Perseus
Perseus Compared to Moses and the Danites of Jaffa
by John R. Salverda
Contents:
The Wanderings
Perseus at the Danite seaport of Joppa
The
Wanderings
The story of Perseus, like the story of the Exodus includes
an episode of extensive wandering over African desert sands. "But Perseus, with
the snake-haired monster's head, that famous spoil, in triumph made his way on
rustling pinions through the balmy air and, as he hovered over Libya's sands,
the blood-drops from the Gorgon's Head dripped down. The spattered desert gave
them life as snakes, smooth snakes of many kinds, and so that land still swarms
with deadly serpents to this day." (Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.770) For when the
godlike Perseus, ' flew over Libya brining the Gorgon's newly severed head to
the king, every drop of dark blood that fell from it to the ground produced a
brood of these serpents." (Argonautica 4.1505) Notice the myth also has
miraculously appearing poisonous serpents, and see Numbers 21:6, Moses had a
curative serpent stick, while Hermes carried the caduceus. "Nimble knee Perseus,
waving his winged feet, held his course near the clouds, a wayfarer pacing
through the air ' Perseus fled with flickering wings ' with Hermes' wings though
Zeus was his father; he sailed a fugitive on swiftest shoes," (Dionysiaca
24.270) Notice the myth also has wings on which Perseus fled, and see Ex.19:4
where God's Earthly wife was delivered from her slavery on "eagles wings" (The
eagle is the well known bird of Zeus. In fact Lycophron, a little known Greek
poet from the 3rd B.C. calls Perseus "the eagle son of the golden Sire."
Alexandra 838 ff). One may wonder why the myth makes the wandering of Perseus
out to be an aerial phenomenon, but on the other hand, there was a very famous
appearance in the sky associated with the Hebrew Exodus that lead the Israelites
on their wanderings, the pillar of cloud and fire. "Thence wafted by the
never-constant winds through boundless latitudes, now here now there, as flits a
vapor-cloud in dizzy flight, down-looking from the lofty skies on earth, removed
far, so compassed he the world. Three times did he behold the frozen Bears,
times thrice his gaze was on the Crab's bent arms. Now shifting to the west, now
to the east, how often changed his course'" (Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 617 ff). Two
towns are named in the mythic wanderings of Perseus, Joppa in Phoenicia which
was well known and was mentioned by many ancient mythographers, and the Egyptian
city of Chemmis. It is Herodotus who tells us that Perseus was in the Egyptian
city of Chemmis before proceeding to Joppa; "' they (the Egyptians) said that
Perseus ' had come to Egypt ' to bring from Libya the Gorgon's head, and had
then visited them also and recognized all his kinsfolk, '" (Histories Book 2
Page 91) Herodotus further connects Perseus with specifically, the Nile delta
region when he says that it is; "the opinion of the Ionians, who say that only
the Delta is Egypt, and that its seaboard reaches from the so-called 'Watchtower
of Perseus' forty schoeni to the Salters at Pelusium." (Histories Book 2 Page
15) Perseus then came to Joppa at the end of his wandering.
Perseus
at the Danite
seaport of Joppa
[Note: The city of "Joppa" is on the
coast of Israel. At present it is known as
Jaffa
(pronounced Yaffa)
and adjoins Tel Aviv.
As legend has it, Joppa was founded by Japheth, the son of
Noah, just after the flood and was named for him. (The "tent" of Japheth
included many Semitic peoples, Danes are considered to be "Japhetic," so are the
Cimmerians the Medes the Persians the Greeks and the Scythians.) It was the well
known capitol of tribal Dan, the seaport of Jerusalem and Hebron. Solomon had
placed a fleet of Ships called "Tarshish" ships at Joppa. A land route was
established between Joppa and the Red Sea port of Ezion Geber where Solomon had
placed another fleet of Tarshish ships so that goods could be shipped back and
forth from India/Ethiopia to the Mediterranean lands and beyond (Tarsus in
Cilicia not withstanding, Tarshish is usually thought to be Spain, Tartessos).
