And proud Lucifera men did her call, |
| 1. Lucifer as Feminine | 2. The Meaning in a Name |
| 3. Semitic Venus and the 'Queen of Heaven' | 4. Endnotes |
Lucifer as FeminineLucifer as the former prince among cherubs, the king of demons, is well attested to in popular conception and in theology. But what about the notion of Lucifer the princess or Lucifer the queen? This idea is far from the mainstream of the thought on Lucifer but it is not absent. Lucifer has been taken as a feminine figure before.
As the Church of Rome grew in strength and spread throughout Europe the image of the Devil changed and grew in step. It is well known that male deities such as Pan and the Celtic Horned One were assimilated into the composite figure of the Christian Devil. This is as easy to see as the standard portrayal of the Devil as having cloven feet and a horned head. What is not as well known is that pagan goddesses were also assimilated into the evolving figure of Lucifer. Jeffrey Russell talks about the absorption of goddesses into the androgynous figure of Lucifer. In A History of Witchcraft he says:
"As the chief of a demon horde, Diana was equated with Satan. They obeyed the Lady goddess (domina) rather than the Lord Christ (dominus), and they met secretly on specified nights to worship her. A century later, the canon lawyer Burchard of Worms equated the Diana of the Canon with Holda, whom he called 'the witch Holda'. The Classical goddess Diana had been identified with the Teutonic mother-goddess Holda, and both had been judged to be manifestations of Satan." 1
As time went on and the amalgamation of Lucifer was accomplished and the attributes of the various pagan divinities were assimilated, the characteristics of the Devil became recognizable as uniquely Lucifer's own. The masculine ones became better known than the feminine. The Devil's pitchfork, horned head, sexual influence upon female Witches, etc., passed into the public mainstream. The feminine attributes from goddesses, such as Diana and Holda, can be seen in occult material, however. The devil figure of the Baphomet was pictured in the nineteenth century by Eliphas Levi as an androgynous figure with a woman's breasts. 2
In the earlier days of the Christian religion, before the combination of the many pagan deities into the composite figure of the Devil had been accomplished, there was the allusion of the Devil having a feminine side. Modern witchcraft author Raymond Buckland notes that Saint Athanasius, in his biography Life of Anthony (a fourth century document), mentions the Devil's ability to assume a womanly form. Athanasius writes, "The devil, unhappy wight, one night even took upon him the shape of a woman and imitated all her acts simply to beguile Anthony." 3
A feminine perception of Lucifer is also a modern religious occurrence. There are right-wing Christian fundamentalists that have a thoroughly thought out theological stance of Lucifer as androgynous or out and out see Lucifer as a woman. These views are not mainstream but they are well researched.
Edward Nydle of the B'nai Avraham Messianic Congregation has written two essays on the topic of Lucifer as a female divinity. In these essays he connects Lucifer to both the planet and goddess Venus. He sees Lucifer as the failed first wife of the Hebrew god Yahweh. In his first essay he writes, "Now we can understand from Scripture that Satan/Helel (Hillel)/Venus/Ishtar (Easter) was created a beautiful malak (angel or messenger) and was ordained to become Yahweh's bride or queen (since He is King of the universe)." 4 He says that Lucifer failed as the bride of Yahweh due to the sin of pride for wanting to rule over the universe alongside Yahweh. For this Lucifer was cast aside and a new bride chosen, the people of the tribes of Israel. He concludes his first essay by saying that "We can see that Yahweh's plan is to have His NEW Bride, Yisrael, become PERFECT through Torah, just as Satan/Helel once was through upholding Yahweh's law UNTIL she/he rebelled!" 5
In his second essay on the subject Nydle concentrates on Lucifer's being one and the same as the goddess Asherah. Asherah is a key connection for Nydle to make because She was known in Canaanite myth as the wife of the chief of the gods, El. More tellingly, Asherah was perceived as the wife of Yahweh. 6 After connecting Lucifer with Asherah Nydle laments, "We can see then that Ashterah/Astarte/Ishtar/Venus is just another name for whom the Scriptures call Satan/Lucifer/Hellel or commonly known as the Devil. It is unfortunate that we as Yisrael have allowed the Roman/Babylonian System create an image of Satan that comes from Dante's Inferno and the false idea of a horned-red-suited-pitchfork toting MAN with a goatee." 7 Indeed the loss of the feminine aspect of the divine is lamentable.
