Pomegranates, bittersweet moments
Pomegranate: The Ancient Greek Symbol of Life, Good Fortune for the New Year
Life, Death and Resurrection – The Cycle of Life
Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone
The female life cycle and the three phases of the Moon
The realms of heavens, earth, and underworld
Pomegranate is native to a region from modern-day Iran to northern India. It may have been domesticated as early as the 5th millennium BC, as they were one of the first fruit trees to be domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean region.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate
The apricot, a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus Prunus (stone fruits), is the national symbol of Armenia. The origin of the apricot is disputed; it was known in Armenia during ancient times, and has been cultivated there for so long that it is often thought to have originated there.
An archaeological excavation at Garni in Armenia found apricot seeds in a Chalcolithic-era site. Its scientific name Prunus armeniaca (Armenian plum) derives from that assumption. Usually, an apricot tree is from the species P. armeniaca, but the species P. brigantina, P. mandshurica, P. mume, P. zhengheensis and P. sibirica are closely related, have similar fruit, and are also called apricots.
The scientific name armeniaca was first used by Gaspard Bauhin in his Pinax Theatri Botanici (1623), referring to the species as Mala armeniaca “Armenian apple”. Linnaeus took up Bauhin’s epithet in the first edition of his Species Plantarum in 1753, Prunus armeniaca. For example, the Belgian arborist Baron de Poerderlé, writing in the 1770s, asserted that …”this tree takes its name from Armenia, province of Asia, where it is native, and whence it was brought to Europe …”).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apricot
The duduk, the Armenian oboe, is a single or double reed wind instrument made of the wood of the apricot tree and has a warm, soft, slightly nasal timbre. The duduk or tsiranapokh, which is alsocalled the apricot tree pipe, belongs to the organological category of areophones, which also includes the balaban played in Azerbaijan and Iran, the duduki common in Georgia and the ney in Turkey.
The soft wood is the ideal material to carve the body of the instrument. The reed, called ghamish or yegheg, is a local plant growing alongside the Arax river. The roots of Armenian duduk music go back to the times of the Armenian king Tigran the Great (95-55 BC), and till now is very popular in Armenia.
The instrument is depicted in numerous Armenian manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Legend has it: The wind was in love with the apricot tree and used to play with its green leaves. Once the king of the winds, the storm, learning about this got angry and decided to destroy the forest.
The wind told the storm he cannot live without his beloved tree. The storm told he will keep the apricot tree, but the wind will never fly to the blue sky again, otherwise, he will be back to destroy the forest. Autumn came, the leaves of the tree fell down and the wind could not play with her anymore. He got bored and decided to fly to the sky after which the storm broke the branches of the tree.
A young man, who was collecting wood to heat the house, took a soft branch of the broken apricot tree and made a body of an instrument. Once he touched it with his leaps the warm, soft and meantime sad sounds of the instrument became a touching music giving a second life to the tree, that was singing her sad love story. Since then this instrument is considered to be the soul of the apricot tree and is called Duduk or Tsiranapogh.
In 2008 Armenian Duduk was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
See: https://musicofarmenia.com/duduk
However, one might question whether rather the pomegranate is the fruit of Armenia. In Armenia, the pomegranate has been given the title of “fruit of life”, representing fertility and a possible alternative to the apple, the forbidden fruit, eaten by Adam and Eve.
These concepts may be abstract but there appears to be a deeper. During the deportation of the Armenian Genocide, women and children were forced to walk from the provinces of Armenia to Syria and Lebanon; a march that lasted several days under dreadful conditions.
Many became victims of starvation while many others managed to survive by eating a pomegranate seed a day. This idea further enhances the essence of the fruit to represent the perseverance of a people to stay alive.
After the horrid events of the Armenian Genocide many Armenian artists have used pomegranates as a theme in their lyrics and poems to describe a wide range of emotions, from suffering to hope, rebirth and survival of a nation.
The Armenian genocide has unfortunately displaced Armenians all over the world in a Diaspora. However, thought Armenians are all far away, and only several countries have recognized the acts they were subject to, solidarity for each other is most important.
While the clay pieces and the plaster book more directly represent the remnants of the trail of the deportation and the struggle for survival, the wire circles evoke something deeper about the people.
The metal circles weaved into one another symbolize the way that the Armenians support each other and the way that pomegranate seeds are placed together inside the fruit. The few bandaged circles, represent the several countries to have recognized the fight for the Armenian cause.
The Armenian Genocide Memorial in Larnaca, Cyprus, is a monument dedicated to the martyrs and survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. It is located at Larnaca’s seafront and marks the spot where thousands of Armenian refugees fleeing the atrocities of the Genocide first landed in Cyprus (at Larnaca Port).
