Mythology Journeys of the Underworld

A detailed Summary of Mythology Journeys of the Underworld

Throughout time, Myths have been used through civilizations in order to explain the "unexplainable". Different cultures describe their difficulties and what their gods did in order to solve these. Because most of the disasters or difficulties were tied together or somehow the same, the myths tend to overlap. More important than the similarities are the differences among the

cultures, because all of them beautifully tell their own "side of the story".

One of the most apparent parallels in mythology are the stories of Ishitar (Babylonian) and Persephone (Greek). Ishitar portrays one of the agricultural myths as to why there are seasons, specifically winter. She goes into the underworld to seek out her lover. Her evil sister, the goddess of the underworld, makes Ishitar follow through with many different deeds to get passed the gates of the underworld. After being stripped naked, she pleads to the gods for help. While she had been in the underworld, all activity had stopped in the world above her. They obliged by sending a distraction for her sister, and Ishitar found her way to the world above ground, where she found that activity began again. The halt of activity symbolizes winter. Much like th

cultures or parallels among one culture. Whichever way myths are used to portray what they want, they always are able to fully capture the meaning of what the cultures intended.

Tibetan myths aren't the only ones which punish for the refusal to obey. Many of the tribal myths punish for those that do not obey. In the story of Sayadio, his young sister had died, and his mission was to capture her soul. After finally luring her soul into a gourd, a little girl disobeyed and let Sayadio's sister's soul out, and the girl's soul vanished along with his sister's. The myth of the Algonquin Spirit Bride is also one of following directions and rules. A young man went into the underworld to find his recently deceased bride. After much hunting, he finds her, but is told that if he looks at her while taking her away, he won't be allowed to have her. Temptation takes the better of the young man, and he looks at his bride. Luckily, the gods take pity upon him and grant him the right to see his wife as soon as he dies. A similar story, but Greek in nature is told, yet is much darker. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice tells of Orpheus charming his way into the underworld just so he can have Eurydice back . Once he had charmed his way almost out, he forgot the only rule that he had to obey: not to look at Eurydice until they were fully out of the underworld. Not resisting temptation, Orpheus looked back at his love, only to see her vanish back into the underworld.

Out of the myths throughout all cultures, all of the stories of the underworlds are inter-related. Whether they teach moral stories, such as obedience, or whether they explain why things are the way they are ( i.e. changing of seasons), the correlation between the underworld myths can be shown through many different levels. They can be shown through parallels between the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Kenya Hers, Greek Persian, Yama Savitri, Indians Yama, Greek Ishitar, Orpheus Eurydice, Spirit Bride, Throughout Myths, Demeter Persephone, Demeter Hermes, light symbolizes, blue jay,

Approximate Word count = 1263
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History