DAN: THE GREEK/HITTITE TRIBE OF ISRAEL (FROM PAGANISM TO MONOTHEISM).

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

PART I: THE GREEK/HITTITE TRIBE OF DAN.

“Some say that the Jews were fugitives from the island of Crete, who settled on the nearest coast of Africa about the time when Saturn was driven from his throne by the power of Jupiter. Evidence of this is sought in the name. There is a famous mountain in Crete called Ida; the neighboring tribe, the Idæi, came to be called Judæi by a barbarous lengthening of the national name.”

(Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, the Histories, Book V, A.D. 70. Section II)

The Bible says that there were twelve tribes of Israel, the tribes emanated from the patriarch Yaakov and from four matriarchs: Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. Yaakob’s primary wives were Leah and Rachel, daughters of Laban the Syrian. Chapter 30th of the book of Genesis says that Bilhah, servant of Rachel, gave birth to a son that Rachel named ‘Dan.’ Dannanni means “God has vindicated me.”

Chapter 19th of the book of Joshua says that the original territory belonging to the Israelite tribe of Dan was a small enclave between Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and the Phillishtines. Joshua 19: 47 says that the territory was too cramped for the Danites, so they marched up and attacked a region called Le’shem and captured it. The Danites renamed the settlement after their ancestor Dan. The most famous Danite of all time was a champion from Zorah named Samson, son of Manoah. Samson died as a martyr in Gaza fighting the arch-enemies of Israel, the Phillishtines. It is interesting to note that Manoah sounds Minoan-Cretan, Genesis 10:14 says that the Phillishtines sprang from Caphtor (Crete).

(Samson, the Israelite version of Herakles, with beautiful Delilah. Samson married a Phillishti woman, slept with a prostitute in Gaza, and loved a non-Israelite woman named Delilah. ‘Samson and Delilah’ [1996], directed by Nicolas Roeg)

If we analyze and scrutinize the tribe of Dan we will see that the Danites have nothing to do with monotheistic Israel, the people of Dan are basically Greeks and Hittites, pagans. The scribes who wrote the Bible appropriated the Greek Dannaoi and re-created them as an Israelite tribe in Syria-Palestine. The Biblical tale of Yaakov and Bilhah in Haran is a construct, Dan is an offshoot of ancient Greece and Anatolia.

Who is ‘Dan’ from a mythical perspective? Greek tradition speaks about a certain Dardanus who was the son of Zeus and Electra, this Dardanus is said to have built a town called Dardania. It is said that Teucer, mythical son of Scamander of Crete, gave a piece of land to Dardanus. Cretans, Greeks, and Phrygians claim to have established Troy, Troy as a city-state absorbed three tribes: Dardania, Tros, and Illium. Some sources state that the grandson of Dardanus was Tros, who in turn became the father of Ilus. To this day the Hellespont, the crossing point between Europe and Asia Minor, is known as the Dardanelles. Mycenaean Greece was known as Danaan in ancient times, even Macedonia has a link to Dan:

• Macedonia.
• Mace-Donia.
• Donia.
• Dan.

There is a reason why there is a river in Europe called the Danube.

(Phillip II, king of Macedonia, son of Amyntas III. Around 394 B.C.E. Amyntas III fought against a powerful Illyrian force led by Bardylis, king of the Dardanii)

THE BIBLICAL PHILLISHTINES: ARCH ENEMIES OF ISRAEL.

Some scholars have stated or better said, implied, that the people of Dan were non-Hellenes who inhabited Greek lands. Some have compared them to the Peleset that invaded Egypt in the days of pharaoh Ramsses III (XX dynasty), meaning the Pelasgians of Attica who did not speak Greek:

“The Phillistines were probably one of these peoples of the sea, having established themselves in Southern Palestine after the devastations of Crete. The ‘Denyens’, whose name appears in writings of the period, have been identified by some historians as the Danaoi, a general term for the early settlers in Greece”.

