Wishing Trees of Anatolia

 Simin Uysal

I love trees and often see them in my dreams. Sometimes they come into my dreams as a singing oak tree, a beech which I climb up to the moon, a pine tree or a fruit tree offering me delicious fruits from its branches. I do not know the number of trees I planted after seeing them in a dream. They are a lot. I can sit with a tree for hours without getting bored, just listening to the sound of the wind dancing between its leaves or simply relaxing under its shade during hot summers.

Traveling in Anatolia, one can be surprised by the sudden appearance of a tree with pieces of fabric hanging from it. They are wishing trees where people typically tie pieces of  fabric from personal items like scarves, hankerchiefs or ribbons. Prayers are said silently while tying the fabrics. You can sometimes see a person distributing offerings to others under the tree after their wish coming true. People make pilgrimages to them, walk around them and make vows to them. These trees are not cut down and protected by everyone. 

The wishing trees typically stand alone, either on a hilltop, in the middle of a vast plane, next to the tomb of a dervish or a water spring. The ones I have seen were beech, oak, mulberry, juniper, myrtle, cedar, plane and pine trees.  

There are so many stories, beliefs and myths about trees in Anatolia and in the Turkic nations of Central Aisa and Siberia and almost all of them can be summarized in categories as the Tree of Life and Cosmic Axis. 

In many ancient Turkic myths (like the Oghuz Khagan) we can see that trees have a role in the births of great men, being their father or mother. Even today, the Yakut turks believe that the first man was nursed by a woman who appeared in the cosmic tree.  

The Life Tree in
Turkish Creamic Art

In Anatolia, people sleep under an old tree and expect "old wise man" to appear them in a dream. So, trees also serve as holy gates for dreams.

Women wanting to have children roll over the ground under a lone apple tree. I was so surprised when I learned this because in my dreams apples and apple trees usually represent fertility.

It is believed that who plants a tree will have a long life and if someone chops down a tree with greed, the tree of his family will dry up meaning he will have no more descendants.

The tree of life is a traditional motif in Anatolian handwowen carpets, kilims and ceramic art.  

When visiting cemeteries, one can see trees planted at the headside (and sometimes also the foot) of the graves so the dead can become a part of the life cycle of the tree and their souls be carried to sky.

Trees are important part of traditional celebrations, too. During Hidirellez celebrations on May 5-6, when Khidir and Elijas meet, wishes are written or drawn on pieces of paper and hung gently on the branches or left under rose trees. 

Decorating trees and leaving offerings under them is an ancient tradition still practiced today. The Turkic people of Central Asia still say "at the navel of the earth and at the center of all things, the largest of all earthly trees grows, a gigantic pine whose top branches  touch the home of Bay Ülgen (the great God)" The celebration of "the birth of the sun" during the winter solstice has been an important event.  The night and the day fight with each other and the day wins on the 22nd December. On this day, the sacred pine tree is decorated with wishes, the larger families come together, songs are sang and offerings to the great God are placed under the tree and everyone eats together.  The celebration exists under names of Nartavan, Raştua and Nardogan in different Turkic nations, all of them meaning "the birth of the sun".  

Sounds like a Christmas tree, doesn't it? This is not celebrated in Anatolia and nor does the Christmas but the wishing trees are everywhere as gates allowing dreams to reach us, carrying our wishes, prayers and souls to the skies. So, I will be decorating the old pine tree in my front garden tomorrow with ribbons of best wishes for the trees, my family, friends and all of life.     

HONORING THE WOLF

Simin Uysal

Life can become confusing from time to time and one can feel lost at times. That's how I have been feeling for some time...until last week when I decided to take an afternoon nap. As soon as I closed my eyes in my bed, I found myself in a dream where I was surrounded by a crowded pack of wolves. I have never thought a pack could be so crowded with almost a hundred wolves or so. The pack leader came closer, sniffed me carefully and she was as friendly as a dog. The cubs playing around with each other were really cute. It was a healthy, happy and a friendly pack of wolves. 

When I woke from this dream with a smile on my face and in my heart. I wasn't feeling lost or confused anymore.   

Sitting in my study and watching the wonderful misty view and thinking the snow is getting closer, I suddenly recalled my dream with the wolves and the Turkish saying "Wolf likes misty weather." 

