From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK
Date: Thu 30 Sep 1993 - 13:03:00 EET
Ref: X-RQ-ID: 1864 (Jeff Johnson)
All that marvellous Greek Mythology about Zeus turning into a Bull to
chase Io the heffer in order to have his way with her on the sly.
And, later how he carries off her *daughter* (O.K. Granddaughter) as a bull
(and presumably has his way with her too!).
It all reminds me of how Orlanth and Stormbull (both thunder aspects of the chief god) become *husbands* of Ernalda (Wow, she must be close to a world record in the number of husbands she has had! 7+). Then later on Stormbull got together with Eiritha (Europa?) to produce Waha the chief God of Prax (Who was Europa's son and what did he become king of *Crete?*).
Another twist in the myths is that Prax is very similar to Egypt with desert wastes cut by a fertile river valley. Pavis is fairly similar to Luxor mid-way down the river and the original capital. On one bank of the river are the tombs and ruins which are larger than the actual city of the living.
A final speculation is that the Pyramids and the Block perform similar functions (they both guard the dead). Notice that the Law rune is a pyramid!
A final mythic similarity is the cattle horns on Io's and Eiritha's human head. Obviously the myths are slightly confused, but that is the nature of mythology (nothing absolutely defined).
All-in-all, it looks like another place where Greg borrowed heavily fromour own mythology. And, yet another place where the bloody Jrusteli Monomyth completely confuses everything. Rather than the Chieftain/Storm God (Umath) using his Bull aspect to have his way with Ernalda and then later using the sameaspect to seduce her daughter (already with animal inclinations), we have two completely different gods Orlanth and Stormbull. Now we have both of them as husband protectors of Ernalda and the Stormbull has husband of Eiritha. Total confusion caused by the GLs who combined and confused two or more similar gods just to fit in with their precious monomyth. Also read Terry Pratchet's Small Gods to find how they evolve in specialized niches and then (if they are lucky) either broaden and grow or claim the entire niche as their own. Thus Blind Io is the God of Thunder and jealously gauds his niche (but lightning bolts are O.K. for other gods to use). Also see how believe defines the nature of the god (a bad sculptor carved the goddess of wisdom with a penguin on her shoulder thus everyone believes her messenger is a penguin and thus it is).
So if everyone believes that Stormbull is this great big dumb Ox/Bison
who goes arround as the desert storm wiping out Chaos, thats what he becomes.
Much better to be Orlanth who everyone believes has various aspects (sub cults) which embody his various aspects. Thus one day he is the wise chieftain
(worshipped by chieftains), the next day he is adventuring killing Chaos and
trolls (worshipped by adventurers and people who have troll problems), the
...
Thus Orlanth has more worshippers and gets to be more powerful, but Stormbull
has his specialized niche and will have a fanatically loyal following while
Chaos exists.
Have fun with these heresies
Lewis ----- ---------------------
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