Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

GOD of the day from A to Z

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    GOD of the day from A to Z

    I have this wonderful book about GODS that I would like to share with you. I plan on posting some of the deities that strike my interest on a one per day basis. I will start with A and eventually end with Z. You are free to comment on the GOD of the day as much as you wish. I think this will allow for many cultures from around the globe to be highlighted. I plan on touching on many cultures including Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Akkadian, Greco-Roman, as well as obscure cultures like that found in modern day Afghanistan. I do not claim that this book is a definitive source for these GODS and can be wrong in some instances. If I feel the material to be wrong I will refrain from posting it.

    The GOD of the day will be posted in a later post sometime today. I hope you all enjoy this.
    SPQR

    #2
    Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

    Adonis

    Origin Hellenic name adopted predominantly in Phoenician and Syrian culture and based on an old western Semitic deity [Lebanon and Syria] Fertility and vegetation GOD

    Known period of worship Circa 200 BCE to 400 CE


    Adonis is modeled on the Mesopotamian dying vegetation GOD Dumuzi. He appears as a youthful deity. The river Adonis [Nahr Ibrahim] is sacred to him because its waters flow red after heavy winter rains, having become saturated with ferrous oxide. Tradition has it that he was killed by a boar during a hunting expedition and is condemned to the underworld for six months of each year, during which the earth's vegetation parches and dies under the summer sun and drought. He was honored in a spring festival when priests in effeminate costume gashed themselves with knives. Frequently depicted nude and sometimes carrying a lyre.
    SPQR

    Comment


      #3
      Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

      Adonis always reminded me of Tammuz, and also of Attis. Attis was killed by a boar too, and his blood was said to cause plants to bloom. He came back as an undying evergreen. Tammuz was traded back and forth between Ishtar, the Goddess of love among other things, and the Goddess Ereshkigal in the underworld. During this, fertility left the earth. Adonis is likewise shared by Aphrodite and Persephone. I think they are all death-life-rebirth/ fertility deities of Near-Eastern origin.
      If you want to be thought intelligent, just agree with everyone.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

        Very good! You are more knowledgable than I am. I need a book detailing any GOD outside of the Roman Pantheon
        SPQR

        Comment


          #5
          Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

          Thank you. I'm kind of a mythology book worm. >>
          There was a time when I would have a mythology of the day or maybe of the week. I'd just sit down and read up on a new pantheon. Anyway, I thought I should specify that "Tammuz" is the same as the Mesopotamian "Dumuzi" mentioned in that awesome sounding book of yours. Just different ways of writing.
          If you want to be thought intelligent, just agree with everyone.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

            B! B! B! Who will it B?!

            Bast? Bacchus? Bes?
            No one tells the wind which way to blow.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

              Ahura Mazda

              Origin Persia. God of light

              Known period of worship circa 1500 BCE to circa 400 CE


              Ahura Mazda probably originates as the Hindu Vedic God Varuna. In Persian religion he becomes the God of light and truth in the Zoroastrian concept of dualism. His chief attendant God is Mithra(s) and his adversary is Ahriman, the God of darkness. According to tradition his first creation, a wild bull, was confined to a cave by Mithras. The bull escaped and Mithras was charged with finding the bull and slaying it. The blood fell to earth and from the drops life formed.

              The rest details Mithras and the Roman Empire's interest in Mithraism. Mithras will be detailed at a later date and will therefore be covered then.
              SPQR

              Comment


                #8
                Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

                [quote author=Bjorn link=topic=1172.msg21443#msg21443 date=1292005878]
                B! B! B! Who will it B?!

                Bast? Bacchus? Bes?
                [/quote]


                Nope, looks like we are still on A :P


                This wouldn't happen to be the GodChecker book would it?


                M
                In the end, only you know if you were right or wrong, so tolerate others beliefs, no matter how wrong, they may be right...

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

                  [quote author=Maulus link=topic=1172.msg21575#msg21575 date=1292028543]

                  Nope, looks like we are still on A :P


                  This wouldn't happen to be the GodChecker book would it?


