August 2002
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"The sign of the cross, represented in its simplest form by a crossing of two lines at right angles, greatly antedates in both the East and West to the introduction of Christianity. It goes back to a very remote period of human civilization".
- Catholic Encyclopedia.
The acclaimed Cross at a 90° right angle has been one of the most ancient and exalted human ideograms of the Sun throughout the world and has been celebrated as a symbol of life not only to Christians, but also to the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Greeks, the Amerindians and to the Egyptians dating well back as far as the Palaeolithic.
To most of these early cultures, it's sited through what came to be regarded as the widespread observance of the "Crossing" and resurrection of the Sun at the Vernal Equinox (Easter) using the four seasons. To the Christian father Irenaeus, who in the 2nd century determined the Four Gospels, also echoed this same pattern, declaring that,
"the Gospels could not be either more or less in number than they are, as there are the four zones of the world via which we all live".
Several early Christian compositions unearthed in Egypt additionally defined the Egyptian Ankh Cross, which also included works from Sextus the Pythagorean, parts of Plato's Republic on the Just-Man crucified, and extracts from the zodiacal Hermetica.
The most earliest Christian Cross depiction conjointly appeared to be related from possible satirical Dionysian representations, such as this very early piece of graffiti carved behind a pillar in Rome during the 2nd century.
This graffiti (right) sketched out a man with a donkey's head crucified upon a cross with the caption "Alexmenos worships his god".
Felix Marcus Minucius, one of the early Christian fathers even discredited the whole idea that Christians worshiped the Cross, declaring that,
"You it is, ye Pagans, who are the most likely to adore crosses. Your winning trophies not only represent simple crosses, but a cross with a man on it".
The Absent Goddess
"It is certain, that, however much the male element had proclaimed itself ... by the days of the Minoan civilization (30001100 BC), the religion still continued to manifest the matriarchal period of social progress. Clearly the Goddess was supreme.."
-- Sir Arthur Evans.
The collapse of the fertility goddess concluded roughly after the fall of the Roman Empire via the succession of Judeo-Christianity in the fourth century AD, of which reform then included the systematization for the ransacking and closure of all temples throughout Europe and the Middle East on an unprecedented scale.
To many early cultures prior to this climax however, her reverence outside of the supernatural domain initially stemmed far back into prehistory through the astronomical and cyclic thanksgivings of all organic lifeforms on Earth, and thus became agronomically regarded as very towering figure in antiquity. Much like today, this methodology of the Heavens derived itself downwards from the exploration for the source of life, and revolved purely around the glorification of birth, death and rebirth, or as seen divergent to the preternatural, or unnatural realm of literal necromantic revival of the flesh.
As in the words of Elaine Pagels:
"Other religions celebrated the cycles of birth and death; Christianity insists in the one unique historical moment where this cycle is reversed, and that a dead man literally came back to life".
Despite this vampire transformation act, her eminence inside creationism was often foremost with her figure solemnly being accredited exclusively as providing new birth always to objects that had seemed dead. Analogous words like 'womb', 'tomb', 'resurrection', 'regeneration', 'renewal, 'procreation', 'origination', 'genesis', 'birth', 'rebirth', 'conception' and so forth all still have their deepest origins with her fertility cults.
As promulgated by Sigmund Freud,
"our current organized system is reproduced from Mother Nature, with the observation of these great astronomical regulations giving man not only the model for the introduction of order into his own life, but the very first clues about how to do it."
Multitudes of people in antiquity regarded her as the Queen of Heaven, alongside that of a Mother Earth incorporating all the physical elements from which everything was produced. In Rome, writers such as Apuleius adjudged her simply as the Mother of the Gods. To the philosopher Plotinus, she was the image of creation itself. Historians such as Diodorus Siculus noted that she even held greater power than the King in Egypt.
To historians like Tacitus, the clans of Europe (goddess Europa) even deemed her the deity to whom all else was subject and duteous. In Athens, the Virgin Mother goddess Athena, like Jesus, also raised a jury of twelve over which she presided. Notable philosophers ("Lover of Sophia") such as Socrates even became conversant on a Pythagorean (python/serpent) priestess who taught him the decree of affinity as according to Plato. In ancient India, she was held as the Mother of the Brahmana, Aditi, who likewise gave birth to Adityas, the twelve Suns/Sons annually, subsequently becoming one Sun god fused upon twelve disciples.
Early provisional migrations of the Hindu god Brahma (A-braham) and the goddess Saraswati (Sarah / A-sherah) had also long been established via trade routes to the east of Mesopotamia adjacent to the Tigris-Euphrates that spread to the Nile. Some of the most oldest specimens of archaic writing (3300 BC) likewise emerged from Uruk and the Temple of Inanna (Babylonian Ishtar, Phoenician Asherah) the Queen of Heaven, of which was one of the most oldest cities in southern Mesopotamia, where Abraham (1900 BC) was later born.
"But also that the temple of the great goddess Diana (Inanna) should be hated, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth."
(Act 19:27)
"Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah"
(Exodus 34:13)
Her initial Stellar worship as the
Serpent Goddess
(click image right) became instituted
in many early Hindu,
Sumer-Babylonian, Aegean,
To many, like the Egyptians, the hieroglyph for "Goddess" simply became delegated as the Uraeus (Serpent), which was worn as a headdress by all Egyptian pharaohs as a symbol of sovereignty, dating back into pre-dynastic times.
Her association as the Queen of Heaven, and the Serpent, including the ideal of evil, or darkness also had a long astronomical foundation attached to it, warranted down through the hostilities between the Stellar and Solar priesthoods on account of the Great Dragon/Serpent, or the constellation Draco, that once ruled the celestial sphere with its body spreading over seven signs of the zodiac.
The celebrated alignment of the Great Pyramid of Giza with the pole star Alpha Draconis is likewise considered to be a direct monument to star worship via the priesthood of Seth, precedent to the Great Serpent becoming the cardinal rival of Osirian resurrecting priests, and later Yahweh (Isaiah:27:1). Many Gnostic sects, such as the Christian Ophites even tried to displace this, handling that the Wise Serpent, and the goddess Sophia, alongside the Tree of Knowledge was the genuine champion.
In other foregoing lands, her subjugation was recorded in numerous Serpentine myths, from Marduk conquering the serpent goddess Tiamat in Babylon, to Zeus, Apollo or Hercules conquering Typhon, Python, Hydra and Ladon, as they guarded the scared fruit tree.
