Podcasts about Enkidu

Episode: We're back, with Tablet VII of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an emotional high point in the epic. Chris and Amy take us into the friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the aftermath of Humbaba's death, and the curse-filled waiting for Enkidu's fate to unfold. Tune in and enjoy! Click to listen back to PART 1,  PART 2, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5, PART 6, and PART 7. Hosts: Chris McKinny and Amy Balogh Image Attribution:By Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90610606 Give: Visit our Donate Page if you want to help Biblical World and OnScript continue by becoming a regular donor.

In dit tweede deel over het epos van Gilgamesj neemt dr. Willemijn Waal van de Universiteit Leiden ons mee in wat ook daadwerkelijk het tweede deel van het epos is: de tabletten 7 tot en met 12. Wat doet de dood van Enkidu met Gilgamesj? Willemijn vertelt over de reis van Gilgamesj, waarbij we uitgebreid in zullen gaan op diverse interessante details... en ook op de vraag naar de betekenis van het epos: want waar staat dit verhaal eigenlijk voor?Shownotes

I'm reading and talking about Ted Gioia's "Immersive Humanities Course," 52 weeks of World Classics.This week I tackled the Epic of Gilgamesh and also The Dhammapada. Gilgamesh was written in approximately 2000 BC, the oldest known story in the world, and is about 1500 years older than anything I've read to date. The Dhammapada is the oldest writings of the Buddha, from approximately 450 BC, which is a lot more in line with some of the other things I've been reading. I think it's important to note the relative ages of these works and know how they fit together. Gilgamesh was an actual, historical king of a Mesopotamian city called Uruk, around 2750 BC. The poem tells the story of how he angers the gods and then makes a best friend from a former wild man, Enkidu. They go rampaging, killing beasts for the sport of it, and that angers the gods. Enkidu is cursed and falls ill. When he dies, Gilgamesh is heartbroken and goes in search of a cure for his own mortality. He fails in that quest. Here are a few of my take-aways:The style of writing feels extraordinarily primitive to me. There is something very, very basic about the story, and many times it feels like it's written with the mindset of a sixth grade boy: lots of graphic talk about sex and body parts, and lots of bloody killing. Until the last part, there wasn't much nuance and there wasn't a lot of reflection on anyone's part.The Flood story is well-described here, lending credence to an actual, world-changing flood taking place at some point in history. The narrative of it is very interesting, especially the description of a square “boat” constructed and filled with pairs of animals.Book X is much more thoughtful than earlier sections. Gilgamesh is mourning his dead friend, searching for ways that he himself might become immortal. But the only immortal human tells him:Humans are born, they live, then they die, this is the order that the gods have decreed. But until the end comes, enjoy your life, spend it in happiness, not despair. Savor your food, make each of your days a delight, bathe and anoint yourself, wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean, let music and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you by the hand, and give your wife pleasure in your embrace. This is the best way for a man to live.And that's what it comes down to. Man will always and forever struggle with his mortality. We have and we will. The oldest and most enduring story is about the oldest and most enduring question.There is just not a lot of man-woman romance in these old stories. Only Penelope and Odysseus come to mind in the last few weeks. Here, Enkidu is seduced by the temple prostitute but there's not much more mention of women than that. I was actually surprised to see a wife mentioned in the quote above!The Dhammapada reminded me very, very much of The Analects of Confucius (Week 4). Books of aphorisms are very hard to read in big chunks, as I've already noted. It's more a matter of scanning, trying to see how things fit together, if there are over-arching themes. I have a few thoughts here as well:Some of these sayings of Buddha are good sense, and we saw them in Confucius, and we see them in Proverbs. A wrongly-directed mind will do to you far worse than any enemy; a rightly-directed one will do you good.All the talk of “emptying” and forgetting the self is bleak to me. It's a completely different mindset from the Greek philosophy I've read until now. It's not Stoic; it's a kind of blankness, a rejection of self but not an embrace of anything else as far as I can tell. Reading...

que tiene que ver con nuestras culturas mediterráneas. Presentamos el último libro de Mariona Fernández "Buranuna. Canción de Arcilla" (Karwán edit.) la historia de la hija de Enkidu y Shamhat , pesonajes que se detallan en el poema épico del Gilgamesh. Conocemos también el montaje "Desert" que ha creado la artista experta en textiles Olga Solá Viñas, en el escaparate de la Llibreria 22 en Girona, en el que muestra el contraste de la lana de ovejas cercanas con una alforja antigua en tela que usaban las tribus nómadas Qashqai en su viaje del Caucaso hasta Iran, a lomos de camellos. Escuchamos la música de: RUKEN YILMAZ- Çi Çem e Çem E; ALI DOGAN- Hespi Degdi; OMAR FARUK TEKBILEK- Mara; CEMIL QOCGIRI+ TARA JAFF- Baran Bari; ARTO TUNÇBOYACIYAN- Hook; MURAD DEMIR- Kurd Ji Mirinê; KASRA ZAHEDI- Shakhe Gol; RA DI SPINA- Madonni quant’e jirti stu palazzo. Escuchar audio

Episode: We're back, with Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Chris and Amy take us on a deep dive into the "love" of Ishtar, Gilgamesh refusing that love as cruel and temporary, the Bull of Heaven's rage and death, and the impending fate of Enkidu. Tune in and enjoy! Click to listen back to PART 1,  PART 2, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5, and PART 6. Hosts: Chris McKinny and Amy Balogh Image Attribution: By Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92742680 Give: Visit our Donate Page if you want to help Biblical World and OnScript continue by becoming a regular donor.

Separated and flung to Mairvai, Enkidu, Juna, and Gaius must navigate a coup, unexpected faces from their past, and their royal destinies.Join our merry band of actors for a D&D podcast filled with intrigue, adventure and laughter. Where there are ‘No Small Rolls' and no small consequences!Credits:David Knight (he/him) as your Dungeon MasterChris Watts (he/him) as GaiusDarrel Bailey (he/him) as EnkiduVicky Gaskin (she/her) as JunaOriginal music by David KnightEdited by David KnightAwards:Nominate us for a CRIT Award!D&D Shows:Watch Grace, Ben, and Darrel in Mage Hunter on the How to be a great GM YouTube channelAudiobooks:Hear Ben narrate The Flesh of the SeaSupport:Follow us on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter)Support No Small Rolls on PatreonJoin our DiscordLeave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or Spotify Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

01 Gilgamesh Enkidu

Relax with a gentle retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest stories ever told. Follow the mighty king of Uruk on a journey of friendship, loss, and the search for meaning. Including the stories of Enkidu, Cedar Forest, Humbada, Ishtar, Bull of Heaven, eternal life, Utnapishtim etc. Let this ancient Sumerian tale of courage and reflection guide you into a deep and peaceful sleep. 

Assassin's Creed Shadows vereint viele Mechaniken und Elemente aus den Vorgängern. Eine Sache vermissen die Spieler aber ganz besonders: die fliegenden Begleiter. Auf Reddit trauern zahlreiche Fans Ikaros, Enkidu und Senu hinterher.

There is so much to this episode!  First, Cam Sully of the Jacked Up Review Show joins us as we talk ancient Gods and Goddesses from different cultures around the world.  Is Ishtar the goddess of the worst movie ever?  Maybe.  We also discuss gods of homosexuality and 'filthy' sex.  We also talk some of the Gods holidays.  Plus, Valentines at Cirilla's with cats.  It'll mean more when you listen to the episode.  Plus we talk Josh Gates, computer connection issues (thanks Comcast) and so much more in this giant burrito of love episode, so good you just have to shove it in your ears...or something like that!  Enjoy!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.

Ibland är samtiden så samtida att bara den äldsta litteraturen är god nog. Henrik Nilsson återser ett gammalt epos och fångas av fragmenten. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna.Det händer att jag känner en viss övermättnad på samtida litteratur och tänker på den portugisiske poeten Fernando Pessoas rader: ”Så många samtida dikter! Så många poeter alldeles av idag – alla intressanta, allt intressant … / Ah, men ändå bara nästan …” Om en ny teaterpjäs läser jag då att den är ”brännande aktuell”, och genast falnar min nyfikenhet. Konstverken som lägger sig alltför tätt inpå sin tid, romanerna som på ett alltför inställsamt sätt marscherar i takt med dagarna – det är inte bara det att de åldras så snabbt; de är gagnlösa redan nu, på grund av den snäva synen på vad detta nu egentligen rymmer.En sådan konstnärligt trång dag tar jag istället ut det allra äldsta ur bokhyllan, Gilgamesheposet. Det bygger på berättelser om Gilgamesh – kung i staden Uruk – som skrevs ner på kilskriftstavlor för ungefär fyratusen år sedan på det numera utdöda språket sumeriska. En del av dessa berättelser ledde efter hand fram till själva eposet på det fornsemitiska språket akkadiska, som talades under lång tid i Mesopotamien. Under denna nästan tusen år långa process ändrades delar av innehållet och inriktningen, och Gilgamesh utvecklades mot en mer komplex gestalt.När jag börjar läsa avslöjar ett hundöra i boken att det inte är första gången jag ger mig i kast med eposet. Varför övergav jag Gilgamesh och hans vän Enkidu redan under deras färd mot Cederskogen i tavla IV? Det är ju inte någon omfattande textmassa. För en nutida läsare kan vandringen ändå te sig mödosam, full av förvirrande sidospår och lösa stenar. Ibland kommer man till en plats som är mycket lik en man redan tror sig ha passerat. Andra gånger måste man hitta vägen utan stigmarkeringar, eftersom det här och var saknas rader eller hela stycken. Men det gäller att ta många raster och samtidigt acceptera att upprepningarna och de lösa stenarna är en del av vandringen. Dessutom gör det ingenting om man inte fullföljer läsningen vid första försöket. Gilgamesh är van vid att vänta på sina läsare. Han tros visserligen ha en verklig förlaga, som levde för ungefär 4700 år sedan. Men därefter tog de myter över som gör honom inte till en enhetligt fixerad personlighet, utan snarare till en skugga som med skiftande konturer rör sig genom seklerna. En avgörande händelse ägde rum år 1850 vid utgrävningarna av den assyriska kungen Assurbanipals bibliotek i dagens Irak, då arkeologer under ruinerna upptäckte de lertavlor med kilskrift som man ett par decennier senare lyckades tyda. Dessa ligger till grund för den standardversion av eposet som vår egen tids översättningar bygger på. En standardversion som förändras efterhand som forskare hittar nya fragment att foga till helheten.Till skillnad från vid första försöket kan jag den här gången inte sluta läsa om Gilgamesh. Snart tycker jag att doften av cederträ slår upp från boksidorna, och jag börjar leka med tanken på att inrätta tillvaron i dubbeltimmar – 12 istället för 24 – liksom babylonierna gjorde. Jag tror att alla läsare finner sina delar av eposet som talar just till dem. Är det kanske när ursprungsmänniskan Enkidu – skapad som Gilgamesh dubbelgångare för att avlasta invånarna i Uruk från kungens överskottsenergi – lämnar vilddjuren han levt med och blir människa? Eller när Gilgamesh efter att ha vandrat genom en lång beckmörk tunnel når fram till den skimrande juvelträdgården, i en passage som korresponderar med Edens lustgård i Bibeln, sagosamlingen Tusen och en natt och vissa buddhistiska texter?För mig når berättelsen sin smärtpunkt när Enkidu dör och Gilgamesh blir medveten om sin egen dödlighet. Då övergår äventyren i tvivel, och övermodet byts mot ett ifrågasättande av den egna existensen. Trots utmattande resor visar sig odödligheten vara omöjlig att uppnå, vilket leder till en sorts försoning hos Gilgamesh. När han mot slutet av eposet återvänder till sin hemstad säger han stolt till sin följeslagare: ”Gå upp på Uruks murar, vandra runt! Inspektera grunden, granska murverket!” Det är inte bara till Uruk Gilgamesh återvänder, utan också till sitt eget liv – det enda han har.Knut Tallqvists första svenska översättning av eposet publicerades 1945 och finns fortfarande tillgänglig. 2001 kom Lennart Warrings och Taina Kantolas betydligt mer omfattande översättning där forskningen fyllt igen en hel del luckor. Fortfarande saknas dock så många rader och avsnitt att det ibland känns som att lyssna till någon som talar högt och fragmentariskt i sömnen under en feberyra.Ett forskningsprojekt försöker nu med AI:s hjälp fylla de resterande luckorna utifrån den omfattande databasen Fragmentarium som översätter babyloniska fragment. Är vi alltså på väg mot den fullständiga versionen av Gilgamesheposet? Och varför längtar jag inte efter att arbetet ska slutföras? Jag minns något jag såg i en skranglig tågvagn mellan den grekiska hamnstaden Pireus och Aten för några år sedan. Snett mitt emot mig satt en kvinna i shorts. På sitt ena lår hade hon tatuerat en kort fras på engelska: ”Die with …” Det tredje och sista ordet i tatueringen gick inte att urskilja eftersom det täcktes av handväskan hon höll i. Jag brann av nyfikenhet att få veta fortsättningen, men förstod att jag knappast kunde be henne lyfta på handväskan. Min fråga var också Gilgameshs fråga: Hur ska vi dö? Och hur ska vi vara dödliga? I efterhand förstår jag att tatueringen fortfarande verkar i mig just eftersom jag aldrig fick veta fortsättningen på den. På ett liknande sätt är luckorna i eposet förvisso ett hinder. Men samtidigt är det genom ofullständigheten som verket lever vidare och går oss till mötes. Efter att gång på gång läst om Gilgamesheposet tror jag mig nu förstå varför jag inte fullföljde läsningen första gången, och varför jag så tidigt vek ett hundöra i boken. Efter att Gilgamesh och Enkidu drabbat samman och stångats som tjurar i Uruk, omfamnar de varandra och blir vänner. Men Enkidu har svårt att anpassa sig till människornas liv i staden och blir deprimerad. Gilgamesh föreslår då att de ska bege sig till Cederskogen och kämpa mot monstret Humbaba. Det är egentligen ett dumdristigt kamikazeuppdrag. Men vad går upp mot ett omöjligt äventyr för att väcka livsandarna? ”Tag min hand, min vän, låt oss gå tillsammans”, säger Gilgamesh. I det ögonblicket är det som om den uråldriga kilskriften också vänder sig rakt till sin avlägsna läsare och säger: ”Tag min hand, min läsare, låt oss gå tillsammans.” Där vill jag hejda de båda vännerna – under den farliga vandringen mot skogsbrynet med höga cederträd, då mod och rädsla väger lika och striden ännu inte börjat. Lämnar man Gilgamesh och Enkidu där, lämnar man dem aldrig. Henrik Nilssonförfattare och essäist LitteraturGilgamesh-eposet. Översättning Knut Tallqvist (Modernista, 2022).Gilgamesheposet. Översättning Lennart Warring och Taina Kantola (Natur & Kultur, 2001).

