the TITANS & early Greek Mythology

[Helios]

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Greek Mythology & Atlantis
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After Plato relates his story, various scholars begin to study the possible connection between Atlantis and Greek mythology. The first analogy can be drawn when the Greeks discuss the great war between the Titans and the Gods "which bulks so largely in Greek mythi-history and art"(Spence 103). The story of Titanomachia, or divine war with Titans, relates that Uranus, the first ruler of the world, casts his sons (the Titans) into Tartarus (the Greek version of hell) along with one eyed Cyclopes. His wife Gaea, however, does not like his decision and urges the Titans to rise against their father and defeat him. They are successful in this endeavor and raise Cronus to the throne. It turns out to be a fatal mistake, for Cronus turns against the Cylops and throws them back into the Tartarus. Afterward, Cronus marries his sister Rhea, but fearing Uranus's and Gaea's prediction that he would be disposed by his own children, he swallows them as they are born. Only one child, Zeus, escapes Cronus. Later Zeus turns against his father, and together with other children (whom Cronus was forced to spit out) overthrows him.

Based on this account, a historian named Diodorus Siculus "applies the story and personnel of the war of the Gods and Titans to the history of Atlantis" (Spence 103). He does so on the grounds of an existing tradition of a great war in the Atlantic Ocean. It is Greek belief that their gods have their origin in the West, and therefore he speculates that a great war might have taken place there. The Titans and the Cyclops are also associated with the West. Another historian, Pomponius Mela, indicates that there was a distinct race of Titans connected with the Atlantic where Atlas was the ruler.
(Spence 103-104)


(Panada "Poseidon") However, the story of Atlantis and the gods does not end here. It continues with Critias' narrative related to us by Plato. According to Plato, after Zeus comes to the throne, he and his siblings divide the earth "into portions, both great and small, and to Poseidon or Neptune, god of the sea, had been awarded the isle of Atlantis, where he begat children by a mortal woman" (Spence 17). Poseidon later shapes the island to his liking, setting up two currents, one hot (presumably the Gulf stream) and one cold, around the island to assist its fertilization. There he has five pairs of twins to whom he gives control of Atlantis (Spence 17).

(Panada "Atlas") Atlas, the oldest child of Poseidon, becomes the ruler of the most precious part of the island, the house on the hill where his mother, Cleito, bore him and all of his siblings. From there he rules the whole island (or continent according to Plato) while his brothers are assigned to govern portions of Atlantis. Atlas himself has many children, including his seven daughters, Pleiades. However, the succession of the throne always passes to the eldest son. Atlas is considered a great ruler, and during his reign Atlantis experiences unprecedented prosperity. To this day the Atlantic Ocean bears his name (Spence 17).


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Alexei Samoilov
Erin Simpson
April 7, 2000 http://www.auburn.edu/~downejm/sp/epsaas/epsaasGreek.html



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[Helios]

Poseidon

He was the son of Cronus and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Pluto, one of the 12 gods of Olympus. At the share of the universal power after Cronus was dethroned, he got the kingdom of the sea. This god had many palaces. One was built by Hephaestus placed on the top of the holly mountain Olympus as well as the other Olympians'. A second one made of stunning gold waited for him in the depth of the sea, where he spent his days and nights with Amphitrite. This palace was placed according to Homer near Aeges, without telling us in which corner of the Aegean Sea he imagines this city. A third one was in the island of Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean where Cleito was his company. This palace was luxurious and Plato describes it in amazing details. There are many myths about his birth and raise. In Arcadia it was said that Rhea delivered Poseidon, hid him in a rack among animals and presented to Cronus a newborn horse as their child. So Cronus swallowed the horse and Poseidon was saved from his father. In Rhodes it was said that Rhea gave the newborn to the Telchines to protect it. They were the first citizens of Rhodes and along with Caphira, daughter of the Ocean raised the sea "god". Another version refers to Herodotus' Theogony. Cronus who swallowed his children swallowed newborn Poseidon. Later Zeus who was the only one who got away beating his father made him puke his children. So Poseidon and his other brothers were released.
The name of Poseidon seems to be etymologically related with the words potos (feast), pontos (open sea) and potamos (river). The adjectives attributed to him were "cyanochetis" (bluemoped) from the color of the sea, "gaeiochus" (surrounding earth) because seawater surrounds earth, "evricrion" that is powerful. Moreover: "anax" (king), "enalios" (marine), "thalassios" (marine), "evrithalassos" (of wide sea). He was the master of all sea deities. He caused all sea phenomena. He caused storms and brought back peace. He was also named "enosigeos", "enosixthon" (earthquake) and "kinaktor geas" (shaking earth), because he caused earthquakes and destroyed rocks with his trident. So in Thessaly for example when Peneus flooded the country the god hit Tempi with his trident and opened a canyon to pour water into the sea. That is why the Thessalians called him "Petreus". His anger was dashing and impetuous, like the element he ruled, to those who expressed disrespect to him. So made Odysseus, since he blinded his son Cyclop Polyphemus, wander in the sea and removed him from his country, until Zeus during the absence of his brother and the other gods helped the miserable hero return home. He hated Troy since when king Laomedotus refused to pay him as he had promised when he built with Apollo the walls of the city. This is why he sent a sea monster against the city and during the siege he supported the Greeks in every way.

