My Understanding of Religion
Page 10
Anatolian people played an important role in the spread of early farming. It is possible farmers from Anatolia had a knowledge of opium when they settled Crete during the 7th millennium BC. Crop cultivation entered Egypt (from the Mediterranean end) after 5000 BC. The most important deity in that part of Egypt was the cobra goddess Buto. An opium using snake goddess could have been generated in Egypt or on Crete. Opium could have reached Egypt from Crete. Buto could have reached Crete from Egypt. Both countries developed shipping. Snake goddess worship could have spread far and wide in those ships. More than one sun god or goddess may have been tricked into sharing power with the dragon.
Much remains unknown about Harappan civilisation. However, no evidence has been produced to demonstrate that a snake goddess played any part in Harappan civilisation. Nevertheless, the serpent is an important religious motif in modern India. Yogic tradition contains material that may connect with the serpent: union is achieved when the serpent power arrives at the chakra at the top of the head, and the use of the name Patanjali reflects a perceived relationship between Yoga and the great naga Shesa. The Indian snake goddess Manasa may be related to nagas. Hindu mythology refers to a time when nagas were more numerous, and the tradition that Brahma took action against nagas after they become too populous must have originated somewhere. It is possible that snake goddess worship reached the Indus Valley by ship. It is possible that snake goddess worship was significant to Harappan civilisation. It is possible that all knowledge of nagas reached India with Aryan invaders. Hindu mythology suggests Brahma's followers came into conflict with nagas. That conflict could have taken place anywhere Brahma and his followers had been, including India, and could have involved Harappan religious beliefs.
A fruit that can transform the consumer into a godlike entity has become associated with the serpent. Norse mythology teaches that without the apples of immortality the gods began to age rapidly. Greek tradition states that the wife of the first ruler of the world gave a golden apple-producing tree to the wife of the third ruler of the world. She was the daughter of Rhea, the wife of the second ruler of the world. Worship of Rhea seems to have originated on Crete. In Cretan tradition the serpent is the symbol of the Goddess. Evidence of opium using snake goddesses has been found on Crete.
Indo-European languages came to be spoken in Anatolia, Crete, and Greece. Hittite, the most well known of the Anatolian Indo-European languages, was deciphered early in the 20th century BC. The Hittites possibly arrived in Anatolia about 2000 BC. It is not known from where they came. Scholars favour an area beyond the Black Sea. By about 1800 BC the Hittites had gained political control of central Anatolia. Their empire fell suddenly about 1193 BC. One Hittite story, 'The Slaying of the Dragon', tells how the weather god fought the dragon and, after being defeated, used a trick to get the better of the dragon and kill it. The name of the Hittite weather god was Tarhun. He was the most widely worshipped of the Anatolian deities. Tarhun was depicted with a three-pronged thunderbolt in one hand and a weapon in the other. His symbol was the bull. The god on the bull, Jupiter Dolichenus, worshipped by the Roman legions was a development of Tarhun. The principal deity of the Hittites was the sun-goddess Arinnitti.
Her cult emblem was a sun disk. Arinnitti was married to the weather god. There was a Hittite sun god. His name was Istanu. As in other sun god traditions, an eagle acted as his messenger.
The Hittite story of Upelluri, whose situation is reminiscent of the fate of Atlas, is only one of many stories about giants. Brutus, legendary founder of Britain, supposedly captured two Cornish giants. Israelite spies reported seeing giants in Canaan. Some traditions make Irish people descended from a race of giants known as the Formorians. Norse mythology has it that giants existed before the gods, and were overcome by them. One ancient European tradition relates that people had once been taller but degenerated after a golden age. Most giants are unlike the giants of Greek tradition. The giants who went to war with Zeus are depicted as part snake. Stories of conflict between gods and creatures described as half-human and half-serpent may be related.
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