Shala, Assyrian Mother Goddess
paghat
Prosperity," was an Assyrian title for the Great Goddess. Her name can be
punned with such Hebrew words as shalat, "dominates," shelet, "shields" &
shalah, "to be restful" or "to send (or go) forth." The psalm, "May they
prosper who love you!" can be read "May Shala love them who love you" [Ps
122:6]. "Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" can be read as a yahwist
vilification, "Why follow the path of wicked Shala?" [Jr 12:1]. Jeremiah
by poetic allusion says Memshala (Mother Shala) is the enemy of Mother
Zion, "Her enemies have become leaders, her foe is Shala" [Lm 1:5], which
simply describes rival cults. Equally as telling is the term memshala,
"sovereignty" or "dominion," but which can be read as "Mother Shala" or
"Mami is the Great Wife." The psalmist identifies Shala with Malkhuth
(Kingdom) in the verse, "Malkhuth is everlasting Malkhuth, and Mother
Shala endures throughout the generations" [Ps 145:13], & she is God's
bride in the verse, "Bless the Lord, all his works, in all the places of
Mother Shala" [103:22]. The utterly feminine imagery of Memshala is
conveyed again in the verse, "And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the
daughter of Zion, to you shall it come the former Mother Shala, Malkhuth
of the daughter of Jerusalem" [Micah 4:8]. Four of seventeen references to
Mother Shala regard rule of the Sun by day and the Moon by night [Gn 1:16;
Ps 136:8-9].
In cuneiform records, one of Shala's chief consorts was Ramman or Rimmon.
He was the West Semitic god of thunder & a sacrificial fertility daemon.
He once acquires direct biblical notice [2 Ki 5:18], & several more times
amidst place-names or the names of men, attesting to the popularity of
Shala & Ramman [Nm 33:19; 2 Sm 4:2; Josh 15:21; Jg 20:45; &c]. Rimmon was
identified with Adad or Hadad, the Assyrian Baal whose name appears often
in scripture [Gn 25:15; &c] & the two names are once compounded as
Hadadrimmon [Zech 12:11]. Shala & Rimmon appear to have been worshipped by
the Benjamites, as it is written of them, "They turned & fled toward the
wilderness unto the Rock of Rimmon" [Jg 20:45]. The word for Rock is Sela,
so that we may read "They took refuge with Shala and Rimmon," & the
Benjamites "abode with Shala & Rimmon four months" [20:47].
Shala of the Mountains also took Marduk or Bel as her lover, identifying
Shala as an epithet for Zarpanit the usual bride of Marduk. The name of
the city of Salem, "Peace," might be understood as Shala'em, "Peaceful
Mami," or Shalaim, "Children of the Bride." Salem was a nickname for
Jerusalem [Gn 14:18; Ps 76:2], but may have been a distinct district or
pastured suburb dominated by Shala's cult; & Jerusalem was called Shala'em
to reinforce the common idea that the city was Yahweh's bride or daughter.
There was also a village of Shalem near the site of Jacob's well [Gn
33:18], so we may guess this well was sacred to Shala. In Noah's geneology
we encounter Sala, Salah, or Shelah the father of Eber or Heber [Gn 10:24;
11:12-15; Lk 3:35], which may well recall Shala having been regarded as
the Great Mother among proto-Israelites. Sala the descendant of Noah
derives his name from a different root, however, which means "sprout,"
suggesting a Rimmon-like ferility figure who dies and is reborn in the
grain; & the name may have arisen as a wordplay which allowed the West
Semitic god to be known by his consort's name, & ultimately to submerge
knowledge of Shala as Great Mother.
© paghat the ratgirl
Mark Gerard Miller
one scholar who said the origin and meaning of the word "Selah" are
unknown.
Also, is there any connection between Shala and "shalom"?
Mark
In article <spam-me-not-pagha...@soggy70.drizzle.com>,
--
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Before you buy.
paghat
<mg...@msn.com> wrote:
> What about the intensifier "Selah" at the end of some verses? I read
> one scholar who said the origin and meaning of the word "Selah" are
> unknown.
>
> Also, is there any connection between Shala and "shalom"?
>
> Mark
Because of the rabbinical habit of punning (without regard for root words)
a habit obtained from scripture itself (which homonynzes Adam & Adamah
though they are not related except by sound) then Peace & Bride are indeed
related, though whether Shalom was anciently identified as Shala is less
certain, though quite likely. Jerusalem as one of Yahweh's brides [Jr 2:2;
Jr 18:13-14], or as "the Mother's sister" [Zoh III:78a], & Ezekiel
identifying Samaria & Jerusalem as the faithless divine brides Ohola &
Oholibah, seems to reflect the idea that Jerusalem was indeed Shala the
Bride, whose lovers had penises as big as those of asses, & by them
Oholibah birthed vast numbers of horses [Ezek 23:20] which begs comparison
to Black Demeter of Phygalia. Certainly in the mystic Traditions, Salem
became a name of the feminine presence of God, & every Shalom! honors the
Divine Shekhinah. We are introduced scripturally to Shalom as an angelic
power or presence [Ezek 13:16] who dwells with the prosperous or the
kindly [Gn 43:28; Jg 6:23; 29:20; 1 Sm 25:6,35; &c]; who speaks & replies
in her own voice [Gn 41:16; Dt 2:16; 20:10]; is guardian of covenants [Nm
25:12; Ezek 34:25; 37:26]; and is called Great Peace [Ps 119:165; Isa
54:13] who like an Earthmother is fruitful & multiplies [Dan 4:1; 6:25]; &
is a counsellor of the wise [Zec 6:13].
