Evolutions of the Dawnbringer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IovAHv3-pEI

Comparative Mythology of the Masculine Dawn God

This video is the masculine counterpart to my episode on the Dawn Goddess. He is the Dawnbringer or Lightbringer, God of the East, Venus, Love, Youth, Justice, Covenants, Beauty, and Social Order.

As with the Dawn Goddess, this is part of my larger evolutionary mapping project, where I’m trying to trace mythological complexes across cultures rather than treating every deity as an isolated figure. The goal is not to claim that all of these gods are “the same god,” but to show how a recognizable archetypal pattern appears, splits, merges, and mutates across different regions and historical periods.

The main motifs to watch for are: dawn, light, East, Venus (the morning star), justice, order, oaths, covenants, love, beauty, youth, white horses, roosters, peacocks, and even phoenixes.

The Shining Star Lord

We begin in West Asia, especially Mesopotamia, Syria, the Levant, Arabia, Elam, Anatolia, and the Caucasus. One of the oldest and most important figures in this complex is Ištaran, a Semitic or Sumerian god associated with justice, order, judgment, and the shining star (Venus).

In the previous Dawn Goddess video, I discussed the hypothesis that the goddess Ishtar may have developed when Semitic peoples brought a masculine dawn-star deity into contact with the Sumerian goddess Inanna, eventually feminizing the name and merging it with Inanna’s traits. Upon deeper reflection, it would seem that the Semites likely already had a female shining star goddess, named Ishara (Eblaite), Asherah (Canaanite), or Athirat (Ugaritic), the "Queen of Heaven". Her masculine counterpart was likely related to the sky god Athir (Ugaritic), Ashur (Assyrian), or Aether (Greek). Both of these older forms appear to have been more celestial in nature, adopting stronger aspects of Venus, Justice, and Love after contact with the Sumerian Inanna and Ishtaran.

Across the Levant and Syria, Ishtaran took on several new names and variants: Ashtabil at Ebla, Athtar in Ugaritic and South Arabian traditions, Ashtar among Canaanites.

In Ugaritic mythology, Athtar was especially important, because he attempted to take the throne of heaven after Baal was devoured by Mot, but he was too small for the throne, and fell into the sea along with his host of holy warriors. This gives us an early version of the “fallen morning star” motif that later becomes associated with Helel ben Shahar, the “shining lord son of dawn,” who eventually evolved into the Christian figure of Lucifer by syncretizing Helel with Phosphoros.

Athtar-Helel-Lucifer represented Venus, whereas his father, Shahar, represented the dawn sky itself. Shahar and his twin brother Shalim represented the dawn and dusk, respectively, and were the children of El with mortal women. Shalim "peace" was patron of Jerusalem and Canaan (West of the Jordan River), whereas Shahar was patron of Transjordan and Arabia (East of the Jordan River). Fittingly, Athtar was the supreme god of the Central and Southern Arabians.

The Night Watchman

The deepest possible origin point for Ištaran-Athtar's judicial and orderly aspects were Sumer and Elam in Southern Mesopotamia. Of course, Ištaran's origin was Sumer, but even he may have been borrowed from the patron of the Elamites in Susa: Inshushinak. His name meant "Lord of Susa", and his chthonic judgement of the dead resembles what Ishtaran and later Mithra would become.

His parallel in Sumer was Endursaga, a fascinating deity who guarded the streets of cities and villages at night against demons and monsters. He was the quintessential night watchman. He carries a lamp or torch (like all lightbringer deities), and eventually even gains an association with roosters and various other animals who aid him on his nightly patrols.

The Shining One

The Assyrian god Ashur may have the same "shining" name as Ishtaran, but his shine was that of the sky in general, rather than any particular star or planet. Thus, he was syncretized with the sky gods Anu and Anshar rather than Ishtaran, but also had suspiciously Venerian functions concerning kingship, civic order, justice, warfare, and a tutelary role over the city of Asshur.

Thus, I must allude to a larger hypothesis... Many names for gods around the world mean “shining ones”, often resembling this same 'ash' or 'ath' morphology. The Zoroastrian Ahuras, Vedic Asuras, Etruscan Aisar, and Norse Æsir, for example. And so, such deific titles may have at least Neolithic West Asian if not Mesolithic or even Paleolithic Eurasian roots... Perhaps these began as names for the wandering stars?

