June 25, 2011 Web Surfing Tracker of A Mad Schizophrenic
Aum Gung Ganapathaye Namah
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa
Homage to The Blessed One, Accomplished and Fully Enlightened
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Web Surfing Tracker
A Collection of Articles, Notes and References
References
(June 25, 2011)
(Revised: Tuesday, November 08, 2011)
References Edited by
A Mad Schizophrenic
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
- William Shakespeare
Copyright © 2011-2020 A Mad Schizophrenic
The following educational writings are STRICTLY for academic research purposes ONLY.
Should NOT be used for commercial, political or any other purposes.
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8 "... Freely you received, freely give”.
- Matthew 10:8 :: New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The attempt to make God just in the eyes of sinful men will always lead to error.
- Pastor William L. Brown.
1 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,
7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.
9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”
- 2 Timothy 3:1-9 :: New International Version (NIV)
The right to be left alone – the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by a free people
- Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. U.S., 1928.
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
- Revelation 3:15-16 :: King James Version (KJV)
6 As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
- Hebrews 5:6 :: King James Version (KJV)
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
- Hebrews 7:3 :: King James Version (KJV)
Therefore, I say:
Know your enemy and know yourself;
in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.
When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself,
your chances of winning or losing are equal.
If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself,
you are sure to be defeated in every battle.
-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, c. 500bc
There are two ends not to be served by a wanderer. What are these two? The pursuit of desires and of the pleasure which springs from desire, which is base, common, leading to rebirth, ignoble, and unprofitable; and the pursuit of pain and hardship, which is grievous, ignoble, and unprofitable.
- The Blessed One, Lord Buddha
3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
- Isaiah 56:3 :: King James Version (KJV)
19:12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
- Matthew 19:12 :: King James Version (KJV)
21 But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
- Matthew 17:21 :: Amplified Bible (AMP)
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A Brief Word on Copyright
References
Educational Copy of Some of the References
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A Brief Word on Copyright
Many of the articles whose educational copies are given below are copyrighted by their respective authors as well as the respective publishers. Some contain messages of warning, as follows:
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Moreover,
• This is a religious educational website.
o In the name of the Lord, with the invisible Lord as the witness.
• No commercial/business/political use of the following material.
• Just like student notes for research purposes, the writings of the other children of the Lord, are given as it is, with student highlights and coloring. Proper respects and due referencing are attributed to the relevant authors/publishers.
I believe that satisfies the conditions for copyright and non-plagiarism.
• Also, from observation, any material published on the internet naturally gets read/copied even if conditions are maintained. If somebody is too strict with copyright and hold on to knowledge, then it is better not to publish “openly” onto the internet or put the article under “pay to refer” scheme.
• I came across the articles “freely”. So I publish them freely with added student notes and review with due referencing to the parent link, without any personal monetary gain. My purpose is only to educate other children of the Lord on certain concepts, which I believe are beneficial for “Oneness”.
References
Some of the links may not be active (de-activated) due to various reasons, like removal of the concerned information from the source database. So an educational copy is also provided, along with the link.
If the link is active, do cross-check/validate/confirm the educational copy of the article provided along.
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Nandi (bull)
Nandi (bull)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Nandikeswara) This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2008)
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Nandi the Bull
Nandi (Tamil: நந்தி Sanskrit: नंदी), is the bull which serves as the mount (Sanskrit: vāhana) of Shiva and as the gate keeper of Shiva and Parvati in Hindu mythology. Temples venerating Shiva and Parvati display stone images of a seated Nandi, generally facing the main shrine. There are also a number of temples dedicated solely to Nandi.Contents [hide]
1 In Hinduism
2 Legends
3 See also
4 Misc
5 References
6 External links
[edit]
In Hinduism
Chola Period Nandi Shrine
A primary god: Nandi as a separate god can be traced back to Indus Valley Civilization, where dairy farming was the most important occupation, thus explaining the appearance of various artifacts, such as the 'Pasupati Seal,' indicating a deity much like Shiva. This deity- also known as Pasupati is believed to have been worshipped as the keeper of herds. Some puranas describe Nandi or Nandikeshvara as bull faced with a human body that resembles that of Shiva- in proportion and aspect, although with four hands, two hands holding the Parasu (the axe) and Mruga (the antelope) and the other two hands joined together in the Anjali(obeisance). Brahma Vaivarta Purana mentions Krishna himself to have taken the form of a bull as no one else in the Universe can bear Shiva.
Vehicle of Shiva: The bull Nandi is Shiva's primary vehicle and is the principal gana (follower) of Shiva.
Gate keeper of Shiva's abode: The close association of Shiva and Nandi explains the presence of a statue of Nandi at the gate of many temples dedicated to Siva. It also explains why the word "nandi" in the Kannada, Telugu and Tamil languages is used as a metaphor for a person blocking the way. In Sanskrit, a bull is called "vrisha", which has another connotation - that of righteousness or Dharma. It is important to seek the blessings of Nandi before proceeding to worship Lord Shiva.
Chief in Shiva's army: Some Puranas mention that Nandi lead the Shiva Ganas, Shiva's attendants.
A Guru of Saivism: In addition to being his mount, Nandi is Shiva's foremost disciple. In the Natha/Siddhar tradition, Nandi is the one of the primal gurus. He was the guru to Siddhar Thirumulanathar, Patanjalinathar and others.
From the yogic perspective, Nandi/Nandhi/ Nandikeshvara is the mind dedicated to Lord Siva, the Absolute. In other words, to understand and absorb Light, the 'experience and the wisdom' is Nandi which is the Guru within.
[edit]
Legends
Nandi in a zoo-anthropomorphic form
According to some puranas, Nandi was born out of the right side of Vishnu resembling Shiva exactly and given as a son to the sage Salankayana. Some puranas mention him as the son of the sage Silada who got him by the grace of Shiva.
It was Nandi who cursed Ravana (the demon King of Lanka) that his kingdom would be burnt by a monkey (Vanara). And later Hanuman burnt Lanka when he went in search of Sita, who was kept prisoner by Ravana in Ashok Vatika. In one puranic story, it is stated that once Siva and Parvathi were playing a game of dice. For any game there has to be an umpire, who has to declare who is the winner. Siva and Parvathi agreed to have Nandi (the divine bull) as the umpire. Nandi is a favorite of Siva, as he is Siva's vehicle. Although Siva lost the game, Nandi declared him the winner. It is stated that Parvathi was indignant over Nandis partiality for Siva and cursed him that he should die from an incurable disease. Thereupon Nandi fell at the feet of Parvathi and pleaded for forgiveness. "Mother forgive me. Should I not show at least this amount of gratitude to one who is my master? Is it not humiliating for me to declare that my master has lost the game? To uphold his honor I no doubt uttered a lie. But am I to be punished with such severity for so small an offence?" Nandi prayed for forgiveness in this manner. Parvathi forgave Nandi and taught him the means to atone for his lapse. She told him. "The Chaturdasi day in the month of Bhadrapada is the day when my son's birthday is celebrated. On that day you have to offer to my son what pleases you most (green grass)". This means that one atones for one's sins when one offers to the Lord what is most pleasing and enjoyable to him. For Nandi the most enjoyable and relishing food is green grass. As directed by Parvathi Nandi worshipped Ganapathi by offering green grass. Nandi was then relieved of his dreaded disease. His health improved and by the grace of Parvathi he was redeemed.
When the positive forces, the devas, and the negative forces, the asuras, joined together on a rare occasion to churn the ocean with a mountain to obtain the nectar of immortality they utilized Vasuki, the serpent, as the rope. The devas pulled from one end and the asuras from the other. Lots of precious herbs and gems were produced during the Churning and one of them was a poison - Halaahalaa- which became human karma. This "poison" was so dangerous that none of the devas or asuras wanted to go near it. It was extremely sticky and coming into contact with this poison, i.e., human karma, would drag the divinity down to the realms of human suffering and ego. As everyone else ran away, Lord Siva, followed by Nandi, came forward to help as he was the only one who could counteract this deadly poison. Siva took the poison into his hand and drank it, the descent of the poison was in turn stopped at His throat, by His divine consort. Siva is therefore also known as the blue-throated One (Neelakantha) and Vishakantha (the One bearing poison in His throat). Nandi saw some of the poison spill out of Siva's mouth and immediately drank if off the ground. The devas and asuras watching were shocked and wondered aloud what would happen to Nandi. Lord Siva calmed their fears saying, "Nandi has surrendered into me so completely that he has all my powers and my protection".
Nandi, Belur; Karnataka
Largest Nandis in India
Lepakshi, Andhra Pradesh
Brahadishwara Temple, Tamil Nadu
Chamundi Hills, Mysore, Karnataka
Bull Temple, Bangalore, Karnataka
Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu
Hoysaleswara Temple, Halebidu, Karnataka
Shanthaleswara Temple, Halebidu, Karnataka
Vadakkunnathan Temple, Thrissur, Kerala
[edit]
See also
Apis (Egyptian mythology)
Kamadhenu
Cattle in religion
Ramachandrapura Math
[edit]
Misc
The white color of the bull symbolizes purity and justice.
Women visit images of Nandi, bringing floral offerings, and touch the stone. Their prayers are for fertility. Additionally, it is also considered a custom among some to whisper the fact of their visit, to that shrine, while requesting the faithful attendant to inform his master of the same.
[edit]
References
Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend 2004 (ISBN 0-500-51088-1) by Anna Dallapiccola
[edit]
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nandi
Shiva - the Ascetic God by Madhuri Guin (the contents of this link cannot be viewed in India)
Inspired by the South Indian Siddhars
Free netcast on Vedic Mythology Weekly netcast with stories about Hindu Gods and Goddesses[show]
Shaivism Topics
[show]
Hindu deities and texts
Categories: Hindu legendary creatures | Hindu gods | Hindu symbols | Mythological bovines
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Dionysus
Dionysus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Bacchus" redirects here. For other uses, see Bacchus (disambiguation).
This article is about the Greco-Roman deity. For other uses of the names "Dionysus" and "Dionysos", see Dionysos (disambiguation). For other uses of the theophoric name "Dionysius", see Dionysius (disambiguation).Dionysus
2nd century Roman statue of Dionysus, after a Hellenistic model (ex-coll. Cardinal Richelieu, Louvre)[1]
God of Wine, Theatre, and Ecstasy
Abode Mount Olympus
Symbol Thyrsus, grapevine, leopard skin, panther, tiger, leopard
Consort Ariadne
Parents Zeus and Semele
Siblings many
Children None
Roman equivalent Bacchus, Liber
Dionysus ( /ˌdaɪəˈnaɪsəs/ dy-ə-ny-səs; Greek: Διόνυσος, Dionysos) was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete.[2] His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek.[3][4][5] In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner; and in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, "the god that comes", and his "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, and is included in some lists of the twelve Olympians. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theater.
The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a fennel staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked youth: the literature describes him as womanly or "man-womanish".[6] In its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession (thiasus) is made up of wild female followers (maenads) and ithyphallic, bearded satyrs. Some are armed with the thyrsus, some dance or play music. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a bearded, drunken Silenus. This procession is presumed to be the cult model for the human followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. In his Thracian mysteries, he wears the bassaris or fox-skin, symbolizing a new life. Dionysus is represented by city religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.[7]
He was also known as Bacchus ( /ˈbækəs/ or /ˈbɑːkəs/; Greek: Βάκχος, Bakkhos), the name adopted by the Romans[8] and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey. It is a beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. He is also the Liberator (Eleutherios), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who partake in his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself.[9] His cult is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead.[10]
In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, thus semi-divine or heroic: and as son of Zeus and Persephone or Demeter, thus both fully divine, part-chthonic and possibly identical with Iacchus of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity and a more powerful god from Thrace or Phrygia such as Sabazios[11] or Zalmoxis.[12]
Dionysian procession on a marble sarcophagus, possibly indicating that the deceased was an initiate into Dionysian mysteriesContents [hide]
1 Names
1.1 Etymology
1.2 Epithets
2 Mythology
2.1 Birth
2.2 Infancy at Mount Nysa
2.3 Childhood
2.4 Other stories
2.4.1 Midas
2.4.2 Pentheus
2.4.3 Lycurgus
2.4.4 Prosymnus
2.4.5 Ampelos
2.4.6 Chiron
2.4.7 Secondary myths
2.5 Consorts and children
3 Parallels with Christianity
4 Symbolism
4.1 Bacchanalia
5 In art
5.1 Classical
5.2 Modern views
6 Names originating from Dionysus
7 See also
8 Gallery
9 Notes
10 References
11 Bibliography
12 External links
[edit]
Names
[edit]
Etymology
The name Dionysos is of uncertain significance. The dio- element has been associated since antiquity with Zeus (genitive Dios). The earliest attested form of the name is Mycenaean Greek di-wo-nu-so, written in Linear B syllabic script, presumably for /Diwo(h)nūsos/, found on two tablets at Mycenaean Pylos and dated to the 12th or 13th century BC.[13][14]
Later variants include Dionūsos and Diōnūsos in Boeotia; Dien(n)ūsos in Thessaly; Deonūsos and Deunūsos in Ionia; and Dinnūsos in Aeolia, besides other variants. A Dio- prefix is found in other names, such as that of the Dioscures, and may derive from Dios, the genitive of the name of Zeus.[15]
Janda (2010, following Peters 1989) sees the verbal stem of diemai "to chase, hurry, impel". The second element -nūsos is associated with Mount Nysa, the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the Nysiads),[16] but according to Pherecydes of Syros, nũsa was an archaic word for "tree".[17]
The cult of Dionysus was closely associated with trees, specifically the fig tree, and some of his bynames exhibit this, such as Endendros "he in the tree" or Dendritēs, "he of the tree". Peters suggests the original meaning as "he who runs among the trees", or that of a "runner in the woods". Janda (2010) accepts the etymology but proposes the more cosmological interpretation of "he who impels the (world-)tree." This interpretation explains how Nysa could have been re-interpreted from a meaning of "tree" to the name of a mountain: the axis mundi of Indo-European mythology is represented both as a world-tree and as a world-mountain.[18]
[edit]
Epithets
Dionysus was variably known with the following epithets:
Acratophorus, ("giver of unmixed wine"), at Phigaleia in Arcadia.[19]
Acroreites at Sicyon.[20]
Adoneus ("ruler") in his Latinised, Bacchic cult.[citation needed][21]
Aegobolus ("goat killer") at Potniae, in Boeotia.[22]
Aesymnetes ("ruler" or "lord") at Aroë and Patrae in Achaea.
