The spiritual substratum of bronze age mediterranean & circum pontic world pdf

AMANDA LAOUPI Dr Archaeologist / Environmentalist / Disaster Specialist Independent Researcher http://archaeodisasters.blogspot.com/

THE PELASGIAN SPIRITUAL SUBSTRATUM OF BRONZE AGE MEDITERRANEAN AND CIRCUM-PONTIC WORLD

ABSTRACT Previous research has revealed that Sirius and Hephaistos myths and legends were strongly present in Bronze Age Mediterranean communities via an interrelated cultural network amongst various cultures and societies (Laoupi, 2006a & b; Laoupi, 2011). The aim of the present monograph is to deepen this research, enrich it with the latest evidence and cover broader geographical and chronological boundaries. The Sirius, Moon and Venus cults came from the Paleolithic Times amazingly enriched by their “journey” into the human psyche starring at the Cosmos. Especially, Sirius cult was a pivotal cult of the Pelasgian substratum coming from Neolithic and late Paleolithic Times.

SIRIUS IN PALEOLITHIC CULT The emergence of symbolism, abstract thought and spiritual consciousness has always intrigued modern scientists who claim that they were present at least in the last 100-kyr human history since Middle and Upper Paleolithic. The bio-anatomical toolkit was the triggering mechanism which gave humans the ability to observe, understand and partially predict the phenomena of Cosmos. The menstrual cycle of women resembling the cycles of the Moon, the 13 moons in a solar year, the ancient symbol of ‘cross’ representing the four seasons, the solstices and the equinoxes, as well as the constellations of Virgo, Taurus, Orion, the Pleiades, and the star Sirius were the first symbolic framework of humankind, traced in Paleolithic art, archaeology and archaeoastronomy (Joseph, 2001 & 2011; Chung, 2015; Rappenglueck, 2015). Although the topic of neuroscience is out of scope for the present study, it is worth mentioning that human brain seems to be “hardwired for spirituality” (van den Dungen, 2015, online at: <http://www.neuro.sofiatopia.org/brainmind_brain.htm>; Rappenglueck, 2012).

The Valley of Visoko, in Sarajevo area of Bosnia and Herzegovina (known also for its controversial pyramids), seems to have kept some intriguing and astonishing secrets concerning human prehistory. A carved enigmatic stone, aka the Visoko Stone, has been found near the Ravne Tunnels carrying mysterious symbols that turned out to be the most ancient astrological map found in Earth. Researchers (the Boznian archaeologist and excavator of the pyramids Semir Osmanagich and the Italian journalist and researcher Armando Mei) claim that Sirius was amongst the stars, constellations and astronomical phenomena depicted on it. The running of

simulation astronomical programs dated the map to 88,272 BCE, but it is believed that may be much older before 100 Ka! On the horizon, Orion (the mighty hunter) is in confrontation of Taurus constellation. Over 20 kya, our ancestors painted, at Lascaux cave, a hunter with two horns who had been killed, dismembered/disembowled by the raging bull. The hunter faces Taurus, and, below and beneath the dead Cro-Magnon / Magdalenian hunter, another bird, symbol of rebirth, perhaps symbolizing the star Sirius (a strong motif which later was a pivotal topic in ancient Egyptian cosmology and theology).

Similarly, Eelsalu (1985), Congregado (2001), and Laričev (1999) associated the arrangement of other rock pictures with the area of the sky, the constellation of Orion with the bird-man, the constellation of Taurus to the bison, the constellation of Gemini to the woolly rhino, and Sirius (α CMa) with the bird-on-the-stick, whilst Glyn-Jones (2007) considers Taurus to be the bison, Gemini and Orion (down to the belt) to represent the bird-man, Procyon to be the bird-on-the-stick and Leo to illustrate the back part of the woolly rhino (Rappenglueck, 2013).

Furthermore, the famous constellation of Orion has been recognised on an Aurignacian ivory tablet (a tiny sliver of a mammoth tusk) dated ca to 38-32.5 Ka, and found in 1979 in Geißenklösterle cave in the Ach Valley in the Alb-Danube region of Germany. This tablet may have also been served as a pregnancy calendar (Rappenglueck, 2003).

SIRIUS CULT IN AFRICA Sirius is 23 times more luminous than the Sun, but it shines 8 ly away the Earth. Although astronomers had suspected that Sirius was a member of a binary star system, and it was thought to have a smaller companion known as Sirius B, since 1844, this fact was verified in 1862 and further validated by spectral analysis in 1915.

In the case of the Sirian binary system, the internal orbital period is 49.97 years (the repeated number 50 in many cultures), and like all binary systems, it orbits around the center of our Galaxy. Sirius B is much heavier and about 100 times smaller in radius than is Sirius A; its visible light is 10,000 times fainter than that from Sirius A, though Sirius B gives off far more ultraviolet and other light. Triple star systems are also known, and the Sirian system may yet prove to be one of these (there is Sirius C?). By the year 9000 CE onwards, Sirius will not be visible any more from northern and central Europe, and in 14 Ka from now its declination will be -67°, thus the star will be circumpolar throughout South Africa and in most parts of Australia.

In the eastern part of Green Sahara, once a large basin in the Nubian Desert, Nabta Playa located approximately 800 km south of modern day Cairo or about 100 km west of Abu Simbel in South Egypt. Beginning around 12 Ka, this region began to receive more rainfall, filling a lake. Archaeological discoveries reveal that the prehistoric peoples who inhabited the area, led livelihoods of high level organization (e.g. above-ground and below-ground stones constructions, villages designed in preplanned arrangements, deep wells that held water throughout the year). But the most astonishing discovery was about one of the world's earliest known examples of archeoastronomical sites.

By 7 Ka onwards, these people constructed megalithic monuments, built on the Tropic of Cancer, the very latitude at which the sun casts no shadow at midday on summer solstice, roughly contemporary to the Goseck circle in Germany (the oldest know solar oservatory) and the Mnajdra megalithic temple complex in Malta.

Archaeoastronomers consider them as a conceptual representation of the motion of the sky over a precession cycle. In fact, the calendar circle correlation with Orion's belt (or Sahu in Ancient Egyptian cosmogony, often associated with the god Osiris as Sahu-Osiris) and Sirius (the Egyptian Sothis) occurred between 6400 BCE and 4820 BCE, matching the radio-carbon dating of campfires around the circle. Measurements confirm, also, the possible alignments with Sirius, Arcturus, Alpha Centauri and the Belt of Orion. Other researchers go even beyond this dating, recognizing a representation of the Milky Way as it was in 17,500 BCE and maps of Orion at 16,500 BCE (Wendorf and Malville, 2001; Wendorf, et al., 2001; Brophy, 2002; Irish, et al., 2002; Brophy and Rosen, 2005; Malville, et al., 2008).

In the ancient kingdom of Kush, there was Wayekiye, the son of a certain Hornakhtyotef, a prophet of Isis, who was “hont-priest of Sothis and wab-priest of the five living stars”, according to an inscription on the walls of the temple of Philae dated to a period (ca 227 CE). And in the area of Sudan, Nubia (Török, 1997), as well as in ancient Egypt, there was a group of monuments orientated towards the heliacal rising of Sirius (Belmonte, et al., 2010).

In December 2013, archaeologists working in the North Kharga Oasis (Egypt’s western desert) Survey Project, discovered the only known example of spider rock art in Egypt, a panel dated to at least 4 kya. Modern researchers offer a tempting interpretation, according to which the existing stone represents the Sirius star system and the whole panel represents a star map (Lynn, 2015).

The Dogon people, on the other hand, are famous for having kept the ancient knowledge about Sirius star system intact. They live in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger bend near the city of Bandiagara in the Mopti region. Their majority practice an animist religion, which includes the ancestral spirit Nommo, with its ceremonies and cults, and the Sirian mythology. According to the Dogon, 'Sirius is the navel of the world' (Griaule and Dieterlen, 1965, pp. 324-325), and it is considered as a triple stellar system consisting of the stars Sigi tolo (Sirius A), Po tolo (Sirius B) and Emme ya tolo (Sirius C). Thus, we have here another Sirius-centric astronomical system (Sothic cycle), along with the heliocentric, geocentric, mooncentric etc. In this tribe, women are economically independent, so her earnings and things related to her merchandise are stored in her personal granary.

The whole story started when two French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, spent 25 years with the Dogon (from 1931 to 1956). They reported that Dogon knew details about Sirius A and B (the latest needs a fairly large telescope to be seen), about the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter. The author Robert K.G. Temple (1975) broadened the data covering many fields (linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, etc) to sustain the above-mentioned theory. But contemporary researchers find no verified evidence in the initial theory (van Beek, 1991; Ph. Coppens, “Dogon shame” online at: <http://www.philipcoppens.com/ dogonshame.html>; J. Oberg “The Sirius Mystery”, online at: <http://www.debunker. com/texts/dogon.html> ; B.R. Ortiz de Montellano “The Dogon Revisited” HTML, online at: <http://www.ramtops.co.uk/dogon.html >; Caroll, 2003).

On the other hand, scholars initially hesitated to date the Vedic civilization earlier than 2400 BCE, but the data from Rigveda support a terminus ante quem ca 4000 BC, when the Vernal Equinox was in Orion and the Dog-star commenced the equinoctial year (Tilak, 1893).

Moreover, Sirius is present in Denderah Zodiac, a famous bas-relief from the ceiling of the portico of a small temple dedicated to Osiris in the Hathor temple at Dendera, Egypt. Although it has initially been dated to the late Ptolemaic period,

today researchers believe that it is dated to the New Kingdom. Today it is on display at the Louvre Museum, Paris. As John H. Rogers pointed out (1998a), it is “the only complete map that we have of an ancient sky”, representing the basis on which later astronomy systems were based. Along with Sirius, the twelve zodiac signs, the Moon, the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), Orion, the three known constellations of the North (Draco, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor) and the 36 decans have also been represented.

Of course, Sirius - along with Canopus star and Vega, the five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), Orion, Ursa Major andd Draco, decans and constellations - was already present in the astronomical ceiling decoration of Senenmut tomb in Egyptian western Thebes (no 353), dated back to the 18th Egyptian Dynasty (first half of the 15th century BCE) under the reign of Queen Hatsepsut.

Another striking evidence is the fact that the heliacal rising of Sirius (the brightest star in the sky) on July 16, 1464 BCE, at month 1, coincided with the heliacal setting of Venus (the brightest planet), an exceptional phenomenon which only occurs every 103 years, a phenomenon which had inaugurated a new era called ‘Phoenix rebirth’ by the Greeks (Van Oosterhout, 1993). The ancient Egyptians called Venus ‘the bride of the Dog-star’ and identified the Phoenix with the soul of Osiris, 'the rising god', and the morning star Venus, with 'the heart of the renewed sun' both representing light, life and consciousness. Thus, Phoenix (the fire bird or bird of resurrection or the bird of victory over death with Sirius symbolizing the guard of this resurrection) became a symbol of the Sothic Year. There was the meteoric benben stone, too, in the Temple of the Phoenix at Heliopolis (Bauval, 1990).

The Phoenix cycle of 1500 years (although Herodotus, II.73-75, claims that Phoenix appears every 500 years) is present in Sothic cycle (symbol of Heron bird) and in the Great precession of 26 Ka (symbol of Rech bird). Phoenix constellation corresponded to Aquila (the Eagle) and Cygnus (the Swan) constellations (Mackey, 1827; Valentia Straiton, 1927). Those two cycles were also present in ancient Chinese and Indian theosophy.

On the other hand, there is a significant bibliographic corpus that includes scientific works that investigate the correlation of Egyptian pyramids geodetic charachteristics to Orion constellation / Osiris and Sirius / Isis (Bauval and Gilbert, 1995). Moreover, other scholars propose that an astronomical observatory tower once stood at Letopolis sacred city (home of priesthood who was responsible for the sacred Opening of the Mouth ceremony / rebirth rituals; 17 km North of Giza plateau), associated also with thunderbolts or meteorites, and some sort of nocturnal fire offerings (Velikovsky, 1950; Budge, 1999, p. 358, note 5; Bauval, 2006, p. 75).

In additon and according to ancient Egyptian sacred traditions, the soul of Osiris was in Apis the Bull just as it was in pharaoh, as well as he was the incarnation of Ptah, the creator god from Memphis, and the patron of all smiths and craftsmen and architects (the parallel of Hephaistos). But Apis was not allowed to live longer than twenty-five years, meaning the number of years between meetings of sun and moon in the Egyptian calendar (25 of these civil years have 9125 days, and so do 309 lunar months, with a shortfall of only about one hour, or one day off in 600 years), and he was immediately replaced by another Bull. The Apis Bull was miraculously engendered by a moonbeam (see later how the Minoan Pasiphae represented Selene in Minoan religion). Modern researchers find, also the presence of Sirius amongst the symbols of Phaistos Disc, a famous archaeological enigma still undeciphered.

Percy Newberry studied the pre-dynastic cults and observed that the X, djew (horizon sign) and bovine were grouped together already at the end of 6th millennium BCE. A

‘priest of the double-axe’ is also mentioned already in the 5th dynasty. Their emblematic combination is found on the pre-dynastic Hathor palette and 1st dynasty Hathor bowl, where the bucranium with the five stars is depicted (MacGillivray, 2012, p. 125). Two triangles formed the X by the stars Procyon, Betelguese and Sirius on one side and Naos, Phaet and Sirius on the other. Sirius is at the centre of the X, at the centre of the cow’s head constellation (Newberry, 1908 & 1910: the Minoan double axe symbol derived from this Egyptian X).

Even more, although Sir Arthur Evans had proposed that the term ‘labrys’ was connected with the much later Carian word for ‘axe’ (thus the Palace at Knossos was the ‘House of the Double Axe’), another archaeologist, Sir Flinders Petrie pointed out that the word ‘labyrinth’ means in Egyptian ‘the temple at the entrance of the lake’ (MacGillivray, 2000, pp. 78 & 213). The Egyptian Ptah, the keeper of Apis, was a sun-god, and Daedalus, the builder of the keep for the Minotaur, was a solar hero, flying with wings. Finally, the Sirian cult in ancient Egypt from the Pyramid Texts onwards gave birth to later mystical semiology of fraternities and ceremonies all over the world.

THE LEGENDARY PELASGIAN AND ATLANTEAN EMPIRES Which is the common background beyond Pelasgians and various cults and legends related to Sirius, Atlantis, the Garden of Hesperides (the lore about the eternal spring and the paradise on Earth), Poseidon, Pleiades, Athena, Perseus, Amazons and Atlas? Various interrelated data and evidence disclose the existence of a prehistoric vast ‘empire’ and the series of legendary kings who ruled over the known world throughout Africa, Europe, Asia (Valentia Straiton, 1927). Let us present some of this evidence.

The Egyptian high priest and Master of Sectets Manetho from Sebennytos in the Delta (3rd century BCE) had calculated a total length of 24,925 years for the three divine dynasties (of the gods, the demigods and the Manii aka Forefathers or Spirits of the Dead), who had ruled in the beginning over the plains of the Nile (the oldest surviving reference to Manetho's Aegyptiaca is that of the Jewish historian Josephus in his work Against Apion; Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, II.526 ff; Armenian version of Eusebius, Chronica; Manetho, fr. 3, from Syncellus; the Memphite Theology, the Palermo and the Cairo Stones, the Turin Royal Canon/King List dated to 13th century BCE). Then, we should add another 5,264 for the following dynasties of Mortal Kings - according to Eusebius, beginning with Menes and ending to Artaxerxes Ochus, and finally, another 340 years until the times of Augustus, when Christ was born (Dodson, 2004). Thus, we have a total of 30,529 years to the beginning of our era (see also Mei and Moretto, 2009). Researchers have already observed the difference between lunar and solar years, so the initial number of ca 25 ky could be equivalent to 2206 solar years (Boeckh, 2012, p. 85, corrects this to 2046 solar years).

The basalt Palermo Stone (irregularly shield-shaped fragment, 43.5 cm high, 25 cm wide and 6.5 cm thick), one of seven surviving fragments of a stele known as the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. It is held in the Antonio Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in the city of Palermo, Italy, from which it derives its name.

According to Manetho (Fragm. In Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum II. 527), the first king who had reigned over the valley of the Nile, predating even Ouranos, was Hephaistos (Vulcan), as the god of fire, of sun and of light. In its temple, in Memphis, the god was associated with a pygmy (Herodotus, III. 37). In Homeric times, a colony of dwarves existed southwards from the mouths of the Danube, near the Black Sea (Pliny, IV.18. 6; Homer, Iliad III. 6).

Diodorus of Sicily mentions (I. 26) also the rule of the Sun (Helios = Ouranos = Uranus) as the first deified king, along with Saturn (Cronos), who had ruled over the plains of the Nile. Moreover, he was considered the first king ruling over the regions near Atlas mountain at north of the Istru. The Atlantes (or inhabitants near Atlas mountain, near Oceanos potamos), according to Diodorus (III. 56; VI. 2.7), excel among all the neighboring peoples, for their particular piety and hospitality. In ancient Greek etymology Ouranos, as personal name, derives from oros with the Ionic suffix anos, meaning ‘man from the mountain’. His wife Gaea also had the epithet orestera. According to Herodotus (IV. 49), Atlas was the name of a significant river, which flew from the heights of old Aimos (Carpathians) and into the Lower Istru (von Gooss, 1974, p.10; Dio Cassius, LXVII. 6).

More importantly, Ouranos, was considered as the first king of the Pelasgian race, appearing also under the name Pelasgos (they are six proposed etymologies for this name: 1. < πάλαι +γέγαα = becoming old 2. < Πέληον Άργος = old man 3. < πελαργός = voyager & the bird stork 4. < περάω = travel at sea = the sea mariner, 5. < πλάζω = roam at the sea 6. < πέλας =πλησίον+άγω = leader of the neighboring people). The size of his body, his strength and beauty, and surpassed all the other mortals with the gifts of his soul. He was the first to teach humans to build huts, to make clothes and forbade them to continue eating green leaves, weeds and roots, some of which were inedible, and others dangerous to health, allowing them to use only the acorn of the oak for eating (Pausanias, VIII. 1). According to Aeschylus (Supplinet Women, 842-901), Pelasgos was the son of Gaea. According to the grammarian Apollodorus (III.8.1), Pelasgos was the forefather of the Titans. Other ancient authors (Scholiast of Pindar, Olympian III. 28 in Fragmenta Historicorum

Graecorum II. 387) mention that Pelasgos was the first ancestor of the Hyperboreans, near Atlas Mountain (Apollodorus, II. 5.11). According to Diodorus (I.III. 56), Uranos’ reign extended especially over the western and northern parts of the ancient world.

Especially at Dodona (Epirus, Greece), one of the sacred Pelasgian cities, Ouranos was also venerated under the name Zeus anaxi Pelasgichos (Jupiter Impeator Pelasgus). In Homer’s Iliad (XVI. 232), Achilles invokes him under this name. He was the “Lord over the mountains of Dodona” (Aeschylus, Supplient Women 327258).

According to the ancient traditions the reign of Ouranos (Pelasgos) and its pastoral tribes had extended from Northern Europe to Southern areas, and beyond the Mediterranean, to the plains of the Nile. Worth mentioning that the Pelasgians had been the only people of the ancient world, to who was attributed a divine origin (Homer, Iliad X.429; Odyssey xix.177: dioi Pelasgoi), probably due to their extraordinary intelligence, their moral and physical qualities, and their amazing deeds and works.

The second deified king was Saturn who had also reigned over Egypt (Diodorus, I. 13), over the vast territory from Libya (Polemonis Iliensis, fr. 102 in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum III. 148; Diodorus, III. 61) to the western Ocean. He was the main divinity of the populations subjected to Carthage and remained as predominate cult and religion even after the Roman conquest (Plato, Minos, V; Diodorus, V. 66. 5 and XIII, 86. 3; Dionysius of Halicarnassos, I. 38). And in other African areas, like Mauritania and Numidia he was venerated as an ancient national divinity, under the name Dominus and Domnus Saturnus (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum / CIL, VIII. 8452, 8461, 9329, 6353).

Similar form of government can be found amongst the Hyperboreans (Hecateus wrote that the descendants of King Boreas had the political reign over the sacred island of the Hyperboreans, as well as the administrators of Apollo’s great temple: Diodorus of Sicily, II.47), the Dacians (Horatius, Odes III.24; Strabo, VII.3.11 and XVI. 2.39; Jornandis, De Getarum sive Gothorum Origine V) and the ‘Pelasgian’ tribes of Cappadocia (Strabo, XII. 2. 3). The later Pelasgian communal style of living dated back to the blessed times of Cronos (Justinus, Historiarum ex Trogo Pompeio XLIII. 1).

The kingdom of Babylonia, which was founded in lower Mesopotamia by one so-called Belus (Philo of Byblos, Phoenician History fr. 2. 21) who was the son of Saturn I and brother of Saturn II, was an integral part of the Pelasgian empire. Its inhabitants were named Chaldeans; they did not belong to the Semitic race (Second Book of kings, 18. 26; Isaiah, 36. 11; Daniel, II. 4). Later on, they represented only the class of the priests occupied themselves with astronomical observations and prophecies.

The Chaldeans called Saturn Heliu, and claimed that he predicted the most and the biggest phenomena and events (Diodorus, II.29-31; Censorini, De die natali, VIII). Another interesting fact was that they believed in human soul’s immortality (Pausanias, IV. 32), belief that we find in other Pelasgian nations as the Hyperboreans (Plato, Axiochus, ed. Didot, II. p. 561), the Getae and the Dacians (Herodotus, IV. 94). This doctrine was not of Semitic origin, it doesn’t appear even in the laws of Moses. According to Cicero, the Chaldeans were originally from the Caucasus (De Divinatione, I. 19), perhaps meaning the vast system of mountains from north of the lower Danube. Diodorus mentions (III.56.3) that Uranos had been busy for a long

time with the observation of celestial phenomena; he was a prominent astronomer, even prophesying many things which happened in the sky.

In other traditions and legends the beginnings of astrology were attributed to Atlas, the famous king from the country of the Hyperboreans (Diodorus, III. 60.2; Alexander Polyhistor, fr. 3 in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum III. 212; Isidorus, Origins III.24. 1). Plato (Axiochus – Ed. Didot. Tom. II. p. 561) mentions that the Hyperboreans had been the first to consider the Universe as a sphere, at the centre of which was the Earth. Perhaps his deep knowledge on Cosmos and Universe forged the legend that the entire universe was supported on Atlas’ shoulders (Pliny, Historia Naturalis III.2, II.6.3 and VII.57.12).

Unfortunately, after becoming master of the ancient world, Saturn had to wage two harsh and fatal wars, one against Osiris, who had proclaimed himself king of Egypt and the other with his son Zeus. Those wars were called the ‘Second Titanomachy’ in ancient Greek literature. Osiris called Dionysos by the Greeks (Herodotus, II. 144; Diodorus, I. 11). His father, as he asserted, had been Ammon (Ouranos), the king of Libya and Egypt (Diodorus, I. 15. 6; III. 68, 70). According to ancient traditions, Osiris had been reared either at Nysa in Arabia, or at Nysa near the river Triton in Libya, where he had received instruction in all the branches of ancient sciences. According to other traditions, Saturn had three sons (Homer, Iliad XV. 187): 1. Typhoon as called by the Greeks (Philo, H. Ph. Fr. 2. 21; Diodorus, I. I. 13. 21), Seth as called by the Egyptians (Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris XLI), and Ahriman in the religious traditions of Persia and Bactria, 2. Osiris or Dionysos and 3. Zeus. The war between Osiris / Zeus and Seth / Typhoon was called ‘Gigantomachy’ in ancient Greek literature.

Concerning the ancient Pelasgian symbols, the raven was a symbol of Seth, of the the Hyperboreans, Apollo (Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 41; Herodotus, I. IV.15.2), Saturn and Mithra. Varro, mentions that the name of Saturn derives from satus, meaning the sown field (De lingua latina, V.64) On the other hand, Typhoon, according to the poet Quintus, was from Gaia melaina or Terra nigra – the fertile dark soil of humid areas (Posthomerica, V.485). Typhoon was associated with the ass, like Hephaistos, the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Mysteries of Kybele, Hestia and Dionysos).

Apollo was, also, Hyperborean (Cicero, N. D. III. 23; Diodorus, II. 47). Her sister Artemis, spent time, according to the poet Pindar, in the country near the Istru (Olympians, III. 26-27). One of his famous temples was situated in the holy island from the mouths of the Danube (Diodorus, II. 47), which called Leuke (Alba) in ancient times, today known as the ‘Serpents’ Island’. Apollo was especially venerated in all the regions of the Euxine Pontos, too (Manilius, Astronomica IV.753).

Evenmore, Achilleus (and his Myrmidons, a Pelasgian tribe) was strongly related to the area; in a fragment of the 7th century lyric poet Alcaeus (354 LP), he was called ‘ruler of Skythia’. Arctinus from Miletos in his post-Homeric epic Aethiopis, 4 (Bernabé, 1987) told the story of Achilles’ death and funeral, according to which Achilles’ body was not buried in the Troad, but it was snatched from the pyre by Thetis and brought to Leuke, the White Island.

Another Pelasgian ruler was Neptune. Ancient Greek traditions remind us, that initially he had reigned the country of the Hyperboreans, but after the dethronement of Saturn (Plato, Critias), and the great empire of the ancient world being divided, Neptune had received the territory called Atlantis. That territory which Plato called Atlantis had had in the beginning the name Aetheria (Pliny, I.IV.25.5), a Pelasgian

word, altered in Greek literature, synonymous with ‘Terra’ or Gaia (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica II.375: ateirea gaian).

