In the 18th century B.C., Egypt was invaded by Hyksos, Semite shepherds coming from the north-west of Mesopotamia, their name meaning, as the Jew historian Flavius Iosephus translated, „the shepherd kings”. The Hyksos settled their capital city in Tjaru / Zarw, which they renamed it Avaris, a place found at Egypt’s eastern borders. As the same Flavius Iosephus wrote in Contra Apionen, Salitis the Hyksos became a pharaoh in Inbu-Hedj / Men-nefer (Memphis) and was followed by Bnon, Apahmen, Apophis, Iannas and Assis. After ruling northern Egypt for almost a century, in 1550 B.C. the Hyksos were banished by an alliance of the Egyptian princes of Inbu-Hedj. Iosephus wrote that Thoutmosis besieged them with an army of 480.000 soldiers and forced them to leave Egypt. Thus, 40.000 Hyksos families travelled the Sinai Desert and settled in Judaea, where they built the city of Jerusalem. Referring to the same Semite invaders of Egypt, the philosopher, historian and romanticist Hekataios of Abdera wrote, in the 4th century B.C. in On the Egyptians, that the Egyptians chased the foreigners out of their country, most of them migrating to Judaea, where they built many cities (the most important one being Hierosolyma), divided in 12 tribes and established their own set of laws and a religion. The rest of them, who were led by eminent chieftains, such as Danaos and Kadmos, ended up in Greece. The Hyksos banished from Egypt to Canaan, where they built up Jerusalem, are the people we call nowadays Israelites.
Hekataios’s retelling is especially interesting. Historians believe the Greeks came from Asia, but the date of their arrival and the circumstances are unknown. Hekataios stated that the Hyksos who remained in Greece became the Hellenic or Greek nation, and those who went to Judaea became the Israelite people. This claim suggests that the Greeks and the Israelites are the same people. We must admit that the Greeks have obvious Semite facial characteristics. The big, snub nose, next to their darker skin tone, are common physical traits for both the Middle East Semites and the Greeks. Let us not forget their highly developed trading spirit, a trait specific to both the Jews and the Greeks. A proof of their Semite origins can be found even in their name, „Hellenics”. The Greeks consider themselves direct descendants of Ellin, Deukalion and Pyrra’s son, the Flood survivors. This name has the north-west Semitic particle „el”, meaning „god”, and is probably a derivative of Elyon, the Supreme God in the Canaanite pantheon. Even the Bible claims that the Spartans (Greeks from the city-state of Sparta) and the Jews are part of the same people: „It is found in writing, that the Lacedemonians and Jews are brethren, and that they are of the stock of Abraham” (1 Maccabees 12:21). Maybe the most obvious proof of their common origins is the alphabet. The Hebrew and the Greek alphabet are almost identical, as it can be seen in the table below:
| The Hebrew alphabet | The Greek alphabet |
| Aleph | Alpha |
| Beth | Beta |
| Gimel | Gamma |
| Daleth | Delta |
| He | Epsilon |
| Vau | Vau |
| Zayin | Dzeta |
| Heth | Eta |
| Teth | Theta |
| Yod | Iota |
| Khaph | Kappa |
| Lamed | Lambda |
| Mem | Mi |
| Nun | Ni |
| Samekh | Xi |
| Ayin | Omicron |
| Pe | Pi |
| Sade | Psi |
| Koph | Khi |
| Resh | Rho |
| Shin | Sigma |
| Tav | Tau |
Once they reached Europe, the Greeks brought with them their own language, traditions and religion, but they wished to create a self-identity, trying to break from their Semite origin. They modified the names of the alphabet letters, keeping the essence. They even added two new letters, „ypsilon” and „omega”, probably influenced by the Thracians they had met in Europe. Through people such as the poet Hesiodos they created a new religion, starting from the basic one of their Asian ancestors. Then could not invent one from scratch, so they transformed the old one. Out of the seven Sumerian gods, the Greeks created several divinities, just like the rest of the ancient people. The Romans did not bother to invent a new religion, but took the Greeks’ one almost completely, mixed it here and there with the one of the Etruscans and changed just few details.
The god of the heaven was named Ouranos („Sky”) by the Greeks and Caelus or Coelos by the Romans. He was the son and husband of the goddess Gaia („Earth”), with whom he had 18 children (12 Titans, 3 Cyclops and 3 Hekatoncheires). Because he had the gift of prophecy, Ouranos knew that one of his children would overthrow him. As such, he locked all of them in Tartaros, the prison from deep within the Earth. One of the Titans, Kronos, helped by his mother, escaped and castrated his father with a sickle. Wounded, Ouranos flew away and left Kronos to rule over the Earth. None of Ouranos’ cults survived during the classical era. Just like the Sumerians’ An, Ouranos was the god of the heaven and his consort, the goddess of Earth. He was castrated by his son and banished to the sky, just like Anu for the Hittites. His Latinized name, Uranus, has Sumerian origin. If we eliminate the „us” / „os” termination, specific for the Greek and Latin languages, we are left with the name Uran (as Nicolae Densusianu called him in the Prehistoric Dacia), formed of the Sumerian words „ur” and „an”. The first word, as a proper noun represents the Sumerian city of Ur, and as a common noun can be translated as „soul”. The second one can be either the name of the Sumerian god An, or the common noun „heaven”. It does not matter if we translate Uranus’ name as „An of Ur” or „The Heavenly Soul”, the important thing is that it represents the same entity named An by the Sumerians and Anu by the Semitic people of Mesopotamia. The Hindus believe the universal supreme spirit is named Brahman, a combination between the names Brahma and An, similar to the Greeks’ „Heavenly Spirit” Ouranos. His cult was not that widespread in Greece, just like Anu’s in Assyria and Babylon or Brahma’s in India, where few temples were dedicated to him.
