Новый Пантеон или исторический словарь богов, героев и т.д., автор Джон Белл, Лондон, 1790 год:
http://books.google.ru/books/about/Bell_s_New_Pantheon_Or_Historical_Dictio.html?id=nypdAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y Bell's New Pantheon; Or, Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi-gods, Heroes, and Fabulous Personages of Antiquity... vol. 1
http://books.google.ru/books/about/Bell_s_New_Pantheon_or_Historical_dictio.html?id=icxOAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y Bell's New Pantheon; Or, Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi-gods, Heroes, and Fabulous Personages of Antiquity... vol. 2
некоторые выдержки, цитаты, фрагменты из словаря:

ABADIR, a word compounded of two Phoenecian terms. It signifies magnificent father, a title which the Carthagenians gave to their gods of the first order. It is also applied to the stone which Ops or Rhea dressed up for Saturn to swallow, instead of Jupiter; for the old god, afraid of being dethroned by his sons, devoured them to secure himself. This stone was called by the Greeks βαίτυλος. The same title has been attributed, but by mistake, to the god Terminus.

ABARIS, was a Scythian, who, for having sung the expedition of Apollo to the Hyperboreans, was constituted his priest, and received from him the spirit of divination, together with an arrow, by means of which he could traverse the air. He is also said to have formed, from the bones of Pelops, the statue of Minerva, which the Trojans purchased of him, and on his word, believed to have descended from heaven. It was this statue that was afterwards celebrated under the name of the Palladium. There were two others named Abaris, one of which was killed by Perseus, and the other by Euryalus.
- палладиум, т.е. статуя Минервы, по одной версии, упал с небес (метеорит? 1421 года?), но по другой версии, статую сделали из костей Пелопса (Осириса?). Значит ли это, что "Пелопс" - это аллегория метеорита и кузнечно-металлургических процессов, которые могли первоначально обожествляться?

ABORIGENES, the first inhabitants of Italy, who were brought thither by Saturn from the east. Some suppose them to have come from Arcadia under the conduct of Oenotrus, and that Virgil therefore called them Oenotrians. Others derive their name from abborrenda gens, an abominable race; others from aberrigenes, a nation of wanderers, &c.

AEGOSPOTAMUS, a river in Thrace, where is shewn a large stone, which Anaxagoras foretold would fall out of the sun.

AGDESTIS And AGDISTIS, an androgynous monster, the offspring of Jupiter and the stone Agdus. It was the terror both of men and gods, and was worshipped by the Greeks as a powerful genius.

AGDUS, an immense stone from which Deucalion and Pyrrha took those which they threw over their heads to people the world. Jupiter, enamoured of this stone, changed it into a woman, who bore to him Agdistis.

ALBA, a city of Latium, built by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas.
ALBANI, in Roman antiquity, a college of the Salii, or priests of Mars, so called from Mount Albanus, the place of their residence. See Salii.

ALBANIA, an epithet of Juno, thus named from Alba, where she was worshipped.---Albania was also a name of a country on the shores of the Caspian sea, so called, because its inhabitants were originally from Alba in Italy, whence they emigrated under the conduct of Hercules, after the defeat of Geryon.

ALCATHOUS: when Apollo was exiled from heaven for killing the Cyclops, who forged Jupiter's thunderbolts, he assisted Alcathous in building a labyrinth, in which a stone, where he used to lay his lyre, emitted such harmony on the slightest stroke, as to equal the strains of a harp. See Alcathoia. There was a Trojan of this name who married Hippodamia, daughter of Anchises, and was killed by Idomeneus at the siege of Troy.

царство амазонок было примерно на тех территориях, что и хазар (монголо-татар), а амазонки Мингрелии ("Монголии"?) вместе с калмыцкими тартарами делали набеги в Московию:
AMAZONS... They are said to have made considerable conquests. The Crimea and Circassia were subject to them, and Iberia, Colchis, and Albania tributary. They retained their power for several centuries; but an expedition into Greece and the island of Achilles, is reported to have ruined their empire.
The Amazons of Africa... Historians inform us, that they inhabited an island called Hesperia, as lying to the west of the lake Tritonis. These Amazons were celebrated for their struggles with the Gorgons, another race of females that inhabited likewise the borders of the same lake.
The Amazons of South America... The Jesuit missionaries mention a similar republic of Amazons in one of the Philippine islands, whose husbands visit them at a particular season of the year, and when they retire take with them the males that had been born since their last visit.—The best troops in the armies of the emperor of Menomotapa are said to be women, who inhabit the neighbourhood of the Nile, converse at certain periods with the men, and dispose of their children in the same manner as the other Amazons. Thevenot and others relate, that in Mingrelia, there is a people near Mount Caucasus, abounding in warlike women, who make frequent incursions into Muscovy, and engage the Calmuc Tartars.---Bremensis, an ecclesiastic, who lived about the year 1070, speaks of an Amazon nation near the Baltick; and relates circumstances similar to those of the other Amazons, only with additional wonders, too ridiculous to be repeated.

интересна фигура Амфиарая, воскресшего? пророка, рассмотреть бы подробнее, и что там за ожерелье было:
AMPHIARAUS, one of the most celebrated prophets among the Pagans...
...the earth being split asunder by a thunderbolt, Amphiaraus and his chariot was swallowed up in the chasm, at least, according to common tradition... The Pagans believed that Amphiaraus returned from hell, and even pointed out the place of his resurrection. Some authors affect to say only that he disappeared, among whom are Diodorus Siculus: Amphiaraus, when the earth opened, fell into the chasm, and was seen no more. Apollodorus gives the reason of his disappearing, which was, that Jupiter rendered him immortal: He and his chariot were seen no more, for Jupiter made him immortal." Amphiaraus was ranked among the gods; temples were dedicated to him, and his oracle, as well as the sports instituted in honour of this new deity, were very famous. See Adrastus, Alcmeon, Amphilochus, Eriphyle.

ANACLETHRA, was a stone on which Ceres was believed by the Greeks to have reposed, after her fatigue in the search of Proserpine. — The women of Megara held this stone, which was kept at Athens, near the Prytanaeum, in great veneration.

ANAITIS, an idol, or goddess, answering to Venus, particularly worshipped by the Armenians. The greatest men of the country dedicated their daughters to her service, who thought it an honour to prostitute themselves to all who came to sacrifice to this deity; after which they were eagerly solicited in marriage, being thought to have acquired extraordinary sanctity by such an initiation. Upon the festival of this idol, the men and women gathered in crowds, and intoxicated themselves with wine. The origin of the festival was this: Cyrus having undertaken an expedition against the Sacae, was beaten, but afterwards encamping in the place where he had left his baggage, when his army was refreshed, he counterfeited a flight. The Sacae pursued, and finding the camp, though deserted, abounding with wine and provisions, they ate and drank to excess, when Cyrus, returning, slew them all, and consecrated that day to the goddess Anaitis. See Sacaea.
Pliny says, that the statue of this goddess was the first made of gold, and was destroyed in the war of Antony against the Parthians.

