"In addition to religious figures, many Gothic cathedrals are heavily ornamented with strange, leering creatures. These gargoyles are not merely decorative. Originally, the sculptures were waterspouts to protect the foundation from rain. Since most people in Medieval days could not read, the carvings took on the important role of illustrating lessons from the scriptures." Source: Thought Company.
According to Medievalists.net, "[The word 'gargoyles'] in its most technical [sense] refer[s] to waterspouts projecting from the roof of the Cathedrals. These beasts spray rain from their mouths off of the side of the roof, protecting the stones from water erosion," and would sometimes drench people as they entered the cathedrals. As far as I can tell, the only difference between the gargoyles and grotesques found in Gothic cathedral architecture is that the grotesques didn't serve as waterspouts.
Besides being important for water drainage, the gargoyles (and apparently the grotesques as well) were supposedly meant to scare away demons. In other words, they were a form of Christian superstition and warding-off magic. As a result, some believe that these weird sculptures prove the connection between the Catholic Church and Satanism and other occult practices. One Christian writer, for example, questions why demons would be frightened off by statues of demons -- a pretty good question, now that I think about it.
Gargoyles are normally associated with Christian cathedrals, but they have deep roots in the pagan world. According to the Washington National Cathedral's website, "Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans all employed animal-shaped waterspouts, but the ancestors of the American gargoyles are thought to date back to the 12th century. St. Bernard once disapprovingly wrote, 'What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, these savage lions, and monstrous creatures?' Gargoyles caught on anyway."
The audio in this video is pretty bad and the background music is irritating at best, but it's one of the more neutral (if not necessarily the most accurate) descriptions of the pagan influences on Easter I could find. There are higher-quality videos available, but most of them were produced by various Christian or "neopagan" groups or by atheists attacking Christian traditions. When it comes to anything even remotely related to the origins of Christianity, objective sources are few and far between.
The theory that Easter was originally a pagan festival begins with its name. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word Easter comes from the "Old English Easterdæg, from Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from Proto-Germanic austron-, 'dawn,' also the name of a goddess of fertility and spring [Eostre], perhaps originally of sunrise, whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox, from aust- 'east, toward the sunrise' ..."
Eastre, the goddess of Spring, seems to be a favorite among Wiccans and other New Age types.
As it turns out, the connection between Easter and the ancient fertility goddess Eostre can be traced back to one medieval writer. According to Wikipedia, "the most widely accepted theory of the origin of the term is that it is derived from the name of a goddess mentioned by the 7th to 8th-century English monk Bede, who wrote that Ēosturmōnaþ (Old English 'Month of Ēostre', translated in Bede's time as 'Paschal month') was an English month, corresponding to April, which he says 'was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month.'"
Note: Paschal is the Hebrew name for Passover, another ancient spring festival.
So what's the truth here? There's enough evidence, I think, to say that Easter was originally a pagan festival hijacked (like Christmas) by the medieval Christian church. Familiar Easter symbols like the Easter bunny and colored eggs didn't become popular until the 19th century in Europe, but they definitely have pagan Germanic roots and the story of Eostre can probably be traced back to Bronze Age Greece and the Near East.
Eostre, I believe, is another name for the very ancient goddess Eos, "the personified goddess of the dawn, daughter of Theia and the sun-god Hyperion," according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised). Eos is described as "rosy-fingered" by Homer and rides a chariot pulled by two horses named "Shiner" and "Blazer." Easter is a resurrection festival associated with the rising sun, but Eos was originally a symbol of death and a "predatory lover," according to the OCD.
Eos is depicted with wings in art dating back to the 6th century BC. Cursed with an insatiable sexual appetite, she preys on "handsome hunters ... in the morning twilight ... [seizing] the Trojan prince Tithonius to be her heavenly gigolo ..." (OCD) Many of the lovers she absconded with came to bad ends. "The explanation of these stories, in which a goddess's love is used as a metaphor for death, is to be found in the Greek practice of conducting funerals at night, with the soul departing at daybreak." Image from Paleothea.com.
If I'm right about the association between Eostre and Eos, then the central myth of Easter is a classical example of the way religious symbolism can be hijacked by an alien religion and transformed into the opposite of its original meaning. In the case of Eos, a festival dedicated to a predatory goddess and symbol of death has been transformed into a celebration of life and resurrection, just as the ancient pagan gods -- symbols of knowledge, life and natural forces -- were transformed into demons by the Christian church.
"The capital city of the Chimú [~900 - 1470 AD] was Chan Chan (known as Chimor to its original inhabitants) which, built at the mouth of the Rió Moche, covered some 20 square kilometres and had a population of up to 40,000 at its peak. The city became the hub of a vast trade and tribute network, and no fewer than 26,000 craftsmen and women resided there, often forcibly removed from conquered cities to mass produce high quality goods in a wide range of precious materials." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.