I am feeling deeply grateful to the wolves. The Wolf is considered as the great teacher, the pathfinder and the guide for the Turks both in Anatolia and Central Asia. She is considered as the ancestor and appears as a sacred guide in Turkic mythology. Here is a short version from the very looong Oghuz Khagan myth. 

Oghuz was born in Central Asia as the son of Qara (Black) Khan, leader of the Turks. He stopped drinking his mother's milk after the first time and asked for meat. During the name giving ceremony where the elders are gathered to find the most suitable name for the newborn, he started speaking and said he was choosing his name as Oghuz. After that, he grew up miraculously and only in forty days he became a young adult. At the time of his birth, the lands of the Turks were preyed upon by a dragon named Kıyant. Oghuz armed himself and went to kill the dragon. He set a trap and killed the great dragon with his bronze lance and cut off his head with his iron sword.

He becomes a hero after killing the dragon. He forms a special warrior band from the forty sons of forty Turk beys (clan chiefs) thus gathering the clans together under his rule.

Upon becoming the Khan, he goes to steppes by himself to give thanks to Tengri (Sky-God). While praying he sees a heavenly blue light coming down from the sky, a light brighter than the sun and the moon, with a beautiful girl sitting in it. Oghuz falls in love with the girl and they get married. He has three sons named Gün (Sun), Ay (Moon) and Yıldız (Star). Later, Oghuz goes hunting one day and sees another beautiful girl inside a tree hollow on an island on a lake . He marries her as well and has three sons named Gök (Sky), Dağ (Mountain) and Deniz (Sea). 

To celebrate the birth of his sons, Oghuz organizes a great feast, gathers the forty clan chiefs and gives his orders: 

I became your Khan;
Let's take our swords and shields;
May Kut (Spirit) will be our guide;
May the Sun be our flag and the sky our tent.

He sends letters to the Kings of the Four Directions, saying: "I am the Khan of the Turks. And I will be Khan of the Four Corners of the Earth. I want your obedience."

Altun Khan (Golden Khan), on the right corner of earth, submits his obedience but Urum (Roman) Khan of the left corner, does not. Oghuz declares war on Urum Khan and marches his army to the west. One night, a large wolf with sky colored fur (blue being the color of Tengri and wolf as the sacred animal) comes to his tent in a heavenly light. He says, "Oghuz, you want to march against Urum, I want to march before you and guide your army." So, the sky-wolf marched before the Turks' army and guided them. The two armies fought near the river İtil (Volga). Oghuz Khan won. Then, Oghuz and his six sons carried out campaigns in all directions with the wolf as their guide. He became the Khan of the Four Corners of the Earth.

The elderly wise advisor of Oghuz saw a dream one day where he saw one bow made of gold and three arrows. The bow was extending all the way from sunrise to sunset . In the morning, he told the dream to Oghuz Khagan, saying "Oghuz Khagan, may you have a long and happy life, may all the things the Sky God showed in the dream become true." Upon hearing the dream, Oghuz Khagan calls his six sons and sends three of them them to the east and three of them to the west. His elder sons find a golden bow in the east. His younger sons find three silver arrows in the west. Oghuz Khan breaks the golden bow into three pieces and gives each to his three older sons Gün (Sun), Ay (Moon) and Yıldız (Star). He says: "My older sons, take this bow and shoot your arrows to the sky like this bow." He gives three silver arrows to his three younger sons Gök (Sky), Dağ (Mountain) and Deniz (Sea) and says: "My younger sons, take these silver arrows. A bow shoots arrows and may you be like arrows." Then, he passes his lands onto his sons, Bozoks (Gray Arrows - elder sons) and Üçoks (Three Arrows - younger sons) at a final banquet. Then he says:

"My sons, I walked a lot on the Earth;
I saw many battles;
I threw so many arrows and spears;
I rode many horses;
I made my enemies cry;
I made my friends smile;
I paid my debt to Tengri;
Now I am passing my land over to you."

The story is actually very long and only put into writing during the 13th century. The stories known today in Anatolia as Dede Korkut (Grandfather Korkut's stories) are parts of this legend. The surviving part of the script is now in Paris in Bibliotheque Nationale in the Turkish section. 

The Oghuzes were a historical Turkic tribal confederation conventionally named Oghuz Yabgu State in Central Asia during the early medieval period.The Oguz confederation migrated westard from the Jeti-su area after a conflict with Karluk branch of Uigurs. The founders of the Ottoman Empire were descendants of the Oguz Yabgu State.The term 'Oghuz' was gradually supplanted among the Turks themselves by 'Turcoman', from the mid tenth century onwards. The Ottoman dynasty, who gradually took over Anatolia after the fall of the Seljuks, toward the end of the thirteenth century, led an army that was also predominantly Oghuz.   

