Hierophant Knowledge :: Notes :: Re Writing The Human Race Research :: Various Sources

Feline Beauty lV Pt lV (Artwork) 

Hierophant Knowledge :: Notes :: Re Writing The Human Race Research :: Various Sources 

(First Researches) 

Phoenicia

Phoenicia (UK /fɨˈnɪʃə/ or US /fəˈniːʃə/; from the Greek: Φοινίκη, Phoiníkē; Arabic: فينيقية, Finiqyah) was an ancient Semitic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent and centered on the coastline of modern Lebanon and Tartus Governorate in Syria. All major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean, some colonies reaching the Western Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550 BC to 300 BC. The Phoenicians used the galley, a man-powered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the bireme. They were famed in Classical Greece and Rome as 'traders in purple', referring to their monopoly on the precious purple dye of the Murex snail, used, among other things, for royal clothing, and for their spread of the alphabet (or abjad), from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets are derived.

Phoenicians are widely thought to have originated from the earlier Canaanite inhabitants of the region. Although Egyptian seafaring expeditions had already been made to Byblos to bring back "cedars of Lebanon" as early as the 3rd millennium BC, continuous contact only occurred in the Egyptian New Empire period. In the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani (either the same as the Canaanites, or the Kenanites/Cainanites spoken of the Septuagint version of Gen. 10:24), although these letters predate the invasion of the Sea Peoples by over a century. Much later, in the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus writes that Phoenicia was formerly called χνα (Latinized: khna), a name Philo of Byblos later adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix". 

Phoenicia is really a Classical Greek term used to refer to the region of the major Canaanite port towns, and does not correspond exactly to a cultural identity that would have been recognised by the Phoenicians themselves. It is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single ethnicity and nationality. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to ancient Greece.

However, in terms of archaeology, language, life style and religion, there is little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic cultures of Canaan. As Canaanites, they were unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements.

Each city-state was a politically independent unit. They could come into conflict and one city might be dominated by another city-state, although they would collaborate in leagues or alliances. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta (modern day Sarafand) between Sidon and Tyre is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland.

The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make extensive use of the alphabet. The Phoenician phonetic alphabet is generally believed to be the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets, although it did not contain any vowels (these were added later by the Greeks). From a traditional linguistic perspective, they spoke Phoenician, a Canaanite dialect. However, due to the very slight differences in language, and the insufficient records of the time, whether Phoenician formed a separate and united dialect, or was merely a superficially defined part of a broader language continuum, is unclear. Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to North Africa and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, who later passed it on to the Etruscans, who in turn transmitted it to the Romans. In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians are believed to have left numerous other types of written sources, but most have not survived. 

Etymology 

The name Phoenicians, like Latin Poenī (adj. poenicus, later pūnicus), comes from Greek Φοίνικες (Phoínikes), attested since Homer and influenced by phoînix "Tyrian purple, crimson; murex" (itself from phoinós "blood red"). The word stems from Mycenaean po-ni-ki-jo, po-ni-ki, ultimately borrowed from Ancient Egyptian fnḥw (fenkhu) "Asiatics, Semites". The folk-etymological association of phoiniki with phoînix mirrors that in Akkadian which tied kinaḫni, kinaḫḫi "Canaan; Phoenicia" to kinaḫḫu "red-dyed wool". The land was natively known as knʿn (cf. Eblaite ca-na-na-um, ca-na-na), remembered in the 6th century BC by Hecataeus under the Greek form Chna (χνα), and its people as the knʿny (cf. Punic chanani, Hebrew kanaʿani). 

Origins 2300–1200 BC

Herodotus' account (written c. 440 BC) refers to the myths of Io and Europa. (History, I:1).

According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. These people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria ...

—Herodotus

The Greek historian Strabo believed that the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain. Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain. This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos, and Arad, Bahrain, which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples." The people of Tyre in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, and the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon. However, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place.

Later classicist theories were proposed prior to modern archaeological excavations which revealed no disruption of Phoenician societies between 3200 BC and 1200 BC.

High point: 1200–800 BC

Fernand Braudel remarked in The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a "world-economy" surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed c. 1200–800 BC. 

Many of the most important Phoenician settlements had been established long before this: Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Simyra, Arwad, and Berytus, all appear in the Amarna tablets. Archeology has identified cultural elements of the Phoenician zenith as early as the 3rd millennium BC. 

The league of independent city-state ports, with others on the islands and along other coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, was ideally suited for trade between the Levant area, rich in natural resources, and the rest of the ancient world. During the early Iron Age, in around 1200 BC an unknown event occurred, historically associated with the appearance of the Sea Peoples from the north. They weakened and destroyed the Egyptians and the Hittites respectively. In the resulting power vacuum, a number of Phoenician cities rose as significant maritime powers.

The societies rested on three power-bases: the king; the temple and its priests; and councils of elders. Byblos first became the predominant center from where the Phoenicians dominated the Mediterranean and Erythraean (Red) Sea routes. It was here that the first inscription in the Phoenician alphabet was found, on the sarcophagus of Ahiram (c. 1200 BC). Later, Tyre gained in power.

One of its kings, the priest Ithobaal (887–856 BC) ruled Phoenicia as far north as Beirut, and part of Cyprus. Carthage was founded in 814 BC under Pygmalion of Tyre (820–774 BC). The collection of city-states constituting Phoenicia came to be characterized by outsiders and the Phoenicians as Sidonia or Tyria. Phoenicians and Canaanites alike were called Sidonians or Tyrians, as one Phoenician city came to prominence after another.

Decline: 539–65 BC

Persian rule 

Cyrus the Great conquered Phoenicia in 539 BC. The Persians divided Phoenicia into four vassal kingdoms: Sidon, Tyre, Arwad, and Byblos. They prospered, furnishing fleets for the Persian kings. Phoenician influence declined after this. It is likely that much of the Phoenician population migrated to Carthage and other colonies following the Persian conquest. In 350 or 345 BC a rebellion in Sidon led by Tennes was crushed by Artaxerxes III. Its destruction was described by Diodorus Siculus. 

Hellenistic rule

Alexander the Great took Tyre in 332 BC after the Siege of Tyre. Alexander was exceptionally harsh to Tyre, executing 2,000 of the leading citizens, but he maintained the king in power. He gained control of the other cities peacefully: the ruler of Aradus submitted; the king of Sidon was overthrown. The rise of Hellenistic Greece gradually ousted the remnants of Phoenicia's former dominance over the Eastern Mediterranean trade routes. Phoenician culture disappeared entirely in the motherland. Carthage continued to flourish in North Africa. It oversaw the mining of iron and precious metals from Iberia, and used its considerable naval power and mercenary armies to protect commercial interests. Rome finally destroyed it in 146 BC, at the end of the Punic Wars. 

Following Alexander, the Phoenician homeland was controlled by a succession of Hellenistic rulers: Laomedon (323 BC), Ptolemy I (320), Antigonus II (315), Demetrius (301), and Seleucus (296). Between 286 and 197 BC, Phoenicia (except for Aradus) fell to the Ptolemies of Egypt, who installed the high priests of Astarte as vassal rulers in Sidon (Eshmunazar I, Tabnit, Eshmunazar II).

In 197 BC, Phoenicia along with Syria reverted to the Seleucids. 

The region became increasingly Hellenized, although Tyre became autonomous in 126 BC, followed by Sidon in 111. Syria, including Phoenicia, was seized and ruled by king Tigranes the Great of Armenia from 82 until 69 BC, when he was defeated by Lucullus. In 65 BC Pompey finally incorporated the territory as part of the Roman province of Syria. Phoenicia became a separate province ca. 200 AD. 

Demographics 

In 2008 a study was published in The American Journal of Human Genetics examining sites that had been influenced by Phoenicians in "the coastal Lebanese Phoenician Heartland and the broader area of the rest of the Levant (the "Phoenician Periphery"); then Cyprus and South Turkey; then Crete; then Malta and East Sicily; then South Sardinia, Ibiza, and Southern Spain; and, finally, Coastal Tunisia and cities like Tingris in Morocco". The study "found that haplogroup J2, in general, and six Y-STR haplotypes, in particular, exhibited a Phoenician signature that contributed > 6% to the modern Phoenician-influenced populations examined." This was part of the development of a methodology which would enable linking a documented historical expansion with a geographic genetic pattern. They also suggested "a common source of related lineages rooted in Lebanon." 

In a 2013 interview the lead investigator, Pierre Zalloua, pointed out that genetic variation preceded religious variation and divisions:"Lebanon already had well-differentiated communities with their own genetic peculiarities, but not significant differences, and religions came as layers of paint on top. There is no distinct pattern that shows that one community carries significantly more Phoenician than another." 

Trade

The Phoenicians were among the greatest traders of their time and owed much of their prosperity to trade. At first, they traded mainly with the Greeks, trading wood, slaves, glass and powdered Tyrian purple. Tyrian purple was a violet-purple dye used by the Greek elite to color garments. In fact, the word Phoenician derives from the ancient Greek word phoínios meaning "purple". As trading and colonizing spread over the Mediterranean, Phoenicians and Greeks seemed to have split that sea in two: the Phoenicians sailed along and eventually dominated the southern shore, while the Greeks were active along the northern shores. The two cultures rarely clashed, mainly in Sicily, which eventually settled into two spheres of influence, the Phoenician southwest and the Greek northeast.

In the centuries after 1200 BC, the Phoenicians were the major naval and trading power of the region. Phoenician trade was founded on the Tyrian purple dye, a violet-purple dye derived from the shell of the Murex sea-snail, once profusely available in coastal waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea but exploited to local extinction. James B. Pritchard's excavations at Sarepta in present-day Lebanon revealed crushed Murex shells and pottery containers stained with the dye that was being produced at the site. The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador, in present day Morocco. Brilliant textiles were a part of Phoenician wealth, and Phoenician glass was another export ware. They traded unrefined, prick-eared hunting dogs of Asian or African origin which locally they had developed into many breeds such as the Basenji, Ibizan Hound, Pharaoh Hound, Cirneco dell'Etna, Cretan Hound, Canary Islands Hound, and Portuguese Podengo.

To Egypt, where grapevines would not grow, the 8th-century Phoenicians sold wine: the wine trade with Egypt is vividly documented by the shipwrecks located in 1997 in the open sea 30 miles west of Ascalon. Pottery kilns at Tyre and Sarepta produced the big terracotta jars used for transporting wine. From Egypt, the Phoenicians bought Nubian gold. 

From elsewhere, they obtained other materials, perhaps the most important being silver from the Iberian Peninsula and tin from Great Britain, the latter of which when smelted with copper from Cyprus created the durable metal alloy bronze. Strabo states that there was a highly lucrative Phoenician trade with Britain for tin. It was once thought that this was direct trade but it is now believed to have been indirect. Professor Timothy Champion, a specialist in this period found it likely that the trade of the Phoenicians with Britain was indirect and under the control of the Veneti of Brittany.

The Phoenicians established commercial outposts throughout the Mediterranean, the most strategically important being Carthage in North Africa, directly across the narrow straits. Ancient Gaelic mythologies attribute a Phoenician/Scythian influx to Ireland by a leader called Fenius Farsa. Others also sailed south along the coast of Africa. A Carthaginian expedition led by Hanno the Navigator explored and colonized the Atlantic coast of Africa as far as the Gulf of Guinea; and according to Herodotus, a Phoenician expedition sent down the Red Sea by pharaoh Necho II of Egypt (c. 600 BC) even circumnavigated Africa and returned through the Pillars of Hercules after three years. Using gold obtained by expansion of the African coastal trade following the Hanno expedition, Carthage minted gold staters in 350 BC bearing a pattern, in the reverse exergue of the coins, which some have interpreted as a map of the Mediterranean with America shown to the west.

In the 2nd millennium BC, the Phoenicians traded with the Somalis. Through the Somali city-states of Mosylon, Opone, Malao, Sarapion, Mundus and Tabae, trade flourished.

Phoenician ships

The Greeks had two names for Phoenician ships: hippoi and galloi. Galloi means tubs and hippoi means horses. These names are readily explained by depictions of Phoenician ships in the palaces of Assyrian kings from the 7th and 8th centuries, as the ships in these images are tub shaped (galloi) and have horse heads on the ends of them (hippoi). It is possible that these hippoi come from Phoenician connections with the Greek god Poseidon.

Depictions

The Tel Balawat gates (850 BC) are found in the palace of Shalmaneser III, an Assyrian king, near Nimrud. They are made of bronze, and they portray ships coming to honor Shalmaneser. The Khorsabad bas-relief (7th century BC) shows the transportation of timber (most likely cedar) from Lebanon. It is found in the palace built specifically for Sargon II, another Assyrian king, at Khorsabad, now northern Iraq. 

Important Cities and Colonies 

From the 10th century BC, the Phoenicians' expansive culture led them to establish cities and colonies throughout the Mediterranean. Canaanite deities like Baal and Astarte were being worshipped from Cyprus to Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, Spain, Portugal, and most notably at Carthage in modern Tunisia. 

Modern Algeria

Cirta (modern Constantine)

Malaca (modern Guelma)

Igigili (modern Jijel)

Hippo (modern Annaba)

Icosium (modern Algiers)

Iol (modern Cherchell)

Tipasa (modern Tipaza)

Timgad (modern Timgad)

Cyprus

Kition (modern Larnaca)

Dhali (modern Dali, Cyprus)

Marion (modern Polis, Cyprus)

Modern Italy

Sardinia

Karalis (modern Cagliari)

Nora

Olbia

Sulci

Tharros

Sicily

Zyz (modern Palermo)

Lilybaeaum (modern Marsala)

Motya

Solus (modern Solunto)

Modern Libya

Leptis Magna

Oea (modern Tripoli)

Sabratha

The islands of Malta

Maleth (modern Mdina)

Għajn Qajjet

Tas-Silġ

Mtarfa

Qallilija

Ras il-Wardija in Gozo

Modern Mauritania

Cerne

Modern Portugal

Baal Saphon or Baal Shamen, later romanized as Balsa (modern Tavira, Algarve) 

Modern Spain

Abdera (modern Adra) and its dependencies in the 3rd century BC.

Abyla (modern Ceuta, on the Moroccan coast)

Akra Leuke (modern Alicante)

Gadir (modern Cádiz)

Ibossim (modern Ibiza)

Malaka or mlk (modern Málaga)[39]

Onoba (modern Huelva)

Qart Hadašt (Greek Νέα Καρχηδόνα; Latin Carthago Nova; Spanish Cartagena)

Rusadir (modern Melilla, on the Moroccan coast)

Sexi (modern Almuñécar)

Modern Tunisia

Qart Hadašt (Greek Καρχηδόνα; Latin Carthago; English Carthage)

Hadrumetum (modern Susat)

Hippo Diarrhytos (modern Bizerte)

Kerkouane

Sicca (modern El Kef)

Thapsus (near modern Bekalta)

Utica

Modern Turkey

Phoenicus (modern Finike)

Modern Morocco

Acra

Arambys (Mogador)

Caricus Murus

Gytta

Lixus (modern Larache)

Tingis (modern Tangier)

Volubilis

Other colonies

Calpe (modern Gibraltar)

Gunugu

Thenae

Tipassa

Sundar

Surya

Shobina

Tara 

Culture

Language and literature

The Phoenician alphabet was one of the first (consonantal) alphabets with a strict and consistent form. It is assumed that it adopted its simplified linear characters from an as-yet unattested early pictorial Semitic alphabet developed some centuries earlier in the southern Levant. It is likely that the precursor to the Phoenician alphabet was of Egyptian origin, since Middle Bronze Age alphabets from the southern Levant resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs or an early alphabetic writing system found at Wadi-el-Hol in central Egypt. In addition to being preceded by proto-Canaanite, the Phoenician alphabet was also preceded by an alphabetic script of Mesopotamian origin called Ugaritic. The development of the Phoenician alphabet from the Proto-Canaanite coincided with the rise of the Iron Age in the 11th century BC.

This alphabet has been termed an abjad, — that is, a script that contains no vowels — from the first four letters aleph, beth, jamal, and daleth. 

The oldest known representation of the Phoenician alphabet is inscribed on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Byblos, dating to the 11th century BC at the latest. Phoenician inscriptions are found in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Cyprus and other locations, as late as the early centuries of the Christian Era. The Phoenicians are credited with spreading the Phoenician alphabet throughout the Mediterranean world. Phoenician traders disseminated this writing system along Aegean trade routes, to Crete and Greece. 

The Greeks adopted the majority of these letters but changed some of them to vowels which were significant in their language.

The Phoenician language is classified in the Canaanite subgroup of Northwest Semitic. Its later descendant in North Africa is termed Punic. In Phoenician colonies around the western Mediterranean, beginning in the 9th century BC, Phoenician evolved into Punic. Punic Phoenician was still spoken in the 5th century AD: St. Augustine, for example, grew up in North Africa and was familiar with the language.

Phoenician art lacks unique characteristics that might distinguish it from its contemporaries. This is due to its being highly influenced by foreign artistic cultures: primarily Egypt, Greece and Assyria. Phoenicians who were taught on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates gained a wide artistic experience and finally came to create their own art, which was an amalgam of foreign models and perspectives. In an article from The New York Times published on January 5, 1879, Phoenician art was described by the following:

He entered into other men's labors and made most of his heritage. The Sphinx of Egypt became Asiatic, and its new form was transplanted to Nineveh on the one side and to Greece on the other. The rosettes and other patterns of the Babylonian cylinders were introduced into the handiwork of Phoenicia, and so passed on to the West, while the hero of the ancient Chaldean epic became first the Tyrian Melkarth, and then the Herakles of Hellas.

Religion

Deities

Attested 1st millennium BC

Adonis

Chusor

Dagon

Eshmun-Melqart

Gebory-Kon (Gebory = gabri? Kon = Chiun/Kiyun/Kaiwan/Saturn?)

Melqart

Milkashtart

Reshef-Shed

Shed-Horon

Tanit-Astarte

Attested 2nd millennium BC

Amen (Amun)

Asherah

Astarte

Baal Saphon

Baalat Gebal ("Lady of Byblos")

Baal Shemen

El

Eshmun

Hail 

Isis

Osiris

Shed

Venerable Reshef (Reshef of the Arrow) 

Foreign relations 

Influence in the Mediterranean region 

Phoenician culture had a huge effect upon the cultures of the Mediterranean basin in the early Iron Age, and had been affected by them in turn. For example, in Phoenicia, the tripartite division between Baal, Mot and Yam seems to have influenced the Greek division between Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. In various Mediterranean ports during the classical period, Phoenician temples sacred to Melkart were recognized as sacred to Greek Hercules. Stories like the Rape of Europa, and the coming of Cadmus also draw upon Phoenician influence. 

The recovery of the Mediterranean economy after the late Bronze Age collapse (ca. 1200 BC) seems to have been largely due to the work of Phoenician traders and merchant princes, who re-established long distance trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia in the 10th century BC. 

There are many countries and cities around the world that derive their names from the Phoenician Language. Below is a list with the respective meanings:

Altiburus: City in Algeria, SW of Carthage. From Phoenician: "Iltabrush"

Bosa: City in Sardinia: From Phoenician "Bis'en"

Cádiz: City in Spain: From Phoenician "Gadir"

Dhali (Idalion): City in Central Cyprus: From Phoenician "Idyal"

Erice: City in Sicily: From Phoenician "Eryx"

Malta: Island in the Mediterranean: From Phoenician "Malat" ('refuge')

Marion: City in West Cyprus: From Phoenician "Aymar"

Oed Dekri: City in Algeria: From Phoenician: "Idiqra"

Spain: From Phoenician: "I-Shaphan", meaning "Land of Hyraxes". Later Latinized as "Hispania"

Carthage: City in Tunisia: From Phoenician "Qart Hadašt" meaning "New City",

Cartagena: City in Spain (Greek Νέα Καρχηδόνα; Latin Carthago Nova; Spanish Cartagena) A colony of Carthage, which also gave rise to Cartagena, Colombia.

Relations with the Greeks

Trade 

Towards the end of the Bronze Age (around 1200 BC) there was trade between the Canaanites (early Phoenicians), Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece. In a shipwreck found off of the coast of Turkey, the Ulu Bulurun wreck, Canaanite storage pottery along with pottery from Cyprus and Greece was found. The Phoenicians were famous metalworkers, and by the end of the 8th century BC, Greek city-states were sending out envoys to the Levant (the eastern Mediterranean) for metal goods.

The height of Phoenician trade was around the 7th and 8th centuries. There is a dispersal of imports (ceramic, stone, and faience) from the Levant that traces a Phoenician commercial channel to the Greek mainland via the central Aegean.

Athens shows little evidence of this trade with few eastern imports, but other Greek coastal cities are rich with eastern imports that evidence this trade.

Al Mina is a specific example of the trade that took place between the Greeks and the Phoenicians. It has been theorized that by the 8th century BC, Euboean traders established a commercial enterprise with the Levantine coast and were using Al Mina (in Syria) as a base for this enterprise. There is still some question about the veracity of these claims concerning Al Mina. The Phoenicians even got their name from the Greeks due to their trade. Their most famous trading product was purple dye, the Greek word for which is phoenos.

Alphabet

The Phoenician phonetic alphabet was adopted and modified by the Greeks probably at the 8th century BC (around the time of the hippoi depictions). This most likely did not come from a single instance but from a culmination of commercial exchange. This means that before the 8th century, there was a relationship between the Greeks and the Phoenicians. Though there is no evidence to support the suggestion, it is probable that during this period there was also a passing of religious ideas. 

Herodotus cited the city of Thebes (a city in central Greece) as the place of the importation of the alphabet. The legendary Phoenician hero Cadmus is credited with bringing the alphabet to Greece, but it is more plausible that it was brought by Phoenician emigrants to Crete, whence it gradually diffused northwards.

Connections with Greek mythology 

Kadmos - In both Phoenician and Greek mythologies, Kadmos is a Phoenician prince, the son of Agenor, the king of Tyre. Herodotus credits Kadmos for bringing the Phoenician alphabet to Greece approximately sixteen hundred years before Herodotus' time, or around 2000 BC, as he attested. 

So these Phoenicians, including the Gephyraians, came with Kadmos and settled this land, and they transmitted much lore to the Hellenes, and in particular, taught them the alphabet which, I believe the Hellenes did not have previously, but which was originally used by all Phoenicians.

—The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, Book 5.58, translated by Andrea L. Purvis.

Phoenician gods of the sea - Due to the number of deities similar to the "Lord of the Sea" in classical mythology, there have been many difficulties attributing one specific name to the sea deity or the "Poseidon–Neptune" figure of Phoenician religion. This figure of "Poseidon-Neptune" is mentioned by authors and in various inscriptions as being very important to merchants and sailors, but a singular name has yet to be found. There are, however, names for sea gods from individual city-states. 

Ugarit is an ancient city state of Phoenicia. Yamm is the Ugaritic god of the sea. Yamm and Baal, the storm god of Ugaritic myth and often associated with Zeus, have an epic battle for power over the universe. While Yamm is the god of the sea, he truly represents vast chaos. Baal, on the other hand, is a representative for order. In Ugaritic myth, Baal overcomes Yamm's power. In some versions of this myth, Baal kills Yamm with a mace fashioned for him, and in others, the goddess Athtart saves Yamm and says that since defeated, he should stay in his own province. Yamm is the brother of the god of death, Mot. Some scholars have identified Yamm with Poseidon, although he has also been identified with Pontus.

According to Plato

In his Republic, Plato contends that the love of money (φιλοχρήματος) is a tendency of the soul found amongst Phoenicians and Egyptians, which distinguishes them from the Greeks who tend towards the love of knowledge (φιλομαθής). 

In his Laws, he asserts that this love of money has led the Phoenicians and Egyptians to develop skills in cunning and trickery (πανουργία) rather than wisdom (σοφία). 

Sources on Phoenicia

In the Bible

Hiram (also spelled Huran) associated with the building of the temple.

“2 Chronicles 2:14—The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father [was] a man of Tyre, skillful to work in gold, silver, brass, iron, stone, timber, royal purple(from the Murex), blue, and in crimson, and fine linens; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him ...”

This is the architect of the Temple, Hiram Abiff of Masonic lore. They are vastly famous for their purple dye.

Later, reforming prophets railed against the practice of drawing royal wives from among foreigners: Elijah execrated Jezebel, the princess from Tyre who became a consort of King Ahab and introduced the worship of her gods Baal.

Long after Phoenician culture had flourished, or Phoenicia had existed as any political entity, Hellenized natives of the region where Canaanites still lived were referred to as "Syro-Phoenicians", as in the Gospel of Mark 7:26: "The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation".

In Acts 15 Paul and Barnabas travel through Phoenicia in route to Jerusalem. Acts 15:3 (NIV) "The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad."

The word Bible itself derives from Greek biblion, which means "book" and either derives from, or is the (perhaps ultimately Egyptian) origin of Byblos, the Greek name of the Phoenician city Gebal.

Legacy

The legacy of the Phoenicians are many and varied and include:

The spread of the alphabet throughout the Mediterranean extended literacy beyond a narrow caste of hierarchical priests. 

They re-opened the trade routes in the Eastern Mediterranean that connected the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations after the long hiatus of the Bronze Age collapse recovered, beginning the "Orientalising" trend later seen in Greek art. 

They invented a more democratic and flatter oligarchic social structure than any people prior to the Athenian revolution, and in this were an inspiration to Greek constitutional government.

They pioneered the development of multi-tiered oared shipping throughout the Mediterranean region, being the first people exploring beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. 

They were the first Eastern Mediterranean people to colonise the Western Mediterranean in any significant way (The Shardana may have preceded them in Sardinia), opening up urban development and trade in this region. 

Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans freely admitted what they owed to the Phoenicians, and Phoenician influence can be traced in the Iberian and Celtic worlds from the 8th century onwards. 

The first generation of Greek Philosophers of the Milesian school (Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander, Anaxagoras, and Pythagoras) all had Phoenician ancestry. 

It is possible that Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, was of Phoenician heritage. Diogenes Laërtius writes that Crates once chastised Zeno, crying out, "Why run away, my little Phoenician?"

The extent of Phoenician influence on civilization has been unheralded for many centuries, partly because much of their records have been destroyed in successive invasions, and partly because their successors (Greek and Roman) usurped some of their achievements, being their mortal enemies in their heyday. 

CYCLOPS

A cyclops (/ˈsaɪklɒps/; Ancient Greek: Κύκλωψ, Kuklōps; plural cyclopes /saɪˈkloʊpiːz/; Ancient Greek: Κύκλωπες, Kuklōpes), in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead. The name is widely thought to mean "round-eyed" or "circle-eyed".

Hesiod described three one-eyed Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes and Arges the sons of Uranus and Gaia, brothers of the Titans, builders and craftsmen, while the epic poet Homer described another group of mortal herdsmen Cyclopes. Other accounts were written by the playwright Euripides, poet Theocritus and Roman epic poet Virgil. In Hesiod's Theogony, Zeus releases three Cyclopes from the dark pit of Tartarus. They provide Zeus' thunderbolt, Hades' helmet of invisibility, and Poseidon's trident, and the gods use these weapons to defeat the Titans. In a famous episode of Homer's Odyssey, the hero Odysseus encounters the cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and Thoosa (a nereid), who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country. The connection between the two groups has been debated in antiquity and by modern scholars. It is upon Homer's account that Euripides and Virgil based their accounts of the mythical creatures.

Various ancient Greek and Roman authors wrote about cyclopes. Hesiod described them as three brothers who were primordial giants. All the other sources of literature about the cyclopes describe the cyclops Polyphemus, who lived upon an island (often identified by ancient authors with Sicily) populated by the creatures.

Homer

While Homer does not specifically state that the Cyclopes are one-eyed, this is implied when Odysseus blinds Polyphemus by plunging a stake into his eye.

Hesiod

In the Theogony by Hesiod, the Cyclopes – Brontes ("thunderer"), Steropes ("lightning") and the "bright" Arges (Greek: Βρόντης, Στερόπης and Ἄργης) – were the primordial sons of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth) and brothers of the Hecatonchires. As such, they were blood-related to the Titan and Olympian gods and goddesses. They were giants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead and a foul disposition. According to Hesiod, they were strong and stubborn. Collectively they eventually became synonyms for brute strength and power, and their name was invoked in connection with massive masonry. They were often pictured at their forge.

Uranus, fearing their strength, locked them in Tartarus. Cronus, another son of Uranus and Gaia, later freed the Cyclopes, along with the Hecatonchires, after he had overthrown Uranus. Cronus then placed them back in Tartarus, where they remained, guarded by the female dragon Campe, until freed by Zeus. They fashioned thunderbolts for Zeus to use as weapons, and helped him overthrow Cronus and the other Titans. The lightning bolts, which became Zeus' main weapons, were forged by all three Cyclopes, in that Arges added brightness, Brontes added thunder, and Steropes added lightning.

These Cyclopes also created Poseidon's trident, Artemis' bow and arrows of moonlight, Apollo's bow and arrows of sun rays, and Hades' helmet of darkness that was given to Perseus on his quest to kill Medusa.

Callimachus

Statue of a Cyclops at the Natural History Museum in London

According to a hymn of Callimachus, they were Hephaestus' helpers at the forge. The Cyclopes were said to have built the "cyclopean" fortifications at Tiryns and Mycenae in the Peloponnese. The noises proceeding from the heart of volcanoes were attributed to their operations.

Euripides 

According to Euripides' play Alcestis, Apollo killed the Cyclopes, in retaliation for Asclepius' murder at the hands of Zeus. For this crime, Apollo was then forced into the servitude of Admetus for one year. Other stories after Euripides tell that Zeus later returned Asclepius and the Cyclopes from Hades. This was after the year of Apollo's servitude had passed. Zeus pardoned the Cyclopes and Asclepius from the underworld, despite them being dead, even though Hades is lord of the dead and they are his prisoners. Hades as well does not ever allow any of his souls to leave the underworld but Zeus could not bear the loss of the cyclopes, for they were the biggest reason the Olympians assumed power. Also Zeus resurrected Asclepius at the request of Apollo, so that their feud would end.

Some versions of this myth have it that after Apollo killed the Cyclopes, their ghosts dwelt in the caverns of the volcano Aetna.

Theocritus

The Sicilian Greek poet Theocritus wrote two poems c. 275 BC concerning Polyphemus' desire for Galatea, a sea nymph and his strategy for winning her.

Virgil

Virgil, the Roman epic poet, wrote, in book three of The Aeneid, of how Aeneas and his crew landed on the island of the cyclops after escaping from Troy at the end of the Trojan War. Aeneas and his crew land on the island, when they are approached by a desperate Greek man from Ithaca, Achaemenides, who was stranded on the island a few years previously with Odysseus' expedition (as depicted in The Odyssey).

Virgil's account acts as a sequel to Homer's, with the fate of Polyphemus as a blind cyclops after the escape of Odysseus and his crew.

Nonnus Dionysiaca

The Indian war of Dionysus was told about when Rhea, the mother of Zeus, asked a large group of rustic gods and spirits to join Dionysus' army. The cyclopes played a big part. King Deriades was the leader of the nation of India and the cyclopes were said to crush most of his troops. It is explained in Nonnus Dionysiaca that the cyclopes killed many men in the war, which is also the only story that tells how they fight. They are the same as the giants who tried to overthrow Zeus.

Walter Burkert among others suggests that the archaic groups or societies of lesser gods mirror real cult associations: "It may be surmised that smith guilds lie behind Cabeiri, Idaian Dactyloi, Telchines, and Cyclopes." Given their penchant for blacksmithing, many scholars believe the legend of the Cyclopes' single eye arose from an actual practice of blacksmiths wearing an eyepatch over one eye to prevent flying sparks from blinding them in both eyes. The Cyclopes seen in Homer's Odyssey are of a different type from those in the Theogony and they have no connection to blacksmithing. It is possible that independent legends associated with Polyphemus did not make him a Cyclops before Homer's Odyssey; Polyphemus may have been some sort of local daemon or monster in original stories.

Another possible origin for the Cyclops legend, advanced by the paleontologist Othenio Abel in 1914, is the prehistoric dwarf elephant skulls – about twice the size of a human skull – that may have been found by the Greeks on Cyprus, Crete, Malta and Sicily. Abel suggested that the large, central nasal cavity (for the trunk) in the skull might have been interpreted as a large single eye-socket. Given the inexperience of the locals with living elephants, they were unlikely to recognize the skull for what it actually was.

Veratrum album, or white hellebore, an herbal medicine described by Hippocrates before 400 BC, contains the alkaloids cyclopamine and jervine, which are teratogens capable of causing cyclopia and holoprosencephaly, severe birth defects in which a fetus can be born with a single eye. Students of teratology have raised the possibility of a link between this developmental deformity in infants and the myth for which it was named. Regardless of the connection between the herb and the birth abnormalities, it is possible these rare birth defects may have contributed to the myth.

Using phylogenetics tools, Julien d'Huy has reconstructed the history and prehistory of the versions of Polyphemus back to the Paleolithic period.

Cyclopean walls

After the "Dark Age", when Hellenes looked with awe at the vast dressed blocks, known as Cyclopean structures, which had been used in Mycenaean masonry (at sites such as Mycenae and Tiryns or on Cyprus), they concluded that only the Cyclopes had the combination of skill and strength to build in such a monumental manner.

TARTARUS 

Tartarus (/ˈtɑrtərəs/; Greek: Τάρταρος Tartaros), in ancient Greek mythology, is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. As far below Hades as the earth is below the heavens, Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato in Gorgias (c. 400 BC), souls were judged after death and where the wicked received punishment. Like other primal entities (such as the earth and time), Tartarus was also considered to be a primordial force or deity.

Greek Mythology 

In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld. In ancient Orphic sources and in the mystery schools, Tartarus is also the unbounded first-existing entity from which the Light and the cosmos are born.

In the Greek poet Hesiod's Theogony, c. 700 BC, Tartarus was the third of the primordial deities, following after Chaos and Gaia (Earth), and preceding Eros.

As for the place, Hesiod asserts that a bronze anvil falling from heaven would fall nine days before it reached the earth. The anvil would take nine more days to fall from earth to Tartarus. In The Iliad (c. 700 BC), Zeus asserts that Tartarus is "as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above the earth."

While, according to Greek mythology, the realm of Hades is the place of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronus came to power as the King of the Titans, he imprisoned the one-eyed Cyclopes and the hundred-armed Hecatonchires in Tartarus and set the monster Campe as its guard. Zeus killed Campe and released the imprisoned giants to aid in his conflict with the Titans. The gods of Olympus eventually triumphed. Cronus and many of the other Titans were banished to Tartarus, though Prometheus, Epimetheus, Metis and most of the female Titans were spared (according to Pindar, Cronus somehow later earned Zeus' forgiveness and was released from Tartarus to become ruler of Elysium). Another Titan, Atlas, was sentenced to hold the sky on his shoulders to prevent it from resuming its primordial embrace with the Earth. Other gods could be sentenced to Tartarus as well. Apollo is a prime example, although Zeus freed him. The Hecatonchires became guards of Tartarus' prisoners. Later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhon, the offspring of Tartarus and Gaia, he threw him into "wide Tartarus".

Originally, Tartarus was used only to confine dangers to the gods of Olympus. In later mythologies, Tartarus became the place where the punishment fits the crime. For example:

King Sisyphus was sent to Tartarus for killing guests and travelers to his castle in violation to his hospitality, seducing his niece, and reporting one of Zeus' sexual conquests by telling the river god Asopus of the whereabouts of his daughter Aegina (who had been taken away by Zeus). But regardless of the impropriety of Zeus' frequent conquests, Sisyphus overstepped his bounds by considering himself a peer of the gods who could rightfully report their indiscretions. When Zeus ordered Thanatos to chain up Sisyphus in Tartarus, Sisyphus tricked Thanatos by asking him how the chains worked and ended up chaining Thanatos; as a result there was no more death. This caused Ares to free Thanatos and turn Sisyphus over to him. Sometime later, Sisyphus had Persephone send him back to the surface to scold his wife for not burying him properly. Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back to Tartarus by Hermes when he refused to go back to the Underworld after that. In Tartarus, Sisyphus would be forced to roll a large boulder up a mountainside which when he almost reached the crest, rolled away from Sisyphus and rolled back down repeatedly. This represented the punishment of Sisyphus claiming that his cleverness surpassed that of Zeus, causing the god to make the boulder roll away from Sisyphus, binding Sisyphus to an eternity of frustration.

King Tantalus was also in Tartarus after he cut up his son Pelops, boiled him, and served him as food when he was invited to dine with the gods. He also stole the ambrosia from the Gods and told his people its secrets. Another story mentioned that he held onto a golden dog forged by Hephaestus and stolen by Tantalus' friend Pandareus. Tantalus held onto the golden dog for safekeeping and later denied to Pandareus that he had it. Tantalus's punishment for his actions (now a proverbial term for "temptation without satisfaction") was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any. Over his head towered a threatening stone like that of Sisyphus.

Ixion was the king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly. Ixion grew to hate his father-in-law and ended up pushing him onto a bed of coal and woods committing the first kin-related murder. The princes of other lands ordered that Ixion be denied of any sin-cleansing. Zeus took pity on Ixion and invited him to a meal on Olympus. But when Ixion saw Hera, he fell in love with her and did some under-the-table caressing until Zeus signaled him to stop. After finding a place for Ixion to sleep, Zeus created a cloud-clone of Hera named Nephele to test him to see how much he loved Hera. Ixion made love to her, which resulted in the birth of Centaurus, who mated with some Magnesian mares on Mount Pelion and thus engendered the race of Centaurs (who are called the Ixionidae from their descent). Zeus drove Ixion from Mount Olympus and then struck him with a thunderbolt. He was punished by being tied to a winged flaming wheel that was always spinning: first in the sky and then in Tartarus. Only when Orpheus came down to the Underworld to rescue Eurydice did it stop spinning because of the music Orpheus was playing. Ixion being strapped to the flaming wheel represented his burning lust.

In some versions, the Danaides murdered their husbands and were punished in Tartarus by being forced to carry water in a jug to fill a bath which would thereby wash off their sins, but the jugs were actually sieves so the water always leaked out.

The giant Tityos was slain by Apollo and Artemis after attempting to rape Leto on Hera's orders. As punishment, Tityos was stretched out in Tartarus and tortured by two vultures who fed on his liver. This punishment is extremely similar to that of the Titan Prometheus.

King Salmoneus was also mentioned to have been imprisoned in Tartarus after passing himself off as Zeus, causing the real Zeus to smite him with a thunderbolt.

According to Plato (c. 427 BC), Rhadamanthus, Aeacus and Minos were the judges of the dead and chose who went to Tartarus. Rhadamanthus judged Asian souls, Aeacus judged European souls and Minos was the deciding vote and judge of the Greek.

Plato also proposes the concept that sinners were cast under the ground to be punished in accordance with their sins in the Myth of Er. Cronus, the ruler of the Titans, was thrown down into the pits of Tartarus by his children.

There were a number of entrances to Tartarus in Greek mythology. One was in Aornum.

Roman mythology

In Roman mythology, Tartarus is the place where sinners are sent. Virgil describes it in the Aeneid as a gigantic place, surrounded by the flaming river Phlegethon and triple walls to prevent sinners from escaping from it. It is guarded by a hydra with fifty black gaping jaws, which sits at a screeching gate protected by columns of solid adamantine, a substance akin to diamond - so hard that nothing will cut through it. Inside, there is a castle with wide walls, and a tall iron turret. Tisiphone, one of the Erinyes who represents revenge, stands guard sleepless at the top of this turret lashing a whip. There is a pit inside which is said to extend down into the earth twice as far as the distance from the lands of the living to Olympus. At the bottom of this pit lie the Titans, the twin sons of Aloeus, and many other sinners. Still more sinners are contained inside Tartarus, with punishments similar to those of Greek myth.

Biblical Pseudepigrapha

Tartarus is only known in Hellenistic Jewish literature from the Greek text of 1 Enoch, dated to 400–200 BC. This states that God placed the archangel Uriel "in charge of the world and of Tartarus" (20:2). Tartarus is generally understood to be the place where 200 fallen Watchers (angels) are imprisoned.

Tartarus also appears in sections of the Jewish Sibylline Oracles. E.g. Sib. Or. 4:186.

New Testament

In the New Testament, the noun Tartarus does not occur but tartaroo (ταρταρόω, "throw to Tartarus"), a shortened form of the classical Greek verb kata-tartaroo ("throw down to Tartarus"), does appear in 2 Peter 2:4. Liddell Scott provides other sources for the shortened form of this verb, including Acusilaus (5th century BC), Joannes Laurentius Lydus (4th century AD) and the Scholiast on Aeschylus' Eumenides, who cites Pindar relating how the earth tried to tartaro "cast down" Apollo after he overcame the Python. In classical texts, the longer form kata-tartaroo is often related to the throwing of the Titans down to Tartarus.

The ESV is one of several English versions that gives the Greek reading Tartarus as a footnote:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;"

Footnotes 2:4 Greek Tartarus

Adam Clarke reasoned that Peter's use of language relating to the Titans was an indication that the ancient Greeks had heard of a Biblical punishment of fallen angels. Some Evangelical Christian commentaries distinguish Tartarus as a place for wicked angels and Gehenna as a place for wicked humans on the basis of this verse. Other Evangelical commentaries, in reconciling that some fallen angels are chained in Tartarus, yet some not, attempt to distinguish between one type of fallen angel and another.

In popular culture

Tartarus is featured in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus novel series, where it serves its mythological role as a location in the Underworld. It is further noted as the place where the spirits of defeated monsters travel and undergo regeneration, allowing them to eventually return to Earth. As with the ancient Greeks, Riordan also personifies Tartarus as a sentient being; in this case as the husband of Gaea and father of the Giants. The rivers of the Underworld are revealed to be his circulatory system, and his actual form is the realm from Greek myth. He also displays the ability to "project" a humanoid form of considerable power.

Tartarus is one of the major locations in Persona 3 but instead of an underground place, it is a high tower that only emerges in the middle of the night or more known as the Dark Hour.

Tartarus is also the name of the final boss in the video game Halo 2. He is a Brute chieftain and primary rival of the Arbiter.

In the 1997 novel "Titan" by Stephen Baxter, where NASA launches a mission to the Saturnian moon Titan, the astronauts on the crew name their landing site "Tartarus Base". 

Plato and 'History'

THE Dialogue commonly called the Republic is the acknowledged masterpiece of the large collection of similar compositions which have come down to us as the works of Plato. These works have made the name of Plato one of the most familiar names in history. But we know little about Plato himself; astonishingly little,compared with what we might have expected to know. When we consider that he lived in a peculiarly historical period, concerning the events and personages of which we have an unusual amount of information ; that he had an illustrious reputation during his lifetime,which was prolonged to an advanced old age; and that his writings were very numerous, and have reached us in so perfect;a condition as to show that their text was reverently watched over from the first: it cannot but seem strange that the record of his life is so meagre, and that the mutual relations of his writings are involved in so much obscurity. 

John Llewellyn Davies

The God and the Goddess. Spirits Of The Light 

Long before Christianity came along, long before people were called "pagans" for dancing around a maypole, there was an ancient religion. Not just in Ireland (although most of modern-day Wicca is Celtic-based), but also in Egypt, Greece, Babylonia, everywhere. Unfortunately for the indiginous peoples of those lands, their gods they worshipped were usually made to be "evil" when a new conquering nation came along with a new religion. The Old Ways were condemned and the people were made to choose: accept the new religion, or die. And so, this cycle repeated itself through time, when Rome took the Greeks' gods for themselves, when Babylonia was conquered and the earth-mother goddess Tiamat was changed into the evil dragon, when the Christians came to the Celts. Christianity, more so than any other religion, said worship of the Goddess was "pagan", "evil", or even "devil-worsip". So, they removed the Goddess from their religion - if you notice, Christians worship God (like us), Jesus Christ (an aspect of the God - it is exactly the same story as the Egyptian story of Osiris and his son Horus), but there is no female energy in their worship. The closest would be the Catholic reverence of the Virgin Mary, but Wiccans believe that the true "higher power" has female energy as well; hence, our belief and worship of the Goddess. This is history - we are not saying that we hate these people and their religions, for all religions are one; we are merely stating the facts of what happened long ago. It is unfortunate that this occurred, but the good news is that Wicca is making a "comeback", if you will. While many of us are still unnecessarily feared, worship of the God and the Goddess is slowly coming back.

The God

The God is known as many names in Wicca. He is the ruler of the Sun, and is a Triple-God in this aspect. The sun rising (rebirth), the noon sun (the fertility aspect), and the setting sun (death). Please note that death is not a negative idea to Wiccans; we believe in reincarnation and death is merely another stage of life to us that we all must accept. The Death God is most popular during the Celtic-Wiccan Ritual Holiday of Samhein (October 31st) when we honor the dead. This triple-version of the God is not as widely known or used as the triple-version of the Goddess, and He is also known by other names or aspects. As the Fertility God, He rules over sexuality of humans; as the Horned God or Stag King, He rules over hunting; as the God of the Earth, He rules over crops, land, and animals.

The Goddess

The Goddess' most widely used "version", if you will, is that of the Triple-Goddess. She is the ruler of the Moon, and is invoked as the Triple-Goddess most often because of this. In this aspect, Her trinity is: the Waxing Moon or New Moon (the Maid, or freshness), the Full Moon (the Mother, or sexuality), and the Waning Moon (the Crone, or wisdom). This, however, is not Her only aspect. She is also invoked as the Goddess of healing, childbirth, and love. Her consort, of course, is the God (and vice-versa); sometimes, They are known as the Lord and the Lady. Please note, this is *our* way of worshipping Them, and is not the only way. Many Wiccans choose not to worship the God as we do - we, however, feel it is necessary to us to include both the male and female energies.

In the beginning was the Mother.

As far back as 30,000 years ago, the people of the earth worshipped a female deity. In cultures around the world, the Goddess has been revered in myriad forms, in temple and grove, cathedral and cave. She has been celebrated and venerated through ritual, myth, and art. These pages serve as introduction to some of the 10,000 names of the Goddess, and offer links to other web pages and resources where you can find more information about Goddess spirituality and mythology.

The path of Goddess is not defined or laid down in dogma. It is a living, daily connection with sacredness. There is literally no end to the ways in which you can find and honor Goddess. The Goddess is Gaia, the earth Ix Chel, the moon Arianrhod, the stars. She is Oya, who brings the storms, and she is Mary, who calms them. She is Nut, who births creation, and Kali, who destroys it. She is maiden, mother, queen and crone. She is lover and spinster, warrior and sibyl, nurturer and judge.

The Goddess does not easily fit into categories. For example, defining Demeter as simply a nature goddess or Artemis as a moon goddess is to diminish Her influence and importance in other realms. These categories are but convenient gathering places, showing the common threads that weave into the larger pattern. Know that each aspect of the Goddess is far more complex, far richer, than can be presented in this small space. Let this be a beginning of your exploration of Her.

Once She has called your name, 

you are Hers forever.

The Deities

The following is our belief concerning deities. We honor the God and the Goddess, but also their many aspects. These "aspects" are the deities that most people read about and call "myths". They are not myths, but truth. The God is separate from the Goddess, yet They are one. Their aspects, or deities, are separate - yet one as well. For example, Rhiannon's deity, guide, and mentor is Morgan le Fey, who represents the Crone aspect of the Triple-Goddess. She is separate from the Goddess, yet part of Her as well. This is a hard concept to comprehend for most, and usually takes much meditation to come to terms with this idea.

http://spiritsofthelight.tripod.com/id7.html

The Goddess. A Few Definitions

Innana. Sumerian Goddess of heaven and earth. She made her descent into the underworld on a spiritual quest, taking off all external attachments until she confronted death itself, and returned. She brings fertility and power.

Demeter. Greek/Roman Goddess of the Earth, she gives all bounty and food, especially grains. When she was separated from her daughter, all fertility left the earth and it created Winter.

Called Aphrodite by the Greeks and Venus by the Romans, we know her as goddess of love, passion and growth. But originally, she also ruled birth, life, death, time and fate. She is a very ancient, powerful and complex goddess with dozens of names, and as many lovers. Called the Golden One, and "Foam Born" she arose from the sea, scattering pearls made from drops of water.

Ancient Nile funerary Goddess from Egypt, she is drawing down the energy of the moon. Her crescent shaped arms symbolize regeneration, and uplifting inspriation.

Radha She is the "beloved One", consort of Krishna in the Hindu tradition. She personifies sensuality and love for the Divine which leads to transcendence, and the action of leaving everything to follow one's love for God.

Quan Yin- Buddhist Goddess of compassion, her name means "She who hears the suffering of the world". One of the most beloved of the Tibetan Buddhist deities, she relieves suffering, heals and protects those in need.

Goddessgift. Net

African Goddess

The Egyptian Goddess of rebirth is one of the most familiar images of empowered and utter feminity. The Goddess Isis was the first daughter of Geb, God of the earth and Nat, the Goddess of the Overarching sky. Isis was born on the first day between the first years of Creation, and was adored by her human followers. Unlike other Egyptian Goddnesses, the goddess Auset spent time among her people teaching woman how to grink corn and make bread, spin flax and weave cloth, and how to tame men enough to live with them. Isis taught her people the skills of reading and agriculture and was worshipped as the Goddess of Medicine and Wisdom. More than any other Ancient African goddesses, Auset embodied the characteristics of all the lesser goddesses that proceeded her.

Isis became the model on which future generations of female duties in other cultures were to be based. As the personification of the “Complete female” Isis was called the one who is all, Isis Panthea and the lady of ten thousand names. The Goddess Isis, a moon goddess, gave birth to Horus, created and sustained all life...were the saviors of their people.

WRITING4MEDIA

ISIS or ASET

Very well liked Goddess of Maternity, Royals and Family Dedication.

The child of GEB and NUT, she left for the ends of the Earth to search for the remains of her murdered partner OSIRIS.

With crafty genius she was able to reassemble the body for a funeral, and could not resist 1 final rite that was more fertility than funeral.

Consequently, she grew to become pregnant with glorious HORUS, and had to go in to hiding well before bad brother SET discovered her pragnancy.

‘Thankfully her mothering abilities payed off and HORUS grew into SET, an egytian god who grew to become the 1st leader of a peaceful unified Egypt.

ISIS settled down to enjoy a royal life, going to garden parties and state services in her part as King’s Mom. She now has a beautiful line of headgear presenting cow horns and a sun disc.

ISIS is among the few Egyptian Gods the Greeks took a fancy to, and she also was loved by the Romans. There is a temple built to her at Pompeii.

The cult grew to become extremely popular and her consort OSIRIS was possibly the foundation of the Greek/Egyptian Hybrid God SERAPIS.

isis-the-goddessThroughout the Cleopatra/Anthony romance, Cleo saw herself as the representation of ISIS.

With her leaving, the Roman Senate did its utmost to demolish her Egyptian shrines, however one can’t keep a great Goddess down. The time of Julius Caesar the cult was flourishing and had its very own festivals.

Right through this, ISIS shook her sistrum that she retained in spite of her classical look statue remodeling.

With the Christians she gladly became recognized as the Virgin MARY.

The Armenian liturgy actually retained the rattling sistrum sound. Penitents crawling on a symbolic hunt for Christ were only exchanging the earlier supporters on the symbolic hunt for OSIRIS.

http://the-kundalini.com/isis-the-goddess-of-ancient-egypt/

Ancient Egypt: The Predynastic Period

The late Neolithic period in Egypt is known as the Predynastic period. It began in the sixth millennium BC, and ended with the unification of Egypt, which marked the start of the historical period in Egypt. This long period of time is traditionally divided into two subgroups, called the Naqada I period (4000-3500 BC) and the Naqada II period (3500-3100 BC). Naqada was an important southern town where these periods were first distinguished in modern times.

The inhabitants of Egypt first lived in settlements during the Predynastic period. Cemeteries were located in the low desert near the settlements. Finds from settlements and cemeteries suggest that the north and south of the country were culturally distinct. The south was administered from the city of Hierakonpolis, while the capital of the north was Buto.

The burials of this time were simple pit graves, in which the dead person was laid in a crouched position. The bodies were naturally dried by the hot sand. In later burials, the bodies were sometimes wrapped in mats. Sometimes the person's head and limbs were bound with cloth. The objects placed in burials, such as items of jewellery, slate palettes and pots are the main sources of information about this time.

British Museum. org 

The Goddess Neith 

The Goddess Neith is one of the most ancient Goddesses of predynastic Egypt, She represents the Primal Beginning of things. She Personified the Abyss, the Deep, and the Dark of Night. Neith was a Creator Goddess who could be called the Great Mother. She is represented as self-existing. She is celebrated as the "Only One." The temple of Neith bore the following inscription: 'I am All That Has Been, That Is, and That Will Be. No mortal has yet been able to lift the veil that covers Me.'

http://www.pinterest.com/EmilyVonSnark/

Names of the Mother Earth Goddess

Mother Nature

Mother Earth

Changing Woman (Apache)

Nokomis (Iroquois)

Rhea, Demeter, Gaia (Greek)

Magna Mater, Tellus Mater, Cybele (Roman)

Frigg (Norse)

Hartha (anicent Germanic tribes)

Maeve (Irish-Celtic)

Mati (Russian)

Papa (Polynesian and Hawaiian)

Prithivi (Hindu)

Waramurungundji (Native Australian)

Tlalteuctli (Aztec)

Mother Earth is unarguably the most universally worshiped Goddess through out the world, and all times. She was called by various names and titles by the various cultures from the beginning of time until the present. She is the Goddess of Creation, Harvest, Fertility, Pregnancy, and all areas of Motherhood and Womanhood.

She is often named various titles and names by the same culture as various stages of Her cycle…Maiden, mother, Crone. She also is often called differing names for the differing seasons of the agricultural year. Thusly the Apache simply called Her the Changing Woman to honor her ever changing seasons. She is often believed to be the Mother of the other Gods, and Humankind as well. She is often seen literally as the Mother 'Planet Earth' as well as our figurative spiritual Mother Goddess.

The Mother Earth, Goddess off fertility has been worshiped for longer than any other God. A cave art in Laussel, France shows Her ample figure holding the cornucopia horn of plenty, has been dated to 20,000 BCE. An even older small statue which has been wrongly titled the 'Venus' of Willebdorf is clearly another Mother Earth Fertility Goddess image and it dates back to 30,000 BCE.

You might notice those two ancient Mother Goddess images are large 'plus sized' women not the super model modern beauty standard. Mother Goddess and Earth Goddesses were usually shown as very large figured women. 

Mother Earth is still worshiped by native Americans, Hindus, and other modern Pagans....and in some sense even by Scientists and environmentalists today as we are finally starting to see and be concerned about the damage we are doing to our Mother Earth.

http://www.angelfire.com/nc2/cybertemples/Gaia.html

Sekhmet 

In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet /ˈsɛkˌmɛt/ or Sachmis (/ˈsækmɨs/; also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, or Sakhet, among other spellings) was originally the warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing for Upper Egypt, when the kingdom of Egypt was divided. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath formed the desert. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare.

Her cult was so dominant in the culture that when the first pharaoh of the twelfth dynasty, Amenemhat I, moved the capital of Egypt to Itjtawy, the centre for her cult was moved as well. Religion, the royal lineage, and the authority to govern were intrinsically interwoven in Ancient Egypt during its approximately three millennia of existence.

Sekhmet also is a Solar deity, sometimes called the daughter of the sun god Ra and often associated with the goddesses Hathor and Bast. She bears the Solar disk and the uraeus which associates her with Wadjet and royalty. With these associations she can be construed as being a divine arbiter of the goddess Ma'at (Justice, or Order) in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, associating her with the Wedjat (later the Eye of Ra), and connecting her with Tefnut as well.

Sekhmet's name comes from the Ancient Egyptian word "sekhem" which means "power". Sekhmet's name suits her function and means "the (one who is) powerful". She also was given titles such as the "(One) Before Whom Evil Trembles", "Mistress of Dread", "Lady of Slaughter" and "She Who Mauls". She also was seen as a special goddess for women, ruling over their menstruation cycle.

History

In order to placate Sekhmet's wrath, her priestesses performed a ritual before a different statue of the goddess on each day of the year. This practice resulted in many images of the goddess being preserved. Most of her statuettes were rigidly crafted and do not exhibit any expression of movements or dynamism; this design was made to make them last a long time rather than to express any form of functions or actions she is associated with. It is estimated that more than seven hundred statues of Sekhmet once stood in one funerary temple alone, that of Amenhotep III, on the west bank of the Nile.

She was envisioned as a fierce lioness, and in art, was depicted as such, or as a woman with the head of a lioness, who was dressed in red, the colour of blood. Sometimes the dress she wears exhibits a rosetta pattern over each breast, an ancient leonine motif, which can be traced to observation of the shoulder-knot hairs on lions. Occasionally, Sekhmet was also portrayed in her statuettes and engravings with minimal clothing or naked. Tame lions were kept in temples dedicated to Sekhmet at Leontopolis.

Festivals and evolution

To pacify Sekhmet, festivals were celebrated at the end of battle, so that the destruction would come to an end. During an annual festival held at the beginning of the year, a festival of intoxication, the Egyptians danced and played music to soothe the wildness of the goddess and drank great quantities of wine ritually to imitate the extreme drunkenness that stopped the wrath of the goddess—when she almost destroyed humanity. This may relate to averting excessive flooding during the inundation at the beginning of each year as well, when the Nile ran blood-red with the silt from up-stream and Sekhmet had to swallow the overflow to save humankind.

In 2006, Betsy Bryan, an archaeologist with Johns Hopkins University excavating at the temple of Mut presented her findings about the festival that included illustrations of the priestesses being served to excess and its adverse effects being ministered to by temple attendants. 

Participation in the festival was great, including the priestesses and the population. Historical records of tens of thousands attending the festival exist. These findings were made in the temple of Mut because when Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed some characteristics of Sekhmet. These temple excavations at Luxor discovered a "porch of drunkenness" built onto the temple by the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, during the height of her twenty year reign.

In a myth about the end of Ra's rule on the earth, Ra sends Hathor or Sekhmet to destroy mortals who conspired against him. In the myth, Sekhmet's blood-lust was not quelled at the end of battle and led to her destroying almost all of humanity, so Ra poured out beer dyed with red ochre or hematite so that it resembled blood. Mistaking the beer for blood, she became so drunk that she gave up the slaughter and returned peacefully to Ra.

Sekhmet later was considered to be the mother of Maahes, a deity who appeared during the New Kingdom period. He was seen as a lion prince, the son of the goddess. The late origin of Maahes in the Egyptian pantheon may be the incorporation of a Nubian deity of ancient origin in that culture, arriving during trade and warfare or even, during a period of domination by Nubia. During the Greek dominance in Egypt, note was made of a temple for Maahes that was an auxiliary facility to a large temple to Sekhmet at Taremu in the delta region (likely a temple for Bast originally), a city which the Greeks called Leontopolis, where by that time, an enclosure was provided to house lions.

Wikipedia 

THE RE-EMERGENCE OF OUR CREATIVE POWER ~ UNCOVERING OUR INNER ROAR

Sekhmet, the Star Elders and Aluna Joy

Karnak, at the Sekhmet Temple - March 16, 2012 - Message #5

http://www.alunajoy.com/2012-mar16.html

Natural Born Mystic. The Return to Atlantis Pt ll (Artwork) 

AZR © Digital Darkroom

Destruction of ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud by Isis is war crime, says UN

Times Newspaper Headline. March 6 2015 

(the other 're-writers of history'. New Hitlers. AZR)

The United Nations has condemned as a “war crime” the Islamic State group’s bulldozing of an ancient Assyrian city in its latest attack on the remnants of pre-Islamic civilisation in its self-declared caliphate.

Iraq’s tourism and antiquities ministry announced last night that Isis militants had used heavy vehicles to start bulldozing the remnants of Nimrud, one of the great cities of the Assyrian Empire, which lies southeast of modern-day Mosul.

Irina Bokova, the head of the UN’s cultural body UNESCO, condemned the destruction of Nimrud “with the strongest force”.

“We cannot stay silent. The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage constitutes a war crime, and I call on all political and religious leaders in the region to stand up against this new barbarity,” she said today.

An Iraqi antiquities official said that the destruction began yesterday after noon prayers. Lorries that may have been used to haul away artefacts had been spotted at the site. “We do not know to what extent it has been destroyed,” the official said.

A tribal source said that Isis members had first looted valuables before levelling the site. “There used to be statues and walls as well as a castle that Isis has destroyed completely,” the source said.

Archaeologists have compared the assault on Iraq’s cultural history to the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001. But the damage wreaked by Isis, not just to ancient monuments but also on some Muslim places of worship, has been swift, relentless and more wide-ranging.

Last week Isis released a video showing its fighters taking sledgehammers to Assyrian statues in the museum in Mosul, Iraq’s second city, which the group overran last June.

The video also showed militants taking electric drills to massive winged bull statues at the Nirgal Gate of the Assyrian city of Nineveh elsewhere in Mosul.

Historians say that the video was shot last August and that most of the items destroyed were copies, the originals having long since been moved to Baghdad. Isis’s decision to release the video, along with the destruction taking place at Nimrud, signals a new phase in its declared war on the non-Islamic heritage of the Middle East, both human and historical.

The militants who filmed themselves destroying artefacts with sledgehammers and electric drills are said to have told bystanders that they would continue their purge at the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrud, one of Iraq’s greatest archaeological treasures.

Happily, most of Nimrud’s greatest historical treasures were long ago removed from the site. Its renowned winged bulls, much like those at the gates of Nineveh, are in the British Museum, where they were brought in the mid-19th century by the British archaeologist Henry Layard.

The so-called Treasure of Nimrud, 613 pieces of gold jewellery and precious stones, was excavated in the 1990s and taken to Baghdad.

However, other larger artefacts that make up Nimrud’s complex of palaces and monuments remain.

In the video from Mosul museum, bearded militants lay out their justification for their actions, echoing the Taliban’s destruction of the giant Buddha statues of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan.

One man addresses the camera, saying: “The monuments that you can see behind me are but statues and idols of people from previous centuries, which they used to worship instead of God.”

