Among the Iapygians[1], time was now passing more pleasantly. A great master had settled among them. It was said that he had a golden prosthetic right leg. Due to this technology, the simpler Iapygians believed he was a descendant of the first Scandinavian king, who, once deceased, had a monument erected by his people who had migrated to the Aegean, where they spread his divine cult[2].
The great master traveled on a golden board, a sort of flying skateboard, which he claimed was a gift from his nomadic Scandinavian guru friend. This friend traveled the world on the golden skateboard, telling life-changing stories to those who listened.
One day, during a memory course, a participant asked the great master to share something from his childhood as an example of how the memory he was discussing in technical terms manifested.
“I was born Elban,” he said. “In the first life I remember, six lives ago, I was born Elban. Elban was the companion of Orpheus, Jason, and Medea, in an epic journey 648 years ago[3].
In Greek, Elban can be written ΑΙΘΑΛΙΔΗΣ or ΑΙΘΑΛΙΤΗΣ, and it is the name of a deme of Athens, as well as the ethnonym of the inhabitants of the Tyrrhenian islands (of the Tyrrhenian and Aegean), so it may be that it identified an ethnos of the ‘Etruscans of the islands’. Perhaps the most ancient ones, we will say, without invoking the ‘islands in the midst of the sea,’ the Mediterranean, as mentioned in the ancient Egyptian texts first recounted by Rougé, a disciple of Champollion[4].
Elban (ΑΙΘΑΛΙΔΗΣ) was the onboard ambassador of the ship Argo. He was responsible for being the first to disembark at ports to initiate mooring negotiations, present the ship, and explain the reasons for the stop.
Elban certainly spoke multiple languages and must have been an all-round prominent figure, as indicated by the fact that he was the son of HERMES/TURMS/TERMINUS, the god of boundaries and measure[5].
Pythagoras, the great master of Iapygia, was indeed Elban (ΑΙΘΑΛΙΔΗΣ) in a territorial sense, as his family came from a ‘northern Etruscan island,’ as remembered by the Greeks (by Aristotle, not Aristarco, see Gigon, Aristotle, vol. 3, chapter on Aristotle’s works titled Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, unfortunately not preserved to our days)[6].
Obviously, I am not claiming that Pythagoras was Elban, nor that he actually had a golden thigh, let alone a flying surfboard gifted to him by Abaris the Scandinavian[7].
But you will admit that, without inventing anything, the little story you have just read is suitable for brightening up the sweat you are shedding under the beach umbrella or while sitting in the office[8].
Notes
1. The Iapygians were an ancient people from the Gulf of Taranto in Southern Italy.
2. Scandinavians, known for their trade in amber, sold it across the Adriatic and Aegean seas, and built a temple to Apollo, their sun god, to spread his divine cult.
3. This epic journey refers to the legendary voyage of the Argonauts.
4. Rougé, a disciple of Champollion, recounted ancient Egyptian texts that mention Mediterranean islands.
5. Hermes (Turms in Etruscan, Terminus in Latin) was the god of boundaries and measures.
6. Aristotle’s works on Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans are cited by Gigon in “Aristotle,” vol. 3.
7. Abaris the Hyperborean is a legendary figure associated with Pythagoras, sometimes said to travel on a golden arrow.
8. The narrative serves as a light-hearted story for entertainment.
(by Angelo Mazzei Di Poggio)
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