Horns mean power no more any less; horns are emblems of power, dominance, and fierceness as they are the major means of attack and defense by the animals having them. Horns are also the symbol of royal dignity and strength. Horns in the times of Moses of the bible were a symbol of authority and power. Many gods have been illustrated having them. Kings and holy men were shown sometimes wearing horn-exaggerated crowns in ancient living. At one stage Moses came with horns from the mountain stating “I am the ram of God.” that was at the beginning of the astrological age of the Ram in ancient times. There are laws concerning horns which consisted of laying hold on them in the altar which was not allowed, which was a punishable offence and possibly by death.
Lamentations 2:3, Deuteronomy 33:17, Joshua 6:4-5, 1 Samuel 16:1 and 16:13, 1Kings 1:39, Exodus 27:2, 29:12 and 30:2 Leviticus 4 :7-18. 1 Kings 1:50 and 2:28.
Bible verses talking of horns as symbol of power
Again with horns as symbol of power:
Daniel 8:5, 8:24 and 8:9, 1 Samuel 2:1 and 2:3. Psalms 75:5, 75:10, 132:17, 89:17, 89:24, Zachariah 1:21, 1:18, Jeremiah 48:25 and Luke 1:69, Job 16;16.
In ancient times people had an emotional esteem for horned animals. Cave paintings are a sign of the intensity of ancient hunters’ feeling toward antelopes, rams, buffalos, oxen and so on. Later, written records affirm these visual ones, the inhabitant and farmer treasured his sheep, goats, cattle and oxen. These feelings were not wholly based on the fact that the animals provided them with meat, milk, wool. They believed that their strength was concentrated in their horns. Further, these were animals offering no competition for game that man hunted. In fact, they were easily-obtained prey for them. They shared the human instinct for companionable herding together, and except when threatened by preying animals. They were gentle and term creatures. Their horns were the force behind strength they were used by people to pull their plows in the grain fields.
Fighting for their lives or at mating rams, deer, and oxen butted, stabbed and killed with their horns. Ancient gods and super beings had horns too. Kings bejeweled headdresses with horns as a symbol of strength, supremacy, sovereignty and regal dignity. Horns meant glory as well as aggressive ferocity.
Alexander the Great was declared divine in the temple of the ram-god Anon, after conquering Egypt. From that point he was pictured on coins wearing ram’s horns. Greco-Roman gods were depicted wearing horns, as Zeus, for example, who also often took the form of a bull. Bacchus has the term “the horned one,” and Pan, as well as his companions, wore goat’s horns.
The strength, power and supremacy were but a part of the symbolism of horns. The other was virility – procreative vigor. Even the use of the oxen to pull the plow had its sexual connotation. The plow drew its furrow in the soil, and was pulled by reins attached to the oxen’s horns. The horns were the force behind the plow’s coitus with the earth. Horns were an erotic stimulant. It is common knowledge that they still are considered so, as powdered rhinoceros, elk and other animal horn is sold today in Asian countries as some powerful medicine to connect to the sprits and some said cure of some complicated diseases.
In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice says “There will the Devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head.” Stag horns in particular were an old symbol of cuckolds. Christianity, too, sought to discourage the pagan worship of horns and depicted the Devil himself as wicked with bestiality, and thus horned.” Now what relationship did people of bible of old times and early Christians have with the devil since they ‘Christians’, the Hebrews and their sister religion Judaism were the fanatics of horn symbolism of power? Were they the devil or so called horned demons by then? There is one thing I hate the most in some old-time bible related book photos, a so called demon, Satan, and the devil was pictured as a black person with ugly horns on his head. If you go in the bible you will find a lot of verses talking of God as the horn of salvation and a lot of things and dreams relating to horns as portraying powers, at the other hand Christians talk of horns as a tool for demons. Are these the same horns they talk about in the bible? The fact about this horn issue might be the Pagan/Christian differences, Christians used Pagan use of horns to bring them down and forgot they “Christian too” have the history of use of horns in their belief.
In addition to physical strength and generative power, horns symbolized mental and spiritual strength as well. Witch doctors and medicine men wear horns. Moses, receiving the Tablets of the Law on Mt. Sinai, was pictured by Michelangelo with horns on his head. This, however, is probably due to an error in translation of the Latin word, “cornuta” (with horns), which should have been understood as “bright” or with a halo or aura of light. Warriors from the earliest times put horns on their helmets. The Mesopotamians, the Etruscans, the Vikings wore them. Scandinavian coats of arms bore horns and horned figures, and family names were often equivalent of Ox, Deer, Doe, Buck or Horn.
Dead, discarded horns retained their vitality, and were used as vessels and receptacles. Even the horn shape was sacred, and goblets were made of silver, gold, crystal or clay to resemble horns. Here in Africa (Particularly South Africa we had the Shaka Zulu horn system of fighting wars. Horn and the word horn have been successfully used in so many things in far different times at far different places with far different racial and inhabitants.
The Lord said to Joshua, “…and seven priests “you shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns and the priests shall blow with the trumpets”. And when they blew, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down! This was amazing if it really happened, horns with such a power, God himself having commanded. It means horns were important and still are. Of all the things why would God choose horns? Modern Christians relate horns to evil, demons and to be endowed with Satan and his evil spirits. When is it that they started to be evil since they were used in some instances by God himself through his people? You may go down to the topic “Bible verses about ancient use of horns in power and dominance related matters”
The words “horn” and “corn” are one and the same– Moses was commanded by God, “And thou shall make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof,” when he ordained the structure of the Jewish altar. And the fleeing Israelites tried to take no risks on their luck, in spite of the miracles of the burning bushes, parting seas, and manna from heaven – they fashioned a graven image, a golden calf! (Maybe it was a big calf with horns already because horns meant more to people by then)
Of the entire phenomenon, the unicorn remains the most mysterious. Whether or not the creature ever existed will never be explained, in all probability. Quite possibly it is just a dream of men who build castles in the air about the ultimate in phallic symbols, or perhaps a dream of women. At any rate, unicorns have consistently figured in the legends of China, Arabia and India. Confucius, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan so it is said they came in contact with real unicorns, and a Greek physician at the court of Darius II in Persia wrote a book about India in the 3rd Century B.C. describing the unicorns found there. They resembled large asses, he said, and were snow white, with red heads and dark blue eyes. A horn eighteen inches or more long rose from the middle of their foreheads. The unicorn is so quick that no other animal can overtake it, and it is powerful as well, he wrote.
Legends seem consistent about the personality and powers of the unicorn. It could only be captured when it laid its head in the lap of a virgin, and it was only pure virgins for whom it had a fondness. Also, it could dip its horn into water — a well, stream, river or lake – and instantly purify it. Holding its horn over the body of a terminally ill or wounded person would make them well. Yet it was the nature of men to kill off this remarkable animal to obtain the magical horn! The same is happening with Rhinos, elephants and other few animals (The good and the bad about the need of horn for spiritual powers and healing), but still it tells you that this horn power thing does exist it also tells you that there is still need of horns for powers and healing as with ancient people.
Charms to turn away evil have long been shaped like horns. These, or making a sign of the horn with the fingers and “butting” with them, ward off the “evil eye.”
Sacrificial breads and cakes were semi-circular shaped, in respect to the moon gods, which of course wore horns. French croissants still are.
So, if you get an urge for a hot croissant or start feeling a primeval horniness, you have centuries of heritage to justify you. You are not alone.
Horned goddess/divine-being
Hothor
This article is about depictions of deities with horns. For the Neopagan horned God. Deities depicted with horns or antlers are found in many different religions across the world.
The Pharaoh Mekaura of Egypt being held by the goddess Hathor
Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus. Twin feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as a menat necklace. Hathor may be the cow goddess who is depicted from an early date on the Narmer Palette and on a stone pot dating from the 1st dynasty that suggests a role as sky-goddess and a relationship to Horus who, as a sun god, is “housed” in her.
Hathor had a complex relationship with Ra, in one myth she is his eye and considered his daughter but later, when Ra assumes the role of Horus with respect to Kingship, she is considered Ra’s mother. She absorbed this role from another cow goddess ‘Mht wry’ (“Great flood”) who was the mother of Ra in a creation myth and carried him between her horns. As a mother she gave birth to Ra each morning on the eastern horizon and as wife she conceives through union with him each day
The ancient Egyptian goddess Bat
Bat was a cow goddess in Egyptian mythology depicted as a human face with cow ears and horns. By the time of the Middle Kingdom her identity and attributes were subsumed within the goddess Hathor. The worship of Bat dates to earliest times and may have its origins in Late Paleolithic cattle herding. Bat was the chief goddess of Seshesh, otherwise known as Hu or Diospolis Parva, the 7th Nome of Upper Egypt. The imagery of Bat as a divine cow was remarkably similar to that of Hathor the parallel goddess from Lower Egypt. The significant difference in their depiction is that Bat’s horns curve inward and Hathor’s curve outward slightly. It is possible that this could be based in the different breeds of cattle herded at different times.
My point now: People especially leaders in religions change systems and beliefs to create their own for the sake of exploiting power, control and create their own wealth through these religions. This is likely to have happened with the Goddesses Hothor and Bat, listen to this ‘The imagery of Bat as a divine cow was remarkably similar to that of Hathor the parallel goddess from Lower Egypt. The significant difference in their depiction is that Bat’s horns curve inward and Hathor’s curve outward slightly. It is possible that this could be based in the different breeds of cattle herded at different times’. They had horns and they were esteemed from cows, with different shape of horns. Different curves of horns of these goddesses only meant different logos but for the use buy humans who owned them. So horns as symbol of power worked for ancient living and it still do.
