THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE


The divine fires of Creation. Homeric Hephaistos as a comet / meteor god. Part I - Part II - Part III.  The full, three-part version presented at the International Symposium on ‘Science and chnology in Homeric Epics’, 27-30 August 2006, Ancient Olympia, Greece. 

Abstract

Hephaistos belongs to the guardian-gods or ‘creators’ of the Universe and functions as a pivotal force among the ‘proto-hellenic’ deities. This paper focuses, firstly, on the strong relationship between Hephaestos and the Pelasgian substratum of circum-Mediterranean region. The Pelasgian nuclei of prehistoric Attica remained active through the dual worship of Athena & Hephaistos and the close connection of the Athenian city-state with the island of Lemnos even in Classical Era.



Furthermore, Kabeiroi, these primordial and mysterious daemons of NE Aegean, were introduced by the Pelasgians of the 12th cent. B.C., when removed from Boeotia to Samothrace, Imbros & Lemnos. According to a second ancient tradition, they were children of Hephaistos and the daughter of sea-god Proteas. All the same, another striking complication arises. The Kabeirian Mysteries were yearly celebrated and related to the element of fire. They lasted for nine (9) days, as a remembrance of the nine year period during which Hephaistos remained at the bottom of the sea..


This is the second axis of investigation. Although today, Vulcan is a name given to the near-Earth asteroid 2212, modern thought thinks of Hephaistos as a symbol of earthen fires and related geological phenomena produced by volcanic activity. But Hephaistos’ cult embraces challenging elements that require astronomical interpretation. Various ancient traditions include thought-provoking details :


a) Lemnian labyrinth was famous in antiquity. Apart from being viewed as a symbol of our planetary system or as an astronomical map, labyrinth is also mystically connected to the protection of tsunami, a serious side-effect of impact episodes.


b) Ancient writers said that Lemnian earth was characterized by some special features which are present in impact cases and extraterrestrial - induced destruction levels all over the world.


c) Pandora, one of the most fabulous works of the technician god was made by earth, water and .. divine fire. Even more, Pandora’s box used to compile all the positive and negative parameters of Life. When some invisible forces are released, then destruction strikes humanity. Respectively, impacts have always been seen both as curse and blessing for life on Earth. Metallurgy changed the evolution of human history. Floods, epidemics and other disasters caused by extraterrestrial invaders did also.


d) Hephaistos fell from Heaven, either on land (in the latitude of NE Aegean) , or into the deep sea (a submarine impact), where he remained invisible working in his workshop. Scientific research has shown that both arguments function logically. Furthermore, impact cases can trigger increased volcanic activity, as the geo-archive of our planet has already revealed.


e) If the Homeric Iliad is deciphered from the standpoint of Archaeoastronomy, Hephaistos is also related to the meteor swarm of Perseides. Finally, god’s deformity and his reappearance in the latitude of Eastern Mediterranean may include the element of periodicity (? comet).


f) On the other hand, Lemnian disasters were notorious in Antiquity, referring to the arrival of Pelasgians and the landing of Argonauts on this island, sacred to the technician god. The mythological cycle of the Argonautic Expedition is also rich in astronomical hints, such as Ellie’s fall into the NE Aegean, Phrixos’ journey from Iolkos to Kolchis (palace of Sun and departure point for his daily journey around the globe), the Golden Fleece as an heliacal symbol of Spring Equinox and the Ship of Argo (when mission had been completed, Athena transformed the ship into an asterism of the Southern Hemisphere).


In fact, a great deal of information acquired from Iliad seems to refer to the extended catastrophe of the beginning of 2nd millennium B.C. Consequently, Hephaistos may function as a symbolic archetype of past impact events, being one of the pivotal figures within the gnostical system of the Pelasgians during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. Phaethon’s ride, the famous fall of Troy and the 12th cent. catastrophes were added later, forming another mythological ‘layer’ of information in the palimpsest of ancient astronomical knowledge in the circum-Mediterranean region.




Fires from Heaven. Comets and diseases in circum-Mediterranean Disaster Myths  2010 conference of Quantavolution, May 23-26, Villaines-la-Gonais, France.

Abstract

The aim of this work is to: a) assess contemporary and future trends concerning the interrelations between astrobiological phenomena (comets, impacts, plasma emissions, Super Novae explosions, solar cycles, Venus transits as biohazards) and past epidemics (Justinian plague, the Black Death, the AD 1918 flu pandemic spread, other more recent cases), and b) provide new evidence through famous circum-Mediterranean ‘myths’ (Venus as a comet, Apollo’s wrath in Homeric Iliad, Tandalides / Niobe, Deucalion’s flood, the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the Late Bronze Age Pestilence that destroyed mighty empires).

Especially, the dual role of comets & asteroids as bringers of destruction, as well as bringers of building blocks of life or even life, has given shape to the idea of "panspermia", meaning that life arrived fully developed in the form of micro-organisms (i.e. William Thomson -Lord Kelvin, Svante Arrhenius, Otto Struve). In fact, recent suggestions that meteorites, possibly of Martian origin, include exotic biotic materials has refocused attention on the possible extraterrestrial origins of life.

