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The wound motif

The wound motif of the ‘dying god’ assumes many forms, ranging from the violently horrific portrayals of castration and dismemberment, as suffered by Osiris, to more subtle symbolic forms of death, such as induced sleep and the curse of blindness, both inflicted upon the Cyclops Polyphemus. Occasionally the mythological victim will enter the realm of death directly in a form of underworld/otherworld or oceanic journey, like Odysseus, where the dividing line between death and life - as in the motif of the sleeping god - tends to become blurred. This state between death and life is also evident in the motif of the maimed god, who remains alive, yet perpetually suffers from an incurable wound, as in the case of the grail/fisher King from Arthurian romance.

Typically, the fate of the ‘dying god’ is bound up in some form of physical injury. The three most prominent wound motifs in this category, are dismemberment (Osiris, Zagreus, Purusha, Orpheus, Pangu, Ymir, Avalokiteshvara), castration (Shiva, Attis, Adonis, Osiris, Izanagi, Ouranos), and an injury to the foot (Bran, seed of the woman ‘Genesis 3:15′, Philoctetes, Centaur Cheiron, Centaur Pholus, Talos, Krishna, Diarmaid, Achilles, Ra), specifically to the heel.

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