EUROPE
COMMENTS TO SOME ARTICLES IN THE PALAEOLITHIC MAGAZINE
Joannes Richter
In
the homepage
for PALEOLITHIC ART MAGAZINE Licia Filingeri, Pietro Gaietto and
other authors present an overview of paleolithic N-headed
sculptures, suggesting these idols generally must be considered as
deities.
Found sculptures will cover a long period of time from
paleolithic eras until relatively recent centuries and finding
locations are being spread worldwide in all continents.
Findings
at the Hochdorf
burial mound and at the burial location of the Nebra
disc reveal pre-historical travelling and trading routes between
Northern European and Mediterranean cultures, spreading religious
and cultural knowledge.
The idea of N-headed sculptures seems to
be covering all continents more or less simultaneously. The idea of
N-headed sculptures may also be linked to an ancient
creation-legend, already documented by Plato in Symposion. This
article will describe some comments to the magazine's overview of
these N-headed sculptures.
In the article Hermaphrodite - the invisible Bifrontisme of the Divinity - Licia Filingeri claims:
"The hermaphrodithe substantive derives from a mythical divinity, Hermaphrodithe exactly, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, from which his name, that however derives also from andros (in Greek, man) and gunae (in Greek, woman); such derivation alludes in immediate and clear way to the possession of both the sexes. Hermaphrodithe is an original divinity from the East, and just from Syria; Syria transmitted them to the Cypriots, near which, more than elsewhere, we have found the traces.
In
Fig. 4 Licia Filingeri claims:
"A head is bearded and
is male, while the not bearded head could be female".
Joannes
Richter comments:
In the centre part the wife's long hair is
corresponding to the man's beard. The faces are mirrored for the
left part and for the right part, indicating the not-bearded head to
be a female person.
Fig.4
Two-faced Argo with eyes on the body Licia Filingeri claims:
However:
In the centre part the wife's hair is corresponding to the man's
beard. In
the same article Licia Filingeri claims:
"I
make here the hypothesis that the myth of Hermaphrodithe, with its "
invisible bifrontisme ", expresses a intrapsychic conflict
between the feminine part and that male one of the human being, and
at the same time indicates in the fusion both the way for the
overcoming of the dissosciation, and the acquired ability to
understand other from himself, through introspection and unconscious
cognitive projection." In
The
two-faced with the birds (february, 2001) Pietro Gaietto
correctly claims:
The
two-faced is present in nearly all the ancient religions of the
world (with the exception of those people who practice " only "
painting). Joannes
Richter comments to both articles: The
intrapsychic conflict between the feminine part and that male one of
the human being (clearly visible in today's mainstream religions)
has been caused by eliminating the female element of the basic
Hermaphrodithe. It may only be restored after accepting and
restoring the ancient, androgynous roots of religions. In
The
roots of the Bifrontism (december, 2000) Licia Filingeri claims: Originally,
in the historical characterizations (sculptures and coins), of the
two faces of Giano, one was bearded and the other not, perhaps sun
and moon symbol . Joannes
Richter comments: In
The
roots of the Bifrontism (december, 2000) Licia Filingeri
claims: Joannes
Richter comments: In
The
roots of the Bifrontism (december, 2000) Licia Filingeri claims: "Janus
or Dianus, like reminded also from Frazer (1910), was to the origin
the double of Jupiter. Joannes
Richter comments: In
The
roots of the Bifrontism (december, 2000) Licia Filingeri claims: Janus
would be the double of Jana (like Dianus of Diana), deriving their
names from the same Ariane root DI, that means shining of light. Joannes
Richter comments: In
The
roots of the Bifrontism (december, 2000) Licia Filingeri
claims: In
some characterizations Janus have a virile face, with the beard, and
a feminine face, probably in relationship to the symbolic meant of
Sun and Moon expressed by the brace Janus-Jana or Diano-Diana. The
two faces, bearded-old and beardless-young person, would allude also
to his preside sliding of the time. According
to my point of view, the bifrontism since the beginning manifests
like visual representation, at the same time ascertainment and
celebration of braces of opposites, to begin from the twofold aspect
of natural facts (life-death, male-female, day-night, sun-moon,
beneficial-noxious, wet-dry etc), characterized and celebrated
through the representations in sculpture.
