A dying god, or departure of the gods, is a motif in

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

in which one or more

god In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

s (of a pantheon) die, are destroyed, or depart permanently from their place on Earth to elsewhere.

Henri Frankfort Henri "Hans" Frankfort (24 February 1897 – 16 July 1954) was a Dutch Egyptology, Egyptologist, archaeologist and orientalism, orientalist. Early life and education Born in Amsterdam, into a "Reform Judaism, liberal Jewish" family, Frankfort stud ...

speaks of the dying god as " The dying God is one of those imaginative conceptions in which early man made his emotional and intellectual preoccupations explicit." Saying the myth of the dying gods is a concept made by man to bring comfort to the concept of death. If gods can die then man can too. The dying god brings comfort in the unknown and makes it known.

Examples

Frequently cited examples of dying gods are

Baldr Baldr (Old Norse also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, he is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was known in ...

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

. A special subcategory is the death of an entire pantheon, the most notable example being

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, (also Ragnarok; or ; ) is a foretold series of impending events, including a great battle in which numerous great Norse mythological figures will perish (including the Æsir, gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, a ...

in Norse mythology, or

Cronus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Cronus, Cronos, or Kronos ( or ; ) was the leader and youngest of the Titans, the children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Sky). He overthrew his father and ruled dur ...

and the

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

s from

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, with other examples from Ireland, India, Hawaii and Tahiti. Examples of the disappearing god in Hattian and Hittite mythology include Telipinu and Hannahanna.

Osiris

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

was killed by his brother

Set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

, who tore his body into 14 pieces and distributed the parts across Egypt. His wife

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

hunted down his body, mummified it, did spell work on it later impregnating herself with Osiris' phallus bringing to life their son Horus. Osiris was no longer able to live in the natural world but due to his revival from Isis’ acts of magic this made Osiris the king of the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

Yama

The Hindu god

Yama Yama (), also known as Kāla and Dharmarāja, is the Hindu god of death and justice, responsible for the dispensation of law and punishment of sinners in his abode, Naraka. He is often identified with Dharmadeva, the personification of ''Dharm ...

killed himself in his own sacrifice. Alex Wayman says "the fathers dwell in Yamas heaven, and a dead man may or may not arrive at that heaven to be one of the fathers." Yama decided to take his own life in hopes to become the first father of Yamas heaven and making him the Hindu god of death.

Izanami

Izanami , formally referred to with the honorific , is the creator deity of both creation and death in Japanese mythology, as well as the Shinto mother goddess. She and her brother-husband Izanagi are the last of the seven generations of primordial ...

and

Izanagi Izanagi (イザナギ/伊邪那岐/伊弉諾) or Izanaki (イザナキ), formally referred to with a divine honorific as , is the creator deity (''kami'') of both creation and life in Japanese mythology. He and his sister-wife Izanami are the ...

were brother and sister who decided to procreate, once commencing the ritual Izanami had told Izanagi how to start the ritual, once it had been done their baby came out a leech in whom they denied and placed in a reed basket and floated it away down the river. The two asked the gods what went wrong and they said the woman is to not speak first during the ritual and to try again, so they did. Later the two had another child, a fire deity who would kill Izanami during child birth. Izanagi goes to

Yomi is the Japanese language, Japanese word for the underworld, land of the dead (World of Darkness). According to Shinto mythology as related in ''Kojiki'', this is where the dead go in the afterlife. Once one has eaten at the hearth of Yomi it is ...

(Japanese world of the dead) to bring his wife back but she had changed too much and he decides not to, hurting Izanami and leading her to hunt Izanagi down in which he escapes her. "Death or departure of the gods" is motif A192 in

Stith Thompson Stith Thompson (March 7, 1885 – January 10, 1976) was an American folklore studies, folklorist: he has been described as "America's most important folklorist". He is the "Thompson" of the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index, which indexes Folklore, ...

's '' Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'', with the following subcategories:S. Thompson, ''Motif-index of folk-literature : a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, medieval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends'', Revised and enlarged. edition. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1955-1958, p. 106. :A192.1. Death of the gods (also F259.1. Mortality of fairies) ::A192.1.1. Old god slain by young god. (also A525.2.

Culture hero A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group (Culture, cultural, Ethnic group, ethnic, Religion, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or Discovery (observation), discovery. Although many culture heroes help with ...

(god) slays his grandfather) ::A192.1.2. God killed and eaten (theophagy) :A192.2. Departure of gods (also A560. Culture hero's (demi-god's) departure) ::A192.2.1. Deity departs for heaven (skies). :::A192.2.1.1. Deity departs for moon. ::A192.2.2. Divinity departs in boat over sea. ::A192.2.3. Divinity departs to submarine home. ::A192.2.4. Divinity departs in column of flame. :A192.3. Expected return of deity. :A192.4. Divinity becomes mortal. A separate (although related and overlapping) category are gods who die and are also resurrected (Thompson's motif A193), see Dying-and-rising god.

References

{{reflist * Burkert, Walter 1979. ''Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual''. London: University of California Press. * Leeming, David. "Dying god". ''The Oxford Companion to World mythology''. Oxford University Press, 2004. ''Oxford Reference Online''. Oxford University Press. UC - Irvine. 5 June 2011 * Stookey, Lorena Laura. 2004. ''Thematic Guide to World Mythology''. Westport: Greenwood. Comparative mythology Mythological archetypes Recurring elements in folklore

Examples

Osiris

Yama

Izanami

See also

References