tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/ancient-mythology-39107/articles
Ancient mythology – The Conversation
2020-04-01T12:13:04Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134986
2020-04-01T12:13:04Z
2020-04-01T12:13:04Z
Obituary: South Africa’s towering healer, prophet and artist Credo Mutwa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323972/original/file-20200330-146683-3u49ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vusamazulu. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Artwork © Sindiso Nyoni</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mkhulu <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/vusamazulu-credo-mutwa">VusamaZulu Credo Mutwa</a>’s name foretold the role that this towering South African healer, prophet and artist was to play. VusamaZulu can be translated as either ‘awaken the Zulu nation’ or ‘awaken the heavens’, aptly describing his life’s work: asserting the humanity of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/defining-term-bantu">aBantu</a> – people of African descent – globally.</p>
<p>‘Mkhulu’ means ‘grandfather’ and in this I acknowledge Mkhulu VusamaZulu as well as the ancestors that walk with him as my elders. </p>
<p>uMkhulu passed away at the age of 98. He was born on 21 July 1921 in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. After falling ill in his teenage years, he was initiated to become a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/sangoma">sangoma</a> or traditional healer. </p>
<p>The sangoma is a diviner and seer, using gifts of spiritual sight, mediation with the ancestors and knowledge of herbal medicine and ritual to diagnose and heal disease. Traditional healers are often ‘called’ to this path by their ancestors ‘<a href="http://scholar.ufs.ac.za:8080/bitstream/handle/11660/2171/MlisaL-RN.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">through dreams and other significant experiences</a>’ including illnesses and misfortune. </p>
<p>Following this intensive initiation process, uMkhulu embarked on <a href="http://credomutwa.com/credo-mutwa-biography/biography-01/">many journeys</a> through African countries, including Swaziland, Lesotho and Kenya. He wrote </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was not travelling for enjoyment, however, I was travelling for knowledge … I came into contact with men and women of countries that I had not known before … I found myself amongst men and women possessing knowledge that was already ancient when the man Jesus Christ was born. </p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323933/original/file-20200330-146671-1kgv2qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Credo Mutwa in Soweto, 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pan-African nature of his training provided him with a vast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4aXrxYWfxHbwbJCBThdMa07TQrQ8anOr">knowledge</a> of African folklore, mythology and culture which, he lamented, was dying. He became adamant that he needed not only to preserve it, but to educate South Africans about this heritage, which is not taught in schools. </p>
<h2>Prolific artist</h2>
<p>uMkhulu was astonishingly prolific despite his many years, working across mediums and forms as a teacher and healer. He was a storyteller of mythologies, the author of five books, the best-known being <em><a href="https://canongate.co.uk/books/236-indaba-my-children-african-tribal-history-legends-customs-and-religious-beliefs/">Indaba, My Children (1964)</a></em>. He wrote a play called <em>uNosilimela</em>, worked on a <a href="http://vusamazulu.com">graphic novel</a>, and created a <a href="http://credomutwa.com">website</a> and two living museums – <a href="https://www.sa-venues.com/things-to-do/gauteng/credo-mutwa-cultural-village/">KwaKhaya LeNdaba</a> in Soweto and <a href="http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=7&aid=1&dir=2010/January/Friday15/">Lotlamoreng</a> in Mahikeng. Here visitors can see some of his countless sculptures and artworks. </p>
<p>In many, there is a recurring figure of a woman, whom he called Ma in <em>Indaba, My Children</em>. This is the depiction of the goddess of creation, known to the Zulu people as <a href="http://paton.ukzn.ac.za/Collections/Nomkhubulwane.aspx">Nomkhubulwane</a>. He frequently exalted the spirit of women as life givers and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK13Yw9cXQQ">spoke</a> against the abuse of women. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323934/original/file-20200330-146705-16az95m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Penguin Random House</span></span>
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<p>With no formal training, his art became an expression of his wish to share the oral tales and symbols of traditional African spirituality. </p>
<p>Through these various works, he allowed us to trace our roots, philosophy and <em>ubuntu bethu</em>; the humanity of aBantu. Ubuntu here refers to a specific humanity accessible only to aBantu; an assertion that foregrounds the African worldview. </p>
<p>At the time of his passing uMkhulu had received little financial gain from his writings as his royalties were owned by others, according to the <a href="https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/credo-mutwa-trust-opened/">Credo Mutwa Trust</a>.</p>
<p>This was not his only challenge. uMkhulu acknowledged that in his writing about African spirituality, he was risking being called a traitor by his people for sharing its secrets. </p>
<p>In 1976, students burnt down parts of his Soweto cultural village after he was misquoted on an Afrikaans radio station. It was burnt down again in 1980, his son murdered and wife raped, after being unjustly accused of working with white men under apartheid. </p>
<p>With his work easily exploited by conspiracy theorists, he was at times ridiculed as a false prophet. He was largely neglected as a cultural figure by the South African state. To maintain his safety, he retired to the small town of Kuruman in the North West province.</p>
<h2>Revered sanusi</h2>
<p>uMkhulu was a revered sanusi, loosely translated as ‘one who lifts us up’. Isanusi, according uMkhulu VVO Mkhize of <a href="https://umsamo.org.za/south-african-healers-association-soaha/">Umsamo Institute</a>, is a healer who reveals that which is hidden, such as mysteries erased by history, and who tells us about the future. </p>
<p>As he filled in some of the blanks in Bantu history, his predictions of significant global events garnered international interest.</p>
