The motifs composing the universal “mono-myth”
Part Two, “Bulls”
The first creatures ever to be “domesticated” were the humans by the so-called gods. The terms “Shepherd” and “flock” are, therefore, used metaphorically when applied to animals and not to humans.
Moreover, if we choose the “metaphorical meaning” explanation we’ll have to apply it to the Bulls too, who came as the result of the material existence of the Shepherds, then to the Judges, to the Messengers and finally to the Angels and the immaterial gods where it cannot be applied.
Diodorus Siculus in his 3rd book of “The Library of History” in paragraphs 56 and 57 recounts a myth of the ancient inhabitants of North Western Africa whom he calls Atlantians (in paragraph 53 Atlas Mountains are mentioned) who “dwell in the regions on the edge of the ocean” and that “it was among them that mythology places the birth of the gods” (No connection whatever with mythical Atlantis).
Diodorus writes:
This is the account given in their myth: Their first king was Uranus, and he gathered the human beings, who dwelt in scattered habitations, within the shelter of a walled city and caused his subjects to cease from their lawless ways and their bestial manner of living.
The entire story can be found in the website
http://archive.org/stream/diodorusofsici...2/mode/2up
in page 263 of the book.
When Uranus passed away his name was given to the heavens and… he had been translated from among men into the circle of the gods.
Μετάστασιν, metastasis is the word used by Diodorus for the transformation of Uranus from man to god.
There were no walled cities at that time so the humans were gathered into pens, camps or enclosures as they are called in the ANE (Ancient Near Eastern) texts.
In the Egyptian funerary texts the place where the flock lives is described as dark and arid in contrast to the place of the residence of the Shepherd which is full of light and running cool waters.
The title of the Book of the Dead is ”Going out into the light” and represents the only thing that those into the pens wish and dream for: to get out of the “Darkness” as they call their place, and be transferred over to the West, to the land of light and serve the Shepherd.
The various recensions of the epic of Gilgamesh at our disposal are younger than the Pyramid texts by from 600 to 1,800 years but they retain a very accurate description of the deeds and behavior of a Shepherd:
11. The men of Uruk fu[me] in [their] cha[mbers (?)]:
12. [Gilgamesh] lea[ves] no son to [his] fath[er];
13. [Day] and [night his] outra[geousness] continues unrestrained
14. [Yet Gilga]mesh [is the shepherd] of Uruk, the enc[losure].
15. He is [our] shepherd, [strong, handsome, and wise].
16. [Gilgamesh] leaves no [virgin to her lover] ,
17. The daughter of the war[rior, the chosen of the noble] ! . (I,ii)
(Aleexander Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels, p.18)
Gilgamesh was acting as Bull as per the orders of the gods:
32.“That with lawful wives he might mate!
33. He is the first,
34. The husband comes after.
35. By the counsel of the gods it has (so) been ordained.
36. With the cutting of his umbilical cord
37. It was decreed for him!” (II, iv)(ANET, p.78)
The gods selected Gilgamesh from the time he was born for the role of the Shepherd and Bull; the women of the ‘herd’ should bear his children, not those of their husbands.
The same information is conveyed by the Pyramid Texts:
I appear as Sobk, son of Neith, I eat with my mouth, I urinate and copulate with my phallus, I am the owner of seed who takes women from their husbands whenever he wishes, according to his desire (Utt. 317 §510)(Faulkner, p. 99)
In “The Legend of Ptah Nefer-Hetep and the princess of Bekhten” we read:
The Bull brave of heart sends semen, being bull, king and god.
kA \ mn-ib \ hb \ =f \ mtwt \ wn \ kA \ nsw \ nTr
the bull \ stable of heart \ sends \ he \ semen \ being \ bull \ king \ god
(W.Budge, “Legends of the Egyptian gods,” pp, 106-107)
In a Hymn to Amon-Re (Papyrus Boulaq 17, the Cairo Museum, 16th – 14th century BCE) we read the following verses:
Hail to thee, Amon-Re,
Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, Presiding over Karnak,
Bull of His Mother, Presiding over His Field!
…..
The goodly bull of the Ennead, chief of all the gods.(i)
….
In this thy name of Amon, Bull of His Mother;
Maker of all mankind. (x)(ANET, pp, 365, 367)
The expression “Bull of his Mother” is a form of addressing the supreme, self created, god and was known to the Greeks as ‘Καμήφις’ (Kamifis) from the Egyptian “Ka-mut-ef.”
kA \ mwt \ =f
Bull \ mother’s \ his
No creation of any kind of beings is considered possible without sexual intercourse. The common gods can claim to have been begotten by a god, superior or not, but a superior god has nobody to present as his begetter; he, himself, is the only one available.
Who is he? He is Osiris. Otherwise said: His name is Re, the phallus of Re when he copulated with himself
(The Book of the Dead, Papyrus of Any, Ch. 17, plate 7, line 24)
From the Coffin Texts:
O you whom the Bull begot . (Spell 15 §46, Faulkner translating)
To be continued…
Part Two, “Bulls”
The first creatures ever to be “domesticated” were the humans by the so-called gods. The terms “Shepherd” and “flock” are, therefore, used metaphorically when applied to animals and not to humans.