If we look at the North African sky god of Egypt and the Maghreb, we find a similar 'ash' morphology in relation to a celestial father. Called Shu in Egypt, Ash in Libya, Ashaman/Achamán in the Canary Islands (the Guanche were a Berber people), and Atlash near the Atlas Mountains (the Greeks reported that Atlas and Atlantis originated there), his name in these contexts is often translated as "shining", "watcher", "oversight", or "upholder". Shu and Atlas both uphold the sky, and Ash/Ashaman was the benevolent provider of all Berber peoples.

This “watcher on the mountain” or “heavenly pillar in the west” may be a Western counterpart to the Eastern dawnbringer, like Shalim was to Shahar, or Astraeus and Iapetus were to Eos and Hyperion. Often, the morning and evening star are appropriately perceived as the same deity in different forms (sometimes young and old), so we cannot dismiss that these, too, might all originate from a common ancient Shining God of Venus.

The Oathkeeper & Measurer

The second major half of our investigation involves Mithra or Mitra, who pushed the dawnbringer complex toward oaths, treaties, friendship, covenants, and diplomacy.

Mithra appears in Indo-Iranian religion as both Vedic Mitra and Iranian Mithra, associated with contracts, truth, and social order. He's also linked with the white horseman motif, divine judgment, and the judgement of souls in death.

The Mitanni (whose very name is cognate with Mitra) conquered much of Upper Mesopotamia during the Bronze Age, and are pivotal here, because their ruling class seems to have had Indo-Aryan members (ruling over Hurrians indigenous to Urartia), and their treaties invoked gods such as Mitrassil. This places the Mithraic covenant complex directly in the cultural crossroads of Iran, Syria, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Caucasus.

In the Akkadian period (before the Mitanni conquered Upper Mesopotamia), there was a god of justice and righteousness who resembled Ishtaran, named Misharu "Uprighter/Measurer". His parallel in later Phoenician mythology was Misor. Coincidently (or not), if you were to pronounce the Akkadian 'Misharu' in an Iranian accent, it would be 'Mithra'. Coincidently (or not), a legendary Irish judge's name was Midhir "Judge/Measurer", and a mythical Norse god king who occasionally ruled Asgard in Ordin's stead was named Mitodinn "Judge/Measurer"...

According to Zoroaster, Mithra was an Ahura, not a Daeva. The Daevas, most likely, were of Indo-European/Indo-Iranian origin, but the Ahuras, on the other hand, were most likely indigenous to Neolithic Iran and India. Therefore, these Mithra-Type deities might have Neolithic West Asian origins, reaching Europe via the Early European Farmers (Anatolian Neolithic Farmers), reaching Iran via the Iranian Neolithic Farmers, and maybe even reaching the Indo-Europeans via the Caucasian Neolithic Farmers.

The Heavenly Warrior

Later religious figures preserve parts of the Mithra-Type pattern. Speaking of the Caucasian Neolithic Farmers, St. George in Caucasian traditions is thought to have inherited many aspects from Mithra or a Mithra-like deity indigenous to Caucasia (which includes the Georgian, Abkhazian, Circassian, Ossetian, Vainakh, Hurro-Urartian, and Armenian pantheons). He was a heroic white horseman, defender of justice, and dragonslayer.

The archangel Michael also mirrors this complex. He is a heavenly warrior who defeats demonic powers and upholds divine order. Because Jewish and Christian angelology were strongly influenced by Mesopotamian and Zoroastrian mythemes during the Babylonian exile and Persian Imperial period, Michael likely preserves the same Mithra-type pattern.

This is also where the dualism between Angels (Ahuras) and Demons (Daevas) became a core tenant of the Abrahamic faiths. In Zoroastrianism, the Ahuras are righteous and the Daevas are corrupt; in Hinduism, the Devas are righteous and the Asuras were often corrupt. The former faiths ultimately strayed toward monotheism, and the latter retained a colorful polytheistic pantheon.

The Dawn of Creation

The Yazidi Melek Taus "Angelic Peacock" is one of the most vibrant examples of Zoroastrian influence on the early Abrahamic faiths. The Yazidis were Kurds (Western Iranians) who syncretized their native Zoroastrian or Manichaean pantheon with the Abrahamic religions. Melek Taus was the arch angel of God, tasked with the holy creation of the Earth, in all of its beauty and splendor. Unlike many other Gnostic sects that treat the creator of the world (the Demiurge) as evil and corrupt, Yazidism sanctifies he and all of creation. He is like a mix of Demiurgus, Michael, Mithra, Phanes, and Eros.

