THE MINOTAUR ECLIPSES

“Daedalus in countless corridors built bafflement, and hardly could himself make his way out, so puzzling was the maze. Within this labyrinth Minos shut fast the beast, half bull, half man, and fed him twice on Attic blood, lot-chosen each nine years, until the the third choice mastered him. The door, so difficult, which none of those before could find again, by Ariadne’s aid was found, the thread that traced the way rewound.”¹

The ultimate form of cosmic death and resurrection was encapsulated in the phenomenon of the totality of solar and lunar eclipses. Plutarch directly links the myths surrounding the Apis bull or calf with the phenomenon of eclipses. This introduces a new and largely unexplored dimension to the meanings that have been attached to the worship of the sacred bull. According to Plutarch the Apis was the embodiment of the spirit of Osiris and was born as a calf from a cow that had been inseminated by a beam of light that had come from the moon.

“The Apis, they say, is the animate image of Osiris, and he comes into being when a fructifying light thrusts forth from the moon and falls upon a cow in her breeding season… There are some who would make the legend an allegorical reference to matters touching eclipses; for the moon suffers eclipses only when she is full, with the sun directly opposite to her, and she falls into the shadow of the earth, as they say Osiris fell into his coffin. Then again, the moon herself obscures the sun and causes solar eclipses…”²

The reference to the cow being struck with a beam of light from heaven is a metaphorical device to implant the idea that it was inseminated by the gods. Plutarch goes further than this by implying that the legends surrounding the birth of the Apis are related to the eclipses of both the moon and the sun. “There are some who would make the legend an allegorical reference to matters touching eclipses…”

From continuous observation of the passage of the five known planets along the ecliptic (the path of the sun through the stars) ancient civilizations would have been able to decipher the 19 year Metonic cycle. The related knowledge of the 18 year saros cycle enabled them to predict eclipses, especially of the moon.

A visual phenomenon of the ecliptic is that it passes through the horns of the bull in the Taurus constellation. Later civilizations defined this area of the sky as the Taurus Constellation but it is likely that this cosmic gateway was defined by the distinctive stellar horns by the earliest human civilizations. Thus the formulae that determined eclipses was associated with the sacred bull and explains the statement by Plutarch that “there are some who would make the legend (of the Apis) an allegorical reference to matters touching eclipses.”

The documented close connection between the Minoan and Egyptian civilizations suggests that the myth of the Minotaur is linked to that of the Apis. Both cultures celebrated these deified manifestations of bulls as among their most important gods. Both cultures are also associated with labyrinths famed in their time.

The Minotaur is recognized as having an astronomical origin but this is usually interpreted as signifying the 8 year lunar-solar cycle. This cycle corrects the discrepancy between the length of the solar and lunar years. However, the Octaeteris cycle has no correlation to the extensive use of the 9 year time period in the Labyrinth myths.

One of the names attached to the Minotaur was ‘Asterios’ or ‘Asterion’ meaning that this was a bull formed of stars. Thus the myth is clearly set in the cosmos and the bull has an astronomical significance. “And she (Pasiphae) gave birth to Asterios, who was called the Minotaur. He had the face of a bull, but the rest of him was human; and Minos, in compliance with certain oracles, shut him up and guarded him in the Labyrinth.”³

Redevelopment of the palace in Knossos has been dated to period that encompassed the years 1860-1814 BC. This was a period when an extraordinary sequence of three solar eclipses passed directly over Crete. The myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth is associated with the palace in Crete and it can be shown that the concept of the Labyrinth is based on the phenomenon of eclipses.

