The Romance of Reuben and Penina

Hey guys!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

This week I'm wrapping up my series on Jewish folklore with a special tale.

There's a story in Jewish folklore about a challenge between King Solomon - the wisest of Israel's kings - and the Queen of Sheba.  The Queen was a frequent guest of Solomon's, and she loved to question him and put his beliefs to the test.

One day Solomon was explaining that God has a perfect match for everyone - a marriage made in Heaven, as it were.  The Queen took issue with this, insisting that there were some circumstances wherein a person could not possibly find a mate.  She proposed a test, and Solomon agreed to her terms.  Together they would find an unmarried young woman.  She would be imprisoned in a tree on a deserted island for five years.  If, at the end of that time, God had found her a husband, the Queen of Sheba would believe that Solomon had spoken the truth.

The two royals walked through Jerusalem, looking for the perfect candidate.  At last they decided upon a lovely maiden named Penina.  Solomon and the Queen accompanied her to her home, where Solomon arranged to hire her for five years.  He paid her parents well for her employment, and then shipped Penina off to an isolated island.

Penina's home on the island was a single room inside a hollowed out tree trunk.  The room had a window - though it was too small for her to fit through - and a door that was sealed and locked from the outside.  Her tiny house had a loom for weaving and musical instruments to make her time there more pleasant.  Penina was not thrilled by her temporary exile, but she did resolved to do her best to bear it with good cheer.

Now, in this story King Solomon is able to speak with birds.  Every day he sent one to pass supplies through the window to Penina.  The birds reported to him of her doings, allowing Solomon to keep an eye on her from a distance.

Some time passed, and a ship happened to be sailing somewhat near the island.  The sea was calm that day, so the ship's captain went below to take a nap, leaving his son Reuben to steer the ship.  For a brief time all was well, but then a violent storm rose up out of nowhere!  Reuben did his best to control the ship, but a towering wave swept over it and knocked him into the water.  The young man managed to cling to a plank of wood, but he could do nothing but hold on as the waves carried him away from his father's vessel.

Can you guess where he wound up?

The storm carried Reuben to the banks of a strange island, where he was deposited on the sand.  Exhausted, Reuben nonetheless went on a search for food and water.  There was fresh fruit and spring water in abundance, so Reuben was able to sustain himself.

After several days the young man had explored nearly all of the island.  An enormous tree near its center had piqued his interested, and Reuben was determined to climb it.  (What else are you going to do on a deserted island?  After all, he didn't have a volleyball named Wilson!)  When he approached the tree he noticed something quite curious.  A bird had approached the foliage, laden down with a basket of fruit and other supplies.

As Reuben watched, the bird perched near a small opening carved into the tree trunk.  A hand reached through the opening and took the basket, and the bird flew away.

Reuben was amazed by this.  For several days he watched the window.  Every day at the same time the bird arrived with supplies.  Reassured at last that the bird only came once a day, Reuben approached the window right after it had flown away.  He climbed the tree and looked through the hole - and found a beautiful face looking back at him!

Penina was shocked to discover that she had company on the island.  The two struck up a conversation, and soon found that they liked one another very much.  They talked all day and all night, and then Reuben carved the window a little wider and climbed in side.  They were in love.

The birds reported all of this to King Solomon, who smiled and arranged for enough food for two to be sent to the island every day.

Time passed, and eventually Reuben and Penina married.  The birds told King Solomon of this, and he sent a wedding feast for the couple.  Despite having arguably won the test by the Queen of Sheba, Solomon did not tell her of the events on the island...at least, not yet.

Nine months after the wedding a child was born to Penina and Reuben.  They named her Sheba in honor of the woman who had brought them together.

When King Solomon heard the news he was delighted.  As it happened, his son was getting married soon and a huge feast was planned.  The Queen of Sheba would be attending, and the King wanted to surprise her.  Solomon arranged for Reuben and Penina to be taken from the island and brought to the feast.

When the couple arrived at the port the first thing Reuben saw was a picture of a handsome man.  He inquired after it, and was told that the man was the son of a sea captain.  He had been lost during a voyage, and though is father had searched for many days he could not find him.  Upon reaching town the captain had hung up pictures of his son in the hopes that someone would recognize him and reunite them.

Reuben began to cry, realizing that he was the man in the picture.

