[eye candy] Divine statues and myths.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Here I am going to leave ideas for generic statuses of gods that are worshiped in many cultures and sacred beasts( myths).

The 7-headed serpent.

 

 

The Seven-headed Serpent (from Sumerian muš-saĝ-7: snake with seven heads) in Sumerian religion was one of the Heroes slain by Ninurta, patron god of Lagash, in ancient Iraq. Its body was hung on the "shining cross-beam" of Ninurta's chariot (lines 55–63[1]).

Lotan (ltn) is an adjectival formation meaning "coiled", here used as a proper name;[7] the same creature has a number of possible epitheta, including "the fugitive serpent" (bṯn brḥ) and maybe (with some uncertainty deriving from manuscript lacunae) "the wriggling serpent" (bṯn ʿqltn) and "the mighty one with seven heads" (šlyṭ d.šbʿt rašm).[4]

Lotan (Ugaritic:LTN, meaning "coiled"), also transliterated Lôtān,[1] Litan,[2] or Litānu,[3] is a servant of the sea god Yam defeated by the storm god Hadad-Baʿal in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle.[3] Lotan seems to have been prefigured by the serpent Têmtum represented in Syrian seals of the 18th–16th century BC,[4] and finds a later reflex in the sea monster Leviathan, whose defeat at the hands of Yahweh is alluded to in the biblical Book of Job and in Isaiah 27:1.[4][3] Lambert (2003) went as far as the claim that Isaiah 27:1 is a direct quote lifted from the Ugaritic text, correctly rendering Ugaritic bṯn "snake" as Hebrew nḥš "snake".[5][6]

 

 

The myth of Hadad defeating Lotan, Yahweh defeating Leviathan, Marduk defeating Tiamat (etc.) in the mythologies of the Ancient Near East are classical examples of the Chaoskampf mytheme, also reflected in Zeus' slaying of Typhon in Greek mythology,[8] Thor's struggle against Jörmungandr in the Gylfaginning portion of the Prose Edda,[9] and the vedic battle between Indra and Vritra (from Sanskrit , vṛtrá, meaning enveloper, cover and therefore obstacle) who is accused as a dragon of hoarding the waters and the rains, as a dasa of stealing cows, and as an anti-god of hiding the Sun,[10] concentrating on Vritra several demonization processes, the pattern of good versus evil, darkness versus light (hiding the Sun), and comparisons to forces of nature and monsters whose tentacles span the earth.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotan

 

Sacred bull from the Middle East.

Winged snakes.

Chimeras.

According to Hesiod, the Chimera's mother was a certain ambiguous "she", which may refer to Echidna, in which case the father would presumably be Typhon, though possibly (unlikely) the Hydra or even Ceto was meant instead.[4] However, the mythographers Apollodorus (citing Hesiod as his source) and Hyginus both make the Chimera the offspring of Echidna and Typhon.[5] Hesiod also has the Sphinx and the Nemean lion as the offspring of Orthus, and another ambiguous "she", often understood as probably referring to the Chimera, although possibly instead to Echidna, or again even Ceto.

 

God of thunder (Baal, Zeus, Thor)

Mother Earth (mother goddess)

Edited February 16 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

https://beautifulbooks.info/2019/04/angus-mcbrides-legendary-beasts/

Here are some illustrations of famous beasts, you have to see what they exist or existed.

[Lion.Kanzen]

[Lion.Kanzen]

A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of one feature of a storm, they will be called after that attribute, such as a rain god or a lightning/thunder god. This singular attribute might then be emphasized more than the generic, all-encompassing term "storm god", though with thunder/lightning gods, the two terms seem interchangeable. They feature commonly in polytheistic religions, especially in Proto-Indo-European ones.

Storm gods are most often conceived of as wielding thunder and/or lightning (some lightning gods' names actually mean "thunder",[1][2][3] but since one cannot have thunder without lightning, they presumably wielded both). The ancients didn't seem to differentiate between the two, which is presumably why both the words "lightning bolt" and "thunderbolt" exist despite being synonyms. Of the examples currently listed storm themed deities are more frequently depicted as male, but both male and female storm or other rain, wind, or weather deities are described.

 

Canaanite

edit

Ba'al, Canaanite god of fertility, weather, and war.

Hadad, the Canaanite and Carthaginian storm, fertility, & war god. Identified as Baʿal's true name at Ugarit.