I have no intention to fight with anyone in any direction or to rule any place on earth but I do follow my dreams and having the Wolf as a guide and a teacher in all directions is a great gift I am deeply grateful for. 

My version of Oghuz Khagan's prayer is: 

May the Spirit be my guide
The Light my flag, 
The Sky my tent and 
The Wolf my teacher in all directions 

Grandfather Moon and Moon Gods of Anatolia

Men - the Moon God of the Phyrigians
Eskişehir Archeology Museum

Simin Uysal

Like all Turkish children, I grew up with stories about the Grandfather Moon. When I look at the moon, I always see the Grandfather Moon smiling down from the sky. It is very difficult for me to associate the moon with the feminine. I don't think I will ever be able to do that.

He has always been the one lighting up a magical silvery road on the dark sea waters of the night for me to follow to reach dreamland. I feel safe as long as I know he is up there and he always is. 

These were my thoughts standing in front of Men, the Phyrigian Moon God in the Eskişehir Archeology Museum. I think the Phyrigian children would agree with me. 

Men was a god with Anatolian origin. A temple was built in second century BC in Antioch of Pisidia (close to the modern city of Isparta). Many inscriptions have been discovered on votive stels dedicated to Men asking for help, health, protection;,wishing forgiving and giving thanks and telling dreams. For me, it is most appropriate to tell dreams to the Moon God. I often do that! 

The Hittites had four moon gods. They are Kasku, Kusuh, Arma and Sin. Kasku is actually a Hatti god which was transferred later to the Hittites. On a Hittite-Hattian bilingual script, we find the myth where the Moon God Kasku falls from heaven on Kilammar and disappaears. The Storm God, Taru (Teshub) sends lightning and rain after him.  

The Hurrian Moon God Kusuh (Umbu) is the one who was included formally in the Hittite pantheon. During the reign of the Hittite king, Suppilulimu I, Kusuh (Umbu) was one of the deities of oaths together with Ningal and Ishara. 

Hittite Moon God on a Lion together with another God 

Arma, who is often portrayed with a crescent on his horned cap and a pair of wings on his back, is another Hittite and also a Luwian moon god. . The Luwians were related to Hittites and lived in ancient Anatolia as well. Their religious beliefs were similar with the Hittites and the moon god, Arma, had the same name in both languages. Their language is known from the cuneiform texts found in the Hittite capital of Hattusha. The Luwians had a reputation as magicians and their magical rituals were present in the Hittite capital!

When I traveled to Şanlıurfa last year to visit Göbeklitepe, I also visited the Temple of the Moon God Sin. Sin is an important Moon God originated in Mesopotamia and entered the Hittite pantheon later. His major cult center was in Harran (which used to be an Assyrian city), within the borders of today's Şanlıurfa, in southeast Turkey. He is shown riding a winged bull and crescent is his symbol.

Cappadocia, in Central Anatolia, which is filled with mysterious underground cities, fairy chimneys formed by winds and ancient volcanic rock is a famous touristic place. Within all the cave hotels, ancient churches carved in rocks and frescoes, my favourite place to visit is entirely different. There are no ancient churches, frescoes or fairy chimneys there. It is called the Dervent Valley or the Valley of Imagination. It is known for its lunar landscape and animal shaped rocks instead! Whenever I go there, I feel like walking on the moon within an enormous zoo of rock animals sculpted by the nature itself. One can easily see a rabbit, a camel or a dragon on this moonscape.

The moon is not feminine for me, you see. However, it is not a god as it has been for the ancient Anatolians, either. It is Grandfather Moon. It is a lighthouse lighting up my valleys of imagination wherever I am. It is Grandfather Moon where I sit down and watch the Earth from the skies and my starting point for what I call star-hopping! I do not visit the moon everyday but I do love that Moon Face in the night sky and it feels reassuring to know he is always there even when he is invisible to my ordinary eyes. 





  

DREAMING LIKE A HITTITE

Hittite sun disc in the Museum of
Anatolian Civilizations - also being the
the symbol of  modern Ankara

Simin Uysal

Over 100 dreams of Hittite dreams have been found recorded on clay tablets found in Hattusha.

