title: Creole peoples

text: The Mississippi Gulf Coast region has a significant population of Creoles—especially in Pass Christian, Gulfport, Biloxi, Pascagoula, surrounding areas and also areas around the Mississippi River where Mississippi borders with Louisiana. Here, Creole is used to describe descendants of French or Spanish colonists with a mixed racial heritage—French or Spanish mixed with African American or Native American. The area was first settled by French colonists. In 1720, the capital of French Louisiana was Biloxi, MS. A community known as Creoletown is located in Pascagoula, MS – with its history on record. Many in this location are Catholic and have also used Creole/French and English languages.


title: Creole peoples

text: Texas Gulf Coast may have a population of Creole in Southeast Texas areas such as (Houston, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange).


title: Creole peoples

text: Unlike the Americas, the term coloured is preferred in Southern Africa to refer to mixed people of African and European descent. The colonisation of the Cape Colony by the Dutch East India Company led to the importation of Indonesian, East African and Southeast Asian slaves, who intermingled with Dutch settlers and the indigenous population leading to the development of a creolized population in the early 1700s. Additionally, Portuguese traders mixed with African communities, in what is now present day Mozambique and Zimbabwe, to create the Prazeros and Luso-Africans, who were loyal to the Portuguese crown and served to advance its interests in southeastern Africa. A legacy of this era are the numerous Portuguese words that have entered Shona, Tsonga and Makonde. Today, mixed race communities exist across the region, notably so in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. In colonial era Zambia, the term "Eurafrican" was often used though it has largely fallen out of use in the modern era and is no longer recognized at the national level. Today, South African Coloureds and Cape Malay form the majority of the population in the Western Cape and a plurality in the Northern Cape.


title: Creole peoples

text: In addition to Coloured people, the term mestico is used in Angola and Mozambique to refer to mixed race people, who enjoyed a certain privilege during the Portuguese era.


title: Creole peoples

text: In Sierra Leone, the mingling of newly freed Africans and mixed heritage Nova Scotians and Jamaican Maroons from the Western hemisphere and Liberated Africans - such as the Akan, Igbo people, and Yoruba people - over several generations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries led to the eventual creation of the


title: Creole peoples

text: aristocratic ethnic group now known as the "Creoles". Thoroughly westernized in their manners and bourgeois in their methods, the Creoles established a comfortable dominance in the country through a combination of British colonial favouritism and political and economic activity. Their influence in the modern republic remains considerable, and their language Krio - an English-based creole language - is the lingua franca and de facto national language spoken throughout the country.


title: Creole peoples

text: The extension of these Sierra Leoneans' business and religious activities to neighbouring Nigeria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - where many of them had ancestral ties - subsequently caused the creation of an offshoot in that country, the "Saros". Now often considered to be part of the wider Yoruba ethnicity, the Saros have been prominent in politics, the law, religion, the arts, and journalism.


title: Creole peoples

text: Atlantic Creole is a term coined by historian Ira Berlin to describe a group of people from Angola and Central Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries with cultural or ethnic ties to Africa, Europe, and sometimes the Caribbean. They often had Portuguese names and were sometimes mixed race. Their knowledge of different cultures made them skilled traders and negotiators, but some were enslaved and arrived in the Chesapeake Colonies as the Charter Generation of slaves during the Transatlantic Slave Trade before 1660.


title: Creole peoples

text: The "Crioulos" of mixed Portuguese and African descent eventually gave rise to several major ethnic groups in Africa, especially in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe, Equatorial Guinea (especially Annobón Province), Ziguinchor (Casamance), Angola, Mozambique. Only a few of these groups have retained the name "crioulo" or variations of it:


title: Creole peoples

text: The usage of creole in the islands of the southwest of the Indian Ocean varies according to the island. In Mauritius, Mauritian Creoles will be identified based on both ethnicity and religion. Mauritian Creoles being either people who are of Mauritian ancestry or those who are both racially mixed and Christian. The Mauritian Constitution identifies four communities namely, Hindu, Muslim, Chinese and the General Population. Creoles are included in the General Population category along with white christians.


title: Creole peoples

text: The term also indicates the same to the people of Seychelles. On Réunion the term creole applies to all people born on the island.


title: Creole peoples

text: In all three societies, creole also refers to the new languages derived from French and incorporating other languages.


title: Creole peoples

text: In regions that were formerly colonies of Spain, the Spanish word "criollo" (implying "native born") historically denoted a class in the colonial caste system comprising people born in the colonies with total or mostly Spanish descent, depending on passing features of the individual. for example, many castizos could've gotten away with passing as criollo because their features would be strikingly European and so many of them would assume such identity in passing, mainly for economic reasons. "Criollo" came to refer to things distinctive of the region, as it is used today, in expressions such as "comida criolla" ("country" food from the area).


title: Creole peoples

text: In the latter period of settlement of Latin America called "La Colonia", the Bourbon Spanish Crown preferred Spanish-born "Peninsulares" (literally "born in the Iberian Peninsula") over Criollos for the top military, administrative, and religious offices due to the former mismanagement of the colonies on a previous Habsburg era.


title: Creole peoples

text: In Argentina, in an ambiguous ethnoracial way, "criollo" currently is used for people whose ancestors were already present in the territory in the colonial period, regardless their ethnicity. The exception are dark-skinned African people and current indigenous groups.


title: Creole peoples

text: The racially-based caste system was in force throughout the Spanish viceroyalties in the Americas, since the 16th century. By the 19th century, this discrimination and the example of the American Revolution and the ideals of the Enlightenment eventually led the Spanish American Criollo elite to rebel against the Spanish rule. With the support of the lower classes, they engaged Spain in the Spanish American wars of independence (1810–1826), which ended with the break-up of the former Spanish Empire in the Americas into a number of independent republics.


title: Creole peoples

text: Racial mixture in the Spanish Philippines occurred mostly during the Spanish colonial period from the 16th to 19th century. The same Spanish racial caste system imposed in Latin America extended also to the Philippines, with a few major differences.


title: Creole peoples

text: Persons of pure Spanish descent born in the Spanish Philippines were those to whom the term "Filipinos" originally applied, though they were also called Insulares ("islanders", i.e. Spaniard born in the Philippine islands) or Criollos ("Creoles", i.e. [Philippine-born Spaniard] "Locals"). Persons of pure Spanish descent, along with many mestizos and castizos, living in the Philippines but born in Spanish America were classified as "Americanos". The Philippine-born children of "Americanos" were classified as "Filipinos". During this era, the term "Filipinos" had not yet extended to include the majority indigenous Austronesian population of the Philippines to whom Filipinos has now shifted to imply.


title: Creole peoples

text: The social stratification based on class that continues to this day in the Philippines has its beginnings in the Spanish colonial era with this caste system. Officially, however, the Spanish colonial caste system based on race was abolished after the Philippines' independence from Spain in 1898, and the word 'Filipino' expanded to include the entire population of the Philippines regardless of racial ancestry.


title: Creole peoples

text: In many parts of the Southern Caribbean, the term Creole people is used to refer to the mixed-race descendants of Europeans and Africans born in the islands. Over time, there was intermarriage with residents from Asia as well. They eventually formed a common culture based on their experience of living together in countries colonized by the French, Spanish, Dutch, and British.


title: Creole peoples

text: A typical creole person from the Caribbean has French, Spanish, Portuguese, British, or Dutch ancestry, mixed with sub-Saharan African, and sometimes mixed with Native Indigenous people of the Americas. As workers from Asia entered the Caribbean, Creole people of color intermarried with Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Javanese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Hmongs. The latter combinations were especially common in Guadeloupe. The foods and cultures are the result of creolization of these influences.


title: Creole peoples

text: "Kreyòl" or "Kweyol" or "Patois" also refers to the creole languages in the Caribbean, including Antillean French Creole, Bajan Creole, Bahamian Creole, Belizean Creole, Guyanese Creole, Haitian Creole, Jamaican Patois, Trinidadian Creole, Tobagonian Creole, and Sranan Tongo, among others.


title: Joey Fatone

text: Joseph Anthony Fatone Jr. (born January 28, 1977) is an American singer, dancer, actor, and television personality. He is best known as a member of the boyband NSYNC, in which he sang baritone. In 2007, he came in second place on the ABC reality show "Dancing with the Stars". He was the host of the U.S. and Australian versions of "The Singing Bee", which aired on NBC in the United States. Fatone was the announcer for the game show "Family Feud" from 2010 to 2015. Fatone has hosted on Food Network's "Rewrapped", Live Well Network's "My Family Recipe Rocks", "The Price Is Right Live!" at Bally's Las Vegas; and appeared as "Rabbit" on the first season of "The Masked Singer" in 2019.


title: Joey Fatone

text: Fatone was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Joe and Phyllis Fatone. He has a brother, Steven, and a sister, Janine, and was raised at 2140 84th Street in the Bensonhurst neighborhood. His father had sung in a doo-wop group called the Orions. At 13, he moved with his family to Orlando, Florida, where he attended Dr. Phillips High School.


title: Joey Fatone

text: After high school, Fatone played "Wolfie" in Beetlejuice's Rock and Roll Graveyard Revue at Universal Studios in Orlando. There, in the summer of 1995, he befriended fellow park performer Chris Kirkpatrick who recruited him as the fourth member of a new vocal group that included Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez. They were later joined by Lance Bass and the band NSYNC was formed. Fatone sang baritone with the band from their formation to 2002, when they went on an indefinite hiatus, during which time they sold more than seventy million records worldwide. He performed lead vocals on the single "Together Again" and the "No Strings Attached" album track "I Thought She Knew". While a member of NSYNC, Fatone co-starred with bandmate Bass in the 2001 romantic comedy film "On the Line" and guest-starred with the band on "The Simpsons" episode, New Kids on the Blecch.


title: Joey Fatone

text: On August 25, 2013, NSYNC regrouped for a one-off performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. They performed a medley of "Girlfriend" and "Bye Bye Bye"; after the performance Lance Bass said that the group had no plans for a reunion tour or new music. In April 2019 the band reunited without Timberlake for a one-off performance with Ariana Grande at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. NSYNC have long been subject to speculation of a reunion, to which Fatone has given the answer: "Never say never".


