Honor: 940 [ Give / Take ]
8 entries this month
'Barking' Feral Girl 'Raised By Dogs'
19:16 May 27 2009
Times Read: 936
WHAT'S THE NEWS ..... AYE ?
Headline
'Barking' Feral Girl 'Raised By Dogs'
A five-year-old girl who was allegedly "brought up" by cats and dogs in a flat has been taken into care, Russian police have revealed.
Skip Girl brought up by cats and dogs
Related Hot Topic: Russia
Have your say: Russia
The child, who lived in the eastern Siberian city of Chita, could not speak Russian and acted like an dog.
"For five years, she was 'brought up' by several dogs and cats and had never been outside," a police statement said.
"The unwashed girl was dressed in filthy clothes, had the clear attributes of an animal and jumped at people," it said.
The flat had no heat, water or sewage system.
A police spokeswoman said the girl, known as Natasha, is being monitored by psychologists in an orphanage.
Her mother was being questioned but her father has not been found yet.
She has the appearance of a two year old, although her real age is five.
The youngster refuses to eat with a spoon and has taken on many of the gestures of the animals with which she lived, police said.
"When carers leave the room, the girl jumps at the door and barks," the police said.
Feral children, the stuff of folklore all over the world, usually exhibit the behaviour of the animals with whom they have had closest contact.
The condition is known as the Mowgli Syndrome after the fictional child from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book who was raised by wolves.
Such children have usually built strong ties with the animals with whom they lived and find the transition to normal human existence highly traumatic.
Woof woof grrrrrr
Source sky news online
27th may 09
Greek gods
17:44 May 25 2009
Times Read: 943
The 12 Labours of Heracles
The Life of Hercules is one in the true tradition of Greek myths - consisting of battles, love and a suitably tragic death. However, Heracles (or Hercules to give his Latin moniker) is also famous for the 12 labours he was urged to perform by the oracle at Delphi.
The First Labour - the Nemean Lion
The Nemean (or Cleonaean) lion was an enormous beast which was depopulating the area of Nemea. His pelt was proof against iron, bronze and stone.
Heracles first tried shooting the lion with arrows, which bounced off harmlessly. Next he tried his sword, which bent and also had no effect. Heracles attempted hitting the lion over the head with his club, which shattered, and left the lion with ringing in its ears. Finally, he started to wrestle with it, choking it to death but losing a finger in the course of the fight. Heracles flayed the lion using its own razor-sharp claws, and was subsequently able to use the skin as invulnerable armour, and its head as a helmet.
A possible historical context to the First Labour is that ritual combat with wild beasts formed a part of the sacred king's coronation ritual in Greece, Asia Minor and Syria.
The Second Labour - the Lernean Hydra
The Lernean Hydra was a monster born of Typhon (another monster) and Echidne. The Hydra terrorised the area around Lerna, near Argos. It had a dog-like body and most likely eight or nine heads, one of them immortal, although some versions of the story claim that the Hydra had anything from 50 to 1000 heads. It was so venomous that its breath, or even the smell of its tracks, could kill a man.
Heracles had help from both the god Athene and Iolaus, a charioteer, in defeating the Hydra. He drove it out from its lair by attacking it with flaming arrows, and held his breath while battering its heads with his club. However, as fast as he was able to crush them, more heads sprouted in place of the old ones.
Heracles' foot was nipped by a great crab, which was sent by Hera to hinder Heracles and go to the Hydra's aid. Heracles shouted to Iolaus for help, and he used blazing torches to cauterise the Hydra's head-stumps and prevent them from growing back. Then he chopped off the immortal head and buried it, still hissing, under a heavy rock. Having disembowelled the carcass, he dipped his arrows in its gall, making his arrows lethal, even from the slightest scratch.
Hera set the crab, which had been crushed by Heracles, in the stars as part of the zodiac.
The Second Labour may record the suppression of the Lernean fertility rites, with the number of heads relating to priestesses.
The Third Labour - the Ceryneian Hind
Heracles' third task was to capture the Ceryneian Hind, and to bring her alive to Mycenae. She had brazen hooves and golden horns like a stag and was sacred to Artemis. Other accounts tell of her being a ravaging monster which Heracles killed.
As he did not want to hurt the Hind, Heracles chased her for a year, capturing her (when she was exhausted) by shooting an arrow which pinned her forelegs together without drawing blood as it passed between bone and sinew. He then carried it on his shoulders to Mycenae. Artemis was apparently cross with him for misusing her sacred animal, but he pleaded that he had no choice and she then forgave him.
The Fourth Labour - the Erymanthean Boar
The Erymanthean Boar1, again of enormous proportions, lived on the slopes of Mount Erymanthis, ravaging the surrounding countryside and Heracles' task was to capture it alive.
Heracles was involved in some fighting at the beginning of this Labour, killing a bandit (Saurus). While celebrating with one of the centaurs, he opened a jar of wine, the smell of which brought angry centaurs in a fighting mood. Heracles killed several of them and by mistake hit his friend Cheiron in the knee. Cherion, being immortal, could not die and was left in agony, so with Zeus' agreement, he gave his immortality to Prometheus so that he himself could die.
Heracles meanwhile chased the boar and drove it into a snow drift. There he jumped on its back, bound it with chains and carried it on his shoulders to Mycenae.