The group began to travel inland.  In a few days Penina, Reuben, and Sheba had arrived and Jerusalem.  King Solomon greeted them joyfully.  Upon hearing of Reuben's father the King sent for him, along with Penina's parents.  A tearful reunion followed, and the families enjoyed themselves immensely at the wedding feast.

As for the Queen of Sheba - she could not argue with the image of Reuben and Penina holding their baby daughter.  The Queen admitted that she had lost he wager, and that Solomon was right: God really does have a match for everyone.

I really love this story.  I think its message is charming and romantic.  I also adore the similarities to the story of Rapunzel.  What did you guys think?

I wish you all a happy New Year!  I'll see you in 2016 with a new series of posts!

Hanukkah: The Festival of Lights

Hey guys, I hope you all had a wonderful week!  I'm super happy - the semester is almost over, and this Friday is STAR WARS!!!!!!

(Not that I'm excited or anything.)

Ahem.  Anyway, on with the post!  The Jewish people celebrate several festivals throughout the year.  Last week we talked about the festival of Purim; this week, in keeping with the season, we're going to talk about Hanukkah.

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is celebrated in December.  I think most people know at least that much about the holiday.  Menorahs, the eight-branched candleholders used in the festival, may also be familiar to some.

But how many of us know the history behind the holiday, or the reason for the candles?  I know I didn't until I took an Old Testament class last year.  I found the story of the origins of Hanukkah beautiful, and I wanted to share it with you.

The story of Hanukkah takes place after the end of the book of Isaiah.  In the Christian Bible, Isaiah is the last book of what Christians call the Old Testament.  Following Isaiah is the period of several hundred years before the next book in the Christian Bible - the gospel of Matthew.  This is quite a large time gap, with nothing there to fill in the blanks.

The Jewish Bible ends at Isaiah, but they have several writings to fill in the centuries-long period that follows.  These writings are not actually part of the Hebrew Bible, but are considered historical instead of sacred.  Their stories are commonly taught in synagogues, for they focus on a part of history that is particularly important to the Jews.

The story of the origins of Hanukkah is contained in the books of 1st and 2nd Maccabee.  Its events take place between 200-150BC, when Greece took over Jewish lands and attempted to outlaw their religion.

The Greek leader in charge of this expansion was named Antiochus; texts more commonly refer to him as Antiochus Epiphanes.  "Epiphanes" translates to "God Manifest", and it was a title Antiochus had given to himself.

Yeah.  He was slightly full of himself.

Antiochus hated the Jews because they refused to acknowledge the Greek gods.  As revenge, he passed laws forbidding the Jews from practicing their faith.  One law forbade the Jewish custom of circumcision, something their beliefs required of them.  Another set a death sentence for any Jew found worshipping their God.

Then Antiochus did something truly horrific: he stormed the Temple of Jerusalem and desecrated it.  He raised a statue of Zeus within the Temple, and sacrificed a pig upon its altar.  These acts were known as the Abomination of Desolation.

I don't know how familiar you guys are with the Jewish religion, so I'd like to explain why these acts were so awful.  One of the 10 Commandments given by the Hebrew God is "You shall have no other God before me."  Raising a statue of a heathen god within God's own Temple was a huge violation of that commandment.

Certain foods are considered unclean in the Jewish faith.  Eating them is forbidden.  This includes anything with cloven hooves - including pigs.  The act of sacrificing an unclean animal upon the Temple's altar made the entire Temple unclean.  No additional sacrifices could be made to God, because they would be tainted and unpure.  At the time, animal sacrifice was a huge part of the Jewish faith - and it had to be done at that Temple.  Antiochus' act made that nigh impossible.

One of the books I have on the subject calls this act "abhorrent".  The word does not do the deed justice.

For some Jews, this was the last straw.  Instead of subduing them, it made them rise up.

In a village near Jerusalem there lived an old priest named Mattathias.  His temper was at the breaking point, and it snapped completely when a group of Greek soldiers attempted to force him to make sacrifices to the Greek gods.  He rose up and killed the soldiers, then escaped into the country with his five sons.

(These sons were called the Maccabees, commonly translated as "hammer".  It is from them that the books of Maccabee get their names, along with the Maccabean revolution I'm about to talk about.)

Jews began to flock to Mattathias, who led them in rebellion against the Greeks.  The Jewish army was small, but its members knew the land well.  They used their knowledge of the area to make hit-and-run attacks against the larger forces of the Greeks.  The tactic was quite successful.

