lgbt-themes-in-mythology

"I will soothe hearts, I will soothe spirits. I will appease the Anuna gods. [...] I, who am to serve -- I, the tutelary deity, who am to serve. [...] I will make the young lady, Inana, born in the shining mountains, rejoice."

"If it pleases you, my god, allow me to soothe your angry heart, so that your spirit will be assuaged. May the mackim demon that perpetrates evil be ripped apart, so that he will flee my body. May the ' demon be extirpated from my limbs, so that my dark days will become bright. I cannot bear your heavy punishment any longer; declare that "It is over"! May I, the humble servant, not be destroyed; declare that "It is over"!"

"My faithful minister of the E-ana, my Nincubur of the E-ana, (you said:) "I, the august minister of the universe, I, Nincubur of the universe, the faithful minister of the Anuna gods, Nincubur of the Anuna gods, the faithful minister, the personal god of the Land, Nincubur, the personal god of the Land, the faithful minister, the mother of the Land, Nincubur, the mother of the Land, [...] I will ride high in joy!"."

"Servant, as you took your seat on the lofty dais, Nincubur, as you took your seat, as you took your seat on the dais like father Enlil, as you took your seat like Enlil and Ninlil, (you said:) "I, like my mother, I, Kaka, will ride high in joy like my mother! I, Nincubur I, Kaka, will ride high in joy like my mother.""

"The servant (ubur), the wise suppliant, [...] has taken her seat in her city Akkil."

"Lady, good seed of the Land, minister of An! Minister of An, mother Nincubur! From the interior of heaven, An bestowed upon you, and Enlil destined as your fate, that you should take a lapis-lazuli sceptre in your hand and proceed in front of An. As if you were a fecund ewe caring for its lambs, a fecund goat caring for its kids, or a fertile bearing mother caring for her children, through your powers folds are erected and pens are fenced off. In the folds erected through your powers and in the pens fenced off through your powers."

"The god who distributes the divine powers, who utters pleasing words, [...] the linen-clad god of the abzu, the chief administrator, who makes the oracular responses favourable, whose words are pre-eminent; the powerful one at the bow of the boat "Stag of the Abzu", the lord of wide and complete wisdom, the minister who knows An's secrets, with whom no god can compare; the lord of the protective goddesses; him whose great sweet eyes inspire confidence, who provides the Anuna gods, the great gods, with food offerings; the adviser who comes forth from the skies, who is worthy of holy Inana; without whom no lord or king could receive the lofty sceptre -- to Nincubur, the merciful god who listens to prayers and supplications."

"Zeus, who guided mortals to be wise, has established his fixed law— wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its memories of pain, drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, so men against their will learn to practice moderation. Favours come to us from gods seated on their solemn thrones— such grace is harsh and violent."

"Well, what if I'm wrong, I mean — anybody could be wrong. We could all be wrong about the and the pink unicorn and the flying teapot. You happen to have been brought up, I would presume, in a Christian faith. You know what it's like to not believe in a particular faith because you're not a Muslim. You're not a Hindu. Why aren't you a Hindu? Because you happen to have been brought up in America, not in India. If you had been brought up in India, you'd be a Hindu. If you had been brought up in Denmark in the time of the Vikings, you'd be believing in Wotan and Thor. If you were brought up in classical Greece, you'd be believing in Zeus. If you were brought up in central Africa, you'd be believing in the great up the mountain. There's no particular reason to pick on the Judeo-Christian god, in which by the sheerest accident you happen to have been brought up and ask me the question, "What if I'm wrong?" What if you're wrong about the great Juju at the bottom of the sea?"

"Zeus, n. The chief of Grecian gods, adored by the Romans as Jupiter and by the modern Americans as God, Gold, Mob and Dog. Some explorers who have touched upon the shores of America, and one who professes to have penetrated a considerable distance to the interior, have thought that these four names stand for as many distinct deities, but in his monumental work on Surviving Faiths, Frumpp insists that the natives are monotheists, each having no other god than himself, whom he worships under many sacred names."

