Why Coriantumr Only Lived 9 Moons

This post is part 10 of a series about Venus and the Jaredites. To start at the beginning, click here.

A few posts ago, I wrote about the crazy “coincidence” that Coriantumr lived only “nine moons” after the final battle while the entire Morning Star phase of Venus lasts the same amount of time–9 lunar cycles. And not only that, but that Coriantumr’s last 9 moons are immediately preceded by an 8-day battle which ended with a decapitation ceremony–just like the ancient Mayans used to fight battles during the 8-day inferior conjunction of Venus, and then ritualistically behead the loser as the Morning Star rose for the first time. Coriantumr’s short lifespan post-destruction is only one of many correlations between Ether 12-15 and the Venus cycle. 

I say that and put “coincidence” in quotation marks above because I do not think Coriantumr’s last nine moons were a coincidence at all, but highly intentional… because, like Ether was the Evening Star, Coriantumr was the Morning Star. Let me explain.

I’ve shown that Ether’s name may indicate some allusion to the Aztec god Xolotl, ruler of the underworld and personification of the Evening Star. In the Aztec myths, Xolotl’s twin brother was none other than the famous Quetzalcoatl, who, among other things, was the god of the Morning Star.¹ The two were brothers who worked together, but had their differences. I believe their counterparts in the book of Ether were not brothers, but rivals, in a sense.

Is there any indication that Ether and Coriantumr were rivals?

Well… for starters, Ether held the right to the Jaredite throne, as he was “a descendant of Coriantor” (Ether 1:6), who was in the kingly line from Orihah, son of Jared. We’re not told Coriantumr’s lineage, but he apparently wasn’t the rightful king.

Also, in the second year of the Ether 12-15 timeline, Ether goes to see Coriantumr and exhorts him to repent lest he and the whole civilization be destroyed. Coriantumr is offended by the prophet and seeks to have him killed (Ether 13:20-22). Direct animosity is obviously shown here on Coriantumr’s side.

They’re also the last two Jaredites still alive after the final battle. After all the destruction, the illegitimate king and the prophet who should be king are the only survivors (Ether 15:29-33).

I guess in the end, Ether is the real winner of this rivalry, because he seems to almost curse Coriantumr that he won’t live very long after it’s all said and done (Ether 13:21). And then, as you know, in 9 moons–or one Morning Star phase–Coriantumr is dead (Omni 1:21).

Even Greek mythology can shed some light on their rivalry. The primordial god Aether was said to have battled a lion-headed giant. Here’s a picture of the episode carved in stone:

I guess this would be a good time to mention that Coriantumr’s name may have something to do with lions. The cori may come from the Hebrew word guryon meaning “lion cub”⁴ (the equivalent of which to the Book of Mormon people would have been a jaguar). Also, the Jaredites seem to have a reputation of being some type of “giant” race.⁵  

Remember how I suggested that Ether’s name may derive from the Greek god Aether, sometimes spelled “Ether”, who was “the personification of the bright upper sky”?⁶

So interestingly, like Aether wrestling the lion-faced giant, there appears to be this silent duality between Ether and Coriantumr–just as there is between the Evening and the Morning Stars… it’s unspoken, constant, few know that it exists, but it’s there…

But the evidence of Coriantumr’s connection to the Dawn star doesn’t stop there. 

Nestled in the middle of his name is the word part antum. Turns out that Antum is the name of a Mesopotamian goddess married to the sky god Anum.⁸ Coriantumr, it appears, is named after a sky goddess. Like the name Ether implies something about the heavens, so does the name Coriantumr! This should pique your interest given what we’ve covered so far about Venus and the Jaredites.

Well, with that information, would it surprise you at all to find out that the sky goddess Antum was also associated with the Morning Star? Antum, it appears, “seems often to have been confused with Ishtar,” the Babylonian goddess associated with the planet Venus.–which as we know, is the Morning Star.⁹ In fact, Antum in many places was used instead of Ishtar, implying they were essentially the same in some ancient cultures.¹⁰

You can’t make this stuff up, folks!