Early forms of the Jewish Yahweh worship

Egyptian

 

Horus, the Egyptian god of rainstorms, the weather, the sky and war. Associated with the sun, kingship, and retribution. Personified in the pharaoh.

Set, the Egyptian chaos, evil, and storm god, lord of the desert.

 

Perun, Slavic god of thunder and lightning and king of the gods.

 

Thor, Norse god of thunder/lightning, oak trees, protection, strength, and hallowing. Also Thunor and Donar, the Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic versions, respectively, of him. All descend from Common Germanic *Thunraz, the reflex of the PIE thunder god for this language branch of the Indo-Europeans.

Jupiter, the Roman weather and sky god and king of the gods.

 

Zeus, Greek weather and sky god and king of the gods

Indra, Hindu God of the Weather, Storms, Sky, Lightning, and Thunder. Also known as the King of gods

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_god

 

 

Edited February 17 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

Divine Sacred Bull.

 

The bull was sacred to the Babylonians. Likely these were aurochs, the ancestors to modern cattle, standing over six feet tall, armed with enormous horns. The chief god of the Babylonians, Marduk, was described as a bull calf, whose father was the sun god, Shamash. In the old Babylonian period, the horns of the bull were associated with the crescent moon.

The bull was also associated with the storm and rain god Adad, Hadad or Iškur. The bull was his symbolic animal. He appeared bearded, often holding a club and thunderbolt while wearing a bull-horned headdress. Hadad was equated with the Greek god Zeus; the Roman god Jupiter, as Jupiter Dolichenus; the Indo-European Nasite Hittite storm-god Teshub; the Egyptian god Amun. When Enki distributed the destinies, he made Iškur inspector of the cosmos. In one litany, Iškur is proclaimed again and again as "great radiant bull, your name is heaven" and also called son of Anu, lord of Karkara; twin-brother of Enki, lord of abundance, lord who rides the storm, lion of heaven.

The Bull of Heaven

In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, the Bull of Heaven is a mythical beast fought by the hero Gilgamesh. The story of the Bull of Heaven has two different versions: one recorded in an earlier Sumerian poem and a later version in the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Sumerian poem, the Bull is sent to attack Gilgamesh by the goddess Inanna for reasons that are unclear.

 

The more complete Akkadian account comes from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh refuses the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar, the East Semitic equivalent of Inanna, leading the enraged Ishtar to demand the Bull of Heaven from her father Anu, so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh in Uruk. Anu gives her the Bull and she sends it to attack Gilgamesh and his companion, the hero Enkidu, who slay the Bull together.

 

After defeating the Bull, Enkidu hurls the Bull's right thigh at Ishtar, taunting her. The slaying of the Bull results in the gods condemning Enkidu to death, an event which catalyzes Gilgamesh's fear for his own death, which drives the remaining portion of the epic. The Bull was identified with the constellation Taurus and the myth of its slaying may have held astronomical significance to the ancient Mesopotamians. Aspects of the story have been compared to later tales from the ancient Near East, including legends from Ugarit, the tale of Joseph in the Book of Genesis, and parts of the ancient Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Edited March 7 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

10 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Divine Sacred Bull.

 

The bull was sacred to the Babylonians. Likely these were aurochs, the ancestors to modern cattle, standing over six feet tall, armed with enormous horns. The chief god of the Babylonians, Marduk, was described as a bull calf, whose father was the sun god, Shamash. In the old Babylonian period, the horns of the bull were associated with the crescent moon.

The bull was also associated with the storm and rain god Adad, Hadad or Iškur. The bull was his symbolic animal. He appeared bearded, often holding a club and thunderbolt while wearing a bull-horned headdress. Hadad was equated with the Greek god Zeus; the Roman god Jupiter, as Jupiter Dolichenus; the Indo-European Nasite Hittite storm-god Teshub; the Egyptian god Amun. When Enki distributed the destinies, he made Iškur inspector of the cosmos. In one litany, Iškur is proclaimed again and again as "great radiant bull, your name is heaven" and also called son of Anu, lord of Karkara; twin-brother of Enki, lord of abundance, lord who rides the storm, lion of heaven.

The Bull of Heaven

In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, the Bull of Heaven is a mythical beast fought by the hero Gilgamesh. The story of the Bull of Heaven has two different versions: one recorded in an earlier Sumerian poem and a later version in the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Sumerian poem, the Bull is sent to attack Gilgamesh by the goddess Inanna for reasons that are unclear.