"And you shall destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their deities, upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree you shall tear down their pillars and burn their Asherah with fire."
(Deut 12:2-3)
Thousands of statuettes (some 90%) of the Queen of Heaven have likewise been unearthed in the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity through archaeological excavations in ancient Canaan, anterior to that of the Levite (Luvian) invasion of the land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 33:3).
In ancient Phoenicia, she was summed up as the chief deity Ba'alat Asherah, whose Stellar cult presided over Acre, Sidon, Tyre and Byblos as far back as the 4th millenium BC, well preceding the time of Moses. The Sidonian Kings went as far as even entitling themselves the high priest of Asherah, while the hieratic priests via the once settled Egyptian colony of Byblos enlarged the proto syllabic Linear alphabet, as was the Serpentine cultivation abound with Linear A and B to Crete and Greece.
When writing withal was exported from Phoenicia into Greece, as assumed by Herodotus, "Byblos" then formulated very words such as "Bible" to the Greeks, as with the resurrecting pagan fertility god Adonis, or Adonia to the early Hebrews. Excavated building inscriptions at Byblos of King Yehawmilk declared:
"I am Yehawmilk, King of Byblos, whom the Mistress, the Lady of Byblos, made King over Byblos... May the Lady of Byblos bless and preserve Yehawmilk, King of Byblos, and prolong his days and years in Byblos, for he is a righteous King."
Her early ubiquitous cult, that King Solomon himself worshipped (1 Kings 11:5) also became the dominate contender during the Iron Age for the concrete formation of Hebraic monotheism before it was disfeatured and suppressed (Ezek 9:4-7, Is.13:18, Num 33:50-52). Coincidentally, some of the most oldest fragments of the alphabet in existence of Hebrew (proto-Sinaitic) are that of those discovered only at the temple of the Egyptian cow goddess Isis-Hathor at Serabit el-Khadim in 1905.
Resting on the walls of her sanctum, intercessions were carved beseeching her as the Serpent Lady. These archaeological excavations by Sir William Flinders Petrie in the Sinai Desert furthermore referred to the consort of Ba'al as Ba'alat ("Lady of Byblos") of which her Golden Calf was worshipped by Aaron and the early Hebrews before the annexation of the marauding Levites (Exodus 32:3-4). Her emblem later being appropriated under the Cornucopia, or the Horn of Plenty, delineated as the Cow's horn pouring forth all the fruits and flowers of the earth.
"You are a pure calf, born to me. You are a good seed. I raised you upon my own holy lap. I have decided your fate with my holy bosom. You are of good fortune which fell to my share. I, the lady, the royal Mother, the good woman, I am your faithful guardian. May you, the shepherd, born for justice, trust in my holy words!" -
Sumerian Consecration to King Shulgi (2095-2047 BC)
Here, the pregnant figurine is shown embracing her womb while holding the cornucopia, or crescent horn marked with 13 incisions, symbolizing the number of 13 Moons, or 13 degrees a day in a calendar year.
These Solar and Lunar orbs were virtually esteemed as the initial promotive forces on all living bodies, including the fructification of fertile plant life.
"And I will end all her rejoicing, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her solemn festivals." (Hosea 2:13)
The term "Friday" of "Good Friday", like the unlucky "Friday the 13th" additionally became consolidated via the archaic goddess Freya/Venus/Astarte and is familiar mostly today as the demonic Christian Satanic symbol, or the five pointed rosary star of the "Pentagram" of Venus/Astarte, integral with the anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus.
The pentacle also being long attested by Mesolithic astronomers which equally depicts the same rosary geometrical pattern drawn by Venus every eight years around the Sun in our night sky. The ancient Romans referred to the Stellar cults of Venus as "Lucifer" the light bringer, or the morning star that announced the daily birth and death of the divine Sun from Dawn/Aurora, the morning goddess of the Sun. In Phoenicia, Venus was known as "Shaher", and the evening star "Shalem", born from Asherah in her womb aspect as Helel "the Pit".
Plato called Venus, Aster.
"Aster, once as Morning Star, light on the living you shed. Now, dying, as Evening Star, you shine among the Dead."
Our customary idiom for "Hell" also stemmed via this,
though by means only through the demonization succeeding the 7th
century of the Teutonic goddess "Hel" in Scandinavia.
The Ancient Mysteries
"Let's assume for a minute that he foretold his resurrection.
Are you ignorant of the multitudes who have invented similar tales to lead simple minded hearers astray? It is said that Zamolxis, Pythagoras' servant, convinced the Scythians that he had risen from the dead... and what about Pythagoras himself in Italy! -or Rhampssinitus in Egypt.
The last of these, by the way, is said to have played dice with Demeter in Hades and to have received a golden napkin as a present from her. Now then, who else: What about Orpheus among the Odrysians, Protesiaus in Thessaly and above all Heracles and Theseus."
- Celsus
The secrets of early Mysteries were considered so well kept that our knowledge of them is still incomplete, due to them never being committed down to writing.
Plato deemed that its tradition, including the euphonies of Isis were over 10,000 years old. The most famous Mysteries though outside of Egypt, was associated with Dionysian, Bacchanal, Orphist and Samothracian Mysteries, together with the Eleusisian Mysteries practiced near Athens which were based on the worship of the goddess of fertility Demeter as transliterated through various other names.
In Rome, it was attributed to the goddess Ceres and the Mysteries were also practiced by men via Mithraism, which included a symbolic washing in the blood of the sacrificial Bull. The principal sacrament of Mithra, similar to Dionysus, the god of wine was that of the consumption of the flesh and drinking the blood of the sacrificial animal before rebirth. These Mysteries likewise matured afterwards into religious worship inside early Christianity where Christians received the Eucharist in secret rituals including the rites from Dionysus, including the concept of Heaven and Hell, turning water in wine, and eating the flesh of the Son, and drinking his blood prior to his death.
To Christians, this was based upon the necessity of a human blood sacrifice, rather then animal, which was to atone for the sins of the world. As Tertullian and early Christian theologians echoed "the seed of the church was built upon the blood of the martyrs". Afterwards, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, these sacraments then became much more mainstream and public. Individuals such as Celsus the Platonist criticized the Christian piety in the 2nd century for impiously gossiping about god while trying to arouse the awe of the illiterate, and thus pretending to behave like guardians of the Bacchic (Dionysus) Mysteries.
