Hi,
Reading through the various Sumerian and gnostic Christian traditions,
I have repeatedly come across Lilith. A most interesting personality
that Freud would have had a field day with - basically lots of *** and
violence. The etymology, according to Wikipedia, is based on wind or
night, depending on what you're reading. I think it would be
reasonable to interpret this as "uncertain". The myths that survive
also seem to convey that the reader/listener would have a good
understanding of - or at least a familiarity with - Lilith already.
Inanna, who usually seems linked with Lilith, also seems to have a
mysterious etymology. Again, Wikipedia describes it as uncertain.
Inanna is also associated with *** and violence (Mary Whitehouse would
have hated this pair). A number of books I've read describe her as
being folded into existing similar deities, rather than being renamed,
and that Inanna is not the same as Ishtar but that Ishtar expanded to
include the attributes of Inanna when Sumeria was overrun by the
Semitic peoples, in the same way Inanna had previously expanded by
absorbing various minor female Sumerian deities and demigoddesses.
Various Indo-European traditions also have a goddess with a similar
job description. Brigga, the goddess of the Brigantes, for example,
and the Morriagan of the Irish, are war goddesses and *** goddesses,
but (as with both Lilith and Inanna) very specifically not fertility
goddesses.
Would it be reasonable to infer that these are derived from a single,
common figure that pre-dates Sumerian culture, and that the merging of
Inanna with Ishtar, et al, was as much a reunification process as an
assimilation?
(ie: at least as far back as where Indo-European, Semitic and Sumerian
cultures diverged)
Since we don't know any pre-Indo-European myths directly, can only
reconstruct some names, and can't be certain religious figures didn't
have multiple names anyway - as is the case with Hinduism and
Zoroastrianism, I'm assuming that a common origin would be extremely
hard to prove or disprove. The question can really only be one of
reasonableness. By that, I mean that if it can be shown Inanna and
Lilith are likely of Sumerian origin or, if earlier, not by very much,
or if Brigga can be shown to probably post-date PIE, then a common
origin is unreasonable.
If a common origin is plausible, are there any myths in the Semitic,
Indo-European and/or Sumerian archives which are more likely to
originate from before the split than after?
(Again, that one's tough, but there are fairly respectable traditions
recorded by all three groups of peoples, even though the Semitic
traditions post-date the overrunning of Sumeria and therefore can't be
considered wholly free of Sumerian influence.)
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