This perfectly explains why Coriantumr’s name has to do with a sky goddess (Antum) instead of a sky god (Anum)–because it’s meant to show a connection to VENUS, specifically. Like the name Ether, Coriantumr’s name only makes full sense when viewed in light of the Venus-Jaredite hypothesis.

If you combine the jaguar cori and the sky goddess antum, you could say that Coriantumr means “jaguar of the sky” or “Sky Jaguar.” The latter is interesting because Mayan kings very often held “jaguar” names, such as “Bird Jaguar” or “Shield Jaguar”.¹¹ Sky Jaguar sounds like a legit name for a Mesoamerican warrior-king, doesn’t it?

And for him to be called a jaguar also shows connections to Venus, since Kukulcan, the god associated with Venus and the Mayan equivalent of Quetzalcoatl, is described as “half jaguar and half deity”.¹² Is it possible that Coriantumr’s name is supposed to mean “Jaguar of the Morning Star?”

Interestingly, the Mayan kings not only called themselves jaguars but saw themselves as Venus too. Andrew Gough explains:

“What is truly remarkable is that the Mayan king associated himself with Venus, a male deity and the most important planetary object of the Maya. Where this gets interesting is that the Maya believed Venus, symbolically, was a bee, due to its intelligent movements; like many ancients, the Maya appear to have been aware of the bee’s peculiar, figure-of-eight-shaped waggle dance. As a result, it was common for the king to depict himself as a drone bee, complete with drone-bee eyes, and a protruding tongue with which to taste the honey of his kingdom.”¹³

This quote is SO INTERESTING when you consider the book of Ether–a book named for the luminiferous ether–which contains events that line up with the Venus cycle, and starts with a narrative about a group of family and friends that took bees (deseret) with them, and seems to parallel Mayan culture in some ways…

But anyway–We can also see in the Jaredite story itself that Coriantumr is and/or wants to be seen as the Morning Star, reigning over his people like the Star shines above the earth below.

According to the Venus-Jaredite model, all of the challengers that rise up against Coriantumr do so initially at the heliacal rise of the Morning Star. Not only that, but Coriantumr comes up to battle Lib at the first Venus rise as well (Ether 14:11). To me, this implies that they were all attempting to dethrone the reigning Morning Star and claim the heavenly title for themselves–in the words of Moroni, these guys were “fighting against Coriantumr that they might obtain the kingdom.” (Ether 13:18)

Shared captures Coriantumr in the 3rd year, but for some reason he doesn’t execute him immediately. He seems to be waiting for something. And even by the time the 4th year starts, Coriantumr is still alive enough to be rescued by his sons (Ether 13:23-24). I think this shows that Shared was patiently waiting for the next inferior conjunction and Morning Star rise to ceremonially decapitate his captive, thus officially establishing himself as the Morning Star in the eyes of all the people.¹⁵

Coriantumr and Shiz planned the final battle to take place during inferior conjunction so that the winner could chop off the head of the loser when Venus rose again, thus establishing himself as the Morning Star (Ether 15:15-32).

And the fact that Coriantumr lived after the final battle for only the exact time that Venus was the Morning Star (“nine moons”) shows that he got his wish–he was able to reign as the Morning Star, but to do so he had to pay a terrible price. He had to see his entire people–the ones over which he wanted to reign–be utterly destroyed. I believe a clue to this is when Ether came to his rival, Coriantumr, with a message from the Lord and commanded him to repent. Ether told him if he refused to change, he would be the sole survivor and only live long enough to see another people inherit the land. I think the Lord, through Ether, cursed him in a “be careful what you wish for” kind of way, making sure that he only lived as long as the Morning Star shone in the eastern skies.

And in the second year the word of the Lord came to Ether, that he should go and prophesy unto Coriantumr that, if he would repent, and all his household, the Lord would give unto him his kingdom and spare the people—21 otherwise they should be destroyed, and all his household save it were himself. And he should only live to see the fulfilling of the prophecies which had been spoken concerning another people receiving the land for their inheritance; and Coriantumr should receive a burial by them; and every soul should be destroyed save it were Coriantumr. (Ether 13:20) 

As you know, Coriantumr did not repent, and so he survived the annihilation and his last 263 or so days of life mirrored the 9 lunar cycles of the Morning Star phase.  And then, as the Morning Star’s light sank below the horizon as it began its 50-day transition into the Evening Star, Coriantumr’s life extinguished too.  