Cult of the bull deities
In Egypt, the bull was worshiped as Apis the embodiment of Ptah and later of Osiris. A long series of ritually perfect bulls were identified by the god’s priests, housed in the temple for their lifetime, then embalmed and encased in a giant sarcophagus. A long sequence of monolithic stone sarcophagi was housed in the Serapeum and was rediscovered by August Mariette at Saqqa-Ra in 1851. The bull was also worshipped as Mnevis, the embodiment of Atum-Ra in Heliopolis. Ka in Egyptian is both a religious concept of life-force/power and the word for bull.
Mnevis was identified as being a living bull. This may be a vestige of the sacrifice of kings after a period of reign, who were seen as the sons of Bat or Hathor, the ancient cow deity of the early solar cults. Thus, seen as a symbol of the later sun god, Ra, the Mnevis was often depicted, in art, with the solar disc of their mother, Hathor between its horns.
Still on bull mythology
The Canaanite deity Moloch (according to the bible) was often depicted as a bull, and became a bull demon in Abrahamic traditions. The bull is familiar in Judeo-Christian cultures from the Biblical episode wherein an idol of the Golden Calf is made by Aaron and worshipped by the Hebrews in the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus).The text of the Hebrew Bible can be understood to refer to the idol as representing a separate god, or as representing the God of Israel himself, perhaps through an association or syncretization with Egyptian or Levantine bull gods, rather than a new deity in itself.
Exodus 32:4 “He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt’.” Now my point of view; would it be so easy for them to make their own god? Would God as said to be a jealous God allow the man made god to perform as a God? Did God with his said powers fill any threat with a golden calf? Would God be so much worried about a lifeless golden calf? Did God believe these people can make a performing living god that would match his sovereign abilities? It really doesn’t make sense, does it?
How old or big is this God? Is he a child to think that a lifeless golden calf can be somebody’s God/god and challenge him? How shallow, deed, or broader can one measure the thinking and reasoning capacity of this God according to his query of the lifeless golden calf?
Nehemiah 9:18 “even when they made an idol shaped like a calf and said, ‘This is your god who brought you out of Egypt!’ They committed terrible blasphemies.” As a merciful God seeing his children getting lost losing hope on him, did he have to be that angry and want to destroy them all, where was this love that we were told it is unconditional, tolerant and so on. You know if you will put all these things into consideration and compare with what religions are doing nowadays, you will hardly believe in their stories. I think people are now wise enough to see that most of the Abrahamic formed religions are religious civil wars under the hierarchy name Abraham. These religions are politics, even the death of Christ resulted from politics, and he wanted to build his own hierarchy name. Why did God feel threats about the gods that are considered so small by his Christians? Why would he be so threatened about an idol, cause to him that should have been considered a doll or a toy for the baby, would a normal father be worried that his child is having a toy and he may call it father? Considering the size god is said to be, even for this Satan to have survived this long makes the whole bible story an anthill in a children’s folk-tail.
Calf-idols are referred to afterward in the Tanakh, such as in the Book of Hosea which would seem accurate as they were a fixture of near-eastern cultures.
King Solomon’s “bronze sea”-basin stood on twelve brazen bulls, according to 1 Kings 7: Young bulls were set as frontier markers at Tel Dan and at Bethel the frontiers of the King of Israel.
Ram deities in ancient Egypt
The ram was revered in ancient Egypt in matters of fertility and war. Early gods with long wavy ram horns include Khnum and the equivalent god in Lower Egypt, Banebdjedet, the “Ram Lord of Djedet” (Mendes), who was typically shown with four ram heads to represent the four souls (Ba) of the sun god. Banebdjedet may also be linked to the first four gods to rule over Egypt, Osiris, Geb, Shu and Ra-Atum, with large granite shrines devoted to each in the Mendes sanctuary. The Book of the Heavenly Cow describes the “Ram of Mendes” as being the Ba of Osiris, but this was not an exclusive association.
List of Egyptian gods associated with the ram:
Khnum (one of the earliest Egyptian deities)
Heryshaf (a ram god of Hercleopols)
Kherty (a variant of Aken, The chief deity in Egyptian mythology)
Andyjety (ancestor of Osiris, Auf “Efu Ra”).
Horem Akhet (a god depicted as a sphinx with the head of a man, lion, or ram)
Banedjedet (ram god linked to the first four Egyptian gods: Osiris, Geb, Shu, Ra-Atum)
Amun (the ram deity that inspired the cult of Ammon)
Cult of Ammon
Cult in Nubia, Libya and Greece
Roman cast terracotta of ram-horned Jupiter Ammon, 1st century AD (Museo Barracco, Rome)
The worship of Ammon was introduced into Greece at an early period, probably through the medium of the Greek colony in Cyrene, Libya, which must have formed a connection with the great oracle of Ammon in the Oasis soon after its establishment. Ammon had a temple and a statue, the gift of Pindar, at Thebes, and another at Sparta, the inhabitants of which, as Pausanias says, consulted the oracle of Ammon in Libya from early times more than the other Greeks. At Aphytis, Chalcidice, Ammon was worshipped, from the time of Lysander, as zealously as in Ammonium. Pindar the poet honored the god with a hymn. At Megalopolis the god was represented with the head of a ram (Paus. viii.32 § 1), and the Greeks of Cyrenaica dedicated at Delphi a chariot with a statue of Ammon.
Such was its reputation among the Classical Greeks that Alexander the Great journeyed there after the battle of issues and during his occupation of Egypt, where he was declared the son of Amun by the oracle. Alexander thereafter considered himself divine. Even during this occupation, Amun, identified by these Greeks as a form of Zeus, continued to be the principal local deity of Thebes.
Berber mythology before the battle of Irassa (570 BC)
The Cyrenaican Greeks built temples for the Li Zeus.byan god Amon instead of their original god Zeus. They later identified their supreme god Zeus with the Libyan Amon. Some of them continued worshipping Amon himself. Amon’s cult was so widespread among the Greeks that even Alexander the Great decided to be declared as the son of Zeus in the Siwan temple by the Libyan priests of Amon.
Berber mythology, Amun as a common deity. Ram statues lined the entrance to Amun’s Temple
Although the most modern sources ignored the existence of Amun in the Berber mythology, he was maybe the greatest ancient Berber god. He was honored by the Ancient Greeks in Cyrenaica, and was united with the Phoenician/Carthaginian god Baal- hamon due to Libyan influence. Some depictions of the ram across North Africa belong to the lythic period which is situated between 9600 BC and 7500.
The most famous Amun’s temple in Ancient Libya was the temple at the oasis of Siwa. The name of the ancient Berber tribes: Garamantes and Nasamonians are believed by some scholars to be related to the name Amon.
Berber mythology Solar and Lunar worship
In AwelimmidenTuareg, the name Amanai is believed to have the meaning of “God”. The Ancient Libyans may have worshipped the setting sun, which was impersonated by Amon, who was represented by the ram’s horns.
Baal of carthage
In Carthage and North Africa Baal-hamon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Baal Qarnaim (“Lord of Two Horns”) in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein (“the two-horned hill”) across the bay from Carthage.
Alexander the Great in the Qur’an, ‘The two-horned one.
Silver tetradrachmon (ancient Greek coin) issued in the name of Alexander the Great, depicting Alexander with the horns of Ammon.
The Egyptian god Ammon-Ra was depicted with ram horns. Rams were considered a symbol of virility due to their rutting behavior. The horns of Ammon may have also represented the East and West of the Earth, and one of the titles of Ammon was “the two-horned.” Alexander was depicted with the horns of Ammon as a result of his conquest of ancient Egypt in 332 BC, where the priesthood received him as the son of the god Ammon, who was identified by the ancient Greeks with Zeus, the King of Gods. The combined deity Zeus-Ammon was a distinct figure in ancient Greek mythology. According to five historians of antiquity (Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch), Alexander visited the Oracle of Ammonat Siwa in the Libyan desert and rumors spread that the Oracle had revealed Alexander’s father to be the deity Ammon, rather than Philip. Alexander styled himself as the son of Zeus-Ammon and even demanded to be worshiped as a god:
He seems to have become convinced of the reality of his own divinity and to have required its acceptance by others … The cities perforce complied, but often ironically: the Spartan decree read, ‘Since Alexander wishes to be a god, let him be a god.’
Horned deities by continent
Europe
Cernunnos on the Pillar of the Boatsman
Pan was a god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds and rustic music.
Depictions in Celtic cultures of figures with antlers are often identified as Cernunnos (“horned one” in Latin). The prime evidence for this comes from a pillar in Paris which also features the Roman god Jupiter. Cocidius was the name of a Romao-British war-god and local deity from the area around Hadrian’s Wall, who is sometimes represented as being horned. He is associated with warfare and woodland and was worshipped mostly by military personnel and the lower classes.
The horned figure on the Gundestrup Cauldron.
Eliphas Levi, the 18th century occultist, believed that the pseudohistorical god Baphomet (that the Roman Catholic Church had claimed was worshipped by the heretical Knights Templar, was actually the horned Libyan oracle god (Ammon), or, the Gost of Mendes.
Gundestrup Cauldron Origins
For many years scholars have interpreted the Gundestrup Cauldron’s images in terms of the Celtic pantheon. The antlered figure has been commonly identified as Cernunnos.
Africa
Ikenga Igbo
A ram-shaped oracle god whose name is unknown was worshiped by Libyan tribes at Siwa. The figure was incorporated by the Egyptians into depictions of their god Amun that’s considered an “interpretation” of the Greek Zeus-Ammon
Adherents of Odinani (the traditional folk religion of the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria) worship the Ikenga, a horned god of honest achievement, whose two horns symbolize self-will. Small wooden statues of him are made and praised as personal altars.
