From UPI comes news that a Lost Golden City has been uncovered in the southern province of Luxor, in Egypt. “The city is also known as Aten.” It dates to the 1300s B.C. [1]
The biblical Exodus was not from all of Egypt, argue authors Messod and Roger Sabbah. The Exodus was only from the then-modern, cosmopolitan city of Akhet-Aten. [2]
Is the newly uncovered Lost Golden City of Aten in fact the once-cosmopolitan city of Akhet-Aten? King Laius was the father of Oedipus. The city ruled by King Laius was known as Thebes, Luxor and Karnak, and was once the capital of all Egypt. The newly uncovered Lost Golden City is located in the province of Luxor. [1][3]
In the previous blog entry, the Greek tragedy of Oedipus was noticed. In the story of Oedipus, prophecies had seemed to offer foreknowledge and a way to change fate, yet all was pre-ordained. [4] As the play opens, the citizens of Thebes beg their king, Oedipus, to lift the plague that threatens to destroy the city. An oracle advises that the murderer of King Laius must be found. A different oracle, Tiresias, accuses Oedipus himself of killing Laius. Tiresias hints darkly of an incestuous marriage and a future of blindness, infamy, and wandering. [5]
One thing especially incongruous in the Greek Oedipus plays is the presence of a Sphinx. Why is there a Sphinx in a presumably Greek myth? When Oedipus had solved the riddle of the Sphinx, the grateful citizens of Thebes offered their Queen Jocasta to him as wife. Thebes, ancient capital of Boetia in Greece, may not have been the original Thebes of the myth: Thebes, in Egypt, was more ancient and had been known to the Greeks since at least the time of Homer. [3]
These considerations cause Ersjdamoo to guess that the “Greek tragedy” may have been originally an Egyptian tragedy. Hence, although I had called the Derek Chauvin/George Floyd encounter of May 25, 2020 and its aftermath “Dementia Graecus in Minneapolis”, technically it might better be called “Dementia Aegyptius in Minneapolis”. (See the April 9, 2021 blog entry for background.)
UPI reports that the significance of the find of the Lost Golden City may be second only to the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922. [1] Sometime between Tuesday, November 28, 1922, and Thursday, November 30, 1922, Howard Carter, the discoverer of Tut’s tomb, and his patron the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, secretly entered Tutankhamun’s chamber. They removed souvenirs for themselves, along with a sheaf of papyri documents. Lord Carnarvon had previously consulted “Cheiro”, a palmist and fortune teller. Following desecration of Tut’s Tomb, Cheiro sent a psychic warning to the Earl. Cheiro had been in occult communication with one Meketaten, daughter of Akhenaten, who may have been the father of Tutankhamun. “No relics must be removed! Otherwise the Earl would die!” In April 1923, Lord Carnarvon sickened and died. Egyptian newspapers quickly spread the story that the Earl had been killed by the spirit of King Tut. There followed more mysterious deaths. In September 1923, Carnarvon’s half-brother died unexpectedly. Jay Gould, railroad magnate, fell dead soon after visiting Tut’s tomb. A French Egyptologist, Georges Benedite, died not long after violating the burial chamber. The Egyptian Bey, Ali Kemel Fahmy, was shot dead by his wife soon after daring to touch Tutankhamun’s treasures. The list of eerie Tut deaths is long. A profound fear gripped the world. Movies dealing with the “curse of the mummy” began to appear. [6]
Resting uneasily in his burial vault, George Floyd awaits the verdict in the current trial of Derek Chauvin. Floyd is nomenclatured “the mummy”. A plague had threatened to destroy the city in the Oedipus plays, and the coroner-virus plague had threatened likewise for Minneapolis. The Furies (technically the Erinyes) punished mortals for crimes against the natural order, such as Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother. A victim seeking justice could call down the curse of the Erinys upon the alleged criminal. [7] And such now is “the talk” amongst some Black leaders: “If Chauvin is acquitted, we will call down The Furies!”
——- Sources ——-
[1] “Dig uncovers ‘Lost Golden City’; largest ancient city ever found in Egypt”, by Don Johnson. United Press International (UPI), April 9, 2021. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/04/09/egypt-lost-golden-city-discovered-egypt/9871617972329/
[2] Secrets of the Exodus, by Messod and Roger Sabbah. New York: Helios Press, 2004.
[3] Oedipus and Akhnaton, by Immanuel Velikovsky. Doubleday, 1960.
[4] “The Megillah of Minneapolis”, Ersjdamoo’s Blog, April 10, 2021. https://ersjdamoo.wordpress.com/2021/04/10/the-megillah-of-minneapolis/
[5] “Play Summary Oedipus the King [Oedipus Rex]”, Cliff Notes (online), https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/the-oedipus-trilogy/play-summary/oedipus-the-king
[6] “The Mummy’s Curse”, Ersjdamoo’s Blog, September 26, 2013. https://ersjdamoo.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/the-mummys-curse/
[7] “ERINYES”, https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes.html