1.
Elohim
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Elohim is a grammatically plural noun for gods or deity in Biblical Hebrew. In Modern Hebrew, it is referred to in the singular despite the -im ending that denotes plural masculine nouns in Hebrew. It is generally thought that Elohim is derived from eloah, the latter being a form of the Northwest Semitic noun ’il. The related nouns eloah and el are used as names or as generics. The notion of divinity underwent radical changes throughout the period of early Israelite identity, Rabbinic scholar Maimonides wrote that the various other usages are commonly understood to be homonyms. The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible defines elohim as a plural of eloah and it contains an added heh as third radical to the biconsonantal root. Discussions of the etymology of elohim essentially concern this expansion, El is usually derived from a root meaning to be strong and/or to be in front. The word el is a term for god in Aramaic, paleo-Hebrew. The Canaanite pantheon of gods was known as ilhm, the Ugaritic equivalent to elohim, for instance, in the Ugaritic Baal cycle we read of seventy sons of Asherah. Each son of god was held to be the deity for a particular people. Elohim occurs frequently throughout the Torah, in some cases, it behaves like a singular noun in Hebrew grammar, and is then generally understood to denote the single God of Israel. In other cases, Elohim acts as a plural of the word Eloah. The words used for God varies in the Hebrew Bible, form criticism postulates the differences of names may be the result of geographical origins, the P and E sources coming from the North and J from the South. J presents Yahweh anthropomorphically, for example, walking through the Garden of Eden looking for Adam, in the Jahwist tale, Yahweh is simply stationed in the sky, above the clouds without the ladder or angels. Likewise, the Elohist describes Jacob wrestling with an angel, the classical documentary hypothesis, first developed in the late 19th century CE among literary scholars, holds that the Elohist portions of the Torah were composed in the 9th century BCE. The phrase bene elohim, translated sons of the Gods, has a parallel in Ugaritic and Phoenician texts. Elohim occupy the seventh rank of ten in the famous medieval Rabbinic scholar Maimonides Jewish angelic hierarchy, Maimonides said, I must premise that every Hebrew knows that the term Elohim is a homonym, and denotes God, angels, judges, and the rulers of countries. In Hebrew the ending -im mainly indicates a masculine plural, however with Elohim the construction is usually understood to be grammatically singular when referring to the Hebrew God, but grammatically plural elohim when used of pagan divinities
2.
Bull
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A bull is an intact adult male of the species Bos taurus. Usage of these terms varies considerably with area and dialect, colloquially, people unfamiliar with cattle may refer to both castrated and intact animals as bulls. A wild, young, unmarked bull is known as a micky in Australia, improper or late castration on a bull results in it becoming a coarse steer, also known as a stag in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In some countries an incompletely castrated male is also as a rig or ridgling. The word bull also denotes the males of other bovines, including bison and water buffalo as well as other species of large animals including elephants, camels, elk, moose. Bulls are much more muscular than cows, with bones, larger feet, a very muscular neck. These features assist bulls in fighting for domination over a herd, the hair is generally shorter on the body, but on the neck and head there is often a mane of curlier, wooly hair. Bulls are usually about the height as cows or a little taller. In horned cattle the horns of bulls tend to be thicker and somewhat shorter than those of cows, and in many breeds they curve outwards in a flat arc rather than upwards in a lyre shape. It is not true, as is believed, that bulls have horns and cows do not. Bulls become fertile at about seven months of age, given the small amount of erectile tissue, there is little enlargement after erection. The penis is quite rigid when non-erect, and becomes more rigid during erection. Protrusion is not affected much by erection, but more by relaxation of the retractor penis muscle, Bulls are occasionally affected by a condition known as corkscrew penis. The penis of a bull is about 3–4 cm in diameter. The bulls glans penis has a rounded and elongated shape, a common misconception widely repeated in depictions of bull behavior is that the color red angers bulls, inciting them to charge. In fact, like most mammals, cattle are red-green color blind, in bullfighting, it is the movement of the matadors cape, and not the color, which provokes a reaction in the bull. Other than the few bulls needed for breeding, the vast majority of cattle are slaughtered for meat before the age of three years. Most of these animals are castrated as calves to reduce aggressive behavior and prevent unwanted mating
3.
Canaan
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Canaan was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the references in Genesis 10 and Numbers 34 define the Land of Canaan as extending from Lebanon southward to the Brook of Egypt and eastward to the Jordan River Valley. References to Canaan in the Bible are usually backward-looking, referring to a region that had something else. The term Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled, the Amarna Letters and other cuneiform documents use Kinaḫḫu, while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged. Much of the knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo. The English term Canaan comes from the Hebrew כנען, via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and it appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters, and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna, scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kanaan, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root knʿ to be low, humble, purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have named after their place of origin. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far, however, according to Robert Drews, Speisers proposal has generally been abandoned. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, Jonathan Tubb states that the term ga-na-na may provide a third millennium reference to Canaanite while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details, Mari letters A letter from Mutu-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I of the Old Assyrian Empire has been translated, It is in Rahisum that the brigands and the Canaanites are situated. It was found in 1973 in the ruins of Mari, an Assyrian outpost at that time in Syria, additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Alalakh texts A reference to Ammiya being in the land of Canaan is found on the Statue of Idrimi from Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mothers relatives to seek refuge in the land of Canaan, the other references in the Alalakh texts are, AT154 AT181, A list of Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan AT188, A list of Muskenu people with their origins, the letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though Canaanitish words and idioms are also in evidence. May the king ask Yanhamu about these matters, may the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan EA151, Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh, The king, my lord wrote to me, write to me what you have heard from Canaan
4.
Levant
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The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean. The term Levant entered English in the late 15th century from French and it derives from the Italian Levante, meaning rising, implying the rising of the sun in the east. As such, it is equivalent to the Arabic term Mashriq. Eventually the term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine, in 1581, England set up the Levant Company to monopolize commerce with the Ottoman Empire. The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and this is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used synonymously with Syria-Palestine. Some scholars misunderstood the term thinking that it derives from the name of Lebanon, today the term is typically used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. It does not include Anatolia, the Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper, the Sinai Peninsula is sometimes included. The Levant has been described as the crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and northeast Africa, the populations of the Levant share not only the geographic position, but cuisine, some customs, and a very long history. They are often referred to as Levantines, the term Levant, which appeared in English in 1497, originally meant the East in general or Mediterranean lands east of Italy. It is borrowed from the French levant rising, referring to the rising of the sun in the east, the phrase is ultimately from the Latin word levare, meaning lift, raise. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή, in Germanic Morgenland, in Italian, in Hungarian Kelet, in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant, most notably, Orient and its Latin source oriens meaning east, is literally rising, deriving from Latin orior rise. The notion of the Levant has undergone a process of historical evolution in usage, meaning. While the term Levantine originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it came to refer to regional native. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire, at this time, the Far East was known as the Upper Levant. In early 19th-century travel writing, the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman empire, in 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon was called the Levant states, today, Levant is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to it being a wider, yet relevant, archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of the Southern Levant. Two academic journals were launched, Journal of Levantine Studies, published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review
5.
Asherah
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Asherah, in ancient Semitic religion, is a mother goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She appears in Akkadian writings by the name of Ašratu, Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʼAṯirat. Asherah is identified as the consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic El, the oldest deities of their respective pantheons, as well as Yahweh. This role gave her a high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon. Despite her association with Yahweh in extra-biblical sources, Yahweh in the Bible commands the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of worship to Yahweh Himself. The Book of Jeremiah, written circa 628 BC, possibly refers to Asherah when it uses the title Queen of Heaven in Jeremiah 7, 16-18 and Jeremiah 44, for a discussion of the Queen of Heaven in the Hebrew Bible, see Queen of heaven. In the Ugaritic texts Athirat is almost always given her full title rbt ʼaṯrt ym, rabat ʼAṯirat yammi and this occurs 12 times in the Baʿal Epic alone. The name is understood by various translators and commentators to be from the Ugaritic root ʼaṯr stride, cognate with the Hebrew root ʼšr, there she appears to champion Yam, in his struggle with Baal. Her other main divine epithet was qaniyatu ʾilhm which may be translated as the creatrix of the Gods. In those texts, Athirat is the consort of the god El, there is one reference to the 70 sons of Athirat and she is also called Elat and Qodesh, holiness. Athirat in Akkadian texts appears as Ashratum, the wife of Anu, among the Hittites this goddess appears as Asherdu or Asertu, the consort of Elkunirsa and mother of either 77 or 88 sons. Among the Amarna letters a King of the Amorites is named Abdi-Ashirta, in Egypt, beginning in the Eighteenth Dynasty, a Semitic goddess named Qudshu Holiness begins to appear prominently, equated with the native Egyptian goddess Hathor. Some think this is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name, some biblical scholars believe that Asherah at one time was worshiped as the consort of Yahweh, the national God of Israel. Josiahs grandfather Manasseh had erected one of such statues, the inscriptions found invoke not only Yahweh but El and Baal, and two include the phrases Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah and Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah. The Asherah is most likely a cultic object, although the relationship of this object to Yahweh and to the goddess Asherah, in another inscription called Yahweh and his Asherah, there appears a cow feeding its calf. If Asherah is to be associated with Hathor/Qudshu, it can then be assumed that the cow is whats being referred to as Asherah, william Devers book Did God Have a Wife. The word Asherah is translated in Greek as alsos, grove, or alse, groves, or occasionally by dendra, trees, Vulgate in Latin provided lucus or nemus, the association of Asherah with trees in the Hebrew Bible is very strong. For example, she is found under trees and is made of wood by human beings, trees described as being an asherah or part of an asherah include grapevines, pomegranates, walnuts, myrtles, and willows
6.
