A Story of the Planet Venus

Appendix 2

Serpent & Dragon Lore

 Descriptions of the Venus comet by Various Cultures

 Contents

Introduction                                                                                                       

   Chinese/Taiwanese Mythology - "Fire and Water"                  

Russian Steppes and Anatolia                                                             

    Samara/ Yamana, Steppes                                                  

    Çatalhöyük, Anatolia                                                              

    Turkic Culture of the EuroAsian Steppes                             

    Hittite, Anatolia                                                                        

Harrapan Culture of the Indus Valley                                            

Mesopotamia                                                                                               

    Sumer/ Samarra/ Samaria                                                   

    Elamite or Aramaic                                                                

    Assyrian                                                                                   

    Babylonian                                                                              

    Nabatean                                                                                

Egyptian                                                                                                           

    Libyan                                                                                     

Persian / Iranian (Zoroastrian)                                                        

     Avestan                                                                                 

     Kurdish                                                                                  

Classical History                                                                                         

     Greek including the Iliad                                                    

     Terramere (Italy)                                                                 

     Etruscan                                                                               

     Roman                                                                                  

African                                                                                      

     Tunisian                                                                                                       

     Moroccan                                                                            

     Nigerian & West Africa                                                                       

     Kenyan                                                                                

     Basotho of Lesotho                                                           

European                                                                                                        

     Albania                                                                                

     Danube or Slavic Culture                                                 

     Basque                                                                                

     Spanish                                                                               

     Portuguese                                                                         

     Netherlands                                                                        

     Scandinavian                                                                     

     Norse                                                                                   

     Finn                                                                                      

     British                                                                                    

     England                                                                               

     Irish                                                                                      

Asian                                                                                                                

     Chinese                                                                              

         13kYA                                                                               

          2174 BCE                                                                        

     Tibetan                                                                               

     Japanese                                                                          

     Korean                                                                               

     Indian                                                                                

     Harappan (Indus Valley)                                               

     Bengal                                                                               

     Tamil                                                                                  

     South-East Asian                                                             

Pacific Ocean                                                                                           

      Australian                                                                        

      New Zealand                                                                                      

      Philippines                                                                       

      Tahitian                                                                            

      Hawaiian                                                                         

North American                                                                                     

      Inuit                                                                                  

      Wabanaki                                                                         

      Ojibwe (Anshinaabeg)                                                 

      Turtle Island Story                                                          

      Oniagara and Iroquois                                                 

      Seneca                                                                            

      Lakota and Dakota Sioux                                             

      Illiniwek                                                                            

      Pima                                                                                

      Hopi                                                                                 

      Great Serpent Mound - Ohio                                      

      Serpent Mounds - Ontario                                          

     Nuxalt or Haida (Bella Coola) - BC                            

    Pacific Northwest Coast of central British Columbia and northern Vancouver Island                         

 Meso-American                                                                   

     Pre-Olmec -  Teotihuacan                                             

     Olmec                                                                                 

     Huastican (HuaXtica)                                                     

     Mayan                                                                               

     Aztec                                                                                 

     Nicaraguan                                                                     

 South American                                                                 

    Bolivian                                                                              

    Brazilian                                                                            

    Chilean                                                                             

    Columbian                                                                       

    Paraguayan & South Central South America            

    Peruvian                                                                           

    Venezuelan                                                                     

 Israelite - Venus Comet Actions in Bible History                                       

    Discussion                                                                                                    

    Garden of Eden                                                                                           

    The Flood                                                                                                      

    Job's Afflictions                                                                                            

     Sodom & Gomorrah                                                                                  

     Moses & Hatshepsut                                                                                  

    Moses & Astronomy                                                                                   

     Sabbatical Years                                                                                        

     Egyptian Writing Logic                                                                               

     Israelites in Egypt                                                                                       

    Exodus                                                                                                          

    Occupying the Promised Land                                                                

    Deborah, the Judge                                                                                   

    Samuel and the Philistines                                                                       

    Names for the Venus Comet                                                                   

    Names for the planet Mars                                                                      

    Psalms                                                                                                         

    Destruction by Mars                                                                                  

    Isaiah's Warnings                                                                                      

         Disasters to Come                                                                               

         Immediately Prior to Jerusalem Encounter                                     

    Assyrians (King Sennacherib) and the Angel of the Lord                  

Re-Examining the Early Venus                                                                

Conclusions                                                                                                 

Introduction

This Appendix draws together the various depictions of the Venus Comet as retained by different cultures around the World and at different times. They have been found in word descriptions, as drawings, and as sculptures depicting their Goddess of War. She has secondary honourifics as the Goddess of Salt Water (but not of fresh water), of Women, Children and Childbirth, of Home and of Weaving among other things. A few times HE is a God of War.

 While many researchers dismiss these ideas as "creative forms made by superstitious people", the author, supported by the number of similar descriptions he has provided, sees them as attempts to portray and explain a singular object or event. He also sees them as having remarkable similarities. This object has a very long history of dominating and terrorising the people. It is very powerful, uncontrollable and seemingly totally uncaring about the people and their World. They do not know where it comes from, or to where it disappears.

 The people seek ways to "get on her good side" with worshippers, prayers and gifts, but seemingly never succeed. Her actions are deemed an extreme form of how people can act towards each other. They assume a human shape for her when she is shown with people. Her shape in the sky would be "her true form", and totally unknowable. Some describe it as "serpentine" or "lizard-like". The terms "serpent" and "dragon" get used, complete with head(s), horns, flaming mouths, limbs plus claws, and sometimes with feathers and a tail.

As might be expected, some of the people who take power on Earth, claim to speak for the Goddess. That ploy is worked to their advantage, at least until the the next damaging visit of the Venus Comet. At that time their lack of influence with the Goddess is revealed.

The author has harboured a question in his mind regarding this entity being considered female much more often than male. Today we likely associate males with warfare. To avoid being labelled as "misogynistic", he offers this idea. If people behaved then as they do now, might there have been a "surge of unintended births" in the wake of a visit by the Venus Comet? Was the Goddess credited with synchronising a population explosion? This was something only women could do.

Trying to date these entries is very difficult. Of the various cultures and their stories that this author managed to discover, the Chinese one that follows, was the only one with details that required observers. My examination of that story provided much leeway in its interpretation of the details related. Other stories gave only one or two key points that were retained.

 The oldest stories mention events attributed to the catastrophe of 13,000 YA. Of course, the descriptions are what has been "distilled" over the multiple millennia by retelling of folklore and eventually the rewriting of "histories". The older entries are situated in approximate historical order in the hope that details on one can be more easily compared to another. As their numbers increase, they are segregated by grouping into areas and cultures.

 To introduce you to these stories, I begin this Appendix 2 with the Chinese / Taiwanese Story  along with my thoughts on it.

       ##############################################################

Fire and Water   中文

 from    CHINESE FOLKTALE MYTHOLOGY   12 APRIL 2018

[NB. The following 19 paragraphs are the Folktale as presented. Their numbering has been inserted by Collins to be used in the  discussion by him that follows further on.]

1. This story follows the events of The Mother Goddess. It involves a catastrophic hole that opened up in the sky, a hole which the mother goddess Nü-Wa (女娲補天) had to patch up with great urgency in order to preserve her human children. That hole was the result of a violent battle between two gods: the god of water, Gong-Gong (共工), and the god of fire, Zhu-Rong (融).

2. According to this myth, up in heaven, in the abode of the gods, dwelled the prideful and vicious god of water, Gong-Gong. The water god had the face of a man and the body of a serpent. Red hair grew from his head, which was filled with violent thoughts. This god, however, was not very clever and was easily provoked, something his sycophantic attendant, the devious spirit, Xiang-Liu (相栁), took full advantage of.

3. The spirit Xiang-Liu, like his master the water god, was also a human-headed serpent. He was green from head to tail and possessed nine brains, all of which contrived a constant stream of terrible and malicious ideas.

4. One day, Xiang-Liu said to his master.  “Milord, I have just returned from the realm of the mortals and I was alarmed to find that the humans were devout fire-worshipers.”

5. Gong-Gong, the god of water, was incredulous and insulted.

6. “Milord,”   the devious spirit continued.    “I believe that, should you vanquish the fire lord Zhu-Rong, your reputation would then exceed his own and the mortals will come to revere you in his stead.”

7. The water god, foolish, jealous and unable to think for himself, thought his attendant’s words had merit.

8. “Fire always loses to water,” the god thought. “I will teach the upstart fire lord a lesson and his devotees will see my true greatness.” With that, Gong-Gong, the god of water, mustered his forces and launched a massive assault on Zhu-Rong, the god of fire.

9. The god of water commanded the waves and rainstorms. His forces mercilessly advanced towards the domain of the fire god.

10. The god of fire was not one to be made a fool of. He was no pushover. On seeing the surprise attack launched by the water god, he unleashed his full fiery fury. The flames burned so fiercely, that no deluge could drown it out. The water god sustained heavy losses.

11. Faced with the consequences of his own foolishness, the water god tried to summon his attendant. He was met, however, with reports that the spirit Xiang-Liu had abandoned camp and gone into hiding.

12. The water god was humiliated. Unable to bear his shame, he charged a western mountain hitting it with his head and obliterated its peaks.

13. That mountain was called Mount Buzhou and it was one of the four cardinal pillars supporting the sky. Without its support, the heavens tilted westward and as the mountain top crumbled, a large hole cracked open in the sky. On earth, the great tremor that resulted from the mountain’s collapse caused the land to the south and east to crumble away.

14. Flood waters poured from the heavenly crevice and the world became submerged beneath this deadly deluge. As the humans became increasingly desperate, they supplicated their mother for protection.

15. The mother goddess Nü-Wa, seeing the plight of her creation, sought to take action.

16. She gathered stones of five different colours from a riverbank and, with heaps of dried reeds, built a massive fire with which she melted the stones into a mortar-like substance. Using this five-coloured mortar, the goddess began painstakingly patching up the hole in the sky. The work was slow and laborious but the goddess managed and her work quelled the raging storm and flood.

17. Her children were saved.

18. The destroyed mountain, however, was beyond repair.

19. The heavens slanted westward and the earth tilted eastward. This is why, the ancient Chinese believed, the sun, the moon and most heavenly bodies moved toward and set in the west and why all the major continental East Asian rivers flowed eastward towards the Pacific.

J. M. Collins’ assessment of this Taiwanese/Chinese folktale -

This myth stood out from other "historical" stories as it described some of the same findings that I had gathered earlier from multiple stories. It then packaged them in the same arrangements that I had determined, to get a cohesive story of events in the 11,053 BCE Earth / Venus Comet encounter. I have not seen anyone else's view on that event that matched this.

It must be pointed out that unlike some other myths on the topic, this Chinese story makes no mention of several points found in the other stories. Firstly the "human" entities are not given a warning of an upcoming disaster. Secondly, there are no details or instructions on how to survive the event, or how people did so. Thirdly, this story is singularly about the "gods", with humans simply mentioned as collateral damage.

The Venus Comet form in this story is fiery when it attacks Earth. It attacks the Earth after the World Flood. This Fire and Water Myth from Taiwan/China considers the Fire and the Water aspects to be separate entities, controlled by two different gods.

To ease the comparison of the information, I have numbered the paragraphs. Following are my views on the comparisons of the various points. The reader will note that comparisons are made using the physical details in the story. I do not use the rationals or opinions on why a god did such-and-such a deed.

Para 1. This myth is a part of the story regarding how the Mother Goddess has looked after her people. The "hole in the sky" occurs when the known arrangement of the stars and planets disappears because of the fight between the two combatants, Water and Fire.

Para 2. Water God Gong-Gong and his helper Xiang-Liu (She-ang-Lee-oo), are described in the myths of China. Other later stories label Gong-Gong as Venus who swirls across the sky in fiery serpentine form ("red hair"?), and also commands the waters.

Para 3. In this story Xiang-Liu has a green, serpentine body, and nine brains, likely referring to nine heads. Previously seen work does not create a separate "visual" being for him. He seems to be a spirit or a thought or an idea. Several works refer to the Venus Comet, when seen at a great distance as dark coloured and as multi-headed with multiple arms and legs. The Comet does not become "fiery" until it is interacting with Earth's oxygenated atmosphere.

Para 4. Tells us that the Venus Comet was visible on many passes around the Sun as it came "to look at us", but that coming close was an infrequent event.

Para 6. Naming the Water God as Gong-Gong requires a separate name be given for the Fire God. His name of Zhu-Rong (Zoo-Rong) in Chinese characters implies a "snake or serpent with a fire cauldron" (ie. being on fire).

Para 8. Oceans rising up over the land would be a "massive assault" by them on the land. This could happen by the mass of the Comet drawing up our seas in a huge "tide" that passes around the Earth, or the Earth being tumbled in space. Both events did happen.

Para 10. The flames are coming from the Venus Comet but are never mentioned as striking the Earth. The waves of water never reach the Comet. The text says that the Water God sustained "heavy losses". This comment can be taken that the Water God's forces, the Flood, came ashore as a huge pile of water. It would be greatly diminished when it came inland and spread. It then flowed back to the sea without having destroyed the Fire God.

Para 11. Gong-Gong no longer thought the "idea" of attacking the Fire God was a good one!   In a separate source, Xiang-Liu was thought of as an "alter ego" of Gong-Gong. In that version of the story, he was killed by Nü-Wa (New-Waa), the Mother Goddess, after being defeated by Zhu-Rong. His blood was so virulently poisonous that the soil which it soaked could no longer grow grain. This would be the result of being soaked with salty sea water.

Para 12.  Something from the god (the Venus Comet) smashed into the Earth and caused damage to some place or object. Mention of it being his head suggests a large round missile.

Para 13.  No actual mountain has been identified as "mythical" Mount Buzhou (Boo-zoo) although other sources claim that it was located in the remote Pamir range of Tajikistan, north of Afghanistan and Pakistan. This range has many high mountains. "Buzhou" (不周山) , a name, means "thoughtless or inconsiderate" in Chinese, which would be applicable here.

    Accepting the earlier stated detail that Gong-Gong was the Venus Comet, this author looked for signs of a "comet impact" on the Earth, near China. Checking details of the Pamir Range as shown in Google Earth, he noted Karakul Lake lying at a high altitude in that range (390 00' N, 730 22' E). Posted information on that lake states that "it is in a 52km diam. crater produced by an impact and is of relatively recent origin" (less than 3 M years ago). The NE portion of the crater shows a radiating "blowout" of its wall. The Google image shows what looks like a "recent" lava flow running  north of it and from west to east between the up-folded sediment rocks of the Pamirs. Comparatively, the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, produced by the impact that destroyed the dinosaurs, is 200 km diam., four times the width of Karakul Lake crater(1). Any witness who survived, was bound to have wild memories. What words would you use to describe what you saw?

   Google Earth view shows three other mountain lakes on a general SW/NE line from the "blowout". They are Chatyrkul, Song-kul and Issyk Kul, all in Kyrgyzstan. Rather than circular forms, they are length-wise "gouges", on a SW/NE alignment, suggesting an angular impact of meteoric material created all four lakes (kul).

   The comment in the Gong Gong story, that the land to the south and east of Mount Buzhou "crumbled away", may refer to the desert basin of today's Xinjiang (Shin-ge-ang), China province. It is centred south-east of Karakul Lake. The above mentioned lava flow disappears into this basin and is now buried under the sand of the west end of the Talamakan Desert. What the rock surface might be like beneath the sand, is a unknown. Might it have been, pre- 13kYA, a warm, arable, watered basin shielded by the mountains? It was then at latitude 220 30' North and if watered could have been good land. Indications are that some of the Himalayas rose higher at that date.

  This paragraph describes how the Earth got twisted so that its axis of rotation shifted. An astronomer of that day, would quickly note that the north pole of rotation had changed, leaving him looking for it in a different area of the sky. His North-oriented map of the stars had not only been twisted but had been tumbled end for end. He would be seeing stars that previously circled the old South Pole, an area of the sky that he may not have studied. Another source says that "half the sky disappeared". This statement does not mean that there were no stars to be seen, but that the North Pole stars and constellations with which they had been familiar, had been replaced by others. In addition, the Sun now rose in the West (see Para 19 for the new order for the movements of the Sun and planets). It would be back to basics to pinpoint the new North Pole.

   Their other observations are consistent with such an Earth movement. This is the earliest mention that I have seen of a pole movement at that time plus reversal of motions across the sky. It suggests that there were witnesses to the mountain being struck, whose stories got passed along. Additionally there were some Chinese astronomers who survived and passed on some of their knowledge.

Para 14. People living along the ocean shores did not survive to tell what they saw. No one speaks of floods coming up out of the oceans. Therefore what we read are the descriptions of the inland people who saw a lot of water appearing from somewhere unknown.

Para 16. This is a parallel to the creation of the rainbow in the Noah story. Given the huge amounts of water likely thrown into the air, the rainbow would be large. The "repair" would last for a considerable time suggesting that it was a "strong repair" (ie. made with mortar, not something weak). Another source says the five colours of stones were red, yellow, blue, black, and white. Rainbow colours were those plus some mixes.

Para 17. The waters stopped coming and subsided. The remaining people are safe again.

Para 19. The "apparent" movement of the skies matches the ice age glaciers being relocated. Both are associated with the water and fire assault on the Earth.

         ##############################################################

Russian Steppes and Anatolia

 Samara, Steppes

This is an early culture that appears to have existed in the steppe area north and east of the Black Sea, as well as the Caspian and Aral Seas, prior to the 11,053 BCE catastrophe. It has been designated as Samara by two authors without giving a reference. As discussed in the Venus Story under "Shifted Ice Caps?" that area would have an original climate much milder

than today, being more southerly (about 350 N). This enabled those people to grow crops and husband farm animals successfully. Irrigation was known, as was woodworking and metal-working in copper and bronze. Referring to the Venus Story again, it is apparent that this flourishing civilization, generally known as Proto-Indo European (PIE), was badly damaged by the salt-water Flood soaking of their lands, but they seem to have been able to salvage their technology and other skills. Eventually they moved south to warmer lands. (See Appendix 1 - Data Events  6955) (Also see Samara/ Sumer/ Samarra/ Samaria below)

 Çatalhöyük, Anatolia

- A large settlement of an unknown culture existed here in mid-Turkey, due south of Ankara, by 7500 BCE.(2),(3) It was destroyed about 5700 BCE. (Possible 5744 BCE event?) Building foundation shadows on the ground and some tree marked property lines still conform with the 13kYA Ice Age North Pole.(4)

-  Figurines of a “big-bodied goddess” were found on the site. She was displayed in a dominant or “ruling” posture, sitting with her legs resting between two lions. "There are full breasts beside which the hands rest, and the stomach is extended in the central part. There is a hole in the top (of the body) for the head which is missing. As one turns the figurine around, one notices that the arms are very thin, and then on the back of the figurine one sees a depiction of either a skeleton or the bones of a very thin and depleted human. The ribs and vertebrae are clear, as are the scapulae and the main pelvic bones. ...... It is possible that the lines around the body represent wrapping rather than ribs."

- The depiction of "various bones and wrapping" seems to have been the maker's way of understanding the patterns seen within the Venus Comet cloud. That person was seeing a moving three-dimensional form in the sky, and creating a three-dimensional "goddess" that could be viewed from all directions. Hodder, the author of reference 3, was unaware of the Venus Comet as the object in that long-ago sky.

- The object is assumed by some to be a “mother goddess”. For another image of a woman with lions, see entry on Harrapan below.  As shown below, lions are associated with Goddesses of War, and much later on with Gods of War. No name or duties for her have been determined as writing has not been found. Some of these images have been found in grain storage areas as well as beside doorways, suggesting a "guarding" application. No images from this culture show people with head-wear or heads of hair, however that could have been added as a wig. In the picture shown right, her head and that of the lion on her left side, have been reconstructed.

Turkic Culture of the EuroAsian Steppes(5)

- This culture which exists in this area even today reaches back multiple millennia. It includes the current cultures of Turkey, Finland, Hungary, northern Iran, and possibly Mongolia. Most of the countries whose names end with "-stan", including those controlled by China, are a part. The Huns, Goths and Scythians were thought to be part of it. Their religion for the most part was shamanistic with a few major deities, and many minor ones.

- The god word/name "Evran" has a meaning of "cosmos, universal, all inclusive, all powerful". It is also described as "a dragon" usually serpentine, red colour, with or without legs and arms, spouting fire from its tail and sometimes its mouth, and seldom has wings.

- The use of these two very different meanings can be understood as dependent on the viewer's perspective of the Venus Comet. If it is some distance away, the dragon features can be picked out. At the time of its closest and most frightening encounter, it covers the entire sky from horizon to horizon, blotting out the Sun, Moon and stars, and being your view of the entire cosmos. Additionally it has the apparent "authority" to go where ever it wants in the sky and is not constrained like the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. While named, it was feared but not worshipped by this culture.

- Evran as a name, could be a "sound alike" to some degree of the Sumerian name for the Venus Comet, "Inanna". That culture is suspected to have occupied much of the same area prior to 11,000 BCE.

 Hittite

- In Hittite mythology, Illuyanka (Inanna in Sumerian?) was a serpent or dragon slain by Tarhunt ("The Conqueror"), the Hittite incarnation of the Hurrian god of sky and storm.(6) Illuyanka is known from Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Çorum-Boğazköy, the former Hittite capital Hattusa.

- Tarhunt or Tarhunz is depicted with the double-ended, triple-pronged thunder bolt called Vajra(7). It was a "god-kill" weapon, used to kill the Serpent. It made a world-shaking noise when it struck. Tarhunz was shown standing on a huge bull, similar to images associated with Ares/Mars.

Harrapan Culture of the Indus Valley

- This culture was only identified in the last 100 years and still remains mysterious and largely unknown. Its language and limited inscriptions have resisted translation. Indian scholars believe that the Indo-European invaders of northwest India were previously of this area, and before that from the steppes of Europe.

- Among the few images found is one of a female who is being held by two warriors while they spear or threaten each other. She has an unusual attachment to the back of her head. The men have hair buns on their heads so perhaps she has a mass of hair too, representing the Comet. The title suggests that she might have been the Goddess of War. She is shown again in an adjoining scene as part woman and part tiger with a huge hair piece and horns. This “combination” has similarities to the dragon with its claws, streamers of colours, and a huge comet tail that others associated with the destroying object in the skies.                                      Photo © Harappa.com 1995-2017

- While this culture appears to have existed about 5500 BCE, it still flourished 3300-1900 BCE and was gone by about 1700 BCE. The buildings in the community seem not to have been physically destroyed making the loss of water in 1663 BCE event a probable reason. (See the following paragraph and the date in App.1 - Dates of Events. No date has been ascribed to this seal image(8) or to the action on it.

-  By way of exploratory thinking, the author refers the reader to the notes later in this Appendix on India, that mention that nation's lore regarding the Venus Comet. Their god of the Comet, Vritra, is known for causing drought until the hero slays it in the mountains (Himalayas) where upon it releases huge rivers of water. The author suspects that the fiery comet on that occasion, melted the mountain glaciers substantially. From the perspective of the Indus Valley Civilisation, there was a huge flood through their area and thereafter melt waters available to them were minimal. They subsequently moved into northern India.

Mesopotamia

Sumer/ Samarra/ Samaria

- The earliest years of this culture are referred to above.

- These people reappear before 6000 BCE in southern Mesopotamia and settle where the individual streams of the Tigris and Euphrates then entered the north end of today's Persian Gulf. Sumer was the name of their country and Ur was one of their early settlements. They became known as Sumerians. They cultivated the marshes beside those rivers using their irrigation knowledge. Semitic peoples, existing in the Zagros Mountains to the east, took note and copied them successfully. Subsequent settlements proliferated upstream on both rivers.

- The Sumer culture of the Middle East in their earliest known records dating about 4000 BCE, identified a strong and alluring, warring sky-goddess named Inanna who repeatedly destroys all things.(9) Their prayers to her beseech her not to destroy them AGAIN!.

- This Sumerian literature surrounding Inanna is indispensable for reconstructing the ancient conceptions surrounding the Venus Comet. It was not until after the records of the Late Assyrian Empire, and Late Babylonian Empire [date of "triumph of Marduk", 1184 BCE], that her equivalence with the Planet Venus is mentioned.

- In Sumerian myth, Inanna was called the daughter of Anu with Antum, and the daughter of Enlil (Dagon), and the daughter of Nanna (Sin) with Ningal. Identified Relatives: Tammuz (husband), Anu (connection unknown), Ki (Gaea; mother), Ereshkigal (elder sister or sister-in-law), Dagon/Enlil, Ba'al Hadad, Ninurta, Martu Ningal (brothers), Nergal, Marduk, Ullikummis (nephews); Shamash (great-nephew), Anshar (grandfather), Kishar (grandmother), Lahmu (great-grandfather), Lahamu (great grandmother) (NOTE: Family tree wise, this is impossible, but it shows how high her importance was religion-wise to the tribes and subsequent empires of Ancient Mesopotamia. She was so important, that she was considered a sister of all the important entities.)(10)

- In the archaeological record, Inanna was worshipped at Uruk (Biblical Erech) in the earliest period of Mesopotamian history. Especially intriguing are those hymns which describe the planet-goddess as dominating the skies and raining fire and destruction. The following passage is typical in this regard:

"You make the heavens tremble and the earth quake. Great Priestess, who can soothe your troubled heart? You flash like lightning over the highlands; you throw your firebrands across the earth. Your deafening command…splits apart great mountains.”(11)

- At the dawn of recorded history, Sumerian priests composed hymns in honour of the planet/comet which they venerated as the war-goddess Inanna:

“To her who appears in the sky, to her who appears in the sky, I want to address my greeting, to the hierodule (a temple slave who serves a god) who appears in the sky, I want to address my greeting, to the great queen of heaven, Inanna, I want to address my greeting, to her who fills the sky with her pure blaze, to the luminous one, to Inanna, as bright as the sun, to the great queen of heaven.”(12)

- Such prayers are still being used when their civilisation falls about 2174 BCE in the world-wide catastrophe that causes the end of the Early Bronze Age III. Writings do not specify her form but her name has been mixed with “Kur, meaning a monster, a term which was also applied to a "dragon".

- By one source: "The first dragons, perhaps, appeared in the myths of the Sumerians. Their word for dragon was 'ushum'. The story of Zu and Enlil, two "strong" gods, dates back to about 5000 BCE. There is also the dragon known as Kur, and both Zu and Kur were said to have angered the gods."

- Kramer attributes the name Kur to a demonic monster, which he interprets as a dragon/ serpent, defeated by the mythic hero Ninurta, a prototype of the Babylonian deity Marduk. He says, there was nothing holding the primeval (salt) waters back when Kur was killed so they rose up and caused calamity to the land, making it so that no fresh water could reach the fields or gardens, resulting in famine. He confounds the 11,053 BCE and 1184 BCE events.

- Inanna and other Venus proxies are also considered to be goddesses of sea water but not fresh water. This supports the belief that the civilisation of Sumer, originally located north of the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas, was inundated by the salt-water Ponto-Caspian Sea at the time of the Flood.

-  Some sources name that area as Samara (note spelling) and later refer to their culture as Yamana (S and Y sounds equated). Their people later moved south into Mesopotamia, and also east into India, Mongolia and China, as well as west throughout Europe. We now refer to them as the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) culture. Statuary features them as "Caucasian" looking and their own name for themselves appears to have been "black headed" or "black haired" people. It is not known from whom they were distinguishing themselves. Might it have been "red haired people" whose DNA also traces back to that area? Their features were quite different from the semitic Assyrians, Babylonians and Hebrews.

- The Sumerians were advanced. As well as inventing writing, they also invented early forms of mathematics, early wheeled vehicles/chariots, astronomy, astrology, written code of law, organised medicine, advanced agriculture including irrigation, architecture, and the calendar. They created the first city-states such as Uruk, Ur (located where the Euphrates then entered the Persian Gulf), Lagash, Isin, Kish, Umma, Eridu, Adab, Akshak, Sippar, Nippur and Larsa, each of them ruled by an ensí. About 3700 BCE, Ur was flooded with mud as a result of a tsunami caused by an object from the Venus Comet. It was quickly rebuilt. (See Appendix 1 - Dated Events 3644 BCE)  Other city-states along the Euphrates but farther from the Persian Gulf were unaffected.

- The Sumerians remained largely dominant in this synthesised culture until the rise of the Akkadian Empire under Sargon of Akkad circa 2335 BCE, which united all of Mesopotamia under one ruler.(13) In 2174 BCE, their major city of Ur was totally destroyed by the Venus Comet and never rebuilt. By 800 BCE they were not a people in that area.

Ancient Elamite or Aramaic

- These cultures occupied the western portion of the Mesopotamian plain, occupied today by Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. That area appears to have been quite damaged by the pass of the Venus Comet in 2174 BCE but few remains of its previous occupants have been identified.

 -  A gigantic dolmen at Kibbutz Shamir in Israel(14) has a large stone as its roof with an engraving on its underside, ie. to be viewed from under it as if looking at the sky. The authors of the referenced article date the dolmen to more than 4000 YA. They do not have an understanding of the markings. (See image next page.)

    The author of this book believes that it represents the Venus Comet coming at the viewer. Ancient writers when describing it, mentioned an animal or reptilian body of indistinct shape but always with horns on its head. A bull's head and horns are apparent near top centre of the stone, with a bulky form behind them. Additionally the Comet was accompanied by rocks that burned red-hot while flying through our atmosphere. They were likely exploding into pieces, as shown, as they came toward the observer. They are described in "lines and arcs" in that article. To a person lying below that rock, they could relive that Comet event. With light from a little fire and perhaps a story-teller, it would be dramatic.