In the tablets of Linear B’ scripture from Pylos, Peleia is also referred (PY tn 316) among other deities (Laoupi, 2005). Peleia is related to Poseidon, protector god of Pylos, and the sacred trinity of the female goddesses: Minoan / Mycenaean deity of Doves (pe-re- *82), Iphimedeia (i-pe-me-de-ja) and DiFia (di-u-ja, di-wi-ja). The ceremonies of sanctification were held in their altars (e.g. pe-re *82-jo = altar of Peleia). For Peleia the offerings included a golden cup and a woman. The deity pere*82 has been correlated with Phersephassa (* Persa), namely Persephone in Mycenaean Greek, but this view is not widely accepted (Palmer, 1963, pp. 20, 27, 103 & 263; Chadwick, 1987). Iphimedeia was a princess of Thessalian origin, one of the love mates of Poseidon and mother of the giants Otos and Ephialtes (Odyssey, XI 305. Apollodorus, The Library I.53; Hyginus, Fabulae 28; Ovidius, Metamorphoses VI.117). In fact, she was also a chthonian deity who was celebrated in boeotian Anthedona, Naxos and Karia, probable area of origin. Finally, DiFia was a deity of Pamphylia or the female alternative of Zeus, later known as Dione (see sacred peleiai of Dodona). Not forget, also, that since the Homeric epos, the ‘Pelasgian’ god Poseidon was related to the planet Saturn (Wood, 1991). Hesiod (Astronomy, fr. 288, 289 & 290) explicitly stated that the name of the asterism is the Doves, Peleiades, and not Pleiades (Bilić, 2006, p. 40).

Finally, some say that Atlas himself was once king of Arcadia and of the Pelasgians. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (I.61–62) refers that Dardanus' original home was in Arcadia where Dardanus and his elder brother Iasus (aka Iasion) reigned as kings following Atlas. On the other hand, the scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius (I.913) had borrowed information from Athenion, who had written a comedy called The Samothracians (XIV. p. 661), according to which he spoke of two Kabeiri, Dardanus, and Iasion. In the ancient mystic tradition of Greece, the Kabeiroi (the lost play of Aeschylus, Kabiri, was a Greek tragedy written in the 5th century BCE and it represents the earliest known appearance of these gods in Greek literature) were closely identified with a number of other korybantic daimones including the Rhodian Telchines, the Cretan Kouretes, the Kretan & Trojan Daktyloi, and the Phrygian Kyrbantes, Kedalion, the Lemnian attendant of Hephaistos. In fact Hercules was the leader of the five Daktyloi (Dactyls) who were daimones - establishers of the Olympic Games in the age of Kronos (Diodorus of Sicily, V.64.3; Strabo, VIII.3.30; Pausanias, V.7.6-10; Suidas s.v. Allos houtos Herakles).

The twin gods were also identified with the Dioskouroi symbolizing the two poles of Heaven, especially in the Argonaut myth. They are all related to the Pelasgian substratum of circum-Mediterranean and Pontic world and beyond. On the other hand, the Pelasgian substratum of Keos island includes the Telchinian princess of Keos, Dexithea, who was spared by the Gods when they destroyed Telchines and later had become wife of Minos and mother of his son Euxantius later king of Keos (Bacchylides, Fragments of Ode 1; Pindar, Paean 4 (5); Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, I. 186; Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, III.1.2).

According to Diodorus of Sicily (IV. 43), Dardanos had been a king of the Scythians, who had left his country because Zeus had killed one of his brothers. He migrated from Scythia to the island of Samothrace, and from there into Asia Minor, where he had founded near the shores of the Hellespont the city Dardanum or Dardania (later called Troy), becoming the first father and founder of the Trojan dynasty (Virgil, Aeniad VIII. 134), while according to Strabo (vii.47), Dardanos taught the Trojans the Samothracian Mysteries. According to Dionysius (I.68), the

worship of Samothrace was introduced there from Arcadia, the homeland of Dardanos. The poet Avienus calls him Draganes (Ora maritime, 196-198), and his descendents were settled in the cold countries of the North. Homer mentions that the son of Dardanos, Erichthonius, had 3,000 mares grazing on the watery plains near the Hellespont, out of which 12 were from the noble race called Boreas (northern); they hopped over the sown fields without touching them, and passed in their fast gallop over the angry waves of the vast sea (Iliad, XX. 215; XIV. 307). The Pelasgians are firstly mentioned by Homer. They were allies of Troy and in the Catalogue of Trojans they were mentioned amongst the Hellespontine cities and the Thracians of southeastern Europe (Iliad, II.840-843; X.428-429). In Odyssey (xix.175-177) they are included in the existing tribes in the 90 cities of Crete.

According to the ancient Greek traditions, the Pelasgians had dwelt in Greece even before the two legendary floods which had flowed over Attica, Beotia and Thessaly, before the times of king Ogyges and Deukalion (Herodotus, I.56, VII. 161, VIII. 44; Apollodorus, VIII. 2). And Ephorus from the Aeolian Cyme, a famous Greek historiographer of the 4th century BCE, wrote that “The tradition tells us that the Pelasgians had been the most ancient people who had ruled over Greece” (Fr. 54).

Noteworthy is also the fact that the gigantic constructions around the ancient Greek acropolises and cities in mainland Greece, Asia Minor and Italian peninsula, were called Cyclopian or Pelasgian by the ancient Greek authors. In fact, according to Aristotle the Cyclopes were the first who had built towers, or defensive fortifications, on heights (Pliny, Historia Naturalis VII. 57). Evenmore, the Pelasgians were people avid of glory (Iliad, VII.86-91) by building colossal graves (Iliad, VI.358), as well as the wealthiest people of the known ancient world (Iliad, I.154; II.230, 605, 705; III.130; IV.476; V.313, 710; VII.180; IX.137; X.315; XVIII.289; XX.220).

KEOS (CYCLADES, GREECE) AS A PRISTINE SIRIUS CULT CENTER IN THE MINOAN ARCHIPELAGO The strongest unbroken link with Pelasgians and Sirius’ prehistoric cult is provided by evidence found in ancient Keian tradition (for the decoding of the myth, see Laoupi, 2006b). A corpus of various data concealed in poetic images or hidden under the veil of allegory may function as a pool of inexhaustible sources of information. Evidence has showed that Sirius was worshipped in later Greece, specifically in Keos, near Attica. The groups of Pelasgians were related to Keos (the initial name was of ‘protohellenic’ origin and it was Keōs) and other Cycladic islands, to Minoan Crete (bee-keeping and the semiology of the bee in ritual and religion was prominent in Minoan Crete), to Attica (especially prehistoric Athens, the eastern slopes of mountain Hymettos and the area of Mesogaia), Thessaly and Arcadia. These areas were also related to specific agricultural and pastoral activities.

Furthermore, Homer (Odyssey, xix.172-178) calls Crete a land of many peoples, reporting that "...therein are many men, past counting, and ninety cities. They have not all the same speech, but their tongues are mixed. There dwell Achaeans, there great-hearted native Cretans, there Kydonians, and Dorians of waving plumes, and goodly Pelasgians". Although the general trend of archaeological research shows that Keos underwent significant Minoan influence in early times, as well as Athenians themselves (see the heavy toll to Minoans and Theseus’ trip to Crete), this paper suggests that evidence indicates fundamental continuity between a specific nucleus of prehistoric population found in Crete also, the Pelasgians. The pivotal figure of

Aristaios is detected, directly or indirectly, wherever a Pelasgic substratum exists all over the Mediterranean and Asia Minor.

The island of Keos was once called Seiria or Syria in honor of the star Sirius aka Seirios in ancient Greek (Homer, Odyssey xv.403 ff; Svoronos, 1898 and 1899 in Greek). The coins of the island depicted a young man (Aristaios / Apollo; Nonnus, Dionysiaca V.xv: Aristaios was considered as Sun’s son in Keos; Svoronos, 1899, p.

174: according to one version of the myth, Aristaios was also Cyrene’s son, Cyrene representing Selene) and the front body of a dog which emanates beams. On the other hand and according to ancient writers the name Seirios (Liddell Scott, 1980) was also an epithet of the shining Sun (like Ariadne was an epithet of Aphrodite and Phaethon an epithet of Apollo). The constellation Lepus/ the Hare which seems to be chased by the famous giant hunter Orion and his dogs (Canis major & minor) was associated with Moon’s qualities (early Egyptians believed that this constellation symbolized the Boat of Osiris/Dionysos) and along with Canis major forms the letter E, the divine and sacred letter of Hellenic race (but this correlation is beyond the scope of the present research).

Sirius on Keian coins. Source: Poole 1886:89, No 7, Pl. XXI.3 : CEOS in genere. 2nd & 1st century BCE Bronze. Poole 1886:93, No 46, Pl. XXI.25:CARTHAEA. 2nd & 1st century BCE Bronze.

Up left: Wall painting from the Hellenistic family tomb of Lysson & Kallikles (2nd century BCE), Miesa / Naoussa, Macedonia, northern Greece; Up right: Sirius on the coin of Karthaia, Keos island, Greece (see above-mentioned image). Down left: Coin of Thespiai, Boiotia, Greece (early-mid 4th century BCE); Coin of Itanus, Crete (425-380 BCE).

Six-ray star & E (triaichmon); Malia palace (on the wall of cistern used in catharsis rituals); once believed to be tectonic symbols but now considered as astronomical symbols found all over Minoan Crete. © Nikos Zervonikolakis http://www.visaltis.net/2015/04/blog-post_24.html (Greek text). For the astral cycle see also MacGillivray, 2004, p. 334 ff

Aristaios’ case proves an ancient Greek saying that ‘many names correspond to one figure’, as this mythological cycle includes various explanatory approaches, movements of prehistoric groups in the broader Mediterranean area and the recollection of a hero / benefactor of humankind (RE 1895: 852 - 859; Larson, 2001, Ch. II.5.3, pp. 84-87). The formation of the mythological substrata could be studied as following: I. The Pelasgian nucleus of Thessaly: Aristaios and his healing traits & prophecy skills (Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica, II.498, II.509-515 & IV.1128; Diodorus, Library of History IV.81.1; Cicero, De Natura Deorum III.18; Oppian, Cynegetica IV.265; Nonnos, Dionysiaca V.212 & XVII.357; Hyginus, Fabulae 161; Suidas s.v. ‘silphion’).

II. The Pelasgian nucleus of Aegean islands: Apiculture (Rose: 321- 322; Aristotle Keion Politeia fr. = Schol. in Theocr. id. 5,5; Apollonius, IV.1128; Diodorus, IV.81-82; Ovid, Fasti I.363; Oppian, IV.265; Nonnos, V.212; Hesychius, s.v. ‘ vrisai’; Pliny in his Historia naturalis (XI.xii) associated Sirius, the famous ‘honey star’, with the formation of honey at the times of its rising, since honey was collected after its rising). Especially the Keian relation between Aristaios and the legend of the Etesian Winds which led to an annual summer ceremony during the heliacal rising of Sirius is recorded by ancient writers (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica II.516-527 with scholion to II.498; Theophrastus, De ventis, IV.73; Aristotle fr 511, 611.27; Callimachus, fr. 75.32; Diodorus of Sicily, IV.82.1-3; Heraclides of Pontus, fr. 141; see also: Burkert, 1983, pp. 109-116 and Davidson, 2007, p. 207. For an in-depth analysis of peak sanctuaries see also: Cherry et al., 1991, p. 100; Kyriakidis, 2005; Earle, 2008, p. 41; Renfrew, et al., 2015).

The typology and variety of the beehives’ potsherds found during surface surveys in the area of Koressia or derived by other archaeological layers from Karthaia and Ayia Irini (Archaic and Classical deposits of the settlement) show not only the importance of apiculture for the above-mentioned areas, but also the stable relationships (economic, cultural, religious, technological) between them (Cherry, et al., 1991, pp. 260-263). Especially in Keos, there was a place-name Melissos, in the territory of the ancient city-state of Karthaia (IG xii.5 1076 1,93; Cherry, et al., 1991, p. 238).

III. The Pelasgian nucleus of Peloponnesus: Pastoralism & Agriculture (Homeric Hymn to Hermes, V.2; Hesiod, Theogony 977; Pindar Odes, Pythian IX.5965; Herodotus, I.146; Hellanicos Ia,4,F.4 Harpokrates Suidas s.v. ‘tetrarchia’; Heraklides of Pontus, FHG II.215.ix.2; Pausanias, Guide to Greece VIII.4.1; Apollonius, II.498; Diodorus, IV.81.1; Larson, 2001, ch. I.4, p. 40 & II.5.3, pp. 84-87)

Aristaios was considered as a perfectly apt hunter and sepher. People used to call him ‘agreus’ (hunter) and ‘nomios’ (sepherd), characterizations attributed to Hermes and Apollo too. The gods Hermes and Pan were primaly Arcadian deities, thus, Aristaios could be also a pastoral demon related to the Nymphs, as Orion did.

Similarly to Keians who claimed that Aristaios taught them cattle - breeding, ancient Arcadians, considered as‘ natives of Greece’, used to say that Aristaios taught the head of their race, Arcas, the art of bread-making and weaving.

IIIa. Arcadia During the 16th century BCE, Aristaios along with a group of Arcadians from Peloponnesus, Thessaly or Boeotia came to the island of Keos. According to other traditions, he left the island and moved to Arcadia, Sardenia or Thrace (all being pristine Pelasgian cult centers). Later on, during the 12th century BCE, the hero Keos, another son of Apollo, arrived to this Cycladic island giving his name to it. Modern scholars recognized the two different aspects of Artemis Kalliste in the tradition of two Arcadian female figures of Callisto (representing the Big Bear astronomically), mother of Arcas (grandson of Pelasgos), and Cyrene, mother of Aristaios.

IIIb. Argolid The rescued fragments of Hellanicos’ works often refer to the migrations of Pelasgians during prehistoric times and the strong bonds among them, from Argolid to Thessaly, the Ionian Coasts, Magna Grecia and Sicily.

IV. The Pelasgian nucleus of Eastern Mediterranean and beyond: Kadmos and Dionysos (Hesiod, Theogony 975; Apollodorus, The Library III.25 & III.30-31; Hyginus, Astronomica II.4 and Fabulae 181; Oppian, IV.265-272; Diodorus, IV.81.1; Nonnus, V.212, XIII.253-308, XIX.225, XXIV.77& XXIX.179).

The Boeotian king Kadmos, father-in- law of Aristaios, was also father of Semele, mother of god Dionysos. According to several traditions, the hero belonged to the secret custody of this god, and could be traced in the area of Thrace, where, after been initiated by Dionysos in the Thracian Mysteries, he finally disappeared on the mountain Haimos. Autonoe, daughter of Kadmos, married to the hero and gave birth to a son, Actaion, whose destiny meant to be rather cruel for he died later by goddess Artemis and his own hounds in the Boeotian mountain Kithairon.

Moreover, the figure of Aristaios is also present in the local traditions of the Euboean cities of Eretria and Karystos, which was built across the northern coasts of Keos. Aristaios traveled also to India, in the Indian River Hydaspes along with god Dionysos.

V. The Pelasgian nucleus of Attica: Viticulture – Dogs - Lion hunting (Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 154 & 476; Herodotus, VI.137; Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution XXXIX.2; Pausanias, I.38.3; Plutarch , On Exile 607b; Apollodorus, II. 5.12; Kearns, 1989).

In ancient Athenian tradition, the native Pelasgians were expelled from Attica by the Athenians, when the former cultivated successfully the land at the foot of mountain Hymettos, given to them as exchange gift for the erection of the ‘Cyclopian’ Walls. In after centuries, the Athenian calendar began at Sirius's rising. According to Graves (1969), Orthrus (the morning twighlight), mate of Echidna and father of Chimaera, the Sphinx, the Hydra and the Nemean Lion, symbolized the Dog Star having two heads – the Lion and the Serpent – thus, representing the new reformed calendric Athenian year. Hecate was also involved in Sirius’ lore as she was considered protector of the dogs (Artemis- Selene – Hecate).

But, although Aristaios holds a primal position in the local tradition of ancient Keians, their neighbours, the Athenians, attributed the sacred knowledge of viticulture

to god Dionysos, relating it to the tragic story of Icarius and her daughter Erigone (later in this paper the interconnection of Sirius and Apollo/Dionysos will be revealed). This tragic story (Kearns, 1989) though contains the elements of Pelasgian Sirius’ cult, as the girl’s dog, Maera or Maira, which itself means ‘Shining’, refers to Sirius, since her mistress Erigone was transformed into Virgo, and her master Icarius into Boötes (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.4). Then the god Dionysos punished Athenians (making their maidens to lose their mind and hung themselves), or especially the sepherds who were responsible for Icarius and Erigone’s deaths. According to a different version, the sepherds fled Attica finding refuge in the island of Keos (Theodossiou, et al., 2011).

On the other hand, Sirius annually, from its heliacal rising to 22 August, was also called ‘Maira’ (< ancient Greek verb marmairo = ‘to shine’ Palatine or Greek Anthology, 1917, 9, p. 55). And Maera was a starry goddess, daughter of the Titan Atlas, who was also strongly related to the arcadian lore and tradition (Theodossiou, et al., 2011). The Hellenistic poet Callimachus mentions (Aetia, fr. 3.1) “The [Kean] priests of Zeus Aristaios Ikmaios (the Lord of Moisture): priests whose duty is upon the mountaintops - to assuage stern Maira [Seirios] when she rises” (Sirius as female deity). Finally, Sirius was called ‘Maira’s star’ by the epic poet Nonnus of Panopolis (Dionysiaca, V.5.220-222).

Another interrelation of archaeoastronomical data with Athenian and Minoan traditions is that after Orion’s death, Artemis donated his exquisite hound to Procris, daughter of Athenian Erechtheus or to Zeus and Europa, the son of which (Minos) gave it to Procris because she had healed him (Theodossiou, et al., 2011).

Considering that Sirius’ cult among various ‘ proto-hellenic’ groups should have adopt concrete symbolic language and archetypes, this work deals also with transculturality at a cognitive level. According to this methodological framework the motive of hunting lion seems to be appropriate for the connection between summer solstice (the beginning of dog-days and the heliacal rising of Sirius) and solar deities.

The above-mentioned interrelation had been built especially in the geographical area of attico-cycladic cultural structures. Since former times, people of Attica knew about the existence of a cave near the area of Spata, on the northeastern slopes of mountain Hymettos, the name of which was ‘ Lion Cave’. Apart from the intense use of its space by shepherds and the later cult of god Pan and the Nymphs (cave sanctuary), the local traditions (Wordsworth, 18362 / 2004, pp. 126 & 212 / note 3; Scully, 1962, p.

220 / note 19; Goette, 2001, pp. 191-192; Karali, Mavrides and Kormazopoulou 2005) date back to prehistoric times. Ancient lore says that a fierce lion having its den in the cave, used to terrorize the local population of the Mesogaia plain (the slopes of Hymettus and the areas of eastern Attica where the nuclei of Pelasgian settlements were found).

The Keian tradition of the hunting lion is a very interesting version. Formerly, the island was called Meropis and Hydroussa (land full of water) and it was Nymphs’ favourite homeland (Ovidius, Epistulae Heroidum k 221). The Nymphs, spirits related to water (in the form of ocean, spring, lake or river), dwelled in the woods (the eastern coasts of Attica and the island of Keos were characterized by the abundance of specific species of oaktree: see Plinius, Historia Naturalis IV.5.xviii; Hesychius s.v. ‘saronidas drys’; Scholia in Callimachum, Jovem Hymn 22. Nowadays, a tiny part of this oak forest has survived in the inner part of the island. This type of vegetation refers to wetter and colder weather conditions, previous to historical periods). But, unfotunately, the Gods kept a jealous eye on island’s prosperity, so they sent a ferocious lion to chase the Nymphs out of it. This beast gave its name to a northern

Keian promontory, later known as ‘the peninsula of Kephala’, where a neolithic settlement and cemetery have been already excavated. In plan, the promontory is shaped like a horse’s or dog’s head.

Apart from the strong parallels between the cycladic islands, general parallels between Kephala and Thessaly are found in the form of cultural items (e.g. terracotta figurines) and architectural features. Moreover, a connection between Kephala and Late Neolithic mainland of the South (Argolid and Attica) is detected by researchers (Coleman, 1967, p. 1, 172-173 and 1977). On the other side of the island, inland, southeasternly of the ancient capital Ioulis, lays the statue of an enigmatically smiling Lion - kwown as ‘Liontas’ by local people (Welter, 1954, pp. 78-86: connection of the statue with the prehistoric tradition of Nymphs’ pursuit). The archaic statue 6.40 m. long, dated ca to 600 BCE (although there is a strong correlation with the megalithic monuments of perehistoric times), is carved on hard granite (Chartophylakides, 1962, p. 11: referred also by Goethe in his diary where the writer comments on P.O.Bröndsted related monograph). Nearby, at Ioulis, the temples of Apollo, Artemis and Dionysos were built during the historic period (Mendoni, 1991).

A parallel myth which described severe hydroclimatic changes in Bronze Age Greece was the one referring to the island of Aigina in Saronic Gulf, initially colonized by the Pelasgians. According to this version, the jealous goddess Hera wanted to punish the inhabitants of the islands by sending a dragon (instead of a lion), in the form of drought and plague, which devastated the majority of living population.

Then Zeus transformed the ants of the islands into people and called them Myrmidons, the ancestral tribe of the Homeric hero Achilles (Ovid, Metamorphoses VII. 520 ff; Strabo, Geography VIII.6.16).

VI. The Pelasgian nucleus of Western Mediterranean: the colonization & the silphium trade (Hesiod, The Catalogues of Women fr. 93 [from Servius on Vergil, Georgics 1.14]; Pausanias, X0.17.3; Diodorus, IV.81.1; Nonnus, XIII.253). The figure of Aristaios is also present in the local traditions of ancient Corfu and Sicily, the coasts of North Africa and Sardenia.

Sirius A (Canicula Constellation / Orion’s Family: alpha Canis Major, alpha CMa) is the brightest star in the night-time sky, with a visual apparent magnitude of 1.46 (only the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and periodically Mars are brighter than Sirius). This probably triple star system consists of a blue-white main sequence dwarf star, a faint white dense and heavy dwarf companion, and Sirius C as proposed in 1994 and 1995 respectively by two researchers from the Observatoire de Nice in France (Benest and Duvent, 1995). It is located in the constellation Canis Major.

Sirius A can be seen from almost every inhabited region of the Earth's surface (only those living north of 73.284 degrees can't see it) and, in the Northern Hemisphere, is known as a vertex of the Winter Triangle (Gatewood, 1978; Henshaw, 1984).

Apart from the references in Homeric Odyssey (e.g. v, 271), Iliad seems to start with the reappearance of Achilles, in other words, of Sirius in northern skies and especially in the latitude of Grece, around 8.900 BCE, after a period of 7.000 years of disappearance due to the phenomenon of Precession of the Equinoxes (Woods, 1991). The icon of the dog in Phaistos disc (appeared 10 times) has been also recognised by some researchers as the symbol of Sirius a (Kilbourne Matossian, 2013, pp. 243-244). Sirius a is one of the main stars by which maritime navigation is quarried out. In June 24, at 5am Sirius rised.

On the other hand, wind patterns with their regularity and intensity, along with oceanographic characteristics, controlled the seafaring operations of Mediterranean since the prehistoric times (Davis, 1979; Barber, 1987; Cline, 1994). In the Odyssey,

Aiolos ties up adverse winds in a leather bag which he gives to Odysseus to assure a safe home-voyage. Later myths refer to him as controller or king of the winds, in which role he persists through the ages (Odyssey, x. 1 – 76; Apollodorus, E 7.10; Hyginus, 125; Ovidius, Metamorphoses 14.223-232). Magical control of the winds only becomes important when seafaring is a critical part of a nation's life. So, he is pivotal in some major trade routes, as he may symbolize the priest who performs wind-magic or the prehistoric king who has the power to manipulate naval trade routes, being possibly less a mythic symbol than a real figure in the historical record.

As for the Minoan religious belief system, a powerful link between Neolithic societies, ‘proto-hellenic’ nuclei and Mycenean Greek cultural expression, P. Faure (1994 & 2002), having assumed that any sign from Hieroglyphic or Linear A that was identical to one known in both Linear B and the related Cypriot syllabary, had the same meaning as the Linear B-Cypriot one, analyzed inscriptions on offerings (e.g. the libation formulae IO Za 2.1-2, VRY Za 1, SY Za 3, IO Za 9, TL Za 1, KO Za 1, where SI-RU-TE appears) found at ten (10) caves or underground caverns in Crete, well known centers of Minoan cult. In fact, couples of these were associated with peak sanctuaries. Comparing the inscriptions piece by piece to very early Greek, Faure came to some intriguing conclusions. Among the Minoan deities’ names identified by Faure and found across the island of Crete, at Petsopha, Juktas, Apodoulou, Mt. Vryssinas, Psychro, Kato Symi and Arkalochori, the name Si-ru or Se-ri-o also appears. Apart from Siru or Serio, who represents a ‘sun’ god, there is a lunar / solar trinity including Nopina (in later Greek = Nymph or Maiden), who represents a new-moon goddess and Ma (in later Greek = Mother), who represents a full-moon goddess (see also Owens, 2007, Addenda). Figures of the sun and moon occur frequently in Minoan iconography (Morgan, 1990; Faure, 2002).

