Manilius Astronomica Book 2 (awend. G. P. Goold):
non licet a minimis animum deflectere curis, 234
nec quicquam rationis eget frustrave creatum.
You must not divert your attention from the smallest detail:
nothing exists without reason or has been uselessly created.
And:
Quin tria signa novem signis coniuncta repugnant
et quasi seditio caelum tenet. Aspice Taurum
clunibus et Geminos pedibus, testudine Cancrum
surgere, cum rectis oriantur cetera membris; 200
ne mirere moras, cum sol aversa per astra
aestivum tardis attollat mensibus annum.
Further, three adjacent signs are at variance with the other nine
and a kind of dissension takes hold of heaven. Observe that the Bull
rises by his hind quarters, the Twins by their feet, the Crab by his shell,
whereas all the others rise in upright posture;
so wonder not at the delay when in tardy months the Sun
carries summertide aloft through signs which rise hind-first.
[Lvs. 98 & 99 of Loeb Classical Library edition (LCL469) 1997].
Now this rising upside down of the Twins by their feet is another “gift of the gods” toward our understanding here as it allows us to make some amazing links that brightly light up for us what would otherwise be so dark and dim.
In the near and middle east among the Jews and Arabs we find a tale told of two angels called something like Harut and Marut among the Muslims, and Uzza or Azza and Azzael among the Jews, though we also find one of these names swapped for Shemhazai (Raymundus Martini in his Pugio Fidei (first printed 1651) calls them "Schamchusai & Azael"). Harut and Marut are names mistakenly borrowed from the Parsees and the Jewish names only hide their true identity but the rhyme and alliteration are clues. For these are the "Heavenly Twins"! Now both the Muslims and Jews understand them as fallen angels, or angels who fell, as noneother than the "sons of God" of Genesis 6 (where many fallen angels are wanted these two become their leaders) but the cause of their fall was said to be their lust for women.
“1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants (“nephilim”) in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
If by fall you understand death, and death of the mortal twin, the same might well be said of Castor and Pollux whose untimely apotheosis was brought about by their making off with the daughters of Leukippos. Both the Jews and Muslims have them as the teachers of forbidden arts to men. The Muslims lean toward understanding this narrowly as idol-worship and magic, but the Jews many other unnatural things besides these such as writing. All this, needless to say, looks to Mercurius. The clincher however is the end. To some Azza and Azzael to are chained up until Doomsday in "mountains of darkness" which might look to Prometheus. But others still say they are hung up until Doomsday between heaven and earth. Azzael the penitent fallen angel is allowed to hang the right way up, but Azza the impenitent is hanging upside down (Pugio Fidei (1651) tertia pars, dist. iii, cap. xxii. sectio xxvi, lf. 729: "... dixeruntque de Schemchusai quod reversus est per poenitentiam & suspendit seipsum inter caelum & teram, caput suum deorsam, & pedes suos sursum, quia non erat ei apertio oris coram Deo sancto benedicto: & adhuc hodie suspensus est per poenitentiam inter caelum & terram. Sed Azael non reversus est ..." ). Withmete these to the good and bad, or impenitent and penitent, thieves that hang next to Jesus at his crucifixion. A further markworthy thing about Azza:
"Azza has one eye open and one eye shut. ... his one eye remains open that he may perceive his plight and suffer the more." [B. J. Bamberger Fallen Angels (1952) in endnote 10 to chap. 24 on lf.285 and, if I understand Bamberger aright, seemingly found in a work called Kanfe Yonah "Wings of a Dove" Azariah da Fano (1548-1620)].
These two fallen, or should we say falling, angels may be seen carved at the often marked Rosslyn Chapel, either side of a pillar, although it is only the fallen one that seems to be photogenic.
Robert Graves and Raphael Patai in their Hebrew Myths (1963) mark all this tale, but bring in the seeming "half red-herring" by saying Azza is meant to be the star-sign of Orion. For Azza and Azzael, a pair, are obviously meant to be the neighbouring star-sign of Gemini. This is more or less proved from the belief of Muslims about the end of Harut and Marut, for they say they are both hanging upside down in a well at Babel, and there are pictures for the curious. This from a 18th century C.E. Ottoman handwrit of a work of Zakariya al-Qazwini (1208-1283):
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| handwrit W.659 of a work of Zakariya al-Qazwini - now in Walters Art Museum: Baltimore, Maryland. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18854362 |
Other offspring would seem to be the Anakim or "sons of Anak". Numbers 13:33:
“And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
“giants” here is “nephilim” in the Hebrew. From Joshua 15:14 we know that Caleb (and his brother Kenaz?) drove out:
“ the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.”
