A little more on hair and something about the tri-pod cauldron, etc.
Two important features of the horse are the mane, and the
hooves. The mane is in Greek chaite, which can also be a lion's
mane, or lophia. Lophia is also the dorsal fin of a dolphin.
The hooves produce sparks; "ignipedes equi" are fire-footed horses.
Chaite, long, flowing hair, is sensitive to electrical fields.
The hair style of some figures in Egyptian art suggests the symbol
for radiation, which is seen as part of the utchat.
Horses were often employed on the threshing floor, a holy place.
The sensitivity of living creatures of all kinds to electrical fields
is noteworthy.
The Bacchae, line 145: The Bacchant runs, waving a wand with
a flame, rousing the wandering dancers, raising Bacchanalian
cries, tossing his luxuriant hair in the aither, or air. Aither is an
interesting word to use here; normally it is the upper air, home
of the gods and heavenly fire.
Line 185: The aged Kadmos asks the prophet Teiresias to join
the dance and shake his grey head. He loves to strike the ground
with his thyrsus. Kroteo, strike, means to make a sound by
striking, and is used in music.
Hats are seen on Hittite and Etruscan reliefs, and elsewhere,
conical in shape. The mitra may have been typical of Mitra, the
Persian Aphrodite. A Roman priest's hat had a twist of wool, apiculum, round the
apex or point. This was similar to the Greek stemma.
The Greeks and Egyptians attached great importance to hair
styles. The elegant curl at the end of the locks of hair on an
Egyptian painting or relief, closely resembles the curve of the
utchat, like the Greek chaite, hair or mane. The beard looks
much the same. Hair standing on end may be an indicator of an
electrical field. The Greek 'phobe', locks of hair, is almost the
same as 'phobos', fear.
When Aeneas went to Cumae to consult the Sibyl, she appeared
larger than life as the god approached and took possession of
her [9]. She became "maior videri', greater to behold. Her hair
also did not remain in order, "non comptae mansere comae."
Line 494: Pentheus threatens to cut off the stranger's hair.
The stranger replies: "My hair is sacred; I cherish it for the god."
The word for a lock of hair, phobe, is very close to the word
phobos, fear. In the Iliad, XXIII:141, Achilles offers a lock of
hair to the dead Patroclus. In Vergil, Aeneid VII:391, in a
description of Bacchic rout, we see the phrase "sacrum tibi
pascere crinem", to let grow the hair sacred to you.
Iliad VII:321: Agamemnon sacrifices a five year old ox to
Zeus, and gives Ajax the best part, the chine. Why is chine
best? Presumably because of mane and bristles which may have
electrical significance.
At the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, prophecy was associated with
the sound of brazen gongs, oak leaves rustling in the wind, with
the cooing of doves, and with the sound of the water of the
sacred spring. The possibility that the priests, the Selli, had to
maintain good earth contact by never washing their feet,
suggests that electrical forces were involved, and this theory is
strengthened by the fact that there was a circle of tripods
touching each other, round a sacred oak, itself having
associations with Zeus Kataibates, Zeus who descends.
Diodorus Siculus, a historian writing in about 40 B.C., gives us
valuable information. "Since I have mentioned the tripod, it
seems appropriate to refer to the old traditional story about it.
It is said that goats found the ancient oracle; because of this the
Delphians even today use goats for consulting the oracle. They
say that the manner of the discovery was as follows: There was
a chasm in this place, where now is what is called the sanctuary
of the temple. Goats fed round it, since it was not yet inhabited
by the Delphians, and whenever a goat went up to the chasm
and looked over, it leaped about in a remarkable way and
uttered sounds different from the usual.
The goatherd marvelled at the strange occurrence, went up to the
chasm, and having examined it suffered the same experience as the
goats; he acted like people whom a god enters, and he proceeded to prophesy
things that were going to happen. Subsequently the report was
passed on among the locals about the fate of those who
approached the chasm, and more people went to the place, and because of the
unusual occurrence all made trial of it, and all those who went near were inspired by the god.