Asia
Indus god Pashupati
A seal discovered during the excavation of mohenjo-daro in Pakistan has drawn attention as a possible representation of a “proto-Shiva” figure. This “Pashupati” (Lord of animal-like beings – Sanskrit seal shows a seated figure with horns, possibly ithyphallic, surrounded by animals.
Pashupati
The Rigvedahas the related pashupa “protector of cattle” as a name of Pushan. The Pushupatinath Temple is the most important Hindu shrine for all Hindus in Nepal and also for many Hindus in India and rest of the world.
The name has also been applied to a figure, probably a deity, depicted as sitting among animals, on a seal discovered in the context of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Horns mentioned in the bible
Baal with Thunderbolt, 13th-15thcentury BC. Still found at Ras Shamra (ancient city of Ugarit in present-day Syria).
Psalm 75:10
“I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.”
Deuteronomy 33:17
In majesty he (Jacob) is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth.
Revelation 13:11
Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.
Leviticus 4:7
The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the (Yahweh’s) altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the tent of meeting. The rest of the bull’s blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
The Canaanite gods Baal and El were horned bull gods as was, originally, Yahweh, which is why horns decorate the altar described in Leviticus 4:7. 28, 29, 30
Influence on Demonology
Pan with a goat
Christian demonology
Christian demonology Appearance
The idea that demons have horns seems to have been taken from the Book of Revelation chapter 13. The book of Revelation seems to have inspired many depictions of demons. This idea has also been associated with the depiction of certain ancient gods like Molch and the Shedu, etc., which were portrayed as bulls, as men with the head of a bull, or wearing bull horns as a crown.
Baphomet of Mendes
The satanic “horned god” symbol known as the Baphomet is based on an Egyptian ram deity that was worshipped in Mendes, called Banedjet (literally Ba of the lord of djed, and titled “the Lord of Mendes”), who was the soul of Osiris. According to Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of ancient Egypt, the book’s author Geraldine Pinch, said the ram gods Ra-Amun (see: Cult of Ammon), and Banebdjed, were to mystically unite with the queen of Egypt to sire the heir to the throne (a theory based on depictions found in several Theban temples in Mendes). Occultist Elphas Levi in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855), combined the images of the Tarot of Marseilles Devil card and refigured the ram Banebdjed as a he-goat, calling it the “Baphomet of Mendes,” (or, “Goat of Mendes”). The inaccurate description can be traced back to Herodotus’ Histories Book II, where Herodotus describes the deity of Mendes as having a goats head and fleece, when Banebdjedet was really represented by a ram, not a goat.
The Devil in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Baphomet, Aleister Crowley
The Baphomet of Levi was to become an important figure within the cosmology of Thelema, the mystical system established by Aleister Crowley in the early twentieth century. Baphomet features in the Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church recited by the congregation in The Gnostic Mass, in the sentence: “And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET” (see: Aleister Crowley Occult).
Baphomet as a demon
Lévi’s Baphomet is the source of the later tarot image of the Devil in the Rider-Waite design. The concept of a downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead was enlarged upon by Lévi in his discussion (without illustration) of the Goat of Mendes arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasted with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram. The actual image of a goat in a downward-pointing pentagram first appeared in the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire by Stanislas de Guaita, later adopted as the official symbol—called the Sigil of Baphomet—of the Church of Satan, and it is said to continue to be used among Satanists.
Neopaganism
Devil, Neopaganism
Francisco de Goya’s Witches Sabbat (1789), which depicts the Devil flanked by Satanic witches. The Witch Cult hypothesis states that such stories are based upon a real-life pagan cult that revered a horned god, Christians used that to oppose them whereas they shared the same belief in the horn power.
Few neopagan reconstructionist traditions recognize Satan or the Devil outright. However, many neopagan groups worship some sort of Horned God, for example as a consort of the Great Goddess in Wicca. These gods usually reflect mythological-figures such as Cernunnos or Pan, and any similarity they may have to the Christian Devil seems to date back only to the 19th century, when a Christian reaction to Pan’s growing importance in literature and art resulted in his image being translated to that of the Devil.
19th century Sabbatic Goat
(Where did these goats go? Who saw them live? Did anyone read about their extinction at any time of life? This Sabbatic goat looks to be having horns and wings, was it able to fly with these wings, was it pictured or just drawn by people wanting to frighten others with none existing monster?
Witch-cult hypothesis
Witch- cult hypothesis Post
In 1985 Classical historian George Luck, in his Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, theorized that the origins of the Witch-cult may have appeared in late ancient times as a faith primarily designed to worship the Horned God, stemming from the merging of Cernunnos, a horned god of the Celts, with the Greco-Roman Pan/Faunas a combination of gods which he posit created a new deity, around which the remaining Pagans, those refusing to convert to Christianity, rallied and that this deity provided the prototype for later Christian conceptions of the Devil, and his worshippers were cast by the Church as witches.
Beelzebub
Horned demon? (proto-Elamite 3000-2800 BC)
Christian teaching about the Devil; New Testament.
There is an implied connection between Satan and Beelzebub (lit. Lord of the Flies), originally a Semitic deity called Baal (lit. “Lord”). Beelzebub is the most recognized demon in the Bible, whose name has become analogous to Satan. Occult and metaphysical author Michelle Belanger believes that Beelzebub (a mockery of the original name is the horned god Ba’al Hadad, whose cult symbol was the bull. According to The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca, Beelzebub reigned over the Witches’ Sabbat (“synagoga”), and that witches denied Christ in his name and chanted “Beelzebub” as they danced.
Beelzebub: Later mythology
Beelzebub was also imagined to be sowing his influence in Salem, Massachusetts: his name came up repeatedly during the Salem witch trials, the last large-scale public expression of witch hysteria in North America or Europe, and afterwards Rev. Cotton Mather wrote a pamphlet entitled Of Beelzebub and his Plot.
Neopaganism Horned God
In 1933, the Egyptologist Margaret Murray published the book, The God of the Witches, in which she theorized that Pan was merely one form of a horned god who was worshipped across Europe by a witch-cult. This theory influenced the Neopagan notion of the Horned God, as an archetype of male virility and sexuality. In Wicca, the archetype of the Horned God is highly important, and is thought by believers to be represented by such deities as the Celtic Cernunnos, Indian Pashupati and Greek Pan. Horned God in Wiccan based neopagan religions represents a solar god often associated with vegetation, that’s honored as the Holly King or Oak King in Neopagan rituals. Most often, the Horned God is considered a male fertility god. The use of horns as a symbol for power dates back to the ancient world from ancient Egypt and the Baal worshipping Canaanites, to the Greeks, Romans, Celts and various other cultures. Horns have ever been present in religious imagery as symbols of fertility and power. It was not until Christianity attributed horns to Satan as part of his iconography that horned gods became associated with evil in Western mythology: Many modern Neo-Pagans focus their worship on a horned god, or often “the” Horned God and one or more goddesses. Deities such as Pan and Dionysus have had attributes of their worship imported into the Neopagan concept as have the Celtic Cernunnos and Gwynn ap Nudd, one of the mythological leaders of the Wild Hunt.
Rams Horns in ancient Bible times
Horns in the Bible ‘Easton dictionary’. Trumpets were at first horns perforated at the tip, used for various purposes (Joshua. 6:4, 5). Flasks or vessels were made of horn (1 Samuel. 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39). But the word is used also metaphorically to denote the projecting corners of the altar of burnt offerings (Exodus. 27:2) and of incense (30:2). The horns of the altar of burnt offerings were to be smeared with the blood of the slain bullock (29:12; Leviticus. 4:7-18). The criminal, when his crime was accidental, found an asylum by laying hold of the horns of the altar (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28). The word also denotes the peak or summit of a hill (Isaiah 5:1, where the word “hill” is the rendering of the same Hebrew word). This word is used metaphorically also for strength (Deuteronomy. 33:17) and honor (Job 16:15; Lamuel. 2:3). Horns are emblems of power, dominion, glory, and fierceness, as they are the chief means of attack and defense with the animals endowed with them (Daniel 8:5, 9; 1 Sam. 2:1; 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39; 22:11; Joshua. 6:4, 5; Psalms. 75:5, 10; 132:17; Luke 1:69, etc.). The expression “horn of salvation,” applied to Christ, means a salvation of strength, or a strong Savior (Luke 1:69). To have the horn “exalted” denotes prosperity and triumph (Psalms. 89:17, 24). To “lift up” the horn is to act proudly (Zechariah. 1:21). Horns are also the symbol of royal dignity and power (Jeremiah. 48:25; Zechariah. 1:18; Daniel 8:24).
http://www.bible-history.com/eastons/H/Horn/
Horn in Bible Fausset’s Dictionary Trumpets were perhaps at first merely horns perforated at the tip. In Joshua 6:4-5, instead of “trumpets of rams’ horns,” translated “Jubilee trumpets.” Rams’ horns would scarcely have been effective enough. Hajobeel, from Jabal “to stream violently with noise,” is the name for a long wind instrument like a horn. Used for summoning to war, or for public proclamations (Judges 3:27; Judges 7:18). The horn was also used for a flask to contain oil (1 Samuel 16:1); also to contain stibium or antimony to beautify the eyelashes and eyelids of women; from whence Job’s daughter drew her name Keren-happuch, “horn of stibium,” in contrast to Job’s “horn defiled in the dust” formerly (Job 16:15). The “horn” being the instrument of the oxen’s strength is the symbol of power (1 Kings 22:11). The “horns of the (See ALTAR” were simply projections from the four corners. The peak of a hill is called a horn. Isaiah 5:1, “a very fruitful hill” Hebrew “a horn of the son of oil,” as the Swiss Shreckhorn, Wetterhorn, Celtic cairn. In Habakkuk 3:4, “He had horns coming out of His hand” means, He had the emblems of power wielded by His hand (L. de Dieu), or else rays” (i.e. lightning): Psalm 18:8 (Maurer). So Exodus 34:29-30; Exodus 34:35, qaaran, “to horn,” are used in the sense to emit rays. Livingstone mentions a horn-shaped cap as worn by Africans; married Druse women wear silver horns on their heads. The ram with two horns (Daniel 8:3) represents the Medo-Persian double power. The “notable horn” of the “he goat” (Daniel 8:5) is Alexander the Great who on coins is represented with horns. The four horns in Zechariah 1:18 represent the four ruling powers of the world, to be superseded finally by Messiah’s kingdom: Babylon, Medo- Persia, Greece, and Rome. (On “the little horn” of the third and of the fourth world powers (Daniel 7:8; Daniel 8:9). (See ANTICHRIST.) On Egyptian and Roman coins, and in Assyrian sculptures, are figures of gods with horns, symbolical of power. “A horn of salvation” means mighty instrument of salvation (Luke 1:69).