Sheshai “whiteish”, Ahiman “brother-gift” and Talmai “furrow”. And are these not in truth only our Heavenly Twins again?
These Anakims were the “Anakims from the mountains” (Josh. 11:21) whose cities it seems above all others were Hebron, Debir and Anab (Josh 11:21), and notwithstanding their being driven out, they abided in “Gaza… Gath, and .. Ashdod” (Josh. 11:22), to be among the “Philistines” that David fought (see 2 Samuel 21:15-22) among whom was the well-known "giant" Goliath.
Interesting you might say but not to our theme you might think.
Joshua 21:11 “the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah” was given to the Levites out of the inheritance of Caleb (see Josh. 14:14) who then kept only “the fields of the city, and the villages thereof” (Josh. 21:12). Arba we meet in Joshua 14:15
“And the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims.”
Arba however means "four" in Hebrew.
Hebron is however, where Abraham is meant to have lived by the “oak of Mamre” which wording our King James Bibles badly misawends as “plain(s) of Mamre” “but the Greek is sheer thus Genesis 13:18 “παρὰ τὴν δρῦν τὴν Μαμβρη ἣ ἦν ἐν Χεβρων” “by the oak (δρῦν acc. Sing.) of Mamre that is in Hebron”. And Gen. 18:1 “πρὸς τῇ δρυὶ τῇ Μαμβρη” “before the oak ( δρυὶ – dat. Sing.) of Mambre”.
Sozomen (Historia Ecclesiastica Book II 4-54) :
“The place is presently called the Terebinth, and is situated at the distance of fifteen stadia from Hebron, . . There every year a very famous festival is held in the summer time, by people of the neighbourhood as well as by the inhabitants of more distant parts of Palestine and by Phoenicians and Arabians. Very many go there for the sake of business, some to sell and some to buy. The feast is celebrated by a very big congregation of Jews, since they boast of Abraham as their forefather, of heathens since angels came there, of Christians since he who should be born from the Virgin for the salvation of humankind appeared there to that pious man. Everyone venerates this place according to his religion: some praying God the ruler of all, some calling upon the angels and offering libations of wine, burning incense or sacrificing an ox, a goat, a sheep or a cock... Constantine's mother in law (Euthropia), having gone there to fulfill a vow, gave notice of all this to the Emperor. So he wrote to the bishops of Palestine reproaching them for having forgot their mission and permitted such a most holy place to be defiled by those libations and sacrifices.”
Arculf, a Frankish bishop about 680, writes:
“A mile to the north of the Tombs that have been described above, is the very grassy and flowery hill of Mambre, looking towards Hebron, which lies to the south of it. This little mountain, which is called Mambre, has a level summit, at the north side of which a great stone church has been built, in the right side of which between the two walls of this great Basilica, the Oak of Mambre, wonderful to relate, stands rooted in the earth; it is also called the oak of Abraham, because under it he once hospitably received the Angels. St. Hieronymus elsewhere relates, that this tree had existed from the beginning of the world to the reign of the Emperor Constantine; but he did not say that it had utterly perished, perhaps because at that time, although the whole of that vast tree was not to be seen as it had been formerly, yet a spurious trunk still remained rooted in the ground, protected under the roof of the church, of the height of two men; from this wasted spurious trunk, which has been cut on all sides by axes, small chips are carried to the different provinces of the world, on account of the veneration and memory of that oak, under which, as has been mentioned above, that famous and notable visit of the Angels was granted to the patriarch Abraham.”
As written in a footnote from an 1895 publication of Arculf's pilgrimage report:
"[t]he Oak or Terebinth of Abraham has been shown in two different sites. Arculf and many others (Jerome, Itin[erarium] Hierosol[ymitanum], Sozomen, Eucherius [possibly Eucherius of Lyon], Benjamin of Tudela, the Abbot Daniel,.... etc.) seem to point to the ruin of er Râmeh, near which is Beit el Khulil, or House of the Friend (of God)=Abraham, with a fine spring well. This is still held by the Jews to be the Oak of Mamre. The Christians point to another site, Ballûtet Sebta, where is a fine specimen of Sindian (Quercus Pseudococcifera)."
