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T HE B IRTH OF A THENA
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Ev Cochrane

There are also stars that suddenly come to birth in the heaven
itself...The Greeks call them comets. _1_.

By all accounts the birth of Athena from the head of her father was a
tumultuous occasion. "Athena sprang from the skull of Zeus with an
earth-shattering battle-cry, so that the heavens shook and the mother
earth." _2_.The account in the _Homeric Hymn of Athena_ is of a
comparable nature:

And before Zeus the aegis-holder she sprang swiftly from his immortal
head, brandishing a sharp-pointed spear. Great Olympos quaked
dreadfully under the might of the gray-eyed goddess, as the earth all
about resounded awesomely, and the sea moved and heaved with purple
waves. _3_.

The spectacular nature of Athena's birth has long intrigued
scholarsÑand with good reason. Not only are the physiological details
of the goddess' birth patently absurd, the cataclysmic imagery
attending her epiphany is difficult to imagine under any but the most
abnormal conditions. Yet as Walter Burkert observes, the birth of
Athena continues to exert a strange fascination upon modern readers in
spite of these incongruities: "This birth myth is as popular as it is
puzzling." _4_.

There have been numerous attempts to explain the bizarre circumstances
attending Athena's birth. Indeed there are as many explanations of
this particular myth as there are of myth itself, ranging from
socio-cultural to meteorological to psychoanalytic. Jane Harrison, for
example, dismissed the myth as a patriarchal fiction: "The outrageous
myth of the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus is but the religious
representation, the emphasis, and over emphasis, of a patrilinear
structure." _5_. Harrison's interpretation was subsequently adopted by
Robert Graves, the most popular modern writer on Greek mythology. _6_.

In the past century it was common for scholars to interpret Athena's
birth in terms of a nature-allegory. Roscher, for example, compared
the epiphany of Athena to a thunderstorm, seeing in the goddess a
personification of the lightning. _7_. F. M. Muller sought an
explanation of Athena's birth in the circumstances attending the daily
birth of the sun, identifying Athena with the Vedic goddess Ahana (the
Dawn):

That Athena or Athana was originally a representative of the light of
the morning, then of light and wisdom in general, born from the head
of Dyaus [the sky], and that her name is the same as the Vedic Ahana,
is as certain as anything can be in comparative mythology. _8_.

More recent scholars have been reluctant to accept a "naturist"
interpretation of Athena's birth. _9_. Farnell's criticism is typical
of the modern position on this matter:

Whether Athena is regarded as the thunder or the lightning, the aether
or the dawn, she can leap from the head of Zeus with equal
appropriateness. But let any one take whichever he pleases of these
various hypotheses and then work it out rigorously through point to
point of the myth, and he will stumble on hopeless inconsistencies.
_10._

The truth is, however, that neither Farnell nor any other scholar has
been able to improve upon the various "naturist" theories of the past
century, much less to provide a satisfactory explanation of the
circumstances attending Athena's birth. Not only is there widespread
disagreement over the original significance of Athena's birth, the
numerous explanations which have been offered are all addressed to
isolated elements of the myth and thus little attempt has been made to
account for it as a whole. The various explanations which have been
proposed, moreover, are mutually exclusive and seldom amenable to
further analysis and/or verification.

That there remains no satisfactory explanation of Athena's
birth-arguably the single greatest mythical image bequeathed to us by
the ancient Greeks-is a tell-tale sign of just how far we are from
achieving a real understanding of Greek mythology.

_VELIKOVSKY'S ATHENA_

Perhaps the most novel explanation of Athena's birth was that offered
by Immanuel Velikovsky, who saw in the myth an ancient cataclysm
associated with the planet Jupiter (Zeus), one in which the planet
Venus (Athena) was born from the giant planet in comet-like form.
Velikovsky's thesis, presented in 1950 in the book _Worlds in
Collision_, inspired an extensive and often vitriolic debate, one
which shows little sign of abating. _11_.

At first sight Velikovsky's hypothesis hardly inspires confidence, nor
would it appear to represent an improvement upon those offered by
classical scholars. Upon closer examination, however, it can be seen
that it possesses several decided advantagesÑat least from a
theoretical standpoint. A singular advantage of Velikovsky's
hypothesis is that it conforms to Occam's law inasmuch at it accounts
at once for the identities of Athena and Zeus (Venus and Jupiter
respectively), and traces the cataclysmic circumstances of the
goddess' epiphany and war-like behavior to disturbances occasioned by
the appearance of a great comet.

An additional advantage of Velikovsky's thesis is the fact that it is
subject to rejection upon a score of tests. For example, if
Velikovsky's scenario is valid one would expect to find evidence in
the ancient sources that Venus recently bore a comet-like appearance
or moved in a different orbit than its present one; evidence that
planets figured prominently in ancient systems of religion; and
physical evidence of recent upheavals involving the planets Venus and
Jupiter (in the case of Venus, for example, one might expect to find
internal sources of heat, a volatile geology, an unstable and perhaps
still escaping atmosphere, etc). Should Velikovsky's thesis fail any
of these decisive tests it should rightfully be rejected.

A good deal of evidence has already been adduced with regards to the
first two propositions, with much of it being favorable towards
Velikovsky's hypothesis. _12_. With regard to the physical evidence
bearing on this issueÑparticularly that which has been gathered by
astronomers and the various space probesÑthe picture is far from
clear. Perhaps it is fair to say, in lieu of further revelations, that
a decisive verdict is not yet available. _13_.

Equally important, and eminently more amenable to analysis at the
present time, is the question as to whether Velikovsky's hypothesis of
a comet-like Athena/Venus is supported by ancient mythology. Until
recently this question had scarcely been addressed. _14_. It goes
without saying, however, that if Velikovsky's reconstruction of the
events surrounding the birth of Athena is valid other cultures can
hardly have failed to witness the same celestial events and thus one
might expect to find confirmation of Venus' "infancy" and cometary
past in the mythology of other peoples, particularly in the traditions
surrounding the great goddesses. Despite repeated claims to the
contrary, there is mounting evidence that Velikovsky may have been on
the right track after all. _15_.

We seek at the outset of our investigation some indication that Athena
was associated with cometary imagery. We begin with a consideration of
several epithets of the great goddess, it being well known that such
epithets frequently retain archaic elements of cult which have
otherwise been lost or obscured with the passage of time.

_PALLAS ATHENA _

One of the most popular epithets of Athena was Pallas. Indeed the
greatest of all Greek goddesses could sometimes be invoked under this
name alone, a fact which prompted Guthrie to remark:

Pallas Athene is so familiar a title of the goddess from Homer onwards
that this second name seems to acquire more than the quality of an
epithet. The one is as much her name as the other. _16_.

Pallas is generally referred to an ancient Greek word meaning "maiden"
or "youth." _17_.The Latin word _pellex_ and the Hebrew word
_pallesh/pillegesh_, both meaning "young girl or concubine," would
appear to trace to the same root. _18_.

Any discussion of Pallas Athena must take into consideration the
peculiar traditions surrounding the palladium. According to the
unanimous testimony of the Greeks themselves, the palladium was an
image of the goddess as warrior (the word palladium is the diminutive
of Pallas) said to have fallen from heaven as a meteor-like object.
_19_. Palladia formed sacred objects in various ancient cities, their
presence allegedly vouchsafing the security of the city, as in the
famous legend surrounding Troy. Of the palladium Nilsson observed:

It is hidden in a secret place in the interior of the citadel or
palace and is the pledge of the welfare and existence of the town,
which cannot be conquered, so long as the palladium is not carried
away. _20_.

If the palladium symbolized Pallas Athena, how then are we to
understand the report that the image/goddess fell to earth as a
meteor-like object? That this is no incidental element of Athena's
cult is obvious. All of the various palladia mentioned by Greek
writers were said to have fallen from heaven, as was the sacred image
of Athena Polias. _21_. Indeed, a tradition as old as Pherekydes (c.
5th century BCE) explained the palladia as palta, "things hurled or
cast down from heaven." _22_.

Could it be that these archaic traditions hint that Pallas Athena was
once believed to have fallen from heaven as a falling star of some
sort? Was Velikovsky right after all? Velikovsky himself observed that
heaven-hurled images were conspicuous in the worship of the great
goddesses. Stones said to have fallen from heaven formed prominent
objects in the sacred shrines of the Cyprian Aphrodite, Tyrian
Astarte, Phrygian Cybele, Ephesian Artemis, and Taurian Diana. _23_.

Meteor-like objects are also present in ancient rituals associated
with the great goddesses. The following is one scholar's description
of a Phoenician rite commemorating Astarte's celebrated fall from
heaven:

It was believed that once a year the goddess descended into the pool
as a fiery falling star, or that on solemn feast days, when people
assembled in the shrine, a fire-globe was lit in the vicinity of the
temple and probably rolled down into the pool. _24_.

What is implicit in the Greek legend of the fall of the sacred image
of Athena is here made explicit: it is the goddess herself who falls
from the sky as a comet-like object. Nor is Astarte the only goddess
about whom such traditions are preserved. On the other side of the
Atlantic the Iroquois reported that the goddess NokomisÑthe famed
grandmother of HiawathaÑlikewise fell from heaven as a comet. _25_.

The fall of the goddess from heaven, in fact, is a widespread
mythological motive. _26_. In Mesoamerica, for example, it was
reported that Xochiquetzal-the Aztec Aphrodite-was expelled from
heaven and fell to earth in demon-like form. _27_. The Phrygians,
similarly, related the fall of Semele. _28_. In India it was the fall
of Durga/Kali that occurred under cataclysmic circumstances. _29_.

Noteworthy here is the fact that numerous epithets and attributes of
the great goddesses-hitherto mysterious and unexplained-receive
immediate clarification if indeed the cataclysmic fall of the great
goddess occurred in the form of a comet-like object. An epithet of
Semele, _tanuetheira_-"with the stretched out hair"-has an obvious
significance if a comet was the source of reference. _30_.