Moreover, if we choose the “metaphorical meaning” explanation we’ll have to apply it to the Bulls too, who came as the result of the material existence of the Shepherds, then to the Judges, to the Messengers and finally to the Angels and the immaterial gods where it cannot be applied.
Diodorus Siculus in his 3rd book of “The Library of History” in paragraphs 56 and 57 recounts a myth of the ancient inhabitants of North Western Africa whom he calls Atlantians (in paragraph 53 Atlas Mountains are mentioned) who “dwell in the regions on the edge of the ocean” and that “it was among them that mythology places the birth of the gods” (No connection whatever with mythical Atlantis).
Diodorus writes:
This is the account given in their myth: Their first king was Uranus, and he gathered the human beings, who dwelt in scattered habitations, within the shelter of a walled city and caused his subjects to cease from their lawless ways and their bestial manner of living.
The entire story can be found in the website
http://archive.org/stream/diodorusofsici...2/mode/2up
in page 263 of the book.
When Uranus passed away his name was given to the heavens and… he had been translated from among men into the circle of the gods.
Μετάστασιν, metastasis is the word used by Diodorus for the transformation of Uranus from man to god.
There were no walled cities at that time so the humans were gathered into pens, camps or enclosures as they are called in the ANE (Ancient Near Eastern) texts.
In the Egyptian funerary texts the place where the flock lives is described as dark and arid in contrast to the place of the residence of the Shepherd which is full of light and running cool waters.
The title of the Book of the Dead is ”Going out into the light” and represents the only thing that those into the pens wish and dream for: to get out of the “Darkness” as they call their place, and be transferred over to the West, to the land of light and serve the Shepherd.
The various recensions of the epic of Gilgamesh at our disposal are younger than the Pyramid texts by from 600 to 1,800 years but they retain a very accurate description of the deeds and behavior of a Shepherd:
11. The men of Uruk fu[me] in [their] cha[mbers (?)]:
12. [Gilgamesh] lea[ves] no son to [his] fath[er];
13. [Day] and [night his] outra[geousness] continues unrestrained
14. [Yet Gilga]mesh [is the shepherd] of Uruk, the enc[losure].
15. He is [our] shepherd, [strong, handsome, and wise].
16. [Gilgamesh] leaves no [virgin to her lover] ,
17. The daughter of the war[rior, the chosen of the noble] ! . (I,ii)
(Aleexander Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels, p.18)
Gilgamesh was acting as Bull as per the orders of the gods:
32.“That with lawful wives he might mate!
33. He is the first,
34. The husband comes after.
35. By the counsel of the gods it has (so) been ordained.
36. With the cutting of his umbilical cord
37. It was decreed for him!” (II, iv)(ANET, p.78)
The gods selected Gilgamesh from the time he was born for the role of the Shepherd and Bull; the women of the ‘herd’ should bear his children, not those of their husbands.
The same information is conveyed by the Pyramid Texts:
I appear as Sobk, son of Neith, I eat with my mouth, I urinate and copulate with my phallus, I am the owner of seed who takes women from their husbands whenever he wishes, according to his desire (Utt. 317 §510)(Faulkner, p. 99)
In “The Legend of Ptah Nefer-Hetep and the princess of Bekhten” we read:
The Bull brave of heart sends semen, being bull, king and god.
kA \ mn-ib \ hb \ =f \ mtwt \ wn \ kA \ nsw \ nTr
the bull \ stable of heart \ sends \ he \ semen \ being \ bull \ king \ god
(W.Budge, “Legends of the Egyptian gods,” pp, 106-107)
In a Hymn to Amon-Re (Papyrus Boulaq 17, the Cairo Museum, 16th – 14th century BCE) we read the following verses:
Hail to thee, Amon-Re,
Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, Presiding over Karnak,
Bull of His Mother, Presiding over His Field!
…..
The goodly bull of the Ennead, chief of all the gods.(i)
….
In this thy name of Amon, Bull of His Mother;
Maker of all mankind. (x)(ANET, pp, 365, 367)
The expression “Bull of his Mother” is a form of addressing the supreme, self created, god and was known to the Greeks as ‘Καμήφις’ (Kamifis) from the Egyptian “Ka-mut-ef.”
kA \ mwt \ =f
Bull \ mother’s \ his
No creation of any kind of beings is considered possible without sexual intercourse. The common gods can claim to have been begotten by a god, superior or not, but a superior god has nobody to present as his begetter; he, himself, is the only one available.
Who is he? He is Osiris. Otherwise said: His name is Re, the phallus of Re when he copulated with himself
(The Book of the Dead, Papyrus of Any, Ch. 17, plate 7, line 24)
From the Coffin Texts:
O you whom the Bull begot . (Spell 15 §46, Faulkner translating)
To be continued…
"Culture is memory"
Yuri Lotman
Yuri Lotman
