Shepherds –> Bulls –> Judges -> Angels -> gods -> God !!
The motifs composing the universal “mono-myth”.
Part One, “Shepherds”
In the epics of Homer Ποιμήν “Shepherd” means “leader,” “person in charge” of a group of people who may be warriors, civilians or the persons responsible for a household.
The standard expression is Ποιμένι λαών, “Shepherd of people”
Δρύαντα τε, Ποιμένα λαών, (A 263)
Ατρέϊ, Ποιμένι λαών, (B 105)
Αγαμέμνονι, Ποιμένι λαών, (B 254) “Agamemnon, Shepherd of people”
Ιήσονι Ποιμένι λαών, (Η 469)
Μέντορι Ποιμένι λαών,(ω 456)
[Οδυσσέα], ποιμενι λαών, (σ 70)
(from the original ancient texts)
First Shepherds ever were the gods.
Plato writes the following in his dialogue “Critias”:
[109b] Once upon a time the gods were taking over by lot the whole earth according to its regions,—not according to the results of strife: for it would not be reasonable to suppose that the gods were ignorant of their own several rights, nor yet that they attempted to obtain for themselves by means of strife a possession to which others, as they knew, had a better claim. So by just allotments they received each one his own, and they settled their countries; and when they had thus settled them, they reared us up, even as herdsmen [109c] rear their flocks, to be their cattle and nurslings; (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text...riti.+109b)
The above is obviously the information conveyed to Plato by the oral tradition, either the Greek or the Egyptian. What follows is the theological explanation that Plato provides to justify this strange information:
only it was not our bodies that they constrained by bodily force, like shepherds guiding their flocks with stroke of staff, but they directed from the stern where the living creature is easiest to turn about, laying hold on the soul by persuasion, as by a rudder, according to their own disposition; and thus they drove and steered all the mortal kind.(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text...ion%3D109c)
The first paragraph (109b) consists of empirical ideas: they saw the gods dividing the land between themselves. There is nothing unnatural once the gods are regarded as normal human beings as they are described in the texts.
The second paragraph (109c) about gods steering human souls, is just philosophical poetry devoid of any value
The gods divided Near East into estates and thus there were the estate of Horus, the estate of Seth, the estate of Osiris and so on. In Utterance 224 the dead King, who is supposed to have been transformed into a supreme deity, is given to rule the regions of Horus, the regions of Seth and the regions of Osiris. In Utterance 477 everything is given to the King:
The sky is given to you, the earth is given to you, and the Fields of Rushes, the regions of Horus, and the regions of Seth; the towns are given to you and the nomes assembled for you by Atum. (§961)
(R.O.Faulkner, “The Ancient Pyramid Texts”, p.164)
According to the Old Testament the God divided the earth, humans included, between his sons, or according to the number of his sons.
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of children of Israel. (Deu.32:8)
The passage according to Septuagint:
ότε διεμέριζεν ο `Υψιστος έθνη, ως διέσπειρεν υιούς Αδάμ,
έστησεν όρια εθνών κατά αριθμόν αγγέλων Θεού.
“αγγέλων Θεού” means “of the Angels of God” and is the usual rendering in Greek of the phrase “Children of God.” In his book “Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Hershel Shanks writes that on a fragmentary text from the Dead Sea Scrolls, that dates from the 1st century CE, and contains Deuteronomy 32:8, the last phrase is “Children of God” and not “Children of Israel.” This text represents the oldest known Hebrew copy of Deuteronomy 32:8.
In a Sumerian Hymn to Enlil we read:
Enlil, when you marked off holy settlements on earth. (Hymn to Enlil, the All-Beneficent, line 65, ANET, p. 574)
From the Creation Epic (Enuma Elish):
To the Anunnaki of heaven and earth had allotted their portions. (VI,46)
All the gods apportioned the stations of heaven and earth. (VI,79)
Gishnumunab, creator of all people, who made the (world) regions. (VII,89) (ANET, pp. 67-71)
In the Akkadian myth “Etana,” it is the Anunnaki themselves who create the regions.
Old Babylonian version, opening lines:
The great Anunnaki, who decree the fate,
Sat down, taking counsel about the land.
They who created the regions, who set up the establishments.
(ANET, p.114)
The owner god of each one of these regions, establishments or estates –containing the number of humans allotted to the particular god- was called Shepherd, and the human population flock.
A quite well known Shepherd, although god by two thirds only, is Gilgamesh.
The story of Gilgamesh, of a Shepherd who was at the same time acting as Bull raping the female members of his flock, introduces “Bulls,” the second stage in the evolution of the fleshy, human gods of the tradition, into immaterial heavenly beings of the philosophers and theologians.