The myth of the goddess' fall from heaven-like most great
myths-becomes subject to rationalization at the hands of poets and
chroniclers. The setting is localized and the goddess humanized to the
point where the celestial source of the imagery is scarcely
recognizable. The tragic leap of Aphrodite in the wake of the death of
Adonis is an example of this development. _31_. A similar tale is
associated with Aglauros, an alter-ego of Athena, who is said to have
gone mad and leapt to her death amidst the mysterious circumstances
attending the birth of the divine child Erichthonius. _32_.

Attempts to rationalize the fall of the goddess notwithstanding, it is
still possible to find evidence of the goddess' original celestial
nature amongst these later accounts as well. Consider Hyginus' account
of Electra, where the cometary nature of the falling goddess is stated
in unambiguous terms:

But after the conquest of Troy and the annihilation of its
descendants...overwhelmed by pain she separated from her sisters and
settled in the circle named arctic, and over long periods she would be
seen lamenting, her hair streaming. That brought her the name of
comet. _33_.

It is Electra's intimate relation to the Trojan palladium, however,
that warrants our attention. Some chroniclers make the palladium her
gift; others state that during the fall of Troy Electra clung to the
celebrated image. _34_. Yet another tradition has Electra cast down to
earth from Olympus together with the palladium. _35_. Such traditions,
in all likelihood, reflect an attempt-only minimally successful-to
distinguish between Electra and the comet-like palladium. In the
original myth the goddess and the comet-like palladium were one and
the same.

At this point the question arises: Granted that the Greeks chose a
meteoric stone-the palladiumÑto symbolize Athena, why is it that the
palladium was said to represent the goddess as a warrior?

_ATHENA: WARRIOR-GODDESS_

It was Hesiod who described Athena as "dread rouser of battle-strife,
unwearied leader of the host, a mistress who delights in the clamorous
cry of war and battle and slaughter." _36_. Far from being an isolated
element, Athena's unusual proclivity for war is fundamental to the
numen of the goddess. Homer likewise depicts Athena as a great
warrior. Indeed on more than one occasion within the _Iliad_ she even
bests Ares in battle, and after one such encounter Homer makes the
humbled war-god refer to Athena by the epithet of Aphron, "crazed,
frantic". _37_.

Vital to the proper interpretation of the myth of Athena's birth is
the datum that she assumed a war-like form immediately upon expulsion
from Zeus' head. Kerenyi emphasized this point in his essay on Athena:
"It was precisely at her epiphany from the head of the father that her
quality as a Goddess of war came to the fore." _38_.

According to the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, it was Stesichorus
who first reported that Athena was born dressed with the full panoply
of war. _39_. While this account has unfortunately been lost, the
_Homeric Hymn to Athena_ presents the same general picture: "And
before Zeus the aegis-holder she sprang swiftly from his immortal
head, brandishing a sharp-pointed spear." _40_. Athena's bellicose
inception is also apparent in Pindar: "Athena sprang from the skull of
Zeus with an earth-shattering battle-cry, so that the heavens shook
and the mother earth." _41_.

That incongruities abound with every aspect of this scenario is
obvious and thus it is understandable that some commentators have been
disinclined to attempt an explanation of the imagery, opting instead
to dismiss it as poetic metaphor. _42_. Athena's manner of birth is
quite impossible from an anatomical standpoint, of course, a fact
which would be readily apparent to any culture, however primitive. Why
then would one of the most civilized of cultures preserve such a
prepostrous tale about their greatest god and goddess? _43_. Nor are
females of much use as warriors, particularly so newborn babes. One
can only be dismayed as to why a people as proficient at war as the
Greeks would relate such a ludicrous tale about their favorite
goddess.

It is probable that the Greeks were trying to describe via the medium
of myth what was for them an ineffable reality, a fundamental
cosmological truth. It is, after all, the very essence of religion
that sacred "truths" take precedence over day to day reality and
common sense. It is the Sumerologist Thorkild Jacobsen, perhaps, who
has written most eloquently upon this aspect of ancient religion:

Basic to all religion...is we believe, a unique confrontation with a
power not of this world. Rudolf Otto called this confrontation
'Numinous' and analyzed it as the experience of a mysterium tremendum
et fascinasum, a confrontation with a 'Wholly Other' outside of normal
experience and indescribable in its terms; terrifying, ranging from
sheer demonic dread through awe to sublime majesty; and fascinating,
with irresistable attraction, demanding unconditional allegiance. It
is the positive human response to this experience in thought (myth and
theology) and action (cult and worship) that constitutes religion.
_44_.

It is while searching for a clue to the numinous nature of Athena's
epiphany that Velikovsky's thesis of a comet-like Athena becomes of
the utmost relevance, for it is undeniable that the appearance of a
comet has an unusually powerful effect upon the human mind,
unrivalled, perhaps, by that of any other natural phenomenon.
Jacobsen's criteria of fascination, terror, and dread are all equally
appropriate as descriptions of the behavior which may be occasioned by
the appearance of a brilliant comet. To take but one well-known
example, as recently as 1528 a learned doctor could report of the
appearance of a comet: "The comet was so horrible and vulgar that some
died of fear and others fell sick." _45_.

Athena's appearance as a comet-like body, moreover, is inherent in the
imagery of the goddess as warrior. Consider Athena's debut epiphany in
the _Iliad_:

Like a blazing star which the lord of heaven shoots forth, bright and
scattering sparks all around, to be a portent for sailors or for some
great army of men, so Pallas Athena shot down to earth and leapt into
the throng. _46_.

Note further that the appearance of Athena's fiery star, according to
Homer, is said to portend war, a superstition specifically associated
with the appearance of a comet by peoples throughout the ancient
world.

Is it possible that the occasion commemorated in the myth of the birth
of Athena was the spectacular "birth" of a great "comet", and that the
peculiar imagery of the Greek myth-the shaking of heaven and earth,
etc.-preserved a literal account of man's confrontation with a "power
not of this world"? A comparative analysis of the myth of the
war-goddess suggests that such was indeed the case.

_INANNA, ISHTAR, AND ASTARTE _

Athena's appearance as a warring goddess, bizarre and wholly unnatural
as it is, conforms to a universal archetype. This fact has rarely been
appreciated by scholars despite the fact that nearly every ancient
goddess of comparable stature to Athena was described in like manner.
_47_. In Greece alone Hera, Hekate, and Aphrodite were represented as
armed warriors. _48_.

The ancient Near East provides a wealth of goddesses distinguished by
their propensity for war. Kapelrud offered the following summary in
his study of the war-goddess:

Both the Amarna letters and the Ras Shamra texts, together with
numerous material of different kinds, show that a great, violent
goddess, who was at the same time goddess of war and battle and
goddess of sexual love, was a dominating figure in worship all over
the Middle East, from Anatolia in the North to Egypt in the South,
from Mesopotamia in the East to Phoenicia in the West. In the East
this goddess was Ishtar, who represented both the Sumerian Inanna and
the Semitic Ishtar. She was also found in other parts of the
territory, but in the West, and especially in the North-West, Anat was
dominating. In addition came Ashtart, while Asherah was more similar
to the ancient Sumerian Inanna. This is only a rough sketch of the
situation; in details the picture was much richer and more varied
_.49_.

The Sumerian Inanna, as we have documented elsewhere, offers an
especially vivid portrait of the warring goddess. Witness the
following description from an early hymn:

Loud Thundering Storm...You make the heavens tremble and the earth
quake. Great Priestess, who can soothe your troubled heart? You flash
like lightning over the highlands; you throw your firebrands across
the earth. Your deafening commandÉsplits apart great mountains. _50._

As this passage illustrates, a recurring motive finds the rampage of
the warring goddess to be accompanied by widespread destruction. Such
is the case in _The Exaltation to Inanna _for example:

Devastatrix of the lands, you are lent wings by the storm...you fly
about the nation. At the sound of you the lands bow down. Propelled on
your own wings you peck away at the land. With a roaring storm you
roar; with Thunder you continually thunder. _51_.

Sumerologists have documented that Inanna's war-like nature is present
in the oldest examples of her cult, as is her identification with the
planet Venus. _52_. No attempt to connect the warrior-aspect of the
goddess with the celestial body has yet been made however. _53._

Inanna finds a close analogue in the Semitic goddess Ishtar, an early
epithet of whom was _sa melultasa tuquptu_, she "whose delight is
battle." _54_. An Akkadian hymn attests to the fear inspired by this
formidable goddess:

Ruler of weapons, arbiter of the battle! Framer of all decrees, wearer
of the crown of dominion! O lady, majestic is thy rank, over all the
gods is it exalted! Thou art the cause of lamentation, thou sowest
hostility among brethren who are at peace!...Thou art strong, O lady
of victory, thou canst violently attain my desire. O Gutira, who art
girt with battle, who art clothed with terrorÉTerrible in the fight,
one who cannot be opposed, strong in the battle! O whirlwind, that
roarest against the foe and cuttest off the mighty. _55._

A Babylonian hymn to Ishtar invokes her as the torch of heaven: "O
brilliant one, torch of heaven and earth, light the battle, O
firebrand which is kindled against the enemy, which brings about the
destruction of the furious, O gleaming one, Ishtar, assembler of the
host." _56_. Explicit here in the guise of the torch of heaven is
Ishtar as a personification of the planet Venus. _57_. The description
of Ishtar as assembler of the host, moreover, recalls Hesiod's
description of Athena as "unwearied leader of the host, a mistress who
delights in the clamorous cry of war and battle and slaughter." _58_.

Generally considered to be a Canaanite counterpart to Ishtar, the
far-reaching cult of Astarte is best known, perhaps, by scattered
references in the Old Testament. _59_. Of her war-like nature there
can be no doubt, Astarte being represented as a warrior in Egyptian
and Ugaritic iconography alike. _60_. Astarte's bellicose nature is
also discernable in Ugaritic myth, where-in the battle between Baal
and Yam-it is she (Ashtart) who is associated with the splitting of
Yam's skull. _61_.

Astarte's identification with the planet Venus is well-known, of
course, and is not unexpected given her relationship to the Akkadian
Ishtar.62.

