Perseus
Perseus, Dan, and the Golden Calf of Dionysus
by John R. Salverda
Contents:
The Walls of Mycenae
The Returns of the Perseids
Conclusion.
The Walls of Mycenae
Greek Myths have attributed the building of the walls of
Midea, Tiryns and Mycenae to Perseus and his sons fresh from the city of Joppa,
on the Palestinian coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where the Ethiopians had
ruled. Thus, perhaps the Grecian city called Midea owes it's name to the land of
Midian in Southeastern Palestine, the resident Midianites are scripturally
referred to as Cushites, who were in turn known to the Greeks as, "Ethiopians."
Let's talk history for a bit. The walls of Tiryns, Midea, and
especially Mycenae have been discovered by archaeologists and are still there to
be seen. They are considered to be contemporary with each other and have been
dated to about 1425 BC by coordinating them with Egyptian chronology. There was,
at the time that closely followed the building of those walls, a lively trade
between Mycenae and Egypt. Pottery, of the same type and painting style as that
which was produced in Mycenae, have been found all over Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt
especially, we are told, in the short-lived Egyptian city of El-Amarna.
Furthermore, within the walls of the Greek city of Mycenae, Egyptian items of
the Eighteenth Dynasty were found, including a few things that even had the
names of Amenhotep II (the son of Thutmose III) and of Amenhotep III inscribed
upon them.
Now, I don't believe in the so called "dark ages of Greece"
(a very dubious 500 year period of Greek history during which there is no
evidence of any Greek history!'!) and so, I scoot the Mycenaean age and
accordingly, the building of the walls of Mycenae forward about 500 years.
Therefore I also move the contemporary Egyptian Pharaohs forward. I have Pharaoh
Thutmose III living at about the same time that the Hebrew scriptures say that
Pharaoh Shishak sacked the temple of Solomon, and make Queen Hatshepsut visit
Punt in the days that the Hebrew scriptures say that the Queen of Sheba visited
Phoenicia. This is in accordance with a reconstruction of ancient history as is
outlined by the heretical historian Immanuel Velikovsky.
Thutmose III had after a siege, famously conquered the city
of Joppa. (He also took Megiddo and the Philistine stronghold of Beth Shean.)
But, without the dark ages of Greece, this must have been about 930 BC (if
Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt was contemporary with the Mycenaean age as
archaeological finds seem to prove). Many people, from the seaport of Joppa
especially, would have had the opportunity to flee overseas during these
turbulent times, (taking with them a new found urgency to build walls around
their cities). The main enemy of Thutmose were called the "Mitanni," thus, if
his siege of Joppa had anything to do with the Perseid emigration then perhaps
the term, "Mitanni" was identical to the Scriptural, "Midianite," (also called
"Ethiopian"). Thus strengthening my previously mentioned theory about the origin
of the name of the Greek city, "Midea." I assume that these people took with
them many of their stories, and that we can read them in Greek mythology.
In accordance with Velikovsky's reconstruction of ancient
history, the Hebrew scriptures have Solomon walling all the cities of Phoenicia
at about the same time that walls were also being built around the Mycenaean
cities. They even include the detail that Jerusalem's building materials were
brought in through the port of Joppa, at about the same time that the Greek
myths tell us that people from Joppa went to Greece and walled their cities. And
they make Joppa the capitol of tribal Dan at the same time that the Greek myths
tell us that the Danaan descendants of Perseus were kings there (those who are
called "Priests" in the Scriptures, Jethro, Jonathan and Phinehas, are referred
to as "Kings" and "princes" in the Myths, Cepheus, Perses and Phineus).
According to the Hebrew scriptures, there was a group of
masons and sailors, Hiram's Tyrians, who helped Solomon to build the stone works
of Jerusalem, they also largely made up the navy of Solomon, and manned the
ships that sailed out of Joppa to places like Tarshish. Similarly, in accordance
with the Greek myth, the fortifications of the Argolian cities, so often
attributed to the sons or Perseus, are even more often said to have been built
by the Cyclopes. As Perseus had sailed out of Joppa to return to Argolis, it is
logical to speculate that he went on a ship (or a fleet of ships) along with a
group of masons who helped to build the walls of Midea, Tiryns and Mycenae. The
ancient masons were called, in the myths, the Cyclopes. The following is a
sample of ancient authors who attribute the building of the Danaan cities of
Perseus to the Cyclopes; "Zeus, son of Kronos, was willing to honor the race of
Danaus ... by relieving them from their hateful distress (the strife between
Acrisius and Proetus). The Cyclopes came in their might and toiled to build a
most beautiful wall for the famous city." (Bacchylides, Fragment 11) "Now it
seems that Tiryns was used as a base of operations by Proetus, and was walled by
him through the aid of the Cyclopes, ' And perhaps the caverns near Nauplia (in
Argolis) and the works therein are named after them." (Strabo, Geography 8. 6.
11) "There still remain, however, parts of the city wall (of Mycenae), including
the gate, upon which stand lions. These, too, are said to be the work of the
Cyclopes, who made for Proetus the wall at Tiryns." (Pausanias, Description of
Greece 2. 16. 5) "Beside the sanctuary of Kephisos [at Argos] is a head of
Medusa made of stone, which is said to be another of the works of the Cyclopes."
(again Pausanias, Ibid 2. 20. 7) "Mycenae girt about with a garland of walls by
the Cyclopean masons." (Nonnus, Dionysiaca 41. 263 ff)
Although one may be hard pressed to find an archaeologist who
is willing to say that the Tyrian masons were identical to those Cyclopes of the
Greek myths, there have been more than a few of those same archaeologists who
have supposed that the Phoenicians must have been the builders of the various,
wide spread, ruins of those same, so commonly called, "cyclopean"
fortifications.
