Trinity: A group of three closely related members.
How characters are grouped numerically, how the elements of world-building are designed, and how the events in the timeline of a story are numbered can speak volumes about a story. Provided are some notable mythological and religious texts that shed light on the use of the trinity and the triad.
Greek Mythology: Of the female Gods of Olympus, there were three in particular that were the most revered. Edith Hamilton writes in her work Mythology;
"Golden Aphrodite who stirs with love all creation, Cannot bend nor ensnare three hearts; the pure maiden Vesta, Gray-eyed Athena who cares but for war and the arts of craftsmen, Artemis, lover of woods and the wild chase over the mountains."
Hamilton goes on to expand upon the Goddess Artemis;
"She was the Lady of Wild Things, Hunstman-in-chief to the gods, an odd office for a woman. Like a good huntsman, she was careful to preserve the young; she was the protectress of dewy youth' everywhere. Nevertheless, with one of those startling contradictions so common in mythology, she kept the Greek Fleet from sailing to Troy until they sacrificed a maiden to her. In many other stories, too, she is fierce and revengeful. On the other hand, when women died a swift and painless death, they were held to have been slain by her silver arrows."
And writes further of her origins and as the sister of Pheobus Apollo;
"As Pheobus was the Sun, she was the Moon, called Pheobe and Selene (Luna in Latin). Neither name originally belonged to her. Pheobe was a Titan, one of the older gods. So too was Selene-a moon-goddess, indeed, but not connected with Apollo. She was the sister of Helios, the sun-god with whom Apollo was confused."
Hamilton writes of her being as a triad;
"In the later poets, Artemis is identified with Hecate. She is 'the goddess with three forms,' Selene in the sky, Artemis on earth, Hecate in the lower world, and in the world above when it is wrapped in darkness. Hecate was the Goddess of the Dark Moon, the black nights when the moon is hidden. She was associated with deeds of darkness, the Goddess of the Crossways, which were held to be ghostly places of evil magic."
A poetic passage is quoted in the text;
"Hecate of hell, Mighty to shatter every stubborn thing. Hark! Hark! her hounds are baying through the town. Where three roads meet, there she is standing."
Celtic Mythology: Many Celtic deities and their lineages were grouped into numbers of three. In the written work by T.W. Rolleston, Celtic Myths and Legends, various sections of the book tell of this recurring tendency to group peoples and ideas into triads and trinities;
Rolleston writes of the Celtic deities;
"What were the names and the attributes of the Celtic deities? Here we are very much in the dark. The Megalithic People did not imagine their deities under concrete personal form. Stones, rivers, wells, trees, and other natural objects were to them the adequate symbols, or were half symbols, half actual embodiments, of the supernatural forces which they venerated. But the imaginative mind of the Aryan Celt was not content with this."
Rolleston continues;
"In the form in which we have them these conceptions bear clear traces of Roman influence. The sculptures are rude copies of the Roman style of religious art. But we meet among them figures of much wilder and stranger aspect-gods with triple faces, gods with branching antlers on their brows, ram-headed serpents, and other now unintelligible symbols of older faith. Very notable is the frequent occurrence of the cross-legged 'Buddha,' attitude so prevalent in the religious art of the East and of Mexico, and also the tendency, so well known in Egypt, to group the gods in triads."
Rolleston writes of the divine Goddess Dana in the section of The Irish Invasion Myths;
"The greatest of the Danaan goddesses was Dana, 'mother of the Irish gods,' as she called in an early text. She was the daughter of the Dagda, and, like him, associated with the ideas of fertility and blessing. According to d'Arbois de Jubainville, she was identical with the goddess Brigit, who was so widely worshipped in Celtica. Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba are said to have been her sons-these really represent but one person, in the usual Irish fashion of conceiving the divine power in triads. The name of Brian, who takes the lead in all the exploits of the brethren, is a derivation from a more ancient form, Brenos, and under this form was the god to whom the Celts attributed their victories at the Allia and at Delphi, mistaken by Roman and Greek chroniclers for an earthly leader."
