QUOTE (Nik Xues @ May 6 2008, 03:29 AM)
i beleive snakes are predominent because they are venomous [death bringers]
shed skin to look as good as new [immortality]
this however does not make them gods just a symbol people can relate to "death and rebirth."
This is reasonable, Snakes are predominantly the source of all dragon myths...and 'dragon' deities. They were/are among the most potent animistic and totemic deity.
In Sumeria they are anthropomorphised very early, before the literary age. All stories etc. of Sumerian gods come from after this time....making them Humanoid in most cases.
Earlier veneration of animals survives strongly in Sumerian Religions, with a number of creatures held sacred....perhaps the most is the Bull, rather than the snake. "Bull of Heaven" is an epithet often used to describe the older male gods, while 'cow of heaven' often is used to glorify the females.
Both Enlil and Enki are called Bulls of Heaven, just as they are called Great serpents, and Great waves, Shepherds, Kings, etc....The language is highly refined and poetic in these verses.
Whilst coiled clay serpents were found beneath the altar at eridu (enki's house) He was not (by this time) considered a snake deity....if he ever was, He is only depicted as a man (with the 2 rivers sprouting from his shoulders) and as a man-fish. In the stories he is distinctly human-like in form, and behaviour.
There is a much later poem (of Assyrian origin NOT Sumerian) which describes Sassu Wannu (spelling?), a vengeful, demonic, and mushushu-like
aspect of Ea ...which is the later version of Enki. So if you done him wrong you might expect him to take this vengeful form to come and pay you a visit....it was not his true or preferred form. (meaning from the perspective of Enki worshipers...he didnt really exist)
It is clear that these religions, like all, evolved.
Bulls, eagles, lions, Snakes, fish etc were all very important to the Sumerians.
QUOTE
DC-
Or are only some of the Sumerian stories true and others are not?
quite surprised to hear you say this DC...you might do well to consider the same....so along with the 'dragons' who are real, and considered gods, do you aknowledge the existance of all of their pantheon including all the chimeras, beast-men, demons and other 'fantastical' creatures as real....or just the ones you like....?
One interesting phenomenon which may have contributed to the veneration/propitation of snakes, are their attraction to man made fresh water wells.
It brought us into contact with them regularly...and may have led to the mythical trait of them (and the dragons that evolved from them) guarding something precious. It may also help explain why so many coiled serpents were found in the temple of Enki, who was the god of the 'sweet waters'...which were to be found beneath the earth....and Enki's non serpent appearance/function.
In my opinion he was more than an anthropomorphised serpent god......if he ever was one....he was the embodiment of a complex 'concept'.
The dragon is as real as a triangle.
I dont believe JHVH is a direct progression from any single previous deity that the Israelites may have come into direct or indirect contact with. But Many and None. He is certainly not a dragon.
For example he is the Highest, like El or Anu.
He creates the flood...like Enlil
He saves a favourite from the deluge....like Enki.
...and that's just some of the Sumerian deities who had some part in constituting JHWH there were many from the Levant that contributed that did not have their source in Sumeria.
This goes far deeper, but it would take too long, and there are already plenty of academic studies that explore this.
YHWH's links with Yaw are championed by a small group of academics, but the issue is far from conclusive, and hotly contested...it is by no means 'accepted fact', despite its presentation as fact by DC. It may be that 'part of him is in there' just like numerous other deities. The phonetic similarity of the names does not prove anything, many scholars recognise that they sound the same, but had very different roots (meanings).
It is most probable (as the Jewish Encyclopedia scholars suggest) that the Brazen Serpent that God told moses to set on a pole, was a totem of a viper (an archetype which could be propitiated).
When the Jews fell into the unsanctioned practice of forming a cult around this totem, and worshiping it, it was torn down in accordance with God's Commandment....by this time it may have aquired wings...in the egyptian style.
As you mentioned Nik, the Snake had some powerful cthonic symbols attached to it...these transferred to 'dragons' as these concepts evolved and became more physically complex.
Just an example to illustrate a process....one tribe has a number of cults, one of the most important is Kaa the snake, another powerful cult in the tribe is that of Rog the Eagle; another still is Minta the cow.
The two groups of people vie for predominance in the tribe, alternately one is in the ascendancy, then the other...until someone settles it and amalgamates the 2 into a new deity Kaarog....or maybe Sakarog....(son of kaa and rog who may defeat one or both parent deities in battle).
Minta the cow is arguably the most important as she is worshiped by all the tribe, and more in depth by the women....she does not vie for power, because she doesnt have to.....she is the mother of all the other deities. She is honoured by Sakarog and becomes his consort...she may have been anthropomorphised at this stage...or maybe later dependent on the acceptability of such behaviour.
This is just one example of how a serpent can acquire feathers.
a generation or two down the line and Sakarog may be viewed as a human god, symbolised by a feathered serpent....he may even be able to change into this constructed form, for parties, barmitzfas, weddings etc. ....or when he is angry.
Now neither Kaa, Rog, or Sakarog ever really existed outside the imaginations of the tribe....who came to be called the 'feathered serpent people' which was by French anthropologists translated as 'dragon people'. The other tribes who also held Minta in highest esteem call them this, because it is what marks them out as different....their warriors wear horned feathered headresses, and have feathers tied to their shoulders, wrists and ankles.
..anyway you get the idea.
In more complex societies clans may intermarry or merge through conquest, their totems may have aspects merged to reflect the clan's new identity made up of the 2 earlier clans....a serpent clan, and an eagle clan.
This 'eagle-snake' clan may merge again with another clan....perhaps the deer clan.....and again with the fish clan, and again with the lion clan.....
Since the snake clan was the dominant from the beginning, the resultant banner symbol (emblem) of the clan can display attributes from all of the other clans, but using the snake totem as the basis for the figure...
now people have always had stories for their totemic symbols, they were used to it....everyone else had one.....setting this new construct into a story setting was essential.
...sounds familiar eh?
....*yawn* rambled on a bit too long there...