It may seem strange at first glance that Lucifer is connected with the goddesses Asherah, Ishtar, and Venus. The mergence of various divinities did happen in the ancient world, however. Tim Callahan writes, "it would seem that as time went on the various great goddesses fused or at least commingled in the minds of their worshippers." 8 In the specific case in point here Raphael Patai notes, "in the 14th century B.C.E. Amarna tablets, containing letters written by Canaanite petty chieftains to their overlords, the king of Egypt, the names Asherah and Astarte interchange, which may indicate a lack of clear distinction between the functions and personalities of these two goddesses 9 So the combination or merging of divinities is not merely a modern phenomenon.
Kenneth Sublett writes that Lucifer and the Gnostic Aeon known as Sophia are one and the same. Speaking of Sophia, Zoe, and Eve Sublett writes they are "quite identical to Lucifer, the enlightener and 'they called her the Beast." 10 He also writes that "Lucifer, a 'Zoe' figure was androgynous." 11 One point of Sublett's writing is that music is a satanic practice. This hard-line stance is reiterated in this article. Sublettt says, "Lucifer, the musical enchanter in the garden of Eden is manifest in the feminine form as Sophia-Zoe who force the men to form MUSICAL WORSHIP TEAMS to worship the feminine goddesses." 12 Obviously it can be seen from these examples that these fundamentalist Christian groups share a rabid hatred of Lucifer regardless of whether Lucifer is to be seen as masculine, feminine or androgynous.
Now it has been made plain that a feminine image of Lucifer has existed in both the past and the present. Even modern secular views of Lucifer as a feminine figure exist. The 2000 theatrical release of the remake of the film "Bedazzled" starred Elizabeth Hurley in the role of Lucifer. But why does the Gnostic Witch Bible insist on using the name Lucifer and not using the word Satan?
The Meaning in a NameThe Gnostic Witch Bible insists on use of the name "Lucifer" and not the word "Satan." The popular definition of "Satan" has a built in negative connotation. The word "Satan" comes to English from Hebrew and means "adversary." The undertaking here is of a positive affiliation with Lucifer and a word meaning adversary does not fit well into such a goal.
The term "Lucifer" had a positive meaning long before it was associated with the Devil. In classical times it was used as a name. Mike Dixon-Kennedy says it was "the name given to the planet Venus when seen in the morning sky before sunrise. Given a masculine personification in myth, the name was equally applied to Artemis, as it was to her brother, Apollo." 13
As Dixon-Kennedy alluded to, Lucifer as a stand-alone word refers to the planet Venus. Funk & Wagnalls states that Lucifer is "the Latin name of Phosphorus, Venus as the morning star, the light-bringer which heralds the dawn. The name is sometimes applied to the planet as the evening star as well, although Hesperus is properly its name then." 14 The distinction between Lucifer and Hesperus is a pagan one. In the Christian tradition there is no association for the Evening Star. It is thus logical to assign to Lucifer the planet as a whole in all of its stages. Thus, within Christianity, Lucifer is the planet Venus.
Studying the etymology of words can give a deeper insight into their meaning. The name "Lucifer" comes to English directly from Latin. It is a compound word formed from the Latin roots lux (lucis) and fero (ferre). 15 Lux is a feminine noun and its meanings are "light; light of day, day-light; light of day, life; public view, publicity; the public, the world; light of hope, encouragement; glory; elucidation." 16 Fero is a verb which means "to bear, carry; to bear, produce, bring forth; to bear, endure; to lead, drive, conduct, direct; to bring, offer; to receive, acquire, obtain, win; to take by force, carry off, plunder, ravage; to manifest, display, make known, report, relate, say, tell; to propose, bring forward; to allow, permit; to cause, create; to set in motion; to call, name." 17 The popular translations of these two words when combined to form the term "Lucifer" are "light-bringer" and "light-bearer."
