Osiris and Dumzid

I am briefly unretiring this blog to share some thoughts on comparing Sumerian and Egyptian Mythology. This is not based on a Joseph Campbell like “all mythologies are the same” kind of Comparative mythology. Civilization began in Sumer first as early as at least 4000 BC, but then Egypt second between 3300 and 3100 BC, and they were close enough that cultural exchange between them probably happened while Egypt was forming. 

Osiris and Dumuzid are both “dying and rising gods” associated with fertility and the underworld and both are depicted as Shepherds. Osiris is sometimes depicted as the fifth of the God-Kings while Dumuzid is the fifth of the Antediluvian kings on the Sumerian Kings list. 

So they are the lynchpin, not every Sumerian or every Egyptian deity is going to be relevant to this analysis, it’s still not about claiming there is an across the board one to one line up.  It’s just particular thoughts I’ve had on the topic. 

The father of Osiris is Geb or Gebeb (Seb is an Victorian era incorrect form of the name) whose name means The Earth. The father of Dumuzid is sometimes given as Enki the Sumerian god whose name means Lord of the Earth. Both these deities are associated with Fresh Water and with Serpents and with Kingship.

I also feel like Orisis’s sister Nephthys/Nebet-Het and Dumuzid’s sister Geshtinanna seem like similar archetypes.  

There is a duality to Set in Egyptian mythology, he’s not exclusively a villain in the story of Osiris and Horus. Set as a storm-god who kills Osirus could be Jirjire/Gigire of Inanna and Bilulu who also becomes a protective deity of the Desert just like Set. 

Isis and Osiris do enter the Egyptian pantheon at the same time, in the middle of the Fifth Dynasty. And yet the Isis equals Inanna identification you likely expected is one I’ve grown increasingly skeptical of as I’ve worked on this.

Isis in Egyptian Mythology is neither a Love goddess or a War goddess.  And she originally was not a “Queen of Heaven” or associated with the planet Venus either, those were the things the Greco-Romans version of cults started doing, the star Isis was identified with was Sirius.  Of all the times modern pop culture thinks of Isis as being a Goddess of, a Mother Goddess is the only one that’s at all correct. 

Inanna is the exact opposite, she’s a Goddess of everything I just said Isis was not, and even though a few children are occasionally attributed to her, for the most part being Maternal is not part of her character. 

In Pre-Christian Polytheist mythologies every love goddess is a mother and every mother goddess is a lover because there was no conception of a virgin birth in their minds contrary to what edgy internet atheists keep claiming.  But not all of them had both those characteristics as equally defining to their character. And this contrast I’ve observed between Isis and Inanna is the starkest example of that. 

Another way in which Isis and Inanna were opposites is their relationship to the Underworld.  Inanna is an invader of the Underworld, a domain belonging to someone else. Isis does not revive Osiris by traveling to the Underworld, rather once the revived Osiris becomes a King in the Underworld Isis becomes Queen alongside him.  It is this underworld aspect of Isis that is most ignored in the modern pop culture conception of her.

A more logical Inanna figure in the Egyptian Pantheon would be Hathor who is associated with the Sky and Stars and she was associated with the Kingship like Inanna was.

Basically, my hot take is that Isis is actually Ereshkigal. Isis as our standard name for her is a Greek construction (as is Osiris who was really Osayir), when I first became aware of this I was exposed to Iset or Aset as the proper Egyptian form, but it seems the pronunciation changed over time and oldest form may have been Rusat, which I could see coming from Eresh. 

Ereshkigal is not explicitly depicted as taking Dumuzid as her husband in any of the versions of these myths we currently have, however the texts are inconsistent on who her husband was. Even in the texts as we have them, the ending of Inanna's descent into the underworld can be interpreted as implying Dumuzid is Ereshkigal’s husband while he’s in the underworld. 

Horus didn’t enter Egyptian religion at the same time Osiris and Isis did but rather was there from the beginning which is why I’m not really looking for Horus in Sumerian Mythology. The same is true of Set so at one point I didn't intend to do so for him either, but that Gigire connection was compelling. 

So I think when the Osiris and Isis cult came to Egypt, they were simply made the parents of Horus. 

Reincarnation originates in Western Mysticism actually.

Today we think of it as inherently Eastern, but it's association with the East is really all via schools of thought that originated in India and then spread further east mainly via Buddhism.

Janism and Buddhism are the oldest still existing belief systems in India that included Reincarnation from the start.  Modern Scholars do believe the idea existed among Vedic people already before them but the direct smoking gun proof is lacking.  As far as the different theories on when exactly Mahavira aka Vardhamma and Gautama Buddha lived goes, I'm inclined to favor the more recent models which agrees with many other modern historians, so that would be 540-468 BC for Mahavira and 480-400 BC for The Buddha.

Reincarnation existed in Greek thought even at the dawn of Classical Antiquity, the Greek term for it was Metempsychosis.  Pythagoras (570-495 BC) was the chief popularizer but at least one Philosopher definitely taught it before him, Pherecydes of Syros who lived 580-520 BC.  But the idea could be even older with some speculating both of them got it from the Orphic Mysteries, thing is it's difficult to be certain what any of the old Mystery Cults taught, but the Orphics seem to be the origin of the whole Dionysus being basically a reincarnation of Zagreus thing.

Now this view was never the most popular opinion on the Afterlife in Hellenistic thought, in my opinion Socrates probably did not actually teach it since it doesn't come up in Xenophon's Socratic dialogues, I consider Xenophon far more trustworthy then Plato as a quoter of Socrates.  Metempsychosis in Plato's Socrates is I feel the result of Pythagorean influence on Plato during the later decades of his life.  It was never Greece's mainstream afterlife view which was the Soul being stuck in Hades forever, nor was it a factor in Stoic or Epicurean thinking.  And of course once Christianization happened it was mostly wiped out of Greco-Roman thought, many Pythagorean/Platonist ideas that I consider contrary to Scripture were adopted by the Greek and Latin Fathers, but Metempsychosis was the one idea even the most enthusiastic Platonists knew they couldn't make compatible with The Bible, only a few of the full blown Gnostics even tried.

There is a good deal of evidence that the Ancient Celts/Gauls believed in Reincarnation, Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor, Julius Caesar, and Diodorus Siculus all attest to it, Valerius Maximus and Pomponius Mela also seemingly allude to it.  Hippolytus of Rome and Clement of Alexandria speculated on whether or not this implied a connection between them and Pythagoras.

Evidence of it in Ancient Germanic Paganism also exists.  Appian in the Second Century said the Teutons believed in Reincarnation, the Poetic Edda also has some allusion to a belief in Reincarnation.  This Germanic form of Reincarnation was revived by some Nazis like Heinrich Himmler who believed himself to be a reincarnation of Henry The Fowler, and there's even a quote about Reincarnation attributed to Hitler himself.

The Thracians are also speculated to have had a belief in Reincarnation.  If the theory of an Armenian origin for Plato's Myth of Er is correct, then that's another Indo-European people who may have had the concept in their now mostly lost Ancient Pagan beliefs.

There was more contact between Classical Greece and India then people realize thanks to the Silk Road.  But even if Reincarnation beliefs in India did develop before or independent of Metempsychosis in Greece, it still originated among the Indo-Iranian speaking peoples, proper ancient Dravidian Folk religion doesn't have it.

When it comes to the Far East I know more about Japan then anywhere else thanks to my Weeb tendencies.  Japan has a more fluid approach to Religion then most countries, so today belief in Reincarnation may exist there among people in Japan who wouldn't properly be classified as Buddhists.  And for our oldest sources even the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki weren't written down till after Buddhist presence in Japan was established.  But I still feel it's apparent from studying them that Reincarnation was not a part of Japanese thought prior to Buddhist influence.

Taoist texts alluding to belief in something like Reincarnation don't show up till the Han period (200 BC to 200 AD), and even then it's more like Avatars of Vishnu in Hinduism not Reincarnation for Normal non Divine people.  Taosim in general even today doesn't generally teach reincarnation, rather their view on The After Life is the basis for the After Life presented in Star Wars (as well as a lot about The Force itself, see Rick Worley's video on the Whils.).  Indeed if I were to compare Taoism to a school of Classical Greek Philosophy it would be the Stoics rather then Pythagoras or Plato.

Now I know attributing to "The West" something popularly thought of as Eastern is often something White Supremacists do.  But I do not believe in Reincarnation or consider it's influence on the world a good thing.  I have enjoyed some fiction that involves Reincarnation in it's premise, like some of that Anime I'm into and The Legend of Zelda.  But I think seriously believing in it in real life can prove to be quite dangerous.

