Saturday, October 27, 2018

Was Göbekli Tepe Atlantis?

Here's my case that the Göbekli Tepe civilization was Atlantis.

1) It dates from the time of Atlantis.

2) The ancient Egyptians (from whom Solon and hence Plato supposedly got the story) had an upside down view of geography. Because the Nile flows from south to north, the Egyptians thought of the south as geographic "up" and the north as "down". So for them, Atlantis was towards the left of Greece.

3) A civilization of the Göbekli Tepe builders in the Black Sea area could have come into conflict with a Proto-Pelasgian culture in the area of Greece and the Balkans.

4) Both the Greek peninsula and the Black Sea area suffered catastrophic coastal flooding after the end of the last ice age.

5) Atlantis as described by Plato featured a large stone pillar as its cultural center, and the Göbekli Tepe civilization is known for its ... large stone pillars.

So is the war against Atlantis in Plato's dialogue really a neolithic Trojan War?

Sunday, October 7, 2018

The Many Faces of Dionysus

In the ancient Dionysian festivals there would be a particular mythic theme, and various tragic, comic and pastoral works would be presented which all drew from the same myth.

I have an opening line that goes like this:

ΟΙ ΒΛΕΡΟΙΣΙ ΤΑ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΘΕΟΙ ΟΥ ΛΑΝΘΑΝΟΝΤΑΙ ΔΕ ΤΩΝ ΕΒΛΕΦΕΝΤΩΝ

The gods see all things, and they do not forget the things they have seen.

This line could be the opening for stories in any of three classical modes. Right now I'm working on the tragic, in which case the line can be read as a warning: The gods see all things, and they recompense you accordingly.