Horn in the Naves Topical Bible Used to contain the anointing oil 1Samuel 16:1; 1Kings 1:39 -Used for a trumpet See TRUMPET -FIGURATIVE Of divine protection 2Samuel 22:3 Of power 1Kings 22:11; Psalms 89:24; 92:10; 132:17 -SYMBOLICAL Daniel 7:7-24; 8:3-9,20; Am 6:13; Mica 4:13; Hebrews 3:4; Zechariah 1:18-21; Revelation 5:6; 12:3; 13:1,11; 17:3-16 Horns of the altar See ALTAR
Horns in Smith Bible dictionary The word “horn” is often used metaphorically to signify strength and honor, because horns are the chief weapons and ornaments of the animals which possess them; hence they are also used as a type of victory. Of strength the horn of the unicorn was the most frequent representative, Deuteronomy 33:17 1Kings 22:11 where probably horns of iron, worn defiantly and symbolically on the head, are intended.
Among the Druses upon Mount Lebanon the married women wear silver horns on their heads. In the sense of honor, the word horn stands for the abstract “my horn,” Job 16:16 “all the horn of Israel,” 1Samuel 2:3 and so for the supreme authority. It also stands for the concrete, hence it comes to mean king, kingdom. Daniel 8:2 etc.; Zachariah 1:18 Out of either or both of these last two metaphors sprang the idea of representing gods with horns.
Horn in the Bible Encyclopedia ISBE horn (Hebrew and Aramaic Keren; keras; for the “ram’s horn” (yobhel) of Joshua 6 see MUSIC, and for the “inkhorn” of Ezekiel 9 (qeceth) see separate article): (1) Qeren and keras represent the English “horn” exactly, whether on the animal (Genesis 22:13), or used for musical purposes (Joshua 6:5; 1 Chronicles 25:5), or for containing a liquid (1 Samuel 16:1,13; 1 Kings 1:39), but in Ezekiel 27:15 the horns of ivory are of course tusks and the “horns” of ebony are small (pointed?) logs. Consequently most of the usages require no explanation. Both the altar of burnt offering (Exodus 27:2; 38:2; compare Ezekiel 43:15) and the incense altar (Exodus 30:2; 37:25, 26; compare Revelation 9:13) had “horns,” which are explained to be projections “of one piece with” the wooden framework and covered with the brass (or gold) that covered the altar. They formed the most sacred part of the altar and were anointed with the blood of the most solemn sacrifices (only) (Exodus 30:10; Lev 4:7,18,25,30,34; 16:18; compare Ezekiel 43:20), and according to Leviticus 8:15; 9:9, the first official sacrifices began by anointing them. Consequently cutting off the horns effectually desecrated the altar (Amos 3:14), while “sin graven on them” (Jeremiah 17:1) took all efficacy from the sacrifice. On the other hand they offered the highest sanctuary (1 Kings 1:50, 51; 2:28). Of their symbolism nothing whatever is said, and the eventual origin is quite obscure. “Remnants of a bull-cult” and “miniature sacred towers” have been suggested, but are wholly uncertain. A more likely origin is from an old custom of draping the altar with skins of sacrificed animals). That, however, the “horns” were mere conveniences for binding the sacrificial animals (Psalms 118:27, a custom referred to nowhere else in the Old Testament), is most unlikely. See ALTAR. The common figurative use of “horn” is taken from the image of battling animals (literal use in Dan 8:7, etc.) to denote aggressive strength. So Zedekiah illustrates the predicted defeat of the enemies by pushing with iron horns (1 Kings 22:11; 2 Chronicles 18:10), while “horns of the wild ox” (Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalms 22:21; 92:10, the King James Version “unicorn”) represent the magnitude of power, and in Zechariah 1:18-21 “horns” stand for power in general.
In Habrews 3:4 the “horns coming out of his hand” denote the potency of Yahweh’s gesture (the Revised Version (British and American) “rays” may be smoother, but is weak). So to “exalt the horn” (1 Samuel 2:1, 10; Psalms 75:4, etc.) is to clothe with strength, and to “cut off the horn” (not to be explained by Amos 3:14) is to rob of power (Psalms 75:10; Jeremiah 48:25). Hence, the “horn of salvation” in 2 Samuel 22:3; Psalms 18:2; Luke 1:69 is a means of active defense and not a place of sanctuary as in 1 Kings 1:50. When, in Daniel 7:7-24; 8:3,8,9,20,21; Revelations 13:1; 17:3,7,12,16, many horns are given to the same animal, they figure successive nations or rulers. But the seven horns in Revelations 5:6; 12:3 denote the completeness of the malevolent or righteous power. In Revelation 13:11, however, the two horns point only to the external imitation of the harmless lamb, the “horns” being mere stubs.
Horn Scripture – 1 Chronicles 25:5 these entire [were] the sons of Herman the king’s seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. And God gave to Herman fourteen sons and three daughters.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/1+Chronicles/25/
Horn Scripture – 1 Samuel 16:1 And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/1+Samuel/16/
Horn Scripture – 1 Samuel 2:1 And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoices in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/1+Samuel/2/
Horn Scripture – 1Samuel 2:10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/1+Samuel/2/
Horn Scripture –Exodus 21:29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Exodus/21/
Horn Scripture – Joshua 6:5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long [blast] with the ram’s horn, [and] when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Joshua/6/
Horn Scripture – Lamentations 2v17The LORD hath done [that] which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused [thine] enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Lamentations/2/
Horn Scripture – Micah 4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Micah/4/
Horn Scripture – Psalms 148:14 He also exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; [even] of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise you the LORD.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Psalms/148/
Horn Scripture –Zachariah 1:21Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These [are] the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up [their] horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Zechariah/1/
Ram’s Horn as a Trumpet The ram’s horn was also made into a trumpet and has been called by the Jews, Shofar. The Mosaic Law called for the sounding of rams’ horns at certain times. Each year of Jubilee was ushered in by the blowing of these horns. “Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land” (Leviticus 25:9). In connection with the Feast of Trumpets there was to be “a day of blowing the trumpets” (Numbers 29:1). The most famous use of the rams’ horns was in connection with the encircling and destruction of the city of Jericho by Joshua’s army. “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns; and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets” (Joshua 6:4). The trumpets were also used as signals to gather the people (Jeremiah 4:5). The ram’s horn trumpet measures about eighteen inches long and is in one piece. It is made from the left horn of the fat-tailed sheep, which is “not spiral but flattish, curved backwards, and forming nearly a circle, the point passing under the ear. This structure, added to the large size of the horn, adapts it well for its purpose. In order to bring it to the proper shape, the horn is softened by heat (i.e. hot water) and then modeled into the very form which was used by the Jewish priests.” [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qDQAYzDf0WM%3d&tabid=232&mid=762
Ram’s Horn to Carry Oil Rams’ horns. The horns of the rams are considered to be of great value. In many Western lands, growers of sheep have endeavored to develop a hornless breed, but in the East the horns are thought of as an important part of the animal. The ram’s horn has been used chiefly as a vessel in which liquids have been carried. For carrying purposes a wooden plug is driven into the large end of the horn so as to close it, and sometimes it is covered with raw hide to hold it in place. The small part of the pointed end of the horn is cut off, and the opening closed with a stopper. The ram’s horn was used in Bible times to carry oil. Samuel was told to take his horn of oil and anoint David to be the future king (I Samuel 16:1). Solomon was anointed king by the oil in the horn of Zadok the priest (I Kings 1:39). Reference has already been made to the shepherd’s use of oil with his sheep, and this was carried in a ram’s horn. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qDQAYzDf0WM%3d&tabid=232&mid=762
Sound of the Trumpet ISRAEL’S USE OF TRUMPETS The trumpets as used by the Hebrews were in three forms. The earliest form was made from the horn of an ox or a ram. A second form was a curved metallic trumpet. And a later form was the straight trumpet, a representation of which is seen on the Arch of Titus. Moses was commanded of the LORD to make two silver trumpets which were to be sounded forth “for the calling of the assembly and for the journeying of the camps” (Numbers 10:2). Also GOD told them: “If you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets” (Numbers 10:9). The fiftieth year, or the Year of Jubilee, was ushered in on the Day of Atonement by the blowing of the trumpets (Leviticus 25:8, 9). Throughout the history of Israel, trumpets were used to gather the people together in times of war that they might go to battle, and usually in times of peace that they might come to the sanctuary for the purpose of divine worship. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=2AAHGj1Dj9A%3d&tabid=232&mid=762
Horns mean Power. No Supplementary, no Less
Horns and Kings in the Bible
Horns as the symbol of power
Horns mean power no more any less; horns are emblems of power, dominance, and fierceness as they are the major means of attack and defense by the animals having them. Horns are also the symbol of royal dignity and strength. Horns in the times of Moses of the bible were a symbol of authority and power. Many gods have been illustrated having them. Kings and holy men were shown sometimes wearing horn-exaggerated crowns in ancient living. At one stage Moses came with horns from the mountain stating “I am the ram of God.” that was at the beginning of the astrological age of the Ram in ancient times. There are laws concerning horns which consisted of laying hold on them in the altar which was not allowed, which was a punishable offence and possibly by death.
