Update:
Well, exams are now over. I know according to the points posted that I earned that I have earned an A in one of my classes. The other class I took I am suspecting that I earned an A in it, too (due to being graded nothing less than a 99 in my writings and mid-term exam and making a B+ on my term paper before revision...also think I did well on the final exam). I have completed most of my Yule and Christmas shopping, but need to send off a couple packages to family. They will get them by New Year's. I have joined a new group and am making new friends of like minds; responsible, working adults that don't whine about things without having tried to remedy the situation themselves. One offered me a trial of supplements that I have tried and am disappointed at how my body seems to react to. They cause an adverse reaction and I end up having a flair up of my chronic fatigue syndrome, which is why I began taking the darn things in the first place. I looked up the ingredients and there is nothing in them that should cause the reaction, but my body is being freakish.
We are not happy with our church either. I have a difficult time going after having talked with my minister about a few things of importance to me. I was told I am a Diest and that Gnosticism has dangers, those being that the belief that Christ and God reside inside the soul means that you start believing that you are becoming a god. Hmm...Nope, don't think I am a god or goddess. But I do believe that Christ, God and the divine force lives within my heart and my soul and that it is not an external force guiding me. If I don't feel the divine within I have a hard time believing in it and will break it down until it either no longer is valid or I find the force behind the belief and understand it. Topping it off is that I was told that the Saints and the Virgin Mary are not fundamental beliefs in the doctrine of the Episcopal Church, but the following Sunday a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer all but invoked Mary and the Saints. Contradiction? I think we are going to try the Unitarian Church here in Charlotte in hopes we have a more pleasant experience with them here.
Feeling Smart:
Last night my loving husband came up to me and said, "I am Enkidu to your Shamhet." He took me off guard and I asked him who Shamhet was since something about it just didn't sound right. He was referencing The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is very sweet of him since I am an English Literature Major at Winthrop University and just finished a class in World Literature. I thought that my brain was just not remembering effeciently since that was a reading from the very beginning of the semester. My hubby said Shamhet was the temple prostitute that tamed the wild forest man Enkidu, and then I knew why his statement to me didn't click. The translation we read never named the temple prostitute and only called her the Harlot and referenced her as being from the Temple of Ishtar. I asked him where he saw that Shamhet was referenced as the name of the Harlot and he showed me the article on Wikipeadia. I read it and then went and got my copy of The Epic of Gilgamesh, since they were translating the menaing behind the name Shamhet as being the "glorious one.". I saw that there was a sun god by the name of Shamesh in the epic and that he was referenced as the "glorious sun." So, all my studies on ancient religions began clicking and I dared to comment and suggest that there was a mistranslation by the original poster.
My instinct led me down the thoughts that a temple prostitute traditionally took on a portion of the name of the goddess/god that the temple is dedicated to. For the Harlot to have a literary force behind her characterization her actual name would have had a connection to Ishtar, not Shamesh, since she was dedicated in the Temple of Ishtar. The name Shamhet suggests a connection to the god Shamesh, not to the actual connection to the goddess Ishtar. Plus, a temple prostitute rarely would take on a masculine force in her association via her temple name. That would suggest a position that would not involve civilizing a man through the sexuality of a woman, as the Harlot civilized Enkidu with exposing her naked breasts and laying with him in the forest. Women were also not associated in Akkadian culture with the sun, but were associated with lunar cycles and dark mysteries like the goddess Ishtar is of the night and darker mysteries of women...menstration, fertility, birthing and death. I have a study in this topic since I am dedicated to Ishtar's Egyptian counterpart...the goddess Sekhmet.