A message then flashes across the screen, reading: “Those statues and idols weren’t there at the time of the Prophet nor his companions. They have been excavated by Satanists.”

Nimrud and Nineveh are two of five ancient cities within Isis territory that archaeologists warn are under serious threat. There are particular concerns for the Greco-Roman city of Hatra, a Unesco world heritage site 110 miles south of Mosul.

Iraqi troops are undergoing training by American and other coalition forces in preparation for an offensive to retake Mosul, an effort that commanders have warned may take more than a year.

Reacting to the news from Nimrud, Lamia al-Gailani, an Iraqi archaeologist, told the BBC: “They are erasing our history. I wish it was a nightmare and I could wake up.”

The Times

HYPERBOREA

In Greek mythology the Hyperboreans (Ancient Greek: Ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι, pronounced [hyperbóre(ː)ɔi̯]; Latin: Hyperborei) were mythical people who lived "beyond the North Wind". The Greeks thought that Boreas, the god of the North Wind (one of the Anemoi, or "Winds") lived in Thrace, and therefore Hyperborea indicates a region that lay far to the north of Thrace.

This land was supposed to be perfect, with the sun shining twenty-four hours a day, which to modern ears suggests a possible location within the Arctic Circle. 

However, it is also possible that Hyperborea had no real physical location at all, for according to the classical Greek poet Pindar,

neither by ship nor on foot would you find

the marvellous road to the assembly of the Hyperboreans.

Pindar also described the otherworldly perfection of the Hyperboreans:

Never the Muse is absent

from their ways: lyres clash and flutes cry

and everywhere maiden choruses whirling.

Neither disease nor bitter old age is mixed

in their sacred blood; far from labor and battle they live.

Early sources

Herodotus

The earliest extant source that mentions Hyperborea in detail, Herodotus's Histories (Book IV, Chapters 32–36), dates from circa 450 BC. However, Herodotus recorded three earlier sources that supposedly mentioned the Hyperboreans, including Hesiod and Homer, the latter purportedly having written of Hyperborea in his lost work Epigoni: "if that be really a work of his". 

Herodotus also wrote that the 7th-century BC poet Aristeas wrote of the Hyperboreans in a poem (now lost) called Arimaspea about a journey to the Issedones, who are estimated to have lived in the Kazakh Steppe. Beyond these lived the one-eyed Arimaspians, further on the gold-guarding griffins, and beyond these the Hyperboreans. Herodotus assumed that Hyperborea lay somewhere in Northeast Asia.

Pindar, Simonides of Ceos and Hellanicus of Lesbos, contemporaries of Herodotus in the 5th century BC, each briefly described or referenced the Hyperboreans in their works.

Location of Hyperborea

The Hyperboreans were believed to live beyond the snowy Riphean Mountains which Homer first referenced in his Iliad (15. 171; 19. 358) or beyond the home of Boreas.

According to Pausanias: "The land of the Hyperboreans, men living beyond the home of Boreas."

Homer placed Boreas in Thrace, and therefore Hyperborea in his opinion was somewhere to the north of Thracian territory, perhaps Dacia. Sophocles (Antigone, 980–987), Aeschylus (Agamemnon, 193; 651), Simonides of Ceos (Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, 1. 121) and Callimachus (Delian, [IV] 65) also placed Boreas in Thrace. 

Other ancient writers however believed the home of Boreas or the Riphean Mountains were in a different location. For example, Hecataeus of Miletus believed that the Riphean Mountains were adjacent to the Black Sea. 

Alternatively Pindar placed the home of Boreas, the Riphean Mountains and Hyperborea all near the Danube. Heraclides Ponticus and Antimachus in contrast identified the Riphean Mountains with the Alps, and the Hyperboreans as a Celtic tribe (perhaps the Helvetii) who lived just beyond them. Aristotle placed the Riphean mountains on the borders of Scythia, and Hyperborea further north. Hecataeus of Abdera and others believed Hyperborea was Britain (see below).

Later Roman and Greek sources continued to change the location of the Riphean mountains, the home of Boreas, as well as Hyperborea, supposedly located beyond them. However all these sources agreed these were all in the far north of Greece or southern Europe. The ancient grammarian Simmias of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC connected the Hyperboreans to the Massagetae and Posidonius in the 1st century BC to the Western Celts, but Pomponius Mela placed them even further north in the vicinity of the Arctic.

In maps based on reference points and descriptions given by Strabo, Hyperborea, shown variously as a peninsula or island, is located beyond what is now France, and stretches further north-south than east-west. Other descriptions put it in the general area of the Ural Mountains.

Later classical sources

Plutarch, writing in the 1st century AD, connected the Hyperboreans with the Gauls who had sacked Rome in the 4th century BC (see Battle of the Allia).

Aelian, Diodorus Siculus and Stephen of Byzantium all recorded important ancient Greek sources on Hyperborea, but added no new descriptions.

The 2nd century AD Stoic philosopher Hierocles equated the Hyperboreans with the Scythians, and the Riphean Mountains with the Ural Mountains. Clement of Alexandria and other early Christian writers also made this same Scythian equation.

Ancient identification with Britain

Hyperborea was identified with Britain first by Hecataeus of Abdera in the 4th century BC, as in a preserved fragment by Diodorus Siculus:

In the regions beyond the land of the Celts there lies in the ocean an island no smaller than Sicily. This island, the account continues, is situated in the north and is inhabited by the Hyperboreans, who are called by that name because their home is beyond the point whence the north wind (Boreas) blows; and the island is both fertile and productive of every crop, and has an unusually temperate climate.

Hecateaus of Abdera also wrote that the Hyperboreans had a 'circular temple' on their island, and some scholars have identified this with Stonehenge. This is further supported by the fact that Stonehenge has been known as Apollo's Temple since classical antiquity, and Hyperborea in Greek legend was related to Apollo (see Legends below).

Pseudo-Scymnus, around 90 BC, wrote that Boreas dwelled at the extremity of Gaulish territory, and that he had a pillar erected in his name on the edge of the sea (Periegesis, 183). Some have claimed this is a geographical reference to northern France, and Hyperborea as the British Isles which lay just beyond the English Channel.

Ptolemy (Geographia, 2. 21) and Marcian of Heraclea (Periplus, 2. 42) both placed Hyperborea in the North Sea which they called the "Hyperborean Ocean".

Legends

Alone among the Twelve Olympians, Apollo was venerated among the Hyperboreans, the Hellenes thought: he spent his winter amongst them. For their part the Hyperboreans sent mysterious gifts, packed in straw, which came first to Dodona and then were passed from tribe to tribe until they came to Apollo's temple on Delos (Pausanias). 

Abaris, Hyperborean priest of Apollo, was a legendary wandering healer and seer. Theseus visited the Hyperboreans, and Pindar transferred Perseus's encounter with Medusa there from its traditional site in Libya, to the dissatisfaction of his Alexandrian editors.

Along with Thule, Hyperborea was one of several terrae incognitae to the Greeks and Romans, where Pliny, Pindar and Herodotus, as well as Virgil and Cicero, reported that people lived to the age of one thousand and enjoyed lives of complete happiness. 

Hecataeus of Abdera collated all the stories about the Hyperboreans current in the fourth century BC and published a lengthy treatise on them, lost to us, but noted by Diodorus Siculus (ii.47.1–2). Also, the sun was supposed to rise and set only once a year in Hyperborea; which would place it above or upon the Arctic Circle, or, more generally, in the arctic polar regions.

The ancient Greek writer Theopompus in his work Philippica claimed Hyperborea was once planned to be conquered by a large race of soldiers from another island (some have claimed this was Atlantis), the plan though was abandoned because the soldiers from Meropis realized the Hyperboreans were too strong for them and the most blessed of people; this unusual tale, which some believe was satire or comedy, was preserved by Aelian (Varia Historia, 3. 18).

Apollonius wrote that the Argonauts sighted Hyperborea, when they sailed through Eridanos.

Physical appearance

Greek legend asserts that the Boreades, who were the descendants of Boreas and the snow-nymph Chione (or Khione), founded the first theocratic monarchy on Hyperborea. This legend is found preserved in the writings of Aelian: "This god [Apollon] has as priests the sons of Boreas (North Wind) and Chione (Snow), three in number, brothers by birth, and six cubits in height [about 3 metres]."

Diodorus Siculus added to this account: "And the kings of this (Hyperborean) city and the supervisors of the sacred precinct are called Boreadae, since they are descendants of Boreas, and the succession to these positions is always kept in their family."

The Boreades were thus believed to be giant kings, around 3 metres tall, who ruled Hyperborea.

No other physical descriptions of the Hyperboreans are provided in classical sources. However, Aelius Herodianus, a grammarian in the 3rd century, wrote that the mythical Arimaspi were identical to the Hyperboreans in physical appearance (De Prosodia Catholica, 1. 114) and Stephanus of Byzantium in the 6th century wrote the same (Ethnica, 118. 16). The ancient poet Callimachus described the Arimaspi as having fair hair but it is disputed whether the Arimaspi were Hyperboreans.

From east to west: Celts as Hyperboreans

Six classical Greek authors also came to identify these mythical people at the back of the North Wind with their Celtic neighbours in the north: Antimachus of Colophon, Protarchus, Heraclides Ponticus, Hecataeus of Abdera, Apollonius of Rhodes and Posidonius of Apamea. The way the Greeks understood their relationship with non-Greek peoples was significantly moulded by the way myths of the Golden Age were transplanted into the contemporary scene, especially in the context of Greek colonisation and trade. As the Riphean mountains of the mythical past were identified with the Alps of northern Italy, there was at least a geographic rationale for identifying the Hyperboreans with the Celts living in and beyond the Alps, or at least the Hyperborean lands with the lands inhabited by the Celts. A reputation for feasting and a love of gold may have reinforced the connection. 

Abaris the Hyperborean

A particular Hyperborean legendary healer was known as "Abaris" or "Abaris the Healer" whom Herodotus first described in his works. Plato (Charmides, 158C) regarded Abaris as a physician from the far north, while Strabo reported Abaris was Scythian like the early philosopher Anacharsis (Geographica, 7. 3. 8).

Modern interpretations

As with other legends of this sort, details can be selectively reconciled with modern knowledge. Above the Arctic Circle, from the spring equinox to the autumnal equinox (depending on latitude), the sun can shine for 24 hours a day; at the extreme (that is, the Pole), it rises and sets only once a year, possibly leading to the erroneous conclusion that a "day" for such persons is a year long, and therefore that living a thousand days would be the same as living a thousand years.

Since Herodotus places the Hyperboreans beyond the Massagetae and Issedones, both Central Asian peoples, it appears that his Hyperboreans may have lived in Siberia. Heracles sought the golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Hyperborea. As the reindeer is the only deer species of which females bear antlers, this would suggest an arctic or subarctic region. Following J.D.P. Bolton's location of the Issedones on the south-western slopes of the Altay mountains, Carl P.Ruck places Hyperborea beyond the Dzungarian Gate into northern Xinjiang, noting that the Hyperboreans were probably Chinese.

Amber arrived in Greek hands from some place known to be far to the north. Avram Davidson proposed the theory that Hyperborea was derived from a logical (though erroneous) explanation by the Greeks for the insects, which apparently originated in a warm climate, found embedded inside the amber arriving in their cities from cold northern countries.

Unaware of the explanation offered by modern science (i.e. that these insects had lived in times when the climate of northern Europe was much warmer, their bodies preserved unchanged in the amber) the Greeks came up with the idea that the coldness of northern countries was due to the cold breath of Boreas, the North Wind. So if one travelled "beyond Boreas" one would find a warm and sunny land.

Identification as Hyperboreans

Northern Europeans (Scandinavians), when confronted with the classical Greco-Roman culture of the Mediterranean, identified themselves with the Hyperboreans, neglecting the traditional aspect of a perpetually sunny land beyond the north. This idea was especially strong during the 17th century in Sweden, where the later representatives of the ideology of Gothicism declared the Scandinavian peninsula both the lost Atlantis and the Hyperborean land. The north of the Scandinavian peninsula is crossed by the Arctic Circle, north of which there are sunless days during the winter and sunlit nights during the summer. Western European culture equally self-identified as Hyperborean; thus Washington Irving, in elaborating on Astoria in the Pacific Northwest, was of the opinion that

While the fiery and magnificent Spaniard, inflamed with the mania for gold, has extended his discoveries and conquests over those brilliant countries scorched by the ardent sun of the tropics, the adroit and buoyant Frenchman, and the cool and calculating Briton, have pursued the less splendid, but no less lucrative, traffic in furs amidst the hyperborean regions of the Canadas, until they have advanced even within the Arctic Circle.

In this vein the self-described "Hyperborean-Roman Company" (Hyperboreisch-römische Gesellschaft) were a group of northern European scholars who studied classical ruins in Rome, founded in 1824 by Theodor Panofka, Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, August Kestner and Eduard Gerhard. Friedrich Nietzsche referred to his sympathetic readers as Hyperboreans in The Antichrist (written 1888, published 1895): "Let us look each other in the face. We are Hyperboreans – we know well enough how remote our place is." He quoted Pindar and added "Beyond the North, beyond the ice, beyond death – our life, our happiness."

The term "Hyperborean" still sees some jocular contemporary use in reference to groups of people who live in a cold climate. Under the Library of Congress Classification System, the letter subclass PM includes "Hyperborean Languages", a catch-all category that refers to all the linguistically unrelated languages of peoples living in Arctic regions, such as the Inuit.

Hyperborean Indo-European hypothesis

John G. Bennett wrote a research paper entitled "The Hyperborean Origin of the Indo-European Culture" (Journal Systematics, Vol. 1, No. 3, December 1963) in which he claimed the Indo-European homeland was in the far north, which he considered the Hyperborea of classical antiquity.[40] This idea was earlier proposed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak (whom Bennett credits) in his The Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903) as well as the Austro-Hungarian ethnologist Karl Penka (Origins of the Aryans, 1883).

Hyperborea in modern esoteric thought

H. P. Blavatsky, René Guénon and Julius Evola all shared the belief in the Hyperborean, polar origins of Mankind and a subsequent solidification and devolution. According to these esoterists, Hyperborea was the Golden Age polar center of civilization and spirituality; mankind does not rise from the ape, but progressively devolves into the apelike condition as it strays physically and spiritually from its mystical otherworldly homeland in the Far North, succumbing to the demonic energies of the South Pole, the greatest point of materialization (see Joscelyn Godwin, Arktos: The Polar Myth).

Robert Charroux first related the Hyperboreans to an ancient astronaut race of "reputedly very large, very white people" who had chosen "the least warm area on the earth because it corresponded more closely to their own climate on the planet from which they originated". Miguel Serrano was influenced by Charroux's writings on the Hyperboreans.

Cultural references

George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind features a feminine version of Boreas, named "North Wind", who takes a sickly boy, "Diamond", to "the back of the North Wind", which she herself cannot enter. More than two chapters are devoted to a description of MacDonald's Hyperborea and how Diamond got there.

Dante's Paradise, in his Divine Comedy, is the subject of Hyperborean allusions: it is figured geographically north of Purgatory; and, great and little bears (symbols of the polar north) appear above the summit of Mount Purgatorio.

In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Ishmael suggests that, among other things, the painting in the Spouter Inn in Chapter 3 could be "a Hyperborean winter scene."

Clark Ashton Smith authored a series of short stories known as the Hyperborean cycle (1931–58). Some elements were borrowed by H. P. Lovecraft in what later became known as the Cthulhu Mythos.

In Robert E. Howard's Conan stories (1932–36), Hyperborea is a land to the north-east of Conan's native Cimmeria.

The "Hyperboreans" (Hyperboreisch-römische Gesellschaft) were a group of northern European scholars who studied classical ruins in Rome, founded in 1824 by Theodor Panofka, Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, August Kestner and Eduard Gerhard.

Australian artist Norman Lindsay in July 1923 first exhibited his etching Hyperborea in Sydney. A month later he published two essays about Hyperborea, the first in Vision, No. 2, in which he said that only a picture or a poem could describe Hyperborea. The essays were later combined as Hyperborea: Two Fantastic Travel Essays by Fanfrolico Press in 1928.

Friedrich Nietzsche referred to those who followed his philosophy as "Hyperboreans" in The Antichrist (translated by Anthony M. Ludovici.)

German electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream released an album with the title Hyperborea in 1983.

Hyperborea and its inhabitants are referenced several times in the back history of Hellboy comic book universe, particularly in the B.P.R.D series.

In Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series, Calvin Tower calls Jake Chambers "Hyperborean Wanderer."

Ruins of the Hyperborean civilization play a role in the plot of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

In The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan Hyperborean Giants are fighting for Kronos and, with Prometheus, give Percy Jackson Pandora's Box, containing hope. In Rick Riordan's subsequent book The Son of Neptune, Percy Jackson and his friends also encounter the giants in Alaska on their quest to free the god of death, Thanatos.

The Hyperboreans are the subject of the title track of album Hyperboreans by Jackie Oates, an English folk music singer/songwriter.

The Hyperboreans are the subject of the many songs by Bal-Sagoth, an English symphonic black metal band.

The 1977 film Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger wove a number of related references into the plot. Hyperborea was the name given to an island far in the North Sea, described in the film by the witch Zenobia as being "past the Celtic Isles". The island had been home to the Arimaspi and contained a pyramid structure called The Shrine of the Four Elements, located in a temperate valley hidden amongst the ice of the Arctic Circle.

Several of the characters in Ulysses by James Joyce refer to themselves as Hyperborean, referring to their Celtic ethnicity.

Serbian writer Miloš Crnjanski wrote his autobiographical novel Among The Hyperboreans (Kod Hyperborejaca), describing his years as a diplomat in Rome at the outbreak of the World War II. In his escapist monologues and dialogues, he discusses art, nature, historical figures, life and death, describing the lives of his friends and contemporaries, as well as looking for the hidden connections between everything there is in the world: from Ancient Rome to the far Hyperborean North.

Wikipedia 

THEOGONY 

The Theogony (Greek: Θεογονία, Theogonía, pronounced [tʰeoɡonía], i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods" is a poem by Hesiod (8th – 7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed circa 700 B.C. It is written in the Epic dialect of Homeric Greek.

Descriptions

Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the Cosmos. It is the first Greek mythical cosmogony. The initial state of the universe is chaos, a dark indefinite void considered a divine primordial condition from which everything else appeared. Theogonies are a part of Greek mythology which embodies the desire to articulate reality as a whole; this universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first later projects of speculative theorizing.

In many cultures, narratives about the origin of the Cosmos and about the gods that shaped it are a way for society to reaffirm its native cultural traditions. Specifically, theogonies tend to affirm kingship as the natural embodiment of society. What makes the Theogony of Hesiod unique is that it affirms no historical royal line. Such a gesture would have sited the Theogony in one time and one place. Rather, the Theogony affirms the kingship of the god Zeus himself over all the other gods and over the whole Cosmos.

Further, in the "Kings and Singers" passage (80–103) Hesiod appropriates to himself the authority usually reserved to sacred kingship. The poet declares that it is he, where we might have expected some king instead, upon whom the Muses have bestowed the two gifts of a scepter and an authoritative voice (Hesiod, Theogony 30–3), which are the visible signs of kingship. It is not that this gesture is meant to make Hesiod a king. Rather, the point is that the authority of kingship now belongs to the poetic voice, the voice that is declaiming the Theogony.

Although it is often used as a sourcebook for Greek mythology, the Theogony is both more and less than that. In formal terms it is a hymn invoking Zeus and the Muses: parallel passages between it and the much shorter Homeric Hymn to the Muses make it clear that the Theogony developed out of a tradition of hymnic preludes with which an ancient Greek rhapsode would begin his performance at poetic competitions. It is necessary to see the Theogony not as the definitive source of Greek mythology, but rather as a snapshot of a dynamic tradition that happened to crystallize when Hesiod formulated the myths he knew—and to remember that the traditions have continued evolving since that time.

The written form of the Theogony was established in the sixth century. Even some conservative editors have concluded that the Typhon episode (820–68) is an interpolation.

Hesiod was probably influenced by some Near-Eastern traditions, such as the Babylonian Dynasty of Dunnum, which were mixed with local traditions, but they are more likely to be lingering traces from the Mycenaean tradition than the result of oriental contacts in Hesiod's own time.

The decipherment of Hittite mythical texts, notably the Kingship in Heaven text first presented in 1946, with its castration mytheme, offers in the figure of Kumarbi an Anatolian parallel to Hesiod's Uranus-Cronus conflict.

Other mythical cosmogonies in ancient literature

In the Theogony the initial state of the universe, or the origin (arche) is Chaos, a gaping void (abyss) considered as a divine primordial condition, from which appeared everything that exists. Then came Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (the cave-like space under the earth; the later-born Erebus is the darkness in this space), and Eros (representing sexual desire - the urge to reproduce - instead of the emotion of love as is the common misconception). Hesiod made an abstraction because his original chaos is something completely indefinite.

By contrast, in the Orphic cosmogony the unaging Chronos produced Aether and Chaos and made a silvery egg in divine Aether. From it appeared the androgynous god Phanes, identified by the Orphics as Eros, who becomes the creator of the world.

Some similar ideas appear in the Vedic and Hindu cosmologies. In the Vedic cosmology the universe is created from nothing by the great heat. Kāma (Desire) the primal seed of spirit, is the link which connected the existent with the non-existent In the Hindu cosmology, in the beginning there was nothing in the universe but only darkness and the divine essence who removed the darkness and created the primordial waters. His seed produced the universal germ (Hiranyagarbha), from which everything else appeared.

In the Babylonian creation story Enuma Elish the universe was in a formless state and is described as a watery chaos. From it emerged two primary gods, the male Apsu and female Tiamat, and a third deity who is the maker Mummu and his power for the progression of cosmogonic births to begin.

In Genesis the world in its early state after its creation is described as a watery chaos and the earth "without form and void". The spirit of Elohim moved upon the dark face of the waters and commanded there to be light.

Norse mythology also describes Ginnungagap as the primordial abyss from which sprang the first living creatures, including the giant Ymir whose body eventually became the world, whose blood became the seas, and so on; another version describes the origin of the world as a result of the fiery and cold parts of Hel colliding.

First generation

After the speaker declares that he has received the blessings of the Muses and thanks them for giving him inspiration, he explains that Chaos arose spontaneously. Then came Gaia (Earth), the more orderly and safe foundation that would serve as a home for the gods and mortals, and Tartarus, in the depths of the Earth, and Eros, the fairest among the deathless gods. Eros serves an important role in sexual reproduction, before which children had to be produced asexually.

From Chaos came Erebus (place of darkness between the earth and the underworld) and Nyx (Night). Erebus and Nyx reproduced to make Aether (the outer atmosphere where the gods breathed) and Hemera (Day). From Gaia came Uranus (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea).

Uranus mated with Gaia to create twelve Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronus; three cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes and Arges; and three Hecatonchires: Kottos, Briareos, and Gyges.

Second generation

Uranus was disgusted with his children, the Hecatonchires, so he hid them away somewhere in Gaia. Angered by this, Gaia asked her children the Titans to punish their father. Only Cronus was willing to do so. Cronus castrated his father with a sickle from Gaia. The blood from Uranus splattered onto the earth producing Erinyes (the Furies), Giants, and Meliai. Cronus threw the severed testicles into the Sea (Thalassa), around which foam developed and transformed into the goddess of Love, Aphrodite (which is why in some myths, Aphrodite was daughter of Uranus and the goddess Thalassa).

Meanwhile, Nyx alone produced children parthenogenetically: Moros (Doom), Oneiroi (Dreams), Ker and the Keres (Destinies), Eris (Discord), Momos (Blame), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), Thanatos (Death), Moirai (Fates), Nemesis (Retribution), Hesperides (Daughters of Night), Hypnos (Sleep), Oizys (Hardship), and Apate (Deceit).

From Eris, following in her mother's footsteps, came Ponos (Pain), Hysmine (Battles), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Phonoi (Murders), Lethe (Oblivion), Makhai (Fight), Pseudologos (Lies), Amphilogia (Disputes), Limos (Famine), Androktasia (Manslaughters), Ate (Ruin), Dysnomia (Anarchy and Disobedient Lawlessness), the Algea (Illness), Horkos (Oaths), and Logoi (Stories).

After Uranus's castration, Gaia married Pontus and they have a descendent line consisting of sea deities, sea nymphs, and hybrid monsters. One child of Gaia and Pontus is Nereus (Old Man of the Sea), who marries Doris, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and has Nereids, the fifty nymphs of the sea, one of whom is Thetis. Another child of Gaia and Pontus is Thaumas, who marries Electra, a sister of Doris, and has Iris (Rainbow) and two Harpies.

Phorcys and Ceto, two siblings, marry each other and have the Graiae, the Gorgons, Echidna, and Ophion. Medusa, one of the Gorgons, has two children with Poseidon: the winged horse Pegasus and giant Chrysaor, at the instant of her decapitation by Perseus. Chrysaor marries Callirhoe, another daughter of Oceanus, and has the three-headed Geryon.

Gaia also marries Tartarus and has Typhon, whom Echidna marries and has Orthos, Kerberos, Hydra, and Chimera. From Orthos and either Chimera or Echidna were born the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion.

In the family of the Titans, Oceanus and Tethys marry and have three thousand rivers (including the Nile and Skamandar) and three thousand Okeanid Nymphs (including Electra, Calypso, and Styx). Theia and Hyperion marry and have Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon), and Eos (Dawn). Kreios and Eurybia marry to bear Astraios, Pallas, and Perses. Eos and Astraios will later marry and have Zephyros, Boreas, Notos, Eosphoros, Hesperos, Phosphoros and the Stars (foremost of which are Phaenon, Phaethon, Pyroeis, Stilbon, those of the Zodiac and those three acknowledged before).

From Pallas and Styx (another Okeanid) came Zelus (Zeal), Nike (Victory), Cratos (Strength), and Bia (Force). Koios and Phoibe marry and have Leto, Asteria (who later marries Perses and has Hekate). Iapetos marries Klymene (an Okeanid Nymph) and had Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.

Third and final generation

Cronus, having taken control of the Cosmos, wanted to ensure that he maintained power. Uranus and Gaia prophesied to him that one of his children would overthrow him, so when he married Rhea, he made sure to swallow each of the children she birthed: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus (in that order). However, Rhea asked Gaia and Uranus for help in saving Zeus by sending Rhea to Crete to bear Zeus and giving Cronus a huge stone to swallow thinking that it was another of Rhea's children. Gaia then took Zeus and hid him deep in a cave beneath the Aegean Mountains.

Tricked by Gaia (the Theogony does not detail how), Cronus regurgitated his other five children. Joining with Zeus, they waged a great war on the Titans for control of the Cosmos. The war lasted ten years, with the Olympian gods, Cyclopes, Prometheus and Epimetheus, the children of Klymene, on one side, and the Titans and the Giants on the other (with only Oceanos as a neutral force). Eventually Zeus released the Hundred-Handed ones to shake the earth, allowing him to gain the upper hand, and cast the fury of his thunderbolts at the Titans, throwing them into Tartarus. Zeus later battled Typhon, a son of Gaia and Tartarus, created because Gaia was angry that the Titans were defeated, and was victorious again.

Because Prometheus helped Zeus, he was not sent to Tartarus like the other Titans. However, Prometheus sought to trick Zeus. Slaughtering a cow, he took the valuable fat and meat, and sewed it inside the cow's stomach. Prometheus then took the bones and hid them with a thin layer of fat. Prometheus asked Zeus' opinion on which offering pile he found more desirable, hoping to trick the god into selecting the less desirable portion. However, Hesiod relates that Zeus saw through the trick and responded in a fury. Zeus declared that the ash tree would never hold fire, in effect denying the benefit of fire to man. In response, Prometheus sneaked into the gods' chambers and stole a glowing ember with a piece of reed. Prometheus then defies the gods and gives fire to humanity (theft of fire).

For this theft, Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a cliff, where an eagle fed on his ever-regenerating liver every day. Prometheus would not be freed until Heracles, a son of Zeus, came to free him. Since man had access to fire, Zeus devised woman as a general punishment, in trade. Hephaistos and Athena built woman with exquisite detail, and she was considered beautiful by all men and gods. (It is generally agreed in academic translations that this woman was Pandora.) Hesiod writes that, despite her beauty, woman is a bane for mankind, attributing women with laziness and a waste of resources. Hesiod notes that Zeus' curse, womankind, can only bring man suffering, whether by taking a woman as his wife, or by trying to avoid marriage.

Zeus married seven wives. The first was the Oceanid Metis, whom he swallowed to avoid begetting a son who, as had happened with Cronus and Uranus, would overthrow him, as well as to absorb her wisdom so that she could advise him in the future. He would later "give birth" to Athena from his head, which would anger Hera enough for her to produce her own son parthenogenetically, Typhaon, the part snake, part dragon sea monster, or in other versions Hephaistos, god of fire and blacksmiths. The second wife was Themis, who bore the three Horae (Hours): Eunomia (Order), Dikē (Justice), Eirene (Peace); and the three Moirai (Fates): Clotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Alotter), Atropos (Unturned), as well as Tyche (Luck). Zeus then married his third wife Eurynome, who bore the three Charites (Graces): Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia.

The fourth wife was his sister, Demeter, who bore Persephone. The fifth wife of Zeus was another aunt, Mnemosyne, from whom came the nine Muses: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsikhore, Erato, Polymnia, Urania, and Calliope. The sixth wife was Leto, who gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. The seventh and final wife is Hera, who gave birth to Hebe, Ares, Enyo, Hephaistos, and Eileithyia. Of course, though Zeus no longer marries, he still has affairs with many other women, such as Semele, mother of Dionysus, Danae, mother of Perseus, Leda, mother of Castor and Polydeuces and Helen, and Alkmene, the mother of Heracles, who married Hebe.

Poseidon married Amphitrite and produced Triton. Aphrodite, who married Hephaistos, nevertheless had an affair with Ares to have Eros (Love), Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror), and Harmonia (Harmony), who would later marry Cadmus to sire Ino (who with her son, Melicertes would become a sea deity), Semele (Mother of Dionysos), Autonoë (Mother of Actaeon), Polydorus, and Agave (Mother of Pentheus). Helios and Perseis birthed Circe. Circe, with Poseidon, in turn, begat Phaunos, god of the forest, and, with Dionysos, mothered Comos, god of revelry and festivity. After coupling with Odysseus, Circe would later give birth to Agrius, Latinus, and Telegonos. Atlas' daughter Calypso would also bear Odysseus two sons, Nausithoos and Nausinous.

Influence on earliest Greek philosophy

The heritage of Greek mythology already embodied the desire to articulate reality as a whole and this universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first projects of speculative theorizing. It appears that the order of being was first imaginatively visualized before it was abstractly thought. Hesiod, impressed by necessity governing the ordering of things, discloses a definite pattern in the Genesis and appearance of the Gods. These ideas made something like cosmological speculation possible. The earliest rhetoric of reflection all gravitates about two interrelated things, the experience of wonder as a living involvement with the divine order of things and the absolute conviction that, beyond the totality of things, reality forms a beautiful and harmonious Whole.

In the Theogony the origin (arche) is Chaos, a divine primordial condition and there are the roots and the ends of the earth, sky, sea and Tartarus. Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BC), believed that there were three pre-existent divine principles and called the water also Chaos. In the language of the archaic period (8th – 6th century BC), arche (or archai), designates the source, origin or root of things that exist. If a thing is to be well established or founded, its arche or static point must be secure, and the most secure foundations are those provided by the gods: the indestructible, immutable and eternal ordering of things.

In ancient Greek philosophy, arche is the element or first principle of all things, a permanent nature or substance which is conserved in the generation of the rest of it. From this all things come to be and into it they are resolved in a final state. It is the divine horizon of substance that encompasses and rules all things. Thales (7th – 6th century BC), the first Greek philosopher, claimed that the first principle of all things is water. Anaximander (6th century BC) was the first philosopher who used the term arche for that which writers from Aristotle on call the "substratum". 

Anaximander claimed that the beginning or first principle is an endless mass (Apeiron) subject to neither age nor decay, from which all things are being born and then they are destroyed there. A fragment from Xenophanes (6th century BC) shows the transition from Chaos to Apeiron: "The upper limit of earth borders on air. The lower limit of earth reaches down to the unlimited (i.e the Apeiron)."

Wikipedia 

ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES 

Eleusinian Mysteries 

The Eleusinian Mysteries (Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. They are the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece".

It is thought that their basis was an old agrarian cult which probably goes back to the Mycenean period (c. 1600 – 1100 BC) and it is believed that the cult of Demeter was established in 1500 BC. The mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases, the "descent" (loss), the "search" and the "ascent", with the main theme the "ascent" of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spread to Rome.The name of the town, Eleusís, seems to be Pre-Greek and it is probably a counterpart with Elysium and the goddess Eileithyia.

The rites, ceremonies, and beliefs were kept secret and consistently preserved from antiquity. The initiated believed that they would have a reward in the afterlife. There are many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of the Mysteries. Since the Mysteries involved visions and conjuring of an afterlife, some scholars believe that the power and longevity of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from psychedelic agents.

Etymology

Eleusinian mysteries (Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) were called the mysteries of the city Eleusis. The name of the city Eleusis, is Pre-Greek, and may be related with the name of the goddess Eileithyia, but this is debated. The ancient Greek word "mystery" (μυστήριον) means "mystery or secret rite" and is related with the verb mueō (μυέω),which means initiation into the mysteries, and the noun mustēs (μύστης), which means one initiated. The word "mystikos" means connected with the mysteries, or private, secret (as in modern Greek) 

Mythology of Demeter and Persephone

The Mysteries are related to a myth concerning Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility as recounted in one of the Homeric Hymns (c. 650 BC). According to the hymn, Demeter's daughter Persephone (also referred to as Kore, "maiden") was gathering flowers with friends, when she was seized by Hades, the god of death and the underworld. He took her to his underworld kingdom. Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter. Because of her distress, and in an effort to coerce Zeus to allow the return of her daughter, she caused a terrible drought in which the people suffered and starved. This would have deprived the gods of sacrifice and worship. As a result, Zeus relented and allowed Persephone to return to her mother.

According to the myth, during her search Demeter traveled long distances and had many minor adventures along the way. In one she taught the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemus. Finally, by consulting Zeus, Demeter reunites with her daughter and the earth returns to its former verdure and prosperity: the first spring.

Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds, (six or four according to the telling) which forced her to return to the underworld for some months each year. She was obliged to remain with Hades for six or four months (one month per seed) while staying above ground with her mother for a similar period. This left a long period of time when Demeter was unhappy due to Persephone's absence, neglecting to cultivate the earth. When Persephone returned to the surface, Demeter became joyful and cared for the earth again.

If we suppose that Persephone stayed with Hades for four months and Demeter eight months, corresponding to eight months of growth and abundance to be followed by four months of no productivity, we see the parallel with the Mediterranean climate of ancient Greece. The four months during which Persephone is with Hades correspond to the dry Greek summer, a period during which plants are threatened with drought. At the beginning of autumn when the seeds are planted, Persephone returns from the underworld and is reunited with her mother, and the cycle of growth begins anew.

This reading of the ritual, however, does not square with the central foundation document of the mystery, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter line 415, where Persephone is explicitly said to return in the spring of the year, not the fall: "This was the day [of Persephone's return], at the very beginning of bountiful springtime."

Her rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life and the symbol of eternity of life that flows from the generations that spring from each other.

Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries are believed to be of considerable antiquity, deriving from religious practice of the Mycenaean period and thus predating the Greek Dark Ages. One line of thought by modern scholars has been that the Mysteries were intended "to elevate man above the human sphere into the divine and to assure his redemption by making him a god and so conferring immortality upon him."

Comparative study shows parallels between these Greek rituals and similar systems — some of them older — in the Near East (see Religions of the Ancient Near East). These cults are the mysteries of Isis and Osiris in Egypt, the Adoniac of Syrian cults, the Persian mysteries, and the Phrygian Cabirian mysteries. Some scholars argued that the Eleusinian cult was a continuation of a Minoan cult, probably affected by the Near East.

According to Mylonas, the lesser mysteries were held "as a rule once a year in the early spring in the month of flowers, the Anthesterion," while "the Greater Mysteries were held once a year and every fourth year they were celebrated with special splendor in what was known as the penteteris." Kerenyi concurs with this assessment: "The Lesser Mysteries were held at Agrai in the month of Anthesterion, our February... The initiates were not even admitted to the epopteia [Greater Mysteries] in the same year, but only in September of the following year." 

This cycle continued for about two millennia. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, King Celeus is said to have been one of the first people to learn the secret rites and mysteries of her cult. He was also one of her original priests, along with Diocles, Eumolpos, Polyxeinus and Triptolemus, Celeus' son, who had supposedly learned agriculture from Demeter.

Under Pisistratus of Athens, the Eleusinian Mysteries became pan-Hellenic and pilgrims flocked from Greece and beyond to participate. Around 300 BC, the state took over control of the Mysteries; they were controlled by two families, the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes. This led to a vast increase in the number of initiates. The only requirements for membership were freedom from "blood guilt", meaning never having committed murder, and not being a "barbarian" (being unable to speak Greek). Men, women and even slaves were allowed initiation.

Participants

To participate in these mysteries one had to swear a vow of secrecy.

Four categories of people participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries:

Priests, priestesses, and hierophants.

Initiates, undergoing the ceremony for the first time.

Others who had already participated at least once. They were eligible for the fourth category.

Those who had attained épopteia (Greek: ἐποπτεία) (English: "contemplation"), who had learned the secrets of the greatest mysteries of Demeter.

Secrets

The outline below is only a capsule summary; much of the concrete information about the Eleusinian Mysteries was never written down. For example, only initiates knew what the kiste, a sacred chest, and the kalathos, a lidded basket, contained. The contents, like so much about the Mysteries, are unknown.

The Church Father Hippolytus, writing in the early 3rd century, discloses that "the Athenians, while initiating people into the Eleusinian rites, likewise display to those who are being admitted to the highest grade at these mysteries, the mighty, and marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the highest mystic truths: an ear of grain in silence reaped."

Lesser Mysteries

There were two Eleusinian Mysteries, the Greater and the Lesser. According to Thomas Taylor, "the dramatic shows of the Lesser Mysteries occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in subjection to the body, so those of the Greater obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual [spiritual] vision." And that according to Plato, "the ultimate design of the Mysteries … was to lead us back to the principles from which we descended, … a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good."

The Lesser Mysteries took place in the month of Anthesteria under the direction of Athens' archon basileus. In order to qualify for initiation, participants would sacrifice a piglet to Demeter and Persephone, and then ritually purify themselves in the river Illisos. Upon completion of the Lesser Mysteries, participants were deemed mystai ("initiates") worthy of witnessing the Greater Mysteries.

Greater Mysteries

The first act (14th Boedromion) of the Greater Mysteries was the bringing of the sacred objects from Eleusis to the Eleusinion, a temple at the base of the Acropolis.

The Greater Mysteries took place in Boedromion (the third month of the Attic calendar, falling in late Summer) and lasted ten days. On 15th Boedromion, called Agyrmos (the gathering), the hierophants (priests or "those who show the sacred ones") declared prorrhesis, the start of the rites, and carried out the "Hither the victims" sacrifice (hiereía deúro). The "Seawards initiates" (halade mystai) began in Athens on 16th Boedromion with the celebrants washing themselves in the sea at Phaleron.

On 17th Boedromion, the participants began the Epidauria, a festival for Asklepios named after his main sanctuary at Epidauros. This "festival within a festival" celebrated the hero's arrival at Athens with his daughter Hygieia, and consisted of a procession leading to the Eleusinion, during which the mystai apparently stayed at home, a great sacrifice, and an all-night feast (pannykhís).

The procession to Eleusis began at Kerameikos (the Athenian cemetery) on 19th Boedromion from where the people walked to Eleusis, along what was called the "Sacred Way" (Ἱερὰ Ὁδός, Hierá Hodós), swinging branches called bacchoi. At a certain spot along the way, they shouted obscenities in commemoration of Iambe (or Baubo), an old woman who, by cracking dirty jokes, had made Demeter smile as she mourned the loss of her daughter. The procession also shouted "Íakch', O Íakche!" referring to Iacchus, possibly an epithet for Dionysus, or a separate deity, son of Persephone or Demeter.

Upon reaching Eleusis, there was an all-night vigil (pannychis) according to Mylonas and Kerenyi. perhaps commemorating Demeter's search for Persephone. At some point, initiates had to down a special drink of barley and pennyroyal, called kykeon, which has led to speculation about its chemicals perhaps having psychotropic effects.

Then on 20th and 21st Boedromion, the initiates entered a great hall called Telesterion; in the center stood the Anaktoron ("palace"), which only the hierophants could enter, where sacred objects were stored. Before mystai could enter the Telesterion, they would recite, "I have fasted, I have drunk the kykeon, I have taken from the kiste ("box") and after working it have put it back in the kalathos ("open basket"). It is widely supposed that the rites inside the Telesterion comprised three elements: dromena ("things done"), a dramatic reenactment of the Demeter/Persephone myth; deiknumena ("things shown"), displayed sacred objects, in which the hierophant played an essential role; and finally legomena ("things said"), commentaries that accompanied the deiknumena.

Combined these three elements were known as the apporheta ("unrepeatables"); the penalty for divulging them was death. Athenagoras of Athens, Cicero, and other ancient writers cite that it was for this crime (among others) that Diagoras received the death penalty; the tragic playwright Aeschylus was allegedly tried for revealing secrets of the Mysteries in some of his plays, but was acquitted. The ban on divulging the core ritual of the Mysteries was thus absolute, which is probably why we know almost nothing about what transpired there.

As to the climax of the Mysteries, there are two modern theories. Some hold that the priests were the ones to reveal the visions of the holy night, consisting of a fire that represented the possibility of life after death, and various sacred objects. Others hold this explanation to be insufficient to account for the power and longevity of the Mysteries, and that the experiences must have been internal and mediated by a powerful psychoactive ingredient contained in the kykeon drink. (See "entheogenic theories" below.)

Following this section of the Mysteries was the Pannychis, an all-night feast accompanied by dancing and merriment. The dances took place in the Rharian Field, rumored to be the first spot where grain grew. A bull sacrifice also took place late that night or early the next morning. That day (22nd Boedromion), the initiates honored the dead by pouring libations from special vessels.

On 23rd Boedromion, the Mysteries ended and everyone returned home.

Demise

In 170 AD, the Temple of Demeter was sacked by the Sarmatians but was rebuilt by Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius was then allowed to become the only lay person ever to enter the anaktoron. As Christianity gained in popularity in the 4th and 5th centuries, Eleusis's prestige began to fade. The last pagan emperor of Rome, Julian, reigned from 361 to 363 after about fifty years of Christian rule. Julian attempted to restore the Eleusinian Mysteries and was the last emperor to be initiated into them.

The Roman emperor Theodosius I closed the sanctuaries by decree about 30 years later, in 392 AD. The last remnants of the Mysteries were wiped out in 396 AD, when Alaric, King of the Goths, invaded accompanied by Christians "in their dark garments", bringing Arian Christianity and desecrating the old sacred sites. The closing of the Eleusinian Mysteries in the 4th century is reported by Eunapius, a historian and biographer of the Greek philosophers. Eunapius had been initiated by the last legitimate Hierophant, who had been commissioned by the emperor Julian to restore the Mysteries, which had by then fallen into decay. According to Eunapius, the very last Hierophant was a usurper, "the man from Thespiae who held the rank of Father in the mysteries of Mithras."

In art, literature and culture

There are many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of the Mysteries. The Eleusinian Relief, from the late 5th century BC, displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is a representative example. Triptolemus is depicted receiving seeds from Demeter and teaching mankind how to work the fields to grow crops, with Persephone holding her hand over his head to protect him. Vases and other works of relief sculpture, from the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries BC, depict Triptolemus holding an ear of corn, sitting on a winged throne or chariot, surrounded by Persephone and Demeter with pine torches. The monumental Protoattic amphora from the middle of the 7th century BC, with the depiction of Medusa's beheading by Perseus and the blinding of Polyphemos by Odysseus and his companions on its neck, is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Eleusis which is located inside the archaeological site of Eleusis.

The Ninnion Tablet, found in the same museum, depicts Demeter, followed by Persephone and Iacchus, and then the procession of initiates. Then, Demeter is sitting on the kiste inside the Telesterion, with Persephone holding a torch and introducing the initiates. The initiates each hold a bacchoi. The second row of initiates were led by Iakchos, a priest who held torches for the ceremonies. He is standing near the omphalos while an unknown female (probably a priestess of Demeter) sat nearby on the kiste, holding a scepter and a vessel filled with kykeon. Pannychis is also represented.

In Shakespeare's The Tempest, the masque that Prospero conjures to celebrate the troth-pledging of Miranda and Ferdinand echoes the Eleusinian Mysteries, although it uses the Roman names for the deities involved – Ceres, Iris, Dis and others – instead of the Greek. It is interesting that a play which is so steeped in esoteric imagery from alchemy and hermeticism should draw on the Mysteries for its central masque sequence.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) borrowed terms and interpretations from the late 19th and early-20th century classical scholarship in German and French as a source of metaphors for his reframing of psychoanalytic treatment into a spiritualistic ritual of initiation and rebirth. The Eleusinian mysteries, particularly the qualities of the Kore, figured prominently in his writings.

Entheogenic theories

Numerous scholars have proposed that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the kykeon's functioning as a psychedelic agent. Use of potions or philtres for magical or religious purposes was relatively common in Greece and the ancient world. The initiates, sensitized by their fast and prepared by preceding ceremonies (see set and setting), may have been propelled by the effects of a powerful psychoactive potion into revelatory mind states with profound spiritual and intellectual ramifications. In opposition to this idea, other pointedly skeptical scholars note the lack of any solid evidence and stress the collective rather than individual character of initiation into the Mysteries. Indirect evidence in support of the entheogenic theory is that in 415 BC Athenian aristocrat Alcibiades was condemned partly because he took part in an "Eleusinian mystery" in a private house.

Many psychoactive agents have been proposed as the significant element of kykeon, though without consensus or conclusive evidence. These include the ergot, a fungal parasite of the barley or rye grain, which contains the alkaloids lysergic acid amide (LSA), a precursor to LSD, and ergonovine. However, modern attempts to prepare a kykeon using ergot-parasitized barley have yielded inconclusive results, though Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin describe both ergonovine and LSA to be known to produce LSD-like effects.

Psychoactive mushrooms are another candidate. Terence McKenna speculated that the mysteries were focused around a variety of Psilocybe. Other entheogenic fungi, such as Amanita muscaria, have also been suggested. A recent hypothesis suggests that the ancient Egyptians cultivated Psilocybe cubensis on barley and associated it with the deity Osiris.

Another candidate for the psychoactive drug is an opioid derived from the poppy. The cult of the goddess Demeter may have brought the poppy from Crete to Eleusis; it is certain that opium was produced in Crete.

Another theory is that the psychoactive agent in kykeon is DMT, which occurs in many wild plants of the Mediterranean, including Phalaris and/or Acacia.To be active orally it must be combined with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor such as Syrian Rue (Peganum harmala), which grows throughout the Mediterranean.

Wikipedia 

UNDERWATER PYRAMID DISCOVERED IN AZORES ISLANDS

....."the legendary lost world of Atlantis, which sank into the ocean after a failed attempt to invade Athens.".........

Amateur Discovery Of PERFECT Submerged PYRAMID (Azores) - Media Noticeably Silent

You will not find this anywhere in mainstream media because NOAA and other underwater mapping agencies have been mapping this area near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge since the beginning of this technology. They have surely known about this pyramid for some time.

Reports of Underwater Pyramid off the Coast of Terceira Island

Created on Thursday, 26 September 2013 12:05

Portuguese news sites are reporting on the apparent discovery of a man-made subaquatic pyramid between the islands of São Miguel and Terceira in the Azore in Portugal. The underwater pyramidal structure was found by a private yacht owner, Diocleiano Silva, who spotted the strange shaped object on sonar at a depth of 40 metres while sailing in the area.

The structure is said to be perfectly squared and oriented by the cardinal points. It is thought to be approximately 60 metres tall with a base of around 8,000 square metres. The Portuguese Hydrographic Institute of the Navy is currently analysing the data to determine whether it is in fact man-made or not.

A huge pyramid had been discovered off the Azores islands by Portuguese amateur sailor Diocletian Silva.

The 60m-tall structure was found underwater between the islands of Sao Miguel and Tercira. Its base measures 8,000 sq m - bigger than a football field - and Silva believes it was man-made.

He says his find may be a remnant of the legendary lost world of Atlantis, which sank into the ocean after a failed attempt to invade Athens.

Silva found the pyramid around five months ago while fishing on his yacht in the area. He discovered the structure through bathymetric navigation and its tip is submerged around 40ft.

"It's amazing because it forms a perfect pyramid. And moreover, orientation, deployment of the pyramid: the vertices are oriented north and south, just north and south, such as the Giza pyramids in Egypt," he told Portuguese news website Terra.

However, the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries at the University of Azores is less convinced of its mythical nature.

It is now being investigated by the Portuguese Navy, which is analysing the data underlying the discovery.

Admiral Fernando Pires, commander of the Maritime Zone of Azores, said there is not enough information about the pyramid at this time to say what exactly it is.

However, he said the structure does not pose a threat: "At the time we seek probes that could constitute a danger to navigation and found nothing," he told Sapo.

Pires said the navy has not ruled out the idea that the pyramid could have been formed by a volcanic eruption - the archipelago of the Azores is composed of volcanic islands. 

International Business Times 

News Piece Via Collective Evolution 

Huge Underwater Pyramid Found Near Portugal Has Portuguese Navy Investigating, Link to Atlantis?

January 10, 2014 by Joe Martino

Update: Further investigations are beginning to point to the possibility of an underwater volcanic hill based on more recent scans. More information should come to the surface. Some believe this new explanation may be a cover up but that position is currently based on a belief only.

Portuguese news reported the discovery of a very large under water pyramid first discovered by Diocleciano Silva between the islands of São Miguel and Terceira in the Azores of Portugal. According to claims, the structure is said to be perfectly squared and oriented by the cardinal points. Current estimates obtained using GPS digital technology put the height at 60 meters with a base of 8000 square meters. The Portuguese Hydrographic Institute of the Navy currently has the job of analyzing the data to determine whether or not the structure is man-made.

“The pyramid is perfectly shaped and apparently oriented by the cardinal points,” Silva told Diário Insular, the local newspaper.

The pyramid was found in an area of the mid-Atlantic that has been underwater for about 20,000 years. Considering this is around the time of the last ice age where glaciation was melting from its peak 2000 years prior, whatever civilization, human or not, that was around before the ice age, could be responsible for building the pyramid. While the Portuguese Navy still hasn’t determined the origins, many might question why this hasn’t been first reported on sooner than late 2012. Certainly the NOAA who studies volcanic activity in the area of the pyramid would have discovered the pyramid through sonar imaging and so forth since the area is heavily studied due to volcanic activity. Either the NOAA hasn’t yet come across it, they are hiding what they have found, or the pyramid doesn’t exist. The last theory does not seem to be likely given the authenticity of the find.

To further support the idea that this pyramid could have been built by different civilizations, archeologists from the Portuguese Association of Archaeological Research have recently discovered evidence on Pico island that suggests their belief that humans existed in the Azores region before the arrival of the Portuguese thousands of years ago. As of today, there is still no explanation for who created the rock art found on the islands. Was the pyramid built by whatever civilization existed prior to the Portuguese? Is it possibly not even man-made?

Here is the Portuguese news report with English subtitles for those who wish to look into the authenticity of the claims.

The Azores are an interesting region as they are a chain of nine volcanic islands in three main groups that are roughly 930 miles west of Lisbon. They are all situated around the fault lines between the North American, Eurasian and African tectonic plates. An interesting place to have a pyramid given the energetic qualities often associated with pyramids.

This video discusses some interesting bits of information that explore the authenticity of the story and the possible location visually using some maps. It is important to note that exact coordinates of the pyramid have not been released. He believes that there may be a discovery of 2 more pyramids in the area as images suggest there could be a design link to that of the pyramids built in Egypt.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/01/10/underwater-pyramid-found-near-portugal-has-portuguese-navy-investigating-link-to-atlantis/

PHILOLOGY 

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary criticism, history, and linguistics. It is more commonly defined as the study of literary texts and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning.

Classical philology is the philology of Classical Sanskrit, Greek and Classical Latin. Classical philology is historically originating principally from the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Alexandria around the 4th century BCE, continued by Greeks and Romans throughout the Roman and Byzantine Empires, preserved and promoted during the Islamic Golden Age and eventually taken up by European scholars of The Renaissance, where it was soon joined by philologies of other languages both European (Germanic, Celtic, Slavistics, etc.) and non-European (Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). Indo-European studies involves the comparative philology of all Indo-European languages.

Any classical language can be studied philologically, and indeed describing a language as "classical" is to imply the existence of a philological tradition associated with it.

Because of its focus on historical development (diachronic analysis), philology came to be used as a term contrasting with linguistics. This is due to a 20th-century development triggered by Ferdinand de Saussure's insistence on the importance of synchronic analysis, and the later emergence of structuralism and Chomskyan linguistics with its emphasis on syntax.

Etymology

The term philology is derived from the Greek φιλολογία (philologia), from the terms φίλος (philos), meaning "love, affection, loved, beloved, dear, friend" and λόγος (logos), meaning "word, articulation, reason", describing a love of learning, of literature as well as of argument and reasoning, reflecting the range of activities included under the notion of λόγος. The term changed little with the Latin philologia, and later entered the English language in the 16th century, from the Middle French philologie, in the sense of "love of literature".

The adjective φιλόλογος (philologos) meant "fond of discussion or argument, talkative", in Hellenistic Greek also implying an excessive ("sophistic") preference of argument over the love of true wisdom, φιλόσοφος (philosophos).

As an allegory of literary erudition, Philologia appears in 5th-century post-classical literature (Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii), an idea revived in Late Medieval literature (Chaucer, Lydgate).

The meaning of "love of learning and literature" was narrowed to "the study of the historical development of languages" (historical linguistics) in 19th-century usage of the term. Due to the rapid progress made in understanding sound laws and language change, the "golden age of philology" lasted throughout the 19th century, or "from Friedrich Schlegel to Nietzsche". In the Anglo-Saxon world, the term philology to describe work on languages and literatures, which had become synonymous with the practices of German scholars, was abandoned as a consequence of anti-German feeling following World War I. Most continental European countries still maintain the term to designate departments, colleges, position titles, and journals. J. R. R. Tolkien opposed the nationalist reaction against philological practices, claiming that "the philological instinct" was "universal as is the use of language". In British English usage, and in British academia, "philology" remains largely synonymous with "historical linguistics", while in US English, and US academia, the wider meaning of "study of a language's grammar, history and literary tradition" remains more widespread. Based on the harsh critique of Friedrich Nietzsche, US scholars since the 1980s have viewed philology as responsible for a narrowly scientistic study of language and literature.

Branches

Comparative

The comparative linguistics branch of philology studies the relationship between languages. Similarities between Sanskrit and European languages were first noted in the early 16th century and led to speculation of a common ancestor language from which all these descended. It is now named Proto-Indo-European. Philology's interest in ancient languages led to the study of what were, in the 18th century, "exotic" languages, for the light they could cast on problems in understanding and deciphering the origins of older texts.

Textual

Philology also includes the study of texts and their history. It includes elements of textual criticism, trying to reconstruct an author's original text based on variant copies of manuscripts. This branch of research arose among Ancient scholars in the 4th century BC Greek-speaking world, who desired to establish a standard text of popular authors for the purposes of both sound interpretation and secure transmission. Since that time, the original principles of textual criticism have been improved and applied to other widely distributed texts such as the Bible. Scholars have tried to reconstruct the original readings of the Bible from the manuscript variants. This method was applied to Classical Studies and to medieval texts as a way to reconstruct the author's original work. The method produced so-called "critical editions", which provided a reconstructed text accompanied by a "critical apparatus", i.e., footnotes that listed the various manuscript variants available, enabling scholars to gain insight into the entire manuscript tradition and argue about the variants.

A related study method known as higher criticism studies the authorship, date, and provenance of text to place such text in historical context.. As these philological issues are often inseparable from issues of interpretation, there is no clear-cut boundary between philology and hermeneutics. When text has a significant political or religious influence (such as the reconstruction of Biblical texts), scholars have difficulty reaching objective conclusions.

Some scholars avoid all critical methods of textual philology, especially in historical linguistics, where it is important to study the actual recorded materials. The movement known as New Philology has rejected textual criticism because it injects editorial interpretations into the text and destroys the integrity of the individual manuscript, hence damaging the reliability of the data. Supporters of New Philology insist on a strict "diplomatic" approach: a faithful rendering of the text exactly as found in the manuscript, without emendations.

Cognitive

Another branch of philology, cognitive philology, studies written and oral texts, considering them as results of human mental processes. This science compares the results of textual science with the results of experimental research of both psychology and artificial intelligence production systems.

Decipherment

In the case of Bronze Age literature, philology includes the prior decipherment of the language under study. This has notably been the case with the Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Hittite, Ugaritic and Luwian languages. Beginning with the famous decipherment and translation of the Rosetta Stone by Jean-François Champollion in 1822, a number of individuals attempted to decipher the writing systems of the Ancient Near East and Aegean. In the case of Old Persian and Mycenaean Greek, decipherment yielded older records of languages already known from slightly more recent traditions (Middle Persian and Alphabetic Greek).

Work on the ancient languages of the Near East progressed rapidly. In the mid-19th century, Henry Rawlinson and others deciphered the Behistun Inscription, which records the same text in Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian, using a variation of cuneiform for each language. The elucidation of cuneiform led to the decipherment of Sumerian. Hittite was deciphered in 1915 by Bedřich Hrozný.

Linear B, a script used in the ancient Aegean, was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris, who demonstrated that it recorded an early form of Greek, now known as Mycenaean Greek. Linear A, the writing system that records the still-unknown language of the Minoans, resists deciphering, despite many attempts.

Work continues on scripts such as the Maya, with great progress since the initial breakthroughs of the phonetic approach championed by Yuri Knorozov and others in the 1950s. Since the late 20th century, the Maya code has been almost completely deciphered, and the Mayan languages are among the most documented and studied in Mesoamerica. The code is described as a logosyllabic style of writing, which could be used to fully express any spoken thought.

In popular culture

The main character in the Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language film in 2012, Footnote, is a Hebrew philologist, and a significant part of the film deals with his work.

Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, the main character in Alexander McCall Smith's 1997 comic novel Portuguese Irregular Verbs is a philologist.

Wikipedia 

LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA

The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. It was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. With collections of works, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and gardens, the library was part of a larger research institution called the Musaeum of Alexandria, where many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient world studied.

The library was created by Ptolemy I Soter, who was a Macedonian general and the successor of Alexander the Great. Most of the books were kept as papyrus scrolls, and though it is unknown how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, their combined value was incalculable.

The library is famous for having been burned, resulting in the loss of many scrolls and books, and has become a symbol of the destruction of cultural knowledge. A few sources differ on who is responsible for the destruction and when it occurred. Although there is a mythology of the burning of the Library at Alexandria, the library may have suffered several fires or acts of destruction over many years. Possible occasions for the partial or complete destruction of the Library of Alexandria include a fire set by Julius Caesar in 48 BC, an attack by Aurelian in the AD 270s, and the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus in AD 391.

After the main library was fully destroyed, ancient scholars used a "daughter library" in a temple known as the Serapeum, located in another part of the city. According to Socrates of Constantinople, Coptic Pope Theophilus destroyed the Serapeum in AD 391.

Structure

Although the exact layout is not known, ancient sources describe the Library of Alexandria as comprising a collection of scrolls, a peripatos walk, a room for shared dining, a reading room, meeting rooms, gardens, and lecture halls, creating a model for the modern university campus. The library itself is known to have had an acquisitions department (possibly built near the stacks, or for utility closer to the harbour), and a cataloguing department. A hall contained shelves for the collections of papyrus scrolls known as bibliothekai (βιβλιοθῆκαι). According to popular description, an inscription above the shelves read: The place of the cure of the soul.

The library was but one part of the Musaeum of Alexandria, which functioned as a sort of research institute. In addition to the library, the Musaeum included rooms for the study of astronomy, anatomy, and even a zoo of exotic animals. The classical thinkers who studied, wrote, and experimented at the Musaeum include the mothers and fathers of mathematics, astronomy, physics, geometry, engineering, geography, physiology and medicine. These included notable thinkers such as Euclid, Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Hipparchus, Aedesia, Pappus, Theon, Hypatia, and Aristarchus of Samos.

Collection

It is now impossible to determine the collection's size in any era with any certainty. Papyrus scrolls constituted the collection, and although codices were used after 300 BC, the Alexandrian Library is never documented as having switched to parchment, perhaps because of its strong links to the papyrus trade. (The Library of Alexandria in fact was indirectly causal in the creation of writing parchment — due to the library's critical need for papyrus, little was exported and thus an alternate source of copy material became essential.)

A single piece of writing might occupy several scrolls, and this division into self-contained "books" was a major aspect of editorial work. King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) is said to have set 500,000 scrolls as an objective for the library. Mark Antony supposedly gave Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls for the library as a wedding gift, taken from the great Library of Pergamum, but this is regarded by some historians as a propagandist claim meant to show Antony's allegiance to Egypt rather than Rome. The library's index, Callimachus' Pinakes, was lost with the rest of the library, and it is not possible to know with certainty how large and how diverse the collection may have been. At its height, the library was said to possess nearly half a million scrolls, and, although historians debate the precise number, the highest estimates claim 400,000 scrolls while the most conservative estimates are as low as 40,000, which is still an enormous collection that required vast storage space. This library, with the largest holdings of the age, acquired its collection by laborious copying of originals. Galen spoke of how all ships visiting the city were obliged to surrender their books for immediate copying. The owners received a copy while the pharaohs kept the originals in the library within their museum.

