Milky Way Myths
In preparation for my latest presentation, Sales Myths, I want to start out with an example of a myth, namely the origin of the Milky Way in the night sky.Encyclopedia of Myths
The Milky Way, a dense band of stars that spans the sky, marks the center of the galaxy to which our solar system belongs. In myths, however, the Milky Way has been a road, a river, and a bridge between worlds. According to a Peruvian tradition, the Vilcanota River is a reflection of the Milky Way and water constantly circulates between the two, passing from the river to heaven and back again. The Navajo say that the trickster Coyote created the Milky Way by tossing a blanket full of sparkling stone chips into the sky. Scattered in a great arc, the stones formed a pathway linking heaven and earth.
In many traditions, the stars have been associated with death and the afterlife. The Maya considered the Milky Way to be the road to Xibalba, the underworld. Many Native Americans regard the Milky Way as the path followed by the souls of the dead. According to the Zulu and Ndebele people of southern Africa, the stars are the eyes of dead ancestors, keeping watch on the living from above.
Wikipedia has a good run down including Greek, Eastern, Maori and Christian.
Greek
One legend describes the Milky Way as a smear of milk, created when the baby Herakles suckled from the goddess Hera. When Hera realized that the suckling infant was not her own but the illegitimate son of Zeus and another woman, she pushed it away and the spurting milk became the Milky Way.
Another story tells that the milk came from the goddess Rhea, the wife of Cronus, and the suckling infant was Zeus himself. Cronus swallowed his children to ensure his position as head of the Pantheon and sky god, and so Rhea conceived a plan to save her newborn son Zeus: She wrapped a stone in infant's clothes and gave it to Cronus to swallow. Cronus asked her to nurse the child once more before he swallowed it, and the milk that spurted when she pressed her nipple against the rock eventually became the Milky Way.
Older mythology associates the constellation with a herd of dairy cows/cattle, whose milk gives the blue glow, and where each cow is a star.
Eastern
Peoples in Eastern Asia believed that the hazy band of stars was the "Silvery River" of Heaven
Christian
Medieval Christians believed that the Way was the dust raised by the pilgrims on the Way of Saint James.
Cherokee Indian Mythology
A large dog swoops down from the sky and steals cornmeal. The villagers scare him off, and he leaps into the sky, trailing cornmeal out the sides of his mouth
Mayan
[When the world was created] a pillar of the sky was set up . . . that was the white tree of abundance in the north. Then the black tree of abundance was set up [in the west]. . . . Then the yellow tree of abundance was set up [in the south]. Then the [great] green [ceiba] tree of abundance was set up in the center [of the world]
Linda Schele discovered that the World Tree is a literal depiction of the heavens as well as an abstract symbol. Her investigations, vividly recounted in Maya Cosmos, led her to the conclusion that the Milky Way is the World Tree. The Maya long count was initiated on or about August 13 in 3114 BC, the date of Creation. At dawn in mid-August, the Milky Way stands erect, running through the zenith from north to south. It becomes the axis of the heavens, the raised up sky.
Navajo
In yet another stellar creation myth the Milky Way symbolizes the white corn meal sprinkled by First Woman as she says her morning prayers. It therefore serves as a visual reminder to pray to the dawn, which the Navajo view as a source of life (Griffin-Pierce 1992b:124). In the stellar creation myth recorded by Newcomb (1967:78-88), First Man and First Woman arrange the stars after first shooting two crooked fire arrows into the sky to form a ladder. Coyote then creates the Milky Way by flinging into the air the star dust that remains on their blanket. This great arc provides a pathway for the spirits traveling between heaven and earth, each little star being one footprint. At this point, First Woman proclaimed: “Now all the laws our people will need are printed in the sky where everyone can see them. One man of each generation must learn these laws so he may interpret them to the others and, when he is growing old, he must pass this knowledge to a younger man who will then be the teacher. The commands written in the stars must be obeyed forever!”
posted by Matthew O. Smith @ 9:12 AM
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