Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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| Diodorus Siculus presents a picture of the people of Carthage which sounds extremely bias and full of mythical allegories, regarding human sacrifice. Diodorus compares their sacrifices to those of Kronos’ children, and he even claims the ancient myth of Kronos may have led to this kind of situation of sacrifice among the people of Carthage. Siculus writes: “They even sent from their temples in supplication the golden shrines with their images, (30) believing that they would better appease the wrath of the god if the offerings were sent for the sake of winning forgiveness. (4) They also alleged that Cronus (31) had turned against them inasmuch as in former times they had been accustomed to sacrifice to this god the noblest of their sons, but more recently, secretly buying and nurturing children, they had sent these to the sacrifice; and when an investigation was made, some of those who had been sacrificed were discovered to have been supposititious. (5) When they had given thought to these things and saw their enemy encamped before their walls, they were filled with superstitious dread, for they believed that they had neglected the honours of the gods that had been established by their fathers. In their zeal to make amends for their omission, they selected two hundred of the noblest children and sacrificed them publicly; and others who were under suspicion sacrificed themselves voluntarily, in number not less than three hundred. (6) There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus, extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire. It is probable that it was from this that Euripides has drawn the mythical story found in his works about the sacrifice in Tauris, in which he presents Iphigeneia being asked by Orestes: But what tomb shall receive me when I die? A sacred fire within, and earth's broad rift. (7) Also the story passed down among the Greeks from ancient myth that Cronus did away with his own children appears to have been kept in mind among the Carthaginians through this observance.” (46) I find it amusing that Siculus would claim that Euripides has drawn up a myth based on something the author believes was originally real, which was nothing more than a myth for all we know. The goddesses and gods of the Phoenicians were the early Hebrew deities, until the consolidation under the Levite priesthood and patriarchs occurred. Tanit was a Punic and Phoenician goddess and chief deity of Carthage. Her consort was Baal-hamon. Tanit is associated with Astarte. She seems to have been most popular from the time of the 5th century BC. Occasionally she was depicted with a lion’s head. Her symbol appears like the cross but shaped like a mushroom woman or special style ankh on Punic steles of Tanit from 300-200 BC (15g, h, i, j). Above her is an inverted bull horn crescent and orb. The “orb” is not really an orb or star after all, but we will get to that shortly, when the topic of Egypt is covered. |
El (the Semitic term for “God”) was often called “Bull El his father” and his general epithet was “The Bull.” (47) Lat or Elat in Canaanite means “Goddess.” (48) In the Ugartic myth, El is the father god, with a son Baal and a daughter Anat, who is also her father El’s consort, when she gave birth to dawn and dusk. (49) E.O. James, in Cult of the Mother Goddess, writes: “…In the Ugaritic texts, El is likened to a “mighty bull,” and Baal is said to have “fallen like a bull.” (50) As previously mentioned, the bull could be seen as a symbol of fertility, as many have viewed it over the years, or it could be seen as the male counterpart to the cow goddess who provides milk, which represented the rain which caused the mushrooms to grow. (51) I believe the latter is more appropriate to the ancient form of worship. In many mythologies, the past, present and future are all represented, and since there are a limited number of gods and goddesses, roles can often shift or become confusing. This can be explained or better understood when taking into consideration how daughters grow up to become mothers and sons grow up to become fathers. It seems that this led to lots of ideas of incest in the ancient mythologies.   R: (15h) Tanit (46) Diodorus Siculus Library of History Book XX, Chapter 14 (47) The Hebrew Goddess, p. 119-20; https://thetorah.com/who-was-balaams-god/ (48) When God was a Woman, p. 109 (49) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 75; Albright, Archaeology and Religion in Israel, 1946, p. 75f (50) ibid, p. 246; Dussaud, R.H.R., cxiii, 1936, p. 19 (51) ibid, p. 136 |
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