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brookstonalmanac · 5 months

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Events 4.23 (before 1950)

#Events

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divaricca · 3 years

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MOTHER MARY, STELLA MARIS, ORA PRO NOBIS!

The planet has become with the Latins, Venus, or Aphrodite-Anadyomene, the foam-born Goddess, the “Divine Mother,” and one with the Phoenician Astarte, or the Jewish Astoreth. They were all called “The Morning Star,” and the Virgins of the Sea, or Mar (whence Mary), the Great Deep, titles now given by the Roman Church to their Virgin Mary. They were all connected with the moon and the crescent, with the Dragon and the planet Venus, as the mother of Christ has been made connected with all these attributes. If the Phoenician mariners carried, fixed on the prow of their ships, the image of the goddess Astarte (or Aphrodite, Venus Erycina) and looked upon the evening and the morning star as their guiding star, “the eye of their Goddess mother,” so do the Roman Catholic sailors the same to this day. They fix a Madonna on the prows of their vessels, and the blessed Virgin Mary is called the “Virgin of the Sea.” The accepted patroness of Christian sailors, their star, “Stella Del Mar,” etc., she stands on the crescent moon. Like the old pagan Goddesses, she is the “Queen of Heaven,” and the “Morning Star” just as they were.

Whether this can explain anything, is left to the reader’s sagacity. Meanwhile, Lucifer-Venus has nought to do with darkness, and everything with light. When called Lucifer, it is the “light-bringer,” the first radiant beam which destroys the lethal darkness of night. When named Venus, the planet-star becomes the symbol of dawn, the chaste Aurora.

- On Lucifer, the Bright Morning Star, and title of the London periodical launched by H.P. Blavatsky in 1887

To recite the Stella Maris Chaplet: On the medal recite: O, Most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart, to succor me in this my necessity; there are none that can withstand your power.

On the three beads of the pendant say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be, respectively.

On the twelve beads of the loop, recite one Hail Mary, followed by the words: Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Help and Protect us! Sweet Mother, I place this cause in your hands.

End with the Sign of the Cross.

#stella maris #venus #lucifer-venus #morning star #evening star #Mother Mary #Mother of God

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catmigliano7 · 3 years

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01/27: Today is dedicated to the ancient Phoenician goddess #Astarte, also the Greek name of the fertility Goddess Ishtar. She is a Goddess of fertility, sexuality, and war and as the deified evening star. She is often depicted naked, sometimes wearing a crescent moon on her head. She was worshipped in Mesopotamia, Greece and Egypt - particularly in her aspect as a warrior goddess. She is associated with Aphrodite and Artemis by the Greeks, and known as Venus Erycina to the Romans; in Egypt she was often paired with Anat, a war goddess. Astarte Syriaca MYSTERY: lo! betwixt the sun and moon Astarte of the Syrians: Venus Queen Ere Aphrodite was. In silver sheen Her twofold girdle clasps the infinite boon Of bliss whereof the heaven and earth commune: And from her neck's inclining flower-stem lean Love-freighted lips and absolute eyes that wean The pulse of hearts to the spheres' dominant tune. Torch-bearing, her sweet ministers compel All thrones of light beyond the sky and sea The witnesses of Beauty's face to be: That face, of Love's all-penetrative spell Amulet, talisman, and oracle,— Betwixt the sun and moon a mystery. Dante Gabriel Rossetti #DayOfIshtar #Assyrian #Babylonian #phoenician #PaganDays #SacredDays https://www.instagram.com/__packerbackercat___896/p/CZPiB4VlK-R/?utm_medium=tumblr

#astarte #dayofishtar #assyrian #babylonian #phoenician #pagandays #sacreddays

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gardenofkore · 4 years

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Also inhabited is Eryx, a lofty hill. It has an especially revered sanctuary of Aphrodite; in past times it was filled with women hierodules whom many of Sicily and elsewhere dedicated according to a vow. But now,just like the settlement itself, the sanctuary is depopulated and the plethora of sacred bodies has left.

[...]

Chronology and terminology are very much at issue here. Strabo is discussing two different times – the to palaion and nuni – and, potentially, two different categories of sacred persons – the hierodules and the hiera sômata. The various definitions of “hierodule” continued to function in the Roman period. […] The “women hierodules” discussed by Strabo in regards to Eryx seem to have a lot in common with their Corinthian counterparts – both are groups of exclusively women dedicated by men and women/Sicilians and others.