Ballut is the Arabic word for oak.
The Dioscuri were much bound up with oak trees. Pindar has them sitting in one. Thus in his Tenth Nemean Ode (awend. Diane Arnson Svarlien):
μεταμειβόμενοι δ᾽ ἐναλλὰξ ἁμέραν τὰν μὲν παρὰ πατρὶ φίλῳ
Δὶ νέμονται, τὰν δ᾽ ὑπὸ κεύθεσι γαίας ἐν γυάλοις Θεράπνας,
πότμον ἀμπιπλάντες ὁμοῖον: ἐπεὶ
τοῦτον, ἢ πάμπαν θεὸς ἔμμεναι οἰκεῖν τ᾽ οὐρανῷ,
[110] εἵλετ᾽ αἰῶνα φθιμένου Πολυδεύκης Κάστορος ἐν πολέμῳ.
τὸν γὰρ Ἴδας ἀμφὶ βουσίν πως χολωθεὶς ἔτρωσεν χαλκέας λόγχας ἀκμᾷ.
ἀπὸ Ταϋγέτου πεδαυγάζων ἴδεν Λυγκεὺς δρυὸς ἐν στελέχει
ἡμένους. κείνου γὰρ ἐπιχθονίων πάντων γένετ᾽ ὀξύτατον
ὄμμα.
Changing places in alternation, the Dioscuri spend
one day beside their dear father Zeus,
and the other beneath the depths of the earth in the hollows of Therapne,
each fulfilling an equal destiny,
since Polydeuces preferred this life
to being wholly a god and living in heaven, when Castor was killed in battle.
For Idas, angered for some reason about his cattle, stabbed him with the point of his bronze spear. Looking out from Taÿgetus, Lynceus saw them seated in the hollow of an oak (δρυὸς );
for that man had the sharpest eye of all who live on earth.
Other trees might well be thought of as well. Thus in the aftermath of the fight at the “Boar’s Grave” as Aristomenes was following the fleeing Spartans we read in Pausanias' Guide ... 4.16.5
ἔνθα δὴ καὶ παρ᾽ ἀχράδα πεφυκυῖάν που τοῦ πεδίου, παρὰ ταύτην Ἀριστομένην οὐκ εἴα παραθεῖν ὁ μάντις Θέοκλος: καθέζεσθαι γὰρ τοὺς Διοσκούρους ἔφασκεν ἐπὶ τῇ ἀχράδι. Ἀριστομένης δὲ εἴκων τῷ θυμῷ καὶ οὐκ ἀκροώμενος τὰ πάντα τοῦ μάντεως ὡς κατὰ τὴν ἀχράδα ἐγίνετο, ἀπόλλυσι τὴν ἀσπίδα, Λακεδαιμονίοις τε τὸ ἁμάρτημα τοῦ Ἀριστομένους παρέσχεν αὐτῶν ἀποσωθῆναί τινας ἐκ τῆς φυγῆς: διέτριψε γὰρ τὴν ἀσπίδα ἀνευρεῖν πειρώμενος.
There was a wild pear-tree growing in the plain, beyond which Theoclus the seer forbade him to pass, for he said that the Dioscuri were seated on the tree. Aristomenes, in the heat of passion, did not hear all that the seer said, and when he reached the tree, lost his shield, and his disobedience gave to the Lacedaemonians an opportunity for some to escape from the rout. For he lost time trying to recover his shield.
We thus come to the well known Tarot trump of "The Hanged Man". He is thus to be understood as an half of Gemini. The picture below is from the so-called "Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards" as they have the badges of those kindreds upon them. It is thought to be the work of Bonifacio Bembo and his family, and were made for Bianca Maria Visconti (1425–1468), and her husband, the condottiero Francesco Sforza (1401–1466). In Italy this card was called Il Traditore, The Bewrayer or Traitor, but the Latin that this is from, namely Traditor, can mean "teacher" as well as "traitor", as it is from the verb tradere which means literally "to hand over". The word tradition comes from the same roots.
