Obscure Mythology Chapter 3

Centzon Totochtin (400 Rabbits):  Central American Gods of Intoxication

     When I came across this one in the Mythology Dictionary, I could not pass it up. I had to share this with you guys for sure. It isn’t connected like the last two but that’s okay because I am trying to find and share neat but forgotten mythology first and foremost, if there is a connection that’s just a bonus. Wait until you guys hear about these Gods, it will brighten your day for sure. So without further ado let me tell you what the Mythology Dictionary has to say about Centzon Totochtin, the Aztec Gods of Intoxication.

The Gods of Intoxication were worshipped as rabbits, the number of which indicated the degree of drunkenness. Complete drunkenness was represented by 400 rabbits.

 Some of the pulque (an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant) Gods were Cohuatzincatl, Ome Tochtli, Papaztac, Patecatl, Quantlapanqui, Teatlahuiani, Tepoxtectal and Tequechmecauiaana. (Spell Check had no clue what any of those names were! That paragraph is nothing but red underlined words right now)!

They were depicted with faces painted in red and black, wearing the yaca-metzli, a crescent-shaped nose ornament, long earrings and carrying a shield.

     I’ve been 400 rabbits drunk probably a dozen or so times in my life, and I don’t remember most of those occasions. I thought this was one of the most intriguing myths I’ve ever found to date. I wonder why they compared drunkenness to rabbits? Maybe they say some rabbits eat fermented fruit and saw them go crazy or perhaps it was because they thought rabbits to be foolish and drunkenly in general. All I know for certain is that I have found a new way to gauge how intoxicated I or someone else is. Here’s an example: Last night I drank a bottle of wine, I guess I was probably about 150 rabbits drunk, that one time I drank a fifth of vodka I was more like 399 rabbits drunk. 

   I know I didn’t really have to include the names of the Gods but I love typing and trying to pronounce Central American Gods. They would make great Scrabble words if names were allowed! I am going to check the internet to see what it has to say about these Gods of Intoxication. Anyhow, that’s all for today. I really had to share the Centzon Totochtin with you all though, it was nice to find a funnier side to mythology for a change. Well, have a great weekend and as always: PEACE!!!!!!

Obscure Mythology Chapter 2:

Bagadjimbiri: Creator Gods of the Aborigines.

     The second installment of Obscure Mythology (I apologize to anyone who knows about this stuff and scoffs at the idea that it is obscure, I don’t want to insult anyone’s intelligence or beliefs. If you have heard of these or know of these examples intimately I mean no offense when I call them obscure. I use it in reference to myself only.) comes from Australia and after reading it I realized once again how similar this creation theory is to so many others out there. You may also notice I chose a myth that begins with B, I decided to do one per letter of the alphabet for this series. It is really difficult picking just one and I know I will go back at a later date to give the other myths in these letters a look as well but for now I will whittle it down to a letter a chapter. Alright here is the tale of Bagadjimbiri, creator Gods of the Aboriginal tribes of Australia.

     These two brothers came up out of the earth in the form of two dingos, mated a toadstool with a fungus to produce humans and gave the gift of reproduction to the first people. The brothers grew into giants as high as the sky, but were killed in a dispute with the cat-man, Ngariman, and his tribe. The Earth-Goddess, Dilga, drowned the killers with a flood of milk from her breasts, restoring the brothers to life at the same time. When they finally died of natural causes they turned into water snakes.

Bold face type is information gleaned from The Dictionary of Mythology an A-Z of themes, myths and legends. Compiled by JA Coleman. 

It is amazing how this particular creation myth has so many aspects of other myths from around the world in it. I would imagine this story in particular is well over 20,000 years old. Passed down from generation to generation by the elders of the tribes. The Aboriginal peoples of Australia have been on the continent for at the very least 40,000 years, isolated from the rest of the world. Remember that as you reread this myth. Now I will highlight some of the crazy connections I found in this little paragraph:

The two brothers took the form of dingos. According to Roman Mythology Rome was created by two brothers who were raised by wolves, Romulus and Remus.

They turned into giants as high as the sky. Here we have reference to giants, which most ancient myths have, think of the Greek Titans,  the Sumerian Annunaki and the bibles very own Nephilim for some examples.

There is an obvious connection to the flood myth. Sure they say it was breast milk but the only thing that matters here is that a flood is referenced.

I also caught a small hint of a resurrection much like Osiris in Egypt or even Jesus of Nazareth from the bible. There are many more examples of resurrection in mythology I just referenced the two most famous. I am also not saying Jesus is only a myth, that isn’t my call to make. I encompass religion into mythology since they are basically the same thing.

The last real connection I saw to other creation myths is the fact that the two brothers were turned into water snakes when they died. Snakes make an appearance in many ancient myths and religions and the snake symbolism isn’t always a bad thing.

