#carthaginian mythology

[mask131]

About Tanit

I recently posted about how people should be looking more into other gods outside of the Greco-Roman pantheons. If you follow me for quite some times, you will also have noted I posted a bunch of loose translation from the French Dictionary of literary myths (which is truly a great reference). Well, I wanted to share with you today a loose translation – well, more of an info-mining at this point – of an article about a goddess that people often ignore the existence of, despite being located right next to Ancient Greece and Rome, and being involved in the history of the Roman Empire. And this goddess is Tanit.

Written by Ildiko Lorinszky, the article is organized in two – at first it takes a look and analysis at the mythological Tanit, at who and what she likely was, how her cult was organized all that. The second part, since it is a Dictionary of LITERARY myths, takes a look at the most prominent and famous depiction of Tanit in French literature – that is to say Flaubert’s famous Salammbô. (If you recalled, a long time ago I posted about how a journalist theorized in an article how Flaubert’s Salammbô was basically an “epic fantasy” novel a la Moorcock or Tolkien long before “fantasy” was even a genre)

Part 1: Tanit in mythology and archeology

Tanit was the patron-goddess of the city of Carthage. Considered to be one of the avatars o the Phoenician goddess Astarte, Tanit’s title, as found on several Punic engravings, was “The Face of Baal” – a qualification very close to how Astarte was called in Sidon and Ugarit “The Name of Baal”. These titles seem to indicate that these two goddesses acted as mediators or intermediaries between humanity and Baal.

Tanit is as such associated with Baal, the vegetation god, but sometimes she is his wife, other times she is simply his paredra (companion/female counterpart). She seems to be the female power accompanying the personification of masculinity that is Baal, and as such their relationship can evoke the one between Isis and Osiris: the youthful sap of the lunar goddess regularly regenerates the power of the god. This “nursing” or “nourishing” function of Tanit seems to have been highlighted by the title she received during the Roman era: the Ops, or the Nutrix, the “Nurse of Saturn”. Goddess of the strengthened earth, Tanit is deeply tied to agrarian rituals: her hierogamy with Baal reproduces in heaven the birth of seeds on earth. Within the sanctuaries of Tanit, men and women devoted to the goddess practiced a sacred prostitution in order to favorize the fecundity of nature. The women tied to the temple were called “nubile girls”, while the men working there were called “dogs” to highlight how completely enslaved they were to the goddess. We know that the prostitutes of both sexes brought important incomes to the temple/

The etymology of Tanit (whose name can also be called Tannit or Tinnit) is obscure. The most probable hypothesis is that the Phoenico-Punic theonym “Tnt” is tied to the verb “tny”, which was used in the Bible to mean “lamenting”, “wailing”, “crying”. According to this interpretation, the “tannît” is originally a “crier”, a “wailer”, and the full name of Tanit means “She who cries before Baal”. As such, the Carthaginian goddess might come from a same tradition as the “Venus lugens”.

According to some mythographers, Tanit (or Astarte) was the supreme goddess of Carthage, and might have been identical to the figures of Dido and Elissa. As in, Dido was in truth the celestial goddess, considered as the founder of the city and its first queen. According to this hypothesis, the suicide of Dido on a pyre was a pure invention of Virgil, who took this motif from various celebrations hosted at Carthage. During these feasts-days, images and depictions of the goddess were burned The word Anna would simply mean “clement”, “mild”, “merciful” – the famous Anna, sister of Dido, is thought to have been another Punic goddess, whose cult was brought from Carthage to Rome, and who there was confused with the roman Anna Perenna, a goddess similar to Venus. Varro claimed that it was not Dido that burned on the pyre, but Anna, and according to this angle, Anna appears as a double of Dido – and like her, she would be another manifestation of the goddess Tanit. Anna’s very name reminds of the name “Nanaia”/”Aine”, which was a title given to Mylitta, yet another manifestation of Tanit.

The sign known as the “sign” or “symbol of Tanit” seems to be a simplified depiction of the goddess with her arms open: it is a triangle (reduced to a trapezoid as the top of the triangle is cut) with an horizontal line at its top, an a disc above the horizontal line. This symbol appears throughout the Punic world on monuments, steles, ceramics and clay figurines.

Part 2: The literary Tanit of Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert’s novel Salammbô is probably where the goddess reappears with the most splendor in literature. While her essence is shown being omnipresent throughout the Punic world, Tanit, as the soul of the city, truly dwells within the town’s sanctuary, which keeps her sacred cloak. The veil of the goddess, desired by many, stolen then regained throughout the plot, plays a key role within the structure of this very enigmatic text, which presents itself as a “veiled narrative”.

The town and its lands are filled with the soul of the “Carthaginian Venus”. The countryside, for example, is filled with an erotic subtext, sometimes seducing, sometimes frightening – reflecting the ambiguity of the goddess. The landscape is all curves, softness, roundness, evoking the shapes of a female body – and the architecture of both the city-buildings and countryside-buildings are described in carnal ways. Within Salammbô, Flaubert describes a world where the spirit and the flesh are intertwined – the female world of Carthage is oppressed by an aura mixing lust with mysticism; and through the erotic nature creeps both a frightening sacred and an attractive morbidity. For death and destruction is coming upon Carthage.