But tracking Salem/Shalom CAN take quite a different direction than the
Assyrian title of Zarpanitum. The goddess Shulamanitu, a Hurrian &
Canaanite goddess of love & battle, resembled Anath, & though only her
name & not her myths have survived in the extant cuneiform, it is widely
assumed that a well documented god named Shulman or Zalman (with numerous
regional variants; his sacred Mount Zalman came to be identified as a
place of Yahweh) was Shalamanitu's consort. Thus the Song of Solomon
adapts some of Shulamanitum's lost mythology because of the identification
of Solomon and his bride "the Shulamitess," who was black (as the tents of
Kedar) & danced "between two armies" because of she had deathly as well as
loving associations. The cuneiform discovery of this Shulamanitu pretty
much erases all older speculation that the alien "Shulamitess" was some
improbable scribal error of Shunamitess. Even before Shulamanitu's
original identity as a Goddess was recovered by archeologists, her mythic
power was recalled in rabbinical circles, who stated that the Shulammite
preserved not only this world, but also the World to Come, perceiving the
original meaning of Shulammite in the Hebrew meshallemeth, "supplies in
full" [Genesis Rabbah 56:2]. My own sense is that Jerusalem is the name of
a divine couple, Shalom or Shulamanitu the female, Jerush the male,
Jerush/Yareah being the Canannite Moon-god. Thus, even though Jerusalem is
FREQUENTLY personified as a bride, she is OCCASIONALLY personified as "the
dear boy" Jeshurun [Dt 32:15; 33:5, 26; Isa 44:2]. And Shalom/Shulamanitu
I would be inclined to identify less with Anath than with Shapash the
Sun-mother, so that we'd have a Sun-mother & Moon-god divine couple,
though this is very speculative since Shapash seems not to have any male
consort whatsoever in the Ugaritic literature.
Athanathius of Alexandria reported that Melchi's wife was Queen Salem II,
the mother of Melchizedek an immortal priest who was supported in the city
of Salem by Abraham's tithings [Gn 14:18-20; Ps 110:4]. When Melchizedek
was young, he criticized his father for sacrificing animals to sundry
gods, and begged him to make his offerings exclusively to the One God
above all others. The priest-king in a pique told Queen Salem he would
sacrifice one of their two sons on the morrow. She knew at once he meant
to kill Melchizedek, whom she best loved, and flew into such a panic that
in order to placate her, Melchi agreed they would draw lots to see whose
favorite son would die. She won the lot and saved Melchizedek. But feeling
guilty that her other son would perish, she begged Melchizedek to
intervene against the temple sacrifice. Melchizedek went up to Mount Tabor
and prayed to God, "Destroy everyone who means my brother harm!" At that
moment the earth opened up and swallowed his father, brother, mother,
their temple, and the entire city! From then on Melchizedek was said to
possess neither mother nor father, neither beginning nor end. Whether this
late myth really relates to a far earlier Goddess called Salem or Peace is
impossible go gauge, but it's a good guess. An Islamic tradition calls
Melchizedek's mother Salathiel, & "The Panarion" says he was the son of
Astart & Heracles.
As Shela relating to Shala the Great Wife, where it appears at sentence
ends it really is impossible to deduce a real meaning -- maybe it only
means "full stop, take a breath" or something, & maybe it praises a
divinity -- no one really knows. But if it is "stretched" to assume a
relationship to sela the rock or shela the sprout, then it is certainly a
divine reference frequently associated with divinity, & I already
discussed the Rock of Sela as relating to Rimmon the consort of Shala, and
that would make Shela (sprout) the same as Tammuz (sprout) & Shala the
same as Ishtar-Inanna.
There is another association related to the Arabic word shilat, "Witch"
and Assyrian shulu, "Specter," perhaps an intentional pun on the Goddess
Shala, the Great Wife. Two Aramaic incantion bowls from Nippur speaks of
Shelanitha ("Hag") which I'd regard as a diminished Shala derived from a
tendency of yahwists to find puns that demeaned rival or alien divinities.
-paghat
arn...@my-deja.com
Could you speak to the transformation of the Sumerian Inanna into
Ishtar, and her various manifestations from that point???
Cheers,
Arne
Larry Caldwell
> What about the intensifier "Selah" at the end of some verses? I read
> one scholar who said the origin and meaning of the word "Selah" are
> unknown.
Selah just means a rythmic or musical interlude between verses of a song.
If you were in a modern musical group, the translation would be, "Take
it, Mark." Then the guy on the drums goes wild and the dancers gyrate
around the bonfire a bit. When things settle down the cantor sings
another verse.
Selah.
-- Larry
cea...@my-deja.com
> one scholar who said the origin and meaning of the word "Selah" are
> unknown.
I don't know where the term "selah" comes from (I always thought it was
sort of like the word "chorus" in modern song lyrics, as a cue to sing a
refrain), but I do believe there is a town in Washington state named
Selah.
Cearrai
>
> Also, is there any connection between Shala and "shalom"?
>
> Mark
>
Mark Gerard Miller
Mark
In article <8qje8h$vmr$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
cea...@my-deja.com wrote:
> In article <8qdghu$8i1$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
> Mark Gerard Miller <mg...@msn.com> wrote:
> > What about the intensifier "Selah" at the end of some verses? I read
> > one scholar who said the origin and meaning of the word "Selah" are
> > unknown.
>
> I don't know where the term "selah" comes from (I always thought it
was
> sort of like the word "chorus" in modern song lyrics, as a cue to
sing a
> refrain), but I do believe there is a town in Washington state named
> Selah.
>
> Cearrai
>
> >
> > Also, is there any connection between Shala and "shalom"?
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > In article <spam-me-not-paghat-
21090007...@soggy70.drizzle.com>,
cea...@my-deja.com
at my office doesn't connect directly to a printer. Could you give me
some bibliographic sources that I could use for further reading on this
subject? You have references to ancient religious lore, Near Eastern
religion, early Hebrew religion, possibly Jewish/Hebrew mystical
tradition or Qabalism (sp?). You might also check out the public
version of my Mydeja page; I have a bookmark of an article that I wrote
on interpretations of the Biblical creation/origin stories that you
might find of some interest (if you don't find it completely crazy).
--Cearrai
Karen Carpenter
Good morning! I want to thank you for all your postings on middle eastern
Goddesses and the myths. I am on a search for good information on
Kybele/Cybele and Kubbaba. Would you perhaps be able to direct me towards
some books or sources where I can learn more...the general anthologies on
Goddesses are very sparse and the only book I know of is an expensive book on
Cybele that I can't find. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Blessings,
Kayce
paghat
Vermaseren CYBELE & ATTIS (Thames & Hudson, 1977) is my favorite overview
of the various cults in different eras & regions. It's not the end-all of
books on the topic because it doesn't delve much into maenadism & the
relationship of Dionysios to Cybele, & reading the key ancient plays &
poems about Maenads gives a neat contemporary few of women's separate
forms of worship in honor of Cybele. Nor are the various forms of "Black
Mary" derived from Cybele part of Vermaseren's overview.
