AAL’S LABYRINTH HISTORY An Alternative Viewpoint…..contd. #57

 

City of Persepolis

c650 BCE    ACHAEMENES establishes a royal line of the clan Pasargadae, the most noble tribe of the Persians (from Persis or Persia). His country of Elam was over-taken by Ashurbanipal (Assyrian King) in 7^th century BCE. Achaemenes took part of Elam, called Anshan, and made its capital Susa. Susa is the Biblical Shushan which had been founded c4000 BCE at the head of the Persian Gulf. Elam then disappears as an independent state at this point.

                      Achaemenes’ son Teispes will be followed to the throne by his son Cyrus I, then by his grandson Cambyses I, followed by Cyrus II or Cyrus the Great, who will be known in history as the ‘Empire Builder’. (73)

Sappho the Poet

c630 BCE      SAPPHO of Eressos on Lesbos Island, near Turkey/Greece. A female poet she produced 9 books, of which only fragments remain, some based on more ancient Egyptian papyri. Some poems invoke Greek Aphrodite, some give passionate depictions of flowers, moon, sea and night. Sappho was regarded as the 10^th muse and looked upon as a goddess. She had a literary circle of female disciples of strong emotional attachment and they conducted and took part in the ‘Thesmophoria’ fertility rituals at the sanctuary of Demeta/Kore at Mitaleni on the island of Lesbos.  Sappho’s work was subsequently suppressed by the Christian religion and it was eventually lost in the destruction of the Alexandrian library. (102. 345)

Aphrodite goddess of the Sea and Love

                   Under the force of the Medes coming from the north and the Persians coming from the east, the fall of the Assyrian Empire is brought about, whilst in the south there is a resurgence of Chaldean thought in the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Jeremiah the weeping Prophet [Bottecelli]

c626 BCE     JEREMIAH second of the major Hebrew Prophets. ‘The Book of Jeremiah’ of the Old Testament is a collection of prophesies named after him. Jeremiah lived in Anathoth on the outskirts of Jerusalem, the seat of orthodox Yahweh worship. He condemned the Baal worship of Canaan which had degenerated into licentiousness. In the face of political and religious crisis, Jeremiah called for moral reform and repentance so that the turning to God might lead to a new creation. Jeremiah thus prefigured the New Testament in prophesizing the notion of the “new covenant.” Jeremiah felt called to bring a new social and religious understanding to the people and carried the message of a universal God. He considered it to be an act of God when the Babylonians captured his people. Jeremiah’s prophetic career ranged from about 626 BCE, during the reign of Josiah, at least to the fall of Jerusalem (586 BCE) and the deportation of its population. At this time, Jeremiah was taken by the remaining Jewish community to Egypt, where he died. The career of Jeremiah thus embraced the period of Josiah’s Reformation (626-622 BCE); the years of resurgent Judaic nationalism (608-597 BCE); the period leading to the final demise of Judah (597-586 BCE); and his time spent in Egypt. The Monastery of Saint Jeremiah, located at the Serapeum northwest of Saqqara, Egypt, will be founded by the Copts in the 5^thcentury CE. It will include two churches, a refectory, and various workshops. (102. 99) The monastery will be located not far from the tomb of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Unas. It was at this period of history that the Great Mother Goddess met her final demise.

.