Legion Of Myth
Alyssa Dipiero
Legion means a large group or in another parlance it may mean "many". In the Christian Bible, it is used to refer to the group of demons, particularly those in two of three versions of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, an account in the New Testament of an incident in which Jesus performs an exorcism.
According to Michael Willett Newheart, professor of New Testament Language and Literature at the Howard University School of Divinity (2004), the author of the Gospel of Mark could well have expected readers to associate the name Legion with the Roman military formation, active in the area at the time (around 70 AD).[4] The intention may be to show that Jesus is stronger than the occupying force of the Romans.[5] The Biblical scholar Seyoon Kim, however, points out that the Latin legio was commonly used as a loanword in Hebrew and Aramaic to indicate an unspecified but large quantity.[6] In the New Testament text, it is used as a proper name, which is "saturated with meaning".[7] In this sense, it can mean both the size and power of the occupying Roman army as well as a multitude uncounted/ uncountable of demonic spirits. It is the latter sense that has become the common understanding of the term as an adjective in modern English (whereas when used as a noun it indicates the Roman military number, between 3,000 and 6,000 infantry with cavalry; cf. "we are legion" and "we are a legion").[8]
The Legion, also known as The Light, is an army of the west. The Legion was comprised the most elite soldiers that the west had to offer and they had scored many victories in the war against Moagim, the Great War, and the Second War.
Some of The Legion's notable victories were: lifting the siege of Madrigal, retrieving the Total Codex from the ruins of Covenant, holding the pass of Bagrada against The Deceiver, rescuing Alric from captivity in the east, finding The Watcher's Arm, shattering the Tain after being imprisoned by Soulblighter, liberating Myrgard from the Ghols (Only the Dwarves did at any rate.) and slaying The Watcher using his own arm.
The Legion would soon make the ultimate sacrifice during the Great War when they were ordered to attack Balor's fortress at Rhi'anon. Their final orders was to distract Balor's forces in a suicidal feint in order to give Alric and his hand picked force time to kill Balor. The Legion was eventually slain to the last just as Alric succeeded in killing Balor and sending the severed head of the Leveler to the Great Devoid with the surviving members of the legion. Fewer than thirty survived Rhi'anon.
After the armies of the Dark collapsed and the Fallen Lords were swallowed up by history, the west had been restored and, in honour of The Legion's sacrifice and courage, the armies of the west were forever known as Legions.
The Czechoslovak legions occupy an almost legendary place in Czech history. They comprise the armed forces that fought during and after World War I on the allied side in pursuit of an independent Czechoslovakia. The biggest force, and most potent myths, centre on the Russian force, which became embroiled in the civil war, spending three years and travelling thousands of miles before returning home. We look at the myths and facts about their exploits.
Few writers today have reshaped our view of the ancient Greek myths more than revered bestselling author Natalie Haynes. Divine Might is a female-centered look at Olympus and the Furies, focusing on the goddesses whose prowess, passions, jealousies, and desires rival those of their male kin, including:
Here, too, are Demeter, goddess of the harvest and mother of Persephone; Artemis, the hunter and goddess of wild spaces; the Muses, the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory; and Hestia, goddess of domesticity and sacrificial fire.
The French Foreign Legion, a branch of the French army, is one of the most famous military organizations in the world. Joel Adam Struthers tells his story of six years as a legionnaire (and more specifically as a member of the elite Group Commando Parachutistes) in Appel: A Canadian in the French Foreign Legion (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, foreword by Benoit Desmeulles).
From the rigorous recruitment process to dangerous missions and more, Struthers' account is a fascinating glimpse into modern military life. It also challenges assumptions and stereotypes about the Legion and its members, who have often been portrayed negatively in popular culture. Witty, intense, and fascinating throughout, it's a unique memoir that blends history, politics, and personal experience.
We're excited to welcome Joel to Open Book today. He is the first to respond to our newest interview series, the My Story memoir interview. He tells us about his desire to combat misconceptions about the legion, the difficulty of writing about experiences from when one was young, and the anxiety of sharing personal experiences with the whole world.
