PART
2 – Ch.XII.7
(The
principal prehistoric divinities of
XII.
7. Saturn as Zeus aristos megistos
euruopa, aigiochos.
His colossal simulacrum on Omul
mountain in the Carpathians.
The most important
mountain in the southern range of the Carpathians is Bucegi.
This mountain,
which is set apart by its majestic height and by the expansion of its horizon,
was once very famous. In prehistoric antiquity this was the holy mountain of the Pelasgian pastoral
tribes, for which the extensive plains from the north of Istru were as
important as the valleys and crests of the Carpathians. (This is the same
mountain which the Dacians considered
as holy, as Strabo writes – VII. 3. 5)
The two highest
peaks of this mountain bear even today the names of Caraiman and Omul, and
both were once consecrated to the supreme divinities of the Pelasgian race, one
to Cerus manus, megas Ouranos, the other
to Saturn, also called “Omul” (TN – the Man).
On the highest
point of Omul mountain, rises a gigantic
column, usually covered in clouds, and on another peak in its proximity
there still exists today the most important simulacrum of the prehistoric world, a human representation sculpted
in live rock, of a truly formidable size. This titanic figure from the
mountains of ancient
The great simulacrum of Saturn as Zeus aristos megistos euruopa,
aigiochos,
Sculpted in a rock, on the
of the Carpathians. (From a photo taken by Prof. Em. Le Marton
from
in the year 1900).
[1. Em. Le Marton writes about the position and geological constitution
of this rock: It represents a steep slope on the south side of the peak
called Omul, which is the
culminant point of the massif of Bucegi.
It can be seen that the rock….is of a formidable size, by the human figure
which is about twenty meters in front of it ….The rock ….is composed of three
parts, the upper part (above the forehead) is the remainder of a huge
calcareous block, similar to the lower part (from the mouth down). Between the
two is seen a conglomerate of sandstone, which forms a band (the forehead and
cheeks)…]
According to the
religious ideas of the Pelasgians, the great God of this race was shown
intentionally in gigantic forms, so that by the enormous size of the simulacrum
it could express at the same time the power and majesty of this divinity.
Because of this,
the supreme divinity of the Pelasgian religion, the god of thunder, lightning
and rain, the one who shook the earth, who fertilized the fields, the valleys
and the mountains, had also the epithet Peloros, the Gigant or the big Man (
The great god of Homer’s Iliad (VIII.v.19-27), wanting
to give the other Olympians an idea about the immensity of his physical power,
addresses them like this:
“Listen to me all,
gods and goddesses, as I want to tell you what is in my heart. Over my word
nobody should pass, neither goddess, nor god, but all of you must listen to me,
because if I found out that one or other of the gods went in secret to help the
Trojans, or the Danaians, they will return beaten and shamed to Olympus, or I
will catch them, and throw them in the dark and remote Tartaros, where there is
a very deep abyss underground, there, where the Iron Gates are, and the Copper
Threshold, and then they will know that I am the most powerful of all gods.
But if you gods wished so, try your luck, so that you would be convinced. Bring
a gold chain and tie it on Uranos (with the meaning of mountain), then let all
gods and goddesses get a hold on it, and, no matter how hard you will try, you
will not be able to drag from Uranos to the
plain, your highest master and god; but when I will decide to grab the
chain, then I will instantly pull you up, and the earth and the sea, and I will
tie the chain on the peak of Olympus
and everything will stay airborne, this is how much superior I am than the gods
and men”.
These words, which
Homer had certainly extracted from the ancient ballads of the nomad minstrels,
refer in fact to the holy mountains about which we are talking here.