GILGAMESH! The oldest story known to man. From Annunaki conspiracies to the ancient Great Flood and the quest for immortality, we're unpacking one of humanity's oldest stories. WELCOME TO (religion) CAMP! Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 2:07 The Discovery Of The Epic 3:40 Gilgamesh's Reign As King 5:20 Creation Of Enkidu 9:29 Enkidu and Gilgamesh's Battle 14:23 Journey To Cedar Forest 18:19 The Bull of Heaven 22:09 The Death of Enkidu 29:00 Search For Immortality 35:06 Flood Story + Return To Uruk 39:12 Tablet 12 40:16 Similarities To Other Stories 44:33 The Annunaki 46:31 Gilgamesh's Impact Today

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! La inteligencia artificial ha recuperado fragmentos perdidos de la epopeya de Gilgamesh, uno de los textos más antiguos conocidos. ¡Sí! La tecnología moderna rescatando palabras de hace miles de años. Lo más interesante es que añade matices morales al viaje de Enkidu y Gilgamesh atrapándonos aún más en las complejidades de estos personajes. Estamos en todas las redes sociales, pero si quieres que te informemos puntualmente de todo, apúntate a nuestro boletín de noticias: http://eepurl.com/iHax6s Escucha este episodio completo y accede a todo el contenido exclusivo de El Viajero de la Ciencia - Carlos Alameda. Descubre antes que nadie los nuevos episodios, y participa en la comunidad exclusiva de oyentes en https://go.ivoox.com/sq/430635

TakeawaysThe Epic of Esau is a unique exploration of biblical narratives.Esau's character is linked to various historical and mythical figures.The wild man archetype appears across cultures and time periods.Hypertrichosis provides a scientific explanation for hairy legends.Garments in scripture symbolize authority and identity.The uncovering of nakedness has deeper implications in biblical stories.Cultural myths often reflect societal fears and values.Historical figures like Nimrod and Enkidu share traits with Esau.The concept of the wild man can be seen as a societal outcast.Understanding these narratives requires a multi-disciplinary approach. The birthright's significance is often misunderstood.Esau's actions can be seen as a rebellion against his fate.Nimrod's jealousy of Esau highlights ancient rivalries.Garments in biblical stories symbolize power and identity.The union of Esau and Ishmael represents a historical conflict.Demonic influences were prevalent in ancient cultures.Nephilim spirits are believed to haunt humanity.The seed war is a recurring theme in biblical texts.Cultural myths often reflect deeper biblical truths.Hidden treasures may still exist in places like the Vatican.Head over to http://www.prometheuslenspodcast.com to sign up for the "All Access Pass" and get early access to episodes, private community, members only episodes, private Q & A's, and coming documentaries.Squatch Survival Gear:http://www.squatchsurvivalgear.comNeed help with video or audio? Give my boy Jason a shout!Tamayo.jason@gmail.comWant to donate to the show? Send your one time donation to “Elrod32” on Venmo or PayPal. All donations will get a shout out and thank you on a recording.Have you written a book? Have a show idea? Had a supernatural experience you'd like to share on the show? Go to the website and click the contact link. I'd love to hear from you!

A randomly-chosen sample from the deepest most thorough analysis that you can find anywhere of the profoundly ancient Epic of Gilgamesh, on patreon for patrons only for one year: We examine the Epic of Gilgamesh as a piece of literature, for its strange dream-like style and form, its points of similarity to Biblical and ancient Greek and European mythology, and finally, its deep levels of psychological and political allegory, ultimately revealing the love between Enkidu and Gilgamesh as a parable of the fraught relationship between civilization and the wild. Please sign up as a patron at any level to hear both of the patron-only lectures on Gilgamesh: https://www.patreon.com/posts/myth-of-month-24-114591189 Image: Gilgamesh grappling with Enkidu; illustration by Wael Tarabieh. Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: Historiansplaining – Unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal The SOAS's recordings of scholars reading Akkadian texts: https://www.soas.ac.uk/baplar/recordings Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem"; Rivkah Scharf Kluger, "The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh."

Im zweiten Teil zum Gilgamesch Epos geht es um den Helden, der den Verlust seines Freundes nicht verkraftet und sich an den Rändern der Welt und darüber hinaus auf die Suche nach dem Geheimnis des Lebens und der Unsterblichkeit macht.#gilgamesh #gilgamesch #sumer #mesopotamien #held #literatur---Dir gefällt der Podcast? Dann kannst du uns gerne auf Patreon unterstützen: https://www.patreon.com/allezeitderweltWir würden uns ebenfalls riesig darüber freuen, wenn du uns eine Bewertung hinterlässt und uns auf YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@allezeitderwelt) folgst! Danke für deine Unterstützung!---Quellen & Literatur:Raoul Schrott, Gilgamesh, 2018.Gilgamesh auf Englisch:https://uruk-warka.dk/Gilgamish/The%20Epic%20of%20Gilgamesh.pdfhttp://www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdfCooper, Jerrold S.. "Buddies in Babylonia: Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Mesopotamian Homosexuality". Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen,2002, pp. 73-86. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575065335-009https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/14/how-to-read-gilgameshhttps://www.worldhistory.org/article/1286/new-gilgamesh-fragment-enkidus-sexual-exploits-dou/

Das älteste Versepos der Welt: das Gilgamesch Epos. Wir erkunden, warum es eigentlich "Bilgamesch" heißen sollte, was der sumerische Held mit Noah und der Bibel zu tun hat und tauchen in den unterhaltsamen Inhalt ein.#gilgamesh #gilgamesch #sumer #mesopotamien #uruk #literatur---Dir gefällt der Podcast? Dann kannst du uns gerne auf Patreon unterstützen: https://www.patreon.com/allezeitderweltWir würden uns ebenfalls riesig darüber freuen, wenn du uns eine Bewertung hinterlässt und uns auf YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@allezeitderwelt) folgst! Danke für deine Unterstützung!---Quellen & Literatur:Raoul Schrott, Gilgamesh, 2018.Gilgamesh auf Englisch:https://uruk-warka.dk/Gilgamish/The%20Epic%20of%20Gilgamesh.pdfhttp://www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdfCooper, Jerrold S.. "Buddies in Babylonia: Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Mesopotamian Homosexuality". Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen,2002, pp. 73-86. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575065335-009https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/14/how-to-read-gilgameshhttps://www.worldhistory.org/article/1286/new-gilgamesh-fragment-enkidus-sexual-exploits-dou/

L'épopée de Gilgamesh est la première histoire écrite que l'on ait conservée (sur des tablettes d'argile). Composée au pays des deux fleuves, entre le Tigre et l'Euphrate – la Mésopotamie –, elle nous conte les aventures du roi d'Uruk, pour un tiers humain, et deux tiers divin, célèbre pour sa force, et même sa tyrannie. Mais les sages ont décidé de lui donner une leçon, en lui envoyant Enkidu, un berger sauvage, le seul qui pourra l'affronter.   L'équipe de Radiokultura associée à Maud, collaboratrice passionnée de littérature, vous ouvre les portes de ce roman à travers une lecture très imagée des premières pages de la transcription de Gérard Chaliand (édité chez Pocket dans la collection Agora). A travers une écriture poétique et sensuelle, proche de l'oralité, il restitue le souffle épique de la légende, et nous accédons à l'histoire, peut-être telle qu'elle était racontée, il y a plus de 5000 ans.   Fermez les yeux et écoutez les aventures de Gilgamesh et d'Enkidu …   Jatorria : RadioKultura en collaboration avec Maud Jussaume

Hate ads? Get on the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DisguisetheLimitsWelcome Back to the Ba'al Busters Community. M-F 8am - 10am Pacific on FTJMedia.com and Rumble (and that god forsaken Twitter as @DisguiseLimits)Today, 9.02.2024We will venture into a 1929 book by L. A. Waddell, The Makers of Civilization in Race and History. I will reflect back on the Moses character and Enkidu. Their depictions with horns may be a giveaway that these stories originated with the Scythian/Aryans and were only later "Semitized" for their purposes, as these so-called chosen lifted stories from True cultures. We'll also show the Scyth-Aryan origin of the alphabet. Many achievements have been accredited to Imposters, Impersonators of those with a rich culture for these vindictive parasites have none of their own, and only decay and destruction to offer mankind.DR PETER GLIDDEN, ND Health Recovery Site:https://leavebigpharmabehind.com/?via=pgndhealthUse Code HealthyWealthyWise for 50% OFF - Try it!For the 90 Essential Nutrients, Contact Brenda here: 888 618 1796 ext. 101 Mention the Show!YOU ARE the CHANGE. You ARE the Resistance.  You ARE the Sponsors.Computer Fundraiser here: https://GiveSendGo.com/BaalBustersEuropean Viewers You can support here: https://www.tipeeestream.com/baalbusters/GET COMMERCIAL FREE VIDEOS/PODCASTS and Exclusive Content: Become a Patron. https://Patreon.com/DisguisetheLimitsMy Clean Source Creatine-HCL Use Coupon Code FANFAVORITE for 5% Offhttps://www.semperfryllc.com/store/p126/CreatineHCL.htmlGo to https://SemperFryLLC.com to get my the AWESOME Hot Sauce, books, supplements, plus Quick Links to Dr Monzo and Dr Glidden are found on my website.Go To: https://www.moneytreepublishing.com/shop USE code: BAAL for 10% OFF your entire order.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262/support.

Hate Ads? Me too. Get Ad-Free Podcasts and Exclusive Content Here:https://Patreon.com/DisguisetheLimits  Niish & Dan's WOO Done-It? is available at the 2nd tier or higher. Everything else, any tier will access the site content.Welcome Back to the Ba'al Busters Community. M-F 8am - 10am Pacific on FTJMedia.com and Rumble (and that god forsaken Twitter as @DisguiseLimits)Get up to speed on the history you were denied.Get Caught Up to Speed on the Info Omiited from our Education.  Books and videos here: https://www.moneytreepublishing.com/shop USE code: BAAL for 10% OFF your entire order.Today is9.03.2024We continue to venture into a 1929 book by L. A. Waddell, The Makers of Civilization in Race and History. I will reflect back on the Moses character and Enkidu. Their depictions with horns may be a giveaway that these stories originated with the Scythian/Aryans and were only later "Semitized" for their purposes, as these so-called chosen lifted stories from True cultures. We'll also show the Scyth-Aryan origin of the alphabet. Many achievements have been accredited to Imposters, Impersonators of those with a rich culture for these vindictive parasites have none of their own, and only decay and destruction to offer mankind.DR PETER GLIDDEN, ND Health Recovery Site:https://leavebigpharmabehind.com/?via=pgndhealthUse Code HealthyWealthyWise for 50% OFF - Might Still Be Active. Try it, Find out.For the 90 Essential Nutrients, Contact Brenda here: 888 618 1796 ext. 101 Mention the Show!Hey Everyone I'm raising funds to build a 4K video editing and streaming computer. Please Use the $ at the bottom of the CHAT to send SuperChats to the show.YOU ARE the CHANGE. You ARE the Sponsors.Computer Fundraiser here: https://GiveSendGo.com/BaalBustersEuropean Viewers You can support here: https://www.tipeeestream.com/baalbusters/GET COMMERCIAL FREE VIDEOS/PODCASTS and Exclusive Content: Become a Patron. https://Patreon.com/DisguisetheLimitsMy Clean Source Creatine-HCL Use Coupon Code FANFAVORITE for 5% Offhttps://www.semperfryllc.com/store/p126/CreatineHCL.htmlGo to https://SemperFryLLC.com to get the AWESOME Hot Sauce I make, supplements, and Book, plus Quick Links to Dr Monzo and Dr Glidden are found on my website.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262/support.

