Hislop and the Mother Child Religion

   The argument used by Alexander Hislop to explain the mystery religion or, the mother - child worship predominant in the Catholic church is that every false religion in the world is connected to the worship of a woman named Semiramis and her child, Tammuz, the reincarnation of Nimrod. His argument is that the mother-child religion flooded the entire world after the fall of Babel to honor or replicate the worship of Semiramis and Tammuz. He claims that these are the same beings with different names since the languages had changed. 

    His argument, based upon his research, is that Mary and Jesus are simply imitations of Semiramis and Tammuz reintroduced into religion and the birth of Christ Jesus was a replacement for this ancient Babylonian mystery religion. He ignores any reference to the rise of fertility cults consisting of a variety of deities that dominated the Mesopotamia. 

   History shows that the Mesopotamia was filled with a mixed combination of occult  rituals, idol worshippers and a saturation of fertility religions post-flood. History has no mention of a woman named Semiramis until the 8th century BC, long after the tower of Babel fell and Nimrod no longer walked the earth. Her memory was expounded upon and included in the writings of many Greek historians beginning with Greek physician and historian, Ctesias (5-4th C BC) who connected her to a mythological character, King Ninus. 

   According to Greek mythology, King Ninus ruled Assyria in 3000 BC. These myths and legends are what many historians, including Alexander Hislop, based their research on. 

   Below is a chart that demonstrates Hislop's claims of the emergence of the mother - child religions that spread throughout the world after Babel scattered. From a list of more than 200 fertility cults we have 9 examples, a .045% ratio of mother and child religions. That leaves 191 fertility religions that did not result in a mother-child religion, a ratio of 95.5%.  Not very good odds if you ask me. 

   Upon closer inspection you will find that these weren't established religions at all, just female deities' from various cultures who had children. Children were not uncommon as many gods or goddesses had flings or romantic ties with each other or were involved with some sort of infatuation with humans; for example, Aphrodite and Adonis. From these unions came children, yet, very few resulted in a religious culture defined by rites or rituals. 

   This chart is based upon the writing presented by Alexander Hislop in The Two Babylons  and various teachings of the mother-child religion found in the church today. 

  In Hislop's creation of  Semiramis he claims that she was really Ishtar and Isis, two well documented goddesses of ancient history; Isis, goddess of Egypt (2300 BC) and Ishtar, the Akkadian and Babylonian goddess, aka: Inanna, the Sumerian goddess (4000 BC Uruk). In the writings of Hislop, Semiramis is the mother of Tammuz, and since Hislop has already paired Semiramis as Ishtar then, Ishtar magically becomes the mother of Tammuz as well. 

   See how this works? 

 Historically, the goddess Ishtar was childless. Tammuz was her boyfriend, not her son. So the first one is factually incorrect. 

   So, now we have 8. 

   In Phoenicia, Asherah, queen of heaven, wife of El, was the mother of Ba'al. Asherah and Ba'al were the gods that Jezebel, the Tyre-Sidonian princess worshiped. Astarte, was a daughter of Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun. Her legacy often ties her as Asherah but her Egyptian origins and attributes set her far apart from the Phoenician Queen. Astarte was a mother goddess, a fertility goddess, a moon goddess, a protection goddess, a huntress and a warrior goddess. 

   According to Hislop, Astarte was the mother of Ba'al, while history claims Astarte was the goddess of the hunt who Ba'al desired, she was not his mother. She was a celestial protection goddess who traveled to earth to deliver messages suggesting she was a goddess introduced by the craftiness of a fallen angel. She was not a Queen of Heaven, as that title was already taken by Asherah. 

   In all historical context, Astarte settled in Phoenicia but originated in Egypt during the 18th dynasty of Pharoah Amenophis II, more recognized as the Pharoah Amenhotep or, Pharoah of the Exodus. The numerous Phoenician trade routes and wide range of nomadic people may explain how she became a goddess recognized by the Phoenicians. Astarte had one child, an Egyptian god of desert and earth. His name was Hauron, son of Ra. As Astarte was daughter of Ra, then her son was also her brother. 

