My group and I did not have a lot of discussions this week, but the one discussion we had was about the painting “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci. To give a brief on this painting we talked about how this myth of The Last Supper had various untold secrets or messages. However, the main theme of this week was the inception of fantastic being in mythic narratives.
While comparing and contrasting various Christian, Jewish and Islamic myths, the theme reflected conspicuously the mythical fantastic beasts. I was so stoked to read about Monsters, Demons and other mythical creatures in the Jewish Lore as well as Five Fantastic Beasts in Christina texts. There are a copious number of myths in the Jewish narrative, but the central theme I would like to discuss today is about mythical creatures, demons or witches. To start by projecting my interpretations of this idea and this theme, I would like to start off by saying that the idea of witches, ghosts, monsters and demons revolves around in every religion one way or the other. May it be the five fantastic beasts in Christianity, monsters and demons in Jewish Lore or the god of death in Buddhism. They are shapeshifters, just circulating and living vicariously through other beings or animals trying to interfere in human life. Take for example Leviathan, the terrifying sea monster also known as the best of chaos, Levitation the sea monster is present in both Christian texts as well as Jewish Lore.
Now let us take a look at Oni, they are Japanese Demons “The powers of the Oni are tremendous – they can reattach body parts they lose in fights, fly, change form at will, and inflict disease, insanity, and death as they see fit. Intelligent and extremely nasty, Oni revel in causing societal breakdown, and eat and drink to excess. Their favorite food is human flesh.” (Putri, 2020) As you can see from this biography of the demon, we can come to the conclusion that this demon is not very different from the beast of chaos.
Here’s a picture of Oni (giant beast) and Leviathan (Beast of Chaos)
Photo: Utagawa Kuniyoshi/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
https://d2l.ucalgary.ca/d2l/le/content/309867/viewContent/4091105/View
Although the mythical beasts from these religions are similar, there is one huge contrast between them. The mythical beasts in Christina text and the Jewish Lore have the same representation, it is a monster but the Buddhist demon Oni, has a different motive altogether. With some research, I found out that in the Buddhism religion people actually believe in these demons to remove all the selfish and bad people and punish them keeping their religion pure. The demon Oni “ wield massive iron clubs (kanabo), and their spirits are reborn from dead souls with an ax to grind – those who perished in famines or epidemics, jealous women, or wicked people condemned to a tormented afterlife in a Buddhist hell. They dole out punishment to wicked people, and serve the demon lord Enma.” So to bring this to an end I can conclude to say that not all Monsters, demons and witches are meant to cause chaos on earth or scare their believers, some are helping the society and the safekeeping of a religion.
However, my personal favourite demon or I would say the monster is Golem from the Jewish lore. If the stories about Golem still existing in some attic is true, I would definitely like to explore and go in-depth about this. Let me know what you all think about mythical beasts and demons.
References
Mjl. (n.d.). Monsters, Demons, and Other Mythical Creatures in Jewish Lore. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/monsters-demons-and-other-mythical-creatures-in-jewish-lore/
Five Fantastic Beasts in Christina texts (https://d2l.ucalgary.ca/d2l/le/content/309867/viewContent/4091125/View )
Sang, K. (2019, November 26). Top Eight Tibetan Buddhist Demons. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://www.tibettravel.org/tibetan-buddhism/tibetan-buddhist-demons.html
Putri, E. (2020, July 2). The 19 Scariest Demons And Monsters From Buddhism. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://www.ranker.com/list/buddhism-monsters-and-demons/edira-putri
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