Joannes
Richter comments: __________________________________________________________________
Licia
Filingeri claims: Joannes
Richter comments: --The
four idols described by Pietro Gaietto, indicate a multiple (four-)
faced deity in Mediterranean temples in or near Israel. --In
German Mythology Jacob Grimm describes the German Creator as an
androgynous deity. The largest number of sculptures in Germany has
been Hermes-like and may have been devoted to the androgynous, main
German creator deity Tuisco.
The Hermes
of Roquepertuse, (and many bi-faced other sculptures found
nearby) may have been a similar Celtic deity.
--Apart
from the singular and plural a third declension "dualis"
may have existed in a great number of (indo-european and other)
languages. The dualis is now extinct in a great number of languages,
but may initially have symbolized bi-faced / androgynous deities.
--In
a Celtic
grave at Hochdorf (Germany) the king's purple clothes have been
proven to be woven in (Byssos- or) twining-technology using the
finest threads of blue and red at densities of 80 threads / cm. The
high density weaving of red and blue colours cannot be identified
without optical tools and the clothes look like a homogeneous purple
material. The same technology (Byssos/Twining applying red, blue and
purple) is found in the Bible.
These
Colors may refer to androgynous deities, symbolizing male (blue
colors) and female (red colors) or divine symbols (purple). The
English word " twining
" referring to "twins", "two", "twilight"
and "Tuisco" may be symbolizing matrimony, which may be
considered as a religious act in "becoming immortal".
--A
great number of androgynous
Symbols may be identified in coloring schemes, in old rites,
e.g. the maypoles and Need-Fires.The Maypole may or must also be
considered an androgynous symbol. To may (German: maien) originally
indicates to make love. The maypole is an ancient marriage-symbol
for joining a male/female-couple. Of course the erected and towering
pole symbolizes the male element in this union (The ego-centric
"I"). The large circular wreaths represent the female
element, which must be considered to be the stabilizing and passive
pole (The "You" in the union).In Indo-European and
Germanic Mythology Jacob Grimm describes the Need-Fire as a
universal method in which a sacred fire may be kindled by friction
between a male wooden element and a female wooden element.
--The
Pronouns
U (you) and I may very well be identified within the main deities
names (Thou and I inside Tuisco, "je" inside and "Du"
at the outside of "Dieu", "io" inside "Dios"),
indicating a religious bipolar symbolism. Licia
Filingeri claims for Hermes: Joannes
Richter comments: Mannus
however is the first hero, the son of God and Father of all people.
And
as all Germans from Tvisco and Mannus the three, five or even seven
main tribes descended from Mannus.
With
these words Jacob Grimm describes the first German Creator god in
German Mythology, but also specifies a row of ancestors in a
genealogical tree starting with Tvisco:
Tvisco
-> Mannus -> Ingvio -> Nerthus -> Fravio.
The
Germans obviously must have accepted the idea of a divine family of
ancestors just like a row of generations within a human family. Gods
were just as mortal as humans, being relieved by and inheriting some
gifts to another generation in a kind of Ragnarok (Undoing). Some
sources claim another predecessor for Tuisco, whose name may have
been Duih, Thuih or even Tyr and in the case of a starting point
Thuih we may read:
Thuih
-> Tuisco -> Mannus -> Ingvio -> Nerthus -> Fravio.