 

The more complete Akkadian account comes from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh refuses the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar, the East Semitic equivalent of Inanna, leading the enraged Ishtar to demand the Bull of Heaven from her father Anu, so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh in Uruk. Anu gives her the Bull and she sends it to attack Gilgamesh and his companion, the hero Enkidu, who slay the Bull together.

 

After defeating the Bull, Enkidu hurls the Bull's right thigh at Ishtar, taunting her. The slaying of the Bull results in the gods condemning Enkidu to death, an event which catalyzes Gilgamesh's fear for his own death, which drives the remaining portion of the epic. The Bull was identified with the constellation Taurus and the myth of its slaying may have held astronomical significance to the ancient Mesopotamians. Aspects of the story have been compared to later tales from the ancient Near East, including legends from Ugarit, the tale of Joseph in the Book of Genesis, and parts of the ancient Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

British classical scholar Graham Anderson notes that, in the Odyssey, Odysseus's men kill the sacred cattle of Helios and are condemned to death by the gods for this reason, much like Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[25] M. L. West states that the similarities run deeper than the mere fact that, in both cases, the creatures slain are bovines exempt from natural death.[26] In both cases, the person or persons condemned to die are companions of the hero, whose death or deaths force the hero to continue his journey alone.[26] He also notes that, in both cases, the epic describes a discussion among the gods over whether or not the guilty party must die[26] and that Helios's threat to Zeus if he does not avenge the slaughter of his cattle in the Odyssey is very similar to Ishtar's threat to Anu when she is demanding the Bull in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

 

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And this is why bulls were sacred on the motorcycles of the ancestors in the Mediterranean and the Near East.

We can't not have bulls in our game.

[Lion.Kanzen]

18 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Divine Sacred Bull.

 

The bull was sacred to the Babylonians. Likely these were aurochs, the ancestors to modern cattle, standing over six feet tall, armed with enormous horns. The chief god of the Babylonians, Marduk, was described as a bull calf, whose father was the sun god, Shamash. In the old Babylonian period, the horns of the bull were associated with the crescent moon.

The bull was also associated with the storm and rain god Adad, Hadad or Iškur. The bull was his symbolic animal. He appeared bearded, often holding a club and thunderbolt while wearing a bull-horned headdress. Hadad was equated with the Greek god Zeus; the Roman god Jupiter, as Jupiter Dolichenus; the Indo-European Nasite Hittite storm-god Teshub; the Egyptian god Amun. When Enki distributed the destinies, he made Iškur inspector of the cosmos. In one litany, Iškur is proclaimed again and again as "great radiant bull, your name is heaven" and also called son of Anu, lord of Karkara; twin-brother of Enki, lord of abundance, lord who rides the storm, lion of heaven.

The Bull of Heaven

In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, the Bull of Heaven is a mythical beast fought by the hero Gilgamesh. The story of the Bull of Heaven has two different versions: one recorded in an earlier Sumerian poem and a later version in the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Sumerian poem, the Bull is sent to attack Gilgamesh by the goddess Inanna for reasons that are unclear.

 

The more complete Akkadian account comes from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh refuses the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar, the East Semitic equivalent of Inanna, leading the enraged Ishtar to demand the Bull of Heaven from her father Anu, so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh in Uruk. Anu gives her the Bull and she sends it to attack Gilgamesh and his companion, the hero Enkidu, who slay the Bull together.

 

After defeating the Bull, Enkidu hurls the Bull's right thigh at Ishtar, taunting her. The slaying of the Bull results in the gods condemning Enkidu to death, an event which catalyzes Gilgamesh's fear for his own death, which drives the remaining portion of the epic. The Bull was identified with the constellation Taurus and the myth of its slaying may have held astronomical significance to the ancient Mesopotamians. Aspects of the story have been compared to later tales from the ancient Near East, including legends from Ugarit, the tale of Joseph in the Book of Genesis, and parts of the ancient Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

In Ancient Egypt multiple sacred bulls were worshiped. A long succession of ritually perfect bulls were identified by the god's priests, housed in the temple for their lifetime, then embalmed and buried.