"Nothing can be surprising any more or impossible or miraculous, now that Zeus, father of the Olympians has made night out of noonday, hiding the bright sunlight, and . . . fear has come upon mankind. After this, men can believe anything, expect anything. Don't any of you be surprised in future if land beasts change places with dolphins and go to live in their salty pastures, and get to like the sounding waves of the sea more than the land, while the dolphins prefer the mountains."

"ὦ Ζεῦ͵ πάτερ Ζεῦ͵ σὸν μὲν οὐρανοῦ κράτος͵ σὺ δ΄ ἔργ΄ ἐπ΄ ἀνθρώπων ὁρᾶις λεωργὰ καὶ θεμιστά͵ σοὶ δὲ θηρίων ὕβρις τε καὶ δίκη μέλει."

"Zeus: , you are a king, and it's to your sense of king-ship I appeal, for you enjoy wielding the scepter. Aegistheus: Continue. Zeus: You may hate me, but we are akin; I made you in my image. A king is a god on earth, glorious and terrifying as a god. Aegistheus: You, terrifying? Zeus: Look at me. [A long silence.] I told you you were made in my image. Each keeps order; you in Argos, I in heaven and on earth — and you and I harbor the same dark secret in our hearts. Aegistheus: I have no secret. Zeus: You and I harbor the same dark secret in our hearts. Aegistheus: I have no secret. Zeus: You have. The same as mine. The bane of gods and kings. The bitterness of knowing men are free. Yes, Aegistheus they are free. But your subjects do not know it, and you do."

"I have soared aloft with poetry and with high thought, and though I have laid my hand to many a reflection, I have found nothing stronger than Necessity, nor is there any cure for it in the Thracian tablets set down by the voice of Orpheus nor in all the simples which Phoebus harvested in aid of trouble-ridden mortals and gave to the sons of Asclepius."

"Hard rocks he soften'd with persuasive song, And sooth'd the rivers as they roll'd along. Yon beeches tall, that bloom near Zona, still Remain memorials of his vocal skill: His lays Pieria's listening trees admire, And move in measures to his melting lyre."

"Here the sweet bard his tuneful lyre unstrung, And ceas'd the heavenly music of his tongue; But, with the sound entranc'd, the listening ear Still thought him singing, and still seem'd to hear."

"In Greece the name rbhu appears as Orpheus, the famous poet and musician from Thrace who gave rise to the Orphic cult and mysteries. The later story about his descent into Hades to recover Eurydice may well be an echo of a rejuvenation attempt, while the shamanist aspect of the myth is maintained. Orpheus’s poetry and music links well with the rbhus’ poetic power in [the Rigveda]. It is therefore very curious that many philologists refuse to see this connection... There is no substantial reason, philological or semantic, why Greek Orpheus and Germanic elf should not be related to Sanskrit rbhu."

"[Orpheus] had abstained from the love of women, either because things ended badly for him, or because he had sworn to do so. Yet, many felt a desire to be joined with the poet, and many grieved at rejection. Indeed, he was the first of the Thracian people to transfer his affection to young boys and enjoy their brief springtime, and early flowering this side of manhood."

"The Orphics were an ascetic sect; wine, to them, was only a symbol, as, later, in the Christian sacrament. The intoxication that they sought was that of "enthusiasm," of union with the god. They believed themselves, in this way, to acquire mystic knowledge not obtainable by ordinary means. This mystical element entered into Greek philosophy with Pythagoras, who was a reformer of Orphism as Orpheus was a reformer of the religion of . From Pythagoras Orphic elements entered into the philosophy of Plato, and from Plato into most later philosophy that was in any degree religious."

"Many etymologies have been proposed for the name Hermes. Some suggest a connection with the Vedic Sarameyas derived from Sarama."

"Some say the Gods are just a myth but guess Who I've been dancing with... The Great God Pan is alive!"

