Figure 1. Descent of the Trojan and Celtic (Samothean) Kings
The source material for this article is a set of fragments that are alleged to come from Berosus, a 3rd century BC Chaldean priest. His works are now lost, but the history is related by a Tudor-period historian called Richard Lynche. See my article on Travels of Noah.
Noah and his wife Tytea had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, who were with them in the ark, together with their wives, eight people altogether. After the Flood, they had at least 30 additional children, including two daughters, Rhea and Araxa the Great. The children of Noah and Tytea are not arranged in Figure 1 in the order of their birth. Instead they are arranged in a way that is easy to draw, considering the intermarriages within the family.
The marriage of Ham and his younger sister Rhea was a second marriage in both cases. Ham was married to Noegla (or Noela) who had been with him in the ark, and she was still living at the time of his second marriage. Rhea had been married to Hammon, the great-great grandson of Ham, a union that might seem incredible to us, but it was possible in those days because of their great longevity. Rhea left Hammon because he was having an adulterous affair with another woman called Almanthea, and she went to Sicily and married Ham. (He was in Sicily at the time because he had invaded Italy but his father Noah had thrown him out.)
No date is given for the marriage of Ham and Rhea, but it must have been quite late because of the generations between Ham and Hammon.
Ham and Rhea had a son called Osiris and a daughter called Isis, who subsequently married. Isis was born in the year 302 after the Flood, in the first year of Semiramis queen of Babylon. She was 50 years old when she married Osiris, so the date of their marriage was 352. Osiris was about 60 years old at the time, but both of them were still youths. Together they ruled Egypt, and they taught the people agriculture.
Their eldest son was called Hercules, surnamed Lybidicus or Lybicus. He appears as "Lehabim" in Gen. 10:13 and this means his father Osiris must be the Biblical Mizraim, as I have explained in my article on the Samotheans.
Osiris had many other children, from Isis and from other women, and when they were grown up he assembled an army and went around the world overthrowing giants. During these campaigns, Osiris went to Scythia and found that his son Hercules had become "greatly enamoured with a lady called Araxa". This is unlikely to be "Araxa the Great", the daughter of Noah, because Lynche would not have introduced her in this way. Whenever he returns to a previous character, he identifies them as "the aforementioned" or something similar. Araxa is more likely to be a descendant of Araxa the Great, but we can only verify it if we can find some other sources.
Hercules and Araxa had a son called Tuscus who "much later" became king of Italy, and the province of Tuscany was named after him. As the details of the story unfold, we find out how much later. Osiris, after subduing giants in many countries, was killed in his home country of Egypt by a rebellion from within his own family that was led by his brother Typhon. Hercules, assisted by some of his brothers, avenged the death of his father by killing Typhon, then he went around killing other giants as his father had done. He lived peacably in France for a while, then he went to Italy and fought with the Lestrigones for 10 years, eventually defeating them. He ruled over Italy for 20 years, then he appointed Tuscus as king of Italy in the year 625 after the Flood, at a great ceremony in Viterbe, the capital of Tuscany.
The appointment of Tuscus was 273 years after the marriage of his grandparents Osiris and Isis, and is another indication of great longevity.
While Hercules was going around killing giants, before he went to France, he went to Phrygia and overcame a tyrant called Tipheus. He appointed his son Athus as governor, who had been born to him from a lady called Omphale. Later in the story, we find that Athus had become known as "Athus the Great", and Dardanus was welcomed and entertained in Phrygia by another Athus who was his fourth-generation descendant.
Note: Since this Athus is a descendant of Athus the Great, it adds weight to the argument that Araxa, who married Hercules, might be a descendant of Araxa the Great.
Hercules and GalatheaWhen Hercules went to France (otherwise known as Celtica or Samothea), he married into their royal family and contributed to their line of descent as shown in figure 2. He was received by their king, Iupiter Celtes, who had a daughter called Galathea, a good and virtuous giantesse. Iupiter Celtes was very proud of her and would not offer her to any man in marriage until he found someone who was worthy of her. He was impressed with the exploits of Hercules and offered her to him in marriage, and they had a son called Galatheus. Hercules became king of France for a while, then he appointed Galatheus as king, at the same ceremony in Viterbe where Tuscus was appointed king of Italy. The two of them were good friends, and Tuscus offered Galatheus the island of Sicily. Then when a government was set up, Galatheus returned to France. It was in the days of Galatheus that the kingdom of Celtica was first called Gaul. Some time later, after the death of Belgius, the line of Celtic kings failed and Iasus, king of Italy, succeeded to the kingdom of France, so that he ruled both countries. This became a matter of discontent for his younger brother Dardanus, a matter we shall return to later. From this point onwards we have to refer to both figures 1 and 2 because they both tell different parts of the same story. |
 |
| Figure 2. Kings of
Celtica (France)
and the Italian succession. |
Gomer, the eldest son of Japheth, otherwise known as "Comerus Gallus", was the first king of Italy and the country was called "Kytim". (Note that Lynche says nothing about Kittim the son of Javan, who is commonly associated with Cyprus.). The kingdom was usurped by Ham, after the death of Gomer, and was corrupted with all sorts of impiety. Noah went there for a visit, thinking that Gomer was still alive, and found the country in disarray. He banished Ham from the kingdom and began to govern it himself, setting things in order, and called the country Ianingenes after his own surname Ianus. He appointed his daughter Crana as queen of the country north of the Tiber. He was then joined by Sabatius Saga, surnamed Saturn, a brother of Nimrod who had fled from Armenia because of a threatened assassination attempt by Jupiter Belus and Ninus, the son and grandson of Nimrod. Noah and Saturn reigned together in Italy, and then when Noah was getting old, he appointed his son Cranus as king.
