#pagan!near

[spicysnowflake1]

Behold! This extremely messy sketch of Near!

[theoldworldsrunnerup]

hi i have an art request because i can't draw but like near in like pagan apparel?? i headcanon him as like agnostic pagan and like i really wanted to see him in like a pentacle necklace with crystals and like witchy symbols using his tarot or just anything pagan!near really

Hi anon I’m SUPER sorry this took me two months to finish!! Honestly I didn’t really have a proper idea of what I wanted the final result to look like and I don’t feel like I put enough emphasis on the pagan aspects of the drawing and generally I don’t think I did your headcanon justice :( Regardless, I tried my hardest with this and I hope you still like it!!!

[witcheroony]

Hail to the One-Eyed Wanderer

To the god of hyperfixations, of special interests,

Of the all-consuming craving for knowledge

Of the determination to make sense of the madness

As though your life depends on it

[namedvesta]

If you ever get the chance to visit the Louvre in Paris or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, take a detour to the Ancient Near Eastern Art Gallery. Keep walking until you find yourself in front of one of those cubic display cases, whose bulletproof glass protects a treasure barely bigger than your little finger. We call them Eye Idols. Carbon-14 tells us that they were made between 3000 and 3700 BC.  Look closely, or at least think you're looking at them, because in reality it's quite the opposite. It's the Idol staring back at you; with the same puzzled, indecipherable look she gave the man who carved her out of stone 5,000 years ago. Those eyes have seen the first man, every man since, and they will be wide open long after the last man has closed his. For those eyes, your whole life will pass in less than a thousandth of a second. For them, there is only the eternal now. Feel how that look nails you to the ground and how your own can never have the same effect.

— 𝐕.

[sag-dab-sar]

📚Resources for The Ancient Near East📚

With a focus on religion

Getting Started On Research

JSTOR Guide LINK

Lumenlearning Guide LINK

Center for Online Education Guide LINK

Layman's Guide to Online Research by @/sisterofiris LINK

How to Vet Sources by me LINK

Websites for ANE Study

ETCSL | The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature �� http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/catalogue.htm

ePSD | The Electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary — http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd-frame.html

ORACC | Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus — http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/

ORACC's Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses Project — http://oracc.iaas.upenn.edu/amgg/abouttheproject/index.html

ETANA | Electronic Tools & Ancient Near East Archive — http://etana.org/

CDLI | Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative — https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/about

CAD | The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago — http://www.aina.org/cad.html

Livius' Babylonian Section — https://www.livius.org/category/babylonia/

Multi Source Websites

Internet Archive Library — https://archive.org/details/texts | How To Use LINK

JSTOR — https://www.jstor.org/ | How To Use LINK

Google Scholar — https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html

Google Books — https://books.google.com/googlebooks/about/index.html

Academia — https://support.academia.edu/hc/en-us/categories/360003163373-Academia-Free-Features

DOAJ Index of Open Access Journals — https://www.doaj.org/

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook — https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/asbook.asp

Met Museum Publications — https://www.metmuseum.org/met-publications

Holy Books — https://www.holybooks.com/about/

Internet Sacred Text Archive — https://sacred-texts.com/

Deepdyve is a website of academic journal articles that isn't free but it isn't outrageously expensive for what it offers if you are heavily invested in new research — https://www.deepdyve.com/

Please leave a comment if a link breaks I'll do my best to find a new one

I'm planning to probably break these down into their own post due to link limit!

Books

*When using older books be aware that there may be inaccuracies and out of date information. If at all possible cross-reference and synthesize with newer materials. I have added years for this reason.

Books Specifically on Religion

Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion by Tammi Schneider (2011) Google Books | Good overview, 130ish page easy read.

Gods Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia by Jeremy Black and Anthony Greene (1992) Internet Archive

Ancient Near Eastern Mythology by Gwendolyn Leick (1991) Internet Archive | This & Black's dictionary are good starting off points but I always use additional source's because some of Leick's info tends to be more out of date than other authors.

