Rats in mythology
DataPacRat
over the years (thus my posting nickname), and just rediscovered some
notes I once made on the mythology of rats. Just in case anybody here is
interested, here they are; and if you have anything you'd like to add,
feel free to post a reply. :)
(The one rat legend I know of that's not in these notes is the 'rat
king', which is probably somewhere else in my computer...)
-----8<-----
Japan:
The familiar of Daikoku (aka Daikoko-tenn), the Japanese god of wealth,
protector of the soil and patron of farmers, is the rat.
Rats are a symbol of fertility and wealth, an emblem of good luck, and
a companion to the god of wealth, Daikoku.
The rat or nezumi, contrary to Western attitudes, has always been
highly esteemed as a model of industry. As rats can be found only where
food is abundant, they have become the symbol of wealth and are often
depicted as the companion of the God of Luck, Daikoku, whose name
literally translates into "Great Measure of Rice."
In Japanese lore, a white (metal) Rat is the symbol of Daikoku, the god
of wealth and prosperity. Therefore, Rat has the natural ability to be
successful.
In Japan a white rat accompanies the god of happiness and is also an
attribute of the god of wealth.
Buddhism:
Before the Lord Buddha left the planet, he asked/summoned all of the
animals on earth to come and have dinner with him, but only twelve
showed up to bid him farewell. As a reward he named a year after each
one in the order that they arrived. First came the Rat, then the Ox, the
Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog & Boar.
Thus we have twelve signs today in the Chinese calendar, which has been
widely adopted in China, Mon, Khmer, Cham, Vietnamese, Laos, Thai, etc.
The rat or nezumi is the first sign of the Japanese/Oriental zodiac.
The rat is the first of the animals of the Twelve Terrestrial Branches
of the Chinese Zodiac.
Chinese mythology states that the rat brought the gift of rice to
humankind. There and in other places, it is a symbol of prosperity,
wisdom, and prophecy.
Hinduism:
Once upon a time, there was an Asura demon who threatened the worlds.
Ganesa went after Him. But the asura changed into a huge rat, called the
bandicoot. Ganesa sent His noose called Paasa and tied him. Ganesa's
Paasa removed all the ignorance from the asura. But he remained in the
form of the rat which is known as Mushika. Hence Ganesa is also called
Mushika Vahana.
In Hinduism the rat is the most powerful of the demons and represents
foresight and prudence and as such is the vehicle of Ganesha, the
elephant-headed god (of wisdom, prosperity and successful endeavour),
and is an object of veneration.
Lord Ganesha's mount, Muushika, is -- depending on who you ask -- a
mouse, a rat, a bandicoot rat, etc. I prefer rat, but it doesn't really
matter, and it's probably all or none of them! He was originally an
elephant-faced demon who was defeated by Ganesha and turned into a
small, swift critter. (Good version of story in The Broken Tusk by Uma
Krishnaswami.)
... But I've always understood that the significance of Ganesha's
mouse/rat vehicle is that Ganesha is, among other things, the lord of
abundance (witness his abundant belly) and the mouse/rat signified
abundance, in that mice/rats were particularly numerous when times were
good and granaries were full.
Lord Ganesh's army was in short supply of horses and elephants for use
in wars and due to lack of money they could not buy more so he prayed to
his lord to change all the mice or rats to use instead for his army to
ride. I do not know how that was possible but goes the hindu legend.
Significance: Muushika symbolizes persistence -- his name means
"little hoarder" or "little thief", I believe. As Lord of Obstacles,
Ganesha can bash his way through almost anything, and what he can't get
through, his mount can, by gnawing, squeezing, etc. Also, in another
legend, the rat was entrusted with keeping safe the dangerous "gem of
thought", Chintamani. He also adds to Ganesha's charm -- he must have a
wonderful sense of humor to go riding about on such a small animal!
The Hebrew elephant god Behemoth was originally Ganesha, father of
Buddha.
There IS a temple to rats in Rajasthan.
In India rat temples were built to appease the demons associated with
these creatures.
The goddess Earth gave Ganesha a rat for his vehicle.
Classical:
The Romans drew omens from rats and to see a white rat foreboded good
fortune. Clothing or equipment gnawed by rats presaged ill fortune.
In Rome, white rats brought good fortune.
Apollo was sometimes called rat-killer; he received this derogatory
title from the following incident: Apollo sent a swarm of rats against
Crinis, one of his priests, for neglect of his office; but the priest
seeing the invaders coming, repented and obtained pardon and the god
had to annihilate the rats with his arrows.
