Atlantis in the Sibylline Oracles © Nicholas Costa 2024
In AD 17 the region of Lydia in western Asia Minor was subjected to a huge earthquake. Pliny called it “the greatest earthquake in human memory” (Nat. Hist. 2:86 §200). Twelve cities in the region were devastated. They were Sardis, Magnesia, Temnos, Philadelphia, Aegae, Apollonis, Mostene, Hyrkanis, Hierapolis, Myrina, Cyme, and Tmolus. Ephesus is notably missing from the list, and there is no clear evidence that it was badly affected either by this or by a subsequent earthquake in the region in 27 AD.
The extant texts of the Sibylline Oracles which appear to be a collection of events from various sources pagan, Christian, and Jewish were compiled over an indeterminate period, currently thought to be sometime between the second century BC and the seventh century AD. (“Sibylline Oracles (Second Century B.C.–Seventh Century A.D)”. In Charlesworth (ed.). Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.)
Of interest is Book V of the Oracles which states the following. It has hitherto been generally interpreted as an erroneous reflection of the earthquakes of 17 and 27 AD. It runs as follows:
“And now thee, wretched Asia, piteously I mourn and the race of Ionians and Carians and Lydians rich in gold.
Alas, alas for thee, O Sardis; and alas For Trallis much beloved;
alas, alas, Laodicea, city beautiful; Thus shalt thou be by earthquakes overthrown and ruined, and be also changed to dust.
And to Asia gloomy. . . .Artemis’ temple fixed at Ephesus . . .
By chasms, and earthquakes come headlong down sometime into the dreadful sea, is storms
Overwhelm ships. And up-turned Ephesus shall wail aloud, lament beside her banks, and for her temple search which is no more.
And then incensed shall God the imperishable, § 5.400 who dwells on high, hurl thunderbolts from heaven down on the head of him that is impure. And in the place of winter there shall be in that day summer. And to mortal men shall then be great woe; for the Thunderer shall utterly destroy all shameless men and with his thunders and with lightning-flames and blazing thunderbolts men of ill-will, and thus shall he destroy the impious ones, so that there shall remain upon the earth dead bodies more in number than the sand.
For Smyrna also, weeping her Lycurgus shall come unto the gates of Ephesus and she herself shall perish even more. and foolish Cyme with her inspired streams cast down by hands of godless men unjust and lawless, shall to heaven not so much as a word utter; but she shall remain dead in Cymaean streams. And then shall they together weep, awaiting evil things.
§ 5.420 Cyme’s rough populace and shameless tribe, having a sign, shall know for what they toiled. And then, when they shall have bewailed their land reduced to ashes, by Eridanus
Shall Lesbos be forever overthrown. Alas, Corcyra, city beautiful, alas for thee, cease from thy revelry. Thou also, Hierapolis, sole land with riches mixed, what thou hast longed to have
Thou shalt have, even a land of many tears, since thou wast angry towards a land beside
Thermodon’s streams. Rock-clinging Tripolis, beside the waters of Maeander, thee shall by the nightly surges under shore God’s wrath and foresight utterly destroy.
Take me not, willing, to the neighboring land of Phoebus; sometime shall a thunderbolt dainty Miletus from above destroy, because she seized on Phoebus’ crafty song And the wise care and prudent plan of men.” (The Sibylline Oracles, Translated from the Greek into English Blank Verse by Milton Spenser Terry (1840-1914), Professor in Garrett Biblical Institute, New Edition Revised After the Text Of Ruch, New York: Eaton & Mains, 1899)
A comparison between Pliny’s list and those in the Sibylline oracle demonstrates that it is dealing with a different earthquake in which events at Ephesus were central to the disaster.
Pliny’s list: Sardis, Magnesia, Temnos, Philadelphia, Aegae, Apollonis, Mostene , Hyrkanis , Hierapolis, Myrina, Cyme, and Tmolus.
Sibylline Oracles list: Sardis, Trallis, Laodicea, Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyme, Lesbos, Corcyra, Hierapolis, Tripolis on the Meander, Miletus.