"The Temple of Isis is a Roman temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis. This small and almost intact temple was among one of the first discoveries during the excavation of Pompeii in 1764." (Wikipedia)
"... The preserved Pompeian temple is actually the second structure; the original building built during the reign of Augustus was damaged in an earlier earthquake of 62 AD. Seventeen years later with the massive volcanic eruption, the Iseum [Isis temple] alone was the sole temple to be completely rebuilt—ahead even of the Capitolium."
Next video shows the standing ruins of the temple as they appeared in 2009. All of its wall paintings and statues were apparently moved to the Archaeological Museum at Naples (Italian only? The English version of the site doesn't seem to exist.)
"The worship of Isis was [originally] treated with suspicion in official circles because of its associations with Ptolemaic Egypt," according to Pompeii: The Last Day by Paul Wilkinson (p.47). "After the annexation of Egypt by Augustus in 30 BC, however, attitudes relaxed and by AD 38 Rome itself had a Temple of Isis. The cult of Isis had its own full-time priests, whereas the more official Roman religions did not."
More views of the temple (including the entrance to an underground ritual purification chamber) can be seen in the next video. Turn up the volume.
According to Pompeii: The Last Day (pp. 176-177), "The sanctuary around the Temple of Isis is enclosed by walls on its east and north sides. It adjoins the Samnite Gymnasium [1] to the west and the theaters to the south. Very little is left of the original temple because it had been almost completely destroyed by the earthquake of AD 62. It was completely rebuilt in interesting circumstances by Numerius Popidius Celsinus. He was a six-year-old child who was admitted into the ruling body of Pompeii, the collegium decurionum, as a reward for his generosity (his fatherhaving actually provided the finances)."[2]
[1] "In the 5th century BC, the Samnites conquered [Pompeii] (and all the other towns of Campania); the new rulers imposed their architecture and enlarged the town. After the Samnite Wars (4th century BC), Pompeii was forced to accept the status of socium of Rome, maintaining, however, linguistic and administrative autonomy. In the 4th century BC, it was fortified. Pompeii remained faithful to Rome during the Second Punic War." (Wikipedia)
[2] According to Wilkinson, Numerius Popidius Celsinus was the name of the six-year-old child, but other sources give this as the father's name. It's possible that they both had the same name, however. One of the temple inscriptions reads "'Numerius Popidius Celsinus, son of Numerius, rebuilt at his own expense from its foundations, the Temple of Isis, which had collapsed in an earthquake; because of his generosity, although he was only six years old, the town councilors nominated him into their number free of charge.'" Source: The Post Hole. The Latin and an English translation of the inscription can be found here.
Note: The video above is part of a longer lecture series on a variety of ancient history topics.
Isis was an important deity in Pompeii, probably because of the goddess's association with water:
"Because this temple served the Isis cult and was not a public civil space, the Temple of Isis, or Iseum, and Isis herself must have held special meaning and value for the city of Pompeii. Pompeii’s seafaring economy and the rise of personal religion in the Roman world may explain this high value. Since Pompeii relied on commercial seafaring to support its economy, Isis’s emphasis on stable and life-giving water defeating the often treacherous, unpredictable, and sometimes-deadly water of the sea, strengthened the local cult. The confluence of architecture, art, and rituals implies why the Pompeiians so highly valued a cult sanctuary – gentle Isis, offering resurrection and regulated water, provided a comforting counterbalance to unpredictable Neptune." Source: The Post Hole.
"The Temple of Dendur (Dendoor in nineteenth century sources) is an Ancient Egyptian temple that was built by the Roman governor of Egypt, Petronius, around 15 BC and dedicated to Isis, Osiris, as well as two deified sons of a local Nubian chieftain, Pediese ('he whom Isis has given') and Pihor ('he who belongs to Horus'). The temple was commissioned by Emperor Augustus of Rome and has been exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1978." Source: Wikipedia.
In a subtle or maybe not so subtle case of ancient propaganda, the pharoah at the Temple of Dendur is actually the emperor Augustus. According to the MET's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, "The king is identified by his regalia and by his names, which appear close to his head in elongated oval shapes called cartouches; many of the cartouches simply read 'pharaoh.' This king was actually Caesar Augustus of Rome, who, as ruler of Egypt, had himself depicted in the traditional regalia of the pharaoh. Augustus had many temples erected in Egyptian style, honoring Egyptian deities."
"The archaeological site of Sedeinga is located in Sudan, a hundred kilometers to the north of the third cataract of the Nile, on the river’s western shore. Known especially for being home to the ruins of the Egyptian temple of Queen Tiye, the royal wife of Amenhotep III, the site also includes a large necropolis containing sepulchers dating from the kingdoms of Napata and Meroe (seventh century BCE–fourth century CE), a civilization mixing local traditions and Egyptian influences. Tombs, steles, and lintels have just been unearthed. " Source: Science Daily.