- The name “Haddad” is very old and is thought to relate to “a loud noise” like things falling, or “severe thunder” coming from the sky, or the loud words of a deity(15). It retained its identity into Assyrian mythology. It also appears in a compound name “Haddad-rimmon” in the Bible in Zech. 12: 11 which is said to mean “mourning represented as the acme of desperate grief”. The word “rimmon” itself seems to mean “pomegranate”, a red-coloured fruit. The exegetes attribute the grieving part to Sisera’s mother after the death of her son, a king, when fighting Deborah, the Biblical judge, or to the death of King Josiah or Ahaziah, King of Judah who fell at Megiddo. These experts have no rationalisation for the term “pomegranate”.

   This author suggests that the mourning is over the damage that the entity Haddad-rimmon caused at Megiddo as described in Judges 5: 19-22. It was the Venus Comet attacking the Earth in 1299 or 1250 BCE, and King Sisera's army was destroyed. The king was killed later. The word describes the fiery-coloured Venus Comet and its noisy and destructive encounters with the Earth and its people. The name may be a "nickname" to avoid using the proper name and giving the threat “immortality”, a concept known to Moses, the Egyptians and the Israelites, amongst others. Calling it the "noisy pomegranate" denigrated the enemy's god.

 Assyrian

- All the earliest settlements in northern Iraq(16) seem to be focused on the supply of fresh water as provided by the Tigris River, and flat enough ground to be able to farm it. They are found in the piedmont of the mountains of south Turkey where it meets the Mesopotamian plain. This location fits with a passageway coming south through the Caucasus between the Black and Caspian Seas. Those settlements are generally named as the Hassuna culture after a tell of that name. They appear to have existed in the 7000 - 6000 BCE period. (See those dates in Appendix 1).

  Mesopotamia was hit in the initial brush of the Venus Comet ca 13,000 YA(17). A  semi-desert was created

  An early Akkadian seal image of 2300 BCE shows their goddess Ishtar in a dominant position. She has curling hair down to her elbows (see image).(18) It is their name for the same object (god) in the sky that Sumerians knew as Inanna.

- The Akkadians morphed into the Assyrian Empire centred on Assur by 2600 BCE under Sargon. They utilised the Akkadian theology which was a variation on the Sumerian. Assyria, and its peak Bronze-age Civilization, was heavily damaged in the 2184 BCE event with the Venus Comet but continued to exist as a group of city states under Assyrian control of varying degrees.

- During the four centuries of Kassite control in Babylonia (c.1570-1157 BCE), Nippur and the cult of Enlil enjoyed a period of Sumerian renaissance. The fourth-last king of the Kassites was Meli-Shipak II (1186-1172 BCE) in whose reign the Venus Comet (Ishtar) was stopped by Mars (Marduk). His successor used the name Marduk-apla-iddina (1171-1159 BCE). The Babylonians then take over.

- By the rise of the second Assyrian empire about 1000 BCE, many scholars equate the Assyrian and Babylonian Ishtar to the tamed Venus Comet, but not as the Morning or Evening Star. This suggests that Venus had not yet lost its comet form and was not in its current orbit. Later the Greek Athene, renamed Aphrodite (which see), and the Roman Venus are considered to be that object.

- On 23 March 687 BCE (date based on Jewish records that it was the eve of Passover), Mars "assaulted" the Earth destroying an Assyrian army according to both Assyrian records as well as Jewish records. They were assembled to attack Jerusalem the next morning. [See following section on results from the Bible.] Rome's founding king, Romulus, is said to have been killed at that time by being “carried off into the sky”. Chinese records tell of Mars striking Earth at that time. After that event, neither Venus or Mars "fight" with other planetary gods.

Babylonian

- In the earliest days of these people beginning about 2000 BCE, Tiamat (Venus Comet) was the major Babylonian goddess of War and Creation as well as Women, ranking as a triad with the two major Sumerian gods. While other various gods of that time are known, a Venus planet equivalent is not known. The name Ishtar and its Venus connections does not appear until after the 1184 BCE dethroning of the Venus Comet.(19)

- With the end of the Kassites in 1157 BCE, the new cult of Marduk eclipsed that of Enlil (Sumerian god and equivalent of Mars), and marked the definite and permanent triumph of Marduk over Enlil until the end of the Babylonian empire.(20)  It was followed by Dynasty IV of Babylon, from Isin with 6 of their 11 rulers incorporating the name Marduk.(21)

-  The name ‘Akitu’ is from the Sumerian for "barley", originally marking two festivals celebrating the beginning of each of the two half-years of the Sumerian calendar. One marked the sowing of barley in autumn and the other the cutting of barley in spring. In Babylonian religion it came to be dedicated to Marduk's victory over Tiamat. A number of contemporary Near Eastern spring festivals still exist today. Iranians traditionally celebrate 21st March as Noruz (“New Day”), while Khab-Nissan is the name of the spring festival celebrated among the Assyrians on 1st April.(22)

- Later in 1000-500 BCE, the name Ishtar is repeatedly linked to the planet Venus as we know it, and the Assyrians have Marduk (Mars) as their God of War and chief god. Earlier Ishtar linkings to Venus appear to be editing done to older documents as a clarification.

- There are references to the planet Venus in the Babylonian cuneiform texts, like the Venus table of Ammisaduqa which could be as old as 750-700 BCE. These are in relation to calendar adjustments and indicate that Venus, at that time, was quite stable, its motions repeatable. It is unchanged since the table was made.

-  Some authors state that the dates given are when they were copied, and assume the original to be 1000 years older. This assumption conflicts with the record itself. In the first dynasty of Babylon (1830-1530 BCE) in ancient prayers, the help of the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury is specifically invoked but the very obvious planet Venus is not mentioned. The fiery "Queen of Heaven", who punishes the Earth, was known as Ishtar, their bloody Goddess of War. She is the one against whom they want help until 1100 BCE. A recent author(23), while correctly associating Ishtar with Venus, goes on to claim that the mention of her moving westward "to Kur", proved that this was the action of the Morning & Evening Star. The term Kur meant "dragon" and confirms that in reality it was the Venus Comet (known as Serpent or Dragon) being seen in the distant sky as it passed the Earth.

Nabatean(24)

- Petra was the home of the Nabatean trading empire. It was in southwest Jordan about half way between the Gulf of Aqaba and the south end of the Dead Sea. Its pantheon of important gods was very similar to Near East cultures such as Assyria and Babylon as well as Greece and Rome. All had a male king of the gods with a strong wife plus a female Goddess of War who was very dominant. This goddess later gets relegated to the sidelines with a designation of a softer, more feminine character. At that time it is apparent that a male has taken the title of God of War, but not with the power of the Goddess.

- The original power triad of Nabatea had as the ruler, Dushara (Arabic: ذو الشرى), the only god known for certain to have been worshipped throughout Nabatea. He was associated by early writers with the Greek gods Zeus and Dionysus.

   His wife Al-ʿUzzá was worshipped in Nabatea where she had been adopted alongside Dushara as the presiding goddess at Petra. She was the protectress of the city and also of love and immortality, and associated with the Moon. Al-lat was another Nabatean goddess, and appears to have supplanted Al-ʿUzzá. She seems to have been identified with Athena and Tyche. Al-ʿUzzá then assumed attributes of Isis, Tyche, and Aphrodite.

   The third of the triad was Manat, a Nabatean goddess, who was identified with the Greek goddess Nemesis, and considered to be the goddess of fate and justice. Our meaning of nemesis refers to the dispensing to a wrong-doer, of that which is due to him, a severe punishment. Many other cultures also saw the Venus Comet as punishing the people,

   Al-Qaum (Arabic: القوم) was the Nabataean god of war and the night, and guardian of caravans. In this capacity, he appears to be the Ares/Mars equivalent and is guarding the people of the world. No claim was found that he had, in fact, done anything to another god.

Egyptian

- In Egyptian records, dragons in the sky are mentioned in the 3000-2000 BCE period but without mention of calamities.

- When examining Egyptian history for mention of the Venus Comet equivalent in the sky or on the Earth, the monster Apep [ah-peep] became apparent. It was identified as a huge snake or serpent and was the “Lord of Chaos” and “pure evil”. Its name is reconstructed by Egyptologists as *ʻAʼpāpī, as it was written “pp(y)” and may derive from a semitic word written “pp” meaning “to slither”. In the Hebrew language, the base word for Leviathan, has the same meaning.

-  The first mention of the name Apep is found in the 8th Dynasty about 2174 BCE amidst the chaos of the collapse of the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the Early Bronze Age III civilisation world-wide. That collapse would account for the “chaos” of names and reigns in that dynasty in Manetho’s Egyptian King List. Effective record-keeping ceased in Egypt leaving us with a void in our knowledge for that time and over a hundred years following.

-  Research on early burials at Avaris, the centre of settlement for the Hyksos people,(25) showed an adult burial with strontium levels in the teeth that must have been acquired elsewhere. This burial was dated to 650 years prior to the defeat of those people by the Egyptians in 1541 BCE (see below), ie. 2191 BCE. The closeness of this estimated date to the above 2174 BCE, strongly suggests that the Hyksos were displaced from their unproven homeland by the Venus Comet event and fled to Egypt looking for food and water.

-  The colourful wall images of those people, shown in that reference, identifies them as being subordinate, different featured and of a much lighter skin colour than the Egyptians. Their clothing was decorated with multicoloured patterns rather than the pure white used by Egyptians. These observations suggest to this author that perhaps they were of Proto-Indo-European background and had come to Egypt from northern Syria, Lebanon, Iraq or perhaps Samaria or Sumer. These ideas would support the possibility that the Hyksos took refuge in Egypt after the 2174 BCE event, and eventually grew strong enough to take over.

-  Central control of the country was replaced by many individuals trying to rule their local area. The Comet was later honoured in the names of the 14th Dynasty king Apepi and of the Greater Hyksos king Apophis.(26)

- The few descriptions of Apep's origin in myth usually state that it was born after Ra, usually from his umbilical cord. Combined with its absence from Egyptian creation myths, this has been interpreted as suggesting that Apep wasn't a primordial force in Egyptian theology, but a consequence of Ra's birth. On a Naqada I (pre-dynastic culture ca 4000 BCE) C-ware bowl (now in Cairo)(27) a snake was painted on the inside rim, combined with other desert and aquatic animals, as a likely enemy of a deity, possibly a solar deity, who is invisibly hunting in a big rowing vessel. In all mentions, Apep is an enemy of the sun god Ra, while Ra is trying to shield his people. In stories told about Apep, he hides in places all around the Earth and sky trying to attack Ra. Apep's roaring reportedly caused earthquakes and thunderstorms of terrible violence(28).

- The mother of Apep was said to be Neith, the Egyptian Goddess of war, hunting, weaving, and wisdom [the same attributes as the “Athena” goddesses of Greece, Babylon, Assyria and Sumer]. She was personified as the primeval [salt] waters, as Mehetweret (MHt wr.t), the Great Flood, understood as streaming water which relates to another use of the verb sti, meaning “to pour”.  Both Apep and Neith are very early gods in Egyptian lore, and associated with Ra.(29)

- It appears that the Venus Comet encounter with Earth 13,000 YA was attributed to Neith but that its appearances 11,500 to 3200 YA were not thought to be Neith but Apep. Greek mythology renamed him as Typhon, a snake-like monster and also as Apophis.

- The Ipuwer (Ebwer) Papyrus(30), dated by some as 1541 BCE based on the mention of an eclipse, records extensive destruction of people and their lands in Egypt. Slaves are running free but not running away, religion has broken down and famine has begun. The date given above approximates the end of the Hyksos occupation in the Second Intermediate Period. It could be the release of the Egyptian slaves of the Hyksos, by the conquering Egyptian army of Ahmose from Thebes.

- On an Egyptian Star map of about 1490 BCE(31),(32) in the second tomb of Senen-mut (Moses), an image labelled as Venus was shown with Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars plus the sun and moon, Orion and the important star Sirius. The identification of these objects has been typed on labels and positioned on a photograph of the star map meaning it is a 20th century CE addition. The name assignments are therefor based on the opinion of a 20th century person. That view is open to question as the image labeled as “Venus” is that of a saddle bill stork (see right) which in Egyptian hieroglyphics represents the “ba” of a person or object. “Ba” indicates everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of 'personality'. It could be explained as one of the modes of existence for a person. This image, at the left of that map, was linked with 'impressiveness', 'power'  and 'reputation' particularly of a deity.(33)  In the sky map, the bird is facing to the viewer’s right indicating that reading began from that direction and making its panel the last in the map.

- These items suggest that the image represented something that did not fit into standard Egyptian descriptions of things in the sky, that perhaps had been seen before, was considered impressive and powerful, and did not have a place with other planets or stars. The author considers it a good description by a knowledgable person of something they did not fully understand, and likely was associated with what we now call the Venus Comet. Senen-Mut (Moses) would have seen that comet in the 1495 BCE approach when little or no damage occurred. As the Royal Astronomer of Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut, he would have had access to earlier records, and likely had better knowledge of it than anyone else in Egypt. Lack of a positive naming or identification by Senen-Mut would be consistent with the Egyptian practice of not naming your enemies as it gives them "life eternal".

- To further confuse us, there is another Egyptian goddess of war, Sekhmet who has a lion head and is particularly bloody. It was said that her breath formed the desert. Her worship was on-going during the time of Hatshepsut and therefore Senen-mut / Moses. I have not found any mention of her fighting in the sky. It seems that she waged war on the planet against earthly beings on behalf of the pharaohs and led them in warfare.

- The Mars counterpart has been identified as the early god Set who is the god of storms, desert, evil, chaos and war. He has a bad reputation having murdered his brother Osiris. He redeems himself by coming to terms with the brother’s son, Horus, and by going with Ra in his solar barge to slay the monster serpent Apep with a spear, thus stopping the destruction of Earth. This later event would date to 1184 BCE.

- Apep was depicted as a huge serpent often with tightly compressed coils to emphasis his huge size. In funerary texts he is usually shown in the process of being dismembered in various ways. In a detailed depiction in the tomb of Rameses VI, twelve heads are painted above the head of the snake. They represent the souls he has swallowed who are briefly freed when he is destroyed, only to be imprisoned again the following night. The end of Apep is also credited to Ra as a cat or lioness cutting him up. This might represent the sun having pulled the comet cloud into itself. The choice seems to have depended on which deity you favoured.

- When the Ptolemies, Greek rulers in a later period of Egypt, came to power (ca 300 BCE), they supported several cults, including the sacred Apis Bull. The bull lived at the temple of Ptah. Special rituals were performed on the event of the bull's death. This included the reenactment of the conflict and victory of Ra over Apophis with boats set over the lake by the temple of Ptah.

 Libyan

- The Goddess Neith was the name for the Venus Comet in Libya.(34) The Egyptians also used that name during the Old Kingdom before changing to Apep prior to the fall of the Middle Kingdom in 1663 BCE. The Hyksos used Apep or a variation of it. Neith became Tannit about 500 BCE after the Venus Comet had lost its comet form and became a bright planet.

- According to several historical records, the Libyan birthplace of the Goddess Neith was also the  traditional homeland of the warrior women known as the Libyan Amazons, in the western parts of Libya, particularly around the legendary Lake Tritonis (southern Tunisia today). The etymology of the name "Amazon" is still undecided, with European enthusiasts deriving the name from the Greek Muse, and Berberists linking it with Amazigh and Tamezyant.

Persian / Iranian (Zoroastrian)

- Zoroastrianism is usually thought of as an old Persian religion, and Azura Mazda is its principal deity. It has followers to this day. It began about 700-500 BCE but much of its teaching dates back to the earlier Avestā writings. (See below)

- The major adversary of this deity is known by several names. Angra Mainyu (/ˈæŋrə ˈmaɪnjuː/; Avestan: I love j𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀⸱𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎 Aŋra Mainiiu) is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostasis of the "destructive spirit". Angra Mainyu is omnimalevolent. (Hates everybody and everything.) The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman 𐭠𐭧𐭫𐭬𐭭𐭩 (Anglicised pronunciation: /ˈɑːrɪmən/) which is also found translated as Hariman, Haman and their variations. Invariably a person with those names is considered very evil. He is given this name as a second name to avoid having his real name mentioned, remembered and therefore "immortalised". (See Bible story of Ester Ch. 3ff)

- The Avestan entity Aži Dahāka, which can be translated as "burning dragon", is identified as the son of Angra Mainyu. Aži Dahāka is described as a serpent that flies through the sky, is three-mouthed, three headed, and six-eyed with a thousand senses. It is the most powerful, fiendish Druj [meaning deceiver, betrayer], a demon baleful to the world. It was created by Angra Mainyu to destroy the world of the "good principle” (Majumdar, 1909, p.133). This combination of views suggests the Venus Comet, although current references fail to discuss that idea(35).

- Ahura Mazda warns Yima, the first man, of an upcoming catastrophe:(36) "O fair Yima, son of Vivaŋhat! Upon the material world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall bring the fierce, deadly frost; upon the material world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall make snow-flakes fall thick, even an arədvi deep on the highest tops of mountains."

- Ahura Mazda advises Yima to construct a Vara (Avestan: enclosure) in the form of a multi-level cavern underground, 3km long and 3km wide. [See image of one in Israel] It is to have streets and buildings and artificial light. This he is to populate with nearly 2000 of the fittest of men and women; and with two of every animal, bird and plant; and supply with food and water gathered the previous summer. Yima creates the Vara by crushing the earth with a stamp of his foot, and kneading it into shape as a potter does clay. He finally seals the Vara with a golden ring.

- Later on in the older Avesta, the serpent is killed by Thraitauna (Avestan Θraētaona), a name identical to the adjective meaning "the third", a term used of a minor deity associated with two other deities to form a triad. This suggests that Thraitauna may have equated with the planet/god Mars as the minor (smaller/weaker) deity, while Jupiter and Saturn were the two larger gods. Aži Dahāka was the Venus Comet and the other non-planet was the Sun. No dating is associated with the "killing" of the serpent, but based on other parts of this research, a date of 1184 BCE is considered. In the Indian Vedas, Trita is associated with gods of thunder and wind.

- The Avesta, as modified in Zoroastrian texts, relates a story about the mythical Iranian king Fereydūn (same root word in Middle Persian as Θraētaona in Avestan) as a nine-year-old (a minor person), defeating Aži Dahāka, wounding him with consequent bleeding of vermin. Ahura Mazda asked Fereydūn not to kill Aži Dahāka to prevent these vermin from infesting the world. Fereydūn obliges and chains Aži Dahāka on Mt. Damāvand. This 5650m strato-volcano, the highest point in the country, is between Teheran and the Caspian Sea. It is falsely labeled as mythological in the story.

-  Fereydūn is known as an emblem of victory, justice, and generosity in Persian literature. The Zoroastrian version of the apocalypse is prophesied to begin with Aži Dahāka escaping from his imprisonment.

 Avestan

- Examining the older Persian/Iranian myths points us to the Avestan culture that seems to have its roots in north and eastern Persia. The following quote(37) of a double-named goddess incorporates the transitions of the Venus Comet from a destroying warrior to an interesting item in the sky to the beautiful planet Venus. It incorporates knowledge from prior to 1300 BCE when the Venus Comet was still destructive, to after the 1184 BCE combat with the planet Mars when the Comet was "tamed", to after about 800 BCE when the Comet was transformed and renamed. [See those dates in Appendix 1 - Dates of Events]

"Anāhiti - One of the longest Avestan Yashts (prayers or songs) is to the powerful goddess whose full name is given as Ardvī Sūrā Anāhitā, literally “the damp, strong, untainted.” In fact, the long name seems to combine two originally separate names and, hence, two individual deities, Ardvī Sūrā and Anāhiti. Ardvī Sūrā is the Iranian name of the heavenly river goddess who in the Rigveda is called Sarasvati. [A river flowing in the Indus Valley has been given that name.] In this role, she brings fresh water to the earth, filling streams, rivers, and seas as she flows from Mount Hukarya to the Varu-Karta sea.[These locations have been styled as the Cosmic Mountain and the Cosmic Sea. More realistically they would be the high Himalayas and the salty Indian Ocean.] The other name, Anāhiti, is a separate goddess of uncertain origin whose cult seems to have been popular originally in northeastern Iran. The name probably meant “untaintedness, purity (both moral and physical).” It is interesting that the Greek Anaitis (’Αναιτις) preserves the Old Iranian form of the name, while the Avestan and Old Persian Anāhit(a) shows a more recent linguistic form. Unlike any other Iranian deity, she is described in great detail in the Yashts, especially in respect to her clothing and ornament-ation, to such an extent that one assumes a dressed cult image must be the source of the description. This is confirmed by the fact that Artaxerxes II mentions her. Then, too, the Babylonian historian Berosus reports that this king had many images of her made and distributed. Since the Iranians did not traditionally make images, it may be assumed that Anāhiti’s cult borrowed heavily from Mesopotamian models. The Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar probably provided the clearest model, though the details of Anāhiti’s dress—her beaver coat, for example—show significant differences. There were other striking similarities: Ishtar was the goddess of war and patroness of the palace, while the greater part of Anāhiti’s Yasht is devoted to her martial traits and her patronage of Iranian heroes and legendary rulers (in post-Achaemenian Iran Anāhiti was intimately connected with kingship and the shah). In addition, both goddesses were important for fertility."

-  Of note is the lack of mention of any god connected to a bolt of lightening. This confirms the idea of the “thunder bolt” of 1184 BCE not being visible in the area of the Indus Valley.

 Kurdish Myths (38)

-  Before Islam, Kurdish people originally worshipped a pantheon or class of gods called dêw, which are known as Daeva in English. Among them was a terrifying dragon that they called ejdîha, which is known as Azi Zahhak in English ["serpent burning" (cf. Sanskrit azi dahana)]. These gods were later seen as evil monsters, trolls or giants. They were replaced by the ahurâ gods, known in English as Asura, before they were merged into Ahura Mazda.

-  In Kurdish mythology, Kaveh the Blacksmith led the ancestors of the Kurds into mountains to escape the oppression of a king named Zahhak. He killed Zahhak with his magic sword or spear in a parallel story to the Greek Athena/Ares. In Old Persian myth, he is blended with/into Fereydūn who is mentioned above, but Kaveh remains a national heroic figure.

-  See similarities of events and linguistics with Basque language below.

 Classical History

   Greek/Achaean

-  Very old Greek stories tell of three floods, identified as the Ogygian, in the time of King Ogyges of Athens, the Deucalion in the time of Deucalion, King of Phthia, a city or district in ancient Thessaly, and the Dardanian in the time of Dardanus who ruled Dardania, the area of today's Dardanelles. In trying to establish details on these three floods, this author came to recognise that the first two matched each other and the Flood of Atlantis. It was like a Shakespearean play with the same lines but different casts. Dardanus appears to be of a much later time, but definitely before 1200 BCE as King Priam of Troy is mentioned as a descendant of some sort. Most of the known events of 6493 BCE (see Appendix 1 - Dated Events for that date) include a catastrophe in the area near the Dardanelles, Sea of Marmora and the Bosphorus.

-  Greek records also identify Athena, the goddess of "justifiable" war, in the Minoan culture of Crete about 1500 BCE. Earlier dating is thought very probable and may be discernible if early Minoan writings can be read.  Other sources say she was the Libyan Triple Goddess Neith, identified in Egypt as early as 2000 BCE as Metis, Medusa, Anath, or Ath-enna. (See Inanna in Sumer.) An inscription at Lapithou, Larnaca, Cyprus named her as Athene in Greek and Anat in Phoenician(39). This latter culture equated to the Philistines who settled the coast of Canaan. The Biblical Amos referred to them as having come from Caphtor (Cyprus)(40). Their history would have been Cretan and/or Aegean Islands. (See Appendix 1 - Dated Events  1446 BCE)

 - Timaeus in Plato’s writing, has Solon learning from the Egyptian temple priests at Sais:

    "For in truth, the story that is told  In your country (Greece) as well as ours,

     How once upon a time Phaethon, Son of Helios, Yoked his Father's chariot,

     And because he was unable to drive it Along the course taken by his father

     Burnt up all that was upon the Earth, And himself perished by a thunderbolt.

     That story, as it is told, has the fashion of a legend. But the truth of it lies
     In the occurrence of a shifting of the bodies in the heavens, Which move around the Earth,
     And a destruction of the things on the Earth by fierce fire, Which recurs at long intervals.

 This story has the details of an eye-witness. The Venus Comet moves through the sky in a manner that allows its fiery image to be mixed in the viewer's vision of the Sun. That view closes in on the Earth, leaving the impression that the Sun itself has come to the Earth and set fire to it. A thunderbolt flies between Earth and the Venus Comet.

 -  In Ovid's Metamorphoses(41) 

    " ...... with night dismissed, Phaethon sets off on Helios’ chariot. Almost immediately though, there are problems, for Phaethon cannot control the horses, and the chariot veers upwards and downwards violently. When the chariot of the sun god travels too high, the earth starts to freeze, but when it plunges downwards, the planet starts to burn. During one of these downward plunges, the chariot scorches the earth, and creates the Nubian Desert. [Nubian Desert is in northern Eritrea between the Nile River and north end of the Red Sea.]  A low trajectory of his chariot causes lakes and rivers to dry up.

  Zeus follows proceedings from Mount Olympus, and realises that the passage of Phaethon cannot be allowed to continue, and so the supreme god unleashes one of his lightning bolts. The bolt of lightning strikes Phaethon, and the lifeless body of the son of Helios plunges to earth, and falls into the Eriadanos River (a river said to be in Europe and equated with the Po, or the Rhone and even the Danube).

   Helios, the father of Phaethon, was, of course, distraught at the death of his son, and for days afterwards, he refused to drive his chariot; and the earth was plunged into darkness for days, causing all to suffer. Zeus asked Helios to re-harness his horses, but of course Helios blamed Zeus for the death of Phaethon; although Zeus would claim it was the only way to save the earth. In the end, it required the pleadings of many other gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, before Helios would once again drive his chariot.

   Helios was not the only one who mourned the passing of Phaethon, for the seven sisters of Phaethon, the Heliades, also grieved. The Heliades would go to the place where Phaethon had fallen, and for four months, they remained and grieved."

 In essence the dust of the Venus Comet in the sky, prevented seeing the Heliades. In the Ovid details, we learn that the motion of the Sun, as understood by a viewer on Earth, becomes greatly disturbed. (Prior to about 1500 CE, many people thought the Earth to be the centre of the universe and Sun, Moon, planets and stars went around it!) The Venus Comet is close enough to Earth that it hides the Sun, and its fiery atmosphere is thought to be the Sun. The scorching of the Nubian Desert may have been a real event as would be the drying up of lakes and rivers. The direction to the Nubian Desert from Karakul Lake in Tajikistan (see Para. 13 entry discussion in Chinese Gong Gong story at the beginning.) is an east to west movement of the Venus Comet based on the previous location of the North Pole. This implies that the Earth had already had its poles inverted.

   A thunder-bolt flies between the Earth and the Comet, seemingly causing disengagement. An object from the Venus Comet may have fallen into the Po River. The Earth was dark for days due to a severe dusting by the Comet and by the swirling of the Earth's own dust and debris. The events in "Timaeus" and the Ovid story would all have taken place in hours, as the Greenland ice data shows that the Venus Comet retained its regular 7 year orbit of the Sun. The darkening of the skies would have lasted longer.

 - In the Iliad(42), describing the last year of the Trojan War about 1184 BCE, Homer tells his audience that Athena (the Venus Comet) directed a "spear" against Ares (the Greek Mars) "wounding him and forcing him to leave the battle". This description suggests that these planets were not in their current orbits. The “spear” was likely a huge electrical discharge between them. It's flash was seen by other cultures from Persia westward across Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and north Africa to as far as the Mississippi River in North America. It was also seen in central and south Africa plus Central America, Amazonia and in parts of central South America. (See those entries in this Appendix 2.) Viewers on the other side of our globe were not in a position to see the "bolt/spear" nor were people in the Indus Valley.

  The reader should note that all the viewers except the Greeks, state that the "spear" flew from Ares into Athena. Mars, Marduk, Ares and others of that name, become exalted and feared as the new God of War. Fear of Athena or her counterparts, in the above mentioned areas, disappears after this Ares encounter. Descriptions of Athena at that time, are all verbal and postdate the events by centuries. Any pictures, drawn later, depict her in later-day Greek style clothing and human form.

   What happens to the Venus Comet after Troy? It appears to have circled in the solar system but very few mentions related to it have been found. The data on the Greenland ice-freezing temperatures suggests that the Earth may have crossed it's orbit three times until 916 BCE when a distinct drop in temperature suggests a closer encounter with the Comet. The Earth did not change its orbit but retained the 360 Earth Days per year calendar.

    -  Athena is described by the Greek poet Hesiod as "leaping fully arm'd from the forehead of Zeus". This phrase is used by specialists in Greek literature as a term for the "Creation Myth". Greeks of the Classic Period supposedly invented a wild story to explain this "turn of phrase". This author believes that these specialists have failed to fully examine the story and consider its rational.

  Homer and Hesiod are the two earliest known writers of Greek myths. Homer seems to have done his writing about 870-830 BCE. Hesiod flourished about 810-760 BCE. They seemed not to have co-existed. All the rest of the Greek mythology has been "generated in some manner" after that later date and much is attributed to prior peoples. As an example of this, Tiamat and Typhon, two names for a destructive "god", while attributed to both Homer and Hesiod, do not appear until well after both of those writers ceased writing.