As a research institution, the library filled its stacks with new works in mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences and other subjects. Its empirical standards applied in one of the first and certainly strongest homes for serious textual criticism. As the same text often existed in several different versions, comparative textual criticism was crucial for ensuring their veracity. Once ascertained, canonical copies would then be made for scholars, royalty, and wealthy bibliophiles the world over, this commerce bringing income to the library.

History

Although it was arguably one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world, details about it are a mixture of history and legend. The library's main purpose was to show off the wealth of Egypt, with research as a lesser goal, but the library's contents were used to aid the ruler of Egypt.

According to the earliest source of information, the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas composed between c180 and 145 BC, the library was initially organized by Demetrius of Phaleron, a student of Aristotle, under the reign of Ptolemy I Soter (c.367 BC—c.283 BC). Other sources claim it was instead created under the reign of his son Ptolemy II (283–246 BC). The Library was built in the Brucheion (Royal Quarter) in the style of Aristotle's Lyceum, adjacent to (and in service of) the Musaeum (a Greek Temple or "House of Muses", whence the term "museum").

The Library at Alexandria was in charge of collecting all the world's knowledge, and most of the staff was occupied with the task of translating works onto papyrus paper. It did so through an aggressive and well-funded royal mandate involving trips to the book fairs of Rhodes and Athens. According to Galen, any books found on ships that came into port were taken to the library, and were listed as "books of the ships". Official scribes then copied these writings; the originals were kept in the library, and the copies delivered to the owners. Other than collecting works from the past, the library served as home to a host of international scholars, well-patronized by the Ptolemaic dynasty with travel, lodging, and stipends for their whole families.

According to Galen, Ptolemy III requested permission from the Athenians to borrow the original scripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, for which the Athenians demanded the enormous amount of fifteen talents (1,000 lbs./450 kg) of a precious metal as guarantee. Ptolemy III happily paid the fee but kept the original scripts for the library. This story may also be construed erroneously to show the power of Alexandria over Athens during the Ptolemaic dynasty. This detail is due to the fact that Alexandria was a man-made bidirectional port between the mainland and the Pharos island, welcoming trade from the East and West, and soon found itself to be an international hub for trade, the leading producer of papyrus and, soon enough, books.

The editors at the Library of Alexandria are especially well known for their work on Homeric texts. The more famous editors generally also held the title of head librarian. These included Zenodotus, Apollonius of Rhodes, Eratosthenes, Aristophanes of Byzantium, and Aristarchus of Samothrace, among others. (While Callimachus—the first bibliographer and developer of the "Pinakes", popularly considered to be the first library catalog—did his most famous work at the Library of Alexandria, he was never the head librarian there.) In the early 2nd century BC scholars began to abandon Alexandria for safer areas with more generous patronage, and in 145 BC Ptolemy VIII expelled all foreign scholars from Alexandria.

Destruction

The famous burning of the Library of Alexandria, including the incalculable loss of ancient works, has become a symbol of the irretrievable loss of public knowledge. Although there is a mythology of "the burning of the Library at Alexandria", the library may have suffered several fires or acts of destruction of varying degrees over many years. Ancient and modern sources identify several possible occasions for the partial or complete destruction of the Library of Alexandria.

During Caesar's Civil War, Julius Caesar was besieged at Alexandria in 48 BC. Many ancient sources describe Caesar setting fire to his own ships and state that this fire spread to the library, destroying it.

[W]hen the enemy endeavored to cut off his communication by sea, he was forced to divert that danger by setting fire to his own ships, which, after burning the docks, thence spread on and destroyed the great library.

Plutarch, Life of Caesar

Bolstering this claim, in the 4th century both the pagan historian Ammianus and the Christian historian Orosius wrote that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina had been destroyed by Caesar's fire. However, Florus and Lucan claim that the flames Caesar set burned only the fleet and some "houses near the sea". Years after Caesar's campaign in Alexandria, the Greek geographer Strabo claimed to have worked in the Alexandrian Library.

The library seems to have continued in existence to some degree until its contents were largely lost during the taking of the city by the Emperor Aurelian (AD 270–275), who was suppressing a revolt by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. During the course of the fighting, the areas of the city in which the main library was located were damaged. Some sources claim that the smaller library located at the Serapeum survived, though Ammianus Marcellinus wrote of the library in the Serapeum temple as a thing of the past, destroyed when Caesar sacked Alexandria.

Paganism was made illegal by an edict of the Emperor Theodosius I in AD 391. The temples of Alexandria were closed by Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria in AD 391. The historian Socrates of Constantinople describes that all pagan temples in Alexandria were destroyed, including the Serapeum. Since the Serapeum housed a part of the Great Library, some scholars believe that the remains of the Library of Alexandria were destroyed at this time. However, it is not known how many, if any, books were contained in it at the time of destruction, and contemporary scholars do not mention the library directly.

In AD 642, Alexandria was captured by the Muslim army of Amr ibn al `Aas. Several later Arabic sources describe the library's destruction by the order of Caliph Omar Bar-Hebraeus, writing in the 13th century, quotes Omar as saying to Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī: "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them." Later scholars are skeptical of these stories, given the range of time that had passed before they were written down and the political motivations of the various writers.

Legacy

Although the various component parts of the physical library were destroyed, in fact the centres of academic excellence had already moved to various capital cities. Furthermore, it is possible that most of the material from the Library of Alexandria actually survived, by way of the Imperial Library of Constantinople, the Academy of Gondishapur, and the House of Wisdom. This material may then have been preserved by the Reconquista, which led to the formation of European Universities and the recompilation of ancient texts from formerly scattered fragments.

Completed in 2002, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina functions as a modern library and cultural center, commemorating the original Library of Alexandria.

Wikipedia 

SOLOMON 

....According to the Bible, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. The wives are described as foreign princesses, including Pharaoh's daughter and women of Moab, Ammon, Sidon and of the Hittites. These wives are depicted as leading Solomon away from Yahweh toward idolatry. The only wife mentioned by name is Naamah, who is described as the Ammonite. She was the mother of Solomon's successor, Rehoboam.....

....(Rabbinical accounts say that Solomon had been given control over all living things by Yahweh)....

....Sins and punishment

According to 1 Kings 11: Solomon's "wives turned his heart after other gods", their own national deities, to whom Solomon built temples, thus incurring divine anger and retribution in the form of the division of the kingdom after Solomon's death. (1 Kings 11:9-13)

1 Kings 11 describes Solomon's descent into idolatry, particularly his turning after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites......

....Finally, Solomon marries foreign women, and these women turn Solomon to other gods.

According to 1 Kings 11:30-34, it was because of these sins that "the Lord punishes Solomon by removing 10 of the 12 Tribes of Israel from the Israelites.

And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, "Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.....

....The Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam, which may date to the 1st or 2nd century, refers to a legend in which Solomon sends out an army of demons to seek a virgin who had fled from him, perhaps the earliest surviving mention of the later common tale that Solomon controlled demons and made them his slaves. This tradition of Solomon's control over demons appears fully elaborated in the early pseudographical work called the Testament of Solomon with its elaborate and grotesque demonology......

.....The archaeological remains that are considered to date from the time of Solomon are notable for the fact that Canaanite material culture appears to have continued unabated; there is a distinct lack of magnificent empire, or cultural development - indeed comparing pottery from areas traditionally assigned to Israel with that of the Philistines points to the Philistines having been significantly more sophisticated. However there is a lack of physical evidence of its existence, despite some archaeological work in the area. This is not unexpected because the area was devastated by the Babylonians, then rebuilt and destroyed several times......

Solomon

Solomon (Hebrew: שְׁלֹמֹה, Modern Shlomo Tiberian Šəlōmō ISO 259-3 Šlomo; Arabic: سليمان Sulaymān, also colloquially: Silimān; Greek: Σολομών Solomōn), also called Jedidiah (Hebrew יְדִידְיָהּ), was, according to the Book of Kings, the Book of Chronicles, Hidden Words and the Qur'an a king of Israel and the son of David. The conventional dates of Solomon's reign are circa 970 to 931 BC. He is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah split. Following the split, his patrilineal descendants ruled over Judah alone.

According to the Talmud, Solomon is one of the 48 prophets. In the Qur'an, he is considered a major prophet, and Muslims generally refer to him by the Arabic variant Sulayman, son of David.

The Hebrew Bible credits Solomon as the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem and portrays him as great in wisdom, wealth, and power, but ultimately as a king whose sin, including idolatry and turning away from Yahweh, leads to the kingdom's being torn in two during the reign of his son Rehoboam.

Solomon is the subject of many other later references and legends, most notably in the 1st-century apocryphal work known as the Testament of Solomon. In later years, Solomon also came to be known as a magician and an exorcist, with numerous amulets and medallion seals dating from the Hellenistic period invoking his name.

Biblical Account 

According to the biblical First Book of Kings, when David was old, "he could not get warm." "So they sought for a beautiful young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The young woman was very beautiful, and she was of service to the king and attended to him, but the king knew her not."

While David was in this state, his fourth son Adonijah, heir apparent to the throne after the death of his elder brothers Amnon and Absalom, acted to have himself declared king, but Bathsheba, a wife of David and Solomon's mother, along with the prophet Nathan, convinced David to proclaim Solomon king. Adonijah fled and took refuge at the altar, and received pardon for his conduct from Solomon on the condition that he show himself "a worthy man." (1 Kings 1:5-53) 

Adonijah asked to marry Abishag the Shunammite, but Solomon disallowed that, although Bathsheba now pleaded on Adonijah's behalf. He was then seized and put to death (1 Kings 2:13-25). As made clear in the earlier story of Absalom's rebellion, to possess the royal harem was in this society tantamount to claiming the throne; this applied even to a woman who had shared the bed of a king advanced in age, though she had no intimate relations with King David.

David's general Joab was killed, in accord with David's deathbed request to Solomon, because he had killed generals Abner and Amasa during a peace (2 Samuel 20:8-13; 1 Kings 2:5). David's priest Abiathar was exiled by Solomon because he had sided with Adonijah. Abiathar is a descendent of Eli, which has important prophetic significance. (1 Kings 2:27)[9] Shimei was confined to Jerusalem and killed three years later, when he went to Gath to retrieve some runaway servants, in part because he had cursed David when David's son Absalom rebelled against David. (1 Kings 2:1-46) 

Wisdom 

One of the qualities most ascribed to Solomon is his wisdom. The book of 1 Kings recounts how Solomon prays for wisdom:

"And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.

And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.

Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?" (1 Kings 3:4-9)

"So God said to him, 'Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked...'" (1 Kings 3:11-12) 

The Hebrew Bible also states that: "The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart." (1 Kings 10:24)

In one account, known as the Judgment of Solomon, two women came before Solomon to resolve a quarrel over which was the true mother of a baby. When Solomon suggested they should divide the living child in two with a sword, one woman said she would rather give up the child than see it killed. Solomon then declared the woman who showed compassion to be the true mother, and gave the baby to her.

Solomon is also noted as one of many authors of Wisdom literature. The apocryphal/deuterocanonical Wisdom of Solomon, along with the Book of Sirach, "are the familiar personalities and the events of Israel's history combined with the wisdom tradition. Much of this literature, however, is attributed to Solomon."

Solomon became a favorite author and contributor of different kinds of wisdom literature, "including not only the collections of Proverbs, but also of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon and the later apocryphal book the Wisdom of Solomon."

Wives 

According to the Bible, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. The wives are described as foreign princesses, including Pharaoh's daughter and women of Moab, Ammon, Sidon and of the Hittites. These wives are depicted as leading Solomon away from Yahweh toward idolatry. The only wife mentioned by name is Naamah, who is described as the Ammonite. She was the mother of Solomon's successor, Rehoboam.

Relationship with Queen of Sheba

In a brief, unelaborated, and enigmatic passage, the Hebrew Bible describes how the fame of Solomon's wisdom and wealth spread far and wide, so much so that the queen of Sheba decided that she should meet him. The queen is described as visiting with a number of gifts including gold, spices and precious stones . When Solomon gave her "all her desire, whatsoever she asked," she left satisfied (1 Kings 10:10).

Whether the passage is simply to provide a brief token, foreign witness of Solomon's wealth and wisdom, or whether there is meant to be something more significant to the queen's visit is unknown; nevertheless the visit of the Queen of Sheba has become the subject of numerous stories.

Sheba is typically identified as Saba, a nation once spanning the Red Sea on the coasts of what are now Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen, in Arabia Felix. In a Rabbinical account (e.g. Targum Sheni), Solomon was accustomed to ordering the living creatures of the world to dance before him 

(Rabbinical accounts say that Solomon had been given control over all living things by Yahweh), 

but one day upon discovering that the mountain-cock or hoopoe (Hebrew name: shade) was absent, he summoned it to him, and the bird told him that it had been searching for somewhere new.

The bird had discovered a land in the east, exceedingly rich in gold, silver, and plants, whose capital was called Kitor and whose ruler was the Queen of Sheba, and the bird, on its own advice, was sent by Solomon to request the queen's immediate attendance at Solomon's court.

An Ethiopian account (Kebra Nagast) maintains that the Queen of Sheba had sexual relations with King Solomon (of which the Biblical and Quranic accounts give no hint) and gave birth by the Mai Bella stream in the province of Hamasien, Eritrea. The Ethiopian tradition has a detailed account of the affair. (See Queen of Sheba.)

The child was a son who went on to become Menelik I, King of Axum, and founded a dynasty that would reign as the Christian Empire of Ethiopia for 2900+ years (less one usurpation episode, an interval of ca. 133 years until a legitimate male heir regained the crown) until Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974.

Menelik was said to be a practising Jew who was given a replica of the Ark of the Covenant by King Solomon; and, moreover, that the original was switched and went to Axum with him and his mother, and is still there, guarded by a single priest charged with caring for the artifact as his life's task.

The claim of such a lineage and of possession of the Ark has been an important source of legitimacy and prestige for the Ethiopian monarchy throughout the many centuries of its existence, and had important and lasting effects on Ethiopian culture as a whole. The Ethiopian government and church deny all requests to view the alleged ark.

Some classical-era Rabbis, attacking Solomon's moral character, have claimed instead that the child was an ancestor of Nebuchadnezzar II, who destroyed Solomon's temple some 300 years later.

Sins and punishment

According to 1 Kings 11: Solomon's "wives turned his heart after other gods", their own national deities, to whom Solomon built temples, thus incurring divine anger and retribution in the form of the division of the kingdom after Solomon's death. (1 Kings 11:9-13)

1 Kings 11 describes Solomon's descent into idolatry, particularly his turning after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. 

In Deuteronomy 17:16-17, a king is commanded not to multiply horses or wives, neither greatly multiply to himself gold or silver. Solomon sins in all three of these areas. 

Solomon collects 666 talents of gold each year, (1 Kings 10:14) a huge amount of money for a small nation like Israel. Solomon gathers a large number of horses and chariots and even brings in horses from Egypt. Just as Deuteronomy 17 warns, collecting horses and chariots takes Israel back to Egypt. 

Finally, Solomon marries foreign women, and these women turn Solomon to other gods.

According to 1 Kings 11:30-34, it was because of these sins that "the Lord punishes Solomon by removing 10 of the 12 Tribes of Israel from the Israelites.

And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. 

But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, "Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. 

Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.

Enemies 

Near the end of his life, Solomon was forced to contend with several enemies, including Hadad of Edom, Rezon of Zobah, and one of his officials named Jeroboam who was from the tribe of Ephraim.

Death, succession of Rehoboam, and kingdom division

The United Monarchy breaks up, with Jeroboam ruling over the northern Kingdom of Israel (blue on the map) and Rehoboam ruling the Kingdom of Judah to the south.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Solomon died of natural causes at around 80 years of age. Upon Solomon's death, his son, Rehoboam, succeeded him as king. 

However, ten of the Tribes of Israel refused to accept him as king, causing the United Monarchy to split and form the northern Kingdom of Israel ruled by Jeroboam, while Rehoboam continued to reign in the southern Kingdom of Judah.

During Solomon's long reign of 40 years, the Israelite monarchy, according to the Bible, gained its highest splendour and wealth. In a single year, according to 1 Kings 10:14, Solomon collected tribute amounting to 666 talents of gold (39,960 pounds).

Solomon is described as surrounding himself with all the luxuries and the external grandeur of an Eastern monarch, and his government prospered. He entered into an alliance with Hiram I, king of Tyre, who in many ways greatly assisted him in his numerous undertakings. For some years before his death, David was engaged in collecting materials for building a temple in Jerusalem as a permanent abode for the Ark of the Covenant. Solomon is described as completing its construction, with the help of an architect, also named Hiram, and other materials, sent from King Hiram of Tyre.

After the completion of the temple, Solomon is described as erecting many other buildings of importance in Jerusalem; for the long period of 13 years, he was engaged in the building of a royal palace on Ophel (a hilly promontory in central Jerusalem); Solomon also constructed great works for the purpose of securing a plentiful supply of water for the city, and the Millo (Septuagint, Acra) for the defense of the city. However, excavations of Jerusalem have shown a distinct lack of monumental architecture from the era, and remains of neither the Temple nor Solomon's palace have been found. However, a number of significant but politically sensitive areas have not been extensively excavated, including Temple mount, the site where the Temple is traditionally said to have been located.

Solomon is also described as rebuilding cities elsewhere in Israel, creating the port of Ezion-Geber, and constructing Tadmor in the wilderness as a commercial depot and military outpost. Solomon is additionally described as having amassed 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen. Though the location of Solomon's port of Ezion-Geber is known, no remains have ever been found. More archaeological success has been achieved with the major cities Solomon is said to have strengthened or rebuilt (for example, Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer — 1 Kings 9:15); these all have substantial ancient remains, including impressive six-chambered gates, and ashlar palaces, as well as trough-like structures outside buildings that early archaeologists have identified as the stables for Solomon's horses.

According to the Bible, during Solomon's reign, Israel enjoyed great commercial prosperity, with extensive traffic being carried on by land with Tyre, Egypt, and Arabia, and by sea with Tarshish, Ophir, and South India.

Apocryphal texts

Rabbinical tradition attributes the Wisdom of Solomon to Solomon, although this book was probably written in the 2nd century BC. In this work, Solomon is portrayed as an astronomer. Other books of wisdom poetry such as the Odes of Solomon and the Psalms of Solomon also bear his name. The Jewish historian Eupolemus, who wrote about 157 BC, included copies of apocryphal letters exchanged between Solomon and the kings of Egypt and Tyre.

The Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam, which may date to the 1st or 2nd century, refers to a legend in which Solomon sends out an army of demons to seek a virgin who had fled from him, perhaps the earliest surviving mention of the later common tale that Solomon controlled demons and made them his slaves. This tradition of Solomon's control over demons appears fully elaborated in the early pseudographical work called the Testament of Solomon with its elaborate and grotesque demonology.

Chronology

The conventional dates of Solomon's reign are from circa 970 to 931 BC. They derive from biblical chronology, mostly from the ancient genealogies in the books, Genesis to Second Kings, spanning the creation of the universe as the ancients understood it to the fall of Jerusalem with the destruction of its Temple in year 586 BC. Regarding the Davidic Dynasty to which King Solomon belongs, its chronology can be checked against datable Babylonian and Assyrian records at a few points, and these correspondences have allowed archeologists to date its kings in a modern framework. 

According to the most widely-used chronology, based on that by Edwin R. Thiele, the death of Solomon and the division of his kingdom occurred in the spring of 931 BC. Thiele does not explicitly date the beginning of Solomon's reign, but according to the First Book of Kings, he ruled for 40 years, thus corresponding to 970 BC according to the Thiele system.

Historicity of Solomon

Historical evidence of King Solomon other than the biblical accounts is minimal. 

Josephus, citing Tyrian court records and Menander in Against Apion, gives a specific year during which King Hiram I of Tyre sent materials to Solomon for the construction of the temple.

However, no material evidence indisputably of Solomon's reign has been found. Yigael Yadin's excavations at Hazor, Megiddo, Beit Shean and Gezer uncovered structures that he and others have argued date from his reign, but others, such as Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, argue that they should be dated to the Omride period, more than a century after Solomon.

According to Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, authors of The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, at the time of the kingdoms of David and Solomon, Jerusalem was populated by only a few hundred residents or less, which is insufficient for an empire stretching from the Euphrates to Eilath. According to The Bible Unearthed, archaeological evidence suggests that the kingdom of Israel at the time of Solomon was little more than a small city state, and so it is implausible that Solomon received tribute as large as 666 talents of gold per year. 

Although both Finkelstein and Silberman accept that David and Solomon were real kings of Judah about the 10th century BC, they claim that the earliest independent reference to the Kingdom of Israel is about 890 BC, and for Judah about 750 BC. They suggest that due to religious prejudice, the authors of the Bible suppressed the achievements of the Omrides (whom the Hebrew Bible describes as being polytheist), and instead pushed them back to a supposed golden age of Judaism and monotheists, and devotees of Yahweh. Some Biblical minimalists like Thomas L. Thompson go further, arguing that Jerusalem became a city and capable of being a state capital only in the mid-seventh century. Likewise, Finkelstein and others consider the claimed size of Solomon's temple implausible.

These views are criticized by William G. Dever, Helga Weippert, André Lemaire and Amnon Ben-Tor. Lemaire states in Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple that the principal points of the biblical tradition of Solomon are generally trustworthy. 

So does Kenneth Kitchen, who argues that Solomon ruled over a comparatively wealthy "mini-empire", rather than a small city-state, and considers 666 gold talents a modest amount of money. Kitchen calculates that over 30 years, such a kingdom might have accumulated up to 500 tons of gold, which is small compared to other examples, such as the 1,180 tons of gold that Alexander the Great took from Susa.

Similarly Kitchen, and others consider the temple of Solomon a reasonable and typically sized structure for the region at the time. William G. Dever states "that we now have direct Bronze and Iron Age parallels for every feature of the 'Solomonic temple' as described in the Hebrew Bible".

The archaeological remains that are considered to date from the time of Solomon are notable for the fact that Canaanite material culture appears to have continued unabated; there is a distinct lack of magnificent empire, or cultural development - indeed comparing pottery from areas traditionally assigned to Israel with that of the Philistines points to the Philistines having been significantly more sophisticated. However there is a lack of physical evidence of its existence, despite some archaeological work in the area. This is not unexpected because the area was devastated by the Babylonians, then rebuilt and destroyed several times. Little archaeological excavation has been done around the area known as the Temple Mount, in what is thought to be the foundation of Solomon's Temple, because attempts to do so are met with protest by Muslims.

From a critical point of view, Solomon's building of a temple for Yahweh should not be considered an act of particular devotion to Yahweh because Solomon is also described as building places of worship for a number of other deities (1 Kings 11:4). 

Some scholars and historians argue that Solomon's apparent initial devotion to Yahweh, described in passages such as his dedication prayer (1 Kings 8:14-66), were written much later, after Jerusalem had become the religious centre of the kingdom, replacing locations such as Shiloh and Bethel. 

Some scholars believe that passages such as these in the Books of Kings were not written by the same authors who wrote the rest of the text, instead probably by the Deuteronomist. 

Such views have been challenged by other historians who maintain that there is evidence that these passages in Kings are derived from official court records at the time of Solomon and from other writings of that time that were incorporated into the canonical books of Kings. 

Jewish Scriptures 

King Solomon is one of the central Biblical figures in Jewish heritage that have lasting religious, national and political aspects. As the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem and last ruler of the united Kingdom of Israel before its division into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah, Solomon is associated with the peak "golden age" of the independent Kingdom of Israel as well as a source of judicial and religious wisdom. According to Jewish tradition, King Solomon wrote three books of the Bible:

Mishlei (Book of Proverbs), a collection of fables and wisdom of life

Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), a book of contemplation and his self-reflection.

Shir ha-Shirim (Song of Songs), an unusual collection of poetry interspersed with verse, whose interpretation is either literal (i.e. a romantic and sexual relationship between a man and a woman) or metaphorical (a relationship between God and his people).

The Hebrew word "To Solomon" (which can also be translated as "by Solomon") appears in the title of two hymns in the book of Psalms (Tehillim), suggesting to some that Solomon wrote them.

Religions and Solomon 

Judaism

King Solomon sinned by acquiring too many wives and horses because he thought he knew the reason for the Biblical prohibition and thought it did not apply to him. When King Solomon married the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh, a sandbank formed which eventually formed the "great nation of Rome" - the nation that destroyed the Second Temple (Herod's Temple). 

Solomon gradually lost more and more prestige until he became like a commoner. Some say he regained his status while others say he did not. In the end however, he is regarded as a righteous king and is especially praised for his diligence in building the Temple.

Christianity

Christianity has traditionally accepted the historical existence of Solomon, though some modern Christian scholars have also questioned at least his authorship of those biblical texts ascribed to him. Such disputes tend to divide Christians into traditionalist and modernist camps.

Of the two genealogies of Jesus given in the Gospels, Matthew mentions Solomon, but Luke does not. Some commentators see this as an issue that can be reconciled while others disagree. For instance, it has been suggested that Luke is using Mary's genealogy and Matthew is using Joseph's, but Darrell Bock states that this would be unprecedented, "especially when no other single woman appears in the line". Other suggestions include the use by one of the royal and the other of the natural line, one using the legal line and the other the physical line, or that Joseph was adopted.

Jesus makes reference to Solomon, using him for comparison purposes in his admonition against worrying about your life. This account is recorded in Matthew 6:29 and the parallel passage in Luke 12:27

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Solomon is commemorated as a saint, with the title of "Righteous Prophet and King". His feast day is celebrated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (two Sundays before the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Lord).

The staunchly Catholic King Philip II of Spain sought to model himself after King Solomon. Statues of King David and Solomon stand on either side of the entrance to the basilica of El Escorial, Philip's palace, and Solomon is also depicted in a great fresco at the center of El Escorial's library. Philip identified the warrior-king David with his own father Charles V, and himself sought to emulate the thoughtful and logical character which he perceived in Solomon. Moreover, Escorial's structure was inspired by that of Solomon's Temple. 

Islam

In Islamic tradition, Solomon is venerated as a prophet and a messenger of God, as well as a divinely appointed monarch, who ruled over the Kingdom of Israel. As in Judaism, Islam recognizes Solomon as the son of King David, who is also considered a prophet and a king in Islam. Islam attributes to Solomon the saying: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God" (ra's al-hikmah makhafat Allah). Islam tradition ascribes to Solomon a great level of wisdom and knowledge of the unseen, as well as the traditional sciences of cosmology. According to tradition, he knew the "language of the birds" (kalam al-tayr). 

Solomon was also Known in the Islam to have other supernatural abilities (Bestowed upon him by God) such as controlling the wind, ruling over The Jinn and talking to Ants. [And to Solomon (We made) the Wind (obedient): its early morning (stride) was a month's (journey), and its evening (stride) was a month's(journey);and We made a Font of molten brass to flow for him;and there were Jinns that worked in front of him, by the leave of his Lord,and if any of them turned aside from Our command, We made Him taste of the Penalty of the Blazing Fire. (34:12)] and [At length, when they came to a (lowly) valley of ants, one of the ants said:"O ye ants, get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you (under foot) without knowing it." ~ So he smiled, amused at her speech; and he said:"O my Lord! so order me that I may be grateful for Thy favors, which Thou hast bestowed on me and on my parents,and that I may work the righteousness that will please Thee:and admit me, by Thy Grace, to the ranks of Thy righteous Servants." (18~19:27)]. The Qur'an mentions Solomon a total of 17 times.

Baha'i

In the Baha'i Faith, Solomon is regarded as one of the lesser prophets along with David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, along with others. Solomon is seen by Baha'is as a prophet who was sent by God to address the issues of his time. Baha'ullah wrote about Solomon in the Hidden Words. He also mentions Solomon in the Tablet of Wisdom, where he is depicted as a contemporary of Pythagoras.

Legends 

One Thousand and One Nights

A well-known story in the collection One Thousand and One Nights describes a genie who had displeased King Solomon and was punished by being locked in a bottle and thrown into the sea. Since the bottle was sealed with Solomon's seal, the genie was helpless to free himself, until freed many centuries later by a fisherman who discovered the bottle. In other stories which are found in One Thousand and One Nights, protagonists who had to leave their homeland and travel to the unknown places of the world saw signs which proved that Solomon had already been there. Sometimes, protagonists discovered Solomon's words which aimed to help those who were lost and unluckily reached those forbidden and deserted places.

Angels and magic

According to the Rabbinical literature, on account of his modest request for wisdom only, Solomon was rewarded with riches and an unprecedentedly glorious realm, which extended over the upper world inhabited by the angels and over the whole of the terrestrial globe with all its inhabitants, including all the beasts, fowl, and reptiles, as well as the demons and spirits. His control over the demons, spirits, and animals augmented his splendor, the demons bringing him precious stones, besides water from distant countries to irrigate his exotic plants. The beasts and fowl of their own accord entered the kitchen of Solomon's palace, so that they might be used as food for him, and extravagant meals for him were prepared daily by each of his 700 wives and 300 concubines, with the thought that perhaps the king would feast that day in her house.

Seal of Solomon

A magic ring called the "Seal of Solomon" was supposedly given to Solomon and gave him power over demons. The magical symbol said to have been on the Seal of Solomon which made it work is now better known as the Star of David. Asmodeus, king of demons, was one day, according to the classical Rabbis, captured by Benaiah using the ring, and was forced to remain in Solomon's service. In one tale, Asmodeus brought a man with two heads from under the earth to show Solomon; the man, unable to return, married a woman from Jerusalem and had seven sons, six of whom resembled the mother, while one resembled the father in having two heads. After their father's death, the son with two heads claimed two shares of the inheritance, arguing that he was two men; Solomon decided that the son with two heads was only one man. The Seal of Solomon, in some legends known as the Ring of Aandaleeb, was a highly sought after symbol of power. In several legends, different groups or individuals attempted to steal it or attain it in some manner.

Solomon and Asmodeus

One legend concerning Asmodeus goes on to state that Solomon one day asked Asmodeus what could make demons powerful over man, and Asmodeus asked to be freed and given the ring so that he could demonstrate; Solomon agreed but Asmodeus threw the ring into the sea and it was swallowed by a fish. Asmodeus then swallowed the king, stood up fully with one wing touching heaven and the other earth, and spat out Solomon to a distance of 400 miles. 

The Rabbis claim this was a divine punishment for Solomon's having failed to follow three divine commands, and Solomon was forced to wander from city to city, until he eventually arrived in an Ammonite city where he was forced to work in the king's kitchens. Solomon gained a chance to prepare a meal for the Ammonite king, which the king found so impressive that the previous cook was sacked and Solomon put in his place; the king's daughter, Naamah, subsequently fell in love with Solomon, but the family (thinking Solomon a commoner) disapproved, so the king decided to kill them both by sending them into the desert. 

Solomon and the king’s daughter wandered the desert until they reached a coastal city, where they bought a fish to eat, which just happened to be the one which had swallowed the magic ring. Solomon was then able to regain his throne and expel Asmodeus. (The element of a ring thrown into the sea and found back in a fish's belly also appeared in Herodotus' account of Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos from c. 538 BC to 522 BC.)

In another familiar version of the legend of the Seal of Solomon, Asmodeus disguises himself. In some myths, he's disguised as King Solomon himself, while in more frequently heard versions he's disguised as a falcon, calling himself Gavyn (Gavinn or Gavin), one of King Solomon’s trusted friends. The concealed Asmodeus tells travelers who have ventured up to King Solomon's grand lofty palace that the Seal of Solomon was thrown into the sea. He then convinces them to plunge in and attempt to retrieve it, for if they do they would take the throne as king.

Artifacts

Other magical items attributed to Solomon are his key and his Table. The latter was said to be held in Toledo, Spain during Visigoth rule and was part of the loot taken by Tarik ibn Ziyad during the Umayyad Conquest of Iberia, according to Ibn Abd-el-Hakem's History of the Conquest of Spain. The former appears in the title of the Lesser Key of Solomon, a grimoire whose framing story is Solomon capturing demons using his ring, and forcing them to explain themselves to him.

Angels

Angels also helped Solomon in building the Temple; though not by choice. The edifice was, according to rabbinical legend, miraculously constructed throughout, the large heavy stones rising and settling in their respective places of themselves. The general opinion of the Rabbis is that Solomon hewed the stones by means of a shamir, a mythical worm whose mere touch cleft rocks. 

According to Midrash Tehillim, the shamir was brought from paradise by Solomon's eagle; but most of the rabbis state that Solomon was informed of the worm's haunts by Asmodeus. The shamir had been entrusted by the prince of the sea to the mountain rooster alone, and the rooster had sworn to guard it well, but Solomon's men found the bird's nest, and covered it with glass. When the bird returned, it used the shamir to break the glass, whereupon the men scared the bird, causing it to drop the worm, which the men could then bring to Solomon.

In the Kabbalah

Early adherents of the Kabbalah portray Solomon as having sailed through the air on a throne of light placed on an eagle, which brought him near the heavenly gates as well as to the dark mountains behind which the fallen angels Uzza and Azzazel were chained; the eagle would rest on the chains, and Solomon, using the magic ring, would compel the two angels to reveal every mystery he desired to know.

The palace without entrance

According to one legend, while traveling magically, Solomon noticed a magnificent palace to which there appeared to be no entrance. He ordered the demons to climb to the roof and see if they could discover any living being within the building but the demons only found an eagle, which said that it was 700 years old, but that it had never seen an entrance. An elder brother of the eagle, 900 years old, was then found, but it also did not know the entrance. 

The eldest brother of these two birds, which was 1,300 years old, then declared it had been informed by its father that the door was on the west side, but that it had become hidden by sand drifted by the wind. Having discovered the entrance, Solomon found an idol inside that had in its mouth a silver tablet saying in Greek (a language not thought by modern scholars to have existed 1000 years before the time of Solomon) that the statue was of Shaddad, the son of 'Ad, and that it had reigned over a million cities, rode on a million horses, had under it a million vassals and slew a million warriors, yet it could not resist the angel of death.

Throne

Solomon's throne is described at length in Targum Sheni, which is compiled from three different sources, and in two later Midrash. According to these, there were on the steps of the throne twelve golden lions, each facing a golden eagle. There were six steps to the throne, on which animals, all of gold, were arranged in the following order: on the first step a lion opposite an ox; on the second, a wolf opposite a sheep; on the third, a tiger opposite a camel; on the fourth, an eagle opposite a peacock, on the fifth, a cat opposite a cock; on the sixth, a sparrow-hawk opposite a dove. 

On the top of the throne was a dove holding a sparrow-hawk in its claws, symbolizing the dominion of Israel over the Gentiles. The first midrash claims that six steps were constructed because Solomon foresaw that six kings would sit on the throne, namely, Solomon, Rehoboam, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah. There was also on the top of the throne a golden candelabrum, on the seven branches of the one side of which were engraved the names of the seven patriarchs Adam, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Job, and on the seven of the other the names of Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses, Aaron, Eldad, Medad, and, in addition, Hur (another version has Haggai). Above the candelabrum was a golden jar filled with olive-oil and beneath it a golden basin which supplied the jar with oil and on which the names of Nadab, Abihu, and Eli and his two sons were engraved. Over the throne, twenty-four vines were fixed to cast a shadow on the king's head.

By a mechanical contrivance the throne followed Solomon wherever he wished to go. Supposedly, due to another mechanical trick, when the king reached the first step, the ox stretched forth its leg, on which Solomon leaned, a similar action taking place in the case of the animals on each of the six steps. From the sixth step the eagles raised the king and placed him in his seat, near which a golden serpent lay coiled. When the king was seated the large eagle placed the crown on his head, the serpent uncoiled itself, and the lions and eagles moved upward to form a shade over him. 

The dove then descended, took the scroll of the Law from the Ark, and placed it on Solomon's knees. When the king sat, surrounded by the Sanhedrin, to judge the people, the wheels began to turn, and the beasts and fowls began to utter their respective cries, which frightened those who had intended to bear false testimony. Moreover, while Solomon was ascending the throne, the lions scattered all kinds of fragrant spices. After Solomon's death, Pharaoh Shishak, when taking away the treasures of the Temple (I Kings xiv. 26), carried off the throne, which remained in Egypt until Sennacherib conquered that country. 

After Sennacherib's fall Hezekiah gained possession of it, but when Josiah was slain by Pharaoh Necho, the latter took it away. However, according to rabbinical accounts, Necho did not know how the mechanism worked and so accidentally struck himself with one of the lions causing him to become lame; Nebuchadnezzar, into whose possession the throne subsequently came, shared a similar fate. The throne then passed to the Persians, whose king Darius was the first to sit successfully on Solomon's throne after his death; subsequently the throne came into the possession of the Greeks and Ahasuerus.

Literature

In H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines the protagonists discover multiple settings said to belong to, or having been built at the request of King Solomon, such as 'Solomon's Great Road' and the mines themselves.

Also, the two mountains which form the entrance to Kukuana Land (where the mines are located in the novel) are referred to as 'Sheba's Breasts' which could well be an allusion to the Queen of Sheba, with whom King Solomon had a relationship; or alternatively Solomon's mother, who was named Bathsheba. 

When in the mines the characters also contemplate what must have occurred to prevent King Solomon from ever returning to retrieve the massive amounts of diamonds, gold and ivory tusks that were found buried in his great 'Treasure Chamber'.

In The Divine Comedy the spirit of Solomon appears to Dante Alighieri in the Heaven of the Sun with other exemplars of inspired wisdom.

In Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Die Physiker, the physicist Möbius claims that Solomon appears to him and dictates the "theory of all possible inventions" (based on Unified Field Theory).

Solomon appears in Kipling's Just So Stories.

In Neal Stephenson's three-volume The Baroque Cycle, 17th century alchemists like Isaac Newton believe that Solomon created a kind of "heavier" gold with mystical properties and that it was cached in the Solomon Islands where it was accidentally discovered by the crew of a wayward Spanish galleon. In the third volume of The Baroque Cycle, The System of the World, a mysterious member of the entourage of Czar Peter I of Russia, named "Solomon Kohan" appears in early 18th century London. The czar, traveling incognito to purchase English-made ships for his navy, explains that he added him to his court after the Sack of Azov, where Kohan had been a guest of the Pasha. Solomon Kohan is later revealed as one of the extremely long-lived "Wise" Enoch Root, and compares a courtyard full of inventors' workstations to "an operation I used to have in Jerusalem a long time ago," denominating either facility as "a temple."

In Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon, both King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba are featured prominently.

In Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Solomon was the first king chosen by the Magi, a powerful magician that created the world Magi is set in, and the first to receive the Wisdom of Solomon.

In Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist, Solomon is a friend of Lucifer and is the "Elector" - the one who can choose the interim ruler over Hell as its emperor rests to regain his strength and had powers over demons known as his seventy-two pillars. He's also known who can control Hell or Heaven with the power of his ring.

Film

The Kingdom of Solomon (2009) - Iranian production directed by Shahriar Bahrani

Solomon (1997, TNT) - directed by Roger Young, starring Ben Cross

Solomon and Sheba (1959) - Epic film directed by King Vidor, starring Yul Brynner and Gina Lollobrigida

Solomon & Sheba (1995 film) - Showtime film directed by Robert M. Young starring Halle Berry and Jimmy Smits

Music

Handel composed an oratorio entitled Solomon in 1748. The story follows the basic Biblical plot.

Ernest Bloch composed a Hebraic Rhapsody for cello and orchestra entitled Schelomo, based on King Solomon.

Toivo Tulev composed a piece for choir, soloists and chamber orchestra entitled "Songs" in 2005. The text is taken directly from the Song of Songs in its English, Spanish and Latin translations.

Wikipedia 

BARBARIAN 

A barbarian is a human who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage. In idiomatic or figurative usage, a "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person.

The term originates from the Greek word βάρβαρος (barbaros). In ancient times, Greeks used it mostly for people of different cultures, but there are examples where one Greek city or state would use the word to attack another (e.g. haughty Athenians calling the Boeotians barbarian); in the early modern period and sometimes later, Greeks used it for the Turks, in a clearly pejorative way. Comparable notions are found in non-European civilizations, notably China and Japan. In the Roman Empire, Romans used the word "barbarian" for many people, such as the Germanics, Celts, Iberians, nuragic Sardinians, Thracians and Parthians.

Etymology

The Ancient Greek word βάρβαρος (barbaros), "barbarian", was an antonym for πολίτης (politēs), "citizen" (from πόλις - polis, "city-state"). The sound of barbaros onomatopoetically evokes the image of babbling (a person speaking a non-Greek language). The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀞𐀞𐀫, pa-pa-ro, written in Linear B syllabic script.

The Greeks and Romans used the term as they encountered scores of different foreign cultures, including the Egyptians, Persians, Medes, Celts, Germanic peoples, Phoenicians and Carthaginians. In fact, it became a common term to refer to all foreigners. However in various occasions, the term was also used by Greeks, especially the Athenians, to deride other Greek tribes and states (such as Epirotes, Eleans, Macedonians and Aeolic-speakers) but also fellow Athenians, in a pejorative and politically motivated manner. Of course, the term also carried a cultural dimension to its dual meaning. The verb βαρβαρίζειν (barbarízein) in ancient Greek meant imitating the linguistic sounds non-Greeks made or making grammatical errors in Greek.

Plato (Statesman 262de) rejected the Greek–barbarian dichotomy as a logical absurdity on just such grounds: dividing the world into Greeks and non-Greeks told one nothing about the second group. In Homer's works, the term appeared only once (Iliad 2.867), in the form βαρβαρόφωνος (barbarophonos) ("of incomprehensible speech"), used of the Carians fighting for Troy during the Trojan War. In general, the concept of barbaros did not figure largely in archaic literature before the 5th century BC. Still it has been suggested that "barbarophonoi" in the Iliad signifies not those who spoke a non-Greek language but simply those who spoke Greek badly

A change occurred in the connotations of the word after the Greco-Persian Wars in the first half of the 5th century BC. Here a hasty coalition of Greeks defeated the vast Achaemenid Empire. Indeed in the Greek of this period 'barbarian' is often used expressly to mean Persian

Greek barbaros was the etymological source for many words meaning "barbarian", including English barbarian, which was first recorded in 16th-century Middle English.

A word barbara- is also found in the Sanskrit of ancient India. The Greek word barbaros is related to Sanskrit barbaras (stammering).

Semantics 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines five meanings of the noun barbarian, including an obsolete Barbary usage.

1. etymologically, A foreigner, one whose language and customs differ from the speaker's.

2. Hist. a. One not a Greek. b. One living outside the pale of the Roman empire and its civilization, applied especially to the northern nations that overthrew them. c. One outside the pale of Christian civilization. d. With the Italians of the Renascence: One of a nation outside of Italy.

3. A rude, wild, uncivilized person. b. Sometimes distinguished from savage (perh. with a glance at 2). c. Applied by the Chinese contemptuously to foreigners.

4. An uncultured person, or one who has no sympathy with literary culture.

†5. A native of Barbary. [See Barbary.] Obs. †b. A Barbary horse. Obs.

The OED barbarous entry summarizes the semantic history. "The sense-development in ancient times was (with the Greeks) 'foreign, non-Hellenic,' later 'outlandish, rude, brutal'; (with the Romans) 'not Latin nor Greek,' then 'pertaining to those outside the Roman empire'; hence 'uncivilized, uncultured,' and later 'non-Christian,' whence 'Saracen, heathen'; and generally 'savage, rude, savagely cruel, inhuman.'"

"Barbarian" in Greek historical contexts

Slavery in Greece 

A parallel factor was the growth of chattel slavery especially at Athens. Although enslavement of Greeks for non-payment of debt continued in most Greek states, it was banned at Athens under Solon in the early 6th century BC. Under the Athenian democracy established ca. 508 BC slavery came to be used on a scale never before seen among the Greeks. Massive concentrations of slaves were worked under especially brutal conditions in the silver mines at Laureion—a major vein of silver-bearing ore was found there in 483 BC—while the phenomenon of skilled slave craftsmen producing manufactured goods in small factories and workshops became increasingly common.

Furthermore, slaves were no longer the preserve of the rich: all but the poorest of Athenian households came to have slaves to supplement the work of their free members. Overwhelmingly, the slaves of Athens were "barbarian" in origin, drawn especially from lands around the Black Sea such as Thrace and Taurica (Crimea), while from Asia Minor came above all Lydians, Phrygians and Carians. Aristotle (Politics 1.2–7; 3.14) even states that barbarians are slaves by nature.

From this period, words like barbarophonos, cited above from Homer, began to be used not only of the sound of a foreign language but of foreigners speaking Greek improperly. In Greek, the notions of language and reason are easily confused in the word logos, so speaking poorly was easily conflated with being stupid, an association not of course limited to the ancient Greeks.

Further changes occurred in the connotations of barbari/barbaroi in Late Antiquity, when bishops and catholikoi were appointed to sees connected to cities among the "civilized" gentes barbaricae such as in Armenia or Persia, whereas bishops were appointed to supervise entire peoples among the less settled.

Eventually the term found a hidden meaning by Christian Romans through the folk etymology of Cassiodorus. He stated the word barbarian was "made up of barba (beard) and rus (flat land); for barbarians did not live in cities, making their abodes in the fields like wild animals".

The female given name "Barbara" originally meant "a barbarian woman", and as such was likely to have had a pejorative meaning—given that most such women in Graeco-Roman society were of a low social status (often being slaves). However, Saint Barbara is mentioned as being the daughter of rich and respectable Roman citizens. Evidently, by her time (about 300 CE according to Christian hagiography, though some historians put the story much later) the name no longer had any specific ethnic or pejorative connotations. This conclusion is, however, questionable, as many authorities think it possible that her story is fictitious, including the Roman Catholic Church since 1969 (for details of these doubts, see under Saint Barbara, Veneration).

Hellenic stereotypes

Out of those sources the Hellenic stereotype was elaborated: barbarians are like children, unable to speak or reason properly, cowardly, effeminate, luxurious, cruel, unable to control their appetites and desires, politically unable to govern themselves. These stereotypes were voiced with much shrillness by writers like Isocrates in the 4th century BCE who called for a war of conquest against Persia as a panacea for Greek problems.

However, the Hellenic stereotype of barbarians was not a universal feature of Hellenic culture. Xenophon, for example, wrote the Cyropaedia, a laudatory fictionalised account of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian empire, effectively a utopian text. In his Anabasis, Xenophon's accounts of the Persians and other non-Greeks he knew or encountered hardly seem to be under the sway of these stereotypes at all.

The renowned orator Demosthenes made derogatory comments in his speeches, using the word "barbarian."

Barbarian is used in its Hellenic sense by St. Paul in the New Testament (Romans 1:14) to describe non-Greeks, and to describe one who merely speaks a different language (1 Corinthians 14:11).

About a hundred years after Paul's time, Lucian – a native of Samosata, in the former kingdom of Commagene, which had been absorbed by the Roman Empire and made part of the province of Syria – used the term "barbarian" to describe himself. As he was a noted satirist, this could have been a deprecating self-irony. It might also have indicated that he was descended from Samosata's original Semitic population – likely to have been called "barbarians" by later Hellenistic, Greek-speaking settlers, and who might have eventually taken up this appellation themselves.

The term retained its standard usage in the Greek language throughout the Middle Ages, as it was widely used by the Byzantine Greeks until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century.

Cicero described the mountain area of inner Sardinia as "a land of barbarians," with these inhabitants also known by the manifestly pejorative term latrones mastrucati ("thieves with a rough garment in wool"). The region is up to the present known as "Barbagia" (in Sardinian Barbàgia or Barbàza), which is traceable to this old "barbarian" designation – but no longer consciously associated with it, and used naturally as the name of the region by its own inhabitants.

The Dying Galatian statue

Some insight about the Hellenistic perception of and attitude to "Barbarians" can be taken from the "Dying Galatian", a statue commissioned by Attalus I of Pergamon to celebrate his victory over the Celtic Galatians in Anatolia (the bronze original is lost, but a Roman marble copy was found in the 17th century). The statue depicts with remarkable realism a dying Celt warrior with a typically Celtic hairstyle and moustache. He lies on his fallen shield while sword and other objects lie beside him. He appears to be fighting against death, refusing to accept his fate.

The statue serves both as a reminder of the Celts' defeat, thus demonstrating the might of the people who defeated them, and a memorial to their bravery as worthy adversaries. The message conveyed by the sculpture, as H. W. Janson comments, is that "they knew how to die, barbarians that they were."

The Greeks admired Scythians and Galatians as heroic individuals – even in the case of Anacharsis as philosophers – but considered their culture to be barbaric. The Romans indiscriminately regarded the various Germanic tribes, the settled Gauls, and the raiding Huns as barbarians.

The Romans adapted the term to refer to anything non-Roman. The German cultural historian Silvio Vietta points out that the meaning of the word "barbarous" has undergone a semantic change in modern times, after Michel de Montaigne used it to characterize the activities in the New World of the Spaniards – supposedly representatives of the "higher" European culture - as "barbarous," in a satirical essay of the year 1580. It was not the supposedly "uncivilized" Indian tribes who were "barbarous," but the conquering Spaniards. Montaigne argued that Europeans noted the barbarism of other cultures but not the crueler and more brutal actions of their own society, particularly (in his time) in the so-called religious wars. Montaigne's people – the Europeans - were the real "barbarians." In this way, the Eurocentric argument was turned around and applied against the European invaders. With this shift of meaning a whole literature arose in Europe that characterized the indigenous Indian peoples as innocent, and the militarily superior Europeans as "barbarous" intruders into a paradisiacal world.

"Barbarian" in international historical contexts

Historically, the term barbarian has seen widespread use, in English. Many peoples have dismissed alien cultures and even rival civilizations, because they were unrecognizably strange. For instance, the nomadic steppe peoples north of the Black Sea, including the Pechenegs and the Kipchaks, were called barbarians by Byzantines.

Berber and North African cultures

The Berbers of North Africa were among the many peoples called "Barbarian" by the Romans; in their case, the name remained in use, having been adopted by the Arabs (see Berber etymology) and is still in use as the name for the non-Arabs in North Africa (though not by themselves). The geographical term Barbary or Barbary Coast, and the name of the Barbary pirates based on that coast (and who were not necessarily Berbers) were also derived from it.

The term has also been used to refer to people from Barbary, a region encompassing most of North Africa. The name of the region, Barbary, comes from the Arabic word Barbar, possibly from the Latin word barbaricum, meaning "land of the barbarians."

Many languages define the "Other" as those who do not speak one's language; Greek barbaroi was paralleled by Arabic ajam "non-Arabic speakers; non-Arabs; (especially) Persians."

Hindu culture

In the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, the Sanskrit word barbara- meant "stammering, wretch, foreigner, sinful people, low and barbarous". 

Indic peoples anciently referred to foreigners as Mleccha "dirty ones; barbarians." Indic peoples of the Vedic period used mleccha much as the ancient Greeks used barbaros, "originally to indicate the uncouth and incomprehensible speech of foreigners and then extended to their unfamiliar behavior." In the ancient texts, Mlecchas are people who are dirty and who have given up the Vedic beliefs. Today this term implies those with bad hygiene. Among the tribes termed Mleccha were Sakas, Huna people, Yonas, Kambojas, the Pahlavas, Kiratas, Khasas, Bahlika people and Rishikas.

Chinese culture

The term "Barbarian" in traditional Chinese culture had a few interesting aspects. For one thing, Chinese has more than one historical "barbarian" exonym. Several historical Chinese characters for non-Chinese peoples were graphic pejoratives, the character for the Yao people, for instance, was changed from yao 猺 "jackal" to yao 瑤 "precious jade" in the modern period. The original Hua–Yi distinction between "Chinese" and "barbarian" was based on culture and power but not on race.

Historically, the Chinese used various words for foreign ethnic groups. They include terms like 夷 Yi, which is often translated as "barbarians." Despite this conventional translation, there are also other ways of translating Yi into English. Some of the examples include "foreigners," "ordinary others," "wild tribes," "uncivilized tribes," and so forth.

History and terminology

Chinese historical records mention what may now perhaps be termed "barbarian" peoples for over four millennia, although this considerably predates the Greek language origin of the term "barbarian", at least as is known from the thirty-four centuries of written records in the Greek language. The sinologist Herrlee Glessner Creel said, "Throughout Chinese history "the barbarians" have been a constant motif, sometimes minor, sometimes very major indeed. They figure prominently in the Shang oracle inscriptions, and the dynasty that came to an end only in 1912 was, from the Chinese point of view, barbarian."

Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) oracles and bronze inscriptions first recorded specific Chinese exonyms for foreigners, often in contexts of warfare or tribute. King Wu Ding (r. 1250–1192 BC), for instance, fought with the Guifang 鬼方, Di 氐, and Qiang 羌 "barbarians."

During the Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BC), the meanings of four exonyms were expanded. "These included Rong, Yi, Man, and Di—all general designations referring to the barbarian tribes." These Siyi 四夷 "Four Barbarians", most "probably the names of ethnic groups originally," were the Yi or Dongyi 東夷 "eastern barbarians," Man or Nanman 南蠻 "southern barbarians," Rong or Xirong 西戎 "western barbarians," and Di or Beidi 北狄 "northern barbarians." The Russian anthropologist Mikhail Kryukov concluded.

Evidently, the barbarian tribes at first had individual names, but during about the middle of the first millennium B.C., they were classified schematically according to the four cardinal points of the compass. This would, in the final analysis, mean that once again territory had become the primary criterion of the we-group, whereas the consciousness of common origin remained secondary. What continued to be important were the factors of language, the acceptance of certain forms of material culture, the adherence to certain rituals, and, above all, the economy and the way of life. Agriculture was the only appropriate way of life for the Hua-Hsia.

The Chinese classics use compounds of these four generic names in localized "barbarian tribes" exonyms such as "west and north" Rongdi, "south and east" Manyi, Nanyibeidi "barbarian tribes in the south and the north," and Manyirongdi "all kinds of barbarians." Creel says the Chinese evidently came to use Rongdi and Manyi "as generalized terms denoting 'non-Chinese,' 'foreigners,' 'barbarians'," and a statement such as "the Rong and Di are wolves" (Zuozhuan, Min 1) is "very much like the assertion that many people in many lands will make today, that 'no foreigner can be trusted'."

The Chinese had at least two reasons for vilifying and depreciating the non-Chinese groups. On the one hand, many of them harassed and pillaged the Chinese, which gave them a genuine grievance. On the other, it is quite clear that the Chinese were increasingly encroaching upon the territory of these peoples, getting the better of them by trickery, and putting many of them under subjection. By vilifying them and depicting them as somewhat less than human, the Chinese could justify their conduct and still any qualms of conscience.

This word Yi has both specific references, such as to Huaiyi 淮夷 peoples in the Huai River region, and generalized references to "barbarian; foreigner; non-Chinese." Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage translates Yi as "Anc[ient] barbarian tribe on east border, any border or foreign tribe." The sinologist Edwin G. Pulleyblank says the name Yi "furnished the primary Chinese term for 'barbarian'," but "Paradoxically the Yi were considered the most civilized of the non-Chinese peoples.

Idealization

A few contexts in the Chinese classics romanticize or idealize barbarians, comparable to the western noble savage construct. For instance, the Confucian Analects records:

The Master said, The [夷狄] barbarians of the East and North have retained their princes. They are not in such a state of decay as we in China.

The Master said, The Way makes no progress. I shall get upon a raft and float out to sea.

The Master wanted to settle among the [九夷] Nine Wild Tribes of the East. Someone said, I am afraid you would find it hard to put up with their lack of refinement. The Master said, Were a true gentleman to settle among them there would soon be no trouble about lack of refinement.

The translator Arthur Waley noted that, "A certain idealization of the 'noble savage' is to be found fairly often in early Chinese literature", citing the Zuo Zhuan maxim, "When the Emperor no longer functions, learning must be sought among the 'Four Barbarians,' north, west, east, and south." Professor Creel said,

From ancient to modern times the Chinese attitude toward people not Chinese in culture—"barbarians"—has commonly been one of contempt, sometimes tinged with fear ... It must be noted that, while the Chinese have disparaged barbarians, they have been singularly hospitable both to individuals and to groups that have adopted Chinese culture. And at times they seem to have had a certain admiration, perhaps unwilling, for the rude force of these peoples or simpler customs.

In a somewhat related example, Mencius believed that Confucian practices were universal and timeless, and thus followed by both Hua and Yi, "Shun was an Eastern barbarian; he was born in Chu Feng, moved to Fu Hsia, and died in Ming T'iao. King Wen was a Western barbarian; he was born in Ch'i Chou and died in Pi Ying. Their native places were over a thousand li apart, and there were a thousand years between them. Yet when they had their way in the Central Kingdoms, their actions matched like the two halves of a tally. The standards of the two sages, one earlier and one later, were identical."

The prominent Shuowen Jiezi character dictionary (121 CE), which defines yi 夷 as 平 "level; peaceful" or 東方之人 "people of eastern regions," first records that this Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) regular script 夷 and the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BCE) seal script for shi incorporate both the 大 "big" and 弓 "bow" radicals. According to the Shuowen, the radical “big” in the character yi means human. In addition, it states that yi custom is benevolent and given that the benevolent men live long lives, yi countries are where the gentlemen do not die. This is why Confucius said when the Dao is not being practiced in China, he is willing to go to the land of the "Nine Yi." This positive image of yi can also be found in the Book of the Later Han's chapter on the Dongyi, as it describes the Dongyi countries as places where "benevolence rules and the gentlemen do not die" (or, "are not killed", in passive voice translation).

Pejorative Chinese characters

Some Chinese characters used to transcribe non-Chinese peoples were graphically pejorative ethnic slurs, where the insult derived not from the Chinese word but from the character used to write it. Take for instance, the Written Chinese transcription of Yao "the Yao people", who primarily live in the mountains of southwest China and Vietnam. When 11th-century Song Dynasty authors first transcribed the exonym Yao, they insultingly chose yao 猺 "jackal" from a lexical selection of over 100 characters pronounced yao (e.g., 腰 "waist", 遙 "distant", 搖 "shake"). During a series of 20th-century Chinese language reforms, this graphic pejorative 猺 (written with the 犭"dog/beast radical") "jackal; the Yao" was replaced twice; first with the invented character yao 傜 (亻"human radical") "the Yao", then with yao 瑤 (玉 "jade radical") "precious jade; the Yao." Chinese orthography (symbols used to write a language) can provide unique opportunities to write ethnic insults logographically that do not exist alphabetically. For the Yao ethnic group, there is a difference between the transcriptions Yao 猺 "jackal" and Yao 瑤 "jade" but none between the romanizations Yao and Yau.

Cultural and racial barbarianism

According to the archeologist William Meacham, it was only by the time of the late Shang dynasty that one can speak of "Chinese," "Chinese culture," or "Chinese civilization." "There is a sense in which the traditional view of ancient Chinese history is correct (and perhaps it originated ultimately in the first appearance of dynastic civilization): those on the fringes and outside this esoteric event were "barbarians" in that they did not enjoy (or suffer from) the fruit of civilization until they were brought into close contact with it by an imperial expansion of the civilization itself." In a similar vein, Creel explained the significance of Confucian li "ritual; rites; propriety".

The fundamental criterion of "Chinese-ness," anciently and throughout history, has been cultural. The Chinese have had a particular way of life, a particular complex of usages, sometimes characterized as li. Groups that conformed to this way of life were, generally speaking, considered Chinese. Those that turned away from it were considered to cease to be Chinese. ... It was the process of acculturation, transforming barbarians into Chinese, that created the great bulk of the Chinese people. The barbarians of Western Chou times were, for the most part, future Chinese, or the ancestors of future Chinese. This is a fact of great importance. ... It is significant, however, that we almost never find any references in the early literature to physical differences between Chinese and barbarians. Insofar as we can tell, the distinction was purely cultural.

Dikötter says,

Thought in ancient China was oriented towards the world, or tianxia, "all under heaven." The world was perceived as one homogenous unity named "great community" (datong) The Middle Kingdom [China], dominated by the assumption of its cultural superiority, measured outgroups according to a yardstick by which those who did not follow the "Chinese ways" were considered "barbarians." A Theory of "using the Chinese ways to transform the barbarian" as strongly advocated. It was believed that the barbarian could be culturally assimilated. In the Age of Great Peace, the barbarians would flow in and be transformed: the world would be one. 

According to the Pakistani academic M. Shahid Alam, "The centrality of culture, rather than race, in the Chinese world view had an important corollary. Nearly always, this translated into a civilizing mission rooted in the premise that 'the barbarians could be culturally assimilated'"; namely laihua 來化 "come and be transformed" or Hanhua 漢化 "become Chinese; be sinicized."

Two millennia before the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss wrote The Raw and the Cooked, the Chinese differentiated "raw" and "cooked" categories of barbarian peoples who lived in China. The shufan 熟番 "cooked [food eating] barbarians" are sometimes interpreted as Sinicized, and the shengfan 生番 "raw [food eating] barbarians" as not Sinicized. The Liji gives this description.

The people of those five regions – the Middle states, and the [Rong], [Yi] (and other wild tribes around them) – had all their several natures, which they could not be made to alter. The tribes on the east were called [Yi]. They had their hair unbound, and tattooed their bodies. Some of them ate their food without its being cooked with fire. Those on the south were called Man. They tattooed their foreheads, and had their feet turned toward each other. Some of them ate their food without its being cooked with fire. Those on the west were called [Rong]. They had their hair unbound, and wore skins. Some of them did not eat grain-food. Those on the north were called [Di]. They wore skins of animals and birds, and dwelt in caves. Some of them did not eat grain-food.

Dikötter explains the close association between nature and nurture. "The shengfan, literally 'raw barbarians', were considered savage and resisting. The shufan, or 'cooked barbarians', were tame and submissive. The consumption of raw food was regarded as an infallible sign of savagery that affected the physiological state of the barbarian."

Some Warring States period texts record a belief that the respective natures of the Chinese and the barbarian were incompatible. Mencius, for instance, once stated: "I have heard of the Chinese converting barbarians to their ways, but not of their being converted to barbarian ways." Dikötter says, "The nature of the Chinese was regarded as impermeable to the evil influences of the barbarian; no retrogression was possible. Only the barbarian might eventually change by adopting Chinese ways."