(Peoples, seas, and ships. By Zvi Herman. G.P. Putnam’s sons, New York. Pg 29)

Some researchers have gone a little further identifying the Denien with the Athenians, this rings a bell when it comes to the Pelasgians of Attica, Attica is the original name of Athens:

‘To support the identification of “Denien” with Mycenaean Greeks, it was argued that Denien (Dnn) stands for Danaans (a Homeric term for archaic Greeks). Some texts, however, connect them with the Syrian coast, and others with Cyprus. I, however, lean toward identifying the “Peoples of the Isles”, the Denien, with the Athenians, since D and T in Egyptian are one and the same letter.’

(Peoples of the sea, by Immanuel Velikovsky. Doubleday and Company, Inc. Garden City, New York. Chapter III, pg 53)

There were mercenaries of Danite flavor from the Mediterranean who served the pharaohs during the XIX dynasty; these were known as the ‘Shardana.’ It is unclear if these people, the Shardana, were Sardinians or if they hailed from Sardis, capital of Lydia (in Western Asia Minor). The Shardana served pharaoh Ramsses II the Great. Then again, pharaoh Ramsses III, the last real hero of Egypt, had to fight a federation of sea-raiders, among them was a tribe called ‘Danuna.’ It is unclear if the Danuna were Greeks or if they were a Hittite people but, at one point the Danunna had a city-state in Northern Syria, not too far from Cilicia (in the region of Issus).

(The Shardana wore horned helmets, here we see the Shardana fighting Libyan invaders)

(Illustrated account of the fight of Ramsses III against the sea peoples who invaded Egypt [XX dynasty]. Here we see the Peleset [Phillishtines] captive. Recorded on the walls of Ramsses’ mortuary temple at Medinet-Habu, Thebes)

There is a mythical character associated with Egypt and with Argos that had a connection with Syria: ‘Danaus’, descendant of Apophus:

“In the legends, indeed, the story of Danaus is not wholly isolated. At least in the later geneaologies he is made the nephew of Agenor, a king in Syria, and so cousin to Europa, the mother of Minos of Crete, and to Cadmus. The later is somewhat analogous to Danaus as a foreign invader and conqueror in Greece. From his home in Syria (Phoenicia) he is supposed to have come first to Samothrace and later to Boetia, where he settled at Thebes; that city in heroic legend is regularly Cadmeia, the city of Cadmus, its people Cadmeans.”

(The Cambridge Ancient History. II. Part I. the Middle East and the Aegean region. C. 1800-1380 B.C. Danaus and the Hyksos, pg 635)

Beyond the shadow of a doubt the people of Dan have a connection to ancient Greece and to the Hittite lands.

(Amongst the federation of sea-raiders in Egypt during the reign of Ramsses III we find the Ekwesh [Achaeans], Teresh [Thyrrenians], Lukka [Lycians], Sherdana [Sardinians or Sardis], Shekelesh [Scicily], Peleset [Attica/Crete], and Thejker [Troy])

PART II: ACHILLES, AGAMEMNON, & IPHIGENIA ENCRYPTED IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES.

The book of Judges speaks of a mighty-valiant man who made a stand for the nation of Israel in a time of national stress: Jephthah the Gileadite. When the Ammonites were threatening Israel with cruel slavery, the elders of Gilead appointed Jephthah as supreme commander of Israel. Jephthah proved to be an effective leader, he fought bravely against the Ammonites, he ultimately defeated them. Since the Ammonites were not an easy bone, Jephthah made a bow to the Lord Yhwh before the decisive battle:

“If you deliver the Ammonites into my power”, he said, “whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the Lord. I shall offer that one as a holocaust.”

(Judges 11:30-31)

Jephthah prevailed militarily upon the people of Ammon. He never imagined, not even in his wildest dreams, he would have to sacrifice his own daughter to fulfill his vow:

When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came forth, playing the tambourines and dancing. She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her. When he saw her, he rent his garments and said, “Alas, daughter, you have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the Lord and I cannot retract.”

