Tag Archives: Week 4

Week 4: A Collection of Observations – Kāliya, the Snake

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I took some notes during my reading of ‘Kāliya, the Snake’. I don’t know a super coherent way to organize my thoughts here, so I am going to separate them by bullet points.

  • “Serpent worship is among the world’s oldest and most widespread religious practices.” This surprised me. Maybe it’s because I was raised, and the snake is a symbol of the Devil in Christian/Catholic ideologies. It might be because my dad has an ungodly fear of snakes, so I’ve always seen them as something to avoid and not to worship. Maybe I’ve been living under a rock – either way, it’s cool. The only snake-like God or deity I can imagine is Geb from Ancient Egypt.
  • “Then he came upon the river Yamunā, whose waves were tossing about as if she were laughing, throwing patches of foam on the banks.” I really like the use of personification to describe the river Yamunā. I firmly believe one of the fundamental problems with us as a species is how we stopped looking at the natural world as its own being. I don’t know if that makes any sense. To most people words like ‘lake’, ‘river’, ‘tree’, ‘mountain’, etc. are just that – words. They are void of personality and I’d be willing to bet for a lot of people, placing humanlike behaviors on these words would be considered weird or hippy-esque. As a species, it almost seems like we stopped trying to understand the natural world – we replaced that connection with the hellbent desire to conquer it. We stopped adapting to Earth, now Earth has to adapt to us. Unfortunately I think its too late to turn the tides on humanity (singular) we view our planet.
  • “How can I, a mere woman, describe you? . . . Since silly women and miserable creatures are to be pitied by the virtuous, please forgive this wretched creature, you who are eminent among the forgiving!” Once again, gross gross GROSS. It’s so crazy to write a story and have a woman just blatantly say this. I’m assuming this story was passed down orally in Hindu for centuries, so for centuries these ideals were fed to young boys and girls. I know that this note isn’t very constructive as its saying somethings thats already been said and will probably be said for the rest of our course from time to time – but golly, this undisguised degradation of women as an entirety is so baffling and strange.

Ancient Mythology

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After reading the story about Oannes, I found him to have good moral and extremely helpful to the human population at Babylon. It sounded like he actually brought peace to the city since the book described Babylon as, “a great resort of people of various nations an lived without rule and order, like the beasts in the field.” Teaching these “beasts” about letters, science, construction, and how to gather food sounds like he helped civilize the population. The book also says he didn’t accept food and went back to his home (ocean) at nightfall, meaning he didn’t want anything in return for his teachings, signaling he did it out of the kindness of his heart.

The comparison between Oannes and the mermaid described in “Merpeople” is very different. Where Oannes seemed like a peace bringing and insightful figure, the mermaids are depicted as evil, deceiving, and sinful. I was not surprised because I remembered reading how misogynistic times were long ago and how mermaids were another tool used to degrade the image of feminism. One thing I found interesting was that although I was aware the Christian Church spent many years degrading a woman’s image that even Greek mythology followed the same practice, this can be seen with the Greek figure Scylla who was a female sea monster.

Week 4: Ancient Origin Myths

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For this week’s reading I found it fairly interesting and quite fascinating because I really like the specific reading of “Sedna.” When starting the reading it already caught my attention because of the fact that the story was talking about a woman / mermaid having power and control over something, whereas in past readings mermaids were not given this much power and was seen as less than; “A young woman becomes the mother of all sea creatures. As the sea goddess, Sedna has dominion over her creatures and controls the availability of seal, walrus, fish, whale, and other sea animals to Inuit hunters” (Lenore Lindeman). This story particularly got my attention because it was talking about a woman being more self assured and strong as opposed to oppressing women / mermaids in previous readings. As well, in the reading I found some correlations between this story and some Disney princesses, and loving Disney so much I found it quite amusing seeing parallels in the story. For example Sedna reminds me of Pocahontas when the story says, “Many Inuit men desired Sedna for a wife and asked her parents for permission to marry her. But Sedna refused them all. Even when her parents insisted it was time for her to marry she refused to follow tradition and obey them” (Lenore Lindeman). Similar to Pocahontas, Sedna refused the hand of men and was not afraid to refuse tradition, which I thought was exciting to see women / mermaids having power over something and not needing to conform to others. Also when I continued to read, I saw a similar correlation to another Disney movie, specifically Moana and the Goddess Te Fiti because it says, “Sedna now controls all of the animals of the sea. The Inuit who rely on these animals want to maintain a good relationship with Sedna, so that she will continue to allow her animals to make themselves available to the hunters” (Lenore Lindeman). I particularly saw this connection because in the movie the island people are always talking about how they need to have a good relationship with Te Fiti so that their island can prosper, and seeing the parallel in this story about needing to have a good connection with Sedna to be able to have food reminded me of the movie Moana. My favorite part of the story is when it talks about men needing to do tasks to be able to please Sedna, “He or she will swim down to the bottom of the ocean to appease Sedna the Sea Goddess. The Shaman will comb the tangles out of Sedna’s hair and put it into braids. This makes her happy and soothes her anger” (Lenore Lindeman). I thought this part quite intriguing because it displays man praising Sedna, a women and mermaid, which we have not seen in past readings where all they talk about is warning others about mermaids and displaying such a negative connotation and trying to control them; where here in this story it conveys the opposite and talks about man trying to appease a mermaid and praising her, which I particularly liked because I’m always happy to see women thriving and in control.