In Ancient Greece, the destructive side of Apollo was called Smitheos
or Apollo Smintheus from the Greek word "sminthus" which means "mouse."
Sacred mice were kept in his temple and he was believed to shoot the
arrows of plague. Strangely enough, under his beneficent aspect, Apollo
guarded the harvest from infestations of mice.
Ancient Greeks carried mouse coins to protect themselves against the
mouse's evil eye.
Mice were associated with Jupiter or Zeus and, because of their
lasciviousness, Aphrodite (a.k.a. Venus), the love goddess.
Judeo-Christian:
One story says that the Devil, seeing his chance to destroy the remnant
of humanity, created the first mouse on Noah's ark. He hoped his mouse
would either eat a hole in the ark causing its occupants to drown, or
eat up their stores and starve them to death. Fortunately, when Noah
threw a glove at the mouse, it became the first cat and put an end to
the Devil's wicked plan.
Jews considered the mouse an unclean creature, possibly because it was
associated with idol worship. [Lev 11:29] In the book of Isaiah, the
Lord warns that those who gather about an idol to eat swine's flesh and
mice will themselves be consumed. [Is 66:17]
Rats are an attribute of St. Fina, who, after many years of illness,
was disabled by paralysis. She chose a wooden board as her bed so that
her sufferings, which brought her closer to Christ, might be increased.
While she languished upon her board in a rat infested attic, she was
often attacked by the rats which she was helpless to drive away.
When the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, their towns were
plagued with rats bearing disease, possibly bubonic plague. In order to
free themselves from the tumors brought on by the disease, they returned
the Ark with a trespass offering of five golden tumors and five golden
rats - one for each of the cities and lords of the Philistines. [1 Sam
5:1-6:18]
European:
In Germany, witches were said to be able to create mice from scraps of
cloth and send them out to destroy their enemies' fields and stores.
In Germany, white mice brought either good luck or death with them.
Witches were believed to travel about in the form of mice. Unborn
infants capered about in the shape of white mice.
The idea of hoards of mice and rats being sent out as agents of God's
wrath led to "mouse tower" legends. The most famous of which is that of
Bishop Hatto's mouse tower in Germany. Bishop Hatto was a powerful man
who levied heavy taxes upon the population. In addition to these, he
built a tower on the Rhine so that he could collect a toll from all the
ships passing by. When famine came to the land, Hatto added to the
disaster by hoarding all the grain and selling it for outrageous prices.
One day, he invited the poor to his barn where they expected to receive
some food. Instead, Hatto locked the door behind them and set the
building afire. That night he slept soundly, but, the next morning he
awoke to find that rats had eaten his portrait out of its frame. Before
he was even dressed, he learned that rats had consumed all the grain he
had locked away in his barns and that ten thousand hungry rats were
running his way. He fled to his mouse tower on the Rhine but the rats
followed him and consumed him even as he said his rosary upon his knees.
Many people believed that the rats were the embodied souls of those
whose deaths he had caused either through starvation or burning.
To show the passage of time, Renaissance art sometimes depicted
night as a black rat and day as a white one. The desert rat has been
used as an emblem of British soldiers in desert campaigns such as the
Gulf War.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin:
Hamelin Town, in Brunswick, in the north of Germany in the 13th or 14th
century...
In the end, a black sea of rats swarmed over the whole town. First,
they attacked the barns and storehouses, then, for lack of anything
better, they gnawed the wood, cloth or anything at all. The one thing
they didn't eat was metal.
/To see the townsfolk suffer so
From vermin, was a pity.
Rats!
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
Families by tens and dozens.
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats./
...
/"What we need is an army of cats!"/
But all the cats were dead.
/"We'll put down poisoned food then . . ."/
But most of the food was already gone and even poison did not stop the
rats.
...
/Until they came to the river Weser,
Wherein all plunged and perished!
Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar,
Swam across and lived to carry
To Rat-land home his commentary./
Misc:
The Egyptians and Phrygians deified rats. In Egypt the rat symbolized
utter destruction, and also wise judgment, the latter because rats
always choose the best bread.
Among the Ainu of Japan a legend says that God created the rat to
punish the Devil, the rat bit off the Devil's tongue and he was so
enraged that he caused rats to increase until they became a plague and
God had to create cats.
Among the Australian Aboriginals the rat is a totem animal.
It was an old superstition among sailors that rats deserted a ship
before she set out on a voyage that was to end in her sinking.