This is why he only lived for 9 moons.

His rivalry with the Evening Star, Ether, evokes the Morning Star. His name screams the Morning Star. His actions show he wanted to retain the status as Morning Star king. And he survived the Jaredite collapse for an entire Morning Star phase, and no longer or shorter. 

Coriantumr is the Morning Star.

And this is why he only lived for 9 moons.

(TO BE CONTINUED…)

<<< PREVIOUS POST 

---

Sources and Notes

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xolotl ↩︎
2. https://neomexicanismos.com/cultura-mexico/xoloitzcuintle-historia-perro-azteca/attachment/quetzalcoatl-xolotl/ ↩︎
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(mythology)
   ↩︎
4. https://onoma.lib.byu.edu/index.php?title=CORIANTON  ↩︎
5. http://nephicode.blogspot.com/2011/11/stature-of-jaredites-part-i.html; https://bookofmormongeography.org/lands/cumorah/giants/; http://www.supportingevidences.net/jareditesolmecsgiants-of-mesoa/ 
   ↩︎
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(mythology)   ↩︎
7. https://khaldea.com/planets/venus_type.shtml  ↩︎
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu
   ↩︎
9. “In Akkadian myth Anu was assigned a consort, Antum (Antu), but she seems often to have been confused with Ishtar (Inanna), the celebrated goddess of love.” https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lamashtu; “Fertility goddess [Ishtar], queen of heaven, goddess of sexual love and also war (think about that one for a minute!), associated with the planet Venus, the second brightest object in the sky (morning star), which rises each morning in the East (East: Isht).” https://webpages.uidaho.edu/engl257/Ancient/ishtar.htm
   ↩︎
10. “In the so-called “Standard Babylonian” edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh Antu is addressed as the mother of Ishtar, but this tradition was not commonly adhered to.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antu_(goddess);  “The status of the city’s former tutelary deity, Ishtar, declined, and some of her attributes were absorbed by Antu. For example, in the text MLC 1890 Ninsianna, the personification of the planet Venus, who in earlier periods could be treated as a form of Ishtar, is instead treated as an epithet of Antu. The kalû clergy of Uruk, responsible for Emesal prayers and formerly associated with Ishtar, came to be linked to the cult of Anu and Antu instead in Seleucid times.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antu_(goddess)
    ↩︎
11. “One of the earliest kings of Tikal was called Foliated-Jaguar, whereas the city of Yaxchilan had a long line of ‘Jaguars’ rulers: Shield Jaguar, Bird Jaguar I (AD 378-389), Bird Jaguar II (ca AD 467), Knot-eye Jaguar I (AD 508-518), Knot-eye Jaguar II (ca AD 564), Bird Jaguar III (AD 629-669), Shield Jaguar II (AD 681-742), Bird Jaguar IV (AD 752-768), and Shield Jaguar III (AD 769-800).” https://www.mayaarchaeologist.co.uk/school-resources/rainforest/jaguar-2/
    ↩︎
12. “Kukulcan was a character who was half jaguar and half deity. His legend, which was well known through out the region, was in many ways similar to the planet venus. That is to say that Venus disapears 8 days every 260 days is a  star (for the mayans) that was elusive to the celestial order. Thus demostrated superiority as did Kukulcan. He too rose in the in the east and disapeared in the west to one day reapear in the east.” http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/physics/dsalis/NS/ns/poot/The_mayan_world_of_venus.1.html
    ↩︎
13. https://andrewgough.co.uk/mesoamerican-bee-god-quest/ 
    ↩︎
14. https://andrewgough.co.uk/mesoamerican-bee-god-quest/
    ↩︎
15. Since an entire synodic period of Venus is 584 days, it is possible that the 3rd year and the 4th year both began before the next Morning Star rise… more on this in a future post.   ↩︎