Bahamut Baphomet

[Kamard]

Re: Re: Re: Bahamut Baphomet

I think Gary Gygax just liked the name and thought it would make a good counterpart to Tiamat.

I think you may find he found it in Assyrian or some other similar mythos. What was Tiamat from?

There is some evidence Behemoth was a description for the hippopotamus, while Leviatan was a crocodile, or vice versa. I forget.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Bahamut Baphomet

I think you may find he found it in Assyrian or some other similar mythos. What was Tiamat from?

There is some evidence Behemoth was a description for the hippopotamus, while Leviatan was a crocodile, or vice versa. I forget.

Yeah, Bahamut isn't a made up word. I forget which mythology it comes from, but it could well be Assyrian. Tiamat is also real, and I think is Babylonian.

Baphomet and Bahamut are not the same. Baphomet isn't a made up name either. I always pronounced it BAFF-oh-met. I don't know what he was in mythology, but in 1e he was a minotaur demon lord.

You'll find that Gygax didn't make up a lot of names; he got most of them from various mythologies. He seems to be extremely well-read.

 

[Tonguez]

Baphomet is beleived by some to be a corruption of Mahomet (a French form of Mohammed (the Prophet of Islam) - the theory goes that the Knights Templars had adopted Islamic beleifs (more probably Sufism) (this was perhaps their heresy)

A more convincing argument is that thee word is derived from the arabic 'Abufihamat' (Father of Wisdom - a Sufi Master) this also relates to the Greek Baph-Metis (Baptism by Wisdom) and the theory that Baphomet is actually a coded form of Sophia (again Wisdom) - when the Knights Templar were said to worship a Head - some say it was the head of John the Baptist

Bahamut is the King of Dragons and

The enormous fish on which stands Kujara, the giant bull, whose back supports a rock of ruby, on the top of which stands an angel on whose shoulders rests the earth, according to Islamic myth. Our word Behemoth is of the same origin Edgerton Sykes' Who's Who of Non-Classical Mythology

(ps for Islamic substitute Early Arabic)

 

[Carnifex]

The thing called 'Baphoment', a three-faced head, that the Templars were accused of worshipping, was aeffectively a set-up. Now I know people like the idea of Templar conspiracies, but trust me; the Templars were just the victims of a greedy king who had some powerful allies in the Church, and who wanted the money of a wealthy and vulnerable group. The fall of the Templars was a complete set-up, Baphomet merely an invention - not the head of John the Baptist, not the Turin Shroud, merely a trumped up charge to help bring down the organisation.



Dunno where Bahamut coems from

 

[Olive]

just so you all kknow, in 3e Baphomet is still the demon lord of minators etc., at least in the Forgotten Realms... he's mentioned in Monsters of Faerun, and i think in Faiths and Pantheons (but i'm not sure about that)... He may also be in DotF, but thats in the other room and my girlfriend's sister is asleep in there...

 

[Taloras]

Baphomet is (from what ive heard) an ancient pagan god that christians and muslims turned into a demon. Of course, Christians and Muslims turned almost all pagan gods into demons, but thats ancient history. Bahamut is part of one of the middle eastern religions, (as has been mentioned).

 

[Kilmore]

On Mercyful Fate's "9" album, King Diamond pronounces Baphomet "Baff-o-met" and calls him the "inverted star". For what that's worth.

I wouldn't be surprised if both names had the same orgin, but the fact is, they each represent entirely different beings in the D&D game.

 

[drnuncheon]

On Mercyful Fate's "9" album, King Diamond pronounces Baphomet "Baff-o-met" and calls him the "inverted star". For what that's worth.

Yeah. If you've ever seen the 'goat-head-inside-inverted-pentacle', that's Baphomet. (Hence the 'inverted star' reference - an inverted pentacle is one with the star 'upside down' - that is, one point down and two up.)

J
...it's conversations like this that cause the 700 club to say that D&D leads you into occultism & devil worship...

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I know Tiamat is from a real-world pantheon, but I can't for the life of me remember which one... I know this because I answered a Scholastic Bowl question about this at our team's last meet.

 

[jdavis]

Tiamat is a crusty old Babylonian god/dragon:

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tiamat.html