It is said that god sculpted women in leisure. They are certainly blessed with outward beauty that is hard to miss. The fight for the most desiring and beautiful women has been rooted in the core of civilization for ages. Women are judged on basis of physical beauty in form of beauty pageants such as Miss India and then at the world stage as Miss World. The grandest stage of all Beauty Pageants. The first beauty contest was held in 1880 in America. Believe it or not, Thomas Edison was one of the first judges. Since this time the trail of beauty pageants has grown exponentially. Young women ranging from 18 to 25 compete to be crowned as the most beautiful woman on earth each year. With time and evolvement, they have expanded to include married women and older and otherwise single women. Divisions include Mrs. and Miss. Judges assess multiple topics, one being a stage performance. Always captivating the audience with various styles of visual art. The older division competition, however, does not include stage talent.

The beauty pageants are always alluring and exciting to watch. However, one such beauty pageant nearly destroyed the world.

In ancient Greece Paris, a mortal was asked to judge the most beautiful woman. The judgment of Paris led to one of the largest wars in History, the Trojan war.

The story began when Zeus decided to organize the wedding of Peleus and Thetis which all the gods had been invited to attend except for Eris, the goddess of discord. When Eris learned of this she was enraged. She decided to avenge her insult and spoil the wedding banquet.  Enraged Eris threw a golden apple amongst the assembled goddesses. The apple had words engraved “To the most beautiful woman”. Seeing the golden apple Aphrodite, Hera and Athena laid their claim to be the most beautiful. After a quarrel, the goddess needed an impartial judge. Zeus was in no mood to side in between his wife Hear and daughters Athena and Aphrodite. He had known of a Mortal named Paris who was a very fair judge. In a contest regarding the beauty and quality of bulls, the young shepherd admitted that the god Ares’ entry was far better than his own without hesitation.

Hence, Zeus proposed that they consult with the mortal to determine which goddess was the fairest. The three goddesses, accompanied by Hermes, made their way to Mount Ida, where they bathed in a river before meeting with Paris. As Paris began to judge the three beautiful goddesses, they each tried to win his favor by offering him bribes. Hera offered to give Paris incredible power by making him the king of Asia and Europe, Athena proposed to give him wisdom, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world.

Faced with such tempting bribes, Paris eventually chose Aphrodite and awarded her with the golden apple. In doing so, he inspired both Hera’s and Athena’s wrath. Keeping her end of the bargain, Aphrodite told Paris that the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, was now his. There was only one problem, however. Helen was already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta. In order to retrieve his “prize,” Paris traveled to Sparta. Depending on sources Paris either kidnapped or seduced the Spartan queen and whisked her back with him to Troy.

After discovering that his wife had been taken by the Trojans, Menelaus assembled his troops and attacked the city of Troy to retrieve his wife. Leading to a decade-long Trojan war.  During the war, Menelaus nearly killed Paris in single combat, but the Trojan youth, a favorite of Aphrodite, was rescued at the last minute by the goddess.

Death is certainly a loss, of loved ones. The news of death brings fear into people’s minds and hearts. Death speaking philosophically is a transition to another life or world. The world has seen many funeral customs and traditions. The popular means have been cremation and burial. There have also been “luxurious burial” such as Egyptians, The Pharos used to be buried with their gold, pet, belongings, and many riches, So that they can have a luxurious afterlife. The Chinese burnet paper money so that the afterlife can be luxurious. But this was not the case with Vikings; the death of the king gave enjoyment to many and brutal pain to one. The token to the afterlife was a woman raped and then burnt alive. As mentioned in works of 13^th century Baghdadi traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan.

The king of the Vikings would sit on a huge throne studded with precious stones. The king would never leave the throne. He would always be accompanied by four hundred of the bravest soldiers and trusted companions. The companions would die with the King and offer their lives to protect the king. These brave warriors sit below the throne. Along with the warriors, the king would be accompanied by slave girls. The slave girls would do personal service, prepare food, and also serve him in bed. The king would have a total of forty beautiful slave girls at his service. Whenever the king had an urge to satisfy his desire he would satisfy with slave girls. If the king wanted to ride the companions would bring his mount to him. If there was a war the king would send his vicegerent to fight and stand for him. The king would never have a need to leave the throne.