Agrios ("wild"), in Macedonia.
Bromios ("the thunderer" or "he of the loud shout").
Dendrites ("he of the trees"), as a fertility god.
Dithyrambos, form of address used at his festivals, referring to his premature birth.
Eleutherios ("the liberator"), an epithet for both Dionysus and Eros.
Endendros ("he in the tree").[23]
Enorches ("with balls",[24] with reference to his fertility, or "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the baby Dionysus into his thigh, i.e., his testicles).[25] used in Samos and Lesbos.
Erikryptos ("completely hidden"), in Macedonia.
Evius, in Euripides' play, The Bacchae.
Iacchus, possibly an epithet of Dionysus and associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries. In Eleusis, he is known as a son of Zeus and Demeter. The name "Iacchus" may come from the Ιακχος (Iakchos), a hymn sung in honor of Dionysus.
Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan"), as a fertility god connected with the mystery religions. A winnowing fan was used to separate the chaff from the grain.
Lyaeus ("he who unties") or releases from care and anxiety.
Melanaigis ("of the black goatskin") at the Apaturia festival.
Oeneus, as god of the wine press.
Pseudanor ("false man"), in Macedonia.
In the Greek pantheon, Dionysus (along with Zeus) absorbs the role of Sabazios, a Thracian/Phrygian deity. In the Roman pantheon, Sabazius became an alternate name for Bacchus.[26]
[edit]
Mythology
[edit]
Birth
The top course of this Roman sarcophagus shows Dionysus's birth. In the top center, the baby god comes out of Zeus's thigh.
Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into the Olympian pantheon. His mother was a mortal woman, Semele, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus' wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant. Appearing as an old crone (in other stories a nurse), Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood. Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he agreed. Therefore he came to her wreathed in bolts of lightning; mortals, however, could not look upon an undisguised god without dying, and she perished in the ensuing blaze. Zeus rescued the fetal Dionysus by sewing him into his thigh. A few months later, Dionysus was born on Mount Pramnos in the island of Ikaria, where Zeus went to release the now-fully-grown baby from his thigh. In this version, Dionysus is born by two "mothers" (Semele and Zeus) before his birth, hence the epithet dimētōr (of two mothers) associated with his being "twice-born".
In the Cretan version of the same story, which Diodorus Siculus follows,[27] Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone, the queen of the Greek underworld. Diodorus' sources equivocally identified the mother as Demeter.[28] A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby with toys. It is said that he was mocked by the Titans who gave him a thyrsus (a fennel stalk) in place of his rightful sceptre.[29] Zeus turned the Titans into dust with his thunderbolts, but only after the Titans ate everything but the heart, which was saved, variously, by Athena, Rhea, or Demeter. Zeus used the heart to recreate him in his thigh, hence he was again "the twice-born". Other versions claim that Zeus recreated him in the womb of Semele, or gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her.
The rebirth in both versions of the story is the primary reason why Dionysus was worshipped in mystery religions, as his death and rebirth were events of mystical reverence. This narrative was apparently used in several Greek and Roman cults, and variants of it are found in Callimachus and Nonnus, who refer to this Dionysus with the title Zagreus, and also in several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus.[citation needed]
The myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans, is alluded to by Plato in his Phaedo (69d) in which Socrates claims that the initiations of the Dionysian Mysteries are similar to those of the philosophic path. Late Neo-Platonists such as Damascius explore the implications of this at length.[30]
[edit]
Infancy at Mount Nysa
Hermes and the Infant Dionysus by Praxiteles, (Archaeological Museum of Olympia)
According to the myth Zeus gave the infant Dionysus into the charge of Hermes. One version of the story is that Hermes took the boy to King Athamas and his wife Ino, Dionysus' aunt. Hermes bade the couple raise the boy as a girl, to hide him from Hera's wrath.[31] Another version is that Dionysus was taken to the rain-nymphs of Nysa, who nourished his infancy and childhood, and for their care Zeus rewarded them by placing them as the Hyades among the stars (see Hyades star cluster). Other versions have Zeus giving him to Rhea, or to Persephone to raise in the Underworld, away from Hera. Alternatively, he was raised by Maro.
Dionysus in Greek mythology is a god of foreign origin, and while Mount Nysa is a mythological location, it is invariably set far away to the east or to the south. The Homeric hymn to Dionysus places it "far from Phoenicia, near to the Egyptian stream". Others placed it in Anatolia, or in Libya ('away in the west beside a great ocean'), in Ethiopia (Herodotus), or Arabia (Diodorus Siculus).
According to Herodotus:
As it is, the Greek story has it that no sooner was Dionysus born than Zeus sewed him up in his thigh and carried him away to Nysa in Ethiopia beyond Egypt; and as for Pan, the Greeks do not know what became of him after his birth. It is therefore plain to me that the Greeks learned the names of these two gods later than the names of all the others, and trace the birth of both to the time when they gained the knowledge.
—Herodotus, Histories 2.146
Apollodorus seems to be following Pherecydes, who relates how the infant Dionysus, god of the grapevine, was nursed by the rain-nymphs, the Hyades at Nysa.
[edit]
Childhood
Kylix (6th century BC) depicting Dionysus among the sailors transformed to dolphins after attempting to kidnap him
When Dionysus grew up, he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice; but Hera struck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the earth. In Phrygia the goddess Cybele, better known to the Greeks as Rhea, cured him and taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a progress through Asia teaching the people the cultivation of the vine. The most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India, which is said to have lasted several years. Returning in triumph he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed by some princes who dreaded its introduction on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it (e.g. Pentheus or Lycurgus).
North African Roman mosaic: Panther-Dionysus scatters the pirates, who are changed to dolphins, except for Acoetes, the helmsman. (Bardo National Museum)
Dionysus was exceptionally attractive. One of the Homeric hymns recounts how, while disguised as a mortal sitting beside the seashore, a few sailors spotted him, believing he was a prince. They attempted to kidnap him and sail him far away to sell for ransom or into slavery. They tried to bind him with ropes, but no type of rope could hold him. Dionysus turned into a fierce lion and unleashed a bear onboard, killing those he came into contact with. Those who jumped off the ship were mercifully turned into dolphins. The only survivor was the helmsman, Acoetes, who recognized the god and tried to stop his sailors from the start.[32] In a similar story, Dionysus desired to sail from Icaria to Naxos. He then hired a Tyrrhenian pirate ship. However, when the god was on board, they sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending to sell him as a slave. So Dionysus turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes so that the sailors went mad and, leaping into the sea, were turned into dolphins.
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Other stories
[edit]
Midas
Once, Dionysus found his old school master and foster father, Silenus, missing. The old man had been drinking, and had wandered away drunk, and was found by some peasants, who carried him to their king (alternatively, he passed out in Midas' rose garden). Midas recognized him, and treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with politeness, while Silenus entertained Midas and his friends with stories and songs. On the eleventh day, he brought Silenus back to Dionysus. Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wanted. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold. Dionysus consented, though was sorry that he had not made a better choice. Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the test. He touched and turned to gold an oak twig and a stone. Overjoyed, as soon as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a feast on the table. Then he found that his bread, meat, daughter and wine turned to gold.
Upset, Midas strove to divest himself of his power (the Midas Touch); he hated the gift he had coveted. He prayed to Dionysus, begging to be delivered from starvation. Dionysus heard and consented; he told Midas to wash in the river Pactolus. He did so, and when he touched the waters the power passed into them, and the river sands changed into gold. This was an etiological myth that explained why the sands of the Pactolus were rich in gold.
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Pentheus
Pentheus torn apart by Agave and Ino. Attic red-figure lekanis (cosmetics bowl) lid, ca. 450-425 BCE (Louvre)
Euripides composed a tragedy about the destructive nature of Dionysus in The Bacchae. Since Euripides wrote this play while in the court of King Archelaus of Macedon, some scholars believe that the cult of Dionysus was malicious in Macedon but benign in Athens.
In the play, Dionysus returns to his birthplace, Thebes, which is ruled by his cousin Pentheus. Dionysus wants to exact revenge on Pentheus and the women of Thebes (his aunts Agave, Ino and Autonoe) for not believing his mother Semele's claims of being impregnated by Zeus, and for denying Dionysus's divinity (and therefore not worshiping him).
Dionysus slowly drives Pentheus mad, lures him to the woods of Mount Cithaeron, and then convinces him to spy/peek on the Maenads (female worshippers of Dionysus, who often experienced divine ecstasy). The Maenads are in an insane frenzy when Pentheus sees them (earlier in the play they had ripped apart a herd of cattle), and they catch him but mistake him for a wild animal. Pentheus is torn to shreds, and his mother (Agave, one of the Maenads), not recognizing her own son because of her madness, brutally tears his limbs off as he begs for his life.
As a result of their acts the women are banished from Thebes, ensuring Dionysus's revenge.
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Lycurgus
When King Lycurgus of Thrace heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned all the followers of Dionysus; the god fled, taking refuge with Thetis, and sent a drought which stirred the people into revolt. Dionysus then made King Lycurgus insane, having him slice his own son into pieces with an axe, thinking he was a patch of ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus. An oracle then claimed that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus was alive, so his people had him drawn and quartered; with Lycurgus dead, Dionysus lifted the curse. This story was told in Homer's epic, Iliad 6.136-7. In an alternative version, sometimes shown in art, Lycurgus tried to kill Ambrosia, a follower of Dionysus, who was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and restrained him, eventually killing him.[33]
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Prosymnus
A better-known story is that of his descent to Hades to rescue his mother Semele, whom he placed among the stars.[34] He made the ascent from a reputedly bottomless pool on the coast of the Argolid near the prehistoric site of Lerna. He was guided by Prosymnus or Polymnus, who requested, as his reward, to be Dionysus' lover. Prosymnus died before Dionysus could honor his pledge, so in order to satisfy Prosymnus' shade, Dionysus fashioned a phallus from an olive branch and sat on it at Prosymnus' tomb.[35] This story is told in full only in Christian sources whose aim was to discredit pagan mythology. It appears to have served as an explanation of the secret objects that were revealed in the Dionysian Mysteries.[36]
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Ampelos
Another myth according to Nonnus involves Ampelos, a satyr. Foreseen by Dionysus, the youth was killed in an accident riding a bull maddened by the sting of an Ate's gadfly. The Fates granted Ampelos a second life as a vine, from which Dionysus squeezed the first wine.[37]
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Chiron
Young Dionysus was also said to have been one of the many famous pupils of the centaur Chiron. According to Ptolemy Chennus in the Library of Photius, "Dionysius was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations."[38]
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Secondary myths
Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian, at the National Gallery in London
When Hephaestus bound Hera to a magical chair, Dionysus got him drunk and brought her back to Olympus after he passed out.
A third descent by Dionysus to Hades is invented by Aristophanes in his comedy The Frogs. Dionysus, as patron of the Athenian dramatic festival, the Dionysia, wants to bring back to life one of the great tragedians. After a competition Aeschylus is chosen in preference to Euripides.
When Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, Dionysus found and married her. She bore him a son named Oenopion, but he committed suicide or was killed by Perseus. In some variants, he had her crown put into the heavens as the constellation Corona; in others, he descended into Hades to restore her to the gods on Olympus. Another different account claims Dionysus ordered Theseus to abandon Ariadne on the island of Naxos for he had seen her as Theseus carried her onto the ship and had decided to marry her.
Callirrhoe was a Calydonian woman who scorned a priest of Dionysus who threatened to afflict all the women of Calydon with insanity (see Maenad). The priest was ordered to sacrifice Callirhoe but he killed himself instead. Callirhoe threw herself into a well which was later named after her.
Acis, a Sicilian youth, was sometimes said to be Dionysus' son.
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Consorts and childrenTopics in Greek mythology
Gods
Primordial gods and Titans
Zeus and the Olympians
Pan and the nymphs
Apollo and Dionysus
Sea-gods and Earth-gods
Heroes
Heracles and his Labors
Achilles and the Trojan War
Odysseus and the Odyssey
Jason and the Argonauts
Perseus and Medusa/Gorgon
Oedipus and Thebes
Theseus and the Minotaur
Triptolemus and the
Eleusinian Mysteries
Related
Satyrs, centaurs and dragons
Religion in Ancient Greece
Aphrodite
Charites (Graces)
Pasithea
Euphrosyne
Thalia
Priapus
Hymenaios
Ariadne
Oenopion
Staphylus
Thoas
Peparethus
Phanus
Eurymedon
Euanthes
Latramys
Tauropolis
Ceramus
Maron
Nyx
Phthonus
Althaea
Deianeira
Circe
Comus
Aura
Iacchus
twin of Iacchus, killed by Aura instantly upon birth
Nicaea
Telete
Araethyrea or Chthonophyle (or again Ariadne)
Phlias
Physcoa
Narcaeus
Pallene
Carya
Alphesiboea
Medus
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Parallels with Christianity
Main article: Jesus Christ in comparative mythology
The earliest discussions of mythological parallels between Dionysus and the figure of the Christ in Christian theology can be traced to Friedrich Hölderlin, whose identification of Dionysus with Christ is most explicit in Brod und Wein (1800–1801) and Der Einzige (1801–1803).[39] Modern scholars such as Martin Hengel, Barry Powell, and Peter Wick, among others, argue that Dionysian religion and Christianity have notable parallels.
