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A devourer, in a religious/mythological context, is an entity of immense destructive power who in one way or another is associated with death, destruction, or even the end of the world.
There are several devourer entities in Egyptian mythos, but the most well known would be Apophis (or Apep). Apophis is the God of Darkness, Chaos, Evil and Destruction [1] who was the brother of Ra. Every night, Ra would descend into the underworld to start the cycle for the next day. During this time, Apophis would attempt to devour him, thus preventing the sun from rising the next day, and destroying the world. In this story, Apophis is clearly seen as a devourer entity as he devourers the sun and ends the world.
Apep or Apophis was the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied chaos and was thus the opponent of light and Ma'at (order/truth). He appears in art as a giant serpent. His name is reconstructed by Egyptologists as *ʻAʼpāp(ī), as it was written ꜥꜣpp(y) and survived in later Coptic as ⲀⲫⲱⲫAphōph. Apep was first mentioned in the Eighth Dynasty, and he was honored in the names of the Fourteenth Dynasty king 'Apepi and of the Greater Hyksos king Apophis.
Another devourer in the Egyptian mythos is Ammit the Devourer. Ammit is different in that she does not seek to destroy the world, but instead is used as way to judge the dead. [2] When people die they are brought before Osiris where their life would be weighed against the feather of Ma’at. Should their evil actions in life outweigh their good actions, then Ammit would devour their heart, granting them a ‘second death’ of sorts. In this instance, Ammit is not an agent of evil, but punishment for the guilty dead.
Ammit was a demoness and goddess in ancient Egyptian religion with a body that was part lion, hippopotamus, and crocodile—the three largest "man-eating" animals known to ancient Egyptians. A funerary deity, her titles included "Devourer of the Dead", "Eater of Hearts", and "Great of Death". Ammit lived near the scales of justice in Duat, the Egyptian underworld. In the Hall of Two Truths, Anubis weighed the heart of a person against the feather of Ma'at, the goddess of truth, which was depicted as an ostrich feather. If the heart was judged to be not pure, Ammit would devour it, and the person undergoing judgement was not allowed to continue their voyage towards Osiris and immortality. Once Ammit swallowed the heart, the soul was believed to become restless forever; this was called "to die a second time". Ammit was also sometimes said to stand by a lake of fire. In some traditions, the unworthy hearts were cast into the fiery lake to be destroyed. Some scholars believe Ammit and the lake represent the same concept of destruction.
Osiris is the god of fertility, alcohol, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail. He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother, Set, cut him up into pieces after killing him, Isis, his wife, found all the pieces and wrapped his body up. Osiris was at times considered the eldest son of the god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning "Foremost of the Westerners", a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead. As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called "king of the living" as he is the first god-king of Earth in ancient Egypt, therefore considered the blessed dead "the living ones". Through syncretism with Iah, he is also the god of the Moon.
In Greek mythology, there are a plethora of hungry monsters and vengeful gods, an example of which being the Minotaur. The Minotaur (which roughly translates to Bull of Minos) was the son of the Cretan queen Pasiphae and a bull. When the Minotaur was no longer satisfied with the nursing of his mother, it was found that he was very fond of eating human flesh. So Minos, the king of Crete and the Minotaur's step-father, ordered the great architect Daedalus to build a great labyrinth for his step-son. With the Minotaur imprisoned in the labyrinth, Minos demanded that Athens send seven maidens and seven youths to be sacrificed to his monstrous son every nine years. After several years of this the son of the king of Athens, Theseus, was eventually chosen to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, who he swore to slay. When he succeeded in slaying the Minotaur he returned home with one of the princess of Crete, Phaedra, he was crowned king after his father had killed himself in grief believing his son to be dead. [3]
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a mythical creature portrayed in Classical times with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "part man and part bull". He dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus, on the command of King Minos of Crete. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.
In Greek mythology, Minos was the first King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus's creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by the Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in the underworld.
