Yuga Twins

Yuga "yoke" is a designation of a pair, such as of twins.

The distinction among yuga-s as being characterized by different sets of twins is sometimes given simply in the form of 2 pairs of twins, one pair supplanting the other pair, as:-

Navaho

Hellenic

Kic^e` (in Popol Vuh)

[To escape the deluge,] the animal-gods climbed upward within a magically growing hollow cane.

The the twin Dios-kouroi hid within a hollow (chestnut, according to CDCM) tree (GM 74.g) in order to ambush

the 2 "Monkey" twins climbed a magically growing tree in order to elude

These included Badger & Coyote.

the twin sons of Aphareus.

their 2 half-brother twins.

APHAReus may derive, etymologically, from *AGHARu-, which could be the same word as >aramaic <iQQAR "stump": cf. tree-stump as being a disguised form assumed (according to the myth) by the [Sioux] Spider-god Iktomi, in one of his trickster-manoeuvers. [The stories told by the Sioux about Iktomi are in some cases the same as those told about Coyote in the Southwest USA.]

CDCM = Pierre Grimal: A Concise Dictionary of Classical Mythology.

GM = Robert Graves: The Greek Myths.

catfish parallel with coyote

catfish

coyote

[Kapalo, of the upper Xingu`] "by speaking of erotic matters to his mother-in-law, Kusimefu leaps into the water, become a catfish." (MVU, p. 212)

North American Coyote is said to have sexually violated his own mother-in-law by way of a ruse.

"For the Kapalo say that to eat tugufi [catfish] is to cause pain" to one's own self. (MVU, p. 213)

[This willingness to undergo physical pain is a self-mastery in austerities, esteemed in India.]

MVU = Ellen B. Basso: A Musical View of the Universe. U. of PA Pr, Philadelphia, 1985.

It may be that, in general, most or all South American mythology of an austerity-by-sexuality orientation may apply to yuga-s. Another example:-

The typical South American Indian myth of "Sharpened Leg" "is a metaphor frequently used in reference to a woman's mechanically causing an erection" of the genitalia (MVU, p. 213).

In the 9-day (?substituted for 9-yuga) cycle, in Codex Borgia, p. 14, Tezcatli-poca's knife-blade foot might symbolize this; RGL "foot" being euphemism for "penis" in <arabic.

These latter-day twins may be said to have become animals, thus:-

Kic^e` (in the Popol Vuh)

India (in the Maha-bharata)

Both (but originally only one of them?) danced the "Weasel"

(the twins were sons of Dharma and his wife Murti-devi) Nara "Dance" is twin of

both (but only one of them, in depictions on pottery) became "Catfish".

Nara-ayana (where NARa- will require an etymological laryngeal, so it will be [Kemetian] N<R "catfish"). The -ayana "travel" part of the name is an allusion to the peregrinations of Markan.d.eya (described in the Markan.d.eya Puran.a) within the world which is the interior of the body of Nara-ayana.

earthquakes at the world's rim

(according to Pyramid Text 273,) earthquakes shake the bones of LKR (3KR) at the world's rim. (IF)

Catfish-gods are the "assistants" (AEBA, p. 86) or "helpers" (BC) to LKR (3KR) in the Book of Caverns.

LKR (3KR) is depicted as sets (2) of lion's forequarters jutting out from the earth's rim. Sometimes, as in the depiction mentioned by Ivan van Sertima, these are man-headed lions. "Each end of this tunnel was guarded by a lion god." (A)

cf. the multiple (2) openings into the Nemean lion's den (GM 123.e). Xbalam-ke (brother of Xhunahpu) is the Maya leopard-god; and for the S^uar, "a large, spotted catfish ... evokes the pelt of the jaguar" (ST, p. 339).

IF = www.invisiblebooks.com/YewN102-151.pdf

AEBA = Erik Hornung (tr. from the German by David Lorton): The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Cornell U. Pr, Ithaca, 1999.

BC = http://www.crystalinks.com/bookofcaverns.html

A = http://touregypt.net/godsofegypt/aker.htm

ST = Philippe Descola: The Spears of Twilight. translated from the French by Janet Lloyd. The New Press, New York, 1996.

Catfish as earthquake-deity -- a possible Maya connection

Likewise, in S^into, this world is thought to be a gigantic catfish (earthquakes being the catfish-god Nai-no-Kami shaking itself).

Tepe-yollotl is also said to be god of earthquakes.

Could Tepe-yollotl be the Aztec aequivalent to the Maya Catfish-twin?

Christ as earthquake-god

Tepeyollotl is (literally) "Heart of the Earth"

The Roman Catholic "Sacred Heart of Jesus" is taken from the New Testament passage "So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the Heart of the Earth" (Matthew 12:40).

Christ = [Norse] Loki

Likewise Loki, in the earth's interior, is cause of earthquakes.

According to the Gospels, Christ revealed his divine nature by causing an earthquake at the moment when he died on the cross and descended into the netherworld.

Loki is, reputedly, a trickster. Loki became a salmon (instead of a catfish, because there are no catfish in northern Europe).

