British Hebrews and the West (3 March, 2014, 1 Adar-2, 5774)
The Hesperides personified the extreme west in Greek Tradition. Legends and namesakes associated with them, etc, provide evidence showing the Lost Ten Tribes to have moved from the Middle East to Western areas.
Duration: 26. 15 minutes. To Read Text of Article Please Scroll Down.
Contents:
Part 1.
1. Introduction
2. Britain, Hebrews, and the Hesperides
3. What were "The Hesperides"? Greek Mythology Originated in Mesopotamia.
4. The Phrygians
5. The Maiden Named Aegle and the Bull-Calf of Ephraim
6. Ashkenaz son of Gomer
7. Edom in the West
Part 2
8. The Hesperides and Sepharad
9. Leviathan
10. Cimmerians in the West
11. The Welsh
12. Conclusion
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1. Introduction
We have located the Lost Ten Tribes amongst Western Peoples. Numerous proofs point in this direction. One aspect of our evidence involves historical factors. We have evidence that is unequivocal and we also have proofs based on probabilities and similarities. Both aspects of research are needed. They round each other out.
We trace the Lost Ten Tribes from the Middle East to the West. The discussion below illustrates how a movement in that direction was consistent with the conditions and concepts that then prevailed.
The present articles uses the mythological Hesperides as a central point but branches out to discuss related issues. Whether or not you tend to agree with all our suggestions in the present article you should find it enjoyable and informative.
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2. Britain, Hebrews, and the Hesperides
..Dionysius of Alexandria in Egypt (ca. 190-264 CE) was a Christian convert from paganism. He was also a Bishop and theologian.
He writes:
"Against the sacred Cape [Ortegal, Spain] great Europe's head,
Th' Hesperides along the ocean spread;
Whose wealthy hills with mines of tin abound,
And stout Iberians till the fertile ground."
In the above refrain, Bishop Dionysus refers to Britain as "The Hesperides".
He calls its inhabitants "Iberians".
This term Iberian originally meant Hebrew. It was the name the so-called Celts of the west including those of Britain and Ireland used for themselves.
They did not call themselves Celts or Gauls but rather Iberi meaning Hebrew! or Hiberi (i.e. Ha-iberi) meaning "The Hebrews" in the Hebrew tongue.
See:
Hebrews or Yew Trees?? What Did the Celts Call Themselves?
http://www.britam.org/HebrewCelt.html
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3. What were "The Hesperides"? Greek Mythology Originated in Mesopotamia.
The HESPERIDES appear in Greek Mythology as:
1: a legendary garden at the western extremity of the world producing golden apples
2: the nymphs in classical mythology who guard with the aid of a dragon a garden in which golden apples grow.
The Hesperides were to be identified with either Spain (the Greeks sometimes referred to Spain as Hesperia), or the British Isles.
Our knowledge of the Hesperides is derived from Greek Mythology. Nevertheless in this, as in many other cases, we may best understand the concept when we realize that originally it derived from Mesopotamia. The Greeks took legends and ideas from the regions to their east and simply Hellenized them.
One explanation of the term Hesperides relates it to Sardis in Lydia. The land of Lydia adjoined that of Phrygia in the west of Anatolia or mainland Turkey of today. Lydia in the Bible is referred to as Lud descendant of Shem. Its capital was Sardis which was also known Sepharda. [There was also a place of the same name further east, in Media.] In the eyes of the Mesopotamians it was a western region and by extension the name was applied to the Hesperides or the islands far to the west.
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4. The Phrygians
The Roman historian Pliny tells us:
Midacritus was the first who brought tin from the island called Cassiteris (Pliny bk 8 ch 57).
Pliny is understood by his use of the term "Midacritas" to be referring to Midas king of Phrygia. The island called Cassiteris (Tin Island) was off the coast Britain. Pliny, elsewhere, tells us that Britain was the main source of time for the ancient world. Tin was vital for the production of bronze which is an alloy of copper and tin. Bronze was the main metal employed at that time.
In Greek tradition Midas was described as enormously wealthy.
The Assyrians report a King Midas (Mita) ruling over the Moshki (Phrygia) during the period between 717 and 709 BCE.
The Phyrgians overshadowed the region of Troy. The capital of Phrgia was Gordium. The Phrgians included they Mysians. They had come from Thrace.
A region of Phrygia was known as Ascania. This name was later associated with Germany. Ascania has been identified with Ashkenaz a son of Gomer. By Gomer in Ancient Times is meant the Cimmerians whom the Assyrians called Gimmirri.
