With the news today that Pluto is finally going to be photographed, the outer rim of the solar system is receiving a lot more attention than it normally does. Not since Pluto was dropped from the list of planets has it received so much coverage. As part of the segue to the weather report on CBC Newsworld this morning they even gave out the temperature on Pluto (v. cold).
When we think of ancient Egypt, the god who leaps to mind is the sun-god Ra, but the Egyptians were also well-provided with moon-gods, including Thoth, Khonsu, and Aah.
Khonsu is probably familiar from the comic Moon Knight, in which he saves the life of mercenary Marc Spector, who takes up crime-fighting to atone for his past. In the comic, Khonsu is said to have four aspects: Pathfinder, Watcher, Defender, and the Watcher of Overnight Travellers, as well as a secret aspect, The One Who Lives on Hearts. (Moon Knight #1)
The main solar deity of Mesopotamia was certainly male – Šamaš in Akkadian, and UTU in Sumerian. Evidence for this figure is abundant, and he performs normal sun-god/dess activities like witnessing and judging human activity, and maintaining life.
However, there are early personal names with a more feminine connotation, such as Ummi-Samas, (Šamaš is my mother), and Tulid-Shamash (Šamaš gave birth), which indicate that perhaps Šamaš had a female side. (In the same region, after all, the Canaanites and the Arabs both had sun-goddesses, Šapaš and Shams.)
When I started reading comics again, I started with the New 52, because I knew who the characters were, and I figured a reboot meant that newbies like me would find it less confusing to follow. I had also liked a lot of Marvel lines: Daredevil, the Avengers, Spider-Woman and Moon Knight. I’m still trying to decide how I feel about Spider-Woman, but Moon Knight is great.
Although he is often dismissed as Batman with multiple-personality disorder, Moon Knight is actually a complex and interesting character unto himself. They do have their similarities.
Incidents like the tug-of-war in the Njord-Skadi myth, the various humiliations meted out to Thor (being peed at by giantesses, having to hide out in a giant’s glove, forced to disguise himself as Freya, and being seriously cheeked by Odin in Harbardzljod) and of course the insult-fest that is Lokasenna has made many people wonder how on earth anyone took these gods seriously.
Back in the ’90s I wrote a book called Asyniur, which attracted a certain amount of scorn because I named Freyja’s two cats as Bygul and Trjegul. Unfortuantely, this is not ancient lore but comes from a book by Diana Paxson, Brisingamen.
However, I did escape another trap that lies awaiting the newbie – I did not place Iðunn in Breidablik. But I feel the pain of anyone who did. Bragi and Iðunn should have a home of their own. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee obviously agreed with me, and gave them one.
I know I’m not the first person to comment on this, but I’m really pleased with the new Aquaman. Anyone who watched the old Super Friends show no doubt wonders what the point of our finny friend is: he can swim, right, and communicate with fish? To anyone who just watched the show, Aquaman must have seemed only marginally more useful than Bouncing Boy. (A true Ronseal hero, the name said it all.) There’s even a song, Aquaman’s Lament, in which the hero bemoans his general uselessness.
I wrote this post back in January 2015, when this blog was just getting started. It was inspired by my disappointment that the new Hawkman comic wasn’t better. Let’s hope that the new TV character inspires someone to try again. In the meantime, anyone interested in Hawkman should really check out the Geoff Johns comics.
I thought it would be interesting for the show to bring out the romance between Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and the show did start with that angle, before killing Hawkman off. He’s been dead a lot, though, so who knows.
I grew up reading reprints of the old JSA comics – every so often I had to resurface and remind myself that the Nazis were history. Some of the characters from that era did survive to join the Justice League – including Hawkman, who is a remarkably durable character considering how much he’s been through.
The porch of an Anglican church might seem like a strange place to find an altar to a pagan goddess. In Lanchester, Co. Durham, however, a stone altar to the goddess Garmangabi coexisted with the established church.
We Are Star Stuff 