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Lunar beasts (part eight)

1. Lunar Beasts (part 1)
2. Lunar Beasts (part 2)
3. Lunar Beasts (part 3)
4. Lunar Beasts (part 4)
5. Lunar Beasts (part 5)
6. Lunar Beasts (part 6)
7. Lunar Beasts (part 7)
8. Lunar Beasts (part 8 )

Death and Life of Adonis through the tusks of the Lunar Boar

In the myth concerning Adonis’ ever-revolving decent and ascent in the realms of death and life, both his birth and death occur simultaneously, caused, like Attis, by the lethal tusks of a boar. The curved tusks of the boar can be interpreted as representing the waxing and waning crescent moon, the blades of death and life, as symbolized by the curved blades of the double axe, indicating that in the myth of Adonis, the boar was a lunar beast, symbolic of the revolving realm of the cosmos.

Threshold Between Death and Life

The waxing and waning moons represent both the Goddess of Death and Life, and the mythological Victim, who must enter into the waters of her womb (sometimes symbolized as a bath, as in the case of Agamemnon’s bath murder at the hands of Clytemnestra and her lover, and also the near death of Tristan by Iseult.

In fact, its a re-occurring theme found in many myths. Perseus was trapped in a chest and cast upon the ocean along with his mother Danae; Lleu Llaw Gyffes was kept in a chest at the foot of Gwydion’s bed, in welsh myth, and appeared after the death of his water-born twin Dylan; and like Moses, the Akkadian king Sargon (beloved of the goddess Inanna) was also cast adrift upon a river, in a basket of reeds. Sometimes the vessel is substituted for a bath, as the in the case of King Agamemnon, who was murdered by his queen, Clytemnestra; and the wounded Tristan was almost slain in a bath by his beloved Iseult.

Clytemnestra, Iseult, and Moses’ Mother enact the role of the Goddess in death aspect), and encounter the blaze of eternity (the solar gateway to eternity), to be, again reborn via the Great Mother of Life, symbolized by the visible new moon.

Noah, was likewise concealed within a vessel upon the waters of the universal deluge, identifying him with the threshold god, caught between the revolving realms of death and life.
The Ever-Revolving Cycle

After Adonis’ simultaneous death and birth, Aphrodite (functioning as life Goddess) placed Adonis in a threshold chest and gave him to Persephone, Queen of the underworld. Every year he would alternate between the two goddesses, ever-passing between the temporal realms of death and life. The festival of his death and rebirth, the Adonia, was celebrated annually. The myth of Adonis, as retold by Ovid in his Metamorphoses (10.707-717) recalls that his castration and death were caused by a boar in a hunting accident.

boar of Boann Ghulban and the second clause of the Protevangelium

He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. Genesis 3:15

Finn Maccumhail never truly forgave Diarmaid for running off with Grianne, to whom he was betrothed, and despite their reconciliation, he still harbored bitterness in his heart. Aware of a prophecy foretelling that the boar of Boann Ghulban would be responsible for Diarmaid’s death, Finn arranged for him to take part in a hunting expedition. Diarmaid managed to kill the boar, but as he measured out the skin with his feet, the boar’s poisonous bristles pierced Diarmaid’s heel and he died.
The Sacred Wound of Healing

We find the same pattern of myth In the Nordic (Thor) and Greek traditions (Herakles), that appear to further related to the Genesis 3:15 so called Protevangelum (Seed of the Woman) in the Hebrew account. The myth corresponds on a number of points:

1. The Mytholigical Victim suffers a double-death
2. The Mythological Victim is victorious over the beast.
3. The double-death was foretold.
4. Both Herakles and Diarmaid suffered injuries to the feet.
5. Thor was said to of struck the serpent’s head.

In the case of Thor and the Midgard Serpent Jormungandr, the oceanic Ouroboros, that encircles the world (who, like the moon is part of the ever revolving cycle of death and life), we have a corresponding tradition in the Targum Onkelos, identifying the Serpent in the Garden also with the Ouroboros:

He will remember what you did to him in the beginning, and you shall be observing him in the end.

The end

Well I hope you enjoyed this series on Lunar Beasts, as they function in the many mythologies of the Mythological victim. If, of course you have any further questions and such, you can use my contact form
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Feel free to make any comments, or impart you wisdom, I’m also happy to receive either negative or positive criticism, and and help in my studies concerning the god of death and life, and his many animal manifestations.

In an up and coming article I’ll be focusing on Solar Beasts.

Thanks Mahud.

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