Mythology And Archetypes Within Mythology

When dissecting motifs, themes, and archetypes within mythology it is effortless to analyze one select culture, instead of several different cultures simply, because of the fact that same cultures would have more similarities and therefore differences would be pointed out immediately. Almost everything about them is different except for their topic: creation. Although selecting which myth to analyze is what posed to be a challenge as well as comparing their differences. While some myths gave too much detail, others gave too little. At least in my opinion and after a lengthy elimination process I finally chose to compare myths within Hinduism. “The Vishnu Purana” from the creation myth section and “Kali Beheaded” a reading from the feminine divine section. With little knowledge of the culture my plan is to analyze these two myths with the best of my abilities, compare them to what I know about the culture from previous knowledge and find/address and misinterpretations, as well as comparing the two to find similar themes and structures.

Which is a concept where the universe is continuously destroyed and is recreated in cycles. Kali was a deity, a goddess I Indra’s heaven until other jealous beheaded her. Kali’s head was found and placed on a body nearby, although it was not her body. It was the body of a prostitute, filthy of the flesh and probably with an unhappy soul, the complete opposite of Kali. Dishonored and now unclean Kali succumbed to her new environment, and embraced the lifestyle of her “new” body. Since according to the Hindu metaphysics “The universe is comprised of discrete objects that are other than the self,” (Leonard and McClure