Anat
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Anat or Anath is a major northwest Semitic goddess. In the Ugaritic Ba‘al/Hadad cycle ‘Anat is a violent war-goddess, a virgin who is the sister and, according to a disputed theory. Ba‘al is usually called the son of Dagan and sometimes the son of El, ‘Anats titles used again and again are virgin ‘Anat and sister-in-law of the peoples. Her character in this passage anticipates her subsequent warlike role against the enemies of Baal. the daughter of El. Later, when Ba‘al is believed to be dead, she seeks after Ba‘al like a cow for its calf and finds his body and buries it with great sacrifices and weeping. Text CTA10 tells how ‘Anat seeks after Ba‘al who is out hunting, finds him, following the birth she brings the new calf to Ba‘al on Mount Zephon. Nowhere in these texts is ‘Anat explicitly Ba‘al Hadads consort, to judge from later traditions ‘Athtart is more likely to be Ba‘al Hadads consort. Complicating matters is that northwest Semitic culture permitted more than one wife and he then added to this insult by asking what would a woman do with a bow. Like Inanna in the Epic of Gilgamesh, ‘Anat complained to El, ‘Anat launched her attendant Yatpan in hawk form against Aqhat to knock the breath out of him and to steal the bow back. Her plan succeeds, but Aqhat is killed instead of merely beaten, in her rage against Yatpan, Yatpan runs away and the bow and arrows fall into the sea. ‘Anat mourned for Aqhat and for the curse that this act would bring upon the land, the focus of the story then turns to Paghat, the wise younger sister of Aqhat. She sets off to avenge her brothers death and to restore the land which has been devastated by drought as a result of the murder. It breaks at a dramatic moment when Paghat discovers that the mercenary whom she has hired to help her avenge the death is, in fact, Yatpan. The parallels between the story of ‘Anat and her revenge on Mot for the killing of her brother are obvious, in the end, the seasonal myth is played out on the human level. Gibson thinks Rahmay, co-wife of El with Athirat, is also the goddess ‘Anat, use of dual names of deities in Ugaritic poetry are an essential part of the verse form, and that two names for the same deity are traditionally mentioned in parallel lines. In the same way, Athirat is called Elath in paired couplets, the poetic structure can also be seen in early Hebrew verse forms. Anat first appears in Egypt in the 16th dynasty along with other northwest Semitic deities and she was especially worshiped in her aspect of a war goddess, often paired with the goddess Ashtart. In the Contest Between Horus and Set, these two appear as daughters of Re and are given as allies to the god Set
7.
Attar (god)
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ʿAṯtar is an ancient Semitic deity whose role, name, and even gender varied by culture. The name appears as Attar, Athtar, Astar, Ashtar, Aṯtar and Ištar in Mesopotamia, in both genders, Aṯtar is identified with the planet Venus, the morning and evening star, in some manifestations of Semitic mythology. In Ugaritic mythology Aṯtar succeeds to the throne of the dead god Baal Hadad, in semi-arid regions of western Asia he was sometimes worshipped as a rain god. In more southerly regions he is known as Dhu-Samani. Attar was worshipped in Southern Arabia in pre-Islamic times, a god of war, he was often referred to as He who is Bold in Battle. One of his symbols was the spear-point and the antelope was his sacred animal and he had power over Venus, the morning star, and was believed to provide humankind with water. In ancient times, Arabia shared the gods of Mesopotamia, being so close to Babylon, except the genders, for instance, the sun god Shamash became the sun goddess Shams, and in southern Arabia Ishtar became the male storm god Athtar. Athtar was a god of the thunderstorm, dispensing natural irrigation in the form of rain, Athtar also represented fertility and water as essential to fertility. Attar appears as the demon Ashtar in Shin Megami Tensei II, encyclopædia Britannica Online, Athtar Jewish Encyclopedia, Ashtoreth in Arabia A Whos Who of World Mythology, Athtar
8.
Baal
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Baal, properly Baʿal, was a title and honorific meaning lord in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods and that use was taken over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the opprobrious form Beelzebub in demonology. The spelling Baal derives from the Greek Báal, which appears in the New Testament and Septuagint, and from its Latinized form Baal and these forms in turn derive from the vowel-less Northwest Semitic form BʿL. The words Biblical senses as a Phoenician deity and false gods generally were extended during the Protestant Reformation to denote any idols, icons of the saints, in such contexts, it follows the anglicized pronunciation and usually omits any mark between its two As. In modern scholarship, the half ring ⟨ ʿ ⟩ or apostrophe ⟨ ⟩ in the name Baʿal marks the original voiced pharyngeal fricative. The Northwest Semitic languages—Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, and Aramaic—were all abjads, as such, the word baʿal was usually written as BʿL, its vowels have been reconstructed. In these languages, baʿal signified owner and, by extension, lord and it also appears as Baʿali or Baʿaly, my Lord. Cognates include the Akkadian Bēlu, Amharic bal, and Arabic baʿl, báʿal and baʿl still serve as the words for husband in modern Hebrew and Arabic respectively. They also appear in some contexts concerning the ownership of things or possession of traits, in Levantine Arabic, baʿl also serves as an adjective describing farming that relies on rainwater alone. The feminine form is baʿalah, meaning mistress in the sense of an owner or lady of the house. Suggestions in early modern scholarship also included comparison with the Celtic god, like EN in Sumerian, the Akkadian bēlu and Northwest Semitic baʿal was used as a title of various deities in the Mesopotamian and Semitic pantheons. Only a definitive article, genitive or epithet, or context could establish which particular god was meant, Baʿal was also used as a proper name by the third millennium BCE, when he appears in a list of deities at Abu Salabikh. Most modern scholarship asserts that this Baʿal—usually distinguished as The Lord —was identical with the storm and fertility god Hadad, a minority propose that Baʿal was a native Canaanite deity whose cult was identified with or absorbed aspects of Adads. Regardless of their relationship, by the 1st millennium BCE. The Phoenician Baʿal is generally identified with either El or Dagan, nonetheless, Ugaritic records show him as a weather god, with particular power over lightning, wind, rain, and fertility. The dry summers of the area were explained as Baʿals time in the underworld, anxiety about the availability of water for crops and trees increased the importance of his cult, which focused attention on his role as a rain god. He was also called upon during battle, showing that he was thought to intervene actively in the world of man, the Lebanese city of Baalbeck was named after Baal. The Baʿal of Ugarit was the epithet of Hadad but as the time passed, Baʿal was usually said to be the son of Dagan, but appears as one of the sons of El in Ugaritic sources
9.
