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Hamlet's Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission Through Myth
Ever since the Greeks coined the language we commonly use for scientific description, mythology & science have developed separately. But what came before the Greeks? What if we could prove that all myths have one common origin in a celestial cosmology? What if the gods, the places they lived & what they did are but ciphers for celestial activity, a language for the perpetuation of complex astronomical data? Drawing on scientific data, historical & literary sources, the authors argue that our myths are the remains of a preliterate astronomy, an exacting science whose power & accuracy were suppressed & then forgotten by an emergent Greco-Roman world view. This fascinating book throws into doubt the self-congratulatory assumptions of Western science about the unfolding development & transmission of knowledge. This is a truly seminal & original thesis, a book that should be read by anyone interested in science, myth & the interactions between the two.
450 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1969
About the author
Giorgio de Santillana
20 books31 followersGiorgio Diaz de Santillana was an Italian-American philosopher and historian of science, born in Rome. He was Professor of the History of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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September 29, 2011
Utterly brilliant, groundbreaking, necessary book, which overturns many flawed and biased assumptions about the "primitive" past. The mere 450 pages are so densely packed that it took me almost three stinkin' weeks to read, but it was worth every frustrating minute.
The fundamental narrative structures of popular stories are clearly derivative and based not on a convergence of psychological archetypes but rather on older forms which have been widely diffused throughout seemingly-unrelated ancient cultures. The later accretions and interpolations and subtractions can deform a story almost beyond recognition, yet by tracing subtle influences to earlier versions, one can reconstruct migratory pathways that lead past the traditional classical Greco-Roman derivations, blending the Indo-Europeans with outside traditions hitherto unrecognized by some philologists.
The opening demonstration of this principle shows how the "Hamlet scheme" in which a whirlpool is made by women working a grinding mill - a great wheel in the sky - has been found in various forms through the north and west of Europe, from Iceland down to Rome. Ancient stories in the Nordic Eddas continue on back through Ireland, the mainland, and down to the Near East; the tales recorded much later in the Shahnama are as ancient as the hymns of the Rig-Veda, and the whole mass circles throughout the Shamanism of the steppes and the Indus river valley religions and finally to a nearly global treasury of universal myth.
The heroes proclaim that they rule over recurring sections of the Zodiac - over heaven and time - in an essentially cosmological conception of the place of humanity, recurring in cycles of myth and ritual, eternal rounds, circles within cycles within wheels of a vast interconnected whole.
The problem is that prehistory is by definition unwritten, and only scraps and fragments of myth have survived from that time. Yet "an enormous intellectual achievement" is presupposed in the ancient view of the world, which even the earliest documents introduce in medias res. Archaic verbal imagery was in some cases a scientific language, preserved now only in fleeting implication discernible solely through painstaking correlation of hundreds of sources. As Giorgio de Santillana was professor of the history and philosophy of science at MIT, and Hertha von Dechend was professor of science at the University of Frankfurt (and a research associate at MIT), they are uniquely equipped for the task.
For instance, the "four corners" of the "earth" which moderns laughingly assume to be a primitive reference to a flat earth was actually the ideal plane made by the ecliptic spread between the four points of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices (it wasn't until around 1400 that "earth" was though to represent the actual planet). The conceptual spinning poles marking the wobble of the axial tilt turned the planet into the middle connecting point of a sort of cosmic hourglass figure. The precession of the equinoxes marked each world-age - Christ opened that of Pisces, Ichthys, the Fish, and is known as the sacrificed lamb of the constellation of the Ram, which follows next.
The book is a rambling treatise on a bewildering bunch of obscure myths and creation stories. I loved the parenthetical story of Il-mater, the daughter of the air, descending to the surface of the waters (much like the Holy Ghost - long understood to be a feminine mother-figure - hovered and brooded over the waters in Genesis), floating above the world until Ukko/Zeus sent his bird to her to create the world out of seven eggs with her.
We range over the Golden Age ending in the Twilight of the Gods; the world wars between Aesir and Vanir; the Celestial Wars of the Indians; the cosmic context of the otherwise-ludicrous Biblical story of Samson. We are treated to discussions on the rivers of forgetfulness, and speculations on how they are related to Native American myths. We wander through Plato's Pythagorean "world above" and the rivers and oceans of space between heaven and earth; the whirlpool with the tree overhanging it common from Greece to Polynesia, with "the way of the dead" being through the Milky Way. Ancient star maps are discussed, showcasing the constellations common from Egypt to China such as the Arrow. The extraction of the navel of the earth in stories from Turkestan to King Arthur and his sword are tied together.
The cosmological conceptions spreading from the Ancient Near East to India in the great Temple-building complexes which grew out into the Indonesian islands culminating in such monuments as Barabudur are shown to have commonalities with a great surplus of art, such as the African calabashes with cosmic scenes inscribed on their surfaces. There is an amazing discussion on all the different types of cosmic trees, such as the Yggdrasil. We search for eternal life with Gilgamesh (and other fire-bringers like Prometheus and Maui) and the goddesses in the great river of the sky and watch Plato's Timaean Demiurge creating a planetarium of sorts, creating souls in equal number with the stars and distributing them throughout the cosmos where, if they live well, they might one day journey back to their first star.
The Cosmic Tree of the Northwest Africans turning in a spiral marking the rotation of the stars; in the Kalevala, Ilmarinen climbs the great Tree to grasp the stars, and Vainamoinen sweeps him away in the whirlwind out to Pohjola. The Sampo - the Sanskrit skambha, "pillar, pole" - is part of the mill, with the tree which grows from it being the world axis, leading back to the Indo-European complex and beyond. The Shaman climbing the notches like stairs on his post or tree is mimicking an ascension to Heaven just as did the Mesopotamian Priest on his seven-planetary-spheres-tiered Ziggurat; the Chinese myths are even more explicitly calendrical and sky-conscious, and the Siberian cosmological drums contain a wealth of performance-based records of stellar events.
What is ultimately shown through the wild untamed mass of material Santillana and von Dechend have collected is how the typical view of cultural history as a steady rise from primitive man to our modern enlightened age is simply not based on evidence. As Marija Gimbutas and Riane Eisler have shown, high cultures existed far earlier than we have been taught to imagine.
