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Urartian Armenian
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Lilith: Seductress, heroine or murderer?
Meaning & History: Derived from Akkadian lilitu meaning “of the night”. This was the name of a demon in ancient Assyrian myths. In Jewish tradition she was Adam’s first wife, sent out of Eden and replaced by Eve because she would not submit to him. The offspring of Adam (or Samael) and Lilith were the evil spirits of the world.
For 4,000 years Lilith has wandered the earth, figuring in the mythic imaginations of writers, artists and poets. Her dark origins lie in Babylonian demonology, where amulets and incantations were used to counter the sinister powers of this winged spirit who preyed on pregnant women and infants. Lilith next migrated to the world of the ancient Hittites, Egyptians, Israelites and Greeks. She makes a solitary appearance in the Bible, as a wilderness demon shunned by the prophet Isaiah. In the Middle Ages she reappears in Jewish sources as the dreadful first wife of Adam.
Lilith: Seductress, heroine or murderer?
“Lilith” by Janet Howe Gaines appeared in the October 2001 issue of Bible Review.
Janet Howe Gaines is a specialist in the Bible as literature in the Department of English at the University of New Mexico. She recently published Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages (Southern Illinois Univ. Press).
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Lilith (Hebrew: לִילִית Lîlîṯ) is a Hebrew name for a figure in Jewish mythology, developed earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be in part derived from a historically far earlier class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian Religion, found in Cuneiform texts of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia.
Evidence in later Jewish materials is plentiful, but little information has been found relating to the original Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian view of these demons.
The relevance of two sources previously used to connect the Jewish Lilith to an Akkadian Lilitu — the Gilgamesh appendix and the Arslan Tash amulets — are now both disputed by recent scholarship. The two problematic sources are discussed below.
The Hebrew term Lilith or “Lilit” (translated as “night creatures”, “night monster”, “night hag”, or “screech owl”) first occurs in Isaiah 34:14, either singular or plural according to variations in the earliest manuscripts, though in a list of animals.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls Songs of the Sage the term first occurs in a list of monsters. In Jewish magical inscriptions on bowls and amulets from the 6th century CE onwards, Lilith is identified as a female demon and the first visual depictions appear.
In Jewish folklore, from Alphabet of Ben Sira onwards, Lilith becomes Adam’s first wife, who was created at the same time (Rosh Hashanah) and from the same earth as Adam. This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam’s ribs.
The legend was greatly developed during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar, and Jewish mysticism. For example, in the 13th century writings of Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she coupled with the archangel Samael. The resulting Lilith legend is still commonly used as source material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy, and horror.
In the Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia the terms lili and līlītu mean spirits. The semitic root L-Y-L layil in Hebrew, as layl in Arabic, means “night”. Talmudic and Yiddish use of Lilith follows Hebrew.
Archibald Sayce (1882) considered that Hebrew lilit (or lilith) Hebrew: לילית; and the earlier Akkadian: līlītu are from proto-Semitic. Charles Fossey (1902) has this literally translating to “female night being/demon,” although cuneiform inscriptions from Mesopotamia exist where Līlīt and Līlītu refers to disease-bearing wind spirits.
Another possibility is association not with “night,” but with “wind,” thus identifying the Akkadian Lil-itu as a loan from the Sumerian lil, “air” — specifically from Ninlil, “lady air,” goddess of the south wind (and wife of Enlil) — and itud, “moon”. The Sumerian she-demons lili have no etymologic relation to Akkadian lilu, “evening.”
Gerald Gardner asserted that there was continuous historical worship of Lilith to present day, and that her name is sometimes given to the goddess being personified in the coven, by the priestess. This idea was further attested by Doreen Valiente, who cited her as a presiding goddess of the Craft: “the personification of erotic dreams, the suppressed desire for delights”.
The western mystery tradition associates Lilith with the Qliphoth of kabbalah. Samael Aun Weor in The Pistis Sophia Unveiled writes that homosexuals are the “henchmen of Lilith”. Likewise, women who undergo willful abortion, and those who support this practice are “seen in the sphere of Lilith”. Dion Fortune writes, “The Virgin Mary is reflected in Lilith”, and that Lilith is the source of “lustful dreams”.
In some contemporary concepts, Lilith is viewed as the embodiment of the Goddess, a designation that is thought to be shared with what these faiths believe to be her counterparts: Inanna, Ishtar, Asherah, Anath and Isis.
According to one view, Lilith was originally a Sumerian, Babylonian, or Hebrew mother goddess of childbirth, children, women, and sexuality who later became demonized due to the rise of patriarchy. Other modern views hold that Lilith is a dark moon goddess on par with the Hindu Kali.
Lilith is listed as one of the Qliphoth, corresponding to the Sephirah Malkuth in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The demon Lilith, the evil woman, is described as a beautiful woman, who transforms into a blue, butterfly-like demon, and it is associated with the power of seduction.
The Qliphah is the unbalanced power of a Sephirah. Malkuth is the lowest Sephirah, the realm of the earth, into which all the divine energy flows, and in which the divine plan is worked out. However, its unbalanced form is as Lilith, the seductress.
The material world, and all of its pleasures, is the ultimate seductress, and can lead to materialism unbalanced by the spirituality of the higher spheres. This ultimately leads to a descent into animal consciousness. The balance must therefore be found between Malkuth and Kether, to find order and harmony.
The only occurrence is in the Book of Isaiah 34:14, describing the desolation of Edom, where the Hebrew word lilit (or lilith) appears in a list of eight unclean animals, some of which may have demonic associations. Since the word lilit (or lilith) is a hapax legomenon in the Hebrew Bible and the other seven terms in the list are better documented, the reading of scholars and translators is often guided by a decision about the complete list of eight creatures as a whole.
In ancient Greek mythology, Lamia was a beautiful queen of Libya who became a child-eating daemon. Aristophanes claimed her name derived from the Greek word for gullet (laimos), referring to her habit of devouring children.
Lilith is not found in the Quran or Hadith. The Sufi occult writer Ahmad al-Buni (d.1225) in his Shams al-Ma’arif al-Kubra (Sun of the Great Knowledge) mentions a demon called the mother of children, a term also used “in one place” in the Jewish Zohar and is therefore probably derived from Jewish mythology.
The poem “Lilith” by the renowned 20th century Armenian writer Avetic Isahakyan is based on the Jewish legend. Isahakyan wrote “Lilith” in 1921 in Venice. His heroine was a creature who emerged from fire. Adam fell in love with Lilith, but Lilith was very indifferent, sympathy being her only feeling for the latter because Adam was a creature made of soil, not fire.
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Lilit was and is always positive for the Armenians…
“A beautiful Armenian girl. Also known as ‘fire’ in Armenian. She is easy to please, but if you get on her bad side, there is no way out. Very perverted, and has a nice body (boys think this, but don’t admit). She loves to have fun, and hates clingy people. Being as sensitive as she is, you don’t want to back stab her. Trust me. Usually has brown eyes and brown hair.”
Lilith
His lips sounded “Eve,” but his soul echoed “Lilith.”
A. Issahakian
A spark kindled from the twin rocks of early man
Are you, an undulating vision of neon lights-
From the beginning an other being, eternal, infinite, endless,
Lilith, Lilith.
You, the secret shielded from the eyes of centuries,
Burning in the soul’s most hidden fire,
You in your mystery are most sweet, most precious,
Lilith, Lilith.
You are a celebration clinging in a fastness of our hearts,
A wellspring of desire, fervor, aspiration, joy,
You are the body and the wing and the fall,
Lilith, Lilith.
Everywhere around us are earth, bread, concern, while you remain the dream,
You, always a brightness, always different, every day new,
Alluring, tormenting, burning-the fire that consumes us all,
Lilith, Lilith.
There is a secret, intimate room and you are the path to it,
A hearth is there, and you are its restless blazing,
A calm is there, and you its unceasing torment,
Lilith, Lilith.
And there is Eve, while you remain invalid, indistinct,
Fruitless, but of our blood, you, the fire’s roar,
Alone, alone-cast from earth, from heaven, from paradise,
Lilith, Lilith.
- By Silva Kapoutikyan (1919, Yerevan)
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NIN.LIL and EN.LIL
In Sumerian religion, Ninlil (NIN.LÍL”lady of the open field” or “Lady of the Wind”), also called Sud, in Assyrian called Mulliltu, is the consort goddess of Enlil (nlin), (EN = Lord + LÍL = Wind, “Lord (of the) Storm”), the God of breath, wind, loft and breadth (height and distance).
Enlil, along with Anu/An, Enki and Ninhursag were gods of the Sumerians. Enlil was listed and written about in Sumerian religion, and later in Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian), Hittite, Canaanite, and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets.
The name is perhaps pronounced and sometimes rendered in translations as “Ellil” in later Akkadian, Hittite, and Canaanite literature. In later Akkadian, Enlil is the son of Anshar and Kishar. Enlil was known as the inventor of the mattock (a key agricultural pick, hoe, ax or digging tool of the Sumerians) and helped plants to grow.
The myth of Enlil and Ninlil, a Sumerian creation myth written on clay tablets in the mid to late 3rd millennium BC, discusses when Enlil was a young god, he was banished from Ekur in Nippur, home of the gods, to Kur, the underworld for seducing a goddess named Ninlil. Ninlil followed him to the underworld where she bore his first child, the moon god Sin (Sumerian Nanna/Suen). After fathering three more underworld-deities (substitutes for Sin), Enlil was allowed to return to the Ekur.
By his wife Ninlil or Sud, Enlil was father of the moon god Nanna/Suen (in Akkadian, Sin) and of Ninurta (Nin Ur: God of War), also called Ningirsu. Enlil is the father of Nisaba the goddess of grain, of Pabilsag who is sometimes equated with Ninurta, and sometimes of Enbilulu, the god of rivers and canals in Mesopotamian mythology.
In the creation mythology Enbilulu was placed in charge of the sacred rivers Tigris and Euphrates by the god Enki. Also he was the deity of irrigation and farming. In Nippur, Ninurta was worshiped as part of a triad of deities including his father, Enlil and his mother, Ninlil. In variant mythology, his mother is said to be the harvest goddess Ninhursag. The consort of Ninurta was Ugallu in Nippur and Bau when he was called Ningirsu.
By Ereshkigal Enlil was father of Namtar (or Namtaru, or Namtara; meaning destiny or fate), a hellish minor deity in Mesopotamian mythology, god of death, and minister and messenger of An, Ereshkigal, and Nergal. Namtar was the son of Enlil anid Ereshkigal; he was born before his father raped the goddess Ninlil.
In one myth, Enlil gives advice to his son, the god Ninurta, advising him on a strategy to slay the demon Asag. This advice is relayed to Ninurta by way of Sharur, his enchanted talking mace, which had been sent by Ninurta to the realm of the gods to seek counsel from Enlil directly.
Enlil is associated with the ancient city of Nippur, sometimes referred to as the cult city of Enlil. His temple was named Ekur, “House of the Mountain.” Such was the sanctity acquired by this edifice that Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, down to the latest days, vied with one another to embellish and restore Enlil’s seat of worship. Eventually, the name Ekur became the designation of a temple in general.
Grouped around the main sanctuary, there arose temples and chapels to the gods and goddesses who formed his court, so that Ekur became the name for an entire sacred precinct in the city of Nippur. The name “mountain house” suggests a lofty structure and was perhaps the designation originally of the staged tower at Nippur, built in imitation of a mountain, with the sacred shrine of the god on the top.
Enlil was also known as the god of weather. According to the Sumerians, Enlil helped create the humans, but then got tired of their noise and tried to kill them by sending a flood. A mortal known as Utnapishtim survived the flood through the help of another god, Ea, and he was made immortal by Enlil after Enlil’s initial fury had subsided.
As Enlil was the only god who could reach An, the god of heaven, he held sway over the other gods who were assigned tasks by his agent and would travel to Nippur to draw in his power. He is thus seen as the model for kingship. Enlil was assimilated to the north “Pole of the Ecliptic”. His sacred number name was 50.
At a very early period prior to 3000 BC, Nippur had become the centre of a political district of considerable extent. Inscriptions found at Nippur, where extensive excavations were carried on during 1888–1900 by John P. Peters and John Henry Haynes, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, shows that Enlil was the head of an extensive pantheon. Among the titles accorded to him are “king of lands”, “king of heaven and earth”, and “father of the gods”.
Kumarbi is the chief god of the Hurrians. He is the son of Anu (the sky), and father of the storm-god Teshub. He was identified by the Hurrians with Sumerian Enlil, and by the Ugaritians with El.
The Song of Kumarbi or Kingship in Heaven, the title given to a Hittite version of the Hurrian Kumarbi myth, relates that Alalu was overthrown by Anu who was in turn overthrown by Kumarbi. When Anu tried to escape, Kumarbi bit off his genitals and spat out three new gods.
In the text Anu tells his son that he is now pregnant with the Teshub, Tigris, and Tašmišu. Upon hearing this Kumarbi spit the semen upon the ground and it became impregnated with two children. Kumarbi is cut open to deliver Tešub. Together, Anu and Teshub depose Kumarbi.
In another version of the Kingship in Heaven, the three gods, Alalu, Anu, and Kumarbi, rule heaven, each serving the one who precedes him in the nine-year reign. It is Kumarbi’s son Tešub, the Weather-God, who begins to conspire to overthrow his father.
From the first publication of the Kingship in Heaven tablets scholars have pointed out the similarities between the Hurrian creation myth and the story from Greek mythology of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus.
Cronus or both Cronos and Kronos was in Greek mythology the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of Uranus, the sky and Gaia, the earth.
In ancient myth recorded by Hesiod’s Theogony, Cronus envied the power of his father, the ruler of the universe, Uranus. He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus.
Cronus was usually depicted with a Harpe, Scythe or a Sickle, which was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father. In Athens, on the twelfth day of the Attic month of Hekatombaion, a festival called Kronia was held in honour of Cronus to celebrate the harvest, suggesting that, as a result of his association with the virtuous Golden Age, Cronus continued to preside as a patron of harvest. Cronus was also identified in classical antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn.
The parentage of Ninlil is variously described. Most commonly she is called the daughter of Haia (god of stores) and Nunbarsegunu (or Ninshebargunnu [a goddess of barley] or Nisaba). Another Akkadian source says she is the daughter of Anu (aka An) and Antu (Sumerian Ki). Other sources call her a daughter of Anu and Nammu.
Haya’s functions are two-fold: he appears to have served as a door-keeper but was also associated with the scribal arts, and may have had an association with grain. At least from the Old Babylonian period on he is known as the spouse of the grain-goddess Nanibgal (NÁNIBGAL), also Nisaba or Nidaba, the Sumerian goddess of writing, learning, and the harvest. Her sanctuaries were E-zagin at Eresh and at Umma.
There is a divine name Haia(-)amma in a bilingual Hattic-Hittite text from Anatolia which is used as an equivalent for the Hattic grain-goddess Kait in an invocation to the Hittite grain-god Halki, although it is unclear whether this appellation can be related to Haià.
Haya is also characterised, beyond being the spouse of Nidaba/Nissaba, as an “agrig”-official of the god Enlil. He is designated as “the Nissaba of wealth”, as opposed to his wife, who is the “Nissaba of Wisdom”.
Attempts have also been made to connect the remote origins of dha-ià with those of the god Enki/Ea (Ebla Ḥayya), although there remain serious doubts concerning this hypothesis. How or whether both are related to a further western deity called Ḥayya is also unclear.
On a depiction found in Lagash, Nisaba/Nidaba appears with flowing hair, crowned with horned tiara bearing supporting ears of grain and a crescent moon. Her dense hair is evoked in comparison in the description of similarly hairy Enkidu in the Gilgamesh epic. Nisaba is the sister of Ninsun, the mother of Gilgamesh.
Nidaba reflects fundamental developments in the creation of Mesopotamian culture, those which take us from agriculture to accounting, to a very fine literary tradition. Nidaba was originally an agricultural deity, more specifically a goddess of grain.
The intricate connection between agriculture and accounting/writing implied that it was not long before Nidaba became the goddess of writing. From then on her main role was to be the patron of scribes. She was eventually replaced in that function by the god Nabu.
Traditions vary regarding the genealogy of Nidaba. She appears on separate occasions as the daughter of Enlil, of Uraš, of Ea, and of Anu. Nidaba’s spouse is Haya and together they have a daughter, Sud/Ninlil.
Two myths describe the marriage of Sud/Ninlil with Enlil. This implies that Nidaba could be at once the daughter and the mother-in-law of Enlil. Nidaba is also the sister of Ninsumun, the mother of Gilgameš. Nidaba is frequently mentioned together with the goddess Nanibgal who also appears as an epithet of Nidaba, although most god lists treat her as a distinct goddess.
In a debate between Nidaba and Grain, Nidaba is syncretised with Ereškigal as “Mistress of the Underworld”. Nidaba is also identified with the goddess of grain Ašnan, and with Nanibgal/Nidaba-ursag/Geme-Dukuga, the throne bearer of Ninlil and wife of Ennugi, throne bearer of Enlil.
As with many Sumerian deities, Nisaba’s exact place in the pantheon and her heritage appears somewhat ambiguous. She is the daughter of An and Urash. From Sumerian texts, the language used to describe Urash is very similar to the language used to describe Ninhursag. Therefore, the two goddesses may be one and the same.
Uraš or Urash, in Sumerian mythology is a goddess of earth, and one of the consorts of the sky god Anu. She is the mother of the goddess Ninsun and a grandmother of the hero Gilgamesh.
However, Uras may only have been another name for Antum, Anu’s wife. The name Uras even became applied to Anu himself, and acquired the meaning “heaven”. Ninurta also was apparently called Uras in later times.
In Sumerian mythology, Ninhursag was a mother goddess of the mountains, and one of the seven great deities of Sumer. She is principally a fertility goddess. Temple hymn sources identify her as the ‘true and great lady of heaven’ (possibly in relation to her standing on the mountain) and kings of Sumer were ‘nourished by Ninhursag’s milk’.
Nin-hursag means “lady of the sacred mountain” (from Sumerian NIN “lady” and ḪAR.SAG “sacred mountain, foothill”, possibly a reference to the site of her temple, the E-Kur (House of mountain deeps) at Eridu. She had many names including Ninmah (“Great Queen”); Nintu (“Lady of Birth”); Mamma or Mami (mother); Aruru, Belet-Ili (lady of the gods, Akkadian).