However, different thinkers and texts convey different opinions on this issue. The prominent Tang Confucian Han Yu, for example, wrote in his essay Yuan Dao the following: "When Confucius wrote the Chunqiu, he said that if the feudal lords use Yi ritual, then they should be called Yi; If they use Chinese rituals, then they should be called Chinese." Han Yu went on to lament in the same essay that the Chinese of his time might all become Yi because the Tang court wanted to put Yi laws above the teachings of the former kings. Therefore, Han Yu's essay shows the possibility that the Chinese can lose their culture and become the uncivilized outsiders, and that the uncivilized outsiders have the potential to become Chinese.

Interestingly, after the Song Dynasty, many of China's rulers in the north were of Inner Asia ethnicities, such as Qidan, Ruzhen, and Mongols of the Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the latter ended up ruling over the entire China. Hence, the historian John King Fairbank wrote, "the influence on China of the great fact of alien conquest under the Liao-Jin-Yuan dynasties is just beginning to be explored." During the Qing Dynasty, the rulers of China adopted Confucian philosophy and Han Chinese institutions to show that the Manchu rulers had received the Mandate of Heaven to rule China. At the same time, they also tried to retain their own indigenous culture. Due to the Manchus' adoption of Han Chinese culture, most Han Chinese (though not all) did accept the Manchus as the legitimate rulers of China. Similarly, according to Fudan University historian Yao Dali, even the supposedly "patriotic" hero Wen Tianxiang of the late Song and early Yuan period did not believe the Mongol rule to be illegitimate. In fact, Wen was willing to live under Mongol rule as long as he was not forced to be a Yuan dynasty official, out of his loyalty to the Song dynasty. Yao explains that Wen chose to die in the end because he was forced to become a Yuan official. So, Wen chose death due to his loyalty to his dynasty, not because he viewed the Yuan court as a non-Chinese, illegitimate regime and therefore refused to live under their rule. Yao also says that many Chinese who were living in the Yuan-Ming transition period also shared Wen's beliefs of identifying with and putting loyalty towards one's dynasty above racial/ethnic differences. Many Han Chinese writers did not celebrate the collapse of the Mongols and the return of the Han Chinese rule in the form of the Ming dynasty government at that time. Many Han Chinese actually chose not to serve in the new Ming court at all due to their loyalty to the Yuan. Some Han Chinese also committed suicide on behalf of the Mongols as a proof of their loyalty. We should note that the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, also indicated that he was happy to be born in the Yuan period and that the Yuan did legitimately receive the Mandate of Heaven to rule over China. On a side note, one of his key advisors, Liu Ji, generally supported the idea that while the Chinese and the non-Chinese are different, they are actually equal. Liu was therefore arguing against the idea that the Chinese were and are superior to the "Yi."

These things show that many times, pre-modern Chinese did view culture (and sometimes politics) rather than race and ethnicity as the dividing line between the Chinese and the non-Chinese. In many cases, the non-Chinese could and did become the Chinese and vice versa, especially when there was a change in culture.

Modern reinterpretations

According to the historian Frank Dikötter, "The delusive myth of a Chinese antiquity that abandoned racial standards in favour of a concept of cultural universalism in which all barbarians could ultimately participate has understandably attracted some modern scholars. Living in an unequal and often hostile world, it is tempting to project the utopian image of a racially harmonious world into a distant and obscure past."

The politician, historian, and diplomat K. C. Wu analyzes the origin of the characters for the Yi, Man, Rong, Di, and Xia peoples and concludes that the "ancients formed these characters with only one purpose in mind—to describe the different ways of living each of these people pursued." Despite the well-known examples of pejorative exonymic characters (such as the "dog radical" in Di), he claims there is no hidden racial bias in the meanings of the characters used to describe these different peoples, but rather the differences were "in occupation or in custom, not in race or origin." K. C. Wu says the modern character 夷 designating the historical "Yi peoples," composed of the characters for 大 "big (person)" and 弓 "bow", implies a big person carrying a bow, someone to perhaps be feared or respected, but not to be despised. However, differing from K. C. Wu, the scholar Wu Qichang believes that the earliest oracle bone script for yi 夷 was used interchangeably with shi 尸 "corpse". The historian John Hill explains that Yi "was used rather loosely for non-Chinese populations of the east. It carried the connotation of people ignorant of Chinese culture and, therefore, 'barbarians'."

Christopher I. Beckwith makes the extraordinary claim that the name "barbarian" should only be used for Greek historical contexts, and is inapplicable for all other "peoples to whom it has been applied either historically or in modern times." Beckwith notes that most specialists in East Asian history, including him, have translated Chinese exonyms as English "barbarian." He believes that after academics read his published explanation of the problems, except for direct quotations of "earlier scholars who use the word, it should no longer be used as a term by any writer."

The first problem is that, "it is impossible to translate the word barbarian into Chinese because the concept does not exist in Chinese," meaning a single "completely generic" loanword from Greek barbar-. "Until the Chinese borrow the word barbarian or one of its relatives, or make up a new word that explicitly includes the same basic ideas, they cannot express the idea of the 'barbarian' in Chinese.".[80] The usual Standard Chinese translation of English barbarian is yemanren (traditional Chinese: 野蠻人; simplified Chinese: 野蛮人; pinyin: yěmánrén), which Beckwith claims, "actually means 'wild man, savage'. That is very definitely not the same thing as 'barbarian'." Despite this semantic hypothesis, Chinese-English dictionaries regularly translate yemanren as "barbarian" or "barbarians." Beckwith concedes that the early Chinese "apparently disliked foreigners in general and looked down on them as having an inferior culture," and pejoratively wrote some exonyms. However, he purports, "The fact that the Chinese did not like foreigner Y and occasionally picked a transcriptional character with negative meaning (in Chinese) to write the sound of his ethnonym, is irrelevant."

Beckwith's second problem is with linguists and lexicographers of Chinese. "If one looks up in a Chinese-English dictionary the two dozen or so partly generic words used for various foreign peoples throughout Chinese history, one will find most of them defined in English as, in effect, 'a kind of barbarian'. Even the works of well-known lexicographers such as Karlgren do this."[83] Although Beckwith does not cite any examples, the Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren edited two dictionaries: Analytic Dictionary of Chinese and Sino-Japanese (1923) and Grammata Serica Recensa (1957). Compare Karlgrlen's translations of the siyi "four barbarians":

yi 夷 "barbarian, foreigner; destroy, raze to the ground," "barbarian (esp. tribes to the East of ancient China)"

man 蛮 "barbarians of the South; barbarian, savage," "Southern barbarian"

rong 戎 "weapons, armour; war, warrior; N. pr. of western tribes," "weapon; attack; war chariot; loan for tribes of the West"

di 狄 "Northern Barbarians – "fire-dogs"," "name of a Northern tribe; low servant"

The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Project includes Karlgren's GSR definitions. Searching the STEDT Database finds various "a kind of" definitions for plant and animal names (e.g., you 狖 "a kind of monkey," but not one "a kind of barbarian" definition. Besides faulting Chinese for lacking a general "barbarian" term, Beckwith also faults English, which "has no words for the many foreign peoples referred to by one or another Classical Chinese word, such as 胡 hú, 夷 yí, 蠻 mán, and so on."

The third problem involves Tang Dynasty usages of fan "foreigner" and lu "prisoner", neither of which meant "barbarian." Beckwith says Tang texts used fan 番 or 蕃 "foreigner" (see shengfan and shufan above) as "perhaps the only true generic at any time in Chinese literature, was practically the opposite of the word barbarian. It meant simply 'foreign, foreigner' without any pejorative meaning." In modern usage, fan 番 means "foreigner; barbarian; aborigine". The linguist Robert Ramsey illustrates the pejorative connotations of fan.

The word "Fān" was formerly used by the Chinese almost innocently in the sense of 'aborigines' to refer to ethnic groups in South China, and Mao Zedong himself once used it in 1938 in a speech advocating equal rights for the various minority peoples. But that term has now been so systematically purged from the language that it is not to be found (at least in that meaning) even in large dictionaries, and all references to Mao's 1938 speech have excised the offending word and replaced it with a more elaborate locution, "Yao, Yi, and Yu."

The Tang Dynasty Chinese also had a derogatory term for foreigners, lu (traditional Chinese: 虜; simplified Chinese: 虏; pinyin: lǔ) "prisoner, slave, captive". Beckwith says it means something like "those miscreants who should be locked up," therefore, "The word does not even mean 'foreigner' at all, let alone 'barbarian'."

Christopher I. Beckwith's 2009 "The Barbarians" epilogue provides many references, but overlooks H. G. Creel's 1970 "The Barbarians" chapter. Creel descriptively wrote, "Who, in fact, were the barbarians? The Chinese have no single term for them. But they were all the non-Chinese, just as for the Greeks the barbarians were all the non-Greeks." Beckwith prescriptively wrote, "The Chinese, however, have still not yet borrowed Greek barbar-. There is also no single native Chinese word for 'foreigner', no matter how pejorative," which meets his strict definition of "barbarian.".

Allusions in poetry

Conventionally Chinese poets did not directly criticize the ruling emperor or even the current dynasty: such poetic practice was both an aesthetic principle as well as a practical method of prudently avoiding punishment for treason, or lèse-majesté. Although socio-political criticism was an important aspect of Chinese poetry, generally if it involved the reigning monarch and the current dynasty it was done indirectly and with subtle circumspection: it was "a custom almost universally followed by Chinese poets to refer to their own dynasty and to the reigns of emperors contemporary with them by indirect means and in complimentary terms." Lack of success in war was potentially a capital offense for a general, and considered unmentionable in direct regard to the emperor. Thus poetic references or allusions to a current armed conflict between the Chinese empire and an external nation would be done through the substitution in time to a former dynasty; for example, reference to the Han dynasty and its leaders by Tang poets; and the real ethnic identity of the opposing force masked by substitution; for example, the Tang dynasty poems about battling the Xiongnu, although clearly anachronistic several centuries, by then. Thus, although the poets' comments about the nature of the situation might be accurate enough, the actual identity of the ethnically-named opponents can generally be relied upon to be different than that named. In English translation, further confusion regarding specific historic identity of people or events referred or alluded to results from the translation process; for example, in the case of Chen Tao's 28-character verse entitled "隴西行", one of the Three Hundred Tang Poems which has often been translated into English.

Barbarian puppet drinking game

In the Tang Dynasty houses of pleasure, where drinking games were common, small puppets in the aspect of Westerners, in a ridiculous state of drunkenness, were used in one popular permutation of the drinking game; so, in the form of blue-eyed, pointy nosed, and peak-capped barbarians, these puppets were manipulated in such a way as to occasionally fall down: then, whichever guest to whom the puppet pointed after falling was then obliged by honor to empty his cup of Chinese wine.

Japanese culture

When Europeans came to Japan, they were called nanban (南蛮), literally Barbarians from the South, because the Portuguese ships appeared to sail from the South. The Dutch, who arrived later, were also called either nanban or kōmō (紅毛), literally meaning "Red Hair."

American cultures

In Mesoamerica the Aztec civilization used the word "Chichimeca" to denominate a group of nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes that lived in the outskirts of the Triple Alliance's Empire, in the North of Modern Mexico, which were seen by the Aztec people as primitive and uncivilized. One of the meanings attributed to the word "Chichimeca" is "dog people".

The Incas of South America used the term "puruma auca" for all peoples living outside the rule of their empire (see Promaucaes).

The white settlers of the United States referred to Native Americans as "savages."

Early Modern period

Italians in the Renaissance often called anyone who lived outside of their country a barbarian.

Spanish sea captain Francisco de Cuellar who sailed with the Spanish Armada in 1588 used the term 'savage' ('salvaje') to describe the Irish people.

Marxist use of "Barbarism"

In her "Junius Pamphlet" of 1916, strongly denouncing the then raging First World War, Rosa Luxemburg wrote: Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to Socialism or regression into Barbarism.

Luxemburg attributed it to Friedrich Engels, though – as shown by Michael Löwy – Engels had not used the term "Barbarism" but a less resounding formulation: If the whole of modern society is not to perish, a revolution in the mode of production and distribution must take place.

Luxemburg went on to explain what she meant by "Regression into Barbarism": "A look around us at this moment [i.e., 1916 Europe] shows what the regression of bourgeois society into Barbarism means. This World War is a regression into Barbarism. The triumph of Imperialism leads to the annihilation of civilization. At first, this happens sporadically for the duration of a modern war, but then when the period of unlimited wars begins it progresses toward its inevitable consequences. Today, we face the choice exactly as Friedrich Engels foresaw it a generation ago: either the triumph of Imperialism and the collapse of all civilization as in ancient Rome, depopulation, desolation, degeneration – a great cemetery. Or the victory of Socialism, that means the conscious active struggle of the International Proletariat against Imperialism and its method of war."

"Socialism or Barbarism" became, and remains, an often quoted and influential concept in Marxist literature. "Barbarism" is variously interpreted as meaning either a technologically advanced but extremely exploitative and oppressive society (e.g. a victory and world domination by Nazi Germany and its Fascist allies); a collapse of technological civilization due to Capitalism causing a Nuclear War or ecological disaster; or the one form of barbarism bringing on the other.

The Internationalist Communist Tendency considers "Socialism or Barbarism" to be a variant of the earlier "Liberty or Death", used by revolutionaries of different stripes since the late 18th century.

Modern popular culture

Modern popular culture contains such fantasy barbarians as Thundarr the Barbarian and Conan the Barbarian.

In such fantasy, the negative connotations traditionally associated with "Barbarian" are often inverted. For example, "The Phoenix on the Sword" (1932), the first of Robert E. Howard's "Conan" series, is set soon after the "Barbarian" protagonist had forcibly seized the turbulent kingdom of Aquilonia from King Numedides, whom he strangled upon his throne. The story is clearly slanted to imply that the kingdom greatly benefited by power passing from a decadent and tyrannical hereditary monarch to a strong and vigorous Barbarian usurper.

Wikipedia 

ELOHIM 

Elohim (Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים) is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language.

When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or "powers". It is generally thought that Elohim is a formation from eloah, the latter being an expanded form of the Northwest Semitic noun il (אֵל, ʾēl[3]). It is usually translated as "God" in the Hebrew Bible, referring with singular verbs both to the one God of Israel, and also in a few examples to other singular pagan deities. With plural verbs the word is also used as a true plural with the meaning "gods".[3] The related nouns eloah (אלוה) and el (אֵל) are used as proper names or as generics, in which case they are interchangeable with elohim.

Mark S. Smith said that the notion of divinity underwent radical changes throughout the period of early Israelite identity. Smith said that the ambiguity of the term Elohim is the result of such changes, cast in terms of "vertical translatability" by Smith (2008); i.e. the re-interpretation of the gods of the earliest recalled period as the national god of the monolatrism as it emerged in the 7th to 6th century BCE in the Kingdom of Judah and during the Babylonian captivity, and further in terms of monotheism by the emergence of Rabbinical Judaism in the 2nd century CE. A different version was produced by Morton Smith. Despite the -im ending common to many plural masculine nouns in Hebrew, the word when referring to the Name of God is grammatically singular, and takes a singular verb in the Hebrew Bible.

The word is identical to the usual plural of el meaning gods or magistrates, and is cognate to the 'l-h-m found in Ugaritic, where it is used for the pantheon of Canaanite gods, the children of El and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim". Most use of the term Elohim in the later Hebrew text imply a view that is at least monolatrist at the time of writing, and such usage (in the singular), as a proper title for the supreme deity, is generally not considered to be synonymous with the term elohim, "gods" (plural, simple noun). Hebrew grammar allows for this nominally-plural form to mean "He is the Power (singular) over powers (plural)", or roughly, "God of gods". Rabbinic scholar Maimonides wrote that the various other usages are commonly understood to be homonyms.

Etymology 

Further information: El (deity), Ilah, Alaha and Allah

The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible defines "elohim" as a plural of eloah, an expanded form of the common Semitic noun "'il" (ʾēl). It contains an added heh as third radical to the biconsonantal root. Discussions of the etymology of elohim essentially concern this expansion. An exact cognate outside of Hebrew is found in Ugaritic ʾlhm, the family of El, the creator god and chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon, in Biblical Aramaic ʼĔlāhā and later Syriac Alaha "God", and in Arabic ʾilāh "god, deity" (or Allah as " The [single] God").

"El" (the basis for the extended root ʾlh) is usually derived from a root meaning "to be strong" and/or "to be in front".

Canaanite Religion 

The word el (singular) is a standard term for "god" in other related Semitic languages including Ugaritic. The Canaanite pantheon of gods was known as the elohim (the gods [plural]).[citation needed] For instance, in the Ugaritic Baal cycle we read of "seventy sons of Asherah". Each "son of god" was held to be the originating deity for a particular people. (KTU2 1.4.VI.46).[6] A memory of this myth is contained in Genesis, describing the "sons of God" who lay with the "daughters of men". In post-exilic apocrypha these were identified as Nephelim, or fallen angels.

Elohist 

Elohim occurs frequently throughout the received text of the Torah. In some cases (e.g. Exodus 3:4, "... Elohim called unto him out of the midst of the bush ..."), it acts as a singular noun in Hebrew grammar, and is then generally understood to denote the single God of Israel. In other cases, Elohim acts as an ordinary plural of the word Eloah, and refers to the polytheistic notion of multiple gods (for example, Exodus 20:3, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.").

The choice of word or words for God varies in the Hebrew Bible. According to the documentary hypothesis these variations are evidence of different source texts: Elohim is used as the name of God in the Elohist and the Priestly source, while Yahweh is used in the Jahwist source. The difference in names results from the theological point being made in the Elohist and Priestly sources that God did not reveal his name, Yahweh, to any man before the time of Moses.

While the Jahwist presented an anthropomorphic God who could walk through the Garden of Eden looking for Adam and Eve, the Elohist frequently involves angels. For example, it is the Elohist version of the tale of Jacob's ladder in which there is a ladder of angels with God at the top, whereas in the Jahwist tale, it is just a dream in which God is simply above the location, without the ladder or angels. Likewise, the Elohist describes Jacob actually wrestling with God.{Genesis 32:28}

The classical documentary hypothesis as developed in the late 19th century assumed that the Elohist portions of the Torah were composed in the 9th century BCE (i.e. during the early period of the Kingdom of Judah). This is far from universally accepted today, as there is evidence of a later "Elohist redaction" (post-exilic) during the 5th century BCE which makes it difficult to determine whether a given passage is "Elohist" in origin, or only as a result of late redaction.

Hebrew Bible 

The word Elohim occurs more than 2500 times in the Hebrew Bible, with meanings ranging from "god" in a general sense (as in Exodus 12:12, where it describes "the gods of Egypt"), to a specific god (e.g., 1 Kings 11:33, where it describes Chemosh "the god of Moab", or the frequent references to Yahweh (Jehovah) as the "elohim" of Israel), to demons, seraphim, and other supernatural beings, to the spirits of the dead brought up at the behest of King Saul in 1 Samuel 28:13, and even to kings and prophets (e.g., Exodus 4:16). The phrase bene elohim, usually translated "sons of God", has an exact parallel in Ugaritic and Phoenician texts, referring to the council of the gods.

Elohim occupy the seventh rank of ten in the famous medieval Rabbinic scholar Maimonides' Jewish angelic hierarchy. Maimonides said: "I must premise that every Hebrew knows that the term Elohim is a homonym, and denotes God, angels, judges, and the rulers of countries, .. 

Grammar, Singular or Plural 

In Hebrew the ending -im mainly indicates a masculine plural. However with Elohim the construction is grammatically singular (i.e. it governs a singular verb or adjective) when referring to the Hebrew God, but grammatically plural elohim (i.e. taking a plural verb or adjective) when used of pagan divinities (Psalms 96:5; 97:7. 

Similarly, the Quran uses alīha as the plural of īlah for pagan divinities, and occasionally uses "Allahum" (O God! - plural) for the sole god (as opposed to "Allah"). The exact equivalent, in modern Arabic, of Elohim as meaning plural gods would be Īlahīn (إلاهين), although it is rarely used in Arabic parlance. Note that human beings can also have names with plural endings, such as Ephraim, the son of Joseph.

Plural "gods", with plural verb

The noun elohim is used with a plural verb in 1 Samuel 28:13. The witch of Endor told Saul that she saw "gods" (elohim) ascending (olim עֹלִים, plural verb) out of the earth.

God of Israel, with singular verb

In the Hebrew Bible Elohim, when meaning the God of Israel, is mostly grammatically singular. Even in Genesis 1:26 "Then God said (singular verb), 'Let us make (plural verb) man in our image, after our likeness'", Elohim is singular. Wilhelm Gesenius and other Hebrew grammarians traditionally described this as the pluralis excellentiae (plural of excellence), which is similar to the pluralis majestatis (plural of majesty, or "Royal we").

Gesenius comments that Elohim singular is to be distinguished from elohim plural gods and remarks that:

the supposition that elohim is to be regarded as merely a remnant of earlier polytheistic views (i.e. as originally only a numerical plural) is at least highly improbable, and, moreover, would not explain the analogous plurals (below). To the same class (and probably formed on the analogy of elohim) belong the plurals kadoshim, meaning "the Most Holy" (only of Yahweh, Hosea 12:1, Proverbs 9:10, 30:3 (cf. El hiym kadoshim in Joshua 24:19 and the singular Aramaic "the Most High", Daniel 7:18, 22, 25); and probably teraphim (usually taken in the sense of penates) the image of a god, used especially for obtaining oracles. Certainly in 1 Samuel 19:13, 16 only one image is intended; in most other places a single image may be intended; in Zechariah 10:2 alone is it most naturally taken as a numerical plural.

There are a number of notable exceptions to the rule that Elohim is treated as singular when referring to the God of Israel, including Gen. 20:13, 35:7, 2 Sam. 7:23 and Ps. 58:11, and notably the epithet of the "Living God" (Deuteronomy 5:26 etc.), which is constructed with the plural adjective, Elohim Hayiym אלהים חיים but still takes singular verbs.

In the Septuagint and New Testament translations Elohim has the singular ὁ θεὸς even in these cases, and modern translations follow suit in giving "God" in the singular. The Samaritan Torah has edited out some of these exceptions.

Abraham's "the gods caused me"

In Gen 20:13 Abraham, before the polytheistic Philistine king Abimelech, says that "the gods (elohim) caused (plural verb) me to wander". The Greek Septuagint (LXX) and most English versions usually translate this "God caused", possibly to avoid the implication of Abraham deferring to Abimelech's polytheistic beliefs.

Angels and judges

In a few cases in the Greek Septuagint (LXX), Hebrew elohim with a plural verb, or with implied plural context, was rendered either angeloi ("angels") or pros to kriterion tou Theou ("before the judgement of God"). These passages then entered first the Latin Vulgate, then the English King James Version (KJV) as "angels" and "judges", respectively. From this came the result that James Strong, for example, listed "angels" and "judges" as possible meanings for elohim with a plural verb in his Strong's Concordance, and the same is true of many other 17th-20th century reference works. Both Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon and the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon list both angels and judges as possible alternative meanings of elohim with plural verbs and adjectives.

The reliability of the Septuagint translation in this matter has been questioned by Gesenius and Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg. In the case of Gesenius, he lists the meaning without agreeing with it. Hengstenberg stated that the Hebrew Bible text never uses elohim to refer to "angels", but that the Septuagint translators refused the references to "gods" in the verses they amended to "angels."

The Greek New Testament (NT) quotes Psalm 8:4-6 in Hebrews 2:6b-8a, where the Greek NT has "ἀγγέλους" (angelos) in vs. 7,[17] quoting Ps. 8:5 (8:6 in the LXX), which also has "ἀγγέλους" in a version of the Greek Septuagint.[18] In the KJV, elohim (Strong's number H430) is translated as "angels" only in Psalm 8:5.

The KJV has elohim translated as "judges" in Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8; and twice in Exodus 22:9.

Ambiguous readings

Sometimes when elohim occurs as the referent or object (i.e. not subject) of a sentence, and without any accompanying verb or adjective to indicate plurality, it may be grammatically unclear whether gods plural or God singular is intended. An example is Psalm 8:5 where "Yet you have made him a little lower than the elohim" is ambiguous as to whether "lower than the gods" or "lower than God" is intended. The Septuagint read this as "gods" and then "corrected" the translation to "angels", which reading is taken up by the New Testament in Hebrews 2:9 "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (full quote and compare)

Other plural-singulars in biblical Hebrew

The Hebrew language has several nouns with -im (masculine plural) and -oth (feminine plural) endings which nevertheless take singular verbs, adjectives and pronouns. For example Ba'alim "owner": "He is lord (singular) even over any of those things that he owns that are lordly (plural)."

Jacob's ladder "gods were revealed" (plural)

In the following verses Elohim was translated as God singular in the King James Version even though it was accompanied by plural verbs and other plural grammatical terms.

And there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed [plural verb] himself to him when he fled from his brother.

—Genesis 35:7, ESV

Here the Hebrew verb "revealed" is plural, hence: "the-gods were revealed". A NET Bible note claims that the Authorized Version wrongly translates: "God appeared unto him". This is one of several instances where the Bible uses plural verbs with the name elohim.

The Divine Council of Elohim

AV Psalm 82:1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. [...]

I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High.

But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

—Psalm 82:1, 6-7 (AV)

Marti Steussy, in Chalice Introduction to the Old Testament, discusses: “The first verse of Psalm 82: ‘Elohim has taken his place in the divine council.’ Here elohim has a singular verb and clearly refers to God. But in verse 6 of the Psalm, God says to the other members of the council, ‘You [plural] are elohim.’ Here elohim has to mean gods.”

Mark Smith, referring to this same Psalm, states in God in Translation “This psalm presents a scene of the gods meeting together in divine council...Elohim stands in the council of El. Among the elohim he pronounces judgment:...”

In Hulsean Lectures for..., H. M. Stephenson discussed Jesus’ argument in John 10:34–36 concerning Psalm 82. (In answer to the charge of blasphemy Jesus replied:) "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods. If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" – "Now what is the force of this quotation 'I said ye are gods.' It is from the Asaph Psalm which begins 'Elohim hath taken His place in the mighty assembly. In the midst of the Elohim He is judging.'"

Sons of God

The Hebrew word for a son is ben; plural is benim (with the construct state form being "benei"). The Hebrew term benei elohim ("sons of God" or "sons of the gods") in Genesis 6:2 compares to the use of "sons of gods" (Ugaritic b'n il) sons of El in Ugaritic mythology. Karel van der Toorn states that gods can be referred to collectively as bene elim, bene elyon, or bene elohim.

In Jewish tradition, the Torah verse, that was the battle-cry of the Maccabees (Hebrew: מקבים‎ Machabi, מקבים), "Mi chamocha ba'elim YHWH" ("Who is like You among the heavenly powers, YHWH"), is an acronym for "Machabi" as well as an acronym for "Matityahu Kohen ben Yochanan". The correlating Torah verse, The song of Moses and the Children of Israel by the Sea, makes a reference to elim, but more with a mundane notion of natural forces, might, war and governmental powers.

English Bible translations

Hebrew elohim in English translations of the Bible is generally rendered as gods when occurring with a plural verb or referring to pagan deities, and as God when occurring with a singular verb or referring to the God of Israel.

Wikipedia 

NEOLITHIC 

The Neolithic Listeni/ˌniːɵˈlɪθɪk/ Era, or Period, from νέος (néos, "new") and λίθος (líthos, "stone"), or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 10,200 BC, according to the ASPRO chronology, in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world and ending between 4,500 and 2,000 BC.

Traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age, the Neolithic followed the terminal Holocene Epipaleolithic period and commenced with the beginning of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution". It ended when metal tools became widespread (in the Copper Age or Bronze Age; or, in some geographical regions, in the Iron Age). The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops and of domesticated animals.

The beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant (Jericho, modern-day West Bank) about 10,200–8,800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called "proto-neolithic" is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNA) between 10,200 and 8,800 BC. As the Natufians had become dependent on wild cereals in their diet, and a sedentary way of life had begun among them, the climatic changes associated with the Younger Dryas are thought to have forced people to develop farming. By 10,200–8,800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa and North Mesopotamia. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep and goats. By about 6,900–6,400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery.

Not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order: the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. In other parts of the world, such as Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own regionally distinctive Neolithic cultures that arose completely independent of those in Europe and Southwest Asia. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture.

Unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species (Homo sapiens sapiens) reached the Neolithic. Homo floresiensis may have survived right up to the very dawn of the Neolithic, about 12,200 years ago.

The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νεολιθικός, neolithikos, from νέος neos, "new" + λίθος lithos, "stone", literally meaning "New Stone Age". The term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.

Periods by pottery phase

In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing by in the 10th millennium BC. Early development occurred in the Levant (e.g. Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are also attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by c. 8,000 BC.

The prehistoric Beifudi site near Yixian in Hebei Province, China, contains relics of a culture contemporaneous with the Cishan and Xinglongwa cultures of about 5,000–6,000 BC, neolithic cultures east of the Taihang Mountains, filling in an archaeological gap between the two Northern Chinese cultures. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards and the collection of neolithic findings at the site consists of two phases.

Neolithic 1 – Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)

The Neolithic 1 (PPNA) period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9,500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity and may be the oldest known human-made place of worship. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres (100,000 m2), contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects and birds. Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which may have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9,500 to 9,000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel (notably Ain Mallaha, Nahal Oren, and Kfar HaHoresh), Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, and Byblos, Lebanon. The start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree.

The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming. In the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour. Emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated (animal husbandry and selective breeding).

In the 21st century, remains of figs were discovered in a house in Jericho dated to 9,400 BC. The figs are of a mutant variety that cannot be pollinated by insects, and therefore the trees can only reproduce from cuttings. This evidence suggests that figs were the first cultivated crop and mark the invention of the technology of farming. This occurred centuries before the first cultivation of grains.

Settlements became more permanent with circular houses, much like those of the Natufians, with single rooms. However, these houses were for the first time made of mudbrick. The settlement had a surrounding stone wall and perhaps a stone tower (as in Jericho). The wall served as protection from nearby groups, as protection from floods, or to keep animals penned. There are also some enclosures that suggest grain and meat storage.

Neolithic 2 – Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB)

The Neolithic 2 (PPNB) began around 8,800 BC according to the ASPRO chronology in the Levant (Jericho, Israel). As with the PPNA dates there are two versions from the same laboratories noted above. But this terminological structure is not convenient for southeast Anatolia and settlements of the middle Anatolia basin. This era was before the Mesolithic era.

Settlements have rectangular mud-brick houses where the family lived together in single or multiple rooms. Burial findings suggest an ancestor cult where people preserved skulls of the dead, which were plastered with mud to make facial features. The rest of the corpse may have been left outside the settlement to decay until only the bones were left, then the bones were buried inside the settlement underneath the floor or between houses.

Neolithic 3 – Pottery Neolithic (PN)

The Neolithic 3 (PN) began around 6,400 BC in the Fertile Crescent. By then distinctive cultures emerged, with pottery like the Halafian (Turkey, Syria, Northern Mesopotamia) and Ubaid (Southern Mesopotamia). This period has been further divided into PNA (Pottery Neolithic A) and PNB (Pottery Neolithic B) at some sites.

The Chalcolithic period began about 4500 BC, then the Bronze Age began about 3500 BC, replacing the Neolithic cultures.

Periods by region

Fertile Crescent

Around 10,200 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phase Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) appeared in the fertile crescent. Around 10,700 to 9,400 BC a settlement was established in Tell Qaramel, 10 miles north of Aleppo. The settlement included 2 temples dating back to 9,650. Around 9000 BC during the PPNA, one of the world's first towns, Jericho, appeared in the Levant. It was surrounded by a stone and marble wall and contained a population of 2000–3000 people and a massive stone tower. Around 6,400 BC the Halaf culture appeared in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, and Northern Mesopotamia and subsisted on dryland agriculture.

In 1981 a team of researchers from the Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, including Jacques Cauvin and Oliver Aurenche divided Near East neolithic chronology into ten periods (0 to 9) based on social, economic and cultural characteristics. In 2002 Danielle Stordeur and Frédéric Abbès advanced this system with a division into five periods. Natufian (1) between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, Khiamian (2) between 10,200-8,800 BC, PPNA: Sultanian (Jericho), Mureybetian, early PPNB (PPNB ancien) (3) between 8,800-7,600 BC, middle PPNB (PPNB moyen) 7,600-6,900 BC, late PPNB (PPNB récent) (4) between 7,500 and 7,000 BC and a PPNB (sometimes called PPNC) transitional stage (PPNB final) (5) where Halaf and dark faced burnished ware begin to emerge between 6,900-6,400 BC. They also advanced the idea of a transitional stage between the PPNA and PPNB between 8,800 and 8,600 BC at sites like Jerf el Ahmar and Tell Aswad.

Southern Mesopotamia

Alluvial plains (Sumer/Elam). Little rainfall makes irrigation systems necessary. Ubaid culture from 6,900 BC.

North Africa 

Domestication of sheep and goats reached Egypt from the Near East possibly as early as 6,000 BC. Graeme Barker states "The first indisputable evidence for domestic plants and animals in the Nile valley is not until the early fifth millennium bc in northern Egypt and a thousand years later further south, in both cases as part of strategies that still relied heavily on fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild plants" and suggests that these subsistence changes were not due to farmers migrating from the Near East but was an indigenous development, with cereals either indigenous or obtained through exchange. Other scholars argue that the primary stimulus for agriculture and domesticated animals (as well as mud-brick architecture and other Neolithic cultural features) in Egypt was from the Middle East.

Europe

In southeast Europe agrarian societies first appeared in the 7th millennium BC, attested by one of the earliest farming sites of Europe, discovered in Vashtëmi, southeastern Albania and dating back to 6,500 BC. Anthropomorphic figurines have been found in the Balkans from 6000 BC, and in Central Europe by c. 5800 BC (La Hoguette). Among the earliest cultural complexes of this area are the Sesklo culture in Thessaly, which later expanded in the Balkans giving rise to Starčevo-Körös (Cris), Linearbandkeramik, and Vinča. Through a combination of cultural diffusion and migration of peoples, the Neolithic traditions spread west and northwards to reach northwestern Europe by around 4500 BC. The Vinča culture may have created the earliest system of writing, the Vinča signs, though archaeologist Shan Winn believes they most likely represented pictograms and ideograms rather than a truly developed form of writing. The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture built enormous settlements in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine from 5300 to 2300 BC. The megalithic temple complexes of Ġgantija on the Mediterranean island of Gozo (in the Maltese archipelago) and of Mnajdra (Malta) are notable for their gigantic Neolithic structures, the oldest of which date back to c. 3600 BC. The Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni, Paola, Malta, is a subterranean structure excavated c. 2500 BC; originally a sanctuary, it became a necropolis, the only prehistoric underground temple in the world, and showing a degree of artistry in stone sculpture unique in prehistory to the Maltese islands. After 2500 BC, the Maltese Islands were depopulated for several decades until the arrival of a new influx of Bronze Age immigrants, a culture that cremated its dead and introduced smaller megalithic structures called dolmens to Malta. In most cases there are small chambers here, with the cover made of a large slab placed on upright stones. They are claimed to belong to a population certainly different from that which built the previous megalithic temples. It is presumed the population arrived from Sicily because of the similarity of Maltese dolmens to some small constructions found in the largest island of the Mediterranean sea.

South and East Asia

The earliest Neolithic site in South Asia is Mehrgarh, dated to 7500 BC, in the Kachi plain of Baluchistan, Pakistan; the site has evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats).

In South India, the Neolithic began by 3000 BC and lasted until around 1400 BC when the Megalithic transition period began. South Indian Neolithic is characterized by Ashmounds since 2500 BC in Karnataka region, expanded later to Tamil Nadu.

In East Asia, the earliest sites include Nanzhuangtou culture around 9500 BC to 9000 BC, Pengtoushan culture around 7500 BC to 6100 BC, and Peiligang culture around 7000 BC to 5000 BC.

The 'Neolithic' (defined in this paragraph as using polished stone implements) remains a living tradition in small and extremely remote and inaccessible pockets of West Papua (Indonesian New Guinea). Polished stone adze and axes are used in the present day (as of 2008) in areas where the availability of metal implements is limited. This is likely to cease altogether in the next few years as the older generation die off and steel blades and chainsaws prevail.

In 2012, news was released about a new farming site discovered in Munam-ri, Goseong, Gangwon Province, South Korea, which may be the earliest farmland known to date in east Asia. "No remains of an agricultural field from the Neolithic period have been found in any East Asian country before, the institute said, adding that the discovery reveals that the history of agricultural cultivation at least began during the period on the Korean Peninsula". The farm was dated between 3600 and 3000 B.C. Pottery, stone projectile points, and possible houses were also found. "In 2002, researchers discovered prehistoric earthenware, jade earrings, among other items in the area". The research team will perform accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating to retrieve a more precise date for the site.

America

In Mesoamerica, a similar set of events (i.e., crop domestication and sedentary lifestyles) occurred by around 4500 BC, but possibly as early as 11,000–10,000 BC. These cultures are usually not referred to as belonging to the Neolithic; in America different terms are used such as Formative stage instead of mid-late Neolithic, Archaic Era instead of Early Neolithic and Paleo-Indian for the preceding period. The Formative stage is equivalent to the Neolithic Revolution period in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the Southwestern United States it occurred from 500 to 1200 C.E. when there was a dramatic increase in population and development of large villages supported by agriculture based on dryland farming of maize, and later, beans, squash, and domesticated turkeys. During this period the bow and arrow and ceramic pottery were also introduced.

Social organization

During most of the Neolithic age, people lived in small tribes composed of multiple bands or lineages.There is little scientific evidence of developed social stratification in most Neolithic societies; social stratification is more associated with the later Bronze Age. Although some late Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms similar to Polynesian societies such as the Ancient Hawaiians, most Neolithic societies were relatively simple and egalitarian. However, Neolithic societies were noticeably more hierarchical than the Paleolithic cultures that preceded them and hunter-gatherer cultures in general.

The domestication of animals (c. 8000 BC) resulted in a dramatic increase in social inequality. Possession of livestock allowed competition between households and resulted in inherited inequalities of wealth. Neolithic pastoralists who controlled large herds gradually acquired more livestock, and this made economic inequalities more pronounced. However, evidence of social inequality is still disputed, as settlements such as Catal Huyuk reveal a striking lack of difference in the size of homes and burial sites, suggesting a more egalitarian society with no evidence of the concept of capital, although some homes do appear slightly larger or more elaborately decorated than others.

Families and households were still largely independent economically, and the household was probably the center of life. However, excavations in Central Europe have revealed that early Neolithic Linear Ceramic cultures ("Linearbandkeramik") were building large arrangements of circular ditches between 4800 BC and 4600 BC. These structures (and their later counterparts such as causewayed enclosures, burial mounds, and henge) required considerable time and labour to construct, which suggests that some influential individuals were able to organise and direct human labour — though non-hierarchical and voluntary work remain possibilities.

There is a large body of evidence for fortified settlements at Linearbandkeramik sites along the Rhine, as at least some villages were fortified for some time with a palisade and an outer ditch. Settlements with palisades and weapon-traumatized bones have been discovered, such as at the Talheim Death Pit demonstrates "...systematic violence between groups" and warfare was probably much more common during the Neolithic than in the preceding Paleolithic period.[39] This supplanted an earlier view of the Linear Pottery Culture as living a "peaceful, unfortified lifestyle".

Control of labour and inter-group conflict is characteristic of corporate-level or 'tribal' groups, headed by a charismatic individual; whether a 'big man' or a proto-chief, functioning as a lineage-group head. Whether a non-hierarchical system of organization existed is debatable, and there is no evidence that explicitly suggests that Neolithic societies functioned under any dominating class or individual, as was the case in the chiefdoms of the European Early Bronze Age. Theories to explain the apparent implied egalitarianism of Neolithic (and Paleolithic) societies have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism.

Shelter

The shelter of the early people changed dramatically from the paleolithic to the neolithic era. In the paleolithic, people did not normally live in permanent constructions. In the neolithic, mud brick houses started appearing that were coated with plaster. The growth of agriculture made permanent houses possible. Doorways were made on the roof, with ladders positioned both on the inside and outside of the houses. The roof was supported by beams from the inside. The rough ground was covered by platforms, mats, and skins on which residents slept. Stilt-houses settlements were common in the Alpine and Pianura Padana (Terramare) region. Remains have been found at the Ljubljana Marshes in Slovenia and at the Mondsee and Attersee lakes in Upper Austria, for example.

Farming

A significant and far-reaching shift in human subsistence and lifestyle was to be brought about in areas where crop farming and cultivation were first developed: the previous reliance on an essentially nomadic hunter-gatherer subsistence technique or pastoral transhumance was at first supplemented, and then increasingly replaced by, a reliance upon the foods produced from cultivated lands. These developments are also believed to have greatly encouraged the growth of settlements, since it may be supposed that the increased need to spend more time and labor in tending crop fields required more localized dwellings. This trend would continue into the Bronze Age, eventually giving rise to permanently settled farming towns, and later cities and states whose larger populations could be sustained by the increased productivity from cultivated lands.

The profound differences in human interactions and subsistence methods associated with the onset of early agricultural practices in the Neolithic have been called the Neolithic Revolution, a term coined in the 1920s by the Australian archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe.

One potential benefit of the development and increasing sophistication of farming technology was the possibility of producing surplus crop yields, in other words, food supplies in excess of the immediate needs of the community. Surpluses could be stored for later use, or possibly traded for other necessities or luxuries. Agricultural life afforded securities that pastoral life could not, and sedentary farming populations grew faster than nomadic.

However, early farmers were also adversely affected in times of famine, such as may be caused by drought or pests. In instances where agriculture had become the predominant way of life, the sensitivity to these shortages could be particularly acute, affecting agrarian populations to an extent that otherwise may not have been routinely experienced by prior hunter-gatherer communities. Nevertheless, agrarian communities generally proved successful, and their growth and the expansion of territory under cultivation continued.

Another significant change undergone by many of these newly agrarian communities was one of diet. Pre-agrarian diets varied by region, season, available local plant and animal resources and degree of pastoralism and hunting. Post-agrarian diet was restricted to a limited package of successfully cultivated cereal grains, plants and to a variable extent domesticated animals and animal products. Supplementation of diet by hunting and gathering was to variable degrees precluded by the increase in population above the carrying capacity of the land and a high sedentary local population concentration. In some cultures, there would have been a significant shift toward increased starch and plant protein. The relative nutritional benefits and drawbacks of these dietary changes and their overall impact on early societal development is still debated.

In addition, increased population density, decreased population mobility, increased continuous proximity to domesticated animals, and continuous occupation of comparatively population-dense sites would have altered sanitation needs and patterns of disease.

Technology

The identifying characteristic of Neolithic technology is the use of polished or ground stone tools, in contrast to the flaked stone tools used during the Paleolithic era.

Neolithic people were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as sickle blades and grinding stones) and food production (e.g. pottery, bone implements). They were also skilled manufacturers of a range of other types of stone tools and ornaments, including projectile points, beads, and statuettes. But what allowed forest clearance on a large scale was the polished stone axe above all other tools. Together with the adze, fashioning wood for shelter, structures and canoes for example, this enabled them to exploit their newly won farmland.

Neolithic peoples in the Levant, Anatolia, Syria, northern Mesopotamia and Central Asia were also accomplished builders, utilizing mud-brick to construct houses and villages. At Çatal höyük, houses were plastered and painted with elaborate scenes of humans and animals. In Europe, long houses built from wattle and daub were constructed. Elaborate tombs were built for the dead. These tombs are particularly numerous in Ireland, where there are many thousand still in existence. Neolithic people in the British Isles built long barrows and chamber tombs for their dead and causewayed camps, henges, flint mines and cursus monuments. It was also important to figure out ways of preserving food for future months, such as fashioning relatively airtight containers, and using substances like salt as preservatives.

The peoples of the Americas and the Pacific mostly retained the Neolithic level of tool technology until the time of European contact. Exceptions include copper hatchets and spearheads in the Great Lakes region.

Clothing

Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins which are ideal for fastening leather. Wool cloth and linen might have become available during the later Neolithic, as suggested by finds of perforated stones which (depending on size) may have served as spindle whorls or loom weights. The clothing worn in the Neolithic Age might be similar to that worn by Ötzi the Iceman, although he was not Neolithic (since he belonged to the later Copper age).

Early settlements

Neolithic human settlements include:

Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, c. 11,000–9000 BC

Tell Qaramel in Syria, 10,700–9400 BC

Franchthi Cave in Greece, epipalaeolithic (c. 10,000 BC) settlement, reoccupied between 7500 and 6000 BC

Nanzhuangtou in Hebei, China, 9500-9000 BC

Byblos in Lebanon believed to have been occupied first between 8800 and 7000 BC,

Jericho in West bank, Neolithic from around 8350 BC, arising from the earlier Epipaleolithic Natufian culture

Donghulin in China 8000-6200 BC

Aşıklı Höyük in Central Anatolia, Turkey, an Aceramic Neolithic period settlement, 8200 – 7400 BC, correlating with the E/MPPNB in the Levant.

Nevali Cori in Turkey, c. 8000 BC

Pengtoushan culture in China, 7500 – 6100 BC, rice residues were Carbon-14 dated to 8200-7800 BC in type site

Çatalhöyük in Turkey, 7500 BC

'Ain Ghazal in Jordan, 7250–5000 BC

Chogha Bonut in Iran, 7200 BC

Jhusi in India, 7100 BC

Ganj Dareh in Iran, c. 7000 BC

Lahuradewa in India, 7000 BC[56]

Jiahu in China, 7000 to 5800 BC

Mehrgarh in Pakistan, 7000 BC

Knossus on Crete, c. 7000 BC

Karanovo in Bulgaria, 6200 BC

Sesklo in Greece, 6850 BC (with a ±660-year margin of error)

Dispilio in Greece, c. 5500 BC

Porodin in Republic of Macedonia, 6500 BC

Vrshnik (Anzabegovo) in Republic of Macedonia, 6500 BC

Pizzo di Bodio (Varese), Lombardy in Italy, c. 6320 ±80 BC

Sammardenchia in Friuli, Italy, c. 6050 ±90 BC,

Padah-Lin Caves in Burma, c. 6000 BC

Petnica in Serbia, 6000 BC

Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, 5500 BC

Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, 5500–2750 BC, in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania first salt works

Tell Zeidan in northern Syria, from about 5500 to 4000 BC.

around 2000 settlements of Trypillian culture, 5400 – 2800 BC

Tabon Cave Complex in Quezon, Palawan, Philippines 5000 – 2000 BC

Hemudu culture in China, 5000 – 4500 BC, large-scale rice plantation

The Megalithic Temples of Malta, 3600 BC

Knap of Howar and Skara Brae, Orkney, Scotland, from 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively

Brú na Bóinne in Ireland, c. 3500 BC

Lough Gur in Ireland from around 3000 BC

Norte Chico civilization, from 3000 to 1700 BC, 30 Aceramic Neolithic period settlements in Northern Coastal Peru

Tichit Neolithic village on the Tagant Plateau in central southern Mauritania, 2000 – 500 BC

Oaxaca, state in Southwestern Mexico, by 2000 BC Neolithic sedentary villages had been established in the Central Valleys region of this state.

Lajia in China, 2000 BC

Mumun pottery period, Neolithic revolution spreads down the Korean Peninsula and permanent settlements are established 1800 – 1500 BC, Neolithic revolution reaches Japan around 500 – 300 BC

The world's oldest known engineered roadway, the Sweet Track in England, dates from 3800 BC and the world's oldest free-standing structure is the neolithic temple of Ggantija in Gozo, Malta.

List of cultures and sites

Note: Dates are very approximate, and are only given for a rough estimate; consult each culture for specific time periods.

Early Neolithic

Periodization: The Levant: 10,000 to 8500 BC; Europe: 5000 to 4000 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region.

Beixin culture

Cishan culture

Dudeşti culture

Franchthi Cave people

Earliest European Neolithic site: 20th to 3rd millennium BC

Sesclo village culture

Starcevo-Criş culture

(also known as the Starčevo-Körös-Criş culture)

Nanzhuangtou

Middle Neolithic

Periodization: The Levant: 8500 to 6500 BC; Europe: 4000 to 3500 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region.

Baodun culture

Jinsha settlement and Sanxingdui mound.

Catalhoyuk

Cardium Pottery culture

Comb Ceramic culture

Corded Ware culture

Cortaillod culture

Cucuteni-Trypillian culture

Dadiwan culture

Dawenkou culture

Daxi culture

Chengtoushan settlement

Grooved ware people

Skara Brae, et al.

Erlitou culture

Xia Dynasty

Ertebølle culture

Hembury culture

Hemudu culture

Hongshan culture

Houli culture

Horgen culture

Liangzhu culture

Linear Pottery culture

Goseck circle, et al.

Longshan culture

Majiabang culture

Majiayao culture

Peiligang culture

Pengtoushan culture

Pfyn culture

Precucuteni culture

Qujialing culture

Shijiahe culture

Trypillian culture

Vinča culture

Windmill Hill culture

Stonehenge

Xinglongwa culture

Beifudi site

Xinle culture

Yangshao culture

Banpo and Xishuipo settlements.

Zhaobaogou culture

Later Neolithic

Periodization: 6500 to 4500 BC; Europe: 3500 to 3000 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region.

Eneolithic

Periodization: Middle East: 4500 to 3300 BC; Europe: 3000 to 1700 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region. In the Americas, the Eneolithic ended as late as the 1800s for some people.

Beaker culture

Cucuteni-Trypillian culture

Funnelbeaker culture

Gaudo Culture

Lengyel culture

Varna culture

Wikipedia 

THE SHEKHINA PROJECT 

(Leonard) Nimoy had long been active in the Jewish community. He could speak and read Yiddish, his first language. In 1997, he narrated the documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews.

In October 2002, Nimoy published The Shekhina Project, a photographic study exploring the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah.

Reactions have varied from enthusiastic support to open condemnation. Nimoy said that objections to Shekhina did not bother or surprise him, but he smarted at the stridency of the Orthodox protests, and was saddened at the attempt to control thought.

Wikipedia

MALLEUS MALEFICARUM 

HAMMER OF (THE) WITCHES

The Malleus Maleficarum (commonly rendered into English as "Hammer of [the] Witches"; Der Hexenhammer in German) is a treatise on the prosecution of witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, a German Catholic clergyman. The book was first published in Speyer, Germany, in 1487. Jacob Sprenger is also often attributed as an author, but some scholars now believe that he became associated with the Malleus Maleficarum largely as a result of Kramer's wish to lend his book as much official authority as possible. 

In 1490, three years after its publication, the Catholic Church condemned the Malleus Maleficarum, although it was later used by royal courts during the Renaissance, and contributed to the increasingly brutal prosecution of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Kramer wrote the Malleus shortly after being expelled from Innsbruck by the local bishop after a failed attempt to conduct his own witchcraft prosecution. Kramer's purpose in writing the book was to explain his own views on witchcraft, systematically refute arguments claiming that witchcraft does not exist, discredit those who expressed skepticism about its reality, claim that those who practised witchcraft were more often women than men, and to convince magistrates to use Kramer's recommended procedures for finding and convicting witches.

Background 

Magic, sorcery, and witchcraft had long been condemned by the Church, whose attitude towards witchcraft was explained in the canon Episcopi written in about 900 AD. It stated that witchcraft and magic did not really exist, and that those who believed in such things "had been seduced by the Devil in dreams and visions into old pagan errors". 

Until about 1400 it was rare for anyone to be accused of witchcraft, but heresies had become a major problem within the Church by the 13th century, and by the 15th century belief in witches was widely accepted in European society. 

Those convicted of witchcraft typically suffered penalties no more harsh than public penances such as a day in the stocks, but their persecution became more brutal following the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, as witchcraft became increasingly accepted as a real and dangerous phenomenon.

In 1484 Heinrich Kramer had made one of the first attempts at prosecuting alleged witches in the Tyrol region. It was not a success: he was expelled from the city of Innsbruck and dismissed by the local bishop as a "senile old man". 

Kramer was opposed by the local clergy partly because of his eccentric behavior (as the Bishop of Innsbruck's verdict indicates), and partly because he didn't hold any official position as an Inquisitor despite his efforts to make himself into one. According to Diarmaid MacCulloch, writing the book was Kramer's act of self-justification and revenge. Some scholars have suggested that following the failed efforts in Tyrol, Kramer and Jacob Sprenger (also known as Jacob or Jakob Sprenger) requested and received a papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus in 1484. It allegedly gave full papal approval for the Inquisition to prosecute what was deemed to be witchcraft in general and for Kramer and Sprenger specifically.

Malleus Maleficarum was written in 1486 and the papal bull was included as part of the preface.

Publication 

The Malleus Maleficarum was published by Kramer (Latinised as "Institoris") and Sprenger in 1487. Scholars have debated how much Sprenger contributed to the work. Some say his role was minor, and that the book was written almost entirely by Kramer, who used the name of Sprenger for its prestige only, while others say there is little evidence for this claim.

The preface also includes an approbation from the University of Cologne's Faculty of Theology. The authenticity of the Cologne endorsement was first questioned by Joseph Hansen but has not been universally questioned; Christopher S. Mackay rejects Hansen's theory as a misunderstanding. Nevertheless, it is well established by sources outside the "Malleus" that the university's theology faculty as a whole condemned the book for unethical procedures and for contradicting Catholic theology on a number of important points. Hence the Malleus' claims about an endorsement from the same faculty is at best a misleading approval granted by only a small percentage of the faculty, and at worst a complete forgery. Scholarly opinion is divided on the latter point, but there is general agreement that even if it were genuine it was misrepresented by Kramer, as was the copy of "Summis desiderantes" whose inclusion implies a Papal endorsement of the "Malleus" although "Summis desiderantes" had been issued before the "Malleus" was written. The Malleus Maleficarum drew on earlier sources such as Johannes Nider's treatise Formicarius, written 1435/37.

The book became the handbook for secular courts throughout Renaissance Europe, but was not used by the Inquisition, which even cautioned against relying on the work. 

Between 1487 and 1520 the work was published thirteen times. It was again published between 1574 and 1669 a total of sixteen times. Regardless of the authenticity of the endorsements appearing at the beginning of the book, their presence contributed to the popularity of the work.

Contents 

The Malleus Maleficarum asserts that three elements are necessary for witchcraft: the evil intentions of the witch, the help of the Devil, and the Permission of God. The treatise is divided into three sections. The first section tries to refute critics who deny the reality of witchcraft, thereby hindering its prosecution. The second section describes the actual forms of witchcraft and its remedies. The third section is to assist judges confronting and combating witchcraft. However, each of these three sections has the prevailing themes of what is witchcraft and who is a witch. The Malleus Maleficarum relies heavily upon earlier works such as Visconti and, most famously, Johannes Nider's Formicarius (1435).

Section l 

Section I examines the concept of witchcraft theoretically, from the point of view of natural philosophy and theology. Specifically it addresses the question of whether witchcraft is a real phenomenon or imaginary, perhaps "deluding phantasms of the devil, or simply the fantasies of overwrought human minds". The conclusion drawn is that witchcraft must be real because the Devil is real. Witches entered into a pact with Satan to allow them the power to perform harmful magical acts, thus establishing an essential link between witches and the Devil.

Section II

Matters of practice and actual cases are discussed, and the powers of witches and their recruitment strategies. It states that it is mostly witches, as opposed to the Devil, who do the recruiting, by making something go wrong in the life of a respectable matron that makes her consult the knowledge of a witch, or by introducing young maidens to tempting young devils. It details how witches cast spells, and remedies that can be taken to prevent witchcraft, or help those who have been affected by it.

Section III

Section III is the legal part of the Malleus Maleficarum that describes how to prosecute a witch. The arguments are clearly laid for the lay magistrates prosecuting witches. The section offers a step-by-step guide to the conduct of a witch trial, from the method of initiating the process and assembling accusations, to the interrogation (including torture) of witnesses, and the formal charging of the accused. Women who did not cry during their trial were automatically believed to be witches.

Major themes

The treatise describes how women and men become inclined to practise witchcraft. The text argues that women are more susceptible to demonic temptations through the manifold weaknesses of their gender. It was believed that they were weaker in faith and more carnal than men. Michael Bailey claims that most of the women accused as witches had strong personalities and were known to defy convention by overstepping the lines of proper female decorum. After the publication of the Malleus, it seems as though about three quarters of those individuals prosecuted as witches were women. (Though in some countries, including Iceland, the majority were men.) Indeed, the very title of the Malleus Maleficarum is feminine, alluding to the idea that it was women who were the villains. Otherwise, it would be the Malleus Maleficorum (the masculine form of the Latin noun maleficus or malefica, 'witch'). In Latin, the feminine "Maleficarum" would only be used for women while the masculine "Maleficorum" could be used for men alone or for both sexes if together.

The Malleus Maleficarum accuses male and female witches of infanticide, cannibalism and casting evil spells to harm their enemies as well as having the power to steal a man's penis. It goes on to give accounts of witches committing these crimes.

The ancient subjects of astronomy, philosophy, and medicine were being reintroduced to the West at this time, as well as a plethora of ancient texts being rediscovered and studied. The Malleus Maleficarum often makes reference to the Bible and Aristotelian thought, and it is heavily influenced by the philosophical tenets of Neo-Platonism. It also mentions astrology and astronomy, which had recently been reintroduced to the West by the ancient works of Pythagoras.

Factors stimulating widespread use

The Malleus Maleficarum was able to spread throughout Europe rapidly in the late 15th and the beginning of the 16th century due to the innovation of the printing press in the middle of the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg. The invention of printing some thirty years before the first publication of the Malleus Maleficarum instigated the fervor of witch hunting, and, in the words of Russell, "the swift propagation of the witch hysteria by the press was the first evidence that Gutenberg had not liberated man from original sin." The Malleus is also heavily influenced by the subjects of divination, astrology, and healing rituals the Church inherited from antiquity.

The late 15th century was also a period of religious turmoil. The Malleus Maleficarum and the witch craze that ensued took advantage of the increasing intolerance of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe, where the Protestant and Catholic camps, pitted against one another, each zealously strove to maintain what they each deemed to be the purity of faith.

Consequences

Between 1487 and 1520, twenty editions of the Malleus Maleficarum were published, and another sixteen between 1574 and 1669,[39] but there is scholarly agreement that the book's publication was not as influential as earlier modern historians believed. According to MacCulloch, the Malleus Maleficarum was one of several key factors contributing to the witch craze, along with popular superstition and tensions created by the Reformation.

In 1490, only three years after it was published, the Catholic Church condemned the Malleus Maleficarum as false. In 1538 the Spanish Inquisition cautioned its members not to believe everything the Malleus Maleficarum said, even when it presented apparently firm evidence.

Wikipedia 

The Hammer of Witches

(The publication by The Church, so that all people of magic, esotericism and of course women of all kinds, especially esoteric Hierophants, could be wiped out. AZR)

The Malleus Maleficarum, first published in 1486-7, is the standard medieval text on witchcraft and it remained in print throughout the early modern period. Its descriptions of the evil acts of witches and the ways to exterminate them continue to contribute to our knowledge of early modern law, religion and society.

....a unique insight into the fifteenth-century mind and its sense of sin, punishment and retribution.

Amazon

.....This is a manual written by two of the leading authorities on Inquisitional methods. The majority of this book deals with the subject of witches: their power, their methods and tools and how they should be tried in trials....

....The reader will begin to see much more clearly how the mind of those centuries thought, and how prevalent the world of witchcraft and the occult was. Or, how much the general public thought it existed. What you will find is a quest for academic rigor, paired with a strange superstition. The planets influence us just as certain gems and rocks...

With some clarity you will note that women are more likely to fall under the power of evil spirits, and the midwives are the most horrible of all people (always looking to kill the babies for use in their magic potions). 

You will also find that the use of torture was perfectly normal and advisable - to garner a confession of guilt. But note that said confession only allowed your soul to be forgiven, but never saved your body from its due punishment - death!

The reasoning is flawed in most places and relies not upon Scripture, but reinterpretations of other early church writers. If you want a good look at how people thought about the spiritual or superstitious world during this time - this book will provide a most interesting commentary. This may explain much of how many people and countries think still today, as history shapes its future.....

Review

The Malleus Maleficarum

The Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for "The Hammer of Witches", or "Hexenhammer" in German) is one of the most famous medieval treatises on witches. It was written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, and was first published in Germany in 1487. It was the culmination of a long medieval tradition of treatises on witchcraft, the most famous being the Formicarius by Johannes Nider in 1435-1437. The main purpose of the Malleus was to systematically refute all arguments against the reality of witchcraft, refute those who expressed even the slightest skepticism about its reality, to prove that witches were more often women than men, and to educate magistrates on the procedures that could find them out and convict them. (Quote from wikipedia.org)

About the Author

Heinrich Kramer (1430 - 1505)

James Sprenger (1436 - 1494)

Heinrich Kramer (also known under Latinised name Heinrich Institoris, c. 1430 - 1505) was a German churchman and inquisitor.

Born in Schlettstadt, Alsace, he joined the Dominican Order at an early age and while still a young man was appointed Prior of the Dominican house of his native town.

At some date before 1474 he was appointed Inquisitor for the Tyrol, Salzburg, Bohemia and Moravia. His eloquence in the pulpit and tireless activity received recognition at Rome and he was the right-hand man of the Archbishop of Salzburg. By the time of the Bull Summis desiderantes of Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 he was already associated with James Sprenger to make an inquisition for witches and sorcerers. In 1485 he drew up a treatise on witchcraft, which was incorporated in the Malleus Maleficarum.

Kramer failed in his attempt to obtain endorsement for this work from the top theologians of the Inquisition.

Heinrich Kramer ( 1430-1505) also known under the Latinized name Henricus Institoris,was a German churchman and inquisitor. Born in Sélestat, Alsace, he joined the Dominican Order at an early age and while still a young man was appointed Prior of the Dominican house of his native town. At some date before 1474 he was appointed Inquisitor for the Tyrol, Salzburg, Bohemia and Moravia. His eloquence in the pulpit and tireless activity received recognition at Rome and he was the right-hand man of the Archbishop of Salzburg. By the time of the Bull Summis desiderantes of Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 he was already associated with Jacob Sprenger to make an inquisition for witches and sorcerers. In 1485 he drew up a treatise on witchcraft which was incorporated in the Malleus Maleficarum (literally "The hammer of malefactresses (wrongdoing women - i.e. witches)"). Kramer failed in his attempt to obtain endorsement for this work from the top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne, and they condemned the book as recommending unethical and illegal procedures, as well as being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines of demonology. Kramer's claimed endorsement from four of the professors may have been forged. He was denounced by the Inquisition in 1490. In 1495 he was summoned to Venice to give public lectures, which were very popular. In 1500 he was empowered to proceed against the Waldensians and Picards. He died in Bohemia in 1505.