Rolleston in the section of The Coming of the Milesians, writes of the triad of lineages;
"At this time, it is said, Ireland was ruled by three Danaan kings, grandsons of the Dagda. Their names were MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGrene, and their wives were named respectively Banba, Fohla, and Eriu. The Celtic habit of conceiving divine persons in triads is here illustrated. These triads represent one person each, and the mythical character of that personage is evident from the name of one of them, Mac Grene, Son of the Sun. The names of the three goddesses have each at different times been applied to Ireland, but that of the third, Eriu, has alone persisted, and in the native form, Erinn, is a poetic name for the country to this day. The Eriu is the wife of MacGrene means, as de Jubainville observes, that the Sun-god, the god of Day, Life, and Science, has wedded the land and is reigning over it."
Rolleston writes in the section Myths and Tales of the Cymry, of an independent system of thought that existed through Bardic philosophy;
"In this system, two primary existences are contemplated, God and Cythrawl, who stand respectively for the principle of energy tending towards life, and the principle of destruction tending towards nothingness. Cythrawl is realised in Annwn, which may be rendered the Abyss or Chaos. In the beginning, there was nothing but God and Annwn. Organized life began by the Word-God pronounced His ineffable Name and the 'Manred,' was formed. The Manred was the primal substance of the universe. It was conceived as a multitude of minute indivisible particles-atoms, in fact-each being a microcosm, for God is complete in each of them, while at the same time each is a part of God, the Whole. The totality of being is as it now exists is represented by three concentric circles. The innermost of them, where life sprang from Annwn, is called 'Abred,' and is the stage of struggle and evolution-the contest of life with Cythrawl. The next is the circle of 'Gwynfyd,' or Purity, in which life is manifested as a pure, rejoicing force, having attained its triumph over evil. The last and outermost circle is called 'Ceugant,' or Infinity. Here all predicates fail us, and this circle, represented graphically not by a bounding line, but by divergent rays, is inhabited by God alone."
Chinese Mythology: In the written work by E.T.C. Werner, Myths and Legends of China, the triad or trinity is expressed through records of ancestral persons, divinities and different classes of immortal beings.
Werner writes in the section of The Three Religions;
"We have in China the universal worship of ancestors, which constitutes (or did until A.D. 1912) the State religion, usually known as Confucianism, and in addition, we have the gods of the specific religions (which also originally took their rise in ancestor-worship), namely, Buddhism and Taoism. (Other religions, though tolerated, are not recognized as Chinese religions.) It is with brief account of this great hierarchy and its mythology that we now concern ourselves."
Written of, is the two distinct religions most popular among the people;
"Besides the ordinary ancestor-worship (as distinct from the State worship) the people took to Buddhism and Taoism, which became the popular religions, and the literati also honoured the gods of these two sects. Buddhist deities, gradually became installed in Taoist temples, and the Taoist immortals were given seats besides the Buddhas in their sanctuaries. Everyone patronized the god who seemed to him the most popular and the most lucrative. There even came to be united in the same temple and worshipped at the same altar the three religious founders or figure-heads, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao Tzu. The three religions were even regarded as forming one whole, or at least, though different, as having one and the same object: san erh i yeh, or han san wei i, 'the three are one,' or 'the three unite to form one,' (a quotation from the phrase T'ai chi han san wei i of Fang Yu-lu: 'When they reach the extreme the three are seen to be one'). In the popular pictorial representations of the pantheon this impartiality is clearly shown."