The contradictory nature of the goddess appears as early as the very first scene of the novel, when the gardens of Hamilcar are described. The novel opens on a life-filled landscape: the gardens of the palace are a true Land of Eden, with an abundant vegetation filled with fertility symbols. The plants that are listed are not mere exotic ornaments: they all bear symbolic and mythological connotations. The fig-tree, symbol of abundance and fecundity ; the sycamore, “living body of Hathor”, the tree of the Egyptian moon-goddess ; the grenade, symbol of fertility due to its multiple seeds ; the pine tree, linked to Attis the lover of Cybele ; the cypress, Artemis’ tree ; the lily, which whose perfume was said to be an aphrodisiac ; the vine-grapes and the rose… All those plants are linked to the moon, that the Carthaginian religion associated with Tanit. Most of these symbols, however, have a macabre touch reflecting the dark side of the goddess. The cypress, the “tree of life”, is also a funeral tree linked to the underworld ; the coral is said to be the same red as blood, and was supposedly born from the blood-drops of Medusa ; the lily symbolizes temptation and the unavoidable attraction of the world of the dead ; the fig-tree just like the grenade have a negative side tied to sterility… The flora of this passage, mixing benevolent and malevolent attributes, already depict a world of coexisting and yet opposed principles: fertility cannot exist without sterility, and death is always followed by a renewal. The garden’s description introduces in the text the very cycles of nature, while also bringing up the first signs of the ambivalence that dominates the story.

The same union of opposites is found within the mysterious persona of Tanit. The prayer of Salammbô (which was designed to evoke Lucius’ lamentations to Isis within Apuleius’ Metamorphosis) first describes a benevolent goddess of the moon, who fecundates the world : “How you turn, slowly, supported by the impalpable ether! It polishes itself around you, and it is the movement of your agitation that distributes the winds and the fecund dews. It is as you grow and decrease that the eyes of the cats and the spots of the panthers lengthen or shrink. The wives scream your name in the pains of labor! You inflate the sea-shells! You make the wines boil! […] And all seeds, o goddess, ferment within the dark depths of your humidity.” As a goddess presiding to the process of fermentation, Tanit is also tied to the principle of death – because it is her that makes corpses rot.

The Carthaginian Venus appears sometimes as an hermaphrodite divinity, but with a prevalence and dominance of her feminine aspect. Other times, she appears as just one of two distinct divinity, the female manifestation in couple with a male principle. Tanit synthetizes within her the main aspects of all the great moon-goddesses: Hathor, Ishtar, Isis, Astarte, Anaitis... All are supposed to have an omnipotence when it comes to the vegetal life. Mistress of the elements, Tanit can be linked to the Mother-Earth : for the character of Salammbô, the cloak of the goddess will appear as the veil of nature. The daughter of Hamilcar is linked in a quite mysterious way to Tanit – for she is both a frightened follower of the goddess, and the deity’s incarnation. Described as “pale” and “light” as the moon, she is said to be influenced by the celestial body: in the third chapter, it is explained that Salammbô weakened every time the moon waned, and that while she was languishing during the day, she strengthened herself by nightfall – with an additional mention that she almost died during an eclipse. Flaubert ties together his heroine’s traits with the very name “Salammbô”, which is a reminiscence of the funeral love of Astarte: “Astarte cries for Adonis, an immense grief weighs upon her. She searches. Salmmbô has a vague and mournful love”. According to Michelet’s explanations, “Salambo”, the “love name” of Astarte, is meant to evoke a “mad, dismal and furious flute, which was played during burials”.

As a character embodying Tanit, Salammbô is associated with the two animals that were sacred to the goddess: the holy fishes, and the python snake, also called “the house-spirit”. Upon the “day of the vengeance”, when Mâtho, the scape-goat, is charged with all the crimes of the mercenaries, she appears under the identity of Dercéto, the “fish-woman”. The very detailed costumes of Salammbô contain motifs borrowed to other goddesses that are avatars of Tanit. By using other goddesses, Flaubert widens the range of shapes the lunar goddess can appear with, while also bringing several mythical tales, whose scattered fragments infiltrate themselves within the novel. When she welcomes her father, Salammbô wears around her neck “two small quadrangular plates of gold depicting a woman between two lions ; and her costume reproduced fully the outfit of the goddess”. The goddess depicted here is Cybele, the passionate lover of Attis, the young Phrygian shepherd. This love story that ends in mutilations bears several analogies with the fatal love between Salammbô and the Lybian leader. And the motif of the mutilation is one of the key-images of the novel.

A fish-woman, like Dercéto, Salmmbô is also a dove-woman, reminding of Semiramis ; but more so, she is a snake-woman, linked mysteriously to the python. Before uniting herself with Mâtho (who is identified to Moloch), Salammbô unites herself with the snake that incarnates the lunar goddess in her hermaphroditic shape. It is the python that initiates Salammbô to the mysteries, revealing to Hamilcar’s daughter the unbreakable bond between eroticism and holiness. In the first drafts of the novel, Salammbô was a priestess of Tanit, but in the final story, Flaubert chose to have her father denying her access to the priesthood. So, she rather becomes a priestess under Mathô’s tent: using the zaïmph, she practices a sacred prostitution. The union of Hamilcar’s daughter and of the leader of the mercenaries reproduces the hierogamy of Tanit and Moloch.

Salammbô, confused with Tanit, is also victim of the jealous Rabbet. Obsessed with discovering the face of the goddess hidden under the veil, she joins the ranks of all those female characters who curiosity leads to the transgression of a divine rule (Eve, Pandora, Psyche, Semele). And, in a way, the story of Mathô and Salammbô reproduces this same story: the desire to see, the desire for knowledge, always leads to an ineluctable death.