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 1250, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Run For The Border 1: From Peshawar,Pakistan. Afghanistan. 2: From Santiago,Chile. Argentina. 3: Why not from Minot, U.S.A., population 35,000. Canada. 4: From Baghdad,Iraq. Iran. 5: From Mombasa,Kenya. Tanzania. Round 2. Category: Larry King'S Public Figures 1: Tonight, the wooden teeth--fact or fiction? Also, his 1754 Fort Necessity battle loss...Mt. Vernon, hello. George Washington. 2: I'm all shook up about my next guest and the caller is from his hometown...Tupelo, MS., hello?. Elvis Presley. 3: At the bottom of the hour, bet you won't miss my chat with this all time "hit king" of baseball...Cincinnati, hello?. Pete Rose. 4: A special Larry King tonight this "wubbulous" children's author and his thoughts on Rosie starring in his big Broadway show. Dr. Seuss. 5: He was 77 when he returned to space in '98; he talks to us now via satellite from Ohio. John Glenn. Round 3. Category: Blunt Bios Of Brand Mascots 1: A bald housekeeper with a hoop earring and the biceps of a Greek god. Mr. Clean. 2: A bird, once plagued by anger management issues, who never stops quacking about insurance. the AFLAC duck. 3: A giant beverage pitcher with legs who often causes property damage. the Kool-Aid Man. 4: A mustachioed cartoon man, currently lacking a mouth to eat the potato crisps he sells. (the) Pringles (guy) (Julius Pringle). 5: A puffy French creature made of tires who bears an unsettling resemblance to a mummy. the Michelin Man. Round 4. Category: World Of Christmas 1: For 9 days before Christmas, Latin American children try to break open these colorful paper figures containing candy. Pinatas. 2: In the Low Countries, St. Nicholas arrives to deliver presents on a boat from this Iberian country. Spain. 3: In Great Britain, this woman gives a special Christmas Day message on TV. The Queen. 4: Rather than stockings, French children put these in front of the fireplace so "Pere Noel" can fill them with gifts. Shoes. 5: In Sweden the Christmas season begins on December 13, this saint's day. St. Lucia. Round 5. Category: I Need A Hero 1: "Show me a hero", wrote Fitzgerald, "and I will write you" one of these dramas. a tragedy. 2: This mythic Wild West hero invented the lasso, rode a cyclone and married a girl named Slue-Foot Sue. Pecos Bill. 3: Dickens work where you'll find "whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life…these pages must show". David Copperfield. 4: Preparing for one more Antarctic journey, this heroic explorer died on the isl. of S. Georgia in 1922 and is buried there. Ernest Shackleton. 5: Raised by animals, Enkidu was a companion of this Sumerian hero. Gilgamesh. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/ AI Voices used

On Thursday April 18th, 2024 -- The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review the new publication of "My First Two Thousand Years" (1928) by George Sylvester Viereck and Paul Eldridge. This is a controversial but literary biography of the mythical "Wandering Jew". Sylvester Viereck was a German patriot who employed Aleister Crowley to write anti-British propaganda for his newspaper during the early days of World War One. The book, "My First Two Thousand Years," was written and published in the 1920s and must be judged in the climate of that era. That said, it is still a good read. Isaac Laquedem, the Wandering Jew, chases his immortal love Salome thru the centuries. He meets Nero, Marcus Aurelius, Appolonius of Tyana and on to hobnob with Gilles de Rais, the satanic child-murderer who was Joan of Arc's general, and on into modern times where he meets Baron de Rothschild and Vladimir Lenin. This book was actually the first of a three-decker novel, the second volume was Salome's story (My First Two Thousand Years of Love) and finally: "The Invincible Adam" who was their African servant Kotikokura that they were civilizing. Each of these books tells the same story, each from their separate viewpoint, a technique which influenced the best seller The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell (1957-60) and the film series Highlander. Of course the book, or books, are very metaphoric. Isaac, or Cartiphilus to use his Roman name, is representative of the Jewish diaspora. Salome is a spokesperson for rising feminism. She is determined to conquer the curse of moon and liberate the feminine gender. Kotikokura is the third world enslaved and exploited, finally throwing off his chains but he is also based on Gilgamesh's wild man Enkidu. All considered, "My First Two Thousand Years" has a lot to offer the 21st century's thoughtful readers.

Episode: Here's the second in our multi-part series on the Epic of Gilgamesh, hosted by Chris McKinny and Amy Balogh! They finish Tablet 1 in this episode, discussing Gilgamesh's need to tame his passions, his journey into the wilds, the character Enkidu, links to early Genesis (e.g., Enkidu as Adam), links to Daniel and much more! Hosts: Chris McKinny and Amy Balogh Give: Visit our Donate Page if you want to help Biblical World and OnScript continue by becoming a regular donor.

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin Daniel 5:1-31 by William Klock Let's begin this morning by hearing Daniel 5:1-12.   King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.   Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.   Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.   The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, “O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.”   It was the evening of October 12, 539 BC.  The palace in Babylon was glowing with lights and full of people—all the lords and ladies of Babylon.  There was a huge, golden harvest moon hanging low in the night sky the way harvest moons do.  Belshazzar revelled with is people. Belshazzar was the son of King Nabonidus.  After Nebuchadnezzar, there was a series of kings who usurped the throne through murder and palace coups.  In 556 BC—seventeen years before Belshazzar's party—a palace coup had removed Labashi-Marduk, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and replaced him with Nabonidus.  Nabonidus was an outsider to the royal family.  He was from the city of Haran, not Babylon.  The chief god of the Babylonian pantheon was Marduk, but the chief god of Haran was Sin, the moon god.  Nabonidus upset many in Babylon by downgrading Marduk in favour of Sin.  Nabonidus left Babylon for most of the last ten years of his reign and this may have been why.  There are various accounts of Nabonidus' absence.  We know he spent that time in Arabia.  The Persian empire was quickly gobbling up Babylonian territory and he may have gone to Arabia to firm up his relationship with that part of the empire.  It may have been some kind of madness.  It's very possible that the account of Nebuchadnezzar's departure into the wilderness that were read about in Chapter 4 may actually have happened to Nabonidus.  Whatever the case, he left his son, Belshazzar to rule the empire in his absence and, as Chapter 5 opens, Nabonidus had only recently returned, taking command of the Babylonian army as they went to war with the Persians.  In fact, in the days just prior to Belshazzar's feast, Nabonidus had been defeated by the forces of Cyrus, the Persian emperor.  Belshazzar now stood alone in Babylon. And that's what lies behind Belshazzar's feast.  It wasn't just any old feast.  It wasn't just a drunken orgy.  It was an important religious festival.  The Babylonians called it Akitu.  It was an annual festival associated with the new year.  If October seems late in the year for that kind of thing, this is because Nabonidus had declared Sin, the moon god, to be chief deity of the people.  The Akitu associated with Marduk took place at the spring equinox, but in Haran, the Akitu associated with Sin took place at the fall harvest moon.  It lasted for eleven days and this was the start of it.  And the reason Belshazzar would bother with this just as his empire was falling to the Persians, was because the Akitu festival was the annual re-enthronement of the king in the presence of his gods.  At the end of the festivities the king would take his throne to rule for another year, his priests would announce the will of the gods for the next year, and the empire would have assurance that their gods stood behind their king. That's why this was important.  The Persians were at the gates.  Belshazzar may have believed that his father was dead.  He needed the support of his people, but most of all he needed the support of his gods.  So there, with the harvest moon hanging in the sky, he began this ritual to assure his victory.  I don't think he did this in desperation.  Babylon was a strong city with good defences.  Belshazzar was ready for a siege.  But this ceremony would guarantee that the gods were on his side. But he goes a step too far.  He calls for the temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem.  These were the vessels used to pour out libations, to pour out drink offerings to the Lord.  The Babylonians had similar vessels they used when worshipping their gods.  After the drink offerings were poured out, it was customary for the Babylonian king to drink what was left to show his connection with the gods, sort of saying that he was their favourite.  If anyone needed the help of the gods right then, it was Belshazzar.  But, again, he takes things a step too far when treats the vessels from the Lord's temple this way.  He's not intentionally profaning these sacred vessels by partying with them.  What he's doing is enlisting the help of the God of Israel.  To his way of thinking, when his people conquered Judah, they didn't just conquer the people; they also conquered their god.  So the God of Israel—so far as the Babylonians saw things—the God of Israel is now a vassal to their gods and to their king and by drinking from these vessels, again, Belshazzar is enlisting the God of Israel to fight for him. But the Lord—the one, true God—doesn't work that way, does he?  No, the Lord is not like the gods of the pagans.  Immediately, the text says, a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall.  Archaeologists have dug up this very throne room.  Its walls were plastered, just as the story says.  But these weren't just plain, white, plaster walls.  This was the palace of the greatest king in the world.  The walls were covered with frescoes.  And we would expect there to be at least one fresco depicting the king standing before his gods.  There's an interesting word in verse 5.  The ESV writes that this hand appeared in front of the “lampstand”.  But this isn't the word for lampstand.  That would be menorah.  The problem is that this word is a hapax legomenon—a word that only appears once—so there are no other instances to help us understand what it means.  We do know, though, that it's based on a root meaning to shine or to luminesce, and what it's probably referring to is the fresco on the wall.  The Babylonians gods represented the sun, moon, planets, and stars—the luminaries in the night sky.  So this is probably a painting on the wall of the king surrounded by his gods.  Everything going on here is about the king having the support of his gods: the Akitu festival itself, the king drinking from the temple vessels, and the painting of the king surrounded by his gods. So a human hand appears.  Maybe it was a hand already depicted in the fresco or maybe it appeared in the air—it's hard to say—but it begins to write.  This is exactly what the king wanted.  All of this was meant to show that his gods were behind him.  If the festival had continued, his priests would have issued declarations of the gods' support at the end.  And now—maybe at first this seems better than anything Belshazzar could have hoped for—this divine hand appears and begins to write.  But—first—it defaces that sacred image of the king with his gods—and over the top of it—the hand writes these mysterious words.  The king went pale and the Aramaic says literally that the cords of his loins went slack and his knees knocked.  In other words, he wet himself and stood there quaking in his soggy boots. The hand disappeared, but the writing remained, so the king summoned all his wise men to tell him what the words meant.  Aramaic, like Hebrew, is written without any vowels.  Nouns are formed from verbal stems and so the same set of consonants could, when vocalised one way, mean one thing as a verb and with different vocalisation mean something different as a noun.  The king, first, wasn't sure how to read it, but second, even if he knew what the words were—well—what did they mean in this context?  But the kings wisemen had no more idea than he did.  That's been the theme all the way through Daniel.  The wise men may be fine in their own pagan domain, but when the Lord acts or when the Lord speaks, the pagans are confused and all their learning and wisdom is exposed as useless.  It's worth noting that the original Babylon fell when the Lord confused the languages of the men who built a tower to heaven and now, again, the fall of the last of the Babylonian empires is announced in a language none could understand. And that's when the queen finally makes her way into the banquet hall.  This is probably the queen mother, the widow of Nebuchadnezzar.  Her name was Nitocris.  By all accounts she was a force to be reckoned with.  The Greek historian Herodotus tells us of her great wisdom.  And the storyteller here gives us a sense of that.  In her wisdom she avoided Belshazzar's feast.  Maybe she knew that defeat was inevitable.  And now she arrives, calm in the midst of chaos, and tells the king to calm down.  There is a man full of wisdom who had solved riddles just like this back in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.  His name is Daniel.  Call for him and he'll know what it all means.  But you might not like what he has to say.  Nitocris was old enough to remember that when the Most High God spoke to Babylonians kings, things did not go well for them. And so the king summons Daniel, now in his eighties.  Look at verse 13: Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, “You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” (Daniel 5:13-16)   Belshazzar speaks fairly contemptuously of Daniel, but he makes the same offer he made to the other wise men: Tell me what it means and I'll give you the robe of a king and make you the third ruler of the kingdom.  But Daniel isn't interested in rewards.  The God of Israel has spoken and Daniel, who serves this God, will tell the king what it means, but he has no interest in a reward.  He knows that this is the end of Belshazzar's kingdom.  Now, picking up at verse 17, notice how Daniel explains what's really important before he even gets to the words written on the wall. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. (Daniel 5:17-23) Daniel reminds Belshazzar what he should have known already.  It is the Most High God who raises up kings and brings them down.  The Most High had raised up Nebuchadnezzar.  The Most High had even given Jerusalem and the temple vessels into his hand.  But when the king became proud, when he claimed the credit for himself, when we saw in the last chapter that he ruled without justice and mercy, the Lord took him down.  The man who thought he was the great Gilgamesh was humbled by the Lord and made like Enkidu, the beast man running wild in the wilderness.  But the Lord had spared his kingdom and restored the king so that he could acknowledged the Most High as the true king of kings. But there is no such humility in the heart of Belshazzar.  The Lord knows the hearts of men.  He knew that Nebuchadnezzar could be corrected and he knows that Belshazzar cannot.  The fact that he brought in to Lord's sacred vessels in an attempt to enlist the Lord to his cause highlights a hubris, a pride beyond that of Nebuchadnezzar.  He thinks he can snap his fingers and that the God of Israel will come running to serve him.  And so Daniel explains the words: “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5:24-28) Daniel reads the words as three coins: mina, mina, shekel, and a half—something like a dollar, a dollar, a dime, and a nickel or a pound, a pound, a penny, and a half-penny.  But remember that in the old days, coins were associated with weights.  So Daniel looks to the verbal roots behind these coins to explain the meaning.  The king has been “numbered”, “weighed”, and “divided”.  What it means is that the king was appointed—given his throne—by the Most High, he has been weighed by the Most High and found wanting, and now he is to be punished by the Most High.  And Daniel plays with that last word peres, which sounds like “Persia”, to foretell the fall of the kingdom to the Persians.  It may be that the Lord is exposing the failures of the kings of Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar the great was the mina and Nabonidus the shekel—worth only a sixtieth of a mina—and wretched Belshazzar, for all his pride, is worth only half of that.  Whatever the case, these kings were only great because the Lord had made them so, they have served his purposes—not he theirs—and now their entire empire is to be judged and handed over to another. At least at the end, Belshazzar was good to his word, for what little it was worth.  Verse 29 says: Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.   I can imagine Daniel standing there shaking his head as Belshazzar gave him these honours.  Maybe Belshazzar still thought his other gods would bail him out, but Daniel knew it was all pointless.  The Lord had spoken and the storyteller drives this home in the last verses: That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.  (Daniel 5:30-31) That very night.  This character called Darius the Mede is something of a mystery, but I'll save that until next week.  Here's what happened.  The Euphrates River flowed through the middle of Babylon and while the Babylonians were feasting, the forces of Cyrus, the Persian emperor, diverted the river upstream.  Babylon's great walls were so wide you could turn around a chariot driven by four horses on them.  But the might of Babylon's walls didn't matter when the Persian army simply marched under them in the dry riverbed.  The army of Cyrus took the city without a fight.  We don't know who killed Belshazzar.  His death is only recorded in Daniel.  Cyrus was a gracious king and spared the life of Nabonidus, so it seems odd that he would have Belshazzar killed.  Belshazzar might have been killed by his own people.  We just don't know.  But that night he died.  The evening began with Belshazzar enlisting the God of Israel to fight for him and in the end he's exposed as a fool.  The God of Israel fights for no one and, in fact, we find that Cyrus fights for him. Now, what does this mean for us?  I think, first, that we once again have an exhortation to remain faithful in difficult times.  Again, these stories about Daniel during the exile were collected to exhort the people of Judah to remain faithful as they lived through the terror of Antiochus Epiphanes' rule and as they watched many of their fellow Jews take the easy way and give in to paganism.  Maybe more than anything, the story of Belshazzar is a warning to kings and rulers to remember that the Most High is the real king and that they serve at his pleasure.  But that truth should be an encouragement to us.  Even when our earthly rulers are full of pride and even when they fail to act justly, we know that God is still sovereign, that he holds earthly rulers to account, and that no matter how bad things get, he always holds us in his hand.  Especially in light of Jesus and his cross and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we've experienced the dawning of God's new creation and we know that that is where the world is heading.  It may not always look that way.  We may face opposition, persecution, and even martyrdom for our faith, but we have hope because we know that the Lord will finish what he has begun.  He's already done the part that was hard and costly—that cost the death of his own son—so we can be sure that he will surely do the easy part that remains. But what kept coming to mind as I wrestled with this chapter over the past week was the question of how we relate to God.  Rob brought my attention to a prosperity gospel preacher who was in town this week.  I listened to some of what she was preaching and was thinking just how much this false prosperity gospel is like Belshazzar using the holy vessels of the temple to enlist God to his own cause.  The prosperity folks enlist the holy gospel and the Holy Spirit for their cause.  We may not be so crass in pursuing health and wealth and ecstatic experiences, but we, too, are often guilty of treating the Most High like he exists to serve us.  Nations do it, just as Belshazzar did, declaring that God is on our side.  We do it in politics, claiming that we are in the right and that God is on our side.  We do it in the church.  We devise our plans—often good ones, often to promote the gospel and the kingdom.  And we just assume that our plan is God's plan.  We do it personally.  We're convinced we know what's best and insist that God make it happen for us.  We know that God wants the best for us, but then we twist that into the belief that God wants what we think is best for us.  And that, Brothers and Sisters, is dangerous.  That was Adam and Eve's mistake.  We are finite beings with finite knowledge.  God created us with the ability to recognise what is true, and beautiful, and good—to some extent—but he also created us ultimately to rely on him for that knowledge.  He has shown us repeatedly that he is good and faithful so that we can trust him.  He humbled himself to become incarnate—one of us—and to die for our sake—so that we can know just how profoundly good and faithful he is.  He gives us every reason to trust him.  Sometimes he walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death and sometimes he leads us beside to still waters and into green pastures.  Either way, he is with us. Think of Jesus praying in Gethsemane the night before he was handed over to suffering and death.  He prayed to his Father for strength.  He prayed that if there was any other way, his Father might take that cup from him.  But in the end he entrusted himself to the goodness of his Father.  Not my will, but thine.  And because of that, new creation was born, because of that we know the forgiveness of our sins, because of that God's own Spirit has been poured into us, giving us a foretaste of that dawning new age.  Because Jesus humbled himself and trusted in the goodness of his Father. Jesus didn't spend his ministry scrambling for prosperity, dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes or setting up multi-level marketing scams.  Jesus was repeatedly presented with other seemingly good plans, with other avenues to the world's throne—with ways that didn't involve his crucifixion.  But he knew the scriptures and he knew that real way to the throne, the one that would bring salvation and renewal, was the path of humility and suffering and humiliation and death.  It didn't look good.  But it was the Father's plan and, because Jesus knew that, he knew that it was the good one.  So he followed in confident faith.  Brothers and Sisters, as we keep our eyes on Jesus and his cross, may we too remember the unfailing goodness and faithfulness of the Father.  May we, too, always walk humbly before him, trusting him, and submitting to him in faith.  It's an amazing thing to ponder.  God does not exist to serve us.  He created us to serve him.  But, still, even when we rejected that vocation, even when we turned our backs on him, he gave his life to forgive and to restore us.  He became a servant, giving his life, so that we might be restored to, so that we might understand the goodness of our own servant vocation.  St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  We might also say, “Walk in humility, as the Messiah humbled himself for us and gave himself up for us”.  This is what we were created to do.  When we say “not my will, but thing” we become a fragrant offering to God—revealing the glory for which we were created as we humbly offer ourselves to glorify him. Let's pray: Lord Jesus Christ, for our sake you fasted forty days and forty nights: give us grace so to discipline ourselves that our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may always obey your will in righteousness and true holiness, to the honour and glory of your name; for you live and reign with the Father and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