“… but Heaven also laid it waste, for barrenness and pestilence smote it sorely, and its rivers dried up; also that when their god assured them in his commands that if they appeased Minos and became reconciled to him, the wrath of Heaven would abate and there would be an end of their miseries, they sent heralds and made their supplication and entered into an agreement to send him every 9 years a tribute of 7 youths and as many maidens. And the most dramatic version of the story declares that these young men and women, on being brought to Crete, were destroyed by the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, or else wandered about as their own will and, being unable to find an exit, perished there; and that the Minotaur, as Euripides says was: ‘A mingled form and hybrid birth of monstrous shape, two different natures, man and bull, were joined in him…”⁴

Plutarch states here that at the core of the myth are 7 females and 7 males that are sent as tribute by Athens every 9 years to the Labyrinth in Crete where they are devoured by the Minotaur or otherwise perish in the Labyrinth. In this astronomical context the 7 maidens represent the moon and the 7 youths represent the sun. They are sent to the Labyrinth every 9 years and these numerals indicate that the myth reflects a fusion of the Metonic and saros cycles.

The numeral 7 is intrinsic to the Metonic cycle and 9 intrinsic to the saros cycle, both numerals being incorporated into the myth. The 7 female and 7 male sacrificial humans are a reference to the Metonic cycle where the discrepancy between the solar year and 12 lunar months is resolved after 19 years. In order to achieve this resolution, and keep the moon derived months matching the sun derived seasons, 7 months were extracted (killed) over the course of the 19 year period. The differentiation between 7 males and 7 females symbolizes the opposing dynamics of the sun and the moon.

Decoding the Labyrinth reveals this result, which is essentially a fusion of the 19 year Metonic cycle and the 18 year saros cycle:

“… every 9 years a tribute of 7 youths and as many maidens.”

7+7 weeks (7 maidens and 7 youths) = 98 days (14 x 7 = 98) every 9 years.

“… were destroyed by the Minotaur in the Labyrinth…”

These 98 days were destroyed in the Labyrinth every 9 years, a period now defined as a sar or half-saros cycle. Doubling this to the full 18 year saros cycle results in the annihilation of 196 days (98 x 2 =196). 196 days equals 7 (sidereal) months of 28 days (7 x 28 = 196). The saros period of 18 years is aligned to the 19 year Metonic cycle where 7 months are extracted to resolve the discrepancy between the lunar and solar cycles.

The use of a 9 year cycle in the myth of the Labyrinth shows that the saros cycle had been understood at this early date when the myth of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur was being disseminated. The 9 year cycle is now termed the ‘sar’ being a half-saros cycle. In the 9 year half-saros cycle eclipses alternate between lunar and solar and therefore are consistent with the male/female duality in the Labyrinth myths. In the full saros cycle an eclipse will be replicated with an eclipse of similar characteristics every 18 years, albeit over a different region of the earth.

The Metonic cycle was utilized in Athens from 432 BC. “The account is also given that the god (of the sun) visits the island every 19 years, the period in which the return of the stars to the same place in the heavens is accomplished; and for this reason the 19 year period is called by the Greeks the ‘year of Meton.'”⁵

In the 9 year sar cycle, one half of the 18 year full saros cycle, there will be alternating solar and lunar eclipses every 9 years. This would have been discovered long before the full 18 year saros cycle because the very narrow path of solar eclipses, that repeat in different areas of the planet, hindered the search for an ecliptic cycle. A triple saros cycle of 54 years would be needed to partially correct the location of the eclipses in different areas of the earth. The lunar cycle of eclipses is evident over a much broader section of the planet allowing a connection to be made between a solar eclipse and then a lunar eclipse 9 years later.

Thus the 18 year saros cycle was discovered by default as a repeating pattern of 9 year cycles alternating between lunar and solar eclipses. The extraordinary concurrence of three solar eclipses during four years over the location of the Cretan Labyrinth illuminates the meanings behind the Labyrinth’s symbolism. The three solar eclipses (two of which achieved totality or near totality) over this region of the Mediterranean could have been integrated with lunar eclipses that occurred 9 years before and 9 years after each solar eclipse.

There were six lunar eclipses in this category, though not all would have been visible from this region. From those that were visible, due to the much greater visibility of lunar eclipses over large areas of the earth, a 9 year cycle connecting lunar and solar eclipses would have become evident. Other cycles, such as the Metonic cycle, were focused on resolving the discrepancy between the cycles of the sun and the moon. The nature of 9 year cycle where there is a repeated cycle linking the eclipses of the moon and sun would have been seen as having an extraordinary significance. This is confirmed by the myths that relate that the 9 year cycle was the law of the gods.