Her hair is sometimes depicted in an omega shape, and she at times wears a horned head-dress and tiered skirt, often with bow cases at her shoulders, and not infrequently carries a mace or baton surmounted by an omega motif or a derivation, sometimes accompanied by a lion cub on a leash. She is the tutelary deity to several Sumerian leaders.
Her symbol, resembling the Greek letter omega Ω, has been depicted in art from around 3000 BC, though more generally from the early second millennium. It appears on some boundary stones — on the upper tier, indicating her importance.
The omega symbol is associated with the Egyptian cow goddess Hathor, and may represent a stylized womb. Hathor is at times depicted on a mountain, so it may be that the two goddesses are connected.
In the legend of Enki and Ninhursag, Ninhursag bore a daughter to Enki called Ninsar (“Lady Greenery”). Through Enki, Ninsar bore a daughter Ninkurra, who in turn, bore Enki a daughter named Uttu. Enki then pursued Uttu, who was upset because he didn’t care for her.
Uttu, on her ancestress Ninhursag’s advice buried Enki’s seed in the earth, whereupon eight plants (the very first) sprung up. Enki, seeing the plants, ate them, and became ill in eight organs of his body. Ninhursag cured him, taking the plants into her body and giving birth to eight deities: Abu, Nintulla (Nintul), Ninsutu, Ninkasi, Nanshe (Nazi), Azimua, Ninti, and Enshag (Enshagag).
In the text ‘Creator of the Hoe’, she completed the birth of mankind after the heads had been uncovered by Enki’s hoe. In creation texts, Ninmah (another name for Ninhursag) acts as a midwife whilst the mother goddess Nammu makes different kinds of human individuals from lumps of clay at a feast given by Enki to celebrate the creation of humankind.
If Urash and Ninhursag are the same goddess, then Nisaba is also the half sister of Nanshe and (in some versions) Ninurta. In some other tales, she is considered the mother of Ninlil, and by extension, the mother-in-law of Enlil.
Ninlil lived in Dilmun with her family. Raped and ravaged by her husband Enlil, who impregnated her with water, she conceived a boy, Nanna/Suen, the future moon god. As punishment Enlil was dispatched to the underworld kingdom of Ereshkigal, where Ninlil joined him. Enlil impregnated her disguised as the gatekeeper, where upon she gave birth to their son Nergal, god of death.
In a similar manner she conceived the underworld god Ninazu when Enlil impregnated her disguised as the man of the river of the nether world, a man-devouring river. Later Enlil disguised himself as the man of the boat, impregnating her with a fourth deity Enbilulu, god of rivers and canals. All of these act as substitutes for Nanna/Suen to ascend. In some texts Ninlil is also the mother of Ninurta, the heroic god who slew Asag the demon with his mace, Sharur.
After her death, she became the goddess of the wind, like Enlil. She may be the Goddess of the South Wind referred to in the story of Adapa, as her husband Enlil was associated with northerly winter storms. As “Lady Wind” she may be associated with the figure of the Akkadian demon “Lil-itu”, thought to have been the origin of the Hebrew Lilith legend.
“In the sleeping quarters, in the flowered bed fragrant like a cedar forest, Enlil made love to his wife and took great pleasure in it. He sat her on his dais appropriate to the status of Enlil, and made the people pray to her. The lord whose statements are powerful also determined a fate for the Lady (Aruru), the woman of his favour; he gave her the name Nintur, the ‘Lady who gives birth’, the ‘Lady who spreads her knees’. (…) Proud woman, surpassing the mountains! You who always fulfil your desires—from now on, Sud, Enlil is the king and Ninlil is the queen. The goddess without name has a famous name now, …”
From the analysis of Thorkild Jacobsen, Dale Launderville has suggested the myth of Enlil and Ninlil provides evidence that Sumerian society prohibited premarital sex. He concludes that the narrative exonerates Enlil and Ninlil indicating nature to have its way even where societal conventions try to contain sexual desire.
The Sumerian word NIN (from the Akkadian pronunciation of the sign EREŠ) was used to denote a queen or a priestess, and is often translated as “lady”. Other translations include “queen”, “mistress”, “proprietress”, and “lord”.
Many goddesses are called NIN, such as NIN.GAL (“great lady”), É.NIN.GAL (“lady of the great temple”), EREŠ.KI.GAL, and NIN.TI. The compound form NIN.DINGIR (“divine lady” or “lady of [a] god”), from the Akkadian entu, denotes a priestess.
EN or Ensi is the Sumerian cuneiform for “lord” or “priest”. Originally, it seems to have been used to designate a high priest or priestess of a Sumerian city-state’s patron-deity – a position that entailed political power as well. It may also have been the original title of the ruler of Uruk. See Lugal, ensi and en for more details.
Cuneiform TI or TÌL has the main meaning of “life” when used ideographically. The written sign developed from the drawing of an arrow, since the words meaning “arrow” and “life” were pronounced similarly in the Sumerian language.
With the determinative UZU “flesh, meat”, TI, it means “rib”. This homophony is exploited in the myth of Ninti (NIN.TI “lady of life” or “lady of the rib”), created by Ninhursag to cure the ailing Enki.
Since Eve is called “mother of life” in Genesis, together with her being taken from Adam’s צלע tsela` “side, rib”, the story of Adam and Eve has sometimes been considered to derive from that of Ninti. In Akkadian orthography, the sign has the syllabic values di or ṭi, in Hittite ti, di or te.
Ereshkigal (EREŠ.KI.GAL, lit. “great lady under earth”) was the goddess of Irkalla, the land of the dead or underworld. Sometimes her name is given as Irkalla (also Ir-Kalla, Irkalia), similar to the way the name Hades was used in Greek mythology for both the underworld and its ruler. Ereshkigal was the only one who could pass judgment and give laws in her kingdom. The main temple dedicated to her was located in Kutha.
As the subterranean destination for all who die, Irkalla is similar to Sheol of the Hebrew Bible or Hades of classic Greek mythology. It is different from more hopeful versions of the afterlife, such as those envisioned by the contemporaneous Egyptians and the later in Platonic philosophy, Judaism, and Christianity. However, Irkalla also differs from the Greek Tartarus and the Christian perspective of hell.
Irkalla had no punishment or reward, being seen as a more dreary version of life above, with Erishkigal being seen as both warden and guardian of the dead rather than a sinister ruler like Satan or death gods of other religions.
In Babylonian mythology, Irkalla is the underworld from which there is no return. It is also called Arali, Kigal, Gizal, and the lower world. Irkalla is ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal and her consort, the death god Nergal, with the main seat of his worship at Cuthah. He is a son of Enlil and Ninlil, along with Nanna or Sin, god of the moon in Sumerian mythology, also called Suen, and Ninurta.
Nergal actually seems to be in part a solar deity, sometimes identified with Shamash, but only a representative of a certain phase of the sun. Portrayed in hymns and myths as a god of war and pestilence, Nergal seems to represent the sun of noontime and of the summer solstice that brings destruction, high summer being the dead season in the Mesopotamian annual cycle.
Being a deity of the desert, god of fire, which is one of negative aspects of the sun, god of the underworld, and also being a god of one of the religions which rivaled Christianity and Judaism, Nergal was sometimes called a demon and even identified with Satan. According to Collin de Plancy and Johann Weyer, Nergal was depicted as the chief of Hell’s “secret police”, and worked as an “an honorary spy in the service of Beelzebub”.
In the late Babylonian astral-theological system Nergal is related to the planet Mars. As a fiery god of destruction and war, Nergal doubtless seemed an appropriate choice for the red planet, and he was equated by the Greeks either to the combative demigod Heracles (Latin Hercules) or to the war-god Ares (Latin Mars) — hence the current name of the planet.
The worship of Nergal does not appear to have spread as widely as that of Ninurta, but in the late Babylonian and early Persian period, syncretism seems to have fused the two divinities, which were invoked together as if they were identical.
In Assyro-Babylonian ecclesiastical art the great lion-headed colossi serving as guardians to the temples and palaces seem to symbolise Nergal, just as the bull-headed colossi probably typify Ninurta.
Nergal’s chief temple at Cuthah bore the name Meslam, from which the god receives the designation of Meslamtaeda or Meslamtaea, “the one that rises up from Meslam”. The name Meslamtaeda/Meslamtaea indeed is found as early as the list of gods from Fara while the name Nergal only begins to appear in the Akkadian period.
Amongst the Hurrians and later Hittites Nergal was known as Aplu, a name derived from the Akkadian Apal Enlil, (Apal being the construct state of Aplu) meaning “the son of Enlil”. As God of the plague, he was invoked during the “plague years” during the reign of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma, when this disease spread from Egypt.
Irkalla was originally another name for Ereshkigal, who ruled the underworld alone until Nergal was sent to the underworld and seduced Ereshkigal (in Babylonian mythology).
The goddess Ishtar refers to Ereshkigal as her older sister in the Sumerian hymn “The Descent of Inanna” (which was also in later Babylonian myth, also called “The Descent of Ishtar”). Inanna/Ishtar’s trip and return to the underworld is the most familiar of the myths concerning Ereshkigal.
Ereshkigal is the sister and counterpart of Inanna/Ishtar, the symbol of nature during the non-productive season of the year. Ereshkigal was also a queen that many gods and goddesses looked up to in the underworld.
She is known chiefly through two myths, believed to symbolize the changing of the seasons, but perhaps also intended to illustrate certain doctrines which date back to the Mesopotamia period. According to the doctrine of two kingdoms, the dominions of the two sisters are sharply differentiated, as one is of this world and one of the world of the dead.
One of these myths is Inanna’s descent to the netherworld and her reception by her sister who presides over it; Ereshkigal traps her sister in her kingdom and Inanna is only able to leave it by sacrificing her husband Dumuzi in exchange for herself.
The other myth is the story of Nergal, the plague god. Once, the gods held a banquet that Ereshkigal as queen of the Netherworld cannot come up to attend. They invite her to send a messenger and she sends Namtar, her vizier. He is treated well by all but disrespected by Nergal. As a result of this, Nergal is banished to the kingdom controlled by the goddess. Versions vary at this point, but all of them result in him becoming her husband. In later tradition, Nergal is said to have been the victor, taking her as wife and ruling the land himself.
It is theorized that the story of Inanna’s descent is told to illustrate the possibility of an escape from the netherworld, while the Nergal myth is intended to reconcile the existence of two rulers of the netherworld: a goddess and a god. The addition of Nergal represents the harmonizing tendency to unite Ereshkigal as the queen of the netherworld with the god who, as god of war and of pestilence, brings death to the living and thus becomes the one who presides over the dead.
In some versions of the myths, she rules the underworld by herself, sometimes with a husband subordinate to her named Gugalana. It was said that she had been stolen away by Kur and taken to the underworld, where she was made queen unwillingly.
She is the mother of the goddess Nungal, a goddess of the underworld, who was titled the “Queen of the Ekur” where she held the “tablet of life” and carried out judgement on the wicked. Her son with Enlil was the god Namtar. With Gugalana her son was Ninazu, a god of the underworld, and of healing. Ninazu was the son of Enlil and Ninlil or, in alternative traditions, of Ereshkigal and Gugalana, and was the father of Ningiszida.
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The trickster god in mythology
Loki the trickster
The Caduceus
Caduceus of Ningishzida: the Pre-Hermes Caduceus
“The alchemical process of kindling and elevating it is accomplished in the spinal cord where the SALT, SULPHUR, MERCURY and AZOTH are found. It is raised to incandescence by high and noble thought, by meditation upon spiritual subjects, and by altruism expressed in the daily life. The second half of the creative energy thus drawn upward through the spinal canal is a SPINAL SPIRIT-FIRE, the serpent of wisdom. Gradually it is raised higher and higher and when it reaches the pituitary body and the pineal gland in the brain, it sets them to vibrating, opening up the spiritual worlds and enabling man to commune with the gods. Then this fire radiates in all directions and permeates the whole body and its auric atmosphere, and man has become a LIVING STONE, whose luster surpasses that of the diamond or the ruby. HE IS THEN THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE.”
Max Heindel
“The Basics of Kabbalah and the Tree of Life”
“On penetrating into the sanctuary of the Kabalah one is seized with admiration in the presence of a doctrine so logical, so simple and at the same time so absolute. The essential union of ideas and signs; the consecration of the most fundamental realities by primitive characters; the trinity of words, letters and numbers; a philosophy simple as the alphabet, profound and infinite as the Word; theorems more complete and luminous than those of Pythagoras; a theology which may be summed up on the fingers; an infinite which can be held in the hollow of an infant’s hand; ten figures and twenty-two letters, a triangle, a square and a circle: such are the elements of the Kabalah. Such also are the component principles of the written Word, reflection of that spoken Word which created the world! All truly dogmatic religions have issued from the Kabalah and return therein.”
Eliphas Levi
“Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie”
(Part I: The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic, Introduction, Rowe pg. 11-12)
The Kabbalah, hermeticism, makalesi, tarot meanings and the tree of life
Yggdrasil
Running through this universe from bottom to top, holding it all together and linking the three worlds of heaven, earth, and underworld, was a great ash tree called Yggdrasill. Its branches spread over the heavens, and its roots stretched into all three worlds. Springs rose from these roots. One, the Well of Urd, was guarded by the Norns, the three goddesses of fate. A serpent or dragon named Nidhogg gnawed endlessly at the Yggdrasill’s roots, and an eagle perched on its topmost branch. Goats, deer, and other animals ate the tree’s shoots and lived in it, and a squirrel named Ratatosk ran up and down its trunk, carrying messages and insults between the eagle and Nidhogg.
Fate
Hel
Mother Holle – The Germanic Goddess of Death and Renewal, Weaver of Fate and Fortune
Hel, Norse Goddess of the Dead
Norns, Hel, Frau Holle, Fylgia
The old Old Norse word Hel derives from Proto-Germanic *haljō, which means “one who covers up or hides something”, which itself derives from Proto-Indo-European *kel-, meaning “conceal”. The cognate in English is the word Hell which is from the Old English forms hel and helle. Related terms are Old Frisian, helle, German Hölle and Gothic halja. Other words more distantly related include hole, hollow, hall, helmet and cell, all from the aforementioned Indo-European root *kel-.
Hel in Norse mythology, originally the name of the world of the dead; Helheim (Hel-Home), it later came to mean the goddess of death. Hel was one of the three “strange children” of the trickster god Loki and the Giantess Angurboda; the other two were Fenris and Jormungand, and her kingdom was said to lie downward and northward. It was called Niflheim, or the World of Darkness, and appears to have been divided into several sections, one of which was Náströnd, the shore of corpses.
Most of us will remember Mother Holle (or Frau Holle in German) from the Grimm’s fairy tales. She is the old woman who lives in a world at the bottom of a well and whose feather beds when shaken make snow fall on Earth. It is said that anyone who enters her realm will be rewarded exactly with what they deserve, be it good or bad. She is described as having ugly big teeth, a big nose and a flat foot. The latter shows her love for weaving or spinning, another sacred act associated with the Goddess: She is the Life Weaver, the Spinner of Destiny and Fate.
The Scandinavian Goddess Hel is probably the most widely known version of Mother Holle as Goddess, although by the time the Indo-European Norse wrote down their religious beliefs, Hel was no longer the benevolent Regeneratrix of the Neolithic. She had become the dreaded Queen of the Dead.
Sudice
Dea Matrona
Hutena
Norns
The three Moirai
Parcae
Matres
Graeae
In Hurrian mythology, the Hutena are goddesses of fate. They are similar to the Norns of Norse mythology or the Moirai of ancient Greece. They are called the Gul Ses (Gul-Shesh; Gulshesh; Gul-ashshesh) in Hittite mythology.
In Greek mythology, the Moirai (“apportioners”, Latinized as Moerae), often known in English as the Fates, were the white-robed incarnations of destiny (Roman equivalent: Parcae, euphemistically the “sparing ones”, the female personifications of destiny, or Fata; also analogous to the Germanic Norns, female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men). Their number became fixed at three: Clotho (spinner), Lachesis (allotter) and Atropos (unturnable).
They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without obstruction.
The gods and men had to submit to them, although Zeus’s relationship with them is a matter of debate: some sources say he is the only one who can command them (the Zeus Moiragetes), yet others suggest he was also bound to the Moirai’s dictates.
In the Homeric poems Moira or Aisa is related with the limit and end of life and Zeus appears as the guider of destiny. In the Theogony of Hesiod, the three Moirai are personified, and are acting over the gods. Later they are daughters of Zeus and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order and law. In Plato’s Republic the Three Fates are daughters of Ananke (necessity), the personification of destiny, necessity and fate, depicted as holding a spindle.
In Greek mythology, Ananke, also spelled Anangke, Anance, or Anagke (from the common noun “force, constraint, necessity”), was the personification of destiny, necessity and fate, depicted as holding a spindle. She marks the beginning of the cosmos, along with Chronos.
She was seen as the most powerful dictator of all fate and circumstance which meant that mortals, as well as the Gods, respected her and paid homage. Considered as the mother of the Fates according to one version, she is the only one to have control over their decisions (except, according to some sources, also Zeus).
According to the ancient Greek traveller Pausanias, there was a temple in ancient Corinth where the goddesses Ananke and Bia (meaning violence or violent haste) were worshipped together in the same shrine. Her Roman counterpart was Necessitas (“necessity”).
“Ananke” is derived from the common Ancient Greek noun anankaiē, meaning “force, constraint or necessity.” The common noun itself is of uncertain etymology. Homer uses the word meaning necessity (“It is necessary to fight”) or force (“by force”).
In Ancient Greek literature the word is also used meaning “fate” or “destiny” (“fate by the daemons or by the gods”), and by extension “compulsion or torture by a superior.” The word is often personified in poetry, as Simonides does: “Even the gods don’t fight against ananke“. In the philosophical sense it means “necessity,” “logical necessity,” or “laws of nature.”
It seems that Moira is related with Tekmor (proof, ordinance) and with Ananke (destiny, necessity), who were primeval goddesses in mythical cosmogonies. The ancient Greek writers might call this power Moira or Ananke, and even the gods could not alter what was ordained.
