Posted on 05/14/2011 6:34:26 PM PDT by bronxville
Ancient Greek religion, what we call mythology, tells the same story as the Book of Genesis, except that the serpent is the enlightener of mankind rather than our deceiver. Athena represents Eve—the reborn serpent’s Eve in the new Greek age. She and the Parthenon and the entire ancient Greek religious system celebrate the rejuvenation and re-establishment of the way of Kain (Cain) after the Flood. Though on one hand Greek idolatry violates the teaching of the Word of God, on the other, if properly understood, it reinforces the truth of the Scriptures.
The First Couple
There is no Creator-God in the Greek religious system. The ancient Greek religious system is about getting away from the God of Genesis, and exalting man as the measure of all things. You may think to yourself that the Greeks are exalting gods, not man; but haven’t you ever wondered why the Greek gods looked exactly like humans? The answer is the obvious one: for the most part, the gods represented the Greeks’ (and our) human ancestors. Greek religion was thus a sophisticated form of ancestor worship. You have no doubt heard of the supposedly great philosopher, Socrates. In Plato’s Euthydemus, he referred to Zeus, Athena, and Apollo as his ‘gods’ and his ‘lords and ancestors’.1 Greek stories about their origins are varied and sometimes contradictory until their poets and artists settle upon Zeus and Hera as the couple from whom the other Olympian gods and mortal men are descended. This brother/sister and husband/wife pair, the king and queen of the gods, are a match for the Adam and Eve of Genesis. Figure 2 is Hans Holbein’s Adam and Eve. This couple is the beginning of the family of man, and the origin of the family of the Greek gods, Zeus and Hera. Figure 3 shows us Zeus and his wife Hera, sculpted on the east frieze of the Parthenon, c. 438 BC. With no Creator-God in the Greek religious system, the first couple advances to the forefront.
Hera, The Queen of the gods, is the Primal Eve
According to the Book of Genesis, Eve is the mother of all living humans, and the wife of Adam. Since God is the Father of both Adam and Eve, some consider them to be brother and sister as well. After they had both eaten the fruit, Adam named his wife Eve ("living" in Hebrew) and Genesis 3:20 explains why: "… for she becomes mother of all the living."† In a hymn of invocation, the 6th-century BC lyric poet, Alcaeus, refers to Hera as panton genethla, or "mother of all."2 As the first mother, the Greeks worshipped Hera as goddess of childbirth; as the first wife, the Greeks worshipped her as the goddess of marriage.
We are told in Chapter 2 of Genesis that Eve was created full-grown out of Adam. Before she was known as Hera, the wife of Zeus had the name Dione. The name relates to the creation of Eve out of Adam, for Dione is the feminine form of Dios or Zeus. This suggests that the two, like Adam and Eve, were once a single entity.
The attribute most often associated with Hera in ancient art was the sceptre. She is often depicted as enthroned and holding it in her right hand. She is, and always will be, the queen of Olympus. As the sister/wife of Zeus, Hera is a deification of Eve, the motherless mother of all humanity. She holds the sceptre of rule by birth.
Read more... http://www.solvinglight.com/features/athenaandeve01.htm
I guess I jumped a bit quick on that one.
The link I posted is to a book that covers the same subject, but is not the same book. Maybe it is a forerunner.
And Tenn. is closer to home than Greece. The reproduction must be outstanding when the floodlights go on at night!
You can tell me any myths you want to about Edward James Olmos. Did you know that Spanish is surprisingly full of Greek cognates? I didn’t until my psychotic #3 son started studying Greek at age 4.
But as I was saying, “Que hombre!”
Greeks understood the Gods as malevolent forces which could be irregularly propitiated by sacrifices on occasion. But the best way to live was to try and not be noticed by them.
There was no heaven in the Greek religion and Hell was essentially just not living as more. Their conception was that this life is all there is after which existence as impotent shades was all there was. An existence dominated by desire for blood, the sustainer of life.
Lucifer is related to Light. Gnosticism came after Christianity as a heresy.
Athena was a virgin.
From reading that book and those few others, it seems that dabbling with and corrupting Creation was one of the primary reasons behind the world being practically wiped clean with the flood, save Noah, his immediate family and hand picked breeding pairs of uncorrupted species.
You can catch occasional glimpses of I Enoch in canonical Old Testament books of the Bible. Noah was, and I paraphrase, "perfect in his generations." Those who would be gods were great men of old, men of renown. The Canaanites. Anak. Goliath of Gath. Running with that interpretation, many of the strange mythical figures of the Greek, of India and others wouldn't have been myth at all. They were fantastical and unnatural, yes, but a very old book given an apparent high amount of credence by Old Testament authors would seem to point in a more tangible direction.
Some have gone so far as to speculate dinosaurs were wiped out by the flood because they were never intended to be by our Creator, that they were the unnatural product of rebellion by way of genetic engineering of a sort. Sounds weird but these texts tend to support more than refute such an understanding.
Athena sprang fully grown and armed from the head of Zeus.
Zeus was not the father of all the other gods, rather Posidon and Hades were his brothers, as Hera was his sister.
Jupiter is the Latin for Zeus-Pater, G-d the Father.
