In the preceding chapters, on "Toros mythological " we find this animal totem in a permanent symbiosis with divinity, in any of the different cultures that knew him and in which we have entered.
associations in the syncretism of the bull with the divine, the common denominator in all these cultures was the use of the symbols of bull to glorify and exalt the concept of strength, power and virility of the main gods of their pantheon.
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| God Enlil, a printout of a clay cylinder |
Social occupation in those two activities that depend on the fruits of the land and livestock, farmers and ranchers, "led to the reliance on seasonal cycles of nature that marked, at the same time, the economic stability of society. But this natural avatars acceptance was not without any religious belief, rather the opposite, since the Neolithic man was already well formed the view that all natural phenomena, as was the case with animals, were motivated by a powerful spirit of a supernatural power beyond the reach of man's capabilities and therefore evil or harmful effects could be influenced by rituals sympathetic magic.
Obviously, for a ritual to produce the desired effect, it must necessarily be directed to the power produced by these phenomena. Therefore, the main concern and occupation of early man was to identify and name the cause of such wonders, that is, the naming should be more than capable of such prodigious potential. And that higher power called God.
From there it was not difficult to decipher the equation reproductive life. If, as we say, the pregnancy of a certain number of cows was the result of fertilizing power of the bull, the fertility of the land enhanced looked after beneficial rain dropped from the top.
Then the rain sent from heaven by that higher power, after infuse the seminal seed, was the one that fertilizes the land and that fertility was the product of the fertilizing power of God, a supreme deity who ruled the rain, lightning and storms, hence the terminology of "Gods of the storm ", of which we are concerned in this chapter.
That god ruler and dispenser of life-bearing rain, which mitigated the drought periods of the earth was, while fertilizing, a violent and arbitrary god, found in all societies with a wild bull. No other animal could better symbolize the thunder and the storm with its fertilizing power, brute strength and powerful roar.
After this introduction, our starting point must begin, of necessity, for those geographical areas where it makes sense the existence of a god fertilizer, along with the need for fertile soil in which germinate seeds and other herbaceous plants, necessary for a bountiful harvest and a generous pasture meet the needs of people and livestock.
That beginning is none other than the land where nine thousand years before our era, agriculture was discovered and domesticated sheep and goats, while raised organized the first peoples: Sumerians. Yet, among these, the term gud gu or means both " bull" and by extension, " strong" and "courageous ." As the water was to them a paramount and fundamental and exalting the concept a hymn to the "water of life " saying: " rain abundantly from heaven ... and the earth with joy up."
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| God of the storm, BC s.VIII |
In the Sumerian pantheon, with about two thousand gods as some authors, the rain gods were of paramount importance and, in addition to the nominees themselves as gods of the storm, some very important gods were recognized this potential. Among them Enlil, the chief Sumerian deity, "Mr Wind" and "the atmosphere " carrier " tablets of destiny" of the man who received the appellation " lugal.a.ma . ru, "meaning" king of storms "and the" Toro fertilizing "and" powerful Toro, "thus indicating that Enlil was the god of weather. A Sumerian hymn describes it:
"Lying in the field
as a robust bull quiet,
its horns gleam bright as the sun
; and shine like Venus in the sky . "
However, in Mesopotamia, the weather did not mark the abundance of crops, depending as they limo fertilizer depositing rivers to overflow. These floods are so frequent in those regions near wetlands, were the product of the irascible and formidable nature of Enlil, so he received the title of "Toro furious" and "destroyer Toro."
In a primitive myth said that the marital union between Enlil and his wife Ninlil, Sumerian mother goddess or goddess cow was the cause of flooding and the subsequent flooding of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, flooding the banks and fertilizing the fields. It is also said in the Mesopotamian Flood myth, which is Enlil who opens the gates of heaven to destroy the pesky humans, known as "black heads " so that his brother the god Enki, "Lord of basis "and invoked as" Son del Toro "severely reproach him in another Sumerian hymn:
" O thou wisest of the gods, fearless,
How so, without thinking, you could bring the Flood on Earth?
Punishes [hereinafter ] the sinner for his sin,
Al ruin for their wickedness.
