So Elohim is the father of Yahwe? And he had other children like Baal and Moloch

>>17799674 (OP)
No, Elohim is a generic word for spiritual beings, it can be used to refer to YHWH, angels, god singular, gods, or even regular spirits like the ghosts of dead humans.

>>17799674 (OP)
Elohim means gods. It is not the name of a god, but a majestic plural, like YHWH Elohim (YHWH of the Gods, in this case referring to the Angels). The scholarly consensus is that Yahweh was originally a Midianite (Arabic) version of the Edomite national god Qos and was syncretized with Baal-Hadad (who was the son of Dagon) and then El in Canaan. However, the first mentions of Yahweh appear in theophoric names found in Mesopotamia from the end of the Third Dynasty of Ur and the beginning of the Amorite period, around the 21st-20th century BCE, in city-states such as Kisurra, Sippar and Mari, in the Mesopotamian region.

>Chronological inscriptional evidence of Yahu/Yahweh

>21st-20th c. BCE

>Yahwi-ili ("ia-ah-wi-dingir", in Early Old Babylonian Akkadian), Theophoric, FAOS 02, 007 (P509559), FAOS 02, 004 (P509556), FAOS 02, 006 (P509558) Kisurra (Adu-Hatab), Iraq. MHET 2/1, 055 (P481312) / Provenance Sippar-Yahrurum (Tell Abu Habbah), Iraq. de Boer diss. p. 436-437 (P413247) / Provenance unknown (British Museum)

>20th-17th c. BCE

>Yahu- (partial, "ia-hu-", in Old Babylonian Akkadian), YOS 02, 146 (P308005) / Provenance = Larsa (Tell as-Senkereh), Iraq

>Yah- (partial, "ia-ah-" in Old Babylonian Akkadian), JCSSS 2, 01 (P480459)/Provenance unknown (British Museum). FM 06, 040 (P479759) / Provenance = Mari (Tell Hariri), Syria

>Yahwi-Ashur (ia-ah-wi-a-szar, in Old Babylonian Akkadian), Theophoric, FM 06, 036 (P479756), FM 06, 036 (P479756), FM 06, 035 (P479755), FM 06, 040 (P479759), ARM 21, 056 (P352058)/ Provenance Mari (Tell Hariri), Syria

>14th c. BCE

>yhw3 ("i-h-w3-3",), Block II 69, Soleb IV, Temple of Amun-Ra, Soleb, Sudan

>13th c. BCE

>yhw3 ("i-h-w3-3",), Sector IV, Hypostyle Hall, Column IV N4 a2, Temple of Amun, Amara West, Sudan

>ca. 840 BCE

>Yahweh ("yhwh", in Moabite), Mesha Stele, Dhiban, Jordan

>9th-8th c. BCE

>yw, I'benyaw inscription (jug), Found at Tel Abel Beth Maacah, Galilee, Israel

>>17799811
>20th-17th c. BCE

>Yah- (partial, "ia-ah-" in Old Babylonian Akkadian), JCSSS 2, 01 (P480459)/Provenance unknown (British Museum). FM 06, 040 (P479759) / Provenance = Mari (Tell Hariri), Syria

>Yahwi-Ashur (ia-ah-wi-a-szar, in Old Babylonian Akkadian), Theophoric, FM 06, 036 (P479756), FM 06, 036 (P479756), FM 06, 035 (P479755), FM 06, 040 (P479759), ARM 21, 056 (P352058)/ Provenance Mari (Tell Hariri), Syria

Fun Fact:

>Ancient tablets, like the Mari Tablets discovered by French archaeologists during the 1930s AD (at Tell Hariri), confirmed the common use of many personal names and towns listed in Genesis. Ruins of ancient Mari are located in Syria on the Euphrates River near the border with Iraq. The city was an important trade center along the route between Egypt, Babylon and Persia. Archaeologists found thousands of clay tablets that included town and personal names

>Among them were Nahor (personal name of Abram’s brother – Genesis 11:27 and home town of Rebekah – Genesis 24:10), Abram the Hebrew (‘ibri in Hebrew – Habiru in Mari tablets – Genesis 14), Abam-ram (Abraham), Jacob-el, Banu-yamina (Benjaminites), Arriyuk (Arioch – Genesis 14:1). The use of these names in the Mari Tablets does not necessarily point to the same persons in the Genesis account, but demonstrates that the names were common during the period of the Patriarchs