They point to the symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the mythology surrounding both Dionysus and Jesus Christ;[40][41] though, Wick argues that the use of wine symbolism in the Gospel of John, including the story of the Marriage at Cana at which Jesus turns water into wine, was intended to show Jesus as superior to Dionysus.[42]
Additionally, some scholars of comparative mythology argue that both Dionysus and Jesus represent the "dying-and-returning god" mythological archetype.[43] Other elements, such as the celebration by a ritual meal of bread and wine, also have parallels.[44] Powell, in particular, argues precursors to the Christian notion of transubstantiation can be found in Dionysian religion.[44]
Another parallel can be seen in The Bacchae wherein Dionysus appears before King Pentheus on charges of claiming divinity is compared to the New Testament scene of Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate.[42][44][45]
E. Kessler in a symposium Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire, Exeter, 17–20 July 2006, argues that Dionysian cult had developed into strict monotheism by the 4th century CE; together with Mithraism and other sects the cult formed an instance of "pagan monotheism" in direct competition with Early Christianity during Late Antiquity.[46]
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Symbolism
Satyr giving a grapevine to Bacchus as a child; cameo glass, first half of the 1st century AD; from Italy
The bull, the serpent, the ivy and the wine are the signs of the characteristic Dionysian atmosphere, and Dionysus is strongly associated with satyrs, centaurs, and sileni. He is often shown riding a leopard, wearing a leopard skin, or in a chariot drawn by panthers, and may also be recognized by the thyrsus he carries. Besides the grapevine and its wild barren alter-ego, the toxic ivy plant, both sacred to him, the fig was also his symbol. The pinecone that tipped his thyrsus linked him to Cybele. The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens were dedicated to Dionysus. Initiates worshipped him in the Dionysian Mysteries, which were comparable to and linked with the Orphic Mysteries, and may have influenced Gnosticism[citation needed]. Orpheus was said to have invented the Mysteries of Dionysus.[47]
Dionysus was another god of resurrection who was strongly linked to the bull. In a cult hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is invited to come as a bull; "with bull-foot raging." Walter Burkert relates, "Quite frequently [Dionysus] is portrayed with bull horns, and in Kyzikos he has a tauromorphic image," and refers also to an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by the Titans.[43] In the Classical period of Greece, the bull and other animals identified with deities were separated from them as their agalma, a kind of heraldic show-piece that concretely signified their numinous presence.[43]
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Bacchanalia
Bacchus by Caravaggio
Main article: Bacchanalia
Introduced into Rome (c. 200 BC) from the Greek culture of southern Italy or by way of Greek-influenced Etruria, the bacchanalia were held in secret and attended by women only, in the grove of Simila, near the Aventine Hill, on March 16 and 17. Subsequently, admission to the rites was extended to men and celebrations took place five times a month. The mystery-cult may have been seen as a threat to the political status quo. The notoriety of these festivals, where many kinds of crimes and political conspiracies were supposed to be planned, led to a decree by the Senate in 186 BC — the so-called Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, inscribed on a bronze tablet discovered in Calabria (1640), now in Vienna — by which the Bacchanalia were prohibited throughout all Italy except in special cases that required specific approval by the Senate. In spite of the severe punishment inflicted on those found in violation of this decree, the Bacchanalia were not stamped out, at any rate in the south of Italy, for a very long time.
Dionysus is equated with both Bacchus and Liber (also Liber Pater). Liber ("the free one") was a god of male fertility, wine, and growth, whose female counterpart was Libera. His festival was the Liberalia, celebrated on March 17, but in some myths the festival was also held on March 5.
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In art
Main article: Bacchic art
"Bacchus" by Michelangelo (1497)
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Classical
The god appeared on many kraters and other wine vessels from classical Greece. His iconography became more complex in the Hellenistic period, between severe archaising or Neo Attic types such as the Dionysus Sardanapalus and types showing him as an indolent and androgynous young man and often shown nude (see the Dionysus and Eros, Naples Archeological Museum). The 4th century Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum is a spectacular cage cup which changes colour when light comes through the glass; it shows the bound King Lycurgus (Thrace) being taunted by the god and attacked by a satyr.
Elizabeth Kessler has theorized that a mosaic appearing on the triclinium floor of the House of Aion in Nea Paphos, Cyprus, details a monotheistic worship of Dionysus.[48] In the mosaic, other gods appear but may only be lesser representations of the centrally-imposed Dionysus.
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Modern views
Dionysus has remained an inspiration to artists, philosophers and writers into the modern era. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872), the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche contrasted Dionysus with the god Apollo as a symbol of the fundamental, unrestrained aesthetic principle of force, music, and intoxication versus the principle of sight, form, and beauty represented by the latter. Nietzsche also claimed that the oldest forms of Greek Tragedy were entirely based on suffering of Dionysus. Nietzsche continued to contemplate the character of Dionysus, which he revisited in the final pages of his 1886 work Beyond Good and Evil. This reconceived Nietzschean Dionysus was invoked as an embodiment of the central will to power concept in Nietzsche's later works The Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist and Ecce Homo.
The Russian poet and philosopher Vyacheslav Ivanov elaborated the theory of Dionysianism, which traces the roots of literary art in general and the art of tragedy in particular to ancient Dionysian mysteries. His views were expressed in the treatises The Hellenic Religion of the Suffering God (1904), and Dionysus and Early Dionysianism (1921).
Inspired by James Frazer, some have labeled Dionysus a life-death-rebirth deity. The mythographer Karl Kerenyi devoted much energy to Dionysus over his long career; he summed up his thoughts in Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (Bollingen, Princeton, 1976).
Dionysus is the main character of Aristophanes' play The Frogs, later updated to a modern version by Burt Shevelove (libretto) and Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) ("The time is the present. The place is ancient Greece. ... "). In the play, Dionysus and his slave Xanthius venture to Hades to bring a famed writer back from the dead, with the hopes that the writer's presence in the world will fix all nature of earthly problems. In Aristophanes' play, Euripides competes against Aeschylus to be recovered from the underworld; In Sondheim and Shevelove's, George Bernard Shaw faces William Shakespeare.
The Romanised equivalent of Dionysus was referenced in the 1852 plantation literature novel Aunt Phillis's Cabin is alive, which featured a character named Uncle Bacchus, who was so-named due to his excessive alcoholism.
Both Eddie Campbell and Grant Morrison have utilised the character. Morrison claims that the myth of Dionysus provides the inspiration for his violent and explicit graphic novel Kill Your Boyfriend, whilst Campbell used the character in his Deadface series to explore both the conventions of super-hero comic books and artistic endeavour.
Walt Disney has depicted the character on a number of occasions. The first such portrayal of Dionysus, as the Roman Bacchus, was in the "Pastoral" segment of Walt Disney's 3rd classic Fantasia. In keeping with the more fun-loving Roman god, he is portrayed as an overweight, happily drunk man wearing a tunic and cloak, grape leaves on his head, carrying a goblet of wine, and riding a drunken donkey named Jacchus ("jackass"). He is friends with the fauns and centaurs, and is shown celebrating a harvest festival. Other portrayals have appeared in both the Disney movie and spin-off TV series of Hercules. He was depicted as an overweight drunkard as opposed to his youthful descriptions in myths. He has bright pink skin and rosy red cheeks hinting at his drunkenness. He always carries either a bottle or glass of wine in his hand, and like in the myths, wears a wreath of grape leaves upon his head. He is known by his Roman name in the series 'Bacchus', and in one episode headlines his own festival known as the 'Bacchanal'.
In music Dionysius (together with Demeter) was used as an archetype for the character Tori by contemporary artist Tori Amos in her 2007 album American Doll Posse, and the Canadian rock band Rush refer to a confrontation and hatred between Dionysus and Apollo in the Cygnus X-1 duology.
In literature, Dionysius has proven equally inspiring. Rick Riordan's series of books Percy Jackson & The Olympians presents Dionysus as an uncaring, childish and spoilt god who as a punishment has to work in Camp Half-Blood. In Fred Saberhagen's 2001 novel, God of the Golden Fleece, a young man in a post-apocalyptic world picks up an ancient piece of technology shaped in the likeness of the Dionysus. Here, Dionysus is depicted as a relatively weak god, albeit a subversive one whose powers are able to undermine the authority of tyrants.
A version of Bacchus also appears in C.S. Lewis' Prince Caspian, part of the Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis depicts him as dangerous-looking, androgynous young boy who helps Aslan awaken the spirits of the Narnian trees and rivers. He does not appear in the 2008 film version.
In 2009 the poet Stephen Howarth and veteran theatre producer Andrew Hobbs collaborated on a play entitled Bacchus in Rehab with Dionysus as the central character. The authors describe the piece as "combining highbrow concept and lowbrow humour".[49]
The second season of True Blood involves a plot line wherein a maenad, Maryann, causes mayhem in the Louisiana town of Bon Temps in attempt to summon Dionysus.
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Names originating from Dionysus
Dion (also spelled Deion, Deon and Dionne)
Denise (also spelled Denice, Daniesa, Denese, and Denisse)
Dennis, Denis or Denys (including the derivative surnames Denison and Dennison), Denny
Denis, Dionis, Dionisie (Romanian)
Dénes (Hungarian)
Dionisio/Dyonisio (Spanish), Dionigi (Italian)
Διονύσιος, Διονύσης, Νιόνιος (Dionysios, Dionysis, Nionios Modern Greek)
Deniska (diminutive of Russian Denis, itself a derivative of the Greek)
Dionísio (Portuguese)
Dionizy (Polish)
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See also
Apollonian and Dionysian
Bacchanalia
Bacchic art
Dionysian Mysteries
Orgia
Theatre of Dionysus
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Gallery
The Ludovisi Dionysus with panther, satyr and grapes on a vine (Palazzo Altemps, Rome)
Dionysos riding a leopard, 4th century BC mosaic from Pella
Statue of Dionysus (Sardanapalus) (Museo Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme, Rome)
Dionysus extending a drinking cup (kantharos), late 6th century BC
Drinking Bacchus (1623) Guido Reni
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Notes
^ Another variant, from the Spanish royal colledtion, is at the Museo del Prado, Madrid: illustration.
^ Kerenyi 1976.
^ Thomas McEvilley, The Shape of Ancient Thought, Allsworth press, 2002, pp.118-121. googlebooks preview
^ Reginald Pepys Winnington-Ingram, Sophocles: an interpretation, Cambridge University Press, 1980, p.109 googlebooks preview
^ Zofia H. Archibald, in Gocha R. Tsetskhladze (Ed.) Ancient Greeks west and east, Brill, 1999, p.429 ff.googlebooks preview
^ Otto, Walter F. (1995). Dionysus Myth and Cult. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253208912.
^ Gods of Love and Ecstasy, Alain Danielou p.15
^ In Greek "both votary and god are called Bacchus." Burkert, Greek Religion 1985:162. For the initiate as Bacchus, see Euripides, Bacchantes 491. For the god, who alone is Dionysus, see Sophocles Oedipus the King 211 and Euripides Hippolytus 560.
^ Sutton, p.2, mentions Dionysus as The Liberator in relation to the city Dionysia festivals. In Euripides, Bacchae 379-385: "He holds this office, to join in dances, [380] to laugh with the flute, and to bring an end to cares, whenever the delight of the grape comes at the feasts of the gods, and in ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over men." [1]
^ Xavier Riu, Dionysism and Comedy, Rowman and Littlefield, 1999, p.105 ff. googlebooks preview
^ Dictionary of Ancient Deities by Patricia Turner and the late Charles Russell Coulter, 2001, p.152.
^ Dictionary of Ancient Deities by Patricia Turner and the late Charles Russell Coulter, 2001, p.520.
^ John Chadwick, The Mycenaean World, Cambridge University Press, 1976, 99ff: "But Dionysos surprisingly appears twice at Pylos, in the form Diwonusos, both times irritatingly enough on fragments, so that we have no means of verifying his divinity."
^ Palaeolexicon, Word study tool of ancient languages
^ This is the view of Garcia Ramon (1987) and Peters (1989), summarised and endorsed in Janda (2010:20).
^ Fox, p. 217, "The word Dionysos is divisible into two parts, the first originally Διος (cf. Ζευς), while the second is of an unknown signification, although perhaps connected with the name of the Mount Nysa which figures in the story of Lykourgos: (...) when Dionysos had been reborn from the thigh of Zeus, Hermes entrusted him to the nymphs of Mount Nysa, who fed him on the food of the gods, and made him immortal".
^ Testimonia of Pherecydes in an early 5th c. BC fragment, FGrH 3, 178, in the context of a discussion on the name of Dionysus: "Nũsas (acc. pl.), he [Pherecydes] said, was what they called the trees."
^ see Janda (2010), 16-44 for a detailed account.
^ Pausanias, 8.39.6.
^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Ακρωρεία
^ Ausonius, Epigr. xxix. 6.
^ Pausanias, ix. 8. § 1.
^ Janda (2010), 16-44.
^ Kerenyi 1976:286.
^ Jameson 1993, 53. Cf.n16 for suggestions of Devereux on "Enorkhes",
^ Rosemarie Taylor-Perry, The God Who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited. Algora Press 2003, p.89, cf. Sabazius.
^ Diorodus V 75.4, noted by Karl Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (Princeton University Press) 1976, "The Cretan core of the Dionysos myth" p 110 note 213 and pp 110-114.
^ Diodorus III 64.1, also noted by Kerény (110 note 214.)
^ Damascius, Commentary on the Phaedo, I, 170, see in translation Westerink, The Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo, vol. II (The Prometheus Trust, Westbury) 2009
^ Damascius, Commentary on the Phaedo, I, 1-13 and 165-172, see in translation Westerink, The Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo, vol. II, The Prometheus Trust, Westbury, 2009
^ Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes. ISBN 0674991354, ISBN 0674991362
^ " Homeric Hymn to Dionysus
^ British Museum on the Lycurgus Cup
^ Hyginus, Astronomy 2.5.
^ Clement of Alexandria, Protreptikos, II-30 3-5
^ Arnobius, Against the Gentiles 5.28 (Dalby 2005, pp. 108–117)
^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca (X.175-430; XI; XII.1-117); (Dalby 2005, pp. 55–62).
^ Photius, Library; "Ptolemy Chennus, New History"
^ The mid-19th century debates are traced in G.S. Williamson, The Longing for Myth in Germany, 2004.