Noah died in the year 346 after the Flood when he was 950 years old. This is in agreement with the Biblical age of Noah, which is also 950, but the Biblical date of his death as 350 years after the Flood, not 346 (Gen. 9:28-29). Small discrepancies of this type are commonplace when comparing histories, and it affirms that Berosus was not simply copying things from the Bible. He must have had access to other sources.
Italy fell into disarray again after Noah's death, and came under the tyranny of giants who continued to rule the country until Hercules eventually overcame them and appointed Tuscus as king, as we have seen earlier.
When Tuscus died, Altheus his son reigned in his stead, but was overthrown by Atlas Italus, a descendant of Gomer. Atlas had already overthrown his brother Hesperus, king of Spain, and then went to Italy and deposed Altheus. I do not know how many generations there were between Gomer and Atlas, and they are joined by a dotted line in Figure 1. Atlas Italus re-named the country after himself, so that it became known as Italy.
Altheus had a son called Blascon and a grandson called Camboblascon. Atlas deprived Altheus and his family of all authority, but did not throw them out of the country altogether. Before he died, he compensated them by giving his daughter Electra to Camboblascon in marriage, together with a dowry consisting of all the towns and countries around the Alps. He was succeeded by his son Morges, who recognised all the wrong that had been done and handed over his crown to Camboblascon.
Camboblascon and Electra had two sons called Iasus and Dardanus, and a daughter called Armonia who never married. Iasus became a powerful ruler of two kingdoms, being appointed king of Italy while his father was still alive and then appointed king of France a year later. The reason for his appointment in France was because their royal line had failed, and he was considered the most favourable successor, being a descendant of Hercules. The French royal family was also descended from Hercules, as we have seen in Figure 2.
The status of Iasus was increased even further when he married a noble and rich lady called Ipitus Cibeles and they had a son and heir called Corybantus.
Iasus, in spite of his good fortune and status, gave nothing to his younger brother Dardanus and made him look like a slave by comparison. Dardanus became jealous and fought against Iasus, and many of the population were drawn into an inconclusive civil war. Dardanus killed his brother Iasus while he was washing at a spring, an act that was considered reprehensible throught the kingdom. Dardanus had no choice but to sail off, together with some of his followers, and he went to Asia Minor and built up the kingdom of Troy. In the meantime, Coribantus, the son of Iasus, became king of Italy but not of France. There was no king in France for a while, until they appointed Allobrox who was also descended from Hercules.
Dardanus stayed for some time in Samothrace, hoping to be called back to Italy, but it never happened. Then he went to Phrygia and was welcomed by Athus, the fourth generation descendant of Athus the Great, who we have already mentioned. Since Athus was descended from Hercules, there was a possibility that someone in his family might be offered the kingdom in Italy that Dardanus had been denied. So Dardanus resigned all right to a kingdom in Italy and offered it to one of the sons of Athus, in return for the right to build a kingdom of his own somewhere in Phrygia. They drew lots to choose between two sons of Athus, called Lydus and Turrhenus. The lot fell to Turrhenus, who went to Italy and was received by Queen Cibeles and her son Coribantus, king of Tuscania. Coribantus appointed 12 dukes to govern his country, and Turrhenius was one of them.
Dardanus and his people went to a place on the coast of Phrygia, at the Hellespont, and built the city of Dardania, so that it was founded 833 years after the Flood.
Turrhenus, who had gone to Italy, returned to Phrygia to visit Dardanus, but he never went back to Italy. Instead he stayed with Dardanus and they ruled together as neighbours. Turrhenus offered his daughter Batea in marriage to Dardanus, and their descendants succeeded them as heirs to the kingdom. It was in the days of their grandson Troas that the city of Dardania was first known as Troy.
| Among the descendants of Dardanus we have
Aneas who fled from the burning city of Troy and was given a kingdom in
Italy. A few generations later we have Brutus who left Italy and went to
Greece, then came to the island called Alban and called it Britain. The
history of the Britons continued, with a population made up of a mixture
of Celtic Gauls and Trojans who accepted each other as if they were all
part of the same race. The question is, why did they get on so well, and
why did the Celts accept a royal family that came from Troy?
When the early history of Italy and France are taken into account, together with the foundation of Troy, the answer becomes simple. The one thing that they all had in common was a historic royal family descended from Hercules. When Hercules went to France, he was welcomed because of his many exploits around Europe, and he married Galathea and became their king. Then he went to Italy, where the descendants of Gomer were suffering oppression from giants, and he appointed his son Tuscus as their king. Tuscus offered the island of Sicily to Galatheus, because he was also a son of Hercules.When the royal line failed in France, Iasus the king of Italy was appointed king of France because he was descended from Hercules. After the death of Iasus, his son Coribantus ruled Italy but not France, so they appointed Allobrox as king of France because he was descended from Hercules. When Dardanus went to Phrygia, he was welcomed by Athus and allowed to build a kingdom of his own because he was descended from Hercules. When Turrhenus, the son of Athus, went to Italy, he was appointed as a duke because he was descended from Hercules. The one thing that united all these royal families, and enabled them to offer kingdoms to each other, was their common descent from Hercules. |
Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset, England. Thought to be Hercules with his club, but also a fertility symbol. See also Google Search. |
The descent of the British (Welsh) kings from Dardanus is well known, and is supported by a number of references that I have quoted in my other articles, available from the history index page. The one thing missing has been the descent of Dardanus from Noah, and if this story is to be believed, the gap has now been filled, and we have a complete genealogy starting from Noah. However, we must remember that this is "pseudo-Berosus", as described in the Lost Works of Berosus.
Updated February 2002
Mike Gascoigne
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