Staff

Hellenic religion

• Staff appears in Hellenic religion.

  Pausanias names staffs among the attributes of gods and travelers in cult images. A named staff in that periegesis, not thyrsus as the ivy wand already met and not Staff of Musa as the Qur’anic rod.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

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• Staff is used in Hellenic religion.

  The Iliad seats the speaker’s staff and aged stick among assembly speech and herald work, beside the named sceptre of Agamemnon. A named Homeric staff in counsel use, not scepter-of-agamemnon as identity and not a Pausanias cult-staff dump alone.

  from Homer · Iliad, c. 8th–7th century BCE (this form)

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Roman religion

• Staff appears in Roman religion.

  Virgil’s Aeneid seats the staff among aged and prophetic stick speech — guides, seers, and elders of the voyage and Italian war. A named staff in that epic, not caduceus as Mercury’s wand and not a missing scepter id.

  from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)

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Nahua tradition

• Staff appears in Nahua tradition.

  Sahagún’s Florentine Codex seats office and walking staffs among lords, merchants, and craft speech. A named staff in that ethnography, not a deity sacred_to mint and not Virgil’s roman seat alone.

  from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577

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Norse tradition

• Staff appears in Norse tradition.

  Grímnismál and traveler speech in the Poetic Edda seat the staff among walking and guest-gear of the disguised wanderer. A named staff in that corpus, not gambanteinn as the named wand already walked and not every magician-rod dump.

  from Anonymous (Eddic poems); Carolyne Larrington (translation) · Poetic Edda, medieval Icelandic compilation; Larrington trans. 1996/2014

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Celtic tradition

• Staff appears in Celtic tradition.

  The Mabinogion’s Fourth Branch seats Math’s enchanting-rod among the means by which forms and geasa are set. A named staff/rod in that Welsh prose, not a generic walking-stick dump and not Rhongomiant as the spear already walked.

  from Anonymous (Welsh prose); Sioned Davies (translation) · The Mabinogion, medieval Welsh manuscripts; Davies trans. 2007

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Vedic tradition

• Staff appears in Vedic tradition.

  The Ṛgveda names the rod (daṇḍa) among office, striking, and order speech. A named Vedic staff in that corpus, not vajra as the bolt-sceptre and not Staff of Musa.

  from Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation) · The Rigveda, 2014 (this translation); hymns much older

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• Khatvanga is historically related to Staff.

  Dowson seats the Khatwanga as Siva’s club with a skull at the end (also called Khinkira) among his carried emblems — khatvanga staff kinship, not kapala/kangling flatten and not the Solar-race prince Khatwanga alone.

  from John Dowson · A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, 1879

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Mesopotamian tradition

• Staff appears in Mesopotamian tradition.

  The Epic of Gilgamesh seats traveler’s gear among Gilgamesh’s road to Utnapishtim and the long walk beyond the waters. A named staff-class walking stick in that journey speech, not scepter as the royal symbol-only row and not a magician’s wand dump.

  from Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 1200 BCE (this recension)

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Egyptian religion

• Staff appears in Egyptian religion.

  Plutarch’s On Isis and Osiris names the birthday of the Staff of the Sun after the autumnal equinox among Egyptian calendar rites. A named staff in that treatise’s Egypt, not hellenic/roman staff seats alone and not the Osiris was-sceptre already kept apart beside it here.

  from Plutarch · On Isis and Osiris, c. 100 CE

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• Staff is used in Egyptian religion.

  Plutarch’s On Isis and Osiris treats the Staff of the Sun rite as Egyptian cult use of a support-staff when the sun declines after the equinox. A named staff use in that treatise, not the appears_in seat alone and not a walking-stick dump.

  from Plutarch · On Isis and Osiris, c. 100 CE

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• Was sceptre is historically related to Staff.

  Plutarch’s On Isis and Osiris keeps Osiris’s eye-and-sceptre sign beside the separate ‘Staff of the Sun’ festival rod after the autumnal equinox. A named was-sceptre–staff keep-apart in that treatise, not identity of dominion sceptre and solar support-staff.

  from Plutarch · On Isis and Osiris, c. 100 CE

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Northwest Coast tradition

• Staff appears in Northwest Coast tradition.

  Swanton’s Tlingit narratives seat carried rods among travel, office, and shamanic speech of that coast. A named staff in that ethnography, not a European magician’s wand dump and not Pausanias hellenic staff alone.

  from John R. Swanton · Tlingit Myths and Texts, 1909

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Yoruba Ifá

• Staff is used in Yoruba Ifá.

  Bascom’s plates and diviners’ chapters seat the iron staff — ọ̀rẹ̀rẹ̀ — among Ifá diviners’ insignia, carried and set with palm fronds at Ifá festival compounds. A named staff of that ethnography’s Ifá, not oshe-shango as Shango’s dance-axe and not a generic walking-stick dump.

  from William Bascom · Ifa Divination, 1969

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• Staff is historically related to Opon Ifá.

  Bascom’s diviners’ insignia seat the ọ̀rẹ̀rẹ̀ iron staff among Ifá compound and festival gear that stands with the tray-and-nuts craft without being the tray itself. A named staff–tray neighborhood in that ethnography, not oshe-shango and not claiming the staff is a casting instrument.

  from William Bascom · Ifa Divination, 1969

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• Wand is historically related to Staff.

  Pausanias and related Greek sanctuary speech seat slender ritual rods beside taller staffs of office and travel. A named wand historically related to staff, not caduceus as Hermes’ named rod and not staff as walking stick alone.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  historically related to · sourced · documented