Its position is adjacent to the entrance to Larnaca’s present-day marina. The memorial also represents the gratitude of the Armenian nation towards the people of Cyprus for their generosity and assistance to the Armenian refugees.
The creation of the Memorial was a joint project between the governments of Cyprus and Armenia and was initiated by the then Bedros Kalaydjian, MP (Representative of the Armenian Community in Cyprus. It features a bronze monument surrounded by rows of pomegranate and cypress trees.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
For Armenians the pomegranate is one of the most recognizable symbols of the country. Until the very day pomegranate is a commonly used theme in Armenian art and culture including cuisine. In fact, it has turned into a national cliché.
After the horrid events of the Armenian Genocide many Armenian artists have used pomegranates as a theme in their lyrics and poems to describe a wide range of emotions, from suffering to hope, rebirth and survival of a nation.
In Armenian mythology it symbolizes fertility and good fortune. Armenian people used to worship the fruit and it was a guardian against the evil eye. In Armenia, the fruit also symbolizes fertility. It symbolizes abundance, happiness, marriage and prosperity. It is believed to protect a woman from infertility and a man’s virile strength.
In ancient Armenian weddings the bride was given a pomegranate to throw against a wall and break it into pieces. People believed the scattered pomegranate seeds ensured the newly married couple will have children in the future.
The pomegranate has been inspiration for Armenian artists at all times. This symbolic fruit is a widespread theme in Armenian art. It was the popular ornament on stone carvings and historical Armenian manuscripts.
The pomegranate has more prominent and expressive representations in Armenian art, mythology, literature, movies, fashion, and cuisine. Martiros Saryan, the renowned Armenian artist, depicted this symbol of life in his painting ”Under Pomegranate Tree”.
One of the most iconic 20th century Armenian art movies is that of Sergey Paradjanov named “The Color of Pomegranates”. In the film, the red pomegranate on a table with its wrinkled skin and fresh pulp stands out as an embodiment of the invincible soul of Armenia.
This fruit has been prevailing throughout the history. Nowadays, the famous pomegranate is that from Meghri, Syunik Province in Armenia. This fruit juice is a recommended remedy for many illnesses. Pomegranate semisweet wine is among the most popular Armenian wines. This fruit of life is believed to tell us that mature pomegranate has 365 seeds, one for each day of the year.
In case you want to bring back a souvenir featuring this symbolic fruit, go to any art gallery, souvenir shops in Armenia or visit Yerevan flee market held every weekend in a park behind the Republic Square Metro Station.
Go to any art exhibition, and you’re sure to see two or three (or more) paintings where the pomegranate is featured. Souvenir shops are filled with ceramic, metal, and textile pomegranates and pomegranate-shaped knick-knacks. You are sure to find your own pomegranate: small or big, ceramic or metal, carved on wood or swaying on silk scarves.
See: https://www.peopleofar.com/2012/10/22/pommegranade-symbol-of-armenia
The Change of Season
In Ancient Greek mythology, the pomegranate features prominently in the story of Persephone, also called Kore (“the maiden”), the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over grains and the fertility of the earth, and her marriage to Hades, the god of the Underworld.
Homer describes Persephone as the formidable, venerable, majestic queen of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. She becomes the queen of the underworld through her abduction by and subsequent marriage to Hades, the god of the underworld.
The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of male gods like Attis, Adonis, and Osiris, and in Minoan Crete.
According to the myth, Hades kidnapped Persephone and took her to the Underworld to be his wife. Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of fertility, considering her daughter lost, went into mourning and thus all things on earth ceased to grow.
Zeus, Persephone’s father, commanded his brother Hades to release her, however Hades had tricked her into eating six pomegranate seeds, and it was the rule of the Fates that anyone who consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there.
Since Persephone had eaten the six pomegranate seeds, she had to remain in the Underworld for six months of the year. Hades agreed to release her to the world above for the other six months of the year, to be reunited with her mother. As a consequence, pomegranates were often offered to the goddess Demeter in prayer for fertile land.
This is how the ancient Greeks explained the cycle of the seasons: when Persephone was with her mother, the earth flourished and the crops grew (Spring and Summer); when she returned to Hades, Demeter mourned and the earth was infertile (Autumn and Winter).
Demeter’s epithets show her many religious functions. Her cult titles include Sito (“she of the Grain”, as the giver of food or grain, and Thesmophoros (thesmos: divine order, unwritten law; phoros: bringer, bearer), “Law-Bringer”, as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society.
She was the “Corn-Mother” who blesses the harvesters. Some cults interpreted her as “Mother-Earth”. Demeter may be linked to goddess-cults of Minoan Crete, and embody aspects of a pre-Hellenic Mother Goddess.