Eventually Mattathias died of his age and his son Judas took his place.  Under his leadership Jews who had fled when the Greek army first came returned to take up arms.  Judas was a genius at military strategies; after many defeats Antiochus began to consider the Jews a serious threat.

Antiochus raised an army of tens of thousands to crush the Jewish rebellion.  Several generals commanded this army, and one of them led a few thousand men to make a surprise attack on the Jewish camp.

Judas got wind of this before it happened and moved his army.  Instead of running, he headed straight for the main part of Antiochus' army, hoping to catch them unawares.  The plan worked beautifully - after all, the Greeks expected Judas and his army to be under attack!  Though vastly outnumbered, the element of surprise left the Jews victorious and sent the unprepared Greek army fleeing.

When the general who had planned to ambush Judas' forces returned to camp his found it in ruins.  Realizing that the Jews had bested his allies, the general retreated with is remaining soldiers.

With no forces left to oppose them, Judas and his men made for Jerusalem.  They retook the city and began to ritually cleanse the Temple - a process that would be quite lengthy and difficult.  Eventually the work was completed, and Judas began to rededicate the Temple to God.

After he had lighted the menorah Judas made a nasty discovery.  Once lit, the menorah was supposed to stay aflame.  This was a problem, because here was only one jar of oil left - and that was only enough for the light to burn for one day!  It would take eight days to prepare more oil.

There was nothing the Jews could do.

And then...a miracle occurred.

The oil that was only enough for one day somehow kept the lights burning for eight days.  It was enough time for more oil to be prepared.  The menorah was able to stay lit.

And so it is that the Jews celebrate Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights - a festival which revolves around the lighting of a menorah for eight days.

Whether you guys celebrate Hanukkah or are just reading this post because you were curious, I hope you have a happy Hanukkah, since today is the last day of the holiday this year.  And, given the approaching movie, I'll end with this picture:

Have a great week!

Esther and the Festival of Purim

Hey guys!  My last post was an Intro to Jewish Folktales.  Following in that vein, today I'm going to be talking about the Jewish folk hero named Esther.

The Jewish people have quite a few festivals that they celebrate every year.  These festivals are to commemorate special events in the history of the Jews.  One such celebration, the Festival of Purim, remembers the story of a girl named Esther and the way she saved her people from destruction.  The full tale can be read in the Book of Esther (interestingly the only book in the Bible to not mention God) or in the movie One Night with the King [for those of you who prefer visuals over text (or just like John Rhys-Davies)], but I'll give you a condensed version.

The story goes like so:

There was once a Persian king named Ahasuerus.  (This king has been historically identified with Xerxes I - does the name sound familiar?  A certain movie involving three hundred Spartans might explain why...)

King Ahasuerus had a beautiful wife, Queen Vashti.  At that time men and women often dined separately from one another.  During a party with some friends (and after a few drinks) Ahasuerus began to boast of Vashti's beauty.  His friends wanted to see her looks for themselves, so Ahasuerus sent a messenger commanding the queen to make herself beautiful and come to him.

When the message reached Vashti she was less than pleased to be told to parade her looks before the king's guests like a common dancing girl.  To make a long story short, she refused to come before the king.  He was frustrated by this, and his guests were worried that their own wives might decide that they could refuse their husbands if the queen set a precedent for it, so Ahasuerus dismissed Vashti.

Of course, this left the king without a queen - and that could not be.  All of the beautiful maidens in the land were summoned so that the king could choose a new bride from amongst them.  One of these women was a girl named Esther, born Hadassah.  Esther had been orphaned and fostered by her cousin Mordecai.  Mordecai and Esther were both Jewish, though Esther kept this fact hidden from the king.  The girl was very beautiful, and she was chosen to be the new queen.

Around this time Mordecai overheard two members of the palace plotting to kill Ahasuerus.  He sent a message to Esther, who warned the king, and in so doing saved Ahasuerus' life.  The event was recorded with credit going to Mordecai, but the king forgot to reward the Jew.

Now, Ahasuerus had an advisor - a vizier - named Haman. (Of course he would be a vizier!  So many of the best villains are!)  Haman was passing through the town outside the castle walls one day, and everyone fell before him and bowed...except for one man.  That man was Mordecai.  Mordecai, as a Jew, did not wish to show obeisance to a man who was descended from the enemies of the Jews.