Astarte
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Astarte or Ashtoreth is the Hellenized form of the Middle Eastern goddess Ishtar, worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. The name is associated with her worship in the ancient Levant among the Canaanites. She was also celebrated in Egypt following the importation of Levantine cults there, the name Astarte is sometimes also applied to her cults in Mesopotamian cultures like Assyria and Babylonia. Astarte is one of a number of associated with the chief goddess or female divinity of those peoples. She is recorded in Akkadian as As-dar-tu, the form of Ishtar. The name appears in Ugaritic as ʻAthtart or ʻAṭtart, in Phoenician as Ashtart or Aštart, the Hebrews also referred to the Ashtarot or Astartes in the plural. The Etruscan Pyrgi Tablets record the name Uni-Astre, Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, pictorial representations often show her naked. She has been known as the deified morning and/or evening star, Astarte was worshipped in Syria and Canaan beginning in the first millennium BC and was first mentioned in texts from Ugarit. She came from the same Semitic origins as the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, and her worship spread to Cyprus, where she may have been merged with an ancient Cypriot goddess. This merged Cypriot goddess may have been adopted into the Greek pantheon in Mycenaean, other major centers of Astartes worship were the Phoenician city states of Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. Coins from Sidon portray a chariot in which a globe appears and she was often depicted on Sidonian coins as standing on the prow of a galley, leaning forward with right hand outstretched, being thus the original of all figureheads for sailing ships. In Sidon, she shared a temple with Eshmun, coins from Beirut show Poseidon, Astarte, and Eshmun worshipped together. Other centers were Cythera, Malta, and Eryx in Sicily from which she became known to the Romans as Venus Erycina, a bilingual inscription on the Pyrgi Tablets dating to about 500 BC found near Caere in Etruria equates Astarte with Etruscan Uni-Astre, that is, Juno. At Carthage Astarte was worshipped alongside the goddess Tanit, the Aramean goddess Atargatis may originally have been equated with Astarte, but the first element of the name Atargatis appears to be related to the Ugaritic form of Asherahs name, Athirat. In the Baʿal Epic of Ugarit, Athirat, the consort of the god El, Astarte arrived in ancient Egypt during the 18th dynasty along with other deities who were worshipped by northwest Semitic people. She was especially worshipped in her aspect as a warrior goddess, in the Contest Between Horus and Set, these two goddesses appear as daughters of Ra and are given as allies to the god Set, here identified with the Semitic name Hadad. Plutarch, in his On Isis and Osiris, indicates that the King and Queen of Byblos, in the description of the Phoenician pantheon ascribed to Sanchuniathon, Astarte appears as a daughter of Epigeius and Ge, and sister of the god Elus
10.
Hadad
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Hadad, Adad, Haddad or Iškur was the storm and rain god in the Northwest Semitic and ancient Mesopotamian religions. It was attested in Ebla as Hadda in c.2500 BC, from the Levant, Hadad was introduced to Mesopotamia by the Amorites, where it became known as the Akkadian god Adad. Adad and Iškur are usually written with the logogram dIM, Hadad was also called Pidar, Rapiu, Baal-Zephon, or often simply Baʿal, but this title was also used for other gods. The bull was the animal of Hadad. He appeared bearded, often holding a club and thunderbolt while wearing a bull-horned headdress, Hadad was equated with the Indo-European Nasite Hittite storm-god Teshub, the Egyptian god Set, the Rigvedic god Indra, the Greek god Zeus, the Roman god Jupiter, as Jupiter Dolichenus. In religious texts, Ba‘al/Hadad is the lord of the sky who governs the rain and he is the protector of life and growth to the agricultural people of the region. The absence of Ba‘al causes dry spells, starvation, death, also refers to the mountain of the west wind. The Biblical reference occurs at a time when Yahweh has provided a strong east wind to push back the waters of the Red or Erythrian Sea, so that the sons of Israel might cross over. In the Ugaritic texts El, the god of the pantheon, resides on Mount Lel. That is perhaps the mythical cosmic mountain, the Ba‘al cycle is fragmentary and leaves much unexplained that would have been obvious to a contemporary. In the earliest extant sections there appears to be sort of feud between El and Ba‘al. El makes one of his sons who is called both prince Yamm and judge Nahar king over the gods and changes Yamms name from yw to mdd ’il, El informs Yamm that in order to secure his power, Yamm will have to drive Ba‘al from his throne. In this battle Ba‘al is somehow weakened, but the divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis strikes Yamm with two clubs, Yamm collapses, and Baal finishes the fight. ‘Athtart proclaims Ba‘als victory and salutes Ba‘al/Hadad as lrkb ‘rpt, a phrase applied by editors of modern English Bibles to Yahweh in Psalm 68.4, at ‘Athtarts urging Ba‘al scatters Yamm and proclaims that Yamm is dead and heat is assured. A later passage refers to Ba‘als victory over Lotan, the many-headed sea-dragon, due to gaps in the text it is not known whether Lotan is another name for Yamm or a reference to another similar story. In the Mediterranean area, crops were often threatened by winds, storms, a palace is built for Ba‘al/Hadad with cedars from Mount Lebanon and Sirion and also from silver and from gold. In his new palace Ba‘al hosts a great feast for the other gods, when urged by Kothar-wa-Khasis, Ba’al, somewhat reluctantly, opens a window in his palace and sends forth thunder and lightning. He then invites Mot Death, another son of El, to the feast, the eater of human flesh and blood will not be satisfied with bread and wine
11.
Dagon
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Dagon or Dagan is an ancient Mesopotamian Assyro-Babylonian and Levantine deity. He appears to have been worshipped as a fertility god in Ebla, Assyria, Ugarit, the Hebrew Bible mentions him as the national god of the Philistines with temples at Ashdod and elsewhere in Gaza. A long-standing association with the word for fish dâg, perhaps going back to the Iron Age, has led to an interpretation as a fish-god, and the association of merman motifs in Assyrian art. The gods name was, however, more derived from a word for grain, suggesting that he was in origin associated with fertility. The name is recorded as Ugaritic Dgn, Akkadian, Dagana, in Ugaritic, the root dgn also means grain, in Hebrew דגן dāgān, Samaritan dīgan, is an archaic word for grain. The Phoenician author Sanchuniathon explained Dagon as a word for grain, Sanchuniathon further explains, And Dagon, after he discovered grain and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrios. The word arotrios means ploughman, pertaining to agriculture, the theory relating the name to Hebrew dāg/dâg, fish, based solely upon a reading of 1 Samuel 5, 2–7 is discussed in Fish-god tradition below. The god Dagon first appears in extant records about 2500 BC in the Mari texts and in personal Amorite names in which the Mesopotamian gods Ilu, Dagan, and Adad are especially common. At Ebla, from at least 2300 BC, Dagan was the head of the city pantheon comprising some 200 deities and bore the titles BE-DINGIR-DINGIR, Lord of the gods and Bekalam and his consort was known only as Belatu, Lady. Both were worshipped in a temple complex called E-Mul, House of the Star. One entire quarter of Ebla and one of its gates were named after Dagan, Dagan is called ti-lu ma-tim, dew of the land and Be-ka-na-na, possibly Lord of Canaan. He was called lord of many cities, of Tuttul, Irim, Ma-Ne, Zarad, Uguash, Siwad, Dagan is mentioned occasionally in early Sumerian texts but becomes prominent only in later Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions as a powerful and warlike protector, sometimes equated with Enlil. Dagans wife was in some sources the goddess Shala, in other texts, his wife is Ishara. In the preface to his famous law code, King Hammurabi calls himself the subduer of the settlements along the Euphrates with the help of Dagan, his creator. An inscription about an expedition of Naram-Sin to the Cedar Mountain relates, Naram-Sin slew Arman, an interesting early reference to Dagan occurs in a letter to King Zimri-Lim of Mari, 18th century BC, written by Itur-Asduu an official in the court of Mari and governor of Nahur. It relates a dream of a man from Shaka in which Dagan appeared, in the dream, Dagan blamed Zimri-Lims failure to subdue the King of the Yaminites upon Zimri-Lims failure to bring a report of his deeds to Dagan in Terqa. Dagan promises that when Zimri-Lim has done so, I will have the kings of the Yaminites ked on a fishermans spit, in Ugarit around 1300 BC, Dagon had a large temple and was listed third in the pantheon following a father-god and Ēl, and preceding Baīl Ṣapān. Two kings of the pre-Babylonian Dynasty of Isin were Iddin-Dagan and Ishme-Dagan, the latter name was later used by two Assyrian kings, Ishme-Dagan I and Ishme-Dagan II
12.