>One aspect concerns the existence of names in ancient texts like those used in Genesis. The name, Jacob, for instance, has been found in the form Yaqob-el designating a person in an eighteenth century text from Chagar-bazar in Upper Mesopotamia, and designating a place in Palestine in a list of Thutmose III; also in the form Yaqob-har as the name of a Hyksos chief. The name, Abraham, has been found in Babylonian texts of the sixteenth century in the form Abamram, and in other forms at Mari

>>17799674 (OP)
Elohim means plural Gods
Moloch is a verb describing a blood sacrifice

>>17799841
>A Mari text uses the name of Abraham's brother, Nahor, in the form Nakhur, as the name of a city in the vicinity of Haran. Mari texts speak further of a people called Banu-yamina (Benjamin), and use names built on the same roots as Gad, Dan, Levi, and Ishmael. Later Assyrian texts speak of two cities, Til-turakhi and Sarugi, the equivalents of Terah and Serug, father and prior ancestor of Abraham respectively. These names, and others that might be added, all appear in texts from the first half of the second millennium. Though evidence is lacking that any refers to a specific biblical person or place, they do indicate that the names employed in the Genesis record are those of the nomenclature of the day

>Although Abraham himself is not known from extrabiblical sources, the name is attested in its Babylonian form, Abamram (BASOR, #83, p. 34), as are the names Nahor (cf. city of Nahor, Gen 24:10), Terah and Serug (Gen 11:22, 24) as towns mentioned in the Mari texts and other Assyrian documents (cf. John Bright, A History of Israel, p. 70)

>Evidence for the West Semitic (or Amorite) origin of the majority of the people figuring in the Mari documents is revealed in the onomasticon (name-stock) and specific linguistic features of the Mari dialect. Many of the hundreds of proper names known from the Mari texts are paralleled in the Bible, especially in the patriarchal narratives and the Exodus-Conquest cycle, which demonstrate a strong archaizing tendency. At Mari, where Yahweh was known in theophoric names, these names occur often with (other) the ophoric (god-bearing) components; e.g., Jacob and Ishmael – i.e., haqba-hammu/-ahim/ etc. and Yasmaḥ-El/-Adad/-Baʿal/ etc. The names of the Israelite tribes of Levi and Benjamin also seem to have their parallels

>>17799861
>Thus, the tribal designation at Mari, DUMU.MEŠ-yamin(a), "Yaminites," bears the same connotation as Benjamin – "son(s) of the South," i.e., southerners, and it is preferable to render the logogram for "sons" as West Semitic bini-yamina a form conveniently homophonic with the Hebrew Binyamin

>It is in a similar sense that the nomadic tribe of the Suteans (meaning ‘Southerners’) in Akkadian myths were depicted as forces of chaos, or destruction, while the demoness ‘daughter-of-Anu’ Lamastu was a Sutean also. It is a matter of some interest that scholars such as Amar Annus believe the ‘sons of Seth’ in the lineage of mankind opposite to the line of Cain were derived from these Mesopotamian (and Egyptian) mythologies based around the Suteans/Seth/Sheth/Set, whereby he argues the Hebrews may have originated from these nomadic Semitic tribes, circa 1800 BCE

>“The name of the land and the deity of the Shasu/Sutean groups locates them in southern Jordan in the 14-13th centuries BCE. The Shasu/Sutean population joined the settler groups, which later became Israel. In other words… they formed a part of the genesis of religious identity in the new states of Judah and Israel. According to the written sources, the southern origin of YHWH was still remembered many centuries later. Numerous references in the Hebrew Bible place the origin of YHWH to southern arid regions…(thus explaining) Habbakuk’s words, ‘YHWH came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran’ (Hab3.3)”

>>17799841
Kinda crazy that these names are still common today

>>17799842
>Moloch is a verb describing a blood sacrifice
This is based on the fact that mlk is used as an adjective for sacrifice in Punic Tophets and there is no mention of a deity named Moloch in Canaan. The problem is that Moloch is not a real name, it is a corruption from combining the consonants of the Hebrew melech (“king”) with the vowels of boshet (“shame”), the latter often being used in the Old Testament as a variant name for the popular god Baal-Hadad. There are a number of Canaanite gods with names based on this root, which became summarily associated with Moloch, including biblical Milcom, which appears to refer to a god of the Ammonites, as well as Tyrian Melqart and others.