Lamentations 2:3, Deuteronomy 33:17, Joshua 6:4-5, 1 Samuel 16:1 and 16:13, 1Kings 1:39, Exodus 27:2, 29:12 and 30:2 Leviticus 4 :7-18. 1 Kings 1:50 and 2:28.
Bible verses talking of horns as symbol of power
Again with horns as symbol of power:
Daniel 8:5, 8:24 and 8:9, 1 Samuel 2:1 and 2:3. Psalms 75:5, 75:10, 132:17, 89:17, 89:24, Zachariah 1:21, 1:18, Jeremiah 48:25 and Luke 1:69, Job 16;16.
In ancient times people had an emotional esteem for horned animals. Cave paintings are a sign of the intensity of ancient hunters’ feeling toward antelopes, rams, buffalos, oxen and so on. Later, written records affirm these visual ones, the inhabitant and farmer treasured his sheep, goats, cattle and oxen. These feelings were not wholly based on the fact that the animals provided them with meat, milk, wool. They believed that their strength was concentrated in their horns. Further, these were animals offering no competition for game that man hunted. In fact, they were easily-obtained prey for them. They shared the human instinct for companionable herding together, and except when threatened by preying animals. They were gentle and term creatures. Their horns were the force behind strength they were used by people to pull their plows in the grain fields.
Fighting for their lives or at mating rams, deer, and oxen butted, stabbed and killed with their horns. Ancient gods and super beings had horns too. Kings bejeweled headdresses with horns as a symbol of strength, supremacy, sovereignty and regal dignity. Horns meant glory as well as aggressive ferocity.
Alexander the Great was declared divine in the temple of the ram-god Anon, after conquering Egypt. From that point he was pictured on coins wearing ram’s horns. Greco-Roman gods were depicted wearing horns, as Zeus, for example, who also often took the form of a bull. Bacchus has the term “the horned one,” and Pan, as well as his companions, wore goat’s horns.
The strength, power and supremacy were but a part of the symbolism of horns. The other was virility – procreative vigor. Even the use of the oxen to pull the plow had its sexual connotation. The plow drew its furrow in the soil, and was pulled by reins attached to the oxen’s horns. The horns were the force behind the plow’s coitus with the earth. Horns were an erotic stimulant. It is common knowledge that they still are considered so, as powdered rhinoceros, elk and other animal horn is sold today in Asian countries as some powerful medicine to connect to the sprits and some said cure of some complicated diseases.
In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice says “There will the Devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head.” Stag horns in particular were an old symbol of cuckolds. Christianity, too, sought to discourage the pagan worship of horns and depicted the Devil himself as wicked with bestiality, and thus horned.” Now what relationship did people of bible of old times and early Christians have with the devil since they ‘Christians’, the Hebrews and their sister religion Judaism were the fanatics of horn symbolism of power? Were they the devil or so called horned demons by then? There is one thing I hate the most in some old-time bible related book photos, a so called demon, Satan, and the devil was pictured as a black person with ugly horns on his head. If you go in the bible you will find a lot of verses talking of God as the horn of salvation and a lot of things and dreams relating to horns as portraying powers, at the other hand Christians talk of horns as a tool for demons. Are these the same horns they talk about in the bible? The fact about this horn issue might be the Pagan/Christian differences, Christians used Pagan use of horns to bring them down and forgot they “Christian too” have the history of use of horns in their belief.
In addition to physical strength and generative power, horns symbolized mental and spiritual strength as well. Witch doctors and medicine men wear horns. Moses, receiving the Tablets of the Law on Mt. Sinai, was pictured by Michelangelo with horns on his head. This, however, is probably due to an error in translation of the Latin word, “cornuta” (with horns), which should have been understood as “bright” or with a halo or aura of light. Warriors from the earliest times put horns on their helmets. The Mesopotamians, the Etruscans, the Vikings wore them. Scandinavian coats of arms bore horns and horned figures, and family names were often equivalent of Ox, Deer, Doe, Buck or Horn.
Dead, discarded horns retained their vitality, and were used as vessels and receptacles. Even the horn shape was sacred, and goblets were made of silver, gold, crystal or clay to resemble horns. Here in Africa (Particularly South Africa we had the Shaka Zulu horn system of fighting wars. Horn and the word horn have been successfully used in so many things in far different times at far different places with far different racial and inhabitants.
The Lord said to Joshua, “…and seven priests “you shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns and the priests shall blow with the trumpets”. And when they blew, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down! This was amazing if it really happened, horns with such a power, God himself having commanded. It means horns were important and still are. Of all the things why would God choose horns? Modern Christians relate horns to evil, demons and to be endowed with Satan and his evil spirits. When is it that they started to be evil since they were used in some instances by God himself through his people? You may go down to the topic “Bible verses about ancient use of horns in power and dominance related matters”
The words “horn” and “corn” are one and the same– Moses was commanded by God, “And thou shall make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof,” when he ordained the structure of the Jewish altar. And the fleeing Israelites tried to take no risks on their luck, in spite of the miracles of the burning bushes, parting seas, and manna from heaven – they fashioned a graven image, a golden calf! (Maybe it was a big calf with horns already because horns meant more to people by then)
Of the entire phenomenon, the unicorn remains the most mysterious. Whether or not the creature ever existed will never be explained, in all probability. Quite possibly it is just a dream of men who build castles in the air about the ultimate in phallic symbols, or perhaps a dream of women. At any rate, unicorns have consistently figured in the legends of China, Arabia and India. Confucius, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan so it is said they came in contact with real unicorns, and a Greek physician at the court of Darius II in Persia wrote a book about India in the 3rd Century B.C. describing the unicorns found there. They resembled large asses, he said, and were snow white, with red heads and dark blue eyes. A horn eighteen inches or more long rose from the middle of their foreheads. The unicorn is so quick that no other animal can overtake it, and it is powerful as well, he wrote.
Legends seem consistent about the personality and powers of the unicorn. It could only be captured when it laid its head in the lap of a virgin, and it was only pure virgins for whom it had a fondness. Also, it could dip its horn into water — a well, stream, river or lake – and instantly purify it. Holding its horn over the body of a terminally ill or wounded person would make them well. Yet it was the nature of men to kill off this remarkable animal to obtain the magical horn! The same is happening with Rhinos, elephants and other few animals (The good and the bad about the need of horn for spiritual powers and healing), but still it tells you that this horn power thing does exist it also tells you that there is still need of horns for powers and healing as with ancient people.
Charms to turn away evil have long been shaped like horns. These, or making a sign of the horn with the fingers and “butting” with them, ward off the “evil eye.”
Sacrificial breads and cakes were semi-circular shaped, in respect to the moon gods, which of course wore horns. French croissants still are.
So, if you get an urge for a hot croissant or start feeling a primeval horniness, you have centuries of heritage to justify you. You are not alone.
Horned goddess/divine-being
Hothor
This article is about depictions of deities with horns. For the Neopagan horned God. Deities depicted with horns or antlers are found in many different religions across the world.
The Pharaoh Mekaura of Egypt being held by the goddess Hathor
Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus. Twin feathers are also sometimes shown in later periods as well as a menat necklace. Hathor may be the cow goddess who is depicted from an early date on the Narmer Palette and on a stone pot dating from the 1st dynasty that suggests a role as sky-goddess and a relationship to Horus who, as a sun god, is “housed” in her.
Hathor had a complex relationship with Ra, in one myth she is his eye and considered his daughter but later, when Ra assumes the role of Horus with respect to Kingship, she is considered Ra’s mother. She absorbed this role from another cow goddess ‘Mht wry’ (“Great flood”) who was the mother of Ra in a creation myth and carried him between her horns. As a mother she gave birth to Ra each morning on the eastern horizon and as wife she conceives through union with him each day
The ancient Egyptian goddess Bat
Bat was a cow goddess in Egyptian mythology depicted as a human face with cow ears and horns. By the time of the Middle Kingdom her identity and attributes were subsumed within the goddess Hathor. The worship of Bat dates to earliest times and may have its origins in Late Paleolithic cattle herding. Bat was the chief goddess of Seshesh, otherwise known as Hu or Diospolis Parva, the 7th Nome of Upper Egypt. The imagery of Bat as a divine cow was remarkably similar to that of Hathor the parallel goddess from Lower Egypt. The significant difference in their depiction is that Bat’s horns curve inward and Hathor’s curve outward slightly. It is possible that this could be based in the different breeds of cattle herded at different times.
My point now: People especially leaders in religions change systems and beliefs to create their own for the sake of exploiting power, control and create their own wealth through these religions. This is likely to have happened with the Goddesses Hothor and Bat, listen to this ‘The imagery of Bat as a divine cow was remarkably similar to that of Hathor the parallel goddess from Lower Egypt. The significant difference in their depiction is that Bat’s horns curve inward and Hathor’s curve outward slightly. It is possible that this could be based in the different breeds of cattle herded at different times’. They had horns and they were esteemed from cows, with different shape of horns. Different curves of horns of these goddesses only meant different logos but for the use buy humans who owned them. So horns as symbol of power worked for ancient living and it still do.
