Astraea, Bel, and Beltis...
Today marks the Greek feast to Astraeam the Star-Maiden...
Astraea (mythology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:In Greek mythology, Astraea (English translation: "star-maiden") was a daughter of Zeus and Themis or of Eos and Astraeus. She and her mother were both personifications of justice. Astraea was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Iron Age, the final stage in the world's disintegration from the utopian Golden Age. Fleeing from the wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo; the scales of justice she carried became the nearby constellation Libra.
She is also the symbol for the tarot Card Justice. In literature, Shakespeare refers to Astraea in Titus Andronicus, and also in Henry VI, part 1, and is the title of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
It is also the Babylonian celebration of Bel and Beltis, his wife...
Bel (mythology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:Bel (pronounced /beɪl/; from Akkadian bēlu), signifying "lord" or "master", is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in Babylonian religion. The feminine form is Belit 'Lady, Mistress'. Bel is represented in Greek and Latin by Belos and Belus respectively. Linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Ba‘al with the same meaning.
Early translators of Akkadian believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian Enlil was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. This is now known to be incorrect; but one finds Bel used in referring to Enlil in older translations and discussions.
Bel became especially used of the Babylonian god Marduk and when found in Assyrian and neo-Babylonian personal names or mentioned in inscriptions in a Mesopotamian context it can usually be taken as referring to Marduk and no other god. Similarly Belit without some disambiguation mostly refers to Bel Marduk's spouse Sarpanit. However Marduk's mother, the Sumerian goddess called Ninhursag, Damkina, Ninmah and other names in Sumerian, was often known as Belit-ili 'Lady of the Gods' in Akkadian.
Of course other gods called "Lord" could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra is an example, though in the later period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god which Marduk was not.
Similarly Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon as born to Cronus/El in Peraea is certainly most unlikely to be Marduk.
W. H. D. Rouse in 1940 wrote an ironic end note to Book 40 of his edition of Nonnus' Dionysiaca about a very syncretistic hymn sung by Dionysus to Tyrian Heracles, that is, to Ba‘al Melqart whom Dionysus identifies with Belus on the Euphrates (who should be Marduk!) and as a sun god:
... the Greeks were as firmly convinced as many modern Bible-readers that the Semites, or the Orientals generally, worshipped a god called Baal or Bel, the truth of course being that ba'al is a Semitic word for lord or master, and so applies to a multitude of gods. This "Bel," then, being an important deity, must be the sun, the more so as some of the gods bearing that title may have been really solar.
Bel is named in the Bible at Isaiah 46:1 and Jeremiah 50:2 and 51:44.
Bêlit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:Bêlit' is a form of the Akkadian language word beltu or beltum (meaning "lady, mistress") as used in noun compounds; it appears in titles of goddesses, such as bêlit-ili "lady of the gods", an Akkadian title of Ninhursag. The word bêlit appears in Greek form as Beltis, considered to be the name of the wife of the god Bêl.
The use of these two names reminds me of Freyr and Freyja in Norse belief, whose names mean the same things...
~Muninn's Kiss
Astraea (mythology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:In Greek mythology, Astraea (English translation: "star-maiden") was a daughter of Zeus and Themis or of Eos and Astraeus. She and her mother were both personifications of justice. Astraea was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Iron Age, the final stage in the world's disintegration from the utopian Golden Age. Fleeing from the wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo; the scales of justice she carried became the nearby constellation Libra.
She is also the symbol for the tarot Card Justice. In literature, Shakespeare refers to Astraea in Titus Andronicus, and also in Henry VI, part 1, and is the title of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
It is also the Babylonian celebration of Bel and Beltis, his wife...
Bel (mythology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:Bel (pronounced /beɪl/; from Akkadian bēlu), signifying "lord" or "master", is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in Babylonian religion. The feminine form is Belit 'Lady, Mistress'. Bel is represented in Greek and Latin by Belos and Belus respectively. Linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Ba‘al with the same meaning.
Early translators of Akkadian believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian Enlil was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. This is now known to be incorrect; but one finds Bel used in referring to Enlil in older translations and discussions.
Bel became especially used of the Babylonian god Marduk and when found in Assyrian and neo-Babylonian personal names or mentioned in inscriptions in a Mesopotamian context it can usually be taken as referring to Marduk and no other god. Similarly Belit without some disambiguation mostly refers to Bel Marduk's spouse Sarpanit. However Marduk's mother, the Sumerian goddess called Ninhursag, Damkina, Ninmah and other names in Sumerian, was often known as Belit-ili 'Lady of the Gods' in Akkadian.
Of course other gods called "Lord" could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra is an example, though in the later period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god which Marduk was not.
Similarly Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon as born to Cronus/El in Peraea is certainly most unlikely to be Marduk.
W. H. D. Rouse in 1940 wrote an ironic end note to Book 40 of his edition of Nonnus' Dionysiaca about a very syncretistic hymn sung by Dionysus to Tyrian Heracles, that is, to Ba‘al Melqart whom Dionysus identifies with Belus on the Euphrates (who should be Marduk!) and as a sun god:
... the Greeks were as firmly convinced as many modern Bible-readers that the Semites, or the Orientals generally, worshipped a god called Baal or Bel, the truth of course being that ba'al is a Semitic word for lord or master, and so applies to a multitude of gods. This "Bel," then, being an important deity, must be the sun, the more so as some of the gods bearing that title may have been really solar.
Bel is named in the Bible at Isaiah 46:1 and Jeremiah 50:2 and 51:44.
Bêlit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:Bêlit' is a form of the Akkadian language word beltu or beltum (meaning "lady, mistress") as used in noun compounds; it appears in titles of goddesses, such as bêlit-ili "lady of the gods", an Akkadian title of Ninhursag. The word bêlit appears in Greek form as Beltis, considered to be the name of the wife of the god Bêl.
The use of these two names reminds me of Freyr and Freyja in Norse belief, whose names mean the same things...
~Muninn's Kiss