| Impact of Religion History of religions can fill an encyclopedia, or even a library. Any attempt to compress the subject within one chapter of a medium-sized book will certainly cause major distortions and generalizations. In order to reduce the possible confusion generated by this necessary short summary, a number of points should be clarified. Religions are first and foremost ethical systems; they teach their believers what is good and what is bad, what is allowed and what is forbidden. Some of the religions go beyond this point and instruct their believers to do or not to do certain things that cannot be classified as good or bad. There might be ethical reasons in forbidding the believers not to eat meat and some religions are doing it. There cannot be ethical reasons to permit one type of meat and forbid others. These instructions are repositories of some long-forgotten historical memories. The Jewish religion is full of these historical commands, but so are most of the Eastern religions. There are religions which create a complete set of laws for their believers, answering every problem, from the cradle to the grave, which the believer might meet in life, or beyond it. In this respect, there were 20th Century political movements, which were really secular religions attempting to control their subjects' lives as do religions. However, judging from the outcome, the spiritual religions were stronger than their secular competitors. Religions have theological contents too, not only ethical answers. They explain the individual's position within the Universe, a cosmological statement. People want to know where they come from and where they are going. The obvious answer is depressing even for modern people; it must have been unbearable for primitive people. Religions had to find some palatable answers, whether in the form of promises for continuing sojourn in a better world, or in the form of reincarnation in some new existence. Finally, religions are major elements in each civilization. Indeed, one of the most obvious outward sign of each civilization is the proliferation of the major religious symbols of that civilization. One cannot make a mistake in identifying a civilization, if one sees a cathedral, or onion-shaped domes, or minarets, or pagodas or Hindu temples. There are other, subtler signs that permeate every civilization with religious substrata. As religions are first of all major components of civilizations, even the most secular of societies will be filled with religious symbols; one cannot evade them. The most non-religious American will use the word ' Friday' without associating the word with the goddess Freya . Similarly a French atheist, who does not say Friday, but says Vendredi for the same day, hardly relates it to 'Venus', the Latin counterpart of the goddess 'Freya'. These are simple examples, there are countless others. Religions are integral parts of civilizations. The basic hypothesis of this book claims that environmental conditions shaped the religions too. In order to prove this, religions are treated here only in their civilizational contexts and not as ethical systems. If we say that their environment shaped religions it means that religions did not change civilizations, but that civilizations adapted religions. This process is continuing all the time, within the measure of a civilizational time frame. Nearly five hundred years ago the Spaniards brought the Catholic religion to Central and South America. At that time the Catholic Church of the New World was identical to that of the Old World. Now, after all these years, there are major changes. The terminology and the rites may be the same, but the meaning religion has is different. Indian concepts seeped into the religion in Central America, and imported African concepts elsewhere. The development of religions in different circumstances follows different roads; the same as with languages. There are growing divergences, until there comes a complete separation. It was shown by linguistic experts that the Spanish and Portuguese languages separated at about AD 1586, Italian and French at about the same time, Romanian and Italian in AD 1130, English and Dutch split at about AD 860 and English and German in AD 590.1 It does not mean that before that they were intelligible to each other, but that they were local dialects and not distinct languages. The process continues even today. The inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein or Hamburg do not understand German spoken in Austria or in the mountain regions of Bavaria. Only literary German serves as a common language connecting them. Linguistic experts defined laws to measure the evolution of languages. There are no similar laws upon which to base the separation of Churches from their common origin. However, in South America today, there are three separate Catholic Churches. One is the original Catholic Church, in the temperate zones of the continent, and in the major cities, the second is mixed with Indian symbols and liturgy in the high Andes-Central American region, and the third is intermixed with West-African symbolism and mythology, in a territory stretching from Brazil to the Caribbean. The origin of all religions is the fact of human self-consciousness. One cannot point to a moment in