Odin and Mithra

akt · 24 Aug 2000, 10:19 · from whorl-v0011.mbox · original

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From: akt at attglobal.net
Subject: (whorl) Odin and Mithra
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:19:07
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Nacre said:

> I've been unable to find any reference to Odin's becoming
> lame or receiving a wound in his leg or foot.  I did, however,
> come across one interesting foot fact about Odin.  During
> Ragnarok, Odin is swallowed by Fenrir and dies.  His son
> Vidar avenges him by kicking Fenrir in the mouth with a giant
> shoe until the wolf's jaws are torn asunder--just one giant shoe,
> not one of a pair.  I suppose that could cause a limp.

I was looking through H. R. Ellis Davidson's -Gods and Myths of Northern
Europe- (for reasons entirely unrelated to this list) and was struck by
this pair of sentences relating to Odin.

"He was the ancient one-eyed god, crafty and skilled in magic lore, a
great shape-changer, and an expert in the consultation of the dead. He
was the rider on the eight-legged steed, the wanderer up and down the
earth, the god knowing the secrets of travel between the worlds."

The steed is, on Blue, an elephant. Odin had a pair of ravens and a pair
of wolves. Horn has only one of each, but that's fair enough.

The companions of Mithra, OTOH, are a raven, a dog, a snake and a
scorpion. We lack only the scorpion, so far (but we have a series of
snakes). Moreover, Mithra is usually portrayed in ritual slaughter of a
bull. That's what Silk does for a living too. I bring these fellas up to
remind our pateras that Wolfe is nothing if not inclusive.

And speaking of Oreb (weren't we?) I agree with Falcon on the Scylla (or
Kypris) question: it is not logical and it would make Oreb considerably
less novelistically interesting than he is.

-alga

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