A story yet untold reveals that Istanbul is unique in a wholly unexpected way: It is the only city in which Satan is living peacefully between two gods. Why and how? Let me try to explain.
A War…
In 499 BC Persians decided to conquer “Greek Peninsula”. Many ferocious wars were fought, on land and sea, small and big, started by Greeks or the Persians, and it was until ~450 BC that Persians remained the rulers of Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace.
In 479 the Persians were defeated by a united “south”, with Sparta and Athens being the two leaders of the defence, in which 31 Greek city-states, small and big in size, came to act together, and although Persians took control of and burned down Athens, the united army retreated to Isthmus of Corinth, from which they managed to drive Persian army away in a decisive victory, again on both land and sea.
20 years of fear and unrest was over. What would you do if you were in then Greeks’ shoes?
… and a Tripod
You have heard of Greek mythology either, I believe. There is the big god Zeus, his wife Hera, his daughter Athena and son Ares… Nice stories, all made up. Poseidon, for example, is a very young god compared to the others, being founded rather late in history, but officially he’s a sibling of Zeus, the god of gods. Surprising? Well, think of Marduk becoming god of gods and be surprised after that.
So, the war was over and the victory seemed decisive – though for a long while they needed to fend Persians away from Macedonia and Thrace. Then they thought: We should do something to keep this memory alive for the rest of the days. They went to Olympia and thanked Zeus, for he’s the god of the gods and is a god on land. Then they went to Isthmus and thanked Poseidon, for he’s the god of the sea. Then they did a rather unexpected thing: Went to Delphi to thank Apollo, for he’s… Well, what the hell is he? Let’s ask Wikipedia:
Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt.
Some Mythological Facts
The most intense part of this whole post, I hope I can make myself clear enough because not only this is the backbone of my whole story but also is where I expect to receive the most criticism. First, some facts:
- Sumerian gods travelled north-west to Levant, then to Cyprus, and reached Greece.
- Gods might change over time – their names, attributes, powers… might be taken from them or some other attributes or powers might be given to them, but the gods never perish. Trace a little, and you’ll find the original of most of the gods elsewhere.
- Sumer was something between henotheistic and polytheistic: There were the cities and their patron deities, which were recognized among a large piece of land. I, being from Eridu, didn’t need to drop Enki and “worship” Inanna because I went to Uruk, for example, but I somehow recognized her as something.
- Halfway relevant for now, Judaism started a henotheistic religion as well, which is why Moses’ G-d was competing with and challenging other gods almost all the time. It never became monotheistic as such, for although there are lot more books in the rest of Tanakh than the Torah, the latter had to somehow relate to the former – hence here we are.
- Islam, especially theologically, is a lot more close to Judaism than Christianity. You wouldn’t lose much if you’d remove Judaism from Christianity, but there’d not be much left if you did the same with Islam.
One Guy, Two Guys, and Many Guys
Now, here comes the twist I offer.
We know two things:
- Apollo was one of the three gods that received dedications.
- The dedication made to Apollo was a sacrificial tripod, known as the Serpent Column, which is made of three intertwined bronze snakes.
Here I ask: Why snakes? Apollo has nothing to do with snakes – well, if you exclude python, which he hunted. Why, why would they decide on a snake – or a whopping three of them?
Mythological knowledge never disappears. It takes new forms, maybe, or changes and forms a shape with another, but is never lost. Hence, we need to look at Apollo and snake together – and ask: What might be the relationship?
Please keep in mind that Apollo is supposed to somehow relate to one of the bigger/superior deities, for otherwise he’d not be revered as highly.
Who do you, those that have some knowledge of Sumerian pantheon, think that Apollo might be formed from – or resembles in great enough of an extent? My answer is that he’s one form of Enki, yet one that has gone through a lot during his journey.
And what makes me think so? Well, four things above others:
- Both are the sons of “god of gods”, above whom are two more levels – Apu and Anshar over Enki and Gaia and Kronos over Zeus.
- Both are siblings to extremely powerful and important deities.
- Both are revered highly across the land.
- Both are directly related to knowledge and medicine.
This last one is the most important for my case. I may remind that these four aren’t the whole list of “facts” but are what are the easiest to grasp.
If I am right, we have found the common point. Now we need to visualize it.
The Greatest Epic of All Times
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a text that everyone, literally everyone has to read at least once. It tells the story of, as its name suggests, Gilgamesh. It asks: Why we die? And answers – no, I won’t tell the answer. Please read it. You won’t regret. You can’t regret.