ANCILE, ANCILIA... For the keeping of these ancilia, Numa instituted an order of priests called Salii, or, Priests of Mars.

ARETIA. If the fictitious Berosus of Annius Viterbiensis might be credited, the Armenians were the first who worshipped Noah, on account of his inventing wine, under the name of Janus, and his wife under that of Aretia, whom they called Hestia, or Vesta. Annius feigned the name Aretia, from the Hebrew Erets or Arets, i. e. Terra, or the Earth. The Earth is the universal mother, so is the wife of Noah, whom he calls Vesta, because the Romans held Vesta to be the deity both of earth and fire.

ARGONAUTS, ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION... This famous expedition is generally supposed to be the first determinate era of true history. Sir Isaac Newton places it about thirty years before theTrojan war, forty-three years after the death of Solomon, and nine hundred and thirty-seven years before the birth of Christ. He apprehends that the Greeks, hearing of the distractions of Egypt, sent the most renowned heroes of their country in the ship Argo, to persuade the nations on the coast of the Euxine, to throw off the Egyptian yoke, as the Libyans, Ethiopians, and Jews had before done: and he endeavours, from the Argonautic expedition, to settle and rectify the ancient chronology...

- Джон Белл неоднократно (примерно, в десятке статей) и с уважением упоминает "сэра Исаака Ньютона" в своей книге именно как хронолога, там где говорит о датах мифологических событий. (см. особенно статью OLYMPIAD, где Белл критически пишет о хронологии олимпиад и цитирует Скалигера.) Как пишет Ньютон, греки, услышав о расстройствах в Египте, послали аргонавтов, чтобы убедить народы побережья Эвксина (Черного моря) свергнуть египетское иго, как сделали прежде ливийцы, эфиопы и евреи.

ARISTAEUS, son of Apollo, by the nymph Cyrene, daughter of Hypseus, king of the Lapithae...
...The resemblance of the history of Aristaeus to that of Moses, has been variously and learnedly discussed by Huetius...

ASHIMA, the name of an idol worshipped by the people of Hamath. Some of the Rabbins say, it had the shape of an ape; others, that it was represented under the form of a lamb, a goat, or a satyr. Selden ingenuously confesses, he was wholly ignorant what this deity was. Some conceive him to have been the same with Mars, because As among the Greeks stood for Api!f, and Schemah means attentive to. Hence he was concluded to have been the god whom the Romans called Hesus. The most probable conjecture nevertheless is, that Ashima is the deity whom the Hebrews call Hasham. Ebenezra, in his preface to the book of Esther, says, that he saw, in a Samaritan Pentateuch, the words Bara Ashima substituted in the room of Bare Elohim; that is, the idol Ashima put instead of the true god. Bochart censures this as false, and we have authentic copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch, which prove it to be so. Ashima may, perhaps, be derived from the Persian Asuman, which is the name of a genius presiding over every thing which happens on the 27th day of every solar month in the Persian year. See Asuman.

BAAL, BEL, Or BELUS, an idol of the Chaldeans and Phoenicians, or Canaanites: the former worshipped Mars under this name, as appears from Josephus, who, speaking of Thurus, successor of Ninus, says: To this Mars the Assyrians erected the first statue, and worshipped him as a god, calling him Baal. It is probable the Phoenicians worshipped the Sun under the name of Baal...

BACCHUS...
...obtained the title of Thesmophorus, or the Lawgiver...
...when he had cut in pieces a sheep, it instantly reunited and pastured... - воскресение агнца?
...Elpis, on his arrival in Greece, built a temple to Bacchus the Gaper, in allusion to the gaping of the lion… - Зияющий, Зев - м.б. то же самое и Зевс? и здесь же Хаос, Бездна, Тартар.
...In Egypt he was called, Osiris; in India, Dionysius; Liber throughout the Roman dominions; Adoneus, in Arabia; and Pentheus by the Lucanians...
...Tooke observes, that two meanings are implied in this fable, and that Bacchus is an emblem either of Nimrod or Moses. 1. From the similitude of the word Bacchus to Barchus, which signifies the son of Chus, that is, Nimrod. 2. It is thought the name of Nimrod may allude to the Hebrew word Namur, or the Chaldee Namer, a tiger; accordingly, the chariot of Bacchus was drawn sometimes by tigers, and himself clothed in the skin of that beast. 3. Bacchus is sometimes called Nebrodes, which is the very name of Nimrod. Moses stiles Nimrod a great hunter, and we find that Bacchus is stiled Zagreus, which, in Greek, signifies the same thing. Nor is it absurd to say, that Nimrod presided over the vine, since he was the first king of Babylon, where the best wines abounded, as is often allowed by the ancients. Others think, that Bacchus is Moses, because many things in the fable of the one seem derived from the story of the other. For 1. Some feign that he was born in Egypt, shut up in an ark, and thrown upon the waters, as Moses was. 2. The surname Bimater, which belongs to Bacchus, may be ascribed to Moses, who, besides one mother by nature, had another by adoption, in the person of Pharaoh's daughter. 3. They were both beautiful, brought up in Arabia, good soldiers, and had women in their armies.— 4. Orpheus directly states Bacchus a Lawgiver, calls him Moses, and further attributes to him the two tables of the law. 5. Bacchus was called Bicornis, and, accordingly, the face of Moses appeared double-horned, when he descended from the mount; the rays of glory which darted from his brow resembling the protrusion of horns. 6. As snakes were sacrificed to Eacchus, and a dog assigned him as a companion, so Moses erected in the wilderness a serpent, and was attended by Caleb, which, in Hebrew, signifies a dog. 7. As the Bacchae brought water from a rock by striking it with their thyrsuses, and the country, wherever they came, flowed with milk, honey, and wine; so the land of Canaan, into which Moses conducted the Israelites, not only flowed with milk and honey, but abounded also with wine. 8. Bacchus dried up the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes, by striking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them, as Moses also passed through the Red Sea. 9. It is further said, that a twig of ivy thrown upon the ground by one of the Bacchae, crept like a dragon, and twined about an oak: and 10. That the Indians once were covered with darkness, whilst the Bacchae enjoyed a perfect day. Hence, this much will follow, that the ancient inventors of fables borrowed many things from the Scriptures to eke out their conceits. Thus Homer says, that Bacchus wrestled with Pallene, to whom he yielded; a fable corresponding to the Angel's wrestling with Jacob. In like manner Pausanias reports, that the Greeks at Troy, having found an ark which was sacred to Bacchus, Euripilus opened it to view its contents, and was immediately stricken with madness: a fable evidently grounded on the story of the Bethshemites, in the second book of Kings. — Again, the poets feign, that Bacchus was offended at the Athenians, because they despised his solemnities, and did not receive them with due respect, when brought by Pegasus from Boeotia into Attica; whereupon he afflicted their privities with a grievous disease, for which there was no cure, till, by advice of the oracle, they solemnized the rites due to the god, and erected Phalli, or images of the parts afflicted, to his honour; whence the feasts and sacrifices called Phallica were celebrated yearly among the Athenians. One egg is not more like to another than this part of the fable to the history of the Philistines, who, being punished with emerods for their irreverence to the ark, on consulting their diviners, were told, that they could not be cured, unless they made golden images of emerods and consecrated them to the God of Israel… Hence it is plain that no real Bacchus ever existed, but that he was only a mask or figure of some concealed truth. In short, whoever attentively reads Horace's inimitable ode to this god, will see that Bacchus meant no more than the improvement of the world by tillage, and the culture of the vine.