Haman was furious at this lack of respect, and rushed to Ahasuerus.  He told the king that there was a culture who refused to bow to their betters and serve them, and that they must be disposed of to preserve the king's reign.  Ahasuerus granted Haman permission to kill the Jews.  The vizier cast lots to determine the day on which the extermination would take place.  It is from the Jewish word for lot - "purim" - that the name of the festival comes from.

Bans were posted announcing the date that the extermination was to take place.  Mordecai tore his clothes and rubbed his face with ash (a sign of mourning) when he saw the signs.  He took the news to Esther and begged her to use her influence with the king to try and stop the genocide that was scheduled - but the queen was afraid.  There was a rule in the court that no one could approach the king without permission on pain of death.  She did not want to lose her life by attempting to speak to Ahasuerus.

Despite her fear, Esther was loyal to her people.  She asked Mordecai to have the Jews fast for three days and pray for her.  At the end of these three days Esther approached Ahasuerus.  To her relief, he extended his rod of command upon seeing her approach - a sign that he would allow her to speak to him, and would not take her life as punishment.

Esther invited the king and Haman to come to a banquet she had prepared.  They came and dined, and she extended a similar invitation for the following night.  After dinner Ahasuerus found himself unable to sleep.  He ordered a servant to read documents of the court to him, and in so doing heard of Mordecai's previous efforts to save the king from assassination.  The king realized that he had never rewarded Mordecai for his actions.

The following morning Haman entered the king's chambers in a great mood.  He was so sure of Mordecai's coming destruction that he had constructed a gallows in front of his home from which to hang the Jew.  As Haman came before Ahasuerus the king asked him how the vizier would honor a man who had aided the king.  Thinking that Ahasuerus was speaking of Haman, the man proudly answered that he would have the savior dressed in one of the king's robes and paraded through the city for all to see.  Haman was horrified when Ahasuerus ordered him to honor Mordecai in this way!

That night Ahasuerus and a seething Haman went to Esther's dinner.  At the second banquet Esther told the king that she was a Jew, and that Haman was seeking to end her life and the lives of her people.  Ahasuerus stepped outside to think, and Haman flung himself before Esther and begged for his life.  Unfortunately, Ahasuerus walked back in at this moment and thought that Haman was attacking the queen.  Furious, the king ordered Haman killed - and, when he was informed that Haman had a gallows ready-made outside his home, ordered him hung there.

I believe that's what is called irony, folks.

The story ends on a happy note.  Unable to get rid of a rule he had already created, Ahasuerus instead issued a new proclamation that gave the Jews the right to defend themselves on the designated day of their destruction.  The Jews survived, and many Persians who attempted to kill them - including some of Haman's family - were killed instead.  It is this survival, and the victory over their enemies, that Jews today still celebrate in March during the Festival of Purim.

I'll end my post there - I hope you guys enjoyed it!  As I said in my last post, next week I'll be talking about Hanukkah.  I'm very excited, and I hope you'll like what I have written!  What did you think of the story of Esther?

Intro to Jewish Folktales

Hey guys! For those of you who celebrate, I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, and that you survived the frenzy of Black Friday. Happy Cyber Monday, by the way! The Kindle version of Hammerfall is on sale for today only; you can check it out here.

Today we're taking a look at the rich and complex stories told by the Jewish people. Their faith, known as Judaism, is often simplified when talked about as being “just the Old Testament”. In reality, Judaism is far more than their 24 books that make up what Christians term the Old Testament (which is actually 39 books for Protestants, because they split several of the books from the Hebrew Bible into smaller books). Let's take a look at some of the different writings found in Judaisim.

The 24 books I mentioned above form what is called the Tanakh.

 

(If you guys have never seen written Aramaic...well, it is gorgeous, as you can see above.)

The first five books of this series of writings are termed the Torah, or the Pentateuch. In addition to these core tenants of their faith, Jews have an enormous amount of literature that they consider central to their religion. These writings most notably include laws, but also can be songs, proverbs, and stories. As with many old religions, all of the books of Judaism began as oral traditions. They were not recorded for many centuries.

Now, I do not feel I have studied enough of religion to tell you about the Jewish faith. The series of posts I have planned aren't going to talk about the Jewish God, called Yahweh, or their prophecies, or anything central to Judaism. I focus on mythology, so talking about religions that are still widely practiced today is a little difficult for me. Instead, I plan on talking about the stories found in Jewish literature. Because of this I have dubbed this series of posts “Jewish Folktales”, because they are about the tales those folks tell (see what I did there?).

