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Curated category

Primordial teachers

  • DemeterThe name Demeter appears in Linear A documents as da-ma-te, written on three separate tablets dedicated to religious situations.
  • EnkiScholars have debated the meaning of Enki's name for over a century. The Sumerian spelling dEN-KI usually translates to Lord of the Earth, yet this…
  • OsirisThe first evidence of the worship of Osiris appears in the middle of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt during the 25th century BC.
  • ThothThe name Thoth emerges from the ancient Egyptian phrase meaning he is like the ibis. Linguists reconstruct this as *di-hauti, though the exact pronunciation…
  • TriptolemusA young boy named Triptolemus lay sick in the palace of Eleusis. Demeter, disguised as an old woman named Doso, found him weak and dying.
  • OrpheusA two-word fragment from the 6th-century BC lyric poet Ibycus offers the earliest literary reference to Orpheus. The words translate simply as 'Orpheus…
  • PrometheusThe name Prometheus appears in the late 8th-century BC Greek epic poet Hesiod's Theogony. Scholars debate whether this name signifies forethought, as his…