Actually did this last year already but I kinda liked it, so heres another for this year's halloween
(It's Ishmekarab and Lagamal going out as the Heibai Wuchang lol)

Some hk art cuz I've been spending a lot of my free time playing the game lol
(Well since I finished its time to go play silksong)

Actually do you know where the idea of a fixed list of "seven gods who decree" came from? I typically see it online but idk the origins (have yet to see it in papers)

"Men the tyrant": a forgotten lunar god in Greco-Roman sources Detail of a statue of Men (wikimedia commons) Supposedly the topic of Greco-Roman lunar deities is in the vogue right now. Clearly it’s the ideal opportunity to discuss Men - the odd man out among...

yamayuandadu.tumblr.com/post/7970356... First of the three short articles I wrote to make sure nothing cut from the Cybele deep dive goes to waste is now up on my blog. Find out why a god could be referred to as a tyrant, if Pythagoras was an alien, and what happens if the moon has cooties.

I'm sorry I had to

From Cybele to Mem Aleph: the secret origins of Strange Journey From a certain point of view, Strange Journey is a game about Cybele. Sure, she’s not a part of the roster (not until Redux, at least), but without her there would be no Strange Journey and no Mem...

yamayuandadu.tumblr.com/post/7965039... New "Megaten and mythology" article is up on my tumblr! Find out why Strange Journey is, in a way, a game about Cybele. Make sure to read the warning in the lead, though. #shinmegamitensei #smt #atlusfaithful

Actually goes with the talk on how Assyriologists tend to compare Mesopotamia with familar Western ideals since most of the theories on what those collections are tends to be either law codification or common law

With multiple Neo-Assyria scholars commenting on the lack of evidence for a Neo-Assyrian law collection despite keeping copies of older ones, you'd think that someone would have questioned the collections as "law codes" based on this

Imagine working in the temple of Sin in Harran and needing to call this guy by his full name
(Ashurbanipal made him a priest there)

yamayuandadu.tumblr.com/post/7932506... My new blog article, "Tribulations of a “tomboy goddess”, or why you should care about Anat" is out. It's not strictly speaking a Megaten article but I cover Megaten in it because Anat has no other notable modern adaptations for some reason.

The Cyrus Cylinder has genuinely caused so much damage lol, and it's still in the UN as a "human rights charter"

Yeah I'll say thats a projection of religious views, along with claims of "religious intolerance vs tolerance" for people where gods existing is simply taken for granted (e.g. public perception of evil Assyrians vs good Persians)

(using "classical Orientalism" to refer to the ogs pointed out by Said, the other stereotypes along with the subconscious comparison of west vs other has been classified as orientalist too)

Ngl I feel like quite a few Assyriologists operate on modern/western values to compare with Mesopotamia as well as modern stereotypes about the Middle East outside of classical Orientalism (although that is still an issue)

Yeah especially since a number of scholars still consider the "law codes" as actual set of law codes

Waiting for the day more people realize ANE "law codes" weren't law codes in the modern sense, were not cited in actual court proceedings, contradicted by daily documents and judicial decisions numerous times, etc.

Jokes aside I do hope Der gets a shot at getting at least partially excavated in the future

Haven't played the violin for too long and now my fingers hurt

Spoken like a true Qing period official (joking)

Oh hey didn't realize the Epic of Zimri-Lim is available online on oracc now
(oracc.museum.upenn.edu/nere/Q009326)

Remembering that the United Nations still holds the Cyrus Cylinder as some ancient human rights declaration 💀

Slightly off tangent but I guess this goes for generally applying modern/western concepts onto other societies without considering if it would make sense/were understood differently, even for concepts that most take for granted subconsciously like family, power, agency etc.

Technically this is true even nowadays, for example chinese Shanghuo doesn't really have an equivalent in western medicine (it operates on traditional chinese medical concepts)

Expanding on the Lupus talk, personally I'm not too confident on some attempts to map Mesopotamian diagnoses onto modern ones. The listed symptoms reflect what they thought were significant and connected, so they might overlook and highlight certain symptoms, and likely no patient had all of them

Brought up House MD and suddenly had a stupid idea

Annus has been writing some real crazy stuff (this is in 2025)

How it feels to see people trying to diagnose Esarhaddon with Lupus:

Guess Ninkilim is Ninurta now lol
The commentary says this syncretism is quite unexpected but maybe it has something to do with Ninurta's less attested association with wild animals?

I have some familiarity with Chinese internet speak, maybe I can see what it says?

yamayuandadu.tumblr.com/post/7889645... New article is up on my blog! I'm looking into the sources responsible for the common modern perception of Inanna and Ereshkigal as "polar opposites", into their supposed status as sisters, and into metaphorical use of kinship terms in ancient Mesopotamia.