Note: I've always been confused by the difference between Nubia and Kush, but apparently Nubia is the name of the region and the kingdom of Kush was one of the most prominent empires which appeared there. According to Wikipedia, "[t]he Kushite era of rule in Nubia was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Kush was centered at Napata during its early phase. After King Kashta ('the Kushite') invaded Egypt in the 8th century BC, the Kushite emperors ruled for a century as pharoahs of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt, until they were expelled by the Assyrians under the rule of Esarhaddon."
According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised), "Nubia [was] part of the classical Ethiopia ... Modern literature also includes the central Sudan (the Butana, or island of Meroe) as far as Khartoum with the definition. After Egyptian domination during the New Kingdom (c.1550 - 1080 BC), indigenous kingdoms flourished into medieval times."
"The earliest records of Ethiopia appear in Ancient Egypt, during the Old Kingdom period. Egyptian traders from about 3000 BC refer to lands south of Nubia or Kush as Punt and Yam." (Wikipedia)
"The first Buddhist cave monuments at Ajanta date from the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. During the Gupta period (5th and 6th centuries A.D.), many more richly decorated caves were added to the original group. The paintings and sculptures of Ajanta, considered masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, have had a considerable artistic influence." Source: UNESCO World Heritage List.
"Fifth-century painters created stunning murals in dim man-made caves. A gifted photographer brings them to light." Source: National Geographic.
Comment: Focusing on the Ajanta Caves, this slideshow of photographs with text notes and audio commentary shows examples of the fantastic artwork found at various sites in India.
Note: "In the first century B.C., India's artists, who had worked in the perishable media of brick, wood, thatch, and bamboo, adopted stone on a very wide scale. Stone railings and gateways, covered with relief sculptures, were added to stupas. Favorite themes were events from the historic life of the Buddha, as well as from his previous lives, which were believed to number 550. The latter tales are called jatakasand often include popular legends adapted to Buddhist teachings." Source: "Buddhism and Buddhist Art," The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Ancient Predatory Goddess Of Easter
The audio in this video is pretty bad and the background music is irritating at best, but it's one of the more neutral (if not necessarily the most accurate) descriptions of the pagan influences on Easter I could find. There are higher-quality videos available, but most of them were produced by various Christian or "neopagan" groups or by atheists attacking Christian traditions. When it comes to anything even remotely related to the origins of Christianity, objective sources are few and far between.
The theory that Easter was originally a pagan festival begins with its name. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word Easter comes from the "Old English Easterdæg, from Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from Proto-Germanic austron-, 'dawn,' also the name of a goddess of fertility and spring [Eostre], perhaps originally of sunrise, whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox, from aust- 'east, toward the sunrise' ..."
Eastre, the goddess of Spring, seems to be a favorite among Wiccans and other New Age types.
As it turns out, the connection between Easter and the ancient fertility goddess Eostre can be traced back to one medieval writer. According to Wikipedia, "the most widely accepted theory of the origin of the term is that it is derived from the name of a goddess mentioned by the 7th to 8th-century English monk Bede, who wrote that Ēosturmōnaþ (Old English 'Month of Ēostre', translated in Bede's time as 'Paschal month') was an English month, corresponding to April, which he says 'was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month.'"
Note: Paschal is the Hebrew name for Passover, another ancient spring festival.
So what's the truth here? There's enough evidence, I think, to say that Easter was originally a pagan festival hijacked (like Christmas) by the medieval Christian church. Familiar Easter symbols like the Easter bunny and colored eggs didn't become popular until the 19th century in Europe, but they definitely have pagan Germanic roots and the story of Eostre can probably be traced back to Bronze Age Greece and the Near East.
Eos is depicted with wings in art dating back to the 6th century BC. Cursed with an insatiable sexual appetite, she preys on "handsome hunters ... in the morning twilight ... [seizing] the Trojan prince Tithonius to be her heavenly gigolo ..." (OCD) Many of the lovers she absconded with came to bad ends. "The explanation of these stories, in which a goddess's love is used as a metaphor for death, is to be found in the Greek practice of conducting funerals at night, with the soul departing at daybreak." Image from Paleothea.com.
If I'm right about the association between Eostre and Eos, then the central myth of Easter is a classical example of the way religious symbolism can be hijacked by an alien religion and transformed into the opposite of its original meaning. In the case of Eos, a festival dedicated to a predatory goddess and symbol of death has been transformed into a celebration of life and resurrection, just as the ancient pagan gods -- symbols of knowledge, life and natural forces -- were transformed into demons by the Christian church.
Related: Where Did the Easter Bunny Come From? Ask This Dead German Scientist.
Posted at 07:00 AM in Art, Christianity, Commentary, Culture, Europe, Greece, Hidden History, Paganism, Religion, Videos | Permalink