Crow Brings the Daylight
An Inuit Myth
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
Long, long ago, when the world was still new, the Inuit lived in darkness in their home in the fastness of the north. They had never heard of daylight, and when it was first explained to them by Crow, who traveled back and forth between the northlands and the south, they did not believe him.
Yet many of the younger folk were fascinated by the story of the light that gilded the lands to the south. They made Crow repeat his tales until they knew them by heart.
"Imagine how far and how long we could hunt," they told one another.
"Yes, and see the polar bear before it attacks," others agreed.
Soon the yearning for daylight was so strong that the Inuit people begged Crow to bring it to them. Crow shook his head. "I am too old," he told them. "The daylight is very far away. I can no longer go so far." But the pleadings of the people made him reconsider, and finally he agreed to make the long journey to the south.
Crow flew for many miles through the endless dark of the north. He grew weary many times, and almost turned back. But at last he saw a rim of light at the very edge of horizon and knew that the daylight was close.
Crow strained his wings and flew with all his might. Suddenly, the daylight world burst upon him with all its glory and brilliance. The endless shades of color and the many shapes and forms surrounding him made Crow stare and stare. He flapped down to a tree and rested himself, exhausted by his long journey. Above him, the sky was an endless blue, the clouds fluffy and white. Crow could not get enough of the wonderful scene.
Eventually Crow lowered his gaze and realized that he was near a village that lay beside a wide river. As he watched, a beautiful girl came to the river near the tree in which he perched. She dipped a large bucket into the icy waters of the river and then turned to make her way back to the village. Crow turned himself into a tiny speck of dust and drifted down towards the girl as she passed beneath his tree. He settled into her fur cloak and watched carefully as she returned to the snow lodge of her father, who was the chief of the village people.
It was warm and cozy inside the lodge. Crow looked around him and spotted a box that glowed around the edges. Daylight, he thought. On the floor, a little boy was playing contentedly. The speck of dust that was Crow drifted away from the girl and floated into the ear of the little boy. Immediately the child sat up and rubbed at his ear, which was irritated by the strange speck. He started to cry, and the chief, who was a doting grandfather, came running into the snow lodge to see what was wrong.
"Why are you crying?" the chief asked, kneeling beside the child.
Inside the little boy's ear, Crow whispered: "You want to play with a ball of daylight." The little boy rubbed at his ear and then repeated Crow's words.
The chief sent his daughter to the glowing box in the corner. She brought it to her father, who removed a glowing ball, tied it with a string, and gave it to the little boy. He rubbed his ear thoughtfully before taking the ball. It was full of light and shadow, color and form. The child laughed happily, tugging at the string and watching the ball bounce.
Then Crow scratched the inside of his ear again and the little boy gasped and cried.
"Don't cry, little one," said the doting grandfather anxiously. "Tell me what is wrong."
Inside the boy's ear, Crow whispered: "You want to go outside to play." The boy rubbed at his ear and then repeated Crow's words to his grandfather. Immediately, the chief lifted up the small child and carried him outside, followed by his worried mother.
As soon as they were free of the snow lodge, Crow swooped out of the child's ear and resumed his natural form. He dove toward the little boy's hand and grabbed the string from him. Then he rose up and up into the endless blue sky, the ball of daylight sailing along behind him.
In the far north, the Inuit saw a spark of light coming toward them through the darkness. It grew brighter and brighter, until they could see Crow flapping his wings as he flew toward them. The people gasped and pointed and called in delight.
The Crow dropped the ball, and it shattered upon the ground, releasing the daylight so that it exploded up and out, illuminating every dark place and chasing away every shadow. The sky grew bright and turned blue. The dark mountains took on color and light and form. The snow and ice sparkled so brightly that the Inuit had to shade their eyes.
The people laughed and cried and exclaimed over their good fortune. But Crow told them that the daylight would not last forever. He had only obtained one ball of daylight from the people of the south, and it would need to rest for six months every year to regain its strength. During that six month period, the darkness would return.
The people said: "Half a year of daylight is enough. Before you brought the daylight, we lived our whole life in darkness!" Then they thanked Crow over and over again.
To this day, the Inuit live for half a year in darkness and half a year in daylight. And they are always kind to Crow, for it was he who brought them the light.
The Sphinx of Greek Mythology
In ancient Greek mythology the Sphinx was depicted as a single, unique creature with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the head and breast of a human female. Apparently it was not an ugly creature, but it was vicious and single-minded. It is not reported as having unusual or monstrous size, so the Sphinx was probably imagined as the size of a large lion, possibly with the human head and eagle wings larger than normal to retain proportion.
While our knowledge of the Egyptian and arabic sphinxes comes in large part from statues, the Greek Sphinx is known primarily through the writings of a handful of early authors. While there are a few representations of the Sphinx from urns, tomb art and drinking vessels that date to approximately 570 BCE, there are no statues extant today, or reported to have been built and subsequently lost.
Heritage
The Sphinx was one of the ill-fated offspring of the monsters Typhon (which breathed fire, had a hundred venomous heads and was eventually pinned by Zeus under Mt. Etna), and Echidna (which had a beautiful nymph's head and the body of a giant serpent). Other offspring of Echidna were the Nemean Lion, Cerberus, Ladon, Chimaera and Hydra.
Although the story varies slightly based on the source, the Sphinx is probably best known through the plays of Sophocles, in the tragedies of Oedipus (written circa 425 BCE), and the works of Apollodorus. Oedipus was the son of Laius, the king of Thebes, and his queen, Jacosta. A prophetic oracle had been given that the son would kill his father, so Laius sent him out to be slain. However, he was found and raised by peasants, completely unaware of his heritage. Once grown, he met his father on the road, and in an argument over who should make way, Oedipus killed him.