His Dominion Endures Daniel 4:1-37 by William Klock In his day, Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest king who had ever lived and he ruled the greatest empire that had ever been.  But he lived in the shadow of another.  More than two thousand years before him, a king named Gilgamesh had ruled over Sumer, the first of the great Near Eastern kingdoms.  Through the centuries Gilgamesh had become a larger-than-life legend—the greatest king of all time, who ruled over the greatest kingdom.  In the ancient world, the gods brought order to chaos, but it was the duty of the king to maintain that order for his people.  Gilgamesh brought civilization to the world, but in his greatness he forgot his duty and abused his people.  They cried out to the gods for help and the gods created Enkidu, a wild man, more animal than human.  He had horns and was covered with hair and rampaged through the countryside, causing chaos, and challenging Nebuchadnezzar.  He was a reminder to the king: His duty was to maintain order for the sake of his people, but to claim to be the author of that order was to blasphemously claim for himself what rightly belonged to the gods.  Of course, even this ended up going to Gilgamesh's headed.  He outwitted the gods and tamed the wild Enkidu, and as he drew him closer and closer to his great city, Enkidu was civilized and became a man—and eventually Gilgamesh's best friend and sidekick.  The Epic of Gilgamesh, a poem carved in clay tablets roughly a thousand years before Nebuchadnezzar was even born, recounts the adventures of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. I mention all this, because this great legendary king and his beast-man sidekick lie behind the events of the Fourth Chapter of Daniel.  For over two-thousand years kings had come and gone in Mesopotamia, but they all saw themselves as successors of that great, legendary, demi-god king, Gilgamesh and his kingdom.  I think the way that the author of Daniel chose to incorporate into his book the story we read in Chapter 4 kind of highlights this.  In the story the king is Nebuchadnezzar, the same king from the last three stories, but when we look at the historical record, the events described here happened to another king, Nabonidus, the last of the Babylonian emperors.  He describes himself as a “nobody”.  Nebuchadnezzar's nephew had ascended to the throne, but he was an evil man.  He was overthrown in a coup and Nabonidus was made king in his place.  But from the perspective of the author of Daniel, that doesn't matter.  One Babylonian king was as good (or as bad) as another—all the way back to Gilgamesh.  Like Antiochus Epiphanes in his own day, these pagan kings rose to greatness, but were notorious for taking all the credit themselves.  It's a reminder that men were not created to rule men.  God is king.  But because we refuse to acknowledge his sovereignty, he raises up earthy kings and when they forget who it is they really serve, well, we can take heart.  The Lord will hold earthly kings to account. So Daniel 4 is written as an encyclical from the king—his first-person account of his encounter with the God of Israel.  It begins this way: King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs,          how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,          and his dominion endures from generation to generation. (Daniel 4:1-3) This follows on the heels of the king's praise for the God of Israel who had delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace.  But it's not a continuation of that episode.  Something has happened since and the king wants to report it to everyone in his empire.  Whereas the last chapter began with the king summoning this crowd of people, nations, and tongues to acknowledge his greatness, here he declares to them the glory of the Most High God.  But what brought this on?  Continuing with verse 4: I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation. At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods—and I told him the dream, saying, “O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation. (Daniel 4:4-9) It's another dream.  The king summons his wise men to tell him the meaning of the dream, but for some reason he summons everyone but Daniel.  Maybe it's that the king is really Nabonidus, not Nebuchadnezzar and this is his first experience of this sort.  He says that the wise men were unable to explain the dream.  In just a bit we'll hear him tell the dream to Daniel and the meaning of the dream is pretty obvious.  It seems like the real problem is that the wise men are afraid to tell the king what his dream means.  So finally, the king summons Daniel.  Even after everything that's happened, the king still doesn't quite get it.  He's a Babylonian.  He's acknowledged the might of the God of Israel, but that doesn't mean he's become a Jewish monotheist; he's just squeezed the Lord into his pantheon.  But, still, his acknowledgement is something and he beings to explain his dream to Daniel. The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.   “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.' This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.” (Daniel 4:10-18) This kind of imagery of a tree representing the life-giving rule of the king is found in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, but more immediately, it's also a motif found in Babylonian iconography.  The tree's roots sink all the way down to the waters under the earth and its branches up to the firmament above, holding everything together.  The gods establish order, but someone on earth is needed to hold it all together.  And so in the Babylonian imagery, an image of the king sometimes replaces the tree.  The king is the personification of order.  The king sort of becomes the perfect or the ideal human being and the image of God.  And we see this in the way Babylonians thought about their own civilization and the peoples around them.  They were civilized.  They lived in an ordered society—and that order was represented by the king.  Other people, however, were less than human—the further they were from the civilization governed by the king.  They would write about their less civilised neighbours as wild animals.  Again, think of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.  Enkidu was the wild man, uncivilised, leaving chaos in his wake.  But Gilgamesh outwitted the gods by luring Enkidu closer and closer to his city and to himself, and the closer Enkidu got, the more civilised and human he became. So the king is the great tree, bringing order—peace, prosperity, justice, civilisation—to his people.  But then the unexpected happens.  A watcher—a heavenly being—descends and orders that the tree by cut down, its branches lopped off, and it's leaves and fruit stripped.  The remaining stump is to bound with iron and bronze—preserved for a time, while the king is cast out.  He will be wet with dew and live with the beasts of the grassland.  For seven periods of time he will have the mind of a beast.  And why?  So that all the living will know that the real king is the Most High.  He gives the kingdoms of men to whom he wills and sets over them the lowliest of men.  (That last bit sounds a lot like Nabonidus, who described himself as “nobody”.) Like I said, the dream seems pretty self-explanatory and I suspect the problem with the wise men wasn't so much that they couldn't explain, but that they were afraid to explain it.  Daniel, who trusts in the Lord and who knows that it was the Lord who gave the dream to the king, Daniel confirms what I expect the king already knew, but was afraid to admit.  Continuing from verse 19: Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, “Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.” Belteshazzar answered and said, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies! The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived—it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth. And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him,' this is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules. Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.”  (Daniel 4:19-27) For the most part, Daniel simply repeats the obvious and confirms what the king already feared.  He is the great tree, bringing order to the world as a king rightly should.  As far as the dream goes, it seems that the king's fault is that he has refused to acknowledge that he rules on behalf of the Most High God.  He's been happy to acknowledge the God of Israel and to bring him into his pantheon, but that's not enough.  He needs to acknowledge that the God of Israel is the Most High who rules over all—including the gods of Babylon and, most importantly, over himself.  But Daniel does add his own bit of wisdom.  He could see how the king ruled his kingdom and he knew the king's faults.  And so he adds, “Break off your sins.  Make your rule about justice and mercy.  If you do that, you might stave off the judgement the Lord has decreed. There is a modern book, 126 pages long, full of the inscriptions left by Nebuchadnezzar's on his buildings.  It's a testament to his greatness and all he accomplished.  The Babylon he built was the greatest city the world had ever known.  His hanging gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  In one of those building inscriptions (No. 12), he describes himself as a just king, meek and humble.  And that's what the imagery of the tree suggests.  But it's worth noting that Daniel leaves that part out when he retells the dream.  Nebuchadnezzar's great empire was kind of like the Hindu god Vishnu.  Vishnu was supposed to be the god who preserves human life, but his giant image was traditionally carried in processions on a massive wheeled throne that crushed anyone who got in its way.  This great juggernaut that sees itself as preserver and provider for its people easy becomes the crusher and destroyer.  We see that still today in earthly governments with the best of intentions, but that routinely and uncaringly grind people up in the gears of bureaucracy.  Even pagan kings are called by God to embody his divine kingship and to preserve life and order and—this is where Nebuchadnezzar was falling short—to show justice and mercy. I'm reminded of the disputes between King James and the Presbyterians of Scotland.  James believed in the divine right of kings, thought himself to be above the law, and got himself into trouble by trying to impose episcopacy on the Church of Scotland.  One Scottish minister, Andrew Melville, is famous for rebuking the king, saying, “Sir, ye are God's silly vassal.  There are two kings and to kingdoms in Scotland: there is King James, the head of the commonwealth; and there is Christ Jesus, the king of the church, whose subject James VI is and of whose kingdom he is not a king, not lord, not head, but a member.” Nebuchadnezzar needed a very similar rebuke.  Daniel spoke it—humble yourself and commit yourself to justice and mercy—but it appears the king did not heed it.  Continuing at verse 28: All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.  (Daniel 4:28-33) A year later the king was walking on the roof of his palace to admire his city.  It was the greatest in the world.  Nothing had changed.  It was all his doing.  It was all his because he was so great.  He did not heed the advice of Daniel.  And as he declared his greatness, the Lord spoke.  The tree was to be cut down, the kingdom taken away from the king.  For seven periods of time—it's not clear what the Aramaic word means, but it doesn't usually mean year—but for a specific period of time the king is to live as a wild man in the grasslands.  Remember the epic of Gilgamesh and his wild man sidekick Enkidu?  The structure of the Lord's speech here is interesting in that it parallels the civilising of Enkidu in the epic, but in reverse.  Enkidu was more animal than man, but the closer he drew to the king and his city, the more human he became.  In precisely the opposite way, the king is now driven from his city and progressively became a wild man, like Enkidu.  The king thought of himself as Gilgamesh, the great king who single-handedly brought order and prosperity to the world, but because he refuses to acknowledge God, the true Lord of all, he is driven off to live like an animal.  For seven period of time—however long that is—he is reminded that he is not God, he is at best the sidekick.  And it's interesting that because he refused to repent, he's now given no choice.  The time is fixed.  At the end, the Lord announces, you will be restored, because you will have learned that it is the Most High who rules the kingdoms of men. It's an interesting aside to notice how the Lord's discipline works.  Israel's problems weren't the same as Nebuchadnezzar's, but the worked similar with her.  From the outset, he spoke through the prophets and said that her exile would last seventy years and that when it was over he would be glorified through his people.  It wasn't a matter of disciplining the king until he learned his lesson.  He'd missed the chance for that.  Now the Lord decrees a set time and he also decrees that when that time is over the king will have learned.  Brothers and Sisters, we need to heed the Lord's warnings when he gives them  Now verse 34: At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,          and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,          and he does according to his will among the host of heaven          and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand          or say to him, “What have you done?”   At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.  (Daniel 4:34-37) The Lord was good to his word.  When the time had passed, the king was restored and for all his trouble has finally gained wisdom.  In this fallen world, there is a place for human kings, but only when the kingship of the Most High is first acknowledged as the root and source of all human authority.  Nebuchadnezzar can even acknowledge his own greatness, but now that statement is sandwiched between his confessions that it is the Lord who has supreme dominion.  The king's sin was pride and his government was rebuked for overseeing injustice and for lacking mercy, but Nebuchadnezzar now acknowledges that all the Lord's works are right and just and that he makes the prideful to be humble.  The great king is back on his great wheeled throne, but no more will it rumble through the streets, crushing those who get in his way. Now, what does this all mean for us?  When Daniel was written, this was meant to be an encouragement to the people of Judah in their exile.  As the other stories about Daniel and his friends reminded them, it might seem like these foreign, pagan kings were in control, but despite appearances, the Lord was still on his throne.  His promises would be fulfilled.  And he will hold earthly rulers to account.  We can take comfort in the same way.  No earthly king or prime minster or president rules apart from the Lord's sovereign authority.  No matter how things seem, our God is in control and will hold human beings to account. But, too, the application of the story shifts a bit in our own context.  We live in a democracy and that means that at least a little bit of the authority that Nebuchadnezzar held rests with each of us.  As individuals we hold very little power, but what we do have embodies a God-given obligation to the pursuit of a government that is humble, that acknowledges the authority of God, and that acts with justice and mercy.  That, Brothers and Sisters, is an integral part of our witness to the kingdom of God.  As Nebuchadnezzar saw the great tree of human kingship that brought order and prosperity to the world, you and I have seen the even greater tree on which the Lord Jesus died, the tree by which he has brought the justice and mercy of the Father into a broken world, the tree by which Jesus has become this world's true Lord, the tree by which the Most High God has once again become king—through his son, who has died, who has risen, who as ascended to his throne, and who will come again.  The kings of old could only see power and strength in the tree of government, but in the cross we meet the one who rules with justice and mercy.  The kings and people of old walked in great darkness, but in Jesus we have seen a great light.  As Isaiah wrote: For to us a child is born,          to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,          and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,          Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace          there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom,          to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness          from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6-7) Brothers and Sisters, the Lord of hosts has done this.  Now may we live as witnesses to his King and to his kingdom. Let's pray: O Lord, teach us to see and to trust in your kingship regardless of our circumstances.  Teach us to hear your voice, to heed your warnings, and to learn from your discipline.  Give your grace that we might be faithful stewards of your kingdom, always acknowledging your sovereignty with humility, seeking to manifest the justice and mercy of the cross.  Through Jesus the Messiah we pray, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of storytelling in history. It begins with the tale of Gilgamesh's friendship with the wild man Enkidu. But after Enkidu is killed, King Gilgamesh embarks on a journey into his distant past in search for immortality. In this episode of the Ancients, the second part of our series on the Epic of Gilgamesh, Dr Sophus Helle returns to speak to Tristan Hughes about Gilgamesh's quest and his encounters with a mysterious sage called Ut-napishtim - who some claim may have been the inspiration behind the biblical figure of Noah & his famous Ark.The first part of our Gilgamesh series, The Epic of Gilgamesh: Rise of Enkidu can be found hereThis episode was produced by Joseph Knight and edited by Aidan LonerganDiscover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code ANCIENTS sign up now for your 14-day free trial HERE.You can take part in our listener survey here.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of storytelling from history. Written in ancient Mesopotamia over three thousand years ago, this epic poem recounts the fabled tale of King Gilgamesh of Uruk and the forging of his friendship with Enkidu, a wild man sent by the Gods to keep Gilgamesh on the right path.In this episode of the Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Sophus Helle to explore and recount this oldest of myths - first written in Old Babylonian on cuneiform tablets - and discover how it became a foundational work in the tradition of heroic sagas. This episode was edited by Aidan Lonergan and produced by Joseph KnightDiscover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code ANCIENTS sign up now for your 14-day free trial HERE.You can take part in our listener survey here.