(Judges 11:34-35)

Judges 11:39 implies that Jephthah indeed offered his virgin daughter as a holocaust to Yhwh, God of Israel. The story of Jephthah takes us all the way back to the times of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, husband of Clytemnestra and father of princess Iphigenia. Agamemnon was the brother of Menelaos, king of Sparta. Agamemnon recruited thousands of Greeks in order to conquer the fortified city of Troy, he was willing to sacrifice thousands of Greeks in order to accomplish his goal (he had many allies).

(Map of the Anatolian city of Troy. Hittite sources say that Troy was called Taruisa or Wilusa, the Greeks called it Ilion [Wilion])

When the Trojan prince Paris carried off Helen of Sparta, Menelaos’ wife, to his country, Agamemnon had the perfect excuse to invade Troy since Menelaos was his brother. The Trojan War was inevitable. Agamemnon’s hordes fought ferociously against the Trojans, they fought with all their might and soul but they could not conquer it. Ruthless Agamemnon took the most extreme measure, he decided to offer his own virgin daughter Iphigenia as a satiation to the potentate of Troy:

“Assembled a second time at Aulis, the Greeks were delayed by unfavorable winds, for Agamemnon, by killing a hart, had vexed Artemis. Calchas foretold that only the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigenia would appease the goddess, and Agamemnon reluctantly gave his consent, though some say that Artemis snatched Iphigenia from the altar and bore her off to Tauris.”

(Pears encyclopedia of myths and legends [the ancient near east and Middle East ancient Greece and Rome], Classical Greece and Rome. By Elizabeth Locke and Sheila Savill. Pelham books, pg 167)

Agamemnon did indeed conquer Troy, a combination of sagacity and military might. Agamemnon’s Greeks planted a giant wooden horse inside the walls of Troy, inside the structure were the warriors that would ruin Troy forever. The greatest hero of the Trojan War was Achilles, leader of the fearsome Myrmidons. Achilles killed Hector, son of Priam, king of Troy. Achilles of Phthia, son of Peleus, is the greatest hero of the Trojan War.

(Achilles of Phthia, son of Peleus and Thetis. Vase-painting of the Classical period, Museo Vaticano)

It is said that in the end insatiable Agamemnon was killed by a man named Aegisthus and that his wife, Clytemnestra (Agamemnon’s wife) beheaded him with an axe.

(Golden of mask of king Agamemnon of Mycenae, son of Atreus)

Basically, the scribes who wrote the Bible encrypted the fall of Troy in the book of Judges. Let us decode this:

1- The Biblical Jephthah, a mighty-valiant man who fights and defeats the Ammonites on behalf of Israel is really Achilles of Phthia, leader of the Myrmidons (a Greek). The sages encoded Achilles as Jephthah because Achilles was a prince from Phthia. Jephthah: Je-phthah = Phthia.

2- Judges 11:1 says that Jephthah was the son of a prostitute woman. This is a reference to Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaos, king of Sparta (Helen was the daughter of king Tyndareus of Sparta). Since Helen betrayed her husband Menelaus and left willingly for Troy with Prince Paris, she is called a harlot. Achilles fought for Agamemnon, brother of Menelaos, therefore Judges 11:1 associates Achilles with Helen (the spark that ignited the war).

3- Judges 11:1 says that Gilead came to be a father to Jephthah, the one who fought against Ammon: Gilead and Ammon are an encryption code for ‘Agamemnon’: Gilead = G-ilead = G + Ammon = Aga-mmon = Agamemnon.

4- Judges 11:3 says that Jephthah went to the land of ‘Tob’, Tob is an encryption code for Troad (Troy). Tob: T-ob, Troy: T-roy. Judges 11:3 says that a rabble joined company with Jephthah and went out with him on raids: these are the Myrmidons. 

5- Judges 11:12 says that Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, trying to negotiate. This is king Agamemnon speaking to Priam, king of Troy, father of Hector and Paris. The Arnon and the Jabbok mentioned in Judges 11:13 represent Paris and Hector: A(R)non-Jabbo(K): Pa(R)is-He(K)tor.