A multi-language "memorial anthology" was edited in honor of Vermaseren,
entitled CYBELE ATTIS & RELATED CULTS (Leiden, 1996). If you do a search
of anyting by Vermaseren, or edited by him, you'll find a great deal more,
as he was the world's leading Cybele expert.
Grant's HELLENISTIC RELIGIONS (Library of Religion, 1952) has a fine
chapter on Cybele.
Magna Mater is the Roman title of Cybele, & the Roman Coloseum was built
to her honor -- so reading even Gibbons on the Coloseum & Magna Mater is
of great consequence to a study of Cybele. There are so many books about
the Roman Cybele no one springs to mind just now as most important. But I
would note that books of Roman art & architecture featuring the Magna
Mater are in some ways as useful as any interpretive text.
There are a number of works on "the Anatolian Cybele" which don't always
convey a lot of cult specifics because archeologically founded. One good
book is Roller's IN SEARCH OF GOD THE MOTHER (University of California,
1999).
A search of articles & books or chapters on the "galli" or gallae,
castrate priests most often associated with Cybele or reflexes of Cybele,
will lead your search through an array of related goddesses beginning even
in Sumer.
Cybele is frequently depicted in art enthroned beside Demeter. Their
worship overlapped considerably, & a detailed study of Cybele involves a
thorough understanding of Demeter.
There are some interesting more as works on "sexual politics" than myth &
archeology but still worth checking out for their modern "takes" on the
meaning & nature of Cybele. Gillian Cloke's THE FEMALE MAN OF GOD: Women &
Spiritual Power in the Patristic Age (Routledge, 1995) is representative
of that type of book.
Most of many books on Greek homosexuality will speak considerably of the
Attis cults.
Phrygia as the reputed birthplace of Cybele's oldest cults is, alas, not a
country well-covered the way Rome & Greece & Egypt get covered, but
anything you can find on Phrygia, including on certain Gnostic sects from
Phrygia that incorporated the nature of their ancient Cybele into their
ideas of Sophia & the aeonic Christ, is worth ferreting out. A painfully
hard book to find is Izzet Yusuf's IN ANCIENT PHRYGIA (Constantinople,
1921) but perhaps you can get it interlibrary loan. The humongous
MONUMENTA ASIAE MINORIS ANTIQUA (Manchester, 1930s) has material on
Phrygia in at least three volumes. Any collection you can find of
Hellenistic inscriptions will be apt include some examples right from the
authors of Phrygia itself. The Thracian cult of Bendis is really the
Phrygian Cybele in new coloration & should be included in any sweep for
the literature. I've never read a good book just on Thrace though one must
exist; most of what I've read of Bendis is in association with her cult's
import to Athens, which induced a single generation of liberation for
Athenean matrons which did not last.
Some forms of Artemis were really revamped Cybele as well, as worshipped
in the Tauric mountains & in the Circassians, so anything you find on
Artemis Taurica or Artemis Tauropolos, for example, are reflective of
Cybele's cult sans Attis. A journal called ANATOLIAN STUDIES just might be
available in your nearest major University Library, if not you're up a
shitcreek on that score, but it is just full of interesting stuff.
Haspel's HIGHLANDS OF PHRYGIA (Princeton, 1979) is a large study covering
Greek to Byzantine eras.
Since Attis occurred comparatively late in Cybele's long period of
worship, yet far too many articles about her really focus on Attis & the
galli, it is important to comprehend Cybele's older nature as reflected in
parallel goddesses Demeter & Bendis & Artemis Taurica, & in the great body
of maeanadic material that shows what women were doing quite distinct from
what the gallae were up to in honor of Cybele. Rhea of Crete & the
Cappadocian Ma are essentially the same Goddess. I wish I could also point
you to an interpretative little book of my own called SONGS OF THE MAENADS
but it was issued by a letterpress publisher in far too small an edition
to be findable now.
Cybele is really an overwhelming subject since she is Phrygian, Thracian,
Greek, Roman, Cretan, Lemnian, Hittite; & her mythology blended into that
of Hecate, Artemis, Demeter, & Gaea; & she was the underlying raison
d'etre of both Attis & Dionysios worship & informs all myths of maenads &
dactyls & gallae. Any one element can itself be the subject of enormous
study.
-paghat the ratgirl
Aggie-Tom
paghat wrote in message ...
>Cybele is really an overwhelming subject since she is Phrygian, Thracian,
>Greek, Roman, Cretan, Lemnian, Hittite; & her mythology blended into that
>of Hecate, Artemis, Demeter, & Gaea; & she was the underlying raison
>d'etre of both Attis & Dionysios worship & informs all myths of maenads &
>dactyls & gallae. Any one element can itself be the subject of enormous
>study.
Very interesting. Is there any possibility that Cybele could be Eve.
I have come to this conclusion in the following way and also concluded that
the name Cybele derives from the same root as Deukalion, who was the
original Dionisus.
Virtually all the words in Ancient Greek associated with reproduction or
making things derive from "THE" (theta-epsilon) from now on "8e".
Thus we have a consonantal rotation of 8e => de (delta-epsilon) => ge
(gamme-epsilon) for the female goddess that later became male.
eg. theos [god], deus [zeus], thugatras [daughters], egeneto [be born]
These would therefore seem to come from roots of "thEGos", "dEGus",
"thEGatras", "EGeneto".
Thus all derive for "EG" meaning to make. So you can add to them "ergo" to
work and and "egw" to be myself.
Also virtually all the words in Ancient Greek associated with burning,
light, brightness the sun etc. derived from "HEL"
Thus we have Hellenes (ellin-es), Helios (hli-os) [sun], uios (yos) [son],
kaei [burn],
The roots of all of these words would then be "ELInes", "ELIos", "E(L)Ios",
and "kaE(L)I"
Eli also happens to be what Jesus uttered on the cross "Eli, Eli, lama
sabachthani" or "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani". "My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me" (the greek spelling are either hli or elwi)
"Elia" the olive used a burn offering derives from the same word and does
"elegen" (he spoke) which can be split up into "Eli-eg-en" which literally
means "made from God", thus God was MAN himself, his own thoughts take form.
The original name Noah, Deukalion, Deu-ka(ei)-lion - Zeus' burning loins
which became corrupted to become the Gods of the Jews and Hittites, was
EG-ELI-O(N).
