Nommo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nommo are ancestral spirits (sometimes referred to as deities) worshipped by the Dogon tribe of Mali. The word Nommos is derived from a Dogon word meaning, "to make one drink," The Nommos are usually described as amphibious, hermaphroditic, fish-like creatures. Folk art depictions of the Nommos show creatures with humanoid upper torsos, legs/feet, and a fish-like lower torso and tail. The Nommos are also referred to as “Masters of the Water”, “the Monitors”, and "the Teachers”. Nommo can be a proper name of an individual, or can refer to the group of spirits as a whole. For purposes of this article “Nommo” refers to a specific individual and “Nommos” is used to reference the group of beings.
Contents |
[edit] Nommo Mythology
Dogon mythology states that Nommo was the first living creature created by the sky god Amma. Shortly after his creation, Nommo underwent a transformation and multiplied into four pairs of twins. One of the twins rebelled against the universal order created by Amma. To restore order to his creation, Amma sacrificed another of the Nommo progeny, whose body was dismembered and scattered throughout the world. This dispersal of body parts is seen by the Dogon as the source for the proliferation of Binu shrines throughout the Dogons’ traditional territory; wherever a body part fell, a shrine was erected.
In the latter part of the 1940s, French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen (who had been working with the Dogon since 1931) were the recipients of additional, secret mythologies, concerning the Nommo. The Dogon reportedly related to Griaule and Dieterlen a belief that the Nommos were inhabitants of a world circling the star Sirius (see the main article on the Dogon for a discussion of their astronomical knowledge). The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. After arriving, the Nommos created a reservoir of water and subsequently dove into the water. The Dogon legends state that the Nommos required a watery environment in which to live. According to the myth related to Griaule and Dieterlen: "The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe "had drunk of his body," the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings." The Nommo was crucified on a tree, but was resurrected and returned to his home world. Dogon legend has it that he will return in the future to revisit the Earth in a human form.
[edit] Common Motifs
The Nommos bear some physical resemblance to several other mythological beings: the Oannes (Babylon), the Enki (Sumer), Fuxi (China), Dagon (Philistine), and Nereus (Greece), to name a few. It is also interesting to note the motifs common to the story of Nommo with the story of Osiris (dismemberment and the erection of temples at the final resting places of their respective body parts). There are also numerous parallels between the story of Nommo and the traditions of Jesus: both were crucified, both instructed followers to “drink of my body”, and both were associated with the fish (see Controversy).
[edit] Controversy
In the 1970’s a book by Robert Temple titled The Sirius Mystery popularized the traditions of the Dogon concerning Sirius and the Nommos. In The Sirius Mystery, Temple came to the conclusion that the Dogon’s knowledge of astronomy and non-visible cosmic phenomenon could only be explained if said knowledge was imparted upon them by an extraterrestrial race that had visited the Dogon at some point in the past and given them information concerning the cosmos. Temple related this race to the legend of the Nommos and contended that the Nommos were extraterrestrial inhabitants of the Sirius star system who had traveled to earth at some point in the distant past and had imparted knowledge about the Sirius star system as well as our own solar system upon the Dogon tribes.
Some anthropologists studying the Dogon (notably Walter van Beek) found no evidence that they had any historical advanced knowledge of Sirius. Van Beek postulated that Griaule engaged in such leading and forceful questioning of his Dogon sources that new myths were created in the process by confabulation. Carl Sagan has noted that the first reported association of the Dogon with the knowledge of Sirius as a binary star was in the 1940’s, giving the Dogon ample opportunity to gain cosmological knowledge about Sirius and the solar system from more scientifically advanced, terrestrial societies whom they had come in contact with. It has also been pointed out that binary star systems like Sirius are theorized to have a very narrow or non-existent Habitable zone, and thus a high improbability of containing a planet capable of sustaining life (particularly life as dependent on water as the Nommos were reported to be).
It should also be noted that by the 1940’s when Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen recorded the Nommo legends, the Dogon had already come into contact with Islam and Christianity, which could have influenced some of their earlier Nommo traditions, notably those that are similar to Christian traditions concerning Jesus.
[edit] References in fiction
The belief structure surrounding Nommo, as well as Robert Temple's conclusion from The Sirius Mystery, were used by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes as the background for the role-playing game in The California Voodoo Game, the third volume in their Dream Park series. Novelist Tom Robbins discusses Nommo and the Sirius mysteries in his novel Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas. Nommo and the Dogon are also widely mentioned in Phillip K. Dick's novel Valis. The Nommo are also mentioned in the second book of Ian Douglas's Legacy Trilogy (Battlespace) where the marines encounter the Nommo in the Sirius star system.
The Nommo are a splinter species of the Trilarians in the game Masters of Orion who appear as squid-like animals that believed that their gods created them, in actual fact this was an Antaran. They are religious extremists who wish to regain their homeworld.