By contrast, the Gnostic Mandaean Demiurge Yushamin "Yahweh of the Heavens" (more likely based on Athtar Shamain "shining star of the heavens"), is identical to Melek Taus in many ways, except that his creation of the world was in defiance against God. His rebellion against God equates him with the Christian Lucifer and the Islamic Iblis, which is also part of why the Yazidis have always been persecuted as "Satanists" by Christians and Muslims.

In Greek myth, Phaethon, son of Helios, tries to drive his father's solar chariot, but he loses control and falls into a river. This strongly resembles the Athtar/Lucifer motif of a radiant heavenly youth (associated with Venus) falling tragically into the water or the underworld.

The archetype of a "shining god" in general is also widespread in creation myths: Protogonos/Phanes of the Greek Orphic tradition, was the first-born god who emerged from the Cosmic Egg of Ophion and Eurynome. He was the primordial bright source from which all other "shining gods" originated. In that sense, he occupies the same position as Aether does in broader Hellenic mythology, as the primordial shining all-father. Aha, we see that 'Ash/Ath' morphology here, too!

My sneaking suspicion is that the later Orphic Phanes was something of a re-brand of the earlier Aether, blending with aspects of Phaethon "bright one" and the Egyptian Bennu "bright" bird. In Egyptian myth, Bennu was the first-born spirit of Ra who took the form of a rainbow crane to dictate the creation of the world, and he became the basis for the Greek Phoenix. After all, the "dawn of creation" is yet another purview of the dawnbringer archetype.

The Gnostic archangel Abraxas, depicted with a rooster head and serpent legs, riding a chariot, continued this symbolic cluster into the Hermetic tradition. The rooster links him to the crow of dawn, the serpent links him to cosmic power, and the chariot links him to the lightbringer complex.

A recurring animal symbol here has been the rooster, which is, of course, a natural herald of dawn. Abraxas, Endursaga, Murugan/Kartikeya, Loki, Lugh, and even the Chinese Fenghuang (Phoenix) all have rooster associations.

The chicken and rooster are native to Southeast Asia, so their spread westward must have been the result of West Asian Neolithic Farmers in India trading with Southeast Asian Neolithic Farmers in Burma.

The peacock (also a colorful fowl associated with the Fenghuang), originated in India, and has a similar function to roosters as crowers of dawn and dusk. Thus, we ought to see Melek Taus, Yushamin, and Kartikeya/Murugan in the same light as the others.

The colors of the rainbow have also come to represent the emanation of diverse celestials, deities, spirits, and angels out of a single light source.

The Immortal Youth

In Greek and Roman mythology, Eros and Cupid are remembered as gods of carnal love and desire, but they also belong to this larger dawnbringer complex.

Phosphoros or Eosphoros, the Greek morning star god and son of Eos (the dawn goddess), literally means “light-bringer” and evolved directly into the Latin Lucifer. Aphrodite/Venus was the later Olympian evolution of the Titanic Eos, so her son, Eros, can be identified directly with Phosphoros/Lucifer.

By the Hellenic period, when the bulk of Hellenic philosophy was being written, Eros was being abstracted into the very idea of 'love' as a cosmic principle. But even as early as the Greek Dark Ages, Hesiod wrote of Eros as one of the four primordial beings, alongside Chaos, Gaea, and Tartaros. I think it appropriate, therefore, to think of Eros as effectively equivalent to Phanes and Aether, too. Even Aphrodite resembles Eurynome in the Orphic myth, dancing on a beach at the dawn of creation, attracting the cosmic serpent, Ophion. A Hurrian myth describes a similar motif, where Sauska (Hurrian Ishtar/Aphrodite) dances on a beach to lure the monstrous serpent Apse away from innocent cities, becoming the mother of many serpents and monsters.

Like Shahar and Shalim, Phosphoros had a twin brother, Hesperus, who was the evening star to his morning star. This pattern holds true in the Baltic Austaras and Vakaris, as well as other East Wind and West Wind parallels across the globe.

Other Indo-European youthful gods fitting this complex include Hindu Kama, Norse Skirnir, Germanic Aurvandil, Slavic Jarilo and Kupalo, Yugoslavic Vesnik/Kresnik, Gaulish Maponos, and Irish Angus Og. These spring youths become great heroes, lovers, and horseriders.

--- Joshua J Kes, B.S. in Geoscience & Sociology