H Crosthwaite Sacred Practices, Mythology And Electricity Pdf

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a legion named after the lark. The crested wren was called
turannos, king. In line 291 ff., we hear that the birds are crested
as though for the hoplitodromos, the soldier's footrace, in which
each soldier wore a crested helmet and carried a shield.
The cock, alektruon, was the most important domestic bird. The
Persian king wore a peaked hat, kurbasia. The king alone wore
it upright like a cock's comb. It is portrayed in a mosaic of the
battle of Issus.
The cock, alektryon, is not the only bird whose name contains
the syllable al or el. We have met the lark alauda. If its voice,
Greek aude, is here associated with el, so that its name is El's
voice, we can see why a Roman legion should have the name.
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Alkuon, Latin alcedo, is the kingfisher. Alkedonia are the
fourteen days when kingfishers brood and the sea is calm. The
Greek kuo means contain.
The woodpecker is in Latin picus, in Greek druops. As drus is a
tree, especially an oak tree, it seems possible that the name
means the voice from the tree. Another kind of woodpecker
mentioned in The Birds is the drukolaptes. Qol is the Hebrew
for voice. The woodpecker was important in augury for its note
and appearance. It was sacred to Mars. Perhaps its rapid fire
tapping suggested a hail of missiles.
The eagle, aetos, was the bird of Zeus. It was often shown on a
sceptre [9]. The falcon, hierax, is obviously sacred with such a
name (hieros, sacred). In Egypt Horus was the falcon god.
The owl, glaux, was sacred to Athene, who is called Glaukopis,
with owl-like appearance. Some owls are called horned owls,
but in the case of Athene the staring eye is likely to be the
reason for the epithet. Sufferers from jaundice were advised to
look at the stonecurlew. This bird has large golden eyes.
Plutarch writes: "The bird draws out the malady, which issues,
like a stream, through the eyesight."
The wryneck, iunx, was used by witches for spells. This bird's
magical importance may owe something to the fact that it
makes a hissing sound, suggestive of a snake.
A bronze eagle and a bronze dolphin were set up at Olympia
where the chariot races were held. The eagle was raised, and the
dolphin lowered, as a signal for the start of a race.
Three more words of interest from The Birds may be quoted.
Line 275: Exedros is a term used in augury. It means
inauspicious, literally 'out of one's seat'.
Line 521: The soothsayer is called 'tampon', shining.
Line 364: Eleleleu is a Greek war-cry.
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Among the Central American birds known as quetzals, the
'resplendent trogon' is well known for its long tail feathers,
causing it to be worshipped by the Toltecs. The god
Quetzalcoatl, whose name means 'tail-feathers' and 'snake', is
associated with the morning star, the planet Venus. The
resplendent trogon not only had significance because of the tail,
but also resembles the hoopoe in having a crest.
The Greek adjective epitumbidios, crested, is applied to crested
larks, from the resemblance of the crest to a mound. Tumbos,
mound or tomb, is the mound over the ashes of a dead person,
surmounted by a stele, tombstone. The divine fire in the head is
discussed in the chapter dealing with the Timaeus of Plato.
The Latin phrase 'jubar stella' means Phosphorus and Hesperus,
i.e. the planet Venus. The Latin jubar is the radiance of a
heavenly body. Ar is divine fire. Juba is the flowing mane or
hair of an animal, the crest of a serpent, the crest of a helmet,
the foliage of trees, and the tail of a comet.
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Notes (Chapter Five: Deities of Delphi)
1. Homer: 'Iliad' XXI:511
2. Aeschylus: 'Agamemnon' 1085
3. Homer: 'Iliad' XX:131
4. Cicero: 'De Divinatione' I:24
5. Vergil: 'Aeneid' IV:160 ff.
6. Euripides: 'Orestes' 480
7. Hesiod: 'Theogony' 120
8. Pindar: Olympian IX:219
9. Herodotus: I;195
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CHAPTER SIX
SKY LINKS
ACCORDING to Heraclitus, "Thunderbolt steers the Universe.''
We have seen evidence that this was the general view in the
ancient world of Greece and Rome. Having begun this study
with chthonic forces, we need now to pay more attention to the
sky, which was vitally important in ancient thought as the place
where action was taken to create cosmos, order, out of chaos.
The main features of the Greek myths dealing with cosmogony
are: marriage of earth and sky; production of a succession of
monsters and giants; a succession of gods; theomachy (battles
of gods with gods and with giants and monsters); allocation of
spheres of influence; interference with the earth by
extraterrestrial bodies and forces.
The overall picture has much in common with myths from all
over the world. It is important to note that these myths appear at
first as history; only later were they interpreted by Greeks and
then by modern scholars as anthropomorphic descriptions of
natural phenomena, or projections of human psychic activities.
The followers of Orpheus taught that the start of the order of
the world as they knew it was Aither, upper air, and Chaos,
yawning gulf. Night and the wind produced an egg, and from
the egg emerged a shining creature, Eros, whose name means
love. (Night was the first to prophesy at Delphi as we shall see
later). Eros was the same as Phanes, the revealer. Phanes
created the first gods. The Greek word theos, god, is probably
derived from the word thein, to run. The alternative derivation
is from tithemi, put, set in order.
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An alternative version, leaving out the egg, is given by Hesiod,
a Greek poet active in probably the 8th century B.C.. The gods
were created by the mating of Ouranos and Gaia, or Ge, the
earth.
The first god is Ouranos. The usual translation 'sky' or 'heaven'
can be misleading. Even as late as the time of the pre-Socratic
philosophers (c. 500 B.C.), we have a reference to numerous
ouranoi or heavens. We should bear in mind the earlier Greek
version which tells us that Ouranos was a god in the sky.
Ouranos and Gaia had numerous offspring, e.g. the Titans, six
sons and six daughters, whose name implies straining and
reaching. Their names were: Okeanos, Koios, Kreios,
Hyperion, Iapetos, Kronos, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne,
Phoebe and Tethys. Of these, Kronos and Iapetos were the most
important; at any rate, they are mentioned together by Homer
[1]. At first they all lived in the sky, later they were ejected
from heaven.
Gaia and Ouranos produced the Cyclopes, huge one-eyed
creatures, and the hundred-handed monsters.
Ouranos had imprisoned his children in Tartarus, the world far
below the earth, and their mother Gaia instigated a revolt.
Ouranos was displaced by his son Kronos, who castrated his
father and ruled in his place. The Romans knew him as
Saturnus. Kronos heard that he would be displaced by one of
his sons, so he decided to devour them at birth. His wife, Rhea,
prevented him from swallowing his son Zeus by giving him a
stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, and sent the infant to Crete
to be brought up in a cave in a mountain. Kronos (according to
Diodorus, Zeus) fought with and defeated a monstrous snake
called Ophioneus. After his victory he wore a crown.
Zeus banished his father and became ruler of Olympus. He
himself had to defeat three revolts. The first was by the Titans. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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