_ANAT _

One of the most gruesome figures in Ugaritic myth is the
warrior-goddess Anat, whose cult spread throughout much of the ancient
Near East as attested by Biblical references to her cult (it was Anat
who was invoked by Jeremiah as "Queen of Heaven.") _63_. In one of the
Ras Shamra texts Anat was described as follows:

Behold, Anat battles in the plain...She slaughters the people of the
sea shore. She destroys the people of the sunrise...She ties the heads
around the back [of her neck]. She binds the hands in her girdle. She
wades up to her knees in the blood of soldiers, up to her waist in the
gore of heroes. _64_.

Still more repulsive is the myth in which Anat is represented as
cannibalizing her brother Baal. _65_. Yet another prominent episode
depicts Anat's slaughter of Mot:

With a sword she doth cleave him. With fan she doth winnow him, with
fire she doth burn him. With hand-mill she grinds him. In the field
she doth sow him. _66_.

As was the case with regard to the epiphany of Inanna, the appearance
of Anat is associated with widespread destruction. The battle-dance of
the goddess, for example, is said to have shook the foundations of the
earth: "The Maiden Anat rejoices, stamps with her foot so that the
earth quakes." _67_.

Kapelrud summarized the cult of Anat as follows:

She was a goddess who ravaged in blood, who was the sign and symbol of
battle, fighting, blood and death. This is so intensely emphasized in
the passages translated above that the intention of the poet must
surely have been to give the impression that this was the dominating
feature in the goddess. And writing so he did not allow himself any
poetical freedom, he did not paint the picture of Anat according to
his own will and wish. He was in the service of the cult and belief of
Ugaritic men, and wrote only what was known by them all and common
traditions and belief. This was how they knew the goddess Anat,
triumphantly laughing when wading in blood _.68_.

Kapelrud's observations on the sanctity of the traditions of the war
goddess are well taken, and might be applied with equal force to the
Greek traditions of the birth of Athena, or to Homer's comparison of
the warring Athena with a comet-like object.

Anat, significantly, was identified with Athena in Cyprian
inscriptions dating from the fifth century BCE. _69_. This
identification confirms that the early Greeks recognized the close
affinities pertaining between the respective war-goddesses. That Anat
has been identified with the planet Venus by leading scholars is also
relevant to the discussion at hand. _70_.

_KALI_

The Hindu Kali offers a particularly powerful example of the
warrior-goddess. _71_.Descriptions of the goddess are almost uniformly
repulsive:

Although Kali is sometimes said to be beautifulÉHindu texts referring
to the goddess are nearly unanimous in describing her as terrible in
appearance and as offensive and destructive in her habits. Her hair is
disheveled, her eyes red and fierce, she has fangs and a long lolling
tongue, her lips are often smeared with blood, her breasts are long
and pendulous, her stomach is sunken, and her figure is generally
gaunt. She is naked but for several characteristic ornaments: a
necklace of skulls or freshly cut heads, a girdle of severed arms, and
infant corpses as earrings. _72._

The name Kali, although first attested in the sixth century A. D.,
would appear to be but an epithet of Devi/Parvati. _73_. Being
separated from the cult of Athena by about a thousand years and from
that of Inanna by several thousand years, it is not surprising that
the cult of Kali reflects a certain degenerative specialization, her
demonic aspect almost completely displacing any positive or maternal
elements. In this respect Kali might be compared to the Greek Hekate,
whom in ancient times was a multidimensional goddess comparable to
Athena, yet whom eventually became relegated to a goddess of witches
and ghouls. _74_.

Archaic motives can be discovered about Kali nevertheless. Thus Eaton
points out that Kali wears a necklace of skulls and a girdle of
severed hands, reminiscent of Anat's attire in Ugaritic lore. _75_.
And Kali's dance, like that of Anat, shakes the foundations of the
world:

The dread Mother dances naked in the battlefield. Her lolling tongue
burns like a red flame of fire. Her dark tresses fly in the sky,
sweeping away sun and stars. Red streams of blood run from her
cloud-black limbs. And the world trembles and cracks under her tread.
_76_.

It is curious that no one seems to have considered the possibility
that the respective dances of Kali and Anat could have had the effects
described; i.e., that they threatened the very foundations of heaven
and earth. Can it be a coincidence that the same tumultuous effects
distinguished the epiphany of Athena? Recall again the account of
Pindar: "Athena sprang from the skull of Zeus with an earth-shattering
battle-cry, so that the heavens shook and the mother earth." _77_.

That Athena's epiphany did in fact constitute a war dance is attested
by the report of ancient chroniclers who credited Athena with having
invented the pyrrhic, a much celebrated war dance. _78_. Legend has it
that Athena danced this dance immediately upon her birth from Zeus.
_79_.

Athena's earth-shaking dance upon deliverance from the head of
Zeus-however it is to be interpretedÑoffers a striking analogue to the
battle dances of Kali and Anat. _80_. But we need not rest content
with this observation, one which, after all, many conventional
scholars might accept. The fact is that the cataclysmic imagery
associated with the goddess' dance finds a ready explanation in the
imagery of the comet, the latter being specifically associated with
earthquakes and world-threatening disaster throughout the ancient
world. _81_.

Note, finally, the recurring emphasis in the Hindu texts on the
disheveled hair of the warring goddess. _82_. When it is reported that
Kali's "streaming tresses hang in vast disorder," or that her tresses
blacken the skies, is it not apparent that the imagery of the comet is
once more upon us? _83_. Can it be coincidence that streaming hair and
a tendency to cause eclipses were associated with the appearance of a
comet by ancient peoples the world over?

_THE PRIMEVAL CONFLICT _

In order to understand the myth of the warring goddess it is necessary
to answer the following question: Against whom or what is the goddess'
belligerence directed? This question, rarely asked, is directly
related to another: Was the goddess associated with war simply because
she was favored by a war-like people? Or does the goddess' bellicose
character stem from her participation in a particular war, a
particular event(s) in time? The wealth of evidence bearing on this
issue supports the latter interpretation.

A widespread motive, and one which has yet to receive sufficient
attention from comparative mythologists, is the frequency with which
the warrior-goddess' anger is directed at her father or consort, often
identified as the King of the Gods. Kali, for example, is commonly
represented as trampling upon the prostrate or "dead" body of Shiva.
_84_. This motive appears in the provacative portrait of the goddess
offered by the _Yogini Tantra_ of the 16th century:

Charming with rows of skull-necklesses, with flowing hair...with
lolling tongue, with dreadful voice, with three eyes all red...with
corpses as ear ornamentsÉgirdled with thousands of dead men's hands,
with smiling face, whose countenance is flecked with streams of blood
dripping from the corners of her mouth, whose four arms are adorned
with swordÉwith blood-decked bodyÉmounting upon the corpse of
Shiva...having her left foot upon the corpse. _85_.

While this particular account is relatively recent, the conflict of
Kali and Shiva goes to the very foundations of Hindu religion. Ions
summarizes their primeval confrontation as follows:

Once she gave free rein to her blind lust for destruction nothing
could stop her. On one occasion Shiva himself had to mingle among the
demons whom she was slaughtering and allow himself to be trampled
underfoot in her dance of victory, as this was the only way to bring
her to her senses and save the world from collapse. She was in this
sense said to have subdued her own husband, and to this she owes her
name, Kali, 'conquerer of Time.' Devi, goddess of fertility, had
conquered Shiva, who as the invincible destroyer was equated with
Time. _86_.

The murder of Shiva is implicit in the Tamil cult of warring-goddess
as well. _87_. Shulman summarized these myths as follows: "The Tamil
myths of Mahisasura [i.e., Shiva] clearly describe a violent
confrontation between the dark goddess and her husband, in the course
of which the male is slain."88. Indeed, according to Shulman, the myth
of the goddess' conquest of Shiva/Mahisasura constitutes "the
archetypal myth of the goddess in India." _89_.

_NEAR EASTERN PARALLELS _

Violence also characterizes the relationship of the great goddess and
her father/consort in Near Eastern mythology. In Ugaritic lore, for
example, Anat threatens her father ElÑthe King of the GodsÑwith
physical violence should he fail to comply with her demand to punish
Aqhat:

[With] the might [of my] lon[g hand, I'll verily smash] thy pate. Make
[thy gray hair] flow [with blood. The gray hair of] thy [beard] with
gore. _90_.

That the same threat is directed at El in another context attests to
its formulaic character, and hence, presumably, to the antiquity of
this motive:

He will listen to me, El [my father]. He will listen to me and [...]
I'll trample him like a lamb on the ground, I'll make his gray beard
flow with blood. His gray beard with gore. _91_.

Sumerian tradition likewise finds the warring-goddess threatening the
King of the Gods. There Inanna is reported to have directed some form
of assault at her father An:

She was making heaven tremble, the earth shake. Inanna was destroying
the cowpens, burning the sheepfolds, crying 'Let us berate An, king of
the gods'. _92_.

Notice here that Inanna's assault of An-like Kali's dance upon the
corpse of Shiva-is marked by a shaking of the foundations of heaven
and earth.

It is in the Egyptian sources-where the rampage of the war-goddess
Hathor is directed against her father Re-that this motive finds its
clearest expression. There, however, there is an interesting twist:
the warring goddess takes the form of a fire-spewing Eye of serpentine
form! Best known, perhaps, is the passage in an Egyptian tale known as
the _Destruction of Mankind_, where Ra dispatches Hathor to wage war
upon his enemies:

Let go forth thine Eye, let it destroy for thee those who blaspheme
with wickedness, not an eye can precede it in resistance...when it
goeth forth in the form of Hathor. Went forth then this goddess, she
slew mankind on the mountain. _93_.

That the goddess' wrath was also directed against the King of the Gods
is confirmed by several passages in the _Coffin Texts_: "What is the
Sacred Eye at the time of its wrath?...It is the right eye of Re when
it was wroth with him after he had sent it on an errand." _94_.Other
passages speak of the hair raised from the Eye, a striking image if
the reference was to a comet: "I raised up the hair from the Sacred
Eye at the time of its wrath." _95_.

