In what follows C.W. shares her thoughts on Matt Dembicki's Trickster:
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While reading Matt Dembicki's Trickster, I could not help but draw some comparisons between the tricksters of Native American folklore and the heroes of ancient Greek mythology. The most notable stories would be “How the Alligator Got His Brown, Scaly Skin” (123-136) and “When Coyote Decided to Get Married” (149-160), which revolved around collectivist ideas such as sharing your possessions or that one's incompetence leads to the downfall of the entire group. Both stories involve morals that are precedent in Greek myths, namely the concepts of hospitality and deceit. When reading “Alligator,” the first thing that came to my mind was xenos, which can mean anything from “foreigner” to “guest” to “friend,” depending on the context and how it is used. Ancient Greek society stressed upon the ideas of hospitality, and if one was inhospitable to a guest, they could count on Zeus, considered the God of xenos, to punish them. In the story of “How the Alligator Got His Brown, Scaly Skin,” Alligator gets burned by burning wood when he does not let other animals drink from his pond. Since the pond is technically his home (that is where alligators live after all), he's not being a very good host. Similarly, when Odysseus and his crew mates arrive at the cave of Polyphemus, a cyclops, Polyphemus reacts by eating a few of Odysseus's men—not exactly a hospitable act. Odysseus gets revenge by blinding Polyphemus with a hot spear of wood. Both stories show instances of characters not being hospitable to their xenoi, or guests. They can also be seen as a warning to not be selfish with your own possessions. Since many Native American tribes are collectivist societies, this makes sense. (Collectivist societies stress the importance of putting the
collective group above oneself.) Clearly, as a group-oriented people, Native Americans must learn to share their resources. Thus, stories about unfriendly hosts such as Alligator and Polyphemus could be seen as showcases of what happens when you try to stray away from collectivism (or in Greece's case, hospitality). (Although since ancient Greece was actually an individualistic society, the fact that their culture was so “guest”-based is surprising.)
“When Coyote Decided to Get Married” also depicts an interesting moral. When a family presents their daughter to Coyote, he is furious that they brought an “unpure” woman to him. Even though the family had no idea their daughter lied about being a virgin, Coyote punishes her family and all of the other families that were waiting on him by turning them into stone pillars. The daughter's deceit leads to everyone being punished. The Greeks have a similar moral, where one person's lie leads to the punishment of the whole group. In one Greek myth, a man named Tantalus attempts to deceive the Gods by serving them his son, Pelops. The Gods quickly realize this deceit and Tantalus is punished for his terrible deed. However, it does not end there. There are three big taboos one should never commit in ancient Greek society (or any society, for that matter). One of which, happens to be infanticide. Anyone who commits a taboo will be cursed. Thus, Tantalus and all of Tantalus's descendents end up dying terrible or dishonorable deaths (usually by murder). Tantalus's children had nothing to do with the death of Pelops, but they were cursed anyway. Similarly, in “How the Alligator Got His Brown, Scaly Skin” the other families had no part in that one woman's deceit, yet everyone was turned into stone. This could thus be seen as a moral supporting a collectivist society, teaching that one's deceit leads to the downfall of the entire group.
Although anyone can point to a story and compare it to another, the similarities between Native Americans and Greeks do not just end with folklore and mythology. Although ancient Greece was considered an individualistic society, with its emphasis on heroic deeds and the importance of a single individual, its beliefs were also highly collectivist. Both Native Americans and ancient Greeks believed in the importance of the group, namely with the ideas of xenos and collective punishment.
I enjoyed reading your post connecting morals and stories found in Greek mythology to the Trickster tales. It's very interesting that these two very different cultures depict similar morals through very different stories.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the foil between the Odyssey and How the Alligator got his Brown Scaly Skin, I agree that while there is some form of breach of hospitality that pervades through both of the stories, there is still a difference between what the Native American Trickster tale teaches versus the Greek Mythology. In How the Alligator got his Brown Scaly Skin, I feel that alligator does not quite own the land nor the pond, so he is neither a host nor does he have the right to claim that land as his. I saw it as more of a warning to not be overly greedy and take things that are not yours. In the Odyssey, Oedipus does walk into the giant's home uninvited and takes the giant's sheep without permission when they obviously knew that it was someone's dwelling. Perhaps in Greek culture it is normal for people to walk into other people's houses uninvited and still be received warmly by the hosts, but in many cultures, including ours and possibly Native American culture, invading someone's house is not looked upon kindly. In the Alligator story, I feel that there is definitely more of an emphasis placed on the idea of nature as a shared resource versus Alligator's property, while in the Oedipus story there is the idea of not transgressing upon property as well as the idea of sharing resources and being a good host. However despite these differences in the stories, both of these stories point to the theme of sharing and giving to others. I really like your last point about all life as being a part of a group that helps each other out. In both of the stories, both the Alligator and the giant refused to let others use or share a resource that they had an advantage over and that led to their ultimate downfall. The collective morals that I drew from the foiling of these two stories is to not be greedy, not take or possess more than you can use and to always share your resources.