It is remarkable how well the Latin roots of the name "Lucifer" fit into the myth of Lucifer. In addition to lux meaning "light of day" it also has a meaning of "life" and "light of hope" as encouragement. Including the definition of the word as meaning "the world" bolsters the Gnostic Witch Bible's connection of Lucifer with the Gnostic Sophia. This fits well into a positive, Gnostic interpretation of the encounter of the Serpent with Eve in the Garden of Eden. With this shade of meaning the Serpent is encouraging us to throw off the shackles of slavery and blindness to see Life as it truly is. The meaning of lux as "glory" is a no-brainer. Lucifer is in mythology originally the loftiest of angels. The definition as "elucidation" is also inherent in the original myth as Lucifer explains the true benefit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Latin verb fero with the meaning of "to bear" or "carry" fits the Gnostic view of Lucifer as the bearer of the burden to enlighten humanity. The definition as "to bear" meaning "produce" fits the Gnostic Witch Bible's interpretation of Lucifer as being an emanation of Sophia, the mother of Yahweh (Yaldabaoth to the classical Gnostics), the Demiurge. With "to bear" meaning "endure" we have a picture both of Sophia withstanding the depredations of Yahweh and Lucifer overcoming the trials of Hell. The definition of fero as "to lead, drive, conduct, direct" fits the image of Lucifer as the chosen sovereign of one-third of the angels in the event termed the Fall. The meaning of the word as "to bring, offer" is another good fit. Lucifer offers the choice to eat the forbidden fruit. The sense of the word as "to receive, acquire, obtain, win" can be seen as alluding to the War and Fall as being an eternal event in perpetual progress in which Lucifer's forces are destined to win their own (well-earned) piece of Heaven in the inevitability of the Pleroma.
The next meaning of fero requires a look at a darker side of Lucifer. "To take by force, carry off, plunder, ravage" clearly indicates that Lucifer also has the capability for engaging in primal behavior. Lucifer is an eternal force and part of the mythology associated with Her states that sovereignty began with an act of violence. The acknowledgement that Lucifer forcefully stakes claim to a right of sovereignty in Heaven is as close as the Gnostic Witch Bible will come to aligning Lucifer with the term Satan. However, this does not mean that Lucifer is being considered as absolute evil. Just as the United States of America began with an act of rebellion, so too does the mythology of Lucifer.
The following definitions of fero fit the mythology of Lucifer quite easily. "To manifest, display, make known, report, relate, say, tell" is easy to see within the mythology of Lucifer. It can again be related to the discourse between the Serpent and Eve in the Garden of Eden. "To propose, bring forward; to allow, permit" fits the notion of Lucifer as a sovereign being. "To cause, create" and "to set in motion" all fit the notion that Lucifer is a dynamic force. This is relative to Lucifer even if She is only seen as a source of temptation. The final meaning of fero, "to call, name," fits into the Gnostic view where Sophia names the Demiurge. This will be looked at more closely in the essay "Lucifer and the Devil."
The Latin term Lucifer can be traced back biblically to the Hebrew Heylel ben Shachar in Isaiah 14:12, which can be loosely translated shining one (or Day Star), son of dawn. This is a reference to the planet Venus as the Morning Star. In the exoteric tradition this is said to be a referral to the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar being compared unfavorably to a fallen, celestial angel. First a look at the Hebrew is called for.
We begin with Strong's Concordance with Hebrew and Greek Lexicon and the entry on Heylel. It says, "1966 heylel hay-lale' from 1984 (in the sense of brightness); the morning-star:--lucifer." 18 Referring to entry 1984 we find:
1984 halal haw-lal' a primitive root; to be clear (orig. of sound, but usually of color); to shine; hence, to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causatively, to celebrate; also to stultify:--(make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool(- ish, -ly), glory, give (light), be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage, (sing, be worthy of) praise, rage, renowned, shine. 19
Obviously the meanings of this word are complex and need to be addressed one at a time.
The first meaning, "to be clear" pertaining to a sound or color seems fairly innocuous. Like an angel, Lucifer has a clear sound, perhaps singing. Color too is not inappropriate as some verses attributed to Lucifer have Her adorned with gemstones. "To shine" is surely a worthy endeavor to one who is known as the Light-Bringer. "To make a show, to boast" can also be fitful for Lucifer. One meaning of boast is "a cause of pride." 20 Pride is something that Lucifer is well known for and self-pride is an important thing.