>Traditionally, Molech has been understood as the name of a deity to whom children were burned in sacrifice, first by the Canaanites and then by the Israelites, particularly in a cultic installation known as the “Tophet” in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, immediately south of Jerusalem. In favor of this understanding there is now a broad range of Ancient Near Eastern literary evidence which suggests the worship of a god known as Malik or Milku/i from as early as the 3d millennium b.c. through the OT era. Malik was an extremely popular element in personal names at Ebla, although contexts are presently too scanty to permit firm conclusions regarding the god’s nature in the Eblaite cultus

>The same god is also evidenced in personal names from the next (i.e., second) millennium at Mari, and in addition, we find in the Mari texts references to recipients of funeral offerings called maliku, apparently the shades of the dead or underworld deities. This netherworld connection is reinforced by the evidence from Akkadian texts, in which Malik appears in god lists, from the Old Babylonian period on, equated with Nergal and in which the mal(i)kū appear in connection with the Igigi and Anunnaki as chthonic beings involved in the cult of the dead ancestors

>>17800006
>Finally, the comparative literary evidence moves closer to home for OT studies, as the Ugaritic texts list a god mlk resident at ʾṯtrt (Ugaritica V 7:41; 8:17), the same “address” as that assigned elsewhere to the netherworld deity Rpu (Rapiu), and testify to the inclusion of beings known as mlkm in the cult of the dead in contexts which suggest their similarity to (if not identity with) the rpum, the shades of the dead royal ancestors (known later in the Bible as the Rephaim, where the term has been broadened to include all the dead, e.g., Ps 88:11). From this evidence there emerges the picture of a netherworld deity involved in the cult of the dead ancestors (perhaps even their king, given the apparent associations with the West Semitic root mlk, “to rule, be king”)

>Note also that a valley adjoining the Hinnom valley is called the Valley of the Rephaim in Joshua 15:8, 18:16; 2 Samuel 5:18, 23:13; 1 Chronicles 11:15, 20:4 and the Rephaim were the ghosts of the dead residing in Sheol (cf. Job 26:5-6; Isaiah 14:4-5, 9-11, 26:14). The earthly valleys associated with the underworld also evoke the "valleys of Sheol" where the Rephaim are found according to Proverbs 9:18. It was in fact in the valley of Hinnom below Zion where the ancestor cult of Molech was practiced (2 Kings 23:10; Isaiah 30:33, 57:9; Jeremiah 7:31-33, 19:4-6, 32:35)

>There is an exact parallel in the Canaanite culture of Syria and northern Israel, which designated Mt. Hermon as the "mountain of El" and the Bashan area below it as the realm of the dead, where Rapiu (aka Molek, or Milku) was enthroned as king in the cities of Ashtaroth/Athtart and Edrei (cf. KTU 1.108 R 1-3, 11-13, V 22-29; compare Genesis 14:5, Deuteronomy 1:4, 3:10, and Joshua 9:10, 12:4, 13:12, 31 which amazingly also locate the Rephaim in the cities of Ashtaroth and Edrei in Bashan)

>>17800023
>Tishpak (Tišpak) was a Mesopotamian god associated with the ancient city Eshnunna and its sphere of influence, located in the Diyala area of Iraq. He was primarily a war deity, but he was also associated with snakes, including the mythical mushussu and bashmu, and with kingship

>In an Ugaritic trilingual god list Tishpak is identified with Milkunni, a Hurro-Hittite god whose name was the combination of the Ugaritic divine name Milku with the Hurrian suffix -nni. The Ugaritic column of the same list (line 27) describes him as ga-ša-ru (Ugaritic: "mighty"; written as gṯr in the alphabetic script), an epithet treated as a divine name in this case which is applied within the same text to two more

>While most Mesopotamian sources do not treat Ninazu and Tishpak as equivalents, and they appear separately in the prologue of Laws of Hammurabi, a bilingual inscription from the reign of Shulgi of Ur lists Tishpak in the Akkadian version and Ninazu in Sumerian as the god worshiped in Esikil. Wilfred G. Lambert additionally proposed that Tishpak could be understood as a deity connected with Ninurta, based on his association with Ninazu, who shared many traits with the latter. Similarly, Andrew R. George argues that Tishpak's placement in the so-called Canonical Temple List might indicate he was one of the deities who could be syncretised with Ninurta, similar to Lugal-Marada, Zababa or Urash. According to Marten Stol, both classification of Tishpak as a Ninurta-like figure ("Ninurta-Gestalt") and direct equation between these two gods (Tishpak being described as Ninurta ša ramkūti) is attested in a single document each

