Re: Religion

Glen wrote in reply to my post about the bucephalion

> ... Then I take it that you view Catal Huyuk as a _patriarchal_

site?

No way. The Goddess image found by Mellaart suggests a "partnership"
society with matrifocal leanings.

> >The Mnevis Bull, the Apis Bull, the Bull of Zeus in his Rape
> >of Europa, the Minoan Bull that Pasiphe conceived an un-natural

lust

> >for when Minos refused to sacrifice it to Zeus as he had promised.
> >In fact Bull mythology suggests that the Bull, from the first was
> >symbolic of the male consort of the Goddess.
>
> But... Gimbutas argues that the functions of the Goddess were taken

up by a

> new _male_ figure. I don't see why not. Putting aside her feminism,

there is

> no question that the Goddess is by far the primary figure of Old

European

> religion while the steppes and Middle East seem to go for male sky

gods. It

> would make sense that, as is typical of all other theological

mergers, that

> one deity takes over the functions of another.

Not just Old European Glen. The classic Greeks saw female
worshipping cultures were strongest in Anatolia, and there is a
strong tradition extending back throughout the Middle East almost to
Natufian times, with statues of the naked goddess (under 100's of
different names) being unearthed throughout Syria and Palestine to
Roman times.

> As Preserver, the Goddess adopted animal forms, such as a cow, doe,

horse,

> etc. The Semitish would have adopted the Goddess and her symbols

equating

> her primarily with the male Sky (Anu). Thus the association of Sky

with a

> male animal symbol, the bull.

The association of the heavens with a Bull is linked to Sumerian
astrology. With the precession of the equinoxes, their calendar
began with the sun in Taurus (we are approaching the Age of Aquarius
by comparison). It was the killing of the Wild Bull of Heaven - when
Taurus disappears into the rising sun (The Bull = Husband of
Erishkigal the Sumerian God of the Underworld) that was the "crime"
that Enkidu was punished for. Inanna's descent explains how Inanna
went to console her grieving sister for the loss of her husband.
(Another God that was sacrificed here).

Regards

John