Mischief Of The Gods

[Lara Preece]

FromLoki and Eris to Anansi, Trickster Gods can be found in mythologies all around the world. While their stories are often entertaining, and sometimes terrifying, almost all tales of these gods of mischief were created to teach us something about ourselves. It could be to warn us that doing the wrong thing could be punished or to explain a natural phenomenon.

Most of the tales of Loki we know today come from The Prose Edda, a thirteenth-century textbook. Only seven copies of the text exist from before 1600, each of them incomplete. However, by comparing them, scholars were able to recreate many of the great stories from Norse mythology, many of which had held oral tradition for millennia.

In Norse mythology, Mjolnir was not just a weapon but a divine instrument, having great spiritual power. The symbol of the hammer was used as a good luck symbol and has been found in jewelry, coins, art, and architecture.

Loki had thought it a prank to cut off the golden hair of the goddess Sif, wife of Thor. Her golden yellow locks were famous around the world and Thor did not find the prank funny. Thor told Loki that, if he wanted to live, he had to go to the dwarven craftsman and make her new hair. Hair made of literal gold.

Having won the bet, Loki left with the hammer and gave it to the thunder god as a present. The dwarves would never learn that the fly was, in fact, Loki himself, using his supernatural powers to ensure the bet would be won.

Eris appears to be an ever-present goddess, though sometimes sent directly by others. However, besides being present to cause havoc among gods and men, she never appears to play a larger role in stories. Little is known of her life, her adventures, or her family.

One interesting, though very dark, tale of Eris has her, like Loki, pitting craftsmen against each other to cause problems. Unlike the Norse god of mischief, however, she does not interfere. She simply lets the bet play out, knowing the loser would go on to commit atrocities in anger.

Breaking in, he proceeded to drink all the food and drink, including the immortal wine, making himself more powerful. Drunk on the wine, he stumbled out of the hall and wandered the palace before stumbling upon the secret laboratory of the great Laozi. Here, he discovered the pills of immortality, which could only be eaten by the greatest of gods. Monkey, drunk on the heavenly wine, gobbled them down like candy, before leaving the palace and stumbling back to his own kingdom.

Two gods whose names are more well-known in oral mythology are Wisakedjak and Anansi. While on other sides of the world, these gods of mischief had many similar adventures and played roles that were far more educational than Loki ever was.

Before the moon existed, there was only the sun, which was cared for by an old man. Every morning the man would ensure the sun would rise, and every evening bring it down again. This was an important job, as it allowed the plants to grow and the animals to thrive. Without someone to look after the fire of the sun, and make sure it rose, the world would be no more.

His children understood that he was leaving to die and finally rest from his weary job. Fortunately, they were both ready to take over his important job. There was only one problem. Who would take over?

The two children argued into the night, both certain that this important job should be theirs. Their arguing lasted so long that they did not realize that the sun was meant to rise, and the world remained in darkness.

Then one day, the spider god had a brilliant idea. If he could take a little wisdom from every person in the village, and store it all in a single container, he would be the owner of more wisdom than any other creature in the world.

The trickster god went door to door with a large hollow gourd (or coconut), asking each person for just a little of their wisdom. The people felt sorry for Anansi. For all the tricks he had made, they knew he was the least wise of them all.

So the spider prepared to climb the tree. He took a cloth band and wrapped it around himself like a belt, tying the overflowing gourd to it. As he began to climb, however, the hard fruit kept getting in the way.

Sometimes people want to know who the most powerful trickster god is. If all these cunning, clever beings were put in a room, who would end up winning in a fight of mischief? While Eris brought trouble wherever she went, and Loki was powerful enough to hold Mjolnir, the greatest of the trickster gods would have to be The Monkey King.

By the end of his adventures, Monkey was known to be five times immortal, and impossible to kill by even the greatest of gods. His power came from his trickery, having not even been a god, to begin with. For Taoists today, Monkey is known to still be alive, helping maintain the traditions and teachings of Laozi for eternity.

A university campus is an oddly appropriate place for gods of mischief and bacchanalian revelry to dwell. Indeed, if you look closely enough, you will find representations of both Bacchus and Pan adorning buildings on campus.

In 1936, Merrill Hall was built to house the Indiana University School of Music, and it was then that the god of mischief (and music) joined the god of merriment. A stylized carving of Pan can be found just above the main door of Merrill Hall.

In Norse mythology Loki is a cunning trickster who has the ability to change his shape and sex. Although his father is the giant Frbauti, he is included among the Aesir (a tribe of gods). Loki is represented as the companion of the great gods Odin and Thor.

