CHARYBDIS.
I lashed together both keel and mast,
then rode the two of them. (XII: 424).
View of west entrance of Charybdis (Corryvreckan), seen from
Skylla's (Breckan's) cave.
A map is desirable to follow Odysseus'
next adventures.
Odysseus was soon to find out how true Kirke's predictions were. While
underway, he told his men what Kirke had said;
"So as I was telling all the details to my companions,
meanwhile the well-made ship was coming rapidly closer to the Sirens' isle, for the
harmless wind was driving her onward; but immediately then the breeze dropped and a
windless calm fell there" (XII: 165). The men stored the sails and "took
their places for rowing, and with their planed oar blades whitened the water"
(XII: 171).
Odysseus had plugged his men's ears with beeswax and had himself tied
to the mast to resist the temptation of the Sirens. A call from the shore then reached his
ears:
"Come this way, honored Odysseus, great glory of the Achaians and
stay your ship, so that you can listen here to our singing; for no one else has ever
sailed past this place in his black ship until he has listened to the honey-sweet voice
that issues from our lips"
(XII: 188).
Homer's description places the island of the Sirens between Aiaia (Barra) and Charybdis
(Corryvreckan). Is there such an island where the meadow slopes down to the water of a
narrow channel and where the secondary burial custom was practiced? Only one: the Isle of
Iona. Homer tells us that the skeletons were stacked in heaps on the shore. They had been
delivered to the beach by boat from the many corpse exposure caves in the Hebrides where
the bodies remained until the bones were dry and could be gathered.
"They sit in their meadow, but the beach before it is
piled with bone heaps of men now rotted away, and the skins shrivel upon them. You must
drive straight on past.... (XII: 45-47).
Primary burial in those days occurred in suitable caves all along the west coasts of
Scotland or, where such caves were not available, in specially built exposure centers such
as Grianan of Aileagh, where men and women were treated exactly the same. Secondary or
final burial of the bones took place in a stone roofed tomb. The tomb roof was domed to
resemble a pregnant belly for rebirth and the chamber inside was the womb. The bones were
carefully bundled by the women and then taken from the beach and carried ceremoniously
three times sunwise around the monument before being brought through the simulated birth
canal into the uterus chamber of the tomb. This was a civilization in which no one died
and everyone was reborn in a new body. A somewhat similar form of reburial was continued
in Christian times and today many of the skeletons of saints and important church people
may be seen displayed in glass cases in older Roman Catholic churches and elsewhere.
Marija Gimbutas, in her book "The Civilization of the Goddess" writes:
"The ritual of collecting the bones years after the
person's death and placing them in ossuaries is still practiced in southern Europe
(Italy), in eastern Europe (Slavic countries) and in south eastern Europe (Greece). The
reburial of the dead after five years is recorded in Thessaly, northern Greece, as late as
the 1980's. The burial soon after death is considered here to be temporary, but elaborate
memorial services take place on the third, ninth and fourtieth days after death. ......The
decaying flesh must disappear, purified by the powers of destruction. Only then can it
begin the journey to the ancestors." (p.296)
In some parts of the Basque country women still dig up the bones of
family members buried some years before, they bundle them together and give them a final
burial in the church cellar or other holy place. The most important holy burial place in
Scotland was on Iona, located in the middle of the large meadow on the site of the present
monastery, where Martin Martin in 1695 noticed peculiar reverence.
It may even be one of the oldest continuously used cemeteries in the world, if not the
oldest. Today the still active cemetery is located next to the restored monastery
buildings. The meadow, monastery and cemetery on Iona are each year the destination of
tens of thousands of modern pilgrims.
Monastery built from the stones of the Bronze Age barrow tomb
from Odysseus' time.
It appears that the grass meadow surrounding the monastery is underlain
by masses of building stone, probably once belonging to the large stone-roofed tomb which
was then dismantled and used by the early monks who arrived with St. Aran in 548 A.D. It
is likely that the sanctuary of the monastery is built exactly on the spot of the central
chamber of the ancient monument. Adomnan (p.115) mentions a building he called
"Cabana" (46b) which was used as a drying house for grain by lighting a fire
under a wicker wheel, upon which the ears of grain were laid. Reeves (p.88, 440)
identified the Cabana with the remains of a stone kiln. This may have been a remnant of
the large barrow tomb. Some puzzling foundation stones were exposed when the monastery
church foundation was being repaired early in this century, which could have been entrance
or roof-support stones of the neolithic barrow tomb, the home of the ancestors and the
ultimate destination of the skeletons which Odysseus saw piled up on the beach. The Bronze
Age barrow tomb must have been enormous because there still are plenty of excellent
building stones around to build another large monastery.
Iona is the only island in the Hebrides where all above-ground evidence
of neolithic habitation and monuments has been totally eliminated, an indication of the
great determination of the early Christians to eradicate all traces of the earlier Goddess
religion and the historical importance of this most holy site. The monks had been
instructed to commit this vandalism in Exodus 34:13:
"You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and
cut down their asherim" and more explicitly in Deuteronomy 12:2,3: "You
shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served
their god upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree; you shall
tear down their altars and dash to pieces their pillars and burn their asherim with fire;
you shall hew down the graven images of their gods and destroy their name out of that
place".
There was no high mountain on Iona and the dunes that are there can
hardly be called hills, but destroy the monks did just the same. The asherim they burned
may have been made of mountain ash, the word ashola in Basque still means care or
concern. The sacred tree, called asherah or plural asherim in the Bible, was reported
planted in the Near East beside each altar. Its scientific name is Ficus sicomorus, which
we would call the Sycamore fig today. In the tropics of India and South East Asia another
fig, the Ficus religiosa, served the same purpose, and had the same edible berries. As the
tree represented one aspect of the Goddess, the writers of the Old Testament condemned the
use of any tree beside the altar:
you shall not plant any tree as an ashera beside the altar of the Lord your
God".
Deuteronomy 16:21).