>>17800076
>Ninazu (Sumerian: 𒀭𒎏𒀀𒋢; [DNIN.A.SU] "lord healer") was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld. He was also associated with snakes and vegetation, and with time acquired the character of a warrior god. He was frequently associated with Ereshkigal, either as a son, husband, or simply a member the same category of underworld deities

>According to Julia M. Asher-Greve, Ninazu was initially considered a "high-ranking local god", similar in rank to Ningirsu (Ninurta). His name has Sumerian origin and can be translated as "lord healer", though he was rarely associated with medicine. It is nonetheless agreed that he could be considered a healing deity. He was regarded as the "king of the snakes" and as such was invoked in incantations against snakebite. Many of such texts were written in Elamite and Hurrian, rather than in Sumerian or Akkadian, even though they originated in Enegi. He was also associated with vegetation and agriculture

>A single god list from the first millennium BCE equates Ninazu with Ninurta, and his spouse Ningirida with Gula. An association between him and the latter goddess is also attested in the Gula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi, composed at some point between 1400 BCE and 700 BCE (between the Kassite and Neo-Babylonian period). This text is considered an aretalogy and it might reflect the development of a form of henotheism in late theological traditions

>As noted by Irene Sibbing-Plantholt, while it has been argued in the past that "this interpretation of Ninazu as a spouse of Gula goes back to the merge of Ninazu with Ninurta/Ningirsu (as son of Enlil and Ninlil), (...) this connection may also have been established through the link between (U)kulla(b), Ninazu’s spouse, and Gula." Frans Wiggermann notes that the hymn presents an "aberrant," otherwise unknown, genealogy of Ninazu, calling him "offspring of Mami," which according to him might entirely depend on implicit identification with Ninurta in this context

>>17800023
>Rephaim derives from “Rapha”, which means to heal, mend or repair

>The term Rephaim strongly suggests that the progenitor of the race was the first rapha (healed or healer). The term Rephaim is usually considered to be from the root [רפא [ meaning “to heal” and is generally understood to mean healers or “disease free”. The linguistic link between Rephaim and the root R.P., 'to heal', is “found in the LXX of Isa 26:14 and Ps 88:11: ‘The healers (iatroi) will not rise up’… the Rephaim, by virtue of their connections with the netherworld, were healers par excellence.” This definition “healers” was accepted as the ancient definition and is accepted by most scholars

>However, why were the Rephaim known as healers? The notion of healing had to come from somewhere, but we clearly see in Scripture that Rephaim were known as Nephilim or giants. We only see Rephaim after the Flood. The Nephilim and gibborim are translated as gigantes in the LXX. Nimrod was therefore, the first of the Rephaim. That is, he was the first “healer”

>Some Bible scholars, such as Professor Ronald Hendel of the University of California, have concluded that Nimrod is nothing more than a distortion of Ninurta, the god of farming, the planet Saturn, healing, hunting, law, scribes and war in Mesopotamian religions, the son of the gods Enlil and Ninhursag. The evidence for this is based on how the first Assyrian conqueror of note was Tukulti-Ninurta I, who seems very likely that he served as the original inspiration for the Greek legend of Ninus

>In the Greek legend, Ninus singlehandedly founds Nineveh, conquers all of Babylonia and Armenia, and the nomadic regions to the east as well, founding the Assyrian Empire. In analogous fashion, "Ninurta" became "Nimrod" to the editors of Genesis

>>17800096
>Rephaim derives from “Rapha”, which means to heal, mend or repair

>The term Rephaim strongly suggests that the progenitor of the race was the first rapha (healed or healer). The term Rephaim is usually considered to be from the root [רפא [ meaning “to heal” and is generally understood to mean healers or “disease free”. The linguistic link between Rephaim and the root R.P., 'to heal', is “found in the LXX of Isa 26:14 and Ps 88:11: ‘The healers (iatroi) will not rise up’… the Rephaim, by virtue of their connections with the netherworld, were healers par excellence.” This definition “healers” was accepted as the ancient definition and is accepted by most scholars