Those that say this is Saint Peter "hung" or crucified upside down outside Rome on the Janiculum Hill (hallowed to twofold Janus) are not saying anything that goes against this as Peter is himself in the stead of one of the old Heavenly Twins which lives on in all those pairings of Peter and Paul. And we should call to mind here that it was to Peter that Jesus gave "the keys to the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 16:19) as a heavenly door-ward. And does not the gallows in the above Tarot trump look the same as a door-frame?
And this brings us to the sign for Gemini which from the time of Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia has been understood as showing the Twins standing side by side, one arm resting on the other's shoulders. It matches the layout of the stars of the sign called Gemini in the sky if you link up the dots. But what if shows is a door frame? And it became a sign of the Heavenly Twins only from them being the wards of this seeming doorway in heaven?
Whilst the Dioscuri of Sparta, Castor and Polydeuces, were mostly said to be shown forth in the star sign of Gemini by the Greeks, this nevertheless looks to the twin gods of Babylonia, namely Lugalgirra and Meslamtaea/Maslamtaea with whom these stars were linked (see the so-called "Astrolabe B" tablet). Lugalgirra and Meslamtaea/Maslamtaea were however first and foremostly "guard-gods" (W. G. Lambert "Lugalirra and Meslamtaea" in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 7, (1987-1990) lf.145) and whose likenesses were put either side of earthly door-ways to ward them (see F. A. M. Wiggerman Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts (1992) lf. 59). They would seem to be shown as fighting men and holding axes. Being shown as fighting men of itself might have lent itself to the Greeks thinking they were their Castor and Polydeuces. Yet although Castor and Polyduces are not now understood as doorwards it would seem this is a lost thing that once belonged to their worship. For what else is the the so-called dokana (δόκανα), which is their token in Sparta, other than a kind of doorway, be it marked, they are sometimes shown as two snakes (see below from the 5th. Century B.C.E. ).
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| Above: the Spartan "dokana" . A token of the Dioscuri with twin snakes from a 5th. Century B.C.E. frieze from Sparta. |
If the dokana minneth some readers here of the torii of Japan this is little wonder for the torii, as the Chinese paifang, stem from the तोरण toraṇa of India. The English evenling is indeed our old churchyard lychgates.
Above: Lych Gate at Hollingbourne in Kent, looking NNE towards the downs by Penny Mayes. [here]
Above: Lych Gate at Hollingbourne in Kent, looking NNE towards the downs by Penny Mayes. [here]
Now we have already marked in the last blog post how the Greeks' Heavenly Twins and the Cabiri (Κάβειροι) of Samothrace were linked by Sanchoniathon/Philo of Biblus to gods worshipped in Phœnicia:
“ ἐκάλεσανἐκ δὲ Συδὺκ Διόσκουροι ἢ Κάβειροι ἢ Κορύβαντες ἢ Σαμοθρᾷκες. οὗτοι φησί πρῶτοι πλοῖον εὗρον. ἐκ τούτων γεγόνασιν ἕτεροι, οἳ καὶ βοτάνας εὗρον καὶ τὴν τῶν δακετῶν ἴασιν καὶ ἐπῳδάς.”
“'From Suduc came the Dioscuri, or Cabeiri, or Corybantes, or Samothraces: these, he says, first invented a ship. From them have sprung others, who discovered herbs, and the healing of venomous bites, and charms. …” [awend. Giffard, in Euseb. Prep. bk. 1 ch. 10§14]
And a brother or half brother of these was the god Eshmun (Ἔσμουνος) worshipped at Berytus where he was linked to the Greeks' Asclepius (Ἀσκληπιός) - Æsculapius to the Romans.