^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 26. 1 - 2
^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 2. 34a
^ a b Wick, Peter (2004). "Jesus gegen Dionysos? Ein Beitrag zur Kontextualisierung des Johannesevangeliums". Biblica (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute) 85 (2): 179–198. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
^ a b c Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, 1985 pp. 64, 132
^ a b c Powell, Barry B., Classical Myth Second ed. With new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998.
^ Studies in Early Christology, by Martin Hengel, 2005, p.331 (ISBN 0567042804)
^ E. Kessler, Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus: "two monotheistic religions, Dionysian and Christian, existed contemporaneously in Nea Paphos during the 4th century C.E. [...] the particular iconography of Hermes and Dionysos in the panel of the Epiphany of Dionysos [...] represents the culmination of a pagan iconographic tradition in which an infant divinity is seated on the lap of another divine figure; this pagan motif was appropriated by early Christian artists and developed into the standardized icon of the Virgin and Child. Thus the mosaic helps to substantiate the existence of pagan monotheism." (Abstract)
^ Apollodorus (Pseudo Apollodorus), Library and Epitome, 1.3.2. "Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria."
^ Kessler, E., Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus,
^ Facsimile Productions - Current Productions
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References
Dalby, Andrew (2005). The Story of Bacchus. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 0714122556 (US ISBN 0-89236-742-3)
Farnell, Lewis Richard, The Cults of the Greek States, 1896. Volume V, cf. Chapter IV, Cults of Dionysos; Chapter V, Dionysiac Ritual; Chapter VI, Cult-Monuments of Dionysos; Chapter VII, Ideal Dionysiac Types.
Fox, William Sherwood, The Mythology of All Races, v.1, Greek and Roman, 1916, General editor, Louis Herbert Gray.
Janda, Michael, Die Musik nach dem Chaos, Innsbruck 2010.
Jameson, Michael. "The Asexuality of Dionysus." Masks of Dionysus. Ed. Thomas H. Carpenter and Christopher A. Faraone. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993. ISBN 0-8014-8062-0. 44-64.
Kerényi, Karl, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, (Princeton: Bollingen) 1976. googlebooks preview
Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur, The Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, 1946.
Powell, Barry B., Classical Myth, 5th edition, 2007.
Ridgeway, William, Origin of Tragedy, 1910. Kessinger Publishing (June 2003). ISBN 0-7661-6221-4.
Ridgeway, William, The Dramas and Dramatic Dances of non-European Races in special reference to the origin of Greek Tragedy, with an appendix on the origin of Greek Comedy, 1915.
Riu, Xavier, Dionysism and Comedy, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers (1999). ISBN 0-8476-9442-9. [2]
Seaford, Richard. "Dionysos", Routledge (2006). ISBN 0-415-32488-2.
Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870, article on Dionysus, [3]
Sutton, Dana F., Ancient Comedy, Twayne Publishers (August 1993). ISBN 0-8057-0957-6.
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Bibliography
Livy, History of Rome, Book 39:13, Description of banned Bacchanalia in Rome and Italy
Detienne, Marcel, Arthur Goldhammer (translator), Dionysos at Large, Harvard University Press, 1989. ISBN 0674207734. (Originally in French as Dionysos à ciel ouvert, 1986)
Albert Henrichs, Between City and Country: Cultic Dimensions of Dionysus in Athens and Attica, (April 1, 1990). Department of Classics, UCB. Cabinet of the Muses: Rosenmeyer Festschrift. Paper festschrift18.
Seaford, Richard. Dionysos (Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World). Oxford: Routledge, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-415-32487-4; paperback, ISBN 0-415-32488-2).
Taylor-Perry, Rosemarie The God Who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited. New York: Algora Press, 2003 (hardcover, ISBN 0-87586-214-4; paperback, ISBN 0-87586-213-6).
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External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dionysus
Theoi Project, Dionysos myths from original sources, cult, classical art
Iconographic Themes in Art: Bacchus | Dionysos
Thomas Taylor's treatise on the Bacchic Mysteries
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Lilith
Lilith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the demoness Lilith. For other uses, see Lilith (disambiguation).
Lilith (1892) by John Collier in Southport Atkinson Art Gallery
Lilith (Hebrew: לילית; lilit, or lilith) is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud (completed between 500 and 700 AD/CE), who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy (1997) notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view of these demons. Two sources of information previously used to define Lilith are both suspect."[1] The two problematic sources are the Gilgamesh appendix and the Arslan Tash amulets, which are discussed below.[2]
In Jewish folklore, from the 8th–10th Century Alphabet of Ben Sira onwards Lilith becomes Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time and from the same earth as Adam. This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam's ribs. The legend was greatly developed during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar and Jewish mysticism.[3] In the 13th Century writings of Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi ha-Cohen, for example, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she mated with archangel Samael.[4] The resulting Lilith legend is still commonly used as source material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy, and horror.Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Mesopotamian mythology
2.1 The spirit in the tree in the Gilgamesh Epic
2.2 The bird-foot woman in the Burney Relief
2.3 The Arslan Tash amulets
2.4 The vardat lilitu demons
3 Siegmund Hurwitz
3.1 Shedim cults
3.2 Lilû, father of Gilgamesh
3.3 Lilitû demons
3.4 Lamashtû
3.5 Gallû and Alû
3.6 Lilitû, Inanna's hand
4 Lilith in the Bible
4.1 Hebrew text
4.2 Greek version
4.3 Latin Bible
4.4 English versions
5 Jewish tradition
5.1 Dead Sea Scrolls
5.2 Talmud
5.3 Alphabet of Ben Sira
5.4 Kabbalah
5.4.1 Midrash ABKIR
5.5 Treatise on the Left Emanation
5.6 Zohar
5.7 17th century Hebrew magical amulets
5.8 Tree of Life (Kabbalah)
6 Greco-Roman mythology
7 Arabic mythology
8 Lilith in Western literature
8.1 In German literature
8.2 Lilith in English literature
9 In modern occultism
9.1 Ceremonial magic
9.2 Wicca
9.3 Astrology
9.4 Western mystery tradition
10 Popular culture
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links
[edit]
Etymology
The semitic root L-Y-L layil in Hebrew, as layl in Arabic, means "night". Talmudic and Yiddish use of Lilith follows Hebrew.
In Akkadian the terms lili and līlītu mean spirits. Some uses of līlītu are listed in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD, 1956, L.190), in Wolfram von Soden's Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (AHw, p. 553), and Reallexikon der Assyriologie (RLA, p. 47).[5] The Sumerian she-demons lili have no etymologic relation to Sumerian lilu, "evening."[6]
Archibald Sayce (1882)[7] considered that Hebrew lilit (or lilith) Hebrew: לילית; and Akkadian: līlītu are from proto-Semitic. Charles Fossey (1902)[8] has this literally translating to "female night being/demon", although cuneiform inscriptions exist where Līlīt and Līlītu refers to disease-bearing wind spirits.[citation needed] Another possibility is association not with "night", but with "wind", thus identifying the Akkadian Lil-itu as a loan from the Sumerian lil, "air" — specifically from Ninlil, "lady air", goddess of the south wind (and wife of Enlil) — and itud, "moon".[citation needed]
[edit]
Mesopotamian mythology
Although widely repeated in secondary and tertiary sources the possible references to Lilith in Mesopotamian mythology are now disputed:
[edit]
The spirit in the tree in the Gilgamesh Epic
Samuel Noah Kramer (1932, published 1938)[9] translated ki-sikil-lil-la-ke as Lilith in "Tablet XII" of the Epic of Gilgamesh dated c.600 BC. "Tablet XII" is not part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but is a later Akkadian translation of the latter part of the Sumerian poem of Bilgames and the Netherworld.[10] The ki-sikil-lil-la-ke is associated with a serpent and a zu bird,[11] In Bilgames and the Netherworld, a huluppu tree (willow) grows in Inanna's garden in Uruk, whose wood she plans to use to build a new throne. After ten years of growth, she comes to harvest it and finds a serpent living at its base, a Zu bird raising young in its crown, and that a ki-sikil-lil-la-ke made a house in its trunk. Bilgames/Gilgamesh is said to have smitten the snake, and then the zu bird flew away to the mountains with its young, while the ki-sikil-lil-la-ke fearfully destroys its house and runs for the forest.[12][13] Kramer's identification is repeated without question or justification by Manfred Hutter in the article on Lilith in Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible (1999)[14]
Suggested translations for the Tablet XII spirit in the tree include ki-sikil as "sacred place", lil as "spirit", and lil-la-ke as "water spirit".[15] but also simply "owl", given that the lil is building a home in the trunk of the tree.[16]
A connection between the Gilgamesh ki-sikil-lil-la-ke and the Jewish Lilith was rejected by Dietrich Opitz (1932)[17] and other scholars, finally being rejected on textual grounds by Sergio Ribichini (1978).[18]
[edit]
The bird-foot woman in the Burney Relief
Kramer's translation of the Gilgamesh fragment was used by Henri Frankfort (1937)[19] and Emil Kraeling (1937)[20] to support identification of a woman with wings and bird-feet in the Burney Relief as related to Lilith, but this too is rejected by more recent scholarship.[21]
[edit]
The Arslan Tash amulets
Main article: Arslan Tash amulets
The Arslan Tash amulets are limestone plaques discovered in 1933 at Arslan Tash, the authenticity of which is disputed. William F. Albright, Theodor H. Gaster,[22] and others, accepted the amulets as a pre-Jewish source which shows that the name Lilith already existed in 7th century BC but Torczyner (1947) identified the amulets as a later Jewish source.[23]
[edit]
The vardat lilitu demons
The word lilu means spirit in Akkadian, and the male lili and female lilitu are found in incantation texts from Nippur, Babylonia c600 BC in both singular and plural forms.[24] Among the spirits the vardat lilitu, or maiden spirit bears some comparison with later Talmudic legends of Lilith.[25][26][27][28] A lili is related to witchcraft in the Sumerian incantation Text 313.[29]
[edit]
Siegmund Hurwitz
Much of the popular information found in non-academic sources regarding Lilith is taken from reprints of out-of-copyright works which are now outdated,[30] for example Moses Gaster (1880),[31] R. Campbell Thompson (1908),[32] W. O. E. Oesterley (1930),[33] and confuses Jewish and Assyrian sources.
According to Siegmund Hurwitz, the figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as lilitu, in Sumer, circa 4000 BC.[34] The phonetic name Lilith is traditionally thought[by whom?] to have originated (as lilit) in Ancient Israel, and to have pre-dated at least 700 BC.[35]
Akkad, who were the earliest known Semitic speakers, and Sumer, who were the earliest civilizations inhabiting Mesopotamia, developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis with widespread bilingualism.[36] The bilateral influence of Sumerian and Akkadian is evident in all areas,[36] including syncretism between their gods, where each adopted the other's deities.[37] In Sumerian, Lilith was referred to as Ki-sikil-lil-la-ke, in Akkadian it was Ardat-lili.[38] The Assyrian and Babylonian cultures descended from these early cultures.
