The Male Divine By Lizzy Ng, Ashley Lucio, and Payton Gabaldon - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Male Divine

By Lizzy Ng, Ashley Lucio, and Payton Gabaldon

Introduction

❖ Male Divine defined by their role/the office they hold ❖ to serve the Female Divine and to be used for procreation then replaced after ❖ Supernatural powers ❖ Hero ❖ Mediator ❖ Archetypes (representation of the Male Divine): ➢ Fathers and Sons ➢ Kings and Judges ➢ Saviors and Sages ➢ Tricksters and Shamans ➢ Lords of Destruction and the Underworld

Norse Mythology

❖ Norse Pantheon ➢ Odin- Ruler of the gods ➢ Frey- God of agriculture,trade, and peace ➢ Freya/Freja- goddess of beauty and love, sister of Frey ➢ Frigga- wife of Odin ➢ Tyr/Tiw- god of war ➢ Loki- trickster ➢ Hel- oversees the Underworld (Bierlein 29-30) ➔ Sidenote: Sleipnir

Odin

Sometimes fits into the male divine archetypes, but sometimes he does the opposite of what those archetypes present.

• Fathers and Sons

○ Father-Gods traditionally don’t bother with earthly affairs. ○ Odin does bother with earthly affairs. ○ When things go wrong, he asks his son, Thor, for help. ○ This does fit in with the male divine father-god: They traditionally call upon their sons for backup.

More Odin

• Lords of Destruction and the

Underworld ○ Framed as “ruthless, arrogant, and capricious” (205) ○ Quickly break trust with their servants for no reason. ○ Odin exhibits both of these traits when he invites Hrungnir to Valhalla where his people are supposed to be safe. ○ Does not fit this archetype because he backed down from a

• challenge. Traditionally Lords
• f Destruction take matters into

their own hands.

Characteristics of Thor: ‘Divine Son’

1.) “Filial Duty and Submission”

• Immediately stops what he’s doing (fighting trolls in Iron Wood)

& comes to Asgard at once to fulfill Odin’s request

• Kills Hrungnir (the giant, whom his father is unwilling/unable to

destroy) with honor 2.) “Self-sacrificial obedience to the All-Father’s will”

• Accepts Hrungnir’s challenge to a duel without thinking twice (to

please Odin) ○ Self-sacrificial consequences ■ Piece of whetstone lodged in Thor’s head after duel = badly wounded ■ Whetstone remains in Thor’s head thereafter

Characteristics of Thor: ‘Divine Son’ (Contd.)

3.) “Depicted as distillations of one or more of their father’s attributes”

• Odin (Norse God of War/Father of Gods) = ‘Divine Father’

○ Passionate for battle, bloodshed, and action ■ Feels restless when he is not picking a fight

• Thor (Norse God of Thunder) = ‘Divine Son’

○ Represents congenial versions of Odin’s military, reproductive and poetical powers ■ Spends his days fighting trolls and giants ■ Incredibly strong/powerful presence

• Huge, muscular, red-bearded, wields mighty

hammer (Mjölnir), controls thunder/lightning, rides goat-pulled chariot

*

Modern Interpretation

• This mythology is thousands of

years old, but inspiration from these myths still weave throughout modern works and into our everyday ideology

• Examples: Did you know that

Gandalf was inspired by Odin? Traditionally has a wide brimmed hat, a long white beard, a cloak, and a spear/staff of some sort.

Works Cited

Leonard, Scott A., and Michael McClure. “The Male Divine.” Myth and Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology, McGraw-Hill, 2007, pp. 185–239. Bierlein, J.F. “The Cast of Characters.” Parallel Myths, Ballantine Books, 2007,

• pp. 29-30.