"In Greek tales, ancient and modern, the idea of an external soul is not uncommon. When Meleager was seven days old, the Fates appeared to his mother and told her that Meleager would die when the brand which was blazing on the hearth had burnt down. So his mother snatched the brand from the fire and kept it in a box. But in after-years, being enraged at her son for slaying her brothers, she burnt the brand in the fire and Meleager expired in agonies, as if flames were preying on his vitals. Again, Nisus King of Megara had a purple or golden hair on the middle of his head, and it was fated that whenever the hair was pulled out the king should die."
                                  -The Golden Bough, LXVI. The External Soul in Folk-Tales



I think my favorite thing to do with myth is make associations between the stories from thousands of years ago and characters/ideas/tales from the more modern era.  Imagine my delight, then, when I watched Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, which I'm sure several of you are familiar with (he is also famous for Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo).  The quick synopsis: Ashitaka protects his villiage from a giant boar that's been struck with a madness, and ends up killing the boar but becomes infected by the curse of madness and rage, which slowly consumes him (the boar, by the way, was a forest deity).  He travels on an adventure to find the cause of the curse and to attempt to rid himself from it.  Yada yada yada, it's quite an adventure.  Here's the trailer.



You should see the movie.  As is apparent in the mash-together of clips, it's quite mythological, but I only wish to expound on a couple of the quotes right now.

First, a quick lesson in homeopathy, courtesy of the Ape Tribe, who wishes to use Ashitaka's strength to rid the forest of the humans:


Ape Tribe: This is our forest. The human... give him to us. Give us the human and go.
San's Wolf Brother: You go before my fangs find you.
Ape Tribe: We will not go. We will eat the human. Yes... we will eat the man creature.
San: Are you crazy? Just what happened to make the ape tribe change this way? Since when do apes eat the flesh of a man?
Ape Tribe: If we eat the human, we will steal his strength, and we will drive the other humans away. Give us the man creature.
San: Stop this. You know you can't possess the humans' strength by eating them. All that'll do is make you into something else, something even worse than human.

You will also note while watching the movie how different tribes can represent various sects of human tradition.  My interpretation was that the Boar Tribe were barbarians, the Apes were more of a druidic peoples, the wolves were sort of spiritual Eldars, and the humans - well, technology driven humans.  Atheists, mostly.  Something like that...they acknowledge the existence of the forest gods, but deny their supremacy.

The second quote I wish to mention is as follows:

Lady Eboshi: Now watch closely, everyone. I'm going to show you how to kill a god. A god of life and death. The trick is not to fear him.

Lady Eboshi is the leader of the problem-humans, and it is her current objective to annihilate the forest god.  This quote says something about not fearing death, nor fearing what life will throw at you, and if you can deny yourself the fear of death, you can more easily deny gods, religion.  I would argue most of religion is focused on what to do to __________ after death, be it go to heaven, reincarnate as something desirable, or transcend existence itself (yes, there are of course other aspects to it, but they don't concern my point right now).  Deny fear, deny religion.

I haven't read Nietzsche, by I know enough about him to say with some certainty that he once claimed, "God is dead.  God remains dead.  And we have killed him."  I believe Eboshi showed us how we may have went about this.  We ceased to fear him, and thus his usefulness fell by the wayside where it lay forever after, until we may again find need to fear him (or her.  It. I just needed some pronoun.)  We killed god by overcoming our fear of life and death, though "overcoming" may just be another way to say "became apathetic to," which, when you think about it, is a tad sad - if we don't care about life and death, what the devil do we care about?

And finally, the third quote I wish to examine:

Wise Woman of the Emishi: "You cannot alter your fate, my prince. However, you can rise to meet it if you choose."

Brilliant.  To me, in conjures images of Thetis calling out in the name of her son, Achilles,
"Doomed to a short life, you have so little time.
And not only short, now, but filled with heartbreak too,
more than all other men alive—doomed twice over."
          -Chapter 1: The Rage of Achilles, The Illiad, Homer, Trans. Robert Fagles (best translation, I think)

Achilles' fate is to live a short life.  He knows this, his mother knows this, and there's nothing either of them can do to stop it.  It's written in the tapestry of the Fates.  So what does Achilles choose to do?  He rises to meet his fate.  He becomes the one of the greatest heroes in all Grecian History, accepting that he is to die, but figuring he might as well go out with a fight.

Be wary as you keep your eyes peeled for mythic associations - it's fun, but intoxicating.  Pretty soon you can't escape them.