Ouranos’ consort was Gaia, Ge or Geea (Terra or Tellus for the Romans), and she was the Earth’s embodiment. The Etruscans, whose culture dominated Italy during the 8th century B.C. and whom the Roman Republic assimilated three centuries later, named her Cel. Her Greek name comes from the Sumerian „gi” or „ki” („earth”), similar to Geb’s name, the Egyptian god of the Earth. In the Sumerian religion, Ki or Ninhursag was An’s consort and the mother of gods, as Gaia was for the Greeks, an idea also taken over by the Egyptians, for whom the god of the Earth, Geb, was married to the goddess of the sky, Nut. In Gaia we can see Devi, the mother-goddess of the Earth for the people of the Indus Valley.
Ouranos and Gaia had many children, the most important ones being the 12 Titans. These rebelled against their father and were thrown into Tartaros, the underworld. Their name has Mesopotamian origins, „an” meaning in Sumerian „heaven” and „tit” meaning „dust” or „clay” in Akkadian; the latter comes from the Sumerian „tiit”, that was translated by the writer Zecharia Sitchin as „that which has life”. Concluding, the word „titan” can signify „the heaven’s life” / „the ones who received life from the heaven” or „the heaven’s dust”, the titans being the Akkadian Anunnaki, „The Noble People of the Heaven and Earth”. Because they rebelled against their father and were banished in the underworld, we know which Anunnaki it is about: „the fallen gods” Igigi.
If in Mesopotamia the leader of these rebellious divinities was Enki, the oldest son of the heavenly emperor, the Greeks made him the youngest, in an attempt to separate from the original religion, calling him Kronos (Saturn for the Romans and Satre or Satres for the Etruscans). With help from his mother, Kronos managed to escape from Tartaros, the underground prison, and attack his father, castrating him and forcing him to fly. After that, he freed his brothers and, together, they ruled over the world. This episode is identical with that of the Hittites’ where Kumarbi castrated Anu, and very similar to the Egyptians’ where Apep attacked Ra, or the Indians’ where Shiva attacked Brahma. In the Sumerian story, Enki rebelled against his father and became the next ruler of the Earth, together with the fallen gods, Igigi. Kronos’ symbol was the sickle, which had the shape of a crescent moon, one of the symbols of Enki’s family. Kronos married his sister, Rea (Ops or Opis for the Romans), and they had six children together: Poseidon, Hades, Zeus, Demeter, Hestia and Hera. Rea, also a goddess of the Earth, was identified since ancient times with Gaia, her mother. The Sumerian gods, Enki and his sister Ninhursag / Ki, the goddess of the Earth, had a relationship. The translation of Kronos’ name remained a mystery for researchers. By eliminating the termination „os”, specific to the Hellenic language, it is possible that the name „kron” to come from the Semitic word „qrn” („horn”). Even if the Titan was not depicted in Greece as having horns, we already know they represent the crescent moon (like the sickle he used to castrate his father), a symbol of Enki’s family.
In Hesiodos’ Theogonia, Kronos swallowed five of his children immediately after his wife, Rea, gave birth to them. The sixth one, Zeus, was saved and, after he grew up, he freed his brothers and sisters from their father’s stomach. Although modified, this story is also copied from Sumer, where Enki impregnated his grandniece, Uttu. The goddess Ninhursag took Enki’s seed from Uttu’s womb and buried it into the ground, thus eight plants emerged and were eaten by Enki. By swallowing his own semen, the god got pregnant. However, because he lacked a uterus that permitted him to give birth, he got sick. Ninhursag saved him by taking the unborn children out of his womb and putting them in her own. The Hurrians and the Hittites also kept Enki’s pregnancy, which they called Kumarbi, also in a modified version. When he castrated Anu by biting his genitals, his father’s seed trickled down his neck, thus he got pregnant with three children: Teshub / Tarhun, Aranzah / Tigris and Tashmishu. Just like Zeus, the storm god Teshub later dethroned his father.
According to Hesiodos, when Kronos castrated Ouranos, his testicles fell into the sea. From the foam of the waves was born Aphrodite, on the southern shore of the island of Cyprus. Named by the Romans Venus („sexual desire” in Latin) or Venera (from which resulted the Latin verb „venerari” or „a venera”[1] in Romanian), she was the goddess of beauty, love and sexuality, as Hathor was in Egypt, Inanna in Sumer, or Ishtar in the rest of Mesopotamia. The Etruscans depicted her as having wings and named her Turan, a name that was the basis of the pre-Hellenic word „turannos” („absolute leader”), becoming the Greek „tyrannos” and the Latin „tyrannus”[2]. Aphrodite was associated with the sea, doves, sparrows, swans, dolphins, apples, pearls, oysters, roses, lemons and horses and was identified with the evening star or the planet Venus, just as Inanna or Ishtar. The Romans even named the planet after her. The historian Theopompus wrote that Saturn / Kronos and Venus / Aphrodite created all the creatures of the world, an opinion similar to that of the Sumerians, who believed Enki and Ninhursag were the creator gods. As the goddess of love, sister of Kronos, creator of all living beings, identified with the planet Venus, Aphrodite is the Sumerian Ninhursag / Inanna, the Egyptian Aset (Isis) or the Greek Rea / Gaia. In fact, even her name betrays her Egyptian origins, Aphrodite meaning, in a loose translation, „Goddess of Africa”. Her Latin name, Venus, comes from the Sanskrit „vanas” („beauty”, „desire”), one of the goddess Ushas’ epithets, whom we already identified with Ninhursag.