The Fifth Labour - the Stables of Augeias
This task was to clean out the filthy stables of King Augeias in a single day. They had not been cleaned in many years and the stench from them was spreading disease for many miles around, although the cattle themselves were not affected by it. The valley pastures were so deep in dung that they could not be ploughed.
Heracles swore an oath to King Augeias that he would complete the task in a day. Heracles was then attacked by one of the stables' guard bulls, Phaethon, in mistake for a lion because of his headdress, and Heracles wrestled it to the ground.
Heracles accomplished the cleansing of the stable by putting two holes in the walls and diverting two nearby rivers so that they not only cleared the stables, but washed the dung from the pastures as well.
King Augeias, on hearing that Heracles was already tasked by Eurystheus to clear the stables, refused to pay the agreed reward and Eurystheus in his turn, on hearing of the bargain with King Augeias, refused to count this labour as one of the ten.
The Sixth Labour - the Stymphalian Birds
The birds of this task were crane-sized, brazen-beaked, brazen-clawed, brazen-winged man-eating birds, which lived on the Stymphalian Marsh. They killed people by shooting/showering them with brazen feathers. Their excrement also contained a powerful poison, which blighted the crops. Heracles' Labour was to remove these birds, which were sacred to Ares.
As there were too many birds on the marsh to shoot with his arrows and the marsh was too treacherous to stand on, Heracles made a very loud noise with either a pair of castanets or a rattle, given to him by Athene, which frightened them into the air. He then shot dozens of them2.
The Seventh Labour - the Cretan Bull
This task was to capture the Cretan Bull, which may have been the one which sired the Minotaur. In Crete, it was ravaging the land, belching flames, rooting up crops and levelling orchard walls.
Although assistance was offered, Heracles wanted to catch the bull on his own, which after a long struggle, he did. He then brought it back to Mycenae, where it was dedicated to Hera and set free.
Hera, though, was not pleased and drove the bull through many lands, where it was eventually dragged by Theseus to Athens as a sacrifice to Athene.
The Eighth Labour - the Mares of Diomedes
King Diomedes kept four savage man-eating mares, who were the scourge of Thrace. Hercules' task was to capture them.
Hercules rounded up some volunteers and set off for Thrace, where he drove the mares down to the sea and left them in the charge of an underling, Abderus. He then knocked Diomedes out with a blow from his club, took him to the mares, where he fed him, still living, to them. As the mares had already eaten the poor Abderus, their hunger was satisfied and Heracles was able to master them without any problems.
The Ninth Labour - Hippolyte's Girdle
Hippolyte was Queen of one of three tribes of Amazons and she wore the golden girdle of Ares. Eurystheus set Heracles the task of bringing back the girdle for his daughter, Admete3. The Amazons were children of Ares by the naiad4 Harmonia. In Amazon society, men carried out the household tasks and women fought and governed. They were said to have broken the arms and legs of boy children to prevent them travelling and fighting.
Heracles got together a band of volunteers including the faithful Iolaus and, some say, Theseus of Athens, and set off in a ship for the River Thermodon.
When the ship dropped anchor in the river, Hippolyte came to visit them and offered Heracles her girdle as a love gift, as she admired his muscular body. Meanwhile, Hera disguised herself as an Amazon and began to spread rumours that the men were going to capture Hippolyte, whereupon the Amazons attacked them on horseback. Heracles, thinking treachery was afoot, killed Hippolyte straight away and seized her girdle, axe and other weapons. There was then a pitched battle in which the Amazon leaders were killed, along with many more of the women. Heracles then took the girdle back to Mycenae, where it was given to Admete.
It is said that the Amazons fled to Albania, settling by the foot of the Caucasus Mountains.
The Tenth Labour - The Cattle of Geryon
Geryon was said to be the strongest man alive and had three bodies, joined at the waist, and therefore three heads and six arms. This task was to fetch Geryon's famous cattle without demand or payment from the island of Erytheia. The cattle were guarded by a herdsman and a two-headed watchdog, Orthus, another offspring of Typhon and Echidne.
On the way, Heracles is said either to have cut a channel through to separate Europe and Asia, or to have pushed the two continents closer together to prevent whales or other sea monsters from entering the straits.
When he arrived, the two-headed dog ran at him, barking, but Heracles killed him with a blow to the head from his club. The herdsman died in the same manner. As Heracles was driving the cattle away, Geryon got to hear of it and came prepared for battle. Heracles killed him with a single arrow which pierced all three bodies. Hera came to Geryon's aid and Heracles shot her in the right breast with an arrow and she ran off. So Heracles gained the cattle without demand or payment.
The 11th Labour - the Apples of the Hersperides
Heracles had originally been set ten Labours, which took him eight years and a month to complete, but Eurysteus, rather meanly, discounted two of them (the second and the fifth) and set him two more.
The 11th task was to fetch golden apples from the tree which Mother Earth had given as a wedding gift to Hera. The tree was on the slopes of Mount Atlas and was looked after originally by the Hesperides, Atlas' daughters, and later by the dragon Ladon.
Not knowing where the garden of the Hesperides were, Heracles found the sea-god Nereus asleep and clinging to him through many bodily changes, forced him to tell him its location. He also advised Heracles to get Atlas to pick the apples.