Midas King of Phrygia was defeated by the Cimmerians, after which he suicided, and the Cimmerians overran his land.
Early Greek reports tells us of Cimmerians in the North Sea area in the region of Britain.
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5. The Maiden Named Aegle and the Bull-Calf of Ephraim
The Hesperides were personified as clear-voiced maidens who guarded a tree bearing golden apples. They were usually three in number, Aegle, Erytheia, and Hespere (or Hesperethusa), but by some accounts were as many as seven.
The name Aegle is said to have meant bright, brilliant.
In Hebrew Aegel means bull calf. It was a nickname for Ephraim (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:18).
Aegel was also another name for the Angles. The Angles gave their name to England i.e. Angle-Land.
Together with the Saxions and Jutes and other groups they conquered the region of England from the previous inhabitants with whom they merged.
The Prophet Jeremiah likened Ephraim to an "aegel" which in Hebrew means a "young-bull".
Rashi said that "aegel" was a nick-name for Ephraim.
Jeremiah 31:
18 ' I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:
' You have chastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained bull-calf [Hebrew: Aegel];
Restore me, and I will return,
For You are the LORD my God.
Historically this very name "Aegel" was a diminutive (favorite nickname) for the ethnic term "Angle".
On the Continent an Angle was referred to as an Aegel.
[Reference: F.R. Klaiber, "Beowulf", (USA, 1922) p.xlii and Gwyn Jones, "A History
of the Vikings", (NY 1984) p.38]
The Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vandals, and others conquered from the Britons the land that was later named "England".
The Saxons in England also apparently referred to themselves as "Angles" and identified as such.
The name Aegel was common amongst the Saxons who settled in England.
e.g.
# It is thought that Aylshams history dates from around 500 AD when a Saxon called Aegel (a common name) set up his homestead here. As Ham means homestead, the new village would have been known as Aegels Ham # http://www.britam.org/now/now301.html
See:
Why the British are Ephraim!
http://www.britam.org/EphraimClip.html
Concerning Joseph, Moses prophesied [Deuteronomy 33:17] according to a conventional translation into English:
Deuteronomy 33:
17 His glory is like a firstborn bull,
And his horns like the horns of the wild ox;
Together with them
He shall push the peoples
To the ends of the earth;
They are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of Manasseh.'
This is how we would paraphrase the verse from the Hebrew orginal as saying:
He will receive his glory from the firstling of his bull [Ephraim];
And his (Menasseh) horns are immensely powerful as of a Unicorn:
Together, they will butt the nations.
They (Ephraim and Manasseh) will be together until the ends (extreme points when the Land of Israel is the center) of the earth;
and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, that are multiplied a thousands times over together with those of Manasseh.
See:
The Bull Calf
http://britam.org/Proof/Joseph/joBull.html
Note only was the name Aegle an alkternative form of the ethnic term Angle amongst the Anglo-Saxons but even in Ancient Hebrew it probably was as well!
In Ancient Hebrew "Angle" may have been an alternative pronunciation of "Aegel"!
The "A-" sound in "Aegel" is an "ayin" which may be pronounced as "An". This is still found amongst Ashkenazi Jews.
We thus get "Angel" for "Aegel" both in ancient Hebrew pronunciation (or at least one form of it) and in the spoken language amongst Northern peoples in Europe.
The Angles gave England (i.e. Angle-land) its name. The Angles were also called Aegels. The appellations Angle and Aegel were employed interchangeably. The Hebrew word for young bull is "Aegel".
Thus England may be considered "Aegeland" i.e. Land of the bull-Calf" i.e. Land of Ephraim!
We see from the above that in Greek (and Mesopotamian?) mythology the western Isles were known as the Hesperides and one of these was known as Aegel.
This however was long before the Angles (i.e. Aegli) and their kinfolk from the Continent had invaded Britain. It is as if the later identification of part of Britain as England or the Land of the Angles and Aegels had been preadumbrated.
Such perplexities whereby more than one explanation for the application of certain names or identifications in history are not uncommon. For instance Danes of Denmark from the Tribe of Dan in the time of the Vikings were to settle in Northeast England. Long before them we have traditions concerning the People of Don in Wales, the Dana in ireland, and the settlement of Danum (mentioned by Ptolemy) in the same region that the Danes were much later to settle in.
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6. Ashkenaz son of Gomer
An example of valid possibilities of identification that may (or may not conflct) is found with Phrygia where the Phrygian Ascania is identified as Ashekenaz son of Gomer and so are the Scythians. The Scythians were associated with the Cimmerians otherwise known as Gomer. One of the names given by the Assyrians to the Scythians was Ashkuzi which has been equated with Ashkenaz.