“Συδύκῳ δέ, τῷ λεγομένῳ δικαίῳ, μία τῶν Τιτανίδων συνελθοῦσα γεννᾷ τὸν Ἀσκληπιόν.”And we can fill this out a bit more from Damascius’ Life of Isidore as found in Photius’ Myrobiblon 302 (Bibliotheca Codex 242):
“ … And one of the Titanides [daughters of Kronus and Astarte] united to Suduc, who is named the Just, gives birth to Asclepius. … ” [1.10.26]
“Ὅτι ὁ ἐν Βηρυτῷ, φησίν, Ἀσκληπιὸς οὐκ ἔστιν Ἕλλην οὐδὲ Αἰγύπτιος, ἀλλά τις ἐπιχώριος Φοῖνιξ. Σαδύκῳ γὰρ ἐγένοντο παῖδες, οὓς Διοσκούρους ἑρμηνεύουσι καὶ Καβείρους. Ὄγδοος δὲ ἐγένετο ἐπὶ τούτοις ὁ Ἔσμουνος, ὃν Ἀσκληπιὸν ἑρμηνεύουσιν. Οὗτος κάλλιστος ὢν θέαν καὶ νεανίας ἰδεῖν ἀξιάγαστος, ἐρώμενος γέγονεν, ὥς φησιν ὁ μῦθος, Ἀστρονόης θεοῦ Φοινίσσης, μητρὸς θεῶν. Εἰωθώς τε κυνηγετεῖν ἐν ταῖσδε ταῖς νάπαις, ἐπειδὴ ἐθεάσατο τὴν θεὸν αὐτὸν ἐκκυνηγετοῦσαν καὶ φεύγοντα ἐπιδιώκουσαν καὶ ἤδη καταληψομένην, ἀποτέμνει πελέκει τὴν αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ παιδοσπόρον φύσιν. Ἡ δὲ τῷ πάθει περιαλγήσασα, καὶ Παιᾶνα καλέσασα τὸν νεανίσκον, τῇ τε ζωογόνῳ θέρμῃ ἀναζωπυρήσασα θεὸν ἐποίησεν, Ἔσμουνον ὑπὸ Φοινίκων ὠνομασμένον ἐπὶ τῇ θέρμῃ τῆς ζωῆς. Οἱ δὲ τὸν Ἔσμουνον ὄγδοον ἀξιοῦσιν ἑρμηνεύειν ὅτι ὄγδοος ἦν τῷ Σαδύκῳ παῖς. [http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/erudits/photius/damascius3.htm]
“Asclepius of Berytus, he says, is neither a Greek nor an Egyptian but a native Phoenician. For to Sadykos sons were born, who are explained as Dioscouri and Kabeiri. Then as the eighth child, Esmounos was born [to him]; and Esmounos is interpreted as Asclepius. He was of very good appearance, a young man of admirable looks, and therefore became, according to the myth, the darling of Astronoe, a Phoenician goddess, the mother of the gods. He used to go hunting in these valleys. It then once happened that he discovered the goddess pursuing him. He fled, but when he saw that she continued to chase him and was just about to seize him, he cut off his own genitals with an axe. Greatly distressed at what had happened, she called Paian [=Apollo] and rekindled [the life of] the young man by means of life-bringing heat and made him a god. The Phoenicians call him Esmounos because of the warmth of life. Others, again, interpret Esmounos as “the eighth”, explaining that he was the eighth child of Sadykos.”
This is clearly the same myth that is told of Adonis, otherwise called Tammuz, elsewhere in Syria, but with a less happier ending. In the Epic of Gilgamesh (tablet vi) Gilgamesh says of the goddess Ishtar about Tammuz:
"You loved the herdsman, shepherd and chief shepherd
Who was always heaping up the glowing ashes for you,
And cooked ewe-lambs for you every day.
But you hit him and turned him into a wolf,
His own herd-boys hunt him down
And his dogs tear at his haunches.''
It is also the tale of Attis and Cybele to be found in Asia Minor. And it is also the tale the Greeks told of Actæon (Ἀκταίων), and this is markworthy as Actæon's mother Autonoe (Αὐτονόη - mark the nearness to Astronoe, and see Arsinoe the mother of Asclepius and the sister of the αἱ Λευκιππίδες (the Leukippides) Hilæira and Phœbe ) was the sister of Semele the mother of Dionysus. Through the tale of the Ugaritic hero Aqht, torn apart by eagles incited by the goddess Anath who wanted his hunting bow. And there is everything to lead us to believe that the tearing asunder or σπαραγμός of Actaeon matches the σπαραγμός of Dionysus himself and that the two myths were one and the same to begin with. Plutarch writes:
... τὸν δ᾿ Ἄδωνιν οὐχ ἕτερον ἀλλὰ Διόνυσον εἶναι νομίζουσιν, καὶ πολλὰ τῶν τελουμένων ἑκατέρῳ περὶ τὰς ἑορτὰς βεβαιοῖ τὸν λόγον·
People hold Adonis to be none other than Dionysus, a belief supported by many of the rites at the festivals of both; ...