When Heracles arrived at the garden, he offered to take Atlas' burden for an hour if he would pick the apples, and Atlas duly did, but only after Heracles had killed the dragon Ladon with an arrow, returning with three apples.
Atlas asked Heracles to carry on holding up the heavens while he delivered the apples. However, Heracles had been warned that if this happened, he would end up holding them forever. He therefore pretended to agree, but asked if Atlas would take them back for a moment, while he got a pad for his head. Atlas agreed, and as soon as he had taken back his burden, Heracles picked up the apples and bid him goodbye.
Heracles then gave the apples to Eurystheus, who gave them back to him; he gave them to Athene and she gave them back to the nymphs.
On his way back, feeling thirsty, he stamped his feet and a stream of water gushed out, which later saved the lives of the Argonauts when they were stranded in the Libyan desert.
The 12th Labour - the Capture of Cerberus
The final and most difficult task was for Heracles to bring the dog Cerberus up from Tartarus (the Underworld). For this he had to undergo purification rites, these being the Mysteries of Eleusis.
Following this purification, Heracles descended into Tartarus, guided by Athene and Hermes. Charon, terrified by Heracles' scowl, ferried him across the River Styx. He found two of his friends chained up by the Gates of Tartarus, but was only able to free one of them, Theseus.
When Heracles demanded Cerberus from Hades, he was told that he could have him if he could master him without using either his club or his arrows. Heracles grabbed the dog round the throat, and held fast when it lashed him with its barbed tail, protected by his lion skin, and eventually the dog yielded.
On the way back, Heracles made himself a wreath from the white poplar, or aspen tree. The outer leaves are black, signifying the Underworld and the ones next to his brow went silver white from his sweat. The tree became sacred to him, showing that he had laboured in both the worlds of the living and the dead.
Cerberus was far from happy being dragged along in the sunlight, which hurt his eyes, and some say that from his slaver, grew the poisonous plant Aconite5.
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1 The boar was sacred to the Moon because of its crescent-shaped tusks. It was forbidden to eat boar except at Midwinter.
2 This story may be grounded in the massacre and suppression of a college of priestesses worshipping the Triple Goddess. The name Stymphalus suggests erotic practices.
3 Admete is another name for Athene.
4 A naiad is a water nymph.
5 Aconite was used by Thessalian witches in their flying ointment. It numbed their hands and feet and gave the sensation of flying.
source
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A988897
Annunaki
16:28 May 23 2009
Times Read: 955
Anunnaki
Mesopotamian
Levantine
Arabian
Mesopotamia
Primordial beings
7 gods who decree
Demigods & heroes
Spirits & monsters
Tales from Babylon
The Great Gods
Adad · Ashnan
Asaruludu · Enbilulu
Enkimdu · Ereshkigal
Inanna · Lahar
Nanshe · Nergal
Nibiru · Nidaba
Ningal · Ninisinna
Ninkasi · Ninlil
Ninurta · Nusku
Uttu ·
Annunaki
This article is about the Sumerian gods. For the fictional Anunnaki from Demon: The Fallen, see Annunaki (White Wolf). For The Annunaki as depicted in The 12th Planet, see Zecharia Sitchin.
The Anunnaki (also transcribed as: Anuna, Anunnaku, Ananaki and other variations) are a group of Sumerian and Akkadian deities. The name is variously written "da-nuna", "da-nuna-ke4-ne", or "da-nun-na", meaning something to the effect of 'those of royal blood'[1] or 'princely offspring'.[2]
Anunnaki was a collective term for deities in general, especially those who were not otherwise named. Dr. Jeremy Black and Dr. Anthony Green write that the word eventually suggested the deities of earth and the underworld after the term Igigi was used more to refer to the heavenly deities.[2]
The Anunnaki appear in the Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish. In the late version magnifying Marduk, after the creation of mankind, Marduk divides the Anunnaki and assigns them to their proper stations, three hundred in heaven, three hundred on the earth. In gratitude, the Anunnaki, the "Great Gods", built Esagila, the splendid: "They raised high the head of Esagila equaling Apsu. Having built a stage-tower as high as Apsu, they set up in it an abode for Marduk, Enlil, Ea." Then they built their own shrines.
According to later Babylonian myth, the Anunnaki were the children of Anu and Ki, brother and sister gods, themselves the children of Anshar and Kishar (Skypivot and Earthpivot, the Celestial poles). Anshar and Kishar were the children of Lahm and Lahmu ("the muddy ones"), names given to the gatekeepers of the Abzu temple at Eridu, the site at which the creation was thought to have occurred. The head of the Anunnaki council was the Great Anu of Uruk and the other members were his offspring. His place was taken by Enlil, (En=lord, lil=wind,air), who at some time was thought to have separated heaven and earth. This resulted in an ongoing dispute between Enlil of Nippur and his half brother Enki of Eridu regarding the legitimacy of Enlil's assumption of leadership. Enki, (En=lord, Ki=Earth), in addition to being the God of fresh water, was also God of wisdom and magic, regarded by some as an alchemist. When the Igigi went on strike and refused to continue to work maintaining the universe, on the Shappatu (Hebrew: שבת, Eng: Shabbath) Enki created humankind to assume responsibility for the tasks the Gods no longer performed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Annunaki
The Annunaki, also spelled "Anunnaki", are giant hominids, standing on average 8 foot tall and far heavier and more muscular than humans, visiting Earth from their home planet, termed the Planet of the Crossing by the ancient Summerians.