King Midas might be mentioned in The Bible

Isaiah chapter 14 verse 4 after directing the Prophet's attention specifically to the King of Babylon says in the KJV "How hath the Oppressor ceased! how hath the Golden City ceased!".  In the Young's Literal Translation "Golden City" reads "Golden One".  This is two English words being used to translate one word in the Hebrew, a word that the Strongs Concordance says actually means "Gold Making".

The word in question is Madhebah, it's core root is Dhab the Aramaic word for Gold used in passages like Daniel 2 and 3, it's related to the equivalent Hebrew word Zahab.  A Mem as a prefix typically carried the meaning of "from".  And a Heh at the end as a suffix tends to make a word feminine, but scholars tend to feel that doesn't necessarily imply anything about the Gender of who or what's being referred to unless it's a personal name.

When you remember the lack of Vowels in the Hebrew Alphabet, and how the "S" at the end of a name in Greek transliterations are usually not part of the original name, and how Greek had no latter equivalent to the Hebrew Heh.  A connection between this word and Midas (called Mita in Assyrian inscriptions) is plausible.  Hebrew authors with a poetic style like Isaiah often give foreign Kings names that are on some level Hebrew word play, so I'm not saying the form here is the original.  And I don't think I need to explain how Midas is a name associated with Gold.

There was a historical Midas who did rule Phrygia and reigned around 700 BC, contemporary with Isaiah.  The Classical Greeks tended to consider that Midas the second Midas and attributed their legends of a King Midas to someone who lived way before the Trojan War.  But Homer himself makes no allusion to a past Midas when talking about the Trojan War (and I've recently come to support the 808 BC date for the fall of Troy).  The Greek myths of Midas are I feel clearly fantastical myths inspired by the 700 BC Midas who the Greeks pushed further back into the mythical past.

Some Greek sources also claim the Wife of the 700 BC Midas was the first to mint coins.  Modern historians scoff at that idea, feeling confident no coinage existed prior to Lydian innovation nearly 200 years later. But if this early coinage experiment used Gold rather then Silver coins, then I suspect all those coins were eventually melted down to be used for other things, especially after Silver coins became standard, explaining the lack of an archeological record for them.  

Thus the 700 BC Midas would be the origin of the name's association with Gold.  And it was actually his Wife, a Female, who did the "Gold Making".

But Midas wasn't the King of Babylon, so why mention him here?  Leaving aside my belief that the ultimate final fulfilment of this Prophecy is still yet future, which is the kind of thing I discus on a different blog where I have been flirting with the idea of eschatological Babylon being Turkey since before I even discovered this.

Midas was also in conflict with Assyria during the same time Isaiah's contemporary King of Babylon was, and was eventually also defeated and his capital city Gordium/Gordion was in turn destroyed by the Cimmerians in 695 BC not long before Assyria destroyed Babylon in 691 or 689 BC fulfilling Isaiah 21.  So Isaiah could have been throwing in a reference to an ally of Babylon.

But maybe Gordion also had a Temple that was thought of as a "Gate of the gods" or "House of Heaven" similarly to Temples of Enlil and Marduk in Mesopotamia?

Sailor Scouts, Japanese Planet Names and their Greco-Roman counterparts

Sailor Mercury is the Sailor Scout who’s elemental association is most likely to seem pretty random to western fans.  The Planet Mercury is quite probably the driest rock in the solar system, and Hermes wasn’t particularly associated with water either.  However when you dig into Sailor Moon more you learn that for most of the Senshi their Civilian surnames reference the Japanese names of their Planets. 

Sailor Mercury is Ami Mizuno.  Mizuno means “of water” the Kanji Mizu also pronounced Sui depending on context, means Water, and Suisei is the Japanese name of Mercury which means Water Star.  This is perhaps based on ancient Japanese beliefs about the planet from long before they were exposed to Western Astronomy.

However what I feel like drawing attention to is that there is at least one ancient Gaijin precedent for associating the planet Mercury with Water.  The Sumerian deity associated with the planet we call Mercury was Enki, and Enki was also associated with Water and the Seas, his Temple in Eridu being called the Abzu, he was in a lot of ways arguably the Poseidon/Neptune figure of the Mesopotamian pantheon, and was also conflated with the Canaanite Yam.

However he was also associated with some of the same things Hermes and Thoth were associated with, Knowledge and Learning and Intelligence.  And those traits are also why Ami Mizuno is still considered justifiably a Hermes type personality.

While Sailor Mercury might be the first one we think of as odd, Sailor Mars who's civilian name is Rei Hino is not what I’d expect a western writer to do with that planet either.  Her color is Red so that fits, but she’s not really the most Soldier or Warlike of the group, the 90s Anime does give her those Tsundere traits but I don’t see that as actually making someone good at War.  And I don’t know of many other contexts where Ares is associated with Fire.  

Oracles/Prophetesses in Greek Mythology tend to be associated with Apollo like Cassandra and the Pythia of Delphi, but the implied vow of Chastity in her status as a Miko could make one think of his twin Artemis, as well as one of her attacks taking the shape of a Bow and Arrow.

But as you might have guessed by now, Hino means “of fire” and the Japanese name for Mars is Kasei which means Fire Star.  

Interestingly associating a Prophetess with Fire actually makes sense to me Biblically.  In The Bible Prophets are vessels of The Holy Spirit, and the Baptism of The Holy Spirit is with Fire (Luke 3:16-17 and Matthew 2:10-11).  A Fire that purges one of Sin (Malachi 3:3) because God’s punishments are for correction (Habakkuk 1:12 and Proverbs 3:11).  Hence “in the name of Mars I will chastise you”.

Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino is where things start to make more sense, since she can call down Thunder to smite her foes.  But most of her attacks are actually more Grass type making it difficult to find a good Pokémon to represent her, there are no Electric/Grass hybrids yet that I’m aware of. As far as analyzing her personality traits go, she’s almost more like Hera than Zeus. 

Kino means “of Wood” and the Japanese name for Jupiter is Mokusei which means Wood Star. 

Now I know many might jump to saying she’s the actual Mars of the group since she’s the one with a reputation for kicking @$$ even when a normal human.  However that is something that is far more stressed in the 90s Anime than it is in the original Manga, the Manga does indeed introduce her with a Sukeban vibe, but it’s more interested in how that outward appearance is misleading.

Sailor Venus is the only one of the four Inner Senshi where her Greco-Roman namesake is explicitly evoked with her quite often calling herself the Goddess of Love.  And her surname isn’t a reference to Kinsei the Japanese name for Venus but instead is Aino meaning “of Love”.  However Kinsei means “Gold Star” and Sailor Venus is definitely associated with Gold in terms of her color palate and her weapons.

And yet, Minako is in fact the most Soldier minded of the group, as a result of being the first who’s Moon Kingdom memories returned.  However this is most stressed in the Manga and almost completely ignored by the 90s Anime where her Sword is removed from the story.  Minako is Aphrodite, but she is Aphrodite Areia.

Overly Sarcastic Productions has a video on Aphrodite going over how she descends from Astarte, Ishtar and Inanna.  One of the topics discussed is how Ishtar was a Goddess of both Love and War but how Aphrodite in Greece only kept that aspect in Sparta.  There are some important things left out.  The role Cyprus plays is Astarte’s journey to the west (which also hindered their Pygmalion video).  And I feel an argument can be made that this separating the War Goddess from the Love Goddess was already starting in the Middle East and was not solely a result of Greek gender norms.  In Canaanite/West Semitic texts like those found at Ugarite, Astarte does not still have any Warlike characteristics if Anath exists as a separate distinct Goddess.  And while no Anath equivalent exists in Mesopotamia, I would argue in Greece she exists as Enyo, a War Goddess consort of Ares. I was going to also mention Adrestia, an alleged daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, but I’ve found no primary source evidence that she existed in Ancient Greece, it seems she’s a modern invention of the Internet like the Time Traveling Goatfish.

Sparta allowing Aphrodite to be a War Goddess didn’t stop them from viewing Human Warfare as strictly for men.  But they did think their women should be Fit, Athletic and capable of defending the home while their husbands are away.  The only Women to ever compete in the Ancient Olympics were from Sparta.  So Minako being the one who does sports kind of fits that.

Ya know those Ancient Greece themed Sexy Halloween Costumes designed to keep the woman's Legs fully visible?  Well in actual Ancient Greece that was only acceptable in Sparta.

