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The Solar Giant
January 26, 2007 at 12:44 am by mahud
…As the Philistine (Goliath) moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground… …David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s (own) sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. 1 Samuel 17: 48–51 N.I.V
Behind the historicized myth of David and Goliath, lies an ancient symbolic tale of a definitive conflict between an often youthful hero and cyclopean giant.
We find a readily comparable version of the tale in Irish-Celic mythology of the Tuatha De Danann.
At the the second battle of Mag Tuired, the hero Lugh circumvents the field of battle hopping on one foot, with a single eye blazing, in imitation of the one-legged Fomorian enemy, and their leader (also Lugh’s grandfather) Balor of the evil eye. Balor’s enormous eye was infused with druidic magic, and required four men to lift the heavy lid. The gaze of Balor’s eye was devastating, and no one could resist it’s all destroying power, except Lugh. Using a slingshot, Lugh shot a stone directly into Balor’s eye, out through the back of the giant’s head, recoiling the dreadful power of the eye onto the Formorians, killing the entire army.
“Sharvan is the counterpart of the cherubim and revolving sword of fire, that denies access to the tree of life in the Hebrew garden of Eden.”
We meet another one-eyed giant of Irish mythology in the ‘The pursuit of Diarmaid and Grainne’, called Sharvan. He is the Formorian guardian of the Rowan Tree of immortality, and is himself immortal and indestructible. When the lovers Diarmaid and Grainne seek refuge in the tree, Grainne is overcome with desire to eat the rowan berries, and so Diarmaid slays Sharvan with three strikes of the giant’s own iron club.
Sharvan is the counterpart of the cherubim and revolving sword of fire, that denies access to the tree of life in the Hebrew garden of Eden.
And he (Yahweh) caused to dwell the cherubs at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword whirling around, to guard the way to the Tree of Life. Genesis 3:24 L.T
“The image of the revolving sword appears to be derived from the Mesopotamian glyph of the sun god Utu/Shamash”
The image of the revolving sword appears to be derived from the Mesopotamian glyph of the sun god Utu/Shamash; a stylized eight-pointed solar symbol comprised of four swords (as if in rotation) and four streams or rivers, emanating from the centre, comparable with the four rivers that flowed from the middle of the Hebrew paradise. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the island of immortality, said to be the source of all rivers, is surrounded by the ocean of death, that no one, apart from the sun god Shamash, could cross.
The glyph of Utu/Shamash represents the god’s own duel nature of wrath, symbolized by the sword, and of ambrosial bliss, symbolized by the rivers of life. This is the duel nature of the divinity, which functions as an impassable barrier to the transcendent realm.
The giant is an indestructible, unyielding, and merciless force that cannot be reckoned with, his single eye analogous with the all destroying nature of the sun, whose power is further extended through the giant’s weapon.
In the myth of David and Goliath, after David struck the giant in the forehead (his solar eye), he cuts off his head using the Philistine’s own sword. Again, in the case of Sharvan, the giant is slain with his own weapon.
The hero also shares in the self-same indestructible nature of the sun, and it is this adamantine quality that qualifies the hero alone with the ability to sustain the giant’s impenetrable solar glare, and turn the weapon inward upon it’s source, reversing the verdict of death to life.
“The hero also shares in the self-same indestructible nature of the sun”
The tale of Odysseus and his men caught inside the Cyclops Polyphemus’ cave, is another variation of the solar giant mythos. Here the all devouring divine nature is illustrated through the act of cannibalism. Polyphemus mercilessly devours Odysseus’ men, much like Kronos devouring his own children. Odysseus manages to beguile Polyphemus into drinking large quantities of wine until he falls into a drunken sleep. He then heats up the giant’s club, that has been sharpened into a stake, and with the help of four of his companions (compare the four attendants who lifted the giant eyelid of Balor), pierces the giant’s eye.
The Greek painting above represents the cosmic mystery primarily in solar terms, in contrast to the previous article that represented the same cosmic mystery though lunar imagery of the Bull and ambrosial cup. Aligned above the burning stake is a serpentine image of a vine, which seems to identify the stake with the tree of life. One of the four men holds a (lunar) cup below Polyphemus’ eye, catching the solar blood, Identifying it with the ambrosial drink, like the rivers of life flowing from the paradise of God.
The Iconic image of solar (eternal) essence arising from a lunar (temporal) vessel has a myriad of different religious associations, ranging from the Virgin Birth to the Holy Grail, all pointing to the same primordial idea; that the temporal inexplicably gives birth to the eternal.
In Christian theology the same cosmic act is performed by Christ upon the cross, who, in the word’s of Matthew Henry:
He (Jesus) died, To bring us to God, and, in order thereunto, to rend that veil of guilt and wrath which interposed between us and him, to take away the cherubim and flaming sword, and to open the way to the tree of life.” Matthew Henry