In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artist, and was seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, and possibly also the father of Iapyx, although this is unclear. He invented and built the labyrinth for king Minos of Crete, but shortly after finishing it king Minos had Daedalus imprisoned within the labyrinth. He and his son Icarus devised a plan to escape by using wings made of wax that Daedalus had invented. They escaped, but sadly Icarus did not heed his father's warnings and flew too close to the sun. The wax melted and Icarus fell to his death. This left Daedalus heartbroken, but instead of giving up he flew to the island of Sicily.
In that story the Minotaur was a literal devourer of mankind, similar to another monster from Greek myths Charybdis. Charybdis, before she became a monster, was the daughter of Poseidon and Gaea, and served her father well in his eternal war with Zeus. For she would flood large swaths of land and claim the it for her father. Eventually Zeus became so angry over how Charybdis would take so much of his land he cursed her to eat only sea water until the end of time, thus creating endless whirlpools. [4] He then placed her opposite of a cliff which held Scylla a monster with several dog heads on long tendrils, which she used to snatch sailors off their ship. With Charybdis, one could say she was a monster from the beginning due to her flooding large patches of land and more than likely drowning a lot of people in the process. But one could also argue that she was a loyal daughter who was but a victim of war.
Charybdis was a sea monster in the Greek Mythology, which was later rationalized as a whirlpool and considered a shipping hazard in the Strait of Messina.
Poseidon was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes. His Roman equivalent is Neptune.
Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who rules as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter. His mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of Indo-European deities such as Jupiter, Perkūnas, Perun, Indra and Thor.
Within Norse mythology, there are many devourers who hungered for several things: from the end of all creation, to freedom from an arguably unjust punishment. On one end of the scale, there is Nidhoggr, [5] a great dragon who lies beneath the roots of the great ash tree Yggdrasil, [6] whose branches and roots touch all nine realms of existence: Midgard (Earth), Vanaheimr, Asgard, Jotunheimr, Alfheimr, Nidavellir, Svartalfar, Niflheim, Muspelheim, and Hel. According to legend, Nidhoggr gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil and will one day chew through them all, toppling the world tree and bringing about Ragnarok: the end of everything. Once again there is a serpent figure who seeks to start the end of the world.
In Norse cosmology, Vanaheimr is a location associated with the Vanir, a group of gods themselves associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future.
In Norse cosmology, Asgard is a location associated with the gods. Asgard is attested in a variety of sources, including the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, in the Prose Edda, and in euhemerized form in Heimskringla. The Prose Edda describes Valhalla, the god Odin's afterlife hall for a portion of the battlefield slain, as located in Asgard.
In Norse cosmology, Niflheim or Niflheimr ("World of Mist", literally "Home of Mist" is a location in which sometimes overlaps with the notions of Niflhel and Hel. The name Niflheimr appears only in two extant sources: Gylfaginning and the much-debated Hrafnagaldr Óðins.
On the opposite end of the spectrum there is Hati [7] and Skoll, the twin sons of Fenrir (or Fenris). When their father Fenrir was chained to a boulder, the twin wolves rushed out to avenge their father, but they too were captured. Seeing a use for them, The Allfather Odin cast them into the heavens to nip at the heels of the Sun and Moon. Before Odin cast Hati and Skoll to the heavens, the goddess of the sun Sól and god of the moon Máni were lazy and would often stop their movement in the heavens to watch the mortals below. With this, Hati and Skoll would chase the Sun and Moon, unless they were doing their job in which case the brothers could do whatever they wanted until the sun and moon lazed once again, until they finally devour the Sun and Moon and reunite with their father on the battle fields of Ragnarok. [8]
Fenrir or Fenrisúlfr, also referred to as Hróðvitnir ("fame-wolf") and Vánagandr, or Vanargand, is a monstrous wolf in Norse mythology. Fenrir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, Fenrir is the father of the wolves Sköll and Hati Hróðvitnisson, is a son of Loki, and is foretold to kill the god Odin during the events of Ragnarök, but will in turn be killed by Odin's son Víðarr.
