Our Gods Wear Spandex Page 3

  In a few short years, comic conventions have stopped being sad, dingy assemblies of marginalized wallflowers and have become mass celebrations of the new gods and popular culture in general. “Cosplay,” or costumed play, has become a major draw at conventions, as men, women, boys, and girls have found a safe space to live out their fantasies dressed as their favorite superheroes or fictional characters. Shows like Dragon* Con in Atlanta have become notorious for the throngs of beautiful young women who swarm there to show off their painstakingly constructed costumes, as well as their Pilates-sculpted figures. An ancient Egyptian or Roman might not recognize the characters, but they surely would understand the basic impulse behind it all. And though some costumes may be taken from other media, it all basically emanates from roots deep in comic-book culture.

  This culture is far more influential (and insidious) than most realize. Most contemporary action movies take their visual language from comic books. The rhythm of constant hyper-violence of today's action movies comes straight from Jack Kirby. Likewise, rock ‘n’ roll has always fed off of comic-book imagery. Many of rock's most influential figures have been strongly influenced by comics. Elvis Presley idolized Captain Marvel Jr., to the point of adopting his hairstyle. Donovan giddily boasted that “Superman and Green Lantern” had nothing on him. Black Sabbath crooned odes to Iron Man and Mister Miracle. Pink Floyd name-checked Doctor Strange, and the Kinks sang about Captain America. Shock-rockers David Bowie, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and Glen Danzig are all serious comic-book fans, and nicked many of their visual ideas straight from the pages of Marvel Comics. Marvel even returned the favor and published comics featuring Cooper and Kiss in the 1970s. It's no accident that most of these artists are well known either for their religious devotion or for their interest in mysticism and the occult.

  Although most of us don't realize it, there's simply nothing new about devotion to superheroes. Their powers, their costumes, and sometimes even their names are plucked straight from the pre-Christian religions of antiquity. When you go back and look at these heroes in their original incarnations, you can't help but be struck by how blatant their symbolism is and how strongly they reflect the belief systems of the pagan age. What even fewer people realize is that this didn't occur by chance, but came directly out of the spiritual and mystical secret societies and cults of the late 19th century—groups like the Theosophists, the Rosicrucians, and the Golden Dawn. These groups turned their backs on the state cult of Christianity and reached back in time to the elemental deities of the ancient traditions. Inspired by the same cultural and spiritual ferment that afflicts us in our post-9/11 world, artists and architects of this Neoclassical movement portrayed the gods and beliefs of the ancient world in works that survive today in the major cities of the West.

  In Manhattan alone, we find Mercury, messenger of the gods, at Grand Central Station. We see Isis, Queen of Heaven and Star of the Sea, at the Statue of Liberty1 and a whole host of images and symbols of ancient gods at Rockefeller Center. The young artists who created the great superheroes grew up immersed in this atmosphere. All over the finest neighborhoods in Manhattan, you find gods lurking everywhere—in lobbies, over doorways, in elevators, and on rooftops. These young artists—city kids, really—looted the treasures of the ancient world from art schools and museums to create our new gods.

  Comics superstar Frank Miller noted that those kids learned their lessons well, pointing out that in the early comics, “the superhero was an unusual often mystical element that focused and defined real-world situations and issues in a way that was clearer and more direct than a simple recitation of the facts could.”2

  In the ancient world, culture was inseparable from religion. So it is perhaps fitting that gods like Mercury, Hercules, and Horus found themselves plucked out of the pages of history and put to work on the pages of comic books. These gods shook off the dust of centuries and have emerged when and where they were most needed—at the forefront of our popular culture at a time of personal alienation, economic uncertainty, and endless war.

  1 See Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (London: Element, 2004), p. 440.

  2 Interview, The Comics Journal # 101, Aug. 1985 (italics mine).

  CHAPTER 4

  DAWN OF THE GODS

  Every culture has had its superheroes. In early times, when strength and courage meant the difference between life and death, the strongest and bravest were held in the highest esteem. It's only natural, therefore, that they would encourage the telling of stories to extoll their prowess and record their exploits. The most exciting and creative of these stories were passed down from generation to generation, and carried to other cultures through migration. With each retelling, these stories became more fantastical. From these original tales of superheroes came the first stories of the gods.

