This is a story from Japan.
The Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu was terrified of her brothers: Hurricane and Gale. They troubled her regularly. And one day, to escape their wilful hooliganism, the goddess ran away and hid herself in a cave.
As you can see, this led to chaos. The gods ran helter skelter looking for Amaterasu because she had taken away the light from their lives. Finally, they found her but, despite all their cajoling and pleading; she refused to step out of the cave. She wouldn’t even come to the entrance for fear that she may be dragged out by her brothers.
The god of wisdom came up with a plan. Go to the cave, he told his fellow gods, in great numbers. Take every musical instrument you can think up and a large mirror. Bang the instruments to create a racket that shakes every corner of the world.
The gods followed his advice and soon Amaterasu let curiosity get the better of her and peeped out. Look, the gods said, we now have a new sun goddess. She is brighter, braver and stronger than you.
Amaterasu saw the reflection in the mirror. Anger flooded her entire being and she stepped out for a fight. No sooner did she do that, the gods tied her up with ropes of dried grass and placed her back in the sky.
Gradually, Amaterasu came to accept her fate. But every night she finds her way back to the cave and lets the moon take her place in the night sky. The ropes of dried grass are the rays of the sun and even today, the Japanese believe that it is auspicious to hang up a garland of dried grass over the doorway during special ceremonies.
4 comments:
Wow
hey thanks. i loved this story and thought that i should put it down for all who are interested. glad you liked it.
Very interesting myth, especially in the context of a story I recently read about the cattle of Brihaspati being stolen and hidden in a cave by the evil people called the Panis. They were found by the dog Sarama and recovered by Indra. I read somewhere that the cattle also symbolize the rays of the sun.
By the way, was the sun deity a female in any other culture other than Japan?
rajashree,
thanks for coming by. the sun is a male in most myths but in india, ushas (the dawn) is supposed to be female sun while savitru (or savitur) is the male form of the sun.... and yes, cattle symbolise the sun rays... interesting to see how associations played a role in the stories of that time.
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