Magic square
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In recreational mathematics, a magic square of order n is an arrangement of n2
numbers, usually distinct integers, in a square, such that the n numbers in all
rows, all columns, and both diagonals sum to the same constant.[1] A normal
magic square contains the integers from 1 to n2. The term "magic square" is also
sometimes used to refer to any of various types of word square.
Dushara: Encyclopedia - Hubal
El/Ilah "God" Bel/Belshamin Aglibol al-Lat/Alilat? Astarte? Atargatis (Syrian)
Athtar Beltis? Bes (Egypto-Arabic) Manah/Manat Nergal Nabu/Nebo Orotalt
Sin/Nanna-Suen Shams/Samas Uzza Yaghuth Yarhibol/Malakbel astral & local deities
demons In pagan
Dushara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Đū Shará (Arabic: ذو شرى‎, "Lord
of the Mountain"), also transliterated as 'Dusares', was an aniconic deity in
the ancient Middle East worshipped by the Nabataeans at Petra and Madain Saleh
(of which city he was the patron). He was mothered by Manat the goddess of
fate.[1] In Greek times, he was associated with Zeus because he was the chief of
the Nabataean pantheon as well as with Dionysus. His sanctuary at Petra
contained a great temple in which a large cubical stone was the centrepiece.
This deity was mentioned by the 9th century CE historian Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi,
who wrote in The Book of Idols (Kitab al-Asnām) that: "The Banū
al-Hārith ibn-Yashkur ibn-Mubashshir of the ˤAzd had an idol called
Đū Sharā."
www.sacredsites.com/middle_east/jordan/petra_ruins.htm
"Located in a remote gorge, northwest of the center of Petra, Al Deir is the
largest and most visually stunning of all the structures in Petra. Carved
entirely out of the red sandstone of a mountain wall, the temple is 50 meters
wide by 45 meters tall and has an 8-meter tall entrance door. Inside the single
empty chamber (12.5 by 10 meters), the walls are plain and unadorned except for
a niche in the back wall with a block of stone representing the deity Dushara.
The chief deities of the Nabataeans were Dushara, Al-Uzza and Allat. The name
Dushara means `He of the Shara', referring to the Sharra Mountains on the
northern border of Petra. Dushara was symbolized by an obelisk or standing block
of stone (and this indicates influences from archaic Sumerian, Egyptian and
megalithic cultures) and his symbolic animal was the bull.
The goddess Al-Uzza was symbolized by a lion and was the `peoples' deity, where
as Dushara was the god of the nobility and the official cult. The goddess Allat
was associated with natural springs, of which there are several in the otherwise
extremely arid lands of the Sharra Mountains. "
Maximus of Tyre comments in his book Philosophoumena in the 2nd century AD, "The
Arabs serve I know not whom, but I saw this statue which was a square stone."
The Suda Lexicon, which was compiled at the end of the tenth century, refers to
older sources which have since been lost. It states: "Theus Ares (Dushrara);
this is the god Ares in Arabic Petra. They worship the god Ares and venerate him
above all. His statue is an unworked square black stone. It is four foot high
and two feet wide. It rests on a golden base. They make sacrifices to him and
before him they anoint the blood of the sacrifice that is their anointment."
Philip Hammond, comments that:
"the god of the people was Dushares, 'Lord (dhu) of the Shara (Mountains)'. The
exact nature of this deity, whether it was a mountain or a solar object like the
sun, is still not entirely clear, in terms of the original concepts held about
him." As a contrast, the Sabeans of southern Arabia worshiped the sun cradled in
the crescent of the moon.
During this time of Hellenization, Nabataean deities were sometimes depicted in
figurative form like those of the Romans. Traditionally, however, Nabataeans
worshiped their own gods in symbolic form such as square block or triangular
baetyls, sacred meteorites, or abstract stone blocks or pillars, sometimes
enhanced with schematic eyes and nose."
Baetyl
"Baetyl (or Baitylos, Beth-El): a venerated stone, believed to be in some sense
the "house of god".
"All over the ancient Levant, we find the cultic practice of venerating stones
that were believed to be the house of a particular god, a Beth-El. For example,
there were baetyls in the Phoenician cities Byblus and Tyre. In the hinterland
of these ports, the sun god Elagabal of Emesa was venerated as a conic black
stone that was protected by an eagle, the Syrian sun-bird (cf. the standing
eagle visible in front of the conic baetyl on the coin). In the third century,
the stone was believed to be a meteorite (Herodian, Roman History, 5.3.5)
Likewise, the Phrygian mother goddess Cybele was worshipped in Pessinus (later
Rome) as a stone; this may have been a meteorite too. "
Herodian, Roman History, 5.3.5
"No statue made by man in the likeness of the god stands in this temple, as in
Greek and Roman temples. The temple does, however, contain a huge black stone
with a pointed end and round base in the shape of a cone.[1] The Phoenicians
solemnly maintain that this stone came down from Zeus; pointing out certain
small figures in relief, they assert that it is an unwrought image of the sun,
for naturally this is what they wish to see."
The Cults Of The Roman Empire
by Robert Turcan
"The Orontes Pouring into Tiber
But in literary tradition, it was Dusares who appeared as the great god of the
Arabs. Tertullian, claiming on the behalf of the Christians the right to have
their God(Aplogetica,XXIV,8) enumerates those which the Romans acknowledged for
different peoples:
Syria has its Atargatis,Arabia its Dusares...
Like Elagabal or the Baal of Mount Carmel,Dusares-whose name designated him a
"lord of the mountain" - was a baetyl , A cube shaped black stone resting on a
ground covered with gold sheets....
(Suda,s.v. Theusares).Porphyry (Abstinence,II,56) also tells us that the Arabs
of Dumatha annually sacrificed a child at the foot of an "altar which they used
as an idol",which again suggests a quad-rangular form. Indeed,it is thought
today that among the Nabataeans the baetyl was erected on a cubic block serving
as an altar,the motab (or throne) in Aramaic .
Coins from Adraa and Bostra show,in the first instance,a rounded block and,in
the second,three baetyls similar in outline to that of Elagabal,but surmounted
by discs: one on each lateral baetyl and seven on the central one(formerly
interpreted wrongly as a "press" because of the common assimilation of Dusares
with the god of wine,or even shewbreads piled on top of one another). It would
seem that several baetyls were the object of a cult in Arabia. Hence the
reputation for Litholatry which characterized it in Graeco-Latin imag-ination,
The Arabs "worshipped a shapeless stone" wrote Arnobius (Against the
Nation,VI,11) echoing Clement of Alexandria (Protreptikos,IV,46,1): The Arabs
prostrated themselves before a stone ".
For Stephanus of Byzantium (Ethnica,s.v.), "Dousares" is the name of a rock,"the
highest peak in Arabia".
In fact, the interpretatio Graeca made Dusares the equivalent of a Dionysus.
Already for Herodotus(III,8) the Arabs invoked only two divinities: Dionysus
(Orotalt) and Urania , goddess of the sky whom the Father of History calls
Alilat (otherwise known as Allat).
This practice of depicting divinity in abstract form reflects the traditions of
the desert Arabs and such West Semitic peoples as the Phoenicians and Canaanites
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