New evidence of the cult of Zeus is 3,200 years old. -- unearthed silver coins and other Zeus icons
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090126_New_evidence_of_the_cult_of_Zeus_is_3_200_years_old_.html
Posted on Mon, Jan. 26, 2009
New evidence of the cult of Zeus is 3,200 years old.
Partying like it's 999 B.C.
It's not hard to see why Zeus was such a popular god with
the ancient Greeks. He not only wielded a thunderbolt,
but he also got into all sorts of trouble, including
liaisons with humans and goddesses - much to the
annoyance of his wife, Hera.
Greek gods were figures people could relate to, said
archaeologist David Romano of the University of
Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
And worshiping Zeus apparently involved some serious
partying.
Working at the remote Mount Lykaion in Greece, Romano
has found "evidence of a drinking party and possibly
feasting" around a famous altar built on the
4,500-foot peak. These relics go back 3,200 years,
about the time the earliest stone tablets started to
refer to Zeus as the godfather of the gods.
"What's new is this mountaintop altar had cult
activity that's continuous from the Mycenaean to the
Hellenistic periods," Romano said, meaning between
the 14th and second centuries B.C. At various
depths, he and colleagues have unearthed silver coins
and other Zeus icons, including a tiny bronze hand
with a silver lightning bolt.
Romano will speak on his latest finds tomorrow at
6 p.m. at the Penn Museum.
Mount Lykaion is mentioned in myth as the birthplace
of Zeus, Romano said, and it appears no one lived
on the desolate peak, though the view is spectacular.
For hundreds of years, people apparently hiked there
for religious ceremonies and feasts.
Last year, Romano announced that the site contained
primitive pottery shards that go back to the end of
the Neolithic or New Stone Age period, more than
5,000 years ago, before the first Greek-speaking
people arrived. He suspects this material stems
from some sort of religious or cult activity. But
no one knows if the deity before Zeus was a party
animal, too.
- Faye Flam
..
Leo Marx
Pagan religions are much more interesting than the christian and muslim
death cults we have today.
JAM
Roger Hunt
writes
>
>Pagan religions are much more interesting than the christian and muslim
>death cults we have today.
>
--
Roger Hunt
som...@some.domain
better morality, too.
RWF
news:497DF982...@nospam.net...
> JAM
What does "JAM" stand for?
RWF
Jim Higgins
Male and female temple prostitutes and occasional human sacrifice
constitute better morality?
--
Civis Romanus Sum
RWF
news:CeednVQmw5PytePU...@posted.eaglecomputertechnology...
> Male and female temple prostitutes and occasional human sacrifice
> constitute better morality?
The Greeks and Romans did not practice ritualistic human sacrifice in
their temples.
Prostitutes in the temples might bring more people back to church
though!
Phil DeMayo
> "Leo Marx" <LeoM...@nospam.net> wrote in message
>
> news:497DF982...@nospam.net...
>
> > JAM
>
> What does "JAM" stand for?
His initials
Leo Marx
Yes, much better. Better than the moral hypocrites and the never ending
human sacrifices we have today.
JAM
Mr. Jaggers
I'd bet money that there were moral hypocrites even among the Pagans, but I
think you're spot on regardless, JAM. History is so full of accounts of
outsiders forcing their creeds upon the Pagans, very sparse in accounts of
force used in the opposite direction.
James
Peter
> Leo Marx wrote:
> > Jim Higgins wrote:
>
> >>> In article <497DF982.928F9...@nospam.net>, Leo Marx> >>>>http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090126_New_evidence_of_the_...
>
> - Show quoted text -
You're not much interested in the lives of the saint?
Mr. Jaggers
I don't understand your question. Please explain.
James
som...@some.domain
christians are self serving hypocrites and muslims are all
terrorists.....etc...etc.
google up some stuff about ancient cults, (a lot of modern ones have the
prostitutes and symbolic sacrfice) and you will see many were fairly civilized
by our standards.
som...@some.domain
som...@some.domain
spouts.
som...@some.domain
Mr. Jaggers
"Our golden sickle is of finer fabric than your golden sickle, and Toutatis
is on our side."
Panoramix