What about Strabo’s second term, the hiera sômata ? Who and what were these individuals populating the sanctuary of Eryx? From Strabo’s perspective, the term “sacred body” or “tou theou sômata ” (and as well the hieroi paides) could function as a synonym for “hierodule” especially in the more occidental regions of Anatolia. The epigraphic evidence from that region indicates that the hiera sômata worked for and came under the protection of the temples/deities. That “sacred bodies” worked for the temples is evident in a late third–early second-century bce building inscription from Didyma, where the temple architect and general manager give a list of expenditures, including an apologismos tôn gegenêmenôn dia tôn tou theou sômatôn, “an account of the works done by the bodies of the god.”

[...]

Evidently the sacred bodies were a group desirable to steal and most honorable to return. Strabo’s Erycine hiera sômata might then simply be seen as a synonym for his previously mentioned hierodules. The only odd aspect of this reference is the exclusive sex of the hierodules; in other instances both males and females were dedicated to the various deities, both as hierodules and as hierai/hieroi. That male hiera sômata existed is evident in the Didyma passage quoted above. Furthermore, there remains the question of whether or not Strabo’s Anatolian-based vocabulary (he was from Comana) adequately captures the realities of the Roman institution of so-called hierodouleia.Fortunately, in the case of Eryx we have additional, first-hand evidence that paints a fuller picture of these individuals sacred to Erycine Aphrodite in the Roman period from an earlier author – Cicero. In his Div. against Q. Caecilius, his Against Verres, and his Pro Aulus Cluentius Cicero sheds considerable light on the status and functions of the Venerii – the “slaves” of Erycine Venus. The passage in Caecilius is at once the most familiar and confusing, ultimately revealing the differences in sacred slavery as it pertained to the Roman west. According to Cicero (17.55–56),

There is a certain woman, Agonis of Lilybaeum, a liberta of Venus Erycina, who was quite well-to-do and wealthy before this man was quaestor. An admiral of Antonius abducted some musician-slaves from her in a violent, insulting manner, whom he said he wanted to use in the navy. Then, as is the custom of those of Venus (Venerorum) and those who have liberated themselves from Venus, she invoked religion upon the commander in the name of Venus; she said that both she and hers belonged to Venus. When this was reported to quaestor Caecilius – that best and most just of men! – he commanded that Agonis be called to him. Immediately he appointed a commission [to see] “If it appeared that she had said that she and hers belonged to Venus.” The justices judged that it was surely so, nor was there indeed any doubt that she had said this. Then the cad [Caecilius] took possession of the woman’s goods, sentenced her into servitude to Venus, then sold her goods and pocketed the money. And so because Agonis wanted to retain a little property by the name of Venus and religiosity, she lost all her fortunes and liberty by the outrage of this cad! Verres later came to Lilybaeum, heard the matter, annulled the judgment, and bade the quaestor to count up and pay back all the money he got for selling Agonis’s goods.

The notion of divine protection is strongly reminiscent of what we have seen in the Hellenized east. Agonis, a former slave of Erycine Venus (liberta Veneris Erycinae) still claims that both she and her household are under the goddess’s protection. And well she might, for this protected status is also recognized and respected by the Sicilian government (for the most part), Cicero, and presumably his audience.It must be noted, though, that the evidence from Eryx actually presents two separate categories of what might be termed in Greek hierodules: those who are free (as with the manumissions seen above) and those who still belonged to the goddess – “omnium Veneriorum et eorum qui a Venere se liberaverunt,” “all those of Venus and of those who have liberated themselves from Venus.” In contrast to the eastern tradition, in the Roman tradition it would appear that sacred slaves were the equivalent of state-owned slaves, with the temple as opposed to the government having ultimate authority over them. This is made clear in two additional passages from Cicero. In his Against Verres II, 38.86 Cicero, complaining about Verres’s abuses of power and nonstandard use of resources, mentions that when Verres was fleecing the people of Tissa:

The collector you sent to deal with them was Diognetus – a man of Venus (Venerium). A new style of tax-farming – why are the public slaves (servi publicani) here in Rome not taking up tax-farming as well through this fellow?

Cicero equates the man of Venus – Diognetus – to a servus publicanus, a public slave. That those belonging to deities were not considered to be free as were their eastern cognates is also evident in the cult of another deity – Mars of Larinum. In his Defense of Cluentius Cicero discusses a political power-play in this town pertaining to the Martiales – “those of Mars” (15.43):

In Larinum there are certain men called Martiales, public ministers (ministri publici) of Mars and consecrated to this god by the ancient institutions and religious ordinances of Larinum. There was quite a large number of them, and as well, just as the case in Sicily with the many Venerii, so too these men of Larinum were reckoned to be in the familia of Mars. But quickly Oppianicus began to demand that these men be free and Roman citizens.