One bit of advice: read all the appendices as you go along! (Yes, all 39 of 'em.) Don't save them for later; I found them absolutely vital to understanding the arguments presented. Those of us who are not multilingual would also do well to keep Google Translate open, as there are multiple quotes in different languages which add interesting details.
With a thesis this revolutionary, there are bound to be minor flaws as the details are worked out. The underlying problem with this book (among so many other books) - my major disagreement - is that it attempts to allegorize the myths more than always seems to be necessary; I deeply disagree that a cosmological interpretation inherently implies fictitiousness. A more literal and a more figurative reading are not mutually exclusive; that is, even if the myths are used to record and name astrological principles, the personages they take their names from don't always have to be imaginary as well. Both stories can often be true. If anything, the causation seems to me more likely to be reversed in this book; that is, the figures predated their use as labeling devices for the astronomical concepts. In the ancient cosmology, Nut can be the Mother of the Sky both symbolically when related to the zodiac, and literally as a Queen of Heaven giving birth to the Stars, the souls of humanity.
Then again, I'm just a stodgy euhemerist, so what do I know.
The fundamental narrative structures of popular stories are clearly derivative and based not on a convergence of psychological archetypes but rather on older forms which have been widely diffused throughout seemingly-unrelated ancient cultures. The later accretions and interpolations and subtractions can deform a story almost beyond recognition, yet by tracing subtle influences to earlier versions, one can reconstruct migratory pathways that lead past the traditional classical Greco-Roman derivations, blending the Indo-Europeans with outside traditions hitherto unrecognized by some philologists.
The opening demonstration of this principle shows how the "Hamlet scheme" in which a whirlpool is made by women working a grinding mill - a great wheel in the sky - has been found in various forms through the north and west of Europe, from Iceland down to Rome. Ancient stories in the Nordic Eddas continue on back through Ireland, the mainland, and down to the Near East; the tales recorded much later in the Shahnama are as ancient as the hymns of the Rig-Veda, and the whole mass circles throughout the Shamanism of the steppes and the Indus river valley religions and finally to a nearly global treasury of universal myth.
The heroes proclaim that they rule over recurring sections of the Zodiac - over heaven and time - in an essentially cosmological conception of the place of humanity, recurring in cycles of myth and ritual, eternal rounds, circles within cycles within wheels of a vast interconnected whole.
The problem is that prehistory is by definition unwritten, and only scraps and fragments of myth have survived from that time. Yet "an enormous intellectual achievement" is presupposed in the ancient view of the world, which even the earliest documents introduce in medias res. Archaic verbal imagery was in some cases a scientific language, preserved now only in fleeting implication discernible solely through painstaking correlation of hundreds of sources. As Giorgio de Santillana was professor of the history and philosophy of science at MIT, and Hertha von Dechend was professor of science at the University of Frankfurt (and a research associate at MIT), they are uniquely equipped for the task.
For instance, the "four corners" of the "earth" which moderns laughingly assume to be a primitive reference to a flat earth was actually the ideal plane made by the ecliptic spread between the four points of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices (it wasn't until around 1400 that "earth" was though to represent the actual planet). The conceptual spinning poles marking the wobble of the axial tilt turned the planet into the middle connecting point of a sort of cosmic hourglass figure. The precession of the equinoxes marked each world-age - Christ opened that of Pisces, Ichthys, the Fish, and is known as the sacrificed lamb of the constellation of the Ram, which follows next.
The book is a rambling treatise on a bewildering bunch of obscure myths and creation stories. I loved the parenthetical story of Il-mater, the daughter of the air, descending to the surface of the waters (much like the Holy Ghost - long understood to be a feminine mother-figure - hovered and brooded over the waters in Genesis), floating above the world until Ukko/Zeus sent his bird to her to create the world out of seven eggs with her.
We range over the Golden Age ending in the Twilight of the Gods; the world wars between Aesir and Vanir; the Celestial Wars of the Indians; the cosmic context of the otherwise-ludicrous Biblical story of Samson. We are treated to discussions on the rivers of forgetfulness, and speculations on how they are related to Native American myths. We wander through Plato's Pythagorean "world above" and the rivers and oceans of space between heaven and earth; the whirlpool with the tree overhanging it common from Greece to Polynesia, with "the way of the dead" being through the Milky Way. Ancient star maps are discussed, showcasing the constellations common from Egypt to China such as the Arrow. The extraction of the navel of the earth in stories from Turkestan to King Arthur and his sword are tied together.
The cosmological conceptions spreading from the Ancient Near East to India in the great Temple-building complexes which grew out into the Indonesian islands culminating in such monuments as Barabudur are shown to have commonalities with a great surplus of art, such as the African calabashes with cosmic scenes inscribed on their surfaces. There is an amazing discussion on all the different types of cosmic trees, such as the Yggdrasil. We search for eternal life with Gilgamesh (and other fire-bringers like Prometheus and Maui) and the goddesses in the great river of the sky and watch Plato's Timaean Demiurge creating a planetarium of sorts, creating souls in equal number with the stars and distributing them throughout the cosmos where, if they live well, they might one day journey back to their first star.
The Cosmic Tree of the Northwest Africans turning in a spiral marking the rotation of the stars; in the Kalevala, Ilmarinen climbs the great Tree to grasp the stars, and Vainamoinen sweeps him away in the whirlwind out to Pohjola. The Sampo - the Sanskrit skambha, "pillar, pole" - is part of the mill, with the tree which grows from it being the world axis, leading back to the Indo-European complex and beyond. The Shaman climbing the notches like stairs on his post or tree is mimicking an ascension to Heaven just as did the Mesopotamian Priest on his seven-planetary-spheres-tiered Ziggurat; the Chinese myths are even more explicitly calendrical and sky-conscious, and the Siberian cosmological drums contain a wealth of performance-based records of stellar events.
What is ultimately shown through the wild untamed mass of material Santillana and von Dechend have collected is how the typical view of cultural history as a steady rise from primitive man to our modern enlightened age is simply not based on evidence. As Marija Gimbutas and Riane Eisler have shown, high cultures existed far earlier than we have been taught to imagine.
