Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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| Hephaestus had a temple at Athens with a statue of Athena next to it (168) and in this following quote by Pausanius, we find discussion of an altar to Hephaestus that links him intimately with Zeus: “After the altars I have enumerated there is one on which they sacrifice to Alpheius and Artemis together. The cause of this Pindar, I think, intimates in an ode, and I give it in my account of Letrini. Not far from it stands another altar of Alpheius, and by it one of Hephaestus. This altar of Hephaestus some Eleans call the altar of Warlike Zeus.” (169) This statement clearly establishes that the volcano deity was associated with the thunder and lightning deity. In at least one ancient portrayal of Hephaestus, the shield that is being forged resembles the cap on a mushroom, which would be the stump upon which the shield rests (43i). In another, Hephaestus is simply the stem or stalk under the arch, another common occultation of the mushroom, as we saw earlier with the boundary stones of Marduk. The arch provides the cap features while the body of the deity or king holds central position as the stem or stalk (43j). The story of Achilles is another myth involving “single-footedness.” Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character in Homer’s Illiad. When his mother dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels, and this gave him a weak foot or heal. (170)  (43i) Hephaestus forging new weapons of Achilles  (43j) Roman Bronze Votive Plaque of Hephaestus c. 150-300 AD |
The name Achilleus first appears in Linear B tablets, the syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek, dating to around 1450 BC. (171) The name was also turned into Achilleía, the feminine form. Hermes was known as a god of herds and flocks who was the personal messenger of Zeus, carried the herald's wand (Greek kerykeion, Latin caduceus) and had wings on his feet. He was associated with the serpent as a symbol due to his staff. He was also the guide of the dead in the underworld, like Osiris. He is associated with good luck and increase in wealth. (172) He was known as Mercury in the Roman era. As an infant he snuck out of his crib and stole cattle from the god Apollon. Here we see similarities between him and the son of Vulcan, Cacus, who also stole cattle, instead, from the giant Geryon. Hermes also has a connection to the phallus and some depictions of him have an enormous phallus of incredible size revealing his role as a fertility god and possibly implying even more occult meanings (43e). It was said of him, “…When he shines forth, the earth blossoms and when he laughs, the plants bear fruit, and at his bidding the herds bring forth young.” (173)  (43e) Hermes Graeco-Roman Era Fresco c. 100-400 AD Hermes implies a sense of the wind. He is the swift messenger, very much like the Maruts, in Hindu myth. Mercury seems to imply the air, full of moisture, in which the spores reside, and are taken and carried to their fertilization point. Because of his speed, he was sometimes called the God of Winds. (174) (168) Pausanius, Descriptions of Greece, I.14.6 (169) Healing Gods, p. 327; Pausanius, 5.14.6 (170) Before the Bible, p. 55 (171) Dorothea Sigel; Anne Ley; Bruno Bleckmann. "Achilles". In Hubert Cancik; et al. Brill’s New Pauly. Brill Reference Online. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e102220. Accessed 5 May 2017.) An epigraphic database, no longer accessible online, found 476 matches for Ἀχιλ-. The earliest ones: Corinth 7th c. BC, Delphi 530 BC, Attica and Elis 5th c. BC (172) H.J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology, 6th Ed., 1958:145 (173) Language of the Goddess, p. 136; J.E. Harrison, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, 1sr Ed. 1912, Cleveland and New York: Meridian Books, 1962: 296 (174)http://www.hermograph.com/science/mercury2.htm |
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