Being the "god" of the sea Poseidon could travel by his gold chariot on the waves that open happily as he passes by. At the same time dolphins emerge from the bottom of the sea jumping around their god's chariot. The "god" had given to his son giant Orion the grace to walk on the sea without sinking. A present of his was the fact that the boats of the Faeaks flew above the waves as quickly as the mind of man can think.

The ancient Pelasgians considered Poseidon not only the god of the sea but also generally god of all water on the surface or depths of earth, that is lakes, sources and rivers. He was also called "Ippios" (horsy) because it was said that he created the horse and taught riding. That is why he was considered to be the protector of horse races.

Poseidon and Cleito gave birth to Atlas and other nine sons who made kings dividing the kingdom of the islands of the sea.

The legal wife of Poseidon was the daughter of Oceanus Amphitrite. A dolphin helped him take her by storm. When Poseidon approached her full of desire she got afraid of him and run away to disappear in the sea kingdom of Atlas. Then Poseidon sent many friends of his look for her and one of them was a dolphin who found her in the islands of Atlas, assured her of Poseidon's serious intentions and persuaded her to follow it to meet the sea god. That is why people said Poseidon honored the dolphin since then making it a holly animal and named after it the constellation of Dolphin. He had three children with Amphitrite; Triton with the scaly body and fish tail, Rode who married Sun and gave birth to Phaeton, and Venthesikime. In ancient documents a group of other children has been recorded, whom he had with other goddesses, nymphs and even mortal women who became leaders, warriors, sailors, builders and heroes. We mention some of these children who are relevant to our subject:

He and mortal Tyro had Nileus, king of Pilos and Peleus, king of Iolkos. He and Amimone gave birth to Nauplius, founder of Nauplia, which he surrounded with cyclopean walls. Palaestinus, king of Thrace. He and Oceanid Melivia, who went to Thessaly where he built and named a city after her, gave birth to Pelasgus, founder of the Pelasgians (one of the tribes of the Pregreeks), He and "goddess" Aphrodite gave birth to Rhodes, leader of Rhodes, who survived the cataclysm. ****s, the first builder of Chios. Lelex, leader of the race of Lelegon (one of the tribes of the Pregreeks). He and amazon Evriale gave birth to Orion, hunter of the Pleiades. He is usually mentioned as the father of savages and tough men or monsters (Adeus, Polyphemus, Swan, Vousiridus, Amicus, Coercion and others) or even horses. For example he and mermaid Medusa gave birth to Pegasus, the winged horse and Chrisaorus, father of the three-bodied giant Geryon with the famous oxen whom Hercules killed. The worship of Poseidon was spread all over Greece, south Italy and the ionic islands. To his name they sacrificed white and black bulls, wild boars and rams. They also organized horse races in the Isthmus of Corinth. In south Italy the Romans identified him with the sea god Neptunus.

Historic analysis and comments

About this god as well we find in many things his relation not only with many ancient Greek cities and islands and also with an island in the Atlantic Ocean. From the three mythic versions about his birth and breeding most probable seem to be the two last ones. The one that exists among Rhodesians and the one that Hesiod says: a) Poseidon was born by Cronus and Rhea who lived in the Atlantic Ocean b) the newborn child was either imprisoned in a dark prison by his father (Cronus swallowed him, Hesiod says in the myth), or his mother managed to take him to Rhodes to save him from her husband's anger who "swallowed" her children. Telchines, the first citizens, protected him there and Caphire, who came from the ocean, fed him. So Rhea did not leave him on his own. The same thing happened with Zeus in Crete. When Poseidon grew up, he helped Zeus and the other "gods", who were later named "Olympians", to overthrow the power of the Cronus' and Iapetus' Titans with a ten-year war Titanomachy. When the new "gods" took power and shared the world again by lot Poseidon came into power of sea and water. He became the new king of Atlantis after the previous ones were punished (Atlas, Prometheus and the other sons of Iapetus) and divided it into ten geographical zones for his ten sons he had with Cleito to reign. The Atlantians during the time of Poseidon and his first born son Atlas developed skipping (According to mythology Poseidon traveled by his gold chariot on the waves that opened happily…and his son Orion could walk on the sea without sinking. This proves that the Atlantians built boats). Plato and the Egyptian clergy say that they had 1200 ships whereas Homer mentions automobile ships. Many myths say that Poseidon was the father of strange monsters like for example the winged horse Pegasus. An explanation of this is given if we assume that the Atlantians were the constructors of flying devices (or was it the emblem of Poseidon like the trident or dolphin?). The generation and offspring of Poseidon recorded in ancient documents are a whole group of ancient heroes, leaders, builders, clergy sailors, nymphs and even "gods". But we know that there really was Atlantis, Poseidon was her king. No more than twenty from the so many heroes mentioned, as his children could be his immediate and real offspring. The rest seemed to be deputies of the Atlantians in their colonies. When Atlantis was sank the place from where they took their power deified Poseidon and ruled by right as his offspring so as to continue to rule without any problems. The clergy, that they organized themselves, registered them as sons, daughters or grandchildren of Poseidon.
http://www.atlantida.gr/Eng/enposeidon.htm