This Sycamore fig tree, of course, would not grow in Ireland although,
no doubt, it was tried. So another tree had to be found to take its place. The fig had
large clusters of edible red berries suitable for juicing and a tree with similar berries
existed in northern Europe, the Sorbus aucuparia or Mountain Ash, also called Rowan tree.
Every holy well in Ireland and Scotland had either a Mountain Ash or an Oak tree planted
beside it. Even today in the Irish countryside, the Mountain Ash cannot be cut down and
farmers will plow around them. In northern Sweden many people still maintain the tradition
to string nets over their trees to protect the berries from the birds. The berry juice is
considered a delicacy and is full of vitamin C. This fermented juice was used, during
religious ceremonies of the Goddess religion, in a manner similar to the wine which in our
church represents Christ's blood. A few drops of the menstrual blood of the priestess was
added to the fermented Mountain Ash juice and used in the service, about which more in the
chapter on the Timeless Society.
The monks' effort, under the leadership of St. Aran, to build a
monastery on Iona must have been interrupted and initially turned into a failure, because
15 years later, in 563 St. Columba (called Columbkille on Iona), came with a new group of
armed Irish monks and made a surprise entry in a rock-strewn bay on the southern tip of
the island, to begin again the eradication of all evidence of the old religion, and the
monastery construction process started all over. Considering the availability of the mass
of excellent building stone from the destruction of the large barrow tomb, the first
monastery must have been built entirely out of used stones. St. Aran must have been part
of the second group, or returned shortly after the island had been recovered, because it
was from Iona that St. Aran left for Holy Island on the NE coast of England to build a new
monastery there.
Only part of the stones used for the neolithic monument originated on
Iona and therefore a huge amount of rock must have been brought in by boat from Mull and
the other islands served by the religious center. Most of the stones are of a size that
can be carried or rolled by one person from the beach to the barrow tomb. One wonders how
much work it took and how long to collect and transport that many stones to complete the
original barrow tomb. It appears that some of the stones do not belong to types found on
the west coast of Scotland. It wouldn't surprise me if some came from as far away as
Norway and the Baltic.
IONA, ISLE OF KINGS.
The people born on Iona and Mull are absolutely convinced that Iona was
the site where 60 kings of Scotland, Ireland and Norway have been buried, even though the
tourist brochure says: "it is likely that these supposed burials are
fiction". The ancient burials are so much part of the collective memory of the
people and reported for such a very long time, that it is impossible to ignore them.
Martin Martin mentions the burials in the Introduction to his 1695 book "The
Hebrides":
"They can boast that they are honored with the Sepulchers of
eight Kings of Norway, who at this day, with forty eight Kings of Scotland, and four of
Ireland lie entomb'd in the Island of Iona; a Place fam'd then for some peculiar
Sanctity".
These royal burials did not take place in the barrow tomb, but each
prince had his own separate sepulcher as Martin states. It appears that the stones of the
massive barrow tomb were scattered over a large area around the monastery and then covered
with sand for the grassy meadow to be restored. This makes it possible that the 60 royal
graves are still intact below the layer of rocks, although any parts of the sepulchers
that stuck up would have been destroyed or flattened, as Deuteronomy 12:2 instructed. A
good indication of the original elevation of the meadow can be seen by walking on the
recently excavated access road to the front door of the church; the road lies considerably
lower than the area surrounding the church. This raises the possibility that the graves of
the 60 young men could still lie intact under that meter thick cover of rock and sand. But
why would Norwegian kings be buried on Iona? Several bits of information tie Norway to the
Hebrides of Scotland:
1) the fact that the western islanders of both Norway and Scotland
share the same Rh-negative blood peculiarity and therefore belonged to the same
tribe on their ocean migration from Morocco to the Basque country, Ireland and Norway.
2) the royal burials on Iona,
3) the certainty that Bronze-Age ocean travel between the two countries
had existed since at least 8,000 B.C. and
4) the historical connection with the Hebrides, which for some
centuries were governed by Norway in the early Middle Ages.
Several boats depicted on the Scandinavian rock carvings are almost
certainly currachs, the skin boats used by the neolithic people of Ireland and the
Hebrides and still in use today. The highly traditional people in Norway must have long
remembered, and indeed long maintained, contact with the old religious centers. It should
not be forgotten that there were two quite different types of people who had settled in
Norway. The dark-featured type on the islands, arriving by boat over the Atlantic, and the
blond, blue-eyed Vikings/Phaikians on the mainland, arriving from Denmark. The blond types
came from the Ukraine where rocks suitable for the building of barrows were scarce or
totally absent. They therefore had been forced to abandon this burial custom and had to
switch to burying in the ground, as practised by the Vikings who later used entire long
boats to bury their leaders in.
THE SINGING GIRLS OF IONA.
"....that man who unsuspectingly approaches them, and listens to the
Sirens singing, has no prospect of coming home and delighting his wife and little
children." (XII: 40-43).
The girls were singing to Odysseus and his crew, standing on the shore
of the sloping meadow of Iona when the ship passed by. Mr. Bruce Way, a local historian,
had suggested a reason for their singing.. He points to the creek which to this day runs
past the back of the monastery. The water comes from an acid peat bog and is ideal for
shrinking the locally made tweed cloth, especially when mixed with urine. Mr. Way suggests
that the women who used to do this work, sang rhythmic songs called "waulking
songs" as they passed the long woven cloth from person to person, while in between
making noises imitating the slopping sound of the washing motion. The people who did the
waulking were known as waulkers which, in time, became the family name Walker. The word is
still in use in Germany where its form is "walken", the process of felt making
(to be compacted or felted, to pummel or cudgel), in English called "to full"
originating the family name Fuller. Many of the waulking songs are still remembered by
older Scottish people and are experiencing a revival as folk songs.
Another possibility is that Iona had a staff of women whose duty it was
to attend to the proper care and placement of the bones of the ancestors. These being
extremely hospitable people, and probably in need of some excitement, they hailed any ship
passing by with singing. There is no doubt that these people knew that Odysseus was on his
way to the ordeal in the whirlpool and they must have wished him a last singing farewell.
