D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May
2009
Cicadas
Page: 2The cicada has entered the realm of folklore across much of the world, possibly because its periodic emergence from darkness into light and song has been equated with rebirth and good fortune.
According to the Earthlife website, a Greek poet once wrote, "We call you happy, O Cicada, because after you have drunk a little dew in the treetops you sing like a queen."
An Italian myth held that "one day there was born on the earth a beautiful, good and very talented woman whose singing was so wonderful it even enchanted the gods. When she died the world seemed so forlorn without the sweet sound of her singing that the gods allowed her to return to life every summer as the cicadas so that her singing could lift up the hearts of man and beast once again."
Early English naturalist Thomas Moufet wrote that the cicada "eats nothing belonging to the earth and drinks only dew, proving cleanliness, purity and propriety; it will not accept wheat or rice, thus indicating its probity and honesty; how appealing to celestial conservatives! It appears always at a fixed time, showing it is endowed with fidelity, sincerity and truthfulness."
In our desert Southwest, the cicada outwitted the traditional trickster, the coyote, in Zuni mythology. It produced heat in Hopi mythology, heralding the arrival of summer, and it is "the patron of Hopi Flute societies. . . in charge of both music and healing," according to Stephen W. Hill in Kokopelli Ceremonies. The cicada played a key role as a scout and a conqueror in Navajo creation myths. It brought renewal and healing to other tribes.
Across the Southwest, from prehistory into historic times, the cicada became identified with the hump-backed flute player, Kokopelli, a charismatic and iconic figure portrayed in rock art and ceramic imagery.
"Kokopelli, the Cicada, is a musician," writes Gail E. Haley in her children's book Kokopelli, Drum in Belly. "His humpbacked silhouette is so appealing that his dancing figure has become almost the ambassador of the Southwest — appearing on place mats, T-shirts, jewelry and metal works that can be found in tourist shops all over the world. I saw them in Australia, and now he can be found on bathroom towels, mats and toothbrush holders made in China."
Kokopelli risked his life to lead the Ant People from mythological inner worlds to the present world, according to Haley, where they became The First People, after agreeing to follow the teaching of the Great Spirit.
"Kokopelli's transparent wings have now unfolded and dried, and he is able to take to the sky. . . . Kokopelli's reward is flight. His continued gift to us is his reminder to be grateful that we no longer live in darkness."
Jay W. Sharp is a Las Cruces author who is a regular contributor to DesertUSA, an Internet magazine, and who is the author of Texas Unexplained.