Fearing he will be dethroned just like his father, Kronos swallowed all his children as they were growing up, except for Zeus, who managed to escape. When he grew up, Zeus freed his brothers and, with the help of their uncles, the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires, they fought a war against the Titans. They were victorious, so Zeus and his brothers entrapped the Titans in Tartaros, the underground prison, and ruled the world from the top of Mount Olympus. Zeus’ name comes from that of the Indian Dyaus Pitar, the father of the gods. The Greeks turned him in Dzeus Pater, then in Zeus, and the Romans in Iupiter or Iovis. After the emergence of Christianity, Dzeus became the Latin Deus. From Dzeus, in Romanian appeared Dzeu, or Dumnezeu[3]. In Modern Greek, Zeus is called Dias, a name that highlights even more clearly its origin from the Indian Dyaus. The Etruscans named him Tinia, Tin, Tinh, Tins, or Tina. Zeus was always represented with the lightning in his hand, which makes him the god of storm. Many proofs of this can be found in Homeros’ Ilias („The Iliad”). The author calls Zeus „the lightening from the clouds”, „the lord of the storm” (which can be translated as „Enlil” in Sumerian), „the heavenly lightening”, „the one who makes the clouds rumble”, „king of the clouds”, „lover of the lightning”, „cloud-gatherer”, „the one who thunders in the air”. In the same poem, Zeus is called „the one who thunders” by Agamemnon and Hektor, „the lord over the clouds” by Diomedes, „the one who roars in the clouds” by Odysseus, Aineias and Hera, „the one who thunders and flashes in glory” by the two Aias and „the one who thunders in the air” by Hekabe. In Homeros’ Odysseia („The Odyssey”), Zeus is called a few times „cloud-gatherer”. However, in Sumer, the god of storms who dethroned Enki was Enlil, his younger brother. How did this god become, from Enki / Kronos’ brother, his son? The answer can be found with the Hittites, where the god of storm, Teshub, was Kumarbi’s brother, as well as his son. When trying to hide their Asian roots, the Greeks eliminated his role as a brother, and only kept that of a son. Thus, Zeus / Enlil turned from Kronos / Enki’s brother into his son. As Anu’s heir and his representative on Terra, Enlil got not only the throne, but also the heavenly father’s titles, including that of „god of the sky” and „father of the gods”. The Greeks assigned these functions to Zeus. In the Iliad, Homeros named him „father of gods and men” and „our father in the clouds” (the second epithet was used by Christians for their god and transformed into „our father who art in heaven”), just as in Aeneis („The Aeneid”), for the Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro he was „the father of gods and men”.
If in Mesopotamia the world was ruled by three gods, Anu having the sky, Enlil the Earth and Enki the water and the underground world, the Greeks kept the Sumerian triad, but eliminated Anu / Ouranos to give more importance to the new leader, Zeus / Enlil. Besides the domain he already had, the Earth, he also received Anu’s domain, the sky. The Greeks kept Enki in this trinity, calling him Poseidon. In his oldest mentions, the god was named Posedao and Posedawone, from the root of the Latin verb „possidere” („to possess”). Another one of his old names was Enesidaone, an obvious Sumerian word from which came the epithets „Ennosidas” (for Pindaros) and „Ennosigaios” (for Homeros). The Romans called him Neptunus, a name derived from the Etruscans’ Nethuns. Poseidon was the god of seas and Zeus’s older brother, having as symbols the trident, the fish, the bull, the dolphin and the horse. In the Iliad, Homeros calls Poseidon „earthquake of the world” and „the god earthquake”. Although the origin of the god’s name remains unknown, researchers established that Poseidon means „Lord of the Earth” or „Husband of the Earth”. For unknown reasons, they ignored the first version, preferring the second one, suggesting that Poseidon and the goddess of the earth, Demeter, had an intimate connection, although there is no myth to attest this hypothesis. As the German mythologist Walter Burkert said, the translation „Husband of the Earth” is almost impossible to prove. Although researchers are hell-bent about accepting this variant, because there is no myth attesting that Poseidon would have been at a certain time the ruler of the planet, the first translation is the real one. Both Enki for Sumerians and Poseidon for Greeks mean the same thing. The trident and the fish are symbols for both deities. The bull, one of Poseidon’s symbols, stand for fertility, and his horns, Enki’s crescent moon. Both of them are gods of the water, whose younger brothers became kings of the Earth. For the Greeks, Poseidon, together with other gods, tried to dethrone his brother, but he was caught and punished, like Enki for the Sumerians. As a curiosity, the first Djehuty (Thoth) in Egypt was one of Enki’s alter egos. In Khemenu (Hermoupolis), his city, he was the first in a group of eight deities, named the Great Ogdoad. Because Djehuty, Enki, Neptunus or Poseidon signify the same deity and the gods were equated with celestial bodies, Djehuty surrounded by eight lesser gods can represent the planet Neptune with its eight natural satellites.