One bit of advice: read all the appendices as you go along! (Yes, all 39 of 'em.) Don't save them for later; I found them absolutely vital to understanding the arguments presented. Those of us who are not multilingual would also do well to keep Google Translate open, as there are multiple quotes in different languages which add interesting details.
With a thesis this revolutionary, there are bound to be minor flaws as the details are worked out. The underlying problem with this book (among so many other books) - my major disagreement - is that it attempts to allegorize the myths more than always seems to be necessary; I deeply disagree that a cosmological interpretation inherently implies fictitiousness. A more literal and a more figurative reading are not mutually exclusive; that is, even if the myths are used to record and name astrological principles, the personages they take their names from don't always have to be imaginary as well. Both stories can often be true. If anything, the causation seems to me more likely to be reversed in this book; that is, the figures predated their use as labeling devices for the astronomical concepts. In the ancient cosmology, Nut can be the Mother of the Sky both symbolically when related to the zodiac, and literally as a Queen of Heaven giving birth to the Stars, the souls of humanity.
Then again, I'm just a stodgy euhemerist, so what do I know.
August 30, 2016
I read this book long ago, and just as with Calazzo's "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony", it made a lot more sense when I read it the second time. (Thus inspired, I will soon try Robert Graves' "The White Goddess" again.)
There is really no way to summarize this book, as Giorgio de Santillana wants to tease out how preliterate human beings viewed the universe. One of his basic assumptions (which is hard to argue with) is that a human being from 20,000 years ago had the potential to be just as intelligent as a human being today.
Given that premise, de Santillana uses ancient myths to uncover the archaic (for lack of a better word) mode of thought, remembering that the framework for any system was totally different than our literate one. For one thing, "Hamlet's Mill" doesn't claim to reveal a complete or even consistent system -- instead, it gives modern readers a glimpse of something wondrous strange.
"Hamlet's Mill," though, has precious little to do with Hamlet, except that he is related to Amlethus, a mythic figure who owned a powerful mill. That mill's wheel, as it turns out, is the turning of the stars in the sky, and its axle is, more or less, the axis that runs from the North Pole.
de Santillana spends a lot of time linking various myths to show that the idea of the great wheel in the sky as the arbiter, and even instigator, of events on earth was the basis of archaic thought. In fact, he says, one of the major differences between the archaic world view and ours is that the only measure used was that of time, and time was measured only by astronomical occurrences.
With the introduction of literacy and spatial measures, human beings conjoined space with time as the two primary means of dividing and understanding the universe, an undoubtedly richer and more standardized system. But de Santillana's reconstruction (whether wholly accurate or not) of an archaic mode of thought shows us that not only were ancient humans as capable as we are of devising a complex intellectual structure, but that, as the wheel of the stars continues to turn, with zodiacal age replacing zodiacal age, we too will be looked on from some distant future as hopelessly simple and barely worth of attention.
Without mechanics, without a means to measure, without a language capable of grasping and communicating complex ideas, de Santillana claims that Hamlet's Mill was used as an explanatory device in many disparate, and occasionally contradictory ways. In other words, if an event needed explanation, some aspect of the wheel of the stars and its axis was called on: For example, the great flood (most likely the abrupt filling of the Black Sea basin some 8,000 years ago) was caused when a mythic figure pulled the axle of the wheel from its mooring, allowing the waters to escape.
Now we believe the great flood happened when the barrier between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea abruptly gave way many thousand years ago, but our confidence in the mechanical could turn out, when Hamlet's Mill has turned many more times, to be no more justified than the archaic world's belief that as above, so below.
There is really no way to summarize this book, as Giorgio de Santillana wants to tease out how preliterate human beings viewed the universe. One of his basic assumptions (which is hard to argue with) is that a human being from 20,000 years ago had the potential to be just as intelligent as a human being today.
Given that premise, de Santillana uses ancient myths to uncover the archaic (for lack of a better word) mode of thought, remembering that the framework for any system was totally different than our literate one. For one thing, "Hamlet's Mill" doesn't claim to reveal a complete or even consistent system -- instead, it gives modern readers a glimpse of something wondrous strange.
"Hamlet's Mill," though, has precious little to do with Hamlet, except that he is related to Amlethus, a mythic figure who owned a powerful mill. That mill's wheel, as it turns out, is the turning of the stars in the sky, and its axle is, more or less, the axis that runs from the North Pole.
de Santillana spends a lot of time linking various myths to show that the idea of the great wheel in the sky as the arbiter, and even instigator, of events on earth was the basis of archaic thought. In fact, he says, one of the major differences between the archaic world view and ours is that the only measure used was that of time, and time was measured only by astronomical occurrences.
With the introduction of literacy and spatial measures, human beings conjoined space with time as the two primary means of dividing and understanding the universe, an undoubtedly richer and more standardized system. But de Santillana's reconstruction (whether wholly accurate or not) of an archaic mode of thought shows us that not only were ancient humans as capable as we are of devising a complex intellectual structure, but that, as the wheel of the stars continues to turn, with zodiacal age replacing zodiacal age, we too will be looked on from some distant future as hopelessly simple and barely worth of attention.
Without mechanics, without a means to measure, without a language capable of grasping and communicating complex ideas, de Santillana claims that Hamlet's Mill was used as an explanatory device in many disparate, and occasionally contradictory ways. In other words, if an event needed explanation, some aspect of the wheel of the stars and its axis was called on: For example, the great flood (most likely the abrupt filling of the Black Sea basin some 8,000 years ago) was caused when a mythic figure pulled the axle of the wheel from its mooring, allowing the waters to escape.
Now we believe the great flood happened when the barrier between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea abruptly gave way many thousand years ago, but our confidence in the mechanical could turn out, when Hamlet's Mill has turned many more times, to be no more justified than the archaic world's belief that as above, so below.