There are many legends about the origins of mice. Early Egyptians
thought that the mud of the Nile gave birth to them. In other countries,
they were thought to have fallen to the earth in a rain storm or to have
been given birth to by bushels of grain.
For the most part, mice and rats play identical roles in legend and
symbolism. In many countries they are identified with the human soul. It
is thought that the soul leaves the body in the shape of a mouse either
at death or while dreaming. If the soul does not return or if the
dreamer is awakened before the soul returns, he immediately dies. That
is why it is considered bad luck to wake up a dreamer or sleep-walker.
It is also thought that a mouse chewing on a sleeping person's clothes
is a warning of that person's imminent demise.
Because of their destructive ways, mice and rats were considered
unclean creatures of ill omen. They were symbols of evil, pestilence,
death, decay, infirmity, plague, demons, and the Devil. Like Satan and
his minions, mice and rats were believed to thrive off the misfortunes
of the children of God and to enjoy bringing humans to ruin. They were
sometimes bold enough to nibble at the Tree of Life itself. Mice and
rats were images of greed, miserliness, hypocrisy, and thievery.
"Mousing" became a synonym for "looting." In China misers were called
"money rats."
The activities of mice and rats were believed to be quite prophetic.
They were said to flee sinking ships and houses where death was
imminent. They appeared in large numbers as an omen of war - most likely
ready to feast upon the impending destruction. The scurrying and
squeaking of mice indicated that a storm was approaching. An unhappy
turn of events was foretold when a mouse or rat chewed on religious
items.
Rat tails were associated with tangles of confusion, misfortune, and
rumor.
The word "mouse" has been used as an affectionate nickname. Mice are
believed to be the terror of elephants and so have become a symbol of
the weak triumphing over the strong. They are also associated with
humility and timidity.
----->8-----
Thank you for your time,
--
DataPacRat: amateur alchemist, agnostic Gnostic, and memetic engineer.
The Rrangoon species is at http://home.earthlink.net/~ryan_wynne/
me.bennett
concerned the Chinese Zodiac was where the animals raced each other to be
first to Buddha and had to swim a large river at the end. The Ox was the
strongest swimmer and crossed the river first - only to be overtaken by the
rat who had hitched a lift on its head and jumped off just before the Ox hit
the shore! For its intelligence and craftiness the rat was set first in the
Zodiac.
Rat kings are real - but they are only ever found dead or dying. And only
Black Rats (rattus rattus) are ever found in 'kings'.
I also know that in the Rat Temple in Rajasthan the rats are regarded as
ancestors by the worshippers and if they accidentally kill one (not
difficult considering how many there are and all underfoot) they have to buy
a solid silver replica and present it to the temple in forfeit.
Has this added anything?
--
Mazrat
The more I see of people - the more I like my rats.
"DataPacRat" <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote in message
news:n4jd9.6421$7x5.9...@news20.bellglobal.com...
paghat
news:n4jd9.6421$7x5.9...@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Jews considered the mouse an unclean creature, possibly because it was
> associated with idol worship. [Lev 11:29] In the book of Isaiah, the
> Lord warns that those who gather about an idol to eat swine's flesh and
> mice will themselves be consumed. [Is 66:17]
Enjoyed your overview of Buddhist, Hindu, & European rat legends, but
ACTUAL Judaic mouse legendry has very little to do with dietary &
purification criteria in Leviticus. It's much richer, & much more
positive, than you have yet looked into. Here's a run-down of the actual
attitudes & myths about mice within Judaism:
The Talmud goes so far as to praise mice because they do not steal food
from one another [t. Pesahim 10b]. Mice are thereby a good role model for
people, & that which a LIVING mouse touches remains clean [t. Kelim
15:6]. Mice are a good role model for humans because they form a clan &
are faithful to their clan, are naturally of a character superiot to that
of Man before the Flood [Tanhuma: Noah 18b].
When a house is thoroughly cleaned top to bottom for Passover, is the
house regarded as soiled if a mouse brings crumbs into the house?
Moses was a humble man, as the mouse is humble, & when the Angel of Death tried
to devour him, Moses was like a mouse in the mouth of a serpent [b.
Nedarim 32a]; but the devouring angel spat Moses out, saved by the deed of
Zipporah.