Ultimately though my ideal Aesthetic for Aphrodite Areia isn’t quite anyone from Sailor Moon but the Magical Girl Warrior costumes from Ai Tenshi Wedding Peach, who’s Anime had the same character designer as the first 2 seasons of the 90s Sailor Moon Anime and the Promise of The Rose movie and now the Eternal films.

Could the Canaanite Asherah be a Gaia figure?

First of all I want to say that the traditional interpretatio graeca for the Canaanite Pantheon based on Philo of Byblos's writings I think is a valid way to look at things since I think Greek Mythology as we know it is very much a late developed composite mythology with multiple reflections of their more ancient originals.  And the evidence from Mycenean inscriptions that Poseidon rather then Zeus was once head of the Olympian pantheon fits well with him as Yam.

But I'm currently most interested in the picture that begins to form when you simply translate the main names of the Baal Cycle characters into Greek.  Mot becomes Thanatos (Death), and since Yam is a male deity he becomes Pontos (Sea).  This points us in the direction of equating them with the Greek Primordial Deities.

This doesn't work for all of them of course, El, Asherah, Baal Hadad, Astarte and Anath are ones who's names' translations aren't known deity names in Greek.

There is no Deity in the Canaanite pantheon named Heaven or Earth, so Ouranos is one who's a little up for grabs.  El is usually identified with Anu in Mesopotamia which works for making him Ouranos, but Enlil is also a god of the Heavens in a sense and he's typically Baal-Hadad in Canaanite comparisons.  Aphrodite is definitely one of the Greek deities to come from Astarte, but in my view so is Eos and in some contexts Selene and Asteria.  When looking for an Astarte among the Primordial deities I can't help but think Philotes works best, and she is sometimes equated with Aphrodite, while Eris is similarly equated with Enyo making them work as Anath.  Given how Astarte herself is sometimes a War deity (like Aphrodite Areia) maybe Anath was not originally a separate goddess?

I feel like the way we casually think of Asherah and Astarte often swaps them.  Like when one tries to argue Asherah is the "Queen of Heaven" of Jeremiah even though that title is Inana/Ishtar in Mesopotamia.  And then people want to think of Astarte as a fertility goddess because of her association with Baal.

The Asherah Poles aka Asherim are similar to Celtic Maypoles, they are an aspect of nature worship.  Meanwhile if El is Anu in Mesopotamia then his wives (who I think were all originally different names or titles of the same goddess) are Gaia figures. Ki and Uras both mean Earth, and Nammu is identified as the mother of deities elsewhere called Anunaki, a name that clearly makes them children of Ki, and Antu is a feminine form of Anu like Elat as a title of Asherah. And in Greek Theogonies Gaia is the mother of Pontos just as Asherah is refereed to as the mother of Yam.  Then Lotan could be the basis for Thammus, Porchys & Keto and their children including Ladon.

If we went with Ouranos as Baal-Hadad rather then then El then who is El?  I'm thinking probably Eros if the original Theogeny is in fact the one that makes Eros the first god.  Asherah is in different contexts seemingly both the mother and a consort of Baal-Hadad, which fits the relationship between Ouranos and Gaia quite well.

If we went with Ouranos as El then maybe Baal-Hadad would be Cronos, or Dagan as Cronos and Baal-Hadad as Zeus?

Update: Malachi 3:12 uses Asharah (translated Happy) in a way thing is linked tot he Eretz of Israel.

The Fall of Gondolin and the Fall of Troy

I think the development of the Lay of the Fall of Gondolin was partly influenced by the tradition of tales about the Fall of Troy.  But the only major article I've found already exploring that is one by Alexander M Bruce written in 2012 focusing mainly on the account of Troy's Fall in Book II of the Aenied with Tuor as Aeneas.

Tolkien certainly may have read that, but given what his overall goals and interests were in developing his Arda mythology, I think the reference to Troy in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda is far more likely to be the main account of Troy that Tolkien would have drawn on.

Like in Bruce's Aeneid theory it has Turgon as Priam and Idril Celebrindel as a daughter of Priam.  But Tuor would instead be Múnón or Mennón.  There is some disagreement on who in the earlier accounts of Troy Múnón is based on, he could be the Menon mentioned in Book 12 of the Illiad.  But the more popular fan theory is that he's Memnon.

Memnon lead an army of "Aethiopians" to Troy from the East.  Aethiopia in Greek Mythology didn't quite always mean the kingdom(s) in Africa south of Egypt, Homer said there were Aethiopians at both the far Western and Eastern ends of the Earth.  Being called a "Son of the Dawn" implies Memnon came from the East.  Remember during the time of Tuor from the Elves POV Men had only just recently entered Beleriand from the East.

However the key detail that I think Sturluson's version of Troy has in common with Gondolin that I don't think any other version does is having Twelve Houses.

Near the earth's centre was made that goodliest of homes and haunts that ever have been, which is called Troy, even that which we call Turkland. This abode was much more gloriously made than others, and fashioned with more skill of craftsmanship in manifold wise, both in luxury and in the wealth which was there in abundance. There were twelve kingdoms and one High King, and many sovereignties belonged to each kingdom; in the stronghold were twelve chieftains.

This same description is why I sometimes think Sturluson was just using Troy as a stand in for Jerusalem, but but that may just be me.

Of Gondolin's 12 Houses Tuor became Captain of the White Wing.

Sword Art Online and Gnosticism

I made this Tweet while Toonami was attempting to air episode 6 of Sword Art Online Alicization on March 16th 2019.

Mako-Chan‏ @JaredMithrandir 15m15 minutes ago

The way #SAO #Alicization is using the word #Soul makes more sense when your aware that the #Greek word translated #Soul in the #NewTestament is #Psyche.

0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes

I can't say this is particularly Gnostic, but it reminds me of stuff I'd been wanting to talk about regarding the earlier seasons of Sword Art Online.

The TVTropes page UsefulNotes/Gnosticism claims Gnostic influence on a number of Anime and Video Games that I don't feel hold up.  Especially Evangelion (though I do defend that it's use of religious imagery isn't meaningless) and Final Fantasy VII which is as far the opposite of a Gnostic attitude as you can get.  Revolutionary Girl Utena is the one that holds up, well so does Serial Experiments Lain which I'm not sure was always there.

SAO isn't mentioned there even though I feel it's more applicable to SAO then it is to most they do mention.

First you need to understand that Platonic and Gnostic views of the world are in modern times highly related to the Simulation hypothesis, which frankly is also most of the basis for seeing The Matrix as Gnostic.  When talking about the first episode of season 2 Digibro mocks Kirito's suggestion that the real world might be no different from a Virtual World by saying something like "the real world doesn't disappear if you pull a plug".  However the response to that is pretty easy, what if "God" pulled a plug?  Ironically in his No Game No Life video from 2018 Digi seems to suddenly support a form of Simulation Hypothesis by quoting Elon Musk.

The first arc of SAO is kind of the proper Gnostic Allegory philosophically, since everyone is Sophia in that situation.  But the Alfheim arc while very problematic is the purest allegory of Gnostic mythology with Asuna as Sophia and the villain as a true Demiurge, not a true Creator but merely fiddling around with what Kaiba created.

I'm not gonna go any deeper then that today, I'm hoping to inspire further discussion of the topic from people more qualified then I am to talk about it.

Sauron and Azazel

We all know that Melkor The Morgoth is basically Satan in J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythology.  But have you ever wondered if the other great Dark Lord of Middle Earth can also be equated with a specific Fallen Angel from the Judeo-Christian tradition?  Well I happen to have a theory on that.

Now up front I want to remind people that I’m aware Tolkien hated direct Allegory, like George Lucas he drew on many mythological concepts and motifs, but nothing was meant to be a one to one allegory, even Morgoth’s connection to Satan comes with qualifications (first of which is that it's more of a Paradise Lost perception of Satan then anything The Bible clearly teaches).

Also the development of Sauron as a figure in Tolkien’s Mythology was uniquely complicated.  I personally suspect that before Tolkien actually began writing a sequel to The Hobbit, Sauron’s roles in the tale of Beren and Luthien, in the Fall of Numenor and as the Necromancer mentioned in The Hobbit were three completely separate characters.  For example in the case of Beren and Luthien the role eventually taken by Sauron was originally just a Werecat type monster.  But it’s none of those proto-Saurons I’m comparing to Azazel here, this is specifically about Sauron as The Lord of The Rings.