Two things from this epic are important for our case. First, it tells that Enlil, Enki’s “angry” and “feared than loved” brother, so sick of the noise of the humans, decides to wipe humankind from the face of Earth. He makes all gods promise that they wouldn’t talk “face to face” with humans and not stymie his efforts. Enki, the “loved that feared” god acts like “Prometheus” in some sense, finds a human, Ziusudra (or Utnapishtim), tells him, precisely the way told in the Torah, to make a ship, of this material and of that size, and save humankind from the coming deluge, for his brother has gone mad.
Ziusudra follows his orders and builds the ship. Seeing them aboard, Enlil gets angry but somehow doesn’t sink the ship. Then the deluge is over, they come out of the ship, make sacrifices and praise gods, Enlil’s heart softens and says: Nay, I’ll not try to wipe them off any more.
Second, Ziusudra becomes immortal and, together with his wife, is one of the two humans that were allowed to live in Dilmun, the holy island on which the gods live. Gilgamesh’s travel leads him to meet this man who gives Gilgamesh a plant. As Gilgamesh was bathing, comes the snake and steals the plant. The result? Snake becomes immortal, changing skin as it’s to die, but also it becomes wise, the wisest of animals – like elephants for Buddhists or Hindus or wolves for old Turkic people.
The Snake
We, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim folk are well acquainted with the tale that it was the snake that told Eve to eat the fruit. But why? Why snake? Because it’s been the symbol of trickery and deception?
Not quite so. Across the globe we find religions, cults, faiths, beliefs… that revere snakes. Snake is wise, it’s knowledgeable. Having eternal life since Gilgamesh, it’s related to medicine as well. No, Enki (to the best of my knowledge) has never been depicted as a snake. Waters come out of his shoulders, or he’s surrounded by flowing water, but not snake. In Sumer, it’s Ningishzida that’s depicted as or with snake. Hence snake is not the depiction of the god itself, it’s something related to him, and in this case indirectly.
There’s more to the story: When Satan talked to Eve, he told her to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. What’s told us is that they came to realize that they were naked, they came to realize their own selves. Another version tells that they ate the fruit that would make them immortal, but they were “immortal” anyway, that was the initial plan – at least theoretically. Had Eve not eaten the fruit, the two were to be immortal like angels.
Snake knows, snake is knowledgeable. Snake gives health as it’s immortal. Snake is Enki, Enki is snake. Here comes the last question: Why Enki became the Satan?
Some More Mythology
Religions, just like cultures, borrow from each other. Look at Judaism, for example: At the core, as I said above, it’s henotheistic: There are a number of gods, we know about them all, but worship one of them. Later, both as Jewish people came to meet other religions and as the “house of God”, the Temple of Solomon was demolished and Judaism needed to adopt to the new conditions, it not only changed in shape but also in essence.
What happened? First I should say that some people search for Judaism’s origins in Egypt but I’m more than sure that it was “Sumer”. Worship of G-g highly resembles the worship of Sumerian gods (and their Akkadian and Babylonian counterparts) than Egyptian gods, as do the structure, organization, and the outlook of the religion.
Then: Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish, is dated c. 7th century BC. What does this date coincide with? Babylonian exile (or captivity if you will). The aim wasn’t to rid the land of the idea of G-d, G-d was no significant god anyway but this coincidence led to something utterly unexpected: The idea of one god was imported from Babylonians, which was imported from Zoroastrian Persians, and suddenly the fall of the temple became less important than it otherwise would be: G-d’s house might have been burned down, but he still was in their minds and hearts. Maybe what mattered was his metaphysical existence than physical existence?
Jews didn’t import dualism, though. They didn’t have the time or energy for that. Shift from a physical god to a metaphysical one already was time and energy consuming. The idea, though, was imported by some latter Jews: Christians.
We know, from the Gospels, that Jesus son of God, this time neither G-d nor god, had something to do with Satan. The identity of this new character is rather ambiguous and might be, if I am allowed, summarized as “God who is not godly”: Jesus owns all the goods and leaves all bad to him. Still, Satan isn’t an as effective character as we find in Islam: He still is more like the Satan that drove Adam and Eve off the Garden of Eden. He is more of incentive to do bad than a person that calls for us to be bad.
Islam benefited greatly from Judaism and Christianity, but lot more from the former than the latter. One big step that it took was getting closer to Zoroastrianism in putting a “rival” against Allah, and exactly the way in Zoroastrianism: Ahura Mazda is a god, god of gods while Ahriman is but an “evil spirit”, the highest one at that. In Islam, Allah is the only god, and his adversary is a fallen angel, Shaytan/Iblis. A mere coincidence, eh?