The concept of a universal principle of natural order has been compared to similar concepts in other cultures like the Vedic Rta (“that which is properly joined; order, rule; truth”, the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it), the Avestan Asha/Arta (corresponding to Vedic language ṛta), the Avestan language term for a concept of cardinal importance to Zoroastrian theology and doctrine, and the Egyptian Maat, the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice.
The earliest surviving records indicating that Maat is the norm for nature and society, in this world and the next, were recorded during the Old Kingdom, the earliest substantial surviving examples being found in the Pyramid Texts of Unas (ca. 2375 BCE and 2345 BCE).
Later, as a goddess in other traditions of the Egyptian pantheon, where most goddesses were paired with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was Thoth and their attributes are the similar. In other accounts, Thoth was paired off with Seshat, goddess of writing and measure, who is a lesser known deity.
After her role in creation and continuously preventing the universe from returning to chaos, her primary role in Egyptian mythology dealt with the weighing of souls (also called the weighing of the heart) that took place in the underworld, Duat. Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls (considered to reside in the heart) of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully.
In earliest Greek philosophy, the cosmogony of Anaximander is based on these mythical beliefs. The goddess Dike (justice, divine retribution), the goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgement based on immemorial custom, in the sense of socially enforced norms and conventional rules, keeps the order and sets a limit to any actions.
According to Hesiod, she was fathered by Zeus upon his second consort, Themis. She and her mother were both personifications of justice. She is depicted as a young slender woman carrying a physical balance scale and wearing a laurel wreath while her Roman counterpart (Justitia) appears in a similar fashion but blind-folded.She is represented in the constellation Libra which is named for the Latin name of her symbol (Scales).
She is often associated with Astraea, the goddess of innocence and purity. Astraea is also one of her epithets referring to her appearance in the nearby constellation Virgo which is said to represent Astraea. This reflects her symbolic association with Astraea, who too has a similar iconography.
Kismet, the predetermined course of events in the Muslim traditions, seems to have a similar etymology and function as Moira: Arabic qisma.t “lot” <qasama, “to divide, allot” developed to mean Fate or destiny. As a loanword, qesmat ‘fate’ appears in Persian, whence in Urdu language, and eventually in English Kismet.
Enyo was a goddess of war and destruction in Greek mythology, the companion and lover of the war god Ares, the Greek god of war. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.
His sons Fear (Phobos) and Terror (Deimos) and his lover, or sister, Discord (Enyo) accompanied him on his war chariot. The counterpart of Ares among the Roman gods is Mars, who as a father of the Roman people was given a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion as a guardian deity.
She is also identified as his sister, and daughter of Zeus and Hera, in a role closely resembling that of Eris; with Homer in particular representing the two as the same goddess. She is also accredited as the mother of the war god Enyalius, by Ares. However, the name Enyalius or Enyalios can also be used as a title for Ares himself.
As goddess of war, Enyo is responsible for orchestrating the destruction of cities, often accompanying Ares into battle, and depicted “as supreme in war”. During the fall of Troy, Enyo inflicted terror and bloodshed in the war, along with Eris (“Strife”), and Phobos (“Fear”) and Deimos (“Dread”), the two sons of Ares. She, Eris, and the two sons of Ares are depicted on Achilles’s shield.
The Romans identified Enyo with Bellona, and she also has similarities with the Anatolian goddess Ma, a local goddess at Ma or Comana and a Phrygian alternative name for Cybele. Enyo was also the name of one of the Graeae, three sisters who shared one eye and one tooth among them, along with Deino (“Dread”) and Pemphredo (“Alarm”).
Norns – Moirai – “The Fates” – Parcae – Sudice – Matres – Dea Matrona – Graeae – Laima – Dalia
The Anatolian Fate-Goddesses and their DifferentTraditions
The trickster
Sumerian Double Helix Snake God
“Tricksters preside over moments of passage, rupture and transformation.”
Dr. R. S. Tannen
In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and conventional behavior.
It is suggested by Hansen (2001) that the term “Trickster” was probably first used in this context by Daniel G. Brinton in 1885.
The trickster deity breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously (for example, Loki, a god or jötunn (or both) in Norse mythology) but usually with ultimately positive effects (though the trickster’s initial intentions may have been either positive or negative).
Often, the bending/breaking of rules takes the form of tricks (e.g. Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos, strife and discord) or thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both; they are often funny even when considered sacred or performing important cultural tasks.
An example of this is the sacred Iktomi, a spider-trickster spirit, and a culture hero for the Lakota people, whose role is to play tricks and games and by doing so raises awareness and acts as an equalizer.
In several cultures, (as may be seen in Greek, Norse, or Slavic folktales, along with Native American/First Nations lore), the trickster and the culture hero are often combined.
To illustrate: Prometheus, in Greek mythology, stole fire from the gods to give to humans. He is more of a culture hero than a trickster. In many Native American and First Nations mythologies, the coyote (Southwestern United States) or raven (Pacific Northwest and Russian Far East) stole fire from the gods (stars, moon, and/or sun) and are more tricksters than culture heroes. This is primarily because of other stories involving these spirits: Prometheus was a titan, whereas the Coyote spirit and Raven spirit are usually seen as jokesters and pranksters.
Frequently the Trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability, changing gender roles and even occasionally engaging in same-sex practices. Such figures appear in Native American and First Nations mythologies, where they are said to have a two-spirit nature.
Loki, the Norse trickster, also exhibits gender variability, in one case even becoming pregnant. He shares the ability to change genders with Odin, the chief Norse deity who also possesses many characteristics of the Trickster.
In the case of Loki’s pregnancy, he was forced by the Gods to stop a giant from erecting a wall for them before seven days passed; he solved the problem by transforming into a mare and drawing the giant’s magical horse away from its work. He returned some time later with a child he had given birth to—the eight-legged horse Sleipnir, who served as Odin’s steed.
In some cultures, there are dualistic myths, featuring two demiurges creating the world, or two culture heroes arranging the world — in a complementary manner.
Dualistic cosmologies are present in all inhabited continents and show great diversity: they may feature culture heroes, but also demiurges (exemplifying a dualistic creation myth in the latter case), or other beings; the two heroes may compete or collaborate; they may be conceived as neutral or contrasted as good versus evil; be of the same importance or distinguished as powerful versus weak; be brothers (even twins) or not be relatives at all.
Psychopomps
Psychopomps (from the Greek word psuchopompos, literally meaning the “guide of souls”) are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife.
Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to provide safe passage. Frequently depicted on funerary art, psychopomps have been associated at different times and in different cultures with horses, whip-poor-wills, ravens, dogs, crows, owls, sparrows, cuckoos, and harts. Classical examples of a psychopomp in Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology are Charon, Hermes, Mercury and Anubis.
In Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. It is symbolically personified in dreams as a wise man or woman, or sometimes as a helpful animal.
In many cultures, the shaman also fulfills the role of the psychopomp. This may include not only accompanying the soul of the dead, but also vice versa: to help at birth, to introduce the newborn child’s soul to the world. This also accounts for the contemporary title of “midwife to the dying”, or “End of Life Doula” which is another form of psychopomp work.
The spirits of ancestors and other dead loved ones function as psychopomps in Filipino culture. When the moribund call out the names of dead relations, the spirits of those named are said to be visible to the dying person. These spirits are believed to be waiting at the foot of the deathbed, ready to fetch (Tagalog: sundô) the soul of the newly-deceased and escort them into the afterlife.
Examples of Tricksters
Examples of Tricksters in the world mythologies are given by Hansen (2001), who lists Mercurius in Roman mythology, Hermes, an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, Eshu in Yoruba mythology and Wakdjunga in Winnebago mythology as examples of the Trickster archetype. Hansen makes the observation that the Trickster is nearly always a male figure.
Hermes
Hermes is second youngest of the Olympian gods. He is a god of transitions and boundaries. He is quick and cunning, and moves freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, as emissary and messenger of the gods, intercessor between mortals and the divine, and conductor of souls into the afterlife. He is protector and patron of travelers, herdsmen, thieves, orators and wit, literature and poets, athletics and sports, invention and trade.
In some myths he is a trickster, and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or the sake of humankind. His attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster and the tortoise, purse or pouch, winged sandals, winged cap, and his main symbol is the herald’s staff, the Greek kerykeion or Latin caduceus which consisted of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff.
In the Roman adaptation of the Greek pantheon, Hermes is identified with the Roman god Mercury, who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics, such as being the patron of commerce.
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus may be a representation of the syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. Both Thoth and Hermes were gods of writing and of magic in their respective cultures. Thus, the Greek god of interpretive communication was combined with the Egyptian god of wisdom as a patron of astrology and alchemy. In addition, both gods were psychopomps, guiding souls to the afterlife.
In Hellenistic Egypt, the Greeks recognised the congruence of their god Hermes with Thoth. Subsequently the two gods were worshipped as one in what had been the Temple of Thoth in Khemnu, which the Greeks called Hermopolis.
The Egyptian Priest and Polymath Imhotep had been deified long after his death and therefore assimilated to Thoth in the classical and Hellenistic period. The renowned scribe Amenhotep and a wise man named Teôs were equally deified as gods of wisdom, science and medicine and thus placed alongside Imhotep in shrines dedicated to Thoth-Hermes during the Ptolemaic period.
Hermetic Corpus
Hermes Trismegistus (“thrice-greatest Hermes”; Latin: Mercurius ter Maximus) is the purported author of the Hermetic Corpus, a series of sacred texts that are the basis of Hermeticism.
The Hermetica is a category of papyri containing spells and initiatory induction procedures. The Asclepius and the Corpus Hermeticum are the most important of the Hermetica, writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, which survive.
In the dialogue called the Asclepius (after the Greek god of healing) the art of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angels in statues with the help of herbs, gems and odors, is described, such that the statue could speak and engage in prophecy.
In other papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf.
During the Renaissance it was accepted that Hermes Trismegistus was a contemporary of Moses, however after Casaubon’s dating of the Hermetic writings as no earlier than the second or third century CE, the whole of Renaissance Hermeticism collapsed.
Thoth
Thoth was in art often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Ma’at. His chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era (in reference to him through the Greeks’ interpretation that he was the same as their god Hermes) and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering.
In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities. In the Ogdoad cosmogony, Thoth gave birth to Ra, Atum, Nefertum, and Khepri by laying an egg while in the form of an ibis, or later as a goose laying a golden egg.
He also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens.
Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities (the other being Ma’at) who stood on either side of Ra’s boat.
In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.
Thoth’s roles in Egyptian mythology were many. He served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other. He also served as scribe of the gods, credited with the invention of writing and alphabets (i.e. hieroglyphs) themselves.
In the underworld, Duat, he appeared as an ape, A’an, the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales weighing the deceased’s heart against the feather, representing the principle of Ma’at, was exactly even.
The ancient Egyptians regarded Thoth as One, self-begotten, and self-produced. He was the master of both physical and moral (i.e. divine) law, making proper use of Ma’at.
He is said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies. He is credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth, and everything in them. Without his words, the Egyptians believed, the gods would not exist. His power was unlimited in the Underworld and rivaled that of Ra and Osiris. Compare this to how his feminine counterpart, Ma’at was the force which maintained the Universe.
The Egyptians credited him as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic. The Greeks further declared him the inventor of astronomy, astrology, the science of numbers, mathematics, geometry, land surveying, medicine, botany, theology, civilized government, the alphabet, reading, writing, and oratory. They further claimed he was the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, human and divine.
It is also considered that Thoth was a record keeper and the scribe of the gods rather than a divine messenger. In the Papyrus of Ani, a papyrus manuscript with cursive hieroglyphs and color illustrations created circa 1250 BCE, in the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt, copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead the scribe proclaims:
“I am thy writing palette, O Thoth, and I have brought unto thee thine ink-jar. I am not of those who work iniquity in their secret places; let not evil happen unto me.”
Chapter XXXb (Budge) of the Book of the Dead is by the oldest tradition said to be the work of Thoth himself.
Egyptians compiled an individualized book for certain people upon their death, called the Book of Going Forth by Day, more commonly known as the Book of the Dead, typically containing declarations and spells to help the deceased in their afterlife. The Papyrus of Ani is the manuscript compiled for the Theban scribe Ani.
Anubis
Anubis was the Greek name of a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion. Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts.
Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer, the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them (in its modern form with chemicals) to forestall decomposition. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055 – 1650 BC), Anubis was replaced by Osiris in his role as Lord of the underworld.
One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the “Weighing of the Heart,” in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead.
Despite being one of the most ancient and “one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods” in the Egyptian pantheon, however, Anubis played almost no role in Egyptian myths.
Hermanubis
In the Ptolemaic period (350–30 BC), when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis, because of their similar responsibilities as conductors of souls, merged with the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis.
Anpu (or Hermanubis) was viewed as the messenger of the gods, as he travelled in and out of the Underworld and presented himself to the gods and to humans. He was a god who combined Hermes (Greek mythology) with Anubis. He is the son of Set and Nephthys.
He was popular during the period of Roman domination over Egypt. Depicted as having a human body and jackal head, with the sacred caduceus that belonged to the Greek god Hermes, he represented the Egyptian priesthood, engaged in the investigation of truth.
The divine name is known from a handful of epigraphic and literary sources, mostly of the Roman period. Plutarch cites the name as a designation of Anubis in his underworldly aspect, while Porphyry refers to Hermanubis as a “composite” and “half-Greek”.
Although it was not common in traditional Greek religion to combine the names of two gods in this manner, the double determination of Hermanubis has some formal parallels in the earlier period.
The most obvious is the god Hermaphroditus, attested from the fourth century BC onwards, but his name implies the paradoxical union of two different gods (Hermes and Aphrodite) rather than an assimilation in the manner of Hermanubis.
Mercury
Mercury, considered the son of Maia and Jupiter in Roman mythology, is a major Roman god, being one of the Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the patron god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence (and thus poetry), messages/communication (including divination), travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves; he is also the guide of souls to the underworld.
From the beginning, Mercury had essentially the same aspects as Hermes, wearing winged shoes (talaria) and a winged hat (petasos), and carrying the caduceus, a herald’s staff with two entwined snakes that was Apollo’s gift to Hermes. He was often accompanied by a cockerel, herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, and a tortoise, referring to Mercury’s legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell.
Like Hermes, he was also a god of messages, eloquence and of trade, particularly of the grain trade. Mercury was also considered a god of abundance and commercial success, particularly in Gaul, where he was said to have been particularly revered.
He was also, like Hermes, the Romans’ psychopomp, leading newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Additionally, Ovid wrote that Mercury carried Morpheus’ dreams from the valley of Somnus to sleeping humans.
Archeological evidence from Pompeii suggests that Mercury was among the most popular of Roman gods. The god of commerce was depicted on two early bronze coins of the Roman Republic, the Sextans and the Semuncia.
His name is possibly related to the Latin word merx (“merchandise”; compare merchant, commerce, etc.), mercari (to trade), and merces (wages); another possible connection is the Proto-Indo-European root merĝ- for “boundary, border” (cf. Old English “mearc”, Old Norse “mark” and Latin “margō”) and Greek οὖρος (by analogy of Arctūrus/Ἀρκτοῦρος), as the “keeper of boundaries,” referring to his role as bridge between the upper and lower worlds.
In his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to the Etruscan deity Turms, both of which share characteristics with the Greek god Hermes. In Virgil’s Aeneid, Mercury reminds Aeneas of his mission to found the city of Rome.
In Ovid’s Fasti, Mercury is assigned to escort the nymph Larunda to the underworld. Mercury, however, fell in love with Larunda and made love to her on the way. Larunda thereby became mother to two children, referred to as the Lares, invisible household gods.
Mercury has influenced the name of many things in a variety of scientific fields, such as the planet Mercury, and the element mercury. The word mercurial is commonly used to refer to something or someone erratic, volatile or unstable, derived from Mercury’s swift flights from place to place. He is often depicted holding the caduceus in his left hand.
When they described the gods of Celtic and Germanic tribes, rather than considering them separate deities, the Romans interpreted them as local manifestations or aspects of their own gods, a cultural trait called the interpretatio Romana.
In Celtic areas, Mercury was sometimes portrayed with three heads or faces, and at Tongeren, Belgium, a statuette of Mercury with three phalli was found, with the extra two protruding from his head and replacing his nose; this was probably because the number 3 was considered magical, making such statues good luck and fertility charms. The Romans also made widespread use of small statues of Mercury, probably drawing from the ancient Greek tradition of hermae markers.
Lugus
Mercury in particular was reported as becoming extremely popular among the nations the Roman Empire conquered; Julius Caesar wrote of Mercury being the most popular god in Britain and Gaul, regarded as the inventor of all the arts. This is probably because in the Roman syncretism, Mercury was equated with the Celtic god Lugus, and in this aspect was commonly accompanied by the Celtic goddess Rosmerta.
Although Lugus may originally have been a deity of light or the sun (though this is disputed), similar to the Roman Apollo, his importance as a god of trade made him more comparable to Mercury, and Apollo was instead equated with the Celtic deity Belenus.
Julius Caesar (de bello Gallico, 6.17.1) mentions Mercury as the chief god of Celtic religion. However, most of our sources concerning Celtic Lugus are Insular Celtic, while sources discussing Gaulish Lugus are rare, although his importance is manifest from the numerous toponyms containing the name (Lugdunum etc.).
Lucanus mentions three Celtic gods: Teutates, Esus, and Taranis. Teutates is identified with Mars or Mercury, and he receives as human sacrifices drowned captives and fallen warriors. Esus is also identified with Mercury but also with Mars, and he accepts as human sacrifices prisoners who are hanged on trees and then dismembered. Taranis is identified with Jupiter, as a warlord and a sky god. Human sacrifices to Taranis are made by burning prisoners in wooden casks. The Celtic priests administering the human sacrifices were the Vates. Lugus is not mentioned by Lucanus at all.
The suggestion of Rübekeil (2003:38), in view of his hypothesis of a Celtic origin of the Germanic god discussed above, is that Lugus refers to the trinity Teutates–Esus–Taranis considered as a single god.