In addition to the places affected the text also contains seemingly unrelated items which may actually be memories of when it occurred. The Oracle incorporates references to Lycurgus, Eridanus, and curiously to Corcyra, the only location not in the Aegean.
The Lycurgus reference helps determine the time period the Oracle relates to. Whilst there were many bearing the name Lycurgus one is of note in the present context.
Lycurgus
This was the Lycurgus depicted as king of the Edoni in Thrace. Underlying the thread of the myth is the backdrop of cataclysm. Lycurgus was referred to as “entombed in a rock” ( Sophocles (Antig. 955, &c.) who with his ox goad forced Dionysus and the Maenads to dive into the sea:
“Lykourgos (Lycurgus) the powerful, did not live long; he who tried to fight with the gods of the bright sky, who once drove the fosterers of rapturous (mainomenos) Dionysos headlong down the sacred Nyseian hill, and all of them shed and scattered their wands on the ground, stricken with an ox-goad by murderous Lykourgos, while Dionysos in terror dived into the salt surf…” (Homer, Iliad 6. 129 ff )
Notably it is at this point in Greek mythological chronology of c1300 BC that the Maenads the mad followers of Dionysus first appear.
The Maenads (formerly depicted as Amazons up to this point) as demonstrated by the author in Atlantis, the Amazons, and the Birth of Athene were in fact the despairing and starving native survivors of the natural catastrophe which overwhelmed Ephesus/Atlantis, and the Mediterranean.
Ox-Goad- Air-Burst
The ox-goad wielded by Lycurgus is paralleled by the story in the Bible of Shamgar:
“After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; and he also delivered Israel.” (Judges 3:31 NKJV) . The ox-goad is evidently a metaphor for a lightning flash/ air burst. An ox-goad was formidable being a weapon measuring in excess of two meters in length, shod with an iron point, and capable of being used as a spear, and of inflicting deadly wounds.
In the Biblical chronology (painstakingly compiled by the author many years before his research into the Atlantis myth) the date for Shamgar approximates to c1320 BC which is perilously close to the date of c1327 BC ascribed to the Hittite documents which recount the air-burst which destroyed Ephesus. It There must evidently be a causal relationship between the events depicted in Greek mythology concerning Lycurgus and Deborah. Most notably Deborah is delineated as a prophetess in the Bible. As stated by the author in his work Adam to Apophis the Biblical designation of ‘prophet’ rather than delineating a real person almost invariably acted primarily as a signifier of natural disaster.
According to the Song of Deborah (Judges 5. 5.) the following events took place in the days of Shamgar son of Anath. The “earth trembled, heaven quaked; the clouds streamed down in torrents. Mountains shook in fear before the Lord.” Also: “The stars fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera”
Sisera’s name interprets as “that sees a swallow”. He was depicted as the Canaanite commander who was defeated by the Israelites. Note how the stories echo each other and the similarity in Greek mythology of the Edoni name to aidoni the Greek word for nightingale.
Air burst
Lycurgus is represented as son of Dryas and father of Dryas. Dryas is the Greek word for signifying an oak tree. Whilst Deborah is depicted as giving her judgment under a date palm. Both are in fact metaphors for an air burst (See Adam to Apophis 2013).
Deborah the prophetess is described as “a woman of Lappidoth”(Judges 4:4). “Lappid” translates as “torch” or “lightning” (Van Wijk-Bos, Johanna WH. The End of the Beginning: Joshua and Judges, 2019). Her name means “bee”. The bee was the emblem of Artemis (The Bee of Artemis G. W. Elderkin 1939). Artemis was of course the goddess par excellence of Ephesus. It is possible therefore that Jewish records for the hazy period of the Judges were actually supplemented by records from elsewhere in Asia Minor. The bee image is not benign, it stings. It is evidently a metaphor for swarms of burning hot dust fragments raining down from above. Note the ‘flower petals’ in the image above-they signify an air-burst
Next part: Atlantis, Eridanus and the Sibylline Oracle