Egyptian ritual likewise found Hathor invoked as a warring Eye, the
liturgical instructions of which offer explicit testimony that the
goddess emerged from the body of Ra: "The cobra-snake of Re...who came
forth from him...who burns the enemy of Re with her heatÉThe Eye of
ReÉShe is the flaming goddess." _96_. A similar invocation is the
following: "Hathor, great lady...the Eye of Re, lady of heaven,
mistress of all the gods, the daughter of Re, who came forth from his
body." _97_.

Most significant, perhaps, is the tradition that the departure of the
Eye-goddess signalled disaster for the sun-god and his celestial
kingdom. This tradition is the basis for numerous passages in the
_Pyramid_ and _Coffin Texts_, where the departure of the Eye
constitutes a world-threatening cataclysm: "I am the fiery Eye of
Horus which went forth terrible, Lady of slaughterÉI am indeed she who
shoots." _98_. Other passages recount the fire and devastation which
accompanied the Eye's rampage: "The great fire has gone forth against
you from within the Eye;" _99._ "Its flame is to the sky." _100_.

Anthes has commented on this curious aspect of the mythology of the
Eye: "The characteristic of the Eye appears to be that its removal
from the highest god means disturbance, while its return means
pacification and the restitution of order." _101_.

The talismanic significance of the Hathorian Eye, needless to say,
bears a striking resemblance to Greek superstitions surrounding the
comet-like palladium.

_THE DEATH OF ZEUS _

Athena's war-like epiphany, as we have seen, exactly parallels the
destructive rampages associated with Inanna, Anat, and Kali. Inasmuch
as Athena's rampage accompanied her birth from Zeus, one would expect
to find hints that she, too, directed an assault upon the King of the
GodsÑin this case her father-precipitating, perhaps, his death. More
than one scholar, in fact, has arrived at this very opinion. Burkert,
citing the tradition whereby Zeus' head was first split with an axe to
allow for the delivery of Athena, notes that this alone implies the
death of the King of Gods: "ThisÑnever expressedÑelement of patricide
in the birth myth leads back to the apocryphal Pallas myth." _102_.

Here Burkert is referring to the curious tradition preserved by
Clement of Alexandria and other early chroniclers whereby Athena is
said to have murdered her father, there called by the name of Pallas.
_103_. Described as a winged goatish giant, Pallas met his demise
while attempting to ravage his more famous daughter. Isolated
fragments, unfortunately, are all that remain of this intriguing myth.

Several scholars, Kerenyi among them, have expressed the opinion that
the Pallas traditions preserve archaic elements of Athena's cult. Of
such traditions he observed:

They contradict the Homeric religion and the whole classical tradition
so decisively that they cannot be rejected as groundless. They must
rest on archaic elements of the Athene religion that have been
transmitted to us only through accidental utterances. _104_.

Another of these "accidental utterances" maintains that Athena
stripped Pallas of the aegis, a goat-skin with marvelous powers (such
as the ability to generate lightning) that was to become one of the
standard symbols of Athena. _105_. In Homer, however, the traditional
bearer of the aegis is Zeus. _106_. This fact, if nothing else, should
alert us to the possibility that Pallas was but a pseudonym for Zeus
himself, and his strange murder at the hands of his daughter merely a
degenerative version of the archetypal myth of the war-goddess which
Greek chroniclers later saw fit to censor.

_ON THE BIRTH OF VENUS_

Our discussion of the myth of the war-goddess has confirmed the
insight of Velikovsky that the imagery associated with the birth of
Athena referred in some manner to a celestial disturbance occasioned
by the appearance of a comet-like body. That that body was in fact the
planet Venus during a comet-like phase is deducible from Athena's
resemblance to the various war-goddesses of the ancient Near East,
most of whom were explicitly identified with that planet. This
evidence alone offers substantial support for a significant portion of
Velikovsky's thesis in _Worlds in Collision_.

A central theme of _Worlds in Collision _held that the myth of
Athena's birth commemorated the physical birth of the planet Venus
from the giant planet Jupiter, an event Velikovsky believed to be
reflected in ancient myths the world over. Until recently, however,
this point was to remain unsubstantiated, at which time it was to
receive some support by the finding that a nearly identical story
existed in both Egypt and Mesoamerica whereby the planet Venus
suddenly appeared (i.e. was "born") in the wake of cataclysmic
circumstances associated with the death of the ancient sun-god (In
Egypt the dying god was Osiris, in Mexico Quetzalcoatl, and the
circumstances surrounding their tragic deaths formed the focal point
of the religions of the respective cultures). _107_. The Mesoamerican
scholar Nigel Davies, upon acknowledging that this was the original
significance of the myth of Quetzalcoatl's death and transfiguration,
nevertheless objected that such an interpretation is hardly to be
entertained:

"At some point in the account, history ends and legend begins, unless
one is really to believe that the planet Venus was actually formed
from his body and had not previously existed!" _108_.

This was not the only puzzle to emerge from our study of the sacred
traditions of Egypt and Mexico, however. A common and seemingly
inexplicable belief of both ancient cultures identified the new-born
Venus with the "soul" or "heart-soul" of the dying god. _109_.
Brundage summarized the Mexican tradition of the apotheosis of
Quetzalcoatl's heart-soul as follows: "The god's heart, like a great
spark, flies up to become a new and splendid divinity, the Morning
Star." _110_.

While the astro-physical details of the circumstances attending the
mythological "birth" of the planet Venus are subject to debate and
further clarification, this much is clear: (1) the birth of Venus does
indeed occupy a central position in the sacred traditions of more than
one ancient people; (2) the identification of Venus as the
"heart-soul" of the ancient sun-god forms a fundamental motive in the
curious mythology surrounding this planet. _111_. It stands to reason,
therefore, that if the birth of Athena actually had to do with the
"birth" (or initial appearance) of the planet Venus, as Velikovsky
maintained, a logical question to ask at this stage of our inquiry is
whether Athena's "birth" is understandable as the departure of the
"heart-soul" of Zeus?

_THE KORE_

That Athena was intimately associated with early Greek conceptions of
the soul is indicated by several lines of evidence. One notes, for
example, the ancient tradition that Athena had provided the soul to
the men created from clay by Prometheus. _112_. Hesiod, similarly,
credits Athena with having first breathed "soul" into men. _113_.

The most conclusive evidence bearing on this issue comes upon analysis
of the word _kore_, an archaic epithet applied to Athena. _114_. The
antiquity of the word seems assured by its appearance in the names of
rivers, lakes, and other features of landscape, often in conjunction
with the worship of Athena. _115_. The same conclusion is supported by
the appearance of _kore_ in the nomenclature of Greek rituals. _116_.

Numerous scholars have expressed the opinion that the numen of the
_kore_-however it is to be understood-is fundamental to the mystery of
the cult of the great goddess. _117_. The most common meaning of _kore_
is "maiden" or "girl", typically understood as signifying the youthful
aspect of Athena, in contrast to her maternal aspect, apparent
elsewhere. _118_. Such an interpretation is no doubt part of the
story, being in complete accordance with the image of Athena as the
warrior-maiden, the goddess elsewhere being invoked by the epithets
Parthenos and Pallas, words of similar meaning. _119_. It is possible
to penetrate still further into the original significance of the
epithet _Kore_, however.

An important clue comes from the fact that in modern parlance the word
core connotes the "heart" or innermost part of an object, as in the
core of an apple or the core of the earth. That this meaning was
inherent in the ancient Greek conception of the goddess as _kore_ is
made probable upon consideration of several related words. For
example, a Homeric term for "heart" is _ker_. _120_. The root _ker_,
in turn, is found in the Greek word _kardia_, which, like the Latin
word _cor_, means "heart". It is from the latter word that the English
word core apparently derives. _121_.

That there was in fact a Greek goddess by the name of _Ker_ would seem
to prove beyond all doubt that the goddess as a personification of the
heart was a religious reality, and renders it likely that the words
_kore_, _ker_, and _cor_ are related. The goddess Ker, significantly,
appears as a harbinger of death and destruction, and is represented as
haunting the battlefields while dressed in blood-drenched garb, all of
which suggests that the spectre of the war-goddess is once more among
us.

Now it is impossible to dissociate the concept of the goddess as the
heart from her relationship to the soul. The Greek word _ker_
preserves both meanings, "heart" and "soul", for example. _122_. Nor
is the phenomenon whereby one word signifies both heart and soul
peculiar to the Greeks, many ancient peoples using the same word to
connote the heart as well as the soul. _123_. Here Gaster reports: "In
many cultures, the heart is believed to be the seat of the 'soul' or
vital essence." _124_.

Also relevant here is the word _kar_, signifying "lock of hair."
_125_. Locks of hair, as is well-known, formed a common offering in
Greek cult in general, and in funereal cults in particular. _126_.
Athena herself was the recipient of such offerings at Arcadia and
Crete, where she was invoked as Koria and Koresia respectively. _127_.

That _kar_ is cognate with _ker_-"heart", "soul"-is obvious and is
reminiscent of the widespread belief whereby a lock of hair signified
the soul or vital powers. _128_. That similar beliefs existed among
the early Greeks may be deduced from several peculiar myths which have
survived, more than one of which attributes the murder of a great king
to the removal of a lock of hair wherein resided his soul (and/or
vital powers).

The best known example of this motive features the traitress Scylla,
who secures the death of Nisus by stealing the purple lock of hair
upon which his life and kingdom depended. _129_. A similar deed is
elsewhere attributed to the goddess Aphrodite-here provided with the
epithet _Comaetho_-who is said to have brought about the demise of
Pterelaus by stealing the lock of hair which contained his soul.
_130_. Vestiges of this motive are discernable in the mythus of Athena
as well, witness the Tegean tradition that Athena presented one of
their ancient kings with a lock of Medusa's hair which rendered that
city impregnable (in the original myth, according to leading scholars,
Athena was the Medusa). _131_. The talismanic significance here
accorded the lock of hair is identical to that accorded the comet-like
palladium.

_THE EYE GODDESS_

An interesting use of the word _kore_ finds it employed in the sense
of "pupil in the eye." This sense of the word conforms to a widespread
conception whereby the pupil is envisaged as a miniature being of some
sort. This idea is most familiar, perhaps, from several Biblical
passages in which the pupil is referred to as the daughter, youth, or
apple in the eye. _132_.