The Martiales, who are likened to the Sicilian Venerii, are neither free nor citizens. Furthermore, they are reckoned to be in the familia of Mars. To be in a Roman-style familia is not to be a member of the blood clan, a concept better expressed by the word gens, but to be a member of a household, including the status of household slave. The Venerii, like the Martiales, then, were slaves belonging to a deity, and thus the temple, but otherwise likened to the state servi publicani. It is easy to understand how the sacred servi would be under the protection of their patron deities. However, as stated in Cicero’s anecdote about Agonis, she was a former Veneria, a liberta of Venus Erycina. Nevertheless, she claimed that both she and her own household still fell under the goddess’s protection. Thus two classes of sacred slaves, one actual slaves, one freedpersons, but equally under divine protection.

[...]

In this way, even though the former Veneria (or Martialis) was technically now a liberta, she remained to some extent within the famila of Venus, acquiring the goddess’s protection not only for herself, but also for her own household familia who might be called upon to help in the service of the deity. If we might accept that Cicero’s Venerii were the Latin “translation” of Strabo’s hierodules and hiera sômata, we must question Strabo’s understanding of the Sicilian practice. For, once again, Strabo claimed that the hierodules (and presumably the hiera sômata?) were female. It is very clear from the Roman evidence, however, that the Venerii of Eryx were not exclusively female. To give a quick summary of the various uses and abuses of these Venerii as enacted by Verres and condemned by Cicero in Verres II,

They acted as provincial police either directly under the governor or indirectly under his agents (3, 61; 74; 89; 105; 143; 200; 228). They made arrests and executed not only the sentences of the governor’s court (2, 92–93) but also, it would seem, the decisions of the tithe contractors (ibid., 3, 50); ran errands for the governor and carried out his commands that were not of a judicial nature (3, 55; 4, 32); took charge of the moneys and goods he ordered sequestered (3, 183; 4, 104); acted as bodyguard to his satellites (3, 65); were the beneficiaries of donations forced upon the cities by the governor (3, 143; 5, 141); collected the offerings, dues and emoluments accruing to the temple of their goddess (2, 92–93).

It may be my own deeply rooted sexism showing, but I have a terrible time imagining that these functionaries were female, especially the bodyguards (although I suppose having sacred prostitutes as police, tax collectors, and bodyguards might have contributed significantly to local feelings of goodwill toward the Romans . . .). While some of the Venerii, and thus the hiera sômata, were certainly female, as is evidenced by Agonis, many were also male.How might we understand Strabo’s “mistake”? First, we must remember that by the time of Strabo’s writing the “plethora of sacred bodies had left.” Strabo never actually saw any of these hiera sômata, and thus he was writing based on tradition. Furthermore, it is possible that Strabo allowed his knowledge of the Corinthian custom to color his understanding of the Erycinian. In both instances, both set definitively in the past, Strabo understood that the general populace dedicated hierodules to Aphrodite. In both instances, the sanctuary itself was famous for its wealth in times of old (see below). It is possible, then, that Strabo’s “knowledge” of Corinth colored his view of Eryx, claiming that only female hierodules (but not hetairai!) were originally associated with the sanctuary. As Strabo seems to have understood it, the temple of Aphrodite at Eryx was once populated by a number of female hierodules. Unlike Cicero, he was not entirely specific about whether the temple directly owned the hierodules; he merely related that in olden times the temple was “filled with” hierodules, and later, when the going got tough, the sacred bodies left. This stands in contrast with Cicero, who relates that the temple did in fact own Venerii, both female and male. In neither the Strabonic nor the Ciceronian accounts is there any evidence that would suggest that the normal service activity of the hierodules for the temple was sacred prostitution, either for the males or for the females, just as there is no suggestion in the literature that the Martiales, who are compared to the Venerii, are prostitutes for Mars. Nevertheless, the “sacred bodies” are often taken to be sacred prostitutes, the descendants of the female hierodules of earlier times who are also, of course, understood to have been sacred prostitutes. Furthermore, their sacred meretricious profession is generally traced back to the early Phoenician/Punic habitation of the site. The sacred prostitutes of Erycine Aphrodite are a holdover from the sacred prostitutes of Erycine Aštart.As with Corinth, then, sacred prostitution is understood to emerge from an initially Semitic influence. This, of course, is hogwash. As discussed previously, there is no “Semitic” sacred prostitution (see Chapter 2). Theword “hierodule” does not mean sacred prostitute and does not come into use in the Greek (much less Roman) vocabulary until the mid-3rd century bce. Thucydides fails to mention the temple slaves when discussing the apparent wealth of that sanctuary of Aphrodite of Eryx in 6.46.7–11 of his Peloponnesian War:

And leading them to the sanctuary of Aphrodite in Eryx they showed them the dedications, phiales and wine jugs and incense burners and not an insignificant amount of other paraphernalia which, being silver, presented an appearance of much greater worth by far.