Plato states that the Cretans received their laws directly from the gods, in their case Zeus or his equivalent. The laws had a sacred nature being inspired by the gods and this inspiration was determined by a 9 year cycle.

“(Athenian) To whom do you ascribe the authorship of your legal arrangements, Strangers? To a god or to some man?

(Clinias) To a god, Stranger, and most rightfully to a god. We Cretans call Zeus our lawgiver…

(Athenian) Do you then, like Homer, say that Minos used to go every ninth year to hold converse with his father Zeus, and that he was guided by his divine oracles in laying down laws for your cities?”⁶

Here Plato references Homer, reinforcing the concept of a 9 year cycle of divinely inspired laws. Homer states that every 9 years the legendary Minos, founder of the labyrinth, consulted with Zeus himself.

“(Odysseus) There is a fair and fruitful island in mid-ocean called Crete, it is thickly peopled and there are nine cities in it… There is a great town there, Knossos, where Minos reigned who every nine years had a conference with Zeus himself.”⁷

“Daedalus in countless corridors built bafflement, and hardly could himself make his way out, so puzzling was the maze. Within this labyrinth Minos shut fast the beast, half bull, half man, and fed him twice on Attic blood, lot-chosen each nine years, until the third choice mastered him. The door, so difficult, which none of those before could find again, by Ariadne’s aid was found, the thread that traced the way rewound.”⁸

Priests observing the movement of the planets, or wandering stars, would have noticed that they pass in an ecliptic arc through the space between the Hyades and Pleiades clusters. The continual passage of stars through the cosmic gateway or heavenly portal could be linked to concepts of human resurrection. This region of the night sky is defined by the horns of the bull in the Taurus constellation. The distinctive nature of these horns formed of stars suggest that they inspired the most ancient religious cosmology.

The ecliptic line passes through the sacred bull’s horns that are formed of stars. This remarkable fusion of the ecliptic path and an evocative asterism of stellar horns potentially illuminates the Minoan ritual of bull-leaping. Depictions of this rite show the participants leaping through the horns of a bull. The so-called ‘Horns of Consecration’ when placed by the Minoans on high vantage points define an area of the night sky replicating the stellar horns that define the ecliptic gateway.

The myths of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth prove through their numerology that the Minoans were aware of the saros cycle, especially in its nine year half-saros or sar form. Knowledge of the saros cycle can therefore be attributed to one of the earliest European civilizations long before the current view of its discovery. An ability to predict eclipses appears to be a foundational element in religious belief in that it inspires the human instinct to probe the cosmos and its replicating cycles that were seen as the ultimate divine laws.

NASA data shows the three solar eclipses passing over or close to Crete. NASA computerized dates have to be adjusted by one year to conform with the historical calendar (and the year zero) so that -1857 becomes 1858 BC.

The data shows the nine year cycle of alternating solar and lunar eclipses. Using NASA data the documented nine year cycle is as follows:

Lunar eclipse 2 November 1849 BC (partial saros 16). Nine years later: solar eclipse of 27 October 1858 BC (annular saros 23). Nine years later: lunar eclipse 23 October 1867 BC (partial saros 16)

Lunar eclipse 20 May 1850 BC (total saros 1). Nine years later: solar eclipse 15 May 1859 BC (total saros 8). Nine years later: lunar eclipse 9 May 1868 BC (total saros 1)

Lunar eclipse 13 January 1852 BC (partial saros 14). Nine years later: solar eclipse 9 January 1861 (total saros 21). Nine years later: lunar eclipse 3 January 1870 BC (partial saros 14)

1. Ovid – Metamorphoses 8.130
2. Plutarch – Isis and Osiris 44
3. Apollodorus 3.1.4
4. Plutarch – Theseus 15
5. Diodorus Siculus – Diodorus of Sicily 2.47
6. Plato – Laws 1.624
7. Homer – Odyssey 19
8. Ovid – Metamorphoses 8.130

