five thousand shades of blue

Friday, July 13, 2001

From this page on a fear of Friday the 13thes:

...Thirteen takes us out of wholeness and into the unknown. Twelve is the last year of childhood. Thirteen begins the often difficult teenage years, our first steps toward adulthood. Going back to the Bible, Judas, the thirteenth guest at the Last Supper, ends up betraying Jesus.
...
The number thirteen's association with evil predates Christianity. In ancient Norse mythology, twelve demigods were happily having a banquet in Valhalla when a thirteenth demigod, Loki, appeared. Loki, evil god of deceit, killed Balder, the god of light and beauty.

I knew that in Norse legend Loki killed Baldur -- hell, they did a warped version of the whole story in Xena. I had, however, never heard the part Norse legend that Loki was the "thirteenth demigod" at the "feast". Appearing in such close proximity, it seems to me that the Christian telling of the thirteenth guest being the betrayer sprung directly out of the Norse tale. I mean no disrespect to Christians out there -- but the Bible is not a blow-by-blow telling of what happened at the time. It's not surprising that other effective and popular legends at the time were Christianized and later incorporated into that holy book. Just like Brigid / St. Bridget, and the Persian god Mithra, who was popular among the Roman soldiers:

Mithra, by the way, was born on December 25, of a virgin. His birth was witnessed by shepherds and magicians [magi]. Mithra raised the dead and healed the sick and cast out demons. He returned to heaven at the spring equinox and before doing so had a last supper with his 12 disciples (representing the 12 signs of the zodiac), eating mizd, a piece of bread marked with a cross (an almost universal symbol of the sun). Any of that sound familiar?

I'm wordy today, eh?

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