Like Loki, Christ is [especially in the Gnostic literature] a trickster; and thus laughed [according to the Basilidean version of the Gospel] (at the moment when he died), on account of his success in tricking mankind by not disclosing his divine nature until the moment of his death, when it would be too late for humans to escape the terrible fate awaiting them in punishment for having crucified him.

Loki, while in the form of a salmon, was caught in the hand of To`rr.

Cf. the "ever-living hand" of St. Thomas the Twin, who said that he intended to put his finger into the wounds of Christ (apparently to stop the ghost of Christ from harming mankind).

Howbeit, To`rr is wearer of the iron gauntlet.

The glove of Maya "God P" is supposed to be of treetoad-skin: likewise the aije (divine huge talking toad, appearing bodily) "suddenly throws off a kind of cloth-skin" (VS, p. 292).

Hebel was bitten to death by a serpent, according to the Zohar (Z).

When he offereth up his own flesh as eucharist, "Their arrows seem like snakes which are going to bite the shaman." (VS, p. 300).

VS = Jon Christopher Crocker: Vital Souls. U. of AZ Pr, 1985.

Z = http://www.kabbalah.com/ru/index.php/p=zohar/community/board&mode=thread&thread=26885&replies=14?PHPSESSID=a7995081dd12b618348cb07997ec6324

divine barbels etc.

Perhaps the beard-hair of U`t-garda-Loki (as described by Saxo Grammaticus in his Danish History, Ch. 24 -- LNM-D, p. 265) is intended as a repraesentation of a catfish-barbel.

Nara & Nara-ayana are said (in the Maha-bharata) to have engaged in combat with Rudra, who is (in the Veda) the mole-god. Could this be a reference to the star-nosed mole, whose nostrils are each surrounded with appendages similar to the barbels of a catfish?

As the star-nosed mole is mainly aquatic in its feeding-habits, and hath 22 nostril-appendages (SFM; SNM)

[Chinese] world-deluge of 22 years' duration was produced by Gon-gon (FS-Ch)

LNM-D = http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/tml/tml29.htm

SFM = http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6961

SNM = http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.cfm?med_id=54375&from=mn

FS-Ch = http://www.poee.org/documents/Other_Religions/Cult_of_the_One_God/Flood.htm#China

sheatfish

According to the Kolufo (= Korowai) of Irian Jaya (New Guinea), the earthquake-of-awakening will induce the swallowing of mankind by the ndewe` (giant catfishes, the sheatfishes). (RB)

The glanos ("sheatfish") of the [Zab] rivers in >as^s^ur repelled H.as^moday (TS^ 24)

H.as^moday was the son of Tubal-Qayin & of Na<mah (AMM 2:19).

Tubal-Qayin & his sister Na<mah had as their mother Zillah (B-R>S^YT 4:22).

Zillah = (etymologically) [Skt.] jilla "cricket"

In <arabic, the word for "cricket" (the name of one of the letters of the alphabet) is similar to that for "shrew" (the shrew-goddess being the principal deity of prae-Muslim <arabia).

The Kemetian shrew-deities are mentioned in conjuncture with catfish-headed deities, in the Book of Caverns. (TR, pp. 55 & 66)

RB = http://www.wifi-assen.nl/~mahuuon/korowai/eng_religion.htm#belief

TS^ = Testament of S^lomoh. http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/testamen.htm

AMM = Abra-Melin the Mage. http://www.esotericarchives.com/abramelin/abramelin.htm#b2chap19

TR = BOLLINGEN SERIES XL.1 = Alexandre Piankoff: The Tomb of Ramesses VI. Pantheon Books, NY, 1954.

eel-catfish

the genus of catfish (Brachyplatysoma) known as rayado in Spanish, sacred as a spirit-animal (KSCh, p. 117) to the Wakue`nai of Amazonas, Venezuela, are eel-catfish.

likewise, the sacred catfish alternatively described as an eel (LI, p. 40) in the Abakpa cult (A) of the Kalabari` may be an eel-catfish.

Is the eel-catfish amongst "the varieties of "catfish" that are bope ure" (VS, p. 300)? [The bope ure are the abducted [by the BoPe (class of deities)] animal-forms (= nahual) of persons, especially (VS, p. 219) "of young, beautiful girls so as to copulate with them before eating them."]

[The Kalabari` term aBa>Pa (customarily written abakpa) may perhaps be etymologically cognate with the Bororo (of the Mato Grosso) BoPe.]

The eel-catfish is among the electric fish (of which the electric is most noteworthy); and in the initiation into Abakpa, "it is as if a current of electricity enters your body" (LI, p. 114).

Another species of eel-catfish is distributed from India to Papua http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=8167

KSCh = Jonathan D. Hill: Keepers of the Sacred Chants. U. of AZ Pr, Tucson, 1993.

LI = David H. Brown: The Light Inside. Smithsonian Bks, Washington, 2003.

A = http://www.ijele.com/issue4/abakua/index.htm

monkey

The Bope appearing to a bari (shaman), "a monkey (nearly always a pai, a howler monkey) asks him where he is going and demands he smoke" (VS, p. 203).

[This would explain, experientially, occurrence of the monkey-twins in the Popol Vuh.]