Anatoliy Zolotukhin


HOMER. THE IMMANENT BIOGRAPHY

Galera
Nikolaev
"Vozmozhnosty Kimmerii"
2003


ZOLOTUKHIN A. I. "HOMER. IMMANENT BIOGRAPHY", 114 p.
(Summary)

The book is devoted to the city of Nikolaev, in the land of which Homer was born. These are theses of a big book "Homer and Cimmerian Scythian History of Nikolaev region in Ukraine". The book hasn't been published yet. It has 32 illustrations to the following chapters. The author's foreword.
1.Nikolaev as Hades according to Homer and as Hippolaus according to Herodotus.
2.About the determining the place of Hylaea of Herodotus.
3.About Exampaeus of Herodotus and the Scyths' victory over Darius.
4.About the restoration of the itinerary of Odysseus voyage.
5.About Homer's immanent biography.
6.How we can find out the Cimmerian Scythian name of Homer.
7.Pektoral found by Mozolevski as a symbiosis of Greek and Scythian culture.
8.About Homer's possible burial place on the island of Berezan.
9.On the way to Homer's sacred mysteries (afterward). Biography.
Here is the gist of all the chapters of the book.

The Author's Foreword

The introduction shows the way the hypothesis about Homer's Greek and Cimmerian origin has been formed. It is mentioned in this attempt to create Homer's biography that according to many scholars, A.F. Losev among them, Homer was an immanent author. It means that he described his own life in his works. The main reference materials and major premises are pointed out.
The theses are published in order to get the scientific approbation of the hypothesis and critical remarks to be considered while preparing a bigger book.

1. Nikolaev as Hades according to Homer and Hippolaus according to Herodotus

Until nowadays the scholars are not unanimous as to the position of the Cape Hippolaus and the pace of the temple of Demeter on it and following Herodotus's instructions the author makes a supposition that it might have been located on the territory of the peninsula where Nikolaev is situated at present.
The word Hippolaus can be translated from Greek either as 'a big lion' or as 'the people having horses'. The outlines of Nikolaev peninsula resemble a lion and it was the place were the Cimmerians and the Scyths lived, who could be surely called 'the people having horses'. The main arguments for the idea that Homer locates Hades on Nikolaev peninsula are following. In the first place, in the description of Odysseus's route given in the IV chapter of the book the Aeae island can be regarded as the island Berezan near Ochakov. In the second place, it is said in 'Odyssey' that while visiting Circe on the Aeae island Odysseus had to cross the Ocean river. From many scholars' point of view in Homer's times the Ocean river denoted the Borysthenites (the Dneper). And the direction of he route points to Nikolaev peninsula. In the third place the Cimmerians are mentioned by Homer only once when he speaks about 'the Cimmerian people and their town' located at the place of Hades. The time of Odysseus's voyage to Hades mentioned by Homer as well as currents' directions quite coincide with the geographic realities of the Dneper Bug estuary.
Hades was washed by the Cocytus, the river of lamentations. It can be referred to the river called by Herodotus 'the Hypanis' (the Yuzhni Bug') which salty water was mentioned by Homer. It is still salty. The second river is the Styx (now the Ingul). It flows together with the Cocytus at Hades (Nikolaev peninsula). The Periphlegeton river stands for the Borysthenites (the Dneper, the Dneper Bug Estuary to be more exact). The other important proofs of the Cimmerian towns' location on Nikolaev peninsula are given by Pomponius Mela who writes about two towns situated in the region - Borysthnid and Olbiopolis. From the 'Chronicles' by Eusebios we get to know that the towns had existed by 647 or 646 B.C., long before Olvia had been founded. It means that the towns were really Cimmerian. Homer described those towns in the picture, made by Hephistos on the Achilles shield in the 'Ilias'. The fact that Hades was on the Cape Hippolaus (Nikolaev peninsula) accounts for the Temple of Demeter being built there. As the myth about Persephone, Demeter's daughter says, she married the tsar Hades. Demeter had been looking for her daughter everywhere across the lands and on finding her she settled near Hades and the people built the temple in her honour. In summer Persephone visited her mother's house i.e. the temple (that's why the nature blossomed), in winter she went back to her husband to Hades (the life came to a standstill).

