Dark Holes

I was revisiting Eliade's Myth and Reality, you now like any normal college student would, and I found a term we have touched on, albeit indirectly. I am referring to the term vagina dentata which in Latin means "toothed vagina". Here's a quote to give some context:

A large number of myths feature (1) a hero being swallowed by a sea monster and emerging victorious after breaking through the monster's belly; (2) initiatory passage through a vagina dentata, or the dangerous descent into a cave or crevice assimilated to the mouth of the uterus of Mother Earth. (Eliade, 81)

I was shocked at some of the pictures that popped up on the interwebs when I typed in "vagina dentata". (The picture above is the most PG-13 rated picture that depicts the combination of teeth and a vagina.) Anyway, the point Eliade is making is that heroes go into a lot of dark crevices as a final "climax" to their journey. (There is going to be a frenzy of double entendres in this post, so stop reading now if you're already disgusted) We've been referencing these spaces throughout the course, but we just haven't been referring to them as Mother Earth's Vagina. Jonah and the Whale, Beowulf, Lord of the Rings, the Death Star in Star Wars, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and countless other stories through the course of time have had the hero journey into this mythical space that usually contains some sort of monster or obstacle. In a roundabout way, the hero must come back to it's birth canal in order to complete their "circle of life." If the hero can conquer a vagina that's lined by teeth, than their place in mythology as a hero is cemented in time.