December 25, 2023
This is a dense analysis of ancient mythology in which the authors explain that most myth is not about the adventures of historical human characters but of astronomical bodies. There are similar stories and themes in myths around the world, not necessarily because there was an Atlantis providing a cultural heritage for everyone on earth, but because everyone observes the same skies. The sun always appears to make the same annual journey through the background stars, and ancient cultures were also very much aware of precession. This is where it gets the most interesting. It's all well and good to notice Mars takes roughly two years to complete an orbit, and to write stories about a character with warlike attributes who returns after a two year journey, as von Dechend notes in the preface to the book. It's much more impressive to see that many cultures understood the almost 26,000 year cycle of the precession of the earth's axis. Such knowledge tells us civilizations were devoting a minimum of several centuries to careful astronomical observation, because it would take generations to notice a one degree change. It would take thousands of years to notice the vernal equinox sun or winter solstice sun moving through various constellations. Yet many cultures did notice, and when they pass down stories involving zodiac signs we need to decide if they are extremely ancient clues which time the stories to distant epochs. Is a golden calf about the vernal equinox sun in the Age of Taurus? Is the golden fleece about the sun in Aires? Are stories of lions about the age of Leo? If so, then civilization goes back much further than we have been taught to believe.
Themes the authors focus on include the "Mill" of the title, with spinning millstones representing the circular rotation of planetary orbits and our own planet around its axis, generating our view of a spinning sky. As so many ancient cultures have myths about the world tree (used as an axis shaft) being chopped down or having its roots gnawed away at, or the sudden unhinging of the mill peg, and the destruction of the mill, we must wonder why ancient writers did not view the pole of rotation as a permanent fixture. Is it merely because they noticed gradual change, with a series of pole stars over the 25,800 years of precession? Or did they survive more than mere gradual change? Were there sudden pole shifts in which the entire surface of the earth suddenly changed position, with earthquakes and tidal waves and the demise of great civilizations? The authors, early on, mention "catastrophes and the periodic rebuilding of the world." (p. 3) Such events would certainly be the focus of any writing done by survivors in the generations following such an event - and one good way to convey knowledge of such ideas through generations of post-catastrophe dark-ages would be to simplify the scientific and mathematical principles into myth. So we see the same unusual numbers in Egypt, in Norway, in India, in Mexico... and we are taught some science without necessarily realizing what we pass on to the next generation.
"Hamlet's Mill" would have benefitted greatly from better editing. A huge mass of relevant material is presented, but not organized with the flow of a well-honed argument. I think the information presented was ground-breaking, and as an author myself, I found it extremely useful. My own discovery of specific patterns in ancient writing may not have been deciphered had I not read "Hamlet's Mill" and other great books on mythology and astronomy and ancient history. Readers interested in an analysis of ancient myth may want to read Joseph Campbell's "The Mythic Image" or for an archeoastronomical denconstruction of myth, perhaps Hancock and Bauval's "Message of the Sphinx" or Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods." "Hamlet's Mill" merely hinted that major religions may really be more about astronomical processes than we thought, but for more such astrotheological analysis of the major religions read books by Acharya S like "Suns of God" or "The Christ Conspiracy." Weidner and Bridges' "The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye," Michell's "The Dimensions of Paradise," the Flem-Aths' "When the Sky Fell," Montaigne's "Pole Shift: Evidence Will Not Be Silenced" and Hapgood's "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings" are probably all of great interest to anyone who likes "Hamlet's Mill."
Themes the authors focus on include the "Mill" of the title, with spinning millstones representing the circular rotation of planetary orbits and our own planet around its axis, generating our view of a spinning sky. As so many ancient cultures have myths about the world tree (used as an axis shaft) being chopped down or having its roots gnawed away at, or the sudden unhinging of the mill peg, and the destruction of the mill, we must wonder why ancient writers did not view the pole of rotation as a permanent fixture. Is it merely because they noticed gradual change, with a series of pole stars over the 25,800 years of precession? Or did they survive more than mere gradual change? Were there sudden pole shifts in which the entire surface of the earth suddenly changed position, with earthquakes and tidal waves and the demise of great civilizations? The authors, early on, mention "catastrophes and the periodic rebuilding of the world." (p. 3) Such events would certainly be the focus of any writing done by survivors in the generations following such an event - and one good way to convey knowledge of such ideas through generations of post-catastrophe dark-ages would be to simplify the scientific and mathematical principles into myth. So we see the same unusual numbers in Egypt, in Norway, in India, in Mexico... and we are taught some science without necessarily realizing what we pass on to the next generation.
"Hamlet's Mill" would have benefitted greatly from better editing. A huge mass of relevant material is presented, but not organized with the flow of a well-honed argument. I think the information presented was ground-breaking, and as an author myself, I found it extremely useful. My own discovery of specific patterns in ancient writing may not have been deciphered had I not read "Hamlet's Mill" and other great books on mythology and astronomy and ancient history. Readers interested in an analysis of ancient myth may want to read Joseph Campbell's "The Mythic Image" or for an archeoastronomical denconstruction of myth, perhaps Hancock and Bauval's "Message of the Sphinx" or Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods." "Hamlet's Mill" merely hinted that major religions may really be more about astronomical processes than we thought, but for more such astrotheological analysis of the major religions read books by Acharya S like "Suns of God" or "The Christ Conspiracy." Weidner and Bridges' "The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye," Michell's "The Dimensions of Paradise," the Flem-Aths' "When the Sky Fell," Montaigne's "Pole Shift: Evidence Will Not Be Silenced" and Hapgood's "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings" are probably all of great interest to anyone who likes "Hamlet's Mill."
April 13, 2019
This book was interesting, but the authors went a bit further than evidence permits in theorizing astrological underpinnings for numerous world myths. I would certainly be willing to acknowledge an astrological influence in some of the myths they explore, just not in all of them.
The discussion of the myths themselves was certainly engaging. I was not aware that Shakespeare had been influenced by an earlier Scandinavian myth revolving around a person named Amleth. Other discussions like that on the legendary primeval Persian king Yima were equally interesting. I had noted the parallels between the fall of Yima and that of Lucifer before, but the writers show convincingly that Yima parallels the Roman god Saturn as well. Both Saturn and Yima (also known as Jamshid) ruled over a primordial golden age. Both also were superseded by another ruler and another age. Philosophy that utilized myth is also referred to. Ancient philosophers such as Plato, Plutarch, Macrobius, Proclus, etc, are great sources for myth and astrology.