After they gave Zeus the sky and the Earth and Poseidon received the seas, the Greeks found themselves facing a dilemma: who should receive the underworld? Because they could not give it to Zeus, who already had the sky and the Earth, they gave it to Poseidon. In order to have a trinity like most of the ancient religions, they created Hades, whose name comes from that of the northwestern Semitic Hadad. In ancient Greek he was called Ades, from the Sumerian Adad. The Etruscans called him Aita or Eita. Thus, Poseidon remained just the god of the waters and Hades became his darker side, the ruler of the underworld. Just like Asar (Osiris) of the Egyptians, Hades was the judger of the dead. For that matter, historian Plutarchus believed that the god Serapis is no different from Hades and neither is Isis from his wife, Persephone. Plutarchus also wrote that, for the Greeks, Zeus was the creator of all good things, while Hades was the source of evil, admitting here the antithesis between the two brothers that can be found in most cultures. For Platon, Hades meant „the son of kindness”, and for Plutarchus, „The Hidden One”, exactly as the Egyptians’ Amun. The Greeks have assigned the god’s name to his domain, the underworld. The Romans named him Dis Pater, Dispater or Pluto, the latter meaning „The Wealthy One”, an allusion to the richness of the underground, a name taken from Plutus’, the god of wealth and Demeter’s son for the Greeks. As opposed to the god of storms and leader of the underworld, Hades / Pluto / Aita is the Sumerian Enki.
The Greeks called the creator of the humans Prometheus („Forethought”). He gave to the mortals the fire, writing, maths, agriculture, medicine, science and wisdom. For these deeds, the Sumerians gave credit to Enki. Prometheus was one of the Titans, meaning one of the first gods that ruled our planet. Because Kronos was seen as an evil deity, chaos embodied, he could not had been considered the father of humankind. As such, the Greeks created him a new image, a positive one, and named him Prometheus. Nevertheless, just as Kronos, Prometheus was punished by the new ruler, Zeus, and was chained up on Mount Caucasus. He was set free at the end of the gods’ second war, Gigantomakhia. The Egyptians called the creator of the people Khnum, and Kronos and Khnum are alternative names of the Sumerian Enki.
Zeus’s consort was the youngest of his sisters, Hera. Goddess of the family, marriages, women and childbirth, Hera had the cow, the lion and the peacock as sacred animals. The Romans named her Iuno, Iunona or Regina („the Queen”) and considered her the patron of Rome and the Roman Empire. For the Etruscans she was Uni. The source of her Greek name, just like that of the other deities, is still unknown to researchers. This is caused by their ignorance regarding what is obvious, meaning the fact that Hera is the feminine form of the Egyptian name Heru (Horos for the Greeks). The Greeks’ Hera is the Egyptians’ Aset or the Sumerians’ Ninhursag. In Egypt, she was Asar / Heru-ur’s wife, later becoming his brother’s consort, Sutah. Because she is Asar / Heru-ur’s twin sister, it is no wonder that the Greeks gave her the feminine form of his name. The same thing can be seen in Mesopotamia as well: Ninhursag was initially Enki’s wife, later becoming Enlil’s wife; while she was Enki’s consort, she was named Ninki, after her brother and husband. The Greeks even included in their mythology a relationship between Hera and Poseidon / Enki. The historian Plutarchus wrote that the goddess’ Greek name is an allegoric one and an anagram of the word „air”, which makes us think of the Sumerian mythology, where Ninhursag was renamed Ninlil („Lady of the storm”) after she married Enlil. In Arcadia and in Hermione (near Argos), Hera was named „The Virgin”. During the secret rituals in Nafplio, Hera renewed her virginity annually. Let us not forget that Ninhursag was the Virgin Lady of Mesopotamia. The cow, one of Hera’s sacred animals, was the symbol of the goddesses Aset and Ninhursag. Thus, the Greeks divided a single deity into more: as Ouranos / Anu’s wife, she was Gaia, as Kronos / Enki’s wife, she was called Rea, and as Zeus / Enlil’s wife, she received the name Hera.
If for the Sumerians the supreme god had three children, Enki, Enlil and Ninhursag, and for the Egyptians he had four (they introduced Ishtar in the form of Nebthet), the Greeks set out a plan to surpass them, doubling the initial number. Thus, we find Enlil in one form (Zeus), Enki in two (Poseidon and Hades), and Ninhursag in three (Demeter, Hestia and Hera). The fact that the three of the forms represent the same deity can be clearly seen, because of the obvious similarities between them. Hestia (Estia in ancient Greek) was the goddess of the hearth, the home, the architecture and the family. The Romans called her Vesta, her priestesses being the famous Vestal virgins. Just as Hera, she is also a virgin goddess, protector of the family. Demeter, named Damater in the Doric Greek and Ceres in Latin, was the goddess of the harvest and fertility. One of her epithets was „Thesmophoros”, meaning „Bringer of the law”, Demeter also being the patron of sacred law and the cycle of life and death. Wich makes her similar with Ma’at of the Egyptians and the Hindus’ Ushas. Damater means „Mother Earth”, an epithet that identifies her with Gaia. In Arcadia, it was believed that Demeter and Poseidon had a daughter who was adored under the epithet „Despoina” („The Mistress”), her true name being revealed only to those initiated in her mysteries. This story is similar with that of Enki and Ninhursag, who had a daughter, Ninsar / Ishtar, goddess of sexuality who was often called „The Mistress of the Gods”. In Sumer, as the goddess of the underworld, Ishtar was named Ereshkigal. The same thing can be seen in Greece also: Demeter had a daughter named Persephone, who became the goddess of the underworld. Demeter, Hestia and Hera are, in conclusion, different faces of the Sumerian Ninhursag.
