Michael Wynn's Occult Reference Library
HESIOD

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18276066 GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 1

rejcrock (finn magnusen 361, as we noticed before, or frojas rock (wieselgren. 383. the orchis odoratissima, satyrium albidum, a plant from which love-potions are brewed, icel. friggjargras, otlierwise hionagras (herba conjugalis; the later 1 conf. the mhg. wiplich wip, parz. 10, 17. ms. 1, so' 202. 2, 42^ 182' 258^ wibin wip, msh. 1 ^59; similarly drjxvrepai ywa'ikfs, otl. 11, 386. 434. 15, 422. hesiod scut. 4" we might connect venus with the goth, qino, qens, as venire with qiman; the wei. given would answer to gvenus for venus; the ir. dia beine, friday, from becm, ben (lady= venus= as. cwen. frikka. frouwa. 303 christian way of thinking has substituted mary for the heathen goddess. and the labouring man in zealand speaks of the above constellation also by the name of maridrok, marirolc

is the personified alaa that spins the thread for the newborn: aaaa ol alaa yeivo/xevq) itrevrjcre xlvut, ore fitv re/ce fn]t7]p. ii. 20, 127' what things aisa span for him at birth with her thread. but in od. 7, 197 other spinners (two) are associated with her: aaaa ol alaa katak\co6ere /3apelac lyeivo/xevcp vi]aavto xivco, ore jjllv t ke fj'^jrrjp' m'hat aisa and the kataklothes unkind span. hesiod dair. 258) makes three goddesses stand beside the combatants, kkwom, ad)(ealre adyealv re kal "arpottov, a'lre /bporotaiv lyelvo/iievoiai sisovaiv exeiv djaoov re kakov re' who give to mortals at birth to have both good and ill' and in almost the same w^ords at 905. the

he destiny, lachesis ra rye'yovora, klotho ra ovra, atropos ra fiexkovra: just the same relation to past, present and future as the norns have, though the greek proper names do not themselves exj)ress it. kkwddo (formed like av^m, gawco, arjro, mop/xm, tophesiod sets up the last, atropos, as the mightiest, while with us avurt the eldest produces the most powerful impression. latin writers distribute the offices of the parcae somewhat differently, as apuleius (de mundo p. 280: clotlio ^9?-acsen?'is temporis habet curam, quia quod torquetur in digitis, momenti 1 i think ala-a is the ohg. era, our ehre, for which we should expect a gothic aiza, aisa (

een valkyrs and krjpedead. a kijp is allotted to the child as soon as it is born; achilles had two krjp; between whom he might choose, and zeus put two in the balance, to decide the death of hector or achilles^ hesiod (scut. 249 254) makes the dingy white-toothed /c7 pe? contend over the fallen warriors, each throws her talons round the wounded man, eager to drink his blood, just as he ascribes talons and a thirst for blood to the moirai (p. 414: a fresh confirmation of the identity of norns and valkyrs. the claws of the moirai and keres, the wings of the thriai, point to their possession of a lird's sha

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

ean the same as the supreme spirit or the zoroastrian ahura. it is later on, for purposes of theology and dogma, that they are shown issuing from brahma's thigh, and that their name began to be derived from a privative, and sura, god (solar deities, or not-a-god, and that they became the enemies of the gods. every ancient theogony without exception- from the aryan and the egyptian down to that of hesiod- places, in the order of cosmogonical evolution, night before the day; even genesis, where "darkness is upon the face of the deep" before "the first day" the reason for this is that every cosmogony- except in the secret doctrine- begins by the "secondary creation" so-called: to wit, the manifested universe, the genesis of which has to open by a marked differentiation between the eternal lig

hosts- as lucifer, in milton's fancy, is of the infernal hosts- who has the best of satan. it is true that the nature of[[vol. 2, page] 63 who are the "flames? michael depends upon that of his creator and master. who the latter is, one may find out by carefully studying the allegory of the "war in heaven" with the astronomical key. as shown by bentley, the "war of the titans against the gods" in hesiod, and also the war of the asuras (or the tarakamaya) against the devas in puranic legend, are identical in all save the names. the aspects of the stars show (bentley taking the year 945 b.c. as the nearest date for such conjunction) that "all the planets, except saturn, were on the same side of the heavens as the sun and moon" and hence were his opponents. and yet it is saturn, or the jewish

arakamaya) against the devas in puranic legend, are identical in all save the names. the aspects of the stars show (bentley taking the year 945 b.c. as the nearest date for such conjunction) that "all the planets, except saturn, were on the same side of the heavens as the sun and moon" and hence were his opponents. and yet it is saturn, or the jewish "moon-god" who is shown as prevailing, both by hesiod and moses, neither of whom was understood. thus it was that the real meaning became distorted- stanza ii- continued. 8. the flames came. the fires with the sparks; the night fires and the day fires (a. they dried out the turbid dark waters. with their heat they quenched them. the lhas (spirits) of the high; the lhamayin (those) of below, came (b. they slew the forms, which were two- and fou

first nagas- beings wiser than serpents- are the "sons of will and yoga" born before the complete separation of the sexes "matured in the man-bearing eggs* produced by the power (kriyasakti) of the holy sages" of the early third race[[footnote(s* an allegorical reference to the "sacred animals" of the zodiac and other heavenly bodies. some kabalists see in them the prototypes of the animals* in "hesiod" zeus creates his third race of men out of ash-trees. in the "popol vuh" the third race of men is created out of the tree tzita and the marrow of the reed called sibac. but sibac means "egg" in the mystery language of the artufas (or initiation caves. in a report sent in 1812 to the cortes by don baptista pino it is said "all the pueblos have their artufas- so the natives call subterranean

hen the dark and fierce passions of the former will be at eternal feud with his master, the divine man. but the animal will be tamed one day, because its nature will be changed, and harmony will reign once more between the two as before the "fall" when even mortal man was created by the elements and was not born. the above is made clear in all the great theogonies, principally in the grecian (see hesiod and theogony. the mutilation of uranos by his son kronos, who thus condemns him to impotency, has never been understood by the modern mythographers. yet, it is very plain; and having been universal (vide foot note infra, it must have contained a great abstract[[footnote(s[[footnote continued from previous page] postel saw it. it was most certainly in a great measure a transcript from the bo

an and the man of flesh, in one sense* just as the "lord god" or jehovah, is cain esoterically, and the "tempting serpent" as well, the male portion of the androgynous eve, before her "fall" the female portion of adam kadmon; the left side or binah of the right side chochmah in the first sephirothal triad[[vol. 2, page] 270 the secret doctrine "father of the gods" he is the "disrespectful son" in hesiod. hermes calls him the "heavenly man (pymander; and even in the bible he is found again under the name of adam, and, later on- by transmutation- under that of ham. yet these are all personifications of the "sons of wisdom" the necessary corroboration that jupiter belongs to the purely human atlantean cycle- if uranus and kronos who precede him are found insufficient- may be found in hesiod

if uranus and kronos who precede him are found insufficient- may be found in hesiod, who tells us that the immortals have made men and created the golden and the silver age (first and second races; while jupiter created the generations of bronze (an admixture of two elements, of heroes, and the men of the age of iron. after this he sends his fatal present, by pandora, to epimetheus* which present hesiod calls "a fatal gift" or the first woman. it was a punishment, he explains, sent to man "for the theft of divine creative fire" her apparition on earth is the signal of every kind of evil. before her appearance, the human races lived happy, exempt from sickness and suffering- as the same races are made to live under yima's rule, in the mazdean vendidad. two deluges may also be traced in univ

t woman. it was a punishment, he explains, sent to man "for the theft of divine creative fire" her apparition on earth is the signal of every kind of evil. before her appearance, the human races lived happy, exempt from sickness and suffering- as the same races are made to live under yima's rule, in the mazdean vendidad. two deluges may also be traced in universal tradition by carefully comparing hesiod, the rig veda, the zend-avesta, etc, while no first man is ever mentioned in any of the theogonies save the bible* everywhere the man of our race appears after a cataclysm of water, after which tradition mentions only the several designations of continents and islands which sink under the ocean waves in due time "gods and mortals have one common origin" says hesiod (ibid. v. 108; and pindar

eady inferior to the first. inert and weak creatures, all their life is no better than a long and stupid infancy. they disappear. the men of the age of bronze are robust and violent (the third race; their strength is extreme. they had arms made of bronze, habitations of bronze; used nought but bronze. iron, the black metal, was yet unknown (op. at d, 143-155. the fourth generation (race) is, with hesiod, that of the heroes who fell before thebes (see "the seven against thebes" by aeschylus, or under the walls of troy. thus, the four races being found mentioned by the oldest greek poets, though very much confused anachronistically, our doctrines are once more corroborated by the classics. but this is all "mythology" and poetry. what can modern science have to say to such an euhemerization o

already yielded in isolated cases groups of skeletons of nine and twelve feet high* these belong to tribes of the early fifth race, now degenerated to an average size of between five and six feet. but we can easily believe that the titans and cyclopes of old really belonged to the fourth (atlantean) race, and that all the subsequent legends and allegories found in the hindu puranas and the greek hesiod and homer, were based on the hazy reminiscences of real titans- men of a superhuman tremendous physical power, which enabled them to defend themselves, and hold at bay the gigantic monsters of the mesozoic and early cenozoic times- and of actual cyclopes- three-eyed mortals. it has been often remarked by observant writers, that the "origin of nearly every popular myth and legend could be tr

