Goddesses of the Middle East Essay

The fictionical legends skirt the deitydesses of the Middle eastmost date rear end to around 2500 B. C and form a part of some of the earliest recorded literature about superannuated cultures. These legends centre around the cleric Entities worshipped and idolise in mingled sub regions in what was at once know as the Ancient in effect(p) East but straight off is cognize as the Middle East. Though the religious beliefs in these regions were characteristic and each Civilization followed their own Gods and Goddesses close to of these divine entities reacted to gentle conditions and were a product of the cultures that created them.As these cultures evolved oer time, so did the Gods and Goddesses who protected and created them. Some of the heavy(p) organized faiths and civilizations whos Divine Entities were revere and worshipped in the region known as the Ancient Near East includes (Gordon 1965) Assyro-Babylonian religion followed in some of Mesopotamia include Sumer , Assyria, Akkad Ancient Egyptian religion followed in Ancient Egypt Canaanite religion followed in most of the Levant region including Canaan, Ugarit, Ebla, Mitanni Hittite, and Hurrian Religions originating in Anatolia and followed by the Hittite Empire including Assuwa, Arzawa Minoan religion followed by the Minoan civilization including Cyprus and Crete among others. The goddess in early classical fictionology has tradition anyy played the eccentric of a creator. She is believed to absorb existed before e reallything and has been credited with creating both heaven and earth as hearty as giving birth to both other gods and subsequently to human beings.In nearly all early civilizations the Goddess symbolized noble and basic concepts such as birth, death, honour, and justice. She was revered for her divine beauty and in addition for protecting her preserve and children. While the male gods were relegated the duties of guarding the underworld, it was the goddesses who were given the responsibilities of providing comfort and standing guard over the dead until they were given a funeral and send to the underworld.Most of the civilizations visualized above sprung up around great rivers in the Middle east including, the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, and Ganges. The mien of these rivers nourished a rich agri heathen landscape and provided sustenance to agricultural gave civilizations which were predominantly matriarchal societies. (Sasson 1995) These civilizations were heavily influenced by both the blessings and ravages of nature. The rivers that they depended upon for sustenance would both give them abundant crops and wreck immense mayhem and destruction in the form of devastating floods.People in these civilizations believed that there was a nexus between their lives and the pattern of birth maturity death and re-birth that they observed in the plants and animals around them. The religious beliefs of most of these civilizations compelled them to worship or hold sacred what they thought provided them life and sustenance and also protected them from ravages and destruction the importance of goddesses in the myths and religious beliefs of these civilizations reflected this.The myths and legendary tales of powerful beautiful goddesses who had magical powers and tameled the various forces of nature helped t the people of these superannuated civilizations understand the mysteries that pervaded their existence, birth, death, seasons, floods, harvests and drought all made so much more sense when they believed that there was a Supreme or Divine Deity who controlled it all and who they could appease finished worship and prayer. In most of these matriarchal societies, this supreme deity was the owing(p) Mother Goddess, who personified all the blessings and peculiarities of Mother world.Though there are unbounded Goddesses who were revered and worshiped in the ancient civilizations of the Middle East the most usual and common ones w ho were personified in the intent of being creators, sustainers and the universal line of descent of commissariat include( saviour 1998) Asherah This is one of the names of the Sacred Goddess worshiped by the ancient Semitic Civilizations. different names of this Great Goddess include Goddess of the Tree of Life, Goddess of the Grove. Wet-nurse of the gods.among many others This Goddess worshiped wide in Canaanite religion followed in most of the Levant region was symbolized by a multi branched tree and considered the very force of life that could be found in flocks of cattle and among groves of trees. This Goddess was practically worshipped before accouchement and at planting time to grant sustenance. In popular mythology Asherah sometimes appears as curly-haired