The origins of the custom of Bell-Bearers, Greece, in Pan

There is a particular custom observed in several places around modern Greece where men get up as Satyrs or Bell-Bearers⁽¹⁾ (picture), many times ram-formed, to pour into and roam the streets around displaying a lustful behaviour and strong sexual suggestiveness during the Carnival (late winter).

It is actually mainly practised over the last Sunday or weekend of the Carnival, albeit there could be exceptions, and particularly over insular places such as Chios, Naxos, Ikaria, Lesbos and Skyros whilst it is also found in the region of Chalchidiki on the mainland.

Although there is awareness that the tradition is very old with roots in deep antiquity, in some instances erroneously viewed as medieval nonetheless, I would say that it is evident that its meaning and what it illustrates has been lost in time and is practised more out of a ‘blurry memory’ of the long past.

What these dressed up men actually imitate is none else than the Pans or Paniskoi⁽²⁾ who were copies (replicas) that Pan, ram-form god from Anatolia and most likely coming from the Phrygians, would multiply into that would roam around displaying exactly this lustful behaviour seeking to engage the erotic attention of the nymphs.

Pan was a god of the wild, the pasture, shepherds and flocks, woods and wooden glens as well as rustic music, a companion of the nymphs at that, as he was associated with the earth and nature along with all activities connected with them` just as was his name that didn’t originally mean ‘all’ (mainly used as a prefix) but has wound up so through time.

For that matter, he was considered older than the Olympians (although ‘Olympians’ here apparently regards the Olympus, a name that comes therefrom, of Phrygia) while he might as well have entertained even deeper roots in ancient Egypt, where he was known as Mendes whilst identified/associated with their own very ancient gods (Per-)Banebdjedet και Min.

Looking closer, I would argue that the name Mendes doesn’t seem Egyptian but instead strikes me most likely as Phrygian breaking down as ‘ΜΗΝ’ (voiced as ‘men’) ‘ΔΕ(Υ)Σ’ (rendered as ‘de(u)s,’ meaning ‘god’), the Phrygian lunar god that presided over the (lunar) months and whose name shapes the deep origin of the Greek word ‘μήνας’ (month).

Which, in turn, implies a connection between Men (MHN) and Pan, who was connected by means of a love affair with goddess of the moon Selene⁽³⁾. It is particularly intriguing, come to that, the great similarity in the names of Phrygian god Men and Egyptian Min⁽⁴⁾, whose nature and overall outlook resembles that of Pan a great deal.

The Phrygian identity of Pan before he crossed the Aegean and came over to the southern Balkans can be further established since he was associated with Phrygian supreme goddess Cybele, attested by Pindar as such for instance, as well as among the retinue of Phrygian god Sabazios who was venerated as main deity in many places around nowadays Greece including Athens (as Zeus).

There shouldn’t be ruled out, however, that the god could have born deeper origins with the Caucones⁽⁵⁾, a very ancient Caucasian peoples of Anatolia, whom the Phrygians conquered at some point when they started shaping up as a major force in the region.

Especially seeing that the emergence of Pan in the wider area of nowadays Greece was regarded to have been in the region of Arcadia, which was mainly occupied by them (Caucones) and Pelasgians (descendants of Egyptian, Lybian, and maybe even Phoenician, settlers).

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(1) Dubbed as ‘koudounatoi,’ ‘koudounades’ or ‘koudounoforoi’ in Greek.

(2) The outlook of the ‘Bell-Bearers’ definitely fits that of Pan.

(3) Selene was also called MHNH, rendered as ‘Me`ne,’ which shapes the feminine form of the name of Phrygian lunar god Men (MHN) and therefore looks most definitely Phrygian, very likely her original name for that matter.

Furthermore, she bore the epithet ‘Pan-dia’ (voiced as ‘Pan Dia’) or ‘Pan-deia’ (rendered as ‘Pan-dea’) where ‘dia/deia’ simply spells ‘goddess’ and the first component ‘Pan’ seems to connect her with the god, on the one hand, as well as nature that he represented, on the other.

