An interview with Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr. author of The Parthenon Code, Mankind’s History in Marble, which deciphers the meaning of the sculptures of Athena's temple, relating their messages to the early events described in Genesis.

 
Can you tell us what your book, The Parthenon Code, Mankind’s History in Marble, is about?

In my book I explore what I have called the Parthenon Code, a simple method of expression devised by ancient Greek artists to communicate religious ideas and historical information to the everyday citizens of Greece. The messages were far less abstract than writing. We can compare them to other types of visual language such as stained-glass windows in the Medieval period, and even comic strip panels and story-boards for television in our own day.

I’ve called this visual language the Parthenon Code because it reached its highest, and in many ways, most straightforward in the seven sculptural themes depicted on the outside of the Parthenon.

Why do you feel that this was an important book for you to write, and for all of us to read, at this time?

The ancient Greeks created the living basis of our culture. Greek artists went to great pains to tell us who they were and where they came from. Greek myth, it turns out, is the story of mankind told from the Greeks’ religious perspective. It follows logically that within surviving Greek art, Greek myth’s visual counterpart, we have in our possession today a pictorial record of the history of the human race. The Parthenon Code gives us the keys we need to decode the wisdom recorded in these ancient sculpted and painted images. It’s time we took them seriously

So you feel that the ancient Greeks have relevant wisdom to share with readers today?

Greek myth/art is human history. The Book of Genesis is human history. While the viewpoints of each are opposite, the recounted events match each other in convincing detail.

Greek myth is the same true story of the origins of the human race, but it’s a story told from a rebellious religious orientation that leaves out the Creator of heaven and earth, and shuns His prophets. The Parthenon sculptures were the Greek artists’ ultimate expression of the "myths" of Zeus-religion, and of man as the measure of all things. What the Greeks meant to be an unparalleled, intricately chiseled monument to the glory of mankind turns out to be a detailed history of mankind’s delusion, and a clear-cut validation of the truth of the Word of God.

 
Is this the first book on this subject that you have written?

I’ve been studying the Scriptures, Greek myth, Greek art, and the Parthenon since 1984, and have written on this subject extensively. My two previous books are "Athena and Eden: The Hidden Meaning of the Parthenon's East Façade," and "Athena and Kain: The True Meaning of Greek Myth."

 
You say in your book that the Parthenon, generally accepted to be a temple to Athena the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, is actually a temple to Eve in Genesis.  Can you tell us a little bit more about this?

Athena’s very name speaks of Eve. In the most ancient Greek writing, the name of the goddess first appears as ATHANA. The word THANATOS in ancient Greek means death. A-THANATOS signifies deathlessness. A-thana is the shortened form of A-thanatos meaning the deathless one, or more specifically, the embodiment of the serpent’s promise to Eve that she would never die, but would be as the gods, knowing good and evil. Through Athana (tos), later called Athena, the serpent has made good his promise to Eve. It is also important to note that in the Parthenon’s depictions of Athena, the serpent rises up next to Athena as a friend.

In Genesis, Yahweh had condemned the serpent to crawl on its belly as a deceiver of humanity, yet all who entered the Parthenon to worship or admire the great statue were forced to look up to both Athena and the serpent. That is because the Greek religious system, the very opposite of the Judeo-Christian, was based on the notion that the serpent had enlightened humanity in paradise. Furthermore, Athena holds Nike in her right hand, the hand of power. Nike symbolizes Victory -- Eve’s victory for humanity when she ate the fruit offered by the serpent.

Athena is the only goddess in Greek art that is ever pictured holding Nike. On the front of her aegis, or goatskin, which covered her chest and the top of her back, Athena wore the head of the Gorgon Medusa -- the head of serpents. The aegis is a symbol of authority. The source of Athena’s authority is the head of serpents. Meeting the ancient Greeks at eye level as they entered the Parthenon, was the statue base of the great idol-image of Athena. In the center of it, surrounded by the gods giving her gifts, stood a sculpted Pandora -- the woman who according to Greek myth was responsible for letting evil out into the world. Could not a schoolchild grasp that Athena’s gold and ivory grandeur above Pandora was literally based on this obvious picture of Eve?

 
Why Have So Many Been Unable to Identify Athena as the Serpent's Eve?

Because the curse of the "Gorgon Medusa" is still with us. When Perseus cut off the Gorgon’s head, he did not look directly at her or he would have turned to stone. He used his polished shield to view her indirectly, negating the power of her gaze. This same technique is needed today to overcome the still-powerful Gorgon’s curse. Thousands of writers and teachers of mythology look directly at Athena. The stare of the Gorgon on her aegis turns their minds figuratively to stone -- a kind of mental paralysis sets in.

Their thinking becomes calcified and rigid, robbed of the flexibility to see clearly. In this intellectual stupor, they are unable to recognize Athena as the serpent’s Eve. Only when we look at Athena’s image indirectly, as it is clearly and simply reflected in the Book of Genesis, are we able to get a true picture of her identity, and understand her role in Greek religion as a depiction of Eve, the serpent’s Eve.

 
So the in your book the Parthenon Code, you are in a sense reinterpreting the history of mankind?

It has been generally assumed in the past that Greek idolatry refutes the teaching of the Word of God. But when we interpret the message from the Ancient Greeks with the help of the Parthenon Code, in fact, ancient Greek religious depictions reinforce the truth of the Scriptures.

After reading my book, visitors to the Parthenon in Athens and to the British Museum in London, where most of the Parthenon sculptures are displayed, can now do more than "ooh" and "aah" at what they see: they can actually understand what the Greeks were telling us about themselves and their history.

For more information, visit: www.solvinglight.com

Book jacket Copr. (c) 2004 Solving Light Books

Beverly West is a best-selling author whose series, Cinematherapy, the Girls Guide to Movies for Every Mood, has spawned six sequels and daily TV show in primetime on WE, Women's Entertainment, as well as a weekly column in Hampton Jitney Magazine. In addition, Bev's cookbook, Culinarytherapy, The Girl's Guide to Food for Every Mood is now a weekly column with Knight Ridder. Bev has also written for many national magazines including Self, Redbook, Body and Soul,  and TV Guide.