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Illustration
Contextual definition
Inara
Goddess in Hittite traditions who plans the feast enabling the serpent’s defeat in the first Illuyanka account.
Modern narrative diagram of Inara, Hupasiya and the storm god cooperating in the first Illuyanka account. Arrows show successive roles in the story; not an artifact or a reconstruction of divine appearances
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People
Hittites
Ancient people and kingdom of Anatolia, dominating much of Anatolia and northern Syria around 1650–1200 BCE.
The Lion Gate at Hattusha, the Hittite capital near Boğazköy in modern Türkiye. A contemporary view of the remains, photographed by Bernard Gagnon on 19 May 2014
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
The Eight in Egyptian creation traditions
The Eight are four divine pairs describing conditions before the ordered world in Egyptian traditions
The Ogdoad in a ceiling relief at the temple of Hathor in Dendera: four pairs with frog and snake heads. This source crop was made by JMCC1 from Olaf Tausch’s 2011 photograph. The standing temple belongs to later Ptolemaic and Roman construction
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Shu and Tefnut
Shu and Tefnut are an Egyptian divine pair associated with air and moisture respectively
Bronze ritual menat bearing the heads of Shu and Tefnut, from Egypt’s Late Period, 664–380 BCE. Walters Art Museum, 54.1515. Instruments of this type were used with beaded collars in rituals
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Re, Egyptian sun god
Re is the Egyptian sun god, associated with creation, life and renewal of cosmic order
Pay raises his hands before Re-Harakhty, shown with a falcon’s head and solar disk, in a limestone stela fragment from Saqqara. The Met dates the object to about 1328–1318 BCE; inventory 04.2.527
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Ptah
Ptah is an Egyptian god associated with Memphis, craftsmanship and creation
Statuette of Ptah wearing a close-fitting cap, straight beard and enveloping garment. Made of cupreous metal, it is dated by the Met to 664–30 BCE; object 04.2.406
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Atum
Atum is an Egyptian creator god associated with Heliopolis
Atum as a human-headed cobra above an animal-mummy box. Made of cupreous metal, the object is dated by the Met to 664–30 BCE; inventory 04.2.519. It illustrates one of the god’s forms in later Egyptian periods
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Illustration
Entity
Radiocarbon dating
A probabilistic date range for organic material; for parchment it dates animal skin rather than ink directly.
Original clock diagram for dating organic material; it does not reproduce the Birmingham manuscript
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Illustration
Entity
Typhon / Typhoeus
Zeus's serpent-headed opponent, whose battle differs between Hesiod and later Greek accounts.
Modern diagram separating Hesiod's Typhoeus from the later sinew episode; not an ancient depiction
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Illustration
Entity
Illuyanka
The serpent opposed by the storm god in two Hittite narratives preserved in CTH 321.
Modern diagram separating the two CTH 321 Illuyanka versions; neither a tablet photograph nor a portrait of the serpent
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Illustration
Entity
Kumarbi
Hurrian divine figure in Hittite CTH 344; challenges Anu and carries the storm god after swallowing his seed.
Modern succession diagram for CTH 344; neither a proven father–son genealogy nor an ancient portrait of Kumarbi
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Original photograph
Entity
Zeus
Zeus is the sky god and leading deity in many Greek traditions. In the Iliad he presides over divine gatherings while others can still speak and object.
Greek marble head, third or second century BCE. The Metropolitan Museum identifies the deity as probably Zeus; the attribution is uncertain, and the object postdates the Iliad's formation
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Illustration
Entity
Divine assembly type-scene
A way to analyse a recurring assembly scene in narrative, while its purpose, speakers and decision vary.
Modern explanatory diagram comparing functions of particular Ugaritic, Iliadic and Odyssean scenes: message, dispute and feast, forbidding or permitting intervention, and a return decision. A tool for reading narratives, rather than independent evidence of transmission
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Illustration
Entity
Sacrificial substitution
An offering replaces a person or another offering in a particular text; this alone establishes neither ritual origin nor borrowing.