An etymological reflex of Celtic Lugus is possibly found in Loki (a Germanic god described as a “hypostasis of Odin” by Folke Ström). A likely context of the diffusion of elements of Celtic ritual into Germanic culture are tribes such as the Chatti, who lived at the Celtic-Germanic boundary in Hesse during the final centuries BC. (The Chatti are traditionally considered a Germanic tribe, but many of their leaders and their settlements had Celtic names.)
Wotan
Romans associated Mercury with the Germanic god Wotan, by interpretatio Romana; 1st-century Roman writer Tacitus identifies him as the chief god of the Germanic peoples. Parallels between Odin and Lugus have often been pointed out: both are intellectual gods commanding magic and poetry, and both have ravens and a spear as their attributes.
Less is known about the role of Wodan as receiver of the dead among the more southern Germanic tribes. The Roman historian Tacitus probably refers to Odin when he talks of Mercury. The reason is that, like Mercury, Odin was regarded as Psychopompos, “the leader of souls”.
Wōđanaz or Wōđinaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of a god of Germanic paganism, known as Óðinn in Norse mythology, Wōden in Old English, Wuotan, Wotan or Wodan in Old High German and Guodan or Godan in Lombardic. The name may be written with an asterisk in front, to indicate that the form is not directly attested, but reconstructed.
Wōdanaz is associated with poetic or mantic qualities, his name being connected with the concept of *wōðuz, “furor poeticus” (poetic fury), and is thus the god of poets and seers. He is a shapechanger and healer, and thus a god of magicians and leeches. He is associated with the Wild Hunt of dead, and thus a death deity. He is also a god of war and bringer of victory.
Odin was a compulsive seeker of wisdom, consumed by his passion for knowledge, to the extent that he sacrificed one of his eyes to Mímir (Old Norse “The rememberer, the wise one”), a figure in Norse mythology renowned for his knowledge and wisdom who is beheaded during the Æsir-Vanir War, in exchange for a drink from the waters of wisdom in Mímir’s well. Afterward, the god Odin carries around Mímir’s head and it recites secret knowledge and counsel to him.
Wednesday
The name Wednesday continues Middle English Wednesdei. Old English still had wōdnesdæg, which would be continued as *Wodnesday (but Old Frisian has an attested wednesdei). By the early 13th century, the i-mutated form was introduced unetymologically.
The name is a calque of the Latin dies Mercurii “day of Mercury”, reflecting the fact that the Germanic god Woden (Wodanaz or Odin) during the Roman era was interpreted as “Germanic Mercury”.
The Latin name dates to the late 2nd or early 3rd century. It is a calque of Greek ἡμέρα Ἕρμου heméra Hérmou, a term first attested, together with the system of naming the seven weekdays after the seven classical planets, in the Anthologiarum by Vettius Valens (ca. AD 170).
In Japanese, the word Wednesday is sui youbi, meaning ‘water day’ and is associated with suisei: Mercury (the planet), literally meaning “water star”. Similarly, in Korean the word Wednesday is su yo il, also meaning water day.
In most of the languages of India, the word for Wednesday is Budhavãra — vãra meaning day and Budh being the planet Mercury.
Ningishzida
“lord of the sacred/giving tree”
The “libation vase of Gudea” with the dragon Mushussu,
dedicated to Ningishzida (21st century BC short chronology).
The caduceus is interpreted as depicting the god himself.
Ningishzida was a Mesopotamian deity, worshiped in the city of Gishbanda which lay near Ur in the orchards of the Fertile Crescent. It seems that he was originally a tree god (the name Ningishzida means “lord of the sacred/giving tree” in Sumerian, the first known written language), but he became associated with fertility, the underworld, and the healing force of nature.
In Sumerian mythology, he appears in Adapa’s myth as one of the two guardians of Anu’s celestial palace, alongside Dumuzi. He was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head.
The Adapa myth mentions Ningizzida and Tammuz (Akkadian: Duʾzu, Dūzu; Sumerian: Dumuzid (DUMU.ZI(D), “faithful or true son”), the name of a Sumerian god of food and vegetation, also worshiped in the later Mesopotamian states of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia, and refers to the serpent god as male.
Ningishzida is sometimes the son of Ninazu and Ningiridda, even though the myth Ningishzidda’s journey to the netherworld suggests he is the son of Ereshkigal. Following an inscription found at Lagash, he was the son of Anu, the heavens.
His wife is Azimua and also Geshtinanna, while his sister is Amashilama. In some texts Ningishzida is said to be female, which means “Nin” would then refer to Lady, which is mostly how the word is used by the Sumerians. He or she was one of the ancestors of Gilgamesh.
Ningishzida is the earliest known symbol of snakes twining around an axial rod. It predates the Caduceus of Hermes, the Rod of Asclepius and the biblical Nehushtan of Moses by more than a millennium. One Greek myth on origin of the caduceus is part of the story of Tieresias, who found two snakes copulating and killed the female with his staff.
Although Wadjet, “the Green One”, the serpent goddess of Lower Egypt from the Pre-dynastic period demonstrates the earliest known representation of a single serpent entwined around a pole – in this case a papyrus reed (refer to first glyph): Wadjet Hieroglyph.
Tammuz
In Babylonia, the month Tammuz was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, who originated as a Sumerian shepherd-god, Dumuzid or Dumuzi, the consort of Inanna and, in his Akkadian form, the parallel consort of Ishtar. The Levantine Adonis (“lord”), who was drawn into the Greek pantheon, was considered by Joseph Campbell among others to be another counterpart of Tammuz, son and consort.
Beginning with the summer solstice came a time of mourning in the Ancient Near East, as in the Aegean: the Babylonians marked the decline in daylight hours and the onset of killing summer heat and drought with a six-day “funeral” for the god.
Recent discoveries reconfirm him as an annual life-death-rebirth deity: tablets discovered in 1963 show that Dumuzi was in fact consigned to the Underworld himself, in order to secure Inanna’s release, though the recovered final line reveals that he is to revive for six months of each year. In cult practice, the dead Tammuz was widely mourned in the Ancient Near East. Locations associated in antiquity with the site of his death include both Harran and Byblos, among others.
Remnants of the worship of Tammuz continue today in the form of the so-called Christian “Cross” worship & its subsidiary the “hot cross buns” and the ‘cross’ symbol cut into the top of the dough. Images of Tammuz prominently feature the cross image. The original symbol of Tammuz was a cross in the form of a capital Latin “T” (Greek alphabet Tαυ), and the “plus sign” seen on images of the idol of Tammuz.
According to some scholars, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is built over a cave that was originally a shrine to Adonis-Tammuz. The Church Father Jerome, who died in Bethlehem in 420, reports in addition that the holy cave was at one point consecrated by the heathen to the worship of Adonis, and a pleasant sacred grove planted before it, to wipe out the memory of Jesus.
Some modern mythologists, however, reverse the supposition, insisting that the cult of Adonis-Tammuz originated the shrine and that it was the Christians who took it over, substituting the worship of their own God.
Tammuz is the tenth month of the civil year and the fourth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a boreal summer month of 29 days, which occurs on the Gregorian calendar around June-July.
The name of the month was adopted from the Assyrian-Babylonian calendar, in which the month was named after one of the main Mesopotamian gods, Tammuz. This is referred to in Ezekiel 8:14. Tammuz is also the name for the month of July in the Gregorian calendar in Arabic, Syriac and Turkish (“Temmuz”), and in the modern Assyrian calendar of the ethnic Assyrian Christians.
The festival for the deity Tammuz was held throughout the month of Tammuz in midsummer, and celebrated his death and resurrection. The first day of the month of Tammuz was the day of the new moon of the summer solstice. On the second day of the month, there was lamentation over the death of Tammuz, on the 9th, 16th and 17th days torchlit processions, and on the last three days, an image of Tammuz was buried.
Cancer
CANCER – June 22nd – July 22nd
Cancer (♋) is the fourth astrological sign, which is associated with the constellation Cancer. It spans the 90-120th degree of the zodiac, between 90 and 125.25 degree of celestial longitude. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this area on average between June 21 and July 22, and under the sidereal zodiac, the Sun transits this area between approximately July 16 and August 15.
A person under this sign is called a Moon child.The symbol of the crab is based on the Karkinos, a giant crab that harassed Hercules during his fight with the Hydra. The Cancer-Leo cusp lasts from July 21 to July 27.
The story of Cancer the Crab is said to be connected to Hercules. Some storytellers say that during Hercules’s fight with Lernaean Hydra, Hera, sent a crab to snap at Hercules’s toes because Hera had sworn to kill Hercules. Hercules was able to kill the crab by smashing its shell with his foot. As a reward for its efforts serving her, Hera placed the crab in the sky and it became Cancer.
In Chinese star lore, Cancer is in the 23rd of the 28 mansions or xiu. This mansion is called Gui which roughly translates to “ghosts”. The Chinese divided the sky into four quarters, each with its own direction, season, and mythical creature. Cancer exists in the Red (Vermillion) Bird of the south. It is associated with summer.
Mercury
Enki is a god in Sumerian mythology. He was sometimes referred to in writing by the numeric ideogram for “40,” occasionally referred to as his “sacred number. The planet Mercury, associated with Babylonian Nabu (the son of Marduk) was in Sumerian times, identified with Enki. An astronomical tablet from Boghazkoi in Anatolia identifies Ningishzida with Nebo-Mercury.
Mercury is the ruling planet of Gemini and Virgo, which means that it tends to be the most obvious and enforced in those signs, and is exalted in the latter; it is the only planet with rulership and exaltation both in the same sign (Virgo). It exalts in Libra and Pisces. It is a bit weakened and alienated in Taurus, and to a lesser extent in Cancer and Scorpio.
In Roman mythology, Mercury is the messenger of the gods, noted for his speed and swiftness. Echoing this, the scorching, airless world Mercury circles the Sun on the fastest orbit of any planet.
Mercury takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun, spending about 7.33 days in each sign of the zodiac. Mercury is so close to the Sun that only a brief period exists after the Sun has set where it can be seen with the naked eye, before following the Sun beyond the horizon.
Astrologically, Mercury represents the principles of communication, mentality, thinking patterns, rationality and reasoning and adaptability and variability. The 1st-century poet Manilius described Mercury as an inconstant, vivacious and curious planet.
Mercury governs schooling and education, the immediate environment of neighbors, siblings and cousins, transport over short distances, messages and forms of communication such as post, email and telephone, newspapers, journalism and writing, information gathering skills and physical dexterity.
In medicine, Mercury is associated with the nervous system, the brain, the respiratory system, the thyroid and the sense organs. It is traditionally held to be essentially cold and dry, according to its placement in the zodiac and in any aspects to other planets. It is linked to the animal spirits.
Today, Mercury is regarded as the ruler of the third and sixth houses; traditionally, it had the joy in the first house. Mercury is the messenger of the gods in mythology. It is the planet of day-to-day expression and relationships. Mercury’s action is to take things apart and put them back together again. It is an opportunistic planet, decidedly unemotional and curious.
Mercury rules over Wednesday. In Romance languages, the word for Wednesday is often similar to Mercury (miercuri in Romanian, mercredi in French, miercoles in Spanish and mercoledì in Italian). Dante Alighieri associated Mercury with the liberal art of dialectic.
In Indian astrology, Mercury is called Budha, a word related to Buddhi (“intelligence”) and represents communication. Budha means “awakening, clever, intelligent, wise, learned man, wise man, or sage.”
In Chinese astrology, Mercury represents Water, the fourth element, therefore symbolizing communication, intelligence and elegance. The Chinese linkage of Mercury with Water is alien to Western astrology, but this combination shares the water themes, much of what is coined “mercurial” in Western thought, such as intellect, reason and communication.
Gemini
May 21 and June 21
Gemini (♊) is the third astrological sign in the Zodiac, originating from the constellation of Gemini. Under the tropical zodiac, the sun transits this sign between May 21 and June 21. Its name is Latin for “twins,” and it is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology.
The symbol of the twins is based on the Dioscuri, two mortals, the twin brothers Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces that were granted shared godhood after death in Greek and Roman mythology, together known as the Dioskouri.
Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.
In Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini or Castores. When Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini.
The pair was regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo’s fire, and were also associated with horsemanship. They are sometimes called the Tyndaridae or Tyndarids, later seen as a reference to their father and stepfather Tyndareus.
The heavenly twins appear also in the Indo-European tradition as the effulgent Vedic brother-horsemen the Ashvins, the Lithuanian Ašvieniai, and the Germanic Alcis.
Aśvaḥ is the Sanskrit word for a horse, one of the significant animals finding references in the Vedas as well as later Hindu scriptures. The corresponding Avestan term is aspa. The word is cognate to Latin equus, Greek hippos, Germanic *ehwaz and Baltic *ašvā all from PIE *hek’wos.
Virgo
August 23 and September 22
Virgo is the second-largest constellation. It spans the 150-180th degree of the zodiac, between 152.75 and 180 degree of celestial longitude. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this area on average between August 23 and September 22, and under the sidereal zodiac, the sun currently transits the constellation of Virgo from September 17 to October 17.
Virgo (♍) is the sixth astrological sign in the Zodiac. Individuals born during these dates, depending on which system of astrology they subscribe to, may be called Virgos or Virgoans.
The symbol of the maiden is based on Astraea (“star-maiden”). She was the last immortal to abandon earth at the end of the Silver Age, when the gods fled to Olympus – hence the sign’s association with earth.
In Greek mythology, Astraea or Astrea, not to be confused with Asteria, the goddess of the stars and the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe, was a daughter of Astraeus and Eos. She was the virgin goddess of Innocence and purity and is always associated with the Greek goddess of justice, Dike (daughter of Zeus and Themis and the personification of just judgement).
Astraea, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Golden Age, one of the old Greek religion’s five deteriorating Ages of Man. According to Ovid, Astraea abandoned the earth during the Iron Age. Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo.
The nearby constellation Libra, reflected her symbolic association with Dike, who in Latin culture as Justitia is said to preside over the constellation. In the Tarot, the 8th card, Justice, with a figure of Justitia, can thus be considered related to the figure of Astraea on historical iconographic grounds.
According to legend, Astraea will one day come back to Earth, bringing with her the return of the utopian Golden Age of which she was the ambassador.
Ceres
For some astrologers Ceres is the ruling planet of Virgo. Although a mother, Ceres is also the archetype of a virgin goddess. Ceres epitomizes independent women who are often unmarried (since, according to myth, Ceres is an unmarried goddess who chose to become a mother without a husband or partner.) While the moon represents our ideal of “motherhood”, Ceres would represent how our real and nature motherhood should be.
In mythology, Ceres is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Demeter, and is the goddess of agriculture. The goddess (and metaphorically the planet) is also associated with the reproductive issues of an adult woman, as well as pregnancy and other major transitions in a woman’s life, including the nine months of gestation time, family bonds and relationships.
Ceres, as the Goddess who has control over nature’s resources and cycles, may astrologically be considered the planet of the environment. Returning to mythology, an early environmental villain is the figure of Erysichthon, the tearer up of the earth, who cut down trees in a grove sacred to Ceres-Demeter, for which he was punished by the goddess with fearful hunger.
In this sense Ceres became an emerging archetype in the awareness of recent climate change, and is entering our collective consciousness as a need to take care of our natural and irreplaceable resources in the 21st century. Ceres represents a leap towards a future of ecological responsibility and knowledge. As an indicator for environmental or community activism, Ceres would represent for some astrologers the wave of the future.
The status of Ceres is unknown at the moment in astrology. The possibility exists that Ceres is not involved with any sign, but it has been strongly suggested as the ruler of Virgo. As in all cases of newer discoveries, Ceres will likely never be used in horoscopes by traditionalist astrologers.
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Serpent of wisdom
The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin serpens, a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to humankind and represent dual expression of good and evil.
Serpents and Snakes – Myth Encyclopedia
Dragons And Serpent-Gods In World Mythology
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İsmail Enver: “We have destroyed the former by the sword, we shall destroy the latter through starvation.”
İsmail Enver (November 22, 1881 – August 4, 1922) – one of the triumvirate rulers
“We have destroyed the former by the sword, we shall destroy the latter through starvation”, publicly declared on 19 May 1916.
Quoted in “The Evil 100″ – Page 35 – by Martin Gilman Wolcott – Social Science – 2004.
The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 brought Lebanon further problems, as Turkey allied itself with Germany and AustriaHungary . The Turkish government abolished Lebanon’s semiautonomous status and appointed Jamal Pasha, then minister of the navy, as the commander in chief of the Turkish forces in Syria, with discretionary powers. Known for his harshness, he militarily occupied Lebanon and replaced the Armenian mutasarrif, Ohannes Pasha, with a Turk, Munif Pasha.
In February 1915, frustrated by his unsuccessful attack on the British forces protecting the Suez Canal, Jamal Pasha initiated a blockade of the entire eastern Mediterranean coast to prevent supplies from reaching his enemies and indirectly caused thousands of deaths from widespread famine and plagues. Lebanon suffered as much as, or more than, any other Ottoman province.
The blockade deprived the country of its tourists and summer visitors, and remittances from relatives and friends were lost or delayed for months. The Turkish Army cut down trees for wood to fuel trains or for military purposes.
In 1916 Turkish authorities publicly executed twenty-one Syrians and Lebanese in Damascus and Beirut, respectively, for alleged anti-Turkish activities. The date, May 6, is commemorated annually in both countries as Martyrs’ Day, and the site in Beirut has come to be known as Martyrs’ Square.
World War I saw the rapid spread of diseases in the Ottoman Empire.Soldiers who were frequently on the move between battlefronts became ideal carriers for many types of microbes, while mass deportations like those of the Armenian genocide also contributed to outbreaks.
The war drove up the price of soap and made it prohibitively expensive for many across the region, further hastening the spread of diseases. And, as famine and starvation began to spread across Syria, especially Lebanon, emaciated bodies became particularly vulnerable to diseases, especially Typhus, known by some as ‘hunger typhus’ for its tenacity to attack the malnourished. Fever, TB and Cholera also spread rapidly during the war.
The Ottomans caused the deaths of one-third of the entire population of Lebanon. “We have destroyed Armenians by the sword, we shall destroy the Lebanese through starvation”, Enver Pasha said on intended genocide of innocents.
Lebanon, before its current borders, had a booming silk industry (run mainly by women). Lebanon depended upon this industry to stimulate its economy and keep its population fed and healthy. Djamal Pasha ran Lebanon at the time for the Ottoman Empire. He put a blockade on the Mediterranean coast, not allowing anything in or out.