Ares, called Aris in ancient Greek, named Mars or Martis by the Romans and Laran by the Etruscans, was Zeus’ son and right hand. His mother was the queen of the Olympian gods, Hera. Ares was the god of the cruel and unmerciful war, as opposed to Athena, who was the patron of military tactics and strategy. This god, about whom Walter Burket wrote in Greek Religion that he was „overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive and man-slaughtering”, was often accompanied in his flying chariot by his sister, Enio („Discord”), and his two sons, Phobos („The Fear”) and Deimos („The Terror”). In the Iliad, Athena called him „the whip of the cities, the scourge of the world”. His name in ancient Greek, Aris, comes from the anagrammed Akkadian epithet Asar, which was kept in the same form in Egypt and Babylon, but changed to Ashur in Assyria, Asura in India and Ahura in Persia. The Etruscans named their gods „aisar” (singular „ais”, that later became „eis”), a word that had the same origins. Considering the equating of Zeus with Enlil, Ares, the god of war and the right hand of the king of the gods, is Ninurta, the god of war and Enlil’s right hand. The Greeks attributed to him the image of the Mesopotamian Nergal, the negative aspect of Shamash / Marduk. It seems the Romans understood this thing and changed his name to Mars or Martis, names that come from Martu, Marduk’s Sumerian name.
Although the Titans Helios (Helius or Sol in Latin) and Selene (called Luna by the Romans) were the personifications of the Sun and the Moon, Apollon and Artemis, who overtook them regarding their importance, had replaced the two of them. As a curiosity, Helios’ name is a derivative of the Canaanite Eli, to which the letter H was added at the beginning and the „os” termination, specific to the Hellenic language. Apollon, Apellon, Apeilon or Aploun, called Apollo by the Romans, was the god of the light and Sun, the truth and prophecies, the healing, the music and poetry. His cult was spread both in Greece and in the Greek colonies, as well as throughout the Roman Empire. With an unusually high sexual appetite, it is said that Apollon had no less than 69 female lovers and 9 male lovers, as homosexuality was a virtue in the ancient Greece. His symbols were the bow, the lyre, the sword and the sacrificial tripod. One myth tells how Apollon was exiled on Earth and here he shepherd Admet’s herds and built Troy’s walls together with Poseidon. During the Hellenistic times, especially during the 3rd century B.C., Apollon was equated with Helios; for that, a statue was constructed to celebrate him, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes. Among his epithets there are „Phoebus” („Bright”), „Aegletes” („Light of the Sun”), „Phanaeus” („Light bringer”), „Lykeus” („Light”) or „Lykegenes” („Born of a Wolf”). There is no doubt that Apollon / Apollo is identical with Utu / Shamash of Mesopotamia, Marduk’s positive alter ego. Similar with his Mesopotamian counterpart, Apollon was not only the god of the Sun, but of the oracles, prophecies, healing and medicine as well. They both had a twin sister, Ishtar and Artemis respectively. Apollon fought Pythonos, the giant snake, a myth reminding us of Marduk and Tiamat’s myth. Historians Plutarchus and Herodotos identified Apollon with Haru (Horos) of the Egyptians, the same Marduk. According to Plutarchus, Horos was nursed by Latona (or Leto in Greek), equating him with Apollon, whose mother was Leto in the Greek myths. Surprisingly for researchers, although Ares was Zeus’s oldest son and his right hand, the heir to the divine throne was Apollon. Like in Mesopotamia, where Ninurta was Enlil’s oldest son, his right hand and heir, but the throne of Terra belonged to Marduk. Fortunately, the Egyptian mythology casts some light onto this case, revealing that Haru / Marduk / Apollon fought his uncle and adoptive father, Sutah / Enlil, winning the throne of the Earth. Even his name betrays his identity: officially, his name’s etymology remains unknown, researchers considering it might derive from the verb „apollymi” („to destroy”). In Mesopotamia, Marduk’s destroying aspect was Nergal, the god of the destructive setting Sun, diseases and the underworld. The Hurrians gave Nergal a new name, Aplu, the Etruscans Apulu, and the Hittites Apaliunas, considering him the god of the plague. It is obvious that Apollo / Apollon can only come from Aplu / Apulu, which again identifies him with Marduk. Another connection between the two of them, this time more subtle, is the presence of the number 7 in their myths. One of Nergal’s Akkadian epithets was „Sibitti”, meaning „Seven”, while the Greek myths claim Apollon was born on the Island of Delos on the seventh day of the Thargelion month. As Earth is the seventh planet in our Solar system, counting from the outside towards the Sun, and Marduk / Apollon became the Earth’s last king, this number’s introduction in their myths is natural.
Apollon’s sister and Zeus’ daughter was Artemis, initially called Atemito or Atimite. In Lydia, she was worshipped under the name of Artimus. The Romans called her Diana, coming from the Indians’ „dhyana”, that meditative state that leads to a profound self-awareness in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. For the Etruscans, she was Aritimi, or Artumes. In the Greek mythology she replaced Selene as the goddess of the Moon, while also being the goddess of hunting, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth and virginity. She was often depicted carrying a bow and arrows. As Apollon / Marduk’s sister, she is Ninsar / Ishtar. She took the virginity from her mother, thanks to the universal confusion between the two of them. If the Mesopotamians believed she had a relationship with her father, whom the Egyptians identified with the Orion constellation, one of her lovers in Greek mythology was the giant Orion. Artemis is worshipped even nowadays in the Dianic Wicca, a neopagan religion based on magic.
