[The AMAIC considers the Middle East – West comparisons of John R. Salverda as interesting, with some of them we think being very likely. But we do not necessarily agree with all of the following]
Europa and Jeroboam of Israel
by John R. Salverda
Do Kidnapped Europa and Her Brothers Represent Lost Israelites?
Background:
Greek Mythology relates that the chief god Zeus disguised himself as a white bull and abducted the Phoenician princess Europa daughter of Agenor from her home in Tyre, Lebanon. They went to Crete where Europa gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon.
Minos became king of the Minoans in Crete.
Sarpadon went to Lycia in Anatolia (in present-day Turkey).
Rhadamanthus went to Boetia in Greece. His sons were Gortys and Erythrus whose name is Greek for Edom.
Virgil (69 - 18 BC) makes Rhadamanthus one of the judges and punishers of the damned in the Underworld (Tartarus) section of The Aeneid.
Pindar says that Rhadamanthus is the right-hand man of Cronus (now ruling Elysium) in the Isles of the Blessed (a term that could be applied to the British Isles) and was the sole judge of the dead.
Elysium, a paradise which Homer placed in the far west, on the banks of the encircling river Oceanos.
Cadmos and his brothers sons of Agenor of Tyre in Phoenicia were sent to search for Europa. Cadmos founded Thebes in Greece and introduced the Phoenician [Proto-Hebraic] Alphabet to the Greeks. He was reponsible for the creation of the Spartans who sprang from the earth.
In the article below, John R. Salverda, analyses the legends surrounding these figures and finds in them traditions concerning the Ten Tribes of Israel in their journeys westward from the Land of Israel after being exiled by Assyria.
Europa Lost
Europe is named after a descendant of Io's who was called, 'Europa.' The myth of Europa can be found in any book of Greek Mythology, and has been well known for almost 3000 years. Can anything new be learned from it' No, but oddly enough, we can still learn something old, from it. Let us begin by examining the name itself. The name Europa, is a feminized form of the same Hebrew name that comes to us through Biblical sources, in its masculine Latin form, 'Jeroboam.' I learned this, when I compared two maps of the same city in Syria, one had the city labeled, 'Jerablus,' while the other had it as, 'Europos.' It occurred to me that this was a perfectly reasonable transliteration, and that both names were one and the same.
King Jeroboam, the first king of the northern ten tribes of Israel, is mentioned often in the Bible, unfortunately his name usually follows after the phrase, 'the sins of...' This is because Jeroboam was infamous for reintroducing the worship of god in the form of a bull, and calves were set up as images of god's savior, these constituted the 'sins of Jeroboam.' This tendency toward tauropomorphism, began at the Exodus, when Israel's agent of deliverance, (legends say it was Michael the Archangel) was overwhelmingly agreed, by the very witnesses of the event, to have been a calf, of whom they built a golden image. This was an idol, not of God, but of the son of god, and they sang these words as they danced around it, 'This is your god oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.' Israel was regularly personified as a maiden, (the Virgin Israel) who was beloved by God and betroth to Him. But the Israel of Jeroboam, went, whoring after foreign gods. It becomes obvious that, to some, she was known by a feminized version of King Jeroboam's name. The evidence for this identification is overwhelming. Europa got carried away adoring god in the form of a bull as well, and both the Virgin Israel and the maiden Europa, were from Phoenicia. The resulting, 'loss among the nations,' occurred in both cases, from the same place, and for the same reason. Does it surprise us to think that this story, (which included a promise by God to his People who were dispersed amongst the nations,) may have, in ancient times, received a wider distribution, than to be stored away on some Temple scroll and only be known, eventually, through the Bible' In fact the story was far famed, as we might have known.
The Greek myths tell us that Europa had a son who ruled over the Island of Crete, his name was Minos. If Europa be from Jeroboam, and the Cretans spoke Western Semitic, (the same language as the land of Canaan) which they did, then I'll bet 'Minos,' is the same name as 'Manasseh.' In fact one wonders indeed, if there wasn't a bit of confusion between the stories of the Cretan, King Minos, and the later Judean, King Manasseh. How many other kings, from this same area, with the same name, were famous for sacrificing youths to a bull headed god' (Minotaur, Manasseh's Torah' is Manasseh an alternate version of the name Moses' as in Judges, chapter 18, Verse 30, if so, perhaps the Minotaur was blasphemously named for the Law of Moses.) Thus it seems likely that the 'Minoan' civilization was named for the son of Joseph, Manasseh.