#tanit #astarte #punic goddess #carthaginian goddess #carthage #baal #flaubert #salammbô #salammbo #french literature #punic mythology #carthaginian mythology

[notacluedo]

Dido Dido Dido

#The guy in the back in Hannibal 💕 #I can’t tag him bc of yknow #Drawing things from the Aeneid is revision actually #I’m obsessed with Dido cursing all the Carthaginians #It’s so so good #dido #dido of carthage #the aeneid #the Aeneid art #Fanart #mythology art #my art #roman mythology #Also I do not know what Hannibal looks like and I didn’t look it up #Take him with a grain of salt #Vergil #Dido

[super-who-locked-me-in-here]

I think the most fun part to me with writing Hannibal fanfics is seeing how far I can run with the dialogue I make Will and Hannibal use. Because I feel like there's a scale of how to write them that also very much falls in line with how they are in the show.

There's Hannibal-esque writers. They know seem to know a lot about music, art, food, and/or mythology from lots of different places and communities. They're cultured and well-informed or at the very least, they've done a lot of research into these things.

And then there's Will-esque writers. Those that aren't necessarily well-educated on all those subjects, but they're smart enough and cognizant enough of the various subjects to be able to snap back with some metaphor of their own.

And these are both good types of Hannibal fic writers don't get me wrong, but I do very much enjoy being a Will Writer. I don't know a lot about music or dancing or art, and by God I try to avoid describing whatever meals Hannibal might be making at risk of sounding like an idiot, but I'm a history major and published poet. I can work with that.

I can be pretentious and flowery and philosophical with my words, and hey, maybe throw in some metaphor about:

Well, Hannibal is so headstrong because he's following his namesake. Hannibals are supposed to be leaders, like Hannibal, the Carthaginian general of the Second Punic War, or Hannibal Hamlin, the fifteenth vice president of the United States (and a revolutionary one at that as the first Republican vice president).

But then have a clap back of, well, General Hannibal of Carthage may have been one of the greatest military tacticians in known history, but he did lose the Second Punic War (like Hannibal Lecter lost Will to justice in the Second season), was exiled many times over (except Hannibal Lecter ran to Italy rather than being pushed from it and its surrounding territories), and then ended up killing himself after being betrayed (much like Hannibal Lecter gave up his life (hyperbolically) to the BSHCI after Will betrayed him and his feelings).

And of course Hannibal Hamlin wasn't all that bad either, until Abraham Lincoln decided he needed to appeal more to those that opposed him, and he dropped Hamlin and picked up Andrew Johnson because that seemed like the best thing to do (kind of like how Will dropped Hannibal Lecter in Digestivo only to pick up a shiny little family for himself, because it was what he was supposed to want and do).

And in the end I'll spin it all with "Is that all your namesake is, Hannibal? A crutch of greatness keeping you from falling directly into abandonment's gaping maw? One could wonder why you try to avoid your sorrows when the legacy of your name scrambles the letters until all they spell is rejection."

But uh yeah that explanation really got out of hand and I just meant to say that I love writing Hannibal dialogue even if I don't have all the culture knowledge that Hannibal characters seem to have. It's fun.

#jesus christ that got away from me #but whatever #hannibal #hannibal fic #my writing #dot says

[nero-neptune]

i'm reminded of this bc of the last post, but thinking about the maya codices genuinely makes me so sad. hundreds of years-worth of literature and philosophy and scientific discoveries and plays and fiction and non-fiction (and more that we cant possibly know) were just set on fire. entire libraries, in one of the very few parts of the world where a society independently developed their own writing system without outside influence. and now today, only a known FOUR, out of what could've been Hundreds, if not Thousands, are gone forever.

a huge chunk of (what was well-documented) human history is missing. not lost to time bc of climate or weather or whatever, but lost bc they were Deliberately and Systematically Destroyed. most of what's been discovered since, unfortunately, are fragments that degraded over time.

like if you think about this longer than a passing 10 seconds, it's devastating. consider how much we know about ancient rome, for a random example. the impact and influence its had on art and architecture and philosophy and everything else, down to a kids book series about the roman gods, even. in this timeline, imagine some invading society hundreds of years back had wiped out So Much of any and everything ancient roman, that hundreds of years later (today) we only know roughly 10%ish of its history. like, we're iffy on the names of the rulers, the literature itself is a rarity, the art and mythology not hanging in the imaginations of anyone except the locals, probably. no one references "stabbing caesar", like they do in mean girls bc william shakespeare doesn't write "julius caesar", bc who the hell is that guy, anyway? those records are gone. rome is such an afterthought that even neighboring people like the macedonians and barbarians and carthaginians are tiny footnotes, regardless of how undeniably significant they were in their time.

it might not be the perfect comparison, and, yes, we do know a good amount about pre-columbian mesoamerica. but there's So Much More we'll never know bc that history was fucking set on fire!

#i can hardly wrap my head around it. hundreds of years that go back to at least 900 bc. AT LEAST #for all we know (if most everything hadn't been burned) it could've gone back even further #god the maya codices make me so sad. four (really three and a half) books out of WHO KNOWS HOW MANY??? #history #rambles

[ker4unos]

ANATOLIA & LEVANT RESOURCES

The Anthropological Masterlist is HERE.

Anatolia, or Asia Minor, is a historical West Asian peninsula that constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. 