The Olympus of the Iliad is not the Olympus
of Thessaly, but the ancient Olympus
from near Okeanos Potamos or Istru, where the “Origin of the gods” was (Homer,
Iliad, XIV.v.199-205), “at the ends
of the earth, which fed many people”. The
At the time of the
migrations of Pelasgian tribes from the Carpathians towards the southern lands,
the renown and legends of this sacred mountain also descended with them, to all
the lands of Hellada,
The religion of
Uranos and Gaea, of Saturn and Rhea, of the Sun and the Moon, or in other
words, the entire system of the Pelasgian doctrines, with their names, their
legends about the origin of the gods, and their forms of the cult, as it had
developed in the principal and powerful centre from the Lower Istru, on the
territory of the holy Hyperboreans, emigrated southwards from the Carpathians,
at the same time with the Pelasgian tribes.
The colossal figure
from the Carpathians of Dacia, which exudes a sovereign expression of dignity
and an immense power, could represent only the great national god of the
Pelasgian tribes, to whom the most imposing heights of the mountains were
everywhere consecrated.
About a similar
huge figure, sculpted in a rock near Antiochia, the Greek writer Ioannis Malalae tells the following in
his Chronography (Bonnae, 1831 p. 205): “During the reign of Antiochus
Epiphanus, the king of Syria, being an epidemic in Antiochia and many people
dieing, a certain Leios, a man who was learned in religious mysteries, ordered
them to sculpt a rock in the mountain which dominated the city. This was a gigantic head encircled with a crown,
facing the city and that valley. He then wrote something on the head and he put
and end this way to the epidemic. The Antiochians call to this day this head Charonion”.
This Charonion
represented in reality Zeus charaios (Preller, Gr. Myth.I. 77), meaning the “Head of God”, as the high divinity of the sky and earth was
presented and worshipped by the Beotians.
So far we’ve
considered this colossus from the Carpathians of Dacia only from the point of
view of the religious ideas of prehistoric times. We have now to examine this
simulacrum from the point of view of its symbolic characters and its special
history.
This majestic
figure which dominates even today the most important height of the Carpathians,
has two remarkable particularities, which prove that this simulacrum had been
considered in the Homeric antiquity the most sacred and ancient image of the
supreme divinity.
One of these
distinctive particularities of the colossus on Omul, is his wide face.
Homer, in one of his hymns, calls the supreme
god of the physical and moral world of his times, the “God most good, most great, and with a wide face” (Zana
ariston megiston euruopa). These are the most ancient, most ritual epithets,
with which the powerful divinity of the Pelasgian world was invoked [2].
[2. The authors of antiquity were
doubtful about the true meaning of the epithet euruopa, attributed to
the great ante-Homeric God, and in modern literature we still cannot find a
satisfying explanation.
Some authors derive this epithet
from oph
(opos) = phona, voice, sound, translating Zeus euruopa with late-sonans. Others on the contrary,
accept that the radical of opa is reduced to oph (opos),
eye, face, but have interpreted incorrectly this epithet, some with latioculus, latum habens oculum (Stephanus Thes.
Achilles, addressing a prayer to Zeus (Dodonaios) Pelasgichos on Troy’s plain, calls
him at the same time the Pelasgian God
with the wide face and who dwells far away (Homer, Iliad, V. v. 233 – 241).
This “God with the
wide face” gave to king Tros of
Troy, as Homer tells us, some horses
of the most excellent race, called “immortal horses” by some authors (Iliad, V.
v. 265-267).
During the
primitive times of history, the horses most renowned for their shape, symmetry
and speed, were in the north of
[3. The ancients have placed also in
the northern hemisphere the Pegasus
constellation; As it is known, the Scythians
were in antiquity the most famous riders; The hunting horse of
The following words
of Homer are especially memorable,
as they refer to Zeus euruopa:
“Thetis (Achilles’ mother), departing in
early morning, climbed on the great
Uranos, and on Olympos, and here
she found the son of wide-faced Saturn,
sitting separately from the other gods, on the highest point of Olympos, which
has many peaks” (Iliad, I. v. 497-499) [4].
[4. It is to be noted that Homer
calls here the highest
This is an
important text for the history of those obscure times. And here megas
Ouranos, which was in close proximity of Olympos, expresses only the
notion of mountain (Aristotle, De mundo, c.6), but not the
infinite space above the earth.