   Astarte became the consort or companion of Ba'al and perhaps his lover as suggested in some ancient texts. Astarte was not Ba'als mother so again, this (#2) is factually incorrect. Even if we were to correct this with Asherah, Asherah and Ba'al were never worshipped as mother-child or as a trinity of El, Asherah and Ba'al. Each were worshipped independently of one another, having their own set of rituals and pagan rites. Asherah had her Asherah poles and high places and Ba'al was worshiped with bloodletting and human sacrifice.  

   Hislop continued to tie Astarte with Venus and both with Semiramis, along with doves and eggs in preparation to bind them to Easter just as he had done with Ishtar. He continues to go round and round with this. The Two Babylons, Chapter III, Section II, Easter. 

   That leaves 7, a .035% ratio of potential mother-child religions. 

   Sometimes Asherah is referred to as the mother of Tammuz because both were worshipped within the same time period in Canaanite and Phoenicia, which seemed to tie the two together. But, Tammuz has established parentry (see below) and his origins were Sumerian while Asherah's origins are northern, Phoenician or possibly even Assyrian.  We have to keep in mind that the Phoenicians were great seafarers and tradesmen sailing all along the Mediterranean and Black Seas (and beyond) establishing trade routes. This was how Ba'al worship and the dark arts of the occult spread so rapidly within the early civilizations. 

    The original Queen of Heaven was Inanna, the Sumerian goddess that emerged from the city of Uruk around 4000 BC. If Israel had a Queen of Heaven, that would have been the Phoenician / Canaanite goddess Asherah, wife of El, mother of Ba'al. Tammuz wasn't her son, Ba'al was, but, Hislop documents Nimrod as being the same as the sun-god Ba'al and since Tammuz is the reincarnation of Nimrod, Tammuz is Nimrod who is the same as Ba'al so Ba'al is obviously Tammuz. 

    Are you beginning to see how this works? 

    Note: in historical texts the Phoenician and Canaanite god Ba'al was the storm god, the thunder god, not the sun god. 

    The father of Dumuzid from Sumerian tradition was the primary god Enki. His mother was Dutter, goddess of ewes. This placed Dumuzi or Dumuzid as a child god of pastures and livestock: sheep and ewes.  In the Akkadian and Babylonian traditions,  Davkina, mistress of the vine is the mother of Tammuz and his father was El or Ea, primary god of the Mesopotamia. This is documented in the Babylonian Lamentations a series of cuneiform tablets translated in 1906, 40 years after the death of Alexander Hislop.  

    So we are down to 7 potential mother-child religions, a ratio of .035% of the more than 200 fertility cults that dominated the Mesopotamia and supposedly made their way into the ancient Egyptian, Israeli, Canaanite, Syrian, Grecian and Roman societies and eventually into the world. 

   Hislop further claims that Isis is Semiramis and also the mother of Tammuz but this time the child's name has changed to Horus because the languages were confounded at the tower of Babel. But that is easily done because Nimrod is the child's father in the form of Ninus who is Kronos (or Cronos) who is really Osiris, making Nimrod the same being as Osiris. In his reincarnated state, Nimrod became Tammuz but Nimrod is also Ninus who is Kronos who is Osiris, father of Horus, making the father and son the same being. 

   Round and Round we go. 

   In Egypt, Osiris, (a mythical Egyptian god and king of Egypt), was the husband and brother of Isis. Their child, born from the incestuous brother-sister marriage, was Horus.  This may have been where Hislop had gotten the idea to place Semiramis in the role of Nimrod's mother. Incestuous relationships between the gods and goddess, while not overtly common, were not uncommon even though Nimrod and Semiramis were human. 

   Isis was a mother who protected her son / nephew from an evil uncle which is compared to Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt to protect the Christ, from King Herod. This is apparently what ties Isis to Mary, the mama-bear similarities in the histories of motherhood. While Isis was a fictional goddess, Mary was a genuine flesh and blood mother. 