G-d loves even the least of his creations which is why mice are permitted
to eat a portion of every harvest. In one rabbinical story, mice began to
take more than their portion, & the people complained: "Rabbi! The mice
have taken the grain." Rabbi Phinehas ben Jair called the mice forth &
asked them, "Why have you taken all the grain?" They stood up on their
hind legs & began to chatter & squeek. Since only the rabbi could
understand what the mice were saying, he interpretted for the community:
"The mice are saying, 'They have failed to tithe from their harvest,
therefore we have taken it. If from now on they tithe from their harvest,
we will not take it.'" From then on the people tithed as G-d required, &
the mice left the region altogether. [Deuteronomy Rabbah III:3]
Certainly the mouse be wicked, just as people can be wicked. They can
cause harm in gnawing things it should not gnaw [t. Shabbat 151b], & a
mouse can be miserly hording food [Sanhedrin 29b], but in all it is a
blameless animal because "It is not the mouse that is a thief, it is the
hole" [Gittin 45a].
Mice bring G-d's judgement. Rabbi Avidani of Kurdistan swore that he saw
this happen himself. A butcher in a certain village had secretly been
preparing unclean meat to sell. Suddenly he took ill & died. In accordance
with tradition, he was to be buried before sundown, he was soon placed in
a fresh-dug grave. But before he could be buried, mice swarmed into the
grave & crawled all over him. The corpse was taken out of the grave and a
new grave dug, but mice swarmed into that one too. A third grave was dug,
& mice swarmed in. Rabbi Avidani said, 'It is nearly sundown, we must make
this third grave work!' They lowered flaming branches into the grave, but
the mice were unharmed, & continued to swarm on the corpse. It was decided
to bury the mice with the corpse, but before they filled the grave, they
hurried to the stonemason & hauled the butcher's monument to the cite of
the grave. It was then they discovered the mice were gone, & they had
eaten every trace of the butcher's corpse. Such was G-d's punishment
because he had sold meat from impure animals. Hence the Talmudic saying,
"When the wicked giant Og died, it was necessary to guard him against
mice, but a living one-day-old baby that is just as vulnerable does not
need to be guarded against mice."
A rabbinical fable runs thus: Once a mother mouse sent her children out to
hunt for food. She said, "Be careful of our enemies!" The young mice
encountered a rooster which crowed at them & pecked. They ran back to
their mother & described the enemy. "That is not your enemy," she said.
"Go and hunt for food, but beware of your enemy." They soon encountered a
dog which barked at them & chased them about, so they ran home. "That is
not your enemy. Go hunt." Then they saw a man with a shawl murmuring his
prayers with their head hung low. He was so calm they were not afraid of
him, & so were killed. "Woe!" their mother wept. "They did not recognize
the enemy!"
Another tale regards an experiment performed by the great sage Rambam. The
cat's desire to kill mice proves its baser instinct. Rambam dressed up
cats in fine clothes & sat them at a dinner table where they ate in a calm
manner, as though they were civilized and well behaved. Then he turned
mice loose on the table, & the cats instantly began running around
creating a great deal of chaos, knocking everything off the table in their
desire to attack mice. So too human beings have a baser instinct & will
not be able to resist temptations that cause us to forget the Holy
Banquet. For this reason we study Torah, so that we will be prepared to
avoid our baser instincts, so that we are better than a cat.
The mouse is capable of ravaging the land, even as G-d is capable of
ravaging the land. That G-d and mice can ravage the land does not indicate
that mice, or G-d, are evil creatures. Rats do not appear in Torah because
their range did not, in the biblical eras, extend to the lands of the
patriarchs. But good nature of the Mouse, may be construed to have some
baring on the positive value of rats as well.
The real nature of mice in cultic context is revealed by Samuel, who
states that mice are proper guilt-offerings to G-d [1 Sm 6:4]. This puts
the mouse somewhere near the Turtledove in significance with a highly
sacred value.
By honoring G-d with mice, as Samuel represents as a suitable offering,
then G-d will lighten his hand against the land, especially when punishing
goyim [6:5-6]. Goyim are the non-Jews, so look at these verses closely.
Not only a good guilt-offering from Jews, but ancient Jews made this
offering so that G-d would be forgiving of non-Jews' misdeeds.
When at Lv 11:29 the mouse is included among "unclean things" the
uncleanness from handling a mouse's corpse lasts only until sundown. It is
also a prohibition of eating them, & Isaiah 66:17 confirms that EATING
mice is prohibited. Leviticus goes on to indicate that it is the corpse &
not the living animal that bares impurity, for "anything upon which the
carcass falls shall be unclean [11:35] yet when cultically impure animals
swim into then escape from a well or cistern, it is NOT rendered unclean
[11:36]. So too stored grain from which living mice have eaten is not
polluted & may still be used, though a corpse in the grain would certainly
pollute it.
