Dying-and-rising deity
Resurrection deity | |
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James Frazer, Carl Jung, Tryggve Mettinger | |
Subject | Mythology Religion |
A dying-and-rising, death-rebirth, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god or goddess dies and is
Frazer's interpretation of the category has been critically discussed in 20th-century scholarship,
Overview
The
The methods of death vary. In Germanic mythology, for example, Baldr (whose account was likely first written down in the 12th century), is inadvertently killed by his blind brother Höðr who is tricked into shooting a mistletoe-tipped arrow at him. Baldr's body is then set aflame on a ship as it sails out to sea.[10][12] Baldr does not come back to life because not all living creatures shed tears for him, and his death then leads to the "doom of the gods".[10][12]
By contrast, most variations of Quetzalcoatl's story (first written down in the 16th century) have Quetzalcoatl tricked by Tezcatlipoca to over-drink and then burn himself to death out of remorse for his own shameful deeds.[10][14] Quetzalcoatl does not resurrect and come back to life as himself, but some versions of his story have a flock of birds flying away from his ashes. In some variants, Quetzalcoatl sails away on the ocean never to return.[10][14]
Hawaiian deities can die and depart the world in a number of ways. Some gods who were killed on Lanai by Lanikuala departed for the skies.[10] In contrast, Kaili leaves the world by canoe and is never seen again.[10] The Japanese god Izanami dies giving birth to the child Kagu-tsuchi (incarnation of fire) or Ho-Musubi (causer of fire) and Izanagi goes to Yomi, the land of gloom, to retrieve her, but she has already changed to a deteriorated state and Izanagi will not bring her back, and she pursues Izanagi, but he manages to escape.[10][13]
Some traditions tie the cycle of life and death brought about by the seasons to deities which themselves undergo a cycle of death and rebirth. In effect, these gods take the form of a
Development of the concept
The term "dying god" is associated with the works of
Early in the 20th century,
The Swiss
The analysis of Osiris permeates the later religious psychology of Carl Jung more than any other element.[22] In 1950 Jung wrote that those who partake in the Osiris myth festival and follow the ritual of his death and the scattering of his body to restart the vegetation cycle as a rebirth "experience the permanence and continuity of life which outlasts all changes of form".[23] Jung wrote that Osiris provided the key example of the rebirth process in that initially only the Pharaohs "had an Osiris" but later other Egyptians nobles acquired it and eventually it led in the concept of soul for all individuals in Christianity.[24] Jung believed that Christianity itself derived its significance from the archetypal relationship between Osiris and Horus versus God the Father and Jesus, his son.[22] However, Jung also postulated that the rebirth applied to Osiris (the father), and not Horus, the son.[22]
The general applicability of the death and resurrection of Osiris to the dying-and-rising-god analogy has been criticized, on the grounds that it derived from the harvesting rituals that related the rising and receding waters of the
In
The oldest known example of the "dying god rising myth" is the Sumerian myth of Inanna's Descent to the Underworld. The Sumerian goddess Inanna travels to the Underworld to see her sister Ereshkigal. While there, she is "struck down" and turns into a corpse. For three days and three nights, Inanna is dead, until she is resurrected with the help of her father, Enki, who sends the two galla to bring her back. The galla serve Inanna food and water and bring her back to life. [31]
Scholarly criticism
The category "dying-and-rising-god" was debated throughout the 20th century, most modern scholars questioning its ubiquity in the world's mythologies.[10] By the end of the 20th century the scholarly consensus was that most of the gods Frazer listed as 'dying-and-rising' only died and did not rise.[10] Kurt Rudolph in 1986 argued that the oft-made connection between the mystery religions and the idea of dying and rising divinities is defective. Gerald O'Collins states that surface-level application of analogous symbolism is a case of parallelomania which exaggerates the importance of trifling resemblances, long abandoned by mainstream scholars.[32] Against this view, Mettinger (2001) affirms that many of the gods of the mystery religions do indeed die, descend to the underworld, are lamented and retrieved by a woman and restored to life. However, Mettinger also disincludes Christianity from this influence.[7]