Each different city had their own mythology, and later, relationships were cobbled together. Rather like the myths of Judaism were tied together to justify Solomon’s rule. That is why the oldest language is that of Samuel, with more modern language used for Judges, and Deuteronomy, and more modern yet language for Exodus, Leviticus, and Genesis. In like manner, the New Testament begins with the epistles, and Mark then Matt, Luke and Acts are written as back story, with John coming long after.
Don’t forget the afterlife of Tantalus, or Sisyphus, the former condemned to reaching for fruit that would move out of his grasp, and latter condemned to pushing a boulder up a hill, only to see it fall back down.
“Greeks understood the Gods as malevolent forces which could be irregularly propitiated by sacrifices on occasion. But the best way to live was to try and not be noticed by them.”
This reminds me of a story I read a while back about the “evil eye”. Many Roman soldiers had to guard the slaves which took them away from other duties - some bright spark came up with the idea of placing a huge eye where all the slaves could see it. The Romans then planted a story that it was a god and it was watching them...eventually this was believed and henceforth there was no further need for guards.
“Lucifer is related to Light.”
He was called the light-bearer - son of the dawn.
From the Judeo-Christian standpoint, the taking of the fruit by Eve and Adam at the serpent’s behest was shameful, a transgression of Yahweh’s commandment. From the Greek standpoint, however, the taking of the fruit was a triumphant and liberating act which brought to mankind the serpent’s enlightenment. To the Greeks, the serpent freed mankind from bondage to an oppressive God, and was therefore a saviour and illuminator of our race. The Greeks worshipped Zeus as both saviour and illuminator; they called him Zeus Phanaios which means one who appears as light and brings light. The light that he brought to the ancient Greeks was the serpent’s light that he received when he ate the fruit from the serpent’s tree.
Genesis attributes the flood to human sin (6:5-7), not overpopulation, as Atrahasis’ Epic and the Greek poem Cypria did and not unlike the pagans who repeat it today. It just might be where they got the idea along with their Gaia godess et al.
I’m not quite sure how this threads with my reply. I’ve made no mention of overpopulation. Any attribution as to cause of the flood in Greek, pagan or other beliefs would necessarily follow the point of view of the fallen angels and their progeny, under this interpretation, so it stands to reason that it conflicts with Genesis at base but contains certain broad themes that are remarkably similar. It would have been a matter of perspective.
St. Augustine explored many pagan religions, more prevalent in his day, but his capacity to search, think, reason and question different belief systems, eventually led him to accept the Catholic church. St. Augustine then took Christian thought into greater levels of understanding.
There are many people today that are genuinely searching for the truth, too but unfortunately some of their professors, media, hollywood, churches, are spinning the myths into yet another myth - that Christianity is based on Paganism.
Thanks TruthConquers - the book looks interesting anyway so will have a read. (The Age of) Aquarius will get first peek.
You wrote a thoughtful post, sorry I didn’t give it due process as I just scanned it - tired - past bedtime. Genesis and flood jumped out so I wrote what came to mind. Good-night. :)
Very interesting post. I think it is amazing how Satan tried and continues to try to replace the truth with a lie. Everything he does is a counterfeit and is opposite from what the only true God has said. We see it just as prevalently in this current world than it was in ancient times. The names of the “gods” only change (though not all of them).
I remember in Acts where Paul is speaking to the Roman emperor and he mentioned the various temples located in Rome. They had built them for every god they knew about so as not to take any chances and make him mad at being excluded. They even had a “catch all” temple dedicated to “The Unknown God”. That is what Paul spoke to them about telling them that that unknown god was the real, true God and he was the only God. Not everybody was ready to hear that.
+Paul gave that speech to the “Supreme Court”, the Areopagus, at Athens, bb, not to an emperor in Rome. Acts 17:22-17:31. During the sermon he converted a justice of that court, +Dionysius the Areopagite, who became the first bishop of Athens. Acts 17:34.
If you ever go to Athens, you can go there and stand right where it is believed +Paul stood (same thing for Corinthos).
In Genesis, the Tree is not called the "Tree of Poison", but rather the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil". That would seem to share some commonality with the serpent being an enlightener.
In Act One of the musical Children of Eden, Eve has an insatiable desire--the "spark of creation"--to go "beyond". Later, Cain is possessed by a similar desire. Although some parts of the show are decidedly non-Biblical, I find this central premise interesting: that the Fall came about not because mankind was evil, but because mankind had an inherent need to make a difference. Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve could have done just about anything (other than eat the Fruit) and it wouldn't have mattered. Their lives could have gone on forever, but even with all the time in the world, they wouldn't have been able to do anything of significance.
I think the real story of humanity is found in Luke 15. The younger son was possessed by the same "spark of creation" as Eve. The farm was wonderful and good, but the son could not be happy until he had seen the world. Having seen the world, he had a renewed appreciation for the farm upon his return.
God attempted to create a paradise for Adam and Eve. Paradise 1.0 wasn't really a paradise, for Eve's insatiable desire to go "beyond" could not have possibly been satisfied except by leaving it. I believe Paradise 2.0 ("heaven") will actually not be much different from Paradise 1.0, any more than the farm was different upon the Prodigal Son's return, but by the time mankind returns to Paradise mankind will have hopefully gained the wisdom and appreciation to be happy there.
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