How do you kill a God?
- Thread starter Chessie
- Start date
The similarities you have pointed out in different mythologies points to similar sources and archetypes yet each one gains a regional flavour. For example when there is a plant involved in the myth then it will be one particular to that area
When you see the patchwork blanket of beliefs that covers the world and you see the similarities between them all it is impossible to hold up one and say this is the one true telling of this archetypal story.
With this oversight it is possible to see the dogma behind religions and their denial of the shared origins of mankind and its myths
So to answer the question 'how do you kill a god': educate the people; give them oversight and they will see the truth
Or you could do like Conan the destroyer did and jump on its back and then rip its magic horn off
Well, I was actually thinking of containment. I mean, I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to leap on it's back and tear off a magical horn but I think if we're speaking practicality, we can deny the existence of Gods all day.
I am more interested in the impractical with this inquiry...or rather, starting from an impractical and leading towards a practical. I realize this quest is fairly immediately insane and ridiculous. That doesn't mean it's not worth exploring.
At any rate, I can't find any references to an actual barbarian directly assaulting a God and surviving in anything but modern media. I figure that would be a bad solution.
I am interested in the Prometheus solution which contained the one of the old Gods of fire and self sacrifice for untold years until he was freed by Hercules. It was an interesting premise to bind him and daily remove a significant part of his organs. I have to wonder if the organ removal was purely for the purpose of torture or if it played some role in maintaining his entrapment.
I am more interested in the impractical with this inquiry...or rather, starting from an impractical and leading towards a practical. I realize this quest is fairly immediately insane and ridiculous. That doesn't mean it's not worth exploring.
At any rate, I can't find any references to an actual barbarian directly assaulting a God and surviving in anything but modern media. I figure that would be a bad solution.
I am interested in the Prometheus solution which contained the one of the old Gods of fire and self sacrifice for untold years until he was freed by Hercules. It was an interesting premise to bind him and daily remove a significant part of his organs. I have to wonder if the organ removal was purely for the purpose of torture or if it played some role in maintaining his entrapment.
Prometheus only stole something from the gods, but what he stole empowered man. So i guess if you want to diminish the gods then you have to build man up
Further to Jack the giant slayers armoury above i would like to suggest Excalibur
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Do nothing.
Any action taken up for or against only brings strength, by doing nothing you effectivley take tat strength away.
Any action taken up for or against only brings strength, by doing nothing you effectivley take tat strength away.
I like the idea of the spears imbued by the powers of the various Gods but I am looking mostly for situations where a God has been killed or thoroughly incapacitated rather than for mystical artifacts unless they're directly connected to the story of a God being slain.
Fenrir will kill Odin during Ragnarok but there is some suggestion that this hasn't happened yet so I can't include it.
During the poem called the 'Sayings Of The High One' Odin hung on the World Tree for 9 days, impaled on his spear, so he could learn the runes and songs that give him power over the Gods. This would seem to mean the spear had the capacity to at least hold the All Father in place although not to kill him.
I have been going back over over Norse Mythology since it seems replete with good information. The Greek Myths tend to revolve more around the children of Gods and less around the Gods themselves. This speaks to the different culture involved and of course if these persons are not walking around, they must have died. Still, killing a half God is not easy.
In the case of the death of Balder, he was killed by mistletoe thrown by the blind god Hod who was tricked by Loki during a test of Balder's invulnerability. It did not end well;Mistletoe was his only weakness.
Norse Gods aren't directly invulnerable or immortal and this is recognized by most of them although they do seem to have an extremely high tolerance to damage. They each have varying weaknesses which are both obscure and most often difficult to obtain.
Fenrir is an interesting situation in that he is an ancient concept. The old wolf in the dark that will devour the world. It's no surprise that the god of music and poetry and civilization would be eaten by him at what they refer to as 'the end of the world'.
Now getting back to Egyptian mythology. Set killed Osiris and he was resurrected by Isis, his wife. Osiris could not return to the land of the living however and ended up ruling, alive but also dead, in the underworld as arbiter of justice for the souls who've passed on. I will, I believe, accept trapped in another dimension of existence as an option in the 'incapacitated' column. That he was resurrected suggests he was someplace other than the underworld and perhaps even more helpless than he would have been had he not been 'brought back'.
I've found a few references to Gods being killed and then 'raised' but raised in such a way as they couldn't re-join their pantheons or command their old powers.
Fenrir will kill Odin during Ragnarok but there is some suggestion that this hasn't happened yet so I can't include it.
During the poem called the 'Sayings Of The High One' Odin hung on the World Tree for 9 days, impaled on his spear, so he could learn the runes and songs that give him power over the Gods. This would seem to mean the spear had the capacity to at least hold the All Father in place although not to kill him.
I have been going back over over Norse Mythology since it seems replete with good information. The Greek Myths tend to revolve more around the children of Gods and less around the Gods themselves. This speaks to the different culture involved and of course if these persons are not walking around, they must have died. Still, killing a half God is not easy.
In the case of the death of Balder, he was killed by mistletoe thrown by the blind god Hod who was tricked by Loki during a test of Balder's invulnerability. It did not end well;Mistletoe was his only weakness.
Norse Gods aren't directly invulnerable or immortal and this is recognized by most of them although they do seem to have an extremely high tolerance to damage. They each have varying weaknesses which are both obscure and most often difficult to obtain.
Fenrir is an interesting situation in that he is an ancient concept. The old wolf in the dark that will devour the world. It's no surprise that the god of music and poetry and civilization would be eaten by him at what they refer to as 'the end of the world'.
Now getting back to Egyptian mythology. Set killed Osiris and he was resurrected by Isis, his wife. Osiris could not return to the land of the living however and ended up ruling, alive but also dead, in the underworld as arbiter of justice for the souls who've passed on. I will, I believe, accept trapped in another dimension of existence as an option in the 'incapacitated' column. That he was resurrected suggests he was someplace other than the underworld and perhaps even more helpless than he would have been had he not been 'brought back'.
I've found a few references to Gods being killed and then 'raised' but raised in such a way as they couldn't re-join their pantheons or command their old powers.
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