2. About the Determining the Place of Hylaea of Herodotus

Hylaea is translated from old Greek as Woodland. It is traditionally associated with the Kinburn Spite. Its boarders were wider in fact. We can define them more exactly if we identify the names of the rivers mentioned by Herodotus with the present names of the Ukrainian rivers. The Ister is the Danube. The Tyras is the Dnester, the Hypanis is the Southern Bug, the Tanais is the Don. It is doubtless for all the researches. There are different ideas as to the Panticape, the Hypacyris and the Hera, mentioned by Herodotus. There are arguments in the book to prove that the Panticape is the Ingul, the Ingulets should be regarded as the Hypacyris, and the river Saksagan, its tributary is the Hera. Taking all theses things into consideration we may outline the boarders of Herodotus's Hylaea and Homer's Hades as they are outlined in their works. The boarders ran across Nikolaev peninsula (Hippolas), the Kinburn spite, the island Berezan (Aeae peninsula then), Zmeiny island (Eol island by Homer) and Tendrian Spit (Achilleus Dromos). All those places were woodlands.

3. About Exampaeus of Herodotus and the Scyths' Victory over Darius

In this chapter the arguments in favour of the theory that Herodotus's Examples was situated between modern towns Voznesensk and Youzhnoukrainsk are given. The history of Darius's campaign against the Scyths as it was described by Herodotus is shown. The author is the first to put forward the idea that Darius organized not two but one campaign - against the Scyths in 514-512 B.C.
The theory accounts for Scyths' action in the first known to us patriotic war which couldn't be explained before. Having understood that the Scyths had no towns and the nomadic people could escape their enemies Darius worked out the following tactics. He gave a diplomatic advance notice to the northern Scyths of not fighting with them in case they didn't join the tzar's Scythss. The Black Sea was to the South. Darius must have done reconnaissance work in Scythia and divided his army into two parts. A month before his attack he quietly sent one part of his army comprising 300 thousand soldiers or so through the Derbent passage along the Caspian coast in order to block the possible retreat of the Scyths to the east and to weaken their forces between two fronts. After the Scyths' defeat Darius wanted to join both parts of his army somewhere near the Dneper rapids, an easy place to cross the river.
Darius himself with 400 thousand warriors was to make a violent attack from the West, having crossed the Bosphorus and the Danube on Greek vessels. According to the Herodotus's text describing that war, it becomes clear that the Scyths discovered Darius's intentions. In spite f the northern scyths' refusal to participate in the war, adopted at their general meeting the tsar's scythes together eith some other tribes, 300 thousand warriors opposed to 700 thousand warriors of the Darius's army, worked out their own tactics. The scythes waged a partisan war. They attacked at night, filled the wells with the sand, destroyed food, avoided open battles. The quick cavalry of the sarmats headed by their tsar Skopasis was sent by Idanthyrsus to the east in order to entice the Army of Darius to the woods, to leave it there then to march quickly back to the Scythian major forces and to fight the Persian army together if necessary.
The Persian army wasn't so mobile as scyths because of the infantry. And it gave possibility to save the time to oppose to Darius's major forces.
When Scopasis had come back from the East Idanthrsus sent him to the Danube crossing which was made by the Greeks. But he somehow didn't burn the ships and let them sail from the shore. The Greeks warned Darius about it. And when the scyths had lined up for the open battle with Darius in Exampaeus he suddenly retreated with his army to the crossing.
He must have got the notice that the eastern army hadn't approached the Hypanis (the Dneper) crossing and Scopasic had reached the Ister (the Danube). But again the scyths didn't attack the Army which moved slowly and stretched for a hundred kilometers across the steppes and let the Persian cross the Danube. There might be only one answer to it - the scyths let the Darius's army go and rushed eastward to defeat the second part of it. If they had started to fight, the second part of the Persians could have come just in time and the scyths wouldn't have been strong enough to fight them. To commemorate the victory the scyths made a bronze pot.
The author makes speculation about its sizes. The scyths gathered every year in Exampaeus on victory day and drank wine from the pot. There is a hypothesis that the pot may be at the bottom of Tashlyk reservoir of the Southukrainian atomic power station.

