I like the way animals are depicted in myths all over the world. Every culture seems to attribute its animal world with a unique set of characteristics that are very different and yet very alike. Sounds paradoxical, but that’s the way myths are, I guess.
In India for instance we worship and fear the elephant. We also believe that the elephant is an animal that is easily tricked. Stories about Ganesha (also known as the elephant god) are popular all over the country. But we also have a myth – I think it is from Orissa – where the elephant is shown in a completely different light. They are shown as animals that possess a drunken wilfulness that is ultimately self destructive.
The story goes that there was a time that elephants had wings. They flew the skies with free abandon and often, oblivious to the bulk they carried, perched themselves on trees, huts and mountain tops. While the mountains bore their weight with ease, trees and houses were not as fortunate. They came crashing down with a frequency that angered the men and the gods. And finally there came a day when man decided that enough was enough and appealed to the gods. The gods lent a sympathetic ear and a plan was hatched.
Now it is public knowledge that elephants like their food and drink. So the people got together and invited all the elephants to a feast that lasted several days and nights until all the elephants lay down in a drunken stupor. Man who had been waiting for this moment went around chopping off their wings. Naturally when sleep wore off, the elephants were outraged and went to the gods to seek revenge against man. But it was too late and they realised that they had been tricked by both man and god.
Now for a story about elephants in African myths…