The Ancient Gods by E O James (1960) Internet Archive

The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East by Mark Cohen (1993) PDF

Preforming Death Social Analysis of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Medditarian edited by Nicola Laneri (2007) PDF

Mesopotamian Ritual-prayers of “Hand-lifting”(Akkadian Šuillas) by Christopher G Frechette Internet Archive

When Gods Were Men: The Embodied God in Biblical and Near Eastern Literature by Esther Hamon Internet Archive

Stories From Ancient Canaan by Michael D. Coogan and Mark S. Smith (1901) 1st Edition Internet Archive | 2nd Edition Google Books

A Handbook to Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East (2021) Google Books

The City of the Moon God by Tamara Green (1992) Google Books

The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity by Stephanie Lynn Budin (2008) Google Books

Books on ANE History in General

Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by Stephen Bertman (2005) Google Books | Highly recommended, easy read

Ancient Mesopotamia Portrait of Dead Civilization by A. Leo Oppenheim (1964) Internet Archive

A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000- 323BC by Marc Van de Mieroop (2016) Internet Archive

Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by Jean Bottero (1992) Internet Archive

Women in the Ancient Near East by Marten Stol (2016) Open Access

Chapter 3 Elamite from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ancient World Languages edited by Roger Wooard (2004) PDF

Sumerian Art by Andre Parrot (1970) Digital Library

Dictionaries of Civilization Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians by Enrico Ascalone and Simona Schultz (2007) Publisher Website Entry

The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells edited by Hans Dieter Betz PDF (If that link breaks Google Books)

Babylon: Mesopotamia and The Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek (2012) Google Books

Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat (2002) Google Books

Mesopotamia to Iraq A Concise History by Hans Nissen (2009) Google Books

In the Land of A Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World by Christian Marek (2016) Google Books

Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City by Gwendolyn Leick (2002) Google Books

Palmyra by Paul Veyne (2017) Google Books

The Ancient Near East c. 3000-330 BC Volume 1 by Amélie Kuhrt (1995) Google Books

The Ancient Near East c. 3000-330 BC Volume 2 by Amélie Kuhrt (1995) Google Books

The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources by Diana Katz (2003) Google Books

Journal Articles

Mesopotamian Pandemonium by Frans Wiggermann LINK

Nergal A by Frans Wiggerman LINK

The Four Winds and the Origins of Pazuzu by Frans Wiggermann LINK

Sumerian Texts Involving The Netherworld and Funerary Offerings by Jeremiah Peterson LINK

The Sexual Union of Enlil and Ninlil: an uadi Composition of Ninlil by Jeremiah Peterson LINK

New Year Ceremonies in Ancient Babylon: 'Taking Bel by the Hand' and a Cultic Picnic Religion Jeremy A Black LINK

Phenomenon of God-nap in Ancient Mesopotamia A Short Introduction Erika D. Johnson LINK

Preforming Death Social Analysis of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Medditarian edited by Nicola Laneri LINK

Tablet of Destinies and the Transmission of Power in Enūma eliš by Karen Sonik LINK

Theology and Worship in Elam and Achaemenid Iran by Koch LINK

Evil against evil. The Demon Pazuzu by Nils P Heeßel LINK

New Readings in the Amarna Versions of Adapa and Nergal and Ereshkigal by Shlomo Izre'el LINK

The Origin of the Mystical Number Seven in Mesopotamian Culture: Division by Seven in the Sexagesimal Number System by Kazuo Muroi LINK

Athirat: As Found at Ras Shamra Justin Watkins LINK

Two Remarkable Vocabularies: Amorite-Akkadian Bilinguals! by Andrew George, Manfred Krebernik. Unfortunately now I can only find a paywalled version.

