דינה
Always transcribed and pronounced as though there is no Yud, but there is a Yud, so it should really be transcribed as Diynah - there are several other names to which this applies (Dishan, for example), but I am staying with the standard transcription: Dinah.
Always transcribed and pronounced as though there is no Yud, but there is a Yud, so it should really be transcribed as Diynah - there are several other names to which this applies (Dishan, for example), but I am staying with the standard transcription: Dinah.
Genesis 30:21 names her as Ya'akov's (Jacob's) daughter by Le'ah; the name is linked etymologically to her brother Dan.
Genesis 34 tells the story of her rape by Shechem, which should be read as the takeover of the Dana'an shrine of Danaë by Chorites/Chivites/Hittites, and its recovery by the Aramaean Jacobite tribes of Shim'on and Levi. The story of Danaus' fifty daughters and Aegyptus' fifty sons, and their marriages, has many echoes in this tale; both the agreement for a multiple wedding and the ensuing slaughter. Danaus and Aegyptus are the twin-brother sons of Bel, who is a variation of Ba'al, in his original form a title of the Babylonian Marduk.
Shechem was destroyed in revenge for a princess' abduction by the king's son - exactly like Helen of Troy (or Helen of Sparta as she should properly be remembered) in the best-known of all Dana'an epics, the Iliad, and its sequel, the Odyssey. The original story was Ugaritic: the Epic of Keret. In that version, El orders Prince Keret to besiege Udum where his wife Hurriya is hiding with her lover. Udum and Hurriya are Edom and Kena'an (Canaan) and the myth analogises a political struggle. Shechem (unnamed in the text, but it was the town that lay between Mounts Eyval and Gerizim) and its surrounding area was either destroyed by Yehoshu'a (Joshua 8:30-35), who then rebuilt it as the central shrine (Joshua 24), or conquered by treaty and then adopted as the central shrine (click here for the scholarly view of this). Previously it had been a Chivite city and an important shrine.
Genesis 34 tells the story of her rape by Shechem, which should be read as the takeover of the Dana'an shrine of Danaë by Chorites/Chivites/Hittites, and its recovery by the Aramaean Jacobite tribes of Shim'on and Levi. The story of Danaus' fifty daughters and Aegyptus' fifty sons, and their marriages, has many echoes in this tale; both the agreement for a multiple wedding and the ensuing slaughter. Danaus and Aegyptus are the twin-brother sons of Bel, who is a variation of Ba'al, in his original form a title of the Babylonian Marduk.
Shechem was destroyed in revenge for a princess' abduction by the king's son - exactly like Helen of Troy (or Helen of Sparta as she should properly be remembered) in the best-known of all Dana'an epics, the Iliad, and its sequel, the Odyssey. The original story was Ugaritic: the Epic of Keret. In that version, El orders Prince Keret to besiege Udum where his wife Hurriya is hiding with her lover. Udum and Hurriya are Edom and Kena'an (Canaan) and the myth analogises a political struggle. Shechem (unnamed in the text, but it was the town that lay between Mounts Eyval and Gerizim) and its surrounding area was either destroyed by Yehoshu'a (Joshua 8:30-35), who then rebuilt it as the central shrine (Joshua 24), or conquered by treaty and then adopted as the central shrine (click here for the scholarly view of this). Previously it had been a Chivite city and an important shrine.
All twelve tribes are said to have had twin-sisters, a hint of joining matri- and patri-archal tribes. Genesis 46:15 refers to "other daughters" of Ya'akov, but only Dinah is actually mentioned by name; we can infer from this the connection of matriarchal tribes, or cult-followers of the moon-goddess, to the patriarchal Ya'akov tribes. The verse claims the total of Ya'akov's children as thirty-three, which would mean no less than twenty-one daughters; however the figure seems to include all the male grandchildren and male great-grandchildren mentioned in the preceding verses as well. Clearly the list cannot be taken at face value. Was Dinah then a surviving matriarchal tribe, or more likely the only one of the un-named twin-sisters who actually gets named?
Probably her tribe was overrun in Yehoshua's time by Amorites of Shechem and her allies, tribes of Shim'on and Levi, took revenge in massacre. Dinah then married Shim'on ("confederacy"). But Genesis 49:5 states that Shim'on forfeited his lands to Yehudah (Joshua 19:1 and 1 Chronicles 4:24) which is why Shim'on did not get a Mosaic blessing (Deuteronomy 33). Dinah thus disappeared with Shimon.
However Genesis 50 appears (because Shechem = "shoulder") to suggest that Ephrayim took over Dinah's lands. Until David's time Shechem was Yisra-El's political capital, and we have to assume that Dinah remained its patron goddess, just as she was - known there as Diana, or previously as Artemis - at Ephesus.
Why circumcise the Shechemites unless to make Yisra-Elim of them? David did the same to the men of Gat, ostensibly as a bride-price (1 Samuel 18).
See notes on DAN and the exegesis of Genesis 34 for a fuller picture.
The "shechem" is the shoulder, the priestly portion of any animal sacrifice; the shoulder was also the royal portion in Yisra-El, at it was at Greek feasts.
Probably her tribe was overrun in Yehoshua's time by Amorites of Shechem and her allies, tribes of Shim'on and Levi, took revenge in massacre. Dinah then married Shim'on ("confederacy"). But Genesis 49:5 states that Shim'on forfeited his lands to Yehudah (Joshua 19:1 and 1 Chronicles 4:24) which is why Shim'on did not get a Mosaic blessing (Deuteronomy 33). Dinah thus disappeared with Shimon.
However Genesis 50 appears (because Shechem = "shoulder") to suggest that Ephrayim took over Dinah's lands. Until David's time Shechem was Yisra-El's political capital, and we have to assume that Dinah remained its patron goddess, just as she was - known there as Diana, or previously as Artemis - at Ephesus.
Why circumcise the Shechemites unless to make Yisra-Elim of them? David did the same to the men of Gat, ostensibly as a bride-price (1 Samuel 18).
See notes on DAN and the exegesis of Genesis 34 for a fuller picture.
The "shechem" is the shoulder, the priestly portion of any animal sacrifice; the shoulder was also the royal portion in Yisra-El, at it was at Greek feasts.
Shechem is today known as Nablus.
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