but only an abuse of physical intelligence- the psychic being guided by the animal, and both putting out the light of the spiritual. he will say "all ye who can read between the lines, study ancient wisdom in the old dramas- the indian and the greek; read carefully the one just mentioned, one enacted on the theatres of athens 2,400 years ago, namely 'prometheus bound" the myth belongs to neither hesiod nor aeschylus; but, as bunsen says, it "is older than the hellenes themselves" for it belongs, in truth, to the dawn of human consciousness. the crucified titan is the personified symbol of the collective logos, the "host" and of the "lords of wisdom" or the heavenly man, who incarnated in humanity. moreover, as his name pro-me-theus, meaning "he who sees before him" or futurity, shows- in

barely a few centuries b.c, by the most liberal; and the rocks in iran and central asia (whence the philologists and historians[[vol. 2, page] 440 the secret doctrine. show us the ancestors of the same panini, the brahmins, coming into india) are covered with writing, two and three thousand years old (12,000, according to some fearless palaeontologists. writing was an ars incognita in the days of hesiod and homer, agreeably to grote, and unknown to the greeks so late as 770 b.c; and the phoenicians who had invented it, and knew writing as far back as 1500 b.c, at the earliest* were living among the greeks, and elbowing them, all the time! all these scientific and contradictory conclusions disappeared, however, into thin air, when schliemann discovered (a) the site of ancient troy, whose ac

biassed whichever way they incline. thus mr. max muller declares that "nowhere is the wide distance which separates the ancient poems of india from the most ancient literature of greece more clearly felt, than when we compare the growing myths of the veda with the full grown and decayed myths on which the poetry of homer is founded. the veda is the real theogony of the aryan races, while that of hesiod is a distorted caricature of the original image" this is a sweeping assertion, and perhaps rather unjust in its general application. but why not try to account for it? orientalists cannot do so, for they reject the chronology of the secret doctrine, and could hardly admit the fact that between the rig-vedic hymns and hesiod's theogony tens of thousands of years have elapsed. so they fail to

heogony tens of thousands of years have elapsed. so they fail to see that the greek myths are no longer the primitive symbolical language of the initiates, the disciples of the gods- hierophants, the divine ancient "sacrificers" and that disfigured by the distance, and encumbered by the exuberant growth of human profane fancy, they now stand like distorted images of stars in running waves. but if hesiod's cosmogony and theogony are to be viewed as caricatures of the original images, how much more so the myths in the hebrew genesis in the sight of those, for whom they are no more divine revelation or the word of god, than hesiod's theogony is for mr. gladstone "the poetry it (the rig veda) contains appears to me, on the contrary" says barth "to be of a singularly refined character and[[vol

ls" his genealogy, which assigns to him as his father inachos, the river, reminds one of that of prometheus, which makes that titan the son of the oceanid clymene. but the mother of phoroneus was the nymph melia; a significant descent which distinguishes him from prometheus. melia, decharme thinks, is the personification of the ash-tree, whence[[vol. 2, page] 520 the secret doctrine. according to hesiod, issued the race of the age of bronze (opera et dies, 142-145; and which with the greeks is the celestial tree common to every aryan mythology. this ash is the yggdrasil of the norse antiquity, which the norns sprinkle daily with the waters from the fountain of urd, that it may not wither. it remains verdant till the last days of the golden age. then the norns- the three sisters who gaze re

to approach the gods, he must have been a god himself" the greeks held that he was of the divine race; the hindus, that he was a deva. hence "with the greeks he was the son of the titan lapetos[[iapetonides (theog. 528 "but celestial fire belonged in the beginning to the gods alone; it was a treasure they reserved for themselves. over which they jealously watched 'the prudent son of iapetus' says hesiod 'deceived jupiter by stealing and concealing in the cavity of a narthex, the indefatigable fire of the resplendent glow (theog. 565. thus the gift made by prometheus to men was a conquest made from heaven "now according to greek ideas (identical in this with those of the occultists "this possession forced from jupiter, this human trespassing upon the property of the gods, had to be followed

is the genius of evil, doomed to cruel suffering, etc, etc" that which is revolting in the explanations that follow, is the one-sided view taken of this grandest of all the myths. the most intuitional among modern writers cannot or will not rise in their conceptions above the level of the earth and cosmic phenomena. it is not denied that the moral idea in the myth, as presented in the theogony of hesiod, plays a certain part in the primitive greek conception. the titan is more than a thief of the celestial fire. he is the representation of humanity- active, industrious, intelligent, but at the same time ambitious, which aims at equalling divine powers. therefore it is humanity punished in the person of prometheus, but it is only so with the greeks. with the latter, prometheus is not a[[foo

oglyphics, which, after the discovery, were copied and reproduced in the most secret corners of the inner temples of egypt, and have thus become the source of its wisdom and exceptional learning. these two "pillars" however, are the prototypes of the two "tables of stones" hewn by moses at the command of the "lord" hence, in saying that all the great adepts and mystics of antiquity- like orpheus, hesiod, pythagoras and plato- got the elements of their theology from those hieroglyphics, he is right in one sense, and wrong in another; for he errs in accuracy. the secret doctrine teaches us that the arts, sciences, theology, and especially the philosophy of every nation which preceded the last universally known, but not universal deluge, had been recorded ideographically from the primitive or

he fifth root race, the hindu aryans and the egyptians, adding to them the early chinese races (the remnants of the fourth or atlantean race- based the whole of their mysteries on number 10: the higher triangle standing for the invisible and metaphysical world, the lower three and four, or the septenate, for the physical realm. it is not the jewish bible that brought number seven into prominence. hesiod used the words "the seventh is the sacred day" before the sabbath of "moses" was ever heard of. the use of number seven was never confined to any one nation. this is well testified by the seven vases in the temple of the sun, near the ruins of babion in upper egypt; the seven fires burning continually for ages before the altars of mithra; the seven holy fanes of the arabians; the seven peni

he seven fires burning continually for ages before the altars of mithra; the seven holy fanes of the arabians; the seven peninsulas, the seven islands, seven seas, mountains, and rivers of india; and of the zohar (see ibn gebirol; the jewish sephiroth of the seven splendours; the seven gothic deities, the seven worlds of the chaldeans and their seven spirits; the seven constellations mentioned by hesiod and homer; and all the interminable sevens which the orientalists find in every ms. they discover. what we have to say finally is this: enough has been brought forward to show why the human principles were and are divided in the[[vol. 2, page] 604 the secret doctrine. esoteric schools into seven. make it four and it will either leave man minus his lower terrestrial elements, or, if viewed f

, a superior wisdom and an universal knowledge, and especially a thorough acquaintance with the depths of the ocean: because both continents bore races instructed by divine masters, and because both were transferred to the bottom of the seas, where they now slumber until their next reappearance above the waters. atlas is the son of an ocean nymph, and his daughter is calypso "the watery deep (see hesiod's theogony, 507-509, and odyssey 1, 51: atlantis has been submerged beneath the waters of the ocean, and its progeny is now sleeping its eternal sleep on the ocean floors. the odyssey makes of him the guardian and the "sustainer" of the huge pillars that separate the heavens from the earth (1, 52-53. he is their "supporter" and as both lemuria, destroyed by submarine fires, and atlantis, su

BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

ed" at the words "evolution "darwin "kapila "battle of life" etc. etc) but the idea was not ours, it is that of antiquity. even the puranic writers have ingeniously interwoven allegory with cosmic facts and human events. any symbologist may discern the astro-cosmical allusion even though he be unable to grasp the whole meaning. the great "wars in heaven" in the puranas; the wars of the titans, in hesiod and other classical writers; the "struggles" also in the egyptian legend between osiris and typhon, and even those in the scandinavian legends, all refer to the same subject. northern mythology refers to it as the battle of the flames, the sons of muspel who fought on the field of wigred. all these relate to heaven and earth, and have a double and often even a triple meaning, and esoteric a

e christian sense in the puranas. for in vishnu purana, it is clearly stated that by eternity and immortality only "existence to the end of the kalpa" is meant (book ii. chap. viii* orphic theogony is purely oriental and indian in its spirit. the successive transformations it has undergone, have now separated it widely from the spirit of ancient cosmogony, as may be seen by comparing it even with hesiod's theogony. yet the truly aryan hindu spirit breaks forth everywhere in both hesiod's and the orphic theogony (see the remarkable work of james darmesteter, cosmogonies aryennes, in his essais orientaux) thus the original greek conception of chaos is that of the secret wisdom religion. in hesiod, therefore, chaos is infinite, boundless, endless and beginningless in duration, an abstraction

hronos cuts down with his scythe even the longest and (to us) seemingly endless cycles, yet, for all that, limited in eternity, and puts down with the same scythe the mightiest rebels. aye, not one will escape the scythe of time! praise the god or gods, or flout, one or both, and that scythe will not be made to tremble one millionth of a second in its ascending or descending course. the titans of hesiod's theogony were copied in greece from the suras and asuras of india. these hesiodic titans, the uranides, numbered once upon a time as only six, have been recently discovered to be seven- the seventh being called phoreg- in an old fragment relating to the greek myth. thus their identity with the seven rectors is fully demonstrated. the origin of the "war in heaven" and the fall has, in our