Egyptian sources likewise compare the pupil of the eye to a maiden or
boy. The word _hun-t_, for example, means both "pupil of the eye" and
"maiden". _133_.The same belief is apparent in a fascinating vignette
from the _Rig Veda_: "The maiden was born; the eye-ball fell, and the
plants sprung up through the magic deed." _134._

Commentators have typically sought to explain such conceptions by
assuming that ancient peoples imagined a tiny girl or boy as residing
within the eye in order to account for the reflection of the pupil.
Mercer, for example, offered the following opinion with regard to the
Egyptian symbolism:

'The damsel who is in the eye of Horus' is an example of an almost
universal idea of associating the pupil of the human eye with a human
being, preferably a young woman, a maiden, a damsel (cf. Latin
pupilla, 'damsel'), for when one stands in the presence of another he
sees himself reflected in the pupil of the eyes of the person before
whom he stands. It was merely a step farther to identify the pupil as
a damsel. _135_.

It is our opinion that Mercer's interpretation only scratches the
surface of the symbolism of the kore/maiden as pupil of the eye. There
is abundant evidence, for example, that the pupil was associated with
ancient conceptions of the soul: "Widespread also is the belief that
the soul resides in the pupil of the eye." _136_. So wrote Theodore
Gaster.

Jan Bremmer speculated that the word _kore_ may have meant at once
"maiden" and "soul":

A number of peoples have thought the free soul resided in the eye in
the form of a homunculus. This idea could have existed in early
Greece, but we have only two testimonies for psyche departing from the
eye and they both date from the later Roman empire. However, the
double meaning of kore as 'girl' and 'pupil of the eye' may be a
survival of this belief. _137_.

Kirby Smith was more adamant with regard to the possibility of a
relationship between the kore/maiden and soul:

Such designations of the pupil as kore, pupa, pupula, pupilla, i.e.,
the little lass, the mannikin, das mannelein, though easily explained
by a different theory in the wisdom of a later age, undoubtedly go
back to the time when they were applied in a literal sense to the soul
which was seen in the man's eye. _138_.

According to Smith, the custom of placing coins on the eyes of the
dead originated in the attempt to prevent the soul from escaping and
haunting the house. Smith concluded his analysis by observing that the
belief that eyes represented the windows of the soul is hardly a
modern conception, "but is repeated or implied in all languages and
all periods." _139_.

The researches of Gaster, Bremmer, and Smith render it likely that
there was an intimate relationship between the goddess as Kore
"maiden, pupil" and the goddess as Ker "heart/soul", and suggest that
Athena's epithet had a significance hitherto overlooked.

_ATHENA KORUPHAGENES_

Hesiod-the earliest author to narrate the birth of Athena-joins Pindar
and the author of the _Homeric Hymn to Athena_ in making the goddess
spring directly from the head of Zeus: "And out of his own head he
gave birth to the owl-eyed Triton-born." _140_.Vase paintings and
ancient mythographers add the detail that some divinity-usually
Hephaestus-first split the skull of Zeus with an axe to allow for the
birth of Athena. _141_.

An early epithet of Athena was _koruphagenes_, conventionally rendered
"head-born". _142_. Is it possible that this epithet bears some
relation to Athena's identification as the Kore; i.e., the soul?
Certainly it is significant to find that the early Greeks considered
the head to be a primary seat of the soul. Onians provides abundant
documentation of this belief in _Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle_,
where, upon analysis of ancient Greek conceptions of the soul, it was
observed: "The head was believed to contain the life-soul, the
divinity in each man, his genius." _143._

Closely related to this conception, according to Onians, is the
widespread custom among ancient peoples of splitting or perforating
the skull to release the soul. _144_. This practice, needless to say,
offers a certain parallel to the splitting of Zeus' skull to release
Athena.

Significantly, Onians goes on to document a relation between ancient
ideas of the soul and comets. The most famous example of this belief
occurs in the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid where the great poet makes the
soul of Julius Caesar fly off as a comet:

Belief that the genius, the divine soul that survives, thus manifested
itself in fire in the head would make easier the belief of the common
people at Rome that the 'star with hair' (stella crinita, cometes),
which appeared during the games celebrated soon after the death of
Julius, was the soul of the latterÉThat the departed soul or 'head' of
the emperor was believed thus to ascend to the heavens fitted the
belief that the genius manifested itself in flame and the Stoic belief
that souls passed at death as fire to the heavens. _145_.

The Latins were not alone in comparing comets to souls of great kings.
The fact is that ancient peoples from around the world compared comets
to souls. _146_. American Indians, for example, compared comets to the
souls of the stars. _147_. Among the Polynesian Islanders a comet
signified the flight of the soul, in addition to the death of a king.
_148_. Frazer, in his extensive researches into ancient beliefs, found
that:

"A widespread superstition...associates meteors or falling stars with
the souls of the dead. Often they are believed to be the spirits of
the departed on their way to the other world." _149_.

_EXCURSUS ON VENUS_

If it is admitted that cometary imagery has a part to play in the
earliest cult of Athena, how is it possible to reconcile this evidence
with the ancient appearance of the planet Venus, if indeed Athena's
cult traces to that planet? In order to answer this questionÑand
achieve thereby a satisfactory synthesis of the various motives
discussed thus far-it is necessary to refer briefly to a theory
outlined in previous monographs in this journal. There evidence was
presented that Venus only recently assumed its present orbit. Prior to
that, the Cytherean planet occupied a prominent position within an
unusual celestial configuration associated with the planet Saturn.
_150_.

During the period in question Venus was locked in axial alignment
together with Saturn and the Earth, at some point between the two
planets. From the vantage point of the terrestrial skywatcher, Venus
would have appeared to rest squarely in the middle of the massive
planet Saturn. It was this axial location of Venus, in our opinion,
that led it to be envisaged as the innermost portion of the body of
Saturn (the ancient sun-god), the smaller planet being alternatively
interpreted as the sun-god's "heart", "soul", or Cyclopean eye. It is
by reference to Venus' position within the configuration associated
with Saturn that we would understand the original significance of
Athena as the Kore: the maiden-goddess formed at once the "heart-soul"
and central eye or "pupil" of Zeus (Saturn).

The birth of Athena/Venus, according to the interpretation offered
here, would involve the displacement of Venus from its axial position,
at which time it apparently first became visible as a planetary orb
distinct from Saturn/Zeus (its "parent" body). _151_. For some time
prior to its ultimate displacement, however, the brilliant green orb
of Venus was associated with a luminous tail or plume of celestial
material, interpreted (among other things) as a lock of hair. It was
the severance of this comet-like "lock of hair", if the ancient myths
are to be believed, which marked the ultimate departure of Venus from
Saturn, thereby signalling the "death" of the King of the Gods and
ushering in a period of instability associated with a warring goddess
(Athena/Ker). _152_.

The thesis outlined above, in our opinion, will explain much that is
obscure about the cult of Athena. Many of Athena's leading attributes
trace to the appearance of the planet Venus within the aforementioned
configuration, while not a few of her mythical adventures refer to the
movements of that planet upon its expulsion from the near vicinity of
Saturn. A couple of examples will serve to bolster this point.

_GLAUKOPIS_

Among the many hitherto obscure epithets of Athena, _Glaukopis _is one
of the most ancient, being already a favorite of Homer's. _153_. Now
_Glaukopis_ can signify either "owl-eyed," or, more likely, it can
refer to the sea-green color of the goddess' eyes. _154_.From our
vantage point, the epithet is a patent reference to the brilliant
green color traditionally associated with the planet Venus in the
ancient sources, the same planet being compared to a celestial eye by
peoples the world over. _155._

Talbott and I have elsewhere alluded to the curious association
between the planet Venus and the color green or blue-green. _156_. The
Venusian "heart-soul" of Quetzalcoatl, for example, was compared to a
turquoise-green stone. _157_. An early example of this motive occurs
in _The Descent of Inanna_, where, upon the fall of the great goddess
from heaven, Inanna (Venus) is described as hanging upon a great wall
and as being of a putrid green color. _158_.

It is worthy of note, finally, that the name of Venus became
synonymous with the color green in alchemical texts of the Middle
Ages. _159_. The relationship between the planet Venus and the color
green or blue-green is also attested by certain words in various
Indo-European languages. Consider, for example, the Latin word
_venetus_-apparently cognate with Venus-signifying sea-green or blue.
_160._

_ATHENA OF THE THUNDERBOLT_

As the wielder of the death-dealing thunderbolt, Zeus was feared and
revered throughout the Greek world. Aeschylus has preserved for us a
vivid portrait of this awe-inspiring figure: "And threats of flaming
thunderbolts from Zeus with burning wrath to desolate his race, if he
durst disobey." _161_.

Several epithets of the great god refer to his capacity for hurling
lightning, foremost among these being _keraunos_. _162_. Noting the
antiquity of the meteorological imagery surrounding Zeus, Burkert
remarks:

The thunderbolt...is the weapon of Zeus which he alone commands; it is
irresistable, even gods tremble before it, and enemies of the gods are
utterly destroyed when it strikes; in the face of such a manifestation
of divine energy, man stands powerless, terrified and yet marvelling.
_163_.

Confronted with the imagery of Zeus' flaming thunderbolt, conventional
scholars imagine that it traces to ancient man's longstanding fear of
the thunderstorm and its attendant lightning. Analysis of the
traditions surrounding Zeus' thunderbolt, however, suggests a more
radical conclusion.

For example, it is known that many ancient peoples, the Greeks
included, understood the phenomenon of lightning as resulting from the
descent of a stone from heaven. Blinkenberg, in his classic study of
ancient conceptions of lightning, observed: "The lightning, then, is
produced by a stone which shoots down from heaven to earth." _164_.
Meteors, in accordance with this belief, were identified with
thunderstones throughout the ancient world. _165_.