It is possible that the title “Mistress of the labyrinth”, which appears in a Linear B inscription, belonged originally to Sito (“[she] of the grain”), the Great Mother Demeter and that in the Eleusinian mysteries this title was kept by her daughter Persephone (Kore or Despoina).
Demeter and Persephone were often worshiped together and were often referred to by joint cultic titles. In their cult at Eleusis, they were referred to simply as “the goddesses”, often distinguished as “the older” and “the younger”.
In Rhodes and Sparta, they were worshiped as “the Demeters”; in the Thesmophoria, they were known as “the thesmophoroi” (“the legislators”). In Arcadia they were known as “the Great Goddesses” and “the mistresses”. In Mycenaean Pylos, Demeter and Persephone were probably called the “queens” (wa-na-ssoi).
According to the personal mythology of Robert Graves, Persephone is not only the younger self of Demeter, she is in turn also one of three guises of the Triple Goddess – Kore (the youngest, the maiden, signifying green young grain), Persephone (in the middle, the nymph, signifying the ripe grain waiting to be harvested), and Hecate (the eldest of the three, the crone, the harvested grain), which to a certain extent reduces the name and role of Demeter to that of group name. Before her abduction, she is called Kore; and once taken she becomes Persephone (‘she who brings destruction’).
In Sumerian mythology, Ereshkigal (DEREŠ.KI.GAL, lit. “Queen of the Great Earth”) was the goddess of Kur, the land of the dead or underworld. Sometimes her name is given as Irkalla, similar to the way the name Hades was used in Greek mythology for both the underworld and its ruler, and sometimes it is given as Ninkigal (lit. “Lady of the Great Earth”).
In ancient Sumerian mythology, Ereshkigal is the queen of the Underworld. She is the older sister of the goddess, Inanna. Inanna and Ereshkigal represent polar opposites. Inanna is the Queen of Heaven, but Ereshkigal is the queen of Irkalla. In later East Semitic myths, she was said to rule Irkalla alongside her husband Nergal.
Dumuzid, later known by the alternate form Tammuz, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with shepherds, who was also the primary consort of the goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar).
In Sumerian mythology, Dumuzid’s sister was Geshtinanna, the goddess of agriculture, fertility, and dream interpretation, the so-called “heavenly grape-vine”. In the Sumerian King List, Dumuzid is listed as an antediluvian king of the city of Bad-tibira and also an early king of the city of Uruk. In the Sumerian poem Inanna Prefers the Farmer, Dumuzid competes against the farmer Enkimdu for Inanna’s hand in marriage.
In Inanna’s Descent into the Underworld, Dumuzid fails to mourn Inanna’s death and, when she returns from the Underworld, she allows the galla demons to drag him down to the Underworld as her replacement.
Inanna later regrets this decision and decrees that Dumuzid will spend half the year in the Underworld, but the other half of the year with her, while his sister Geshtinanna stays in the Underworld in his place, thus resulting in the cycle of the seasons.
Akitu or Akitum (Sumerian: ezen á.ki.tum, akiti-šekinku, á.ki.ti.še.gur₁₀.ku₅ (lit. “the barley-cutting”), akiti-šununum (lit. “barley-sowing”); Akkadian: akitu or rêš-šattim, (“head of the year”) was a spring festival in ancient Mesopotamia.
The name is from the Sumerian for “barley”, originally marking two festivals celebrating the beginning of each of the two half-years of the Sumerian calendar, marking the sowing of barley in autumn and the cutting of barley in spring. In Babylonian religion it came to be dedicated to Marduk’s victory over Tiamat.
Virgo
Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin. In the Babylonian MUL.APIN (c. 10th century BC), part of this constellation was known as “The Furrow”, representing the goddess Shala and her ear of grain.
Shala was an ancient Sumerian goddess of grain and the emotion of compassion. The symbols of grain and compassion combine to reflect the importance of agriculture in the mythology of Sumer, and the belief that an abundant harvest was an act of compassion from the deities. Traditions identify Shala as wife of the fertility god Dagon, or consort of the storm god Hadad’ also called Ishkur.
In ancient depictions, she carries a double-headed mace or scimitar embellished with lion heads. Sometimes she is depicted as being borne atop one or two lionesses. From very early times, she is associated with the constellation Virgo and vestiges of symbolism associated with her have persisted in representations of the constellation to current times, such as the ear of grain, even as the deity name changed from culture to culture.
Another figure who is associated with the constellation Virgo was the spring goddess Persephone. Early Greek astronomy associated the Babylonian constellation with their goddess of wheat and agriculture, Demeter. The Romans associated it with their goddess Ceres.