HITTITE ─ “The Hittites, or the Empire of Hattusa, were an Anatolian people that lived during the Bronze Age, from 1650 B.C.E. to 1190 B.C.E. At their height, the empire encompassed the majority of modern-day Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria.” ─ Hittite Cuneiform Script ─ Hittite Grammar ─ The Chicago Hittite Dictionary Project

HURRIAN ─ “The Hurrians, or Khurrites, were a Near East people that lived from 3000 B.C.E. to 1300 B.C.E. They lived in Anatolia and Mesopotamia.” ─ The Mitanni Empire ─ Hurrian Culture ─ Hurrian Mythology

LUWIAN ─ “The Luwians are a group of Anatolian people that lived from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. They lived in modern-day Turkey.” ─ Luwian Studies ─ Luwian Dictionary

PHRYGIA ─ “The Phrygian people were an Anatolian people that lived from 1200 B.C.E. to 700 B.C.E. They lived in central Anatolia.” ─ Phrygian Language ─ Phrygian Inscriptions

THRACIA ─ “The Thracians were an Indo-European people that lived from the 8th century B.C.E. to 1st century C.E. They lived in the Balkans and Anatolia.” ─ Thracian Information ─ Thracian Culture ─ Thracian Language

UGARIT ─ “Ugarit was an Anatolian civilization that lived from 6000 B.C.E. to 1185 B.C.E. They lived in modern-day northern Syria.” ─ Ugaritic Information ─ Ugarit in the Bible ─ El in Ugaritic Texts

The Levant is a historical West Asian region in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Asia. It spans from the western part of the Arabian Peninsula to northeast Africa.

CARTHAGE ─ “Ancient Carthage, or the Carthaginian Empire, was a Mediterranean civilization that lived from 814 B.C.E. to 146 B.C.E. They lived in modern-day Tunisia.” ─ Carthage Information ─ Carthaginian Religion ─ Carthaginian Archaeology

EGYPT ─ “The Ancient Egyptians were a northeastern African people. They lived in the Nile Valley in Egypt.” ─ Egyptian Information ─ Ancient Egyptian Art ─ Women in Ancient Egypt

PHOENICIA ─ “The Phoenician people were a Mediterranean people that lived from 2500 B.C.E. to 64 B.C.E. They lived in modern-day Lebanon.” ─ Phoenician History ─ Phoenician Alphabet ─ Phoenician and Punic Languages

SYRIA ─ “The Syrians are an Eastern Mediterranean people that share the Syrian culture. They are native to Syria.” ─ Syria Information ─ Syria from 1700 C.E to 1920 C.E. ─ Syrian Cultural Zones

#resources #anatolia #levant #hittite #hurrian #luwian #phrygian #thracian #ugaritic #carthaginian #ancient egyptian #phoenician #syria

[deathlessathanasia]

"Kronia were celebrated on Rhodes on the sixth of Metageitnion (text: Pedageitnion). Porphyry (On Abstinence 2.54) tells of humans being sacrificed to Kronos during that festival. Later, a condemned criminal was kept alive until the Kronia, and then taken outside the gates to Aristobule’s statue, given wine to drink and slaughtered. From the date it has been concluded that this typical example of a scapegoat ritual springs from the Artemis cult and became associated with Kronos only later. This may quite well be true, although it is dangerous to build a case on a chance temporal coincidence. Important, however, is the fact that elsewhere as well, Kronos is associated specifically with bloody and cruel human sacrifices; the ancient attitude is summarised by Sophocles (Andr. fr. 126 Radt) as follows: ‘Of old there is a custom among barbarians to sacrifice humans to Kronos.’ Clearly this is about barbarians, as are other testimonia. Best known are the Phoenician-Punic human sacrifices, which are supposed to have been introduced by a former king, El/Kronos. The Carthaginian god in whose huge bronze statue children were burnt to death also was identified with Kronos/Saturnus. It was said that in Italy and Sardinia, too, humans had been sacrificed to Saturnus — probably just as legendary a fact as Istros’ (FGrH 334 F 48) remark about Crete that the Kouretes in ancient times sacrificed children to Kronos, or the later reports by Christian authors about human sacrifices in Greece itself.

Surveying all these data, one is not surprised that in places Kronos stands as a signum for human sacrifice, bloody offering and even cannibalism. Side by side with the above-mentioned text by Sophocles stands, for instance, Euhemerus, view (Ennius Euhemerus 9.5) that Kronos and Rhea and the other people living then used to eat human flesh. A more negative and gruesome picture hardly can be imagined. Therefore, the appearance of another, again utterly contrasting one is all the more striking. According to Empedocles, and in Pythagorean circles generally, Kronos is the very symbol of unbloody sacrifice. The Athenian cake sacrifice is a good illustration of this, and Athenaeus 3,11 OB informs us that by way of offering the Alexandrians used to put loaves of bread in Kronos’ temple, from which everybody was allowed to eat. This peaceful and joyous aspect crops up in an almost hyperbolic form in the Attic celebration of the Kronia.

Apart from a short mention by Demosthenes 24.26, with mention of the date (12 Hekatombaion = ± August), we have two somewhat more detailed reports. Plutarch Moralia 1098B: ‘So too, when slaves hold the Kronia feast or go about celebrating the country Dionysia, you could not endure the jubilation and din.’ Macrobius Saturnalia 1.10.22:Philochorus [FGrH 328 F 97] says that Cecrops was the first to build, in Attica, an altar to Saturn and Ops, worshiping these deities as Jupiter and Earth, and to ordain that, when crops and fruits had been garnered, heads of households everywhere should eat thereof in company with the slaves with whom they had borne the toil of cultivating the land, for it was well pleasing to the god that honour should be paid to the slaves in consideration of their labour. And that is why we follow the practice of a foreign land and offer sacrifice to Saturn with the head uncovered, (tr. P. V. Davies). … Finally, the Roman poet Accius (Ann. fr. 3 M, Bae.; Fr. poet. lat. Morel p. 34) adds that most Greeks, but the Athenians in particular, celebrated this festival: ‘in all fields and towns they feast upon banquets elatedly and everyone waits upon his own servants. From this had been adopted as well our own custom of servants and masters eating together in one and the same place.’"