The myths and literature that they explore is rather wide, spanning different continents and civilizations, so one could argue that when drawing from such a vast well of information, they could find seemingly relevant data to support many theses that would be quite untenable given a more appropriately restrictive criteria. One must accept the assumption that civilizations separated by oceans had some contact. If one does accept this supposition, it simply begs other questions such as: how does stock astrological myths get shared by civilizations that are also separated by language? On the strictly human plain, the presumption seems to face more than one obstacle.
It can hardly be denied that astrology was incredibly important to ancient civilizations, but the theory that even seemingly un-astrological myths also contain oblique astrology would be a difficult thesis to maintain without substantial evidence. That disparate civilizations shared this base astrology would be equally difficult to prove. I'm not sure the writers prove that case convincingly across the board, but the investigation and discussion was worthwhile. I give the book around 3 to 3-and-half stars.
The discussion of the myths themselves was certainly engaging. I was not aware that Shakespeare had been influenced by an earlier Scandinavian myth revolving around a person named Amleth. Other discussions like that on the legendary primeval Persian king Yima were equally interesting. I had noted the parallels between the fall of Yima and that of Lucifer before, but the writers show convincingly that Yima parallels the Roman god Saturn as well. Both Saturn and Yima (also known as Jamshid) ruled over a primordial golden age. Both also were superseded by another ruler and another age. Philosophy that utilized myth is also referred to. Ancient philosophers such as Plato, Plutarch, Macrobius, Proclus, etc, are great sources for myth and astrology.
The myths and literature that they explore is rather wide, spanning different continents and civilizations, so one could argue that when drawing from such a vast well of information, they could find seemingly relevant data to support many theses that would be quite untenable given a more appropriately restrictive criteria. One must accept the assumption that civilizations separated by oceans had some contact. If one does accept this supposition, it simply begs other questions such as: how does stock astrological myths get shared by civilizations that are also separated by language? On the strictly human plain, the presumption seems to face more than one obstacle.
It can hardly be denied that astrology was incredibly important to ancient civilizations, but the theory that even seemingly un-astrological myths also contain oblique astrology would be a difficult thesis to maintain without substantial evidence. That disparate civilizations shared this base astrology would be equally difficult to prove. I'm not sure the writers prove that case convincingly across the board, but the investigation and discussion was worthwhile. I give the book around 3 to 3-and-half stars.
February 17, 2020
Ora non ricordo l'anno preciso, ma era quando ancora riuscivo a leggere in auto, quindi sarà stato verso il 2005-2006, avevo tipo quindici-sedici anni e mia madre aveva iniziato a comprare in edicola 'sta serie di libri dedicati alla fanta-archeologia e simili (tipo, per capirci, un volume era dedicato a Nostradamus e un altro a Jack lo Squartatore). Solo che, insomma, mia madre s'era dimenticata di spiegarmi il concetto di fanta-archeologia, quindi, ora non voglio dire che prendessi quei libri per oro colato perché adolescente e non completamente scemo, ma li prendevo, quello sì, con decisamente pochissimi filtri critici. Uno dei volumi che ho letto è stato "Impronte degli dei" di Graham Hancock. Ora che ci penso, credo che sia stato pure il primo saggio che abbia mai letto. Ottimo, mamma. Grazie. Comunque, per farla breve, Hancock ipotizzava l'esistenza di una civiltà perduta, vissuta nel 10.000 a.C., estremamente evoluta tecnologicamente, e dalle origini mezze aliene. E questo va a spiegare il concetto di fanta in fanta-archeologia. Cioè, per dire, Hancock fu uno dei primi nel mainstream a parlare del 2012 e della fine del mondo. Però, accanto a questo delirio (che, ripeto, presi con decisamente pochi filtri critici), Hancock faceva tutto un discorso fra costellazioni, mito e precessione degli equinozi. Ora, voi immaginate che effetto può aver fatto una roba simile su un diciassettenne che si era mezzo bevuto senza troppi problemi l'idea degli antichi astronauti. Praticamente l'unico concetto con un briciolo di scientificità su cui appoggiarsi si è sedimentato proprio tranquillamente. Tutto questo per dire che fino alla lettura di "Il mulino di Amleto" non avevo realizzato due cose: uno, da dove Hancock aveva preso l'unica parte sensata a vederla a posteriori (o per lo meno finita l'adolescenza); e, due, quanto cazzo è permeabile la mente di un adolescente, che io vi giuro per me era una roba assodata al 100% questa delle stelle e dei miti.
Ok, ho finito con questo amarcord pedagogico. Però veramente state attenti a quello che dite agli adolescenti che poi quelli ci credono.
Comunque, "Il mulino di Amleto", studio più o meno seminale e strabordante, uscito nel 1969 è da una parte critica alla storiografia (e scientismo) contemporaneo e dall'altra una rilettura dell'intera mitologia umana. L'idea di De Santillana e Von Dechend è che tutti i diversi miti - da quelli greci ai norreni, da quelli iraniani a quelli dei Maya - possano essere ricondotti a un'origine comune, una specie di ur-mitologia, originaria della Mesopotamia del 4000 a.C. E da lì, come una specie di telefono senza fili mitologico, si siano diffusi sempre più, perdendo, confondendo tratti e dettagli, fino ad arrivare a noi, al limite del comprensibile e del decifrabile. E, certo, l'atteggiamento tipicamente eurocentrico e modernista non aiuta nella comprensione. La visione, infatti, per cui la storia non è altro che la linea del progresso da un passato barbaro e, francamente, popolato da scemi, verso un presente (e un futuro) sempre più sviluppato e intelligente, impedisce di comprendere appieno la portata astronomica dell'ur-mito.
