FROM
DEATH TO HIS WORST ENEMY – 5
I
am DEATH,
So
they call me
And
so they fear me.
Again,
you tiny poet
Whom
nobody knows about
Dare
veil my very existence
With
your soulful doubt?
Don’t
you know that
I’ve
been there
Since
the birth of life
And
the irresistible LUST,
Since
the beginning
Did
I take for wife?
Yes,
with her I used to
Hook
Mortals unaware
That
they would go
Empty
handed
At
last.
And
I humbly reply:
Dear
Death Sir,
In
my helpless admiration,
I
once depicted her
Somewhere
in my past
As
an Aphrodite’s statue,
Facing
your fearful Anubis
Yet,
my Beloved is still there,
Central,
calling me to come out
Of
her Kingdom of Dust.
Jesus, Aphrodite and Anubis
The Egyptian god Anpu (Inpu) was called Anubis by the Greeks. His name was related to the word that meant "to decay." Originally the god of Duat (the underworld), he was gradually supplanted by Osiris (whom he embalmed after Osiris was slain by Set; he received his organs as a gift) and instead became associated with embalming and mummification, and with judging whether the dead would be devoured by Ammit, a lioness/hippopotamus/crocodile deity, or permitted to enter Duat (guided there by Anubis himself).
ReplyDeleteAphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, marriage, prostitution, fertility, childbirth ... but also a goddess of the underworld and a killer to boot. A prayer to her listed her many epithets and characteristics, including:
Aphrodite Areia! Aprodite of Ares,
beloved of the war-god, you share his nature, hold his might.
Aphrodite Areia, we praise you! We honor you!
Aphrodite Androphonos! Aphrodite, Killer of Men,
fair you are and deadly can you be.
Aphrodite Androphonos, we praise you! We honor you!
Aphrodite Tumborukhos! Aphrodite Gravedigger
you know of deaths both small and great.
Aphrodite Tumborukhos, we praise you! We honor you!
Aphrodite Skotia! Dark Aphrodite,
who leads us in love as quickly to the depths as to the heights.
Aphrodite Skotia, we praise you! We honor you!
Jesus, the son of God, was also a deity associated with death. Early in his ministry, when told that the daughter of Jairus had died, he insisted, "Be not afraid, only believe," and then restored her to life. In a more famous example, at the tomb of his friend Lazarus he proclaimed, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life,” and then ordered, "Lazarus, come out!" A few weeks later Jesus himself was crucified but 3 days later he was resurrected and ascended to Heaven. This act of sacrifice and redemption was the means by which Christians are granted the grace of eternal life. St. Paul, the man who shaped much of Christian theology, wrote in his 1st letter to the Corinthians, that Jesus "must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy, death, is to be brought to nothing.”
Aphrodite Melainis! Black Aphrodite,
beneath the earth your dread power is known.
Aphrodite Melainis, we praise you! We honor you!