Demeter’s daughter was Persephone or Kore („The Virgin”), Hades’ wife, queen of the underworld and goddess of agriculture. Some other variants of her name were Periphona, Persephonea, Persephatta and Phersephassa. In the Kratylos dialogue, Platon called her Pherepapha „because she is wise and touches that which is in motion”. The existence of a vast number of variants suggests that the pronunciation of her name was difficult for the Greeks, proving this goddess was also imported in the Greek culture. The Romans knew her as Proserpina or Proserpine and equated her with one of their local deities, Libera. For the Etruscans she was Phersipnai, Phersipnei or Proserpnai. Homeros described her as a terrific and majestic queen of the underworld, who applies the curses’ effects on the souls of the deceased. Although she was considered Zeus’ daughter, in Arcadia, where her name was Despoina („The Mistress”), her father was Poseidon. Persephone is the exact replica of the Sumerian Ereshkigal, none other than Ishtar. Even the kidnapping is present in both myths, both goddesses being taken by force into the underworld and then raped. For the Greeks, she was Hades / Enki’s consort, and in Mesopotamia she became, at one point, her father’s consort and bore him a daughter. She presents many similarities with the Indians’ Kali and Nirrti, the same entity called Ishtar by the Akkadians. The Greeks slightly changed her story, attributing a part of her father’s story. In the Hellenic mythology, she had to spend half a year in the underworld and the other half with the gods above. In Sumer, after he was partially saved by Inanna from the underworld, Dumuzi had to spend half a year on the Earth and the other half in the underworld. Moreover, in Egypt, one of Asar’s epithets was „He who lives in Orion with a season in the sky and a season on Earth”.
In addition, in Greece we can find Hermes, the gods’ messenger, god of travelling, thieves, shepherds, literature and inventions. In the Mycenaean Greek, his name was Emaa or Emaha. In the original myths, Hermes (Mercurius for the Romans and Turms for the Etruscans) was the god of fertility and the inventor of fire, as was the Sumerian Enki. One of Hermes’ symbols was the caduceus, the staff intertwined with two snakes and a pair of wings at its top, the symbol of Ningishzida / Enki in Sumer. His name was made up of „her”, which seems to come from the name of the goddess Hera, and „mes”, meaning „middle” in Greek. He was the one connecting the people with the gods, the intermediary or the mediator, thus the second part of his name represents his role. Hermes could be translated as „Hera’s mediator” but, considering that Hera is the feminine form of the Egyptian name Heru, a more accurate interpretation could be „Heru’s mediator”. This version equates him with Enki, an aspect resulting also from his stance of god of fertility, inventor of fire and bearer of the caduceus. The Greeks identified Hermes with the Egyptian Djehuty, who they called Thoth (the same Enki), and from the combination of the two gods, in Alexandria, Hermes Trismegistos came into being. If in Egypt there were two deities going by the name Djehuty or Hermes Trismegistos, the same thing happened in Greece as well. The first Hermes, god of fertility, depicted as a mature, bearded shepherd, is without a doubt Enki. The second one, illustrated as a young man (to suggest that he was not one of the old gods), messenger of the gods and conductor of souls into the underworld, is the second Djehuty, Marduk’s son, minister, heir and scribe, called Nabu by the Babylonians and Mitra by the Hindus. Many ancient authors wrote about the two deities with the same name, among which was the Egyptian priest Manethon, who claimed that the second Hermes restored the first Hermes’ wisdom. The Greeks and the Romans assigned to the second Hermes the planet Mercury, as did the Babylonians to Nabu. The name of Hermes’ mother, the Pleiad Maia, comes from the Indian word „maya”, meaning „illusion” and „magic”, but at the same time is a concept „that exists, but constantly changes, thus being unreal from a spiritual standpoint”, or „the power or the principle that hides the true character of the spiritual reality”. In India, Maya is the name of Buddha’s mother, of the king of the underworld and of one of goddess Lakshmi’s manifestations.
Dionysos for the Greeks, Bacchus for the Romans and Fufluns or Puphluns for the Etruscans was the god of the vine, of ritual madness and ecstasy. In one of his oldest mentions, around the 13th – 12th century B.C., he was called Diwonuso. Later, he received the name Dionusos in Beotia, Deonusos and Deunusos in Ionia, Dienusos in Thesalia and Dinnusos in Aeolia. His name was translated as „The God of the Trees”, indicating his function as divinity of nature, or „The God of Nysa”, his birthplace in Greek mythology. He was always surrounded by Satyrs, beings who gave the image of demons in Christianity. He was believed to be the one liberating the humans from the tyranny of the gods (just as Prometheus did) through wine, music and dance and was represented in a carriage pulled by lions or tigers, holding the thyrsus in his hand, a staff similar to Hermes’ caduceus. He was killed during the war against the giants, then resurrected, exactly as Asar of the Egyptians or Dumuzi / Tammuz of the Mesopotamians. Among his epithets there are „Adoneus” („Ruler”), „Aesymnetes” („Lord”), „Eleutherios” („Liberator”), „Enorkhes” („With testicles”), „Erikryptos” („Completely hidden”), „Pseudanor” („False man”). The epithet „Adoneus” is a truly bizarre one, considering that Dionysos was not a leader in any of the myths known today. Instead, it is very similar to Adonai, one of the epithets for the biblical god, which comes from the Egyptian Aten’s (Aton) name, and to Adonis, another character in Greek mythology. „Enorkhes” refers to his function as god of fertility, something that is also pointed out from the orgies he supposedly often attended. His high sexual drive identifies him with the Egyptian Menu (Min) who, in The Coffin Texts was named „the women hunter”. „Erikryptos” has the same meaning as Amun in Egypt. Herodotos claimed that „Osiris in Greak means Dionysos”. Ellanikos of Lesbos wrote that the Egyptian priests called Dionysos by the name of Osiris. Diodoros Sikeliotes affirmed that Osiris was also called Dionysos or Hades. For Heraklitos of Ephesus, Hades and Dionysos became the same god when they were full of rage or delirious. Mnaseas wrote that Dionysos, Osiris and Serapis are different names for Epaphos (Apis for the Egyptians), son of Zeus and Io. Another chronicler, Antiklides, noted that Isis was Dionysos’ wife. Plutarchus and Diodoros of Sicily reported that the ivy, which the Greeks dedicated to Dionysos, was named „chenosiris” by the Egyptians, meaning „Osiris’s grass”; for them, Dionysos, Hades, or Asar (Osiris) were the same deity. Indeed, this god of fertility who was killed and then resurrected, bearer of the caduceus, is the Sumerian Enki.