[Helios]

Images of the gods of Olympus: http://www.crystalinks.com/olympians.html
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[Helios]

From Atalante:
Chronos,
In your last post, I want to call attention to some "origins".
Your link mentioned a variant in which Poseidon spent his childhood on the island of Rhodes, being raised by the metalworking Telchines, after being hidden from Cronos.

And it is said that Zeus spent his childhood on Crete after being smuggled away from his father Cronos.

In connection to these two variant stories for how the Elder Olympians came into being, the mythical Titan background has been structured by Philo, who claimed (in his History of the Uranides) that Cronos was a reference to the early cultures (7000-2700 BC) in Syria and the Levant: near the regions which would become known as Phoenicia after 1200 BC. Philo equated Cronos with the Semitic god El.

So a substantial part of the Titan themes is that the Titans were living on (and being imprisoned under) the mainland. Whereas Zeus and Poseidon (i.e. the Elder Olympians) were being "liberated" by traveling to offshore islands. I have previously mentioned that Zeus's sister Demeter was assumed to have gone to the island of Sicily.

The island theme continues, in regard to the first two of the Younger Olympians: Artemis and Apollo were born in the Cyclades group, on the island of Delos.

Then Hermes was born on the Peloponnese
(= the "near-island" of Pelops).

Aphrodite was born on the island of Cyprus, from sea-foam.

[This message has been edited by atalante (edited 07-20-2004).]



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[Helios]

Chronos

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   posted 07-28-2004 10:09 AM                       
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Interesting observation about the island theme, Atalante, you clearly have a great interest in mythology as well. Do you have the access passages from those ancient texts so we can read them for ourselves? I find some of the paraphrasing we all tend to do at times taken out of context.


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Posts: 1008 | From: various | Registered: Jul 2004

[Helios]

Chronos

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   posted 07-28-2004 10:10 AM                       
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Much has been said and written about Homer, very little about Hesiod, the author credited with "Theogany", which, is of course, the work where most of the information on the Titans comes from: http://www.greece.org/poseidon/work/argonautika/cosmo4.html
Hesiod
He is one of the oldest Greek poets born in Askra of Boeotia in the 8th century. He wrote two great poems: "Works and Days" and "Theogony". In "Works and Days" he speaks about justice and hard work, which is the only way to success, and he gives advice about agriculture, commerce, navigation as well as about marriage, bringing-up children and other moral and useful precepts. "Theogony" is an Epic which consists of 1022 lines and his author treats the birth and the history of the Greek gods as well as the creation of the Universe.


According to him Chaos was out there first, then Earth, Tartarus - in the depth of Earth -, and last of all Eros (Love). Eros is the natural power which caused the union of the identical parts of matter resulting in the formation of several bodies, and by keeping them united it kept the whole Universe in order. These four elements are mentioned as self made elements and not as coming from each other. By "chaos" Hesiod means the dark which dominated everywhere (or water). From Chaos came forth Erebus and Night and then night bare Aether and Day. And Earth first gave birth to Uranos (Heaven), then Mountains and Pontus. After laying with Uranos she begat six sons: Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus, Cronus (they were called Titans), and six daughters: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys (called Titanides). According to Hesiod, then, Earth could be said to be the centre of the Universe and the matter by which the other bodies were formed.