There are conflicting traditions about Azazel, sometimes that name is just used as another name for Satan, which could very well be the original intent behind it’s use in Leviticus 16.  This analysis is mainly about the figure of Azazel as he appears in The Book of Enoch aka First Enoch.  The Richard Laurence Translation was published in 1883 and the R.H. Charles translation was published in 1917, so both are books Tolkien could have read at some point.

When I first read the Book of Enoch, I couldn’t help but notice how much Azazel’s role stood out narratively.  In the initial list of the leaders of the Grigori/Watchers that fell (chapter 7 verse 9 in the Laurence version and chapter 6 verse 7 in the Charles version) Azazel’s name isn’t included, in either the Ethiopic or Aramaic texts.  Yet when Azazel is first mentioned in chapter 8 verse 1 he is suddenly being treated as one of the single most important of them. 

Then in chapter 10 verses 4-12 he’s given a uniquely different fate, being buried under rocks in Dudael rather then being chained in the Abyss/Tartarus like the others.  I eventually learned some of that uniqueness is a product of how the name is used in Leviticus 16 and traditions derived from that, but it still stands out.  If you think you can explain this by just saying Azazel and Samyaza/Shemjaza are different names for the same Angel, the Aramaic text of chapter 8 lists Shemjaza separately as the one who taught Sorcery.  And Chapter 9 lists them separately in both versions.

In The Enemy section of The Valaquenta in the published Silmarillion, the only Maia who joined Morgoth singled out for special mention are the Balrogs as a group and Sauron as an individual.  One Youtube video I watched on the Balrogs theorized their special status among Morgoth’s followers might be that they were the very first Maia to follow him.  Sauron meanwhile came much later, never openly betraying the Valar till after Angband was firmly established.  So even the difference between Sauron and the Balrogs echos the difference between Azazel and the Grigori. 

But the crux of why I feel this comparison works is what’s said in Chapter 8 Verse 1 of the Book of Enoch.

"And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals 〈of the earth〉 and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures."

That certainly sounds like he’d be a Maia of Aule (as both Sauron and Saruman were) if placed in Tolkien’s Cosmology.  In fact it’s tempting to see even the Rings of Power themselves in that verse.

I also can’t help but wonder if Dudael where Azazel met his final doom being traditionally placed East of Jerusalem is echoed in Mordor being East of Gondor.

Another possible mythological influence on Sauron were various pagan gods associated with Blacksmithing and/or Volcanoes.  If you were to compare the Valar to the Olympians then Aule would be Hephaestus/Vulcan, yet Sauron ultimately resembles Hephaestus more since Hephaestus was cast down from Olympus. Typhon is a figure in Greek mythology some scholars suspect was originally the same as or an aspect of Hephaestus, one of his birth stories is the same, being borne by Hera in response to the birth of Athena.  Also in some versions Typhon is buried beneath Mt Etna a Volcano on Sicily which is also said to be the location of Hephaestus's workshop.

Is it possible to connect Hephaestus/Typhon to Azazel independent of comparing them to a modern literary figure?  I think so, like for example winding up buried, and of course Azazel’s status as a craftsman already mentioned above.  That the Greeks identified Typhon with Set gives precedence for seeing him as a Desert Storm god.  I feel the Book of Enoch definitely developed post Hellenization, it’s mentioning Tartaros is evidence of that.  There was a blacksmith god in the Canaanite pantheon, Kothar-wa-Khasis, but he wasn’t cast out like Hephaestus was.  So I think the figure of Azazel in the book of Enoch was possibly modeled a bit after Hephaestus and/or Typhon.

So maybe Tolkien likewise consciously or unconsciously made the same connection between them?

Greek Myths echoing The Bible

John R Salverda argued for Pelops being based on Ahab.  I had considered that possibly being valid in the past, but by splitting up his parallels for Naboth and Elijah.  But even though in the context of one particular cycle I think certain grandsons of Pelops are memories of some Davidic Kings, I’ve come to view Pelops as mainly a Hellenic memory of Jehu.

Pelops killing Oenomaus in a chariot race could be based on Jehu killing Jehoram son of Ahab in a battle where both rode in Chariots.  Hippodamia could be another example of a Princess in a myth sort of representing the nation.  But given the statement that Jehu did more than what II Kings records it’s not impossible he did marry a princess of the House of Omri, it was the direct male lines of descent from Ahad that were prophesied to be wiped out.

Myrtilus’ curse on the House of Pelops could be a memory of Hosea’s Prophecy that Yahuah will “Avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the House of Jehu” in chapter 1 verse 4.

Stymphalus in this theory represents the Prophets/Priests of Baal at Samaria, who Jehu initially promised peace to but then slaughtered them when he had control of the city in II Kings 10:19-25. 

That equates Samaria with Arcadia. I’ve often identified the Arcadians with the Arkite tribe of Canaan, we don’t have other information on that tribe like we do the first 5 or so Canaanite tribes, they’re mentioned only in Genesis 10 and 1 Chronicles 1.  So Samaria could be where the Arkites originally lived and this Baal cult included some of their genealogical remnant.  [Update: I now know the Arkites referred to people in north western Lebanon north of modern Tripoli.  It could be these particular Priests of Baal Jezebel relied on came from up there.]

It seems possible that the story about Aeacus praying to end a drought after a murder may not have originally been specifically linked to Stymphalus and Pelops, Aeacus’s own Wikipedia page doesn’t mention Stymphalus or Pelops by name here, and he’s generally affiliated with more northern parts of Greece not the Peloponnese.  So my past observation that he maybe resembles Obadiah in 1 Kings 18 who’s piety helped end the drought associated with Elijah remains possible.

Salverda makes a point out of how Aeacus role as a judge of the dead in Plato’s Republic resembles some Jewish traditions about Elijah as a judge of the dead.  But those Jewish tradition are very late, well after men like Philo and Aristobulus of Alexandria had started bringing Platonic ideas into the Judeo-Christian tradition.  So in that case it was the Jews putting Elijah in Aeacus position.

What’s more interesting though is that Aeacus is said to have the keys of Hades.  In Revelation 1 Jesus says He has the Keys of Hades and Death.  In Revelation 3:7 he introduces himself to Philadelphia as he who has the Key of David from Isaiah 22:22.  The equivalent introductions in the other Seven Churches messages all repeat titles from Revelation 1.  Sheol came up in some Davidic Psalms, including one quoted by Peter at Pentecost in Acts 2.  David is also tied to the Resurrection because of how he’s named in Ezekiel 37.  So those keys could be synonymous. 

Pindar Isthmian Odes VIII referred to Aeacus as the dearest of all men to Zeus.  It sounds like Aeacus could be a memory of David more then any Prophet.  Salverda leaves out how royalty did descend from his three sons Peleus, Telamon and Phocus.  Through Achilles son of Peleus the Kings of Epirus claimed descent from Aeacus, and thus through his mother so did Alexander The Great.  What a lot of people don’t know about the Patroclus and Achilles relationship was that Patroclus was actually older than Achilles and a mentor figure to him, not the younger pretty boy you usually see in modern films.  So comparing that relationship to David and Jonathan fits even better than I originally thought.

Aeacus kingdom was also ravaged by a plague once.  He is also said to have built a “Temple” of some type on Mount Panhellenus, but then after he died his people built an even grander Temple.  Pindar also associated him with Psalms.  So Panhellenus could be Zion where the Tabernacle of David was, while the later Temple is a memory of Solomon’s.

Wives and children of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat King of Judah were taken as hostages by the Philistines.  Joel 3 records how Philistia and Tyre sold Judeans and Jerusalemites as slaves to the Ionians.  Another grandson of Aeacus was said to have founded Salamis on Cyprus (an Island also anciently settled by children of Javan and colonized by Phoenicians) that city could have been named after Salem or David's ancestor Salmon/Salmah/Salma.

Because Greek mythology is very much a composite mythology, Aeacus may not be the only memory of David.  I’ve contemplated Endymion as David before, being both a Shepherd and a King in Elis.  Of the wives of David, Avitail is the first I’d look at as a possible basis for Selene, since her name means "Father of the Dew” which is a fitting poetic name for the Moon.  The wives married at Hebron were probably mainly David making important marriage alliances within the Tribe of Judah. 

If one of his wives was of the Jerahmeel clan then it's interesting how that name looks like it begins with the Hebrew word for Moon.  1 Chronicles 2’s genealogy of the Jerahmeel clan includes a Eleasah son of Helez, Eleasah actually makes more sense to me etymologically as an origin for Elis, the Eleans and Elysium then Elishah, though perhaps so could David's son born in Jerusalem named Elishua.