4. About the Restoration of the Itinerary of Odysseus's Voyage

The author support the idea of the academician K.M. Ber (1792-1876) that the biggest part of Odysseus's travels described by homer takes place not in the Mediteranean but in the Black Sea. If we read the text of 'Odyssey' thoroughly we may sea that every sign, quality and characteristics of some district described by Homer can be found in reality. It was the same with H. Shliman who believed to Homer's descriptions and found Troy where nobody had been looking for it. To determine the locality the author gives the grounds why it is so and how it is proved by Homer's words. Taking into consideration all Homer's local characteristics we must reject the Mediterranean itinerary. For example, we can't place Hades in Naples, because there was no river Ocean and no Cimmerians there, etc. The general route of Odysseus looks like this.
The first part of 12 Odysseus's ships voyage took place in the Aigeus Sea before his visit to the country of lotofags. The letter is the town Edain - Elain - Cimmerida, on the European cost of the Dardanelles opposite Troy, where Homer lived. Thus we should take this peninsula for Haka and not the real island to the west of Greece. The island of Goats is Imrali island in the Marmore Sea. Near the Burburn Cape there is the Tan mountain which used to be a volcano in Homer's times and inspired him to create the Bosphorus along the current, which was in opposite direction to present from the Marmore to the Black Sea. Sailing free the ships reached the floating island Eol which in fact Zmeiny island. It is called floating because it is still washed b a huge current f the Ister (the Danube) and when we look at it either from the shore or even down from the plane you have the impression as if the island is sailing. Then after the unlucky attempt to come back home Odysseus returned to Eol island, but it didn't accept the travelers and the ships sailed to the Listrigon's bay, which was identified by the academician Ber as Balaklava Bay. They were caught by the earthquake there. All the ships except Odysseus's one were destroyed. He sailed to Aeae (Berezan) where Circe lived. Odysseus stayed there for a year or two, sailed to Hades (Nikolaev) from there to the prophet Teiresias. Then he sailed home passing by the Syrens' island (Karadeniz Gogaz or false Bosphorus) through the straight which is now called Bosphorus past the rocks Simplegad (now rocks at the bay Rmeli - Kavagy), the Scylla (now the Uisha) and Charybdis (the whirlpool at the Cape Mesar). Odysseus's ship sailed to the island (Principe island now) where the sacred oxen of Helios lived. When Odysseus's companions had eaten the sacred oxen Helios destroyed their ship and Odysseus who taken by the current and the fair wind through Bosphorus to the Black Sea the current called Knipovich's rings brought him to the island Ogigsky (the Crimean coast). There he spent seven yeas with the nymph Calypso. Having built the raft Odysseus with the help of the current of the second Knipovich's ring he reached the island of Phiakes Scheria (Batum) and they brought him home on board of their ship.
The author of this book investigated the places described by Homer in the Crimea and the Caucasus. In Batum (where the island Scheria might have been) in the local historical museum he found a picture of a golden young man, which exactly coincided with the description of the lamps in the palaces if Areta and Alchinous. It was the first material evidence of his hypothesis.

5. About the Immanent Biography of Homer

The author puts forward a hypothesis that Homer with the help of a certain number of hexameters ciphered in his texts the place where Hades was (Nikolaev), the date of his birth (in 'Odyssey' (15.09.657B.C.) and the date when the Troyan war had begun ( 14.09.619 B.C.) in 'Ilias'. Homer's mother was a Greek woman, who had been brought from Sydon on board the Phoenician ship to the Cimmerian tsar Lyk (his name in 'Odyssey' is Laertes), who lived in Hylas (Nikolaev). Having followed Homer's indications in 'Ilias' and 'Odyssey' and other myths the author made Homer's biography, which can be divided into 8 periods.
1. 'Borysthenit' (657 - 642 B.C.) - his childhood and youth in Hylas (Hades), the fligh from Hylas (Nikolaev) on Phoenician ship together with his mother to his father to Edayn in Cimmeria.
2. 'The I Cimmerian' (640 - 642 B.C.) - his life in Edayn Cemmirida, learning naval jobs from his father and poetry from Aristeas.
3. 'Heracles's exploits' (640 - 628 B.C.) - his service at the Troyan tsar Paris - Eurytheus, marriage to Megara, birth of Agathyrs, Helon and Scyth (629 - 627 B.C.).
4. 'Egyptian period' ( 628 - 620 B.C.) - the service at the Egyptian tsar Psammetixos the I, visit to Phoenicia, taking of a new name Homer, on the basis of the son's name laphet Homer, eponym of the Cimmerian tribe from the Moisy's Penteuchum (Old Testament), rturning to Edayn - Cimmerida, marriage to Penelopa, the birth of Telemachos (620 B.C.).
5. 'Troan war' (620 - 610 B.C.).
6.'Odyssey in the Black Sea' (610 - 600 B.C.) - 2 years on the island Aeae (Berezan) with Circe, a voyage to the country of Phiakes to the island Scheria (Batum), the beginning og composing 'Ilias' and 'Odyssey', returning home on the Phiakian shi, slaughter of fiances and moving to Calliopol, the town on the Asian coast of the Propontida (the Marmore Sea).
7. 'Calliopol' (600 - 590 B.C.) - finishing the epics 'Ilias' and 'Odyssey'.
8. 'The II Cimmerian' (590 - 581 B.C.) coming back home to Edayn - Cimmerida, creation o myths and hymns, death from Telegon's hands, funeral on Aeae Island (Berezan).