[edit]
Shedim cults
Main article: shedim
According to Siegmund Hurwitz, Lilith retained her Shedim characteristics throughout the entire Jewish tradition.[39] Shedim is plural for "spirit" or "demon". Figures that represent shedim are the shedu of Babylonian mythology. These figures were depicted as anthropomorphic, winged bulls, associated with wind. They were thought to guard palaces, cities, houses, and temples. In magical texts of that era, they could be either malevolent or benevolent.[40] The cult originated from Babylon, then spread to Canaan and eventually to Israel.[41] Human sacrifice was part of the practice and a sacrificial altar existed to the shedim next to the Yahweh cult, although this practice was widely denounced by prophets who retained belief in Yahweh.[42]
In Jewish thought and literature Shedim were portrayed as quite malevolent. Some writings contend that they are storm-demons. Their creation is presented in three contradicting Jewish tales. The first is that during Creation, God created the shedim, but did not create their bodies and forgot them on the Shabbat when he rested. The second is that they are descendants of demons in the form of serpents, and the last states that they are simply descendants of Adam and Lilith. Another story asserts that after the Tower of Babel, some people were scattered and became Shedim, Ruchin, and Lilin.[citation needed]
[edit]
Lilû, father of Gilgamesh
Another proposed connection to Lilith is on the Sumerian king list, where Gilgamesh's father is named as Lilû.[43][44] Little is known of Lilû, and he was said to interfere with women in their sleep and had functions of an incubus,[45] while Lilitû appeared to men in their erotic dreams.[46][47][48] Such qualities as lalu, or wandering about, and lulu, or lasciviousness, from Akkadian (Semitic) language have been associated as sources for the names Lila and Lilitû,[49] but some sumerologists[who?] say Lilû is purely Sumerian.[43]
[edit]
Lilitû demons
The Assyrian lilitû were said to prey upon children and women[50] and were described as associated with lions, storms, desert, and disease.[citation needed] Early portrayals of such demons are known as having Zu bird talons for feet and wings.[51] They were highly sexually predatory towards men but were unable to copulate normally. They were thought to dwell in waste, desolate, and desert places. Like the Sumerian Dimme, a male wind demon named Pazuzu was thought to be effective against them.[52]
Lilith's epithet was "the beautiful maiden".[citation needed] She was described as having no milk in her breasts and as unable to bear any children.[47][53]
Other storm and night demons from a similar class are recorded from Akkadian texts[which?] around this period. The Ardat-lili[citation needed] is from Ardatû,[citation needed] which is a young unmarried woman or maiden, also sometimes a title of prostitutes, and lilitû.[54] These "maiden liltû" would come to men in their sleep and beget children from them.[citation needed] Sick men would also be described as being seized by Ardat-lili[46] Their male counterparts, similar to an incubus, were the Irdû-lili[55] These demons were originally storm and wind demons; however, later etymology made them into night demons.[56]
[edit]
Lamashtû
Lamashtû or Labartu (in Sumerian Dimme) was a very similar Mesopotamian demon to Lilitû, and Lilith seems to have inherited many of Lamashtû's myths.[57] She was considered a demi-goddess and daughter of Anu, the sky god.[58] Many incantations against her mention her status as a daughter of heaven and her exercising her free will over infants. This makes her different from the rest of the demons in Mesopotamia. Unlike her demonic peers, Lamashtû was not instructed by the gods to do her malevolence; she did it on her own accord. She was believed to seduce men, harm pregnant women, mothers, and neonates, kill foliage, and drink blood and was a cause of disease, sickness, and death. Some incantations[which?] describe her as "seven witches".[59] The space between her legs is as a scorpion, corresponding to the astrological sign of Scorpio. (Scorpio rules the genitals and sex organs.)[60] Her head is that of a lion, she has Anzu bird feet like Lilitû,[61] her breasts are suckled by a pig and a dog, and she rides the back of a donkey.[62] Other texts[which?] mention Lamashtû as the hand of Inanna/Ishtar in place of Lilitû and Ardat-lili.[63]
[edit]
Gallû and Alû
Two other Mesopotamian demons have a close relation to Lilitû: Gallû and Alû.[64] Alû was originally an asexual demon, who took on female attributes, but later became a male demon.[citation needed] Alû liked to roam the streets like a stray dog at night and creep into people's bedrooms as they slept to terrify them.[citation needed] He was described as being half-human and half-devil. He appears in Jewish lore[where?] as Ailo[citation needed]; here, he is used as one of Lilith's secret names[citation needed]. In other texts,[which?] Ailo is a daughter of Lilith's that has had intercourse with a man. The other demon, Gallû, is of the Utukkû group[citation needed]. Gallû’s name, like Utukkû, was also used as a general term[where?] for multiple demons.[65] Later[when?] Gallû appears as Gello, Gylo, or Gyllou in Greco-Byzantine mythology[which?] as a child-stealing and child-killing demon[citation needed]. This figure was, likewise, adapted by the Jews as Gilû and was also considered a secret name of Lilith's.[66]
[edit]
Lilitû, Inanna's hand
Stephen Langdon (1914) claims that Babylonian texts depict Lilitû as the sacred prostitute of the goddess Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna.[67] Hurwitz similarly claims that older Sumerian accounts assert that Lilitû is called the handmaiden of Inanna or "hand of Inanna". The Sumerian texts[which?] state, "Inanna has sent the beautiful, unmarried, and seductive prostitute Lilitû out into the fields and streets in order to lead men astray." That is why Lilitû is called the "hand of Inanna".[68][69]
[edit]
Lilith in the Bible
There is an ongoing scholarly debate as to whether the concept of Lilith occurs in the Bible. The only possible occurrence is in the Book of Isaiah 34:13-15, describing the desolation of Edom, where the Hebrew word lilit (or lilith) appears in a list of eight unclean animals, some of which may have demonic associations. Since the word lilit (or lilith) is a hapax legomenon in the Hebrew Bible and the other seven terms in the list are better documented, the reading of scholars and translators is often guided by a decision about the complete list of eight creatures as a whole.[70][71] Quoting from Isaiah 34 (NAB):
(12) Her nobles shall be no more, nor shall kings be proclaimed there; all her princes are gone. (13) Her castles shall be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She shall become an abode for jackals and a haunt for ostriches. (14) Wildcats shall meet with desert beasts, satyrs shall call to one another; There shall the lilith repose, and find for herself a place to rest. (15) There the hoot owl shall nest and lay eggs, hatch them out and gather them in her shadow; There shall the kites assemble, none shall be missing its mate. (16) Look in the book of the LORD and read: No one of these shall be lacking, For the mouth of the LORD has ordered it, and his spirit shall gather them there. (17) It is he who casts the lot for them, and with his hands he marks off their shares of her; They shall possess her forever, and dwell there from generation to generation.
[edit]
Hebrew text
In the Masoretic Text:
Hebrew: וּפָגְשׁוּ צִיִּים אֶת-אִיִּים, וְשָׂעִיר עַל-רֵעֵהוּ יִקְרָא; אַךְ-שָׁם הִרְגִּיעָה לִּילִית, וּמָצְאָה לָהּ מָנוֹח
Hebrew (ISO 259): u-pagšu ṣiyyim et-ʾiyyim w-saʿir ʿal-rēʿēhu yiqra; ʾak-šam hirgiʿa lilit u-maṣʾa lah manoaḫ[72]
34:14 "And shall-meet desert creatures et (particle) jackals
the goat he-calls his- fellow
lilit (lilith) she-rests and she-finds rest[73]
34:15 there she-shall-nest the great-owl, and she-lays-(eggs), and she-hatches, and she-gathers under her-shadow:
hawks[kites, gledes ] also they-gather, every one with its mate.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls, among the 19 fragments of Isaiah found at Qumran, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1Q1Isa) in 34:14 renders the creature as plural liliyyot (or liliyyoth).[74][75]
Eberhard Schrader (1875)[76] and Moritz Abraham Levy (1885)[77] suggest that Lilith was a goddess of the night, known also by the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Schrader and Levy's view is therefore partly dependent on a later dating of Deutero-Isaiah to the 6th century BC, and the presence of Jews in Babylon which would coincide with the possible references to the Līlītu in Babylonian demonology. However this view is challenged by some modern research such as by Judit M. Blair (2009) who considers that the context indicates unclean animals.[78]
[edit]
Greek version
The Septuagint translates the reference into Greek as onokentauros, apparently for lack of a better word, since also the se'irim, "satyrs", earlier in the verse are translated with daimon onokentauros. The "wild beasts of the island and the desert" are omitted altogether, and the "crying to his fellow" is also done by the daimon onokentauros.[79]
[edit]
Latin Bible
The early 5th-century Vulgate translated the same word as Lamia.[80][81]
et occurrent daemonia onocentauris et pilosus clamabit alter ad alterum ibi cubavit lamia et invenit sibi requiem
—Isaiah (Isaias Propheta) 34.14, Vulgate
The translation is: "And demons shall meet with monsters, and one hairy one shall cry out to another; there the lamia has lain down and found rest for herself...".
[edit]
English versions
Wyclif's Bible (1395) preserves the Latin rendering Lamia:
Isa 34:15 Lamya schal ligge there, and foond rest there to hir silf.
The Bishops' Bible of Matthew Parker (1568) from the Latin:
Isa 34:14 there shall the Lamia lye and haue her lodgyng.
Douay-Rheims Bible (1582/1610) also preserves the Latin rendering Lamia:
Isa 34:14 "And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself."
The Geneva Bible of William Whittington (1587) from the Hebrew:
Isa 34:14 and the shricheowle shall rest there, and shall finde for her selfe a quiet dwelling.
Then the King James Version of the Bible (1611):
Isa 34:14 "The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest."
The "screech owl" translation of the KJV is, together with the "owl" (yanšup, probably a water bird) in 34:11 and the "great owl" (qippoz, properly a snake) of 34:15, an attempt to render the passage by choosing suitable animals for difficult-to-translate Hebrew words.
Later translations include:
night-owl (Young, 1898)
night-spectre (Rotherham, Emphasized Bible, 1902)
night monster (ASV, 1901; JPS 1917, NASB, 1995)
vampires (Moffatt Translation, 1922)
night hag (RSV, 1947)
Lilith (Jerusalem Bible, 1966)
lilith (New American Bible, 1970)
Lilith (NRSV, 1989)
Lilith (The Message (Bible), Peterson, 1993)
night creature (NIV, 1978; NKJV, 1982; NLT, 1996, TNIV)
nightjar (New World Translation, 1984)
night bird (English Standard Version, 2001)
[edit]
Jewish tradition
Major sources in Jewish tradition regarding Lilith in chronological order include:
c.40-10BCE Dead Sea Scrolls - Songs for a Sage (4Q510-511)
c.200 Mishnah - not mentioned
c.500 Gemara of the Talmud
c.800 The Alphabet of Ben-Sira
c.900 Midrash Abkir
c.1260 Treatise on the Left Emanation, Spain
c.1280 Zohar, Spain.
[edit]
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls contains one indisputable reference to Lilith in Songs of the Sage (4Q510-511)[82] fragment 1:
And I, the Instructor, proclaim His glorious splendour so as to frighten and to te[rrify] all the spirits of the destroying angels, spirits of the bastards, demons, Lilith, howlers, and [desert dwellers…] and those which fall upon men without warning to lead them astray from a spirit of understanding and to make their heart and their […] desolate during the present dominion of wickedness and predetermined time of humiliations for the sons of lig[ht], by the guilt of the ages of [those] smitten by iniquity – not for eternal destruction, [bu]t for an era of humiliation for transgression.
Translation[83]
As with the Massoretic Text of Isaiah 34:14, and therefore unlike the plural liliyyot (or liliyyoth) in the Isaiah scroll 34:14, lilit in 4Q510 is singular, this liturgical text both cautions against the presence of supernatural malevolence and assumes familiarity with Lilith; distinct from the biblical text, however, this passage does not function under any socio-political agenda, but instead serves in the same capacity as An Exorcism (4Q560) and Songs to Disperse Demons (11Q11).[citation needed] The text is thus, to a community "deeply involved in the realm of demonology",[84] an exorcism hymn.
Joseph M. Baumgarten (1991) identified the unnamed woman of The Seductress (4Q184) as related to female demon.[85] However John J. Collins [86] regards this identification as "intriguing" but that it is "safe to say" that (4Q184) is based on the strange woman of Proverbs 2, 5, 7, 9:
Her house sinks down to death,
And her course leads to the shades.
All who go to her cannot return
And find again the paths of life.
— Proverbs 2:18-19
Her gates are gates of death, and from the entrance of the house
She sets out towards Sheol.
None of those who enter there will ever return,
And all who possess her will descend to the Pit.
— 4Q184
[edit]
Talmud
Lilith does not occur in the Mishnah. There are three references to Lilith in the Babylonian Talmud in Gemara on three separate Tractates of the Mishnah:
"Rab Judah citing Samuel ruled: If an abortion had the likeness of Lilith its mother is unclean by reason of the birth, for it is a child but it has wings." (Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Nidda 24b)[87]
"[Expounding upon the curses of womanhood] In a Baraitha it was taught: She grows long hair like Lilith, sits when making water like a beast, and serves as a bolster for her husband.” (Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Eruvin 100b)
"R. Hanina said: One may not sleep in a house alone [in a lonely house], and whoever sleeps in a house alone is seized by Lilith.” (Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Shabbath 151b)
The above statement by Hanina may be related to the belief that nocturnal emissions engendered the birth of demons: "R. Jeremiah b. Eleazar further stated: In all those years [130 years after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden] during which Adam was under the ban he begot ghosts and male demons and female demons [or night demons], for it is said in Scripture: And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and begot a son in own likeness, after his own image, from which it follows that until that time he did not beget after his own image… When he saw that through him death was ordained as punishment he spent a hundred and thirty years in fasting, severed connection with his wife for a hundred and thirty years, and wore clothes of fig on his body for a hundred and thirty years. – That statement [of R. Jeremiah] was made in reference to the semen which he emitted accidentally.” (Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Eruvin 18b)
[edit]
Alphabet of Ben Sira
Main article: Alphabet of Ben Sira
The pseudepigraphic[88] 8th-10th Century Alphabet of Ben Sira is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Whether this particular tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date the Alphabet between the 8th and 10th centuries AD.
In the text an amulet is inscribed with the names of three angels (Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof) and placed around the neck of newborn boys in order to protect them from the lilin until their circumcision.[89] The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to derive from this tradition are in fact, dated as being much older.[90] The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive to the Alphabet, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in Genesis Rabbah. However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor is exclusive to the Alphabet.
The idea in the text that Adam had a wife prior to Eve may have developed from an interpretation of the Book of Genesis and its dual creation accounts; while Genesis 2:22 describes God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib, an earlier passage, 1:27, already indicates that a woman had been made: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The Alphabet text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone"; in this text God forms Lilith out of the clay from which he made Adam but she and Adam bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way they were equal and she refuses to submit to him:[91] The background and purpose of The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the Bible and Talmud, it may have been a collection of folk-tales, a refutation of Christian, Karaite, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish satire,[92] although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is the earliest surviving source of the story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became only widely known with the 17th century Lexicon Talmudicum of German scholar Johannes Buxtorf.
In this folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages Lilith, a dominant female demon, became identified with Asmodeus, King of Demons, as his queen.[93] Asmodeus was already well known by this time because of the legends about him in the Talmud. Thus, the merging of Lilith and Asmodeus was inevitable.[94] The second myth of Lilith grew to include legends about another world and by some accounts this other world existed side by side with this one, Yenne Velt is Yiddish for this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at every turn.[95] Many disasters were blamed on both of them, causing wine to turn into vinegar, men to be impotent, women unable to give birth, and it was Lilith who was blamed for the loss of infant life. The presence of Lilith and her cohorts were considered very real at this time.[citation needed]
Two primary characteristics are seen in these legends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and Lilith as a child-killing witch, who strangles helpless neonates. Although these two aspects of the Lilith legend seemed to have evolved separately, there is hardly a tale where she encompasses both roles.[95] But the aspect of the witch-like role that Lilith plays broadens her archetype of the destructive side of witchcraft. Such stories are commonly found among Jewish folklore.[95]
[edit]
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Kabbalistic mysticism attempted to establish a more exact relationship between Lilith and the Deity. With her major characteristics having been well-developed by the end of the Talmudic period, after six centuries had elapsed between the Aramaic incantation texts that mention Lilith and the early Spanish Kabbalistic writings in the 13th century, she reappears, and her life history becomes known in greater mythological detail.[96]
Her creation is described in many alternative versions. One mentions her creation as being before Adam's, on the fifth day, because the "living creatures" with whose swarms God filled the waters included none other than Lilith. A similar version, related to the earlier Talmudic passages, recounts how Lilith was fashioned with the same substance as Adam was, shortly before. A third alternative version states that God originally created Adam and Lilith in a manner that the female creature was contained in the male. Lilith's soul was lodged in the depths of the Great Abyss. When God called her, she joined Adam. After Adam's body was created a thousand souls from the Left (evil) side attempted to attach themselves to him. However, God drove them off. Adam was left lying as a body without a soul. Then a cloud descended and God commanded the earth to produce a living soul. This God breathed into Adam, who began to spring to life and his female was attached to his side. God separated the female from Adam's side. The female side was Lilith, whereupon she flew to the Cities of the Sea and attacks humankind. Yet another version claims that Lilith was not created by God, but emerged as a divine entity that was born spontaneously, either out of the Great Supernal Abyss or out of the power of an aspect of God (the Gevurah of Din). This aspect of God, one of his ten attributes (Sefirot), at its lowest manifestation has an affinity with the realm of evil and it is out of this that Lilith merged with Samael.[97] According to The Alphabet of Ben-Sira Lilith was Adam's first wife.