Throughout the Hittite sources, the most frequently named recipients are the kings, queens and those close to them. Figures appearing in dreams are gods, goddesses, relatives and friends of the dreamer and ancestors. The dream messages are various such as a god or goddess demands a new temple, gifts or rites or expresses anger at an offence. They include warnings for a king against traveling to a particular city or a future king is told whom he should marry.

Reading about their dream practices and some translated texts, it made me smile to learn that a Hittite is never said to "dream" or "to have a dream" but "to see a dream", "to see in a dream" or "to see by means of a dream" just like we, the current inhabitants of the same land still do today. I have to admit that "to have a dream" has been one of the phrases in English which I have never been able to understand. 

One fascinating fact is the Hittites practiced dream incubation just as it was practiced in the Asklepions on the western coast. The most celebrated text about Hittite dream incubation for healing is the ritual of a woman practitioner named Paskuwatti, designed to treat sexual impotence. The procedure is written in minute detail and takes place over three or four days. According to the text, after detailed procedures for purification, prayers and offerings where in the course of rituals the patient exchanges symbols of femininity (spindle and distaff) for those of masculinity (bow and arrows) , the practitioner and the patient move to the house of the patient for an incubated dream. After preparatory sacrifices and prayers, the patient lies down with the expectation of a healing dream where a goddess comes and sleeps with him. If the expected dream comes then votive offerings are made to the Goddess otherwise the ritual continues. 

The Hittites seem to have practiced incubation widely not only for healing but also for divinatory purposes. The Hittite King was responsible for worshipping the gods as well as governing the land of Hatti, he had a central position between the divine and humans. He represented the human community before the gods and the pantheon before the Hittite people. In order to fulfill his functions, the king needed to receive and transmit information between the world of men and that of the gods. 

Here is part of a prayer to the gods by king Mursili II after an ongoing plague for years in the Hatti land. He says, "if people have been dying because of some other matter, let me either see it in a dream, or let it be discovered by means of an oracle, or let a prophet speak of it. Or the priests will sleep long and purely (incubate a dream) in regard to that which I convey to all of them."

The dreams of the Hittite queen Puduhepa were given special importance. I can’t help but think that the Sky God and Sun Goddess had equal status in their pantheon, so did the king and the queen, men and women in the Hittite culture. In an article by Theo Van Den Hout, Professor of Hittite and Anatolian Languages, I came across the following precognitive dream of Puduhepa around the middle of the thirteenth century, where she found herself in the palace with a prince-like person who tells her he will show her what had happened “in your house”:

“He led me into some kind of place and there were even some deep storage pits but it was as if these storage pits had already been emptied out. Some wooden chests were lying around and in them a lot of old cheese, old figs, and old raisins had gone bad. Then that prince said: Look, they had already emptied out what was in the storage pit. They should clean it! So they swept and cleaned it.”

This dream of the queen was recorded on a clay tablet on the next day. Her feelings about the dream were not recorded though we know that they assigned special importance to dreams carrying a high emotional charge. Maybe this is why it has been recorded and archived in the palace. 

And less than seventy-five years after she had this dream, the Hittite Empire collapsed and the ruling class gave up their capital Hattusha. They left behind all unnecessary things, emptied the palace, storage pits and left for an unknown destination.  When they left, their language and writing disappeared from Anatolia and with that their more than five hundred years of history was erased from history for 3,000 years. What was left was swept away when Central Anatolia was left in disarray after they had left until the first millennium when it became part of the Phyrigian Kingdom of King Midas.

Now, almost 3,200 years later from when the queen’s dream was recorded, when I wake up in the Hatti Land, I record my own dreams and scan them carefully for precognitive elements and do much more with them!   

THE LAND OF THOUSAND DEITIES

The Lion Gate of Hattusha

Simin Uysal

About 200 kilometers to the east of Ankara lay the remains of an ancient city within the great loop of the Kızılırmak river. It is also the north edge of ancient region of Cappadocia. The earliest traces of settlement on the site are from the 6th millennium BC and late in the 3^rd millennium BC, a Hatti settlement developed here. The Hattians were the native Anatolians and called their town Hattush. Later, during the Middle Bronze Age, the city grew in such importance that a Karum or a trading post of the Assyrian merchants who come from Assur were established in the 19^th and 18^th centuries BC.  Archeologists say that these Assyrian traders were the ones who first introduced writing to Anatolia.