Goddess riding a sacred lion often safekeeping lilies. Ishtar Another very famous and popular Babylonian Goddess often known as Light of the World.Righteous judge, Forgiver of Sins and the Framer of all decrees are also few of her other offices and names that she was worshipped by. This Great Goddess is often depicted in breast-offering pose and is also known as the Mother of the plentiful breast. Inanna was a very powerful Sumerian Goddess who was believed to provide earth with its source of life-water. Often called the reference point of the Earths life blood it was believed by the ancient civilizations that this Goddess filled the wells, rivers and springs of the land with her own bloodIsis- a very popular and powerful Goddess worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians Isis is perhaps the most famous of all Ancient Middle Eastern Goddesses. Some sources state that her name doer She of throne, while other sources imply that her name means She of flesh. Isiss was revered for using her powers of magic and healing to help good- bequeath Ashnan She was the ancient Sumerian Goddess of Grain who controlled agricultural sustenance for the civilizations that worshipped her. Belit-Ilani idolise b y the ancient Babylonian this Goddess was often held in esteem as the Mistress of the gods.In popular depictions she is portrayed as a cleaning woman bearing baby on her left arm and blessing a child with her left. Anath Worshipped by Canaanites, Amorites, Syrians, Egyptians, Hebrews and the Phoenicians. This Goddess symbolized the strength of Life and was the Queen of paradise and also the Mistress of all the Gods. Anatu She was the Great Mesopotamian Goddess, often considered the Ruler of the Earth and Queen of the Sky. Chaabou was held in high reverence by the Semitic religion and relegated as Earth Mother prudent for(p) for sustenance and nourishment. Achamoth Worshipped by the Early Gnostic Christians.She was the Mother Goddess, who was responsible for giving birth and was the good creator of the material universe, Deborah was the Sacred Goddess worshiped frequently in the Mycenae and Anatolia regions often determine with the Tree of Life. Erua was the Babylonian Go ddess often revered as the Queen of Heaven. She was responsible for controlling the birth of all creatures big and small in her land. gula was another popular Babylonian Great Goddess who was also known as the Fate Goddess and the Great Doctor who was believed to cure any kind of disorder or ailment .Lahmu- a famous Goddess in Akkadian mythology, who is considered to be the render of Anshar and Kishar, who are credited to keep up fathered the first Gods of that great ancient civilization. Iranian mythology which also plays a part of ancient Middle Eastern Mythology also held the Goddess. Rudaba in great esteem. This Goddess gave birth to Rostam, the greatest hero in Persian mythology. Derceto was the Babylonian Sea Goddess also known as the Goddess of Justice. Kadi was a Babylonian Goddess believed to sustain the body of a Serpent and the head and breasts of a Woman.Mari was revered as the Mother Sea, who gave birth to the gods, Shebat was worshipped as the Mesopotamian Moon Goddess responsible for bringing night after day. Tirgata was revered as Fish Goddess of Syria who controlled the sea and all life within it As these Civilization evolved so did the role of their gods and goddesses. By 2400 B. C religious and devotional practices began to change as fast-growing(a) tribes with strong beliefs in worshipping a supreme male god began to combat the matriarchal communities whose supreme diets were Goddesses .New myths developed in which these goddesses were made curse, hit or made inferior to the patriarchic god of the conquerors. The goal in creating these myths was to defame and to dethrone the goddess from her traditional role of Creator and sustainers and to give this role to a rising generation of patriarchal warrior Gods who influenced the world by dint of valour and heroic endeavour. As a direct consequence the role of the Goddess in the Patriarchal societies underwent a change from being a pleasant supreme deity to a vengeful, spiteful E ntity who had to be either off or made rank to the male gods in order to control her powers.Many Ancient Babylonian and Mesopotamian Goddesses who were once revered as the Source of Life and Sustenance was discredited slain or made subordinate to a virgin patriarchal male warrior God. (Christ 1998) One example of how ancient myths of Goddesses changed in patriarchal societies is the legend of the Mesopotamian divinity Tiamat. Revered by the ancient Sumero-Babylonian civilization as a Serpent Goddess of the Watery Abyss a Mother, from whose formless body the Universe was born. She was believed