Odin is a widely revered god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, from which stems most surviving information about the god, Odin is associated with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, and the runic alphabet, and is the husband of the goddess Frigg. In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, the god was known in Old English as Wōden, in Old Saxon as Wōdan, and in Old High German as Wuotan.
Sól or Sunna is the Sun personified in Norse mythology. One of the two Old High German Merseburg Incantations, written in the 9th or 10th century CE, attests that Sunna is the sister of Sinthgunt. In Norse mythology, Sól is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson.
Among the legends of Japan, from yokai, to vengeful spirits, to the gods themselves, the stories of Japan are vast and varied.[ peacock term ]
One of these stories is the tale of Yamata-no-Orochi. Yamata-no-Orochi was an eight headed serpent whose body stretched over hills and filled valleys. He was responsible for the deaths for seven of the eight daughters of an elderly couple who's eighth daughter, Kushinada-hime, went on to become the wife of Susano-o the God of the seas. Susano-o slew Orochi when the serpent sought to devour Kushinada-hime as well. [9] Yamata-no-Orochi was a monster of epic proportions that took a god to kill it, but what if a god was a devourer as well. Izanami-no-Mikoto was the goddess of Creation and Death, she along with her husband Izanagi were the ones to create the landmasses which would become Japan. When Izanami gave birth to her second child Kagutsuchi, the god of fire, she was so horribly burned that she was sent to Yomi the land of the dead. When a grief-stricken Izanagi ventured in to Yomi to find her, he was horrified to find his once beautiful wife rotting and covered in maggots for she had eaten the food of the dead. As Izanagi fled through the entrance to Yomi, pursued by Izanami, he slammed a boulder in front of the entrance sealing it forever. Izanami said that if he (Izanagi) left her than she would kill one thousand of his creations every day, to which Izanagi said that he would simply create one thousand five hundred things every day before leaving. [10] Some could argue that Izanagi was petty to leave his wife simply because she was ugly, while other would say that it's cruel to kill one thousand things every day simply because your husband left you.
In Norse mythology, a vargr is a wolf and in particular refers to the wolf Fenrir and the wolves that chase the sun and moon Sköll and Hati. Based on this, J. R. R. Tolkien in his fiction used the Old English form warg to refer to a particularly large and evil kind of wolf. Because of Tolkien's influence on fantasy the word has been used many times in other works.
In Norse mythology, Sköll is a wolf that chases the Sun. Hati Hróðvitnisson chases the Moon.
In Norse mythology, Hati Hróðvitnisson is a warg; a wolf that, according to Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, chases Máni, the moon, across the night sky, just as the wolf Sköll chases Sól, the sun, during the day, until the time of Ragnarök, when they will swallow these heavenly bodies. Snorri also gives another name for a wolf who swallows the moon, Mánagarmr.
Susanoo, recorded in the Kojiki as Takehaya Susano'o no Mikoto (建速須佐之男命), in the Nihon Shoki as Susano'o no Mikoto (素戔男尊／素戔嗚尊等／須佐乃袁尊), and at Kumano shrine as Kumano Ketsumiko no kami (熊野家都御子神), is the Shinto god of the sea and storms. He is also considered to be ruler of Neno-Katasu-Kuni (根之堅洲國).
In Norse mythology, Angrboða or Angrboda is a female jötunn. In the Poetic Edda, Angrboða is mentioned only in Völuspá hin skamma as the mother of Fenrir by Loki. However, in the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, she is referred to as a "Jotunn in Jötunheimr" and said also to be the mother of Fenrir's siblings Jörmungandr and Hel. She may be the same as Iárnvidia, 'She of Iron-wood', mentioned in the list of troll-wives in the Prose Edda list nafnaþulur.