<p>Many were expressed through his <a href="https://www.artranked.com/topic/credo+mutwa">art</a>. His 1979 sculpture of King Khandakhulu discussing his sexually transmitted diseases with the gods is seen to pre-empt HIV and Aids. A 1979 painting is said to predict the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks">September 11</a> attacks in the USA. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323937/original/file-20200330-146666-1n96wwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mutwa’s sculptures of King Khandakulu and the gods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group/Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of his many <a href="https://www.power987.co.za/news/documentary-celebrating-human-rights-day-with-credo-vusamazulu-mutwa/">predictive utterances</a> – among them those related to the 1976 Soweto youth <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">uprisings</a> and the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/marikana-massacre-16-august-2012">Marikana</a> massacre – were told to visitors or made in video recordings posted on the Credo Mutwa Foundation Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LifeandTimesofCredoMutwa/">page</a>. His prophecy was embedded in South Africa’s popular culture, especially through the <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/credo-warns-evil-is-upon-us--daily-sun">mass print media</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76h62Z8OqMI">YouTube</a>.</p>
<p>Taken together, his life’s work proposed that knowledge was not finite and that the soul was able to traverse different times and dimensions to bring knowledge of the past and of the future into the present.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JtRpdpeJJDc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A short documentary on Mutwa’s cultural village in Soweto.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New ways of knowing</h2>
<p>uMkhulu broadened the view of Africans. In his work, we were exposed to a type of knowledge that had been <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227583160_Developmental_Psychology_as_Political_Psychology_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa_The_Challenge_of_Africanisation">oppressed</a>. He taught us that South Africans’ history did not begin in 1652, when <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/arrival-jan-van-riebeeck-cape-6-april-1652">Jan Van Riebeeck</a> hit our shores and the colonisation project <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-slavery-and-early-colonisation-south-africa">began</a>, but that we have a long legacy of philosophy and medicine, interrupted by this colonisation. </p>
<p>Through his work, he gave us the voice, the agency and the tools with which to fight against a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01459740.2015.1100612">single story</a>. One that placed the white man as the ideal and any other category of human as ‘other’ and <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/1516556/69a8a25c597f33bf66af6cdf411d58c2.pdf">lesser</a>. We are now able to assert that the story is of multiple interpretations, dimensions and times.</p>
<p><em>Lala ngoxolo Khehla lethu</em> (rest in peace our old man); your prophecies are well heeded, and teachings continuously awaken <em>uBuntu bethu</em> (our humanity), <em>thina aBantu beThonga laseAfrika</em> (us children of the ancestor of Africa).</p>
<p><em>The portrait ‘Vusumazulu’ is by Sindiso Nyoni. See his work <a href="https://studioriot.com">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sinethemba Makanya receives funding from the Mellon Foundation and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human and Community Development. I have previously received funding from Fulbright </span></em></p>
His life’s work was asserting the humanity and history of the Bantu people, while proposing that the soul was able to bring knowledge of the past and of the future into the present.
Sinethemba Makanya, Doctoral Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/116808
2019-06-03T20:07:00Z
2019-06-03T20:07:00Z
Firepits of the Gods: ancient memories of maar volcanoes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275359/original/file-20190520-69186-5kk07o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The town of Schalkenmehren and its adjoining maar lake, Germany. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the heart of Takapuna, north-central Auckland, is a natural lake – Pupuke – while a little way offshore lies the volcanic Rangitoto Island. Long ago, a family of giants lived at Takapuna until one day, ill-advisedly, they insulted the irascible fire goddess Mahuika. Enraged, Mahuika tore a hole in the land where the giants lived, creating what became Lake Pupuke, dumping the material offshore to form Rangitoto Island. </p>
<p>Similar to other Maori stories about volcanic activity in New Zealand, this one is consistent with memories of the formation of Lake Pupuke and that of Rangitoto Island, the latter erupting into existence about AD 1312, perhaps just decades after people arrived in NZ.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275357/original/file-20190520-69186-1ww62te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275357/original/file-20190520-69186-1ww62te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275357/original/file-20190520-69186-1ww62te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275357/original/file-20190520-69186-1ww62te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275357/original/file-20190520-69186-1ww62te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275357/original/file-20190520-69186-1ww62te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275357/original/file-20190520-69186-1ww62te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275357/original/file-20190520-69186-1ww62te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lake Pupuke sunset through trees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lake Pupuke formed far earlier, through a singular process involving liquid rock (magma) rising up through fissures in the earth’s crust until – close to the surface – it encountered bodies of cold groundwater. The juxtaposition of the cold and the extremely hot resulted in a spectacular explosion, splattering solidifying rock fragments into the air that settled to produce a ring of rock enclosing a crater. </p>
<p>These types of volcanoes are known as maars, after a German name given them in the Eifel Mountains where they are especially abundant. After maar craters form, most become filled with water, forming lakes like Lake Pupuke. </p>