THE ROD OF GOD

“And Moses said unto Joshua, choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.”¹

The heliacal rising of Sirius heralded the annual inundation of the Nile and the resulting fertilization of the fields. Sirius, the brightest star in the firmament was a foundational element of Egyptian religion representing fertility and renewal. Ancient writers recognized the relationship of Sirius to the Orion constellation and these to the star clusters of the Hyades and Pleiades. Hesiod invokes “strong Orion” as a virile metaphor that indicates the connection between the rising of these stars.

“But when Orion and Sirius are come into midheaven, and rosy-fingered Dawn sees Arcturus, then cut off all the grape-clusters, Perses, and bring them home. Show them to the sun ten days and ten nights: then cover them over for fire, and on the sixth day draw off into vessels the gifts of joyful Dionysus. But when the Pleiades and strong Orion begin to set, then remember to plough in season: and so the completed year will fitly pass beneath the earth. But if desire for uncomfortable sea-faring seize you when the Pleiades plunge into the misty sea to escape Orion’s rude strength, then truly gales of all kinds rage.”²

In Mesopotamian myth Sirius was termed the ‘Arrow Star’ with sections of what is termed Canis Major forming the bow. The shaft of this ‘arrow’ intersects with the three stars of Orion’s Belt and a sacred geometric line therefore connects all four stars whose rising is associated with the inundation of the Nile.

The shaft of the phallus is thus drawn across the sky with the testicles formed of subsidiary stars at the base of the phallic line. It is this image of a phallus that resonates in Hesiod’s reference to Orion and Sirius coming into midheaven. The image is reinforced by the concept of phallic potency created by the expression of “strong Orion” and “Orion’s rude strength.”

The Sah/Orion constellation in ancient Egypt appeared to terminate at the Orion’s Belt stars. These are interpreted as forming the crown of a figure that incorporates the lower part of the contemporary Orion constellation. In archaic times it appears far more likely that this crown represented the corona (crown) of the phallus of stars that is consistent with ancient texts.

The line that originates at Sirius and runs through the three stars of Orion’s Belt can be extended upwards where it will intersect with the relatively adjacent Hyades cluster. It is this cluster together with the reddish or orange tinged Aldebaran that traditionally forms the eye of the bull in the Taurus constellation. The Pleiades cluster also forms part of this constellation or lies just outside the horns of the bull.

This line or axis of the heavens can be further extended to the Pleiades cluster. The result is an axial line drawn from Sirius through the three stars of Orion’s Belt continuing through the Hyades cluster and terminating at the Pleiades cluster. The linear axis passes in close proximity to Aldebaran, traditionally the blood-red eye of the Taurus bull.

The extinct aurochs was a wild antecedent of the domesticated ox and modern cattle. In the pre-historic conception of the heavens this would have been associated with the distinctive horns of what is now termed the Taurus bull. An echo of this original concept is contained in the ‘Hymn to Hermes’ which links the deity both to the Pleiades cluster and the horns of the Taurus bull which are defined by the Hyades cluster. “So soon as he (Hermes) had leaped from his mother’s heavenly womb (Maia of the Pleiades cluster), he lay not long waiting in his holy cradle, but he sprang up and sought the oxen of Apollo.”³

Maia was metamorphosed into one of the seven stars of the Pleiades cluster. She gave birth to Hermes establishing a direct link between the Pleiades and Hermes. The myth of the infant Hermes in the ‘Hymn to Hermes’ recounts his theft of the cattle of Apollo. To hide this theft Hermes contrived to turn the hoofs of the cattle around to point their tracks in the opposite direction. This movement of the cattle in the reverse direction to Hermes is a potential reference to the path of the stars as they appear to shift backwards across the sky. “Also, he bethought him of a crafty ruse and reversed the marks of their hoofs, making the front behind and the hind before, while he himself walked the other way.”⁴

