Saul

Saulė ( , ) is a solar goddess, and the common Baltic solar deity in Lithuanian and Latvian mythology. The noun Saulė/Saule in the Lithuanian and Latvian languages is also the conventional name for the Sun and originates from the Proto-Baltic name *Sauliā > *Saulē.

, 1885 , c. 1650 , c. 1640s Saul ( ; , ; ; , ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and the first king of the United Monarchy according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh century BC, marked the transition of the Israelites from a scattered tribal society ruled by various judges to organized statehood. The historicity of Saul and the United Kingdom of Israel is debated, as what is known of both comes largely from the Hebrew Bible. According to the text, he was anointed as king of the Israelites by Samuel, and reigned from Gibeah. Saul is said to have committed suicide when he fell on his sword during a battle with the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, in which three of his sons were also killed. Saul's son Ish-bosheth succeeded him to the throne, reigning for only two years before being murdered by his own military leaders. Saul's son-in-law David then became king. The biblical narrative of Saul's rise to kingship and his death contains several textual inconsistencies and plays on words that scholars have discussed. These issues include conflicting accounts of Saul's anointing and death, changes in the portrayal of Saul from positive to negative following David's introduction, and etymological discrepancies in the birth narrative of Samuel, which some scholars believe originally described Saul's birth.

Battle of Gilboa and the death of King Saul

, by Gustave Doré, 1866 , c. 1470, with the protagonists depicted anachronistically with 15th century armour , c. 1850 The Philistines went to war again, assembling at Shunem, and Saul led his army to face them at Mount Gilboa. Before the battle, he went to the village of Endor to consult a spirit medium. Unaware of his identity, the medium reminded him that the king had made witchcraft a capital offence. After he assured her that Saul would not harm her, she conjured a spirit which appeared to be that of the prophet Samuel. The spirit told him that God had fully rejected him, would no longer hear his prayers, had given the kingdom to David, and that the next day he would lose both the battle and his life. Saul collapsed in fear, and the medium restored him with food, anticipating the next day's battle. Saul's death is described in 1 Samuel 31, and also in 1 Chronicles 10. As the defeated Israelites fled from the enemy, Saul asked his armour-bearer to kill him. After his request was refused, Saul fell upon his own sword. A conflicting account is given in 2 Samuel, in which an Amalekite tells David he found Saul leaning on his spear after the battle and delivered the coup de grâce before taking Saul's crown and armband. David had the Amalekite put to death, advancing the theme that he would never kill the Lord's anointed king. The victorious Philistines recovered Saul's body as well as those of his three sons, who also died in the battle, decapitated them and displayed them on the wall of Beit She'an. They displayed Saul's armour in a temple to Ashtoreth in Ashkelon. But at night the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead retrieved the bodies for cremation and burial.( ). Later on, David took the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan and buried them in Zelah, in the tomb of his father. The account in 1 Chronicles summarises by stating that: Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.

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