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Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Hercules
Abraham
Abraham is generally accepted as the Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, possibly living in the 2nd millennium BC. The name Abraham and its variants has been identified(a) in many cultures, although the existence of Abraham as a real historical person has been disputed.
Nevertheless, there have been a number of efforts to connect Abraham with the religion of ancient India(b) . The most publicised proponent of this view is Gene Matlock who offered his evidence in a paper titled Who was Abraham?(c)
He begins this document with three citations from ancient sources;
“In his History of the Jews, the Jewish scholar and theologian Flavius Josephus (37-100 A.D.), wrote that the Greek philosopher Aristotle had said: “…These Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers; they are named by the Indians Calani.” (Book I:22.)
Clearchus of Soli wrote, “The Jews descend from the philosophers of India. The philosophers are called in India Calanians and in Syria Jews. The name of their capital is very difficult to pronounce. It is called ‘Jerusalem.'”
“Megasthenes, who was sent to India by Seleucus Nicator, about three hundred years before Christ, and whose accounts from new inquiries are every day acquiring additional credit, says that the Jews ‘were an Indian tribe or sect called Kalani…'” (Anacalypsis, by Godfrey Higgins, Vol. I; p. 400.)”
Matlock believes that India ruled our prehistoric world including parts of America and furthermore. that Atlantis was located in South-East Mexico at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan [0472]. In an attempt to link his Mexican location with Plato’s description of Atlantis, Matlock contends that the ‘elephants’ mentioned by him were the long-snouted tapirs of Meso-America!(e) Furthermore, he claims that there was a connection between India, the Phoenicians, Atlantis and Mexico.
However, Matlock by way of clarification added “My readers should know that the ‘Atlantis’ described in this book may not be the same as Plato’s ‘Atlantis’. I’m just proving that there was once a part of the world called ‘Atlantis’ – that a part of Mexico once had the Sanskrit name Atlán, Tlan or Toltán, whose citizens were known as Atlantecas and Atlantl.” He then continues with “if my ‘Atlantis’ is not the real ‘Atlantis’ no one will ever find the one Plato mentioned.”
Matlock’s widely quoted internet article(c) begins with the identification of Abraham and his wife Sarai with the Hindu god Brahma and his wife Saraisvati.
In 2000, Matlock published Jesus and Moses Are Buried in India, Birthplace of Abraham and the Hebrews[0473], in which he develops this theme further.
A book supporting Matlock by the controversial Sri G. Ananda (Gregory Alexander) entitled Brahma: The God of Abraham [1187] was published in 2014. However, the idea is hotly debated on the internet by all interested parties, Christian, Muslim and Hindu.
Roger M. Pearlman tackled the subject of Atlantis in Plato’s Atlantis Legend Resolution: Abraham is the Real Atlas [1596]. Apart from the unexpected identification of Abraham, he also equates Hercules with the biblical Samson and places the Pillars of Hercules at Gaza. Disturbingly, he suggests that Sodom can be identified as Atlantis. Then, for good measure, he maintains that Göbekli Tepe was founded by Noah‘s family!
Jason Colavito had a critical view(d) of the recent (2017) Turkish documentary, supported by the government, which claims that Göbekli Tepe was built by Telah, Abraham’s father, and destroyed by Abraham.
(a) So Many Abrahams by Hiberia (archive.org)
(b) WELCOME TO AUM-SHALOM.COM (archive.org)
Angelo, Continenza
Continenza Angelo, was an Italian researcher, who, writing in Sykes’ Atlantean Research magazine in the middle of the 2oth century encapsulated the support of classical authors for the reality of Atlantis in the following terms;
“Hesiod spoke of Atlantis, as did Euripides, Diodorus Siculus and Seneca; Pliny says memories of Atlantis occur in the Labours of Hercules; Virgil comments on the Atlantean culture in the Georgies; Herodotus mentions it frequently; Pherecydes says ‘The people who lived near Mount Atlas said that they were descended from those who had accompanied Hercules on his travels.'” (a)
Pearlman, Roger, M
Roger M. Pearlman is a Torah scholar, who has written extensively on the reconciliation of the Torah with science. A number of his papers can be found on the academia.edu website.
