In historical times, the Berbers expanded south into the Sahara (displacing earlier populations such as the Azer and Bafour), and have in turn been mainly culturally assimilated in much of North Africa by Arabs, particularly following the incursion of the Banu Hilal in the 11th century.
The Azer - these people are now the West African Soninke and had the great Ghana Empire at one time, through all of history they have traded gold, diamonds and salt. They practice circumcision. Right on the West Coast of Africa where Herodotus had Atlanteans marked on the map we see of his interpretation.
The name stands out to me:
And of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and to the younger that of Diaprepes.
I recalled that the Azers were in this area because of my intense research into Atlantis.
If anything the ezza letter looks like a Runic number 18 but apparently they are unrelated...
In Azerbaijan I read they were fire-worshippers so were named by the Persians as such but the info may have been dubious, sounds pretty logical though.
Notice now that Sabazios also has the word AZI in it. He's most likely from Thrace and went into Anatolia with the Phrygians.
Transference of Sabazios to the Roman world appears to have been mediated in large part through Pergamum.[7] The naturally syncretic approach of Greek religion blurred distinctions. Later Greek writers, like Strabo in the first century CE, linked Sabazios with Zagreus, among Phrygian ministers and attendants of the sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos.[8] Strabo's Sicilian contemporary, Diodorus Siculus, conflated Sabazios with the secret 'second' Dionysus, born of Zeus and Persephone,[9] a connection that is not borne out by surviving inscriptions, which are entirely to Zeus Sabazios.[10] The Christian Clement of Alexandria had been informed that the secret mysteries of Sabazius, as practiced among the Romans, involved a serpent, a chthonic creature unconnected with the mounted skygod of Phrygia: "‘God in the bosom’ is a countersign of the mysteries of Sabazius to the adepts". Clement reports: "This is a snake, passed through the bosom of the initiates”.[11]
Much later, the Byzantine Greek encyclopedia, Sudas (10th century?), flatly states
"Sabazios... is the same as Dionysos. He acquired this form of address from the rite pertaining to him; for the barbarians call the bacchic cry 'sabazein'. Hence some of the Greeks too follow suit and call the cry 'sabasmos'; thereby Dionysos [becomes] Sabazios. They also used to call 'saboi' those places that had been dedicated to him and his Bacchantes... Demosthenes [in the speech] 'On Behalf of Ktesiphon' [mentions them]. Some say that Saboi is the term for those who are dedicated to Sabazios, that is to Dionysos, just as those [dedicated] to Bakkhos [are] Bakkhoi. They say that Sabazios and Dionysos are the same. Thus some also say that the Greeks call the Bakkhoi Saboi."[12]
In Roman sites, though not a single temple consecrated to Sabazius, the rider god of the open air, has been located,[13] small votive hands, typically made of copper or bronze, are often associated with the cult of Sabazios. Many of these hands have a small perforation at the base which suggests they may have been attached to wooden poles and carried in processions. The symbolism of these objects is not well known.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabazios
I reckon this cult was on Crete. I have a book here, I could photograph the picture, its an old book, it has a drawing by Arthur Evans of on Crete a scene he drew, it shows 2 women and one is holding the other one's hand and that woman has a terrified look on her face, while around them on the floor is scattered hands...? It always stuck with me, I thought, what's going on here, is this woman going to cut off the other womans hand? In a sacrifice maybe..so it's odd that I now find this is the cult of Sabazios - a fire worshipping group, with snakes and hands. Dionysus also rescues Ariadne too so his connection as Sabazios in Crete actually makes sense.
It's very likely imo that the cult of Sabazios also was in Libya and the ancient Azer AND Amazigh have a connection to fire as well.
The word comparison might be free and possibly noble, simply from the relationship with the fire, flame, hearth, sun, whatever, if Fire is Sabazios and he is also Dionysus you have them both, Dionysus is always Liberty.
Somehow the worship of this fire must have liberated you imo. The (important) lamp, the flame that always had to be lit and kept so and looked after in temples is what bought you freedom and liberty.
Delphi was the common hearth of all Greeks, their central fire - so it's likely that Troy was also an Azi people, Troy burned and they worshipped Apollo.
The first Jews who settled in Rome were expelled in 139 BCE, along with Chaldaean astrologers by Cornelius Hispalus under a law which proscribed the propagation of the "corrupting" cult of "Jupiter Sabazius," according to the epitome of a lost book of Valerius Maximus:
Gnaeus Cornelius Hispalus, praetor peregrinus in the year of the consulate of Marcus Popilius Laenas and Lucius Calpurnius, ordered the astrologers by an edict to leave Rome and Italy within ten days, since by a fallacious interpretation of the stars they perturbed fickle and silly minds, thereby making profit out of their lies. The same praetor compelled the Jews, who attempted to infect the Roman custom with the cult of Jupiter Sabazius, to return to their homes."[15]
By this it is conjectured that the Romans identified the Jewish Yahveh Sabaoth ("of the Hosts") as Sabazius.
This mistaken connection of Sabazios and Sabaoth has often been repeated. In a similar vein, Plutarch maintained that the Jews worshipped Dionysus, and that the day of Sabbath was a festival of Sabazius.
Who says it's a mistake????
If the Jews worshipped Jupiter Sabazius - who was a sky God, and his hand...
http://en.wikipedia....and_of_God_(art)
Wouldn't you think the Hand of God would be THIS hand???
Then that would make the Sabbath easily relatable to Sabazius - because he would be God.
A mistaken connection I'm sure...
You gotta love the reason the Chaldean astrologers were kicked out of Rome, well I did, I thought it was hysterical actually.
...since by a fallacious interpretation of the stars they perturbed fickle and silly minds, thereby making profit out of their lies.
Edited by The Puzzler, 29 April 2011 - 04:13 PM.
