The Triumph of the Sea Gods: The War Against the Goddess Hidden in Homer's Tales

Sora places the site of Troy--and thus the sources of Homer's epics the Iliad and the Odyssey--at the western edge of the Iberian peninsula. His provocative view is abundantly supported by etymology, geography, geology, archaeology, and elements of ancient mythology plus a six-and-a-half-page bibliography. The sea god Neptune's trident--a spear or staff with three prongs--is seen as representing the three Iberian cities of Lisbon, Setubal, and Troy. About 1200 BCE, these city-states engaged in a war whose outcome determined the history and culture of the entire Mediterranean region and parts of Europe for centuries. Troy and its allies battled against a group of city-states identified as "Atlantean," the basis for the myth of Atlantis mentioned in Plato's dialogues and elsewhere. One of the most fateful changes brought by the victory of the Atlantean states was the dominance of their patriarchal government and values over the matriarchal of Troy and its allies. Sora develops his fascinating ideas to chart the wanderings of Ulysses after the Trojan War as poetically recounted by Homer in the Odyssey; and also account for the presence of the Etruscans in northern Italy, whose origins continue to baffle archaeologists. Sora has written similar previous challenging, provocative, and enlightening books on the Knights Templars and secret societies in American culture.

Steven Sora's THE TRIUMPH OF THE SEA GODS: THE WAR AGAINST THE GODDESS HIDDEN IN HOMER'S TALES could've been reviewed in our History Shelf section but is featured here for its concurrent attraction to New Age readers. Sora argues here that Homer's tales don't describe the commonly-held Mediterranean scenarios, but are adaptations of pre-Celtic myths detailing an Atlantic coastal war which took place off the Iberian Peninsula around 1200 BCE, and chronicled the rise of the seas as well. Ancient history collections and new age readers alike will find this alternative history description detailing the rise of sea peoples and the decline of the region's goddess-worshipping culture makes for fascinating reading.