   The Egyptian Isis, (2300 BC), was a powerful and influential goddess figure. She was not worshipped because she was the mother of Horus but because she was favored and loved among the Egyptians. She was viewed as an powerful entity having magical healing power over life and death. Isis also had the power of resurrection, as she resurrected her brother / husband from the dead. By this feat she became associated with the rites of the dead, helping others move from the earthly realm into the eternal one. Isis is a complete goddess who can stand alone without Osiris or Horus. Not much of a mother-child religion. Instead we simply have a god and goddess who had a child. 

   So, now we are down to 6. 

   This ploy used by Hislop was a clever ruse to mix and match many goddesses throughout history. And, most people do not have common knowledge concerning the ancient deities, so, easy to pull off. I have considered that Hislop was lacking knowledge but what he does to twist the meaning behind several of his 'resources' convinces me otherwise. I believe this is why he uses the 'these are the same person but the names have changed after Babel scattered' theory. 

   These are individual gods and goddesses intimately bound to worshipping cultures and people groups that had become the target of Alexander Hislop's mad time-mapping. These advancing cultures independently worshiped their chosen gods and goddesses identified by their individual characteristics and unique properties. As people culturally progressed over time, so did their deities to meet the needs of those who worship them. The rise of the early gods and goddesses is complex but they had been a stable fixation in the lives of the men and woman since the earliest post-flood civilizations. 

   From several hundred Egyptian deities, there were dozens of fertility gods and goddesses, protecting and guaranteeing the births of many children. Fertility was king, and many fertility deities dominated the kingdoms with the promise of many children. It was not unusual to find fertility deities with child as children were blessings sent by the gods. 

   Cybele, was an Anatolian (Turkey, Asia Minor) goddess from the 5th century BC.  According to the legends surrounding her, she was the mother of ALL gods and goddesses, past and present. Cybele is the most interesting goddess of ancient history who was well known in Greek mythology as well as the later Roman cultures. Cybele is often portrayed  with a belly full of babies, the gods and goddesses of the world. Sure, this mysterious Desius or Deoius may have been one of her many, many children, though Deoius is a descriptive word generally used as an adjective which means 'belonging to' or 'sacred'. I believe this is a simple error in translation and not an actual 'child' or 'god'. 

    Hislop's reference for this claim is: Dtmock's (Dymock) Classical Dictionary, "Cybele" and Deoius. 

    In the dictionary referenced by Hislop, Cybele (pg 234) is defined by a single word: Rhea, and that's it. Rhea is found on page 739 with a long entry but no mention of Deoius or Desius. Nor is there a separate entry for this mysterious 'child' of Cybele. The entry under Rhea connects Rhea as the 'mother of the gods' to Cybele only because they have the same title. The definition under Rhea associates Cybele with Dionysus. Dionysus is listed with a time setting revolving around the first century or, the time of Herodias. (found on page 264) 

   (This online dictionary circa: 1788 AD, is an awesome find and if you're into this sort of thing, a must have for your digital library.) 

   The dictionary has a listing for Semiramis as well. On page 799, she is mentioned along with Ninus as 'the mythical founders of Nineveh' in 2182 B.C.  (Nineveh is one of the oldest known cities of the northern Mesopotamia and dates back to 5000 B.C.) This entry lists Semiramis as the daughter of the Assyrian fish goddess, Derceto, which is Greek for Ataratha or Atargatis which simply means Syrian Goddess. The fish goddess can be traced back to its Assyrian origins beginning around 3000 B.C. 

