“Just as Moses was the
“legislator of the Jews” so the Greek myths tell us,
that it was Cecrops who first
gave the people of Athens their laws”.
John R. Salverda
Taken from:
Jerusalem’s History as Athenian Myth
What has
Athens to do with Jerusalem? After even a cursory examination of the two, it is
hard to deny that the founding "myths" of Athens share many curious
and intricate coincidences with Jewish history and the symbolisms of Jerusalem.
For as the founding myth of Athens goes; Cecrops (herein presented as the
Athenian version of Moses), lead the Athenians up out of the land of Egypt.
He took a
colony out of the Egyptian city of Sais, (see the Scholiast on Aristophanes
Plutus 773). Diodorus tells us, “the Athenians, they say, are colonists from
Sais in Egypt, and they undertake to offer proofs of such a relationship; for
the Athenians are the only Greeks who call their city "Asty," a name
brought over from the city Asty in Egypt. Furthermore, their body politic had
the same classification and division of the people as found in Egypt.”
(Diodorus Siculus book 1 Chapter I.28.4). Similarly from Plato, as his ancestor
Solon was told by the Priests of Egypt, "At the head of the Egyptian
Delta, where the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is
called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called
Sais, and is the city from which Amasis the king was sprung. And the citizens
have a deity who is their foundress: she is called in the Egyptian tongue
Neith, which is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes called
Athena. Now, the citizens of this city are great lovers of the Athenians, and
say that they are in some way related to them.” (Plato Critias). Just as in the
story of Moses leading the twelve tribes to the promised land, so the Greek
myth of Cecrops has him leading his people to the area of Athens and dividing
the land into twelve districts. Strabo tells us that, “Cecrops first settled
the multitude in twelve cities,” (Geography 9. 1. 18 - 20). Notice here not
only the division into twelve but also Strabo’s reference to “the multitude”
that Cecrops was accredited with settling at the colony of Athens (Sais = Zoan
= Tanis = Tanit = Athena = Zion). It’s not my contention that there were two
groups, both sharing the stories of Moses and coming out of Egypt, one going to
Jerusalem and the other going to Athens, for it is more probable that colonists
from Palestine (not necessarily Judeans) brought the stories of Moses to Athens
long after the exodus, and even after Jerusalem had been established for a
while. For it is not just the story about coming up out of the land of Egypt
that they share.
Another
example of how Cecrops was like Moses, can be seen in the writings of
Pausanias, who says, "For Cecrops was the first to name Zeus the Supreme
god, and refused to sacrifice anything that had life in it, but burnt instead
on the altar the national cakes which the Athenians still call pelanoi.”
(Description of Greece 8. 2. 2-3).# Thus even a kind of monotheism such as that
which was advocated by Moses, who was the first to name Yahweh (Ex. 3:14), had [its]
parallel in the Greek myth of Cecrops (however corrupt, he advocated Zeus as
the “supreme god”). Notice also the bit about the “national cakes” in regards
to Moses setting up the festival of the unfermented cakes. Just as Moses was
the “legislator of the Jews” so the Greek myths tell us, that it was Cecrops
who first gave the people of Athens their laws. Moses also wrote the universal
founding story in the book of Genesis …
Damien Mackey’s comment: My own view is that Moses,
substantially the author of the Pentateuch, only edited, not “wrote” the Book of Genesis. See e.g. my:
Tracing the Hand of Moses in Genesis
and:
John Salverda continues:
… and it
is evident that the Athenians were well aware of it, because it is used
liberally, as I will demonstrate, in the foundation myths of Athens. Some even
say that Cecrops invented writing, another allusion to Moses who is sometimes
said to have invented the alphabet.
Cecrops
was an anguipede (serpent footed,) this is noteworthy because wayward Jews
blasphemously pictured Yahweh, the God of Moses, as an anguipede (This is such
an outrageous claim that I implore the reader to look it up on his own. Simply
search the term on the internet, there are dozens of sites anxious to malign
the Jews for this particular idolatrous blasphemy.). Furthermore, don‘t let the
fact that the history of Athens is full of serpents throw you off, for (besides
the serpent stick carrying Moses), each of the twelve tribes of Israel had its
own leader at the Exodus, and the tribal chief of Judah, was a man named
"Nahshon," which is the usual Hebrew word for "serpent."
So, while it was Moses who led the tribes up out of Egypt, it was this Nahshon (serpent),
who led the specific tribe of Judah, the founders of Jerusalem, at the Exodus. ….
The Greek
myths tell us that it was Cecrops who invented marriage (instituting monogamy),
while among the Hebrews it was Moses who outlined the institution of marriage
when he compiled [sic] the story of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis … 2:23,24
(And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall
be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be as
one flesh.). The Greek myths tell us that Cecrops was the first to recognize
patriarchal paternity (Egypt was a matrilineal society). While Moses wrote [sic]
Genesis 3:16 (Unto the woman he said, …thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over thee.) in order to redefine the roles of men and women for
the Israelites as opposed to the custom of their previous Egyptian overlords ….
….