The next meaning, "to be (clamourously) foolish" requires some insight. The Fool is an interesting figure in the Tarot. According to Lee Irwin:
the Fool represents the innocence that carries us past the norms of the everyday and opens vistas of more profound and sacred realms - the foolishness of saints, masters, and followers of the Gnostic way, the foolishness of those who throw off the world and take upon themselves a quest often regarded as foolish by those more sober and content. This is the foolishness of Christ, Buddha, or Chuang-tzu! 21
Cyndi Kirkpatrick writes, "He (the Fool) starts by foolishly leaving convention and home behind. Sometimes his path is easy and welcoming. Sometimes it is a hard road, and the people he meets make demands of him." 22 This is the path of Lucifer. Not a lark but an earnest quest.
The next definition of Halal is "to rave." Commonly this is said to be "to talk irrationally in or as if in delirium." Another definition of the word, though, is "to talk with extreme enthusiasm." Surely the Serpent in Eden was not in delirium when speaking of the fruit for what was predicted came to pass. Therefore it was a show of "extreme enthusiasm." 23 Certainly there is no issue with the next definition, "causatively, to celebrate." To be causative has the meaning of "effective or operating as a cause or agent" or "expressing causation; specifically : being a linguistic form that indicates that the subject causes an act to be performed or a condition to come into being." 24 In either case here we have our Serpent sharing the fruit of knowledge with humanity and doing so in a celebratory fashion. To the Gnostics this is indeed a joyous occurrence.
The last grouping of the definition of Halal is "also to stultify:--(make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool(- ish, -ly), glory, give (light), be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage, (sing, be worthy of) praise, rage, renowned, shine". Many of these repeat what has been said earlier and do not require further bearing down upon. The first word part is "to stultify." There is a general sense of this word that it means to be of unsound mind or to appear foolish. However, again, there is another meaning: "a : to impair, invalidate, or make ineffective : NEGATE b : to have a dulling or inhibiting effect on." 25 The goal of Lucifer in sharing the fruit of Eden is to invalidate Yahweh/Yaldabaoth's influence upon humanity. If one is to connect Lucifer to Sophia then there can also be a dulling effect as humanity asserts itself and seeks to return to the fullness of the Pleroma and leave the banal Demiurge behind. Another aspect of this chain of definition which does not occur prior is "give in marriage." This may be taken two ways. First, that Lucifer may be given in marriage to Christ, just as is said of Sophia, in the celestial Bridal Chamber. Another point of view on this is that Lucifer could govern the marriage of genius and human in the earthly Bridal Chamber. The last element of the definition chain is "(sing, be worthy of) praise." That, of course, is the purpose of this site, to sing the praise of Lucifer.
Semitic Venus and the 'Queen of Heaven'So what is to be made of this connection between the Latin word Lucifer and the Hebrew phrase Heylel ben Shachar? The literal translation of Heylel ben Shachar into English is Helel son of Shahar. Jack Finegan connects the figure of Helel in the Old Testament to the Canaanite deity Athtar. He writes, "astronomically Athtar was the planet Venus, which rises before dawn as the harbinger of the new day, and was the son of Shachar and the morning star or the Day Star." 26
Indeed there is a myth of this Athtar that parallels the Fall of Lucifer in Isaiah. It is from Ugarit (modern day Ras Shamra) and says:
Thereupon Athtar the Luminous
Goes up to the crags of Saphon;
He takes his seat on the throne of Baal the Mighty.
His feet do not reach the footstool,
His head does not reach the top thereof.
Then Athtar the Luminous declares,
'I may not be king on the crags of Saphon'.
Athtar the Luminous comes down,
Down from the throne of Baal the Mighty,
And he reigns in the ground, god of it all. 27
The connection to the Isaiah passage with striving to claim a throne on Mount Saphon and descending beneath the ground is striking to say the least. This establishes a firm connection between the esoteric biblical Lucifer and Semitic Venusian divinity. John Gray writes bluntly that "this is the prototype of Lucifer, the day star." 28 This shows that there is more than poetic license being taken about the death of the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar. There really is a connection to an ancient pagan deity's Fall from on high.