title: Joey Fatone

text: In 2002 Fatone played Cousin Angelo in the comedy film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", a role he reprised in the TV spin-off "My Big Fat Greek Life" and the 2016 sequel. In the same year he made his Broadway debut, playing the lead in "Rent" at the Nederlander Theatre in New York. He went on to act in the critically acclaimed movie "The Cooler" and had minor roles in the experimental film "Red Riding Hood" and "Homie Spumoni", the latter alongside Jamie-Lynn Sigler. He returned to Broadway in 2004 in a revival of "Little Shop Of Horrors" and later appeared in productions of "The Producers" and "42nd Street" in Pittsburgh and "Rock of Ages" at Bally's Las Vegas.


title: Joey Fatone

text: Fatone played himself in the kung fu skit "Enter the Fat One" in the first season of "Robot Chicken", later making more appearances on the show including the first . He also played himself in the Syfy film "Jersey Shore Shark Attack", the TV series "Return of the Mac" and the Comedy Central feature "Cursed Friends". Fatone has guest-starred in the Disney Channel series "Hannah Montana", "Imagination Movers" and "Kim Possible" in addition to various other TV shows and horror films, including "Inkubus" (2011) and "Dead 7" (2016).


title: Joey Fatone

text: Fatone was the "ringmaster" for NBC's reality series Celebrity Circus in 2005. In 2007 he hosted NBC's "The Singing Bee" and the Australian version of the show on Nine Network. The same year he became a red carpet host for TV Guide along with Lisa Rinna. In 2009 Fatone co-hosted the live pre-show for TNA Wrestling's biggest annual pay-per-view event, TNA Bound for Glory, alongside Jeremy Borash.


title: Joey Fatone

text: From 2010 to 2015, Fatone served as the announcer for host Steve Harvey on the show "Family Feud". In which time he hosted the Live Well Network series "My Family Recipe Rocks", the Food Network cooking competition "Rewrapped", the series "Parents Just Don't Understand" on the Hub Network


title: Joey Fatone

text: and was a celebrity guest host of "The Price Is Right Live!" at Bally's Las Vegas. In January 2012, Fatone was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series "". Though eliminated in week six, he secured a $5,000 award for his charity, the Fatone Family Foundation.


title: Joey Fatone

text: In February 2014 Fatone made an appearance on the hidden camera show "Impractical Jokers", standing in for show regular Brian Quinn, during a challenge. He made repeat appearances on the show as host or featured guest in a number of specials, including a 2017 episode based at his Orlando hot dog restaurant, Fat One's. Fatone is the permanent host of the spin-off series "" and he made a cameo in "" in 2020.


title: Joey Fatone

text: Fatone portrayed "Rabbit" on season one of the singing competition show "The Masked Singer", tying with Rumer Willis as "Lion" for fourth place overall. Currently he is presenter of the game show "Common Knowledge", which premiered on January 14, 2019 on the Game Show Network. In 2021 he served as a panelist on the Irish talent show "Last Singer Standing".


title: Joey Fatone

text: On February 1, 2007, the ABC television network announced that Fatone would participate in season 4 of the American version of "Dancing with the Stars", which debuted March 19, 2007. He ended up placing second, losing the mirror ball to Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough. He competed with professional partner Kym Johnson. Fatone participated in the 15th season of "Dancing with the Stars" for a second chance to win a mirror ball trophy, again dancing with Kym Johnson. They were the second couple eliminated. He later returned in season 27 during Trio Week as a trio partner to John Schneider and Emma Slater.


title: Joey Fatone

text: In February 2013, Fatone appeared on Holland America Line's "Dancing with the Stars at Sea", aboard the MS "Eurodam". He returned to Dancing with the Stars at Sea on Holland America Line's MS "Nieuw Amsterdam" in January 2014. He was paired with Lacey Schwimmer and appeared alongside Mark Ballas, Sabrina Bryan, and a dance ensemble. Unlike the TV show, this was not a competition and there were no eliminations.


title: Joey Fatone

text: Fatone met his wife, Kelly Baldwin, while they were still in high school in 1993. After joining NSYNC two years later, their relationship was off-and-on.


title: Joey Fatone

text: It was a much speculated rumor that Fatone had briefly dated singer Pink in early 2000, to which Pink stated, "[Joey] took me to Friendly's as a casual date, not like a date-date. I just wanted ice cream. We were in the friend zone." The singer has stated that although they did technically go on a date, it was more platonic and that Fatone was "a total sweetheart."


title: Joey Fatone

text: After rekindling his romance with Baldwin, shortly after that same year, she became pregnant in the spring of 2000 with their first child, Briahna, who was born exactly a year after the release of NSYNC's hit sophomore album, "No Strings Attached". They became engaged in the fall of 2002.


title: Joey Fatone

text: On September 9, 2004, Fatone married Baldwin at Oheka Castle on Long Island, New York, in a ceremony that was attended by all his NSYNC bandmates. Fatone and his wife have two daughters: Briahna Joely, born March 21, 2001, and a second daughter born January 2010. Fatone's best friend, Lance Bass, is their godfather.


title: Super League Greece

text: The Super League Greece 1 ( 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced "Alpha Ethniki" at the top of the Greek football league system. It consists of 14 teams and runs from August to May, with teams playing 26 games.


title: Super League Greece

text: As of May 2022, Super League Greece is ranked 15th in the UEFA ranking of leagues, based on performances in European competitions over the last five years.


title: Super League Greece

text: Since the foundation of the first official Panhellenic Championship in 1927, only six clubs have won the title. The current champions are Olympiacos, based in Piraeus.


title: Super League Greece

text: Between 1905 and 1912, a Panhellenic Championship was organised by the Hellenic Association of Amateur Athletics (SEGAS). This championship was actually a local tournament among clubs from Athens and Piraeus.


title: Super League Greece

text: After the Balkan Wars and World War I, two football associations were formed, one organising a football league in Athens and Piraeus, and one doing the same in Thessaloniki. These were the Athens-Piraeus FCA (EPSAP) and the Macedonia FCA (EPSM). In 1923, a Panhellenic Champion was determined by a play-off game between the Athens-Piraeus and the Thessaloniki champions. Peiraikos Syndesmos won 3–1 against Aris. This panhellenic final was not repeated the following year as the EPSAP was split into the Athens FCA (EPSA) and Piraeus FCA (EPSP) following a dispute.


title: Super League Greece

text: On November 14, 1926, the Hellenic Football Federation is founded and organizes the first Panhellenic Championship in the period 1927-28, in which, however, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens did not participate due to conflicts with the EPO.


title: Super League Greece

text: The initial events were held with teams from Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, excluding the provincial ones. Previously, the local championships of the cities were held and in the final phase, sometimes only the first ones qualified, sometimes the first two or the first three teams. In the championship of 1938-39, which was held in two groups, teams outside Athens-Thessaloniki (Doxa Drama, AEK Kavala and Filippi Kavala) participated for the first time. The maiden presence of provincial teams in a single group of the Panhellenic Championship took place in 1953-54 with the participation of Panachaiki from Southern Greece and Niki Volou from Central and Northern Greece.


title: Super League Greece

text: In 1959 the "Alpha Ethniki" – the precursor of the current Super League – was set up as a national round-robin tournament.


title: Super League Greece

text: After several months of talks, the 1959–60 championship was the first nationwide league competition. It started on Sunday 25 October 1959 with the participation of 16 teams.


title: Super League Greece

text: The creation of a championship in the form of a single permanent national division rather than the way they have been held until then with the participation of the teams selected by the local competitions was a requirement of both the State and UEFA.


title: Super League Greece

text: The first wished to establish a fixed number of matches every Sunday in Greece to stimulate interest in PRO-PO while UEFA wished to nominate national champions with strict criteria and through joint events for all states.


title: Super League Greece

text: The Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) was obliged to proceed to the abolition of the competitions of the Football Clubs Associations (EPS) of Greece as qualifying stages for the Pan-Hellenic Championship. The first place was taken by Alpha Ethniki, a single division with clubs from all over the Greek territory and a stable participation, with the exception of those who would be relegated at the end of the season.


title: Super League Greece

text: The initial design provided for a number of teams well above the 10th of the 1958–59 Pan-Hellenic Championship and in particular 18 which, as the expanded division calendar would cover almost all the available dates of the year, would no longer participate in its local competitions their EPSs.


title: Super League Greece

text: Those would be the qualifier for the upcoming national division and not the participation in the final round of the current championship, so their significance was significantly reduced.


title: Super League Greece

text: On Saturday, 10 October 1959 at the General Assembly of the HFF, ie with the participation of all the members of the Association of Football Associations and in the presence of the General Secretariat of Sports (GGA) and representatives of the Karamanlis government, became the first national division of Greek football. The 1st game was set for 15 days.


title: Super League Greece

text: According to the general Assembly of HFF on 29 August 1959, it was decided that the newly created Alpha Ethniki would consist of 18 teams, with their determination being made in accordance with the positions in the local EPS competitions in the period 1958–59.


title: Super League Greece

text: The HFF, at its decisive General Assembly on Saturday, 10 October, decided to reduce the number of teams to 16 so that the racing program will not be extended in the summer.


title: Super League Greece

text: After the end of the first event in the summer of 1960, the teams did not increase despite HFF's initial intention, with the number 16 being considered the ideal for a championship in Greece and only 18 in 1967.


title: Super League Greece

text: On 25 October 1959, the Alpha Ethniki was launched. Panathinaikos won the first Alpha Ethniki's Championship, which became the champion of Greece for the fourth time in his history. He scored at 79 points with AEK Athens and beat 2–1 in the barrage, a match where he needed only a tie result in the neutral Karaiskakis Stadium.


title: Super League Greece

text: In such a case, after the half-hour extension, the competition announcement set the best goal difference. Through barrage and with the same score was also the third place for the demotion, with the winner Panegialios to overtake Pankorinthiakos again in the event of a draw. The scoring system was 3p the win, 2p the draw, 1p the defeat.


title: Super League Greece

text: Time has been relentless for some teams that have participated in the first league of the Alpha Ethniki. The historic Ethnikos Piraeus, cup winner of Greece in 1933, participates in the Gamma Ethniki, as well as Proodeftiki while AE Nikaia participates in the local championship of Piraeus.