This megas
Ouranos, which Thetis climbs first, on her way to Olympus, is from the
point of view of rhapsodic geography, identical with Caraiman, the imposing mountain of Dacia, consecrated to Cerus manus, which appears personified
in Romanian legends under the name of Caraiman,
the creator of “the first people”,
and in Romanian folk incantations, as Domn
(TN – ruler) of lightning and
thunderbolts, and the great sovereign of the world [5].
[5. Both with Homer (Iliad,
On a coin from the
time of Antoninus Pius, DACIA, as
divinity, is shown holding in her right hand a group of mountains (Eckhel, Doctrina numorum, Vol. VII. 5),
which without doubt had a religious-historical importance, they were the holy mountains of Dacia, ieron
oros of Strabo. And the poet
P.Papinius Statius (Opera quae
extant, Lipsiae, 1857), who lived for a long time at the court of Domitian,
calls often
In Homer’s Iliad, the dwellings of the
great God are on a physical terrestrial height. Only the palace of Zeus
is on majestic Olympos, the other
gods dwell on the valleys of Olympos
(Iliad, XI. 77), and on Uranos
(Iliad, I. 195; VIII. 365; XX. 299; XXI. 267; Odyss. IV. 378. 439). But the assemblies of the gods take place on
Olympos, where Jove convokes them especially for this purpose (Iliad, VIII. 3;
XX. 4; Odyss. I. 27; Hesiod, Theog.
v. 391).
Similarly, in Hesiod’s Theogony (v.119), Zeus euruopa is the god whose
residence is on the sacred Olympos of
Uranic times, from the most remote
“corner” of the earth (Ibid.v.119), or from the “black
country” (Ibid.v.69), near the Ocean
(or Istru) with its deep whirlpools (Ibid, v.514, 884; Homer, Iliad, XIV, v.201). Zeus euruopa is the god of justice (Hesiod,
Opera et Dies, v.229 seqq, 281), he distributes his bounty to the honest and
just men, gives prosperity to the cities, abundance to the earth, acorn to the
oaks, increases the bees, blesses the sheep flocks, makes the women give birth
to children like their parents, and makes the people enjoy in festivities the
fruits of their labor, he avenges the wrongdoings, and burns with his lightning
the insolents and malefactors (Hesiod,
Theogony. v. 514).
Another very
apparent particularity presented by the archaic type of the great God of Dacia,
belongs to the antique symbolism.
On the calm and
intelligent forehead of this god, can be seen the natural or artificial traces
which represent a split in the head, on the upper part of the skull.
Similar symbolic
signs were shown also on the sacred image of the supreme divinity in
ante-Homeric theogony.
According to the
old Pelasgo-Hellenic legends, Minerva
(from the root men, mens, mind) was born from the head of
Jove. The poet Pindar (Olymp. VII.
v. 35-38) transmitted this legend, saying that Vulcan had split with his copper hatchet Jove’s head (Zeus),
from which Minerva had emerged with such clamor, that the sky and earth were
terrified, or, as Homer says (Hymn.
in Minervam), the earth echoed and the Pontos clouded its purple waves.
During the first
times of history, religious beliefs were clothed in symbolism, and all the
sacred images of antiquity were characterized by an infinite variety of symbolic
attributes.
We ask now, can it
be that the origin of this allegorical legend about Minerva’s birth from Zeus’
head was that figure, so archaic, so worshipped, and so unique in its way?
We think yes! Homer
places the origin of all the gods, known and worshipped in Greek lands, in the
northern parts of
The simulacrum of Zeus
euruopa from the great Gate of the Carpathians, presents another
important characteristic symbol.
Near the right
shoulder of the God, the figure of a gigantic
shield appears in very regular and well preserved forms. This shield is one
of the most principal and archaic attributes of the supreme divinity of the
heroic times.
