DEUS OBLITUS

The world we live in today seems so far removed from the ancients of Sumeria, but their voices still resound in our cultures today. We think of our current religious traditions as eternal, unchanging, and sacred. Most don’t realize the archetypes from which we built our gods, prophets, heros, and villains, were first constructed eons before the written word, passed down orally. Throughout history people have built different iterations of the same deities, each claiming their iteration is the true form.  Entire civilizations have been eradicated simply for rejecting one iteration and preferring another.

The works of the series Deus Oblitus explore these ancient archetypes. The series asks the viewer to ponder what is actually sacred. Consider the ramifications of even minor historical events, as their consequences ripple through time. The Battle of Tours in France (Oct 732 AD) could have resulted in an American constitution rooted in Islamic Law. The ashes of a volcanic eruption in Greece 3000 years ago drifts down to us in the form of religious prohibitions about pork consumption.

If it weren’t t for the destruction of countless alternative pantheons, Inanna would never have morphed into Ishtar, moving to Egypt to become Isis, and then finding a following in Greece as Aphrodite. Damuzid would never have been incorporated into the Egyptian creation myth as the god Osiris. The Damuzid myth still echos in temples today with its tales of blood atonement and resurrection for the sake of all humanity. The Sumerians mourned his death in fall by partaking in his physical body in the form bread made from the wheat he gives life to yearly

The Forgotten Gods never went away,

they hide in different garbs, they lurk in your neighborhood, they bombast from your politicians. They make their presence known if you look for them. Alas, do not worry dear viewer, the God you worship is definitely the one true god, and all the rest were definitely just made up.