The Zelda Pantheon

[TattooArtist]

There's 3 pieces of the triforce = 3 goddesses?

 

[Spamomanospam]

Isnt it more likely youll return to the future you created? The one with no troforce?

The way this theory works (under my understanding) is that Link does travel back to his Timeline with his piece of the Triforce. That creates alternate reality A, or shall we say the adult timeline.
Zelda is warned in the past, and imprisons Ganondorf, keeps her Triforce, and alternate timeline B (child timeline) is created. The third split is Ganon killing Link and splitting the timeline once again with his Triforce of Power (Downfall timeline). Three Triforce pieces, three timelines.

 

[DekuNut]

@TattooArtist Yeah, that's true, but my question is where do you think people like Hylia or the Spirits of Light/Spirits of Good lie in comparison to the trinity, as well as each other?

@Spamomanospam I think it's safe to say that the Triforce has the powers of time travel. It's obvious that the Ocarina of Time does, and that is a lesser power compared to the Triforce. If the Ocarina can do it, then you'd think the Triforce could too, at least in my opinion.

 

[Spamomanospam]

[USER=83756]@Spamomanospam I think it's safe to say that the Triforce has the powers of time travel. It's obvious that the Ocarina of Time does, and that is a lesser power compared to the Triforce. If the Ocarina can do it, then you'd think the Triforce could too, at least in my opinion.[/USER]

Time travel within one timeline is one thing, but to split time into separate realities is another. That, I think is beyond the scope of the Ocarina's power.

 

[Mipha]

Time travel within one timeline is one thing, but to split time into separate realities is another. That, I think is beyond the scope of the Ocarina's power.

What happens if you change something in the past though? That should create another timeline regardless of how powerful your device is.

 

[Time's Quill]

I remember reading this article about it a while back: http://www.zeldadungeon.net/the-hyrulian-pantheon/

It's well thought out and is pretty detailed. If anyone's really curious about how this stuff could fit together, I'd point them this way and say to take a look. It's pretty neat!

 

[TheGreatCthulhu]

The pantheon of Zelda is more akin to Norse and other pagan pantheons. In Norse, Greek, Egyptian, and other pagan beliefs, often there were multiple deities responsible for multiple aspects of nature.

So if we think of the Zelda pantheon like this we can make more sense of it.

THE MAJOR DEITIES

Din: Goddess of power, also associated with fire. Creator of the physical realm. Fire is also associated with passion, life and death, depending on if the fire is a forest fire, or used to cook and give light. Knowledge can also be a form of power as well.

Nayru: Goddess of wisdom and the laws of nature. She very associated with logic, order, law, knowledge, and because of this, can also extend as the goddess of mathematics, and the laws of physics.

Farore: Goddess of courage and valor, and the Earth and the creator of life. Because Earth goddesses in real life are also fertility goddesses, and since Farore is associated with the earth, being the giver of life, she can also be associated with fertility.

Hylia: I consider her to be the goddess of Hylians specifically. She is the embodiment of everything Hyruleans hold dear, and that is a perfect balance of the three virtues they hold most dear. That is, power, wisdom, and courage. She also doubles as a Messiah archetype, because she renounces her divinity to be reborn a human, suffers sacrifices and resurrections in order to help her charges.

THE MINOR DEITIES

Majora: Hear me out on this, if we consider Majora's Mask as a legend to explain eclipses, we can say that Majora is the deity of the sun, and the trickster deity. In most pantheons in real life, sun deities are often female, and in some pantheons, these deities can also double as the trickster gods. One of the best examples of a trickster is Loki. Often, Loki in Norse myth has some pranks that are nothing more than pranks, but sometimes his pranks escalate into something major, like the slaying of Baldur, which is the first sign of Ragnarok, the end of the world. In this sense, Majora's pranks in Majora's Mask started off relatively harmless and escalated in intensity to almost causing the apocalypse.

I also say that Majora is a sun god because the symbolism tied with it are often associated with the Sun. Not to mention its boss room has the mask come off a relief depicting the Sun, and is filled with color. As color doesn't exist without light, it doesn't get more symbolic than that.

Fierce Deity: God of the moon and the god of war. His direct counterpart would be Thor from Norse myth.

Goddess of Sand: Kind of self explanatory.

Goddess of Time: Exactly what it says on the tin

Goddess of Wind: Self explanatory.

You get the idea.



THE GUARDIAN DEITIES

Guardians in culture largely come from eastern religions, where there was a guardian god of everything. Like numerous rivers had a god. This also existed in western religions, though not on the level Japanese religions have. In Greek myth, scholars refer to this as personifications, in essence, the river itself was a deity.

They are

The Great Deku/Maku Tree

Jabu Jabu/Jabun

Kaepora Gaebora

Valoo

Ordona

Faron

Eldin

Lanayru

The Four Giants

The Giant Turtle

The Lokomo

The Great Fairies

Guardians of the Silent Realm

THE DEMI-GODS

Demigods exist in all pantheons. Demigods are usually the son or daughter of a god, or have obtained divine/spiritual powers in some other way.

For Zelda, those are

The Great Fairy Queen

The Ocean King

The Wind Fish/Levias

Cyclos and Zephlos

Golden Chief Cylos

Spirits of Good

SPIRITS

In numerous other pantheons, we have spirits, essentially anomalies in nature.

For Zelda, those are

Fairies

Season Spirits

Kokiri/Koroks/Kikwi

Skull Kids

Stalfos/Stalchildren

Poes

THE EVIL GODS

Every culture has evil gods. Surt, Satan, Deceiver, etc.

These are the evil gods of Zelda

Malladus

Bellum

Demise: Literally the Zelda equivalent of the god of pure evil. The Zelda devil, if you will.

Basically, it's a pantheon of multiple gods and goddesses.

 

[castigear]

I don't disagree, although I feel Hylia is a tier below the Golden Goddesses....If they are Zeus Poseidon and Hades, the eldest of the Greek Gods, then Hylia is like Athena. I would even go so far as to say she is a minor deity, albeit probably the strongest of them.

The Golden Goddesses are like Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades;

and the Minor Gods/Goddesses are like Athena, Artemis, Ares, Demeter, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, and the rest of the Olympians.

Then you have the lesser Greek Gods who did not dwell on Mount Olympus: Thanatos, Pan, the Muses, Helios, Eros, etc.