6. About the Possibility of Finding out the Cimmerian - Scythian Name of Homer

Even today archeologists can't make strict division between Cimmerian and Scythian culture. To all appearances the links between the Cimmerians with the Greeks were closer than links between the Scyths and the Greeks. We may even speak about the succession, the Scyths ousted Cimmerians from the Northern Coast of the Black Sea in the middle of the 7 century B.C. Homer was the last Cimmerian tsar banished from Hylas, where the Cimmerian chiefs had killed each other. May be it was there, on the Cape Hippolaus (Nikolaev) that he placed his Hades, the kingdom of the dead people of his tribe. Having visited Egypt and Phoenicia he got acquainted with Pentateuchum by Moisy and took the name Homer as a biblical eponym of his Cimmerian name. this word meant 'the blind' and 'the hostage' in Greek. Homer overused the first meaning of the word but he was really a hostage of his Cimmerian origin. When Herodotus came to that land he took the words of the Greeks to create the Pantheon of the Scythian Gods at the top of which was a legendary Targitaus. We can make a semantic analysis of the names of the Cimmerian and Scythian chiefs, explaining the parts of words from which they were made. Thus the name Gnurus might be shortened from 'gnorimos' - famous well-known to nominate Homer. On the basis og the semantic analysis and the historical events described by Herodotuss and other materials the author restores Homer's genealogy. It looks like this: Targitaus (810 - 740 B.C. ) > Leipoxais, Arpoxais, Coloxais > Lygdamis Pytho (Arpoxais's daughter) > Spargapithes (Sandacshatry) > Pan, Lyk (Laertes, Odysseus's father) > Gnurus (Homer, 657 - 581 B.C.) > Scyth, Anachrsis (Telemachos), Saulius (Telegonos) > Idanthyrsus > Arian > Ariapithes > Scyl, Octamasadas > Atey (429 - 339 B.C.).

7. Pektoral Found by Mozolevski as a Symbiosis of Greek and Scythian Culture.

The author shows that the golden Scythian pectoral found by Mozolevski in the burial mound Tolstaya Mogila is a bright example of greek - Scythian cosmogramme was done by D.S. Raevski. M.V. Rusiaeva was the first who paid attention to the fact that a Greek and a Scythian tsar are shown in the centre of the composition. She showed the difference of these cultures in the left and right side of the pektoral. It was she who pointed to the Scythian tsar's resemblance with the pictures of Atey. The book also deals with the semantic analysis of the pektoral's composition. The idea is put forward that Hoer and Atey holding the golden fleece are in the centre of the pektoral. It is known that the Scythian tsar Atey was born in 429 B.C. and it was in 200 years after the Argonauts' voyage to get the golden fleece. It is clear from the chapter of the book that Atey was Homer's descendant in the sixth generation. It is expressed in the pektoral by showing 6 pairds of animals and birds, mothers with their younf ones. The number of generations must be presentewd in such a way. The lower circle of the pektoral shows the underground kingdom. And it's not occasionally. It was the 200 anniversary of Homer's death in 321 that might be the reason to create the pektoral. The pektoral was dedicated to this date and to the 200th anniversary of the Argonauts' travel. Thus we may consider the pektoral to be material sign of he hypothesis of Homer;s Cimmerian - Scythian origin.