Original diagram distinguishes text, interpretation, hypothesis and practice; comparison is not proof of borrowing or event
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Illustration
Entity
Akedah (binding of Isaac)
Jewish designation for Isaac’s binding in Genesis 22, developing through retelling and prayer.
Modern diagram comparing explicit textual features; not a proven transmission route or final composition order
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Illustration
Entity
Enclosed nations
Narrative motif of peoples beyond a barrier until their release, not a fixed ethnic name.
Modern method diagram distinguishing text, interpretation and copy dates; the rows do not give one date for the story
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Illustration
Entity
Gog and Magog
Names with different roles in genealogies, invasion prophecy, end-time nations and barrier traditions.
Modern comparison of names and barriers in specified texts; no identification of a living people or proof of a complete transmission chain
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Illustration
Entity
Targum Sheni of Esther
An Aramaic translation and expansion of Esther containing an excursus on Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Modern comparison of Eleazar’s and the Testament’s rings, nest and chamber glass, and Solomon’s roles; resemblance does not decide dependence
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Illustration
Entity
Testament of Solomon
A Greek pseudepigraphal text about Solomon commanding spirits and building the Temple, preserved in different forms.
Modern method diagram: manuscript, work and modern research dates differ; these rows do not prove a transmission chain
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Illustration
Entity
Apocalypse of Abraham
Work attributed to Abraham and preserved in Slavonic transmission; opens with idol criticism before heavenly revelation.
Modern method diagram distinguishing specific resemblance from a direct source: priority and circulation alone identify no manuscript, intermediary or definite route
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Illustration
Entity
Genesis Rabbah
Jewish midrashic collection interpreting Genesis;38:13 narrates Abraham, idols, Nimrod and Haran’s death.
Modern comparison: Jubilees’ idol-house fire and Haran’s death; Genesis Rabbah’s rescue and Haran’s death; Apocalypse’s paternal-house destruction; Qur’anic rescue. No proven chain of borrowing
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Illustration
Entity
War Scroll
Dead Sea Scroll text portraying war between the sons of light and the hostile camp; its principal copy is designated 1QM.
Modern distinction between War Scroll camps and equal divine origins; the prayer in1QM XIII attributes Belial’s making to God
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Illustration
Entity
Book of Jubilees
Jewish retelling of Genesis and Exodus framed as angelic teaching to Moses, adding chronology, narratives and interpretation.
Modern diagram of Jubilees10: permission for one tenth, confinement of nine tenths, and Noah’s remedies; narrative proportions, not a historical census
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Illustration
Entity
Enmeduranki
Primeval king in Mesopotamian wisdom tradition; distinguish from his sage and Enoch.
Modern distinction between king, sage and Enoch; seventh position proves neither personal identity nor a composition date
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Illustration
Entity
Apkallu
Akkadian word for sage; lists,images and roles require their own textual contexts.
Modern comparison of Oannes, Enmeduranki, Watchers and Enoch in the cited passages; neither genealogy nor proof of borrowing
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Illustration
Entity
Book of the Watchers
Opening section of1 Enoch, 1–36; includes the Watchers’ descent and transgression and Enoch’s journey.
1 Enoch 6–16: modern diagram distinguishing Watchers, their offspring’s bodies and offspring spirits; not an ancient image or portrait
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Illustration
Entity
Nephilim
Term in Genesis and Numbers; it alone identifies neither a biological population nor every fallen angel.
Nephilim and giants: modern comparison of Genesis 6,Numbers 13 and Enoch 7; not a proven biological genealogy or ancient image
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Illustration
Entity
Testament of Abraham
Narrative of Abraham’s death and journey; its long recension distinguishes Abel the judge, Dokiel the weigher and Michael the guide.
Roles in the long Testament of Abraham, 10–14: a modern textual diagram distinguishing Michael the guide from Dokiel the weigher; not an ancient artifact
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Illustration
Entity
Rashnu: justice in Iranian reckoning
Iranian figure associated with just reckoning; the Menog i Khrad describes a balance favouring neither king nor pauper.