When the king would die, the slave girls would then be asked “who would want to die for their master? The dead king was put in a temporary grave, which was covered for ten days until they had sewn new clothes for him and prepared the slave girl for sacrifice. One of the girls would then volunteer to be the sacrifice. There would be two other slave girls assigned to serve this volunteer. The slave girl would be guarded and served day and night. The slave girl would then be fed with plenty of alcohol every day and would sing merrily.

Meanwhile, a Long wooden ship would be bought to the shore. A bed with logs of wood would be made on the ship. An old woman who would lead the rituals called “Angel of death” would place cushions on the bed. The king would be offered with alcohol, fruits, and a Pandora in the grave.

By the time the preparations are made, the Slave girl would visit men from one tent to another and have sex with them. Men would rape the girl as a sign and symbol of love and loyalty to their masters. The number of men that would rape the slave girl would vary, but certainly, it would have been in double or triple digits.

The king’s body would then be dug out from the grave and along with all the offerings. He would be clothed in newly sewn trousers, leggings, boots, kurta and a silk caftan with golden buttons.  The body of the king would then be carried and placed on the bed. They would then bring two horses and sweat them before slaughtering them. Along with horses two cows, a cock and a hen would also be sacrificed and their meat is thrown in the ship.

One evening the slave girl would be brought at a constructed door frame, where she would place her feet on men and be lifted above the door frame.

The girl would be lifted three times, the first time the girl would see her parents, the second time her ancestors, the third time she would see her master and she would describe her master being in paradise and say that her master is calling her. Then she would be handed a hen, whose head she would cut off.

The slave girl would then be brought to the “Angel of death”. Where she would first remove her bracelets and hand over to the girls who have been taking care of her and guarding her. The men would then come with shields and swords. The slave girl would be given a cup of alcohol and be made to enter the pavilion. The angel of death would then drag the girl in the pavilion and summon six men. The men outside would make loud noise banging the shield and sword so that the girl’s screams are unheard. The six men in the pavilion would then rape the slave girl. Then two men would hold her hands, two her feet, while the girl lay beside her master. The “Angle of death” would place a rope around the girl’s neck and hand it to two men. The “angel of death” with a dagger would stab her chest brutally while she is been strangulated by two other men. This would happen until the girl dies.

The Kings Kin would come there naked, with a burning piece of wood. The kin of the king would then set fire to the ship and walk back towards the people with the burning piece of wood. After which all the people would throw burning pieces on the ship and then set the ship to sail.

Some Insight

The slaves have always been considered as an object or possession. The king has always had an upper hand at all times. The kings would enjoy all aspects of life. Slaves whether male or female was only meant to serve the king. In the Nordic faith, the king was given great importance. The liberation in the Nordic faith was to be brave and come to Valhalla to serve Odin. The Nordic believed that intoxicating the girl would put the girl in ecstatic trance and give her psychic abilities that will enable the girl to peak into the realms of the dead. The lifting of the girl through the door frame is symbolic of this peaking. The door frame represents the threshold between the mortal world and the world of the dead, when the girl is lifted above the frame that gives the girl the ability to see the world of the dead. According to the Eddic poetry, Odin established a certain law that the dead should be burned and along with their belongings and their ashes should be thrown into the sea or buried in the earth.  Thus the concept of human sacrifice of the slave girl is more ever clear. But the Raping and brutal murder of the slave girl is somewhat unclear. There seems no motif to rape the slave volunteer and brutally murder her. Since the Nordic have been barbaric and intoxicated most of the times it all seems an acceptable ritual. The raping of the girl only gives pain to the girl but sense gratification to the men. The brutal murder is also a kind of sense gratification as people love good violence. It all seems to be acceptable.