The name of Sirius in Minoan religion. After Faure, 2002

At Knossos divinities are mentioned in contexts dealing with offerings made to them. Among the cult personnel, the priestess of the Winds (A-NE-MO I-JE-REJA = hiereia anemon) is most often mentioned. She receives honey on behalf of the powers which she serves. This priestess of the Winds could be a prominent personality in Sirius’ cult (and its relation with the Etesian winds) in the broader priesthood of Cycladic cult centers (e.g. on the highest peak of Keos’ island during summer ceremonies). But in contrast to Knossos, where only this Priestess is certainly identified as a human cult personage, Pylos tablets mention a large number of priests and priestesses (Palmer, 1963; Chadwik, 1987). Consequently, each prominent maritime civilization all over the world should have an apt knowledge of climatic / meteorological / astronomical phenomena, in order to perform successful open sea

voyages in a steady base. Furthermore, it should build a symbolic system within social network, in order to insure the proper elaboration of its continuity.

Moreover, the triptych of Fire / Light - Winds - Rainfall / Dew is clearly recognised in the structure of Aristaios’ myth. Aristaios was one of the prime hierophants in Sirius’ cult initially performed in peak sanctuaries. The ancient traditions wanted Aristaios to be the first observer of Sirius’ heliacal rising in the island of Keos (Justin’s Epitome of the History of Pompeius Trogus, XIII.vii).

This strong bond between winds and rainfall patterns is also detected on mountain Hymettus (Young, 1940: 1-9; Langdon, 1976, pp. 7-8, 78-80 & 96-97), where ancient Athenians worshipped Zeus, as god of Rainfall, and Apollo, as god both of Fire and Dew (Pausanias, I.32.2; Hesychius, s.v. ‘ hymettios’). So, the primordial Cycladic ceremonies that honoured Sirius and other deities of moisture and winds had later been transformed into another ceremonial framework (Caskey, 1971; Rutkowski, 1986; Peatfield, 1987; Rutkowski, 1988; Peatfield, 1989, 1990 & 1995; Watrous, 1995 & 1996; Sakellarakis, 1996).

On the other hand, the Pelasgian substratum of Arcadia (Greece) is reflected on Apollo’s cult. The Classical majestic temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassai (Peloponnesus, Greece), probably built by the architect of the Parthenon Iktinos, it is considered as one of the most important and most imposing temples of antiquity (Pausanias, 8.41.7; Dinsmoor, 1933), and the first Greek site to be inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1986 (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/392). It was constructed for the inhabitants of Phigaleia in honour of god Apollo and in gratitude for their salvation from the long and devastating disease epidemics that had plagued the area after 430 BCE, along with and the coincidence of a sighting of an Aurora borealis (Liritzis and Vassiliou, 2002-2003 & 2006). Apart from being the only building which combined elements of three architectural styles of antiquity (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian), it is orientated North to South and it is rotatable around its own axis in 50.2΄΄ in order to bee coordinated with the star Sirius a, and the Precession of the Equinoxes.

In 1968 the American archaeologist Fred Kooper (1992-1996) found that the temple has moved out of his position, sitting on anarrimmata (debris) He also observed great wear, subsidence to floors and to the stairs in the South, and a general torsion or translocation of a sliding southward of the entire of the temple. There is also an observation made by modern researchers that the temple, mount Taygetos and Eleusis (Pelasgian/ Minoan substratum) are the three tops of an isosceles triangle.

The twin sister of Apollo, Artemis, holds the bow of Sirius, the Bow Star, and releases the hounds of hell upon Aktaion (son of Aristaios) in order to kill him. Her hounds symbolize Sirius constellation. She is a symbolization of Sirius before being a symbolization of Moon (Temple, 1976). On the other hand, in many myths, the Moon is a 'front man' for Sirius and the crescent may be interpreted as the waning of star’s light, almost to vanishing point.

The Cherokee paired Sirius with Antares as a dog-star guardian of the ‘Path of Souls’. The Skidi tribe of Nebraska knew it as the ‘Wolf Star’, in Chinese and Japanese astronomy, Sirius is known as the ‘star of the celestial wolf’, while further north, the Alaskan Inuit of the Bering Strait called it ‘Moon Dog’ (Holberg, 2007). According to the Incas, Sirius symbolized the jaguar, and for the Tahitians and Samoans in Polynesia, it was their zenith star.

Sirius has been Earth’s brightest star, apart for the Sun, for the last 90 ky, after Canopus aka α Carinae (Sirius is the closest 1- magnitude star to Canopus) and it will remain as such for the next 210 ky before Vega. In 60 ky from now, it will be at

the closest distance from our planet and shine a little more brightly (Schaaf, 2008).

Its worldwide lore and its correlation with the constellation of Orion is recent (few thousands years) due to its motion in Heavens, thus we have an excellent archaeoastronomical tool to date the creation of the Orion and Sirius myth (Laoupi, 2016).

SIRIUS, DIONYSOS, APOLLO, DRACO. MORE EVIDENCE The young Cretan Dionysos (aka Iacchus associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, where he was called "the light-bringing star of our nocturnal rite" = Sirius and Sothis; Aristophanes, Frogs 316-353; Harrison, 1991) was originally a dying and resurrecting Minoan vegetation god; remember, also, that Demeter looked for her daughter Phersephasa aka Persephone wandering the Earth for nine days, and that the Eleusinian mysteries, held in honour of the two goddesses, lasted for nine days; the 9-day Minoan week; Hephaistos was falling from the sky for nine days before landing on Lemnos island, and spent nine years in the deep ocean; Deucalion sailed for nine days and nine nights until, at the end of the flood, he landed on Mount Parnassus (see also the 9-year pattern in Artemis mythological cycles, Harrod, 1976, p. 66); Philoctetes spent nine years on the island of Lemnos, before Troy could be conquered; Minos was ‘enneoros’ (Blomberg and Henriksson, 1996); Heracles and Apollo had to serve nine years in order to be cleansed of their blood crime (Barbanera, 2013). The solemn rites and festivities of Pelasgic Kabeirian Mysteries in northeastern Greece (e.g. Lemnos, Imbros and Samothrace) took place every nine years. From the earliest times, the Pelasgians are said to have sacrificed a tenth of their produce to the Cabeiri in order to be protected against famine. Their chief priest was probably the hierophantes mentioned by Galen (III. 576); The famous Delphia in honour of Apollo took also place every nine years- celebrating the triumph of God over the terrifying forces of Life and Death, personified by the Python Serpent / the Dragon: a metonic 18-year cycle broken down into two periods and a full growing up of a human being with the two 9-year semi-periods (biological and social till the age of 18).

Moreover, Sirius was the key star related to the Eleusinian Mysteries (Penrose, 1892 and 1893; Lockyer, 1893 and 1894). It was shining as it rose at midnight along the axis of the temple on the middle of September (Homer, Iliad V.5: Sirius is charachterized as autumn star). Eleusian traditions are also very old, as they belong to the ‘proto-hellenic’ religious nucleus. Poseidon’s son, Eumolpos, chief of the Eleusinians, wared against Erichtonios, king of Athenians. Although Athenians won this war, they let Eleusinians to maintain the privilege of supervising the Mysteries. In fact, Eumolpos was the founder of the Mysteries honouring Demeter and Dionysos (Kerenyi, 1967and 1976) and the teacher of viticulture and the cultivation of fruitbearing trees. The highest priests of the most solemn ceremonies during Eleusinian Mysteries were elected among Eumolpides, one of the older sacred families in later Athenian history (Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 154 & 476; Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution XXXIX.2; Pausanias, I. 38.3; Plutarch, On Exile 607b; Apollodorus, II. 5.12).

On the other hand, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo mentions for the first time a she-dragon (drakaina), which has no name but she was called Delphyne in later literature before turning into a male dragon (Fonterose, 1959). The name dolf (with the regional variants dulf and dorf) is also found in Romanian culture meaning the sea

monster and it is found in folklore carols associated with Christmas and New Year well-wishing ceremonies (Poruciuc, 2005). Marija Gimbutas made once again the difference as she brilliantly correlated the Greek word delphis (δελφίς) with Apollo Delphinius and his celebration at Delphi Oracle, as well as with the term for delphus or dolphos (δελφύς,δολφός), which means the womb / uterus. Therefore, Delphi along with many other pristine cult centress of Prehistory was a ‘body temple of mother Earth’ where rebirth rituals were probably held (Gimbutas, 1980). Thus, the writer supports the signification of the number nine related to the gestation period of women included in the calendar of the god Apollo.

In the Tsodilo Hills (Kalahari Desert, northwestern Botswana) the humankind’s oldest ritual evidence on snake/serpent worship has been found by Norwegian scientists. The same area is characterized as the largest concentration of rock paintings in the world and it is a Unesco World Heritage Site. The cult referred to pythons and was dated back to at least 70 kya (Erasmus, 1992; Hogan, 2008; Coulson, et al., 2011). The presence of serpents is a very strong ancestral symbolism of feminine chthonic aspect, present in Athena’s legendary cycle (in Athenian Parthenon, too). Thus, the veneration of the snakes dates back to Paleolithic times and all the later sacred ‘womb-centres’ of the ancient world had serpent-guardians, e.g.

Delphi as Earth’ cult with her guardian Python (Marler, 2002).

The motif of the Earth-encircling serpent survived from Neolithic times and it was strongly related to fertility (e.g. the Vinca culture) but in ancient Greek historic tradition, there were two forms of serpent, the zig-zagging Hydra (the feminine for ‘water’) at the Ecliptic as a southern constellation, and Draco (breath of fire) who spirals around the ‘chasm’ as a northern constellation. The head and the tail of the dragon symbolize the ascending and descending nodes of the moon (Valentia Straiton, 1927). The serpent which encircles the tree (Axis mundi) watches over Eden and it is the guardian of the cosmic treasures in the ancient lore of cultures.

The people of the Indus Valley and the Harappan civilization shared many traits with the Cretans of their time, such as, for instance, the bull cult and snake worship, and an emphasis on maritime trade; practically all the Harappan cities were built on the seashore or on navigable rivers (Mode, 1944).

Another intriguing topic concerns the Dragon Houses found in the island of Euboea - Central Greece, and elsewhere, in Mt Hymettus – Attica (the entire quarry area is described by A. Milchhoefer, and J. A. Kaupert, 1883, pp. 25-28; the Dragon House is labelled ‘Steinhaus’ in map 4), in Mane (southern Peloponnese, Cape Tainaro, aka ‘kolossospita’, from colossus; related to the cult of Poseidon and Helios Apollo) – similar but smaller constructions, in Aegina island - Saronicos Gulf (under the peak of Mt Oros, 300 m. asl, near the village Sfedouri) and in Karia - Asia Minor, near the Halicarnassus peninsula. In the southern part of the island of Euboea, at the broader area of Styra, there are 23 to 26 ‘dracospita’ (depending on the count and their remnants) that were built by the Prehellenic tribes of Leleges (Starbo, 7.7.12 ‐[321‐2], 13.1.58‐59 [611]), Avantes and / or Dryopes derived from Pelasgians (Homer, Iliad II. 536; Herodotus, I.146, I.171, VIII.46; Pausanias, IV. xxxiv.9), once having their homeland at the mountains of Oete and Parnassus, and later, around 1200 BCE, moving to Southern Euboea and Cyclades, where, as settlers, they gave the name Dryopis to Kythnos island (Kythnos was the name of their king). Initially, during the 19th century CE, some archaeologists (Ulrichs, 1842) considered them as sanctuaries of Teleia Hera (the ‘legal’ wife of Zeus and thus protector of marriage), while others (Bursian, 1855) believed that they were places for the worship of Hercules. In 1925, Fr. P. Johnson was the first to connect these buildings with the

Karians. In favour of their religious usage were also other scientists as Th. Wiegand (1896), J. Carpenter and D. Boyd (1977), and the excavator N.K. Moutsopoulos (1992).

Theodossiou, et al. (2009), after studying the area and the building of the Mt. Oche drakospito that lies at an altitude of 1386m (4547 feet), proposed the possible astronomical alignments among the brightest stars, and especially Sirius. After using two separate astronomical planetarium programs, the team discovered a rise of Sirius orientation of the southern wall for 1060 BCE ± 30 years, and of the northern wall for 1150 BCE ± 30 years, the average for both walls being 1105 BCE, fact that corresponds to Moutsopoulos (1960) dating to 8th century BCE (based on the artefacts inside the building).

Probably these constructions were both observatories (in a network) and peak sanctuaries or ‘watch-towers’ of the Sky. Their interrelation with the etymology of the word ‘drakon’ (Modern Greek: ‘drakos’, from which the modern term ‘drakospito’ was derived) though, as Theodossiou, et al. (2009) wisely pintpointed, is the most amazing evidence of their significance. The ancient Greek verb δέρκομαι means to See clearly, to Watch, to Observe. The root of its past tense (drak-) gives us the word dragon (δράκων), which in ancient Greek means “… the one who observes”! In fact, ancient worldwide symbols of the Axis Mundi from the zenith to the nadir concept (Rappenglueck, 2005) were amongst others, the omphalos (navel) and the snake (dragon).

According to the decipherment of esoteric lore, each symbol has seven interpretations. Dragon, represented by Draco constellation, was the ultimate symbol of Logos, one of the most pristine symbols of Humankind, its name charachterized the wise men, the astrologers, the mystics, as well as it was interrelated with the cosmic flood aka Deluge and the pyramids (Valentia Straiton, 1927).

In addition, the researcher Dr Duncan Steel (1997) suggested that the earlier henge circle in Stonehenge was ‘a cosmic impact early warning system’. In parallel, Dr Reinoud de Jonge built a hypothesis which correlates many petroglyphs and megalithic monuments of prehistoric Europe to the disasters caused by comets (comets in the ancient lore were symbolized by the dragons or feathered serpents).

Thus these monuments were both memory books for the past catastrophic events, as well as astronomical observatories for predicting future space-induced disasters (De Jonge and Wakefield, 2002).

THE CYGNUS HYPOTHESIS The famous megalithic site of Göbekli Tepe, dated between 10 and 9 kya onwards, on an isolated mountaintop in southeast Anatolia - modern Turkish Asia Minor (37.2083° N, 38.9167° E), is characterized by a series of stone enclosures that gave to the site its fame because it is considered today as world’s oldest known temple. Among the proposed astronomical orientations, made by researchers of our era, the most prominent are these of Orion (Schoch, 2012) / Sirius (Green, 1992; Magli, 2013: Sirius was actually invisible from the latitude of Göbekli Tepe between ca 15 kya to 9.3 kya) and Cygnus (vulture) with its brightest star, Deneb. In fact, this star marks the opening of the Milky Way's Dark Rift, seen universally in the past as an entrance to the sky-world or the Nether-world (Collins, 1999; Collins, 2014).

Noteworthy is the fact that there is a worldwide ancient correlation (see, for example Little, 2014) between Cygnus (the Northenr Cross) and Orion constellations

as key-places of the soul’s journey into the afterlife. The motif of Milky Way as a path that the bird-like spirits, the shamans and the migratory birds took in their way to other cosmic strata is already detected in Paleolithic cosmovision (Rappengluck, 2009).

Scottish Western Isles prehistoric people associated swans with the northerly transmigration of the soul since whooper swans (and also greylag geese) migrated northwards to their breeding grounds in Iceland each spring, “carrying the souls of the dead to heaven, which lay 'north beyond the north wind'”, according to their mythology. Moreover, Cygnus constellation was essentially circumpolar in the northern night sky. The central axis of Avebury stone monument in England (dated to ca 2600-2000 BCE) was aligned to the setting of the star Deneb in Cygnus. Especially the only carving stone (#25S in the Kennet Avenue) which is visible and standing shows the head and neck of a swan. The place was linked with the ancient British goddess Bride (aka Brigid, Bridget, Breeshey and Brigantia), whose main totemic symbols are the swan and serpent (Collins, 1999). As in other cult cases of serpent, birds and winged serpents, there also death and rebirth pivotal cosmovision was present (Burl, 1985). The famous Newgrange monument in Ireland seems to be orientated to this constellation (known also as the snakeman), too.

The inverse symbolization of the birds (in this case of the storks) as bringers of newborn babies was expressed by the Baltic people, but the whole concept seems to be survived from Neolithic times and beyond, as murals from Çatal Höyük depict human foetuses inside the bodies of vultures (Collins, 1999). In ancient Egypt, too, vultures symbolized the Mother and they were worn as talismans that attracted motherly love and protection (Valentia Straiton, 1927).

In ancient Indian wisdom traditions, Brahma rides on a sky-car pulled by seven swans, while the swan-goose is the avatar of his wife Saraswati (Danino, 2010).

Furthermore, in ancient Vedic astronomy, Hamsa, the swan-goose, was associated with the stars of Cygnus, the constellation of which located on the Milky Way, as the point of creation in the Universe.

Cygnus constellation should also be considered as a key constellation in Olmec and Mayan astronomy (Hatch, 1971). The beautiful bird Seven Macaw which sits atop the World Tree in Maya tradition can easily be interpreted as Cygnus constellation and the Milky Way (Freidel, et al., 1993). In South America, Inca towns like Cuczo and its Sacred Valley were aligned with Cygnus, too (Collins, 1999).

Moreover, Cygnus the Swan has been associated with Orpheus. Dionysos’ father was Zeus and natural mother was Persephone (Semele was his surrogated mother); this fact explains Dionysos’ relation with the Eleusinian Mysteries and especially with Persephone (according to the Ionian philosopher Heraclitus, fr. 15 DK, Hades and Dionysos were the same). According to the ancient Greek lore, the kingships of Orpheus were six and Dionysos was the last king nominated by Zeus (Orphic Αποσπάσματα, 207-208; Proclus, Comments on Cratylos 171.20). Augur, seer, astrologer, musician, of Thracian origin, he was considered as a pioneer of culture, teaching humanity the arts of medicine, writing, agriculture (having the role of the Eleusinian Triptolemos), the religious life and the mystic rites, known as the Orphic Mysteries (Aristophanes, Frogs 1032; Plato, Republic 364e), being, thus, related to Apollo and Dionysos (Pseudo-Apollodorus mention in Library and Epitome, 1.3.2 that “Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysos, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria”). All over Mediterranean there was a major seasonal day of celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. In Apollo’s temples and sanctuaries the birth of Orpheus (Osiris/Dionysos) was celebrated during that

date. Respectively, the festival of lesser (or rural) Dionysia celebrated in Athenian tradition, coincided with the ‘clearing of the wine’ (a final stage in the fermentation process), which occurred during the first cold snap after the Winter Solstice when Dionysos was said to be reborn (he presided over the Winter Solstice).

Furthermore, Pindar (Pythian Odes, 4.176) and Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica, I.23-34; IV, 891-909) placed Orpheus as the harpist and companion of Jason and the Argonauts. He was also one of the heroes who visited the sinister realm of Ades (like Odysseus, Hercules, Theseus and Perseus).

An intriguing aspect of Orpheus’ legend is also her wife Euridice. The Roman poet Virgil was the first to introduce the name of Aristaeus related to this couple, since Euridike fleeing from Aristaeus (son of Apollo) ran into a nest of snakes which bit her fatally on her heel (Georgics, IV.456). According to another legend of this cycle, Orpheus travelled to Tartarus charming the goddess Hecate. So, modern researchers suspected that the story of Eurydice may actually be a late addition to the Orpheus mythical cycle, since her name recalls cult-titles attached to Persephone.

Pausanias wrote that Orpheus found rites in honour of Hecate, the Savior Maid and Demeter Chthonia (II.xxx.2; III.xiii.2; III.xiv.5). Pausanias noted, also, that an image of Orpheus, attributed to the Pelasgians, stood in the sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter at Therae in Laconia (iii.xx.5). This reinforces the modern interpretation of the lunar triad: Hecate symbolizing the Underworld and the moonless nights, Selene symbolizing Earth’s satellite and Artemis being the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon in Eleusinian Mysteries.

All the same, this ‘dual’ reality of Orpheus (appearance and disappearance is perfectly matched with Dionysos’ cult. Eratosthenes (pseudo-Eratosthenes, Katasterismoi 24) gave also a very interesting version of Orpheus’ death, according to which Orpheus neglected the cult of Dionysos preferring Apollo as the supreme deity instead. Then, the angry god sent his followers to rip Orpheus apart. Eliade (1964 / new edition, 2004) made a mind-blowing correlation for this shamanistic duality, pointing out that bacchic enthusiasm was different from Apollonian shamanistic charachteristics, exhibiting a bipolar pattern (Graff, 1987). The god Dionysos was antagonistic in Orpheus’ myth but symbiotic in his cult, and Apollo was symbiotic in Orpheus’ myth but antagonistic in his cult (Carliski Pozzi and Moore, 1991). This symbolizes the initial alliance between Dionysiac and Apollonian cult, for example the Delphic identification of these two gods (Privitera, 1970, pp. 146-147).

The disappearance of the god Apollo coincided, too, with the reappearance of Dionysos and vice versa (Castro, et al., 2015). The orientation of Apollo’s temple at Delphi is northeastern and related to the constellations of Lyra (around 15 to 14 kya α Lyrae akaVega was the pole star), Cygnus (around 18 to 17 kya Deneb aka Alpha cugni was the pole star) and Delphinus (Liritzis and Castro, 2013). Finally, Lyra (representing the lyre of Orpheus in ancient Greek tradition, with the help of which this great musician succeeded in quelling the voices of the dangerous Sirens during the Argonautic expedition) was viewed by some cultures as a vulture (Aquila Cadens or Vultur cadens, the falling eagle or vulture), symbol of death (Garber, 2008). The word Vega derives from the Arabian ‘Waki’, which took the form of Wega in the Alfonsine Tables. Its full Arabian name is ‘Al Nasr al Waki’ meaning the soaring eagle.

This coexistence of dionysiac and apollonian cult patterns may also explain the presence of both gods in Keos (Apollo related to Aristaios, the latest being an epithet of the god, Keos being a pristine Sirius cult center of Bronze Age Cyclades) as the evidence suggests (Kerényi, 1976; Papageorgiadou-Banis, 1997). Dionysos was

present in the Bronze Age temple at Ayia Eirini settlement (modern Vourkari) along with the dozens of famous female terracotta statues of ‘cult dancers’ as the excavations had revealed (Caskey, 1971; Gorogianni, 2011). The settlement was located 30 kilometers away from the Greek mainland and 270 kilometers from the Minoan capital of Knossos on Crete and Dionysiac sancturay is considered as the earliest known of its kind (Larson, 2007, p. 128).

According to a version of ancient myth, Cygnus the Musician-king of the Ligurians was the dearest friend of Phaethon, son of Helios. He was, also, the sacred bird of Apollo (and the Hyperboreans) and strongly related to the Oracle of Delphi (Fonterose, 1959). A very intriguing suggestion relates also the name of Cyclades to Cygnus, naming them as Cygnades, the priestess of Artemis at Delos were called Kyknee and the priests of Apollo kyknoi (Koutelakis, 2008 and 2015 both in Greek).

Another amazing fact is that the distance between Delphi and Delos island were 1460 stadia, 1460 being the number of the Sothic Cycle which may be divided into 4 giving the number of 365 (one solar year).

Another breath taking hypothesis includes the megalithic monument of Stonehenge as a temple of Apollo built by the Hyperboreans. Hecateus of Abdera (4th century BCE) was the first ancient writer who identified Hyperborea with Britain (fr. in Diodorus of Sicily: II.47-48). The circular temple he mentions has been identified with the famous Stonehenge by some researchers (Squire, 2003; Brodgman, 2005, pp.

163-173; Tsikritsis, et al., 2013). According to the ancient lore, Hercules, Theseus and even Perseus visited the place (Rendel Harris, 1925).

Diodorus Siculus, the famous 1st century BCE Greek historian, referring to Hecateus of Miletus, the first geographer of the 4th century BCE, mentioned that (II.47): “Hecateus and a few others claim that, beyond the country of the Celts, there is in the Ocean an island no smaller than Sicily. It stretches northwards and is inhabited by the Hyperboreans. They are so called because they live beyond the lands where Boreas, the North wind, blows… Leto is said to have been born on that isle.

This is why Apollo, Leto’s son, is the god most honoured there… From this island, the Moon appears to be at a short distance from Earth and is said to display mountains, clearly visible, as there are on Earth. Every 19 years, the god is to come back, to visit the isle. After this time, the stars return to their primitive positions.

This is why among the Hellenes, too, the duration of 19 years is called the year of Meton... At the time of this appearance of the god he both plays on the cithara and dances continuously the night through from the vernal equinox until the rising of the Pleiades, expressing in this manner his delight in his successes. And the kings of this city and the supervisors of the sacred precinct are called Boreadae, since they are descendants of Boreas, and the succession to these positions is always kept in their family”.

In paralell, the bird goddesses had a very pristine background. Homer (Odyssey, xx.66-78) described the three Harpies as the personification of storm winds related to pre-Olympian Athena as a destroyer (Graves, 1969; present also in Çatal Höyük iconography, Marler and Haarmann, 2007). In Etruscan mythology, Persephone was called Alpan or Alpanu and apart from being a ruler of the Underworld, she was also a goddess of Love usually depicted as a nude or semi-nude winged maiden. And there was the Etruscan goddess of love, fertility and vitality Turan / Tinia, protector of doves and swans (Puhvel, 1984; Owens, 2007, IV, p. 220: the word may be connected with the word TU-RU-SA in Linear A script of Minoan Crete).

The Sirens were beautiful winged women, too. Daughters of the river Acheloos and the Muse Melpomene or Terpsichore (Apollonius of Rhodes, IV.805 & 904; Apollodorus, I.3.4) or Gaia herself (Euripides, Hecuba, 169). Hyginus (Fabulae, 110.51), followers of Persephone and servants of Dionysos in the realm of death, they were punished by Demeter to turn into marine birds with beautiful girl faces and charming voices (Euripides, Helen 168), which lived on an island in the southwestern shores of Italy or Sicily. Poor mariners, who were seduced by their songs, were devoured by them. Homer mentions two of them (Odyssey, xii.56). Odysseus and the Argonauts were among those who were not seduced by the song of the Sirens (Orpheus, Argonautica 1281). According to the oracle, when this happened, the birds dropped into the sea and drawned (Odyssey, xii.39 -46 & 173). It should, also, be noted that the Greek word ‘Siren’ means ‘twinkler’, if it is correctly derived from the rare verb 'seriazein' ‘to twinkle’ (the name of Sirius is derived from the same root); the word is applied, too, to the planets according to the Pythagorean school (Pararas and Laoupi, 2007).