To be continued…
The motifs composing the universal “mono-myth”.
Part One, “Shepherds”
In the epics of Homer Ποιμήν “Shepherd” means “leader,” “person in charge” of a group of people who may be warriors, civilians or the persons responsible for a household.
The standard expression is Ποιμένι λαών, “Shepherd of people”
Δρύαντα τε, Ποιμένα λαών, (A 263)
Ατρέϊ, Ποιμένι λαών, (B 105)
Αγαμέμνονι, Ποιμένι λαών, (B 254) “Agamemnon, Shepherd of people”
Ιήσονι Ποιμένι λαών, (Η 469)
Μέντορι Ποιμένι λαών,(ω 456)
[Οδυσσέα], ποιμενι λαών, (σ 70)
(from the original ancient texts)
First Shepherds ever were the gods.
Plato writes the following in his dialogue “Critias”:
[109b] Once upon a time the gods were taking over by lot the whole earth according to its regions,—not according to the results of strife: for it would not be reasonable to suppose that the gods were ignorant of their own several rights, nor yet that they attempted to obtain for themselves by means of strife a possession to which others, as they knew, had a better claim. So by just allotments they received each one his own, and they settled their countries; and when they had thus settled them, they reared us up, even as herdsmen [109c] rear their flocks, to be their cattle and nurslings; (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text...riti.+109b)
The above is obviously the information conveyed to Plato by the oral tradition, either the Greek or the Egyptian. What follows is the theological explanation that Plato provides to justify this strange information:
only it was not our bodies that they constrained by bodily force, like shepherds guiding their flocks with stroke of staff, but they directed from the stern where the living creature is easiest to turn about, laying hold on the soul by persuasion, as by a rudder, according to their own disposition; and thus they drove and steered all the mortal kind.(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text...ion%3D109c)
The first paragraph (109b) consists of empirical ideas: they saw the gods dividing the land between themselves. There is nothing unnatural once the gods are regarded as normal human beings as they are described in the texts.
The second paragraph (109c) about gods steering human souls, is just philosophical poetry devoid of any value
The gods divided Near East into estates and thus there were the estate of Horus, the estate of Seth, the estate of Osiris and so on. In Utterance 224 the dead King, who is supposed to have been transformed into a supreme deity, is given to rule the regions of Horus, the regions of Seth and the regions of Osiris. In Utterance 477 everything is given to the King:
The sky is given to you, the earth is given to you, and the Fields of Rushes, the regions of Horus, and the regions of Seth; the towns are given to you and the nomes assembled for you by Atum. (§961)
(R.O.Faulkner, “The Ancient Pyramid Texts”, p.164)
According to the Old Testament the God divided the earth, humans included, between his sons, or according to the number of his sons.
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of children of Israel. (Deu.32:8)
The passage according to Septuagint:
ότε διεμέριζεν ο `Υψιστος έθνη, ως διέσπειρεν υιούς Αδάμ,
έστησεν όρια εθνών κατά αριθμόν αγγέλων Θεού.
“αγγέλων Θεού” means “of the Angels of God” and is the usual rendering in Greek of the phrase “Children of God.” In his book “Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Hershel Shanks writes that on a fragmentary text from the Dead Sea Scrolls, that dates from the 1st century CE, and contains Deuteronomy 32:8, the last phrase is “Children of God” and not “Children of Israel.” This text represents the oldest known Hebrew copy of Deuteronomy 32:8.
In a Sumerian Hymn to Enlil we read:
Enlil, when you marked off holy settlements on earth. (Hymn to Enlil, the All-Beneficent, line 65, ANET, p. 574)
From the Creation Epic (Enuma Elish):
To the Anunnaki of heaven and earth had allotted their portions. (VI,46)
All the gods apportioned the stations of heaven and earth. (VI,79)
Gishnumunab, creator of all people, who made the (world) regions. (VII,89) (ANET, pp. 67-71)
In the Akkadian myth “Etana,” it is the Anunnaki themselves who create the regions.
Old Babylonian version, opening lines:
The great Anunnaki, who decree the fate,
Sat down, taking counsel about the land.
They who created the regions, who set up the establishments.
(ANET, p.114)
The owner god of each one of these regions, establishments or estates –containing the number of humans allotted to the particular god- was called Shepherd, and the human population flock.
A quite well known Shepherd, although god by two thirds only, is Gilgamesh.
The story of Gilgamesh, of a Shepherd who was at the same time acting as Bull raping the female members of his flock, introduces “Bulls,” the second stage in the evolution of the fleshy, human gods of the tradition, into immaterial heavenly beings of the philosophers and theologians.
To be continued…
"Culture is memory"
Yuri Lotman
Yuri Lotman