And again the Earth gave birth to Cyclopes -they had only one eye in the middle of their forehead- and then the Hundred-handed were born, Cottus and Briarus and Gyes, with a hundred arms springing from their shoulders. Uranus hid them all away in the depths of the earth to the great sorrow of his wife Earth who tried to rouse Titans against their father. Cronus, of all the Titans, hated his father most and undertook to punish him. After he punished his father he became the King but because he learnt from Earth that he was destined to be overthrown by his own son he swallowed down his children at birth. He swallowed Hestia, then Demeter and Hera and after them Pluto and Poseidon. His wife Rhea was in deep grief and when she was about to give birth to the youngest of her children, Zeus, she left for Crete.


When Zeus grew up he came against his father with his brothers and sisters who had been brought up again by Cronus after Earth's advice. Zeus, in the meantime, had freed Cyclopes, who gave him the thunder and the glowing lightning, and Hundred-handed who helped him in his fighting against Cronus and Titans. That cruel war was called "Titanomachy" after Titans and ended with Zeus' victory over Cronus. Reading through the lines about Titanomachy in Hesiod's Theogony one cannot but admire the vivid description of that war which makes the reader feel the horror of the war and witness its destructive consequences. Moreover the thunder and the lightning are put before the reader's eyes as the high-powered destructive weapons which were used by Zeus in that appalling war to defeat the enemy.





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Posts: 1008 | From: various | Registered: Jul 2004

[Helios]

From Atalante:
This post is about what comparative mythology can tell us about the "Kingship in Heaven" theme. Several ancient peoples preserved this theme about a sequence of mythical kings --Uranos, Kronos, Zeus. (The Titans are intimately linked to this sequence of 3 deity kingships in Greek mythology.)
In the book titled Myth and Law among the Indo-Europeans (published 1970, edited by Jaan Puhvel) there is a very competent article by C. Scott Littleton which uses comparative mythology to elucidate where we get these stories (and where the ancient Greeks got these stories) about the Titans. So I am borrowing comments from C. Scott Littleton's article.

First lets acknowledge where the experts of comparative mythology tell us the
successive-kingship-revolutions theme was NOT preserved. Not in Indian mythology. Not in Roman or Celtic mythology. Not in Sumerian mythology. Not in Egyptian mythology. And not in west African mythology.

That is a pretty impressive collection of have-nots.

Next let's notice that the group of peoples which DO TELL solid variants of the Kingship in Heaven theme were all located geographically CLOSE TO EACH OTHER.

Babylonian myths have the story, Hurrian-Hittite myths have the story. Phoenician myths have the story. Greek myths have the story. And Germanic-Norse myths have a partial version of the story.

Geographically speaking these comparable Uranos/Kronos/Zeus themes seem to be centered around the Hurrian region; extending as far east as Babylon, as far southwest as Phoenicia; as far northwest as Greece; as far north as the Hittites (and to a lesser degree the Germanic tribes).

Scott Littleton's conclusion was that the Kingship in Heaven theme is probably not an Indo-European theme.

My own conclusion is that comparative mythology reinforces my comments posted yesterday: about the Titans being a reference to the ancient Amorite region (and to an Amorite people) called Ditanu/Tidnum.


[This message has been edited by atalante (edited 07-22-2004).]



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[Helios]

Chronos

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   posted 07-28-2004 10:23 AM                       
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A good point, Atalante, we must investigate the origins of the Titans further.
At this point, I would like to stay with the Titans, yet also "brighten" the topic a little by adding to it, the discussion of ancient sun gods. Our friend Helios should appreciate that. It is worth noting that, in most of the religions of the world, the sun god was always one of the most powerful and important of the pantheons. Ra, with the Egyptians, later to become Amon-Ra, then the Aton. The basis for Akhenaton's monotheism religion was sun worship, the disc in the sky. Of course, the Greeks had two sun gods, Helios first, Apollo later, three if one also counts Hyperion.

[This message has been edited by Chronos (edited 07-22-2004).]



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Posts: 1008 | From: various | Registered: Jul 2004   

[Helios]

The Rays of the Sun God
There is some debate, largely academic, as to whether the emblem on the gold chests found in the royal tomb at Vergina (the "Sunburst" itself), represents a star or the sun. The Perdikkas legend discussed in the previous chapter, together with evidence which will be briefly outlined in this chapter, strongly point to the latter.
The god Helios (=Sun) riding his solar chariot which is drawn by four winged horses. From an ancient Greek vase.

Helios, the sun god of the ancient Greeks, was usually represented riding a chariot which was drawn by four, often winged, horses (see picture below). His chariot rose daily into the heavens from the east and after blazing across the sky plunged into the western sea, thus bringing on the night. The sun's brilliant light emanated from the fiery crown that adorned Helios's head.

The sun god made the frits of the earth ripen - fertility being a common and obvious symbol logical association of the sun. When swearing an oath Greeks would often call upon Helios as a witness, as they believed he "saw and heard everything".