 

In the Memphite region, the Apis was seen as the embodiment of Ptah and later of Osiris. Some of the Apis bulls were buried in large sarcophagi in the underground vaults of the Serapeum of Saqqara, which was rediscovered by Auguste Mariette in 1851. Other sacred bulls were Mnevis of Heliopolis, the embodiment of Atum-Ra, and Buchis of Armant, linked with the gods Ra and Montu. The mother-cows of these animals were also revered

Ka, in Egyptian, is both a religious concept of life-force/power and the word for bull.[3] Andrew Gordon, an Egyptologist, and Calvin Schwabe, a veterinarian, argue that the origin of the ankh is related to two other signs of uncertain origin that often appear alongside it: the was-sceptre, representing "power" or "dominion", and the djed pillar, representing "stability". According to this hypothesis, the form of each sign is drawn from a part of the anatomy of a bull, like some other hieroglyphic signs that are known to be based on body parts of animals. In Egyptian belief semen was connected with life and, to some extent, with "power" or "dominion", and some texts indicate the Egyptians believed semen originated in the bones. Therefore, Calvin and Schwabe suggest the signs are based on parts of the bull's anatomy through which semen was thought to pass: the ankh is a thoracic vertebra, the djed is the sacrum and lumbar vertebrae, and the was is the dried penis of the bull.

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

Iranian bull.

 

The Iranian language texts and traditions of Zoroastrianism have several different mythological bovine creatures. One of these is Gavaevodata, which is the Avestan name of a hermaphroditic "uniquely created (-aevo.data) cow (gav-)", one of Ahura Mazda's six primordial material creations that becomes the mythological progenitor of all beneficent animal life. Another Zoroastrian mythological bovine is Hadhayans, a gigantic bull so large that it could straddle the mountains and seas that divide the seven regions of the earth, and on whose back men could travel from one region to another. In medieval times, Hadhayans also came to be known as Srīsōk (Avestan *Thrisaok, "three burning places"), which derives from a legend in which three "Great Fires" were collected on the creature's back. Yet another mythological bovine is that of the unnamed creature in the Cow's Lament, an allegorical hymn attributed to Zoroaster himself, in which the soul of a bovine (geush urvan) despairs over her lack of protection from an adequate herdsman. In the allegory, the cow represents humanity's lack of moral guidance, but in later Zoroastrianism, Geush Urvan became a yazata representing cattle. The 14th day of the month is named after her and is under her protection.

[Lion.Kanzen]

2 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Iranian bull.

 

The Iranian language texts and traditions of Zoroastrianism have several different mythological bovine creatures. One of these is Gavaevodata, which is the Avestan name of a hermaphroditic "uniquely created (-aevo.data) cow (gav-)", one of Ahura Mazda's six primordial material creations that becomes the mythological progenitor of all beneficent animal life. Another Zoroastrian mythological bovine is Hadhayans, a gigantic bull so large that it could straddle the mountains and seas that divide the seven regions of the earth, and on whose back men could travel from one region to another. In medieval times, Hadhayans also came to be known as Srīsōk (Avestan *Thrisaok, "three burning places"), which derives from a legend in which three "Great Fires" were collected on the creature's back. Yet another mythological bovine is that of the unnamed creature in the Cow's Lament, an allegorical hymn attributed to Zoroaster himself, in which the soul of a bovine (geush urvan) despairs over her lack of protection from an adequate herdsman. In the allegory, the cow represents humanity's lack of moral guidance, but in later Zoroastrianism, Geush Urvan became a yazata representing cattle. The 14th day of the month is named after her and is under her protection.

Indian Bull.

Bulls also appear on seals from the Indus Valley civilisation.

 

Nandi appears in Hindu mythology as the primary vehicle and the principal gana (follower) of Shiva.

 

In Rig Veda, Indra was often praised as a Bull (Vrsabha – 'vrsa' means he and bha means being or uksan- a bull aged five to nine years, which is still growing or just reached its full growth), with bull being an icon of power and virile strength not just in Aryan literature but in many IE cultures.[6]

 

Vrsha means "to shower or to spray", in this context Indra showers strength and virility.

 

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

Levantine Bull.