  SUMER AND EGYPT

  One of the earliest texts known tells the story of the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh. Other Sumerian texts and tablets detail the exploits of a pantheon of suspiciously human-acting gods. These myths are told in such detail that some observers, like linguist Zechariah Sitchin, claim they are not myths at all, but garbled accounts of a race of extraterrestrials that colonized the Earth and created humanity as its slave race.3 Whatever the case, it's certain that these stories of gods and heroes traveled with Sumerian goods and technologies (like writing) to other parts of the ancient world. Ancient Egypt was one of Sumer's foremost trading partners, exchanging not only goods and services, but also ideas and culture.

  Ancient Egypt was a society almost as saturated in media as our own. Thanks in part to the dry climate and the ever-shifting desert sands, an astonishing number of artifacts have survived from the glory days of that great empire, including statues, reliefs, papyri, figurines, amulets, totems, and jewelry. All of these cultural artifacts were inseparable from their religious context. In many ways, the heiroglyphs and picture-stories of the ancient Egyptians can be seen as a precursor to modern comic strips.

  The Egyptians worshiped a vast array of colorful and exotic gods, whom they called the Netjer. Their gods controlled all aspects of creation and existence, leading some to believe that the word “nature” is a Latin adaptation of netjer. Since their exoteric religion focused primarily on the “next world”—that is, death, judgment, and the afterlife—the Egyptians raised the god Osiris, lord of the underworld, above all others. Osiris sat in judgment of the dead and determined whether they went to paradise, or whether their souls were destroyed. Later, Osiris was overshadowed by his sister and wife, Isis, a goddess who served many functions and over time absorbed those of earlier goddesses.

  Isis was the mother of Horus, the hawk-headed god of kings. Horus was the god of the Sun, of the sky, and of the horizons (“Horus-zones”). Some scholars believe that the very word “hero” derives from his Egyptian name, Heru (Horus is the Greek rendering of the name).4 Horus was also the star of one of the first great action-adventure dramas, The Contendings of Horus and Set. In these dramas, Horus and his evil uncle, Set (who was responsible for sending Osiris to the after-world), contend for the throne of Egypt in a series of battles that would do any comic-book writer proud. The two gods shape-shift; they race boats of stone; they maim each other; their body parts become lotus flowers. In the end, Horus wins the throne and Set is granted dominion over the western desert. Thus in life, every king of Egypt is an incarnation of Horus and, in death, becomes the new Osiris.

  Egyptians were extremely syncretic in their religion. They absorbed gods and goddesses from other tribes and cities, even from other nations. It is now believed that Horus was actually imported into Egypt by tribes of chariot-driving warriors who came down from Mesopotamia.5 Horus then absorbed the roles of earlier gods and came to be closely identified with Ra, the primeval god of the Sun.

  Today, Egypt's power over the popular imagination is undiminished. Since the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, an astonishing number of texts left from ancient Egyp
t have been translated. We see Egyptian iconography everywhere, not just on the back of our dollar bill. The greater legacy of Egypt, however, is in its role as birthplace of the mystery religions. The pyramids and tombs of Egypt were places of initiation for scholars all across the ancient world. Isis eventually became the supreme goddess of Rome. The trinity of Osiris, Isis, and Horus became central to the Hellenistic mystery cults, and some would say to Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry as well. For thousands of years, esotericists have sought to resurrect the Egyptian mysteries so that the power that built those inexplicable monuments can be harnessed once again.

  GREECE AND ROME

  The early Greeks and the Romans worshipped roughly the same pantheon as the Egyptians, albeit under different names. Gods like Zeus/Jupiter, Hera/Juno, Hermes/Mercury, and Helios/Apollo starred in fanciful dramas that were depicted in murals, friezes, pottery, poems, and statues. The gods fought epic battles against their predecessors, the Titans, and later interacted with humans in allegorical parables. Each god was assigned mastery over a specific art or science, or facet of nature. Their icons and images persist to this day, especially in our modern superheroes.