[Plutarch. Moralia, Volume VIII: Table-Talk, Books 1-6. Awending by P. A. Clement, H. B. Hoffleit. Loeb Classical Library 424. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.table talk 4, quest.5 671b lvs. 358 to 359]
So he is the third brother or half brother of the Cabiri who is the ἀρχανθρωπος, the first man who betokens us all, both the male and female, and who first falls (or is pushed) into matter wherein he is, as it were, torn asunder. And it is for the Heavenly Twins, his brothers of half-brothers, to heal him, and, as it were, put him back together again. Understanding Dionysus, otherwise called Bacchus, under his Roman name of Liber Pater, Macrobius writeth in his Commentarius ex Cicerone in Somnium Scipionis Book One Chapter XII:
“Ipsum autem Liberum patrem Orphici νοῦν ὑλικόν suspicantur intellegi, qui ab illo indiuiduo natus in singulos ipse diuiditur. ideo in illorum sacris traditur Titanio furore in membra discerptus et frustis sepultis rursus unus et integer emersisse, quia νοῦς, quem diximus mentem uocari, ex indiuiduo praebendo se diuidendum et rursus ex diuiso ad indiuiduum reuertendo et mundi inplet officia et naturae suae arcana non deserit.”
“[12] Members of the Orphic sect believe the material mind (νοῦν ὑλικόν) is represented by Bacchus himself, who, born of a single parent, is divided into separate parts. In their sacred rites they portray him as being torn to pieces at the hands of angry Titans and arising again from his buried limbs alive and sound, and their reason being that nous or Mind (νοῦς, quem diximus mentem uocari), by offering its undivided substance to be divided, and again, by returning from its divided state to the indivisible, both fulfills its wordly functions and does not forsake its secret nature."” [awending W. H. Stahl]
See also Plutarch’s On the E at Delphi chapitle 9 or 388e to 389c.
The
"elephant in the room" here, is, of course, Jesus.
Jerome puts the cart before the horse in his fifty eighth letter Ad Paulinum we can see that it was Adonis who was truly worshipped at Bethlehem:
Muddling the ἀρχανθρωπος, the third brother with one of the two Heavenly Twins has given rise to his matching with the Greeks' Asclepius. Though as their third brother when he comes back to the gods I guess he may well share in their work. We are told in Matthew's gospel 1.21 ( "et vocabis nomen ejus Jesum: ipse enim salvum faciet populum suum...") that Jesus's name means "healer". By isopsephy Jesus's name in Greek letters - Ἰησοῦς - is 888, and Eshmun is "the eighth". The “eighth day” is an odd Christian way of talking of Sunday as the day of Jesus’ resurrectio. That this was first witnessed by Mary Magdalen shows us that she has taken over from Astronoe. Those who understand Jesus as the same as Joshua should know that the Greek name of Jason was often borrowed by Hellenised Jews and put instead of it.
And muddling brings us to the two twins, Jesus and (Judas) Thomas. That the latter is Jesus' twin-brother is rather wilfully overlooked by almost everyone so that he is but seldom seen for what he is. It seems that at one time it was boldly marked for all to read in Isidore's Etymolgiae, but those copies which have this reading are now deemed to be "wrong" and the handwrits without it deemed to be Isidore's true work. However, we can find it still in book two chapitle 4 of the Chronica of Freculphus Lexoviensis, where he lists the fates of the apostles:
India mind you the home of the Aśvinau! That Thomas is also called Judas, that is Judah, links him to Jesus’s bewrayer and we know that sometimes the myth of the twins has one kill the other. That Jesus is said in the gospels to be the son of Joseph should be understood in this light (for the leadership of the Jews truly belongs to Joseph not Judah see Gen. 37.5-11 and I Chron. 5.2). Joseph’s story has been more than a little swayed by myth. His “coat of many colours” (gen. 37.3) is clearly symbolic of the many shapes of Dionysus whilst his own brethren plotting his death looks to the Cabiri myth again. That they “cast him into a pit” (37.24) and then sold him into slavery in Ægypt at Judah’s prompting (37.26-28) are both metaphors for the descent of souls. That Joseph’s bones were to be borne back home is a token of the wandering soul being led back to its heavenly home. That Moses and Aaron/Joshua and Caleb do this show us that Apollo’s healing of Dionysus is done through what we might call the angels of Apollo and who are the twin-gods.