Could it also be that Cybele orginated from the word from the Proto language
of the Black Sea coast, "EG-ELI" meaning made from God (born form the
shining one).
ie EG, which in Greek would be pronouinced eiggh could have been corrupted
to kyb or kyv, and then to Eve ?
Thus EG-ELI would be the partner to EG-ELI-O(N). ie Cybele would be the
partner to Deukalion, which someone else posting to alt.mythology identified
as the inventor of Wine and thus the original version on Dionisus.
>
>-paghat the ratgirl
mark...@io.com
>The Thracian cult of Bendis is really the
> Phrygian Cybele in new coloration & should be included in any sweep for
> the literature.
the phrygians migrated from thrace to anatolia c1200 bc. the thracian
bendis might have influenced the cult of cybele.
Karen Carpenter
sorry that I won't be able to check out your book as well, but who knows perhaps I
will cross it in my search. This is an extensive topic, and yes, much seems to be
focused on Attis and the Galli. It will be an adventure and a challenge!! Thank
you again,
Best Wishes,
Kayce
paghat
<cyprusandhe...@i.am-SPAM-TRAP> wrote:
> paghat wrote in message ...
> >In article <39E0A5DA...@skinnerinc.com>, kcarp...@skinnerinc.com
> wrote:
> >
> >> Paghat,
> >>
>
> >Cybele is really an overwhelming subject since she is Phrygian, Thracian,
> >Greek, Roman, Cretan, Lemnian, Hittite; & her mythology blended into that
> >of Hecate, Artemis, Demeter, & Gaea; & she was the underlying raison
> >d'etre of both Attis & Dionysios worship & informs all myths of maenads &
> >dactyls & gallae. Any one element can itself be the subject of enormous
> >study.
>
> Very interesting. Is there any possibility that Cybele could be Eve.
Yup. Eve (Hawwah) has in essence the same name, hebraized, as Hepa the
Sun-mother of Arinna, who is one of those all-powerful goddess figures
very closely related to Cybele or Kubaba.
Dionysus like Attis was closely associated with Cybele, and, like Her, he
was of "Oriental" origin. His variety of myths strongly suggest
subservience to Rhea, and his arch enemy, Hera, suggests a fundamental
battle between patriarchal & matriarchal values (or at least between
Mother-dominant & Father-dominant cults) which the Dionysians attempt to
bridge. Strabo devoted several pages establishing the common origin of
sundry orgiastic cults so it is no mere modern habit of connecting these
divinities to a common root which is best understood through Cybele's
worship as oldest & most widespread.
Even more than Apollo, Dionysus is an androgynous god, & his worship
(classically by the Maenads) was almost exclusively the religion of women.
His faith was based on two ideals: spiritual freedom or release via
ecstatic joy, & savage brutality, which connects him with the far older
Mother-goddess cults of sexual pleasure & death in battle equated with the
richness of harvest and the barrenness of winter. Dionysus received from
Rhea-Cybele a cure for his madness, i.e., a cure for his warlike nature,
together with women's clothing, hence his effeminacy in the older
pictorial evidence.
At Ephesus where Cybele had a presence alongside Artemis, women were
either whipped or were self-flaggilants in honor of Dionysios. I've not
seen anyone suggest it but I believe this is a direct parallel to the
Spartan ritual of whipping adolescent boys preparatory to military
training, in honor a Spartan form of Artemis called Orthia (the Severe).
So though the Dionysion rite presumedly honored him as a conqueror of
amazons, & the Spartan Artemis rite honored her as a destroyer of men, in
actual practice no one was honoring the idea of themselves destroyed, but,
rather, tansformed into something stronger. Urtication was an ancient form
of flagellation using stinging nettles & was believed additionally to have
aphrodisial qualities, so the ritual was even thought beneficial to
procreation.
The blind prophet Teiresias of Thebes associated Dionysus with "divine
Demeter, greatest upon earth for mankind." Pindar called Dionysus the
paredros (eunuch lover) of Demeter; & in this case Demeter is definitely a
type of Cybele & Dionysiios Attis. Euripides in the Bacchae completely &
quite properly blurs the distinction between the agricultural goddess
Demeter & the warlike Mother-goddess Cybele, & G. S. Kirk goes so far as
to suggest Dionysus a male avatar of Persephone herself.
Although a wine cult is at the heart of Dionysus' worship in the classical
age, this is insufficient to explain him as chiefly a violent &
woman-oriented god. He originated as a transitional deity, a bridge
between the days of Goddess worshipping societies & the societies of later
patriarchal culture, hence his effeminacy. His grandmother Rhea (the
Earth) and mother Semele (the Moon, & the same as Zemelo, the Slavic
Earthmother identical with Rhea) were his protectors & chief sources of
power. Hera was his greatest foe; she had him torn to pieces as an infant,
but Rhea reconstituted him. Such associations reveal that he was once
subservient to goddesses, a phallic personification who stood outside
Goddess shrines, later despised by the Goddess (Hera in any case) for his
ingratitude & usurpation. Yet Dionysios acquired a role in the very
ancient Eleusinian Mysteries which preserved his abject subserviance to
Demeter, with no hint of usurpation.
-paghat
Gale
spam-me-n...@my-deja.com (paghat) wrote:
(snip)
>Although a wine cult is at the heart of Dionysus' worship in the classical
>age, this is insufficient to explain him as chiefly a violent &
And where does Dionysus's impregnation of Ariadne fit into this
structure? (Hoping you might augment my all-too-sparse
knowledge of a goddess/mortal {for she plays both roles,
depending on the myth} I find quite fascinating.)
Thanks.
Blessed Be,
Gale
http://www.capstonebeads.com/Magick.html (original
Tarot, poetry, fiction)
ga...@arwm.net
modstaff alt.religion.wicca.moderated
paghat
> On Mon, 09 Oct 2000 10:17:14 -0700,
> spam-me-n...@my-deja.com (paghat) wrote:
> (snip)
> >Although a wine cult is at the heart of Dionysus' worship in the classical
> >age, this is insufficient to explain him as chiefly a violent &
> >woman-oriented god. (snip)
>
> And where does Dionysus's impregnation of Ariadne fit into this
> structure? (Hoping you might augment my all-too-sparse
> knowledge of a goddess/mortal {for she plays both roles,
> depending on the myth} I find quite fascinating.)
>
> Thanks.
