Fire Mythology

Ancient India: Agni. Aryans brought the Vedic faith to India from Iran 3500 years ago. Their beliefs were then written in Sanscrit as the Vedas, and these became the basis for Hinduism. The Vedic sacrifices were vital for the continuation of the cosmos. Their purpose was creative, to rejuvenate Prajapati, the Lord of Creatures.

Brahmins (priests) took an intoxicating drink called soma, and the highest priest simulated a new birth, taking on the character of a god, playing out the birth process with objects; he wore a belt to be an umbilical cord, he wrapped himself in a goatskin to represent the membranes around the phoetus, and he acted out being born. For the sacrifices in this ceremony, fire was essential. Grains, butter, sandalwood and other things were placed into the 3 fire altars.


It was fire that was the medium that enabled Agni the fire god to transport the offerings to heaven to the gods. This Agni is the way for humans to address the gods. He is the link between heaven and earth. Agni was believed to the protector of the world. Propitiating him meant continuing prosperity and avoiding calamity.

- Ancient Greece: Prometheus. (Hesiod’s version)

Prometheus himself had created the human race, out of clay. He sculpted them and Athena breathed life into them. However, Zeus dedcided to destroy them because of their faults, and would create a better creature instead. He planned this destruction by depriving humans of fire and by demanding food sacrifices. Prometheus took fire to the humans in the stalk of a fennel plant form Olympus. He also tricked Zeus into getting only fat and entrails as sacrificed food. For this Zeuz bound Prometheus to a rock, to have his liver eaten out eternally by an eagle.


- Other myths with the same story:
- Indians of the Amazon River basin in Brazil say that a jaguar rescued a boy and took him to its cave. There the boy watched the jaguar cooking food over a fire. The boy stole a hot coal from the fire and took it to his people, who then learned to cook.
- Legends in the Caroline Islands of the Pacific link fire to Olofat, a mythical trickster hero who was the son of the sky god and a mortal woman. As a youth, Olofat forced his way into heaven to see his father. Later Olofat gave fire to human beings by allowing a bird to fly down to earth with fire in its beak.
- According to the Navajo, Coyote tricked two monsters that guarded the flames on Fire Mountain. Then he lit a bundle of sticks tied to his tail and ran down the mountain to deliver the fire to his people.

- Ancient Rome: Fires of Vesta. (greek name Hestia, goddess of the hearth).


Sacred fire burned in Vesta’s circular temple in the Roman forum. Six Vestal Virgins were selected by lo and served for 30 years tending the holy fire and performing other rituals, such as sweeping and preparation of foods for festivals. By analogy, they also tended the life and soul of the city and of the body politic through the sacred fire of Vesta. The rites of Vesta ended in 394 AD. The hearth has been throughout mythologies the centre of the home, and has served as a metaphor for the home. Its latin name is Focus.

- Ancient Ireland: The burning of the Wicker Man (photo).


The ancient druids (priests of Celtic paganism) built a large wicker statue of a human, and in very early times, would place a man inside it, before setting it on fire. This was meant to be a sacrifice to the gods. They generally sacrificed thieves and criminals as they pleased the gods more, but sometimes used innocent men. Today, some neopagan groups continue the tradition, without the person inside the sculpture. The wicker man is burned at festivals and celebrations, such as the winter solstice.


There is a Wickerman rock festival in Scotland annually, and also the Burnign Man festival in Nevada, USA


- Viking Burials: Viking burials for kings or leaders were elaborate, as the body was placed on a wooden ship with offerings, and then the ship was burned.


In an area called Rus, near Kiev, where Swedish Vikings had settled, a ship burial was observed in AD 921 by the Muslim Arab traveller, Ahmed Ibn Fadlan: “The burial featured the corpse of a chieftain dressed in sumptuous silk and brocade and surrounded by grave-offerings of food, drink and herbs. A dog, two chickens, cows and two horses were then sacrificed and thrown in pieces on to the ship. Another, human sacrifice – a slave girl- was strangled and stabbed and also placed on the vessel. The ship was then set on fire.” Another account describes the woman who was sacrificed as one of the king’s wives, and that she volunteered to go with the king into the afterlife.

- Japan: Around the 7th of January and many days afterward, the Japanese have a tradition of burning New Year’s decorations to symbolize the act of moving forward. The decorations are piled into a large tower, called a dondo yaki, made of straw. This is lit and all of the decorations are burned with the dondo yaki.


Another ceremony happens on the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, called the Tanabata. In this ceremony to celebrate the love story of two lovers separated by a river, people write wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on small pieces of paper and hang them on bamboo.


The bamboo and decorations are set afloat on a river or burned after the festival. The idea of burning the wishes is that by turning them into smoke, the smoke will rise to the heavens and the gods will receive the person’s wish. Also, at temples wishes can be written onto wooden placards to be later burned in a fire ceremony.


- Finnish fire mythology: Kalevala. The mistress of Pohjola captures the Sun and the Moon who have descended to listen to Väinämöinen’s kantele playing. She hides the sun in a mountain and the moon in rocks. She then steals the fire from the homes of Kalevala. Ukko, the Supreme God, is surprised at the darkness in the sky, and kindles fire for a new moon and a new sun. The fire falls to the ground, and Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen go to search for it at Lake Alue. They are told it is there and that it has been swallowed by a fish., a grey pike.
- They make a net out of flax. Finally the catch the fish, but are afraid to touch it with bare hands. The son of the Sun, Panu, said he would cut it open if he had a knife, and then a knife falls from heaven to him, and he dissects the fish. Within it is another fish, within it another, etc, till finally in the entrails they find a “spark of fire”. This spark turned quickly into a fire and burned the beard of Väinämöinen, burned the smith’s hands and cheeks, and then went over the Lake Alue to burn the forest on the other side, burning half the land of Pohja, Savo, Carelia. Väinämöinen followed it and cast a spell to contain it within the “hearth of stone” of kitchens and in fire boxes of homes. He “thrust the spark of fire in a little piece of tinder, in the fungus hard of birch-tree, and among the copper kettles. Fire he carried to the kettles, took it in the bark of birch-tree, to the end of misty headland, and the hazy islandäs summit. Now was fire within the dwellings, in the rooms again twas shining.”