                  M
                  [/quote]


                  Nope. The book is called "Encyclopedia of GODS". The author is Michael Jordan, and no it isn't the basketball player. LOL
                  SPQR

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

                    I hate to rattle off again, but I can't resist... I'd double check on that Ahura Mazda one. Last I checked, Roman Mithraism with Mithras sacrificing the bull was distinct from Zoroastrianism. In Zoroastrianism, Angra Mainyu himself slays the bull. The whole Varuna thing is a theory at best.
                    If you want to be thought intelligent, just agree with everyone.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

                      Thank you for that, I will keep my eye on the listings in the book to ensure as best I can that they are accurate. Next post...Allah.
                      SPQR

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

                        Allah

                        Origin Nabataean and Arabic. Derived from the western Semetic God Il.

                        Known period of worship circa 300 BCE until present

                        The creator GOD of Islam. Percieved in pre-Islamic times as the creator of the earth and water though not, at that time, considered monotheisticly.

                        Through the teachings of the prophet Muhammad (born circa 570 CE), which achieved their first major spread in the seventh century, the faith of Islam (submission to God) proclaimed Allah as a unique and sole deity. He is perceived as the creator of the cosmos and of all existance who will judge mankind at the final apocalypse. It is considered that the revelations delivered through the agency of Muhammad represent the only true message of God and that comparable revelations described in the teachings of Judaism and Christianity are defective.

                        Adherents to the faith are known as Muslims and the sacred book of Islam is the Qur'an (Koran). Devotion to Allah is all embracing and there is no effective distinction into secular and non-secular life. He is accorded one hundred sacred names or epithets of which ninety-nine are known and are accounted on rosary beads. The final name remains a mystery. No representation of Allah is made in art.
                        SPQR

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

                          Baal

                          Origin Western Semetic (Canaanite) [Northern Israel, Lebanon and later Egypt]. Vegetation deity and national God

                          Known Period of worship circa 2000 BCE or earlier to 200 BCE

                          Baal may have originated in pre-agricultural times as a God of storms and rain. He is the sun of Dagan and in turn is the father of seven storm Gods, the Baalim of the Vetus Testamentum, and seven midwife Goddesses, the Sasuratum. He is considered to have been worshiped from at least the nineteenth century BCE. Later he became a vegetation God concerned with fertility of the land. Baal is said to have gained his kingship in primeval times wrested, with the help of weapons made by the devine craftsmen, from the powers of chaos in the form of the sea and the river tyranies, or more specifically the God Yamm.
                          SPQR

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

                            Bastet

                            Origin Egyptian. Feline Goddess associated with the vengeance of the sun God

                            Known period of worship circa 2700 BCE to the end of Egyptian history circa 400 CE

                            Bastet is the daughter of the sun God Re and is regarded as his instrument of vengeance, the "rage in his eye". Alternatively she is the eldest daughter of Amun. She has a son, the lion God Mihos.

                            Texts recounting battles may describe the pharaoh's enemies being slaughtered like the victims of Bastet. Thus she is first depicted as a lioness, and then in the guise of a cat from circa 1000 BCE onward when she becomes more peaceable in character. The cat was considered sacred to her and cat cemetaries, containing mummified animals, have been found at various sites.
                            SPQR

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: GOD of the day from A to Z

                              Brigit

                              Origin Celtic Fertility Goddess

                              Known period of worship Prehistoric times until Christianization circa 1100 CE or later.

                              A major Celtic pastoral deity, described as a "Wise woman, the daughter of the Dagda," Brigit became "Christianized" as St Brigit of Kildare, who lived from 450-523 CE and founded the first female Christian community in Ireland. She was originally celebrated on February 1 in the festival of Imbolc, which coinsided with the beginning of lactation in ewes and was regarded in Scotland as the date on which Brigit deposed the blue-faced hag of winter. The Christian calender adopted the same date for the feast of St Brigit. There is no record that a Christian saint ever actually existed, but in Irish mythology she became the midwife to the Virgin Mary.
                              SPQR

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X