The Anunnaki are a group of Sumerian and Akkadian deities. The name is variously written "da-nuna", "da-nuna-ke4-ne", or "da-nun-na, these names meanings are soemting along the lines of "Those With Royal Blood". Another version is that it means "Heaven on Earth", Anu-na-ki. In the late version magnifying Marduk, after the creation of mankind, Marduk divides the Anunnaki and assigns them to their proper stations, three hundred in heaven, three hundred on the earth. It is said that the Great Gods (Annunaki) then built [[Esagila raised high the head of Esagila equaling Apsu. Having built a stage-tower as high as Apsu, they set up in it an abode for Marduk, Enlil, Ea."
This planet is known by many names - Niburu, Marduk, Wormwood, the Destroyer, the Red Star, and lately Planet X - but the ancient Sumerians termed it the 12th Planet, as they counted also the Sun and Earth's Moon
source tin wikki.org
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The summerians
VIDEO
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1299212/be_prepared_for_2012_the_annunaki_taught_the_summerians/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-BToUxSi-QwA/the_sumerians_and_the_annunaki_part_1/
Enki
16:13 May 23 2009
Times Read: 957
Enki
Enki (Sumerian: dEN.KI(G)) was a god in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology. He was originally chief god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and also to Hittite and Hurrian areas. He was the deity of crafts (gašam); water, seawater, and lakewater (a, aba, ab), intelligence (gestú, literally "ear") and creation (Nudimmud: nu, likeness, dim mud, make bear). He was assimilated[clarification needed] to the zenith in the Sun's path at the winter solstice.[1] His sacred number name was "40".[2]
The exact meaning of his name is uncertain: the common translation is "Lord of the Earth": the Sumerian en is translated as a title equivalent to "lord"; it was originally a title given to the High Priest; ki means "earth"; but there are theories that ki in this name has another origin, possibly kig of unknown meaning, or kur meaning "mound". The name Ea is allegedly Hurrian in origin while others [3][4] claim that it is possibly of Semitic origin and may be a derivation from the West-Semitic root *hyy meaning "life" in this case used for "spring", "running water." In Sumerian E-A means "the house of water", and it has been suggested that this was originally the name for the shrine to the God at Eridu.
Attributes
The main temple to Enki is called E-abzu, meaning "abzu temple" (also E-engura, meaning "house of the subterranean waters""), a ziggurat temple surrounded by Euphratean marshlands near the ancient Persian Gulf coastline at Eridu. He was the keeper of the divine powers called Me, the gifts of civilization. His image is a double-helix snake.
Considered the master shaper of the world, god of wisdom and of all magic, Enki was characterized as the lord of the Abzu (Apsu in Akkadian, perhaps equivalent of Greek abýssos, English "abyss"), the freshwater sea or groundwater located within the earth. In the later Babylonian epic Enûma Eliš, Abzu, the "begetter of the gods", is inert and sleepy but finds his peace disturbed by the younger gods so sets out to destroy them. His grandson Enki, chosen to represent the younger gods, puts a spell on Abzu "casting him into a deep sleep", thereby confining him deep underground. Enki subsequently sets up his home "in the depths of the Abzu." Enki thus takes on all of the functions of the Abzu, including his fertilizing powers as lord of the waters and lord of semen [5].
Early royal inscriptions from the third millennium BCE mention "the reeds of Enki". Reeds were an important local building material, used for baskets and containers, and collected outside the city walls, where the dead or sick were often carried. This links Enki to the Kur or underworld of Sumerian mythology. In another even older tradition, Nammu, the goddess of the primeval creative matter and the mother-goddess portrayed as having "given birth to the great gods," was the mother of Enki, and as the watery creative force, was said to preexist Ea-Enki. [6] Benito states "With Enki it is an interesting change of gender symbolism, the fertilizing agent is also water, Sumerian "a" which also means "semen". In one evocative passage in a Sumerian hymn, Enki stands at the empty riverbeds and fills them with his 'water'"[7]. This may be a reference to Enki's hieros gamos or sacred marriage with Ki/Ninhursag (the Earth) (see below).
His symbols included a goat and a fish, which later combined into a single beast, the goat Capricorn, recognized as the Zodiacal constellation Capricornus.
In Sumerian astronomy, Enki also represented the planet Mercury,[citation needed] known for its ability to shift rapidly, and its proximity to the Sun, Sumerian Utu, Akkadian Shamash, the god of Justice.
Restorer of balance
Enki was not perfect, as god of water he had a penchant for beer and as god of semen he had a string of incestuous affairs. In the epic Enki and Ninhursag, he and his consort Ninhursag had a daughter Ninsar. When Ninhursag left him he came upon Ninsar (Lady Greenery) and then had intercourse with her. Ninhursa then gave birth to Ninkurra (Lady Fruitfulness or Lady Pasture).
A second time, he had intercourse with Ninkurra, who gave birth to Uttu (weaver or spider).
