The Arctic Home in the Vedas: Part 16 - "Thule, Saturn, & an alternative explanation"

Thule, Saturn, & an alternative explanation: Part 5

The way the Greeks understood their relationship with non-Greek peoples was significantly moulded by the way myths of the Golden Age were transplanted into the contemporary scene...

We often hear the phrase “golden age” in reference to the zenith of something; “the golden age of cinema.” However, there was THE golden age, and it may be stranger than anything we will ever uncover. It has to do with everything from the deep past to the present day. It has to do with every ancient culture, and in particular the original Teutonic people before their migrations. I will tie this big loose end. But for now, we are talking about a “Golden Age” in which there were no seasons as we know them today; and in which the North and South Poles was literally habitable.

A particular Hyperborean legendary healer was known as "Abaris" or "Abaris the Healer" whom Herodotus first described in his works. Plato (Charmides, 158C) regarded Abaris as a physician from the far north...

Could Abaris the Healer have been of a migrating people from the “far north”… Thule? The ancient Greeks were very scientifically-minded, so couldn’t this “shaman”--who caused such a stir--seem a little out of place?

Above the Arctic Circle, from the spring equinox to the autumnal equinox (depending on latitude), the sun can shine for 24 hours a day...

There is a deep tie-in here with the “Golden Age” and Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s theory, but I will have to wait until Part 17 to reveal it.

Unaware of the explanation offered by modern science (i.e. that these insects had lived in times when the climate of northern Europe was much warmer, their bodies preserved unchanged in the amber) the Greeks came up with the idea that the coldness of northern countries was due to the cold breath of Boreas, the North Wind. So if one travelled "beyond Boreas" one would find a warm and sunny land.

This is clearly part of the Greek mythology of the “Golden Age.” However, these mythologies of that possible era are present in the mythologies of every ancient civilization. Again, I’m focusing mostly on the legend of Thule, but this “Golden Age” affected every person living on Earth at that time if it was real.

Northern Europeans (Scandinavians), when confronted with the classical Greco-Roman culture of the Mediterranean, identified themselves with the Hyperboreans, neglecting the traditional aspect of a perpetually sunny land beyond the north.

This was only a perception, but could it literally be tied to a real time and place? There is now mounting evidence that it may.

Hyperborean Indo-European hypothesis

John G. Bennett wrote a research paper entitled "The Hyperborean Origin of the Indo-European Culture" (Journal Systematics, Vol. 1, No. 3, December 1963) in which he claimed the Indo-European homeland was in the far north, which he considered the Hyperborea of classical antiquity. This idea was earlier proposed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak (whom Bennett credits) in his The Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903) as well as the Austro-Hungarian ethnologist Karl Penka (Origins of the Aryans, 1883).

Now this is a big tie-in, and in hindsight part of the intellectual process of looking into something which seemingly is impossible. They weren’t, however, “Indo-Europeans.” They were the original Teutonic race. This intrinsically has nothing to do with the Nazis. In fact, the German sub-race--specifically--is less than half Teutonic.. and less so in the southern German lands. The larger part being primarily proto-European (“Alpine”).

According to these esoterists, Hyperborea was the Golden Age polar center of civilization and spirituality...

I doubt this part, as there is no strong evidence of it. That doesn’t mean that evidence of a great Thule civilization couldn’t be out there undiscovered. We can look into what may exist as far as ruins at a later point. What there is evidence of is the presence of Teutonic people in some of these lost lands like the Tarim Basin.

Robert Charroux first related the Hyperboreans to an ancient astronaut race of "reputedly very large, very white people" who had chosen "the least warm area on the earth because it corresponded more closely to their own climate on the planet from which they originated."

After Part 17, this may show to be theoretically possible, but wild theories can and do hurt the areas where facts can be established. In any case, this original Teutonic race would no longer exist in the exact form that they did. Even in the far north of the post-Golden Age Europe, or in modern times, I would guess that this certain stock would be at no more than 50%.

They may not have been as physically attractive as their Teutonic-Protoeuropean descendants later became. The very tall, square-headed, almost white-haired, very light blue-eyed, and pure white skinned people became shorter, rounder-headed, more ash or wheat blonde haired, more medium blue-eyed, and perhaps a bit tan to give one possible example.

Unlike other places where Teutonic people came and ruthlessly conquered, they were taken with these shorter, stocky, sexier, probably brown-eyed, perhaps dark brown haired European natives.. and merged with them. Only in what I would call the “final great migration,” a horde of more pure stock Teutons came and permanently placed their clear genetic and linguistic stamp on some places like Scandinavia and northern Germany.