Cronus
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In Greek mythology, Cronus, or Kronos, was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth. He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son Zeus, Cronus was usually depicted with a harpe, scythe or a sickle, which was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father. Cronus was also identified in antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn. In an ancient myth recorded by Hesiods Theogony, Cronus envied the power of his father, Gaia created a great stone sickle and gathered together Cronus and his brothers to persuade them to castrate Uranus. Only Cronus was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the sickle, when Uranus met with Gaia, Cronus attacked him with the sickle, castrating him and casting his testicles into the sea. From the blood spilled out from Uranus and fell upon the earth, the Gigantes, Erinyes. The testicles produced a white foam from which the goddess Aphrodite emerged, for this, Uranus threatened vengeance and called his sons Titenes for overstepping their boundaries and daring to commit such an act. After dispatching Uranus, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes and he and his sister Rhea took the throne of the world as king and queen. The period in which Cronus ruled was called the Golden Age, as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules, everyone did the right thing, and immorality was absent. Cronus learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own sons, just as he had overthrown his father. As a result, although he sired the gods Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Hades and Poseidon by Rhea, he devoured them all as soon as they were born to prevent the prophecy. When the sixth child, Zeus, was born Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to them and to eventually get retribution on Cronus for his acts against his father. Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus in Crete, and handed Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, also known as the Omphalos Stone, Rhea kept Zeus hidden in a cave on Mount Ida, Crete. Still other versions of the say that Zeus was raised by his grandmother. In other versions of the tale, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the children, after freeing his siblings, Zeus released the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes who forged for him his thunderbolts, Poseidons trident and Hades helmet of darkness. In a vast war called the Titanomachy, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, with the help of the Hecatonchires, and Cyclopes, overthrew Cronus and the other Titans. Afterwards, many of the Titans were confined in Tartarus, however, Atlas, Epimetheus, Helios, Gaia bore the monster Typhon to claim revenge for the imprisoned Titans. Accounts of the fate of Cronus after the Titanomachy differ, in Homeric and other texts he is imprisoned with the other Titans in Tartarus
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Yahweh
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Yahweh was the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah. By the end of the Babylonian exile, the existence of foreign gods was denied, and Yahweh was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos. The Israelites originated as Bronze Age Canaanites, but Yahweh was not initially a Canaanite god, in this case a plausible etymology for the name could be from the root HWY, which would yield the meaning he blows, appropriate to a weather divinity. There is considerable but not universal support for the view that the Egyptian inscriptions refer to Yahweh, the question that arises is how he made his way to the north. A widely accepted hypothesis is that traders brought Yahweh to Israel along the routes between Egypt and Canaan, the Kenite hypothesis, named after one of the groups involved. Israel emerges into the record in the last decades of the 13th century BCE, at the very end of the Late Bronze Age. The milieu from which Israelite religion emerged was accordingly Canaanite and he lived in a tent on a mountain from whose base originated all the fresh waters of the world, with the goddess Asherah as his consort. This pair made up the top tier of the Canaanite pantheon, the tier was made up of their children. Baals sphere was the thunderstorm with its life-giving rains, so that he was also a fertility god, below the seventy second-tier gods was a third tier made up of comparatively minor craftsman and trader deities, with a fourth and final tier of divine messengers and the like. He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old, so Israel lives in safety, untroubled is Jacobs abode. Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread on their backs. After the 9th century BCE the tribes and chiefdoms of Iron Age I were replaced by ethnic nation states, Israel, Judah, Moab, Ammon and others, each with its national god, and all more or less equal. Thus Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the Ammonites, Qaus the god of the Edomites, the festivals thus celebrated Yahwehs salvation of Israel and Israels status as his holy people, although the earlier agricultural meaning was not entirely lost. Sacrifice was presumably complemented by the singing or recital of psalms, prayer played little role in official worship. Shiloh, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, Ramah and Dan were also sites for festivals, sacrifices, the making of vows, private rituals. Yahweh-worship was famously aniconic, meaning that the god was not depicted by a statue or other image, pre-exilic Israel, like its neighbours, was polytheistic, and Israelite monotheism was the culmination of a unique set of historical circumstances. The original god of Israel was El, as the name demonstrates—its probable meaning is may El rule or some other sentence-form involving the name of El. Asherah, formerly the wife of El, was worshipped as Yahwehs consort, and various biblical passages indicate that her statues were kept in his temples in Jerusalem, Bethel, and Samaria
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Mythology
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Mythology refers variously to the collected myths of a group of people or to the study of such myths. Myths are the people tell to explain nature, history. Myth is a feature of every culture, mythologizing continues, as shown in contemporary mythopoeia such as urban legends and the expansive fictional mythoi created by fantasy novels and comics. A cultures collective mythology helps convey belonging, shared and religious experiences, behavioral models, the study of myth began in ancient history. Rival classes of the Greek myths by Euhemerus, Plato and Sallustius were developed by the Neoplatonists, the nineteenth-century comparative mythology reinterpreted myth as a primitive and failed counterpart of science, a disease of language, or a misinterpretation of magical ritual. Recent approaches often view myths as manifestations of psychological, cultural, or societal truths, the term mythology predates the word myth by centuries. It first appeared in the fifteenth-century, borrowed from the Middle French term mythologie, the word mythology, comes from Middle French mythologie, from Late Latin mythologia, from Greek μυθολογία mythología from μῦθος mythos and -λογία -logia. The word mythología appears in Plato, but was used as a term for fiction or story-telling of any kind, combining mỹthos. From Lydgate until the seventeenth or eighteenth-century, mythology was similarly used to mean a moral, fable, from its earliest use in reference to a collection of traditional stories or beliefs, mythology implied the falsehood of the stories being described. It came to be applied by analogy with similar bodies of traditional stories among other cultures around the world. The Greek loanword mythos and Latinate mythus both appeared in English before the first example of myth in 1830, in present use, mythology usually refers to the collected myths of a group of people, but may also mean the study of such myths. For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures, dundes defined myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity evolved into their present form. Lincoln defined myth as ideology in narrative form, scholars in other fields use the term myth in varied ways. In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story, due to this pejorative sense, some scholars opted for the term mythos. Its use was similarly pejorative and now commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a plot point or to a collective mythology. The term is distinguished from didactic literature such as fables. Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans, however, many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and are linked to religion or spirituality
15.
Religions of the ancient Near East
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The religions of the ancient Near East were mostly polytheistic, with some early examples of primitive monolatry, Ashurism and Monism. Some scholars believe that the similarities between these religions indicate that the religions are related, a known as patternism. Many religions of the ancient near East and their offshoots can be traced to Proto-Semitic religion, other religions in the ancient Near East include Ancient Egyptian religion, the Luwian and Hittite religions of Asia Minor and the Sumerian religion of ancient Mesopotamia. Offshoots of Proto-Semitic religion include Assyro-Babylonian religion, Canaanite religion, judaism is a development of Canaanite religion, both Indo-European and Semitic religions influenced the ancient Greek religion, and Zoroastrianism was a product of ancient Indo-Iranian religion. The history of the ancient Near East spans more than two millennia, from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, in the now known as the Middle East. This article will attempt to outline the common traits of ancient Near Eastern religions,2500 BC, allow glimpses of Sumerian mythology and Egyptian religion. The early Hittite religion bore traits descended from Proto-Indo-European religion, Ancient Greek religion was strongly influenced by ancient Near Eastern mythology, but is usually not included in the term. The Mystery religions of Hellenism were again consciously connected with Egyptian religion, there were also super-regional mythemes and deities, such as the God Tammuz and the descent to the underworld. The system represents a combination of two factors, one of popular origin, the other the outcome of speculation in the schools attached to the temples of Babylonia. Starting with this belief the Priests and Priestesses built up the theory of the correspondence between occurrences on earth and phenomena in the Heavens. Myths that symbolized changes in season or occurrences in nature were projected on the heavens and this factor appears to less advantage in the unfolding of the views concerning life after death. Occasionally a favoured individual was permitted to escape from this general fate, in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology the seven evil Demons were known as Shedu or Lamassu, meaning Storm-Demon. Ancient Iranian lands had a diversity of beliefs, and the religions included Zoroastrianism, Mazdakism, Manicheism, Yazdanism, Mandeanism. Thus it has proved by clear evidence and plain reasoning that a powerful monarch was established in Iran long before the Assyrian or Pishadi government. That it was in fact, a Hindu monarchy, though any may choose to call it Cusian, Casdean or Scythian, Ancient Mitanni is modern-day Kurdistan, and from excavations it was discovered to have a history of Vedic practices and the Hindu religion. The dominant religious rituals and beliefs of ancient Egypt merged and developed over time, as an example, during the New Kingdom, the Gods Ra and Amun were syncretized into a single God, Amun-Ra. Such syncretism should be distinguished from mere groupings, also referred to as such as Amun, Mut. Over time, Gods took part in multiple syncretic relationships, for instance, similarly, Ptah, Seker, and Osiris becamePtah-Seker-Osiris
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Hittite mythology and religion