A third time Enki succumbs to temptation, and attempts seduction of Uttu. Upset about Enki's reputation, Uttu consults Ninhursag, who, upset at the promiscuous nature of her spouse, advises Uttu to avoid the riverbanks. In another version of this myth Ninhursag takes Enki's semen from Uttu's womb and plants it in the earth where seven plants rapidly germinate. With his two-faced servant and steward Isimud, Enki finds the plants and immediately starts consuming their fruit. Consuming his own semen he falls pregnant (ill with swellings) in his jaw, his teeth, his mouth, his throat, his limbs and his rib. The gods are at a loss to know what to do, as Enki lacks a womb with which to give birth, until Ninhursag's sacred fox fetches the goddess.
Ninhursag relents and takes Enki's Ab (water, or semen) into her body, and gives birth to gods of healing of each part of the body. The last one, Ninti (Lady Rib), is also a pun on Lady Life, a title of Ninhursag herself. The story symbolically reflects the way in which life is brought forth through the addition of water to the land, and once it grows, water is required to bring plants to fruit. It also counsels balance and responsibility, nothing to excess.
Ninti, is given the title of the mother of all living, and was a title given to the later Hurrian goddess Kheba. This is also the title given to Eve, the Hebrew Khavvah (חוה), the Aramaic Hawwah, who was supposedly made from the rib of Adam, in a strange reflection of the Sumerian myth.
Confuser of languages
In the Sumerian epic entitled Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, in a speech of Enmerkar, an incantation is pronounced that has a mythical introduction. Kramer's translation is as follows[8]:
Once upon a time there was no snake, there was no scorpion,
There was no hyena, there was no lion,
There was no wild dog, no wolf,
There was no fear, no terror,
Man had no rival.
In those days, the lands of Subur (and) Hamazi,
Harmony-tongued Sumer, the great land of the decrees of princeship,
Uri, the land having all that is appropriate,
The land Martu, resting in security,
The whole universe, the people in unison
To Enlil in one tongue [spoke].
(Then) Enki, the lord of abundance (whose) commands are trustworthy,
The lord of wisdom, who understands the land,
The leader of the gods,
Endowed with wisdom, the lord of Eridu
Changed the speech in their mouths, [brought] contention into it,
Into the speech of man that (until then) had been one
Champion of Humankind
According to Sumerian mythology, Enki also assisted humanity to survive the Deluge designed to kill them. In the Legend of Atrahasis, Enlil, the king of the gods, sets out to eliminate humanity, the noise of whose mating is offensive to his ears. He successively sends drought, famine and plague to eliminate humanity, but Enki thwarts his half-brother's plans by teaching Atrahasis about irrigation, granaries and medicine. Humans again proliferate a fourth time. Enraged, Enlil convenes a Council of Deities and gets them to promise not to tell humankind that he plans their total annihilation. Enki does not tell Atrahasis, but instead tells the walls of Atrahasis' (a.k.a. Utnapishtim or Ziusudra) reed hut of Enlil's plan, thus covertly rescuing Atrahasis by either instructing him to build some kind of a boat for his family, or by bringing him into the heavens in a magic boat. After the seven day Deluge, the flood hero frees a swallow, a raven and a dove in an effort to find if the flood waters have receded. On the boat landing, a sacrifice is organized to the gods. Enlil is angry his will has been thwarted yet again, and Enki is named as the culprit. As the god of what we would call ecology, Enki explains that Enlil is unfair to punish the guiltless Atrahasis for the sins of his fellows, and secures a promise that the gods will not eliminate humankind if they practice birth control and live within the means of the natural world. The threat is made, however, that if humans do not honor their side of the covenant the gods will be free to wreak havoc once again. This is apparently the oldest surviving Middle Eastern Deluge myths.
Enki and Inanna
In his connections with Inanna Enki shows other aspects of his ll non-Patriarchal nature. The myth Enki and Inanna[9][10] tells the story of the young goddess of the É-anna temple of Uruk, who visits the senior god of Eridu, and is entertained by him in a feast. The seductive god plies her with beer, and the young goddess maintains her virtue, whilst Enki proceeds to get drunk. In generosity he gives her all the gifts of his Me, the gifts of civilized life. Next morning, with a hangover, he asks his servant Isimud for his Me, only to be informed that he has given them to Inanna. Upset at his actions, he sends Galla demons to recover them. Inanna escapes her pursuers and arrives safely back at the quay at Uruk. Enki realizes that he has been tricked in his hubris and accepts a peace treaty forever with Uruk.
Politically, this myth would seem to indicate events of an early period when political authority passed from Enki's city of Eridu to Inanna's city of Uruk.
In the myth of Inanna's descent,[10] Inanna, in order to console her grieving sister Ereshkigal, who is mourning the death of her husband Gugalana (gu, bull, gal, big, ana, sky/heaven), slain by Gilgamesh and Enkidu, sets out to visit her sister. She tells her servant Ninshubur (Lady Evening), a reference to Inanna's role as the evening star, that if she does not return in three days, to get help from her father Anu, Enlil, king of the gods, or Enki. When she does not return, Ninshubur approaches Anu only to be told that he understands that his daughter is strong and can take care of herself. Enlil tells Ninshubur he is much too busy running the cosmos. Enki immediately expresses concern and dispatches his Galla demons, Galaturra or Kurgarra, sexless beings created from the dirt from beneath the god's finger-nails, to recover the young goddess. These beings may be the origin of the Greco-Roman Galli, androgynous beings of the third sex, similar to the American Indian berdache, who played an important part in early religious ritual.[11]
In the story Inanna and Shukaletuda,[12] Shukaletuda, the gardener, set by Enki to care for the date palm he had created, finds Inanna sleeping under the palm tree and rapes the goddess in her sleep. Awaking, she discovers that she has been violated and seeks to punish the miscreant. Shukaletuda seeks protection from Enki, whom Bottero[13] believes to be his father. In classic Enkian fashion, the father advises Shukaletuda to hide in the city where Inanna will not be able to find him. Enki, as the protector of whomever comes to seek his help, and as the empowerer of Inanna, here challenges the young impetuous goddess to control her anger so as to be better able to function as a great judge.
