breadcrumbs

One of the annoying things I’m running into researching ancient Hebrew polytheism is that scholars mostly focus on ʿĂnāṯ, ʿAṯtart, and ʾĂšērāh. No disrespect to these wonderful Ladies, all of whom have interesting connections to Dionysos, and were venerated throughout most of the great cultures of the Levant and Near East, meaning that there’s plenty of material to analyze and contrast — but they’re far from the only ones, and finding solid information on the others can be quite challenging. Hell, far too many scholars treat the big three like they are aspects of a single super Semitic Goddess, as if they were contemporaries of Sir James George Frazer or 90s-era Wiccans. 

I like a good challenge, however, and whenever I find a trove of information on one of them it inevitably provides breadcrumbs leading to others, or details that help one conceive of them differently. This is especially true of divinities one is familiar with from other contexts and other lands. For instance there was a prominent cult of Korē in Judea and Samaria, as evidenced by coinage, lamps, frescoes, terracotta statues, inscriptions, and the remains of a large temple on the acropolis of Sebaste. Korē is represented independent of her mother, and with snakes and a poppy-crown; during the Roman period she adopts Egyptian attributes and is depicted in the circle of Isis and Sarapis. This lends added significance to some of Jesus’ parables, especially considering where they were delivered.     

3 thoughts on “breadcrumbs

  1. That seems to be my problem as well – they lump the three into one Goddess, when they are not. So much for Monotheists and Monotheist-adjacent people writing most of the material.

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    1. I don’t understand. The primary sources make it clear. The archaeology makes it clear. Logic makes it clear. And yet you still see this shit showing up in scholarship*, which filters down into the wider culture, and online discourse.

      * Not all, to be clear. In fact I’d say the majority of the scholarship I’ve read has been sound, sensitive, and clear about such matters.

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      1. I do agree. It does seem in popular culture on Goddesses, that the three do get lumped together. I have read Mesopotamian scholars who have tried to parse out the three. Sometimes, they are at sea with the subtlety and sometimes it is something living in a Monotheist culture that makes people unaware of the differences. But I do applaud those who do the work to understand.

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