MITHOPHAGY – Myths devouring myths.

MITHOPHAGY – Myths devouring myths.

       Mithophagy is the process by which a myth (idea notion, concept, or set of beliefs) devours, eats, swallows, or destroys another myth.

       Myths are essentially abstract elements. Myth’s main substance is the idea. Once one implants or fabricates an idea – or concept – this idea can survive or die away. It depends upon some devices and services to be kept alive or to be killed.

       Living people can also be taken as a myth.

       Words and weapons are useful and aiding elements to establish and keep ideas alive. They are also very powerful if one wishes to kill anyone or anything with them. According to Goebles, “a lie told many times becomes a truth”. Words are weapons as well. Some may be used to soften up some sufferings, and others to cause irremovable scars from the mind. Some are sung as a lullaby, and others torture a weak person’s brain.

       A myth’s life can be associated to a living being’s life. That can be linked to some animals in some cultures or for some human beings in other ones.

       A cow, for instance, is a sacred symbol for the Hindus. Other nations believe other animals represent a divine being which can bring protection and even provide them the way to immortality and paradise.

       Human beings can also be brought to people’s belief as a real myth. This can be linked to a dead being, but it can be seen tied to some living ones. Buddha, Jesus, Jurupari, and Mohammed are some of these personalized myths who many people in the world believe they mean a stand for a strong symbol for them. They have already gone away. Some people from the scientific field even doubt if those beings really have lived. Taking for granted that each one of the above names, as religions icons for their cultures, is already dead, and may really have lived a real life, one has to believe that they are actually powerful symbols for all their followers.

       On the other hand, some people are still alive and they do symbolize a myth. Living beings may be living on an ideal notion. The pope, for example, is for the catholic faith the one who is in charge of Jesus deeds and his church. Christians take Jesus as thei main symbol. Protestants in general do not accept the Pope’s authority to represent Jesus Christ. For some other religions, the pope is nothing but a simple man representing nobody. For the Muslim world, another person takes the responsibility left by Mohammed. And it goes for other cultures in the globe.

       Another point to be checked here is the existence of some living people who represent actual myths. It is believed in the Buddhist world that a person is chosen be a real representation of Buddha, and once in a while a person is born to take this charge.

       As for living beings regarded as myth, Brazilians believe Pelé is Soccer’s King. And in some parts of the world this notion is defended as well. Argentineans do not accept it and consider Maradona as their myth.

       According to the traits shown here one is forced to believe in some aspects regarding a myth’s life.

       A myth can have a short or a long life. It can die away as a simple idea, or similarly, its life can be as long as forever. A myth can be made of flesh and bone, or myth can be just an abstract idea or a set of beliefs.

       As ideas can also be seen as myths, one is to trust some concepts like democracy, altruism, religion, racism, and many other notions that take their part of the mythological pantheon.

       This work intends to tackle part of this corollary of notions human beings care for. The main aspect to be considered here is the religious field once we may deal with abstract concepts that domain and guide peoples’ lives and minds.

       Some people believe Jesus existed. Others do not. Part of this believing crowd accepts him as the son of god. Others say he’s just a prophet like the ones for other religions. Scientists still doubt if the historical Jesus spoken out in the Bible had really existed. Jesus is such a common name in that region of the planet, as Mohammed is in the Arabian world. For this reason some defend them like real people who had really lived actual lives in those times the same that way others deny this possibility. I have my doubts, strong ones of course, and for me they are just myths.

       Jurupari is a sacred being for a tribe in the Amazon region between Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. As a mythological being he was conceived and born the same way Jesus was. By being a myth, Jurupari is considered by that tribal group as a god. Jurupari could not stand among many forest peoples because in other places they cherish for some other beings taken as a religious guide.

       When Christian catholic missionaries from many parts of Europe arrived in the Amazon region, they had the chance to face tales about supernatural beings found in so many cultures. Ermano Stradelli was an Italian man who came to Brazil and made contact with the tribe that believed in Jurupari. In the Bible, there is a passage in which Jesus says to his people not to be afraid because other prophets would arrive telling to his people he would be Jesus. Missionaries who had known the story about Jurupari would not believe that in the middle of that dense forest a tale would bring on a description of a being showing many similarities to the Christian myth. He was born without a sexual intercourse that could start and develop a human being with life.

       What were they supposed to do in a situation like that? They had to show that their story was the most “correct” and acceptable one. They had some elements to underpin their stories. They had even the help of powder to show they were more powerful than those simple men and myth found in the middle of nothingness. The State and Church were joined defending two main points: possessions on Earth and in Heaven. The first was for the royal families, and the second for an afterlife in paradise. They succeeded working together.

       Arch and arrow, poison, traps and other devices were the weapons held by the Native American peoples. Their tale was only passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation. Once a story many times by many people, it changes a little and can even die away. It did not happen to Jurupari, but it may have occurred to many others in many parts of the globe.

       Christian faith had to do something not to let Jurupari continue living on its own essence. Jurupari was then demonized by the Christian creed because there was no space for two myths in the same altar. Christianity was a stronger myth than the Amazonian myth. A French proverb says that the reason of the stronger is always better. Jurupari could not bear the Christian attacks the same way Muslims did and still do. It was almost killed by the Christian belief.

       The Christian myth has tried and almost devoured the Juruparian myth. Jurupari almost died.

       In my humble opinion, mankind’s most important invention is the word. In the Bible John says in 1:1, that it is “the verb”. When the word is just spoken, it is strong. When it is written it becomes stronger. The first one brings on paralinguistic aspects that are really supportive for anything. But it can be lethal as well. The last one may not present those aspects, but they may last for a long time. A Latin proverb from the past says something like this: “Scripta manent, verba volant.” What is written is kept, what is spoken is lost.

       Written words from the Christian myth were stronger than the oral story from the Vaupés river region telling the tale of Jurupari. It came, it saw, and it conquered the Amazonian myth. It actually almost devoured the other myth showing no respect, no tolerance, no acceptance. Although the Christian myth tells to love one another, it simply did not follow what has been preached by them for just a long time.

       Jurupari may have resisted until now the attacks from many other religions, but it may be coming to an end. And that stage comes true, the process of devouring another myth will be complete. It will be like a snake that swallows and devours another snake without the smallest hesitation. Then, it blows up cultures and traditions built by many people for a long time.