>However, why were the Rephaim known as healers? The notion of healing had to come from somewhere, but we clearly see in Scripture that Rephaim were known as Nephilim or giants. We only see Rephaim after the Flood. The Nephilim and gibborim are translated as gigantes in the LXX. Nimrod was therefore, the first of the Rephaim. That is, he was the first “healer”

>Some Bible scholars, such as Professor Ronald Hendel of the University of California, have concluded that Nimrod is nothing more than a distortion of Ninurta, the god of farming, the planet Saturn, healing, hunting, law, scribes and war in Mesopotamian religions, the son of the gods Enlil and Ninhursag. The evidence for this is based on how the first Assyrian conqueror of note was Tukulti-Ninurta I, who seems very likely that he served as the original inspiration for the Greek legend of Ninus

>In the Greek legend, Ninus singlehandedly founds Nineveh, conquers all of Babylonia and Armenia, and the nomadic regions to the east as well, founding the Assyrian Empire. In analogous fashion, "Ninurta" became "Nimrod" to the editors of Genesis

>>17800174
>To confirm this theory there is even a city named Nimrod in Mesopotamia which is the seat of the temple of Ninurta, a city which never had a king and was ruled by the priests of Ninurta who kept their god as the symbolic king

>Ninurta was known for being a dragon and hence the son of a dragon, was syncretized with a snake god known as Tišpak and Ninazu who “is clearly the ‘lord of healing’ according to the etymology of his name.” Wiggermann notes that:

>"Ninazu, "Lord Healer", is a son of Ereshkigal is the "king of the snakes" in Old Babylonian incantations, and in several other ways related to death and the realm of the dead, perhaps at one time as its ruler. His dragon is the mušḫuššu."

>A snake is a frequent symbol of the healing gods. For religious-historical reasons, Ninurta became equated with the “Transtigridian snake god” as Tišpak, Ninazu and Elamite Inšušinak”– Amar Annus, The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia, State Archives of Assyria Studies, Volume XIV Helsinki 2002. Pg. 140.

>Not only was Ninurta syncretized with a snake god healer, but he was also associated with a legend about Kirtu, one of the Rephaim who were “'healers' or 'dispensers of fertility' of the earth.” Furthermore, according to DDDB, Kirtu has been associated with the Akkadian word “qarradu”, which DDDB notes is “generally regarded as a personal name.” This is significant because “Ninurta … has qardu 'fierce', 'heroic' and qarradu 'warrior', 'hero' among his standard epithets.”

>We saw earlier that the Rephaim were counted among the Amorites and Nephilim who were sometimes called gibborim. Looking at the Septuagint, the word Rephaim is sometimes simply transliterated (e.g. Gen 14:5, 15:20); though most of the time, it is translated as gigantes (giants)

>>17799685
Wrong

Oh no, you invoked Brazil anon. Dead thread.

>>17800573
>wikipedia

>>17800190
>I think one of the major reasons for the confusion on this subject is that so many people have promoted the view that the word Nephilim comes from the Hebrew verb naphal (“to fall”). Hence, they argue that the term means “fallen ones.” But this common argument is false. If one wanted to use naphal as a participle (i.e. “fallen ones”), the word would become nephulim or nophelim—NOT Nephilim. The word Nephilim actually comes from the Aramaic noun Naphil. When this word is made plural, it becomes Nephilin, and when brought into Hebrew, it becomes Nephilim

>What does the Aramaic word Naphil mean? It is the word for “giant.” So Nephilim really does mean “giants,” which is exactly how the KJV and NKJV have translated it. It’s also exactly how the Nephilim are described in the only other passage that mentions their name. When the spies searched out the land we are told in Numbers 13:22 that they saw the descendants of Anak in Hebron (Ahiman, Sheshai, Talmai). When they reported back and tried to persuade the people not to enter the land, the spies said that the people there were of great stature and that they saw the Nephilim there

>The name "Gigantes" is usually taken to imply "earth-born", and Hesiod's Theogony makes this explicit by having the Giants be the offspring of Gaia (Earth)

>Archaic and Classical representations show Gigantes as man-sized hoplites (heavily armed ancient Greek foot soldiers) fully human in form. Later representations (after c. 380 BC) show Gigantes with snakes for legs

>Over time, descriptions of the Giants make them less human, more monstrous and more "gigantic". According to Apollodorus the Giants had great size and strength, a frightening appearance, with long hair and beards and scaly feet. Ovid makes them "serpent-footed" with a "hundred arms", and Nonnus has them "serpent-haired"

