St. George - The Saint Copied From Bellerophon

The Day of Saint George passed back in April, and there are still images and articles about it going around on Facebook and cultural news websites. But one thing I have noticed since becoming a Hellenic Polytheist that probably most Greek Christians and other Christians around the world have not, is that he is copied from the ancient Greek Hero Bellerophon. 

As you can see in the pictures above, Bellerophon from the 4th Century BCE and St. George from the Common Era, the two are basically identical. This was probably done by the emerging Christian church to get the Greeks to convert more easily to Christianity. Of course, when that didn't work, the church used force, but that's not really the topic of this post.

Bellerophon was sent to destroy the Chimera, a vicious fire breathing monster that ravaged the countryside of Lycia, an area in Asia Minor (keep in mind that dragons also breathe fire, which was the monster that St. George battled). 

After being given the winged horse Pegasos by Athena, Bellerophon was able to attack the monster from the sky with His lance, with which He killed the monster, or in some versions, used the lance to shove a clump of led down its throat, which was melted by the monster's hot breath and killed it. Bellerophon was mainly the Patron Hero of Korinth, which was His birth City, although in His lifetime, it was actually called Ephyre.  

If there's something I would want modern Greek Christians to take away from this, it's the fact that they are following a religion that stole their birthrights and ethnic identities, and tried to wipe their ancestors from the face of the Earth with nothing less than genocide. 

And that, if they feel so inclined, they have the power and the right to return to their ancestral religions, and instead of St. George, call on the original that actually has Greek blood, instead of a Saint and an entire religion that is completely foreign to the Greek identity. When looking at the picture above, if you feel cheated as a Greek, you should. Christianity isn't who you really are. It's who you were indoctrinated to be.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

I'll see you at the next Herm down the road,

Chris Aldridge.

Sources

Red-figure plate showing Bellerophon riding Pegasus and chasing the Chimera. Picture taken by a Baltimore painter at the Monsters: Fantastic Creatures of Fear and Myth exhibit in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.