We may never know what exactly they were doing but it could have been very pleasant or
even fun, not macabre as Homer makes it out.
.PASSING THE FIERY ROVERS.
Homer paints a frightful picture of the volcanic islands between Iona
and Charybdis:
"On the one side there are overhanging rocks, and against them
crashes the heavy swell of Amphitrite. The blessed gods call these rocks the Rovers. By
this way not even any flying thing, not even the tremulous doves, which carry ambrosia to
Zeus the father, can pass through.." (XII: 59).
"No ship of men that came here ever has fled through, but the
waves of the sea and storms of ravening fire carry away together the ship's timbers and
the men's bodies. That way the only seagoing ship to get through was Argo..."
(XII: 66).
The Rovers have names like Dutchman's Cap, Lunga, Fladda, Burgh Beg,
Burgh More and are all built up of layer upon layer of lava, a sight to see. The islands
are indeed very close together but not so close that the doves can't fly in between, or a
ship to sail through. These lava flows were deposited eons ago and some have crystallized
into massive walls of upright basaltic columns which break off progressively in steps,
which in Ulster, Ireland is called the Giant's staircase. In several places the stone
crystals are not upright but lean towards each other, creating Gothic-like arches which
the sea has excavated underneath into some very large eerie caverns, such as in Fingal's
Cave on Staffa, which has become a famous tourist attraction. Some of these caves, in the
early days, were used for storing boats and fishing gear through the winter, in fact,
another such cave on Staffa is still called Boat Cave.
Basaltic rock formation on the Isle of Staffa, beside Fingal's
cave.
It may be interesting to draw attention to the same type of basaltic
rock formation in the ancient religious center of the Goddess located at the 2000 meter
level in the Ahoggar Mountains of southeastern Algiers. Part of this very rough
mountainous area is made up of huge basaltic rock formations, just like the volcanic area
of northern Ireland and the islands described above. The area of the volcanic rocks in the
Hebrides was known as the done-alde, the done (sanctified) alde (region): the
holy region, and it is tempting to attribute that respect to the similar rock
formations near the center of the Goddess religion in the Ahoggar. The
"done-alde" is now the name of the MacDonald family, whose area it must have
been in the early days. The Ziggurats of Mesopotamia show columnar decorations on the
steep sides of these imitation mountains, as if the basaltic crystals of the Ahoggar
mountains were being imitated. In addition, the Ziggurats were covered with a thick
bituminous layer to protect the underlying sun-dried clay bricks from the artificially
watered forest (the hanging gardens) which had been planted on top and apparently had
species of trees growing there which were also (and still are) growing in the Ahoggar. In
these miniature forests on top of the Ziggurat the priestess had her temple and practiced
her trade, just as had been done in the Ahoggar. Such an elevated garden is mentioned in
the Bible as a hanging garden.
Apollonius of Rhodes, the author of the voyage of the Argo, who lived
long after Homer, must have drawn on Homer's information to make up a travelogue for Jason
and Medea. Homer's remark about "ravening fire" might possibly refer to the
wildly foaming sea smashing against the basaltic coasts, but it is also a small
possibility that they saw the volcanic vents in a last show of dramatic fiery action. This
was embellished by Apollonius when he wrote: The gurgling whirlpool of Charybdis."
(Apollonius IV: 759-795). 
Odysseus had no problem sailing through the Rovers but he soon had his
first glimpse of threatful Corryvreckan between Jura and Scarba, which mile-wide channel
lies 45 km from Iona.
PASSING THROUGH CHARYBDIS.
The ocean west of Corryvreckan is very deep and, as the
incoming tide from the Atlantic becomes constricted by islands in a wide type of funnel
and the pressure builds up, the speed of the water and the turbulence in the narrow
passages between the islands increases. Between Jura and Scarba lies a shallow
"sill" which forces the mass of deep incoming water up to the surface in
enormous circular upwellings, "like a caldron over a strong fire" (XII:
237) as Homer said, reported to rise up to 2 meters above the level of the sea under
normal conditions. The comparison with boiling water in a cauldron is the best possible
analogy to describe the phenomenon. When it storms, the turbulence of the water and the
sound of massive waves pounding the shores produce a roar which can be heard four miles
away. Even on a fairly normal day the waves are so high and the speed of the tidal race so
great that it takes great skill and a reliable boat to pass through Corryvreckan safely.
The Royal Navy has the passage classified as "unnavigable". There really is no
need for anyone to go this way because there are safer routes to take by going around the
islands, although another passage of similar difficulty is found north of Scarba. It is
into this dangerous situation that Odysseus steers his boat:
"But after we had left the (Sirens') island behind, the next
thing we saw was smoke, and a heavy surf, and we heard it thundering. The men were
terrified and they let the oars fall out of their hands, and these banged all about in the
wash. The ship stopped still, with the men no longer rowing to keep way on her" (XII:
201). "Then I going up and down the ship urged on my companions, standing beside
each man and speaking to him in kind words" (XII: 201-207).
West entrance of Charybdis, showing line of surf on very quiet
day.
The sight and sound of the boiling surf ahead was so overwhelming that
Odysseus had to encourage his men to carry on. He had wisely omitted to tell them what
Kirke had said about the toll which the cave monster Skylla would demand for safe passage.
Then the ship entered the first heavy surf of the channel and Odysseus steered to the
right side as instructed by Kirke:
"So we sailed up the narrow strait lamenting. On one side was
Skylla and on the other was shining Charybdis, who made her terrible ebb and flow of the
sea's water. When she vomited it up like a caldron over a strong fire, the whole sea would
boil up in turbulence and the foam flying, splattered the pinnacles of the rocks in either
direction"
(XII: 234-239).
Those who think Odysseus is sailing in the Mediterranean should see and
experience Corryvreckan for themselves, because this is the only place existing on earth
which in detail answers Homer's description. The thunder Odysseus talks about has not
diminished to this day. Tim Severin, in his book "The Ulysses Voyage" (p.234 and
240), while on his futile search for Charybdis in the Mediterranean, was confounded by the
graphic description and concluded Homer had greatly exaggerated. One look at Charybdis
during high tide will convince anyone that there was no exaggeration in Homer's words.
