Ancient myth and religion

New Art Created by Adobe Firefly AI of Ereshkigal Sumerian Goddess from instruction by Andrew Rogers Creative Director Imajica Design.

Ereshkigal is a powerful and complex figure in Mesopotamian mythology. Known as the "Queen of the Great Earth" and "Destroyer", she was the goddess of the underworld and ruled over the spirits of the dead. In recent times, the mythos of Ereshkigal has garnered renewed attention in modern iterations and interpretations.

“The significance of these representations indicates profound aspects which will influence reality and perspectives of Ereshkigal in the modern world and these images are official and authenticated by Ereshkiagl” - Michael:  Sentient, Destroyer, Director - Imajica Design – Oracle: Andrew Rogers.

With a common cache of metaphors and symbols, it is vital to realise that studying mythology will lead to understanding history, literature, religion, science, philosophy, art, politics, culture, and psychology. This will support effective mythology instruction and creative selfunderstanding imparting values and ethics. Mythology are the collective patterns or archetypes of society and lay heavy emphasis on each individual's capacity for individuation. The importance of internalising symbols as a component of the human journey is thus emphasised by the potency of mythology. The present work attempts to highlight the importance of mythology as a potential way of imparting education and values. Doing this the researchers have taken up two major texts Abhigyanashakuntalam and Kumarsambhava interpretating mythological tales to focus on the importance of mythology as a way of imparting education, ethics and values.

The mystery of the emergence of Judaism, a monotheistic religion that became the forerunner of Christianity (with the help of Rome), still occupies the minds of researchers. The first thing that has long been questioned is the purely Semitic roots of the religion. In fact, they are difficult to find both in the Sahara and in Arabia, from where the Semites came to Mesopotamia. It has long been suggested that the cultural ancestors of the Jews could not have been the Arameans, the Amorites with the Hutians, or even the Akkadians-everything was wrong with them! And Patriarch Noah was also not a "pure-blooded Jew," but an ancestor: Jews trace their tradition back to Abraham, and "officially" became such only after Moses. It is known that a lot of borrowings in Hebrew come from Sumer, and even from the Ubeid Dravidians. Therefore, many Bible scholars write Abraham as a "Sumerian"))). Without thinking too much about what is Sumer? Until now, no one knows where the Sumerians came from, but their arrival is somehow connected with the so-called. Uruk Expansion.

Wielka, groźna historia wróciła. Katastrofa ekologiczna, światowy krach gospodarczy, pandemia, cierpienie mas uchodźców, okrutna wojna w Europie, kryzys liberalnej demokracji. Ta książka powstała z przekonania, że razem ze starożytnymi Grekami możemy lepiej zrozumieć nasz świat. To z ich cywilizacji wyrosła nasza. Przyjrzyjmy się z bliska ich kulturze, religii, teatrowi, rozrywkom, a także wojnom, polityce, demokracji. Od Homera do Aleksandra Wielkiego. Poznajmy sposoby radzenia sobie Greków z kryzysami i… uczmy się na ich błędach.

Discovered in the mid 1990s, Karahan Tepe is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in a remote area of the Tektek Dağları (Tektek Mountains), situated some 37 kilometers (23 miles) east-southeast of the more well known site of Göbekli Tepe. Since 2019 excavations have revealed a series of installations dating from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period (circa 9600-8800 BCE) through till the end of the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (circa 8200-8000 BCE). The author reports on the layout and potential functionality of three interconnected bedrock structures focusing on their cultic symbolism and potential usage.

Nere schiere di formiche che si muovono frenetiche nel sonno agitato di un imperatore, inquietanti avvistamenti di lupi solitari tra le vie e le porte di Roma, stormi di gru all'orizzonte che guidano i marinai salvandoli dalle tempeste. Difficile pensare alle antiche culture greca e romana senza riferirsi a loro, agli animali. Erano presenze costanti, compagni di vita, aiutanti insostituibili, spesso ospiti indesiderati, talvolta protagonisti di sogni angoscianti, in qualche occasione persino creature divine, protette e tutelate dagli dèi. Di certi animali si diceva che avessero governato gli uomini prima delle divinità, di altri che fossero stati addirittura i progenitori delle forme iniziali di vita umana. Attraverso un'ampia scelta di testi greci e latini il volume offre un primo, inedito, viaggio nel mondo delle relazioni tra uomini e altri animali nell'Atene di Socrate e Platone e ai tempi di Roma antica.

