Fantastically Terrible Character or Creature: Little Snow White 

The Fantastically Terrible Character or Creature this week is “immortality”. Or more specifically, 3 mythological ways to become immortal. But as you’ll see, it never works out.

1. You can anger a Greek god and be punished for eternity. Not the best way to spend forever, but it was true for the likes of Sisyphus stuck rolling that boulder up a hill every day, only to have it roll back down every night. There was also King Ixion who was punished by being strapped to a flaming wheel. And of course, Atlas, holding up the heavens until the end of time.

2. In Japanese mythology, you can eat a mermaid-like creature known as a ningyo. I say mermaid-like because it’s a cross between a monkey and a carp. In one legend, a girl ate ningyo meat that her father accidentally brought home. Unfortunately, her immortality was a curse. After seeing husbands and children die of old age while she remained. To relieve her sadness, she devoted her life to Buddha and became a nun. Perhaps because of her holiness, she was finally  allowed to die at the age of 800.

3. Enoch is a biblical figure that is a descendant of Adam and lived before the Great Flood and Noah. Enoch is only mentioned twice in the Bible: in Genesis 5:18-24 and Hebrews 11:5. It says Enoch lived for 365 years before he was taken by God. If you think that’s a long time, hang on to your hat. His son Methuselah lived to be 969! (Genesis 5:21). After Methuselah was born, Genesis says that Enoch “walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him” (Gen 5:21–24). This is interpreted to mean that God was pleased with Enoch, spared him death and allowed him to enter heaven alive. In other words, immortality.

If you ever wondered what happens after immortality, we can take a look at the Book of Enoch, especially 3 Enoch.

“These recount how Enoch was taken up to Heaven and was appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures, chief of the archangels, and the immediate attendant on the Throne of God. He was subsequently taught all secrets and mysteries and, with all the angels at his back, fulfills of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God, executing His decrees. Much esoteric literature like the 3 Enoch identifies Enoch as the Metatron, the angel which communicates God’s word. In consequence, Enoch was seen, by this literature, and the Rabbinic kabbalah of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated God’s revelation to Moses, in particular, the dictator of the Book of Jubilees.” [read more…]