Next week I'll be talking about the story of Esther, one of the strong women found in the Tanakh. Her actions and bravery led to the celebration of what is called Purim – a festival that is still celebrated in modern times. Since Monday the 14^th is the last day of Hanukkah this year, I plan to talk about the origins of that holiday on that day. After that I have a special post planned, and then we'll hop back into Jewish folktale with the beautiful story of Reuben and Penina to round out the year.

 

I'm really excited for this, guys! I think the stories are absolutely lovely, and there's such a wide variety for me to choose from. I hope you're looking forward to this as well. I'll see you guys next week!

Mythology in Pop Culture

Hey guys! So tomorrow I'm going to be doing a panel on mythology at my local community college. I needed to type up all of my notes for it, and it struck me as I was doing so that my presentation would make a pretty good blog post. Because of that, you get to read what I'm talking about tomorrow – which is the way that mythology influences pop culture.

Let's start by taking a look at comics, shall we?

Obviously, there's Thor. I wish I could quote Stan Lee and say “ 'nuff said”, but there's actually more to talk about. In both the comics and the myths, Thor is the Norse god of war and storms; Loki is a trickster trying to bring about the downfall of the gods; the Bifrost is a rainbow bridge; and Odin is the king of the gods. Odin is also the god of wisdom. In the myths he has two ravens who fly around the world and tell him everything that they see. One of my favorite parts about Marvel's movie is that in the first Avengers, two ravens fly by when Thor and Loki are arguing – a very nice reference to the original myths!

Although the comics and movie adaptations are awesome, there are quite a few differences between them and the original myths. For one thing, the mythological Thor isn't all that bright. He mostly just wants to hit things with his hammer.

 

Then you have Sif, who is a goddess of fertility and the harvest – she's definitely not a warrior. Perhaps the biggest difference is that Thor and Loki aren't actually brothers! In the myths, Loki is the sworn blood brother of Odin.

Thor may be the most obvious representation of mythology in modern comics, but he's not the only one. Let's move away from him and take a look at the DC comics.

First, you have Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess. Some of her origin stories say that Wonder Woman is the daughter of Zeus, king of the Greek gods and lord of the skies. That's right – Wonder Woman is a demigod.

 

Then you have Superman. His story has close ties to the Christian and Jewish faiths – and those ties were written deliberately. There's a story in the book of Exodus about a baby named Moses. During the time period in which Moses was born, the Pharaoh of Egypt had enslaved the Jewish population. Their numbers kept growing, and the Pharaoh feared revolt, so he ordered all baby boys to be killed. To save Moses, his mother put him in a basket and sent him floating down the river. He was adopted by the Pharaoh's daughter and raised by a family not his own. Eventually, Moses grows up to save his people.

Now let's look at Superman's origin story. He was born on a world that's about to be destroyed. His parents put him in a little space-cradle and sent him away to save his life. The cradle carries him to Earth, where he is raised by an adoptive family. Superman goes on to save the world – many, many times.

(This photo was just too hilarious to not share!)

There's definitely some similarities between the two stories – and, like I said, they were put there deliberately. The writer and artist of the original Superman stories were both Jewish. The character of Superman first appeared around the time of World War II, when Jews were facing horrific persecution. Superman's creators wanted to create a figure of hope for their people, so they wove the story of Moses into the character of Superman. Pretty cool, right?

Let's turn away from comics and take a look at another aspect of popular culture. I'm a huge fan of video games – how about you? Do any of you guys play World of Warcraft?

Mythology has influenced a lot of video games, but WoW is a treasure trove of mythology. I can think of about half a dozen different mythologies that show up in World of Warcraft, and that's just off the top of my head – I'm sure there are a lot more. One of those mythologies appears as soon as you go to make a character – the druid.

 

Druids have their origins as sort of priests in Celtic mythology. In the myths they have close ties to nature, and are often depicted as shapeshifters. In various stories druids turn into wolves, bears, boars, swans, and a myriad of other things.

In World of Warcraft the druid class' powers are tied to nature – sun, moon, and plants. Like their mythological counterparts, druids are shapeshifters. These are a few of their various forms.

 

 

Another mythological influence in WoW can be seen heavily in the race of the Trolls. The religion and culture of the Trolls are based on myths from Latin America. An area in WoW called Zul'Drak provides the best example of this. Take a look at the architecture: This is a temple in Zul'Drak.

