3 January 2013
A short essay on The Origins of Myths, Gods and Written Languages
By Beeglebuzz --- In the North-East corner of the Hellenic world lies the island of Euboea. This island mainly stayed secluded from the rest of Greek civilisation - even though they were only thirty metres apart. To the Ancient Greeks, Euboea was simply know as "Long Island", and during the Grecian dark ages, the two lived side by side without any contact. Very little is known about this period of time. It is called "The Dark Ages" because it seems that written language became almost extinct throughout most of South East Europe. This leaves us no written record of events, and we can only discover things through archaeological remains.
Recently, a settlement thought to have existed between 1000 and 800 BC has been discovered at "Lefcandi", a hill on the North edge of Euboea. I would like to focus particularly on two artefacts that have been found here. The first is a wooden model of a being that is half man and half horse. This is the earliest discovered depiction of a Centaur, and dates back to around 890BC. Does this, then, suggest that Ancient Greek mythology originated from Euboea?
I think that the myths have roots much further back - perhaps they were taken from other cultures. But how would the small, farming population of Euboea even make contact with another civilisation? The answer lies with the second artefact. This is a piece of pottery from 950BC. On it, is a picture of a large boat, one that is stereotypically Ancient Greek. However this pot dates back to many years before the Greek mainland saw boats of this type. With access to marine vessels like these, the Euboeans would have little difficulty in crossing the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor (Modern day Turkey.
They would make the journey by island hopping, navigating using the stars and local landmarks. They were particularly interested in the coast of Turkey near the modern day border with Syria. Being a more advanced civilisation, they had discovered how to smelt bronze, and needed a strong supply of metal, which was handily available in Asia Minor.
One archaeological site near the modern town of Al Mina has been created, and in it have been found tens of thousands of pieces of pottery: The majority of which originated in Euboea. This proves that the Euboans must have set up a fairly permanent settlement.
The area around Al Mina at that time would have been inhabited by many smaller races. It was originally part of the legendary Hittite empire: a force which even the Egyptians feared. Along with this empire came a whole host of deities. But after the collapse of Hitusha (The Hittite capital) in 1200BC, only myths remained.
Many myths were centred around Mount Cassius, a 2000 metre high, storm-shrouded mountain - very close to Al Mina.
The Hittites believed that the god Anu was the first king of the gods. He was the god of the sky and Heavens, and was married to the earth goddess. After excessive cruelty to his wife, his son Quemabi castrated him with a scythe, and became the new king of the gods. After a plot to eat his children, he was, in turn, overthrown by his son: Tarhunter the Conqueror. The Hittites had believed that Tarhunter lived on mount Cassios, and caused the lighting storms that surrounded it.
These myths are so extremely similar to the Ancient Greek ones, that historians are almost certain that the Euboans brought them back to Greece upon their return.
Also whilst in Asia Minor, the Euboans discovered a shrine to "Aphrodis". The Hittites believed she had been the daughter of Anu, and had washed up on a beach. The Euboans soon changed her name to Aphrodite, and made her the goddess of love. This is almost definite proof that Greek mythology was influenced heavily by the Hittite culture.
The Euboans still had no way of recording these myths, but when the landed on Cyprus on their way back to Greece, they met the Phoenician people, who had their own alphabet. The Euboans soon began to learn the script. They formulated new symbols to accompany the Phoenician ones because the Phoenician alphabet did not have symbols for vowel sounds. This new, improved alphabet is now the basis for all modern scripts - Without the Euboans, you would not be reading this!
By the time they arrived back in Greece, they had already began to transcribe the myths. Now the Ancient Greek alphabet had been established, the Hellenic dark age ended. This signalled the beginning of a new culture of Gods, mythology and sacrifices. A new age had begun! --- Beeglebuzz 3/1/13
Euboan Wanderers • Opuss № I