time when humans looked at themselves and realized that "me" is "me"; I was born and I am going to die. In that instant separation was made from all other members of the animal kingdom, and religion was born. When mankind realized that time has a direction, from birth to death, and it is an inseparable part of that process, the quest for answers began. When did it all begin, we shall never know, but seemingly it went back a very long time. The first Paleolithic burials took place more than 50,000 years ago,2 but there were burials even before that. A Neanderthal burial site was found at Shanidar in northern Iraq, with the body of a 42-year old man, sprinkled with flowers. In Russian Turkestan the body of a four-year old boy was found, buried with all the equipment of a warrior. Both graves show that 50,000 years ago there was already realization of the meaning of death and the possibility, or the hope, of an afterlife.3 If humanity discovered the reality of death, with hopes for an afterlife, it discovered the reality of birth too. The basic building blocks of human religions were, therefore, birth and death, the cycle of life. Of course, the concept of that cycle greatly varied from people to people. It could have been treated with symbolism, as described by Marija Gimbutas4 or with belief in sorcery, as it was, and still is done by primitive people, or it could have degenerated into ritual butchery as was done by the ancient religion of Mexico.5 The questions of birth and death, that of life after death, the honoring of ancestors, were only some aspects of human religions. Hunter-gatherer tribes depended on the success of their hunt for their very existence, and of course on their skill in collecting grains, berries and fruits, if there were animals to hunt and grains to collect. They must have come to an early realization that as their own life depended on some divine intervention, so was the security and success of their livelihood. From the stage of this recognition to an active participation in rituals to appease the gods of the slain animals to ensure further hunting success, must have been a short step.6 These rituals centered around ceremonial dances in which the people, led by a sorcerer, a shaman, danced wearing the masks of that animal, which was the totem of the tribe. Tribes of hunters usually preyed on one type of animal, which was the totem symbol of the tribe. They revered it and danced round it wearing the mask of that animal. The Mousterians, who followed the receding glaciers in Europe were reindeer men, as the modern Eskimos live on seals and fish, and the North American Plains Indians existed on buffalo. The hunter-gatherer tribe in Denmark, which coexisted with Neolithic farmers, made its living by hunting the red deer, which was probably their totem animal. The cave paintings of Altamira and Lascaux show these masked dancers, wearing the antlers of stalked animals. The memories of these far-away times are with us to these very days. Ritual dances, with masked dancers, are common in Africa and Oceania, and they still exist in central Europe and the Balkans. A relatively short time ago, they must have been common in Western Europe too. It is sufficient to watch Shakespears's Midsummer Night's Dream and Verdi's Falstaff to realize that the traces of a prehistoric religion were very much in existence, and known to the public as late as Shakespearean days. The advent of agriculture brought another stage to religions. The hunter-gatherer way of life was full of insecurities, the life of a farmer was even more insecure. A hunter could return empty-handed from the hunt; he could be luckier next day, if only he would appease the gods whose favors he is seeking, favors that had been withdrawn for some reason. Proper prayer, sacrifice or any other means of appeasement might change the attitude of the gods. The insecurity connected with agriculture was much greater. After sowing the seeds, the farmer must wait for a number of months for the harvest. If it fails, the tribe starves. The time interval before the next harvest was too great. Gilbert Murray wrote in his: Five stages of Greek Religion:7 "Anyone, who has been in Greece at Easter time, especially among the more remote peasants, must have been struck by the emotion of suspense and excitement with which they wait for the announcement 'Christos aneste' (Christ is risen!) and the response 'Alethos aneste',(He has really risen!') I have referred elsewhere to Lawson's Modern Greek Folklore, p.573, where an old peasant woman explained her anxiety: 'If Christ does not rise tomorrow, we shall have no harvest this year.' ...Every spring was to primitive man a time of terrible anxiety. His store of food was near its end. Would the dead world revive, or would it not?" The old women of Greece substitute Jesus for the original name of the god, which changed from region to region, but always meant the same young god who brings the harvest. The same anxiety about the fate of the harvest, the continuation of life, for divine intervention, occurred in classical and pre-classical times. One of the most important religious festival in Classical Greece was the Antheteria, which dealt with the rebirth of the Old God in the form of a Young God, or Dios Nysos - Dionysos - to bring back