The symbol of the maiden is based on Astraea (“star-maiden” or “starry night”), the daughter of Astraeus (“starry”), god of the dusk, and Eos (“dawn”), holding the scales of justice in her hand (that now are separated as the constellation Libra). Astraea is the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision.
Astraea, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Golden Age, one of the old Greek religion’s five deteriorating Ages of Man. In Greek mythology, she was the last immortal to abandon Earth at the end of the Silver Age, when the gods fled to Olympus – hence the sign’s association with Earth.
According to Ovid, Astraea abandoned the earth during the Iron Age. Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo. The nearby constellation Libra reflected her symbolic association with Dike, who in Latin culture as Justitia is said to preside over the constellation.
Astraea is closely associated with the Greek goddess of justice, Dike, the daughter of Zeus and Themis. Themis is an ancient Greek Titaness described as “[the Lady] of good counsel”, and is the personification of divine order, fairness, law, natural law, and custom. Her symbols are the Scales of Justice, tools used to remain balanced and pragmatic. Themis means “divine law” rather than human ordinance, literally “that which is put in place”, from the Greek verb títhēmi (“to put”).
In ancient Greek culture , Dike or Dice (“Justice”) is the goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgement based on immemorial custom, in the sense of socially enforced norms and conventional rules. She ruled over human justice, while her mother Themis ruled over divine justice. Her opposite was adikia (“injustice”).
Dike is depicted as a young, slender woman carrying a physical balance scale and wearing a laurel wreath. She is represented in the constellation Libra which is named for the Latin name of her symbol (Scales). She was one of the three second-generation Horae or Horai or Hours (“Seasons”), the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time, along with Eunomia (“order”) and Eirene (“peace”).
One of her epithets was Astraea, referring to her appearance as the constellation Virgo which is said to represent Astraea. This reflects her symbolic association with Astraea, who too has a similar iconography.
According to Aratus’ account of the constellation’s origin, Dike lived upon Earth during the Golden and Silver ages, when there were no wars or diseases, men raised fine crops and did not yet know how to sail.
They grew greedy, however, and Dike was sickened. Dike left Earth for the sky, from which, as the constellation, she watched the despicable human race. After her departure, the human race declined into the Bronze Age, when diseases arose and they learned how to sail.
Virgo (Greek: Parthenos) is the sixth astrological sign in the Zodiac. It spans the 150-180th degree of the zodiac. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this area on average between August 23 and September 22, and the Sun transits the constellation of Virgo from approximately September 16 to October 30.
The constellation Virgo has multiple different origins depending on which mythology is being studied. Most myths generally view Virgo as a virgin/maiden with heavy association with wheat. In Greek and Roman mythology they relate the constellation to Demeter, mother of Persephone, or Proserpina, the Roman goddess of the harvest.
It can be easily found through its brightest star, Spica, designated α Virginis (Latinised to Alpha Virginis, abbreviated Alpha Vir, α Vir). The traditional name Spica derives from Latin spīca virginis “the virgin’s ear of [wheat] grain”.
One star in this constellation, Spica, retains this tradition as it is Latin for “ear of grain”, one of the major products of the Mesopotamian furrow. For this reason the constellation became associated with fertility.
It was also anglicized as Virgin’s Spike. Other traditional names are Azimech from Arabic al-simāk al-ʼaʽzal (“the unarmed simāk”) of unknown meaning; Alarph, Arabic for ‘the grape-gatherer’ or ‘gleaner’, and Sumbalet (Sombalet, Sembalet and variants), from Arabic sunbulah “ear of grain”.
The constellation of Virgo in Hipparchus corresponds to two Babylonian constellations: the “Furrow” in the eastern sector of Virgo and the “Frond of Erua” in the western sector. The Frond of Erua was depicted as a goddess holding a palm-frond – a motif that still occasionally appears in much later depictions of Virgo.
Another Greek myth from later, Classical times, identifies Virgo as Erigone, the daughter of Icarius of Athens. Icarius, who had been favored by Dionysus and was killed by his shepherds while they were intoxicated after which Erigone hanged herself in grief; in versions of this myth, Dionysus is said to have placed the father and daughter in the stars as Boötes and Virgo respectively.
Another association is with the myth of Parthenos (meaning virgin in Greek), which explains how the actual constellation Virgo came to be. In the legend, Parthenos is the daughter of Staphylus and Chrysothemis, and sister to Rhoeo and Molpadia. Rhoeo had been impregnated by Apollo, but when her father discovered her pregnancy, he assumed it was by a random suitor and was greatly ashamed.