Although originally distinct deities, Helios was confused, as early as the fifth century BC, with Apollo (originally the god of music, the arts, archery, healing and prophecy - and later of light), so that Apollo frequently took on the function of the sun god himself. The epithets Phoebus 'the brilliant", Xanthos "the fair" and Chrysokomes "of the golden locks" used to describe Apollo, point to this solar connection.

The liveliest cult of Helios in the ancient Greek world existed on the island of Rhodes. Each year during the Halieia festival which was celebrated with much splendor and with athletic contests, the Rhodians threw a team of four horses into the sea as a sacrifice to him. In honor of what was effectively their national deity and to commemorate their heroic defense against Demetrius Poliorcetes's array, the people of Rhodes commissioned the celebrated sculptor Chares of Lindos to create a huge statue of Helios.

This statue, which is known to us as the 'Colossus of Rhodes", was one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was completed in 292 BC, twelve years after work began on it. It stood at the entrance of Rhodes's harbor and was over 35 meters tall. Helios was represented with a crown of sun-rays, a spear in his left hand and a flaming torch held aloft in his right, as depicted in the illustration by Roger Payne (below). Descriptions of this ancient statue inspired the design of France's gift to the people of the USA in 1884 - the Statue of Liberty as the inscription at the base of this New York landmark acknowledges.

Less than a century after its completion (in 224 BC), an earthquake destroyed the statue and it was never again erected. The metal was finally sold for scrap in 653 AD.

The rays emanating from the sun god's head, as they must have appeared on the Rhodian statue's crown, and as we know them to actually be depicted on surviving works of art, reinforce the conviction that the inspiration for the Sunburst derives from the traditional representation of the Greek sun god Helios. It is not difficult to see that stylized rays emanating from a fiery core is in fact a shorthand reference to this solar deity rather than to a star.

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[Helios]

UTU (SHAMASH)
THE SUN LORD
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Utu is the Sumerian Sun God, whose Akkadian name is Shamash. He represents the brilliant light of the sun, which returns every day to illuminate the life of mankind, as well as the heavenly Force that brings the warmth which causes plants to grow. Utu´s pictographic sign appears already in the earliest written cuneiform records.

Several Old Sumerian kings speak of Utu as their king, and this can be attested by the kings´ name forms, which may include the name of the god or his epithets in it. In the Sumerian tradition, Utu is the son of Nanna, the Moon Lord and his consort Ningal, and twin brother of Inanna, the Great Goddess of Love and War, showing therefore that the Light of the Day came from the Torch of the Night and the Lady of Dreams. Nanna and Ningal had another son, the patron god of weather changes and holder of thunderbolts, Ishkur or Adad, Utu´s younger brother. In Akkadian tradition, Utu/Shamash is sometimes the son of Anu, the Skyfather, or Enlil, the Air Lord. Utu´s consort is Sherida (Sumer) or Aya (Akkadian for dawn). The two principal temples of Utu were both called E-babbar, or White House, and were located in Sippar (in the North) and Larsa in Southern Sumer. Thorkild Jacobsen mentions in The Treasures of Darkness that Utu´s/Shamash´s main characteristics is Righteousness, for He is the power in the light that reveals all that is to be seen, and the foe of darkness and deeds of darkness. Thus, in the social plane, Utu becomes a power for justice and equity.

Utu´s social role is therefore as guardian of justice, as judge of gods and men. In such position, he presides in the morning in cournts such as the one we know from the Bathhouse Ritual, where demons and other evildoers are sued by their human victims. At night, Utu/Shamash judges disputes among the dead of the Underworld. He is the last appeal of the wronged, who can obtain no justice from their fellow men, and their cry of despair to him, i-Utu, was feared as possessing supernatural power.

Basically, each morning Utu rises from the 'interior of heaven' with rays out of his shoulders in the East and crosses the firmament and all heavenly luminaries before finally reentering through the corresponding set of gates in the west. This means the Sun god travels to the Underworld everyday, becoming one of its Luminaries of the Land of No Return during nightime. Thus, Utu/Shamash is one of the Ever-Returning Deities of Mesopotamia, who travel to the Depths Below entering its Gates at Sunset and returning to brighten up the Heights Above at dawn every single day. The West Gates where the Sun sets in the Epic of Gilgamesh are said to be guarded by the Scorpion People, beings half human, half scorpion, the first Otherworld challengers Gilgamesh had to meet and win over in his search for immortality. Utu/Shamash travels the skies either on foot or in a chariot, pulled by fiery mules. His domain is called in The Phoenician Letters (by Wilfrid Davies and G. Zur, Mowat Publishing, Manchester, UK, 1979) the High Country, the heavenly sphere where the stars can be found.