ould credit a planner and architect with having built the edifice he admires with his own hands. on the testimony of damascius[[peri archon) they referred to it as "the unknown darkness" the babylonians passed over this principle in silence "to that god" says porphyry, in[[peri apoches empsuchon "who is above all things, neither external speech ought to be addressed, nor yet that which is inward" hesiod begins his theogony with "chaos of all things was the first produced* thus allowing the inference that its cause or producer must be passed over in reverential silence. homer in his poems ascends no higher than night, whom he represents zeus as reverencing. according to all the ancient theologists, and to the doctrines of pythagoras and plato, zeus, or the[[footnote(s* see "magazine" for ap

he secret doctrine. immediate artificer of the universe, is not the highest god; any more than sir christopher wren in his physical, human aspect is the mind in him which produced his great works of art. homer, therefore, is not only silent with respect to the first principle, but likewise with respect to those two principles immediately posterior to the first, the aether and chaos of orpheus and hesiod, and the bound and infinity of pythagoras and plato. proclus says of this highest principle that it is "the unity of unities, and beyond the first adyte. more ineffable than all silence, and more occult than all essence. concealed amidst the intelligible gods (ibid) to what was written by thomas taylor in 1797- namely, that the "jews appear to have ascended no higher. than the immediate art

that truth behind the fabulous form of the glyph or allegory. they are accused of superstition and credulity, those ancient sages; and this by those very nations, which, learned in all the modern arts and sciences, cultured and wise in their generation, accept to this day as their one living and infinite god, the anthropomorphic "jehovah" of the jews. what were some of the alleged "superstitions? hesiod believed, for instance, that "the winds were the sons of the giant typhoeus" who were chained and unchained at will by aeolus, and the polytheistic greeks accepted it along with hesiod. why should not they, since the monotheistic jews had the same beliefs, with other names for their dramatis personae, and since christians believe in the same to this day? the hesiodic aeolus, boreas, etc, et

prior to moses, and which speaks of the making "of arcturus, orion, and pleiades (ash, kesil, and[[vol. 1, page] 648 the secret doctrine. cimah) and the chambers of the south (ix. 9; of scorpio and the mazzaroths- the twelve signs (xxxviii, 31, 32, which words, if they mean anything, imply knowledge of the zodiac even among the nomadic arabic tribes. the book of job, they say, precedes homer and hesiod by at least one thousand years- the two greek poets having themselves flourished some eight centuries before the christian era. one who prefers, by the bye, to believe plato, who shows homer flourishing far earlier, could point to a number of zodiacal signs mentioned in the iliad and the odyssey, in the orphic poems, and elsewhere. but since the cock-and-bull hypothesis of some modern criti

s having themselves flourished some eight centuries before the christian era. one who prefers, by the bye, to believe plato, who shows homer flourishing far earlier, could point to a number of zodiacal signs mentioned in the iliad and the odyssey, in the orphic poems, and elsewhere. but since the cock-and-bull hypothesis of some modern critics to the effect that neither orpheus, nor yet homer and hesiod, ever existed, it would seem time lost to mention these archaic authors at all. the arabian job will suffice; unless, indeed, his volume of lamentations, along with the poems of the two greeks, adding to them those of linus, should now be also declared to be the patriotic forgery of the jew aristobulus. but if the zodiac was known in the days of job, how could the civilized and philosophica

CHRONOLOGIA RORISPERGIUS

lture. 994- king david captures jerusalem. 10th century bce solomon, son of david, king of israel flourished 950 torah/pentateuch, song of songs. 900 bc "the sacrificial deities, agni and soma, as personifications of the ritual order, effectively survived the transition from theism to pantheism in 900 bc (james: 1963..pg 77) 800- the iliad and the odyssey were recited by a blind poet named homer; hesiod: works and days, theogony; upanishads 751 rome was founded 740 o.t. book of isaiah. 628-551 zarathustra/zoroaster 600- taoism (or daoism) is established in china as a religion by the legendary lao-tzu 580- 530 pythagoras was initiated into the egyptian mysteries (disciple of anaximander) 560 buddha was born c. 550? bon was introduced to tibet when there occurred a mass migration of iranians

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

s; they also sacrificed to the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and winds, said herodotus, meaning no doubt that they adored the heavenly bodies and the elements. this was probably before the time of zoroaster, when the religion of persia seems to have resembled that of ancient india. their hymns in praise of the most high exceeded (according to dio chrysostom) the sublimity of anything in homer or hesiod. they exposed their dead bodies to wild beasts. schlegel maintained that it was an open question whether the old persian doctrine and wisdom or tradition of light did not undergo material alterations in the hand of its median restorer, zoroaster, or whether this doctrine was preserved in all its purity by the order of the magi. he then remarked that on them devolved the important trust of t

GAMBLE ELIZA BURT THE GOD IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS OR SEX IN RELIGION

he hindoo trimurti, or triad, becomes incarnate, by transmigrating from the human bodies occupied during a former incarnation; brahm or the unity appearing as the paternal menu of a new age, while the triad, brahma, vishnu, and siva, is exhibited in the person of his three sons. but the ark-preserved menu--satyavrata and his three sons are certainly noah and his three sons, shem, ham, and japhet" hesiod teaches that, after the flood, chaos, night, and black erebus first appeared.[45] at this time, when there was no earth, no heaven, and no air, an egg floated on the face of the deep, which, being parted, brought forth love, or cupid. out of chaos this god created or formed all things. now cupid is the same as the greek phanes, and phanes is noah, the egg being the ark or female principle f

is declare, ye muses! dwellers of the heavenly mount from the beginning; say, who first arose? first chaos was: next ample-bosomed earth, of deathless gods, who still the olympian heights snow-topt inhabit. her first-born earth produced of like immensity, the starry heaven: that he might sheltering compass her around on every side, and be forevermore to the blest gods a mansion unremoved"[92 [92] hesiod, the theogony. so long as human beings worshipped the abstract principle of creation, the manifestations of which proceed from the earth and sun, they doubtless reasoned little on the nature of its hitherto inseparable parts. they had not at that early period begun to look outside of nature for their god-idea, but when through the peculiar course of development which had been entered upon

the sacred egg from which all things were produced. this egg is identical with the ark, and from it the diluvian patriarch was born. he was "baal-peor or the lord of opening; and, from an idea that the ark was an universal mother, he was considered as the masculine principle of generation, and was adored by his apostate descendants with all the abominations of phallic worship" in the theogony of hesiod, uranus is represented as being the parent of three sons, and the same legend repeated in the story of cronus portrays him also as a triplicated deity. according to the peruvian kosmogony all things sprang from viracocha who is said to be identical with the greek aphrodite. besides this superior god they venerated a triad which was closely connected with the sun. these gods were called chuq

n was originally the gift of pallas athene, or wisdom. when she first appeared on the scene she was crowned by the gods, in fact she was the first object honored with a crown. concerning the conceptions regarding women as held at an earlier age, and those which came to prevail after she had become "the cause of evil in the world" we have the following from tertullian "if there was a pandora, whom hesiod mentions as the first woman, hers was the first head the graces crowned, for she received gifts from all the gods, whence she got her name pandora. but moses, a prophet, not a poet-shepherd, shows us the first woman eve having her loins more naturally girt about with leaves than her temples with flowers. pandora then is a myth"[98 [98] tertullian, vol. i, p. 341. woman, who was originally t

ly the gift of wisdom, or minerva, and who when created was garlanded with flowers as the crown of creation, became, in course of time, an accursed and wicked thing who must henceforth cover herself with leaves to hide her shame. tertullian, who, with the rest of the early fathers in the christian church, had imbibed the latter doctrine concerning her, could not believe the tradition set forth by hesiod; therefore pandora was a myth, while the corrupted fable, that of eve as the tempter, was accepted as a natural representation of womanhood. when woman was created "all the gods conferred a gifted grace "round her fair brow the lovely-tressed hours a garland twined of spring's purpureal flowers: the whole attire minerva's graceful art disposed, adjusted, form'd to every part"[99 [99] hesiod

GILBERT THE MAGICAL MASON

he greeks made a considerable study of astronomy, and so were in a position to understand the claims made by the chaldeans for their views of the influence of the stars upon human destinies. having learned the elements of the strange astrologic doctrines, the later greeks sought for references to themintheir own earlier writers; and especially in the170themagical masonvenerable works of homer and hesiod, possibly because they disliked to acknowledge that any sort of learning was not in the possession oftheirancestors. sofar as can be judged the deities of the early greeks were not closely related to the sun and planets, although the later greeks identified their apollo with helios the sun, and artemis with the moon.theearlier greeks looked upon the sun as driving his chariot through the sk

constellations is given in the poem of aratus of soli, called 'phainomena, written 400 years before or about 270b.c.st paul in his sermon on mars hill, related in his acts of the apostles, xvii, quotes from this poem; both these authors were natives of cilicia. they give 48 constellations. the poem of aratus is said to be a versificationof the knowledge imparted by eudoxus a hundred years before. hesiod, in hisworks and days,mentions, orion, canis, arcturus, and the seven virgins as stars; and homer in the odyssey refers to the pleiades, the northern team, orion and the bear. so that some constellations had familair names some thousand years before jesus. the hebrew name mzrut,mazzaroth,occurs in job xxxviii v. 32, and in our bible weread-'canstthou bring forth mazzaroth in his season' thi