But also Numbers 26:20 tells us there was a clan of Shelanites descended from Judah’s third son Shelah.  The Hebrew word for Shelanite is Shelani (Strong number 8024) which could be an etymological origin for Selene.  1 Chronicles 4:21 also names some sons of Shelah.

Ezekiel 23 gives Aholah as a poetic name for Samaria, probably in the sense of Samaria representing the entire Northern Kingdom, but if you wanted to make it more tribally specific Samaria was properly in Western Manasseh.  Aeolians could have in origin meant people of Aholah but then the Hellenic mythology invented Aeolus to be an ancestral figure for them. 

The original main four sons of Aeolus were Athamas, Salmoneus, Sisyphus and Cretheus.  Some stories about Athamas and his sons clearly seem to be based on Abraham and Isaac.  Meanwhile Salmoneus is clearly a memory of Solomon, while Sisyphus I view as Jeroboam and Cretheus as Abinadab of 1 Kings 4:11 with Taphah as Tyro, the islands of Taphos may also have been named after her.  

Cretheus ruled Thessaly in Greek Mythology, the Dorians were also said to have come from Thessaly according to Herodotus.  In The Bible Dor was a region allotted to Asher but was also inhabited by Manasseites (Joshua 17:11, Judges 1:27 and 1 Chronicles 7:29).  So I think the Aeolians were the Mansseites of Dor while the Dorians were the Asherites.  The name Hellen could come from Hellem who fathered an Asherite clan in 1 Chronicles 7:35.

Of course I should consider that maybe the Dorians who invaded Greece were actually the Canaanites of Dor.  And that the tribe of Asher isn’t lost since all of them seem to have accepted Hezekiah’s Passover Invitation and Anna the Prophetess was of Asher.

Other sons of Aeolus include Makedon and Magnes (who are sometimes given as sons of Aeolus but sometimes as his cousins, sons of a sister of Hellen), and Aethlius the first king of the Eleans. 

This makes the ancestry of Alexander The Great pretty firmly Aeolian though with some Doric and possibly Davidic influence.  Joel 3 foretells that from those Israelites sold into slavery to Greece would come the means by which God would judge Tyre and Philista.  Alexander’s two most notable sieges were of Tyre and Gaza, with Gaza being one of the few cities he completely destroyed.

I already have a post on Jehosheba and Electra which goes on to talk about the Acheans and Danaans being Dan.

On Second thought the Aeolians were probably the Asherites since Thebes was also Aeolian and it was said to be founded by Cadmus coming from Tyre and Tyre was in Asher's allotment and not listed among those Asher couldn't chase the Canaanites out of.  Meanwhile Berea home of the Bereans of Acts 17 was probably originally Aeolian being in northern Thessaly before Macedon captured it.  And I think it's name could come from the Beriites of Numbers 26:44-45 the clan of Asher's son Beriah of Genesis 46:17, I also suspect Larissa could be a reference to Ishuah.

It's Christmas Time

I'm probably not gonna do any major project here for Christmas.  But I wanna link to some Christmas Relevant post I'd made in the past.

Pagan Winter Solstice Holidays linked to Christmas
http://tinyurl.com/PaganChristmas

http://preview.tinyurl.com/PaganChristmas

 Hanukkah is a Biblical Holy Day
http://tinyurl.com/HanukkahIsBiblical

http://preview.tinyurl.com/HanukkahIsBiblical

 A Hanukkah and Christmas relevant post from my SolaScripturaChristianLiberty BlogSpot blog
http://tinyurl.com/h8hyd58

http://preview.tinyurl.com/h8hyd58

Those are some of the older ones I still consider worth linking too.

 https://midseventiethweekrapture.blogspot.com/2017/04/venus-could-be-star-of-bethlehem.html

https://midseventiethweekrapture.blogspot.com/2017/12/when-i-say-i-think-jesus-was-born-on.html

https://midseventiethweekrapture.blogspot.com/2017/01/i-dont-think-jesus-was-born-on.html

Pagan ideas compared to The Trinity

Inspiring Philosophy did a video addressing people accusing The Trinity of being Pagan called Is The Trinity Pagan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAcDV270D_0


It’s a pretty good video, but I would say he slipped a bit in addressing the Hindu Trimurti comparison.  Hinduism does have distinct personalities for Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva so saying it’s more like Modalism doesn’t really work. 

The main failure of that analogy is that when you break it down, comparing Brahma to The Father and Vishnu who incarnated as Human Avatars to The Logos can make a little sense, but comparing the Holy Spirit to Shiva the God of Destruction makes no sense, their functions are literally the opposite.

And then there is the fact that this Trimurti idea developed late, I don’t think you can actually find it in the Rigveda, Ramayana or Mahabharata, and even some of those writings come after the Northern Tribes were dispersed Eastward.  The Kurma Purana seems to be the earliest clear expression of it and it’s Eighth Century AD at the earliest.  Christians had migrated to India from Persia at least as early as the 4th Century AD.

I also think the development of Hinduism and Buddhism may have been influenced by the Gnostics. The Manicheans had spread throughout Persia and further east. And the Mahabrahma is like the Gnostic Demiurge, a lesser creator who thinks he's the top god even though he isn't.

A closer Comparison to The Trinity would be Neo-Platonism’s concept of The One, The Intellect and the World Soul.  A key distinction I’d make there is that it is mostly the Intellect emanating from The One and the World Soul emanating from The Intellect.  While the Christian Trinity is much more Triangular in its relationship, in fact the Greek Orthodox would stress that the Holy Spirits proceeds from The Father not The Son.

But again, while Neo-Plaotnism draws on Plato, nothing this close to a Trinity is in Plato.  Neo-Platonism is largely said to have began with Plotinus (204-270 AD) or his mentor Ammonius Saccas (175-242 AD).  Tertullian (155-240 AD) had already laid out a doctrine of The Trinity pretty similar to the Nicene one before their careers started, and he was just inserting himself into a discussion Christians were already having.  Theophilus of Antioch (died by 185 AD) was the first to use the term Trinity and defined it as The Father, The Logos and Sophia. 

Porphyry, an Anti-Christian Neo-Platonist writer, said that Saccas’s parents had been Christians but he rejected their faith.  So actually there is good reason to suspect that many similarities between Christian and Neoplatonic Philosophy came from Christians first.  That said I do still believe reverence for Socrates, Plato and Aristotle has been a very bad influence on Church History.

Learning this about Saccas as I researched this post was quite interesting.  It’s easy to assume Christian ides didn’t influence the secular world before Constantine, but what Constantine did was possible because Christianity was already becoming mainstream in many places.  So this documentation of a Pre-Nicene Pagan writer with a Christian background is quite fascinating.

I suppose I should mention briefly the Zoka SanShin (Three Kami of Creation) from Shinto Mythology.  Everything we know about Japanese mythology stems from the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki which were both early Eighth Century writings.  If certain theories about the Hata Clan are true then Christians could have been an influence on Japan well before then.  Though in its final form the Zoka SanShin is more like the Neoplatonist trinity then the Christian one, being more linear than triangular.  And they are in no way defined as being Homusias.
https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2018/04/nestorianism-and-church-of-east.html

Dinosaurs and Dragons

You don't have to be a Six-Day Young Earth Creationist to see a connection between Dinosaurs and mythical creatures like Dragons.  You can hold the mainstream view of the age of the Earth and still think a few small patches survived to Ancient or even modern times.  Or you could say Ancient people stumbled upon Dinosaur fossils which helped inspire those myths, but the later option doesn't explain eye witness accounts.

However opposition to Young Earth Creationism is the only explanation I can think of for why so many insist on denying any connection exists or could exist, insisting it must be just a coincidence that man imagined Dragons and then we found the bones of creatures that fit exactly the definition of what a Dragon is.  Because they love being able to casually mock Creationists with "if the Earth is only 6000 years old how come humans never saw Dinosaurs", then countless accounts of people seeing things like Dinosaurs are pointed out to them and they go "no, but..." and move the goal posts.

I'm not desperate to convert anyone to Creationism any more since I'm an Evangelical Universalist now.  I just want people to know that the existence of Dinosaurs is not a sufficient reason to doubt The Bible.