- предполагают, что Вакх с Нимродом и особенно с Моисеем имеет сходные черты. Как показали ФиН в "Методах", истории Моисея и Ноя содержат значительное сходство, поэтому возможно, библейское опьянение Ноя - то же что "пьянство" Диониса.

BAETYLION, BAETYLIA, Or BAETYLOS, anointed stones, worshipped among the Greeks, Phrygians, and other nations of the East; and supposed, by modern Naturalists, to be the same with our ceraunia, or thunder-stone. Sanchoniatho says that Uranus, or Coelus, devised Baetylia, contriving stones that moved, as having life: but Bochart thinks that the original word, which signifies having life, was mistaken by the transcriber, for another nearly resembling it, signifying anointed. The Baetylos, among the Greeks, is represented as the same with the Abadir among the Romans. The Baetylia, of the ancient mythologists, are considered by some as a kind of animated statues, invented by Coelus, in his war against Saturn: others derive their origin and worship from the stone which Saturn is said to have swallowed by mistake for his son Jupiter: others from the pillar of stone which the patriarch Jacob erected at Bethel, and the Jews afterwards worshipped; whence the usual etymology of the word. The priests of Cybele bore a Baetylos on their breast, representing the Mother of the gods; but it is a mistake to suppose this the only representation of the goddess they carried about them. These Baetylia were greatly venerated by the ancient Heathens: many of their idols were no other. In reality, no sort of idol was more common in the East, than that of oblong stones erected, and hence termed by the Greeks -*ie«f, pillars. In some parts of Egypt they were planted on both sides of their public roads. In the temple of Heliogabalus, in Syria, was a stone of this kind, pretended to have fallen from heaven; and the same was affirmed of a famous black stone in Phrygia. These Baetylia, though honoured as representing the mother of the gods, were commonly shapeless masses. The Romans sent for the Phrygian stone, and the priests belonging to it, with much ceremony, Scipio Nausica being at the head of the embassy. See Abadir.

- вефили, по мнению натуралистов 18 века, возможно то же что и керавнии или громовые камни:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderstone_(folklore)
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Громовые_стрелы_(артефакт)
Интересно, что на Вятской земле вплоть до начала XX века сохранялся обетный крестный ход с «громовыми стрелами» в честь Георгия Победоносца, защитившего в своё время русских вятчан от нападения «чуди-отяков»<4>. Почитание в народе «громовых стрел» как амулетов и лечебного средства сохранялось вплоть до недавнего времени.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceraunian_Mountains is a coastal mountain range in southwestern Albania. The name is derived from Ancient Greek Κεραύνια ὄρη,<1><2> meaning "thunder-split peaks".<3>

- так может быть эти "стрелы Перуна" - тоже огнестрельное оружие, картечь и т.д.? Как пишут далее, священники Кибелы носили вефили на груди, олицетворяющие Мать богов. Не то же ли самое, что Аарон носил на себе, 12 камней?

BROMIUS, a name of Bacchus, from the crackling of the fire, and noise of the thunder, when his mother perished in the embraces of Jupiter.
BRONTAIUS, Or BRONTEUS, the thunderer, a name given by the Greeks to Jupiter, from the word Bpoflnov, which signifies thunder, whence the Latins called him thundering Jupiter. Some have also given the same name, but improperly, to Bacchus, on account of the noise and mischief which attend inebriety.
BRONTES, Or BROTES, one of the Cyclops who worked at Vulcan's forge, and was thus named from his forging Jupiter's thunder-bolts.
BROTHEUS, son of Vulcan, by Aglaia, one of the Graces, being, like his father, deformed, to avoid ridicule, destroyed himself in the fire.

CABIRI, that is, great, powerful, Pagan deities. Who they were is a question much controverted among mythological authors. Some say they were brought from Egypt into Samothracia, and the Aegean isles, and that they were Osiris, Isis, and Orus, under the names of Axieros, Axiocusa, and Axiocersus, to which some add a fourth, called Camillus, or Casmillus, who was the Egyptian Anubis. The old Scholiast on Apollonius's Argonautics, says, "In Samothracia they are initiated into the mysteries of the Cabiri, whose names are recorded by Mnaseas; they are in number four, Axieros, Axiocersa, Axiocersus, and Casmillus. Axieros is Ceres, Axiocersa Proserpine, Axiocersus, Pluto, and Casmillus, Mercury." ...A modern author, Fourmont, who finds most of the Pagan deities in the family of Abraham, makes Axieros to be Isaac, the heir of his father Abraham, in whom his seed was to be called; and Axiocersa and Axiocersus to be Ishmael and his wife...
...The term Cabiri comes from the Hebrew or Phoenician word Cabir, which signifies great or powerful, and seems to have been a general name given to deities of superior rank... In earlier times it was judged an act of irreverence to pronounce their names, which was the case with the tetragrammaton of the Jews; they were, therefore, only spoken of by the general denomination of Dioscouroi, sprung from Jove...