Although it is never safe to argue from negative evidence, the evidence from Thucydides strongly suggests that there were no “sacred slaves” of Erycine Aphrodite in the fifth century bce, a point after the Greeks had assumed political and cultural control of the island from the Carthaginians, as well as the cult of the Erycinian. There can be no continuity, then, between the supposed sacred prostitutes of the cult of Erycine Aštart and those of Erycine Aphrodite or Venus. Strabo’s section 6.2.6 is not evidence for sacred prostitution in Sicily; it is a commentary on the women dedicated to a temple of Venus and how, in “modern” (for Strabo) times, the temple and town, having fallen on hard times, has fewer temple attendants – hierodules, hiera sômata, Venerii – than previously. Nothing indicates that the hierodules had prostitution as an aspect of their temple service, either for the males or the females.

Stephanie Lynn Budin, The Mith of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity, 184-191

#women #history of women #women in history #history #historical women #Greek Sicily #roman sicily #erice #Province of Trapani #Stephanie Lynn Budin #sacred prostitution #people of sicily #women of sicily #culture

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worlddreligions · 5 years

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Epithets of Aphrodite

Acida’lia = refers to the well where she bathed with the Graces at Acidalius, Orchomenos

Acraea = “of the heights”, whose temple is on a hill

Alitta = syncretism: Arab world

Amathusia = temple seat at Amathus, Cyprus

Ambologera = “she who postpones old age” (Sparta)

Amyclaeus = (Amyclae, Laconia)

Anadyomene = “rising from the sea”

Androphonos = “killer of men”

Anosia = “unholy”

Antheia = “the blooming,” goddess of flowers and flowery wreaths

Apaturia, Apatouria, Apaturus = “the deceitful” (Taurian Chersonesus)

Aphacitis = temple seat of Aphaca, Coele-Syria

Aphroditus = depiction with a beard & lifting up the dress to show a phallus (Amathus, Cyprus)

Apostrophia = “averter of” unlawful desires

Apotrophia = “the expeller,” expelled sinful lust from the hearts of men (Thebes)

Aracynthias = possible temple seat at Mount Aracynthus?

Areia = “the warlike” or “of Ares” (Sparta)

Barbata = “bearded” (Rome)

Castinia = of Mount Castium, Pamphylia

Catascopia = “spying, peeping”

Cepoïs, En kopois = “of the gardens,” refers to her patronage over garden fertility (Athens)

Chrysea = “golden” (Lesbos)

Colias = (Colias, Attica)

Cypris, Cypria = (Cyprus)

Cythereia = (Cythera, Laconia)

Despoina = “our lady” or similar (Mycenaean Greece)

Dia = “divine, shining”

Dionaea, Dionaia = daughter of Dione

Dios Thugater = “daughter of Zeus”

Doritis = “bountiful”

Eleemon = “the merciful” (Cyprus)

Enoplios = “armed” (Sparta)

Epistrophia = “she who turns to” love

Epitragia = “from a she-goat” (Elis)

Erukine, Erycina = temple seat at Mount Eryx, Sicily (Rome)

Euploea = “fair voyage”

Eustephanus =“richly-crowned, well-girdled”

Gamelii = protector of marriage

Genetrix = mother of the Roman people (Rome)

Genetyllis = “mother” (Cape Colias), protector of births

Hecaerge = (Iulis, Cos)

Hera = “of Hera”, or of marriage

Hoplismena = “armed”

Ida’lia = (Idalion, Cyprus)

Kallipygos = “of the beautiful buttocks”

Knidia = statue made by Praxiteles at Cnidus, Caria

Kolias = statue at Colias

Kourotrophos = “protector of young people”

Limenia = “protector of the harbour” or “of the harbour”

Machanitis = “deviser, contriver”

Mechaneus = “skilled in invention”

Melainis = “black one” (Corinth)

Melinaea, Melinaia = (Meline, Argive)

Migontis = marital “union”

Migonitis = temple seat at Migonium, Laconia

Morpho = “shapely, fair-shaped” (Sparta)

Nikephoros, Nicephorus = “bringing victory”

Nymphia = “bridal”

Pandemos = “for all the folk,” goddess of sensual pleasure, common love, physical desire, courtesans, heterosexual desire

Paphia = temple seat at Paphos, Cyprus

Peitho = “persuasion”

Philommedes = “smile-loving,” sometimes translated as “laughter-loving”

Pontia = “of the sea”

Pothon Mater = “mother of desire”

Potnia = “mistress” (Sparta)

Psithyristes = “whispering”

Praxis = sexual “action”

Skotia = “dark one”

