Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology ; Origins

The Japanese God of the Sea
Edit by Angee. Source: (Tumblr)

AUTHOR: E. W. Champney and F. Champney
TITLE: The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi

• The recurring theme in mythology of gods traveling incognito among humans. Gods are among us, be careful how you treat others.
  
• A damsel in distress! Kushinadahime is a deity about to be sacrificed to a sea serpent. Very Perseus and Andromeda. There's a repetition of tales across cultures. Different stages, but same story being acted out.
• Like Perseus, Susanoo seeks the maiden's hand in marriage in recompense. Love story with an epic battle. Popular story themes.
  
• The great god reveal! Interesting how he name dropped his sister, Amaterasu, when they usually have an antagonistic relationship. God families -- they're as messy as mortals. His older brother and sister married each other as well, like Zeus and Hera.
  
• Unlike Perseus, Susanoo worked smarter, not harder. Getting your opponent drunk enough not to be able to put up a fight? Easy enough to chop off all the heads. He used the mind before the sword. Hercules should have taken a page from his book. I like that cleverness instead of brute force.
  
• There's a theme of divine weapons. Like Excalibur and Gram, Kusanagi is a mystical sword. It's almost like action movies needing a good car chase -- mythology loves to thrown in a magic weapon.
• Interestingly enough, in contrast to other stories the sword is believed to still exist in the present time. Susanoo presented it to his sister as a reconciliatory gift after the battle, and today it's one of the three Imperial Regalia or Three Sacred Treasures of Japan. It's used during enthronement ceremonies and represents valor.
• Susanoo defeats the monster and wins the bride. Then enjoys a surprisingly healthy marriage unlike his siblings, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, who created day and night due to Amaterasu being unable to look at her husband in anger.
• In the end this is but a step in Susanoo's redemption story.