River and Death

created, 2024-07-03 & modified, =this.modified tags:deathmythriversaggregator

NOTE

Mainly need to source symbols or documents related to the rivers themselves. Trying to root out examples and connections here because the association of rivers, or flowing waters with death seems to be prevalent.

Water as a symbol of life. Flowing away of life out with a river. River as existing as a passage of time.

In several cultures, the Sun is the source of an analogy to God.

Styx

literally meaning “Shuddering” is a goddess and river of the Underworld. Her parents were Titans Oceanus and Thethys.

Oceanus was the father of the river gods, and also the “great river which encircled the world.” Thethys was the mother of the river gods. “Hellenistic and Roman poetry Tethys’ name came to be used as a poetic term for the sea”

According to Hesiod, Styx lived at the entrance to Hades, in a cave “propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars.” Zeus would send Iris, the messenger of the gods, to fetch the “famous cold water” of Styx for the gods to swear by

Ovid

Whatever thy wish, it shall not be denied, and that thy heart shall suffer no distrust, I pledge me by that Deity, the Waves of the deep Stygian Lake,—oath of the Gods.[

Styx was given 1/10th of her father’s water:

the famous cold water … trickles down from a high and beetling rock. Far under the wide-pathed earth a branch of Oceanus flows through the dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her.

Styx forms a boundary of Hades, the abode of the dead, in the Underworld. Joining the dead is done “beyond the River.

Arcadian Styx

• Not far from the ruins is a high cliff; I know of none other that rises to so great a height. A water trickles down the cliff, called by the Greeks the water of the Styx.
• Water from this Styx was said to be poisonous and able to dissolve most substances. Drinking causes immediate death.
• According to James George Frazer, this “fable” provided an explanation for the fact that, from a distance, the waterfall appears black

Charon Figures

Charon is in charge of ferrying the dead across it.

Appearance: On the earlier such vases, he looks like a rough, unkempt Athenian seaman dressed in reddish-brown, holding his ferryman’s pole in his right hand and using his left hand to receive the deceased. Hermes sometimes stands by in his role as psychopomp. On later vases, Charon is given a more “kindly and refined” demeanor.

Coins for the dead, is form of respect for the dead. People believed they needed coins to cross the river Styx. This practice is still observed in United States and Canada: visitors will leave coins on gravestones of former military personnel.

In ancient times without the coins the dead would be unable to cross, and they would live on the banks of Styx for 100 years. Egyptians followed the practice of burying with the riches needed for the next life.

NOTE

There is an implied transmission between the mortal world and the afterlife here? How would a coin placed in a grave be transferred otherwise?

Charon’s Obol

A coin placed in or on the mouth of dead person before burial.

Take this money, and shut up.

In Latin, Charon’s obol sometimes is called a viaticum, or “sustenance for the journey”; the placement of the coin on the mouth has been explained also as a seal to protect the deceased’s soul or to prevent it from returning.

Wow, this is a interesting: “Ghost coins” also appear with the dead. These are impression of an actual coin struck into a small piece of gold foil.

Within an Athenian family burial plot of the 2nd century BC, a thin gold disk similarly stamped with the owl of Athens had been placed in the mouth of each male

Similarly German Totenpass, a “passport for the dead” with instructions for navigating the afterlife. Afterlife is travel? The inscription instructs the initiate on how to navigate the afterlife, including directions for avoiding hazards in the landscape of the dead and formulaic responses to the underworld judges.

NOTE

The language of afterlife used here, navigation passage

Might be because I am approaching this from the future (which these customs influenced), and the language has already been altered - but they bear a relation to water travel.

Manannán mac Lir

Gaelic kind of the otherworld in myth. The otherworld is a land of magical deities (and also possibly the dead.) In modern tales he is said to own a self navigating boat named Sguaba Tuinne (“wave-sweeper”) and a horse that can course over water as well as land (Aonbharr), and a deadly strength sapping sword. The Isle of Mann is generally thought to be named after him.

Acheron flowed in the opposite direction from Oceanus beneath the earth under desert places.

Urshanabi

A figure in Mesopotamian mythology, who is a boatman in the service of the flood hero Utnapishtim and responsible for taking Gilgamesh to his domain. It has additionally been proposed that he might have been viewed as a survivor of the great flood, and that he acted as a ferryman of the dead comparable to Ḫumuṭ-tabal or Greek Charon.

Since a part of the ocean separating the domain of Utnapishtim from the world is described as the “waters of death”, George also suggests that it is not impossible that Urshanabi was additionally believed to act as the ferryman of the dead, comparable to Greek Charon

Gjöll

• River that separates the living in the dead in Norse Myth. One of 11 rivers that existed at the beginning of the world.
• Gjallarbrú is the the bridge that must be crossed, to reach Hel. It spans the river.
  • described as a covered bridge, “thatched with glittering gold.”

Hitfun

• In Mandaean Cosmology - is a great dividing river separating the world of darkness, with the world of light.
• Illustrations of boats ferrying souls across this river.
• Sharat - literally ‘she kept watch’ is a ship or boat mentioned. It ferries souls from Tibil across Hitfun and into the house of Abatur. According to priest it is a spaceship traveling faster than the speed of light through the ether to higher realms.

NOTE

Connections with these examples.

• Elements of guard or figures on the bodies
• Elements of crossing required to pass onto afterlife, so the river is a boundary
• Analogous to read world locations

Hubur

Sumerian term meaning “river”, “watercourse” or “netherworld”. It is usually “river of the netherworld.”