   Why did Hesiod choose to reinvent Athena after her defeat by Ares? That event had taken place about 400 years earlier! Why does he call her "arm'd" when earlier viewers of her in the sky knew she had a cloak-like appearance? He would have believed that her spear had been thrown at Ares earlier. Hesiod's words indicate that he considered that Athena was redressed in shiny body armour. She was armoured (arm'd in old fashioned english language). That made her quite visible in the night sky near Zeus (Jupiter). Subsequent transcribers/writers changed the word to "armed" and thought of her as being equipped with weapons.

- This author believes that this was an actually observed event in the sky. Hesiod himself may have observed it. The Venus Comet is thought to have come by Zeus (Jupiter) and was pulled in close enough to strip away most of its cloud. This attraction by Jupiter would, in addition, accelerate the mass of the Venus planet body so that it passed Jupiter and flew off on its own. The view from Earth would show a bright body in place of the previously cloaked planet, beside Jupiter. The new and bright shiny Athena was speeding away from Zeus. Possibly the Greeks had not previously recognised Athena as having two parts that could be separated;  a massive planet body and an enveloping cloud (a cloak) moving with it. The author has not seen previous mentions of that concept anywhere. Greek mythology always refers to Athena (planet plus comet) as a "singular entity". Other descriptions of this separation event have not been found.

  When that parting happened, the planet part was therefore considered to have been "born (or leaping) out of the head of Zeus" (Jupiter) as a renewed entity. Given the view of Jupiter from Earth, that was a Grecian assumption. The old Greeks are surprised by the sight, and might, we suggest, be "thrilled" that their war goddess had been outfitted for battle by Zeus!

  Dating this Zeus encounter would put it after the time of Homer. No mention of it is found in his time and this author can not believe that Homer would have passed up this story!  Let's date this event no earlier than 820 BCE. Hesiod's story may then be about 800 BCE.

   Athena retained her name with the Greeks even after her transformation in Hesiod's story. Having not fought any more great battles, her identity was allowed to fade. After 100 years, the new, bright planet in the sky, with a new orbit close to Earth, was named as peaceful and beautiful Aphrodite. She was a goddess of love and sensuality, known on Cyprus and in the cultures of the Levant. She was still considered a goddess of salty water as remedies for impotence relied on consuming salt and salted water. She was also identified as the Morning and Evening Star. (This would seem to coincide with the Romans naming her Venus.) Some of the later Greek writers speak of Aphrodite and Athena as separate gods seemingly existing at the same time.

  Interestingly the Greeks formalised their celebrations in 776 BCE with games honouring Zeus at a location in the western Peloponnese at a place they called Olympia. These continued until about 390 CE. Today's Olympic Games were revived in 1896 CE in Athens. We can be said to be celebrating the end of the Venus Comet more than 3000 years later.

  The planet Venus is believed to have had a later encounter with Mars in 701 BCE. That set the smaller planet, Mars, on a path to meet Earth in 687 BCE over Jerusalem, where it destroyed a lot of Assyrians. It also adjusted our calendar to today’s format.

 Terramare Culture of the Po Valley, Italy

- The Po Valley is fertile land based on its rich black loam called "terramare" (dark or black earth) identified as early as 2000 BCE(43). Farming is noted in the Middle Bronze Age II (1550-1450 BCE). It is noted that the 1550 BCE date approximates a "mild encounter" of the Venus Comet that the Theban Egyptians used to topple the Hyksos kingdom in their country (1544 BCE). Additionally 1450 BCE coincides with the date of the mild encounter of the Venus Comet that accompanied the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt (1446 BCE). The reference dates the Late Bronze Age, a period of growth and prosperity as 1450-1350 BCE. This later date was followed by a lengthy period of cooling that coincides with a turn down in the Terramare Culture and a noticeable worsening in Egyptian conditions.

-  Around 1200 BCE a serious crisis began for the culture that within a few years led to the abandonment of all the settlements. This crisis was roughly contemporaneous with the Late Bronze Age collapse in the eastern Mediterranean (aka Mycenaean Palatial Civilization 1250-1200 BCE). Both of those civilisations were struck devastatingly by multi-year Venus Comet encounters. Only after several centuries, did the Etruscan culture began to show.

 Etruscan

- This culture located in northern and central Italy is noted about 1100 BCE. It originally had a powerful and popular goddess of war, marriage and childbirth called Menrva. She was part of a supreme triad with Tin, the Sky God (Sun), and his consort Uni (Moon), the goddess of love and women. Later Menvra also became the goddess of the arts. Etrusca did not have an Athena equivalent or a Venus until it was overrun and dominated by Rome. By 700 BCE its pantheon was the same as Rome's, and the Romans had a new goddess Minerva.(44)

 Roman

- In terms of this work on the Venus Comet, it must be recognised that Rome and the Romans became involved only after everything had quieted down and the Planet Venus held its present position in the skies. Their culture dates from 753 BCE. The 687 BCE encounter of Mars with Earth established the red planet as their God of War. By the third century BCE the Roman Venus was considered as synchronous with the Greek Aphrodite. The Romans viewed Venus as a gentle and beautiful goddess seen as the Morning and Evening Star. She was associated with the warlike Mars but did not fight. Romans never had a deity analogous to Athena, the Greek Goddess of War.

- Roman literature described the Trojans (the progenitors of the Romans) coming to the Etruscan area in Italy. It mentions that the gods were upset and Hera asked Jupiter to protect the Trojan ships from being torched. A giant thunder-bolt came from the sky and struck the Earth while all the trumpets of the heavens sounded. A large hole in the ground was pointed to as verification of the thunder-bolt, ..... but its current location is not known.

African

     Tunisian

- A goddess known as Tanith (and as Astarte), a name derived from Semitic roots meaning "serpent lady", was particularly associated with the city of Carthage(45). She was the Phoenician goddess of love, fertility, the moon and the stars, and was linked to the planet Venus in its current orbit. She was the consort of Ba'al Hammon (planet Mars). Her name and location seems to date her to after 800 BCE.

       Moroccan

- Recent discoveries in Essaouira province, Morocco,(46) show three stones with comet shapes on them. (See Venus Story - Story page 28) One has four "tails" streaming from it and a circular "head" with markings that indicate a counter-clockwise rotation. It also has a large, distinct man-like figure which gives the impression that the comet in the sky appeared large to the viewer. A second stone shows the comet overhead of two men who appear to be holding swords. The third stone shows a similar comet with three tails, and has a "sun" image that appears three to four times as large in width, for comparison. Also shown are a man, a horse and a horned cattle all in correct proportion to one another; again possibly giving a scale to the comet and sun images as well as emphasing how close they seemed. There are two lines of small symbols which could be an early form of writing. They are not pictographic. No dates are associated with these stones. All are highly suggestive of the Venus Comet being close to the Earth.

      Nigerian and West African

- A god named Shango is particularly associated with thunder, lightning and storms in the Yoruba culture of Nigeria and countries to its west.(47)  He is usually portrayed with horns and a ram’s head and holding a double axe in his hand. The Yoruba people believe that Shango was often accompanied by Oya, the goddess of the River Niger. In this combination, they are the Yoruba's personification of the Venus Comet that has an ancient association with the Flood (Oya). They also saw their warrior Shango defeat her in the skies with a lightning bolt in 1184 BCE. This belief and these names were carried to the Americas in the slave trade.

- Oya is one of the most powerful African Goddesses (Orishas). A Warrior-Queen, she is the sister-wife of the God Shango, to whom She gave the power to create storms. Oya was responsible for powerful winds and gusts. In Yoruba, the name Oya means "she tore." She is known as Ọya-Iyansan – the "mother of nine" — due to the Niger River (known to the Yoruba as the Odo-Ọya) traditionally being known for having nine tributaries.

- The following song is reported as addressed to Shango:

“O Shango, thou art the master!

Thou takest in thy hand the fiery stones,

To punish the guilty!

To satisfy thy anger!

Everything they (the stones) strike is destroyed,

The fire eats up the forest,

The trees are broken down, And all things living are slain…” 

     Kenyan

- The Kalenjin people of Kenya have a folklore that appears to link back to the events of the taming of the Venus Comet. Ehret(48) postulates that the Asisian religion superseded an earlier belief system whose worship centred on the sky and which dated back to the early Southern Nilotic period. Deities included:

-  Tororut: A Supreme God who made earth and caused the birth of mankind, and animals who, the ancestors of long ago are thought to have overseen. He was perceived as being like man in form but with huge wings whose flash causes lightning (kerial) and the whirring thereof thunder (kotil). He was said to live above (yim) in a place with land, stock, ivory and every good thing. Tororut was perceived as an omniscient, universal father. All calamities that befell man were sent by him as a punishment to men for their sins. He is thought to be a Mars equivalent.

-  His wife was Seta (Pleiades). His children were Arawa (Moon) - first born son; Ilat (Rain) - a son; Topogh (Evening Star - Venus) - his first born daughter; Kokel (Stars) - other children. His younger brother, Asis (Sun) was seen to be angry during the dry season.

      Basotho of Losotho

- These people of South Africa have a tale that seems to match the "Ares defeating Athena over Troy" story of the Greeks. It is the "Dragon-slaying South African Princess"(49). The villain is a "nanabolele", a water-dwelling dragon. They are horrible creatures who give off light in the dark, terrorise the people and always arrive in a cloud of red smoke. The heroine is a young woman Thákane, who is preparing her two younger brothers for their manhood ceremony. The boys want to be dressed in the skin from a nanobolele to honour their deceased father. After consulting an old expert witch, they go down in a lake where the dragons all live, kill and skin one nanabolele, and flee from the others. By various dodges they escape their pursuers who eventually give up. She then makes the clothes for her brothers, and also has someone make shields, blankets, hats, and shoes, all out of the nanabolele. The parallel with Ares, the inferior one, stopping Athena is apparent.

 European

- Dragons are legendary creatures in folklore and mythology among the non-Nordic overlapping cultures of Europe. They are typically depicted as a large, fire-breathing, scaly, horned, lizard-like creatures. They may have leathery, bat-like wings, four legs/arms, and a long, muscular prehensile tail. Some depictions show dragons with feathered wings, crests, ear frills, fiery manes, ivory spikes running down the spine, and various exotic decorations. Others have no legs or multiple heads. They are believed to sweep down on their victims and in turn are dispatched by heroes. In the Balkans they are remembered as evil and hurtful to individual people and being able to take many shapes. The old Illyrian culture has a root word “illur" meaning "snake".

- In spite of having dragons and serpents recounted in their stories, most European countries plus the British Isles, do not have myths giving physical details of the "activities" of the planets in the skies as other cultures and areas do. Once realised, this posed a logic problem. Why could those people not have seen it all? Were their memories really poor? Did nobody tell stories? Was every day cloudy?

- The AHAAH! moment came when it was remembered that the dust and debris of the cataclysmic El Salvadoran eruption of Volcan Ilopango began in 536 CE. Its dust continued through the next 20 years and so ruined Europe that crops failed for years and famine wiped out both people and wild animals. Records at the Vatican recount how the flow of messages and monies from Europe to Rome ceased, and priests died or just disappeared.

-  The memories of the original Europeans were erased. This why we do not find these stories in France, the Low Countries, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Czech and Slovak Republics, Russia, the British Isles, Iberia, Italy, the Balkans and northern Greece. These were truly the Dark Ages of Europe. The skies were physically dark. The lack of Literature of that time and place was an expected outcome. In addition the deaths of the people in those areas, caused the loss of their myths and the stories retained in their combined memories.

-  The replacement people were totally different cultures who began percolating into the area from the east sometime after 700 CE. They competed with and in many places overran any survivors living peripherally on the edge of the devastated area. These survivors appeared so strange and seemingly perhaps demented, that the newcomers often thought of them as less than human. The earliest folklore has Beowulf, one of the incoming ones, forever battling the "strange ones".

- Much of European history today begins with the "earliest" people climbing out of their famine, ignorance and poverty after about 700 CE. They burst onto the scene without being encumbered by old rules and ideas, and established hierarchies. They succeeded very well. Other European countries were damaged to varying degrees but retained their structures and memories on their return to normalcy. The legends of western Europe tell of events and heroes in the repopulation time frame and later. The earlier history seems to be unknown.

- Pre 550 CE findings(50) - The ram-horned serpent is a well-attested cult image of north-west Europe before and during the Roman period. It appears on the Gundestrup cauldron (made in southeast Europe and found in Jutland, Denmark). In Romano-Celtic Gaul, it was closely associated with the horned or antlered god Cernunnos, in whose company it is regularly depicted. This pairing is found as early as the fourth century BCE in Northern Italy, where a huge antlered figure, with torcs and a serpent, was carved on the rocks in Val Camonica.(51)

    Albanian

-  Interestingly, Albania has a mythology(52) describing its "dragons in the sky" as fighting each other but with no mention of harm to people or property. Kulshedra is generally considered to be a female dragon, like a multi-headed serpent form, but it is known to have pendulous drooping breasts touching the ground. She is said to be covered in wooly red hair, have a long tail, seven to twelve heads and to spit fire. She is considered to be a storm demon, to cause drought and other water-related issues for humanity such as torrents, tempests, water shortage, big storms, flooding, or other natural disasters. Essentially everything that goes wrong! Heavy thunderstorms are thought to be the result of a battle "to the death" between a Kulshedra and its male counterpart, a Dragùa, sometimes called drangue or drangoni. Little or no damage to people occurs. No association with any planet is mentioned.

    Danube or Slavic Culture

- The so-called "Danube Culture" covered a large area in the Balkans and its relics have been found along the lower reaches of this river and south to Albania and northern Greece. What they called themselves is unknown.

-  Lepenski Vir ("Lepena Whirlpool"), a community located in Serbia at the Iron Gates on the Danube River, is a Mesolithic archaeological site with data suggesting that it existed before 7200 BCE(53). A later version of Lepenski Vir flourished briefly but elegantly 6300–6000 BCE and seemingly disappeared about the 5870 BCE event. Ancient buildings are trapezoidal.

- Tablets found(54) display likely "writing" which has not been deciphered, but is considered indicative of a lengthy, developed culture. The site was dated to about 5500 BCE which was a time of known severe destruction in that area, but not necessarily the collapse of the culture. (See Appendix 6 - Zodiac for another very interesting viewpoint.)

- The Dispilo Tablet(55) was found in a Neolithic lake settlement in Northwestern Greece near the city of Kastoria. It is of wood and is C14 dated to 5260 BCE. [5996 BCE IntCal09] The symbols engraved on it are similar to the tablet symbols mentioned in the preceding paragraph, indicating that it likely came from the same culture.

- Multiple European Slavic cultures have myths(56) (see Albania above) that include flying dragons of various types and styles. All have multiple heads and arms/legs and flowing bodies. Many dragons are said to have a home in the Black Sea which would be consistent with a viewer's first sight of the approaching Venus Comet over that body of water, east of the Danube River. The dragons vary from deadly killers to helpful creatures. Some myths say they are stopped, killed or converted to Christianity by a young man, with St. George being mentioned several times. The author noted that all mentions are in the style of "stories of long ago" rather than first-hand accounts, leading him to conclude that some detail had survived the Dark Ages of Europe and later had been embellished in the telling.

- The Wikipedia site "Symbols and proto-writing of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture" noted in October 2019 has the following entry :  - In 1981 archaeologists unearthed a remarkable discovery dating back to 4200 BCE C14 (4850 BCE IntCal09) from the Precucuteni site of Poduri-Dealul, near the town of Ghindaru, Bacău County, Romania. Dubbed the "Council of Goddesses", it was a collection of 15 clay anthropomorphic female figurines (each about 10 cm high), all of whom were seated, with 13 of them seated on accompanying clay chairs (or thrones). The archaeologists noted that some of these figurines had symbolic markings painted in red on their shoulders, almost identical to other clay female figurines found elsewhere. The writer on that site deemed that they showed a culture where women had a strong influence. The author of this book on Venus believes that they all represent the war goddess (Venus Comet) known as Inanna by the later Samarians. They may have been used as objects of worship by individuals. He would expect that if a larger group of people were involved, that the objects would have been large to emphasise the large object in the sky.

    Basque

- The people known today by this name differ from the the rest of the Europeans in language and genetics. While definitely not proven so, they are believed to be a remanent of the same people of the Neolithic culture that seems to have been essentially wiped out in Britain around 3000 BCE. (See date in Appendix 1 - Dated Events). Those people were later replaced by the Bell Beaker folk.

-  Urtzi (also ortzi) is a Basque term which either represents an old common noun for the sky, or the name for a pre-Christian sky deity. It appears to be older than the Proto-Indo-European language.(57) The author suspects that it referred to the Venus Comet. The root ortzi (with the variants urtz, ortz, orz and ost), is found for example in:

  + ortzadar 'rainbow' (ortzi + adar 'horn') [shape of rainbow arc like horns on Venus Comet]

  + ortzi 'sky, thunder' [place of the Venus Comet]

  + orzgorri (> oskorri) 'red sky' (ortzi + gorri 'red') [as when Venus Comet burns overhead]

  + ostargi 'daylight' (ortzi + argi 'light') [bright light as if lit by Venus Comet]

  + ostegun 'Thursday' (ortzi + egun 'day') [thunder day, Venus Comet is threatening]

  + oskarbi 'clear sky' (ortzi + garbi 'clean') [as when the Venus Comet is missing]

-  The 12th Cent. account, the Codex Calixtinus, was by Aymeric Picaud, a French pilgrim, who recorded a number of Basque words and expressions. He wrote about Urtzi: et Deus uocant Urcia ("and they name God as Urcia".) Since the remaining material Picaud recorded appears to be very accurate, this bears some weight. (see above reference)

- This author noted that the Kurdish language (which see above) uses the name "Azi Zahhak" in describing the Venus Comet as "fiery". It traces back to Sanskrit. Might the Basque language, considered to be an "isolate", be a derivative of that language?

- The story of Herensuge(58), describes a multi-headed, destructive, dragon, that exists in several forms. When it created its seventh head, it had "burst into flames but was not destroyed". In the end, a "blacksmith with a red hot bar of iron", or alternatively an "angel" or "San Miguel" (St. Michael) with his sword, dispatched the dragon so that it sank in the ocean. In Basque language "Heren" derives from the noun "iron" and can indicate the metal or the man who works it. "Sugaar" indicates "snake" or "dragon" and together they make the story of the brave blacksmith.

-  This report suggests that their stories of the Athena vs Ares combat in the sky in 1184 BCE some how survived the European Dark Ages famine. The Basque, being a fishing people and oriented to sea-faring, may have survived the famine time (535 - 560 CE) with resources from the sea. They may also have lived elsewhere at that time, and moved later. [1] 

    Spanish

- In Cantabrian (northern Spain) folklore, the Culebre is a dragon-like creature, or a snake with two bat-like wings, that exhales fire and sulphur. Culebres are very dangerous, but it is worth fighting against them, because they usually hide huge treasures in their dens. [The idea of treasure and dens is thought to be a story-teller's addition.]

    Portuguese (59)

- The Ophi people lived mainly in the inland mountains of Northern Portugal and Galicia. Others say they lived mainly by the estuaries of the rivers Douro and Tagus which are in that area. The Ophi worshiped serpents, hence Land of Serpents. This author noted the similarities of the name Ophi to the Basque name Ortzi for their "sky people" as given a few entries back. Living on the west coast of Europe, both groups would see the Venus Comet, moving from east to west and disappearing over or into the Atlantic Ocean.

- There have surfaced a few archeological findings that could be related to this people or culture. Some believe that the dragon, sometimes represented as a griffin, from the original Winged Serpent, or Wyvern (the traditional Portuguese Serpe Real = Royal Serpent), old crest of the crown of the Kings of Portugal and later of the Emperors of Brazil, is linked to local people or to the Celts who later invaded the area and could also have been influenced by the Ophi beliefs.

The 4th century Roman poet Rufus Avienus Festus, writing on geographical subjects in Ora Maritima ("Seacoasts"), a document inspired by a Greek mariners' Periplus, related that the Oestriminis (Extreme West in Latin) was peopled by the Oestrimni, a people who had been living there for a long time; they had to flee their homeland after an invasion of serpents. (Worshippers of serpents?) These people could be linked to the Saephe (Saefs) or Ophis ("People of the Serpents") and the Dragani ("People of the Dragons"), who came to those lands and built the territorial entity the Greeks termed Ophiussa.

    The expulsion of the Oestrimni, from Ora Maritima:

"Back after the places we spoke of above, there opens a great bay filled with water, all the way to Ophiussa. Back from the shore of this place, to the inland water, through which I said before that the sea insinuates itself through the land, and which they call Sardum, the journey extends for seven days on foot. Ophiusa extends its side, being as large as you hear the Island of Pelops lying in the territory of the Greeks is. This land was originally called Oestrymnis by those who inhabited the Oestrymnian countryside and region, much later the serpent chased away the inhabitants and gave the now empty land its name."

  This last statement might suggest that the Venus Comet (Serpent) may have destroyed the area, forcing the inhabitants to leave. [2] 

 Netherlands

-  The Veluwsche Sagen was a historically researched collection of Dutch "sagas" from the legends and folk almanacs in the province of Gelderland in Veluwsche, Eastern Nederland.(60)  It includes this "story" of the known battle in the sky between the Greek gods Athena and Ares in 1184 BCE (which see). This Venus Story knows it as a thunder-bolt passing from the planet Mars to the Venus Comet. The Earth-damaging actions of the Comet cease. It's memory has been carried through the European Dark Ages of 535 - 560 CE by story-tellers.

 - The Creation of the Uddeler- and Bleeke Lake(s)(61) 

    This myth (including its hyperbole) concerns a battle that took place between Donar the God of Thunder (aka Thor, Woden, Ares, Mars], with the "winter giants" and the "Midgaardslang" (a giant snake monster) [literally "Earth-encircling serpent"] who strategically align against him. The giants throw down hail, while the snake climbs into a tall oak tree and blows poison [fire] into the air. Donar attacks, riding through the air on "his billy-goat wagon".

      [JMC comment - Emphasises his "minor status" and that he was thought not to be able to handle the attacker.] The sky blazes and the earth trembles because of his "never missing thunder-hammer." Donar strikes the snake on his head with such force that not only was the monster crushed, the mighty thunder-hammer went seven miles deep into the earth. The snake dies.

      However, in the attack the snake's poison scorches and stuns Donar. Donar crashes down, with his "steer-less goats and wagon" onto the Donderberg (meaning Donar's hill or "Thunder-hill") in Dieren. Then the earth sank into the sea [waters rose], the sea god blew a horn and a big black ship came to collect Donar's body. When the floodwaters receded, two lakes mark the spot that are "as deep as the world, the Uddelermeer or "Lake of Uddel"

(Uttiloch in 800 CE), and the Godenmeer (God's lake)..." 

     Later the legend continues that Thor's hammer surfaced from the depths. The grave of the Midgaardslang became overgrown with the forest nearby, until in 1222 CE a bright flame shot out of the pool and the ghost of the snake wriggled up and fled north. The forest was burned and a moor near the lake remains where the forest once was.

-  Perné (see reference above) notes that Donar was worshipped at Godenmeer (lake of the Gods), although the translator thinks that the lake Godenmeer may be a Christian version of Woden-mere, a lake originally dedicated to Wodan.

- The author notes the inclusion of the powerful "Winter Giants" in this saga and wonders if this event took place in the winter, or were the giants included to account for rocks flying through the air and to give the story more interest. Secondly, mention of Donar (planet Mars) and Midgaardslang (the Comet) falling into the Earth, may imply that chunks of space debris impacted the area of Godenmeer and possibly created the lakes.

     Scandinavian

- In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr, meaning "huge monster"(62), and also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent, is a “sea serpent god”, who was tossed into the great primordial (salt water) ocean that encircles Midgard (Middle Earth). The serpent grew so large that it was able to surround the earth and grasp its own tail. This description would fit the idea of the Venus Comet enveloping the Earth and indicates a "monster" with a huge tail. It was a destroyer of the land and its people. It was equated by others with most of the scary creatures discussed in this story.

- As discussed in the Finn details below, this Midgard Serpent lived in the Sea, came out of the Sea in the west to pillage the Earth, and then sank to the bottom when killed.

- An old name for the Venus Comet was "Blóðstjarna", meaning "Blood Star", indicating that it was a fiery colour before it became the planet we know. A possibly even older name may have been "Muspelheimr" whose etymology is uncertain, but may come from Mund-spilli, "world-destroyer" + heimr, "home" or "hall". These memories must then predate the Mars encounter with the Venus Comet about 1184 BCE. Today it is usually called "Morgunstjarna" meaning "Morning Star" confirming its status as the planet Venus.

- The "Lindorm" mentioned in southern Scandinavia(63) is described as  "horned serpent" rather than a dragon.

        Norse

- Norse mythology includes the points mentioned above under Scandinavian. It generally appears to be post-500 BCE and differentiates itself from Christianity. Included are some major deities with attributes that seem to parallel some of the deities of other old cultures mentioned in this appendix. Those cultures predate 500 BCE. None of the Norse deities are associated with a planet or a star. This suggests to this author that old Norse mythology had existed but had been largely lost / confused in the Dark Ages (530- 800 CE). The Gods  are :

    * the hammer-wielding, humanity-protecting thunder-god Thor, who relentlessly fights his foes. (An Ares equivalent?)

    * the beautiful, seiðr-working, feathered cloak-clad goddess Freyja (Frigga) who rides to battle to choose among the slain. She is closely connected with the ability to predict the future - seiðr-working - from which we take our word "seer" for one who foretells future events. This fits with the concept of Athena for whom killing foes is incidental rather than intentional. It also fits with the skill of astronomy and astrology used to predict Athena's actions. By post-500 CE, Freyja is known for her beauty and seductive ways, just as we now think of the planet Venus

    * the king of the gods, Oðinn, a deity who was simultaneously responsible for war, poetry and sorcery. He also was associated with seiðr-working (casting spells) and Freyja (Frigg) was his wife. He usually was depicted with a huge spear that always struck its target, and destroyed or killed it. (Just like the Greek Zeus?)

     Finn

- Early in Finnish history the Venus Comet was called Perkwunos which had the meanings of "thunder" and "oak". With the coming of Christianity, the name was diminished to a swear word, and Iku-Turso or "Old Man" replaced it. This character had a long beard as well as multiple heads and horns. He was a successful god of war and remembered as malevolent, (being purposefully bad) and causing destruction on the Earth by fire. He was strongly associated with the salt water sea and it was called his "home". His frequent "rising from the sea" was the view as he came up over the horizon.

- The oak tree in the stories is thought to be an analogy for how the Venus Comet appeared as it approached and then enveloped the Earth. The central stream of the comet part formed the trunk while the surrounding branches (the rest of the comet), filled your view of the sky beyond the horizon. Sun, Moon and Stars were all hidden. Its like being under the branches of a huge tree. Oak Trees are the biggest ones the people in Finland know. The only light was from fiery clouds. Other cultures refer to a Tree of Life, and may mean this same sight.

- In the Early Bronze Age collapse of 2174 BCE, the population dropped suddenly to a third of its previous value sometime between 2400 and 2000 BCE (Turku University).

- The subduing of the Venus Comet in 1184 BCE, described in the epic Finnish poem, "Kalevala" makes no mention of the spear flying between two planets. This variation fits the idea that the Finns did not actually see the event, likely due to cloud cover. An alternate explanation is the loss of myth caused by the volcanic eruption discussed in the above section on European details. Their story says the comet was no longer seen because it is "staying in its home".

     British

This entry is included as there is so little mythology of these islands, aside from the Irish myths, that its absence is very obvious. This author failed to find mentions of the Venus Comet in any of its recognised forms in England, Wales and Scotland. When Anglo-Saxon stories dated about 600 CE began appearing with some battles and kings, people remembered those as their early history, and go on to their then "current events". Nothing akin to the Venus Comet and its serpent form appears in their mythology. No mention of the monument we call Stonehenge is found from that time frame. In fact Anglo-Saxon lore makes no mention of the ancient Britons beliefs except that they were pagan. The physical relics found seem not to relate to anything about the Comet.

 This author subscribes this situation to the impact of the European Dark Age (536-580 CE) and its loss of inhabitants on those islands to famine. As discussed above in the portion labeled European, it was caused by the volcanic explosion in El Salvador. Oral history was  wiped out and written history did not exist. Pictorial images from east and south Europe depict a horned serpent, but it is not found in England, Wales and Scotland. Ireland is discussed below. The use of a four-legged, winged creature like a dragon or wyvern did not appear until later, and seems not to have had solid mythology.

 England

-  In Whitby, North Yorkshire, North Umbria, the legend of snakestones dates to the seventh century CE and the story of the Saxon Abbess Saint Hilda (614-680 CE). Charged with founding an Abbey in Whitby, St. Hilda first had to rid the region of an "infestation of snakes". In early Christian times, snakes had a bad reputation and were associated with the Devil, so it was important to clear the area before a sacred building could be established. According to legend, Hilda cast a spell that turned the snakes of Whitby to stone. She threw them from the cliff tops. (Destroyed them)

-  As in the case of Ireland (below), Christianity eliminated the worship of the "serpent" by converting the "snake worshippers". Snakestones were and still are a name for ammonite fossils. Named in honour of St. Hilda, Hildoceras bifrons is a type of ammonite that lived in the Early Jurassic Period. It is one of the most common ammonites present at Whitby.

-  The legend of Whitby's snakestones sometimes also involves St. Cuthbert, a 7th-century monk who is also known for his rosary made of fossil crinoids (St. Cuthbert's beads). He is said to have cast a powerful beheading curse on all of the snakes. (He had them broken?)