Ward of Evil
Analyses are always problematic: We look at what happened and try to connect the dots with our existing knowledge. Finding a “new” religion is like doing analysis: We have some ideas and we “borrow” from others for our ideas to be more easily accepted.
I said that the gods of Abrahamic religions highly resemble Enlil. Enlil and Enki, as I said above, are siblings and the two, well, don’t seem to fancy each other that much. That’s because of their personalities and I won’t repeat what I already told above.
All but one question is left to answer, I said: Why was it Enki that became Satan? This question can be reversed a bit: Why was it Enlil that became G-d, God, and then Allah?
I can offer three stories but I’d rather be straightforward and simple: Whose orders would you rather follow? An angry and feared god’s or a sweet and loved god’s? May Machiavelli give the answer:
It is much safer to be feared than loved because … love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.
Moses needed an angry god to make his people follow his orders. Jesus, although is presented as if he was as nice as Buddha, said the following (Matthew 10:35):
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
What does it remind? Correct, Genesis 3:15:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
None of Abrahamic religions’ gods is loving or positive – especially old and new Judaisms’. They’d love to crash and burn themselves even, had they the chance. At this point you may ask: How do we know that these gods are built upon the older ones? I believe that I’ve answered the question, yet I may make a last attempt:
Muhammad’s father’s name is Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, meaning Abdullah son of the slave of Muttalib. You see the connection: Abd means the slave of. Abdullah, the slave of Allah. Now cut Allah in two: al-ilah, the god. Not a god but the god. The name was used before Islam, not surprisingly, and came to have another meaning after it: It is no more the god of gods but is the one and only god. La ilahe ilallah means no ilah (god) other than (illa) Allah.
Religion, rather strangely, works like some sort of combination of science and culture: It gathers from around, is affected from what’s going on, but also grows. Faiths become cults, cults become religions, religions then merge or divide. One god appears, then comes others. When there are many gods, then things get out of hand and they are united. When the idea of one supreme god becomes logical, then some other aspects are found. Allah might be good, but in out faith his this aspect is more important – so important that you can, if you will, consider it a separate religion. It doesn’t make sense any more? There always is space for new gods!
Religions are regional, also they are sequential. I just mentioned above: Henotheist pantheon of Sumer is borrowed by Jews and they built their religion upon this idea. Then came Zoroastrianism over Babylon, and with the help of Babylonian exile, they came to create a “non-physical” god for themselves. This idea was taken by Christians, they said “God cannot be seen, though he came as Jesus (or sent his son Jesus) to walk among us”. This transition was completed by Islam which argued that Allah never had physical form, and there is some kind of dualism in the world where Allah “competes against” Iblis – or vice versa, choose the one you like.
Enki and Enlil
I was in London on new year’s eve. We went to watch the fireworks on one of the bridges and returned. On the way back an elder guy came to me and said “God bless ye”. Why? Because I had the 3£ KJV Bible with me. I was so astonished with not only how almost the whole Book of Genesis was full of Sumerian stories but also how Moses, or the authors, rather, got almost everything so wrong. Reading Quran once more after reading Old Testament struck me precisely the same way: Muhammad had heard stories from the Bible but got many of them so wrong, I couldn’t believe.
Take the story of Abel and Cain, for example. The story of Dumuzid and Enkimdu is the original version, which ends with the two making peace in the end. This is a recreation of the Emesh and Enten story, which again ends in peace. The Jewish version? The first murder. Normal, I assume, as Sumerian supreme god is Anu, a nice guy while Jewish “supreme” god is Enlil, a bad one. There never is peace in the Old Testament. Never.
If your good god is Enlil, your best bet on the bad one is his sibling – and given that he’s not innocent, by saving humankind from eradication and giving them wisdom and even, wait for it, creating humans in the first place, he’s precisely what Enlil is not.
Conclusion
Now let’s bring them all together.
Enlil is the god of Christians and Muslims. The Satan is Enki, some sort of the chief “adversary” of him. Enki’s signs lead us to Apollo, to whom the Serpent Column is dedicated. And the crescendo: Apollo’s, hence Enki’s Serpent Column has been standing tall and proud for almost 1700 years at the center of Hippodrome of Constantinople, on one side of which sits the temple of the Christian god, Hagia Sophia, and on the other sits the temple of the Muslim god, Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque).