The Canaanite (and later Carthaginian) statue to which sacrifices were burnt, either as a deity or a type of sacrifice – Moloch – was referred to as a horned man, and likened to Cronus by the Romans. There may be a connection between sacrifice to the Cretan horned man Minotaur and Cronus himself. Both Baʿal and El were associated with the bull in Ugaritic texts, as it symbolized both strength and fertility.[11]

 

Bull figurines are common finds on archaeological sites across the Levant;two examples are the 16th century BCE (Middle Bronze Age) bull calf from Ashkelon,[12] and the 12th century BCE (Iron Age I) bull found at the so-called Bull Site in Samaria on the West Bank.[13]

 

Cronus's son Zeus was raised on Crete in hiding from his father. Having consumed all of his own children (the gods), Cronus is fed a boulder by Zeus (to represent Zeus's own body so he appears consumed) and becomes emetic. His vomiting of the boulder and subsequently the other gods (his children) in the Titanomachy bears comparison with the volcanic eruption that appears to be described in Zeus's battle with Typhon in the Theogony. Consequently, Cronus may be associated with the eruption of Thera through the myth of his defeat by Zeus. The later association between Canaanite religions in which child sacrifice took place (Ezekiel 20:25–26[14]) and the association of child sacrifice with a horned god (as potentially on Crete and certainly in Carthage) may also be connected with the Greek myth of sending young men and women to the Minotaur, a bull-headed man.

 

Exodus 32:4[15] reads "He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, 'This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt'."

 

 

 

Calf-idols are referred to later in the Tanakh, such as in the Book of Hosea,[17] which would seem accurate as they were a fixture of near-eastern cultures.

 

Solomon's "Molten Sea" basin stood on twelve brazen bulls.[18][19]

 

Young bulls were set as frontier markers at Dan and Bethel, the frontiers of the Kingdom of Israel.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Greek Bull.

 

Among the Twelve Olympians, Hera's epithet Bo-opis is usually translated "ox-eyed" Hera, but the term could just as well apply if the goddess had the head of a cow, and thus the epithet reveals the presence of an earlier, though not necessarily more primitive, iconic view. (Heinrich Schlieman, 1976) Classical Greeks never otherwise referred to Hera simply as the cow, though her priestess Io was so literally a heifer that she was stung by a gadfly, and it was in the form of a heifer that Zeus coupled with her. Zeus took over the earlier roles, and, in the form of a bull that came forth from the sea, abducted the high-born Phoenician Europa and brought her, significantly, to Crete.

 

Dionysus was another god of resurrection who was strongly linked to the bull. In a worship hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is also invited to come as a bull, "with bull-foot raging." "Quite frequently he is portrayed with bull horns, and in Kyzikos he has a tauromorphic image," Walter Burkert relates, and refers also to an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by the Titans.[20]

 

For the Greeks, the bull was strongly linked to the Cretan Bull: Theseus of Athens had to capture the ancient sacred bull of Marathon (the "Marathonian bull") before he faced the Minotaur (Greek for "Bull of Minos"), who the Greeks imagined as a man with the head of a bull at the center of the labyrinth. Minotaur was fabled to be born of the Queen and a bull, bringing the king to build the labyrinth to hide his family's shame. Living in solitude made the boy wild and ferocious, unable to be tamed or beaten. Yet Walter Burkert's constant warning is, "It is hazardous to project Greek tradition directly into the Bronze Age."[21] Only one Minoan image of a bull-headed man has been found, a tiny Minoan sealstone currently held in the Archaeological Museum of Chania.

 

In the Classical period of Greece, the bull and other animals identified with deities were separated as their agalma, a kind of heraldic show-piece that concretely signified their numinous presence

[Lion.Kanzen]

2 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Greek Bull.

 

Among the Twelve Olympians, Hera's epithet Bo-opis is usually translated "ox-eyed" Hera, but the term could just as well apply if the goddess had the head of a cow, and thus the epithet reveals the presence of an earlier, though not necessarily more primitive, iconic view. (Heinrich Schlieman, 1976) Classical Greeks never otherwise referred to Hera simply as the cow, though her priestess Io was so literally a heifer that she was stung by a gadfly, and it was in the form of a heifer that Zeus coupled with her. Zeus took over the earlier roles, and, in the form of a bull that came forth from the sea, abducted the high-born Phoenician Europa and brought her, significantly, to Crete.

 

Dionysus was another god of resurrection who was strongly linked to the bull. In a worship hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is also invited to come as a bull, "with bull-foot raging." "Quite frequently he is portrayed with bull horns, and in Kyzikos he has a tauromorphic image," Walter Burkert relates, and refers also to an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by the Titans.[20]

 

For the Greeks, the bull was strongly linked to the Cretan Bull: Theseus of Athens had to capture the ancient sacred bull of Marathon (the "Marathonian bull") before he faced the Minotaur (Greek for "Bull of Minos"), who the Greeks imagined as a man with the head of a bull at the center of the labyrinth. Minotaur was fabled to be born of the Queen and a bull, bringing the king to build the labyrinth to hide his family's shame. Living in solitude made the boy wild and ferocious, unable to be tamed or beaten. Yet Walter Burkert's constant warning is, "It is hazardous to project Greek tradition directly into the Bronze Age."[21] Only one Minoan image of a bull-headed man has been found, a tiny Minoan sealstone currently held in the Archaeological Museum of Chania.

