PART
6 –
Ch.XXXVI.2
The
Great Pelasgian empire
(The
reign of Saturn)
XXXVI.
2. The reign of Saturn in North Africa.
Exactly like
Uranos, Saturn had also reigned over Egypt, (Diodorus Siculus, lib. I. 13).
In the monumental lists
of the Egyptian kings, Saturn figures under the name Seb (Lepsius, Uber d.
ersten agypt. Gotterkreis, p. 11, 30). But Manetho,
who had written the history of Egypt in the Greek
language, calls him Cronos.
In other historical
traditions, Saturn, as king of Egypt, appears under the names Manis, Men, Menes, Min, and Mena in the text of an inscription from
Theba, and he also figures under the same name in the historical traditions of
the Pelasgians of Crete and Lydia, of the Hyperboreans, the Germans, and in the
traditional heroic songs of the Romanian people.
This Manis or Mena
was considered by the priests of the temples of Memphis as the beginner of
human dynasties in Egypt; as a martial
king, who had led his armies outside the frontiers of Egypt and had become
renowned for the glory of his deeds (Diodorus
Siculus, I. 45; Fragm. Hist. gr. II. 539). Manis or
Mena had been the first to execute colossal works for the regularization of the
Nile; he had organized Egypt from a military point of view, had taught the
inhabitants to venerate the gods, had introduced sacrifices, and had founded a
new capital in the lower Egypt, Memphis
(Herodotus, lib. II. 99), called Manufi in Hebrew language and Manuf by the Arabs (Pauly, R. E. Memphis), a name which
indicates a king Manu as the founder
of this residence.
On the northern
part of the continent of Africa, the reign of
Saturn had also extended over the vast territory of Libya (Polemonis Iliensis, fragm. 102 In
Fragm. Hist. gr. III. 148; Diodorus,
III. 61), from the frontiers of Egypt to the western
Ocean.
Even before Roman
domination had extended to Africa, Saturn was the
main divinity of the populations subjected to Carthage. Some of the
Carthaginians, writes Plato,
sacrificed their sons to Saturn (Plato,
Minos, c. 5; Diodorus, V. 66. 5;
XIII, 86. 3; Dionysius Hal. I. 38).
The cult and religion of Saturn continued to predominate even after the Roman
conquest.
In Mauritania, in Numidia and in
pro-consular Africa, Saturn was venerated as an ancient
national divinity, under the name dominus
and domnus Saturnus (C. I. L. VIII. nr. 8452. 8461. 9329.
6353). The title “dominus” was just a simple historical reminder of the
glorious reign of Saturn over North Africa.
It is probable that
during those times of Uranos and Saturn, the so-called Getulii had been removed and re-settled near Mauritania, about which Isidorus writes that they had migrated
there from the lands of the Getae, being transported by ship across the sea
(Orig. lib. IX. 2. 118).