Wednesday
January 12, 2000
Too paranoid
I couldn't pass on the opportunity to reply to the man who thought me
a new word: Asinine ["Mithraic
roots of Christianity"]! Mr. Salardini I presume was so infuriated
by me lack of sensible respect for Persia and anything that proves our
supremacy that he rushed to my condemnation without carefully reading the
few words I had put down.
Let me reply to some of his reasons for calling me asinine (and I love
this word!).
Mr. Salardini starts with: "The roots of Christmas in Mithraism
is well known and not subject to much debate." Well, not until you
have me around. That is the whole point of this forum: to debate.
Then he asserts: "Before 12th century the Christian symbol was
largely the fish (PX sounds like the Latin word for fish and PX is the
reverse of XP i.e Xi Rho that are the first two letter of Christos in Greek).
" To this I have no comment! It is too paranoid for even me!
Then he goes on: "But what I find interesting is all the half truths
that Mr Tabib uses to advance his point. Firstly he asserts that all ancient
peoples worshipped the sun. True, but the word Mithra and Mithraism were
not Egyptian or Celtic or anything else but Persian." And I don't
remember asserting that Mithra was Egyptian or Celtic! Please read before
you accuse!
Mr. Salardini then explodes: "He (Mr. Tabib) then enumerates a
asinine mixture of historical festivals to no effect. For example Horus
is the god of day not the sun; the Egyptian sun god was Ra." And
I want so much to agree, but brother, I am sorry, here it is in black and white.
Mr. Salardini's fury goes on: "A festival celebrating Isis who
has only tenuous links to Ra is in fact nothing to do with the sun."
I disagree! A festival in honor of the god of fertility who is also the
mother of sun god does in fact have a lot to do with the sun. He then
continues: "...Odin was also not a sun god." And I never said
it was (please read before jumping).
Odin was the supreme deity (including god of ecstasy) and the creator
of universe. The festival at the time of solstice was held in its honor.
You are somehow assuming that since I said all ancient civilizations worshipped
the sun, I was then asserting that all ancient festivals were in honor
of sun gods. No, There were numerous festivals in honor of a number of
gods done in a number of cultures.
The INTERSTING thing is that SOME of these festivals, which are related
to the sun, fertility or harvesting also coincide with Christmas. These
festivals include the Persian one, BUT not exclusively the Persian one.
That was the gist of my letter. No matter what you call me, Mithraism is
not above the rest!
Mr. Salardini then teaches us that: "Saturnelia was not held between
17th and the 25th, it was held between 17th and the 21st." Well I'd
be damned. First of all I can only laugh and ask: are we seriously arguing
over 4 days. But, I am going to be cruel again. Here
it is
Finally, in response to my assertion that we were never the center of
the world, Mr. Salardini corrects me that: "Mr. Tabib is obviously
unfamiliar with the history of the Achaemenian empire." To which
I have to say that: No, I am not unfamiliar, but I am also keenly aware
of a 20-something boy-soldier named Alexander of Macedon who attacked the
Persian empire with a small army and outwitted the rulers of the world
and laid their empire to waste. Does that make Alexander or the Greeks
the center of the world and the spring-board of all civilization? Never!
Neither can the Persian empire of the old make that claim.
Ramin Tabib
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