  The epic myths of the Greeks all centered around godlike superheroes. The outcome of the Trojan War hinged, not on the armies of Greece and Troy, but on the mighty warriors Hector and Achilles. Odysseus lent his name to the title of Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, which is still used as a synonym for high adventure. Hercules and his Twelve Labors were a favorite in the classical world, as were the stories of the great sea captain, Jason, and his brotherhood of warriors, the Argonauts. To the Greeks, these heroes were essentially demigods. Reverence for Hercules as a hero developed later into cult-like worship.

  The same is true of real-life heroes. Alexander (356–323 B.C.E.), the Macedonian prince who had conquered most of the known world before dying at the tender age of thirty-three, became a superhero in the ancient world. Every would-be conqueror in antiquity measured himself against Alexander. Julius Caesar (100–44 B.C.E.) came on the scene when historians were far less likely to deify their subjects, but he still set a standard to which alpha males have aspired ever since.

  The question is raised: were the ancient myths that developed around these superheroes ever meant to be read the way Christians read their Scripture? Were these stories all considered sacred, or were some meant simply as entertainment? The people of the Hellenistic world were not naïve. Their culture produced great thinkers on whom we have built our modern society. It's unlikely that educated Greeks took the gods and their myths at face value. It's far more probable that these stories simply supplied a cultural context that allowed the Hellenes to metaphorically interpret the meaning of life and the world around them, much as Aesop's or Jesus' parables did.

  Gradually, the Greeks and the Romans turned away from these imperfect gods in favor of more idealized deities, particularly the great mother goddesses like Cybele and Isis, and dying/resurrecting solar gods like Mithras and Adonis. The merging of these pagan cults with Platonic philosophy and Hebrew morality resulted in the emergence of Christianity, a cult that eventually dominated most of the Western world. In retrospect, it all seems inevitable. The old gods were too fanciful and the mystery cults too abstract. Yet, Hellenes like Luke and Paul simply drew upon this same blend of myth and morality to spin their own tales. And the history of religion always comes down to who tells the best stories, doesn't it?

  PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

  The Hebrews were always great storytellers, expertly embroidering myth and parable into their tribal history. In many ways, the great prophets of the Old Testament are the small “g” gods of their monotheistic culture. They were supermen who had a sort of bat-phone to the divine. Unlike the Greek heroes, however, their power was not their own. It was granted to them by Yahweh, and their feats were meant to bear witness to his wrath.

  The contribution the Jews made to Western mythology was to present heroes worth emulating for their morality, not merely their strength or courage. Heroes like Moses, David, and Saul were warriors, liberators, and kings, but they carried the added burden of having to adhere to the incredibly complex Mosaic laws of the Old Testament.

  Many theologians have pointed out the essentially solar nature of heroes like Elijah and Samson, both of whom are thought to derive from stories of Hercules. Like Hercules, Samson (whose name means “Of the Sun”) was betrayed by a woman. Hercules created the two pillars named for him by smashing through a mountain that sealed the Mediterranean at Gibraltar. Samson destroyed the Temple of Dagon by knocking down two pillars. Like Hercules, Elijah wore animal skins. Hercules was often identified with the Sun, and Elijah ascended to heaven in a flaming chariot identical to that of Helios, god of the Sun.

  Following the Babylonian captivity, later prophets were portrayed as seers, which some scholars believe shows a Zoroastrian influence on Judaism.6 They also express an increased messianic expectation. Zechariah 9:9 prophesies that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on two asses, a colt and a foal, which Christians cite as a prophecy of Jesus. The “manger” (Praesepe) and “the two asses” (Assellus Borealis and Assellus Australis) are stars in the constellation of Cancer, which the Sun enters on the Summer Solstice.7 This may show that Asian solar traditions had a definite impact on Hebrew iconology. Many alternative historians believe that the solar traditions had an especially strong influence on the Jesus stories as well.

  THE NORSE SAGAS

  The Norse had a pantheon that included a father deity (Odin), a mother goddess (Frigga), a goddess of love and sex (Freya), a dying/resurrecting Sun god (Balder), and a warrior god (Thor). Like the Greeks, the great gods and heroes of the North were warlike, and their greatness was proven in battle. Mortal men earned their way into the Nordic heaven, Valhalla, by proving their courage as warriors.