The cult of Adonis („The Lord”) appeared on the island of Lesbos around the year 600 B.C. and it was addressed exclusively to women. Adonis was a god of vegetation, of unreal beauty (similar to the Sumerian Dumuzi or the Akkadian Tammuz). Because both Persephone and Aphrodite wanted him, he was forced to spend a third of the year with the former and two thirds with the latter, a myth close to that of Persephone, of Dumuzi and of Asar. Eventually, Adonis was killed and died in Aphrodite’s arms. His name is almost identical with Adonai of the Jews and Adoneus, one of Dionysos’ epithets. As god of vegetation and Aphrodite’s lover, dead and resurrected, he is Enki, Dumuzi, or Asar. Moreover, it was believed he was born in Byblos, a very important city for Asar and Dumuzi’s cults.
Another representation of Enki as Zeus’ son is Hephaistos, called Vulcanus or Volcanus by the Romans and Sethlans by the Etruscans. In old Greek he was called Hphaistos. The oldest inscriptions call him Apaitijo, Haphaistios and Haphaistion. Son of the supreme gods Zeus and Hera, he was the god of technology, crafts, sculptures, artisans, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Exiled from Mount Olympus by Zeus, he had to live on the island Lemnos. He was the craftsman of the gods, the same as Gibil in Sumer or Ptah in Egypt. Because of his title as „supreme ruler of craftmanship”, Herodotos even equated Hephaistos with Ptah. Although ugly and lame, the craftsman of the gods was married to the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite. As she was known as Aset in Egypt, Ninhursag in Sumer, or Ishtar in Babylon, we can see a new connection to Enki, thus Hephaistos’ identity is as clear as can be.
Athena, also named Athenaia, Athenaii, Athana, or Athini, often surnamed Pallas, was the virgin goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, justice, strategy, mathematics, arts and crafts. Since the 2nd century B.C. she was equated with the Romans’ Minerva, a copy of the Etruscan goddess Menrva who, in turn, comes from Menerwa, the Latin name of the Moon goddess for the ancient Italians, Meneswa. Among her Greek epithets there are „Parthenos” („The Virgin”) and „Promakhos” („First fighter”). Her symbols were the owl and the olive branch. It is said she was not born naturally, but from Zeus’ forehead. „When the god had in mind the making of the world through a word, his first thought was Athena”, wrote Saint Iustinus in the 2nd century, this story being similar to the one in Inbu-Hedj / Men-nefer (Memphis), where Ptah created the world from his head, by thinking of it. In another story, Zeus left the Oceanid Metis pregnant and then swallowed her, Athena being forced to come out of her father’s head when it was time to be born. The Phoenician historian Sankhouniathon thought she was Kronos’ daughter and Zeus’ sister. Pallas and Triton also play the roles of Athena’s fathers in the old myths. Her supernatural birth, different from the other deities, indicates her unicity. The Greeks identified her with Neit of the Egyptians, the primordial mother-goddess named Namma by the Sumerians, Tiamat by the Babylonians and Aditi / Shakti by the Hindus. Even Athena’s virginity equates her with Neit, who was called „the virgin mother-goddess” because she gave birth to the world and to the gods without any male help. Through her attributes, she is also similar to the Egyptians’ Ma’at, the principle of truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice, the same Neit / Namma / Tiamat / Aditi / Shakti. Although the Greeks never specified this in their myths, the initiates knew that Athena / Minerva was the creating goddess of the world. Thus, we understand the importance that was given to her from the oldest times until nowadays. For example, in Rome, she was part of the Capitoline Triad next to Iupiter and Iunona. In addition to that, she was part of a divine trinity for the Etruscans, next to two leading gods of the pantheon. The third grade of the Mason group Illuminati is called „Minerval” or „Minerva’s brother”. The initiation into the Ordo Templis Orientis rituals, Aleister Crowley’s organization, carries the same name. The oldest Masonic Lodge from the British city Kingston Upon Hull is called „The Minerva Lodge”. The Coaching Institute for the Armed Forces of India is also called „Minerva”. Her image appears on the United States’ Medal of Honour, the highest American military distinction, on the Californian seal, on the New York Union College logo and on the Max Planck Society’s logo in Germany. Statues of her have been raised all over the world, even during modern times, and at the beginning of the 20th century, the president of Guatemala, Manuel Jose Estrada Cabrera, even tried to bring back her cult to life into his country.
