Man has dreamed of being immortal forever. This is due to our fear of death and to life escaping from us. The sensation of invincibility and the desire to acquire all the knowledge of the world and universe motivate us to break down barriers, doing the unthinkable to achieve it. For this reason, in many ancient cultures there existed a series of tactics to attain eternal life.
Here are 7 ways to reach immortality according to the different cultures of antiquity.
1- Eat a mermaid
In Japanese mythology, it was believed in the Ningyo creature, a mixture between monkey and carp fish. In general, it is translated as "human fish" or as "mermaid". Like sirens, ningyo lives in the sea and if caught they bring bad luck and stormy weather.
There is a well-known myth that tells how a man who accidentally served his daughter's meat to her daughter and condemned her to immortality.
2- Mocking Jesus
In Christian mythology there is a legend that tells what happened to a Jewish man who mocked Jesus while he was being crucified. The story tells that the man hit Jesus with his shoe and told him to hurry to die. Jesus replied that although he was leaving this world, the man would have to live until he returned.
Realizing the seriousness of his actions, the man converted to Christianity and adopted the name of Joseph, but the curse never disappeared. Joseph could not sit or rest for the rest of his life, except at Christmas. In addition, with each new century, he became seriously ill and entered into a seizure, after which he was 30 years old again.
3- Angry a god
In Greek mythology, it was popular to believe that when a human tried to defy or deceive the gods, he ended up being punished for all eternity. For example, Sisyphus, the king of Ephraim (the ancient name of present Corinth), by deceiving and defying them, was punished by Zeus and Thanatos to roll a stone to the top of a mountain and then roll it down, again and again , for the rest of eternity.
4- Cinnabar
Cinnabar is a sulfuric mineral that is mostly composed of mercury. In Taoism is considered an elixir of immortality. It was believed that the potion made with this mineral was able to eliminate imperfections of the body allowing it to live forever.
However, most of these elixir were toxic and so many people died looking to be immortal, including several emperors.
5- Peaches
In Chinese mythology, Sun Wukong, King Mono, was named by the Empress the Protector of Peaches, of Immortality and decided to eat one. This gave him a thousand years of life, during which he fought in the war against the Celestial Army and finally Buddha was the only one able to catch him under a mountain for 5 centuries.
6- Amrita
In Hinduism, in the sacred language Sanskrit "amrita" means immortality. When the Gods lost their immortality, due to a curse, they sought by all means to recover it. To do this, they allied themselves with their enemies, the asuras, to go in search of the amrita nectar. The Gods managed to deceive their enemies and took all the amrita themselves and recovered their immorality.
7- The Holy Grail
In Christian mythology, the holy grail is the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. The legend says that it is also from where Joseph of Arimathea contained the blood of Jesus while he was on the cross. One of the most famous seekers of the holy grail is King Arthur and his knights. However, only the purest soul is capable of holding them, and of them, it was Sir Galahad who succeeded and acquired immortality.