6- In Judges 11:13 the king of of the sons of Ammon says “and now do return it peacefully.” This is Menelaos asking Priam to return his wife Helen to him and the Spartan treasures. The ‘Minnith’ mentioned in Judges 11:33 is Menelaos.

7- Judges 11:30-31 says that Jephthah of Gilead made a vow to Yhwh promising to sacrifice whoever would come out of the doors at his house once he would have triumphed: Agamemnon offered his daughter Iphigenia as a holocaust to the goddess Artemis (she was a virgin). Judges 11:37 says that Jephthah’s daughter was a virgin.

8- Judges 11:40 says it became customary in Israel to mourn the death of Jephthah’s daughter four times a year: the Taurians that live by the Black Sea adopted the custom of sacrificing those who have been shipwrecked or any Hellenes they can take at sea. This is how they honor Iphigenia (Herodotus, the Histories. Book 4.103).

9- Judges 11:2 says that the sons of Gilead drove Jephthah out of his inheritance, then the older men of Gilead begged Jephthah to return to them and become their commander: Agamemnon offended Achilles by taking away his prize girl Briseis, Achilles withdrew from the war. Agamemnon came to understand he could not win the war without Achilles and his Myrmidons, so he promised to return Briseis back to Achilles.

10- Some claim that Agamemnon was killed by a certain Aegisthus and that his wife, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, beheaded him with an axe. Judges 9:53-54 speaks of a king named Abimelech who was severely injured by a woman and asked his attendant to finish him off with a sword (Judges 9:48 mentions an axe).

11- Jephthah made a vow to the Lord Yhwh before the war with Ammon (Judges 11:30-31). The Hittites knew Achaea as ‘Ahhiyawah’, Ahhiyawah sounds like Yhwh: Ahhi-Yawah, Yawah = Yhwh = Yhvh. The Greeks called Zeus ‘Joveh’ (Yhwh).

(Aulis in mainland Greece was sacred to the hunter goddess Artemis. Artemis, from the Parthenon of the Athenian acropolis. Pentelic marble, Acropolis Museum, Athens)

So we see, the scribes who wrote the Bible stole from ancient Greece and gave it to Israel. This is cultural appropriation.

Note: Bilhah, the name of the mother of the Israelite tribe of Dan, is an acronym: Bilhah = B (ב)-L (ל)-H (ה)-A (ה) = B (Briseis) LH (Helen) H (Hecuba) A (Andromache), the last ‘Heh’ (ה) has an ‘ah’ sound.

• B: Briseis, Trojan noblewoman, Achilles’ prize girl.
• L-H = H-L: Helen of Sparta, wife of king Menelaos of Sparta.
• H: Hecuba, wife of Priam, king of Troy.
• A: Andromache, wife of prince Hector, daughter of king Eetion of Thebes-under-Plakos.

PART III: THE WOODEN HORSE INSIDE THE WALLS OF TROY.

“Let Dan be a serpent by the roadside, a horned viper by the path, that bites the horses’ heel, so that the rider tumbles backwards.”

(Genesis 49:17)

In Genesis 49:17 Yaakov, father of the twelve tribes of Israel, prophesizes about his controversial son ‘Dan.’ He calls Dan a serpent that bites the horses’ heel, so that the rider falls backwards. Yaakov focuses on four things: a serpent, a horse, a heel, and a rider that tumbles backwards. Let us decode this:

1- “Let Dan be a serpent by the roadside and a horned viper by the path.” Tradition says that a Thessalian warrior named Philoctetes had sailed with the Greeks from Aulis but never reached Troy, he was bitten by a snake on an Aegean Island, either in Lemnos or in Tenedos. Philoctetes was healed and with the bow of Herakles he avenged Achilles’ death by killing Paris.