A legendary warrior, an evil warlord, and an epic quest. In this episode, we look into, Scorpion king 5: Book of Souls! Join the Mummy Movie Podcast as we look into the as of yet final film in a series that has seen ninjas in 3000 BC, mechanical steampunk dragons, trips to the Underworld, and people flying through the air using magnets. In terms of the cast: Peter Mensah plays Nebserek, Pearl Thusi plays Tala, Mayling Ng plays Khensa, Inge Beckmann plays Mennofer, Nathan Jones plays Enkidu, and Zach McGowan plays Mathayus, the Scorpion King Email: mummymoviepodcast@gmail.com BibliographyAdams, B., & Ciałowicz, K. M. (1997). Protodynastic Egypt. Shire Egyptology Brier, B. M., & Hobbs, H. (2008). Daily life of the ancient Egyptians. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. Faiella, G. (2006). The technology of Mesopotamia. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. Hart, G. (2005). The Routledge dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses. Routledge. IMDB. (2023). Scorpion King 5: book of Souls. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/?ref_=nv_home McDonald, A. (2014). Animals in Egypt. In The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life (pp. 441-460). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nicholason, P and Henderson, J. (2000). Glass. Ancient Egyptian materials and technology, 194-226 Romano, J. F. (1989). The Bes-image in pharaonic Egypt. New Work University Romano, J, F. (1981). The origin of the Bes-Image. Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar (Vol II). 39-55 Rotten Tomatoes (2023). Scorpion King 5: Book of Souls Retrieved from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vi tog med texten om Adam, Eva, Ormen och den förbjudna frukten till Uppsala Missionskyrkas kulturkvällar och spelade in samtalet med publik. Med: Thella Johnson, Lollo Collmar, Thomas Kazen. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. LIVEPODD!Avsnittet är inspelat 19 oktober på Kulturkvällar i Uppsala MissionskyrkaUr innehållet:*En våt filt - Thella tycker att berättelsen om ”syndafallet”, alltså Evas och Adams möte med ormen i Edens trädgård, och straffet för deras ätande av frukten från kunskapens träd, har en unken ton över sig. Varför straffa sökandet efter kunskap?*Vad alla skyller ifrån sig hela tiden?! - Det pekas mycket finger i Bibeln, och det verkar vara helt OK att skylla sina fel och misstag på andra! Bibelvetare Thomas Kazen påpekar att man även i andra antika texter ser många exempel på att det var brukligt att skylla ifrån sig. Har vår moraluppfattning förändrats när det gäller det egna ansvaret, och varför? Blir saker och ting bättre av att vi pudlar eller avgår?*Den odödliga ormen - ormen som symbol har gamla anor, långt äldre än Bibelns texter. Thomas berättar bl.a om ormen som stjäl ungdomens planta av Gilgamesh.*Eva, en tidig ormviskare - Evas tal blir mycket mer ormlikt väsande på originalspråket, efter att hon ätit den förbjudna frukten! Vi får en lektion i hebreiska av pensionerade bibelprofessorn Göran Eidevall i publiken. Till exempel är orden för listig och naken snarlika: arum; arom.Bibeltexter: 1 Mos 2, 3I avsnittet refereras även bl.a. till myten om Gilgamesh och Enkidu, som återfinns i Gilgamesheposet.Medverkande i avsnittet:Thomas Kazen, professor i bibelvetenskap vid Enskilda Högskolan Stockholm, pastor i EqumeniakyrkanPublik på plats i Uppsala MissionskyrkaProgramledare: Thella JohnsonBisittare: Lollo CollmarLjudtekniker: David Hellgren

This week on the Don't Touch My Sasquatch podcast, we dive into another edition of the fan favorite Ancient Aliens Series for Vol. 7. We discuss the lunar library, Thor's hammer, Miner Tim, King Tut, mammoths, Caesar, 3D printed DNA, Terry the Logger, Enkidu, Giorgio, Troglodytes, Nephilim, Top Gear and Smoke Detectors. Listen this week for an analysis on 2 more episodes from our favorite show, History Channel's Ancient Aliens.Found everywhere podcasts are availableSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3cHrUzU Apple: https://apple.co/3BqAv4f Google: https://bit.ly/3vgxiQUYouTube: https://rebrand.ly/2auvcje Patreon: https://urlgeni.us/patreon/m1jQSocialsFacebook: https://urlgeni.us/facebook/9JnQ Instagram: https://urlgeni.us/instagram/pJcM Websitehttps://www.donttouchmysasquatch.com/ReferencesSeason: 16 Episode: 7Season: 4 Episode: 7Stock Media provided by TheDoctorCaptain / Pond5 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Her voice was sweet and liquid, like a streamThat lulls all other streams to sleep and dream;Her eyes like doe's eyes, whose dark gaze would makeA lion lie down dazed, and half awake.She seemed an alphabet of loveliness,Curved letters were the curling of each tress,Straight letters were her stature, and her lipsWere like a letter formed as an ellipse,And all the letters made her like that bowlThat shows the world as an enchanted whole.The story of Layli and Manjun — sometimes written as Layla and Majnun — was most famously recorded in a book-length poem by the twelfth-century Persian poet Nezami Ganjavi. Chris and Suzanne consider what the poem has to say about love, mental illness, and fan culture. SHOW NOTES.Nezami Ganjavi: Layla and Majnun, trans. Dick Davis. [Bookshop.]Our episode on Conference of the Birds.Maria Rosa Menocal: Shards of Love: Exile and the Origin of the Lyric.Our episode on Enkidu from The Epic of Gilgamesh.Raymond Roussel: Locus Solus.Manuscript images of Layli and Majnun at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.And images of Majnun at the Ka'aba with a door knocker: 1, 2.Our episode on Blind Owl.The Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892–1910.J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit.Next: Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde. (Bookshop. Also a helpful online modernized and annotated version.)You can support us through our network, Megaphonic, on Patreon.

In which we hear Sappho's version of Teenage Dirtbag, Enkidu's entry to civilisation and Caesar, Queen of Bithynia...