It has been suggested, at various times, that ancient humans had knowledge and use of unseen powers, forces and energy fields. There is no question, that as it has always existed, the EM Spectrum is a naturally occurring part of our environment, comprised of a continuous sequence of electromagnetic energy arranged according to wavelength or frequency, as generated by particle motion (vibrations) and pulses created from many sources. There is also no doubt that many ancient cultures had a connection with Nature and natural forces that was fundamental and could only be described as intimate and profound in ways we moderns can merely attempt to comprehend. Electromagnetic radiation has been around since the birth of the universe; light is its most familiar form. Electric and magnetic fields are part of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, which extends from static electric and magnetic fields, through radio frequency and infrared radiation, to X-rays.

Labyrinth and the Sirens? Val Camonica, northern Italy; dated to the late Bronze Age; Selma Sevenhuijsen. A strong presence of Etruscan cultural features has been detected in the area (After Camporeale, 2005)

Turning his attention to the ancient temples of Malta, Slovakian researcher Dr. Pavel Smutny explains that complexes were used probably as generators of high frequency acoustic waves. Purposes were (maybe) to arrange a communication channel among various islands. Legends abound around Malta of sirens (acoustically) tempting or deafening seafarers. Illustrations show the similarities of the Hagar Qim Temple compound layout on Malta when compared to a typical 800 MHz wireless antenna pattern. There are an infinite variety of patterns that can be generated by antennas depending on the beam width desired, distance between the antenna poles and the frequency being transmitted. However, nearly all antenna patterns have

similar characteristics consisting of main beam lobe and side lobes as well as nulls and back lobe. ‘Lobe’ was a word Graham Hancock (https://grahamhancock.com/ kreisbergg6/) specifically used to describe the temple structures on Malta, mentioning the unusual acoustics he encountered in the Hypogeum on Malta. Evenmore, the visual impacts related to Cymatics or energy patterns, may also be observed in the case of Stonehenge monuments resembling the symbol of labyrinth (Kreisberg, 2010; Eneix and Zubrow, 2014). Thus, Sirens could be the symbol of electromagnetic waves of sound that travel as birds in Nature and Labyrinth the symbol of the human brain.

Right: Labyrinth petroglyph from Pedra do Labirinto, Galicia. Dated to ca 2000 BCE (perhaps 750– 500 BCE); Saward, 2003, 38. Left: The human brain. Image synthesis by Amanda Laoupi

ARGO, THE ARK, ARGONAUTICA AND SIRIUS CULT CENTERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD In the mystic traditions of ancient people, there was Argha in the form of a ship or cup floating over the primordial waters of the abyss and symbolizing the primordial Mother, the Holy Spirit which bears the germs of all beings, the Anima mundi, the Ark of the celestial waters. And, three other symbolisms were also of female expression, the serpent, the tree of knowledge and the waters. In this mystical framework, Sirius was the symbol of the first born sun, the fire of Heaven, the fire star of mid-summer. Furthermore, the ancient Greeks celebrated the Summer Solstice in August, month of the ‘dog days’ and dedicated to serpent worship and to the hidden electromagnetic power of cosmic entities - in the zodial sign of Leo then – by dancing the dance called Pyrrhic (< pyra = fire) and imitating the coiling and the gliding of the serpent (Valentia Straiton, 1927).

Plutarch (On Isis and Osiris, 354c-359f) notes that Canis Constellation was dedicated to the goddess Athena/Isis: “And the ship that Greeks call ‘Argo’ was built in the form of the ship of Osiris; it was enlisted among the constellations as an honor and it moves not far from the constellations of Orion and of the Dog, from which the former is dedicated by the Egyptians to Horus, while the latter is dedicated to Isis”.

In fact, this interrelation explains why Parthenon temple on Athenian Acropolis is oriented in such a way that once per year, on July 2 (modern date), during Sirius heliacal rising, the rays of the rising Sun penetratd in the sacrosanct of the sanctuary (Litsas, 2008, p. 40; Theodossiou, et al., 2011). Similarly, the builders of the Argolis pyramids (Peloponnesus, Greece), orienting their entrance corridors towards the

azimuth of Sirius (Theocharis, 1995). The Egyptian Horus was called ‘the double Horus of the two horizons’, who blended the Sun and Sirius (Massey, 2013).

The Arabs also applied the name 'Weight' to the star Canopus in the constellation Argo. Evenmore, the Argo ship carried Danaos and his fifty daughters to Rhodes. The Argo had fifty oarsmen under Jason, called Argonauts. There were fifty oars to the Argo, each with its oarsman-Argonaut (? 50 moons in five-year-period).

The divine oarsman was an ancient Mediterranean motif with sacred meanings (e.g. the orbit of Sirius B around Sirius A takes almost fifty years). The founder of the First Dynasty of kings of Argos, Inachus is said to have died twenty generations before the Fall of Troy (the Trojan war is widely believed to have taken place between 1192-1183 BCE), i.e. ca 1850 BCE. Aegyptos and Danaos were fifth in descent from Inachus (cf. Manetho, II.50.102), although the mythical King Inachus was held to be still more ancient (cf. fr. 4.1).

Thus, the ark and Argo, their connections with the Sirius mystery and its projection from the skies on Earth is another intriguing topic worth of interdisciplinary analysis.

The prominent star of this constellation is Canopus, referred by Aratos, Eudoxus and Hipparchos. Argo Navis, half visible from the latitude of Greece, was the biggest constellation with its 829 stars till 1932, when astronomers divided it into four separated constellations, Pyxis, Puppis, Carina and Vela (Allen, 1963). Canopus was, in addition, the most famous city of the Egyptian North coast before the foundation of Alexandria. The city was built near another famous predynastic Egyptian city (in fact its predynastic capital city), Behdet, which existed before 3200 BCE, being strongly related to Sirius cult and probably ‘the Greenwich’ of the ancient world prior to that date. Richard Allen gives more details on this: “Our name for it is that of the chief pilot of the fleet of Menelaos, who, on his return from the destruction of Troy, 1183 BCE, touched at Egypt, where, twelve miles to the north-eastward from Alexandria, Canopus died and was honoured, according to Scylax, by a monument raised by his grateful master, giving his name to the city and to this splendid star, which at that time rose about 7.5 deg. above that horizon”. Behdet was on the same latitude as Hebron where the Philistines were at war with Calebites, named as the ‘Dog men’ (Graves, 1948).

Even more, Allen reminds us that: “And, as the constellation (of Argo) was associated on the Nile with the great god Osiris, so its great star became the Star of Osiris....”, giving further application of the title 'heavy': “The Alfonsine Tables had (for Canopus) Suhel Ponderosus ("Among the Persians Suhail is a synonym for wisdom ..." and there was also, therefore, a "Suhel Sirius"), that appeared in a contemporary chronicle as Sihil Ponderosa, a translation of Al Suhail al Wazn.' So, this designation was once applied to another star 'formerly located near Orion's stars' and 'had to flee south', being an apparent admission that Canopus is being called by another star's title. Canopus is south of Sirius (which is 'near Orion's stars'), and so obviously the description of the invisible Sirius B 'fled south' to a likely visible star, Canopus.

On the other hand and according to Lindhal (2012), “a line extended from Giza via Heliopolis and Baalbek traverses saline Lake Van and terminates at Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, the spot where Noah’s Ark reputedly came to rest” (see also Coppens, 2004).

Dodona and Mt Ararat, both claim the Ark (Deucalion’s larnax and Noah respectively (Parke, 1967). In brief, Argo, the ship, which had in the prow a piece from the speaking oak of Dodona by the goddess Athena herself, carried the famous

expedition from Iolkos in Thessaly to Aeaea in Colchis, in the search of the golden fleece, and when the voyage was over Athena placed the boat in the sky in the form of an asterism. Researchers thought to project the Argo on the Earth with its rudder at Canopus (really Behdet) and the other end at Dodona because the oak in the prow came from there. Then, keeping the rudder at the same spot and swing the boat over a map so that the prow which touched Dodona, they found that the third spot was Metsamor.

The site of Metsamor aka Metzamor, few kilometres west of Echmiadzin, and within sight of Mount Ararat and Alagoz in Armenia, in a volcanic area, was a metallurgical and astronomical center between ca 7 kya and 17 century CE. The excavations began in 1965 and they are still in progress, led by Professor Emma Khanzatian. The cyclopean walls date to the 2nd millennium BCE, when the site was fortified during the Urartian Era. The first cosmic symbols of that trade culture began appearing on the side of the Geghama Mountain Range around 7000 BCE (Armenia is full of pictograms and petroglyphs). Elma Parsamian, in 1967, is the first to unlock the secrets of the Metsamor observatory and the first to discover the prominent role of Sirius in this cult and this amazing archaeoastronomical framework (Parsamian, 1973). The priesthood of the observatory dated to ca 2800 – 2500 BCE, geometrically divided the heavens into constellations and assigned them with fixed positions and symbolic design in a tweve-month calendar of 365 days (Maunder, 1904; Olcott, 1914). And, like the Egyptians, every four years they had to shift Sirius' rising from one day of the month to the next. Metsamor’s zigguratobservatory served for ritual ceremonies held in the open air.

Evenmore, the king Aratta of the area had sent a message to Enmerkar, Gilgameš’ grand-father (ca 2750 BCE) to reassuer him that the goddess Inanna did not abandoned neither Aratta nor her house (the ziggurat-temple / observatory). The Sumerian Inanna, dated back to Neolithic age and to Al ‘Ubaid culture, was the Mother Goddesss of Heaven and Earth, but also the goddess of disaster, death and destruction. Known as the ‘Dragon’, she was the goddess of natural law and civilization as well. Her sacred star was Sirius as well as the constellations Virgo and Scorpio (Gadon, 1989; Cashford and Baring, 1993). In fact, according to MelikPashayan (1963), the parallel goddess of Inanna was the Armenian Anahit, the patron mother of Armenia (Metzamor took its name, ‘the Great Mother’, after her), goddess of virtue, purity, charity and childhood (Bokharev, 2002). Later on Babylonians and Semites identified Inanna with Ištar, the personifiication of Venus and Astarte (the researcher Gareth Owens, 2007, claims that Phaistos Disc is a humn to Astarte) whose secret star was Sirius (researchers belive that the word ashtart was meaning either ‘the star’ or ‘she of the womb’). Inanna was known as the One With Many Names, We should also mention the famous Carahunge (meaning the speaking stones) aka Zorats Karer, Karahunj, Qarahunj or Carenish, in Armenia too (239 km Southeast from Metzamor), perhaps the oldest known astronomical observatory of the world (González-García, 2015), dated to 5600 BCE was aligned to Sun, Moon and Cygnus constellation’s brightest star Deneb (Herouni, 1998; Parsamian, 1999).

Another amazing statement made by Aristotle (Rhetoric, 2.24, 1401a15), and mentioned by Santillana and von Dechend (2014), concerning the Octave and the seven planets, sheds light on Sirius importance amongst ancient circumMediterranean populations: “... wishing to circumscribe a "dog", one was permitted to use "Dog star" (Sirius) or Pan, because Pindar states him to be the "shape-shifting dog of the Great Goddess [Gaia]"... The amazing significance of Sirius as leader of

the planets, as the eighth planet, so to speak, and of Pan, the dance-master (choreutes) as well as the real cosmokrator, ruling over the "three worlds", would take a whole volume”.

Let us look also for the geodetic plexus of ceremonial centers in Bronze Age onwards. This reference to Sirius as 'the eighth planet, is an extremely interesting topic. Dodona is considered as the eighth oracle centre of the 'northern octave'. The lines connecting Egyptian Thebes, Dodona, and Metsamor form an equilateral triangle. A line from Behdet to Dodona intersects the Cycladic island of Thera, and a straight line passes through Behdet, Mecca and Dodona. Especially Mecca has geodetic aspects and the central shrine of the Kaaba (meteorite) dates from prehistoric time. The main clues which express the interconnection between Delphi as well, with Sirius cult are, thus, worth mentioning: a) the visit of ‘Egyptian’ Hercules from Canopus (the Greeks portrayed Delphos, the eponymous hero of Delphi, as a Negro), b) the geodetic role of the Oracle in Argo’s projection - as Higgins points out (1927), “In the religious ceremonies at Delphi a boat of immense size was carried about in processions; it was shaped like a lunar crescent, pointed alike at each end: it was called an Omphalos or Umbilicus, or the ship Argo. Of this ship Argo I shall have very much to say hereafter. My reader will please to recollect that the os minxae or (Delphys) is called by the name of the ship Argo”, c) the fact that its priesthood claimed the landing of Deukalion’s Ark on their mountain, d) its role in the decipherment of Dogon’s belief system, and e) its role in the fate of the Minyans (Temple, 1976).

The spot of Egyptian Thebes is also a very interesting topic when researchers interconnect the revolutionary act of the pharaoh Akhenaten and his beautiful wife Nefertiti to change the capital of the kingdom from Thebes to Amarna area. The new capital was set at latitude 27 deg. 45' North at the middle point between the northernmost point Behdet and the southern limit of Egypt at latitude 24 deg. 00' North! So, the ‘heretic’ couple wanted to adjust the new geodetic centre to an absolutely rigorous interpretation of Maet, the cosmic order of which the dimensions of Egypt were an embodiment, making Akhet-Aten the 'true and just' navel of Egypt (Temple, 1976).

Each octave had also its own ‘tree-code’ (e.g. the Delos – Miletus had the palm tree according to the relevant climatic and botanical conditions of this latitude; Temple, 1976). On the other hand, Behdet and Hebron were associated with wild acacia, which is still a sacred tree in Arabia Deserta. Theophrastus (Enquiry into Plants, IV.ii. 8) brilliantly describes: 'There are two kinds, the white and the black; the white is weak and easily decays, the black is stronger and less liable to decay...”.

Acacia was Astarte’s sacred tree.

The island of Circe (Aeaea) and the island of Crete were associated with the willow. Theopharstus (Enquiry into Plants, III.xiii.7) once again enlighten us: 'There is that which is called the black willow... and that which is called the white... The black kind has boughs which are fairer and more serviceable... There is a (dwarf) form...”. Such perfect symbols of the two stars, the 'black' Sirius B being 'strong' for its size compared with the white Sirius A (Graves, 1948; Temple, 1976). As Herodotus claims (IV.33-35), the Hyperboreans, this wealthy and pious Pelasgian nation, sent yearly gifts to the sanctuaries of Delos, wrapped in sheaves of wheat. In fact, at the beginning they used to send the gifts with two virgins, accompanied for safety by five Hyperborean leaders.

Concerning the Golden Fleece and Medea, we should mention that the famous Pelasgian oracle from Delphi ordered the recovery of this fleece and that the famous

expedition against the people of Colchis and Aietes’ capital (aka Aeëtes, brother of Circe and Pasiphae) had been organized by the Pelasgians of Thessaly unifying all the Pelasgian dynasties of Hellas (Ruck and Staples, 1994).

In ancient Greek mythological tradition, there were two versions of the Golden Fleece and how it ended up to the land of the Colchians. According to the first, Phrixus and Helle were children of Athamas, an ancient Pelasgian king of Thebe of Boeotia, and Nephele. Their stepmother Ino grabbed the opportunity, when a disastrous drought scourged their land, to manipulate the omen of Delphi’s oracle and persuade the king to sacrifice one of his two children who manage to escape flying on the back of a talking ram. According to the second version, the workers of the fields, desperate from the drought, forced king Athamas to take Phrixus to the altar to be sacrificed, but his mother Nephele sent a ram with a golden fleece (gift from god Hermes), to transport her children by air, over earth and sea, to the land named Colchis. Then, according to both versions, the young princess had fallen from the ram above the strait between the Aegean and Marmara seas, which had received by then the name Hellespontus, namely the Sea of Helle. When his brother landed in Colchis, he sacrificed the ram to Zeus Phyxios, and presents the fleece to king Aietes, who then nailed it in Colchis on an oak tree, in the grove consecrated to the god Mars, where it is guarded by a dragon which never slept (Apollodorus, I.9; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica; Orpheus, Argonautica; Diodorus of Sicily, IV.40 ff; Philostephanus Cyraeneus, fr. 37 in Fragmenta Historicum Graecum, vol. III. p.

34).

The ancient Greek sources mention also that the expedition to Colchis belonged in fact to the legendary series of missions and actions undertaken with the purpose of removing the sacred objects from the Pelasgic areas north of the Lower Istru, e.g. Hercules had to take the gold apples from the Hyperboreans from near Atlas, to bring from the Istrian country, or from Istria, the deer with golden horns which nymph Taygeta had dedicated to Artemis and to take from Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, the precious girdle given by Mars to her, as a symbol of primacy.

In proto-historic period, Thessaly, which was renowned for its fertile plains and pastures, appears under the name of Argos (Argos Pelasgichon). On the other hand, the entire Hellas was once named Argos (Strabo, Geography VIII. 6. 5), Argos being a word of Macedonian and Thessalian origin, namely Pelasgian. In Homer’s Iliad, the inhabitants of Hellas appear under the name of Argeioi.

According to the ancient legends, Medea (sister of Chalkiope and Absyrtus) was abducted from the splendid palace of his father, Aietes. The palace was the masterpiece of Hephaistos, and the source of four beautiful springs, one spring of milk, another of wine, the third of perfumed myrrh, and the fourth of warm and cold water (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica III. v. 322 ff).

In antiquity, Medea (possibly < possibly μήδομαι /medomai) = to think, to plan) was basically known as an enchantress and was often depicted as being a priestess of the goddess Hecate (the supreme goddess in Heaven, on Earth and in Tartarus with her three ‘heads’: lion, dog and horse; symbol of ancient Egyptian tripartite year with Sirius signalling its beginning: see Graves, 1969) or a witch.

Researchers think that the myth of Jason and Medea is very old, originally written around the time of Hesiod’s Theogony; it was also known to the composer of the Little Iliad, part of the Epic Cycle.

Moreover, the land of Colchis was famous for its colchicum plant (aka meadow saffron or autumn crocus or the ‘naked lady’, similar to crocus sativus) and

it seems that there was a robust trade network between the inhabitants of the area and the Minoans who probably brought the plant to Egypt too (see also the interesting information about Jason’s and Medea’s artistic representation in later Greek culture: Colavito, 2014). All parts of the plant are poisonous containing colchicine, a useful drug. The symptoms of colchicine poisoning resemble those of arsenic and of cholera, and, unfortunately, no antidote is still known. In the pristine nucleus of matriarchal mythology, Medea introduced woman’s herbal knowledge from Anatolia and Asia Minor into Greece being a great healer before being demonized but the later patriarchal societies.

Apollonius attributed also a dark, hidden and destructive side to Jason (II.516524; III.956-953) comparing him with Sirius (as Homer did with Achilleus in Iliad, XXII.25-36), although his name meant ‘the healer’, while Medea was compared to the fullmoon since she was a priestess of Hecate (4.167-173) when the couple recovered the Golden Fleece from the guardian Draco (Hunter, 1989).

Aries (Latin name aka Phrixis) constellation represented specifically the ram whose fleece became the Golden Fleece of Ancient Greek Mythology, and it was correlated with it since late Babylonian times (Evans, 1998; Rogers, 1998). It was also known as Phrixus’ ram and it governed the sowing of crops (Erathosthenes, XIX; Hyginus, Fabulae 138; Hyginus, De astronomia II. 20; Manilius, Astronomica III.302; Columella, De Re Rustica X.155).

The Colchic Draco which spinned around the sacred tree symbolized Earth’s axis (axis mundi). The northern axis of the Universe, it was called Polus Geticus, and it was supported by the Titan Atlas on his shoulders (see also the Sky Column from the Atlas mountain: chion ouranou in Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, 349 and Homer, Odyssey, I.53). The poet Ovid called it axis boreus or gelidus on the left side of Euxine Pontus in the country of Getae (Tristia, IV.8.41-42). Martial called him Geticus Polus (Epigrams, IX.46), Statius Hyperborei Axes (Thebaid, XII.650-651), while Virgil named it Hyperboreus septentrio (Georgicus, I.240-241 & III.381).

According to Diodorus of Sicily (III.54. 4), the island Cerne was near the mountain Atlas, close to the Amazons. And according to Palaephatos (On Incredible Stories, 33), Phorcys, the father of the Gorgons, the Hesperides and the dragon who guarded the gold apples near Atlas mountain, were all natives of the island Cerne.

Homer mentions that apart from Ethiopians who dwelt in the East, another ethnic group dwelt near Oceanos potamos (Iliad, XXIII.206 and Odyssey, I.22-23; IV.84). They called esperioi, westerners, (Strabo, II. 5. 15), the most extreme people known to the Greeks, virtuous and saintly, favored by gods. They (s.v. Aithiops) were the first to revere the gods, the first who used laws; and the founders of their civilisation had been Mithras and Phlegyas. Zeus and all the gods attend their solemn banquets, when they sacrifice hundreds (hecatombs) of bulls and lambs (Homer, Odyssey, i.23; Iliad, I.428 and XXIII. 205). Pindar called these Ethiopians Hyperboreans (Pythian, X.30 ff). Hesiod places geographically the Ethiopians with the Ligyiens and the Ippomolgian Scythians (Fragm. 132). According to Aeschylus (Prometheus Bound, 808-809), they dwelt near the gold rich Arimaspians.

According to Dionysius Periegetus they lived in the beautiful valleys of Kernes / Cerne (218 ff), or near Erythia, close to the Atlas mountain (558-560; Avienus, 738 ff). The ancient Greeks called Aethiopes the northern Pelasgians, even the inhabitants of Samothrace and Lesbos (Pauly, R.E. 1839 ‘Aethiopia’).

Finally, the expression gaia melaina had been misinterpreted since the most remote antiquity, even by Homer, since it does not derive from the physical type, or

the color of its inhabitants, but from the geochemical quality of the particular zone of black (dark colored), rich and extraordinarily productive soil (Neumann, 2010).

Thus, the metallurgic industry, the fertile lands and the mythological Pelasgian substratum of the areas from the Carpathians to Scythia, Crimea, Georgia, Armenia and Anatolia were the craddle of later mythological Hellenic cycles.

THE PAIR OF ATHENA AND HEPHAISTOS Moreover, Hephaistos’ and Athena’s case as a celestial dual archetype is another strong Pelasgian motif (Laoupi, 2006a). Hesiod, as well as Roman sources, claims that Hera gave birth to Hephaestus parthenogenically, without Zeus' participation, since she was angry at him for birthing Athena from his own head without first procreating with her. Thus, Hesiod in Theogony (924-929) highlights the analogy between Athena and Hephaistos (Apollodorus, 1.19; Cicero, 3.22). Plato in Critias (109B-D) declares that Hephaistos and Athena are of the same father, they are of the same nature (Graves, 1969). The Roman equivalent of Athena (Minerva) was Hephaistos (Vulcan). The sequence of the Twelve Gods appears in the Rustic Calendar, in Manilius and at the Altar at Gabii. Aries and Libra had Athena-Minerva and Hephaestus-Vulcan as their guardian gods. Aries symbolizes the head from which Athena sprang.

At this point we should emphasize that the double symbolization of Hera - the moon goddess and Athena as planet Jupiter was the kernel of one Homeric archaeoastronomical substratum. This aspect explains the names of the planets in the planetary conjunction of 1953 BCE and a periodical phenomenon with 10 years interval (Iliad, II.156; IV.8; V.418; VIII.418- 419), when the Moon and planet Jupiter, in their major luminescence, conjuncted in a specific zodiacal asterism (Wood and Wood, 1991). The other substratum seemed to represent the fire spirits within the figures of ‘Pelasgian Hera’ and Athena.

The Neoplatonists (a revival of Platonism in the 3rd century CE) accepted the Twelve Gods as a legacy from Plato. Generally speaking, Vesta represents Earth, Neptune Water, Juno Air, and Vulcan Fire. So, Jupiter, Neptune and Vulcan belongs to the Creators of the universe, Vesta, Minerva and Mars to the Guards, Ceres, Juno and Diana to the Life-givers and Mercury, Venus and Apollo to the Uplifters. The creative and paternal gods make the universe, the life-givers give it life, uplifters harmonize it, and the guards preserve and protect it (Gillman, 1996-1967).

In this conceptual framework Hephaistos was treated as the creator of the asterisms, a creative force in the Universe (Iliad, I.597-607) and the mythical fall on Lemnos as god’s stay below the horizon, in the realm of Thetis (the asterism of Heridanus) where he created the asterisms of the Southern Hemisphere (Wood, 1991). Although in the verses of Odyssey (xviii.283), the workshop of the god is on the island of Lemnos, in the Iliad (XVIII.369) this is located in the heavens. The asterism of Perseus is more probably connected with Hephaistos not because of its shape, but to its relationship with the meteor swarms of Perseides, visible between July, 25 and August 4 (Wood, 1991). These flames are also described as burning the sky (Iliad, V.4-8).