>>17801148
>Later in the Metamorphoses, Ovid refers to the Gigantomachy as: "The time when serpent footed giants strove / to fix their hundred arms on captive Heaven". Here Ovid apparently conflates the Giants with the Hundred-Handers, who, though in Hesiod fought alongside Zeus and the Olympians, in some traditions fought against them

>The Gigantomachy was depicted on the new peplos (robe) presented to Athena on the Acropolis of Athens as part of the Panathenaic festival celebrating her victory over the Giants, a practice dating from perhaps as early as the second millennium BC. The earliest extant indisputable representations of Gigantes are found on votive pinakes from Corinth and Eleusis, and Attic black-figure pots, dating from the second quarter of the sixth century BC (this excludes early depictions of Zeus battling single snake-footed creatures, which probably represent his battle with Typhon, as well as Zeus' opponent on the west pediment of the Temple of Artemis on Kerkyra (modern Corfu) which is probably not a Giant)

>With the beginning of the fourth century BC probably comes the first portrayal of the Giants in Greek art as anything other than fully human in form, with legs that become coiled serpents having snake heads at the ends in place of feet. Such depictions were perhaps borrowed from Typhon, the monstrous son of Gaia and Tartarus, described by Hesiod as having a hundred snake heads growing from his shoulders. This snake-legged motif becomes the standard for the rest of antiquity, culminating in the monumental Gigantomachy frieze of the second century BC Pergamon Altar. Measuring nearly 400 feet long and over seven feet high, here the Gigantomachy receives its most extensive treatment, with over one hundred figures

>>17801191
>Although fragmentary, much of the Gigantomachy frieze has been restored. The general sequence of the figures and the identifications of most of the approximately sixty gods and goddesses have been more or less established. The names and positions of most Giants remain uncertain. Some of the names of the Giants have been determined by inscription, while their positions are often conjectured on the basis of which gods fought which Giants in Apollodorus' account

>The same central group of Zeus, Athena, Heracles and Gaia, found on many early Attic vases, also featured prominently on the Pergamon Altar. On the right side of the East frieze, the first encountered by a visitor, a winged Giant, usually identified as Alcyoneus, fights Athena. Below and to the right of Athena, Gaia rises from the ground, touching Athena's robe in supplication. Flying above Gaia, a winged Nike crowns the victorious Athena. To the left of this grouping a snake-legged Porphyrion battles Zeus and to the left of Zeus is Heracles

>On the far left side of the East frieze, a triple Hecate with torch battles a snake-legged Giant usually identified (following Apollodorus) as Clytius. To the right lays the fallen Udaeus, shot in his left eye by an arrow from Apollo, along with Demeter who wields a pair of torches against Erysichthon

>The Giants are depicted in a variety of ways. Some Giants are fully human in form, while others are a combination of human and animal forms. Some are snake-legged, some have wings, one has bird claws, one is lion-headed, and another is bull-headed. Some Giants wear helmets, carry shields and fight with swords. Others are naked or clothed in animal skins and fight with clubs or rocks

>>17799674 (OP)
Have fun burning. Unbelievable loser.

>>17801222
>In Greek mythology, Orion (/əˈraJən/; Ancient Greek: Ὠρίων or Ὠαρίων; Latin: Orion) was a giant hunter, born to Euryale, a Gorgon like Medusa, and Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea, placed by Zeus or Artemis among the stars as the constellation of Orion

>One myth recounts Gaia's rage at Orion, who dared to say that he would kill every animal on Earth. The angry goddess tried to dispatch Orion with a scorpion. This is given as the reason that the constellations of Scorpius and Orion are never in the sky at the same time. However, Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, revived Orion with an antidote. This is said to be the reason that the constellation of Ophiuchus stands midway between the Scorpion and the Hunter in the sky

>In ancient Aram, the constellation was known as Nephîlā′, the Nephilim are said to be Orion's descendants

>The Bible mentions Orion three times, naming it "Kesil" (כסיל, literally – fool). Though, this name perhaps is etymologically connected with "Kislev", the name for the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar (i.e. November–December), which, in turn, may derive from the Hebrew root K-S-L as in the words "kesel, kisla" (כֵּסֶל, כִּסְלָה, hope, positiveness), i.e. hope for winter rains.: Job 9:9 ("He is the maker of the Bear and Orion"), Job 38:31 ("Can you loosen Orion's belt?"), and Amos 5:8 ("He who made the Pleiades and Orion")