8. About Homer's Possible Burial Place on the Island Berezan

We know from the myths that Odysseus was killed by his own son Telegonos. Telegonos was sent by his mother to find his father and when in Itaka he attacked the flock. Homer stood to defend his property and was fatally wounded by the spear, at the end of which was the skate's thorn. Having mourned his father Telegonos, possibly according to Homer's will, takes his father's body to the island Aeae (Berezan) together with Telemachos and Penelopa. In 1900 on the island Berezan Skadovski found a stone with an epitaph on Greek necropolis. The stone disappeared but the photo of the graphiti on it is preserved. It was deciphered by a famous epiograph V.C. Yaylenko. The part of the text on the stone couldn't be read and Yaylenkosurmised what it said. His translation is:

'To me, the perished Mastor, Bert's son the monument was erected by Ariston'

The author gives his version taking into account the number of the letters which can't be read 'To the perished Mastor, Laertes' son, Ariston erected the monument' taking this more precise definition and thinking Laertes to be Odysseus's father we may attribute this epigraph to Homer. While making other investigations of the unreadable text and making an achvoteleverse of it we may see in it Homer's name and the date of his birth, which can be received from the textological analysis of 'Odyssey'. The fact that the same date are received from the different sources can prove the hypothesis. Besides he epigraph itself defines the date of Homer's death to within a month. There wasn't exact information about Homer's death before.

9. On the Way to Homer's Sacred Mysteries

It is known from the history that 20 towns claimed to be Homer's birthplace. Plato wrote that 'Homer brought up the whole Greece'. 'Odyssey' and 'Ilias' were recited be heart at the panathenean games by many people. There was special love to Homer in the Northern region of the Black sea coast. We can see it in Strabo's works and the Boryshenite speech of Dion Olbiopolites' love to Homer was a great importance because during 700 years the love had weakened. Dion himself showed that failed love and olbiopolites were hurt. Olbiopolites recited Homer by heart and worshiped him and Achilles as gods. There's a question. What was the source of that neverdying love to Homer? May be olbiopolites thought of this fact Olvia, lying between the peninsula, where Homer placed Hades (Nikolaev) and was born and Aeae peninsula (Berezan) where he was buried had been the monuments of happy coexistence of Greek and Scythian cultures for a thousand years! Then the author dwells on the genesis and the logical development of ideas which made him wrote the book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Zolotukhin Anatoly Ivanovich, an engineer, a scientist, an ecologist, an inventor, a historian. From 1962 till 1999 he work in Central Scientific Research Institute "Typhoon", during the last 22 years he was a Chif Specialist. He is an author of more than 50 scientific works in acoustics and turbulence, and 26 inventions. He organised some independent social organisation: in 1987 Nikolaev regional Fund of Culture, in 1988 Nikolaev regional ecological Association "Zeleny Svit", in 1989 (on the basis of Regional artistic gallery named after V.V. Vereschagin) Puschkin Club . He initiated in 1988-1989 the movement to conduct the first and last in the USSR ecological expertise and the Council of Ministers passed a decision on power limitation of the South Ukrainian NPP to 3 power units instead of 6, as well as moratorium on Konstantinovka and Alexandrovka reservoirs and Hydro-Accumulating Power Station construction. Thus the unique Migia Canyon, archaeological sites and the Soutern Bug were saved. He took part in to create regional landscape parks "Granitno-Stepnoe Pobuzhie", "Kinburn Spite" and "Historical cultural plan of the Old Nikolaev". Since 1980 he have been studying the life and creative work of Homer, Ilarion, Ciril Turovskoy, Pushkin and Dahl. He explored more than 45 archives and libraries, published more than 150 articles. It is due to his historical reference that the town authorities erected in Nikolaev the monument to Pushkin (1988) and 3 memorial boards: 2 - to Pushkin (1987&1999) and to Dahl (2001). His books were published in Nikolaev publishing houses: "Homer. The immanent biography"(2001); "Pushkin and Nikolaev region"(2001); "The town of Saint Nicholas"(2002); "The breath of the sincere soul, poems"(2001); "Homo-Stellaris, computer video-poem and essays"(2002).
The author is looking for sponsors to publish his next books: "Homer and the Cimmerian-Scythian history of Nikolaev region in Ukraine"(700 p.); "The Hymns of Kiev Rus, Social godservice as general genre of the Old-Russian literature"(800 p.); ''Philosophy, ecology and culture of Noospere"(500 p.); "Virtual diary of Pushkin's secret love" (570 p.); "Exampaeus, a poem and verses"(120 p.). The offers on sponsorship in the edition of the book can be sent to e-mail: [email protected] .