Re: apotropaic, Shiva

From: Argrath_at_aol.com
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 19:35:16 -0400

In V2 #480, Mark Smylie writes about
> an "apotropaic" Malia cult which followed the
>ritual logic of like averting like; Malia as the Mistress of Diseases is
also
>called upon to keep them away, in similar fashion to the cultic role of
>Apollo, Artemis, and to some extent Heracles...

I didn't think anything interesting was going to come out of the elongated Malia jawboning, but Mark proved me wrong. However, Mark's RW analogies point toward Yelm or Antirius having conquered Malia and holding her at bay or releasing her as punishment. Cf. Ares' followers Phobos and Deimos. It's always good to have an explanation for misfortune. Mahatma Gandhi once explained to people that they had suffered an earthquake because they were sinful. Makes loads of sense.

Apotropaic. Apotropaic. Apotropaic. Apotropaic. Say it soft and it's almost like praying.

I'm late to a meeting, but I wanted to add that Carl Fink's "explanation" of Shiva is, at best, armchair sociology, and is of little use in understanding Shiva. To give Carl credit, I realize that he as much as said so in his post.

• --Martin Crim

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