{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/259",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 259,
    "subject": "Dr. Talos's play",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-11-20T12:23:50+00:00",
    "last": "1997-11-20T12:23:50+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0005-0395@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-11-20T12:23:50+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Dr. Talos's play",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Tony,"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "The names Meschia and Meschiane... I have an idea that these are the\nnames of Adam and Eve in another (Hebrew?) genesis myth. Any ideas?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "They are the Persian (Zoroastrian) Adam and Eve, under various spellings,\ni.e. Mashya and Mashyaga. The figure Talos conflates with Nod the Nephilim\n(Baldanders) is Gayomart, a giant created before them (together with a\nBull), by God, Ahura Mazda, by means of Spenta Manyu, the Holy Spirit.\nGayomart and the Bull were slain, and from their bones and seed the\nfeatures of the earth were made. The intriguing figure in this creation\nmyth is that of Jahi or Jeh, the Great Whore. (It is she to whom John of\nPatmos refers in Revelation when excoriating Babylon, just as the dragon\nwith the seven heads refers to Rome, or Rahab the sea monster in the OT\nrefers to Egypt, another enemy.) I can't swear to it, but I think Jahi may\nhave been created by Ahriman, the Evil One. At any rate, she plays somewhat\nthe same role as Lilith does in Hebrew myth.\n\nMantis is quite right about the gnostic flavor, but then most of the\ngnostic ideas, and certainly those of Mani, came from the East, which is\nwhere the idea of the resurrection of the body after death came from in the\nfirst place. (Jews weren't supposed to believe in any kind of immortality,\nthough the Pharisees were beginning to lean that way.) Note how Matthew\ninvents three Persian mages to call on Baby Jesus with supplies for the\nafterlife: gold (hey, it's always useful!) frankincense to perfume the\ncorpse and myrrh to preserve it. Then he also trundles the family off for a\nfanciful trip to Egypt so that they can share in the Egyptian ideas of\nimmortality. Covered his bases, Matthew did!\n\n-alga-"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}