The Hyades were identified with rain in ancient folklore with their heliacal rising and setting signalling the approach of the rainy season. The concept was bound to the tearful nature of the myths attached to the constellation. “Some say they (the Hyades) are so called because they bring rain when they rise, for to rain is ‘hyein’ in Greek.”⁵

Likewise the Pleiades are associated with rain. The setting of the Pleiades in November heralded the coming of storms. “By heaven’s law Zeus had drawn the Pleiades stormy constellation down from the firmament as he rolled the earth upon its everlasting course, and straightway rain streams everywhere.”⁶

There is an equivalence between Sirius heralding the inundation of the Nile and the Hyades and Pleiades clusters signalling rain and storms. These stars were directly associated with fertilizing the earth through rain or the flooding of the Nile and were intersected by an axis that ran through them that also connected with the three stars of Orion’s Belt. A straight line such as this was part of the sacred geometry of the heavens and appeared to be associated with generative potency.

There is here the direct linkage between Osiris, lord of the underworld and the deity representing resurrection, and the life-giving secretion of moisture and semen by the Nile. The body of Osiris had been hacked into pieces which were eventually recovered and reassembled by Isis. Significantly the genital parts of Osiris had been thrown into the Nile and remained lost in the river conferring on the flooding and foaming waters the fertilizing potency of the deity. “As they regard the Nile as the effusion of Osiris, so they hold and believe the earth to be the body of Isis, not all of it, but so much of it as the Nile covers, fertilizing and uniting with it.”⁷

Rain itself could be linked to a shower of semen fertilizing the earth. The duality of the heavens and the earth was likened to the copulation of humans. A central element was the moisture without which life could not exist. Moisture was in the rain, fructifying the earth, and part of the substance of semen. This vital water appeared to be connected to the sacred geometry of the stars and contained the divine code involved in all creation. “They think that Homer, like Thales, had gained his knowledge from the Egyptians when he postulated water as the source and origin of all things…”⁸

In the ‘Aeneid’ the power of the golden wand of Hermes enables him to fly through the air with specific reference to flying through storms. The wand is described as having the capacity of guiding the souls of the dead and opening the eyes of the dead.

“Then he (Hermes) took up his wand: he calls pale ghosts from Orcus

with it, sending others down to grim Tartarus,

gives and takes away sleep, and opens the eyes of the dead.

Relying on it, he drove the winds, and flew through

the stormy clouds.”⁹

The ability to resurrect the dead is related to the quality of flight symbolized by the wings that are attached to the wand in later depictions. As the messenger of the gods the ability to travel among the stars is symbolized by the linear axis that is drawn in the stars. This in itself represents the herald that is carried by the deity.

Homer places the wand in a dark cave inhabited by bats metaphorically representing the souls of the dead. The context is then of the night with the bats or human souls set against the night sky. Bats as creatures of the night flying against the stellar backdrop symbolize human souls as they are guided into the immortal dimension of the stars.

“Meanwhile Cyllenian Hermes called forth the spirits of the wooers. He held in his hands his wand, a fair wand of gold, wherewith he lulls to sleep the eyes of whom he will, while others again he wakens even out of slumber; with this he roused and led the spirits, and they followed gibbering. And as in the innermost recess of a wondrous cave bats flit about gibbering, when one has fallen from off the rock from the chain in which they cling to one another, so these went with him gibbering, and Hermes, the Helper, led them down the dank ways.”¹⁰

The cave in which the scene is set recalls the cave in which Hermes was born. This was the cave of Maia, represented by one of the stars of the Pleiades cluster, and was therefore associated with the nocturnal heavens. “Muse, sing of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia, lord of Cyllene and Arcadia rich in flocks, the luck-bringing messenger of the immortals whom Maia bare, the rich-tressed nymph, when she was joined in love with Zeus, – a shy goddess, for she avoided the company of the blessed gods, and lived within a deep, shady cave… For then she bare a son, of many shifts, blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods.”¹¹

Accretions to the myth of Hermes resulted in the depiction of writhing or copulating snakes on either side of the wand. These enhanced the quality of resurrection by association with the ability of snakes to shed their skins. The addition of snakes to the wand thus indicated the potential for the soul to be reborn through shedding its mortal skin.