Persephone from the underworld and ensure a new harvest.8 Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, or Mother Earth. Dionysus was the bull-god, born again each spring. The mythos of the renewal of life created a 'topos' - meaning a pattern of tale common in antiquity, which was universal among all civilizations in the ancient world, in Europe and in Asia. The names might be different, but the stories and the meanings are identical or very similar: "The young king, bearer of Spring and the new summer, is the savior of Earth. He is the savior also of mankind of all kinds of evil, and bringer of the new age to the world. He is always the Son of God and a mortal Princess. The Mother is always persecuted, a Mater Dolorosa and rescued by her son. The Son is always a Savior; very often a champion who saves his people from enemies or monsters. His life is almost always threatened by a cruel king, like Herod, but always escapes."9 This Savior had many names. He is Dionysos in Greece, the young Zeus in Crete, Aesculapius on Kos, Attis in Asia Minor, Adonis in Syria, Tammuz in Mesopotamia and Horus in Egypt. The names changed, the stories varied too, but their function was identical: renewing life on earth and ensuring the continuation of life and the next harvest.10 The prophet was complaining that the daughters of Jerusalem were dancing on the streets of the city bewailing the death of Tammuz, who died in the scorching heat of the Mesopotamian summer, hoping for resurrection in the New Year and the renewal of life-bringing rain. The complaints of the prophet apparently did not help, the Tammuz festival went on unhindered. The daughters of Jerusalem continued dancing in honour of Tammuz, they did not dare to flout the traditions lest the gods take terrible revenge11. The same ritual existed not only in Greece and Western Asia. Egypt celebrated Osiris and not Tammuz, not the death of the old year and the birth of the new, but the renewal of the yearly inundation of the Nile. The origins of religions were, therefore, contained in two elements : - fertility cycle - birth and death. - assistance of the gods in helping the survival of the people, in hunt or in agriculture.. When humankind reached the stage of Urban Civilization, these were the building blocks on which religions were built, at least until the point when part of humanity lost its direct contact with nature. Ernest Renan wrote that the main difference between the Indo-Europeans and the Semites was their attitude to religion. The religious institutions of the Indo-Europeans were naturalistic and those of the Semites monotheistic.12 Ernest Renan was mistaken. The Semites were not less naturalistic than the Indo-Europeans when Western Asia was fertile and life was based upon nature, e.g. on agriculture. The Semites became monotheistic, which was a development outside the cycle of nature, and the Iranians, who were Indo-Europeans became monotheistic too. It was not a civilizational development, but one of environment. The early period of the Neolithic Revolution, the period of transition and the early settlements, caused a number of important additions to the basic elements of religious consciousness. The worries brought on by agriculture joined the previous concerns that needed divine intervention to ensure the survival of the family or the tribe. The other addition was that religion became a tool of the central authority. This was probably the most important development in the long history of human religions.. The first implication of religion as a tool of authority was in the field of human sacrifices. It is an interesting detail that in all civilizations, the period after transition to agriculture, and the beginning of Urban Civilization, was also a period of human sacrifices. In Mexico the practice of human sacrifice remained as a major element of their original pre-Christian religion; in other parts of the world it put in an ephemeral appearance.. Hindu historians call "Age of Sacrifice" what western scholarship christen "Bronze Age". In China too, the main features of their Bronze Age were bronze metallurgy, writing, horse chariots and human sacrifices.13 In Western Europe the Celtic Druids were known to make human sacrifices.14. It was the same in Egypt, where the practice probably was in the form of 'satee', (self imolation). It was done at the beginning of the dynastic period, and abandoned after a short time.15 There are no explanations why it was done and why it was abandoned. At about the same time it was commonly done in Mesopotamia too, and it was abandoned there too.. It is obvious that human sacrifices were connected with some religious ritual, but lacking contemporary testimonies why sacrifices were made and then ceased requires that we attempt to put those gory practices into some comprehensive framework.. Examining relevant data from later times, better documented than by the early Egyptians and Mesopotamians, we find that in Rome human sacrifices were made during the Punic wars, when it was thought that Rome was in an extremely dangerous situation.16 If there were human sacrifices in earlier times, probably they were also connected with actual or imaginary dangers. There are historians who connect human sacrifices to extraordinary circumstances, like the Flood