-  In Keynsham, Bristol, Somerset, where there is an abundance of snakestones in the area, there was St. Keyna, a devout British virgin who lived in "serpent-infested" woods, and who turned the serpents into stone through prayer.

 While none of these terms describes the Venus Comet exactly, all of them can relate to 'the views and fears of it expressed by other cultures. Interestingly, these stories, simply by their existence, provide proof that occupation of Ireland and England was not destroyed in the famine in the 536 - 580 CE known as the Dark Ages of Europe. Dust and debris from the massive eruption of the Tierra Blanca Joven volcano and its Ilopango caldera in central El Salvador, wiped out much of Europe's population by famine.

     Irish

In Irish myth, the author has not fully identified any object with a close association to the Venus Comet. However there was an Irish war Goddess, known as Macha who was strongly linked to the land and seems to have had some interesting attributes. Several Goddesses or heroines bear her name. She is generally thought of as one aspect of the triple-form death Goddess, the Mórrígan ("Great Queen" or "Phantom Queen"). The Mórrígan consists of Macha, the "Raven";  Badb, the "Scald Crow" or "Boiling"; and Nemain, the "Battle Fury."

   * Considering those names, "Phantom" implies being obvious at some times and out-of-sight at others. The Mórrígan keeps reappearing in the sky, as did the Venus Comet. When it first appears, its form is thought of as a bird. A "Raven" is a large strong, black, aggressive bird that is feared by other birds and often thought of by people as an "omen of death". A bird flying some distance off will appear black.

  * As it comes closer, its description is as a "scald crow", which refers to a species of crow whose colouring suggests that it is wearing a hood. The word "scald" is also used when something hot has touched a person and leaves a permanent scar. The viewer distinguishes the Comet as covering part of its head (the planet) like a hood. The crow is known as a carrion-feeder, (eating dead creatures). This second description of Badb indicates that the "omen of death" is confirmed and close-up details are reported.

 * Finally the Comet enters the atmosphere of the Earth and we are battered and burned with people killed and property destroyed. "Battle Fury" conveys the idea that the appearance of Nemain and its damage is likened to the devastation in a great battle.

  * The Mórrígan is both a female sex symbol and a battle Goddess, and is described in various stories and myths. Her personality is usually described as both war-like and alluring. She is a prophetess. Like the bean sidhe (banshee), to whom she is believed related, her appearance fore-ordains disaster. Those who see her are about to die. In many stories, she is titled as Mong Ruadh ("red-haired") indicating "fiery". She was a warrior and Queen.

   * In the myths, Mórrígan is said to have overpowered her rivals (other gods?) and forced them to build Emain Macha for her. (today's Navan Hill and Fortress, west of Armagh, co. Armagh). This location is considered to have originally been an ancient earthen ceremonial monument in Armagh. Over time it retained its ancient Celtic religious connections but also came to include a bronze-age hill fort. When it was first used is not proven. Folklore gives multiple times.

-  Crom Cruach (Old Irish: Cromm Crúaich [ˈkɾˠɔmˠ ˈkɾˠuəç]) was a pagan god of pre-Christian Ireland. According to Christian writers, he was propitiated with human sacrifice and his worship was ended by Saint Patrick.(64),(65)  Crom Cruach's name takes several forms and can be interpreted in several ways. Crom (or cromm) means "bent, crooked, stooped". Cruach (or crúach) is a noun meaning "pile, heap, mound, stack", generally of grain, hay, peat or other gathered goods, booty, and so on, including slaughtered fighters. The author of this story associates crom with bending and twisting as the manner in which the Venus Comet had moved in the sky, and cruach with an unstructured form like the appearance of the Comet. It was originally a descriptive name.

-  These descriptions are thought to have been relevant until about 1200 years before St. Patrick arrived in the mid-400s CE, when the Venus Comet lost its comet form and was settled into its present position in the sky. (See description in the Greek section above.)

-  The Irish continued to touch their Mórrígan (Venus Comet war goddess) "worship stones" set along the byways, seemingly on a "just-in-case" basis. Mórrígan stones, reported as later found, had a well-worn image of a serpent on them. Meanwhile the planet Venus was shining brightly in the sky.

-  St. Patrick's "driving out the snakes" was, in reality, "driving out the worship of the serpent" as he introduced Christianity to the Irish. Christ replaced the unseen "phantom" and the Trinity replaced the three attributes of the Mórrígan.

 Newgrange, Meath - The doorway of this tomb faces due South by the alignment of the pre-13k YA North Pole, indicating construction dating. (See App. 13 - Sphinx, Pyramids and Other Alignments - Ireland)

   * This tomb has a remarkable local myth that resonates with both the DNA results of the man found there in the passage tomb, and the tomb's solar arrangement. The myth was first recorded in the 11th Century AD - over five millennia after the construction of the Newgrange passage tomb. It tells of a builder-king who restarted the daily solar cycle by sleeping with his sister. Recent research on the DNA of the remains of a man found in that tomb, revealed that his parents were first-degree relatives, possibly brother and sister. (Journal Nature  2020-06-17)

   * While the reference above suggests that the mound was built by 5000 YA, similar tombs in the area are given dates up to 1500 years earlier (4500 BCE). The tomb was built so that the rising sun on the winter solstice shines directly along the entrance into the mound, striking a burial niche in the opposite wall of the chamber inside. This same alignment exists today.

   * Collins notes that the last FLIP of the poles of the Earth was in 4876 BCE. (See date in Appendix 1  Dated Events) It caused the rising of the Sun to change from West rising to East rising. This work on the Venus Story shows that the Venus Comet continued to threaten and damage the Earth after that date, but never again was there a pole reversal.

   * If, during that change-over in Sun-rising direction, there was a period of time when the people were confused by the Sun's apparent motion, then the start of a regular pattern of sunrises, such as we have today, would be an event to be noted. It could have become associated with or credited to the ruler doing something unusual. The Middle Irish place name for the neighbouring Dowth passage tomb, Fertae Chuile, is also based on this lore and its name can be translated as "Hill of Sin". When that name came to be applied to that tomb, is unknown but Middle Irish seems to have been in use after 1 BCE.

 Asian

    Chinese

- Early Chinese legends and drawings created in the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BCE C14)(1523-955 BCE INTCAL09), describe a fiery dragon in the sky as a supernatural creature with vapours or clouds of smoke flowing from it. The Venus comet was visible until after 1184 BCE. The sky view of the "spear" flying between it and Mars could not be witnessed by viewers in China, and was therefore a non-event. By 700 BCE dragons were a good omen and later a symbol of monarchial power. It is commonly thought of as a comet although drawings indicate a body much larger than usual for a comet.

 Two flood disasters are described in Chinese myths. The first was about 13k YA and the other in 2184 BCE. The Venus Comet was responsible for both.

     13k YA

- Gong Gong, also known as Kanghui (see Xiang Liu name below), is a Chinese water god or sea monster who is often depicted in Chinese mythology, folktales, and religious stories as having red hair and the tail of a serpent or dragon.(66),(67)  It is described as destructive and blamed for various cosmic catastrophes including great floods. It had an associate, or subordinate, the multi-headed dragon, Xiang Yao (Xiang Liu or Xiang You) who has nine heads and the body of a snake. This associate may be thought of as another manifestation or "alter ego" of Gong Gong. (See discussion at beginning of this Appendix.)

- Gong Gong is mentioned in the Zhou Dynasty (1046-221 BCE C14) (955-285 BCE INTCAL09) from before the late Warring States period (475-221 BCE C14) (515-285 BCE INTCAL09). Gong Gong appears in the ancient Heavenly Questions (Tianwen) poem of the Chu Ci. There he is blamed for knocking the earth's axis off centre. In Chinese mythology, Gong Gong was ashamed that he lost the fight with Zhou Rong, the Chinese god of fire, to claim the throne of Heaven. In a fit of rage he smashed his head against mythical Buzhou Mountain, a pillar holding up the sky, greatly damaging it and causing the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast, which caused great floods and suffering. This axial tilt fits with the Ice Age ice movement. (See Appendix 3 - Ice Age Puzzle). It was used to explain why the rivers of China, especially the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, generally flow to the southeast, and why the sun, moon, and stars move towards the northwest.

- According to the Shan Hai Jing(68), Xiang Liu, an associate of the snake-like water deity Gong Gong, devastated the ecology everywhere he went, leaving nothing but gullies and marshes devoid of animal life.

-  In Chinese mythology, the creator goddess Nüwa cut the legs off the giant sea turtle Ao (simplified Chinese: 鳌; traditional Chinese: 鰲; pinyin: áo) and used them to prop up the sky after Gong Gong damaged Mount Buzhou, which had previously supported the heavens.59

-  Excavation in layer 5 of the palaeolithic site of Lingjing, in Henan, China, showed burned animal remains (including one bone with anthropogenic gouging marks observed on a bird carving).(69) The authors estimated the age of the bird figurine and associated bone material to be approximately 13.4-13.2 ka cal BP, matching the date of the 13k YA catastrophe.

     2174 BCE

It was during the reign of Emperor Yao that the Great Flood began(70), a flood so vast that no part of Yao's territory was spared, and both the Yellow River and the Yangtze valleys flooded. This is referring to events in 2174 BCE not the world-wide Flood about 13k YA. The alleged nature of the flood is shown in the following quote:

   "Like endless boiling water, the flood is pouring forth destruction. Boundless and overwhelming, it overtops hills and mountains. Rising and ever rising, it threatens the very heavens. How the people must be groaning and suffering! "

   He gave Gun, the Prince of Chong, the task of coping with the disaster but replaced him with Shun nine years later. Shun was succeeded by Yao.

- Eventually, Xiang Liu (the Comet) was killed by Yu the Great(71) whose other labours included ending the Great Flood of China. (This reference confuses Yu the Great from well before 3000 BCE with Yao the Great above.) So poisonously virulent was the blood of Xiang Liu, that the soil which it soaked could no longer grow grains. (Effect of a salt water Flood?)

- In all accounts, Gong Gong later is killed or sent into exile, after losing a struggle with another major deity. Using the death of the serpent Apep about 1184 BCE in the preceding discussion on Egyptian gods, these dates in Chinese accounts would be a fit. Literature from the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 200 CE) is much more detailed regarding Gong Gong.

- Another source says "Chinese dragons date back to around 5000 B.C. There is also a story of a great flood. Tien Ti, emperor of the heavens, looked down upon the earth and saw that it must be reformed, as the wickedness of the world was too much. With that, he sent down a great flood to destroy it. The god Tu, taking pity upon man, begged for Tien Ti to stop. With that, Tien Ti created a turtle and placed magic earth upon his back so that it would soak up the water. After this was done, Tien Ti sent out a emerald-scaled Ying-Lung dragon that flew over the world, carving the valleys and rivers with its tail." (72)

- Additionally Chinese mythology(73) has a flying horse-dragon with the head, multiple legs and flowing mane of a horse, plus light reflective scales as a dragon. Longma or "dragon horse" connects with other creatures in Chinese folklore. While Longma sometimes applies to the Qilin (Williams 1989:390), the closest relative is the legendary tianma 天馬 "heavenly horse" or the "Chinese Pegasus", which was metaphorically identified with the hanxiema 汗血馬 "blood-sweating horse" or Ferghana horse. It is thought by some writers to be equated to "Tiamat" of the Babylonians, who was also known as Ishtar. This horse-dragon comes and goes out of the seas.

- Knowing that the Chinese have an ancient culture and have writings on it, the author specifically looked for mentions of gods in the oldest references. He did not find mention of a god / or goddess of war.

- Encyclopedia Britannica mentions that armlets of jade in the form of curled dragons have been dated to the 4th Millennium and possibly earlier.

 - The image shows a "Taotie" (motif) from the Liangzhu culture (3400-2250 BCE C14) (3640-2317 BCE INTCAL09) in the Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai). Note the fierce face, the massive hair arrangement, the arms and hands emphasising the breasts (female), the convoluted pattern of the turbulent cloud and the feathery tail of "flames". The concept behind this imagery is consistence with that of the Middle East.

 Tibetan

- Mention has been made that it was "totally inundated by the Flood" and then a god "drew off the waters through Bengal"(74). That suggests the waterway was today's Ganges River. Signs of substantial orogeny at that time are found in several places around the world. The discussion of events in India (which see below), suggest that a fiery approach by the Venus Comet, melted much of the Himalayan glacier ice causing flooding of areas where some people lived

-  Mountainous Tibet has a strong culture of the worship of Nagas (Sanskrit for snakes) underlying its principal Buddhism. Huge pythons and large cobras are depicted in carvings and pictures, but snakes do not exist except in some of the lowest elevation locations. Nagas are honoured for having raised the highland lakes and valleys from out of the Primeval Ocean in time past. They are also the creators and protectors of the waters that flow down from the mountains to the valley fields, to provide food. Some of these stories may trace to times before the people moved to higher elevations.

-  These details appear to fit with possible effects and the appearance of the Venus Comet as discussed in this Venus Story. Memories of the "Serpent in the Sky" and its effect on the people, have been retained from before 3000 YA and may be as much as 13,000 YA. In addition, a religion with its attendant deities, sages and their histories and instructions came into being. It is not incorporated into Buddhism but seems to function beside it for some people.

 Japanese

- Yamata no Orochi (or simply Orochi), translated as the Eight-Forked Serpent, is a legendary 8-headed and 8-tailed Japanese dragon.(75) Sometimes its name is pronounced so as to mean "big snake; large serpent“. Its legends were recorded in two ancient texts about Japanese mythology and history dated 680 - 720 CE. It appears to have been the Venus Comet. In both versions of the Orochi myth, the Shinto storm god Susa-no-Ō is expelled from Heaven for tricking his sister Amaterasu, the sun-goddess. He is entitled as His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness and would be the counter-part to Set (Egyptian), Ares (Greek) and Marduk (Assyrian) gods. He learns that Orochi is killing people, so when Orochi is very drunk (not staying in its usual path?), he kills it [or alters it to be harmless]. From then on Susa-no-Ō behaves himself and fulfills his role as the Storm God.

-  An additional myth(76) seems to confirm that "after the death of Orochi" (described above) that it (the Venus Comet) was still moving within the solar system. It assumes the identity of Amaterasu (this is confounding the Venus Comet with the Sun's bright light) but is no longer destructive. That goddess (Orochi) tries to hide in darkness from Susa-no-O but eventually reappears as a bright, white being in the sky. (Athena unveiled by Zeus becomes Aphrodite - Venus) This would date to about 800 BCE. (See date in Appendix 1 - Dates of Events and previously in this appendix under Grecian myths.)

- Ryujin, a well-known dragon in Japanese legend, summons a storm by howls, and then transforms into a tornado. The tornado is called "Tatsumaki" meaning "dragon roll".

- The Japanese identify multiple dragons that have individually appeared in the sky at different times; one came from the sea and pulled it up; one was a rain-dragon, which when in pain caused red rain, coloured by its blood; one was scarlet, a fiery red and its body was all flame; one was a golden dragon; one was a white dragon that signalled famine; one was a huge fearsome flying beast that snatched and devoured men right off horses' backs; and one was an eight-headed dragon. Drawings of these dragons appear quite stylised with the body of a large lizard. These descriptions seem based on separate Venus Comet appearances.

- Dating of dragon lore in Japan is elusive, some having come with Buddhism (post 600 BCE), and others before then. These dragons are celebrated today as good luck symbols that are "lively" rather than "fierce" or "threatening". It is possible that the change to good luck symbols may reflect that they no longer appeared in the sky. No dates were associated with them. Many are local deities and do not appear in the skies.

 Korean

- Korean "dragons" are known in myth and generally are friendly to humans. They are said to live in bodies of water, generally inland fresh water. They also move independently through the air and sky. They are serpentine with legs and tail, and a longer beard than is shown on Chinese ones. Very occasionally a dragon may be depicted as carrying an orb in its claws or its mouth. The orb is known as the Yeouiju (여의주), the Korean name for the mythical Cintamani, a jewel that bestows prosperity.(77) It was said that whoever could wield the Yeouiju was blessed with the abilities of omnipotence and creation at will. The Cintamani is said to have come through the heavens to Earth (or Earth's vicinity) in a box. It seems not to be mentioned prior to 1 BCE.

- No mention was found regarding the dragon threatening Earth or being subdued by a hero. Their story ended as the comet disappeared and the orb became a bright planet in the sky.

-  Another myth is about Namu Doryeong (Hangul: 나무도령, Hanja: --道令), a young man who floats on a tree during the Flood and rescues the animals of the world.(78)

-  Korean Flood stories do not mention how it happened, but tell of repopulation afterwards.

 Harappan (Indus Valley)  

- This culture lying northwest of India in the Indus Valley, is seen to have flourished 10,000 - 600 BCE and not to exist today. In examining the reference provided(79), the author of this Venus Comet book became convinced that the writers of the reference had erred with the dates they assigned to that culture, particularly for the closures of historical periods. He has found that those periods frequently ended with a date of destruction caused by the Venus Comet. Those authors used the much more realistic dates of other sources when making comparisons with other cultures and their known dates.

 An offset of about "600 years" seems to be involved. For example an Harappan event they dated as 2800 BCE, seems to fit better with associated cultures with the date of about 2200 BCE. The work of this Venus Story has discerned that the Early Bronze Age III crashed worldwide in 2174 BCE. Other dates of the ends of the periods mentioned in that reference are: 

                                         ------ Reference Data ------

                                              Start                End             Venus Comet Event

    *    Pre-Harappan -       c. 7000 BCE - c. 5500 BCE   >>> 4876 BCE

    *    Early Harappan -     c. 5500 BCE - c. 2800 BCE   >>> 2174 BCE

    *    Mature Harappan -  c. 2800 BCE - c. 1900 BCE   >>> 1299 BCE

    *    Late Harappan     -  c. 1900 BCE - c. 1500 BCE   >>>   916 BCE

    *    Post Harappan     -  c. 1500 BCE - c.   600 BCE   >>>     19 BCE

Each of the Venus Comet Events included a very distinct drop in the Greenland ice-freezing temperature reported at that date.

 Indian

- Indian mythology is a melange of multiple belief systems followed in different parts of the country, with various names for the personages.

- The Vedas (the books of the early Vedic religion 1750-500 BCE) were first composed sometime around 1500-1000 BCE in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent - present-day Pakistan and northwest India. They were transmitted orally over many generations before eventually being committed to writing. They appear to have had roots in the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley when it entered India after about 1700 BCE. (See that culture above)

- The primary document, the Rig Veda, provides the history of the culture including the beliefs held. In it, Vritra (Sanskrit: 'enveloper') is a serpent or dragon. The other two Veda works deal solely with how to conduct the worship of the old gods. We know Vritra as the Venus Comet. While modern text passages refer to it as He, all images of it in human-like form, depict it as female as do most other mythologies. She was also known in the Vedas as Ahi (Sanskrit: 'snake'). As a dragon, she blocks the course of the rivers, likely the large ones that nourished the Harappan culture. She is then known as the personification of drought, perhaps due to her fiery approach to the Earth.

- Vritra is remembered as the adversary of Indra, who is known as the Storm God, Sky God and God of Thunder (Ares equivalent). Vritra is "heroically slain" by Indra(80). This last statement suggests that the Ares defeat of Athena, the Venus Comet, was visible in Pakistan and in northwest India in 1184 BCE. At its defeat by Indra, floods of water from the mountains are released. (Did mountain glaciers melt from the heat of the Comet?)  No mention of a world-wide flood is associated with it.

- About 600 BCE both Buddhism and Hinduism appear in India using many of the tenets found in the Vedas. Hinduism with its multiplicity of diverse gods becomes dominant and many details from the Vedas are credited as Hindu thoughts. The Ares/Comet encounter, was about 600 years in the past. A Hindi inscription, given a back date of 3102 BCE, interestingly lists "the four known planets", and specifically names them as the equivalents of Mercury, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn. It must be noted that the planet Venus is not named. The outer planets are too far away to be seen.(81)

- From the Vedic and astronomical texts of India, the planet Venus or its equivalent Shukra, seems not to be specifically mentioned until after 400 CE. By that time, the planet Venus was safely positioned in its present glorious orbit. Prior to the appearance of Buddhism and Hinduism about 600 BCE, "taking guidance from the stars" (astrology) was considered sinful and "only the ignorant did so". In Hinduism (post 600 BCE), Vritra, now the planet Venus, is identified as an Asura. (nature spirit), and is considered one of the "malevolent" kind. By this time the Venus Comet had ceased to threaten Earth. Venus itself had been "disrobed" by Jupiter 200 years earlier. (See entry above on Greece.)

- Hinduism still has a major war goddess named Durga who is depicted with 6 or 8 arms each holding a weapon of war. She is often shown riding a fierce, big-clawed tiger. Many existing images of her show a large head of black hair, somewhat curly, draped to her feet. She is honoured particularly for killing a bull (a god) whom none of the other deities could stop. No planetary equivalent is identified.

- The goddess Kali is depicted (see image) as a goddess of war with multi-arms, long black hair and a dark complexion. She seems to have a connection with the Ancient South Indian Dravidian culture (ASI). She is a counterpart to Shiva who is depicted as a light skinned war god associated with the Aryan culture of northern India (ANI) and possibly of the Indus Valley people. Hinduism, while claiming their existences as early as 3000 BCE, in reality is subsuming both of these cultures and their histories. Indian history after 800 BCE does not have a Venus Comet equivalent.

 Bengal

-  Myth of the Santal has a fire-rain that fell for seven days. A man and a woman took refuge in a stone cave and emerged unharmed when the flood was over. In later times, fire fell from the sky and devastated the country, destroying half the population. Later it was stopped by a god.(82)

 Tamil,  South India

-  Half of the land mass called Kumari Kandam, which formed the southern point of India, sank in a great flood, destroying the first Tamil Sangam (literary academy). The people moved to the other half and established the second Tamil Sangam there, but the rest of Kumari also sank in the sea. The lone survivor was identified as a Tamil prince named Thirumaaran, who managed to rescue some Tamil literary classics and swim with them to present-day Tamil Nadu.(83)

-  While not confirmed by other sources, the submergence of the first Sangam may have been during the rising of sea-level after the LGM. The second Sangam may have been lost to the sea in the 13k YA Venus Comet encounter with Earth. The third Sangam was located well inland at today's city of  Madurai, Tamil Nadu. (See Appendix 1 - Dated Events for possible dating.)

 South-East Asian

- The following passage is taken from a Wikipedia article “The History of Cambodia”, and its entry “Mythology”. It appears to relate to some of the earliest “Creation” thoughts that may apply to a much larger area surrounding Cambodia. The author noted the parallelism of its imagery with many of the other entries in this appendix. This story is incorporated into Khmer history usually in the earliest CE period. The Nāga princess (Venus Comet) was leading men in boats who were attacking and robbing seacoast settlements.

- "Nāga" in this context means a large serpent that usually is considered to be an omnipotent deity that can take any form. In southeast Asia, the cobra with its spreading hood, can represent it. The serpent appears in many cultures with seven heads, endless coils and always in a dynamic, aggressive pose.

- “The Khmer people's founding legend centres around an Indian Brahman or prince named Preah Thaong in Khmer, Kaundinya in Sanskrit, and Huntien in Chinese records. One day the local ruler's daughter, a Nāga princess named Nagi Soma (Lieu-Ye in Chinese records), saw the Brahman on a boat and went to speak with him. In the story, she is shot by one of the prince's magic arrows which made her fall in love with him. They marry, establishing the first Cambodian royal dynasty. Her father drank all the water that inundated the land and gave the new land to them as a dowry. The Nāga are a pan-Asian mythical race of reptilian beings. In Cambodia, they were believed to possess a large kingdom in the Pacific Ocean region."

- [JMC comment: This myth seems to include the Venus Comet / Mars encounter of 1184 BCE. The description of the Nāga princess suggests that she might represent the Venus Comet. By use of a magic arrow (bolt of lightning), the prince (Mars) has moved the attention of the princess (Venus Comet)  from what she was doing, on to him. They become the start of a new dynasty (Earth system with no Venus Comet threat? Venus, as a planet, appears as two images that are really one entity?). ]

 From separate work, the author came to believe that the lightning strike between the Venus Comet and the planet Mars, while seen over eastern North America, Europe, past Troy, to India, could not be seen over much of Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Might this be a later "add-in" to account for the loss of the Venus Comet?  It suggests that a description of what happened got passed by word of mouth around the world. This Event was a great worldwide happening in the history of all cultures. The "father swallowing all the water", might be the story-telling method of saying their water-based culture changed to a land-based one. Cambodians today still say that they are "Born from the Nāga".

Pacific Ocean 

Australian

- The Aboriginal cultures of this continent have a major snake or serpent entity known by many names. The Serpent is considered very ancient, very powerful, a creator and controller of them and the water in their lives in the present time. In 1926, outsiders began calling it the "Rainbow Serpent", trying to link it to rain or to something physical. Aboriginals do not. They know the Serpent by their tribal name for it and believe that the Serpent knows them. They do not keep a physical image nor have a description of it but do accept that it might be using the form of the snake they see on the ground. The Wikipedia entry knows 28 aboriginal names for the Serpent.

- The Aboriginal stories do not have an "origin" for the Serpent. It has always been around. Importantly, it's timing is “Everywhen" — Past, Present and Future. Unlike other cultures who saw a serpent or dragon attacking them from the sky, the Aboriginal People seem not to have had memories of interactions between the Earth and the Venus Comet. They have memories that attribute the Wolf Creek Crater to the action of the Serpent. The arrangements of boulders at Mt. Matilda and the carving of the Avon River, are also due to the Serpent. These locations are in Western Australia.

- Unlike other cultures, the Serpent is not reported to have stopped interacting with the People (the Earth). As discussed in this Venus Story, Australia would have been an area where the Athena / Ares battle in the sky in 1184 BCE could not be observed. Additionally there is no evidence that these people used astronomy to track the Venus Comet. They certainly used the star positions for their own travel and seasonal information. The Serpent has not been associated with events in the sky but still lives on in the lives of the People in various stories, as caring for them.

 New Zealand

- The earliest known cultures on these islands are mentioned in the Maori legends. Those stories date from about 1250 CE when the Maori arrived at the islands. Over time they killed and assimilated the then existing culture(84). A description of what those earlier people, known as Ngati Hotu by the Maori, looked like, follows. It was given in reference 9 of the referenced document and is suggestive of two different races, both different from the Maori.

    ‘Generally speaking, Ngati Hotu were of medium height and of light colouring. In the majority of cases they had reddish hair. They were referred to as urukehu. It is said that during the early stages of their occupation of Taupo, they (meaning the original people) did not practice tattooing as later generations did, and were spoken of as te whanau a rangi [the children of heaven] because of their fair skin.

"There were two distinct types. One had a kiri wherowhero or reddish skin, a round face, small eyes and thick protruding eyebrows. The other was fair-skinned, much smaller in stature, with larger and very handsome features. The latter were the true urukehu and te whanau a rangi. In some cases not only did they have reddish hair, but also light coloured eyes.’  – John Grace, "Tuwharetoa: A History of the Maori People of the Taupo District"

 (Reed, 1970), p. 115.

- The referenced document deals at length with stone monuments that provide celestial sighting lines related to the still current timing of the solstices and equinoxes. The Maori said that these stones had been thought of as important by the people before them, but did not have a reason why that should be so. Modern researchers assumed that it was to indicate crop planting time.

- Based on details in this Venus Comet story, the author suggests that those people were watching for any change in the motion of the skies that might presage a return visit by that terrorising object in the sky that we know as the Venus Comet. They believed that sky changes indicated trouble coming. Such fears would predate 1200 BCE when the Venus Comet was "tamed". They obviously had been retained in legend form for 2500 years as of the arrival of the Maori. No description of the Venus Comet or a name for it, was passed on.

- The Maori had an important Goddess of Fire, Mahuika, who brought her husband, Auahuituroa, to Earth. He was the God of Comets who also carried Fire. They allowed the people to use fire. They had five children, named for the flaming nails on the fingers of her hands, called Nga Manawa. Combined they were the Comet, the fire-storm it carried and the flaming “arms and legs” associated with the Comet. Whether the Maori brought these gods with them in 1250 CE, or learned of them from the people they conquered, is not known. "Actions" by those gods had ceased by 1200 BCE, a close match to 1184 BCE when the Greek god Ares “defeated” Athena, the “Venus Comet” of the day.

 Philippines

- The Tagalog culture has a huge serpent god Ulilang Kaluluwa (lit. Orphaned Spirit), who lived in the clouds. There is no mention of it traveling across space or doing much damage to people on Earth. Early on it fights the "creator god" and is killed and buried on the Earth. It might be a story of the Venus Comet, or an equivalent that passed through earlier cultures for while losing most of the details.

Pacific Ocean

- Flood stories from the islands tend to be of three varieties. In many, the story is somewhat rational with a few people and their possessions and animals getting into a canoe or on a raft, tying it to a tree or large rock with a very long rope or vine, and riding out the rising waters successfully. (This would ensure that they were not cast adrift on the endless sea.) Another scene has them climbing to the top of the highest mountain and in one case building a nine story structure above that. Most basically have a god who provides "magical intervention" of some sort if the people are considered to be "good enough" to be saved. None of the stories seen describe the Venus Comet itself beyond assigning the Flood to it.