CACUS, son of Vulcan, was of prodigious bulk, and is represented as half man, half satyr. He was a notorious robber, and received his name, which imports bad or wicked, from his consummate villany. ...
CAECULUS, son of Vulcan, and brother of Cacus, so called, from his little eyes. He, like Cacus, lived by plunder. It is said, by some, that he was conceived by a spark of fire glancing into the bosom of his mother Praeneste; and as a mark of what gave him his being, had always an inflammation in his eyes. Others relate, that some shepherds finding Caeculus just born, unhurt in the midst of fire, thence concluded him to have been the son of Vulcan. He was afterwards founder of the city Praeneste, and took the part of Turnus against Aeneas. It is thought the noble Roman family of Caecilii derived their name from the Caeculus of this article. Virgil mentions him in the seventh Aeneid.

- обратите внимание на легенду о рождении Цекула, она напоминает рождение Сервия Туллия и Христа, но при этом сближена с металлургической темой. Цекул (т.е. тот же Циклоп? у обоих что-то с глазами) - сын Вулкана, брат Какуса (получеловека, полусатира, как пишут), некоего персонажа, близкого к таким как Полифем Одиссея, Талос аргонавтов, возможно Минотавр Тесея, великан Тартаро баскских легенд. Пренесте - также древнее название Палестрины (Палестина?). Пастухи (пастыри, жрецы-кузнецы?), нашедшие Цекула в огне - возможно те же маги-волхвы евангелий (вёльвы-Волунды?)? При этом и Какус, и Цекул, и Полифем оцениваются отрицательно, как грабители, злодеи. А в отношении Андроника-Христа также были полярные оценки.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caeculus
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Цекул (точнее Кекул, лат. caeculus «слепенький», от лат. caeculto, «плохо видеть») — персонаж италийской мифологии <1>. Италийский герой, упомянутый Вергилием <2>. Сын девушки и духа домашнего очага или бога Вулкана (Гефеста), найден в очаге. Либо мать подбросила его к храму Юпитера, его подобрали женщины и назвали его Цекул, так как его глаза были повреждены от дыма.
Когда он вырос, он собрал толпу разбойников и основал Пренесте. На празднике уговорил соседние племена присоединиться к городу, когда бог Вулкан в подтверждение своего отцовства окружил пламенем собравшихся.
Как бог мог отнимать зрение <3>.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilia_(gens)
Praeneste = Palestrina
Origin of the gens
Like other Roman families in the later times of the Republic, the Caecilii traced their origin to a mythical personage, Caeculus, the founder of Praeneste. He was said to be the son of Vulcan, and engendered by a spark; a similar story was told of Servius Tullius. He was exposed as an infant, but preserved by his divine father, and raised by maidens. He grew up amongst the shepherds, and became a highwayman. Coming of age, he called upon the people of the countryside to build a new town, convincing them with the aid of a miracle. An alternative tradition claimed that the Caecilii were descended from Caecas, one of the companions of Aeneas, who came with him to Italy after the sack of Troy.<3><4><5><6><7><8>
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Цецилии

об ожерелье Гермионы-Эрифилы:
CALLIRHOE...
...The history of the necklace is variously related... Vulcan, the fabricator of the necklace, bestowed it as a present on Cadmus, to be revenged on Hermione, who was born of the adultery of Venus with Mars, for his wife's perfidy to him; and that he caused the necklace to become fatal to all those who should wear it. The materials of it, he is said to have composed, among others, of the ashes which remained on his anvil after he had made the thunderbolts, and that he had impressed upon it mystical figures: in a word, that he made it a fatal talisman, whence it happened that Hermione, Semele, Jocasta, Eriphyle, &c. who wore the necklace in succession, severally came to an unhappy end... The Scholiast on Statius asserts, that this necklace was consecrated to Apollo, and thrown into a fountain, where, though it might still be seen, no one could touch it without offending the Sun, as was evident from the tempest that immediately arose. The account, however, of Pausanias is much less chimerical. This author thinks that when the temple of Delphi was plundered by the Phoceans, Hermione's necklace was part of their plunder; and he shews that the one carried to Amathus, in Cyprus, and there deposited in the temple of Venus and Adonis, though said to have been the necklace of Hermione and Eriphyle, was not the genuine. Diodorus Siculus assures us, that a Phocian lady, after the pillage of the temple of Delphi, daring to adorn herself with Eriphyle's jewels, was burnt in her house, her eldest son setting fire to it at the impulse of the Furies.

CANOPUS, one of the deities of the ancient Egyptians, and, according to some, the god of Water. It is said, that the Chaldeans, who worshipped fire, carried their imaginary deity through different countries to try his power, in order that, if he obtained the victory over the other gods, he might be acknowledged as the true object of worship. Having, accordingly, subdued the gods of wood, stone, brass, silver, and gold, his ministers declared, that all the gods did him homage. This the priests of Canopus hearing, and finding the Chaldeans had brought their god to contend with Canopus, they took a large earthen vessel, in which they bored several holes, and, after stopping them with wax, filled the vessel with water, painted it of several colours, and fitting the head of an idol to it, brought it forth to contend with the Chaldean deity. The Chaldeans, accordingly, committed it to the flames, but the heat having melted the wax, the water rushed through the holes, and extinguished their fire: thus Canopus conquered the god of the Chaldeans...

катары?:
CATHARI: The divinities of Arcadia were so called; as was a nation of Indians mentioned by Diodorus, whose wives attend the bodies of their husbands to the funeral pile, and are burnt with them upon it.

адский пёс Цербер напоминает горгон и Медузу, тоже змеи - и снова образ пушки? Относятся ли сюда же золотая собака, охранявшая новорожденного Зевса и питавшую его чудесную козу Амалфею, и которую выкрал Пандарей и передал на хранение Танталу, чем последний (=Прометей?) разгневал Зевса, а также м.б. и капитолийская волчица? Когда Геракл привел Кербера к Эврисфею, тот от страха якобы забрался в большой кувшин и сидел там, и попросил затем Геракла отвести Кербера обратно. Возможно, "кувшин", в который забираются или что-то кладут (ср. кувшины Гедеона) - отражение пушки, в которую закладывают заряд.
CERBERUS, a terrible dog with three heads, each furnished with snakes for hair, was said to have sprung from Typhon and Echidna. — It was his office to guard the gate of hell. Those who entered it were caressed by him, but to such as would return he was more terrible than hell itself; except in the instances of Bacchus and Hercules, Mercury, and Orpheus... In a monument preserved by Montfaucon, Cerberus is represented on a box, with one head of a man, another of a dog, and the third of an ape, two serpents twisting round him, bind together his legs.—This figure was brought from Egypt. Hesiod gives Cerberus fifty, and others an hundred heads; but more commonly he appears with but three. He is said by some to have had the tail of a dragon, and instead of hair a skin shagged over with snakes, whence perhaps the epithet Medusean.