Reckoning in Menog i Khrad 2:110–122 and 12:11–15: original modern diagram of impartial justice and the outcomes of deeds; not a portrait of Rashnu or an ancient map
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Illustration
Entity
Sheol: a Hebrew term for the realm of the dead
Hebrew textual term involving death, descent and lost return; it does not automatically mean later punitive Gehenna.
Sheol in Job 7:7–10 and Genesis 37:33–35: an original modern diagram comparing two textual contexts only; not an afterlife map or an ancient artifact
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Entity
Gehenna: a place-name and language of punishment
Term related to the valley of Hinnom; usage changes across Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts and does not equate every afterlife term.
Mount Zion from the valley of Hinnom; American Colony (Jerusalem), Photo Department, 1934–1939. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-matpc-19029. Modern historical site photograph, not an image of the afterlife or photographic evidence of ancient rites. Collection rights dedicated to the public; no known publication restrictions
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Entity
Adonia: the celebration of Adonis
Celebration associated with Adonis; texts and images attest practices varying by place and time, including planters, mourning and farewell.
Attic red-figure oil jar, mid-4th century BCE; a woman receives a planter from Eros in a scene associated with the Adonia. Metropolitan Museum, 22.139.26; Public Domain
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Entity
Adonis: death and return in differing narratives
Figure associated with Aphrodite, mourning and celebration; divided residence, death and return differ between sources.
Attic red-figure oil jar, mid-4th century BCE; a woman receives a planter from Eros in a scene associated with the Adonia. Metropolitan Museum, 22.139.26; Public Domain
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Original photograph
Entity
Apotheosis: acquiring divine status
Transformation granting divine status; differs from returning to an earlier human life or raising the dead for judgment.
Attic red-figure vessel, 4th century BCE; depicts Heracles’s apotheosis, not Alcestis’s rescue. Metropolitan Museum, 52.11.18; public-domain photograph
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Entity
Katabasis: descent to the underworld
Comparative term for a journey to the realm of the dead; does not by itself establish that its traveler died and rose.
Attic red-figure vessel, 4th century BCE; depicts Heracles’s apotheosis, not Alcestis’s rescue. Metropolitan Museum, 52.11.18; public-domain photograph
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Entity
Ritual atonement: kipper
Hebrew verb in offering and purification instructions; meaning depends on action, target, and beneficiary, rather than declaring someone outside a religion.
Hittite vessel terminating in a stag’s forepart, ca. 14th–13th century BCE; silver with gold inlay, central Anatolia. Metropolitan Museum, 1989.281.10; public-domain image. Ritual material culture, not evidence that it held blood or belonged to Papanikri’s or Leviticus’s rites
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Entity
Ritual impurity
Religious classification concerning sacred access and purification; not automatically moral condemnation or a modern medical diagnosis.
Hittite vessel terminating in a stag’s forepart, ca. 14th–13th century BCE; silver with gold inlay, central Anatolia. Metropolitan Museum, 1989.281.10; public-domain image. Ritual material culture, not evidence that it held blood or belonged to Papanikri’s or Leviticus’s rites
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Entity
Ritual removal
Analytical term for removing what is considered harmful or polluting from communal or sacred space; transfer, expulsion and slaughter are distinct functions.
William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat, mid-1850s; Lady Lever catalogue dates the painting to 1854, LL3623. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Later religious artistic interpretation, not an archaeological depiction of Leviticus’s rite or a portrayal of Azazel
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Entity
Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement
Jewish observance whose Leviticus 16 setting involves sanctuary purification and the sent-away goat; distinguish ancient instructions from later practice and interpretation.
William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat, mid-1850s; Lady Lever catalogue dates the painting to 1854, LL3623. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Later religious artistic interpretation, not an archaeological depiction of Leviticus’s rite or a portrayal of Azazel
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Entity
Kētos: marine creature
Greek word for the marine creature in Jonah and Matthew; alone it establishes neither a modern species nor the story’s origin.
Roman marble table base depicting Jonah swallowed and cast up by a marine creature, early fourth century CE. Metropolitan Museum,77.7, public-domain photograph. Evidence of Christian artistic reception, not an artifact from the prophet’s time or identification of his fish’s species
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