Transcript Song of Songs - Ohio University

Song of Songs
Gabriel Hartley • Ohio University
Sacred Sexuality & Fertility Gods
Ishtar
• Ishtar is the East Semitic Akkadian,
Assyrian, and Babylonian goddess of
fertility, love, war, and sex.
• Sumerian Inanna
• Northwest Semitic Aramean goddess
Astarte/Ashtoreth
• Egyptian Isis
• Greek Aphrodite
• Roman Venus
• Ishtar Wikipedia
Ishtar - Easter
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Ishtar
Astarte
Ostara
Esther
Easter
Divine Lovers
• Ishtar & Tammuz • Tammuz
Wikipedia
• Shiva & Shakti
• Isis & Osiris
• Orpheus & Eurydice
• Diana & Artemis
Dionysian Mystery Cults
The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of
ancient Greece and Rome which used
intoxicants and other trance-inducing
techniques (like dance and music) to
remove inhibitions and social
constraints, liberating the individual to
return to a natural state. In their final
phase the Mysteries shifted their
emphasis from a chthonic, underworld
orientation to a transcendental, mystical
one, with Dionysus changing his nature
accordingly.
Descent Into the Underworld
• Katabasis • Sheol • Hades • Hell
• The descent to the underworld is a mytheme of
comparative mythology found in a diverse number
of religions from around the world. The hero or
upper-world deity journeys to the underworld or to
the land of the dead and returns, often with a
quest-object or a loved one, or with heightened
knowledge. A deity who returns from the
underworld demonstrates eschatological themes
such as the cyclical nature of time and existence, or
the defeat of death and the possibility of
immortality.
Solomon the Lover
1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women
besides Pharaoh's daughter--Moabites, Ammonites,
Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
2They were from nations about which the LORD had told
the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them,
because they will surely turn your hearts after their
gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.
3He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three
hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.
4As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after
other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the
LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
5He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and
Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.
Solomon & Naamah (mother of Rehoboam)
Solomon & the Queen of Sheba
Wikipedia Links
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Song of Songs
Ishtar
Tammuz
Solomon
Queen of Sheba
Allegoresis