Which, by implication, come to further associate the two gods between them, who might have been the same.

(4) His name was likely pronounced as ‘Menu’ or ‘Men’ for that matter.

(5) Caucones were responsible for carrying over and spreading the cult of Hermes in what is nowadays Greece come to that.

Tutankhamun’s Treasure – Nekhbet pendant

This is a fabulous pendant in the figure of Nekhbet, an early predynastic goddess depicted as a griffon vulture, who was the patron deity of the city of Nekheb (El Kab) before she eventually rose as the guardian of the entire Upper Egypt.

Just like Horus, she grasped the Shen Rings (or rather the Shen Orbs), standing for eternal protection, while she would often appear together with her counterpart Wadjet of Lower Egypt as the Two Ladies, the two guardians of Egypt when unified.

The displayed jewel was found in the tomb of the famous Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun (ruled between around 1332 and 1323 BC), suspended from his very neck, discovered in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter in 1922.

Made of solid gold, it is encrusted on the obverse with blue glass where the coverts of the wings and the tips of the tail feathers, which are furnished with red glass.

Holy Roman Emperors depicted holding a Shen Sphere/Orb – Frederick Barbarossa

Sometime ago, I put up a picture of the original bronze statue of Charlemagne the Great (748 – 814 AD) when it used to lay in the Coronation Hall of the Aachen Town Hall in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia (northwest Germany).

The sculpture depicts Charlemagne, protector of the Roman Catholic Church, as holding up in his left hand a Globus cruciger (‘Cross-bearing Orb’), a symbol of authority as it is interpreted, which is essentially a Christian adaptation of the ancient Egyptian Shen Sphere/Orb (not Ring as erroneously regarded).

A few days ago, I stumbled on an illustration of further Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1122 – 1190 AD), also a protector of the Church, as a crusader that appears in the “Historia Hierosolymitana” (1188 AD) where he is also displayed holding the same symbol up in his left hand.

Shen Spheres/ Orbs were potent symbols of eternity as well as eternal protection that featured particularly with depictions of mighty falcon god Horus and vulture goddess Nekhbet, patron of Upper Egypt, in ancient Egypt.

On top of that, the cross that appears atop the Globus cruciger is clearly an adaptation of the Ankh which was a prominent hieroglyphic symbol of life, actually meaning literally ‘life’ itself, in ancient Egypt incidentally.

Trajan’s Kiosk, Agilkia Island (Egypt)

Trajan’s Kiosk, or Pharaoh’s Bed (summer house?) as known to the locals, is a hypaethral (non-roofed) temple that is located nowadays along with the entire temple complex of Philae on Agilkia Island in the reservoir of the Old Aswan Dam on River Nile, southern (ancient Upper) Egypt.

The temple is attributed to Roman emperor Trajan (98 – 117 AD), depicted as Pharaoh on some interior reliefs⁽¹⁾, but a good part of the structure was apparently already built during the reign of Augustus around a century or even more earlier.

Standing about 16m high, as well as 20m long and 15m wide, it originally served as a prelude to the Philae temple complex on the namesake island before it was all relocated to its current place so as to be saved from the rising waters of the Nile due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.

Sockets within the structure’s architraves suggest that it was probably timber-roofed shaping a slight vault in ancient times. It presents a rectangular room encompassed with a screening wall bound together by fourteen columns that feature lotus-shaped capitals in a 4 x 5 pattern, with entrances on the eastern and western side.

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(1) A carving inside displays emperor Trajan burning incense by way of offering to Osiris and Isis.

Πίαω από τη λέξη ‘Χημεία’

Φαντάζομαι ότι όλοι γνωρίζετε τι σημαίνει ‘Χημεία’ και τι αυτή αφορά. Άλλωστε, λίγο πολύ όλοι θα έχετε κάνει το αντίστοιχο μάθημα στο σχολείο, αν όχι και παραπέρα.

