ATLANTIC HADES
(WALCHEREN, ZEELAND)
Odysseus' First Voyage, part 8
Route: Aiaia - Hades - Aiaia
THE HADES PDF-download
In part 7 of Odysseus' First Voyage (Atlantic Aiaia), we have seen Aiaia being identified as Schouwen in Zeeland on the basis of numerous plausible arguments. The last journey that Odysseus and his mates have to undertake is that to the Hades, where they must experience the nocturnal mysteries of death. Only when this tour is well concluded does the preliminary initiation end. After that, they will go through a process of testing that, if passed, will lead to the final initiation. This series of severe tests are mentioned in the series Odysseus' Second Voyage.
Information about the location In the following excerpt, Homeros gives indications about the location of Hades in relation to Aiaia-Schouwen:
If you have raised the mast and have spread the white sails, just stay put. Boreas's breath will send her on her way. When you via Okeanos have crossed over with your ship to where the coast is low and the forest of Persefone is lying with tall poplars and willow that drops its catkins, put your ship on shore of the ocean with its strong tidal current, but then go yourself to Hades' moldy house. There, the Kokutos, which is on his turn the ebb current of the Stux water, and the Puriflegethon clash onto the Acheron; there is a rock and the confluence of both loudly roaring streams. (10,506 ff.)
It says here that Boreas (north wind) will take the ship to the Hades, so that it must be south of Schouwen and not north of it as De Grave (part I) states, who chooses Hellevoetsluis as its landing location. Odysseus also has to sail a part of the ocean, cross a branch of the sea, sail past the dunes (high land) and go ashore where it is low (no dunes) in a swamp area where water-loving trees such as poplar and weeping willow grow 'who loses his catkins' (olesikarpos). The beach is also on the ocean, which has a strong and deep tidal current on site (v.511 bathudinƩ). There must be a moldy, damp domos somewhere (dome, cave). The location is more accurately indicated because the poet says that two loudly roaring streams run towards the Acheron. There is also a petra (rock, stone). In v.514 Kirke gives further details of the landing site: she mentions the names Kokutos, Stux, Puriflegethon, and Acheron.
Then the sun set; all streets grew dark too. The ship reached Okeanos' borders with very deep currents, where, wrapped in cloud and mist, the Kimmerians inhabit land and city. Never a bright sun with its rays shines down on them, neither by climbing the starry heavens nor when he descends from heaven to earth again. No, a dreadful night looms over wretched people. (11,13 ff.)
Odysseus arrives in the dark at a border region of the Ocean near a deep gully with a strong current where, wrapped in fog and mist and horrible darkness, the remarkable, wretched people of Kimmerians live.
The return trip to Aiaia also provides some information:
The force of the tide carried the ship down the Okeanos River, where we first had to row, till afterwards a fair breeze blew. After our ship had left Okeanos' tidal river and reached the swell of the sea with its wide roads and the isle of Aiaia, where is the house of the early Dawn, where its dance meadows are and the sun also rises, we beached, once arrived, our ship on the sandbar and disembarked ourselves too near the surf of the sea. (11,639 and 12.1 ff)
The Okeanos River must be the branch of the ocean on which lay the beach where the men disembarked and from where the ship reaches the "sea with its wide roads" (= open water of the ocean). On the west side of Schouwen is a sandbar, from which Odysseus and his mates see the dawn and the sun rise.
Identification of Hades Since Cailleux, the Atlantic authors have agreed on the identification of Hades as the island of Walcheren in Zeeland. There are numerous arguments for this identification:
A. The names mentioned by Kirke: - Kokutos: the Kokutos, which is on his turn the ebb current of the Stux water....
't Coxijsche Gat under Oostburch
Old maps of Zeeland show the Cocyxse Gat and the village of Cocycx (sometimes written differently), names that are no longer used (see map from 1750 and 1580). Cailleux (PA 133) believes that the Kokutos is not a "side branch" of the Stux, as the Greek aporrox is usually translated, assuming an etymology of aporƩgnumai - breaking off, but that the word should rather be derived from apereugo - 'foaming or vomiting backwards' and then would mean "ebb water". The Stux (root: stug-) is thus the "stijgwater (=rising water)", or the flood current of the Honte. I have based my translation on Cailleux. -Acheron: Wilkens (p.262) sees in this name a composition of Acher (Agger) and Honte, respectively the eastern and western part of the Westerschelde (Dullaert). However, the experts believe that in the Bronze Age there was no continuous connection under Walcheren to the Scheldt, but that there was at most an inlet through the dunes that ran as far as Biervliet with a width that cannot be compared with the current Westerschelde. According to Cailleux (PA 132), however, Acheron is not a river but etymologically a combination of asch and hont, and should mean something like "ash cave", a death cave, the site of the death mysteries of the Hades. In that case, the Kokutos and the Puriflegethon (water around Biervliet) run "loudly roaring" against the Ash Cave of Walcheren. -Stux: According to Wilkens (259), this is the Tryx or Stryx that could be seen on old maps and flows into the sea at the Zwin. De Grave and Cailleux see in the root Stug a derivation from Stieg, stijgen (=rising). The first author comes with an attractive statement that it is a "waterstijg" (-water rise), a pumping system with mills to raise the water from the lower peat polders. The Stux would then be the higher-lying channel that flows into the Kokutos. Cailleux sees rather "stijgend (=rising) water" in it, the flood current of the Honte. This purging flood would then have become the important oath for the gods, since they swear by the Stux, as Kalupso swears in 5,185 on the falling ebb stream of the Stux, which can drag the bodies to the high seas, the hell, to make them disappear forever. She swears by the oath that, if she does not prove to be truthful, she or her mummy may disappear into the sea forever. That is a strong oath that anyone who believes in rebirth will not swear lightly. In Il.8,369, Homeros speaks of the aipa reƫthra Stugos - "the steeply rising flood currents of the Stux," which reinforces Cailleux's interpretation. -Puriflegethon: according to de Grave (part I), this name, not identified by Wilkens, is derived from Fletum or Flevum, the name of the second Rhine estuary (now Haringvliet). The prefix puri does not have a Greek but a Gallo-Germanic etymology, which, as always, is preferable: not from the Greek pur- fire, but from pure, clean (=Dutch: puur, rein). Together it forms the name "Rijnvliet" (=Pure Flood). Unfortunately for De Grave, we now are not on the Haringvliet but on the Honte! Cailleux' etymology is clearer. It is the Greek corruption of Borvliet (now Biervliet, a former island, see map Van Deventer) south of Flushing. Bor is the flood, so Borvliet means "flood current", which could indicate that in the Bronze Age the flood current of the Honte inlet reached to Biervliet. If, according to Cailleux, the Kokutos is the ebb current and the Stux the tidal current of the Honte, the Puriflegethon must be the tidal current of the waters around Biervliet that are fed by Het Zwin. Because we do not know what the gullies and inlets in the Bronze Age looked like, it is difficult to get a clear picture of the location of Kokutos, Acheron, Stux, and Puriflegethon. Perhaps we should combine De Grave and Cailleux and allow the Stux to flow effervescently as a drainage channel into the Kokutos, the ebb tide of the Honte, and the combined Stux-Kokytos together with the Puriflegethon, as flood water from the Zwin, to clash against the Acheron. In any case, all mentioned names can be found around Walcheren and can be explained etymologically. In contrast to De Grave and Cailleux, Wilkens believes that the water-rich environment described above does not actually exist, but rather indicates the changed state of consciousness of the novice, his subconsciousness. He takes the names of those three rivers in the literal sense, as a symbol of the subconscious fears: the Puriflegethon is the river of flaming fire, the Kokutos of the wailing complaints and the Stux is the terrifying river. Only the sheep and the pit Odysseus digs are real, the rest is the novice's fantasy. I think this is a too modern, psychologizing explanation and I prefer to stick to the tangible reality of the other two authors. Moreover, the etymologies should be based on Gallo-Germanic rather than Greek. A good example of this is the etymology of Walcheren itself, as indicated in Part 7: Aiaia. According to Cailleux, Walcheren is named after the haeren (virgins) who stayed there in great numbers during the floralia to enable the rebirth of the old heroes through sexual intercourse with the elite and recognized heroes. Walcheren can be traced back to Wal-ach-haeren, where the words wal (pilgrimage, Wahlfahrt), ach (island, aeg, eye) and haer provide the meaning 'Pilgrim island of the virgins'. The Valkyries may have the same etymology.
