Upon reaching the gates of Galilee, Jesus came upon the creature.
For it had two wings, the body of a lion and the head of man. It was the Sphinx of lore. The creature sat perched over the fountain of water. Thus the creature spake: “I am called “Purushamriga” and I welcome thee to Galilee.”
The Sphinx of Ancient India
Courtesy of YouTube
The great beast licked at his paws and bowed his head to be lower than that of Jesus, “Great son of God, thou are most exalted. The water in this fountain will on sate the thirst of the truly divine. Those that are not will perish at the slightest sip.
“Great Purushamriga, I beseech thee, in the name of Lord God Almighty, to let this poor servant of the Lord slate his thirst.”
“Most Divine one, I would gladly let thou relieve thy stress once thou hast proven thou hast not been corrupted by the fiend most foul.”
Relief depicting a Purushamriga
Courtesy of Wikipedia
“Great Beast, I do enquire of thee, what fresh hell is this?”
The beast arose from his perch and walked around the front of the fountain standing in front of Jesus. “Thy God has requested that thy faith be proven and thy soul be found free of sin. The proof of this will be in the response to the riddles The Lord on High hath requested be asked.”
“Oh great purushamriga, if it please you, may we get on with it? My trial begins to feel like I am Sita forever striving to please Rama. Time doth tick by and my throat remains parched.”
The Purushamriga nods in affirmation. “As you wish, great shepherd of the people of Zion. As with Odysseus I shall begin: Who is the friend of the exile? Who is the friend of the householder? Who is the friend of him that ails? Who is the friend of one about to die?”
And thus Jesus smiled and stated “The friend of the exile in a distant land is his companion. The friend of the householder is the wife. The friend of him that ails is the physician: The friend of him about to die is charity.”
The great beast was pleased. “Though thy travels, thou hath built much knowledge. Thy question that is the number of two: What is the best of all laudable things? What is the most valuable of all his possessions? What is the best of all gains? What is the best of all kinds of happiness?
And thus Jesus was perplexed. He proclaimed to the beast that smelled of old cat litter: “Great being of the ancient world, thou art mistaken. Thy first riddle hath contained 4 questions, this thou hath just asked 4 additional questions making the total of thy questions 8.”
And thus the great sphinx ruffled his feathers in agitation. “Thou should not be an ass. Thou shouldth answer the questions God has commanded me to ask of thou.”
The beast arose from his perch and walked around the front of the fountain standing in front of Jesus. “Thy God has requested that thy faith be proven and thy soul be found free of sin. The proof of this will be in the response to the riddles The Lord on High hath requested be asked.”
“Oh great purushamriga, if it please you, may we get on with it? My trial begins to feel like I am Sita forever striving to please Rama. Time doth tick by and my throat remains parched.”
The Purushamriga nods in affirmation. “As you wish, great shepherd of the people of Zion. As with Odysseus I shall begin: Who is the friend of the exile? Who is the friend of the householder? Who is the friend of him that ails? Who is the friend of one about to die?”
And thus Jesus smiled and stated “The friend of the exile in a distant land is his companion. The friend of the householder is the wife. The friend of him that ails is the physician: The friend of him about to die is charity.”
The great beast was pleased. “Though thy travels, thou hath built much knowledge. Thy question that is the number of two: What is the best of all laudable things? What is the most valuable of all his possessions? What is the best of all gains? What is the best of all kinds of happiness?
And thus Jesus was perplexed. He proclaimed to the beast that smelled of old cat litter: “Great being of the ancient world, thou art mistaken. Thy first riddle hath contained 4 questions, this thou hath just asked 4 additional questions making the total of thy questions 8.”
And thus the great sphinx ruffled his feathers in agitation. “Thou should not be an ass. Thou shouldth answer the questions God has commanded me to ask of thou.”
Jesus being exasperated by Sphinx
Courtesy of Pixabay
And lo Jesus retorted, “Of course, oh great one. I would just remind thou humbly that thy math is a little amiss. The answer thou doth search for is thus: The best of all laudable things is skill. The best of all possessions is knowledge. The best of all gains is health. Contentment is the best of all kinds of happiness.”
To which the great being clapped his paws together in delight. “Thy hath answered the riddles correctly.”
And lo Jesus approached the fountain of sparkling water. He licked his dry, cracked lips, eyes alight in the possibility of quenching a month long thirst. And thus our Lord Jesus reached his hand out to scoop the precious liquid to his mouth.