CHALCEA, a festival among the Athenians, so named from x*Xxof, brass, because it was celebrated in memory of the origin of working that metal in Athens. The whole Athenian nation assembled at the celebration of the Chalcea.— Sometimes also this festival was called Athenaia, because it was kept in honour of Minerva, called Athene, who was the goddess of all sorts of arts, and on that account named Ergane, from Ergon, work. In later times it was only kept by mechanics, those especially concerned in brass work, and to the honour of Vulcan, the god of smiths, and instructor of the Athenians in it. This festival was celebrated on the thirtieth of the month Pyanepsion.
CHALCIOEUS, a surname of Minerva, from her temple at Chalcis. She was also called Chalciotis and Chalcidica.

что за идолы на крышах домов, посвященные солнцу? кресты?:
CHAMANIM, the Hebrew denomination of the Pyreia or Pyrateria of the Greeks. These Chamanim were, according to Rabbi Solomon, idols exposed to the Sun upon the tops of houses. Aben Ezra affirms them to have been portable chapels or temples, in the form of chariots, in honour of the Sun. What the Greeks call Pyreia, were temples consecrated to the Sun and the element of fire, in which a perpetual fire was preserved. They were placed upon eminences, and were large inclosures without covering, where the Sun was worshipped. The Guebres, or worshippers of fire, in Persia and the East Indies, have still these Pyreia. The word Chamanim is derived from chaman, which signifies to warm or burn.

царь-кузнец Кинир - м.б. отчасти Гефест?:
CINYRAS, king of Assyria, according to some writers, and of Cyprus, according to others, was father of Adonis by his own daughter... Cinyras, according to Pindar, was much beloved by Apollo, and he amassed such prodigious riches, that they, as well as those of Croesus, became proverbial... The Fathers of the church, who wrote against the abominations of the Heathens, reproached them with saying, that the Venus who was honoured in the island of Cyprus, had been the strumpet of Cinyras... He also built three cities, Paphos, Cinyrea, and Smyrna, and called the last by the name of his daughter. He is mentioned as the inventor of tiles, pincers, the hammer, the lever, and the anvil; and also as the first who discovered copper-mines in Cyprus. He is ranked among the ancient soothsayers. His monument, and that of his descendants, stood in the temple of Venus at Paphos, as is observed by Clemens Alexandrinus. According to some writers, Cinyras was not born in the island of Cyprus, but came thither from Assyria, over which he reigned.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Кинир — мифический<1> первый царь Кипра, основатель кипрского культа и первый жрец Афродиты.
Либо Кинир — царь ассирийцев, его жена Кенхреида, а дочь Смирна родила от него Адониса<10>.
На определенный участок святилища не падает дождь<17>. - - - не напоминает ли это росу Гедеона?

Цирцея - Исида?:
CIRCE, daughter of Phoebus, by Persis, daughter of Oceanus. She was the most skilful of all sorceresses. Her first husband was king of the Sarmatae, whom she poisoned, as also several of his subjects, to try the effects of her skill, and prove the force of her poisons; for which she was expelled the kingdom... Some writers contend, that Circe was no other than the Egyptian Isis, whose Horus, or attending image, every month assuming some different form, as, a human body, with the heads of a lion, dog, serpent, &c. gave rise to the fable of her changing men by her enchantments into animals: hence the Egyptians gave her the name of Circe, which signifies the Aenigma.

ключеносцы Янус и Геркулес:
CLAVIGER, or the key-bearer, an epithet of Janus, from his being represented with a key. — The same epithet, in the sense of a club-bearer, was given to Hercules, from his club. Clavigera Proles Vulcani, is Cercyon or Periphetes.

Клеомед - Самсон? и опустевшая гробница:
CLEOMEDES, a celebrated Athlete of Astypalaea above Crete, who, in a combat at Olympia, having killed his antagonist, an Epidaurian, with a blow of his fist, was deprived of his prize, and became delirious. On his return to the place of his residence, he entered a school, and by pulling away the pillars which supported it, crushed sixty of the boys in the ruin. Being pursued with stones, he withdrew to a tomb, but his assailants having entered it, were unable to find him. The oracle at Delphi was consulted on his sudden disappearance, and returned for answer, that Cleomedes the Astypalaean was the last of the heroes; on which, sacrifices were offered him as a god.

CLODONES, names of the Bacchants amongst the Macedonians. - - - - Коляда? Халдеи?

CNEPH: so the ancient Egyptians, particularly the people of Thebais, called the sovereign intellectual principle by which the world was framed. They represented him in the shape of a man of a dark-blue complexion, holding a girdle and a sceptre, with a royal plume on his head, and thrusting forth an egg out of his month, whence another god proceeded, whom they named Ptah, and the Greeks Vulcan. — The reason of this hieroglyphic is thus given, viz. because this intellectual being is difficult to be found out, hidden and invisible, the giver of life, and the king of all things; and because he is moved in an intellectual spiritual manner, which is signified by the feathers on his head: the egg which proceeds from his mouth is interpreted to be the world.
CNUPHIS. See Cneph.

CORTINA: It has been imagined by some, that the skin of the serpent Python, (with which the Pythoness had covered the tripod she sat upon, to deliver her oracles in the temple at Delphi) was thus named; whilst others have taken it for the tripod itself. The Cortina, however, was a bason either of silver or gold, so shallow as to resemble a hollow table, or waiter, and being placed on the sacred tripod, served the Pythoness to sit on.

CUPIDO, CUPID, the God of Love. Some make him one of the most ancient of the deities, and say he had no parents, but succeeded immediately to Chaos... The common opinion however is, that Cupid was descended from Mars and Venus, ...The Abbe la Pluche traces the origin of this little god from the Egyptian Horus...

CURETES, a sort of priests or people of the isle of Crete, called also Corybantes. This name, according to Strabo, was given them because they cut off the hair on their foreheads to elude the grasp of an enemy; xgpmf, being a derivative of xap«, tonsure, from xiipw, to crop. Others deduce it from xspoTpopi*, feeding or educating a child, as they are said to have educated Jupiter. They were also called Idaei Dactyli, and were, according to Diodorus Siculus, the first inhabitants of Crete, dwelling on Mount Ida...
...according to Pezron, in particular, they were not only contemporary with Saturn, &c. but in the countries of Crete and Phrygia, what the Druids and Bards were among the Gauls, &c. i. e. priests who had the care of religious rites, and the worship of the gods...
...took their name from x«fi*, tonsure, because from the time of a combat in which the enemy seized their long hair, they always kept it cut; those of Phrygia and Crete he supposes were so called from xap©^, a young man, in reference to their youth, or because they nursed Jupiter when he was young; but these etymologies are frivolous at best...
...Ephorus subjoins that they were brought into Crete by Minos, and gave to that island their name. The President des Brosses, to cut off all difficulty, advances that the Curetes were the ancient priests of that part of Europe which borders on Greece and the East, and corresponded to the Druids of the Celts, the Salii of the Sabins, the Sorcerers and Jugglers of Laponia, or to those of the Savages of America, Siberia, and Kamtchatka; and, adds he, it is in vain to squabble about their country, since priests of this kind are every where found where the rude faith of a savage superstition constitutes the basis of popular prejudice...

