WHERE IS THE GRAVEYARD OF DEAD GODS? |
H. L. MENCKEN
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Henry Louis Mencken was born on September
12, 1880. He was born and raised in Baltimore,
Maryland. Mencken suffered a cerebral thrombosis
in 1948, from which he never fully recovered,
and died on January 29, 1956 |
What lingering mourner waters their mounds?
There was a time when Jupiter was the king
of the gods, and any man who doubted his
puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and
an ignoramus. But where in all the world
is there a man who worships Jupiter today?
And who of Huitzilopochtli? In one year -
and it is no more than five hundred years
ago - 50,000 youths and maidens were slain
in sacrifice to him. Today, if he is remembered
at all, it is only by some vagrant savage
in the depths of the Mexican forest.
Huitzilopochtli, like many other gods, had
no human father; his mother was a virtuous
widow; he was born of an apparently innocent
flirtation that she carried out with the
sun. When he frowned, his father, the sun,
stood still. When he roared with rage, earthquakes
engulfed whole cities. When he thirsted he
was watered with 10,000 gallons of human
blood. But today Huitzilopochtli is as magnificently
forgotten as Allen G. Thurman. Once the peer
of Allah, Buddha and Wotan, he is now the
peer of Richmond P. Hobson, Alton B. Parker,
Adelina Patti, General Weyler and Tom Sharkey.
Speaking of Huitzilopochtli recalls his brother
Tezcatilpoca. Tezcatilpoca was almost as
powerful; he consumed 25,000 virgins a year.
Lead me to his tomb: I would weep, and hang
a couronne des perles. But who knows where
it is? Or where the grave of Quitzalcoatl
is? Or Xiehtecuthli? Or Centeotl, that sweet
one? Or Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love?
Of Mictlan? Or Xipe? Or all the host of Tzitzimitles?
Where are their bones? Where is the willow
on which they hung their harps? In what forlorn
and unheard-of Hell do they await their resurrection
morn? Who enjoys their residuary estates?
Or that of Dis, whom Caesar found to be the
chief god of the Celts? Of that of Tarves,
the bull? Or that of Moccos, the pig? Or
that of Epona, the mare? Or that of Mullo,
the celestial jackass? There was a time when
the Irish revered all these gods, but today
even the drunkest Irishman laughs at them.
But they have company in oblivion: the Hell
of dead gods is as crowded as the Presbyterian
Hell for babies. Damona is there, and Esus,
and Drunemeton, and Silvana, and Dervones,
and Adsalluta, and Deva, and Belisima, and
Uxellimus, and Borvo, and Grannos, and Mogons.
All mighty gods in their day, worshipped
by millions, full of demands and impositions,
able to bind and loose - all gods of the
first class. Men labored for generations
to build vast temples to them - temples with
stones as large as hay-wagons. The business
of interpreting their whims occupied thousands
of priests, bishops, archbishops. To doubt
them was to die, usually at the stake. Armies
took to the field to defend them against
infidels; villages were burned, women and
children butchered, cattle were driven off.
Yet in the end they all withered and died,
and today there is none so poor to do them
reverence.
What has become of Sutekh, once the high
god of the whole Nile Valley? What has become
of:
Resheph |
Baal |
Anath |
Astarte |
Ashtoreth |
Hadad |
Nebo |
Dagon |
Melek |
Amon-Re |
Ahijah |
Osiris |
Isis |
Osiris |
Ptah |
Molech |
All these were gods of the highest eminence.
Many of them are mentioned with fear and trembling in the Old Testament.
They ranked, five or six thousand years ago, with Yahweh Himself;
the worst of them stood far higher than Thor.
Yet they have all gone down the chute, and with them the following:
Arianrod |
Nuada Argetlam |
Morrigu |
Tagd |
Govannon |
Goibniu |
Gunfled |
Odin |
Dagda |
Ogma |
Ogryvan |
Marzin |
Dea Dia |
Mara |
Iuno Lucina
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Diana of Ephesus |
Saturn
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Robigus |
Furrina
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Pluto |
Cronos
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Vesta |
Engurra
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Zer-panitu |
Belus
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Merodach |
Ubilulu
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Elum |
U-dimmer-an-kia
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Marduk |
U-sab-sib
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Nin |
U-Mersi
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Persephone |
Tammuz
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Istar |
Venus
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Lagas |
Beltis
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Nirig |
Nusku
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En-Mersi |
Aa
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Assur |
Sin
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Beltu |
Apsu
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Kuski-banda |
Elali
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Nin-azu |
Mami
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Qarradu |
Zaraqu
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Ueras |
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Zagaga |
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