>
> Blessed Be,
> Gale
I haven't given much thought to Ariadna & Dionysios together, but let me
give it a wild shot. If Ariadne may be regarded as the heart of the
Labyrinth hence an maiden aspect of Gaea who IS the labyrinth, then
Dionysios becomes in this myth a consort of the Earthmother? As goddess of
the labyrinth named for the labrys or double-axe which represented
Rhea/Cybele, this identification seems not much of a stretch.
Though sometimes regarded a spider-goddess or weaving-goddess, Ariadne's
name indicates a Barley-mother & as such a maiden aspect of Demeter --
hence the same meaning, Dionysios becomes consort of the Earthmother. That
he proves a FERTILE consort though in the majority of his myths he is an
Attis-like galli does seem to contradict the majority of his mythology,
but since even sacrificial gods in some way induced fertility, it may not
be so big a contradiction. Maeands used figwood olisbos as representing
Dionysios's severed member, & in this manner all their children were His
children, whoever actually fathered them. And at least some of Ariadne's
children by Dionysios are said actually to be the children of Theseus.
Dionysios cast a spell on Theseus to forget his promise to Ariadne. Having
"set her up" to be abandoned & in fear of her life, he later shows up with
a cluster of maenads in tow, & "saves" her to be his queen. This indeed
seems to be one of those usurpation myths of forced marriage -- as Hades
to Persephone. The fact that some of Ariadne's children by Dionysios are
elsewhere said to have been sired by Theseus suggests rival cults with
different versions of the myth -- one in which Ariadne's partner (Theseus)
receives knowledge from her & is on some level subserviant to her, the
other in which her partner (Dionysios) through trickery conquers her.
Some said that Artemis slew Ariadne before ever she met Dionysios; others
that Dionysios placed her in heaven after her death but sired no children
upon her. It's a primitive myth but one in considerable flux.
The reputed sons of Dionysios are not entirely insignificant but fairly
obscure. Tauropolus seems to refer to cults of the Cybele-related Artemis
as worshipped in the Tauric mountains so this "son" of Dionysios intends
to point to the places of Dionysios's spreading cult or even to his
subserviance to Artemis Taurica. The Tauropolis was the chamber where the
bull was slain for Artemis, hence this "son" alludes to Dionysios himself
as sacrificial. Thoas was a reference to Lemnos, where the women slew
their sons & husbands. The son designated Oenopion means "lots of wine" &
could mean only that he was conceived during the Dionysia when multiple
partners would break down any possibility of father-rite & all children
were the children of the god, not of any given orgiastic partner. So too
the son called Latropis may indicate he was the child of a wanton harlot.
One of the key elements of maeanadism was to break down the rules of
patriarchal inheritence patterns into older norms where ever child was the
child of a god, not a mortal father, & inheritance was strictly through
mothers or aunts. Oenopion was probably an epithet for the Cretan wine-god
Zagreus, so his citation as a son of Dionysios occurred as Dionysios
displaced the older wine-god. Oenopion's small surviving mythology is
bound up in that of Orion, who is an exceedingly archaic divinity older
than Dionysios, so considerable coopting is going on. Other of the sons
included Staphylos which means "a bunch laden with grapes." Rather than
literal sons of Ariadne, then, we may be dealing with personifications of
grape agriculture over which Ariadne was goddess & so quickly attracted
Dionysios whose "usurpation" myth becomes the idea that such agriculture
did not exist until he sired it. The final son of Dionysios is Euanthes
"Flower-boy." This could be the flowering grape hence just another
agricultural reference, but note that "Flower boys" represent the height
of spring tend to be shortlived sacrificial fertility daemons &
effemininate, i.e., Narcissus, Hyachinthus & Adonis who was called "a
scentless rose" meaning he was castrated. So Euanthes points once again to
an earlier role fulfilled by Dionysios as Hera's slain daemon
reconstituted by Rhea sans his willy.
An odd footnote is that Ariadne was coopted into Christian martyrologies
that preserve even her identification with Cybele. Her saint's day is
September 17. Her story closely resembles that of many nymphs of Artemis
fleeing would-be rapists. Ariadne was said to have been a Christian slave
of a Phrygian prince, circa 130 C.E. When she refused to participate in
an orgy held in celebration of Cybele on the prince's birthday, she was
pursued by several of his ministers, but escaped when a boulder opened up
& enclosed her. Many will recognize the Greek & Cretan origin of a fleeing
nymph taken back into Gaea to escape her pursuer.
Gee that was fun.
-paghat the ratgirl
Gale
spam-me-n...@my-deja.com (paghat) wrote:
>
>I haven't given much thought to Ariadna & Dionysios together, but let me
>give it a wild shot.(snip)
Thank you! Very much appreciated!!!
The Philosopher O
I am a bit confused. I have never heard of Dionysus being castrated before
(I'm assuming I just haven't read enough of his myths yet). Is there a story
to this?
From reading your posts I received the impression that you are equating the
dismemberment of Zagreus to the dismemberment of Osiris. I know that Osiris
was left without a phallus (as I recall, it was either lost and swallowed by a
fish, or Isis buried it in the ground to promote fertility) however, I don't
recall ever hearing that Dionysus was reborn (from the leavings of Zagreus,
through the agency of Zeus' "thigh") without his penis. Is this an assumption
on your part, a part of the myths, or have I simply confused what you were
saying?
O
Carl KICE Brown
Gale wrote:
> On Mon, 09 Oct 2000 10:17:14 -0700,
> spam-me-n...@my-deja.com (paghat) wrote:
> (snip)
> >Although a wine cult is at the heart of Dionysus' worship in the classical
> >age, this is insufficient to explain him as chiefly a violent &
> >woman-oriented god. (snip)
>
> And where does Dionysus's impregnation of Ariadne fit into this
> structure? (Hoping you might augment my all-too-sparse
> knowledge of a goddess/mortal {for she plays both roles,
> depending on the myth} I find quite fascinating.)
>
> Thanks.