- H. S. Versnel, Greek Myth and Ritual: The Case of Kronos, in Interpretations of Greek Mythology

#kronos #saturnus #saturn #kronia #saturnalia #quotes #excerpts

[tyrannoninja]

This priestess from ancient Carthage in North Africa is officiating a ritual to honor the goddess Tanit, represented by the crescent moon hovering overhead in the night sky. In Carthaginian mythology, Tanit was one of the most important deities, overseeing fertility. To this day, modern Tunisians may invoke a similar entity called “Omek Tannou” to summon rain during droughts.

#carthage #carthaginian #ancient #north african #african #black woman #woman of color #woc #dark skin #priestess #tanit #digital art #art

[italiangothicwriteblr]

happy wbw! i see that your wip has an italian-inspired fantasy world! is there anything specific that inspired your worldbuilding?

Hi! Thanks for the ask!

When I started writing it I was aiming for more of a Renaissance Italy feel, but a lot of my worldbuilding took inspiration from Ancient Rome.

The biggest one is the government structure. It's an absolute monarchy, but succession isn't done through bloodlines. The reigning monarch can pick anyone they want to be their heir.

(Gonna put my history major hat on for a sec): This is really similar to the system that the Roman Empire had, and I've always thought it was an underused government system in fiction. So much potential for drama! All the high stakes and power of a monarchy, with all the political maneuvering and social mobility of a democracy.

(Also, the other kingdoms surrounding Circi are based off of different places that were controlled by the Roman Empire. Vinoseta is the rich Greek cities, Bellamagna is Sparta/Persia, and Candemero is Roman Britain. There's a Carthaginian based civilization in the works.)

I also took a lot of character names from Italian history/mythology--

Livia--Livia Drusilla, first empress of Rome

Julia--Augustus' daughter

Rodrigo and Cesare--Borgia

Agrippina--Nero's mother

Niccolo--Machiavelli

Calpurnia--Caesar's wife

Ahenobarbi--notoriously cruel Ancient Roman house

Adrasteia--A version of the name of the goddess Nemesis

The biggest Italian inspiration on the setting is probably how often the characters take a boat places instead of a carriage. There is a lot of water.

#worldbuilding

[bad-artist-non-historian]

Does anyone have any articles about indigenous Sicilian Mythology they can recommend? Because I’m tired of trying to find anything on Sicilian Myths and finding everything Greek. I want to know about my ancestors from before the Greeks.

I can’t escape the feeling that Sicilians have never really belonged to themselves. We were Greek and Phoenician and Roman and Carthaginian and Mycenaean and All other things, not necessarily in that order.

I don’t know what to say. I don’t mean to be a downer, but we never belonged to ourselves. Being under the control of the Italians is just the latest in a long run of conquerors and colonists. They call and treat us the way the English treat the Welsh.

Im just really ———— upset and I want to learn more about my heritage from before the Greeks, from before anyone took over us. If anyone has anything or can recommend anything, lemme know by reblogs.

#sicilian #sad #A Sicilian version of Hiraeth would be great right now #sicilian ancestry #sicilia #the Greeks #the Italians #not really a rant but sort of #Phoenician #Romans #Romans enslaved us and brought slaves to Sicily #the Carthaginians #The Sikeloi and Sicani and the Elymians traded with the Mycenaeans #and the Minoans #and the Phoenicians #and the Greeks #before the Greeks took over the Eastern part of the island #and founded cities like Syracuse #the oldest city is #Messina #(on the island) #and I think it was Phoenician #Or Greek #we weren’t given time to develop as a society #before the island was taken over #I feel really sad and sort of sick #I’m sick of Northern Italians saying things like #‘Sicilians are criminals’ ‘Sicilians are lazy’ ‘Sicilians are dirty’ and then Sicilians go and say that and believe in and internalize it #this feels awful and I can’t talk about this in English without it becoming about babbi Miricani identity politics #please help

[ridingancientrome]

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The story of Ancient Rome begins with the legendary tale of Romulus and Remus, twin brothers raised by a she-wolf, who went on to establish the city on the banks of the Tiber River in 753 BCE. This mythological origin, though not historically accurate, captures the essence of Rome's dramatic and mythical beginnings.

The Roman Republic, established around 509 BCE, marked a pivotal phase in Ancient Rome's history. It was a time of political evolution, where the city-state transformed into a powerful republic. The political structure of the republic featured a Senate and two consuls, embodying the ideals of checks and balances. The Republic's expansionist policies led to the conquest of neighboring territories, and by the 2nd century BCE, Rome's influence stretched from Spain to Greece.

The Punic Wars against Carthage, particularly the Second Punic War led by the brilliant general Hannibal, showcased Rome's military prowess. The famous Carthaginian general crossed the Alps with his elephants, surprising and challenging Rome in ways that had never been anticipated. However, Rome emerged victorious, solidifying its dominance in the Mediterranean.

The internal strife of the Roman Republic, marked by social and political tensions, eventually culminated in the rise of Julius Caesar. Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon River in 49 BCE ignited a civil war, and his eventual appointment as dictator marked the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.

The subsequent period witnessed the rise of Augustus Caesar as the first Roman Emperor, signaling the start of the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) – a time of relative stability and prosperity that lasted for around two centuries. During this era, Rome reached the zenith of its territorial expansion, encompassing regions from Britain to Egypt.