Cult of the bull deities
In Egypt, the bull was worshiped as Apis the embodiment of Ptah and later of Osiris. A long series of ritually perfect bulls were identified by the god’s priests, housed in the temple for their lifetime, then embalmed and encased in a giant sarcophagus. A long sequence of monolithic stone sarcophagi was housed in the Serapeum and was rediscovered by August Mariette at Saqqa-Ra in 1851. The bull was also worshipped as Mnevis, the embodiment of Atum-Ra in Heliopolis. Ka in Egyptian is both a religious concept of life-force/power and the word for bull.
Mnevis was identified as being a living bull. This may be a vestige of the sacrifice of kings after a period of reign, who were seen as the sons of Bat or Hathor, the ancient cow deity of the early solar cults. Thus, seen as a symbol of the later sun god, Ra, the Mnevis was often depicted, in art, with the solar disc of their mother, Hathor between its horns.
Still on bull mythology
The Canaanite deity Moloch (according to the bible) was often depicted as a bull, and became a bull demon in Abrahamic traditions. The bull is familiar in Judeo-Christian cultures from the Biblical episode wherein an idol of the Golden Calf is made by Aaron and worshipped by the Hebrews in the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus).The text of the Hebrew Bible can be understood to refer to the idol as representing a separate god, or as representing the God of Israel himself, perhaps through an association or syncretization with Egyptian or Levantine bull gods, rather than a new deity in itself.
Exodus 32:4 “He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt’.” Now my point of view; would it be so easy for them to make their own god? Would God as said to be a jealous God allow the man made god to perform as a God? Did God with his said powers fill any threat with a golden calf? Would God be so much worried about a lifeless golden calf? Did God believe these people can make a performing living god that would match his sovereign abilities? It really doesn’t make sense, does it?
How old or big is this God? Is he a child to think that a lifeless golden calf can be somebody’s God/god and challenge him? How shallow, deed, or broader can one measure the thinking and reasoning capacity of this God according to his query of the lifeless golden calf?
Nehemiah 9:18 “even when they made an idol shaped like a calf and said, ‘This is your god who brought you out of Egypt!’ They committed terrible blasphemies.” As a merciful God seeing his children getting lost losing hope on him, did he have to be that angry and want to destroy them all, where was this love that we were told it is unconditional, tolerant and so on. You know if you will put all these things into consideration and compare with what religions are doing nowadays, you will hardly believe in their stories. I think people are now wise enough to see that most of the Abrahamic formed religions are religious civil wars under the hierarchy name Abraham. These religions are politics, even the death of Christ resulted from politics, and he wanted to build his own hierarchy name. Why did God feel threats about the gods that are considered so small by his Christians? Why would he be so threatened about an idol, cause to him that should have been considered a doll or a toy for the baby, would a normal father be worried that his child is having a toy and he may call it father? Considering the size god is said to be, even for this Satan to have survived this long makes the whole bible story an anthill in a children’s folk-tail.
Calf-idols are referred to afterward in the Tanakh, such as in the Book of Hosea which would seem accurate as they were a fixture of near-eastern cultures.
King Solomon’s “bronze sea”-basin stood on twelve brazen bulls, according to 1 Kings 7: Young bulls were set as frontier markers at Tel Dan and at Bethel the frontiers of the King of Israel.
Ram deities in ancient Egypt
The ram was revered in ancient Egypt in matters of fertility and war. Early gods with long wavy ram horns include Khnum and the equivalent god in Lower Egypt, Banebdjedet, the “Ram Lord of Djedet” (Mendes), who was typically shown with four ram heads to represent the four souls (Ba) of the sun god. Banebdjedet may also be linked to the first four gods to rule over Egypt, Osiris, Geb, Shu and Ra-Atum, with large granite shrines devoted to each in the Mendes sanctuary. The Book of the Heavenly Cow describes the “Ram of Mendes” as being the Ba of Osiris, but this was not an exclusive association.
List of Egyptian gods associated with the ram:
Khnum (one of the earliest Egyptian deities)
Heryshaf (a ram god of Hercleopols)
Kherty (a variant of Aken, The chief deity in Egyptian mythology)
Andyjety (ancestor of Osiris, Auf “Efu Ra”).
Horem Akhet (a god depicted as a sphinx with the head of a man, lion, or ram)
Banedjedet (ram god linked to the first four Egyptian gods: Osiris, Geb, Shu, Ra-Atum)
Amun (the ram deity that inspired the cult of Ammon)
Cult of Ammon
Cult in Nubia, Libya and Greece
Roman cast terracotta of ram-horned Jupiter Ammon, 1st century AD (Museo Barracco, Rome)
The worship of Ammon was introduced into Greece at an early period, probably through the medium of the Greek colony in Cyrene, Libya, which must have formed a connection with the great oracle of Ammon in the Oasis soon after its establishment. Ammon had a temple and a statue, the gift of Pindar, at Thebes, and another at Sparta, the inhabitants of which, as Pausanias says, consulted the oracle of Ammon in Libya from early times more than the other Greeks. At Aphytis, Chalcidice, Ammon was worshipped, from the time of Lysander, as zealously as in Ammonium. Pindar the poet honored the god with a hymn. At Megalopolis the god was represented with the head of a ram (Paus. viii.32 § 1), and the Greeks of Cyrenaica dedicated at Delphi a chariot with a statue of Ammon.
Such was its reputation among the Classical Greeks that Alexander the Great journeyed there after the battle of issues and during his occupation of Egypt, where he was declared the son of Amun by the oracle. Alexander thereafter considered himself divine. Even during this occupation, Amun, identified by these Greeks as a form of Zeus, continued to be the principal local deity of Thebes.
Berber mythology before the battle of Irassa (570 BC)
The Cyrenaican Greeks built temples for the Li Zeus.byan god Amon instead of their original god Zeus. They later identified their supreme god Zeus with the Libyan Amon. Some of them continued worshipping Amon himself. Amon’s cult was so widespread among the Greeks that even Alexander the Great decided to be declared as the son of Zeus in the Siwan temple by the Libyan priests of Amon.
Berber mythology, Amun as a common deity. Ram statues lined the entrance to Amun’s Temple
Although the most modern sources ignored the existence of Amun in the Berber mythology, he was maybe the greatest ancient Berber god. He was honored by the Ancient Greeks in Cyrenaica, and was united with the Phoenician/Carthaginian god Baal- hamon due to Libyan influence. Some depictions of the ram across North Africa belong to the lythic period which is situated between 9600 BC and 7500.
The most famous Amun’s temple in Ancient Libya was the temple at the oasis of Siwa. The name of the ancient Berber tribes: Garamantes and Nasamonians are believed by some scholars to be related to the name Amon.
Berber mythology Solar and Lunar worship
In AwelimmidenTuareg, the name Amanai is believed to have the meaning of “God”. The Ancient Libyans may have worshipped the setting sun, which was impersonated by Amon, who was represented by the ram’s horns.
Baal of carthage
In Carthage and North Africa Baal-hamon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Baal Qarnaim (“Lord of Two Horns”) in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein (“the two-horned hill”) across the bay from Carthage.
Alexander the Great in the Qur’an, ‘The two-horned one.
Silver tetradrachmon (ancient Greek coin) issued in the name of Alexander the Great, depicting Alexander with the horns of Ammon.
The Egyptian god Ammon-Ra was depicted with ram horns. Rams were considered a symbol of virility due to their rutting behavior. The horns of Ammon may have also represented the East and West of the Earth, and one of the titles of Ammon was “the two-horned.” Alexander was depicted with the horns of Ammon as a result of his conquest of ancient Egypt in 332 BC, where the priesthood received him as the son of the god Ammon, who was identified by the ancient Greeks with Zeus, the King of Gods. The combined deity Zeus-Ammon was a distinct figure in ancient Greek mythology. According to five historians of antiquity (Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch), Alexander visited the Oracle of Ammonat Siwa in the Libyan desert and rumors spread that the Oracle had revealed Alexander’s father to be the deity Ammon, rather than Philip. Alexander styled himself as the son of Zeus-Ammon and even demanded to be worshiped as a god:
He seems to have become convinced of the reality of his own divinity and to have required its acceptance by others … The cities perforce complied, but often ironically: the Spartan decree read, ‘Since Alexander wishes to be a god, let him be a god.’
Horned deities by continent
Europe
Cernunnos on the Pillar of the Boatsman
Pan was a god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds and rustic music.
Depictions in Celtic cultures of figures with antlers are often identified as Cernunnos (“horned one” in Latin). The prime evidence for this comes from a pillar in Paris which also features the Roman god Jupiter. Cocidius was the name of a Romao-British war-god and local deity from the area around Hadrian’s Wall, who is sometimes represented as being horned. He is associated with warfare and woodland and was worshipped mostly by military personnel and the lower classes.
The horned figure on the Gundestrup Cauldron.
Eliphas Levi, the 18th century occultist, believed that the pseudohistorical god Baphomet (that the Roman Catholic Church had claimed was worshipped by the heretical Knights Templar, was actually the horned Libyan oracle god (Ammon), or, the Gost of Mendes.
Gundestrup Cauldron Origins
For many years scholars have interpreted the Gundestrup Cauldron’s images in terms of the Celtic pantheon. The antlered figure has been commonly identified as Cernunnos.
Africa
Ikenga Igbo
A ram-shaped oracle god whose name is unknown was worshiped by Libyan tribes at Siwa. The figure was incorporated by the Egyptians into depictions of their god Amun that’s considered an “interpretation” of the Greek Zeus-Ammon
Adherents of Odinani (the traditional folk religion of the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria) worship the Ikenga, a horned god of honest achievement, whose two horns symbolize self-will. Small wooden statues of him are made and praised as personal altars.