Кибела от слова куб (кааба?):
CYBELE, or Vesta the Elder.
...others derive the word Cybele from a Cube, because the cube, or die, which is a body every way square, was dedicated to her by the ancients.
Her other names, an explanation of which will be found in the course of the alphabet, are Berecynthia Mater, Bona Dea, Dindyme, or Dindymene, Fatua, Fauna, Idaea Mater, Magna Deorum Mater, Magna Pales, Mygdonia, Ops, Pasithea, Pessinuntia, Rhea, and Vesta.
Her priests, a full account of whom occur in alphabetical order, were the Cabiri, the Corybantes, the Curetes, the Dactyli Idaei, the Galli, the Semiviri, and the Telchines, who were generally eunuchs.
According to Plato, she obtained the name of Estia, as being the life or essence of all things.

DACTYLI IDAEI, literally the fingers of Mount Ida. Concerning the personages so stiled mythology and fable give different accounts... because they were in number ten; and that they worked at the foot of this mountain... Orpheus was their disciple... the Dactyli invented the use of iron and fire, and that they had been recompensed with divine honours. Diomedes the Grammarian says, the Dactyli Idaei were priests of Cybele, called Idaei, because that goddess was chiefly worshipped on Mount Ida, in Phrygia; and Dactyli, because, to prevent Saturn from hearing the cries of the infant Jupiter, whom Cybele had committed to their custody, lest he should be destroyed by Saturn, they used to sing certain verses of their own invention, in the Dactylic measure. Strabo only gives the names of four of the Dactyli Idaei, Salaminus, Damnanaeus, Hercules, and Acmon. As these Dactyli were benevolent to mankind, they received divine honours; their very name was looked on as an infallible preservative, and was always pronounced in terror, or danger... Frequent fires in the forest of Mount Ida having discovered to them veins of iron, they gradually acquired the art of working them.
In Hesychius it is evident that Kelmis equally signified one of these Dactyli Idaei, or a child. — Kelmas signified the skin of a fawn. These words then related to the tender youth of the Cadmillus of Samothrace, and the Iacchus of Eleusis, both representing the Horus of Egypt, to which Kelmis might with both correspond.

одноглазый антихрист - циклоп?:
DAGGIAL, the false Messiah, or Anti-christ of the Mahometans, who believe he will make his appearance mounted on an ass, in imitation of the true Messiah, who made his entry into Jerusalem seated on that animal. The word signifies a person who has but one eye and one eye-brow, such, as they suppose Antichrist will be. They pretend he will come at the end of the world, and that Jesus Christ, who is not yet dead, will then fight with him, and put him to death.

DAGON, the false god of Ashdod, or, as the Greeks call it, Azotus...
Dagon, according to some, was the same as Jupiter; according to others, Saturn ; and, to others, Venus. It is certain the Egyptians worshipped Venus under the shape of a fish, because, in the war of Typhon against the gods, she lay hid in that form: and Diodorus Siculus relates, that at Askelon, a famous city of the Philistines, Derceto, Dercetis, or Atergatis, (the same as Venus) was worshipped under the form of a woman, whose extremities terminated in a fish's tail.
...Bochart is of opinion, that the god Dagon was Japhet, the third son of Noah, and that they made him the divinity of the sea, because his lot, and that of his descendants, included the islands, peninsulas, and countries beyond the sea, or, according to Lactantius, the continent of Europe.
...probably Noah himself may be concealed under Dagon, or Neptune, because the empire of the sea agrees perfectly well with him, who floated several months on the waters of the deluge, and who alone escaped from the flood, by which the rest of mankind were destroyed.
...As he was inventor of the plough, and taught men the use of corn for bread, he, after his death, was surnamed Jupiter Agrotis, or The Labourer.
...The head of Saul having been placed in a temple of the same god, and his arms in one of Astaroth, is an additional proof that Dagon and Astaroth were different deities.

DENDRITIS, a surname of Helen, signifying hung on a tree, under which she was consecrated after death.

ритуал несения дерева в память о Кибеле и Аттисе (Христе и Марии):
DENDROPHORIA, the carrying one or more trees, in ceremony, through a city, at certain feasts, and in honour of certain deities. The word is formed of SnSpov, a tree, and tpyu, to bear. The Dendrophoria was performed at the sacrifices of Bacchus, Cybele, and Sylvanus. — Arnobius makes mention of that performed in the sacrifice of Cybele, consisting in carrying a pine through the city, and afterwards planting it, in memory of the pine, under which Attys, the favourite of the goddess, is said to have been mutilated. The branches of this tree they crowned, in memory of Cybele doing the same; and they covered its trunk with wool, Cybele having so covered the bosom of Attys. The persons by whom the tree was carried were called Dendrophori. In Roman history mention is made of a company or college of Dendrophori, who attended the army; and the critics have been at some pains to ascertain the nature of their office. Some contend they hewed and fashioned the wood for tents; others that they provided the wood fit for the military works, machines of war, &c. Salmasius, in his notes on the life of Caracalla, by Spartian, owns this to have been the general opinion of the learned of his time, but asserts, with his usual modesty, that they were all mistaken, and that the Dendrophori of the army were the same with those of the feasts and sacrifices.

DEUCALION
...Xenophon reckons five deluges; the first happened under an ancient Ogyges, king of Thebes, in Boeotia, and lasted three months; the second, in the time of Hercules, of but one month's duration; the third, under another Ogyges, whereby Attica was laid waste; the fourth, under Deucalion, which overflowed Thessaly for the space of three months; and the fifth and last, in the time of Proteus, son of Neptune and Phaenice, or Oceanus and Tethys, happened during the Trojan war: this is that which was termed Pharonian, and which covered part of Egypt. Diodorus Siculus mentions a sixth deluge, which happened in Samothrace...
- древние авторы насчитывали 5 или 6 потопов в древности. В лютеранском хронографе 1680 года насчитано 10 исходов, возможно "потопы" и "исходы" это одно и то же, многократно размноженные.