Από που, λοιπόν, προέρχεται το όνομα της επιστήμης αυτής και πως αναλύεται; Εδώ υπάρχει μια μεγάλη εκπληξη!

Η λέξη ‘Χημεία,’ λοιπόν, προέρχεται και έχει τις βαθιές της ρίζες στο αρχαίο αιγυπτιακό ‘km.t’ που αποδίδεται κοινώς ως ‘κέμ-ετ’ και σήμαινε ‘μαύρη γη’ σε σχέση με το χώμα που αποτίθονταν και κάλυπτε τις πλημμυρικές ζώνες του ποταμού Νείλου κατά την εποχή των ετήσιων πλημμύρων του⁽¹⁾.

Το χώμα αυτό ήταν εξαιρετικά πλούσιο σε στοιχεία που έκανε τις ‘μαύρες’ αυτές ζώνες πολύ εύφορες και συνεπώς θα έδινε την εντύπωση κάποιου είδους ‘μαγείας’ ιδιαίτερα ευπρόσδεκτης για τους αρχαίους Αιγύπτιους ενώ το όνομα επεκτάθηκε για να χαρακτηρίζει τελικά ακόμη και την ίδια τους τη χώρα ως ‘Κέμ-ετ’ (‘Χώρα της Μαύρης Γης’).

Η πρώτη παρουσία της λέξης km.t φαίνεται να γίνεται τόσο παλιά όσο περίπου το 3100 π.Χ. και την Πρώιμη Δυναστική Περίοδο ενώ ως όνομα για την ίδια την χώρα δείχνει να εμφανίζεται κατά την βασιλεία του Mentuhotep II (2060-2009 π..Χ.) της ΧΙ Δυναστείας και μετάβαση από την Πρώτη Ενδιάμεση Περίοδο στο Μέσο Βασίλειο.

Μάλιστα, από ό,τι καταλαβαίνω, το όνομα ακόμη χρησιμοποιείται για την Αίγυπτο σε περιοχές της Μέσης Ανατολής και που αναλύεται σε ‘km’ (κεμ-), που σημαίνει ‘μαύρο/μαυρίλα,’ και το επίθεμα ‘.t’ (-ετ) που δίνει την έννοια της χώρας/περιοχής στο πρώτο, σε μια δομή που δείχνει σημιτική.

Από την άλλη πλευρά, φαίνεται να υπάρχει μια σύγχυση σε ό,τι αφορά την λέξη ‘χημεία,’ με αρκετά ‘δάνεια’ και ‘αντιδάνεια’ μεταξύ γλωσσών και περιοχών μέσα στους αιώνες, για το ποια ακριβώς ήταν η πορεία της διαμόρφωσής της και πότε πρωτοεμφανίστηκε.

Έτσι, σε άλλες πηγές φαίνεται να πρωτοεμφανίζεται στον 4ο αιώνα μ.Χ. σε μια πραγματεία του Ρωμαίου αστρολόγου και συγγραφέα Julius Firmicus Maternus ως ‘chemyia’ ενώ σε άλλες (αλλά λιγότερες) ότι εμφανίστηκε αρχικά γύρω στα τέλη του 4ου αιώνα π.Χ. ως ‘χυμεία’ στην Κοινή από το πρωτύτερο αρχαιο-ελληνικό ‘χύμα,’ με το τελευταίο ως συμφυρμό του ‘Χημία’ (Αίγυπτος) και ‘χημία’ (μαύρη γη).