In terms of character, Utu/Shamash is the Light that All Sees, and thus regarded as a god of truth, justice, and right. Thus his association to law and order, as well as a provider of clarity for oracles. I guess we could very much express the law-giving powers of Utu/Shamash as being the Spirit or Soul of the Law, i.e. He rules over the facts and acts which should guide righteous living, the standards for truthful action and deeds in the world, thus being the god for omens and oracles, because His is also the Will of the Ensouled Universe. Marduk, on the other hand, can be associated with the Law in the sense of being the Letter of the Law, the power that should be applied to Perfection to ensure the prosperity of the land. What the Spirit of the Law dictates (Utu/Shamsh) is accomplished by the coding of Harmonious Living, or the Power of Marduk. Utu/Shamash together with the storm-god Adad, he was often invoked in extispicy rituals.

THE SUN GOD IN MYTH

In Mesopotamian myths, Utu/Shamash is mentioned as follows:

a) The Brother and Best Friend - As the brother Inanna/Ishtar, the young goddess of Love and War, Utu appears as friend and initiator, the emblematic representative of the opposite Sex in the peer group, or the brother closer to the age of his younger sister, who loves her and challenges her as well so that she has to find within her own self in all worlds the guts to equal him in all levels and spheres. Utu in this context is the Best Friend and Beloved Challenger, whose otherness help us to define ourselves better in opposition to what he is. This .

Thus, in a passage called The Huluppu Tree, the first in the Cycle of Inanna, Utu refuses to help his kid sister to defeat the treacherous bird and the demoness who had searched for shelter in the Tree Inanna had planted in her garden for her people. Utu/Shamash by refusing to help his divine sister acts in her best interests, because in Mesopotamia a young goddess should be initiated by the hero, as well as young prince is initiated by goddess. He appears therefore as the Contender who wants Inanna/us to succeed by her/our own means and initiative, the brother that will not give us an easy time, but who will also stand by us, in case he feels we cannot handle the situation, but only then...

We also meet Utu again in a second lovely passage of the Cycle of Inanna called "The Bridal Sheets". In it, Utu/Shamash comes to his sister and tells her that he will bring her a piece of linen, "which is always needed". In actual fact, Utu is not talking about linen, but referring to his pet sister, who like the piece of cloth which was once flax and then was retted, spun, dyed, woven, etc. has become a lovely girl, ready to meet her beloved. In this myth, Utu/Shamash represents the peer group, the acknowledgement and acceptance all teenagers crave from the opposite Sex that helps to encourage confidence in the Lover Within ourselves. In this passage, we can feel in the exchanges the intimacy and closeness between brother and sister.

b) The Protector of Dumuzi - We meet Utu/Shamash still in the Cycle of Inanna in a passage when Dumuzi, Inanna´s consort, is terrified by the fact that Inanna sentenced him to the Underworld for being neglectful of her. Thus, two Underworld demons called galla are after him. In order to escape his fate, Dumuzi appeals to Utu for help to escape the demons by remembering the God of Justice that by marriage to Inanna, Utu is Dumuzi´s brother-in-law, thus kin to Dumuzi as well. Utu comes for the rescue of the selfish shepherd-king.


c) As the Personal God of Gilgamesh - In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utu/Shamash is Gilgamesh´s personal god. The king of Uruk prays to Shamash when he and Enkidu decide to defeat Humbaba, the guardian of the Cedar Forest. It is to Him that Enkidu and Gilgamesh offer sacrifices in thanksgiving for the defeat of the Bull of Heaven Inanna/Ishtar sent to battle them in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

d) In the myth of Etana, the eagle and the snake break an oath of friendship celebrated between them in the presence of Utu/Shamash. An oath to the God who represented The Spirit of the Law was a serious undertaking. Once broken, the guilty part should suffer strong punishment, and The eagle betrays the snake in the most fundamental way by slaughtering the snake´s offspring and destroying the snake´s nest. Thus, the eagle ihas to pay for his wrondoing by having to endure enormous suffering emprisioned in a deep pit, and then can only find redemption by having to help Etana, the king, to fly to the Heights Above and capture the Plant of Life to accomplish his dream of an heir and son. Etana in this context stands for the king and solar consciousness, the solar disc being a symbol of sacred kingship especially in Assyria.

e) Last but surely not least, in the myth Enki and the World Order, where civilisation is established and organised by Enki, the God of Sweet Waters, Magick, Crafts and Wisdom, Enki places Utu in charge of the entire universe, and states that:

"The valiant Utu [is] the herald of the holy Anu the judge, the decision-maker of the gods, who wears a lapis lazuli beard, who comes from the holy heaven, born of Ningal, Enki placed in charge of the entire universe" (lines374-379).
http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/gods/lords/lordutu.html

[Helios]

Mandulis
Manulis was a sun god of Lower (northern) Nubia. He is usually depicted wearing a crown of ram horns surmounted by high plumes, sun disks and cobras. His name in Egyptian inscriptions is "Merwel" but the Greek version, as found in the text known as the "Vision of Mandulis" is used almost universally.