Yes, very much so. My memories (in Word) lacked structure and consideration for the English language. Years of rewriting, editing, and asking family, friends, and colleagues to read the story lead to a rough first draft. I eventually hired a professional editor to assist, resulting in a second draft. An effort to share a story without changing it because one is older was a challenge. Rewriting and reliving experiences allowed me to recognize how my time in the French Foreign Legion had shaped me. In addition, all the research enlightened me and led to some surprising nostalgia and an appreciation for my experiences all those years ago.
What comes to mind when you think of the French Foreign Legion? Most likely men struggling through the desert in heavy blue coats and white peaked caps. Men who joined up after a lifetime of crime, fighting valiantly, then leaving the Legion to become tough, faceless mercenaries trading on their background, or else dying in the mud of Dien Bien Phu as the last choppers leave for La Belle France.
The Legion is composed of several branches: engineers, paras, armoured cavalry, infantry, and pioneers. The paras are based in Calvi on the island of Corsica (they are still not trusted to be on mainland France after a coup attempt in 1961). Other arms have been garrisoned in French Guiana and the United Arab Emirates. The Legion saw service most recently in Mali, where they helped restore the government against insurgent Al-Qaeda forces.
The slow and brutal colonisation of Algeria during the 19th century earned the Legion its reputation for toughness and expertise in the desert. It was here that the routine use of daily 40km marches made the Legion the fastest-moving infantry strike force then in existence. The Legion were military innovators and had the quickest system of infantry movement prior to motorised transport. Two men would share a mule that carried their kit. One would walk fast at its side while the other rode. After a few kilometres, they would change places. With this system, the legionnaires could travel 70 or 80 km a day with full kit, just as fast as Bedouin raiders with their camels.
The First World War, in which one in three French men of military age died, saw the Legion employed on many fronts fighting the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. Germans who were in the Legion were kept in Algeria for fear they might desert. The rest fought. The Legion, along with the Moroccan Division, were the most decorated French unit in the 1914-18 conflict. They fought on every front, including Gallipoli, but, when the war ended, their numbers were so depleted there was talk they ought to be disbanded despite their gallantry.
In the Second World War, the Legion fought against the invading Germans. After France fell, the Legion split: some remained loyal to Vichy, others sided with Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill. These two sides of the Legion actually faced each other briefly in Syria, before the Vichy forces capitulated and joined the Free French.
Indochina between 1946-54 should not be mentioned lightly when the Legion is concerned. Often called the Michelin war (after the giant tyre company that stood to lose its immense rubber plantations if the Communists won), the Legion did its mercenary best, despite being given a hopeless task and incompetent leadership under General Henri Navarre, the architect of the Dien Bien Phu fiasco.
In 73 A.D., legend has it, 960 Jewish rebels under siege in the ancient desert fortress of Masada committed suicide rather than surrender to a Roman legion. Recorded in only one historical source, the story of Masada was obscure for centuries. In The Masada Myth, Israeli sociologist Nachman Ben-Yehuda tracks the process by which Masada became an ideological symbol for the State of Israel, the dramatic subject of movies and miniseries, a shrine venerated by generations of Zionists and Israeli soldiers, and the most profitable tourist attraction in modern Israel.
Ben-Yehuda describes how, after nearly 1800 years, the long, complex, and unsubstantiated narrative of Josephus Flavius was edited and augmented in the twentieth century to form a simple and powerful myth of heroism. He looks at the ways this new mythical narrative of Masada was created, promoted, and maintained by pre-state Jewish underground organizations, the Israeli army, archaeological teams, mass media, youth movements, textbooks, the tourist industry, and the arts. He discusses the various organizations and movements that created "the Masada experience" (usually a ritual trek through the Judean desert followed by a climb to the fortress and a dramatic reading of the Masada story), and how it changed over decades from a Zionist pilgrimage to a tourist destination.
Placing the story in a larger historical, sociological, and psychological context, Ben-Yehuda draws upon theories of collective memory and mythmaking to analyze Masada's crucial role in the nation-building process of modern Israel and the formation of a new Jewish identity. An expert on deviance and social control, Ben-Yehuda looks in particular at how and why a military failure and an enigmatic, troubling case of mass suicide (in conflict with Judaism's teachings) were reconstructed and fabricated as a heroic tale.
Nachman Ben-Yehuda is professor of sociology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of Deviance and Moral Boundaries, The Politics and Morality of Deviance, Political Assassinations by Jews, and (with Erich Goode) Moral Panics.