title: Super League Greece

text: Apollon Kalamaria, Doxa Drama and Iraklis are fighting in the Beta Ethniki, while Pankorinthiakos, a few years after joining Alpha Ethniki, merged with Aris Korinthos and created PAS Korinthos, which reached the Alpha Ethniki at the 1990s and is now participating in the Gamma Ethniki.


title: Super League Greece

text: Megas Alexandros Katerini is the ancestor of Pierikos. In 1961, they merged with Olympos Katerini and created Pierikos who plays in the Gamma Ethniki.


title: Super League Greece

text: On 19 January 1979 a bill was passed in the Hellenic Parliament under which football clubs became Football Incorporated Companies (PAE or ΠΑΕ in Greek). The Association of Football Incorporated Companies (EPAE, ΕΠΑΕ in Greek), under the supervision of the HFF, has since held the responsibility to hold the championship, with Makis Ithakisios being elected its first president.


title: Super League Greece

text: Initially the shares were owned by the sports union to which the football club belonged. Yet soon after, prominent Greek businessmen (shipowners, oil magnates, bankers etc.) began acquiring the newly formed PAEs by buying the majority of their shares, and then increasing their share capital, thus turning Greek football into a fully commercialised and highly profitable business for the decades to come.


title: Super League Greece

text: On 16 July 2006, was founded the copartnership "Super League". Members of the copartnership are the PAE's that have the right to participate in the professional football championship of the First Division. The main activity of the copartnership is the organization and conduct of the First Division's Championship according to the regulations and decisions of the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) and the supreme international football confederations (UEFA, FIFA).


title: Super League Greece

text: At present, 14 clubs compete in the Super League, playing each other in a 26-game home and away series. At the end of the season, the top 6 clubs face each other in a 10-game championship round to decide the Super League champions but also the teams to enter the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa Conference League.


title: Super League Greece

text: The bottom 8 clubs face each other in play-outs to decide who gets relegated to Super League 2. In their place, the top two teams from Super League 2 are promoted. The number of teams to be relegated may change, depending on a licensing procedure that takes place at the end of the regular season.


title: Super League Greece

text: The Super League is currently entitled to one entrant into the UEFA Champions League. The Champion currently enters the first qualifying round through the champion path. The three UEFA Europa Conference League spots go to the teams that finished 2nd to 3rd, with a European berth for the Greek Cup winner.


title: Super League Greece

text: The number of seasons that each team (in alphabetical order) has played in the top division from 1959–60 until 2022–23. A total of 69 teams had competed in at least one season at the top division. Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and PAOK are the only teams to have played in the top division in every season since the league's inception in its modern form. The teams in bold participate in the 2022–23 Super League.


title: Super League Greece

text: This index is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in Alpha Ethniki and Super League championships since 1959–60. The table is correct as of the end of the 2021–22 season. Points are based on 3–1–0 and no deductions are counted.


title: Super League Greece

text: All the geographic regions of Greece have been represented by at least one club in the first national division. Central Greece has had the strongest presence with 26 clubs overall, of which 21 come from Attica alone. Central Greece, Macedonia and the Peloponnese together contain almost three-quarters of the clubs that participated in the top flight. Between 1967 and 1974, the Cypriot champion also participated in the Greek top competition, and five different Cypriot clubs participated during those years. The Greek islands of Rhodes, Lesbos and Corfu have also been represented. A total of 73 clubs have participated at the first tier so far.


title: Super League Greece

text: Based on an idea of Umberto Agnelli, the honor of "Golden Star for Sports Excellence" was introduced to recognize sides that have won multiple championships or other honours by the display of gold stars on their team badges and jerseys.


title: Super League Greece

text: As of 29 May 2022, the Greek Super League ranks 15th in the UEFA coefficient database, with 28.200 points.


title: Super League Greece

text: Nova Sports (premium channel) have taken the broadcasting rights for the home games of six teams of the Super League. The teams are Aris, Asteras Tripolis, Atromitos, Levadiakos, PAOK and PAS Giannina.


title: Super League Greece

text: Cosmote Sport (also a premium channel) have taken the broadcasting rights for the home games of eight teams of the Super League. The teams are AEK Athens, Ionikos, Lamia, OFI, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Panetolikos and Volos.


title: Super League Greece

text: From 2007 to 2017, the Super League had title sponsorship rights sold to one company, which were OPAP. From 2017 until 2019, the Super League has title sponsorship rights sold to the company Souroti.


title: Super League Greece

text: OPAP' deal with the Super League expired at the end of the 2016–17 season. The Super League announced on 20 July 2017 that the new title sponsorship deal for the Super League was with the Souroti company.


title: Super League Greece

text: As well as sponsorship for the league itself, the Super League has a number of official partners and suppliers. The official ball supplier for the league is Nike. Also, Panini has held the licence to produce collectables for the Super League since 2008 (except 2018–19 season), including stickers (for their sticker album) and trading cards.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: The SIG Sauer M17 and M18 are service pistols derived from the SIG Sauer P320 in use with the United States Armed Forces. On January 19, 2017, the United States Army announced that a customized version of SIG Sauer's P320 had won the Army's XM17 Modular Handgun System competition. The full-sized model was designated the M17, and the shorter length carry model, the M18. The guns have subsequently been adopted by the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force. The pistol replaces the Beretta M9, as well as several other handguns across the services. There are two color variants, coyote brown and black, for both the M17 and M18, though almost all have been produced in brown.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: When the requirements were formulated for a new handgun for the U.S. Army, one of the tenets of the proposal was that an existing model handgun was desired to fulfill the requirements laid out in the Modular Handgun System Request for Proposal, known as the XM17 Procurement. SIG Sauer submitted a P320 with a number of modifications for the XM17 Modular Handgun System competition.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: The Modular Handgun System has self-illuminating tritium sights for low-light conditions, an integrated rail for attaching enablers and an Army standard suppressor conversion kit for attaching an acoustic/flash suppressor. Every M17/M18 handgun is test fired before leaving the factory with 13 rounds -- three to break in the weapon and ten to test accuracy.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: On January 19, 2017, the United States Army announced that the SIG Sauer P320 MHS variant had won the military's Modular Handgun System trials. The modified P320 was subsequently designated the M17 (Full-Size) and M18 (Carry) for U.S. military service. The M17 has better accuracy and ergonomics and tighter dispersion than the Beretta M9 and will be fielded more widely, being issued down to squad and fireteam leaders. US special operations forces operators are all dual-armed with a pistol and a rifle. Junior leaders in regular infantry units who were previously excluded from carrying sidearms will be given more choices and options in close quarters battle situations under a new policy. All Army units are planned to have the M9 replaced with the M17 within a decade.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: In May 2017, the Army announced that the first unit that will receive the M17 would be the 101st Airborne Division by the end of the year. At the same time, the rest of the U.S. Armed Forces revealed they also intend to acquire the handgun, making it the standard sidearm for the entire U.S. military. The services plan to procure up to 421,000 weapons in total; 195,000 for the Army, 130,000 for the Air Force, 61,000 for the Navy (M18 compact version only), and 35,000 for the Marines.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: In 2019, the Marine Corps selected the M18 to replace several pistols. While the other services had previously primarily fielded the Beretta M9 and M9A1, the Corps also planned to replace its M45A1 and M007 pistols with the M18. The M45A1 was made by Colt and the only recently fielded M007 was made by Glock. The Marines began rolling out the M18 in 2020.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: Although it was initially announced that the U.S. Coast Guard would adopt the M17/18 handgun, the agency announced in September 2020 that they would acquire Glock 19 Gen 5 handguns through a DHS procurement. In November 2019, SIG Sauer announced the delivery of the 100,000th M17/M18 handgun to the U.S. military.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: Though the pistol remained chambered in 9mm NATO rather than a larger caliber, the contract allowed the Army and other services to procure SIG Sauer' s proposed XM1152 Full Metal Jacket and XM1153 Special Purpose ammunition. The ammunition is a "Winchester jacketed hollow-point" round; similar in appearance to the Winchester PDX1 round but with some differences to the design of the hollow-point petals. One round is a standard 115 grain ball, designated the M1152, the other is a 147 grain Special Purpose round designated the M1153. Olin Corporation (Winchester Brand) received a contract to produce approximately 1.2 million rounds of the ammunition.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: The first annual report for the XM17/XM18 Modular Handgun System (MHS) program assessment recommended the Army:


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: On October 11, 2018, four ceremonial M17s built by Sig Sauer's Custom Shop were presented to The Old Guard for use by the Sentinels which guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Each of the four pistols bears a specific name and theme engraved on the pistol's dust cover: Silence, Respect, Dignity, and Perseverance. "Silence" and "Respect", are highly polished with brown wood handgrips, used for daylight hours, while "Dignity" and "Perseverance" are matte black pistols with black wood handgrips for night duty and bouts of inclement weather. All four guns use an aluminum frame, rather than the polymer plastic of the standard M17, while the controls are the standard matte black. The rear slide cocking serrations of the regular M17 are replaced with "XXI", a reference to the twenty-one steps the guards take on their patrol in front of the tomb, as well as the 21-gun salute. Various materials of significance are incorporated into the pistol. The wood grips are crafted from wooden planks removed from the deck of the USS "Olympia", the ship which carried the first Unknown Soldier to the United States in 1921. Marble dust from the tomb's restoration is also sealed in a glass vial and used in place of the front tritium sight. The M17s only have engravings in one area of the pistol, on the sight plate, which features an engraving of three Greek figures, Peace, Victory, and Valor.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: The pistols are serialized with a unique set of serial numbers that incorporate items of significance to the Old Guard: "LS" represents line six of the Sentinels' Creed, "My standard will remain perfection"; "02JUL37" to signify the first 24-hour guard posted at the Tomb of the Unknown on July 3, 1937; and "21" to signify the 21 steps it takes the Tomb Sentinels to walk by the Tomb of the Unknown and the military honor of a 21 Gun Salute.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: Tomb Sentinels carry loaded weapons, with the 21-round magazine inserted into the pistol. The magazines are customized, and feature an aluminum base plate engraved with the names of the Greek figures featured on the Tomb of the Unknown – Peace, Victory, and Valor – and include a name plate on the bottom of the magazine engraved with the Tomb Sentinel badge number.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: In 2018, SIG Sauer released a civilian market variant of the handgun called the P320-M17. The firearm is nearly identical, albeit lacking the tamper resistant takedown screws, and available with or without an external manual safety. The P320-M17 stainless steel slide is PVD coated and the control elements feature a black finish like found on later military M17 service pistol batches. A commemorative edition was also released, called simply the M17 Commemorative, produced in the exact specification of the original gun delivered to the army, including brown trigger and controls, the same choice of magazines selected by the military, and delivered in a plain cardboard box rather than the normal SIG Sauer hard sided black plastic case, just as military pistols were packaged. Production of the M17 Commemorative was limited to a run of 5,000 units.


