Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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| Tantalus is a predecessor deity to Prometheus, who has a similar story. Prometheus is one of the Titans, a trickster and the god of fire. He was responsible for tricking Zeus at a feast, into eating the bones and fat of sacrifice instead of meat and he took the fire Zeus hid from mortals and stole it and returned it to earth and man. For this, Zeus punished mankind and created Pandora who was presented to Epimetheus (Hindsight) to marry. Despite the warnings from Prometheus, he married her anyways and unleashed all kinds of dreaded evils and plagues upon humanity. (244) He also chained Prometheus to a rock and ensured everyday an eagle came to eat his liver. Each day it regrew and each day the eagle returned to devour it again, as shown on Greek amphoras from 600-500 BC (43g, h). (245)   R: (43g) Prometheus. Attic black-figure cup c. 500 BC The liver is a red organ, like the heart, and this imagery makes me wonder if there is a connection between the eagle eating the liver of Prometheus and the images from Mayan pictographs of the human sacrifice and the of the ripping out of hearts from the victims. If the Mayans and Incas derived their civilizations from the Greek and ultimately Egyptian deity conceptions, then this is precisely what we are seeing, it appears. Previously, we read about Gilgamesh tearing out the heart of the “Bull of Heaven” and offering it up to Shamash. Marduk does something similar with Tiamat when he slays her and takes her flesh to make up the sky. Is this another example of the mushroom being the sacrifice? The fire, once brought to earth was hidden in a hollow fennel stalk sometimes called a narthex, which is interchangeable with the thyrsos. (246) Several books on herbal medicine were entitled Narthex (247) and Ruck suggests that this implies a “narcotics container” because of the lingual connection to the narkissos flower, which is the origin of our word “narcotic.” Ruck also documents an instance where the use of “thyrsus” is used to imply the stipe of a mushroom. (248) The “thyrsus” is a symbol carried by Dionysus and his followers. It was a staff or spear tipped with a pinecone, which could be taken as a symbol for the oak tree, or pine, under which the A. muscaria grows. The thyrsus was entwined with leaves of ivy and fennel. The Hebrews substituted the pinecone for the ethrog or etrog, a citron fruit which looks like a lemon, most likely to disguise the origin of the symbol even further, while the staff was turned into a “lulab” or palm branch for the Feast of Tabernacles. (249) |
The Cornucopia, also called the “Horn of Plenty” is often depicted in the hands of various goddesses and gods and is associated with early Greek mythology where it referred to the miraculous horn of the nymph Amalthea's goat (or of herself in goat form), that filled itself with whatever meat or drink its owner requested. Many early depictions of the cornucopia feature the horn as either a mushroom directly, or having mushrooms sprouting from it. The earliest I have found is on a Judean (Palestinian) coin from 40-37 BC (51h). This same coin shows the original wreath as a circle of mushrooms. The image of Ashi, from the Kushan era is another such early coin from 300-330 AD (56d). Other versions appear on Roman coins with Fortuna seated, from 114-117 AD (56c), and Nemesis-Aequitas from 217 AD (56b). There exists a wonderful depiction from a Roman mosaic, of Isis and Serapis from 300-400 AD (30e). Keeping with tradition, the cornucopia at Beit She'an, c. 500 AD, has a mushroom popping out the top (66h).  R: (56d) Kushan Ardoksho, Ashi, Lakshmi Shaka c. 300-330 AD L: (56c) Fortuna seated left holding rudder and cornucopia. Rome c. 114-117 AD   R: (56b) Macrinus & Diadumenion, Roman Empire Moesia Inforior Nemesis-Aequitas standing left holding cornucopia and scales c. 217-218 AD (243) White Goddess, p. 333 (244) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Prometheus-Greek-god (245) Apples of Apollo, p. 131 (246) Hesiod works and Days 52, Theogany 567; Aeschylus Promethius 109 (247) Heras, Cratippus, Soranus: cited in Galen 12.398, 959; and Aetius 8.45 (248) Apples of Apollo, p. 133-34; Apicius, De re coquinaria (a cookbook) 7.15.6 (249) White Goddess, p. 261-62 |
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