Tarhunt and Illuyanka , Set and Apep, Indra the "the slayer of the serpent" (ahihán) and slayer of Vṛtra

11:10 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
The Sky God kills the dragon Illuyanka. Behind him his son Sarruma

The twisting body of the snake is depicted in undulating lines with human figures sliding along
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey
Tarhunt  and Illuyanka , Set and Apep, Indra the  "the slayer of the serpent" (ahihán) and slayer of Vṛtra

In Hittite mythology, Illuyanka was a serpentine dragon slain by Tarhunt (dIM), the Hittite incarnation of the Hurrian god of sky and storm. It is known fromHittite cuneiform tablets found at Çorum-Boğazköy, the former Hittite capital Hattusa. The context is a ritual of the Hattian spring festival of Puruli.
The myth is found in Catalogue des Textes Hittites321, which gives two consecutive versions.

Name[edit]

See also Etymology of eel. Illuyanka is probably a compound, consisting of two words for "snake", Proto-Indo-European *h₁illu-and *h₂eng(w)eh₂-. The same compound members, inverted, appear in Latin anguilla "eel". The *h₁illu- word is cognate to Englisheel, the anka- word to Sanskrit ahi. Also this dragon is known as Illujanka and Illuyankas.

Narrative[edit]

In the first version, the two gods fight and Illuyanka wins. Teshub then goes to the Hattian goddess Inaras for advice. Having promised her love to a mortal named Hupasiyas in return for his help, she devises a trap for the dragon. She goes to him with large quantities of food and drink, and entices him to drink his fill. Once drunk, the dragon is bound by Hupasiyas with a rope. Then the Sky God Teshub appears with the other gods and kills the dragon.
In the second version, after the two gods fight and Teshub loses, Illuyanka takes Teshub's eyes and heart. To avenge himself upon the dragon, the Sky God Teshub marries the goddess Hebat, daughter of a mortal, named Arm. They have a son, Sarruma, who grows up and marries the daughter of the dragon Illuyanka. The Sky God Teshub tells his son to ask for the return of Teshub's eyes and heart as a wedding gift, and he does so. His eyes and heart restored, Teshub goes to face the dragon Illuyanka once more. At the point of vanquishing the dragon, Sarruma finds out about the battle and realizes that he had been used for this purpose. He demands that his father take his life along with Illuyanka's, and so Teshub kills them both with thundery rain and lightning. This version is illustrated on a relief which was discovered at Malatya (dating from 1050-850 BC) and is on display in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey.

Interpretation[edit]

The Hittite texts were introduced in 1930 by W. Porzig, who first made the comparison of Teshub's battle with Illuyankas with the sky-god Zeus' battle with serpent-like Typhon, told in Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke (I.6.3); the Hittite-Greek parallels found few adherents at the time, the Hittite myth of the castration of the god of heaven by Kumarbi, with its clearer parallels to Greek myth, not having yet been deciphered and edited.
Teshub (also written Teshup or Tešup; cuneiform dIM) was the Hurrian god of sky and storm. He was derived from the Hattian Taru. His Hittite and Luwian name was Tarhun (with variant stem forms Tarhunt, Tarhuwant, Tarhunta), although this name is from the Hittite root *tarh- "to defeat, conquer".[1][2]

Depiction and myths[edit]

Teshub is depicted holding a triple thunderbolt and a weapon, usually an axe (often double-headed) or mace. The sacred bull common throughout Anatolia was his signature animal, represented by his horned crown or by his steeds Seri and Hurri, who drew his chariot or carried him on their backs.

Family[edit]

The Hurrian myth of Teshub's origin—he was conceived when the god Kumarbi bit off and swallowed his father Anu's genitals, similarly to the Greek story of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus, which is recounted in Hesiod's Theogony. Teshub's brothers areAranzah (personification of the river Tigris), Ullikummi (stone giant) and Tashmishu.
In the Hurrian schema, Teshub was paired with Hebat the mother goddess; in the Hittite, with the sun goddess Arinniti of Arinna—a cultus of great antiquity which has similarities with the venerated bulls and mothers at Çatalhöyük in the Neolithic era. His son was called Sarruma, the mountain god.

Illuyanka[edit]

According to Hittite myths, one of Teshub's greatest acts was the slaying of the dragon Illuyanka.

Myths also exist of his conflict with the sea creature (possibly a snake or serpent) Hedammu (CTH 348).

Manuscripts[edit]

Catalogue des Textes Hittites 321 consists of the following tablets (Beckman 1982, p. 12):
  • A. KBo III 7
  • B. KUB XVII 5
  • C. KUB XVII 6
  • D. KUB XII 66
  • E. KUB XXXVI 54
  • F. KBo XII 83
  • G. KBo XII 84, XIII 84
  • H. KBo XXII 99
  • J. KUB XXXVI 53
None of the individual versions is complete. Text A is the most complete, including 30 out of 36 paragraphs.

