Erlik
Erlik East AsiaIn Siberian mythology the spirit of evil, who was sometimes thought of as the primeval man fallen from grace. In Lapp mythology he was always ‘lord of the underworld’, a monstrous guardian of departed souls.
The Altaic Tartars have a story of Erlik's genesis. Once Ulgan saw a piece of mud with human features floating on the ocean. The high god gave a spirit to it, naming the creature Erlik. But the friendship of Ulgan and Erlik did not last long, for the pride of the latter obliged his banishment to the depths, where he became the king of the dead. Despite this acquisition of terror, an aspect doubtless owing something to the Tibetan development of Yama as the epitome of annihilation, the Altai Tartars never overlooked Erlik's parentage of mankind. He was still ‘the father’. A parallel myth of choosing evil is the Persian account of the father and mother of the human race, Mashye and Mashyane, who foresook the wise lord for...
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