On the other hand, a growing number of scientists assert that catastrophic collisions with asteroids & comets have played a major role on Earth in shaping geology and climate. In recent years, physicists Fred Hoyle & Chandra Wickramasinghe have proposed not only that life originated from outer space in the distant past, but also that terrestrial evolution continues to be driven by the input of extraterrestrial genetic material. They also suggest that various historical pandemics were caused by bacteria or virii delivered by comets.

In addition, many other scientists examine seriously the likelihood that various plagues of the past times have been started when bacteria & viruses from outer space invaders (plasma, comets, meteors) reached the earthen atmosphere (i.e. Mike Baillie, Gunnar Karlsson, John Lewis, Graham Twigg).

Furthermore, inspired researchers such as Immanuel Velikovsky, Alfred de Grazia & Paul La Violette have already pointed out the interrelation of similar past events with the formation of myths in ancient societies. A cometary or planetary near-encounter results in falling of gases, hydrocarbons, burning pitch & stones. Such events are unknown to modern experience but are indicated by ancient legends from many places worldwide and by various geological & biological phenomena detected via geoarchaeo-logical and bioarchaeological studies.

Consequently, the author: a) suggests that the main structural order and functions of space phenomena once happened, were strongly correlated to bioclimatic and geotectonic events on Earth, events ‘hidden’ in disaster myths all over the world. Some specific circum- Mediterranean legends are examined, analyzed and interpreted through the new perspective of Disaster Archaeology’s methodology, and b) highlights the role – often neglected by modern scientists - of biohazards in the evolution of ancient cultures and the fall of past socio-economic systems.

Gods in Heaven, havoc on Earth.  2011 Conference of Quantavolution, 7-10 October, Athens, Greece


Abstarct


Hephaistos belongs to the guardian-gods or  ‘creators’ of the Universe and functions as a pivotal force among the ‘proto-hellenic’ deities. The three-part paper, presented by the author in 2006, and expanded in 2010, focused, firstly, on the strong relationship between Hephaistos, as a comet/meteor god and the Pelasgian substratum of circum-Mediterranean region. In fact, a great deal of information acquired from the Greek Epic of Iliad seems to refer to the extended catastrophe of the beginning of 2nd millennium B.C. A coherent presentation of geoarchaeological, archaeoastronomical, archaeological and philological data, has shown that Hephaistos may function as a symbolic archetype of past impact events, being one of the pivotal figures within the gnostical system of the Pelasgians during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. Moreover, Phaethon’s ride, the famous falls of Troy and the 12th cent. catastrophes formed  various mythological ‘layers’ of information within the palimpsest of archaeoastronomical circum-Mediterranean knowledge.

Furthermore, a different analysis and interpretation of disaster myths assessed the contemporary and future trends concerning the interrelations between  astrobiological phenomena (comets, impacts, plasma emissions, Super Novae explosions, solar cycles, Venus transits as biohazards) and past epidemics (Justinian plague, the Black Death, the AD 1918 flu pandemic spread, other more recent cases), and provided new evidence through famous circum-Mediterranean ‘myths’ (Venus as a comet, Apollo’s wrath in Homeric Iliad, Tandalides / Niobe, Deucalion’s flood, the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the Late Bronze Age Pestilence that destroyed mighty empires). So, the dual role of comets & asteroids as bringers of destruction, as well as bringers of building blocks of life or even life, has been highlighted.

Especially, inspired researchers such as Immanuel Velikovsky, Alfred de Grazia & Paul La Violette have already pointed out the interrelation of similar past events with the formation of myths in ancient societies. A cometary or planetary near-encounter results in falling of gases, hydrocarbons, burning pitch & stones. Such events are unknown to modern experience but are indicated by ancient legends from many places worldwide and by various geological & biological phenomena detected via geoarchaeological and bioarchaeological studies.

First, the author in 2005, highlighted the importance of some Sanskrit data for the elaboration of a framework for the Bronze Age disaster astromyths.  Sanskrit literature of ancient and medieval India is rich in information about environmental sciences. (Iyengar, 2004). Apart from Puranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Vedas are four in number -- the Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva. Each Veda itself is composed of parts. The layers of text reflect the chronology of   composition, with the Samhita being the most ancient part and the  Upanishads the most recent. It is agreed among scholars that the Rigveda  Samhita (RV for brevity) is by far the oldest part of the Vedas. The RV contains 1028 suktas (hymns) with a total of 10552 mantras (verses)    arranged in 10 Mandalas or books.

Ancient Vedic people, as all ancestors living under turbulent skies, appear to have been preoccupied with cosmic fires (meteoritic swarms and comets), as early as the regular ritualistic observation of the sky, that gradually led to calendar’s elaboration and later to the knowledge of the planets (Iyengar,  2010). In RV there are a group of hymns which refer to meteoritic showers, celestial fires and at least a few comets with names  “I beheld the guardian, the never resting, wandering on paths hither and thither, ‘for he indeed wanders hither and thither on divine paths,’ arraying himself in the gathering and the radiating, he moveth to and fro within the spheres. ‘–for again and again he wanders moving within these worlds”. Rig-Veda 1.164.31  SB (Shatapath Brahman) 14.1.4.10. The interconnections will shock us, all.