The Canaanite Athtar is the son of the high god El and the high goddess Asherah and therefore doesn't match directly with the Helel son of Shahar in Isaiah. However, there is an Arabian variant of the god, also named Athtar, who is associated with the planet Venus and is descended from the sun goddess Shamshu and the moon god Shahar. 29
It is important to note that when Semitic deities are related linguistically it means they share a common root. All of the early divinities of Venus in Semitic lands are connected by word etymology. In Canaan Athtar (also Astar, Ashtar or 'Attar) and Athtart (also Astart, Ashtart, 'Attart, Astarte, or Ashtoreth) were brother and sister. J.J.M. Roberts writes:
Apparently the two names originally designated the planet Venus under its two aspects as morning star (male = 'Attar) and evening star (female = 'Attart). This distinction was preserved only in the west, however. In the east the masculine form usurped both functions, and the feminine form dropped out of normal use. Nevertheless, the East Semites appear to have retained a memory of the androgynous character of Venus which allowed the Akkadian 'Attar to develop as a goddess contrary to its grammatical gender. 30
The Arabian Athtar and Babylonian Ishtar (also Astar, Estar, Istar, Inanna) were each attributed to Venus alone. In Canaan the planet Venus was attributed to two deities. So now we see that the Arabian Athtar, the Babylonian Ishtar, and the Canaanite Athtar and Athtart have a common etymological origin.
Though Athtar was the "prototype" for Lucifer, His sister, Athtart, was the problem for the Jewish priestly caste. As can be seen from the Ugaritic text, Athtar was marginalized in this area. Not so for Athtart. She was loved by the people. In attempting to reduce Her influence, Her name was corrupted into Ashtoreth by the addition of the vowels from the Hebrew word bosheth meaning "shame." This did not diminish Her status in the eyes of the people who repeatedly chose to embrace Her as is meticulously reported on in the Tanakh, the Old Testament. According to William Harwood, "since Yahweh's prime antagonist had long been the fertility goddess identified with the planet Venus, so the Jewish Venus, Khazazel (Jewish planetary gods were all male), became the Satan." 31 It is important to note that Khazazel was attributed to Venus in both morning and evening aspects. It is, of course, from this lineage of myth that Lucifer is descended.
The evolution of Lucifer came to include androgynous elements but this was not the first time a divinity of Venus held these qualities. There are many examples of Semitic Venusian deities having androgynous traits. As was said, to the western Semites Athtar, the morning star, was male and war and Athtart, the evening star, was female and represented sexual love. The Babylonian Ishtar has many well-attested to androgynous aspects as she incorporated both of these qualities of Venus. Rivkah Harris says, "central to the goddess as paradox is her well-attested psychological and more rarely evidenced physiological androgyny. Inanna-Ishtar is both female and male. Over and over again the texts juxtapose the masculine and feminine traits and behavior of the goddess." 32 There was an epithet for Ishtar as the morning star where she is the bearded Ishtar. Harris also says, "dancing too was part of the celebration for the goddess who danced 'the whirl like a man." 33 Furthermore, Ishtar was even said to be the one "who turns men into women and women into men." 34
This brings us to the Semitic title of Queen of Heaven. This is a well-known title of Ishtar. It was also used in Canaanite lands, however. There are five references in the Book of Jeremiah to the Queen of Heaven. In this book, however, there is no statement of who exactly the Queen of Heaven is.
There are three possibilities for the Queen of Heaven in Canaanite/Jewish lands: Asherah, Athtart, and Anat. Jeffrey Burton Russell writes that they were "three goddesses whose attributes and functions were often indistinguishable." 35 It is interesting that in Ugaritic scriptures there is little mention of Athtart and that in Jewish scriptures there is no real mention of Anat. According to Raphael Patai these goddesses are likely one and the same. 36 There is the possibility that at one time they were distinct goddesses and that they later merged, however.
The goddess Asherah is a different story. She was certainly a separate goddess. As was mentioned above, by the 14th century B.C.E. Asherah had begun to merge with Athtart-Anat.
There is also a difference between the title and role as queen of heaven. While Callahan writes that "the 'queen of heaven' is a one of the titles for Ashtart" it is clear from Ugaritic and Judaic mythology that Asherah held the role. 37 Asherah was married in mythology to El, the high god, and later to Yahweh. Both of these were sovereign and as such it is not inappropriate to consider Asherah also as queen of heaven, particularly since She later merged with Athtart-Anat.