As punishment, he locked her in a box and threw her in a river. After the terrible fate of their sister, Parthenos and Molpadia lived in fear of their father’s terrible wrath. One evening, Staphylus left his daughters in charge of a very valuable bottle of wine.
When they both accidentally fell asleep, one of their swine broke the bottle. Terrified of their father, the sisters fled to a nearby cliff and threw themselves off. But because of his previous relations with Rhoeo, Apollo saved his two sisters and delivered them to the safety of nearby cities in Cherronseos.
Molpadia ended up in Castabus where she changed her name to Hemithea and was worshipped as a local goddess for many years. Parthenos settled in Bubastus where she was also worshipped as a local goddess. According to another story, Parthenos was a daughter of Apollo who made the constellation to commemorate her death at a young age.
In the Poeticon Astronomicon by Hyginus (1st century BC), Parthenos is the daughter of Apollo and Chrysothemis, who died a maiden and was placed among the stars as the constellation. Diodorus Siculus has an alternative account, according to which Parthenos was the daughter of Staphylus and Chrysothemis, sister of Rhoeo and Molpadia (Hemithea).
After a suicide attempt she and Hemithea were carried by Apollo to Chersonesus, where she became a local goddess. Strabo also mentions a goddess named Parthenos worshipped throughout Chersonesus.
While this is only one myth of the origin of Virgo, she is seen throughout all manner of myths. In Egyptian mythology, the time when the constellation Virgo was in the sun was the beginning of the wheat harvest, thus connecting Virgo back to the wheat grain. Virgo has the equivalent sign in Indian astrology as the Kanya (which also means “maiden”), and has even been connected with the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Triple Goddess
The pomegranate was also associated with the Aegean Triple Goddess, who evolved into the Greek goddess Hera, the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth in ancient Greek religion and myth, one of the Twelve Olympians and the sister-wife of Zeus.
A triple deity (sometimes referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune or triadic, or as a trinity) is three deities that are worshipped as one. Such deities are common throughout world mythology; the number three has a long history of mythical associations. Carl Jung considered the arrangement of deities into triplets an archetype in the history of religion.
The Triple Goddess is viewed as a triunity of three distinct aspects or figures united in one being. These three figures are often described as the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, each of which symbolizes both a separate stage in the female life cycle and a phase of the Moon, and often rules one of the realms of heavens, earth, and underworld.
Various female deities and mythological figures in Europe show the influence of pre-Indo-European goddess-worship, and triple female fate divinities, typically “spinners” of destiny, are attested all over Europe and in Bronze Age Anatolia.
The pre-patriarchal Persephone was probably a triple goddess, with the maiden Kore her manifestation in early spring, the mother Demeter her mature aspect, and the queen of the underworld her death aspect. Note that Mediterranean goddesses were rarely depicted as hags or crones, even in their death aspect.
In classical religious iconography or mythological art, three separate beings may represent either a triad who always appear as a group (Greek Moirai, Charites, Erinyes; Norse Norns; or the Irish Morrígan) or a single deity known from literary sources as having three aspects (Greek Hecate, Roman Diana).
The Hutena were the three goddesses of fate of the Hurrian mythology; they were called the Gul Ses in the Hittite mythology. They always appeared in plural, never alone. A possible translation of their names are the “Scribes” or “Determiners of Fate”. They dispenses good and evil, life and death to each human kind. They are similar to the Norns of Norse mythology, and the Moirai of ancient Greece.
The most prominent ancient Triple Goddess was Diana, who was equated with the Greek Hecate. Diana and Hecate were both represented in triple form from the early days of their worship, and Diana in particular came to be viewed as a triunity of three goddesses in one, which were viewed as distinct aspects of a single divine being: “Diana as huntress, Diana as the moon, Diana of the underworld.”
Diana is a Roman goddess of the hunt, the Moon, and nature, associated with wild animals and woodland. In the ancient, medieval, and modern periods, Diana has been considered a triple deity, merged with a goddess of the moon (Luna/Selene) and the underworld (usually Hecate).
She is equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, and absorbed much of Artemis’ mythology early in Roman history, including a birth on the island of Delos to parents Jupiter and Latona, and a twin brother, Apollo.
Dīāna is an adjectival form developed from an ancient *divios, corresponding to later dīvus, dius, as in Dius Fidius, Dea Dia, and in the neuter form dium ‘sky’. It is derived from Proto-Indo-European *dyew- ‘(bright) sky’; the same word is also the root behind the name of the Vedic sky god Dyaus, as well as the Latin words deus ‘god’, diēs ‘day, daylight’, and diurnus ‘daily’.
Hera is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. In some Greek dialects, the pomegranate was called rhoa, thought to be connected with the name of the earth goddess Rhea, mother of Hera.