La mitologia mesopotamica di cui parlano de Santillana e von Dechend, infatti, è una mitologia che richiede una profonda conoscenza tecnica. Essa, infatti, trasforma in storie e racconti, enormi eventi cosmici, che si dispiegano su migliaia di anni. Io ora non so minimamente come spiegarvi il concetto di precessione degli equinozi perché insomma, se lavora in una libreria e non in un planetario un motivo ci starà, però di base il concetto è che la volta celeste, con le sue stelle, subisce una costante rotazione (cioè, ovviamente è la Terra che ruota). E, lentamente, ma inesorabilmente, muta. Il punto di riferimento, allora, è il cielo durante l'Equinozio di primavera, quando è legata al sorgere di una stella di una particolare costellazione. Ora è quella dei Pesci - iniziata 2000 anni fa. Prima fu quello dell'Ariete, fino a tipo il 2000 a.C. Prima ancora Toro, Gemelli e così via. Praticamente, ogni 25000 anni la Terra si gira tutte le costellazioni. Ora, l'idea è che questo succedersi abbia portato all'integrare le diverse costellazioni in una forma mitica, che ne raccontasse il succedersi. Tipo: Cristo che porta l'età dei pesci, ben esemplificato dal simbolo cristiano del pesce, appunto. O Mosè che spacca l'idolo del Toro in quanto lui è il portatore dell'età dell'Ariete. E così via.
Ma, è qua che si fa importante la cosa, nella cultura arcaica è inscindibile arte, scienza e uomo. Ciò che accade nel cielo è ciò che accade nell'uomo. L'uomo era profondamente legato all'interno di un sistema dove tutto era connesso e dove tutto si rifletteva. Le stesse città arcaiche si basavano su particolari piante stellari. Se il discorso archeologico e filologico di De Santillana e Von Dechend in alcuni punti può sembrare un po' stiratino - o per lo meno lo sembra a me, un dubbio su tutti è come un mito generatosi 6000 anni fa abbia potuto generare miti nelle Americhe -, quello che affascina senza mezze misure è il discorso filosofico che permane l'intero volume e che i due autori contrappongono alla visione imperante attuale.
L'enorme differenza, infatti, fra l'epoca antica e oggi è la percezione del Tempo. profondamente legata alla percezione delle stelle. Il Tempo antico, infatti, era un tempo circolare - proprio come il movimento delle stelle attorno alla terra: ciò che cade, risorgerà. Il passato non era solo passato, bensì era anche futuro. Completamente differente, invece, è la visione contemporanea, non soltanto con un tempo lineare, ma anche con una frattura fra noi e quello che ci circonda: le stelle non sono nulla più che stelle. "E strisciando sulla superficie del pianeta degli insetti chiamati razza umana, persi nel tempo, e persi nello spazio, e nel significato", come si dice nel finale del "Rocky Horror Picture Show".
Ok, ho finito con questo amarcord pedagogico. Però veramente state attenti a quello che dite agli adolescenti che poi quelli ci credono.
Comunque, "Il mulino di Amleto", studio più o meno seminale e strabordante, uscito nel 1969 è da una parte critica alla storiografia (e scientismo) contemporaneo e dall'altra una rilettura dell'intera mitologia umana. L'idea di De Santillana e Von Dechend è che tutti i diversi miti - da quelli greci ai norreni, da quelli iraniani a quelli dei Maya - possano essere ricondotti a un'origine comune, una specie di ur-mitologia, originaria della Mesopotamia del 4000 a.C. E da lì, come una specie di telefono senza fili mitologico, si siano diffusi sempre più, perdendo, confondendo tratti e dettagli, fino ad arrivare a noi, al limite del comprensibile e del decifrabile. E, certo, l'atteggiamento tipicamente eurocentrico e modernista non aiuta nella comprensione. La visione, infatti, per cui la storia non è altro che la linea del progresso da un passato barbaro e, francamente, popolato da scemi, verso un presente (e un futuro) sempre più sviluppato e intelligente, impedisce di comprendere appieno la portata astronomica dell'ur-mito.
La mitologia mesopotamica di cui parlano de Santillana e von Dechend, infatti, è una mitologia che richiede una profonda conoscenza tecnica. Essa, infatti, trasforma in storie e racconti, enormi eventi cosmici, che si dispiegano su migliaia di anni. Io ora non so minimamente come spiegarvi il concetto di precessione degli equinozi perché insomma, se lavora in una libreria e non in un planetario un motivo ci starà, però di base il concetto è che la volta celeste, con le sue stelle, subisce una costante rotazione (cioè, ovviamente è la Terra che ruota). E, lentamente, ma inesorabilmente, muta. Il punto di riferimento, allora, è il cielo durante l'Equinozio di primavera, quando è legata al sorgere di una stella di una particolare costellazione. Ora è quella dei Pesci - iniziata 2000 anni fa. Prima fu quello dell'Ariete, fino a tipo il 2000 a.C. Prima ancora Toro, Gemelli e così via. Praticamente, ogni 25000 anni la Terra si gira tutte le costellazioni. Ora, l'idea è che questo succedersi abbia portato all'integrare le diverse costellazioni in una forma mitica, che ne raccontasse il succedersi. Tipo: Cristo che porta l'età dei pesci, ben esemplificato dal simbolo cristiano del pesce, appunto. O Mosè che spacca l'idolo del Toro in quanto lui è il portatore dell'età dell'Ariete. E così via.
Ma, è qua che si fa importante la cosa, nella cultura arcaica è inscindibile arte, scienza e uomo. Ciò che accade nel cielo è ciò che accade nell'uomo. L'uomo era profondamente legato all'interno di un sistema dove tutto era connesso e dove tutto si rifletteva. Le stesse città arcaiche si basavano su particolari piante stellari. Se il discorso archeologico e filologico di De Santillana e Von Dechend in alcuni punti può sembrare un po' stiratino - o per lo meno lo sembra a me, un dubbio su tutti è come un mito generatosi 6000 anni fa abbia potuto generare miti nelle Americhe -, quello che affascina senza mezze misure è il discorso filosofico che permane l'intero volume e che i due autori contrappongono alla visione imperante attuale.
L'enorme differenza, infatti, fra l'epoca antica e oggi è la percezione del Tempo. profondamente legata alla percezione delle stelle. Il Tempo antico, infatti, era un tempo circolare - proprio come il movimento delle stelle attorno alla terra: ciò che cade, risorgerà. Il passato non era solo passato, bensì era anche futuro. Completamente differente, invece, è la visione contemporanea, non soltanto con un tempo lineare, ma anche con una frattura fra noi e quello che ci circonda: le stelle non sono nulla più che stelle. "E strisciando sulla superficie del pianeta degli insetti chiamati razza umana, persi nel tempo, e persi nello spazio, e nel significato", come si dice nel finale del "Rocky Horror Picture Show".