Asia
Indus god Pashupati
A seal discovered during the excavation of mohenjo-daro in Pakistan has drawn attention as a possible representation of a “proto-Shiva” figure. This “Pashupati” (Lord of animal-like beings – Sanskrit seal shows a seated figure with horns, possibly ithyphallic, surrounded by animals.
Pashupati
The Rigvedahas the related pashupa “protector of cattle” as a name of Pushan. The Pushupatinath Temple is the most important Hindu shrine for all Hindus in Nepal and also for many Hindus in India and rest of the world.
The name has also been applied to a figure, probably a deity, depicted as sitting among animals, on a seal discovered in the context of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Horns mentioned in the bible
Baal with Thunderbolt, 13th-15thcentury BC. Still found at Ras Shamra (ancient city of Ugarit in present-day Syria).
Psalm 75:10
“I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.”
Deuteronomy 33:17
In majesty he (Jacob) is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth.
Revelation 13:11
Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.
Leviticus 4:7
The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the (Yahweh’s) altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the tent of meeting. The rest of the bull’s blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
The Canaanite gods Baal and El were horned bull gods as was, originally, Yahweh, which is why horns decorate the altar described in Leviticus 4:7. 28, 29, 30
Influence on Demonology
Pan with a goat
Christian demonology
Christian demonology Appearance
The idea that demons have horns seems to have been taken from the Book of Revelation chapter 13. The book of Revelation seems to have inspired many depictions of demons. This idea has also been associated with the depiction of certain ancient gods like Molch and the Shedu, etc., which were portrayed as bulls, as men with the head of a bull, or wearing bull horns as a crown.
Baphomet of Mendes
The satanic “horned god” symbol known as the Baphomet is based on an Egyptian ram deity that was worshipped in Mendes, called Banedjet (literally Ba of the lord of djed, and titled “the Lord of Mendes”), who was the soul of Osiris. According to Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of ancient Egypt, the book’s author Geraldine Pinch, said the ram gods Ra-Amun (see: Cult of Ammon), and Banebdjed, were to mystically unite with the queen of Egypt to sire the heir to the throne (a theory based on depictions found in several Theban temples in Mendes). Occultist Elphas Levi in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855), combined the images of the Tarot of Marseilles Devil card and refigured the ram Banebdjed as a he-goat, calling it the “Baphomet of Mendes,” (or, “Goat of Mendes”). The inaccurate description can be traced back to Herodotus’ Histories Book II, where Herodotus describes the deity of Mendes as having a goats head and fleece, when Banebdjedet was really represented by a ram, not a goat.
The Devil in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Baphomet, Aleister Crowley
The Baphomet of Levi was to become an important figure within the cosmology of Thelema, the mystical system established by Aleister Crowley in the early twentieth century. Baphomet features in the Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church recited by the congregation in The Gnostic Mass, in the sentence: “And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET” (see: Aleister Crowley Occult).
Baphomet as a demon
Lévi’s Baphomet is the source of the later tarot image of the Devil in the Rider-Waite design. The concept of a downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead was enlarged upon by Lévi in his discussion (without illustration) of the Goat of Mendes arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasted with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram. The actual image of a goat in a downward-pointing pentagram first appeared in the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire by Stanislas de Guaita, later adopted as the official symbol—called the Sigil of Baphomet—of the Church of Satan, and it is said to continue to be used among Satanists.
Neopaganism
Devil, Neopaganism
Francisco de Goya’s Witches Sabbat (1789), which depicts the Devil flanked by Satanic witches. The Witch Cult hypothesis states that such stories are based upon a real-life pagan cult that revered a horned god, Christians used that to oppose them whereas they shared the same belief in the horn power.
Few neopagan reconstructionist traditions recognize Satan or the Devil outright. However, many neopagan groups worship some sort of Horned God, for example as a consort of the Great Goddess in Wicca. These gods usually reflect mythological-figures such as Cernunnos or Pan, and any similarity they may have to the Christian Devil seems to date back only to the 19th century, when a Christian reaction to Pan’s growing importance in literature and art resulted in his image being translated to that of the Devil.
19th century Sabbatic Goat
(Where did these goats go? Who saw them live? Did anyone read about their extinction at any time of life? This Sabbatic goat looks to be having horns and wings, was it able to fly with these wings, was it pictured or just drawn by people wanting to frighten others with none existing monster?
Witch-cult hypothesis
Witch- cult hypothesis Post
In 1985 Classical historian George Luck, in his Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, theorized that the origins of the Witch-cult may have appeared in late ancient times as a faith primarily designed to worship the Horned God, stemming from the merging of Cernunnos, a horned god of the Celts, with the Greco-Roman Pan/Faunas a combination of gods which he posit created a new deity, around which the remaining Pagans, those refusing to convert to Christianity, rallied and that this deity provided the prototype for later Christian conceptions of the Devil, and his worshippers were cast by the Church as witches.
Beelzebub
Horned demon? (proto-Elamite 3000-2800 BC)
Christian teaching about the Devil; New Testament.
There is an implied connection between Satan and Beelzebub (lit. Lord of the Flies), originally a Semitic deity called Baal (lit. “Lord”). Beelzebub is the most recognized demon in the Bible, whose name has become analogous to Satan. Occult and metaphysical author Michelle Belanger believes that Beelzebub (a mockery of the original name is the horned god Ba’al Hadad, whose cult symbol was the bull. According to The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca, Beelzebub reigned over the Witches’ Sabbat (“synagoga”), and that witches denied Christ in his name and chanted “Beelzebub” as they danced.
Beelzebub: Later mythology
Beelzebub was also imagined to be sowing his influence in Salem, Massachusetts: his name came up repeatedly during the Salem witch trials, the last large-scale public expression of witch hysteria in North America or Europe, and afterwards Rev. Cotton Mather wrote a pamphlet entitled Of Beelzebub and his Plot.
Neopaganism Horned God
In 1933, the Egyptologist Margaret Murray published the book, The God of the Witches, in which she theorized that Pan was merely one form of a horned god who was worshipped across Europe by a witch-cult. This theory influenced the Neopagan notion of the Horned God, as an archetype of male virility and sexuality. In Wicca, the archetype of the Horned God is highly important, and is thought by believers to be represented by such deities as the Celtic Cernunnos, Indian Pashupati and Greek Pan. Horned God in Wiccan based neopagan religions represents a solar god often associated with vegetation, that’s honored as the Holly King or Oak King in Neopagan rituals. Most often, the Horned God is considered a male fertility god. The use of horns as a symbol for power dates back to the ancient world from ancient Egypt and the Baal worshipping Canaanites, to the Greeks, Romans, Celts and various other cultures. Horns have ever been present in religious imagery as symbols of fertility and power. It was not until Christianity attributed horns to Satan as part of his iconography that horned gods became associated with evil in Western mythology: Many modern Neo-Pagans focus their worship on a horned god, or often “the” Horned God and one or more goddesses. Deities such as Pan and Dionysus have had attributes of their worship imported into the Neopagan concept as have the Celtic Cernunnos and Gwynn ap Nudd, one of the mythological leaders of the Wild Hunt.
Rams Horns in ancient Bible times
Horns in the Bible ‘Easton dictionary’. Trumpets were at first horns perforated at the tip, used for various purposes (Joshua. 6:4, 5). Flasks or vessels were made of horn (1 Samuel. 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39). But the word is used also metaphorically to denote the projecting corners of the altar of burnt offerings (Exodus. 27:2) and of incense (30:2). The horns of the altar of burnt offerings were to be smeared with the blood of the slain bullock (29:12; Leviticus. 4:7-18). The criminal, when his crime was accidental, found an asylum by laying hold of the horns of the altar (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28). The word also denotes the peak or summit of a hill (Isaiah 5:1, where the word “hill” is the rendering of the same Hebrew word). This word is used metaphorically also for strength (Deuteronomy. 33:17) and honor (Job 16:15; Lamuel. 2:3). Horns are emblems of power, dominion, glory, and fierceness, as they are the chief means of attack and defense with the animals endowed with them (Daniel 8:5, 9; 1 Sam. 2:1; 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39; 22:11; Joshua. 6:4, 5; Psalms. 75:5, 10; 132:17; Luke 1:69, etc.). The expression “horn of salvation,” applied to Christ, means a salvation of strength, or a strong Savior (Luke 1:69). To have the horn “exalted” denotes prosperity and triumph (Psalms. 89:17, 24). To “lift up” the horn is to act proudly (Zechariah. 1:21). Horns are also the symbol of royal dignity and power (Jeremiah. 48:25; Zechariah. 1:18; Daniel 8:24).
http://www.bible-history.com/eastons/H/Horn/
Horn in Bible Fausset’s Dictionary Trumpets were perhaps at first merely horns perforated at the tip. In Joshua 6:4-5, instead of “trumpets of rams’ horns,” translated “Jubilee trumpets.” Rams’ horns would scarcely have been effective enough. Hajobeel, from Jabal “to stream violently with noise,” is the name for a long wind instrument like a horn. Used for summoning to war, or for public proclamations (Judges 3:27; Judges 7:18). The horn was also used for a flask to contain oil (1 Samuel 16:1); also to contain stibium or antimony to beautify the eyelashes and eyelids of women; from whence Job’s daughter drew her name Keren-happuch, “horn of stibium,” in contrast to Job’s “horn defiled in the dust” formerly (Job 16:15). The “horn” being the instrument of the oxen’s strength is the symbol of power (1 Kings 22:11). The “horns of the (See ALTAR” were simply projections from the four corners. The peak of a hill is called a horn. Isaiah 5:1, “a very fruitful hill” Hebrew “a horn of the son of oil,” as the Swiss Shreckhorn, Wetterhorn, Celtic cairn. In Habakkuk 3:4, “He had horns coming out of His hand” means, He had the emblems of power wielded by His hand (L. de Dieu), or else rays” (i.e. lightning): Psalm 18:8 (Maurer). So Exodus 34:29-30; Exodus 34:35, qaaran, “to horn,” are used in the sense to emit rays. Livingstone mentions a horn-shaped cap as worn by Africans; married Druse women wear silver horns on their heads. The ram with two horns (Daniel 8:3) represents the Medo-Persian double power. The “notable horn” of the “he goat” (Daniel 8:5) is Alexander the Great who on coins is represented with horns. The four horns in Zechariah 1:18 represent the four ruling powers of the world, to be superseded finally by Messiah’s kingdom: Babylon, Medo- Persia, Greece, and Rome. (On “the little horn” of the third and of the fourth world powers (Daniel 7:8; Daniel 8:9). (See ANTICHRIST.) On Egyptian and Roman coins, and in Assyrian sculptures, are figures of gods with horns, symbolical of power. “A horn of salvation” means mighty instrument of salvation (Luke 1:69).