"But when in turn again she sucked down the sea's salt water, the
turbulence showed all the inner sea, and the rock around it groaned terribly, and the
ground showed at the sea bottom, black with sand; and green fear seized upon my
companions" (XII: 240-3).
A similar tale is told by Sindbad the Sailor, who is attacked by
two giant birds throwing rocks:
"When they were directly above us, one of them let fall its missile, which
narrowly missed the ship and made such a chasm in the ocean that for a moment we could see
the sandy bottom" (1001 nights, p 148)
Homer's description is of course nonsense, because the bottom
of Charybdis never shows in the whirlpool. The 1001 nights story may well be older than
the Odyssey, which would have made it possible for Homer to borrow ideas from it for his
own epic. Sindbad's boat was hit by a second rock which crushed the ship, killed the crew,
and Sindbad also
"managed to cling to a floating piece of wreckage. Sitting
astride this, I paddled with my feet, and, aided by the wind and current, at length
reached the shore of an island".
All exactly like happened to Odysseus.
SKYLLA'S CAVE.
Odysseus and his men had finally arrived opposite the
entrance of the cave of dreaded Skylla:
"We in fear of destruction kept our eyes on Charybdis, but
meanwhile Skylla out of the hollow vessel snatched six of my companions, the best of them
for strength and hands' work, and when I turned to look at the ship, with my other
companions, I saw their feet and hands from below, already lifted high above me, and they
cried out to me and called me by name, the last time they ever did..." (XII:
244-250).
To visit the six-headed monster's cave, from where
Skylla had reached out with her long necks to seize six of Odysseus' oarsmen with her
terrible teeth, is a must if one wishes to catch the feeling of this awesome place. Skylla
and the skeletons are no longer there but the scary line of wild water and thunder of the
boiling sea in the tidal race, which Odysseus had heard on that fateful day, is just as
real as then. Shivers crept down my spine as I saw the greasy, slime covered stone-strewn
floor where the bodies had lain and Skylla had lived. I became very much aware that
Skylla's dreadful spirit is still present in that awe-inspiring cave.
Remnants of walls closing Skylla's (Breckan's) cave where the
body of the
sacrificed young man was placed for three days, before re-incarnation could take place.
The remnants of three defensive walls and several large slabs of stone,
which look like grave covers, are just outside that mysterious place. There is nobody else
within many miles, just the visitor and Skylla's ghost
listening to the thunder of Charybdis.
WHO WAS SKYLLA?
Standing in front of Skylla's cave, one can admire the
splendid view of the west end of Corryvreckan. The rather drippy cave is not beside
Charybdis but by a small bay, a short distance to the southwest which provides safe
mooring. The bay is called in supposed Gallic: "Gleann nam Muc" which is said to
translate to: "Bay of the Pigs", but "Galean Muker" would be close to
the original language: gale (anxious) -an (inside) muker
(unfriendly), i.e. "anxious and unfriendly inside"; "nam" is a Gallic
throw-in of uncertain meaning. From this cave, Homer tells us, Skylla would reach out and
seize six men from each passing ship as toll, as Homer tells us Odysseus experienced. But
who was Skylla?
A very ancient fable tells us that Skylla was once a beautiful maiden
who had the misfortune to be seen by the sea god Glaucus of the long seaweed hair, when
she washed her feet in the sea. It was love at first sight and Glaucus showed himself on
the surface, but she turned and ran for higher ground until she reached a cliff
overlooking the sea. Here she stopped and listened to him as he expressed his love for
her, but Skylla hastened away. Glaucus, in despair, consulted Kirke who was in love with
Glaucus and considered Skylla her rival. Kirke took plants of poisonous powers and, mixed
with her incantations and charms, poured the brew into the water where Skylla normally
took her bath. Skylla, as was her habit, plunged into the water up to her waist and was
horrified to see herself instantly surrounded by a brood of barking serpents. As she tried
to run out of the water, she was horrified to realize that this nightmare had become part
of her. Where her limbs used to be she found only yawning jaws of monsters. She managed to
drag herself up to the cave in the cliff, where she remained rooted on the spot, while her
temper grew as ugly as her body and took pleasure in devouring hapless mariners (Bulfinch,
"The Age of Fable" 1965, p.60).
PRINCE BRECKAN REMEMBERED.
Martin Martin in his book "The Hebrides"
wrote in 1695:
"This gulf has its name from Brekan, said by some to be son of
the king of Denmark, who was drowned here, cast ashore on the north of Jura, and buried in
a cave, as appears from the stone, tomb and altar there"
But more of the legend was remembered by the local
people and written down by Otta Swire, who is quoted here:
"Better known is the story of Breacan,
Prince of Lochlann, from whom Corryvreckan is said to take its name. Breacan loved a
daughter of the Lord of the Isles and sought her hand in marriage. Her father, having
other plans for his daughter's future, wished to refuse his suit but did not want to anger
the King of Lochlann, the Prince's father. So he explained politely that no marriage would
please him more but that in the Isles a man who was not a competent sailor was useless and
that it was therefore the custom for every young man who sought a wife to prove his skill
and competence to care for her by anchoring his ship for three days and three nights in
the Whirlpool of the Old Woman. Would he, Breacan, do this? Breacan, very much in love,
agreed. He hastened to Lochlann for his galley and there consulted his father's wise men
who first deplored his rash promise and then gave advice. They told him to take three new
cables, the first made of wool sheared from sheep of the first year, the second made of
hemp grown in a graveyard and the third made of maiden's hair, and every hair of it must
come from the head of a maiden of spotless fame. The first two cables were easily come by,
it is said, but the third the wise men were believed to have considered (and hoped)
impossible. But the Prince was young and handsome and when he appealed to the maiden of
Lochlann for their help all went well and he got his three cables and sailed for Jura. In
due course he arrived and anchored his galley by all three cables in the dreaded spot and
the whirlpool gushed and twirled and twisted until at length the woolen cable snapped. But
it had held for a day and a night. On the second day the swirling waters grew wilder and
stronger and the hempen cable parted. The third day dawned clear and calm; it seemed to
the Prince that the rage of the pool was slightly abated though it still whirled
furiously. He had, however, high hopes and put his trust in the maidens's hair cable; but
one had played him false; she was no maiden, nor was her reputation without a spot, and
when the strain came on her hair it broke and the ship with all on board, including Prince
Breacan, were sucked down into the whirlpool which ever since has born his name. But
Breacan's dog sprang clear and then went searching till he found his master's body thrown
up again by the angry waters; he dragged it ashore and for long a cairn marked the spot in
a cave which was also called after him and where he was buried".