In the oldest
monuments of Greek literature, the great God of the Pelasgian world has also
the epithet of aigiochos, meaning “the
one who holds the shield” (Homer,
Iliad, II. v. 375; V. v. 733; Hesiod,
Theog. v. 11, 13, 25, 735, 920; Opera et Dies, v. 483, Fragm. 124).
Homer’s Iliad describes this shield as
priceless, which the times could not age, and which will never disappear. From
it hung one hundred tassels of gold, very finely woven, each of it valuing one
hundred oxen (II. v. 226 seqq). This shield of the powerful God was surrounded
all around by religious terrors. On it were represented the “Quarrel”, the
“Bravery”, the “Terrible war tumult” and the Gorgon’s head, the sinister and
terrible monster (Ibid, V.738 seqq). This shield was made and given to Jove by
Vulcan (Ibid, XV, v. 308). But, as results from another place in the Iliad, the
shield of great Zeus was of stone or
of rock (Ibid, XVII. V. 593-594.
With Homer, the noun marmaros had only the simple meaning
of stone, rock, only later this word
came to signify the calcareous, hard and shiny type of the marble), and to this particularity seem to refer Homer’s words,
that time could not age it and it will never disappear.
This was the
miraculous shield which inspired on one side the courage in battle, on the
other, a martial terror, so that it gave victory to all those in whose camp it
was.
According to
ancient traditions, Jove first appeared in battle with this shield during the
wars with the Titans and the Gigants (
In the memorable
war fought by the Acheans (Greeks) with the Trojans, Jove sent Apollo to help
the Trojans, and lent him this shield, telling him to shake it on the war
theatre, so that the terrified Acheans will retire to their ships (Homer, Iliad, XI. v. 229). But Minerva,
in collusion with Juno, took this shield without Jove’s knowledge, ran with it
to the Greeks’ camp and urged them to war against the Trojans (Ibid, II. v.
447).
Jove’s shield, as
results from Homer (Ibid, V. v.738),
was worn on the shoulders, and it appears figured in the same way on the great
simulacrum from the Carpathians of Dacia.
Religious beliefs
were tightly connected to certain legendary simulacra until late in historical
times, simulacra to which the people attributed in its imagination, a
supernatural power.
When Homer and
Hesiod describe the majestic figure of Zeus euruopa aigiochos etc, they do
not talk about an abstract divine power, but about a real image, a simulacrum
consecrated by an ancient religion. (Achilles was doing the same thing, when
addressing his prayers to Jove from
Minerva, Homer tells us (Hymn in MInerv; Iliad,
I. 202; Hesiod, Theog. v. 920, 924),
was born from the head of Zeus aigiochos, and these words
refer incontestably to the principal simulacrum of ante-Hellenic religion, to
the sacred figure, so expressive from all the points of view, of Zeus
aigiochos from the ancient Olympos of theogony, usually covered in
snow, from north of the Lower Istru.
We find the same
tradition also in Roman theology.
From the important
extracts from the sacred books of Roman paganism, transmitted to us by
‘Ocheanos potamos, the father of all
ante-Hellenic divinities in antique theogonies, is the “holy” Istru, which the ancients considered at the same time as “the greatest river” of the world; and Homer calls Coryphe the highest peak of
ancient Olympos (Iliad, I. v. 499), while for Pindar Coryphe is Jove’s head itself, from which Minerva emerged
(Olymp. VII. 36).
We’ve established
therefore from legends, as well as from the characteristics presented by the
important simulacrum reproduced above, that Minerva was born from the head of Zeus
aigiochos, on the sacred territory of the ancient religion, north of
The shield (aegis)
of great Zeus from the north of the Istru, had at the same time an
extremely important role in the state life of the Pelasgians.
It appears as the
symbol of their nation’s existence and political independence.