Surie theos = “the Syrian goddess”. syncretism: Astarte

Symmachia = “ally” in love

Tymborychos = “gravedigger”

Urania = “heavenly,” goddess of spiritual love, pedastry, homosexual desire

Venus = syncretism: Rome

Verticordia = “turner of hearts,” refers to her moving people from lust into chastity; worshipped by married women and young maidens (Rome)

Victrix = bringer of victory

Xenia = “of the foreigner”

Zerunthia = temple seat at Zerinthus, Thrace

Zephuritis = of Zephyrium, Egypt

#o #hellenism #aphrodite #religio romana #venus

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thewitcheswonderemporium · 5 years

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DEITY OF THE DAY

VENUS- ROMAN GODDESS OF LOVE AND BEAUTY

Venus was the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was venerated in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.

The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus becomes one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality.. Later, under Greek influence, she was equated with Aphrodite and assumed many of her aspects. Venus is the daughter of Jupiter, and some of her lovers include Mars and Vulcan, modeled on the affairs of Aphrodite.

Her cult began in Ardea and Lavinium, Latium. On August 18, 293 BC, her oldest temple was built. August 18 was then a festival called the Vinalia Rustica. The oldest temple known of Venus dates back to 293 BCE, and was inaugurated on August 18. Later, on this date the Vinalia Rustica was observed. A second festival, that of the Veneralia, was celebrated on April 1 in honor of Venus Verticordia, who later became the protector against vice. Her temple was built in 114 BCE.

After the Roman defeat near Lake Trasum in 215 BCE, a temple was built on the Capitol for Venus Erycina. This temple was officially opened on April 23, and a festival, the Vinalia Priora, was instituted to celebrate the occasion. Her importance rose, and that of her cult, through the influence of several Roman political leaders. The dictator Sulla made her his patroness, and both Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus named her the ancestor of their (Julian) family: the 'gens Julia' was Aeneas, son of Venus and the mortal Anchises.

Julius Caesar introduced the cult of Venus Genetrix, the goddess of motherhood and marriage, and built a temple for her in 46 BCE. He introduced Venus Genetrix as a goddess of motherhood and domesticity. She was also honored in the temple of Mars Ultor. The last great temple of Venus was built by the emperor Hadrianus near the Colosseum in 135 CE. Venus was often referred to with epithet Venus Erycina ("of the heather").

Venus embodies sex, beauty, enticement, seduction and persuasive female charm among the community of immortal gods; in Latin orthography, her name is indistinguishable from the Latin noun venus ("sexual love" and "sexual desire"), from which it derives. Venus has been described as perhaps "the most original creation of the Roman pantheon" and "an ill-defined and assimilative" native goddess, combined "with a strange and exotic Aphrodite".

To read more visit https://www.facebook.com/TheMusingsofaMysticWitch/

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fictitious-whimsigot · 5 years

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The magical Daimon Venus, Venus Esophorous, would be quite different from Venus Erycina-

She would have much broader powers; also probably be capable of teaching people things. She could probably teach wizards spells of some kind?

In general should be someone more distant and more involved in the astrological powers and themes.

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chaoticnutcase · 2 months

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#venus erycina

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brookstonalmanac · 1 year

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Events 4.23

215 BC – A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene. 599 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul attacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico, defeating queen Yohl Ik'nal and sacking the city. 711 – Dagobert III succeeds his father King Childebert III as King of the Franks. 1014 – Battle of Clontarf: High King of Ireland Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle. 1016 – Edmund Ironside succeeds his father Æthelred the Unready as King of England. 1343 – St. George's Night Uprising commences in the Duchy of Estonia. 1348 – The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St. George's Day. 1500 – Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral reaches new coastline (Brazil). 1516 – The Munich Reinheitsgebot (regarding the ingredients of beer) takes effect in all of Bavaria. 1521 – Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros. 1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston. 1655 – The Siege of Santo Domingo begins during the Anglo-Spanish War, and fails seven days later. 1660 – Treaty of Oliva is established between Sweden and Poland. 1661 – King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey. 1815 – The Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire. 1879 – Fire burns down the second main building and dome of the University of Notre Dame, which prompts the construction of the third, and current, Main Building with its golden dome. 1891 – Chilean Civil War: The ironclad Blanco Encalada is sunk at Caldera Bay by torpedo boats. 1914 – First baseball game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park, in Chicago. 1918 – World War I: The British Royal Navy makes a raid in an attempt to neutralise the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge. 1919 – The Estonian Constituent Assembly was held in Estonia, which marked the birth of the Estonian Parliament, the Riigikogu. 1920 – The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) is founded in Ankara. The assembly denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces the preparation of a temporary constitution. 1927 – Cardiff City defeat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England. 1935 – The Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted. 1940 – The Rhythm Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 198 people. 1941 – World War II: The Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht. 1942 – World War II: Baedeker Blitz: German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck. 1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler's designated successor, Hermann Göring, sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of Nazi Germany. Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels advise Hitler that the telegram is treasonous. 1946 – Manuel Roxas is elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. 1949 – Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy. 1951 – Cold War: American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. 1961 – Algiers putsch by French generals. 1967 – Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: Союз 1, Union 1) a crewed spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov is launched into orbit. 1968 – Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university. 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). 1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months. 1990 – Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 1993 – Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum. 1993 – Sri Lankan politician Lalith Athulathmudali is assassinated while addressing a gathering, approximately four weeks ahead of the Provincial Council elections for the Western Province. 1999 – NATO bombs the headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia, as part of their aerial campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 2005 – The first YouTube video, titled "Me at the zoo", was published by co-founder Jawed Karim. 2013 – At least 28 people are killed and more than 70 are injured as violence breaks out in Hawija, Iraq. 2018 – A vehicle-ramming attack kills 11 people and injures 15 in Toronto. A 25-year-old suspect, Alek Minassian, is arrested. 2019 – The April 2019 Hpakant jade mine collapse in Myanmar kills four miners and two rescuers.

