著者

奥田 喜八郎

出版者

奈良教育大学教育学部附属教育実践研究指導センター

雑誌

教育実践研究指導センター研究紀要 (ISSN:09193065)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2, pp.13-21, 1993-03-31

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In biblical tradition, the rainbow is God's sign in the sky, set there after the Flood as a promise that the world would never again be destroyed by water. Pagan mythologies and folklore have seen it as a spirit (in Burma and among the Zulus, as a dangerous demon), or a weapon used by the gods, or as asoul-bridge (in China and Japan). In India, and also in Finland, it was the bow from which the thunder-god shot his lightning-arrows. In ancient Scandinavia, it was Bifrost, the bridge that Odin built from Midgard, the home of men, to Asgard, where the gods dwelt. Along it passed the souls of the dead, if they were worthy to do so. If they were not, they were destroyed by a fierce fire which is visible to us here below as the red colour in the bow.