HERAKLES AND HORNED MOSES: PAGANISM VS MONOTHEISM.

Before you read this online article: please understand that I am not a connoisseur or a high-level guru, I’m just an average guy into alternative research.

HERAKLES AND HORNED MOSES

The Book of Exodus speaks about Moses’ enlightening adventure after having received the words of the Covenant. Chapter 34 of the Book of Exodus says that Moses the Levite, loyal servant of YHVH, received the ten commandments:

“As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him.”

(Exodus 34:29-30)

What happened to Moses? He had a close encounter of the 3rd kind? Eventually, Moses spoke with Aaron, with the leaders, and with all Israel. It is said that when he finished speaking with all of them he put on a veil over his face. Exodus 34:29 says that Moses didn’t know that the skin of his countenance had become radiant while he exchanged words with the Lord-God. Most people ignore that this Biblical passage has been mistranslated. The skin of Moses’ face didn’t become luminous; his face was “horned” from the conversation with the Lord. In other words, after Moses received the commandments, he had horns like a ram. Evangelical Christians don’t want people to know this for obvious reasons. In other words, the horns are a symbol of his illumination. The Hebrew word for horns is “Keren” (קרן). This is why the great Italian artist Michelangelo made a marble sculpture of Moses with horns.

(Michelangelo’s Herculean Moses, San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome)

This surreal tale has an obvious pagan flavor that could take us all the way back to ancient Greece and to ancient Egypt as well. The Greek historian Herodotus says that at one point the demigod Herakles, son of Alkmene, had an overwhelming desire to see his father Zeus. Yet Zeus did not want him to see him (Herodotus, the Histories, book 2.42.3).

(victorious Herakles wearing the skin of the Nemean lion. Vase-painting dating from the beginning of the 5th Century B.C.. Martin von Wagner Museum der Universitat, Wurzburg)

If we take a close look to Chapter 33 of the Book of Exodus, we’ll see that Moses had a similar wish. He desired to have intimacy with the Ineffable One:

‘Then Moses said, “Do let me see your glory!” He answered, “I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my Name, ‘Lord’, I who show favors to whom I will, I who grant mercy to whom I will. But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives.”

(Exodus 33:18-20)

Basically, Herakles had a profound desire to see Zeus, his father, and Moses wanted to see God’s “kavod”, his glory (כבוד). Zeus did not want to be seen by his semi-divine son Herakles. The Lord-God told Moses that he cannot behold his glory because no mortal can see him and live. There is a parallel here!

The legend says that Zeus devised a scheme; he skinned a ram, cut off its head, wrapped himself in the fleece; and placed the head of the ram in front of his face. Then he showed himself to Herakles. Herodotus relates that that is why the Egyptians fashion Zeus with the head of a ram. Zeus reveals himself as a “Ram deity”, a horned god. And Moses? He becomes “horned” because of his conversation with YHVH. Also, Zeus wrapped himself with the fleece, meaning with the skin of the ram. What does Moses do? He puts “a veil”, like a fleece, on his face so that he could interact with his beloved people.

Let us not forget that Herakles, son of Zeus was crowned in Egypt and the Biblical Moses was Hebrew-Egyptian. There were several ram deities in ancient Egypt. The god Amon who was sometimes called “Amon-Ra”, had horns like a ram. Khnum, fashioner of the gods had wavy ram horns. Sometimes Osiris, lord of the underworld, was depicted with wavy horns. The god Heryshaf was the Egyptian version of Herakles, Heryshaf was depicted with ram horns. Harsaphes was a local deity of ‘Heracleopolis Magna’ in the Faiyum.

(the horned deity Harsaphes. Herodotus says that Herakles was crowned by the Egyptians who then led him in a direct procession as a sacrificial victim to Zeus. The Histories, book 2.45)

So, now we have a better idea why Moses was “horned” from his conversation with the Lord-God. The scribes who wrote the book of Exodus re-created the story of Herakles and gave it to us in Jewish wrapping. Herakles became Moses and Zeus became Yahweh. Basically, they encrypted sacred knowledge of the ancient pagan world and made it kosher.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

There must be a reason why on the High Holidays the Jews invoke shem ha gadol ve ha kadosh “Dicarnosa”, which translates as the great and holy name of “Dicarnosa” (דיקרנוסא). Dicarnosa appears to be a contraction of Deus-Carnosa, meaning “God of Flesh” or “the One who eats flesh.” If Dicarnosa is a god or a goddess of flesh then he is not very different from Zeus or Hera. Is YHVH a created being?

(Nizin R. Lopez: Lucifer’s Thunderbolt)