From:

[www.philipcoppens.com]

“However, Greece has more than just these three pyramids. In 1997, author Richard Poe dedicated a chapter to the “Pyramid of Amphion” in “Black Spark, White Fire”, largely arguing that Greece was a child of Egypt – and not the other way around. The “Amphion Hill” or the “The Stepped Pyramid of Thebes” comes closest to being a “real Greek pyramid”. The story of this hill is directly linked with the foundation of the city of Thebes. Though some legends say it was Cadmus, others argue that the city’s founder was Amphion, the son of Antiope and Zeus. He and his brother Zethus were abandoned by their mother at birth, and reared by a shepherd – a clear analogy with the story of Romulus and Remus, founding brothers of Rome. Together, they, like Romulus and Remus in Rome, built a protective wall around the city that would later become known as Thebes (named after Zethus’ wife, Thebe). According to legend, Amphion drew the stones used for building the wall after him by playing magical music on his lyre.”

Archeological findings have been unearthed outside the Cadmean acropolis at the Pyri region that date to Neolithic times. The findings inside the acropolis date to the proto-Helladic period so they are of the same time period as the first Egyptian pyramids, maybe older. Spyropoulos excavated the Ampheion step pyramid and determined based on pottery and gold earrings found in the Ampheion tomb that it dates to about 2600 BC.

Aravantinos, the archeologist that succeeded him as curator of the Thebes museum, believed that the structure was not a true pyramid and that it dated to the Mycenean era. But Aravantinos has undergone excavations himself in the area near the museum where proto-Helladic tombs were found. So there is no dispute to whether the Theban acropolis was inhabited from at least 2600 BC.

It seems that Thebes was originally named after Ogygos, so it was called Ogygia – this time period overlaps III and IV dynasty pyramid construction. Latter on it was called Kadmeia, after Kadmos. Finally it was named Thebe. Heroine Thebe, acording to one account was the daughter of Prometheus. Her mother was said to be a nymph. At classical times this became Thivai and Thiva.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2012 11:41AM by Ogygos.