a result, everyone would die.

Pandora’s box

Pandora’s Box is an object in ancient Greek mythology. The story is about Zeus gave Pandora a sealed box and told her to give to the man who married her. Eventually, she couldn’t help being curious and opened the box. A cloud of black smoke rose swiftly from the box and filled the sky like a dark cloud, in which it is full of disease, madness, evil, envy, theft, greed, etc., which spread quickly over the world.

The story appears in many different version, some insist that the Hope (the aid for saving humanity) does come out. Regardless of the outcome, the message that the myth of Pandora wants to deliver to the people is – “don’t lose your hope”. Pandora’s box symbolizes hope. Even though people are constantly suffering and tortured by life, there is always a precious hope in the heart to motivate themselves. Before death, there is always hope, and life is full of good hope.

Although the majority believe that Pandora’s box symbolizes hope, I also insist that it also symbolizes evil. Pandora’s box is used metaphorically to describe the source of disaster, it teaches us that it is important to learn to resist the temptations that surround you. Curiosity can be creative or it can lead you into the disaster. Learn to refrain from thinking rationally and not to be easily tempted is the key to avoid the disaster.

South Asian’s superstitions

Guard the Casket! – Philippines funerals

during funerals and wakes, someone must watch the casket all night before the burial or an aswang, bal-bal or a corpse-stealing ghoul will steal the body, and “replace it with the trunk of a banana tree disguised to look like the deceased” (Peters, 2017). These monsters and ghouls eat flesh, so they hunt for their food during this time. However, keeping a vigil can help keep the monsters at bay. and the watchers will do whatever it takes to stay up such as playing cards, gambling, board games (mahjong), etc. The money won from gambling goes towards the family to help with funeral expenses, so that’s the excuse.

“The first thing which they did on the death of their associates was to perform the larao (which signifies the mourning). This consisted of not eating anything for many days and, at the end, for three consecutive days. During these days, however, they indulged much in intoxication. At night they watched, for it was said that if they did not do so, the aswang would come and would eat the liver if the deceased were young and if he were old the guts.”

The man who leads the dead – the original Chinese zombie

This exotic customs of leading the deceased was originated from Xiangxi  Prefecture in China. In the past, there were no such means of transporting dead back to its homeland after people passed away in the foreign land, then the men who lead the dead was born. They use thin and long strips of wood connect corpses into a line formation. As a result of the large market demand, the corpse line gets super long. In order to keep the privacy of the dead, the men usually work during the night. Until now, parents are still using the story to scare their children not to go out at night.

In modern, this folklore has become a creative inspiration for movies. And this is what shape the look of Chinese zombie in the movie nowadays.

Covid-19

This week’s discussion made me think about the current pandemic across the world. Almost 692K of people have died due to the virus. People die every day from many misfortunes. All the myths are telling us that individuals should take the time to enjoy the finer things in life.

Tale of the Two Messengers

The Zulu, as was discussed this week, is a Bantu Tribe within South Africa. The Tale of the Two Messengers is a Zulu story of the chameleon and the lizard which is originated around death amongst this population. It was told that Unkulunkulu (the Old Old One) sent the chameleon to many men with the message of “go chameleon go and say let not men die.” Chameleon crawled very slowly with frequent breaks to deliver this message- it stopped to eat berries, catch flies, and sleep in the sunlight. The Old Old One had later decided to send a lizard with an opposing message to the men of “lizard when you have arrived say let men die.” Therefore, the lizard went along, passed the chameleon, and arrived first among the men with the message “it is said to let men die” then returned to the Old Old One who had sent him on this quest. Afterward, the chameleon had arrived at last and shouted saying “let not men die!” Men had answered “Oh! We have heard the word of the lizard. It has told us ‘it is said to let men die’ so we cannot hear your word and through the word of the lizard, men will die.” Men have died ever since from that day to this one. Some of the Zulu hate the lizard and question “why did he run first and say- ‘let men die’?” They beat and kill the lizard asking- “why did it speak?” On the other hand, some hate the chameleon saying how it caused the death of ancestors and disease on earth from being so delayed in relaying the message.

What is most striking is the symbolism of the chameleon representing life and the lizard representing death. Personally, I feel as though the chameleon showcases that people die every day from many misfortunes. It might symbolize that individuals should take time to enjoy the finer things in life. For example, how the chameleon travelled slowly to eat the berries, catch flies, and sleep in the sunlight. In the battle of life and death, life does not always win.

Tale of the Two Messengers

The myth of death produced by the Egyptians called “The Field of Reeds” depicts an afterlife that is not an ending to the soul, but a transition to an afterlife which depicts many aspects of life on earth for the individual. The individual is reunited with deceased loved ones and lives as if they were still on earth. The most striking symbol of this Myth is the enchanting way that the soul is described as.

The soul is viewed as the truth-telling and all-knowing figure that tells the Gods and protectors of the afterlife all the sins and deeds that an individual has done. Another symbolic feature that is very prominent is the belief that the field of Reeds emulates ones’ life on earth, this idea impacts the daily life of individuals to create ideal circumstances in which to enjoy life on earth as well as the afterlife. This is impactful when considering other views and values of other cultures at the time. There was no hell in Egyptian belief, if one was deemed a sinner, they would receive the punishment of no existence in the afterlife and the soul would disappear. Another factor that is impactful is the symbolism of the protectors of the afterlife, there are strong protectors that are responsible for keeping darkness and demons out of this perfect eternal afterlife as well as they were responsible for deciding if the individual would progress into the next step of the transition towards the field of reeds, they are viewed as strong, moral and gatekeepers of the peaceful next step of the soul.

Reference:

1. Boyle, A. (2014). 10 Incredibly Bizarre Origins of Death, blog entry, https://listverse.com/2014/02/23/incredibly-bizarre-origins-of-death-from-world-mythology/

2. Wilkin, A. (1906). The Andaman Islanders; a study in social anthropology (Anthony Wilkin studentship research, 1906)

http://archive.org/stream/andamanislanders00radc/andamanislanders00radc_djvu.txt”

3. Ihatespam, Lizzybz, Sara, Reddy, S., Marius, Robinson, R., . . . H.g. (2009, July 23). Pandora’s box, the Greek myth of Pandora and her box. Retrieved July 28, 2020, from https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/pandoras-box-myth/

4. https://www.bustle.com/p/9-myths-beliefs-about-death-in-cultures-from-around-the-world-3198420

5. ReligionFacts, n.d. Tibetan Book of the Dead,  http://www.religionfacts.com/tibetan-book-dead

6. Slater, A.T.  2019. What the Tibetan Book of the Dead Teaches About Life, blog posting at https://catapult.co/stories/darjeeling-journal-what-the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead-teaches-us-about-life-ann-tashi-slater.

7. Vergilio, T. (n.d). Lecture 3 myths of the origin of death. The Gifford Lectures. Retrieved August 1,                  2020, from https://www.giffordlectures.org/books/belief-immortality-and-worship-dead/lecture-3-            myths-origin-death

8. https://www.ancient.eu/article/877/egyptian-afterlife—the-field-of-reeds/