The architectural marvels of Ancient Rome, such as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon, stand as enduring symbols of Roman engineering and innovation. The city's cultural achievements in literature, philosophy, art, and law have had a profound and lasting impact on Western civilization.

The decline of Ancient Rome is a complex narrative involving economic challenges, external invasions, political instability, and the eventual division of the empire into the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. The sack of Rome by barbarian tribes in 410 CE and the eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE marked the end of Ancient Rome.

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In conclusion, the history of Ancient Rome is a captivating tale of rise, triumph, and eventual decline. From a humble beginning on the banks of the Tiber to a sprawling empire that left an indelible mark on the world, Ancient Rome's story is a testament to the enduring power of human civilization.For more details visit our website: www.ridingancientrome.it

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[mask131]

Last time, when I posted the vague translation of an article about Tanit, a lot of people were surprised and said they were unaware of the goddess' very existence... So for those who are interested into the Punic mythology, I will list here some points one can find literaly by going to the French Wikipedia article about the Punic religion. (I precise French Wikipedia because the French and English Wikipedias sometimes do not have the same information)

(Again this is not exact or definitive stuff, just a little bit of intro ; a "little taste for the beginning of the research")

The Punic religion/mythology is the one of the city of Carthage. You know? The Great Carthage, the famed rival and enemy of Rome, Hannibal and all that. It also extended to all the cities and regions which were under Carthage's influence and control. (So we are talking the coasts of Northern Africa, the south of Spain and Italy, and other adjacent areas)

The Punic mythology is derived from the Phoenician mythology, hence why several Phoenician gods can be found back among the Punic pantheon - but differences between the Phoenician and Punic religions are attested as early as Carthage's foundation.

Despite the conquest and destruction of Carthage by the Roman Empire, the religion still went on - it is attested as having been performed during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, and some theorize the Punic gods might have stayed "alive" as late as the fourth century CE.

One of the big problems when studying the Punic religion is to differentiate historical facts from biased accusations, because the Roman authors were known to heavily caricature and demonize its rites. Notably the Romans regularly accused the people of Carthage of monstrous infant-sacrifices, and the archeological discoveries are quite ambiguous as to whether there were indeed sacrifices of children or not...

As I said before, the Punic gods were born when the Phoenician gods were brought over to Northern Africa and acquired there specific traits, while also interacting with other local religions. The Punic gods are dominated by the figure of the "superior god" that is Ba'al Hammon (or just Ba'al), and which is inherited from the Phoenicians - though the Punic Ba'al and the Phoenician Ba'al are quite different from each other. Astarte, Ba'al paredra (female companion) in the Oriental religions, is also present in the Punic religion but in a secondary and "weakened" way - she was rather replaced/fused with an emblematic goddess of the Punic religion, Tanit, the paredra of the Punic Baal (and even called the "face of Baal").

Astarte was preserved as a goddess of fecundity and war, though she seems to have been moved to a "secondary" situation. Other Phoenician gods preserved include Eshmun, god of medecine, and Melkart, a god symbolizing expansion and enrichment. Melkart was quite notably fused/equated with the Greek figure of the hero-god Herakles.

Most of the gods of the Punic pantheon (except for Baal, which oversaw and dominated them all) acted as "poliads", aka as city-gods. Tanit is considered to have been the goddess of the city of Carthage, while Melkart was the patron of the city of Gades (Cadiz), and Sid the tutelar deity of Sardinia (hence his alternate name "Sardus Pater").

Ba'al Hammon, the leader of the Punic gods, was born of the meeting between the Phoenician Baal, and the Egyptian Ammon, whose cult had spread to Lybia and almost most of Northern Africa (Ba'al Hammon notably had the same ram-association as Amon). This dual god, who symbolized fire and the sun, was later, in the Roman era, assimilated with Jupiter - and it is attested that the Punic Baal (Baal-Amon-Jupiter) still had a worship when Christianity started establishing itself.

The Punic religion had some "imported" cults too. Most notably, during the Greco-Punic wars, the Punic civilization adopted the worship of Demeter and Kore, as goddesses of fertility and harvest. This was due (according to Diodorus of Sicily) to the destruction of these goddesses' temple at Syracuse in 396 BCE: after this, all sorts of disasters plagued the army of Carthage, and so the city adopted the worship of the goddesses in an attempt at appeasing them. Some archeological clue also indicate that the cult of Isis might have existed at Carthage - but it is not firmly confirmed.

The Punic gods were usually invoked when an important historical event had to take place: for example before any military campaign, they were invoked, and if a sea-expedition was successful, the gods were thanked. The Punic religion was a state-business, since there was not cleric/secular division in the Carthagian lifestyle. The priests did not have any direct or open political power, but they had an enormous influence over society - and the members of the higher ranks of the religious hierarchy all belonged to the most powerful families of Carthage.

There was an entire "society-within-a-society" linked to the temples, since each temple had its own set of barbers, slaves and servants. Sacred prostitution was also common within many Punic temples: this prostitution involved both male and female prostitutes, and to be one could be either a definitive, lifetime state, or a temporary function. There was also a whole commerce of ex-votos the followers of the god could buy in buildings linked to the temples - in fact this commerce was most developped by the sea-shores and in coastal cities, where foreigners could bring donations and offerings or receive ex-votos. In fact, the offerings of the temples (usually meat and other resources for consumption) played a big part in the economical model of Carthage. There were specific "prices" and "tariffs" when it came to offerings: we have preserved several "price lists" indicating which type and amount of offering was needed depending on the request or demand. Could be sacrificed vegetables, food, objects, but also small and big animals (usually birds for "small" and cows for "big"). The offering was shared between the priest, the offerer and the god, and then a commemorative stone was set.