Werner writes in the passage of The Super-triad;
"The toleration, fraternity, or co-mixture of the three religions-ancestor-worship or Confucianism, Chines Buddhism, and Taoism-explains the compound nature of the triune ahead of the Chinese pantheon. The numerous deities of Buddhism and Taoism culminate each in a triad of gods (the Three Precious Ones and the Three Pure Ones respectively), but the three religions jointly have also a triad compounded of one representative member of each. This general or super-triad is of course, composed of Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Buddha. This is officially decreed order, though it is varied occasionally by Buddha being placed in the centre (the place of honour) as an act of ceremonial deference shown to a 'stranger' or 'guest' from another country."
Werner writes in the section of The Three Pure Ones;
"Turning to the gods of Taoism, we find that the triad or trinity, already noted as forming the head of that hierarchy, consists of three Supreme Gods, each in his own Heaven. These three Heavens, the San Ch'ing, 'Three Pure Ones' (this name being also applied to the sovereigns ruling in them), were formed from the three airs, which are subdivisions of the one primordial air."
Werner writes of the God of Truth;
"The first Heaven is Yu Ch'ing. In it reigns the first member of the Taoist triad. He inhabits the Jade Mountain. The entrance to this palace is named the Golden Door. He is the source of all truth, as the sun is the source of all light."
Werner of the different names that belonged to this deity;
"Various authorities give his name differently-Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun, or Lo Ching Hsin, and call him T'ien Pao, 'the Treasure of Heaven,' Some state that the name of the ruler of this first Heaven is Yu Huang, and in the popular mind it is he who occupies this supreme position. The Three Pure Ones are above him in rank, but to him, the Pearly Emperor, is entrusted the superintendence of the world. He has all the power of Heaven and earth in his hands. He is the correlative of Heaven, or rather Heaven itself."
Werner writes of the second deity, a chronicler and an archivist, and a figure akin to Father Time;
"The second Heaven, Shang Ch'iang, is ruled by the second person of the triad, named Ling-pao T'ien-tsun, or Tao Chun. No information is given as to his origin. He is the custodian of the sacred books. He has existed from the beginning of the world. He calculates time, dividing it into different epochs. He occupies the upper pole of the world, and determines the movements and interaction, or regulates the relations of the yin and the yang, the two great principles of nature."
Werner writes of the third heaven;
"In the third Heaven, T'ai Ch'ing, the Taoists place Lao Page, the promulgator of the true doctrine drawn up by Ling-pao T'ien-tsun. He is alternatively called Shen Pao, 'the Treasure of the Spirits,' and T'ai-shang Lao-chun, 'the Most Eminent Aged Ruler.' Under various assumed names he as appeared as the teacher of kings and emperors, the reformer of successive generations."
The deities and immortals were thus grouped into these categories;
"As regards the organization of the Taoist Heavens, Yu Huang has on his register the name of eight hundred Taoist divinities and a multitude of Immortals. These are all divided into three categories; Sains (Sheng-jen), Heroes (Chen-jen), and Immortals (Hsien-jen), occupying the three Heavens respectively in that order."
The comparison between Taoism and Buddhism is made;
"This three-stories Taoist Heaven, or the three Heavens, is the result of the wish of the Taoists not to be out-rivalled by the Buddhists. For Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood they substitute the Tao, or Reason, the Classics, and the Priesthood."
Werner goes on to write of an additional trinity that was revered, The Three Causes, which differs from the worship of the three deities who presided over the heavens, mentioned previously. As with this trinity, the formation of the earth and its manifestations is told of, and their rankings, roles and parts as they function in this second triad;
"Connected with Taoism, but not exclusively associated with that religion, is the worship of the Three Causes, the deities presiding over three departments of physical nature, Heaven, earth and water. They are known by various designations; San Kuan, 'the Three Agents'; San Yuan, 'the Three Origins'; San Kuan Ta Ti, 'the Three Great Emperor Agents'; and T'ai Shang San Kuan, 'the Three Supreme Agents.' This worship has passed through four chief phases, as follows: The first comprises Heaven, earth, and water, T'ien, Ti, Shui, the sources of happiness, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from evil respectively. Each of these is called King-emperor. Their names, written on labels and offered to Heaven (on a mountain), earth (by burial), and water (by immersion), are supposed to cure sickness. This idea fates from the Han dynasty, being first noted about A.D. 172."