Left: The Ba of Mandulis; Right: Mandulis from Kalabsha

A chapel to Mandulis existed on the island of Philae off the eastern colonnade approaching the temple of Isis, a goddess who seems to be regarded at least as his close companion. But it is in the temple of Kalabsha (now moved to a location just above the High Dam at Aswan), the most impressive monument in Lower Nubia from the Graeco-Roman period, that the best evidence of the cult of Mandulis can be found. Constructed on the site of an earlier New Kingdom sanctuary, Kalabsha (ancient Talmis) took its present form during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus. Mandulis, as represented on its walls, does not seem at all out of place among the other members of the Egyptain pantheon placed in his company. From the "Vision of Mandulis" we find the unforced equation of this Nubian solar deity to Egyptian Horus and to the Greek Apollo. http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/mandulis.htm

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The official recognition of sun worship in the Roman Empire began during the time of Aurelian when he instituted the cult of "Sol invictus". The cult of Sol Invictus and that of Mithra are virtually the same.
In the year 307 A.D. Emperor Diocletian, a sun worshipper, was involved in the dedication of a temple to Mithra and was responsible for the burning of scripture which made it possible for later emperors to formulate their own version of "Christianity."

After the rein of Diocletian, Emperor Constantine, while claiming to be a Christian maintained the title "Pontifus Maximus" the high priest of paganism. His coins were inscribed: "SOL INVICTO COMITI" (COMMITTED TO THE INVINCIBLE SUN).

During his reign pagan sun worship was blended with the worship of the Creator, and officially entitled "Christianity."

Cybele the Phrygian goddess, known to her followers as "the mother of god", was closely related to the worship of Mithra. As Mithraism was a man’s religion, the worship of Cybele was practiced by the women. The priests of Mithra were known as "Fathers" and the Priestesses of Cybele as "Mothers."

After baptism into the Mysteries of Mithra, the initiate was marked on the forehead. The sign of the cross formed by the elliptic and the celestial equator was one of the signs of Mithra.

Sunday (Deis Solis), the day of the sun, was considered by Mithraist a sacred day of rest.

December 25th was celebrated as the birth of the sun, given birth by the "Queen of Heaven" - "Mother of god."

The Mithraists celebrated a mithraic love feast. This feast consisted of loaves of bread decorated with crosses with wine over which the priest pronounced a mystic formula.

Mithra was considered mediator between god and man.

Mithraists also believed in eternal life in heaven and in the torture of the wicked after death. Many of these beliefs and rituals were exclusive to Mithraism and up until the fourth century were not a part of the Christian faith. Only those in accordance with the commandments of God could possibly be in honor of Christ.

In the 4th century, through confusion and manipulation, rituals of "sun worship" were pronounced, by the followers of Satan to be "Christian" in nature.

There is no Biblical support for the inclusion of Mithraic ritual, which is the worship of Satan, in the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Creator of heaven and earth. It is a Satanic scheme to disguise the transgression of God’s laws under the title of "Christianity".

This same system, characterized by the shrouding of truth in secrecy and the manipulation of the truth in order to achieve its ends, has been working for two millennia to combine paganism with Christianity.

The mystery of iniquity is at work and it only takes a little leaven to leaven http://www.toolong.com/sol.htm

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RA - THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SUN GOD
The great Egyptian empire prospered by and thus worshipped the source of energy that gave life to their people. The design of Solar Navigator's figure head is partly inspired by their beautiful Queen, Cleopatra, while drawing modern influences from the faces of today.

Ra was regarded as the creator of everything, the god of the sun. Ra is usually represented with the body of a man and the head of a hawk, holding an ankh & sceptre. The chief location of Ra worship was Heliopolis (a Greek word meaning city of the sun).


Horus: The ancient Egyptian god of the sun, son of Osiris and Isis, represented as having the head of a hawk or falcon.
Osiris: One of the principal divinities of Egypt, the brother and husband of Isis. The god of the underworld and judge of the dead.

Isis: The principal goddess worshiped by the Egyptians. She was regarded as the mother of Horus, and the sister and wife of Osiris. The Egyptians adored her as the goddess of fecundity, and as the great benefactress of their country, who instructed their ancestors in the art of agriculture.