During the first centuries of the 2^nd millennium BC, there has been a frequent strife in Anatolia between the local Hattians and the immigrant Hittite groups who were trying to consolidate their power. Around 1700 BC, the great city of Hattush was burned down in a devastating fire. The destruction of city was recorded in cuneiform script on clay tablets. On the tablet, King Anitta of Kushar reports that he has defeated King Piyushti of Hattush and destroyed his city: “At night I took the city by force, I have sown weeds in its place. Should any king after me attempt to resettle Hattush, may the Weather God of Heaven strike him down!” King Anitta cursed the city of Hattush and chose the city of Nesha/Kanesh (some 150 km southeast of Hattush) as his capital. However, the Hittites were slowly coming into central Anatolia. The curse was not respected for long because the advantages of the site were too attractive for the Hittite King to resist and by the second half of the 17^th century, he made the city his capital and Hattush became Hattusha.

Twelve Gods of the Underworld

Not much is known about the origins of Hittites. Their language belongs to Indo-European family and archeologists assume that they came to Central Anatolia via the Caucasus around the second half of the 3^rd millennium BC. They came in small groups and mingled with the native Hatti population. It was not only the Hittites moving into Anatolia at this time but other Indo-Europeans were also arriving. The Luvians were moving into the south and west, and the Palaians into the north and north east. The Hittites were strong and established a great empire in Anatolia and remained “Hatti” as the name of their land but called their language as Neshian after the former capital of Nesha/Kushar.

The first Hittite king of Hattusha came from Nesha and took the name “Hattushili” meaning “one from Hattusha.” Cuneiform writing which has fallen out of tradition due to breaking down of the Assyrian trade network was introduced again during the reign of Hattushili and writing developed into a tradition leaving us vast archives of clay tablets containing detailed accounts of official correspondence, contracts, laws, literature and The Treaty of Kadesh, the earliest peace treaty known, which was made between the two big political and military powers of the 13th century BC, the Hittite and Egyptian empires. The clay tablet containing the text of this treaty sealed by Hattusili III, the king of the Hittite empire and the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II was found during excavations at Hattusha in 1906. It is in the Archeology Museum of Istanbul now.

However, what interests me most amongst these are the oracular prophecies, procedures and details of cult ceremonies and of course dreams. Hattusha, after all, was not only the political capital of the Hittite state but also their religious center, the residence of the “Thousand Gods of the Hatti Land” where their mythology was heavily influenced by native Hattians as well as the Mesopotamians and the Hurrians. 

One early Hittite god was Sius, god of heaven and light, a term later used as the general Hittite word for god. This is cognate with Indo-European "dieu-s which is found in the Greek word Zeus and Latin deus (god).

Tarhun/Teshub/Taru

Tarhun (Luwian name Tarhun and Hurrian name Teshub), the god of sky and storm, who was derived from Hattian Taru was considered a great deity. He is depicted holding thunderbolts in one hand and an axe on the other and his animal is the bull which is sacred throughout Anatolia. His bulls, Hurri and Seri (Day and Night) sometimes seen carrying him.

Equally important figure with the Storm/Sky God is the Sun Goddess of Arinna. The name of the goddess is not known though some say it is Arinniti and her major cult center, Arinna was near Hattusha. Pairing of Tarhun with the Sun Goddess of Arinna makes me think of Çatalhöyük of the Neolithic era with its venerated bulls and mothers.

The rest of the story which is about Hittite dreams is on my next blog. 

Sun Goddess of Arinna

THE MOTHER OF THE MOUNTAIN - MATAR KUBILEYA

Relief from Ankara, 7th century B.C
Museum of Anatolian Civilisations

Simin Uysal

I like taking walks around my neighbourhood and sometimes watching the highway which lies towards the west, sitting under a tree on the hilltop.  Last week I saw something different than before. Silently watching the sunset, I suddenly started noticing more and more birds flying towards west. Sitting there and watching them, I recalled that the Phrygians were the first to discover the art of augury while reading about the famous ancient seer Polles who wrote eight volumes on bird-augury. I started thinking about what I should be showing attention which is on the west and also related to Phyrigia.

I live in Ankara which has been a Phrygian territory in history on its west lies Gordion, their capital (also known as the place where Alexander the Great chopped the knot centuries later) and also Pessinus which was the principal cult centre of the cult of Cybele. So, I decided to read about the Anatolian origins of Cybele to discover more about what she originally meant for the Phrygians rather than ancient Greeks and Romans to which the Mother’s transition came during the later seventh and sixth centuries B.C and visit the archeological museum in Eskişehir to see more finds about her discovered in her Anatolian homeland.