GILBERT THE SORCERER AND HIS APPRENTICE

f which we find perhaps only a few obscure traces existing to-day, may be much more clear and definite in brittany or the channel islands. others again still farther afield. when i was writingthedeviz'smistressi found in the confession of isabel goudie distinct traces, but no more, of the 'moon paste. but what it was, and how prepared, no testimony in this country gave the smallest clue. hints in hesiod, and other classical authors, showed that the formula was used in thessaly, and medieval italians spoke of bringing the moon down from heaven. still they eluded me, till at last i ran it to earth in morocco, as recorded in the notes of emile mauchamp and others. the key fitted exactly: not only isabel goudie but the thessalian witches were justified by the experience of a modern scientific

y caught the witches' own thoughts, and leave but the impression of a vivid nightmare. yet there are actual descriptions by witches who profess to have been there, and possibly it might be done. returning for a momenttothe question of the rituals. there is little doubtoftheantiquity of very many of them. we find theminthe grimoire, and in trithemius; we search back through the pages of virgil and hesiod, and we seem to see the origins of the same formulae. we look at the book of the dead, and the same meet us again in ancient egypt. in the. confessions of isabel goudie and other witches of her circle appear mutilated and corrupt forms of the same, still recognizable; and so with the kinross circle, and the north berwick circle, and many others. and today among the gipsies many of the old f

GRAHAM HANCOCK FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

by memories of a deluge. here, however (as in central america) the inundation is not viewed as an isolated event but as one of a series of destructions and remakings of the world. the aztecs and the maya spoke in terms of successive suns or epochs (of which our own was thought to be the fifth and last. in similar fashion the oral traditions of ancient greece, collected and set down in writing by hesiod in the eighth century bc, related that prior to the present creation there had been four earlier races of men on earth. each of these was thought more advanced than the one that followed it. and each, at the appointed hour, had been swallowed up in a geological cataclysm. the first and most ancient creation had been mankind s golden race who had lived like the gods, free from care, without

GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 3

. 620. 701) at work here? splinters of a tree struck by lightning, coffin-splinters are of use (i, 171. 208. the bridal bed must have only dry tvood, but off living trees^ other fancies about the bridal bed 486-7. no picked up feathers, no hen's feathers should be put in a bed 281. 346. 593. choosing of days prevailed among the jews (levit. 19, 26. deut. 18, 10, greeks, and probably all heathens. hesiod distinguishes between mother-days and stepmother-days, he goes over all the good days of zeus, and all the bad "epya k 'h/x. 765 (710) seq. even if our names for the days of the week were imported from abroad (p. 127, yet native superstitions may have been mixt up with them from a very early time' nullus observet' so preached eligius' qua die domum exeat, vel qua die revertatur, nullus ad i

GRIMM TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 2 1883 COMPLETE

ded band of giants is spoken of, and in 53 a giantess with 900 heads. brana s father has three (invisible) heads, fornald. sog. 3, 574, where also it is said: f]?a 1 schafarik explains obor by the celtic ambro above (p. 520n; but in that case the polish would have been a,br. 2 briareus or ^gaeon has a hundred arms (e/faro-yxei/sos, ii. 1, 402) and fifty heads, geryon three heads and six hands; in hesiod s theog. 150, kottus, gyges and briareus have one hundred arms and fifty heads. the giant in the hebrewstory has only an additional finger or toe given to each hand and foot: vir fuit excelsus, qui senos in manibus pedibusque habebat digitos, i.e. viginti quatuor (instead of the human twenty, 2 sam. 21, 20. bertheau s israel, p. 143. 0. fr. poems give the saracen giant four arms, two noses

;ofj.fj.ara d t?atos re /cat avnouaa ae\rjvr. euseb. upotrapaffk. eva-yy. 3, 9. lobeck, de microc. et macroc. p. 4. ceeation. 571 whole world is mirrored back. according to a chaldean cos mogony, when belus had cut the darkness in twain, and divided heaven from earth, he commanded his own head to be struck off, and the blood to be let run into the ground; out of this arose man gifted with reason. hesiod s representation is, that pandora was formed by hephaestus out of earth mingled with water, and then hermes endowed her with speech "e/yyo- 61-79. the number of ingredients is first reduced to earth and blood (or water, then in the 0. t. to earth alone. and there are yet other points of agreement claiming our attention. as ymir engendered man and wife out of his hand, and a giant son o

populus however is unconn. with populus a poplar. buch an e quercu aut saxo natus, who cannot name his own father, is vulceeation. 573 been fairy tales about it, which children told each other in con fidential chat (oapi^efjievai, airb spyo? rjs* airb irerprj, ii. 22, 126.1 a\\a tit /aol ravra irepl spvv rj irepl irerptjv; hes. theog. 35. in marked unison with the myth of askr is the statement of hesiod, that zeus formed the third or brazen race out of ashtrees (etc fjbe\iav, op. 147; and if the allusion be to the stout ashen shafts of the heroes, why, isco or askr may have bran dished them too. one remembers too those wood-wives and fays, who, like the greek meliads and dryads, had their sole power of living bound up with some particular oak or ash, and, unlike the tree-born man, had neve

, and from them are descended beggars and fakirs the tfitt y t n aut* nty*^b* the agreement with the german drama of thhee 1f6itt h centt, is undeni w e erman rama o he 16th cent, undeniably and makes me doubt the supposed connexion of the concealed creation. 575 bible makes two separate actions, adam/s creation coming first, and eve s being performed afterwards and in a different manner.1 so, by hesiod s account, there already existed men descended from the gods themselves, when the first woman pandora, the allgifted, fair and false, was formed out of earth and flood (p. 571. it is difficult to arrive at the exact point of view in the hesiodic poems. in the theogony, there ascend out of chaos first graia (earth) the giantess, then erebus (corresp. to niflheim) and night; but gaia by herse

2. 80. 160. on the boughs of an oak that springs out of a murdered man s grave, holy sparrowhawks perch, and publish the foul deed (see suppl. there is no bird to which the gift of prophecy is more univer sally conceded than the cuckoo? whose clear and measured voice rings in the young foliage of the grove. the old german law designates spring by the set phrase wann der gauch guket (ra. 36, as in hesiod s rules of husbandry the cuckoo s song marks the growing rains of spring. two old poems describe the quarrel of spring and winter about the cuckoo, and the shepherds lamentation for him: spring praises the bird, tarda hiems 1 carniol. zuna, pol. boh. zluwa, boh. also wlha, wolga. 2 goth, gauks? ohg. gouh (hoffm. 5, 6, as. geac, on. gaukr; mhg. gouch, ms. 2, 132b, also reduplicated (like cuc

nism (pp. 400. 424, the virtues selected favourites with whom to lodge and consort. offended or wronged by evil-doing, they took their leave, and returned to the heavenly dwelling, the place of their birth. in this too they are like the swan-wives, who after long sojourn among men suddenly take wing and seek their better home (p. 427. such notions must reach a long way back, and be widely spread. hesiod in"epya 198 200 tells how alsws and nefieats, shame and remorse, having wrapt them in white raiment (put the swan* i eadgifu, ohg. otikepa, a woman s name= opes largiens, might translate tba lat. goddess ops. 2 ac veluti boreae sub tempore nix glomerata spargitur, baud aliter saevas jecere sagittas. walth. 188. von beidentbalben floucb daz scoz (flew tbe sbots) also dicke so der sne (a

HANDBOOK OF EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

h ancient egyptian religion had no official holy book equivalent to the bible or the koran (quran. the relationships between deities did not become fixed at one 4 handbook of egyptian mythology moment in time but went on changing and developing for thousands of years. egyptian mythology was never gathered by priests into one authorized version or harmonized in any long literary work comparable to hesiod s theogony, an important source for the study of greek mythology. comparatively few literary treatments of myths survive from any stage of the egyptian language. the mythology of ancient egypt has to be laboriously pieced together from a variety of written and visual sources. the extent and nature of these sources varied greatly during the 3,500 years that the native pharaonic culture domin