Forgotten Books

Witchcraft and Divination in The Hebrew Bible 

This article discusses the Hebrew Bible. See Christian views on witchcraft for Christian interpretations.

Various forms of witchcraft and divination in the Hebrew Bible are mentioned in a generally disapproving tone. The Masoretic Text of the Torah forbids:

nahash; as a noun, nahash translates as snake, and as a verb it literally translates as hissing. The verb form can be extended to mean whispering, so it has historically been understood to refer to enchantment.

onan; onan literally translates as clouds, possibly referring to nephomancy. Some translations take this as an allusion to bird flocks, and therefore translate it as augury.

kashaph; kashaph is of ambiguous meaning, being either from a root meaning mutter, or from a compound of the words kash (herb) and hapalah (using) - hence meaning herb user. The Septuagint renders the same phrase as pharmakia (poison), so it may refer to magic potions.

being a ba'al ob; ba'al ob literally means master of spirits. The corresponding parts of the Septuagint refer to eggastrimuthos (gastromancy), a form of necromantic ventriloquism, in which the voice seems to be located in the stomach.

being a yidde'oni; yidde'oni literally means gainer of information from ghosts

being a doresh el ha-metim; doresh el ha-metim literally means (one who) questions corpses

qasam qesem; qasam qesem literally means distributes distributions, possibly referring to cleromancy

khabar kheber; khabar kheber literally means join joinings, possibly referring to charms

The exact difference between the three forbidden forms of necromancy is a matter of uncertainty; yidde'oni is usually only mentioned together with ba'al ob, and its semantic similarity to doresh el ha-metim raises the question of why all three are mentioned in the same verse of Deuteronomy. Classical Jewish sources argued that yidde'oni might be another form of ventriloquism, in which the voice is cast into at a bone which is placed into the ventriloquist's mouth. Rashi describes the doresh el ha-metim as a person who would sleep in cemeteries, after having starved themselves, in order to become possessed. The Witch of Endor was a ba'al ob; the Septuagint again renders this as eggastrimuthos, thus describing her as a (necromantic) ventriloquist, although (one who has) familiar spirits is the more common English translation.

Like the law code of Hammurabi, the Torah assigns the death penalty to practitioners of certain forms of witchcraft/divination; the Holiness Code of Leviticus ascribes the death penalty for two of the three necromantic practices, namely Ba'al ob and Yidde'oni, while the Covenant Code of Exodus ascribes it for kashaph. 

Wikipedia 

Christian Views on Magic 

Christian views on magic vary widely among denominations and among individuals. Some Christians actively condemn any form of magic as satanic, while others simply dismiss it as superstition. Conversely, some branches of esoteric Christianity actively engage in magical practices.

Biblical references

There are several references to witchcraft in the Bible that strongly condemn such practices. For example, Deuteronomy 18:11-12 condemns anyone who "..casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you", and Exodus 22:18 states "Do not allow a sorceress to live".

Some adherents of near-east religions acted as mediums, channeling messages from the dead or from a familiar spirit. The Bible sometimes is translated as referring to "necromancer" and "necromancy" (Deuteronomy 18:11) However, some lexicographers, including James Strong and Spiros Zodhiates, disagree. These scholars say that the Hebrew word kashaph, used in Exodus 22:18 and 5 other places in the Tanakh comes from a root meaning "to whisper". Strong therefore concludes that the word means "to whisper a spell, i.e. to incant or practice magic". The Contemporary English Version translates Deuteronomy 18:11 as referring to "any kind of magic".

Early Christianity

Leviticus and Deuteronomy prohibit certain kinds of magic, specifically divination, seeking omens, mediums who commune with the dead, and spell-casters. These acts, as well as other rituals related to Ba'al worship and Canaanite religion, were specifically forbidden to the Israelites. Christianity emerged from Second Temple, Palestinian Judaism, venerating the Tanakh (in Greek Septuagint and, later, Latin Vulgate translations) as a collection of divinely inspired, old covenant writings prefiguring the new covenant of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Galatians includes sorcery in a list of "works of the flesh". This disapproval is echoed in the Didache, a very early book of church discipline which dates from the mid-late first century.

Medieval views

This section requires expansion with: Aquinas et al. on magic. (February 2010)

During the Early Middle Ages, the Christian Churches did not conduct witch trials. The Germanic Council of Paderborn in 785 explicitly outlawed the very belief in witches, and the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne later confirmed the law. Among Orthodox Eastern Christians concentrated in the Byzantine Empire, belief in witchcraft was widely regarded as deisidaimonia—superstition—and by the 9th and 10th centuries in the Latin Christian West, belief in witchcraft had begun to be seen as heresy.

However, towards the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the early modern period, belief in witchcraft became sanctioned by the Western Church,[citation needed] and witches were seen as directly in league with the Devil. This marked the beginning of a period of witch hunts among both Roman Catholics and early Protestants which lasted about 200 years, and in some countries, particularly in North-Western Europe, thousands of people were accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death.

The Catholic Inquisition had conducted trials against supposed witches in the 13th century, but these trials were to punish heresy, of which belief in witchcraft was merely one variety. Inquisitorial courts only became systematically involved in the witch-hunt during the 15th century: in the case of the Madonna Oriente, the Inquisition of Milan was not sure what to do with two women who in 1384 and in 1390 confessed to have participated in a type of white magic.

Not all Inquisitorial courts acknowledged witchcraft. For example, in 1610 as the result of a witch hunting craze the Suprema (the ruling council of the Spanish Inquisition) gave everybody an Edict of Grace (during which confessing witches were not to be punished) and put the only dissenting inquisitor, Alonso de Salazar Frías, in charge of the subsequent investigation. The results of Salazar's investigation was that the Spanish Inquisition did not bother witches ever again though they still went after heretics and Jews.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther shared some of the views about witchcraft that were common in his time. When interpreting Exodus 22:18, he stated that, with the help of the devil, witches could steal milk merely by thinking of a cow. In his Small Catechism he taught that witchcraft was a sin against the second commandment and prescribed the Biblical penalty for it in a "table talk":

On 25 August 1538 there was much discussion about witches and sorceresses who poisoned chicken eggs in the nests, or poisoned milk and butter. Doctor Luther said: "One should show no mercy to these [women]; I would burn them myself, for we read in the Law that the priests were the ones to begin the stoning of criminals."

Modern views

During the Age of Enlightenment, belief in the powers of witches and sorcerers to harm began to die out in the West. But the reasons for disbelief differed from those of early Christians. For the early Christians the reason was theological—that Christ had already defeated the powers of evil. For the post-Enlightenment Christians, the disbelief was based on a belief in rationalism and empiricism.

It was at this time, however, that Western Christianity began expanding to parts of Africa and Asia where premodern worldviews still held sway, and where belief in the power of witches and sorcerers to harm was, if anything, stronger than it had been in Northern Europe. Many African Independent Churches developed their own responses to witchcraft and sorcery.

The situation was further complicated by the rise of new religious movements that considered witchcraft to be a religion. This view does not claim that witches actually consciously enter into a pact with Satan because most practitioners of Wicca and other modern witchcraft do not even believe in Satan.

Christian opposition to witchcraft

Several Christian groups continue to believe in witchcraft and view it as a negative force. Much of the criticism originates among Evangelical Christian groups, especially those of a fundamentalist tendency, who believe that witchcraft is a danger to children. The 2006 documentary Jesus Camp, which depicts the life of young children attending Becky Fischer's summer camp, shows Fischer condemning the Harry Potter novels and telling the students that "Warlocks are enemies of God" (see also Religious debates over the Harry Potter series). While Fischer's summer camp has sometimes been incorrectly identified as Pentecostal, Fischer is most closely associated with the neo-Pentecostal movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. NAR prophet Lou Engle, who serves in the NAR apostolic group The Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, makes an extended appearance in Jesus Camp.

Among Christian tendencies, the NAR is especially aggressive in efforts to counter alleged acts of witchcraft; the NAR's globally distributed "Transformations" pseudo-documentaries by filmmaker George Otis, Jr. show charismatic Christians creating mini-utopias by driving off "territorial spirits" and by banishing or even killing accused witches. During the 2008 United States presidential eating contest, footage surfaced from a 2005 church ceremony in which an NAR apostle, Kenyan bishop Thomas Muthee, called upon God to protect Sarah Palin, as Muthee laid hands on Palin, from "every form of witchcraft".

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI denounced belief in witchcraft during a visit to Angola.

Modern Christian views vary as to whether witchcraft is a general term for communion with evil, or a specific form of religious system and practice. Christians can espouse the idea that Satan and evil are real, while condemning accusations of witchcraft found throughout history as dubious.

Magic in literature as harmless

Magic in literature, while condemned by some Christians, is often viewed by Christians as non-evil. The key distinction would be between real-life magic and pretend magic. This view holds that in real life, practice of supernatural abilities (i.e. magic) must have a supernatural power source or origin, which would be either holy or evil. Thus born of Holy Spirit or of demons. (See Spiritual gift and Christian demonology for details on these teachings.) Thus, magic in the Biblical context would be viewed as only an act of evil, whereas in literature, magic is a tool available to conduct both good and bad behavior. Thus, pretend magic is moral neutral.

In literature, magical abilities have many different power sources. Technological ability (science) can appear as magic. Often, wielding magic is accomplished by imposing one's will by concentration and/or use of devices to control an external magical force. This explanation is offered for the Force (Star Wars), magic in Dungeons and Dragons, and magic in The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. The latter two works are by notable Christians, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, respectively. In the first chronological book of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Magician's Nephew, Lewis specifically explains that magic is a power available on other worlds, not on earth. The Empress Jadis (later, the White Witch) was tempted to use magic for selfish reasons to retain control of her world Charn, which ultimately lead to the destruction of life there.

Syncretic religions involving Christianity and witchcraft

From 15th to 19th century, many Hermeticists combined Christianity with occult practices (mostly alchemy). Another notable example of syncretism is Santería, a syncretic hybrid of African animism and Christianity. There are also those who practice a combination of Neopagan/Wiccan and Christian beliefs. Other modern syncretic traditions include mesoamerican folk healing traditions, such as the curandisimo practices found in Mexico, and Andean folk healing traditions of Peru and Bolivia.

Wikipedia

FORMICARIUS 

The Formicarius, written 1435-1437 by Johannes Nider during the Council of Basel and first printed in 1475, is the second book ever printed to discuss witchcraft. Nider dealt specifically with witchcraft in the fifth section of the book. Unlike his successors, he did not emphasize the idea of the witches' Sabbath and was skeptical of the claim that witches could fly by night. The Formicarius is an important work for the study of the origins of the Witch trials in Early Modern Europe as it sheds light on their earliest phase during the first half of the 15th century.

Nider was one of the first to transform the idea of sorcery to its more modern perception of witchcraft. Prior to the fifteenth century, magic was thought to be performed by educated males who performed intricate rituals. In Nider's Formicarius, the witch is described as uneducated and more commonly female. The idea that any persons could perform acts of magic simply by devoting themselves to the devil scared people of this time and proved to be one of the many factors that led people to begin fearing magic. The idea that the magician was primarily female was also shocking to some. Nider explained that females were capable of such acts by pointing out what he considered their inferior physical, mental, and moral capacity.

The work is further of note for its information regarding notably infamous figures of the time, one of whom was the sorcerer Scavius, who reputedly escaped his enemies on multiple occasions by metamorphosing into a mouse. Prior to his death Scavius was responsible for the tutelage of Stedelen in witchcraft.

The title is Latin for "the ant colony", an allusion to Proverbs 6:6. Nider used the ant colony as a metaphor for a harmonious society.

Wikipedia 

Witch Trials in The Early Modern Period 

The witch trials in the early modern period, alternately known as the Great Witch Craze, were a period of witch hunts that took place across early modern Europe and the European colonies in North America between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The trials were sparked by the belief that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organized threat to Christianity. Those accused of witchcraft were portrayed as being worshippers of the Devil, who engaged in such acts as malevolent sorcery at meetings known as Witches' Sabbaths. Many people were subsequently accused of being witches, and were put on trial for the crime, with varying punishments being applicable in different regions and at different times.

Belief in the reality of magic and the existence of malevolent witches was widespread in Early Modern popular culture, but it was among the educated elite that the idea of witches as Devil-worshippers developed. The Roman Catholic Church had persecuted various heretical groups during the preceding Late Medieval, and it was from that context that the Early Modern witch trials emerged. The peak of the witch hunt was during the period of the European wars of religion, between circa 1580 and 1630. The hunts declined in the early eighteenth century with the growth of the Enlightenment and rationalism among the educated elites. Laws were implemented to bring about the end of organised persecution of accused witches, although sporadic lynchings of accused witches continued beyond the Early Modern.

Over the entire duration of the phenomenon of some three centuries, an estimated total of 40,000 people were executed. Among the best known of these trials were the Scottish North Berwick witch trials, Swedish Torsåker witch trials and the American Salem witch trials. Among the largest and most notable were the Trier witch trials (1581–1593), the Fulda witch trials (1603–1606), the Würzburg witch trial (1626–1631) and the Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631). The sociological causes of the witch-hunts have long been debated in scholarship. Mainstream historiography sees the reason for the witch craze in a complex interplay of various factors that mark the early modern period, including the religious sectarianism in the wake of the Reformation, besides other religious, societal, economic and climatic factors.

Academic scholarship on the subject has intensified since the 1970s, allowing for a sophisticated understanding of the trials. Meanwhile, alternative perspectives have also developed; the witch-cult hypothesis held that the witches persecuted were practitioners of a surviving pre-Christian religion, and has led to the formation of the Neo-Pagan religion of Wicca. The trials have since provided inspiration for various fictionalised portrayals in literature and film.

Background

Three developments in Christian doctrine have been identified as factors contributing significantly to the witch hunts; namely, a shift from the rejection of belief in witches to an acceptance of their existence and powers, developments in the doctrine of Satan which incorporated witchcraft as part of Satanic influence, and the identification of witchcraft as heresy. Belief in witches and praeternatural evil were widespread in medieval Europe, and the secular legal codes of European countries had identified witchcraft as a crime before being reached by Christian missionaries. Scholars have noted that the early influence of the Church in the medieval era resulted in the revocation of these laws in many places, bringing an end to traditional pagan witch hunts.

Throughout the medieval era mainstream Christian teaching denied the existence of witches and witchcraft, condemning it as pagan superstition. Notable instances include an Irish synod in 800, Agobard of Lyons, Pope Gregory VII, and Serapion of Vladimire. The traditional accusations and punishments were likewise condemned. Historian Ronald Hutton therefore exonerated the early Church from responsibility for the witch hunts, arguing that this was the result of doctrinal change in the later Church.

However, Christian influence on popular beliefs in witches and maleficium (harm committed by magic), failed to eradicate traditional beliefs, and developments in the Church doctrine of Satan proved influential in reversing the previous dismissal of witches and witchcraft as superstition; instead these beliefs were incorporated into an increasingly comprehensive theology of Satan as the ultimate source of all maleficium. The work of Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century was instrumental in developing the new theology which would give rise to the witch hunts, but due to the fact that sorcery was judged by secular courts it was not until maleficium was identified with heresy that theological trials for witchcraft could commence. Despite these changes the doctrinal shift was only completed in the 15th century,[18] when it first began to result in Church-inspired witch trials. The 1485 treatise by Henricus Institoris met initial resistance in some areas, and some areas of Europe only experienced the first wave of the new witch trials in the latter half of the 16th century.

Magic and witchcraft

Early Modern Europe and its North American colonies were replete with a belief in the reality of magic and witchcraft. Belief in the witch, an individual who practiced malevolent magic, was not new to Early Modern Europe. Witches had appeared both in literature – most prominently with the character of Circe in Homer's Odyssey – and in reality, with many individuals writing curses on leaden tablets across the Roman Empire. In parts of Early Medieval Europe there was a widespread and long-lasting belief in witches who rode out with a goddess, varyingly known as Diana, Herodias, Holda, or Perchta; in the Canon Episcopi, the Roman Catholic Church maintained that cavalcade did not really happen, and that instead it was an erroneous superstition caused by the Devil.

Many Early Modern communities contained professional or semi-professional practitioners of folk magic; in England they were known as "cunning folk" although other terms were used elsewhere. They were believed to be able to cure disease, counter malevolent sorcery, identify enemies, foretell the future, and locate treasure and lost property, and would offer their services in these areas for a fee. In contrast to this low magic was the high magic practiced by learned men of the Renaissance. Advocated by the likes of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, this Renaissance high magic was influenced by ancient philosophies like Neoplatonism and Hermeticism and was theoretically complex, seeing the practice of magic as part of a wider spiritual system.

Historians like Carlo Ginzburg and Éva Pócs have suggested that various beliefs pertaining to magic and witchcraft in Early Modern Europe represented a survival of shamanistic pre-Christian beliefs about visionary journeys. For instance, Emma Wilby has argued that the Early Modern accounts of familiar spirits represent a survival of pre-Christian animism,[29] and has drawn comparisons between alleged witches' Sabbath journeys and the spirit-visions found in ethnographically-recorded shamanic societies in Siberia and North America.

The Devil

It was also during the Medieval period that the concept of Satan, the Biblical Devil, began to develop into a more threatening form. Around the year 1000, when there were increasing fears that the end of the world would soon come in Christendom, the idea of the Devil had become prominent, with many believing that his activities on Earth would soon begin appearing. Whilst in earlier centuries there had been no set depiction of the Devil, it was also around this time that he began to develop the stereotypical image of being animal-like, or even in some cases an animal himself. In particular, he was often viewed as a goat, or as a human with goat-like features, such as horns, hooves and a tail. Equally, the concepts of demons began to become more prominent, in particular the idea that male demons known as incubi, and female ones known as succubi, would roam the Earth and have sexual intercourse with humans. As Thurston noted, "By about 1200, it would have been difficult to be a Christian and not frequently hear of the devil ... [and] by 1500 scenes of the devil were commonplace in the new cathedrals and small parish churches that had sprung up in many regions." The field of demonology had emerged in Medieval Christendom as certain members of the clergy began to focus in particular on the actions of demons in the world.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the concept of the witch in Christendom underwent a relatively radical change. No longer were they viewed as sorcerers who had been deceived by the Devil into practicing magic that went against the powers of God, as earlier Church leaders like Saint Augustine of Hippo had stated. Instead they became the all-out malevolent Devil-worshiper, who had made a pact with him in which they had to renounce Christianity and devote themselves to Satanism. As a part of this, they gained, new, supernatural powers that enabled them to work magic, which they would use against Christians. It was believed that they would fly to their nocturnal meetings, known as the Witches' Sabbath, where they would have sexual intercourse with demons. On their death, the witches’ souls, which then belonged to the Devil, subsequently went to Hell.

For many educated Christians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including theologians and judges, there was a great concern about the idea that witches were in league with the Devil. Conversely, it appears that the idea of the witch as Satanist was far less prevalent among the peasantry and popular classes, who were far more concerned about the potential harm that they could receive from witches than from where the witches gained their magical power.

History

Medieval persecution of heresy

While the witch trials only really began in the 15th century, with the start of the early modern period, many of their causes had been developing during the previous centuries, with the persecution of heresy by the Medieval Inquisition during the late twelfth and the thirteenth centuries, and during the Late Medieval period, during which the idea of witchcraft or sorcery gradually changed and adapted. The inquisition had the office of protecting Christian orthodoxy against the "internal" threat of heresy (as opposed to "external" military threats such as those of the Vikings, the Mongols, and the Saracens or Turks).

During the High Middle Ages, a number of heretical Christian groups, such as the Cathars and the Knights Templar had been accused of performing such anti-Christian activities as Satanism, sodomy and malevolent sorcery in France. While the nucleus of the early modern "witch craze" would turn out to be popular superstition in the Western Alps, reinforced by theological rationale developed at or following the Council of Basel of the 1430s, what has been called "the first real witch trial in Europe",[36] the accusation of Alice Kyteler in 1324, occurred in 14th-century Ireland, during the turmoils associated with the decline of Norman control.

Thurston (2001) speaks of a shift in Christian society from a "relatively open and tolerant" attitude to that of a "persecuting society" taking an aggressive stance towards minorities characterized as Jews, heretics (such as Cathars and Waldensians), lepers or homosexuals, often associated with conspiracy theories assuming a concerted effort on the part of diabolical forces to weaken and destroy Christianity, indeed "the idea became popular that one or more vast conspiracies were trying to destroy Christianity from within." An important turning-point was the Black Death of 1348–1350, which killed a large percentage of the European population, and which many Christians believed had been caused by their enemies. The catalog of typical charges that would later be leveled at witches, of spreading diseases, committing orgies (sometimes incestuous), cannibalizing children, and following Satanism, emerged during the fourteenth century as crimes attributed to heretics and Jews.

Witchcraft had not been considered a heresy during the High Medieval period. Indeed, since the Council of Paderborn of 785, the belief in the possibility of witchcraft itself was considered heretical. While witch-hunts only became common after 1400, an important legal step that would make this development possible occurred in 1326, when Pope John XXII authorized the inquisition to persecute witchcraft as a type of heresy.

The anti-semitic sentiment prevalent in the Medieval would also influence the later witch trials, with the alleged witches' meetings being termed "sabbaths" and "synagogues".

As historians Geoffrey Scarre and John Callow highlighted, the trials of demonic witches was "an early modern and not a medieval phenomenon".

By the late fourteenth century, a number of "witch hunters" began to publish books on the topic, including Nicholas Eymeric, the inquisitor in Aragon and Avignon, who published the Directorium Inquisitorum in 1376.

Beginning of the witch hunts during the 15th century

The earliest known witch trials in which the accused were associated with the fully developed stereotype of the demonic witch was in the Valais witch trials of 1428, which took place in communities of the Western Alps, in what was at the time Burgundy and Savoy. Here, the cause of eliminating the supposed Satanic witches from society was taken up by a number of individuals; Claude Tholosan for instance had tried over two hundred people accusing them of witchcraft in Briançon, Dauphiné by 1420.

Soon, the idea of identifying and prosecuting witches spread throughout the neighboring areas of northern Italy, Switzerland and southern Germany, and it was at Basel that the Council of Basel assembled from 1431 to 1437. This Church Council, which had been attended by such anti-witchcraft figures as Johann Nider and Martin Le Franc, helped to standardize the stereotype of the Satanic witch that would be propagated throughout the rest of the trials. Men who had been at the Council of Basel went on to spread the ideas regarding demonic witchcraft throughout other parts of Europe in the ensuing years.

The development of the printing press allowed for a number of books to be published which outlined the existence of demonic witchcraft and described how to deal with it; circulating throughout the literate sectors of Western Europe, they stimulated increased interest in the subject and advocated a coherent intellectual response to it. Works published in this vein included Johannes Nider's Formicarius (c.1435), the Errores Gazariorum (c.1450), Nicholas Jacquier's Flagellum Haereticorum Fascinariorum (1450s), Ulrich Molitor's De Lamiis (1489), and most famously Heinrich Kramer's Malleus Malificarum (The Hammer of the Witches). At the same time, printing allowed fictional stories about witches and magicians to be spread throughout the continent, such as the tales of Dr Faustus, thereby reinforcing the belief in malevolent practitioners of magic who interacted with the Devil and his demons.

On December 5, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull in which he recognized the existence of witches and gave full papal approval for the inquisition to move against witches, including the permission to do whatever necessary to get rid of them. In the bull, which is sometimes referred to as the "Witch-Bull of 1484", the witches were explicitly accused of having "slain infants yet in the mother's womb" (abortion) and of "hindering men from performing the sexual act and women from conceiving" (contraception[dubious – discuss]).

Peak of the trials: 1580–1630

The height of the European trials was between 1560 and 1630, with the large hunts first beginning in 1609.[51] During this period, the biggest witch trials were held in Europe, notably the Trier witch trials (1581–1593), the Fulda witch trials (1603–1606), the Basque witch trials (1609-1611), the Würzburg witch trial (1626–1631) and the Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631).

In 1590, the North Berwick witch trials occurred in Scotland, and were of particular note as the king, James VI, became involved himself. James had developed a fear that witches planned to kill him after he suffered from storms whilst traveling to Denmark in order to claim his bride, Anne, earlier that year. Returning to Scotland, the king heard of trials that were occurring in North Berwick and ordered the suspects to be brought to him—he subsequently believed that a nobleman, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, was a witch, and after the latter fled in fear of his life, he was outlawed as a traitor. The king subsequently set up royal commissions to hunt down witches in his realm, recommending torture in dealing with suspects, and in 1597 he wrote a book about the menace that witches posed to society entitled Daemonologie.

Decline of the trials: 1650–1750

Whilst the witch trials had begun to fade out across much of Europe by the mid-17th century, they continued to a greater extent on the fringes of Europe and in the American colonies. In Scandinavia, the late 17th century saw the peak of the trials in a number of areas; for instance, in 1675, the Torsåker witch trials took place in Sweden, where 71 people were executed for witchcraft in a single day. In the nearby Finland, which was then under the control of the Swedish monarchy, the hunt peaked in that same decade.[51] During the same period, the Salzburg witch trials in Austria led to the death of 139 people (1675–1690).

The clergy and the intellectuals began to speak out against the trials from the late 16th century. Johannes Kepler in 1615 could only by the weight of his prestige keep his mother from being burnt as a witch. The 1692 Salem witch trials were a brief outburst of witch hysteria in the New World at a time when the practice was already waning in Europe. In the 1690s Winifred King Benham and her daughter Winifred were thrice tried for witchcraft in Wallingford, Connecticut, the last of such trials in New England. While found innocent, they were compelled to leave Wallingford to settle in Staten Island, New York. In 1706 in Virginia, Grace Sherwood was tried by ducking and jailed for allegedly being a witch.

The 18th century witnessed increased urbanisation and technological development in Europe, which gave Early Modern society an increased belief in its own abilities to fashion the world; this led to a decreasing belief in the existence of invisible forces affecting humanity. Belief that Satan interfered in human affairs directly had also begun to wane. Belief in demons became rare among the educated elites, and thus a belief in demonic witchcraft eroded with it. Rationalist sceptics of the trials came to the opinion that the use of torture had resulted in erroneous testimony.

During the early 18th century, the practice subsided. Jane Wenham was among the last subjects of a typical witch trial in England in 1712, but was pardoned after her conviction and set free. The last execution for witchcraft in England took place in 1716, when Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth were hanged. Janet Horne was executed for witchcraft in Scotland in 1727. The Witchcraft Act of 1735 saw the end of the traditional form of witchcraft as a legal offense in Britain; those accused under the new act were restricted to people who falsely pretended to be able to procure spirits, generally being the most dubious professional fortune tellers and mediums, and punishment was light.

Helena Curtens and Agnes Olmanns were the last women to be executed as witches in Germany, in 1738. In Austria, Maria Theresa outlawed witch-burning and torture in the late 18th century; the last capital trial took place in Salzburg in 1750.

Sporadic witch-hunts after 1750

While the educated elites had largely abandoned their belief in the reality of witchcraft, this belief remained widespread in popular culture. From this point on, it was very rare for an accused witch to undergo a judicial process and be threatened with execution, but there was still a danger from popular justice and lynch mobs. The death of Ruth Osborne is an example one such case that occurred in 1751.

In the later 18th century, witchcraft had ceased to be considered a criminal offense throughout Europe, but there are a number of cases which were not technically witch trials which are suspected to have involved belief in witches at least behind the scenes. Thus, in 1782, Anna Göldi was executed in Glarus, Switzerland, officially for the killing of her infant, a ruling at the time widely denounced throughout Switzerland and Germany as judicial murder. Like Anna Göldi, Barbara Zdunk was executed in 1811 in Prussia not technically for witchcraft but for arson.[citation needed] In Poland, the Doruchów witch trial occurred in 1783 and the execution of additionally two women for sorcery in 1793, trialed by a legal court but with dubious legitimacy.

Despite the official ending of the trials for Satanic witchcraft, there would still be occasional unofficial killings of those accused in parts of Europe, such as was seen in the cases of Anna Klemens in Denmark (1800), Krystyna Ceynowa in Poland (1836), and Dummy, the Witch of Sible Hedingham in England (1863). In France, there was sporadic violence and even murder in the 1830s, with one woman reportedly burnt in a village square in Nord.

In the 1830s a prosecution for witchcraft was commenced against a man in Fentress County, Tennessee named either Joseph or William Stout, based upon his alleged influence over the health of a young woman. The case against the supposed witch was dismissed upon the failure of the alleged victim, who had sworn out a warrant against him, to appear for the trial. However, some of his other accusers were convicted on criminal charges for their part in the matter, and various libel actions were brought. In 1895, Bridget Cleary was beaten and burned to death by her husband in Ireland because he suspected that she fairies had taken the real Bridget and replaced her with a witch.

The persecution of those believed to perform malevolent sorcery against their neighbors continued right into the twentieth century. For instance, in 1997 two Russian farmers killed a woman and injured five other members of her family after believing that they had used folk magic against them. It has been reported that more than 3,000 people were killed by lynch mobs in Tanzania between 2005 for 2011 for allegedly being witches.

Trials

There were extensive efforts to root out the supposed influence of Satan by various measures aimed at the people who were accused of being servants of Satan. To a lesser degree, animals were also targeted for prosecution: see animal trial. People suspected of being "possessed by Satan" were put on trial. On the other hand, the church also attempted to extirpate the superstitious belief in witchcraft and sorcery, considering it as fraud in most cases.

Geoffrey Scarre and John Callow thought it "without doubt" that some of those accused in the trials had been guilty of employing magic in an attempt to harm their enemies, and were thus genuinely guilty of witchcraft.

Most of the trials were not motivated by stupidity or a love of violence, but of a belief that it was the morally appropriate course of action for people to take; while some of those carrying out the trials appeared to exhibit sadism, most appear to have acted "from a spirit of duty and a concern for the public welfare." Scarre and Callow described the trials as "a frightning example of how morally motivated action can lead to massive suffering". Lecky argues there was a large amount of impartial evidence demonstrating the existence of witchcraft and that views only changed when the concept of evil spirits came under skepticism in general.

Regional differences

There were many regional differences in the manner in which the witch trials occurred. The trials themselves emerged sporadically, flaring up in some areas while neighbouring areas remained largely unaffected. In general, homogenous catholic States, such as Spain and Italy, remained largely unaffected, while religiously divided countries like the Holy Roman Empire or France were more affected.

One of the areas that witnessed the largest number of panics, trials, and executions was in the German-language states that comprised the Holy Roman Empire. Nevertheless, there were regional variations here, with relatively few executions in southern Bavaria and the Lower Rhine area. On the whole the trials were less severe in neighbouring France, although again there was regional variation domestically, with the Pyrenees, Languedoc, the Alps and the North East being particularly heavily affected by the trials. There was also large trials in Lorraine and Franche-Comté, although these regions would only be permanently annexed by France after 1660. The situation differed in Southern Europe, with few trials taking place in either Spain or Italy. When they did occur in these nations, it was in the northern regions such as Spain's Basque Country; being close to neighbouring countries, these areas were more open to foreign influences and had a weaker central authority.

There was much regional variation within the British Isles. In Ireland, there were few trials, and those that did take place lacked the demonic elements present elsewhere in the continent. Similarly, the trials in England were atypical of Europe as a whole, for the emphasis of the charges was normally on the practice of malevolent magic rather than contact with the Devil, while the concept of witches' familiars played a key role, which was conversely largely absent from the continental trial accounts. North of the border, in Scotland, witch trials were far more numerous and resulted in far more executions than in England, having far more in common with the trials of France and Germany. Among the British settlements in New England, witch trials were very rare and not a feature of typical Early Modern life.

A country's government and legal system often made a major difference. England, for instance, had and has a long history of strong judicial centralization and therefore regulations prevented easy convictions, except for periods such as the English Civil War and the periods of Witch-hunting; Scotland, on the other hand, lacked the strong central government that England had and authorities had greater trouble controlling local justice or even contributed to the problem. During the time of the Witch Hunts, Germany was a patchwork of more than 300 autonomous territories and was highly decentralized politically, therefore making Germany highly vulnerable to massive witch hunts in the absence of judicial regulations.

There are particularly important differences between the English and continental witch-hunting traditions. The checks and balances inherent in the English jury system, which required a 23-strong body (the grand jury) to indict and a 12-strong one (the petit jury) to convict, always had a restraining effect on prosecutions. Another restraining influence was its relatively rare use of torture: the country formally permitted it only when authorized by the monarch, and no more than 81 torture warrants were issued (for all offenses) throughout English history. Continental European courts, while varying from region to region, tended to concentrate power in individual judges and place far more reliance on torture. The significance of the institutional difference is most clearly established by a comparison of the witch-hunts of England and Scotland, for the death toll inflicted by the courts north of the border always dwarfed that of England. It is also apparent from an episode of English history during the early 1640s, when the Civil War resulted in the suspension of jury courts for three years. Several freelance witch-hunters emerged during this period, the most notorious of whom was Matthew Hopkins, who emerged from East Anglia and proclaimed himself "Witchfinder General".

Identity of the accused

The majority of those accused were from the lower economic classes in European society, although in times of severe panic wealthier and high ranking individuals were accused as well, including priests, judges and in very rare cases members of the nobility. On the basis of this evidence, Scarre and Callow asserted that the "typical witch was the wife or widow of an agricultural labourer or small tenant farmer, and she was well known for a quarrelsome and aggressive nature."

In various instances, it was men rather than women who constituted the majority of the accused. For instance, in Iceland 92% of the accused were men, and in Estonia 60% of the accused victims were male, mainly middle-aged or elderly married peasants, and known healers or sorcerers. In the witch trials of Moscow in Russia, two-thirds of those accused were male.

Although it was far more common for them to be the accusers rather than the accused, in certain rare cases, children were put on trial for witchcraft. For instance, at one point during the Würzburg trials of 1629 children made up 60% of those accused, although this had reduced to 17% by the end of the year. Several decades later, in the late 1660s, children in Mohra, Sweden publicly claimed that adults had taken them to the witches' Sabbath. As a result, fifteen boys over the age of 16 were executed, while forty younger children were whipped.

Interrogation and torture

Various acts of torture were used against accused witches to coerce confessions and perhaps cause them to name their co-conspirators. The torture of witches began to increase in frequency after 1468 when the Pope declared witchcraft to be "crimen exceptum" and thereby removed all legal limits on the application of torture in cases where evidence was difficult to find.

In Italy, an accused witch was deprived of sleep for periods of up to forty hours. This technique was also used in England, but without a limitation on time.[90] Sexual humiliation torture was used, such as forced sitting on red-hot stools with the claim that the accused woman would not perform sexual acts with the devil. In most cases, those who endured the torture without confessing were released.

The use of torture has been identified as a key factor in converting the trial of one accused witch into a wider social panic, as those being tortured were more likely to accuse a wide array of other local individuals of also being witches.

Punishment and executions

A variety of different punishments were employed for those found guilty of witchcraft, including imprisonment, flogging, fines, or exile. In the Old Testament's Exodus 22:18 it states that "Thou shalt not permit a sorceress to live". Many faced capital punishment for witchcraft in the period, either by being burned at the stake, hanged on the gallows, or beheaded. Similarly, in New England, people convicted of witchcraft were hanged.

Historian Ronald Hutton asserts that scholars can be "reasonably sure" that the "overall number of executions" for witchcraft in this period lies between forty thousand and sixty thousand. There is nevertheless some variation of estimates within this range; Scarre and Callow put forward forty thousand as an estimate for the number killed. Hutton estimated that the numbers were between forty and fifty thousand, while Brian Levack came to an estimate of 45,000. Wolfgang Behringer and Lyndal Roper had independently calculated the number as being between fifty and sixty thousand. This figure does not include unofficial lynchings of accused witches, which went unrecorded but which are nevertheless believed to have been somewhat rare in the Early Modern period. It would also have been the case that various individuals would have died as a result of the unsanitary conditions of their imprisonment, but again this is not recorded within the number of executions.

In the early twentieth century, claims were made that the numbers executed were in the hundreds of thousands; in 1975 historian Norman Cohn rejected these as "fantastic exaggerations".

Protests

In the sixteenth-century, there were isolated individuals who expressed scepticism regarding the trials; for instance in 1584 the English writer Reginald Scot stated that those who believed that they could cause harm using magic were simply deluded.

Causes of the trials

Socio-political turmoil

Various suggestions have been made that the witch trials emerged as a response to socio-political turmoil in the Early Modern world. One form of this is that the prosecution of witches was a reaction to a disaster that had befallen the community, such as crop-failure, war, or disease. For instance, Midelfort suggested that in southwestern Germany, war and famine destabalised local communities, resulting in the witch prosecutions of the 1620s. Problematically for this theory, it has been highlighted that in that region, the witch hunts declined during the 1630s, as a time when the communities living there were facing increased disaster as a result of plague, famine, economic collapse and the Thirty Years' War. Furthermore, this scenario would clearly not offer a universal explanation, for trials also took place in areas which were free from war, famine, or pestilence.

Catholic versus Protestant conflict

The English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper advocated the idea that the witch trials emerged as part of the conflicts between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Early Modern Europe. This theory has however received little support from other experts in the subject. This is because there is little evidence that either Roman Catholics were accusing Protestants of witchcraft, or that Protestants were accusing Roman Catholics. Furthermore, the witch trials regularly occurred in regions with little or no inter-denominational strife, and which were largely religiously homogenous, such as Essex, Lowland Scotland, Geneva, Venice, and the Spanish Basque Country. There is also some evidence, particularly from the Holy Roman Empire, in which adjacent Roman Catholic and Protestant territories were exchanging information on alleged local witches, viewing them as a common threat to both. Additionally, many prosecutions were instigated not by the religious or secular authorities, but by popular demands from within the population, thus making it less likely that there were specific inter-denominational reasons behind the accusations.

In south-western Germany between 1561 and 1670 there were 480 witch trials. Of the 480 trials that took place in southwestern Germany, 317 occurred in Catholic areas, while Protestant territories accounted for 163 of them. During the period from 1561 to 1670, at least 3,229 persons were executed for witchcraft in the German Southwest. Of this number 702 were tried and executed in Protestant territories, while 2,527 were tried and executed in Catholic territories.

Functional explanations

Inspired by ethnographically recorded witch trials that anthropologists observed happening in non-European parts of the world, various historians have sought a functional explanation for the Early Modern witch trials, thereby suggesting the social functions that the trials played within their communities. These studies have illustrated how accusations of witchcraft have played a role in releasing social tensions or in facilitating the termination of personal relationships that have become un-desirable to one party.

Undertaking in-depth analysis of the social and cultural context of the English witch trials, Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlene showed that the accused were unpopular, anti-social, and often aggressive, known for begging from their neighbours and verbally cursing those who turned them away. In this they provided an explicitly functionalist explanation of the trials, in that they were used to eliminate anti-social members of the community.

Class conflict

Another theory is that the witch trials represented a method whereby the socio-economic elites used it as form of social control to consolidate their dominance over the poorer sections of the population.

Another theory, proposed by the prominent American anthropologist, Marvin Harris, in his work, 'Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches' (1973), is that the witches were scapegoats victimized by the Church and secular lords to focus and divert public furor at a time of economic dislocation: "The practical significance of the witch mania therefore was that it shifted responsibility for the crisis of late medieval society from both Church and state to imaginary demons in human form." (Harris, 1973, 205) Religious and secular authorities, argues Harris, in leading the witch hunts, not only exonerated themselves but made themselves indispensable, cementing their power.

Gender conflict

While the modern notion of a "witch hunt" has little to do with gender, the historical notion often did. In general, supposed "witches" were female. Said noted Judge Nicholas Rémy (c.1595), "[It is] not unreasonable that this scum of humanity, [witches], should be drawn chiefly from the feminine sex." Concurred another judge, "The Devil uses them so, because he knows that women love carnal pleasures, and he means to bind them to his allegiance by such agreeable provocations."

While the previously mentioned theories mainly rely on micro-level psychological interpretations, another theory has been put forward that provides an alternative macroeconomic explanation. According to this theory, the witches, who often had highly developed midwifery skills, were prosecuted in order to extinguish knowledge about birth control in an effort to repopulate Europe after the population catastrophe triggered by the plague pandemic of the 14th century (also known as the Black Death). Citing Jean Bodin's "On Witchcraft", this view holds that the witch hunts were not only promoted by the church but also by prominent secular thinkers to repopulate the European continent. By these authors, the witch hunts are seen as an attempt to eliminate female midwifery skills and as a historical explanation why modern gynecology—surprisingly enough—came to be practiced almost exclusively by males in state-run hospitals. In this view, the witch hunts began a process of criminalization of birth control that eventually led to an enormous increase in birth rates that is described as the "population explosion" of early modern Europe. This population explosion produced an enormous youth bulge which supplied the extra manpower that would enable Europe's nations, during the period of colonialism and imperialism, to conquer and colonize 90% of the world. While historians specializing in the history of the witch hunts have generally remained critical of this macroeconomic approach and continue to favor micro level perspectives and explanations, prominent historian of birth control John M. Riddle has expressed agreement.

As this theory has an alternative macroeconomic explanation some scholars oppose it. Diane Purkiss argues "that there is no evidence that the majority of those accused were healers and midwives; in England and also some parts of the Continent, midwives were more than likely to be found helping witch-hunters."

The vast majority of those accused in the European and North American witch trials were women. Estimates of the fraction of women among the victims range between 75% and 85%. There was a widespread assumption that the crime of witchcraft was association with women, just as crimes like highway robbery were associated with men. Historian Robert Thurston nevertheless stressed that this did not mean that the hunts were "an attack, intentional or otherwise, on women". Many modern scholars argue that the witch hunts cannot be explained simplistically as an expression of male misogyny, as women were frequently accused of witchcraft by other women. It is also argued that the supposedly misogynistic agenda of works on witchcraft has been greatly exaggerated. There are various reasons as to why this was the case. In Early Modern Europe, it was widely believed that women were less intelligent than men and more susceptible to sin.

Barstow (1994) claimed that a combination of factors, including the greater value placed on men as workers in the increasingly wage-oriented economy, and a greater fear of women as inherently evil, loaded the scales against women, even when the charges against them were identical to those against men. Thurston (2001) saw this as a part of the general misogyny of the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, which had increased during what he described as "the persecuting culture" from that which it had been in the Early Medieval.

Academic study

Early rationalist historians interpreted the witch trials as an example of mass superstition, and thus their end in the eighteenth century was seen as a revival of common sense among the population. This idea did not take into account that the existence of malevolent witches fitted within the worldview of the Early Modern, with its strong divide between good and evil, and that a belief in witches was therefore "common sense" to Early Modern people.

From the 1970s onward, there was a "massive explosion of scholarly enthusiasm" for the study of the Early Modern witch trials. This was partly because scholars from a variety of different disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, philosophy, philosophy of science, criminology, literary theory, and feminist theory, all began to investigate the phenomenon and brought their different insights to bear on the subject. This was accompanied by in-depth analysis of the trial records and the socio-cultural contexts on which they emerged, allowing for a far more sophisticated understanding of the trials than had previously been available. During this process, Britain and Germany established themselves as the main centres for the research of the subject. There have nevertheless been regional differences in how this has been undertaken; scholars in Britain and the United States have for instance largely neglected questions regarding how ancient ideas influenced and informed the identities of Early Modern witchcraft, something which conversely has been of great interest to a number of continental European scholars.

Reception in wider culture

Popular culture

In twentieth-century Western society, the witch trials were used as "a synonym for pointless persecution", such as the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s United States.

Witch-cult hypothesis and Wicca

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the common belief among educated sectors of the European populace was that there had never been any genuine cult of witches and that all those persecuted and executed as such had been innocent of the crime. However, at this time various scholars suggested that there had been a real cult that had been persecuted by the Christian authorities, and that it had had pre-Christian origins. The first to advance this theory was the German Professor of Criminal Law Karl Ernst Jarcke of the University of Berlin who put forward the idea in 1828; he suggested that witchcraft had been a pre-Christian German religion that had degenerated into Satanism. Jarcke's ideas were picked up by the German historian Franz Josef Mone in 1839, although he argued that the cult's origins were Greek rather than Germanic.

In 1862, the Frenchman Jules Michelet published La Sorciere, in which he put forth the idea that the witches had been following a pagan religion. The theory achieved greater attention when it was taken up by the Egyptologist Margaret Murray, who published both The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1931) in which she claimed that the witches had been following a pre-Christian religion which she termed "the Witch-Cult" and "Ritual Witchcraft". She claimed that this faith was devoted to a pagan Horned God and involved the celebration of four Witches' Sabbaths each year: Halloween, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. However, the majority of scholarly reviews of Murray's work produced at the time were largely critical, and her books never receiving support from experts in the Early Modern witch trials. Instead, from her early publications onward many of her ideas were challenged by those who highlighted her "factual errors and methodological failings".

However, the publication of the Murray thesis in the Encyclopædia Britannica made it accessible to "journalists, film-makers popular novelists and thriller writers", who adopted it "enthusiastically". Influencing works of literature, it inspired writings by Aldous Huxley and Robert Graves. Subsequently, in 1939, an English occultist named Gerald Gardner claimed to have been initiated into a surviving group of the pagan Witch-Cult known as the New Forest coven, although modern historical investigation has led scholars to believe that this coven was not ancient as Gardner believed, but was instead founded in the 1920s or 1930s by occultists wishing to fashion a revived Witch-Cult based upon Murray's theories. Taking this New Forest coven's beliefs and practices as a basis, Gardner went on to found Gardnerian Wicca, one of the most prominent traditions in the contemporary Pagan religion now known as Wicca, which revolved around the worship of a Horned God and Goddess, the celebration of festivals known as Sabbats, and the practice of ritual magic. He also went on to write several books about the historical Witch-Cult, Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959), and in these books, Gardner used the phrase "the burning times" in reference to the European and North American witch trials.

In the early twentieth century, a number of individuals and groups emerged in Europe, primarily Britain, and subsequently the United States as well, claiming to be the surviving remnants of the pagan Witch-Cult described in the works of Margaret Murray. The first of these actually appeared in the last few years of the nineteenth century, being a manuscript that American folklorist Charles Leland claimed he had been given by a woman who was a member of a group of witches worshipping the god Lucifer and goddess Diana in Tuscany, Italy. He published the work in 1899 as Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. Whilst historians and folklorists have accepted that there are folkloric elements to the gospel, none have accepted it as being the text of a genuine Tuscan religious group, and believe it to be of late-nineteenth-century composition.

Wiccans extended claims regarding the witch-cult in various ways, for instance by utilising the British folklore associating witches with prehistoric sites to assert that the witch-cult used to use such locations for religious rites, in doing so legitimising contemporary Wiccan use of them.[157] By the 1990s, many Wiccans had come to recognise the inaccuracy of the witch-cult theory and had accepted it as a mythological origin story.

Feminist interpretations

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, various feminist interpretations of the witch trials have been made and published. One of the earliest individuals to do so was the American Matilda Joslyn Gage, a writer who was deeply involved in the first-wave feminist movement for women's suffrage. In 1893, she published the book Woman, Church and State, which was "written in a tearing hurry and in time snatched from a political activism which left no space for original research." Likely influenced by the works of Jules Michelet about the Witch-Cult, she claimed that the witches persecuted in the Early Modern period were pagan priestesses adhering to an ancient religion venerating a Great Goddess. She also repeated the erroneous statement, taken from the works of several German authors, that nine million people had been killed in the witch hunt. The United States has become the centre of development for these feminist interpretations.

In 1973, two American second-wave feminists, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, published an extended pamphlet in which they put forward the idea that the women persecuted had been the traditional healers and midwives of the community who were being delibarately eliminated by the male medical establishment. This theory disregarded the fact that the majority of those persecuted were neither healers nor midwives and that in various parts of Europe these individuals were commonly among those encouraging the persecutions. In 1994, Anne Llewellyn Barstow published her book Witchcraze, which was later described by Scarre and Callow as "perhaps the most successful" attempt to portray the trials as a systematic male attack on women.

Other feminist historians have rejected this interpretation of events; historian Diane Purkiss described it as "not politically helpful" because it constantly portrays women as "helpless victims of patriarchy" and thus does not aid them in contemporary feminist struggles. She also condemned it for factual inaccuracy by highlighting that radical feminists adhering to it ignore the historicity of their claims, instead promoting it because it is perceived as authorising the continued struggle against patriarchal society. She asserted that many radical feminists nonetheless clung to it because of its "mythic significance" and firmly delineated structure between the oppressor and the oppressed.

Wikipedia 

"We Neopagans now face a crisis. As new data appeared, historians altered their theories to account for it. We have not. Therefore an enormous gap has opened between the academic and the 'average' Pagan view of witchcraft. We continue to use of out-dated and poor writers, like Margaret Murray, Montague Summers, Gerald Gardner, and Jules Michelet. We avoid the somewhat dull academic texts that present solid research, preferring sensational writers who play to our emotions."

Jenny Gibbons (1998)

Wikipedia  

BAPHOMET 

Baphomet (/ˈbæfɵmɛt/; from Medieval Latin Baphometh, Baffometi, Occitan Bafometz) is a term originally used to describe an idol or other deity that the Knights Templar were accused of worshiping, and that subsequently was incorporated into disparate occult and mystical traditions. It appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century. The name first came into popular English usage in the 19th century, with debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templars.

Since 1856, the name Baphomet has been associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas Levi[3] which contains binary elements representing the "sum total of the universe" (e.g. male and female, good and evil, etc.).

A 19th century image of a Sabbatic Goat, created by Eliphas Levi. The arms bear the Latin words SOLVE (separate) and COAGULA (join together), i.e., the power of "binding and loosing" usurped from God and, according to Catholic tradition, from the ecclesiastical hierarchy acting as God's representative on Earth.

History 

The name Baphomet appeared in July 1098 in a letter by the crusader Anselm of Ribemont:

Sequenti die aurora apparente, altis vocibus Baphometh invocaverunt; et nos Deum nostrum in cordibus nostris deprecantes, impetum facientes in eos, de muris civitatis omnes expulimus.

As the next day dawned, they called loudly upon Baphometh; and we prayed silently in our hearts to God, then we attacked and forced all of them outside the city walls.

A chronicler of the First Crusade, Raymond of Aguilers, called the mosques Bafumarias. The name Bafometz later appeared around 1195 in the Occitan poem "Senhors, per los nostres peccatz" by the troubadour Gavaudan. Around 1250 a poem bewailing the defeat of the Seventh Crusade by Austorc d'Aorlhac refers to Bafomet. De Bafomet is also the title of one of four surviving chapters of an Occitan translation of Ramon Llull's earliest known work, the Libre de la doctrina pueril, "book on the instruction of children".

Two Templars burned at the stake, from a French 15th-century manuscript. 

When the medieval order of the Knights Templar was suppressed by King Philip IV of France, on October 13, 1307, Philip had many French Templars simultaneously arrested, and then tortured into confessions. Over 100 different charges had been leveled against the Templars. Most of them were dubious, as they were the same charges that were leveled against the Cathars and many of King Philip's enemies; he had earlier kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII and charged him with near identical offenses of heresy, spitting and urinating on the cross, and sodomy. 

Yet Malcolm Barber observes that historians "find it difficult to accept that an affair of such enormity rests upon total fabrication". The "Chinon Parchment suggests that the Templars did indeed spit on the cross," says Sean Martin, and that these acts were intended to simulate the kind of humiliation and torture that a Crusader might be subjected to if captured by the Saracens, where they were taught how to commit apostasy "with the mind only and not with the heart". Similarly Michael Haag suggests that the simulated worship of Baphomet did indeed form part of a Templar initiation ritual.

The indictment (acte d'accusation) published by the court of Rome set forth ... "that in all the provinces they had idols, that is to say, heads, some of which had three faces, others but one; sometimes, it was a human skull ... That in their assemblies, and especially in their grand chapters, they worshipped the idol as a god, as their saviour, saying that this head could save them, that it bestowed on the order all its wealth, made the trees flower, and the plants of the earth to sprout forth."

The name Baphomet comes up in several of these confessions. Peter Partner states in his 1987 book The Knights Templar and their Myth, "In the trial of the Templars one of their main charges was their supposed worship of a heathen idol-head known as a 'Baphomet' ('Baphomet' = Mahomet = Muhammad)." The description of the object changed from confession to confession. Some Templars denied any knowledge of it. Others, under torture, described it as being either a severed head, a cat, or a head with three faces. The Templars did possess several silver-gilt heads as reliquaries, including one marked capud lviiim, another said to be St. Euphemia, and possibly the actual head of Hugues de Payens. The claims of an idol named Baphomet were unique to the Inquisition of the Templars. Karen Ralls, author of the Knights Templar Encyclopedia, argues that it is significant that "no specific evidence [of Baphomet] appears in either the Templar Rule or in other medieval period Templar documents."

Gauserand de Montpesant, a knight of Provence, said that their superior showed him an idol made in the form of Baffomet; another, named Raymond Rubei, described it as a wooden head, on which the figure of Baphomet was painted, and adds, "that he worshipped it by kissing its feet, and exclaiming, 'Yalla,' which was," he says, "verbum Saracenorum," a word taken from the Saracens. A templar of Florence declared that, in the secret chapters of the order, one brother said to the other, showing the idol, "Adore this head — this head is your god and your Mahomet."

Modern scholars such as Peter Partner and Malcolm Barber agree that the name of Baphomet was an Old French corruption of the name Muhammad, with the interpretation being that some of the Templars, through their long military occupation of the Outremer, had begun incorporating Islamic ideas into their belief system, and that this was seen and documented by the Inquisitors as heresy. Alain Demurger, however, rejects the idea that the Templars could have adopted the doctrines of their enemies. Helen Nicholson writes that the charges were essentially "manipulative" — the Templars "were accused of becoming fairy-tale Muslims." Medieval Christians believed that Muslims were idolatrous and worshipped Muhammad as a god, with mahomet becoming mammet in English, meaning an idol or false god. This idol-worship is attributed to Muslims in several chansons de geste. For example, one finds the gods Bafum e Travagan in a Provençal poem on the life of St. Honorat, completed in 1300. In the Chanson de Simon Pouille, written before 1235, a Saracen idol is called Bafumetz.

Alternative etymologies

While modern scholars and the Oxford English Dictionary state that the origin of the name Baphomet was a probable Old French version of "Mahomet", alternative etymologies have also been proposed:

Knights Templar Seal representing the Gnostic figure Abraxas.

In the 18th century, speculative theories arose that sought to tie the Knights Templar with the origins of Freemasonry. Bookseller, Freemason and Illuminist Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (1733–1811), in Versuch über die Beschuldigungen welche dem Tempelherrenorden gemacht worden, und über dessen Geheimniß (1782), was the first to claim that the Templars were Gnostics, and that "Baphomet" was formed from the Greek words βαφη μητȢς, baphe metous, to mean Taufe der Weisheit, "Baptism of Wisdom". Nicolai "attached to it the idea of the image of the supreme God, in the state of quietude attributed to him by the Manichaean Gnostics", according to F. J. M. Raynouard, and "supposed that the Templars had a secret doctrine and initiations of several grades" which "the Saracens had communicated ... to them." 

He further connected the figura Baffometi with the pentagram of Pythagoras:

What properly was the sign of the Baffomet, 'figura Baffometi,' which was depicted on the breast of the bust representing the Creator, cannot be exactly determined ... I believe it to have been the Pythagorean pentagon (Fünfeck) of health and prosperity: ... It is well known how holy this figure was considered, and that the Gnostics had much in common with the Pythagoreans. From the prayers which the soul shall recite, according to the diagram of the Ophite-worshippers, when they on their return to God are stopped by the Archons, and their purity has to be examined, it appears that these serpent-worshippers believed they must produce a token that they had been clean on earth. I believe that this token was also the holy pentagon, the sign of their initiation (τελειας βαφης μετεος).

Émile Littré (1801–1881) in Dictionnaire de la langue francaise asserted that the word was cabalistically formed by writing backward tem. o. h. p. ab, an abbreviation of templi omnium hominum pacis abbas, 'abbot' or 'father of the temple of peace of all men.' His source is the "Abbé Constant", which is to say, Alphonse-Louis Constant, the real name of Eliphas Levi.

Arkon Daraul proposed that "Baphomet" may derive from the Arabic word أبو فهمة Abu fihama(t), meaning "The Father of Understanding". "Arkon Daraul" is widely thought to be a pseudonym of Idries Shah (1924–1996).

Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield (1901–1988), one of the scholars who worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls, argued in his book The Essene Odyssey that the word "Baphomet" was created with knowledge of the Atbash substitution cipher, which substitutes the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the last, the second for the second last, and so on. "Baphomet" rendered in Hebrew is בפומת; interpreted using Atbash, it becomes שופיא, which can be interpreted as the Greek word "Sophia", or wisdom. This theory is an important part of the plot of The Da Vinci Code. Professor Schonfield's theory cannot be independently corroborated, however.

Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall

In 1818, the name Baphomet appeared in the essay by the Viennese Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, Mysterium Baphometis revelatum, seu Fratres Militiæ Templi, qua Gnostici et quidem Ophiani, Apostasiæ, Idoloduliæ et Impuritatis convicti, per ipsa eorum Monumenta ("Discovery of the Mystery of Baphomet, by which the Knights Templars, like the Gnostics and Ophites, are convicted of Apostasy, of Idolatry and of moral Impurity, by their own Monuments"), which presented an elaborate pseudohistory constructed to discredit Templarist Masonry and, by extension, Freemasonry. Following Nicolai, he argued, using as archaeological evidence "Baphomets" faked by earlier scholars and literary evidence such as the Grail romances, that the Templars were Gnostics and the "Templars' head" was a Gnostic idol called Baphomet.

His chief subject is the images which are called Baphomet ... found in several museums and collections of antiquities, as in Weimar ... and in the imperial cabinet in Vienna. These little images are of stone, partly hermaphrodites, having, generally, two heads or two faces, with a beard, but, in other respects, female figures, most of them accompanied by serpents, the sun and moon, and other strange emblems, and bearing many inscriptions, mostly in Arabic ... The inscriptions he reduces almost all to Mete[, which] ... is, according to him, not the Μητις of the Greeks, but the Sophia, Achamot Prunikos of the Ophites, which was represented half man, half woman, as the symbol of wisdom, unnatural voluptuousness and the principle of sensuality ... He asserts that those small figures are such as the Templars, according to the statement of a witness, carried with them in their coffers. Baphomet signifies Βαφη Μητεος, baptism of Metis, baptism of fire, or the Gnostic baptism, an enlightening of the mind, which, however, was interpreted by the Ophites, in an obscene sense, as fleshly union ... the fundamental assertion, that those idols and cups came from the Templars, has been considered as unfounded, especially as the images known to have existed among the Templars seem rather to be images of saints.

Hammer's essay did not pass unchallenged, and F. J. M. Raynouard published an "Etude sur 'Mysterium Baphometi revelatum'" in Journal des savants the following year. Charles William King criticized Hammer saying he had been deceived by "the paraphernalia of ... Rosicrucian or alchemical quacks," and Peter Partner agreed that the images "may have been forgeries from the occultist workshops." At the very least, there was little evidence to tie them to the Knights Templar — in the 19th century some European museums acquired such pseudo-Egyptian objects,[citation needed] which were catalogued as "Baphomets" and credulously thought to have been idols of the Templars.

Eliphas Lévi

Later in the 19th century, the name of Baphomet became further associated with the occult. Eliphas Levi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ("Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic") as two volumes (Dogme 1854, Rituel 1856), in which he included an image he had drawn himself which he described as Baphomet and "The Sabbatic Goat", showing a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns (illustration, top). This image has become the best-known representation of Baphomet. Lévi considered the Baphomet to be a depiction of the absolute in symbolic form and explicated in detail his symbolism in the drawing that served as the frontispiece:

The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of occultism, the one pointing up to the white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the androgyne of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol. The flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light of the universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it. The beast's head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only suffer when it materializes. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life, the body covered with scales the water, the semi-circle above it the atmosphere, the feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyne arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences.

Witches' Sabbath

Lévi's depiction of Baphomet is similar to that of the Devil in early Tarot cards. Lévi, working with correspondences different from those later used by S. L. MacGregor Mathers, "equated the Devil Tarot key with Mercury," giving "his figure Mercury's caduceus, rising like a phallus from his groin."

Lévi believed that the alleged devil worship of the medieval Witches' Sabbath was a perpetuation of ancient pagan rites. A goat with a candle between its horns appears in medieval witchcraft records, and other pieces of lore are cited in Dogme et Rituel.

Below this figure we read a frank and simple inscription — THE DEVIL. Yes, we confront here that phantom of all terrors, the dragon of the all theogenies, the Ahriman of the Persians, the Typhon of the Egyptians, the Python of the Greeks, the old serpent of the Hebrews, the fantastic monster, the nightmare, the Croquemitaine, the gargoyle, the great beast of the Middle Ages, and — worse than all these — the Baphomet of the Templars, the bearded idol of the alchemist, the obscene deity of Mendes, the goat of the Sabbath. The frontispiece to this ‘Ritual’ reproduces the exact figure of the terrible emperor of night, with all his attributes and all his characters.... Yes, in our profound conviction, the Grand Masters of the Order of Templars worshipped the Baphomet, and caused it to be worshipped by their initiates; yes, there existed in the past, and there may be still in the present, assemblies which are presided over by this figure, seated on a throne and having a flaming torch between the horns. But the adorers of this sign do not consider, as do we, that it is a representation of the devil; on the contrary, for them it is that of the god Pan, the god of our modern schools of philosophy, the god of the Alexandrian theurgic school and of our own mystical Neoplatonists, the god of Lamartine and Victor Cousin, the god of Spinoza and Plato, the god of the primitive Gnostic schools; the Christ also of the dissident priesthood.... The mysteries of the Sabbath have been variously described, but they figure always in grimoires and in magical trials; the revelations made on the subject may be classified under three heads — 1. those referring to a fantastic and imaginary Sabbath; 2. those which betray the secrets of the occult assemblies of veritable adepts; 3. revelations of foolish and criminal gatherings, having for their object the operations of black magic.