The Mother Goddess known as Cybele, Kybele, and the Great Mother (Magna Mater) is one of the most powerful figures of the ancient Mediterranean world. The Mother Goddess can be found in the poems, hymns and religious monuments of ancient Greece and Rome but her original home was Anatolia.

Matar Kubileya was the Mother Goddess worshipped in ancient Phrygia, in west-central Anatolia. The location of Phrygia was in modern-day Turkey around the Sakarya (Sangarios) River. The word Matar means ‘mother’ in the ancient Phrygian language. Kubileya is a descriptive term which means ‘of the mountain.’  She was most often referred to as simply Matar. She is the ONLY divinity who is depicted iconographically! 

As is well known, in Greek and Roman cult, the Goddess is frequently accompanied by a young male god called Attis and the worship (involving the castration of his priests!) was one of the scariest features of the Mother's cult in later Greek and Roman society. I learned with great pleasure that the Graeco-Roman god Attis  had no counterpart in Phyrigia and in her Phyrigian images she is normally represented alone, thus the related scary practices appeared much later. 

I was amazed to learn that no monument was found attached to a building in the middle of an urban center but on rock façades on mountains or near the springs in the wild, non-urban environments like in the below photos of Yazılıkaya and Aslantaş. When I look at those monuments and reliefs and see the Mother's appearance through the doorway she appears (like in the relief from Ankara), it feels like the whole nature is her place and every place in nature is her doorway connecting the visible and the invisible, the known and the unknown. 

Yazılıkaya

It was interesting to find out that she is called as the "Mother" but she was almost never portrayed with any overtly maternal characteristics (never shown giving birth for example), rarely holds or nurtures a child and her images do never emphasize reproductive functions, eroticism  or suggest fertility. Instead, her iconography holds images of power. She holds or is accompanied by various animals and birds of prey. Each of those animals are predators. In central Phrygia (in Gordion and Ankara), her most frequent animal is a hawk or a falcon as seen in the relief found in Ankara. The lions are less frequent than hawks and the photo from Aslantaş below shows one of those.  

Aslantaş

Walking inside the museum studying the finds from various sites, I spotted a text in one of the displays with the following words: The Phyrigians considered everywhere under the sky as the temple of the Mother. I thought "yes, I am a Phyrigian!" because I do feel exactly the same way. 

How are we taking care of her temple, the Earth? What we have done as the human race until now looks problematic. We have been part of the problem but we can also be part of the solution at a basic level and do simple things like recycling at home, keeping the heater at lower temperatures, not wasting food, taking care of the stray dogs and cats, not dumping used kitchen oils down our sinks...These are some of the things I do and they are not difficult at all. 

I left the museum thinking about these and walking around the neighbourhood, I saw an old woman with a walking stick trying to carry a bag. I rushed to see if I could help. She was around her 80s, had more wrinkles on her face than teeth but such a happy expression. "Can I help you mother?" I asked smiling (It is normal to call elderly women as mother in Anatolia). She smiled and replied "yes, daughter, carry this bag for me" and handed me the bag filled with pears. Her small house was not far and I was invited to have some tea in her small garden.

While sipping our glasses of tea, she asked my name, where I was from and what I was doing there. I explained. She said "I only went to school for a year or two, my family was poor and I worked in wheat fields all my life. Education is important, she continued, but education is not only going to school and the Earth has been my teacher. Then she started talking about the life she had, her children and her grand children who are living in other cities. We talked about many things but one of sentences where she said "daughter, you see, the soil, the earth gives back what you put inside it and nothing else" will remain with me. 

I left her to catch my return train. She was still smiling through the doorway as I was leaving. I was late so I found a taxi. The taxi driver was talkative and told me he was a poet. While driving me to the train station he read a few poems of his and told me about the poetry society he was a member of and the prizes he has won. He even signed and gave me his book as a present and said he decided to write it after being advised by an elder that "not writing and sharing what you know and feel is like a religious person not sharing anything with others."  

Riding back home, I realized I forgot to ask the name of the uneducated old mother who knew more about life and Earth than most of us who are educated. 