Upload, Stroll on these ruined villages,
Look at these new and old skulls:
Where is a good man, where the ruin? "
A similar homology to this hymn is found in the Jewish world, in this case taunting if calling their god and reflection is what makes Abraham the Lord, the learn that destroyed the city of Sodom, " Then Abraham approached and said (Yahweh): So you're going to destroy the innocent with the guilty?. Suppose there are fifty righteous in the city, do destroy it rather than forgive the place for their fifty innocent people in it?. Far from thee to do such a thing! Killing the innocent with the guilty .... " (Genesis 18, 23-26)
In mythology, the gods of the storm is represented mounted on top of a bull with lightning in his hand, as seen in most of the images that accompany this chapter.
Although theology Sumerian Enlil assigns the capacity to govern the atmosphere, both in the Sumerian and later in the Babylonian, the true god of the storm, which is we kept and reserved a special service was Ishkur (in Sumerian) or ADAD (in Akkadian), adored approximately 3500 to A. 1750 C. throughout ancient Mesopotamia. I represented mounted on a bull rays in hand, while he invoked as "vigorous Toro" and "fertilizing Toro", believing that God poured his semen on the earth as rain and so the rain makes the earth fertile.
god Ishkur was a double aspect. The governing terrible gales, thunder, lightning and storms, while the charity did about fertilizing water, rain and dew, and was known by the Canaanites as Hadad, or Buriash for Cassita. The constellation Guanna, "Celeste the Bull, or Taurus, was dedicated to him.
But when the storms were devastating called him "furious Toro, and it was generally believed that the deafening noise of the thunder was" bellows angry god " . These potentialities of God is reflected in several passages of a Sumerian hymn dedicated to him:
"Ishkur, great bull radiant, your name reaches the zenith of the sky ...
Your name gores the earth again and again ...
Your lowing result that the great mother, Nilil, tremble before you ...
When from the city raises his voice to heaven,
twine truly is a storm. "
Instead, between the Babylonian world was the owner of the devastating storm and flooding, but no rain fertilizer, but in this hymn is invoked as Babylonian God benefactor:
"Lord, you live in abundance, Ishkur noble,
fertility falls from the sky like rain,
abundance all over the country falls as rain.
... He does grow grain in the furrow,
he has poured the flood in the streams. "
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| God Marduk with the attributes of God of the storm |
Once created, the Babylonian state by Sargon I (2334 BC - 2279 BC), the unification of the state is not limited only to the city-states, but it covered all areas of society such as justice, commerce, religion and gods, emerged the figure of supreme god Marduk as a god and patron of the city of Babylon and ended as head of the Babylonian pantheon, to the throne after the sixth king of the first Babylonian dynasty, the Amorites and lawgiver Hammurabi (eighteenth century BC), and Marduk is entitled as " Novillo Sun" and guided the growth of vegetables, fertilizing power of water and assimilated the hurricane roar and thunder
The Persians had no temples or erected statues of their gods. In fact, no building Persian area has been clearly identified so far as the remains of a temple.
Among the primitive gods, before Zoroastrianism according to some, we find the god Zurvan, representing the Avestan god of time and was the central figure of zurvanismo back, which they saw as procreative Aura-Mazda and Ahriman or Hormuz Mazdeism holders.
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| Hasanlu storm, Iran, 2000 BC |
Associated with this God is performing a rain Iranian festival called Jashn Tiregan, and celebrated the first day of July or the day of Tir (name of a Persian calendar month) in order to invoke rain.
However, although the Persians had no temples or statues erected to their gods, depictions of the god of the storm materialized in many media, such as observed in a golden vessel found in Hasanlu (twentieth century BC), (a city near Lake Urmia, northwest of Tehran, Iran) where it appears, among other things, a car driven by a winged god and pulled by a blue ox spitting rain, clear exponent of the representation of the god of rain and storm.
One of civilizations, perhaps, least studied and disseminated, was known as the "Indus Civilization " (2,500 BC), which developed along the banks of the Indus River - hence the name of the Hindustan Peninsula, one of the two sacred rivers, Ganges, along with having their main cultural centers in the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
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| Khoupum Engraving |
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| Indo-bull, 2400 BC |
That
cattle ranching culture we find attested from the early Neolithic period in a large area of \u200b\u200bIndia, as evidenced by the numerous engravings abundant herds of cattle, found in the shelters of Bhimbetka, Khoupum, Tamenglong, Raisen, Kerala and Manipur, where it runs several tributaries of the Indus and the Ganges. In these rock art found some human figures standing or sitting on top of a bull, perhaps as a remote history of the rain gods and beliefs and cults after quake. early in this culture are the bull-god of Indo humanized form represented in several clay seals of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, where it appears to face trifaz and played with big horns bull, but its position is not if it is sitting upright, with legs bent and soles of feet together, a clear view of yoga. Is accompanied, under which sits aedicule of a deer, surrounded by various animals such as elephant, rhino, tiger and bull. As Jack Randolph Conrad tells us in " The horn and sword, horns adorning the headdress of the god are" long and sharp, to symbolize its strength and fertility of bull . "
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| The Vedic god Parjanya |
Later in the period known as the Vedic Period (1500-800 BC), composed numerous Aryans hymns to their gods in all of India, handed down from generation to generation and later collected in the sacred book known as Rig-Veda. Most of the 1,028 hymns are dedicated to various gods-bull.