HELENA BLAVATSKY NIGHTMARE TALES

the orthodox pantheon and the symbolical polytheism of thebrahmans that varuna became poseidon or neptune- which he is now. in the vedas he isthe most ancient of the gods, identical with ouranos of the greek, that is to say apersonification of the celestial space and the infinite gods, the creator and ruler of heaven andearth, the king, the father and the master of the world, of gods and of men. hesiod's uranusand the greek zeus are one. nightmare talesthe blue lotus21 "alas" he wailed, every morning while performing his puja to the lesser gods "alas! what avails it to be thegreatest king on earth when god denies me an heir of my blood. when i am dead and placed on the funeralpyre, who will fulfil the pious duties of a son, and shatter my lifeless skull to liberate my soul from its earthl

gods into the reed out of which the frustrated god of the shepherds had made his magic pipe. for also, withtime, ambition grows and is rarely satisfied. when he tried to emulate on his violin the enchanting soundsthat resounded in his mind, the whole of parnassus kept silent under the spell, or joined in heavenly chorus;but the audience he finally craved was composed of more than the gods sung by hesiod, verily of the mostappreciative melomanes of european capitals. he felt jealous of the magic pipe, and would fain have had it athis command "oh! that i could allure a nymph into my beloved violin- he often cried, after awakening from one of hisday-dreams "oh, that i could only span in spirit flight the abyss of time! oh, that i could find myself forone short day a partaker of the secret art

and he passed his days in thegreen fields and in the solemn silent woods, face to face with nature, dreaming all the time as usual with hiseyes open. during the three months of his pleasant travels to and fro, he never descended for one moment nightmare talesthe ensouled violin63 from parnassus; but, as an alchemist transmutes lead into gold, so he transformed everything on his way intoa song of hesiod or anacreon. every evening, while fiddling for his supper and bed, whether on a green lawnor in the hall of a rustic inn, his fancy changed the whole scene for him. village swains and maidens becametransfigured into arcadian shepherds and nymphs. the sand-covered floor was now a green sward; theuncouth couples spinning round in a measured waltz with the wild grace of tamed bears became prie

ISIS UNVEILED

y years the authentic docu- roents of the most important religions in the world ktat been recovered in a nu t unexpected and almoat miraeulotu manner* we have now before us the canonical books of buddhism; the zend avetta of zoro- aster is no longer a sealed book; and the hymns of the rig-veda have revealed a state of religions anterior to the first beginnings of that mythology which in homer and hesiod stands before us as a mouldering ruin* in their insatiable desire to extend the dominion of blind faith, the early architects of christian theology had been forced to conceal, as much as it was possible, the true sources of the same. to this end they are said to have bunted or otherwise destroyed all the original manuscripts on the kabala, magic, and occult sciences upon which they could uy

JENNINGS HARGRAVE ROSICRUCIANS RITES MYSTERIES

above the planets and stars. in early ages the egyptians worshipped this highest being under the name of athor. he was the lord of the universe. the greeks transformed athor into venus, who was looked upon by them in the same light as athor (apuleius, cicero, ovid; ptolem us, in tetrabibla; proclus; ennemoser, vol. i. p. 268, trans, by howitt. among the egyptians, athor also signified the night (hesiod, orpheus. according to the egyptians, says jablonski, matter has always been connected with the mind. the egyptian priests also maintained that the gods appeared to man, and that spirits communicated with the human race. the souls of men are, according to the oldest egyptian doctrine, formed of ether, and at death return again to it. the alchemists were a physical branch of the rosicrucians

LEADBEATER CW GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

oath, and the severest trials of his fortitude and self-command were imposed. the brethren, about six hundred in number, with their wives and children, resided in one large building. every morning the business and duties of the day were arranged, and at night an account was rendered of the day s transactions. they arose before day to pay their devotions to the sun, and recited verses from homer, hesiod, or some other poet. several hours were spent in study, after which there was an interval before dinner, which was occupied in walking and in gymnastic exercises. the meals consisted principally of bread and honey. 402. although we do not find any direct connection between the school of pythagoras and the degrees of modern masonry, yet the influence of pythagoras upon our mysteries was prof

LEWIS JAMES SATANISM TODAY AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION FOLKLORE AND POPULAR CULTURE

and ian summers.mute evidence. new york: bantam books, 1984. stewart, james r. cattle mutilations: an episode of collective delusion. the zetetic 1, no. 2 (spring/summer 1977. cerberus in greek mythology, cerberus was the guardian or watchdog of the underworld, hades. the offspring of typhon and echidna (who also parented the hydra and the chimaera, he was described as having three heads (though hesiod attributes him with fifty heads, a snake s tail, and a row of snake s heads sprouting from his neck. he greeted the newly dead with eagerness, but ate anyone who tried to escape. cerberus was said to have been charmed by orpheus, who was the only mortal he willingly allowed to enter hades. in another story he was defeated in a struggle with hercules, who forced him to come with him to the s

MANLY P HALL THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES

n the vast sea swum" archytas is credited with invention of the screw and the crane. pleasure he declared to be a pestilence because it was opposed to the temperance of the mind; he considered a man without deceit to be as rare as a fish without bones. the eleatic sect was founded by xenophanes (570-480 b.c, who was conspicuous for his attacks upon the cosmologic and theogonic fables of homer and hesiod. xenophanes declared that god was "one and incorporeal, in substance and figure round, in no way resembling man; that he is all sight and all hearing, but breathes not; that he is all things, the mind and wisdom, not generate but eternal, impassible, immutable, and rational" xenophanes believed that all existing things were eternal, that the world was without beginning or end, and that ever

grative power; they reveal the purpose of death, which is to rescue the rational soul from the devouring power of the irrational nature. man is a composite creature, his lower nature consisting of the fragments of the titans and his higher nature the sacred, immortal flesh (life) of bacchus. therefore man is capable of either a titanic (irrational) or a bacchic (rational) existence. the titans of hesiod, who were twelve in number, are probably analogous to the celestial zodiac, whereas the titans who murdered and dismembered bacchus represent the zodiacal powers distorted by their involvement in the material world. thus bacchus represents the sun who is dismembered by the signs of the zodiac and from whose body the universe is formed. when the terrestrial forms were created from the variou

tic exposition of the so-called platonic philosophy, for in its design is epitomized the entire theory of mystic cosmogony and generation. the most valuable guide to the interpretation of this table is the commentaries of proclus on the theology of plato. the chaldean oracles of zoroaster also contains many allusions to the theogonic principles which are demonstrated by the table. the theogony of hesiod contains the most complete account of the greek cosmogony myth. orphic cosmogony has left its impress upon the various forms of philosophy and religion--greek, egyptian, and syrian--which it contacted. chief of the orphic symbols was the mundane egg from which phanes sprang into light. thomas taylor considers the orphic egg to be synonymous with the mixture from bound and infinity mentioned

c execution. it is also known that esculapius, the greek physician, cured sciatica and other diseases of the nerves by blowing a loud trumpet in the presence of the patient. pythagoras cured many ailments of the spirit, soul, and body by having certain specially prepared musical compositions played in the presence of the sufferer or by personally reciting short selections from such early poets as hesiod and homer. in his university at crotona it was customary for the pythagoreans to open and to close each day with songs--those in the morning calculated to clear the mind from sleep and inspire it to the activities of the coming day; those in the evening of a mode soothing, relaxing, and conducive to rest. at the vernal equinox, pythagoras caused his disciples to gather in a circle around on

MICHAEL TSARION ATLANTIS ALIEN VISITATION AND GENETIC MANIPULATION

r eating thefruit of one particular tree (p. 335)peoples claiming descent or knowledge of the sky godskachinas (decent from the sun)hopis, utes, toltecs, miztecs, aztecs, quiches, aleutians, creeks, seminoles, mattoles, tepanecas (of columbia)mormonsmikados of japan (decent from the sun)sumerians (sargon the great)semites (moses, isaac, john and jesus, abrahamthe name means father is high)greeks (hesiod theogony, pindar. in plato, the deluge of deucalion)appendix b: book abstracts190atlantis, alien visitation, and genetic manipulation chinese (in the pwan-ku, or reign of chaos, states that people lived underground)babylonians and akkadiansindians (indra versus vritra and the battles between the asas and the asuras or gods and demons)russianscelts (in the deluge of ogyges and the journey of

ubject of etymology to show that the gods were actuallyflesh and blood and that they were also the bringers of all manner of control and evil to this planet.)their gods are the gods of the hills (i kings 20:23)while saturn reigned, those then his subjects were,who lived the life of gods without all care.whom sorrow, labor, nor old age oppressed,but soundness, both in hands and feet, them blessed (hesiod)that there was in progress a great colonizing movement by the gods is evidenced by the names of thecountries of europe. each european country has an el derivative name (p. 27)belgium, engeland, gaels, caledonia, palestine, and hellenesfor some unknown reason, there exists within the midst of our languages a very significant word, themeaning of which has been lost for many generations. and l

of atlas ruled the world in the age before the beginning of written historythe atlas mythsprang from the fact that the house of atlas bore the burdens of the whole world. thus the greeks gaveus the statue of the powerful man actually upholding the earth (p. 39)illi shortened becomes il, or el.the gods keep mankind ignorant of the ways of living, else one would do enough in one day to last a year (hesiod) this condition and this situation of mankind being ruled by a hierarchy of gods who passed the mostpleasant part of their own existence upon the islands while the people brought the first fruits to the hill-tops for the sacrifice was a phase of mankinds existence that lasted for thousands of years. islands didnot need fortifications. wealth flowed from the hilltops down the rivers to the i