Further mention is of the Three Agents and the categorizations of the year through the moon;
"The second, San Yuang dating from A.D. 407 under the Wei dynasty, identified the Three Agents with three dates of which they were respectively made the patrons. The year was divided into three unequal parts: the first to the seventh moon; the seventh to the tenth; and the tenth to the twelfth. Of these, the fifteenth day of the first, seventh, and tenth moons respectively became the three principal dates of these periods. Thus the Agent of Heaven became the principal patron of the first division, honoured on the fifteenth day of the first moon, and so on."
Werner writes of the third phase that fans out to encompass all beings;
"The third phase, San Kuan, resulted from the first two being found too complicated for popular favour. The San Kuan were the three sons of a man, Ch'en Tzu-ch'un, who was soo handsome, and intelligent that the three daughters of Lung Wang, the Dragon-king, fell in love with him and went to live with him. The eldest girl was the mother of the Superior Cause, the second of the Medium Cause, and the third of the Inferior Cause. All these were gifted with supernatural powers. Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun canonized them as the Three Great Emperor Agents of Heaven, earth, and water, governors of all beings, devils or gods, in the three regions of the universe. As in the first phase, the T'ien Kuan confers happiness, the Ti Kuan grants remission of sins, and the Shui Kuan delivers from evil or misfortune."
Werner expands on the figure of the First Cause, Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun;
"Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun, or the First Cause, the Highest in Heaven, generally placed at the head of the Taoist triad, is said never to have existed but in the fertile imagination of the Lao Tzuist sectarians. According to them, Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun had neither origin nor master, but is himself the cause of all beings, which is why he is called the First Cause."
Werner emphasizes the importance of this being, and his omniscience and anchored existence which pervades across time in the order
of things;
"As a member of the first triad, and sovereign ruler of the First Heaven, Yu Ch'ing, where reign the saints, he is raised in rank above all other gods. The name assigned to him is Lo Ching Hsin. He was born before all beginnings; his substance is imperishable; it is formed essentially of uncreated air, air a se, invisible and without perceptible limits. No one has been able to penetrate to the beginnings of his existence. The source of all truth, he at each renovation of the worlds-that is, each new Kalpa-gives out the mysterious doctrine which confers immortality. All who reach this knowledge attain by degrees to life eternal, become refined like the spirits, or instantly become Immortals, even while upon earth."
And written furthermore, is the unchanged presence of the being;
"Origianlly, Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun was not a member of the Taoist triad. He resided above the Three Heavens, above the Three Pure Ones, surviving the destructions and renovations of the universe, as an immovable rock in the midst of a stormy sea. He set the stars in motion, and caused the planets to revolve. The chief of his secret police was Tsao Chun, the Kitchen-god, who rendered to him an account of the good and evil deeds of each family. His executive agent was Lei Tsu, the God of Thunder, and his subordinates. The seven stars of the North Pole, were the palace of his ministers, whose officers were on the various sacred mountains. Nowadays, however, Yuan-shih T'ien-tsun is generally neglected for Yu Huang."
Werner goes on to write additionally of a fourth phase;
The fourth phase consisted simply in the substitution by the priests for the abstract or time-principles of the three great sovereigns of ancient times. Yao, Shun, and Yu. The Literati, proud of the apothesis of their ancient rulers, hastened to offer incense to them, and temples, San Yuan Kung, arose in very many parts of the Empire."