   Atargatis had the face of a woman and the body of a fish. Semiramis was abandoned by her fish goddess mother and was fed by doves until she was found by a fisherman. The fisherman  took her home and raised her as his own. This, as the story goes is how, years later, she met an Assyrian soldier by the name of Onnes. Onnes was instantly smitten by her beauty and quickly asked for her hand in marriage. This union ended in tragedy for Onnes, as king Ninus took one look at the ravishing beauty and claimed her as his own wife. This story  originated with Greek historian Ctesias circa 500-400 BC. This was the story that  connected Semiramis to the dove later used by Hislop in his writings. Interesting that this tale is found in a 1788 dictionary. :)  

    I wonder if Desius or Deoius is to be intended of Dionysus who Cybele was closely associated with? The reference by Alexander Hislop is brief and there is not much information connected with it and virtually no surviving information on Deoius or Desius if he existed. The Two Babylons: Section II - The Mother and Child, and the Original of the Child. 

   Cybele is assigned only two organic children in history. These children were assigned to her by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the 2nd century BC but neither are named Desius. She didn't just have two children but her legacy points to her as the mother creator of all gods and goddesses who are nothing more than mythical characters. Again, not the mother-child religious cult that Hislop claims; more like a 'mother of all' religious sect -  defining the role of the 'Great Mother' figure. The Cybele cults were not based upon a mother-child religion, so, this is also factually incorrect. Now, the list shrinks to 5 possible mother-child cults, a ratio of .025%. 

   The Cybele cult had many odd and unusual rituals. 

   Cybele was known in the Roman culture as the Great Mother or Magna Mater. As the Cybele cult grew in Rome (204 BC), eunuch priests called the Galli were formed. Many of these Galli sects were adopted by the Roman senate as well as the Roman elite. These sects were wrought with sexual indecency, castrations, self-mutilations, and effeminate men with gaudy feminine dress, and even gaudier makeup.  

   A statement on learnreligions.com claims that (paraphrasing) goddess Cybele is making a comeback due to the rise of pagan cults and the transgender movement.

   These Cybele cults eventually died out after the rise of Christianity. 

   Eros is the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Cupid. In the earlier, Classical Greek writings, Eros was one of the first gods to exist as a divine being, eternal and without parents. He was the constant companion of the goddess Aphrodite, not her son. 

    Her and Eros were not worshiped as mother and son in early mythology as Eros was the companion of Aphrodite. But, then the status changed. Eros went from companion to son in the space of an era, removed from a god of preexistence to the son of Aphrodite. Once he was radically transformed from a primary first god, into a youthful child during the Hellenistic period his worship status was diminished from primary god to a god of love and desire. Aphrodite was born pregnant with Eros per the 'newer' mythology. 

   She also had many lovers, many of those mortal men. She gave celestial birth to many children becoming a mother goddess. Eros was removed from his divine beginning as a parentless god and he became the child born from the union of Aphrodite and Ares, Cronos, or Zeus (Aphrodite's father) depending on who documented the story, He became one of many children from many different unions. If Semiramis had only one child, Tammuz, how can she be compared with Aphrodite who had many? 

   And this is the problem (or fascination) with mythology, anyone can reinvent the stories and the legends, removing divine attributes from one god and transfer them to another or recreate them altogether. It all depends on who is documenting the story and the persuasive manner in which is is documented. Afterall, it's based upon mythology and fictional characters who have no set guidelines. The final determination falls upon the audience, and the willingness to accept the transformation.  Once the audience is captivated the transformation is complete.  

   So now, the list is down to 4. 4 mother-child cults from over 200 fertility sects and cults that thrived throughout the Mesopotamia? Those are not very good odds. That is .02% 

   But, this I believe is why Alexander Hislop began in the earliest times of human history connecting a questionable wife to Nimrod that can't be verified as factual by historical evidence. Her non-existence can be proven easier than her existence as there are no historical documents or artifacts even suggesting a wife of Nimrod or the existence of a dominant mother - child mystery religion in the Mesopotamia. (Perhaps this is why he dubbed it a 'mystery', since it can't be found to exist.)

   Hislop remedies that quickly by suggesting that the religion was so well protected that it moved underground and was practiced in absolute secrecy. This secret religious fanatism was so vastly effective that it lasted well over 4,000 years until it found its home in the Catholic church. 