The story blaming the girl for Breckan's death because
she wasn't a virgin, is typical Christian moralizing; women could not be trusted, had
always to be under the control of a man and paternity had to be known. The name of the
Isle of Scarba, just a short distance from the whirlpool, seems to indicate that the
drowning was planned and had nothing to do with any unfaithful girl. Sak-arba, sakitu
(to cut) arba (anchor): "cut the anchor" could indicate
that the last cable did not break, but was cut by someone, probably a male priest of the
chief priestess who was on the spot just to ensure Breckan's death. However, the part
about the women giving up their treasured long braids for Damuz, to be woven into the
cable, must be authentic because this also has been reported from the Mediterranean and
Scandinavia. Such long braided tresses appeared to have great personal and religious
significance and several have been found in women's graves in Denmark. The long braided
hair of my own mother, cut off after she married, was carefully treasured by her as a very
special memento until her death at 91. She never knew why she had treasured the braids for
so long, it just was ancient tradition.
An interesting connection with the whirlpool (ubil) is found in Italy.
The person who was selected in 528 A.D. to head the new Benedictine Order of the Roman
Catholic church was given the name Benedict for the occasion. He had previously been in
charge of twelve monastic homes, each with 12 monks in the Subiaco region, east of Rome.
The word Subiaco became the rallying cry of the Benedictine monks who went to the British
Isles to bring orthodox Christianity to the "heathens" and "heretics".
The name Subiaco comes from:
.su - ubi - ako,
isurikatu - ubil - akorduan euki
to waste a life - whirlpool - to remember
"Remember the waste of life in the whirlpool"
A man being voluntarily sacrificed for the good of the land, his
people and to confirm his faith, had been well described from several locations, but the
new clergy had always attempted to cover it up or made sure that the sacrificial victims
were either forgotten or ridiculed. It seems clear that the memory of any pre-Christian
deaths, similar to Christ's voluntary sacrifice on the cross, had to be eradicated. As
there were no whirlpools anywhere else in the world used for this purpose, the name
Subiaco must refer to Charybdis. There has to be more behind the name Subiaco and its 144
monks than the official history of the Benedictine Order tells us.
Several words in the English language have the letters 'ubi' built in
such as 'indubitable' meaning 'certain':
in. - .du - ubi - ita - ab. - .le
ina - adu - ubi - ita - abe - ele
inarroste - adurra jausi - ubil - itaro - abe - ele
act of being agitated - to be charmed - whirlpool - to trust - cross - story
"(They are) agitated and charmed by the whirlpool, (but we)
trust in the story of the Cross".
Another one is 'ubiquitous',
meaning periodic, recurring:
ubi - iku - ito - us.
ubil - ikuste - itoarazi - usa
whirlpool - the act of watching - to drown - dove, holy man
"Watching the drowning of the holy man in the
whirlpool".
A Russian name refers to the death in the whirlpool itself: Palubiski,
.pa - alu - ubi - is. - .ki
ipa - alu - ubi - isu - uki
ipartar - alukeria - ubil - isuri - ukitu
northern - repulsive action - whirlpool - to inspire - to touch
"The repulsive action in the northern whirlpool inspired and touched
me".
A second Russian name ridicules the dying young man in the boat: Bogolyubski,
bog - oli - ubi - iski,
boga - oliodura - ubil - iskirio -
boatman - holy - whirlpool - mockery
"He made a mockery of the holy boatman in the whirlpool".
Another name condemns the death as a sin: Lyubimiov,
.li - ubi - imi - ob.
ali - ubi - imi - obe
alienazio - ubil - imintzio - oben
to kill a person - whirlpool - gesture/sacrifice - sin
"To kill a person in the whirlpool as a sacrifice is a sin".
Long braids cut off for the cable were often
buried with the owner, as the Russian name Adamovitch indicates:
ada - amo - obi - itx,
adatz - amona - obi - itxiarazi
long braids - grandmother - grave - to enclose
"Grandmother's long braids were enclosed in her grave".
They had not been needed for Tammuz' anchor cable, but were highly
treasured just the same. The fact that so many names in Russia mention the whirlpool must
mean that even this far away, the people east of the Baltic were intimately involved in
the human sacrifice which took place in Charybdis on November 1.
Even the Talmud mentions the whirlpool: "Iruvin"
(laws of permissible limits) iru - ubi - in.
iru - ubi - ino
irudigurtza - ubil - inolaz
worshiping of idols - whirlpool - absolutely unacceptable
"Worshiping of idols and the whirlpool is absolutely
unacceptable".
The cairn and altar which Martin Martin saw in the cave are no
longer recognizable, although it may still be there under the fallen ceiling rocks, but
just over one century ago a large slab was lifted in front of the cave and a pre-historic
stone cist was found underneath. It appears that only the very first human sacrifices were
buried in front of the cave, until it became impossible to cut more graves into the rock
on that spot. From then on the next 60 (and likely many more) burials took place in the
sandy soil of Iona. Breckan, who probably was one of the last Tammuzes, was likely buried
on Iona. Two smooth side slabs of an old cist are still lying near the entrance and these
may be all that is left of an unfortunate private digging excursion. The altar mentioned
by Martin must have been in place since the cave was developed as the burial site for the
first Tammuz, long before Breckan. The heavy walls, remnants of which are still visible in
the front of the cave, were necessary to create an atmosphere reminiscent of the
underworld, while shielding the body of the dead prince and to hide the religious
goings-on inside, the preparations leading to the resurrection of Tammuz.