Now please note that the idea of becoming polluted through the corpse of a
mouse, the fact of the impurity only lasts until dusk. That makes a mouse
less unclean than if a man is touched by a menstruant woman, who is
unclean for seven days & may not even cook her husband's food during that
time (it's not sexist, it provides that even rabbis must cook for
themselves one week out of four, & not rely always on his wife -- the New
Moon, or Menstrual Moon, is holiest to Jewish women). Even if one touches
the corpse of something that is NOT prohibited from the diet, who touches
the corpse of an edible animal is likewise unclean until dusk [Lv 11:39].
There are levels of cultiic impurity, for the honeybee is cultically
impure & cannot be eaten, but it does not pollute the honey unless the
hive is located in the body of a corpse (such as was eaten by Samson);
that the bee is unclean & may not be eaten cannot be construed as a
slander of bees, so too with the mouse.
In all, these laws of "uncleanness" are NOT intended to insult mice or any
of the other MANY animals that can pollute who touches them, or worse yet
eats them. The word for "unclean" actually means cultically impure, & is
not a slander of G-d's good creation. The Sages have suggested that the
mouse is prohibited from being eaten because it is part dust & only toward
the end of its life becomes all flesh [t. Sanhedrin 91a]. Maimonides
agreed that mice are made partly of dust, partly of clay. In this regard
it is close to the nature of humanity in the time of Adam, who was made of
clay.
While vinegar into which a mouse has fallen & dissolved is forbidden to be
used, a mouse is not so unclean as to pollute vinegar if it falls in then
climbs out of the vinegar or beer [Avodah Zarah 68b-69a]. So too a
mousetrap never becomes unclean by its contact with mice [Kelim 15:6].
On the whole, scripturally speaking, the Mouse is a highly sacred animal,
up to & including the mouse as an appropriate offering to God. This is why
Achbar, "Mouse," became an appropriate name for individuals of the
priestly class [2 Ki 22:12], & of the kingly lineage of the earliest days
of Israel as an independant nation [Gn 36:37]. It was also a name in the
lineage of Esau & so today is more commonly a Moslem name.
Here's my retelling of a traditional Jewish story about The Mice who
Redeemed Rabbi Judah:
http://www.angelfire.com/grrl/paghat/rabbijudah.html
Finally, a Yiddish story.
Three rabbis got together for breakfast. Rabbi Salomon said, "Mice keep
attending shul. The shammos set out traps, but they keep attending shul.
Do either of you learned men know how I can get rid of them?"
Rabbi Kohen replied, "I too have had such a problem. The mice attend
synagogue. We spent a lot of gelt on exterminators, but still they attend
synagogue."
Rabbi Nosberg sighed deeply & told the following story: "Rabbis, I too had
mice attending synogogue & shul. Traps, exterminators, even prayers --
nothing could keep them from attending. Then one Sabbath I had a good idea
& went to the synogogue one hour before the service. I set out a big wheel
of strong cheese in the center of the bima. Suddenly mice appeared on the
bima, hundreds of them, & began feasting on the cheese. At that moment I
bar-mitzvahed the whole lot of them, & they never came to shul again."
-copyright paghat the ratgirl
--
"Flowers are commonly badly designed, inartistic in
color, & ill-smelling." -Ambrose Bierce
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl:
http://www.angelfire.com/grrl/paghat/gardenhome.html#top
DataPacRat
> Enjoyed your overview of Buddhist, Hindu, & European rat legends, but
> ACTUAL Judaic mouse legendry has very little to do with dietary &
> purification criteria in Leviticus. It's much richer, & much more
> positive, than you have yet looked into. Here's a run-down of the actual
> attitudes & myths about mice within Judaism:
Thank you very much for that post. I knew that Judaic mythology was rich,
having read a few collections, but didn't expect so much depth on this
particular topic.
(Plus, you didn't even mention one of the more recent connections between
stories, rodents, and Judaism - the "funny-animal book", Maus.)
com...@gmail.com
stara...@gmail.com
sleepyc...@gmail.com
sissiz...@gmail.com
mohamedab...@gmail.com
I'm studing the mouse in ancient egyptian, in all cases,
1- mythology.
2- medical.
3- arts.
if anybody need inf. Maybe I can help.
karl2...@gmail.com
The lie of culture and inhumanity will be dissected
And eaten.