Not long after, Thebes was plagued by the Sphinx, which sat on a high rock by a road near Thebes and posed a riddle it had learned from the Muses to all who passed. The riddle, reported or translated in slightly different words, was: "What animal has one voice, but goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and upon three legs in the evening?" The Sphinx strangled all who could not answer its riddle.
Other versions of the story state that the Sphinx was sent by Hera, sat on Mt. Phicium, or sat on the city walls of Thebes, and in at least one story, that the Sphinx actively devoured the citizens of the town until its riddle could be answered. In the latter story, Thebes offered the reward of kingship and the former queen as wife to anyone who could answer the riddle and rid Thebes of the Sphinx.
Oedipus was able to answer the Sphinx, "Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in manhood walks erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff." The Sphinx became so distraught that its riddle had been solved that it threw itself from the rock to its death. As a reward, the people of Thebes made Oedipus their king, and he took the former queen Jacosta as his wife. Thus the tragic prophesy was fulfilled that Oedipus would slay his father and marry his mother. When Oedipus learned the truth, he went insane, gouged out his eyes, and wandered the countryside, cared for by his daughters until his death.
Thus the phrase, "riddle of the Sphinx" is most appropriately applied to the Greek Sphinx, though it is now often applied to Egyptian Sphinx, with the connotation of being mysterious and enigmatic.
It has also been noted in the literature that a very similar riddle appears in diverse cultures with no apparent influence or derivation from the Greek.
Name and Meaning
The name "Sphinx" derives from the Greek word "sphingo," to strangle, or "sphingein," to bind tight, based on its habit of strangling its victims. The name was subsequently applied to the Egyptian and other arabic sphinxes because of their physical similarity to descriptions of the mythical Greek Sphinx.
The Sphinx was considered a demon of death, devouring, destruction and bad luck. This is in contrast to the Egyptian and arabic sphinxes which were usually represented as guardians that embodied wisdom, strength, nobility and a relatively benign attitude toward human beings (at least those who did not violate what they were set to guard).
One current meaning of the word "sphinx" is "an enigmatic or mysterious person." The development of this particular usage arose from the fact that "enigma" also derives from the Greek "ainigma," 'to speak in riddles,' with perhaps the added influence of the inscrutable and mysterious Great Sphinx of Egypt.
Similar creatures
The Sphinx is certainly not alone in the mythological annals of combination or hybrid creatures. The most notable, and similar, (excluding the Egyptian and arabian sphinxes) include:
Chimaera A sibling of the Sphinx, it was formed of a lion's body and head, combined with the head of a goat or ram, and the tail of a serpent or dragon. It was dispatched by the hero Bellerophon, who enlisted the winged horse Pegasus as his steed for the task.
Griffin (Gryphon) A ferocious class of monsters with the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and great talons.
Centaur Another class of monster, but intelligent, imbued with good traits and on generally good terms with men. They had the body of a horse and the upper torso and head of a man. Their tendency to drunken behavior often led to problems. Zeus turned the centaur Chiron, a tutor, into the constellation Sagittarius after Chiron asked for the release of death over a wound that would not heal. He, as Sagittarius, is also represented in the ninth sign of the zodiac.
Manticore This creature had the body of a lion, the head of a man (sometimes a lion's head) and the tail of a scorpion or dragon. It was a popular image in medieval heraldry.
Harpy (Harpies) Three creatures from Greek myth that had the head or upper body of a woman and the remaining body of a large bird. In early myth they were attractive winged women, but they are better known as ugly creatures responsible for tormenting and kidnapping humans. In modern usage "harpy" refers to a shrewish woman.
Minotaur It had the body of a man with the head and tail of a bull. It was so destructive king Minos inprisoned it in the famous labyrinth on Crete, where it was given human sacrifices and was later killed by Theseus.
Yoruba African Myth- The Great Flood
A god, Ifa, grew tired of living on earth and went to dwell in the firmament. Without his assistance, mankind couldn't interpret the desires of the gods. One god [Olokun], in a fit of rage, destroyed nearly everyone in a great flood.
In the beginning was only the sky above, water and marshland below. The chief god Olorun ruled the sky, and the goddess Olokun ruled what was below.
[Obatala] another god, reflected upon this situation, and then went to the sky god for permission to create dry land for all kinds of living creatures to inhabit. He was given permission, so he sought advice from the oldest son of the sky god, who was the god of prophecy.
Obatala was told he would need a gold chain long enough to reach below, a snail's shell filled with sand, a white hen, a black cat, and a palm nut, all of which he was to carry in a bag.
All the gods contributed what gold they had, and the prophesy god supplied the articles for the bag. When all was ready, Obatala hung the chain from a corner of the sky, placed the bag over his shoulder, and started the downward climb. When he reached the end of the chain he saw he still had some distance to go. From above he heard the prophecy god instruct him to pour the sand from the snail's shell, and to immediately release the white hen. Obatala did as he was told, whereupon the hen landing on the sand began scratching and scattering it about.
Wherever the sand landed, it formed dry land; the bigger piles becoming hills and the smaller piles valleys. Obatala jumped to a hill and named the place Ife. The dry land now extended as far as he could see. Obatala dug a hole, planted the palm nut, and saw it grow to maturity in a flash. The mature palm tree dropped more palm nuts on the ground, each of which grew immediately to maturity and repeated the process. Obatala settled down with the cat for company.
Many months passed, and he grew bored with his routine. Obatala decided to create beings like himself to keep him company. He dug into the sand and soon found clay with which to mold figures like himself and started on his task. But he soon grew tired and decided to take a break. Obatala made wine from a nearby palm tree, and drank bowl after bowl. Not realizing he was drunk, Obatala returned to his task of fashioning the new beings; because of his condition he fashioned many imperfect figures.