In Polykleitos’ cult image of Hera in the Argive Heraion, she is portrayed with a sceptre in one hand and offering a pomegranate in the other as an emblem of fertile blood and marriage, and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy.
Hera, the queen of the gods, rules over Mount Olympus as queen of the gods. A matronly figure, Hera served as both the patroness and protectress of married women, presiding over weddings and blessing marital unions. Her Roman counterpart is Juno, an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. A daughter of Saturn, she is the wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas.
Ḫebat, also transcribed, Khepat, was the mother goddess of the Hurrians, known as “Queen of the deities” and “the mother of all living”, a title later given in the Bible to Eve, the Hebrew and Aramaic Ḥawwah.
The name may be transliterated in different versions – Khepat with the feminine ending -t is primarily the Syrian and Ugaritic version. In the Hurrian language Ḫepa is the most likely pronunciation of the name of the goddess. In modern literature the sound /h/ in cuneiform sometimes is transliterated as kh.
Ḫepat was venerated all over the ancient Near East. Her name appears in many theophoric personal names. A king of Jerusalem mentioned in the Amarna letters was named Abdi-Heba, possibly meaning “Servant of Ḫepat”.
The mother goddess is likely to have had a later counterpart in the Phrygian goddess Cybele, who may have a possible forerunner in the earliest neolithic at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, where statues of plump women, sometimes sitting, have been found in excavations dated to the 6th millennium BC and identified by some as a mother goddess.
The Hittite sun goddess Arinniti was later assimilated with Hebat. A prayer of Queen Puduhepa makes this explicit: “To the Sun-goddess of Arinna, my lady, the mistress of the Hatti lands, the queen of Heaven and Earth. Sun-goddess of Arinna, thou art Queen of all countries! In the Hatti country thou bearest the name of the Sun-goddess of Arinna; but in the land which thou madest the cedar land thou bearest the name Hebat.”
The Sun goddess of Arinna, also sometimes identified as Arinniti or as Wuru(n)šemu, is the chief goddess and wife of the weather god Tarḫunna in Hittite mythology. She protected the Hittite kingdom and was called the “Queen of all lands.” Her cult centre was the sacred city of Arinna.
Dawn goddess – Daughter of Heaven
The Dawn Goddess was associated with weaving, a behaviour sometimes used as a metaphor for the generative properties of sunlight. This characteristic is normally seen in solar goddesses and it might indicate a large amount of syncretism between dawn and solar deities.
The Dawn Goddess is thought to have been envisioned as the daughter of Dyeus. This is partially reflected in Vedic mythology, where Ushas is the daughter of Dyaus Pita, though in some other Indo-European derivations this is not the case (Eos is a titan daughter of Hyperion and Theia while Aušrinė is the daughter of Saulė and Mėnulis
Even Ushas is inversely sometimes considered the daughter of Surya), though nonetheless the epithet “daughter of heaven” remains in nearly all Indo-European mythologies. This reflects her status as a relevant goddess as well as a celestial deity.
She is also envisioned as the sister of the Divine Twins, with Ushas still maintaining this relation to the Ashvins. Although the “marriage drama” myth (in which one or both of the Divine Twins compete for the hand of a woman in marriage) is usually linked to the sun goddess rather than the dawn goddess, there is a possible degree of syncretism in this regard, particularly as the Baltic Aušrinė is in a similar marriage drama situation, albeit in relation to her father and her mother.
In spite of the association of the dawn with life, counterintuitively the dawn was possibly also associated with aging and decay in Proto-Indo-European myth, probably under the assumption that each dawn brings human beings closer to death or alternatively that sun rays induce rot.
In the Rig Veda, Ushas, derived from the word uṣá which means “dawn”, a Vedic goddess of dawn in Hinduism, is “The ancient goddess, born again and again, dressed in the same color, causes the mortal to age and wears away his life-span, as a cunning gambler carries off the stakes” and “Bringing old age, thou hast come, O unageing Dawn … Unageing, thou dost make to age all else”, while in Greek Mythology Eos famously asks Zeus for Tithonus to maintain his life but not his youth, reducing him to a cricket.
Ushas repeatedly appears in the Rigvedic hymns where she is “consistently identified with dawn, revealing herself with the daily coming of light to the world, driving away oppressive darkness, chasing away evil demons, rousing all life, setting all things in motion, sending everyone off to do their duties”.
Ushas is portrayed as a beautifully adorned young woman riding in a golden chariot or a hundred chariots, drawn by golden red horses or cows, on her path across the sky, making way for the Vedic sun god Surya. Some of the most beautiful hymns in the Vedas are dedicated to her. Her sister is Ratri, or the night.