This primitive conception of lightning as a thunderstone or "falling
star" forms a striking parallel to the Greek traditions surrounding
the palladia, a point often noted by scholars. Worner, for example, in
his detailed analysis of the mythology associated with palladia,
suggested that the tradition of their being thrown from heaven as
meteor-like objects was best interpreted as the fall of
thunder-stones. _166_. Harrison, also impressed by the resemblance
between palladia and thunderstones, and fully cognizant of the
intimate relation of Athena to palladia, sought to identify that
goddess with the heaven-flung weapon of Zeus:

The palladia have always one characteristic, they are sky-fallen
(diopeteis). They are palta, things hurled, cast down; the lightning
is the hurled fire (palton pyr). Pallas then is but another form of
KeraunosÑthe thunderbolt hurled. _167_.

The analyses of Worner and Harrison are most persuasive, and indeed
there is much to be said for the identification of Pallas Athena with
the thunderbolt of Zeus. Certainly there is no denying that Athena was
very much connected with her father's weapon. Early Greek coins, for
example, showed Athena (as well as Zeus) brandishing thunderbolts.
_168_. Note also the report of Aeschylus that only Athena knew where
Zeus' bolts were hidden. _169_.

Additional support for Harrison's identification of Athena with the
thunderbolt of Zeus comes from the archaic tradition that Zeus could
produce lightning from his eye. This belief is apparent in the
following passage of Aeschylus: "The jealous eye of God hurls the
lightning down." _170_. The same conception is implicit in the
_Bacchae_ of Euripedes: "Unveil the Lightning's eye." _171_. That the
thunderbolt of Zeus proceeded from that god's Cyclopian-eye is also
the explanation, it would seem, of Hesiod's report that Zeus' weapon
was forged by the Kyklopes, the latter being conspicuous for their
central eye. _172_. Such traditions are most significant in light of
Athena's intimate relationship to the eye, reflected in the epithets
_Kore_, _Glaukopis_, _Opthalmitis_, _Gorgopis_, and others.

Numerous scholars have observed that the image of Zeus casting
lightning from his eye correponds to a widespread belief. _173_. In
Hindu tradition, for example, Shiva was said to have been capable of
throwing lightning from his third eye, located in the center of his
head. It is the intimate relationship of Shiva's eye to Devi/Kali,
however, which strikes our attention: It is said to have been a gift
of the great goddess. _174_.

A similar tradition was met with earlier in the mythology surrounding
the Egyptian Ra. There the god's weapon-like Eye was specifically
identified with the warrior goddess Hathor, and analysis of the
various traditions surrounding the fire-spewing Eye supports the
conclusion that a comet was the source of its peculiar imagery. _175._
In short, the correspondence between the respective weapons of Zeus
and Ra would seem to be complete. Each is identifiable with a
comet-like body which, in turn, is identifiable with a warring
goddess.

It is the fundamental identification of Athena/Venus as the eye (
_Kore_)-but also as the "heart-soul" of the ancient god ( _Ker_)-that
allows for the resolution of the mystery of Zeus' fiery thunderbolt.
It was the god's comet-like soul which was hurled across the skies as
a weapon. Hence the apparent relationship between the words _ker_ and
_keraunos_.

