Bloody Deed Early in the story of Creation there is often an act of bloody violence. This may take place at the very start or at a point of new beginning. There is no full agreement among scholars as to why an act of bloody violence seems "necessary" in the beginning. Some suggest that it reflects an ancient ritual practice of "sacrifice" [the king-must-die], enacted to ensure the fertility of the land and of the seasons. Others say it is a cleansing ritual [scapegoat archetype] meant to establish or re-establish the sacredness of earth. Still others suggest that it reflects deep-seated, universal psychological tensions in human society (Oedipal tensions between fathers and sons), or a desire to express the sacredness of life by having the physical universe made from the material body of a god or
ancestral being. It has also been suggested that the violence reflects a patriarchal take-over of a matriarchal culture, in the antiquity of humanity. World famous commentator on myths, Joseph Campbell, has suggested that at least in some of its forms the Bloody deed motif is to be associated with the hunter-gatherer phase of human culture, when spilling the blood of animals was essential for human life. Whatever its ultimate origin and meaning, the "bloody deed" is prevalent (not universal) in myths of creation, and it ties together human thinking on life and death, "from death comes life".
Some scholarly viewpoints.
1. One of the most sensitive scholars on the topic of creation myths, Charles Long, had this to say:
In the emergence myths the earth brings forth man and his world as a mother brings forth a child. The world in these myths goes through definite stages of development until it is brought forth as a completed whole.2. A more abstract philosophical outlook is taken by Barbara Sproul in the introduction to her excellent collection, Primal Myths: Creating the World:
From the perfect symbol of the mother, ordered and harmonious life emerges. This rather logical development within the womb of the mother is in sharp contrast with the myths that emphasize the sacrificial motif as the basis for the cosmos. In the Mesopotamian myth, Enuma Elish, Marduk, after defeating Tiamat, cuts her body into two parts: one part becomes the heavens, the other, the earth. In the Mande myth from West Africa, Faro, the twin, must be sacrificed before the earth becomes habitable. In Hesiod's Theogony Mother Earth persuades one of her offspring, Cronos, to cut off his father's sexual organs. The father, who is the sky, would not allow his offspring to see the light of day. They remain shut up in the body of the mother. The castration of the father is an attempt on the part of the offspring and mother to break the rule of the father over them so that the offspring may have light, i.e. see the light of day.
In the Prose Edda (Icelandic) we read that the cosmos is made up of the primordial giant Ymir and in the Rig Veda X. 90 (Hindu) the cosmos is the result of the sacrifice of man.
A.E.Jensen reports a myth from Ceram which tells of the dismemberment of a young maiden, Hainuwele, who had grown from a coconut plant.
In each case the sacrificial victim is a residue of great power. Tiamat in the Enuma Elish is the great mother possessing all the potencies of life; Faro in West Africa is a bisexual twin, a symbol of power and perfection; the sky-father in Hesiod's Theogony is a powerful agent of creation and fertility, holding absolute sway over earth mother and her offspring. Ymir,(click here)the primordial giant, possesses the great power inherited from a race of primordial beings. Hainuwele's power is shown in her magical ability to produce valuable goods. Even her excrement contained articles of great value.
The killing or sacrifice of these powerful beings effects a redistribution of power. Instead of the power residing in one being, it now flows into every part of the universe. It is made accessible to all beings. The parts of the sacrificed beings become the stable and life-giving sources of the cosmos. But sacrifice is also the coming of death. Life and death thus inhere in the same act. Without the redistribution of sacred power no cultural life is possible, but the generalizing of the power is accomplished only in death. (Alpha: The Myths of Creation Appendix 1)One of the most profound metaphors myths use to describe creation involves divine sacrifice. Here the absolute, symbolized as a great loving god, dies to become the relative world. The Chinese myth of P'an Ku is typical:
The world was never finished until P'an Ku died. Only his death could perfect the universe. From his skull was shaped the dome of the sky, and from his flesh was formed the soil of the fields; from his bones came the rocks, from his blood the rivers and seas, and from his hair came all vegetation. His breath was the wind, his voice made thunder; his right eye became the moon, his left the sun. From his saliva and sweat came rain. And from the vermin which covered his body came forth humans.In such myths the polar opposites of being and not-being are connected by a single act. When he becomes manifest and dynamic as the world, P'an Ku dies to his unmanifest and static state of perfection as god. Sacrifice is a rich and subtle metaphor because it not only expresses this fact but also so much of the ambivalence we feel in understanding the creation and facing the life that springs from it. On the one hand, the metaphor celebrates the glory of the gift of being. The world after all and all within it is sanctified by this act (sacrifice meaning "to make holy".) On the other hand, myths that speak of such sacrifice recognize the enormous cost of it. "God" has died to the world; the static perfection of the absolute is lost to the dynamic change and flow of temporal reality. The ground of being and not-being, that holy and mysterious unity, has dissolved into flux. Now in the created world we experience that unity only through its duality in the polar oppositions of being and not-being, life and death and so on.
The theme of the Bloody Deed in fact takes a variety of forms. At times the victim is a willing sacrifice (or at least not unwilling) while at other times the victim is the "enemy" who is slaughtered. This activity may take place at the macrocosmic level, the "big picture" involving the gods and others in the making of the universe, or at the microcosmic level,the more local scene involving the founding of a city or the establishment of a people. The benefits derived from the Bloody Deed may be universal, such as the formation of the physical universe, or more limited (though still essential), such as the origin of food.
Here follows a chart that gives some brief notion of the variety of forms taken by the Bloody Deed:
Culture Myth Macro Micro not willing not unwilling Greek Cadmus and dragon x founding Thebes dragon enemy x Wahungwe Makoni Mwuetsi x food resources x ?after death Chinese P'an Ku universe x x self-mutilation Hindu Purusha universe x x willing sacrifice Roman Remus x founding Rome enemy twin x Cherokee Selu and Kanati x food sources x ?helpful Mohawk Skywoman x food source x dies in childbirth Australian Aboriginal Thuwathu x people's resources x repentance Babylonian Tiamat universe x enemy dragon x Greek Uranos x Furies, Aphrodite enemy of mother x Norse Ymir universe x x ?sleeping (You'll find all of these myths either in Morford-Lenardon, Eliot or the materials stored here for the course.)