From Beyond Ereškigal? Mesopotamian Magic Tradition in the Papyri Graecae Magicae by Daniel Schwemer LINK

The Phoenician Presence in the Aegean during the Early Iron Age : Trade, Settlement and Cultural Interaction by Edizioni Quasar LINK

Invoking the God: Interpreting Invocations in Mesopotamian Prayers and Biblical Laments of the Individual by Alan Lenzi LINK

The Two Steles of Sargon: Iconology and Visual Propaganda at the Beginning of Royal Akkadian Relief by Lorenzo Nigro LINK

Asherah, the West Semitic Goddess of Spinning and Weaving? Susan Ackerman LINK

Ancient Ethics by Gerald Larue LINK

Early Bronze Age Graves at Gre Virike (Period II B): An Extraordinary Cemetery on the Middle Euphrates by A. Tuba Ökse LINK

The Evil Eye in Mesopotamia by Marie-Louise Thomsen LINK

Web Articles

Living Deities: Ancient Mesopotamian Patron Gods & Their Statues by Iilias Luursema on The Collector LINK

Armana Letters by Elizabeth Knott on Met Museum. LINK

Translations

*ETCSL is all translations of Sumerian literature!

Ishtar's Decent Translation & Recited in Akkadian LINK

The Harps That Once by Thorkild Jacobsen Google Books

The Project Gutenberg Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms by Stephen Langdon PDF

Project Gutenberg's Sumerian Hymns, by Frederick Augustus Vanderburgh LINK

Ancient Near East Anthology of Texts and Pictures edited by Pritchard 1st Edition Internet Archive

A Hymn to Tammuz (Cuneiform Texts from the British Museum, Tablet 15821, Plate 18) J. Dyneley Prince (1909) JSTOR

Ludlul Bel Nemegi by Alan Lenzi the Akkadian "Poem of the Righteous Sufferer" LINK

The Flood Myths LINK

Enūma Eliš Translations: L W King Translation 1902 LINK | ETANA Translation LINK | Composite Translation LINK

Code of Ur-Nammu LINK

Code of Liptin Ishtar LINK

The Legend of Sargon of Akkadê, c. 2300 BCE LINK

Other

Google Drive shared on Tumblr LINK

Dissertation: Personal Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia as shown in Akkadian Texts by Maurice Noil Leon Couve De Murville, University of London PDF

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Gold Tablet from the Temple of Ištar in Aššur, Assyria (modern-day Iraq) c.1243-1207 BCE: this tablet was discovered within the foundations of the ancient temple; it measures just over 3cm (1in) in length

The cuneiform inscription honors King Tukulti-Ninurta I, who had ordered the construction of the temple, and describes how the building was constructed. This is just one of the many items that had been buried around the temple with similar inscriptions.

As this article explains:

Most of [the inscriptions installed in the temple] would not have been visible while the temple was still in use, as they were laid into the sanctuary’s foundations or walls. Tukulti-Ninurta commissioned a great number of objects carrying variations of the inscription commemorating his achievement of erecting the new temple.

The practice of depositing inscriptions directed at the gods as well as future generations had become a central element of the temple building process since the Early Dynastic Period, and was employed to immortalize the ruler by eternally associating his name with a monumental building such as the Ištar temple - a process that also transformed a sanctuary into a votive object dedicated to a deity.

It took several hours of searching (i.e. scouring through old artifact catalogs) for me to find a direct translation of the inscription on this particular tablet, and I could basically only find it in a PDF of an old bibliographic manuscript that isn't even in print anymore, but here it is:

Tukulti-Ninurta, king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria: at that time the temple of the goddess Ištar, my mistress, which Ilu-šumma, my forefather, the prince, had previously built — that temple had become dilapidated. I cleared away its debris down to the bottom of the foundation pit. I rebuilt from top to bottom and deposited my monumental inscription. May a later prince restore it and return my inscribed name to its place. Then Aššur will listen to his prayers.

This tablet was stolen from the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin back in 1945, during the chaotic final days of WWII. It was then lost for almost 60 years before it finally re-emerged in 2006, when a Holocaust survivor named Riven Flamenbaum passed away and the tablet was found among his belongings. According to his family, Flamenbaum had gotten the tablet from a Soviet soldier (in exchange for two packs of cigarettes) at the end of the war.