A big debate point is the tophet of Carthage, the sacred area dedicated to Tanit and Baal. The thing is we have very little clues and knowledge about this area, outside of vague and repetitive texts found on the ex-votos, thanking "Tanit Pene Baal and Lord Ba'al Hammon". The problem is that some Roman writers and historians (but not all - which adds oil to the fire) said the child-sacrifices took place within this area, identifying these rituals to the sacrifices of Moloch. Some child bones were found in urns, but given no violent cause of death could be found, it is unknown if this indeed was a place of child-sacrifices, or a necropolis for dead children.

It is established that, in the Punic religion, there was a difference between the state-religion, dominated by Carthage, and a folk-religion expressed through the amulets and the talismans protecting against demons and diseases. The folk-religion was heavily influenced by the Egyptian mythology: the Egyptian god Bes was a very popular folk-god of the Punic civilization, charged with protecting both the living and the dead.

We also know a few more details of religious practices, though they stay obscure... For example we know there was a worship of the ancestors within the houses of Carthage, but we don't know how, why, when. Similarly we know the Punic civilization forbade the eating of pork - a diet restriction still efficient by the early 4th century... But why, we don't know. We also do know the Punics seemed to have a belief in life after death, because even though the funeral rites involved incineration, there were mortuary chambers decorated like a house of the living, filled with offerings of food and drinks, and perfumed before being sealed. The position of the corpse was sometimes similar to the "Oriental" rites inherited from the Phoenicians, but other times influenced by the funeral practices of the Berbers (which were one of the population with influential interactions with the Punic civilization).

Numerous elements of modern-day Northern African/Muslim cultures were directly inherited from the Punic religion. For example, the khamsa amulet is widely recognized as being a leftover of the Punic amulets ; similarly, modern-day Tunisia regularly uses the "Symbol of Tanit" (it is used within the cinematographic prize of the "Gold Tanit"). The Algerian and Tunisian expression "Baali agriculture" to designate a non-irrigated agriculture is explained as a reference to the Punic Baal, the same way the Tunisian ritual of the Umuk Tangu/Ommek Tannu (Oumouk Tangou, Ommek Tannou, "Mother Tannou/Tangou"), a rain-invocation for periods of droughts, is a survival of the goddess Tanit (of whom Tangu/Tannu are alternate names). Some go as far as to theorize that the "star and the crescent", symbol of the Muslim religion ever since the Ottoman empire popularized it, might have been influenced by the Punic religious symbols...

#punic religion #punic mythology #punic gods #gods of carthage #carthaginian gods #carthage #baal #ba'al hammon #tanit

[hydralisk98]

For '(expt 16 12), Karalis V5

PREFACE

Greetings, this is only a mere sketch for my constructed world stuff, again... It is still a manifestation and political advocacy exercise but I would think that it is also a decent reflection of my worldview and a nice educational "grasp-the-world & iterate" method.

Granted, the following only have temporary labels due to further work yet to be done for the whole project "backend" (especially the linguistics and overtly immersive parts of it all). I am still iterating with some Civilization 5 & Stellaris playthroughs as baseline inspo, alongside a couple textual referee documents to assist this "frontend" of sorts.

So yeah... enjoy your stay.

First twelve "Major" Civs

Shoshones

Mayas

Morocco

Brazil

Poland

Incas

Babylon

Assyria

Netherlands / Venice?

Portugal

Korea

Carthage

Last eight "Major" Civs

Aremorica

Samoa

Inuit

Vietnam

Sumer

Angola

Hittites

Minoans

FourtyEight(48)-to-Sixty-Four(64) "Minor" Civs aka City-States

?

Cultures

Eyn = Levantine

Ibrad = Hungarian

Zebie = Basque

Tatari = Berber

Cao = Vietnamese

Shoshoni = Numic

Turchian = Turkish

Eqalen = Inuit

Tersun = Ruthenian

Temu = Nigerian

Hugues = English

Lueur = Mongolian

March = German

Teotlan = Nahuatl

Hawatcha = Korean

Ishtar = Mesopotamian

Taliyan = Iranian

Palche = Quechua

Aberku = Celtic

Sama = Polynesian

Medran = Castillian

Olivana = French

Bantnani = Karnataka

Syriac = Mesopotamian

Matipec = Mayan

Rzhev = Ruthenian

Matwa = Swahili

Hangzhou = Chinese

Chunhau = Cantonese

Mersuit = Inuit/Swedish

Treano = Italian

Arela = Portuguese

Hatris = Hittites / Lydians

Zapata = Byzantines / Mycenean Greeks

Nippir = Elam / Far-Eastern Mesopotamia

Irena = Minoan Greeks

Religions

Pohakantenna (Shoshoni / Numic pantheon)

Angakkunngurniq (Inuit pantheon)

Confucianism tradition (and dialects like Shinto…)

Al-Asnam (Celtic druidic pantheon)

Mwari Cult (Carib animistic pantheon)

Arianism (iterated from the defunct Christianity dialect)

Chaldeanism (Mesopotamian pantheon)

Calvinism (derived from the Protestant Reformation’s Huguenot Southern French, monotheism)

Tala-e-Fonua (Polynesian Samoan pantheon)

Hussitism (central slavic dialect of monotheism)

Jainism (communal humility & individualized ki monks culture)

Buddhism (inner way reincarnation & large monasteries)

Judaism

Zoroastrianism

Ibadiyya (Islam)

Canaanism (Carthaginian belief system)

Pesedjet (Numidan Hieroglyphics belief system)

Wakan Tanka (Blackfoot religion)

Intiism (Inca pantheon)

Tzolk'in (Mayan pantheon)

States

(~ to be written)

END

Worldbuilding revision workflow preview #1...

