The Fisher King
Great Britain- fisher king
The story of the Fisher King is not necessarily the story of one particular king and is often tied into the quest for the Holy Grail. The theme usually involves a kingdom in the throes of a serious problem—sometimes it’s a financial problem, sometimes the land is too barren to grow crops, and sometimes a disease has ravaged the people of the land. The king himself, in these legends, is also ill or weakened and it is suggested that the two problems are inextricably intertwined. The king hardly has the power to fix the problem himself, but is instead stuck waiting for a knight in shining armor to come to the rescue. The knight may find some relic—such as a grail—and use that to fix the problem, or he may need to discuss something with the king in just the right way. This theme has been used heavily in Arthurian legend. In some forms of the tale, King Arthur didn’t really want his knights running off on a quest to find the Grail because he believed that sending your knights far away from the kingdom they need to defend is generally a bad idea. However, due to being afflicted by the Fisher King malady, he sends them off with his blessing to find the cure and thus save all those who depend on him. But although it’s used widely in Arthurian legend, the tale of the Fisher King is not unique to those stories and could just be an allegory for government in general. If the government is not well, the people will not be either, and vice versa.
Yayati
India- yayati
The story of King Yayati comes from Indian mythology, and it starts with the age-old problem of infidelity. Yayati was married to a woman named Devayani and things seemed to be going well until a former princess named Smarmistha became a maid at their house. She convinced the king to wed her as his second wife, and before long they had several children, all kept completely secret from Yayati’s first wife. When Devayani discovered the children, she told her father, who cursed the king for his unfaithfulness by turning him into an old man. Devayani’s father soon became wracked with guilt for the severity of the curse, but it was too late—he was unable to reverse the effects. So Devayani’s father gave Yayati another chance. According to the magic of the curse, if one of Yayati’s children was willing, they could exchange their youth for their father’s old age. Most of his children rejected his request, but finally his son Puru agreed to do so out of love for his father. Puru quickly became an old man, and Yayati was blessed with as much youth as he wanted. However, he didn’t find it satisfying. Before long, he realized that no matter how many carnal pleasures he could enjoy as a young man, he would never truly feel fulfilled. Realizing that he had made a terrible mistake, he returned to his kingdom and gave his youth back to his youngest son. Knowing that Puru had been the most loyal and wisest of his children, he made him king and retired into the forest to meditate for his remaining years.
Hotu Matu’a
Polynesia- matua
According to the legends passed on by word of mouth, there was once a great tribal chieftain named Hotu Matu’a, who lived in a place called Kiva. While there are many variations to the legend, they all suggest that the tribe was defeated in battle and very quickly needed to find a new place to live. The king’s tattooist had a dream of a far-off island that was perfect for them, and that was where they set sail to. In some versions, the king sends scouts out in canoes first, but in every case the entire tribe eventually fills their canoes with food, seeds, small livestock, tablets for writing, and all the supplies they would need to begin their new lives. The journey takes them 120 days, after which they finally find a beach on which to bring their canoes ashore. The island in the legend is what is now Easter Island and is known for the gigantic head statues that litter its beaches. The story of Hatu Matu’a and his people states that the building of the giant heads—called Moai—was very ritualistic in nature and essentially a religious practice. Upon his deathbed, the king divided the land between his sons, who all became great chieftains in their own right. The people believed that the chieftains had supernatural qualities and that carving a giant head in their likeness would help the people retain that power, which would bless them with good harvests and fertility.
Dushyanta
India
Dushyanta was an important king in Indian mythological traditions, but his story cannot be told without first recounting the origins of his bride, Shakantula. A great king named Kaushika was trying to achieve a form of spiritual transcendence by giving up his worldly life, but Indra (king of the gods, in Hinduism) was threatened by his quest and sent a beautiful woman named Menaka to distract him from his goal. Indra’s plan worked and the two soon had a daughter named Shakantula, but they unfortunately abandoned her as an infant. The young girl was adopted by a wise old sage named Kanva and raised in his humble shack in the woods.One day, when the girl had become much older, the king Dushyanta was hunting in the woods and came upon her abode. Dushyanta quickly fell in love with the young woman and asked her to marry him. Unfortunately, her adopted father was not at home and she wanted his blessing for the wedding. The king managed to convince her to go ahead with the marriage by telling her that they could use the trees as witnesses to the union. After the wedding, the king claimed that he would not feel right taking her without first talking to her father, so he left her (although he stuck around long enough to get her pregnant). The king never returned, and eventually the family gave up on him ever making good on his word. They named the boy Bharata and went on with their lives.But as the boy grew, he began asking about his father, and Shakantula finally ventured out of the forest to find the king. When she found and confronted Dushyanta, though, he pretended not to know her. When she told him that their witnesses had been the trees, he and his court scorned her words. As she was about to leave angrily, the sky tore open and the voice of one of the gods told Dushyanta to take responsibility for his son and the wife he had married. Not wanting to anger a divine power, the king finally accepted Shakantula and Bharata as his own.
Breogan
Ireland- mirror
The story of King Breogan begins with a bit of magic. Wishing to see to every corner of his realm, the king reconstructed the tower of Hercules. A high tower is a great vantage point for seeing distant places, but Breogan burned with the desire to see even farther. As luck would have it, he chanced upon a magic mirror that let him see far beyond the borders of his kingdom. The legends say that Ith, the son of Breogan, looked through the mirror and was able to make out the distant coast of Ireland. As he continued to gaze upon the land, he became more and more enamored with it, and eventually he decided to set out on an expedition of conquest. He went out with a fleet of seven ships, but legend is unclear as to what happened to him after that. Some believe that his own men mutinied and killed him, while other stories say that his ships were destroyed by a storm. All the legends agree, though, that Ith and his men were not seen again until their bodies washed up on the shores of Breogan’s empire. Angered by the death of his son, the great king gathered 36 different chieftains and went on to invade Ireland.
Sexual Repression Of Roman
The Vatican is a huge fan of classical Roman art, collecting hundreds of statues with one minor adjustment made to them: hiding their penises. The blatant sexual image was deemed inappropriate for display in a holy place, so each was covered with a fig leaf. According to a widely repeated urban legend, the Vatican went a step further and actually physically removed the offending phalluses. This tale has led some to even claim that the Vatican has a secret room in their vast complex solely devoted to the storage of these ancient erections.
Genghis Khan
Mongols. We know them, we love them, and it just so happens that many of us may be related to their greatest leader. A recent study of DNA revealed that a surprisingly high percentage of men may share a common genetic root in Genghis Khan. According to some estimates, 1 out of every 200 men is a descendant of the great Khan. That’s a whopping 16 million people. While this seems unbelievable, the 13th-century gene pool was much smaller than today’s, and the Mongol king seemed to spend most of his time having sex with lots of different women. Historians have no definite number as to how many children Genghis fathered in his lifetime. Some estimate hundreds. Others even give figures in the thousands. Only the four children birthed by his wife have been well documented because they were the only ones seen as his true heirs, and they certainly did their part to spread Mongol DNA. The Khan’s eldest son, Tushi, had 40 legitimate sons and possibly many more illegitimate children who missed the headcount. Kublai Khan, Genghis’s grandson, had 22 legitimate sons by his wives and supposedly added 30 women to his harem every year. With such numbers, it’s easier to see how 16 million people could be descended from this one man.