And Lo the beast did block his attempt. Jesus looked at the creature in disappointment. The great Sphinx shook his mammoth head slowly. “Thou still must answer one additional question.”
Jesus, perturbed by the hindrance did speak. “Thou try my patience, great beast. Perhaps you wish to be like the fishes and loaves, and be multiplied for the masses to feed on.”
The Sphinx doth look at his nails haughtily. “Violence breeds violence, oh preacher to his flocks.”
“Ask your question.”
“So we are doing away with the niceties are we?”
“I’m thirsty and done with your games. I want to drink so ask. “
“I do so like the old tongue though.”
And thus Jesus sighed heavily. “Please, oh great one, I beggeth thee to ask thy last question to which I can prove me purity like Sita jumping in the fire. “ And Jesus said underneath his breath, “Before I build a fire to put you on a spit roast.”
And thus the Sphinx rose up to his full height, his great tail swishing wildly. “Son of God, thou last question is thus: What is that which, if renounced, maketh one agreeable? What is that which, if renounced, leadeth to no regret? What is that which, if renounced, maketh one wealthy? And what is that which, if renounced, maketh one happy?
And Jesus wept with boredom and thirst. “Why doth thou torture me with stupid riddles? Thy answer is thus: Pride, if renounced, maketh one agreeable. Wrath, if renounced, leadeth to no regret. Desire, if renounced, maketh one wealthy. Avarice, if renounced, maketh one happy.”
And lo the purushamriga gestured deeply to Jesus. “One on high, thou may drink from this fountain!” The great beast moved to the side to allow Jesus by.
And lo, Jesus saw, a donkey drinking from the fountain. Jesus looked at the Sphinx incredulously. “And you let beast of burden drink but not the Son of God?
And thus a smile formed on the purushamriga’s face. “Gotcha.” And the great beast flew off. Jesus attacked the fountain drinking next to the bewildered donkey.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay so you probably all think I'm a heretic for this story but I really enjoyed writing it and think it is hilarious.
First off this was inspired "Hundred Questions" in The Mahabharata written by R.K.Narayan. This story is about the god of justice, Yama, testing his sonYudhistira's character to ensure he had reached a satisfactory level of divinty. The way he did this was to appear as a Crane in the middle of a sapphire colored water pond that immediately made anyone unbearably thirsty. The Crane told each of the brothers that they would die if they drank before answering some riddles. All of them drank and died except for Yudhistira who answered all the riddles and due to his quality of character won his brothers back from death.
On first reading this I was struck how similar this story was to the Sphinx in the Odyssey. Right down to the riddle there were similarities in the stories. Then I began to reach the Sphinx and found that they were also in Southern India and were one of the forms that Shiva chose and an incarnation in the world. In fact they were found all over multiple ancient worlds.
This got me to thinking about the situation, the testing of faith. Which of course led me to the temptation of Christ. I looked through the King James version of the bible and decided to draw the parallells that are so prevalent in all mythology. Thus with this story (as irreverent as it is) incorporates aspects of Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, Christianity and Indian mythology.
The riddles that were shown here are from the actual story The Mahabharata. They were found on the sacred text website.
Narayan, R. K. "Hundred Questions" The Mahabharata. 2013
"Luke Chapter 4" The King James Bible. 1973
Sphinxes of India
Temptation of Christ
The Sphinx doth look at his nails haughtily. “Violence breeds violence, oh preacher to his flocks.”
“Ask your question.”
“So we are doing away with the niceties are we?”
“I’m thirsty and done with your games. I want to drink so ask. “
“I do so like the old tongue though.”
And thus Jesus sighed heavily. “Please, oh great one, I beggeth thee to ask thy last question to which I can prove me purity like Sita jumping in the fire. “ And Jesus said underneath his breath, “Before I build a fire to put you on a spit roast.”
Sita proving purity through self immolation
Courtesy of Wikimedia
And thus the Sphinx rose up to his full height, his great tail swishing wildly. “Son of God, thou last question is thus: What is that which, if renounced, maketh one agreeable? What is that which, if renounced, leadeth to no regret? What is that which, if renounced, maketh one wealthy? And what is that which, if renounced, maketh one happy?
And Jesus wept with boredom and thirst. “Why doth thou torture me with stupid riddles? Thy answer is thus: Pride, if renounced, maketh one agreeable. Wrath, if renounced, leadeth to no regret. Desire, if renounced, maketh one wealthy. Avarice, if renounced, maketh one happy.”