Week 4: Water Beings of Pacific Islands, Inuit, and North America

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Many of the Indigenous tales from around the world depict water beings in many different ways. Whether the beings are male or female, obliging or obstructive, their appearance closer to human or other, and if they are perceived by the people as benign or malevolent. These cross cultural bodies appear in many different ways. Though in some tales I found similarities.

In “The Tuna (Eel) of Lake Vaihiria”, the young princess Hina is expected to marry the King of Vailhiria, whose physical appearance is that of an “immense eel”. With help from the spirit-like man Maui, the head of the eel provides a coconut tree for her. In Sedna, a mistreated and wronged woman becomes a water spirit with the “head and torso of a woman and the tail of a fish”.

In these two tales, the water beings provide for the people through resources such as food and even shelter, though the tales are from different parts of the world, Pacific Islands and Inuit people. The stories may reflect what the people needed most at the time, resources. In the Tuna story, the eel is the malevolent being promised to a beautiful young girl, however, his cut off head provides food for her and her new-found family. This is done through the form of a bountiful coconut tree. In the Sedna story, she is taken advantage by a bird-man, and later betrayed by her father. However, after becoming a powerful sea spirit, she provides food for the Inuit ” who rely on these animals want to maintain a good relationship with Sedna” by keeping her happy with “certain taboos” or traditions. These ancient origin myths might serve as an explanation for environments, resources and knowledge. Though different in many ways, they are also similar.

Week 4 – Oannes (The Penguin Book of Mermaids)

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Now beginning all the stories that have to do with mermaids, I felt the one of Oannes left me with the most questions. I thought it was interesting how Oannes was a figure of both human and non-human who came to give guidance to the people of Babylon since they were “like beast” (page 3). The specific part that stood out and left me with so many questions was “he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and humanise mankind” (page 3). It was intriguing to read about how through one “thing” who was considered both human and non-human that many humans were able to believe in what he said, guided them through impactful things from life, and essentially gave them the basics to everyday living without any sort of questioning, so why overtime did this stop? Oannes was both fish and human, and yet humans were able to confide and trust every word he said without hesitation. The story of Oannes shows that at some point in the history of humanity, us humans were able to trust the unknown and fully believe in hybrid and mythical creatures as a guide to our living, what during our history did we stop believing in this? It’s a bit surreal to see the change in how at some point in life humans were very open to new things, and now the history of hybrid and mythical creatures are all being taught as a myth to generations now and making life a bit more sheltered to life outside of human kind.

After searching up Oannes and seeing how he was depicted, I thought it was interesting to see how they made it known he was both fish and man. In some pictures he was presented more as a merman but in others they make a clear distinction between a man almost looking like he was wearing a fish coat. The picture below shows Oannes as a mixtures of the two most common pictures, he is shown as a mermaid with a fish head like coat, walking up from the ocean and almost showing himself as a friend to men so they wouldn’t be alarmed with his physical being.

Week 4 (Penguin Book)

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The first few myths of the book are so far, pretty interesting. It was really neat to see how some elements of the mermaid have stayed the same (the fish features and the connection to water, for example). But I think the one that really spoke to me this time was the sharing of information, particularly with Oannes, the first myth we had to read. He seemed very fun, but his description boggled and intrigued me. (here is my mspaint interpretation of Oannes, bless his heart. I drew this with my fingers) “…the whole body of the animal was like that of a fish;and had under a fish’s head another head, and also feet below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish’s tail.” (pages 3-4)

You’re telling me THIS CREATURE MAN was giving people advice and sage wisdom?