An alternative story links Lilith with the creation of luminaries. The "first light," which is the light of Mercy (one of the Sefirot), appeared on the first day of creation when God said "Let there be light." This light became hidden and the Holiness became surrounded by a husk of evil. ”A husk (klippa) was created around the brain" and this husk spread and brought out another husk, which was Lilith.[98]
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Midrash ABKIR
The first medieval source to depict Adam and Lilith in full was the Midrash A.B.K.I.R. (ca. 10th century), which was followed by the Zohar and Kabbalistic writings. Adam is said to be perfect until he recognizes either his sin or Cain's fratricide that is the cause of bringing death into the world. He then separates from holy Eve, sleeps alone, and fasts for 130 years. During this time Lilith, also known as Pizna , desired his beauty and came to him against his will.
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Treatise on the Left Emanation
Main article: Treatise on the Left Emanation
The mystical writing of two brothers Jacob and Isaac Hacohen, which predates the Zohar by a few decades, states that Samael and Lilith are in the shape of an androgynous being, double-faced, born out of the emanation of the Throne of Glory and corresponding in the spiritual realm to Adam and Eve, who were likewise born as a hermaphrodite. The two twin androgynous couples resembled each other and both "were like the image of Above"; that is, that they are reproduced in a visible form of an androgynous deity.[99]
"19. In answer to your question concerning Lilith, I shall explain to you the essence of the matter. Concerning this point there is a received tradition from the ancient Sages who made use of the Secret Knowledge of the Lesser Palaces, which is the manipulation of demons and a ladder by which one ascends to the prophetic levels. In this tradition it is made clear that Samael and Lilith were born as one, similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one, reflecting what is above. This is the account of Lilith which was received by the Sages in the Secret Knowledge of the Palaces."
Another version[clarification needed] that was also current among Kabbalistic circles in the Middle Ages establishes Lilith as the first of Samael's four wives: Lilith, Naamah, Igrath, and Mahalath. Each of them are mothers of demons and have their own hosts and unclean spirits in no number.[100] The marriage of archangel Samael and Lilith was arranged by "Blind Dragon", who is the counterpart of "the dragon that is in the sea". Blind Dragon acts as an intermediary between Lilith and Samael:
Blind Dragon rides Lilith the Sinful -- may she be extirpated quickly in our days, Amen! -- And this Blind Dragon brings about the union between Samael and Lilith. And just as the Dragon that is in the sea (Isa. 27:1) has no eyes, likewise Blind Dragon that is above, in the likeness of a spiritual form, is without eyes, that is to say, without colors.... (Patai81:458) Samael is called the Slant Serpent, and Lilith is called the Tortuous Serpent.[101]
The marriage of Samael and Lilith is known as the "Angel Satan" or the "Other God," but it was not allowed to last. To prevent Lilith and Samael's demonic children Lilin from filling the world, God castrated Samael. In many 17th century Kabbalistic books, this mythologem is based on the identification of "Leviathan the Slant Serpent and Leviathan the Torturous Serpent" and a reinterpretation of an old Talmudic myth where God castrated the male Leviathan and slew the female Leviathan in order to prevent them from mating and thereby destroying the earth.[102] After Samael became castrated and Lilith was unable to fornicate with him, she left him to couple with men who experience nocturnal emissions. A 15th or 16th century Kabbalah text states that God has "cooled" the female Leviathan, meaning that he has made Lilith infertile and she is a mere fornication.
The Treatise on the Left Emanation says that there are two Liliths, the lesser being married to the great demon Asmodeus.[103][104]
Another passage charges Lilith as being a tempting serpent of Eve:[105]
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Zohar
References to Lilith in the Zohar include the following:
“She wanders about at night, vexing the sons of men and causing them to defile themselves (19b),”
This passage may be related to the mention of Lilith in Talmud Shabbath 151b (see above), and also to Talmud Eruvin 18b where nocturnal emissions are connected with the begettal of demons.
Raphael Patai states that older sources state clearly that after Lilith's Red Sea sojourn (mentioned also in Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews), she returned to Adam and begat children from him. In the Zohar, however, Lilith is said to have succeeded in begetting offspring from Adam during their short-lived sexual experience. Lilith leaves Adam in Eden, as she is not a suitable helpmate for him. She returns, later, to force herself upon him. However, before doing so she attaches herself to Cain and bears him numerous spirits and demons.[106]
According to Gershom Scholem, the author of the Zohar, Rabbi Moses de Leon, was aware of the folk tradition of Lilith. He was also aware of another story, possibly older, that may be conflicting.[107] According to the Zohar, two female spirits, Lilith and Naamah — found Adam, desired his beauty which was like that of the sun disk, and lay with him. The issue of these unions were demons and spirits called "the plagues of humankind".[106] The added explanation was that it was through Adam's own sin that Lilith overcame him against his will.
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17th century Hebrew magical amulets
A copy of Jean de Pauly's translation of the Zohar in the Ritman Library contains an inserted late 17th Century printed Hebrew sheet for use in magical amulets where the prophet Elijah confronts Lilith.[108] In this encounter, she had come to feast on the flesh of the mother, with a host of demons, and take the newborn from her. She eventually reveals her secret names to Elijah in the conclusion. These names are said to cause Lilith to lose her power: lilith, abitu, abizu, hakash, avers hikpodu, ayalu, matrota…[109] In others, probably informed by The Alphabet of Ben-Sira, she is Adam's first wife. (Yalqut Reubeni, Zohar 1:34b, 3:19[110])
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Tree of Life (Kabbalah)
Lilith is listed as one of the Qliphoth, corresponding to the Sephirah Malkuth in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The demon Lilith, the evil woman, is described as a beautiful woman, who transforms into a blue, butterfly-like demon, and it is associated with the power of seduction.[citation needed]
The Qliphah is the unbalanced power of a Sephirah. Malkuth is the lowest Sephirah, the realm of the earth, into which all the divine energy flows, and in which the divine plan is worked out. However, its unbalanced form is as Lilith, the seductress. The material world, and all of its pleasures, is the ultimate seductress, and can lead to materialism unbalanced by the spirituality of the higher spheres. This ultimately leads to a descent into animal consciousness. The balance must therefore be found between Malkuth and Kether, to find order and harmony.[citation needed]
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Greco-Roman mythology
Main article: Lamia (mythology)
In the Latin Vulgate Book of Isaiah 34:14, Lilith is translated lamia.
According to Siegmund Hurwitz the Talmudic Lilith is connected with the Greek Lamia, who, according to Hurwitz, likewise governed a class of child stealing lamia-demons. Lamia bore the title "child killer" and was feared for her malevolence, like Lilith. She has different conflicting origins and is described as having a human upper body from the waist up and a serpentine body from the waist down.[111] One source states simply that she is a daughter of the goddess Hecate. Another, that Lamia was subsequently cursed by the goddess Hera to have stillborn children because of her association with Zeus; alternatively, Hera slew all of Lamia's children (except Scylla) in anger that Lamia slept with her husband, Zeus. The grief caused Lamia to turn into a monster that took revenge on mothers by stealing their children and devouring them.[112] Lamia had a vicious sexual appetite that matched her cannibalistic appetite for children. She was notorious for being a vampiric spirit and loved sucking men’s blood.[113] Her gift was the "mark of a Sibyl," a gift of second sight. Zeus was said to have given her the gift of sight. However, she was "cursed" to never be able to shut her eyes so that she would forever obsess over her dead children. Taking pity on Lamia, Zeus gave her the ability to remove and replace her eyes from their sockets.[112]
The Empusae were a class of supernatural demons that Lamia was said to have birthed. Hecate would often send them against travelers. They consumed or scared to death any of the people where they inhabited. They bear many similarities to lilim. It has been suggested that later medieval lore, succubi, or lilim is derived from this myth.[citation needed]
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Arabic mythology
Lilith (Arabic: ليليث) is not found in the Quran or Haddith. The Sufi occult writer Ahmad al-Buni (d.1225) in his Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra (Sun of the Great Knowledge, Arabic: شمس المعارف الكبرى) mentions a demon called the mother of children a term also used "in one place"[114] in the 13th Century Jewish Zohar and is therefore probably derived from Jewish mythology. Another Islamic legend recounts an encounter between King Solomon and a giant female demon, Karina.[115]
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Lilith in Western literature
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In German literature
Lilith's earliest appearance in the literature of the Romantic period (1789–1832) was in Goethe's 1808 work Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy.[116]
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Lilith in English literature
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which developed around 1848,[117] were greatly influenced by Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith. In 1863, Dante Gabriel Rossetti of the Brotherhood began painting what would later be his first rendition of "Lady Lilith", a painting he expected to be his "best picture hitherto"[117] Symbols appearing in the painting allude to the "femme fatale" reputation of the Romantic Lilith: poppies (death and cold) and white roses (sterile passion). Accompanying his Lady Lilith painting from 1866, Rossetti wrote a sonnet entitled Lilith, which was first published in Swinburne's pamphlet-review (1868), Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition.[118] The poem and the picture appeared together alongside Rossetti's painting Sibylla Palmifera and the sonnet Soul's Beauty. In 1881, the Lilith sonnet was renamed "Body's Beauty" in order to contrast it and Soul's Beauty. The two were placed sequentially in The House of Life collection (sonnets number 77 and 78).[117]
Rossetti wrote in 1870:
Lady [Lilith]...represents a Modern Lilith combing out her abundant golden hair and gazing on herself in the glass with that self-absorption by whose strange fascination such natures draw others within their own circle."
—Rossetti, W. M. ii.850, D.G. Rossetti's emphasis[117]
This is in accordance with Jewish folk tradition, which associates Lilith both with long hair (a symbol of dangerous feminine seductive power in both Jewish and Islamic cultures), and with possessing women by entering them through mirrors.[119]
The Victorian poet Robert Browning re-envisioned Lilith in his poem "Adam, Lilith, and Eve". First published in 1883, the poem uses the traditional myths surrounding the triad of Adam, Eve, and Lilith. Browning depicts Lilith and Eve as being friendly and complicitous with each other, as they sit together on either side of Adam. Under the threat of death, Eve admits that she never loved Adam, while Lilith confesses that she always loved him:[120] Browning focused on Lilith's emotional attributes, rather than that of her ancient demon predecessors.[121]
Scottish author George MacDonald also wrote a fantasy novel entitled Lilith, first published in 1895. MacDonald employed the character of Lilith in service to a spiritual drama about sin and redemption, in which Lilith finds a hard-won salvation. Many of the traditional characteristics of Lilith mythology are present in the author's depiction: Long dark hair, pale skin, a hatred and fear of children and babies, and an obsession with gazing at herself in a mirror. MacDonald's Lilith also has vampiric qualities: She bites people and sucks their blood for sustenance.
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In modern occultism
The depiction of Lilith in Romanticism continues to be popular among feminists, Wiccans, satanists, and in other modern occultism.[117]
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Ceremonial magic
Few magical orders dedicated to the undercurrent of Lilith, featuring initiations specifically related to the arcana of the "first mother" exist. Two organizations that use initiations and magic associated with Lilith are the Ordo Antichristianus Illuminati and the Order of Phosphorus. Lilith appears as a succuba in Aleister Crowley's De Arte Magica. Lilith was also one of the middle names of Crowley’s first child, Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley (b. 1904, d.1906), and Lilith is sometimes identified with Babalon in Thelemic writings. A Chaos Magical rite, based on an earlier German rite,[122] offers a ceremonial Invocation of Lilith:[123]
Dark is she, but brilliant! Black are her wings, black on black! Her lips are red as rose, kissing all of the Universe! She is Lilith, who leadeth forth the hordes of the Abyss, and leadeth man to liberation! She is the irresistible fulfiller of all lust, seer of desire. First of all women was she - Lilith, not Eve was the first! Her hand brings forth the revolution of the Will and true freedom of the mind! She is KI-SI-KIL-LIL-LA-KE, Queen of the Magic! Look on her in lust and despair!"
—Lilith Ritus, from the German by Joseph Max
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Wicca
Many early writers that contributed to modern day Wicca expressed special reverence for Lilith. Charles Leland associated Aradia with Lilith: Aradia, says Leland, is Herodias, who was regarded in stregheria folklore as being associated with Diana as chief of the witches. Leland further notes that Herodias is a name that comes from West Asia, where it denoted an early form of Lilith.[124][125]
Gerald Gardner asserted that there was continuous historical worship of Lilith to present day, and that her name is sometimes given to the goddess being personified in the coven, by the priestess. This idea was further attested by Doreen Valiente, who cited her as a presiding goddess of the Craft: “the personification of erotic dreams, the suppressed desire for delights”.[126]
In some contemporary concepts, Lilith is viewed as the embodiment of the Goddess, a designation that is thought to be shared with what these faiths believe to be her counterparts: Inanna, Ishtar, Asherah, Anath and Isis.[127] According to one view, Lilith was originally a Sumerian, Babylonian, or Hebrew mother goddess of childbirth, children, women, and sexuality[128][129][130] who later became demonized due to the rise of patriarchy.[131] Other modern views hold that Lilith is a dark moon goddess on par with the Hindu Kali.[132]
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Astrology
See also: Lilith (hypothetical moon)
In modern Western astrology, "Dark Moon" Lilith, is not an actual phase of the moon, but is the empty focus of the ellipse described by the moon's orbit (the other focus occupied by the Earth). Dark Moon Lilith is often employed in astrological chart readings. "The Dark Moon describes our relationship to the absolute, to sacrifice as such, and shows how we let go.”[133]
The moon's hypothetical apogee point (the point at which it is furthest in its orbit from the Earth), is known as "Black Moon" Lilith. It is said to signify instinctive and emotional intelligence in astrological charts.[134]
The asteroid 1181 Lilith is also sometimes used in astrology.[135]
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Western mystery tradition
The western mystery tradition associates Lilith with the Klipoth of kabbalah. Samael Aun Weor in The Pistis Sophia Unveiled writes that homosexuals are the "henchmen of Lilith." Likewise, women who undergo willful abortion, and those who support this practice are "seen in the sphere of Lilith."[136] Dion Fortune writes, "The Virgin Mary is reflected in Lilith,"[137] and that Lilith is the source of "lustful dreams."[137] Indeed, if one meditates on negative (or inverted) Binah, one readily finds Lilith; to worship Lilith is to use the power of the Holy Spirit for negative purposes.[138]
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Popular culture
See also: Lilith (disambiguation) Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2011)
The episode "Lilith: Queen of the Night" of The Naked Archaeologist dealt with Lilith and her origins.
