PART 1 - Ch.VI.4
(The white Monastery with nine altars)
VI.
4. Conclusion about the temple of Apollo the Hyperborean from Leuce (Alba)
We have examined here the old accounts
of the Greek authors regarding Apollo’s
temple from the lands of the Hyperboreans.
We also know the Romanian legends
about the holiness, magnificence and miraculous origin of the White Monastery from the island of the
On an island of the Black Sea,
situated close by the mouths of the Danube, island called Leuce, meaning Alba (TN
- white) in Greek literature, there existed in a remote ante – Trojan epoch,
the most important religious monument of the ancient world, the temple of Apollo the Hyperborean, or the Sun.
The origin of this temple is Pelasgian.
The Hyperboreans who lived at north
of the
The flourishing epoch of this temple
took place in ante -Trojan times, namely the primitive era of the Apollinic
religion.
This illustrious
From this temple, preachers and
prophets of Apollo continuously departed towards the southern countries. To
this temple came from meridional cities the chiefs of the Apollinic cult, and
other groups of the faithful, inspired by this religion, which is symbolically
expressed in the old legends about Apollo’s journey to the Hyperboreans, and in
the Romanian folk songs or carols about God who, accompanied by angels and
saints, came by sea and boat, to the great celebrations of this Monastery.
This religious metropolis from the
mouths of the
From here came the prophets and
poets Olen and Abaris, who, apart from spreading the Apollinic religion, have
introduced to
And still from these parts seems to
have come also the divine flute player Lin
or Linos (Virgil, Eclog VI. 67), Apollo’s son (Pausanias, lib. II.19.8), who had described Bachus’ deeds in Pelasgian language (Diodorus Siculus, lib.III.c.67.4), and
whose disciples were Hercules, Thamyris and Orpheus [1]
[1. Diodorus Siculus
(lib.III.67.2). Pausanias (IX.29.8)
writes that both Pamphos, the most ancient hymnic poet of the Athenians, and
the poetess Sapho, had sung about Lin in their hymns, under the name Oitolinos.
With Eschyl (Agamemnon, v.121),
these sacramental words appear under the form ailinon, and the same
with Sophocles (
In Romanian carols, which have the form of ancient religious hymns, it is
repeated even today the invocation “Haida
Lin, era Lin” (communicated by T.Budu,
the vicar of Maramures). Oitolin-os and Haida Lin are one and the same invocation addressed to the spirit
of Lin].
It also appears that the errant
priest, prophet and singer Musaeu (Mousaios),
from the ante – Homeric times, was inspired too by the light radiating from the
temple of Apollo the Hyperborean. He appears as a son of Linos, or of Selene
(Luna), and was especially a favourite of king Boreas of the Hyperboreans (Pausanias, lib.I.22.7). His country was
Thrace, according to Aristoxen
(fragm. 51, in Frag. Hist. graec. II.p.284), or the lands between Macedonia and
Istru; but, as results from his name, this famous representative of prehistoric
literature, appears to have originated in Mesia (Misia, Lat. Moesia).
It is also probable that a disciple
of this Apollinic school was also Anacharsis,
Solon’s contemporary, one of the seven sages of the ancient world, who, as the
authors of antiquity tell us, was descended from the Shepherd Scythians (Strabo, Geogr. VII.3.9), but not the
Scythians from the north of the Black Sea (Herodotus,
lib. IV.c.76). At last, even Orpheus’
theology was based on the dogma of Apollo the Hyperborean.
Here starts the first period of
European literature, notwithstanding that some of the products of this
literature have vanished, while others have later acquired Greek forms, as has
happened with the ancient hymns of the gods and the heroic songs, which still
contain even today, a great number of elements from the Pelasgian language [2].
[2. The Romanian word “Manastire”
(monasterium), the etymology of which, according to Isidorus (Orig. XV.4.5), is from monos and sterium, (habitation solitarii), belongs to an
ante-Christian epoch. In Latium, at
the edges of Campania, close to the
mouths of the river Liris, an ancient town of the Ausones existed, called in
official Roman language Minturnae, town famous for its temple and sacred grove of
the nymph Marica, one of the ancient Latin divinities. From its form, and we
can say from its meaning also, the name of Minturnae
presents itself as only a transformation from monasterium, Rom. manastire,
in which the second, non accentuated syllable, has been subtracted, as in the
French moustier, moutier = monasterium].
The temple of Apollo the
Hyperborean, or the White Monastery from the mouths of the Danube, had a great
echo in the world. Although in reality the sun did not rise from this small
island of the Black Sea, as the epic poets of Greece, as well as our Romanian
carols say, the holy cradle of the dawn of moral civilisation in Europe, was
rightfully here. The holy memory of this temple has been preserved to this day
in the memory and religious veneration of the Romanian people.
The White Monastery from the mouths of the Danube has no rival in the
traditions of other European peoples [3].
[3. A large number of the ante – Roman silver coins, found on the territory of Dacia, show on the reverse
side the image of Apollo, on his solar horse. These are precious contemporary
historical documents for the empire of Apollinic religion, at the north and
south of the Lower Danube.
One type of these coins, discovered in Banat in 1840, show on the
reverse, the legend Aplus, written
in archaic letters, and in the lower part, the figure of an altar.
The form ‘Aplous was known also to Plato (Cratyl. Ed. Didot, p.299). It
is the same archaic name of the god Apollo, which we also find with the
Etruscans, under the form of Aplu
and Apulu (Wissowa, Paulys Real-Encyclopadie, v.Apollo), and with the
Thessaliens as Aplun and Aplon (Plato, Cratyl. P.299).
The legend Aplus on this
coin, which we reproduce here, has not been deciphered so far, we are the first
to do this. The writing style is the so-called Boustrophedon, from right to
left, and from left to right, form which was considered in Pausanias’ time as
belonging to a remote antiquity. The inscription is not in Greek, but in a Pelasgo – Latin dialect. From a geographical
and historic point of view, this important coin belongs incontestably to Dacia,
and it was probably minted at Apulum
or Aplum. On other Dacian coins of
the same type, the rider’s head (Apollo’s) is radiated, and on others still, instead of the figure of Apollo,
only the Sun’s symbol, a wheel with 8 spokes, is shown above the horse (Cf. Archiv des Vereines fur siebenb.
Landeskunde, N. F. Band XIII, Taf. IV, and Band XIV, p.76 seqq.).
Silver coin (tetradrachma), minted in Dacia, representing on
the back the image of the god Apollo
(half figure), riding on
the solar horse. Around him, there is the legend Aplus.
On the front, there is the face of a king, great priest of Apollo.
(After Archiv d. Vereines f. siebenb. Landeskunde. N.F.XIII.
Taf.
XIV. Drawn from the original illustration)
The face on the obverse does not represent Jove’s head, as some
erroneously believed, but the face of a king, high priest of Apollo, having on
the head a small, semi-spherical Flaminian cap (apex, tiara), tied all around
with a wool cord (sacra vitta). He wears around the temples a wreath of laurel
leaves and the back of the head is covered with a veil (velato capite), a pontifical
ornament. This depiction corresponds entirely with Virgil’s verses (Aen. III.80-82), in which he describes Anius, the
prehistoric king and high priest of Apollo, from the island of Delos]