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: According to SIG Sauer, 9mm NATO (a commercial +P overpressure variant) 124 grain loads released in 2018 out of the SIG P320-M17 have a muzzle velocity of and muzzle energy of .


title: SIG Sauer M17

text: In 2020, SIG released the P320-M18, which features the same adaptation of the military configuration, this time with the shorter carry size M18.


title: Sambucus

text: Sambucus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry. The genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified as Adoxaceae due to genetic and morphological comparisons to plants in the genus "Adoxa".


title: Sambucus

text: The oppositely arranged leaves are pinnate with 5–9 leaflets (or, rarely, 3 or 11). Each leaf is long, and the leaflets have serrated margins. They bear large clusters of small white or cream-colored flowers in late spring; these are followed by clusters of small black, blue-black, or red berries (rarely yellow or white).


title: Sambucus

text: Sambucus fruit is rich in anthocyanidins that combine to give elderberry juice an intense blue-purple coloration that turns reddish on dilution with water. These pigments are used as colorants in various products, and "elderberry juice color" is listed by the US FDA as allowable in certified organic food products. In Japan, elderberry juice is listed as an approved "natural color additive" under the Food and Sanitation Law. Fibers can be dyed with elderberry juice (using alum as a mordant) to give .


title: Sambucus

text: Although the cooked berries (pulp and skin) of most species of "Sambucus" are edible, the uncooked berries and other parts of plants from this genus are poisonous. Leaves, twigs, branches, seeds, roots, flowers, and berries of "Sambucus" plants produce cyanogenic glycosides, which have toxic properties. Ingesting a sufficient quantity of cyanogenic glycosides from berry juice, flower tea, or beverages made from fresh leaves, branches, and fruit has been shown to cause illness, including nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and weakness. In August 1983, a group of 25 people in Monterey County, California, became suddenly ill by ingesting elderberry juice pressed from fresh, uncooked "Sambucus mexicana" berries, leaves, and stems. The concentration of cyanogenic glycosides is higher in tea made from flowers (or leaves) than from the berries.


title: Sambucus

text: The taxonomy of the genus "Sambucus" , originally described by Carl Linnaeus and hence its botanical authority, has been complicated by its wide geographical distribution and morphological diversity. This has led to overdescription of the species and infraspecific taxa (subspecies, varieties or forms).


title: Sambucus

text: The name comes from the Greek word "sambuce", an ancient wind instrument, about the removal of pith from the twigs to make whistles.


title: Sambucus

text: The genus occurs in temperate to subtropical regions of the world. More widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, its Southern Hemisphere occurrence is restricted to parts of Australasia and South America. Many species are widely cultivated for their ornamental leaves, flowers, and fruit.


title: Sambucus

text: Elder commonly grows near farms and homesteads. It is a nitrogen-dependent plant and thus is generally found near places of organic waste disposal. Elders are often grown as a hedgerow plant in Britain since they take very fast, can be bent into shape easily, and grow quite profusely, thus having gained the reputation of being 'an instant hedge'. It is not generally affected by soil type or pH level and will virtually grow anywhere sufficient sunlight is available.


title: Sambucus

text: In Northern California, elderberries are a food for migrating band-tailed pigeons. Elders are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including brown-tail, buff ermine, dot moth, emperor moth, engrailed moth, swallow-tailed moth and the V-pug. The crushed foliage and immature fruit have a strong fetid smell. Valley elderberry longhorn beetles in California are very often found around red or blue elderberry bushes. Females lay their eggs on the bark. The pith of elder has been used by watchmakers for cleaning tools before intricate work.


title: Sambucus

text: Traditional uses of "Sambucus" involved berries, seeds, leaves, and flowers or component extracts. Ornamental varieties of "Sambucus" are grown in gardens for their showy flowers, fruits and lacy foliage which support habitat for wildlife. Of the many native species, three are used as ornamentals, "S. nigra", "S. canadensis" and "S. racemosa".


title: Sambucus

text: Raw elderberries are 80% water, 18% carbohydrates, and less than 1% each of protein and fat (table). In a amount, elderberries supply of food energy and are a rich source of vitamin C, providing 43% of the Daily Value (DV). Elderberries also have moderate contents of vitamin B6 (18% DV) and iron (12% DV), with no other nutrients in significant content.


title: Sambucus

text: Elderberry fruit or flowers are used as dietary supplements to prevent or provide relief from minor diseases, such as flu, colds, constipation, and other conditions, served as a tea, extract or in a capsule. The use of elderberry supplements increased early in the COVID-19 pandemic. There is insufficient research to establish its effectiveness for such uses, or its safety profile. The raw or unripe fruit of "S. nigra" or its extracts may contain a cyanogenic glycoside that is potentially toxic.


title: Sambucus

text: Although practitioners of traditional medicine have used elderberry over centuries, there is no high-quality clinical evidence that such practices provide any benefit.


title: Sambucus

text: The flowers of "Sambucus nigra" are used to produce elderflower cordial. St-Germain, a French liqueur, is made from elderflowers. Hallands Fläder, a Swedish akvavit, is flavoured with elderflowers.


title: Sambucus

text: Hollowed elderberry twigs have traditionally been used as spiles to tap maple trees for syrup. Additionally, they have been hollowed out and used as flutes, blowguns, and syringes.


title: Sambucus

text: The fruit of "S. callicarpa" is eaten by birds and mammals. It is inedible to humans when raw but can be made into wine.


title: Sambucus

text: Elderberry twigs and fruit are employed in creating dyes for basketry. These stems are dyed a very deep black by soaking them in a wash made from the berry stems of the elderberry.


title: Sambucus

text: Folklore related to elder trees is extensive and can vary according to region. In some traditions, the elder tree is thought to ward off evil and give protection from witches, while other beliefs say that witches often congregate under the plant, especially when it is full of fruit. If an elder tree was cut down, a spirit known as the Elder Mother would be released and take her revenge. The tree could only safely be cut while chanting a rhyme to the Elder Mother.


title: Sambucus

text: Made from the branch of an elder tree, the Elder Wand plays a pivotal role in the final book of the "Harry Potter" series, which was nearly named "Harry Potter and the Elder Wand" before author J. K. Rowling decided on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".


title: Sambucus

text: Elton John's 1973 album "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player" features a song titled "Elderberry Wine".


title: Sambucus

text: In "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", John Cleese as the French Taunter tells the knights of Camelot, "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries."


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Yersinia pestis ("Y. pestis"; formerly "Pasteurella pestis") is a gram-negative, non-motile, coccobacillus bacterium without spores that is related to both "Yersinia pseudotuberculosis" and "Yersinia enterocolitica". It is a facultative anaerobic organism that can infect humans via the Oriental rat flea ("Xenopsylla cheopis"). It causes the disease plague, which caused the first plague pandemic and the Black Death, the deadliest pandemic in recorded history. Plague takes three main forms: pneumonic, septicemic, and bubonic. "Yersinia pestis" is a parasite of its host, the rat flea, which is also a parasite of rats, hence "Y. pestis" is a hyperparasite.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: "Y. pestis" was discovered in 1894 by Alexandre Yersin, a Swiss/French physician and bacteriologist from the Pasteur Institute, during an epidemic of the plague in Hong Kong. Yersin was a member of the Pasteur school of thought. Kitasato Shibasaburō, a Japanese bacteriologist who practised Koch's methodology, was also engaged at the time in finding the causative agent of the plague. However, Yersin actually linked plague with a bacillus, initially named "Pasteurella pestis"; it was renamed "Yersinia pestis" in 1944.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Every year, between one thousand and two thousand cases of the plague are still reported to the World Health Organization. With proper antibiotic treatment, the prognosis for victims is much better than before antibiotics were developed. A five- to six-fold increase in cases occurred in Asia during the time of the Vietnam War, possibly due to the disruption of ecosystems and closer proximity between people and animals. The plague is now commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, areas that now account for over 95% of reported cases. The plague also has a detrimental effect on non-human mammals; in the United States, these include the black-tailed prairie dog and the endangered black-footed ferret.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: "Y. pestis" is a non-motile coccobacillus, a facultative anaerobic bacterium with bipolar staining (giving it a safety pin appearance) that produces an antiphagocytic slime layer. Similar to other "Yersinia" species, it tests negative for urease, lactose fermentation, and indole. Its closest relatives are the gastrointestinal pathogen "Yersinia pseudotuberculosis", and, more distantly, "Yersinia enterocolitica".