The one other example of where they mixed their blood was in ancient Persia, which produced the Aryan culture and people (original Teutons & true Mediterraneans). To make this perfectly clear, this original Teutonic race didn't produce "The Golden Age"; the Golden Age may explain their origins. I use the term "Teutonic" for the original stock; as opposed to the modern "Germanic," which is a loose and somewhat undefined term. For example, the "Germanic Austrians" probably have only a minimally larger Teutonic element than say Venetians, Croatians, or Slovenes... yet the loud terms "GERMAN," "ITALIAN," or "SLAV" are thrown around recklessly by many. Language often defines a culture more than actual racial stock in the perceptions of most people.


Golden Age (Wikipedia)

The term Golden Age (Greek: Χρυσόν Γένος Chryson Genos) comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five (or more) Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and then the present (Iron), which is a period of decline. By extension "Golden Age" denotes a period of primordial peace, harmony, stability, and prosperity. During this age peace and harmony prevailed, humans did not have to work to feed themselves, for the earth provided food in abundance. They lived to a very old age with a youthful appearance, eventually dying peacefully, with spirits living on as "guardians". Plato in Cratylus (397 e) recounts the golden race of humans who came first. He clarifies that Hesiod did not mean literally made of gold, but good and noble.

There are analogous concepts in the religious and philosophical traditions of the South Asian subcontinent. For example, the Vedic or ancient Hindu culture saw history as cyclical, composed of yugas with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. The Kali yuga (Iron Age), Dwapara (Bronze Age), Treta yuga (Silver Age) and Satya yuga (Golden Age) correspond to the four Greek ages. Similar beliefs occur in the ancient Middle East and throughout the ancient world, as well.

In classical Greek mythology the Golden Age was presided over by the leading Titan Cronus. In some version of the myth Astraea, also ruled. She lived with men until the end of the Silver Age, but in the Bronze Age, when men became violent and greedy, fled to the stars, where she appears as the constellation Virgo, holding the scales of Justice, or Libra.

European Pastoral literary and iconographic tradition often depicted nymphs and shepherds as living a life of rustic innocence and simplicity, untainted by the corruptions of civilization — a continuation of the Golden Age — set in an idealized Arcadia, a region of Greece that was the abode and center of worship of their tutelary deity, goat-footed Pan, who dwelt among them. This idealized and nostalgic vision of the simple life, however, was sometimes contested and even ridiculed, both in antiquity and later on.


Abaris the Hyperborean (Wikipedia)
Abaris the Hyperborean (Greek: Ἄβαρις Ὑπερβόρειος, Abaris Hyperboreios), son of Seuthes, was a legendary sage, healer, and priest of Apollo known to the Ancient Greeks. He was supposed to have learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea, near the Caucasus, which he fled during a plague. He was said to be endowed with the gift of prophecy, and by this as well as by his Scythian dress and simplicity and honesty he created great sensation in Greece, and was held in high esteem.

Gothicismus (Wikipedia)

Gothicismus, Gothism, or Gothicism (Swedish: Göticism) is the name given to what is considered to have been a cultural movement in Sweden, centered around the belief in the glory of the Swedish ancestors, originally considered to be the Geats, which were identified with the Goths. The founders of the movement were Nicolaus Ragvaldi and the brothers Johannes and Olaus Magnus. The belief continued to hold power in the 17th century, when Sweden was a great power following the Thirty Years' War, but lost most of its sway in the 18th. It was revitalized by national romanticism in the early 19th century, this time with the vikings as heroic figures.


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By extension "Golden Age" denotes a period of primordial peace, harmony, stability, and prosperity. During this age peace and harmony prevailed, humans did not have to work to feed themselves, for the earth provided food in abundance. 

This sounds a bit like someone's warm and fuzzy account of some long ago "place" in their imagination. However, this will make a lot more sense during Part 17.

He (Abaris) was supposed to have learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea, near the Caucasus...

Apparently Abaris was a real figure who caused a sensation in early Greek civilization. Since he dressed like a Scythian, there seems to be a Persian connection, which would tie-in well as far as his possible Teuton roots at that time. If it was about one-thousand BCE, then the Aryan connection would make sense here.


Gothicismus

There is a definite tie-in here, but this national/racial historical perception (likely partly true in this case) starts to lead us down some rabbit trails and into confusion. Suffice to say that there were some early Gothic legends of Thule.

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