# Dr. Talos's play *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 20 Nov 1997* > 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. --- ### Alice Turner *20 Nov 1997, 12:23* Tony, > The names Meschia and Meschiane... I have an idea that these are the > names of Adam and Eve in another (Hebrew?) genesis myth. Any ideas? They are the Persian (Zoroastrian) Adam and Eve, under various spellings, i.e. Mashya and Mashyaga. The figure Talos conflates with Nod the Nephilim (Baldanders) is Gayomart, a giant created before them (together with a Bull), by God, Ahura Mazda, by means of Spenta Manyu, the Holy Spirit. Gayomart and the Bull were slain, and from their bones and seed the features of the earth were made. The intriguing figure in this creation myth is that of Jahi or Jeh, the Great Whore. (It is she to whom John of Patmos refers in Revelation when excoriating Babylon, just as the dragon with the seven heads refers to Rome, or Rahab the sea monster in the OT refers to Egypt, another enemy.) I can't swear to it, but I think Jahi may have been created by Ahriman, the Evil One. At any rate, she plays somewhat the same role as Lilith does in Hebrew myth. Mantis is quite right about the gnostic flavor, but then most of the gnostic ideas, and certainly those of Mani, came from the East, which is where the idea of the resurrection of the body after death came from in the first place. (Jews weren't supposed to believe in any kind of immortality, though the Pharisees were beginning to lean that way.) Note how Matthew invents three Persian mages to call on Baby Jesus with supplies for the afterlife: gold (hey, it's always useful!) frankincense to perfume the corpse and myrrh to preserve it. Then he also trundles the family off for a fanciful trip to Egypt so that they can share in the Egyptian ideas of immortality. Covered his bases, Matthew did! -alga- ---