SEVENTENTH CENTURY BCE (1699-1600)
c1650 BCE TETISHERI Queen of Egypt and commoner wife of King Sekenenre Tao I She is mother of Sekenenre Tao II. This is the start of the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt and marks the first time since the Archaic Period, 1500 years earlier, that the queen consorts of Egypt are openly celebrated in their own right. (108)
Queen Tetisheri
According to some authors the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt covers c1650-1085 BCE and Dynasties 17-20. The early dynasties of this period are recognised for their succession of strong warrior-kings and high-profile queens, the latter providing Egypt with an unbroken succession lasting for over a century from Queen Tetisheri to Queen Hatshepsut and beyond. (108)
c1650 AMMISADUQA, king of Babylon. From this time comes a copy the earliest known astrological records or omens, the ‘Enuma Anu Enlil’, the book of the gods of heaven and earth. To it is added a tablet recording observations of Venus and called the ‘Tablet of Amisaduqa/Ammisaduqa’. It records the complex 8 year cycle of Venus, which is comprised of 5 synodic cycles,(46) which, drawn out as a diagram, appears like a simple rose, symbolic of all that is good about humanity.
Fergeson 1799. 5 inferior conjunctions
of Venus and Sun, as seen from Earth.
The ‘Enuma Anu Enlil, is a copy of the ‘Namar-Bili’, or the ‘Ilumination of Bel’ from the time of Sargon the Great [2340 BCE]. Copies will again appear in the future library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, in the seventh century BCE.
The Accadai or ‘Highlanders’ founded their creed in the mountains of Elam where the Babylonian gods lived on the ‘Mountain of the East’. This is similar to the Greek Olympus Mountain and the Hindu Meru Mountain. This ‘Accadai’ should not be confused with the Greek pastoral region of ‘Arcadia’.
1628 A possible date of the volcanic destruction of Greek Island of Thera, another being 1400 BCE.
c1600BC AGAMEMNON establishes Mycenae, capital of the Aegean, situated above the Argive plain, Eastern Peloponnesus. It is surrounded by walls built by the Cyclops. Entry into the city is through the famous Lion Gate, over which is a monumental relief of confronting lions. The city will be destroyed by fire c1200 BCE and invaded by Dorians c1100 BCE. (102) Agamemnon is Helen of Troy’s brother-in-law.
HELEN OF TROY: Greek mythology nominates her as the most beautiful woman in Greece, and the major cause of the Trojan War. Helen is the daughter of Zeus and Leda, whom Zeus raped after taking the guise of a swan. Helen’s sister is Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon; her brothers are the Dioscuri, or the Divine Twins, Castor and Pollux. While still a girl, Helen is carried off by the Athenian hero Theseus, but the Dioscuri rescue her unharmed. Later, Helen married Menelaus, King of Sparta. Their marriage is threatened when Paris, a Trojan prince, becomes enamored of Helen. Taking advantage of Menelaus’ absence from the palace, Paris abducts Helen and leaves for Troy. Immediately, a great expedition against Troy is organized under the leadership of Agamemnon (brother of Menelaus) and ten years of bitter fighting ensued. After Troy’s defeat, Helen is restored to her husband. (102)
Leda and the Swan/Zeus
The TROJAN WAR necessitates the uniting of the previously separate city-states of Greece, and which will now fight together under the leadership of Mycenaean King Agamemnon (1600 BCE) (44)
The star Electra, mother of the Dardanus, is saddened when she witnesses the fall of Ilion in the war, and so leaves her station among the Pleiades to become the ‘Fox Star’ called Alcor of the constellation Ursa Major. Babylonian legend calls this star Era, the most powerful among the gods who takes its place at the beam of the wagon of Ursa Major. This star is associated with the planetary god Nergal or Mars and the Sumerian story of ‘Utnapishtim’, records that Nergal/Mars/Alcor is responsible for the first great world flood. Thus, the legend records that when Electra/Era frees herself from the yoke of Ursa Major or from the Pleiades group in the time of the fall of Ilion/Troy, there will come the end of a world-age.(71)