Thus the oracle was the object of admiration and was held to be the oracle of
Ge (Earth). For some time those who wished to get answers
went up to the chasm and prophesied to each other. Later, many
jumped into the chasm and prophesied to each other in their
frenzy, and all disappeared. The inhabitants of the region all
decided, for safety reasons, to appoint one woman as
prophetess, and that answers should be given through her. So a
contraption was rigged which she mounted. She 'enthused' in
safety and gave answers to those who asked. The device has
three supports, hence its name 'tripod'. Almost all, even today,
are bronze tripods modelled on the lines of this one."
It is significant that the Hebrew 'chaghagh' is to dance, stagger;
'chaghav' is a ravine.
The cap worn by priests and augurs, especially by the flamen
Dialis (the priest who attended the fire at the altar of Jupiter),
was called an apex, after the name of the small rod on top, with
a tuft of wool, the apiculum, wound round it. Such a white hat
was also called an albogalerus. The connection with whiteness
and light may also be seen in the word Luceres, the name of one
of the original Roman tribes. The Etruscan word lauchume
means a chieftain; it is related to the root luk, light.
An Aeduan Druid, named Divitiacus, claimed to have studied
the naturae rationem which the Greeks called physiologia, the
study of nature, and made predictions by augury and by
inference (coniectura).
Among the Persians, the Magi "augurantur et divinant"
practised augury and divination. Their king had to know the
theory and practice (disciplina et scientia). [19]
The Spartans assigned an augur to kings and elders, and
consulted the oracles, of Apollo at Delphi, of Jupiter Hammon,
and of Zeus at Dodona [20].
Cicero writes: "Appius Claudius observed the practice not of
intoning an oracular utterance (decantandi oraculi), but of
divination" [21].
Cicero appears to refer to shamanism when he writes: "There
are those whose souls leave the body and see the things that
they foretell. Such animi (souls) are inflamed by many causes,
e.g. by a certain kind of vocal sound and Phrygian songs; many
by groves, forests, rivers and seas. I believe also that there have
been certain breaths of the earth, which filled the people's souls
so that they uttered oracles" [22].
II:682: During the escape from Troy, "levis summo de vertice
visus Iuli fundere lumen apex tactuque innoxia mollis lambere
flamma comas et circum tempora pasci." Iulus's cap poured out
light, and a gentle flame, harmless to touch, licked his hair and
played round his forehead.
While others tried to extinguish it with shaking and with water,
Anchises prayed to Jupiter. He was answered by thunder on the
left, and "de caelo lapsa per umbrae stella facem ducens multa
cum luce cucurrit. Illa summa super labentem culmina tecti
cernimus Idaea claram se condere silva signantemque vias;
tum longo limite sulcus dat lucem et late circurn loca sulphure
fumant."
A star fell from the sky through the darkness and moved fast,
trailing a torch of brilliant light. We saw the shining object
glide over the roof of the house and plunge into the forest on
Mount Ida, illuminating the paths; then it left a long trail of
light in its wake, and everywhere around, far and wide, was
sulphurous smoke.
III: 1-12: We have a summary of the fate of Troy. Its
destruction was the will of those above (visum supers), and the
Trojans were driven into exile to seek new homes by divine
auguries (auguriis divam). They carry the Penates and Great gods.
III: 135: When they have sailed to Crete, home of their ancestor
Teucer, pestilence from a disturbed part of the sky afflicts trees,
crops, and limbs. Anchises urges a return to Delos to ask the
oracle for guidance. Before they can go, the Trojan gods appear
to Aeneas in a dream, with advice from Apollo that Hesperia is
their goal, not Crete.
The oracle was on the hillside above a sacred wood. It was
surrounded by a circular platform of white stone, the size of a
small threshing-floor, about four feet six inches in height. There
were bronze posts joined by chains. Inside the circle was a
chasm, like a kiln ten feet in diameter, twenty feet deep. The
inquirer descended a ladder to a hole at the bottom, and took
honey cakes. He was snatched down feet first as though by a
river. Inside, some heard sounds, others saw things. He returned
feet first, and was put by the priests on the nearby Throne of
Memory. He was possessed with terror, but finally recovered in
the building of Good Spirit and Fortune.