>
> Blessed Be,
> Gale
>
> http://www.capstonebeads.com/Magick.html (original
> Tarot, poetry, fiction)
> ga...@arwm.net
> modstaff alt.religion.wicca.moderated
My take on Ariadne (admittedly muy influenced by Kerenyi's writings) is that
with her we have another case of "inverse euhemerism", a deity (perhaps from a
localized cult or perhaps a local aspect of a geographically greater deity [for
instance, on Cyprus IIRC one of Aphrodite's epithets is "Ariadne" -- Aphrodite
Ariadne]) who's now remembered only as a human who only after death joins the
gods. [BTW, I do think Herakles another of these -- and most assuredly Helene
Dioskore, sister to the Dioskouroi [check out the IE background to that
relationship (not necessarily sister per se, but the female entity/deity
associated with the Divine Twins)] is another.] Kerenyi suggests that
Ariadne's name (associated with purity) is a suitable one for the Underworld
Queen, with her other cultic title {since I'm not home I don't have access to
my library (sorry)), which is something like Arihela (but definitely not that
-- I'll amend this in a couple of hours from home), providing lunar
associations. She was, of course, granddaughter to Helios and daughter to a
BRIGHT mother, -- a mother who mated with a bull "god" to produce the STARRY
Asterios/Asterion, the minotauros -- another bull god, of course, and one who
dwelt at the center of the labyrinthine underworld -- a center to which the
only guide was his half-sister Ariadne. On her father's (Minos) side, she was
the granddaughter of the bull god (of Zeus's mating with Europa). [And while I
generally downplay the role of Theseus here, it could be pointed out that he
was son to Poseidon and the bull who sired the minotauros was Poseidon's divine
bull -- perhaps the "same" divine bull who killed Theseus' son in an episode
involving Ariadne's BRIGHT sister.] Finally, of course, we have Ariadne's
espousal to Dionysos, several of whose epithets identify him as a BULL god,
and who shares the underworld epithet Chthonios with Zeus [in both instances
seemingly identifying each god with Hades, Aidoneus], ultimately involves her
(Aridne's) "death" and the birth of her "death-born" child. [The signature
file I've started using at home in Lone Tree is germane here -- check out the
T.S. Eliot quote]
Anyway that's my take on Ariadne -- I'd suggest reading Kerenyi's books
(translated into English) _Dionysos_ and _Eleusis_. From home tonite I'll
identify another book I've found fascinating each time I open it, on _Helen of
Troy: Woman and Goddess_, but I can't recall the author just now. This book
includes in an appendix, an interesting discussion of Ariadne's thread, and its
cultic associations.
--
Kice, writing from Iowa City
"There are things we do not understand.
Yet they exist nonetheless." -- Lt. Worf
paghat
<red...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
Pindar called Dionysioss the "paredros" (eunuch lover) of Demeter. His
effeminancy is a direct result of his being a galli. He was frequently
worshipped in the form of a disembodied penis. Because he gave his manhood
to Cybele, his separated phallus was set up in front of shrines to Rhea.
Interestingly Dionysian olisbos (dildos) were made of figwood a wood
identified cultically with vaginas. An olisbos made of myrtle was
identified as male wood & associated with pleasures of Aphrodite. The
preference for figwood to represent Dionysios's dismembered member carries
through on the intersexual associations of the gallae. The identification
with Attis was sufficiently complete that maenads do sometimes appear not
with Dionysios, but with Attis or Hyacinthus.
Though often the enemy of Hera, at Elis Dionysios was Hera's castrated
companion & the nature of the Hera/Dionysios cult at Elis was exactly
parallel to Cybele/Attis. This was probably the older form of Dionysios
worship & only later did his infant sacrifice to Hera's cooking pot become
justified by Hera's dislike of him. It was initially a myth of death &
rebirth as something stronger, better, yet intersexed, hence the
Moon-goddess Ino raised him as a girl, meaning she raised him with
knowledge of women's mysteries prohibited most males. In the Ellis cult
Hera was attended by sixteen priestesses called Thyiades; the first of
their order were credited with gathering up the severed pieces of little
Dionysios feeding his heart to Semele, who bore him anew. This myth almost
places Dionysios in Hera's care as he was in Rhea's care in Minoa, &
Semele rather than Hera becomes the devourer -- but only so as to restore
him.
Even in cults where Dionysios appeared paramount he was in service of the
Goddess. His role of Wine-bringer was part of his "effeminate" side &
makes him comparable to the maeanad-like valkyries bringing Odin's mead to
warriors; or Hebe & later Ganymede bringing nectar to Zeus. The role of
Dionysios remained, even at the height of his power, that of onanistic
helper, homosexual instigator, wine-bearer, deliverer of Demeter's
madness, & fertility sacrifice.
There may also be some sense that wine is the blood of Dionysios's
sacrifice & is partly why the blood of Jesus, who made wine from water for
the bride of Cana, was represented by a goblet of wine; & the wound he
received in his side while upon the cross was in fact castration, he being
a Dionysian figure in most key traits, right down to his hanging out with
harlots. The whole "eat of my flesh" routine is Dionysian because Hera
cooked him in a pot. In essence, all lame, effeminite, or dying-&-reborn
divinties are the same as the type that were galli or castrates; not every
myth made it so overt as for Attis unmanning himself vividly. To an extent
this represented the reaping of grain or in Dionysios' case the plucking
of the grapes.
When Dionysios received the cure of madness from Rhea/Cybele, she also
gave him women's garments. The cure for madness (or the taming of his
tendency toward warfare) was exactly that which made a wild bull tame,
vis, castration; & his new women's garments identified him as one of
Cybele's galli. Even if in some cults he was NOT regarded as literarlly
castrated, his crossdressing was a symbolic form of the same ritual.
Dionysios had MALE maenad followers who were exclusively homosexual -- &
there's no evidence these homosexual youths were gallae, though very
likely they crossdressed to symbolize the offering of their manhood to the
Great Mother. To be specific, Eleuthereus, the blackgoat form of
Dionysus, was worshipped exclusively by homosexual youths, who performed
ecstatic dances in emulation of maenadic women. There were also revels
called komoi, male homosexual orgies for Dionysioss, a late Classicist
celebration.
Orpheus was said to have refused to honor Dionysus, for Orpheus loathed
human sacrifice. Orphism was to men what Maenadism was to women & the
myths of each cult are like mirror reflections. It was necessary to draw
strong cultic boundaries that insured the uniqueness of male-dominated
Orphism as no mere offshoot of woman-dominated maeanadism, & deploring
Dionysios established as a key relevance that orphics were never gallae
for they made no such sacrifices symbolic or real. As Zagreus, some
orphics did observe Dionysios indirectly, but this late-occurring form he
was no longer mad, was the son of Persephone rather than Semele, & was
"civilized" unlike the wild Dionysios of the maenads. Orphics also
embraced the idea of Pandora (or of women generally) as the source of all
ailments among humanity, & maenadism was what they deplored most. Bunch of
sexist buggars Orphics were, to tell the truth, or at least reactionary to
maenads because of the several cthonic beliefs they did share in common.