En este episodio nos vamos a adentrar a ver un poco quien fue Gilgamesh, veremos de que habla su epopeya y la nueva versión que Sîn-lēqi-unninni escribió. Veremos quien fue Enkidu y como se logró transformar en un ser civilizado.Sígueme en redes sociales

The ancient city of Ur, located in modern-day Iraq, holds a unique place in human history as one of the oldest known urban centers in the world. This ancient metropolis was not only a thriving city with remarkable architectural achievements but also a focal point of myth and legend, particularly concerning the Anunnaki, a group of divine beings in Mesopotamian mythology. The legends of the city of Ur and the fall of the Anunnaki have intrigued historians, archaeologists, and enthusiasts for centuries, providing a glimpse into the rich tapestry of human imagination and the complex relationship between humanity and the divine. #anunnaki #gaia #sumerian The city of Ur rose to prominence around 3800 BCE in the region known as Sumer, nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It flourished during the Early Bronze Age and became a significant center of trade, culture, and religion. The Sumerians, who inhabited Ur and the surrounding areas, left behind a wealth of cuneiform texts that detailed their beliefs and myths, many of which revolved around the Anunnaki. The Anunnaki were considered a pantheon of deities, often described as "those who came down from the heavens" or "the princely offspring." These divine beings were believed to be intermediaries between gods and humans, possessing immense powers and wisdom. According to Sumerian mythology, the Anunnaki were responsible for shaping humanity and played a crucial role in human affairs. One of the most famous legends related to Ur and the Anunnaki is the myth of the great flood. This tale bears striking similarities to the biblical story of Noah's Ark. In the Sumerian version, the gods, displeased with humankind's noise and disturbances, decided to destroy humanity with a devastating flood. However, the god Enki, who favored humanity, warned a mortal man named Ziusudra, advising him to build a massive boat to save himself, his family, and the animals from the impending deluge. This myth is thought to be one of the earliest accounts of a flood narrative in human history. The legends of Ur also include stories of the divine council's power struggles and rivalries, leading to the rise and fall of various Anunnaki gods. Among the most famous of these is the epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient poem that narrates the adventures of a heroic king who seeks immortality after the death of his friend Enkidu. In this epic, the goddess Ishtar's advances are rejected by Gilgamesh, and she sends the Bull of Heaven to punish him. Gilgamesh and his companion, Enkidu, slay the bull, further angering the gods. As a consequence, Enkidu tragically dies, and Gilgamesh embarks on a journey to discover the secret of eternal life. The epic delves into themes of mortality, friendship, and the struggle for meaning in the face of divine authority. The fall of the Anunnaki is a subject of various interpretations. Some scholars suggest that the fall of these divine beings was symbolic of the decline of the Sumerian civilization itself. As other cultures and empires rose to power, Sumer began to lose its dominance in the region, leading to a gradual fading of its religious influence. As political and social dynamics shifted, the importance of the Anunnaki in the religious beliefs of the people might have waned, contributing to their eventual decline in mythological significance. Another interpretation suggests that the fall of the Anunnaki can be connected to changes in religious beliefs over time. As different groups conquered and assimilated with the Sumerians, their pantheon of gods evolved, and certain deities might have been assimilated or replaced by others from different cultures. Despite their eventual decline in religious prominence, the legends of Ur and the Anunnaki have left an indelible mark on human history. They continue to captivate the imagination of people worldwide, offering insights into the beliefs, values, and aspirations of ancient civilizations. Moreover, the legends of Ur demonstrate the enduring human fascination with divine beings, immortality, and the eternal struggle to comprehend the mysteries of the cosmos. The city of Ur and its legends concerning the Anunnaki provide us with a remarkable glimpse into the cultural and religious heritage of the ancient Sumerians. These myths have inspired countless generations and continue to spark curiosity and interest in the origins of human civilization. Through the stories of Ur, we are reminded of the profound connections between myth, history, and the enduring quest for understanding the divine and the world around us.

Roughly 3700 years ago, in the fertile crescent of mesopotamia, the first Western epic was composed. The character Gilgamesh, and his friend Enkidu, have many adventures battling mighty beasts. But when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh is thrown into, what we would today call, an existential crisis, as Gilgamesh grapples with themes such as friendship and love, mortality, free will and fate, and the search for meaning. Since that time, literature has been consistently used as a vehicle to explore philosophical themes, whether that be the ancient Greeks through the Iliad and the Odyssey, or the modern existentialist.  But why is this? Aren't philosophical treatises sufficient? There's something about literature as an alternative avenue to philosophical thought. Rather than a treatise with syllogisms, points and counterpoints, thought experiments and the like, great literature allows us to contemplate some of life's greatest mysteries with a little life breathed into it through colorful characters, allegorical tales, intricate metaphors, or captivating dialogues. Through this vehicle, philosophical literature challenges readers to ponder the nature of truth, the meaning of happiness, and the complexities of human relationships.But can literature be considered philosophy? Does it do a disservice to the philosophical enterprise? And ultimately, what is its value to human experience? Join us as we explore the connection between philosophy and literature. Episode ResourcesThe Myth of Sisyphus - Albert Camus The Stranger - Albert CamusUtopia - Thomas MooreThe Divine Comedy (Inferno) - DanteSilence - Shusaku EndoHamlet - ShakespeareThe Decameron - Giovanni BoccaccioThe Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. TolkienOn Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean VuongThe Little Life - Donna TartOpen Door Philosophy on Twitter @d_parsonage or @opendoorphilOpen Door Philosophy on Instagram @opendoorphilosophyOpen Door Philosophy website at opendoorphilosophy.comContact us via email at contact@opendoorphilosophy.com

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, written over 4,000 years ago, Enkidu, the great friend of the demigod Gilgamesh, dies. Afraid of death, Gilgamesh asks the sage Utnapishtim, the only survivor of the Great Flood, about the secret to immortality. Utnapishtim gives Gilgamesh a number of tasks, all of which he fails. But that was the point. Gilgamesh learned that immortality is beyond his grasp and returns to Uruk to live out the rest of his life as king.  The first emperor of China was Shi Huang Di. Buried in a tomb decorated with the famous terracotta soldiers, he also feared death and called on Chinese alchemists to create an elixir that would allow him to live forever. The alchemists believed they could make immortality possible through a perfect balance of the five elements: water, wood, fire, earth, and metal. Unfortunately for the emperor, the elixir contained mercury (because it is both a liquid and a metal), which likely contributed to the emperor's death.  Attempts to achieve immortality have continued (and continued to fail) right up to our own time. Medieval European alchemists believed they could produce “the philosopher's stone,” which would perfect the imperfect, turning lead into gold and making mortal life immortal. Enlightenment thinkers of the late 18th century rejected the mysticism of alchemy but continued to speculate about the means to attain physical immortality. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was written as a cautionary tale about scientific hubris, in response to the more modern attempts of medicine and biology to preserve, extend, and improve life.  Today, the quest for immortality continues. Through cryogenics, freshly deceased persons or animals are frozen, their blood replaced with “medical grade antifreeze” to prevent ice crystals from destroying cells. So, the idea goes, once medical technology is able to heal whatever caused their deaths, these creatures can be thawed, healed, and restored to life, possibly with additional enhancements. This approach assumes, among other things, that life and memory can be repaired if the body is repaired and the heart restarted.   In other words, life is seen in purely mechanical terms. This is an equal and opposite error to those pursuing immortality through cybertechnologies, believing that if our consciousness can be downloaded into computers, we can continue to exist as a sort of ghost in a machine. In this techno-gnosticism, our bodies are optional and not a necessary part of life. In this way of thinking, we are our minds, and our minds are nothing more than sophisticated software that can be downloaded into a computer, machine, or perhaps a new robotic body.  Other modern attempts at the Fountain of Youth—such as nutritional strategies, supplements, alternative medical practices, and gene-editing technologies like CRISPR—do not seek as much to avoid death as to extend life. These range from becoming more serious about healthy living to more extreme alternatives. A number of billionaires have been investing in research into life extension, including Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jeff Bezos, Google co-founder Larry Page, and Brian Armstrong of Coinbase. Some believe that our medical technologies will eventually reach a state of “Longevity Escape Velocity,” in which advances are increasing lifespans faster than the years go by, therefore bringing us to the point of immortality.  Despite our long history of failed attempts to live forever, many of which caused more harm than good, scientific hubris remains a temptation almost impossible to avoid. But we should take Mary Shelley's warnings seriously. Some of these longevity experiments will be interesting and ultimately harmless. Some may even help. Others, such as those involving gene-editing technology, will leave their own monsters waiting in the shadows, and it is unlikely, if history is any indication, that we will be able to see them coming.  A more basic problem is trying to defeat death while thinking it is only a material problem to be solved. No latter-day elixir can satisfy our fear of death, which is a physical consequence of metaphysical realities. What ancient emperors and modern tech barons so desperately seek is exactly what's offered in Christ: His eternal life exchanged for our mortal, sinful life. This exchange does not come from a laboratory bottle filled with who knows what, but from an empty tomb. Ultimately, because He defeated death, our bodies will be perfected beyond what even the most optimistic biohacker could dream.   Yes, death remains an enemy. But it is a defeated foe, and all who are in Christ will ultimately see its defeat when we are resurrected to life eternal. This is the truth behind what are reported to have been Tim Keller's final words: “There is no downside for me leaving, not in the slightest.” And Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, as well: “This is the end—for me, the beginning of life.”  This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org. 

En este aperitivo especial Orgullo LGBTQIA+ de Arte compacto exclusivo para Spotify explicamos por qué nosotros, Juanra Sanz y Bernardo Pajares, nos empeñamos en rastrear y espigar las historias queer a menudo borradas de la historia del arte. Nuestros protagonistas de hoy vivieron hace miles de años: son, por una parte, el rey sumerio Gilgamesh y el salvaje Enkidu, un bromance en toda regla; y por la otra el emperador romano Adriano y el joven Antinoo, un chico guapísimo del que Adriano se enamoró tanto tanto tanto que lo convirtió en un dios y puso todo su empeño para que siguiésemos recordando su historia en 2023. Si te has quedado con ganas de más, escucha el episodio 64 de Arte compacto: Gilgamesh Enkidu Adriano Antinoo: https://open.spotify.com/episode/272uLABASYVEdWpjCWmKM1 Si te gustan los museos, te apasiona la historia del arte contada con rigor y un buen salseo, este es tu podcast. ¡Bienvenidx a la familia compacter!

En este episodio os contamos dos relaciones de amor entre hombres en la Antigüedad que han dejado una huella importante tanto en la literatura como en el arte. La primera ocurrió hace más de 4.000 años: es la del rey sumerio Gilgamesh con el salvaje Enkidu, narrada en las tablillas de la epopeya de Gilgamesh. La segunda historia es la del emperador romano Adriano y un joven llamado Antinoo al que el emperador convirtió en dios en el año 130 de nuestra era. Hemos grabado este episodio de Arte compacto con público en el Festival de Cultura LGTBI Diversa de Elche.

Enkidu. The indigenous Man, a match made in the heavens to inspire the Passion of Gilamesh our Legacy Superhero. Challenged to pass wisdom from generation to generation. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/emotional-anatomy/support

Hidden within the poetic verses of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's oldest religious texts, are indispensable clues to the nature and origin of the world's earliest religious tradition- "The Ancient Tradition".  Once you've given Tablet X a listen, turn your ear to our sister podcast, "The Ancient Tradition", where we reveal striking similarities in the ancient record- myths, cosmologies, theologies, and sacred writings- which point to an original, pure religion in deep antiquity.  Is it the true religion?  If so, you are in for the theological adventure of a lifetime.In this audio recording of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet X, King Gilgamesh encounters Shiduri, a tavern-keeper, outside of the garden, near the seashore.  Gilgamesh confides in her the sorrow he feels over the death of his friend, Enkidu, and seeks her aid to cross the Waters of Death so he can continue his quest for Utnapishtim, guardian of the secret of eternal life.  Shiduri warns him of the perils of crossing the Waters and directs him towards  Ur-shanabi, Utnapsithtim's boatman, who can ferry him across.  Ur-shanabi and Gilgamesh successfully cross the Waters.  Upon landing, Gilgamesh  encounters Utnapishtim.Join us for this episode and visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com and www.youtube.com/@theancienttradition for more amazing comparative religion.

‘My friend, whom I loved so dear, who with me went through every danger,my friend Enkidu, whom I loved so dear, who with me went through every danger:‘the doom of mortals overtook him. Six days I wept for him and seven nights.I did not surrender his body for burial, until a maggot dropped from his nostril.‘Then I was afraid that I too would die, I grew fearful of death, and so wander the wild.‘What became of my friend was too much to bear, so on a far road I wander the wild;what became of my friend Enkidu was too much to bear,] so on a far path I wander the wild.‘How can I keep silent? How can I stay quiet? My friend, whom I loved, has turned to clay,my friend Enkidu, whom I loved, has turned to clay. Shall I not be like him and also lie down,never to rise again, through all eternity?'The Epic of Gilgamesh is a very old poem. The Standard Babylonian version of it was redacted over three thousand years ago by an editor and poet named Sîn-lēqi-unninni, but much of the material he compiled was even older than that. The poem describes Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, two-thirds divine and one-third human, who is so superior to everyone else that the gods must create a companion for him. That companion is Enkidu, a bestial man who must be carefully brought into civilization. Their relationship — and the questions that arise after the gods condemn Enkidu to an early death — are still compelling several thousand years later. Chris and Suzanne explore this fragmentary monument of ancient literature, and think about what choices a translator (and a reader!) have to make when engaging with it.SHOW NOTES.The Epic of Gilgamesh, as translated by Andrew George, N.K. Sandars, Sophus Helle, and David Ferry. [Many others are available!]Our episode on The Iliad.On cuneiform writing.In a very different context, Chris has talked about Gilgamesh on a podcast before.Michael Schmidt: Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem, an accessible book-length overview of the poem.Next: Sophocles: Antigone. [Bookshop.]And our 2023 reading list, if you want to read ahead! (Some books may change. We are fickle.)Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon. Thanks!

Hidden within the poetic verses of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's oldest religious texts, are indispensable clues to the nature and origin of the world's earliest religious tradition- "The Ancient Tradition".  Once you've given Tablet IX a listen, turn your ear to our sister podcast, "The Ancient Tradition", where we reveal striking similarities in the ancient record- myths, cosmologies, theologies, and sacred writings- which point to an original, pure religion in deep antiquity.  Is it the true religion?  If so, you are in for the theological adventure of a lifetime.In this audio recording of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet IX, King Gilgamesh, upon Enkidu's death, wanders the earth in search of Utnapishtim, who guards the secret of immortality.  Upon reaching Mount Musha, Gilgamesh encounters a scorpion-man whose charge is to guard the passage under the mountain.  The scorpion-man grants Gilgamesh passage.  Gilgamesh races through twelve sets of double doors and arrives in Dilmun, the Garden of the Gods, a garden of jeweled trees.Join us for this episode and visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com and www.youtube.com/@theancienttradition for more amazing comparative religion.