And further;
"A variation of this phase is the canonization, with the title of San Yuan or The Three Causes, of Wu-k'o San Chen Chun, 'the Three True Sovereigns, Guests of the Kingdom of Wu.' They were three Censors who lived in the reign of King Li (Li Wang, 878-841 B.C.) of the Chou dynasty. Leaving the service of the Chou on account of Li's dissolute living, they went to live in Wu, and brought victory to that state in its war with the Ch'u State, then returned to their own country, and became pillars of the Chou State under Li's successor. They appeared to protect the Emperor Chen Tsung when he was offering the Feng-shan sacrifices on T'ai Shan in A.D. 1008, on which occasion they were canonized with the titles of Superior, Medium, and Inferior Causes, as before, conferring upon them the regencies of Heaven, earth, and water respectively."
Egyptian Mythology:In the work by Lewis Spence, Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends, the author writes of sun-worship and the deities who were believed to manifest and surround the sun;
"Primitive as is the nature of sun-worship, it possesses elements which enable it to survive where many more advanced and complicated cults succumb. Even in such a country, side by side with an aristocracy of real intelligence but limited opportunities, there must naturally have existed millions of peasants and helots who were only to be distinguished from savages because of their contact with their superiors and their settlement as an agricultural race."
The solar deities of Egypt are compared to the sun-gods of Peru;
"To them, the sun would, it might be thought, appear as the god par excellence, the great quickener and fructifier; but we find the cult of Ra more or less of an aristocratic theological system, in early times at least; and for the cult of the people we have to turn to the worship of Osiris. Undoubtedly the best parallel to the worship of Ra in Egypt is to be found in that of the sun in ancient Peru. Just as the monarch of Peru personified the sun on earth, and acted as his regent in the terrestrial sphere, so the Egyptian monarchs styled themselves 'sons of the sun.' In both instances, the solar cult was eminently aristocratic in character. This is proved by the circumstance that the paradise of Ra was a sphere more spiritual by far than that of Osiris, with its purely material delights. Those happy enough to gain the heaven of the sun-god were clothed in light, and their food was described as 'light.'"
Lewis expands upon the cult and worship of Osiris;
"A great but silent struggle was waged for many centuries between the priesthoods of Ra and Osiris, but in the end the beliefs clustering around the latter deity gained pre-eminence, and he took over the titles, powers, and attributes of the great god of the sun. Then it was probable, as has elsewhere been stated, that the conception of a moon-and a sun-god became fused in his person. The worship of Osiris was fundamentally African and Egyptian in character, but there is strong reason to believe that the cult of Ra possessed many foreign elements, possibly West Asiatic in origin, which accounts for the coldness with which the masses of Egypt regarded his worship. Heliopolis, his city, contained many inhabitants of Asiatic birth, and this may account to some extent for the introduction of some of the tenets in his creed which the Native Egyptians found unpalatable."
Lewis writes of the father-son relationship between the supreme Ra, and his son, Osiris;
"There is no doubt, however, that, to the aristocracy of Egypt at least, Ra stood in the position of creator and father of the gods. Osiris stood in relation to him as a son. In fact, the relations of these two deities may be regarded as that between god the father and god the son, and just as in certain theologies the figure of god and the son has overshadowed that of god the father, so did Osiris overshadow Ra."
The structure of the day as broken into three parts is explained;
"The god Tem, or Atum, who, as has been said, was originally the local deity of the Heliopolis, was in the dynastic period held to be one of the forms of Ra, and a personification of the setting sun. Tem was one of the first gods of the Egyptians. He is depicted as sailing in the boat of Ra, with whom he was clearly united in early times as Ra-Tem. He appears to have been a god who possessed many attributed in common with Ra, and later on he seems to have been identified with Ra, and later on he seems to have been identified with Osiris as well. In the myth of Ra and Isis Ra says, 'I am Khepera in the morning, and Ra at noon-day, and Tem in the evening,' which shows that to the Egyptians the day was divided into three parts, each of which was presided over by a special form of the sun-god. Tem was worshipped in one of his forms as a serpent, a fairly common shape for a sun-god, for in many countries the snake or serpent, tail in mouth, symbolizes the disk of the sun."