These gods are bull to Parjanya, god of thunder and rain, which is invoked in the Rig-Veda as
"The Toro, strong bellows,
"The Toro, strong bellows,
swift to send their gifts,
the plant seeds to germinate ... "
the plant seeds to germinate ... "
another hymn also contains a prayer that invokes God and asks him to be diligent in the rain:
"May this my song reach the Sovereign Lord Parjanya
to his heart and he pleases.
That we have the rains that bring joy
And God protected plants beneficial fruits.
He is all bull, and impregnation:
life he keeps things all fixed and mobile. "
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| The god Indra |
Another god, which the Rig-Veda devotes two hundred and fifty hymns, is Indra, who is associated with rain and thunder. Their vitality is manifested in "a thousand testicles (sahasranushka) and is designated by the title of" land bull ", while presented as a god of fertility and reproductive forces, so it is which gives life, creates the ox and the horse and the cow gives milk. Dyaus son is considered one of the earliest gods to which the Rig-Veda describes " like a red bull, opulent in seed" smiles the clouds "and launched from its roaring them." It is also considered the father of Parjanya and Agni, god of fire. So the sacred text describes the birth of Indra:
"His mother, the cow, bore Indra, a young bullock without licking ...."
Indra Although it is always riding an elephant, the Rig-Veda describes it covered with a physical strength and an enormous generative power, and in that combination of thunder, lightning and rain associated Vedic text the wild roar of thunder and lightning with their sharp horns. With all this must be titled as " splendid bull, "Toro terrible," El Toro of a thousand horns and "Unmatched in fertility."
In a legend of Indra highlights the strength and fertilizing power of God: " When Indra was looking for his stolen cattle, cattle rustlers who had hidden in a cave, with the help of his friends wind bulls, cows located but finds the way to the cave blocked by a huge stone. Using a stone arm, which has grown for the occasion, Indra opens the way to the cave and fall upon the robbers with their powerful hooves and sharp horns. With bellows triumphantly returns and permeates the whole herd of cows . "
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| The god Agni |
After Indra, followed in importance by the god Agni, the god of fire in Vedic times and mediator between men and gods. Vegetables that are born in the waters are home to Agni, so it always appears when you rub a water plant, the lotus flower and it is called "Toro water" because the fertile again (Rig Veda, X, 21.8). In this sacred text, written in Sanskrit, refers to him as that " roars like a bull" and " the bull with horns thousand."
Rudra is another bull-god of the Aryans who is considered " storm god", " god of lightning and the lightning Lord" and its destructive is the devastating side men and cattle. His mother was a spotted cow named Prsni, born by " lightning laughter." So, being born of the storm was considered the god of stormy winds, while associated with the great clouds that bring rain.
The Rig Veda Rudra should make sacrifices to appease him by sacrifice and offering for a bull and get his blessing. The ritual must be done in spring or autumn solstices where the rituals are designed to increase the abundance of crops or seed-germination, after sunset and, preferably after midnight. After the ceremonial sacrifice of a bull, the sacrificers invoke the twelve names of Rudra and offer selected pieces of meat to appease, after which the skin thrown into the fire and tail, while irrigated with blood of bulls selected herbs, consumed the rest of the meat by those attending the ritual.
Plácido González Hermoso ; Continued ... ... BIBLIOGRAPHY
History of Religions, XXI Century, III "Sumerian and Babylonian Religion" .
Federico Lara Peinado, "Sumerian Hymns."
Federico Lara Peinado, "Babylonian Hymns."
Linacero Cristina Delgado, "The bull in the Mediterranean"
Jack Randolph Conrad, "The Horn and the Sword."
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