MORALS AND DOGMA

one of the most ancient that has survived to us. the subject on which he treated occupied in his time all men's minds: the poets sang of cosmogonies and theogonies, and the philosophers wrote treatises on the birth of the world and the elements of its composition. the cosmogony of the hebrews, attributed to moses; that of the ph nicians, ascribed to sanchoniathon; that of the greeks, composed by hesiod; that of the egyptians, the atlantes, and the cretans, preserved by diodorus siculus; the fragments of the theology of orpheus, divided among different writers; the books of the persians, or their boundehesh; those of the hindus; the traditions of the chinese and the people of macassar; the cosmogonic chants which virgil puts in the mouth of iopas at carthage; and those of the old silenus

intelligence external to matter. the ancient astrologers divided the twelve signs of the zodiac into six male and six female, and assigned them to six male and six female great gods. heaven and earth, or ouranos and gh, were among most ancient nations, the first and most ancient divinities. we find them in the ph enician history of sanchoniathon, and in the grecian genealogy of the gods given by hesiod. everywhere they marry, and by their union produce the later gods "in the beginning" says apollodorus "ouranos or the heavens was lord of all the universe: he took to wife gh or the earth, and had by her many children" they were the first gods of the cretans, and under other names, of the armenians, as we learn from berosus, and of panchaia, an island south of arabia, as we learn from euhem

ame enigmatic language, and in the same style wrote the hierophants of ph nicia. the division of things into the active and the passive cause leads to that of the two principles of light and darkness, connected with and corresponding with it. for light comes from the ethereal substance that composes the active cause, and darkness from earth or the gross matter which composes the passive cause. in hesiod, the earth, by its union with tartarus, engenders typhon, chief of the powers or genii of darkness. but it unites itself with the ether or ouranos, when it engenders the gods of olympus, or the stars, children of starry ouranos. light was the first divinity worshipped by men. to it they owed the brilliant spectacle of nature. it seems an emanation from the creator of all things, making know

jealousy. hence the provocation given by the healing skill of sculapius and the humane theft of fire by prometheus. the very spirit of nature, personified in orpheus, tantalus, or phineus was supposed to have been killed, confined, or blinded, for having too freely divulged the divine mysteries to mankind. this divine envy still exists in a modified form, and varies according to circumstances. in hesiod it appears in the lowest type of human malignity. in the god of moses, it is jealousy of the infringement of the autocratic power, the check to political treason; and even the penalties denounced for worshipping other gods often seem dictated rather by a jealous regard for his own greatness in deity, than by the immorality and degraded nature of the worship itself. in herodotus and other wr

tyranny, that we discover that the self-imposed limitations of the supreme cause, constituting an array of certain alternatives, regulating moral choice, are the very sources and safeguards of human freedom; and the doubt recurs, whether we do not set a law above god himself; or whether laws self-imposed may not be self-repealed: and if not, what power prevents it. the zeus of homer, like that of hesiod, is an array of antitheses, combining strength with weakness, wisdom with folly, universal parentage with narrow family limitation, omnipotent control over events with submission to a superior destiny--destiny, a name by means of which the theological problem was cast back into the original obscurity out of which the powers of the human mind have proved themselves as incapable of rescuing i

ault of man" said solon, in reference to the social evils of his day "not of god, that destruction comes" and euripides, after a formal discussion of the origin of evil, comes to the conclusion that men act wrongly, not from want of natural good sense and feeling, but because knowing what is good, they yet for various reasons neglect to practise it. and at last reaching the highest truth, pindar, hesiod, schylus, sop, and horace said "all virtue is a struggle; life is not a scene of repose, but of energetic action. suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, appointed by zeus himself, the giver of all understanding, to be the parent of instruction, the schoolmaster of life. he indeed put an end to the golden age; he gave venom to serpents and predacity to wolves; he shook

_female_ side, a _square. the heavens and the earth were personified as deities, even among the aryan ancestors of the european nations of the hindus, zends, bactrians, and persians; and the rig veda sanhita contains hymns addressed to them as gods. they were deified also among the ph nicians; and among the greeks ouranos and gea, heaven and earth, were sung as the most ancient of the deities, by hesiod. it is the great, fertile, beautiful mother, earth, that produces, with limitless profusion of beneficence, everything that ministers to the needs, to the comfort, and to the luxury of man. from her teeming and inexhaustible bosom come, the fruits, the grain, the flowers, in their season. from it comes all that feeds the animals which serve man as laborers and for food. she, in the fair spr

MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS E

her increase after much toil and labour. the goddess of justice having abandoned mankind, no influence remained sufficiently powerful to preserve them from every kind of wickedness and sin. this condition grew worse as time went on, until at last zeus in his anger let loose the water-courses from above, and drowned every [24]individual of this evil race, except deucalion and pyrrha. the theory of hesiod,[8] the oldest of all the greek poets, was that the titan prometheus, the son of iapetus, had formed man out of clay, and that athene had breathed a soul into him. full of love for the beings he had called into existence, prometheus determined to elevate their minds and improve their condition in every way; he therefore taught them astronomy, mathematics, the alphabet, how to cure diseases

famous cestus) which she frequently lent to unhappy maidens suffering from the pangs of unrequited love, as it was endowed with the power of inspiring affection for the wearer, whom it invested with every attribute of grace, beauty, and fascination. her usual attendants are the charites or graces (euphrosyne, aglaia, and thalia, who are represented undraped and intertwined in a loving embrace. in hesiod's theogony she is supposed to belong to the more ancient divinities, and, whilst those of later date are represented as page 64 having descended one from another, and all more or less from zeus, aphrodite has a variously-accounted-for, yet independent origin. the most poetical version of her birth is that when uranus was wounded by his son cronus, his blood mingled with the foam of the sea

nation is given of the fact that helios sinks down in the far [63]west regularly every evening, and yet reappears as regularly every morning in the east. whether he was supposed to pass through tartarus, and thus regain the page 68 opposite extremity through the bowels of the earth, or whether they thought he possessed any other means of making this transit, there is not a line in either homer or hesiod to prove. in later times, however, the poets invented the graceful fiction, that when helios had finished his course, and reached the western side of the curve, a winged-boat, or cup, which had been made for him by hephastus, awaited him there, and conveyed him rapidly, with his glorious equipage, to the east, where he recommenced his bright and glowing career. this divinity was invoked as

which, with ruthless violence, sweep over whole districts, carrying off or injuring all before them. erinyes, eumenides (furia, dira. the erinyes or furies were female divinities who personified the torturing pangs of an evil conscience, and the remorse which inevitably follows wrong-doing. their names were alecto, megara, and tisiphone, and their origin was variously accounted for. according to hesiod, they sprang from the blood of uranus, when wounded by cronus, and were hence supposed to be the embodiment of all the terrible imprecations, which the defeated deity called down upon the head of his rebellious son. according to other accounts they were the daughters of night. their place of abode was the lower world, where they were employed by aides and persephone to chastise and torment

ovided with the means of locomotion, it could never be removed from an unhealthy locality. aphrodite alone defied his criticism, for, to his great chagrin, he could find no fault with her perfect form.[50] page 167 in what manner the ancients represented this god is unknown. in modern art he is depicted like a king's jester, with a fool's cap and bells. eros (cupid, amor) and psyche. according to hesiod's theogony, eros, the divine spirit of love, sprang forth from chaos, while all was still in confusion, and by his beneficent power reduced to order and harmony the shapeless, conflicting elements, which, under his influence, began to assume distinct forms. this ancient eros is represented as a full-grown and very beautiful youth, crowned with flowers, and leaning on a shepherd's crook. in

PHILIP NEIL MYTHS LEGENDS EXPLAINED

h at the trapped lovers. poseidon (neptune, hermes (mercury, and helios came. hephaestus demanded that zeus (jupiter) should repay him all the gifts he had made in order to win aphrodite s hand, but in the end settled for a fine to be paid by ares. amid much laughter, poseidon offered to stand surety for the debt, and so the lovers were freed. golden goddess aphrodite is called golden by the poet hesiod. she is also called laughter-loving, although here the joke is on her. imp of desire some sources say that eros (cupid) was aphrodite s son by either ares, hermes, or even by her father zeus. others say that he was the first god, and hatched from the world egg at the beginning of time. cunning net when hephaestus learned of aphrodite s betrayal, he made a net of fine metal to catch the love

sun, saw aphrodite and ares together in the palace of hephaestus, and immediately informed the cuckolded god. this greek sculpture shows aphrodite emerging from the sea, wringing the water from her hair as she comes to the island of paphos on a giant scallop shell. aphrodite scallop shell wet hair foam the birth of aphrodite some sources say that aphrodite was a daughter of zeus, but in the poet hesiod s account, she was born from the seafoam (aphros) that gathered around the genitals of uranus after they had been cut off and flung away by his son cronos (saturn see p. 23. the drops of blood that fell became the furies, giants, and the ash-tree nymphs called the meliae. aphrodite came to shore at paphos in cyprus. as she stepped onto land, grass grew under her feet. also called anadyomene

lthough he did not play an actual part in the story of zeus seduction of dana, eros (cupid, the god of sexual love, is depicted here. his presence indicates that love can overcome all obstacles, even barred doors and armed guards. bow and arrow eros always carries a bow and arrow. the poet ovid said that there were two kinds of arrow golden ones to inspire love, and leaden ones to take love away. hesiod calls dana rich-haired europa and zeus europa was the daughter of the phoenician king agenor one day, zeus saw her playing with her maidens by the sea and, overcome by lust, took the form of a handsome bull and mingled with the king s herd on the beach. europa stroked him, hung garlands of flowers on his horns, and he seemed so gentle that she eventually climbed on his back. zeus immediatel

d his crew s ears with beeswax, so that they could not hear the sirens seductive chant. odysseus and polyphemus by tibaldi pellegrino (1527 96) odysseus stabs polyphemus in the eye, which bubbles and hisses before winking out. when his neighbors call out to ask who is hurting him, the cyclops shrieks nobody and they do not come to his aid. the cyclopes t he cyclopes were one-eyed giants. the poet hesiod says that there were three of them, the sons of uranus (cronos) and gaia, and that they forged zeus thunderbolts these cyclopes were killed by apollo for the death of asclepius (see p. 39. the ones odysseus meets tend sheep and live on an island now thought to be sicily. landing there, odysseus and his men were shut in a cave by the cyclops polyphemus, who ate several of them. odysseus who