The industry died in Lebanon as jobs dried up. People became poor and destitute. Famine spread and, with it, disease spread too. To make things worse, a swarm of locusts came down and devastated what little crops were being tended to by ailing Lebanese. Some resorted to cannibalism to keep from dying. Jesuit priests’ records show that many came to confess having eaten their own children.
Extreme hunger and desolation caused madness among people.The roads were lined with the skeletal bodies of Lebanese.By the end of the whole ordeal, 200,000 Lebanese died of starvation and sickness caused by the Ottomans. That’s one-third of the population. It was no coincidence that, at the time, Lebanon’s population was about 87% Christian.
Relief came, however, in September 1918 when the British general Edmund Allenby and Faysal I, son of Sharif Husayn of Mecca, moved into Palestine with British and Arab forces, thus opening the way for the occupation of Syria and Lebanon. At the San Remo Conference held in Italy in April 1920, the Allies gave France a mandate over Greater Syria. France then appointed General Henri Gouraud to implement the mandate provisions.
Syria and the revival of the Genocidal Ottoman Empire
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Armenians have a high genetic affinity to ancient Europeans
A new study into Armenian genetics reveals that present day Armenians are a mixture of local Bronze Age people who have retained homogeneity for over three thousand years, and show great affinity to ancient Europeans.
Armenians have a high genetic affinity to ancient Europeans
Genetic evidence for an origin of the Armenians from Bronze Age mixing of multiple populations
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Are contemporary Turks Armenian?
A number of studies of genetics, in the past decade, including several by Armenian scientists, have concluded that the DNA of modern Turks has an extremely high percentage of Armenian DNA. Other geneticists say that less than 10% of Turkey’s population has Central Asian/Mongol origins and that 90% of Turkish ancestry is a genetic cocktail. Others have gone so far as to wonder whether most Turks of Turkey are acculturated Armenians (same genetic structure) and that Turks of Turkey are the only people in the world who have completely changed their genetic pool from Turkic to that of Asia Minor and the Balkans.
Are Contemporary Turks Armenian?
This is a rather comprehensive overview of the issue of Turkish origins from an archaeological/anthropological/historical and genetic perspective. It should serve as a nice overview of the literature on the subject for anyone interested in the topic.
The authors don’t estimate a % estimate of the impact of incoming Turkic speakers vs. pre-Turkic Anatolians, but marshall enough evidence to show that massive migration into Anatolia from the east was not responsible for the linguistic Turkicization of the peninsula.
A minor observation on the genetic aspects of the paper is that the authors reference the old claim that Y-haplogroups G and J share common ancestry; this is not our current understanding of the Y-chromosome phylogeny which puts haplogroup J with haplogroup I in the IJ clade and more generally the IJK clade at the exclusion of G.
In any case, this does not materially affect the paper’s conclusions as both G and J originated in West Eurasia and may only have entered Anatolia with Turkic speakers as back-migration together with haplogroups typical of East Eurasia.
Anatolian Turkish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries
Turks, Armenians share similar genes, say scientists
Are Turks acculturated Armenians?
Archaeogenetics of the Near East
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The Gargareans and the Amazons
In Greek mythology, the Gargareans were an all-male tribe. They had sex with the Amazons annually in order to keep both tribes reproductive. Varying accounts suggest that they may have been kidnapped, raped, and murdered for this purpose, or that they may have had relations willingly.
The Amazons kept the female children, raising them as warriors, and gave the males to the Gargareans. Jaimoukha suggests that the myth might have been a nod to the similarity between Circassians and Dzurdzuks, despite their very different languages.
The Gargareans are held by some historians to be a component of the ancestry of the Chechen and the Ingush peoples, and equivalent or at least related to the Georgian name Dzurdzuks.
Gaius Plinius Secundus also localizes Gargarei at North of the Caucasus, but calls them Gegar. Some scholars (P.K. Uslar, K. Miller, N.F. Yakovleff, E.I. Krupnoff, L.A. Elnickiy, I.M. Diakonoff, V. N. Gemrakeli) supported that Gargarei is earlier for of Ingush ethnonym.
Jaimoukha notes that Gargareans is one of many Nakh roots- gergara, meaning, in fact, “kindred” in proto-Nakh. If this is the case, it would make Gargarei virtually equivalent to the Georgian term Dzurdzuk (referring to the lake Durdukka in the South Caucasus, where they are thought to have migrated from), which applied to a Nakh people who migrated North across the mountains to settle in modern Ingushetia.
The Ancient Greek chronicler Strabo mentioned that Gargareans had migrated from eastern Asia Minor (i.e. Urartu) to the North Caucasus, before intermixing with the local population.
In addition to their importance to the ancestry of Chechens and Ingush, the Gargareans have also been considered possibly central to the formation of the Èrs, another historical (albeit now extinct) Nakh people living in Northern Armenia, Caucasian Albania and Hereti (the name Hereti is derived from them).
Strabo wrote that “… the Amazons live close to Gargarei, on the northern foothills of the Caucasus mountains”. The Amazons were attributed to the Circassians via the root maze.
The city of Amasya, the Amaseia or Amasia of antiquity, stands in the mountains above the Black Sea coast, set apart from the rest of Anatolia in a narrow valley along the banks of the Yeşilırmak River.
Although near the Black Sea, this area is high above the coast and has an inland climate, well-suited to growing apples, for which Amasya province, one of the provinces in north-central Anatolia Turkey, is famed.
It was the home of the geographer Strabo and the birthplace of the 15th century scholar and physician Amirdovlat Amasiatsi. Located in a narrow cleft of the Yesilirmak (Iris) river, it has a history of 7,500 years which has left many traces still evident today.
According to Strabo (64/63 BC – c. AD 24) the Greek name comes from Amasis, the queen of the Amazons, who were said to have lived here. The name has changed little throughout history: The name are all found on ancient Greek and Roman coinage and continue to be used in Modern Greek.
Amastris (Greek: killed c. 284 BC) also called Amastrine, was a Persian Princess. She was the daughter of Oxyathres, the brother of the Persian King Darius III.
Amastris was given by Alexander the Great in marriage to Craterus, however Craterus later decided to marry Phila, one of the daughters of Antipater. She later married Dionysius, tyrant of Heraclea Pontica, in Bithynia, in 322 BC. She bore him two sons named: Clearchus II and Oxyathres.
Amastris married Lysimachus in 302 BC. However, he abandoned her shortly afterwards and married Arsinoe II, one of the daughters of Ptolemy I Soter, the first Pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt. During the brief marriage of Lysimachus and Amastris, she may have borne him a child, perhaps a daughter who may have been the first wife of Ptolemy Keraunos.
After the death of Dionysius, in 306 BC, she became guardian of their children. Several others joined in this administration. After her marriage to Lysimachus ended, Amastris retired to Heraclea, which she governed in her own right.
She also founded shortly after 300 BC a city called after her own name Amastris, or Amasra, on the sea-coast of Paphlagonia, by the fusion (synoecism) of the four smaller towns of Sesamus, Cromna, Cytorus and Tium.
One of these towns, Tium, later regained its autonomy, but the other three remained part of the city of Amastris’ territory. She was drowned by her two sons about 284 BC.
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Ny forskning: På vei mot jordas sjette masseutryddelse
Gaupa er en truet art i villmarka vår!!
Alikevel tillater våre myndigheter jakt på dette flotte dyret.
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“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
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The globalization of Capitalism
Around the world ‘development’ is robbing tribal people of their land, self-sufficiency and pride and leaving them with nothing. Watch this short, satirical film, written by Oren Ginzburg and narrated by actor and comedian David Mitchell, which tells the story of how tribal peoples are being destroyed in the name of ‘development’.
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The New World Order:
They control the world’s governments; THEY rule over all of us from the top of the pyramid. While WE suffer at the bottom. Right?
Today we blow open the truth about the NWO in order to shed light on this widespread conspiracy which has frequently been invoked to explain the state of our world. Join intrepid host Robert Foster as he takes control of the lever of critical inquiry, alongside special guests Russell Brand, conspiracy guru Terrence Moonseed, and NWO representative William De Berg, in order to ask: who is the New World Order? And how can we stop it?
Ifølge det internasjonale vitenskapstidsskriftet Nature er vi på vei mot en ny masseutryddelse av arter. Vi kjenner allerede til fem masseutryddelser, eller såkalte utdøingsperioder, alle forårsaket av geologiske eller astronomiske hendelser.
I de siste 540 millioner årene har det vært 5 store eventer hvor over 50% av dyreartene har dødd ut. Blant annet for 199,6 millioner år siden, da omkring 50 % av alle arter ble utryddet, årsaken er ukjent. Den siste vi kjenner til skjedde for 65 millioner år siden, i det som blir kalt krittperioden, hvor dinosaurene døde ut.
I Tsjad i Afrika er det funnet en serie med kratre som ser ut til å være 200 millioner år gamle; om de har sammenheng med masseutryddelsen er ukjent, og det forskes enda om det har noen sammenheng.
I likhet med flere andre arter er ulven truet i Norge. I verden er 15 568 arter på listen over truede arter, viser de siste tallene for 2004 fra World Conservation Union (IUCN). Det er en økning på 3300 arter fra året før.
Men biologenes beregninger for hvor mange arter som virkelig forsvinner fra kloden, er langt mer drastiske. Ifølge biolog Petter Johan Schei, direktør ved Fridtjof Nansens Institutt viser beregningene at mellom 10 og 150 arter dør ut hver dag.
Den siste rapporten til World Wildlife Fund og Londons zoologiske samfunn, “The Living Planet Report”, går lenger enn de sedvanlige fortellingene om nylig utdødde arter, hvor av mange av dem er obskure og små. Rapporten konkluderer med at verdens bestand av virveldur dyr, som inkluderer pattedyr, reptiler, fugler, fisk og amfibier — har blitt redusert med hele 52 % i de siste 40 årene før 2010.
Virveldyr eller vertebrater er en betegnelse på dyr med et indre skjelett med ryggvirvler. Gruppens latinske kommer fra vertebra – ryggvirvel. Med sine 60 000 arter er det den største gruppen av ryggstrengdyr. Det er også den dyregruppen som er best undersøkt, ikke minst fordi den omfatter oss selv. Sammenliknet med resten av dyreriket er virveldyr imidlertid en nokså liten gruppe (kun 5 % av alle kjente arter er virveldyr, og kun et halvt prosent av alle antatte arter).
Antall utdødde arter av de ulike slagene er ujevn. Antallet av hav og landdyr har falt 40 %, mens den globale bestanden av ferskvennsarter har sunket med drastiske 76 % på grunn av gjødsel, kloakk og industriell forurening.
Tidsskriftet har regnet ut at 41 prosent av amfibiene, 26 prosent av pattedyrene og 13 prosent av fuglerasene står i fare for å dø ut. En masseutryddelse er definert ut i fra et tap på 75 prosent arter eller mer.
“Vi har utryddet omlag 50 % av verdens virveldyr i de siste 40 åra”, uttalte Anthony Barnosky, som er biologiprofessor ved universitetet i California, Berkeley, til Washington Post. “Vi har utryddet halvdelen av alle individene. Vi har fisket hele 90 % av fisken opp fra havet. Så dette er alvorlige ting som vi gjør mot verden.”
Ifølge Barnosky er den nåværende utryddelsesrate hele 1,200 % større enn normal på grunn av at mennesker dreper dyrene for mat, penger eller utvikling. I dette tempoet vil opp til 75 % av alle kjente arter bli utryddet innen de neste to til tre generasjonene.
Dette er både alarmerende, deprimerende og trist, spesielt når vi vet at det er vi mennesker som er årsaken til at dette skjer – og at vi har alle forutsetninger for å stoppe det, sier Nina Jensen, generalsekretær i World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Norge.
– Det fryktes at så mye som 30 prosent av artene våre kan utryddes av klimaendringer alene. Det er vårt enorme forbruk av ressurser som er årsaken til denne dramatiske utviklingen, forteller Jensen, mens det internasjonale vitenskapstidsskriftet Nature har regnet ut at 41 % av amfibiene, 26 % av pattedyrene og 13 % av fuglerasene står i fare for å dø ut.
Dette kan altså bli den første menneskeskapte masseutryddelsen, ifølge tidsskriftet Nature, hvor jakt, fiske og andre former for utnyttelse av naturressurser utgjør 37 prosent av trusselbildet. På andreplass kommer habitatsødeleggelse og -endring. Klimaforandringer kommer på fjerdeplass, med 7 prosent.
Rundt 1 371 500 dyrearter er oppdaget så langt, men det er stor uenighet om hvor mange arter som faktisk eksisterer. Tallene svinger fra to millioner til 50 millioner. Dette gjør det også vanskelig å beregne hvor lang tid det kan ta før man når en masseutryddelse, men tidsskriftet Nature opererer med mellom hundre til tusener av år. Men det trenger ikke å gå så langt som masseutryddelse før konsekvensene blir merkbare. Konsekvensene av ødelagt natur og utryddede arter vet man ofte ikke før de er vekk.
– Økosystemet er som et korthus – fjerner du et kort for mye kan hele huset rase sammen. Det er stor grunn til å frykte kollaps av hele økosystemer og at vi mister sentrale funksjoner som pollinering og vannforsyning, sier Jensen. Økonomisk kan det også gi ringvirkninger. Verdien av naturens økosystemtjenester er beregnet til å tilsvare 243 111 milliarder norske kroner hvert år.
Den internasjonale rødlisten til International Union for Conservation of Nature opererer med 4529 pattedyr, fugler og amfibier som anses i fare for å bli utryddet. Denne listen kan varierer med de nasjonale rødlistene, siden ett dyr som er utrydningstruet i ett land, ikke trenger å være det på verdensbasis.
I Norge er 2398 arter regnet som er truede eller sårbare på norsk rødliste. Halvparten av Norges truede arter lever i skogen. – Rundt halvparten av artene i den norske rødlisten over truede arter er knyttet til gammel skog. Det viktigste virkemiddelet for å redde disse artene fra utryddelse er å styrke skogvernet, samt drive et bærekraftig skogbruk i de resterende 90 prosent. Går arter tapt, får vi dem aldri tilbake, forteller Jensen.
Eksempler på arter som er utryddet er balinesisk og tasmansk tiger, vietnamesisk neshorn, geirfuglen, og Stellars sjøku. Den tasmanske tigeren, på norsk bedre kjent som pungulven, døde trolig i fangenskap i Hobart Zoo på Tasmania i 1936.
– Det er ingen som har eksakte tall på hvor mange dyr- og plantearter som vi allerede har utryddet, men vi utrydder i dag arter i et tempo som er mellom 1000 og 10 000 ganger raskere enn naturlig, forteller generalsekretær Jensen.
Ifølge Jensen kan likevel en radikal omlegging av samfunnsstrukturen være med på å forebygge den dystre utviklingen: – Ressursbruken må bli mye mer effektiv og verdens energi må komme fra fornybare kilder. De viktigste tingene vi kan gjøre er å bekjempe ulovlig jakt og fiske, drive smartere samfunnsplanlegging som ivaretar natur, styrke skogvernet, og styrke kunnskapen og kartleggingen av natur og arter.
Menneske kan med andre ord bli kjent for den største utryddelsen noen gang. brenner all fossil energi. kometen som tok dinosaurene utryddet ca 70 – 80 % av liv på jorden, i en periode fra 100000 til en mill år. Menneske har tatt 50% av naturens liv på korte 40 år. Vi er tydeligvis gode på og drepe.
Lurer på hvor mye liv på jorden som kommer til og forsvinne pga menneske. Kanskje verre en de som var før. det er mulig og hjemme seg i dypt vann huler osv under de andre 5 kjente store utryddelsene, men en komet søker ikke med ekkolodd og annet for og finne selv de få fiskene og annet som gjemmer seg.
Worst case senario er at bare små insekter/plangton og andre microber ovelever. Good news er at liv vil utvikle seg igjen og starte en ny epoke, med nesten alle kjente dyre/planteliv borte. Hvem vet hvilke former liv da vil ta.
Saken er at vi har en enorm overproduksjon og et enormt overforbruk – det vi trenger er mindre og mer kreative arbeidsplasser og borgerlønn, noe som kan føre til at vi bedre kan sette oss inn i problemstillingene og utfordringene som dagens samfunn står overfor. Vi må gå fra Homo Economicus til Home Ecologicus, og basere vårt samfunn på en dyp grønn økonomi eller kretsløpsøkonomi.
Det hele blir ganske sykt, når vi ikke jobber for å leve, men lever for å jobbe. Især tatt i betraktning av at vi har en kulturell, økonomisk og økologisk krise, har utryddet hele 53 % av alle dyrearter i de siste 40 åra, aldri før hatt et så stort mellom fattig og rik og produserer mat til 12 milliarder mennesker, kaster mat tilsvarende til 6 milliarder mennesker og lar 1 milliard mennesker sulte i hjel. Dette er hva jeg har valgt å kalle et sykt samfunn!
På 40 år har vi utslettet 50 % av alle dyrearter, ødelagt naturen i de grader, blitt med på den ene imperialistiske krigen etter den andre og forskjellene mellom folk kan sies å være lite annet enn groteske.
Samtidig beskylder folk en for å være konspirasjonstenker bare fordi man evner å tenke kritisk og selvstendig, samt tørr å stille spørsmålstegn ved ting som så åpenlyst ikke passer inn med det vi forhøre gjennom våre tankeløse og fordummende medier og av våre så alt for ofte ansvarsløse politikere som gjør lite annet enn å mele sin egen kake og verne om de rikestes interesser.
Det å være ignorant i dagens samfunn med så mye informasjon tilgjengelig er et valg som så alt for mange velger i stedet for å sette de ansvarlige på plass. I stedet for å beskylde folk for å være konspirasjonsteoretikere bør man stille de ansvarlige til veggs. Gjør man ikke dette så viser det kun at man har tatt et valg – å være ignorant.
Det som videre skjer er at folk som bestemmer seg for å slutte å ta til seg ny kunnskap om fx militæret og klimaet, samtidig utvikler stadig bedre beskyttelsesmekanismer og rasjonaliseringer for hvorfor dette valget er det eneste riktige, og for hvorfor det å vite enda mer om militæret eller klimaet er både unødvendig, nedslående, deprimerende, teit, fanatisk etc etc.