But these are the Aśvinau of the Āryāḥ it is written thus Ṛgvedaḥ 8. 18.8 (Griffith):
Jerome puts the cart before the horse in his fifty eighth letter Ad Paulinum we can see that it was Adonis who was truly worshipped at Bethlehem:
“ Bethleem nunc nostram, et augustissimum orbis locum de quo Psalmista canit: Veritas de terra orta est (Ps. 84. 12) , lucus inumbrabat Thamuz, id est, Adonidis: et in specu, ubi quondam Christus parvulus vagiit, Veneris amasius plangebatur.”
“Even my own Bethlehem, as it now is, that most venerable spot in the whole world of which the psalmist sings: "the truth has sprung out of the earth," was overshadowed by a grove of Tammuz, that is of Adonis; and in the very cave where the infant Christ had uttered His earliest cry lamentation was made for the paramour of Venus.”
Muddling the ἀρχανθρωπος, the third brother with one of the two Heavenly Twins has given rise to his matching with the Greeks' Asclepius. Though as their third brother when he comes back to the gods I guess he may well share in their work. We are told in Matthew's gospel 1.21 ( "et vocabis nomen ejus Jesum: ipse enim salvum faciet populum suum...") that Jesus's name means "healer". By isopsephy Jesus's name in Greek letters - Ἰησοῦς - is 888, and Eshmun is "the eighth". The “eighth day” is an odd Christian way of talking of Sunday as the day of Jesus’ resurrectio. That this was first witnessed by Mary Magdalen shows us that she has taken over from Astronoe. Those who understand Jesus as the same as Joshua should know that the Greek name of Jason was often borrowed by Hellenised Jews and put instead of it.
And muddling brings us to the two twins, Jesus and (Judas) Thomas. That the latter is Jesus' twin-brother is rather wilfully overlooked by almost everyone so that he is but seldom seen for what he is. It seems that at one time it was boldly marked for all to read in Isidore's Etymolgiae, but those copies which have this reading are now deemed to be "wrong" and the handwrits without it deemed to be Isidore's true work. However, we can find it still in book two chapitle 4 of the Chronica of Freculphus Lexoviensis, where he lists the fates of the apostles:
"Thomas Christi Didymus nominatus, et iuxta Latinam linguam Christi geminus, ac similis Salvatori, audiendo incredulus, videndo fidelis, Evangelium praedicavit Parthis, Medis et Persis, Hircanisque Bactrianis et Indis, tenens Orientalem plagam, et terram gentium penetrans; ibique praedicationem suam usque ad titulum suae passionis perducens. Lanceis enim transfixus, occubuit in Calamina Indiae urbe, ubi et sepultus est in honore."
"Thomas called the "didymus" of Christ, and in the Latin tongue: the "twin brother of Christ". Also he was like the Saviour [to look at]. Unbelieving by hearing, believing by seeing. He preached the gospel in Parthia, Medea and Persia, Hircania, Bactria and India, grasping the eastern half of the world and penetrating the land of the "nations"; and there going about preaching to them up to his passion. Thurled through by a spear, he died in Calamina a city of India, where he was worthily buried."(ᚷᚳ)
India mind you the home of the Aśvinau! That Thomas is also called Judas, that is Judah, links him to Jesus’s bewrayer and we know that sometimes the myth of the twins has one kill the other. That Jesus is said in the gospels to be the son of Joseph should be understood in this light (for the leadership of the Jews truly belongs to Joseph not Judah see Gen. 37.5-11 and I Chron. 5.2). Joseph’s story has been more than a little swayed by myth. His “coat of many colours” (gen. 37.3) is clearly symbolic of the many shapes of Dionysus whilst his own brethren plotting his death looks to the Cabiri myth again. That they “cast him into a pit” (37.24) and then sold him into slavery in Ægypt at Judah’s prompting (37.26-28) are both metaphors for the descent of souls. That Joseph’s bones were to be borne back home is a token of the wandering soul being led back to its heavenly home. That Moses and Aaron/Joshua and Caleb do this show us that Apollo’s healing of Dionysus is done through what we might call the angels of Apollo and who are the twin-gods.