_End of Part One._
1. Pliny 2: 22: 89
2. Pindar, _Olympia_ 7: 36
3. A. Athanassaki, _The Homeric Hymns_ (Baltimore, 1976), p. 66.
4. W. Burkert, _Greek Religion_ (Cambridge, 1985), p. 142.
5. J. Harrison, _Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religion and
Themis _(New York, 1962), p. 500.
6. R. Graves, _The Greek Myths_ (New York, 1980), Vol. I, p. 46.
7. L. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ Vol. I (New Rochelle,
1977), p. 263.
8. Quoted in R. Brown, _Semitic Influence in Hellenic Mythology_
(Clifton, 1966), p. 37.
9. H. Rose, _A Handbook of Greek Mythology_ (New York, 1959), p. 108,
dismisses the naturist explanation as an aberration. A similar
opinion was voiced by Burkert, _op cit_., p. 142.
10. Farnell, _op cit_., p. 280.
11. For differing opinions on the Velikovsky debate see S. Talbott,
ed. _Velikovsky Reconsidered _(New York, 1976); D. Goldsmith, ed.
_Scientists Confront Velikovsky_ (New York, 1977); and, most
recently, H. Bauer, _Beyond Velikovsky: The History of a Public
Controversy _(Champaign-Urbana, 1984). For an account of the
controversy from Velikovsky himself see _Stargazers and
Gravediggers_ (New York, 1983). See also the various articles in
KRONOS, SIS Workshop, and AEON.
12. D. Talbott & E. Cochrane, "The Origin of Velikovsky's Comet,"
KRONOS X:I (Fall 1984); "On the Nature of Cometary Symbolism,"
KRONOS XI:I (Fall 1985); "When Venus was a Comet," KRONOS XII:I
(Winter 1987). See also J. Sammer, "An Ancient Name for Venus,"
KRONOS VI: 2 (Winter, 1981).
13. For conflicting opinions on this issue see Bauer, _op cit_.; and
S. Talbott, _op cit_. See also the valuable little pamphlet by
Shane Mage entitled _Velikovsky and his Critics_ (Grand Haven,
1978).
14. The first scholar to address the mythological basis of
Velikovsky's theory in any depth appears to have been Dwardu
Cardona, with his "Child of Saturn" series, which appeared in
serialized form in KRONOS beginning in 1981. See also B. Newgrosh,
"The Case for Catastrophe in Historical Times," KRONOS XI: 1
(Fall, 1985); A. Isenberg, "Devi and Venus," KRONOS II: 1 (1976),
pp. 89-103.
15. In "On the Nature of Cometary Symbolism," _op cit_., for example,
Talbott and I were able to document that the ancient traditions
surrounding Venus and comets overlap to a considerable extent. For
example, whatever terminology the ancient skywatchers employed
with reference to cometsó"hair-star", "torch-star", "beard-star",
"dragon-star", "smoking-star", etc.óthe same terminology was
employed for Venus. This evidence alone, we suggested, offers
significant support for Velikovsky's thesis in _Worlds in
Collision_.
16. W. Guthrie, _The Greeks and Their Gods_ (Boston, 1966), p. 108.
17. H. Liddell & R. Scott, _Greek-English Lexikon _(New York, 1897),
p. 1114. See also Guthrie, _op cit_., p. 108. Other early
writersóPlato among themórelate the name Pallas to the root
_pallo_, signifying "to brandish". That there may be something to
this interpretation of the epithet is suggested by the report of
the author of the _Homeric Hymn to Athena,_ who speaks of the
goddess as "brandishing a sharp-pointed spear" immediately upon
her birth from the head of Zeus. See also Burkert's observation:
"The word Pallas remains obscure; it was interpreted sometimes as
Maiden, and sometimes as the weapon-brandishing, but it might
equally have had a non-Greek origin." _op cit._, p. 139.
18. F. Brown & S. Driver & C. Briggs, _A Hebrew and English Lexikon
_(Oxford, 1951), p. 811.
19. See the discussion in Worner, "Palladion," W. Roscher's
_Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechische und romischen Mythologie
_(Hildesheim, 1965), pp. 3413-3450.
20. M. Nilsson, _Minoan-Mycenean Religion_ (New York, 1971), p. 500.
21. Worner, _op cit_., p. 3448; Pausanias I: 26: 6
22. L. Ziehen, "Palladion," RE (Stuttgart, 1893-1940), p. 188. It is
intriguing to speculate, in lieu of the alteration of an initial p
and b in certain languages, about a relationship between the Greek
words _pallo_óthe supposed root of the name Pallasóand _ballo_,
signifying "to throw, cast, hurl," from whence comes the word
_bolis_, a name often applied to meteors, as in the modern word
bolide. Other meanings inherent in the word pallo are "to poise or
sway a missle before it is thrown," "to cast lots," or "to toss
children." The common denominator hereóas revealed also by the
related words _palos_, "the lot cast from a helmet;" _paltos_,
"brandished, hurled;" and _paltako_, "to throw a dart"óseems to be
an emphasis on something held, swung, or thrown.
23. For the various traditions surrounding these ancient shrines see
H. Newton, "The Worship of Meteorites," in Amer. Jour. of Science,
3: 13 (January, 1897), pp. 1-14. See also the discussion in I.
Velikovsky, _Worlds in Collision_ (New York, 1973), pp. 293-295.
24. M. Astour, _Hellenosemitica_ (Leiden, 1967), pp. 115-116.
25. H. Longfellow, _Favorite Poems of Henry Longfellow_ (Garden City,
1947), p. 165. "From the sky a star is falling." It is interesting
to note that immediately prior to her celebrated fall Nokomis had
been swinging from a long vine. Compare this report with the
widespread motive of the hanging or swinging goddess, discussed at
some length in E. Cochrane, "Oedipus," AEON I:6 (1988), pp. 34-36.
26. For numerous examples from the New World see C. Levi-Strauss, _The
Jealous Potter_ (New York, 1988), pp. 133-134.
27. B. Brundage, _The Phoenix of the Western World_ (Norman, 1981), p.
40.
28. Astour, _op cit_., p. 170.
29. V. Ions, _Indian Mythology _(London, 1968), p. 92.
30. J. Ruskin, _The Queen of the Air _(New York, 1887), p. 34. See
also Liddell & Scott, _op cit_., p. 1525.
31. Farnell, _op cit._, p. 650. Here the falling goddess becomes
indistinguishable from the mourning or lamenting goddess, to be
explored at greater length in a future monograph in this series.
32. K. Kerenyi, _Athene: Virgin and Mother_ (Zurich, 1978), p. 126.
For the Greek references see B. Powell, _Athenian Mythology:
Erichthonius and the Three Daughters of Cecrops_ (Chicago, 1976),
pp. 7-9.
33. _De Astronomia_. Some accounts make Electra's fall occur in the
wake of her violation by Zeus. See Graves, _op cit_., Vol. 2, p.
261.
34. Scholiast to Euripedes' _Phoenissae_ 1136. See also A.
Furtwangler, "Electra," in RML (Hildesheim, 1965), _op cit._, p.
1235; Graves, _op cit_., p. 262.
35. _Ibid_., p. 261. < =1>
36. _Theogony_ 924
37. _Iliad_ V:875
38. Kerenyi, _op cit., _p. 22.
39. Farnell, _op cit_., p. 281
40. Athanassakis, _op cit_., p. 66.
41. Pindar, _Olympia_ 7:36
42. This is the approach of Farnell, for example: "It is more natural
to say that, as the Greek imagination dwelt on the great epiphany
of Athena, the poets tended to embellish it with the richest
phraseology, to represent it as a great cosmic incident in which
the powers of heaven and earth were concerned." _op cit_., p. 283.
43. This paradox in Attic thought has often received the attention of
scholars. Price, for example, has stated: "As a logical paradox
Attica and its heart, Athens, the city of the goddess of wisdom
and of the radical philosophers and orators, is one of the
districts richest in irrational beliefs and practices." T. Price,
_Kourotrophos_ (Leiden, 1978), p. 101.
44. T. Jacobsen, _The Treasures of Darkness _(New Haven, 1976), p. 3.
45. Ambroise Pare, quoted in D. Fisher, "Halley Though History," in
_Halley's Comet_ (New York, 1986), p. 47.
46. _Iliad_ 4: 73-79. While this passage has been subject to varying
translationsóthe above is W. Rouse's translation, _The Iliad _(New
York, 1938), p. 49óseveral distinguished scholars have pointed to
a comet as the source of Homer's imagery. See the discussion in W.
Gundel, "Kometen," RE, _op cit._, p. 1145. See also the discussion
of this passage in B. Dietrich, "Divine Epiphanies in Homer,"
Numen 30: 1 (July 1983), p. 56 who translates as follows: "Like a
comet which the son of Kronos, crooked in counsel, sends in a
shower of sparks as a shining portent to sailors and the
widespread army of peoples." Velikovsky, _op cit_, p. 178, and I.
Fuhr, "On Comets, Comet-like Luminous Apparitions and Meteors,"
KRONOS VII: 4 (Summer 1982), p. 54, likewise compared Athena's
descent to a cometary apparition. It was apparently Dio Cassius
78:30:1 who first compared Athena's epiphany to a comet.
47. As an example of the general ignorance pertaining to the
prominence of the warrior-goddess in comparative mythology witness
the statement of M. Nilsson, one of the greatest classical
scholars: "The real war god to whom the Greek states and soldiers
prayed and sacrificed is Athena. Other peoples have usually
assigned this function to a god, and this seems most natural. Even
if a war-goddess may be found among other peoplesóshe exists but
rarelyówe need an explanation of the fact that the Greeks chose a
goddess as their leader for war." _op cit_., pp. 498-499.
48. On the armed Aphrodite see Farnell, _op cit_., p. 653.
49. A. Kapelrud, _The Violent Goddess Anat in the Ras Shamra Texts
_(Oslo, 1969), p. 25.
50. D. Wolkstein & S. Kramer, _Inanna_ (New York, 1983), p. 95.
51. W. Hallo & J. van Dyk, _Exaltation of Inanna_ (New Haven, 1968),
pp. 17-19.
52. W. Heimpel, "Catalog of Near Eastern Venus Deities,"
Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 4:2 (1982), p. 12; E. Ebeling & B.
Meissner, _Reallexikon der Assyriologie_ (New York, 1976-1980),
Vol. 5, p. 85.
53. That is, of course, aside from the analysis offered by Velikovsky.
See also the articles by Newgrosh, Cochrane and Talbott, cited
earlier.
54. K. Tallquist, _Akkadische Gotterepitheta_ (Helsingforsiae, 1938),
pp. 209, 337.
55. A. Eaton, _The Goddess Anat: The History of Her Cult, Her
Mythology and Her Iconography _(Ann Arbor, 1969), p. 72.
56. A. Kapelrud, _op cit._, p. 18.
57. As several scholars have observed, it is probable that an epithet
of Ishtar, _elletu_ó"shining"óappears in the nomenclature of
Athena as Hellotis. Significantly, Athena Hellotis was associated
with sacred torch dances. See Astour, _op cit._, p. 139.
58. _Theogony_ 924
59. Judges 2:13, 10:6, I Samuel 31:10, I Kings 11:5, 33; II Kings
33:13. < =1>
60. See Kapelrud, _op cit_., p. 15. See also Heimpel, _op cit_., pp.
20-21.
61. Gaster, _op cit_., p. 154.
62. W. Heimpel, _op cit._, p. 22.
63. Jeremiah 7: 18 Both Astarte and Anat enjoyed a celebrated status
in Egyptian cult during the 18th and 19th dynasties. The
Egyptians, not surprisingly, identified Anat with Hathor. See
Kapelrud, _op cit._, p. 15. See also Heimpel, _op cit_., pp.
20-21.
64. Eaton, _op cit_., p. 56.
65. W. Albright, _Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan_ (New York, 1968), p.
132.
66. J. Pritchard, _The Ancient Near East _(Princeton, 1958), p. 113.
67. Pritchard, _op cit_., p. 103.
68. Kapelrud, _op cit._, pp. 52-53.
69. Eaton, _op cit._, pp. 16, 45.
70. Astour, _op cit._, p. 261. There Astour states: "Anath, the Queen
of Heaven, was identified with Venus (Kaukabta) and, under the
name of Uzza, 'the strong one', was worshipped by the Sinaitic
Saracenes as the Morning Star."
71. Citing an unpublished manuscript of M. Pope, Albright notes the
striking parallels between Kali and Anat: "In fact, the respective
figures are in some ways so similar that coincidence can scarcely
be the only explanation. It may be that major common traits spring
from a substratum extending from the Mediterranean to India before
the intrusion of the Sumerians (no later than the fourth millenium
b.c.) and that minor resemblances are the result of secondary
pseudomorphism." _op cit_., p. 131.
72. D. Kinsley, "Blood and Death Out of Place: Reflections on the
Goddess Kali," in _The Divine Consort,_ ed. by J. Hawley and D.
Wulff (Berkeley, 1982), pp. 144-145.
73. A similar assessment was offered by Kinsley, _op cit_., p. 119.
See also the conclusions of C. Mackenzie Brown, "Kali the Mad
Mother," in _The Book of the Goddess_, ed. by C. Olson (New York,
1983), p. 111.
74. E. Rohde, _Psyche_ (New York, 1966), Vol. 1, p. 297. See also the
discussion of Hekate's cult in E. Cochrane, "Venus in Ancient Myth
and Language: Part Two," AEON I:3 (1988), pp. 103-105.
75. Eaton, _op cit_., p. 78.
76. _Ibid_., p. 77.
77. Kerenyi, _op cit_., p. 22.
78. Farnell, _op cit_., pp. 298, 310.
79. Lucian, for example, reported that upon her birth the goddess
"leaps and dances a war-dance and shakes her shield, and