<p>Many maars are polygenetic – they are sites of periodic volcanic activity – and it may well be that Lake Pupuke showed signs of activity at the same time as Rangitoto Island formed, leading Maori observers of the events to link them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/essays-on-air-monsters-in-my-closet-how-a-geographer-began-mining-myths-94018">Essays On Air: Monsters in my closet – how a geographer began mining myths</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Since people arrived in Australia, maar volcanoes have erupted in both the southeast and the northeast of the country. <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-bullin-shrieked-aboriginal-memories-of-volcanic-eruptions-thousands-of-years-ago-81986">Stories</a> of these eruptions have been told, so convincingly that it is difficult to suppose they are not eyewitness accounts. As an example, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dyirbal-language-of-north-queensland/A53B5C30FC4A967E169EC02F806851C8">the Dyirbal story</a> of the formation of the Lake Eacham maar in Queensland recalls</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The camping-place began to change, the earth under the camp roaring like thunder. The wind started to blow down, as if a cyclone were coming. The camping-place began to twist and crack. While this was happening there was in the sky a red cloud, of a hue never seen before. The people tried to run from side to side but were swallowed by a crack which opened in the ground.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275360/original/file-20190520-69169-e0nf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275360/original/file-20190520-69169-e0nf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275360/original/file-20190520-69169-e0nf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275360/original/file-20190520-69169-e0nf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275360/original/file-20190520-69169-e0nf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275360/original/file-20190520-69169-e0nf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275360/original/file-20190520-69169-e0nf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275360/original/file-20190520-69169-e0nf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lake Eacham in Queensland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Science shows us that Lake Eacham formed more than 9,000 years ago, meaning that the Dyirbal story is probably at least this old. Perhaps even older stories may apply to the formation of nearby Lakes Barrine and Euramoo.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24694452.2019.1574550">research</a> has focused on ancient “maar stories” worldwide, highlighting their similarities but, most importantly, using these memorable events to illustrate the extraordinary longevity of human memories. Many maar stories must have endured for thousands of years, passed orally across hundreds of generations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273454/original/file-20190509-183109-6g2ne2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273454/original/file-20190509-183109-6g2ne2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273454/original/file-20190509-183109-6g2ne2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273454/original/file-20190509-183109-6g2ne2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273454/original/file-20190509-183109-6g2ne2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273454/original/file-20190509-183109-6g2ne2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273454/original/file-20190509-183109-6g2ne2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minimum ages for some maar stories (after Nunn et al., 2019, Annals of the American Association of Geographers).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the best-documented are those from the Lago Albano maar that towers above the Ciampino Plain, southeast of Rome (Italy). Formed maybe as recently as 8,000 years ago, stories about the Albano maar that were first written down about 2,000 years ago originated as oral traditions many millennia earlier.</p>
<p>Periodically, the Albano maar gurgles and moans as liquid rock and superheated water is shunted around within the Colli Albani volcano, of which it is part. Sometimes this causes the form of the maar crater to abruptly change shape, leading the lake to spill over its rim, events that flood the plains below. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273455/original/file-20190509-183103-6tezfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273455/original/file-20190509-183103-6tezfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273455/original/file-20190509-183103-6tezfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273455/original/file-20190509-183103-6tezfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273455/original/file-20190509-183103-6tezfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273455/original/file-20190509-183103-6tezfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273455/original/file-20190509-183103-6tezfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Painting by Jacob Philipp Hackert (AD 1800), View of Lake Albano with Castel Gandolfo (Blick auf den Albaner See mit Castel Gandolfo), showing the contemporary form of the Lago Albano maar.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>About 2,400 years ago (in 398 BC), during a prolonged drought, there are records showing that the lake level rose slowly and calmly up to the crater rim. According to the account of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the pressure “carved out the gap between the mountains and poured a mighty river down over the plains lying below”.</p>
<p>To prevent such events reoccurring, the Romans built a tunnel through the Lago Albano crater wall, an incredible 70 metres below the rim, that can still be seen today. No-one seems entirely clear how this engineering feat was accomplished or whether, as some accounts hint, the tunnel simply re-excavated an Etruscan tunnel built centuries earlier!</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-aboriginal-stories-preserve-history-of-a-rise-in-sea-level-36010">Ancient Aboriginal stories preserve history of a rise in sea level</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And so to Mexico, the eastern part of which is bisected by the active Trans-Mexican Neovolcanic Belt, parts of which are peppered with maars. Of one, Aljojuca, the story goes that countless years ago during a prolonged drought, a cow belonging to a poor family went off wandering and, some days later returned home, its feet wet.</p>
<p>Following the cow’s footprints, the family located a “puddle” where today lies a maar crater with a lake (axalapaxco). The story may recall the formation of Aljojuca Maar more than seven millennia ago.</p>
<p>How many <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/the-edge-of-memory-9781472943262/">more ancient stories might there be hidden under our noses</a>, within tales we have hitherto dismissed as myth? Should we continue to conveniently dismiss all these stories or would we gain something from treating them as accounts of memorable events, conveyed in the language of science as it was known thousands of years ago?</p>
<p><em>Patrick Nunn acknowledges his collaborators, Loredana Lancini and Rita Compatangelo-Soussignan (Le Mans Université, France) and Leigh Franks and Adrian McCallum (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick D. Nunn receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Asia-Pacific Global Change Network.</span></em></p>
A maar is a volcanic crater, often filled with water. New research highlights the similarities between oral stories around the world that shed light on the formation of these craters.