PROMETHEUS

er sent [hermes. to take it to epimetheus as a gift. and epimetheus did not think on what prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of olympian zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. but he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood -works& days 42-89 "deukalion was the son of prometheus and pronoia, hesiod states in the first catalogue -the catalogues of women& eoiae frag 1 (from scholiast on apollonius rhodius arg. iii.1086 "against the wise prometheus bitter-wroth the sea-maids [nereides] were, remembering how that zeus, moved by his prophecies, unto peleus gave thetis to wife, a most unwilling bride. then cried in wrath to these kymothoe 'o that the pestilent prophet [prometheus] had endur

] was the titan iapetos' great son [prometheus] hung from the beetling crag of kaukasos in bonds of adamant, and the eagle tare his liver unconsumed- he seemed to groan -quintus smyrnaeus 10.190 "after creating men prometheus is said to have stolen fire and revealed it to men. the gods were angered by this and sent two evils on the earth, women and disease; such is the account given by sappho and hesiod -greek lyric i sappho frag 207 (from servius on virgil "the story goes that prometheus stole the fire and zeus in a rage rewarded those who reported the theft with a drug to ward off old age -greek lyric iii ibycus frag 342 (from aelian, on the nature of animals) that is why melanippides says that thetis was pregnant by zeus when she was given in marriage to peleus because of the remarks of

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

peninsula of southern greece. they also borrowed from egyptian religions and from west-asian civilizations. by about 900 bce these numerous gods and goddesses had begun to be organized into the pantheon, or collection of deities, honored in ancient greece. the religion s rise two writers are credited with this task of organizing the gods and the myths surrounding them: homer( born c. 900 bce, and hesiod, who lived in about the eighth century bce. homer s famous epic poems the iliad and the odyssey give order to the chaos of all the separate myths that existed at the time. an epic poem is a long narrative poem that relays the story of heroic deeds. homer explained the family relationships between the various gods, gave each one a title and a specific power or responsibility, such as zeus, a

homer is held responsible for raising twelve gods over the others and giving them mount olympus as their living place. this phase of greek religion is called homeric, after the poet. while homer s gods could sometimes be cruel or selfish, they all demonstrated a basic moral code, or rules for good behavior. they were loyal to friends and family, honest, and brave. about a century later, the poet hesiod, in his poems called the theogony (a family tree of the gods) and works and days established the olympian gods at the 210 world religions: almanac greco-roman religion and philosophy center of greek religion. similarly, two roman poets created a mixed greco-roman mythology and pantheon of gods by adapting the greek myths. these two writers were virgil (70 19 bce) and ovid (43 bce 17 ce. vir

iving them away. because of its role in the persian wars, athens became the strongest polis in all of greece, a leader in culture as well as in politics. the writers aristophanes (525 456 bce, sophocles (496 406 bce, and euripides (480 405 bce) helped clarify the powers and the relationship of the olympian gods to human beings and to each other in their plays. in much the same manner as homer and hesiod before them, the playwrights examined historical and contemporary events and attributed the causes of those events to the gods. plays like aeschylus s the oresteia, sophocles s antigone, and euripedes s elektra emphasize the power of the gods and the uselessness of human effort in the face of divine indifference. the religion s decline the peloponnesian war (431 404 bce) was one of the most

es of the gods were often displayed in paintings and sculptures. the gods often carried objects that represented them and their powers. for instance, the arrow was a symbol of artemis, goddess of the hunt. worship. ritual sacrifices were a common element of greco-roman religion. daily prayers were offered privately in the home. dress. worshippers wore no special attire. texts. the works of homer, hesiod, ovid, and virgil collected and organized greco-roman myths. homer s iliad and the odyssey remain popular with modern readers. sites. delphi was a special location to greeks, who would consult with its famous oracle. observances. each member of the greco-roman pantheon had festival days attributed to him or her, such as the great dionysia held each spring in athens in honor of the fertility

ning pleasure on earth was the sole purpose of life. linked to this is the doctrine of eternal return, or the belief that everything that happens has happened before and will happen again, since both the universe and time are cyclical. this was a standard feature of pythagorean and stoic thought. sacred writings there were no sacred texts in either greek or roman religion, but the works of homer, hesiod, ovid, and virgil do collect and give form to the ancient myths and also to the relations between the gods and goddesses. homer, in the iliad and the odyssey, tells the story of the trojan war (c. 1200 bce, the tale of a war between the people of greece and troy, a powerful rival city on asia minor. in these works, homer organizes the greek pantheon of gods, carefully noting all the relatio

so gives order to the legends or myths of these gods, blending sometimes contradictory tales into a system of myths that have survived into modern times. the homeric hymns, thirty-four ancient greek poems to the gods, have also been attributed to homer, though it seems these were written over a large span of time by a number of different authors. they were meant to be sung during religious rites. hesiod furthered the process of collecting the myths and defining the gods with his theogony, which supplies more information about the relationships between the gods and goddesses. also, in his works and days, he provides a history of what he called the five ages of humans, from the golden age, ruled by the god chronos, to the silver age of zeus, the warlike bronze age, the heroic age of the troj

cess of collecting the myths and defining the gods with his theogony, which supplies more information about the relationships between the gods and goddesses. also, in his works and days, he provides a history of what he called the five ages of humans, from the golden age, ruled by the god chronos, to the silver age of zeus, the warlike bronze age, the heroic age of the trojan war, and ending with hesiod s own time, the iron age. virgil and ovid provided a similar service for the romans. in his aeneid, virgil transforms the sometimes bickering and petty couple zeus and hera into the thundering and all-powerful roman god jupiter and the angry juno. ovid, in his fifteen-volume metamorphoses, supplies a 228 world religions: almanac greco-roman religion and philosophy history of the world, from

ks (xvii through xxiv, odysseus passes a test penelope sets up to choose one of her suitors. odysseus kills the suitors with the help of his son and resumes his place as penelope s husband and king of ithaca. did you know. while the iliad and the odyssey are the earliest works of literature that portray the greek gods and goddesses, other works give further detail. most important are two works by hesiod, a poet who lived at almost the same time (c. 800 bce) as homer: theogony and works and days. in these books, hesiod provides accounts of the origins of the universe, the succession of gods and goddesses, the ages of the world, and the sources of human misfortune. readers of (or listeners to) the odyssey who knew the iliad, the earlier epic, would have already been familiar with athena and

STEINER RUDOLF CHRISTIANITY AS MYSTICAL FACT

illness that makes health sweet and good; hunger that makes food satisfying; toil that brings rest.27 the sea is the purest and impurest water. for fish it is drinkable and salutary, but for men it is undrinkable and harmful.28 the primary thrust of heraclitus thought here is not the perishability of earthly things, but rather the splendor and sublimity of the eternal. heraclitus denounces homer, hesiod, and the learned men of his time. his aim was to demonstrate the dependence of their thought on transitory things. he wanted nothing to do with gods whose qualities derived from the perishable world; nor could he exalt a form of knowledge that sought for laws in the flux of becoming and passing away. for him, there is something eternal that announces itself from the midst of the perishable

ths, religious symbols, festival calendars, and so on, by which life was shaped and given meaning. but the ordinary people received only the results they did not know the source directly. that was reserved for special leaders: initiate-heroes, priests, prophets, or similar persons. steiner points to the division in ancient greece between the popular or public religion based on the epics of homer, hesiod, and learned men who expounded them (below, p. 50, and the mysteries (whose name derives from the term for initiation, which led back directly to the sources of inspiration. steiner spoke of new forms of mysteryteaching for our own age and the future. nowadays, however, the mysteries cannot have the same exclusive character they had in ancient times, but must keep pace with the evolution of

THE KEY TO THE MYSTERIES

al. they were fluidic coagulations which one could destroy by dividing them. there were a sort of animated mirages, imperfect emanations of human life. the traditions of black magic say that they were born owing to the celibacy of adam. paracelsus says that the vapours of the blood of hysterical women people the air with phantoms; and these ideas are so ancient, that 226 we find traces of them in hesiod, who expressly forbids that linen, stained by a pollution of any sort, should be dried before a fire. persons who are obsessed by phantoms are usually exalted by too rigorous celibacy, or weakened by excesses. fluidic phantoms are the abortions of the vital light; they are plastic media without body and without spirit, born from the excesses of the spirit and the disorders of the body. thes

