Noah: The Punishment of the Fallen Angels
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I chose this one because it is a story that I am familiar with through Ancient Aliens. The story seems straight out of science fiction. Yet, this is what people believe as truth as it is written in the Bible that the sons of God mated with the daughters of men. The Nephilim, the giants. Is the story prescription or description? Where do we find the earliest version of this story?
The woman who learns and says the ineffable name of god, reminds me more of the Adam and Eve fall from garden of Eden story.
"Shemhazai saw a maiden named Istehar, and he lost his heart to her. She promised to surrender herself to him, if first he taught her the Ineffable Name, by means of which he raised himself to heaven. He assented to her condition. But once she knew it, she pronounced the Name, and herself ascended to heaven, without fulfilling her promise to the angel. God said, "Because she kept herself aloof from sin, we will place her among the seven stars, that men may never forget her," and she was put in the constellation of the Pleiades."
This block quote from the story leads me to believe that this is Ancient Summarian in origin.
I love love love the use of the names of the sons as the sounds, Hiwwa and Hiyya-as men cut or haul stones, or launch vessels, they shall invoke your names, Hiwwa! Hiyya!
The woman who learns and says the ineffable name of god, reminds me more of the Adam and Eve fall from garden of Eden story.
"Shemhazai saw a maiden named Istehar, and he lost his heart to her. She promised to surrender herself to him, if first he taught her the Ineffable Name, by means of which he raised himself to heaven. He assented to her condition. But once she knew it, she pronounced the Name, and herself ascended to heaven, without fulfilling her promise to the angel. God said, "Because she kept herself aloof from sin, we will place her among the seven stars, that men may never forget her," and she was put in the constellation of the Pleiades."
This block quote from the story leads me to believe that this is Ancient Summarian in origin.
I love love love the use of the names of the sons as the sounds, Hiwwa and Hiyya-as men cut or haul stones, or launch vessels, they shall invoke your names, Hiwwa! Hiyya!
Oh wow, the first reading diary of the semester, LaDawn: how exciting! Since everybody will be making their own choices, it's good to link to the actual unit itself, and also to any actual pages you are interested in... and that way someone else who reads it can just click and go right to what got your attention to see for themselves! So that would be links like this:
ReplyDeleteNoah and the Ark Unit: The Punishment of the Fallen Angels
And isn't Ginzberg's book amazing??? It is FULL of stuff like that: wild stories, strange names, surprising bits of folklore. He used sources from all over the Middle East and medieval Europe to put that book together.... including star stories like the one you told here. So many cultures have stories about Pleiades of course. Fabulous stuff!