Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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Sisyphus was the son of Aeolus, king of Thessaly and his mother was Enarete. His brother was Salmoneus and he was married to Merope. The sorceress Medea was said to have given Sisyphus the throne of Ephyra, later known as Corinth, for founding the city and populating it with people grown from mushrooms. Glaucus would eventually inherit the throne, of Ephyra. Sisyphus was known for constantly cheating the other gods, fate and even death. One time when he was cast down to Hades, he tricked Persephone into allowing him to return to the surface for just three days in order to perform some duties which seemed both necessary to the gods and mortals. Eventually condemned to Tartarus, he would spend his life rolling a massive boulder to the top of a steep hill, only for it to roll back down again each time he neared the top. (239) This is the action of a dung-beetle, forever rolling its massive ball of crap, eventually allowing the mushroom to spring forth. The dung beetle was not rolling the sun across the sky, that’s for sure. Images of Sisyphus next to a dung beetle betray the obvious (46g, h). (238) (46h) Sandstone. Metope of Sisyphus from the Temple of Hera c. 500-600 BC   (46g) Sisyphus. Athenian black-figure clay vase c. 510 BC |
Atlas was the brother of Prometheus, and is usually depicted upon one knee bending down, holding up the earth above his shoulders. As a Titan, he is responsible for holding up the sky. Like Nut or Nehkbet the Egyptian sky goddess, he is seen similarly depicted (46e, f). In some stories he was said to be responsible for guarding the pillars which held the earth and sky apart. Atlas was also responsible for teaching mankind how to navigate the waters by the stars through astronomy and the use of knowledge of the seasons for farming. Herakles encountered him in his quest for the Golden Apples and he offered to take Atlas’s part while Atlas searched for the Apples. (240)   R: (46f) Farnese Atlas Roman Marble Copy of Hellenistic original Atlas is the one who bears the “pillar of heaven and earth” on his shoulders, in this quote by Aeschylus: “Prometheus: I am distressed by the fate of my brother Atlas, who, towards the west, stands bearing on his shoulders the pillar of heaven and earth, a burden not easy for his arms to grasp.” (241) Atlas, here, resembles the stem of the mushroom, holding up the cap; he is also depicted in the same position as Sisyphus and many of the Egyptian deities who all have a ball on dung upon their heads, in true “occult” style. In the Pre-Olympian pantheon, Tantalus was a son of Zeus and a rich but wicked king of Sipylus in Lydia or Phrygia. He was sentenced to suffer in Hades due to his numerous crimes which included revealing the secrets he had learned in the heavens, to mere mortals, for serving his son Pelops at a feast for the gods, to test their powers of observation and finally, for stealing the ambrosia, or Food of the Gods and giving it to mortal men. (242) Graves asserts that the story of Tantalus’ crimes may have been originally told first around the time wine was replacing mushroom veneration and worship in order to instill the ideas of criminality. (239) https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/the-myth-of-sisyphus/ (240) http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanAtlas.html (241) Apples of Apollo, p. 133; Prometheus Bound 349 ff (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th BC (242) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tantalus |
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