Eventually, after cooling her anger, she too seeks the help of Enki, as spokesperson of the "assembly of the gods", the Igigi and the Anunnaki. After she presents her case, Enki sees that justice needs to be done and promises help, delivering knowledge of where the miscreant is hiding.
Portrayal
Enki was considered a god of life and replenishment, and was often depicted with two streams of water emanating from his shoulders, one the Tigris, the other the Euphrates. Alongside him were trees symbolizing the male and female aspects of nature, each holding the male and female aspects of the 'Life Essence', which he, as apparent alchemist of the gods, would masterfully mix to create several beings that would live upon the face of the earth.
In character Enki is not a jester or trickster god, he is never a cheat, and although fooled, he is not a fool. Enki uses his magic for the good of others when called upon to help either a god, a goddess or a human. Enki is always true to his own essence as a masculine nurturer. He is fundamentally a trouble-shooter god, and avoids or disarms those who bring conflict and death to the world. He is the mediator whose compassion and sense of humor breaks and disarms the wrath of his stern half-brother, Enlil, king of the gods. He is the Challenger who tests the limits of Inanna in the myth Enki and Inanna and the Me and then concedes graciously his defeat by the young goddess of Love and War, by strengthening the bonds between Eridu and her city of Uruk. So he becomes the Empowerer of Inanna.
Influence
Enki and later Ea were apparently depicted, sometimes, like Adapa, as a man covered with the skin of a fish, and this representation, as likewise the name of his temple E-apsu, "house of the watery deep", points decidedly to his original character as a god of the waters (see Oannes). Of his cult at Eridu, which goes back to the oldest period of Mesopotamian history, nothing definite is known except that his temple was also associated with Ninhursag's temple which was called Esaggila, "the lofty head house" (E, house, sag, head, ila, high; or Akkadian goddess Ila), a name shared with Marduk's temple in Babylon, pointing to a staged tower or ziggurat (as with the temple of Enlil at Nippur, which was known as Ekur (kur, hill)), and that incantations, involving ceremonial rites in which water as a sacred element played a prominent part, formed a feature of his worship. This seems also implicated in the epic of the hieros gamos or sacred marriage of Enki and Ninhursag, which seems an etiological myth of the fertilization of the dry ground by the coming of irrigation water (from Sumerian a, ab, water or semen). The early inscriptions of Urukagina in fact go so far as to suggest that the divine pair, Enki and Ninki, were the progenators of seven pairs of gods, including Enki as god of Eridu, Enlil of Nippur, and Su'en (or Sin) of Ur, and were themselves the children of An (sky, heaven) and Ki (earth)[14]. The pool of the Abzu at the front of his temple, was adopted also at the temple to Nanna (Akkadian Sin) the Moon, at Ur, and spread throughout the Middle East. It remains as the sacred pool at Mosques.
Whether Eridu at one time also played an important political role in Sumerian affairs is not certain, though not improbable. At all events the prominence of "Ea" led, as in the case of Nippur, to the survival of Eridu as a sacred city, long after it had ceased to have any significance as a political center. Myths in which Ea figures prominently have been found in Assurbanipal's library, and in the Hattusas archive in Hittite Anatolia. As Ea, Enki had a wide influence outside of Sumeria, being equated with El (at Ugarit) and possibly Yah (at Ebla) in the Canaanite 'ilhm pantheon, he is also found in Hurrian and Hittite mythology, as a god of contracts, and is particularly favourable to humankind. Amongst the Western Semites it is thought that Ea was equated to the term *hyy (life)[14], referring to Enki's waters as life giving. Enki/Ea is essentially a god of civilization, wisdom, and culture. He was also the creator and protector of man, and of the world in general. Traces of this view appear in the Marduk epic celebrating the achievements of this god and the close connection between the Ea cult at Eridu and that of Marduk. The correlation between the two rise from two other important connections: (1) that the name of Marduk's sanctuary at Babylon bears the same name, Esaggila, as that of a temple in Eridu, and (2) that Marduk is generally termed the son of Ea, who derives his powers from the voluntary abdication of the father in favour of his son. Accordingly, the incantations originally composed for the Ea cult were re-edited by the priests of Babylon and adapted to the worship of Marduk, and, similarly, the hymns to Marduk betray traces of the transfer of attributes to Marduk which originally belonged to Ea.