This series of coincidences about Europa is impressive enough without mentioning this other weird point, which was the fact that Israel was prophesied to be regathered by an heir to the throne, and returned to her homeland in the last days. (Isa. 11;10-12) But, this famous promise, must be cited here as evidence that Europa is Israel, because this hopeful prophecy is also coincidental to the 'myth.' The Greek myth asserts that the true heir to the throne was sent to find the lost Europa, and he was told not to return until he could bring her back.
Cadmus and the Brothers of Europa
Although the story of Io must have been in existence in one form or another, since the Exodus, (parts of her story belong to the days of Abraham, but most of it, is the story of Hermes Argiophontes, her deliverer, who plays the role of Moses at the Exodus) there is no doubt that the version of her story which has come down to us, did not receive it's final form, until after her descendant Cadmus came to Greece. We know this, because the story incorporates the use of the Alphabet within its body, for Io was able to spell her name in the sand with her cow hoof. (This part of the story relies upon the fact that the Greek 'I' was just a 'Jot,' and the letter 'o,' resembles a hoof print.) She was thereby identified when she returned home after her extensive 'wanderings.' This detail limits the Greek antiquity of Io's story, until about 850 BC. when the Greeks first began to use the Alphabet. But, this was a Phoenician story that was brought to Greece at a later date, generations after these events actually occurred, and the Phoenicians knew about the founding of Argos already for years back home, because, they were Israelites and the city of Argos was a colony of Hebron, also it was they who had an alphabet which Io could spell, the Hebrew alphabet.
No one doubts that the Hebrew alphabet was used in Greece, but it seems to me, calling it 'Phoenician,' is a bit misleading. If Moses, famous for his writings, wrote anything, then it is logical to assume him to be the oldest known user of this alphabet. The Greeks, in keeping with the identification of Moses with Hermes, (the serpent stick carrying messenger of god who delivers god's earthly wife from her bondage,) credit Hermes as the inventor of the alphabet. Cadmus is accredited with bringing the alphabet of Hermes, from Phoenicia to Greece, but, not until about 850 BC. It's easy to dismiss all myths in a group as fairy tales, but Cadmus was not a god, he was a man who is famous for doing something which really happened, others who lived within a few hundred years of him speak of Cadmus as an actual historic personage. He came to Greece with a colony and was considered to be the founder of Thebes, a quite well known city in Boeotian Greece, which was even called 'Cadmea,' after him.
While there seems to have been a real Cadmus, it is, as if a very familiar religious doctrine, has gotten attached to him. Because the role of Cadmus in the story about the return of Europa, foreshadows a type of the Christian Messiah, he is made to perform a series of tasks, which are obviously designed to fulfill many key Messianic prophecies. These tasks were, perhaps, more 'expected,' of him than were actually 'performed' by him. He destroys the serpent by transfixing it to a tree, thus, 'lifting it up,' and 'nailing it to the tree.' Leaving the Sparti in Greece, Cadmus goes to the Northwest, into Europe proper, where they make him King, in the land of the Enchelians, (Angels' Angles, or English') where, in the end, he and Harmonia, never really die but are instead Miraculously translated.
The Sparti remained in Greece, where they left many descendants, and worshipped Cadmus as a hero, with shrines. One famous, such hero shrine of Cadmus, was located in the Greek nation of Sparta, on the Laconian coast, and was maintained by the Spartans, (sown ones) even down to the days of the Jewish high priests Onias, and Jonathan. As reported by Josephus, and recorded in Rabbinical writings, Onias and the Spartans, wrote to each other, and both recognized the Spartans as having a common ancestor.
-John R. Salverda
For more articles on the Hebraic Connections of Greek Mythology, see:
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