“Figures of serpents are joined to their images, then, because they insure that human bodies are rejuvenated and regain their original vigour, as though by shedding their old skin of infirmity, just as serpents are rejuvenated from one year to the next by shedding the skin of old age. For that reason, too, the serpent’s likeness is related to the sun himself, because the sun always returns from the old age, as it were, of its nadir and regains its acme, as thought restored to robust youth.”¹²

This invocation of the cosmic renewal of the heavens as evidenced by the weakening of the power of the sun over winter and its rejuvenation in the spring. The eternal backdrop of the stars offered the prospect of the resurrection of the human soul stripped of its mortal body.

The line that is drawn from Sirius through Orion’s Belt to the Hyades and then the Pleiades is described by Homer as Orion’s “refulgent (brightly shining) beam.” As such it forms the “axle of the sky” around which the universe revolves.

“The Pleiades, Hyades, with the northern team;

and great Orion’s more refulgent beam;

to which, around the axle of the sky,

the Bear, revolving, points his golden eye…”¹³

The two star clusters of the Pleiades and the Hyades form the boundary markers of the ecliptic path which passes between them. They thus form the gates of a heavenly portal. These cosmic boundary markers reflect the ancient practise of placing piles of stones to mark crossroads or sacred locations. Through this space pass the planets along the ecliptic which as moving stars contrast with the relatively static backdrop of the heavens.

Piles of stones, reminiscent of these clusters of stars, were originally used to mark boundaries and the crossings of roads or tracks. These eventually evolved into herms – the phallic manifestations of Hermes. Thus herms were closely associated with the sacred (golden) geometry of the night sky and the path of Hermes, the deity representing travellers and the messenger of the gods as he traversed the sacred line that ran from Sirius through Orion’s Belt to the Hyades and Pleiades clusters.

Hence the refulgent beam or axle of the sky referenced by Homer could be identified as the golden wand of Hermes. The line of stars that leads up to the ecliptic arc through which the moving stars or planets pass in an eternal cycle can be seen as equivalent to the Hermetic wand. The golden wand of Hermes conferred immortality on the souls of the dead awakening them from their slumber. “Thine is the wand which causes sleep to fly, or lulls to slumberous rest the weary eye; for Persephone, through Tartaros dark and wide, gave thee forever flowing souls to guide.”¹⁴

Macrobius states that the form of the caduceus was derived from the Egyptians indicating the fluidity between Hermes and the equivalent Egyptian deity, Thoth. “… his wand, the caduceus, which the Egyptians fashioned in the shape of two intertwined serpents, male and female, and consecrated to Mercury (Hermes). These serpents are bound together at the middle by the so-called knot of Hercules; their heads and necks, curving round in a circle, are joined in a kiss to complete the circle; and below the knot their tails rejoin the caduceus’ hilt and are equipped with wings that sprout from the same part of the wand.”¹⁵

An alchemical equivalence has also been drawn between Hermes and the biblical figure of Moses as evidenced by Moses nailing a snake to the cross. Exodus reveals the deeply archaic nature of the rod, shaft or wand of the deity metamorphosing into a serpent or snake.

“And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”¹⁶

1. Exodus 17:9
2. Hesiod – Works and Days 609-621
3. Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes 20
4. Ibid. 77
5. Hyginus – Fabulae 192
6. Valerius Flaccus – Argonautica 2.356
7. Plutarch – Isis and Osiris 38
8. Ibid. 34
9. Virgil – Aeneid 4
10. Homer – Odyssey 24.1
11. Homeric hymn 4 to Hermes 1-16
12. Macrobius – Saturnalia 1.20.2
13. Homer – Iliad 18
14. Orphic Hymn 57 to Chthonian Hermes
15. Macrobius – Saturnalia 1.19.16
16. Exodus 7:10-12