These
investigations and comparisons with neighboring religions lead to
the assumption, Tuisco and Mannus must have been androgynous beings,
just like the equivalent creator gods and their first androgynous
human being. Tuisco and Mannus seem to be the parental deities for
the German people. Related to the Mediterranean religions Tuisco is
to be compared to the Roman God Diu-piter and to the Hebrew God
JHVH. The other non-androgynous gods of the Celts and Germans seem
to be of a lesser magnitude, being local representatives of the
famous ancestor. In
the article FOUR-HEADED HERMAE OF ROME Pietro Gaietto, Director of
the website of the Museum
of the Origins of Man documents several sources for four-headed
sculptures in the Bible and he writes: -
a) the Ba' al of Tyrus that Ahab, king of Israel, introduces in IX
century B.C. in Samaria, as a result of his wedding with Izebel,
daughter of the king of Syria ( The Kings 16. 29 followings): it is
described like "four-shaped" by Eustachius from Antiochia
(approximately 300 a.D.); The
four-headed early Hebrew God may refer to the four lettered
Tetragrammaton and other"
Cabbalastic symbolism
Additionally
to the above information provided to the article by Licia Filingeri
I would like to add the following three equivalent sculptures found
in Dhenia (Cyprus), in Ruegen(Germany) and in India
respectively: The
Pierides Museum in Larnaca (Cyprus) reveals several plank-shaped
idols of red polished ware and incised decoration, found in Dhenia.
These 1-, 2- and 3-headed idols are dated early bronze age (1900
before Christ). Svetovid
is associated with war and divination and depicted as a four-headed
god with two heads looking forward and two back. A statue portraying
the god shows him with four heads, each one looking in a separate
direction, a symbolical representation of the four directions of the
compass, and also perhaps the four seasons of the year. The main
temple of Svantevit, as he was called by the local Rani, was located
in Arkona on Rugia Island in the Baltic Sea (today Rügen, in
Germany). Svetovid's Androgynous symbolism is being discussed
in Androgynous
symbolism in Svetovid / Zbruch idols
Brahma
is the Hindu god (deva) of creation and one of the Trimurti, the
others being Vishnu and Shiva. He is not to be confused with the
Supreme Cosmic Spirit in Hindu Vedanta philosophy known as Brahman.
Brahmā's consort is Saraswati, the goddess of learning. Brahmā
is often identified with Prajapati, a Vedic deity. The temple
at the city of Pushkar houses a life-sized idol of the 4-headed
God deity. Index
Copyright
© 2000-2009 by Paleolithic Art Magazine, all rights reserved.
A
head is bearded and is male, while the not bearded head could be
female.
The faces are mirrored for the left part and for the
right part, indicating the not-bearded head to be a female
person.
It would be very important to identify the
direction of the faces. If they have been looking in opposite
directions we might identify a reference to the androgynous creation
legend.
"Varro says that Janus was the God of the sky,
practically identified with Juppiter."
Yes: originally both deities
(bi-faced Janus and IU-piter) are androgynous characters.
Basically IU-piter already has
an androgynous character, which may have been lost in time.
Originally the name may even have been d'IU-piter.
We may have to consider the prefix "Di"
also might be interpreted as "Dis" in "dissecting"
and "splitting into 2 elements". Diana might have been a
dissected element from a bifaced Ianus.
The allegory of the double face and the double
forehead has been interpreted in several ways. It is connected to
the gift of science of the past and the future, made to him by
Saturn, by him entertained during the persecution from Jove.
According to other interpretations, since the month of January
(Januarius) takes name from Janus and to he is dedicated, the double
forehead that connotes the herms of the God would symbolize the
vision of the passed year and what is beginning.
....
...
These interpretations of the passed and
the beginning of time may have been generated in later eras.
Androgynous creation legends (Platon's Symposion and the Sohar's
legend) generally claim the male and the female halves of the
first-born androgynous creature called "man" had been
unable to see each other's faces. They felt lonely although they had
been linked together.
My idea: the opposite bifrontism is a
celebration of the opposites "male-female" you are
referring to. The Creator-God had to separate their skulls and
corpses by splitting the androgynous man ("Adam")
into female and male and to lead the female half (the "ornamented"
bride) in front of the male half (the groom). Face-to-face they were
allowed to see each other for the very first time. The legend seems
to symbolize a marriage in which the bride is "to be unveiled"
at the wedding ceremony. Existing wedding ceremonies suggest the use
of a mirror in wedding ceremonies to enable the couple to view
the rejoined duality as an image of androgynous man and
as an image of the Creator-God.