 

In the Classical period of Greece, the bull and other animals identified with deities were separated as their agalma, a kind of heraldic show-piece that concretely signified their numinous presence

And finally Romans.

The religious practices of the Roman Empire of the 2nd to 4th centuries included the taurobolium, in which a bull was sacrificed for the well-being of the people and the state. Around the mid-2nd century, the practice became identified with the worship of Magna Mater, but was not previously associated only with that cult (cultus). Public taurobolia, enlisting the benevolence of Magna Mater on behalf of the emperor, became common in Italy and Gaul, Hispania and Africa. The last public taurobolium for which there is an inscription was carried out at Mactar in Numidia at the close of the 3rd century. It was performed in honor of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian.

 

Another Roman mystery cult in which a sacrificial bull played a role was that of the 1st–4th century Mithraic Mysteries. In the so-called "tauroctony" artwork of that cult (cultus), and which appears in all its temples, the god Mithras is seen to slay a sacrificial bull. Although there has been a great deal of speculation on the subject, the myth (i.e. the "mystery", the understanding of which was the basis of the cult) that the scene was intended to represent remains unknown. Because the scene is accompanied by a great number of astrological allusions, the bull is generally assumed to represent the constellation of Taurus. The basic elements of the tauroctony scene were originally associated with Nike, the Greek goddess of victory.

 

Macrobius lists the bull as an animal sacred to the god Neto/Neito, possibly being sacrifices to the deity.[22]

[Lion.Kanzen]

Lamassu and Iberian Sphinx.

It is impressive how the Near East influences places as far away as Spain.

[Lion.Kanzen]

On 16/02/2024 at 7:24 PM, Lion.Kanzen said:

A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of one feature of a storm, they will be called after that attribute, such as a rain god or a lightning/thunder god. This singular attribute might then be emphasized more than the generic, all-encompassing term "storm god", though with thunder/lightning gods, the two terms seem interchangeable. They feature commonly in polytheistic religions, especially in Proto-Indo-European ones.

Storm gods are most often conceived of as wielding thunder and/or lightning (some lightning gods' names actually mean "thunder",[1][2][3] but since one cannot have thunder without lightning, they presumably wielded both). The ancients didn't seem to differentiate between the two, which is presumably why both the words "lightning bolt" and "thunderbolt" exist despite being synonyms. Of the examples currently listed storm themed deities are more frequently depicted as male, but both male and female storm or other rain, wind, or weather deities are described.

 

Canaanite

edit

Ba'al, Canaanite god of fertility, weather, and war.

Hadad, the Canaanite and Carthaginian storm, fertility, & war god. Identified as Baʿal's true name at Ugarit.

Early forms of the Jewish Yahweh worship

Egyptian

 

Horus, the Egyptian god of rainstorms, the weather, the sky and war. Associated with the sun, kingship, and retribution. Personified in the pharaoh.

Set, the Egyptian chaos, evil, and storm god, lord of the desert.

 

Perun, Slavic god of thunder and lightning and king of the gods.

 

Thor, Norse god of thunder/lightning, oak trees, protection, strength, and hallowing. Also Thunor and Donar, the Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic versions, respectively, of him. All descend from Common Germanic *Thunraz, the reflex of the PIE thunder god for this language branch of the Indo-Europeans.

Jupiter, the Roman weather and sky god and king of the gods.

 

Zeus, Greek weather and sky god and king of the gods

Indra, Hindu God of the Weather, Storms, Sky, Lightning, and Thunder. Also known as the King of gods

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_god

 

 

Another equivalent to Baal and syncretism with Amun ; Zeus Ammon.

Amun, worshipped by the Greeks as Ammon, had a temple and a statue, the gift of Pindar (d. 443 BC), at Thebes,[28] and another at Sparta, the inhabitants of which, as Pausanias says,[29] consulted the oracle of Ammon in Libya from early times more than the other Greeks. At Aphytis, Chalcidice, Amun was worshipped, from the time of Lysander (d. 395 BC), as zealously as in Ammonium. Pindar the poet honored the god with a hymn. At Megalopolis the god was represented with the head of a ram (Paus. viii.32 § 1), and the Greeks of Cyrenaica dedicated at Delphi a chariot with a statue of Ammon.