Hidden within the poetic verses of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's oldest religious texts, are indispensable clues to the nature and origin of the world's earliest religious tradition- "The Ancient Tradition".  Once you've given Tablet VIII a listen, turn your ear to our sister podcast, "The Ancient Tradition", where we reveal striking similarities in the ancient record- myths, cosmologies, theologies, and sacred writings- which point to an original, pure religion in deep antiquity.  Is it the true religion?  If so, you are in for the theological adventure of a lifetime.In this audio recording of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VIII, King Gilgamesh mourns the loss of his dear friend, Enkidu.  From his treasury, Gilgamesh selects goods Enkidu can use to appease the gods of the Netherworld.Join us for this episode and visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com and www.youtube.com/@theancienttradition for more amazing comparative religion.

Hidden within the poetic verses of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's oldest religious texts, are indispensable clues to the nature and origin of the world's earliest religious tradition- "The Ancient Tradition".  Once you've given Tablet VII a listen, turn your ear to our sister podcast, "The Ancient Tradition", where we reveal striking similarities in the ancient record- myths, cosmologies, theologies, and sacred writings- which point to an original, pure religion in deep antiquity.  Is it the true religion?  If so, you are in for the theological adventure of a lifetime.In this audio recording of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VII, Enkidu sees in dream the gods Anu, Enlil, Ea, and Shamash in counsel.  The gods decree Enkidu's death.  Enkidu curses the door of cedar, the trapper, and the harlot Shamhat for his fate.  In a second dream, the Angel of Death drags Enkidu down to the Netherworld, the House of Dust.  Enkidu falls ill and dies. Join us for this episode and visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com and www.youtube.com/@theancienttradition for more amazing comparative religion.

Hidden within the poetic verses of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's oldest religious texts, are indispensable clues to the nature and origin of the world's earliest religious tradition- "The Ancient Tradition".  Once you've given Tablet VI a listen, turn your ear to our sister podcast, "The Ancient Tradition", where we reveal striking similarities in the ancient record- myths, cosmologies, theologies, and sacred writings- which point to an original, pure religion in deep antiquity.  Is it the true religion?  If so, you are in for the theological adventure of a lifetime.In this audio recording of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VI, the goddess Ishtar falls for King Gilgamesh.  Gilgamesh rejects her advances.  Enraged, Ishtar petitions her father,  Anu, to supply her with the Bull of Heaven (Taurus) so she can make Gilgamesh pay.  The Bull of Heaven causes destruction in Uruk.  Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the bull and return to the palace to celebrate their victory.Join us for this episode and visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com and www.youtube.com/@theancienttradition for more amazing comparative religion.

Hidden within the poetic verses of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's oldest religious texts, are indispensable clues to the nature and origin of the world's earliest religious tradition- "The Ancient Tradition".  Once you've given Tablet V a listen, turn your ear to our sister podcast, "The Ancient Tradition", where we reveal striking similarities in the ancient record- myths, cosmologies, theologies, and sacred writings- which point to an original, pure religion in deep antiquity.  Is it the true religion?  If so, you are in for the theological adventure of a lifetime. In this audio recording of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet V, King Gilgamesh and Enkidu make their journey to the Forest of Cedar.    Gilgamesh and Enkidu confront the ogre Humbaba in the Forest of Cedar.  Taking courage from Enkidu, Gilgamesh battles Humbaba.  Shamash sends thirteen winds to aid Gilgamesh, blinding Humbaba.  Gilgamesh thrusts a dagger in Humbaba's neck, slaying the ogre.  Gilgamesh and Enkidu claim victory.Join us for this episode and visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com and www.youtube.com/@theancienttradition for more amazing comparative religion.

This is the third part of December's special audio essay series on The Epic of Gilgamesh! This week, Abigail tells you all about our favorite baby-man: Enkidu. He's more than a metaphor and he's too good for this world. You can listen to it or read it at patreon.com/worksbyabigail.INCREDIBLE MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE: Kingdom of Thirst's theme (sans sax) by the incomparable Andrew Machado! bit.ly/2L1LcCLRESOURCES:GILGAMESH by STEPHEN MITCHELL: https://amzn.to/3B2BWomFALL OF CIVILIZATIONS PODCAST - EPISODE 13: https://bit.ly/3ijDfsDFALL OF CIVILIZATIONS PODCAST - EPISODE 9: https://bit.ly/3VolZkQINANNA: QUEEN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH by DIANE WOLKSTEIN AND SAMUEL NOAH KRAMER: https://amzn.to/3XPgtt3EVERYDAY LIFE IN MESOPOTAMIA by JEAN BOTTERO: https://amzn.to/3uk0vtuEPIC OF GILGAMESH by ABED AZRIE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ARRP5i2nw8THE WRITTEN WORLD by MARTIN PUCHNER: https://bit.ly/3XSdRdIABIGAIL'S STUFF: https://linktr.ee/abigailkellyauthorKOT'S MERCH STORE: https://rdbl.co/2Vg6ZeACITIZENS OF THIRST DISCORD SERVER: https://bit.ly/30NsP8PTWITTER, FACEBOOK, & INSTAGRAM: @kingdomthirstKoT'S BOOKSHOP: bookshop.org/shop/kingdomthirstEMAIL: kingdomofthirst@gmail.comPO Box 460816San Francisco CA, United States94146-0816Kingdom of Thirst is a member of the Frolic Podcast Network! Find all our episodes and tons of new podcasts to enjoy at frolic.media/podcasts.

Episode 11. When the Gods and Goddesses make love - The union of the active and the passive principles. Lovemaking as a civilizing art in the Kama Sutra, Perfumed Garden and for the Enkidu. Sacred prostitutes or Temple Priestesses. The Festival of Renewal or how sex created the universe. The Goddess Inanna, her erotic poetry and her shephard lover. Hathor and her 14 days of sacred lovemaking each New Year. The meaning of Lord Shiva and Shakti in Tantric union. Lord Krishna, the god of Love and divine longing. And the Wiccan pagan rite of the Chalice and the Blade. Includes music, Festival of Reunion and Pleasure Dome