While the concept of a "dying-and-rising god" has a longer history, it was significantly advocated by Frazer's Golden Bough (1906–1914). At first received very favourably, the idea was attacked by Roland de Vaux in 1933, and was the subject of controversial debate over the following decades.[33] One of the leading scholars in the deconstruction of Frazer's "dying-and-rising god" category was Jonathan Z. Smith, whose 1969 dissertation discusses Frazer's Golden Bough,[34] and who in Mircea Eliade's 1987 Encyclopedia of religion wrote the "Dying and rising gods" entry, where he dismisses the category as "largely a misnomer based on imaginative reconstructions and exceedingly late or highly ambiguous texts", suggesting a more detailed categorisation into "dying gods" and "disappearing gods", arguing that before Christianity, the two categories were distinct and gods who "died" did not return, and those who returned never truly "died".[35][36] Smith gave a more detailed account of his views specifically on the question of parallels to Christianity in Drudgery Divine (1990).[37] Smith's 1987 article was widely received, and during the 1990s, scholarly consensus seemed to shift towards his rejection of the concept as oversimplified, although it continued to be invoked by scholars writing about ancient Near Eastern mythology.[38]
Beginning with an overview of the
A main criticism charges the group of analogies with reductionism, insofar as it subsumes a range of disparate myths under a single category and ignores important distinctions. Detienne argues that it risks making Christianity the standard by which all religion is judged, since death and resurrection are more central to Christianity than many other faiths.[42] Dag Øistein Endsjø, a scholar of religion, points out how a number of those often defined as dying-and-rising-deities, such as a number of figures in ancient Greek religion, actually died as ordinary mortals, only to become gods of various stature after they were resurrected from the dead. Not dying as gods, they thus defy the definition of "dying-and-rising-gods".[43]
Tryggve Mettinger, who supports the category of dying and rising gods, stated in 2001 that there was a scholarly consensus that the category is inappropriate.[15] As of 2009, the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion summarizes the current scholarly consensus as ambiguous, with some scholars rejecting Frazer's "broad universalist category" preferring to emphasize the differences between the various traditions, while others continue to view the category as applicable.[9]
In the 2010s, Paola Corrente conducted an extensive survey of the status of the dying and rising god category. While she agrees that much of Frazer's specific evidence was faulty, she argues that the category as a whole is valid, though she suggests modifications to the specific criteria. Corrente specifically focuses her attention on several Near Eastern and Mesopotamian gods as examples which she argues have been largely ignored, both by Frazer (who would not have had access to most relevant texts) and his more recent critics. These examples include the goddess Inanna in Sumerian texts and Ba'al in Ugaritic texts, whose myths, Corrente argues, offer concrete examples of death and resurrection. Corrente also utilizes the example of Dionysus, whose connection to the category is more complicated, but has still been largely ignored or mischaracterized by other scholars including Frazer himself in her view.[44][45]
In popular culture
In the webcomic Homestuck, players of the universe-creating game Sburb can attain conditional immortality and extraordinary power by ascending to "god tier," a process that requires dying on a special sacrificial bed. God-tier players can be killed normally, but will return anew so long as the game does not judge their deaths "heroic" or "just."[46]
In the video game Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, Razgriz is a powerful fairy tale demon who first uses its power to "[rain] death upon the land," before dying and returning as a great hero.[47]
See also
Notes
- ^ Leeming, "Dying god" (2004)
- ^ Burkert 1979, 99
- ^ Stookey 2004, 99
- ^ a b c d Miles 2009, 193
- ^ Frazer, quoted in Mettinger 2001:18, cited after Garry and El-Shamy, p. 19
- ^ summary in Mettinger (2001:15–39)
- ^ a b Garry and El-Shamy (2004:19f.), citing Mettinger (2001:217f.): "The world of ancient Near Eastern religions actually knew a number of deities that may be properly described as dying and rising [... although o]ne should not hypostasize these gods into a specific type ' the dying and rising god.'"
- ^ Thompson's categories A192. Death or departure of the gods and A193. Resurrection of gods. S. Thompson, Motif-index of folk-literature : a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, medieval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends, Revised and enlarged. edition. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1955-1958, p. 106.
- ^ ISBN 038771801XSpringer, pages 266–267
- ^ ISBN 0765612607.
- ^ ISBN 0313315051pages 106-107
- ^ ISBN 0195153820pages 66-68
- ^ ISBN 1576074676page 174
- ^ ISBN 0801871018page 42
- ^ a b Mettinger, Tryggve N. D. (2001). The Riddle of Resurrection: Dying and Rising Gods in the Ancient Near East. Almqvist & Wiksell, pages 7 and 221
- ^ Ackerman 2002, 163, lists divine kingship, taboo, and the dying god as "key concepts" of not only Frazer, but Harrison and others of the ritualist school, in contrast to differences among these scholars.