Lévi's Baphomet, for all its modern fame, does not match the historical descriptions from the Templar trials, although it may also have been partly inspired by grotesque carvings on the Templar churches of Lanleff in Brittany and Saint-Merri in Paris, which depict squatting bearded men with bat wings, female breasts, horns and the shaggy hindquarters of a beast,  as well as Viollet-le-Duc's vivid gargoyles that were added to Notre Dame de Paris about the same time as Lévi's illustration.

Goat of Mendes

Lévi called his image "The Goat of Mendes", possibly following Herodotus' account that the god of Mendes — the Greek name for Djedet, Egypt — was depicted with a goat's face and legs. Herodotus relates how all male goats were held in great reverence by the Mendesians, and how in his time a woman publicly copulated with a goat. E. A. Wallis Budge writes,

At several places in the Delta, e.g. Hermopolis, Lycopolis, and Mendes, the god Pan and a goat were worshipped; Strabo, quoting (xvii. 1, 19) Pindar, says that in these places goats had intercourse with women, and Herodotus (ii. 46) instances a case which was said to have taken place in the open day. The Mendisians, according to this last writer, paid reverence to all goats, and more to the males than to the females, and particularly to one he-goat, on the death of which public mourning is observed throughout the whole Mendesian district; they call both Pan and the goat Mendes, and both were worshipped as gods of generation and fecundity. Diodorus (i. 88) compares the cult of the goat of Mendes with that of Priapus, and groups the god with the Pans and the Satyrs. The goat referred to by all these writers is the famous Mendean Ram, or Ram of Mendes, the cult of which was, according to Manetho, established by Kakau, the king of the IInd dynasty.

Historically, the deity that was venerated at Egyptian Mendes was a ram deity Banebdjedet (literally Ba of the lord of djed, and titled "the Lord of Mendes"), who was the soul of Osiris. Lévi combined the images of the Tarot of Marseilles Devil card and refigured the ram Banebdjed as a he-goat, further imagined by him as "copulator in Anep and inseminator in the district of Mendes".

Aleister Crowley

The Baphomet of Lévi was to become an important figure within the cosmology of Thelema, the mystical system established by Aleister Crowley in the early twentieth century. Baphomet features in the Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church recited by the congregation in The Gnostic Mass, in the sentence: "And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET."

In Magick (Book 4), Crowley asserted that Baphomet was a divine androgyne and "the hieroglyph of arcane perfection":

The Devil does not exist. It is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God... 'The Devil' is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes... This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation. He is 'The Devil' of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection... He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty.

For Crowley, Baphomet is further a representative of the spiritual nature of the spermatozoa while also being symbolic of the "magical child" produced as a result of sex magic. As such, Baphomet represents the Union of Opposites, especially as mystically personified in Chaos and Babalon combined and biologically manifested with the sperm and egg united in the zygote.

Crowley proposed that Baphomet was derived from "Father Mithras". In his Confessions he describes the circumstances that led to this etymology:

I had taken the name Baphomet as my motto in the O.T.O. For six years and more I had tried to discover the proper way to spell this name. I knew that it must have eight letters, and also that the numerical and literal correspondences must be such as to express the meaning of the name in such a ways as to confirm what scholarship had found out about it, and also to clear up those problems which archaeologists had so far failed to solve ... One theory of the name is that it represents the words βαφὴ μήτεος, the baptism of wisdom; another, that it is a corruption of a title meaning "Father Mithras". Needless to say, the suffix R supported the latter theory. I added up the word as spelt by the Wizard. It totalled 729. This number had never appeared in my Cabbalistic working and therefore meant nothing to me. It however justified itself as being the cube of nine. The word κηφας, the mystic title given by Christ to Peter as the cornerstone of the Church, has this same value. So far, the Wizard had shown great qualities! He had cleared up the etymological problem and shown why the Templars should have given the name Baphomet to their so-called idol. Baphomet was Father Mithras, the cubical stone which was the corner of the Temple.

Modern interpretations and usage

Lévi's Baphomet is the source of the later Tarot image of the Devil in the Rider-Waite design.The concept of a downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead was enlarged upon by Lévi in his discussion (without illustration) of the Goat of Mendes arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasted with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram. The actual image of a goat in a downward-pointing pentagram first appeared in the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire by Stanislas de Guaita. It was this image that was later adopted as the official symbol — called the Sigil of Baphomet — of the Church of Satan, and continues to be used among Satanists.

Baphomet, as Lévi's illustration suggests, has occasionally been portrayed as a synonym of Satan or a demon, a member of the hierarchy of Hell. Baphomet appears in that guise as a character in James Blish's The Day After Judgment.[citation needed] Christian evangelist Jack T. Chick claims that Baphomet is a demon worshipped by Freemasons, a claim that apparently originated with the Taxil hoax. Léo Taxil's elaborate hoax employed a version of Lévi's Baphomet on the cover of Les Mystères de la franc-maçonnerie dévoilés, his lurid paperback "exposé" of Freemasonry, which in 1897 he revealed as a hoax intended to ridicule the Catholic Church and its anti-Masonic propaganda.

"baphomet" (sic) is a board on the imageboard website 8chan which became a base for doxxing and swatting exploits and for doxxing the federal judge in the Silk Road trial in February 2015.

Wikipedia 

Myth of the Baphomet

Baphomet (bæ ·fomet). [a. F. Baphomet; cf. Pr. Bafomet, OSp. Mafomat.] a. A form of the name Mahomed used by mediæval writers. b. Alleged name of the idol which the Templars were accused of worshipping. (According to l'Abbé Constant, quoted by Littré,1 this word was cabalistically formed by writing backward tem. o. h. p. ab., abbreviation of templi omnium hominum pacis abbas, 'abbot' or 'father of the temple of peace of all men.') Hence Baphomet·ic a. 

1818 Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) I. 140 Baphomet is a secret word ascribed to the Templars. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. _VII._ xii. ii. 278 The great stress .. in the condemnation of the templars is laid on the worship of Baphomet. The talismans, bowls, symbols, are even called Baphometic. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. II. vii, My Spiritual New-birth, or Baphometic Fire-baptism.

Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984 (23rd Printing) p. 659.

The Baphomet is not a masonic symbol, nor is it worshiped by freemasons. It has no traditional relation to the pentagram, nor the Goat of Mendes, nor Pan, nor the Green Man. The name seems to have first appeared in twelfth century France and its image first appeared in 1855. Then Anton Szandor LaVey and his atheistic Church of Satan adopted it in 1966. But it all starts with the Roman Catholic Inquisition and the Knights Templar. 

Established in 1118 by Hugh de Payen and André de Montbard 2, the Knights Templar — from September 13, 1128, properly styled Pauperes commilitis Christi et Templi Salomonis — are forever linked to the history of the Baphomet. But of 231 knights examined by the pope’s Commissioners in Paris, only 12 admitted, under torture, to knowing anything about the icon, as against 183 who confessed that they renounced Christ and 180 who confessed to defiling the cross in various ways.3

The term’s identification with Mahomet appears to be derived from its usage in Provence. This had been the centre of the Cathar Church in France, until the Albigensian Crusade of 1209-1229 killed its protectors and the nascent Inquisition killed or silenced any survivors. Montague Summers4 suggested, without proof, that the name was a combination of two Greek words (baphe and metis) and meant 'absorption into wisdom.'

It should be noted that the term Baphomet is not to be found in King Philippe’s grounds for arrest, issued September 14th, 1307, the 127 articles of accusation drawn up on August 12th, 1308, nor in any of the papal bulls issued by Pope Clement V. The articles of accusation refer to the adoration of idols: a cat or head, sometimes having three faces. The descriptions revealed during the trials varied but generally were of a "head with one face or two faces, sometimes bearded and sometimes not, made of silver or of wood, a picture of a man or of a woman, an embalmed head that glowed in the dark or a demon." The trials say little of the actual head, but there are some textual accounts of it. Guillame de Arbley who was the preceptor of the Templar house at Soissy in the diocese of Meaux testified on October 22, 1307 that he had seen the bearded head twice, which he claimed was gilded and made of silver and wood.

Although modern writers will occasionally refer to the Templars' use of the pentagram, or five-pointed star, they fail to provide examples. The seals of the Masters generally depicted crosses, castles, fish, lambs, lions and the like. The plans of their castles and strongholds in Europe — those few they constructed — were dependent on topography and sightlines, not sacred geometry.

What does this have to do with Freemasonry, or more particularly, anti-masonry? The presumed link is the pentagram. Over six hundred years after the suppression of the Knights Templar, one Éliphas Lévi took it upon himself to determine the value of the pentagram and equate it with the Baphomet. He termed the Baphomet, "the Goat of Mendes" — confusing it with Banebdjedet, an Ancient Egyptian ram god— and included a fanciful illustration of it as a frontispiece to his Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic in 1861.7 Although his frontispiece illustration depicts a one-point-up pentagram, he is also credited with being the first to arbitrate that the one-point-down image represented the Baphomet.8 No known graphical illustration associating the pentagram with evil appears before this. Michael Howard claims that Lévi based the illustration on a gargoyle that appears on a building owned by the Templars; the Commandry of Saint Bris le Vineux.9 The Catholic Inquisition of the early 1300s does not appear to have made a connection between the Templars' alleged worship of the Baphomet and the pentagram. Goldberg’s Sacred fire : the story of sex in religion depicts an image that could act as a link between the Templars and Lévi. But there is no mention in the text and no source is cited.

[Baphomet]

Abel Clarin de la Rive, 1894

The next similar depiction appears in 1894 when self-confessed fraud Leo Taxil incorporated a similar figure into his attacks on Freemasonry. These three images, and subsequent imitations, constitute the complete catalogue of images purporting to represent the Baphomet. They have no historical precedent. They have no existence other than in the imaginations of their authors. And the point cannot be made too strongly — they have nothing to do with Freemasonry.

It is a literary and historical curiosity that masonic author, Albert Pike quoted extensively, and apparently uncritically, from the writings of Éliphas Lévi. He writes: "Hierogliphically to express this law of prudence, they gave their mercury, personified in Egypt as Hermanubis, a dog’s head; and to their Sulpher, represented by the Baphomet of the Temple, that goat’s head which brought into such disrepute the occult Mediaeval associations." "The Gnostics held that it composed the igneous body of the Holy Spirit ; and it was adored in the secret rites of the Sabbat or the Temple, under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the hermaphroditic goat of Mendes." 18 It is clear that Pike’s authority was Lévi, who had no authority.

Placing the image of a goat face inside a five-pointed star appears to be the inspiration of Paul Jagot, in his Science Occulte et Magie Pratique (Paris : Editions Drouin, 1924, p. 172). It incorporated an open star, not a pentagram, and Jagot provided no citation.

The image next appeared in The Handbook of Magic & Witchcraft by Charles W. Olliver (London : Rider & Co., 1928, p. 47). As reproduced at the top left of this webpage, the head is now contained in a pentagram, with the addition of the words "Samael" and "Lilith". Olliver also failed to provide citation.

In 1931 Oswald Wirth included the goat head and pentagram in his La Franc-Maçonnerie Rendue Intelligible à ces Adeptes, Deuxième Partie: "Le Compagnon," (Paris: Derry-Livres, 1931, p. 60). Again, the image was uncited.

Maurice Bessy provided an illustration of the goat head and pentagram inside two circles, with the word "Leviathan" written between the lines in Hebrew, in his A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural (London :1964, p. 198). He also provided no source.

Only in the later twentieth century, with the creation of the American Church of Satan, did the inverted pentagram, with or without the goat head, become a popular symbol for Satan. Their source appears to be Oswald Wirth and Maurice Bessy, neither of whom identified it with the Baphomet.

Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon 

HISTORY OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR 

The history of the Knights Templar incorporates about two centuries during the Middle Ages, from the Order's founding in the early 12th century, to when it was disbanded in the early 14th century.

The Knights Templar trace their origin back to shortly after the First Crusade. Around 1119, a French nobleman from the Champagne region, Hugues de Payens, collected eight of his knighted relatives including Godfrey de Saint-Omer, and began the Order, their stated mission to protect pilgrims on their journey to visit the Holy Places. They approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who allowed them to set up headquarters on the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock, at the centre of the Mount, was understood to occupy the site of the Jewish Temple. Known to Christians throughout the Muslim occupation of Jerusalem as the Holy of Holies, the Dome of the Rock became a Christian church, the Templum Domini, the Temple of the Lord. But the Templars were lodged in the Aqsa Mosque, which was assumed to stand on the site of Solomon's Temple. Because the Aqsa mosque was known as the Templum Solomonis, it was not long before the knights had encompassed the association in their name. They became known as the Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici – the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, which was eventually shortened to "Knights Templars".

The original order consisted of Hugues de Payens and eight knights, two of whom were brothers and all of whom were his relatives by either blood or marriage: Godfrey de Saint-Omer, Payne de Monteverdi, Archambaud de St. Agnan, Andre de Montbard, Geoffrey Bison, and two men recorded only by the names of Rossal and Gondamer. The ninth knight remains unknown, although some have speculated that it was Count Hugh of Champagne himself — despite the Count returning to France in 1116 and documentary evidence showing that he joined the Knights on his third visit to the Holy Land in 1125.

Little was heard of the Order for their first nine years. But in 1129, after they were officially sanctioned by the church at the Council of Troyes, they became very well known in Europe. Their fundraising campaigns asked for donations of money, land, or noble-born sons to join the Order, with the implication that donations would help both to defend Jerusalem, and to ensure the charitable giver of a place in Heaven. The Order's efforts were helped substantially by the patronage of Bernard of Clairvaux, the leading churchman of the time, and a nephew of one of the original nine knights. The Order at its outset had been subject to strong criticism, especially of the concept that religious men could also carry swords. In response to these critics, the influential Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a multi-page treatise entitled De Laude Novae Militae ("In Praise of the New Knighthood"), in which he championed their mission and defended the idea of a military religious order by appealing to the long-held Christian theory of just war, which legitimated “taking up the sword” to defend the innocent and the Church from violent attack. By so doing, Bernard legitimised the Templars, who became the first "warrior monks" of the Western world Bernard wrote:

[A Templar Knight] is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith, just as his body is protected by the armor of steel. He is thus doubly-armed, and need fear neither demons nor men.

Shortly after its foundation in Jerusalem and due to possible previous links of the founding knights with the crusader Count Henry of Borgundy (or with the House of Burgundy), and possible due to the House of Burgundy`s family links with Bernard of Clairvaux, the knights Templar were already in the western edge of Europe, in the County of Portugal, at least since May 1122. The Templars settled there first, where the Order received donations and bought lands during the successive years of 1122, 1123, 1125, and 1126 (donated by D. Theresa), and 1127-28.

Donations to the Order were considerable. The King of Aragon, in the Iberian Peninsula, left large tracts of land to the order upon his death in the 1130s. New members to the Order were also required to swear vows of obedience, chastity, piety and poverty, and hand over all of their goods to the monastic brotherhood. This could include land, horses and any other items of material wealth, including labor from serfs, and any interest in any businesses.

In 1139, even more power was conferred upon the Order by Pope Innocent II, who issued the papal bull, Omne Datum Optimum. It stated that the Knights Templar could pass freely through any border, owed no taxes, and were subject to no one's authority except that of the Pope. It was a remarkable confirmation of the Templars and their mission, which may have been brought about by the Order's patron, Bernard of Clairvaux, who had helped Pope Innocent in his own rise.

The Order grew rapidly throughout Western Europe, with chapters appearing in France, England, and Scotland, and then spreading to Spain and Portugal.

The Crusades and the Knights Templar

The Knights Templar were the elite fighting force of their day, highly trained, well-equipped and highly motivated; one of the tenets of their religious order was that they were forbidden from retreating in battle, unless outnumbered three to one, and even then only by order of their commander, or if the Templar flag went down. Not all Knights Templar were warriors. The mission of most of the members was one of support – to acquire resources which could be used to fund and equip the small percentage of members who were fighting on the front lines. There were actually three classes within the orders. The highest class was the knight. When a candidate was sworn into the order, the initiation made the knight a monk. They wore white robes. The knights could hold no property and receive no private letters. He could not be married or betrothed and cannot have any vow in any other Order. He could not have debt more than he could pay, and no infirmities. The Templar priest class was similar to the modern day military chaplain. Wearing green robes, they conducted religious services, led prayers, and were assigned record keeping and letter writing. They always wore gloves, unless they were giving Holy Communion. The mounted men-at-arms represented the most common class, and they were called "brothers". They were usually assigned two horses each and held many positions, including guard, steward, squire or other support vocations. As the main support staff, they wore black or brown robes and were partially garbed in chain mail or plate mail. The armor was not as complete as the knights. Because of this infrastructure, the warriors were well-trained and very well armed. Even their horses were trained to fight in combat, fully armored. The combination of soldier and monk was also a powerful one, as to the Templar knights, martyrdom in battle was one of the most glorious ways to die.

The Templars were also shrewd tacticians, following the dream of Saint Bernard who had declared that a small force, under the right conditions, could defeat a much larger enemy. One of the key battles in which this was demonstrated was in 1177, at the Battle of Montgisard. The famous Muslim military leader Saladin was attempting to push toward Jerusalem from the south, with a force of 26,000 soldiers. He had pinned the forces of Jerusalem's King Baldwin IV, about 500 knights and their supporters, near the coast, at Ascalon. Eighty Templar knights and their own entourage attempted to reinforce. They met Saladin's troops at Gaza, but were considered too small a force to be worth fighting, so Saladin turned his back on them and headed with his army towards Jerusalem.

Once Saladin and his army had moved on, the Templars were able to join King Baldwin's forces, and together they proceeded north along the coast. Saladin had made a key mistake at that point – instead of keeping his forces together, he permitted his army to temporarily spread out and pillage various villages on their way to Jerusalem. The Templars took advantage of this low state of readiness to launch a surprise ambush directly against Saladin and his bodyguard, at Montgisard near Ramla. Saladin's army was spread too thin to adequately defend themselves, and he and his forces were forced to fight a losing battle as they retreated back to the south, ending up with only a tenth of their original number. The battle was not the final one with Saladin, but it bought a year of peace for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the victory became a heroic legend.

Another key tactic of the Templars was that of the "squadron charge". A small group of knights and their heavily armed warhorses would gather into a tight unit which would gallop full speed at the enemy lines, with a determination and force of will that made it clear that they would rather commit suicide than fall back. This terrifying onslaught would frequently have the desired result of breaking a hole in the enemy lines, thereby giving the other Crusader forces an advantage.

The Templars, though relatively small in number, routinely joined other armies in key battles. They would be the force that would ram through the enemy's front lines at the beginning of a battle, or the fighters that would protect the army from the rear. They fought alongside King Louis VII of France, and King Richard I of England. In addition to battles in Palestine, members of the Order also fought in the Spanish and Portuguese Reconquista.

Bankers

Though initially an Order of poor monks, the official papal sanction made the Knights Templar a charity across Europe. Further resources came in when members joined the Order, as they had to take oaths of poverty, and therefore often donated large amounts of their original cash or property to the Order. Additional revenue came from business dealings. Since the monks themselves were sworn to poverty, but had the strength of a large and trusted international infrastructure behind them, nobles would occasionally use them as a kind of bank or power of attorney. If a noble wished to join the Crusades, this might entail an absence of years from their home. So some nobles would place all of their wealth and businesses under the control of Templars, to safeguard it for them until their return. The Order's financial power became substantial, and the majority of the Order's infrastructure was devoted not to combat, but to economic pursuits.

By 1150, the Order's original mission of guarding pilgrims had changed into a mission of guarding their valuables through an innovative way of issuing letters of credit, an early precursor of modern banking. Pilgrims would visit a Templar house in their home country, depositing their deeds and valuables. The Templars would then give them a letter which would describe their holdings. Modern scholars have stated that the letters were encrypted with a cipher alphabet based on a Maltese Cross; however there is some disagreement on this, and it is possible that the code system was introduced later, and not something used by the medieval Templars themselves. While traveling, the pilgrims could present the letter to other Templars along the way, to "withdraw" funds from their accounts. This kept the pilgrims safe since they were not carrying valuables, and further increased the power of the Templars.

The Knights' involvement in banking grew over time into a new basis for money, as Templars became increasingly involved in banking activities. One indication of their powerful political connections is that the Templars' involvement in usury did not lead to more controversy within the Order and the church at large. Officially the idea of lending money in return for interest was forbidden by the church, but the Order sidestepped this with clever loopholes, such as a stipulation that the Templars retained the rights to the production of mortgaged property. Or as one Templar researcher put it, "Since they weren't allowed to charge interest, they charged rent instead."

Their holdings were necessary to support their campaigns; in 1180, a Burgundian noble required 3 square kilometres of estate to support himself as a knight, and by 1260 this had risen to 15.6 km². The Order potentially supported up to 4,000 horses and pack animals at any given time, if provisions of the rule were followed; these horses had extremely high maintenance costs due to the heat in Outremer (Crusader states at the Eastern Mediterranean), and had high mortality rates due to both disease and the Turkish bowmen strategy of aiming at a knight's horse rather than the knight himself. In addition, the high mortality rates of the knights in the East (regularly ninety percent in battle, not including wounded) resulted in extremely high campaign costs due to the need to recruit and train more knights. In 1244, at the battle of La Forbie, where only thirty-three of 300 knights survived, it is estimated the financial loss was equivalent to one-ninth of the entire Capetian yearly revenue.

The Templars' political connections and awareness of the essentially urban and commercial nature of the Outremer communities led the Order to a position of significant power, both in Europe and the Holy Land. They owned large tracts of land both in Europe and the Middle East, built churches and castles, bought farms and vineyards, were involved in manufacturing and import/export, had their own fleet of ships, and for a time even "owned" the entire island of Cyprus.

Decline 

Their success attracted the concern of many other orders, with the two most powerful rivals being the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights. Various nobles also had concerns about the Templars as well, both for financial reasons, and nervousness about an independent army that was able to move freely through all borders.

The long-famed military acumen of the Templars began to stumble in the 1180s. On July 4, 1187 came the disastrous Battle of the Horns of Hattin, a turning point in the Crusades. It again involved Saladin, who had been beaten back by the Templars in 1177 in the legendary Battle of Montgisard near Tiberias, but this time Saladin was better prepared. Further, the Grand Master of the Templars was involved in this battle, Gerard de Ridefort, who had just achieved that lifetime position a few years earlier. He was not known as a good military strategist, and made some deadly errors, such as venturing out with his force of 80 knights without adequate supplies or water, across the arid hill country of Galilee. The Templars were overcome by the heat within a day, and then surrounded and massacred by Saladin's army. Within months Saladin captured Jerusalem.

But in the early 1190s in a remarkably short and powerfully effective campaign Richard the Lionheart, King of England and leader of the Third Crusade, together with his allies the Templars, delivered a series of powerful blows against Saladin and recovered much of Christian territory. In name and number the revived Crusader states were as before, but their outlines were diminished. There was the Kingdom of Jerusalem, though its capital was at Acre, which the Templars made their new headquarters. To the north was the County of Tripoli. But the Muslims retained control of the Syrian coast around Latakia for some time, and so the Principality of Antioch further to the north was now no longer contiguous to the other Crusader states. Nevertheless the Third Crusade, in which Richard relied heavily on the Templars, had saved the Holy Land for the Christians and went a long way towards restoring Frankish fortunes. In this he was abetted by the military orders whose great castles stood like islands of Frankish power amid the Muslim torrent. More than ever the Crusader states were relying on the military orders in their castles and on the field of battle, and the power of the orders grew. In fact at no point in their history would the Templars be more powerful than in the century to come.

But after the Siege of Acre in 1291, the Templars were forced to relocate their headquarters to the island of Cyprus.

Jacques de Molay, who was to be the last of the Order's Grand Masters, took office around 1292. One of his first tasks was to tour across Europe, to raise support for the Order and try to organise another Crusade. He met the newly invested Pope Boniface VIII, who agreed to grant the Templars the same privileges at Cyprus as they had held in the Holy Land. Charles II of Naples and Edward I also pledged varying types of support, either continuing to exempt the Templars from taxes, or pledging future support towards building a new army.

Final attempts to regain the Holy Land (1298–1300)

In 1298 or 1299, the military orders (the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller) and their leaders, including Jacques de Molay, Otton de Grandson and the Great Master of the Hospitallers, briefly campaigned in Armenia, in order to fight off an invasion by the Mamluks. They were not successful and soon the fortress of Roche-Guillaume in the Belen Pass, the last Templar stronghold in Antioch, was lost to the Muslims.

In 1300, the Templars, along with the Knights Hospitaller and forces from Cyprus attempted to retake the coastal city of Tortosa. They were able to take the island of Arwad, near Tortosa, but lost it soon after. With the loss of Arwad, the Crusaders had lost their last foothold in the Holy Land.

Though they still had a base of operations in Cyprus, and controlled considerable financial resources, the Order of the Templars became an Order without a clear purpose or support, but which still had enormous financial power. This unstable situation contributed to their downfall.

Fall

King Philip had other reasons to mistrust the Templars, as the organization had declared its desire to form its own state, similar to how the Teutonic Knights had founded Prussia. The Templars' preferred location for this was in the Languedoc of southeastern France, but they had also made a plan for the island of Cyprus. In 1306, the Templars had supported a coup on that island, which had forced King Henry II of Cyprus to abdicate his throne in favor of his brother, Amalric of Tyre. This probably made Philip particularly uneasy, since just a few years earlier he had inherited land in the region of Champagne, France, which was the Templars' headquarters. The Templars were already a "state within a state", were institutionally wealthy, paid no taxes, and had a large standing army which by papal decree could move freely through all European borders. However, this army no longer had a presence in the Holy Land, leaving it with no battlefield. These factors, plus the fact that Philip had inherited an impoverished kingdom from his father and was already deeply in debt to the Templars, were probably what led to his actions. However, recent studies emphasize the political and religious motivations of the French king. It seems that, with the “discovery” and repression of the “Templars' heresy,” the Capetian monarchy claimed for itself the mystic foundations of the papal theocracy. The Temple case was the last step of a process of appropriating these foundations, which had begun with the Franco-papal rift at the time of Boniface VIII. Being the ultimate defender of the Catholic faith, the Capetian king was invested with a Christlike function that put him above the pope : what was at stake in the Templars' trial, then, was the establishment of a "royal theocracy".

At dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, scores of French Templars were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Philip, later to be tortured in locations such as the tower at Chinon, into admitting heresy and other sacrilegious offenses in the Order. Then they were put to death. There were five initial charges lodged against the Templars. The first was the renouncement and spitting on the cross during initiation into the Order. The second was the stripping of the man to be initiated and the thrice kissing of that man by the preceptor on the navel, posteriors and the mouth. The third was telling the neophyte (novice) that unnatural lust was lawful and indulged in commonly. The fourth was that the cord worn by the neophyte day and night was consecrated by wrapping it around an idol in the form of a human head with a great beard, and that this idol was adored in all chapters. The fifth was that the priests of the order did not consecrate the host in celebrating Mass. On August 12, 1308, the charges would be increased and would become more outrageous, one specifically stated that the Templars worshipped idols, specifically made of a cat and a head, the latter having three faces. The lists of articles 86 to 127 would add many other charges. The majority of these charges were identical to the charges that had been earlier issued against the inconvenient Pope Boniface VIII: accusations of denying Christ, spitting and urinating on the cross, and devil worship. Of the 138 Templars (many of them old men) questioned in Paris over the next few years, 105 of them "confessed" to denying Christ during the secret Templar initiations. 103 confessed to an "obscene kiss" being part of the ceremonies, and 123 said they spat on the cross. Throughout the trial there was never any physical evidence of wrongdoing, and no independent witnesses; the only "proof" was obtained through confessions induced by torture. The Templars reached out to the Pope for assistance, and Pope Clement did write letters to King Philip questioning the arrests, but took no further action.

Despite the fact that the confessions had been produced under duress, they caused a scandal in Paris, with mobs calling for action against the blaspheming Order. In response to this public pressure, along with more bullying from King Philip, Pope Clement issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets. Most monarchs simply didn't believe the charges, though proceedings were started in England, Iberia, Germany, Italy, and Cyprus, with the likelihood of a confession being dependent on whether or not torture was used to extract it.

The dominant view is that Philip, who seized the treasury and broke up the monastic banking system, was jealous of the Templars' wealth and power, and frustrated by his enormous debt to them, sought to seize their financial resources for himself by bringing blatantly false charges against them at the Tours assembly in 1308. It is almost impossible to believe, that, under the influence of his carefully chosen advisors (the same that had persecuted Boniface), he actually believed the charges to be true. It is widely accepted that Philip had clearly made up the accusations, some nearly identical to those made against Boniface, and did not believe any of the Templars to have been party to such activities. It is a fact that he had invited Jacques de Molay to be a pall-bearer at the funeral of the King's sister on the very day before the arrests.

The arrests caused some shifts in the European economy, from a system of military fiat back to European money, removing this power from Church orders. Seeing the fate of the Templars, the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem and of Rhodes were also convinced to give up banking at this time.

Dismantling

In 1312, after the Council of Vienne, and under extreme pressure from King Philip IV, Pope Clement V issued an edict officially dissolving the Order. Many kings and nobles who had been supporting the Knights up until that time, finally acquiesced and dissolved the orders in their fiefs in accordance with the Papal command. Most were not so brutal as the French. In England, many Knights were arrested and tried, but not found guilty.

Much of the Templar property outside of France was transferred by the Pope to the Knights Hospitaller, and many surviving Templars were also accepted into the Hospitallers. In the Iberian Peninsula, where the king of Aragon was against giving the heritage of the Templars to the Hospitallers (as commanded by Clement V), the Order of Montesa took Templar assets.

The order continued to exist in Portugal, simply changing its name to the Order of Christ. This group was believed to have contributed to the first naval discoveries of the Portuguese. Prince Henry the Navigator led the Portuguese order for 20 years until the time of his death.

Even with the absorption of Templars into other Orders, there are still questions as to what became of all of the tens of thousands of Templars across Europe. There had been 15,000 "Templar Houses", and an entire fleet of ships. Even in France where hundreds of Templars had been rounded up and arrested, this was only a small percentage of the estimated 3,000 Templars in the entire country. Also, the extensive archive of the Templars, with detailed records of all of their business holdings and financial transactions, was never found. By papal bull it was to have been transferred to the Hospitallers.

A popular thread of conspiracy theory originating with Holy Blood, Holy Grail has it that the Templars used a fleet of 18 ships at La Rochelle to escape arrest in France. The fleet allegedly left laden with knights and treasures just before the issue of the warrant for the arrest of the Order in October 1307. This, in turn, was based on a single item of testimony from serving brother Jean de Châlon, who says he had "heard people talking that [Gerard de Villiers had] put to sea with 18 galleys, and the brother Hugues de Chalon fled with the whole treasury of the brother Hugues de Pairaud." However, aside from being the sole source for this statement, the transcript indicates that it is hearsay, and this serving brother seems to be prone to making some of the wildest and most damning of claims about the Order, which have led some to doubt his credibility.

In Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the knights that allegedly boarded these ships then escaped to Scotland, but in some versions the Templars are even claimed to have left for North America, burying a treasure in Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada (a story taken up in the 2004 movie National Treasure starring Nicolas Cage). However, many historians have questioned the plausibility of this scenario. For example, historian Helen Nicholson has argued that

The Templars did have ships to carry personnel, pilgrims and supplies across the Mediterranean between the West and East and back, but if the Hospital after 1312 is any guide they did not have more than four galleys (warships) and few other ships, and if they needed more they hired them. They certainly could not spare ships to indulge in world exploration ... [T]he records of the port of La Rochelle show that the Templars were exporting wine by ship. This was not a fleet in any modern sense: again, those would have been transport vessels rather than warships, and the Templars probably hired them as they needed them, rather than buying their own. ... The ships would have been very small by modern standards, too shallow in draught and sailing too low in the water to be able to withstand the heavy waves and winds of the open Atlantic, and suited for use only in the relatively shallow waters of the continental shelf. What was more, they could not carry enough water to be at sea for long periods.

Heresy, blasphemy, and other charges

There were five initial charges lodged against the Templars. The first was the renouncement and spitting on the cross during initiation into the Order. The second was the stripping of the man to be initiated and the thrice kissing of that man by the preceptor on the navel, posteriors and the mouth. The third was telling the neophyte (novice) that unnatural lust was lawful and indulged in commonly. The fourth was that the cord worn by the neophyte day and night was consecrated by wrapping it around an idol in the form of a human head with a great beard, and that this idol was adored in all chapters. The fifth was that the priests of the order did not consecrate the host in celebrating Mass. Subsequently, the charges would be increased and would become, according to the procedures, lists of articles 86 to 127 in which will be added a few other charges, such as the prohibition to priests who do not belong to the order. 

The incontrovertibility of the evidence that the Templar priests did not mutilate the words of consecration in the mass is furnished in the Cypriote proceedings by ecclesiastics who had long dwelt with them in the East.

Debate continues as to whether the accusation of religious heresy had merit by the standards of the time. Under torture, some Templars admitted to sodomy and to the worship of heads and an idol known as Baphomet. Their leaders later denied these admissions, and for that were executed. Some scholars, such as Malcolm Barber, Helen Nicholson and Peter Partner, discount these as forced admissions, typical during the Medieval Inquisition.

The majority of the charges were identical to other people being tortured by the Inquisitors, with one exception: head worship. The Templars were specifically charged with worshipping some type of severed head; a charge which was made only against Templars. The descriptions of the head allegedly venerated by the Templars were varied and contradictory in nature. Quoting Norman Cohn:

Some describe it as having three faces, others as having four feet, others as being simply a face with no feet. For some it was a human skull, embalmed and encrusted with jewels; for others it was carved out of wood. Some maintained that it came from the remains of a former grand master of the order, while others were equally convinced that it was Baphomet – which in turn was interpreted as 'Mohammed'. Some saw it as having horns.

Barber has linked this charge to medieval folklore about magical heads, and the popular medieval belief that the Muslims worshipped idols. Some argue it referred to rituals involving the alleged relics of John the Baptist, Euphemia, one of Ursula's eleven maidens, and/or Hugues de Payens rather than pagan idols.

The charges of heresy included spitting, trampling, or urinating on the cross; while naked, being kissed obscenely by the receptor on the lips, navel, and base of the spine; heresy and worship of idols; institutionalized sodomy; and also accusations of contempt of the Holy Mass and denial of the sacraments. Barbara Frale has suggested that these acts were intended to simulate the kind of humiliation and torture that a Crusader might be subjected to if captured by the Saracens. According to this line of reasoning, they were taught how to commit apostasy with the mind only and not with the heart.

The accusation of venerating Baphomet is more problematic. Karen Ralls has noted, "There is no mention of Baphomet either in the Templar Rule or in other medieval period Templar documents". The late scholar Hugh J. Schonfield speculated that the chaplains of the Knights Templar created the term Baphomet through the Atbash cipher to encrypt the Gnostic term Sophia (Greek for "wisdom") due to the influence of hypothetical Qumran Essene scrolls, which they may have found during archaeological digs in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Roman Catholic Church's position

The papal process started by Pope Clement V, to investigate both the Order as a whole and its members individually found virtually no knights guilty of heresy outside of France. Fifty-four knights were executed in France by French authorities as relapsed heretics after denying their original testimonies before the papal commission; these executions were motivated by Philip's desire to prevent Templars from mounting an effective defence of the Order. It failed miserably, as many members testified against the charges of heresy in the ensuing papal investigation.

Despite the poor defense of the Order, when the papal commission ended its proceedings on June 5, 1311, it found no evidence that the Order itself held heretical doctrines, or used a "secret rule" apart from the Latin and French rules. On October 16, 1311, at the General Council of Vienne held in Dauphiné, the council voted for the maintenance of the Order.

But on March 22, 1312, Clement V promulgated the bull Vox in excelsis in which he stated that although there was not sufficient reason to condemn the Order, for the common good, the hatred of the Order by Philip IV, the scandal brought about by their trial, and the likely dilapidation of the Order that would result from the trial, the Order was to be suppressed by the pope’s authority over it. But the order explicitly stated that dissolution was enacted, "with a sad heart, not by definitive sentence, but by apostolic provision."

This was followed by the papal bull Ad Providum on May 2, 1312, which granted all of the Order's lands and wealth to the Hospitallers so that its original purpose could be met, despite Philip's wishes that the lands in France pass to him. Philip held onto some lands until 1318, and in England the crown and nobility held a great deal until 1338; in many areas of Europe the land was never given over to the Hospitaller Order, instead taken over by nobility and monarchs in an attempt to lessen the influence of the Church and its Orders. Of the knights who had not admitted to the charges, against those whom nothing had been found, or those who had admitted but been reconciled to the Church, some joined the Hospitallers (even staying in the same Templar houses); others joined Augustinian or Cistercian houses; and still others returned to secular life with pension. In Portugal and Aragon, the Holy See granted the properties to two new Orders, the Order of Christ and the Order of Montesa respectively, made up largely of Templars in those kingdoms. In the same bull, he urged those who had pleaded guilty be treated “according to the rigours of justice.“

Two Templars burned at the stake, from a French 15th-century manuscript

In the end, the only three accused of heresy directly by the papal commission were Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and his two immediate subordinates; they were to renounce their heresy publicly, when de Molay regained his courage and proclaimed the order's and his innocence along with Geoffrey de Charney. The two were arrested by French authorities as relapsed heretics and burned at the stake in 1314. Their ashes were then ground up and dumped into the Seine, so as to leave no relics behind.

In England the Crown was also deeply in debt to the Templars, and probably on that basis, the Templars were also persecuted in England, their lands forfeited and taken by others, (the last private owner being the favorite of Edward II, Hugh le Despenser). Many of Templars in England were killed; some fled to Scotland and other places. In France, Philip IV, who was also coincidentally in terrible financial debt to the Templars was perhaps the more aggressive persecutor. So widely was the injustice of Philip's rage against the Templars perceived that the "Curse of the Templars" became legend: Reputedly uttered by the Grand Master Jacques de Molay upon the stake whence he burned, he adjured: "Within one year, God will summon both Clement and Philip to His Judgment for these actions." The fact that both rulers died within a year, as predicted, only heightened the scandal surrounding the suppression of the Order. The source of this legend does not date from the time of the execution of Jacques de Molay.

Chinon and Absolution

In September 2001, Barbara Frale discovered a copy of the Chinon Parchment dated 17–20 August 1308 in the Vatican Secret Archives, a document that indicated that Pope Clement V absolved the leaders of the Order in 1308. Frale published her findings in the Journal of Medieval History in 2004.  In 2007, The Vatican published the Chinon Parchment as part of a limited edition of 799 copies of Processus Contra Templarios. Another Chinon parchment dated 20 August 1308 addressed to Philip IV of France, well-known to historians, stated that absolution had been granted to all those Templars that had confessed to heresy "and restored them to the Sacraments and to the unity of the Church."

Wikipedia 

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR AND MODERN CULTURE 

The original historic Knights Templar were a Christian military order, the Order of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, that existed from the 12th to 14th centuries to provide warriors in the Crusades. These men were famous in the high and late Middle Ages, but the Order was disbanded very suddenly by King Philip IV of France, who took action against the Templars in order to avoid repaying his own financial debts. He accused them of heresy, ordered the arrest of all Templars within his realm, and had many of them burned at the stake. The dramatic and rapid end of the organization led to many stories and legends developing about them over the following centuries. The Order and its members increasingly appear in modern fiction, though most of these references portray the medieval organization inaccurately.

In modern works, the Templars generally are portrayed as villains, misguided zealots, representatives of an evil secret society, or as the keepers of a long-lost treasure. Several modern organizations also claim heritage from the medieval Templars, as a way of enhancing their own image or mystique.

When Freemasonry developed in the 18th century, some Masonic orders named themselves for the Knights Templar, incorporating Templar symbols and rituals in a number of Masonic bodies.

In the later 20th century, Masonic Knights Templar have become themselves the subject of pseudohistorical theories connecting them to the medieval order, even though such a connection is rejected by Masonic authorities themselves as well as by historians.

There are many modern references to the Templars in Freemasonry, such as the Degree of Knight of the Temple, also known as the "Order of the Temple", the final order joined in "The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta" commonly known as the Knights Templar. Freemasonry is traditionally open to men of all faiths, asking only that they have a belief in a supreme being. But membership in the Templar Masonic body (and others) is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in the Christian religion. The word "United" in this title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual Order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual Orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple (Knights Templar), the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the Masonic York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.

Another Templar-related order, the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, is a charitable organization founded in 1804 which has achieved United Nations NGO special status. They are a part of the larger Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (OSMTH), commonly called Knights Templar International. Some members of the OSMTH claim to be the direct descendants of the original Knights Templar using the Larmenius Charter as proof, however this document is suspected to be a forgery.

The Order of the Solar Temple is one infamous example of a "neo-Templar" group, founded in 1984, that claimed descent from the original Knights Templar; there are several other self-styled orders that also claim to be descended from, or revivals of, the Templar Order. One such organization is the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem (SMOTJ), an ecumenical Christian society based on the traditions of the medieval Knights Templar and principles of chivalry. However, the order is not a genuine order of chivalry, having neither official state recognition nor a head of state as sovereign. SMOTJ was created in 1804 and is dedicated to the preservation of the holy sites in and around Jerusalem]], charitable works, and antiquarian research. In 2001, the most prominent faction of the SMOTJ was recognized by the United Nations as a non-governmental organization.

Scholarly reception

The popularity of the Knights Templar in modern fiction and their presence in pseudohistorical or fringe literature has received scholarly attention.

At the 2004 Annual Conference of the American Culture Association, their call for papers was specifically about such conspiracy theories relating to the Templars and their association with other legends and mysterious organizations. Literary theorists puzzle over Umberto Eco's use in his novel Foucault's Pendulum, of the Templars as a symbol of postmodernist rewriting of history. Historian Malcolm Barber writes that "Mystic Templars are omnipresent in all good conspiracy theories." On Day to Day, a program on American NPR, host Alex Chadwick discussed "the literary fascination with the Knights Templar." In Poland, the Toruń Museum had an exhibition entitled "The Knights Templar - History and Myth" which offered a description, "Apart from pieces of "high art", the exhibit will grant equal importance to "popular culture" items (literature, film, Internet content) exploring the subject of the Knights Templar."[9] And in 2007, a National Post editorial noted that "the Templars remain a living presence in popular culture. This has happened precisely because the historical record concerning their sudden annihilation in the early-14th century at the hands of Philip IV ("the Fair") of France has been so sparse and ambiguous. Time and revolution have damaged and dispersed the sources, and made the Templars a magnet for speculation and imagination."

Popular themes

Popular themes are their supposed association with the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, and the supposed historical connection to the Freemasons.

The historical Templars had their first headquarters on the Temple Mount, which had been assigned to them by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. They were in operation there for 75 years. Pseudo-historical books such as The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail theorise that the Templars could have discovered documents hidden in the ruins of the Temple, possibly "proving" that Jesus survived the Crucifixion or possibly "proving" Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had children by her. Indeed, the supposition that the Templars must have found something under the Temple Mount lies at the heart of most Templar legends and pseudo-historical theories, also popularised by French author Louis Charpentier (1966). There is no physical or documentary evidence, however, to support such a supposition. It is true that they are documented as having carried a piece of the True Cross into some battles, but this was probably a portion of a timber that was discovered during the 4th century by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine.

Relics and treasure

There are various legends concerning a treasure that some Templars managed to hide from King Philip and that was later lost. One particular story concerns Rennes le Chateau, where a treasure was supposedly found in the 19th century; one speculative source for that treasure was the long-lost treasure of the Templars. In 1910 publication by one Joaquín Miret y Sans, the case is made that the Knights Templar hid and buried the great treasure in Vrana, Zadar County, because Ramón from Serò near Granja del Pairs in Noguera (comarca) in Catalonia gave a generous gift to the Knights Templar into the hands of their Grand Master Arnold of Torroja. This Ramón was the son of Romana the daughter of Benesmiro de Siponto who was the justitiarius of Monte Sant'Angelo and who was sent by Pope Alexander III as a notifier to Šibenik.

Hugh J. Schonfield (1984) argued that the Knights Templar may have found the Copper Scroll treasure of the Qumran Essenes in the tunnels beneath the Temple Mount. He suggested that this might explain one of the charges of heresy which were later brought against the knights by the Medieval Inquisition.

Holy Grail

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) seems to be the source of the story that has the Holy Grail found by the Order and taken to Scotland during the suppression of the order in 1307, where it remains buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel.

A 2006 book claims that the Grail was instead taken to Northern Spain, and protected by the Knights Templar there.

Ark of the Covenant

Graham Hancock in his The Sign and the Seal (1992) claimed that the Templars discovered secrets of the Masons, builders of Solomon's Temple, Zerubbabel's Temple, and Herod's Temple at the Temple Mount, along with knowledge that the Ark of the Covenant had been moved to Ethiopia before the destruction of the first temple. Hancock claims that allusion to this is made in engravings on the Cathedral at Chartres, the construction of which was greatly influenced by Bernard of Clairvaux, the Order's patron. Further links to both the search by the order for the Ark and to its discovery of ancient secrets of building are supposedly suggested by the existence of the monolithic Church of Saint George in Lalibela, Ethiopia, which stands to this day but whose construction is incorrectly attributed to the Knights Templar.

Shroud of Turin

Another legendary object that is claimed to have some connection with the Templars is the Shroud of Turin. The shroud was first publicly displayed in 1357 by the widow of a nobleman known as Geoffrey of Charney, described by some sources as being a member of the family of the grandson of Geoffroi de Charney, who was burned at the stake with De Molay.

In 2009, Barbara Frale, a paleographer in the Vatican Secret Archives, claimed that the Shroud of Turin had been kept by the Templars after 1204. Frale also claimed that "the burial certificate of Jesus the Nazarene", imprinted in fragments of Greek, Hebrew and Latin writing, is visible on the shroud.

The so-called Templecombe painting, a painting discovered in 1945 by Mrs Molly Drew in the roof of an outhouse of a cottage in Templecombe, England, has been alleged to be a copy of the image on the Turin Shroud, and therefore evidence of the Turin Shroud being in the possession of the Knights Templar during its "hidden years". The painting has been on display in St Mary's Church in the village since 1956 (the only Templar-related site to have survived there), and has been carbon-dated to c. 1280 Some people believe that it is a Templar-commissioned image of either Jesus Christ or the severed head of John the Baptist, although it is without a Halo.

De Molay's curse

Malcolm Barber (2006) discusses a supposed curse uttered by the last Grand Master of the Templar Order, Jacques de Molay, as he was burned at the stake in 1314. Jacques de Molay supposedly cursed Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V, saying that he would meet them before God before the year was out. Pope Clement died only a month later, and King Philip died later that year in a hunting accident.

Barber traces this story to a verse chronicle attributed to Geoffrey of Paris (La Chronique métrique attribuée à Geffroi de Paris, ed. A. Divèrres, Strasbourg, 1956, pp. 5711–5742). Geoffrey of Paris was "apparently an eye-witness, who describes Molay as showing no sign of fear and, significantly, as telling those present that God would avenge their deaths".

Albert Pike claimed the Knight Kadosh, the 30th degree within the Ancient Accepted and Scottish Rite, commonly known as a 'Vengeance degree', involved the trampling on the Papal tiara and the royal crown, destined to wreak a just vengeance on the high criminals for the murder of de Molay. The figure of Hiram Abiff representing Jacques de Molay, with the three assassins representing Philip IV of France, Pope Clement V and Squin de Florian. Malcolm Barber has cited a masonic legend that resembles Pike's claims, in Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt Le Tombeau de Jacques Molai (Paris, 1796, first edition).

A series of 20th-century novels called Les Rois Maudits (The Accursed Kings) by Maurice Druon expanded on this story.

A frequent recurring legend relates how when Louis XVI was guillotined, an anonymous French Freemason rushed from the crowd, dipped his hand in the king's blood (or grabbed the head and held it) and yelled, "Jacques de Molay, thou art avenged!" This story first appeared in The Illuminatus! Trilogy, a work of science fiction, in 1975.

Claims of hidden survival

Supposed continuity in Freemasonry

Some historians and authors have tried to draw a link from Freemasonry and its many branches to the Templars. Degrees in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite such as the Knight of Saint Andrew, the Knight of Rose-Croix, and the 32nd Degree in Consistory make reference to a "Masonic Knights Templar" connection, but this is usually dismissed as being ceremonial and not historical fact.

John J. Robinson argues for the Templar-Masonic connection in his book Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry, in which he alleges that some French Templars fled to Scotland after the suppression of the Order, fearing persecution from both Church and state. He claims they sought refuge with a lodge of Scottish stonemasons within which they began to teach the virtues of chivalry and obedience, using the builders tools as a metaphor; and eventually they began taking in "speculative masons" (men of other professions) in order to ensure the continuation of the Order. According to Robinson, the Order existed in secret in this form until the formation of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1717. An example of Templar-Masonic transitory symbolism can supposedly be found in Rosslyn Chapel owned by the first Earls of Rosslyn, a family with well documented ties to Scottish Freemasonry, however Rosslyn Chapel itself dates from at least 100 years after the suppression of the Templars.

The case is also made in Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh's book The Temple and the Lodge.

However, historians Mark Oxbrow, Ian Robertson, Karen Ralls and Louise Yeoman have each made it clear that the Sinclair family had no connection with the Medieval Knights Templar. The Sinclairs' testimony against the Knights at their 1309 trial is not consistent with any alleged support or membership. In "The Templars and the Grail" Karen Ralls states that among some 50 who testified against the Templars were Henry and William Sinclair.

Knights Templar in Scotland

Since the 1980s, there has been a growing body of publications in both popular fiction and pseudohistory which construct a continuity between the historical presence of the Knights Templar in Scotland with the emergence of Masonic Scottish Knights Templar in the early modern period.

The idea of an association with Rosslyn Chapel originates in the 1982 The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and entered mainstream pop culture with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (2003), reinforced by the subsequent film of the same name (2006). Numerous books were published after 2003 to cater to the popular interest in supposed connections between Rosslyn Chapel, Freemasonry, the Templars and the Holy Grail generated by Brown's novel.

The tale of a missing Templar fleet is supposedly based on the protocol of the interrogation of Jean de Châlons by the Inquisition. He claimed that he had heard that preceptor of the French Templars, Gérard de Villiers, had been warned of his imminent arrest. De Villiers had escaped with 50 horses and eighteen galleys. De Châlons' son, Hugues de Châlons, escaped with him carrying the wealth of his uncle, Hugues de Pairaud.[40] In Baigent and Leigh's The Temple and the Lodge, the fleet carried the treasure of the Paris preceptory of the Templars.

Scotland became the destination of the fleet over four centuries later, in the claims of George Frederick Johnson, an exiled Jacobite living in Austria. Johnson, however, turned out to be a fraudster who was probably called Johann Samuel Leuchte. After a chequered career based on alchemy and forgery, "Johnson" convinced a masonic lodge in Jena that he possessed the highest secrets of masonry, and having declared the rest of German masonry irregular, brought a surprising amount of lodges under his control. Exposed as a fraud by Karl Gotthelf von Hund in 1764, he was later apprehended by a previous victim, and spent the rest of his life in prison.

Hund's initial attraction to Johnson was spurred by a need to find his own superiors. He had been received into the Order of the Temple by high ranking Jacobites in Paris during 1743, being introduced to Charles Edward Stuart himself. After the failure of the 1745 rebellion, his masters were either in hiding or dead, and had lost interest in maintaining their Templar offshoots, leaving Hund with a depleted ritual book which he had to reconstruct from memory. As Johnson's collection of lodges now looked to him for leadership, the Rite of Strict Observance was born. Again, the foundation myth alleged that Freemasonry was started by Templar refugees under the protection of Robert the Bruce. This time, they had travelled from France through England disguised as stonemasons, and their use of masonic symbols in their allegories paid tribute to this deception.

Under Hund's leadership, the Rite of Strict Observance became the most popular branch of Freemasonry in the German states, with lodges all over Continental Europe. However, Hund's continuing inability to produce, or even contact his "Unknown Superiors" led to increasing dissatisfaction. Six years after his death, a convent meeting in Wilhelmsbad from 1782 to 1783 finally agreed that Freemasonry had no connection to the Templars, and Strict Observance ceased to exist, most lodges being absorbed into the Rectified Scottish Rite. For most of the previous two decades, the most common foundation myth among German masons stated that Freemasonry came from the Knights Templar, protected and allowed to flourish in Scotland.

In 1815, Claude Thory, a respected French scientist and Freemason, claimed that Robert the Bruce had created the Order of St. Andrew for masons who had supported him at Bannockburn, which was later joined to the Order of Heredom, which he founded at Kilwinning.  In 1837, a Scottish Freemason called James Burnes, in attempting to revive a Scottish order of "Knights Templar", expanded the masonic link to Bannockburn. He introduced the Knights Templar as the bearers on Freemasonry to Scotland, and had the Templars play a crucial part in the battle. This appears to be the basis of subsequent tales of Templar involvement at Bannockburn. The contemporary Royal Order of Scotland makes use of a similar foundation myth, which is no more intended to be taken as historical fact than any other piece of masonic allegory.

Discoverers of the New World

Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982) further embellished the "lost fleet" topos discussed above, alleging that the Templars in these ships "fled to the New World by following old Viking routes", i.e. making one of the pre-Columbian voyages to America. Since the popularisation of Holy Blood, Holy Grail with the commercial success of Dan Brown's 2003 novel, there have been numerous allusions to this idea in American pop culture.

A supposed Templar treasure in Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada is featured in the 2004 movie National Treasure starring Nicolas Cage.

For example, has argued that As early as 2001, historian Helen Nicholson in a popular history of the Templars dispels the idea that the Templars could "spare ships to indulge in world exploration". The Templar Code for Dummies (2007) also points out the historical implausibility of this scenario.

Friday the 13th

There is a modern urban legend to the effect that the tradition of Friday the 13th being unlucky originates with the date of the simultaneous arrest of many templars at the behest of Philip IV on Friday, 13 October 1307.

Notable examples

Novels and comics

A brief list of some works which have featured the Knights Templar:

Ivanhoe, an 1820 novel by Sir Walter Scott, has as its villain Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert, a "Templar Knight."

The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids, an 1855 short story by Herman Melville treats the Templars with great irony.

Mumbo-Jumbo (1972) has a Templar Knight Hinkle Von Vampton who serves as the main villain in Ishmael Reed's postmodernist satire

Les Rois Maudits or The Accursed Kings (1973 et seq) by Maurice Druon depicts the death of the last Grand Master of the Order, and plays with the legend of the curse he laid on the pope, Philip the Fair, and Guillaume de Nogaret.

Foucault's Pendulum, a 1988 novel by Umberto Eco, which features the mythos of the Knights Templar as keepers and defenders of the Holy Grail.

Swedish author Jan Guillou has written a trilogy about Arn Magnusson (1998 et seq), a fictional Swedish character from the Middle Ages who was forced to become a Knight Templar, went to Jerusalem and after returning to Sweden, was a leading military figure shortly before the time of Birger Jarl.

Katherine Kurtz has written many books with Templar characters and themes, and edited the Crusade of Fire (2002) anthology

The Da Vinci Code, bestselling 2003 novel by Dan Brown. This was also adapted into a film version in 2006.

The Last Templar (2005), by Raymond Khoury is a Da Vinci Code-style thriller.

The Revenge of the Shadow King (2006), by Derek Benz and J.S. Lewis, relates an alternate history of the Knights Templar, aligning them with an age-old order whose primary role is to defend the world from the powers of darkness. In this book, the Templars still exist and operate today from the shadows of an underground organization.

The Templar Legacy (2006) by Steve Berry is a story which revolves around the possibility that the Templar Treasure is close to being discovered, and that it may fall into the wrong hands. In this book, the treasure is closely connected to the question of Christ as the Savior, and Christ's Resurrection. The book also brings into question the contents and significance of the treasure.

Robert Jordan's fantasy series The Wheel of Time contains the fictional Children of the Light: a militant religious order who consider themselves above the laws of nations and are recognizable by the "snowy" white cloaks from which the nickname Whitecloak is derived. Their primary military units are heavy cavalry, possibly supplemented by the more "regular" army of the nation Amadicia, the seat of their power.

Films

A series of horror films (Tombs of the Blind Dead, Return of the Blind Dead, The Ghost Galleon, Night of the Seagulls) by Spanish director Amando de Ossorio depict the Knights Templar as resurrected mummies in search of human blood.

The mythos of the Knights Templar (presented as the fictional "Knights of the Cruciform Sword") as keepers and defenders of the Holy Grail is also a central plot point in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Dolph Lundgren plays the role of a modern day member of the Knights Templar in the 1998 movie The Minion.

The film Revelation (2001), in which the order tries to clone Jesus Christ for evil purposes.

The Templar Knights are featured in the 2001 French film Le Pacte des loups, in which the symbol of the Templar Knights is seen upon the walls of an old Templar stronghold and upon the Beast's armor. The cult seen in the movie is also supposedly a rogue Templar organization, originally sent by the Pope to teach the King of France a lesson.

Carnivàle, 2003-2005

National Treasure, 2004

Kingdom of Heaven, 2005 shows the last King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, and his henchman, Reynald de Châtillon (both of whom were not members of the Templar order), as Templars.[52]

Arn – The Knight Templar (2007).

Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End (2008).

The Last Templar (2009) An adaptation of Raymond Khoury's novel about a New York archaeologist researching the lost secrets of the medieval Knights Templar.

Ironclad (film) (2011)

Music

Knights of the Cross is a concept album about the Templars by German metal band Grave Digger.

The Templars (band) a NYC Oi! band is inspired by the Knights Templar. Similarly, their record label, Templecombe Records, is named after a Knights Templar site in Somerset, England.

HammerFall, a Swedish Power metal band, refer to themselves as "The Templars of Heavy Metal", making frequent reference to the Templars on many of their albums.

Games[edit]

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (1996) was the first video game to reference the Knights Templar. Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon (2003) and Broken Sword: The Angel of Death (2006) involve the Templars as well.

Time Gate: Knight's Chase (1996)

Utilizing material from the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail the third Gabriel Knight game, Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (1999), posits both an alternative history of Christ and the suggestion that the Templar treasure, buried in France's Languedoc, is Christ's remains.

Templars feature in Deus Ex (2000). As with Broken Sword the plot is derived from the Illuminatus trilogy.

In Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (2003), a fictionalised version of the Knights Templar appear as a playable faction and play a major role in the game.

Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade (2004) by TDK and Starbreeze.

Knights of the Temple II (2005), the sequel to the Starbreeze-developed game by Cauldron, published by Playlogic.

In Medieval II: Total War (2006), most Catholic factions can train Templar units into their armies or hire them as mercenaries while on a crusade.

Aion‍ '​s (2008) tanking role warriors are called Templars.

Dragon Age series features a mage- and demonhunting inquisition called Templars.

The Black Templars Chapter of the Space Marines from the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame are based directly on the historical Knights Templar.

The First Templar (2011), The plot resolves around templars and the Holy Grail.

In The Secret World (2012), Templars is one of the three playable factions.

In the Protoss faction of "Starcraft" are two units labeled as Templars: the High Templar is a caster unit, while the Dark Templar is a stealthy assassin unit.

The games Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade 2 for iOS on Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad features an enemy referred to as "Knight Templar."

The Assassin's Creed series features the Assassins as the protagonists and Templars as the main antagonists. The series borrows heavily from Templar history and legends, and incorporates elements of Illuminati conspiracy theories into its canon.

Wikipedia 

MAHOUND

Mahound or Mahoun is a variant form of the name Muhammad, often found in Medieval and later European literature. The name has been used in the past by Christian writers to vilify Muhammad. It was especially connected to the Christian belief that Muhammad was a god worshipped by Pagans, or that he was a demon who inspired a false religion.

Pejorative connotations

The perception that Muslims worshipped Muhammad was common in Medieval Europe. According to Bernard Lewis, the "development of the concept of Mahound started with considering Muhammad as a kind of demon or false god worshipped with Apollyon and Termagant in an unholy trinity [in the song of Roland]. Finally after reformation, Muhammad was conceived as a cunning and self-seeking imposter."

A similar belief was the claim that the Knights Templar worshipped a god called Baphomet, also widely interpreted as a variant of the name "Mahommet"

In literature

The name appears in various medieval mystery plays, in which Mahound is sometimes portrayed as a generic "pagan" god worshipped by villains such as Herod and the Pharaoh of the Exodus. One play depicts both Herod the Great and his son Herod Antipas as worshipping Mahound,[6] while in another play Pharaoh encourages the Egyptians to pursue the Israelites into the Red Sea with the words: Heave up you hearts ay to Mahound. 

In Scottish popular culture the variant form "Mahoun" was also used as the name of the devil, who was called Old Mahoun. Robert Burns wrote

"The Deil cam fiddlin thro' the town,

And danc'd awa wi' th'Exciseman;

And ilka wife cries auld Mahoun,

I wish you luck o' the prize, man."

G. K. Chesterton uses "Mahound" rather than "Mohammed" in his poem Lepanto. More recently, Salman Rushdie, in his novel The Satanic Verses, chose the name Mahound to refer to Muhammad as he appears in one character's dreams. However, he is not identified as Satan in that work.

Wikipedia 

SAUL 

According to the Hebrew Bible, Saul (/sɔːl/; Hebrew: שָׁאוּל, Šāʼûl ; "asked for, prayed for"; Greek: Σαούλ Saoul; Latin: Saul; Arabic: طالوت‎, Ṭālūt) was the first king of a united Kingdom of Israel and Judah. He was anointed by the prophet Samuel and reigned from Gibeah. He fell on his sword (committing suicide) to avoid capture in the battle against the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, during which three of his sons were also killed. The succession to his throne was contested by Ish-bosheth, his only surviving son, and his son-in-law David, who eventually prevailed.