She is the life of all living creatures, the impeller of action and breath, the foe of chaos and confusion, the auspicious arouser of cosmic and moral order called the Ṛta in Hinduism. In the Vedic religion, Ṛta (“order, rule; truth”) is the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it.
In the hymns of the Vedas, Ṛta is described as that which is ultimately responsible for the proper functioning of the natural, moral and sacrificial orders. The notion of a universal principle of natural order is by no means unique to the Vedas, and Ṛta has been compared to similar ideas in other cultures, such as Ma’at in Ancient Egyptian religion, Moira and the Logos in Greek paganism, and the Tao.
Urðr (Old Norse “fate”) is one of the Norns in Norse mythology. Along with Verðandi (possibly “happening” or “present”) and Skuld (possibly “debt” or “future”), Urðr makes up a trio of Norns that are described as deciding the fates of people.
Urðr is attested in stanza 20 of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá and the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning. Urðr is together with the Norns located at the well Urðarbrunnr beneath the world ash tree Yggdrasil of Asgard.
They spin threads of life, cut marks in the pole figures and measure people’s destinies, which shows the fate of all human beings and gods. Norns are always present when a child is born and decide its fate. The three Norns represent the past (Urðr), future (Skuld) and present (Verðandi). Urðr is commonly written as Urd or Urth. In some English translations, her name is glossed with the Old English form of urðr; Wyrd.
In Norse mythology, the goddess Frigg spins clouds from her bejewelled distaff in the Norse constellation known as Frigg’s Spinning Wheel (Friggerock, also known as Orion’s belt). Due to significant thematic overlap, scholars have proposed a connection to the goddess Freyja. The English weekday name Friday (etymologically Old English “Frīgedæg”) bears her name.
Utu, later worshipped by East Semitic peoples as Shamash, is the ancient Mesopotamian god of the sun, justice, morality, and truth, and the twin brother of the goddess Inanna, the Queen of Heaven. In Sumerian texts, Inanna and Utu are shown as extremely close; in fact, their relationship frequently borders on incestuous
He was believed to ride through the heavens in his sun chariot and see all things that happened in the day. Alongside his sister Inanna, Utu was the enforcer of divine justice and was thought to aid those in distress. At night, Utu was believed to travel through the Underworld as he journeyed to the east in preparation for the sunrise.
One Sumerian literary work refers to Utu illuminating the Underworld and dispensing judgement there and that he serves as a judge of the dead in the Underworld alongside the malku, kusu, and the Anunnaki. On his way through the Underworld, Utu was believed to pass through the garden of the sun-god, which contained trees that bore precious gems as fruit.
His wife was the goddess Sherida, later known in Akkadian as Aya (also called A-a or Aja; “dawn”), a mother goddess, consort of the sun god Shamash. Sherida was a goddess of beauty, fertility, and sexual love, possibly because light was seen as inherently beautiful, or because of the sun’s role in promoting agricultural fertility.
They were believed to have two offspring: the goddess Kittu, whose name means “Truth”, and the god Misharu, whose name means “Justice”. By the time of the Old Babylonian Period (c. 1830 – c. 1531 BC), Sherida, and consequently Utu, was associated with nadītu, an order of cloistered women who devoted their lives to the gods.
Sacred sexual intercourse is thought to have been common in the Ancient Near East as a form of “Sacred Marriage” or hieros gamos between the kings of a Sumerian city-states and the High Priestesses of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility and warfare. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna.
The temple of Eanna, meaning “house of heaven” in Uruk was the greatest of these. The temple housed Nadītu, priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd Dumuzid, consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos celebrated during the annual Duku ceremony, just before Invisible Moon, with the autumn Equinox (Autumnal Zag-mu Festival).
As the Sumerian pantheon formalized, Utu became the primary sun god, and Sherida was syncretized into a subordinate role as an aspect of the sun alongside other less powerful solar deities (c.f. Ninurta) and took on the role of Utu’s consort. When the Semitic Akkadians moved into Mesopotamia, their pantheon became syncretized to the Sumerian. Inanna to Ishtar, Nanna to Sin, Utu to Shamash, etc. The minor Mesopotamian sun goddess Aya became syncretized into Sherida during this process.
Aya is Akkadian for “dawn”, and by the Akkadian period she was firmly associated with the rising sun and with sexual love and youth. The Babylonians sometimes referred to her as kallatu (the bride), and as such she was known as the wife of Shamash.
Dyeus
In addition to the Sun goddess of Arinna, the Hittites also worshipped the Sun goddess of the Earth and the Sun god of Heaven, while the Luwians originally worshipped the old Proto-Indo-European Sun god Tiwaz. Tiwaz was the descendant of the male Sun god of the Indo-European religion, Dyeus, who was superseded among the Hittites by the Hattian Sun goddess of Arinna.
