Salmoneus as Judah
by
John R.
Salverda
Brit-Am Background:
John R. Salverda shows parallels between the Greek hero known as Salmoneus and
Judah the Patriarch, forefather of the Jews. This association may perhaps be paralleled by the confusion of Josephus ("Against Apion" 1.173) between the
Solymi (a Phoenician-speaking people once found
in Lycia in what is now southern Turkey) with inhabitants of Jerusalem. Homer placed the Phaeacians near the Solymi
and there may indeed be grounds to identify the Phaeacians with inhabitants of Britain.
Salmoneus as Judah
Having practically exhausted the evidences for associating the Sisyphus cycle of
Greek mythology with the Joseph cycle from the Hebrew Scriptures, we are still
left with the character called Salmoneus.
1. The enmity between the House of Joseph and the House of Judah is comparable
to that between Sisyphus and Salmoneus. Sisyphus keeps trying to establish his
stone upon the archetypical mountain, while Salmoneus had appropriated the
worship of god to his altars exclusively.
The story of Salmoneus seems to be based, however loosely, upon the history of
the House of Judah with it's holy city at Jerusalem, which was referred to once
upon a time as, 'Salem,' and made the capitol because it's great Temple was
founded there by it's famous King Solomon. At the beginning of Judean history,
is the story of Judah and Tamar. Here we have a tale that has perplexed Biblical
scholars for centuries not so much for what it contains, but rather for where it
is located. Right smack in the middle of the Joseph cycle, just as he is being
sold to Potiphar at the end of chapter 37, comes chapter 38 which contains the
entire story of Judah and Tamar with no mention of Joseph throughout, and then,
at the start of chapter 39, the narrative returns to the story of Joseph once
again right where it left off, at the selling of Joseph to Potiphar, the
continuity of the Joseph cycle being completely interrupted. This, apparent
artificial, location of the Judah story we are told, in what seems more like a
stretch than an explanation, is positioned to contrast the steadfast virtue of
Joseph against the incestuous unrighteousness of Judah. Regardless of the Judah
episode's placement, studying the Sisyphus cycle of Greek mythology as it
relates to the Joseph cycle in the Scriptures, testifies in favor of believing,
at least, that the Judah story was already a part of the Joseph cycle, even
before the Joseph cycle was included in the book of Genesis. This is evident
because, the myth of Sisyphus, ostensibly a collection of the Joseph stories
that was current before it's inclusion in the Genesis narrative, already
contains it's own version of the birth of Tamar's twins, as the story of Tyro's
twins.
Before we get on with the comparison of these two stories let us first compare
the names of the two mothers. The name "Tyro," we are informed by Robert Graves,
author of, "The Greek Myths," was the name of "...the Goddess-mother of the
Tyrians..." this was, no doubt, merely a worn down version of the more well
known form of the name for the mother goddess of the Canaanites, "Ashterah,"
omitting the prefix, "Ash-" as perfunctory. Now, as is well known, the Greeks
referred to the Canaanites as Phoenicians, a name that derives from the Greek
name "Phoenix" which means, in their language, "palm tree," however, in Hebrew
the word for "palm tree" is "Tamar." Thus, both women can be said to have names
that associates them with the Phoenicians. Incidentally, the mother-in-law of
Tamar, the wife of Judah, known only as, "the daughter of Shua" in the
Scriptures, is identified as a Canaanitess, while the wicked step mother of
Tyro, whom the Greeks called Sidero is thought to be the eponym of Sidon the
original settlement of the Canaanites. Because, unlike the name Tyro, the name "Sidero"
has retained it's prefix, it is even more plausibly derived from the name of the
widely known Canaanite goddess Ashterah. (those who doubt the original
identification between the two names Sidero and Ashterah should consider the two
comparable English terms sidereal and astro-.)
Let us now continue with the comparison of the two stories, of course, anyone
who studies the two accounts will find many differences between them, no doubt
the differences are as important, if not more important, than are the
similarities, which are also many and are quite comparable. Both the stories of
Tamar and Tyro begin with the killing of two brothers. In each case the pair of
brothers die as a prerequisite to explain two things, why the respective women
had no children, and why they were sent away to the place where each would
eventually become pregnant with, each their own, set of twins. The two brothers
who die in the tale of Tyro were her own children, (by Sisyphus) while those in
the story of Tamar were her two husbands and represented her chance to have
children. Tamar was sent away to live with her father, while Tyro was banished
from Thessaly along with her father. Tamar's father-in-law Judah became a
widower, while Tyro's father Salmoneus became a widower. Each woman, in the land
of their exile, desiring to become pregnant, made a plan that involved waiting
at a place where they each expected their intended to pass, Tyro on the
riverbank at the confluence of two rivers, the Enipeus and the Alphieus, while
Tamar waited on the roadside where the road to Enaim branched off of the road to
Timnah. In each case, the sex act itself was intentionally deceptive, because
one of the partners wore a disguise so as not to be recognized. Of course, as we
have said, twin boys were born, in each case, as a result of the deception.
Furthermore, the paternity of each pair of twins came into question, Salmoneus,
Tyro's father, doubted the fatherhood of her twins, while Judah, Tamar's
father-in-law, also had to be convinced in regard to her pregnancy. In each
story, before the respective twins were born, the true father was revealed and
he gave a little speech to the respective women, the intent of which was to
justify, each their own, pregnancies and to legitimize the eventual progeny of
it. Another weird coincidence, is the fact that both tales include a report, so
saying that the first born was marked at birth, and got a colorful name as a
result, the Scriptural "Zerah" was named after the "scarlet" ribbon that was
tied around his wrist to mark his preeminence, while the mythical firstborn "Pelias,"
was named for the "black and blue" mark that he received when a horse stepped on
his face at his birth. As it turned out, with each set of twins, both children
grew up to be the founders of illustrious houses among the Aeolians and the
Judeans respectively. Well, so much for the part of the myth of Salmoneus which
has to do, however little, with Sisyphus, we shall now continue with the rest of
the saga of Salmoneus.
Besides having an echo of the earliest history about the nation of Judah, these
Greeks seem to have a few more details to add, such as the name 'Salmoneus'
itself, which is an obvious Greek version of the name of that most illustrious
of Judean rulers King Solomon. With this realization, an evolution of the myth
of Salmoneus can be surmised to have occurred in three steps; firstly, the story
about the birth of the Judean twins, Perez and Zerah, whose story, as we have
said, precipitated the birth myth of the Greek twins Neleus and Pelias;
secondly, the addition of the city of 'Salem' and the founding of the Temple by
'Solomon,' is ostensibly what lead to the use of the name 'Salmoneus' as well as
the notion that he founded a city called 'Salmonia,' and appropriated the
worship of Zeus to his altar; and thirdly, in the end of the myths about
Salmoneus, we are told of the divine destruction of Salmoneus and his city,
Salmonia. This third point would appear to have been too late to have been
included in Greek mythology however, as the famous mythographer, H. J. Rose has
pointed out, "It is noteworthy that Homer knows nothing of any evil reputation
of Salmoneus, of whom indeed he speaks respectfully.' ('A Handbook of Greek
Mythology,' p.83). The Homeric writings are much earlier than the rest of Greek
mythologies and it was probably not until the destruction of Jerusalem in 587
BC., that an evil reputation became attached to the character of Salmoneus. The
destruction of Jerusalem was looked upon by some, including the Greeks
apparently, to have been an act of punishment upon the city, brought about by
God Himself, this no doubt, gave rise to the parallel Greek myth about the
destruction of Salmonia.
-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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