The oldest accounts of Saul's life and reign are found in the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. A similar yet different account is given in the Qur'an. The historicity of Saul's kingdom has been called into question by some historians.

Biblical account

House of King Saul

According to the Tanakh, Saul was the son of Kish, of the family of the Matrites, and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the twelve Tribes of Israel. (1 Samuel 9:1-2; 10:21; 14:51; Acts 13:21) It appears that he came from Gibeah.

Saul married Ahinoam, daughter of Ahimaaz. They had four sons and two daughters. The sons were Jonathan, Abinadab, Malchishua and Ish-bosheth. Their daughters were named Merab and Michal.

Saul also had a concubine named Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, who bore him two sons, Armoni and Mephibosheth. (2 Samuel 21:8)

Saul offered Merab to David as a wife after his victory over Goliath, but David was not interested in the arrangement. (1 Samuel 18:17-19) Saul then gave his other daughter Michal in marriage to David, (1 Samuel 18:20-27) but when David became Saul's rival to the kingship, Saul gave Michal in marriage to Palti, son of Laish. (1 Samuel 25:44)

Saul died at the Battle of Mount Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:3-6; 1 Chronicles 10:3-6), and was buried in Zelah, in the region of Benjamin. (2 Samuel 21:14) Three of Saul's sons – Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua – died with him at Mount Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:2; 1 Chronicles 10:2). Ish-bosheth became king of Israel, at the age of forty, but was killed by Bannah and Recab after hearing of Abner's death. (2 Samuel 2:10) Michal was returned as a wife to David, but was not granted any children as she disgraced David later on.

Ish-bosheth reigned for two years and was killed by two of his own captains. (2 Samuel 4:5) The only male descendant of Saul to survive was Mephibosheth, Jonathan's lame son, (2 Samuel 4:4) who had been five when his father and grandfather Saul had died in battle. In time, he came under the protection of David. (2 Samuel 9:7-13) Mephibosheth had a young son, Micah, (2 Samuel 9:12) of whom nothing more is heard.

Armoni and Mephibosheth (Saul's sons with his concubine, Rizpah) were given by David along with the five sons of Merab (Saul's daughter) to the Gibeonites, who killed them. (2 Samuel 21:8-9) Michal was childless. (2 Samuel 6:23). 

Anointed as king 

Samuel's sons were dishonest and not trustworthy. The leaders of the Israelites feared that it would be disastrous if his sons were to be judge over them and requested that Samuel give them a king. Samuel resented this request and warned that, if he appointed a king over them, they would suffer from the dealings of the king. Meanwhile Saul, a young Israelite, was commanded by his father, Kish, to go and locate their lost donkeys. Saul obeyed, and Samuel saw him walking toward him. God revealed to Samuel that Saul would be the one anointed as the "first" King of Israel.

The Books of Samuel give three events in Saul's rise to the throne:

Saul was sent with a servant to look for his father's donkeys, who had strayed; leaving his home at Gibeah, they eventually wandered to the district of Zuph, at which point Saul suggested abandoning their search. Saul's servant however, remarked that they happened to be near the town of Ramah, where a famous seer was located, and suggested that they should consult him first. The seer (later identified by the text as Samuel), having previously had a vision instructing him to do so, offered hospitality to Saul when he entered Ramah, and later anointed him in private.

Reflecting a desire to be like other nations, there was a popular movement to establish a centralised monarchy.(1 Samuel 8:5; 10:19). Samuel therefore assembled the people at Mizpah in Benjamin, and despite having strong reservations, which he made no attempt to hide, allowed the appointment of a king. Samuel was told by God the day before Saul arrived that Saul, from the land of Benjamin, would come and that he would be anointed as the ruler over the people of Israel 

The Ammonites, led by Nahash, laid siege to Jabesh-Gilead, which was forced to surrender. Under the terms of surrender, the occupants of the city would be forced into slavery, and have their right eyes removed as a sign of this. The city's occupants sent out word of this to the other tribes of Israel, and the tribes west of the Jordan assembled an army under the leadership of Saul. Saul led the army to victory against the Ammonites, and, in gratitude and appreciation of his military skill, the people congregated at Gilgal, and acclaimed Saul as king.

Saul was crowned as king (melech) in Gilgal. (1 Samuel 11:14-12:2)

Saul among the prophets

Having been anointed by Samuel, Saul is told of signs he will receive to know that he has been divinely appointed. The last of these signs is that Saul will be met by an ecstatic group of prophets leaving a high place and playing music on lyre, tambourine, and flutes. The signs come true (though the text skips the first two, suggesting that a portion of the text has been lost, or edited out for some reason), and Saul joins the ecstatic prophets, hence the phrase. (1 Samuel 10:11-12)

Saul sends men to pursue David, but when they meet a group of ecstatic prophets playing music on lyre, tambourine, and flute, they become possessed by a prophetic state and join in. Saul sends more men, but they too join the prophets. Eventually Saul himself goes, and also joins the prophets, hence the phrase. (1 Samuel 19:24)

Military victories

Besides relieving the siege of Jabesh-Gilead, Saul conducted military campaigns against the: Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, the kings of Zobah, Philistines, and Amalekites.

Rejection 

According to 1 Samuel 10:8, Samuel had told Saul to wait for a week after which they would meet and he would give Saul further instructions. But as Samuel did not arrive after a week (1 Samuel 13:8) and with the Israelites growing restless, Saul starts preparing for battle by offering sacrifices. Samuel arrives just as Saul finished offering the sacrifices, and reprimands Saul for not obeying his instructions.

After the battle with the Philistines was over, the text describes Samuel as having instructed Saul to kill all the Amalekites. Having forewarned the Kenites who were living among the Amalekites to leave, Saul goes to war and defeats the Amalekites. Saul kills all the men, women, children and poor quality livestock, but leaves alive the king and best livestock. When Samuel found out that Saul has not killed them all, he informs Saul that God has rejected him as king, because Saul was disobedient. When Samuel turns away, Saul grabs Samuel by his clothes. A piece off his garment tears off, and Samuel announces this as indicative of what will happen to Saul's kingdom. Samuel then kills the Amalekite king himself 1 Samuel 15:33 and leaves Saul for the last time.

Saul and David

After Samuel tells Saul that God has rejected him as king, David, a son of Jesse, from the tribe of Judah, enters the story:

(1 Samuel 16:1-13) Samuel is surreptitiously sent by God to Jesse. While offering a sacrifice in the vicinity, Samuel includes Jesse among the invited guests. Dining together, Jesse's sons are brought one by one to Samuel, each time being rejected by him, speaking for God; running out of sons, Jesse sends for David, the youngest, who was tending sheep. When brought to Samuel, David is anointed by him in front of his other brothers.

(1 Samuel 16:14-23) Saul is troubled by an evil spirit sent by God. Saul requests soothing music, and a servant recommends David the son of Jesse, who is renowned as a skilful harpist and soldier. When word of Saul's needs reach Jesse, he sends David, who had been looking after a flock, and David is appointed as Saul's armor bearer. David remains at court playing the harp as needed by Saul to calm his moods.

(1 Samuel 17:1-18:5) The Philistines return with an army to attack Israel, and the Philistine and Israelite forces gather on opposite sides of a valley. A Rephaite from Gath named Goliath challenges the Israelite army to send a champion to fight with him. David is described as a young shepherd boy who happens to be delivering food to his three eldest brothers, who are in the Israelite army, at the time that the challenge is made. David talks to the nearby soldiers mocking the Philistines, and his speech is overheard and reported to Saul, who summons David and on hearing David's views decides to appoints David as his champion, and David defeats Goliath with a single shot from a sling, which hits him on the forehead. Goliath falls forward and David decapitates him. At the end of the passage, Saul asks his general, Abner, who David is.

In the text, Saul's son Jonathan becomes David's dearest friend. Eventually, David becomes Jonathan's brother-in-law by Michal. Jonathan recognises David as the rightful king, and 1 Samuel 18 states "Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul." Jonathan even gives David his military clothes, symbolizing David's position as successor to Saul.

God makes David successful wherever Saul sends him. Therefore Saul sets David in charge of the army. After David returns from battle, the women heap praise upon him and refer to him as a greater military hero than Saul by singing "Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands" which makes him very angry and jealous, fearing David as a rival to the throne.

Another day, while David is playing the harp, Saul - possessed by an evil spirit - throws a spear at him but misses on two occasions. Saul removes David from the court and appoints him an officer, but David becomes increasingly successful, making Saul even more resentful of him. In return for being his champion, Saul offers his daughter Merob to David as a wife. But David is too humble to accept, so Merob is married to a different man. When Saul's other daughter Michal falls in love with David, Saul repeats the offer. Again David turns it down, claiming he lacks the wealth of a suitable husband. Saul persuades David that the bride price would only be 100 foreskins from the Philistines; he secretly hopes that David will be slain trying to achieve this. Instead, David obtains 200 foreskins and is consequently married to Michal.

The narrative continues as Saul plots against David, but Jonathan dissuades Saul from this course of action; he also tells David of it. Saul tries to have David killed during the night, but Michal helps him escape and tricks his pursuers by using a household idol to make it seem that David is still in bed. David flees to Jonathan, who was not living near Saul. Jonathan returns to Saul, hoping to discover his father's ultimate intent. While dining with Saul, Jonathan pretends that David has been called away to his brothers. But Saul sees through the ruse and castigates Jonathan for being David's protector; clearly, Saul wants David slain. The next day, Jonathan meets with David and tells him Saul's intent. The two friends say their goodbyes, and David flees into the countryside. Saul later marries Michal to another man.

Saul is later informed by his head shepherd, an Edomite named Doeg, that Ahimelech assisted David. A henchman is sought to kill Ahimelech and the other priests of Nob. None of Saul's henchmen are willing to do this, so Doeg offers to do it instead, killing 85 priests. Saul also kills every man, woman and child living in Nob.

David had already left Nob by this point and had amassed about 400 disaffected men including a group of outlaws. With these men David launches an attack on the Philistines at Keilah. Saul realises he could trap David and his men by laying the city to siege. Yet David hears about this and, having received divine counsel (via the Ephod), finds that the citizens of Keilah would betray him to Saul. He flees to Ziph. Saul discovers this and pursues David on two occasions:

Some of the inhabitants of Ziph betray David's location to Saul, but David hears about it and flees with his men to Maon. Saul follows David, but while Saul travels along one side of the gorge, David travels along the other, and Saul is forced to break off pursuit when the Philistines invade. David hides in the caves at Engedi and after fighting the Philistines, Saul returns to Engedi to attack him. Saul eventually enters the cave in which David had been hiding, but as David is in the darkest recesses Saul does not spot him. David cuts off a piece of Saul's robe; yet David restrains himself and his associates from going further. David then leaves the cave, revealing himself to Saul, and gives a speech that persuades Saul to reconcile.

On the second occasion, Saul returns to Ziph with his men. When David hears of this he sneaks into Saul's camp by night, and thrusts his spear into the ground near where Saul is sleeping. David prevents his associates from killing Saul. Instead, David merely steals Saul's spear and water jug. The next day, David stands atop a slope opposite Saul's camp; he shows the jug and spear as proof that he could have slain Saul but did not. David then persuades Saul to reconcile with him; the two swear never to harm one another. After this they never see each other again.

Battle of Gilboa and the death of King Saul

Despite the oaths of reconciliation, David made an alliance with the Philistines, becoming their vassal. Emboldened by this, the Philistines prepared to attack Israel, and Saul led out his army to face them at Mount Gilboa, but before the battle decided to consult the witch of Endor for advice. The witch, unaware of who he was, reminded Saul that the king (i.e. Saul himself) had made witchcraft a capital offence, but after being assured that Saul would not harm her, the witch conjures up the spirit of Samuel, who had previously died (1 Samuel 25:1; 28:3). Upon seeing Samuel's ghost, Saul fell with his face to the ground. Saul told him of the forthcoming battle with the Philistines and that God would not answer him anymore when he prayed, and asked for understanding. The ghost then told Saul that he would lose the battle and his life.

1 Samuel and 2 Samuel give conflicting accounts of Saul's death. In the former, Saul returned to face his enemies, and the Israelites were duly defeated. To escape torture, Saul then asked his armour bearer to kill him, but was forced to commit suicide by falling on his sword when the armour bearer refused. In 2 Samuel, Saul asks not his armour bearer but an Amalekite to deliver the coup de grace, or so the Amalekite boasts to David, hoping to gain a reward. Infuriated, David orders the Amalekite to be put to death as punishment for killing the anointed king.

When the Philistines found Saul's body, they decapitated it, along with those of his sons, and fastened the decapitated bodies to the wall of Beth-shan. They hung up Saul's armor in the house of Ashtaroth (an Ascalonian temple of the Canaanites). But the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead came out at night and rescued the bodies, and took them to Jabesh-gilead, where they cremated them and buried the bones.(1 Samuel 31:8-13). Later on, David took the bones of Saul together with the bones of Jonathan his son from Jabesh-gilead and buried them in Zela, in the tomb of his father (2 Samuel 21:12–14).

Biblical criticism

There are several textual or narrative issues in the text, and plays on words, that biblical scholars have discussed.

The birth-narrative of the prophet Samuel is found at 1 Samuel 1-28. It describes how Samuel's mother Hannah requests a son from Yahweh, and dedicates the child to God at the shrine of Shiloh. The passage makes extensive play with the root-elements of Saul's name, and ends with the phrase hu sa'ul le-Yahweh, "he is dedicated to Yahweh." Hannah names the resulting son Samuel, giving as her explanation, "because from God I requested him." Samuel's name, however, can mean "name of God," (or "Heard of God" or "Told of God") and the etymology and multiple references to the root of the name seems to fit Saul instead. The majority explanation for the discrepancy is that the narrative originally described the birth of Saul, and was given to Samuel in order to enhance the position of David and Samuel at the former king's expense.

In the Books of Samuel, Saul is not referred to as a king (melech), but rather as a “leader” or “commander” (nagid) (1 Samuel 9:16; 1 Samuel 10:1). However (possibly representing an opposing literary strain, Saul is said to be made a "king" (melech) at Gilgal (1 Samuel 11:15). Even David, before he was anointed king, was referred to only as a future nagid, or military commander (1 Samuel 13:14).

Various authors have attempted to harmonize the two narratives regarding Saul's death. Josephus writes that Saul's attempted suicide was stalled because he was not able to run the sword through himself, and that he therefore asked the Amalekite to finish it. Later biblical criticism has posited that the story of Saul's death was redacted from various sources, although this view in turn has been criticized because it does not explain why the contradiction was left in by the redactors. But since 2 Samuel records only the Amalekite's report, and not the report of any other eye-witness, some scholars theorize that the Amalekite may have been lying to try to gain favor with David. On this view, 1 Samuel records what actually happened, while 2 Samuel records what the Amalekite claims happened.

Classical rabbinical views

Two opposing views of Saul are found in classical rabbinical literature. One is based on the reverse logic that punishment is a proof of guilt, and therefore seeks to rob Saul of any halo which might surround him; typically this view is similar to the republican source. The passage referring to Saul as a choice young man, and goodly (1 Samuel 9:2) is in this view interpreted as meaning that Saul was not good in every respect, but goodly only with respect to his personal appearance (Num. Rashi 9:28). According to this view, Saul is only a weak branch (Gen. Rashi 25:3), owing his kingship not to his own merits, but rather to his grandfather, who had been accustomed to light the streets for those who went to the bet ha-midrash, and had received as his reward the promise that one of his grandsons should sit upon the throne (Lev. Rashi 9:2).

The second view of Saul makes him appear in the most favourable light as man, as hero, and as king. This view is similar to that of the monarchical source. In this view it was on account of his modesty that he did not reveal the fact that he had been anointed king (1 Samuel 10:16; Meg. 13b); and he was extraordinarily upright as well as perfectly just. Nor was there any one more pious than he (M. Q. 16b; Ex. Rashi 30:12); for when he ascended the throne he was as pure as a child, and had never committed sin (Yoma 22b). He was marvelously handsome; and the maidens who told him concerning Samuel (cf 1 Samuel 9:11-13) talked so long with him that they might observe his beauty the more (Ber. 48b). In war he was able to march 120 miles without rest. When he received the command to smite Amalek (1 Samuel 15:3), Saul said: For one found slain the Torah requires a sin offering [Deuteronomy 21:1-9]; and here so many shall be slain. If the old have sinned, why should the young suffer; and if men have been guilty, why should the cattle be destroyed? It was this mildness that cost him his crown. And while Saul was merciful to his enemies, he was strict with his own people; when he found out that Avimelech, a kohen, had assisted David with finding food, Saul, in retaliation, killed the rest of the 85 kohanim of the family of Avimelech and the rest of his hometown, Nov. (Yoma 22b; Num. Rashi 1:10) The fact that he was merciful even to his enemies, being indulgent to rebels themselves, and frequently waiving the homage due to him, was incredible as well as deceiving. But if his mercy toward a foe was a sin, it was his only one; and it was his misfortune that it was reckoned against him, while David, although he had committed much iniquity, was so favored that it was not remembered to his injury (Yoma 22b; M. Q. 16b, and Rashi ad loc.). In some respects Saul was superior to David, e.g., in having only one concubine {Rizpah}, while David had many. Saul expended his own substance for the war, and although he knew that he and his sons would fall in battle, he nevertheless went forward, while David heeded the wish of his soldiers not to go to war in person (2 Samuel 21:17; Lev. Rashi 26:7; Yalq., Sam. 138).

According to the Rabbis, Saul ate his food with due regard for the rules of ceremonial purity prescribed for the sacrifice (Yalq., l.c.), and taught the people how they should slay cattle (cf 1 Samuel 14:34). As a reward for this, God himself gave Saul a sword on the day of battle, since no other sword suitable for him was found (ibid 13:22). Saul's attitude toward David finds its excuse in the fact that his courtiers were all tale-bearers, and slandered David to him (Deut. Rashi 5:10); and in like manner he was incited by Doeg against the priests of Nob (1 Samuel 22:16-19; Yalq., Sam. 131) - this act was forgiven him, however, and a heavenly voice (bat qol) was heard, proclaiming: Saul is the chosen one of God (Ber. 12b). His anger at the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21:2) was not personal hatred, but was induced by zeal for the welfare of Israel (Num. Rashi 8:4). The fact that he made his daughter remarry (1 Samuel 25:44), finds its explanation in his (Saul's) view that her betrothal to David had been gained by false pretenses, and was therefore invalid (Sanhedrin 19b). During the lifetime of Saul there was no idolatry in Israel. The famine in the reign of David (cf 2 Samuel 21:1) was to punish the people, because they had not accorded Saul the proper honours at his burial (Num. Rashi 8:4). In Sheol, Samuel reveals to Saul that in the next world, Saul would dwell with Samuel, which is a proof that all has been forgiven him by God('Er. 53ba]

In Islam

Muslims refer to Saul as Tālūt (Arabic: طالوت‎), and believe that (as in the Bible) he was the commander of Israel. According to the Qur'an, Saul was chosen by the prophet Samuel (not mentioned by name explicitly but rather as "a Prophet" of the Israelites) after being asked by the people of Israel for a king to lead them into war. The Israelites criticized Samuel for appointing Saul, lacking respect for Saul because he was not wealthy. Samuel rebuked the people for this and told them that Saul was far more favored than they were. Saul led the Israelites to victory over the army of Goliath, who was killed by David. Saul is not considered a prophet, but a divinely appointed king.

Name

The name Tālūt has uncertain etymology. Unlike some other Qur'anic figures, the Arabic name is not similar to the Hebrew name (Sha'ul). According to Muslim exegetes, the name Tālūt means 'tall' (from the Arabic "tūl") and refers to the extraordinary stature of Saul, which would be consonant with the Biblical account. In explanation of the name, exegetes such as Tha'labi hold that at this time, the future king of Israel was to be recognised by his height; Samuel set up a measure, but no one in Israel reached its height except Tālūt (Saul).

Saul as the first king

In the Qur'an, Israel demanded a king after the time of Moses. God appointed Saul as their king. Saul was distinguished by the greatness of his knowledge and of his physique; it was a sign of his role as king that God brought back the Ark of the Covenant for Israel. Saul tested his people at a river; whoever drank from it would not follow him in battle excepting one who takes [from it] in the hollow of his hand. Many drank but only the faithful ventured on. In the battle, however, David slew Goliath and was made the subsequent king of Israel.

The Qur'anic account differs slightly from the Biblical account in that in the Bible the sacred Ark was returned to Israel before Saul's accession, and the test by drinking water is made in the Hebrew Bible not by Saul but by Gideon.

Psychological analyses

Accounts of Saul's behavior have made him a popular subject for speculation among modern psychiatrists. George Stein views the passages depicting Saul's ecstatic episodes as suggesting that Saul may have suffered from mania. Martin Huisman sees the story of Saul as illustrative of the role of stress as a factor in depression. Liubov Ben-Noun of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, believes that passages referring to King Saul's disturbed behavior indicate he was afflicted by a mental disorder, and lists a number of possible conditions. However, Christopher C. H. Cook of the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, UK recommends caution in offering any diagnoses in relation to people who lived millennia ago.

Wikipedia

CANAAN (Son of Ham) 

Canaan, according to the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, was a son of Ham and grandson of Noah, and was the father of the Canaanites. He was the recipient of the so-called Curse of Ham.

Descendants of Canaan 

According to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 (verses 15-19), Canaan was the ancestor of the tribes who originally occupied the ancient Land of Canaan: all the territory from Sidon or Hamath in the north to Gaza in the southwest and Lasha in the southeast. This territory is roughly the areas of modern day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, western Jordan, and western Syria. Canaan's firstborn son was Sidon, who shares his name with the Phoenician city of Sidon in present-day Lebanon. His second son was Heth. Canaan's descendants, according to the Hebrew Bible, include:

Sidonians, i.e. the Phoenicians

Hittites, children of Heth

Jebusites

Amorites

Girgashites

Hivites

Arkites

Sinites

Arvadites

Zemarites

Hamathites

According to traditional Ethiopian histories, Canaan's son Arwadi (lit. "the Arvadite") and his wife Entela crossed from Asia into Ethiopia in 2101 BC, and the Qemant tribe were said to be descended from their son, Anayer. There is further an Ethiopian tradition that two other Canaanite tribes, viz. the Sinites and Zemarites, also entered Ethiopia at the time it was ruled by the Kingdom of Kush, and became the Shanqella and Weyto peoples, respectively.

The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounted a tradition that the wife of Canaan was named Arsal, a daughter of Batawil son of Tiras, and that she bore him the "Blacks, Nubians, Fezzan, Zanj, Zaghawah, and all the peoples of the Sudan."

The German historian Johannes Aventinus (fl. c. 1525) recorded a legend that Canaan's sons the "Arkite" and the "Hamathite" first settled in the area of Greece, and gave their names to the regions of Arcadia and Emathia.

Curse of Canaan

According to Genesis 9:20-27, Noah became drunk then cursed his grandson Canaan, for the transgression of Canaan's father, Ham. This is the Curse of Canaan, to which the misnomer "Curse of Ham" has been attached since Classical antiquity.

Ham's transgression:

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. (Genesis 9:22)

Genesis 9:24-27

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

25 And he said, Cursed [be] Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

26 And he said, Blessed [be] the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

(—Authorized King James Version)

Some modern scholars view the curse of Canaan in Genesis 9:20-27 as an early Hebrew rationalization for Israel's conquest of Canaan. When Noah cursed Canaan in Genesis 9:25, he used the expression "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."NKJV The expression "servant of servants", otherwise translated "slave of slaves",NIV emphasizes the extreme degree of servitude that Canaan will experience in relation to his "brothers". In the subsequent passage, "of Shem... may Canaan be his servant,"[9:26] the narrator is foreshadowing Israel's conquest of the promised land. Biblical scholar Philip R. Davies explains that the author of this narrative used Noah to curse Canaan, in order to provide justification for the later Israelites driving out and enslaving the Canaanites.

Canaan in Jubilees

And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt, that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the west (that is to) the sea, and he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea. And Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim his brothers said unto him: 'Thou hast settled in a land which is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and (be) accursed through sedition; for by sedition ye have settled, and by sedition will thy children fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever. Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father.' But he did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the entering of Egypt, he and his sons until this day. And for this reason that land is named Canaan.

—Jubilees 10:29-34.

Etymology

The English term Canaan (pronounced /ˈkeɪnən/ since c. AD 1500, due to the Great Vowel Shift) comes from the Hebrew כנען (knʿn), via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and Latin Canaan. It appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters (14th century BC), and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna(Χνᾶ). Scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kana'an, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region.

The etymology is uncertain. One explanation is that it has an original meaning of "lowlands", from a Semitic root knʿ "to be low, humble, depressed", in contrast with Aram, "highlands".  An alternative suggestion derives the term from Hurrian Kinahhu, purportedly referring to the colour purple, so that Canaan and Phoenicia would be synonyms ("Land of Purple"), but it is just as common to assume that Kinahhu was simply the Hurrian rendition of the Semitic knʿn.

Wikipedia 

THE DA VINCI CODE

What The Da Vinci Code says 

And Does it claim to be more than a novel? 

“The days of the goddess were over. The pendulum had swung. Mother Earth had become a man’s world.....” The Da Vinci Code (Chapter 28) 

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code combines startling twists of plot with a menacing atmosphere of invisible intrigue, right from its opening scene where, late one night in Paris, Jacques Sauniere, curator at the Louvre, is shot in teh Grand Gallery of the museum by Silas, a crazed albino monk of Opus Dei. In his dying moments Sauniere removes his clothes and arranges his naked body on the parquet floor, his arms and legs akimbo so that he looks like Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man – in effect a five-pointed star, the ancient pentacle representing the sacred feminine. 

This bizarre scene contains the first of numerous coded clues that transform a murder mystery into a quest for a modern-day version of the Holy Grail, a profound but long-suppressed truth that challenges the foundations of Western beliefs and culture. Brown’s argument is that there was once a time when people worshipped Nature’s divine order, which involved a balance between the male and female spiritual principles. This brought about harmony and peace. But the Christian Church, by asserting the male principle and denying the female, has brought us two thousand years of chaos and violence. Furthermore, this was in contradiction of Jesus’s real teachingsand the role of Mary Magdalene in his life, matters that the Church took care to write out of the New Testament and the history books in order to justify its institutional power. 

The Da Vinci Code plot 

According to Dan Brown’s novel, the truth about Jesus and Mary Magdalene was known to the brotherhood of the Priory of Sion, who through their offshoot the Knights Templar had obtained their evidence at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, following the conquest of the city during the First Crusade (1099). The brotherhood has kept the secret, ready to reveal it at a propitious moment. But a secret figure known as The Teacher, apparently working through the conservative Catholic organisation Opus Dei, whose cult of asceticism and self-mortification represents the worst aspects of Christian imbalance, is determined to seize the evidence and destroy it. 

Four figures in the brotherhood of the Priory of Sion are the sole keepers of the secret, but as the novel opens we learn that they have just been murdered by Silas, a crazed albino numerary of Opus Dei; and the secret, it would seem, has died with them. Except that one of the brotherhood, the Grand Master Jacques Sauniere, who is also curator at the Louvre museum, spent his dying moments leaving clues for his cryptologist granddaughter Sophie Neveu and for Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist. 

In what amounts to a thriller on a cosmic scale, it is desperately important that Sophie and Langdon decode the clues (which are largely contained in works by Leonardo da Vinci, himself a supposed past Grand Master of the Priory of Sion) in order to preserve one of the greatest and most important truths in history. But Langdon, who is suspected of Sauniere’s murder, is on the run from the French police, abetted by Sophie, who is convinced of his innocence. The detecting duo seek refuge with Sir Leigh Teabing, an expatriate Englishman who inhabits the grand Chateau Villette, outside Paris, and is a leading expert on the Holy Grail, only to discover that they are also being pursued by Silas – under the control of the Teacher, who seems to possess the uncanny ability to anticipate their moves. 

It is while Langdon and Sophie are at Teabing’s chateau that Dan Brown reveals his controversial big idea. The Holy Grail is not literally the chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper; rather it is a coded reference for a secret collection of documents which prove that Mary Magdalane was married to Jesus and gave birth to his daughter, called Sarah, whose descendents are alive today. Mary Magdalene, and not Peter, was the rock on whom Jesus had intended to build his Church, its purpose not to promote his own worship, for he made no claim to divinity, but to foster the worship of the sacred feminine. 

The tension of the plot drives the reader forwards through a succession of riddles, codes, anagrams and interlinking associations of all kinds in an effort to decode the clues to the sacred feminine and its suppression by the Church. But this mix of thriller, history and theology understandably leaves many readers wondering where to draw the line between fiction and reality and how far to trust in the truth of Dan Brown’s claims. 

Hidden History Revealed 

It is the winners who write history, says Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code, and Christian history is no exception. As he tells it, the original story of Jesus – the meaning of his life and teaching – was suppressed and perverted by the Church in collaboration with the Roman emperor Constantine in the fourth century, so that as one of Dan Brown’s characters says, ‘Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is FALSE.’ 

The Da Vinci Code, says Dan Brown on his website, is, as well as a novel, a means of airing ideas. “While it is my belief that the theories discussed by these characters have merit, each individual reader must explore these characters’ viewpoints and come to his or her own interpretations. My hope in writing this novel was that the story would serve as a catalyst and a springboard for people to discuss the important topics of faith, religion and history.” 

But in an ABC television interview in New York, Dan Brown went much further. “This is a novel”, the interviewer said, but then he asked: “If you were writing it as a non fiction book, how would it have been different?” To which Dan Brown answered: “I don’t think it would have. I began the research for The Da Vinci Code as a sceptic. I entirely expected as I researched the book to disprove this theory (about Mary Magdalene being the wife of Jesus and the mother of his child). And after numerous trips to Europe and about two years of research I really became a believer. I decided this theory makes more sense to me than what I learnt as a child.” 

In other words, Dan Brown is telling his readers that The Da Vinci Code is more than just a discussion piece and certainly more than an entertainment; he is asserting that the integrity of his research has led him to believe in the historical truth of the events he relates. Referring to actual statements in the novel, the truth of history according to Dan Brown is set out below. 

The Marriage: Jesus and Mary Magdalene

According to The Da Vinci Code, chapter 58, Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, and both were of royal blood. She was of the tribe of Benjamin, which had given rise to Saul, the first king of Israel. He was descended from King David, who had carved out an empire unmatched in Israel’s history, and from David’s son, Solomon, who built the great Temple in Jerusalem. Together, Jesus and Mary Magdalene made a potent political combination; their marriage fused the bloodlines of two great royal houses and gave Jesus a legitimate claim to the throne of Israel. 

Jesus MUST have been married, says The Da Vinci Code, as according to Jewish custom celibacy was condemned. The silence of the Bible supposedly confirms the point; had Jesus NOT been married, at least one of the gospels would have offered some explanation for his unnatural bachelor state. Mary Magdalene was his wife, but though the Bible is silent on this matter too, there are ‘countless references’ elsewhere to their union, and these have been ‘explored ad nauseum’ by modern historians. In particular there are the Gnostic gospels, long lost but rediscovered in 1945, which along with the Dead Sea scrolls are described in The Da Vinci Code as ‘the earliest Christian records’. 

One of these references is found in the Gnostic Gospel of Philip: ‘The companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it. They said to him, “Why do you love her more than all of us?” 

Sir Leigh Teabing, who as one of Dan Brown’s characters is an Oxford-educated historian, helpfully explains; “As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word COMPANION, in those days, literally meant SPOUSE”. 

Moreover Peter was NOT the rock on whom Jesus intended to build his Church. In another Gnostic text, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Peter is angry that Jesus had confided in Mary Magdalene rather than in his male apostles. “Did the Saviour really speak with a woman without our knowledge? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?” To which Levi (another name for Mathew) anwers: “Peter, you have always been hot-tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like an adversary. If the Saviour made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Saviour knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us.” In other words, according to The Da Vinci Code, “Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene.” 

The story is continued in chapter 60 of The Da Vinci Code. Mary Magdalene was made pregnant by Jesus, and after his crucifixion – which was followed by no resurrection, as he was only mortal – she secretly fled with the help of Joseph of Arimathea to France, where she was given refuge among its Jewish communities and gave birth to her daughter Sarah. Purportedly a genealogy of the early descendants of Jesus has been preserved, along with the Q-document, which may be an account of Jesus’s life and ministry written in his own hand, as well as Mary Magdalene’s own diaries, telling the story of her relationship with Jesus, of his crucifixion and her life in France. 

Among these papers, too, are thought to be the Purist Documents, tens of thousands more pages of information written by the early followers of Jesus. These papers show that until the early fourth century, when the Church entered into its alliance with the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, Jesus was revered as a wholly human figure and prophet, not as God, and that the real object of worship was the sacred feminine. 

Constantine Turns Jesus Into God 

According to The Da Vinci Code, chapter 55, Constantine the Great, who was a pagan and a worshipper of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, saw an opportunity to unify and strengthen the Roman Empire by co-opting the growing Jesus movement. In this he had the support of the Church hierarchy, which stands accused of stealing Jesus from his original followers, hijacking his human message and turning him into God, all for the purpose of expanding their own power. 

The matter was accomplished in 325 AD, at the Council of Nicea, where many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon, including the date of Easter, the administration of the sacraments, the role of bishops, and the divinity of Jesus. Until that moment, the novel contends, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a great and powerful prophet but nevertheless only a mortal man. 

But the churchmen whom Constantine had summoned to the council from all over the Christian world voted to endorse his view that Jesus was the Son of God. ‘Now the followers of Christ were able to redeem themselves ONLY via the established sacred channel – the Roman Catholic Church.’ At a stroke, Constantine had succeeded in turning Jesus into a deity whose power was unchallengeable, which meant that Church and empire were beyond challenge too. 

To ensure the hegemony of his new religion, Constantine ensured that Christianity took on the trappings of its pagan rivals, so that Egyptian sun discs became the halos of Catholic saints, while Isis suckling Horus became an iconic image of Mary and Jesus. Virtually all elements of Catholic ritual, says The Da Vinci Code, were taken from earlier pagan mystery religions. 

Mithras also had been called the Son of God and the Light of the World; he too was buried in a rock tomb and then resurrected in three days; and Mithras was born on 25 December, a birthday he shared with Osiris, Adonis and Dionysus. 

‘Nothing in Christianity is original’, says the novel. 

Christianity Demonises The Sacred Feminine 

In the process, says The Da Vinci Code, chapter 28, Constantine converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity, which then began to demonise the sacred feminine. 

The Church – or as Dan Brown more often calls it, the Vatican – launched a crusade against pagan and feminine-worshipping religions. In particular, the pagan ritual of HIEROS GAMOS – in which spiritual wholeness was achieved by sexual union – was forbidden, while sexuality itself became shameful, especially in the case of women, in whom sexual urges were identified with the devil. 

The Catholic Inquisition published the Malleus Maleficarum, that is The Witches’ Hammer, which indoctrinated the laity on the dangers of free-thinking women and instructed the clergy on how to torture and destroy such ‘witches’ – who were deemed to include ALL FEMALE SCHOLARS, ALL PRIESTESSES AND MYSTICS, ALL GYPSIES, ALL NATURE LOVERS, ALL HERB GATHERERS AND ANY WOMAN REGARDED AS SUSPICIOUSLY ATTUNED TO THE NATURAL WORLD. 

MIDWIVES WERE ALSO KILLED FOR THEIR SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE IN EASING THE PAIN OF CHILDBIRTH, a suffering says The Da Vinci Code that the Church claimed was God’s punishment for Eve’s partaking of the Apple of Knowledge, a transgression that gave rise to Original Sin. 

During three hundred years of witch hunts, Dan Brown writes in his novel ‘The Church burnt at the stake an astounding five million women’ (more like 50 million I am sure. AZR). 

Earth became a man’s world, out of balance and at war. 

Editing The Bible and Rewriting History 

Because Constantine raised Jesus to divinity centuries after his crucifixion, says The Da Vinci Code chapter 55, there were already many thousands of documents in circulation chronicling Jesus’s life as a mortal man. The emperor therefore decided on a bold stroke, nothing less than the eradication of the past and rewriting of history. He commissioned and financed a revised version of the Bible for which eighty versions of the gospels were considered for inclusion. Those that dwelt on Jesus’s human traits were omitted, while those which spoke of him as godlike were embellished and included. From now on the banished gospels were deemed heretical: they were gathered up and destroyed. 

Fortunately for historians some early gospels survive, and according to Dan Brown they speak of Jesus’s ministry in very human terms. Among these he counts the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in Israel in a cave near Qumran in the 1950s, and what he calls the ‘Coptic Scrolls’ – that is the Gnostic gospels, which were found in Egypt at Nag Hammadi in 1945. 

These scrolls clearly confirm that ‘the modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who possessed a political agenda – to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ and use His influence to solidify their own power base.’ 

The Secret of The Holy Grail 

Mary Magdalene was chief among the victims of the Church’s assault on the sacred feminine. According to The Da Vinci Code, chapter 58, the Church launched a smear campaign against her, calling her a prostitute, in order to cover up her dangerous secret, that she had been the wife of the mortal Jesus, and that the couple had a produced a child. A child that would undermine the divinity of Jesus and so destroy the Church. 

But the truth about Mary Magdalene was preserved in the ingeniously conceived allegory of the Holy Grail. Some have naively believed that the Holy Grail was the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. In fact the Holy Grail was a metaphor for Mary Magdalene herself, whose womb was the chalice for Jesus’s child. It was a metaphor as well for the bloodline of Jesus, and for the generations of his descendants, and it also referred to the secret documents that prove the entire story. In French the Holy Grail is known as Sangrael, derived from San Grael, but more anciently the phrase was Sang Real, meaning royal blood. 

The Templars and The Priory of Sion 

The protector of the Holy Grail is the Priory of Sion – a REAL ORGANISATION says Dan Brown on a preliminary page of his novel – which was founded in 1099, the year the First Crusade conquered Jerusalem. In chapter 37 we learn that the leader of the crusade and Priory’s founder was Godefroi de Bouillon, whose family possessed the secret of the bloodline of Jesus, a secret he wanted to corroborate and protect by finding certain documents buried beneath the ruins of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. To pursue this aim, he founded the priory, which in turn created a military arm, the Knights Templar. The Templars eventually found something, something they would not reveal, but soon they achieved great power, wealth and influence. According to the argument in The Da Vinci Code, they were receiving money and privileges from the Vatican in exchange for not revealing the truth about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. 

For two hundred years the Templars flourished as soldiers, church-builders, bankers and financiers in Europe and the Holy Land, until suddenly on Friday October 13 1307, on orders from the Vatican, their leaders were arrested and charged with heresy, sodomy and other crimes, and were burnt at the stake, and their order suppressed. 

Before the blow fell, the Templars passed their secret to the Priory of Sion, which still guards the treasure – presumably documents which form part of that long hidden history known as the Holy Grail. Since then, suggests The Da Vinci Code, the priory lived a shadowy underground existence, safeguarding their secret and protecting the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and offering reverence to the sacred feminine. Its intention is to release its secret to the world at some propitious moment, but meanwhile it is avoiding the attentions of the Vatican, which would like to seize and destroy the Holy Grail, eradicating its evidence forever. 

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Clues 

Also on the preliminary page of his novel, Dan Brown states AS A FACT that parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, found in 1975 at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, identify numerous members of the priory, among them Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci. Indeed, in chapter 48 of The Da Vinci Code, he states that each of these men, as well as the filmmaker, writer and artist Jean Cocteau, have been ‘incontrovertibly confirmed’ as Grand Masters of the priory by historians who have examined Les Dossiers Secrets. 

This is crucial material for the novel. For if the Priory and Les Dossiers Secret are real, then as Grand Master, Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) would have known the whereabouts of the Holy Grail – and throughout the book his paintings, drawings and notebooks are closely examined for clues. Most illuminating, according to The Da Vinci Code, both for appreciating Leonardo’s reverence for the sacred feminine and learning the location of the Holy Grail, are his drawing known as Vitruvian Man (chapter 8) and his paintings the Mona Lisa (chapter 26), the two versions of the Madonna of the Rocks (chapters 30 and 32), and, most especially The Last Supper (chapters 55, 56 and 58), which is reproduced in colour on the outer and inner covers of this book. 

‘Da Vinci sets it all out in the open in The Last Supper’, says one of Dan Brown’s characters. ‘This fresco, in fact, is the entire key to the Holy Grail mystery.’ Jesus sits at the table with his disciples on either side, but though the gospels of Mathew, Mark and Luke all relate that Jesus passed round a cup of wine, saying ‘Drink of my blood’, there is no such cup or chalice in the fresco. But the Holy Grail is there if you know where to look and understand the true meaning of the Grail legend – that really it represents the union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. And indeed Mary Magdalene is in the fresco, according to Dan Brown’s characters, who see the figure to the left of Jesus not as the disciple John, but instead a woman – her appearance not clearly evident until the once grimy and damaged fresco was cleaned and restored in 1999. 

Moreover, if you follow The Da Vinci Code, Leonardo incorporated a number of clues into the picture which point to a marriage between Mary Magdalene and Jesus. For example, though they lean away from one another, we are told that they appear to be joined at the hip, and the space between them forms a V – the feminine symbol of the sacred which resembles a chalice and suggests fertility and a woman’s womb. The blue and red of their robes and garments mirror one another, and this introduces another way of looking at their two figures – their torsos the uprights on either side of the linking V-space between them, so that altogether they form the letter M, standing for Matrimonio perhaps, or Mary Magdalene. A further clue, according to The Da Vinci Code, is the threatening gesture made by Peter, who thrusts his hand across the throat of Mary Magdalene, recalling his jealous anger described in the long-hidden Gnostic gospel found at Nag Hammadi in 1945, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. 

The Vatican and Opus Dei

‘Sophie, the historical evidence supporting this is substantial’, says Robert Langdon in chapter 60. This was the secret the Vatican had tried to bury in the fourth century. That’s part of what the Crusades were about. Gathering and destroying information’. 

From first to last in The Da Vinci Code it is the Church, often described as the Roman Catholic Church, or simply as the Vatican, that has distorted and suppressed the truth about the life and teachings of Jesus and his embracing of the sacred feminine. Its brand of Christianity has warped the whole of Western culture and has ensured chaos where there should be harmony, aggression where there should be peace, and guilt where there should be joy. However, a small band of people belonging to the Priory of Sion keep alive the old rituals, including the HIEROS GAMOS, and offer reverence to Mary Magdalene. Until the time is right to reveal the truth of the Holy Grail to the world, they safeguard it against those who would destroy it – which in the pages of The Da Vinci Code is the Vatican and its ultra-conservative ally Opus Dei. 

Silas, the albino monk who murders Jacques Sauniere, Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, and his three senechaux, is described as a numerary (a full time member) of Opus Dei. He is the epitome of the repressive, joyless and self-lacerating aspects of Christianity. For at least two hours every day he wears around his thigh a cilice – a leather strap studded with sharp metal barbs that cut into the flesh as a reminder of Jesus’s sufferings on the cross – and for good measure he whips himself with a knotted rope until the blood runs down his back. ‘Pain is good’, Silas says; he tells it to Sauniere after he shoots him in the stomach and leaves him to die a slow and terrible death, and he tells it to himself. 

‘Pain is good’, we are told in chapter 2 of The Da Vinci Code, is the sacred mantra of Father Josemaria Escriva, who founded Opus Dei – literally ‘God’s work’ – in Spain in 1928. The words are uttered daily round the world by thousands of true followers of Escriva’s book The Way as they kneel on the floor and perform the sacred ritual called corporal mortification. Dan Brown adds as fact on his novel’s preliminary page that Opus Dei, a Vatican prelature, is a deeply devout Catholic sect that has been the subject of recent controversy due to reports of brain-washing, coercion and its ritual of corporal mortification. Opus Dei, he adds, has just built a $47 million National Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City. 

Opus Dei has grown hugely powerful in recent years, we are told in chapter 7 of The Da Vinci Code, after Pope John Paul ll elevated it to a personal prelature of the pope in 1982, officially sanctioning its practices, which are even more severe for women. As it happens, its ascension occurred in the same year that Opus Dei allegedly transferred nearly a billion dollars into the Vatican Bank, saving it from bankruptcy. Nor in some quarters did it come as a great surprise when Father Josemaria Escriva was put on a fast-track to sainthood, so that a process normally taking at least a century was accomplished in twenty years, his canonisation announced by Pope John Paul ll in 2002. 

Just as the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion are portrayed in The Da Vinci Code as the champions and defenders of the true meaning of the Holy Grail, so Opus Dei is the militant wing of Catholicism, which is determined to suppress and destroy that truth, just as Constantine and the Church attempted to do at Nicaea one thousand and seven hundred years ago. The battled fought then shaped the world we live in now, and the battles still continue. 

This is the message of The Da Vinci Code.....

The Rough Guide to The Da Vinci Code. Michael Haag and Veronica Haag

The Pythias excerpted from

Secret History of the Witches

 © 2009 Max Dashu 

.......As a youth, Pythagoras studied with the Delphic priestess Themistoclea. He learned most of his moral doctrines from her, according to Aristoxenis. Thus the man who coined the word “philosophy” and founded Western mathematics sat at the feet of a female philosopher at Delphi........

I count the grains of sand on the beach and measure the sea I understand the speech of the mute and hear the voiceless —Delphic Oracle (Herodotus, I, 47) 

In the center of the world, a fissure opened from the black depths of Earth, and waters flowed from a spring. The place was called Delphoi (“Womb”). In its cave sanctuary lived a shamanic priestess called the Pythia—Serpent Woman. Her prophetic power came from a she-dragon in the Castalian spring, whose waters had inspirational qualities. She sat on a tripod, breathing vapors that emerged from a deep cleft in the Earth, until she entered trance and prophesied by chanting in verse.

The shrine was sacred to the indigenous Aegean earth goddess. The Greeks called her Ge, and later Gaia. Earth was said to have been the first Delphic priestess. 

[Pindar, fr. 55; Euripides, Iphigenia in Taurus, 1234-83. This idea of Earth as the original oracle and source of prophecy was widespread.The Eumenides play begins with a Pythia intoning, “First in my prayer I call on Earth, primeval prophetess...” [Harrison, 385] Ancient Greek tradition held that there had once  been an oracle of Earth at the Gaeion in Olympia, but it had disappeared by the 2nd century. [Pausanias, 10.5.5; Frazer on Apollodorus, note, 10] The oracular cave of Aegira, with its very old wooden image of Broad-bosomed Ge, belonged to Earth too. [Pliny, Natural History 28. 147; Pausanias 7, 25]

Ancient Pelasgian seeresses prophesied in the shrine of Delphi before there was a Greece. The Delphic priest Plutarch averred that they "once belonged solely to Earth and Earth's temple," and that they had been prophesying for a thousand years. [De Pythiae Oraculis, in Goodrich, 210, 203] 

Related traditions held that Night was the first to speak oracles at Delphi. [Pyndaric scholiast, in Fontenrose 1957: 415] Well into Roman times, Plutarch referenced an Orphic tradition assigning the oracle to “Night and the Moon.” [Harrison, 388] Earth and Night “were both mothers of dreams.” [Dempsey, 8] 

Earth's daughter, Themis, was also a Pythia. Aeschylus called the two “Themis and Gaia, one in nature, many named.” [Prometheus Bound, in Harrison, 480] 

These goddesses were Titans, elder deities overthrown by the classical (patriarchal) Greek gods. 

Themis signifies all-wise Justice, Right, Law. (Her name comes from the same root as the English doom, which originally meant “judgment,” then fate, and only later downfall.) 

It was Themis who convened and dissolved the assemblies of the gods, sitting beside Zeus. The Odyssey calls her “the beginning and end of councils,”Odyssey, II.68

Hesiod listed Themis among the greatest deities. [Theogony, 135] Her true might is discernable from her divine children: the Moirae (Fates) and the Horai (Seasons). The eldest of the Horai was Dike, the Way, whose wheel represented the coursing of the sun, moon and stars through the universe. Dike controlled the doors of Day and Night. She also endowed every living being with its own true nature. [Harrison, 482, 515-18, 522-4]

Themis was clearly no mortal woman, but myth depicted her as a powerful priestess in the manner of Isis and Inanna. She was the “good counselor,” the “queen of oracles,” the very personification of prophecy. [Larousse, 136] The prophecies that her seeresses uttered were called themistes, “ordinances.” [Harrison, 482-83, 387] As Soteira (“protector, savior”), Themis punished the guilty. [Aeschylus, in Goodrich, 199] Her power of pronouncing  judgment and mediating left its mark in the unmatched prestige and authority of the Delphic oracle.

The Pythia prophesied in an underground chamber, the adyton, that was placed at the intersection of two fault lines. She began by fasting and bathing in the Castalian spring. She only went forward with a prophecy if the querent’s sacrificial goat shivered after being drenched with cold water. After that, wrote Plutarch, "The Pythia goes down into her inner shrine where she burns laurel and barley flour on the altar." [De Pythiae Oraculis, in Goodrich, 210] A “never-dying fire” burned there, and the Cassotis spring welled up from the ground. The Pythia drank from this sacred water, said to confer prophetic power. [Pausanias, x. 24, 7] Then she took her seat on a tripod “placed directly over the chasm,” holding a laurel sprig in her right hand and a bowl of spring water in her left. 

Within the dark inner sanctuary, the Pythias spoke sonorously, saying sooth in sometimes enigmatic verse. Her inspiration came from a “mantic wind” (pneuma mantikon) emanating from the chasm under the tripod where she sat to prophesy. [Maurizio, 76] Some said that she was inspired by the breath of Python. [Fontenrose 1957: 417] Plutarch wrote that spirits breathed into the Pythia, inspiring her prophecy and causing her to give off a beautiful fragrance. She “sang of what was to be as she was borne round in the face of the moon.” [Harrison, 389]

The Pythia was called mantis and promantis, terms that imply an altered state of some intensity, and also prophetis, “female prophet.” 

The original sense of this word is not prediction, but guidance and inspired counsel. 

It comes from a verb stem meaning “say, speak,” just as our word “fate” comes from the Latin root fari, with a similar meaning. [Maurizio, 70] The earliest historical record of a Pythia comes from the 6th century, when the female poet Theognis refers to “the priestess from Pytho.” [Connelly, 73]

Some said that this long line of oracles originated in north Africa. A Greek tradition held that the Libyan goddess Lamia gave birth to the first Pythia, fathered by Zeus. Lamia was called "the first woman who chanted oracles, and they say that she was named Sibyl by the Libyans.” [Pausanias, X, xii, in Olmsted, 67] This story accords with other Greek accounts of north African settlements and cultural influence, as well as archaeological finds of archaic Greek vessels with human figurines painted in a Libyan style. 

The African influence is most dramatically reflected in the tradition that “Black Doves” founded the oracular shrine of Dodona. 

Another origin story underlines the importance of shamanic incantation in aboriginal Delphic prophecy. 

Herophile the Sibyl "used to stand and chant her oracles" on a rock that rose from the ground at Delphi, in the time before the Trojan war, according to Pausanias. This rock was the Omphalos, “navel of the earth,” where two eagles flying from opposite sides of the world once met.

The "plain-speaking Sibyl" Herophile was said to have visited many other sanctuaries around the Aegean. [Frazer, 516] Her title Sibyla originated in the word sibyllainein, "to be inspired in one's tongue." [Diodorus Siculus, IV. 66. 31] 

In the Roman era, an international tradition spoke of ten or twelve sibyls by nationality or locale, including not only the Libyan and Delphic, but the Erythraean, Cumaean, Tiburtine, Persian, and others. [see chapter x]

Lisa Maurizio highlights some interesting comments in Plato’s Dialogues that compare poets with seers and “oracle-chanters.” 

Socrates saw a resemblance  between these groups because, he said, what they do comes from nature and divine communication. 

But because he placed higher value on rational knowledge than inspiration, he devalued the seers: “For these say many noble things, but they do not understand what they say.” Plato too refers to a poet sitting “on the Muses’ tripod,” like the Pythia, but “he is not in his senses, he is like a spring which readily allows its water to flow.” 

But Maurizio counters that the Pythia was anything but senseless, since the ancients described her oracular speech as “coherent, articulate, fluent and knowledgeable almost beyond comprehension.” [Maurizio, 77-79]

THE APOLLONIAN TAKEOVER

Greek legend records that Apollo took over Delphi and other archaic oracles, supplanting Ge and killing her water serpent. This being is first described as a female drákaina in the Homeric Eis Apollona. This Hymn to Apollo demonizes the she-dragon. The poet primed his audience to see her as evil, the cause of doom to anyone who encountered her, and carefully separated her from the waters of the shrine whose guardian she was:

But near by was a sweet flowing spring, and there with his strong bow the lord, the son of Zeus, killed the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked sheep; for she was a very bloody plague.

[300-10]

This account shows the male newcomer as totally triumphant over the chthonic female power: “And he exulted over the female dragon, and commanded that she would rot there.” [11. 340-60] (Here the poet is creating a folk etymology for Pytho, one of the names for the Delphic dragon, from pythein, “to rot.”) The story is reminiscent of Marduk’s killing of the dragon Tiamat—another overthrow of feminine power by a triumphant young god. 

The Hymn to Apollo contains another, related story celebrating the god’s conquest of a goddess sanctuary. Before Apollo takes over Delphi, he first comes to Telphousa and decides to build an oracular temple to himself there. The nymph of the sacred spring resists, attempting to dissuade the interloper with flattering words. She convinces him that it would be better to create a temple  below Mount Parnassus, where the steep terrain would prevent horses and mules from trampling the ground. Apollo agrees, and moves on to Delphi where he slays the female dragon and creates a shrine to himself. 

But afterwards Apollo returned to Telphousa. Reproaching the nymph of the spring for trying to deceive him, he declared that her place shall be his. Then he “pushed over upon her a crag with a shower of rocks, hiding her streams,” and raised his own altar above her. This is why men pray to him as Apollo Telphousian, “because he humbled the stream of holy Telphousa.” [11.382-7, http://omacl.org/Hesiod/hymns.html] The theme of dominion is sharp, explicit—and gendered. The oracle of Thelphousa no longer invokes the Earth or nymphs of the waters, but is subsumed into the upstart Apollonian franchise of prophetic shrines.

So various accounts show Apollo displacing Gaea, Themis, and the Serpent as deity of the ancient chthonic sanctuary at Delphi. However, the dragon’s overthrow was more gradual than the legend suggests, because the Earth Goddess remained potent. Both Euripides and Apollodorus relate that Apollo unseated Earth’s child Themis and drove her from the sanctuary. But Earth struck back in defense of her daughter. She confounded the Apollonian cult by sending up dreams “which revealed unto the cities of mortals the past and the future.” [Dempsey, 21] 

Later writers masculinized the dragon under the name Python. 

They often describe him as a “child of Earth.” [Olmsted, 253-4; Fontenrose 1957: 13, 47] They said that Apollo killed Python, "a dragon set by Earth to guard the oracle," who had tried to prevent the usurper from entering the underground sanctuary. 

[Pausanias, X, vi, Frazer, 507] 

But the remembrance of a female dragon persisted. The Argonautica calls her “the monster Delphyne.” [Apollonius of Rhodes, 2.703] Some scholiasts also name the earth-dragon Delphyne, as a female, or Delphynes, as a male. 

There is even a Delphic inscription referring to Apollo’s opponent as “daughter of Ge.” [Fontenrose, Python, 14-15] 

Some revisionists attempted to deny the centuries-long tradition of Apollo’s violent seizure of the sanctuary. The playwright Aeschylus put these words in the mouth of a Pythia: “The third to have the seat assigned to her – with her predecessor’s consent, and not by the use of force against anyone – was another Titaness and child of Earth, Phoebe; and she gave it as a birthday gift to Phoebus, who bears Phoebe’s name as an addition to his own.” [The Eumenides, 3-4] And Apollo did not begin as a prophetic god. He learned the oracular art from Pan, according to Apollodoros, who also repeated the story of his slaying of Python and usurpation of Delphi. [Bibliothêkê I, 4.1, in Olmsted, 253] In other accounts it was the bee-goddesses of Parnassus who instructed him.

Hyginus related that Python's bones were kept in a cauldron at Delphi. [Olmsted, 254] Others said that he was buried beneath the Omphalos stone, navel of the Earth, where the Pythia rested her hand. [Goodrich, 200] The original stone, a meteorite, is lost. It was shaped like a beehive and covered by a woven net, with two sculptured eagles standing on it. In the 4th century it was replaced by a new stone, with the net replicated in carved relief. In the cliffs above Delphi was the Stone of Rhea, also called Pythos. This was the stone that Rhea gave Chronos when he kept swallowing her children. When he was forced to disgorge all that he had devoured, the stone fell to Mount Parnassus above Delphi. [Dempsey, x). 

To honor Python and placate Gaea, the Pythian games were instituted. These were originally musical poetic competitions; later athletics were added. Python’s killing was ceremonially re-enacted every eight years. A hut was set up to represent the dragon's house, and a boy led a ritual attack on it with torches. This representative of Apollo then had to serve as a menial for a year, just as the god was made to do as penance for killing the dragon. [Frazer, III, 53-4; Fontenrose 1957: 456]. 

The new Apollonian hegemony did not change everything, and his usurpation was never complete. [Molnar, et al.] But it looks as if the condition for the survival of female prophecy at major shrines such as Delphi, Didyma, and Dodona was that it be done in the name of an Olympian god, and no longer the original goddess. 

Certainly the explicitly patriarchal myth of Apollo’s seizure of Delphi (and Telphousa) helps to explain the introduction of a new priesthood as administrators of the shrine, and how men came to bar women from consulting this oracle.

According to Pausanias, the first prophetess after the Apollonian takeover was Phemenoë. She began the tradition of singing the oracle in hexameters (that chanting again). In those days the temple was a simple hut built out of laurel  boughs. Legend says a second temple was "made by bees out of wax and feathers," or of twined mountain ferns, and that a third, bronze temple vanished into a chasm in the earth during an earthquake. [Pausanias, X, v; Frazer, 505-6] These mythic phases speak to shifts over the long span of the oracle’s existence.

There once had been a prophetic season at a certain time of year, but as demand for the oracle grew, this was extended to nine months, with a winter hiatus. The Pythia responded to queries on the 7th day of each month. Questioners had to go through a series of ritual acts: fasting, seclusion, immersion in the holy spring, robing, procession, offering ritual cakes and a sacrificial animal, ascension to the oracle and hearing her word. [Goodrich, 202] 

A laurel tree stood in the Delphic sanctuary, and appears in vase paintings along with the omphalos stone and tripod. One of the names for laurel in Greek is Daphne, a name with strong oracular connections. 

Some said that the nymph Daphnis was the first prophetess at Delphi. [Pausanias, 10.5.5] Others equated Daphne with Pasiphae, who had an oracle at Thalamai. [Lyons, #276] The title Daphne was also applied to the prophetess Manto of Thebes, or by other accounts was the name of her sister. 

Legend said that Manto was taken captive in the fall of Thebes, before the Trojan war. Fighters took her as war booty to Apollo at Delphi. The god compelled Manto to go to Asia Minor, where she founded the oracular shrine of Claros. The tears she cried there created a spring that was part of the sanctuary. [Fraser, IV, 119, citing a scholiast] Manto married the Carian king Rhacius and her son Mopsos also became a prophet. [Diodorus Siculus, 4.66.5] 

Some said that  both Daphne and Manto were taken in the Theban war, and that Daphne was sent to Delphi and became a virgin sibyl, while Apollo was the real father of Mopsos. Others said that Manto had originally been the title of Theban oracular priestesses (mantis means prophetess) and that the name became identified with a particular woman who prophesied in the streets of Thebes, calling on women to pray in the temple of Leto. [Ovid, in Metamorphoses, VI]. 

Most written accounts focus on Manto's male kin. They said that her father, Teresias, changed into a woman after seeing serpents copulate. Years later, the same sight turned him back to a man again. Blinded, he became a famous prophet. So did Manto’s son Mopsus. But it was Manto that Diodorus Siculus praised (under the name of Daphne) as more skilled in prophecy than her father. He reported a saying that Homer had taken many of Manto’s verses as his own. [Diodorus Siculus, IV. 66. 30-1] 

The theme of conquest is revisited in a legend explaining how laurel  became sacred to Apollo. The god pursued the nymph Daphne with the ntention of raping her. She appealed to her mother Ge to save her, and was turned into a laurel tree just as the attacker caught up with her. Another story of attempted rape is used to explain the name of the Castalian spring. The nymph Castalia fled from Apollo and plunged into the spring beneath the cliffs of Parnassos to escape him. Other stories show this god punishing seeresses who refused to yield to him sexually. 

He laid a curse on Cassandra so that her true prophecies would never be believed. His curse on the Sibyl of Cumae decreed that the deathlessness already granted her would be unalleviated by the youthfulness and health of true immortality. Another survival of the Apollonian coup was the divining pebbles called thriae or psephoi. They rested in a bowl above the Pythia’s tripod, and were “taken up” for divination. [Dempsey, 51] 

The thriyae were pictured as three winged sisters living on nearby Mt Parnassus. They are teachers of divination who “eat honeycomb, and bring everything to pass.” Their seniority to Apollo is indicated by traditions that they taught him, or later, that they nursed him. Several sources call them the first mantis (“diviners”). One hymn called them the parthenoi, virgins. Apollo also calls them moirae (fates) or semnai (a title of Erinyes). [Fontenrose 1957: 427-29] 

A legend credited Athena with originating these divining pebbles. The veneration of Athena Pronaia was very important at Delphi, and older than the Apollo’s cult there. [Fontenrose 1957: 432 n. 37] Apollo disdained her form of divination, and so Zeus caused it "to fall into discredit, though it had been in high repute before..." (Here a historical shift is wrapped in the robes of myth.) Nonetheless, divining pebbles remained in the inner sanctum of Delphi, where "the pebbles danced about in the bowl, while the inspired priestess prophesied." [Frazer note on Apollodorus, II, 10-11] Lisa Maurizio found that the phrase “take up” (as in “take up the lots”) occurs in slightly less than one in ten of the surviving recorded oracles, but over a lengthy timespan. This indicates a longstanding practice of divination by lots, probably those same pebbles of Athena that had been used since archaic times. Maurizio also points to vase paintings from Delphi showing the Pythia holding a phiale, which she thinks may have been for casting the pebbles in divinations. [Maurizio, 80, n. 70]  Jane Harrison thought that the most ancient Delphic prophecy “was a dream-oracle, that came to you while sleeping on holy ground”—like the Selloi at Dodona. Joseph Fontenrose agreed; he proposed that the nearby shrine of Lykoreia—the Corycian Cave—had been the original Delphic shrine. 

