Women from Heaven: Mythology in Asia - Research Paper Example

s The popular plot in mythologies in various cultures characterizes the male figures as protagonists, mostly heroes and brave soldiers who are rather glorified to keep the myth alive. However, in contrast to the popular myth, Asian mythology constitutes woman characters as central figures to the myth. Moreover, women as central figures to Asian myths are represented as Goddesses or mere representatives of the concept of heaven (Asian Mythology 2010). To illustrate the point, women characters from three of the Asian myths would be compared and contrasted to another myth i.e. Adventures of a disobedient price. Also, the features and characteristics associated with these characters would be discussed to come up with a consolidated explanation of these women. The tales which would be under discussion by virtue of the paper includes Weaving Maid and The Cow-heard, the heavenly maiden and the woodcutter, and the woman who came from heaven, which will be compared to the myth mentioned earlier as well, i.e. Adventures of a disobedient price. After exhibiting the plot of the stories in the respective myths, a discussion would be continued to reflect similarity and differences in these tales. More importantly, the observation that heterogeneity leads towards failed marriages as observed in the three tales of heavenly maidens is negated by focusing on the adventures of disobedient son. Since the disobedient son has certain merits, unlike the men who`re married to the heavenly maidens, his marriage works well, in fact is an extraordinary exhibition of the success of heterogeneous marriages. In the three tales of heavenly maidens, the women are used as child-bearing creatures and more like the weaker gender thus the marriages don`t seem to be working. Also, when the men are exposed to challenges and tests to prove their strength they fail to succeed, while the prince in the adventures of disobedient son over-achieves on the challenges assigned to them which makes him win wives over wives, and makes his marriages successful. The first myth, that is, The Weaving Maid and the Cowheard is a Chinese myth with the weaving goddess being the sole protagonist of the tale (Asian Mythology 2010). The tale comprises of a young lad who is marries the heavenly maidens by deceiving them, that is, by hiding their clothes so that they aren’t able to return back to heaven. This entire scenario represents a sense of nudity with respect to a woman`s character, that is, without clothes the identity of a woman would be lost. More so, this perspective also comprehends a male dominating tilt in these male characters, where men find the essential tools to control the desired woman. In other words, the element of separation takes place due to the reason that he had deceived his wives on the first place, and not because of the heterogeneous marriages. This fact may be expanded to further deliberate the men in these myths are wittier and cleverer than their women, which makes it easier for them to manipulate. In contrast, the prince in the myth is portrayed as a virtuous young man, who is honest with his father, the King, who couldn’t bear his honestly and kicks him out of his kingdom. It is expected out of him that he wouldn’t be able to survive the life of a common man, however, he doesn’t only survive, in fact he exemplifies his life in such a way that he gets married to four beautiful women. Moreover, he isn`t able to marry these women on the basis of deceit, rather he wins them over by expediting his manly maneuvers and going through life-threatening phases like taking out the cobra`s venom to marry his women (Ramanujan 1997). Resultantly, he is blessed with a perfect married life with all his four wives, where he is able to satisfy them all at once. This proves the point that heterogeneity in Asian myths doesn’t always prove to be a negative element, if the men are virtuous, it may turn out to be well. Also, when the man in the former myth tried to pursue his wife in heaven by following his wife to heaven, her grandparents spotted and drew a line on the sky to stop him from entering the heaven and proposes a challenge which he isn`t able to take, thus in this myth, separation between man and the goddess is inevitable as opposed to the prince in the latter myth. Furthermore, when the man tried to reach his women in heaven, the grandparents challenge him for a race to pursue his wife (Griffis 2001). As a reaction, his wife gives him a comb, a pin and a glass and asks him to throw the glass and the comb right behind him and draw a line with the help of the pin and the man fails the test in the end. This part of the tale further exhibits another idea that this Asian myths often reflect. The men must be stronger and intellectually wiser than the women, and thus to woo their women they have to go through certain tests to woo themselves. On the other hand the prince wins over all four tests inflicted upon him, and thus is able to keep all his wives happy and content. The second myth which must be discussed in the context is a tale which comes from Japan but is based on a Chinese story, called The Woman who came from Heaven (Grayson 2001). A younger farmer who`s named Mikeran finds a robe in his farm which is otherwise unfamiliar to him. The robe in reality belongs to the Goddess Tanabata, who couldn’t return to heaven without her robe. Again, the idea is somewhat similar to the tale identified above. The robe of the goddess Tanabata is her real identity without which she is just another human being, another ordinary creature which Mikeran tries to exploits, and even succeeds in doing so when he gets to marry the heavenly maid. Again, the idea of having children makes Mikeran quite comfortable as he considers children as a key to security and consistency in their relationship since he had won his wife with deceit and otherwise possesses no real strength. Thus, when Tanbata finds out about the lies of her husband, she leaves him along with her children. As opposed to this myth, in the other myth i.e. the adventures of a disobedient son, the prince experiences extraordinary challenges not only