DIOSCUROI, sprung from Jove. Castor and Pollux were known under this general denomination, as were also the gods Cabiri, whose names, in earlier times, it was judged an act of irreverence to pronounce. See Curetes.

DIPHTHERA, the skin of the goat Amalthea was so called, upon which Jupiter was supposed to have recorded the fates of all mankind.
- шкура, из которой была сделана Эгида Зевсом или Гефестом - не напоминает ли это щит Ахиллеса, на котором тоже много чего было изображено? По одной из версий мифа, богиня Афина сделала себе эгиду из шкуры порожденного Геей (Землей) чудовища, подобия Химеры - т.е. очевидно в домне выплавили из руды, т.е. "земли".

DRACONIGENA URBS; that is, the city sprung from the teeth of the dragon, or Thebes, See Cadmus.

DRUIDS, the priests or ministers of religion among the ancient Celtae, or Gauls, Britons, and Germans. Some authors derive the word from the Hebrew Derussini, or Drussini, which they translate contemplators... Druids is allowed to have been of the same antiquity with that of the Magi of Persia, Brachmans of India, and Chaldees of Babylon and Assyria. …They had one chief, or ArchDruid, in every nation, who acted as highpriest, or Pontifex-Maximus: ...They worshipped the Supreme Being under the name of Esus, or Hesus, and the symbol of the oak, …Hornius believes, all the learning and philosophy of the Druids to have been derived from the Assyrian Magi; and that as Magus has lost its ancient signification, which was honourable, and now signifies a magician or a sorcerer, so Druid, which had the same sense, has likewise degenerated, and now signifies no other than a person who has commerce with the devil, or is addicted to magic; …Some traces of the Druidical religion remained in Gaul and Germany till the time of the emperor Constantine the Great...

ECHIDNA, a celebrated monster, the offspring of Chrysaor and Callirhoe, daughter of Oceanus. Its upper parts exhibit the appearance of a beautiful woman, but its lower end in a serpent. — She is reputed to have been the mother of Cerberus, the Chimera, the Hydra, Typhon, &c. Herodotus represents her as the mother of three children by Hercules, viz. Agathyrus, Gelonus, and Scytha. Others, however, make her a different person.
ECHIDNE, a Scythian queen, mother of three sons by Hercules, who appointed him to be heir that could shoot with his bow, which only Scytha (from whom the country so called obtained its name) was able to do.

EDONIDES, priestesses of Bacchus, so called from a hill in Thrace, where their frantic revels were celebrated.
EDONIS. See Edonides.

ELAGABALUS, Or ALAGABULUS, an ancient deity of the inhabitants of Apamea and Emessa, in Syria: the Greeks and Romans, called him Heliogabalus. This deity was the Sun, according to Dio and Herodian, who explains the name by the Greek Tiai^; the same idea appears from certain marbles, on which were inscribed Sol Elagabalus, or Alagabolus; and from an ancient coin with this inscription, Sacerdos Sous Dei Elagabali. The etymology of the name is variously given; but the most probable opinion is, that Elagabalus, or Alagablus, signifies, in Syriac, Deus Montis, or God of the Mountain; whence the symbol of this deity was a large stone or rock rising up in the form of a mountain. Festus Avienus speaks of the temple of the god Elagabalus. — From this deity Antoninus Varius took the name of Heliogabalus, because he had formerly been his priest, and he was the first who built a temple to Elagabalus at Rome, where he was worshipped under the figure of a pyramidical stone.

ELEUTHERIUS, a Greek word signifying liberator or deliverer; an epithet of Jupiter among the Greeks, given him on account of his having gained them the victory over Mardonius, general of the Persians, of whose army thirty thousand were slain, by which means the Greeks were delivered from the apprehension of undergoing the Persian yoke. The word is derived from ttevQtp&f free.
- Мардоний, по ФиН - Малюта Скуратов - Олоферн

ERIDANUS, the deity of the Eridanus or Po, one of the most considerable rivers of Italy, in whose vicinity the Heliades, or sisters of Phaeton were changed into poplars. Virgil stiles him the King of Rivers. Spence observes, that when he was first in Italy, he saw a small figure of him in some palace at Rome, with the head of a bull, and all the other parts human; ...The reason why the ancient poets and artists gave the head of a bull to Eridanus, may be from that river's having its source from mount Veso, the highest mountain in that range of the Alps, which were anciently called Alpes Taurinae. — The statues of Eridanus were no doubt highly worshipped and honoured by the Romans in the Augustan age, as being then the chief of all the rivers in Italy.
- тянет ли река По на громкий титул "короля рек"? Не очень убедительно. Скорее, это мог быть Дунай или Волга, учитывая связь с Фаэтоном, т.е. Ярославским метеоритом 1421 года, скорее Волга. А Альпы в древности тоже назывались Тавром? Статуя бога реки с головой быка - нет ли связи с египетскими Аписами?

Есус-Арес-Марс:
ESUS, on HESUS, the great divinity of the Gauls. As the ancients give us but little account of this god, the learned have formed several conjectures concerning him; and all agree, that he was their God of War.

FIRE: This element is sufficiently relative to the nature of this work to deserve notice in it. The Pagans had their sacred fires, which they kept in their temples with the most religious care, and which were never to be extinguished. This perpetual fire is reckoned among the furniture of the temple which the ghost of Hector brought to Aeneas in a vision. It is agreed that the worship of the goddess Vesta, or of Fire, was transferred to Italy by Aeneas and the other Trojans who landed there; and the Phrygians themselves received it from the eastern nations. It is well known that fire was the god of the Chaldeans, who, being persuaded it was the Supreme Deity, sent it through the world, to make trial of its superiority over the gods of all other nations. The Persians were yet more superstitious in this respect than the Chaldeans: they had temples which they called Pyraea, or fire-temples, set apart solely for the preservation of the sacred fire. The Persians believed fire to be a god, and their reason for not burning the dead was, that they would have thought themselves guilty of sacrilege, if a dead body had been consumed by a god. Zoroaster pretended, that being taken up into heaven, he heard God speaking to him out of a bright flame of fire, and that therefore fire was the truest image of the Divine presence. Numa was the first who built a temple to Fire, as a goddess, at Rome, and instituted an order of priestesses for the preservation of it, called Vestals, the word Vesta being synonimous with that of fire, called by the Greeks Hestia, and by the Chaldeans and ancient Persians Avesta, See Canopus, Vestals, Vesta.