Bernie is in Sweden and together with Dan och Enkidu they discuss coins. If you like what we do you can support the Fan of History project on https://www.patreon.com/fanofhistoryContact information: http://facebook.com/fanofhistoryE-mail: zimwaypodcast@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/danhorninghttps://www.instagram.com/dan_horning/Music: “Tudor Theme” by urmymuse. Used here under a commercial Creative Commons license. Find out more at http://ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/40020 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Become a producer and get your name mentioned on the show! Sign up at www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com   The Grim Reaper Nothing in life is guaranteed, except for death and taxes, as the old adage goes. We boldly circle April 15th  in red on our calendars so that it stands out like a swollen thumb. Of course, there is also the Internal Revenue Service here in the US, which has taken in over 3 trillion dollars in taxes from over 250 million taxpayers and felt that we aren't paying enough and hired 87,000 more agents and gave them powers much like a government police force including lethal force. But we don't need to be on that soap box today.    What about death, though? The other certainty of being human is, for most of us, not quite as certain. Biologists define death as the complete cessation of all life processes, which eventually take place in all living organisms. Sadly, that description doesn't provide a clear picture. It doesn't describe what death feels like. How will you feel then? How will it look? What are our plans? Where are we headed?   The embodiment of death in a black robe and scythe in hand, the Grim Reaper, enters. We all know of this deity and its so-called motivations. It approaches everyone while watching for the last sand particle to fall, holding an hourglass in its hand. When that happens, it cuts the soul free with a razor-sharp slice that it has perfected over time. Although it may not be a pretty picture, it is distinct and obvious.   Putting a human face on the idea of death is ultimately the Grim Reaper's "job." But why did people feel the need to give the Grim Reaper such a gloomy appearance? Why not turn him into a welcoming and useful tour guide for the underworld? Why must he also be a man, for that matter?   We'll examine the Grim Reaper's history, the symbolism attached to his appearance, and how he's portrayed in other cultures. We'll also look at how the Reaper has been depicted in literature, film, and art. When we're done, you'll understand the identity of the Grim Reaper, his methods, and most crucially, the reason for his existence (should you see him prowling around your deathbed).   As Lewis Carroll once said, it's best to begin at the beginning. And for the Grim Reaper, the beginning can be found in the creation myths present in all cultures.   Death itself must exist before the Grim Reaper, a personification of death, can exist. Humans were initially formed as immortal creatures who descended from their level of perfection in almost all civilizations and religions. The Bible's most famous example is the story of Adam and Eve's fall. The Book of Genesis claims that God made Adam and Eve to care for the world He had made and to help populate it. The Garden of Eden was a paradise where the first man and woman resided. Adam was instructed by God to tend to the garden and gather fruit from all the trees, with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Unfortunately, Eve was duped into eating the fruit by Satan, who was speaking via a serpent. She then gave Adam the fruit, who consumed it as well despite being aware that it was wrong. Adam and Eve died physically and spiritually as a result of defying God.   In other religions, people were formed as mortals who made valiant attempts to become immortal but failed. This tale is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh, a character from Mesopotamian literature, was the progeny of a goddess and a human ruler. Gilgamesh, however, was still a mortal being, just like his closest buddy Enkidu. When Enkidu passes away, the great hero is troubled by the idea of dying and embarks on a mission to become immortal. He meets Utnapishtim, a man who has been granted eternal life by the gods, during his travels. Gilgamesh is promised immortality by Utnapishtim if he can last a week without sleeping. Gilgamesh eventually nods off, but Utnapishtim still gives him a plant that can restore its owner's health. Any hopes Gilgamesh had of becoming eternal are dashed when the plant is devoured by a hungry snake on the way home.   Gilgamesh returns home in the mythology of Mesopotamia and joyfully accepts his life as a mortal man. But most people aren't that laid back. The thought of our own mortality disturbs us. Everything we accomplish is constantly plagued by the shadow of death. Research supports this. According to a 2022 survey, 20% of Americans over the age of 50 experience anxiety when they consider their afterlife. 53 percent of respondents think ghosts or spirits exist, and 73 percent think there is life after death.   Undoubtedly, and as it has been for thousands of years, what happens to us as we die, as well as what occurs after we die, is a huge issue. Humans use a tried-and-true strategy: they give death a form they are familiar with in order to make sense of dying and mortality. As a result, a vague, invisible phenomenon becomes a concrete, observable phenomenon. You can comprehend death if you see a familiar face in it. Better yet, if you can put your anxieties aside and perceive death as a kind, gentle face.   It can, of course, also go the other way. Looking at death might reveal a frightful countenance. The terrifying visage of the Grim Reaper arose following a particularly trying period in human history, as we'll discover in the following section.   Why not give death a kind face if you're going to give it a human one? The Greeks adopted that strategy and gave death the name Thanatos. Hypnos, the deity of sleep, and his twin brother Thanatos were both shown as attractive, young males. Thanatos is depicted in some images as having wings and a put out flame. He had the responsibility of going to Hades, the Greek underworld, with the deceased. There, Charon, the ferryman on the River Styx, would receive the souls from Thanatos. In this interpretation, death is lovely and beneficial rather than fearful and ugly.   There are also feminine variations of death. The Valkyries were depicted as stunning young women in Norse mythology who carried soldiers' souls to their afterlife as well as acting as messengers for Odin. In actuality, the word "Valkyries" refers to "slain's choosers." They would ride on winged horses during battle and pick intrepid soldiers to perish by scouting the battlefield. They would then deliver these spirits to Odin's realm, Valhalla. The valiant spirits were recruited to participate in the terrible struggle known as Ragnarok after they reached the afterlife.   The Valkyries are comparable to angels, who serve as a spiritual bridge between God and people. Angels provide messages to mankind or defend them in some myths. In other tales, they converse with the dead and torture the sinners. Many religions and civilizations feature the Angel of Death, a spirit that removes a person's soul from the body at the moment of death. In Judeo-Christian tradition, the archangels Michael and Gabriel have served as death angels. The Islamic Angel of Death known as Azrael can occasionally be seen as a terrifying ghost with eyes and tongues covering every inch of his body. Every soul in the world has a birth and a death recorded in a vast ledger that Azrael keeps updated.   By the Middle Ages, the Angel of Death had been conceptually ingrained in both European religion and culture. But in the latter half of the 14th century, an epidemic occurrence changed how the common person perceived and reacted to death. The plague of the Middle Ages, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, was that occurrence. The initial plague outbreak claimed at least 25 million lives, while subsequent plague outbreaks that recurred for centuries resulted in millions more deaths [source: National Geographic]. Fear swept the entire continent: fear of death, fear of an unknown epidemic, fear of the agony of the disease's late stages, when the skin on a victim's extremities grew black and gangrenous. All activities were characterized by a morbid atmosphere, which also had an impact on the period's writers and painters.   Unsurprisingly, skeletons started to represent death in artwork at this time. In reality, the skeletal form of death was frequently depicted in a similar manner by painters. He was frequently pictured with a crossbow, dart, or other weapon. These tools would eventually give way to the scythe, a mowing instrument with a long, curved blade attached at an angle to a long handle. Many artworks depicted the hereafter chopping down souls like grain by swinging its scythe through a throng of humanity. A young woman would occasionally stand at the grave to serve as a reminder of the connection between life and death. The idea that death might communicate with the living and lure them into the hereafter was another prevalent one. Due of this, skeletons are depicted dancing and having fun with people from all walks of life in the Dance of Death, also known as Danse Macabre.   These post-plague images of death led to the creation of the Grim Reaper. We'll look at the significance of his form and physique on the following page.   The Grim Reaper is an incredibly symbolic figure. When he eventually arrives, the items he is carrying and even the clothes he is wearing will reveal something about his character and his objectives. Let's examine some of the symbolism one symbol at a time.   Skeletons and skulls. It was common to observe piles of decaying bodies as the disease spread through Europe and Asia. One in five Londoners perished during the Great Plague of London, which struck the city between 1665 and 1666 [source: National Geographic]. Given how common death and dying are, it is reasonable that artists and illustrators started to represent death in the form of a corpse or skeleton. The skeleton figure serves as a metaphor for the decomposition of human flesh—what remains after worms and maggots have done their dirty work. It also feeds into one of the biggest concerns that people have: the dread of annihilation.   Black cloak. Black has long been connected to loss and gloom. Funeral attendees dress in black, and black hearses are used to transport the deceased. Black, however, is frequently associated with bad energies. The Reaper exudes mystery and danger thanks to his dark cloak. The Reaper hides beneath the shadows of his cloak, playing off our fears of the unknown because the things we can't see worry us just as much as the things we can see.   Scythe. The Reaper is seen clutching arrows, darts, spears, or crossbows in early depictions. These are the tools he use to kill his victim. A scythe eventually took the place of these other tools of killing. A scythe was an implement used for cutting grass or reaping grain. It made sense for this symbol to be put to death in an agricultural community where harvesting in the fall signified the end of a year. Death harvests souls for their passage into the hereafter in a similar manner to how we harvest our crops.   Hourglass. Sand pours from the upper to bottom glass bulb of the traditional hourglass over the course of an hour. It has endured into the digital age as a reminder to be patient as our computer loads a Web page or executes a command because it is such a potent representation of time and how it passes. Additionally, the Grim Reaper holds an hourglass, reminding us that time is running out. Our time is up when the sand is gone. We can only pray that we have more time to live than an hour.   It was so common to see this representation of the Grim Reaper in religious writings. The Book of Revelation in the Bible provides the best illustration. Four horsemen appear in Revelation 6:1–8 to bring about tragedies signifying the end of the world. Pestilence, war, famine, and death are the four horsemen. Only Death is expressly mentioned out of the four. He is seated on a pale horse, which is frequently mistaken for pale green, the hue of illness and decay. Most often, Death is portrayed as the Reaper himself, with a grimacing skull and scythe in hand, ready for the gory labor that lies ahead.   The Grim Reaper is still a popular subject for writers today. We'll examine at a few instances of the Reaper in popular culture in the section that follows.   Without a doubt, the Grim Reaper makes a fantastic character, which explains why he has long been a part of myths and legends. One typical tale, known as the "cheating death" tale, describes a person who tries to deceive the Grim Reaper in order to avoid dying. A well-known illustration is "The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Death for the holy man in Longfellow's poem arrives with the somber proclamation, "Lo! the time approaches near/When thou must die." Can I hold the sword of death? the rabbi enquiries. The rabbi receives the weapon from Death, who hurriedly flees and hides until God can step in to save him. Ben Levi is not killed when God appears, but the rabbi is instructed to give the sword back to its rightful owner.   Other influential works, such the Danse Macabre, or Dance of Death, a sort of drama that appeared after the Black Death, have established our contemporary understanding of the Reaper. These plays were intended to help churchgoers accept the certainty of death. A victim's encounter with death, symbolized as a skeleton, was portrayed in the performance, which typically took place in a cemetery or churchyard. The victim makes various justifications for why his life should be saved, but these are rejected, and death eventually follows him away with an entourage of other skeletal creatures. Several German engravers, like Bernt Notke and Hans Holbein, found that the scenes from this play made for interesting themes. These artists' prints depicted dancing skeletons amid people from all social classes as a message that nobody, not even royalty, could avoid death.   Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" has had a similar impact on current culture. The 1957 movie is about Antonius Block, a knight who returns from the Crusades to discover that the disease has killed many of his countrymen. Max von Sydow plays Antonius Block in the role. Block is also awaited by Death, who is portrayed by Bengt Ekerot. Having reached a standstill, the knight challenges Death to a game of chess, which Block ultimately loses. The image of Ekerot's Death, a menacing white visage disguised beneath a black cloak, endures so vividly despite the story's unsettling nature.   The Grim Reaper also plays a key role in the following works:   "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," a song released by Blue Öyster Cult in 1976 and now regarded as a rock classic "Because I could not stop for Death," a poem by Emily Dickinson, in which the narrator shares a carriage ride with Death "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, in which the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, cloaked and skeletal, appears to show Scrooge how he will die The Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, which feature Death as an ally of mankind The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, a groundbreaking series of comic books in which Death appears as a girl "Death Takes a Holiday," a 1934 film about Death's decision to take a break from his normal business to see what it's like being mortal; a 1998 remake, "Meet Joe Black," starred Brad Pitt in the role of Death. "Scream," a 1996 homage to slasher flicks in which a murderous teen stalks his victims in a Reaper-like costume "Dead Like Me," a Showtime series that explores the lives (or afterlives) of a group of grim reapers who walk among the living   Whether he is funny or terrifying, a man or a woman, the Grim Reaper will probably always be a part of our pop culture diet. The Reaper will calmly wait in the shadows and come for each of us in the end, even if storytellers grow weary of dealing with death and dying.   Lastly, we thought since we are talking about the personification of death, we should also include some theories as to what happens after we die. Let's see how many you, the listeners, agree with; and how many we think are stupid and illogical. Let's begin!   Excretion  The idea that the universe is actually one enormous brain of a higher species has been around for many years. In certain containers, it might be one or more brains. This hypothesis states that the solar system is merely a brain cell. Humans are insignificant components of this cell as well. For that enormous brain, our thousands of millions of years of history occurred in a fraction of a second. Let's examine what it says on life after death. How are our own dead cells handled? They are discarded after being sloughed off. Similar things will happen to us if we are a small piece of a vast mind. That is, the universe will leave our consciousness where it dumps its waste when we pass away. Oh, how disgusting. I am aware that this notion is a little unusual and a little challenging to understand, but that is only because we do not fully understand it.   Just like that, my life became meaningless.   You enter the cosmic consciousness   Life: What is it? Knowing the answer to this question is crucial. We are conscious of our existence and are fully in charge of our own thinking. Only 20 watts of power are required for this by our brain. Most light bulbs use more electricity than that because this power is so low. Biologists are still unable to properly explain how our brain makes every decision so precisely. Our area of expertise is consciousness, but we do not understand its origin. And where does it go after we pass away? In accordance with Sir Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff's orchestrated objective reduction theory of the mind, coherent quantum processes in clusters of microtubules within brain neurons are biologically "orchestrated" to produce consciousness. You can imagine this universe as a sea of consciousness, according to this notion. Human mind originates from this place and travels back there once we die. Consciousness connects all things in the cosmos. You can think of it like this: If you think of the universe as a sea, then our consciousness would be a wave. It remains on the ground for some time before going back. The conclusion is that after we die, our consciousness returns to the universe, where it may remain eternally or it may temporarily inhabit another body.   Our consciousness is therefore deeply ingrained in the cosmos and is inherently perplexing.   Being Human Is just One Level   Reincarnation theory holds that after we die, our souls transfer into new bodies, giving rise to a subsequent birth. Dr. Ian Stevenson has studied incarnation and looked into countless instances of young people claiming to have lived before. He established the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia and was an academic psychiatrist. He describes incarnation as the "survival of personality after death" at times. Along with genes and environment, he thinks it can provide a plausible justification for a variety of personality traits, including phobias. However, no one's allegations have been shown to be true. When this notion first emerged, little was understood about the universe's complexity and mysticism. Because of this, they only thought that our spirit may reincarnate in a different body on earth. What if your soul has a different physical body somewhere else in the universe? What if your spirit adopts a shape that we are unaware of rather than moving into a new body? This idea holds that our Souls or conscious entities can travel anyplace in the cosmos. This implies that you could once more be a person, a cool alien, a pointless insect, or something else else. In reality, we have no idea who or what we will be after we no longer exist as humans.   The Universe Ends   Can you demonstrate the reality of this world and the cosmos? The likelihood is that you will affirm and provide the objects and people in your environment with proof. However, according to the solipsistic hypothesis, there is nothing outside of your mind and brain. For you, what you see and hear is accurate, but you can never establish the veracity of the people in your immediate vicinity. Let's use GTA 5 as an example. When you are at a specific location in this game, everything around you is functional. There are other close residents there, so nothing strange is happening to you. What about the locations where you are not? Actually, those places didn't exist back then. According to this hypothesis, there is no other life in the cosmos besides you. Therefore, the universe stops existing after you pass away. That implies that every person you know and love likewise vanishes. Simply said, everything and everyone is a projection of your subconscious mind.   Therefore, take another look at the world and stop griping about pointless things. After all, you are the one who made it all.   Life Starts over again   I'm sure you've experienced this at least once in your life. that a location or person appears familiar to you, despite the fact that you've never been there or interacted with them before. This is known as déjà-vu. What if everything feels familiar? That implies that your life keeps repeating itself? Therefore, it appears that you may be familiar with that location or that individual. Two things could lead to this. First of all, your life is like a movie that never ends. Second: Although your life is repeated, you always have more influence over it. This reminds me a lot of the film Groundhog Day. Obviously, there are some significant differences; in this case, life restarts after death rather than after a day, and you have significantly less influence than in the film. Therefore, have luckier next time, bro. God knows how many times we are experiencing a life (which stinks) without even realizing it is a déjà-vu.   You have successfully entered a loop.   The Dreamer Wakes Up   It's entirely possible that our existence is nothing more than a creature's dream, despite the fact that this may sound like some made-up stories from the 1980s. You must have all had dreams. Only until we wake up do we know that dreams were just illusions. We become unable to distinguish between reality and dreams. Since dreams come from our own subconscious minds, their reality may or may not be in question. Vital Signs: The Nature and Nurture of Passion author Gregg Levoy concurs. And some of the most well-known concepts in the modern world, including Google, the Theory of Relativity, the first periodic table, etc., had their origins in dreams. Thus, it is possible for dreams to be quite real. So it's possible that we wake up in the "actual" world after we pass away. very similar to Inception The subject of what occurs when a dreaming creature passes away now arises. For the time being, there is no clear response to this query. We have no idea if the person who is waking up from sleep is a soul, a human, or something else entirely.   You Get Re-programmed   This hypothesis proposes that our world is a computer simulation. The most prevalent option on this list is this. It's likely that you have heard of this before. Nick Bostrom, an Oxford philosopher, made the initial suggestion in 2003. It contends that either all intelligent species perish before being able to produce an ancestor simulation or choose not to do so for some reason. Or perhaps we are merely acting out a simulation. In the event that we are simulations of our ancestors, our Consciousness is programmed. We play a very small part in the simulation. So, after erasing your memories, our programmer can transport us to a different space and time in the simulation when we pass away. They only need to make a few tweaks as they already have our base code. It is really difficult to foresee what those programmers will perform. They have a wide range of options at their disposal. What a blast?   Our Consciousness Is Unreal   The simulation hypothesis is also related to this notion. Avoid saying, "There are two theories on the same hypothesis." Theo Musk believes that the odds of us actually living in the "true" world are one billion to one. It is completely believable. This side, though, is substantially darker. As your "Consciousness" is merely programming, we lack our own free will. We appear to be operating according to a code. They are free to run or remove your code whenever they wish. They might have entered your code the last time you closed your eyes. While you slept last night, all of your memories were implanted in you. Even though it has only been a few hours, you suddenly believe you have been this person for years. They can also alter or remove your code the next time you go to bed. Depending on what they need, they could simply "remove" you from the simulation or completely change who you are. This reminds me a lot of Westworld. In this case, a fictitious universe is made, and characters are formed with certain duties allocated to them. We all contribute to some larger narratives. By simply adding new memories of a different location and possibly even time to the code, they can change the role of any person according to their needs. Everything you believe yourself to be is merely an illusion. Therefore, all that we are is a collection of 0s and 1s. And we carry out our pre-programmed actions.   We can at least be glad that our life, despite appearing to have no purpose, has helped our creators in some way. Or why did they even decide to make us?   Death Is An Illusion   Humans are the only animals on Earth with understanding of time, in contrast to other animals. We are aware that Time can only advance in units of days, months, or years. But is it really this time of day? The concept of time that we have today was developed by humans. Anything we believe about time could be incorrect. We think that time always flows like a river's stream. It is not required for the Universe to function in the same manner that we perceive time to function. Along with the present, the past and the future also exist in the cosmos, but we are not able to view them. Imagine that consciousness is the projecting light that causes us to see the film and that reality is a film strip. We are unable to notice the light unless a frame is placed in front of it. Its presence, however, cannot be disputed. The same principles govern Time and Reality. The past and future are not visible to us, but they coexist with the present. Three-dimensional space-time surrounds us and binds us. So how does this relate to death? You don't actually die. Death is just a fantasy. Because you are unable to exist in frames where you are dead, you must always exist in frames where you are living. Just that other people think you are dead because this does not hinder ‘their' existence.   Anything is Possible   About what happens after death, we cannot be certain. The many-worlds interpretation hypothesis postulates that there are an almost unlimited number of realities. There are countless parallel universes, each containing every conceivable concept. There is a universe where you are a billionaire, Hillary won the election, and I am reading this essay you wrote. Therefore, in some universes, anything is conceivable after death. Reincarnation occurs in some universes, or heaven and hell exist in some as well. In some universes, after we pass away, we become zombies, whereas in others, we simply pass away. In some alternate universe, all of the aforementioned theories are plausible. We simply don't know what universe we reside in, or perhaps it hasn't been determined yet. You might pass away in the cosmos or theory you hold dear. According to the solipsism theory, your universe will come to an end when you pass away. Anything is possible, after all.