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The yearly death of Ishtar when she goes underground represents the lack of growth, while her return represents the rebirth of the farming cycle. Examples include Ishtar and Persephone, who die every year.

Often associated with the vegetation cycle, or a staple food, in effect taking the form of a vegetation deity. Some gods who die are also seen as either returning or bringing about life in some other form, The Japanese god Izanami dies giving birth to the child Kagu-tsuchi (incarnation of fire) or Ho-Musubi (causer of fire) and Izanagi goes to Yomi, the land of gloom, to retrieve her, but she has already changed to a deteriorated state and Izanagi will not bring her back, and she pursues Izanagi, but he manages to escape. In contrast, Kaili leaves the world by a canoe which is never seen again. Hawaiian deities can die and depart the world in a number of ways e.g., some gods who were killed on Lanai by Lanikuala departed for the skies. Quetzalcoatl does not resurrect and come back to life as himself, but some versions of his story have a flock of birds flying away from his ashes, and in some variants, Quetzalcoatl sails away on the ocean never to return. In contrast, in most variations of his story, Quetzalcoatl (whose account was first written down in the 16th century) is tricked by Tezcatlipoca to over-drink and then burns himself to death out of remorse for his own shameful deeds. Baldr does not come back to life because not all living creatures shed tears for him, and his death then leads to the "doom of the gods".

The methods of death vary, e.g., in the myth of Baldr (whose account was likely first written down in the 12th century), he is inadvertently killed by his blind brother Höðr who is tricked into shooting a mistletoe-tipped arrow at him, and his body is then set aflame on a ship as it sails out to sea. Odin whispering to a dead Baldr as he is to be sent out to sea " Death or departure of the gods" is motif A192 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1932), while "resurrection of gods" is motif A193. įrazer's interpretation of the category has been critically discussed in 20th-century scholarship, to the conclusion that many examples from the world's mythologies included under "dying and rising" should only be considered "dying" but not "rising", and that the genuine dying-and-rising god is a characteristic feature of ancient Near Eastern mythologies and the derived mystery cults of Late Antiquity. Frazer cited the examples of Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, Dionysus and Jesus. Frazer associated the motif with fertility rites surrounding the yearly cycle of vegetation. The concept of a dying-and-rising god was first proposed in comparative mythology by James Frazer's seminal The Golden Bough (1890). Examples of gods who die and later return to life are most often cited from the religions of the ancient Near East, and traditions influenced by them include Greco-Roman mythology. James Frazer, Carl Jung, Tryggve MettingerĪ dying-and-rising, death-rebirth, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god or goddess dies and is resurrected. The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton (1891).Ī dying-and-rising god is born, suffers a death-like experience, and is subsequently reborn.