Dinosaurs weren't the only things to inspire these ancient myths, they're often also allegories of more abstract things like Greed.  Same as Godzilla was not inspired only by Dinosaurs but was first and foremost an allegory for the destructive power of Nuclear Weapons.  Even Jurassic Park is about more then just Dinosaurs, it's also another re-imagining of Frankenstein as well as being about the evils of Capitalism.

A lot of why people feel so confident they can mock the idea of a connection is because the modern default idea of what a Dragon looks like is much more specific then what it actually used to mean, being basically Smaug and Charizard.  But even in Tolkien not all Dragons looked like Smaug, Smaug represents a specific sub group, the winged Fire Drake.  And the really specific look of Smaug I don't think was even precedented much before Tolkien, even Beowulf's dragon is not described quite like that in the original text.  There were actually medieval bestiaries describing many different kinds of Dragons, not all of which could even be described as gigantic in size.

Yes, a lot of the images Creationists point to don't look exactly perfectly like a specific Dinosaur, just as Bugs Bunny doesn't look that much like a real bunny rabbit.  Artistic depictions take liberties and oral traditions can obscure the details even when they're trying to be perfectly accurate.
http://creationwiki.org/Ancient_dinosaur_depiction

The 12th century Ta Prohm Temple near Angkor Wat in Cambodia has a carving which resemblance to a Stegasaur is way to close to be coincidental.

But for something that's a personal hypothesis of mine that takes a bit more room for interpretation, let's talk about the Tarasque.

First of all it's said to originally come from Galatia, which fits the fact that the earliest Christian Community of Southern France were people who came there from Ephesus in the 2nd Century.  Now I'm not convinced Martha or the other Bethany siblings actually went to Asia Minor either, I suspect their remains are among those found at the Dominus Flevit Church on the Mont of Olives.

The most peculiar detail of the Tarasque is that it's not a Turtle but is described as having a turtle shell on it's back.  I think this animal was inspired by an Ankylosaurus (the same type of Dinosaur that inspired Anguirus).  This creature doesn't have a Turtle Shell on it's back but one can easily see how it might look that way to an ancient observer.

I no longer share the hostility other Creationists have to the idea of Feathered Dinosaurs.  I don't think Dinosaurs evolved into modern Birds, but God could easily have created creatures that would seem to us like Lizard/Bird hybrids, just as an Ankylosaur could have been mistaken to be a hybrid of a Turtle and something else.

And once we acknowledge Feathered Dinosaurs we can realize that only adds to the amount of evidence of them being known to the Ancients.  From Mesoamerican gods depicted as feathered serpents to the European examples of the Cockatrice and Basilisk.  Both words have been used in translations of The Bible.  Now I don't think the Hebrew word tsepha' was likely to be referring to the same thing as either of those European terms.  But if you're a radical KJV onlyist like Kent Hovind, you can't then deny that what Cockatrice meant to a 1611 English speaker is something The King James Bible is claiming exists (it's right in the etymology of Cockatrice that it resembles a Rooster in some fashion).  I remember watching one Kent Hovind debate where his opponent brought up the Cockatrice and Hovind just ignored it.

And now we've transitioned into talking about Dinosaurs in The Bible.  I believe Seraphim was a term for Pterodactyls aka Ropens.  And I mostly stand by my past speculation that Jonah was swallowed by a Sea Dinosaur. Reem (Unicorn in the KJV) however I do not think refers to a Dinosaur but probably an Auroch.

Now the big two when it comes to Dinosaurs in The Bible speculation are Behemoth and Leviathan.  It boggles my mind every time someone tells me that in context' it's clearly describing a demonic creature and not a natural animal.  No, it's context in Job 38-41 is as the climax of a list of normal animals, yet people keep getting away with saying it's the opposite.

Yes there are extra Biblical Jewish legends turning Behemoth and Leviathan into cosmic horrors not compatible with any real animals.  That's why Paul warned us to not regard Jewish Fables.  These non-Biblical ideas about Behemoth and Leviathan are partly the inspiration for Groudon and Kyogre the 3rd generation mascot Legendary Pokemon (and Rayqyaza was based on the Ziz) but none of that has any basis in Job.

I watched this YouTube video on Behemoth recently, at the very end it starts vaguely alluding to Republican politics and a Soterolgoy I no longer support, but mostly it's a pretty good video.  There is little internal debate among Creationsits about what Dinosaur the Behemoth is, it's a longed neck herbivore, basically the first Dinosaur we see clearly and unobstructed in Jurassic Park, so just imagine John Williams score for that scene as you read Job 40.

Leviathan is more complicated however.

Firstly because unlike Behemoth the word does show up outside of Job, in Isaiah 27 and a couple of Psalms.  Other references to Leviathan are possibly using him as an analogy for the 7 headed Dragon and/or The Beast out of the Sea of Revelation, like how Jesus uses Birds to represent Satan in the Kingdom Parables of Matthew 13, being used symbolically in some places doesn't make it not a word for a real animal.  I also think Leviathan is possibly used of a Constellation in some verses.  If The Ancient Hebrews had a view of the Constellations analogous to our own, then Draco, Serpens, Hydra and Cetus are all good candidates.

I think it's best to stick to Job when defining the Zoological characteristics of Leviathan.  Which first of all means the words translated "piercing" and "crooked" in Isaiah 27:1 aren't used in Job 41 and so maybe descriptions of the Constellation or poetic idioms about Satan are not useful for figuring out what the real animal looked like.

Isaiah 27:1 is a really complicated verse to consider here.  It could be using multiple idioms for one thing, or describing three different things, two Leviathans and a Dragon, or two things, Leviathan and a Dragon.  This verse probably isn't about the actual animal anyway, but I still wanted to point that out.

If we limit our clues for the real animal to Job 41 does that weaken it's aquatic association?  Not quite, verse 31 seems to say it spends some time in the sea.  But it is most likely Amphibious and not purely a Sea Creature.

I have a personal hunch that the Leviathan of Job 41 could be Spinosaurus aegyptiacus.  There are plenty of inaccuracies to how this Dinosaur was depicted in Jurassic Park 3, but according to this video it was indeed Amphibious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STn0CxdMIKk&t

Fire breathing, that is the big factor in objections to saying Dragons are real, including specifically Biblical ones which definitely attribute fire breathing to Leviathan and possibly but more debatably the Seraphim (there are other views of what them being called "firey" means).

The Bombardier beetle has an ability that certainly seems like shooting fire. 

Skeptical analysis of such arguments for fire breathing animals often miss the point. Creationists only need the specific Biblical references to be literally true, so it doesn't matter if it actually looked like what Smaug or a Fire Type Pokemon can do.

One anti-Creationist website I was reading gave a simplified summery of the history of dragon legends and claims dragons didn't start breathing fire till the 5th century AD and none had wings till the 13th.  That ignores The Bible's own descriptions of both winged serpents and Leviathan, as well as Beowulf.  Basically this site wants to say Dragons didn't start resembling Dinosaurs till the 19th Century, which is an utterly absurd suggestion.

This is a Post about Higurashi/When They Cry

The very nature of what I want to discuss here is a spoiler.  Higurashi is one of the few shows where I think it’s important to not be spoiled.  As I already explained when I declared season 1 the ideal Horror Anime.

This post will even spoil season 2.  In fact it's more so about season 2.  Though some important hints at the themes I'm discussing here are in season 1.  October just started so it's as good a time as any to watch it.

Endymion & Selene compared to Inanna & Tammuz

That Endymion is called both a Shepherd and a King for awhile had me thinking David is the only other "mythological" figure he could viably be compared to.  And while that connection is still one I'm perusing.  I eventually remembered that on the Sumerian Kings List the Antedeluvian Dumuzi/Dumuzid (from which the name Tammuz comes) was called a Shepherd.

En is a Sumerian honorary prefix usually translated "lord".  Also an -on often winds up added at the end of Greek transliterations of foreign names (this Greek feature is the only reason we call Babylon that, in the Hebrew/Aramaic text of the Old Testament it's always Babel/BBL, it's also traditionally viewed as why we spell Solomon that way).  For those two reasons, I could see Lord Dumuzi being corrupted to Endymion in Greek.  Also Damu is another form the name of Dumuzi used in a text titled In the Desert by the Early Grass.

The genealogy of Inanna/Ishtar is contradictory in various Sumerian/Akkadian and other Mesopotamian sources.  Sometimes she's the daughter of Anu directly, sometimes of Enlil, rarely of Enki.  But in one of the oldest Sumerian poems about her relationship with Dumuzid called Inana and Bilulu: an Ulila to Inana she is specifically depicted as the daughter of Nanna aka Suen/Sin (The Moon god) and his wife Ningal.  Which gives a pretty strong basis for seeing her as a Lunar Goddess.