THE MIDDLE PILLAR

ivine name of geburah is elohim gibor or "god of battles" according to iamblichus, a neoplatonic philosopher-magician of the fourth century c.e "the pentad is highly expressive of justice, and justice comprehends all the other virtues."l3 in his book numbers, their occult power and mystic virtues, w. wynn westcott states that the pentad is called "the unconquered" westcott also states: proclus on hesiod gives two reasons for its semblance to justice "because it punishes wrong, and takes away inequality of possession, and also equalizes what is less, to benefit "14 thus the number five provides us with the ideas of fear, strength, severity power, and justice. the awesome energy of geburah can strike fear into the minds of negative powers and those who do not understand its harsh, purifying

TURNER ROBERT ARBETEL OF MAGICK

essions, or by the constellation of a nativity by celestial knowledge. after this manner are made heroick men, such as there are very many, and all learned men in the world, plato, aristotle, hippocrates, galen, euclides, archimedes, hermes trismegistus the father secrets, with theophrastus, paracelsus; all which men had in themselves all the vertues of secrets. hitherto also are referred, homer, hesiod, orpheus, pytagoras; but these had not such gifts of secrets as the former. to this are referred, the nymphes, and sons of melusina, and gods of the gentiles, achilles, neas, hercules: also, cyrus, alexander the great, julius c sar, lucullus, sylla. marius. it is a canon, that every one know his own angel. and that he obey him according to the word of god; and let him beware of the snares o

tory of arbogastus, is an example of the good; brute before he was slain, was an example of the evil spirits, when he was persecuted of the spirit of c sar, and exposed to punishment, that he slew himself, who had slain his own father, and the father of his country. aphorism 48. all magick is a revelation of spirits of that kinde, of which sort the magick is; so that the nine muses are called, in hesiod, the ninth magick, as he manifestly testifies of himself in theogony. in homer, the genius of ulysses in psigiogagia. hermes, the spirits of the more sublime parts of the minde. god revealed himself to moses in the bush. the three wise men who came to seek christ at jerusalem, the angel of the lord was their leader. the angels of the lord directed daniel. therefore there is nothing whereof

TWO ESSAYS ON THE WORSHIP OF PRIAPUS

t information, on account of the secrecy under which this part of their religion was guarded. plutarch tells us, that the egyptians represented osiris with the organ of generation erect, to show his generative and prolific power: he also tells us, that osiris was the same deity as the bacchus of the greek mythology; who was also the same as the first begotten love (erwj prwtogonoj) of orpheus and hesiod.2 this deity is celebrated by the ancient poets as the creator of all things, the father of gods and men;3 and it appears, by the passage above referred to, that the organ of generation was the symbol of his great characteristic attribute. this is perfectly consistent with the general practice of the greek artists, who (as will be made appear hereafter) uniformly represented the attributes

, the earth, and the gods. this system is alluded to by the epithet wogenoj, applied to the creator in one of the orphic litanies:5 but this could never have been a part of the orthodox faith; for the creator is usually represented as breaking the egg of chaos, and therefore could not have sprung from it. in the confused medleys of allegories and traditions contained in the theogony attributed to hesiod, love is placed after chaos and the earth, but anterior to every thing else. these differences are not to be wondered at; for aristophanes, supposing that he understood the true system, could not with safety have revealed it, or even mentioned it any otherwise than under the usual garb of fiction and 1 bach. v. 358. 2 w bromie, pedwn cqonoj enosi potnia. vers. 504. 3 metam. lib. iv, v. 18

utelar goddess.5 the reason why these rites were always performed by night was the peculiar sanctity attributed to it by the ancients, because dreams were then supposed to descend from heaven to instruct and 1 strab. lib. viii. 2 sat. ix, ver. 24. 4 see plate ix, fig. 8, from one belonging to me. 5 philodemi epigri. brunk. analect. vol. ii, p. 85. 106 on the worship forewarn men. the nights, says hesiod, belong to the blessed gods;1 and the orphic poet calls night the source of all things (pantwn genesij) to denote that productive power, which, as i have been told, it really possesses; it being observed that plants and animals grow more by night than by day. the ancients extended this power much further, and supposed that not only the productions of the earth, but the luminaries of heaven

aintained with impunity, provided it was maintained merely as a speculative opinion, and not employed as an engine of faction, ambition, or oppression. the romans even carried their condescension so far as to enforce the observance of a dogmatical religion, where they found it before established; as appears from the conduct of their magistrates in judea, relative to christ and his apostles; and 1 hesiod. erga kai 'hmer, ver. 252. murioi &c, are always used as indefinites by the ancient greek poets. 2 see homer, odyss. e, ver. 445& seq. the greeks seem to have adopted by degrees into their own ritual all the rites practised in the neighbouring countries. of priapus 111 from what josephus has related, of a roman soldier s being punished with death by his commander for insulting the books of

WALLIS BUDGE E A LEGENDS OF THE EGYPTIAN GODS

substance, is looked upon by them as pure and clean; such, however, are all kinds of wool and down, our hair and our nails. it would be the highest absurdity, therefore, for those who, whilst; they are in a course of purification, are at so much pains to take off the hair from every part of their own bodies, at the same time to clothe themselves with that of other animals. so when we are told by hesiod "not to pare our nails whilst we are present at the festivals of the gods"[fn#268] we ought to understand that he intended hereby to inculcate that purity wherewith we ought to come prepared before we enter upon any religious duty, that we have not to make ourselves clean whilst we ought to be occupied in attending to the solemnity itself. now, with regard to flax, this springs out of the i

c in the papyrus of nes-menu in the british museum orders the priestesses of isis and nephthys to have "the hair of their bodies shaved off (no. 10,188, col. 1, but they are also ordered to wear fillets of rams' wool on their heads [fn#267] probably the ram of amen. animal sacrifices were invariably bulls and cows [fn#268] this saying is by pythagoras- greek para dusian mh`onuxizou. the saying of hesiod (works and days, 740) is rendered by goodwin "not at a feast of gods from five-branched tree, with sharp-edged steel to part the green from dry" v. now, the priests are so scrupulous in endeavouring to avoid everything which may tend to the increase of the above-mentioned excrementitious substances, that, on this account, they abstain not only from most sorts of pulse, and from the flesh of

and good men "god-like" and "god's compeers" but the word daemon is applied to the good and bad indifferently (see odyssey, vi. 12; iliad, xiii. 810, v. 438, iv. 31 &c. plato assigns to the olympian gods good things and the odd numbers, and the opposite to the daemons. xenocrates believed in the existence of a series of strong and powerful beings which take pleasure in scourgings and fastings &c. hesiod speaks of "holy daemons (works and days, 126) and "guardians of mankind" and "bestowers of wealth" and these are regarded by plato as a "middle order of beings between the gods and men, interpreters of the wills of the gods to men, and ministering to their wants, carrying the prayers and supplications of mortals to heaven, and bringing down thence in return oracles and all other blessings o

WILLIAM WESCOTT NUMBERS THEIR OCCULT POWER AND MYSTIC VIRTUES

machus of gerasa; treatises on arithmetic and harmony. 9. 300 a.d. porphry of tyre, a great philosopher, sometimes named in syriac, melekh or king, was the pupil of longinus and plotinus. 10. 340 a.d. jamblicus wrote de mysteriis, de vita pythagorica, the arithmetic of nicomachus of gerasa, and the theological properties of numbers. 11. 450 a.d. proclus, in his commentary on the works and days of hesiod, gives information concerning the pythagorean views of numbers. 12. 560 a.d. simplicius of cilicia, a contemporary of justinian. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott 13. 850 a.d. photius of constantinople has left a bibliotheca of the ideas of the older philosophers. coming down to more recent times, the following authors should be consulted: meursius

shnavas are much the most numerous. the living were of old called the 3 times blessed (the dead 4 times blessed. there were three cities of refuge on the east side of the jordan. bezer, ramoth gilead and gozan; and three on the west. hebron, shechem and kedesh naphtali. three fates. clotho, lachesis, atropos. three furies: tisiphone, alecto, megaera. three graces: euphrosyne, aglaia, thalia, says hesiod. three judges: of hades: minos, aeacus, rhadamanthus. three horae: hesiod says they were eunomia (order, dike (justice, eirene (peace. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott jupiter s thunder is triformis. hecate is always called triple. neptune s spear is trident and so has siva the trisula. pluto s dog cerberus had 3 heads. there were three founders of

book of aristotle s metaphysics. numbers--th eir occu lt power an d mys tic vir tu es by w. wyn n wes tcott also the smallest extremity of vitality, because there are three powers of life, vegetable, psychical and rational and as the rational is arranged according to the hebdomadal, and the psychical according to the hexad, so the vegetative power falls under the control of the pentad. proclus on hesiod gives two reasons for its semblance to justice, because it punishes wrong, and takes away inequality of possession and also equalizes what is less, to benefit. also named nemesis, for it arranges in an appropriate manner all things celestial, divine and natural. 60. and venus, because the male 3 triad and the female 2 or dual, odd and even are conjoined in it. venus was sometimes considered

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