Lilith is a recurring character in the television series Supernatural. In this series, she was the first human that Lucifer corrupted and turned into a demon. She is one of the principal villains in the series's 3rd and 4th seasons.
Lilith is the primary consort of the main character while he holds the office of Satan in Piers Anthony's novel, For Love of Evil, the sixth book of his Incarnations of Immortality series.
"Son of Lilith" is a song that appears on Mental Vortex, an album released in 1991 by a Swiss technical thrash metal band Coroner.
In 1993, the American industrial rock band Machines of Loving Grace released the album Concentration, featuring the song "Lilith/Eve".
In 1996, the Norwegian black metal band Ancient released the album The Cainian Cronicle, featuring the song "Lilith's Embrace".
Italian gothic black metal band Theatres des Vampires released two songs: "Lilith's Child" and "Lilith Mater Inferorum".
Italian gothic black metal band Lord Vampyr's Shadowsreign released a song and video called "Cult of Lilith".
In November 2010, Cradle of Filth released an album called Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa, which is a concept album dedicated to the myth and legend of Lilith.
Martin Simpsons song "Lillith" uses her story as a metaphor for the exploitation and abuse of women.
In the 2009 comedy film Year One, Lilith (played by Eden Riegel) is portrayed as a lesbian.
In the 2004 TV movie "Darklight" Shiri Appleby stars as the immortal Lilith.
In the cult anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lilith is portrayed as the Second Angel and the source of all life on Earth.
In The Mortal Instruments book series by Cassandra Clare, character who is the first wife of Adam in the garden of Eden.
Lilith is a central character in Wayne Barlowe's book God's Demon.
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See also
1181 Lilith (main-belt asteroid)
Abyzou
Daemon (mythology)
Lamashtu
Lamia (mythology)
Lilith Fair
Lilith (hypothetical moon)
Naamah (demon)
Norea
Pazuzu
Serpent seed
Spirit spouse (in dreams)
Succubus
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Notes
^ Freedman, David Noel, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, (New York: Doubleday) 1997, 1992.
^ Kristen E. Kvam, Linda S. Schearing, Valarie H. Ziegler Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and gender Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. p174
^ Tree of souls: the mythology of Judaism, By Howard Schwartz, page 218
^ Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and gender By Kristen E. Kvam, Linda S. Schearing, Valarie H. Ziegler, p 220-221, Indiana University Press, 1999
^ Erich Ebeling, Bruno Meissner, Dietz Otto Edzard Reallexikon der Assyriologie Volume 9 p47,50
^ Michael C. Astour Hellenosemitica: an ethnic and cultural study in west Semitic impact on Mycenaean. Greece 1965 Brill p138
^ Sayce (1887)[page needed]
^ Fossey (1902)[page needed]
^ Kramer, S. N. Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree: A Reconstructed Sumerian Text. Assyriological Studies 10. Chicago. 1938
^ George, A. The epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian epic poem and other texts in Akkadian 2003 p100 Tablet XII. Appendix The last Tablet in the 'Series of Gilgamesh'
^ Kramer translates the zu as "owl," but most often it is translated as "eagle," "vulture," or "bird of prey."
^ "Chicago Assyrian Dictionary". Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. Chicago: University of Chicago. 1956.
^ Hurwitz (1980) p. 49
^ Article in K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst - 1999 p520-521, article cites Hutter's own 1988 work Behexung, Entsuhnung und Heilung Eisenbrauns 1988. p224-228
^ Roberta Sterman Sabbath Sacred tropes: Tanakh, New Testament, and Qur'an as literature and culture 2009
^ Sex and gender in the ancient Near East: proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2–6, 2001, Part 2 p481
^ Opitz, D. Ausgrabungen und Forschungsreisen Ur. AfO 8: 328
^ Ribichini, S. Lilith nell-albero Huluppu Pp. 25 in Atti del 1° Convegno Italiano sul Vicino Oriente Antico, Rome, 1976
^ Frankfort, H. The Burney Relief AfO 12: 128, 1937
^ Kraeling, E. G. A Unique Babylonian Relief BASOR 67: 168. 1937
^ RLA 7:25
^ Gaster, T. H. 1942. A Canaanite Magical Text. Or 11:
^ Torczyner, H. 1947. A Hebrew Incantation against Night-Demons from Biblical Times. JNES 6: 18?9.
^ Lesses, Rebecca Exe(o)rcising Power: Women as Sorceresses, Exorcists, and Demonesses in Babylonian Jewish Society of Late Antiquity 2001 JAAR Journal of The American Academy of Religion Abstact p.343-375
^ Georges Contenau La Magie chez les Assyriens et les Babyloniens, Paris, 1947.
^ Georges Contenau Everyday Life in Babylon and Assyria translated by KR Maxwell-Hyslop and AR Maxwell-Hyslop (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1954)
^ Fauth, Wolfgang (1982) Lilitu und die Eulen von Pylos. In Tischler, Johann. (ed.). Serta Indogermanica: Festschrift für Günter Neumann zum 60. Geburtstag. p60-61
^ S. Lackenbacher, RA 65 (1971)
^ Graham Cunningham Deliver me from evil: Mesopotamian incantations, 2500-1500 BC 1997 p104
^ Alan Humm's Lilith Bibliography from the Ioudaios academic list expanded from the bibliography of Thomas R. W. Longstaff
^ "Beiträge zur vergleichende Sagen- und Märchenkunde. X. Lilith und die drei Angel", Monatschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenstum 29 (1880) - to be distinguished from Gaster, Theodor Herzl. "A Canaanite Magical Text." Orientalia, 11. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1942. Pp. 41-79.
^ Semitic Magic - Its Origins and Development
^ Hebrew Religion: Its Origin and Development (1930) Page 70
^ Hurwitz, p.50
^ Hurwitz (1980)p.54,55
^ a b Deutscher, Guy (2007). Syntactic Change in Akkadian: The Evolution of Sentential Complementation. Oxford University Press US. pp. 20–21. ISBN 9780199532223.
^ Bottero (2001:45)
^ Hurwitz (1980) p.51-52
^ Hurwitz p. 53-54
^ Leick 1998: 30-31
^ Hurwitx p. 54-55
^ Hurwitz p. 54
^ a b Hurwitz (1980) p.50
^ Patai (1942)[page needed]
^ Epilepsy in Babylonia By Marten Stol, p 46, Brill, 1993
^ a b Hurwitz (1980) p.52
^ a b Raphael Patai[page needed]
^ T.H. Jacobsen, "Mesopotamia", in H. Frankfort et al., Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man.
^ R.C. Thompson 1908 p.66
^ The Devil: perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity by Jeffrey Burton Russell, p. 92, Cornell University Press
^ Hurwitz (1980) p.75
^ Black, Jeremy and Anthony Green (2003). Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. p. 118.
^ Erich Ebeling and Bruno Meissner, Reallexicon der Assyriologie, Walter de Gruyter 1990[page needed]
^ Hurwitz (1980) p.51
^ Raphael Patai p.222
^ Raphael Patai, p. 221 & 222, The Hebrew Goddess: Third Enlarged Edition, ISBN 978-0-8143-2271-0
^ Hurwitz (1980) p.34-35
^ Dūr-Katlimmu 2008 and beyond edited by Hartmut Kühne, p 243, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010
^ Britannica, s.v. "Lamashtu"
^ Sydney Omarr's Day-by-Day Astrological Guide for Gemini 2011: May 21 - June 20 By Trish MacGregor, Rob MacGregor, p 93, Penguin, 2010; Source covers information besides Gemini, and works for this citation
^ Spirit and reason: the embodied character of Ezekiel's symbolic thinking by Dale Launderville p 275, Baylor University Press, 2007
^ The orientalizing revolution: Near Eastern influence on Greek culture in the early archaic age by Walter Burkert, Margaret E. Pinder p 83, Harvard University Press, 1995
^ Every breath you take: stalking narratives and the law by Ôrît Kāmîr, p 30, University of Michigan Press, 2001
^ Hurwitz (1980) p.39 But this ref gives no source.
^ Hurwitz, Siegmund (1980). Lilith-The First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine. p. 40.
^ Hurwitz (1980) p.41
^ Tammuz and Ishtar: a monograph upon Babylonian religion p74,75
^ S.H. Langdon p.74 Stephen Herbert Langdon, The Mythology of All Races, Volume V: Semitic, ed. John Arnott MacCulloch New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1964
^ Hurwitz (1980) p.58
^ Jan De Waard Translators Handbook on Isaiah; Delitzsch Isaiah
^ See The animals mentioned in the Bible Henry Chichester Hart 1888, and more modern sources; also entries Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon for tsiyyim... 'iyyim... sayir... liylith... qippowz... dayah
^ The consonants p/k/t may also be pronounced: ph/kh/th.
^ (מנוח manowach, used for birds as Noah's dove, Gen.8:9 and also humans as Israel, Deut.28:65; Naomi, Ruth 3:1).
^ Blair J. "De-demonising the Old Testament" p.27
^ Christopher R. A. Morray-Jones A transparent illusion: the dangerous vision of water in Hekhalot Vol.59 p258 2002 "Early evidence of the belief in a plurality of liliths is provided by the Isaiah scroll from Qumran, which gives the name as liliyyot, and by the targum to Isaiah, which, in both cases, reads" (Targum reads: 'when Lilith the Queen of [Sheba] and of Margod fell upon them.")
^ Jahrbuch für Protestantische Theologie 1, 1875. p128
^ Levy, [Moritz] A.[braham] (1817-1872)]. "Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft". Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft. ZDMG 9. 1885. pp. 470, 484.
^ Judit M. Blair De-Demonising the Old Testament - An Investigation of Azazel, Lilit (Lilith), Deber (Dever), Qeteb (Qetev) and Reshep (Resheph) in the Hebrew Bible. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2 Reihe, Mohr Siebeck 2009 ISBN 3-16-150131-4
^ 34:14 καὶ συναντήσουσιν δαιμόνια ὀνοκενταύροις καὶ βοήσουσιν ἕτερος πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον ἐκεῖ ἀναπαύσονται ὀνοκένταυροι εὗρον γὰρ αὑτοῖς ἀνάπαυσιν
^ "The Old Testament (Vulgate)/Isaias propheta". Wikisource (Latin). Retrieved 2007-09-24.
^ "Parallel Latin Vulgate Bible and Douay-Rheims Bible and King James Bible; The Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ". . Retrieved 2007-09-24.
^ Michael T. Davis, Brent A. Strawn Qumran studies: new approaches, new questions 2007 p47 "... two manuscripts that date to the Herodian period, with 4Q510 slightly earlier"
^ Bruce Chilton, Darrell Bock, Daniel M. Gurtner A Comparative Handbook to the Gospel of Mark p84
^ Revue de Qumrân 1991 p133
^ Baumgarten, J. M. 'On the Nature of the Seductress in 4Q184', Revue de Qumran 15 (1991-92), 133-143; 'The seductress of Qumran', Bible Review 17 no 5 (2001), 21-23; 42;
^ Collins, Jewish wisdom in the Hellenistic age
^ Tractate Niddah in the Mishnah is the only tractate from the Order of Tohorot which has Talmud on it. The Jerusalem Talmud is incomplete here, but the Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Niddah (2a–76b) is complete.
^ The attribution to the sage Ben Sira is considered false, with the true author unknown.
^ Alphabet of Ben Sirah, Question #5 (23a-b)
^ Humm, Alan. Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira
^
After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.
Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One,
blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back.
Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.’
'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’
When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.
^ Segal, Eliezer. Looking for Lilith
^ Schwartz p.7
^ Schwartz p 8
^ a b c Schwartz p.8
^ Patai p.229-230
^ Patai p.230
^ Patai p231
^ Patai p.231
^ Patai p244
^ Humm, Alan. Lilith, Samael, & Blind Dragon
^ Pataip246
^
In answer to your question concerning Lilith, I shall explain to you the essence of the matter. Concerning this point there is a received tradition from the ancient Sages who made use of the Secret Knowledge of the Lesser Palaces, which is the manipulation of demons and a ladder by which one ascends to the prophetic levels. In this tradition, it is made clear that Samael and Lilith were born as one, similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one, reflecting what is above. This is the account of Lilith which was received by the Sages in the Secret Knowledge of the Palaces. The Matron Lilith is the mate of Samael. Both of them were born at the same hour in the image of Adam and Eve, intertwined in each other. Asmodeus the great king of the demons has as a mate the Lesser (younger) Lilith, daughter of the king whose name is Qafsefoni. The name of his mate is Mehetabel daughter of Matred, and their daughter is Lilith.