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Several complete genome sequences are available for various strains and subspecies of "Y. pestis": strain KIM (of biovar "Y. p. medievalis"), and strain CO92 (of biovar "Y. p. orientalis", obtained from a clinical isolate in the United States). In 2006 the genome sequence of a strain of biovar Antiqua was completed. Some strains are non-pathogenic, such as that of strain 91001, whose sequence was published in 2004.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Like "Y. pseudotuberculosis" and "Y. enterocolitica", "Y. pestis" is host to the plasmid pCD1. It also hosts two other plasmids, pPCP1 (also called pPla or pPst) and pMT1 (also called pFra) that are not carried by the other "Yersinia" species. pFra codes for a phospholipase D that is important for the ability of "Y. pestis" to be transmitted by fleas. pPla codes for a protease, Pla, that activates plasmin in human hosts and is a very important virulence factor for pneumonic plague. Together, these plasmids, and a pathogenicity island called HPI, encode several proteins that cause the pathogenesis for which "Y. pestis" is famous. Among other things, these virulence factors are required for bacterial adhesion and injection of proteins into the host cell, invasion of bacteria in the host cell (via a type-III secretion system), and acquisition and binding of iron harvested from red blood cells (by siderophores). "Y. pestis" is thought to be descended from "Y. pseudotuberculosis", differing only in the presence of specific virulence plasmids.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: A comprehensive and comparative proteomics analysis of "Y. pestis" strain KIM was performed in 2006. The analysis focused on the transition to a growth condition mimicking growth in host cells.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Numerous bacterial small noncoding RNAs have been identified to play regulatory functions. Some can regulate the virulence genes. Some 63 novel putative sRNAs were identified through deep sequencing of the "Y. pestis" sRNA-ome. Among them was "Yersinia"-specific (also present in "Y. pseudotuberculosis" and "Y. enterocolitica") Ysr141 ("Yersinia" small RNA 141). Ysr141 sRNA was shown to regulate the synthesis of the type III secretion system (T3SS) effector protein YopJ. The Yop-Ysc T3SS is a critical component of virulence for "Yersinia" species. Many novel sRNAs were identified from "Y. pestis" grown "in vitro" and in the infected lungs of mice suggesting they play role in bacterial physiology or pathogenesis. Among them sR035 predicted to pair with SD region and transcription initiation site of a thermo-sensitive regulator "ymoA," and "sR084" predicted to pair with "fur", ferric uptake regulator.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In the urban and sylvatic (forest) cycles of "Y. pestis," most of the spreading occurs between rodents and fleas. In the sylvatic cycle, the rodent is wild, but in the urban cycle, the rodent is primarily the brown rat ("Rattus norvegicus"). In addition, "Y. pestis" can spread from the urban environment and back. Transmission to humans is usually through the bite of infected fleas. If the disease has progressed to the pneumonic form, humans can spread the bacterium to others by coughing, vomiting, and possibly sneezing.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Several species of rodents serve as the main reservoir for "Y. pestis" in the environment. In the steppes, the natural reservoir is believed to be principally the marmot. In the western United States, several species of rodents are thought to maintain "Y. pestis". However, the expected disease dynamics have not been found in any rodent. Several species of rodents are known to have a variable resistance, which could lead to an asymptomatic carrier status. Evidence indicates fleas from other mammals have a role in human plague outbreaks.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: The lack of knowledge of the dynamics of plague in mammal species is also true among susceptible rodents such as the black-tailed prairie dog ("Cynomys ludovicianus"), in which plague can cause colony collapse, resulting in a massive effect on prairie food webs. However, the transmission dynamics within prairie dogs do not follow the dynamics of blocked fleas; carcasses, unblocked fleas, or another vector could possibly be important, instead.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: The CO92 strain was isolated from a patient who died from pneumonia and who contracted the infection from an infected cat.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In other regions of the world, the reservoir of the infection is not clearly identified, which complicates prevention and early-warning programs. One such example was seen in a 2003 outbreak in Algeria.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: The transmission of "Y. pestis" by fleas is well characterized. Initial acquisition of "Y. pestis" by the vector occurs during feeding on an infected animal. Several proteins then contribute to the maintenance of the bacteria in the flea digestive tract, among them the hemin storage system and "Yersinia" murine toxin (Ymt). Although Ymt is highly toxic to rodents and was once thought to be produced to ensure reinfection of new hosts, it is essential for flea colonization and for the survival of "Y. pestis" in fleas.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: The hemin storage system plays an important role in the transmission of "Y. pestis" back to a mammalian host. While in the insect vector, proteins encoded by hemin storage system genetic loci induce biofilm formation in the proventriculus, a valve connecting the midgut to the esophagus. The presence of this biofilm seems likely to be required for stable infection of the flea. Aggregation in the biofilm inhibits feeding, as a mass of clotted blood and bacteria forms (referred to as "Bacot's block" after entomologist A.W. Bacot, the first to describe this phenomenon). Transmission of "Y. pestis" occurs during the futile attempts of the flea to feed. Ingested blood is pumped into the esophagus, where it dislodges bacteria lodged in the proventriculus, which is regurgitated back into the host circulatory system.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Pathogenesis due to "Y. pestis" infection of mammalian hosts is due to several factors, including an ability of these bacteria to suppress and avoid normal immune system responses such as phagocytosis and antibody production. Flea bites allow for the bacteria to pass the skin barrier. "Y. pestis" expresses a plasmin activator that is an important virulence factor for pneumonic plague and that might degrade on blood clots to facilitate systematic invasion. Many of the bacteria's virulence factors are antiphagocytic in nature. Two important antiphagocytic antigens, named F1 (fraction 1) and V or LcrV, are both important for virulence. These antigens are produced by the bacterium at normal human body temperature. Furthermore, "Y. pestis" survives and produces F1 and V antigens while it is residing within white blood cells such as monocytes, but not in neutrophils. Natural or induced immunity is achieved by the production of specific opsonic antibodies against F1 and V antigens; antibodies against F1 and V induce phagocytosis by neutrophils.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In addition, the type-III secretion system (T3SS) allows "Y. pestis" to inject proteins into macrophages and other immune cells. These T3SS-injected proteins, called "Yersinia" outer proteins (Yops), include Yop B/D, which form pores in the host cell membrane and have been linked to cytolysis. The YopO, YopH, YopM, YopT, YopJ, and YopE are injected into the cytoplasm of host cells by T3SS into the pore created in part by YopB and YopD. The injected Yops limit phagocytosis and cell signaling pathways important in the innate immune system, as discussed below. In addition, some "Y. pestis" strains are capable of interfering with immune signaling (e.g., by preventing the release of some cytokines).


title: Yersinia pestis

text: "Y. pestis" proliferates inside lymph nodes, where it is able to avoid destruction by cells of the immune system such as macrophages. The ability of "Y. pestis" to inhibit phagocytosis allows it to grow in lymph nodes and cause lymphadenopathy. YopH is a protein tyrosine phosphatase that contributes to the ability of "Y. pestis" to evade immune system cells. In macrophages, YopH has been shown to dephosphorylate p130Cas, Fyb (FYN binding protein) SKAP-HOM and Pyk, a tyrosine kinase homologous to FAK. YopH also binds the p85 subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase, the Gab1, the Gab2 adapter proteins, and the Vav guanine nucleotide exchange factor.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: YopE functions as a GTPase-activating protein for members of the Rho family of GTPases such as RAC1. YopT is a cysteine protease that inhibits RhoA by removing the isoprenyl group, which is important for localizing the protein to the cell membrane. YopE and YopT has been proposed to function to limit YopB/D-induced cytolysis. This might limit the function of YopB/D to create the pores used for Yop insertion into host cells and prevent YopB/D-induced rupture of host cells and release of cell contents that would attract and stimulate immune system responses.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: YopJ is an acetyltransferase that binds to a conserved α-helix of MAPK kinases. YopJ acetylates MAPK kinases at serines and threonines that are normally phosphorylated during activation of the MAP kinase cascade. YopJ is activated in eukaryotic cells by interaction with target cell phytic acid (IP6). This disruption of host cell protein kinase activity causes apoptosis of macrophages, and this is proposed to be important for the establishment of infection and for evasion of the host immune response. YopO is a protein kinase also known as "Yersinia" protein kinase A (YpkA). YopO is a potent inducer of human macrophage apoptosis.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: It has also been suggested that a bacteriophage – Ypφ – may have been responsible for increasing the virulence of this organism.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Depending on which form of the plague infects the individual, the plague develops a different illness; however, the plague overall affects the host cell's ability to communicate with the immune system, hindering the body bringing phagocytic cells to the area of infection.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: "Y. pestis" is a versatile killer. In addition to rodents and humans, it is known to have killed camels, chickens, and pigs. Domestic dogs and cats are susceptible to plague, as well, but cats are more likely to develop illness when infected. In either, the symptoms are similar to those experienced by humans, and can be deadly to the animal. People can be exposed by coming into contact with an infected animal (dead or alive), or inhaling infectious droplets that a sick dog or cat has coughed into the air.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: A formalin-inactivated vaccine was available in the United States for adults in 1993 at high risk of contracting the plague until removal from the market by the Food and Drug Administration. It was of limited effectiveness and could cause severe inflammation. Experiments with genetic engineering of a vaccine based on F1 and V antigens are underway and show promise. However, bacteria lacking antigen F1 are still virulent, and the V antigens are sufficiently variable such that vaccines composed of these antigens may not be fully protective. The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases has found that an experimental F1/V antigen-based vaccine protects crab-eating macaques, but fails to protect African green monkey species. A systematic review by the Cochrane Collaboration found no studies of sufficient quality to make any statement on the efficacy of the vaccine.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In 1894, two bacteriologists, Alexandre Yersin of Switzerland and Kitasato Shibasaburō of Japan, independently isolated in Hong Kong the bacterium responsible for the 1894 Hong Kong plague. Though both investigators reported their findings, a series of confusing and contradictory statements by Kitasato eventually led to the acceptance of Yersin as the primary discoverer of the organism. Yersin named it "Pasteurella pestis" in honor of the Pasteur Institute, where he worked. In 1967, it was moved to a new genus and renamed "Yersinia pestis" in his honor. Yersin also noted that rats were affected by plague not only during plague epidemics, but also often preceding such epidemics in humans and that plague was regarded by many locals as a disease of rats; villagers in China and India asserted that when large numbers of rats were found dead, plague outbreaks soon followed.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In 1898, French scientist Paul-Louis Simond (who had also come to China to battle the Third Pandemic) discovered the rat–flea vector that drives the disease. He had noted that persons who became ill did not have to be in close contact with each other to acquire the disease. In Yunnan, China, inhabitants would flee from their homes as soon as they saw dead rats, and on the island of Formosa (Taiwan), residents considered the handling of dead rats heightened the risks of developing plague. These observations led him to suspect that the flea might be an intermediary factor in the transmission of plague, since people acquired plague only if they were in contact with rats that had died less than 24 hours before. In a now classic experiment, Simond demonstrated how a healthy rat died of the plague after infected fleas had jumped to it from a rat that had recently died of the plague. The outbreak spread to Chinatown, San Francisco, from 1900 to 1904 and then to Oakland and the East Bay from 1907 to 1909. It has been present in the rodents of western North America ever since, as fear of the consequences of the outbreak on trade caused authorities to hide the dead of the Chinatown residents long enough for the disease to be passed to widespread species of native rodents in outlying areas.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: Three main strains are recognised: "Y. p. antiqua", which caused a plague pandemic in the sixth century; "Y. p. medievalis", which caused the Black Death and subsequent epidemics during the second pandemic wave; and "Y. p. orientalis", which is responsible for current plague outbreaks.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: On January 15, 2018, researchers at the University of Oslo and the University of Ferrara suggested that humans and their parasites (most likely fleas and lice at the time) were the biggest carriers of the plague.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In 2010, researchers in Germany definitively established, using PCR evidence from samples obtained from Black Death victims, that "Y. pestis" was the cause of the medieval Black Death.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In 2011, the first genome of "Y. pestis" isolated from Black Death victims was published, and concluded that this medieval strain was ancestral to most modern forms of "Y. pestis".