#Events

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winter-gale · 7 years

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Astarte

Astarte is the name of a goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic regions, cognate in name, origin and functions with the goddess Ishtar in Mesopotamian texts. Another transliteration is 'Ashtart; other names for the goddess. According to scholar Mark S. Smith, Astarte may be the Iron Age (after 1200 BC) incarnation of the Bronze Age (to 1200 BC) Asherah. Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked. Astarte first appears in Ancient Egypt beginning in the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt along with other deities who were worshipped by northwest Semitic people. She was worshipped especially in her aspect of a warrior goddess, often paired with the goddess Anat. In the Contest Between Horus and Set, these two goddesses appear as daughters of Re and are given in marriage to the god Set, here identified with the Semitic name Hadad. Astarte also was identified with the lioness warrior goddess Sekhmet, but seemingly more often conflated, at least in part, with Isis to judge from the many images found of Astarte suckling a small child. Indeed there is a statue of the 6th century BC in the Cairo Museum, which normally would be taken as portraying Isis with her child Horus on her knee and which in every detail of iconography follows normal Egyptian conventions, but the dedicatory inscription reads: "Gersaphon, son of Azor, son of Slrt, man of Lydda, for his Lady, for Astarte." Plutarch, in his On Isis and Osiris, indicates that the King and Queen of Byblos, who, unknowingly, have the body of Osiris in a pillar in their hall, are Melcarthus and Astarte (though he notes some instead call the Queen Saosis or Nemanus, which Plutarch interprets as corresponding to the Greek name Athenais). Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname. Other major centers of Astarte's worship were Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. Coins from Sidon portray a chariot in which a globe appears, presumably a stone representing Astarte. In Sidon, she shared a temple with Eshmun. At Beirut coins show Poseidon, Astarte, and Eshmun worshipped together. Other faith centers were Cytherea, Malta, and Eryx in Sicily from which she became known to the Romans as Venus Erycina. A bilingual inscription on the Pyrgi Tablets dating to about 500 BC found near Caere in Etruria equates Astarte with Etruscan Uni-Astre that is, Juno. At Carthage Astarte was worshipped alongside the goddess Tanit. Donald Harden in The Phoenicians discusses a statuette of Astarte from Tutugi (Galera) near Granada in Spain dating to the 6th or 7th century BC in which Astarte sits on a throne flanked by sphinxes holding a bowl beneath her breasts which are pierced. A hollow in the statue would have been filled with milk through the head and gentle heating would have melted wax plugging the holes in her breasts, producing an apparent miracle when the milk emerged. The Syrian goddess Atargatis (Semitic form 'Atar'atah) was generally equated with Astarte and the first element of the name appears to be related to the name Astarte. Astarte appears in Ugaritic texts under the name 'Athtart', but is little mentioned in those texts. 'Athtart and 'Anat together hold back Ba'al from attacking the other deities. Astarte also asks Ba'al to "scatter" Yamm "Sea" after Ba'al's victory. 'Athtart is called the "Face of Ba'al". Astarte described by Sanchuniathon In the description of the Phoenician pantheon ascribed to Sanchuniathon Astarte appears as a daughter of Sky and Earth and sister of the God El. After El overthrows and banishes his father Sky, as some kind of trick Sky sends to El his "virgin daughter" Astarte along with her sisters Asherah and the goddess who will later be called Ba'alat Gebal, "the Lady of Byblos". It seems that this trick does not work as all three become wives of their brother El. Astarte bears to El children who appear under Greek names as seven daughters called the Titanides or Artemides and two sons named Pothos "Longing" and Eros "Desire". Later we see, with El's consent, Astarte and Hadad reigning over the land together. Astarte, puts the head of a bull on her own head to symbolize Her sovereignty. Wandering through the world Astarte takes up a star that has fallen from the sky (meteorite) and consecrates it at Tyre. Astarte in Judea The Masoretic pointing in the Hebrew Tanach (bible) indicate the pronunciation as Astoret instead of the expected Asteret, probably because the two last syllables have here been pointed with the vowels belonging to boshet "abomination" to indicate that word should be substituted when reading. The plural form is pointed Astoret. For what seems to be the use of the Hebrew plural form Astoret as the name of a demon, see also Astaroth. Astarte, or Ashtoret in Hebrew, was the principal goddess of the Phoenicians, representing the productive power of nature. She