February 4, 2024
This is a book that reminds me of the mythological discourses by Joseph Campbell. It is an anthropological detective story that traces the origins of myths throughout the world and finds common elements in their origins. One finding is that the geography of myth is not that of the earth but rather is celestial. For anyone who is familiar with Greek mythology this is not a surprise, but we find here again that mythological language transcends cultural and geographic boundaries. The author explores myths unfamiliar and familiar. For example he discusses the Epic of Gilgamesh in "The Adventure and the Quest". In it he finds connections with myths from India to Greece and beyond linking the symbols to constellations in the sky. The chapter concludes with a reference to knowledge:
"The notion of fire, in various forms, has been one of the recurring themes of this essay. Gilgamesh, like Prometheus, is intimately associated with it. The principle of fire, and the means of producing or acquiring it are best approached through them." (p 316)
The essence of human knowledge seems bound up in these mythological origins. A difficult read, but worth persevering, Hamlet's Mill should be of interest to all who are interested in the origins of man's mind and his images of the world.
"The notion of fire, in various forms, has been one of the recurring themes of this essay. Gilgamesh, like Prometheus, is intimately associated with it. The principle of fire, and the means of producing or acquiring it are best approached through them." (p 316)
The essence of human knowledge seems bound up in these mythological origins. A difficult read, but worth persevering, Hamlet's Mill should be of interest to all who are interested in the origins of man's mind and his images of the world.
July 19, 2012
I would give this book six stars if that were possible.
October 8, 2008
This book is essential for anyone wishing to learn about the links between mythology, zodiac, precessional cycles, and transmission and creation of knowlegde in pre-industrial and ancicent civilizations. An absolute classic and opus magnus of the archaeo-astrology and mythology genres.
August 22, 2015
I should make clear straight away, given the five star rating I have given this book, that Hamlet's Mill is actually not all that well written. Santillana and Dechend write tortuous sentences that are difficult to follow; the material, which is often complex and detailed, is often poorly presented and their points are not always obvious. A page turner it is not. However, their thesis is so radical and their scholarship so thorough, that it has undeniable claims to be one of the Great Books of History. Their thesis is that myths are a form of astronomy in code. Mythological personages represent the planets and the journeys these deities undertake are planetary orbits. Central to the whole vision is Hamlet's Mill itself, which is a coded representation of the polar axis around which the planet rotates. Conventional academia did not respond to this thesis with cries of joy; in fact, conventional academia did not respond to this thesis at all, and it has generally been ignored by the mainstream. It was, however, a major influence on Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods, where he devotes a whole chapter to this book. (In fact, anyone who finds Hamlet's Mill baffling can turn to Hancock, who does a good job of explaining its key message.) The full importance of this book has yet to be determined.
August 27, 2016
Fascinating, if somewhat dizzyingly presented and unsystematic. The project is to show that mythic ideas about cyclical time, world ages, their characteristics and dominant players, were actually based in close observation of the heavens and the complex apparent movements of planets and constellations, and particularly the precession of the equinoxes. Since the whole universe was thought to be ruled by the same living, volitional forces, it was by no means a simple “primitive” or childlike fantasy that what happened in the sky was related to what happened on earth in describable ways.
The authors’ point is not to dismiss the modern scientific method but to say that there is a tendency to look at the history of human knowledge in a reductively linear way, from less to more sophistication and mastery of complexity, and that such a view actually runs counter to the evidence provided even by what little we have of these early cosmologies.
For folklore fans, the stories themselves are from a treasure trove of not-the-usual-suspects sources: Guyana, Peru, India, Persia, Africa, Northwest and Plains Indians, as well as the Norse and Greco-Roman standbys.
The authors’ point is not to dismiss the modern scientific method but to say that there is a tendency to look at the history of human knowledge in a reductively linear way, from less to more sophistication and mastery of complexity, and that such a view actually runs counter to the evidence provided even by what little we have of these early cosmologies.
For folklore fans, the stories themselves are from a treasure trove of not-the-usual-suspects sources: Guyana, Peru, India, Persia, Africa, Northwest and Plains Indians, as well as the Norse and Greco-Roman standbys.
July 26, 2008
This is my favorite book of all time. An essay on worldwide myth and legend. He is an MIT professor; 2/3 of the essay is his, the last 1/3 is the appendix by Hertha von Dechend, Hamburg U. I used two bookmarks and always read her remarks. Simply boggles the mind that ancient stories could be so similar while so geographically distant from one another. The "Mill" of the title represents the earth's wobble, which takes nearly 26,000 years to complete, and the ancients knew this. How could they? The sky tales are similar as well, divided into the 12 segments. From childhood I dismissed the adults speaking of myth and legend with a wink and a nod, as if they were the foolishness of our childish ancestors. I just KNEW there was a basis for all of it!
November 27, 2020
This is a difficult, demanding work which basically asserts that the ancients, some of them, knew more astrophysics than is commonly recognized and that this knowledge is reflected in myths throughout the world, many of which can be read both as simple fantasies and for their esoteric meaning. Most commonly, the authors assert that these myths, while seeming to refer to the earth or to the underworld, actually refer to astronomical phenomena such as the precession of the equinox.
This book ranges across cultures and throughout time for its evidences, reminding me of some of the work of such as C.G. Jung, Erich Neumann, Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell. Frankly, I found it tough going and mostly--except perhaps the stuff about the ancient Greeks--above my head.
This book ranges across cultures and throughout time for its evidences, reminding me of some of the work of such as C.G. Jung, Erich Neumann, Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell. Frankly, I found it tough going and mostly--except perhaps the stuff about the ancient Greeks--above my head.
April 18, 2015
Brilliant! This is not an easy book to read and understand. it requires thought and study...really thinking.to understand it we need to look outsude our normal way of understanding earth and how it works. And when we understand what the author is pointing at, it requires acceptance of something that is difficult to accept. Every 26,000 years, earth's climate and ways of operating are changed by cycles of time that threaten human existence and earth's other life forms with extinction. It isn't written for the average reader and really makes you think to understand it, but if you dig into it (and skim the blah blah blah parts) you'll end up with a mind-blowing view of earth and life that school didn't teach you. Def one of my favorite books that I read again and again.