Patrick D. Nunn, Professor of Geography, School of Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/78468
2017-06-22T20:03:04Z
2017-06-22T20:03:04Z
Friday essay: the legend of Ishtar, first goddess of love and war
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175079/original/file-20170621-30161-19y1ok4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ishtar (on right) comes to Sargon, who would later become one of the great kings of Mesopotamia. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14783163205/">Edwin J. Prittie, The story of the greatest nations, 1913</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As singer Pat Benatar once noted, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjY_uSSncQw">love is a battlefield</a>. Such use of military words to express intimate, affectionate emotions is likely related to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/04/26/heartbreak-placebo-effect_n_16261856.html">love’s capacity to bruise and confuse</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175088/original/file-20170622-25561-115v9mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175088/original/file-20170622-25561-115v9mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175088/original/file-20170622-25561-115v9mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175088/original/file-20170622-25561-115v9mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175088/original/file-20170622-25561-115v9mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175088/original/file-20170622-25561-115v9mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175088/original/file-20170622-25561-115v9mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175088/original/file-20170622-25561-115v9mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ishtar holding a symbol of leadership. Terracotta relief, early 2nd millennium BC. From Eshnunna. Held in the Louvre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marie-Lan Nguyen</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So it was with the world’s first goddess of love and war, Ishtar, and her lover Tammuz. In ancient Mesopotamia - roughly corresponding to modern Iraq, parts of Iran, Syria, Kuwait and Turkey - love was a powerful force, capable of upending earthly order and producing sharp changes in status. </p>
<p>From Aphrodite to <a href="https://theconversation.com/wonder-women-have-been-smashing-the-patriarchy-since-classical-times-77695">Wonder Woman</a>, we continue to be fascinated by powerful female protagonists, an interest that can be traced back to our earliest written records. Ishtar (the word comes from the Akkadian language; she was known as Inanna in Sumerian) was the first deity for which we have written evidence. She was closely related to romantic love, but also familial love, the loving bonds between communities, and sexual love. </p>
<p>She was also a warrior deity with a potent capacity for vengeance, as her lover would find out. These seemingly opposing personalities have raised scholarly eyebrows both ancient and modern. Ishtar is a love deity who is terrifying on the battlefield. Her beauty is the subject of love poetry, and her rage likened to a destructive storm. But in her capacity to shape destinies and fortunes, they are two sides of the same coin.</p>
<h2>Playing with fate</h2>
<p>The earliest poems to Ishtar were written by Enheduanna — the <a href="http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4072.htm">world’s first individually identified author</a>. Enheduanna (circa 2300 BCE) is generally considered to have been an historical figure living in Ur, one of the <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160311-ur-iraq-trade-royal-cemetery-woolley-archaeology/">world’s oldest urban centres</a>. She was a priestess to the moon god and the daughter of Sargon of Akkad (“Sargon the Great”), the first ruler to unite northern and southern Mesopotamia and found the powerful Akkadian empire. </p>
<p>The sources for Enheduanna’s life and career are historical, literary and archaeological: she commissioned an alabaster relief, the <a href="https://www.penn.museum/blog/museum/ur-digitization-project-item-of-the-month-june-2012/">Disk of Enheduanna</a>, which is inscribed with her dedication.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175082/original/file-20170621-19084-1h0x7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175082/original/file-20170621-19084-1h0x7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175082/original/file-20170621-19084-1h0x7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175082/original/file-20170621-19084-1h0x7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175082/original/file-20170621-19084-1h0x7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175082/original/file-20170621-19084-1h0x7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175082/original/file-20170621-19084-1h0x7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175082/original/file-20170621-19084-1h0x7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Disk of Enheduanna.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Object B16665. Courtesy of the Penn Museum.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In her poetry, Enheduanna reveals the diversity of Ishtar, including her superlative capacity for armed conflict and her ability to bring about abrupt changes in status and fortune. This ability was well suited to a goddess of love and war — both areas where swift reversals can take place, utterly changing the state of play. </p>
<p>On the battlefield, the goddess’s ability to fix fates ensured victory. In love magic, Ishtar’s power could alter romantic fortunes. In ancient love charms, her influence was invoked to win, or indeed, capture, the heart (and other body parts) of a desired lover.</p>
<h2>Dressed for success</h2>