brandishes her spear." _Dialogues on the Gods_, 8.
80. A. Isenberg, "Devi and Venus," KRONOS II: 1 (1976), pp. 89-103,
offered a similar opinion.
81. On the association of comets and earthquakes see Gundel, _op
cit_., p. 1146.
82. An epithet of the goddessó _Muktakesi_ócommemorates her disheveled
hair. See J. Dowson, _A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology
and Religion_ (London, 1961), p. 87.
83. Kinsley, _op cit_., p. 120.
84. _Ibid_., p. 147.
85. Eaton, _op cit_., p. 78.
86. V. Ions, _Indian Mythology _(London, 1968), p. 94.
87. The Tamil name for Devi/Kali was Vintai. See D. Shulman, _Tamil
Temple Myths_ (Princeton, 1980), p. 179. That this name is cognate
with Venus is most probable.
88. _Ibid._, p. 184.
89. _Ibid._, p. 177. < =1>
90. Eaton, _op cit_., p. 67.
91. _Ibid_., p. 59.
92. T. Jacobsen, _The Treasures of Darkness_ (New Haven, 1976), p.
137.
93. E. Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_ (New York, 1969), Vol. I, p.
392.
94. R. Faulkner, _The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts_ (Warminster,
1973-1978), Vol. I, p. 263.
95. _Ibid._, p. 260. In the _Papyrus of Ani_, similarly, it is
written: "I raise up the hair at the time of storms in the
sky...It is the right Eye of Ra in its raging against him after he
hath made it to depart." See E. Budge, _The Egyptian Book of the
Dead _(London, 1901), pp. 36-37.
96. J. Bourghouts, "The Evil Eye of Apopis," J. of Egyptian
Archaeology 59 (1973), p. 131.
97. _Ibid_., p. 130.
98. R. Faulkner, _The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts_ (Warminster,
1973-1978), Vol. I, p. 238.
99. _Ibid_., p. 85.
100. _Ibid.,_ p. 193.
101. Anthes, "Mythology in Ancient Egypt," _Mythologies of the Ancient
World_ (Garden City, 1961), p. 58. In this same essay Anthes
identifies the Eye of Ra with the planet Venus.
102. Burkert, _op cit_., pp. 142-143.
103. Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, II, p. 24P; see also
Kerenyi, _op cit._, p. 86.
104. _Ibid_., p. 63.
105. _Iliad_ I:202 See also R. Graves, _op cit_., p. 45.
106. The fact that the aegis was said to grace the falling palladium,
and that it was elsewhere reported to have spit fire, suggests the
conclusion that it too is inexplicable apart from the imagery of
the comet-like Venus.
107. For a more extensive discussion of these traditions see E.
Cochrane, "On Comets and Kings," AEON II:1 (1989), pp. 63-75. See
also D. Talbott, "Mother Goddess and Warrior Hero," AEON I:5
(1989). Here too, of course, both Talbott and I were following the
theoretical lead of Velikovsky, although it must be said that our
evidence was not his, and his evidence, according to our
interpretation of the ancient sources, rarely supported the
conclusions drawn by him.
108. N. Davies, _The Toltecs_ (Norman, 1977), p. 395.
109. E. Cochrane, "Venus in Ancient Myth and Language," Aeon I: 1
(1988), pp. 40-43.
110. Brundage, _op cit._, __p. 173.
111. The same basic idea is apparent in Akkadian tradition, whereby
the word istaru signifies the external manifestation of the
"soul," this word being an obvious cognate of Istar/Venus. See the
discussion in A. Oppenheim, _Ancient Mesopotamia_ (Chicago, 1964),
pp. 199-205.
112. Farnell, _op cit._, p. 314.
113. Hesiod, fragment 268
114. Plato called Athena the _Kore_, for example. See _Laws_ 796b. See
also Aeschylus, _Eumenides_ 415. Kerenyi, _The Gods of the Greeks_
(London, 1982), p. 127.
115. Farnell, _op cit_., p. 265. Among others there is the river
Koralios at Coronea, and the lake Koresia in Crete.
116. Here Farnell observes: "Now festival names belong usually to a
very ancient period of Greek religious nomenclature; it may well
be that the name of _Kore_ was widely known and stamped upon the
Greek ritual and festivals before the Dorian invasion." _op cit._,
p. 119. In a discussion of the cult of Demeter Kore, Farnell
observes: "We have such names of her festivals as _Koreia_ (more
properly _Koraia_) in Arcadia, and Syracuse, the _Koragia_, the
procession of the _Kora_-idol at Mantinea, where the sacred house
was called _Koragion_."
117. K. Kerenyi, _Athena: Virgin and Mother_ (Zurich, 1978), p. 26.
The same epithet, it should be noted, forms a conspicuous element
in the cults of numerous Greek goddesses.
118. Athena was known in Elis by the epithet of _meter_, "mother", for
example. Pausanias 5: 3: 3 See Kerenyi, _op cit_., pp. 14, 19.
119. _Ibid_., p. 26.
120. Liddell & Scott, _op cit._, p. 804.
121. Although the _Oxford English Dictionary_ lists the root of core
as uncertain, it lists the Latin _cor_ as the leading possibility.
See _The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
_(Oxford, 1982), Vol. 1, p. 989.
122. Liddell & Scott, _op cit_., p. 804.
123. This was common among American Indians, for example. See A.
Hultkrantz, _Conceptions of the Soul Among North American Indians
_(Stockholm, 1953), pp. 95, 101, 171.
124. T. Gaster, _Thespis _(New York, 1977), p. 264.
125. Liddell & Scott, _op cit_., p. 743.
126. See W. H. Rouse, _Greek Votive Offerings _(Cambridge, 1902), pp.
240-245.
127. Kerenyi, _op cit._, p. 35.
128. This belief is conspicuous among the Mesoamerican Indians, as
Furst relates: "Among pre-hispanic peoples the Aztecs, among
others, also regarded the top of the head as the seat of the soul,
which accounts for their custom of cutting some of the hair from
the top of the head of a corpse and preserving it in the funerary
box. Similarly, to neutralize or remove the power of an Aztec
shaman or sorcerer, his top lock was cut off." See P. Furst,
"Huichol Conceptions of the Soul," _Folklore Americas_ 27:2 (June,
1967), p. 42.
129. Graves, _op cit_., Vol. I, p. 309.
130. _Ibid_., p. 300. Talbott and I have elsewhere suggested that
Aphrodite's epithet in this mythóComaetho, "firey haired"óis a
patent reference to the cometary nature of Aphrodite/Venus. Ovid's
account of Scylla likewise seems to preserve a reminiscence of the
goddess' cometary nature. There the traitress is said to have been
overcome by a "wild madness" and appeared with "flowing hair."
Ovid, _The Metamorphoses _(New York, 1958), p. 218. Of Scylla's
end Ovid writes: "She reached the stern of Minos' Cretan ship
where like a hated spirit she held fast...She seemed to fall, then
sway, hovering in the air as if she was a feather. Scylla became a
bird that some called Ciris, a name that brings to mind clipped
locks of hair." _Ibid_., p. 219. Ovid's brief account thus
preserves a curious memento of the goddess as comet, soul,
feather, and lock of hair.
131. Pausanias 8:47:5. See also G. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie und
Religionsgeschichte_ (Munich, 1975), Vol. 2, p. 1201.
132. Deut. 32:10; Prov. 7:2; Psalms 17:8
133. E. Budge, _An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary _(New York, 1978),
Vol. I, p. 471.
134. _Rig Veda_ 10: 40: 9. See also the discussion in M. Bloomfield,
"Contributions to the Interpretation of the Veda," _American
Journal of Philology_ 17:4 (1896), pp. 399-408.
135. S. Mercer, _The Pyramid Texts_ (New York, 1952), Vol. 2, p. 52.
136. In J. Frazer, _The New Golden Bough_ (New York, 1964), p. 267.
137. J. Bremmer, _The Early Greek Conceptions of the Soul_ (Princeton,
1983), p. 17. Note here the fact that Psyche, "soul", could also
be personified as a goddess.
138. K. F. Smith, "Pupula Duplex," in _Studies in Honor of B. L.
Gildersleeve_ (Baltimore, 1902), p. 295.
139. _Ibid_., p. 295.
140. Hesiod, _Theogony_ 924-5.
141. This tradition is found already in Pindar. See the discussion in
G. S. Kirk, _The Nature of Greek Myths _(New York, 1982), p. 120.
142. H. Liddell & R. Scott, _Greek-English Lexikon_ (New York, 1897),
p. 835.
143. R. Onians, _Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle: The Origins of
European Thought _(New York, 1973), p. 165. See also the
discussion on pp. 100-106.
144. _Ibid_., pp. 512-513. Witness also the prehistoric practice of
trephining; i.e., the drilling of holes in the skull. < =1>
145. Onians, _op cit_., pp. 163-164. Nor is it without interest to
find that Caesar's soul, according to several Latin writers, was
identified with the planet Venus. See Propertius IV:6:59. Talbott
and I have elsewhere suggested that the legend surrounding the
soul of Julius Caesar represents a degenerative version of the
myth(s) surrounding the death of Quetzalcoatl and Osiris. See E.
Cochrane, "Venus in Ancient Myth and Language," AEON I:1 (1988),
pp. 40-43. Note here that the word genius is an apparent cognate
of the Arabian jinn or ginn, meaning soul. Arabian tradition,
significantly, traces the origin of the Jinn to the Morning Star.
See V. Newall, _The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Magic_ (New
York, 1974), p. 108. This tradition offers a close parallel to the
Latin tradition that Venus was the abode of blessed souls. See R.
Van Den Brock, _The Myth of the Phoenix _(Leiden, 1972), p. 271.
146. E. Cochrane, "On Comets and Kings," _op cit_., pp. 56-57.
147. P. Brown, _Comets, Meteorites and Men_ (New York, 1973), p. 18.
148. R. Williamson, _Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia_
(Cambridge, 1933), Vol. 1, p. 127.
149. J. Frazer, _The Golden Bough: The Dying God_ (London, 1920), p.
64.
150. E. Cochrane, "On Comets and Kings," AEON II:1 (1989), pp. 67-68;
D. Talbott, "Mother Goddess and Warrior Hero," AEON I:5 (1988),
pp. 41-52. < =1>
151. It will be recognized that the author is hereby departing from
the scenario reconstructed by Velikovsky. We intend to return to
the subject of Zeus' identity in a future essay, at which time we
will also address the fundamental thesis of _Worlds in Collision_
at greater length. That the planet Mars also played an integral
role in this configuration has been the subject of numerous
articles by Talbott and myself.
152. The severance of the sacred lock also marked a turning point in
the career of the Martian hero. We will explore this motive in a
future monograph.
153. _Iliad_ I:206. That the epithet belonged to the oldest conception
of the goddess was the opinion of Dummler, "Athena," RE, op cit.,
p. 1990.
154. K. Kerenyi, _The Gods of the Greeks_ (London, 1982), p. 128. It
is significant that statues of Athena had the peculiarity that
their eyes were painted green, not unlike the figurines associated
with the Ishtar-temple at Tell Brak.
155. See the Mayan name for Venus, Nohoch Ich, "Great Eye", for
example. The same belief is apparent in the Polynesian Islands,
where Venus was known as the "Eye of Tane." See E. Cochrane & D.
Talbott, "When Venus was a Comet," _op cit_., pp. 14-16. < =1>
156. D. Talbott & E. Cochrane, "On the Nature of Cometary Symbolism,"
_op cit._, p. 24. See also the discussion of this imagery in
Talbott, _op cit._, pp. 57-59.
157. W. Krickeberg, "Mesoamerica," in _Pre-Columbian American
Religions_ (New York, 1969), p. 52.
158. Jacobsen, _op cit._, p. 57.
159. See the discussion of C. Jung in _Mysterium poniunctionis_
(Princeton, 1977), pp. 288-289. That this association goes back to
the Latin cult of Venus is probable. See J. Puhvel, _Comparative
Mythology_ (Baltimore, 1989), p. 160, for the association of Venus
and the color green.
160. F. Leverett, _Lexikon of the Latin Language_ (Boston, 1850), p.
945.
161. _Prometheus Bound_ 670.
162. See also the epithets Kappotas and Kataibates. Prehn, "Keraunos,"
RE, _op cit_., p. 270.
163. Burkert, _op cit_., p. 126.
164. C. Blinkenberg, _The Thunderweapon in Religion and Folklore
_(Cambridge, 1911), p. 32.
165. _Ibid_., p. 13. For a similar opinion see the extensive
researches of G. A. Wainright: "In religion the meteorite and the
thunderbolt are the same thing." "Letopolis," J. of Egyptian
Archaeology, 18 (1932), p. 161.
166. Worner, _op cit_., pp. 3448-3449.
167. J. Harrison, _Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religion and
Themis_ (New York, 1966), pp. 87-88.
168. Blinkenberg, _op cit_., p. 114.
169. "I only of all goddesses do know to ope the chamber where his
thunderbolts lie stored and sealed." _Eumenides_ 827
170. _Agamemnon_ 466.
171. G. Murray, _The Collected Plays of Euripedes_ (London, 1954), p.
35.
172. _Theogony_ 141
173. W. Schwartz, _Indogermanischer Volksglaube _(Berlin, 1885), pp.
169-179.
174. _Ibid._, p. 167.
175. E. Cochrane & D. Talbott, "When Venus was a Comet," KRONOS XII:1
(Winter 1987), pp. 14-16.