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius alike accused them as being misconceived exhibitionists. Hippolytus, one of the early prolific ecclesiastical writers went as far of stating that,
"it is said that they were all initiated into the Mysteries of the Great Mother, because they found that the whole mystery of rebirth was taught in these rites".
To the Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus, Christianity was seen as nothing but a new depraved and deadly superstition. The Sophist historian Eunapius of Sardis who was instated into the Eleusinian Mysteries even described the destruction when literalist Christians came to power and actually recorded that the Empire was being confounded by a "fabulous and formless darkness mastering the loveliness of the world."
The Mysteries concerning this original dying and resurrecting Solar godman though was known by many different names.
In the Greco-Syriac myth, the cult was held by women who worshiped the beautiful fertility god Adonis. Yearly carnivals called "Adonia" took place at Byblos and abroad to commemorate his demise and resurrection.
In Egypt, it was the goddess Isis and the resurrected Osiris.
In Anatolia, he was the youthful godman Attis, the Sun/Son of the goddess Cybele, who died, and three days later returned to life through the agency of his mother.
In Babylonia, he was Tammuz worshiped by the goddess Ishtar.
In the Old Testament, his disappearance is even mourned by the women of Jerusalem (Ezek. 8.14).
In Greece, its the Thracian god Dionysus in honor of the goddess Demeter and Persephone. His fanatical priestesses were called Maenads. In Rome, they were called the Bacchantes.
Osiris-Dionysus of Greece attended by the Four Seasons
The Zodiac
In "
The Christ Conspiracy", Acharya S elucidates that the many
motives as to why these narratives are so similar, with a godman who
is crucified and resurrected, and who does miracles and has 12
disciples, is that these stories were all based on the movements of
the Sun through the heavens, an astrotheological development that
can be found throughout the planet because the Sun and the 12 zodiac
signs can be observed around the globe.
Or in other words, Jesus Christ and all the others upon whom this character is predicated are personifications of the Sun, and the Gospel fable is merely a rehash of a mythological formula revolving around the movements of the Sun through the heavens.
For instance, many of the world's crucified godmen have their traditional birthday on December 25th ("Christmas"). This is because the ancients recognized that from an earthcentric perspective the Sun makes an annual descent southward until December 21st or 22nd, the winter solstice, when it stops moving southerly for three days and then starts to move northward again. During this time, the ancients declared that "God's Sun" had "died" for three days and was "born again" on December 25th.
The ancients realized quite abundantly that they needed the Sun to return every day and that they would be in big trouble if the Sun continued to move southward and did not stop and reverse its direction. Thus, these many different cultures celebrated the "Sun of God's" birthday on December 25th.
The following are the characteristics of the "Sun of God"
In some areas, the calendar originally began in the constellation of Virgo, and the Sun would therefore be "born of a Virgin."
The Sun is the "Light of the World."
The Sun "cometh on clouds, and every eye shall see him."
The Sun rising in the morning is the "Savior of mankind."
The Sun wears a corona, "crown of thorns" or halo.
The Sun "walks on water."
The Sun's "followers," "helpers" or "disciples" are the 12 months and the 12 signs of the zodiac or constellations, through which the Sun must pass.
The Sun at 12:00 noon is in the house or temple of the "Most High"; thus, "he" begins "his Father's work" at "age" 12.
The Sun enters into each sign of the zodiac at 30°; hence, the "Sun of God" begins his ministry at "age" 30.
The Sun is hung on a cross or "crucified," which represents its passing through the equinoxes, the vernal equinox being Easter, at which time it is then resurrected.
The Egyptian Pharaohs also identified themselves in life with the Sun god Horus and in death with his father Osiris. These myths identified the Pharaoh as both the earthly form of the royal falcon god who triumphed over his enemies and the pious son who claims the throne after the death of his father. Whilst Osiris ruled the dead in the underworld, Horus ruled the living. Horus and Osiris, just like Jesus, became interchangeable in the mythos ("I and my Father are one"). Horus, who predates the Christ by 3000 years shared the following in common with him.
Horus was called "Iusa/Iao/Iesu/Iusha" the "KRST," with Iusha even contributing to the name of Jesus which in Hebrew of course is Yeshua (Iusha). In the Old Testament, it is Joshua (Iusha) son of Jacob.
Horus became born of the virgin Isis-Meri (Mary) on December 25th in a cave/manger with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.
His earthly father was named "Seb" ("Joseph").
He was of royal descent.
At age 12, he was a child teacher in the Temple, and at 30, he was baptized, having disappeared for 18 years.
Horus was baptized in the river Eridanus or Iarutana (Jordan) by "Anup the Baptizer" ("John the Baptist"), who was decapitated.
He had 12 disciples, two of whom were his "witnesses" and were named "Anup" and "Aan" (the two "Johns").
He performed miracles, exorcised demons and raised El-Azarus ("El-Osiris"), from the dead.
Horus walked on water.
His personal epithet was "Iusa," the "ever-becoming son" of "Ptah," the "Father." He was thus called "Holy Child."
He delivered a "Sermon on the Mount" and his followers recounted the "Sayings of Iusa."
Horus was transfigured on the Mount.
He was crucified between two thieves, buried for three days in a tomb, and resurrected.
He was also the "Way, the Truth, the Light," "Messiah," "Gods Anointed Son," the "Son of Man," the "Good Shepherd," the "Lamb of God," the "Word made flesh," the "Word of Truth," etc.
He was "the Fisher" and was associated with the Fish ("Ichthys"), Lamb and Lion.
He came to fulfill the Law.
Horus was called "the KRST," or "Anointed One."
Horus's principal enemy was "Set" (biblical Seth) or "Sata" (Satan) Set represents the Serpent of the Night. Horus is the Golden Sun (Son) it becomes the struggle between day and night for supremacy.
Like Jesus, "Horus was supposed to reign one thousand years."
The Christian Trinitarian triangle surrounded by the falcon angels
in the baptistery of the Catholic basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
The power of the all seeing eye serves
to draw down the authority of the universe onto all that which lies inside it
Contrary to popular belief, the ancients were not an ignorant and superstitious lot who actually believed their deities to be literal characters. Indeed, this slanderous propaganda has been part of the conspiracy to make the ancients appear as if they were truly the dark and dumb rabble that was in need of the "light of Jesus."