The city of Joppa was well known to the Greeks of the mythological age. "Red
water, in color like blood, is found in the land of the Hebrews near the city of
Joppa. The water is close to the sea, and the account which 'the natives give'
of the spring is that Perseus, after destroying the sea-monster, to which the
daughter of Cepheus was exposed, washed off the blood in the spring."(Pausanias,
Description of Greece 4. 35. 9)
It is apparent that this episode of the Perseus myth (where
he destroyed the sea serpent at Joppa) is not a part of the original, but is a
later addition to the story. Just as the city of Joppa could not have been
included in the Exodus story of Moses. It must have been a generation or so
after the death of Moses, who died before entering the promised land, that the
city of Joppa became established as the capitol of tribal Dan. It would have
been even longer before emigrants from the Danite Joppa would have become
established, as the Danaans, in the cities of Mycenaean Greece.
This particular part of the Perseus tale has often, and for
good reason, been compared to the story of Heracles at Troy, which is said to
have occurred a generation before the Trojan War. Hercules came to Troy as he
sailed with the Argonauts. He found the city in utter turmoil, because its' King
Laomedon had cheated Poseidon. For punishment the god sent a sea monster, to
consume his daughter the princess Hesione. She was chained to a rock as the
creature approached. Heracles agreed to kill the monster for a reward. Heracles
was swallowed by the monster, and after spending three days in the belly of the
beast, he managed to cut his way out thus killing it. Heracles never got his
reward so he sacked Troy, and took Hesione instead. Thus the story of Heracles
at Troy is much like the story of Perseus at Joppa. There is also, because of
the death defying three days, an apparent dept owed to the story of Jonah (the
Septuagint has "Jonas"). Jonah, it is worth noticing, embarked from Joppa (like
Perseus) and also encountered a sea serpent (Cetus, the astronomical name of the
"sea serpent" of Perseus means, "whale") furthermore Jonah, like Heracles, was
swallowed by the creature for three days. There is at least one version of the
story about Perseus that has him swallowed by Cetus, for Lycophron, even so far
back in history as the third century B.C. tells us that the sea monster, in its
attempt to devour Andromeda "leapt in quest of food, but carried off in his
jaws, instead of a woman, the eagle son of the golden Sire (Perseus) a male with
winged sandals who destroyed his liver." (Alexandra 838 ff)
As we have intimated earlier, a different source contributed
this episode, a source that had a more intricate knowledge of astrology, for the
characters included in this particular segment of the story, as told by those
exiles from the Danite Joppa, have constellations named after them such as
Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Cepheus, and the sea serpent. However none of the
characters from the previous adventures of Perseus, neither Danae, Polydectes,
Acrisius, the Gorgons, the Graeae, nor any of those Danaans who had fled from
Aegyptus, seem to have been so honored as to be included in the stellar cast. Of
course, Perseus himself is also a constellation but presumably, only in regards
to this episode of his story, outlining his exploits at the city of Joppa.
The Joppa episode of the Perseus myth has a much more
historic flavor, for here we not only learn that the sons of Perseus, after
sailing out of Joppa, became the Kings of, and fortified the cities of, Mycenae
in Greece, which we will detail a little further on. (A partial list of royal
families and heroes that were known to the Greeks to have been descended from
Perseus were 1. The royal family of Mycenae, his sons King Alcaeus, King
Electryon and King Sthenelus, grandson King Eurystheus, and great granddaughter
Queen Clytemnestra 2. The royal family of Elis, his son King Heleius, and
grandson King Augeias 3. The royal family of the Taphian Islands, Kings Taphos
and Pterelaus 4. The royal family of Messenia, his daughter Queen Gorgophone,
and grandsons King Aphareus and King Leucippus, and great-grandsons the heroes
Idas and Lynceus 5. The royal family of Sparta, his daughter Queen Gorgophone,
grandson King Tyndareus, and great-grandchildren (in fact or putatively) : the
Dioskouroi and Queen Helene. 6. The kings of Persia, from his son Perses 7.
