Inquiry: Obscure Mythology

K

Kiterios

Registered Member
Hello all,
First, before I begin I would like to thank anyone who takes the time to post helpfully on this topic. It is quite important to me and I do appreciate any assistance that is provided.

I am currently working on some mythology research and was wondering if anyone had any leads they could offer.

I am looking for a god, goddess, hero, figure...really anyone in mythology that specialized in change. Specificaly changing people in some way, shape, or form to better them. It could be from any line of mythology, but I have hints that it could be Celtic, Norse, Germanic, Oriental (I know Oriental doesn't fit with the rest of the trend but I have reasons for including it), or Mongol (if there is any...I really don't know).

That's all I have (I know it is woefully little, but that's all I have...or at least all I have that I know how to put into words), I'm looking for leads to begin my search, not debate on the validity of any specific figure, so I beg, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't turn this into an arguement like....every other thread I've read on here (albeit the last time I actually visited sciforms was about 2 years ago).
 
The Greek gods were big on changing people, but usually for the worse rather than the better, because the people dared to challenge them. There are many such stories.
 
Such as:

Tiresias

As a young man, Tiresias found two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. Seven years later, Tiresias did the same thing again and became a man again. A time later, Zeus and Hera asked him which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women and vice versa. Tiresias sided with Zeus. Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy.
 
Change? Read Ovid's Metamorphoses. Daphne/Apollo story typifies

Also, in the Odyssey there is the old man of the sea, Proteus, constantly changing into different animals.
 
The whole baptism mythology associated with the myth of Jesus and his "ressurection" is about change. So much so, that modern christian cults refer to themselves as "born again."

Native American mythology is also about change and entering a liminal state via the VisionQuest when an adolescent becomes a man. African tribes also have similar changes from adolescence to adulthood. The Nuer call it Gar, a ritual that involves ritual scarring of the adolescent's forehead, and living apart from the village for several days in the liminal state from which he emerges a man. I'm not sure of the deity associated with Gar, but with the VisionQuest the deity varies from tribe to tribe.

Often the Coyote and the Buffalo gods are associated. Particularly if the Visionquest involves a sweat ceremony as central to, or a culmination of, the process of renewal, since the sweatlodge itself represents the inside of the buffalo and the glowing red rocks on which water and cedar/sage are sprinkled to create the steam are considered the 'heart' of the Buffalo God.

Gilgamesh is the central hero in the story of the same name that is, essentially, a mythology about change. Gilgamesh, two-thirds god, one-third mortal, befriends Enkidu who undergoes a change from a beastly nature to a demi-god/hero early in the epic. Much about the story is in regard to change, particularly with the story of the flood in one of the final tablets, which is the progenitor for the Noachian Flood myth in Genesis.
 
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