See also[edit]

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Goídel Glas [The "Green man"]: Irish and Scottish Folklore, Founding Myth

12:07 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
According to an Irish and Scottish medieval tradition, Goídel Glas (Latinised as Gathelus) is the creator of the Goidelic languages and theeponymous ancestor of the Gaels.
The tradition can be traced to the 11th-century Lebor Gabála Érenn. A Scottish variant is due to John of Fordun (d. 1384).

Lebor Gabála Érenn[edit]

The narrative in the Lebor Gabála Érenn is a fictional account of the origin of the Gaels as the descendants of the Scythian prince Fénius Farsaid, one of seventy-two chieftains who built the Tower of Babel. Goídel Glas was the son of Nel (son of Fénius) and Scota (daughter of a Pharaoh of Egypt).[1] Goídel Glas is credited with the creation of Gaelic (proto-Irish language) from the original seventy-two languages that arose at the time of the confusion of tongues.[2] His descendants, the Gaels, undergo a series of trials and tribulations that are clearly modelled on those of the Israelites in the Old Testament. They flourish in Egypt at the time of Moses and leave during the Exodus; they wander the world for 440 years before eventually settling in the Iberian Peninsula. There, Goídel's descendant Breogán founds a city called Brigantia, and builds a tower from the top of which his son Íth glimpses Ireland. Brigantia refers to Corunna in Galicia (which was then known as Brigantium)[3] and Breogán's tower is likely based on the Tower of Hercules (which was built at Corunna by the Romans).[4]
An interesting anecdote in the LGE tells how Gaidel Glas [Hirem Abif?], son of Nel (Keating: Niul), was cured of a serpent's sting when Moses made fervent prayer and touched his rod upon the lad's wound.[5] An inserted verse in an earlier passage says of Gaidel: "green were his arms and his vesture".[6] O'Clery's redaction of the Lebor Gabála adds that the snake bite left a green ring on the boy, from which he earned his nickname of Gaidel Glas (meaning "Green").[7] Keating also repeats this quoting a glossarial verse, although he prefaces it with an alternate derivation of the nickname from the word for lock (Irish: glas)[8][9]

John of Fordun[edit]


Scota (left) with Goídel Glas (right) voyaging from Egypt, as depicted in a 15th-century manuscript of theScotichronicon of Walter Bower; in this version Scota and Goídel Glas (Latinized as Gaythelos) are wife and husband.
A Scottish version of the tale of Goídel Glas and Scota was recorded by John of Fordun. This is apparently not based on the main Irish Lebor Gabála account. Fordun refers to multiple sources, and his version is taken to be an attempt to synthesise these multiple accounts into a single history.
In Fordun's version, Gaythelos, as he calls Goídel Glas, is the son of "a certain king of the countries of Greece, Neolus, or Heolaus, by name", who was exiled to Egypt and took service with the Pharaoh, marrying Pharaoh's daughter Scota. Various accounts of how Gaythelos came to be expelled from Egypt—by a revolt following the death of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, pursuing Moses, or in terror from the Plagues of Egypt, or after an invasion by Ethiopians—are given, but the upshot is that Gaythelos and Scota are exiled together with Greek and Egyptian nobles, and they settle in Hispania after wandering for many years. In the Iberian Peninsula they settle in the land's northwest corner, at a place called Brigancia (the city of A Coruña, that the Romans knew as Brigantium).


The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of the Gaelic (or Goidelic) languages; a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx.[1] Historically, the Gaels were a distinct ethnic group. Gaelic language and culture originated in Ireland, extending to Dál Riata in southwest Scotland. In the Middle Ages it became dominant throughout Scotland and the Isle of Man also. However, in most areas, the Gaels were gradually anglicized and the Gaelic languages supplanted by English.
Terminology[edit]
The modern English term Gael derives from the Old Gaelic word Goídel. The modern spellings are Gael in Irish and Gàidheal in Scottish Gaelic. Goídel is thought to have been borrowed during the 7th century from the Primitive Welshform which became Old Welsh Guoidel "Irishman" (attested as a male personal name in the Book of Llandaff). This may be derived from the Proto-Indo-European *weidh-(e)l-o-, perhaps meaning "forest people", partially cognate with the Old Gaelic Féni (from Proto-Indo-European *weidh-n-jo-, "forest people"; "warriors" [ROBINHOOD??]in Proto-Irish),[2][3] which is also the origin of Fianna and Fenian.
Gaelic Irish soldiers, a boy piperand a woman, c.1575
Gaelic Irish men and noblewomen, c.1575
Romanticist depictions of Scottish Highlanders in the 1840s by R. R. McIan

Serpent Worship

11:22 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
also: Serpent (symbolism)

The altar where Jory Goddess is worshiped. The photo is taken at the main temple in Belur Karnataka, India
The worship of serpent deities is present in several old cultures, particularly in religion and mythology, where snakes were seen as entities of strength and renewal.