The Orphic Zagreus was not quite the same as the original Cretan Zagreus,
who the Greeks early on combined with Dionysios apart from a later Orphic
embracing of him as "civilized" & unlike wild Dionysios per se. The exact
nature of the purely Cretan Zagreus isn't known, but in the refashioning
of that myth known to Diodorus, Zagreus is prepared for a banquet from
which only his heart is saved, imbedded in an idol, & given new life by
Athena. Though relating to the Ellis cult of Dionysios whose heart is
eaten by his own mother, there also seems to be an association with the
Egyptian cult of Osirus that frequently assumed Osirus was not actually
resurrected but was an eternal mummy. The "living idol" that was Zagreus
may originally have been a very important idol that neither moved nor
breathed nor procreated, but which was assumed to have life. That Zagreus
was said originally to have been born mortal until Athena gave him new
life probably indicates only that child-sacrifice was practiced in ancient
Crete & the slain child-king was assumed to have become a god in some
Olympian-like realm, but was otherwise just a dead boy whose heart was
sealed in an idol & the rest of him a burnt offering. Note that in Crete
even mighty Zeus was merely a fertility offering & slain in the form of a
goat.
In pictorial evidence Dionysios is often alarmingly fat, a trait of the
gallae after many years, & this seems to have been an image preferred by
the Romans who somewhat deplored Attis because he was such an "appealing"
& effectively warlike galli BANNED as a god for Roman soldiers. Roman law
suppressed the Attis cult among warriors by putting such men to death
(driving it underground). The image of Bacchus as being fat, decadent,
faggoty, with a bulbous nose & generally repellant kept soldiers from
wishing to emulate him, hence his cult was permitted to flourish even
while severe restraints were put upon the worship of beautiful Attis.
We today think in absolutes but as Dionysios's "lack" was a fertility
offering, & because his disembodied penis was still active in his own
shrines & shrines of Rhea, he was not infertile, & sometimes was a rapist,
as when he avenged Hymnus (who was rejected by the huntress Nicaea, &
killed by her when he became profoundly obnoxious) Dionysios got Nicaea
roaring drunk then raped her in her sleep. There is deeper cultic meaning
in such rapes than we can today fully grasp, & a parallel myth is from
Sumer, when Inanna slept in the garden of Shukallituda & was raped by a
mortal king, inducing horrific punishments against Sumer, when all the
rivers & wells were filled with blood (perhaps wine? as when red beer was
given to Hathor in the midst of her slaughter of half the world, she in
her bloodlust hoping it was blood). Dionysios's actions as a rapist are
not necessarily procreative but are in part to instigate just such a
maeanadic frenzy that undoes civilization & restores an earlier "wild" &
naturalist state to humanity.
-paghat the ratgirl
Alice Turner
"Carl KICE Brown" <Kice-...@UIOWA.EDU> wrote in message
news:39E25791...@UIOWA.EDU...
>
>
> Gale wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 09 Oct 2000 10:17:14 -0700,
> > spam-me-n...@my-deja.com (paghat) wrote:
> > (snip)
classical
> > >age, this is insufficient to explain him as chiefly a violent &
I look forward to your post from home, but let me just interject that
you shouldn't dismiss Theseus as an underworld visitor. He is the (you
should excuse the expression: Campbellian) hero who ventures into the
Other World to face the Beast, aided by the helper along the way
(Ariadne). This is an entirely serious tale with a good deal of
resonance, made even more complicated and interesting by the abandonment
of Ariadne and the role of Dionysus. (I thought Mary Renault did a good
job on the motivation behind that last, btw--it may not be "true," but
it rang true in the novel.) But, in typical (well it *is* typical, look
at the Herc stories, which often read like take-offs) Greek style, the
labyrinth tale has a lowbrow parody in the tale in which Theseus and his
pal Peirithoos descend to kidnap Persephone, but get stuck fast to the
Chair of Forgetfulness for four years till Theseus is rescued (by Herc)
with part of his rear end missing.
Alice
The Philosopher O
I am swimming in the wealth of information so kindly provided (by you and by
some of the other well read contributors of this group). As such, I am still
mulling over a few things, but hope to have a few questions in the future to
help me sort out all that has been said. However, I do have a few questions
for you right now.
Paghat wrote:
"His variety of myths strongly suggest subservience to Rhea, and his arch
enemy, Hera, suggests a fundamental battle between patriarchal & matriarchal
values (or at least between Mother-dominant & Father-dominant cults) which the
Dionysians attempt to bridge."
My first question. Which was the mother-dominant and which the father-dominant
in your example? As I understand it, Hera was once a great godess with her own
subservient male figure (Heraclese sp?). As such she would represent a
Mother-dominant cult wouldn't she? Or did these myths (of her rivalry with
Dionysus) take place after her myths were coopted into those of Zeus and she
was turned from Godess of Polygamy to Godess of Monogamy (and, her consort was
turned into her enemy)? Perhaps I have simply read your post wrong. If so,
please accept my sincere apologies. I would be most grateful if you could
restate your point.
Elsewhere you wrote that "Though sometimes regarded a spider-goddess or
weaving-goddess, Ariadne's name indicates a Barley-mother & as such a maiden
aspect of Demeter "
Do you mean Arachne here, or are you suggesting that they are the same?
"Maenads used figwood olisbos as representing Dionysios's severed member, & in
this manner all their children were His children, whoever actually fathered
them."
My apologies. I am but a humble lover of myths, and, as such have little
experience with some of the terms used. Can you tell me what an olisbos is and
what it's function is?
O
paghat
<red...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Honoured Paghat,
>
> I am swimming in the wealth of information so kindly provided (by you and by
> some of the other well read contributors of this group). As such, I am still
> mulling over a few things, but hope to have a few questions in the future to
> help me sort out all that has been said. However, I do have a few questions
> for you right now.
>
> Paghat wrote:
> "His variety of myths strongly suggest subservience to Rhea, and his arch
> enemy, Hera, suggests a fundamental battle between patriarchal & matriarchal
> values (or at least between Mother-dominant & Father-dominant cults) which the
> Dionysians attempt to bridge."