In 2013, following a lengthy legal battle between Riven Flamenbaum's family and the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Germany, a court in New York ordered the family to return the tablet back to the museum.

Sources & More Info:

Albert Kirk Grayson: Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC) (the translation appears on p.261)

Daniel Luckenbill: Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, Volume 1 (PDF download; p.65 contains relevant info)

CTV News: 3,000-year-old Assyrian Gold Tablet Returned to German Museum

[mars-and-the-theoi]

Feeling Lady Hestia’s influence in my kitchen today. Have 2 pies in the oven (pumpkin, of course), a roast in the crockpot, spiced hot chocolate on the stove, and potatoes peeled and ready to be turned into mashed potatoes. Feels good to be out of my flare (finally) and in the kitchen again.

[0wl3tt3]

I saw a jeepney with a painting of Zeus and just smiled

[spookysalem13]

Whenever I see a raven I always speak to it. Say good morning and hello. I believe good things shall come when a raven is around. Protection and magic is surrounding you. ✨️💜

[hanieltheheretic]

Relato de EQM 3, usuario de reddit (TheChthonicPriestess), diálogo:

TheChthonicPriestess: Eu pessoalmente tive uma EQM que realmente me ajudou a encontrar meu caminho. Resumindo a história, eu "me tornei consciente", em um lugar que agora sei ser Erebus, e fui recebido por minha divindade primária, Zagreus, que eu não conhecia na época... Eu estava sendo criado como católico. Tivemos uma breve conversa onde falamos como velhos amigos, e então decidi que precisava voltar porque "minha mãe precisa de mim". Eu, com 5 anos, não entendia o peso que essas palavras tinham, como essa versão adulta espiritual de mim as dizia, mas sabendo o que sei agora... era muito verdadeiro, e significava que eu estava realmente trilhando o caminho de Eleusina, mesmo naquela época. Mais tarde na vida, essa experiência me apontaria na direção certa para me reconectar com Zagreus e começar meu caminho de provações para ganhar meu título de Sacerdotisa do Hades. É incrível pensar o quanto evoluí em apenas 20 anos desde minha EQM, mas sou grata por isso ter acontecido e sou grata por Zagreus nunca ter desistido de me procurar em momentos importantes da minha vida. 💕

Geral_Ad7381: Isso é realmente fascinante! Se você estiver tranquilo para falar mais sobre isso, quais foram as coisas e sinais que eventualmente o levaram a Zagreus?