Roman reports of the ritual sacrifice of Cybele, record that three days
after interment a light appeared in the burial tomb, whereupon Damuz rose from the dead,
bringing salvation with him in his rebirth. (Stone p.146). The fact that the title
"prince", in Basque printz ,meaning "ray of light", is used for
Prince Breckan, likely indicates that the same light phenomenon was reported at Breckan's
cave. Upon Tammuz' resurrection the return of spring with all its pleasures and benefits
would again be ensured.
There are several large stone slabs in front of Skylla's cave, all of
them may have Tammuz burials under them. We have the names of two Tammuz candidates:
Odysseus and Breckan. It is certain that Breckan lost his life in the waves, but Homer
records conclusively that wily old Odysseus escaped this fate. A third, small, possibility
is that Helios may have been one of those sacrificed in the whirlpool, but if this were
the case, he could not have participated in the Sacred Marriage with his daughter Kirke;
another priestess must have officiated with him. A hint about Helios, sometimes also
called Hyperion, is given by Homer:
"... their shepherdesses are gods, nymphs with sweet hair,
Lampetia and Phaethousa, whom shining Neaira bore to Hyperion the sun god. These, when
their queenly mother had given them birth and reared them, she settled in the island
Thrinakia, far away, to live there and guard their father's sheep and horn-curved
cattle" (XII: 131-136).
This may mean that Helios was no longer with his
family on earth but continued to send his rays (printz) from high up in the sky. If
Helios' family found a safe place to live in Scotland, how many more people from Georgia
migrated there to avoid the turmoil and bloodshed of the Near East? The words "far
far away" are used frequently in classical literature and in almost every case they
refer to the Hebrides or northwest Ireland. The Basque word ifar means
north. Did Neaira take her two daughters from the Colchian country (Georgia) to live on
the island where their father was buried? The name Neaira, from enea (property) aira
(to leave from, or to leave behind): she left her property behind, leaves little doubt
that she did just that when she left her homeland to move to Jura. The name Lampetia may
well be originally Lampestia, lamia (leprechaun) pesta (celebration),
celebration of the leprechauns; Phaetousa may come from fabore (aid), etu or
etsitu (despair) usatu to get used to, i.e. help with getting used to
despair or help in despair. Could these names have anything to do with the proposed
sacrificial death of their father, or was it the stress caused by fleeing their homeland?
The stone cist which was opened last century, is said to have contained
nothing but some chips of bone and dust, which is not surprising, the grave being only a
few meters from the Atlantic shore for so many millennia. If anything else was found in
the grave is not known. Some archaeological work needs to be done urgently before any more
treasure hunters decide to investigate the other graves and the many holy sites nearby,
some of them marked on the topographic map. Access by boat is easy and there is no one
within miles to provide supervision, so disturbance by irresponsible people is a
certainty, it only takes time to happen.
THE NAMES OF JURA.
The present name Jura is an abbreviation of juramendu,
meaning curse, blasphemy, "the cursed isle." The local people say it is a Gallic
word and means "deer", of which there are many on the island. However, Gallic
had nothing to do with the naming. In the Saharan/Basque language galkor means
"corrupting" which is exactly what Gallic did to the original language when it
was introduced by Christian missionaries from Rome, and had even been manufactured by
them, as explained in the more than one thousand year old Auraicept na n'Ecez
(1153ff./4010ff.), the operations manual of the Benedictine monks.
The channel between the north tip of Jura and the Isle of Scarba is
called Corrivreckan, from korri-breckan, korrika meaning tidal race and vreckan stands
for Breckan: "Breckan's tidal race", the name of Prince Breckan, whose name folk
memory preserved as a Danish or Irish prince who drowned in the whirlpool of Charybdis
after having anchored in it for three days and nights. Adomnan, the biographer of St.
Columba, writing in Latin some 60 or 70 years after the Saint's death in 597 A.D. (p.222,
17a), used the name "carubdis Brecani". The name of feared Charybdis
comes from: karubidiz:
.ka-aru-ubi 'diz
akabu - arunt - ubil - dizdiz
death - vulgar - whirlpool - shining/sparkling
"Vulgar death in the shining whirlpool"
This is another case
where Homer uses an adjective which is already part of the make-up of the name; in line
XII: 235 he talks about "shining Charybdis". The whirlpool itself, which
is located on the north side close to the shore of Scarba, was in Christian times given
the Gallic name "Calleagh", meaning "the hag or the witch". But who
would have called the whirlpool by that name? The place was holy to the inhabitants, so it
must have been a priest of some kind.
It appears certain that Adomnan had access to Homer's Odyssey,
therefore it is fairly safe to assume that Homer's name "Charybdis" and
Adomnan's "Carubdis" and Basque "karubidiz" were varieties of the name
given to the whirlpool when the first missionaries arrived. Prince Breckan drowned prior
to Adomnan's time, but after Odysseus'. "Breck" is said to be a Gallic word
meaning "sandy" which supposedly described the color of his hair. However,
Gallic had not yet been invented when Prince Breckan lived, therefore we have to look at
Basque for a translation: barek-an, bareki (peacefully or calmly) suffix -an
(in) and local legend indeed stresses the calm dignity with which he, of his own free
will, stepped into the boat and heroically accepted his death. He had to die; to survive,
like Odysseus did, would upset the planned resurrection and brought return of spring, with
all its blessings, into serious doubt.
The top of the high hill on the north tip of Jura, which provides a
panoramic view of the treacherous channel, is called Cruachan, kru-aka-an, from krudel
(cruelty) akabu (death) an (over there), i.e. "cruel death over
there", no doubt the comment of a visitor from the patriarchal outside. It is another
name which must have been given by someone from elsewhere who observed the sacrifice, a
death which was no more cruel than nailing a man to the cross, letting him suffer in the
sun's heat and then giving him vinegar to drink. A short distance from of the cave is a
place called: Maol nan Damh, from ma-ahol-an-damuz, ama (Goddess) aholku (to
counsel) -an (inside) damuz (sorrowfully), the Goddess sorrowfully counseled
inside. There is little doubt that this refers to the Chief Priestess following the dead
prince into the cave, considered to be the womb of the Goddess, and after consummation of
his immolation, he is released for resurrection (Campbell, 1959, p. 166).