  Tahitian

- The Flood Story associated with this island provides a "factual sounding description of what it was like to be there". It states "Tahiti was destroyed by the sea. Even the trees and stones were carried away by the wind and water. Two people were saved. The wife took up her young chicken, her young dog, and her kitten, and the husband took up his young pig. They climbed to the top of Mount Pi-tahiti and watched for ten nights till the sea ebbed. (Tahiti is an old volcano with multiple high spots, highest 2250m, all covered with thick, wet vegetation.) The land, though, remained without produce, and the fish in the rock crevices were putrid. When the wind died away, stones and trees began to fall from the heavens, where the winds had carried them. To escape this new danger, the couple dug a hole, lined it with grass, and covered it over with stones and earth. They crept inside and listened to the terrible crash of the falling stones. By and by, the falling stones stopped, but to be safe they waited another night before coming out. The land they found was desolated." (85)

   Hawaiian

In Hawaiian mythology, Nāmaka (or Nā-maka-o-Kahaʻi, the eyes of Kahaʻi) appears as a sea goddess or a water spirit who is an older sister of Pele-honua-mea. Aukelenuiaiku becomes Namaka's husband in Kahiki, but then later the husband of Pele. Because of this Pele and her sisters migrate to Hawaii. When Pele quarrels with her powerful sister, Namaka, Namaka sends tidal waves to destroy Pele's lands and homes. Pele and family fight her sister, but Namaka defeats her. (from Wikipedia - Nāmaka) This event may have been 13k YA.

 North American

-  Most North American Native Tribes and Cultures have strong stories of actions by The Great Horned Serpent or Great Serpent known by various names, and its connection to lakes and rivers. It has been feared since the beginning of time by the people for using the waters to kill them (destroy, eat, cause to vanish). In the southwest US, it withheld water and created drought. It was not worshipped but other deities were called on to help them survive the attacks of the Serpent.

-  As developed in this story of the Venus Comet, the "Great Horned Serpent" was the general description of the object we know as the Venus Comet. It was enveloped by and trailing a huge comet-like body and tail prior to 1184 BCE. It swung through our Solar System on a 7 year elliptical orbit around the Sun. It was not seen to take its current place in the sky until about 700 BCE.

-  Turtle Island is the name given by North American First Nations people to their continent. The story of the "Great Turtle", as told by the Lenape Nation, was recorded between 1678 and 1680 by Jasper Danckaerts of the Netherlands.(86) In it a Great Flood has covered all the land. God provides a Great Turtle as a place for the animals to live. After several animals try to dive to the bottom of the water to get earth, one succeeds at the cost of its life to bring up a little. God then causes the amount of (earth) mud to grow until Great Turtle became North America. That story is shared by other Northeastern Woodlands tribes, including the Iroquois Confederacy. This author has not found the story in central or western North America.

-  In Lakota Sioux lore discussed below, the Turtle Island story is not the recovery of the Earth after the 13k YA (13,000 Years Ago) Venus Comet interaction but is the initial creation of the world. In it the Turtle dives to the bottom of the sea at the Creator's command, and brings back mud without harm. The creator rewards it with unending existence and provides all the creatures and plants.

-  The tribes mentioned above, with home-lands generally east of the Mississippi River, also have stories of the Serpent being defeated, destroyed, or chased away by the Thunder-bird(s). In some cases further west, the Serpent seems to have just failed to reappear and did not cause further harm to the people. Where it ended up seems simply unknown.

- In many cultures worldwide, the Venus Comet, in the sky for over 10,000 years, is seen in the serpentine form of a great snake or a dragon as it changes shape. The horns on it are light reflections coming from the surface of the planet Venus.  In some tribes' memories, the fear over the Serpent has diminished to an "interesting" item. It is remembered as having cause the Great Flood, but in North America they seem not to know that the water was salty sea water. If, as thought today, that the Flood devastated most of the early inhabitants of central and western North America, then from where did some of the current inhabitants get the Flood story?

- The Oniagara story below suggests that it is based on the reporting of people on the eastern part of the continent who were not wiped out like they seem to have been in the centre and west. Perhaps the Appalachian Mountains shielded the east coast, including its then exposed continental shelf, from the torrent of seawater coming from the west and north. That water subsequently carved out large rivers as it ran back to the sea. The flood-plains of the Mississippi River system from the Appalachians westward and from the south edge of the glacier icecaps southward to the Gulf of Mexico, are the result.

- The people of the east later assisted in the repopulation of the continent. They seem to have met others who came from the northwest. Crossing of the land bridge called Beringia had to be re-established after the movement of the poles, the massive flood and the Younger Dryas Period. That would not have happened for a few millennium, maybe not until 10,000 years ago, say 8,000 BCE. No matter how you handle the numbers, these are old dates and long ago time spans. See Appendix 7 - Coming to America - Long After Columbus.

     Inuit - details in Wikipedia

- Unlike the native lore that follows, the Inuit of Coronation Gulf in Canada's North-West Territories have a distinctly different creature / god.

- Arnapkapfaaluk ("big bad woman") was the sea goddess of the Inuit people of Canada's Coronation Gulf area. Although occupying the equivalent position to "Sedna" within Inuit mythology, in that she had control of the animals of the seas, she was noticeably different as can be seen by the English translation of her name above. Sedna was a mother and provider.

Arnapkapfaaluk was not the beneficent goddess that Sedna was. Instead, she inspired fear in hunters. Rather than providing the Copper Inuit with the seals and other marine mammals, she would withhold them. The breaking of a taboo or other indiscretion would result in an unsuccessful hunt.

     Wabanaki - details in Wikipedia

- Currently they are located in Atlantic Canada and south-shore Quebec south of the St. Lawrence River, with an extension through US Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Lake Champlain was the home of Gluskab, the creator god. In their lore they have Kitaskog "Big Snake" or Pitaskog "Grand Snake" - a Horned Serpent who fights the Padongiak, the "Thunders". These were seven white-skinned, golden-haired brothers, half-human and half-bird, former inhabitants of Lake Champlain, war-like, thunder and lightning spirits. The Horned Serpent and the war-like thunder and lightning spirits, are similar to the 1184 BCE event in the Iliad.

   Ojibwa (Chippewa) (Anshinabeg) - details in Wikipedia

- While currently located in the region of southern Manitoba, north of the Great Lakes, in southwest Ontario, Ottawa Valley and southwest Quebec, they are known to have relocated there about 1500 CE from the east. They tell a story of a visit by 'a long tailed heavenly- climbing star known as Genondahwayanung'. Although this visitor burned all life on Earth, "Chimanitou (a Holy Spirit) warned the Ojibwa to roll themselves in mud and they alone survived." (Dr. Jean-Marc Perelmuter (http://foxnews.com) 1999-06-17.) Another story of the Ojibwa adds that soon after the comet, the flooding of the Earth occurred. A third story adds that very cold weather followed and lasted a long time.

    [JMC Comments - This sounds like the 13k YA Venus Comet attack on the Earth followed by the Flood and then the cold Younger Dryas period. That they survive the Flood, is consistent with the idea that they were east of the Appalachian Mountains, and were not destroyed in it.]

-  Also in their lore, they have Misiginebig, a horned serpent that lives underwater, whose name literally means "Great Serpent". It comes out of the water to eat (destroy) humans. The head of the Serpent was red as blood. His fierce eyes glowed like fire. His entire body was armed with hard and glistening scales of every colour and shade. The enemy of the Serpent are the Thunderbirds who can strike it down with a thunderbolt of lightning. The hero Nana-bozho is one of them. He tricked the Great Serpent to come out of its watery home, and shot an arrow into its heart which killed it. In its death throes, the Serpent thrashed the waters so hard that they rose up and covered even the mountains. Nanabozho got his people onto a raft where they rode safely until the waters quietly abated. The Great Serpent never appeared again.

   [JMC Comments - This second legend sounds like a parallel to the Athena & Ares event of 1184 BCE recorded by Homer, with the Greek War Goddess Athena as the Great Horned Serpent, and the god Ares as Nanabozho. The deadly arrow matches the spear of energy between the two combatants, and very strongly says that the encounter seen in the sky above Troy was witnessed at that same time by the Anshinaabeg over eastern Canada. Contrary to Homer's claim that the spear went from Athena into Ares, the view by the Anshinaabeg agrees with the rest of the worldwide audience that it flew in the other direction. The Serpent hiding in the lake was an attempt to explain where it was when you could not see it in the sky. Apparently it was still remembered as a much, much older myth (10,000 years earlier) of having caused a huge flood, so hiding in water was a reasonable association.]

     The Origin of the Turtle Island Story  

- This story is common to peoples originating east of the Appalachian Mountains of North America. It has been carried into mid-continent as some of them later moved westward. It provides in story-form how the animals managed to recover from the Flood to reclaim their homeland.

 After the Flood the animals need a place to live as their previous habitat no longer existed as they had known it. They search everywhere to find a good place to settle. Some went diving in the water for mud to make land, but were unsuccessful as the water was too deep. Muskrat made an extraordinary effort to go deeper than the rest and found a little mud. Sadly he lost his life to save the others. The Creator, seeing what has happened, makes lots more mud. He places it on the Turtle as a floating island, and creates North America for the animals.

 In reality, this story pertains to the re-creation of civilisations in the mid-continent after the 13kYA Flood drowned that area, as discussed in the Venus Story. There is a need for land to live on and Muskrat has shown that there is mud under the water. The Creator has the water run to the side revealing lots of muddy land. This is put on a solid base, the Turtle, that will keep the animals safe. They have a new home.                                     

     Oniagara and Iroquois - details in American Folklore - Native American Myths - Oniagara

- Both are tribes in western New York state, and enemies. Oniagara have a Maid of the Mist legend(87) in which Heno or Henun, the Thunderer, saves a beautiful young woman when she goes over the falls at Niagara. She marries his son. A dragon-like giant serpent comes across the scene, poisons the waters and people are dying. When it comes back again, Heno throws a "great thunderbolt" at it and kills it. The serpent's body blocks the normal waterways causing great floods of water, and making Heno's abode under the falls, uninhabitable. This forces the people to move elsewhere. Heno made new homes for them in the sky from where they can be seen watching over the people on Earth.

- This tale parallels Homer's Iliad and its battle between Athena (the serpent) and Ares (Heno), complete with spear (thunder bolt). The story by the war-like Iroquois has the serpent killing Heno with a thunder bolt. The Iroquois story matches the war-like Greek view of events while the Oniagara story matches the view of the Assyrians and the rest of the world who said that Ares (Heno) won as the Venus Comet ceased attacking them. The Maid and Heno's son take up their places as the Morning and Evening Stars; two persons become one entity.

[JMC comment - This myth is perhaps melding the "snake causing the Flood of seawater (poisons the waters)" from a much older myth with memories back to 13kYA, into the end of the Venus Comet in 1184 BCE which seems to have been visible to those people.]

     Seneca(88) stories have Gaasyendietha, a dragon that dwells in the deep areas of rivers and lakes of Canada, especially Lake Ontario. This dragon could fly across the heavens on a trail of fire, and it could also spew fire. In other articles it is known as the 'meteor dragon' based on its supposed origin from a meteoroid that had impacted the Earth. This description gives a name to the "giant" serpent mentioned above and appears to predate the 1184 BCE end of the Venus Comet.

     Lakota and Dakota Sioux - in Nativelanguages.org

- Unktehila is the horned water serpent of Lakota and Dakota Sioux mythology that is the Venus Comet. It is the diametrical opponent of the Thunderbird Wakinyan, and there are many legends about epic fights between the two. The defeat or downfall of it or its equivalent, Sint-holo, is found in other tribal cultures, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Blackfoot, Passama-quoddy, Seminole, Muskogee; none are found much further west than the Mississippi River. 

-  Sometime after the Lakotan "Creation Story" mentioned at the beginning of this North American section, Unktehila, the water monster, fought the people and caused a great flood. The people retreated to a hill, but the water swept over them, killing them all. In one version, giant eagle, Wanblee Galeshka, swept down, saved one girl from the flood, carrying her to a tree on the highest pinnacle, the only place not covered by water. The eagle made her his wife. She bore twins, a boy and a girl, which are the ancestors of the Sioux.

-  In another version, Unktehila puffed up the girl's body to make the Missouri River overflow [near which the Lakota lived after moving from the east coast], and the little water monsters, her children, did the same with other streams and lakes. This caused a great flood which covered the country. Only a few people escaped to the highest mountain, and the waves threatened to kill them.(89)

-  The thunderbirds liked people, so they fought the water monsters for several years. In time, it became clear that the thunderbirds were losing when they fought close, so they retreated to the sky and, all together, sent their lightning bolts. This burned the forests, boiled the water, and turned the earth red hot, except where the people had taken refuge. Unktehila and the water monsters were defeated by the thunder birds.(90)

 [JMC comments: This story confounds the Flood story with the end of the Venus Comet by the planet Mars in 1184 BCE. The mention of the Missouri River may imply that the ancestors of the Sioux were there by that date. The ability to see the "Athena and Ares" event was limited by which face of the Earth was facing the exchange. Being the passage of a thunder bolt between those two bodies, it likely was over in a minute or less. Potential viewers on the opposite side of our planet would know nothing about it. One record claims that afterwards, the Venus Comet cloud resembled a cloud of "dragonflies". See the Olmec entry below.]

    Illiniwek - junction of Illinois and Mississippi Rivers

- Mention of the Piasa Bird story is first known from the notes of Pere Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit priest, and Louis Joliet, a French fur trader. They came up the Mississippi River in 1673 CE. Above present day St. Louis, they saw a large painting on an escarpment. Their paddlers feared it. Marquette described the event as (91)

        “While Skirting some rocks, which by Their height and length inspired awe, We saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made Us afraid, and upon Which the boldest savages dare not Long rest their eyes. They are as large As a calf; they have Horns on their heads Like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard Like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body Covered with scales, and so Long A tail that it winds all around the Body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a Fish’s tail. Green, red, and black are the three Colours composing the Picture. Moreover, these 2 monsters are so well painted that we cannot believe that any savage is their author; for good painters in France would find it difficult to reach that place Conveniently to paint them. Here is approximately The shape of these monsters, As we have faithfully Copied It.”

- The drawing by Marquette is lost to history. His mention of two monsters is at variance with all other sources. He also does NOT say that it showed a bird or winged animal. Subsequent recitations of the myth say that the monster did fly through the skies. Around 1847 the image was blasted to bits by an "American entrepreneur" to provide limestone to make plaster.

- A local man, Squire Russell of Bluffdale, Illinois, later reported:(92) "I used to climb the rocks to look at the Piasa when I was a young boy. I have been within about sixty feet of it. The colours were always affected by dampness, being very distinct after a rain.. .:

"The picture was cut into the rock a half inch or more, and was originally painted red, black, and blue. It had the head of a bear, large disproportioned teeth, the horns of an elk, the scaly body of a large fish, and a bear's legs ending with eagle's claws. The tail was at least fifty feet long, wound three times around the body, and (was) tipped with a spearhead (shape) thrust backward through (between) its hind legs.

"The upper horns were painted red, the lower portion and head were painted black. The wings expanded to the right and left of its head, and the Piasa's body was at least sixteen feet long. Its head and neck were covered with a whiskery mane, and its body...covered with the three colours... In 1820, Captain Gideon Spencer came up the Mississippi River and saw the same picture on the rock. He asked the nearby Indians what it was. They told him it was the Stormbird or Thunderer, and that it had been carved there by an Indian tribe long ago."

- The Piasa Bird story, now associated with it, “has a hero (the chief or shaman of the tribe) standing up against the threat. He recruits six warriors and equips them with bows, and arrows with sharp flint points that are also poisoned. He creates an ambush with the warriors hidden and then exposes himself to the monster's attack. When the monster attacks the chief from the sky, the warriors come forward firing their poisoned arrows. The monster is killed and falls from the sky”. These details came from John Russell, a fanciful professor of ancient languages at Shurtleff College, Alton, in 1836. In 1887, Russell is said to have admitted the whole story was made up!

- [JMC comments - This story parallels the Athena & Ares tale in the Iliad of about 1184 BCE. The terrifying threat (monster) has features like the Serpent associated with Athena. It was deemed to have come at the hero (the chief/ Ares) who had arranged to have arrows fired at it. The hero wins even though he is wounded. No mention is made of where the monster goes. The image and story confirm that this tribe saw the "thunder bolt" in the sky, and immortalised the event on the limestone rock face. The Illinois River enters the Mississippi River 200km southwest of the most westerly serpent mound at Joliet, IL, mentioned below.]

    Pima (southwest Arizona)

-  Tribes of the American Rocky Mountains recount people frantically climbing the mountains to escape the Flood. This account provides an eye-witness account of the flooding 13kYA. "After the earth had become peopled, the great eagle told a seer in the Gila valley, on three occasions, to warn the people about a great flood that would soon come, but the seer ridiculed him and ignored his warnings. Scarcely had the bird gone for the third time when a tremendous clap of thunder was heard. When morning came, the earth trembled, and a great green wall of water roared down the valley and destroyed everything in it." (93)

   Hopi (northeast Arizona)(94)

-  (Excerpts based on a tribal elder's history memories) This tribe, living in an arid area, claim to have come north from South America after the 13kYA  catastrophe. Their previous home is described as “... a very beautiful country they called Kásskara. Compared with today, it was almost a paradise." ... To the east was Talawaitichqua, or “the Eastern country,” which means roughly, “Land of the Morning Sun". Today they refer to it as Atlantis. There was “a large surface of water” between Kásskara and Talawaitichqua". Atlantis is said to eventually have extended its reach farther to the east, into what we know today as Europe and Africa. (See "Venus Story" entry on Atlantis.)

-  "Towards the end of the Third World, [in 13kYA event] a very powerful and beautiful woman [the Venus Comet] rose to become Queen of Atlantis. She used her 'beauty' to manipulate the chiefs of her people, receiving so many jewels [being worshipped and adored] that she was given the nickname, “the Turquoise Woman.” She used her powers to subject these personalities, including scientists and politicians, and in this way became sovereign of the entire continent." (Repeat encounters by the Comet)

-  "The group of those [from Atlantis] who had scientific knowledge was much stronger (than the Hopi). They came to attack my people with the material of their capacities and invention”. “From very high in the air they directed their energetic force on our cities." [Describing the encounter with the Venus Comet. Narrator believes that it was caused by other people rather than being a cosmic event.] "The Hopi believe that technological civilisations have arisen previously, much further back in time than most conventionally educated people can accept."

-  Other Hopi legends seem not to discuss anything like the "Queen of Atlantis". There is reference to a god Masauwu(95) "who appears as a handsome, dusky-haired, and elegant man wearing fine silk garments." [view from a distance, impressive flowing form?] "Should his charisma and silver tongue fail, he takes the form of a huge, dark-skinned man wearing animal skins, and carrying a flaming torch." [Rough appearance when up close and flaming?]

     Great Serpent Mound in Ohio, USA - Wikipedia 2019-01-19

- This prehistoric effigy mound 411m long, with a width of 7-9m and 1m high, is on a plateau along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams Co., OH. It conforms to the curve of the land on which it rests, with its head approaching a cliff above the creek. The serpent winds back and forth for more than 240m in seven opened coils, and ends in a triple-coiled tail. The shape itself consisted mostly of a layer of yellowish clay and ash that was reinforced with a layer of rocks, and then covered with a layer of soil.

- The serpent head has an open mouth extending around the east end of a 37m long hollow oval feature with a distinct dot in its centre. Some ideas are that the oval feature symbolizes an egg, the sun, the body of a frog, or merely the remnant of a platform. The survey drawing of 1846 made by professional surveyors(96), is the earliest known drawing of it. The aerial photograph taken post WWII(97) shows that the effigy's extreme western feature, a triangular mound, was a modification in the previous 100 years as was the elimination of the "wings" behind the head. When settlers first discovered the mound, there was a fire-scorched stone monument in the egg shape by the head, which was shown in the surveyors' drawing. This has led some to suggest it was used as an altar of some sort.(98)

-  Dating of this mound has been beset with later site modifications and "repairs". The oldest date now given is for the Adena Culture, perhaps as early as 1200 BCE, while others claim it was built as late as 1070 CE. There is indication that it has been a burial site for some people and/or artifacts.

- [Collins, the author of this book, believes that the image represents the Venus Comet with its serpent form on an elevated platform possibly as something to be worshipped. The so-called "egg" represents the planet Venus which had been a part of that Comet. In this image, the planet (egg) is shown as separate from the cloud (serpent) which he has not observed in any other imagery until after the separation caused by the planet Jupiter. He has only Hesiod’s description of it. (See above under Greece) This analysis would apply a date of after 800 BCE before people accepted that the Serpent wasn't coming back to hurt them. Did they consider that the “beautiful egg” had escaped from the “evil serpent”? Perhaps offerings were made to the egg that the Earth and its peoples and crops were safe for the first time in their memories and folklore ! ]

- Also noted was the occurrence of somewhat similar mounds to the US east coast and to the north and south, as well as southern Canada. The farthest west they have been found are mounds near Joliet and the Des Plaines River in Will Co., IL. While this can certainly indicate a cultural spread, it does match the limits of viewing from North America of the last encounter of Mars and the Venus Comet. Might the Serpent have been worshipped or were people giving a thank-offering for it having been "killed”?  Was it their equivalent to the Olmec Dragon discussed below?]

     Serpent Mounds - Keene, Ont., Canada

- This 60m long mound with an average width of 8m and 1.5 - 2m high appears to be a serpent-like effigy stretching along the north shore of today's Rice Lake in Peterborough Co.; the only one of its kind in Canada. It is surrounded by eight other mounds, low oval, or circular structures with major diameters. These other mounds have been described by some as "eggs". Early archaeology established that the mounds or tumuli served as a burial site. The skeletal remains, that have been found, are so few in number as to suggest that these were special people and that the mounds were erected to serve additional purposes.(99)

- Establishing when and by whom the mounds were created is subject to many viewpoints. The Hiawatha First Nation of the Mississaugii people is the custodian of the site. They believe that it was erected by their ancestors, possibly the Adena and Hopewell peoples of the Eastern Woodland people (1000 BCE-1500 CE), a gatherer culture. The Mississaugii people, who were cultivators, seem to have become evident about 1000 CE. That having been said, few artifacts dateable prior to 50 BCE have been found on the site.

- [Collins: (views above on the Serpent Mound of Ohio are thought to apply here) He suspects that the people of this area may have viewed the long mound beside the lake as the “Serpent” equivalent and made those smaller mounds (“Eggs”) as as offering sites.]

- Note: The term "Serpent Mounds" was computer-searched for all entries in North America and was not found west of the Mississippi River. Similarly the term has not been recorded in Europe nor the rest of the world. A claim has been made for mounds in Scotland but the supporting information provided was very poor and thoroughly contested.

   Haida of Haida Gwaii (Bella Coola) also known as Nuxalk in Wikipedia under “Qamaits" & “Haida”

- These people of the central and northern coasts of British Columbia in Canada, came to that area by sea-going canoes. People who walked overland, settled well inland. (See Appendix 7 - Coming To America  -  Long Before Columbus, section Travel by Water). Everything in their culture was and still is oriented to the sea.

- The Wikipedia sources above state that oral histories and archaeological evidence indicate that the Haida have occupied Haida Gwaii for more than 17,000 years.

- That they were, and still are, a people set apart is supported by their language as well as their DNA being “isolates”(100). While they do have variations, they all occur along the coast of British Columbia and southern Alaska. There do not seem to be relationships to other aboriginal cultures nor elsewhere in the world.

- About 1890, James Deans, a Hudson's Bay Company trader, was told a long-ago Haida legend with very specific details about glacial events at the Honna River near the present community of Charlotte on the Skidgate Sound in Haida Gwaii. In the early days the river was said to be three times its present size and the ocean was lower than now. It said that a boy in his canoe ventured up that river some distance and stopped. He heard strange noises and saw huge rocks and large ice chunks being hurled downstream in a torrent of water. He ran into the forest and saw an ice wall pushing down the trees. He raced back to his canoe and paddled back home quickly.

- This author believes that the legend dates to the period of ice age meltdown after the catastrophe of 13kYA (11,000 BCE). The avalanche of ice, rocks and water, he suspects resulted from a close pass of the Venus Comet that quickly melted some glacial ice. The pulse of melt-water rushed down the Honna River carrying ice blocks and boulders. The boy had quite a story to tell when he got home.

- The Haida have a history of a warrior goddess named Qamaits who was the Goddess of the Death and the Beginning. She was also referred to as "Our Woman" and "Afraid-of-Nothing". In their history, at the dawn of Time, she did battle against the giants of the mountains, which were so high that nothing could survive on them. Qamaits, being a ferocious warrior, defeated legions of these giants knocking them down in size and making them the mountain land-scapes of today. After that she grew bored of Earth and left to live elsewhere.

- She didn’t think much of humans and rarely visited the earth. When she did, she caused earthquakes, forest fires, and sickness. On her visits, she brought her pet snake Sisiutl and they attacked the humans and caused disasters. Her snake was a sign that she was coming.

- The Sisiutl(101) is a legendary creature found in many of the cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. It features prominently in their art, dances and songs. It seems to be thought of as the "assistant" of Qamaits and looked after the "daily tasks of creation". The Sisiutl was closely associated with shamans because both were seen as mediators between the natural and supernatural worlds. It generally helped or guided the "good guy" in tight situations but was also known to bring death and destroy property. It sometimes shifted to the Raven form. Its deadly enemy was the "Thunderbird".

- The Sisiutl is typically depicted as a double-headed serpent with fish-like qualities, sometimes with an additional central face of a supernatural being. All three heads are usually horned, and the serpent heads typically have protruding tongues and spiral or upturned noses, with crescents along the body. The protruding tongue is associated with lightning, supernatural power, and the transfer of power from an animal source to a novice.

- [JMC comments: Details of interest are found at the beginning of the peoples' memories.

Qamaits moved the mountains and made them smaller, but there is no mention of volcanism. This suggests tectonic plate activity opposite to that which happened in Peru and Chile 13k YA (which see). In this case it was spreading of the ocean basin that caused a lowering of high places. She left for some place unknown and but did revisit on occasions to cause earthquakes, forest fires, disasters, sickness and injury to people. As the Goddess of War she stirred up conflict between the peoples. This fits the Venus Comet up close.

- The entity Sisiutl is one not seen previously in this study but is stated to be closely associated with Qamaits. I suspect that Qamaits was the Venus planet wrapped in the Comet when it was enveloping and severely interacting with the Earth and causing destruction. It filled the sky. Sisiutl was the Venus Comet in its early stages of appearing or when it is passing in view of the Earth with little if any interaction between the two. The comment of the crescent shapes seen would have been the glint off the planet Venus where it was not clouded over by the Comet. Did these people consider that they were seeing two different attributes or "personalities " of the Venus Comet being displayed? They gave them separate names and declared the less violent one subordinate to the War Goddess.]

- No mention is made of when this all ended. Myths fade away when there is nothing to talk about. As discussed (see Greece above) on the topic of the Iliad observation of Athena and Ares, a resident of Bella Coola would not have been in a position to see the "thunder bolt" pass between the two planets. Qamaits would have simply disappeared, and never again threatened Earth. Sisiutl's form dissolved or perhaps was absorbed by the Sun or Jupiter as described in others cultures mentioned in this Appendix.

     Pacific Northwest Coast of central British Columbia and northern Vancouver Island

- Like all Indigenous peoples of this area, most of the Kwa-kwa-ka'wakw tribes(102) have stories about their people surviving the flood. With some of these nations, their history talks of their ancestors transforming into their "natural form" and disappearing while the waters rose then subsided. Others have stories of their people attaching their ocean-going canoes to tall peaking mountains. For the stories about supernatural powers, these figures tend to be the founding clans of some Kwa-kwa-ka'wakw nations.

-  In searching for sources of stories, it was noted that there were multiple and somewhat similar tales about the 13kYA catastrophe. They exist along the Pacific coastline of Alaska and British Columbia to Washington State but not further south. Tribes further south and inland seem to lack similar such stories.

-  Three ideas came to mind for this author:

       + This was a coastal community and the shores that they had originally landed on and the details of their settlements, got submerged by more than 90m of water as sea level rose.

       + When the Flood waters drained from the interior of the continent carving their paths through the mountains to the Pacific Ocean, were their coastal and river-mouth settlements destroyed? Did the outflow of muddy debris-laden water destroy boats and force the fish much further offshore? If the salmon migration in one year is diverted, famine might occur.

       + Did the tectonic motion that caused the coastal mountains to drop (see Haida (Bella Coola) entry above) include very destructive movements of the Juan de Fuca and San Andreas faults? Coastal settlements could have been destroyed.

- The people who settled on the Santa Catalina Islands off California, appear to have a different origin. Genetic analyses from there show that the people who were there, were similar to the basic genes of those sampled from northeastern US and Canada. The people of the western US plus Central and South America, are definitely a separate group. This would be in keeping with the migration pattern discussed in Appendix 7.

Meso-American

Archeological research of Central America is commonly divided into three cultures,  Olmec, Mayan and Aztec. Many students of it assume that one simply followed the other. Where the first one came from is not identified. That Mexican people generally think of themselves as Mayan descendants, is accepted.

Work on this Venus Comet story indicates that the area had people inhabiting it at the time of the 13kYA catastrophe (11,053 BCE). [See this date in Appendix 1 - Dates of Events] The jungle-covered areas are today being scanned with LIDAR equipment, revealing unsuspected stone structures of earlier times. The density of the vegetation over-growth has been hiding the extent of early civilisations. The impression, given today's observations, is that the hidden area was much more densely populated than it is now. Dating those findings has been very limited, and the heat and moisture of the area make analyses like DNA difficult. Human bone samples from the caves in Quintana Roo, Mexico gave dates prior to and matching the above 13kYA event.(103) Another sample was dated about 2000-3000 years later. No datable samples have been linked to the hidden stone structures.