The
Garden of Eden had two trees and a fountain, they are mentioned all together at
the same place in the narrative, “And out of the ground made the LORD God to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was
parted, and became into four heads.” (Genesis 2:9,10). Many people think that
the scriptural creation story was originally two stories rolled into one, but
perhaps there were originally three or four (or even more) sources and it was
Moses whose task it was to compile them into a single account. The story of
Moses includes an outline of his “sin” for which he was precluded from entering
his own “Eden,” a land flowing with “milk an[d] honey” the “promised land”
because he had struck a rock with his staff and produced a fountain. The Greek
myth about the founding of Athens contains a very similar motif when it comes
to the contest between Poseidon and Athena, “the Sea-God standing, striking the
rough rock with his tall trident, and the wounded rock gushing sea-brine, his
proof to clinch his claim. Herself (Athena) … from the earth struck by her
spear, she shows an olive tree," (Ovid, Metamorphoses 6. 70 ff). …. In the
contest between Poseidon with his miraculous fountain, and Athena, the well
known goddess of “knowledge” (of “good and evil?”), with her miraculous tree,
we have a kind of doublet with the myth of Pallas verses Athena, as to which
version of the maiden would supersede. Was it going to be the fountain (of
youth?), or the tree (of eternal life)? Apparently it would be the tree. The
result of “picking” the tree was a massive flood. In the book of Genesis Moses
tells us that there was a kind of contest between God and the Serpent as to
whom mankind would obey. The people were allowed complete freedom of choice, in
picking of the tree, mankind decided on the Serpent. God eventually brought the
flood. According to Moses, a dove delivers to Noah, the olive branch in spite
of the flood. The dove is symbolic of “the woman” delivering her seed, and in
Greek mythology it is the totem bird of Hera (Her Latin name, “Juno” is the
usual Hebrew word for “dove.”) the parthenogenic mother of Hephaestus, while
the branch of the olive tree turns out to be symbolic of the Messiah. Logic
propels us to conclude that in the parallel Athenian version of the tale,
Athena represented the Serpent, while Poseidon represented God. In the
Scriptural book of Genesis, of course, choosing the Serpent was a mistake and a
promise was made to correct the error at a later date by means of the Messiah
(a promise that was symbolized by the olive branch and as the seed of the
Woman).
Now, it
is not my intention to equate Athens with Eden, although the temptation is
strong to do so ("Athens, a town said to be the first established in the
world." So says Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 164), and I would not be averse to
the suggestion that the names of the two places have a common ancestor. My
point is that the two places share similar stories because the Athenian story
tellers were from Israel and were well aware of the stories of Jerusalem and
that Cecrops was actually the Athenian version of Moses, the stories that
Cecrops told were very similar to the stories that Moses wrote. Specific motifs
and themes that we usually associate with the writings of Moses in Genesis and
Exodus were carried by Hebrews who migrated to Greece and set up Athens as a
local rival to Jerusalem, (as they had done back home at Bethel and Dan) thus
they turn up in the Greek myths as the foundation stories of Athens, this is the
simplest explanation for the phenomenon. Some may even have been Judeans who
had originally come to Thebes in Boeotia with Cadmus and then moved to Athens
at a later date. Indeed, if the Greeks knew of Moses as Cecrops, and used the
Hebrew alphabet, then there is no reason why they shouldn’t know something
about what Moses wrote, such as the Theogony of Genesis and the story of Eden.
After all, they do seem to have known quite a bit about Moses and not only mere
generalities, but even down to intricate details of theological doctrine.
The olive
tree is the well known symbol of the Jewish nation (Rom. 11:17-26), more
particularly the olive branch is the symbol of peace (shalom), and is
incorporated into the name of the capital city of the Jews, Jeru-“salem,”
featured herein as the original concept of the Greek city Athens, which is also
symbolized by the olive tree in the Greek myths. The symbolism of the olive
branch is included in the writings [sic] of Moses, delivered by the “dove” to
Noah as the remedy for the flood, some take it as the symbol of the Messiah
(Christos “anointed” with oil, olive oil). (not to mention the, very ancient,
Zodiacal character of Virgo who carries the “branch”) Athena (called
Athena-Parthenos, meaning “the virgin”) was a female personification of the
city state of Athens, “the virgin citadel of Cecrops” (Valerius Flaccus,
Argonautica 5. 646 ff), in the same way that (the Virgin) Zion was a female
personification of Jerusalem. “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, … the daughter
of Jerusalem” (Isa. 37:22). ….
Conclusion
The
people of Athens were a special breed, they had superior conditioning during
their early developmental stage, by virtue of their ancient religion. The
culture and institutions that were advanced by them were instrumental to the
evolution of civilization in general and of free societies everywhere. What
religion shaped this remarkable populace? They thought the people of their city
to be the most ancient of all civilizations (Everyone else were considered to
be “barbarians” even the Egyptians).
They
believed that they had been tested at the foundation of their civilization by a
great and jealous god as to whom they should worship, instead of the god they
chose a serpent woman and her tree, making her their goddess of knowledge. This
was done by the free choice of a woman. For their insubordination they endured
a great flood sent by the angered god. They spent some time in Egypt, and
considered themselves to be part of a great multitude that was lead up out of
the place by a famous ancestral law giver. He taught them to worship the
highest god, instituted patriarchal monogamy, invented writing and began an
annual festival of cakes. He divided them into twelve groups and settled them
in their new land. They had with them … an ark that contained the promise of an
immortal king as cult object. They were warned not to look upon the secret
contents, under penalty of death, but they had disobeyed. They set the capitol
of their land at a city, represented by the olive tree (the symbol of peace),
with a mountain, upon which they built their holy temple (the Parthenon, named
for the “virgin,” upon the Acropolis). They placed in their temple their
extraordinary ark. This city became the seat of wisdom for their nation. Do
these themes sound familiar? How many intricate, particular, distinctive motifs
does one need to see matched up in a series, before it is admitted that they
add up to be no mere coincidence?
…. As
heirs to the legacy of Athens it is no wonder that so many western nations are
predisposed toward Christianity, this predisposition is a feature of their
ancient cultural development. As they were familiar with their own ancient
religion, a production of Judaism, they were well prepared to accept
Christianity, which is in many respects, the evident culmination of that same
religion, Judaism.
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