The god Marduk was praised for restoration or saving individuals from death when he drew them out of the waters of the Hubur.

Sanzu River

The Sanzu-no-Kawa (literally “River of Three Crossings”) is a river in Japanese Buddhist tradition.

Before reaching afterlife, souls must cross the river by one of three points (a bridge, a ford, or a stretch of deep, snake-infested waters.) The weight of one’s life offesnses determines which one they take. Believed to be in Mount Osore in Northern Japan.

Vaitarani

In indian religions, a mythological River. Lies between earth and the infernal Naraka, the realm of Yama, the Hindu god of death. It is believed to be capable of purifying sins. The righteous are stated to see it as nectar filled water, the sinful see it as blood. It is possible to be taken across the dreaded river by a cow which is worshipped and donated.

There is the dark Vaitarani river at the dreadful entrance to (the place of) the God of Death. I am giving this black cow in order to cross that Vaitarani.

Sikhism

This River is a river full of blood, pus, urine and other filthy things. This river has a very bad smell to it due to it being a river full of filth. In the river are fierce flesh eating birds, fish, insects, crocodiles and other fierce animals that attack the being. This river has fire on top of it and is set on fire and this river’s content is extremely hot.

This river was made especially for the sinners. The sinners burn in this river, and have their flesh torn by the insects and animals as they are made to swim across this river and those who done good deeds are given a boat to cross this river in one piece.

“In the hereafter, you shall have to cross over the fiery river of poisonous flames (Vaitarani River). No one else will be there; your soul shall be all alone. The ocean of fire spits out waves of searing flames; the self-willed manmukhs fall into it, and are roasted there

In Pali literature, the river is described as flowing by the forest of sword-leaves Asipattavana. Beings in hell attempt to bathe and drink from it, only to discover that swords and sharp weapons lie concealed beneath its waters. Creepers that bear thorns like spears grow on its banks.

Egyptian Funerary Practice

The Solar barque was a vessel used by sun god Ra. Ra used a vessel called the Mandjet or Boat of A Million Years in the day, and at night used a vessel called Mesektet.

When the sun set he’d travel through the akhet, horizon, in the west and travel to the underworld. He’d transform into his ram form for this.

In folklore, a boat of this kind is used by the sun god. Thus, as the pharaoh was a representation of the sun god on earth, the king would use a similar boat upon his death to travel through the underworld on their journey to the afterlife.

Lethe and Mnemosyne

created, =this.created & modified, =this.modified tags:rivers rel: River and Death Survey of Being Lost

One of the rivers of the underworld of Hades. Also known as the river of unmindfulness.

Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the underworld where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. The river was often associated with Lethe, the personification of forgetfulness and oblivion, who was the daughter of Eris (strife.)

In classical Greek lethe literally means forgetting or forgetfulness.

The shades of death were required to drink the waters of Lethe in order to forget their earthly life. Only once the dead have lost their memories can they be reincarnated.

An Orphic inscription warns readers to avoid Lethe and seek Mnemosyne instead. Their thirst will not be quenched in Lethe, causing them to drink more than necessary.

A few mystery religions taught the existence of another river, the Mnemosyne; those who drank from the Mnemosyne would remember everything and attain omniscience. Initiates were taught that they would receive a choice of rivers to drink from after death, and to drink from Mnemosyne instead of Lethe.

Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne presided over a pool in Hades, a counterpart to Lethe.

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Abzu

Abzu (deep water) is the name for fresh water from the underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilizing quality in ancient near eastern cosmology, including Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. rel: Firmament

Firmament

rel: Aether - Quintessence - Empyrean River and Death The firmament means the celestial barrier that separates the heavenly waters above from the Earth below. In biblical cosmology it is a vast solid dome created by God during the Genesis narrative to separate the primal sea into the upper and lower regions so that dry land could appear. Today it is known synonymously with the sky or heaven.

The gap between heaven and Earth was bridged by ziggurats and these supported stairways that allowed gods to descend into the Earth from the heavenly realm.

In ancient Egyptian texts, and from texts across the near east generally, the firmament was described as having special doors or gateways on the eastern and western horizons to allow for the passage of heavenly bodies during their daily journeys. These were known as the windows of heaven or the gates of heaven. In Egyptian texts particularly, these gates also served as conduits between the earthly and heavenly realms for which righteous people could ascend

Four models of the Egyptian Firmament existed

• the shape of a bird: the firmament was the underside of a bird, the sun and the moon were eyes, and the passage of time was caused by the flapping of the winds.
• a celestial cow: the cow consumed the sun and rebirthed it next morning.
• celestial woman: nut, the stars are inscribed across the belly of Nut and one needs to identify with one of them, or a constellation, in order to join them after death.
• a flat, or slightly convex plane: supported by pillars staves, scepters or mountains at the extreme ends of the world (which gave way to the motif four corners of the earth.)

Whether the firmament was hard/firm or soft/fluid was also up for debate. Bede reasoned that the waters might be held in place if they were frozen solid: the siderum caelum (heaven of the celestial bodies) was made firm (firmatum) in the midst of the waters so should be interpreted as having the firmness of crystalline stone (cristallini Iapidis)

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It is referred to as the freshwater primordial ocean below and above the earth; indeed the Earth itself was regarded as a goddess Ninhursag that was conceived from the mating of male Abzu with female saltwater ocean Tiamat.

The sky is often thought of as something like the upper sea.

An important technical detail are the gate sluices built into sky. Through them, the gods around Enlil, who knew very well how to construct irrigation systems, supplied their land Eden with rain, but also unleashed the great flood.