     Pre-Olmec  -  Teotihuacan

The name of this site, is a word given by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs centuries after the fall of the city around 550 CE. Some investigators assume a meaning of "place where the gods were born", reflecting Nahuatl creation myths associated with Teotihuacan. Nahuatl scholar Thelma D. Sullivan interprets the name as "place of those who have the road of the gods."(104)

The author of this book on the Venus Story, suggests a translation that this was the "place of those who understand/know the road of the gods".  The god referred to would be the Serpent Quetzalcoatl"; the one we know as the Venus Comet! Its orbit was known by the astronomers of those people.

 At this site 50km north of Mexico City are three flat-topped pyramids, with staircases, erected along a broad street that runs 150 30' east of today's north alignment. The area aligns with the location of the North Pole at 700 N, 550 30' W.  This was its position between 6493 and 5744 BCE when it was rebuilt. (See Appendix 4  -  Dating the Ice Events). The old buildings and the Pyramids of the Sun, the Moon and Quetzalcoatl conform with one another and are definitely not aligned with the pre-13kYA north pole which is described elsewhere in this book.

 An interesting exception is a small entrance plaza [at today’s co-ordinates 190 41' 34" N, 980 50' 41" W] notched into the west side of the bottom level of the Pyramid of the Sun. It is between that pyramid and the nearby Plaza of the Sun. The walkway used for climbing the Pyramid of the Sun branches north and south around that entrance plaza immediately before the climb. The west and east sides of the entrance plaza exactly align with the north direction of the pre-13k YA North Pole located at 650 30'N, 510 00' W. In addition, there are small ruins oriented in the same manner at the foot of this Pyramid of the Sun along its north and east sides near the north-east corner.(105)

 The observed details suggest to this author that a structure, a pyramid built before 13kYA, had existed there and was destroyed or rendered unusable by the catastrophe of that date. As discussed in this book, the Earth's poles were flipped end for end destroying the then existing polar orientation and changing the Sun's apparent rising from East to West. The author has not been able to distinguish the resultant position of the post-13kYA North Pole.

 In 6493 BCE the Earth's axis was again reversed but seemingly in not such a calamitous manner. The North Pole then became located at 700 N, 550 30' W on today's maps. The present pyramids of Teotihuacan were erected. The Pyramid of the Sun was built over the prior pyramid in order to get the desired new North alignment. The Sun had returned to an East-rising pattern. In 5492 BCE the Earth's axis was yet again reversed to a West-rising pattern. This time the pyramids seem not to have been damaged and the astronomers were able to still use them effectively. Where their North Pole was located has not been discovered. In 4876 BCE there was a fourth and final reversal of sunrise and no apparent damage. The North Pole assumed its present position. A recording attributed to Herodotus of Greece (ca 425 BCE) tells of these four reversals of sunrise.

 The pyramid shape was the most "economical" form in which to erect a stable viewing platform, in addition to any other intentions the builders might have had such as internal spaces. The platform likely was intended to allow the viewing and the timing of "something" crossing the horizon, and had to be well above the expected tree line. Speculation on what might have been the sky-object to be observed includes the Sun, the Moon, planets, specific stars and the Venus Comet, the subject of the author's book "Venus;  The Late-Arriving Planet". The above details prove that there were highly skilled astronomers and builders living and working at this Mexican location prior to 13kYA and for a long time afterwards.

 -  Tzintzuntzan on Lago de Patzcuaro southeast of Guadalajara, Michoacan, Mexico has objects, buildings, streets and properties aligned to a North Pole in Pre-13kYA time, the Intermediate time and the current pole. In addition there appear to be one or two other polar alignments in multiple locations. Viewing to those poles appears to have been done from either a hill or man-made mounds, behind the city. The view was across the lake and between small mountains on the other side. The determinations seem to fit the general needs of of the isolated communities to make their own determinations of the Venus Comet.

   -  In Central America, the ancient Mayan book, Chilam Balam, claims that the first people to inhabit the Yucatan were the Chanes or People of the Serpent. Sources cite the Chanes as being led across the sea by the serpent god Itzamna, who ruled by his esoteric knowledge rather than strength.(106) This name Itzamna has appeared again on the next page as referring to the Sun. The author of this book proposes that initially the name referred to the Venus Comet which appeared from the East and outshone the Sun when close to the Earth. After it morphed into the bright white planet Venus by 700 BCE, story-tellers assumed that the Sun must have been the fiery thing in the sky long ago.

     Olmec

-  The earliest recognised major civilisation is the Olmec of San Lorenzo and Vera Cruz, Mexico with indications of their presence as early as 3000 BCE although it is considered by some, that they existed much earlier than that. Their origins are clouded in mystery with strong indications of a West African Heritage. The name “Olmec” for the earliest culture comes from the language of the Aztecs of about 1400-1700 CE and was applied by recent studies as the area is known for its rubber creation.

-  The earliest KNOWN culture(107) was the Xi (Shi) people who traced back to the Mende or Mandinka people of West Africa. They are depicted in Mayan art work as black African people, prosperous merchants seemingly on large boats, who are greeting and trading with the locals. They also appear as 17 large carved basalt heads. DNA results have distant matches with people in Dahomey, Africa. Very few of their records of any sort have been found. This author postulates that they settled in Mexico in areas bordering on those used by the ancestors of the Maya. They seem to have had knowledge and skills lacking to the Maya of that time.

-  Worship of the “Feathered Serpent” seems to have been active even in its earliest days(108). The "feathering" is seen as a description of the roiling clouds of the Venus Comet. The use of a serpent and feathers also occurs on the Egyptian pharaonic crowns. Researchers dealing with the Olmec(109) have only the imagery found to work with.

-  Inscriptions found on Maya ruins do not seem to deal with the earlier Olmec culture. They postulate multiple "Gods" for different purposes. All have frightening, threatening faces: not a smile amongst them. For example, "flame eyebrows" are seen at times within representations of both the Olmec Dragon and the Bird Monster, and the "cleft head" is seen on all five supernaturals described.  

-  The Olmec Dragon also has a bulbous nose, and bifurcated tongue. When viewed from the front, the Olmec Dragon has trough-shaped eyes; when viewed in profile, the eyes are L-shaped. Fangs are prominent, often rendered as an upside-down U-shaped bracket.

-  The Shark Monster God is recognized by its shark tooth, with the head of the monster featuring a crescent-shaped eye, and a small lower jaw. When depicted in its full-body form, such as on San Lorenzo Monument 58 or on the Young Lord figurine, the anthropomorphic Fish Monster also displays crossed bands, a dorsal fin, a split tail.

-  All of these features are part of the Olmec Dragon, commonly known as the Feathered Serpent, and to us as the Venus Comet. They are simply emphasising different aspects of that terrifying "thing-in-the-sky". Glimpses of the bright body of the planet Venus are described as "eyes", "fangs", and "tooth". The ever-changing shape of the fiery Comet is reported as "nose", "eyebrows", "cleft head", "tongue", "jaw", "head", "body", "fin", and "tail". Some cultures mention "arms", "legs" and "claws" as well.

 -  One myth(110), thought to be of the same event as was recorded in Homer's Iliad of 1184 BCE, relates to a sky drama that would have been seen in Olmec times. In it Ix Chel (Ee Chell) is the Venus Comet and later the planet Venus as the Evening Star. Early in the story, she falls in love with Itzam'na, the Sun, and "flirts with him by coming close and then running away". (Apparent  motion of the Venus Comet moving in its orbit). Her grandfather (the Ares equivalent) is jealous and "throws his spear at her". With the lightning strike (thunder bolt), Ix Chel is "killed", and the motion of the Venus Comet is slowed. The cloud part loses its dragon shape and appears as an indistinct form with erratic motions. These motions are described as a "dragonfly cluster", and suggest a cloud energised by the electrical energy of the lightning strike. In 13 or 183 days (depends on the source) the Venus cloud again starts moving towards Itzam'na (Ix Chel revives), and "goes around the Sun and disappears". A "vulture divinity comforts the Sun". This may be the Comet cloud of Venus which has been attracted to the Sun. Hesiod's poem (see Greek entry in this Appendix) suggests Jupiter later took it. Later Ix Chel returns to Itzam'na and disappears yet again. She now "can only be seen at night" as she no longer has the luminous atmosphere of the Comet cloud.

The author suspects that the Olmec Dragon, described above, was the fiery Venus Comet when it was up close to the Earth and brushing through our atmosphere. Ix Chel was its name when passing through the sky at a distance.

 - Archeological work(111) suggests that the Olmec major site at San Lorenzo in eastern Mexico, reached a peak of prosperity and influence between 1200 and 900 BCE. Its strategic position beside the Coatzacoalcos River kept it safe from flooding and allowed it to control local trade. Around 900 BCE the site of San Lorenzo displays evidence of systematic disassembly while La Venta to the northeast began to flourish and became the new capital. In the Greenland ice data, the dusty remains of the Venus Comet appear to have come against the Earth, distinctly dropping its ice-freezing temperature in 916 BCE. This cooling suggests to this author that it caused the end of the San Lorenzo dominance, and heralded the new location at La Venta.

- This would be about 270 years after the Mars / Venus Comet encounter. The Comet, ie. the goddess Ix Chel, aka the Feathered Serpent, was no longer threatening the Olmec, so they modified their beliefs. They began to propitiate her with offerings in the hope that she would not harm them as she continued to wander near the Earth. At a new site (La Venta?), they may have created an effigy on the ground and sacrificed to it, asking it not to come again. Is this analogous to the Serpent Mounds? (See above) For the previous 10,000 years, the goddess had been disappearing and then coming back 7 years later. The spot in the middle of the “egg” in front of the serpent was the sacrifice spot and that sacrifice would provide “smoke” as well.

- About 400 BCE, La Venta was also pulled down but not replaced. Evidence of Olmec control is replaced about then by Mayan suggesting that the Maya with a larger area of use in the Yucatan and likely a larger population, had over-thrown the old dominant Olmec culture. Olmec records may have been destroyed as part of the overthrow. Later the "offering site" seems to have become formalised as discussed in the Mayan section under “Chicanna”.

 Huastecan (HuaXteca)

-  This indigenous tribe were an early part of the Mayan, and were known north of La Venta about 3000 BCE.(112) Their features were different from both Mayan and Olmec, as was their imagery. They had a major female deity who is shown with a massive head-dress, much long hair, flowing skirts, usually standing erect and of a larger stature than most people. Modern researchers give her a name, label her as sexy, as hurtful to people and date her to about 800 BCE. This author suspects that she represents a stylised, more human-looking version of the Venus Comet rather than the older Feathered Serpent of the Maya.

     Mayan

- They are thought to have occupied the Yucatan' Peninsula and southward possibly to the Pacific coast and likely would have had a trading and cultural relationship with the Olmec. The author believes that they were independent of the Olmec and Aztec cultures, and survived both of them. Recently discovered structures at Ceibal, in central north Guatemala are a platform base in a Mayan area, dated to about 1000 BCE.(113) Whether this was an Olmec "trading centre" or a Mayan edifice similar to an Olmec style, is not known. Maya evidence in the Olmec area of La Venta to the northwest does not start to appear until the apparent demise of the Olmec culture about 400-300 BCE. A substantial drop in ice-freezing temperatures, was noted at 407 BCE. This implies that the Maya people had existed separately from the Olmec in an area since enveloped by jungle, and about 400 BCE took control. They do not appear to have been descendants of the Olmecs. Interaction and marriage is possible.

-  The dragon continues to repeat in Maya culture as Teotihuacan, the "Feathered Serpent", and then as the name of the Aztec capital city. Worship of the “Feathered Serpent” seems to have been active even in its earliest days(114). The "feathering" is a description of the roiling clouds of the Venus Comet. It is always associated with war and blood-letting. Its earliest date is not known but it is thought to date from well before the Venus Comet orbiting ceased.

- The Maya retained the Venus Comet as their Kukulcan entity. It terrified the people from the sky which suggests that they had their own related mythology on it in 600 BCE and as late as the Spanish Conquest. They extensively monitored the movements of Venus [might the Venus Comet come back?] and later used this knowledge to form the basis of their precise calendric calculations.

- An example of their concern is the so-called “Chicanna - The Maya House of the Serpent Mouth".(115) This structure is located in Campeche province in the Mexican Yucatan peninsula. Its entrance has a stylised toothy mouth through which it is thought that priests would enter to present some sort of offering to the Feathered Serpent (Kukulcan) which had threatened their people through history. This threat would have generally ceased in 1184 BCE. Archeologists believed that the building likely was erected some time before 700 BCE, and its use was discontinued about 1100 CE.

- Venus became identified by the Maya as Xolotl (pronounced Sho lot' til), the Twin, the Shapeshifter (from comet to shiny planet about 800 BCE), the Lord of the West, and as the Evening Star. It was the double of the Morning Star and often depicted as a dog-like deity, with ragged ears that is identified with sickness and physical deformity. In Mayan and Aztec times, it is displayed as having only three legs, each with a claw. As Kukulcan and later as the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, he carries a conch-like ehecailacacozcatl or wind jewel.

     Aztec

- The Aztec are believed to have occupied north central Mexico, where the Spanish encountered them, but may also have exerted control over much of the earlier Maya and Olmec territories. They incorporated many ideas and concepts from those civilisations. They named their Venus Comet memories and later the planet itself as "Quetzalcoatl". They do not appear to have been descendants of either prior civilisation although some intermarriage would be likely.

- Aztec mythology, gathered by the Spanish, claimed that “we are in the Fifth Sun", a view that matches that of the Greek Herodotus of about 430 BCE. It fits the four events of the Earth being flipped by the Venus Comet. (see Appendix 4 - Reading the Ice)

- The Aztec Codex Telleriano-Remensis, annotated by Spanish friars(116), contains several illustrations of Venus 'smoking' as a hemispheric, oval or circular "patch of sky ... with a large central star and smoke volutes arising from the form." This drawing is consistent with similar details in the Olmec and Maya sections above. The accompanying Spanish text recorded in the period 1533-1539 CE, that a series of observations by the Aztecs "supposedly written down in pre-Columbian days” stated that “Venus smoked”, ie “smoke” came from the “star” Venus which they knew as “citlal' choloha”. The Aztec dates provided are not in keeping with the form of their calendar, casting doubts on the timing of the actual observations provided.

 Nicaraguan

-  At the time of the Spanish conquering of the area to the south of Mexico(117), the renown native leader was Nicara, a Indian cacique. The first documented meeting of a Nicaraguan indigenous leader and a Spanish conquistador took place in 1512 in Nicaraocalli (now known as Rivas) between Nicarao and Gil González. They had a famous dialogue in which the seriously questioned the Spaniards on what they were doing from an economic point of view. He also held a series of discussions about whether or not slavery was legal. Nicarao also had questions regarding a past cataclysm that had destroyed the entire earth with all its humanity and animals, something the Indian leader had heard from his elders. In addition, he asked if the earth at some point would roll over on its back. Although Gil González was an intelligent man, he had no answers to these questions. The Spanish adversaries were left frightened by the Indian leader’s intelligence and ability to reason.

 This author finds these questions very revealing as they show that Nicarao knew of the Great Flood and the Earth reversing pole for pole, 12,500 years earlier.

 South American

   Bolivia

- The Legend of Lake Titicaca (Flood Story)(118):  The Apus or gods of the mountains had put people in a fertile valley, where they prospered under the gods' protection. Life was good and people were happy. Things would stay that way forever as long as they obeyed the Apus’ only prohibition: that they never climb the mountain where a sacred fire burned perpetually.

- People obeyed, but the Devil was unhappy seeing them do so. He persuaded them to dare each other to see who was courageous enough to defy the gods and climb the forbidden mountain. They all agreed to go fetch the sacred fire. The Apus caught them midway, exterminated them, and sent pumas to eat those staying in the valley.

-  At the sight of the destruction of his creatures, Inti, the sun god, cried and cried for so long he inundated the valley. Only a couple in a reed boat, survived this flood of tears. Once the flood passed over, they found themselves in the midst of a great lake, which had drowned the pumas sent by the Apus, turning them into stone statues. The couple then decided to call the lake Titicaca, which in their language meant "lake of the stony pumas".

-  [J.M. Collins' thoughts (speculations?) -  This legend may have details tying it to the massive destruction on the Pacific Coast of South America 13k YA. (See the Chilean details below.) I focused on the physical details that are given and started with the chain of inland volcanoes paralleling the coast between Lake Titicaca and the ocean. They are considered to be "young" volcanoes, however proving previous eruptions in the last 15,000 years is problematic.

   In the legend, the mountain (volcano) has been showing fire at the top but an eruption is not mentioned. People today will visit the top of such a volcano to see what it looks like inside. The author suspects that the date was 13k YA and the Venus Comet came at the Earth as described in the Venus Story. It twisted the mantle and set off many volcanoes in explosive eruptions, and destroyed large areas and their peoples. The one in the story apparently erupted, and being after their visit, those peopled got blamed for what happened. The eruption was severe enough to exterminate most of their civilisation. Even the animals (pumas) went crazy and attacked people.

   Lake Titicaca is a fresh water lake in a fertile valley in the mountains. Remains of stone structures have been found built on the sloping sides of the basin well below today's water surface. People living around or in that valley would be killed by falling debris or perhaps suffocated by emissions from the volcanoes. We are also told that a very large quantity of water drowned many people. No mention has been found to the effect that the "soil was poisoned and made unproductive" as a result of a salt water soaking, as was reported in many other locales.

   It is unknown if the land and the lake rose in elevation because of the effect of the Venus Comet. (See Paraguay entry following.) Currently the highest levels of crop-growing terraces existing there are at the limit of cultivation. In addition, the lake level has risen substantially and today is about 3800m above sea level.]

    In reading the legend, we must remember that its details were likely provided by a very few people. Those in the middle of the catastrophe, if they lived, were too busy trying to stay alive, to note all the details we might like to have. It would only be many years afterwards, that story telling might be passed on.

   At the ancient location of Tiahuanaco in western Bolivia, there remains a stone archway known as the "Gate of the Sun". Whether it sits in its original position or not, is unknown. It is believed to have heralded the rising of the Sun on some auspicious day in the year. On it are engraved symbols believed to represent 12 months of the  year. Ten of them have 24 days and two have 25 days, giving a year of 290 days. Details on it and its calendar and when it may have been effective are discussed in Appendix 4 - Reading the Ice.

   As discussed in Appendix 13 - Sphinx, Pyramids and Other Alignments, an alignment related to viewing the approach of the Venus Comet prior to 13k YA has been discovered there.

    Brazil(119)

- Legends of the Mundurucu in the watershed of the Amazon River, tell of people recovering as the Younger Dryas is ending (ca 9,000 BCE). The sky is starting to clear, and they are coming out of hiding and fighting for resources.

- A second legend of theirs tells of the planet Venus as viewable in the sky after being kept hidden by the Great Serpent (the Venus Comet). Planet Mars sends planets Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn "to recover it" from the Serpent. This myth would appear to date to about 800 BCE matching the Greek Hesiod’s view of the "birth of Athena" (See Greek entry above).

- According to legend, Boitatá was a big serpent which survived a great deluge(120). The name is from the Old Tupi language common in southeast Brazil, meaning "fiery serpent" (mboî tatá). Its great fiery eyes leave it almost blind by day, but by night, it can see everything. The goddess Boiuna, an underworld serpent goddess in the Bakairi tribe of northern Brazil, is also associated with the Amazon River.

    Chile

-  The mythology of the south mentions Cherruves "With the body of a snake and the head of a human, he controls the ‘appearance of comets’ and is responsible for bringing misfortune to whoever he visits."(121)

- The most southerly portion of this country saw the eastern edge of the Pacific plate dive under the continental crust. The inland mountains were raised while the lands to the west were submerged to form the Chilean archipelago. A huge serpent was the cause.(122)  No mention of what happened to the people, has been noted.

    Columbia

- Systematic elimination of South American history by the Spanish overlords, left Columbia with few memories and myths.

- Bachué was the mother of the Muisca people.(123) She emerged from the Iguaque lagoon near Bogotá, married her son, peopled the earth and returned to the lagoon as a serpent, along with her son. Bochica was the civilising god, and Huitaca the rebel goddess (of the Moon). The mention of a lagoon and a serpent suggests that Bachué was the Venus Comet which had an association with a large body of water (13k YA), and its disappearance after 1200 BCE with no explanation of Why. Bochica may have been their name for Mars whose worship became dominant in much of the world.

    Paraguay & South Central South America

        (Also applies to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentine, Bolivia)

- The Guarani culture(124), centred on Paraguay, seems quite old and non-literate prior to the European invasion. Their creation story begins with Tupa' the Sun, and Ara'sy the Moon Goddess, creating the world and its creatures. An early female was Kera'na who was seduced by Tau, the god of evil, and had seven monsters as sons. I compared these monsters with descriptions of the Venus Comet.

- The first son was Teju-Jagua ("Alligator-Dog"). It was a serpent or lizard monster with seven dog heads with radiant eyes that spouted flames. It was described as being shiny, the scaly skin glistening. It was generally calm and slow-moving (as it moved through the sky).

- The second son was Mbói Tu'i (“Snake Parrot”), a monster with the body of a serpent and the head of a parrot. This "same" name appears in the Brazilian mythology above. His forked tongue is the colour of blood, his skin is scaly, and his head is covered in feathers. It was said that he could let out a powerful squawk that could be heard over great distances and would instill terror in all who heard it. Mbói Tu'i is the lord of the waterways and aquatic creatures. His description fits the title "Feathered Serpent" in  Mexico and Peru.

- The third son Moñái, ("lord of the air and spirit of open fields") has the body of a serpent, but upon his head are two horns that function as antennae. The horns are said to have hypnotic powers which can mesmerize his prey, allowing him to hunt with ease.

- The fourth is Jasy Jatere (Yasy Yatere) (“a little piece of the moon”). He is viewed as one of the most important gods among the Guarani. Unlike his brothers, who have a monstrous appearance, Jasy Jatere looks like a small man who is frequently drawn with long blonde hair and blue eyes. He carries a magical staff, which has the power to send people to sleep or place them in a trance. His size, importance, and staff strongly suggest that the Guarani saw in him the one who threw the "thunder bolt spear" as in that Homeric tale over Troy in 1184 BCE. "He destroyed the first three monster gods."

- The first three sons were attributes of the Venus Comet. The first one was seen from afar in the sky and was not threatening. The second was seen and heard when coming near the Earth. The third one was viewed when attacking the Earth and "hunting for prey". The fourth son would be the "Ares" equivalent. The last three sons have no apparent connection with the Venus Comet.

-  The Meta Religions website of South American Flood Stories has several stories with different points to them. The follow details are a "blend" of those stories:

     The Flood was caused by a God whose presence was not recognized by the people. Passers-by warned the people and some of the city's priests heeded the warning and went to live as hermits in a temple on a hill. Some time later, a red cloud appeared on the horizon. It grew and covered the area, and its red glow eerily lit the night. Suddenly, with a flash and a rumble, an earthquake destroyed many of the city's buildings, and a red rain poured down. Other earthquakes and more rain followed, and a flood soon covered the ruined city; this water is Lake Titicaca today. A man and a woman survived by floating in a box when the waters covered their home. When they got out they found that the land had risen up high and they were on Lake Titicaca.

    Peru

- In the city of Trujillo in northern Peru, there is a structure known as “Huaca Del Dragon”. Its title implies submissive devotion to the dragon. The characters on it depict violence of many forms by the dragon. It is also known as “ Arco Iris” meaning “ rainbow or colourful arches”. Currently it is attributed by some to the Mochica culture (1 - 1200 CE) while others suggest much earlier, perhaps 1000 BCE. The author believes that the design comes from very early and relates to the Venus Comet form that was seen in the skies, savaged the Earth and created a rainbow 13,000 YA.

- The ceremonial worship centre at Caral in the Sup-e Valley, near Supe, Barranca Province, Peru (see Appendix 1 - Dated Events  2587 BCE) had an image in stones that resembled a screaming head with long hair.(125) A wall of images has male faces with long hair including one with a flowing beard.

-  In the mythology of Andean civilizations of South America, the amaro, amaru (quecha) or ka-tari (aymara) is a mythical serpent or dragon mostly associated with the Tiahuanaco and Inca empires. In Inca mythology, the amaru is a huge double-headed serpent that dwells underground.(126) (Coming from the East, it comes into view while flying over the jungle.)

A 3D scan of the Peruvian monolith is shown in light green contrast. The contrast allows details to be seen that were harder to make out in the monolith’s true colour.

(Daniel Fernandez-Davila / Exact Metrology)

-  An ancient engraving found in the northern Peruvian region of Amazonas, near Leyme-bamba, about 60 kilometres south of Chachapoyas in the valley of the Utcubamba River(127), may have a connection to the above serpent or dragon. In the colour enhanced image above, the head of the serpent with its toothy mouth is apparent with the Sun shown above it for comparison. The other marks are not understood. The dating provided in the article seems much too recent. This author places the image in the period prior to the Venus Comet / Mars interaction in 1184 BCE as discussed in the Venus Story, perhaps much earlier while the Comet was still greatly feared.

-  In Quechua, the native culture of Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, there is a goddess called Pacha-mama. She was a part of their lore well before the Spanish conquered them. In pre-Hispanic culture, she was often considered a cruel goddess and depicted as a serpent or dragon. She was also known as the Inka Earth Mother of the Long Sweeping Garment (tail of the comet?), as a fertility goddess who presided over planting and harvesting, and was as big as the mountains, and caused earthquakes. A drawing depicts her with the rainbow, the sign of the Flood. These attributes are similar to those used with the Venus Comet. Under Spanish Catholicism she was subsumed into the Virgin Mary. Currently she is thought of as the earth/time mother who is an ever-present independent deity. She has her own self-sufficient and creative power to sustain life on Earth.

-  In a different story, the god Viracocha, "the bringer of civilisation" to Andean Peru and Bolivia, decided to destroy the people, and did so with a great flood. When the flood subsided, it left the lakes Titicaca and Poopo, and it left seashells on the Altiplano at elevations of 3660m. In those days, the Moon was even brighter than the Sun, but the Sun grew jealous and threw ashes onto the Moon's face.(128) [JMC comment: Moon has a very obvious brightness at night and high altitudes but once the debris from the Venus Comet was in Earth's atmosphere, its light would be dimmed noticeably.]

-  A large, rich city once existed on what is now called the Altiplano. One day, a group of ragged Indians came and warned the proud inhabitants that the city would be destroyed by earthquake, flood, and fire. Most inhabitants just scoffed and eventually had the ragged people flogged and thrown out. Some of the city's priests, though, heeded the warning and went to live as hermits in a temple on a hill. Some time later, a red cloud [fiery Venus Comet] appeared on the horizon. Soon it had grown and covered the area, and its red glow eerily lit the night. Suddenly, with a flash and a rumble, an earthquake destroyed many of the city's buildings, and a red rain poured down. Other earthquakes and more rain followed, and a flood soon covered the ruined city; this water is Lake Titicaca today. None of the city's inhabitants survived, save the priests. The descendants of the prophets became the Callawayas, wise men of the valleys.(129)  (See parallel story in Paraguay entry above.)

[JMC comment: No mention is made, that what we call the Altiplano, was elevated from sea level (see sea shells comment above). Perhaps it was just too unbelievable to the storyteller's audience!]

    Venezuelan

- The story here tells about the World-wide Flood, and at the end, blends in the end of the Venus Comet threat.

- This story comes from the Makirirtare people of Venezuela as presented on the Meta Religions website of South American Flood Stories. In it "Kuamachi" is the Venus Comet and is punishing the people. "Ahishama" is Mars and is saving people.

- The Star people listened to Jaguar and killed and ate a woman. Kuamachi wanted to punish them, but they were too many and too powerful. He went to Wlaha, their chief, and invited them to help in picking dewaka fruit. They were suspicious, but Kuamachi left some fruit with them, and they liked the taste so much they decided to go help pick fruit. Kuamachi and his grandfather Mahanama led them to the trees. The Star people climbed the trees and started eating fruit; they weren't afraid of only two people.

   Kuamachi dropped one fruit; water came out of it, spread, and caused a flood, covering everything but the trees. Kuamachi thought "canoe," and a canoe appeared. He and Mahanama stayed in the canoe. Mahanama threw the baskets he was weaving into the water, and they turned into anacondas, crocodiles, caimans, and other deadly animals. Kuamachi set a termite nest on fire, filling the forest with smoke. He and his grandfather got bows and arrows they had hidden in a cave.

   When they got back and the smoke cleared, the Star people were begging for mercy. The two shot them. The people fell down to the water below and were attacked by the dangerous animals. Kuamachi and his grandfather ran out of arrows before shooting Wlaha, the leader of the Star people. He turned himself into seven people and caught seven arrows. The surviving wounded Star people climbed back into the trees.

   Wlaha shot the arrows into heaven, and with the help of Ahishama, who changed into the troupial (a black and orange bird, colours of Mars), and Kütto, who became a frog, he formed a ladder which he and the surviving Star people climbed up and became stars. Ahishama became Mars; Wlaha became the Pleiades; Mönettä, the scorpion, became the Big Dipper; and Ihette, One Leg, became Orion's belt.

   Kuamachi also decided to climb up. He had Kahshe, the piranha, cut the vine behind him so that the demon Ioroko couldn't climb up with his basket of poison. Kuamachi brought Akuaniye, the Peace Plant, with him, which he offered to Wlaha, and they stopped fighting. 

   Kuamachi became the Evening Star. Before this, the night sky had been empty and black except for the Moon.