A triad of Gods is mentioned within the passage of the Seker-boat, the God Seker, a figure considered to be one and the same as Ptah, who was the god of handicraft, a metalsmith, as well as a master architect. Lewis writes how they became joined over time;
"Although Seker was fairly popular as a deity in Ancient Egypt, his attributes seem to have been entirely usurped by Ptah. We also find the triple-named deity Ptah-Seker-Osiris, who is often represented as a hawk on coffers or sarcophagi. About the Twenty-second Dynasty, this triad had practically become one with Osiris, and he had even variants which took the attributes of Min, Amsu, and Khepera. He has been described as the 'triune god of the resurrection.' There is very little doubt that the amalgamation of these gods was brought about by priestly influence."
As the lineage of the gods expands, Spence writes of succeeding triads. Lewis writes of the figure known as I-em-hetep;
"I-em-hetep, another son of Ptah, was also regarded as the third member of the great triad of Memphis. The name means 'Come in peace,' and was given him because he was supposed to bring the art of healing to mankind. Like his father Ptah, he is depicted as wearing a skull-cap. Before him is stretched a roll of papyrus to typify his character as a god of study and learning; but it is as a god of medicine that he was most popular in Egypt. In later times he took the place of Thoth as scribe of the gods, and provided the words of magic power which protected the dead from their enemies in the Duat. He had also a funerary character, which perhaps implies that physicians may have been in some manner connected with the art of embalmment."
Another revered trinity of Gods was written about in the section of Khnemus;
"At the city of Elephantine or Abu a great triad of gods was held in reverence. This consisted of Khnemu, Satet, Anqet. The worship of the first-mentioned deity was of great antiquity, and even in the inscription of King Unas we find him alluded to in a manner which proves that his cult was very old. His position, too, had always been an exalted one, and even to the last he appears to have been of importance in the eyes of the Gnostics. Khnemu was probably a god of the pre-dynastic Egyptians. He was symbolized by the flat-horned ram, which appears to have been introduced into the country from the East. We do not find him referred to in any inscription subsequent to the Twelfth Dynasty."
Spence goes on to describe the characteristics associated with the god, as a water carrier and as the shaper of the first egg which birthed the sun;
He is usually represented in the form of a ram-headed man wearing the white crown, and sometimes the disc. In some instances, he is pictured as pouring water over the earth, and in others with a jug above his horns-a sure indication that he is connected in some way with moisture. His name signifies the builder or framer, and it was he who fashioned the first man upon a potter's wheel, who made the first egg from which sprang the sun, who made the bodies of the gods, and who continued to build them up and maintain them."
Lewis writes of the two other female figures that complete the trinity. Satet, the first, carried or brought forth water, and was armed as a goddess;
"Satet, the principal female counterpart of Khnemu, was also a goddess of the inundation. The name probably means 'to pour out' or 'to scatter abroad,' so that it might signify a goddess who wielded the powers of rain. She carries in her hands a bow and arrows, as did Neith, typical of the rain or thunderbolt. She was regarded as a form of Isis from the circumstance that both were connected with the star Sept, and in this guise she appears in the Book of the Dead as a counterpart of Osiris."
And the last female figure, Anqet is written about, an island and river goddess;
"Anqet, the third member of the triad of Elephantine, was a sister-goddess of Satet. She wears a crown of feathers, which would go to show that her origin is a purely African one, and she may have been a goddess of some of the islands of the First Cataract. She had been associated with the other members of the triad from very early dynastic times, however, and her cult was fairly widely disseminated through Northern Nubia. In later times her worship centred at Sahal, where she was regarded as a goddess of that island, and where she had a temple built perhaps in the Eighteeth Dynasty. She had also a shrine Philae, where she was identified with Nepthys, as was almost necessary, seeing that Osiris had been identified with Khnemu and Satet with Isis. Dr Brugsch considered her a personification of the waters of the Nile, and thought that her name signified 'to surround,' 'to embrace,' and that it had reference to the embracing and nourishment of the fields by the river."