Kingship: The Ritual Murder of Absalom

See tonight's earlier blog on Abishag for background about ritual sacrifice and the substitute sacrifice for the king. This information is also from Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Absalom The Bible presents Absalom as either David's son or David's neighbor (2 Samuel 12:11) because biblical writers couldn't decide just where he came from. He was important only as a surrogate "king" of the Jews. His name, Father Salm [from abra- father and salom- peace], was a widely distributed sacred-king name, also rendered Salma, Salem, Salomon, or Solomon; in Assyria, Shalmaneser; in Crete, the "son of God" Salmoneus.(1) The name meant Prince of Peace, which was synonymous with Lord of Death because "Peace" was the Lord's word of farewell as he descended into the underworld. [Note: I don't buy this explanation that Prince of Peace and Lord of Death are synonymous. I think her explanation is rather ingenious, actually, since we today link "death" with "peace", but give me some Semite etymology that links the two concepts.] Canaanites worshipped Father Salm at the city of Salem, whose Palestinian counterpart was Jeru-salem, "House of Salem." Kings of David's ancestral tribe, the Kenites, took the sacred name when ruling in Jerusalem. [Note: I thought "bethel" was the word for house in Hebrew - what is this Jeru stuff?] Probably several of these kings were called Solomon, including the biblical one whose real name was Jedidiah, according to 2 Samuel 12:25. Absalom received the sacred name and died as a surrogate for the incumbent king, David, whose mourning for him was really a liturgical formula. he called Absalom "my son, my son," and cried "Would God I had died for thee" to disguise the fact that the victim really had died in his place. Among ancient Semites generally, someone had to die for the king at regular intervals, to preserve the fertility of the soil and the people with his blood. See Kingship. Time-honored precedent dictated the format of the drama. The chosen victim sat on the throne, and publicly copulated with the royal women under a marriage canopy (2 Samuel 16:22). See Huppah. [Note: Being totally irreverent here, is this the etymological root for the concept of "hubba hubba?" -okay, never mind...] After this, Absalom was declared a god and his phallic spirit was immortalized by an erect pillar (2 Samuel 18:18). He was hung on a sacred oak "between heaven and earth," like all victims offered to deities of the air and sky.(2) He was pierced through the heart by three darts, like the Egyptian god Set. He was dismembered by ten men in priests' livery (2 Samuel 18:14-15). According to the old custom, pieces of him were then distributed to the fields and vineyards to encourage the growth of crops. Notes: (1) Graves, W.G., 363-64. (2) Angus, 173. ******************************************************************************* Interesting bit at the end - sounds rather like the death and cutting up of Osiris and the "salting" of his body parts around the "nomes" of Egypt, doesn't it? Except the great goddess Isis came along and ruined everything by putting "Humpty Dumpty" back together again, despite all the King's horses and all the King's men's best efforts to prevent her from doing so. And thus Osiris was resurrected and restored to life (well, at least a form of life - he's King of the Egyptian Underworld and by some accounts can only come out into daylight in the sacred sungod chariot where he flies across the arc of the sky) - that's something that Walker did not talk about in her Absalom tale, the fact that king sacrifice was intimately linked with the concept of resurrection/rebirth. I'm much more intrigued about the biblical account of the rape of Absalom's beautiful sister, Tamar, by Absalom's half-brother Amnon. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Amnon was born to King David's first wife; Absalom was David's third-born son but, evidently, quite a favorite with the people of the day. Jewish tradition traces "Jewishness" through the line of the mother: if your mother is a Jew, you are a Jew. This echoes and appears to be a somewhat faded remembrance of the ancient right of matrineal "king" succession that held sway from earliest recorded history throughout the middle east and in Egypt. Kingship was determined by THE MOTHER, not order of birth. I'm certainly no scholar when it comes to matrineal descent! But it is not a stretch to believe that Absalom may have been the heir presumptive despite being David's third son, because Absalom's mother's descent may have given him the heads-up. Therefore, if Amnon (rather sounds like an Egyptian name, doesn't it?) coveted David's throne for himself, he had to get rid of the heir presumptive (Absalom). And so he schemed and came up with a way to send Absalom over the edge. He raped Absalom's beloved sister, the beautiful and highly desirable Tamar. Perhaps the rape was a two-edged sword because by raping Tamar, Amnon may have been asserting a direct right to the throne through Tamar, not just "egging on" Absalom to attempt to take revenge against him. The biblical narrative relates the eventual outcome of Tamar's rape, but it takes some time to unfold. Ultimately, Amnon is killed at the hands of Absalom's agents, and Absalom flees from David's wrath. Eventually, a civil war ensues, and Absalom is killed. Here is the account from the Catholic Encyclopedia: Shielded by a forest, David's men proceed and meet Absalom's unguarded forces on the edge of the woods which fringe the circular plain at a point marked by the present site (presumably) of Mukaah. A frightful slaughter ensues, and the disorganized rebel party is quickly routed. Absalom madly flies. Suddenly he finds himself stunned by a blow while his head is caught in the fork of the low hanging branches of a terebinth tree. At the same time his long loose hair becomes entangled in the thick foliage, whilst the frightened animal beneath him rushes on, leaving him suspended above the ground. Before he is able to extricate himself he is espied by one of the soldiers, who, mindful of the King's words, "Spare me the life of Absalom", directs Joab's attention to the plight of the hapless youth. The old general, less scrupulous, and eager to rid his master of so dangerous a foe, thrice pierces the body of Absalom with his javelin. When the news of Absalom's death is brought to David, he is inconsolable. "My son Absalom, Absalom my son: would to God that I might die for thee, Absalom my son, my son Absalom." One of the old forms and symbol of the goddess was a sacred tree, and her places of worship was often sited in a grove of trees. So, it appears that in the case of Amnon and Absalom, the goddess got back her own and Barbara Walker's Woman's Encyclopedia offers some amazing insight. One other note tonight, for it's very late and I'm very tired, and I have to be up at 6 to meet the new day, yikes! Mukaah. is this a cognant of Maacha? According to the Catholic Encyclopedia entry cited above, [Absalom's] mother was Maacha, daughter of Tholmai, King of Gessur. I don't know where this is - just wondering if it could possibly be related to Mecca? Mecca was a very ancient site of worship of the triple goddess in pre-Islamic times, and the sacred shrine of the goddess, the Kaabah (various spellings), survives to this day as a holy shrine of Islam, where worshippers (mostly male) kiss the sacred black stone of the goddess, conveniently outlined in the form of a yoni symbol of the goddess upon which the worshippers center their smooches. I find this topic fascinating. I will continue with more on sacred kingship as time permits.