or some celestial collision. Human sacrifices were like a collective therapy, according to these theories. Once the therapy was deemed successful, the sacrifices stopped.17 It is difficult to argue with unproven myths. Either one accepts them or not. We must look for proofs that can be authenticated, without involvement in myths, which might or might not have any historical basis. The explanation of human sacrifices, resting on mythical foundations, is that the survivors of the catastrophe were so panic-stricken that they had to undergo some kind of healing process to return themselves to sanity. The priests carried out that healing process and human sacrifices were one of the tools. There is documentary evidence that there were indeed human sacrifices and they were of therapeutic value. But were the reasons for the need to heal really catastrophes or could there have been other reasons? The end of the last Ice Age was about 11,500 years ago. The first Urban Civilization is dated from about 3,500 BC This means that there was a period of about 6,000 years for a transition from a hunter-gatherer existence to a completely agricultural economy. It cannot be known exactly, but according to evidence, it must have been a long and dreary period, full of suffering and pain. The evidence of the early Neolithic graves, showing small and diseased skeletons, is accusation enough. When people reached the comparative safety of settled agricultural life, difficult enough as it must have been, they might have been neurotic enough from the sufferings of the seven lean years. There is no need to search for additional catastrophes, the Neolithic Revolution was catastrophic enough. Even without a catastrophe, people could well believe that the gods were angry with them. They must have done something sinful, which must be expiated. They deserve the wrath of their parents, the gods. They must be appeased, lest the bad times return.18 The Mesopotamian priesthood was convinced that man was formed out of clay, and man's only purpose in life was to serve the gods and their representatives. No effort was too great, including human sacrifices, to keep man from straying.19 The Urban Civilizations in Egypt and in Mesopotamia established the first organized religions. It could not have been otherwise in states where the ruler was either god incarnate, as in Egypt or earthly representative, as in Mesopotamia. The creation of organized religion was the best solution for keeping authority in power. In ancient times, with most people living in actual slavery, and only a minute fraction, the ruler and the supporting elite, having most of the benefits, there must have been some method to maintain social equilibrium, e.g. keep the existing social order as it was. They were kleptocracies, where some group of people grasped power and coerced the majority to give up the surplus of their work in order to keep that group in power, and in comparative luxury. These early states were the first of a long line of kleptocracies, existing under different designatory labels, until our very days. The methods, which they developed to keep their power, were ingenious and proved to be long-lived. One method was to disarm the population and arm the elite. It is easier done in modern times with high-tech weaponry, whose manufacture and sale is always a state monopoly or at least, state-controlled. It was much more difficult in early times, when the weapons were simpler and in everybody's possession. Pruning knives and straightened scythes can be just as effective killing instruments as swords and spears, but even in the days before high-tech weaponry there were always superior weapons in the hands of the elite. So, pruning knives and scythes could not stand up against the fighting chariots of Egypt or Mesopotamia, or against the efficient killing machine of a Roman legion, or against ironclad knights in the Jacquerie of France. In addition to the superior weaponry there were other methods to keep the majority contented, so that the minority elite could enjoy its privileged status. Curb violence, maintain order and provide justice for all was a proven way. Law and Order was and is a popular slogan in any society. Engage in foreign wars and let the people participate in the profits of the conquests, either by direct distribution as the Romans did, panem and circensem - bread and entertainment, or as loot grabbed by soldiers, or by other methods, like giving farms in the conquered territories to soldiers as the Turks did in the Balkans. Foreign conquest for profit was exercised by Middle Eastern rulers from Sargon of Akkad to Saddam Hussein, but not only by them. The Romans were masters of that game, and so was Napoleon. The last of the methods to gain public support was the creation of an ideology or religion that compels the majority to give support to the ruler and the supporting elite, and this by moral persuasion alone. Physical measures had their dangers. A foreign war could backfire and then the hunter could become the hunted. The same with Law and Order. As Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets are full of declarations by rulers about how often they relieved the oppressed people, somebody might ask that if every ruler relieved the oppressed, who oppressed them in the