"At sea on a ship in a thunderstorm on the very night the Christ was born a sailor heard from overhead a mighty voice cry "Pan is Dead!" So follow Christ as best you can Pan is dead — Long live Pan!"

"He's like a man you'd meet any place until you recognize that ancient Face The Great God Pan is alive!"

"Come with me on a journey beneath the skin We will look together for the Pan within."

"Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness. The symbol of art is seen again in the magic flute of the Great God Pan which makes the young goats frisk at the edge of the grove. All modern art begins to appear comprehensible and in a way great when it is interpreted as an attempt to instill youthfulness into an ancient world."

"We know what happened to those who chanced to meet the Great God Pan, and those who are wise know that all symbols are symbols of something, not of nothing. It was, indeed, an exquisite symbol beneath which men long ago veiled their knowledge of the most awful, most secret forces which lie at the heart of all things; forces before which the souls of men must wither and die and blacken, as their bodies blacken under the electric current. Such forces cannot be named, cannot be spoken, cannot be imagined except under a veil and a symbol, a symbol to the most of us appearing a quaint, poetic fancy, to some a foolish, silly tale."

"You see the mountain, and hill following after hill, as wave on wave, you see the woods and orchard, the fields of ripe corn, and the meadows reaching to the reed-beds by the river. You see me standing here beside you, and hear my voice; but I tell you that all these things — yes, from that star that has just shone out in the sky to the solid ground beneath our feet — I say that all these are but dreams and shadows; the shadows that hide the real world from our eyes. There is a real world, but it is beyond this glamour and this vision, beyond these 'chases in Arras, dreams in a career,' beyond them all as beyond a veil. I do not know whether any human being has ever lifted that veil; but I do know, Clarke, that you and I shall see it lifted this very night from before another's eyes. You may think this all strange nonsense; it may be strange, but it is true, and the ancients knew what lifting the veil means. They called it seeing the god Pan."

"In Kenneth Grahame's beautiful book, The Wind In The Willows, Mole and Rat go to the holy island of the great god, Pan. It is a superb piece of religious writing, but because it has gone beyond fact, it is deeply upsetting and untruthful to some people. If a story is not specified as being Christian, it is not Christian. But that is not so. I think that this scene is upsetting because it calls us beyond fact into the vast world of imagination, and imagination is a word of many dimensions."

""And now let us play our reeds together." And they played together. And their music smote heaven and earth, and a terror struck all living things. I heard the bellow of beasts and the hunger of the forest. And I heard the cry of lonely men, and the plaint of those who long for what they know not. I heard the sighing of the maiden for her lover, and the panting of the luckless hunter for his prey. And then there came peace into their music, and the heavens and the earth sang together. All this I saw in my dream, and all this I heard."

"You will not find him dead easily. If he has been tipped out of the car, we shall find him rolling as a colt rolls in a field, kicking his legs for fun." "Clashing his hoofs," said the Professor. "The colts do, and so did Pan." "Pan again!" said Dr. Bull irritably. "You seem to think Pan is everything." "So he is," said the Professor, "in Greek. He means everything." "Don't forget," said the Secretary, looking down, "that he also means Panic."

"In a dream I saw Jesus and My God Pan sitting together in the heart of the forest. They laughed at each other's speech, with the brook that ran near them, and the laughter of Jesus was the merrier. And they conversed long."

"In Arcady there lies a crystal spring Ring'd all about with green melodious reeds Swaying seal'd music up and down the wind. Here on its time-defaced pedestal The image of a half-forgotten God Crumbles to its complete oblivion."

"O evanescent temples built of man To deities he honoured and dethroned! Earth shoots a trail of her eternal vine To crown the head that men have ceased to honour. Beneath the coronal of leaf and lichen The mocking smile upon the lips derides Pan's lost dominion; but the pointed ears Are keen and prick'd with old remember'd sounds. All my breast aches with longing for the past! Thou God of stone, I have a craving in me For knowledge of thee as thou wert in old Enchanted twilights in Arcadia."