<p>Ishtar is described (by herself in love poems, and by others) as a beautiful, young woman. Her lover, Tammuz, compliments her on the beauty of her eyes, a seemingly timeless form of <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flattery-will-get-you-far/">flattery</a>, with a literary history stretching back to around 2100 BCE. Ishtar and Tammuz are the protagonists of one of the world’s first love stories. In love poetry telling of their courtship, the two have a very affectionate relationship. But like many great love stories, their union ends tragically. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174880/original/file-20170621-8977-jqhc90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174880/original/file-20170621-8977-jqhc90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174880/original/file-20170621-8977-jqhc90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174880/original/file-20170621-8977-jqhc90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174880/original/file-20170621-8977-jqhc90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174880/original/file-20170621-8977-jqhc90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174880/original/file-20170621-8977-jqhc90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174880/original/file-20170621-8977-jqhc90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ishtar’s Midnight Courtship, from Ishtar and Izdubar, the epic of Babylon, 1884.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11170021403">The British Library/flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most famous account of this myth is Ishtar’s Descent to the Underworld, author unknown. This ancient narrative, surviving in <a href="http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm">Sumerian and Akkadian versions</a> (both <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39870485">written in cuneiform</a>),
was only deciphered in the 19th Century. It begins with Ishtar’s decision to visit the realm of her sister, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld. </p>
<p>Ostensibly, she is visiting her sister to mourn the death of her brother-in-law, possibly the Bull of Heaven who appears in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444?sr=1">Epic of Gilgamesh</a>. But the other gods in the story view the move as an attempt at a hostile takeover. Ishtar was known for being extremely ambitious; in another myth she storms the heavens and stages a divine coup.</p>
<p>Any questions over Ishtar’s motives are settled by the description of her preparation for her journey. She carefully applies make-up and jewellery, and wraps herself in beautiful clothing. Ishtar is frequently described applying cosmetics and enhancing her appearance before undertaking battle, or before meeting a lover. Much as a male warrior may put on a breast plate before a fight, Ishtar lines her eyes with mascara. She’s the original power-dresser: her enrichment of <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dress-for-success-how-clothes-influence-our-performance/">her beauty and her choice of clothes</a> accentuate her potency.</p>
<p>Next, in a humorous scene brimming with irony, the goddess instructs her faithful handmaiden, Ninshubur, on how to behave if Ishtar becomes trapped in the netherworld. First, Ninshubur must clothe herself in correct mourning attire, such as sackcloth, and create a dishevelled appearance. Then, she must go to the temples of the great gods and ask for help to rescue her mistress. Ishtar’s instructions that her handmaiden dress in appropriately sombre mourning-wear are a stark contrast to her own flashy attire.</p>
<h2>‘No one comes back from the underworld unmarked’</h2>
<p>But when Ereshkigal learns that Ishtar is dressed so well, she realises she has come to conquer the underworld. So she devises a plan to literally strip Ishtar of her power.</p>
<p>Once arriving at Ereshkigal’s home, Ishtar descends through the seven gates of the underworld. At each gate she is instructed to remove an item of clothing. When she arrives before her sister, Ishtar is naked, and Ereshkigal kills her at once. </p>
<p>Her death has terrible consequences, involving the cessation of all earthly sexual intimacy and fertility. So on the advice of Ishtar’s handmaiden, Ea - the god of wisdom - facilitates a plot to revive Ishtar and return her to the upper world. His plot suceeds, but there is an ancient Mesopotamian saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>No one comes back from the underworld unmarked.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Once a space had been created in the underworld, it was thought that it couldn’t be left empty. Ishtar is instructed to ascend with a band of demons to the upper world, and find her own replacement. </p>
<p>In the world above, Ishtar sees Tammuz dressed regally and relaxing on a throne, apparently unaffected by her death. Enraged, she instructs the demons to take him away with them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174876/original/file-20170621-4662-ap6nig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=158%2C134%2C3784%2C2512&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174876/original/file-20170621-4662-ap6nig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=158%2C134%2C3784%2C2512&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174876/original/file-20170621-4662-ap6nig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174876/original/file-20170621-4662-ap6nig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174876/original/file-20170621-4662-ap6nig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174876/original/file-20170621-4662-ap6nig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174876/original/file-20170621-4662-ap6nig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174876/original/file-20170621-4662-ap6nig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ishtar Gate to the city of Babylon, was dedicated to the Mesopotamian goddess. Reconstruction in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielmennerich/14269318954/in/photolist-nJVZoA-iKzbN-pJEhzP-SxCEvG-7S7oBC-hsBd1V-DpJ4N-DpJHX-nDNppx-9cyc7j-4MHms9-3VNhLD-jwYBs-847gkt-4MHkqb-jFrAzg-z7md5-nKW7LE-nuWJgj-nxLsSc-UVvx8a-obntFg-oa1L4C-nU1xnx-nNDLVn-UgKq-e8zY23-oaGd32-3VNi1g-2jS23n-o8DT7o-zTasT2-76dVv6-zzCmz3-Co1av-hx2mEz-arZpTK-8Kj5jv-oejCVr-9LBYRa-eng9X-5ZT2Vk-aoUXBr-nQUsVs-giYos-opXNJc-oayhuU-7kYmuN-ggQtu7-eng9Z">Daniel Mennerich/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A goddess scorned</h2>
<p>Ishtar’s role in her husband’s demise has earned her a reputation as being somewhat fickle. But this assessment does not capture the complexity of the goddess’s role. Ishtar is portrayed in the myth of her Descent and elsewhere as capable of intense faithfulness: rather than being fickle, her role in her husband’s death shows her vengeful nature.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/books/review/house-of-names-colm-toibin-bright-air-black-david-vann.html">Women and vengeance</a> proved a popular combination in the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, where powerful women such as Electra, Clytemnestra and Medea brought terrible consequences on those who they perceived as having wronged them. This theme has continued to fascinate audiences to the present day. </p>