So basically, Inanna=Selene and Dumuzid/Tammuz=Endymion.

This is not the only Greek version of this Sumerian myth, as it's usually more commonly compared to Adonis, the Adonia happens the same time of year the Women wept for Tammuz.  But remember Greece also had multiple Flood legends.  In the Adonis tradition Inanna is Aphrodite, so that's the version that came through Cyrpus and Kythira.  I also believe Eos and other Indo-European Dawn Goddess (plus Uzume in Japan) are also an aspect of Inanna/Ishtar.

What's interesting is how I could stretch this analogy beyond just the original Greek Myth and make it match even more by comparing it to the Lore of the Manga/Anime franchise Sailor Moon, starting with Ningal as Queen Serenity.

Bilulu could be compared to either Beryl or Queen Metaria.  Metaria could also perhaps be compared to Ereshkigal, though that basically becomes a female version of the turning Hades into Satan trope.

The loyal Maid-Servants of Inanna like Ninshubur could perhaps be the other Sailor Senshi in this analogy, and I'm oddly attracted to Makoto as Geshtinanna.  It's also theorized by some that Inanna and Ishtar were originally separate deities later merged together with Ishtar being originally mainly a name for the Planet Venus, so that makes Ishtar as Sailor Venus an interesting option since Sailor Venus was sometimes a body double for the Princess.

The four Shitennou could perhaps be compared to people like Lulal and Shara who were governing other cities under the sway of Uruk.  Also Ningishzida who was a brother in-law of Dumuzi and sometimes paired with him.

I simply lack a Sailor Moon character to compare Girgire/Jirgire to, besides that maybe in a different way he also plays the role of the Shitennou.

Richard Carrier says the differences don't matter.

I've read a couple articles on Richard Carrier's website about the Christ Myth Hypothesis.  And he basically stubbornly says that the differences like what InspiringPhilosphy and Chris White point out don't matter, it's only the similarities that matter.
[Update August 17th 2018: I need to add a major qualifier to my endorsement of Inspiring Philosophy's Copycat Savior playlist since in the new Inanna video he engages in the massive Hersey of denying The Harrowing of Hell.]

Well it's nice that you feel you get to write the rules of this debate in a way that inherently favors your side.  But if you took George Lucas to court for plagiarizing The Hidden Fortress in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and said "all these differences don't matter" the Judge would laugh at you.  "No one is claiming Star Wars is a true story" you might respond, well things that actually happen sometimes seem like history repeating itself, there were a lot of jokes back in the 2000s about a second George Bush starting a second war with Iraq.  And sometimes things that actually happen seem like earlier fiction coming true, which is a recurring meme about our current President, fictional Donald Trumps got into the White House long before the real one did, and in most cases those writers thought they were writing an inherently impossible absurdity.  Or I could leave politics out of this and point to The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility.

Christianity has never claimed to base it's credibility on saying no one had ever thought of the idea of coming back from the dead before.  Quite the contrary I seek to show that the idea was firmly set up by the Hebrew Bible, including The Torah, in Genesis 22 and Joseph's narrative, and some of the Psalms.  And everything that's a basis for the Messiah Ben-Joseph tradition.  And the general Resurrection of the Dead was foretold in Isaiah 26, Ezekiel 37 and Daniel 12.

Richard Carrier is unique, he brings up his beliefs about the Old Testament not being much different from Pagan beliefs either in the same articles he talks about the Christ Myth Hypothesis.  You see lots of Christ Mythers are doing this partly with an agenda of denying the Jewishness of the New Testament, of saying it uses the situation of First Century Judea as a setting but that it's fundamentally philosophically Greco-Roman.  And that attitude is what I'm trying to oppose in posts like Greek words that are viewed as Gnostic and The Hebrew precedent for the Last Supper.

For example, people who see Virgin Births in every ancient Pre-Christian special birth story BUT Isaiah 7:14.  Saying "Isaiah couldn't possibly have been talking about a Virgin Birth because his said Almah not Bethulah", and then turn around and read Virgin Births into Greek stories that never called anyone a Parthenos and do graphically describe sexual intercourse.

One website I read went on about how "Goddesses aren't like Humans, we can assume they remain Virgins even when they have sex", as if the "Hyman" was the point.  Only three Olympian deities are called Virgin as a title and none of them reproduced, likewise with the non Olympian Astraea.  And in the Ugarit texts only Anath is called any word for Virgin and she never reproduced either, one line in the Baal Cycle can be taken out of context about her "Bearing a calf" but that was about her carrying one in her arms not giving birth.  The Egyptian Virgin Goddess was Nephthys, who Wikipedia says was the mother of Anubis but there is no actual solid source on that.  Isis was never ever called a Virgin until post Enlightenment Thesophists and Neo-Pagans decided it suited them to do so.

If the Christ Mythers stated this part of their argument as just being that there were miraculous births before Jesus, it wouldn't be so easy to nit pick it to death.  But they don't do that, the names of their articles and blog posts are always about Virgin births. But you see they know deep down only calling it a "Virgin" birth is specific enough to be an impressive similarity.

However I'm not as invested in the uniqueness of the Virgin Birth as I am the Resurrection, because the Virgin Birth isn't the definition of The Gospel, The Resurrection is. And that is where I'll firmly respond to Carrier's attitude by saying that to me the similarities don't matter, because the difference between Jesus Resurrection and pagan Dying and Rising god myths is where the definition of The Gospel lies.

Pagan dying and rising god myths are mere allegories for the "Circle of Life", meant to reinforce that Death is a natural part of how the world works that we need to accept.  Which is also the Moral of the Epic of Gilgamesh.  You see these Pagan "dying and rising gods" don't permanently rise, Osiris winds up right back down in the Underworld after being reanimated just long enough to conceive Horus.  After the Sermon on Mars Hill in Acts 17 the Greek audience is baffled by Paul's declaration of The Resurrection, not because the author of Acts was unaware of Greeks myths that could be called dying and rising myths, but because Paul is referring to someone who stayed Risen.

The Harrowing of Hell doctrine gets compared to Orpheus traveling to Hades, but Orpheus failed, like Izanagi failed, however Jesus succeeded in getting His Bride out of Hades.  The stories of Orpheus and Izanagi are the Bad News, they send the message that there is no escape from Hades/Yomi.  Paul proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 15:55 that Death has no Sting and Hades has no Victory.  Revelation chapter 20 foretells that Hades will one day be emptied.  And in my interpretation of Scripture it's not merely some Humans who will be risen to Eternal Life, it is all of us, because I believe in Universal Salvation.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Faust

It is pretty well known that Madoka drew on Faust, but typically analysis of Madoka has been more about how it relates to the Magical Girl genre and Anime trends in general.  However there are some things about how Madoka uses Faust that I think are worth discussing.  This is based on just the original stand alone series, I’m ignoring all the spin off Manga and Rebellion.

But first allow me to give a brief overview of the history of the Faust legend.  Before the name of Faust appears.similar themes are seen in the stories about St Cyprian and Justina or Theophilus of Adana.  (And sometimes comparisons to Simon Magus are made. ) The legend of Faust first emerged in Germany in the 1500s.  Possibly partly inspired by the historical Alchemist Johann Georg Faust who lived about 1480-1540. 

One of the first major dramatizations of the story was the English Language Elizabethan Stage Play written by Christopher Marlowe which has two contradictory versions.  I watched a performance of it on YouTube.  It might have been intended to be a commentary on Calvinism, since the key differences between the two versions come down to whether Faust had Free Will or not.  This is one of the versions where there is no Salvation for Faust in the end.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s version of the story is clearly the primary influence on Madoka.  For example Walpurgisnacht is a plot point in Goethe.

Then came George Reynolds' Penny Dreadful Faust saga which competed with Varney The Vampire, and then had a spin off called Wagner the Werewolf.  And a famous puppet show.  The perhaps most obscure treatment of the legend is in the first chapter of Paul Feval's La Vampire translated into English by Brian Stableford for BlackCoatPress as The Vampire Countess.  But as a fan of theirs I feel compelled to mention it.

Not all of Madoka’s characters line up to characters in Faust even vaguely.  There are three that to some extent do.

Kyubey is obviously Mephistopheles, that’s a no brainer.

Faust in this story is not the title character.  All the other Magical Girls are to an extent, but chiefly it's Akemi Homura who is Faust.