Rooted in the related but distinct Indo-European word *deiwos is the Latin word for deity, deus. The Latin word is also continued in English “divine” and “deity”. The Old English word for Tuesday, “Tiwesdæg”, means “Tiw’s Day”, while in Old Norse tívar may be continued in the toponym Tiveden (“Wood of the Gods”, or of Týr).
Týr (Old Norse), Tíw (Old English), and Ziu (Old High German) is a god in Germanic mythology. Stemming from the Proto-Germanic deity *Tīwaz and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European chief deity *Dyeus, little information about the god survives beyond Old Norse sources.
Due to the etymology of the god’s name and the shadowy presence of the god in the extant Germanic corpus, some scholars propose that Týr may have once held a more central place among the deities of early Germanic mythology.
Interpretatio romana, in which Romans interpreted other gods as forms of their own, generally renders the god as Mars, the ancient Roman war god, and it is through that lens that most Latin references to the god occur.
For example, the god may be referenced as Mars Thingsus (Latin ‘Mars of the Thing’) on 3rd century Latin inscription, reflecting a strong association with the Germanic thing, a legislative body among the ancient Germanic peoples.
Although some of the more iconic reflexes of Dyeus are storm deities, such as Zeus and Jupiter, this is thought to be a late development exclusive to Mediterranean traditions, probably derived from syncretism with Canaanite deities and Perkwunos.
The deity’s original domain was over the daylight sky, and indeed reflexes emphasise this connection to light: Istanu (Tiyaz) is a solar deity (though this name may actually refer to a female sun goddess).
Helios is often referred to as the “eye of Zeus”, in Romanian paganism the Sun is similarly called “God’s eye” (exact equivalent of Armenian akn tiwakan – “eye of God”) and in Indo-Iranian tradition Surya/Hvare-khshaeta is similarly associated with Ahura Mazda.
Even in Roman tradition, Jupiter often is only associated with diurnal lightning at most, while Summanus is a deity responsible for nocturnal lightning or storms as a whole.
Something about Three is a magic number of dynamic creative power within wholeness that shows up in many religious systems. In Mesopotamian mythology, inanna is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess associated with love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, justice, and political power. As a Triple Goddess, she represents birth, death and rebirth .
Dyēus or Dyēus Phter is believed to have been the chief deity in Proto-Indo-European mythology. Part of a larger pantheon, he was the god of the daylit sky, and his position may have mirrored the position of the patriarch or monarch in Proto-Indo-European society.
The Master and Mistress of Animals
The Mistress of Animals is a widespread motif in ancient art from the Mediterranean world and the Ancient Near East, showing a central human, or human-like, female figure who grasps two animals, one to each side.
The oldest such depiction, the Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük is a clay sculpture from Çatalhöyük in modern Turkey, made c 6,000 BC. This motif is more common in later Near Eastern and Mesopotamian art with a male figure, called the Master of Animals.
An Artemis type deity, a ‘Mistress of the Animals’, is often assumed to have existed in prehistorical religion and often referred to as Potnia Theron, with some scholars positing a relationship between Artemis and goddesses depicted in Minoan art and Potnia Theron has become a generic term for any female associated with animals.”
The Master of Animals or Lord of Animals is a motif in ancient art showing a human between and grasping two confronted animals. It is very widespread in the art of the Ancient Near East and Egypt. The figure is normally male, but not always, the animals may be realistic or fantastical, and the figure may have animal elements such as horns, or an animal upper body.
The Greek god shown as “Master of Animals” is usually Apollo, the god of hunting. Shiva has the epithet Pashupati meaning the “Lord of animals”, and these figures may derive from a archetype. Chapter 39 of the Book of Job has been interpreted as an assertion of the God of the Hebrew Bible as Master of Animals.
Judaism
The pomegranate also features extensively in almost all of the great religions. In Judaism, pomegranates were the fruits that were brought to Moses to demonstrate the fertility of the promised land, and King Solomon is said to have designed his coronet based on the fruit’s serrated crown-like calyx. It is traditional to consume pomegranates at the festival of Rosh Hashana (New Year) because the pomegranate, with its numerous seeds, symbolizes fertility.
Christianity
In Christianity, too, the pomegranate appears incorporated into religious decoration, for example, woven into vestments or liturgical hangings. It is also a common emblem used in religious paintings, including those by Botticelli and da Vinci, where it is usually seen in the hands of the Virgin Mary or the infant Jesus. Depicted bursting open it signifies Jesus’ death and suffering as well as his resurrection and eternal life.
Cradle of Civilization 