Re - (Ra)
Egyptian sun god and creator god. He was usually depicted in human form with a falcon head, crowned with the sun disc encircled by the uraeus (a stylized representation of the sacred cobra). The sun itself was taken to be either his body or his eye. He was said to traverse the sky each day in a solar barque and pass through the underworld each night on another solar barque to reappear in the east each morning. His principal cult centre was at Heliopolis ("sun city"), near modern Cairo. Re was also considered to be an underworld god, closely associated in this respect with Osiris. In this capacity he was depicted as a ram-headed figure.


By the third millennium B.C. Re's prominence had already become such that the pharaohs took to styling themselves "sons of Re". After death, the Egyptian monarch was said to ascend into the sky to join the entourage of the sun god. According to the Heliopolitan cosmology, Re was said to have created himself, either out of a primordial lotus blossom, or on the mound that emerged from the primeval waters. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), who in turn engendered the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. Re was said to have created humankind from his own tears and the gods Hu (authority) and Sia (mind) from blood drawn from his own ****. Re was often combined with other deities to enhance the prestige of the latter, as in Re-Atum, Amun-Re, or in the formula "Re in Osiris, Osiris in Re".
http://www.solarnavigator.net/egyptian_sun_god_ra.htm

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The Aten - The Sun Disc

The Aten is shown here reaching down with rays in the form of hands to touch Nefertiti and Akhenaten.

Ra lives, the ruler of the horizon, rejoicing in the horizon in his aspect of Ra the father who returns as the Aten

- later reading of the name of the Aten, appearing in the ninth year of Akhenaten's reign
The Aten was not a new invention of Akhenaten - rather, it was portrayed as a sun disc even in his father's time. It has been identified with various pharaohs in previous times, and it has even be argued that Akhenaten equated the Aten with his father, Amenhotep III. Others believe Akhenaten hated his father, as he removed his name from monuments when he took power.

Akhenaten worshipped the Aten as the sun, and gave many offerings; in fact, a regular grid of 920 mud-brick offering tables has been found south of one of the large temples. While Akhenaten was still at Thebes, he built temples there also, many showing Nefertiti performing as the Aten's high priest. However, the common people did not worship the Aten directly, it is believed. Rather, they worshipped Akhenaten himself as the semi-divine son of the Aten. Or perhaps we should say, Akhenaten wished them to worship him. For the religious reformations had little affect on the common people. Even at Akhet-Aten, in the workman's village prayers to Amun have been found. The commoners continued to live according to their old relgious customs.

Akhenaten is said to have written the very beautiful Great Hymn to the Aten, which has been compared to Psalm 104. It was found inscribed in the tomb of an important court figure, Aye. The beauty of the art and writing devoted to the Aten, and Akhenaten's own charisma, stirs the hearts of many. Since Akhenaten tried to move his kingdom toward apparent monotheism, much speculation has led some to believe Moses met Akhenaten or even that Moses is Akhenaten. Also, the Rosicrucian Order and many other cults and religions trace their roots to the cult of the Aten. Even more wild speculation has taken place: for instance, that Tutankhamun is Jesus! http://www.kate.stange.com/egypt/aten.htm

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From Apollo:
List of all the Sun Gods
African:
Liza
Armenian:
Mihr
Mehr
Meher

Aztec:
Tonatiuh
Huitzilochtli

Basque:
Lur
Ekhi
Eguzki

Bella Coola:
Alk'umta'm

Celts:
Lugh

Chinese:
Ten Suns

Egyptian:
Horus
Horus Harmenti
Horus Harakte
Horus Bahdety
Horus Harmakhis
Horus Haroeris

Estruscan:
Cautha

Fon:
Lisa

Greek:
Apollo

Hindu:
Dhatar
Ansoi
Surya Dev
Garunda
Vivasvat

Hittite:
Arinna
Ariniddu
Arinnitti
Warusemn
Istaru

Hurrite:
Smimigi

Inca:
Inti
Punchau

Inuit:
Malina

Japanese:
Wakahiru-me
Hiruko
Amaterasu
Marisha-Tzn

Mamairuan:
Kuat

Mayan:
Ah Kin
Kinich Ahua
Mayan:
Kinich Kakmo
Ah Kinchil

Navajo:
Tsohanoai

Norse:
Freyr

Polinesian:
Maui

Pueblo:
Tawa

Roman:
Apollo

Seran:
Tuwak

Slavs:
Radogast

Sumerian:
Shamash

Tibetan:
Kyun-gai mGo-can

Ugaritic:
Shapash

Uratian:
Siwini

Vedic:
Varitar http://library.thinkquest.org/15215/Culture/gods_list.html



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