The reality is that the ancients were no less advanced in their morals and spiritual practices, and in many cases were far more advanced, than the Christians in their own supposed morality and ideology, which, in its very attempt at historicity, is in actuality a degradation of the ancient Mythos. Indeed, unlike the "superior" Christians, the true intelligentsia amongst the ancients were well aware that their gods were astronomical and atmospheric in nature. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle surely knew that Zeus, the sky god father figure who migrated to Greece from India and/or Egypt, was never a real person, despite the fact that the Greeks have designated on Crete both a birth cave and a death cave of Zeus.
In addition, all over the world are to be found sites where this god or that allegedly was born, walked, suffered, died, etc., a common and unremarkable occurrence that is not monopolized by, and did not originate with Christianity.
- Acharya S
Zeus - King of the Gods
"In 1968, research by A. M. Molchanov revealed the entire solar system was a tuned quantum resonant structure, with Jupiter being its main conductor."
The Greek historian Herodotus associated both the Greek god Zeus, and the Roman god Jupiter Amon, with the Egyptian god Osiris. Amon in Egyptian mythology being the human-Ram headed god most often represented with the ceremonial beard, as iconic to Jupiter's kingship into Aries the Ram.
In Jerusalem, this also coincided with the birth of Jesus (Je-Zeus) the Lamb of god, when Jupiter entered into Aries around 6 BC, including then the reposition of the Age of Aries from which the Sun had passed for more than two thousand years into the new Age of Pisces the Fish.
Before Jesus resembled a Ram god, such as Serapis and Zeus,
he was most often depicted beardless and youthful like Apollo,
or as a Pagan Hierophant of the Eleusinian mysteries.
The Fish, Jupiter and the Zodiac
<>The Fish of Pisces represented by the 12th sign of the Zodiac,
encapsulated with two crescent moons, one waxing, one waning, is but
one of the most oldest symbols used by early Christians to identify
themselves with the new king of the gods, as distinguished by the
"Fisher of men".
The Apostles Peter, James, Andrew and John all were additionally portrayed as fishermen. In the 2nd century, one of the early Christian fathers Tertullian wrote accordingly of this saying:
"But we, the Christians, are little fishes after the type of our great Fish Jesus Christ, born in the water".
Popular hymns later referred to Jesus as "the Little Fish which the Virgin caught in the Fountain".
In Greek though, the Fish became known as "Icthys", which too was later nominated as the icon of Jesus in Hebrew afterwards used as an acrostic from the Greek "Iesous Christos Theou Hyios Soter" or "Jesus Christ, of God the Sun/Son, Saviour". This Ichthys, fish of the water, also became known as the offspring Sun of the ancient sea and Moon goddess which had long been a central figure to much early mythologies revolving around the zodiac when Jupiter entered into Aries the Ram through Pisces.
This fish symbol virtually attached itself to an array of ancient Moon deities due to this lunary orb governing the sea and tides, as according to Pliny, along for which the enquiry of the Heavens too became a profession held down exclusively by women who promulgated the changes of seasons and the harvest, such as designing calendars, predicting eclipses and forecasting the future. Even at one of the most important and oldest sanctuaries in Greece, "Delphos/Delphi" also meant "Whale" and "Womb", from where the Pythia (Pythoness) Oracle received her prophesies and where the Greeks consulted preceding a major operation.
Plutarch, a famed priest at Delphi recounted that after the Sun god Apollo defeated Python and presided over Delphi for 9 months, that the Shrine was afterwards then appointed back to the Maenads of Dionysus for preparation of rebirth. In the Eleusinian Mysteries of the goddess Demeter, initiation further included a baptism in seawater signifying rebirth, with a greeting to the rising of the new Moon after three nights of dark skies taking place.
The Roman writer Apuleius even related that the goddess Aphrodite Salacia was the fish swarming womb that carried the reincarnated Sun god Palaemon, just as Empedocles conjured water as manifesting the tears of the goddess Persophone. In India, it was Vritas and Danu, or in Persia, it became the goddess Anahita who governed the waters.
In Babylonia, it was the Solar tale of the fish goddess Derceto/Atargatis with the god Oannes/Joannes, including also Nammu and Tiamat. In the Biblical tale, like Jesus born from Mary, or Maria, from where Marine, or where water comes from became rendered through Oannes/Jonah, who allegorically did the same exploit inside the Womb/Tomb of the world's largest sea Mammal.
Yahweh concluded alike in the Old Testament by subjugating the sea
Serpent Leviathan ("Whale" in Hebrew). The seditious natural
historian Charles Darwin's evolution also emphasized this belief
implying that the gestating hydrous womb was
"for, as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights."
- Matthew 12:40
As accompanied by the fish story of Jesus miraculously helping his disciples land a catch of 153 fish, this same feat is also strangely achieved by Pythagoras five hundred years earlier in an ancient legend recorded by the neoplatonist Porphyry. Pythagoras himself predicting the exact number of fish to be caught, with the 153 being a sacred Pythagorean number associated with the "Vesica Piscis" or "Vessel of the Fish" (image right).
When the circumference of the one circle touches the centre of the other they both combine to produce the fish, or the ratio of height to length of this shape being 153:265, a formula known to Archimedes and was a very potent mathematical tool being the nearest whole number approximation ratio of the equilateral triangle. Ecclesiastics howbeit later on had to formulate a narrative in order to explain why they were using such symbolism, and by the 9th century the fish ideogram had been partially all but abandoned due to its pagan connections with Icthys and Jupiter.
Even in Greek, the name for Jesus being Iesous, is very similar to the name of Zeus/Jupiter itself. As Acharya S described Zeus, aka "Zeus Pateras," who we now automatically believe to be a myth and not a historical figure, takes his name from the Indian version, "Dyaus Pitar." Dyaus Pitar in turn is related to the Egyptian "Ptah," and from both Pitar and Ptah comes the word "pater," or "father." "Zeus" equals "Dyaus," which became "Deos," "Deus" and "Dios", "God."
"Zeus Pateras," like
Dyaus Pitar, means, "God the
Father," a very ancient concept that in no way originated with
"Jesus" and Christianity. In Hinduism (one of the oldest living
religions) Krishna/Christna was also called "Khrist-os" centuries
before any Jewish character was similarly named.
Christians adopted Christmas
"The idea of a complete and clear-cut canon of the New Testament existing from the beginning, that is from Apostolic times, has no foundation in history.
