15 Myths of Death and Destruction, Part Two
The terrors of war were personified in Canaanite myth as acts of the goddess of war, Anat. When she enters the fields of battle, she mows down the cities, she shatters the inhabitants of the coasts, she annihilates the men of the sunrise. The first part of this lecture retells the exploits of Anat. War was one feared form of annihilation; another was the destructive force of the cycles of nature. The Hittite myth of Telepinu explained drought and crop failure as the result of the disappearance of the god associated with fertility. As the result of his disappearance, the whole earth became arid, rivers dried up, fruit, vegetables and grain were no more, trees and grass withered away, men died of hunger, cattle no longer bred.
|
|