Enderesultatet her er at de som valgte å slutte å ta til seg ny kunnskap sitter igjen med et inntrykk av alle disse som ikke sluttet å ta til seg ny kunnskap som teite, nerdete, konspirasjonsteoretiske, og, ikke minst, kunnskapsløse. Ironien er med andre ord fullkommen. Kanskje man heller bør stille spørsmålet om hvorfor ting har blitt som de har blitt?
Ny forskning: På vei mot jordas sjette masseutryddelse
Planet Earth, the half-empty zoo – Chicago Tribune
Modern destruction of animal populations rivals extinction of dinosaurs, scientists warn
The Five Worst Mass Extinctions
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IS ødelegger antikke kunstskatter i Mosul
The Islamic State group releases a video of ancient artifacts, some dating back to the 9th century BC, being smashed up with sledgehammers in Mosul.
Assyrere er et etnisk folk som har sin opprinnelse i oldtidens Mesopotamia (senere Assyria i samme område), det vil si dagens Irak, vestlige Iran, Syria og sørøstlige Tyrkia.
Som folkegruppe sporer assyrerne sin slekt tilbake til de gamle sumerisk-akkadiske i Mesopotamia for rundt 4000–3500 f.Kr., og i særdeleshet til de nordlige regionen av de akkadiske områdene som ble kjent som Assyria en gang rundt 2300 f.Kr.
Den assyriske nasjon eksisterte som en uavhengig stat og ofte som det mektigste riket i østlige Asia fra 2300 f.Kr. og fram til slutten av 600-tallet f.Kr. Assyria forble en politisk enhet selv etter at det falt sammen og ble styrt som en okkupert provins under ulike andre riker fra slutten av 600-tallet f.Kr. og fram til midten av 600-tallet e.Kr. da det ble oppløst.
Det assyriske folk har gradvis blitt en minoritet i sitt hjemland siden den gang. På grunn av krig og forfølgelser har hundretusener av assyrere opp gjennom historien flyktet til Kaukasus, Libanon, Syria, Europa, USA og Australia og andre steder.
I nyeste tid har Irak-krigen fortrengt de assyriske lokalsamfunn da dets folk har møtt etnisk og religiøs forfølgelse ved islamister og arabisk og kurdisk nasjonalisme. Vesten har ikke gjort noen som helst ting for å stanse dette, snarere tvert om.
Av de rundt en millioner eller flere irakere som er rapportert av Forente nasjoner for å ha flyktet fra Irak siden okkupasjonen er bortimot 40 prosent assyrere, skjønt assyrere utgjorde kun rundt 3 prosent av den tidligere irakiske befolkningen fra før krigen. I henhold til en rapport fra 2013 er det beregnet at kun 300 000 assyrere er igjen i Irak.
Lamassu (kileskrift: AN.KAL, sumerisk: dLamma, akkadisk: Lamassu) er en beskyttende demon innen mesopotamisk mytologi. Den avbildes ofte med en okse- eller løvekropp, ørnevinger og menneskehode. I visse skrifter fremstilles den som en kvinnelig guddom. Et mindre vanlig navn er shedu, som tilsvarer den mannlige Lamassu.
Lamassu er ofte avbildet i mesopotamisk kunst, iblant med vinger. Lamassu og shedu var beskyttende ånder i folks hjem. De var innrissede på leirtavler som ble gjemt under husets terskel.
Senere under den babylonske periode ble Lamassu kongenes beskyttere og var alltid plassert ved inngangene til palassene, ofte som par. Ved byers innganger var de skulpterte i kolossal størrelse, og plasserte som par, et på hver side av byporten, hver og en vendt mot en av de fire verdenshjørner.
Perserne overtok Lamassu-statuene og annen billedkunst fra assyrerne som hadde påvirket perserne kulturelt, religiøst og lingvistisk, da perserne var umåtelig assyrianiserte, særlig under akemeniderne.
En ny video som IS har publisert viser en gruppe menn som velter skulpturer ned fra støttene de står på og deretter knuser dem med slegge. De store ødeleggelsene fant sted i byen Mosul, nord i Irak. Mosul er Iraks nest største by, og en av dem terrororganisasjonen har tatt over i sin offensiv i Irak og Syria.
Et annet klipp viser IS-medlemmer som bruker pressluftbor for å hogge ansiktet av en stor assyrisk lamassu på et arkeologisk utgravingssted i Mosul, som den sunniislamske ekstremistgruppa tok kontroll over i fjor sommer.
Veltingen og knusingen av statuene fører seg inn i rekken av ødeleggelser som angivelig IS står bak. Tidligere denne uken bombet de et bibliotek i Mosul. I følge AP skal IS ha solgt verdifulle kunstgjenstander på det svarte markedet for å finansiere deres blodige handlinger i regionen.
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The mighty hunter
Haik – Armenia
Nemrut
Nimrud is the later Arab name for the ancient Assyrian city of Kalhu located south of Mosul on the river Tigris in northern Mesopotamia. Archeologists called the city Nimrud after the Biblical Nimrod, a legendary hunting hero (cf. Genesis 10:11-12, Micah 5:5, and 1Chronicles 1:10). The city was known as Calah (Kalakh) in the Bible.
The city covered an area of 360 hectares (890 acres). The ruins of the city are found within one kilometer of the modern-day Assyrian village of Noomanea in Nineveh Province, Iraq. This is some 30 kilometres (19 mi) southeast of Mosul.
The Assyrian king Shalmaneser I (1274 BC – 1245 BC) built Kalhu (Calah/Nimrud) during the Middle Assyrian Empire. However, the ancient city of Ashur remained the capital of Assyria, as it had been since circa 3500 BC.
A number of historians, such as Julian Jaynes, believe that the Biblical figure Nimrod (of whom the far later Arab name for the city was derived) was inspired by the deeds of the real king of Assyria Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244-1207 BC), the son of Shalmaneser I, and a powerful conqueror. Others believe the name derived from the Assyrian god Ninurta, who had a major cultic centre at Kalhu /Nimrud.
The city gained fame when king Ashurnasirpal II of the Neo Assyrian Empire (883 BC – 859 BC) made it his capital at the expense of Ashur. He built a large palace and temples in the city that had fallen into a degree of disrepair during the Dark Ages of the mid 11th to mid 10th centuries BC.
Ḫaldi (also known as Khaldi or Hayk) was one of the three chief deities of Ararat (Urartu). His shrine was at Ardini. The other two chief deities were Theispas of Kumenu, and Shivini of Tushpa.
Of all the gods of Ararat (Urartu) pantheon, the most inscriptions are dedicated to him. His wife was the goddess Arubani. He is portrayed as a man with or without a beard, standing on a lion.
Khaldi was a warrior god whom the kings of Urartu would pray to for victories in battle. The temples dedicated to Khaldi were adorned with weapons, such as swords, spears, bow and arrows and shields hung off the walls and were sometimes known as ‘the house of weapons’.
Nimrod, king of Shinar, was, according to the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the son of Cush and great-grandson of Noah. He is depicted in the Bible as a mighty in the earth and a mighty hunter. Extra-biblical traditions associating him with the Tower of Babel led to his reputation as a king who was rebellious against God.
Since Accad (Babylonian Akkad), was destroyed and lost with the destruction of its Empire in the period 2200–2154 BCE (long chronology), the stories mentioning Nimrod seem to recall the late Early Bronze Age.
The association with Erech (Babylonian Uruk), a city that lost its prime importance around 2,000 BCE as a result of struggles between Isin, Larsa and Elam, also attests the early provenance of the stories of Nimrod.
Several Mesopotamian ruins were given Nimrod’s name by 8th-century Arabs, including the ruins of the Assyrian city of Kalhu (the biblical Calah), built by Shalmaneser I (1274–1244 BC). A number of attempts to connect him with historical figures have been made.
The first mention of Nimrod is in the Table of Nations. He is described as the son of Cush, grandson of Ham, and great-grandson of Noah; and as “mighty in the earth” and “a mighty hunter before the Lord”. This is repeated in the First Book of Chronicles 1:10, and the “Land of Nimrod” used as a synonym for Assyria or Mesopotamia, is mentioned in the Book of Micah 5:6:
And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
Genesis says that the “beginning of his kingdom” (reshit memelketo) was the towns of “Babel, Erech, Akkad and Calneh in the land of Shinar” (Mesopotamia)—understood variously to imply that he either founded these cities, ruled over them, or both.
Owing to an ambiguity in the original Hebrew text, it is unclear whether it is he or Asshur who additionally built Nineveh, Resen, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah (both interpretations are reflected in various English versions). (Genesis 10:8–12; 1 Chronicles 1:10, Micah 5:6).
Sir Walter Raleigh devoted several pages in his History of the World (c. 1616) to reciting past scholarship regarding the question of whether it had been Nimrod or Ashur who built the cities in Assyria. In Armenian legend, the ancestor of the Armenian people, Hayk, defeated Nimrod (sometimes equated with Bel) in a battle near Lake Van.
Nemrut or Nemrud is a 2,134 m (7,001 ft) high mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues are erected around what is assumed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BC. It is referred as the pantheon of the Armenian gods.
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Sargon and Akkad
Akkad
Akkad (also spelled Akkade or Agade), meaning “Crown of Fire” in allusion to Ishtar, “the brilliant goddess”, whose cult was observed from very early times in Agade, was the capital of the Akkadian Empire, which was the dominant political force in Mesopotamia at the end of the third millennium BCE.
The etymology and meaning of Akkad (written a.ga.dèKI or URIKI) are unknown. The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the Sumerian King List; the later Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû (“of or belonging to Akkad”) was likely derived from this. The etymology of a-ga-dè is unclear but not of Akkadian origin. Sumerian, Hurrian and Lullubean etymologies have been proposed instead.
The non-Akkadian origin of the city’s name suggests that the site may have already been occupied in pre-Sargonic times, as also suggested by the mentioning of the city in one pre-Sargonic year-name.
Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar’s worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar—suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. Ishtar and Ilaba were later worshipped at Sippar in the Old Babylonian period, possibly because Akkad itself had been destroyed by that time.
Ishtar (Transliteration: DIŠTAR; Akkadian: INANNA), who was called ‘Aštar-annunîtum or ‘Warlike Ishtar’ and who was identified with the Sumerian goddess Inanna, is the East Semitic Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna, and is the cognate for the Northwest Semitic Aramean goddess Astarte.
Like Ishtar, the Greek Aphrodite and the Aramean Northwestern Semitic Astarte were love goddesses. Donald A. Mackenzie, an early popularizer of mythology, draws a parallel between the love goddess Aphrodite and her “dying god” lover Adonis on one hand, and the love goddess Ishtar and her “dying god” lover Tammuz on the other.
Joseph Campbell, a more recent scholar of comparative mythology, equates Ishtar, Inanna, and Aphrodite, and he draws a parallel between the Egyptian goddess Isis who nurses Horus, and the Assyrian-Babylonian goddess Ishtar who nurses the god Tammuz.
The first known mention of the city-state of Akkad is in an inscription of Enshakushanna of Uruk, where he claims to have defeated Agade—indicating that it was in existence well before the days of Sargon of Akkad, whom the Sumerian King List claims to have built it.
The precise archaeological site of the city-state of Akkad has not yet been found. Despite numerous searches, the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar.
Another theory is that the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad. Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
Sargon of Akkad
Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great “the Great King” (Akkadian Šarru-kīnu, meaning “the true king” or “the king is legitimate”), was a Semitic Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC.
The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned during the penultimate quarter of the third millennium BC. Cuneiform sources agree that he was cup-bearer (official in charge of wine) of king Ur-Zababa of Kish, and some later historians have speculated that he killed the king and usurped his throne before embarking on the quest to conquer Mesopotamia.
The king Sargon has often been cited as the first ruler of a combined empire of Akkad and Sumer, although more recently discovered data suggests there had been Sumerian expansions under previous kings, including Lugal-Anne-Mundu of Adab, Eannatum of Lagash, and Lugal-Zage-Si.
King Sargon of Agade (c. 2550 B.C.) was born of a lowly mother in Azupira-nu. His father was unknown. He like Moses was set adrift by his mother in a basket of bulrushes on the waters of the Euphrates, he was discovered by Akki the husbandman (the irrigator), whom he brought up to serve as gardener in the palace of Kish.
The goddess Ishtar favored the youth, and he was promoted to the post of cup-bearer. Thus aspiring the throne he became, at last, king and emperor, renowned as the living god. Sargon of Agade (his new capital) was the destroyer of the ancient cities of the Sumerians, from whom his own people had derived their civilization.
Similarities between the Neo-Assyrian Sargon Birth Legend and other infant birth exposures in ancient literature, including Moses, Karna, and Oedipus, were noted by Otto Rank in 1909.
Theta Scorpii (θ Sco, θ Scorpii) is a star in the southern zodiac constellation of Scorpius. It has the traditional name Sargas, of Sumerian origin. In Greek Mythology the myths associated with Scorpio almost invariably also contain a reference to Orion.
According to one of these myths it is written that Orion boasted to goddess Artemis and her mother, Leto, that he would kill every animal on the earth. Although Artemis was known to be a hunter herself she offered protection to all creatures. Artemis and her mother Leto sent a scorpion to deal with Orion. The pair battled and the scorpion killed Orion.
However, the contest was apparently a lively one that caught the attention of the king of the gods Zeus, who later raised the scorpion to heaven and afterwards, at the request of Artemis, did the same for Orion to serve as a reminder for mortals to curb their excessive pride.
There is also a version that Orion was better than the goddess Artemis but said that Artemis was better than he and so Artemis took a liking to Orion. The god Apollo, Artemis’s twin brother, grew angry and sent a scorpion to attack Orion. After Orion was killed, Artemis asked Zeus to put Orion up in the sky. So every winter Orion hunts in the sky, but every summer he flees as the constellation of the scorpion comes.
The legend was also studied in detail by Brian Lewis, and compared with a number of different examples of the infant birth exposure motif found in European and Asian folk tales. He discusses a possible archetype form, giving particular attention to the Sargon legend and the account of the birth of Moses.
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Assyria and Ashur
The children of Shem were Elam (Elamites), Asshur (Assyria), Arphaxad, Lud (Luvians), and Aram (Arameans), in addition to daughters.
Aššur (Akkadian) (English | Ashur/Assyria, Assyrian / Aššur; Assyrian Neo-Aramaic / Ātûr ; Hebrew: אַשּׁוּר / Aššûr; Arabic: آشور / ALA-LC: Āshūr; Kurdish: Asûr), is a remnant city of the last Ashurite Kingdom.
Middle English, from Latin Assyria, from Greek Assyria, short for Assyria ge “the Assyrian land,” from fem. of Assyrios “pertaining to Assyria,” from Akkadian Ashshur, name of the chief city of the kingdom and also of a god, probably from Assyrian sar “prince.”
Various theories have been advanced as to the etymological connections between the two terms Syria and Assyria. Some scholars suggest that the term Assyria included a definite article, similar to the function of the Arabic language “Al-“.
Theodor Nöldeke in 1881 gave philological support to the assumption that Syria and Assyria have the same etymology, a suggestion going back to John Selden (1617) rooted in his own Hebrew tradition about the descent of Assyrians from Jokshan.
Majority and mainstream current academic opinion strongly favours that Syria originates from Assyria. A Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician bilingual monumental inscription found in Çineköy (the Çineköy inscription) belonging to Urikki, vassal king of Que (i.e. Cilicia), dating to the eighth century BC, reference is made to the relationship between his kingdom and his Assyrian overlords.
Various theories have been advanced as to the etymological connections between the two terms Syria and Assyria. Some scholars suggest that the term Assyria included a definite article, similar to the function of the Arabic language “Al-“.
Theodor Nöldeke in 1881 gave philological support to the assumption that Syria and Assyria have the same etymology, a suggestion going back to John Selden (1617) rooted in his own Hebrew tradition about the descent of Assyrians from Jokshan.
Majority and mainstream current academic opinion strongly favours that Syria originates from Assyria. A Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician bilingual monumental inscription found in Çineköy, Turkey, (the Çineköy inscription) belonging to Urikki, vassal king of Que (i.e. Cilicia), dating to the eighth century BC, reference is made to the relationship between his kingdom and his Assyrian overlords.
The Sumerian mythological epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta lists the countries where the “languages are confused” as Subartu, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (Akkad), and the Martu land (the Amorites).
The Luwian inscription reads su-ra/i whereas the Phoenician translation reads ʾšr, i.e. ašur, which according to Robert Rollinger (2006) and Richard Nelson Frye “settles the problem once and for all”.
Various alternatives have been suggested, including derivation from Subartu (a term which most modern scholars in fact accept is itself an early name for Assyria, and which was located in northern Mesopotamia), the Hurrian toponym Śu-ri, or Ṣūr (the Phoenician name of Tyre).
Syria is known as Ḫrw (Ḫuru, referring to the Hurrian occupants prior to the Aramaean invasion) in the Amarna Period Egypt, and as אֲרָם, ʾĂrām in Biblical Hebrew.
A. Tvedtnes had suggested that the Greek Suria is loaned from Coptic, and due to a regular Coptic development of Ḫrw to *Šuri. In this case, the name would directly derive from that of the Hurrians. Tvedtnes’ explanation was rejected as highly unlikely by Frye in 1992.
The Sumerian mythological epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta lists the countries where the “languages are confused” as Subartu, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (Akkad), and the Martu land (the Amorites).
The land of Subartu (Akkadian Šubartum/Subartum/ina Šú-ba-ri, Assyrian mât Šubarri) or Subar (Sumerian Su-bir4/Subar/Šubur) is mentioned in Bronze Age literature. The name also appears as Subari in the Amarna letters, and, in the form Šbr, in Ugarit, and came to be known as the Hurrians or Subarians and their country was known as Subir, Subartu or Shubar.
Eannatum of Lagash was said to have smitten Subartu or Shubur, and it was listed as a province of the empire of Lugal-Anne-Mundu; in a later era Sargon of Akkad campaigned against Subar, and his grandson Naram-Sin listed Subar along with Armani (Armenians) among the lands under his control.
