PART
2 – Ch.XIV.4
(KION OURANOU. The Sky Column on
in
the country of the Hyperboreans)
XIV.
4. Prometheus chained on the rocks of Pharanx (Parang) mountain in
According to Eschyl of Greece, born in the 6th
century bc, Prometheus, the most powerful genius of the Pelasgian times, was
chained in Scythia, in the country of the iron (Prometheus vinctus, v. 2), on the remote territory of the
ancient world (Herodotus, lib. V.
9), in a wild mountainous region, on some rocky crags, which in his poem are
called pharagga, pharaggos and pharaggi, various forms
of the nominative pharagxi (Eschyl,
Prometheus, v. 15. 142. 618. 1015), meaning mountain or rocky cliff with broken
faces and deep ravines.
From the constant
use which Eschyl makes in his tragedy of the term Pharang- in order to indicate
the rocks and mountain on which Prometheus was crucified, results that we have
in this case not a generic word, but a particular topical name.
Close to this
mountain called Pharang-, on which according to Eschyl’s legend, had taken place Prometheus’ torture, flowed,
according to the same author, the great and divine river of the ancient world
called Oceanos potamos or the Istru
of historical times (Ibid. v. 284-285).
And in regard to
the particular geographical position of this Pharang-, the itinerary proposed
by Prometheus to the nymph Io
presents a special importance.
The young priestess
Io, daughter of king Inachus of Argos, persecuted by Juno because she was loved
by Jove, comes on Pharang- to the crucified Prometheus, who was also the first
prophet of his times, to learn how much more she will have to suffer and wander
because of the persecution of the powerful queen goddess.
Prometheus
indicates to the girl the following itinerary:
“Firstly”, says he
to Io, “taking the road from here towards east,
you will cross untilled fields and
will come to the shepherd Scythians
(nomads), superb men, armed with far reaching arrows, who spend their lives in
carts well fitted with iron, and well covered. But I counsel you not approach
them, but instead to turn towards the rocks beaten by the waves of the sea, and
to continue your way on dry land. On the left dwell the Chalybi, the ironsmiths,
of whom you should beware, they are violent men and do not gladly receive
strangers; from there you will reach the
violent river called rightfully that, but don’t cross it, because it is
dangerous, until you reach the Caucasus,
the highest mountain, where the torrents gather, rushing from the tops of this
mountain, from where then the river takes their violence downstream. From there
then, passing over the peaks of the mountain which reaches to the stars, take
the road southwards and you will arrive to the land of the many Amazons, who hate men…They will show
you the way with goodwill, then you will come to the Cimmerian isthmus, near the narrow mouths of the Meotic lake. After you will leave this
isthmus, gathering your courage, you will have to cross the mouths of the
Meotic lake, and you will achieve an everlasting fame for this crossing. After
this deed, the straits of the Meotic lake will be called Bospor, then, leaving behind the lands of Europe, you will cross into the continent of Asia” (Prometheus, v. 707 seqq).
It results from
this new legend communicated by Eschyl
that the rocky cliffs on which the great hero of the ante-Homeric civilization
was put in irons, were on the western side of the
The only difference
is that the prehistoric
In Eschyl’s legends
the shepherd Scythians, superb men
and well armed, are the famous Hyperborean
shepherds, who had once trodden the whole known world, and who dominated
the mountains and the untilled fields on the northern parts of Istru.
Close to Pharang-
mountain were the renowned Chalybi
(Ibid, v. 715), the ironsmiths of prehistoric times. By form and meaning, this
word is of Pelasgian origin, synonymous with the German Huttenarbeiter, workers in metal factories. But the original
meaning of the word Chalibes was undoubtedly the same as the Romanian Colibasi, dwellers in huts (
[1. Various villages on the
Eschyl says
in another tragedy of his (Septem adversus Thebas, v. 729) that the Chalybi
were people who had migrated from
A locality at the
foot of Parang mountain is called even today Baia-de-fer (TN – Iron Mine),
but we don’t know at what time the iron foundry had started there, flourished
and ended.
All we know today
are, according to our geographical descriptions, the almost vanished traces of an
ancient factory (Marele Dict. Geogr.
The mountains of
Parang were once renowned for their wealth in metals.
The region of the
Carpathian Mountains was in prehistoric times the classical country of mines,
and it is a very remarkable fact from a historical point of view, that Eschyl (Prometheus v. 301-402) calls
the western part of the Black Sea “Mama
ferului” (TN – Mother of the iron).
Between the
mountain Pharang- and the
Of all the rivers
of the Carpathians which flow into the
Each day, say folk
legends, at least one man must drown in the Olt and, when a day goes without
the river receiving its sacrifice, it starts howling and men should avoid
entering it, because it asks for a man’s head (Sezatoarea, An. III. p.101).
Until the times of
the reign of prince Bibescu, Margot
writes (O viatorie, Buc, 1859, p.56), it was still believed that it was
impossible to build a bridge over this river, even at Slatina.
In Eschyl’s
geography the mountain called
After
“And after passing
over the peaks of the mountain that reaches to the stars”, says Prometheus to
the nymph Io, “…you will arrive to the land of the many Amazons”.
These Amazons
belonged to the barbarian lands. Homer mentions them only as an ancient
tradition. Their country of origin was
According to the
traditions collected by the Roman historian Trog Pompeius, the Amazons boasted that they were” the daughters of the god Mars” and that
they “were from the nation of the
Scythians” (Justinis, lib. II.
c. 4). Virgil (Aen. XI. v. 659-660)
gives the Amazons also the geographical epithet of Threiciae, and according to Hecateus
(Fragm. 352) they spoke the Thracian
language, meaning Getic (Valerius
Flaccus, Argon. IV. 602).
Apart from Mars,
the Geto -Thracian divinity, the Amazons especially worshipped the goddess Diana, whose principal residence
according to Pindar (Olymp. III. v.
27), was in
On old monuments of
Greek art, bas-reliefs, statues and vase paintings, they are armed with shields,
bows and the war hatchet. They wear a helmet on their head, or a Dacian type
cap (Jahn, Berichte d. sachs.
Gesellschaft d. Wissenschaften. Phil.-Hist. Cl. I. 1850).
Finally, their
physiognomy presents a national Pelasgian character.
Prometheus’ Pharang-
appears therefore as a mountain from the western parts of the river Olt. By
name, position and description, it entirely corresponds to the mountain Parang of today [2].
[2. Parang mountain is especially characterized by vast precipices,
collapsed cliffs and waves formed of gigantic boulders. Under the peak called Carja (2520m), two spikes rise from
these ruins of rocks, like some inform columns, each ten 10m high.
Eschyl also
mentions (v. 142) some craggy rocks, schopeloi, on Pharanx mountain].