on earth, but also on heaven when the Gods gave him the difficult task to identify his wife out of four identical wives. Thus, the prince proved himself to be a perfect suitor for his celestial wives by first taking out venom from a snake Karkotaka, then by bringing back the crocodile bile, and later by going to the far off heaven. When he is asked to seek his wives through legitimate moves, he proves himself to be quite intellectual and also strong. Also, since he possesses all the virtues which must be possessed by a good husband, his wives also long to be with him. This proves that heterogeneity can prove to be a positive trait in a few cases as well, as exhibited in the case of the prince The third story is the Heavenly Maiden and the Woodcutter, which comes from Korea and is perceived as the most mature tale of the three tales of heavenly maids mentioned here. The story constitutes a woodcutter who lives with his old mother somewhere in the mountains. One fine day, he comes across a deer who begs for survival as he explains that a hunter is after him, and he needs a hideout. This myth, thus contains an element distinct from the other tales, that is the Asian culture which promotes good deeds and saving lives of others. This trait is similar to that of the disobedient price as he is also seen helping other creatures, as he did with the frog who was attacked by the Cobra. However in case of the woodcutter, the deer guides him through a secret lake where the heavenly maidens come to bathe. He further asks him to hide the clothes of the youngest maiden, and give her the clothes back only when she given him three children. This idea is similar to the one reinforced in the earlier tales as well, where women are considered as weak creatures who are rather identified and protected by a piece of clothing. Also, even after having children, the heavenly goddess flies back to heaven which explains that the heavenly women are so pure and weak that they tend to fly back to their comfort zones as soon as they get a chance, same was the case in this myth. In contrast, the prince goes through phases deadly in nature and fights all kinds of fears to woo himself with the celestial wives. Also, in case of the woodcutter, he is able to go back to heaven to his wife, yet he convinces his wife to come back to heaven to see his mother. On visiting his mother, he explains the entire story to her and tells her how he has come to visit her but couldn’t leave the horse. However, she insists him to have pumpkin soup right there on the horse. The woodcutter spills some of the hot soup on the horse as he took the hot soup which he spat on the back of the horse (Asian Mythology 2010). Thus again an element of separation and sadness is incorporated into the myth, again reinforcing the feel implicated in the myths identified earlier on in the paper as well. However, in contrast, the prince acts wisely when he is conflicted with such situations. He gets married to four celestial women who are then bound to part ways with him. Yet, unlike the woodcutter, he doesn’t make any blunders to keep him from his wife, and rather acts smart and wise. In comparison, the woodcutter is conflicted not with heterogeneity in marriage, rather his good deeds and his love for his mother tends to separate from his wife. Though he owns virtue but lacks strength and wisdom which is rather possessed by the prince. When the prince is summoned by the Gods, despite being kind, he acts wisely while identifying his wife and reads the signs correctly enough (Ramanujan 1997). He doesn’t just manage to convince the creatures of the earth of his wisdom and greatness, rather the Gods are also convinced. Thus, in his case heterogeneity rather contributes positively towards his marriage. Thus, all the three myths discussed above are explanatory myths, which tend to explain certain elements in history, also explain why certain festivals are celebrated and what they convey in reality. More importantly, all of these myths have women in common all of whom are heavenly maidens. This could have various meanings. One of these meanings may have to do with the fact that in Asian mythology women are treated as pure and spiritual creatures and thus their association with heaven indicates that they are resided in the higher places. Another meaning could be with the opposite nature of men and women, which also tends to separate them. Moreover, another common element in the myths deals with the defiance and betrayal on part of these men when they hide the clothes of the maidens, also the love of the maidens for heaven over their men. Furthermore, all of these myths end with a rather depressing note, with an inevitable feeling of emptiness, sadness and enduring separation. Also, the lust for the forbidden fruit, and the curiosity to pursue what one was asked to refrain from is also exhibited in these myths. In contrast, the myth on the adventures of the disobedient sons reflects a completely different message. In the three myths related to heavenly maidens, it has been expressed somehow that heterogeneity is the sole factor in separating the wives from their men. However, the prince or the disobedient son proves his wisdom, strength and virtue by succeeding in all the challenges he`s confronted with and performing deadly tasks which none of the men from the former tasks were able to perform. Thus, it may be concluded from the discussion that heterogeneity doesn’t tend to separate men and heavenly maiden, rather lack of virtue and strength contributes in the separation. The prince from the adventures of the disobedient son clearly proves the point. Bibliography Asian Mythology. S.l.: General Books, 2010. Print. Grayson, James H. Myths and Legends from Korea: An Annotated Compendium of Ancient and Modern Materials. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2001. Print. Griffis, William E. Korean Fairy Tales. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1922. Print. Ramanujan, A. K. A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India. Berkeley London:  University of California Press,  c1997 1997. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft067n99wt/ Read More