Something I've noted over the years is certain connections between some of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean religions.
Firstly, I will state that my arguments are biased (towards Judaism), and secondly, that I will assume some level of god-people interactivity, and possible craftiness on behalf of certain "deities".
The Canaanite (or Phoenician) mythology places El as the creator deity (compared to Elohim in Judaism). However, funnily enough, the Canaanites don't worship El as their head deity - they worship Baal (meaning Lord). According to myth, Baal got
booted out of heaven by El, but the people made El give him a home.
Contrast this with Judaistic myth - where Samael got booted out of heaven, but became Prince of Earth, and according to some readings of Genesis, found favour with the people.
Also, in both Babylonian and Canaanite mythology, there is an entity that constitutes "the primordial waters" - generally draconic in form (Tiamat and Yam respectively). Funnily enough, given that in both, they're claimed to be split by the "god who got booted out of heaven" (Marduk and Baal), it's interesting that in Judaistic lore, the primordial waters are split, not by Samael, but by God himself.
In Egyptian mythology, Thoth wrote the Book of Thoth (in some myths, on an emerald), in which was contained all heavenly knowledge, which eventually wound up in the nile.
Contrast this to Hebrew mythology, where Raziel wrote Sepher Raziel (the Book of Raziel) - on an emerald - which was given to Adam, then taken from Adam by other angels and cast into the sea, and eventually returned.
In Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, there are demonesses known as "lilitu", which are the daughters of Lilith. We all know the Hebrew connotations of Lilith. (IMG:
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And one final thing from a more historical note, Moses and his brother Aaron are both best known for (after getting the 10 commandments), plaguing Egypt. Specifically, there was a face-off between Moses and the Pharoah's sorcerers (who according to tradition were named Jannes and Jambres). Both were defeated... but supposedly they followed the Israelites out of Egypt, intent on becoming more powerful than Moses and Aaron.
Simply stated, Jannes and Jambres are the only humans known to have entered heaven itself, under their own volition - and even further, could not be cast out by any of the angels. In the end Metatron somehow tricked them out of their defensive amulets, and then booted them out.
Just a few things I've noted - although I haven't had
much of a look into it yet.