Ωστόσο, η δεύτερη εκτίμηση δεν δείχνει ιδιαίτερα ‘στέρεη’ για κάποιους σημαντικούς λόγους όπως:

α) η κατάληξη ‘-ία’ στην περίπτωση του ‘Χημία’ (Αίγυπτος, η χώρα) θα ήταν ‘-εία΄ (γη, χώρα) ως προς τη μορφή ‘Χημεία’ και προφορά ‘Κεμέα’ ενώ στο ‘χημία’ (μαύρη γη) η προφορά θα ήταν ‘κέμια’ αντιθέτως (και έτσι θα διακρίνονταν και μεταξύ τους).

β) Το ‘χύμα,’ στα αρχαία ελληνικά προφερόμενο ως ‘κούμα,’ προερχόταν από το προ-ελληνικό ‘k(h)uma’ (δασυνόμενο ‘κ’) που είναι πιθανώς Λούβιο.

γ) To km.t (κέμ-ετ) φαίνεται ότι πολύ παλαιότερα προφερόταν ως ‘κούμ-ατ’ που υποδεικνύει την αντίστοιχη εξέλιξη του πρώτου συνθετικού από ‘χυμ-‘ σε ‘χημ-‘ (προφερόμενα ως ‘κουμ-‘ και ‘κεμ-‘ αντίστοιχα) και όχι το αντίθετο (βλέπε επίσης β παραπάνω).

Θα πρέπει να πούμε ότι φαίνεται ότι υπήρχε αιγυπτιακή λέξη ‘khēmia’ (‘κέμια’)⁽²⁾ που σήμαινε ‘μετατροπή της γης,’ δεδομένου μάλιστα ότι ο Ρωμαίος αυτοκράτορας Diocletian αναφέρεται σε αυτή, που δείχνει ότι η καταγωγή της λέξης ‘Χημεία’ μπορεί να είναι απευθείας αιγυπτιακή αλλά με κλίση περισσότερο προς την έννοια της Αλχημείας.

Μάλιστα, η λέξη αλχημεία⁽³⁾ προέρχεται από το αραβικό ‘al-kīmiyā’ όπου το δεύτερο συστατικό της λέξης προφέρεται όπως και το ‘khēmia’ παραπάνω, υποδεικνύοντας απευθείας αιγυπτιακή καταγωγή, και που αφορά και πάλι το αρχαίο όνομα της Αιγύπτου στην αιγυπτιακή γλώσσα σημαίνοντας ‘Αιγυπτιακή τέχνη’ ή ‘μαύρη τέχνη.’

Το ‘τέχνη’ (art) έχει να κάνει και με τη μαγεία να σημειωθεί επίσης.

Συνεπώς, η Χημεία ήταν βασίλειο πολύ πριν γίνει επιστήμη!

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(1) Οι πλημμύρες του Νείλου λάμβαναν χώρα μεταξύ Μαϊου και Αυγούστου κατά την εποχή του Akhet (άνοδος των υδάτων, πλημμύρα) ως αποτέλεσμα των ετήσιων μουσώνων που προκαλούσαν μεγάλες κατακρημνίσεις στα Αιθιοπικά υψίπεδα.

(2) Η δομή του ‘khēmia,’ ωστόσο, θα έλεγα ότι συνιστά μάλλον Φοινικική/Καναανίτικη προέλευση αλλά και πάλι ενδεχομένως να εμφανίστηκε μέσα στα όρια της Αιγύπτου δεδομένων των μεγάλων αριθμών από Σημίτες/Καναανίτες που ήταν εγκατεστημένοι στο ανατολικό Δέλτα του Νείλου ήδη από τους πρώτους αιώνες της δεύτερης χιλιετερίδας π.Χ.

(3) Το ‘αλχημεία’ ουσιαστικά αναλύεται αρχικά ως ‘η χημεία’ καθώς το πρόθεμα ‘αλ-‘ δεν είναι τίποτα άλλο από το αντίστοιχο αραβικό οριστικό άρθρο.

Ipet (or Ipy), a forgotten goddess

Although rather largely unknown today, Ipy was a very ancient Egyptian goddess that appeared to be held in high esteem and prominence in Upper Egypt with her cult carrying particular weight in the Theban realm.

