History: Forbidden History

[nedjer]

The solar hero (Gilgamesh, Horus, Jason, Hercules, Khristos) journeys through the trials of the zodiacal 'Wheel of Grief'. The journey leads to a return to the Wheel of Grief or escape to the 'Imperishable' polar constellations.

The solar hero's epiphany/ beatification is indicated when she/ he attains the 'Golden Fleece' or armour 'worn' by many solar heroes, (Jason, Roland, Joan of Arc, Horus).

The act of epiphany is often enabled through the use of an amulet/ fetish/ phylactery, which is a 'soul-containing' device. The signum serpentinium of the Gnostics, present and necessary to the union and revivification of Horus and Osiris, which involves an "embrace of gold".

Was Gary Gygax aware of how Lichs, Golden Fleeces and Wheels of Grief interlock? Check up out the reference to the caterpillar from Alice Through the Looking Glass which appears on the title page of AD&D 1e and make your own mind up?

 

[Nifft]

Where's the "forbidden history"?

 

[Doug McCrae]

I don't understand most of what you're talking about, but you have a point regarding the 1e PHB title page, it is reminiscent of the caterpillar.

Is it intended to be Gary Gygax?

 

[Umbran]

So, you're asking if Gygax had any knowledge of comparative mythology?

Joseph Campbell had been writing about the "monomyth" since 1949, or somesuch. And it isn't like he was the only one who ever recognized the common threads that tend to run through human mythology.

 

[nedjer]

I don't understand most of what you're talking about, but you have a point regarding the 1e PHB title page, it is reminiscent of the caterpillar.

Is it intended to be Gary Gygax?

It is Gary and the picture is a relatively widely known/ used esoteric message inviting enterance or initiation to secret knowledge. It was well used in the Sixties, e.g. Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit . . . and still is, e.g. Donnie Darko.

 

[nedjer]

So, you're asking if Gygax had any knowledge of comparative mythology?

Joseph Campbell had been writing about the "monomyth" since 1949, or somesuch. And it isn't like he was the only one who ever recognized the common threads that tend to run through human mythology.

I'm in little doubt Gary was an expert on comparative mythology, the 1e books are littered with mythological creatures and references. What I'm curious about is whether or not he was aware of, or even systematically incorporating, elements of what is often considered the 'forbidden' knowledge of the Philosopher's Stone/ journey of the solar hero/'enlightenment' /the Osiris Mysteries/ the Quest for the Holy Grail, i.e. the central Western mythos underlying art and literature?

I'd thought this was common knowledge amongst fantasy readers, LotR fans and other TRPG dudes

 

[nedjer]

A hippy - ah, thanks

Anyone know any good biographical material on him round about that period?

 

[Doug McCrae]

Wapedia - Wiki: Gary Gygax

According to this he took some anthropology classes at the University of Chicago, but never enrolled full-time.

 

[nedjer]

Wapedia - Wiki: Gary Gygax

According to this he took some anthropology classes at the University of Chicago, but never enrolled full-time.

"He made the college Dean's List, and at the urging of his professors, applied to the University of Chicago and was admitted"

It's unclear where else a lot of his ideas could have come from, so it looks like those classes had a pretty major effect on kickstarting and shaping D&D. There's may be a nod to this in the production of the first two 'Diety' books, which were prioritised over much more 'sellable' products. 1e Dieties and Demigods seems such a low use bolt-on, unless the publisher saw the background material as much more 'core' than it appears?

 

[Hand of Evil]

See the back of the 1e books, there is a lot of stuff that was read for D&D and a lot of different people's thinking used.