^ R. Isaac b. Jacob Ha-Kohen. Lilith in Jewish Mysticism: Treatise on the Left Emanation
^
And the Serpent, the Woman of Harlotry, incited and seduced Eve through the husks of Light which in itself is holiness. And the Serpent seduced Holy Eve, and enough said for him who understands. And all this ruination came about because Adam the first man coupled with Eve while she was in her menstrual impurity – this is the filth and the impure seed of the Serpent who mounted Eve before Adam mounted her. Behold, here it is before you: because of the sins of Adam the first man all the things mentioned came into being. For Evil Lilith, when she saw the greatness of his corruption, became strong in her husks, and came to Adam against his will, and became hot from him and bore him many demons and spirits and Lilin. (Patai81:455f)
^ a b Patai p232 "Or according to the Zohar, two female spirits, Lilith and Naamah — found him, desired his beauty which was like that of the sun disk, and lay with him. The issue of these unions were demons and spirits"
^ Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 174
^ "Printed sheet, late 17th century or early 18th century, 185x130 mm. This sheet was inserted in one of the library's copies of Jean de Pauly's translation of the Zohar. The sheet contains two texts within borders, which are amulets, one for a male ('lazakhar'), the other one for a female ('lanekevah'). The invocations mention Adam, Eve and Lilith, 'Chavah Rishonah' (the first Eve, who is identical with Lilith), also devils or angels: Sanoy, Sansinoy, Smangeluf, Shmari'el (the guardian) and Hasdi'el (the merciful). A few lines in Yiddish are followed by the dialogue between the prophet Elijah and Lilith when he met her with her host of demons to kill the mother and take her new-born child ('to drink her blood, suck her bones and eat her flesh'). She tells Elijah that she will lose her power if someone uses her secret names, which she reveals at the end: 'lilith, abitu, abizu, hakash, avers hikpodu, ayalu, matrota...'."
^ "Lilith Amulet-J.R. Ritman Library".
^ Humm, Alan. Kabbalah: Lilith's origins
^ Hurwitz p. 43
^ a b Hurwitz p.43
^ Hurwitz p.78
^ "an eine Stelle" Hurwitz S. Die erste Eva: Eine historische und psychologische Studie 2004 Page 160 "8) Lilith in der arabischen Literatur: Die Karina Auch in der arabischen Literatur hat der Lilith-Mythos seinen Niederschlag gefunden."
^ Jan Knappert Islamic legends: histories of the heroes, saints, and prophets of Islam, Volume 1. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1985. " "And I am Salmas al-Hamma, the Karina of all women". In spite of his great power, King Solomon felt uneasy when he heard this name. A karina is a female demon much feared by women in the Middle East." p.149
^
Faust:
Who's that there?
Mephistopheles:
Take a good look.
Lilith.
Faust:
Lilith? Who is that?
Mephistopheles:
Adam's wife, his first. Beware of her.
Her beauty's one boast is her dangerous hair.
When Lilith winds it tight around young men
She doesn't soon let go of them again.
(1992 Greenberg translation, lines 4206–4211)
After Mephistopheles offers this warning to Faust, he then, quite ironically, encourages Faust to dance with "the Pretty Witch". Lilith and Faust engage in a short dialogue, where Lilith recounts the days spent in Eden.
Faust: [dancing with the young witch]
A lovely dream I dreamt one day
I saw a green-leaved apple tree,
Two apples swayed upon a stem,
So tempting! I climbed up for them.
The Pretty Witch:
Ever since the days of Eden
Apples have been man's desire.
How overjoyed I am to think, sir,
Apples grow, too, in my garden.
(1992 Greenberg translation, lines 4216 – 4223)
^ a b c d e "The Feminism and Women's Studies site: Changing Literary Representations of Lilith and the Evolution of a Mythical Heroine".
^
Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)
That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,
And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flower; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
Lo! As that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
And round his heart one strangling golden hair.
(Collected Works, 216)
^ Howard Schwartz (1988). Lilith's Cave: Jewish tales of the supernatural. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
^
As the worst of the venom left my lips,
I thought, 'If, despite this lie, he strips
The mask from my soul with a kiss — I crawl
His slave, — soul, body, and all!
—Browning 1098
^ Seidel, Kathryn Lee. The Lilith Figure in Toni Morrison's Sula and Alice Walker's The Color Purple
^ "Lilith-Ritus".
^ "The Invocation of Lilith".
^ Grimassi, Raven.Stregheria: La Vecchia Religione
^ Leland, Charles.Aradia, Gospel of the Witches-aAppendix
^ "Lilith-The First Eve". Imbolc. 2002.
^ Grenn, Deborah J.History of Lilith Institute
^ "Lilith". . Retrieved 9 December 2010.[unreliable source?]
^ Hurwitz, Siegmund. "Excerpts from Lilith-The first Eve".
^ "Lilith". .au.
^ Koltuv
^ R. Buckland
^ Joëlle de Gravelaine in "Lilith und das Loslassen", Astrologie Heute, Nr. 23.
^ Margi B. The Angelic Influence[unreliable source?]
^ "Martha Lang-Wescott".
^ Aun Weor, Samael. Pistis Sophia Unveiled. Google Books. p. 339.
^ a b Fortune, Dion. Psychic Self-Defence. Google books. pp. 126–128.
^ "Klipoth Introduction pt 1". Retrieved 9 December 2010.
[edit]
References
Talmudic References: b. Erubin 18b; b. Erubin 100b; b. Nidda 24b; b. Shab. 151b; b. Baba Bathra 73a-b
Kabbalist References: Zohar 3:76b-77a; Zohar Sitrei Torah 1:147b-148b; Zohar 2:267b; Bacharach,'Emeq haMelekh, 19c; Zohar 3:19a; Bacharach,'Emeq haMelekh, 102d-103a; Zohar 1:54b-55a
Dead Sea Scroll References: 4QSongs of the Sage/4QShir; 4Q510 frag.11.4-6a//frag.10.1f; 11QPsAp
Lilith Bibliography, Jewish and Christian Literature, Alan Humm ed., 25 June 2011.
Raymond Buckland, The Witch Book, Visible Ink Press, November 1, 2001.
Charles Fossey, La Magie Assyrienne, Paris: 1902.
Siegmund Hurwitz, Lilith, die erste Eva: eine Studie uber dunkle Aspekte des Wieblichen. Zurich: Daimon Verlag, 1980, 1993. English tr. Lilith, the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine, translated by Gela Jacobson. Einsiedeln, Switzerland: Daimon Verlag, 1992 ISBN 3-85630-545-9.
Siegmund Hurwitz, Lilith Switzerland: Daminon Press, 1992. Jerusalem Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1966.
Samuel Noah Kramer, Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree: A reconstructed Sumerian Text. (Kramer's Translation of the Gilgamesh Prologue), Assyriological Studies of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 10, Chicago: 1938.
Raphael Patai, Adam ve-Adama, tr. as Man and Earth; Jerusalem: The Hebrew Press Association, 1941-1942.
Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd enlarged edition New York: Discus Books, 1978.
Archibald Sayce, Hibbert Lectures on Babylonian Religion 1887.
Schwartz, Howard, Lilith's Cave: Jewish tales of the supernatural, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.
R. Campbell Thompson, Semitic Magic, it's Origin and Development, London: 1908.
[[New American Bible [1]]
[edit]
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lilith
Jewish Encyclopedia: Lilith
Collection of Lilith information and links by Alan Humm
International standard Bible Encyclopedia: Night-Monster
Categories: Abrahamic mythology | Adam and Eve | Demons in Judaism | Demons in Christianity | Mesopotamian demons | Qliphoth
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DNA Technology and Section 112 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872: An Urgent Need for Amendment.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
DNA Technology and Section 112 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872: An Urgent Need for Amendment.
The wordings of Section 112 of Indian Evidence Act starts, stating, "Birth during marriage, conclusive proof of legitimacy". Here the legal presumption is similar to that of the Latin Maxim, ‘pater est quem muptice demonstrat’, meaning thereby, ‘he is the father whom the marriage indicates’. From ancient times, it is the presumption that if the husband was within the four seas, at any time during the pregnancy of wife, the presumption was conclusive that her children were legitimate. Under this section, there is a conclusive presumption that a child born during the continuance of a valid marriage is a legitimate issue of parents, no matter, how soon the birth is, after the marriage.
When we look into the reasoning behind this notion, the only reason which comes up, is that it is undesirable to enquire into the paternity of child whose mother and her husband, had between them, a subsisting marital status and had access to each other. The law presumes strongly in the favor of the legitimacy of the off-spring. The husband who is strongly disputing the point of legitimacy of the child, can only rebut on the issue of ‘access’ and ‘no-access’, otherwise the legitimacy, in every case, is deemed. The very objective of this section seems to be gender biased, from its commencement. And, to decide the conclusiveness, only on the basis of argument will not render the purpose of judiciary in true sense.
Moreover, there still lies an ambiguity in the contents of this section. Here the law states that if a child is born within 280 days, after dissolution of marriage, the legitimacy of that child is conclusive. Here, it seems that the law is a step ahead then the medical science, as the point regarding exact days of child birth, is not settled in medical arena, till date. It is basically an issue of medical science which has to be dealt with sincere scientific aptitude and by Laws of Nature. Deciding this issue, on the recourse of legal arguments, is totally a faulty approach and the course, which we are following today, deliberately ends up in faulty conclusions.Basically, this section was formulated in year 1872, nearly 140 years ago. But, in last three decades, there is an unpredictable growth of scientific temperament. And, even the Legal Community is showing the impression of the same.The Courts readily admits the scientific evidences in case of theft, rape, murder and what not. But it is far beyond the reasonable understanding as why the issue of legitimacy is left open, to be decided by the legal interpretations and not by scientific techniques.Here, introduction and admission of DNA technology can actually be fruitful, to meet the ends of the justice. The development in DNA based studies is vast, complex and expanding on a monthly basis. Inspite of repeated legal challenges, mainly in the USA, no two persons other then identical twins, have been found to have identical DNA profiles, the possible number of presumptions far exceeding the population of the world. In paternity testing, DNA now allows positive determination of parenthood, rather than the statistical likelihood or exclusion offered by blood typing in former years. Further, there is one more recent technique whose probability of giving exact result is 99.9%. It is HLA testing. Blood group antigens, serum proteins, erythrocyte enzymes and salivary proteins are of importance in ascertaining the parentage with certainly and all of them are heritable characteristics, followed accepting genetic principles. When conventional blood group systems like ABO, Rh, MN, etc. are used in disputed parentage cases; the possibility of fixing the parentage cases, the possibility of fixing of HLA testing is used along with the conventional blood group systems in disputing parentage cases, the probability of fixing the parentage is about 99.9%.
Child Born During the Continuance of Valid Marriage.There is a strong presumption that if a child was born during continuance of marriage, it is immaterial, how soon after the marriage, it was born. Moreover, the Courts had reached to the conclusion, regarding the parenthood, only because of the fact that the wife and husband were living in a same room. Here we have to broaden our mentality, while analyzing this point. Mere living together, does not conclusively decide that they had intercourse. This is an issue of love, affection and basic understanding between each other. It is highly probable, in the social system, like ours that they are staying together only because of social restrictions or because of some obligations but might not have any commitment for each other. There also arises the possibility that one of the spouse id eager for a child whereas the other does not feel any need of the child. And, if under such circumstances if a child is born, then the medical reasoning should be brought into the scenario, to determine the parenthood of that child.
More so ever, in the Criminal matters the character of a person also plays an important role and is considerable. But, this section is not interpreted in this manner. If a woman, although married, still living an adulterous life, her character would not rebut the presumption of legitimacy of children within 209 days of possible sexual connection. Here we have to consider the point of adulterous conduct of wife. So, here if the husband is disputing the parenthood, then his submission had got substance and only medical recourse can be taken, to determine the ultimate conclusiveness. But a similar contention was raised and rejected in the case where it was held that’ ‘in the view of the admitted evidence that the wife was living with the husband in the same room; it should be presumed that the pregnancy was due to the cohabitation with the husband.
Similarly, where the child was born during the pendency of maintenance petition and the husband failed to prove "non-access" it was held that the child was legitimate off spring. But here, the point to be noted is that the wife was living an adulterous life. Even if the husband is seriously ill, then also the issue of presumption, under Section 112 cannot be rebutted. So, basically to the scope of this section is very narrowed down by such approach.
280 Days.This section also talks about the time period as to when the child is supposed to be born but it an entirely medical issue. Even, medical experts cannot tell us the exact day and time, as to when a child will be born. They could only suggest a certain probable time period. If we go through the wordings of the section then a time of 280 days is being seems to be settled. But, there is no rational behind this as why not, 260 or 300 days. And, even if, the medical experts do not have any firm stand on this point, then from where did the legal jurists brought the calculated numbers of 280 days. It is to be kept mind that the birth of a child is a biological process and not a mathematically equation. If we go through the case laws, on this point, it is led enough that different Courts have different views regarding this issue. If we look into ‘Modi’s Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology’ , under heading, ‘The Maximum Period of Pregnancy’, various periods have been mentioned, starting from 315 days to a period of about 349 days. Another jurisprudential authority by Dr. Lyon in ‘Medical Jurisprudence for India’, it is stated that;‘What is the longest period, which in natural human gestation, may be:1. That this may be 296 days.2. Most authorities agree in considering that the interval may be as long as 44 weeks or 308 days; but it might also extend to 311 days.Some of the authorities consider that the interval may extend to 46 weeks-315 to 322 days. Conclusion.So, a final solution to all this dilemma and uncertainty can be the DNA mapping and comparison of DNA of a child and the parents. In the recent case of State through C.B.I. v. Amaramani Tripathi the paternity of a six months old fetus in the womb of deceased was conclusively established with the help of DNA test. Further, the Courts, these days, is heavily relying on scientific proofs, in the cases of murder and rape. Even there are cases where the conviction is made by following the medical evidences. So, it is high-time that the scientific aptitude should be brought in the issue of determination of legitimacy of a child.
Posted by Ravi agrawal at 12:44 AM
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“Thou belongest to That Which Is Undying, and not merely to time alone,” murmured the Sphinx, breaking its muteness at last. “Thou art eternal, and not merely of the vanishing flesh. The soul in man cannot be killed, cannot die. It waits, shroud-wrapped, in thy heart, as I waited, sand-wrapped, in thy world. Know thyself, O mortal! For there is One within thee, as in all men, that comes and stands at the bar and bears witness that there IS a God!”
(Reference: Brunton, Paul. (1962) A Search in Secret Egypt. (17th Impression) London, UK: Rider & Company. Page: 35.)
Amen
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