first place? Religion was a better solution. Admittedly, in early times religion had a much larger role than in the modern world. Whether the crop will grow, the rains come, the animals will be fertile, the city successfully defended in battle, it all came from the gods, who must be manipulated, flattered by prayer and bribed by sacrifices. The key to all this was in the hands of the ruler, who either was god himself, or an earthly representative. Who would dare to rise against god and earn eternal damnation? It was a successful game, the ruler could not lose. If things did not come up to expectation, if the crops failed, instead of rain there was drought, etc. there were always guilty parties who did not follow heavenly instructions. Heretics, blasphemers, idolators, etc. had always a central role with all established religions. 20 In pre-civilizational times the chief might have been personally responsible for failures, but in historical times there were always surrogates. Europe was spared that type of religion, at least until comparatively late historical times. There were attempts to export the Egyptian religion to the islands and to the mainland. The Egyptians introduced their religious forms to Crete, there was even an Egyptian priest there. They attempted to influence the nascent Mycenaean civilization21 but without success. Egyptian religious practices survived in Europe only as phallic sorcery, 22 but organized religions did not maintain a foothold. Nothing was found in the Aegean that could remind one of organized Egyptian or Mesopotamian religions. Natural caves and hilltops were the places of worship.23 The organized religions of the Greeks and the Romans had affinity to fertility rites, but they were much different from those of the Orient. The most important difference was that the temples were usually founded by private donations or by popular subscription. There were some temples and rituals which were state managed, but there was no direct connection between religion and the authority, which most of the time was elected for a limited period. The political manipulation with religion by Roman politicians in late Republican times, had no equivalent in Egypt or Mesopotamia. The Romans kept an open mind toward other religions, which was inconceivable then in the Orient. From very early times, the Romans allowed the import of foreign creeds and rites even encouraged them, provided that their rituals did not disturb the public peace in Rome. Without this openness, Christianity would never have taken hold in Europe.24 However, Greek and Latin religions are beyond the interest of this chapter as far as the time frame is concerned. If they have any importance, it is in their contrast to the religions of the Orient. Indeed, in Rome and to a degree in Greece too, there were two religions. One was the religion of the family, that of the lares and penates, which was the important one, and the second, the religion of the state and the community. From the beginning of Urban Civilizations, in the territory of the conflict there were three groups of religions. All the religions in that territory belonged to one of the following or to some combination of them. The groups are: Religion of the Mother - the female trinity Religion of the Father - the male trinity Religions of the desert Basically, the religion of the Mother is that of agriculture, and that of the Father is that of husbandry. In the territory of the conflict, on both sides of the dividing line, there was a clear-cut chronology between the starts of the religions. The first type, that of the Mother, was the first; it was the basic religion. Judging from the thousands of prehistoric statues of the Mother, with exaggerated breasts and vulvae, it must have been the original religion of mankind, based on the mystery of human fertility. Since the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, it probably incorporated the fertility rites of animals, and that of agriculture. These rites were the basis of all early religions, including Egypt and Mesopotamia. There might have been local variations in names and in mythology, but basically these religions were about the fertility of people, of animals and of the fields. The most important symbol of these religions was the Great Goddess, the Mother herself, under different names. The second type of religion reached Europe and the Middle East at the end of the Third or the beginning of the Second Millenium BC with the invasion or infiltration of Indo-European nomadic tribes. They were cattle nomads, and their religion seemed to be ancestor worship, and of course the fertility cycle of their cattle. The religion left its traces in Northern Europe, but also in the south of the continent, and even in the Middle East, in the form of coexistence with the religion of the Mother. The third type of religion, which eventually took hold and predominated in the area of the conflict, is the religion of the desert, monotheism. The first of these religions was that of the Jews, probably from the middle of the Second Millenium BC, and the last arrival of these religions was Islam, brought by the Prophet Muhammed in early 7th Century AD. The appearances of the monotheistic religions were undoubtedly connected with the gradual south-north direction