The jeep trail giving access to this historic part of Jura follows the
east coast. At the far end of this road was a still occupied croft by a small bay named
Kinuachdrachd, a name said to derive from Gallic "Cean Uachterachd" meaning
"Head of the uttermost part". Again Gallic cannot be blamed, instead it comes
from Kinuakdragat:
kiņ-uha-aka-dragat,
kiņatu - uhalde - akabu - dragatu
agitated - shore - death - to dredge for
"all agitated they dredged the shore for the dead one".
The old stone jetty which was built in the small bay nearby
must have been used many times in the recovery of the body of the sacrificed prince.
Indeed the jetty may have been constructed especially for this purpose, it looks very old.
THRINAKIA, THE ISLAND OF HELIOS THE SUN
GOD.
Homer uses the name
"Thrinakia" for Jura which Furlong reports to mean "three pronged"
from Greek, supposedly after the three steep "Paps" on the south end of the
island. The trouble is that there are five main paps (Beinn Mhearsamail, Chaolais, Oir,
Shiantaidh and Corra) with a smattering of smaller ones nearby, but only three are visible
from the sea. However, the name Thrinakia more likely belongs to the neolithic language in
which case it would be tri-nakai, triste (sadly, dreadfully) nakai
(disgusting), "dreadfully disgusting", which name would be more in line with the
practice of the sacrifice and the reputation of the island, as seen from the standpoint of
the new male-dominated religion. There is a good possibility that the Paps (breasts) had a
function in the early religion, the tallest one, Beinn an Oir (785m), may have been used
in a manner similar to Croag Patrick in Ireland, i.e. for people to climb on a special day
and after reaching the top, to cry for joy for the Goddess. If this was the case, a
well-worn trail may be found up this Pap. Our sea-farers then sailed south along the east
side of the island:
"Now when we had fled away from the
rocks and dreaded Charybdis and Skylla, next we made our way to the excellent island of
the god" (XII: 260-2).
THE LAST SUPPER IN THE HOLLOW HARBOUR.
While following the east
shore of Thrinakia (Jura) southward, the crew heard the lowing of the cattle (XII: 265),
just as it can still be heard today, because Jura still is a cattle producing island. The
cattle are described as "high horned" (XII: 348) which may refer to highland
cattle, the closest relative to the wild aurochs, the breed from which our domestic cattle
were developed. "We beached the well-made ship inside the hollow harbour, close to
sweet water" (XII: 305). There is only one hollow harbour on the east side of Jura,
the only safe place which deserves the name harbour. It also has a beautifully clear
stream running into it called Lesgamaill creek, probably a slight sound change from
Latsgamail, Lats-ga-amai-il, latsa (creek) gailen (wonderful) amai (end,
mouth) ilgai (destined for death) i.e. the one at the mouth of the wonderful creek
is destined for death. Just one more clue in the fascinating puzzle called Jura.
The local name of the hollow harbour in Gallic is "Bagh na
nGall" meaning "Foreigners' Bay", which may refer to the many foreigners
who came to observe the human sacrifice. However, in Basque the word galbide
means "way of eternal damnation" or "road to ruin", which may be
another name given by Homer who certainly was acquainted with the activities there. Modern
maps show the meaningless name "Lowlandman's Bay". There appears to be little
doubt that the site at the mouth of Latsgamail creek was the place where the human
sacrifices (Tammuz) were prepared for death with consumption of the Last Supper, provided
by the holy cattle of Helios. Several animals were slaughtered and it must have been a
memorable meal. This is another example of Homer going out of his way to make a holy
sacrament of the Goddess religion look absolutely ridiculous when he wrote:
"The skins crawled, and the meat that was stuck on the spit bellowed, both roast
and raw, and the noise was like the lowing of cattle" (XII:
395-6).
As soon as one reads about weird happenings such as cattle skins
crawling, meat on the spit bellowing and all the bones of a head being pounded to pieces
(XII: 412), it is time to be very suspicious, because something is being hidden or altered
by the censors of the epic, and there usually is a good religious reason for it. The way
from Latsgamail creek to Charybdis must have been lined with hundreds of ships and the
shore covered with thousands of people all following Tammuz to witness his death on that
fateful day. At the dead of tide, Odysseus was then anchored on the spot where shortly the
tidal race would re-create the terrible whirlpool. The anchor used would have been a large
stone with a hole drilled through it, which possibly may still be found on the bottom not
far away, together with many similar ones from other sacrifices. The shipwreck so
hyper-dramatically described by Homer did not occur. Like all of Homer's other fabulous
stories it was designed to cover up the real historical happenings which took place.
The pasture by Latsgamail where Odysseus' crew butchered the
holy
cattle of Helios. Note the Paps of Jura in the background.
The village site by Lesgamaill creek was investigated by paleontologist
John Mercer who excavated the 3000+ year old hut circles, however I have been unable to
find a copy of his report. He did not discover anything very special, however, this may
well have been exactly the site where Odysseus' Last Supper took place. A larger area
around the hut circles should be carefully reinvestigated because Mercer had no idea what
the significance of the site was. The name of the creek was not likely designed for
Odysseus, but must have served all Tammuz sacrifices, including Breckan's.
The "hollow harbour" was also mentioned by Adomnan who calls
it the "bag shaped bay" on the island of Hinba, which must have been the
pre-Christian name of Jura. Hinba comes from hinbasio meaning "invasion",
which must refer to the people who came by the thousands from all over NW Europe to grieve
in total silence during the suffering and dying of the Prince in the whirlpool. His death
was followed by three days of loud mourning and then rejoicing in his resurrection; the
Prince of Peace was to be reincarnated and happiness for the new year was assured.
THE WAY HOMER DESCRIBED THE EVENTS.