So much so that she was directly associated by name with both major temple complexes of Karnak, known as ‘Ipet-Isut’ (likely spelling ‘Sacred place of Ipet’), and Luxor, called ‘Ipet Resyt’ (meaning ‘the ‘Sanctuary of Ipet’)⁽¹⁾.

Further known as Opet or Apet, her cult is attested as early as the Pyramid era and the Old Kingdom regarded as protector of the Pharaoh oneself as well as the very mother of Osiris in the Theban theology.

She was usually portrayed as a hippopotamus but could also be depicted as a blend of hippo, crocodile, lion and human – maybe hinting at her being a shape-shifter…? – while holding the Ankh (symbol of life).

On top of that, she can be further seen holding a symbol reminiscent of the Tyet, also known as the Knot of Isis, but without the arms. The latter symbol is attested considerably before Isis herself so it may have not been originally attached to her.

Consequently, could have Ipy shaped a forerunner of Isis, consort and sister of Osiris, as well as potentially been linked to the underworld?

For that matter, her name might as well suggest itself as a likely root of the word ‘hippo.’

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(1) All the same, her name is controversially omitted in the modern interpretations of the names of both.

The Layout of Luxor Temple

Here is a look at the layout of the complex of the Luxor Temple, or Ipet Resyt as it was in ancient Egyptian, on the east bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt.

Albeit Ipet Resyt is generally given as spelling ‘southern sanctuary,’ I feel that the proper interpretation of the name would actually be ‘Sanctuary of Ipet.’

Ipet, or Opet or Ipy, was an Egyptian goddess that was considered a protector of the Pharaoh himself as well as mother of Osiris in the local (Theban) theology.

Behind the name of Thebes or Thebai (Θήβαι)

According to ancient historians, as well as mythology, the Thebes (Thebai) in Boeotia (central nowadays Greece) gained their name from their Phoenician founder Cadmus in honour of his father, King Agenor of Tyre, out of the respective major city of Thebes on the Nile in ancient Upper Egypt, which the latter used to be a former ruler (Pharaoh) of.

In order to distinguish them, they were more precisely referred to as ‘seven-gated’ and ‘hundred-gated’ respectively and so they appear as early as Homer’s ‘Iliad’ for that matter.

All the same, King Agenor was more precisely an Egyptian, just as his wife and queen Telephassa, which by implication essentially renders Cadmus as such. But there was a fine line between Egypt and Phoenicia as the two considerably overlapped along the age of the second millennium BC.

The genuine Egyptian name for the Thebes of the Nile, Upper Egypt, was ‘Waset’ that breaks down as ‘Was-et’ spelling ‘City (-et) of the Was (the Sceptre of Pharaohs),’ an appellation that presents a semitic structure, since the city served as the capital of unified (or earlier of Upper) Egypt for long spells during the Middle and New Kindgom.

On the other hand, the name ‘Thebes’ probably comes from an earlier form of much later demotic Egyptian ‘tꜣ jpt,’ or even ‘tꜣ jpy,’ that was likely pronounced as ‘Ta(w)`jpet,’ and reads ‘Land/Place of the Temple.’ The sequence of ‘jpt/y’ stressed in the second component of the name effects a sound similar to ‘-be’ I should add here.

And I allude to the latter since ‘Θήβαι (Thebai/Thebes),’ which actually didn’t share the exact same location as modern Theba (central nowadays Greece), in Hellenic would be pronounced as ‘tε:-ba-i’ (probably level-stressed) since ‘θ’ was voiced as aspirated ‘t’ and ‘β’ as ‘b’ where the diphthong ‘ai’ was rendered as ‘a-i’ (as the two vowels separately that is).

Seeing that the name ‘Thebes’ of the Boeotian city came from the Phoenicians, it most likely descended from an intermediate Phoenician rendering of an earlier form of demotic Egyptian ‘tꜣ jpy’ ή ‘tꜣ jpy.’