Israelite  -  Venus Comet Actions in Bible History

Today's Judaism uses the Tanakh, commonly referred to by others as the Hebrew Bible. It is a document that deals with the Israelites and later the Jews, and their relationship with their God over a long period of time. It does not claim to provide a detailed history but does set some of its events into historical context in order to get its points across. No other culture has such an old and extensive record compiled as a document. The Old Testament portion of the Christian Bible is essentially a copy of it.

 Its events include descriptions of amazing celestial and earthly activities. The Israelites considered that these events were controlled by their God, and that God gave his people directions on how to handle themselves in the good and bad times. If they ignored God's instructions, it would usually worsen their situations. Some saw that as "punishment".

 Many, many writers have challenged details in Biblical History. As pointed out in this work on Venus; The Late - Arriving Planet, the writings of those critics failed to include the actions of the Venus Comet and the turmoil it caused on Earth and in the skies. People mentioning those actions in bygone times, had been at a loss to explain what had happened. Those who redacted the old writings about 600 BCE had the same problem. They tried to describe wild events thousands of years after they had happened and hundreds of years after the Comet had disappeared. The editors were trying to capture the "sense" of it. They could not imagine or explain the chaos and fear involved, and neither could their audience. But it was factual.

 Some of these "God Moments" are discussed below in their sequence in the Bible:

 Garden of Eden   (Genesis 2: 5-15): Analysis by this author suggests that the Serpent that persuaded Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, as discussed in this Bible passage, was the same metaphor used to describe the Venus Comet as discussed in the story "Venus; The Late-Arriving Planet". Throughout the rest of the Venus Comet story, all the other cultures in whose mythology the Serpent or Dragon appears, worshipped it as a war-like dominant god or goddess. They feared its every move. Details in those cultures are discussed above in this Appendix.

-  The author suspects that at some time, the Comet, in passing by the Earth, damaged the Garden to the extent that people had to move elsewhere to survive. In retrospect, the people in the Bible believed that they were being "punished" for having accepted the suggestion of the Serpent, and for having followed it as a god.

-  The separate essay "Eden" by this author discusses his ideas on the Garden of Eden. It is included as Venus Story - Appendix 9   Eden.

 The Flood   (Genesis chapters 6, 7 & 8)  This well-known story involves Noah and his Ark and the escape of his family. Noah is called a "man of the land", likely meaning "farmer", and implying that he had a fresh water supply nearby. We are not told where or when he lived.

-  Noah is advised by an unnamed man to build a large boat to house himself and family along with their supplies. Noah understands that it is his God speaking to him. He likely was told to expect a huge flood, but that is not mentioned in the Bible passage. Noah is to take along his (farm) animals which would allow him to re-establish himself later. The Ark and its complement grows with later retellings. We must keep in mind that as a farmer, Noah would be very unlikely to have much knowledge of large boat building nor of boat handling on large bodies of water in rough weather. You would just keep your head down and hang on.

-  The Flood water comes in a great hurry, running across the Earth and falling in torrents from the sky. Referring to the premises in the Venus Story, this would be the expected effect of our planet being flipped on its poles. The seas would be thrown wildly across the Earth and into the skies. Additionally the Venus Comet body would draw the oceans towards it, causing a huge tide that would flood half of the shores of the Earth. Noah was ready! 

-  The Flood floats the Ark and becomes widespread enough to cover everything Noah can see. It does not imply that it covered the highest mountains. It lasts for multiple days before it has run back into the ocean basins. Noah would have no idea of the extent of the Flood in the rest of the World. High ground in some parts of the world may have been briefly submerged. The Ark, having likely been washed from a lower elevation, may have grounded in a somewhat higher one. The hills/mountains of Ararat, a province of today's Turkey, are mentioned. They cover a sizeable area. The Bible story describes the land they find as looking good, suggesting that what was seen had not been flooded by salt water.

-  The highest mountain (actually a volcano) in the Near East is the White Mountain in Armenia, a double peak reaching 5,137m. It is in the modern province of "Ararat" in Armenia/Eastern Turkey. There is a large, some-what level area to its southwest. It is not noted as being called Mount Ararat before the Middle Ages. About 1190 CE, the Archbishop of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church, officially declared Mount Ararat in Armenia to be the landing place of the Ark. The Archbishop's homeland just happened to be Armenia!!

-  The Hebrews, when in captivity in Babylon about 650 BCE, went through the process of combining and redacting their historical documents and beliefs into a document, known today as the "Tanakh", the Hebrew Bible. In the passage in Genesis describing the Flood, the scribes used their Hebrew spelling of the name of the area where they understood the ark to have landed. The original name of Urartu became Ararat and then read as   "הָרֵי אֲרָרָט ". This meant "the hills and high parts of Ararat".

-  The location of the kingdom of Urartu was in today's south-east Turkey and north-east Iraq, extending south of Mt. Ararat. In today's terms, it was in, near or beside "the hilly country of Ararat". We know of these details by reference to Assyrian information(130). Around that 650 BCE date, the people of Urartu were fighting off the Assyrians who were led by Kings Esarhaddon (681-669 BCE) and Ashurbanipal II (669-631 BCE). By 585 BCE, it had fallen. Assyrian records have been found. To the Hebrew compilers, these were current events.

-  Back to Noah's story:  After a period of time, the rain stops, the waters calm and recede, and the Ark has grounded. Everybody gets out and they find that its a land that they have never seen. Noah says it looks pretty good, and plants grapevines. This last point suggests that he had found a location that did not get flooded by what we believe was salty sea water, and it was at a low enough elevation to support the cultivation of grapes. Original writings make no mention of a "mountain". The Noah clan make it their new home. The area around them came to be called Ararat. The similar sounding "Iraq" is its name today.

- Interestingly, no mention is made of what is causing all this to happen. There is no reference to the Venus Comet or its equivalent. It is all part of God's plan. As for searching for the Ark to recover relics, Forget It!  This author believes that it likely was salvaged for building materials at the new location, and the pieces decomposed over the 13,000 years since then.

 The readers' attentions are directed to Appendix 11 - What Happened 13,000 Years Ago? for greater details on these events.

 Job's Afflictions   (Job 1: 8-22): Believed to be before Abram left the city of Ur, which was destroyed in 2174 BCE. Job's flocks and shepherds were "destroyed by fire from heaven" and "all his children killed by a whirlwind". There were two instances of marauders stealing his livestock and killing his herders which could indicate a time of unrest during a Venus Comet pass.

- Attention was also drawn to Job 41 in the long passage where God is speaking to Job and mentions "Leviathan". Some translations identify it as a whale or sea-monster based on the mention of it churning the deeps. In the NIV Bible, mention is made of its "overwhelming power, snorting out flashes of light, bright eyes, flames and sparks from its mouth, smoke from its nostrils, setting fire to everything around it. Nothing on Earth is its equal, a creature without fear that looks down on all that are haughty." It was the fiery Venus Comet. [See description two pages below under Multiple Names for the Venus Comet.]

- These descriptions date the Job story to no earlier than 11,053 BCE when the catastrophic event happened. The fact that Job's visitors discuss the events in a calm manner, suggests that they considered that the events were not surprising, and Job has just had a run of bad fortune. The author thinks that this scene occurred after one of the later Venus Comet passes. None of the four speakers attribute Job's misfortunes to either their God or to the heathen god of the Comet that others might worship.

 Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed by a rain of fire, molten salt and brimstone (molten sulphur) (Gen. 19: 12-29): This is thought to be in 2062 BCE as the Venus Comet had a small effect on the Earth. About then the Great Rift Valley broke open in the Dead Sea area, possibly as tectonic plates slipped. Lot had settled at Sodom a year earlier.

 Moses and Hatshepsut :   Examining Moses' background more fully, we note that in the Talmud, the baby in a floating basket is stated to have become a "Prince of Egypt". As part of the Egyptian royal household, he is assumed to have been given the extensive Pharaoh's education so as to be useful to the Pharaoh. His actions in adult life are consistent with such an education. Based on the date of the Exodus, Moses’ date of birth would be 1526 BCE.

-  The Bible records say that a young girl, a princess, had him pulled out of the Nile River, and claimed him as "her own". Her father was Thutmose I.  At that time in both Egyptian writings and in the Biblical Book of Exodus, her title was "Pharaoh's Daughter" for her father had designated her as his successor. In later life, she is called Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut.

-  We do not know Moses' Hebrew name. The name/word "Moses" is Egyptian, with a general meaning of "water" and in a birth name frequently referred to the "birth water" or amniotic fluid. A baby was considered to have been born when picked out of that fluid and began to breathe. The child had transformed from living in water to being an air-breathing creature; a miracle we would call it. Thanks would be given to a god.

-  The royal title or salute of Thutmoses I above indicated thanks to the god Thoth who “protected” Thutmoses as he was drawn from his birth water. Thoth + Moses.  The personal name of his daughter was Thutmeses, using the feminine form of name for birth water.

-  The Pharaoh's Daughter, in a play on words, claimed Moses as her baby as "she had him drawn from the water". We don't know by what name Moses was known in the royal house-hold. He seemingly grew up with the the Pharaoh's daughter and she kept him with her during her reign.

-  When she seized power after her husband/ half-brother Thutmose II died, she designated Moses, then about age 25 to be her Vizier (confidential advisor and enabler), the Royal Astronomer and the Commander of her Armies. His title was Senen-mut (meaning Mother's brother) as Hatshepsut also saw herself as the "Mother of Egypt".

Moses & Astronomy -  As the Royal Astronomer, Moses would have become very aware of the expected movements and effects of the Venus Comet. He would have witnessed the 1495 BCE encounter with that body and would have overseen the study of it by his astronomers and astrologers. He may have been the most knowledgeable person in Egypt regarding a revisit to Earth by the Comet. It appears that to fulfill the Lord's commandment to free the Israelites, Moses timed the Exodus to take advantage of the chaos expected in the next (1446 BCE) Comet visit. His planning and leadership skills were required to shepherd that mass of people through the resultant chaos and afterwards.

 The readers' attentions are directed to Appendix 12 - Red Sea Passage  for greater details on those events.

 Sabbatical Years (Leviticus 25: 1-22):   The author finds that an instruction in the Bible, regarding sabbatical years and land use, as set out by Moses during the Exodus, is of considerable interest. The author recognises that during and subsequent to their Babylonian Captivity, the Jewish priests redacted the extensive collection of writings of the previous 1000 years of their religion to emphasise the   Words and Instructions of the Lord   for future generations. Descriptive and historical passages seemingly were, in large measure, severely shortened or omitted if they did not discuss or support the Lord's instructions.

- The above passage pertained to the use of the land. In it Moses was indicating that the orbit of the Venus Comet brought it near the Earth once every seven years. He then stressed that every seventh orbit of the Venus Comet, ie. in the 49th year, it was to be greatly feared (for its effect on crops). This idea is discussed in detail in the story "Venus;  The Late-Arriving Planet". Probable Venus cycles are discussed in detail in Appendix 1  -  Dates of Events.

 Egyptian Writing Logic:  In keeping with Egyptian writing logic, Moses does not publicly identify the threat as Apep (Ah-peep), the Egyptian name at that time for the Venus Comet. Naming your enemy, whether pharaoh or planet, provided that enemy with immortal power when its name was repeated by others. This was an outcome that was not wanted! You might use a title or a descriptive phrase or even a mocking nickname, but not the enemy's real name. This author does not assume that “immortality” was part of Moses’ belief. He just avoided that belief being suggested to others.

- These thoughts led the author to look for other Biblical catastrophes that might have been associated with a Venus Comet mention.

 Israelites had been 430 yrs in Egypt at their departure in the Exodus (Ex. 12: 40). The family of Joseph had come to Egypt in 1876 BCE in the first year of a Seven Year Famine which calculates as 1876-1870 BCE. The debris-filled orbit of the Venus Comet clouded the sky preventing crops being grown. (See Psalm 89 details below). When the Israelites became slaves is unknown. During their stay in Egypt, it appears that there were eight Venus Comet events (see Appendix 4 - Reading the Ice) and they left during the ninth one. One event destroyed the Egyptian Middle Kingdom in 1663 BCE making way for the Hyksos takeover. This might fit the passage of Exodus 1: 8 where "a new king ascended the throne, who knew nothing of Joseph". Another pass of the Venus Comet broke the Hyksos rule in 1544 BCE while the Theban Egyptians were establishing their New Kingdom, but the Israelites were not freed.

 The Exodus  (Ex. 7-14)  1446 BCE. (See The Great Exodus Coverup by John M. Collins and the panel in Appendix - 1   Dates of Temperature Drops in Greenland Ice Data and Noted Mentions of Destructions.)(See also Appendix 11 - What Happened 13,000 Years Ago? and Appendix 12 - Red Sea Passage  for greater details on those events.)

 Occupying the Promised Land : These events occur as the Israelites are capturing land in Canaan after the death of Moses in 1406 BCE and their later crossing of the Jordan River.

-  The Venus Comet appears to have been called “Rahab” by the Israelites during this time. The meaning was “large”, “wide”, “immense” and “vast”. See entry below for Psalm 89.

-  The walls of Jericho fall (Joshua 6: 1-21) coincidently with the blowing of horns and "blasts from heaven". This latter phrase could be fiery streamers coming from the Comet or perhaps an electrical thunderbolt striking the Earth. The date may have been 1404 BCE.

-  Some 49 years after the Exodus (1397 BCE) during a minor pass of the Venus Comet, the Amorite army opposing Israel under Joshua (Num. 21: 1-3), was destroyed by "the hand of God". Later (Joshua 10: 11-13) this story is described as “a great hail of stones fell from the sky” while Joshua led the Israelites against the Amorites. The Sun and Moon stood still implying, that the smooth movement of the Earth in space was retarded by the Comet. Data show no permanent change in the orbit of our planet.

 See description in Prophet Amos entry below.

 In the time of Deborah, the Judge, (Judges 5: 4-5, 20-22) the Song of Deborah mentions that   “the Earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water. From the heavens, the stars fought, from their courses they fought against (the armies of King) Sisera. The river Kishon swept his armies away, the age-old river, the river Kishon.”    The author thinks that this occurred at the second Venus Comet encounter with Earth after the Exodus, in 1348 BCE. (See Appendix 1 - Dated Events)

 Samuel and the Philistines

-  In Samuel's lifetime, the Israelites had on-going conflict with the Philistines. Approximately 1037 BCE (see Appendix 1  -  Dated Events)  there was an event involving the remains of the Venus Comet.    1 Samuel 7: 7-12  NEB  "As Samuel was offering the sacrifice and the Philistines were advancing to battle, the Lord thundered loud and long over the Philistines and threw them into confusion. They fled in panic ...."    The Comet would have been cycling amongst the inner planets of the solar system with no predictable pattern. It came through the skies above Israel at this time. Other mentions of the Lord thundering or being associated with things falling from the sky have not been found within 200 years of this event. Previous dusting of the Greenland Ice Cap was in 1082 BCE.

 This passage shows that the "thing in the sky" was the Venus Comet that the Philistines considered to be Ba'al (Great God), with the personal name of Ishtar or Ashtaroth. It was still their destroying Goddess of War and had retained its deadly reputation amongst them. They panicked and ran. If it had been the planet Mars, it would have been welcomed by the Philistines as their god Marduk coming to help them.

 The Israelites considered it as helping them as at the Red Sea, and understood that their God's counsel to them was to make use of the panic occurring amongst their enemies. The Philistines, seeing the Israelites with the confidence to attack, may have assumed that the "thing" had come to help their enemy fight them.

Multiple Names for the Venus Comet

- Although the Israelites did not worship it, they did refer to it as being in the religions of their neighbours and their enemies, and later did mention it in some of their own texts. The Israelites, following the Egyptian customs of Moses, avoided speaking or writing the personal name of an enemy or opponent as it would give that enemy immortal power. People would be reminded of the enemy each time it was named. They used the opponent's title or description such as Baʿal (strong god) for the planet Mars or a description as Leviathan (the serpent thing) for the fiery Venus Comet. Later day writers and translators, not knowing about the Venus Comet and the fear that it caused, had trouble handling these names, and tried to explain them away.

-  In reading these notes and supporting documents, the reader must recognise that all references to the "monster", the Venus Comet, being "killed" are referring to something that happened in 1184 BCE. That is when the spear flying between Athena and Ares, described in Homer's Iliad, occurred. Athena, the Venus Comet, essentially ceased its attacks on the Earth. Ares was given the credit by all cultures except the Greeks and Israelites. Mythologies of very old times, crediting an object or god with killing the Comet, have been modified in later years to that include that story.

-  The author has identified Biblical old names for the Venus Comet. Some were created or modified after 1184 BCE. The Biblical names given to the Comet follow:

- The Garden of Eden story specifically mentions Adam and Eve as obeying the instructions of "the Serpent".

- Leviathan(131) is described as a serpent or the "flying serpent" in the earliest texts. Going back to the old Hebrew it is   Leviathan (/lɪˈvaɪ.əθən/; Hebrew: לִוְיָתָן,  a name derived from the root לוה lvh  "to twine; to join", with an adjectival suffix  ן-, with a literal meaning of "wreathed, twisted in folds". This description comes from Wilhelm Gesenius, Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (trans.) (1879) in the Hebrew and Chaldee lexicon to the Old Testament.

- To the observer here on Earth, it is the terrifying object in the sky that destroys men and their cities. It is the planet Venus and its Comet, known by various names. About 13,000 YA it caused the waters of the seas to flood over the land and then return to their ocean basins.

- Hadad, meaning "thunderer" or storm god, is a Canaanite name for the Venus Comet before it shed its comet cloak and settled in its present orbit as the planet.

- Hadad’ezer - The suffix means "help/helper" so the term may imply that the speaker was getting help from that storm god, or the speaker needed help because of the storm god.

- Hadad-Rimmon - Mention is made that "there will be great sorrow and lamentation over Hadad-Rimmon". Various later writers consider that name to be any of:  a city or place that falls; the death of two well-known foreign gods; the fall of the god Baʿal; the damage that will be caused by the god of that name. This author relates that statement to being the damage caused by the Venus Comet and later by the planet Mars. Adding the word Rimmon (pomegranate) makes it a double word "nickname", the "thundering or noisy pomegranate", thereby avoiding and degrading the Canaanite proper name by associating it with a red fruit. It would fit the fiery view of the Venus Comet as a red object up close in the sky. Rimmon seems not to have been used before about 1350 BCE.

- In Judges 20: 47 & 21:13  mention is made of the "Rock of Rimmon" in the wilderness in the land of the Benjamites, as a place of meeting. When it fell from the sky is unknown but it would have been before Samuel became a judge about 1075 BCE.

- In the passage in Zechariah 12, written shortly before the Mars/Earth event of 687 BCE, the prophet is warning the people to repent and return to the Lord. Otherwise Hadad-Rimmon, known to us as the Planet Mars at that time (see above) which is coming at them, will cause them to be in deep mourning over their losses. This would parallel the Venus Comet, which was also known by that name, when it destroyed the Canaanite army by Megiddo in the time of Deborah in 1299 BCE.

- Yamm, (Hebrew: “Sea”) also spelled Yam, ancient West Semitic deity said to rule the oceans, rivers, lakes, and underground springs(132). He also played an important role in the Ba'al (Mars) myths recorded on tablets uncovered at Ugarit. We are told that at the beginning of time Yamm was awarded the divine kingship by El, the chief god of the pantheon. The story goes that one day, Yamm’s messengers requested that the gods surrender Ba'al to be a bond servant to Yamm. El finally agreed, but Ba'al refused to go and instead engaged Yamm in battle. After a furious fight, in which the craftsman Kothar supplied Ba'al with two special weapons(133), Yamm was finally slain and the kingship given to Ba'al. (This battle was the one seen over Troy in 1184 BCE). By some other scholars, Yamm was the same deity as Lotan (Hebrew: Leviathan), who was represented as a hydra-like dragon or serpent.

-  See Samuel and the Philistines entry above, dated 1037 BCE.

Multiple Names for the planets Venus & Mars between the encounter with the Venus Comet over Troy in 1184 BCE, and Mars’ final encounter with the Earth over Jerusalem in 687 BCE.

- Baʿal - A Canaanite and Assyrian name meaning "greatest, very strong, all powerful god".

- Beelzebub - A combination of Baʿal and Zəvûv meaning "Baʿal who flies through the air". Later translators, not knowing its original use but recognising the flying part of the name and knowing that it was hated by the Israelite people, give it a meaning related to the insects that bother people; "Lord of the Flies." It is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshipped in Ekron, and later identified by some Abrahamic religions as a major demon.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From Wikipedia - Hadad (noted 2019-11-23)

Hadad (Ugaritic: 𐎅𐎄 Haddu), Adad, Haddad (Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎) or Iškur (Sumerian) was the storm and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions.

He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in ca. 2500 BCE.[1][2]  From the Levant, Hadad was introduced to Mesopotamia by the Amorites, where he became known as the Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) god Adad.[3][4][5][6]  Adad and Iškur/Ishtar are usually written with the logogram 𒀭𒅎 dIM[7] —the same symbol used for the Hurrian god Teshub.[8]  Hadad was also called Pidar, Rapiu, Baal-Zephon,[9]  or often simply Baʿal (Lord), but this title was also used for other gods eg. Mars. The bull was the symbolic animal of Hadad. He appeared bearded,[10][11]  often holding a club and thunderbolt while wearing a bull-horned head-dress[12][13]  Hadad was equated with the Greek god Zeus; the Roman god Jupiter, as Jupiter Dolichenus; the Indo-European Nasite Hittite storm-god Teshub; the Egyptian god Amun.

Notes

[1] Sarah Iles Johnston (2004). Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide. p. 173. ISBN 9780674015173.

[2] Spencer L. Allen (5 March 2015). The Splintered Divine: A Study of Istar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East. p. 10. ISBN 9781614512363.

[3] Albert T. Clay (1 May 2007). The Origin of Biblical Traditions: Hebrew Legends in Babylonia and Israel. p. 50. ISBN 9781597527187.

[4] Theophilus G. Pinches (1908). The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. p. 15. ISBN 9781465546708.

[5] Joseph Eddy Fontenrose (1959). Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins. p. 157. ISBN 9780520040915.

[6] Green, Alberto R. W. (2003). The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East. Winona Lake, p.166. Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060699.

[7] ORACC – Iškur/Adad (god)

[8] Jump back to: Green (2003), p. 130.

[9] Gibson, John C. (1 April 1978). Canaanite Myths and Legends. T&T Clark. p. 208. ISBN 978-0567080899.

[10] Sacred bull, holy cow: a cultural study of civilization's most important animal. By Donald K. Sharpes –Page 27

[11] Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism - Page 63. By Maurice H. Far-bridge

[12] Academic Dictionary Of Mythology - Page 126. By Ramesh Chopra

[13] The New Encyclopædia Britannica: Micropædia. By Encyclopædia Britannica, inc – Page 605

This Wikipedia article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Adad". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Psalms 

While they are generally associated with King David (about 1010-970 BCE) the following physical events in Psalms appear to be related to memories of actions of the Venus Comet, known as Leviathan, including those of the Exodus events. None of them seem to fit with the actions of the planet Mars. Over time with retellings and various transcriptions, a number of these passages appear to equate the Venus Comet as God. Elsewhere the readings consider it to be a tool used by God. We cannot assume that there is any chrono-logical order to the Psalms in general.

* 9: 5-7 .. rebuked the nations ... blotted out their name .. The strongholds of the enemy are thrown down for evermore; you have laid their cities in ruins, all memory of them is lost. The Lord thunders ..

* 9: 13  ..  have lifted me up and caught me back from the gates of death,   [Did the speaker have a close call, physically, as the result of a Venus Comet event?]

* 10: 1 .. Why stand so far off, Lord, hiding yourself in time of need? [Was the speaker seeing the Venus Comet too far away to interact with the Earth at a time of need?]

* 11:6 .. On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulphur; scorching winds will be the cup that they drink.

* 18: 7-15 .. The earth heaved and quaked, the foundations of the mountains shook; they heaved because He [the Lord] was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils, devouring fire came out of his mouth, glowing coals and searing heat. He swept the skies aside as he descended, thick darkness lay under his feet. He rode on a cherub [which see below], he flew through the air; he swooped on the wings of the wind. He made darkness around him in his hiding place and dense (dark) vapour his canopy. Glowing coals and radiance came out of the thick clouds as the Lord thundered from the heavens and the Voice of the Most High was heard. He loosed his arrows and sped them far and wide [Meteors and other fiery space debris?]; He shot forth lightning shafts and sent them echoing. The channels of the sea-bed were revealed, the foundations of the earth laid bare at the Lord's rebuke, at the blast of breath from his nostrils. [Substantial Earth and tidal movements]

   [Cherub - (plural cherubim; Hebrew: כְּרוּב kərūv, pl. כְּרוּבִים kərūvîm): an unearthly being who, according to Abrahamic religions, directly attended to God. It is represented in ancient Middle Eastern art as a fierce, clawed lion, or a massive bull with bronze hooves, with eagles wings and a human face. Its duty appears to be to direct or to discipline people according to God's Will. It is feared. In this passage, the Venus Comet with its variable forms, is the cherub of the Lord. In later Western Christian art, cherubim became associated with the putto and the Greco-Roman god Cupid/Eros, with depictions as small, plump, winged boys.]

* 29:  3-10  .. The God of glory thunders: the voice of the Lord echoes over the waters, the Lord is over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is power. The voice of the Lord is majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox [earthquakes]. The voice of the Lord makes flames of fire burst forth, the voice of the Lord makes the wilderness writhe in travail; the Lord makes the wilderness writhe [more earthquakes]. The voice of the Lord makes the hinds calve and bring kids to early birth [fear causes premature births]; and in his temple all cry "Glory!"  The Lord is king since the flood, ...

* 30: 7  ..  Lord it was your will to shake my mountain refuge;

* 44: 19  ..  You have crushed us as the sea-serpent was crushed ...  [implies being written after 1184 BCE]

* 46: 2, 6, 8, 10  ..  we are not afraid when the Earth heaves and the mountains are hurled into the sea, when its waters seethe in tumult and the mountains quake before his majesty;  Nations are in tumult, kingdoms hurled down; when he thunders, the Earth surges like the sea.  .. see what the Lord has done, the devastation he has brought upon Earth, ..  he stamps out war: he breaks the bow, he snaps the spear and burns the shield in the fire ....  God high over the nations, high above Earth.

* 64: 22  ..  The Lord says, "I will return from the Dragon, I will return from the depths of the sea .. " [The word dragon is equated with the name Bashan (a location south of Mt. Herman) in the biblical reference. It also equates with Leviathan who is associated with the sea. The Venus Comet was frequently described as a dragon with a home in the sea. This author  suspects that the quote above may have read as "I will return like or as the Dragon from the Sea."]

* 74: 13-14 ..  It was you who split open the sea by your power [Red Sea Crossing?]; you broke the heads of the monster in [of] the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan [the wild features of the object in the sky became subdued as Earth and the Venus comet pulled apart] and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. [fallout provided manna to the Israelites and other creatures] [This passage confirms that God was an opponent of Leviathan.]

* 77: 16-20 ... the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the heavens resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and  forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

* 78: 43-55 ... a repeat description of Exodus events

* 89: 10 ...  You crushed the monster Rahab with a mortal blow ... [used in time of King David about 1000 BCE]. The word “Rahab” in semitic languages can be translated as “large”, “wide” “immense”, and “vast”. Such terms would fit your view of the Comet. This verse also suggests the Israelites’ understanding of the events in 1184 BCE. The bolt of energy flying from the planet Mars into the Venus Comet was followed by the Comet’s damaging actions ceasing. Rahab was also the name by which the Venus Comet seems to have been known earlier in the time of Joshua, about 1405 BCE. It was given to the woman, said to be an innkeeper or prostitute, who helped the Israelite spies at Jericho. Perhaps we can think of her as a "worshipper of Rahab" or a "Rahab person". It tells us that even a person who served the evil Venus Comet could be used for the Lord's purpose.

* 104: 25-26 … There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number - living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. [implies that Leviathan came there to “play”; perhaps a reference to the Venus comet causing the Flood or simply causing big waves? Alternately could be that the Mediterranean Sea (horizon) was where it seemed to disappear when leaving the area. ]

Prophet Amos about 760 BCE

- He likely lived in the Bethel area of Israel and spoke out against the Israelites in nearby Samaria who worshipped the Samaritan goddesses [Ashimah (local), Astarte (Assyrian), Ashtaroth (Phoenician/Philistine)] that were the Venus Comet. He denounces worshipping at “hill shrines” which were used to worship those gods.

- He also spoke about their enemy, the Philistines who were “brought there (Canaan)” from Caphtor (Cyprus)(134). The author believes that they were a part of the Aegean and Mediterr-anean Sea peoples whose massive trading association was collapsed by the 1446 BCE Venus Comet assault (think Exodus) that also ruined Crete, Cyprus and most of the islands. Those people went looking for other places to settle. That would seem to have been in the 49 years between the time of the Israelites leaving Egypt, and the taking of Jericho by Joshua. The Exodus and Jericho events were consecutive Venus Comet encounters with our planet.  (See Appendix 1 - Dates of Events 1446 & 1397 BCE).

- See above how Amenhotep II, pharoah during the Exodus, pillaged and carried off the people of Canaan while Israel was in the desert.

- From those events, the “locals” believed that the Comet Goddess came to harm them and must be appeased. The Israelites believed that their Lord God had helped His People by telling them to use that thing in the sky to assist them. This distinction of view-points of the People of the Lord and their adversaries, lasts forever from that point in time.