While the Loki of the Marvel comics and films does derive his cunning character from the Loki of Norse myth, the biggest difference is that in the Marvel universe, Loki is depicted as the adopted brother and son of Thor and Odin. In Norse mythology, Loki is represented as just the companion of fellow Aesir gods Thor and Odin.

Of all the gods on Mount Olympus, Hermes was the most playful. Son of Zeus, the king of the gods, and of Maia, a Titan's daughter, Hermes was born in a deep, dark cave on Mount Cyllene. On the very day of his birth, the fourth day of the month, his mischief-making began.

Apollo, busily pursuing romance, had neglected his duties and was not watching over the herd. Hermes decided he would steal them. He walked among the herd and selected a dozen cows, 100 heifers and one great white bull.

Knowing he must sneak away, he came up with a brilliant plan. First he wrapped the cows' hooves in sheaves of bark. "This is how I shall cover your tracks," he whispered to them as he worked. He chuckled to himself at his next thought. He gathered branches from a nearby forest, and these he tied to the cows' tails. "Now you will sweep away whatever tracks you may leave," he explained, and the cows seemed to understand.

Now he was prepared to sneak away, but Hermes had yet another trick up his sleeve. To confuse his brother even more, he drove the cows backward out of the pasture, and he wrapped his own tiny feet with large branches. "My brother will think a giant has led something into the pasture," he said, "but he won't realize that someone has driven anything away."

Some say no one saw him as he traveled, though others say that one old man, Battus, did spy the boy. But not believing what he saw, Battus rubbed his eyes and fell asleep, and so this amazing child managed the theft.

Back home, Hermes hid the cattle in a quiet grove, but first he sacrified two cows to the 12 gods. Using their bones and sinew and an empty tortoise shell, he fashioned a musical instrument with his tiny hands. He smiled to himself when his creation was complete, and began to pluck at the strings. The sound, the music of the first lyre, was so beautiful that the clouds danced with joy and the trees trembled. Hermes knew he would charm all who heard it.

When the other gods saw this sight, they burst out laughing. "Look at the great god Apollo chasing a baby," they laughed. But Apollo cried, "This little boy is no ordinary creature! He's stolen my cows."

Now Zeus was not pleased with the theft, but even he could not help but smile at the mischief caused by this amazing little lad. Still, he wished his sons to love each other, and so he commanded Hermes to return the cows.

Hermes bowed his head before his father, the greatest god of all. "I will, Father," he said, and with that he stopped running and beckoned his brother to follow him. Back in the pasture on Mount Cyllene, Apollo sighed at the sight of his herd, and he forgave his young brother.

But a moment later Apollo noticed two of the creatures were missing. "Where have you hidden them?" he cried, anger rising, but Hermes quickly showed his brother the lyre. "Forgive me, brother," he said, "but I have made this of them," and before Apollo could say another word, Hermes began to play.

And so the brothers came to love each other, and from that day on they often exchanged gifts and wisdom. Hermes never again stole, and the gods praised him for his wit and courage. Zeus made him the herald of the gods, placing upon his head a golden hat with wings. Upon his feet Hermes wore a pair of golden winged sandals, and across his shoulders, a cape. "You may hide your magic tricks inside this cape," Zeus chuckled to the lad.

The original trickster Loki appears in the Elder Edda (a book of anonymous poems without a definitive publication date) and its younger sibling, the so-called Prose Edda (published around the year 1220, and compiled (or possibly written) by the historian, politician and author Snorri Sturluson.

Predictably, Loki tries every trick in the book to avoid capture. When the Aesir are looking for him, he builds a house on a mountain in order to be able to see any approaching danger quicker, and transforms into a salmon to hide in waterfalls and rivers. Neither of these tricks help as the gods manage to collectively catch him by using the net that he himself had invented:

Having a stable, definable identity is a prerequisite for belonging to a social structure. By contrast, trickster are good at transforming into other people, animals and inanimate objects as well as at changing sex. The shapeshifter Loki transforms into an old woman in order to catch the goddess Frigg off guard, and find out from her what object might hurt the otherwise invincible Balder (it is mistletoe) (Byok, 2005: 66). On other occasions, Loki transforms into a fish, a falcon and many other things. He also has shoes that allow him to race through the air, which he uses to escape dwarves. His modern version also enjoys changing shape, which he uses to mislead his opponents and escape from the numerous prisons to which he is regularly confined by the gods.

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