of the climatic change and the desiccation of the Middle East. Religion of the Mother The first religion of the Mediterranean was the religion of the Mother. It should be emphasized here that the only difference between the religions of pre-historic Europe and those of the Urban Civilizations of the Middle East, was that in the Middle East, the gods and goddesses had names, liturgy and mythology and in Europe they had only statues and popular rites. Of course, the gods and goddesses of Europe surely had names but we do not know them. The reason was, of course, that Europe had not yet reached the stage of writing, while the Middle East had a literate society. Everywhere, there was the image of the Mother of All, the Great Goddess of life, death and regeneration of life in some anthromorphic form with a projection of her power through insects and animals. She was the outward symbol of each community, concerned with the problems of life and death, of humankind, and that of nature as well. The projection of her power depended on the interests of the community, and her appearance was the totem of the tribe. Organized religion began in Europe at the end of the Seventh Millenium BC when agriculture first reached the continent. It is still an open question whether agriculture and its accompanying religious rites, reached Europe through the immigration of early agricultural settlers from Anatolia. Testing of archeological burial grounds for DNA has shown that about 5% of the DNA found in the graves is of Middle Eastern origin. This low percentage precludes the possibility that immigrant farmers from Asia Minor initiated agriculture in Europe. The alternatives are either cultural borrowing or independent development. During three millennia, starting from the Seventh Millenium BC, the farmers of south-eastern Europe evolved a unique civilizational pattern, contemporary but not identical with similar developments in Anatolia and the Middle East. The area of what is known now as the Danubian civilization was the area of the Balkans, southern Italy, and Central Europe, reaching the Dnieper in the east and the Vltava in the north. There were literally thousands of statues and masks found in the area, all relating to the rites of the religion of the Mother. However, no signs of organized religion were found. It seems that it all was a matter of popular rites and festivals. The statues had no names. People were still illiterate, but as literate civilization reached the mainland, the nameless statues emerged as goddesses, nymphs and dryads of the Greek religion. There were no male gods in the European part of the religion. There were, however, interconnected symbols - phalli , animal-masked men, etc. - to represent the male stimulating principle in nature, without whose contribution nothing would be born and grow. 25 In addition, there was already a concept of the Divine Child as a symbol of the perpetuation of life. The concept of the male actors and the Divine Child had their counterparts on the other side of the Mediterranean, and later in the classical period in the Greek and Roman religions. The European pantheon of the religion reflects a society dominated by the Mother, a matriarchal society. The role of the woman was not subject to that of man. The other side of the Mediterranean had similar concepts too. The Egyptian Pharaoh too received his authority through his sister. The religion of the Goddess, and her male consort, who died each year to be resurrected again, was the basis of the religion of Egypt and the Middle East. It should be emphasized that when climatic environments were similar, the ways of life, including religions, were similar too. There was, however, a major difference, and that was in the matter of death. In Egypt, they practically denied the existence of death. There were elaborate rituals proclaiming belief in the continuation of life. The pyramids, the elaborate tombs, the mummies were all signs that the Egyptians believed in the continuation of life after death. It was different in Mesopotamia. There was no belief in the continuation of life. Sometimes they even had doubts about the regeneration of nature.26 These attitudes reflected the basic differences between the civilizations. Egypt was much safer than Mesopotamia. It was sheltered in a rich valley, isolated and protected by deserts on either side. Mesopotamia was much less secure. It had no natural borders, and it was always in danger from either the nomads of the desert to the West or the mountain-dwellers in the East. Instead of yearly inundation of a large and predictable river, it relied on insecure rainfall, and on an unaccountable, dangerous and turbulent river system. The religion of the Mother had a simple story, repeated with suitable variations in all the communities of the Middle East. The variations were caused by local differences. The religion was that of fertility, death and the renewal of life. It had different meanings to Egyptians and to Mesopotamians. The Egyptians were waiting for the appearance of Sirius at dawn on the eastern horizon. When it happened, it was a sign that the Nile is beginning to rise. Not surprisingly, Sirius is the star of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. In Mesopotamia, the yearly crisis was in late