Rustam, the 'Persian Hercules'

I have nearly finished reading my mythology anthology. Having read so many myths over the past year, I think I have become a bit desensitised to how bonkers they often are. There are a lot of Badass Hero Myths; here's some of the story of Rustam, the 'Persian Hercules'.

Queen Rudabeh of Zabulistan was pregnant. When the time of the birth came near, the queen grew pale and shrieked and swooned. King Zal summoned the magic Simurgh bird, who explained that the baby was too large for a normal birth and instructed the king on how to perform a Caesarean section. On the day of his birth, Rustam was as big as a one-year-old. He was suckled by ten nurses and, once weaned, ate as much as five people. He was great at killing things; he was a badass.

Fast forward.

One day, King Kai Kaous of Iran, a friend of Rustam's, decided to conquer the Kingdom of Mazanderan. He led his soldiers there, plundered the land and laid waste its cities. The Sorcerer-King of Mazanderan summoned the White Demon, who captured Kai Kaous and his men.

Eventually, Rustam heard about this and was not pleased. He travelled to Mazanderan. In the capital city, Rustam decapitated Arzang, leader of Mazanderan's demon army, and released King Kaous and his men.

Rustam then mounted his trusty steed and galloped to the Seven Mountains, where the White Demon lived. Rustam fought the White Demon, cutting off some of it's limbs. At one point the demon gained the upper hand, grasping Rustam and crushing him until all his bones must surely break...

But then Ohrmazd (God) intervened, increasing Rustam's strength and stamina so that he was able to defeat the demon.

Demons dead, King Kaous wrote a letter to the Sorcerer-King of Mazanderan explaining that Rustam had killed the demons, and Mazanderan now belonged to him. The Sorcerer-King would not give up.
He sent his human army. Rustam uprooted a tree and threw it at the troops, killing many of them and terrifying the rest.

The Sorcerer-King summoned more demons to bolster his forces.

For seven days, the battle raged between the soldiers of Mazanderan and the soldiers of Iran. The screams of the demons, the shouts of the warriors, the clanging of the trumpets, the beating of the drums, the neighing of the horses, and the groans of the dying made the earth hideous with noise. The armies fought until it seemed like pity and mercy had both completely vanished from the world. The plain on which they fought turned into a lake of blood.

And then Rustam faced the Sorcerer-King one-on-one. Just as Rustam was about the kill him, the Sorcerer-King turned himself to stone to survive the fatal blow.

"Return to your true form or be shattered into pieces!" yelled Rustam.

The Sorcerer-King did so, and King Kaous promptly ordered that he be hacked into pieces.

After the execution, there was a massive party.

(Myths are often propagandistic: it is telling that the evil demon-summoning Sorcerer-King kept his prisoners alive, after they had invaded his country and laid its cities to waste...)

Atrahasis

In Akkadian mythology, the Anunnaki, the greater gods, made humans because the Igigi, the lesser gods, had gone on strike and refused to continue working to provide the gods with food.

To make the humans, one of the Anunnaki was slaughtered; his flesh and blood was mixed with clay, and souls came forth in memory of the god. The humans were put to work tilling the ground to provide food for the gods (the food, of course, was collected by the gods from temples).

But the humans increased in numbers, and they were so noisy on earth. The gods were losing sleep over it. The god Ellil convinced the Anunnaki that a cull was needed. First they sent disease, then a drought. The people starved; they resorted to cannibalism.

But the god Ea was fond of humanity, and felt pity for them. He gave them fish to eat. This infuriated Ellil, who called for a great flood to wipe out humanity. Ea wanted some humans saved; he sneaked down to earth and told Atrahasis, his good and loyal servant who prayed regularly, to build a big boat to contain pairs of every animal.

Then the flood happened. Darkness covered the earth. Everyone not on Atrahasis' boat died. And the gods looked on the earth; they looked upon the floating corpses of men, women, children, and animals, and they wept for seven days.

The goddess Ninhursaga roused from her despair to shout at the divine assembly, asking why everyone had gone along with Ellil's crazy genocidal plan without properly thinking it through, why the assembly didn't discuss it properly, why they acted rashly not rationally. And the gods were ashamed of committing genocide just because the charismatic Ellil suggested it.

Then they spotted Atrahasis' boat, and Ea confessed to defying the will of the council to ensure that life survived. Then Ea and Ninhursaga thought of an alternative way to keep the human population down to a level which wouldn't interrupt the gods' sleep: they made it so that human babies would sometimes be stillborn, or unable to live long after birth.

This myth is from the 1600s B.C.

Egyptian Creations

Egyptian mythology has multiple creation myths, originating in the different tribal city-states that existed before being consolidated into the Kingdom of Egypt, and changing over time as their religion developed.

SEXUAL CONTENT WARNING.

The oldest (c. 3000 B.C.E) comes from Heliopolis. In the beginning there was only the primeval waters of chaos that stretched out to infinity. Slowly, an island rose out of the waters: the cosmos. And on that island was the sun-god Atum.

Atum grasped his penis and pleasured himself. He spluttered out Shu (god of air) and spat out Tefnut (goddess of moisture). One day Shu and Tefnut wandered off to explore the Ocean of Chaos. Atum became very worried; he wept tears of joy when they returned, and from these tears humans were made. Shu and Tefnut worked together to create the other gods and establish the foundations of society.

One day the cosmos will return to ocean of chaos from whence it came.

By around 1500 B.C.E, Amun-Ra (a fusion of the gods Amun and Ra) had developed into the One True God; the other gods were manifestations of him. He existed before the cosmos rose out of chaos; he instigated creation; some say he created himself; others say he had never not existed.

In the 1300s B.C.E, Pharaoh Akhenaten wanted to take power away from the priests of Amun-Ra. He declared that Aten the sun-god was the actual One True God, and the other gods didn't exist. He created the first officially monotheist religion in recorded human history. But the transition from polytheism to monotheism is a difficult one - especially if you get rid of the old gods entirely, rather than keeping them as aspects/manifestations of the One True God - so Atenism didn't last. (In ancient Israel, the priests of Yahweh-Elohim had to make 'do not serve other gods' and 'do not worship idols' the first two commandments, prioritising monotheism over murder and theft.) Outside threats plunged Egypt into political chaos. After Akhenaten's death, the priests of Amun-Ra convinced his successor Tutankhaten (meaning 'living image of Aten') to undo the Atenist reforms and change his name to Tutankhamun ('living image of Amun').