The Returns of the
Perseids
Of course, the reader will realize that Moses, whether as
Perseus or otherwise, never went to Argolis, he never even made it to the
promised land let alone Joppa. However it is apparent that his story, along with
intricate theological details, did make it to Greece and can be read even today
in the myths and legends of the Greeks.
The return of Perseus to Argos is not the end of his story,
there is still one more episode to be examined. (Danaus begat Lynceus begat Abas
begat Acrisius begat Danae begat Perseus begat the sons of Perseus).
If we are to correlate Perseus with Moses then we can expect
to find his opposition to the "calf god" included in the Greek myths about
Perseus. Sure enough the last episode in the story of Perseus is indeed known as
his war against the calf god (formerly called Zagreus, but by the time that this
episode was added to the Perseus myth, approximately 860 BC. Zagreus was being
called by his new name, "Dionysus").
The rites of the calf god were staunchly objected to by the
Moses faction of the Hebrews at first, because they were polluted with Amazonian
feminism and perverted with orgiastic abandon, however, they were eventually
mitigated by the teachings of Balaam to the point where a watered down version
of them did become accepted by 10/12ths of Israel. (The role of "Balaam" in this
"mitigation" will become more evident when we study the Greek myths concerning
the seer "Melampus.") The reason why many did not simply forsake the rites of
the calf god all together, was apparently because it guaranteed fruitful fields.
Back then a religion was a whole way of life. If nomadic herdsmen wanted to
become city dwelling agriculturalists, then they had to give up a lot of their
previously conceived religious notions, (tent rigging, navigation by astronomy,
the way of the wells, herding, the supremacy of the Moon, judges, etc.) and they
had to adopt religious practices that were previously considered distasteful
(Masonry, planting and harvesting by astronomy, irrigation techniques, crop
fertilization, the supremacy of the Sun, Kings, etc.).
The story of the introduction of the calf god was brought to
Greece by several different groups of Hebrew expatriates, Cadmus brought the
story to Thebes where its' King Pentheus opposed the calf god, the Aeolians of
Orchomenus, who told the stories of Athamus and Sisyphus, also recalled how its'
King Minyas resisted the calf god, and for the purposes of this article, the
Danaans of Argos also reported the same tale. To quote Ovid, "Acrisius the son
of Abas, of the Cadmean race, remained to banish Bacchus (Dionysus) from the
walls of Argos, and to lift up hostile arms against that deity, who he denied
was born to Jove." (Metamorphoses 4. 607 ff) Here Ovid calls Acrisius, the
Danaan grandfather of Perseus, "of the Cadmean race" (a Phoenician), not only
that but he was the kind of Phoenician who, at first rejected the calf god. Just
as it was against the Danites and the other Israelites at the scourge of Baal
Peor, (incidentally, we learn from Ginzberg's "Legends" that Peor was the name
of the calf god) women intoxicated with wine were the throng and method of the
calf god. "Perseus of the sickle was champion of the Argives; he fitted his feet
into the flying shoes, and he lifted up the head of Medusa which no eyes may
see. But Iobaccos (Dionysus) marshaled his women with flowing locks, and Satyri
with horns. Wild for battle he was when he saw the winged champion (Perseus)
coursing through the air." (Nonnus Dionysiaca 47.478) And Israel abode in
Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And
the women called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people
did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal of
Peor (Numbers 25:1-3) "of the women who joined Dionysos in his expedition
against Argos, and that Perseus, being victorious in the battle, put most of the
women to the sword."(Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 20. 4) "The temple of
Hera (in Argos) . . . before it is a grave of women. They were killed in a
battle against the Argives under Perseus (Pausanias again, Ibid 2. 22. 1)
Of course, even though they at first resisted worshiping the
calf god, the Danites did, a bit later in their history become reconciled to the
calf god, and King Jeroboam had an Idol of it established at their capital city
of Dan in northern Israel. Other Israelites, not necessarily Danites but of the
northern ten tribes had another calf god idol set up at Bethel. "The Argives
have other things worth seeing for instance . . . the temple of Dionysos. For
they say that the god, having made war on Perseus, afterwards laid aside his
enmity, and received great honors at the hands of the Argives, including this
precinct set specially apart for himself." (Pausanias, Ibid 2. 23. 7) Here we
can see as Pausanias reports that even though the great hero of the Danaan
people, Perseus was at first violently opposed to the worship of the calf god,
the Danaans did acquiesce and became reconciled to it and put up a temple to the
calf god in their capitol city of Argos. These then were the same Danite people
who went to Greece, populated Argolis, and brought with them these stories which
we can now read in what has become known to us today as Greek mythology.
Conclusion
You've heard it said, that there's no extra-Biblical evidence to be found in the
histories of the surrounding nations for the Exodus or the Solomonic Kingdom,
and therefore, the Bible was simply contrived, artificially manufactured
sometime in the third century. And yet I say unto you, perhaps you should not be
looking in the "histories" of the nations for the activities of God. These
things always get classified as "mythology," not history. This is a trick of
classification. Archaeologists could unearth tomorrow the whole story of how God
sent a hero, with miracles, to free his earthly wife from her bondage, how they
wandered to the promised land and started a dynasty. And they could still say
that there is no "historic" evidence, because they would call the evidence a
"myth." It's a preconceived prejudice to denigrate mythological evidence. There
are volumes of extra-Biblical evidence referring to, and thereby proving, that
the Scriptural stories were in existence centuries before the final editing of
the Scriptures took place. You just need to know where to look.
-John R.
Salverda
For more articles by John R. Salverda on the Hebraic
Connections of Greek Mythology, see:
"Helleno-Yishurin. The Hebrew Origin of Greek Legends"
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