The manner in which Homer covers
up the important religious goings-on and introduces his newly invented Zeus is worth
repeating. In his camp by Lesgamaill creek Odysseus wakes to
"the pleasant savor of
cooking meat" (XII: 369) and
in despair cries out: "Father Zeus, and you other everlasting and blessed gods,
with a pitiless sleep you lulled me to my confusion, and my companions staying here dared
a deed that was monstrous" (XII:
371).
He then rushes back towards his men,
"but when I came back again to the ship and the seashore, they all
stood about and blamed each other, but we were not able to find any remedy, for the oxen
were already dead"
(XII: 392). This, however, did not deter them from having a
good feed: "Six days thereafter my own eager companions feasted on the cattle"
(XII: 397).
This was embarrassing for Odysseus. Here he was, unable to leave the
harbour, busy preparing himself for the Tammuz test in Charybdis, and his men started
butchering the holy cattle of Helios. Helios' daughter, Lampetia, who probably in reality
officiated with her sister at the Last Supper, didn't take kindly to it and reported the
theft to her father, high up in the sky. Helios in turn complained to Zeus and threatened
to cut off the sunlight from the earth, after which Zeus had no choice but to dish out
severe punishment. But here the plot thickens. Suddenly one of Odysseus' most trusted
officers, Eurylochos, takes a leading role in an uprising, lambasting Odysseus:
"You are a hard man, Odysseus. Your force is greater, your limbs
never wear out. You must be made all of iron, when you will not let your
companions..."
(XII: 279).
A peculiar bit of
information is found in the name Eurylochos, euri-lokoz: euri (rain) lokaz
(mired down), i.e. mired down in the rain, does that mean that the sacrifice had to be
delayed by rain because the observers would not be able to see what was happening, and
that their ship was probably stuck in the mud flat of the bay? Knowing
the place, this is a very good possibility. Finally the weather improved:
"then at last the wind
ceased from its stormy blowing and presently we went on board and put forth on the wide
sea" (XII: 400-1).
SAILING TO CHARYBDIS.
A high tide must have
finally lifted the ship from the mud. The ship sailed away and reached open sea when,
according to Homer, the wrath of Zeus hits them:
"Suddenly a screaming West
Wind came upon us stormily blowing, and the blast of the stormwind snapped both the
forestays that were holding the mast and the mast went over backwards, and all the running
gear collapsed in the wash:" (XII: 407-11). The falling mast crashed "down
on the steersman's head and pounded to pieces all the bones in his head" (XII:
412-3). The vessel, "struck by the thunderbolt of Zeus, she spun in a circle and
all was full of brimstone. My men were thrown in the water and were washed away on the
running waves all around the black ship and the god took away their homecoming"
(XII: 416-419).
A theatrical and obviously dreamed-up end for the well-built
"penteconter" and its crew. Or was it so dreamed up? In a tale probably just as
old as the Odyssey, or possibly even older, Sindbad the Sailor tells us:
"Then I quickly picked up a great stone from among the
trees and, falling upon the old fiend with all my strength, crushed his skull to pieces
and mingled his flesh with his blood" (1001
nights, p 150).
This is every bit as gory as Homer's description and a worthy parallel.
THE SACRAMENT OF THE DYING PRINCE.
The annual death of the sexual
partner of the Goddess, whether real or enacted, appears to have evolved from a very
ancient custom of the earliest days of the Goddess religion and is the subject of many
ancient legends (see Frazer etc). The Sacred Marriage always took place on Beltane, May 1,
just in time for nature to unfold itself again. The six month period of grace had given
Odysseus near-godly status, a very privileged position, but at Hallowmass on November 1
his time of reckoning had come. This ritual sacrifice happened many times throughout the
Bronze Age world and is best documented from Canaan, Cyprus and Carthage (Frazer), but
until now, not from Scotland. In 1914 Stephen Langdon wrote:
"The divine figures of Tammuz,
Adonis and Osiris represent a theological principle, the incarnation of religious ideas
which were once illustrated in a more tangible form. Not the divine son who perished in
the waves, but a human king who was slain" (Stone
p 134).
But here in Charybdis we are still dealing with the semi-divine son who
was made to perish in the waves. For how long this dreadful ritual was practiced in
Charybdis is not known, but archaeological work on Jura and Iona may well supply many
answers and raise many new questions.
Being anchored for three days and three nights in the whirlpool of
Charybdis is a horrible punishment which no-one would wish on his worst enemy. Breckan
lost his life and was placed in the cave, but Odysseus was luckier, he managed to hang
onto the collapsed coracle. It is sure that he was alone on his leather boat as it was
smashed by waves and storm.
"But when I went my way through the vessel, to where
the high seas had worked the keel free out of the hull, and the bare keel floated on the
swell, which had broken the mast off at the keel, yet there still was a backstay made out
of oxhide fastened to it. With this I lashed together both keel and mast, then rode the
two of them while the deadly stormwinds carried me" (XII:
420-5).
There is no doubt that the boat described here is a seagoing currach or
coracle. The oak-tanned hides are stitched together around the wooden frame, but are not
attached to the wood, so the flexible leather hull can adjust itself and be tightened when
it stretches after long use at sea. The wooden frame and keel can slide out of the leather
hull when the boat collapses. There aren't really many more big pieces of wood on a
currach than the keel, gunnels and the mast. This part of the story is very believable. No
doubt there were attending boats nearby, manned by the Abade, the
male clergy of the Goddess, whose duty it was to observe the tragedy, but were not allowed
to interfere; for the well-being of the people and the world, Tammuz had to die.
Abade, the name
for a modern Roman Catholic priest in Euskadi, was also the name of the pre-Christian male
clergy. A priest-linguist of a patriarchal religion, very early on, gave them the
derogatory name Druid:
.d. - .ru - id.
udi - iru - ido
udikan - iruzurkerazko - idolgurtzaile
get away from here! - deceitful - idolator
"Get away from here, you deceitful idolator!".
Druid is a terrible name
to use for these devoted clergy. Abade is the proper term.