<p>The concept is encapsulated by the line, often misattributed to Shakespeare, from <a href="http://archives.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_092914.php">William Congreve’s The Mourning Bride</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before she sees her husband relaxing after her death, Ishtar first encounters her handmaiden Ninshubur, and her two sons. One son is described as the goddess’s manicurist and hairdresser, and the other is a warrior. All three are spared by the goddess due to their faithful service and their overt expressions of grief over Ishtar’s death — they are each described lying in the dust, dressed in rags. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175089/original/file-20170622-30227-125o8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175089/original/file-20170622-30227-125o8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175089/original/file-20170622-30227-125o8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175089/original/file-20170622-30227-125o8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175089/original/file-20170622-30227-125o8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175089/original/file-20170622-30227-125o8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175089/original/file-20170622-30227-125o8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175089/original/file-20170622-30227-125o8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, depicting the Roman goddess of love.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The diligent behaviour of Ishtar’s attendants is juxtaposed against the actions of Tammuz, a damning contrast that demonstrates his lack of appropriate mourning behaviour. Loyalty is the main criteria Ishtar uses to choose who will replace her in the underworld. This hardly makes her faithless. </p>
<p>Ishtar’s pursuit of revenge in ancient myths is an extension of her close connection to the dispensation of justice, and the maintenance of universal order. Love and war are both forces with the potential to create chaos and confusion, and the deity associated with them needed to be able to restore order as well as to disrupt it.</p>
<p>Still, love in Mesopotamia could survive death. Even for Tammuz, love was salvation and protection: the faithful love of his sister, Geshtinanna, allowed for his eventual return from the underworld. Love, as they say, never dies — but in the rare cases where it might momentarily expire, it’s best to mourn appropriately.</p>
<h2>Ishtar’s legacy</h2>
<p>Ishtar was one of the most popular deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon, yet in the modern day she has slipped into almost total anonymity. Ishtar’s legacy is most clearly seen through her influence on later cultural archetypes, with her image contributing to the development of the most famous love goddess of them all, <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Summary/Aphrodite.html">Aphrodite</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174883/original/file-20170621-30161-1d0jpuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174883/original/file-20170621-30161-1d0jpuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174883/original/file-20170621-30161-1d0jpuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174883/original/file-20170621-30161-1d0jpuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174883/original/file-20170621-30161-1d0jpuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174883/original/file-20170621-30161-1d0jpuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174883/original/file-20170621-30161-1d0jpuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174883/original/file-20170621-30161-1d0jpuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are intriguing similarities between Ishtar and Wonder Woman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/mediaviewer/rm1936796160">Atlas Entertainment</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ishtar turns up in science fiction, notably as a beautiful yet self-destructive stripper in Neil Gaiman’s comic <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25105.Brief_Lives">The Sandman: Brief Lives</a>. Gaiman’s exceptional command of Mesopotamian myth suggests the “stripping” of Ishtar may involve a wink to the ancient narrative tradition of her Descent. </p>
<p>She is not directly referenced in the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093278/">1987 film</a> that carries her name (<a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ishtar-1987">received poorly</a> but now something of a <a href="http://flavorwire.com/605847/bad-movie-night-the-unsung-charms-of-ishtar">cult classic</a>), although the lead female character Shirra, shows some similarities to the goddess. </p>
<p>In the graphic novel tradition, Aphrodite is credited with shaping the image of Wonder Woman, and Aphrodite’s own image was influenced by Ishtar. This connection may partially explain the intriguing similarities between Ishtar and the modern superhero: both figures are represented as warriors who grace the battlefield wearing bracelets and a tiara, brandishing a rope weapon, and demonstrating love, loyalty and a fierce commitment to justice.</p>
<p>Ishtar, like other love goddesses, has been linked to in <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/sacred-prostitution-overview-120992">ancient sexual and fertility rituals</a>, although the evidence for this is up for debate, and frequently overshadows the deity’s many other fascinating qualities. </p>
<p>Exploring the image of the world’s first goddess provides an insight into Mesopotamian culture, and the enduring power of love through the ages. In the modern day, <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-six-styles-of-love-which-one-best-describes-you-72664">love is said to conquer all</a>, and in the ancient world, Ishtar did just that.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author’s book, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Ishtar/Pryke/p/book/9781138860735">Ishtar</a>, will be published this month by Routledge.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Pryke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Love, it is said, is a battlefield, and it was no more so than for the first goddess of love and war, Ishtar. Her legend has influenced cultural archetypes from Aphrodite to Wonder Woman.