I kept watching the sunset over the mountains and the landscape and reflecting on what had happened during the day and the week. Matar Kubileya, the Mother speaks to us all the time, I thought, through the doorways of dreams, the land, the people we meet and all the events we experience or witness. I recalled the advise of the elder to the poet taxi driver about writing and finally wrote this.

The world I wish to live in is a place where we can finally perceive the Earth as a beautiful temple and walk on it with respect to all we share it with, as we have been doing in the temples we have built as the human race throughout history. This is my dream.

Hagia Sophia - Justinian's Dream

Simin Uysal

I visit Istanbul quite frequently but last month I traveled to Istanbul three times and on each of these travels, I spent time either around or watching Hagia Sofia (or Ayasofya in Turkish). The name means “Holy Wisdom” and it is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul.  The glory of the building itself and its almost 1,500 years of history always leave me in awe and wonder.

What we see today is the third building The first site was wooden and built on the site of an ancient pagan temple in 360 AD by Emperor Constantius which was destroyed in 404 AD during riots. Emperor Theodosius II built a new Church which was completed in 415 AD. During the rebellion of Monophysites in 532, Hagia Sophia was destroyed again, along with many other important buildings, including the Church of Hagia Irene. This revolt is known as the “Nike Revolt” because the rebels repeatedly shouted “Nike”, the name of the goddess of victory.

After saving his throne, Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of a new church which was to surpass the magnificence of the earlier ones.  Historians write that he personally supervised the construction and made full use of all his empire could offer. Anthemius of Tralles (Aydın) and Isidorus of Miletus, were entrusted with the construction of the building. They supervised one hundred master builders and ten thousand workers and the new Church as we know today was constructed between the years 532-537 A.D.  It is almost unbelievable to think that it took only five years and ten months to build this glory.

Remnants from temples, columns, and stone were used from all over the empire.  Pillars and arches from the Temple of the Sun from Baalbek, Delian Apollo of Minerva from Athens, and Temple of Cybele from Cyzicus and porphyry columns famous Temple of Artemis from Ephesus were incorporated into the basilica’s structure. 

A medallion that had the face of Medusa was embedded in its walls.  It was placed in a prominent place where visitors would encounter the medallion when entering the church. 

The column known as the “weeping column” or the “wishing column” has many legends that surround it. This column is originally from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus and is made of white marble with a bronze belt circling its lower part.  There is a hole in the column that water drops come out of.  Because of this, people believe the column was weeping and it has been associated with miracles.  Visitors today come today to stick their finger in that hole of the pillar and pray for a miracle. 

Wishing Column

There are so many myths surrounding this magnificent place and the tunnels and reservoirs beneath it still hold mysteries. Here are a few of the myths which feel most interesting for me:

Emperor Justinian’s Dream

According to the most common legend about the construction of the Hagia Sophia, Emperor Justinian, saw an old man wandering around holding a silver plate in his dreams. Then the old man handed Justinian over the silver plate and told him “Here is the plan of the Hagia Sophia”.

Handprint of the Giant 

In the south-eastern end of the church, stands a rectangular column on which there is a hand print. There were many legends about this hand print. The construction of Hagia Sophia lasted for five years and ten months which seemed impossible for its time and this helped the creation of many stories. A widely known myth about the construction of the church says that giants and jinn helped its construction. It says that the giants have carried the columns and one of them decided to leave his mark. This is the story I was told when I visited Hagia Sophia for the first time as a child. As some other sources indicate, this piece of stone was added later onto the column. It was originally found in the Theotokos Church at Ayvansaray and when the church burned down, the stone was brought to Hagia Sophia.  

Magic Columns

There are four angel mosaics on the four columns carrying the great dome. The belief was that when Gabriel flapped wings and screamed, it would be the sign of abundance in the east; when Raphael flapped wings and screamed, it would be the sign of famines in the west; when Michael flapped its wings and screamed, it would be the sign of a rebel appearing from north and when Azrael flapped wings and screamed, it would be a sign of plague around the world.

The Emperor Door is the largest door of Hagia Sophia and is made of oak and has a bronze frame. The leaves on the door are coated by bronze plates. The door had been used only by the Emperor and his retinue. Byzantine references say the door could be made of the woods of Noah’s ark or the wood of the chest of which the Jewish holy plates were kept in.

There are many more myths, legends and stories surrounding both Hagia Sophia and Istanbul. I think it would take volumes of books to include them all. While watching Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom, I see the ancient temples, I see a magnificent church and a magnificent mosque. I recall the words of Rumi: 

“I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.
I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.
I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.
With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.
Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.
Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.
I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court.
Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else.”