Galactic & meta-physical considerations (helps the mythological and Stellaris stages tremendously);

Micro-paracosms experimentations;

Stellar system conception

Interstellar neighbourhood;

Star design;

Orbits design;

Habitable planet(s) & Terrestrials;

Ice & gas giants;

Moons;

Habitable world conception

Albedo, atmospheric, tides & other key specifications;

GPlates & GProjector / geology stages;

Speculative biology / lively evolution stages;

Sapient life history simulationism runs stage (social life simulacres aka Firaxis' Civ 5 + FreeCiv);

Stellaris & post-Stellaris narratively-focused stages;

GLOSS systemic multimedia animated story-telling stage;

QGIS + OSM "present-day" geofiction stage;

Dreamworld, shifting sessions and manifestation life scriptings stage;

#16^12 #maskutchew

[svenson777]

Stele from the Tophet of Salammbó showing a Tanit symbol

The Tophet de Carthage (Tophet of Carthage), also called Tophet Salammbó, is an ancient sacred area in Tunis dedicated to the Phoenician gods Tanit and Baal, located in the Carthage Salammbo, near the Punic ports.

Tanit was a Punic and Phoenician goddess, the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon. She was also adopted by the Berber people.

#tanit #stele #carthage #mythology #tunis #Tophet of Carthage #Tophet de Carthage #Tophet of Salammbó #punic mythology #Carthaginian mythology #old gods #detail #symbol #goddess #bw

[ancientorigins]

#infanticide #child #sacrifice #killing #babies #infants #Greek #mythology #Carthaginians

[diioonysus]

AFRICAN MYTHOLOGIES ↣ Carthaginian, Dahomey, Serer, Zulu, Igbo, and Berber

#mythology #mythologyedit #mythedit #africanmythedit #africanmythologyedit #africanedit #Berber #igbo #carthaginian #dahomey #serer #zulu #mine #aesthetic #graphics #picscam #berberedit #igboedit #carthaginianedit #dahomeyedit #sereredit #zuluedit

[raven-blog-life]

List of lunar deities

In mythology, a lunar deity is a god or goddess of the moon, sometimes as a personification. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related. Some form of moon worship can be found in most ancient religions.

Africa   Goddess Ala (Igbo mythology)

Goddess Gleti (Dahomean mythology)

Goddess Mawu (Dahomean mythology)

God Iah (Egyptian mythology)

God Khonsu

God Osiris (only due to syncretism with Iah)[5]

God Thoth

Europe  

Goddess Ilargi (Basque mythology)

Goddess Losna (Etruscan mythology)

Goddess Kuu (Finnish mythology)

Goddess Selene (Greek mythology)

God Máni (Norse mythology)

God Elatha (Irish mythology)

God Meness (Latvian mythology)

Goddess Luna (Roman mythology)

Goddess Mano (Sami mythology)

God Hors (Slavic mythology)

Asia   Ainu mythology  

God Kunnechup Kamui

Anatolian  

God Kaskuh (Hittite mythology)

God Men (Phrygian mythology)

Chinese mythology  

Goddess Chang'e

Goddess Chang Xi

Goddess Han Ying[citation needed]

God Jie Lin

Goddess Su'e[citation needed]

God Tu'er Ye

God Wu Gang

Elamite  

God Napir

Hindu

God Chandra or Soma Hurro-Urartian

God Kusuh (Hurrian mythology)

Goddess Selardi (Urartian mythology)

Indonesian mythology  

Goddess Ratih

Goddess Silewe Nazarate

Japanese mythology  

God Tsukuyomi

Korean mythology  

Goddess Dae-Soon[citation needed]

Mari mythology  

God Tõlze

Philippine mythology  

God/Goddess Mayari (gender depends on tribe)

God Libulan[6]

God Bulan[citation needed]

Semitic  

God Aglibol (Palmarene mythology)

God Baal-hamon (Carthaginian religion)

God Sin (Mesopotamian mythology)

God Ta'lab (Arabian mythology)

God Wadd (Minaean mythology)

God Yarikh (Canaanite mythology)

Turkic mythology  

God Ay Ata Austronesian  

God Andriambahomanana (Malagasy mythology)

Goddess Lona (Hawaiian mythology)

God Avatea (Polynesian mythology)

God Fati (Polynesian mythology)

Goddess Hina (Polynesian mythology)

Goddess Mahina (Polynesian mythology)

God Marama (Polynesian mythology) Australia Edit

God Bahloo (Australian Aboriginal mythology)

God Kidili (Mandjindja mythology)

God Ngalindi (Yolngu mythology)

Americas   Aztec mythology  

Goddess Coyolxauhqui

Goddess Metztli

God Tecciztecatl (see Metztli)

Cahuilla mythology  

Goddess Menily[citation needed]

Guarani mythology  

God Abaangui

Goddess Arasy

Hopi mythology  

God Muuya[citation needed]

Incan mythology  

Goddess Mama Killa

Goddess Ka-Ata-Killa

God Coniraya

Inuit mythology  

God Alignak

God Igaluk

God Tarqiup Inua

Lakota mythology  

Goddess Hanwi[citation needed]

Maya mythology  

Goddess Awilix; Xbalanque was her  

mortal (male) incarnation

Maya moon goddess

Muisca mythology  

Goddess Huitaca

Goddess Chía

Pawnee mythology  

God Pah[citation needed]

Tupi mythology  

Goddess Jaci

Voodoo  

God Kalfu