All of this leads to the idea that Lucifer can legitimately claim the title of Queen of Heaven. The view put forward by Nydle of Lucifer as the consort of Yahweh has some legitimacy. Likewise, looking at Lucifer's mythological lineage from the Semitic 'Attar(t) also qualifies Lucifer for the title. As a divine spirit of the planet Venus with feminine traits it is appropriate for Lucifer to bear the title Queen of Heaven.
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Endnotes 1. Jeffrey Burton Russell, A History of Witchcraft (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1980; reprint 2002), 54.
2. It is interesting to note that the nineteenth-century image of the androgynous Baphomet was much later than the date generally assigned to the Canon Episcopi mentioned by Russell above. This theological statement is believed to have been issued around the onset of the tenth century. As is to be expected given the popular conception of Lucifer today, the vast majority of symbolism attached to the Devil has always been masculine. Androgynous and feminine traits within divinity, even inverted as in the case of Lucifer, have always been downplayed as all elements of the sacred feminine have been since the rise of the Church of Rome.
3. Athanasius, Life of Anthony, quoted in Raymond Buckland, The Witch Book: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca, and Neo-paganism (Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press, 2002), 254.
4. Edward Nydle, "Was Satan/Heylel/Venus 'Married' to Yahweh?," [essay on-line] (accessed 20 July 2006); available from http://www.bnaiavraham.net/; Internet.
5. Ibid.
6. That Asherah was taken at one point in history as the wife of Yahweh is fairly well established. It is stated that "inscriptions show that in popular religion the Goddess Asherah was associated with Yahweh, probably as his wife" by Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1967; reprint 1990), 53.
7. Edward Nydle, "Was Satan/Heylel/Asherah 'Married' to Yahweh Part 2," [essay on-line] (accessed 20 July 2006); available from http://www.bnaiavraham.net/; Internet.
8. Tim Callahan, Secret Origins of the Bible, (Altadena, CA: Millennium Pres, 2002), 310.
9. Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, 37.
10. Kenneth Sublett, "The Great Red Dragon," [essay on-line] (accessed 20 July 2006); available from http://www.piney-2.com/; Internet.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1998), 193.
14. Maria Leach (ed), The Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend Volume Two: J-Z, (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1950), 650.
15. "Lucifer." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ (20 July 2006).
16. The New College Latin & English Dictionary (1966), s.v. "lux."
17. Ibid., s.v. "fero."
18. James Strong, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, [book on-line] (accessed 20 July 2006); available from http://www.eliyah.com/; Internet.
19. Ibid, http://www.eliyah.com/.
20. "boast." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ (20 July 2006).
21. Lee Irwin, Gnostic Tarot, (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1998), 215.
22. Cyndi Kirkpatrick, "Fool's Walk Start," [essay on-line] (accessed 20 July 2006); available from http://www.eosdev.com/; Internet.
23. "rave." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ (20 July 2006).
24. "causatively." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ (20 July 2006).
25. "stultify." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ (20 July 2006).
26. Jack Finegan, Myth & Mystery, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company, 1989; reprint 1997), 145.
27. John Gray, Near Eastern Mythology, (Middlesex, England: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 1969), 86.
28. Ibid, 128.
29. Anthonty S. Mercatante, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, (New York: Facts on File Inc., 1988), 45.
30. J.J.M. Roberts, The Earliest Semitic Pantheon: A Study of the Semitic Deities Attested in Mesopotamia Before Ur III, (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1972), 39.
31. William Harwood, Mythology's Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus, (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992), 239.
32. Rivkah Harris, "Inanna-Ishtar as a Paradox and a Coincidence of Opposites," History of Religions 30, no. 3 (February 1991): 268.
33. Ibid, 275.
34. Gwendolyn Leick, A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology, (New York: Routledge, 1991; reprint 1998), 97.
35. Jeffrey Burton Russell, The Devil (New York: Cornell University Press, 1977; reprint 1987), 94.
36. Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, 55.
37. Callahan, Secret Origins of the Bible, 310.
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