The Canon of the New Testament, like that of the Old, is the result of a development, of a process at once stimulated by disputes with doubters, both within and without the Church, and retarded by certain obscurities and natural hesitations, and which did not reach its final term until the dogmatic definition of the Tridentine Council."
- Catholic Encyclopedia
For the first three centuries, the collective body of all
Christians, including clerical knew little of the birthday of Jesus
up until the 4th century, as currently there is still no Biblical
evidence which even declares the birthday of Jesus as the 25th of
December. There is simply no external historical confirmation for
the story outside of the New Testament either with accounts being
internally contradictive.
The Winter Solstice
The major winter festival that the ancient however did celebrate,
particularly Aryans was that when the Sun reached the point
This was seen as the renewing of the Sun every year and appeared at its most southerly position, directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn (23 degrees 27 minutes south latitude) in the Northern hemisphere.
The winter solstice also became the birthday of multiple resurrecting fertility gods including Attis, Frey, Thor, Dionysus, Osiris, Adonis, Mithra, Tammuz, Cernunnos as mentioned above. Romans alike celebrated the festival of the Saturnalia from December 17th to the 24th to honor the Greek god Saturn, and originated as a thanksgiving celebration to commemorate the winter planting that consisted of a period of goodwill, devoted to visiting friends and swapping gifts.
From late winter, up until the spring equinox was
the "40 days", which later became Christian Lent.
Ancient Persian- Mithraism
In the years before the introduction of the Christian religion,
Roman inhabitants of the empire worshipped the god Mithra for close
to well over 400 years. Mithraism was regarded as the primary
closing religion of the Roman Empire, and later eventually becoming
the principal ranked competing rival to Christianity after its
uprising.
The first written mention of Mitra dates back around 3,500 years in the Hindu Vedas, and then assumingly spread to Persia and reached west throughout the entire length of the Roman border to Scotland. It is still regarded as one of the most universal religions and greatest mystery cults in the Western World. Its mysteries that spread by the Romans likewise had a large significant importance on the development of early Christianity during its first four centuries.
Both Roman Mithraism, like Iranian Mithraism were cults of loyalty toward its king. Many prominent Roman figures were among its initiates, and were encouraged by various Roman emperors, such as Commodus, Aurelian, Diocletian, Galerius and Licinius.
In 307, a temple was even dedicated to Mithra and he officially became the "Protector of the Empire". The birthday of Mithra furthermore occurred during the Winter Solstice that celebrated the Natalis Solis Invicti on December 25th. This large celebration was known for signaling the birth of a young Sun god who sprang from a rock or a cave in the form of a newborn infant.
His triumph and ascension was celebrated at Easter, and as being the god of light, he also preformed the usual assortment of miracles; such as raising the dead, healing the sick, and casting out devils. Before returning to heaven, he celebrated a last supper with his 12 disciples on the zodiac. In memory of this, his worshippers partook in a sacramental meal of bread marked with a cross. It was called mizd, Latin missa, Greek maza, English mass.
In 313 CE, the official birthday of Jesus in alignment with Mithra also became December 25th. In the year 375 CE, Pope Julius I likewise declared the Nativity of the birth of Jesus as December 25th to align followers of the Sun god Mithra. This event became the very motivation as to why Jesus received his official birth anniversary on December 25th in accordance of the ancient pagan resurrecting solar godman in the Roman Empire, as before that, no one knew of his historical birth. St. Augustine even went as far as declaring that the priests of Mithra worshipped the same deity as he did.
Paul equally attested to knowing nothing about Jesus' birth, ministry and healings, which was alarming, as the origins of Christianity itself derive from Paul, and not Jesus. Paul doesn't even quote anything that Jesus is alleged to have said, nor did any of Jesus' original twelve disciples write of his teaching.
Afterwards, St. Augustine wrote that Christians ought not to celebrate Jesus' birth, like the heathens do on account of the Sun, but rather on account of god who made the Sun. The early Jesus was regarded so much a Sun god himself to the ancients, that the term Jesus of Nazareth (Nazaroth) in Hebrew is actually the twelve signs of the zodiac. No city by this name existed during this time. A church council further declared that it would be wrong to celebrate the birthday of Jesus as though he were a King Pharaoh.
Eventually though, this festival of "Christmas" became a civic holiday by the emperor Justinian where the events became so customary that it begun marking the beginning of the ceremonial year for Christians. The use of giving gifts, holly, mistletoe, yule logs, fruitcake, ringing bells, candles, wassail bowls, and decorating a tree however all derived from early pagan customs.
Many European countries still call this celebration "Yuletide" (or wheel of the Sun) A harvesting festival celebrated at the end of the year. None of which derive from Christian origins.
(Above) Mithra sacrificing the Bull of God under the sign of Taurus.
In spite of Mithraism being regarded as a late ascetical all male cult, with a priesthood consisting of celibate man and militants only, a much earlier feminal Mithra had been identified with the Persian goddess Anahita.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the ancient Persians worshipped a sky-goddess Mitra, the same as Mylitta, Assyria's Great Mother, and Alitta, known to the Arabians. The Lydians then went about combining Mithra with his archaic Mother/spouse Anahita as an androgynous Mithra-Anahita, as distinguished with Sabazius-Anaitis of the Anatolian mystery cults.
Afterwards in the 2nd century Church Fathers such as Justin Martyr and Tertullian made various effects on trying to enforce that Mithraism had copied itself from Christianity. Tertullian wrote of the Devil's "diabolical mimicry" in creating the Mysteries of Mithras:
"The devil, whose business is to pervert the truth, mimics the exact circumstances of the Divine Sacraments. He baptizes his believers and promises forgiveness of sins from the Sacred Fount, and thereby initiates them into the religion of Mithras. Thus he celebrates the oblation of bread, and brings in the symbol of the resurrection.
Let us therefore acknowledge the craftiness of the devil, who copies certain things of those that be Divine."
It was a known fact that Mithraism had included these rituals a long
time before the time of Jesus Christ. In 1989, Mithraic
Many Scholars now agree that Paul, the founder of Christianity, likewise subsisted as the Pythagorean philosopher "Apollonius of Tyana" (after the Sun god Apollo) who was the former Solar Messiah to the figure of Jesus Christ.
Many Roman writers reference Apollonius as "Pol" and various comparisons have been made between them, such as being located at Tarsus, Ephesus and Rome at exactly the same time of each other. Pol also had a companion called Demas, as Paul does with Damis.