Hekate was the goddess of sorcery, crossroads, the Moon and necromancy. The Chaldean Oracles presented her as a ruler of the Earth, the seas and the sky, a saviour, mother of angels and world’s cosmic soul. She was one of the main protecting deities of Athens, bringer of prosperity and blessings to the whole family. The Romans called her Trivia, considering her a deity of the underworld as well. She was sometimes depicted as a triple deity, holding in her hands a torch, a key, snakes, daggers and many other objects. Although in some traditions she is the monster Skilla’s mother, she was still considered a virgin goddess. In the Greek esoteric texts, inspired by the Egyptian ones, she is described having three heads: one of a dog, one of a snake and one of a horse. For the ancient ones she was the mediator between the two groups of gods, Olympians and Titans, but also between the mortals and the divinities. In Thrace and Greece, the dogs were sacrificed in her honour. In Theogonia, Hesiodos wrote that she was the one „whom above all Zeus Kronides honoured. He granted her glorious gifts and to have a portion of the Gaia and unplowed sea. She has a portion also of the starry Ouranos as her province. She is especially honoured among the immortal gods. For even now, when someone of men on Earth sacrificing beautiful victims, propitiates the gods in the customary way, he calls upon Hekate (…) Kronides never did her violence or took from her what she had from the distribution among the former Titans, but she retained all as the distribution was first done. Although only-begotten, the goddess did not receive a lesser share of honour and privileges in the Earth and Ouranos and sea”. This honour granted by Zeus seemed that was because of the fact that she was the only Titanide who helped him in the war against the Titans. Among her epithets, there are „Kleidoukhos” („Holder of the key”), „Phosphoros” („Bringer of the light”), „Propylaia” („Before the gate”), „Soteira” („Saviour”) and „Trimorphe” („Three-formed”). Obviously, her name etymology is unknown for researchers, who still have the courage to call themselves specialists. They assume Hekate was imported from Anatolia, without realising that the goddess is only the feminine version of the god Heka, the embodiment of magic for the Egyptians. Both of them were depicted in a similar way, with him strangling two giant snakes and her holding in her hands two torches. As „heka” is the Egyptian word for magic, but its literal translation is „activating the Ka”, i.e. the essence of life for the ancient Egyptians, the goddesses Hekate and Heka represent the primordial goddess, creator of the Universe, Neit / Namma / Tiamat / Aditi / Shakti / Athena / Minerva. In The Coffin Texts it is even mentioned that Heka existed „before duality existed”. Thus, we understand why „she has a portion also of the starry Ouranos as her province. She is especially honoured among the immortal gods”, as Hesiodos wrote. Both Egyptians and the Greeks respected her more than they respected the rest of the deities, asking for protection against the angry gods, evil spirits and sickness. Hekate is worshipped today still, in neopaganism, wicca and other diverse occult practices.
She seems to also be Nyx (or Nox for the Romans), the embodiment of the night. Being present at the moment the world was created, Nyx was a character with exceptional power and beauty and even Zeus feared her. In Theogonia, Hesiodos claimed that Nyx was born from Khaos, the primordial chaos, alongside Erebos (the darkness). The two of them gave birth to the first deities (just as Tiamat in Babylon, Namma in Sumer or Neit in Egypt), such as Aether (light) and Hemera (day). Then, Nyx gave birth to other entities by herself, including the twins Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death), whom Hesiodos called „awesome gods who are never seen by the rays of the blazing sun when it rises on the sky”. Thanatos, named Mors or Letumi by the Romans, is almost identical with Namtar, the son and vizier of the goddess Ereshkigal in Mesopotamia, but also with the second Inpu (Anubis) of the Egyptians. In the Athenian tragedy Alkistis, written by Euripides in 438 B.C., Thanatos is described wearing black clothes and a sword. Often, he was illustrated with wings, a sword at his waist and a reversed torch, representing a life extinguished. When the fear of death became smaller and smaller, and the heaven from the afterlife became more and more attractive, Thanatos was imagined as a teen of ravishing beauty, that made it easier to pass peacefully into the world beyond. Sometimes he was illustrated as a sleepy child in his mother’s arms, Nyx, or as a young boy holding a butterfly (the Greek word „psikhi” means „butterfly”, „soul” and „life”). In many Roman sarcophagi he appears as a winged boy, just as Eros („Desire”), named by the Romans Cupido or Amor („Love”). „Eros with crossed legs and torch reversed became the commonest of all symbols for Death”, observed the British historian and archaeologist Arthur Bernard Cook. If, usually, Eros is considered the son of Aphrodite and Ares, in the oldest Greek sources he is one of the primordial gods, born from Khaos. In the Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries, Eros was Nyx’s son, just as Thanatos. Besides the identical appearance, both had a twin brother and carried a torch, and these similarities lead us to the conclusion that we have two different aspects of the same deity. The Roman politician and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero believed there were three gods with the name Cupido and three goddesses named Venus: the first Cupido was the son of Mercurius and Diana, the second, the son of Mercurius and the second Venus, and the third one was the son of Mars and the third Venus. If Cicero was right, one of these Eros / Cupido is Thanatos, Namtar and the second Inpu (of whom it was believed during the Greek-Roman period that through his love filters he contributed to humanity’s future).
Among these main deities, for the Greeks there were many others, less important ones, demigods, and all sorts of fantastic creatures. We can notice the special importance given to the number 12, the number of the main Titans, the great Olympian gods and the labours of the demigod Heracles. The Greek mythology not only confirmed the identities of the gods that we saw in all the other cultures, but also gave us extra details about the fights between them. If from Mesopotamian myths there could only be seen a conflict between the two groups of deities, later related by Egyptians and Indians, from the Greeks’ legends we find out there were two great wars between the gods, that the Hellens named Titanomakhia and Giggantomakhia. To find more details about these deities and about their stories, there has to be more „digging” to be done into the past. The next place to „dig” is the Greeks’ place of origins, Canaan.
[1] „To worship” in English
[2] „Tyrant” in English
[3] „God”in English
Lasă un răspuns