Giants, Gods and Beings
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Beings · Persia (Zoroastrian)Ahriman (Angra Mainyu)In the Zoroastrian creation story, evil does not creep in, it attacks from outside. Ahriman pierces the sky, leaps into a perfect, motionless world, spreads darkness and kills the first man; in one version he even tore out of the womb first to claim a promised kingship. What happens in a world whose history is fixed at twelve thousand years?Beings · Gnostic textsArchonsIn Gnostic texts, the rulers of this world built Adam's body limb by limb but could not make it stand. Only a trick that made their chief breathe stolen power into it brought it to life, and then Adam outshone his makers. They threw him into matter in jealousy. Who were these rulers, and what did the authors mean?Gods · EgyptAtumIn the Book of the Dead, Egypt's creator god calmly tells Osiris that he will one day destroy everything he made and survive it as a serpent, while the earth returns to the waters. He had risen self-made from those waters; some texts say he sneezed out the first gods. What does he mean by an ending?Beings · IrelandBalorBalor was a Fomorian giant whose eye was so deadly that four men had to lift its lid with a polished ring, and an army that saw it could not resist. According to the tale, Lugh's sling stone drove the eye through Balor's head, so it looked on his own warriors. What happened next?Beings · Bible and QuranGog and MagogAccording to the Bible and the Quran, a people is penned behind a wall at the edge of the world and will break loose at the end of time. In the 9th century a caliph sent a real expedition to inspect that wall, and its report survives. What did the travelers report?Gods · ChinaGonggongAccording to Chinese myth, a red-haired serpent god lost a fight for the throne and smashed his head against a pillar of heaven. The sky tilted northwest and the earth sank southeast. The story is said to explain why stars wheel one way and rivers run the other. Who fixed it, and how?Beings · QuranHarut and MarutTwo angels taught magic in Babylon, but only after warning every student, "We are only a temptation." The Quran's verse is short; later commentators added a woman who tricked them, and in one legend she used a secret word to fly to heaven and became the planet Venus. Which parts are scripture?Beings · QuranIblisHe refused a direct command, and his reason was a claim about materials: fire beats mud. The Quran tells the story seven times, then adds a puzzle in Surah 18:50, where he is called one of the jinn. How was a jinni standing among the angels when the order came?Beings · Quran and Arabian loreJinnA second species, made of smokeless fire and hidden from sight, shares the world with us, the Quran says. They eat, marry, die and choose whether to believe; one chapter claims they once sat in listening posts in heaven, until meteors drove them off. What were they trying to overhear?Beings · Book of Giants (Qumran and Manichaean)Mahway, Ohyah and Hahyah (giants of the Book of Giants)A Dead Sea Scroll lets the giants speak for themselves. They have nightmares, argue, and cannot read their own dreams, so one named Mahway flies like a whirlwind across the desert to ask Enoch. Two of them are named Gilgamesh and Hobabish, apparently borrowed from Babylon. The text survives only in scraps. What do the dreams say?Beings · Book of Jubilees; Dead Sea ScrollsMastemaAfter the Flood, the leader of evil spirits supposedly bargained with God. In the Book of Jubilees he asks to keep some of his demons, and God agrees to exactly one tenth, with nine tenths locked away. In return, an angel teaches Noah healing plants. The story says this is where demons and medicine began.Beings · Jewish mysticism (Hekhalot)MetatronIn the Talmud, a rabbi climbs to heaven, sees Metatron seated, and decides there may be two powers in heaven. To fix the mistake, Metatron is given sixty lashes of fire. Later texts say he was once the human Enoch, then turned to flame and called "the lesser YHWH." How does a man become the highest angel?Gods · ChinaNüwaChinese myth says the goddess Nüwa made people from yellow earth, then mass-produced more by flicking a muddy rope, so nobles are hand-molded and commoners flung. Later she patched a broken sky with melted stones of five colors. Why did the sky break in the first place? The page tells both stories.Beings · Tobit; Enoch literatureRaphaelFor weeks a young man traveled with a family, and then he told them something strange: "I did neither eat nor drink, but ye did see a vision." Raphael was an angel in disguise the whole time. In the Book of Tobit he drives off a demon with fish parts. What else did he do on that road?Beings · Greece and RomeTalosA giant of bronze circled Crete three times a day hurling rocks at ships. His whole body was armored except one blood-red vein running neck to ankle, sealed by a single nail. Ancient tales say Medea brought him down. Was Talos a monster, or one of the first imagined robots? Historians disagree.Gods · EgyptThothMillions of mummified ibis birds were buried in catacombs as offerings to Thoth, the ibis-headed Egyptian god of writing and the moon. Stories give him hidden writings too, including a Book of Thoth locked in nested boxes at the bottom of the Nile; reading it brought disaster on the man who took it. What did it say?Beings · IrelandTuatha Dé DanannIrish legend says a god-like people landed on a Connacht mountain in dark clouds that hid the sun for three days, bringing four treasures including a spear that never missed. When later settlers came, they withdrew into the hills and became the fairy folk. Medieval monks turned old gods into a lost race. See how.Gods · Gnostic textsYaldabaothGnostic texts describe the creator of our world as a lion-faced serpent who boasts he is the only god, not knowing that he has a mother above him. His names include Saklas, meaning fool, and Samael, god of the blind. A voice answers his boast with a rebuke. Why would early Christians tell the Genesis story this way?Beings · NorseYmirIn Norse myth, the world was built from a butchered giant: his flesh became earth, his blood the sea, his skull the sky. The story says the gods themselves descend from giants. How did a cow, a flood of blood and a lone survivor get the cosmos started? Read what the old poems and Snorri tell.
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