"For when one says, 'I belong to Paul,' and another, 'I belong to Apollos,' are you not merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth."
- I Corinthians 3:4-6
Ancient Temples and Catacombs
The Catacombs in Rome offer some of the most vital forms of evidence
between paganism and Christianity. The Catacombs eventually ceased
after Christians came into jurisdiction and were later only
rediscovered in 1578, where they were first thought to be ruins of
ancient cities.
The catacombs extended six miles deep underground, and are also considered the single most precious collection of early Pagan and Christian art in the entire world. Believe it or not, Rome has some 600 miles of catacombs altogether, and today can even be found pictures of the baby Horus being held by the Virgin Isis-Meri (Mary) in what scholars have claimed is the original "Madonna and Child".
Hundreds of temples, sculptures, fragments and inscriptions dedicated to Mithras have likewise been found. The Mithraic cave temple on Vatican Hill that was seized and destroyed by literalist Christians in 376 CE, also lies directly underneath the Vatican.
Christian bishops of Rome additionally preempted the Mithraic high priest's title off Pater Patrum ("father" Egyptian for "Ptah") who was known as the "Papa." (the Pope) The first Pope of the Catholic Church was Simon (a Gnostic), who was then later ironically enough renamed Peter (or Saint Peter) by the Roman Church.
The Mithraeum in Rome,
located directly under the Church of San Clemente.
In Britain, Mithra shrines have been uncovered under St. Pauls
cathedral. Also at Segentium on the Welsh border, and others on
Hadrian wall on the Scottish border, and anywhere near old Roman
garrison towns. In fact, every Roman garrison town had its Mithra
temple and shrine.
Christians adopted Easter
"Roman sources that mention Jesus are all dependent on Christian reports. Jesus' trial did not make headlines in Rome, and the archives there had no record of it. If archives were kept in Jerusalem, they were destroyed when revolt broke out in 66 CE or during the subsequent war. That war also devastated Galilee.
Whatever records there may have been did not survive. When he was executed, Jesus was no more important to the outside world than the two brigands or insurgents executed along with him, whose name we also do not know."
- The Historical Figure of Jesus. by E.P. Sanders
The word "Easter" stems from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility "Eastra", or Oestre. In Latin, Ishtar or Astarte. In the Old Testament, Astarte the Phoenician goddess of fertility was called "Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians" and Ashtaroth, for which a great Spring festival was held in her honor.
According to the English theologian and historian Bede in the 8th century, early Germanic Christians acquired her name and ceremonies based on the resurrection of the Sun's ascendance in the "East" at the Vernal Equinox, when day and night were in equal length. The Anglo-Saxons additionally called "April" Oster Monat (Moon), or the conceptive phase of advancing into a new generative season.
After much debate about Easter, the later official liturgical Christian Easter also fell precisely on the same Sunday (Sun's Day) after the first full Moon of the equinox ("equal night") following March 21st, the same period as various ancient resurrecting fertility gods. March 21st to April 19th on the Zodiac being Aries the Ram, or Alpha Arietis being the brightest star in the constellation Aries. It is known as Hamal, an Arabic name meaning "Sheep".
In Egypt, this was known as the popular cult of Aries, or the Sun god Amon "RA"/"RAM", the Lamb of god. Even still as an expression of faith today, Christians say "Amen", which is symbolized by the Ram (Lamb) and is a very important Easter symbol relating not only that to the Sun's death and rebirth, but also to the Lamb sacrificed during the Sun's Passover on the Zodiac.
(above) Mithra springing to birth in the womb, from an egg .
(also
note the 12 zodiac signs, the 12 disciples of the Sun)
Correspondingly, the fertility goddess Astarte/Oestre's symbols are those representing rebirth (eggs) and her earthly Easter symbol is that of the prolific March hare, which would lay eggs for good children to eat for Easter celebrations.
This custom of exchanging eggs began when the ancients dyed them in Spring colors and gave them to their friends as gifts. They believed that the world egg was actually laid by the Moon goddess and was split open by the heat of a Sun god, hatching the world.
Never though will people find anything about the "Easter bunny", or "Easter eggs", or the actual festival of Easter itself mentioned anywhere in the Bible. It wasn't until the year 190 CE that Pope Victor I made Easter Sunday the official day of celebration for Christians in Rome.
Afterwards it
went through many metamorphic stages of change as Christians adopted
it, and began exclusively calling the festival their own.
Pagan Destruction Chronology (314-870 C.E)
Source: Demolish Them!
Vlassis R. Rassias, Es Edafos Ferein - « »
edisi ke-2, Athens, 2000, ISBN 960-7748-20-4
314 Immediately after its full legalization, the Christian Church attacks the gentiles (non-Christians). The Council of Ancyra denounces the worship of Goddess Artemis.
324 The emperor Constantine declares Christianity as the only official religion of the Roman empire. In Dydima, Minor Asia, he sacks the Oracle of the god Apollo and tortures the pagan priests to death. He also evicts all non-Christian peoples from Mount Athos and destroys all the local Hellenic temples.
326 Constantine, following the instructions of his mother Helen, destroys the temple of the god Asclepius in Aigeai of Cilicia and many temples of the goddess Aphrodite in Jerusalem, Aphaca, Mambre, Phoenice, Baalbek, etc.
330 Constantine steals the treasures and statues of the pagan temples of Greece to decorate Nova Roma (Constantinople), the new capital of his Empire.
335 Constantine sacks many pagan temples of Minor Asia and Palestine and orders the execution by crucifixion of "all magicians and soothsayers." Martyrdom of the neoplatonist philosopher Sopatrus.
341 Flavius Julius Constantius persecutes "all the soothsayers and the Hellenists." Many gentile Hellenes are either imprisoned or executed.
346 New large scale persecutions against non-Christian peoples in Constantinople. Banishment of the famous orator Libanius accused as a "magician".
353 An edict of Constantius orders the death penalty for all kind of worship through sacrifices and "idols".
354 A new edict orders the closing of all the pagan temples. Some of them are profaned and turned into brothels or gambling rooms. Executions of pagan priests.
354 A new edict of Constantius orders the destruction of the pagan temples and the execution of all "idolaters". First burning of libraries in various cities of the empire. The first lime factories are being organised next to the closed pagan temples. A major part of the holy architecture of the pagans turns to lime.