In Slavic mythology, Zorya are the two guardian goddesses, known as the Auroras. They guard and watch over the winged doomsday hound, Simargl, who is chained to the star Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor, the "little bear". If the chain ever breaks, the hound will devour the constellation and the universe will end. The Zoryas represent the Morning Star and the Evening Star.
Izanagi is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shinto, and his name in the Kojiki is roughly translated to as "he-who-invites". He is also known as Izanagi-no-Mikoto or Izanagi-no-Ōkami.
Japanese mythology embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculturally-based folk religion. The Shinto pantheon comprises innumerable kami. This article will discuss only the typical elements present in Asian mythology, such as cosmogony, important deities, and the best-known Japanese stories.
Yomi or Yomi-no-kuni is the Japanese word for the land of the dead. 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 (mostly) impossible to return to the land of the living. Yomi in Japanese mythology is comparable to Hades or Sheol and is most commonly known for Izanami's retreat to that place after her death. Izanagi followed her there and upon his return he washed himself, creating Amaterasu, Susanoo, and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto in the process.
Raijin (雷神), also known as Yakusa no ikazuchi no kami, Kaminari-sama, and Raiden-sama, is a god of lightning, thunder and storms in Japanese mythology and the Shinto religion. The name 'Raijin' is derived from the Japanese words kaminari and kami. Raijin is typically depicted with fierce and aggressive facial expressions, standing atop a cloud, and is shown beating on drums. The drums are often shown to have the symbol tomoe drawn on them. Raijin is often depicted as a protector and/or warrior figure within Japanese temples and shrines.
In Japanese mythology, Izanami no mikoto is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi-no-mikoto. She is also referred to as Izanami no kami.
Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto (月読尊) or Tsukuyomi (月読), is the moon god in Shinto and Japanese mythology. The name "Tsukuyomi" is a compound of the Old Japanese words tsuku and yomi. The Nihon Shoki mentions this name spelled as Tsukuyumi, but this yumi is likely a variation in pronunciation of yomi. An alternative interpretation is that his name is a combination of tsukiyo and mi.
Blue Seed is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuzo Takada. The plot is based on the Izumo cycle of Japanese mythology and the tale of the god Susanoo and the eight-headed monster Yamata no Orochi. The main character, Momiji Fujimiya, is a descendant of the mythical Princess Kushinada. When Japan is menaced by Aragami spawned by Yamato-no-Orochi, Momiji is intended to be sacrificed to appease the Aragami. She instead, however, becomes a member of the Terrestrial Administration Center (TAC), a secret agency charged with fighting them.
Yomotsu-shikome, in Japanese mythology, was a hag sent by the dead Izanami to pursue her husband Izanagi, for shaming her by breaking promise not to see her in her decayed form in the Underworld (Yomi-no-kuni). Also recorded by the name Yomotsu-hisame (泉津日狭女), the name may have been a term referring collectively to eight hags, not just one.
The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon is a Japanese animated fantasy adventure feature film, the 6th feature produced by Tōei Animation, released in Japan on March 24, 1963. English-dubbed versions have been released under several titles, including The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, Prince in Wonderland and Rainbow Bridge.
The tiangou is a legendary creature from China. The tiangou resembles a black dog or meteor, which is thought to eat the sun or moon during an eclipse.
Yamato Takeru is a 1994 Japanese anime television series loosely related to both the live-action film and legend about a young boy who goes on a great adventure that would grant him great powers and the understanding that his destiny is linked to the world. The series is followed up by the 1995 two-episode original video animation Yamato Takeru: After War.
In Japanese mythology, the Age of the Gods is the period preceding the accession of Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan. The kamiyo myths are chronicled in the "upper roll" (Kamitsumaki) of the Kojiki and in the first and second chapters of the Nihon Shoki. The reigns of Emperor Jimmu and the subsequent Emperors are considered the Human Age.