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In 2015, "Cell" published results from a study of ancient graves. Plasmids of "Y. pestis" were detected in archaeological samples of the teeth of seven Bronze Age individuals, in the Afanasievo culture in Siberia, the Corded Ware culture in Estonia, the Sintashta culture in Russia, the Unetice culture in Poland, and the Andronovo culture in Siberia. In 2018, the emergence and spread of the pathogen during the Neolithic decline (as far back as 6,000 years ago) was published. A site in Sweden was the source of the DNA evidence and trade networks were proposed as the likely avenue of spread rather than migrations of populations. There is evidence that suggests "Y. pestis" may have originated in Europe in the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, not in Asia as is more commonly believed.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: DNA evidence published in 2015 indicates "Y. pestis" infected humans 5,000 years ago in Bronze Age Eurasia, but genetic changes that made it highly virulent did not occur until about 4,000 years ago. The highly virulent version capable of transmission by fleas through rodents, humans, and other mammals was found in two individuals associated with the Srubnaya culture from the Samara region in Russia from around 3,800 years ago and an Iron Age individual from Kapan, Armenia from around 2,900 years ago. This indicates that at least two lineages of "Y. pestis" were circulating during the Bronze Age in Eurasia. The "Y. pestis" bacterium has a relatively large number of nonfunctioning genes and three "ungainly" plasmids, suggesting an origin less than 20,000 years ago.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: On September 8, 2016, the "Y. pestis" bacterium was identified from DNA in teeth found at a Crossrail building site in London. The human remains were found to be victims of the Great Plague of London, which lasted from 1665 to 1666.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In 2021, researchers found a 5,000-year-old victim of Y. pestis, the world's oldest-known, in hunter-gatherer remains in the modern Latvian and Estonian border area.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In 2008, plague was commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, areas that accounted for over 95% of the reported cases.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In September 2009, the death of Malcolm Casadaban, a molecular genetics professor at the University of Chicago, was linked to his work on a weakened laboratory strain of "Y. pestis". Hemochromatosis was hypothesised to be a predisposing factor in Casadaban's death from this attenuated strain used for research.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: On November 3, 2019, two cases of pneumonic plague were diagnosed at a hospital in Beijing's Chaoyang district, prompting fears of an outbreak. The patient was a middle-aged man with fever, who had complained of difficulty breathing for some ten days, accompanied by his wife with similar symptoms. Police quarantined the emergency room at the hospital and controls were placed on Chinese news aggregators. On 18 November a third case was reported, in a 55-year-old man from Xilingol League, one of the twelve Mongolian autonomous regions in Northern China. The patient received treatment, and 28 symptomless contacts were placed in quarantine.


title: Yersinia pestis

text: In July 2020, officials increased precautions after a case of bubonic plague was confirmed in Bayannur, a city in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The patient was quarantined and treated. According to China's "Global Times", a second suspected case was also investigated, and a level 3 alert was issued, in effect until the end of the year. It forbade hunting and eating of animals that could carry plague, and called on the public to report suspected cases.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: Black Sabbath is the debut studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released on 13 February 1970 by Vertigo Records in the United Kingdom and Warner Bros. Records in the United States on 1 June 1970. The album is widely regarded as the first heavy metal album, and the opening track, "Black Sabbath", has been referred to as the first doom metal song.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: Upon release, the album reached number eight on the UK Albums Charts and number 23 on the US "Billboard" 200. "Black Sabbath" is included in Robert Dimery's 2005 musical reference book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: According to Black Sabbath's guitarist and founding member Tony Iommi, the group's debut album was recorded in a single twelve-hour session on 16 October 1969. Iommi said: "We just went in the studio and did it in a day, we played our live set and that was it. We actually thought a whole day was quite a long time, then off we went the next day to play for £20 in Switzerland." Aside from the bells, thunder and rain sound effects added to the beginning of the opening track and the double-tracked guitar solos on "N.I.B." and "Sleeping Village", there were virtually no overdubs added to the album. Iommi recalls recording live: "We thought, 'We have two days to do it and one of the days is mixing.' So we played live. Ozzy was singing at the same time, we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff."


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: The key to the band's new sound on the album was Iommi's distinctive playing style that he developed after an accident at a sheet metal factory where he was working at the age of 17 in which the tips of the middle fingers of his fretting hand were severed. Iommi created a pair of false fingertips using plastic from a dish detergent bottle and detuned the strings on his guitar to make it easier for him to bend the strings, creating a massive, heavy sound. "I'd play a load of chords and I'd have to play fifths because I couldn't play fourths because of my fingers," Iommi explained to Phil Alexander in "Mojo" in 2013. "That helped me develop my style of playing, bending the strings and hitting the open string at the same time just to make the sound wilder." In the same article bassist Geezer Butler added, "Back then the bass player was supposed to do all these melodic runs, but I didn't know how to do that because I'd been a guitarist, so all I did was follow Tony's riff. That made the sound heavier."


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: Iommi began recording the album with a white Fender Stratocaster, his guitar of choice at the time, but a malfunctioning pickup forced him to finish recording with a Gibson SG, a guitar he had recently purchased as a backup but had "never really played". The SG was a right-handed model which the left-handed Iommi played upside down. Soon after recording the album, he met a right-handed guitarist who was playing a left-handed SG upside down, and the two agreed to swap guitars; this is the SG that Iommi modified and later "put out to pasture" at the Hard Rock Cafe.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne has always spoken fondly of the recording of the band's debut album, stating in his autobiography "I Am Ozzy", "Once we'd finished, we spent a couple of hours double-tracking some of the guitar and vocals, and that was that. Done. We were in the pub in time for last orders. It can't have taken any longer than twelve hours in total. That's how albums should be made, in my opinion." Drummer Bill Ward agrees, telling "Guitar World" in 2001, "I think the first album is just absolutely incredible. It's naïve, and there's an absolute sense of unity – it's not contrived in any way, shape or form. We weren't old enough to be clever. I love it all, including the mistakes!" In an interview for the "Classic Albums" series in 2010 Butler added, "It was literally live in the studio. I mean, (producer) Rodger Bain, I think he's a genius the way he captured the band in such a short time." In his autobiography "Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell with Black Sabbath", Iommi plays down the producer's role, insisting, "We didn't choose to work with Rodger Bain, he was chosen for us... He was good to have around, but we didn't really get a lot of advice from him. He maybe suggested a couple of things, but the songs were already fairly structured and sorted."


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: On release, a writer for "The Boston Globe" described the music of "Black Sabbath" as "hard blues-rock". In retrospect, AllMusic's Steve Huey feels that "Black Sabbath" marks "the birth of heavy metal as we now know it". In his opinion, the album "transcends its clear roots in blues-rock and psychedelia to become something more". He ascribes its "sonic ugliness" as a reflection of "the bleak industrial nightmare" of the group's hometown, Birmingham, England. Huey notes the first side's allusions to themes characteristic of heavy metal, including evil, paganism, and the occult, "as filtered through horror films and the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, and Dennis Wheatley." He characterises side two as "given over to loose blues-rock jamming learned through" the English rock band Cream.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: In the opinion of the author and former "Metal Maniacs" magazine editor Jeff Wagner, "Black Sabbath" is the "generally accepted starting point" when heavy metal "became distinct from rock and roll". In his opinion, the album represented a transition from blues rock into "something uglier", and that this sound "found deeper gravity via mournful singing and a sinister rhythmic pulse". According to "Rolling Stone" magazine, "the album that arguably invented heavy metal was built on thunderous blues-rock". Sputnikmusic's Mike Stagno notes that Black Sabbath's combined elements of rock, jazz and blues, with heavy distortion created one of the most influential albums in the history of heavy metal. In retrospect, "Black Sabbath" has been lauded as perhaps the first true heavy metal album. It has also been credited as the first record in the stoner rock and goth genres.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: Taking a broader perspective, Pete Prown of "Vintage Guitar" says, "The debut Black Sabbath album of 1970 was a watershed moment in heavy rock, but it was part of a larger trend of artists, producers, and engineers already moving towards the sound we now call hard rock and heavy metal."


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: "Black Sabbath" music and lyrics were quite dark for the time. The opening track is based almost entirely on a tritone interval played at slow tempo on the electric guitar. In the 2010 "Classic Albums" documentary on the making of the band's second album "Paranoid", Geezer Butler claims the riff was inspired by "Mars, the Bringer of War", a movement in Gustav Holst's "The Planets". Iommi reinterpreted the riff slightly and redefined the band's direction. Ward told "Classic Albums", "When Oz sang 'What is this that stands before me?' it became completely different...this was a different lyric now, this was a different feel. I was playing drums to the words." The song's lyrics concern a "figure in black" which bassist Geezer Butler claims to have seen after waking up from a nightmare. In the liner notes to the band's 1998 live album "Reunion" the bassist remembers:


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: Similarly, the lyrics of the song "N.I.B." are written from the point of view of Lucifer, who falls in love with a human woman and "becomes a better person" according to lyricist Butler. Contrary to popular belief, the name of that song is not an abbreviation for "Nativity in Black"; according to Osbourne's autobiography it is merely a reference to drummer Bill Ward's pointed goatee at the time, which was shaped as a pen-nib. The lyrics of two other songs on the album were written about stories with mythological themes. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" is a reference to the H. P. Lovecraft short story "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", while "The Wizard" was inspired by the character of Gandalf from "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". The latter includes harmonica playing by Osbourne. The band also recorded a cover of "Evil Woman", a song that had been an American hit for the band Crow. In his autobiography, Iommi admits the band reluctantly agreed to do the song at the behest of their manager Jim Simpson, who insisted they record something commercial.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: The cover photograph was shot at Mapledurham Watermill, situated on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, by photographer Keith McMillan (credited as Keef), who was in charge of the overall design. Standing in front of the watermill is a figure dressed in a black cloak, portrayed by model Louisa Livingstone, whose identity was not widely known until 2020. "I'm sure (McMillan) said it was for Black Sabbath, but I don't know if that meant anything much to me at the time," Livingstone recalled, adding that it had been "freezing cold" during the shoot. "I had to get up at about 4 o'clock in the morning. Keith was rushing around with dry ice, throwing it into the water. It didn't seem to be working very well, so he ended up using a smoke machine," said the model.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: According to McMillan, Livingstone was wearing nothing underneath the black cloak, and some experimentation was done involving some "slightly more risqué" photographs taken at the session. "We decided none of that worked," McMillan said. "Any kind of sexuality took away from the more foreboding mood. But she was a terrific model. She had amazing courage and understanding of what I was trying to do."