to nourish all life and rule the ocean.Tiamat, in her role as Mother Goddess and Mother Earth, reflected the matriarchal civilization that created her. (Christ 1998) In a patriarchal society the role of Tiamat and the legend surrounding her changes drastically. According to these new myths The Goddess once credited with the creation of the Universe is low when her husband Appu is slain and decides to destroy what she has created. She gives birth to a race of evil monsters to help in her quest. Together the Goddess and her army of monsters wreck chaos and havoc on all around them.There is no one who notify stop Tiamat until Marduk accepts the challenge. In violent battle, Marduk manages to wedge open the mouth of the snake in the grass goddess and fill it with winds of a horrible storm. While the serpent goddess is distracted he slains her by cutting her womb. After killing the Goddess the patriarch warrior feels glorified. He past desecrates the womb that previous mythologies and civilizations revered as the Source of All Life. The myth ends by establishing that the supreme deity is now male and that he and his cohorts of warrior Gods will now be responsible for protecting the civilization.In a patriarchal society the role of the God is relegated from giving birth and nurturing traditionally seen as motherly tasks to being the protector traditionally seen as fatherl y tasks The roles of the goddesses in these societies were reduced to subservient status In the new patriarchal civilization, the myths regarding the Goddesses were recreated and often retold till they achieved credibility and became part of a new folklore designed to crowd the religion of the new civilization.In this fashion countless legendary myths personation the creative, nurturing and forgiving nature of the female goddesses were desecrated and in their place grew new myths propounding their evil deeds. In many of these myths the goddess is first discredited and then occupied in battle with the patriarch God. At the end the Patriarch God achieves victory over the Goddess and she is either slain or looses her powers. Another myth which was refashioned along these lines was that of Hathor an Ancient Egyptian Goddess.Hathor, in Ancient Egyptian mythology was revered as the goddess responsible for evoking emotions such as joy, love, dance and song. (Christ 1998) She is fabled to befool provided her own nurturing milk to the living and also carried the dead to the underworld. just somewhere in mythology the Hathor who is revered for her very instincts of Love and joy is also multicoloured as a demon that wrecks death and destruction on Humanity.performing on the directives of the sun god, Ra, who was under the impression that some of his subjects were planning to tear him Hathor was sent on a mission to destroy the plotters Hathor who also manifested herself in the guise of a lioness known as Sekhmet, attacked all the plotters killing them instantly. Ra was forced to intervene to stop the bloodshed by tricking Sekhmet into believing that she had killed a lot of people so by pouring a enormous amount of pomegranate coloured tranquil over the battlefield .Sekhmet mistook the liquid for blood stopped the slaughter and transformed back into her goddess form of Hathor. It is humorous in the least to observe that in cultures where the feminine spirit has evermore been seen as nurturing, loving and creative the role of goddesses of mythology is associated with evil deeds. Perhaps these mythologies generate been restructured to assimilate in Patriarchal Societies where the god is associated with social order and discipline.But regardless of their role in mythology many famous Goddesses of the Middle East continue to live in popular imaginations even though the religions and cults associated with them have now been banished. Though the Middle East is now home to new religions such as Christianity Judaism and Islam and the age of idol worship and plural Gods is over, these deities have become part of the common folklore. The Worship of these Goddesses may now be defunct but their legend lives on and continues to pervade subsequent cultural practices in these regions.Works Cited Gordon, Cyrus. The Ancient Near East, 3rd Edition, Revised. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. , New York, 1965. Christ Carol Rebirth of the Goddess Finding Meaning in Feminist spiritualism Routledge 1st edition 1998 James. E. O. The Ancient Gods The History and Diffusion of Religion in the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean, 1960. Sasson Jack Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. Charles Scribners Sons, New York, 1995. Morton Smith, The Common Theology of the Ancient near East, ledger of Biblical Literature 1952.