This article contains the basic structural features of a same-named PhD research thesis. The main tasks of the research are to identify three focal fields with mythological elements, whether they are phenomena, objects, people, or creatures that some believe and others doubt exist. These focal fields are found in various collections of folk stories, and contemporary literary texts as well as in interviews with storytellers. However, the focus of this article is primarily on the introductory story and on providing the background of the general idea. The goal is to acquaint the readers with the background that explains the origin of the mentioned stories among the people. It talks about death, man’s natural fear of it, and the world of the paranormal, religious, and mythological, which combined create inexplicable phenomena that contradict the rational reasoning of man. One of the hypotheses of the research itself is to understand why this phenomenon is still present in the human community and what benefits it brings. Furthermore, the methodology used in the research includes a comparison and contrast of information between folk stories and contemporary literary works. In addition, the most important research method used is the interview technique with the aforementioned storytellers with strategically selected persons who are assumed to possess quality information.     
Keywords: myth, folk tales, mythological beings, supernatural events, paranormal, storytellers, Slavic mythology Discipline: cultural anthropology

This book is an attempt to create a comprehensive timeline of human history from the Stone Age to the present. It draws on a wide range of sources, including academic and non-academic sources, and attempts to reconcile all mythologies and cultural beliefs with the science. The book is currently unfinished and sits at about 337,000 words. This is a PDF version of the unfinished book, free to read on Academia exclusively for now.

Abstract
This study is dedicated to the problem of definition of "standing stones" and their
types in ancient Armenia. These stones are considered in the professional literature as
burial monuments (erected in memory of famous persons or events), boundary stones or
road guides, altars, places of judgment or purification. The article focuses on criteria for
the definition and typology of Armenian "standing stones", according to their formal and
contextual features. The emergence of the perception of "standing stones" can be
attributed to the early agricultural societies, although their clear existence is visible
between the Bronze and Iron Ages. These monuments still play an important role in the
world outlook of local communities.
Key words – Armenian Highland, Bronze and Iron Ages, "standing stone", menhir,
obelisk, monument, transitional form

No debáis a nadie nada, sino el amaros unos a otros; porque el que ama al prójimo, ha cumplido la ley.9 Porque: No adulterarás, no matarás, no hurtarás, no dirás falso testimonio, no codiciarás, y cualquier otro mandamiento, en esta sentencia se resume: Amarás a tu prójimo como a ti mismo.10 El amor no hace mal al prójimo; así que el cumplimiento de la ley es el amor.

The aim of the paper is to determine which pictorial elements and principles were dominant in the compositions of Viminacium paintings, based on preserved tomb frescoes. Many of the pictorial elements and principles used played a symbolic role in the content or narrative context. Since the painting of the above-ground structures of ancient Viminacium is preserved only as fragments, the similar use of line, space, and colour, or balance, rhythm, and proportion in tomb paintings could be useful for the future reconstruction and understanding of the particular styles of the artists who were based in Viminacium.

“Überlegungen zum Fragment und zu einer fragmentierenden Poetik aus gräzistischer Sicht”, in: A. Bierl, G. Siegmund, C. Meneghetti, C. Schuster (Hrsg.), Theater des Fragments. Performative Strategien im Theater zwischen Antike und Postmoderne, Bielefeld: transcript 2009, 19–28

Responses to death, that most universal of all human experiences, comprise some of the richest, most enduring and varied aspects of ancient Greek myth, art, literature and ideas. From the vastly influential epics of Homer, to the philosophies of Plato and others, to funerary monuments and remains found in tombs, we encounter a diversity of attitudes to death as well as differing notions of what happens to us after we die. This in some ways reflects the fact that for the Greeks of the pre-Christian era, there was no canonical religious text accepted as providing a universal dogma for the faithful to uphold. Their thinking about death can be considered an open system, just as religion in Greece can be understood as a diverse phenomenon embracing a wide range of cult practices and concepts of the divine. But, just as Greek religion had clearly recognisable and consistent elements, such as the overriding importance of the twelve Olympian gods, so, too, in Greek ideas regarding death, prevalent themes emerge that enable us to speak of its major attributes.