  The Norse myths deal with the gods and their battles against demons, giants, witches, and mythical monsters. In addition to their gods, however, the Norse revered human heroes like the dragon slayers Sigurd and Siegfried, the martyred king Volsung, and the great warrior-maiden Brunhilde. The Norse hero Beowulf was celebrated in an epic poem that is acknowledged as the first great literary work in the English language. Later, English author J.R.R. Tolkien drew heavily upon the Norse sagas when creating his epic story-cycle, The Lord of The Rings.

  Like Judaism, the Norse religion is apocalyptic and linear. All of history is a progression toward Ragnarok or the “Twilight of the Gods.” Ragnarok is the final battle between the forces of order (led by Odin) and the forces of chaos (led by Loki), followed by the end of creation. Like the Hebrew prophecies, which promise a new heaven and a new Earth, Ragnarok is to be followed by a golden age in which all men and gods will live in peace.

  The Norse legends had a major influence on modern comic-book superheroes. In many ways, the ancient Norse heroes are the closest in spirit to the superheroes in their noble and self-sacrificing warrior ethos. Two of comics' most important creators, writer Stan Lee and writer/artist Jack Kirby, drew heavily on the old Norse epics and legends for their hero, the Mighty Thor. Many of the gods—Balder, Sif, Odin, Loki, and Heimdall—became regular characters in the Marvel Universe, where they play the same kind of role that the Greco-Roman gods played in Fawcett's Captain Marvel stories.

  All of these ancient gods and heroes took a long and circuitous route back to cultural prominence in the modern world, when the social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution finally summoned them from their long and fitful slumber.

  3 See Zechariah Sitchin, The 12th Planet (New York: Harper, 1999).

  4 Marvel is currently using the Eye of Horus as the logo for its Icon imprint.

  5 W. M. Flinders Petrie, The Making of Egypt (London: Macmillan, 1939), p. 77.

  6 See Paul Kriwaczek, In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas that Changed the World (New York: Knopf, 2002).

  7 See Alice A. Bailey, The Labours of Hercules: An Astrological Interpretation (New York: Lu
cis Pub, 2000). Labor IV - Part 2. Also Storm, Dunlop, Collins Atlas of the Night (New York: Harper Collins, 2005), p. 66.

  CHAPTER 5

  AN EMPIRE OF THE MIND

  In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution powered a rapid expansion of the British Empire under Queen Victoria, as indigenous spears and swords were overcome by mechanized firepower. England's imperial reach was such that their motto became “The Sun never sets on the British Empire.” The common British citizen didn't benefit greatly from this imperial expansion, however. Conquered nations were difficult to keep conquered, and the spilling of British blood was needed to hold faraway protectorates. Military recruiters enticed men with the promise of exotic delights in balmy lands. This had a particular appeal for the working classes trapped in the cold, rainy, dirty, and repressed British Isles.

  THE FRUITS OF EMPIRE

  Even if it didn't always benefit its citizens financially, Western imperialism bore fruit in the looted cultural treasures brought home to museums and universities. For along with colonialism came a relentless, worldwide campaign of archaeological exploration. Discoveries in Egypt rekindled an interest in Egyptian mysticism, particularly in Britain and France. One of the most important Egyptologists, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942), was responsible for excavations at sites like Abydos and Amarna. Petrie discovered the “Merneptah Stele,” an account of the military conquests of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who ruled in the 14th century B.C.E. This stele is called the “Israel Stele” because it is the earliest known text to mention the kingdom of Israel.8 Another famous Egyptologist was Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (1857–1934), who is responsible for many of the translations of ancient Egyptian texts still in print today, including The Papyrus of Ani, better known as The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Budge also wrote extensively on Egyptian religion, influencing writers like William Butler Yeats and James Joyce, as well as occult groups seeking to revive the Egyptian mystery religions. Sir James Frazer drew extensively on Budge's work in his landmark work on mythology, The Golden Bough.