In addition, the two gods (Athena and Hephaistos) were considered as grand teachers of Humanity (Homeric Hymn to Hephaestus). Their archetypal symbolization is related to exo-terrestrial invaders that cause terror and destruction on Earth (comets, asteroids, plasma and planet’s outburst). Alternatively, what is the most astonishing is

the correlation between metallurgy and natural phenomena that enhance its expansion: ‘iron, though that is the strongest substance, melts under stress of blazing fire in the mountain forests worked by handicraft of Hephaistos inside the divine earth’. Once again, the sacred knowledge is derived from both gods, Hephaistos and Athena (Odyssey, vi.233 & xxiii.160; Homeric Hymn 20 to Hephaistos; Hesiod, Theogony 820 ff; Solon fr. 13; Plato, Protagoras 320C - 322A).

Athena, on the other part, is a mistress of disguise, as Homer constantly points out. Pallas Athena represented the proto-planet Venus (Typhon = the cometary tail of proto-Venus), in her cometary behaviour, and was worshipped among the peoples of Mediterranean (Wallis, 1972; Talbott, 1994). That Venus, later identified with the goddess Aphrodite and the planet Venus’ dual appearance in the sky (evening = female / morning = male), was Aphrodite barbata (bearded), or the Cyprian goddess Aphrodite with a beard, a strong image of bisexuality (Pauly - Wissowa R.E.). Athena holds also her primordial androgynous image, as male, bearded serpents were found on a pediment of the Archaic Athenian Acropolis (Talbott, 1974). Planet Venus was symbolized by the ‘crux ansata’ (Egyptian ankh), a combined phallus and vulva.

Consequently, as we can detect two Heras, two Athenas and two Hephaistos in the Epics, we can also find the two Aphrodites, the Ouranian / Selenian and the planetary Venus. Athena “she herself had no womb, for when she carried children, it was in a basket” (Deutsch, 1969). In the Orphic Hymns (32.10 - 11) is clearly addressed by the words: ‘born as male and female’, ‘agile and luminous’ and ‘draco’.

Furthermore, Hephaistos was a Comet God (Laoupi, 2006a). Hephaistos or Hephaestus, the god of volcanic and thermal activity, of wild and destructive fires, the patron of smiths and metalworkers, builders, architects; stonemasons, carpenters and wood-workers, seems to represent not only the earthen / subterranean fires but this of extra-terrestrial origin, ever awful and uncontrollable. Divine smiths are peacemakers, too, for they are connected to celestial and subterranean fields, by acting as mediators between them. But, there is a -till recently neglected- agent which could destroy civilization and cause earthly turbulence, the exo-terrestrial encounters.

Astronomical evidence indicates that our ancestors viewed a much more active sky than we do. Particularly during the past twelve thousand years, such deliveries were not uncommon. Much evidence suggests that humanity witnessed, and was affected by, the break-up of a very large comet over this time period.

Physically, Hephaistos was a muscular man with a thick neck and hairy chest who because of a shortened, lame leg (? lame = one - footed) and club foot (with feet facing backwards), supported himself with the aid of a crutch. Bearded, he most often dressed in a ragged sleeveless tunic and woolen hat. Most frequently, he was portrayed in art holding the tools of his trade, especially the blacksmith's hammer and tongs. Sometimes, he was surrounded by the Kabeiroi (Herodotus, III.37), the dwarflike blacksmith servants of the Mother Goddess who helped in his subterranean forge. His sacred animal, the ass / mule (Hyginus, Astronomica II.23; Antoninus Liberalis, 28) was also among the sacred animals of Seth - the Egyptian parallel of Typhoon (in Egypt, there was a temple of Hephaistos; Herodotus, III.37). The ass also was an ideographic hieroglyphic of the number thirty, and symbol of the luni-solar month. Finally, as feminine symbol of the full moon, the ass was carrying the solar light, the ‘Lord of Light’ (Valentia Straiton, 1927).

Vase paintings show Hephaistos upon a mule, symbol of sexual barrenness.

The Roman authors represented him in the form of a phallus in the hearth fire (comet’s phallus’ tail). A comet in its typical apparition may be symbolized as an angel with wings, a helmeted head and a long-haired creature, a phallus with testes or

as a head with two massive arms (de Grazia, 1984b). Herodotus II.51) mentions that: “the mysteries of Cabeiri-rites which the men of Samothrace learned from the Pelasgians who lived in that island before they moved to Attica and communicated the mysteries to the Athenians. This will show that the Athenians were the first Greeks to make statues of Hermes with the erect phallus, and they learned the practice from the Pelasgians...”

The characteristics attributed to him remind us of the coma when comets are hit by the solar wind. The word comet derives from the ancient Greek epithet καρηκομόων (hairy), thus, comets were the ‘hairy stars’ (αστέρες κομόεντες). This epithet is already present in Homeric Epics (Barrett, 1978; Heidarzadeh, 2008). The description of an ancient Greek painting by Philostratus the Elder (Imagines, 1.1), too, notices that Homer inspired the ancient artist in the scene of Skamandros and Hephaistos: “... The fire which envelops Hephaistos flows out on the surface of the water and the River is suffering and in person begs Hephaistos for mercy. But the River is not painted with long hair, for the hair has been burnt off; nor is Hephaistos painted as lame, for he is running; and the flames of the fire are not ruddy nor yet of the usual appearance, but they shine like gold and sunbeams. In this Homeros is no longer followed...” And it is noteworthy that one of the two god’s substances is characterized by speed, an attribute not consistent to his malformation. But the epithet lame in ancient Greek may also be interpreted as strong-armed and ambi-dextrous.

Even more, one of the three cities of Troy (Laoupi, 2006a), described by Homer, is referred to the period around 1800 BCE, when the polar star Thuban (a Draco), according the phenomenon of the wobble of Earth’s axis (Precession of the Equinoxes), gave its place (Indra killing the dragon?) in the Heavens to the star b Ursus minor. The fall of that Troy was, also, symbolized by the retirement of the constellation Ursus major from the area of the celestial North Pole.

Erechtheion temple, the holiest of all Athenian temples (from the South) – Acropolis of Athens, Greece. Photo by Amanda Laoupi, September 2013.

There is a strong correlation between night skies (constellation of Draco), nocturnal festivals and the chthonic cults in Athenian Acropolis (Gerding and Gerding, 2006; Boutsikas, 2007 & 2011; Boutsikas and Hannah, 2012). The historian Herodotus (VIII.41) reports that the great snake (of the goddess Athena), living at Erechtheion, guards the Acropolis and monthly receives offerings made of honey cake. But, the snake's occasional refusal to eat the cakes was thought a disastrous omen. At the time of the Persian invasion, the snake refused to eat the offering. “And when the priestess announced this, the Athenians deserted the city the more readily because the Goddess herself had deserted the acropolis".

The interrelation between Athena and Erechtheus in Erechtheion is found already in the description in the Catalogue of Ships in Homeric Iliad (II.549). The temple of Hephaistos (aka Theseion) was also built across Parthenon in the Athenian Agora. The Greek architect and archaeologist J. Travlos (1971, pp. 213-227) suggested that the place included the cult of Poseidon / Erechtheus (Theseus was grand son of Erechtheus), Boutes, and Hephaistos along with the Sanctuary of Athena Polias, containing adytons for the grave of Erechtheus and the xoanon of Athena (for the aspects of Athena’s cult see also Hatzisteliou – Price, 1978; Jeppesen, 1987). On the Parthenon Frieze Athena and Hephaistos were also depicted as a couple - no 36 & 37 (Plato, Critias 109c-110; Plato, Laws 920d; Plato, Protagoras 321d; Pemberton, 1976; Mark, 1984; Long, 1989).

During antiquity another legendary event was also recorded related to the prehistory of Erechtheion. Erechtheus was at war with the Eleusinians (Euripides, Erechtheus fr. 65.16-21; Isocrates, Panathenaicos 193; Elderkin, 1941, p. 116) and Eumolpos family from Thrace (Pelasgian substratum of the cults) who claim their rights on the site of Erechtheion. Evenmore, Skiros and his group of people came from Dodona (pristine cult center of the Pelasgians) to help Eleusinians in their war against Erechtheus. The god Poseidon stood on mountain Hymettus, at the hills of which the industruous Pelasgians cultivated the barren soil turning into fertile land (Herodotus, VI.137: the Athenians got zealous and chased them out to Lemnos island). Later on, according to Herodotus’ Histories (VI. 138): "The Pelasgians dwelt at that time in Lemnos [6th century BCE] and desired vengeance on the Athenians.

Since they well knew the time of the Athenian festivals, they acquired fifty-oared ships and set an ambush for the Athenian women celebrating the festival of Artemis at Brauron. They seized many of the women, then sailed away with them and brought them to Lemnos to be their concubines."

Finally, the Homeric Zeus of Pelasgians (Ζεύς Πελασγικός) was probably the initial deity of Athenian Hekatompedon along with Aphrodite Ourania (Elderkin, 1941, p. 123). In fact, Zeus was considered as the protector of olive tree before Athena (Sophocles, Oedipus at Kolonos 705-706) and he was addressed under the epithets ‘morios’ and ‘elaious’ (Hesychios, s.v.).

In the later Erechtheion, in its southwestern corner, there was a pool of water, the guardian of which was semi-anthropomorfed Cecrops, similar to Python at Delphi.

And, the gift of water proposed to Athenians by Poseidon, in contrast to the olive tree

by Athena (see also the ‘war’ between Poseidon and Athena’s favorite hero Odysseus, Sora, 2007) should be probably not referring to salted water of the sea but to φρέαρ or στόμιον, similar to ἂντρον or στόμιον of Python at Delphi (Sophocles, Antigoni 1217; Strabo, IX.419; Elderkin, 1941, p. 118 ff). Another explanation includes the fact that there was an altar of Hephaistos in Erechtheion in the same chamber with that of Poseidon / Erechtheus, Hephaistos being the Homeric husband (Odyssey, viii.270) of Aphrodite Ourania, goddess of the Sea (Ἀφροδίτη Πελαγία).

A tablet from Knossos dated to the 14th century BCE mentions the word a-pai-ti-jo which may correspond to Hephaistos or Hephaistion, that is “sacred to Hephaistos” (Landau, 1958; Chadwick and Baumbach, 1963, p. 201; Chantraine 1970, p. 418; contra, Frisk 1972, p. 102; Barbanera, 2013).

THE SWASTIKA SYMBOL Swastika, on the other hand, is an ancient world-symbol full of occult meaning. It is an alchemical, cosmological, anthropological, and magical sign, and contains seven keys to its inner meaning (Zenith and Nadir; North, South, West, and East; the Centre). The motif seems to have first been used in Upper Palaeolithic Eurasia. The earliest known swastika is engraved on the under wings of a flying bird, made of mammoth ivory, dating as early as 18 to 15 kya (Campbell, 1991; Johnson, 1998, p. 236; Fuiten, 2005, p. 57 ff.). It was also adopted in Native American cultures, seemingly independently. The swastika (from Sanskrit svastika in Devanagari, a writing system of Northern Indian languages) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles in either left-facing or right-facing direction. The swastika is a holy symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Archaeologically speaking, there is a profound relationship between the swastika and fire (sun, wheel of creation, architecture of Cosmos) through creation and evolution. The swastika is found all over Hindu temples, signs, altars, pictures and iconography where it is sacred. It is used in all Hindu weddings, festivals, ceremonies, houses and doorways, clothing and jewellery, motor transport and even decorations on food items like cakes and pastries.

The word first appears in the Classical Sanskrit, in the Ramayana and Mahabharata Epics. In the Bhavishya Purana (one of the 18 major Hindu Puranas, written in Sanskrit and attributed to Rishi Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas), it is a weapon of the snake king (dragon), Takshak.

The association of the Sanskrit term ‘svastika’ with this symbol may be traced in the Astika Parva (Mahabharata), which relates the birth of a cosmic bird par excellence--Garuda. This fabulous winged deity had radiance like the Sun, could change shapes at will, and destroyed other gods and kings by casting down fire and stirring up storms of reddish dust which darkened the Sun, Moon and stars. Clearly Garuda was symbolic of an Earth approaching comet.

The Han Dynasty silk comet atlas is used as a compelling explanation for the ubiquity of the swastika motif. A reproduced portion of this silk atlas with its comet drawings was probably related to the breakup of the progenitor of comet Encke and the Taurid meteoroid stream (Clube and Napier, 1982, p. 155) Victor Clube and Bill Napier). This object could have produced several very bright comets in short period (~3.3 years) orbits that crossed Earth's path. Moreover, comet Encke's polar axis is only 5 degrees from its orbital plane (Whipple and Green, 1985). Such an orientation is ideal to have presented a pinwheel like aspect to our ancestors when comet Encke was more active. In fact, an out gassing comet that could produce a pinwheel appearance to someone looking down the comet's axis of rotation would look very different to an observer viewing the same comet along its equator (Sagan & Dryuan, 1985).

According to the Comet / bird hypothesis, when a comet approaches so close to Earth, the jets of gas streaming from it, bent by the comet's rotation, became visible, looking like a swastika. This observation is drawn from an ancient Chinese manuscript that shows comet tail varieties (Sagan and Druyan, 1985). Respectively, the swastika-like comet on the Han Dynasty silk comet atlas was labelled a ‘long tailed pheasant star’. Thus, many swastika and swastika-like motifs may have been representations of bird tracks, including many of those found by Schliemann in Troy (Kobres, 1992).

Ancient Greek architectural designs are replete with interlinking swastika motifs. A swastika border is one form of meander. The Greek goddess Athena, traced

in Minoan religion, Artemis and Astarte were sometimes portrayed as wearing robes covered with swastikas.

Furthermore, according to Eastern Mediterranean geoarchaeological evidence (the impacted earths, the grey pottery/metallurgy and the radioactive environments), the ‘flame of Hephaistos’ or his ‘red breath’ (characterized as purest flame) was a leit motif among ancients (Orphic Hymn 66 to Hephaistos; Homer, Iliad II.426, IX.467, XVII.88 & XXIII.33 and Odyssey, xiv.71; Hesiod, Theogony 864; Aristophanes, Birds, 436; Quintus Smyrnaeus, XIII.170, XIII. 367 & IV.160; Suidas, s.v.

'Hephaistos').

Although ancient writers mention it together with Keian, Cappadocian and Sinopic earths, all four being identified as red earths, Pliny’s comment makes the difference. This earth (terra lemnia, rubricata or sigillata) resembles cinnabar (XXXV.14), it had a pleasant taste, too, while Galen (XIII.246b) adds that “it differs from miltos because it doesn’t leave a stain when handled”. The same writer, during his visit to Hephaestias, analyzes the myth of Hephaistos and his relationship with Lemnos (the god himself cured his awful trauma from his landing on the island by using this earth), saying that “the mythical hill, also known as Mosychlos, appeared to be burnt due to its colour and from the fact that nothing grows on it”. Belon, during his journey in the 16th century CE, refers, also, to the yellow/white colours of the earth, equally explained by the presence of hydrothermally altered rocks.

The ritual of its extraction highlights its peculiarity. On the other hand, the god was reknown as an ‘aithaloeis theos’, meaning the sooty god (Suidas, s.v. 'Aithaloeis theos') and in Lemnos, Hephaistos was worshipped as a god of healing, his priests possessing antidotes to poisons. Later on, the priestesses of Artemis had the right to use this earth (Hall and Photos – Jones, 2008). That Artemis was connected to the Anatolian nucleus of Amazons. Consequently, hydrocarbon evolution due to past volcanic activity may be one explanation. Destruction layers with hydrocarbon presence and other characteristics mentioned above (like cinnabar, with sweet taste, loosing its power with the time passing over or being periodically recharged) may be another evidence of past celestial events (combustion residues, chemical fusion).

MATRIARCHY AS A KEY FEATURE OF PELASGIAN ORIGIN After the famous contest between Poseidon and Athena in prehistoric Athens, the god was very angry because he was rejected, so he sent giant waves to flood the lower areas of Attica at Eleusis. Frightened people, wanting to pacify god’s anger, decided then to deprive women of Athens of their voting rights and men from taking their mother’s family name (Herodotus, XVIII.55; Apollodorus, III.xiv.1; Hyginus, Fabulae 164; St Augustine, De Civitate Dei XVIII). This event reflects the matriarchal substratum of Pelasgian people and cultures present in Bronze Age Attica before Athenians expelling the Pelasgians.

Another strong evidence of past matriarchal societies exists in Amazons mythical cycles. Three Amazonian tribes (belonging to a greater Amazon nation) were famous in the ancient world, the North African, the Caucasian on the shores of the Black Sea, who, in the times of Theseus, came to Attica, and the Scythians (of Iranian origin), who, under the command of their queen, Myrina, subdued the Gorgons (the queen of which was Medusa), marched through Egypt and Arabia, and founded their capital on the Lake Tritonis, later being annihilated by Hercules. Myrina was also said to be the first to land on the previously uninhabited island of

Samothrace building the temple there, perhaps a post hoc explanation of the validity of Great Mother’s veneration across the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age circum-Mediterranean areas (Biaggi, 2006).

They, also, invaded Lycia, but were defeated by Bellerophon (Homer, Iliad VI.186). And they attacked the Phrygians, who were assisted by Priam, (Iliad, III. 189), but in his later years, towards the end of the Trojan War, they took his side against the Greeks under their queen Penthesileia, who was slain by Achilles (Quintus of Smyrnaeus, I; Justinus, II.4; Virgil, Aeneid I.490). Of course they were related to Hercules Deeds and the Atlanteans too (Diodorus of Sicily, III.52.1 ff). As David Anthony highlights (2007) “about 20% of Scythian-Sarmatia 'warrior graves' on the lower Don and lower Volga contained women dressed for battle similar to how men dress, a phenomenon that probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons” (see also the kurgans in South Ukraine and Russia).

Some researchers think that their name derives for the Circassian (from northern Caucasus) word ‘maza’ which denotes the Moon (Tyrrell, 1984).The Amazons of Thermodon River in Asia Minor (Herodotus, IV.110-117) were considered as ‘worshippers of the moon’ (Apollo was called Amazonian too). In Persian, ha-mazon meant ‘warrior’; the Amazons were often linked with the Persians in Greek tradition. According to another perspective, the Phoenician word Am meant ‘mother’ and Azon or Adon meant ‘lord’, thus the word and the concept of ‘motherlord’ was found in some Indian, Hittite and Sumerian traditions. The Greek orator Lysias (Funeral Oration, 4-6) mentioned that the Amazons by the river Thermodon were the first ones who rode on horseback, and that they were the first ones who used iron weapons.

Their existence and deeds were a preferred topic amongst ancient Greek artists, especially Amazonomachy. The foundation of several towns in Asia Minor and in Aegean islands is ascribed to them, e.g. of Cyme, Ephesus, Myrina both in Lemnos island and in Mysia, Paphos and Smyrna (Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v.

Myrina). Later on, in the 1540s, Francisco de Orellana, a Spanish soldier spotted tribeswomen with bows and arrows on South America’s largest river banks and gave it the name Amazon. Their enduring legend survived till today (Pöllauer, 2003; Webster Wilde, 2000; Mayor, 2014).

Finally, the pivotal idea of existing similarities in cults between Amazons and Minoan culture (proposed by J.L. Myres in1908) is of great importance because there is a substratum of ‘Pelasgian’ origin indeed.

Another clue that links the female charachteristics in cults and ceremonies was the central thesis of bees and apiculture held in prehistoric societies (wherever the Pelasgian substartum was strong). The Anatolian Goddess is often shown wearing a beehive as a tiara, most frequently at Haçilar ca 8 kya. And, rudimentary images of Bees dating to 6540 BCE are painted above the head of a Goddess in the form of a halo at the Neolithic settlement of Çatal Hüyük. The bbehive was a strong symbol of the womb, too (see the controversial work by Mellaart, 1965; Mellaart, et al., 1989; see also Crane, 1999).

The Pythiae were called ‘Delphic Bees’, the priestess of Demeter at Eleusis were called ‘melissae’ (producers of sweetness), as well as the pristesses of Cybele, while Priests and Priestesses dressed as Bees worshipped the Divine Bee Goddess in Ancient Sumer. Delphi, Minoan Crete, Tiryns and Mycenae were also few of the many places the artwok of which included bee goddesses, bee princesses and bee queens, beehives and honeycombs. Moreover the tholos tombs in Anatolia, Minoan Crete and mainland Greece had the shape of a beehive (Keller, 1988). The Thriae was

a trinity of proto-Hellenic bee goddesses (one of the famous maiden trinities, as Harrison, 1903, and Scheinberg, 1979, pintpointed) whose names were Melaina (‘the black’), Kleodora (‘Famed for her Gift’), and Daphnis (‘Laurel’). Those magical winged nymphs were attributed with the power of prophecy. And, since honey was always considered as the nectar of the gods, they fed the infant Zeus in the Cretan cave and they taught the art of divination to young Apollo. In fact they were Fates representing the life cycles of birth, death and regeneration.

Moreover, the famous Omphalos Stone, resembled a beehive with crisscrossing rows of bee-like symbols, like the ‘Net dress’ worn by Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the sky and keeper of the title ‘She Who Holds a Thousand Souls’ (bees were also symbols of the Underworld). Bees and the making of honey was also the pivotal motif in New Year’s rituals amongst Minoans, in Summer Solstice, when Sirius made his heliacal rising.

The Bee is the only insect that communicates through dance (Gimbutas, 2007), fact that reminds us the dance of Ariadne in Labyrinth and the cosmic dance of stars and planets as seen from Earth.

Dancing Bee Goddess, from The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe; note the swastikas © Marija Gimbutas

In this Minoan iconography, the Bee goddess wears bull horns with a double axe above them, while winged dogs (symbols also of Hecate and Artemis) stand at both sides of her feet, a very strong symbolism related to Moon cults too (Cashford and Baring, 1993). Thus, the double axe could be a moon-sceptre and symbol of Venus’ crescent.

LM II–III seal from Knossos (CMS- Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel, Berlin. II.3 63)

THE LADIES OF THE LABYRINTH Minos and Pasiphae, Venus, Athena, Hephaistos, Ariadne and Dionysos, as well as Labyrinth, Labrys, Swastika and Rosette, Phaethon, Apollo, Artemis and Asterios had interrelated archaeoastronomical and environmental symbolisms in Minoan and Bronze Age Mediterranean belief system.

In ancient Greek tradition, Dionysos was the son of the moon goddess Semele (Homer, Iliad XIV.323), who also had 50 daughters, the Menae, who presided over the 50 lunar months (the 50 ‘cows’ that Hermes stole from Apollo; the cycle of 50 moons), half of one octaeteris and one Olympiad (Pausanias, Description of Greece V.1.4). The annual vegetation cycles were, thus, referred to lunar deities who presided over the long calendrical cycles. In the invocation of Dionysos, during the Eleusinian Mysteries (Taylor, 2015: Mystical Humns of Orpheus, XLII. To Misa), he was adored as twofold, male and female (see Also Athena’s and Venus’s cases), related to the Great Mother, Venus and Isis). Dionysos was also strongly related to Ariadne (she was the only ‘official wife’ of the god), the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae (Lyons, 1996). She was put in charge of the Labyrinth and of the sacrifices and rituals offered to either to Poseidon or to Athena, depending on the version of the myth. After helping the Athenian hero Theseus, she left Crete with him but later he abandoned her at the Cycladic island of Naxos (where is found also an unfinished temple of Apollo aka the Portara amongst modern locals). There the god Dionysos saw her and dazzled by her beauty made her his bride (the question of her being mortal or a goddess varies in the ancient Greek accounts). Her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona Borealis. The Welsh name for this constellation is Caer Arianrhod, meaning ‘Castle of the goddess Arianrhod’; the word Arianrhod can be translated as ‘silver disk’ or ‘wheel’ according to one version (Bilić, 2006, p. 21).

Worth mentioning is also the fact that Ariadne (Areatha in Etruscan) is paired with Dionysos (Fufluns in Etruscan) on an engraved bronze Etruscan mirrorbacks, accompagnied with Semele (Semla in Etruscan). She was conceived as an orgiastic goddess in all areas of Pelasgic substratum and her worship included male human sacrifices (Graves, 1948, p. 93).

Let us also remind that the initial orientation of Stonehenge and Carnac megalithic monuments was lunar (Hawkins, 1965). Especially Carnak (France) is located at unique latitude on the Earth, where both the summer and winter solstice sun form a perfect Pythagorean triangle relative to the parallel of Latitude (the East-West equinoxial axis of the site). This proportional 3:4:5 triangle is the first of the Pythagorean triangular set and is expressed in the dimensions of the Crucuno dolmen in Brittany (Thom, 1971; Thom, et al., 1973; Sullivan, 2000). The lunar correlation is also valid for the majority of stone assemblages in Scotland aka recumbent stone monuments, consistent with the midsummer fullmoon, as well as for the famous Newgrange in Ireland. Excavations conducted since 2004 and dated to ca 10 kya in Mesolithic Period, at a field of Crathes Castle, found a series of 12 pits which appear to mimic the phases of the moon and track lunar months adjusted to the midwinter solstice (Burl, 2000).

Moreover, the twin stone circle and menhir at Cromeleque Dos Almendres (near Guadelupe, municipality of Évora, Portugal) aka ‘the Iberian Mesopotamia’, dated back to 5 kya, offers another intriguing explanation. The maximum declination of the Moon over its 18.6 year cycle (the metonic cycle during which the Moon has 235 Lunations, with an error of only two hours) ranges between two latitudes, Almendres (38˚ 55' N) for 1500 BCE and Stonehenge (51° 18' N) for 2000 BCE,

being in its zenith over the viewer passing directly overhead (C. Marciano, http://web.archive.org/web/20060222011844/http://www.crookscape.org/textjul2005/t ext03.html).