Shupria (Shubria) or Arme-Shupria (Akkadian: Armani-Subartu from the 3rd millennium BC) was a Hurrian-speaking kingdom, known from Assyrian sources beginning in the 13th century BC, located in what was later to become the Armenian Highland, to the southwest of Lake Van, bordering on Ararat proper. Scholars have linked the district in the area called Arme or Armani, to the name Armenia.
The Luwian inscription reads su-ra/i whereas the Phoenician translation reads ʾšr, i.e. ašur, which according to Robert Rollinger (2006) and Richard Nelson Frye “settles the problem once and for all”.
Various alternatives have been suggested, including derivation from Subartu (a term which most modern scholars in fact accept is itself an early name for Assyria, and which was located in northern Mesopotamia), the Hurrian toponym Śu-ri, or Ṣūr (the Phoenician name of Tyre).
Syria is known as Ḫrw (Ḫuru, referring to the Hurrian (Armenian) occupants prior to the Aramaean invasion) in the Amarna Period Egypt, and as אֲרָם, ʾĂrām in Biblical Hebrew.
J. A. Tvedtnes had suggested that the Greek Suria is loaned from Coptic, and due to a regular Coptic development of Ḫrw to *Šuri. In this case, the name would directly derive from that of the Hurrians. Tvedtnes’ explanation was rejected as highly unlikely by Frye in 1992.
Archaeology reveals the site of the city was occupied by the middle of the third millennium BC. This was still the Sumerian period, before the Assyrian kingdom emerged in the 23rd to 21st century BC.
The remains of the city are situated on the western bank of the river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river, in modern-day Iraq, more precisely in the Al-Shirqat District (a small panhandle of the Salah al-Din Governorate).
The oldest remains of the city were discovered in the foundations of the Ishtar temple, as well as at the Old Palace. In the following Old Akkadian period, the city was ruled by kings from Akkad.
During the “Sumerian Renaissance”, the city was ruled by a Sumerian governor. By the time the Neo-Sumerian Ur-III dynasty collapsed at the hands of the Elamites in ca. the 21st century BC.
An Assyrian king named Ushpia who reigned in ca. the 21st century BC is credited with dedicating the first temple of the god Assur (also, Assur, Aššur; written A-šur, also Aš-šùr) in his home city. The first fortifications began in this period.
It is highly likely that the city and indeed the Assyrian nation and people, were named in honour of this deity. Aššur is the name of the city, of the land ruled by the city, and of its tutelary deity.
Some scholars have claimed that Ashur was represented as the solar disc that appears frequently in Assyrian iconography. The symbols of Ashur include a winged disc with horns, enclosing four circles revolving round a middle circle; rippling rays fall down from either side of the disc; a circle or wheel, suspended from wings, and enclosing a warrior drawing his bow to discharge an arrow; the same circle; the warrior’s bow, however, is carried in his left hand, while the right hand is uplifted as if to bless his worshipers.
An Assyrian standard, which probably represented the world column, has the disc mounted on a bull’s head with horns. The upper part of the disc is occupied by a warrior, whose head, part of his bow, and the point of his arrow protrude from the circle. The rippling water rays are V-shaped, and two bulls, treading river-like rays, occupy the divisions thus formed.
There are also two heads—a lion’s and a man’s—with gaping mouths, which may symbolize tempests, the destroying power of the sun, or the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Jastrow regards the winged disc as “the purer and more genuine symbol of Ashur as a solar deity”. He calls it “a sun disc with protruding rays”, and says: “To this symbol the warrior with the bow and arrow was added—a despiritualization that reflects the martial spirit of the Assyrian empire”.
Shivini or Artinis (the present form of the name is Artin, meaning “sun rising” or to “awake”, and it persists in Armenian names to this day) was a solar god in the mythology of the Urartu. He is a counterpart to the Assyrian god Assur.
Shivini is generally considered a good god, like that of the Egyptian solar god, Aten, and unlike the solar god of the Assyrians, Ashur to whom sometimes human sacrifices were made. He was depicted as a man on his knees, holding up a solar disc.
In the city of Assur, the first great temples to the city god Assur and the weather god Adad were erected. Ashur is an East Semitic god, and the head of the Assyrian pantheon in Mesopotamian religion, worshipped mainly in the northern half of Mesopotamia, and parts of north-east Syria and south east Asia Minor which constituted old Assyria. He may have had a solar iconography.
Ashur the son of Shem is sometimes compared with the figure of the deity Ashur, for whom a temple was dedicated in the early capital city of Aššur — traditionally by an early Assyrian king named Ushpia in ca. the 21st century BC.
Ushpia was an early Assyrian king who ruled circa 2030 BC, according to the Assyrian King List (AKL). Like most other of the “kings who lived in tents”, his name is not regarded as Semitic, but more likely Hurrian (Armenian).
Ushpia is also alleged to have founded the temple of Ashur at the city of Assur, according to the much later inscriptions of Shalmaneser I (13th century BC) and Esarhaddon (8th century BC). However, he has yet to be confirmed by contemporary artifacts and nothing else of him is known. He was succeeded on the AKL by Apiashal.
In around 2000 BC, Puzur-Ashur I founded a new dynasty, and his successors such as Ilushuma, Erishum I and Sargon I left inscriptions regarding the building of temples to Ashur, Adad and Ishtar in the city.
Assur developed rapidly into a centre for trade, and trade routes led from the city to Anatolia, where merchants from Assur established trading colonies. These Assyrian colonies in Asia Minor were called karum, and traded mostly with tin and wool (see Kültepe).
Ashur did not originally have a family, but as the cult came under southern Mesopotamian influence, he came to be regarded as the Assyrian equivalent of Enlil, the chief god of Nippur, which was the most important god of the southern pantheon from the early 3rd millennium BC until Hammurabi founded an empire based in Babylon in the mid-18th century BC, after which Marduk replaced Enlil as the chief god in the south.
In the north, Ashur absorbed Enlil’s wife Ninlil (as the Assyrian goddess Mullissu) and his sons Ninurta and Zababa – this process began around the 14th century BC and continued down to the 7th century.
During the various periods of Assyrian conquest, such as the Assyrian Empire of Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1750 BC), Middle Assyrian Empire (1391-1056 BC) and Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-605 BC), the Assyrians did not require conquered peoples to take up the worship of Ashur; instead, Assyrian imperial propaganda declared that the conquered peoples had been abandoned by their gods.
When Assyria conquered Babylon in the Sargonid period (8th-7th centuries BC), Assyrian scribes began to write the name of Ashur with the cuneiform signs AN.SHAR, literally “whole heaven” in Akkadian, the language of Assyria and Babylonia.
The intention seems to have been to put Ashur at the head of the Babylonian pantheon, where Anshar and his counterpart Kishar (“whole earth”) preceded even Enlil and Ninlil.
Thus in the Sargonid version of the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian national creation myth, Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, does not appear, and instead it is Ashur, as Anshar, who slays Tiamat the chaos-monster and creates the world of humankind.
At a late date it appears in Assyrian literature in the forms An-sar, An-sar (ki), which form was presumably read Assur. The name of the deity is written A-šur or Aš-sùr, and in Neo-assyrian often shortened to Aš.
In the Creation tablet, the heavens personified collectively were indicated by this term An-sar, “host of heaven,” in contradistinction to the earth, Ki-sar, “host of earth.”
In view of this fact, it seems highly probable that the late writing An-sar for Assur was a more or less conscious attempt on the part of the Assyrian scribes to identify the peculiarly Assyrian deity Asur with the Creation deity An-sar.
On the other hand, there is an epithet Asir or Ashir (“overseer”) applied to several gods and particularly to the deity Asur, a fact which introduced a third element of confusion into the discussion of the name Assur.
It is probable then that there is a triple popular etymology in the various forms of writing the name Assur; viz. A-usar, An-sar and the stem asdru.
Ashur, together with a number of other Mesopotamian gods, continued to be worshipped by Assyrians long after the fall of Assyria, with temples being erected in his honour in Assyria (Athura/Assuristan) until the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, but by this time most Assyrians had adopted East Syrian Rite Christianity.
The city of Ashur, named in honour of the deity, was inhabited until the 14th century CE, when a massacre of Assyrian Christians by Tamurlane left it finally emptied. Ashur is still a common given and family name amongst Assyrians to this day.
The site was put on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger in 2003, at which time the site was threatened by a looming large-scale dam project that would have submerged the ancient archaeological site. The dam project was put on hold shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
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Dracula – the Aryan hero
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula’s attempt to move from Transylvania to England so he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. The novel touches on themes such as the role of women in Victorian culture, sexual conventions, immigration, colonialism, and post-colonialism. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, he defined its modern form, and the novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film and television interpretations.
Although Dracula is a work of fiction, it does contain some historical references. The historical connections with the novel and how much Stoker knew about the history are a matter of conjecture and debate.
In the early 1400s as the turkish empire was infecting Europe. As the turks pushed their way into Armenia on the other side of the black sea the turkish bacteria entered present day Romania. In Europe there were many battles of the turks but as they entered Transylvania they were finally hit with such a force like they’ve never seen. A hero named Vladimir Dracul 2nd.
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476/77), was a member of the House of Drăculești, a branch of the House of Basarab, also known, using his patronymic, as (Vlad) Drăculea or (Vlad) Dracula.
He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler, and was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans.
His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, which was founded to protect Christianity in Eastern Europe. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero in Romania as well as other parts of Europe for his protection of the Romanians both north and south of the Danube.
A significant number of Romanian common folk and remaining boyars (nobles) moved north of the Danube to Wallachia, recognized his leadership and settled there following his raids on the Ottomans.
During his life, Vlad wrote his name in Latin documents as Wladislaus Dragwlya, vaivoda partium Transalpinarum (1475). His Romanian patronymic Dragwlya (or Dragkwlya) Dragulea, Dragolea, Drăculea, is a diminutive of the epithet Dracul carried by his father Vlad II, who in 1431 was inducted as a member of the Order of the Dragon, a chivalric order founded by Emperor Sigismund in 1408. Dracul is the Romanian definite form, the -ul being the suffixal definite article (deriving from Latin ille).
The noun drac “dragon” itself continues Latin draco. In Modern Romanian, the word drac has adopted the meaning of “devil” (the term for “dragon” now being balaur or dragon). This has led to misinterpretations of Vlad’s epithet as characterizing him as “devilish”.
Vlad’s nickname of Țepeș (“Impaler”) identifies his favourite method of execution but was only attached to his name posthumously, in c. 1550. Before this, however, he was known as Kazıklı Bey (Impaler Lord) by the Ottoman Empire after their armies encountered his “forests” of impalement victims.
As the cognomen “The Impaler” suggests, his practice of impaling his enemies is part of his historical reputation. During his lifetime, his reputation for excessive cruelty spread abroad, to Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula was inspired by Vlad’s patronymic.
He destroyed much of this turkish army . But in order to fight these mongols Vlad was brutal on them , impaling every single turk and creating a forest of corpes as a reminder to ottomans that this nation would not cede. A bloody tyrant to most but a hero in my eyes Vlad Dracul Tepes. An Aryan legend.
Following the publication of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally in 1972, the supposed connections between the historical Transylvanian-born Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia and Bram Stoker’s fictional Dracula attracted popular attention.
During his main reign (1456–1462), “Vlad the Impaler” is said to have killed from 40,000 to 100,000 European civilians (political rivals, criminals, and anyone he considered “useless to humanity”), mainly by impaling.
The sources depicting these events are records by Saxon settlers in neighbouring Transylvania, who had frequent clashes with Vlad III. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero by Romanians for driving off the invading Ottoman Turks, of which his impaled victims are said to have included as many as 100,000.
Historically, the name “Dracula” is derived from a Chivalric order called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (then king of Hungary) to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks.
Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431, after which Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol. The name Dracula means “Son of Dracul”.
Stoker came across the name Dracula in his reading on Romanian history, and chose this to replace the name (Count Wampyr) originally intended for his villain.
Some Dracula scholars, led by Elizabeth Miller, argue that Stoker knew little of the historic Vlad III except for the name “Dracula”, whereas in the novel, Stoker mentions the Dracula who fought against the Turks, and was later betrayed by his brother, historical facts which unequivocally point to Vlad III:
“Who was it but one of my own race who as Voivode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk on his own ground? This was a Dracula indeed! Woe was it that his own unworthy brother, when he had fallen, sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them! Was it not this Dracula, indeed, who inspired that other of his race who in a later age again and again brought his forces over the great river into Turkey-land; who, when he was beaten back, came again, and again, though he had to come alone from the bloody field where his troops were being slaughtered, since he knew that he alone could ultimately triumph!” (Chapter 3, pp 19)
The Count’s identity is later speculated on by Professor Van Helsing:
“He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land.” (Chapter 18, p 145)
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The destruction of the wall of Ninevhe
ISIS targets 2,000-year-old ancient Nineveh walls in Iraq
Nineveh
Nineveh (Heb. נִינְוֶה; Akk. Ninua, Ninâ; in Mari Ninuwa; Ar. Ninawa) was one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. The area was settled as early as 6000 BC. The investigation made during the 1932 excavations of Quyunjiq down to its virgin soil uncovered the tell’s earliest stratum, which contains remnants of the Hassuna culture and has been assigned to about 5000–4500 BC.
The origin of the name Nineveh is obscure. Possibly it meant originally the seat of Ishtar, since Nina was one of the Babylonian names of that goddess. The ideogram means “house or place of fish,” and was perhaps due to popular etymology (comp. Aramaic “nuna,” denoting “fish”).
Since the cuneiform for Nineveh (Ninâ) is a fish within a house, it has been suggested that the name of the city was derived from that of a goddess associated with fish, but it seems that it is of Hurrian origin. From the Akkadian period on, the city was an important religious center for worship of the Akkadian goddess Ishtar, and was dedicated to the “Ishtar of Nineveh.”
The ancient citadel of Nineveh was situated on a hill known today as Quyunjiq (“Little Lamb”) and located near the center of the western region of the city. On the hill there were also the Assyrian royal palaces and the temples. South of this citadel is a smaller tell, called Nebi Yūnis (“the Prophet Jonah”), where, according to Islamic tradition, the prophet Jonah is buried, and on which is a large mosque. The city, however, extended over a much larger area.
Archaeological excavations were conducted in the city for about a century, mainly by the British (beginning in 1842). The excavations of 1932 (by M.E.L. Mallowan) laid the foundations for the study of the prehistory of northern Mesopotamia, the city thus becoming a key site for a knowledge and understanding of the prehistoric period.
The early city (and subsequent buildings) were constructed on a fault line and, consequently, suffered damage from a number of earthquakes. One such event destroyed the first temple of Ishtar, which was then rebuilt in 2260 BC by the Akkadian king Manishtusu.
One of the earliest pieces of written evidence is an inscription of Narâm-Sin of the Akkadian dynasty (2291–2255 BC). Hammurapi king of Babylonia mentions the city in the introduction to his code of laws as the site of a temple of Ishtar. At the beginning of the 1400 century BC.
Nineveh belonged to Mitanni. Tushratta king of Mitanni sent the image of “Ishtar of Nineveh” (identified with the Hurrian goddess Šauška) twice to Egypt to heal Amenophis III, his ally and in-law.
Subsequently, Nineveh reverted to Assyrian rule, since the Assyrian king Ashur-uballiṭ (1364–1329 BC) stated that he rebuilt the temple of Ishtar which, according to indications, was renovated a number of times between the 1300 and 900 BC.
Individual bricks, inscribed with the builders’ names and with dedicatory inscriptions that have been brought to light, attest to the existence of several palaces built during these centuries. The earliest palace of which actual remains have been uncovered is that of Ashurnaṣirpal II (883–859 BC).
Sumerian star chart – Sky map of ancient Nineveh (3300 BCE)
Reproduction of a Sumerian star map or “planisphere” recovered in the late 19th century from the 650 BCE underground library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, Iraq. Long thought to be an Assyrian tablet, computer analysis has matched it with the sky above Mesopotamia in 3300BC and proves it to be more ancient Sumerian origin.
The tablet is an “Astrolabe”, the earliest known astronomical instrument. It usually consisted of a segmented, disc shaped star chart with marked units of angle measure inscribed upon the rim. Unfortunately considerable parts of the planisphere are missing ( approx 40%), damage which dates to the sacking of Nineveh. The reverse of the tablet is not inscribed.
Still under study by modern scholars, the planisphere provides extraordinary proof of the existence of Sumerian astronomy…and a very sophisticated astronomy at that time.
Ištar of Nineveh
Ištar of Nineveh at first glance presents a dilemma for the researcher. While she was a most important goddess, patron of a major town in north Mesopotamia, very little is known about her. As to her importance, in Hurrian religion Teššub and Ša’uška of Nineveh were heads of the pantheon.
Here she is given her Hurrian name, Ša’uška. Thus the Mitanni king Tušratta in the Amarna letter no. 23, to Amenophis III, writes that Ša’uška of Nineveh, lady of all the lands (dMÙŠ ša uru ni-i-na nin kur-kur gáb-bi-i-ši-na-ma), wanted to travel to Egypt and to return.
She is further called “lady of heaven” (nin ša-me-e) and “our lady” (nin-ne). Amarna letter no. 24, from the same Mitanni king to the same Pharaoh, refers to Ša’uška of Nineveh as “my goddess” (uruni-i-nu-a-a-we dša-uš-ka-a-wa de-en-ni-iw-wu-ú-a: VS XII 200 iii 98).
One might conclude that “lady of heaven” alludes to her as Venus in the sky, but it might also mean the abode of the good gods without any astral allusion. It has been alleged that her wish to travel to Egypt was in the capacity of a goddess of healing, to cure the Pharaoh of his malady, but this is mere speculation. The letter gives no hint of this.
This brief international affair illustrates the problems excellently. There is a mass of cuneiform material bearing on the Sumerian Inanna and her Babylono-Assyrian counterpart Ištar, especially hymns and prayers. From them one can extract her major attributes — sexuality and war — and her astral presence in the planet Venus.
The occurrence of related gods in other ancient Near Eastern regions — Aštart and Anat in Syria, Aṯtar in Arabia — suggests that the origins of the cult go back perhaps to neolithic time or even earlier, and the certain relationship with the Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus attests to the power of this cult, however one explains the connection.