summer, when everything was dried and parched from the long summer, and waiting for the rains of autumn to renew life. Not surprisingly, the hottest month of the year was called Tammuz. The festivities of the fertility rites had regional variations, but there was a common myth on which all of them were based. The Mother figure, the Great Goddess, had a male consort, either a husband or a lover, who was killed and later resurrected. The death of the lover represented the death of nature and the resurrection its reappearance, after inundation or rains. The killing was usually done by another male god, out of jealousy, in the guise of a boar. This fact can probably explain the existence of a nearly universal taboo against eating pigs, both in the ancient and modern Middle East. The names of the goddess and their consort varied from place to place, although there were similarities. Inanna was the Sumerian Great Goddess. Anatha reigned in Syria (Ugarit), with her consort Baal-hadad, who was killed by Mot (which incidentally means death in ancient Semitic and modern Hebrew.)27 Baalith, with her consort Elath-Iahu were known in Palestine, in Hebron. Astarte and Tammuz were from Phoenicia.28 Ashtoret in Palestine seems to be a distortion of Astarte. It was probably done by the invading Hebrews to prevent their people from worshipping her. They changed her name to rhyme with boshet (Shame in Hebrew). The ruling against eating milk and meat was probably also a measure against participation in her festivities.29 Asherah had two consorts, first El and later Baal, was known in Palestine and Tyre. She was also hated and persecuted by the ancient Hebrews. One of her titles was Lady of the Sea.30 Ishtar was the Goddess of vegetation and love in Mesopotamia. Her consort was Tammuz, who was killed by a boar, and later resurrected. Her son was Nimrod.31 Athtart was the Arab version of Astarte Isis, the goddess of vegetation of Egypt, was the consort of Osiris, who was killed by Seth in the guise of a boar. Her son, conceived after Osiris's death was Horus. Her statues with the child Horus in her arms influenced the later representations of the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus.32 Cybele was the goddess of vegetation in Phrygia, in Asia Minor. Her consort was Attis, who according to one variation of the legend was killed by a boar. According to another variation, he castrated himself and bled to death.33 Aphrodite was the Goddess of Love in later classical Greek mythology. Originally she was the Great Goddess of Cyprus and Syria. Her consort was Adonis, the Grecianized version of Tammuz. (Adonis is the Greek form of Adoni = My Lord in Semitic). Adonis was killed by Apollo in the guise of a boar.34 This is a short list of the names under which the Great Goddess was known round the Middle East. It certainly is not a comprehensive list, only the better known names are mentioned here. It is important to know that they do not represent different goddesses but the local variations of the same personification of fertility. Even their titles might have changed from district to district. Where the main crop was barley, then the goddess was the goddess of barley, like Demeter in Greece, if wheat then under a different title, and so on. Still, the similarity of names betrays that most of them are variations on a common source. The chief festivity of that religion in the north and in more temperate areas, was the spring festival. The Saxon goddess of spring was called Eastra, the Anglo-Saxon goddess was named Ostara or Eostre. The main spring festival of the Christian world is Easter, when Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Eostra, Ostara, Easter are variants of Istar. If there is an obvious common ancestor to Semitic and Indo-European words, connected with the religion of the Mother then it points to a common ancestor predating the beginning of the Neolithic revolution. Similar occurrences were found with the titles of the goddess. One of the titles of Ashera was Lady of the Sea. She was the goddess of Tyre, a seafaring town in Phoenicia. It is obvious that the patron goddess of Tyre should be Lady of the Sea. Which also explains why Aphrodite, the patron Goddess of Cyprus, another seafaring country, was painted by Botticelli as emerging from the sea, standing on a shell. But then one finds that the Egyptians named Cyprus in 1,000 BC Ay-mari, or the country of Mari, and the name Mari appears in the most unexpected places. Ma-ri in Sumerian means fruitful mother. There is a city of Mari on the Euphrates and the Hebrew name Miryam, which is the origin of Maria, is a possible contraction of Marat-Hayam - Lady of the Sea. The names appear among the Basques, of all people, where the primary deity in Basque mythology is known as Mari. It points to a very old connection between all the peoples around the Mediterranean. It might also explain why the name Maria occupies a prominent position in Christian mythology, and why St. Jerome called the Virgin Stella Maris - Star of the Sea.35 The same identity exists among the male consorts, with fewer similarities in the names. Accordingly, Attis, Adonis, Osiris, Tammuz, Dionysos, Baal-hadad, El and Rimon are personifications of the same concept under different names.36 It is interesting to