On the other hand, the relationship of Pasiphae / Pasiphaessa (meaning the ‘all-shining’, Pausanias, Description of Greece III.26.1: epithet given to Selene; the moon was called ‘the white wanderer of the Heavens’ by ancient people; related also to the Minoan snake goddess) and the sacrificial bull of Minos seems to be a remnant of the sacred marriage (Koehl, 2001) of the Minoan high priestess and the priest-king (as the earthly representation of the lunar or solar bull). Minos (as a lunar deity) and the relevant title of its priest, after his death became a judge in the underworld like the much older Mesopotamian myth of the moon god Nanna (Sin), who once in a month acted as a judge in the underworld (Kramer, 1963 & 1972). Archaeoastronomical and archaeological evidence support the existence of a Minoan lunisolar calendar based on the on the 99 synodic periods of the moon, the eight-year lunar cycle (Blomberg and Henriksson, 1996 & 2001; Ridderstad, 2009).

Since early prehistory, the Moon had played a role unimaginable to us today (Lombard, 2005), as it was considered also as a regulator power, forecasting the weather and its disturbances, the energy released by lightings and thunderstorms (the Minoan / Kolchian Medea and the Libyan Medusa). The moon god / goddess had their own chariot (e.g. Medea flies off into the sky drawn by two dragons). And, Medusa gave birth to the winged horse Pegasus (white horse).

The name Medusa, meaning the ‘sovereign female wisdom’, was found in Sanskrit (Medha), in ancient Greek (Metis) and in ancient Egyptian (Met or Maat).

She was the serpent-goddess, worshipped by the Libyan Amazons (Perseus deed took place in lake Tritonis, too) and symbolized the destroyer aspect of the Great Triple Goddess aka Neith, Anath, Athene in North Africa and Athana in palatial Minoan Crete, and Metis-Athena-Medusa in later Greece (see the dark aspect of Athena as Medusa and Metis in the Archaic Period onwards, so the two were overlaid, Metis became her mother and Medusa her enemy and later protector). She represents the union of Heaven and Earth. She is the purifier and the destroyer in order to recreate balance. Her pristine power is represented in many female-orientated symbolisms like the gorgoneion, the labyrinth, and other vaginal / uterine designs. Her ceremonial mask reflected the divine essence of female nature (Walker, 1988; Gimbutas, 1991; Marler, 2002). The above-mentioned triad is similar to the triad Artemis-SeleneHecate, and Medusa / gorgons have been related to the death aspect of Nature and Hecate (Kerenyi, 1951, p.48), with a symbolic similarity shared with the goddess Kali. In fact, from the 5th century BCE onwards, Medusa, Hecate and Artemis were equated as lunar goddesses (Burkert, 1998, p. 171). The same motif of the sacred female triad (Creatrix – Ancestral Mother – Mistress of Nature) is detected in broad Eurasian cultures, e.g. since the Siberian Palaeolithic (Marler, 2007, pp. 64-66).

Robert Graves (1969) interpreted the double-axe (labrys) as the symbol of the Moon Related to the great goddesses, with the two curved edges Indicating the waxing and waning phases on either side of a full moon

Artemis has been considered (Farnell, 1896; Harrod, 1975), also, as an expressive form of the matriarchal chthonic, orgiastic Mother Goddess in the Minoan triptych Britomartis (Diodorus of Sicily, V.76.3; Strabo, X.4.12; Pausanias, VIII.2.4; Harrod, 1975, p. 52: the nymph was pared with the god [Zeus] Aristaios) – Diktynna (Herodotus, Historiae III.59; Euripides, Hippolytus 145-150 & 1127-1130; Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 126-127; Aristophanes, Wasps 367-368 & Frogs 1355-1362: Artemis Diktynna; Kallimachos, Hymn to Artemis 3.189-203)- Aphaia (Pausanias, II.30.3 & III.14.2; Antoninus Liberalis, XXXIV).

On the other hand, the mythological cycle of Perseus, the brave son of Zeus and Danaë, includes also the king of Aethiopia Cepheus – one of the Argonauts (its star γ Cephei will be again the pole star between 3000 and 5200 CE), her wife, queen Cassiopeia (her constellation is circumpolar for the northern latitudes) and her daughter, Princess Andromeda aka the Chained Maiden (her constellation is next to Pegasus). After Perseus’ victory against the monster, Perseus and Andromeda became couple and after their death goddess Athena gave them an honoured place in Heavens.

Especially the star β Persei aka Algol is notorious since it represents Medusa’ head (its Arabic name, Al Ghul, means ‘the demon’) and it is considered unlucky (for Algol representing Horus in ancient Egypt, see Jetsu and Porceddu, 2015).

Astronomically speaking, famous examples of binaries are Algol (an eclipsing binary), Sirius, and Cygnus X-1 (of which one member is probably a black hole).

In Sanskrit, the Goddess Durga (the inaccessible) is considered as the mother of the Universe and believed to be the power behind the creation, preservation, and destruction of the world. Like Shiva, she is also referred to as ‘Triyambake’ (the three eyed Goddess), the left eye representing desire (the moon), the right eye representing action (the sun), and the central eye knowledge (fire). Her vehicle is the Lion and its symbols (weapons) are the conch shell, the borrow with arrows, the thunderbolt, the lotus, the sword, the trident and the Sudarshan-Chakra. She is ‘chandra’ (white light).

In Hindu tradition, she was the warrior goddess, who was created to fight the demon Mahishasura. Rambha, king of the demons was once in love with a water buffalo. Out of this union Mahishasura (the bull demon) was born having the ability to change between buffalo and human (amazing similarities with the Minoan Minotaur myth).

Defeating all humans and all gods, he unleashed a reign of terror upon Earth, Heaven and the Netherworld. But in the end, the goddess slayed the demon.

According to another version of the Minotaur saga, Pasiphae made offerings to Aphrodite (Hyginus, Fabulae 40), which may reflect her connection toVenus, as both the Moon and Venus have an eight-year cycle). Although the rosette seems to be a very old symbol, being already present in the megalithic art (Cope, 2004, p. 241), later on symbolizing the sun in many cultures, its earliest certain meaning is found in Mesopotamia, where the eight-pointed rosette was the symbol of planet Venus; the 8year cycle of Venus is also traced in the legend of the betrayed lovers of goddess Ištar in Gilgameš Epic (van Buren, 1939 & 1945; Soltysiak, 2003). Enjoy the astonishing cosmic dance of Venus in spirographs online (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cg QNUhtmHM ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aocKBYyjM0 ; https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=u8ZQpv2a_Aw).

Evenmore, goddess Aphrodite was the patroness of opium poppies both in Mesopotamia and Minoan Crete (where it is believed that opium was produced for religious, shamanic and spiritual use). There is also an intriguing topic concerning the use of psychoactive substences and entheogens in ancient Mysteries such as the

Eleusinian (Wasson, et al., 1978; Kerényi, 1991; McKenna, 1993; Berlant, 2005; Bowden, 2010; Kilbourne Matossian, 2013).

Another intriguing hypothesis has been made by the Greek Professor of Space Physics, Minas Tsikritsis, who suggested at the 21st International Conference of SEAC (Societe Europeenne pour l’Astronomie dans la Culture) in 2013 that the famous frying-pans of Cycladic civilization, were used not only as calendars to perform astronomical calculations of the orbits of Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Sun (proving that since the Neolithic era the inhabitants of ancient Greece knew that Earth requires 365 days to make a complete circuit around the Sun, and that Venus needs 584 and Jupiter 399), but also as pregnancy calendars (Tsikritsis, et al., 2015). These frying-pans were amongst the most charachteristic items of the Early Cycladic II period (ca 2700-2300 BCE) aka Keros-Syros cultures (for the controversial but highly importal sanctuary at Keros see: Broodband, 2002; Renfrew, et al., 2012).

Two other versions hold precious information, too. In a kylix by the painter Aison (ca 425 – 410 BCE) the hero Theseus drags the Minotaur from a temple-like labyrinth, helped by the goddess Athena. Finally, there was an ancient cult of Aphrodite Ariadne (ariadne = extremely pure / hagne, as an epithet of the goddess; Kerényi, 1976: the epithet ‘utterly pure’ was attached preeminently to Persephone, the queen of the underworld, although other goddesses also were termed ‘hagne’) at Amathus of Cyprus (second most important Cypriote cult centre of Aphrodite), according to the obscure Hellenistic mythographer Paeon of Amathus, whose works are lost, but his narrative is among the sources cited by Plutarch in his Vita of Theseus (20.3-.5). The sacred grove in which the shrine was located was called the grove of Aphrodite Ariadne (Homer, Odyssey xi.320; Hesiod, Theogony 947; Apollonius' Argonautica iii.997; Hyginus Fabulae, 224; Diodorus Siculus iv. 61, v. 51; Pausanias, i. 20.2, ix. 40.2, x. 29. 2; Kerenyi, 1976; Barthes, 1981, quotes Nietzsche, "A labyrinthine man never seeks the truth, but only his Ariadne" using Ariadne as a symbol of his recently died mother). Moreover, modern scholars propose that the cult of the Minoan snake goddess who is identified with Ariadne was similar to the cult of Astarte (Astarte's most common symbol was the crescent moon or horns) and that her cult as Aphrodite was transmitted to Cythera and then to Greece (Wunderlich, 1987, p. 134; Powell, 1998, p. 368). Aridela and Ariadne could be Aphrodite / Venus sacral invocations meaning ‘very sacred one’, ‘very visible / bright one’ (Persson, 1942; Nilsson, 1950). There was also a cult of Ariadne in Attica. And the tradition of her being the mother protector of Tauropolis suggests her connection with Artemis Tauropolos (Condos, 1997, p. 87 ff).

Cnossian coin depicting the Labyrinth with half moon or Venus’ horn symbol.

431-350 BCE (After Bilić, 2006, p. 43)

Moreover, the interrelation of labrys/labyrinth (see next chapter) with the element of water and Aphrodite (called also ‘Wanassa’ in Cyprus, a Mycenaean title) as its main goddess is also reinforced by the following observations. Astarte meant ‘she of the womb’ in Canaanite and Hebrew. When the Hebrews turned from goddess-worship to a religion centered on the male Yahweh (or Jehovah), her name

Athtarath was deliberately mis-rendered as Ashtoreth (‘shameful thing’) and confused with Asherah. She was depicted variously as a death-dealing virgin warrior, a lifegiving mother, and a wanton of unbridled sexuality her emblems being the Moon and the morning and evening stars (the planet Venus). Although Asherah or Athirat (‘Lady Asherah of the Sea’, ‘goddess of the tides’, ‘She who walks in the Sea’, ‘she who gives birth’, ‘wet-nurse of the gods’ in Canaanite and Hebrew) was a longtime alternate form of the elder Sea Goddess and a life-death-rebirth deity, Astarte was the major goddess in Phoenician religion, mainly in Sidon and Canaan, that were among the most important sea faring trade nation in the Bronze Age Mediterranean. In ancient Egypt, Isis represented the spirit of the all-important Nile, a water goddess like the Aphrodite Anadyomene (‘blue Venus’, or ‘Venus rising’). Respectively, ancient Egyptian images of women holding the ankh (‘Key of Life’ carried by the goddesses Isis and Hathor) and associated with the sea symbolizing the force of female creation. Moreover, in the astromythology of Eastern Mediterranean, the female creatures were associated with water symbolism. Isis’ worship was performed near waters (Pararas and Laoupi, 2007). Isis / Ishtar / Aphrodite (related to Adonis) all known examples of mourning, thus Venus was called the ‘mourning star’. Initially she was also called Aphrodite Dionaia by the Pelasgians who inhabited the sacred land of Dodona, and she was the alter ego of Zeus (Dias/Dione) with strongest presence both in cult and oracle rituals.

Even more, archaeoastronomical and archaeological evidence suggest that Minoans were aware of the Venusian synodic octaeteris (Blomberg and Henriksson, 1996 & 2005), as well as of the lunar octaeteris, but, since they both shift, they had to use the Sun or a notable star (brighter than 1.0 mag and visible in Crete) as calibration. This star was Spica (in the constellation of Virgo), the heliacal rising of which happened nearest to the autumn Equinox and was celebrated during an important festival that later transformed into the Eleusinian mysteries.

In ancient Greek lore (Allen, 1963, pp. 460- 463), Virgo represented the virgin Persephone and Venus was associated with the great mother goddesses (Ishtar, Kybele, Demeter, Isis). Mother and daughter seem to have originated from the Minoan spiritual substratum and beyond (Rich, 1976; Woodman, 1985; Castleden, 1990; Owens, 1996). One orientation of the Throne Room at Knossos palace was to the heliacal rising of Spica and the time of the grape harvest to Dionysos, as well as the orientation to "the times of the dead" (correlated to the resurrecting vegetation goddess Persephone), seen also in the orientations of the Messara tholos tombs (Goodison, 2001), and the central court of Gournia (for a very interesting and toughtprovoking study on Persephone by the Greek archaeologist & historian Haris Koutelakis, see https://www.academia.edu/29117037/THE_ETRUSCAN_PHERSU _PERSEPHONE_PHERSALA_IN_THESSALY_THE_LAKE_PRESPA_MINERS_ OPIUM_AND_THE_ELEUSINIAN_MYSTERIES).

Another interconnection is also intriguing and beyond doubt. The classical festival of Thesmophoria, dedicated to Demeter, was celebrated about one lunar month later of the Eleusinian mysteries. Hesperos (evening Venus) appeared before the event. Thus, researchers conclude that: a) Minoans honoured Demeter as the great goddess probably associated with the equinoxes and the start of the octaeteris, and b) Persephone as a chthonic deity was more closely connected to the invisibility periods and subsequent 'resurrections' of Venus, Spica and the Moon (during its 584-day synodic period, Venus appears as a morning star for 263 days, disappears for 50 days, appears again as an evening star for another 263 days, and disappears for 8 days).

This created two expressions of Persephone, the chthonic and the celestial one, worshiped separately, and as the Hittites did (as two aspects of the same great goddess: the sun goddess Arinna and Hepat (Akurgal 1962, pp. 75-81; Ridderstad, 2009). Researchers think that Arinna could be related to Ariadne, the lady of the Knossian Labyrinth, and wife of Dionysos (Homer, Odyssey xi.320-5; Hesiod, Theogony 947-949; Hyginus, Fabulae 42).

But was the original ‘Lady of the Labyrinth’ the great goddess worshiped at Knossos, the a-ta-na poti- ni-ja of the Knossian Mycenaeans (potnia meaning mistress; Chadwick, 1958, p. 125)? Hicks (2002) argued that a-ta-na is related to Luwian astanus (the sun), and to the later Greek Athena. The Etruscan Menrva of Menrfa, a symbolization of early morning or late evening sun light and goddess of Healing as well, was venerated in her Portonaccio temple-sanctuary at Veii as a triad along Turan/Aphrodite & Artimi/Artemis. Other researchers connect her with the Indian word ‘ahana’ meaning the dawn. For her qualities and her strong parallels with Indian theosophy, Athena was considered the virgin sister of Apollo. Reynold Higgins (1981) notes that double-axes were votive items to the goddess Athena in 15th century BCE. Marija Gimbutas (1989, p. 190 ff) illustrated several prehistoric labyrinthine motifs, such as those engraved on a stela from an Irish passage grave (County Meath) dated to 4th millennium BCE, contrived to also represent the image of an owl, a sacred and beloved bird of the goddess Athena, too, known as the nocturnal weaver. The owl seems to have been an incarnate manifestation of the fearsome Goddess of Death. For example, the Goddess' owl face on a very fine sculpture discovered at Knowth West, Ireland, is immersed in a labyrinthine design probably symbolizing the life-giving waters, in the center of which is a vulva.

In addition, Athena was the weaver goddess amongst the Olympians and her peplos, as well as her connection with spiders and snakes, reminds of Ariadne and her thread (Hillis Miller, 1992). Perhaps Ariadne with her thread, who weaved the world on strands of Love, was another name for Arachne, the spider goddess (also associated with the Celtic goddess Arianrhod). Arachne was a lunar symbol and it was perhaps included in the zodiac cycle of a lunar year of 13 months. It was placed between 25° 23' Taurus and 23° 5' Gemini and its symbol was a circle with a cross at the centre, a common symbol for the Earth (Vogh, 1977). Vogh, though, was accused for scientific hoax (even if the powerful presence of spider’s symbol in astrological and cultural patterns all over the world is undeniable), so, usually Ophiuchus - the Serpent Bearer - is considered the 13th constellation which was better known in Classical times as Asclepius the Healer.

Universally the symbol of the spider relates with some attributes like Cunning, Progressive, Female, Cyclical, Rebirth, Death, Crafty, Resourceful, Creation, Protection and Fate. She is the teacher, the protector of esoteric wisdom, celebrated by several cultures worldwide. It represents Fertility and Balance; it is included amongst the famous Nazca Lines - Nazca desert, southern Peru, a UNESCO World Heritage Site designated in 1994 (for an astronomical calendrical interpretation of the lines see Stokes Brown, 2012; Foerster, 2013) - and could be interrelated with the Equinoxes.

Another strong correlation of the Nazca spider is Orion’s constellation with its abnormal long leg (right from the viewer’s part) ending to Sirius. The German born Maria Reiche first attracted the world’s attention to Nazca’s amazing drawings spending more than 50 years of her life on the study of the area. The American historian / archaeologist Paul Kosok from Long Island University collaborated with her and made, too, an interesting discovery, that lines represented the summer and

winter solstices along with the drawings that seemed to be related with celestial objects, events and constellations. Moreover, astronomer Phyllis Pitluga of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago deepened the research claiming that those drawings represent heavenly bodies. Especially, the original Nazca drawings - the 500ft animals - such as the spider seem to be correlated exactly with the movements of Orion throughout earliest prehistory. Her theory though was criticized by other astronomers (Kosok, 1965; Reinhard, 1996; Critchlow, et al., 2005; Aveni, 2006; Brown, 2007; Haughton, 2007). Finally, Graham Hancock, in his Fingerprints of the Gods part II (1996), mentions the astronomer Gerald Stanley Hawkins, best known as the author of Stonehenge Decoded, who identified the Nazca spider as a member of the Order Ricinulei describing it as “one of the rarest spider genera in the world”.

In Vedas, the net of Indra (depicted as chariot driver) symbolized the continuous creation and interconnectedness of Universe (according to Rajiv Malhotra, 2014, the earliest reference to a net belonging to Indra is in the Atharva Veda, 8.8.6 ff, dated to ca 1000 BCE) and there was lore that the net was used in bull ceremonies in Atlantis (Plato, Critias 119C-120D).

Furthermore, one of proto-hellenic titles of Aphrodite was ‘Arachne’ or ‘Ananke’, symbolizing the Fate and the thread of Life (Perry, 2013). So, was Venus the Lady of the Labyrinth? In fact, Venus’ conjuctions have a pentagramic cyclic pattern creating a five-pointed star. But, in Theseus’ mythological cycle, although Ariadne Aphrodite helped the hero to conquer the beast, when he returner victorious to his homeland, the city of Athens, instituted festivals in honour of Athena.

Finally, Artemis, according to the Pelasgian Arcadians was not the daughter of Leto and Zeus but of Demeter and Poseidon as king of the Underworld (Pausanias, VIII.25.7 & VIII.42.1; Dietriech, 2004, pp. 65-66) under the secret name of Despoina, Despoena or Despoine (the other daughter was Persephone aka Kore) worshipped in their mystical ceremonies known as Arcadian Mysteries (similar to Eleusinian Mysteries). Her real name was revealed only to those who were initiated in those mysteries (Pausanias, VIII.37). Of course, Despoina was an epithet attributed to several goddesses, especially Aphrodite, Persephone, Demeter and Hecate. As an epithet, the word Despoina is related to the Mycenean divine title ‘potnia’ (po-ti-ni-ja) and it was originally accompanying the Aegean mother goddess. The Pelasgian Arcadian goddesses Demeter and Despoina (later Persephone), were closely related to the springs and the animals, as well as to the cycle of life-death-rebirth, and, especially to the goddess Artemis as ‘Potnia Theron’ (meaning the mistress of the animals) who was the first nymph (Nilsson, 1967, vol. I, pp. 479-480). Kerényi (1976, I.iii, pp. 89-90) proposed that the later Eleusinian Mysteries related to Demeter and Persephone were the continuation of Minoan cults and rites worshipping the Mistress of the Labyrinth at Knossos (Kn Gg 702 tablet: da-pu2-ri-to-jo,po-ti-ni-ja).

On a marble relief found at her sanctuary in Lycosura, Pelasgian city in Arcadia said to be the most ancient of the world according to Pausanias (VIII.2.1, VIII.38.1 & VIII.4.1-5) and centre for her mysteries, the veil of chthonic Despoina is represented (National Archaeological Museum of Athens, inv. no. 1737); figures with the heads of different animals obviously in a ritual dance, some of them holding a flute, appear on it. These could be hybrid creatures or a procession of women with animal masks (Pausanias, VIII.25.4, VIII.37 &VIII.42; Nilsson, vol I, p.479) The goddess was already present in the Homeric Epics, she held a prominent role in the attic ceremonies close to the sea, as the Temple of Artemis Mounichia at Peiraieus and the first open-air sanctuary on Sounion promontory (before the erection of the temples of Poseidon and Athena) reveal. Artemis had, evenmore, a special power over

water. As the goddess of the Moon (according to her later attributes) she ruled the tides. In this respect, she was associated with the cyclical pattern of menstruation, and thereby forming another link between women and water. In addition, through her association with water, she also personified ‘the unconscious depths of the human mind’. And like water, women are also the source from which all life flows (Pararas and Laoupi, 2007). Later on, the remembrance of the Neolithic matriarchal societies, of Artemis’s cult and of the Amazons’ lore was quite strong (according to Callimachus, Hymn 3.237-242, the women warriors set up the goddess’ statue beneath an oak tree and danced around it dressed in their armor) in the case of Ephesus (Asia Minor), a rich and brilliant ancient city, where women enjoyed rights and privileges equal to men and there are records of female artists, sculptors, painters and teachers in historic times (MacLean Rogers, 2012).

After the final Trojan War, Aeneas had led many of the survivors from Troy to Latium, where he married the Latin princess Lavinia, and their royal residence being at the new town of Lavinium. Here it is believed that Prince Brutus (Bryttos), the great-grandson of Aeneas, was born. In his travels, he visited the sacred oracle of Artemis at Delos Island where he learned about his future destination and destiny (Monmouth, 1965). Later on, Brutus with Trojan refugees and fellow arrivals went to Britain where he became the first high king. Strabo wrote that “..there is an island near Britain on which sacrifices are performed like those sacrifices in Samothrace that have to do with Demeter and Core” (IV.4.6). Evenmore, the worship of goddess Dana (Diana, Artemis) was always prominent amongst the Celts of Britain, Gaul and Ireland. The Thracian deity Bendis was also worshipped in Classical Attica (the resemblance of which with Artemis was more than striking), where she eventually became one of the most popular foreign deities. The depictions of her on vases included the notion of ‘Kourotrophos’, and ‘Great Mother’ and sometimes they presented the goddess holding a vessel to catch the blood of sacrificed bulls. She was also identified with ‘Potnia Theron’, Kybele, Parthenos Athena and Hecate (Janouchova, 2013). Probably, thus, the broader area of ancient Thrace was one of the Pelasgian nuclei of those rituals and religious beliefs.

THE SYMBOLS OF THE LABYRINTH AND LABRYS Homer (Odyssey, xix.172-178) calls Crete a land of many peoples, Achaeans, great-hearted native Cretans, Kydonians, Dorians and goodly Pelasgians (King, et al., 2008). On the other hand, information derived from ancient sources (Diodorus, III. 67.1) connects the cultural group of Kadmos with the Pelasgian roots of first alphabet signs. Diodorus of Sicily mentions that the ‘Phoenician Letters’ were Pelasgian and that later Greeks ignored that Minoans were the first who created the Hellenic alphabet. He writes that “Now Linus, they say, composed an account in the Pelasgic letters of the deeds of the first Dionysus and of the other mythical legends and left them among his memoirs” (III.67; V.57).

One of the most intriguing connection clues between Pelasgian Crete and other Mediterranean areas with Pelasgian substratum, e.g. Egypt (Herodotus, II.148, wrote about the marvellous labyrinth at Hawara in the Fayum near the Middle Kingdom capital of Lisht in Egypt that: “The Pyramids were bigger than words can tell, but the Labyrinth surpasses even the Pyramids"), Lemnos (with its Pelasgian city state of Hephaistia where the modern archaeological excavations bring to light astonishing finds and the Sanctuary of Cabeiri, the second on the Greek territory after

the famous one in Samothrace), and Etruria (Matthews, 1985), is the famous labyrinth as an elaborate complex system of path and tunnels (Mycenaean ‘daburinthos’ dapu2-ri-to-yo KN Gg 702). Apart from a great number of scientific works worldwide trying to deciphering this symbol, few aspects seem fascinating and very interrelated.

The fabled Labyrinth of Minos on Crete is believed to be the remains of the Bronze Age royal palace of city of Knossos (Philostratus, De vita Apollonii Tyanei IV.34). Legend says that King Minos of Knossos demanded from the Athenians a tribute every nine years of seven young men and seven maidens, who were then "destroyed by the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, or else wandered about at their own will and, being unable to find an exit, perished there" (Plutarch, Lives: Theseus XV.2, XVII.3 & XIX.1). On the legend of the Minotaur and the cause for the Labyrinth, Diodorus explains that “Daidalos built the Labyrinth, with winding passageways that were very difficult to follow for those unacquainted with them…” (IV.76.1- 80.3).

This Daedalus was Athenian by birth, at the end finding himself in Sicily.