However, in each Mesopotamian well-established centre of this cult one can assume that local customs and traditions will have added something to the basic “theology” we extract from our general knowledge of the goddess. For Ištar of Nineveh the episode of Tušratta may or may not allude to her star Venus, but otherwise it is totally uninformative about her “theology”. And that is typical for most of the other dated and precisely located evidence.
Jonah
Jonah, Jonas or Younis (Hebrew: יוֹנָה, Modern Yona, Tiberian Yônā ; dove; Arabic: يونس Yūnus, Yūnis or يونان Yūnān ; Latin: Ionas) is the name given in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC. He is the eponymous central character in the Book of Jonah, famous for being swallowed by a fish or a whale, depending on translation. The Biblical story of Jonah is repeated, with a few notable differences, in the Qur’an.
The book of Jonah is one of the twelve minor prophets included in the Tanakh. According to tradition, Jonah was the boy brought back to life by Elijah the prophet, and hence shares many of his characteristics (particularly his desire for ‘strict judgment’). The book of Jonah is read every year, in its original Hebrew and in its entirety, on Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement, as the Haftarah at the afternoon mincha prayer.
Teshuva – the ability to repent and be forgiven by God – is a prominent idea in Jewish thought. This concept is developed in the book of Jonah: Jonah, the son of truth, (The name of his father “Amitai” in Hebrew means truth,) refuses to ask the people of Nineveh to repent.
He seeks the truth only, and not forgiveness. When forced to go, his call is heard loud and clear. The people of Nineveh repent ecstatically, “fasting, including the sheep”, and the Jewish scripts are critical of this.
The story of Jonah and the fish in the Old Testament offers an example of typology. In the Old Testament Book of Jonah, Jonah told his shipmates to sacrifice him by throwing him overboard. Jonah explained that due to his own death, God’s wrath would pass and that the sea would become calm. Subsequently Jonah then spent three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish before it spat him up onto dry land.
Typological interpretation of this story holds that it prefigures Christ’s burial, the stomach of the fish representing Christ’s tomb: as Jonah exited from the fish after three days and three nights, so did Christ rise from His tomb on the third day.
In the New Testament, Jesus invokes Jonah in the manner of a type: “As the crowds increased, Jesus said, ‘This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.'” Luke 11:29–32 (see also Matthew 12:38–42, 16:1–4). Jonah called the belly of the fish “She’ol”, the land of the dead (translated as “the grave” in the NIV Bible).
Thus whenever one finds an allusion to Jonah in Medieval art or in Medieval literature, it usually represents an allegory for the burial and resurrection of Christ.
In the New Testament, Jonah is mentioned in Matthew 12:38–41, 16:4 and Luke 11:29–32. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes a reference to Jonah when he is asked for a miraculous sign by the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. Jesus says that the sign will be the sign of Jonah. Jesus implies that Jonah’s restoration after three days inside the great whale prefigures his own resurrection.
“But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
—Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12 verses 39–41
Jonah is regarded as a saint by a number of Christian denominations. He is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church on September 22.
On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar his feast day is also September 22 (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian calendar; September 22 currently falls in October on the modern Gregorian calendar).
He is commemorated as one of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 31. Jonah’s mission to the Ninevites is commemorated by the Fast of Nineveh in Syriac and Oriental Orthodox Churches.
The apocryphal Lives of the Prophets, which may be Jewish or Christian in origin, offer further biographical details about Jonah.
Destruction
A source in the Nineveh province revealed on Wednesday, that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “ISIS” terrorist organization has resumed bombing historical buildings and monuments in the province, noting that it has blew up the historic wall of Nineveh in the center of Mosul.
The source told that “ISIS terrorists on Tuesday night destroyed large parts of the historic wall of Nineveh in the Tahrir neighborhood of the Mosul area, noting that terrorists have used large quantities of explosives “
The Nineveh wall is considered a prominent historical monuments in the province, Iraq, and the region in general, an important landmark dating back to the Assyrian civilization thousands of years ago.
The ISIS terrorist organization has also destroyed a lot of other archaeological, historical and religious sites in the areas seized by ISIS, since the tenth of last June, which is considered by cultural and civic circles as crimes against the culture and human heritage.
The ancient city of Nineveh is also on UNESCO’s list:
“Nineveh was one of the most important cultural centers inthe ancient world enjoying a prominent role in the field of developing human civilization, in that it was the greatest metropolis where various branchesofartsandlearning originated. It was adopted by the Assyrians as their political seat and comes next to their first religious capital city Ashur.Excavation on the principle mound in the city, Kuyunijk, has shown that it was occupied from c.6000 BC.-AD 600, Nineveh was oRen a royal residence and was finally established asthecapitaloftheAssyrians about 700 BC. by Senacherib, whose successors lived there until its destruction in 612 BC. The city wall of Nineveh has a circumference of over 12 km. And six gates have been excavated. On the mound of Kuyunjik the throne-room suite of Senacherrib’s palace has re-excavated with some of its relief slabs depicting the Kings conquest still in position, the mound of Nebi Yunusj the site ofthe imperial arsenal 1.6 km; South of Kuyunjik, has been covered with houses grouped around a mosque, containing the reputed tomb of Jonah.”
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Historic connections
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The US may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon
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Bibi’s Congress Speech Remixed by Noy Alooshe
United Nations: Israel Is Helping Syrian Jihadists, Including ISIS
Netanyahu has been warning for over 20 years that Tehran is close to achieving its pursuit of nuclear weapons. “The most dangerous threat to Israel’s existence does not lie in the Arab countries – but in Iran,” then-MK Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a Yedioth Ahronoth column in February 1993.
“The rulers of Iran have said repeatedly that they will have an Islamic bomb and that its first target is Israel,” he argued in a piece titled “The greatest danger,” claiming that Iran will develop its first nuclear bomb by 1999 – 16 years ago.
Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America’s uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon.
“Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive nuclear program, the United States may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon capable of reaching Iran,” said Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, adding that Americans have the fuel, the facilities, and “everything they need” to manufacture even more weapons-grade fissile material.
“Obviously, the prospect of this happening is very distressing to Iran and all countries like Iran. After all, the United States is a volatile nation that’s proven it needs little provocation to attack anyone anywhere in the world whom it perceives to be a threat.”
Iranian intelligence experts also warned of the very real, and very frightening, possibility of the U.S. providing weapons and resources to a rogue third-party state such as Israel.
Netanyahu Insults The U.S. To Their Face While Taking $8.6 Million In Aid Every Day
Netanyahu in 1993: Iran will have bomb by 1999
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Je suis Charlie
The French cartoonist Zeon was [arrested] Tuesday morning by four police officers of the Brigade of repression of delinquency people (BRDP).
[At 7am] four police officers woke the cartoonist to take him before the judge to the High Court Instance of Paris. A complaint appears to have been filed by the BNVCA (National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism).
The complaint seems to refer to the drawing – for which Zeon had yet been released last year by the 17th chamber – representing a balance and unbalanced weight of several historical crimes, but also for another drawing, which was not retained the prosecutor at the trial, representing a Palestinian child stabbed by a knife-shaped Israel.
The judge has indicted the designer of incitement to racial, religious hatred, by speech, writing, picture or means of electronic communication. Zeon refused to answer his questions. He was set free in late morning.
Quick reminder on the BNVCA
The National Bureau of Vigilance against Racism and Anti-Semitism was founded by the Commissioner of Police Sammy Ghozlan in March 2002 with Union support Jewish bosses of France and the Word and Light Association (offshoot of the Simon Center Wiesenthal).
According BNVCA site itself, this organization has a unique community privilege to make complaints of “anti-Semitic aggression.”
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25 maps that explain the English language
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The cradle of Western civilization
‘It’s really called the cradle of Western civilization,
that’s why this particular loss is so devastating.’
‘War crime': ISIS bulldozes ancient Assyrian city in Iraq
The Hurrians were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurro-Urartian language called Hurrian, and lived in Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia.
They occupied a broad arc of fertile farmland stretching from the Khabur River valley in the west to the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in the east. The Khabur River valley was the heart of the Hurrian lands.
I. J. Gelb and E. A. Speiser believed East Semitic speaking Assyrians/Subarians had been the linguistic and ethnic substratum of northern Mesopotamia since earliest times, while Hurrians were merely late arrivals, but it now seems that it was rather opposite.
The Hurrians were the original population, while the Semites were merely late arrivals. In fact, the name of the different Semitic ethnic groups, like Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Amorites, Arameans, Chaldeans, Hebrews, Arabs etc, seems to have Hurrian origin.
At the same time the Hurrians seems to be the proignitors of the Indo-European languages, which have connections to the Ubaid culture and the Sumerians, too.
By the Early Iron Age, the Hurrians had been assimilated with other peoples, except perhaps in the kingdom of Urartu, corresponding to the biblical Kingdom of Ararat or Kingdom of Van (Urartian: Biai, Biainili).
Shubria (Shubria) or Arme-Shupria (Akkadian: Armani-Subartu from the 3rd millennium BC) was part of the Urartu confederation. Later, there is reference to a district in the area called Arme or Urme, which some scholars have linked to the name Armenia.
Shupria was a Hurrian-speaking kingdom, known from Assyrian sources beginning in the 13th century BC, located in what was much later to become the Armenian Highland, to the southwest of Lake Van, bordering on Ararat proper.
The land of Subartu or Subar is mentioned in Bronze Age literature. The name also appears as Subari in the Amarna letters, and, in the form Šbr, in Ugarit. Subartu may have been in the general sphere of influence of the Hurrians.
Subartu was apparently a polity in Northern Mesopotamia, at the upper Tigris. Most scholars accept Subartu as an early name for Assyria proper on the Tigris, although there are various other theories placing it sometimes a little farther to the east, north or west of there. Its precise location has not been identified.
From the point of view of the Akkadian Empire, Subartu marked the northern geographical horizon, just as Martu, Elam and Sumer marked “west”, “east” and “south”, respectively.
The Sumerian mythological epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta lists the countries where the “languages are confused” as Subartu, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (Akkad), and the Martu land (the Amorites).
Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, was said to have smitten Subartu or Shubur, and it was listed as a province of the empire of Lugal-Anne-Mundu; in a later era Sargon of Akkad campaigned against Subar, and his grandson Naram-Sin listed Subar along with Armani (Armenians).
The earliest references to the “four quarters” by the kings of Akkad name Subartu as one of these quarters around Akkad, along with Martu, Elam, and Sumer.
Weidner interpreted textual evidence to indicate that after the Hurrian king Shattuara of Mitanni was defeated by Adad-nirari I of the Middle Assyrian Empire in the early 13th century BC, he then became ruler of a reduced vassal state known as Shubria or Subartu.
The name Subartu (Sumerian: Shubur) for the region is attested much earlier, from the time of the earliest Mesopotamian records (mid 3rd millennium BC).
Various theories have been advanced as to the etymological connections between the two terms Syria and Assyria. The Luwian inscription reads su-ra/i whereas the Phoenician translation reads ʾšr, i.e. ašur, which according to Robert Rollinger (2006) and Richard Nelson Frye “settles the problem once and for all”.
Various alternatives had been suggested, including derivation from Subartu (a term which most modern scholars in fact accept is itself an early name for Assyria, and which was located in northern Mesopotamia), the Hurrian toponym Śu-ri, or Ṣūr (the Phoenician name of Tyre). Syria is known as Ḫrw (Ḫuru, referring to the Hurrian occupants prior to the Aramaean invasion) in the Amarna Period Egypt, and as Ărām in Biblical Hebrew.
Ashur the son of Shem is sometimes compared with the figure of the deity Ashur, for whom a temple was dedicated in the early capital city of Aššur — traditionally by an early Assyrian king named Ushpia in ca. the 21st century BC.
Ushpia was an early Assyrian king who ruled circa 2030 BC, according to the Assyrian King List (AKL). Like most other of the “kings who lived in tents”, his name is not regarded as Semitic, but more likely Hurrian.
Ushpia is also alleged to have founded the temple of Ashur at the city of Assur, according to the much later inscriptions of Shalmaneser I (13th century BC) and Esarhaddon (8th century BC). However, he has yet to be confirmed by contemporary artifacts and nothing else of him is known. He was succeeded on the AKL by Apiashal.
In the city of Assur, the first great temples to the city god Assur and the weather god Adad were erected. Ashur is an East Semitic god, and the head of the Assyrian pantheon in Mesopotamian religion, worshipped mainly in the northern half of Mesopotamia, and parts of north-east Syria and south east Asia Minor which constituted old Assyria. He may have had a solar iconography.
Together with Armani-Subartu (Hurri-Mitanni), Hayasa-Azzi and other populations of the region such as the Nairi fell under Urartian (Kingdom of Ararat) rule in the 9th century BC, and their descendants, according to most scholars, later contributed to the ethnogenesis of the early Armenians.
It has been suggested by early 20th century Armenologists that Old Persian Armina and the Greek Armenoi are continuations of an Assyrian toponym Armânum or Armanî.
There are certain Bronze Age records identified with the toponym in both Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources. The earliest is from an inscription which mentions Armânum together with Ibla (Ebla) as territories conquered by Naram-Sin of Akkad in ca. 2250 BC.
Another mention by pharaoh Thutmose III of Egypt in the 33rd year of his reign (1446 BC) as the people of Ermenen, and says in their land “heaven rests upon its four pillars”.
The name has also been claimed as a variant of Urmani (or Urmenu), attested epigraphically in an inscription of Menuas of Urartu. Minni is also a Biblical name of the region, appearing in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 51:27) alongside Ararat and Ashchenaz, probably the same as the Minnai of Assyrian inscriptions, corresponding to the Mannai. Armenia is interpreted by some as ḪARMinni, that is, “the mountainous region of the Minni”.
The name is connected to the Indo-European root Ar- meaning “assemble/create” which is vastly used in names of or regarding the Sun, light, or fire, found in Ararat, Aryan, Arta etc.
There have been further speculations as to the existence of a Bronze Age tribe of the Armens (Armans, Armani), either identical to or forming a subset of the Hayasa-Azzi. In this case, Armenia would be an ethnonym rather than a toponym.
In the early 6th century BC, the Urartian Kingdom was replaced by the Armenian Orontid dynasty. In the trilingual Behistun inscription, carved in 521 or 520 BC by the order of Darius the Great of Persia, the country referred to as Urartu in Assyrian is called Arminiya in Old Persian and Harminuia in Elamite.
The Mannaeans (country name usually Mannea; Akkadian: Mannai, possibly Biblical Minni) were an ancient people who lived in the territory of present-day northwestern Iran south of lake Urmia, around the 10th to 7th centuries BC.
At that time they were neighbors of the empires of Assyria and Urartu, as well as other small buffer states between the two, such as Musasir and Zikirta. Their kingdom was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, roughly centered around the Urmia plain in this part of what’s today are named as “Azerbaijan region of Iran”.
In the Hebrew Bible (Jeremiah 51:27) the Mannaeans are called Minni. In the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), Minni is identified with Armenia, but it could refer to one of the provinces in ancient Armenia; Minni, Ararat and Ashkenaz.
According to examinations of the place and personal names found in Assyrian and Urartian texts, the Mannaeans, or at least their rulers, spoke Hurrian.
Ḫaldi (dḪaldi, also known as Khaldi or Hayk) was one of the three chief deities of Ararat (Urartu). His shrine was at Ardini ((the present form of the name is Artin, meaning “sun rising” or to “awake”, and it persists in Armenian names to this day), known as Mu-ṣa-ṣir and variants, including Mutsatsir, Akkadian for Exit of the Serpent/Snake, in Assyrian.
Scholars such as Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt (1910) believed that the people of Urartu called themselves Khaldini after their god Khaldi. Hayk or Hayg, also known as Haik Nahapet (Hayk the Tribal Chief) is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation.
The city’s location is not known with certainty, although there are a number of hypotheses, all in the general area of 36°N 46°E, in the Zagros south of Lake Urmia. It was acquired by the Urartian King Ishpuini ca. 800 BC.
One of the early mentions of Lake Urmia is from the Assyrian records from 9th century BCE. There, in the records of Shalmaneser III (reign 858–824 BCE), two names are mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia: Parsuwash (i.e. the Persians) and Matai (i.e. the Mitanni).
It is not completely clear whether these referred to places or tribes or what their relationship was to the subsequent list of personal names and “kings”. But Matais were Medes and linguistically the name Parsuwash matches the Old Persian word pārsa, an Achaemenid ethnolinguistic designation.
After suffering several defeats at the hands of both Scythians and Assyrians, the remnants of the Mannaean populace were absorbed by an Iranian people known as the Matieni and the area became known as Matiene. It was then annexed by the Medes in about 609 BC.
Strictly speaking, Urartu is the Assyrian term for a geographical region, while “kingdom of Urartu” or “Biainili lands” are terms used in modern historiography for the Proto-Armenian (Hurro-Urartian) speaking Iron Age state that arose in that region.
Hamoukar is a large archaeological site located in the Jazira region of northeastern Syria (Al Hasakah Governorate), near the Iraqi and Turkish borders.
Most importantly, archaeologists believe that Hamoukar was thriving as far back as 4000 BC and independently from Sumer.
The origins of urban settlements has generally been attributed to the riverine societies of southern Mesopotamia (in what is now southern Iraq). This is the area of ancient Sumer, where around 4000 BC the Mesopotamian cities such of Ur and Uruk emerged.
In 2007, following the discoveries at Hamoukar, some archiologists have argued that the Cradle of Civilization could have extended further up the Tigris River and included the part of northern Syria where Hamoukar is located.
Archaeological discovery suggests that civilizations advanced enough to reach the size and organizational structure that was necessary to be considered a city and could have emerged before the advent of a written language.
Previously it was believed that a system of written language was a necessary predecessor of that type of complex city. Until now, the oldest cities with developed seals and writing were thought to be Sumerian Uruk and Ubaid in southern Mesopotamia.
The evidence at Hamoukar indicates that some of the fundamental ideas behind cities—including specialization of labor, a system of laws and government, and artistic development—may have begun earlier than was previously believed.
The discovery of a large city is exciting for archaeologists. While they have found small villages and individual pieces that date much farther back than Hamoukar, nothing compares to the discovery of this size.
Discoveries have been made here that have never been seen before, including materials from Hellenistic and Islamic civilizations.
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