Horn in the Naves Topical Bible Used to contain the anointing oil 1Samuel 16:1; 1Kings 1:39 -Used for a trumpet See TRUMPET -FIGURATIVE Of divine protection 2Samuel 22:3 Of power 1Kings 22:11; Psalms 89:24; 92:10; 132:17 -SYMBOLICAL Daniel 7:7-24; 8:3-9,20; Am 6:13; Mica 4:13; Hebrews 3:4; Zechariah 1:18-21; Revelation 5:6; 12:3; 13:1,11; 17:3-16 Horns of the altar See ALTAR
Horns in Smith Bible dictionary The word “horn” is often used metaphorically to signify strength and honor, because horns are the chief weapons and ornaments of the animals which possess them; hence they are also used as a type of victory. Of strength the horn of the unicorn was the most frequent representative, Deuteronomy 33:17 1Kings 22:11 where probably horns of iron, worn defiantly and symbolically on the head, are intended.
Among the Druses upon Mount Lebanon the married women wear silver horns on their heads. In the sense of honor, the word horn stands for the abstract “my horn,” Job 16:16 “all the horn of Israel,” 1Samuel 2:3 and so for the supreme authority. It also stands for the concrete, hence it comes to mean king, kingdom. Daniel 8:2 etc.; Zachariah 1:18 Out of either or both of these last two metaphors sprang the idea of representing gods with horns.
Horn in the Bible Encyclopedia ISBE horn (Hebrew and Aramaic Keren; keras; for the “ram’s horn” (yobhel) of Joshua 6 see MUSIC, and for the “inkhorn” of Ezekiel 9 (qeceth) see separate article): (1) Qeren and keras represent the English “horn” exactly, whether on the animal (Genesis 22:13), or used for musical purposes (Joshua 6:5; 1 Chronicles 25:5), or for containing a liquid (1 Samuel 16:1,13; 1 Kings 1:39), but in Ezekiel 27:15 the horns of ivory are of course tusks and the “horns” of ebony are small (pointed?) logs. Consequently most of the usages require no explanation. Both the altar of burnt offering (Exodus 27:2; 38:2; compare Ezekiel 43:15) and the incense altar (Exodus 30:2; 37:25, 26; compare Revelation 9:13) had “horns,” which are explained to be projections “of one piece with” the wooden framework and covered with the brass (or gold) that covered the altar. They formed the most sacred part of the altar and were anointed with the blood of the most solemn sacrifices (only) (Exodus 30:10; Lev 4:7,18,25,30,34; 16:18; compare Ezekiel 43:20), and according to Leviticus 8:15; 9:9, the first official sacrifices began by anointing them. Consequently cutting off the horns effectually desecrated the altar (Amos 3:14), while “sin graven on them” (Jeremiah 17:1) took all efficacy from the sacrifice. On the other hand they offered the highest sanctuary (1 Kings 1:50, 51; 2:28). Of their symbolism nothing whatever is said, and the eventual origin is quite obscure. “Remnants of a bull-cult” and “miniature sacred towers” have been suggested, but are wholly uncertain. A more likely origin is from an old custom of draping the altar with skins of sacrificed animals). That, however, the “horns” were mere conveniences for binding the sacrificial animals (Psalms 118:27, a custom referred to nowhere else in the Old Testament), is most unlikely. See ALTAR. The common figurative use of “horn” is taken from the image of battling animals (literal use in Dan 8:7, etc.) to denote aggressive strength. So Zedekiah illustrates the predicted defeat of the enemies by pushing with iron horns (1 Kings 22:11; 2 Chronicles 18:10), while “horns of the wild ox” (Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalms 22:21; 92:10, the King James Version “unicorn”) represent the magnitude of power, and in Zechariah 1:18-21 “horns” stand for power in general.
In Habrews 3:4 the “horns coming out of his hand” denote the potency of Yahweh’s gesture (the Revised Version (British and American) “rays” may be smoother, but is weak). So to “exalt the horn” (1 Samuel 2:1, 10; Psalms 75:4, etc.) is to clothe with strength, and to “cut off the horn” (not to be explained by Amos 3:14) is to rob of power (Psalms 75:10; Jeremiah 48:25). Hence, the “horn of salvation” in 2 Samuel 22:3; Psalms 18:2; Luke 1:69 is a means of active defense and not a place of sanctuary as in 1 Kings 1:50. When, in Daniel 7:7-24; 8:3,8,9,20,21; Revelations 13:1; 17:3,7,12,16, many horns are given to the same animal, they figure successive nations or rulers. But the seven horns in Revelations 5:6; 12:3 denote the completeness of the malevolent or righteous power. In Revelation 13:11, however, the two horns point only to the external imitation of the harmless lamb, the “horns” being mere stubs.
Horn Scripture – 1 Chronicles 25:5 these entire [were] the sons of Herman the king’s seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. And God gave to Herman fourteen sons and three daughters.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/1+Chronicles/25/
Horn Scripture – 1 Samuel 16:1 And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/1+Samuel/16/
Horn Scripture – 1 Samuel 2:1 And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoices in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/1+Samuel/2/
Horn Scripture – 1Samuel 2:10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/1+Samuel/2/
Horn Scripture –Exodus 21:29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Exodus/21/
Horn Scripture – Joshua 6:5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long [blast] with the ram’s horn, [and] when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Joshua/6/
Horn Scripture – Lamentations 2v17The LORD hath done [that] which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused [thine] enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Lamentations/2/
Horn Scripture – Micah 4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Micah/4/
Horn Scripture – Psalms 148:14 He also exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; [even] of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise you the LORD.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Psalms/148/
Horn Scripture –Zachariah 1:21Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These [are] the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up [their] horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.
http://www.bible-history.com/kjv/Zechariah/1/
Ram’s Horn as a Trumpet The ram’s horn was also made into a trumpet and has been called by the Jews, Shofar. The Mosaic Law called for the sounding of rams’ horns at certain times. Each year of Jubilee was ushered in by the blowing of these horns. “Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land” (Leviticus 25:9). In connection with the Feast of Trumpets there was to be “a day of blowing the trumpets” (Numbers 29:1). The most famous use of the rams’ horns was in connection with the encircling and destruction of the city of Jericho by Joshua’s army. “And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns; and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets” (Joshua 6:4). The trumpets were also used as signals to gather the people (Jeremiah 4:5). The ram’s horn trumpet measures about eighteen inches long and is in one piece. It is made from the left horn of the fat-tailed sheep, which is “not spiral but flattish, curved backwards, and forming nearly a circle, the point passing under the ear. This structure, added to the large size of the horn, adapts it well for its purpose. In order to bring it to the proper shape, the horn is softened by heat (i.e. hot water) and then modeled into the very form which was used by the Jewish priests.” [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qDQAYzDf0WM%3d&tabid=232&mid=762
Ram’s Horn to Carry Oil Rams’ horns. The horns of the rams are considered to be of great value. In many Western lands, growers of sheep have endeavored to develop a hornless breed, but in the East the horns are thought of as an important part of the animal. The ram’s horn has been used chiefly as a vessel in which liquids have been carried. For carrying purposes a wooden plug is driven into the large end of the horn so as to close it, and sometimes it is covered with raw hide to hold it in place. The small part of the pointed end of the horn is cut off, and the opening closed with a stopper. The ram’s horn was used in Bible times to carry oil. Samuel was told to take his horn of oil and anoint David to be the future king (I Samuel 16:1). Solomon was anointed king by the oil in the horn of Zadok the priest (I Kings 1:39). Reference has already been made to the shepherd’s use of oil with his sheep, and this was carried in a ram’s horn. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qDQAYzDf0WM%3d&tabid=232&mid=762
Sound of the Trumpet ISRAEL’S USE OF TRUMPETS The trumpets as used by the Hebrews were in three forms. The earliest form was made from the horn of an ox or a ram. A second form was a curved metallic trumpet. And a later form was the straight trumpet, a representation of which is seen on the Arch of Titus. Moses was commanded of the LORD to make two silver trumpets which were to be sounded forth “for the calling of the assembly and for the journeying of the camps” (Numbers 10:2). Also GOD told them: “If you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets” (Numbers 10:9). The fiftieth year, or the Year of Jubilee, was ushered in on the Day of Atonement by the blowing of the trumpets (Leviticus 25:8, 9). Throughout the history of Israel, trumpets were used to gather the people together in times of war that they might go to battle, and usually in times of peace that they might come to the sanctuary for the purpose of divine worship. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=2AAHGj1Dj9A%3d&tabid=232&mid=762
Horns mean Power. No Supplementary, no Less
Horns and Kings in the Bible
(Let us return to our African values, norms and traditions) Azibuye emasisweni
Ngiyabonga / I thank you