He has also tackled the subject of Atlantis in Plato’s Atlantis Legend Resolution: Abraham is the Real Atlas (1596). Apart from the unexpected identification of Abraham, he also equates Hercules with the biblical Samson and places the Pillars of Hercules at Gaza! Disturbingly, he suggests that Sodom can be identified as Atlantis. Then, for good measure, he maintains that Gobekli Tape was founded by Noah’s family!
>On the subject of Abraham, I note that Gene Matlock claimed that “there are certain striking similarities between the Hindu god Brahma and his consort Saraisvati and the Jewish Abraham and Sarai that are more than mere coincidences.”(b)<
Perhaps I should mention that the superficial resemblance of Samson to Heracles was noted as far back as the time of Eusebius (Circa 300 AD)(a).
(a) https://www.maverickscience.com/wp-content/uploads/samson.pdf
(b) http://www.viewzone.com/abraham.html *
Mille, Pierre
Pierre Mille (1864-1941) was a noted French journalist. In the 1920’s Mille declared(a) that the argan tree, which grows in Morocco, Madeira and Azores was the last survivor of Plato’s Atlantis. He was an honorary member of Paul le Cour’s Atlantis Association.
The fruit of the argan tree was claimed by Michael Hübner to have been the ‘golden apples’ sought by Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides.
Dwarka
Dwarka, which means ‘door’ in Sanskrit, is a city in North-West India in the state of Gujarat. Today’s Dwarka is the seventh to bear this name, the previous six having been successively submerged. The original city is referred to throughout the Hindu scriptures and was once the capital of Krishna, the Hindu deity(h).
Similarly, the submerged city of Mahabalipuram on the other side of the country would seem to have suffered in the same way, although Dr Glenn Milne, from Durham University, dates that particular submergence to 4000 BC± 1000 years(c). In early 2016 it was announced(d) that one of the legendary Six Pagodas of Mahabalipuram has been discovered. Others have suggested that the sunken cities of Cambay may be even older than 9,500 years(g)!
Bibhu Dev Misra is the author of a 2018 paper, in which he explores the idea that the inundation of Dwarka was a consequence of a megatsunami resulting from the cometary impact which created the Burckle Crater in the Indian Ocean(i).
>An Indian astronomy site has an article(j) by Dr Manish Pandit supporting this idea, dating the event to some time between 2800 and 3050 BC and suggesting that the impact was caused by the Comet Soho which was seen in Feb. 3030 BC.<
The search for the ancient Dwarka had been ongoing for some decades until a circular wooden structure was discovered underwater off the coast of Jamnagar. Scientists have dated the original Dwarka to around 2280 BC. Plans have been submitted for the development of the world’s first underwater museum on the site.
Some investigators, including Dr Ashok Malhotra, have suggested that the submergence of Dwarka was the inspiration behind the story of the inundation of Atlantis. Binoy Gupta, a retired government official, subscribes(a) to the same idea but offers little hard evidence to support it.
In August 2016, a blogger, possibly Indian, again proposed that Atlantis and Dwarka were mirror images, adding that Krishna and Hercules were one and the same(e), an idea expanded on elsewhere(f).
(a) https://indianbureaucratsdiary.blogspot.com/2008/02/dwarka-lost-atlantis.html
(b) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2dWngyZH4 & youtube.com/watch?v=NVIsjx5X3QM
(c) See: Archive 2380
(e) See: Archive 3162
(f) Shri Krishna and Hercules – indian and greek mythology – Indian mythology (archive.org)
(h) https://rmiessle.sites.gettysburg.edu/rel-247/vaishnav-krishna/dwarka/ *
Heracles
Heracles (Herakles) was a Greek mythical hero(c), later known to the Romans as Hercules. He is one of several mythical heroes who were reportedly abandoned as babies(f).
There is also a claim that the Greek Herakles had a much earlier namesake the patron of Tyre and known as Melqart, which translates as ‘king of the city’. “Melqart was considered by the Phoenicians to represent the monarchy, perhaps the king even represented the god, or vice-versa, so that the two became one and the same. The ruler was known by the similar term mlk-qrt, and the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel criticises the kings of Tyre for considering themselves god on earth”(i).