was a lunar goddess and was adopted by the Egyptians as a daughter of Ra or Ptah. In Jewish mythology, She is referred to as Ashtoreth, supposedly interpreted as a female demon of lust in Hebrew monotheism. The name Asherah may also be confused with Ashtoreth, but is probably a different goddess. Astarte means "she of the womb" in Canaanite and Hebrew. When the Hebrews turned from goddess-worship to a religion centered on the male Yahweh (or Jehovah), her name Athtarath was deliberately mis-rendered as Ashtoreth ("shameful thing") and confused with Asherah (see Monaghan). Depicted variously as a death-dealing virgin warrior, a life-giving mother, and a wanton of unbridled sexuality, her emblems were the moon and the morning and evening stars (the planet Venus). Astarte was a warrior goddess of Canaan and Syria who is a Western Semitic counterpart of the Akkadian Ishtar worshipped in Mesopotamia. In the Egyptian pantheon to which she was officially admitted during the 18th Dynasty, her prime association is with horses and chariots. On the stela set up near the sphinx by Amenhotep II celebrating his prowess, Astarte is described as delighting in the impressive equestrian skill of the monarch when he was still only crown prince. In her iconography her aggression can be seen in the bull horns she sometimes wears as a symbol of domination. Similarly, in her Levantine homelands, Astarte is a battlefield goddess. For example, when the Peleset (Philistines) killed Saul and his three sons on Mount Gilboa, they deposited the enemy armor as spoils in the temple of "Ashtoreth". Like Anat, she is the daughter of Re and the wife of the god Seth, but also has a relationship with the god of the sea. From the fragmentary papyrus giving the legend of Astarte and the sea we learn that Yamm, the sea god, demanded tribute from the gods, particularly Renenutet. Her place is then taken by Astarte called, in this aspect, "daughter of Ptah". The story is lost from that point on but one assumes this liaison resulted in the goddess tempering the arrogance of Yamm. It should also be noted that outside of Egypt, as well as being a warlike goddess, Astarte seems to have had sexual and motherhood attributes and is sometimes identified with Isis. Asherah, Athirat ("Lady Asherah of the Sea", "she who gives birth", "wet-nurse of the gods") (Canaanite and Hebrew). Her name seems to come from a root meaning "straight," perhaps signifying both moral rectitude and the upright trees or pieces of wood in which her essence was believed to dwell. In homes, she was represented by a simple, woman-shaped clay figurine with, instead of legs, a tapered base which was inserted in the floor of the home. She was also depicted as a naked, curly-haired goddess standing on her sacred lion and holding lilies and serpents in upraised hands. According to one source, she was "the force of life, experienced as benevolent and enduring, found in flocks of cattle and groves of trees, evoked in childbirth and in planting time." She was also called Elat ("Goddess"). Her dying-god consort may have been Yahweh. After the shift among the Hebrews to the worship of the male Yahweh, a centuries-long campaign to stamp out her worship began, in which she was deliberately confused with the more wantonly sexual Astarte. A later, Babylonian form of the Sumerian Inanna, but also identified with Asherah and Astarte. Like Inanna, she loved a dying and reborn vegetation god (Tammuz), whom she descended into the underworld in rescue of after his death. There, she supplicates herself before the queen of the Underworld, Erishkegal (no doubt, the death form of herself). Her emblems were the moon and the morning and evening stars (the planet Venus). Ishtar ("light-giving queen of heaven") (Babylon) Ishtar, also known as Htar (or Inanna in Sumerian mythology), the name of the chief goddess of Babylonia and Assyria, the counterpart of the Phoenician Astarte. The meaning of the name is not known, though it is possible that the underlying stem is the same as that of Assur, which would thus make her the "leading one" or "chief." At all events it is now generally recognized that the name is Semitic in its origin. Where the name originated is likewise uncertain, but the indications point to Erech where we find the worship of a great mother goddess independent of any association with a male counterpart flourishing in the oldest period of Babylonian history. She appears under various names, among which are Nana, Innanna, Nina and Anunit. As early as the days of Khammurabi we find these various names which represented originally different goddesses, though all manifest as the chief trait the life-giving power united in Ishtar. Even when the older names are employed it is always the great mother-goddess who is meant. Ishtar is the one goddess in the pantheon who retains her independent position despite and throughout all changes that the Babylonian-Assyrian religion undergoes. Even when Ishtar is viewed as the consort of some chief - of Marduk