X:5:7: Phemonoe was Delphi's first priestess and first to sing
the hexameter. But a local woman called Boio wrote a hymn for
Delphi saying that Olen and the remote northerners came and
founded the oracle, and Olen was the first to sing in
hexameters. Russian olenj is a reindeer.
VI:2:4: The Elean prophet Thrasyboulos son of Aineias was of
the clan of the Iamidae. These were prophets descended from
Q-CD vol 12: KA, Ch. 1: Augury 3 2
Iamos (Pindar, Olympian Odes VI:72). They studied lizards and
dogs.
The Greek augur faced north, the Roman south, and watched
especially the behaviour of birds and animals.
The Roman augur had a staff with a curved top. The contact with a boulder
indicates the discovery of the importance of a good earth
connection. Finally, since the augur worked in daytime, he
threw part of his robe over his head to enable him to detect any
variations of brightness of electrical glow. A Greek seer wore a
net garment over his chiton.
It is not suggested that this technique would be useful under
average present conditions, merely that there was a time when
electrical conditions were different, as we can expect from the
frequency of recorded earthquakes, and that elementary
electrical principles were being studied. Certainly experiments
with magnets were carried out, for example at Samothrace.
Cicero mentions "auspicious militare in acuminibus",divination from the points of
spears (De Divinatione II:36).
This was presumably the observation of electrical flashes.
Just as the Roman augur had to make contact with the earth via
a boulder, so the Selli at Dodona were forbidden to wash their
feet and had to sleep on the ground. The Flamen Dialis, or
priest of Jupiter at Rome, slept in a special bed whose feet were
smeared with mud. The name of the famous seer Melampus
means Blackfoot.
Frazer, in The Golden Bough, writes of the
Agnihotris, Brahmin fire priests, who sleep on the ground.
For the derivation of utchat, there is Greek chaite, hair, mane,
and Hebrew chata, transgress. A suppliant would touch a
person's chin or knee, when asking for mercy or help. Chins and
knees were regarded as concentrations of divine muelos,
marrow.
The tripod and cauldron are clearly important. The tripod as a
throne for Apollo was probably introduced between 1000 and
750 B.C., conventional dating. Votive offerings of tripods were
made to other gods as well as to Apollo. At Dodona the many
votive tripods were arranged in a circle, touching each other,
round a sacred oak tree. I suggest two lines of investigation.
Firstly, they are generally of metal, and the legs of the tripod
would be a good electrical earth for the cauldron on which the
Pythia sat. (See above for a reference to iron rollers at Ephyra).
Secondly, three metal legs are the most inconspicuous safe
support for a cauldron and occupant if one wishes to create the
impression that the Pythia, who is in contact with the god
Apollo, is hovering in the air.
Iliad IX:122: Agamemnon addresses Menelaus; he intends to
set out seven "apurous tripodas," tripods untouched by fire; or
it might mean purely ornamental, like "apurotos" in
XXIII:270, of a phiale, or libation bowl.
Iliad IX:264: Seven untouched tripods.
Iliad X1:700: A tripod was a prize in the games.
Iliad XXIII:264: At the funeral games for Patroclus, there is a
tripod with handles, a twenty-two measure tripod.
In Odyssey VIII:434, a tripod and cauldron are heated for a
bath.It will be seen in Chapter XVI that the tripod cauldron was used
in resurrection rites in ancient Greece.
The Greek tripod cauldron, lebes -- lebetos, is, I suggest, el bet,
the house of el. Similarly, the dragon that Herakles killed on his
journey to fetch the golden apples of the Hesperides had a
Semitic name, Ladon, El Adon, Lord El. And while on the
subject of the sky, the Phoenicians, the 'red people', wore
feather headdresses; cf. Quetzalcoatl.
Aithon means fiery, of lightning; also of metal, flashing. It is
applied to tripods, Iliad IX:123; XXIV:233.
Scroll down the link to the book "Ka" for more references.
http://www.grazian-archive.com/quantavolution/QUANTAVOL/ka_docs/ka_1.pdf