He has also been identified with the biblical Samson(a) and the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh(b). Dhani Irwanto who claims that Atlantis was situated in Indonesia has tried to link Herakles with the Javanese mythical figure of Kala [1093.118]. However, Dos Santos who also advocated an Atlantis location in the same region decided that Hercules was originally the Hindu hero Vishnu [320.129], quoting Megasthenes (350-290 BC), the Greek geographer, in support of his contention. Others have referred to Megasthenes as identifying Hercules with Krishna(e)(g). The list of associations seems to go on and on, including the Scandanavian Hoder, Akkadian Nergal, Roman Mars and Ireland’s Cú Chulainn(h).
The penitential twelve labours of Hercules have long been associated with the zodiac(j), which is reminiscent of the warriors in the Iliad who have also been associated with the zodiac!(k) Alice A. Bailey was probably the best-known exponent of this back in the 1980s, in The Labours of Hercules [1163].
He is usually portrayed as brandishing a club and wearing a lion’s head as a helmet, probably because he, like Samson, reputedly unarmed, overcame lions, but the similarities don’t end there(a).
Euhemerists have suggested that he was a real historical figure, possibly a former king of Argos.
James Bailey noted [149.322] that Diodorus Siculus wrote in different books of his Histories that Heracles was born in India and Egypt!
A more controversial suggestion has been made by Emmet J. Sweeney, in his 2001 book, Arthur and Stonehenge[0918], in which the blurb for the book claims that “Arthur himself, he was the primitive bear-god “Artos”, the Celtic version of Hercules. Originally portrayed with a bear-skin over his head and shoulders and carrying a great oaken club, he became the prototype of the Greek Hercules when Hellenic traders, braving the wild waters of the Atlantic in search of tin, heard his story from the Britons.” However, Sweeney also identifies Moses “as an alter ego of Hercules.” in his Atlantis: The Evidence of Science[700.198].
There appears to have been a cult of Heracles that may have extended as far as Britain, where the Cerne Abbas chalk figure is sometimes claimed to represent him(d).
The term ‘Pillars of Heracles’ was used by the ancient Greeks to define the outer reaches of their limited seagoing range. This changed over time as their nautical capabilities improved. Some of the earlier ‘Pillars’ were located at the entrance to the Black Sea and the Strait of Sicily and the Strait of Messina. Later the term was applied exclusively to the Strait of Gibraltar.
(a) Archive 3444
(b) https://phoenicia.org/greek.html
(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracles
(d) https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/dorset/ancient/cerne-abbas.htm
(e) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megasthenes’_Herakles
(f) https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/moses-as-abandoned-hero/
(g) Shri Krishna and Hercules – indian and greek mythology – Indian mythology (archive.org)
(h) https://www.aeonjournal.com/articles/samson/samson.html
(i) https://edukalife.blogspot.com/2015/01/congregation-bible-study-week-starting.html
(j) The Twelve Labours of Hercules (Herakles) (archive.org) *
Atlantides
Atlantides, in Greek mythology was the collective name given to the seven beautiful daughters of Atlas, the founder of Atlantis. They were also known as Pleiades or Hesperides, after their mother Hesperis. As the Hesperides they were considered the protectors of the Seven Isles of the Blest, which contained the Gardens of Atlas, their father. The Garden of the Hesperides was located, according to Eustatius in the field of Atlas.
Hercules had to locate ‘the golden apples’ in the Garden of the Hesperides. Jonas Bergman has identified the ‘golden apples’ as the oranges of Morocco, with a site near Lixus providing the Garden of the Hesperides. *[The late Michael Hübner who was also an advocate for a Moroccan site for Atlantis proposed that the fruit of the Argan tree found in the Souss-Massa region were the ‘golden apples.]*
If these interpretations are is correct, it implies that Hercules was familiar with apples but not oranges and hence he must have come from a more northerly climate; which raises a series of other questions not pertinent to this work.