Striking evidence is, also, the name of Asterion, son of Cometes, who was among the Argonauts (Apollonius, 1.35-39; Orpheus Argonautica, 163; Hyginus Fabulae, 14). Asterion or Asterios (ruler of the stars) who was called king of Crete (Herodotus, 1.173; Apollodorus, The Library 3.1.7 & 3.8-11; Nonnus, Dionysiaca XL.290 ff: “He [the Kretan prince Asterios] avoided the Knossian city and the sons of his family, hating Pasiphae and his own father Minos”), raised the children of Europa and Zeus the Bull as his own (Diodorus Siculus, The Library 4.60.3), taking the form of the bull (Sun). According to Karl Kerenyi (1951) and other scholars, the star at the centre of the labyrinth on Cretan coins was Asterion, the Minotaur (Diodorus of Sicily, IV.60-77). Today this is the name of the star b Canes Venatici. Thus, Zeus / Asterion, transformed into the starry bull and became the father of Minos by Europe, and Poseidon / Bull became the father of Asterion Minotaur (during the Old Palace Period ca 2000 BCE, Taurus constellation occupied the position of the Vernal Equinox, signalling the beginning of the seasonal year).

The Epic of Gilgamesh, amongst the earliest surviving works of literature, was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam, a native Assyrian Assyriologist, British diplomat and traveller, in AD 1853. The epic begins with the five old Sumerian poems, usually dated to the period 2150-2000 BCE (then came the ‘standard’ Akkadian version which consists of 12 tablets), and was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 and 1000 BCE, later found in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. In tablet VI, we learn that Ishtar, the ‘Queen of Heaven’, in order to revenge Gilgamesh, leads the Bull of Heaven to Uruk, causing widespread devastation, as it lowers the level of the Euphrates River, dries up the marshes, and opens up huge pits that swallow 300 men! One can see the very stimulating combination of the ancient Greek myths of Minotaur and Phaethon (see also Rohl, 1998). Moreover, the double-axe, the bullhead, doves, and priestesses were common features in both Sumerian and Minoan cultures (Castleden, 1990; Roux, 1992).

Altar of Sin or Suen (Akkadian) / Nanna (Sumerian), Temple of the Moon.

Dilmun, Bahrain. Rohl, 1998, plate 34. The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Used as an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story (After Conklin, 1998, p. 10)

On the other hand, poetically, the comets are like sky dancers. And the Cretan labyrinth had been a dancing ground made for Ariadne rather than for Minos (Homer Iliad, XVIII.590 - 593). “Homer compares the dance worked by Hephaistos on the shield of Achilleus to a dance made by Daidalos, because he had never seen more clever workmanship” (Pausanias, 8.16.3). “Dancers as sacred extra-human models revealed the divinity, for example the pyrrhic, the martial dance created by Athena, or the heroes, cf. Theseus’ dance in the Labyrinth... A dance always imitates an archetypal gesture or commemorates a mythical moment” (Eliade, 1954/1965, pp. 2829). Graves (1969) claims that Hephaestus had affinities with Daedalus and Icarus.

Finally, the symbol of the coiling serpent seems to dance in a labyrinhtine way, in a cosmic spiral (Valentia Straiton, 1927). Researchers claim that at the center of Phaistos Disc (Maze of Daedalus: the two sides along represent the wave spiral) lays the symbol of Sirius and that the famous disc represents in fact a dance floor (http://www.diskoftheworld.com/diskindex.htm#dance) according to the patterns of ‘Kronou Teknophagia’ or ‘Crane Dance’ known as geranos, ancient dance said to be invented by Theseus and performed on the island of Delos in order to commemorate his way to escape from the Minotaur inside the Labyrinth (Polydeucus, IV.101). This ancient dance was later known also in Paros & Mykonos islands and in the Greek mainland as labyrinthos or Theseus’ dance or tsakonikos from the homonym area in Peloponnesus (Lawler Brady, 1946; Graves, 1948; Herdeen, 2011).

By the 5th century BCE, the city of Knossos began to mint coins, and the earliest shows the Minotaur on the obverse and a labyrinthine swastika with a star or sun motif in the centre on the reverse. Over time, the swastika gave way to the maze pattern and a human or bovine head replaced the central star (MacGillivray, 2004).

Right: Silver Cnossian coin depicting the Labyrinth as a swastika with the star/rosetta at the center. ca 432–350 BCE (BMC Crete and the Aegean Islands: plate IV.11; After Saward, 2003).

Left: The lauburu (round swastika) of Basque and Celtic people symbolizing - in its positive form - spirit, life, consciousness and prosperity; it also marked the tombs of healers of animals and healers of souls

Pliny the Elder in his Natural History (XXXVI. 13) speaks of a remarkable labyrinth in Lemnos, which has not been identified in modern times. Apollodorus (Epitome, I.9) records that when Dionysos found Ariadne abandoned on Naxos, he brought her to Lemnos and there fathered Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus. Though called the Lemnian Labyrinth in this section, Pliny previously refers to this Labyrinth as the temple built by Theodorus at Samos (XXXIV.83, XXXV.19, 82 & XXXVI.90). This misinterpretation, though, derives from the fact that Samos was the old name of Samothrace, as the Homeric tradition passed into the verses of Apollonius’ Argonautica (I.923) and Diodorus (III.55.8). Does Diodorus’ narration (V.47.1 ff.) relate to the flood that affected the northeastern Aegean, Asia Minor and Black Sea (Ryan and Pittman, 2000; Ryan, et al., 2003)?

The scientists date a major episode in 5.600 BCE when the salt waters of Aegean poured into the brackish waters of Black Sea), correlates the island of Samothrace, the flood episode, the very ancient nuclei of Eastern Mediterranean cultural substratum and the fishermen’ altars near the shores in an excellent and highly valuable framework of environmental information. In the ancient text, the flood is expressed by the term ‘labros’, a Homeric word that means the impetuous waters of the sea or the rivers!

Recent archaeological, theological, and natural research, has, brought forward new hypotheses about the origins of the labyrinth, and that the forces of an ancient tsunami (seaquakes) may play a special part in labyrinth history. The earliest examples for which an accurate date can be ascribed are to be found around the shores of the Mediterranean. A labyrinth-inscribed clay tablet from Pylos, Greece, is over 3200 years old. The depiction of the labyrinth on a wine jar from Tragliatella dates to the 7th century BCE; it shows armed soldiers on horseback running from a labyrinth with the word Truia (Troy) inscribed in the outermost circuit (http://www.labyrinthos.net/centre.htm).

It is believed that the concept of the labyrinth was developed from the spiral – a fundamental form found in nature in the nautilus shell, the turn of a ram's horn, the manner in which snakes coil and birds spiral up to ride thermals. Moreover, spiral galaxies and strands of DNA are now visible to modern people using telescopes and microscopes. Ancient people attributed the spiral to the Great Mother Goddess. As a symbol representing energy and transformation it was painted on cave walls and on pottery throughout southeastern Europe, as well as on the walls of the Tarxien temples of Malta. Additionally to the spiral, the labyrinth encompasses other powerful symbols, too: the circle, the meander and the labrys from which it gets its name. Like the spiral, the circle is a fundamental form of nature. It is the Earth, the Moon and the

Sun. It is the turning of seasons and the wheel of life. It represents time and timelessness, completion, unity and equality (Pararas and Laoupi, 2007).

There are remarkable examples of labyrinths from a whole range of ancient and disparate cultures dated back at least to 30 kya. “In its earliest use the labyrinth seems always to have been associated with death” (Bord, 1976, p. 10; Lorimer, 2009).

The symbol has appeared in all forms, throughout most parts of the world (Europe, Mesoamerica, Mediterranean, Java Australia, India and Nepal). Since ancient times, people have used labyrinths to invoke the mercy of the Gods in their dealings with the sea. At the shores of Iceland and the Baltic Sea, there are still many old labyrinths that were once used by fishing communities as indicators of the directions of the winds and as shrines to the old sea Goddesses which would protect the fishers in a safe return home (Saward and Saward, 1998; Saward, 2003). Legends tell how labyrinths near lakes and sea sides have also been used as a place to guide the souls of the deceased to the hereafter. Moreover, the name of troy-town has been discovered for several locations in northern Europe (Spanuth, 1975; de Grazia, 2005). Labyrinths appear in various countries throughout the world (India, England, Scotland, and the Hebrides), as a form of spiritual protection against the ‘evil eye’. This protective aspect was also reflected upon the planning of prehistoric cities, in order to offer tactical protection from military invasion, as in the case of Troy, which was constructed in a maze-like configuration (Bord, 1976; Freitas, 1985, p. 413).

Labyrinth remains, also, since early prehistory, a pristine and amazingly strong archetypal symbol of the trip to our Inner Self and our delving into the Unconscious (Campbell, 1972; Edinger and Wesley, 1994; MacGillivray, 2004; Bilić, 2006, p. 20). In its duality, it is Cosmos to those who know the way and Chaos to those who lose it. Ariadne represents the “the anima as psychopomp”, without which Theseus would not be able to slay the ferocious Minotaur (Adams, 2001, p. 263). It is Ariadne's thread, whose windings create the world and yet enable us to unravel it or ravel it (Purce, 1974, p. 29).

This symbolic ‘conjunctio oppositorum’ (see the “androgynous” nature of Hephaistos, Venus, Dionysos and Athena) is the place where opposites such as Life/Death, Light/Dark, Male/Female, are transformed and melt into each other, in the dance of the spiral (Freitas, 1985, p. 413). The hero Theseus faces every human being’s fate in the form of the three-level initiation (ego death). The bull and the labyririnth symbolized the matriarchal societies, the chthonic female priesthood and the energy and the forces of the Moon (as female expression). Furthermore, Minotaur was called Asterion (starry) symbolizing both the light of awareness once conquered, and Amor Fati, “the acceptance and love of one’s fate” (Adams, 2001, p. 385), as the acceptance of one’s karmic path. And, since “Minotaur is brave enough to bear his fate by standing within the internal labyrinth, then it is up to the hero to venture in and meet him there finding his way to freedom after meeting and slaying the monster” (Campbell, 1972, p. 17). Finally, there is the union of the two archetypal images of Male and Female, Dionysos symbolizing Zoë and Ariadne symbolizing the Genesis of Souls, both representing the eternal spiral of Life (Kerényi, 1976). According to Universal Vortical Singularity Theory (UVS) by Vincent Wee-Foo (http://www.uvsmodel.com/UVS%20content.htm), all physical existences (e.g. dark matter blobs, supervoids, galaxies and their structures and motion, blackholes and supernova, heliosphere and magnetosphere, sunspots, planetary rings, comet gas tails, polar aurorae, ozone hole and polar vortex, polar jetstreams, supercells and tropical cyclones, oceanic whilpoorls, earthquake vortices, structure of atoms as clusters of spheroical vortices) are weaved in vertical, labyrinthian, motion. Labyrinth is a

powerful energy vortex (see, also, Ouroboros as the dragon vortex and Crux Dissimulata, an ancient swastika as a dragon glyph).

In addition, the labrys was sometimes referred to as a double-axe and is believed to have been an agricultural tool. Plutarch related the word labrys wirh a Lydian word for axe (Greek Questions, XLV. 2.302a). In the area of Labraunda, in Caria – Asia Minor, the storm-god Zeus Labraundos had as a symbol the double axe.

Minoan depictions of the Mother Goddess and other strictly female divinities show them with the labrys (Matthews, 1985). A Linear B inscription (Gg702) found in Knossos (the palace was known as the House of Labrys), was interpreted as DA-PURI-TO-JO PO-TI-NI-JA (labynthoio potnoiai = to the Mistress of the labyrinth), the goddess of the palace (Schachermeyer, 1964, pp. 161, 237, 238). The famous Arkalochori Axe was found during excavations of the Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos in 1934, in the Arkalochori cave in Crete. It is dated to the 2nd millennium BCE and it is considered as a labrys, a votive double axe used for religious rituals.

Both the Axe and Phaistos Disc are kept and exhibited at the Herakleion Archaeological Museum. As Emily Townsend Vermeule had observed "Yet two facts are clear about the deity of Arkalochori: it was connected with weapons in a special way, and it was a goddess rather than a god" (1959, p. 6). The symbol of labrys is also connected with the female essence and the butterfly (labia) / psyche (Evans, 1925; Lincoln, 1981; Mavriyannaki, 1983; Cameron, 1987; Gimbutas and Campbell, 2001) as an archetypical symbol of the transcendent soul, of the spiritual transformation and the mystical rebirth.

Chauvet Cave (Ardèche, southern France). Salle du Fond (the last and deepest of the chambers), nearly 7m high. A vertical cone of limestone hangs down ending in a point 1.10m off the floor. The Venus (pubic triangle) and the Sorcerer (man-bison) are drawn in black charcoal.

Evidence suggests that the Venus is Aurignacian created in the first period of the decoration of the Cave (ca 32 to 30 kya). The ‘Bull - Vulva’ motif led Curtis (2006) to interpret this composite drawing as the representation of the ‘Minotaur’

According to another etymological interpretation, the word comes from the Latin labus = lips, connecting directly, thus, the double-axe to the feminine sexual organ. First Waits in 1923 argued that the symbol was primarly and entirely of the Mother Goddess; later on Gimbutas (2001, p. 35) promoted an idea first suggested by the artist Dorothy Cameron that the symbol of the bull bucranium which is common in Neolithic art represented a womb and fallopian tubes. The physical shape of the female vagina is similar to the shape of a bull's head indeed. Noteworthy also is the fact that the word ‘labyrinthos’ is used in the southern areas of Crete as a female gender name. The double triangle labrys symbol, found already in paleolithic cave art (e.g. see Baring & Cashford, 2005: Magdalenian Niaux cave paintings), in Neolithic

Halaf Culture motifs and religious rites (Eliade, 2006; MacGillivray, 2012), in a Summerian hymn of the 3rd millennium BCE that mentions the sacred marriage between Iddin-Dagan, the third king of the dynasty of Isin, and Inanna (Reisman, 1973) or in Aphrodisias - Caria bronze Hellenistic coinage (http://www. asiaminorcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=196&pid=4269#tp_display_me dia), was used up until medieval times to denote the womb and the female reproductive power.

Right: Female pelvis. Left: Female reproductive organs.

Both resemble to butterfly / double-axes images. Image synthesis by Amanda Laoupi

Thus, the author estimates that labrys was mainly a Moon/Venus symbol, representing both the female elements of chthonic prehistoric cults of the Great Mother Goddess and the destructive powers of cosmic and natural phenomena, later transformed into a dual archetype like the ankh, symbolizing the wholeness of Cosmos and of human nature (Nikolaidou, 1994: symbol of dualities like male/female, nature/culture, Earth/Sky).

On the other hand the author agrees with the amazing hypothesis which has been made by Henriksson and Blomberg (2011, p. 65) naming Orion / Sirius as the Minoan constellation of the Double-Axe! This fact could explain the the strong correlation of Moon / Venus with Sirius.

The hypothesized Minoan double axe on 21 September 2000 BCE, at 23.23 local mean solar time, at Knossos when Sirius became visible above the Ailias ridge. The center of the door of the Central Palace Sanctuary is at azimuth 100° (http://minoanastronomy.mikrob.com/ fig. 5).

After Henriksson and Blomberg , 2011, p. 65

The double-axe was, also, correlated with the ‘horns of consecration’, often being the symbol of Poseidon, the ‘Earth-Shaker’ or of Zeus with his thunderbolts (Evans, 1901, p. 107; Castleden, 1990, p. 130, pp. 135-136; Haysom, 2010).

Moreover, in the ancient Anatolian and Mesopotamian myths, the great goddess had a male companion in the form of a tree or a bull, e.g. Kybele-Attis, Ishtar-Tammuz, Aphrodite-Adonis (Evans, 1901; Nilsson, 1950, pp. 400-404 and Figs. 56, 61, 71-73).

This youthful god was, also, depicted with goddesses on the tree-shrine scenes of Minoan seals, having a central position in the Minoan religion as a male fertility god, a ‘Year-Spirit’ (Castleden 1995, pp. 125-26). The sacred tree, the sacred bull, the young male ‘Year-Spirit’ was parts of a general symbolism. Thus, according to one version of symbolic decipherment, the Cretan Dionysos / Adonis, the Minoan & Mycenaean Poseidon / Poteidan, and the deity of double axes may all have been expressions of the same Minoan god, who could have been the male partner of a Minoan female solar deity (Evans, 1901, p. 168; Evans, 1930, pp. 457-458; Castleden, 1990, p. 129). On the other hand, the priests at Delphi were called ‘labryades’. Other researchers (Cook, 1914; MacGillivray, 2004, p. 332) interpret the double-axe as the symbolic marriage of solar and lunar calendars which produce Asterios (the knowledge of starry sky’s periodicities).

Moreover, the Latin word dolabra (labrys) meaning axe or hoe, used in Minoan Crete, Lydia and Etruria, symbolized also the lightning, being an ‘ar falando’, meaning a sky fire (Blinkeberg, 1911; de Grazia, 2005). The double-axe accompanied the Hurrian god of sky and storm Teshub (Tarhun in Hittite and Luwian).

In parallel, the cult of Hephaistos (the authentic constructor of Minoan labyrinth) was ‘Pelasgian’ beyond any doubt. According to Herodotus (VI.140.1 ) the ‘pre-Greek’ population of the Lemnos island was Pelasgian, as the population of the Greek mainland before the flood of Deucalion (Thucydides, I.3.2: the nation of the Pelasgians). Not to forget also that Hephaistos symbolically was removed from the community spending nine years in deep sea, for a rite of passage. That dive into the ocean can be conceived as a return to the unconscious and as a prelude to rebirth since rebirth is one of the main symbolic features of Labyrinth (Jung, 1984).

On the other hand, the Etruscans, said by Herodotus (I.94) to be Anatolian Lydians arrived to Etruria before the Trojan War, were especial worshippers of Jupiter and lightning of all forms (at least 30) due to a very consistent lightning fear.

Lightning prefers damp areas, underground waters, towers and hilltops, metallic substances and objects in the soil. In Etruscan mythology, Techulka, a smith-god and death- demon, clubbed his victims with a giant hammer, accompanied by a winged demon figured with snakes.

The Tarquin family of Italy, before the foundation of Roman republic, had as its emblem the minotaur, as it is confirmed by the archaeological finds in the remains of an ancient palace found in volcanic crater 12 miles outside of Rome in Gabii (likely belonged to the Etruscan prince Sextus Tarquinius, last tyrant king of Rome) dating back to the 6th century BCE. Minotaur was also one of the five legionary emblems before Marius’ reform (Pliny, Historia Naturalis 10.16; Downey, 1996; Avramidou, 2011).

The ancient Etruscii, who were called by Greeks Tursanoi, Tursenoi, Turrenoi, and by the Romans Etrusci and Tusci, were people of Pelasgian origin (Hellanicus, fragm. 1 in Fragm. Hist. Gr.I.p.44). Even if the Etruscans were called Romans (Flavius Josephus, against Apion II. 4), exactly like the ancient inhabitants of Iberia (Hispania) and like the Sabinii, their ancestors were the Arimi, Aramani and Arimani. Rome itself had been at the beginning an Etruscan city (Dionysius Halicarnasseus, I. 29). The famous river Tiber (aka Rumon) is considered an Etruscan river (Virgil, Aeniad VII. v. 242; Georgics I.499). In the area of Vulci, the river was called Armina or Armine. According to the Roman tradition, Romulus had been an Etruscan imperor (Servius, in Virgil Georgics II.530). Two ancient Greek writers state that a significant group of Pelasgian Turseni still existed around 435-400 BCE in the peninsula of Mount Athos (Herodotus, I.57; Thucydides, IV.109). According to the

legend, Orpheus spent some time among group of people of Getic origin named Trausi dwelling in the central regions of the Rhodope Mountains (Livy, XXXVIII.41.6). In Hecateus’ geography the Trizii were people from the southern parts of the Istru (Stephanus Byzantius s.v. Trisoi). Furthermore, remains of an ancient Pelasgian population which belonged to the family of the Tursenii were found in Attica, in Argos and in Lemnos, (Thuycydidis, IV. 109; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I.25). In the Homeric Hymn (VI.8) the Tursenii had as main occupation the piracy on the Black Sea. Interesting information comes also from Isidorus of Seville who wrote that the Greeks and the Etruscii had been the first to write on waxed tablets (Origines, VI.9.1). Finally, the exact figure of the Cretan Labyrinth was carved on the rock entrance to the cave of the Cumaean Sibyl.

Additionally, recent investigations have shown that Etruscans’ blood type is similar to the Urartu people of Lake Van in northeastern Anatolia (de Grazia, 2005).

The genetic evidence shows that Armenians (separate ethnic group originated from Neolithic ethnic tribes inhabited much larger territory than that of the present Republic of Armenia) are native to the lands inhabited by Urartians originated from Caucasus and eastern Anatolia (Pallottino, 1958; Litvinov, et al., 2008; Wilhem, 2008; Ayvazyan, 2011; Pardo-Seco, et al., 2014).

WHO WAS PHAETHON? In AD 1927, Franz Xaver Kugler, a Jesuit scholar who had devoted over 30 years to the study of cuneiform astronomical texts, published an essay entitled The Sibylline Starwar and Phaethon In the Light of Natural History, asserting that a large impact event in the Mediterranean Sea inspired fire-from-above legends such as Phaethon's ride. Coincidentally, it was also in 1927 that Leonid Kulik, a Russian Scientist, located the area which was devastated by the 20 MT aerial explosions in Tunguska event of June 30, 1908 (Kobres, 1995; http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk /phaeth.html).

Emilio Spedicato (2007) suggested the year 1447 BCE as Phaethon's passing, Clube and Napier (1982) the year 1369 BCE, and Kobres (1995) and Papamarinopoulos (2007) the year 1159 BCE, respectively. Spedicato (2014) refers, also, to Homer who did not quote Deucalion but did mention Phaethon and Lampos as visible at sunrise. Perhaps the one body Lampos crashed over Africa (Mauritania, southern Egypt?) while Phaethon spiralled towards Earth, fragmented over Arabia, entered atmosphere over eastern Mediterranean Sea, fired palaces of Minoan Crete and forests of central Europe, and finally exploded over Eider in northern Germany.

According to the archaeoastronomical evidence, the main suspect of the periodical havoc caused on Earth during the Holocene, were the fragments of the initial giant comet Encke, which first appeared 20 kya, approached the Earth every millennium or so, causing various environmental disasters. The Bronze Age years were ca 1200, 2300 and 3300 BCE (Clube and Napier, 1990). Papamarinopoulos (2007) suggested a further coherence, the identification of the Greek goddess Athena with Phaethon as female appearance (Phaethoussa) and the Egyptian Sekhmet “For in truth the story that is told in your country as well as ours, how once upon a time Phaethon, son of Helios, yoked his father’s chariot, and, because he was unable to drive it along the course taken by his father, burnt up all that was upon the Earth and himself perished by a thunder-bolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a

great conflagration of things upon the Earth, which recurs after long intervals ” (Plato, Timaeus 22C.3-7).

In the ancient Greek traditions, this different nature of the two bodies (Hephaistos and Phaethon) is, also, testified by the verses of Nonnos (Dionysiaca, 29.376), where the god Ares seems to be willing to fight against Zeus, Phaethon, Hephaistos and Athena (comets, meteoric showers and other impact phenomena!), in order to set his beloved Aphrodite free (and Hermes addressed Phaethon as follows: "Then you will shine in the sky like the Sun God next to Ares, scattering that thick invisible darkness far away; a miracle unheard of in the course of the ages"), as in the famous text from Odyssey (Laoupi, 2006a). In Odyssey, Phaethon was also an epithet of the Sun god Helios (xi, 16).

The implication of all these afore-said cosmic bodies (Sun, Zeus, Poseidon as Earth, Phaethon) is, also, testified in the Greek myth. Phaethon accidentally turned most of Africa into desert; bringing the blood of the Ethiopians to the surface of their skin, turning it black. "The running conflagration spreads below. But these are trivial ills: whole cities burn, And peopled kingdoms into ashes turn" (Ovid, Metamorphoses Book II. PHAETHON). Rivers and lakes began to dry up; Poseidon rose out of the sea and waved his trident in anger at the sun... Eventually, Zeus was forced to intervene and stroke the runaway chariot with a lightning bolt to stop it, Phaethon plunging into the River Eridanus. Then, Helios, stricken with grief, refused to drive his chariot for days, blaming Zeus for the death of his son. Finally the gods persuaded him to not leave the world in darkness. More specifically, Aristotle mentions that "...the stars...fell from heaven at the time of Phaethon's downfall". Thus, the ancient Greek philosopher claimed that Phaethon caused a meteor shower (Meteorology, I.8). The symbolization of Phaethon as the charioteer of the Universe is present in the works of Hesiod (? Under discussion, see: Knaack, 1965; Diggle, 1970, pp. 4-5, 10-15, 23-24; Blomqvist, 1994, pp. 6-7; Csaki, 1995, pp. 8-20; Rappenglück, et al., 2009), in Aeschylus’ Heliades (written between 468 and 456 BCE) and Euripides’ Hippolytos (performed in 428 BCE).

This has led many modern scientists, including Velikovsky, to speculate that Phaethon was a comet. Velikovsky concluded from his extensive interdisciplinary research that the planet Venus was remembered from the time of the dawn of civilization as a brilliant cometary body, too. In an alternate genealogy, Phaethon was the son of Eos and Kephalos, whom Aphrodite stole away, while he was no more than a child, to be the night-watchman at her most sacred shrines (Hesiod, Theogony 986; Apollodorus III.181; Pausanias, I.3.1). The earliest writer who refers to the transformation of Phaethon into a planet was Hesiod (Theogony, 987-991) who wrote that "Phaethon, a man like the gods, whom . . . laughter-loving Aphrodite seized and caught up and made a keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit".