The Aegean Way of Reading Omens

Simin Uysal

I’ve been visited by a goat in dreams since this May. I thought this was nothing special because I live in Ankara, ancient Ancyra or Angora, which is famous for its goats and their wool (mohair). 

A few months later, I was pleasantly surprised by a new business agreement in the family involving goat’s milk and I thought the dream goat was about that. However, the goat came back just before I received a message inviting me to go to İzmir or ancient Smyrna, at the Aegean coast of Turkey where I was born. The goat took me to a deserted temple where I saw a man at a distance who looked like watching the birds in the sky with great interest. I was feeling extremely curious when I woke so I decided to make some research on the goat and the Aegean coast around İzmir as the temple looked like one of those Temples of Apollo in the region. I was most excited by my findings.   

Thirty five kilometers to the south of Pergamon (Bergama) where the Asklepion – the ancient Temple of Dream Healing is, stands the ruins of an ancient city names Aigai. To the east of the ancient city, there was a temple for Apollo Chresterios, meaning the foresayer. The goat is a symbol for Aigai as a familiar pun, because goat is Greek, AIX, AIGOS and goat breeding was one of the most important economic activities of the people. We also owe the name Aegean as a sea and western coast of Anatolia to Aigai.

Divination was a central phenomenon in the lives of ancient Greeks. Anatolia is home to some of the oldest oracles in the Greek world and it was where the legendary Sibyls originated. Pausanias writes that Sibyl Herophile had been born enough ago to foretell the Trojan War.

In ancient Greece, mantike was a form of divination used to seek advice about a future action used by both individuals and states.  Aigai was famous for its temple for Apollo Chresterios and a seer named Polles. I could not find much about him except in Suda, which is a massive 10^th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Suda mentions that Melampus and Polles had acquired such celebrity as diviners that there was a current proverb “It needs a Melampus or a Polles to divine it.”

The section dedicated to Polles writes that he wrote the following books:

• an alphabetical Symbolika in 2 volumes,
• Bird-augury in 8 volumes,
• Arithmetic in 2 volumes,
• Remedies in 2 volumes,
• On the bird-augury in Homer,
• On Etruscan oracles,
• Iatrosymbolika (Medical Symbols),
• On woodpeckers,
• Sacred Speech,
• 1 volume on Domestic Matters,
• Hunting
• 3 volumes of Affinities and Aversions
• On lightning and how to avoid it

·         In Suda, Polles is also mentioned under the division of the art of augury. It writes:

"Phrygians were the first to discover this art. Its divisions are:

• bird-augury; for example, when this particular bird flies, in front or behind, heading right or left, one would say what it means. Telegonus first wrote about this.
• interpreting omens in the house, when there are things that happen in the house; for example, if a weasel or snake appeared in the house, or olive oil was spilt, or honey, or wine, or water, or ashes, or there was a grating of wood, or something else, it foretells such and such. Xenocrates first wrote collecting this.
• interpreting omens on travels, as when someone explains things that happen on the way; for example, when someone carrying a particular thing meets you, that thing will happen to you. Polles wrote collecting this.
• palmistry (hand-reading), as when, through the extension of hands and palm stretched out, we say, from the lines, "You are making a baby" or something like this. Helenus wrote collecting this.
• the art of interpreting twitches is that recognized from the twitching of the body; for example, the right or left eye twitched, or shoulder, or thigh, or an itching in the foot, or there was a ringing in the ear, it means this. Posidonius wrote collecting this.      

I was curious about Melampus, too. In Greek mythology, he is a seer known for his ability to understand the language of animals. It is written that Melampus received his supernatural abilities from two snakes that he raised after their parents had been killed by his servants. While he slept, they licked his ears, an act that startled him awake and made him realize that he could understand the language of the birds flying overhead.

Melampus was also credited by Herodotus in his History with having introduced the religion of Dionysus to Greece. He is known to have written on divination by twitches (palomancy) and divination by moles.

I am certainly no Melampus or Polles but I do like watching out for the signs around me and have my own “symbol book” which is constantly developing. I wasn’t planning to write this blog post until I found a pen on the ground today while walking and thinking about Polles. The pen, for me, was such a clear sign for me which luckily did not need a Polles or Melampus to divine. So, I wrote the story and I think Polles and Melampus would like this.