note that the original religion of mankind, that of the Great Goddess, or the religion of the Mother, with the myth of life and death and renewal, exists even today. It does not exist in the Middle East where monotheism has won a complete victory, but it certainly exists in Europe. Each harvest festivity in a European village is really a re-enacting of some unconscious memories from very old times. But so are the holidays of Easter, Pentecost and Christmas. The rites of Isis, Astarte and others passed into classical civilization and from there to us, either as festivities or as witchcraft.37 Religion of the Father The traditional date when the invasion or infiltration of the Indo-European cattle nomads started in Europe was the middle of the Third Millenium B.C. Lately there are scholars like Colin Renfrew, who question that date and put the arrival of the Indo-Europeans in Europe much earlier. The Indo-Europeans originated in some area north of the Black Sea and the Caspian. From there they spread over Europe, Asia Minor, and the Middle East. It is not entirely certain that they came as invaders. In the Middle East they might have come as bands of mercenaries who offered their services to the city-states, and eventually took them over completely, as happened later with the Mamelukes in Egypt. Greek mythology records the arrival of the Indo-Europeans in Greece and the islands. If the arrival was peaceful, then it is recorded as a marriage between the chief Indo-European god, Zeus, who was the leader of the war band, with the title of the local embodiment of the Great Goddess, who could be Hera, Artemis or any other goddess. If it was violent then the myth tells about rape. The old religion of the Great Goddess was that of agriculture. It seems to be certain, that at least at the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, agriculture was done by women, as women in present-day Africa do it. The men continued their hunting. Only later, when agriculture had passed the stage of horticulture and the plough, pulled by oxen, took the place of the hoe, wielded by women, did men take part in agriculture. The Indo-Europeans were nomadic cattle-breeders, they had a male oriented religion, a trinity of Gods who ruled a Pantheon of Gods. It was a paternalistic system with a preponderance of male gods. The prior religion was that of the Great Goddess, it was maternalistic with a tendency to express the various aspects of the goddess in a trinitarian way. In the maternalistic trinity, there was the maiden, the matron and the crone. There are traces in the mythologies to indicate that the fusion of the two religions, or the fusion of two different social systems, was not quick and easy. Still, the two Pantheons were eventually fused together into the Olympic Pantheon of Gods, under male leadership. It was led by Zeus, the leading member of the Indo-European trinity, and by Hera, the leading member of the maternalistic Pantheon.38 The Indo-European cattle-breeders spread their religion, language, social and political system all over Europe. Today, most of Europe, with few exceptions, speaks some Indo-European language. Whether the Size="3"f language replaced the people too, cannot be known until some comprehensive DNA tests will be made in Europe. Judging by the results of the tests made so far, the Indo-Europeans probably provided the ruling elite, the languages and the religion, but did not displace the previous population. Outside of Europe, the Indo-Europeans settled in a few places in Anatolia. The kingdoms of Mitanni and that of the Hittites were Indo-European. In Mitanni they even used the names of the Indo-European trinity of gods, Indra, Mitra and Varunna. They settled further east, from Iran to India. The names of gods changed between the various Indo-European settlements, but there were some which remained unchanged, apart from linguistic differences. So the Sanskrit Dyaus-Pitar, the Indian sky god, 3939 was Jupiter - Deus pater in Rome and Zeus Pater in Greece. Their religion was simple and mainly domestic. It centered on the hearth, the sacred fire of the household, the center of the clan, or extended family. They also cultivated ancestor worship. The rites of worship were common for the pastoral people. Judging from their hymns that remained, mainly in India, they saw the relation with their gods as a form of give and take. They gave the gods prayers, sacrifices and gifts, they were supposed to return prosperity and victory in battle. Even in later days, the Indo-European approach to religion was very pragmatic.40 Since the religion of the Father of the Indo-European nomads was that of pastoral people, it did not clash with the festivities of the Old Europeans, who were farmers, and as such had the traditions of the Great Goddess of fertility. There were clashes between the opposing social systems, maternalistic and paternalistic, but eventually the trinity of the Indo-Europeans became an integral part of European consciousness, in partnership with the old religion of the Mother. There were parts of Europe where this composite Pantheon was brought by the Roman occupation, there were other parts where only the Pantheon of the male trinity remained. This separation of territories had important consequences in later times. Notes: |