September 6, 2009
The inspiration for Fingerprints of the Gods.
Difficult read. I skimmed it while reading F of the G's.
Difficult read. I skimmed it while reading F of the G's.
February 5, 2022
This one took me about two years to read. Was it worth it? I'm not sure. Some very interesting ideas in there though.
March 3, 2014
I only understood about a quarter of this book, but I found it fascinating and remarkable.
January 16, 2024
Libro complesso, ampio, ricco, labirintico, stratificato e sicuramente imperdibile per gli amanti del mito, che viene eviscerato nel suo significato intrinseco, negli aspetti reconditi per portare un'analisi completa che permette una visione ampia e una rivoluzione nell'approccio. Anche se c'è una predominanza classica troviamo anche mitologie extraeuropee, che non rimangano ancillari o semplici confronti ma sono protagonisti tridimensionali.
Parlare di questo libro è più difficile che leggerlo, anche se risulta quasi più un manuale di studio eppure è intrigante e in grado di non lasciare impantanare il lettore nemmeno nei passaggi più filosofici.
Parlare di questo libro è più difficile che leggerlo, anche se risulta quasi più un manuale di studio eppure è intrigante e in grado di non lasciare impantanare il lettore nemmeno nei passaggi più filosofici.
October 25, 2013
Six stars at times. One star at others.
Brilliant but so discursive. Full of shining gems of thought, encrusted with all but impenetrable allusions. Without a knowledge background in half a dozen different mythologies, there are many sections here so difficult to understand. There are paragraphs with references to five different myths (for example, American Indian, Finnish, Hindu, Greek and Egyptian) and, although I have a passing acquaintance with some, I was often lost.
It's like walking in on a conversation where the authors are talking to each other and feel no need to explain each term as it arises. Often they do - but also they often don't. If you are familiar with such words, you probably won't notice these lapses - but I was too often floundering and the context didn't give the meaning away.
That said, there's still heaps of thought-provoking stuff here - and I'll read the book again.
Brilliant but so discursive. Full of shining gems of thought, encrusted with all but impenetrable allusions. Without a knowledge background in half a dozen different mythologies, there are many sections here so difficult to understand. There are paragraphs with references to five different myths (for example, American Indian, Finnish, Hindu, Greek and Egyptian) and, although I have a passing acquaintance with some, I was often lost.
It's like walking in on a conversation where the authors are talking to each other and feel no need to explain each term as it arises. Often they do - but also they often don't. If you are familiar with such words, you probably won't notice these lapses - but I was too often floundering and the context didn't give the meaning away.
That said, there's still heaps of thought-provoking stuff here - and I'll read the book again.
December 15, 2013
This is one you have to work at. The second time I read it I started to understand the thesis and the mode of argument. It presents an important thesis - that ancient cultures encoded the skies in their mythologies.
The book is dense, has endless digressions, and doesn't quite prove its case. However it presents enough of the picture to show that the heavens and their architecture are fundamental aspects of traditional lore. In this it provides a valuable alternative to the ideas of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.
The book is dense, has endless digressions, and doesn't quite prove its case. However it presents enough of the picture to show that the heavens and their architecture are fundamental aspects of traditional lore. In this it provides a valuable alternative to the ideas of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.
May 23, 2013
Amazing scholarship combined with exceptional thought and analysis make this an essential work. The book is marred however by the lack of an hypothesis as to the reasons why our ancestors went to so much pain to pass on the knowledge encoded in the myths. It uncovers many mysteries but it does not offer any answers.
February 17, 2024
Took me three months but I finally got through it. 10 stars for all the juicy mill material but subtracted 5 for it being way overwritten and often a little too opaque. Probably the perfect text to use as the basis for a windmill cult. JK...unless?
September 11, 2015
It's all connected! In more ways than one. Myth continues to open its vastness to me, yet withholds its secrets. Why are all myths all over the world so similar? Because they contain astronomical and mathematical knowledge and are the vehicles used to transmit this knowledge to the future.
Brilliant thesis. It raises the question, why do we stop looking? Why stop there? Where ever "there" happens to be, it is not the final answer and ceasing investigation stifles human growth. Yet here we are believing that the pyramids are only 4000 years old and that we are the first advanced civilization on earth.
Brilliant thesis. It raises the question, why do we stop looking? Why stop there? Where ever "there" happens to be, it is not the final answer and ceasing investigation stifles human growth. Yet here we are believing that the pyramids are only 4000 years old and that we are the first advanced civilization on earth.
May 30, 2008
The subject matter was very dry reading until I started seeing the linkages,. The basic idea is that our pre-history is recorded in the myths and legends passed down to present day, and further that all cultures are passing down the same historical information.
It is fascinating book if you are interested in the material and an impossible read for those who are not.
It is fascinating book if you are interested in the material and an impossible read for those who are not.
May 11, 2009
I was probably too young when my dad recommended this book to me as a "must-read." Slogged through diligently only to feel deflated and relieved that it had come to an end. Although, who knows, it may have altered my brain, and thus explain my current obsession with Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces, and other such books. I am wary of recommending it to others.
May 24, 2013
Giorgio de Santillana a Professor at MIT looks at mythology, astronomy, precession of the axis and of the Zodiacal stages of precession. Now... take all this and maybe the ancient myths have been misconstrued. I found it interesting but somewhat dry and laborious. This is along the notions of Joseph Campbell's works.
June 10, 2008
An intense overview of the common origins of science and myth. One example being the European myth of Hamlets (Ahmlodhi's) Mill and the scientific concept of the precession of the equinoxes. A facinating read.
December 24, 2008
"A book wonderful to read and startling to contemplate. If this theory is correct, both the history of science and the reinterpretation of myths have been enriched immensely."
— Washington Post Book World
— Washington Post Book World
December 2, 2017
An academic perspective on myths and legends and their sources. After reading you will no longer see Shakespeare as the primary source of some of his plays. A great book interested in deep patterns of myth and archetypes.
January 26, 2008
Fascinating account of the relation of mythology to astronomy.
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March 27, 2008A study of human imagination beyond the science
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