   It is my belief that Hislop created this elusive 'mystery' religion as a means to tie Semiramis to the 'mystery' woman of Revelation 17, the woman of the apocalypse. Hislop must have been stumped with the use of mystery and set out to explain it by way of a 'mystery religion'. 

   Venus was the Roman fertility goddess of love and sexual pleasure, and the mother of Cupid. Venus came to Rome from Latin cultures. She was the wife of the god Vulcan but her son was a product of her union with the god Mercury. Venus was well known for her beauty as well as her sexually permissiveness. She was involved with many gods and nearly as many humans. Cupid, was a youthful and overtly playful god of love. Cupid is most envisioned as the god who comes out to play on Valentines day; stringing his bow with the arrows of love, preparing to pierce a young lovers heart.   

   There were Roman festivals honoring the goddess Venus but not much in the way of honoring Cupid or together in the form of a mother-child religion; even though they were often portrayed together in paintings; Venus in her birthday suit and Cupid, forever trapped in the body of a small child. 

   So, sorry, this one must be ruled out too. 

   In Rome there was also a goddess named Fortuna or Lady Luck, Lady of Fortune. I could have added her to the list but, this one is just too simple. Many have linked her to a son named Jupiter. In mythology Jupiter was her father, and not her son. We must always be wary of mother-child claims and those who twist the myths. 

   The final Isi and Aswara are a mystery to me. These appear to be deities of India with Isi being a 'mother goddess'. Unfortunately, I have no clue as to who they are or how they are worshipped. I will look into these two at a future date and perhaps do a quick update. So, for now, I will leave this one as 'unknown'.

   I think we have enough. 

   All we have are myths and legends and the writings of one man who changed an entire chapter of the bible into his own creation. 

   So, 4 of 9 or .02% taken from the chart above may be a possible mother-child religion that grew from the more than 200 fertility cults that dominated the post-flood Mesopotamia and spread into the pre-modern world. That leaves 196 that were not, a ratio of .98% I don't see how his thesis would hold up in a court of law or even logically in the minds of rational human beings. But, it's here, taught as a historical and even a Biblical narrative in the church today. 

  And don't even get me started on how he twisted and gave new meaning to his references! I am only on page 45 in my in-depth dissection of the book and already uncovered several errors and misquotes. I may do an update on a few just to show how he manipulated many of  his 'references.' Hislop takes single sentences out of historical documents and books written by scholar's such as the German scholar Christen C.J. Bunsen and twists them into interpretations that support his documentation. Ugh! With the digital age, most of these references are catalogued online, digitally copied into PDF or book-like formats such as the 1877 dictionary referenced above. 

   Jesus and Mary were actual people, not a creation of mythology. To put Jesus into this category by Alexander Hislop is a slap in the face to Biblical history, and makes a mockery of the church when taught as a biblical narrative. 

   To follow the teachings of Hislop you need to hold a firm belief in the mystery religion of Semiramis, Nimrod and Tammuz as the reincarnation of Nimrod. Mary and Jesus were simply imitations of Semiramis and Tammuz reintroduced into religion and the birth of Christ Jesus was a replacement for this ancient mystery Babylonian religion, that has only one source of reference: Alexander Hislop. 

   You would also need to rely on an undocumented and unproven account of a marriage between a woman named Semiramis and Nimrod - a man who is only mentioned four or five times in the Bible to make Hislop's theory a reality. 

   In fact, the land of Shinar is mentioned more times than Nimrod taking into account that scripture focuses on an unspoken thread surrounding specific areas, kings, kingdoms and the ruling cities that dominated those lands. Cities and land masses are often defined according to their relationship to Yahweh in the Old Testament. The cities are spoken of as harlots, wives, widows, mistresses or brides using metaphoric terminology defining them as women. The use of kingdoms and kings often point to the final Kingdom of Yeshua Hamashiach with New Jerusalem as his bride in the last days. 

   Something did indeed rise from the bowels of Babel, in the Land of Shinar, something darker and far more sinister than fertility cults. And, we've only begun to scratch the surface. 

   

This will be updated as needed as I continue through with the research.