Heracles, and his descendants, who eventually assumed power in the Peloponnese.)
"They [the Persians] were formerly called by the Greeks Cephenes . . . When
Perseus son of Danae and Zeus had come to Cepheus son of Belus and married his
daughter Andromeda, a son was born to him whom he called Perses, and he left him
there; for Cepheus had no male offspring; it was from this Perses that the
Persians took their name." (Herodotus, Histories Book 7 Page 61) "Perseus, the
son of Danae ' wanting to establish for himself his own kingdom, despised that
of the Medes." (Suidas "Medusa") "There is a story told in Hellas that before
Xerxes set forth on his march against Hellas, he sent a herald to Argos, who
said on his coming (so the story goes), 'Men of Argos, this is the message to
you from King Xerxes. Perses our forefather had, as we believe, Perseus son of
Danae for his father, and Andromeda daughter of Cepheus for his mother; if that
is so, then we are descended from your nation.' " (Herodotus, Histories Book 7
Page 150)
Now, it is not my intention with this article to trace the
Achaemenid Kings of Persia to Moses, (I shall make that the subject of a future
article) but only to trace the Greek myth of Perseus to the story of Moses.
However since serious Greek historians, such as Herodotus, Xenophon, and others,
do quite confidently report that the Persian Kings themselves make the claim
that they descend from Perseus and Andromeda, I would be remiss if I did not
make a few remarks on the subject here. We know, for example, that the cities of
the Medes were occupied by the exiled Israelites. (see 2KI 17:6 and 18:11) The
Magi were the dominant religious organization, a tribe priests analogous to the
Levites among the Israelites, officiating the sacrifices for those Medes and the
later Persians. ("Deioces then [709 BC.] united the ' Medes there are the tribes
which here follow, namely, Busai, Paretakenians, Struchates, Arizantians,
Budians, Magians" Herodotus Book 1, Page 101. See also Page 132, "' without a
Magian it is not lawful for them to make sacrifices.") However, the question
arises, as to what the Magi had to do with those exiled Israelites. If these
Magi were living in the cities of the Medes with the exiled Israelites, then one
wonders indeed, what their relationship to the Levites was.
The Danites had a Levitical priesthood, it was not however,
the usual one descended from Aaron, but instead their priesthood was descended
from Moses (Perseus) through his grandson Jonathan (Perses). These Priests were
known as the priesthood of Micah. ("Micah," meaning "image" is a plausible
transliteration for the term "Magus") At that very time there was a legendary
religious leader named Zoroaster, he was famous for, not originating, but for
reorganizing the already existing Magi priesthood into one of the most powerful
religious organizations in the world at that time. We are told that Zoroaster
was born in the city Rages, (the same city, and at the same time, where the
relatives of Tobit the Naptalite lived Tob. 5:6) according to the Parse
tradition in the year 660 BC. (It could have been he who was born to the exiled
Virgin Israel nearly 65 years after the fall of Samaria, he was a famous curd
eater, and famed for his "Zoroastrian" dualism distinguishing good from evil,
compare Isaiah Chap. 7). Zoroaster died in the year 583 BC. at the age of
seventy seven. As a major religious leader, he must have been aware of the
destruction of the Jewish temple when he was 73, in 587 BC. this act may have
prompted him to raise up a "Messiah" to overthrow the, Temple destroying,
Babylonians, and to deliver the Jews from their Babylonian captivity.
Zoroaster lived long enough, (eleven years into the reign of
Astyages,) to have, as the chief of the Magi, orchestrated the birth of Cyrus.
We learn of the role that the Magi played in the birth of Cyrus from Herodotus
("Histories." Book 1, Pages 107-129)...The name "Zoroaster" is plausibly a
sleight corruption from the Hebrew for "Seed of the Woman" (Zeru-ish-shah).
So much for the role of "Perseus" in the Persian culture and
beyond, an influence that is certainly worthy of a "Moses." We may now return to
the Greek myth armed with a better understanding of the conflict between the
priesthood of the Aaronic Phinehas, and the priesthood of the Mosaic Jonathan.
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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