>In medieval Muslim astronomy, Orion was known as al-jabbar, "the giant". Orion's sixth brightest star, Saiph, is named from the Arabic, saif al-jabbar, meaning "sword of the giant"

>>17801356
>In legend, Azza (another name for Samyaza) is the seraph tempted by the maiden Ishtar to reveal to her the Explicit Name of God. In Solomonic lore, the story is that Azza was the angel who revealed to the Jewish king the heavenly arcana, thus making Solomon the wisest man on earth. Of the two groups of angels headed by Metatron, one of the groups, the angels of justice, were under the rulership of Azza, who at this time had not yet fallen

>Azza, according to the rabbinic tradition, is suspended between Heaven and Earth along with Azazel as punishment for having had carnal knowledge of mortal women. He is said to be constantly falling, with one eye shut and the other open, to see his plight and suffer the more. It is said that he now hangs, head down, and is the constellation of Orion

>Istrus wrote a version in which Artemis fell in love with Orion, apparently the only time Artemis ever fell in love. She meant to marry him, and no talk from her brother Apollo would change her mind. Apollo then decided to trick Artemis, and while Orion was off swimming in the sea, he pointed at him (barely a spot in the horizon) and wagered that Artemis could not hit that small "dot". Artemis, ever eager to prove she was the better archer, shot Orion, killing him. She then placed him among the stars

>Side was the first wife of Orion and possible mother of his daughters Metioche and Menippe. She was cast by Hera into Hades because she rivaled the goddess in beauty. Sida was the eponym of the city of Sidon in Phoenicia. She was the wife of Belus, son of Poseidon and Libya who was king of Egypt, and mother of Aegyptus and Danaus. Otherwise, the wife of Belus was called Achiroe, daughter of the river-god Nilus

>Major centers of Astarte's (Ishtar) worship in the Iron Age were the Phoenician city-states of Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. In Sidon, she shared a temple with Eshmun (Asclepius). Coins from Beirut show Poseidon, Astarte, and Eshmun worshipped together

>>17801425
>Iconographic portrayal of Astarte, very similar to that of Tanit, often depicts her naked and in presence of lions, identified respectively with symbols of sexuality and war. She is also depicted as winged, carrying the solar disk and the crescent moon as a headdress, and with her lions either lying prostrate to her feet or directly under those. Aside from the lion, Astarte is associated with the dove and the bee. She has also been associated with botanic wildlife like the palm tree and the lotus flower

>The Potnia Theron (Ancient Greek: Ἡ Πότνια Θηρῶν, romanized: Hē Pótnia Therón, lit.'The Lady of Animals', [hɛː pót.ni.a tʰɛː.rɔ̂ːn]) or Mistress of Animals is a widespread motif in ancient art from the Mediterranean world and the ancient Near East, showing a central human, or human-like, female figure who grasps two animals, one to each side

>The term is first used once by Homer as a descriptor of Artemis and often used to describe female divinities associated with animals

>Porphyry and Proclus, the lunar sphere marks the threshold between the noetic/supralunar world (of Forms and Intellects) and the sensible/sublunar world (of generation and corruption). The Moon functions as diadochus and diaphanon, transmitting the vital logoi (logoi spermatikoi) that structure the souls

>Plant and animal life emerges there before human life, since the inferior vital principles manifest themselves first in the sublunar world. This precedence explains why daimones and other mythological beings have hybrid or chimerical forms: they reflect the mixture and gradation of the vital powers that descend through the lunar sphere

>Proclus (in the Commentary on the Timaeus) emphasizes that it is in the lunar region that souls receive the ochema pneumatikon (subtle vehicle), a condition for animating bodies in the sensible world. Thus, biological life proceeds from lunar influences as intermediaries between the intelligible and the sensible

>>17801607
>In Neoplatonism, especially in Plotinus, Porphyry and Proclus, the lunar sphere marks the threshold between the noetic/supralunar world (of Forms and Intellects) and the sensible/sublunar world (of generation and corruption). The Moon functions as diadochus and diaphanon, transmitting the vital logoi (logoi spermatikoi) that structure the souls

Fix'd.