 

When Alexander the Great occupied Egypt in late 332 BC, he was regarded as a liberator, thus conquering Egypt without a fight.[30] He was pronounced son of Amun by the oracle at Siwa.[31] Amun was identified as a form of Zeus[32] and Alexander often referred to Zeus-Ammon as his true father, and after his death, currency depicted him adorned with the Horns of Ammon as a symbol of his divinity.[33] The tradition of depicting Alexander the Great with the horns of Amun continued for centuries, with Alexander being referred to in the Quran as "Dhu al-Qarnayn" (The Two-Horned One), a reference to his depiction on Middle Eastern coins[34] and statuary as having horns of Ammon.

Edited March 15 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

 

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

Cherubim 

associated with the stars called lamassu or shedu, which had composite form, with human head, ox or lion body, and eagle’s wings—thus, sphinxes or winged bulls. It’s especially striking how similar these mythological creatures are to the biblical descriptions of cherubim, which also have parts that appear like human beings, lions, oxen and eagles.

 

Some contend that the Hebrew krub or a related Near Eastern term is the origin of the similar sounding Greek gryps, whence derives the term gryphon or griffin—an eagle-headed lion. It’s been pointed out that “the human-bodied Hittite griffin . . . unlike other griffins, appear almost always not as a fierce bird of prey, but seated in calm dignity, like an irresistible guardian of holy things” 

 

The same study Bible noted on the cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 25: “These sculpted creatures are most likely winged sphinxes known from a number of other sites throughout the ancient Near East . . . Such composite creatures have been found in temples and shrines and are often arranged as if guarding the entrance. Their purpose seems to have been protective—to prevent, perhaps only symbolically, unauthorized individuals from entering space where they were not allowed.

 

“In the Exodus tabernacle, the creatures seem to function as protectors of Yahweh’s presence. They are the last barrier between any possible human entrant and the divine presence. It is not out in front of them but ‘between’ them, says Yahweh, that ‘I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites’ (Exodus 25:22). It is therefore also significant that winged composite creatures are found flanking the thrones of kings in the ancient world”

Edited March 19 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

25 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Cherubim 

associated with the stars called lamassu or shedu, which had composite form, with human head, ox or lion body, and eagle’s wings—thus, sphinxes or winged bulls. It’s especially striking how similar these mythological creatures are to the biblical descriptions of cherubim, which also have parts that appear like human beings, lions, oxen and eagles.

 

Some contend that the Hebrew krub or a related Near Eastern term is the origin of the similar sounding Greek gryps, whence derives the term gryphon or griffin—an eagle-headed lion. It’s been pointed out that “the human-bodied Hittite griffin . . . unlike other griffins, appear almost always not as a fierce bird of prey, but seated in calm dignity, like an irresistible guardian of holy things” 

 

The same study Bible noted on the cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 25: “These sculpted creatures are most likely winged sphinxes known from a number of other sites throughout the ancient Near East . . . Such composite creatures have been found in temples and shrines and are often arranged as if guarding the entrance. Their purpose seems to have been protective—to prevent, perhaps only symbolically, unauthorized individuals from entering space where they were not allowed.

 

“In the Exodus tabernacle, the creatures seem to function as protectors of Yahweh’s presence. They are the last barrier between any possible human entrant and the divine presence. It is not out in front of them but ‘between’ them, says Yahweh, that ‘I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites’ (Exodus 25:22). It is therefore also significant that winged composite creatures are found flanking the thrones of kings in the ancient world”

In fact, the cherub or keruv is a being well known to us from ancient eastern iconography. It was not a winged man. Nor was it a little flying putto or baby boy. It was, in fact, a being combining human characteristics with traits of fierce animals and birds. This hybrid creature seems to have represented a solar or stellar deity. The best-known example is the great man-headed lion the ancient Egyptians called Re-Hor-Akhty – ‘Ra-Horus of the two horizons’ – better known nowadays as the Great Sphinx of Giza.

 

Actually, the Egyptians do not seem to have had a general name for these creatures. (‘Sphinx’ is a Greek word.) They seem just to have called them by the name of the deity they represented. But they had many of them, with and without wings. King Tut-ankh-amun’s throne, for instance, is upborne by winged sphinxes.