African mythology[edit]


Mami Wata, who plays a major role in various African and African-American religions[1][2]
In Africa the chief centre of serpent worship was Dahomey, but the cult of the python seems to have been of exotic origin, dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century. By the conquest of Whydah the Dahomeyans were brought in contact with a people of serpent worshippers, and ended by adopting from them the beliefs which they at first despised. At Whydah, the chief centre, there is a serpent temple, tenanted by some fifty snakes. Every python of the danh-gbi kind must be treated with respect, and death is the penalty for killing one, even by accident. Danh-gbihas numerous wives, who until 1857 took part in a public procession from which the profane crowd was excluded; a python was carried round the town in a hammock, perhaps as a ceremony for the expulsion of evils. The rainbow-god of the Ashanti was also conceived to have the form of a snake. His messenger was said to be a small variety of boa. but only certain individuals, not the whole species, were sacred. In many parts of Africa the serpent is looked upon as the incarnation of deceased relatives. Among the Amazulu, as among the Betsileo of Madagascar, certain species are assigned as the abode of certain classes. The Maasai, on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe.
Eva Meyerowitz wrote of an earthenware pot that was stored at the Museum of Achimota College in Gold Coast. The base of the neck of this pot is surrounded by the rainbow snake (Meyerowitz 1940, p. 48). The legend of this creature explains that the rainbow snake only emerged from its home when it was thirsty. Keeping its tail on the ground the snake would raise its head to the sky looking for the rain god. As it drank great quantities of water, the snake would spill some which would fall to the earth as rain (Meyerowitz 1940, p. 48).
There are four other snakes on the sides of this pot: Danh – gbi, the life giving snake, Li, for protection, Liwui, which was associated with Wu, god of the sea, and Fa, the messenger of the gods (Meyerowitz 1940, p. 48). The first three snakes Danh – gbi, Li, Liwui were all worshipped at Whydah, Dahomey where the serpent cult originated (Meyerowitz 1940, p. 48). For the Dahomeans, the spirit of the serpent was one to be feared as he was unforgiving (Nida & Smalley 1959, p. 17). They believed that the serpent spirit could manifest itself in any long, winding objects such as plant roots and animal nerves. They also believed it could manifest itself as the umbilical cord, making it a symbol of fertility and life (Nida & Smalley 1959, p. 17).
The Ancient Egyptians worshiped a number of snake gods, including Apophis and Set, and the Sumerians before them had a serpent god Ningizzida.

Ancient Near East[edit]

See also: Nehushtan

The Bible and the Serpent

11:19 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
The serpent (Hebrew: נחש‎, nakhásh) occurs in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The symbol of a serpent or snakeplayed important roles in religious and cultural life of ancient Egypt, Canaan, Mesopotamia and Greece. The serpent was a symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld as well as a symbol of fertility, life and healing.[1] Nachash, Hebrew for "snake", is also associated with divination, including the verb-form meaning to practice divination or fortune-telling. In the Hebrew Bible, Nachash occurs in the Torah to identify the serpent in Eden. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, it is also used in conjunction with saraph to describe vicious serpents in the wilderness. Tanniyn, a form of dragon-monster, also occurs throughout the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Exodus, the staffs of Moses and Aaron are turned into serpents, a nachash for Moses, a tanniyn for Aaron. In the New Testament, the Book of Revelation makes use of ancient serpent and the Dragon several times to identify Satan or the Devil. (Rev 12:9; 20:2)

Serpents in biblical mythology[edit]

See also: Snakes in mythology and Serpent (symbolism)
Ouroboros, single and in pairs atSS Mary and David's Church, England
In the oldest story ever written, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh loses the power of immortality, stolen by a snake.[2] The serpent was a widespread figure in the mythology of the Ancient Near East. Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent eating its own tail that represents the perpetual cyclic renewal of life,[3] the eternal return, and the cycle of life, death and rebirth, leading to immortality.
Archaeologists have uncovered serpent cult objects in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Megiddo,[4] one atGezer,[5] one in the sanctum sanctorum of the Area H temple at Hazor,[6] and two at Shechem.[7] In the surrounding region, a late Bronze AgeHittite shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a serpent in one hand and a staff in the other.[8] In sixth-centuryBabylon, a pair of bronze serpents flanked each of the four doorways of the temple of Esagila.[9] At the Babylonian New Year festival, the priest was to commission from a woodworker, a metalworker and a goldsmith two images one of which "shall hold in its left hand a snake of cedar, raising its right [hand] to the god Nabu".[10] At the tell of Tepe Gawra, at least seventeen Early Bronze Age Assyrian bronze serpents were recovered.[11] The Sumerian fertility god Ningizzida was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head, eventually becoming a god of healing and magic.

Hebrew Bible[edit]

In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Genesis refers to the serpent who was partly responsible for the Fall of Man (Gen 3:1-20). Serpent is also used to describe sea monsters. Examples of these identifications are in the Book of Isaiah where a reference is made to a serpent-like Leviathan (Isaiah 27:1), and in the Book of Amos where a serpent resides at the bottom of the sea (Amos 9:3). Serpent figuratively describes biblical places such as Egypt (Jer 46:22), and the city of Dan (Gen 49:17). The prophet Jeremiah also compares the King of Babylon to a serpent (Jer 51:34).

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