FORTUNA, Or FORTUNE, was thought to have so great a share in human affairs, that it is no wonder she was deified by the ancients. The poet Pindar makes her one of the Parcae or Destinies, and daughter of Jupiter... Fortune, it is probable, was invoked from the earliest times, since the scripture speaks of Gad invoked by Leah, and this Gad St. Augustine takes to have been Fortune. The Greeks erected many temples to her: she had one at Corinth, and a chapel at Aegina, with a statue, having beside it a winged Cupid, probably to signify, that in love Fortune has a greater influence than beauty: in that of Elis, she had in her hand the cornucopia: but the most suitable symbol was that which the Boeotians gave her, by representing her as holding Plutus in her arms under the form of an infant; and this, says Pausanias, is ingeniously devised, to place the god of riches in the hands of fortune, as if she had been his mother and nurse. Ancus Marcius, king of the Romans, was the first who built, at Rome, a temple to this deity, under the title of Fortuna Virilis, or Manly Fortune, because courage, no less than good luck, is requisite to the acquisition of victory. Servius Tullius built a temple to Fortune in the Capitol; and Domitian consecrated to her a chapel. She was also particularly worshipped at Antium; but her principal temple was at Praeneste, whence she was called Praenestina.
The following inscription to the goddess Fortune is said to have been dug up in Lancashire, by the river Medlock, in the year 1612:...

GALLI, priests of the goddess Cybele, called The mother of the gods. They were eunuchs, and took their name from Gallus, a river in Phrygia. The Galli were of Phrygian institution, but the order spread over Greece, Syria, Africa, and the whole Roman empire. When a young man was to be initiated into this priesthood, the custom was for him to throw off his clothes, and to come crying aloud into the midst of the troop, where he was to draw a sword, and castrate himself; after this he ran about the streets, carrying in his hands the marks of his mutilation, which he was to throw into an house, and in that house to put on the habit of a female. They made themselves eunuchs in honour of Attys, favourite of Cybele, who had castrated himself under a pine-tree; for which reason they wore garlands of pine; and in the sacred rites of this goddess imitated her lamentation for the loss of Attys, beating their breasts, and tearing their hair. They carried about the image of Cybele on an ass, in order to get alms, and sung verses all over the country. When they came to a village they stopped the ass; immediately one of them sounded a pipe, the rest threw their tiarae, or Phrygian bonnets on the ground, and fell into furious agitations, cutting and wounding themselves in various parts of their bodies; whilst the people, who took this fanaticism for an act of religion, gave them money, dried figs, cheese, wine, &c. The ass himself partook of this bounty of the spectators, they bringing him corn in abundance. The custom of these impostors, in travelling about with the statue of Cybele on an ass, is mentioned by Phaedrus. Their frenzy, at the time of the sacrifices to Cybele, consisted in tossing their heads with great rapidity, and violently contorting their bodies and limbs: they used drums and flutes, and danced to the sound. St. Augustin represents these priests as most debauched and infamous, and calls them a gang of villains. At Rome they were suffered to parade through the city, and beg from door to door. Cicero speaking of them, quotes a law which allowed the priests of Cybele to beg on certain days, at the same time forbidding all others. St. Jerom, by mistake, supposed these Galli were natives of Gaul. It is certain the worship of Cybele was prior to the irruption of the transalpine Gauls into that part of Asia Minor, called from them Gallo-Graecia; and it is not probable the Asiatics should, before that time, seek for priests to their goddess in a country so remote and little known to them. The high-priest of the Galli was called Archi-Gallus. The Galli themselves were also called Argyrtae, Menagyrtae, and Metragyrtae. Some held the Galli to be the same with the Dactyli; Corybantes, and Curates; to which articles the reader is referred.
- жрецы Галлы были евнухами в память об Аттисе, возлюбленном Кибелы, кастрировавшем себя под сосной. Шествия их с самобичеванием могут напомнить средневековых флагеллянтов или шиитский шахсей-вахсей:

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Аттис
Возничий Кибелы, привез Дионису доспехи работы Гефеста<3>.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Флагеллантство
Массовые самобичевания практиковались также как знак всеобщего покаяния. Первое крупное массовое самобичевание такого рода произошло в Северной Италии под влиянием францисканца Антония Падуанского.
В XIII веке Иоахим Флорский написал трактат, в котором обозначил дату конца света — 1260 год, а поскольку его пророчества сбывались, то это вызвало панику и волну массового самобичевания.
В период эпидемии чумы 1348—1349 годов процессии бичующихся распространились по всей южной и центральной Европе.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ашура (также известен как Шахсей-вахсей (от перс. Шах Хусейн, вах, Хусейн‎ — Царь Хусейн, ах, Хусейн) — у шиитов день поминовения имама Хусейна<1>, павшего мученической смертью в 680 году в Кербеле.
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Хусейн_ибн_Али = имам Хусейн 628-680 — третий шиитский имам; внук пророка Мухаммеда, сын Али ибн Абу Талиба и Фатимы. День его гибели во время сражения с войском халифа Язида отмечается шиитами как траур Ашура.
Шиитская точка зрения
Ашура — кульминация вселенской мистерии, мгновение гибели вселенной и её возрождение в новом, качественно новом измерении.
Нужно сказать, что месяц мухаррам — начало лунного года — в первые десять дней которого разворачивалась история мученичества Хусейна, считался в Передней Азии священным задолго до этого события. И с Ашурой (буквальный перевод с арабского — «десятый») — десятым днем мухаррама связано множество легенд и преданий. Так, по некоторым из них, в этот день были сотворены небо, земля, ангелы и первый человек, Адам. В этот день Нух (Ной) впервые увидел землю после потопа, родился пророк Ибрагим (Авраам), после долгой разлуки встретились Якуб (Иаков) и Юсуф (Иосиф), по велению Аллаха расступились перед Мусой (Моисеем) воды Красного моря, спасая его от преследования Фараона, вознесся на небо пророк Иса (Иисус). Конец света тоже произойдет в день Ашуры.
На улицах иранских городов в дни Ашуры можно увидеть воинственный танец, когда несколько сот мужчин, взявшись за руки, посреди улицы взмахивают в едином ритме саблями, острия которых испещрены арабскими надписями; ночью разворачиваются факельные шествия. Прекрасно и жутко! Подобные мистерии устраивались сотни лет назад на улицах городов Европы...
Согласно традиции, Хусейн был похоронен в Кербеле около места своей гибели. Большинство источников говорит, что голова его была найдена позже и присоединена к его телу. Имеются также рассказы, что голова имама попала в Сирию, а также многочисленные другие легенды <1>. На его могиле был построен Храм имама Хусейна, который превратился в место паломничества шиитов.

- танцы с саблями очевидно в память о какой-то значимой битве?

(окончание в следующем посте)