Weekly Deity: Bes

Bes is primarily the Egyptian god of childbirth.  He also had a hand in minor demon warding/protection against wicked things and in laughter, song, and dance.

Attributes

This god is usually depicted as a fat and bearded dwarf–very unusual physically for an Egyptian deity who were often tall and slender.  Bes is almost always shown full-on rather than in profile.  He was said to be so ugly that he could frighten away a demon just by looking at it.  He is also sometimes depicted with feline or leonine features.

Mythology and Worship

As a god of childbirth, pregnant women would pray to him and offer him sacrifices of incense or food.  Statues of him would be kept near the pregnant woman’s bed, especially during the actual birthing.  Once the baby was born and growing, it was said that Bes would dance around and sing to the baby, and any time a baby laughed or smiled for no apparent reason it was because of Bes’s antics.

In later worship, Bes was given some healing properties as well, dealing with fertility issues or small, general healings.

Many houses kept statues of Bes near the door, to guard against wicked creatures that caused minor misfortunes.  Just a statue of Bes’ ugly face was enough to frighten these creatures away.

Bes was married to the goddess Beset.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find any examples of myths concerning Bes–the only information available is that of how he was worshiped by the people and what they considered him to be.

Light Side

On the positive side, it seems that Bes is a protector and a helper.  He aids in the difficult task of childbirth and brings laughter and joy to the children.   Without myths to speak to his personality, it’s more difficult to say what his Light side would be, but we can take some guesses based on what we know.  He’s not a trickster, which would be inappropriate for the tasks he has, but he is very light-hearted when dealing with children, kind and stubborn when aiding in childbirth, and fierce and protective when confronting the minor evil creatures at the doors.

Dark Side

On the opposite side, protection can be smothering.  Denial of all things dark leads to a weakening of the light, and if Bes is chasing away all the minor dark things, wouldn’t that then leave room for major dark creatures to move in?  His dark side could then be an overprotectiveness, which would make sense as mothers can sometimes be overprotective and Bes is a god of childbirth and pregnant mothers.

Weekly Deity: Asclepius

Asclepius from Pergamum

Asclepius was one of the the Greek gods of healing.  He was very popular and shows up in a number of various texts, and statues of him were fairly common around Greece.

Attributes

As you can see from the picture on the left, Asclepius looks very similar in form to Zeus or Poseidon–bearded, probably around young middle age, muscular and tall.  He carried a staff and is generally shown with a snake twined around it, the snake being the animal associated with healing and healers.

Myths and Worship

There are few actual myths in which Asclepius is featured, but the details of his life are known.  He was considered to be the son of Apollo and a mortal woman Coronis.  His mother was unfaithful to Apollo and so was sentenced to death.  As her body was lain out on the funeral pyre to be burned, the god rescued his unborn son from the mother’s womb.  The baby Asclepius was sent to Chiron by Apollo, the wise centaur, to be educated and looked after.  Chiron taught Asclepius medicine and the arts of healing.

Asclepius married Epione, and they had six daughters and three sons: Hygieia, Meditrina, Panacea, Aceso, Iaso, Aglaea, Machaon, Podalierios, and Telesphoros.  As minor characters, his wife and children do not feature prominently in mythology.

The death of Asclepius came about by Zeus’s hand and Asclepius’ hubris.  There are various versions, but the most widely accepted one is that Asclepius raised Hippolytus from the dead, and then to add insult to injury he accepted gold for the deed.  Zeus struck Asclepius down with a thunderbolt and the man was killed.  However, because he was the son of Apollo and a great healer in his own right, Zeus placed Asclepius among the stars of heaven as the constellation Ophiuchus.

Light Side

As a healer, Asclepius had a great gift to heal and to bring life into the world.  He was credited with a great many things, and people would put a great deal of faith in the healing power they found in his temples and in his cult.  His Light side has a lot of positive energy that is obviously geared toward healing and the benefit of wellness of body and mind.

Dark Side

Like any other deity who can give life, Asclepius could also take it away.  His healing skills and medicines could be used to help the ill, but he could also do much more than that, he could raise the dead.  Considering his additional “powers”, it would be safe to assume that Asclepius was considered a very strong healer who could also just as strongly take life and health away.  The only thing that would stop him are his morals and ethics and the laws of his society that perhaps would govern healing actions.  This is part of Asclepius’ dark side: the ability to take away life.  His hubris is also on his dark side: if he hadn’t tried to act like a god while he was still mortal, would he have been killed?  Probably not, but he behaved in a manner unsuitable to a mortal, and so he was murdered by Zeus for his hubris.