After all, the Hyksos that prevailed and ruled over a large part of, mainly Lower, Egypt for about 150 to 180 years between roughly 1710 or 1680 and 1540 BC were largely Canaanites as were the Phoenicians, which draws that the two most likely substantially overlapped.

But Canaanites already settled in considerable numbers in the eastern Delta of the Nile as early as the Twelfth Dynasty (Middle Kingdom) and 20th century BC, around the same time that Cadmus was thought to have lived.

Consequently, the Boeotian Thebes most certainly bear the same meaning of ‘Land/Place of the Temple’ in accord with the namesake Egyptian city whilst the plural form of the name (Thebai/Thebae/Θήβαι) rather falls in tune with the respective forms of ‘Athenae’ (Athenai/Αθήναι) and Mycenae (Mykē̂nai/Μυκήναι) among others.

The main interpretation attributed is that the plural form was rather due to a sisterhood of probably priestesses (under the respective name) devoted to the cult of the (principal) goddess of a city who in this case (Thebes) would bear the epithet ‘Thebe’ (Θήβη, rendered as ‘Tε:bε:’ in Hellenic), spelling ‘the goddess/lady of Thebes.’

Who, in turn, would be most likely Phrygian supreme goddess Cybele as she was venerated as principal goddess in the Thebes and quite likely as early as the Mycenaean era.

The legendary heroine Thebe that is linked with the Boeotian Thebes seems to be also Asian as daughter of Prometheus (see relative post) where there was a respective Thebe, daughter of Nile and therefore Egyptian, associated with the Egyptian city.

For that matter, there was an Egyptian local goddess named Waset venerated in the Egyptian Thebes (named also Waset by the Egyptians), Amun’s first consort at that, that may correspond to the latter Thebe spelling that this could be a conception coming all the way from Egypt as well.

Reconstruction of ancient Thebes, Upper Egypt

This is a reconstruction of ancient Thebes as it would likely look during the reign of Ramesses II (or the Great) between 1279 and 1213 BC, Nineteenth Dynasty in the New Kingdom.

Since about 1500 BC, the city was likely the largest in the (at least known) world boasting a population or around 75000 people and remained so until the late 10th century BC.

Khepri, god of the morning sun and renewal of life

Khepri (ḫprj in ancient Egyptian) is a very ancient solar god of the Egyptians, attested as early as the Predynastic era (pre 3100 BC), that represents the morning or rising sun as well as, by extension, creation and renewal of life (re-incarnation).

His name apparently derives on the ancient Egyptian verb ḫpr which means ‘develop,’ ‘arise,’ ‘come into being’ or ‘create’ and is further transliterated as Khepra, Chepri, Kheper or Khepera at that.

Interestingly, he is often depicted as a scarab-headed man carrying a was-sceptre (signifying power, dominion) and an ankh (key of life) in his hands or as a (Scarabaeus sacer) scarab holding aloft the morning sun and often in a solar barque (picture) held by Nun (or Nu), the personification of the primordial watery abyss in the creation of the world.

The ancient Egyptians observed that young dung beetles emerge fully formed out of their eggs in a dung ball as if out of nothingness and since they held that the sun is reborn out of nothing every day they connected the two into Khepri, who moved the newly-born sun across the sky just as a beetle pushes large balls of dung along the ground.

Linked also with the creation of the world, there was no cult committed to Khepri as a deity secondary to and also often seen as aspect, just as Atum, of great sun god Ra. In order of rank, Khepri would come out as the morning sun, Ra would take over on the crown of the day with Atum wrapping up affairs in the evening.

At the same time, Khepri was also protector and god of resurrection which accounts for the many scarab amulets (and even mummified beetles) placed in Egyptian tombs and graves, even in Predynastic times, as well as being worn as jewelry and used in the form of administrative or personal impression seals widely.