The role Kaname Madoka fills is given away by the name of her Witch form, Gretchen.  The character named Gretchen in Goethe's Faust is also known as Margurite or Margret.  It’s possible to see Madoka as the closest thing to a similar sounding Japanese name.

The legend of Faust usually goes that he makes a deal with Mephistopheles selling his soul.  They spend time being popular celebrities in Europe using their Magical Powers.  Faust falls in love with Gretchen but Gretchen suffers a tragic fate because of Mephistopheles.  Faust goes on being unrepentant.  Many versions however have Faust saved in the end in-spite of his lack of Repentance, giving the story a Universalist tone.

Here is the thing about Goethe’s Faust that I feel is sadly overlooked in the context of its relationship to Madoka. 

Faust is saved at the end when Gretchen who has become an Angel takes his Soul to Heaven snatching him away from The Devil.  Yes, that’s right, even the Apotheosis of Madoka has a basis in Goethe.

Now Madoka has more agency then Gretchen in her Apotheosis, since Gretchen is just made an Angel as a reward for being Virtuous.  But it’s somewhat subversive that Goethe considers Gretchen virtuous since she basically had an Abortion.

This aspect of the story descends from Theophilus being saved by the Virgin Mary.  The Virgin Mary connection is also echoed by Ava Maria being played on the violin in the last episode of Madoka.  I’ve commented elsewhere on how I think Fantasia may have also been an influence, Knight on Bald Mountain is depicting Walpurgisnacht.

 "Virgin, Mother, Queen, ... Goddess kind forever... Eternal Womanhood. The Goddess is thus victorious over Mephistopheles, who had insisted at Faust's death that he would be consigned to "The Eternal Empty."- Goethe, Faust, Part Two, lines 12101–12110, translation: David Luke, Oxford World Classics.

That quote has the ability to seem both Feminist and Patriarchal in the same way that has made Feminists feel conflicted towards the Magical Girl Warrior genre since back when it was just Sailor Moon.  So perhaps Faust was a more logical choice for a commentary on the Magical Girl genre than anyone originally thought.

Avoid Bad Comparative Mythology Research

I still haven't gotten to the main stuff I wanna do on this Blog yet.  Part of the problem is I have so many ideas I can't decide which one to delve into first.

Among other things, I want to help people avoid certain bad Comparative Mythology research that comes from both Believers and Skeptics.  That has it's origins in the bad research of 18th and 19th century Thesophists and Alexander Hislop.

Before recommending again what I've said on the subject, I want to recommend some material by people more formally qualified then I am.

One is the Inspiring Philosophy YouTube channel.  I don't agree with them on everything but they have some good material on this subject.  One is a video called Is The Trinity Pagan?  They have a series on Was Jesus a copycat Savior?  And I like their video Easter is not Pagan.  Their equivalent videos on Christmas also have good information but there they say stuff I can't endorse, they do tolerate more Catholic reclaiming of Paganism then I'm wiling to.
[Update August 2018: I need to add a major qualifier to my endorsement of Inspiring Philosophy's Copycat Savior playlist since in the new Inanna video he engages in the massive Hersey of denying The Harrowing of Hell.]

Another good YouTube channel is Religion for Breakfast, they come at things from a secular perspective, so as such certainly say things I don't agree with here and there.  But sometimes that outsider perspective is useful.  He has a video on the Cult of Mithras Explained, and his own about Why is Christmas on December 25th?

Chris White did a lot of stuff on this.  In a way he's still more a conspiracy theorist then I am now.  And to some extend I recently don't find his work as re-watchable as I used to.  Still I have my own Playlist of Chris White videos on YouTube.  Not everything there is about Comparative mythology, the ones about Zeitgeist and specific New Agers are the key ones.

Now for some of my own work.

My most important post on this topic is Paganism is about what you Believe not what you do from Sola Scirptura Christian Liberty on BlogSpot.

On m A Chronological View of Revelation blog.  I actually think I do deal with the Letter of Hadrian from the Histora Augusta better then IP did in their Serapis video.  And I also talk about Christmas Hanukkah, and December 25th.

And on my now semi-defunct Revised Chronology views of Mithrandir blog I talked about a lot of the Nimrod disinformation.

So the first two YouTubers I mentioned are the best starting point.  I'll see how many videos I can successfully embed here.  On some of these I've left comments in the comments sections.

Update October 2018: I found another Playlist on the history of the Christ Myth Hypothesis, from the Casual Historian YouTube Channel.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTZaOylOgJT-GLyroghQSfXAUPAusaEI4
Though he still says things I disagree with like considering Paul's Epistles older then any of the Gospels.

Tuatha Dé Danann, The Table of Nations and the Ramayama

In Irish Mythology the Tuatha Dé Danann are a people who invaded Ireland from Northern Europe before the Milesians.  Said to descend from a Goddess named Dana or Danu.

British Israelism, and other theories, have sought to identify them with the Biblical Tribe of Dan.  In my own theories I've come to prefer more specifically identifying Dan with Greece, Makedon, Ionia and maybe parts of Italy.  And thus come to reject attempts to identify them with northern European tribes.

I still think the Tuatha De Danann came from Scandinavia and thus may be partly related to modern populations of Scandinavia and Germany.  But where did they come from Biblically?  Well the D-n element is used in The Bible of more then just children of Jacob.  Lately I finally noticed something interesting.

TuathaDeDanann, as in Dedan.

There are two Dedans in Genesis, both have a brother named Sheba.  Some might be tempted to identify the De Danann with the Dedan who's a grandson of Abraham.  But Abraham's sons by Keturah were settled in Arabia, according to Josephus along the Red Sea, where the the Dedan of Abraham was also known as Lihyan.

The Tuatha De Danann are often identified with two other groups from other Indo-European mythologies.  The Children of Don of Welsh Mythology, descended from the Goddess Dôn.  And the Danavas of Hindu mythology who also descended from a Goddess named Danu.   There is a state called Dedan in modern India.

I've already argued elsewhere that the Rama of the Ramayama was a deification of Raamah son of Cush of Genesis 10.  Rama by his wife Sita has two children just like the Raamah of Genesis.  And one of the sons of Rama and Sita was named Kusha, showing that the Ramayama has the genealogy changed a bit, but is definitely evidence of them being Kushite.  Cush wasn't just in Africa.  I think the Sheba son of Raamah was deified as the Hindu god Shiva.

Shakespeare never wrote about King Arthur

There are a lot of subjects Shakespeare never covered, that a mind like mine wonders what it could have been like if he had.  The censorship laws of the time tell us why he never dramatized any stories from The Bible.  In addition to that is Alexander The Great, or the Julio-Claudian Dynasty.

But it’s easy to think of King Arthur as being the one most conspicuous in his absence.  He covered other semi or completely mythical Kings of Briton like Lear and Cymbeline.  Even Macbeth feels almost like it belongs in the same genre as Arthurian legend.

Other Elizabethans didn’t really write about Arthur much either.  There is one obscure Elizabethan play about Merlin that some speculate might have been a work of Shakespeare, but it’s generally not considered part of the canon.

The reason I want to bring this up here is because I think one particular set of Shakespeare plays possibly provides a good model for how Shakespeare would have handled the subject of Arthur.  The four plays known as the Henriad.

This idea of mine came about from how KyleKallgrenBHH tends to talk about the Henry plays in his videos, like his take on The Lion King, and The Chimes at Midnight, and the Branagh films, and talking about Thor in his video on The Avengers.

It becomes easy to think of the rather idealized portrait he paints of Henry V as being what his take on King Arthur would be.  With Henry IV then as Uther, and Richard II as Vortigern.  Falstaf could maybe be compared to Sir Kay. or maybe Ecktor with Kay, Bedivere and Gawain being Pistol, Nym and Bardolph.

Update April 2019: And maybe you could expand that to the War of the Roses plays resembling what supposedly happened after Arthur's death. With various Lancastrian figures being the 5 kings of Wales and Cornwall, and maybe Cardinal Henry Beaufort as Gildas.  And the house of Peredur being the house of York.

Valentines Day and Lupercalia

I like finding an excuse to draw attention to this YouTube video that I didn't make when V-Day approaches.  And it occurred to me it could count as relevant to this Blog.

Love Angels V-Day PSA by TokuTenshi.   It's a bonus episode of Wedding Peach Abridged, which is a funny series in general.  This one mostly works well even out of that context.

I promise I have some proper posts coming.  It's taking longer for me to perfect the arguments I wanted to make then I originally anticipated.