Jeremiah 51:
27 Raise a standard in the land,
blow the trumpet among the nations;
prepare the nations for war against her,
summon against her the kingdoms,
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
appoint a marshal against her,
bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28 Prepare the nations for war against her,
the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,
and every land under their dominion.
Jeremiah was prediction a war against Babylon. He may have been referring to a future event for which what happened in his own time was to serve as a prototype.
"ARARAT, MINNI, AND ASHCHENAZ": Ararat was the kingdom commonly referred to in modern histories after its Assyrian name, "Urartu". Minni was the Kingdom of Mannai on the southwest shores of the Caspian Sea. "ASHCHENAZ" is often identified with the Scythians though Phrygia in Central Turkey is another possibility. "Ashkenaz" was a son of Gomer son of Japhet (Genesis 10;3). In Jewish tradition "Ashkenaz" was identified with Germany. Jews who came from Germany were called "Ashkenazim" and later this name was applied to all European Jews.
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7. Edom in the West
Descendants of Edom (also known as Esau) helped the Assyrians exile Israelites from the Ten Tribes. They used Philistine and Phoenician ships to take Hebrew captives over the Sea to Spain and other Western regions. The presence of Edomites in the west is reflected the name Erythria (Meaning Red Land i.e. Edom) amongst the mythical Hesperides who resided in the far west at the edge of the known world.
Duration: 10.34 minutes. To Read Text of Article Please Scroll Down.
The Hesperides were three in number. They were Aegle, Erytheia, and Hespere (or Hesperethusa).
Erytheia means Red Land or in Hebrew, Edom.
Edom is a name given to the descendants of Esau brother of Jacob.
Edom gave rise to the Idumeans southeast of Judah.
There were numerous other kingdoms and polities in which descendants of Edom were present.
Erytheia may represent one of them.
The Prophet Amos tells us that the Minoan and Maecenian Philistines and the Phoeneicians of Tyre would serve as proxies of Assyria and assist by transporting Israelite Exiles to the west. An entity known as Edom would receive them.
Amos 1:
6 Thus says the LORD:
For three transgressions of Gaza,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;*
because they carried into exile entire communities,
to hand them over to Edom.
7 So I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza,
fire that shall devour its strongholds.
8 I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod,
and the one who holds the sceptre from Ashkelon;
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,
says the LORD God.
9 Thus says the LORD:
For three transgressions of Tyre,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;*
because they delivered entire communities over to Edom,
and did not remember the covenant of kinship.
10 So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre,
fire that shall devour its strongholds.
11 Thus says the LORD:
For three transgressions of Edom,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;*
because he pursued his brother with the sword
and cast off all pity;
he maintained his anger perpetually,*
and kept his wrath* for ever.
12 So I will send a fire on Teman,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.
We see from above the involvement of the Philistines (Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, the remnant of the Philistines) and the Phoenicians (of Tyre) with the exile of Israelites. They delivered them to Edom who evidently represents an entity in the west who worked together with the Assyrians and oversaw the resettlement of Israelite Captives as compulsory colonists in that region. Edomites were to be found amongst the Phoenicians of Tyre as well as in Babylon and other places. The Phoenicians had set up trading and mining centers in Spain and these may be the Edomites referred to.
Later tradition idenified Erythira with southwest Spain.
Strabo, Geography 3. 5. 4 :
"By˜Erytheia, in which the myth-writers place the adventures of Geryon, Pherekydes seems to mean Gades [a city and island off the coast of Southern Iberia (Spain)]. Others, however, think that Erytheia is the island that lies parallel to this city [Gades] and is separated from it by a strait of a stadium in width."
We know that captives from Israel were settled in Spain shortly after the Assyrians had resettled them. The south of Spain had been dominated by the Phoenicans and we know from other sources that the Phoenican city of Tyre had been settled in part by descendants of Esau i.e. Edom. From the south of Spain the Israelites were to move northwards and then cross the sea to Ireland and Britain.
It should be remembered that the Assyrians exiled the Ten Tribes and resettled them. Most were taken overland to different sections of the Assyrian Empire. A portion however were transported by sea directly to the west. Archaeological Findings and Irish Mythology confirm this.
See:
Exile of Israelites to the West by Sea.
http://britam.org/Ships.html
The Israelite Sea Captives
http://www.britam.org/SeaCaps.html