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Yam (god)
Yam (sometimes Yamm; ; “sea”) was a god representing the sea and other sources of water worshiped in various locations on the eastern Mediterranean coast, as well as further inland in modern Syria. He is best known from the Ugaritic texts. While he was a minor deity in Ugaritic religion, he is nonetheless attested as a recipient of offerings, and a number of theophoric names invoking him have been identified. He also played a role in Ugaritic mythology. In the '' Baal Cycle'' he is portrayed as an enemy of the weather god, Baal. Their struggle revolves around attaining the rank of the king of the gods. The narrative portrays Yam as the candidate favored by the senior god El, though ultimately it is Baal who emerges victorious. Yam nonetheless continues to be referenced through the story after his defeat. In texts from other archaeological sites in Syria, attestations of Yam are largely limited to theophoric names. In Emar he was among the many deities venerated during a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ugarit
Ugarit (; , ''ủgrt'' /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient port city in northern Syria about 10 kilometers north of modern Latakia. At its height it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. It was discovered by accident in 1928 with the Ugaritic texts. Its ruins are often called Ras Shamra after the headland where they lie. History Ugarit saw its beginnings in the Neolithic period, the site was occupied from the end of the 8th millennium BC and continued as a settlement through the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. It was during the late bronze age that Ugarit experienced significant growth, culminating in the establishment of the Kingdom of Ugarit. The city had close connections to the Hittite Empire, in later times as a vassal, sent tribute to Ancient Egypt, Egypt at times, and maintained trade and diplomatic connections with Cyprus (then called Alashiya), documented in the archives recovered from the site and corroborated by Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean and Cyp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astarte
Astarte (; , ) is the Greek language, Hellenized form of the Religions of the ancient Near East, Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic languages, East Semitic goddess Ishtar. Astarte was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity, and her name is particularly associated with her worship in the ancient Levant among the Canaanite religion, Canaanites and Phoenician religion, Phoenicians, though she was originally associated with Amorite cities like Ugarit and Emar, as well as Mari, Syria, Mari and Ebla. She was also celebrated in ancient Egyptian religion, Egypt, especially during the reign of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Ramessides, following the importation of foreign cults there. Phoenicians introduced her cult in their colonies on the Iberian Peninsula. Name The Proto-Semitic language, Proto-Semitic form of this goddess's name was . While earlier scholars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comparative Mythology
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychoanalytical theories. The comparative study of mythologies reveals the trans-national motifs that unify spiritual understanding globally. The significance of this study generates a "broad, sympathetic understanding of these 'stories' in human history". The similarities of myths remind humanity of the universality in the human experience. Background Anthropologist C. Scott Littleton defined comparative mythology as "the systematic comparison of myths and mythic themes drawn from a wide variety of cultures". By comparing different cultures' mythologies, scho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greco-Roman World
The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were directly and intimately influenced by the language, culture, government and religion of the ancient Greece, Greeks and ancient Rome, Romans. A better-known term is classical antiquity. In exact terms the area refers to the History of the Mediterranean region, "Mediterranean world", the extensive tracts of land centered on the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, the "swimming pool and spa" of the Greeks and the Romans, in which those peoples' cultural perceptions, ideas, and sensitivities became dominant in classical antiquity. That process was aided by the universal adoption of Greek language, Greek as the language of intellectual culture and commerce in the Eastern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoenicia
Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian coast. They developed a Maritime history, maritime civilization which expanded and contracted throughout history, with the core of their culture stretching from Arwad in modern Syria to Mount Carmel. The Phoenicians extended their cultural influence through trade and colonization throughout the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula, evidenced by thousands of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, Phoenician inscriptions. The Phoenicians directly succeeded the Bronze Age Canaanites, continuing their cultural traditions after the decline of most major Mediterranean basin cultures in the Late Bronze Age collapse and into the Iron Age without interruption. They called themselves Canaanites and referred to their land as Canaan, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euhemeristic
In the fields of philosophy and mythography, euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exaggerated in the retelling, accumulating elaborations and alterations that reflect cultural mores. It was named after the Greek mythographer Euhemerus, who lived in the late 4th century BC. In the more recent literature of myth, such as '' Bulfinch's Mythology'', euhemerism is termed the "historical theory" of mythology. Euhemerus was not the first to attempt to rationalize mythology in historical terms: euhemeristic views are found in earlier writings including those of Sanchuniathon, Xenophanes, Herodotus, Hecataeus of Abdera and Ephorus. However, the enduring influence of Euhemerus upon later thinkers such as the classical poet Ennius (b. 239 BC) and modern author Antoine Banier (b. 1673 AD) iden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hellenistic Period
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the Roman conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt the following year, which eliminated the last major Hellenistic kingdom. Its name stems from the Ancient Greek word ''Hellas'' (, ''Hellás''), which was gradually recognized as the name for Greece, from which the modern historiographical term ''Hellenistic'' was derived. The term "Hellenistic" is to be distinguished from "Hellenic" in that the latter refers to Greece itself, while the former encompasses all the ancient territories of the period that had come under significant Greek influence, particularly the Hellenized Middle East, after the conquests of Alexander the Great. After the Macedonian conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philo Of Byblos
Philo of Byblos (, ''Phílōn Býblios''; ; – 141), also known as Herennius Philon, was an antiquarian writer of grammatical, lexicon, lexical and historical works in Greek language, Greek. He is chiefly known for his Phoenician history assembled from the writings of Sanchuniathon. Life Philo was born in the 1st century in Byblos in what is now Lebanon. "He lived into the reign of Hadrian, of which he wrote a history, now lost." His name "Herennius" suggests that he was a client of the ''consul suffectus'' Herennius Severus through whom Philo may have achieved the status of a Roman citizen. Works Philo wrote a dictionary of synonyms, a collection of scientific writers and their works organized by category, a catalogue of cities with their famous citizens, and a ''Vita'' of the Emperor Hadrian. Some of his work is known to us by titles only; others have survived in fragmentary quotes in Christian authors. Among his works were: *''On the Acquisition and Choice of Books'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israelites
Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations and other peoples.Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (c. 1200–1000 BCE). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture ... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period." (pp. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Semitic Languages
The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, Chapter V page 425 The grouping supported by Semiticists like Robert Hetzron and John Huehnergard divides the Semitic language family into two branches: Eastern and Western. The West Semitic languages consist of the clearly defined sub-groups: |
Yahweh
Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Israel, and the king of the gods, head of the Pantheon (religion), pantheon of the Polytheism, polytheistic Yahwism, Israelite religion. Although there is no clear consensus regarding the geographical origins of the deity, scholars generally hold that Yahweh was associated with Mount Seir, Seir, Edom, Desert of Paran, Paran, and Teman (Edom), Teman, and later with Canaan. The worship of the deity reaches back to at least the early Iron Age, and likely to the late Bronze Age, if not somewhat earlier. In the oldest Bible, biblical texts, Yahweh possesses attributes that were typically ascribed to deities of weather and war, fructifying the Land of Israel and leading a Heavenly host#Hebrew Bible, heavenly army against the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" . '' Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; ; or ), also known in Hebrew as (; ), is the canonical collection of scriptures, comprising the Torah (the five Books of Moses), the Nevi'im (the Books of the Prophets), and the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