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: The inner gatefold sleeve of the original release featured an inverted cross containing a poem written by Roger Brown, McMillan's photography assistant. The band were reportedly upset when they discovered this, as it fuelled allegations that they were satanists or occultists; however, in Osbourne's memoirs, he says that to the best of his knowledge nobody was upset with the inclusion. Iommi's recollection is somewhat different: "Suddenly we had all these crazy people turning up at shows," he told "Mojo" magazine in 2013. "I think Alex Sanders (high priest of the Wiccan religion) turned up at a gig once. It was all quite strange, really." The liner notes to the 1998 "Reunion" album state "Unbeknownst to the band, "Black Sabbath" was launched in the U.S. with a party with the head of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey, presiding over the proceedings... All of a sudden Sabbath were Satan's Right Hand Men."


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: In the years since the iconic cover photo was shot, Livingstone has released electronic music under the name Indreba.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: "Black Sabbath" was recorded for Fontana Records, but prior to release the record company elected to switch the band to another of their labels, Vertigo Records, which housed the company's more progressive acts. Released on Friday the 13th February 1970 by Vertigo Records, "Black Sabbath" reached number eight on the UK Albums Charts. Following its United States release in June 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, the album reached number 23 on the "Billboard" 200, where it remained for more than a year and sold one million copies.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: "Black Sabbath" received generally negative reviews from contemporary critics. "Rolling Stone" Lester Bangs described the band as, "just like Cream! But worse", and he dismissed the album as "a shuck – despite the murky songtitles and some inane lyrics that sound like Vanilla Fudge paying doggerel tribute to Aleister Crowley, the album has nothing to do with spiritualism, the occult, or anything much except stiff recitations of Cream clichés". Robert Christgau, writing for "The Village Voice", panned the album as "bullshit necromancy". He later described it as a reflection of "the worst of the counterculture", including "drug-impaired reaction time" and "long solos".


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: Retrospective reviews of "Black Sabbath" have been positive. AllMusic reviewer Steve Huey said it was a highly innovative debut album with several classic metal songs, including the title track, which he felt had the "most definitive heavy metal riffs of all time". Huey was also impressed by how the band's "slowed-down, murky guitar rock bludgeons the listener in an almost hallucinatory fashion, reveling in its own dazed, druggy state of consciousness". In "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" (2004), journalist Scott Seward highlighted Bain's grandiose production on "an album that eats hippies for breakfast." In the opinion of Mike Stagno of Sputnikmusic, "both fans of blues influenced hard rock and heavy metal of all sorts should find something they like on the album." BBC Music's Pete Marsh referred to "Black Sabbath" as an "album that changed the face of rock music." In Mick Wall's book "Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe", Butler reflects, "The London press absolutely hated us when we made it 'cos they'd never written an article about us, they didn't know of us. When our first album, the first week, went straight into the charts, the London press went, like, what the hell's going on here? And they've hated us ever since."


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: In 1989, "Kerrang!" ranked "Black Sabbath" number 31 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". In 1994, it was ranked number 12 in Colin Larkin's "Top 50 Heavy Metal Albums". Larkin praised the album's "crushing atmosphere of doom", which he described as "intense and relentless". In 2000, "Q" magazine included "Black Sabbath" in their list of the "Best Metal Albums of All Time", stating: "[This album] was to prove so influential it remains a template for metal bands three decades on." In 2003, it was ranked number 241 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 243 in a 2012 revised list, and 355 in a 2020 revised list. "Rolling Stone" ranked "Black Sabbath" number 44 in their list of the 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time, describing the title track as the song that "would define the sound of a thousand bands". Additionally, in 2017, the magazine ranked it 5th on their list of "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". The album was also included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: The original North American Warner Bros. Records pressings of "Black Sabbath" list incorrect running times for "Wicked World" and the "Warning" medley (4:30 and 14:32, respectively), and also credit the album's original songs using the band members' given names (Anthony Iommi, John Osbourne, Terence Butler, and William Ward). The Castle Communications edition of 1986 also featured a live version of "Tomorrow's Dream" as a bonus track.


title: Black Sabbath (album)

text: Disc two of the Deluxe Editions contains "N.I.B. (studio out-take)" with vocals, that was incorrectly listed as "N.I.B. (instrumental)".


title: El (deity)

text: Specific deities known as "El", "Al" or "Il" include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia's Early Dynastic Period. Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirsa.


title: El (deity)

text: Cognate forms of ʼĒl are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic , pl. ; Phoenician pl. ; Hebrew , pl. ; Aramaic ; Akkadian , pl. .


title: El (deity)

text: In northwest Semitic use, ʼĒl was a generic word for any god as well as the special name or title of a particular god who was distinguished from other gods as being "the god". ʼĒl is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, ʼĒl played a role as father of the gods, of creation, or both. Semitic civilizations referred to the god Saturn as “El”.


title: El (deity)

text: However, because the word ʼĒl sometimes refers to a god other than the great god ʼĒl, it is frequently ambiguous as to whether ʼĒl followed by another name means the great god ʼĒl with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, "ʾil mlk" is understood to mean "ʼĒl the King" but "ʾil hd" as "the god Hadad".


title: El (deity)

text: The Semitic root "ʾlh" (Arabic "", Aramaic "ʾAlāh", "ʾElāh", Hebrew "ʾelōah") may be "ʾl" with a parasitic h, and "ʾl" may be an abbreviated form of "ʾlh". In Ugaritic the plural form meaning "gods" is , equivalent to Hebrew "powers". In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for "god" by biblical commentators. However the documentary hypothesis developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.


title: El (deity)

text: The stem "ʾl" is found prominently in the earliest strata of east Semitic, northwest Semitic, and south Semitic groups. Personal names including the stem "ʾl" are found with similar patterns in both Amorite and Sabaic – which indicates that probably already in Proto-Semitic "ʾl" was both a generic term for "god" and the common name or title of a single particular god.


title: El (deity)

text: The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title "ḏū gitti" 'Lord of Gath' in a prism from Tel Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II (c. 1435–1420 BCE). The title "ḏū gitti" is also found in Serābitṭ text 353. Cross (1973, p. 19) points out that Ptah is often called "the Lord (or one) of eternity" and thinks it may be this identification of ʼĒl with Ptah that lead to the epithet "olam" 'eternal' being applied to ʼĒl so early and so consistently. (However, in the Ugaritic texts, Ptah is seemingly identified rather with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis.) Yet another connection is seen with the Mandaean angel Ptahil, whose name combines both the terms Ptah and Il.


title: El (deity)

text: In an inscription in the Proto-Sinaitic script, William F. Albright transcribed the phrase "ʾL Ḏ ʿLM", which he translated as the appellation "El, (god) of eternity".


title: El (deity)

text: The name Raphael or Rapha-El, meaning 'God has healed' in Ugarit, is attested to in approximately 1350 BCE in one of the Amarna Letters EA333, found in Tell-el-Hesi from the ruler of Lachish to 'The Great One'


title: El (deity)

text: A Phoenician inscribed amulet of the seventh century BCE from Arslan Tash may refer to ʼĒl. The text was translated by Rosenthal (1969, p. 658) as follows:


title: El (deity)

text: In some inscriptions, the name "Ēl qōne 'arṣ" (Punic: 𐤀𐤋 𐤒𐤍 𐤀𐤓𐤑 "ʾl qn ʾrṣ") meaning "ʼĒl creator of Earth" appears, even including a late inscription at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania dating to the second century. In Hittite texts, the expression becomes the single name "Ilkunirsa", this Ilkunirsa appearing as the husband of Asherdu (Asherah) and father of 77 or 88 sons.


title: El (deity)

text: In a Hurrian hymn to ʼĒl (published in "Ugaritica V", text RS 24.278), he is called "il brt" and "il dn", which Cross (p. 39) takes as 'ʼĒl of the covenant' and 'ʼĒl the judge' respectively.


title: El (deity)

text: For the Canaanites and the ancient Levantine region as a whole, ʼĒl or ʼIl was the supreme god, the father of mankind and all creatures. He also fathered many gods, most importantly Baal, Yam, and Mot, each sharing similar attributes to the Greco-Roman gods: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades respectively.


title: El (deity)

text: Three pantheon lists found at Ugarit (modern —, Syria) begin with the four gods "il-'ib" (which according to Cross; is the name of a generic kind of deity, perhaps the divine ancestor of the people), ʼĒl, Dagnu (that is Dagon), and Ba'l Ṣapān (that is the god Haddu or Hadad). Though Ugarit had a large temple dedicated to Dagon and another to Hadad, there was no temple dedicated to ʼĒl.


title: El (deity)

text: ʼĒl is called again and again "Tôru ʼĒl" ("Bull ʼĒl" or "the bull god"). He is "bātnyu binwāti" ("Creator of creatures"), "abū banī 'ili" ("father of the gods"), and " 'abū 'adami" ("father of man"). He is "qāniyunu 'ôlam" ("creator eternal"), the epithet "'ôlam" appearing in Hebrew form in the Hebrew name of God "ēl 'ôlam" "God Eternal" in Genesis 21.33. He is "ḥātikuka" ("your patriarch"). ʼĒl is the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, "malku" ("King"), "abū šamīma" ("Father of years"), "El gibbōr" ("ʼĒl the warrior"). He is also named "lṭpn" of unknown meaning, variously rendered as Latpan, Latipan, or Lutpani ("shroud-face" by "Strong's Hebrew Concordance").