2- The horse mentioned in this Biblical passage is an allegory to the giant wooden horse that the troops of Agamemnon planted inside the fortified city of Troy, a tall well-crafted wooden structure made out of pine of Mount Ida. Nine Greek warriors were hidden inside. The Trojans brought it into their city as an offering to Athena, there were wild celebrations. At night the men inside the horse sneaked out of it and opened the city’s gates to the men of the Greek fleet. Troy fell.

3- The heel is a reference to the heel of the champion Achilles, his mother Thetis dipped her infant son into the River Styx and made nearly all his body invulnerable, except the heel that she held him by. Some believe that a poison-tipped-arrow penetrated his ankle or heel at Troy’s Scaean gate.

4- The rider that falls backwards could be the arrogant Agamemnon. When the king returned to Mycenae he was killed by his wife Clytemnestra and the lover shed had taken in his absence, Aegisthus, who was engaged in a blood feud with Agamemnon.

(Archaic scene of the famous Trojan horse, from the neck of a big pot from Mikonos, c. 675 B.C. made approximately 50 years after the lifetime of Homer)

Basically, Genesis 49:17 contains an interwoven message that speaks of the fall of Troy.

(The epic-historical film ‘Troy’ directed by Wolfgang Petersen was released on 05/14/2004, on the very same day the State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

“Dan is a lion’s whelp, that springs forth from the Bashan.”

(Deuterenomy 33:22)

Tradition says that the iron-willed Spartans fought against Tegea several times without success, the Tegeans defeated them. The Spartans inquired of the Pythia of Delphi, the oracle stated that in order for them to conquer Tegea they would have to locate the bones of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, plus they would have to bring the bones back to Lacedaemon.

An Agathoergi named Lichas, a distinguished Spartan, traveled to Tegea and ran into a certain smith, by mere chance. It turned out that the sepulchre of Orestes was in the courtyard of the iron worker, in Tegean territory. The forger had accidentally discovered a coffin made out of iron that was more than ten feet long. Without any doubt, the sarcophagus contained the bones of Orestes, son of Agamemnon & Clytemnestra. Lichas managed to make a deal with the smith and the bones were repatriated to Sparta. From that time on, whenever the Spartans and the Tegeans met in battle, the Spartans were victorious. By that time the people of Lykourgos had conquered the greater part of the Peloponnese.

The tale of the bones of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, finds an echo in the book of Deuterenomy. The story of Israel conquering the land of Og, king of the Bashan, rings a bell when it comes to Sparta conquering Tegea. We cannot say that both stories are identical but there are parallels:

• Israel, a people with territorial ambitions, wanted to subjugate Og, king of the Bashan (modern day Jordan). Israel lusted after Og’s land: Sparta, the chosen people of Lykourgos, wanted to conquer the region of Tegea in the Peloponnese.

• Israel seizes the land of the giant named Og of the Bashan: in order to prevail over Tegea, the Spartans would have to bring the bones of Orestes (a giant) back to Sparta. Both Og of the Bashan and Orestes are considered giants. Deuterenomy 3:11 says that Og was nine cubits tall and Orestes was more than ten feet tall.

• The Amorite king of the Bashan was Og: Orestes was a relative of Agamemnon. Og is an encryption code for Agamemnon: Og = Aga, Og-omemnon = Aga-memnon. Deuterenomy 3:11 says that Og was the last remaining survivor of the Rephaim because ‘Rephaim’ is a code for ‘Orestes’: (R)ephaim: O(R)estes.

• Lichas managed to discover the burial site of Orestes thanks to an iron-worker from Tegea: Deuterenomy 3:11 says that Og, had a bed made out of iron that was nine cubits long and four wide. An ‘iron-worker’ from Tegea and a bed made out of ‘iron.’

• Deuterenomy 3:10 says that Israel ended up seizing all the territory of Og, Deuterenomy 3:4 says they conquered the whole region of Argov: Argov is an allegory to the Greek city of Argos, North East of Tegea (south of Mycenae).

(scene from the 1962 film ‘The 300 Spartans’, directed by Rudolph Mate. I Maccabees 12:21 says that the Spartans and the Jews are brothers, both nations descended from Abraham)