- ISBN 978-1-4588-1251-3.
- ISBN 1894667719page 18
- ^ ISBN 1894667719page 24
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8356-0782-7.
- ^ ISBN 0830815538Intervarsity page 287
- ^ ISBN 038771801XSpringer, pages 651-653
- ISBN 0691018332page 117
- ISBN 0691018332page 128
- ^ ISBN 0195170245Oxford University Press page 91
- ^ New Testament tools and studies, Bruce Manning Metzger, p. 19, Brill Archive, 1960
- ISBN 0517203804page 290
- ^ ISBN 0761812318page 71
- ^ ISBN 0415170427page 494
- ISBN 0130258393pages 105–107
- ^ Mark, Joshua J. (February 23, 2011). "Inanna's Descent: A Sumerian Tale of Injustice". Retrieved January 21, 2022.
- ^ Gerald O'Collins, "The Hidden Story of Jesus" New Blackfriars Volume 89, Issue 1024, pages 710–714, November 2008
- ^ Tryggve Mettinger, "The 'Dying and Rising God': A survey of Research from Frazer to the Present Day", in Batto et al. (eds.), David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J. J. M. Roberts (2004), 373–386
- ^ Zittell Smith, Jonathan (1969). The Glory, Jest and Riddle. James George Frazer and The Golden Bough (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
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ignored (help) - ISBN 0029097002Macmillan, pages 521–527
- ^ Gale, Thomson. "Dying and Rising Gods". Home Search Research categories. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
- ^ Jonathan Z. Smith "On Comparing Stories", Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity (1990), 85–115.
- ^ Mettinger (2004) cites M. S. Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle and H.-P. Müller, "Sterbende ud auferstehende Vegetationsgötter? Eine Skizze", TZ 53 (1997:374)
- ISBN 0691001049Princeton pages iv–xi
- ^ ISBN 1575060922pages 381–383
- ISBN 0521222966page 301
- ^ Detienne 1994; see also Burkert 1987
- ^ Dag Øistein Endsjø. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the Success of Christianity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2009.
- ^ Corrente, Paola. 2012. "Dioniso y los Dying gods: paralelos metodológicos". PhD thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
- ^ Corrente, Paola and Sidney Castillo. 2019. "Philology and the Comparative Study of Myths", The Religious Studies Project (Podcast Transcript). 3 June 2019. Transcribed by Helen Bradstock. Version 1.1, 28 May 2019.
- ^ Hussie, Andrew (2009). Homestuck.
- ^ Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. Bandai Namco. 2004.
References
- Ackerman, Robert (2002). The Myth and Ritual School: J.G. Frazer and the Cambridge Ritualists. New York: Routledge.
- Burkert, Walter
- Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual. London: University of California Press. 1979.
- Ancient Mystery Cults. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP. 1987. ISBN 0-674-03386-8.
- Cumont, Franz (1911). The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism. Chicago: Open Court.
- Cumont, Franz (1903). The Mysteries of Mithra. London: Kegan Paul.
- ISBN 0-391-00611-8.
- ISBN 978-0-230-61729-2
- ISBN 0-684-82630-5
- ISBN 0-87752-188-3
- Godwin, Joscelyn. 1994. The Theosophical Enlightenment. Albany: State U of New York P. ISBN 0-7914-2151-1
- ISBN 0-226-39823-4
- Leeming, David. "Dying god". The Oxford Companion to World mythology. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. UC - Irvine. 5 June 2011 <The Oxford Companion to World Mythology>
- ISBN 0-8028-0868-9
- Mettinger, Tryggve N. D. (2001). The Riddle of Resurrection: Dying and Rising Gods in the Ancient Near East. Coniectanea Biblica, Old Testament, 50, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, ISBN 978-91-22-01945-9
- Miles, Geoffrey. 2009. Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology. Taylor & Francis e-Library.
- Nash, Ronald H. 2003. The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought?. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R. ISBN 0-87552-559-8
- Smith, Jonathan Z. (1987). "Dying and Rising Gods." In The Encyclopedia of Religion: Vol. 3.. Ed. Mircea Eliade. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan.
- Stookey, Lorena Laura. 2004. Thematic Guide to World Mythology. Westport: Greenwood.