Lend Me Your Ear

Uh no, Vincent, I didn't mean it like that. . . Vincent. . . can you hear me?

    Vincent VanGogh, Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear 1889

Being in a body and having organs for sensing and sensation makes us human, as opposed to, beings who are purely spiritual. The word "human" is related to the Latin humus ("ground, earth").  We are the living beings, i.e., animals (from Latin anima, "living principle, soul") made from the clay or humus.  We are, therefore, adam ("man"), i.e., the creature made from the adamah, "ground, earth" in Hebrew (related to, adom "red" and dam "blood"), or fertile ground, who were made to be living, or  Eve, from Hawwah / Chavvah, corresponding to chai "living."  That is, we are adam-eve's, or human animals.  We are the living clay. And because we are made in the image and likeness of God, the particular form of that clay has mystical, or godlike quality. This includes the  form of our ears.

In ancient Egypt people used pictures of ears carved into stone, a.k.a.,"ear-stele", as a way to address their prayers to the gods for intercession. Certain gods and goddesses held the tile of, "The Ear Which Hears," Mesedjer Sedjem. Among these was Ptah (the primal creator).  Another epithet of Ptah is said to be, "Ptah who listens to prayers." If you pronounce the word for "ear" in the ancient Egyptian language, mesedjer, it seems to be the same as our word "messenger," only without the 'n'. However, according to the etymological dictionary, the 'n' in "messenger" is in fact a parasitic addition to the word "messager." Therefore, "messager" became "messenger" due to the fact that people just wanted to say it like that. So, quite literally, a messenger can be said to be an ear, and the ear was used as messenger for the gods.

     Egyptian Ear-stele

It's curious, the ears on the stele even look a little bit like angel wings and an angel is, of course, a messenger.  We might even say our word "angel" comes from the notion of an ear, at least from the shape of the ear as being a hooked, or bent shape. This is because the Proto-Indo-European(PIE) root *ang / ank- is etymologically connected to the Greek ankylos "bent, crooked," Latin ang(u)ere "to compress in a bend, fold," Lithuanian anka "loop," Sandscrit ankah, "hook, bent".  

This ang/ank, then, appears to be related to the ancient Egyptian heiroglyph for "life" as well. The ancient Egyptian word for "life" ankh, was, perhaps, used as a word to describe the shape of its hieroglyph. So something with a similar shape as an ankh, would be "ankh-like", which is bent / curved / looped. The ankh hieroglyph is actually a tau (T), or "cross" with a bend / loop on it.  Ankh was also the ancient Egyptian word for "mirror."  A mirror gives you an image reflected (from Latin reflexionem, "a bending back"), or bent back to you. And a mirror is a messenger (angel) of truth (damn those mirrors!). In any case, the loop of the ankh is similar in shape to an ear, as well.

     Ankh

So, we could say that an angel is a messenger who is an, ang (like an ear) of el ("god"), ang + el. And one who is sent in a loop to and from God.

Hermes (which sounds close to hear-mes) is the Greek god who is messenger (ear) of the gods.  He is sometimes depicted with wings on his Petasos, like ears. 

    Hermes

We get our word "angel" from the Greek angelos, meaning "messenger, envoy". In Greek one of the titles of Hermes is Angelus Athanaton, "Messenger of the Gods", or, we might say, "Angel of the Gods". 

An angel is one who helps or serves. Shamash is the "helper" or "servant," as in the name given to the middle candle of the menorah which is used to light the other candles during Hanukkah.  A word that means to "hear" or "obey" in Hebrew is shama.  The ones who are the ears of God and hear him, serve both the gods and men. Maybe like the shamanic priests and witches called shamen, who are "ears" or "hearers" and conduits to the spirit world .

    Siberian Shaman, by Nicolaes Witsen 1692

Shamash / Samas, Akkadian for "sun" is also the name of the Mesopotamian sun god. Shemesh / semes is the Hebrew word for "sun." Shamash (God) who is the shemesh (sun) shema (hears) his shamash (servant). Whoa!

It is interesting that in the bible, when the guards come to arrest Jesus, Peter, a.k.a.., Cephas (from Aramaic keph/kafe "a rock") cuts off the ear of Malchus, the servant of Caiaphas ("rock, depression"), the High Priest.  The name, Malchus, means "king, councilor." Jesus tells Peter to stop, and heals Malchus' ear.  The words for king and angel in Hebrew are very similar, melech/melek "king" and mal'ach/mal'ak "angel." Mal'ach is from the root l-'-k meaning "to send/dispatch," thus the meaning "messenger," and  Melech is derived from the verb form of the word (malak) with the notion of "setting up or making to reign." A king/melech is specifically chosen or called by God to reign (eg. 1 Samuel 16:1). So, the two words seem like they could be ultimately be related in that respect. 

In any case, we could say, Peter cut off the mal'ach ("angel") of Malchus the shamash ("servant"), if we equate angel with ear, or, at least, we could say that Peter cut off the mesedjer (ear) of Malchus, if you don't want to play around. Technically, Peter was just "borrowing" the ear from Malchus, and Jesus gave it right back to him.  No harm done, right?  

Lend me your ear.

    Christ is Taken- Duccio di Buoninsegna, from Maesta Altarpiece 1308-1311