TheChthonicPriestess: Oh, meu Deus. Haha. Havia... muitos. Primeiro, durante a EQM em si, eu o vi, e mais tarde o descreveria como uma "figura do tipo Hades, mas não Hades, e mais jovem". Não tenho certeza de como eu sabia que não era Hades, mas acho que tem algo a ver com minha alma estar familiarizada com eles no Submundo. Mais tarde na vida, tive uma experiência estranha em um banheiro familiar do 7/11, onde eu estava sozinho com minha avó, tinha meus olhos em minha avó de costas para a porta trancada, e quando me virei, havia um monte de moedas novas e brilhantes em um círculo no chão que definitivamente não estavam lá antes. Eu costumava colecionar "moedas do céu", e Zagreus tem o hábito de me enviar pequenos presentes como esse porque ele sabe que eles me fazem feliz. Durante minha EQM, ele disse: "Nunca se esqueça... Eu sempre estarei cuidando de você". Mais tarde, uma freira se aproximou de mim, me entregou um cartão que tinha meu aniversário e o santo para quem eu iria rezar naquele dia (criada católica, e meu aniversário é o dia da festa deste santo), e quando ela me entregou, ela disse: "Me disseram para te dar isso e te dizer para nunca esquecer que alguém está cuidando de você." Eu tinha esquecido da minha EQM, e isso fez tudo voltar à tona e realmente deu o pontapé inicial no meu caminho. Quando eu tinha 12 anos, eu ainda conseguia ver espíritos, e fiquei assustada, e tive essa sensação de conforto caloroso me inundando, e uma sensação como um abraço caloroso. Ele disse: "Ei, você está bem. Eu estou aqui. Eles não podem te machucar." Não era auditivo, por si só, mas mais como os restos do seu cérebro registrando que alguém tinha acabado de falar com você. Quando eu tinha 13 anos, eu estava questionando minha fé, e já tinha renunciado a ser católica. Eu gritei para "Quem quisesse ouvir" e pedi um sinal dentro de uma semana. Bem, uma semana depois eu estava sozinho na floresta (em segurança) e tive uma experiência louca fora do corpo que me deixou com a habilidade de sentir a Vida como eu sempre senti a Morte. Eu estava me perguntando como as árvores soavam um pouco antes, então ele terminou me deixando ouvir as árvores cantarem. Esta foi uma grande pista, pois ele é o deus da Vida. Eu mantive essa habilidade até hoje. Quando eu tinha 18 anos, fui a um Festival de Comida Grega em uma Igreja Ortodoxa Grega dedicada a São Dionísio. Eu estava tipo, "... não é esse... o deus do vinho e da festa? Kkkk", então eu pesquisei e vi o nome Zagreus na Wikipedia. Realmente se destacou para mim, e eu pesquisei um pouco mais e descobri que ele era filho de Perséfone. Eu não sabia que ela tinha filhos. Eu ainda não vi nenhuma informação sobre o que ele era deus, então eu não juntei 2 e 2 até que finalmente, um dia, eu apenas sentei e fiz uma leitura de pêndulo com ele. Eu reduzi para o Panteão, então se ele era Urânico ou Ctônico, então comecei a listá-los até que ele disse: "Sim, eu sou Zagreus". Foi um sim MUITO entusiasmado. 😂 A partir daí, fiz mais pesquisas e desenvolvi alguns UPG, já que não há muito sobre ele.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pagan/comments/13a9wmx/the_pagan_near_death_experience/

[deepwoundsandfadedscars]

The Person of Interest, previously known as "The Guy" before finding out they are also genderqueer and uses they/them exclusively, just sent me a voice message and the nerves are nerving, why am i nervous to open a voice message 🙃

[spicysnowflake1]

Progress on my Near drawing~

[freespiritlilith]

Lilith and Ishtar are not interchangeable that’s really disrespectful to say.

[bog-horse]

anyway my issue with a lot of other helpols (which just makes me avoid the larger community and do my own thing in my corner) is that a lot of them are recon (which is fine!!!) but i am inherently informal and weird as shit in my practice. i call hades and hestia my spiritual dad/mom, hermes gets donuts as offerings when i’m trying to get to class on time and avoid traffic, i once asked artemis to keep deer from jumping out in front of my car on a road trip home with an offering of granola/sports bars. when people get too formal with the gods and pull out the titles, i usually bail bc it makes me uncomfortable. my relationship with my deities is extremely deep and connected, and it’s not that people who have more formal relationships with them can’t also have those, but it’s that if i called hades “lord hades” with any seriousness, he’d hit me with a rock, basically.

i don’t judge other people for their practices or more formal relationships bc honestly, it’s between you and your gods, but like… my go-to offering is the pomegranate brookside dark chocolates, and yes. sometimes i eat them out of my offering dishes the next day.

[demongirlclaws]

i love how in the canaanite "el's drinking party" myth, theres this element of yarih (a moon god) pretending to be a dog and the rest of the party-goers going along with it

its not even, an important part of the myth, and its just treated like its a relatively normal thing?

[sag-dab-sar]

Ereškigal Festival

[Alt text is generated by iOS with minor proof read sorry if there are inaccuracies]

*screams* I finally found an actual source. "Ereškigal doesn't have cult worship" is bullshit, begone.

— From The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East by Cohen pages 351 & 355