In the memorable war on the shores of
The memory of this
sacred shield of the great God had been preserved by the Pelasgian tribes that
had migrated to
King Numa, the
first king to organize the public cult of the Romans, wanted, because of
traditional reasons which today we can not know anymore, that the new state
founded on the shores of the
According to what
the legends tell us, he, following the counsel of his wife Egeria, asked the
all powerful God, saevus Jupiter (or
Sabazius Jupiter; Sebazius; Sabadius,
Sebadius; Sabus; Savus augustus – according to V. Maxim; Macrobius, Silius Italicus), the Lord of thunder and
lightning, to come down from his high residence to Rome, and tell him by what
sort of rites and ceremonies will the Romans be able to abate his divine anger
in the future. The great national god listened to his prayer and descended from
his height to
Here, the great
divinity of the Pelasgians told Numa the ritual sacrifices through which his
people could, in times of need, abate or appease the divine anger, and promised
at the same time that the next day he will give him a sure sign for the safety
of the Roman state. And the next day, when the sun appeared on the horizon in
all its glory, and when Numa, at the front of his people had lifted his hands
in prayer to the supreme divinity, to send him the promised gift, it was
suddenly seen how the sky opened and a shield fell slowly through the air. Numa
lifted the shield and brought sacrifices of thanks to the God. Then,
remembering that the fate of the Roman empire is connected to this shield,
which he called ancile, he disposed
to have a number of similar shields made, so that the wicked men and enemies
could not steal the divine shield, and he gave the care of these holy things to
the college of priests called Salii
(Ovid, Fast, III. v. 275 seqq;, Dionysos Halikar. Lib. II. c. 71).
As results from
this religious tradition, the new Pelasgian state had felt a definite need to
put itself under the protective shield of the great national divinity, and
Numa, a man learned in all the divine and human sciences (Livy, lib. 1. c. 18), knew how to procure for his people such a
holy guaranty, given by the powerful god of the Pelasgian nation himself.
From a historical
point of view, the origin of this belief was in the lands of the
[6. The Roman ancile had, according to Varro
(L. L. VII. 43), the shape of the Thracian
shields, and on a bronze coin of the emperor Antonius Pius, they have the
shape of an oval disc].
In
[7. According to Strabo (V. 3. 12), the temple of Diana of Aricia had its origin
connected to Diana Taurica, and “barbarian” and “Scythian” religious institutions truly existed there.
Strabo
mentions (XI. 2. 11) the ‘Arrechoi among the populations
settled near the Meotic lake, and Pliny (VI.
7. 1) the Arrechi.
The northern arm or mouth of the
The nymph Egeria,
who, according to what traditions tell, was the wife and inspiration of Numa in
his entire work of religious organization, was from Aricia. The legends
attribute especially to her the idea of inviting the great Pelasgian God to
According to Herodotus, Zalmoxis, the great God of the Getae, was called by some Gebeleizis (Herodotus, lib. XCIV). This form of this name is without any doubt
altered. Herodotus did not know well the northern dialect of the Pelasgians, as
can be deduced from different Scythian words which he transmitted to us erroneously.
The oldest images
of the supreme divinity showed usually only his head.
In some lands of
The Trojans also
showed the image of Jupiter fulgurator or Jupiter avus, only by the figure of
his head, as attests the terracotta specimen found by Schliemann in his dig at
Gebeleizis is only a secondary name of Zalmoxis, and definitely a composed
word.
The last part
corresponds to Zes = Zeus and very probably Gebeleizis
expresses only the same idea as chephale-Zis = chiphale-Dis or chephale-Dios,
meaning the “Head of God”, as it was
shown by the enormous simulacrum from the south-eastern arch of the
Carpathians.
The titanic figure
of Zeus aristos megistos euruopa, aigiochos, from the Omul mountain, was not an abstract
personification of the divinity.
This simulacrum
represented in fact the face of a famous prehistoric personality, Saturn, the God and idealized ruler of
the peoples of Pelasgian race.
After Caelus or Uranos, Saturn was the great divinity worshipped on the
The age of this
monument harks back to the great times of the ethnic and political development
of the Pelasgians, when fate had not yet started to turn sour for the