It is, however, as the third figure in the triad (the two other members of which were Anu and Enlil) that Ea acquires his permanent place in the pantheon. To him was assigned the control of the watery element, and in this capacity he becomes the shar apsi; i.e. king of the Apsu or "the deep". The Apsu was figured as the abyss of water beneath the earth, and since the gathering place of the dead, known as Aralu, was situated near the confines of the Apsu, he was also designated as En-Ki; i.e. "lord of that which is below", in contrast to Anu, who was the lord of the "above" or the heavens. The cult of Ea extended throughout Babylonia and Assyria. We find temples and shrines erected in his honour, e.g. at Nippur, Girsu, Ur, Babylon, Sippar, and Nineveh, and the numerous epithets given to him, as well as the various forms under which the god appears, alike bear witness to the popularity which he enjoyed from the earliest to the latest period of Babylonian-Assyrian history. The consort of Ea, known as Ninhursag, Ki, Uriash Damkina, "lady of that which is below", or Damgalnunna, "big lady of the waters", originally was fully equal with Ea but in more patriarchal Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times plays a part merely in association with her lord. Generally, however, Enki seems to be a reflection of pre-patriarchal times, in which relations between the sexes were characterised by a situation of greater gender equality. In his character, he prefers persuasion to conflict, which he seeks to avoid if possible.
Ea and West Semitic deities
In 1964, a team of Italian archaeologists under the direction of Paolo Matthiae of the University of Rome La Sapienza performed a series of excavations of material from the third-millennium BCE city of Ebla. Much of the written material found in these digs was later translated by Dr. Giovanni Pettinato. Among other conclusions, he found a tendency among the inhabitants of Ebla to replace the name of El, king of the gods of the Canaanite Pantheon (found in names such as Mikael), with Ia (two syllables as in Mikiah).
Jean Bottero[15] and many others[16] have suggested that Ia in this case is a West Semitic (Canaanite) way of saying Ea, Enki's Akkadian name. Ia (two syllables) is declined with the Semitic ending as Iahu and may have developed into the later form of Yahweh. Ia has also been confused with the Ugaritic Yamm (sea), (also called Judge Nahar, or Judge River) whose earlier name in at least one ancient source was Yaw, or Ya'a. Although both Ea and Yamm were water gods and are sometimes called "storm" gods, Ea was the creator and representative of the sweet beneficent waters from below the earth, and as "Enki" was responsible for fertilising the earth itself.
Yamm, however, in addition to being the deity of salt waters, and of storms that sank ships, flooded cities -- that is, had a more violent character than Ea, who generally avoided conflict. Indeed, ancient Ur during its hey day as a port city along the ancient coastline of the Persian Gulf (now far inland), maintained its most holy shrine to the life-giving essence of fresh water as against the life-threatening qualities of the salty seas. Thus Ea, the lord of the sweet waters, antagonist to his half brother, the storm god Enlil, who can be identified with the West Semitic storm god Ba'al Haddad, the King of heaven and creator of heaven and earth in West Semitic mythology. Yamm, although important to the maritime Canaanites, was comparatively a minor figure when compared to Ba'al Hadad, who in the West Semitic myths is always his foe.
See also
Barbar Temple, a Dilmun-era temple in Bahrain devoted to the worship of Enki
Mesopotamian mythology
Source Enki wikki
Marduk
15:37 May 23 2009
Times Read: 959
Marduk
This article is about the Babylonian god. For other uses, see Marduk (disambiguation).
Fertile Crescent
myth series
Mesopotamian
Levantine
Arabian
Mesopotamia
Primordial beings
7 gods who decree
The great gods
Demigods & heroes
Spirits & monsters
Tales from Babylon
Enûma Eliš
Atra-Hasis
Marduk & Sarpanit
Nabu, Nintu
Agasaya, Bel
Qingu
Marduk (Sumerian spelling in Akkadian: AMAR.UTU "solar calf"; perhaps from MERI.DUG; Biblical Hebrew מְרֹדַךְ Merodach; Greek Μαρδοχαῖος[1], Mardochaios) was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century BC), started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BC.
Nibiru, to the Babylonians, was the celestial body or region sometimes associated with the god Marduk.
Marduk's original character is obscure but he was later on connected with water, vegetation, judgment, and magic.[2] He was also regarded as the son of Ea (Sumerian Enki) and Damkina and the heir of Anu, but whatever special traits Marduk may have had were overshadowed by the political development through which the Euphrates valley passed and which led to imbuing him with traits belonging to gods who at an earlier period were recognized as the heads of the pantheon. There are particularly two gods—Ea and Enlil—whose powers and attributes pass over to Marduk. In the case of Ea, the transfer proceeded pacifically and without effacing the older god. Marduk took over the identity of Asarluhi, the son of Ea and god of magic, so that Marduk was integrated in the pantheon of Eridu where both Ea and Asarluhi originally came from. Father Ea voluntarily recognized the superiority of the son and hands over to him the control of humanity. This association of Marduk and Ea, while indicating primarily the passing of the supremacy once enjoyed by Eridu to Babylon as a religious and political centre, may also reflect an early dependence of Babylon upon Eridu, not necessarily of a political character but, in view of the spread of culture in the Euphrates valley from the south to the north, the recognition of Eridu as the older centre on the part of the younger one.
