Baphomet was a good article, but it was removed from the list as it no longer met the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated.
Review: January 8, 2006. (Reviewed version).
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I thought that picture of the seated man-goat was, in fact, the Goat of Mendes, a representation of polarity (essentially a Western equivalent to the yin yang).
There are a number of images of Baphomet taken from Templar coffers at About's Gnostic/Hermetic Images - Baphomet page . Each likeness has a consistent theme of polarity. Interesting, no? Alt-o 10:04, May 25, 2005 (UTC)
Some going about in circles in recent edits about how the lead should read... it could be clearer by whom/how/when/where/why Baphomet was thought to be an Islamic deity. At the moment "Some modern scholars such as Peter Partner and Malcolm Barber agree that the name of Baphomet was an Old French corruption of the name Muhammad, with the interpretation being that some of the Templars, through their long military occupation of the Outremer, had begun incorporating Islamic ideas into their belief system, and that this was seen and documented by the Inquisitors as heresy.[10] Peter Partner's 1987 book The Knights Templar and their Myth says, 'In the trial of the Templars one of their main charges was their supposed worship of a heathen idol-head known as a 'Baphomet' ('Baphomet' = Mahomet).'" is the only part that aims at that, but it doesn't quite get there. Шизомби (talk) 15:30, 31 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The salient point that needs making at the outset is that Baphomet is a Christian phantom: there is no "deity" Baphomet— as the article demonstrates.--Wetman (talk) 19:52, 31 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I agree, "imagined" goes towards that but could be clearer. I'm asking more about who imagined it to be an Islamic deity, though; the article doesn't really say any Muslims ever worshipped Baphomet. It sort of says scholars believe in retrospect that the Templars may have been a Christian/Islamic syncretistic sect that worshipped Muhammad as a deity under that name, or they were charged with supposedly being and believing that. Шизомби (talk) 20:41, 31 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Did I improve it? I removed the notion that the etymology is unestablished, since it seems established enough: it is a corruption of "Muhammad". I connected the imagined-ness directly to the "deity" and then I clarified that this imagination is found in "Catholic folklore", using Catholic instead of Christian because the Templars were Christians persecuted by the Catholic hierarchy (I don't know if this helped). I am not sure if "folklore" is the best word. Srnec (talk) 00:55, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yet, apparently the opening summary already carries as much freight as it can bear. "Eliphas Levi"'s further inventions do come along in chronological progression, making the career of this phantom progressively clear to the attentive reader.--Wetman (talk) 05:55, 6 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
