Pirates and Goddesses
NOTE: This post will be discussing possible spoilers for the third “Pirates of the Caribbean” film “At World’s End”, so read at your own risk.
So the third installment of the hugely successful “Pirates of the Caribbean” films “At World’s End” opened last night, and it seems that Disney has decided that the Pirates live in a world where pre-Christian goddesses roam the earth. The third film reveals that the Voodoo-practicing witch known as Tia Dalma is secretly a sea goddess.
Naomie Harris as the witch/goddess Tia Dalma
It seem that the “nine pirate lords” imprisoned a sea goddess by the name of Calypso for some reason or another, and she is freed from her human form at the climax of the film.
“Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), a voodoo priestess who, it turns out, happens to be the sea goddess Calypso in human form, hence her power to revive the dead. She was once the lover of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), captain of the Flying Dutchman, who, pursuant to some unspecified betrayal, has been cursed to wear a rubber octopus face that obscures what a good actor Bill Nighy actually is.”
In Greek mythology Calypso was either a naiad (water/sea nymph), a daughter of the titan Atlas most famous for delaying Odysseus for seven years and bearing him a son, or she was one of three thousand Oceanids born by the sea titans Oceanus and Tethys. In either case she certainly is tied to the sea and is divine (and Odysseus was certainly something of a pirate).
Detail of Calypso from “Odysseus und Kalypso” by Arnold Bocklin
This is an interesting twist since the historical pirates we most associate with the popular image of piracy lived in a thoroughly Christian age. Considering the vogue for all things pirate-y (including a reality television show) it should be interesting to see if sea deities start creeping into the lore and popular notions of swashbuckling pirates. Certainly products tying in with the Tia Dalma/Calypso character are already appearing, all we need now is a book claiming that pirates were secret pagans (no doubt already being written by somebody) and a new nautical-themed strain of modern Paganism could pop up before you know it.
So while film critics are equally split on whether the third “Pirates” film is any good, what isn’t in doubt is the heavy influence this film will have on the popular culture. Like it or not, Captain Jack Sparrow and the rest of the pirates acknowledge the existence of pagan gods, and aren’t shy in asking for their help (making them technical polytheists). All thats left is to see how many shrines to Calypso emerge from it.
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Considering that some in my group have been aching to do a “talk like a pirate” Discordian ritual, this may give them a leg to stand on. Oh my!
…a peg leg to stand on…
this is not the first pirate fiction to portray pirates as involved with pagan or polytheist religions. in Tim Powers’s excellent novel On Stranger Tides, Blackbeard and other pirates are said to be devotees of voodoo lwa. Blackbeard, specifically, is said to be a devotee of Baron Samedi, “…whose secret drogue is a low-smoldering fire, which is why Blackbeard always braided lit slow matches into his hair and massive beard before going into any risky encounter….”
There’s been talk of issuing a spoiler warning over on the Livejournal feed for this blog. Not everyone has the pleasure of seeing a film on its release, and this is a pleasant little surprise I would have liked to find out the conventional way.
But I DID post a spoiler warning.
Odysseus a pirate?? Even “something of a pirate”?
Absolutely not! He was a king.
Zeus-sprung Odysseus
Great-hearted Odysseus
Noble Odysseus
Resourceful Odysseus
and he looked a bit like Sean Bean…
Voodoo-practicing witch . . .
Vodoun holy people do not like to be called witches. Priest or priestess will do.
And Pagan practioners continued to existed . . . even in “the age of Christianity”, whether it was the 18th century or early 21st century.