Louise Pryke, Lecturer, Languages and Literature of Ancient Israel, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/78248
2017-05-29T20:09:26Z
2017-05-29T20:09:26Z
The truth about the Amazons – the real Wonder Women
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170937/original/file-20170525-31750-1odgfqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman: a true Amazonian, she is trained in a range of skills in both combat and hunting.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Atlas Entertainment, Cruel & Unusual Films, DC Entertainment</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The long-awaited film version of Wonder Woman opens this week, starring <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2933757/">Gal Gadot</a> as the indomitable superhero.</p>
<p>As Princess Diana of Themyscira, Wonder Woman is of Amazonian blue-blood. Formed from clay by her mother, Queen Hippolyta, and given life by the breath of Aphrodite, she is a demi-god. The gifts she receives from the gods of the Greek pantheon explain her superhero powers, which become evident when she transforms into Wonder Woman. </p>
<p>Wonder Woman made her debut in 1941 in All Star Comics. Her creator, American writer and psychologist William Moulton Marston, drew on a cornucopia of Greek mythology, blending stories from sources as diverse as the myths of <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-folklore/pandora-goddess-who-unleashed-both-hell-and-hope-upon-humanity-002902">Pandora</a>, <a href="https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Heroes/Odysseus/odysseus.html">Odysseus</a>, and <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Atalanta.html">Atalanta</a> and the <a href="http://www.maicar.com/GML/AMAZONS.html">Amazons</a>. Like all members of the <a href="http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Justice_League">Justice League</a> team, Wonder Woman is an imaginative hybrid.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170935/original/file-20170525-31750-nu231r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170935/original/file-20170525-31750-nu231r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170935/original/file-20170525-31750-nu231r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170935/original/file-20170525-31750-nu231r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170935/original/file-20170525-31750-nu231r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170935/original/file-20170525-31750-nu231r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170935/original/file-20170525-31750-nu231r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170935/original/file-20170525-31750-nu231r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three Amazons on a black-figure lekythos, circa 500 BC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Marston’s comic draws heavily on the Amazon myths. Since the epics of the Homeric poets, there have been references to mysterious and frightening stories of the Amazons. In the Iliad, composed around the 8th Century BC, the Amazons were referred to as man-like, seasoned fighters. The implication is that in war they were a match for men in terms of their prowess, physical strength and courage. The Amazons appear in other Greek myths, such as the adventures of Heracles and Theseus. </p>
<p>Herodotus (484-c.425 BC) recorded detailed information, possibly spurious, but nevertheless fascinating, about this tribe of women. In his account, the Amazons were presented as horse riders, skilled with the bow and arrow, deft with the spear and ignorant of “traditional” women’s work. They were from Scythia (Ukraine, southern Russia and western Kazakhstan), a region sufficiently distant to an ancient Greek to symbolise a frightening, exotic and unknowable land populated by wild and threatening people. Herodotus also claimed that the Amazons had a marriage custom that forbade a young woman to marry until she had killed a man in battle.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170932/original/file-20170525-31750-f6u6zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170932/original/file-20170525-31750-f6u6zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170932/original/file-20170525-31750-f6u6zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170932/original/file-20170525-31750-f6u6zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170932/original/file-20170525-31750-f6u6zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170932/original/file-20170525-31750-f6u6zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170932/original/file-20170525-31750-f6u6zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170932/original/file-20170525-31750-f6u6zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A helmeted Amazon with her sword and a shield bearing the head of a Gorgon on an Attic red-figure kylix, 510–500 BC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Greek geographer Strabo (64 BC–AD 20) recorded the belief that the Amazons seared their right breasts to better use a bow and arrow or throw a spear. He also wrote that the Amazons were believed to live separately from men - travelling into neighbouring territories to mate - but keeping only girls to rear. While Strabo admitted much of this was likely fanciful, his account provides an insight into Greek fears and anxieties surrounding the Amazons. Indeed, they appear to have been regarded as the bogeywomen of antiquity. </p>
<p>Marston’s knowledge of Greek mythology was extensive, and his ability to incorporate it into a new form truly remarkable. His character, <a href="https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Hippolyta/hippolyta.html">Queen Hippolyte</a> references the authentic mythical leader of the Amazons. Her daughter, Diana is a reference to the Roman equivalent of the Greek <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis.html">Artemis</a>, the goddess of hunting, the wilderness, and wild animals. Likewise, the place of Princess Diana’s birth, Themiscyra, is mentioned by both Herodotus and Strabo as Amazon territory. </p>
<p>As a true Amazonian, Princess Diana is trained in a range of skills in both combat and hunting by her aunt, Antiope. However, as a member of the Justice League, she is not associated with some of the more “unusual” attributes of the ancient Amazons such as breast searing.</p>
<h2>Separating fact from fiction</h2>
<p>So were the Amazons real?</p>
