|
Sky Deity
The sky often has important religious significance. Many polytheistic religions have deities associated with the sky. The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson's ''Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'' reflects this by separating the category of "Sky-god" (A210) from that of "Star-god" (A250). In mythology, nighttime gods are usually known as night deities and gods of stars simply as star gods. Both of these categories are included here since they relate to the sky. Luminary deities are included as well since the sun and moon are located in the sky. Some religions may also have a deity or personification of the day, distinct from the god of the day lit sky, to complement the deity or personification of the night. Daytime gods and nighttime gods are frequently deities of an " upper world" or "celestial world" opposed to the earth and a " netherworld" (gods of the underworld are sometimes called "chthonic" deities). Within Greek mythology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth Goddess
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all of Earth's water is contained in its global ocean, covering Water distribution on Earth, 70.8% of Earth's crust. The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form of continental landmasses within Earth's land hemisphere. Most of Earth's land is at least somewhat humid and covered by vegetation, while large Ice sheet, sheets of ice at Polar regions of Earth, Earth's polar polar desert, deserts retain more water than Earth's groundwater, lakes, rivers, and Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water combined. Earth's crust consists of slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's outer core, Earth has a liquid outer core that generates a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kongo People
The Kongo people (also , singular: or ''M'kongo; , , singular: '') are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others. They have lived along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, in a region that by the 15th century was a centralized and well-organized Kingdom of Kongo, but is now a part of three countries. Their highest concentrations are found south of in the Republic of the Congo, southwest of Pool Malebo and west of the Kwango River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, north of Luanda, Angola and southwest Gabon. They are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of the Congo, and one of the major ethnic groups in the other two countries they are found in. In 1975, the Kongo population was reported as 4,040,000. The Kongo people were among the earliest indigenous Africans to welcome Portuguese traders in 1483 CE, and began converting to Catholicism in the la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nzambi A Mpungu
Nzambi a Mpungu (also Nzambi and Nzambi Mpungu) is the Supreme God, eternal Sky Father and God of the Sun (fire) in traditional Kongo spirituality. His female counterpart is Nzambici, the Sky Mother and Goddess of the Moon. Among other Central African Bantu peoples, such as the Chokwe, and in the Kingdom of Ndongo, Nzambi Mpungu was also called ''Kalunga'', the god of fire and change. This may have a connection to an element of Bakongo cosmology called ''Kalûnga''. It was seen as the spark of fire that begot all life in the universe. After Portuguese colonization, Nzambi Mpungu became synonymous with the Christian God and existed chiefly as the Creator God. History Nzambi Mpungu was recorded as the name of the God of the Kongo people as early as the early 16th century by Portuguese who visited the Kingdom of Kongo. European missionaries along with Kongo intellectuals (including King Afonso I of Kongo) set out to render European Christian religious concepts into Kikongo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mbuti People
The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages. Subgroups Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the oldest indigenous people of the Congo region of Africa. The Bambuti are composed of bands which are relatively small in size, ranging from 15 to 60 people. The Bambuti population totals about 30,000 to 40,000 people. Many Batwa in various parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also call themselves Bambuti. There are three distinct subgroups: * The Sua (also Kango, or Mbuti), who speak a dialect (or perhaps two) of the language of a neighboring Bantu people, Bila. They are located centrally and are eponymous of the larger group. * The Efé, who speak the language of the neighboring Central Sudanic Lese. * The Asua, speakers of the Mangbetu (Central Sudanic) Asua language. Environment The Mbuti population live in the Itu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khonvoum
Khonvoum is the supreme god and creator in the mythology of the Bambuti Pygmy people of central Africa. He is the "great hunter", god of the hunt, and carries a bow made of two snakes which appears to mortals as a rainbow. He rules the heavens and when the sun sets, he gathers pieces of the stars and throws it at the sun so that it may rise the next day in its full splendor. He contacts people by means of the mythical elephant Gor (the thunderer) or through a chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (Family (biology), family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this Family (biology), family are best known for ....Lynch, Patricia Ann; Roberts, Jeremy , ''African Mythology, A to Z'', Infobase Publishing (2010), p. 67/ref> Khonvoum created black and white people from black and white clay and the Pygmies from red clay. For them, he also created the jungle with its lush vegetation a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hebrew Goddess