occasionally in the south, of Assur more frequently in the north - the consciousness that she has a personality of her own apart from this association is never lost sight of. With Adbeel may be identified Idibi'il (-ba'il) a tribe, employed by Tiglath-Pileser IV. ('l33 B.c.) to watch the frontier of Musri (Sinaitic peninsula or Northern Arabia). This is suggested by the fact that Ashurbanipal (7th century) mentions as the name of their deity Atar-Samain (i.e. "Ishtar of the heavens"). We may reasonably assume that the analogy drawn from the process of reproduction among men and animals led to the conception of a female deity presiding over the life of the universe. The extension of the scope of this goddess to life in general - to the growth of plants and trees from the fructifying seed - was a natural outcome of a fundamental idea; and so, whether we turn to incantations or hymns, in myths and in epics, in votive inscriptions and in historical annals, Ishtar is celebrated and invoked as the great mother, as the mistress of lands, as clothed in splendor and power - one might almost say as the personification of life itself. But there are two aspects to this goddess of life. She brings forth, she fertilizes the fields, she clothes nature in joy and gladness, but she also withdraws her favors and when she does so the fields wither, and men and animals cease to reproduce. In place of life, barrenness and death ensue. She is thus also a grim goddess, at once cruel and destructive. We can, therefore, understand that she was also invoked as a goddess of war and battles and of the chase; and more particularly among the warlike Assyrians she assumes this aspect. Before the battle she appears to the army, clad in battle array and armed with bow and arrow. In myths symbolizing the change of seasons she is portrayed in this double character, as the life-giving and the life-depriving power. The most noteworthy of these myths describes her as passing through seven gates into the nether world. At each gate some of her clothing and her ornaments are removed until at the last gate she is entirely naked. While she remains in the nether world as a prisoner - whether voluntary or involuntary it is hard to say - all fertility ceases on Earth, but the time comes when she again returns to Earth, and as she passes each gate the watchman restores to her what she had left there until she is again clad in her full splendor, to the joy of mankind and of all nature. Closely allied with this myth and personifying another view of the change of seasons is the story of Ishtar's love for her son and consort Tammuz - symbolizing the spring time - but as midsummer approaches her husband is slain and, according to one version, it is for the purpose of saving Tammuz from the clutches of the goddess of the nether world that she enters upon her journey to that region. In all the great centres Ishtar had her temples, bearing such names as E-anna, "heavenly house," in Erech; E-makh, "great house," in Babylon; E-mash-mash, "house of offerings," in Nineveh. Of the details of her cult we as yet know little, but there is no evidence that there were obscene rites connected with it, though there may have been certain mysteries introduced at certain centres which might easily impress the uninitiated as having obscene aspects. She was served by priestesses as well as by priests, and it would appear that the votaries of Ishtar were in all cases virgins who, as long as they remained in the service of Ishtar, were not permitted to marry. In the astral-theological system, Ishtar becomes the planet Venus, and the double aspect of the goddess is made to correspond to the strikingly different phases of Venus in the summer and winter seasons. On monuments and seal-cylinders she appears frequently with how and arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across her breast or holding a child. The art thus reflects the popular conceptions formed of the goddess. Together with Sin, the Moon god, and Shamash, the Sun god, she is the third figure in a triad personifying the three great forces of nature - Moon, Sun and Earth, as the life-force. The doctrine involved illustrate, the tendency of the Babylonian priests to centralize the manifestations of divine power in the universe, just as the triad Anu, Bel and ha - the heavens, the earth and the watery deep - form another illustration of this same tendency. Naturally, as a member of a triad, Ishtar is dissociated from any local limitations, and similarly as the planet Venus - a conception which is essentially a product of theological speculation - no though of any particular locality for her cult is present. It is because the cult, like that of Sin and Shamash, is spread over al Babylonia and Assyria, that she becomes available for purposes of theological speculation. source: http://www.crystalinks.com/astarte.html Offerings: honey, beer, wine, incense source: http://www.spiralgoddess.com/Astarte.html

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