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Hittite mythology and Hittite religion were the religious beliefs and practices of the Hittites, who created an empire centered in what is now Turkey from c.1,600 BC to 1,180 BC. Thus, there are no canonical scriptures, no theological disquisitions or discourses, some religious documents formed part of the corpus with which young scribes were trained, and have survived, most of them dating from the last several decades before the final burning of the sites. Gods were often depicted standing on the backs of their respective beasts, though drawing on ancient Mesopotamian religion, the religion of the Hittites and Luwians retains noticeable elements of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion. His consort is the Hattic solar deity and this divine couple were presumably worshipped in the twin cellas of the largest temple at Hattusa. The city of Arinna, a march from Hattusa, was perhaps the major cult center of the Hittites. The Hittites referred to their own gods, of whom a staggering number appear in inscriptions. The multiplicity is doubtless an artifact of a level of social-political localization within the Hittite empire not easily reconstructed, the weather god was identified there with Mount Zaliyanu near Nerik, responsible for assigning rain to the citys croplands. Among the crowd a few stand out as more local, Tarhun has a son, Telipinu. Inara is a deity involved with the Puruli spring festival. Ishara is a goddess of the oath, lists of witnesses to treaties seem to represent the Hittite pantheon most clearly. In the 13th century some explicit gestures toward syncretism appear in inscriptions, puduhepa, queen and a priestess, worked on organizing and rationalizing her peoples religion. In an inscription she invokes, Sun-Goddes of Arinna, my lady, in the land of Hatti you have assumed the name of Sun-Goddess of Arinna, but in respect to the land which you made of cedars, you have assumed the name Hebat. Kumarbi is the father of Tarhun, his role in the Song of Kumarbi is reminiscent of that of Cronus in the Theogony of Hesiod, ullikummi is a stone monster fathered by Kumarbi, reminiscent of Hesiods Typhon. The Luwian god of weather and lightning, Pihassassa, may be at the origin of Greek Pegasus, depictions of hybrid animals are typical for the Anatolian art of the period. In the Telipinu myth, the disappearance of Telipinu, god of agriculture and fertility causes all fertility to fail and this results in devastation and despair among gods and humans alike. In order to stop the havoc and devastation, the gods seek Telipinu, only a bee sent by the goddess Hannahannah finds Telipinu, and stings him in order to wake him up. However this infuriates Telipinu further and he diverts the flow of rivers and shatters the houses, in the end, the goddess Kamrusepa uses healing and magic to calm Telipinu after which he returns home and restores the vegetation and fertility. In other references it is a mortal priest who prays for all of Telipinus anger to be sent to bronze containers in the underworld, of which nothing escapes
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Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia
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Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. Arab polytheism, the dominant form of religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, was based on veneration of deities, gods and goddesses, including Hubal and the goddesses al-Lāt, Al-‘Uzzá and Manāt, were worshipped at local shrines, such as the Kaaba in Mecca. Different theories have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in Meccan religion, many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods are traced to idols, especially near the Kaaba, which is said to have contained up to 360 of them. Other religions were represented to varying, lesser degrees, the influence of the adjacent Roman, Aksumite and Sasanian Empires resulted in Christian communities in the northwest, northeast and south of Arabia. Christianity made an impact, but secured some conversions, in the remainder of the peninsula. With the exception of Nestorianism in the northeast and the Persian Gulf, the peninsula had been subject to Jewish migration since Roman times, which had resulted in a diaspora community supplemented by local converts. Additionally, the influence of the Sasanian Empire resulted in Iranian religions being present in the peninsula, Zoroastrianism existed in the east and south, while there is evidence of Manichaeism or possibly Mazdakism being practised in Mecca. Until about the fourth century, almost all Arabs practised polytheistic religions, although significant Jewish and Christian minorities developed, polytheism remained the dominant belief system in pre-Islamic Arabia. The religious beliefs and practices of the nomadic Bedouin were distinct from those of the tribes of towns such as Mecca. Settled urban Arabs, on the hand, are thought to have believed in a more complex pantheon of deities. While the Meccans and the settled inhabitants of the Hejaz worshiped their gods at permanent shrines in towns and oases. According to F. E. Peters, one of the characteristics of Arab paganism as it has come down to us is the absence of a mythology, alternative sources are so fragmentary and specialized that writing a convincing history of this period based on them alone is impossible. Several scholars hold that the literature is not independent of Quran but has been fabricated to explain the verses of Quran. Compounding the problem is that the earliest extant Muslim historical works, some of these works were based on subsequently lost earlier texts, which in their turn recorded a fluid oral tradition. Some scholars postulate that in pre-Islamic Arabia, including in Mecca, Allah was considered to be a deity, the word Allah may have been used as a title rather than a name. The concept of Allah may have been vague in the Meccan religion, per Islamic texts, Meccans and their neighbors believed that the goddesses Al-lāt, Al-‘Uzzá, and Manāt were the daughters of Allah. Regional variants of the word Allah occur in both pagan and Christian pre-Islamic inscriptions, muhammads fathers name was ʿAbd-Allāh, meaning the servant of Allah. Al-lāt, Al-‘Uzzá and Manat were common names used for multiple goddesses across Arabia, there are two possible etymologies of the name al-lāt
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Ancient Canaanite religion
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Canaanite religion was polytheistic, and in some cases monolatristic. Baalat or Baalit, the wife or female counterpart of Baal Baal Hadad, holy One, putative goddess of love. Resheph, god of plague and of healing Shachar and Shalim, twin mountain gods of dawn and dusk, Shalim was linked to the netherworld via the evening star and associated with peace Shamayim, god of the heavens, paired with Eretz, the land or earth. Shapash, also transliterated Shapshu, goddess of the sun, sometimes equated with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash, yarikh, god of the moon and husband of Nikkal Canaanites believed that following physical death, the npš departed from the body to the land of Mot. Bodies were buried with goods, and offerings of food. Dead relatives were venerated and sometimes asked for help, none of the inscribed tablets found in 1929 in the Canaanite city of Ugarit has revealed a cosmology. Any idea of one is often reconstructed from the much later Phoenician text by Philo of Byblos, after much Greek, from the union of El Elyon and his consort were born Uranus and Ge, Greek names for the Heaven and the Earth. In Canaanite mythology there were twin mountains Targhizizi and Tharumagi which hold the firmament up above the earth-circling ocean, thereby bounding the earth. W. F. Albright, for example, says that El Shaddai is a derivation of a Semitic stem that appears in the Akkadian shadû and shaddāû or shaddûa, one of the names of Amurru. Philo of Byblos states that Atlas was one of the Elohim, harriet Lutzky has presented evidence that Shaddai was an attribute of a Semitic goddess, linking the epithet with Hebrew šad breast as the one of the Breast. The idea of two mountains being associated here as the breasts of the Earth, fits into the Canaanite mythology quite well, the ideas of pairs of mountains seem to be quite common in Canaanite mythology. The late period of this makes it difficult to tell what influences may have informed Philos writings. In the Baal Cycle, Baal Hadad is challenged by and defeats Yam, afterward, with the help of Athirat and Anat, Baal persuades El to allow him a palace. El approves, and the palace is built by Kothar-wa-Khasis, after the palace is constructed, Baal gives forth a thunderous roar out of the palace window and challenges Mot. Mot enters through the window and swallows Baal, sending him to the Underworld, with no one to give rain, there is a terrible drought in Baals absence. The other deities, especially El and Anat, are distraught that Baal has been taken to the Underworld, Anat goes to the Underworld, attacks Mot with a knife, grinds him up into pieces, and scatters him far and wide. With Mot defeated, Baal is able to return and refresh the Earth with rain and it is considered virtually impossible to reconstruct a clear picture of Canaanite religious practices. Although child sacrifice was known to surrounding peoples there is no reference to it in ancient Phoenician or Classical texts, the biblical representation of Canaanite religion is always negative
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Egyptian mythology
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Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion, Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain an account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew maat, events from the present that might be regarded as myths include Ras daily journey through the world and its otherworldly counterpart, the Duat. The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another, Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating the essence and behavior of deities into terms that humans can understand. Each variant of a myth represents a different symbolic perspective, enriching the Egyptians understanding of the gods and it inspired or influenced many religious rituals and provided the ideological basis for kingship. Scenes and symbols from myth appeared in art in tombs, temples, in literature, myths or elements of them were used in stories that range from humor to allegory, demonstrating that the Egyptians adapted mythology to serve a wide variety of purposes. The development of Egyptian myth is difficult to trace, Egyptologists must make educated guesses about its earliest phases, based on written sources that appeared much later. One obvious influence on myth is the Egyptians natural surroundings, thus the Egyptians saw water and the sun as symbols of life and thought of time as a series of natural cycles. This orderly pattern was at constant risk of disruption, unusually low floods resulted in famine, the hospitable Nile valley was surrounded by harsh desert, populated by peoples the Egyptians regarded as uncivilized enemies of order. For these reasons, the Egyptians saw their land as an place of stability, or maat. These themes—order, chaos, and renewal—appear repeatedly in Egyptian religious thought, another possible source for mythology is ritual. Many rituals make reference to myths and are based directly on them. But it is difficult to determine whether a cultures myths developed before rituals or vice versa, questions about this relationship between myth and ritual have spawned much discussion among Egyptologists and scholars of comparative religion in general. In ancient Egypt, the earliest evidence of religious practices predates written myths, rituals early in Egyptian history included only a few motifs from myth. For these reasons, some scholars have argued that, in Egypt, but because the early evidence is so sparse, the question may never be resolved for certain. In private rituals, which are often called magical, the myth, many of the myth-like stories that appear in the rituals texts are not found in other sources
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Persian mythology
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Persian mythology are traditional tales and stories of ancient origin, all involving extraordinary or supernatural beings. Myths play a part in Iranian culture and our understanding of them is increased when we consider them within the context of Iranian history. The geography of this region, with its mountain ranges. This pottery, light grey to black in colour, appeared around 1400 BC and it is called Early Grey Ware or Iron I, the latter name indicating the beginning of the Iron Age in this area. The central collection of Persian mythology is the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the characters of Persian mythology almost always fall into one of two camps. They are either good, or they are evil, the most famous legendary character in the Persian epics and mythology is Rostam. On the other side of the fence is Zahhak, a symbol of despotism who was, finally, Zahhak was guarded by two vipers which grew out from both of his shoulders. No matter how many times they were beheaded, new heads grew on them to guard him. The snake, like in other mythologies, was a symbol of evil, but many other animals and birds appear in Iranian mythology, and, especially. Most famous of these is Simorgh, a beautiful and powerful bird, and Homa. Published by Echo of Iran, Tehran 1965, Iranian Mythology by Albert J. Carnoy Indo-Iranian Mythology Iran Almanac 2006
21.