Events in the Time of the Destructions by Mars

Isaiah's Warnings of Disasters to Come:

- In the first 24 chapters of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, (NIV) he makes separate prophesies regarding the surrounding nations that threaten Judah. There are admonitions directed to Judah. In these prophesies, he alludes to the now Comet-less planet Venus that is remembered from its comet form and was still feared.

- Isaiah also chastises the Judean people for not being strong in their worship of the Lord but does praise their prior king Ahaz, and to a lesser degree, his son Hezekiah, for their faithfulness. A copy of the seal impression of the son(135) incorporated the "winged sun", It was a representation of the flaming Venus Comet that flew through the skies. Hezekiah may have used that symbolism to appease some of his people while he claimed to follow the Lord. Isaiah’s words would fit that scenario. He did not condemn the king as that would leave the people leaderless with the Assyrians at the gates.

- Isa. 4: 5 - "the Lord will create a cloud of smoke by day and a bright flame of fire by night;"

- Isa. 10: 28-34 - "An invader will come from Rimmon (pomegranate)" is the use of the "nickname" for the planet Mars as in Deborah, the Judge. [see previous subheading Multiple Names for the planet Mars] These verses are equating the destruction of Israel by the invader (Assyria) entering the country, to what the planet Mars will cause.

- Isa. 13;  A prophecy against Babylon: v.10  - "The stars of heaven in their constellations shall give no light! The sun shall be darkened at its rising, and the moon refuse to shine." v.13  - "Then I shall make the heavens shudder, and the earth be shaken from its place ..."

[The heavens will be darkened by the comet cloud. Isaiah saw the planet Mars with a comet cloud moving closer, and feared it might strike the Earth. The last phrase could be a statement that the orbit of the Earth would be altered, which did happen later in 687 BCE.]

- Isa. 14: 12  - "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!" [A denouncing of the bright Venus planet by then in its current orbit.]

- Isa. 14: 28-29  - King Ahaz died about 716 BCE. Addressed to the Philistines "Let none of you rejoice that the rod that chastened you is broken: for a viper shall be born of a snake ...  and its fruit shall be a flying serpent." (NEV) [the rod refers to the Venus Comet (the snake) that destroyed their original Cretan civilization in 1446 BCE causing them to move to Gaza. (See Appendix 1  -  Dated Events of that time) Now the planet Mars with a comet cloak taken from Venus, is coming at them (the viper as a flying serpent).

- Isa. 19: 1 - "See how the Lord comes riding swiftly upon a cloud, he shall descend upon Egypt. Their idols quail before him." [Isaiah equates Assyria with Egypt as an enemy of Judah.]

Isaiah’s Warning immediately prior to the Mars encounter in 687 BCE:

- Isa. 27: 1  “In that day the LORD will punish with His fierce, great and powerful sword - Leviathan the twisting serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; and He will slay the monster of the sea.”  This warning brings back memories from about 500 years earlier.

- Isa. 28: 2  "See, the Lord has one at his bidding, mighty and strong, whom he sets to work with violence against the land, like a sweeping storm of hail, like a destroying tempest, like a torrent of water in overwhelming flood." (NEV) : v. 21 " ... the Lord shall arise as he rose on Mt. Perazim and storm with rage as he did in the Vale of Gibeon, to do what he must do  ..."

- In these quotes, ascribed somewhat prior to the Assyrian debacle in the paragraph below, Isaiah was addressing the Judeans who are at that time being threatened by the Assyrian king and his huge army. In addition, the planet Mars, seemingly with a swirling cloak of cloud, was hanging in the sky just days away from interacting with the Earth. Mars was known to the Assyrians as Marduk. They considered it as their major, all-powerful, god of war who has come to help them. Now it has the cloak lost by the Venus Comet. These details would likely cause many Judeans to fear. "The Assyrians' war god has come to help them!"  In the previous chapter 26: v.11 Isaiah says that "The hand of the Lord is lifted high but the bitter enemies of your people do not see it; let the fire of your enmity destroy them." Then continuing in v. 20 says "Go my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you; withdraw for a brief while, until the wrath has gone by. The Lord is coming from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their sins."

- Isaiah has recognised a parallel with the events of the Exodus both at the Passover and at the Red Sea. At that time, the Lord used a different planet, one that Egyptians considered a god of war, to devastate an enemy of Israel. From the Exodus until about 100 years before this quote, that name referred to the Venus Comet. It hearkened back to the fact that Leviathan caused the Flood. Isaiah is now equating “Leviathan” to the cloud-covered planet Mars that is then threatening the Earth and its people. At no time do the Hebrews consider a planet or a star to be a "God". Other peoples might but not the Hebrews! Mars ceased to threaten the Earth after this Assyrian event. It's "Leviathan" aspect was destroyed. Today it is a desolate rock-in-the-sky with no atmosphere.

The Assyrians (King Sennacherib) and the Angel of the Lord  (2 Kings 19: 29-35;  2 Chronicles 32;  Isaiah 36-38:). This is the same event as in the paragraphs above. The apparent date was 23 March 687 BCE, eve of passover by Jewish records. 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, all set to attack Jerusalem the next morning, are struck dead overnight. They did not suffer wounds or other injuries but are found lying dead on the ground in the morning. Scripture attributes the event to "the angel of the Lord". Isaiah’s instruction to the Judeans appears to have them take cover, as they did on the night of the Exodus. Rabbinical records state that fire came from heaven but that the clothing of the dead men was not burned or even scorched. Sennacherib, however, was reported as severely burned, but he lived and returned home. Assyrian records(136) confirmed the loss of their army at Jerusalem and Sennacherib's injuries by fire, and his death at the hands of his elder sons six years later.

- On the day before, Isaiah had given King Hezekiah, the Lord's words: "This shall be a sign for you: this year you shall eat shed (stored?) grain and in the second year what is self-sown; but in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit." This statement is similar to the instructions of Moses from about 750 years earlier (Leviticus 25: 1-22). It is a warning that the Judeans were going to suffer, possibly because the presence of the huge Assyrian army prevented putting in that year's crops. It would also indicate that the idea of the cycle of dates was still pertinent to King Hezekiah.

- Isaiah continued "The Judean survivors left in Judah shall strike fresh root underground (put down new roots) and yield fruit above ground, for a remnant shall come out of Jerusalem and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord will perform this". This passage tells the people that they will survive this event and thrive.

- The mention of 185,000 men struck dead at once without an indication of a physical cause, brings to mind the similar deaths of the mammoths of North America about 13,000 years ago. Suggestions have been made that perhaps the mammoths were suffocated when the object,  "brushing past" the Earth, combusted and swept aside part of our oxygen-rich atmosphere allowing the icy vacuum of space to cover the area. Men caught in such an event would suffocate where they stood or slept. It would not have to cover a wide area. Viewers at the side would have seen the fiery sky, which the Judeans did report. The planet Mars, up close with its cloud, would fill the visible sky and totally eclipse the sun, moon and stars.

- A different hypothesis for the killing of the Assyrian army suggests an interplanetary thunder-bolt that electrocutes the Assyrians with their shields, swords, chariots and perhaps body armour all made of iron or bronze. That number of men closely grouped in the open in front of Jerusalem, might have been a substantial target for an electrical discharge. Contrarily, no mention is made of a "thunderous noise" that would be expected to accompany such a discharge.

- Hezekiah became deathly ill at this time and asked for a sign from the Lord that he would recover. The sign was that the shadow that had previously moved down a staircase, moved back up ten steps. (2 Kings 20: 1-11) The "staircase" was an astronomy device that used a shadow cast on a series of steps to mark the time of day and possibly the days in the year, a physical calendar so to speak. It was made for the 360 days per year "perfect, holy" calendar.

The "irregular" movement indicated that the motion of the Earth had been altered in some manner. Recalibration of the calendar would be necessary. The Babylonians recalculated that our year had increased from 360 to our present 365.24+ days.

Re-Examining the Early Venus

- Reviewing the above notes of calamitous events, two points took the author's attention.

 - The records of Sumer show people on Earth feared these events from the sky from well before 6,000 years ago. Looking for research published on the internet regarding the oldest written records on any topic, confirmed these Sumer records to be the oldest ones whose content has been deciphered. Other records with seeming inscriptions are known, such as the Danube culture of about 5600 BCE (7600 YA), but no meaning of them has been extracted. A lack of understandable records for the period before 6,000 YA prevents definitively judging the 13,000 - 6,000 YA window although it is believed that the same situation existed.

- The published Greenland Ice-Freezing Temperature Data has multiple temperature collapses between about 8000 BCE to after 1 BCE. In the period 1663-1200 BCE the frequency of events seems to match a 49 year cycle. The 49 year cycle matches the cycle of “sabbaths” detailed by Moses in that Leviticus passage, supporting the author's suspicion that the originally written passage was instructing the Israelites to be ready for return visits by the planet Venus and its comet. The assessment of those dates and cycles is given in Appendix - 4  Reading the Ice.

 - The second point noted was that by the time of the records of Sumer about 6,000 YA which precede the much later records of Assyria and Babylon, the intruder is identified as their war goddess Inanna, their equivalent of the planet Venus wrapped in a huge cloud or comet. The writing is a prayer to her to not destroy them again which emphasises the repeating nature of the “destructions”. Later descriptions of the intruder mention the nebulous clouds, vapours, fire, noise and rocks rather than a solid body. The effects related are generally those expected if you were to pass through a debris field while flying through space.

- Examining the Greenland ice data previously mentioned, shows that as of 6000 YA (nominal 4000 BCE) there had been a prior triple event attack by "Inanna" in 4974, then 4925 and a huge one in 4876 BCE. Each of these events caused the ice-freezing temperatures to plummet. They did not begin to rise again until 4746 BCE. These temperature values indicate that the atmosphere of the Earth was badly clouded by space debris, restricting the passage of sunlight and warmth. Crops likely were severely restricted and famine was very probable. From then until 4162 BCE, warmup was minimal. These temperatures peaked in 3686 BCE followed by another precipitous drop. The author suspects that the above prayer to Inanna was composed possibly about 4200 BCE.

 - These ideas leave a person wondering what life might have been like for Jane and Joe Average in those times. The appearances of the planet and its cloud every seven years might have become an expected event in the sky that while curious, caused no problems for them. Perhaps the priests of their religion had to make offerings and say prayers to keep it away. Every 49 years or so, but likely only once in a lifetime, maybe it came closer to the Earth than they ever had seen it before. Everybody got excited and told stories of how the serpent came out of its home in the sea once upon a time and destroyed the people and their cities. They looked for places to hide.

- If it did cause damage, old memories would be refreshed and perhaps augmented with new stories and word-images as the survivors tried to make sense of the event. The star-watchers (astronomers) might make some written notes, if writing had been invented by then. The real history was conveyed in stories told by grandfathers around the family fires. The sights in the sky were best understood as gods fighting amongst themselves. Being on the good side of the winning god would be considered very important to the well-being of the people.

 - As discussed on the first pages of this essay, it is believed that the motion of the Venus Comet, prior to the 13,000 YA Flood event, had been viewed as unusual but had not been threatening. Then some event on its seven year orbit or perhaps in Earth's customary orbit, resulted in those planets having repeating close encounters. See the earliest dates listed in Appendix 1.

Conclusion

Based on the remarks above for 687 BCE, it is suspected that Venus and Mars and Earth took up their present orbits after that time. Our year seems to have changed from 360 days to the present 365.24+ days not long afterwards. The length of a month changed as well. Baby-lonian astronomers went to work to discern the new length of the year, moon cycles and seasons. The creation and use of the stone monuments seems to have fallen by the wayside about then. Nobody was calculating the next appearance of the Venus Comet or Mars. Death from the sky had ceased.

The heavens were quiet for perhaps the first time in over 50,000 years!

(1) "The day the dinosaurs' world fell apart" 2019-09-08  Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

(2) Wikipedia "Çatalhöyük" noted 2019-01-01

(3)  Hodder, Ian. The Leopard’s Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Çatalhöyük. London; New York: Thames & Hudson, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-500-05141-0). (The UK title of this work is Çatalhöyük: The Leopard’s Tale.)

(4)  Google Earth at N 370 46' 23",  E 320 34' 16" as noted by author 2020-08-08.

(5) Wikipedia  "Turkic mythology "  noted 2018-07-07

(6)  Wikipedia  "Illuyanka" noted 2018-09-12

(7)  "The Vajra: An Ancient Weapon Of The Gods" by Dr. Rita Louise at ritalouise.com. Downloaded 2018-04-17

(8)  https://www.harappa.com/blog/harappan-goddess-war 2017-08-29

(9)  Kramer, Samuel Noah, “Sumerian Mythology”

(10)   Transendence Works    "Sumerian Gods & Goddesses"    Noted   2019-01-10

(11)  D. Wolkstein & S. Kramer, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth (New York, 1983), p. 95.

(12)  F. Bruschweiler, Inanna. La déesse triomphante et vaincue dans la cosmologie sumérienne (Leuven, 1988), p. 105, quoting the sacred marriage hymn of Iddin-Dagan, circa 1960 BCE. Translation by Birgit Liesching.

(13)  Bottéro, Jean (2001) 7-9. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. Trans. by Teresa Lavender Fagan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226067179.

(14)  "Rock Art Discovered in 'Dark Ages' Tomb in Israel" Megan Gannon in Live Science - History March 08, 2017

(15)  http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6999-hadad    2017-10-19

(16) Wikipedia  - Hassuna Culture  Noted 2019-02-18

(17)  Note area of nanodiamond discovery in reference 1,

(18)  Adda Seal in British Museum - Ishtar on mountain with curling hair down to her elbows. Dated 2300 BCE.

(19) https://www.realmofhistory.com/  10 Ancient Mesopotamian Gods And Goddesses You Should Know About;  Posted by: Dattatreya Mandal, May 9, 2017

(20)  Crystal links.com  "Sumerian Gods", section on Marduk

(21)  Wikipedia "List of Kings of Babylonia"  noted 2019-01-12

(22) Bidmead, J. (2004). The Akitu Festival: Religious Continuity and Royal Legitimation in Mesopotamia. Gorgias Press.

(23)  Cooley, Jeffrey L. (2008), "Inana and Šukaletuda: A Sumerian Astral Myth", KASKAL, 5: 161–172, ISSN 1971-8608  pp. 161–172

(24)  Derived from Wikipedia   "Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia",  History & Regional Variations,  Nabataeans

2018-11-28

(25)  ‘Invasion’ of ancient Egypt may have actually been immigrant uprising'  by Colin Barras Jul. 15, 2020, 2:00 pm  Posted in: AfricaArchaeology  doi:10.1126/science.abd8391

(26)  “Apep” - Erman, Adolf, and Hermann Grapow, eds. 1926–1953. Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache im Auftrage der deutschen Akademien. 6 vols. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'schen Buchhandlungen. (Reprinted Berlin: Akademie-Verlag GmbH, 1971).  Wikipedia noted 2017-09-20

(27)  C.Wolterman, in Jaarbericht van Ex Oriente Lux, Leiden Nr.37 (2002)

(28)  Wikipedia  “Apep”   2017-10-10

(29)  Wikipedia “Neith”  2017-09-20

(30)  “The Admonitions of Ipuwer “, an English translation of the Ipuwer (Ebwer) Papyrus

              [http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/ipuwer.htm]

(31)  "The Great Exodus Coverup" by John M. Collins, 2017

(32)  Wikipedia  “Astronomical ceiling of Senenmut Tomb”

(33)  Wikipedia “Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul”  2017-10-10

(34)  Tamazight (Berber) Mythology in temehu.com  Noted 2020-01-01

(35)  Revolvy  "Fereydun"  noted 2018-11-07

(36) "Jamshid"  in Wikipedia,  section "In Scriptures"   Read 2019-04-16

(37)  Encyclopaedia Brittanica  - Anāhiti

(38)  Wikipedia Kurdish Myths  noted 2019-11-26

(39)  “The Obscure Goddess Online Directory”    http://thaliatook.com/ogodpix/ogodgreek.jpg

(40)  Bible - Amos 9: v7

(41)  https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/phaethon.html

(42)  Homer,  “Iliad”

(43)  Wikipedia "Terremare Culture"  noted 2020-05-17

(44)  From website "timelessmyhts.com" on 2018-11-28

(45)  www.behindthename.com/names/meaning/serpent

(46)  Website Ancient Origins  23 NOVEMBER, 2018 - 18:59 ASHLEY COWIE  "Ancient Carved Eye-Witness Accounts Show Martian Invaders Attacking the Moroccan Landscape" based on "The sky on the rocks: cometary images in rock art." by Fernando Coimbra, Faculty Member, University of Coimbra, Group Quaternary and Prehistory - Geosciences Centre (uID 73 - FCT),,

(47)  "Shango: Powerful Thunder God And Symbol Of Kingship Among Yoruba People Of West Africa" AncientPages.com,  March 4, 2019

(48) Ehret, Christopher. An African Classical Age: Eastern & Southern Africa in World History 1000 B.C. to A.D.400. University of Virginia, 1998

(49)  Rejected princesses.com   - Thákane

(50)  Wikipedia - Horned Serpent - In European iconography. Read 2019-02-09

(51) Green, Miranda. Animals in Celtic Life and Myth. pp. 227–8. Celtic Mars

(52)  Wikipedia  "Bolla"  Read 2020-01-03

(53)  "Lepenski Vir - Schela Cladovei Culture's Chronology and its Interpretation." Rusu Aurelian, Brukenthal. Acta Musei, VI. 1, 2011. 2011

(54) "Is the Danube Valley Civilization script the oldest writing in the world?" John Black, Ancient Origins 15 February 2014.

(55)  "The Dispilio Tablet - the oldest known written text"  John Black  Ancient Origins  11 October 2013

(56)  Wikipedia - Slavic Dragons  noted 2019-12-02

(57)  Trask, L. The History of Basque (1997) Routledge ISBN 0-415-13116-2

(58)  Basque Mythology: Herensuge translated from an article originally in Spanish at the Encyclopedia Auamendi.

(59)  Wikipedia  "Ophiussa"  noted 2020-04-05

(60)  Wikipedia - "Mythology in the Low Countries,  Landmarks and toponymy"  Read 2020-01-01

(61) Perné, "The Veluwsche Sagen - Saga 2", as translated by Reginheim, 2002

(62)  Rudolf Simek: Dictionary of Northern Mythology (1993)

(63)  Wikipedia - European "Horned Serpent"  Read 2019-03-31

(64) http://www.templeport.ie/magh-slecht-dara-fort/plain-of-blood.pdf

(65) https://www.academia.edu/13644175/St._Patrick_vs._Cenn_Cruaich_in_the_Patrician_Lives_Elements_of_Narrative

(66)  Yang, Lihui, et al. (2005). Handbook of Chinese Mythology. (Pg 124) New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533263-6

(67) CHINESE FOLKTALE MYTHOLOGY   12 APRIL 2018  "Fire and Water"  J M Collins notes. See entry at the beginning of this Appendix on Serpent & Dragon Lore.

(68)  A Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and myth.

(69) Li Z, Doyon L, Fang H, Ledevin R, Queffelec A, Raguin E, et al. (2020) A Paleolithic bird figurine from the Lingjing site, Henan, China. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0233370

(70)  Wu, Kuo-Cheng (1982), The Chinese heritage, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc, ISBN 978-0517544754.

(71)  Because no documentary evidence about Yu survives, there is some controversy as to the historicity of the figure. No inscriptions on artifacts, dated to the supposed era of Yu or the later oracle bones, contain any mention of Yu. The first archeological evidence of Yu comes from vessels made about a thousand years after his supposed death, during the Western Zhou dynasty.

(72)  Howard Giskin and Bettye S. Walsh (2001). An introduction to Chinese culture through the family. State University of New York Press. p. 126. ISBN 0-7914-5047-3.

(73)  Wikipedia "Longma" Comparative Mythology

(74) Meta Religions,  Asia,  Tibet  Noted 2019-11-14

(75) Encyclopedia of Shinto

(76)  Wikipedia - Japanese Mythology  - Amaterasu and Susanoo   Noted 2019-10-22

(77)  Wikipedia  -  Korean  noted 2019-02-07

(78) Korean Creative Contents Agency (in Korean). 2013. Retrieved 2017-12-15.

(79)  Mark, Joshua J. "Indus Valley Civilization." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 07 Oct 2020. Web. 26 Nov 2020.

(80)  Wikipedia  "Vritra"  noted 2018-04-04

(81)  Astrbix / Astroblog / Vashishtha Siddhanta Description // Vashishtha Siddhanta describes the motion of sun and moon in the solar system.The motions of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn , and Mercury have been mentioned. These books are capable to tell what was the motion of planets in previous years, and how these planets revolved in past ages. Noted: 2019-03-01

(82)  Meta Religions,  Asia,  Santal (Bengal)  Noted 2019-11-14

(83)  Meta Religions,  Asia,  Tamil (South India)  Noted 2019-11-14

(84)  Martin Doutré  "Split-Apple Rock: An Ancient, Purpose-Built Solar Observatory" Published 6th July 2019  See: http://www.celticnz.co.nz/

(85)  Gaster, Theodor H. Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament, pp. 108-109; Harper & Row, New York, 1969. (Most of the flood stories in this work are taken from Frazer, 1919.) /// Frazer, Sir James G. Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, vol. 1, Macmillan & Co., London, 1919.

(86) Why the World is on the Back of a Turtle – Miller, Jay; Man, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series, Vol. 9, No. 2 (June, 1974), pp. 306–308, including further references within the cited text.

(87)  American Folklore website;  Native American Myths - Maid of the Mist  read  2018-12-03

(88)  Wikipedia - Gaasyendietha - Noted 2019-03-31

(89)  Erdoes, Richard and Alfonso Ortiz. American Indian Myths and Legends, Pantheon Books, New York. 1984. Pg 93-95

(90)  Ibid  pg 220 - 222

(91)  "Lost Treasure: The Piasa Bird",  John Davis  in  Mysterious Writings  by Jenny Kile - Feb. 3, 2018

(92)  indians.org "Legend of the Piasa"

(93) Erdoes, Richard and Alfonso Ortiz. American Indian Myths and Legends, Pantheon Books, New York. 1984. pp. 473-475

(94)  Hamilton, Shawn "Kásskara: Sunken Land of the Hopi Ancestors"  2020-03-18, http://theswillbucket.com/

(95) Wikipedia "Masauwa" 2020-03-25

(96)  Boutet, Michel-Gerard, Laval, PQ, Canada  "The Great Long Tailed Serpent,  An iconographical study of the serpent in Middle Woodland Algonquian culture." (Post 1994)

(97)  ibid

(98)  Ancient Origins  "The Great Serpent Mound of Ohio, the Largest Earthen Effigy in the World" 26 APRIL, 2014 - 23:01 APRILHOLLOWAY

(99)  Hiawatha First Nation, Serpent Mounds Park  noted 2019-01-20

(100)  Schoonmaker, Peter K.; Von Hagen, Bettina; Wolf, Edward C. (1997). The Rain Forests of Home: Profile of a North American Bioregion. Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-480-4. Pg 257

(101)  Paterson, Roderick Paul (1975). The northwest coast sisiutl (Thesis). University of British Columbia

(102)  Wikipedia  - British Columbia Coastal Cultures - Noted 2019-04-02

(103) M. Hubbe et al., “Morphological variation of the early human remains from Quintana Roo, Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico: Contributions to the discussions about the settlement of the Americas,” PLOS ONE, 15:e0227444, 2020.

   W. Stinnesbeck et al., “New evidence for an early settlement of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico: The Chan Hol 3 woman and her meaning for the Peopling of the Americas,” PLOS ONE, 15:e0227984, 2020.

(104) Millon, René (1993). "The Place Where Time Began: An Archaeologist's Interpretation of What Happened in Teotihuacan History". Pg 34.     In Berrin, Kathleen; Esther Pasztory (eds.). Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods. New York: Thames and Hudson. pp. 16–43. ISBN 978-0-500-23653-6. OCLC 28423003.

(105) Researcher Marco Vigato has conducted extensive investigations of the caves and tunnels beneath Teotihuacán’s three principal pyramids. He considers them to date from an era of megalithic construction that is much older than the extant ruins on the surface, possibly even as old as 10,000 BCE.

(106)  mythology.net  "Serpent" By Prof. Geller - Updated November 27, 2016

(107) Paul Burton, “Black Civilizations of Ancient America (MUU-LAN), Mexico (XI)”, Nov. 7, 2019

(108)  “Feathered Serpents”  John M. Collins 2017

(109)  Miller, Mary; Karl Taube (1993). “The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Meso-American Religion” (pg 126). London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. OCLC 27667317

(110)  Wikipedia    Ix Chel  [exurpted 2018-05-04 and edited by John M. Collins as Central American Venus]

(111)  "Olmec Civilisation"  Ancient History Encyclopedia  by Mark Cartwright, pub. 2018-04-04

(112) Huastec - Wikipedia noted 2021-01-13; “Statue of mysterious woman with 'Star Wars'-like headdress found in Mexico” - Live Science 2021-01-12 .. associate editor Laura Geggel

(113)  New Evidence Unearthed for the Origins of the Maya;  NICHOLAS MOTT, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS PUBLISHED APRIL 26, 2013

(114)  “Feathered Serpents”  John M. Collins 2017

(115)  “Maya House of the Serpent Mouth”  in Ancient Origins 12 Nov 2017 by  DHWTY

(116)  "How ancient Aztec chroniclers recorded Venus: Smoke without fire ",  Runs van der Sluijs  Thunderbolts Project   06 Sep 2017

(117)  Culture and Customs of Nicaragua i Nicaragua.  White, Steven F. & Calderon, Esthela  pg 6-8

(118)  "Legend of Lake Titicaca" boliviabella.com  Downloaded 2019-07-23

(119)  Mundurucu Culture - Brazil   Private note by J.M. Collins 2019-02-09 based on L.H. Gray & L.F. Moore, Mythology of all Races in 13 vol.; Vol 11 Latin America by Alexander, H.B., Boston 1920

(120)  Wikipedia "Will-o'-the-wisp"   Folklore, Americas  Read 2019-04-11

(121) Baker, Thomas J. "Chapter 3." Myths, Monsters, & Love From The South of Chile. N.p.: n.p., 2015. 16-19.

Martinez Vilches, Oscar (1992). Chiloe Misterioso: Turismo, Mitologia Chilota, leyendas (in Spanish). Chile: Ediciones de la Voz de Chiloe. p. 179. ISBN 0-19-451308-4.

Isabel Vidal Miranda. Folklore, mitos y leyendas del archipielago de Chiloé. Mito, 1976. (in Spanish)

(122)  Wikipedia  - In the legend of Trentren Vilu and Caicai Vilu, thousands of years ago, what is now the Chiloé Province was once a contiguous landmass with continental Chile. Trentren Vilu is the god of Earth, and is a generous spirit and protecter of all earth's life. Caicai Vilu, a monstrous serpent, is the god of Water and the origin of all that inhabits it, and rules the seas. One day it appeared [tsunami?? or Venus Comet description in the sky??] and inundated the lowlands, valleys, and mountains, submerging all the flora and fauna. Without delay, Trentren Vilu fought with his enemy, a huge serpent, elevated the land and protected it from disaster. The battle persisted a long time. Trentren Vilu reached a costly victory; he won the battle, but was unable to restore the land to its primeval state leaving it in the dismembered form it still has today. We know it as the Chilean archipelago, and mountains of southern Chile.

(123) "The Chibcha Culture – Forgotten, But Still Alive"  Gloria Helena Rey   Bogota, Columbia, Nov 30 2007 (IPS)

(124)  "The Gods of Creation and Legendary Beasts of the Guarani" Ancient Origins  22 APRIL, 2015 - APRILHOLLOWAY

(125)  http://www.antiguoperu.com/2014/01/el-geoglifo-de-chupacigarro.html

(126)  Wikipedia   Amaru (mythology)   Read 2019-04-12

(127) "2000-Year-Old Monolith Reveals Hidden Symbols in Amazon" Ancient origins.com, 2020-01-27, Ashley Cowie

(128)  Gifford, Douglas. Warriors, Gods & Spirits from Central & South American Mythology, William Collins, Glasgow, 1983 pg 54.

(129)  Ibid  pg. 55-56

(130)  Wikipedia  "Urartu

(131)  Wikipedia 2017-09-15    Leviathan (/lɪˈvaɪ.əθən/; Hebrew: לִוְיָתָן, Modern Livyatan, Tiberian Liwyāṯān) is a monster referenced in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Job, Psalms, and Isaiah. The Leviathan of the Book of Job appears to be a reflection of the older Canaanite Lotan, a primeval monster defeated by the god Hadad. Parallels to the role of the Mesopotamian Tiamat defeated by Marduk have long been drawn in comparative mythology, as have been wider comparisons to dragon and world serpent narratives such as Indra slaying Vrtra or Thor slaying Jörmungandr. Leviathan also figures in the Hebrew Bible as a metaphor for a powerful enemy, notably Babylon (Isaiah 27:1). Some scholars have pragmatically interpreted it as referring to large aquatic creatures, such as the crocodile. The word later came to be used as a term for "great whale" as well as of sea monsters in general.

(132)  Written by: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

(133)  See Appendix 2 - Hittite entry above for "Vajra"

(134) Amos 8: 14 & 9: 8

(135) "Biblical King's Royal Seal Unearthed Near Temple Mount"  article on Live Science website by Tia Ghose December 03, 2015,  DL Mar 5, 2020.

(136)  Grayson, A.K. (1991). "Assyria: Sennacherib and Essarhaddon". In Boardman, John; Edwards, I. E. S. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume III Part II. Cambridge University Press.