Those were the obvious glaring connections to other creation myths or religious beliefs I could find in that paragraph. I should note that I am only using the Mythology book as a reference here. I have noticed that these myths have been translated differently in various ways. For example while researching the Efik people yesterday the books version of the myth of Abassi was quite different from what I read on Wikipedia or other websites. I am mentioning this only for those of you who may feel compelled to do more research into any of my posts on this subject. You may Google it and get a way different version, this doesn’t mean I am making this up or the books compiler is wrong, it just means they used different references to get their data. I myself trust good old books to the internet any day. I have quite a library of reference books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. I’m old fashioned when it comes to research, I’d rather dig through a musty old book then the crazy interwebs. Anyhow, back to the Bagadjimbiri brothers. I found a few other things interesting about this story like the fact that the brothers were mortal and that the world had already been created, just not humans. A lot of creation stories have humans and the Earth arriving at the same time. The other thing was how they created humans, by mating a toadstool with a fungus! There has to be some symbolism in that. I didn’t get the time to research what the toadstool or fungus may have meant to the Aborigines but I would bet there is something to it, I don’t think a toadstool mating with fungus is something someone can just make up! I wonder though, isn’t a toadstool a type of mushroom? And aren’t mushroom fungi? That was just my musings, like I said I am sure there was a reason for the two items. The brothers also give their creations a gift, reproduction. If you recall in yesterdays post Abassi also gave his creations a few gifts, his were a little more morbid than these guys, but it is interesting to see what their gift to their people was. Reproduction, was the key to survival in ancient times so it is a good gift to give humanity if you want them to continue, right? I looked into the cat man, Ngariman, in the book and it only said that he and his tribe killed the brothers and then were subsequently killed by the breast milk flood of the Earth-Goddess, so I guess that was the cat-man’s man claim to fame in their myths. The last issue I wanted to discuss was the fact that they were turned into water snakes when they died, again I am positive that water snakes have a special symbolism to at least a few Aboriginal tribes. We shall see as we continue learning about these myths that snakes are a big part of it. Some more reoccurring themes we will probably run across are the flood myth and resurrection so these are things to keep in mind as we continue down this road of research and learning. I hope you all enjoyed today’s post and I can’t wait to see what the book and the letter C can bring us the next time! Have a great day and as always: PEACE!!!!

 above image: African Gods/Goddesses. Abassi 4th from right bottom row.

Exploring World Mythology:

Abassi: Creator God and Sky God of the Efik (Africa).

     Like I said yesterday, I want to spend a few posts exploring different more obscure myths and mythology from around the world. I am using The Dictionary of Mythology an A-Z of themes legends and heroes, written or compiled by: J.A. Coleman. I just decided to start with A and go from there and by the end of this I would like to see if I can draw any comparisons from the obscure myths we have looked at and other more popular myths and legends to see if they connect. (Hint, I think they will). Well today I have chosen an African creator God, it has a peculiar ending than most creation myths you’ll see what I’m saying after you read about him. So let us learn more about this African Creator God.

     The story says he reluctantly allowed his two children to descend to Earth but imposed conditions that they neither mated nor engaged in agriculture, returning to heaven for their meals. Inevitably, the pair mated and soon the Earth was fully populated. Abassi endowed these people with the gift of argument and instituted death, so that, since then, men have quarreled and killed each other.

Well, there you have it! This is a little different when it comes to the gifts he bestowed upon his people. Most creator Gods gave the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, love, or other happy things, not this guy, this guy gave his people, the people he didn’t even want, argument and death. Wow! I should also note that there is one common theme here as with more popular mythology, incest. Many myths perpetuate the incest theme when it comes to the creation of the world or certain heroes. That is just one of the many common connectors we shall see while we dive into these obscure ancient myths and legends. I am really excited for this Chapter of my blog and hope you guys are too.

I decided to Google the Efik people and this is some of the more interesting points I discovered about them:

They reside in Southeastern Nigeria, manily.

They claim to be descended from people from Egypt and/or Palastine.They migrated three different times in about 500 years before settling in their present location.

Each time they moved because of arguments with other tribes. (See the above creation myth).

They have a SECRET SOCIETY called the Ekpe, that holds considerable power over other tribes. The society invented Nsibidi, an ancient African language.

In 1884 the Efik kings and the chiefs of the Efik placed themselves under British protection, these treaties and attendant territorial rights are documented in CAP 23 of Laws of Eastern Nigeria, captioned “Comey subsidies law”. They are still in effect in some areas.

As of 2006, the Efik king, known as the Obong of Calabar, is still a political power among their people.

the above info in bold face was taken directly from Wikipedia.

 above image: Modern Efik women in ceremonial dance attire.

Interesting, especially about how they moved so many times because of arguments with other tribes. I like how it links with their creation myth. I found it fascinating that they created a Secret Society that still holds power in their area. I will be doing more research into that in the future! I love what we can find just looking at one cultures mythology, this is fun! Well that’ll be it for now, I hope you enjoyed our first look at some obscure Myths, I can’t wait for the next chapter. Until then, have a great day and as always: PEACE!!!!!!!

 above image: Efik royalty late 19th Century