 

This is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, found in the Aztec city of Teotihuacan.

 

 

One of the most prevalent figures in Latin American mythology is the god Quetzalcoatl. He appears in the pantheons of several different Latin American cultures, including the Aztec. Quetzalcoatl translates to “the plumed serpent”, meaning a snake covered in feathers.

 

 

Creatures that match this description appear in many places in WoW.

 

 

Let's travel from Zul'Drak and Latin America to the Storm Peaks and the Norse.

 

 

This zone is perhaps the most obvious portrayal of mythology in World of Warcraft – they barely even changed the names! First you have the val'kyr, servants of the Lich King who raise the dead to join his evil army. In Norse mythology the valkyrie are choosers of the slain. They raise worthy dead warriors to a hall called Valhalla, where they have a huge drinking party until the end of days.

Perhaps the most amusing nod to mythology in this zone are the characters of Loken and Thorim. Loken is a nefarious trickster trying to bring down Thorim. Thorim has a hammer named Krolmir.

 

(Thorim with Krolmir)

 (Thor with Mjolnir)

Hmm.

I'd like to look at another genre influenced by mythology: Fairy tales.

How many of you have seen or read Sleeping Beauty? You know the story: a girl is cursed and falls into a 100-year sleep; a wall of roses grows up around her; a dashing prince finds her and wakes her up with a kiss.

Now let me tell you the story that I think inspired Sleeping Beauty – an old Norse saga called the Story of Sigurd.

I mentioned valkyries when I was talking about WoW. In addition to being choosers of the slain, valkyries were also able to influence the outcomes of mortal battles. When the Story of Sigurd begins, a young valkyrie named Brynnhilda has been ordered by Odin, king of the gods, to let one specific side win a battle. Instead, she allows the other side to win.

Not a good mistake to make when your boss is king of the gods.

To punish Brynnhilda, Odin locks her away in a castle and curses her to sleep until a man comes along and wakes her up. She will then marry this man. Odin does take some pity on Brynnhilda – he raises a wall of fire around the castle, so that only a truly brave man will be able to reach her.

That's right. Odin is Maleficent.

 

 

(They even have matching birds!) 

Brynnhilda is eventually woken up by a man named Sigurd, and the two fall in love. Unfortunately, unlike in Sleeping Beauty, the duo do not live happily ever after. Sigurd is given a potion that makes him forget about Brynnhilda. He marries someone else, and his brother-in-law finds and marries Brynnhilda. The jealous valkyrie talks her husband's brothers into killing Sigurd. She then kills herself by jumping onto Sigurd's funeral pyre.

Yeah, Norse stories aren't really known for their happy endings. If it makes you feel any better, a horse was found missing from the stables and a stablehand said he saw Sigurd and Brynnhilda riding off into the sunset together.

But I digress. The Story of Sigurd differs vastly from Sleeping Beauty in its ending, but the core concepts are pretty darn similar.

 

 

Let's look now at one of my favorite parts of modern pop culture: Star Wars.

Is anyone else totally psyched for the new movie? Because I sure am!

Anyway, Star Wars has some of its roots in Arthurian legend. You have a bunch of knights running around trying to save the galaxy from evil. They help the innocent, protect the weak, and are generally seen as virtuous – at least, until they turn evil themselves. That's pretty similar to King Arthur and his knights, right?

Well, Star Wars also has heavy ties to Buddhism. Let's take a look at the Jedi Code, which states:

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

There is no death, there is the Force.

In Buddhism there is a concept called The Four Noble Truths. These truths state that:

1. There is suffering.
2. Suffering is caused by desire and ignorance.
3. Suffering can be ended by putting aside one's desires.
4. The fourth noble truth details an Eightfold Path to enlightenment, which leads to the end of suffering and desire. This path includes moral conduct, meditation, and wisdom.

I see a lot of Buddhism in the Jedi Code. If you give up emotion, you will not suffer, so you will be at peace. Ignorance can cause suffering, so it follows that knowledge can prevent suffering. Without passion, one will not desire, so one will not suffer from their desires.

So...I guess the Jedi are a sort of Knight/Buddhist monk hybrid?

 

I hope you guys found this interesting! I really love seeing how mythology influences pop culture, and the way that pop culture adapts mythology to suit its own needs. What have you watched (or read, or played, or heard) that you can see mythological ties in?