357 Constantius outlaws all methods of divination (astrology not excluded).
359 In Skythopolis, Syria, the Christians organize the first death camps for the torture and executions of the arrested non-Christians from all around the empire.
361 to 363 Religious tolerance and restoration of the pagan cults declared in Constantinople (11th December 361) by the pagan emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus.
363 Assassination of Julianus (26th June).
364 Emperor Flavius Jovianus orders the burning of the Library of Antioch.
364 An Imperial edict (11th September) orders the death penalty for all those that worship their ancestral gods or practice divination ("sileat omnibus perpetuo divinandi curiositas"). Three different edicts (4th February, 9th September, 23rd December) order the confiscation of all properties of the pagan temples and the death penalty for participation in pagan rituals, even private ones.
365 An Imperial edict (17th November) forbids the gentile (pagan) officers of the army to command Christian soldiers.
370 Valens orders a tremendous persecution of non-Christian peoples in all the Eastern Empire. In Antioch, among many other non-Christians, the ex-governor Fidustius and the priests Hilarius and Patricius are executed. Tons of books are burnt in the squares of the cities of the Eastern Empire. All the friends of Julianus are persecuted (Orebasius, Sallustius, Pegasius etc.), the philosopher Simonides is burned alive and the philosopher Maximus is decapitated.
372 Valens orders the governor of Minor Asia to exterminate all the Hellenes and all documents of their wisdom.
373 New prohibition of all divination methods. The term "pagan" (pagani, villagers, equivalent to the modern insult, "peasants") is introduced by the Christians to demean non-believers.
375 The temple of god Asclepius in Epidaurus, Greece, is closed down by the Christians.
380 On 27th February, Christianism becomes the exclusive religion of the Roman empire by an edict of the emperor Flavius Theodosius, requiring that:
The non-Christians are called "loathsome, heretics, stupid and blind". In another edict, Theodosius calls "insane" those that do not believe to the Christian God and outlaws all disagreements with the Church dogmas. Ambrosius, bishop of Milan, starts destroying all the pagan temples of his area. The Christian priests lead the hungry mob against the temple of goddess Demeter in Eleusis and try to lynch the hierophants Nestorius and Priskus. The 95 years old hierophant Nestorius ends the Eleusinian Mysteries and announces the predominance of mental darkness over the human race.
381 On 2nd May, Theodosius deprives of all their rights the Christians that return back to the pagan religion. In all the Eastern Empire the pagan temples and Libraries are looted or burned down. On 21st December, Theodosius outlaws even simple visits to the temples of the Hellenes. In Constantinople, the temple of goddess Aphrodite is turned to a brothel and the temples of Sun and Artemis to stables.
382 "Hellelujah" ("Glory to Yahweh") is imposed in the Christian mass.
384 Theodosius orders the Praetorian Prefect Maternus Cynegius, a dedicated Christian, to cooperate with the local bishops and destroy the temples of the pagans in Northern Greece and Minor Asia.
385 to 388 Maternus Cynegius, encouraged by his fanatic wife, and bishop "Saint" Marcellus with his gangs scour the countryside and sack and destroy hundreds of Hellenic temples, shrines and altars. Among others they destroy the temple of Edessa, the Cabeireion of Imbros, the temple of Zeus in Apamea, the temple of Apollo in Dydima and all the temples of Palmyra. Thousands of innocent pagans from all sides of the empire suffer martyrdom in the notorious death camps of Skythopolis.
386 Theodosius outlaws (16th June) the care of the sacked pagan temples.
388 Public talks on religious subjects are outlawed by Theodosius. The old orator Libanius sends his famous epistle "Pro Templis" to Theodosius with the hope that the few remaining Hellenic temples will be respected and spared.
389 to 390 All non-Christian date-methods are outlawed. Hordes of fanatic hermits from the desert flood the cities of the Middle East and Egypt and destroy statues, altars, libraries and pagan temples, and lynch the pagans. Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, starts heavy persecutions against non-Christian peoples, turns the temple of Dionysos into a Christian church, burns down the Mithraeum of the city, destroys the temple of Zeus and burlesques the pagan priests before they are killed by stoning. The Christian mob profanes the cult images.
391 On 24th February, a new edict of Theodosius prohibits not only visits to pagan temples but also looking at the vandalized statues. New heavy persecutions all around the empire. In Alexandria, Egypt, pagans, led by the philosopher Olympius, revolt and after some street fights they lock themselves inside the fortified temple of god Serapis (the Serapeion). After a violent siege, the Christians take over the building, demolish it, burn its famous library and profane the cult images.
392 On 8th November, Theodosius outlaws all the non-Christian rituals and names them "superstitions of the gentiles" (gentilicia superstitio). New full scale persecutions against pagans. The Mysteries of Samothrace are ended and the priests slaughtered. In Cyprus the local bishop "Saint" Epiphanius and "Saint" Tychon destroy almost all the temples of the island and exterminate thousands of non-Christians. The local Mysteries of goddess Aphrodite are ended. Theodosius's edict declares: "the ones that won't obey pater Epiphanius have no right to keep living in that island". The pagans revolt against the emperor and the Church in Petra, Aeropolis, Rafia, Gaza, Baalbek and other cities of the Middle East.
393 The Pythian Games, the Aktia Games and the Olympic Games are outlawed as part of the Hellenic "idolatry". The Christians sack the temples of Olympia.
395 Two new edicts (22nd July and 7th August) cause new persecutions against pagans. Rufinus, the eunuch Prime Minister of emperor Flavius Arcadius directs the hordes of the baptized Goths (led by Alaric) to the country of the Hellenes. Encouraged by Christian monks the barbarians sack and burn many cities (Dion, Delphi, Megara, Corinth, Pheneos, Argos, Nemea, Lycosoura, Sparta, Messene, Phigaleia, Olympia, etc.), slaughter or enslave innumerable gentile Hellenes and burn down all the temples. Among others, they burn down the Eleusinian Sanctuary and burn alive all its priests (including the hierophant of Mithras Hilarius).
396 On 7th December, a new edict by Arcadius orders that paganism be treated as high treason. Imprisonment of the few remaining pagan priests and hierophants.
397 "Demolish them!". Flavius Arcadius orders all the still standing pagan temples to be demolished.
398 The Fourth Church Council of Carthage prohibits to everybody, including to the Christian bishops, the study of the books of the pagans. Porphyrius, bishop of Gaza, demolishes almost all the pagan temples of his city (except 9 of them that remain active).
