Gilgamesh, son of a mortal man and the goddess Ninsun, exemplifies the mediation of humanity and divinity. Like many heroes from beyond antiquity, Gilgamesh carried within his veins the blood of the gods. His specialness was inherent and, although he terrorized his people, Gilgamesh eventually became a sympathetic character.1 Herakles was born of the amorous god Zeus and the mortal woman Alkmene. Minos was also fathered by Zeus; his mother, Europa, had been a Phoenician Princess. Rather than a god or goddess outright, these and other heroes represented humanity's link to the great Divine. Heroes were often reminders humanity also carried the divine spark. Thus we are also called to live out the so-called everyday as the miraculous...
"So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them."2
The incarnation of the Christ, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, was born of the Virgin Mary.3 Calling upon myths of old, Jesus' birth solidified for many what had been previously merely tradition. The culmination of myth into a flesh and blood human being. Egyptian Pharoahs had called themselves the "Son of the Sun."4 They associated their throne and their right to rule to Atum-Ra, the sun god.5 By directly linking their anscestory to Atum-Ra (which is how they called themselves his sons), the Pharoahs assured their unquestioned position as both legal and religious leaders. Jesus, as the Christ, was expected to be a Messiah-King. Although every teaching of his distanced himself from any earthly-kingdom, the moniker "Son of God" has still become synomonous with his name "King of Kings." Jesus' authority was not his own, but that of the Father.6 Divine heritage and special birth announced Jesus' charisma.7
Avatars, the divine among us, are here and now -- corporeal signs of the Divine's immanence. Anakin Skywalker draws upon all such hero origins.
"I can't explain it," his mother Shmi tells Qui-Gon Jinn. She speaks of Anakin's birth; being unsure of her son's origin. Jedi Master Jinn has his suspicions, and after a blood test proving Anakin has more midichlorians than anyone on record, Jinn approaches the Jedi High Council. Anakin seems to fit the description of the prohesized Chosen One who will one day bring Balance to the Force.
"He may have been conceived by the midichlorians," he informs the incredulous Council. Microscopic life forms, the midichlorians make all life possible and speak directly to the Force -- Star Wars' Divine Principal. Not gods or goddesses as such, midichlorians still fulfill deity-like duties in the Star Wars mythology. Being the closest to the Divine (the Force), the fact they created Anakin is undeniably atuned to the motif of divine origin.
Anakin's mother bares a name indicating her role as divine consort: Shmi. A diminutive of Lakshmi, wife of Hindu god Vishnu. Lakshmi was said to be born fully formed carrying a lotus. Death and rebirth chase one another endlessly in many myths; Hinduism's series of creations and destructions over immense gulfs of time are briefly interrupted. These interludes between the destruction of Everything and the creation of another Everything are observed by Vishnu and Lakshmi. They rest together atop Ananta, serpent of Eternity. As Vishnu is the idea of creation, his consort Lakshmi is the process. From their union arises new life. Does not Anakin bring about the restructuring of the world? The so-called Balance of the Force? Could Anakin not be seen as the metaphorical fruit of Vishnu and Lakshmi? With the death of the Emperor, Anakin's own child begins again, being the first of a new order of Jedi. An order without any of the dogmatic institutions of his father's generation.
Endnotes:
1: Gilgamesh is considered the oldest known work of literature, dating circa 2000 B.C.E.
Philip Wilkinson, editor. The Illustrated Dictionary of Mythology, London: DK Publishing, 1998
2: Genesis 1:27 NSRV
3: "Christ" means the "anointed one"
in Hebrew: "Messiah"
in Greek: "Christos"
4: Both Anakin and Luke Skywalker are the Son of the Suns (i.e., Tatoo I and Tatoo II). A chant exclaiming this can be heard at the end of the Special Edition of the Return of the Jedi. Look for the phrase to figure in Episodes II and III.
5: "Atum-Ra" translates as "the all."
6: find app. NT ref.
7: def.
