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
That is right there were some special cases generally reserved for some sort of impiety or direct insult of a God.
But the two you mention must not have been the typical “shade” either since they apparently were corporeal enough to have thirst and push a big rock.
Maybe it was the Eye of Horus.
Prometheus brought civilization to mankind by stealing fire from the Gods. Zeus was going to wipe us out until Prometheus stepped in. Zeus, the highest Greek God, was definitely not kindly disposed to mankind. At BEST he could be rendered indifferent to man’s fate.
While certain Gods were more man-friendly Zeus was all over the park.
Rome was the necessary precondition for Christianity in many ways. Its religious tolerance made it easy for the initial steps to Christianity to be taken. Its unification of Europe made it easy for the new faith to spread rapidly through the Empire. Penetrating to the center of the civilized world made it acceptable all over the West.
Socrates was also a precursor of Christianity and his moral philosophy is as Christian as one can get without being an actual follower of Christ.
“Maybe it was the Eye of Horus.”
I wasn’t going to go there...a whole other bag of worms. :)
“The Garden of the Hesperides is Hera’s orchard in the west, where either a single tree or a grove of immortality-giving golden apples grew. The apples were planted from the fruited branches that Gaia gave to her as a wedding gift when Hera accepted Zeus. The Hesperides were given the task of tending to the grove, but occasionally plucked from it themselves. Not trusting them, Hera also placed in the garden a never-sleeping, hundred-headed dragon named Ladon as an additional safeguard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hesperides
The UN, Robert Schultz, et al have the whole thing covered. People actually believe that this was/is all real, the earth is pulsatingly alive and we are destroying it, paving the way for overpopulation, it will soon be illegal to pick flowers from ones own garden or walk on an autumn leaf.
Some people truly believe, and in astonishingly growing numbers, that Christianity just copied the Pagan religion which was the main reason I posted the thread.
Yep, I stand corrected. That’s what I get for PWS (posting while sleepy).
Go in May, as early as possible but after Pascha. The weather is magnificent, the water is warming up and there are no tourists. And there are flowers, bb, wild flowers everywhere. No matter where you are, the air carries their perfume. My wife calls our part, the Peloponnesus, "God's garden" that time of year.
aye, but Athens was a disappointment for me, it’s like an Asian city and has monuments yes, but is kind of scruffy. The countryside and the sea-side, is a whole different thing — they are gorgeous in the Pelopponese, yes.
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