Ancient Mesopotamian religion
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The religious development of Mesopotamia and Mesopotamian culture in general was not particularly influenced by the movements of the various peoples into and throughout the area. Rather, Mesopotamian religion was a consistent and coherent tradition which adapted to the needs of its adherents over millenia of development. The earliest undercurrents of Mesopotamian religious thought date to the 4th millennium BCE, in the 3rd millennium BCE objects of worship were personified and became an expansive cast of divinities with particular functions. Mesopotamian religion finally declined with the spread of Iranian religions during the Achaemenid Empire, as with most dead religions, many aspects of the common practices and intricacies of the doctrine have been lost and forgotten over time. Mesopotamian religion is thought to have been an influence on subsequent religions throughout the world, including Canaanite, Aramean, Mesopotamian religion has the oldest body of recorded literature of any religious tradition. Other artifacts can also be useful when reconstructing Mesopotamian religion, as is common with most ancient civilizations, the objects made of the most durable and precious materials, and thus more likely to survive, were associated with religious beliefs and practices. It has also inspired various contemporary Neo-pagan groups, in the fourth millennium BCE, the first evidence for what is recognisably Mesopotamian religion can be seen with the invention in Mesopotamia of writing circa 3500 BCE. The people of Mesopotamia originally consisted of two groups, Akkadian speakers and the people of Sumer, who spoke a language isolate and these peoples were members of various city-states and small kingdoms. The Sumerians left the first records, although it is not known if they migrated into the area in prehistory or whether they were its original inhabitants and they resided in southern Mesopotamia, which was known as Sumer, and had considerable influence on the Akkadian speakers and their culture. Akkadian names first appear in the lists of these states circa 2800 BCE. They created the first city-states such as Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Isin, Kish, Umma, Eridu, Adab, Akshak, Sippar, Nippur and Larsa, each of them ruled by an ensí. The Akkadian Empire endured for two centuries before collapsing due to decline, internal strife and attacks from the north east by the Gutian people. Following a brief Sumerian revival with the Third Dynasty of Ur, Assyria asserted itself in the north circa 2100 BCE in the Old Assyrian Empire and southern Mesopotamia fragmented into a number of kingdoms, the largest being Isin, Larsa and Eshnunna. In 1894 BCE the initially minor city-state of Babylon was founded in the south by invading West Semitic-speaking Amorites and it was rarely ruled by native dynasties throughout its history. Some time after this period, the Sumerians disappeared, becoming absorbed into the Akkadian-speaking population. Assyrian kings are attested from the late 25th century BCE and dominated northern Mesopotamia and parts of Anatolia, the Amorite dynasty was deposed in 1595 BCE after attacks from mountain-dwelling people known as the Kassites from the Zagros Mountains, who went on to rule Babylon for over 500 years. Assyria defeated the Hittites and Mitanni, and its growing power forced the New Kingdom of Egypt to withdraw from the Near East, the Middle Assyrian Empire at its height stretched from the Caucasus to modern Bahrain and from Cyprus to western Iran. During the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Mesopotamian Aramaic became the lingua franca of the empire, the last written records in Akkadian were astrological texts dating from 78 CE discovered in Assyria
22.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
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Ebla
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Ebla, was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about 55 km southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh, Ebla was an important center throughout the third millennium BC and in the first half of the second millennium BC. Karl Moore described the first Eblaite kingdom as the first recorded world power, starting as a small settlement in the early Bronze Age, Ebla developed into a trading empire and later into an expansionist power that imposed its hegemony over much of northern and eastern Syria. Ebla was destroyed during the 23rd century BC, it was rebuilt and was mentioned in the records of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The second Ebla was a continuation of the first, ruled by a new royal dynasty and it was destroyed at the end of the third millennium BC, which paved the way for the Amorite tribes to settle in the city, forming the third Ebla. The third kingdom also flourished as a center, it became a subject. Ebla maintained its prosperity through a vast trading network, artifacts from Sumer, Cyprus, Egypt and as far as Afghanistan were recovered from the citys palaces. The kingdom had its own language, Eblaite and the organization of Ebla had features different from the Sumerian model. Women enjoyed a status and the queen had major influence in the state. The pantheon of gods was mainly north Semitic and included deities exclusive to Ebla, the city was excavated starting in 1964, and became famous for the Ebla tablets, an archive of about 20,000 cuneiform tablets found there, dated to around 2350 BC. A possible meaning of the word Ebla is white rock, referring to the outcrop on which the city was built. Ebla was first settled around 3500 BC, its growth was supported by many agricultural settlements. The city benefited from its role as an entrepôt of growing international trade, archaeologists designate this early habitation period Mardikh I, it ended around 3000 BC. Mardikh I is followed by the first and second kingdoms era between about 3000 and 2000 BC, designated Mardikh II. I. J. Gelb consider Ebla as part of the Kish civilization, the early period between 3000 and 2400 BC is designated Mardikh IIA. General knowledge about the history prior to the written archives is obtained through excavations. The first stages of Mardikh IIA is identified with building CC, and structures form a part of building G2. Toward the end of period, a hundred years war with Mari started
24.