 

CHERUBIM IN THE EAST

The Assyrians, to Israel’s north-east, fashioned similar images. The entrance to the palace of King Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) at Nimrud featured two colossal winged man-headed lions. They now stand proudly in the British Museum. But there were bull lamassu too. The palace of Sargon II in Khorsabad had two colossal man-headed bulls. They now stand in the Louvre (see picture). The ‘Ain Dara temple in northern Syria, which stood from about 1300 to 740 BC, also had man-headed, eagle-winged, bull-bodied lamassu on each side of the entrance. Further east, Persian sphinxes featured the head of King Darius upon a lion body. This was just in case anyone doubted: the king was also a stellar deity.

 

Back in the Holy Land, the king of 13th-century BC Megiddo sits on a throne supported on each side by lion-bodied lamassu: stellar deities to attend a heavenly king. His queen offers him a lotus blossom, the symbol of eternal life. A shapely concubine sings to him with the harp. Guinea fowl play at his feet. He sips his wine, unaware that the sword of Joshua is raised to cut him from his celestial throne.

Israel’s keruvim were guardian deities, manifestations of heavenly bodies, bestowing divine protection upon the king. Since Israel was so near to Canaan in every way, it is likely that the ancient Israelite keruvim looked a bit like the winged lions beside the Megiddo throne.

Edited March 19 by Lion.Kanzen

[Lion.Kanzen]

Another Baal, Zeus equivalent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teshub

But this is Hittite-Hurrian.

The iconography is similar to Baal.

It must be said that the Hittites are quite related to the Greeks. So there are origins of some myths in the Hittite religion.

[Lion.Kanzen]

15 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Another Baal, Zeus equivalent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teshub

But this is Hittite-Hurrian.

The iconography is similar to Baal.

It must be said that the Hittites are quite related to the Greeks. So there are origins of some myths in the Hittite religion.

In Hittite art, all weather gods, among them Teshub, were depicted similarly, with long hair and beard, dressed in conical headdress decorated with horns, a kilt and shoes with upturned toe area, and with a mace either resting on the shoulder or held in a smiting position.[59] In the Yazılıkaya sanctuary, Teshub is portrayed holding a three-pronged lightning bolt[e] in his hand and standing on two mountains,[37] possibly to be identified as Namni and Ḫazzi.[61] He is also depicted on a Neo-Hittite relief from Malatya, where he rides in his chariot drawn with bulls and is armed with a triple lightning bolt.[37

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To whom the descriptions refer quite a bit to themes that I have touched on such as The Sacred Bull.

 

Edit2.

Teshub was considered analogous to the Mesopotamian weather god, Adad.[102][15] A degree of syncretism between them occurred across northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia in the second millennium BCE due to the proliferation of new Hurrian dynasties, and eventually the rise of the empire of Mitanni, but its precise development is not possible to study yet due to lack of sources which could be a basis for case studies.[104] While Hurrian rulers are not absent from sources from the Old Babylonian period, they attained greater relevance from the sixteenth century onwards, replacing the formerly predominant Amorite dynasties.[105] As a result of this process, Teshub came to be regarded as the weather god of Aleppo.[79] However, as Semitic languages continued to be spoken across the region, both names of weather gods continued to be used across the middle Euphrates area.

 

In Ugarit, Teshub was identified with the local weather god, Baal.[12] It is presumed that the latter developed through the replacement of the main name of the weather god by his epithet on the Mediterranean coast in the fifteenth century BCE.[115] In modern scholarship, comparisons have been made between myths focused on their respective struggles for kingship among the gods.[116] While Baal does not directly fight against El, the senior god in the Ugaritic pantheon, the relationship between them has nonetheless been compared to the hostility between their Hurrian counterparts, Kumarbi and Teshub.[117] Additionally, similarly to how Baal fought Yam, god of the sea, the Kiaše was also counted among Teshub's mythical adversaries, and both battles were associated with the same mountain, Ḫazzi.[118] However, myths about Baal also contain elements which find no parallel in these focused on Teshub, such as the confrontation with Mot, the personification of death, and his temporary death resulting from it.[117] In contrast with Teshub, Baal also did not have a wife, and in Ugarit Ḫepat was seemingly recognized as a counterpart of Pidray, who was regarded as his daughter, rather than spouse

Edited April 4 by Lion.Kanzen