Modern Hawaiians, I am told, are not particularly religious. They will tell you, however, that there is a goddess of fire and volcanos, Pele by name. She lives on Kilauea and from time to time makes the mountain blow its top. That explains a lot as we are finding out. There was a time when it explained everything because, after all, she was a goddess. Things have changed. Pele is no longer a goddess. She has been demoted to a mythological figure, a creation of man’s mind.
The ancient people of Iceland also believed in a god of fire and volcanos. They named him Surtr and he was in charge of making the mountains spew lava. He is no longer a god either, only a mythological fiction of the mind. To be safe, though, maybe the people of Iceland should thank him for supplying them with free hot water.
We must not forget Hephaistos, the ancient Greeks’ mythological god of fire whom the Romans called Vulcan. No need to say more about him. He, too, has been demoted. The last time he was still a god was two thousand years ago when he made Mount Vesuvius erupt.
But things have changed, we think. Mythology makes for a humorous story perhaps, but you cannot take it seriously. At least not when it comes to volcanos. For that we need the truth. I can’t help the feeling, though, that myths are more comforting than truth and so we hang on to Yahweh, a god “at whose touch the mountains smoke” (Psalm 104:32), something we love to recite in churches. Plus ça change, the French say: the more things change, the more everything remains the same.
Maybe not all that much has changed since Pele, Surtr, and Vulcan were at the helm.
© 2018 by Herbert H. Hoffman
Picture credit: Gunnar Gestur, www.demilked.com