Hurrian religion
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The Hurrian religion was the polytheistic religion of the Hurrians, a Bronze Age people of the Near East. These people settled over an area, so there were differences between them, especially between the eastern Hurrians around Nuzi and Arrapha and the western Hurrians in Syria and Anatolia. There is a lot of evidence for Hurrian religion and its regional differences, the oldest evidence comes from Urkesh and dates to the 3rd millennium BC. Several Hurrian ritual texts survive from Ugarit, written in the Ugaritic alphabet, the Amarna letters from King Tushratta of Mitanni and the treaty documents provide evidence about the Hurrian-influenced religion practiced among the Mitanni. The archives of individual Syrian cities, like Emar, Mari and Alalakh, the evidence from eastern Hurrians is very different and texts only provide evidence for civic pantheons. The Hurrians worshipped a number of gods derived from various different cultures. This syncretism also embraced the native partners of the gods, like the Syrian Ḫebat as wife of Teššub among the western Hurrians, Nikkal as wife of the moon god, the chief god of the Hurrians was the weather god Teššub. All of the Hurrians also worshiped Šauška, god of love and war, the fertility-god Kumarbi, the moon god Kušuḫ, only the western Hurrians worshipped Ḫebat and her son Šarruma, who were of Syrian origin. Other important deities were the mother goddesses Ḫudena Ḫudellura, the Syrian oath-goddess Išḫara and Kubaba, as well as the Mesopotamian god of wisdom, Ea, and the death god Ugur. At least among the western Hurrians, the gods were divided into male and female groups, the male gods were led by Teššub in his various manifestations, while the female gods were led by Ḫebat and her children. The order of the gods and goddesses in these lists is not entirely fixed, also, the presence of groups of gods, especially the father gods is shared in these lists. No similar lists of gods are known from the eastern Hurrian area, dyads or double gods sharing a single cult are also typical of the Hurrians. For example, Ḫebat and her son Šarruma formed the dyad Ḫebat-Šarruma, the Hurrians produced literary accounts of their myths, in which Mesopotamian and Syrian influences are clear. The most important myths form the Kumarbi Cycle, which parallels the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, similarly, the Kumarbi Cycle recounts how Teššub gained his power and made it firm. The cycle begins with the kingship of Heaven myth, in which a succession of kings of the gods and their battles are described, before recording the conception. The following myths recount how Kumarbi generates ever more powerful opponents to destroy Teššub and these include Ušḫuni, the water dragon Ḫedammu, and finally the rock monster Ullikummi. There is also the myth of the god, who is temporarily installed as the king of the gods. Unfortunately, most of the myths are only transmitted as fragments and this cycle may have been a source of the myths about the Greek gods recounted in Hesiods Theogony
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Aglibol
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Aglibôl was a lunar deity in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. His name means Calf of Bel, aglibôl is depicted with a lunar halo decorating his head and sometimes his shoulders, and one of his attributes is the sickle moon. Aglibôl is linked with the sun god Yarḥibôl in a famous trinity and he is also associated with the Syrian versions of Astarte Venus and with Arṣu Evening Star. Aglibôls cult continued into Hellenic times and was extended to Rome. Encyclopedia of Gods, Michael Jordan, Kyle Cathie Limited,2002 Yarikh
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Allah
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Allah is the Arabic word for God in Abrahamic religions. In the English language, the word refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh, which means the god, and is related to El and Elohim, the word Allah has been used by Arabic people of different religions since pre-Islamic times. More specifically, it has used as a term for God by Muslims. It is now used by Muslims and Arab Christians to refer to God. It is also often, albeit not exclusively, used in this way by Bábists, Baháís, Indonesian and Maltese Christians, similar usage by Christians and Sikhs in West Malaysia has recently led to political and legal controversies. The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists, grammarians of the Basra school regarded is as either formed spontaneously or as the definite form of lāh. The majority of modern scholars subscribe to the theory. Cognates of the name Allāh exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew, the corresponding Aramaic form is Elah, but its emphatic state is Elaha. It is written as ܐܠܗܐ in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form Elohim, but more rarely it also uses the singular form Eloah. Regional variants of the word Allah occur in both pagan and Christian pre-Islamic inscriptions, different theories have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in pre-Islamic polytheistic cults. Some authors have suggested that polytheistic Arabs used the name as a reference to a god or a supreme deity of their pantheon. The term may have been vague in the Meccan religion, according to one hypothesis, which goes back to Julius Wellhausen, Allah was a designation that consecrated the superiority of Hubal over the other gods. However, there is evidence that Allah and Hubal were two distinct deities. Some inscriptions seem to indicate the use of Allah as a name of a polytheist deity centuries earlier, some scholars have suggested that Allah may have represented a remote creator god who was gradually eclipsed by more particularized local deities. There is disagreement on whether Allah played a role in the Meccan religious cult. No iconic representation of Allah is known to have existed, muhammads fathers name was ʿAbd-Allāh meaning the slave of Allāh. The Aramaic word for God in the language of Assyrian Christians is ʼĔlāhā, arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word Allah to mean God
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Al-Lat
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There are two possible etymologies of the name al-Lat. The etymology best reflecting the Arab lexicographical tradition derives the name from the verb latta and it can be inferred from al-Kalbis Book of Idols that a similar ritual was practiced in the vicinity of the idol of al-Lat. The second etymology, which is more in line with Semitic traditions in general, the word al-Lat was used as a name and title for multiple pre-Islamic goddesses of Arabia and was used for either a wife of Allah or a daughter depending on the region. It was used as a title for the goddesses Asherah and Athirat, the word is akin to Elat, which was the name of the wife of Semitic deity El. Especially in older sources, Allat is a name of the Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld. She was reportedly also venerated in Carthage under the name Allatu, the Nabataeans of Petra and the people of Hatra also worshipped her, equating her with the Greek Athena and Tyche and the Roman Minerva. She is frequently called the Great Goddess in Greek in multi-lingual inscriptions, according to Wellhausen, the Nabataeans believed al-Lāt was the mother of Hubal. The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, considered her the equivalent of Aphrodite, The Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta, the Arabians Alilat, in addition that deity is associated with the Indian deity Mitra. This passage is linguistically significant as the first clear attestation of an Arabic word, the Persian and Indian deities were developed from the Proto-Indo-Iranian deity known as Mitra. They call Dionysus, Orotalt, and Aphrodite, Alilat, in the Quran, she is mentioned along with al-‘Uzzá and Manāt in Sura 53, 19–23. The tribe of ʿād of Iram of the Pillars is also mentioned in Sura 89, 5–8, al-lāt is also explicitly attested from early Islamic records discussing the pre-Islamic period. The Quraysh, as well as all the Arabs, venerated al-Lāt and they also used to name their children after her, calling them Zayd al-Lāt and Taym al-Lāt. Al-Lāt continued to be venerated until the Thaqīf embraced Islam, when Muhammad dispatched al-Mughīrah ibn-Shu‘bah and she was also called as daughter of Allah along with the other two chief goddesses. According to Islamic tradition, the dedicated to al-Lat in Taif was demolished on the orders of Muhammad, during the Expedition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb. The destruction of the idol was a demand by Muhammad before he would allow any reconciliation to take place with the tribes of Taif, in Frank Herberts Dune series, Al-Lat is the name given to the earths sun. Strongs Hebrew and Aramaic Dictionary of Bible Words Georgii Wilhelmi Freytagii, Hubal Manāt Chaabou Satanic Verses Thaqif and Islam Ilah Lat, al- in Oxford Islamic Studies Online Temple of Allāt on the map
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Atargatis
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Atargatis /əˈtɑːrɡətᵻs/ or Ataratheh was the chief goddess of northern Syria in Classical Antiquity. Ctesias also used the name Derceto for her, and the Romans called her Dea Syriae, primarily she was a goddess of fertility, but, as the baalat of her city and people, she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Her chief sanctuary was at Hierapolis, modern Manbij, northeast of Aleppo and she is sometimes described as a mermaid-goddess, due to identification of her with a fish-bodied goddess at Ascalon. However, there is no evidence that Atargatis was worshipped at Ascalon, michael Rostovtzeff called her the great mistress of the North Syrian lands. As Ataratheh, doves and fish were considered sacred to her, doves as an emblem of the Love-Goddess, according to a third-century Syriac source, In Syria and in Urhâi the men used to castrate themselves in honor of Taratha. But when King Abgar became a believer, he commanded that anyone who emasculated himself should have a cut off. And from that day to the present no one in Urhâi emasculates himself anymore, the name Atargatis derives from the Aramaic form ‘Atar‘atheh, which comes in several variants. ‘Atar‘atheh is seen as a continuation of Bronze Age goddesses, the name ‘Atar‘atheh is widely held to derive from a compound of the Aramaic form ‘Attar, which is a cognate of ‘Ațtart minus its feminine suffix -t, and ‘Attah or ‘Atā, a cognate of Anat. Alternatively, the second half may be a Palmyrene divine name ‘Athe and it has also been proposed that the element -gatis may relate to the Greek gados fish. So Atar-Gatis may simply mean the fish-goddess Atar, as a consequence of the first half of the name, Atargatis has frequently, though wrongly, been identified as ‘Ashtart. The two deities were probably of common origin and have features in common, but their cults are historically distinct. There is reference in 2 Maccabees 12, at Palmyra she appears on the coinage with a lion, or her presence is signalled with a lion and the crescent moon, an inscription mentions her. Two well preserved temples in Niha, Lebanon are dedicated to her and her wavy hair, suggesting water to Glueck, was parted in the middle. At Petra the goddess from the north was syncretised with a North Arabian goddess from the south al-Uzzah, at Dura-Europus among the attributes of Atargatis are the spindle and the sceptre or fish-spear. At her temples at Ascalon, Hierapolis Bambyce, and Edessa, Glueck noted in 1936 that to this day there is a sacred fish-pond swarming with untouchable fish at Qubbet el-Baeddwī, a dervish monastery three kilometres east of Tripolis, Lebanon. From Syria her worship extended to Greece and to the furthest West, Lucian and Apuleius give descriptions of the beggar-priests who went round the great cities with an image of the goddess on an ass and collected money. Again we find the cult in Sicily, introduced, no doubt, by slaves and mercenary troops, the leader of the rebel slaves in the First Servile War, a Syrian named Eunus, claimed to receive visions of Atargatis, whom he identified with the Demeter of Enna. In many cases Atargatis, ‘Ashtart, and other goddesses who once had independent cults and this fusion is exemplified by the Carnion temple, which is probably identical with the famous temple of ‘Ashtart at Ashtaroth-Karnaim