''The Hebrew Goddess'' is a 1967 book by Jewish historian and anthropologist Raphael Patai, in which the author argues that historically, the Jewish religion had elements of polytheism, especially the worship of goddesses and a cult of the mother goddess. Earlier themes Raphael Patai's first exploration of this theme was in his 1947 book, ''Man and Temple in Ancient Jewish Myth and Ritual'' (New York: Nelson), where he cites textual evidence that was not repeated in his later works. Thesis ''The Hebrew Goddess'' supports the theory through the interpretation of archaeological and textual sources as evidence for veneration of feminine beings. Hebrew goddesses identified in the book include Asherah, Anath, Astarte, Ashima, the cherubim in Solomon's Temple, the Matronit (Shekhina), and the personified "Shabbat Bride". The later editions of the book were expanded to include recent archaeological discoveries and the rituals of unification (Yichudim), which are to unite God with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josiah
Josiah () or Yoshiyahu was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE). According to the Hebrew Bible, he instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah’s reforms were usually considered to be more or less accurate, but that is now heavily debated. According to the Bible, Josiah became king of the Kingdom of Judah at the age of eight, after the assassination of his father, King Amon, and reigned for 31 years, from 641/640 to 610/609 BCE. Josiah is known only from biblical texts; no reference to him exists in other surviving texts of the period from ancient Egypt or Babylon, and no clear archaeological evidence, such as inscriptions bearing his name, has ever been found. However, a seal bearing the name " Nathan-melech," the name of an administrative official under King Josiah according to , dating to the 7th century BCE, was found in situ in an archeological site in Jerusalem. The discov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" . '' Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; ; or ), also known in Hebrew as (; ), is the canonical collection of scriptures, comprising the Torah (the five Books of Moses), the Nevi'im (the Books of the Prophets), and the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
God In Judaism
In Judaism, God has been conceived in a variety of ways. Traditionally, Judaism holds that Yahweh—that is, the God in Abrahamic religions#Judaism, god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the national god of the Israelites—delivered them from The Exodus, slavery in Egypt, and gave them the Law of Moses at Mount Sinai (Bible), Mount Sinai as described in the Torah. Jews traditionally believe in a Monotheism, monotheistic conception of God ("Shema Yisrael, God is one"), characterized by both Transcendence (religion), transcendence (independence from, and separation from, the material universe) and immanence (active involvement in the material universe). God is seen as unique and perfect, free from all faults, and is believed to be omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and Absolute infinite, infinite in all attributes, with no partner or equal, serving as the sole Creator deity, creator of everything in existence. In Judaism, Aniconism in Judaism, God is never portrayed in any ima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yahweh
Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Israel, and the king of the gods, head of the Pantheon (religion), pantheon of the Polytheism, polytheistic Yahwism, Israelite religion. Although there is no clear consensus regarding the geographical origins of the deity, scholars generally hold that Yahweh was associated with Mount Seir, Seir, Edom, Desert of Paran, Paran, and Teman (Edom), Teman, and later with Canaan. The worship of the deity reaches back to at least the early Iron Age, and likely to the late Bronze Age, if not somewhat earlier. In the oldest Bible, biblical texts, Yahweh possesses attributes that were typically ascribed to deities of weather and war, fructifying the Land of Israel and leading a Heavenly host#Hebrew Bible, heavenly army against the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asherah
Asherah (; ; ; ; Qatabanian language, Qatabanian: ') was a goddess in ancient Semitic religions. She also appears in Hittites, Hittite writings as ''Ašerdu(š)'' or ''Ašertu(š)'' (), and as Athirat in Ugarit. Some scholars hold that Asherah was venerated as Yahweh's consort in ancient Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) , Israel and Kingdom of Judah , Judah, while other scholars oppose this. Name Etymology Some have sought a common-noun meaning of her name, especially in Ugaritic appellation ''rabat athirat yam'', only found in the Baal Cycle. But a homophone's meaning to an Ugaritian doesn't equate an etymon, especially if the name is older than the Ugaritic language. There is no hypothesis for ''rabat athirat yam'' without significant issues, and if Asherah were a word from Ugarit it would be pronounced differently. The common NW Semitic meaning of ''šr'' is "king, prince, ruler." The NW Semitic root ''ʾṯr'' (Arabic ) means "tread". Grammar The -ot ending "Asherot" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
