Free Hebrew Myths by Robert Graves Page B

against him, and finally defeated him. The Greeks named it Mount Casius, home of the monster Typhon and the she-monster Delphyne who together disarmed Zeus, King of Heaven, and kept him prisoner there in the Corycian Cave until the god Pan subdued Typhon with a great shout and Hermes, god of Cunning, rescued Zeus. The Orontes had been known as ‘Typhon’. Saphon was famous for the destructive North winds that whirled from it over Syria and Palestine. All these myths refer to conspiracies against a powerful deity; in the Hebrew alone no mention is made of God’s initial discomfiture.
    4
. Lucifer is identified in the New Testament with Satan (
Luke
X. 18; 2
Corinthians
XI. 14), and in the Targum with Samael (Targ. ad
Job
XXVIII. 7).

9
THE BIRTH OF ADAM
    (
a
) On the Sixth Day, at God’s command, Earth was delivered of Adam. And as a woman remains unclean for thirty-three days after the birth of a male child, so likewise did Earth for thirty-three generations—until the reign of King Solomon, before which time God’s Sanctuary could not be built at Jerusalem. 81 The elements of fire, water, air and darkness combined in Earth’s womb to produce living creatures; 82 yet, though all her offspring were conceived on the First Day, herbs and trees made their appearance on the Third, sea-beasts and birds on the Fifth, land-beasts, creeping things and Man on the Sixth. 83
    (
b
) God did not use earth at random, but chose pure dust, so that Man might become the crown of Creation. 84 He acted, indeed, like a woman who mixes flour with water and sets aside some of the dough as a
halla
offering: for He let a mist moisten the earth, then used a handful of it to create Man, who became the world’s first
halla
offering. Being the son of
Adama
(‘Earth’), Man called himself ‘Adam’ in acknowledgement of his origin; or perhaps Earth was called Adama in honour of her son; yet some derive his name from
adom
(‘red’), recording that he was formed from red clay found at Hebron in the Damascene Field near the Cave of Machpelah. 85
    (
c
) It is improbable, however, that God used earth from Hebron, this being a less holy site than the summit of Mount Moriah, Earth’s very navel, where the Sanctuary now stands: for there Abraham was blessed because of his readiness to sacrifice Isaac. Hence some relate that God commanded the Archangel Michael: ‘Bring Me dust from the site of My Sanctuary!’ This He gathered into the hollow of His hand and formed Adam, thus binding mankind by natural ties to the mountain on which Abraham would expiate his forefathers’ sins. 86
    Some say that God used two kinds of dust for Adam’s creation: one gathered from Mount Moriah; the other a mixture culled at the world’s four comers and moistened with water drawn from every river and sea in existence. That, to ensure Adam’s health, He used male dust and female soil. That Adam’s name reveals the formative elements of his creation: its three Hebrew letters being their initials—
epher
(‘dust’),
dam
(‘blood’) and
marah
(‘gall’)—since, unless these are present in equal measure, man sickens and dies. 87
    (
d
) God disdained to fetch Adam’s dust Himself, and sent an angel instead—either Michael to Mount Moriah, or Gabriel to the world’s four corners. Nevertheless, when Earth gainsaid the angel, knowing that she would be cursed on Adam’s account, God stretched forth His own hand. 88
    Some insist that dust for Adam’s trunk was brought from Babylonia, for his head from Israel, for his buttocks from the Babylonian fortress of Agma, and for his limbs from certain other lands. 89
    The various colours found in man are a reminder of these different kinds of dust: the red formed Adam’s flesh and blood; the black, his bowels; the white, his bones and sinews; the olive-green, his skin. 90
    By using dust from every corner of the world, God has ensured that in whatever land Adam’s descendants die, Earth will always receive them back.