Its oracular cave was an incubation chamber connected to dreams of the dead. [Fontenrose 1957: 413] Euripides gives evidence of “keen competition” between Lykoreia’s chthonic dream oracles and Delphi. [Frazer, 430-1] His mythic history of Delphi describes Ge as taking honor away from Apollo’s oracles by sending dream visions to reveal the future. The backstory is once again Ge’s rage at the theft of her shrine and her daughter’s expulsion from it: “So did avenge that old Earth Queen/ Her child’s wrong on Apollo.” [Iphigenia in Taurus, in Harrison, 394] Apollo went complaining to Zeus, who ended the dream oracle so that the sun god was again pre-eminent. [Fontenrose 1957: 431] Apollo’s takeover of the Delphic oracle marked a succession of expropriations and intrusions of worldly powers on the sanctuary.

Male priests came in and took control of the Delphic shrine. But Lisa Maurizio raises a flag of caution against the modern idea that the priests had in any way guided the prophecies, and the commonplace depreciation of he Pythia’s speech as “gabble” or “irrational babble.” She points out that there is no ancient evidence that priests interpreted her prophecies, or reworked them into hexameter verse, as Burkert and others have claimed. She observes that “male fantasies about women” fueled speculations by both ancient and modern men. 

Modern writers often dismiss her oracular power, which ends up “relegated to the margins.” [Maurizio, 69; Burkert on hexameters, 116] Maurizio’s study of Greek sources, including surviving inscriptions at the sanctuary, led her to conclude, “Not one ancient source suggests that anyone else other than the Pythia issued oracular responses.” As for the priests and the five hosioi (Delphic officials-for-life), all information about them is late, and it is unclear what exactly they did. The term prophetes (masculine form) never occurs in Delphic inscriptions, only in other writings. 

Maurizio emphasizes that it was the Pythia alone who “was the conduit of divine knowledge.” [Maurizio, 69; 84] But those priests did exercise administrative power at the temple. At some point after the Apollonian seizure, they forbade women to enter the temple or consult the oracle, though all males of Delphi inherited “right of access.” [Pomeroy, 33; Goodrich, 199] Strabo was told that Apollo conquered the Pythia  because he wanted the oracle for men only. But the reason given was less than flattering: men needed to be taught gentility and self-control. [Goodrich, 204] As far as we know, the Pythias were the only women who had access to the sanctuary in historic times.

PRESTIGE OF THE DELPHIC ORACLE

The prestige of Delphi was so great that Greeks considered it their “common hearth.” Other temples apparently sent representatives there to rekindle and reconsecrate their own fires. Plutarch tells how the city of Plataea sent a “fire-bringing priestess” with an escort to fetch back a sacred tripod from Delphi. [Dempsey, 112-13] The Amphictyonic federation of Hellenic tribes gave this sanctuary special protected status that made it independent of the city-states. 

Nevertheless two “Sacred Wars” were fought for control of the shrine, the first in 590 BCE, with Sparta defending Delphi, and the second in 357-346. People journeyed from distant countries, Libya and Italy and Asia Minor, to consult the Delphic oracle on important matters: “the framing of laws, the founding of colonies, the making and unmaking of kings, the beginning of wars, the healing of disease and pestilence.”

The Pythia had no coercive power, only the moral authority of the ancient oracle. [Dempsey, 38] Plato exalted Delphi’s preeminence (or Apollo’s, to his way of thinking) in making the best and noblest laws, the building of temples and disposition of ceremonies, and how the dead were to be buried. [Republic, 427, in Dempsey, 63] 

The Delphic oracles had foretold the Trojan war, according to Strabo, Pausanias, and other sources. 

But the Pythias went well beyond prophecy; they directed, judged, mediated, warned, prohibited wrongdoing, discoursed on tradition and history, and interpreted mysteries. Their pronouncements decided momentous events: who would rule and where cities would be founded. They gave laws, settled disputes, and chided tyrannical kings like Clisthenes of Sicyon. That two Lacedaemonian royal houses existed was entirely due to “the pleasure of the Pythian priestess.” [Pausanias, III, I; Frazer 133] 

When Lycurgus of Sparta consulted the Delphic oracle in the early 8th century, she gave his city a constitution and popular assemblies that allowed the people a say in all matters. She advised that all land and wealth were to be equally redistributed, including the poor in the bounty. [Goodrich, 237-50] The Pythia told Lycurgus that his city faced two paths, one of concord and freedom, the other of “loathsome strife and weak delusion.” She warned against greed, which would alone cause Sparta to fall. “And in the body of the folk let there/ Reside decision and the power.” [Diodorus Siculus, VII, 12, 2 and 6] 

History shows that the peon class of helots did not share in this power. The oracles were not immune to the power structures of Greek society, and yet we find one of them “persuading the Spartans to grant pardon to the rebel Helots, who had take up a position on Mt. Ithome.” [Dempsey, 111, citing Pausanias iii, n. 8] 

The Pythias did exert some mitigating effects on slavery, but without advocating any radical change in the system. The sanctuary enabled some enslaved people to buy their freedom, acting as a go-between and shield. They deposited a sum with the temple, which paid off the slaveholders before witnesses and protected the rights and liberty of the newly emancipated. But there were complications, as one inscription shows: a woman named Dioclea was to be manumitted, but only after a further term of bondage. The text says that if she bore a child during this time (rape being a known condition of female slavery) she had permission to “throttle” it. This one concession appears to be the limit of the oracle’s response to coerced sex by the master. 

In other cases, the Pythia sent captives to found colonies or enrolled them as temple slaves, under conditions said to be less onerous than household slavery. [Dempsey, 108-110; on Dioclea, 143 n. 2] There is no historical record of it, but several legends mention Delphic oracles recommending human sacrifices, usually as a means of ending plagues or droughts caused by blood-guilt (!) or by violation of ritual taboos. 

An Achaean priestess and her lover were said to have been sacrificed for breaking her celibacy requirement. Another story has the oracle telling a king of Haliartus to kill the first person he met on his return home. This legend resembles the biblical account of Jephthah’s vow to sacrifice the first person he met on his return, in exchange for victory in battle; it turned out to be his daughter. 

The best-known example of human sacrifice attributed to a Pythia was the legendary tribute of seven youths and seven maidens sent to Crete as reparations for the murder of Minos’ son. [Dempsey, 129] One of the most famous consultations of the oracle was by Croesus, the fantastically rich king of Lydia. He tested six of the most prestigious oracles by sending envoys to ask each of them what he would be doing on a prearranged day. Only the Pythia met this test; she responded that Croesus was boiling a lamb with a tortoise in a brass vessel. The Lydian king then sent lavish gifts with his real burning question: whether he should make war on Cyrus, king of Persia. He was delighted with the oracle’s reply: “Croesus by crossing the Halys would destroy a mighty kingdom.” True, but it turned out to be his own. 

Pillars at the entrance to the Delphic sanctuary bore the famous inscriptions: “Know thyself” and “Nothing in excess.” [Pausanias, 10, 24; Frazer 535] Plato mentions these, with a third: “Go surely, and ruin is at hand.” [Dempsey, 141] His own teacher, Socrates, was profoundly influenced by the Delphic maxims, one of which was later attributed to him. So was Pythagoras, whose biographer Diogenes Laertius recorded the Pythia’s prophecy that his pregnant mother would bear a holy child. The woman named her son after the Pythia. (Pythagoras means “spoken by the Pythia.”) 

As a youth, Pythagoras studied with the Delphic priestess Themistoclea. He learned most of his moral doctrines from her, according to Aristoxenis. Thus the man who coined the word “philosophy” and founded Western mathematics sat at the feet of a female philosopher at Delphi. [“Themistoclea – 600 BCE – woman philosopher,” http://www.women-philosophers.com/Themistoclea.html] 

Care was taken to maintain a peaceful atmosphere for the priestesses, protecting them from discord and harmful influences so that they could act as divine channels. Their souls should be “free from perturbation” when sitting on the tripod, and after the oracle was delivered, they would abide in “calm and peace.” At the apex of Delphic influence, it became necessary to appoint two Pythias and an assistant to cope with the crowds of querents [Dempsey, 56, 53)

No one seems to know how the Pythias were selected. They had to be freeborn women of Delphi, without consideration of class or rank (until near the end of their thousand-year tenure). They had to lead virtuous lives and to keep ritual purity. There was once a virginity requirement, as with some other Greek priestesses, but it was waived after a man abducted a youthful Pythia. Then women over fifty were chosen, at least for some centuries. The Pythia was a woman “raised in a poor peasant household” in the first century, the time of Plutarch. To his mind, that meant that she brought “not one iota of art, knowledge or talent” to the shrine, only a “virgin soul.” [Zaidman, 375] What mattered was that she must have a noble character: “She cares nothing for the plaudits or censure that men may care to judge her by.” [

De Pythiae Oraculis, in Goodrich, 210] The Delphic priest Plutarch upheld the unfailing truthfulness of the oracle: “Never, to the present day, did the language of the Pythia suffer any impeach-ment of its veracity.” [De Pyth. Orac. xxix, in Dempsey, 63] However, a few cases are known of Pythias being suborned through bribery. One ruled in favor of the Spartan conqueror Kleomenes. [Pausanias, III, iv; Frazer, 137-8] 

The oracles did show partiality towards Sparta in the bitterly-fought Peloponnesian wars, but then Sparta was their most loyal defender against attack. After Athens fell, the oracle counseled mercy to the defeated—and the Spartans complied. One case with ambiguous results was the counsel to flee during the Persian invasion. A second query elicited a different prediction, that the city of Athena Tritogenia could only protect itself with a “wooden wall,” after withdrawing before the armies and waiting until “divine Salamis” killed many. The meaning of this prophecy was hotly disputed. The priestess of Athena made the decisive move of announcing that the snake had refused its honey cake, and refugees poured out of the city, “the more readily because the goddess herself had forsaken the Acropolis. [Herodotus, 8.41, in Harrison, 267] 

Athens moved to defend itself with the wooden walls of its navy, and was victorious over the Persians at Salamis. [Dempsey, 84, 165, 89] Ruling families seized control of the Delphic temple, and fought “Sacred Wars” over it. Their rich gifts to the sanctuary, housed in treasuries dedicated to cities and regions, made it an attractive target. The Aetolians took Delphi in 290, and Celtic armies sacked the temple not long afterwards. 

Eventually the aristocracy barred priestesses who came from the common people. In Plutarch's time the Pythia of Delphi was a peasant woman, but by the year 200 she had to  be a noble lady. [Lane, 238] 

As the Delphic oracle was being corrupted in this way, the Roman writer Lucan lamented 

The Pythia has lost her voice, however, which has occasioned a sad loss for men of my generation. Our kings dared no longer appeal to her, so fearfully do we all dread the future now. The powerful of our day have shut her mouth. [Pharsalia, in Goodrich, 213] 

One Pythia is reported to have said, “Stranger, if pure of soul, enter into the sanctuary of the god of purity, having but touched the sacred stream. For lustration is an easy matter for the good. As for the wicked man, not the whole ocean with its waves could wash him clean.” [Dempsey, 162] 

MORE ORACULAR WOMEN: AEGIRA, DODONA, LARISA, DIDYMA

Delphi was the most renowned of many oracular spring-sanctuaries. The Erythraean sibyl prophesied at a spring in a cave. The celibate female oracle at Larisa tasted the blood of a night-sacrificed lamb in order to prophesy. [Pausanias, II, xxiv, 107] At Aegira, it was bull’s blood that the seeress drank to attain trance, then descended to a subterranean cave to prophesy. These celibate priestesses seem to have been chosen by lot. Aegira was one of the surviving oracular sanctuaries of Earth. [Pliny, Natural History xxviii, 147, in Frazer IV, 175; Pausanias VII, xxv; Olmsted, 257, compares this drinking of bulls’ blood to the Irish tarbdeis] 

Another chthonic shrine was the Oracle of the Dead at Ephyra. It stood on a hill near the junction of two rivers. Excavations show that the Necromanteion goes back to the Bronze Age. Its thick stone walls had blocks cut into many sides, with a processional hall leading into “a labyrinth with many doors” and finally into a great chamber. Underneath was a vault with multiple burials. Archaeological excavations indicate that the site was sacred to Persephone, mistress of the dead. [Burkert, 114-15] 

An oracle of Pasiphae and the moon goddess Selene was active near Thalamai in Laconia. The legendary Cretan queen Pasiphae was called a daughter of the sun. Legend says that she had sex with a bull and so gave birth to the Minotaur. Like her sister Circe, Pasiphae was said to be a witch. One story claims that she cast a spell on her philandering husband Minos, the king of Knossos, that made his semen poisonous to his lovers. No stories have survived explaining how she became the fount of prophecy at Thalamai. Instead, there were attempts to conflate her with other prophetic women. 

Pausanias reported a tradition that the Trojan prophetess Cassandra had died at Thalamai, “and was called Pasiphae because she declared her oracles to all.” Others said that she was Daphne who fled Apollo’s embrace and was turned into a tree. “Be this as it may, it was now said that the oracles brought from this goddess ordained that all Spartans should be on an equality according to the original law made by Lycurgus.” Following this communitarian counsel, king Agis, his mother, grandmother and friends donated large tracts of land and money toward “the common stock.” [Life of Agis, 9.2-3, Loeb Classics ed., 1921,

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Agis*.html] 

A statue of Pasiphae still stood at Thalamai in Roman times. In the first century

BCE Cicero reported that the Lacedaemonians kept the custom “of sleeping, for the object of having dreams, in the temple of Pasiphae.” Pausanias concurred, though he garbled the name into Paphia: “People consult it by sleeping; and of what they desire to know, the goddess sends them dreams.” [John Dryden and Arthur Hugh Clough edition of Plutarch’s Lives, 566, citing Cicero, De Divinatione I.43, and Pausanias, Desc. Gr] People seeking answers could receive direct spiritual experiences without intermediaries at the Boeotian oracle of Trophonios at Lebadea.

[Pausanias, 9.37-39] Querents purified themselves for several days in an outer sanctuary. They  bathed in the river Hercyna, lived simply, and offered sacrifices to various deities. A soothsayer read the viscera of the sacrificial animals to determine whether the querent would be accepted into the oracular cave. If the signs were good, two boys led him to the river for a final immersion and anointing. (No sources say whether women could consult this oracle.) He drank from the well of Lethe to clear his mind and from the well of Memory (Mnemosyne) for power to remember the visions to come. The seeker was dressed in special linen robes and shoes and taken to the high cave sanctuary. He went down a ladder, and placed his feet into an opening. Ancient reports say that an invisible force pulled him into the cave, a terrifying experience that precipitated visions. 

Then the priests pulled the person up through the tunnel and placed him on the throne of Mnemosyne, Titan goddess of Remembrance. They asked what he had seen, and led him back to the outer sanctuary, where he wrote down his vision on a tablet of the temple. “Descent into the cave of Trophonios” became a proverbial expression for a frightful experience. This oracle was highly regarded and outlived many others. 

The Trophonios oracle owed its origin to a Pythia’s instructions in response to a plague that was ravaging Lebadea. She told them to search for the grave of a hero. A swarm of bees led a shepherd boy to the cave that became the oracular shrine. Several other temples were founded on the pattern of Delphi, with female seers, such as the shrine of Apollo Pythios at Argos. The priestess of Apollo was locked in the temple at Patara overnight when seeking a response. Sometimes foreign seeresses were compared to the Pythia, like the Thracian promantis who prophesied “as at Delphi.” [Connelly, 80; Holderman, 23) 

THE BLACK DOVES OF DODONA

Classical writers often name Dodona as the oldest oracular shrine in Greece. Located in the northwestern mountains near Albania, it was originally an open-air sanctuary around an ancient oak, with a perpetual fire burning. It stood in a high grove of oaks and beeches surrounded by wilderness. Dodona was named after the nymph Dodone and consecrated to Dione, literally “Goddess,” whose name comes from an ancient proto-Indo-European root word meaning “shining.” From this root come words for “day” and “deity,” and the Greek names Dione and Zeus, two gendered words meaning “deity.” Modern texts often say that Dione was “the female form of Zeus,” but never call him “the male form of Dione.” This implication of his precedence is wrong. The two names sprang from the same linguistic source, and in fact Dione’s Mycenaean equivalent Diwiya appears in ancient Linear B inscriptions. Both Dodone and Dione were described as Oceanid goddesses. Hesiod calls Dione a child of the Titans Tethys and Okeanos, fresh-water deities. (The name Tethys meant “grandmother” or “nurse”; she kept company with the birth goddess Eileithyia.) 

Dione is among the first deities named in Hesiod’s Theogony. [Theogony, 353] She leads “the chiefest of all the goddesses” in Homeric Hymn 3, preceding Rhea and Themis and others who attend Leto as she gives birth to Apollo on Delos. Later sources call Dione a child of Ge. In the Iliad she is the mother of Aphrodite and married to Zeus. She is “the shining among divinities,” an praise-name going back to the original meaning of Dione. [Iliad, V, 370ff] The veneration of Dione gradually faded in the rest of Greece, but she remained an important goddess at the ancient Pelasgian shrine of Dodona. Her image appears to have been a plain wooden idol, to which “a magnificent face or mask” was added around 320 BCE. [Hyperides, in Kroll, 75] 

Zeus Naos was the partner of Dione at the temple. Magnetized by his association with the Earth Mother, he is unlike other forms of Zeus. Some called him Pelasgian Zeus. Dione was paired with Zeus at one other sanctuary, Termessus. [Holderman, 48] Dodona was a place famous for fertilizing power, as Hesiod, Strabo, and many others testify. Archaeology agrees, showing a long record of ex voto inscriptions imploring the goddess for reproductive potency. [Hadzsits, 47] The earthy nature of the shrine is attested in the Iliad’s description of its seers (though it names Zeus, but not Dione). 

The Dodonaean seers are here called the Selloi, who "dwell with feet like roots, unwashed, and make their beds on the ground." [Iliad, 16:127] Most commentators assume that the Selloi were all men,  but here we come up against the linguistic veil cast by the default masculine plural, which makes no distinction between all-male or mixed-gender groups. In any case, no other source names the Selloi. 

Hesiod called the Dodona oracles “acorn-eaters” who lived simply and close to the earth, living in the trunk of a beech tree. Revelation came to them in the rustling of the trees and the movements and calls of the pigeons. Plato related a tradition that these “words of the oak… were the first prophetic utterances.” [in Phaedrus] But there is another piece. The Hesiodic Catalogues also speak of three doves who lived in the oak tree. [Burkert, 114] This leads us to the explicitly female prophetic tradition of the Black Doves. The prophetesses at Dodona prophesied in a shamanic ecstasy, and “afterwards they do not know anything about what they have said.” [Burkert, 114] 

Herodotus called them the Black Doves (Peleia Mêlaina). [Herodotus, II.55] He related an Egyptian story that Phoenicians had carried off two priestesses of “Theban Zeus” and sold them, one in Libya, the other in Greece. These women founded two famous oracular temples: of Amun at a Libyan oasis, and of Zeus at Dodona. But the Dodona priestesses Promeneia, Timarete and Nicandra gave Herodotus a different description of their origins:

two black doves, they say, flew away from Thebes in Egypt, and one of them alighted at Dodona, the other in Libya. The former perched on an oak, and speaking with a human voice, told them that there, on that very spot, there should be an oracle of Zeus... As to the bird being black, they merely signify by this that the woman was an Egyptian. It is certainly true that the oracles at Thebes and Dodona are similar in character. [Herodotus, II, 55-6] 

Herodotus wrote that this first Egyptian priestess was Thesprotia, and that “as soon as she understood the Greek language, she taught divination.”

The historian relates another intriguing fragment of teachings that the Dodona priestesses conveyed to him. He has just finished saying that the Greeks got their gods from Egypt, by way of the Pelasgians, and after consulting with the oracle of Dodona. “But it was only—if I may so put it—the day before yesterday that the Greeks came to know the origin and form of the gods, and whether or not all of them had always existed…” The primary sources for the Olympian pantheon go back to the Homeric epics, and Hesiod and Pindar, only a century before Herodotus. [Herodotus, II. 50-53] 

With the Dodona priestesses, we catch a glimmer of a more ancient mythic tradition, one quite conscious of its own seniority to the Olympian upstarts. Further centuries down the track, Pausanias and Strabo also refer to the extreme antiquity of these Peleae or Peleiades. Strabo wrote that they predated the the Delphic oracle Phemenoe. [Hadzsits, 48] In Pausanias, they were the first women to chant the ritual verses: “Ge sends up the harvest, therefore sing the praise of Ge as Mother.” [

Desc. Gr. 10.12.10] (Here is another reference to Earth as the tutelary deity of the oracles.) Pausanias wrote of "the oracles given by the doves" at Dodona, describing these priestesses as aged women. He recounted how the oracle Phaennis had foretold the Celtic invasion of Asia Minor "a generation before the event took place." [Pausanias, VII, xxi, 21 Frazer, 149l; X, xv; Frazer, 521]

Strabo related that the Peliades drew auguries from observing three sacred doves. He observed that the Molossians and Thesprotians called old women peliai, so the title meant "elders" as well as “doves.” Strabo added, “And perhaps the much-talked-of Peleiades were not birds, but three old women who  busied themselves about the temple.” [Geography, 7] He pointed to another oracle where “three old women were designated as prophets,” originally located at Mt. Tomarus in Thessaly. According to Strabo, this temple and its priestesses were later moved to Greece. [Strabo VII, 323; 7.7.12] 

The sanctity of the Dodona oaks retained a high repute. Athena carved one of its oaken boughs into the prow of the Argo, endowing Jason’s ship with prophetic power. Dodona’s original fame as a wind oracle was based on the sound of trees rustling in the breeze, which were likened to eloquent tongues. Later, copper cauldrons were suspended from the trees. They resounded as the wind moved them, striking them together like gongs. [Smith 1867: 840] The “copper vessel in Dodona” became proverbial. [Strabo, VII, 325] Also added later were two pillars, one with a bronze cauldron, and the other with a statue of a  boy holding a scourge. As the wind blew, little bones at the end of the scourge struck the cauldron, emitting long tones. 

Unlike Delphi, women could and did consult the oracle of Dodona and others as well. Like Delphi, Apollo had claimed the female oracles of Patara in Lycia, and Didyma, where Artemis Pythia was worshipped, and of Claros, all in western Anatolia. [Fontenrose, 187, on Artemis Pythia] At Patara, “the priestess who delivers the oracles… is shut up in the temple during the night.” [Herodotus, I, 181 (114)] The implication is that her prophecies were received by dream-incubation. 

The Claros oracle arose from a sacred spring and cave near Colophon. It was already a sacred site in the 9th century. A circular stone altar appeared there around 650 BCE, and a larger rectangular one was added a century later when a temple of Apollo was constructed. The spring underneath was said to have been created by the tears of Manto, the prophetesses that Apollo sent into exile to found the oracle. [Burkert, 115] Later accounts displace her, naming her son Mopsos as the founder of Claros. 

Like Delphi, the Claros sanctuary had an omphalos stone, but its oracle was a man. He entered a divine state (entheos) by drinking water from the spring, and during the ecstasy “he is not in control of himself and does not follow what he is saying, or where he is...” [Iamblichus, in Olmsted, 257] The female oracles at Didyma in Asia Minor also show signs of entering into shamanic states, as they were sometimes called “the Grunters.” [Holland-Smith, 31] The seeress prepared for prophesy through “a rule of complete purity,” retreating for three days to fast and sacrifice. She then descended to the innermost, unroofed chamber of the sacred spring. She drank from its waters; some say she placed her feet in them, others that she wetted the hem of her robe. Then the oracle sat on a cylindrical stone axon, breathing water vapor from the sacred pool while a choir sang. She held a sacred laurel wand that filled her with divine light, in the words of Iamblichus. Questioners stood at the threshold of the holy of holies to hear the oracle's response. [Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Lucian, in Fontenrose, 197-8. He thinks the stone axis at Didyma may have been a tripod, citing Constantine’s reference to the oracles of the tripods.] According to Herodotus, Didyma’s temple predated Greek colonization of Asia Minor. Later, statues of both men and women of the priestly Branchidae family lined the Sacred Way, a long processional road leading from Miletos to the temple. It’s often assumed, from legendary geneologies, that the oracle was founded by a man named Branchos and was originally masculine. But this tradition is late and attempts to Hellenize the Anatolian origins of the shrine. [Parke, 123] In any case, Persian invaders destroyed the Didyma temple in 493, interrupting its traditions for a century and a half. The consensus seems to be that priestesses had taken over this oracle by Hellenistic times, on the Delphic model. [Connelly, 80] Roman-era accounts describe female prophets at Didyma, and several inscriptions refer to female prophetis. [Maurizio, 85 n. 97]

Only one name—Tryphosa—has survived of the Didyma priestesses, though city and temple decrees listed the names of the male priests. [Lane, 223] In the same way, only a few names of the Pythias have come down to us: Phemenoë, Xenocleia, Themistoclea, Aristonicé, Clea, and Herophile. The stories of the priestesses themselves are veiled from history.

CASSANDRA, PROPHETESS OF TROY

In epics and plays, the seeress confronted obstacles and moral dilemmas. The prophecies of the Trojan princess Cassandra went unheeded, and she was seen as a madwoman. Her father imprisoned her on the citadel walls to silence her, and later promised her to a man whose armies Troy needed for its defense. When the city fell, Cassandra was forced to become the concubine of Agamemnon, the “destroyer of her family and city.” [Pomeroy, 110] 

Legend said that Apollo had conferred second-sight on Cassandra because of her beauty, but became angry when she refused to his sexual advances. He spat into her mouth, and ordained that others would never believe in the truth of her prophecies. A different legend said that Cassandra and her twin brother played in a temple of Apollo while their family celebrated their birthday. The parents had too much wine and forgot them there overnight. In the morning, Hecuba returned to the temple and found the sacred serpents licking their eyes and ears, “purging with their tongues the sense organs of the children.” They conferred the power of prophecy on Cassandra and Helenus, though little more is told of the brother. [Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.9.11, scholia n. 2; Frazer note on Apollodorus, Vol II, 48] 

Cassandra, the daughter of king Priam and queen Hecuba of Troy, is described in the Iliad as a priestess of Athena. Her first prophecy declared that her newborn brother Paris would cause the destruction of Troy. Later, she insisted that Paris should not be allowed to sail off to claim Helen. Her warnings of the coming disaster of the Greek invasion were ignored. Well into the war, no one heeded her warnings and lamentations as they dragged the Trojan horse into the citadel. She predicted her own enslavement to Agamemnon, his death and her own, and the fall of his house of Atreus. The Homeric epics and the Athenian dramatists all show her prophecies coming true. Greek artists loved to paint Cassandra taking refuge in Athena’s temple, clinging to her statue, at the moment when Ajax took her captive. They dwelt on the imminent rape by depicting the prophetess, not in the robes of a Trojan princess and priestess, but naked or nearly so, even with her legs spread. The Greek warriors assumed that Ajax had raped Cassandra in the temple, which he denied. Then king Agamemnon claimed Cassandra as his slave-concubine and took her home to Mycenae. As Aeschylus told it, Cassandra did not respond to queen Clytemnestra’s welcome, but remained silent and refused to get out of the wagon. After the royal couple entered the palace, the seeress began lamenting to Apollo: Aieee! Suddenly she cried out that the fire was upon her, and began to prophesy. She saw with her inner eye Clytemnestra killing Agamemnon in his bath—“such  boldness! a woman to slay a man!”—and that she herself would be slain with a double axe. [Agamemnon, 1231] She saw into the past, all the crimes that had been committed within the house of Atreus, and predicted its coming downfall. Lisa Maurizio offers interesting observations about Cassandra’s style of prophecy, as described in epics and plays. The seeress enters the ecstatic state with moans and incoherent speech and then moves into poetic prophecy. She uses animal metaphors to deliver her message—a symbolic language that has parallels in other cultures. [Maurizio,) Animals also figure in the symbolism of prophecy itself, especially serpents and bees, and in the ceremonies of Greek goddesses, and the priestesses who lead them.

SNAKE PRIESTESSES 

Delphi was not the only shrine connected with serpents. Snake oracles can  be traced back to at least the second millennium BCE, with the famous Cretan statuettes holding snakes coiled around their arms and seals showing women worshipping a snake-crowned goddess.

Serpent vessels with female figures suggest similar ceremonies in Attica around 650 BCE. Even older are the Cretan and Canaanite “snake tubes,” used as stands for vessels receiving libations to the goddess, also found in Sudan. Serpent dancers are recorded in Asia Minor, where the Phrygian priestess of Sabazios slipped a live golden snake into her robes and to the ground: the “god through the bosom.” [Clement of Alexandria, in Thomson, 235] Snake-priestesses also persisted in classical Greece. A maiden priestess tended snakes at a grove sanctuary in Epiros. Only she could enter their circular enclosure. Every year she performed a divinatory rite in which she came to them naked with an offering of honey cakes. “Now if when the priestess comes near them the snakes are seen to be gentle, and if they take to their food kindly, that is taken to mean that there will be a plentiful year and free from disease; but if they frighten her, and do not take the honey-cakes she offers them, then they portend the reverse.” [Aelian, in Harrison, 429] This snake was said to be descended from the Delphic Python. [Connelly, 80]

In Elis, a line of priestesses fed a snake that lived in the archaic hillside sanctuary of Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth. An old woman was chosen every year to bring water to bathe the infant snake Sosipolis and to offer barley-cakes made with honey. Other women waited outside, burning incense and singing hymns. [Harrison, 240] Another “great snake” was kept in the shrine of Erectheus at the Acropolis, whose guardian it was. Athena wore its emblem on her  breastplate. During the Persian invasion, many people fled Athens after the snake refused its monthly honey-cake. [Harrison, 267]

The old oracular traditions had impressive staying powers, even after the new gods displaced the original tutelary goddess. Dio Chrysostom wrote of his encounter with an old peasant woman, guardian of a shrine of Zeus near Olympia. The Mother of the Gods had gifted her with the prophetic art, and farmers came to consult her about crops and animals. [Thomson, 289] Even in the terrain claimed by Zeus, it was still the ancient Earth Mother who was the source of divine foresight.

MELISSAE

Like snakes and doves, bees also possessed oracular power. The sancrosanct pangeis priestesses of the women's Mysteries at Eleusis were called melissae, “bees.” Little is known about them, except that they lived apart from men. [Pomeroy, 75-7] Priestesses of Demeter and Persephone also carried the title melissae, as did Aphrodite in her Sicilian temple at Eryx. For Porphyry, the  bee title of Demeter’s priestesses signified their initiation into “the mysteries of the terrene goddess.” [Porphyry, “On the Cave of the Nymphs,” 8]

Melissa was also a title of the Pythias. Pindar sang that the Pythia was known as the Delphic  bee. [Pythian Ode IV, 62] The omphalos stone was shaped like a beehive, and  bees were said to have made the second temple of Delphi out of honeycomb and feathers, as Pausanias related. [Fontenrose 1957:428] No direct mention of melissae survives at the Artemision at Ephesos, although the male priests were called essenoi, “drones,” and the goddess herself was drenched in bee-symbolism. Bees were carved on her robes and ornaments, such as the golden bee pins circa 700 BCE, and small plaques with bees and flowers found at the Ephesian Artemision. The first known coins were bee-stamped electrum coins of Ephesos, circa 550 BCE. Later, bronze tesserae showed a bee on one side, and the stag of Artemis on the other. These were not coins,  but perhaps ritual tokens, on which the word beeswax can be made out.

Ransome thought that they were connected with the mysteries of Artemis. She quoted a line from a lost play of Aeschylus, The Priestesses: “Hold your peace! the beekeepers are at hand to open the house of Artemis.” [Ransome, 58-60, quotesvww Aristophanes, Frogs, 1283] Ransome assembled considerable documentation of bee-goddess iconography: ornaments showing bees with women’s heads, like the golden plaques from Cameiros, Rhodes, and the gold pins from Thera, and pin heads in the Pelopponese with bees between spirals lodged between the forepaws of lions, or rosebuds, bees, lions and sphinxes. Ransome found that the goddesses Rhea, Demeter, Cybele, and Selene were named as Bee. [Ransome, 59-60]

The first melissae were nymphs who discovered honey, and who themselves were symbolized by or described as bees. Ancient sources often speak of bees in relation to goddesses and nymphs. Vergil wrote that to attract swarming bees, “They clash the cymbals of the Great Mother.” [Baring and Cashford, 119] A Greek myth said that the nymphs tried to stop people from eating flesh and convince them to eat fruit instead. “One of these nymphs, Melissa by name, first discovered the use of the honeycomb and how to prepare mead by mixing honey with water, and she taught these arts to the other nymphs; it was from this Melissa, the myth says, that the bees got their name.” [Ransome, 96] Bees in their larval stages are still called nymphs, from the ancient Greek nomenclature. [Pollux 2.147, in Ransome, 96 n. 1] 

A celebrated passage in the Odyssey describes a Cave of the Nymphs, where bees circulate around fine stone honeypots, “like nectar pure.” The nymphs weave purple webs on stone beams. Perpetual waters stream through the grotto,which mortals enter from the north and immortals from the auspicious southern direction. At the crest of rock above the cave is an olive tree, the fateful Moria of Athena. [Odyssey, XIII. 104] In Porphyry’s exegesis of these verses, the portals are the gates of Cancer and Capricorn, through which souls descend and ascend. The stone columns represent bones, and the purple tissues flesh. So Porphyry saw this scene as symbolizing the generation of human life. He comments that the Cave symbolizes “all invisible powers.” 

Thus, “Ceres educated Proserpine with her Nymphs in a cave,” and the cave nymphs proffer “fountains of intellectual waters (according to the divine voice of the Muses), which are the progeny of a terrene spirit.” Porphyry adds that the ancients called souls “bees,” and he recalls the Greek custom of offering libations of milk mixed with honey to the dead. [Porphyry, 3-11] Honey was one of the main ingredients in libations, often mixed with milk or wine or oil. The Greeks called offerings of milk and honey “sober” sacrifices, without wine and meat, and believed the bees themselves to be sober. These libations were so deeply engrained in women’s ceremony that the Orthodox Church was still struggling to stamp them out in the 7th century.

The bee nymphs bring us back to the divinatory thryiai at Delphi. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes describes them as “holy ones, sisters born—three virgins gifted with wings: their heads are besprinkled with white meal, and they dwell under a ridge of Parnassus.” [lines 553-63] The poem sets apart these pollen-crowned “teachers of divination” as preceding Apollo's claims on the prophetic arts. “From their home they fly now here, now there, feeding on honey-comb and bringing all things to pass.” [Homer: Hymn to Hermes, Online: <www.piney.com/ClassHomHymHermes.html>] 

These verses imply that the three sisters are fateful goddesses, rather than human oracles. Adrienne Mayor has interpreted the passage that follows as a reference to the oracular bees as “women who revealed the future while under the influence of ‘maddening’ fresh honey.” They entered prophetic ecstasy by eating the “food of the gods,” meli chloron (green honey). [Mayor, 40]

Divinely maddened, they are inspired to speak the truth But if they are deprived of the divine honeycomb They cannot prophesy.

Mayor presents evidence that this “mad” honey was unripe, “green” honey from rhododendrons that contained psychoactive grayanotoxins. (Meli chloron can be translated as "green," "fresh," or "yellow" honey.) She notes that the Hymn compares the prophetic frenzy of the melissae to the transports of maenads. According to Euripides, the maenads waved “wands flowing with honey,” and drank mead (honey wine) which sent them into a prophetic madness. This meli maenomenon (“mad” or “raving” honey) was known to the natural historian Pliny. Xenophon described how Anatolians used it to incapacitate a Persian army. Centuries later, they used it to poison Roman troops. Modern Turks call the psychotropic honey

deli bal. They take it in small doses as a tonic, and use it to punch up alcoholic drinks. In the Caucasus, too, people spiked their liquor with Pontic azalea honey. [Mayor, 33-40] However, Mayor's interpretation turns on her translation of the Hymn to Hermes. 

A more conventional rendition runs, “And when they are inspired through eating yellow honey, they are willing to speak truth; but if they be deprived of the gods' sweet food, then they speak falsely, as they swarm in and out together.” Lucan’s rather late Roman-era account says that the Pythia chewed laurel leaves to enter trance, but no early sources mention this. Lucan is also the often-quoted source for sensationalist claims that she went into a frenzy with incoherent cries. [Dempsey, 55 n.1; Fontenrose, 198 has Lucian] We’ve seen that the Greek name for bay laurel was daphne. Mayor points out that other species of daphne such as rhododaphne or rhododendron contain hallucinogenic grayanotoxins. So do oleander and azaleas, whose names the ancients often confused with laurel and rhododendron.

The Romans may not have meant bay laurel, but another plant of the Daphne genus. Some of these plants are highly toxic, and chewing their leaves could easily be fatal. But it is possible that a lesser quantity of grayanotoxins contained in honey might have been used to attain trance states. [Mayor, 33-40; Fontenrose, 198, on Didyma.] Or it could be that seers attained religious ecstasies simply by eating the sacred food of the Moirae. But there is another explanation.

PROPHETIC BREATHS

Post-classical Greco-Roman authors speculated that the Pythias’ trances were caused by fumes rising from a chasm deep in the earth. They describe them as “breaths,” “exhalations,” or “vapor.” Plutarch, himself a Delphic priest, saw these chthonic breaths as imbued with divine power and governed by daimonic guardians who regulated their flow. [Dempsey, 57, note 3, and 58] He described how sweet-smelling vapors occasionally emerged from rocks beneath the adyton, the holy of holies. [Moralia, 437c] These "exhalations" occurred irregularly and varied in intensity, and demanded careful oversight of the signs and of the Pythias’ physical state. The prophecy can not take place unless a sign is given that the conditions are right. [De Defectu Oraculorum, in Wesley Smith, 414-417] Plutarch’s De defectu oraculorum looks for naturalistic reasons for the decline of the oracle’s prophetic power in his time. He offers two explanations:

first, that it was caused by a decline in culture. Second, it was caused by changes in the terrestrial exhalations. Divine breaths from the earth were the original source of the prophecy, before Apollo. 

Plutarch is more concerned with Apollo, and he points to a Delphian belief that Apollo worked through the breaths. He says that “the prophetic current or breath is very divine and holy, whether it is sent through the air by itself or out of flowing water.” [De def. orac.324d, in Smith, 418]

Our concept of “inspiration” means literally to “breathe in.” This divine in-breathing leads to enthusiasm, which originally meant “in the divine.” Plutarch invokes the metaphor of a whirlpool that causes a wood chip to move, while it resists sinking: “Thus, what we call enthousiasmos is a combining of two motive forces, the one to which the soul submits in being moved, and the other which is inherent in the soul itself.” [De def. orac. 404f] Wesley Smith adds, “The figure of the whirlpool comes out of time-honored conceptions of mania as a whirling of the soul or mind.” He offers as example the prophetess Cassandra, whose ordinary consciousness became submerged when the propetic state was upon her. [Smith, 422]

The ancient Greeks often spoke of deities or daimons (natural forces)  breathing ideas, grace, courage, or madness into humans. In the most famous example, the goddess Demeter infuses her “sweet breath” into a child in order to confer immortality on him. The Odyssey shows Penelope casting about for a way to stave off a troop of aggressive suitors; a divine breath reveals to her how she can delay them by saying that she must first weave a shroud for her father-in-law (which she unravels by night). [Smith, 419-20]

Plutarch was not the only ancient writer to attribute the oracle's decline to the disappearance of these inspirational gases. [Frazer cites Diodorus Siculus, xvi, 26; Strabo ix, 3, 5; Pausanias, x, 5, 7; and Justin xxiv, 6, 6-9, in his notes on Apollodorus, p 10-11] For most of the 20th century, scholars scoffed at this idea, chalking it up to ancient superstition. But a recent study by geologist Jelle De Boer and archaeologist John Hale has corroborated the old theory of chthonic vapors. They found that two geological faults intersect beneath the Delphic sanctuary, and that the crushing of bituminous limestone in this highly active seismic zone could have caused emission of hydrocarbon gases such as methane and ethylene. The latter is sweet-smelling, corresponding to Plutarch’s description, and it causes euphoria and a sensation of floating. [De Boer, J.Z., Hale, J.R. and Chanton, J., “New evidence of the geological origins of the ancient Delphic oracle (Greece)," Geology, #29, 2001, pp 707-710; see also Broad, William, “Greek Oracle Fueled by Vapors,” New York Times, April 18, 2002]

Large doses of these gases can be fatal, as borne out by ancient reports of occasional deaths of Pythias in the sacred chamber. Plutarch cited one case which he attributed to the priestess being forced to mount the tripod against her will. The prophetes Nikandros related to him how the sacrificial goat had not responded to the libation by shivering. The priests continued pouring, attempting against temple law to force the animal to give the go-ahead. The Pythia refused to proceed, but was forced into the adyton. She was seized by an “incoherent and evil inspiration.” She became distraught, “and with a terrifying scream ran toward the exit and threw herself down.” Soon she was dead. [Dempsey, 68; Connelly, 78] 

Similar symptoms have been observed from ethylene gas overdoses. What is missing from the writings about the female oracles is any female testimony or cultural context. Lisa Maurizio points out that the gaps in our knowledge are due to our male sources’ limited interest, “if not hostility” toward women’s activities—as well as their lack of access to women’s ritual life. 

But she  brings forward a stunning fragment from a lost play of Euripides. The title character, Melanippe, asserts women’s superiority to men and bears witness to prophecy as a female sphere of power: 

In regard to matters concerning the gods—and I judge these matters to be foremost—we women hold the greatest share. In the houses of Phoibus Apollo, women prophesy the mind of Loxias. Around the pure steps in Dodona by the holy oak, the female race reveals the thoughts of Zeus to those from Greece desiring to know his will. [Dione is already eclipsed here.]

Rites in honor of the Moirai and the nameless goddesses are accomplished; these rites are not holy among men, but among women they prosper. All female rites are just in respect to the gods. How is it possible that the female race has an evil reputation? [Euripides, Melanippe Fragment, in Maurizio, 85]

That’s an impressive statement, put in the mouth of a female character by a male playwright. Melanippe’s protest is significant and raises still more questions for us: What was the culture of the women of Delphi, from whom all Pythias came? How did they grow up, how were they chosen, how instructed, where did they live and who did they associate with? The male sources, both ancient and modern, show a complete vacuum, but I consider this unlikely. 

As Maurizio shows with an impressive body of anthropological backup, inspired ritual  behavior occurs in a cultural context. [Maurizio, 80ff] The speech of Melanippe reorients us toward female rites which modern scholars attempt to reconstruct with limited sources and even more limited success. At some point women were barred from the sanctuary, but we know little about what the women of Delphi did. 

What were their traditions, what did they teach their daughters about becoming a Pythia, how did they prepare them? All the accounts we possess are written by a masculine elite, who by all accounts were kept far from the rites and stories of women. 

And the further back in time we go, the less Greek culture resembles anything we have been taught about it.

Max Dashu 

Founder of The Suppressed Histories Archives

American feminist historian, blogger and artist.

To be continued 

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Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011

Amera Ziganii Rao :: Writer. Philosopher. Performer. Psychologist. Humanist. Esoteric. Sexualist. Hedonist. Artist. Teacher. Coach. Social Reformer. Feminist. Hierophant. Sacred Disir. Former Slave. Seer. Sage. :: My Business Is Transformation Of The Soul. My Business Is Power. My Business Is Freedom. My Business Is Love. My Business Is To Fight Fascism And Human Cruelty And Emotional Sickness In All Its Relationship Forms On Earth. My Business Is Applied Spirit. Real Sex. Real Love. Real Life. Real GOD. The Return.

FEMINIST AND HUMAN RIGHTS, METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHER. WRITER. MENTALIST AND ARTIST

NATURAL BORN MYSTIC™ & AMERA ZIGANII RAO ALCHEMY & LIBERATION & HUMANITY™

The new educational website (Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™ as a writing and speaking business of empowerment) will be announced. Meanwhile, enjoy the free writing and consciousness work on this website. It was written with blood, sweat and tears. The story of both my man and myself as we have struggled to re-define all that is relationship and marriage, the mutual journey of escape and evolution out of The Patriarchal Tribe. 

The self discovery that took us from female slavery and male confusion and fascism into a society that was left behind a long time ago, when The New World Order took over and put men in charge, when they didn't even want it, by all that I have seen. Other than in sex as is the primal partnership. Our exploration is here. The world of Bluebeard Male Supremacy™ through to the Sacred Whore and High Female Esoteric Serpent Priesthood Society™, again, with men as the beloveds. Equality, Liberty, FRATERNITY. The New New World. Again. 

Please feel free to read the material on this blog. My writings, plus work from other consciousness teachers too. My Manifesto for Human Rights (Especially Female) in Relationship and Family. 

These writings will be produced in book form. Poetry Polemics for a better world of love, independence, sex and individuation. And true companionship and family. Power to the people, indeed. Together. 

Thank you. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2014

The Two Messages :: 

The Female Divine Highest Love Intelligence Energy. God The Mother, The Universe. Plus, the SACRED WHORE HIGH PRIESTESS HIEROPHANT AVATAR VALKYRIE WIZARD MONARCHs™ as the only true High Priests, with a GNOSTIC spirituality for all. 

There is no love on earth. We are all here to fight for it, or be hate. We are here to be profound, or to be shallow. To be adventurers of the soul, or turgid and needing security, to be humane or greedy, to BE love, or BE hate. Earth is hell. Hell, created by hate, for hate, of hate. Free will is to choose which way to go. Love, or hate. That is Existentialism. That is evolution. That is the advancement of the soul. Hate to love. And nothing less. The conquering of evil by good. The light must push out the dark. The light must win. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2014

My Business Is Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™ 

Feminism is not feminism. Feminism is anti slavery. They call us control freaks and that has to be watched. However, in the context of the truth, it is a ridiculous statement. It is the oppressor, calling the courageous campaigner for freedom and equality, the terrorist. 

Feminism is not 'man hating'. Feminism is not feminism. Feminism is the movement against slavery. Humanitarianism is the same. Slavery must not exist in any form on earth. Slavery is everywhere. 

From unpaid work in marriage to unpaid work in the family, to minimum wage in the market to a hundred other arenas, slavery is the way of earth. 

Feminism and humanitarianism are the movements against it. Slavery is fascism. Fascism is everywhere. We just don't know it. They made sure that we don't know it. Now we do. And we will forever. 

Society calls it bullying. Society calls it unfortunate, while propping it up in every single second, across the world. Fascism must die. Fascism will die. Fascism is to die. 

That is World Ascension. The end of fascism. 

My Business Is Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™ 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2014

Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™ 

The point of this planet is to find out what we are not, so we can find out what we are. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2012

Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™ 

The journey to the breaking of one's lower self into one's great self. The actual journey. That is my business. Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™. Turning oneself into gold and honey and authentic power. The pain of transformation, the shock and the trauma and terror and resistance of it. The path to heaven on earth. That is my business. THAT part of it. The crucifixion and disability of Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™. The pain of it. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2012

Natural Born Mystic™ 

The compassion to go with the passion. The discipline of mind, to know your darkness and the education of a post patriarchal man. Love. And changing the very matter of your spiritual DNA. Ascension. I can feel it coming. The build up is your job. The rest I can help with. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

Avatar (James Cameron) 

My daughter will teach you our ways. Learn well, Jake Sully. Then we will see if your insanity can be cured. 

Mo'at 

Natural Born Mystic™ 

Misogyny is sadism against women. An unconscious hijacking and a conscious will to maintain it. 

Tyranny and sadism. Misogynists. Slaves of Sauron (Tolkein's Lord of the Rings). Wifebeaters. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

Natural Born Mystic™ 

An Hierophant is an interpreter of sacred mysteries and arcane principles. 'Jake Sully' (Avatar) is her Sacred Warrior Protector™ 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

Natural Born Mystic™ 

A Natural Born Mystic™ is primarily a Sacred Whore Healer as a Cinderella Warrior™. As a woman. A High Priestess Wizard™ is a Sacred Whore Healer and Enlightener. That has specific duties and challenges to do with men and their immense madness (Mo'at - Avatar) and their profanity (killing God The Mother, The Triple Goddess) and monetising the slavery of emotional care. A Sacred Whore Healer has to do this against all the odds. She does it because she and they, the Sacred Whore Healers and High Priestess Wizards™ are the strongest. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2012

Natural Born Mystic™ 

'Respect' as fear. 

'The Accomplished Female' = the only thing that the male patriarch can deliver as 'love'. Men do not tolerate women earning money. They want slavery to instil FEAR. Fear as 'respect'. Fear is not 'respect'.  

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2014

Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™ 

The secret enemies of psychological warfare. From within and without. Bringing the darkness of evil into the light. Immense self belief, intelligence and courage, plus wizardry. In other words, 'naming it and shaming it and letting it go' and re-programming the mind from any belief to another. To evolve. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2012

Consciousness. The politics of the 21st century. The Lost Knowledge. Forget trying to change the world. Change yourself. It changes your own world that changes THE world. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011 

Sexuality, non religious 'Wizard' and 'Witch' spirituality (the Gnostic intelligence of esoteric and consciousness exploration, ie wisdom and love) and human rights are the least fashionable things and the most uncomfortable things on the planet. And the things human beings have been damning and condemning for 8000 years. And the things that most people are absolutely fascinated by. What a shame. How bourgeois. How ordinary. How ego. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011

The Sacred Whore High Priestess Society™

The Super Sacred Brother Lover™

The Return To The Source. Ascension.

The Sacred Whore High Priestess Society™. When we were giants. All of us. When you did more than rape me.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

Neo Feminist™, Post Tribe Social Reformer™ and Sacred Sexualist™. Human Rights Healer. Metaphysical Philosopher, Writer, Spiritual Intelligence Teacher, Hierophant (Interpreter of The Universe) and Mentalist Self Actualiser.

I can help you grow power, from nothing.

Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

The Sacred Whore High Priestess Hierophant™ and Sacred Pimp Warrior Protector, Brother Lover™ Society. The kings and queens of old. Angels and Sorcerers together in each of themselves and in the other. The Wizard life. Forever. Living and loving from The Source. Sourcery, Carlos Castaneda first said. I'll say it again. Sourcerers together. Living a life worth living. At last.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

Witches are healers. Witches are the Love Healers and SOURCErers of The Lost World, when we were the giant warriors. We were good and so were were you. 'The World of Men'. The Tribe of Misogyny and Bourgeois™.

Gives us all a bad name. And poisons all hearts.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

Feminist Lolita Intellectuals™. You lucky man. A place at the table, a place at the Executive Table. That's all. The rest is easy.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

Spiritual power = emotional power = emotional intelligence = mental intelligence = re-programming of the whole self = spiritual intelligence = The Lost Knowledge™ = power = The New World. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

The Company

Writer, Speaker and Enlightener, Amera Ziganii Rao, is now putting together a comprehensive and unique programme of Alchemy & Liberation & Humanity™. A programme of learning that is specifically about one particular kind of woman. And one particular kind of man. The Sacred Whore High Priestess™ and the Sacred Whore High Priest™, and the true society that they come from and the one they, in particular, she can and has to return to and that anyone can join her and him in. This is about Paradise on Earth.

This is about The Sacred Whore High Priestess™ and the Sacred Whore High Priest™, and the Alchemy and Liberation and Humanity that is for all as a result of their healing and in particular, hers. This is about the kind of woman who is at the bottom of the pile in a Patriarchal Toilet Tribe from Hell Society™, the norm, the conventional world and the world of the Tribe. This is about the kind of man who is next in line from the bottom. The sensitive man and the female chattel. The High Priestess and High Priest of a profane society, that has long forgotten who they are.

This is about being at the bottom of the pile, for the forgotten and strangled shamans, and for her, the story of escape. Abused by her family, her friends, her men, her whole society, by the very nature of who she is and who they are and what has happened on this Earth. It is about women of love, of Spirit and of sex. It is about men of love, of Spirit and of sex. It is about the Cinderellas of this world. It is about the The Sacred Whore High Priestess™. Who she is and how, loving her is the secret to Paradise on Earth and how we have been living a lie for 8000+ years. A lie of male (non High Priest) religion with a male ‘God’ and with Patriarchs and Patriarchal types and Matriarchs and Matriarchal types ruling over us and making our lives hell, all in the name of family, the tribe and the way things are and should remain. Hate, fascism and profanity. A sick society that vilifies, more than anyone else, the The Sacred Whore High Priestess™, just because it was told to. A sick society that calls her Eve. A sick society that has forgotten who we all are, let alone the The Sacred Whore High Priestess™ and the Sacred Whore High Priest™. This is about us remembering and knowing who WE are.

This is a programme of healing for the The Sacred Whore High Priestess™, and the Sacred Whore High Priest™, to take them and particularly, her, from monstrous levels of low self esteem and lack of self knowledge, back to herself and it is a programme for all those who truly want to love her, and indeed, him. This is a programme for the greatest carers on Earth, who are vilified, destroyed, ridiculed, ignored, abused, used, misused and hated for being everything that those who would steal from us are not. This is a programme to turn Cinderellas into The Sacred Whore High Priestesses and for anyone who wants to love her or live by the values of the The Sacred Whore High Priestess Society™. And this is a programme to turn sensitive men into Sacred Whore High Priests™ and for anyone who wants to love him and live by the values of the The Sacred Whore High Priestess™ and High Priest Society. Love, humanity, Spirit and sex. This is a programme to reverse 8000+ years of witch burning, women hating and healer ridicule. This is about the The Sacred Whore High Priestess™ and all those who would love her and live by her values.

This is about the chance for Paradise on Earth. This is a programme for the most beautiful, kind hearted, wounded women and men on this planet. A programme of how to implement a system of how to beat life, how to survive life and how to resurrect from the grief that is a true life. Alchemy and Liberation and Humanity of the lower mind into the higher mind, the soul and the inner heart and therefore one's true, confident, ‘happy’, successful, creative, sexual, sensual, individual, intelligent, emotionally healed, capable of loving and being loved self. How to turn grief into creation and survive and thrive, despite all the shit, all the pain and all the hurt. How to live in a world of madness, hollowness and cruelty and how to be a winner. How to stand up for oneself and to take back the power that has been stolen from anyone with heart, Spirit and sex. The art and science of Alchemy.

This is a programme, based on my scholarly and non scholarly work over 15 years (so far), if not for my whole life, and my extensive and intense, visceral experiences of self transformation from resignation, cynicism and despair to a state of relative bliss, and above all, the right to be. The programme and the courses and my speaking and indeed my forthcoming book, will cover the method of change. The psychological, sociological, spiritual, cultural, political, emotional and physical and even anthropological methods of change. Why we are here. Who the Sacred Whore High Priestess™ is and why she is here. And who the Sacred Whore High Priest™ is. Why we are here. Who we are and what we are and why we are. The beauty and glory of the truth. The meaning of life, no less. This will be on offer in the future.

My first book of consciousness, my first book of the spiritual politics of humanity, of authentic power and of self love and strength. A comprehensive series of online courses, live events and audio and visual material. Books, live events, CDs and DVDs. And one on one personal empowerment consultations. The Amera Ziganii Rao Method of Change™. The right to be and the way to have the right to be. And indeed, how to maintain the will to live without love. How to BE unconditional, self sufficient, self caring, self love. The right to be and the will to be and the unparalleled success that comes with that. The Lost Knowledge™. HOW to live. And how to heal others, the profane and the sick and the soulless. The others. My Business and that of any Sacred Whore High Priestess™ and Sacred Whore High Priest™, is Human Rights, The Right to a Sexual Society, Self Actualisation and Freedom.

My Business is To Overthrow Fascism, in the Home and in the Country. My business is also mastering destiny. Overthrowing the ultimate 'fascism'. Our journey on Earth and The Return To The Source. Our healing, our ascension and our redemption. Fate. The daily crucifixions of a true life, the challenges and the fury of being healers and people of love on a planet like Earth.

Submitting to the journey to liberate and evolve oneself, through following one's heart, however much heartbreak and devastation it leads to on the long long long journey to freedom and then the longer journey to happiness. 'Long Road to Freedom', as Nelson Mandela says. My business is always taking risks, never giving up and making the endless sacrifices it takes to become whole. Enlightenment, Nirvana and then Parinirvana and beyond. My business is pain. My business is bliss.

My business is seeing the truly glory of Spirit on Earth. The Sacred Whore High Priestess Society™ and all that it is. Spirit, humanity, sex and love again at last. And the end of our legacy as either servants or witches or unpaid carers or indeed, ignored mistresses, other women, other men even, and the weirdos that are at the bottom of society. This is our world and it is time to take it back and I can show you how. And that makes my life, truly, worth living.

I want you to feel the way I do. Alive, with the right to be and the belligerence to exist in this profane and male ‘God’ led world of male supremacy, female supremacy, domestic, casual fascism, tribe rules from hell, with beautiful and kind, love intelligence laden, female and male Cinderella warriors at the bottom, caring for everyone else and getting nothing but hatred, ridicule and isolation for it. The meek are already inheriting the Earth and I can show you how.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2012

I enter the magical hours of pure feeling, pure thought, pure imagination and I think and I write and I 'mysticise' the Universe. I escape at will, the truth of my humanless, Samurai solitude, and I pursue the truth of love in myself and in everyone else. I am philosopher. I am shaman. I am alone. I frontier the Soul to be spirit on Earth.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011

To trust your soul is to have courage. The courage to ‘get out of the way’. It takes a commitment to courage, a changing of the very matter of one’s access to courage, one’s relationship with courage and becoming the total renegade of an individual you have to, to become soul. It is that rare. ‘Getting out of the way’ takes a commitment to love and loving and being of love, no matter what. And frankly, that means redefining what love is, EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. Finding out what love really is and getting rid of the bullshit we think it is. Love. Soul. Power. It takes courage to be soul. Courage, courage and courage. The rest is easy. Soul is soul. Finally it is an absolute relief to get out of the way. The life of soul may be hair raising, treacherous and mind numbingly arduous. But it is a life of no regrets. Courage. The key to soul. Just give it a go. Wear that hat, say what’s on your mind, dream your dreams again, dream your dreams at all and just smile through the hate. Including one’s doubt. Courage. ‘Kill’ when you have to, especially yourself, and smile the rest of the time and cry when you need to. Always cry. Earth is a battlefield and crying is the way to win. Soul is a way of life. The natural way. Courage is ‘all’ it takes. We learnt the rules, only so we could break them. The rest is the art of life. Creation. Creating oneself again and again and again. Soul. The only way of life worth anything. Otherwise, we are just waiting to die. We don’t need to. We can live. It’s called soul. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013 

Self esteem. True, authentic, self knowing, self esteem. The one that includes the sex, the primal, the primitive, the animal, the real. The one that includes humanity and a state of unconditional love. Non needing, non greedy, non controlling, non afraid, non negative and non inhumane and non angry. Self esteem. What ego really is, in its true essence. The physical vehicle of self esteem. The physical vehicle of action, reaction, mastery, ‘misstery’, love and war, tenderness and sexuality. Humanity and human. The beautiful, crafted, styled, educated, aware, sincere, active, visceral, sexual, super sexual, heart led, sensitive, humane, courageous and ethical, hopeful ego. The instinct. The intuition. The magic. The primal. The whole. The whole Soul. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2013

I can feel your sexuality. I love it. My beautiful, filthy, dominating, obsessed, possessed, hedonistic, nihilistic, Sacred beast of a man. Because those of us who are the most sexual, what do we think, in the truth context of the The Sacred Whore High Priestess™, and The Sacred Whore High Priestess (Priest) Society™, that means? We are the most spiritual. The most sexual are in fact the most spiritual. Spirituality being the communing between Mortal and The High Priestess (Priest) to reach ecstasy. Orgasm. Bliss. The most active, dirty minded, passionate, non reproductive, hedonistic, glorious, worthwhile, point of life, meditation or prayer or communing on Earth. THE way to reach God, The Mother, The Universe™. THE way to happiness. Humanity. Joy. Hope. Love. Sex. Sex. Our sex. Sex.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011

Love takes courage. Love takes being ready. Love takes love. 

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011

Amera Ziganii Rao is a former hard news journalist who is now turning professional with her art forms and indeed, her healing forms, after a long journey of inner searching, self teaching and exploring many layers and areas of both craft and wisdom. She is now working on her first book of philosophy and esoteric thought, and social, cultural and spiritual commentary. She is also showing her first photography collections. And last but most definitely not least, she is building a business to share her Sacred Whore High Priestess Society consciousness and empowering explorations to reach as many people as possible across the world. She is in her forties and currently lives in London.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011

In the meantime, please enjoy this website. I have included many of the subjects I am covering, areas of experience and insight that I will be exploring to the fullest in my book, the courses and all the other work that is to come as a dramatist, novelist and essayist. I also of course, include many of the wise people on this planet, who have come long before me; authors, screen dramatists, playwrights, film makers, artists, and other enlighteners and grand carriers of the wisdom I have found the most helpful on my journey, to find peace and become enlightened. The seemingly impossible journey, in the face of oneself and one’s circumstances. People who have contributed massively to my healing on this mad journey called life, in this insane existence called The Universe. People who have helped to make me as good a carrier of wisdom as I in turn, can be. Thank you.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011

Copyright and intellectual property rights are serious issues. And legally protected. Please do not reproduce my work anywhere without due credit and obviously, never for financial gain. 'Big Sister' is watching you! Other than that, please continue to enjoy my original work and the work of (credited) others, for free, while I work on using my material in further professional formats. Thank you for your interest and support.

Amera Ziganii Rao © 2012

Thank you to outside sources for original photography. Darkroomed by Amera Ziganii Rao