PART
4 Ch.XXIV.4
Prehistoric
monuments of metallurgic art in
(Stele Chryse Megale The great gold column)
XXIV.
4. Olympus Triphylius in Panchea island.
In Panchea island, as
Evhemerus tells us, there was a mountain consecrated to the gods, which in the
beginning had been called the Chair of
Uranos, and later Olympus Triphylius.
This holy mountain
of Panchea had the co-name Triphylios because, according to
Evhemerus, the inhabitants of this memorable island were of three tribes, tris
and phyle,
tribe.
This is a vicious
etymology. Triphylius of Panchea island could have been only a Trimontius or Triphyllon, from tris and
phyllon,
leaf, in this case peak, as in the
times of Pliny a mountain of
Campania was called Trifolium (H. N.
lib. XIV. 8. 9), and a mountain with the name Trifoiu exists in the district of Prahova (Romania), towards NE of
the hamlet Scurtesci. (A town with the name Triphoulon is mentioned by Ptolemy
III. 8 in Dacia, in the upper region of Prut river).
From the most
obscure antiquity, folk beliefs had attributed a mystical power to the combined
number three. The trinity is an
ancient religious dogma which we find expressed in symbolic form in rites and
on various monuments of the Pelasgian epoch. The great god of Panchea had been
called Triphylios, or more correctly Triphyllios, not from the
number of the tribes of Panchea, but from the three heights of the holy
mountain, exactly as Jove had the co-name of Olympios with the
Greeks, Idaeus with the Trojans, and
Capitolinus with the Romans, after
the mountains which had been consecrated as a proper residence on earth to this
divinity.
We find even today
a religious reminiscence about Olympos Triphyllios in the lower parts of Istru,
in the traditions of the Romanian inhabitants of Dobrogea. The Romanian carols
from this part of the Lower Danube celebrate with special piety the Mother of
God, who, taking in her arms her newborn son, climbs the three holy mountains, ancient residence of the ante-Christian
divinities of this region. We reproduce here a specimen of these particular
carols from Dobrogea:
And holy Mother
Maria,
Son in her arms was taking,
The path was following,
The path to three
mountains,
Climbed one
mountain, climbed two,
When she reached mountain three,
Sat down to rest, child to change
(Burada, O calatorie in Dobrogea, p.
51-53).
We also find even
today in these parts of Lower Istru some important traces of the ancient cult
of Zeus
Triphyllios. The folk traditions from the territory of Dobrogea, as
well as the neighboring districts of Braila and Covurlui, attribute a
particular religious importance to a saint called Trif or Triful, whose
characteristics are nevertheless entirely ante-Christian. This saint Trif or
Triful, is according to Romanian folk beliefs, the divinity who makes the earth
germinate. He makes the tilled earth, the gardens, trees and vineyards to yield
crops; protects them from destruction from pests and wild animals; he rules
over flocks and cattle, favors the fruit yield of the orchards, he is
everywhere the protector of the entire rural and pastoral economy.
As we see, the cult
of Trif or Triful surpasses that of all the other Christian saints. He is a
sort of ruler of nature. Even today he still has part of the attributes of the
supreme divinity, Zeus euruopa, who, according to Hesiodus, makes the earth produce whats needed by mankind, makes
the acorn grow on oaks, multiplies the bees, makes the sheep be laden with
wool, and enables the fields to produce abundant crops (Opera et Dies, v. 230
seqq).
By his name, as
well as by the characteristics of his cult, Trif or Triful is identical with
the great divinity called by Evhemerus Zeus Triphylios.
Finally, in other Romanian
carols, which refer to the works and advantages of agriculture, has been still
preserved an important reminiscence about a mysterious gold post, where the
crops were harvested and threshed on the tilled fields:
Then the carts went
To the gold pillar,
To the silver field,
The like of
which are not any more;
The wheat
was laid on the field
(Mandrescu,
Literatura si obiceiuri poporane, p. 220)
Or in another
version:
He went to the gold pillar,
To the silver field,
Where boyars
are no more
(Reteganul,
Colectiune inedita, I, p. 435)
It is without any
doubt that this gold pillar mentioned by the Romanian agrarian carols was not a
poetical fiction, but a real historical column which had a special
significance, erected in prehistoric times near some temple. The agriculturists
of Panchea, Evhemerus tells us, tilled the earth and placed the harvest in
common, which afterwards the priests distributed among the workers, according
to the merits and activity of each. But if this gold pillar of Romanian
traditions is identical with the gold column about which Evhemerus speaks, we
cannot know. We only state here the fact that in the Romanian countries still
exists to this day the reminiscence of a famous gold pillar of the archaic times,
sung about in the carols of the plowmen [1].
[1. In some of the Romanian carols,
in which is sung the magnificence of the White
Monastery, from the island near the mouths of the Danube, is mentioned a gold written high chair, in which God sits,
and in others are mentioned gold
written high chairs in which sit Good God and Mos Craciun (TN Old
Christmas).
In Babylon, as Herodotus tells us (I. 183), there also existed a great gold simulacrum, which represented Jove
sitting. Near the god were placed a
big gold table, a little foot chair
and a throne, all of gold].
The inscription
from the memorable gold column, from near the river Oceanos or Istru,
consecrated to the great Pelasgian divinities Uranos, Saturn, Jove, Apollo and
Diana, contained, according to Evhemerus, a brief description of the great
political and religious events which had taken place during the times of that
divinized dynasty. In other words, this inscription spoke about the history of
the founding of the great Pelasgian empire, about which we shall speak later;
this was a monument of extreme importance for the ancient European
civilization, which has very probably disappeared for ever.