the Battle Virgin
Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on February 14, 2000 at 01:35:49:
In Reply to: Re: Celtic groups were once in hennaeing regions, but waaaaaay back when posted by Catherine Nielsen on February 13, 2000 at 19:56:54:
There are two extremely early goddess prototypes that hennaed in the
eastern Mediterranean region ..... (7000 BCE to 1500 BCE) ... the
virgin warrior - fertility goddess and the love - sea - fertility
goddess. The early names of the Virgin Warrior goddesses were Anath,
Inat, Tanit, Al'lat, ..... and she's closely related to Inanna.
Probably Lillith too. Later versions were Nike, Athena . Artemis
may be closer to a lunar diety, but I'm not sure. These seem to be
related to a primary Neolithic eastern Mediterranean battlefield
goddess. The earliest epic poems from the Ugarits (3000 BCE) mention
specifically that Anath hennaed her hands before wreaking vengeance on
Mot(summer heat) , who had murdered her two lovers, Baal (rain) and
Aliyan (abundant vegetation) . I suppose there was a cult of the
virgin warrior .... there sure are plenty of her amulets and
statuettes around .... she was responsible for restoring rain and
growth after the summer heat every year ( she went to the underworld
to bring them back to save humankind from thirst and famine) . There
are old statues of her with her raised hennaed hands in the position
of a virgin bride on her dais at the night of the henna. Anath never
married and had children, though. She reminds me more of an eternal
WWF babe, always vanquishing evil so life can be renewed. She had
lovers, and was a symbol of fertility, but she just never got around
to settling down.
There are records of warriors hennaeing themselves for valor from
Cyrus the Great (ancient Persia) to 19th century Turkey. Into the
early 20th century, in Bedouin tribes, there was still a designated
"Battle Virgin" who would strip naked, leap onto a camel and lead the
tribes warriors into the terratorial battles .... and the Battle
Virgin was NEVER harmed during these skirmishes.
The Love - sea - fertility goddess was Asherah, Astarte, Ishtar,
Atiratu, Aphrodite. She is certainly depicted in her statues that show
colors on hands as having hennaed hands, and often hennaed breasts,
harquus and the whole array of female cosmetics. Brides, wives and
prostitutes hennaed as part of devotion to Asherah. (or similar
goddesses by other names)