We all know about our friendly neighborhood superhero Spiderman, a popular character by Marvel Comics first introduced in 1962. Bitten by a radioactive spider a high school student Peter Parker became the superhero Spiderman. Spidey has superhuman reflexes, strength and uses his power of Web. Marvel than in 1977 introduced another character, The Spiderwoman. Jessica drew suffered from uranium positioning and the only way to cure her was sealing her in a genetic accelerator. Jessica’s father injected her with his untested spider serum that made her Spiderwoman. She has super human strength, speed, and endurance. She also focuses her bio-electric energy into powerful venom blasts that can penetrate through any surface, kill or stun enemies. Both of these Characters are actually the most important and honored Deities of the Dine or Navajo people. They played a very important role in the Creation of the Universe and Mankind. Marvel and DC both comic giants have adopted many characters from Mythology. So were Spiderman and Spiderwoman. Let us look at the Original Spiderman and woman.

Tracing the Original.

In some Navajo legends Spiderwoman is Pueblo woman who was taught the craft by a spider. In acknowledgment of their debt to Spiderwoman, Navajo weavers always left a hole in the center of each blanket, like that of a spider’s web. The Spiderman and woman have been throughout the creation of the different world. A great detail is mentioned in the Book Navajo Religion, Vol II by Gladys A. Reichard.

The Navajo world was created in stages. The first world was dark and black with just four corners. In the Four Corners, four clouds Black, white, yellow and blue appeared. The Black Cloud was the Feminine force and the white was the Masculine force. The first world grew on an island floating in mist. On it was only a pine tree. The place where black and white cloud first met, there first man and woman were born. The first man spirit came with white corn and the female came with yellow. Both of them stood opposite each other, one in the east and one in the west. The first man then called the first woman to live with him. Then another being was created called the Great Coyote, he was hatched from an egg in water. Then another being came into existence, he was Atse’hashke’ the first Angry. He said to the three of them that he was the first amongst them. Then came the wasp people or tsts’na.  After the wasps came small spider ants. After these powerful creatures came to The Spiderman and Spiderwoman, along with the salt man and salt woman.  Then the second world or blue world was created, followed by the third yellow world and the fourth white world.

In the first world, there was a great deluge, the waters rose really high. Spiderwoman wove a web that served as the lifesaving raft. Spiderwoman saves the first man, woman, coyote and other creatures with her web.

In the blue world, Spiderwoman stole water monster’s baby with her web. Then the twins, born of the first woman were on a journey.it is during their journey they saw a house, there was smoke coming from underneath. They entered the house and saw many seats. Firstborn chose to sit on one of flint, his brother on turquoise. In the house was an old woman, he was the Spiderwoman who gave the twins sacred chants and bundle of prayer sticks. She also fixed the flint and turquoise ‘men’ within The Twins to make them invincible.

Spiderman and Spiderwoman also taught the Navajo people to weave. It was only them who knew the use of cotton fibers. The Spiderman taught the people to shape a little wheel, about 3 -4 inches in diameter and by placing a slender stick the Spindle was made.  Then the Spiderwoman instructed the Navajo women how to weave on a loom. The weaved woolen ball was erected on a cross pole. The cross poles were made of sky and earth cords, the warp sticks of sun rays, the healds of rock crystal and sheet lightning. The baton was a sun halo, white shell made the comb.

Four Spindle’s were made “one a stick of zigzag lightning with a whorl of cannel coal; one a stick of flash lightning with a whorl of turquoise; a third had a stick of sheet lightning with a whorl of abalone; a rain streamer formed the stick of the fourth, and its whorl was white shell”.

The Navajo people did not need to depend on animal skin for clothing they could make their own cotton or woolen clothes. It was also a Tradition that when a baby girl was born they would find a spider web woven at some hole and rub it on baby’s hand so that when the baby grows up she would become a great weaver and her hands would never tire.

Another legend says that man journeyed into the sky and met Spiderwoman. It is she who made human arteries and is considered to be a medicine woman. Navajo women believe that the spirit outlet prevents Spiderwoman from spinning cobwebs in their brain, an ailment also known as blanket sickness. Her spiritual power, as seen in her silken web, joins the realms of Earth and Sky. In most of the ways, She is a beneficent female, a mother figure who guides mortals and can be trusted to stand up to Coyote when he performs witchcraft or enacts misdeeds.