Details about Afghan
wedding symbols have been documented by Khaled Hosseini in The
Kite runners. Afghan symbols seem to have been valid in modern times
as the novel is describing the seventies around 1970.
Hermaphrodithe is an important divinity
because he comprises two beings, the man and the woman, even if
iconographically the aspect is male. Hermaphrodithe is not the only
hybrid divinity man-woman of every time and of the world; besides
the bisexual known divinities; where a written history of the
representation of a male divinity there is not, we do not know
nothing.
Well, it depends. The following topics
may indicate androgynous deities as well. Maybe you will find some
interesting and discussable ideas in these topics:
In
studying the Sohar we may identify an androgynous creation-legend
quite equivalent to the androgynous legend in Platon's Symposion,
which basically describes a bi-faced androgynous "man".
In
fact the English word "man" still describes a male or a
female person.
Near the Celts, he is "
progenitor and founder of kings lineage".
The proof may be found in German mythology.
In periods of Roman expansion the most popular deity in
Baden-Wuerttemberg has been Hermes or Mercury. The Romans may have
named the deity Tuisco "Hermes" for the bi-faced
sculptures. The first author to discover the androgynous nature of
Tuisco is Wackernagel and Jacob Grimm describes his thesis in a
somewhat cryptic way in the appendix to his book German
mythology.
Grimm does not give any further comments to
Wackernagels arguments, but lists a great number of details to
Tuiscos son Man: "The son of earth-born Tvisco has been called
Mannus, and no name may be sounding more German-like. Surely this
word must have carried a deeper sense in ancient times".
...
...
Comments to the
article
FOUR-HEADED
HERMAE OF ROME
by Pietro Gaietto
It is important to
become aware of the connections between the two-faced
anthropomorphic sculptures of the Paleolithic and the successive
prehistoric ages, with the two, three and four-faced anthropomorphic
sculptures of the historical ages, that represents divinities, and
where has been no interruption and no connection with the zoomorphic
paintings of the upper Paleolithic and the Mesolithic, and no
connection with the art and the religions of the people who have
produced graffiti on cliffs. We know with certainty, also from
written testimonies, that the sculptures with two, three, four heads
or faces, were of religious character, i.e. that were divinities.
- b) the idol that Manasse king of
Juda (VII century) makes to construct and to place in the temple of
Jerusalem (2 Chr.. 33. 7), but removing them when he returns
repenting from Babylon (2 Chr. 33. 15): in the Syrian version
(Pesitta) of 2 Chr. 33. 7 he is described like a idol "
four-faced". Efrem Syrus (+ 373 a.D.), in the poem against
Julian the Apostate, and Jacob from Sarug (+ 521) in the homily on
"the Fall of the Idols" and in that of palm Sunday,
reproach the Hebrew to have adored a idol "four-faced",
and that this idol was that one of Manasse, and just the simulacrum
of 2 Chr.is said explicitly in Barhebreus, like also in George
Syncellus, Cedrenus and Suida (in Greek the name of the God with
four faces is expressed with "Zeus"). Also in the Thalmud
the idol of Manasse has four faces, while in the Syrian "Apocalypses
of Baruch" it has five - and of this conception is found an
echo in St. Girolamus;
- c) the simulacrum of Jahve make made
by Micha son of Efraim for his private cult (illegitimate), then
come in possession of the Danites and worshipped later on in
Dan-Lajis (Jew. 17 and 18): it is, according to the Thalmud, the
same as the idol of Manasse, and it had in fact four faces;
-
d) also the "imagine of jealousy" in the Temple of
Jerusalem ,according to Ezech. 8. 3, 5, is identified in the judaic
and christian tradition with the idol of Manasse, and has therefore
four faces.
Plank-shaped idols
found in Dhenia (Cyprus)
Svetovid
Brahma
Brahma carving at a temple in Halebidu
may indicate androgynous
Symbolism as the deity's frontal face reveals a beard, whereas
the left and right faces do not wear beards.
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