While the relationship between Ea and Marduk is marked by harmony and an amicable abdication on the part of the father in favour of his son, Marduk's absorption of the power and prerogatives of Enlil of Nippur was at the expense of the latter's prestige. After the days of Hammurabi, the cult of Marduk eclipsed that of Enlil; although Nippur and the cult of Enlil enjoyed a period of renaissance during the four centuries of Kassite control in Babylonia (c. 1570 BC–1157 BC), the definite and permanent triumph of Marduk over Enlil became felt within the Babylonian empire. The only serious rival to Marduk after ca. 1000 BC was Aššur in Assyria. In the south, Marduk reigned supreme. He is normally referred to as Bel "Lord", also bel rabim "great lord", bêl bêlim "lord of lords", ab-kal ilâni bêl terêti "leader of the gods", aklu bêl terieti "the wise, lord of oracles", muballit mîte "reviver of the dead", etc.
When Babylon became the capital of Mesopotamia, the patron deity of Babylon was elevated to the level of supreme god. In order to explain how Marduk seized power, Enûma Elish was written, which tells the story of Marduk's birth, heroic deeds and becoming the ruler of the gods. This can be viewed as a form of Mesopotamian apologetics. Also included in this document are the fifty names of Marduk.
In Enûma Elish, a civil war between the gods was growing to a climactic battle. The Anunnaki gods gathered together to find one god who could defeat the gods rising against them. Marduk, a very young god, answered the call and was promised the position of head god.
When he killed his enemy, he "wrested from him the Tablets of Destiny, wrongfully his" and assumed his new position. Under his reign humans were created to bear the burdens of life so the gods could be at leisure.
Marduk was depicted as a human, often with his symbol the snake-dragon which he had taken over from the god Tishpak. Another symbol that stood for Marduk was the spade.
People were named after Marduk. For example, some scholars speculate that the Biblical character of Mordechai (Book of Esther) used this Persian name to replace his original Hebrew name, Bilshan.
Babylonian texts talk of the creation of Eridu by the god Marduk as the first city, "the holy city, the dwelling of their [the other gods] delight".
Nabu, god of wisdom, is a son of Marduk.
Source Marduk Wikki
The master controller
16:49 May 13 2009
Times Read: 911
who is the master controler ? The master contoler is the law
The law - a list of moral and financial obligations given to people in their area of the planet passed through legislation of their government, meaning those in power of that area make laws for the people to follow
What happens to people who do not obey their given law ? Depending on what the crime was
Crime - meaning not obeying the law, a person who commits a crime is called a Criminal if the law states it, they may be given a criminal record for not obeying the given laws depending how serious the crimes are. Or a fine a certain amount of money, or community service working for a punishment of crime, or a prison sentence and in some cases punishment by death depending in which region they live. A criminal record is put on their name for protection of others. A criminal would have to apply for a visa for travel if needed, or be asked about it in a job interview or renting property or taking out an insurance policy
In some cases innocent people have been punished for crimes they did not commit there are such cases.
Crime is increasing, many of them are violent or financial
Many movies are made about violence and stealing, movies are a good form of entertainment, where actors portray a fantasy character from a book or previous movie, sometimes based on a true story.
Sometimes historical characters
Some people are influenced by this especially the young, some see these characters as heroes, usually where the movie takes their character and focuses on them being the hero
Many people watch television the average family often watch Television together, Television promotes advertising products in advert form creating more sales for the economy, targeting fashon, music, the more money spent the better off financially the country is.
Lots of this money is put into military and weapons to protect these countrys from eachother ..... seems rather stupid really blowing eachother up
Why can't peoples minds evolve with a conscience at the same rate as their technology for destruction ? i guess trusting is an issue with usually anyone including myself
Big sellers
These products for sale are a hazard to the environment and peoples health like oil and cigarettes and alcohol which are big in sales
Money - People spend less money these days money being spent has been on the decline from year 2000 A.D onwards from what i have seen.
If the system we live by fails this will create poverty, at the moment large business companys have gone broke, the smaller companys are finding it harder to compete with the bigger companys, many have given up trading leaving the bigger companys more sales.
People often spend nearly all of their money running their home, which is costly, some people are being moved from their homes due to not being able to keep up with the high mortgage repayments from the banks. Many people live in rented accomodation which is very exspensive now.
In the future years i think money will be removed from the system as it is failing, only the wealthy seem to be staying out of debt at the moment.
I think when the system of money which corrupts is gone the world will be a better place.
The whole planet population would have to work it out TOGETHER using eachothers food products meterials and making the world a safer healthy environmentaly friendly place .... hope it happens one day ......
A work in progress
UFO Sighting
18:07 May 11 2009
Times Read: 984
I was on the sea wall and saw an orange sort of glowing cigar shape between 6 n 10 miles out at sea south central england, i heard of previous sightings of cigar shaped UFO's and thought could this be a cloud or a reflection, there were no other clouds about so i turned away and looked again and it was still there, just staying still it was quite low not high up ..... strange
Well i cant say U.F.O's do not exist maybe these things are from our planet
I dont think we are just the only planet with life on it either, so maybe we do get Alien visitors checking our planet out
Anyone seen anything like this before ? leave comments if you have
England in the Red00:40 May 07 2009
Times Read: 1,002
I miss the old pound notes but a pound is not worth that much now and we have £1 and £2 coins instead and many of these coins are fakes
It seems to have got worse
when maggie fucked
the nation dry.
Now it seems there's no end of political corruption
the latest things to be revealed about our government is the MP's have been claiming for mortgages that have allready been paid of.
Claiming to renovate seccond home after first have been lavishly made comfortable for them,
the can of worms has been opened and it's all over the news lol.
What fuckers they all are
this is England
How amusing
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