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Baalshamin
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Lord of Heaven, was a Northwest Semitic god and a title applied to different gods at different places or times in ancient Middle Eastern inscriptions, especially in Canaan/Phoenicia and Syria. The title was most often applied to Hadad, who is often titled just Ba‘al. Baalshamin was one of the two gods and the sky god of pre-Islamic Palmyra in ancient Syria. There his attributes were the eagle and the bolt, and he perhaps formed a triad with the lunar god Aglibol. Baalshamin and Baal Šamem are the most frequently used terms, as a Syrian god and as a Phoenician god and this name was originally a title of Baal Hadad, in the 2nd millennium BC, but came to designate a distinct god circa 1000 BC. The earliest known mention of this god or title is in a treaty of the 14th century BC between Suppiluliumas I, King of the Hittites, and Niqmaddu II, King of Ugarit. Although this could be a reference to Baal Hadad, and again when the name appears in a Phoenician inscription by King Yeḥimilk of Byblos, the god Baal-malage is otherwise unexplained. Baal-saphon here and elsewhere seems to be Baal Hadad, whose home is on Mount Ṣaphon in the Ugaritic texts, but interpreters disagree as to whether these are here three separate gods or three aspects of the same god, a god who causes stormy weather on the sea. In any case, inscriptions show that the cult of Baal Šamem continued in Tyre from Esarhaddons day until towards the end of the 1st millennium BC, in Sanchuniathons main mythology the god he calls in Greek Uranus/Sky has been thought by some to stand for Baal Šamem. Sky is here the actual father of Baal Hadad, as in Greek mythology and Hittite mythology, Sky is castrated by his son, who is in turn destined to be opposed by the thunder god. In Sanchuniathons story, Sky also battles Sea, Sky finds himself unable to prevail, in Nabatean texts in Greek, Baal Shamin is regularly equated with Zeus Helios, that is Zeus as a sun-god. Unfortunately, it is not clear whether Baalshamin is here regarded as a sun-god, writers in Syriac refer to Baalshamin as Zeus Olympios. Temple of Baalshamin Stuart Whatling, Arabia Syria, Palmyra — Some pictures of the temple of Baal-Shamin at Palmyra
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Bel (mythology)
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Bel, signifying lord or master, is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in the Mesopotamian religion of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. The feminine form is Belit Lady, Mistress, Bel is represented in Greek as Belos and in Latin as Belus. Linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Baal with the same meaning, early translators of Akkadian believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian Enlil was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. This is now known to be incorrect, but one finds Bel used in referring to Enlil in older translations and discussions, similarly Belit without some disambiguation mostly refers to Bel Marduks spouse Sarpanit. However Marduks mother, the Sumerian goddess called Ninhursag, Damkina, Ninmah, of course other gods called Lord could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra is an example, though in the period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god. Similarly Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon as born to Cronus/El in Peraea is certainly most unlikely to be Marduk, Bel was believed to be a patriarch from Armenia, somehow related to Hayk - the story tells they were brothers, but they may probably have been cousins. According to the myth, Hayk and Bel were both patriarchs of their own tribes, competing for supremacy. Hayk beat Bel, so the latter chose to go south to Babylon, somewhere near Van, the ancient capital of urartian Armenia, a final battle took place between the siblings. Hayk beat Bel with an arrow, and thus became the sole leader and he unified the tribes, that altogether took the name Armenia. Ba‘al Bel and the Dragon Belial Belus Belus Belus Belus EN Marduk Bartleby, American Heritage Dictionary, Semitic Roots, bcl
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Bes
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Bes and its feminine counterpart Beset are an Ancient Egyptian deity worshipped as a protector of households, and in particular, of mothers and children and childbirth. Bes later came to be regarded as the defender of everything good, while past studies identified Bes as a Middle Kingdom import from Nubia, more recent research indicates that he was present in Egypt since the start of Old Kingdom. Mentions of Bes can be traced to pre-dynastic Nile Valley cultures, modern scholars such as James Romano claim that in its earliest inception Bes was a representation of a lion rearing up on its hind legs. After the Third Intermediate Period, Bes is often seen as just the head or the face, images of the deity were kept in homes and he was depicted quite differently from the other gods. Normally Egyptian gods were shown in profile, but instead Bes appeared in portrait, ithyphallic and he scared away demons from houses, so his statue was put up as a protector. Since he drove off evil, Bes also came to symbolize the good things in life - music, dance, many instances of Bes masks and costumes from the New Kingdom and later have been uncovered. These show considerable wear, thought to be too great for occasional use at festivals, in the New Kingdom, tattoos of Bes could be found on the thighs of dancers, musicians and servant girls. In the late 500s BC, images of Bes began to spread across the Persian Empire, images of Bes have been found at the Persian capital of Susa, and as far away as central Asia. Over time, the image of Bes became more Persian in style, as he was depicted wearing Persian clothes, the Balearic island of Ibiza derives its actual name from this god, brought along with the first Phoenician settlers 654 BC. These settlers, amazed at the lack of any sort of creatures on the island thought it to be the island of Bes. Bes is an important character in the books of the saga The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan, Bes appears, as part of the delegation of Egyptian gods, in The Sandman, Season of Mists, by Neil Gaiman. Bes is a friend and helper to the heroes in Pyramid Scheme by Eric Flint and Dave Freer Statue of official Bes The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, ISBN 0-500-05120-8 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw. Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece
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Old Kingdom of Egypt
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The term itself was coined by eighteenth-century historians and the distinction between the Old Kingdom and the Early Dynastic Period is not one which would have been recognized by Ancient Egyptians. The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as the period from the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty, many Egyptologists also include the Memphite Seventh and Eighth Dynasties in the Old Kingdom as a continuation of the administration centralized at Memphis. During the Old Kingdom, the king of Egypt became a god who ruled absolutely and could demand the services. Under King Djoser, the first king of the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, the capital of Egypt was moved to Memphis. A new era of building was initiated at Saqqara under his reign, King Djosers architect, Imhotep is credited with the development of building with stone and with the conception of the new architectural form—the Step Pyramid. Indeed, the Old Kingdom is perhaps best known for the number of pyramids constructed at this time as burial places for Egypts kings. For this reason, the Old Kingdom is frequently referred to as the Age of the Pyramids, the first king of the Old Kingdom was Djoser of the third dynasty, who ordered the construction of a pyramid in Memphis necropolis, Saqqara. An important person during the reign of Djoser was his vizier and it was in this era that formerly independent ancient Egyptian states became known as nomes, under the rule of the king. The former rulers were forced to assume the role of governors or otherwise work in tax collection, Egyptians in this era worshipped their king as a god, believing that he ensured the annual flooding of the Nile that was necessary for their crops. Egyptian views on the nature of time during this period held that the worked in cycles. They also perceived themselves as a specially selected people, the Old Kingdom and its royal power reached a zenith under the Fourth Dynasty, which began with Sneferu. Using more stones than any king, he built three pyramids, a now collapsed pyramid in Meidum, the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur. However, the development of the pyramid style of building was reached not at Saqqara. Sneferu was succeeded by his son, Khufu who built the Great Pyramid of Giza, after Khufus death, his sons Djedefra and Khafra may have quarrelled. The latter built the pyramid and the Sphinx in Giza. Recent reexamination of evidence has led Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev to propose that the Sphinx had been built by Djedefra as a monument to his father Khufu, alternatively, the Sphinx has been proposed to be the work of Khafra and Khufu himself. There were military expeditions into Canaan and Nubia, with Egyptian influence reaching up the Nile into what is today the Sudan, the later kings of the Fourth Dynasty were king Menkaure, who built the smallest pyramid in Giza, Shepseskaf and, perhaps, Djedefptah. The Fifth Dynasty began with Userkaf and was marked by the importance of the cult of sun god Ra
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Dushara
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Dushara, also transliterated as Dusares, a deity in the ancient Middle East worshipped by the Nabataeans at Petra and Madain Saleh. In Greek times, he was associated with Zeus because he was the chief of the Nabataean pantheon as well as with Dionysus and his sanctuary at Petra contained a great temple in which a large cubical stone was the centrepiece. A shrine to Dushara has been discovered in the harbour of ancient Puteoli in Italy, the city was an important nexus for trade to the Near East, and it is known to have had a Nabataean presence during the mid 1st century BCE. The cult continued in some capacity well into the Roman period, Book of Idols Khaabou Ibn al-Kalbī, The Book of Idols, Being a Translation from the Arabic of the Kitāb al-Asnām. The Religion of the Nabataeans, A Conspectus, el-Khouri, Lamia, Johnson, David, A New Nabataean Inscription from Wadi Mataha, Petra, Palestine Exploration Quarterly,137,2, 169-174. Nabataean religion Kitab al-Asnam in the original Arabic Dhushara The Meaning of the Name Solving the Enigma of Petra and the Nabataeans Biblical Archaeology Review