Real talk, I think this connection of water and knowledge is interesting. “…and he gave them an insight into letters, and sciences, and every kind of art”. (page 4) So were all of their cultural advancements solely centered around the ocean? Around Oannes? Or did Oannes know of things beyond the ocean? From his section in the book, he doesn’t come off as malevolent. Perhaps the people of Babylon had a very beneficial relationship with their ocean. Or maybe Oannes had Good Vibes ™.

Kaliya, Week 4

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The main reading that stood out to me this week was the story of Kaliya, the snake. I think it’s powerful that in this variation, unlike many others, the snake is let free to return to the ocean with its family. This draws out the overarching message of humbleness (regarding the snakes’ ability to admit that it was wrong) and forgiveness in that the man didn’t slay the sea serpent. A powerful quote that I was attracted to from this portion was that, “Destruction becomes the catalyst for creation” (Penguin, page 5). This part stood out to me because it also reflects the relationship between the people and the snake in that they broke out into this huge battle (destruction) that resulted in a relationship in which the snake later protected the people and river. The battle ultimately resulted in a mutually beneficial relationship built on respect, another prominent theme across merpeople stories. I think there are also a couple of real-life applications from this reading, like the pollution of the snake rendering the water useless for the people and their livestock, which ultimately was a problem solved by a confrontation with a water being. More importantly, when the snake says, “I am not at fault in this matter, Acyuta, for it is you who pour fourth and absorb the world; classes, forms, and natures […]” (Penguin, page 8), the serpent is drawing attention to the anthropogenic views being imposed upon the world. Not too long ago the world didn’t have humans, and all other beings freely roamed the earth. What I believe the serpent is trying to say is that we (as humans) have a responsibility to respect nature and the environments around us and to live in unison, opposed to being in opposition with the beasts that inhabit the same lands as us. 

The Beauty of Mermaids vs. The Fear of Sirens

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The topic I want to explore in this week’s blog post is the power of the sirens’ knowledge in unison with humans’ dying quest for knowledge. To my previous knowledge, sirens lured men through their beauty and men’s sexual desires, as the men were unable to resist the temptation of such beautiful women. After reading, I learned this perspective wrong and sailors were attracted to the knowledge the sirens had to share. I have long thought of sirens as monsters rather than well-versed beings of the universe and have perceived the mermaid as a hierarchical figure.

Why is it that the sirens who share knowledge, have developed the reputation of monsters, but the beautiful mermaids are renowned for their popularity? What does this belief say about a human woman and the response when they possess complex knowledge versus simple beauty? I honestly find this relationship difficult to investigate because there are so many implications and questions embedded within it.

On page 9 of Odysseus and the Sirens, it states, “Sirens deduce: lead astray, diver, lead elsewhere, persuaded to desert one’s allegiance, corrupt.” I found this quote interesting because of the Siren’s representation as deceitful and “corrupt” which may still be interpreted as so. The Siren is meant to tempt men with their knowledge, so far that it leads them men to their deaths. We have talked about the correlation between Adam and Eve with this similar temptation, and human’s natural reaction to falling for temptation.

“The lure and knowledge the Sirens held in antiquity had to do with life and death, or knowing the future beyond human ability so much with sexuality” ( page, 9). Sirens are the ultimate possessor of knowledge which is why they are so enticing. Since the dawn of time, humans have strived for knowledge and even killed to obtain it, yet we fear it and those who possess it. Although their possession of knowledge is feared ( which makes sense because it kills you), I think this has a possible tie to the fear of human women “knowing”. Over centuries woman have been suppressed to limit their knowledge, as they have been boarded for the workplace, education, etc. Yet these siren’s knowledge is limitless and they are represented as monsters because of their knowledge. When we look at the typical depiction of a mermaid and their beauty they are looked up to, in the church in society, etc. for their sexual representation and beauty. This is the same for woman as woman with beauty are praised and looked up to as idols, their lack of knowledge is what people hope for.

Why is it that a woman possessing knowledge is feared but a woman possessing beauty is expected?