In article , Christopher Green
wrote:

On 01 Jan 2005 13:45:11 GMT, (Iris Cohen) wrote:

Obviously observation had taught them valuable lessons which were
inculcated
in future generations via the mechanism of religion. (I imagine something
similar dictated many of the Jewish dietary laws). BRBR

Actually, not many of the kosher laws are known to stem from health
observations. Ancient people did not have the statistical mechanisms
available
today. According to one theory, pigs are not kosher because they were
worshipped by the Egyptians.

The dietary laws are indeed cultic rather than health oriented. But
another theory re. pigs is that boars were once sacred to Adonai (a
Semitic plural that means "Plethora of Adonises" implying a dying-&-reborn
fertility daemon akin to Tamuz/Damuzi). The Adonai/Adonis myth that
survived among the Greeks is of Semitic origin & was adopted by the Greeks
via Phoenicia & Assyria. Adonis was slain by a boar & dwelt one season
with Persephone in the dark realm, one with Aphrodite above ground, & the
rest of the year where he pleased. It's a close parallel to the Damuzi
myth of the western Semitic tribes, among whom Abraham was born. So just
as Atargatis worshippers would not eat fish which were sacred to
Atargatis, so too Adonai worshippers would not eat pigs or boars which
were sacred to Adonai. This theory has the stronger likelihood because
Jews did not ban the eating of animals sacred to other deities or they
wouldn't be able to eat any meat at all, but the theory that the pig was
once sacred to Adonai has less appeal to practicing monotheists who
deplore the possibility that Yahweh/Adonai has his origin in the same
place as all other deities: human myth & imagination.

As a gardening topic, when Adonis died beneath the very pine tree that had
long before given birth to him, transient windflowers or anemones sprang
up from drops of his blood.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com