Hi Stormdancer,
quote:
Originally posted by Stormdancer
Are Mt. Zion and Mt. Zaphon the same place?
No. The confusion probably stems from the fact that the Hebrew term for "north" is "tsaphon". This is likely the underlying root term that led to the proper name for Mt. Zaphon itself.
Mt. Zaphon is a mountain in northern Syria. In Ugaritic myth it is the mountain of baal.
Compare this with Ps. 48:1-2 which says, "Great is YHWH, and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God, the mountain of his holiness. (2)Beautiful on high, the joy of all the earth is Mount Zion, in the sides of the north (tsaphon)."
The entire phrase "the sides of the north" is better translated as the "uttermost recesses of the north". Thus, the descriptions of both Mt. Zaphon in Syria and Mt. Zion in Judea, both seem to reflect elements of a much earlier mythological motif which spoke of a world mountain in the uttermost recesses of the north in which a god presided over the heavenly assembly and decreed the appointments of the ages.
Hindu myth also contains this ancient mythological reference in their allusions to a Mt. Meru, where the circumpolar stars ever circle without setting; i.e. the north polar axis or the "uttermost recesses of the north".
The point raised in your post is one piece of a huge and extremely interesting subject. Have you ever read a book titled, "Hamlet's Mill" by Giorgio De Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend? This is not new age pap, IIRC, Santillana is a history professor at MIT and Von Dechend was a history professor at Frankfurt.
Brief quote from "Hamlet's Mill" introduction: "The reservoir of myth and fable is great, but there are morphological 'markers' for what is not mere storytelling of the kind that comes naturally."
Namaste'
Amlodhi
[This message has been edited by Amlodhi, 02-02-2004]
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