title: El (deity)

text: "El" (Father of Heaven / Saturn) and his major son: "Hadad" (Father of Earth / Jupiter), are symbolized both by the bull, and both wear bull horns on their headdresses.


title: El (deity)

text: In Canaanite mythology, El builds a desert sanctuary with his children and his two wives, leading to speculation that at one point El was a desert god.


title: El (deity)

text: The mysterious Ugaritic text "Shachar and Shalim" tells how (perhaps near the beginning of all things) ʼĒl came to shores of the sea and saw two women who bobbed up and down. ʼĒl was sexually aroused and took the two with him, killed a bird by throwing a staff at it, and roasted it over a fire. He asked the women to tell him when the bird was fully cooked, and to then address him either as husband or as father, for he would thenceforward behave to them as they called him. They saluted him as husband. He then lay with them, and they gave birth to "Shachar" ("Dawn") and "Shalim" ("Dusk"). Again ʼĒl lay with his wives and the wives gave birth to "the gracious gods", "cleavers of the sea", "children of the sea". The names of these wives are not explicitly provided, but some confusing rubrics at the beginning of the account mention the goddess Athirat, who is otherwise ʼĒl's chief wife, and the goddess Raḥmayyu ("the one of the womb"), otherwise unknown.


title: El (deity)

text: In the Ugaritic Ba'al cycle, ʼĒl is introduced dwelling on (or in) Mount Lel ("Lel" possibly meaning "Night") at the fountains of the two rivers at the spring of the two deeps. He dwells in a tent according to some interpretations of the text which may explain why he had no temple in Ugarit. As to the rivers and the spring of the two deeps, these might refer to real streams, or to the mythological sources of the salt water ocean and the fresh water sources under the earth, or to the waters above the heavens and the waters beneath the earth.


title: El (deity)

text: In the episode of the "Palace of Ba'al", the god Ba'al Hadad invites the "seventy sons of Athirat" to a feast in his new palace. Presumably these sons have been fathered on Athirat by ʼĒl; in following passages they seem to be the gods ("ilm") in general or at least a large portion of them. The only sons of ʼĒl named individually in the Ugaritic texts are Yamm ("Sea"), Mot ("Death"), and Ashtar, who may be the chief and leader of most of the sons of ʼĒl. Ba'al Hadad is a few times called ʼĒl's son rather than the son of Dagan as he is normally called, possibly because ʼĒl is in the position of a clan-father to all the gods.


title: El (deity)

text: The fragmentary text R.S. 24.258 describes a banquet to which ʼĒl invites the other gods and then disgraces himself by becoming outrageously drunk and passing out after confronting an otherwise unknown Hubbay, "he with the horns and tail". The text ends with an incantation for the cure of some disease, possibly hangover.


title: El (deity)

text: The Hebrew form (אל) appears in Latin letters in Standard Hebrew transcription as El and in Tiberian Hebrew transcription as ʾĒl. "ʼĒl" is a generic word for "god" that could be used for any god, including Hadad, Moloch, or Yahweh.


title: El (deity)

text: In the Tanakh, "'lōhîm" is the normal word for a god or the great God (or gods, given that the 'im' suffix makes a word plural in Hebrew). But the form "El" also appears, mostly in poetic passages and in the patriarchal narratives attributed to the Priestly source of the documentary hypothesis. It occurs 217 times in the Masoretic Text: seventy-three times in the Psalms and fifty-five times in the Book of Job, and otherwise mostly in poetic passages or passages written in elevated prose. It occasionally appears with the definite article as "hā'Ēl" 'the god' (for example in ).


title: El (deity)

text: The theological position of the Tanakh is that the names "ʼĒl" and "Ĕlōhîm", when used in the singular to mean the supreme god, refer to Yahweh, beside whom other gods are supposed to be either nonexistent or insignificant. Whether this was a long-standing belief or a relatively new one has long been the subject of inconclusive scholarly debate about the prehistory of the sources of the Tanakh and about the prehistory of Israelite religion. In the P strand, may be translated:


title: El (deity)

text: I revealed myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as Ēl Shaddāi, but was not known to them by my name, YHVH.


title: El (deity)

text: However, it is said in that Abraham accepted the blessing of El, when Melchizedek, the king of Salem and high priest of its deity El Elyon blessed him. One scholarly position is that the identification of Yahweh with ʼĒl is late, that Yahweh was earlier thought of as only one of many gods, and not normally identified with ʼĒl. Another is that in much of the Hebrew Bible the name El is an alternative name for Yahweh, but in the Elohist and Priestly traditions it is considered an earlier name than Yahweh.


title: El (deity)

text: Mark Smith has argued that Yahweh and El were originally separate, but were considered synonymous from very early on. The name Yahweh is used in the Bible Tanakh in the first book of ; and says that at that time, people began to "call upon the name of the LORD".


title: El (deity)

text: In some places, especially in , Yahweh is clearly envisioned as a storm god, something not true of ʼĒl so far as we know (although true of his son, Ba'al Haddad). It is Yahweh who is prophesied to one day battle Leviathan the serpent, and slay the dragon in the sea in . The slaying of the serpent in myth is a deed attributed to both Ba'al Hadad and 'Anat in the Ugaritic texts, but not to ʼĒl.


title: El (deity)

text: Such mythological motifs are variously seen as late survivals from a period when Yahweh held a place in theology comparable to that of Hadad at Ugarit; or as late henotheistic/monotheistic applications to Yahweh of deeds more commonly attributed to Hadad; or simply as examples of eclectic application of the same motifs and imagery to various different gods. Similarly, it is argued inconclusively whether Ēl Shaddāi, Ēl 'Ôlām, Ēl 'Elyôn, and so forth, were originally understood as separate divinities. Albrecht Alt presented his theories on the original differences of such gods in "Der Gott der Väter" in 1929.


title: El (deity)

text: But others have argued that from patriarchal times, these different names were in fact generally understood to refer to the same single great god, ʼĒl. This is the position of Frank Moore Cross (1973). What is certain is that the form 'El does appear in Israelite names from every period including the name "Yiśrā'ēl" ("Israel"), meaning "El strives".


title: El (deity)

text: It seems almost certain that the God of the Jews evolved gradually from the Canaanite El, who was in all likelihood the "God of Abraham" ... If El was the high God of Abraham—Elohim, the prototype of Yahveh—Asherah was his wife, and there are archaeological indications that she was perceived as such before she was in effect "divorced" in the context of emerging Judaism of the 7th century BCE. (See .)


title: El (deity)

text: The apparent plural form "Ēlîm" or "Ēlim" "gods" occurs only four times in the Tanakh. Psalm 29, understood as an enthronement psalm, begins:


title: El (deity)

text: Traditionally "bnê 'ēlîm" has been interpreted as 'sons of the mighty', 'mighty ones', for "El" can mean 'mighty', though such use may be metaphorical (compare the English expression "[by] God awful"). It is possible also that the expression "ēlîm" in both places descends from an archaic stock phrase in which "lm" was a singular form with the "m"-enclitic and therefore to be translated as 'sons of ʼĒl'. The "m"-enclitic appears elsewhere in the Tanakh and in other Semitic languages. Its meaning is unknown, possibly simply emphasis. It appears in similar contexts in Ugaritic texts where the expression "bn 'il" alternates with "bn 'ilm", but both must mean 'sons of ʼĒl'. That phrase with "m"-enclitic also appears in Phoenician inscriptions as late as the fifth century BCE.


title: El (deity)

text: And the king will do according to his pleasure; and he will exalt himself and magnify himself over every god ("ēl"), and against the God of Gods ("El 'Elîm") he will speak outrageous things, and will prosper until the indignation is accomplished: for that which is decided will be done.


title: El (deity)

text: There are a few cases in the Tanakh where some think "El" referring to the great god ʼĒl is not equated with Yahweh. One is in , in the taunt against a man who claims to be divine, in this instance, the leader of Tyre:


title: El (deity)

text: Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: "Thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Because your heart is proud and you have said: "I am "ēl" (god), in the seat of "lōhîm" ("gods"), I am enthroned in the middle of the seas." Yet you are man and not "El" even though you have made your heart like the heart of "lōhîm" ('gods').


title: El (deity)

text: Here "ēl" might refer to a generic god, or to a highest god, ʼĒl. When viewed as applying to the King of Tyre specifically, the king was probably not thinking of Yahweh. When viewed as a general taunt against anyone making divine claims, it may or may not refer to Yahweh depending on the context.


title: El (deity)

text: In we find "Ēl Brît" 'God of the Covenant', seemingly the same as the "Ba'al Brît" 'Lord of the Covenant' whose worship has been condemned a few verses earlier. See Baal for a discussion of this passage.


title: El (deity)

text: This could mean that Yahweh judges along with many other gods as one of the council of the high god ʼĒl. However it can also mean that Yahweh stands in the Divine Council (generally known as the Council of ʼĒl), as ʼĒl judging among the other members of the council. The following verses in which the god condemns those whom he says were previously named "gods" ("Elohim") and "sons of the Most High" suggest the god here is in fact ʼĒl judging the lesser gods.


title: El (deity)

text: An archaic phrase appears in , "kôkkbê 'ēl" 'stars of God', referring to the circumpolar stars that never set, possibly especially to the seven stars of Ursa Major. The phrase also occurs in the Pyrgi Inscription as "hkkbm 'l" (preceded by the definite article "h" and followed by the "m"-enclitic). Two other apparent fossilized expressions are "arzê-'ēl" 'cedars of God' (generally translated something like 'mighty cedars', 'goodly cedars') in (in Hebrew verse 11) and "kharrê-'ēl" 'mountains of God' (generally translated something like 'great mountains', 'mighty mountains') in (in Hebrew verse 6).


title: El (deity)

text: For the reference in some texts of to seventy sons of God corresponding to the seventy sons of ʼĒl in the Ugaritic texts, see `Elyôn.