(Nice posts BTW)
> Here I thought Shargash killed [Humakt], just like he killed everything
> else before he killed himself (or let himself die, because there was
> nothing left to kill).
I'll be picky here and say that Shargash destroys, but that's just an excuse to say that I like your suggestion anyway.
> >Humakt OTOH has a presence in both the God world and the Under world, and also
> >exists as the sharp dividing line between the two (IMO).
>
> I think you're off base here -- Humakt is a special case in the
> sense that He is neither in the World, the Underworld, or the Other Worlds,
> but between them. I think he can be called into any of them (by Heroquests,
> chiefly), but this puts a strain on everything around it. Humakt is the
> door; he's not "in" any room.
I really don't know, and I've been pondering this for a while. The Sword Death is certainly as you suggest, but then much depends on who's wielding it. Orlanth ? Humakt ? Trickster ? I tend to imagine Humakt wielding Death, with one foot in each world and the Sword as the Dividing Line.
Whatever. There must be *many* local interpretations of the core myths.
Julian Lord
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