Detail of a Greek calyx-krater in Blacas Collection (E 466, British Museum, London) - late 5th century BCE - depicting four boys representing setting stars, Pan greeting the dawn, the goddess Eos (Dawn) & her mortal lover Kephalos or Selene (Moon) and Endymion before the chariot of the Sun (rather of his son Phaethon who is depicted as a youngster). The mortal lover appears to be in the form

of Orion’s constellation and the dog at his foot may represent Sirius (the photo is a public domain retrieved from Harrison, 1890, p. 180). According to the mythographer Antoninus Liberalis (Metamorphoses, XXV), Menippe and Metioche, daughters of Orion, sacrificed themselves for their country's good and were transformed into comets.

The Morning Star was the ‘Heosphoros’ (< Greek Ἑωσφόρος or Ἠωσφόρος, Heōsphoros), meaning the ‘Dawn-Bringer’. In parallel, as an adjective, the word was used for the god Dionysos, especially Hecate but also for Artemis and Hephaestos.

The Minoans (Pelasgian substratum) called him Adymus, by which they meant the morning and evening star (Hesiod, Theogony 986; Solinus, XI.9; Nonnus, Dionysiaca, XI.131 and XII.217). “The fourth star is that of Venus [Aphrodite], Luciferus [Eosphoros] by name. Some say it is Juno’s. In many tales it is recorded that it is called Hesperus, too. It seems to be the largest of all stars. Some have said it represents the son of Aurora [Eos] and Cephalus, who surpassed many in beauty, so that he even vied with Venus, and, as Eratosthenes says, for this reason it is called the star of Venus...” (Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica II.4). According to ancient Greek astrology/theosophy Phaethon was sacred to plant Jupiter (Zeus), in similar with the Babylonians’ worship of Marduk, their chief god. The lightning that put an end to Phaethon’s ride was related to meteors in antiquity (van der Sluijs, 2006). Nonnus (Dionysiaca, I.509) describes in a poetic manner the thunderbolt of Zeus as a ‘wrathing comet’. Wainwright (1930, p. 35; 1931, pp. 185 & 189; 1933, pp. 43 & 49) proposed that in Eastern Mediterranean religious spiritualism, sacred meteorites were symbolized by the thunderbolt.

Hephaistos should be treated as a ‘previous’ situation in comparison to Phaethon, and not identified to it. Hephaistos and Athena was a ‘couple’. Athena could be the proto-planet Venus (shared some characteristics with the goddess Saraswati); some impact phenomena took place between that Venus and Hephaistos, causing havoc on Earth. Phaethon was related, according to Greek writers, to Venus (since the Minoan / Pelasgian times), as a youngster who was nominated as nightwatchman at her most sacred shrines. The ‘androgynous’ nature is both present at Hephaistos / Athena and Venus / Phaethon levels.

Alternatively, Radlof in his theory in1823 claims that the planets were on different orbits than today, speculating that the planet Venus (Hesperus) was one of the fragments of the exploded planet Phaethon (between Mars and Jupiter) by a comet from Jupiter belt, explaining both Varro's statement, regarding Venus' changed appearance, and Phaethon's links toVenus (de Grazia, 2009). Because he was considered as ‘son of the Sun’, he should be the brightest and the most prominent object in the sky at night, as Sun was during the day.

Hephaistos, Athena and Indra had, in addition, another dual archetypal substratum. They were both destructors and life-givers and protectors. For instance, Metallurgy in impacted areas was considered as a gift of sky gods. Phaethon, as a later sky episode, has more concrete traits, those of the cosmic destructor, representing the intruders in our planetary system that disturb the normal orbits of the planets, as the Egyptian priest claims in Plato’s narration. Shortly after his birth, Indra battled and eventually slew the dragon Vritra, who had concealed the sun and imprisoned the waters, securing, in this way, the release of the sun together with the life-giving waters (RV, IV:17:7). According to Velikovsky (1950), the universal myth of the dragon-combat reflected a celestial drama of recent occurrence, one which featured the planet Venus in a wildly erratic orbit. Swastika was the symbol of the dragon.

So, Indra holds apart, the Heaven and the Earth, becoming Creator and Lord of the Cosmos. Moreover, Indra was invoked as the supporter of Heaven, as well as a tree, spring, and mountain (common symbolic motifs worldwide of Axis Mundi). He restored the sun’s path and Maruts (meteors) are its companions, as a phenomenon of our solar system. Additionally, a plethora of modern astrobiological evidence suggests that life and waters on Earth are probably of cosmic origin.

Another shocking detail arises in the motif of the charioteer. Auriga is a constellation in the Northern sky. Its name is Latin for 'charioteer', from the ancient Greek Heniochos. In ancient Greek tradition and until the 17th century CE, he was the personification of Erichthonios (< eris = strife or eris = wool + chthon = Earth), son of Hephaistos and Athena, who invented the chariot drawn by four horses, in order to be able to travel (being, also, ‘lame’ as his father). The lower part of his body was snake-formed (Hyginus, Fabulae 166). On the statue of goddess Athena, in the Parthenon temple, Athens' Acropolis, he was the snake hidden behind her shield, because it was said that when the basket was opened, he jumped out and hid behind the shield of Athena (her Aegis was made of Medusa’s head aka Gorgoneion; Zeus aegis was made of Amaltheia’s skin). On the other hand, Aix, a daughter of Helios, represented as a great fire-breathing chthonic serpent similar to the Chimera, was slain and flayed by Athena, who afterwards wore its skin, the aegis (Diodorus of Sicily, III.70), or as a chlamys.

Moreover, Auriga constellation contains the sixth-brightest star in the sky, aka Capella, a Roman name meaning ‘she-goat’ (ancient Greek Aix /Αἲξ). According to Aratus (Phaenomena, 163) it represented the goat Amaltheia (or the Minoan nymph / naiad Adamanteia), who suckled the infant Zeus on the island of Crete and was placed in the sky as a mark of gratitude, along with the two kids she bore at the same time, the Ἔριφοι (i.e. Eriphoi), represented by the neighbouring stars Eta and Zeta Aurigae.

The rising of Capella marked the onset of stormy weather in the latitude of Greece.

Thus, the word aigis denoted both the violent windstorm and the goat-skin (see Watkins, 2000 for its correlation with Anatonial parallels; Suidas, s.v. Aiges (Goats): Large waves, in the common tongue).

The V-shaped star cluster (belonging to Taurus constellation) was related to the katasterism of Erechtheus’s daughters, too, known as Hyades or Hyakinthidai in Athenian tradition, and their sacrifice, as well as with Orion known also as ‘Hyakinth’ the spring deity who was carried to heaven after his death by the three great goddesses Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis (Boutsikas and Hannah, 2012). Even more, Dizionario Etimologico Ottorino Pianigiani relates the ancient Greek name Orion (written with omega) to: a) the Celtic world uria (rain) later possibly to French orage or Italian uragano, and, b) to Sanskrit ur (water) and its variants vara (rain), varuna (god of waters, and urine - a kind of water flowing as well from a certain height).

Auriga was, also, associated, by Manilius (Astronomica, book V, pp. 305-309) and later, by the French astronomer J.J. de Lalande, to Bellerefon, Phaethon and Absyrthe, or Apsurtos. In Indian mythology, we can detect a parallel for this charioteer motif, Aruna, or Arun, as in the Hindu Pantheon Surya, the sun, is shown drawn by four horses, with his charioteer, the lame Aruna, seated in front of him. He is believed to be a cripple (without thighs), and characterised as ‘the reddish one’. In addition, Aruna is the name of the Hittite god of the sea, the Vedic Varuna. In Graeco-Babylonian times, the constellation of Auriga was Rukubi, the Chariot. A Turkish planisphere shows Auriga's stars depicted as a Mule.

There was, also, Phaethon / Sekhmet / Surt in the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE (Combes, 1987). The devastating fire of Sekhmet torched the lands

of the ninth cycle. During antiquity, our planet was divided into nine parallels, the ninth being comprised of the Northern lands, such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, North Germany and Iceland (Edgerton and Wilson, 1936). Inscriptions and texts from the Near East civilizations referred to 'the fire -star that was wandering in the sky and then, fell on Earth, causing death and devastation'. The Egyptians during the reign of Ramesses III claimed that Sekhmet (Greek name, Sachmis) disturbed the harmony of the world (Spanuth, 1977, pp. 170-171). According to an Egyptian myth, the god Horus, himself, was burned by the lethal fires of the goddess Sekhmet, a warrior goddess whose breath created the desert (Pinch, 2004, p. 45). Sekhmet was seen, too, as a bringer of disease as well as the provider of cures to such ills. During an annual festival - of intoxication - held at the beginning of the Egyptian year, the Egyptians danced and played music to soothe the wildness of the goddess and drank great quantities of beer ritually to imitate the extreme drunkenness that stopped her wrath when she almost destroyed humankind. Her cosmic trajectory of the 2nd millennium BCE probably followed a South-East / North-West orientation, from the Indian Ocean, to Northern Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, Central Europe and North Sea. The Epic of Ragnarök speaks of the Fire Giants that came from the South. Modern researchers, in fact, claim that they are safely able to date the events, based on archaeological testimonies and archaeoastronomical calculations. Please, keep in mind, too, the ancient Greek tradition recording that Bellerophon's grandsons Sarpedon and the younger Glaucus fought in the final Trojan War. The ancient Egyptian disaster symbolism and cosmovision, included, also, Apophis, the demon - dragon, who was born from Neith (the parallel of Athena) and was the constant rival of the sun's itinerary in Heavens. His blood turned the sky's colour into red. In fact, it is the Greek name for the Egyptian mythological creature Apep, the symbol of all evil things, the personification of darkness and chaos (for more details, see Maravelia, 2009).

In Norse mythology, Surtr (< Old Norse black or the black one) is attested in the Poetic and Prose Edda. In both sources, Surtr is foretold as being a major figure during the events of Ragnarök; carrying his bright sword, he will go to battle and afterward the flames that he brings forth will engulf the Earth. He comes from the South, and he is mentioned as having a female companion (see also: Langer, 2013).

According to Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata (book I), "...in the time of Crotopus occurred the burning of Phaethon, and the deluges of Deucalion”. The Egyptian priest, too, in Plato's Timaeus, refers to the event of the Deluge and the 'Greek' legend of Phaethon. We, also, saw the connection of Indra and the release of cosmic waters, but let us return to the ancient Greek tradition. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, the creator of mankind, while Pyrrha was the daughter of Pandora, the first woman. In Hyginus' Fabulae (CLII.A), Zeus pretending that he wanted to put out the fire, caused by Phaethon, let loose the rivers everywhere, and the human race perished except Deucalion and Pyrrha. The mythographer Apollodorus wrote that Zeus wished to destroy the men of the Bronze Age, giving, this way, a first framework of the event. According to the myth, the devastating waves of the flood were ordered back by Triton's blowing the conch. The conch had been used by Aigokeros (Capricorn, the goat-fish), who ruled the winter solstice in the world-age when Aries ‘carried’ the sun. Thus, this formula includes the information of a constellation that ceased to mark the autumnal equinox, gliding below the Equator (being drowned).

Aquarius was called ‘Deucalion’ in Astronomy (Hyginus, I.II). In Attica, he was, also, called ‘Cecrops’, that’s why Suidas observes the division of the Athenian

people by Cecrops (related to the four seasons, twelve months, thirty days, etc). The name is not of Greek origin according to Strabo (VII.7.1), or it might mean 'face with a tail': it is said that, born from the Earth itself, he had his top half shaped like a man and the bottom half in serpent or fish-tail form. According to the ancient Athenian tradition, those two events (Deucalion flood / Cecrops & Erichthonius / Phaethon), are inextricably interrelated.

An intriguing testimony is given by Nonnus (Dionysiaca, VI. 206 ff), where he describes the great Deluge in astrological terms: Sun in Leo (summer solstice) + Moon in Cancer + Venus in Taurus + Mars in Scorpio (just opposite of Venus) + Jupiter in Pisces with Moon trine + Saturn back from Aquarius, to his home at Capricorn: "After the first Dionysos [i.e. Zagreus] had been slaughtered [by the Titanes], Father Zeus learnt the trick of the mirror with its reflected image. He attacked [Gaia, Earth] the mother of the Titanes with avenging brand, and shut up the murderers of horned Dionysos within the gate of Tartaros: the trees blazed, the hair of suffering Gaia (Earth) was scorched with heat. He kindled the East: the dawnlands of Baktria blazed under blazing bolts, the Assyrian waves set afire the neighbouring Kaspian Sea and the Indian mountains, the Red Sea rolled billows of flame and warmed Arabian Nereus. The opposite West also fiery Zeus blasted with his thunderbolt in love for his child; and under the foot of Zephyros the Western brine half-burnt spat out a shining stream; the Northern ridges-- even the surface of the frozen Northern Sea bubbled and burned: under the clime of snowy Aigokeros [i.e. the constellation Capricorn] the Southern corner boiled with hotter sparks…”. After that upheaval which caused burning heat across the Northern Hemisphere, the deluge happened.

Consequently, the symbolic motifs of the charioteer (Phaethon) and the fish – goat (Deucalion) were interconnected in time, giving to modern researchers a safe dating tool (for another analysis of this flood event, see Spedicato, 2007). Thus, groups of prehistoric people, all around the globe, left their memories of divine (celestial) catastrophes in poetic language upon which, their successors added further observation of the sky leading to lunar and solar rituals and calendars. The legendary tales and the ‘persons’ (gods & goddesses, heroes, companions, off springs, etc) involved, do not exclude each other, in fact, they are perfectly interconnected, giving us, the general chronological framework to those stories and the pace of those repeated cycles of havoc in Heavens and upon Earth.

It was, also, during Cecrops' reign in Cecropia (Attica) that: (1) Poseidon and Athena contested for the patronage of Attica or Athens. Cecrops and the people thought that olive tree was more useful than salt-water well, so they awarded the city to the goddess and named the city after her – Athens. Poseidon, then, enraged with the decision, flooded Attica (2) Hephaistos the smith-god tried to ravish Athena, the virgin war-goddess. Athena fought Hephaistos off, causing the god's semen to fall on the soil of the Acropolis. God's semen had impregnated Gaea (Earth), causing an earth-born creature to be born; an infant with legs and tail of a serpent. Athena took the infant and named him Erichthonius, putting him under her full protection. Later on, Erichthonius established the Panathenaic festival in honour of Athena. According to the Parian Chronicle, or Parian Marble (Marmor Parium), Cecrops reined between 1581/0-1531 BCE and Erichthonius between 1422-1372 BCE, respectively.

Furthermore, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Dardanus left Pheneus in Arcadia to colonize a land in the Northeastern Aegean Sea. When Dardanus' deluge occurred, the land was flooded and the mountain, where he and his family survived, formed the island of Samothrace. “And the Samothracians have a story that, before

the floods that befell other peoples, a great one took place among them, in the course of which the outlet at the Cyanean Rocks was first rent asunder and then the Hellespont. For the Pontus, which had at the time the form of a lake, was so swollen by the rivers which flow into it, that, because of the great flood which had poured into it , its waters burst forth violently into the Hellespont and flooded a large part of the coast of Asia and made no small amount of the level part of the land of Samothrace into the sea; and this is the reason, we are told, why in later times fishermen have now and then brought up in their nets the stone capitals of columns, since even cities were covered by the inundation... dedicated altars upon which they offer sacrifices even to the present day” (Diodorus of Sicily,V.47.1 ff.).

Dardanus left Samothrace on an inflated skin to the opposite shores of Asia Minor and settled on Mount Ida. His grandson Tros eventually moved from the highlands down to a large plain, on a hill that had many rivers flowing down from Ida above and built a city, which was named Troy after him (Plato, Laws III.682a).

The mythical King Erichthonius of Dardania was the son of Dardanus, King of Dardania, and Batea. Only Homer refers to his reign (Iliad, XX.215-234). On the other hand, Strabo (13.1.48) records, but discounts, the claim by "some more recent writers" that Teucer or Teucros (the father of his mother Batea) came from the deme of Xypeteones in Attica, supposedly called Troes (meaning Trojans) in mythical times. These writers mentioned that Erichthonius appears as founder both in Attica and the Troad, and may be identical.

Surprisingly, once again, legends of the ancient world give us the answers.

The author suggests that the heroes Erichthonios (serpent - like), Bellerefon (dual deeds: as rider of Pegasus, the winged horse = comet, and as slaughterer of the dragon fire-breathing Chimaera) and Phaethon (charioteer) were the cosmic charioteers, who come in the skies generations after their parents’ (Hephaistos and Athena) appearance, and ‘died’ punished for their arrogance. It is noteworthy that Erichthonios’ and Bellerefon’s cults belong to the Pelasgian substratum (Anatolia and Asia Minor), as Hephaistos did. Bellerefon was the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongside of Cadmus and Perseus, who had, also, fought against dragons, being associated to Eastern Mediterranean mythological cycles. Kerényi (1959) and others (Katz, 1998) interpreted the name of Bellerephontes as the ‘killer of belleros’ (Hittite ‘Illuyanka’; Iliad, II.329: a rare Greek word ‘έλλερον’, = evil; Hesychius, s.v. ‘ἔλυες’; English eel). Graves (1969) suggested the menaning of the ‘one who bears dirts’.

CONCLUSIONS This amazing ‘trip’ begun many decades ago during the summer nights in the picturesque Cycladic island of Keos (my father’s origin place) when a little girl admired ecstatically the clear skies falling in love with archaeology and astronomy.

Then, the author learned about the mythical hunter Orion and the beautiful shining star, Sirius, which stole her heart ever since. Later on, that intriguing love turned into scientific research which embraced the lore of ancient gods and stars. The present research went far beyond the Aegean Archipelago of the Bronze Age making this trip more thorough, more challenging and thought-provoking.

The strong parallelisms of cults, symbols, words, images and allegories in the knowledge of anciet circum-Mediterranean and Pontic world indicate that the Pelasgian substratum was strong and clearly defined amongst the later cultures.

Pelasgians could be charachterized as the ‘Proto-Hellenes’ (and not ‘Pre-Hellenes”)

and their religious and spiritual behaviours dated back to Neolithic and even late Paleolithic times interrelated with the similar nuclei around Mediterranean. The research could be focused and recapitulated on few groups of conclusions, the argumentation of which can be found in the releveant chapters.

The supported evidence shows that the Minoan and Cycladic pantheon was probably closer to the archaic Pelasgian female-dominated pantheon than to the Greek male-dominated one of the later historic years, enriched by a variety of spiritual aspects and patterns. According to this view and concept of the Universe, the Great Cosmic Mother engulfed her children and her epiphany to humans took many forms and expression: - Apollo and Dionysos, the two luminaries, Sun and Moon, the two psychic archetypes, the two hemispheres of the human brain; - Artemis, the archeress goddess, the daughter of Demeter/Earth goddess known both as ‘Despoina’ and Sirius the arrow star as well (Aruz, et al., 2007, p. 66 ff: in the ancient Indo-Iranian lore in Altaic region, antelope’s head or Orion’s head symbolized the Moon and Avestan Tishtrya/Sirius was the marker of the annual cycle; according to the Avestanj hymn aka Tishtar Yasht 8 dedicated to Sirius, this bright and glorious star “who flies, towards the sea Vouru-Kasha, as swiftly as the arrow darted through the heavenly space”, Sirius, protects the Moon, food, dwelling and waters including the waters of the sea and all the species of the Bull; in Zoroastrian tradition, sunrise was considered as the traditional time when the souls ascend, so the rites included the ‘sag-did’ meaning the look of a dog, both Canis Major and Canis Minor; in the Romans’ farmer calendar, Diana presided over the Scorpio/Sagittarius gate where the Ecliptic intersects the Milky Way and souls ascend); - Aristaios as the greatest hierophant in Sirius Mysteries (perhaps a title like Minos) and Draco as the Mother Earth and the cosmic womb of souls; - Hephaistos, the initial creator of the Labyrinth, represented the primordial Universe and its often uncontrolled powers (such as meteros and asteroids), as well as the cosmic order; - The ladies of the labyrinth were expressions of the female essence of Cosmos, Pasiphae Selene, Ariadne Aphrodite (the princess, the priestess, the goddess, the mistress), Athena the weaver of Cosmos.

Evenmore, Minos Asterion represented the heavenly bull, the consort of the Moon cow, Taurus constellation as the bull of the springtime. Dionysos was also known as the child of the stars. In Bacchae of Euripides the Chorus calls the god as Dionysos Taurus and Pentheus sees him arriving as a Bull before attacking him; In Orphics (413F – 297 aK.) he was called Ταυρογενὴς Διόνυσος; Dionysos Zagreus after having died in the form of a bull dismembered by the Titans, he resurrected as Dionysos Liberator; in his mysteries, bulls used to be sacrificed because they were favored to the god; in the Orphic Hymn to Dionysos (XIV), he was called τρίγονος (born thrice), διφυὴς (two-formed) and ταυροβόας (bull-faced); the ancient Greek word μὴν was derived from the word μήνη (σελήνη = moon). Furthermore, Dionysos Sirius (combination of luni-sothic calendar) belonged to the Pelasgian nucleus of Eleusinian Mysteries.

In the times of Thracian king Medeocus (ca 400 BC), Dionysos was portrayed on coins, along with Bipennis (labrys or double axe) and a bunch of grapes to right (AR 11mm, 0.94 g., Moushmov 5691, Plate XXXVI 11).

The author suggests, also, another archaeoastronomical interpretation of Cretan borthers Aeacus, Minos and Radamanthys, according to which they may also, symbolized different pole star since the North Pole symbolized the highest view of Life. According to the ancient Greek lore, after their death (see the Precession of the Equinoxes as death of each pole star) they became judges in Underwold. Similarly, the Assyrians called Vega (one of the pole stars) ‘Dayan-same’, meaning the Judge of Heavens.

As for the Minotaur, unlike the mythological Centaur, with a horse's body and human head, arms and torso, he had a human body with a head from the genus bos, as described by the Greek tragic poet Euripides. This fact reminds of the ceremonial masks used already by the Paleolithic shamans in their rituals inside the deep caves which later turned into the spiritual rituals of the Labyrinthian Mysteries. Noteworthy are the amazing representations of related (but later extinct) species of aurochs (Bos primigenius) on the walls and ceilings of Paleolithic caves in southern France and northern Spain, especially the huge Paleolithic temple-cave known as Trois Frères in southern France with the famous buffalo-dancer, and the fascinating bull shrines excavated by James Mellaart at Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia where existed different horned altars and a shrine with a series of relief sculptures showing female figures giving birth to bull's heads (Bahn and Vertut, 1989; Campbell, 1991).

On the other hand Orion / Sirius could be the Minoan constellation of the Double-Axe (Henriksson and Blomberg, 2011, p. 65) apart from the triple symbol of the Moon (Graves, 1969). This fact could explain the the strong correlation of Moon / Venus with Sirius. The lunar calendar (Moon) had to be calibrated with a star (Sirius) and a planet (Venus).

The ambiguous but famous symbol of labrys, one aspect of which was related to floods and disasters too (as dragons did, see Fonterose, 1959), symbolized the butterfly/psyche (Evans, 1925; Lincoln, 1981; Mavriyannaki, 1983; Cameron, 1987; Gimbutas and Campbell, 2001) as an archetypical symbol of the transcendent soul, of the spiritual transformation and the mystical rebirth.

Thus, the labyrinth (‘the house of the labrys’) could be, in addition, a security system and a socio-behavioural pattern which included the knowledge of the periodicities of both natural disasters and natural astronomical cycles, and it may be used as an antenna in cymatic pattern functioning as well. As a symbolic ‘conjunctio oppositorum’ (see the “androgynous” nature of Hephaistos, Venus, Dionysos and Athena) was also the place where opposites such as Life/Death, Light/Dark, Male/Female, are transformed and melt into each other, in the dance of the spiral (Freitas, 1985, p. 413). Therefore, there is the union of the two archetypal images of Male and Female, Dionysos symbolizing Zoë and Ariadne symbolizing the Genesis of Souls, both representing the eternal spiral of Life (Kerényi, 1976).

In the fragmentary quotes of a lost tragedy of Sophocles the labyrinth was described as ‘ἀχανής’ (translated most commonly as ‘roofless’): “which may have something to do with the fact that at Knossos a roofless dancing ground was spoken of as a labyrinth” (Kerényi, 1976, p. 94). Thus, the labyrinth symbolized also the spiriling evolving cosmic life, the theater of the cosmic dance, the temple of the Mother Goddess and the rituals echoed the most pristine cults of Humankind once performed in the Paleolithic caves. Another places of sky watching and performing rituals were the peak sanctuaries and the megalithic monuments such as the oracles, the temples and the ‘dragon houses’, since the word ‘draco’ meant also the observer and the watcher (Theodossiou, et al., 2009), all perfectly matched in a geodetic network across the ancient world. For example, the ancient omphali were geodetic centers and the projection of the zodiac (e.g. the Babylonian omphalos) and other astronomical features on Earth (Tomkins and Stecchini, 1971). Marija Gimbutas correlated the Greek word delphis (δελφίς) (Apollo Delphinius and his celebration at Delphi Oracle) with the term for delphus or dolphos (δελφύς, δολφός), which means the womb / uterus. Therefore, Delphi along with many other pristine cult centress of Prehistory was a ‘body temple of mother Earth’ where rebirth rituals were probably held (Gimbutas, 1980).

The Flower of Life. After Woolger & Woolger, 1989, p. 36

In summary, the motif of Creatrice – Protectress – Destroyer denoted the female essence, according to which the compassion, the salvage, the initiation functioned along with the ego-annihilation and the merging into the cosmic womb.

Finally, the matriarchal features and the cult of Sirius (from Paleolithic caves to Metsamor and to Minoan / Eleusinian Mysteries onwards) were two pivotal aspects of Pelasgian origin dated back to prehistoric times.

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