Triumph of the Sea Gods, The by Steven Sora © 2007 Destiny Books ISBN
1-59477-145-x 288 pages Paperback $18.95 (U.S.) $23.95 (Canada)
If you are one of those individuals who believe that mythology = make
believe; if you think that Atlantis never existed; if you honestly think
you
need academic degrees to understand history, you will NOT want to read
this
book. On the other hand, if you are open-minded enough to entertain
alternate possibilities to explain history, I think you will enjoy this
book.
This isn't a book about Atlantis, except in a tangential way. It is the
story of the civilizations of the Celts and their predecessors; the
Phoenicians; and the effect they had on classical cultures such as Egypt
and
Greece. It contains a great deal of speculation, but that is to be
expected. The cultures involved were pre-literate in nature and have thus
left only physical clues with no cultural commentary to explain them.
This is a story of the eventual replacement of a Goddess wor****pping
culture
by a patriarchal culture. Although this author, like many others, equates
Goddess wor****p with peaceful existence, that is merely hypothesis.
Moreover, it is irrelevant in the larger scheme of things.
The use of the phrase "Atlantean culture" refers to the culture of the
settlements on the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa, as well as the
major islands - Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, etc., rather than
to the hypothetical Atlantis.
Mr. Sora makes much of similarly spelled words from various cultures, and
I
am not sure that such associations hold up in all cases. Fortunately, his
case is not built exclusively on such perceived similarities. He cites
solid archeological work to bolster his assertions.
Although, as I said earlier, I wasn't impressed by the alleged linguistic
evidence, I was impressed by the fact that Mr. Sora made an effort to show
viable alternatives to traditional interpretations of Homer's works. I'm
not sure I agree with all of them, but they definitely opened my eyes to
other possibilities. Although speculative in nature, it is at least
possible, even if not accepted as probable. I am glad to add this book to
my library.
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