But these are the Aśvinau of the Āryāḥ it is written thus Ṛgvedaḥ 8. 18.8 (Griffith):
uta tyā daivyā bhiṣajā śaṃ naḥ karato aśvinā |
yuyuyātāmito rapo apa sridhaḥ ||And may the Asvins, the divine Pair of Physicians, send us health:
May they remove iniquity and chase our foes.
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 4:1:5:8:
"aśvinau ha vā idam bhiṣajyantau ceratuḥ ... "
" Now the Asvins then wandered about here on earth performing cures."
In the near
east Tammuz's worship (and the worship of all those gods who blended in
with him), lives on under the name of al-Khiḍr who is himself often evened with St. George! And saints George and Demetrios are often found to stand in for the Dioscuri in the East.
Above: Saints Demetrius and George from a 19th-yearhundred Icon in Asproneri (Shkrapari), photograph by http://fos-kastoria.blogspot.com/2013/10/26.html
The odd way the "Hanged Man" has his legs bent is not to be overlooked. In the East Krishna is shown playing his pipe making almost the same shape with his legs. And Vishnu sometimes borrows it. But Krishna is a twin brother of Balarama. Below we have Cautes (torch up) and Cautopates (torch down) - the "torch-bearers" - who are hardly ever shown that far away from Mithras and were blent with the Dioscuri as the "Mithraic Cameos" shown beneath will outfold.
Above: 1. A cameo with the well-known tauroctony "bull-slaying" scene with Cautes (torch up) and Cautopates (torch down) either side of Mithras and the bull. 2. Part of a bas-relief found at Virunum in Noricum with the birth of Mithra from the "petra genetrix" with Cautes and Cautopates on either side of him. 3. A wonderful cameo with the same birth of Mithra scene, but this time Cautes and Cautopates have shifted into the Dioscuri on horseback with stars and snakes! Mark the eagle with a snake in his beak at the top. The back shows these snakes twined about staves and on bows. Between these snakes are the Dioscuri's two stars, a bowl (crater?) and a pitcher of wine with a square cover (the same that on the front has a round loaf on top). All from Franz Cumont's Classic study.
The upside down Gemini also give us the (hopefully) well-known token of Hercules and the Cercopes (Κέρκωπες). Hercules here could be for the sun in Gemini or for the neighbouring star-sign of Orion.
Farewell.
Above: Saints Demetrius and George from a 19th-yearhundred Icon in Asproneri (Shkrapari), photograph by http://fos-kastoria.blogspot.com/2013/10/26.html
The odd way the "Hanged Man" has his legs bent is not to be overlooked. In the East Krishna is shown playing his pipe making almost the same shape with his legs. And Vishnu sometimes borrows it. But Krishna is a twin brother of Balarama. Below we have Cautes (torch up) and Cautopates (torch down) - the "torch-bearers" - who are hardly ever shown that far away from Mithras and were blent with the Dioscuri as the "Mithraic Cameos" shown beneath will outfold.
Above: 1. A cameo with the well-known tauroctony "bull-slaying" scene with Cautes (torch up) and Cautopates (torch down) either side of Mithras and the bull. 2. Part of a bas-relief found at Virunum in Noricum with the birth of Mithra from the "petra genetrix" with Cautes and Cautopates on either side of him. 3. A wonderful cameo with the same birth of Mithra scene, but this time Cautes and Cautopates have shifted into the Dioscuri on horseback with stars and snakes! Mark the eagle with a snake in his beak at the top. The back shows these snakes twined about staves and on bows. Between these snakes are the Dioscuri's two stars, a bowl (crater?) and a pitcher of wine with a square cover (the same that on the front has a round loaf on top). All from Franz Cumont's Classic study.
The upside down Gemini also give us the (hopefully) well-known token of Hercules and the Cercopes (Κέρκωπες). Hercules here could be for the sun in Gemini or for the neighbouring star-sign of Orion.
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| By Velvet - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16176213 |
Farewell.
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