<p>In her scholarly analysis of the Amazons from “fact” to fiction, folklorist and historian, <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Mayor.html">Adrienne Mayor</a> <a href="https://books.google.pl/books?id=rboWBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=amazons&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPhJG21IbUAhXKbZoKHRWlBFUQ6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=amazons&f=false">argues</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>overwhelming evidence now shows that the Amazon traditions of the Greeks and other ancient societies derived in part from historical facts. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170934/original/file-20170525-31786-1laq1i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170934/original/file-20170525-31786-1laq1i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170934/original/file-20170525-31786-1laq1i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170934/original/file-20170525-31786-1laq1i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170934/original/file-20170525-31786-1laq1i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170934/original/file-20170525-31786-1laq1i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1675&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170934/original/file-20170525-31786-1laq1i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1675&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170934/original/file-20170525-31786-1laq1i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1675&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amazon wearing trousers and carrying a shield and a quiver. Ancient Greek Attic white-ground alabastron, c.470 BC, British Museum, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mayor cites the Scythians as the most likely source of the Amazon legend. Nomadic peoples originally from Iran who migrated to southern Russia and Ukraine around the 8th Century BC, Scythian women were renowned for their horse riding and hunting skills, and participation in warfare. Along the steppes of Eurasia, archaeologists have excavated <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141029-amazons-scythians-hunger-games-herodotus-ice-princess-tattoo-cannabis/">Scythian kurgans</a> or burial mounds containing the skeletons of battle-scarred Scythian women along with collections of weapons, hunting equipment and tools.</p>
<p>These Scythian women clearly deviated in part from some of the mythical attributes of the Amazons. They did not, for example, live in all-female communities or remove their breast(s) to better shoot an arrow. </p>
<p>However, their very existence thousands of years ago not only suggests an inspiration for the myth of the Amazons, but also demonstrates how myths, legends and fairy tales work. Namely, the seemingly wondrous and often outrageous aspects of such narratives sometimes contain a kernel – or more than a kernel – of a truth that is then elaborated, altered and sensationalised to become an exciting, rollicking tale.</p>
<p>There are other aspects of Greek mythology in Marston’s Wonder Woman comic. For instance, he uses the basic plotline from Homer’s <a href="http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_homer_odyssey.html">Odyssey</a> to explain Princess Diana’s metamorphosis into Wonder Woman. On her isolated place of birth, Paradise Island, a <a href="http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Steven_Trevor_(Prime_Earth)">Captain Steve Trevor</a> falls from the sky when his plane crashes. This simple story echoes the travels of the ancient Greek hero Odysseus, who is washed ashore onto unknown islands on his way home from the Trojan War and rescued by beautiful women.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170936/original/file-20170525-31750-43pg7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170936/original/file-20170525-31750-43pg7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170936/original/file-20170525-31750-43pg7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170936/original/file-20170525-31750-43pg7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170936/original/file-20170525-31750-43pg7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170936/original/file-20170525-31750-43pg7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1773&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170936/original/file-20170525-31750-43pg7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170936/original/file-20170525-31750-43pg7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1773&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marble statue of a wounded Amazon, Roman, imperial period, 1st-2nd century AD.
Copy of a Greek statue ca. 450 BC</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Diana falls in love with Trevor. Her mother, displeased, holds a competition to determine the worthiest Amazon to help him return to the world of man. Hippolyta forbids Diana from entering it. But she does – wearing a disguise – and wins. This bride competition lies at the heart of the mythical story of Atalanta, whose father arranges running races between his swift-footed daughter and her suitors, offering her as a prize for the man who can outrun her. As Trevor’s protector in his return to his own world, Princess Diana becomes Wonder Woman – aka <a href="http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Diana_Prince">Diana Prince</a>.</p>
<p>But it is Marston’s use of the myth of the Amazons that may appeal most to our modern sensibilities. In an interview <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/books/joshua-rothman/real-amazons">with the New Yorker</a>, Mayor has described the Scythians as “a people notorious for strong, free women”. This image of independent, strong women certainly appealed to Marston, and his heroine is regularly cited as a feminist icon.</p>
<p>There are numerous exotic accounts of Amazons from antiquity through to the modern age. There are references to ancient nomadic cultures smoking cannabis, sporting tattoos, consuming alcohol and living outside the established boundaries of Greek morality. Some of these details come from ancient sources and some from modern archaeological excavations. It is now up to scholars to continue to make the connections and to separate fact from fiction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78248/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Since the epics of the Homeric poets, there have been tales of the mysterious, war-like Amazon women. The myth is likely based on the ‘strong, free’ women of the nomadic Scythian tribe.
Marguerite Johnson, Associate Professor of Ancient History and Classical Languages, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.