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Regenerating Reality

In a previous entry I gave my interpretation of the slaying of Medusa interpreted as Cosmogonic myth, associating Medusa with the temporal realm (in its primordial chaotic state), and the separation of both the temporal and eternal orders of reality, symbolized respectively by the birth of Pegasus (linked with the streams of Oceanos), and the warrior Chrysaor, armed with a golden (solar) sword, from Medusa’s severed neck.

Last night, I discovered a similar myth from the Tamil (southern India) tradition that closely mirrors the slaying of Medusa.

Murugan and the demon Cur

It concerns the battle between the god Murugan (also known as Skanda and Kartikeya) and the demon (asura) Cur (also known as Surapadma), who transforms himself into a fiery mango tree in the ocean. Murugan splits open the mango tree with his weapon (Val), and the two halves of the tree are transformed into a Peacock and a Rooster.

Comparison of both Myths

The splitting of the mango tree corresponds with the decapitation Medusa, and its transformation into a Peacock and Rooster, corresponds respectively with the birth of Pegasus and Chrysaor.

“The peacock is tamed and becomes Murugan’s vehicle (vahana), symbolic of the god’s mastery over the cosmos”

According to Fred W Clothey (1), the Peacock represents “the world’s totality”, and both he and Kamil Zvelebil (2) remark that the blue-green Peacock in the medieval period was metaphorical of the ocean, to which Zevelebi adds: “The peacock suggests in this context the primordial chaos and untamed nature (implicit in the ocean).”.

The peacock is tamed and becomes Murugan’s vehicle (vahana), symbolic of the god’s mastery over the cosmos, while the rooster (associated with the rising of the sun and awakening) becomes his battle emblem, signifying the god’s warrior aspect. The image is much like that of the warrior Chrysaor himself, born from the severed neck of the cosmic goddess, and riding upon the winged horse, who like the peacock (if my earlier interpretation holds up) is likewise representative of the totality of the world. Murugan, then, like Chrysaor;

…both springs forth from the primordial event, and also, in the guise of Perseus, paradoxically sets it in motion. the slaying of Medusa interpreted as Cosmogonic myth

Born of Fire and Water

It’s worth mentioning, that the birth of Skanda (equated with Murugan), like the peacock and rooster, was also born of water and fire, as the fiery seed from the light of Shiva’s third eye, to be passed on to the six Kartika maidens of the river Ganges. The fire resident within the water (an Indo-European mythical motif) is the cosmic (virgin) birth of the divine born miraculously from within.

Perseus was similarly born of Zeus in the form of a golden shower and then sealed in a chest with his mother and cast upon the ocean, symbolizing two independent yet intimately related births of both the fire-solar (realm of the Father) and lunar-water (Realm of the Mother) aspects of reality.

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