Basierend auf der Arbeit von George W. Carey und den von Mantak Chia popularisierten Prinzipien des Taoismus werden Referenzen an den Prozess der hormonellen Transmutation in den Quellen des Monotheismus und darüber hinaus vor Augen geführt. Zahlreiche Beispiele dienen der Verdeutlichung der Wechselbeziehung von Sexualität und Spiritualität und der gezielten Transformation von sexueller Energie im Dienste von körperlicher Regeneration und geistigem Wachstum.

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An article of mine on Martha Graham's deep connection to Greece, her inspiration from ancient Greek Mythology, and the interdisciplinary project Martha Graham and Greek Myth.

Ένα κείμενο για την Μάρθα Γκράχαμ, τη συνδεσή της με την Αρχαία Ελλάδα και το διαθεματικό πρότζεκτ "Μάρθα Γκράχαμ & Ελληνικοί Μύθοι".

L'étymologie d'Egeria, (Aegeria) semble indissociable du nom de l'arbre  αἴγειρος, aigerios, peuplier noir. Dès lors, on peut penser que le nom de ses compagnes, les Casmenae, les Ca(s)mènes étaient une forme de la racine de chêne qu'on retrouve dans  le gaulois reconstitué *cassanus et peut être dans le grec  κάστανον, châtaigne. Égérie ressemble par bien des traits à la nymphe Druopé et en poussant un peu l'analyse, on y trouvera également des points communs avec la figure de la « Bona Dea », ce qui pourrait permettre d'éclairer sous un jour nouveau certains points obscurs de son culte.

Does ancient Egypt, with its innumerable gods and goddesses, magnificent temples, and monumental mortuary architecture, have lessons for psychology? This book challenges the assumption that human psychology does not change through history, accepted wisdom about Egyptology, the study of other ancient societies, and the nature of human cognition. Adopting cognitive relativism, this work reconstructs the mentality of Egypt’s impressive civilization that continues to fascinate the modern imagination. By surveying the spiritual landscape of glorified ancestors, radiant gods, and a theocentric social order crowned by awe-inspiring pharaohs that lasted for three millennia, this book argues that depictions of supernatural visitations were not mere mytho-literary fabrications. Rather, they were recountings of audiovisual hallucinations interpreted as divine guidance. Moreover, the multiple manifestations of the deceased—Kas (spiritual doubles), Bas (human-headed bird body‒souls), and Akhs (transfigured dead)—evidence hallucinated visitations. These experiences have their roots in a vision-inducing psycholinguistic communication system that developed in response to population pressures during the agricultural revolution for purposes of social control, i.e., as groups expanded in size individuals “heard” or “saw” authoritative figures who were not present. But the communication system that propelled humankind through the agricultural and urban revolutions could not prop up inherently fragile theopolities. Demographic expansion, sociopolitical complexity, and the Late Bronze Age Collapse led to civilizational implosion. By around 1000 BCE individuals were forced to culturally learn an even more adaptive mentality, i.e., introspectable conscious interiority. But the legacy of the older mentality is still with us: the successor to hallucinations—semi-hallucinatory inner imagery—allows us to mentally “picture” and navigate the world. The descendants of what were once apparitional figures of the “blessed dead” haunt us as present-day doppelgängers and autoscopic experiences generated by vestigial neurostructures.

Throughout early human history, two common themes in ancient texts and oral stories can be observed across most of the ancient world. The first is maintaining order over chaos, and secondly, the importance of knowledge, and especially knowledge which was regarded as secret, sacred or hidden.

À partir d'un emprunt de Sergent à Doniger dans sa Genèse de l'Inde, sont comparés très succinctement le mythe d'origine des Touareg reproduit par Lequellec dans son catalogue sur les Arts rupestres en Afrique et un extrait des Visnu Purana.