Castration myths - question

[Darcy Krasne]

OK, so, I'm absolutely convinced that I read somewhere, many years ago,
about a myth from maybe India or Persia that reminds me precisely of the
story of Zeus and Cronus: one god goes into the bedroom of another while
that second god is in the process of having sex and cuts off his
genitals.

However, I briefly glanced through a bunch of my books on mythology last
night, and I couldn't find anything at all.

Does anyone have an idea as to what it might have been?

Thanks,
Darcy

-----------------------------------------------------------
"Always keep your bowler on in time of stress, and watch
out for diabolical masterminds."
--Emma Peel, in "The Avengers"
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[Chris S]

Darcy Krasne wrote:
> OK, so, I'm absolutely convinced that I read somewhere, many years ago,
> about a myth from maybe India or Persia that reminds me precisely of the
> story of Zeus and Cronus: one god goes into the bedroom of another while
> that second god is in the process of having sex and cuts off his
> genitals.
>
> However, I briefly glanced through a bunch of my books on mythology last
> night, and I couldn't find anything at all.
>
> Does anyone have an idea as to what it might have been?

Could be the Hittite, Kumarbi cycle.

http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/hittite-ref.html#Kumarbi

Chris Siren

[mark...@io.com]

In article <cMudnWXl3Ye...@comcast.com>, Chris S
<chr...@comcast.net> wrote:

> Could be the Hittite, Kumarbi cycle.

1. That was my first guess. The rendering of the name Kumarbi by modern
translators seems like a deliberate attempt to draw a parallel to the
Indian name Kumarbi.

2. However, this story does not take place in a bedroom. The nearest
parallel I can think of is Noah and Ham. Ham enters his father's
dwelling and sees his nakedness.

This story is sometimes interprated to mean that Ham has castrated his
father.

It's a bit of exegesis which explains why all known human lineages in
the Table of Nations comes from Shem, Ham and Japeth.

Why didn't Noah have any more children? Because he couldn't.

There is another exegetical story in which Noah's wife, Norah dies.
This serves the same explanatory purpose.

The son of Naoh and brother of Ham is named Japeth, similar to Iapetus,
son of Uranus and brother of Kronos.

3. It is of course Uranus and Kronos that is meant in the original
post, not Kronos and Zeus, and especially not <Zeus and Cronus>.