>At the core of the beliefs and practices attributed to medieval witchcraft — nocturnal flight on brooms, Sabbaths, pacts with demons, the use of cauldrons, potions, poisons, and hallucinogenic plants — survives a cosmological foundation that traces back to Neoplatonic theurgy. In this cosmology, the lunar sphere (selēnē) is the domain of the intermediary powers (daimones), who govern generation, corruption, passions, natural cycles, and metamorphoses within the sublunar world

>Figures such as Hecate — identified in the Chaldean Oracles as Ennoia (Thinking Power) and the Light-Bearer who guards the thresholds between planes — were directly associated with Diana and Luna, forming the archetype of the Triple Goddess: Maiden (Waxing Moon), Mother (Full Moon), and Crone (Waning Moon). This trinity symbolized feminine power over birth, growth, and death, reinforcing the link between woman, cosmic cycles, and natural processes

>The predominance of women among witches reflected this association with physis (material nature) and the generative powers (dynamis), ruled by the Moon and tied to menstrual cycles and the mysteries of fertility. The image of the witch as a crone — often depicted as old, hunched, and barren — derives directly from the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess, mistress of death, destruction, curses, and the closing of cycles. For this reason, witches were believed to bring disease, blight harvests, and cause the infertility of livestock, projecting onto the natural world the symbol of their own barrenness and the power to disrupt the vital flow

>>17801876
>The cauldron, a symbol of magical and alchemical power, represented the cosmic womb, the vessel of generation and transformation. The broom — and not only the broom but any staff, wand, or wooden rod of trees used in rituals — symbolized both the phallus (active masculine principle), the cosmic pillar (axis mundi) and the connection to the vegetal world, since wood was seen as the dwelling place of spirits (daimones phytoi). This sacred wood linked the witch to the plant kingdom and evoked the world of birds who also live there, long associated with witches and female night creatures (Strix/Strigoi) as emblems of the soul’s flight and metamorphosis

>The Sabbaths, magical gatherings under the command of these lunar and chthonic powers, functioned as inverted banquets, rites of communion with the sublunar daimones. They included ritual sex, chaotic fertility rites, and inversions of Christian order. The use of plants such as mandrake, belladonna, and datura, applied as ointments to the brooms and vaginal mucous membranes, aimed to liberate the ochema pneumatikon (the subtle vehicle), allowing the soul to detach from the body and "fly" through the aer where encounters with the daimones took place

>Familiars — cats, crows, toads, goats — symbolized the witch’s link to the animal world, which were sometimes used as mounts in place of brooms, showing its connection with daemonic powers in the lunar and chthonic planes. Sex with demons and other profane rites expressed direct communion with these daemonic forces of generation, passion, and raw nature

>While Neoplatonic theurgy sought to purify the ochema and raise the soul beyond the Moon toward the One, witchcraft — in the Christian and inquisitorial imagination — represented the embrace and manipulation of lunar and chthonic powers to gain mastery over bodies, passions, and the hidden secrets of nature, but also the risk of bringing imbalance, destruction, and curse upon the living world

>>17800573
he's right

>>17801927
Cope.

>>17801924
>The Book of Enoch discusses the teaching of humans by the fallen angels, chiefly Azazel and Samyaza:

>"And Azazel 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. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Samyaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings."

>Dudael (Heb. דּוּדָאֵל, compd. of dud דּוּד "kettle", "cauldron", "pot" + El אֵל "deity", "divinity" — lit. "cauldron of God") is the place of imprisonment for Azazel (one of the fallen angels), cohort of Samyaza

>The Hebrew word for mandrakes, dudaim (דּוּדָאִים), shares the same root with breast (דַּדֵּי), beloved (דוֹד) and cauldron (דּוּד). This shared root suggests a connection between these concepts in ancient Hebrew thought, possibly due to the mandrake's association with fertility and love, its supposed resemblance to breasts, and its use in love potions

>Zȃzȇl (Hebrew: זאזל, romanized: Zazl) is the darker spirit (demon) of Saturn, mentioned as a spirit in such works as the Key of Solomon. As it says on the 10th Plate: "The First Pentacle of Mercury.--It serveth to invoke the Spirits who are under the Firmament." Zazel is described as being one of the presiding spirits, either the forty-fifth or the forty-ninth, with 'Agȋȇl, of Saturn, and has been described as a great angel, invoked in Solomonic magic, who is "effective in love conjurations."