>
> My first question. Which was the mother-dominant and which the father-dominant
> in your example? As I understand it, Hera was once a great godess with her own
> subservient male figure (Heraclese sp?). As such she would represent a
> Mother-dominant cult wouldn't she? Or did these myths (of her rivalry with
> Dionysus) take place after her myths were coopted into those of Zeus and she
> was turned from Godess of Polygamy to Godess of Monogamy (and, her consort was
> turned into her enemy)? Perhaps I have simply read your post wrong. If so,
> please accept my sincere apologies. I would be most grateful if you could
> restate your point.
Hera was certainly one of the Great Mother figures. Even though the
majority of her best known myths make her something of an embittered
crabby wife, in archaic images Zeus is hardly more than a throne-guardian
for either Hera or Hecate (& never even in his last most important myths
gained any particular authority over Hecate). The nature of those earlier
myths are only hinted at in art representations & a few cultic oddities
here & there. But in places like Elis & Argos Hera long remained the
primary divinity even after the establishment of Zeus as an all-father &
some of these myths would seem to contain something of the more archaic
archly powerful Hera who more closely resembled Cybele herself. Zeus's
rape of Cybele; Hera's embittered attitude toward Heracles & hatred of
infant Dionysios; her unhappiness with her unfaithful husband -- all these
are later methods of undermining the (former) greater importance of the
Goddess & making her even where not subsidiary to a God at least no longer
his superior. Though it should be noted these "myths of state" that prefer
a God figure such as Zeus were not necessarily the most important "myths
of the people" who continued to prefer Demeter & Artemis foremost, sans
husbands of any sort.
Rhea's more generous relationship with Dionysios is probably closer to
Hera's relationship with Dionysios at some earlier stage, & the evidence
is in Hera's relationship to Dionysios being much more positive at Elis.
Heracles was almost certainly a positive figure as well, in Hera's
service, before he became increasingly representative of Zeus's right of
rule & began killing things of the Goddess such as Cybele's Nemean lion &
Hera's serpent Ladon.
> Elsewhere you wrote that "Though sometimes regarded a spider-goddess or
> weaving-goddess, Ariadne's name indicates a Barley-mother & as such a maiden
> aspect of Demeter "
>
> Do you mean Arachne here, or are you suggesting that they are the same?
I'm suggesting the Barley Mothers have a common root & are ideally
represented by Demeter. Though Arachne's name is usually translated
something like "Purity," Graves & others have said it means "Plenitude of
Barley."
> "Maenads used figwood olisbos as representing Dionysios's severed member, & in
> this manner all their children were His children, whoever actually fathered
> them."
>
> My apologies. I am but a humble lover of myths, and, as such have little
> experience with some of the terms used. Can you tell me what an olisbos is and
> what it's function is?
Olisbos = Dildo.
-paghat
The Philosopher O
paghat wrote:
> Rhea's more generous relationship with Dionysios is probably closer to
> Hera's relationship with Dionysios at some earlier stage, & the evidence
> is in Hera's relationship to Dionysios being much more positive at Elis.
Dionysus seems to get around quite a bit. He seems to be the consort of
Persephone, Demeter, Rhea, Hera, Ariadne, Cybele and others! Do you think this
could be due to his name being, in reality, a cult title, or could it be that
he was simply he passed as a boy toy from Goddess to Goddess, much like the
fig wood dildo he was often represented as?
> > Elsewhere you wrote that "Though sometimes regarded a spider-goddess or
> > weaving-goddess, Ariadne's name indicates a Barley-mother & as such a maiden
> > aspect of Demeter "
> >
> > Do you mean Arachne here, or are you suggesting that they are the same?
>
> I'm suggesting the Barley Mothers have a common root & are ideally
> represented by Demeter. Though Arachne's name is usually translated
> something like "Purity," Graves & others have said it means "Plenitude of
> Barley."
Hmm, I see that I phrased my question poorly. Please allow me to rephrase. Was
Ariadne considered a spider Goddess and Goddess of weaving in her own rites,
or are you suggesting that she and Arachnae are one in the same? I would think
Ariadne would be closer to Artemis / Aphrodite than to Athena (who I associate
Arachnae with).
> Olisbos = Dildo.
Thank you a thousand times and my apologies as well! As I was sifting through
my notes I saw that you answered that question in another of your posts on
this subject. Thank you again for your help and patience.
O
paghat
<red...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Honoured Paghat,
>
> paghat wrote:
> > Rhea's more generous relationship with Dionysios is probably closer to
> > Hera's relationship with Dionysios at some earlier stage, & the evidence
> > is in Hera's relationship to Dionysios being much more positive at Elis.
>
> Dionysus seems to get around quite a bit. He seems to be the consort of
> Persephone, Demeter, Rhea, Hera, Ariadne, Cybele and others! Do you think this
> could be due to his name being, in reality, a cult title, or could it be that
> he was simply he passed as a boy toy from Goddess to Goddess, much like the
> fig wood dildo he was often represented as?
Actually I think his cult flourished because maenads tramped from city to
city to city spreading his cult, & attached him to the extant goddesses
here & there. Also, all the goddesses you lined up are very closely
related. Attis didn't appeal to women's cults as much as did Dionysios, so
even honoring Cybele or a closely related divinity, these wildwomen
worshippers preferred a reason for a good orgy over a reason to cut the
weiner off some lad. THAT cultic expression belonged to the gallae not the
maenads, yet it was the maenads who carried the cult of the Mother &
Dionysios hither & thither. Think of Dionysios as a sort of ancient-world
Fabio. Even goddess-worshipping girls liked him tons. After all, he said
it was okay to get roaring drunk, tramp around the countryside, rip things
up, & fuck anyone you wanted to after first forcing him to submit. Fun AND
games.
-paghat
The Philosopher O
Thank you for your insightful answer. This seems a logical conclusion to me as
well. You are a most informative intelect and I value your contributions to my
learning.
O
Mush97
"Mark Gerard Miller" <mg...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:8qjq1t$c8u$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
49...@fuesd.org
> Shala, meaning "Woman," "The Great Wife," "Restful Perfection" or "She is
> Prosperity," was an Assyrian title for the Great Goddess. Her name can be
> punned with such Hebrew words as shalat, "dominates," shelet, "shields" &