Legends of Elongated Human Lifespan

Religious traditions around the world are filled with Legends of Elongated Human Lifespan, humans who lived an extraordinary number of years, achieved immortality, or were given this gift.

In fact, this is is such a common feature of Ancient Religions, that it can be

Contents

• Legends of Long-Lived Humans
  • Biblical Traditions
  • Vedic Traditions
• A Rational Explanation For Legendary Accounts of Long Life

Legends of Long-Lived Humans

Legends of people with elongated lifespan — both immortals themselves, whether they be gods, demons, or other supernatural beings, as well as humans who achieved, or were given, life-everlasting. These represent different classifications of this type of story that we can make.

Biblical Traditions

In the Bible (specifically the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament) the Jews remembered a time when humans lived longer. Specifically, the ancient ancestors of the Hebrews: the Biblical Patriarchs. “And the days of Noah were…”

After humanities expulsion from the Garden of the Gods, we were to experience mortality. Yet within the alleged Hebrew lineage from time immemorial, their bloodline took some time to return to a “normal” span of years. Adam, Abraham, Enoch, Methusela, and others were all said to have lived centuries.

The line in Genesis/Bereshit reads:

“”

The Jews record a tradition were their ancestors live for hundreds of years. However, these Jewish legends are based on Sumerian and Akkadian traditions, such as those found in the Sumerian King List.

In these records, the Sumerians remember a time when the gods ruled the Earth. Their length of reign was in the tens of thousands of years. Kingship then transition to a period of semi-divine rulers, and finally into the (generally) historical lineage of human kings. The length of rule (and presumably life) of the semi-divine into human kings decreased with time. The structure of the Biblical Patriarch narrative was influenced by the Sumerian and Akkadian traditions. (The ancestors of the Hebrews, like Abraham, were Akkadian after all.)

Vedic and Hindu Traditions

A curious passage from the Tirtha-yatra Parva (Book 3, Varna Parva, CXLII), Lomasa tells the eldest Pandava brother Yudhishthira that “in days of yore, there was (once) a terrible time in the Satya Yuga when the eternal and primeval Deity [Krishna] assumed the duties of Yama. And, O thou that never fallest off, when the God of gods began to perform the functions of Yama, there died not a creature while the births were as usual.” [1]

This led to an increase in the population and the Earth sinking down “for a hundred yojanas. And suffering pain in all her limbs.” The earth sought the protection of Narayana, who incarnated as a boar (Varaha) and lifted her back up. [1]

In this Vedic myth we have the interesting reference to both humanity not dying (i.e. living longer lifespans) as well as to people being born with unusual features (flaws) or perhaps, depending on how it is read, born in unnusual ways. I am going to assume the former, because it makes more sense. This is interesting because Krishna is the incarnation of Shiva, and Shiva is a form of Mithra and Varuna — all of the gods who are associated with Enki who in Sumerian literature created humanity. In his creation, there were numerous attempts which created unusual, flawed humans.

This also mentions a burgeoning of the Earths population, which dwindled after the Great Flood cataclysm.

A Rational Explanation For Legendary Accounts of Long-Life

There are many accounts where I believe firmly that accounts of immortality are simply founded in status and class. On one side, you have the peasants who work hard jobs, and suffer the most from famine, war, and disease. They work from dawn until dusk, pushing the plow, working the blacksmiths hammer or the scythe. They are also conscripted to fight for their king when necessary.

The lowest classes live the hardest lives. They experience greater danger, and harder work. Thus it is my speculation that they also tended to die younger than nobility, at a higher rate.

Compare this to a noble lady who was taken care of. She could spend her time reading, writing, learning music, painting, riding, and taking care of herself (this Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice). We know today that this type of lifestyle (in addition to eating well and such) generally results in a longer lifespan. Moreover, we also know that blue-collar workers don’t tend to live as long, like shift-workers.

From the perspective of the peasant classes, many of the old wives and remaining older men couldn’t help but notice the preservation of nobility. Consider that it might have been more likely for a noble to reach 50-70 years old back than. Only a couple hundred years ago in Europe the average lifespan was about 30. If you have old nobility reaching their 60s and peasants boys dying at 15 in wars they were conscripted to fight in, ideas like “immortality” would not have been too crazy.

Resources

1. Wikipedia Editors. Yama. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yama. Accessed 8 June 2024.