So, there are what are called “cyclopean walls” that are
evident on the north shore of the island, so I’m told. I did see such walls when we went to Mycenae
where the large stones that formed the fortress were believed to have been
placed by the Cyclopes people because no single human could possibly lift them. The stones looked to me to be about six or
eight man stones. Because of their
presence here on Serifos, it is believed that the Cyclopes were present on this
island.
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| The cyclop Polyphemus |
The Cyclopes were the mythical one-eyed giants who were the
builders and craftsmen and were said to have been the blacksmiths who provided
Zeus with his thunderbolts, fashioned the helmet of invisibility for Hades and
gave Poseidon his trident. The Cyclopes
have been written into various poetic texts such as Homer, Euripides, Virgil,
Theocritus and Hesiod. Some scholars
suggest that because the Cyclopes were blacksmiths, typically very strong men, they
wore an eye patch over one eye to prevent sparks from injuring them in both
their eyes. This gave rise to the myth
of the one-eyed being. Another
suggestion is that the myth rose out of the use of an herbal medicine that
contains a poisonous substance that can cause birth defects such as a fetus
being born with only one eye. Such an
event may have been the cause of the development of the myth.
How the massive walls of the structures were built is still
unknown and it was assumed that only herculean or cyclopean creatures could
have lifted such stones. We don’t know
how the ancient monuments were set in place, how the pyramids were built, how
Stonehenge was managed, but the Greek myth developed around the cyclopean
walls.
Further to this, I’ve been in touch with a former colleague
Jim, a geology teacher, who very coincidentally got in touch with me via email
about a week ago. As I answered a
question about Buddhism, I asked him questions about geology, a subject I
sorely wish I had studied for my science requirement because of its
practicality instead of paleontology.
So, I learn that Jim suggests that Serifos looks like a seamount, an
undersea mountain, but may very well be a caldera that formed suddenly from an
underground volcanic event. He mentions
that an explosive geological event created the mountain of Santorini around the
year 1600 BC. I have yet to discover
whether such an event also occurred on Serifos.
Some myths say the Cyclopes were killed by Apollo and sent
to Hades, the land of the dead. Zeus
could not bear this and he negotiated for their release from Hades even though
they were dead. In some myths, the
ghosts of the Cyclopes are living in Mt. Aetna where they are believed to be
causing all the noise in the volcanoes.
So far as Serifos is concerned, don’t forget that it was the Cyclopes
who created the tools and the helmet of Hades to allow Perseus to be invisible
in his quest to overcome Medusa. If
Serifos is indeed a caldera, then the Cyclopes may be trapped beneath Serifos
in Hades as they are in some myths because in a caldera, the mouth of the
volcano is sealed by the collapse of the land above and around it. Also, calderas are known to have rich ore
deposits which Serifos has, which the Cyclopes needed for their inventions. Did I already mention that I wondered if the
ore was of a magnetic kind because I’ve been feeling so good and I’ve wondered
about the healing nature of magnetism on the body. Jim also thinks that there is a strong
possibility of high magnetic ore or magnetite, in areas that have major
geologic shifts such as we find in Greece which is on a plate between the Eurasian,
the African and the Aegean plates where we find high earthquake activity. Who ever thought that myth and science would
be so closely related.
Got all of that? See
how it all connects?