399 With a new edict (13th July) Flavius Arcadius orders all the still standing pagan temples, mainly in the countryside, to be immediately demolished.
400 Bishop Nicetas destroys the Oracle of the god Dionysus in Vesai and baptizes all the non-Christians of this area.
401 The Christian mob of Carthage lynches non-Christians and destroys temples and "idols". In Gaza too, the local bishop "Saint" Porphyrius sends his followers to lynch pagans and to demolish the remaining 9 still active temples of the city. The 15th Council of Chalkedon orders all the Christians that still keep good relations with their gentile relatives to be excommunicated (even after their death).
405 John Chrysostom sends hordes of gray dressed monks armed with clubs and iron bars to destroy the "idols" in all the cities of Palestine.
406 John Chrysostom collects funds from rich Christian women to financially support the demolition of the Hellenic temples. In Ephessus he orders the destruction of the famous temple of goddess Artemis. In Salamis, Cyprus, "Saints" Epiphanius and Eutychius continue the persecutions of the pagans and the total destruction of their temples and sanctuaries.
407 A new edict outlaws once more all the non-Christian acts of worship
408 The emperor of the Western Empire, Honorius, and the emperor of the Eastern Empire, Arcadius, order together all the sculptures of the pagan temples to be either destroyed or to be taken away. Private ownership of pagan sculpture is also outlawed. The local bishops lead new heavy persecutions against the pagans and new book burning. The judges that have pity for the pagans are also persecuted. "Saint" Augustine massacres hundreds of protesting pagans in Calama, Algeria.
409 Another edict orders all methods of divination including astrology to be punished by death.
415 In Alexandria, Egypt, the Christian mob, urged by the bishop Cyrillus, attacks a few days before the Judaeo-Christian Pascha (Easter) and cuts to pieces the famous and beautiful philosopher Hypatia. The pieces of her body, carried around by the Christian mob through the streets of Alexandria, are finally burned together with her books in a place called Cynaron. On 30th August, new persecutions start against all the pagan priests of North Africa who end their lives either crucified or burned alive.
416 The inquisitor Hypatius, alias "The Sword of God", exterminates the last pagans of Bithynia. In Constantinople (7th December) all non-Christian army officers, public employees and judges are dismissed.
423 Emperor Theodosius II declares (8th June) that the religion of the pagans is nothing more than "demon worship" and orders all those who persist in practicing it to be punished by imprisonment and torture.
429 The temple of goddess Athena (Parthenon) on the Acropolis of Athens is sacked. The Athenian pagans are persecuted.
435 On 14th November, a new edict by Theodosius II orders the death penalty for all "heretics" and pagans of the empire. Only Judaism is considered a legal non-Christian religion.
438 Theodosius II issues an new edict (31st January) against the pagans, incriminating their "idolatry" as the reason of a recent plague!
440 to 450 The Christians demolish all the monuments, altars and temples of Athens, Olympia, and other Greek cities.
448 Theodosius II orders all non-Christian books to be burned.
450 All the temples of Aphrodisias (the City of the Goddess Aphrodite) are demolished and all its libraries burned down. The city is renamed Stavroupolis (City of the Cross).
451 New edict by Theodosius II (4th November) emphasises that "idolatry" is punished by death.
457 to 491 Sporadic persecutions against the pagans of the Eastern Empire. Among others, the physician Jacobus and the philosopher Gessius are executed. Severianus, Herestios, Zosimus, Isidorus and others are tortured and imprisoned. The proselytiser Conon and his followers exterminate the last non-Christians of Imbros Island, Norheast Aegean Sea. The last worshippers of Lavranius Zeus are exterminated in Cyprus.
482 to 488 The majority of the pagans of Minor Asia are exterminated after a desperate revolt against the emperor and the Church.
486 More "underground" pagan priests are discovered, arrested, burlesqued, tortured and executed in Alexandria, Egypt.
515 Baptism becomes obligatory even for those that already say they are Christians. The emperor of Constantinople, Anastasius, orders the massacre of the pagans in the Arabian city Zoara and the demolition of the temple of local godndrites.
528 Emperor Jutprada (Justinianus) outlaws the "alternative" Olympian Games of Antioch. He also orders the executionby fire, crucifixion, tearing to pieces by wild beasts or cutting to pieces by iron nailsof all who practice "sorcery, divination, magic or idolatry" and prohibits all teachings by the pagans ("the ones suffering from the blasphemous insanity of the Hellenes").
529 Justinianus outlaws the Athenian Philosophical Academy and has its property confiscated.
532 The inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus, a fanatic monk, leads a crusade against the pagans of Minor Asia.
542 Justinianus allows the inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus to convert the pagans of Phrygia, Caria and Lydia, Minor Asia. Within 35 years of this crusade, 99 churches and 12 monasteries are built on the sites of demolished pagan temples.
546 Hundreds of pagans are put to death in Constantinople by the inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus.
556 Justinianus orders the notorious inquisitor Amantius to go to Antioch, to find, arrest, torture and exterminate the last non-Christians of the city and burn all the private libraries down.
562 Mass arrests, burlesquing, tortures, imprisonments and executions of gentile Hellenes in Athens, Antioch, Palmyra and Constantinople.
578 to 582 The Christians torture and crucify gentile Hellenes all around the Eastern Empire, and exterminate the last non-Christians of Heliopolis (Baalbek).
580 The Christian inquisitors attack a secret temple of Zeus in Antioch. The priest commits suicide, but the rest of the pagans are arrested. All the prisoners, the Vice Governor Anatolius included, are tortured and sent to Constantinople to face trial. Sentenced to death they are thrown to the lions. The wild animals being unwilling to tear them to pieces, they end up crucified. Their dead bodies are dragged in the streets by the Christian mob and afterwards thrown unburied in the dump.
583 New persecutions against the gentile Hellenes by the Mauricius.
590 In all the Eastern Empire the Christian accusers "discover" pagan conspiracies. New storm of torture and executions.
692 The "Penthekto" Council of Constantinople prohibits the remains of Calends, Brumalia, Anthesteria, and other pagan/Dionysian celebrations.
804 The gentile Hellenes of Mesa Mani (Cape Tainaron, Lakonia, Greece) resist successfully the attempt of Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to convert them to Christianity.
850 to 860 Violent conversion of the last gentile Hellenes of Laconia by the Armenian "Saint" Nikon.
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