And lo the purushamriga gestured deeply to Jesus. “One on high, thou may drink from this fountain!” The great beast moved to the side to allow Jesus by.
And lo, Jesus saw, a donkey drinking from the fountain. Jesus looked at the Sphinx incredulously. “And you let beast of burden drink but not the Son of God?
Horse at the drinking fountain
Courtesy of Wikimedia
And thus a smile formed on the purushamriga’s face. “Gotcha.” And the great beast flew off. Jesus attacked the fountain drinking next to the bewildered donkey.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay so you probably all think I'm a heretic for this story but I really enjoyed writing it and think it is hilarious.
First off this was inspired "Hundred Questions" in The Mahabharata written by R.K.Narayan. This story is about the god of justice, Yama, testing his sonYudhistira's character to ensure he had reached a satisfactory level of divinty. The way he did this was to appear as a Crane in the middle of a sapphire colored water pond that immediately made anyone unbearably thirsty. The Crane told each of the brothers that they would die if they drank before answering some riddles. All of them drank and died except for Yudhistira who answered all the riddles and due to his quality of character won his brothers back from death.
On first reading this I was struck how similar this story was to the Sphinx in the Odyssey. Right down to the riddle there were similarities in the stories. Then I began to reach the Sphinx and found that they were also in Southern India and were one of the forms that Shiva chose and an incarnation in the world. In fact they were found all over multiple ancient worlds.
This got me to thinking about the situation, the testing of faith. Which of course led me to the temptation of Christ. I looked through the King James version of the bible and decided to draw the parallells that are so prevalent in all mythology. Thus with this story (as irreverent as it is) incorporates aspects of Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, Christianity and Indian mythology.
The riddles that were shown here are from the actual story The Mahabharata. They were found on the sacred text website.
Narayan, R. K. "Hundred Questions" The Mahabharata. 2013
"Luke Chapter 4" The King James Bible. 1973
Sphinxes of India
Temptation of Christ
Sean, I really like how you told this story using Jesus instead of Yudhistira. The way you portrayed Jesus was quite different too. Instead him being calm cool and collected throughout the interrogation process, he was becoming flustered with the great Sphinx. The ending was also quite amusing. Having Jesus realize that the Sphinx was not actually the guardian of the river because a donkey was allowed to drink from it threw a refreshing bit of humor into your story. You did a great job re-telling the story but making it very creative and original!
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ReplyDeleteThis story is pure genius! At first I was not sure I was at the right place. I started to read a story about Jesus and I thought we were doing Indian stuff. So I doubled checked. Yep, I got the right place so I read on like, how is this guy gonna pull this off!
ReplyDeleteWith the best darned comedy, you pulled it off in a big way! I was laughing and smiling the whole time. The references to Rama and Sita throughout are priceless! I did pick up a bit of Greek influence too, I am glad that the author's note clarified that a little bit for me too.
The story is gold. It is right up there with a Monty Python equivalent of funny. I really enjoyed reading it. I will be coming back to visit your page this semester to see if there is any way you can top this story.
I also must add that the image you found of Jesus with the legit face palm is hilarious!
Yeah, wow, this story definitely wins for the most creative I've read in this class. You truly pulled elements from everywhere, and your research definitely shows.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this is necessarily a problem, as it is later used in a meta sort of comedy, but the old language is definitely a barrier. You need to make sure that when you are writing in this dated fashion that your prose is completely clear and full of typos (there was an "on" instead of 'only' and a "though" instead of 'through' etc.) There were certain points where it was so convoluted that it gave the impression of you trying to hard to make it seem old, such as: "Thy question that is the number of two" Like come on, that's a bit much.
But ultimately you totally redeem yourself by making use of the old vs. modern for the purposes of comedic gold. And that final line, "Gotcha" man you had me rolling on the floor laughing. Great stuff! Will definitely be checking out more of your stories in the future
Hello again, Sean!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your Week 12 storytelling, I thought I would take a look this one! Unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed this one, as well. Once again, your dialogue was extremely well done. You perfectly captured the faintly superior attitude I would assume a Sphinx to have. Your riddles were wonderful! Did you come up with them?
Your Author’s Note was very helpful in understanding your inspiration—what a creative take on the “Hundred Questions” portion of the Mahabharata.
I think this may be one of my favorite stories from the course so far! Well done!