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Mythic Birthplace of Zeus Said Found
LiveScience.com on Yahoo ^ | 2/9/09 | Heather Whipps

Posted on 02/09/2009 1:15:59 PM PST by NormsRevenge

The Greek god of thunder and lightning had Earthly beginnings, and scientists think they finally know where.

Ancient Greeks first worshipped the omnipotent Zeus at a remote altar on Mount Lykaion, a team of Greek and American archaeologists now think. During a recent dig at the site, the researchers found ceremonial goods commonly used in cult activity and dated at over three millennia old, making them the earliest known "appearance" of Zeus in Greece.

The discovery challenges the idea that Zeus worship began on the Greek island of Crete, which at least one classical historian names as the god's mythic birthplace. The latest finds on Mount Lykaion, in the mainland province of Arcadia, are as old as the idea of Zeus himself, said the project's senior research scientist David Romano, of the University of Pennsylvania.

"This new evidence strongly suggests that there were drinking (and perhaps feasting) parties taking place on the top of the mountain in the Late Helladic period, around 3,300 or 3,400 years ago," Romano said.

Worship of lightning god unbroken

Zeus is the most important figure in ancient Greek mythology. He is the supreme ruler of Mount Olympus, the god of the skies and the father of a slew of other deities and mortals, such as Athena, Apollo, Heracles, Aphrodite and Helen of Troy, say the legends.

The heroic figure was born on either the island of Crete or on Mount Lykaion, according to two competing accounts written in ancient times. While the myths are just that - stories - historians and archaeologists have always been interested in discovering what elements of the stories might be at least loosely based on fact.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: History; Religion
KEYWORDS: arcadia; birthplace; faithandphilosophy; found; godsgravesglyphs; greece; kylikes; mountlykaion; mountolympus; mtlykaion; mtlykaions; mycenaean; mycenaeans; mythic; mythology; seus; zeus
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1 posted on 02/09/2009 1:15:59 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge

Is it any where near the real birthplace of Obama.


2 posted on 02/09/2009 1:16:41 PM PST by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Is it at the bottom of Lake Michigan?


3 posted on 02/09/2009 1:17:12 PM PST by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th)
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To: NormsRevenge

No, this was easier than finding Obama’s.


4 posted on 02/09/2009 1:17:32 PM PST by Darkwolf377 (Pro-Life Capitalist American Atheist and Free-Speech Junkie)
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To: NormsRevenge

How can you find something that is “mythic?”

It’s like saying - I found an imaginary Unicorn den in my backyard.


5 posted on 02/09/2009 1:18:44 PM PST by PGR88
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New discoveries at Mount Lykaion push Zeus worship back 1,000 years
http://www.sciencecodex.com/new_discoveries_at_the_ash_altar_of_zeus_mount_lykaion


6 posted on 02/09/2009 1:19:38 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Kenya?


7 posted on 02/09/2009 1:21:37 PM PST by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: NormsRevenge

I just want to have a beer with Thor....


8 posted on 02/09/2009 1:22:16 PM PST by Badeye (There are no 'great moments' in Moderate Political History. Only losses.)
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To: PGR88

Hey!

How did you find out about that?

No matter. You keep your mitts off MY unicorns.


9 posted on 02/09/2009 1:25:24 PM PST by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th)
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To: NormsRevenge
"ceremonial goods commonly used in cult activity "

I swear. The first thing I thought of were those Obama Commemorative Coins on TV.
10 posted on 02/09/2009 1:27:08 PM PST by chrisser (The Two Americas: Those that want to be coddled, Those that want to be left the hell alone.)
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To: PGR88

11 posted on 02/09/2009 1:28:38 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: Badeye

There ya go.. and his mighty hammer


12 posted on 02/09/2009 1:30:08 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Apollobama Pictures, Images and Photos
13 posted on 02/09/2009 1:31:43 PM PST by Snickering Hound
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To: NormsRevenge

Funny, for current religions believers call it truth, but when nobody’s around who follows a religion anymore everybody calls it myth and stories.


14 posted on 02/09/2009 1:35:19 PM PST by antiRepublicrat ("I am a firm believer that there are not two sides to every issue..." -- Arianna Huffington)
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To: NormsRevenge

Let me know when they find the anvil of Hephaestus. That I would really like to see.


15 posted on 02/09/2009 1:41:03 PM PST by Dead Corpse (What would a free man do?)
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To: WayneS; Diana in Wisconsin
Is it at the bottom of Lake Michigan?

Funny you should ask.

16 posted on 02/09/2009 1:42:41 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: NormsRevenge

I can tell everyone something interesting, not too long ago I was reading on some forums about astrological advice and there was some arguments that some noted astrologers were re-writing Obamas chart because they now think he was not born in Hawaii but Mombasa, Kenya.

And that what they originally wrote about him is now somewhat different because of his birth location.

And the revised charts speak a different tome.

All a person has to do is enter his birth date but change the location on one of those free star chart websites.


17 posted on 02/09/2009 1:44:24 PM PST by Eye of Unk (How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words! SA)
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To: Dead Corpse

Will do. he was pretty handy, married to Aphrodite, not so happily tho it seems with Ares in the mix.


18 posted on 02/09/2009 1:46:11 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Depends on the version of the myth. In another, he was married to one of the Graces.

As a hobby blacksmith, Hephaestus is kind of a Patron Saint. If I ever make it to Greece, the Theseum is on my list of "must see" places. That and Thermopylae.

19 posted on 02/09/2009 1:49:55 PM PST by Dead Corpse (What would a free man do?)
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To: NormsRevenge; SunkenCiv

GGG Ping


20 posted on 02/09/2009 1:55:40 PM PST by Little Bill (Just a Poor White Person , clinging to God, Guns, and the Constitution)
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