The author of the Statue of Liberty was the French Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who allowed France his creation to America, which did not remain in debt. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the French American government, the American government presented Paris with a reduced Statue of Liberty, created by the same Bartholdi. The French installed a copy at the Grenelle Bridge, becoming the second owners of freedom and democracy.

The original name of the Statue of Liberty, given to the Americans, was “Liberty Lighting the World.”

The crown on the head of the American statue has seven rays, each of which symbolizes 7 continents and 7 oceans. The windows in the crown (25 pieces) symbolize 25 natural minerals, and the toga of the statue symbolizes the Republic of Rome and Ancient Greece. The torch held in the hand is a symbol of Enlightenment, and in the second hand it symbolizes the Book of Laws. At the feet of the statue lie broken chains, symbolizing victory over tyranny.

USA symbol

The Statue of Liberty was delivered to the New York City port in the summer of 1886 on the frigate Isere. When disassembled, the monument consisted of three hundred and fifty bronze parts, which were packed in two hundred and fourteen boxes. The statue was assembled over the course of four months without the use of various external structures - at this stage, workers erected a metal frame to which parts of the monument were attached.

In total, three hundred thousand special bronze rivets were used to assemble the Statue of Liberty.

Before the outbreak of the First World War, America used the statue of Columbia as its symbol, but the huge proceeds from the sale of posters depicting the Statue of Liberty made the sculptor’s monument a favorite. Lady Liberty was declared a National Monument on October 15, 1924.

In the fall of 1972, the Museum of the Settlement of America opened at the base of the monument, where visitors to this day can trace the history of the country, from the Indians who are its indigenous inhabitants to the numerous immigrants who have come to America since the beginning of the 20th century.

Today you can see the Statue of Liberty with your own eyes by sailing on The Staten Island Ferry, which runs between Manhattan and Staten Island. Also, an excellent view of the monument opens from Battery Park in Brooklyn and the Brooklyn restaurant Red Hook's Fairway Café.

The Statue of Liberty has long become one of the symbols of New York and the United States as a whole. Traditionally considering the United States to be the most democratic state on Earth, this landmark is often seen as a symbol of democracy and freedom. Meanwhile, the statue is by no means of American origin.

“Statue of Liberty” is an abbreviated name, but the full name sounds a little different: “Liberty illuminating the world.”

Appearance of the statue

The statue is a very impressive structure. Its height is 46 m, and if you count the pedestal - 93 m.

The allegorical figure of Freedom in the form of a woman alone rests on broken shackles. Her head is crowned with a crown with seven rays. The number of rays requires some explanation. The fact is that Western geographers view Europe and Asia not as two parts of one continent - Eurasia, but as two different continents. Accordingly, in Western geography there are not six continents, but seven, and these are the rays of the crown.

In her right hand the woman holds a torch with which she “illuminates the world,” and in her left hand a tablet on which the date is inscribed: July 4, 1776. This is a very important date for, because it was on this day that they were born, and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of the United States took place. The birth of the famous statue is also connected with this date.

The history of the Statue of Liberty

In 1876, America celebrated the grandiose 100th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence. 11 years before this significant date, in 1865, the French lawyer E. Laboulay was born interesting idea. This man always admired America and considered it the “sister” of his homeland. Perhaps he had reason to say so: during the War of Independence, the United States received both military assistance and material support from France.

E. Laboulaye decided what France should do to America for the anniversary. He told his friends about this, among whom was the sculptor F. Bartholdi. It was he who began work on the grandiose statue, intended to be a gift to the United States from a friendly state.

There are different versions as to who exactly became the model for F. Bartholdi. It is believed that this was I. Singer, the creator of the famous sewing machine, and they also see a resemblance to the sculptor’s mother. But, undoubtedly, he was influenced by the French artist E. Delacroix’s “Freedom Leading the People to the Barricades,” where there is also an allegorical figure of Freedom in the form of a female goddess.

In such a grandiose project it was impossible to do without an engineer who would design the support and frame. This was done by G. Eiffel, who later created the famous Parisian tower.

The implementation of the project required huge amounts of money. They were collected in both France and the USA. Not everyone supported this initiative; many believed that such huge sums of money could have been spent on something more useful and practical, and fundraising did not proceed as quickly as we would like. Therefore, it was not possible to complete the statue for the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; it was done 10 years later.

The grand opening of the statue, which became a gift from France to the United States of America, took place on October 28, 1886.

Sources:

• Statue of Liberty. History and facts in 2019

Grandiose architectural structures have always been symbols of the talents of many masters of their craft. The majestic creations of architects are able to amaze the imagination and encourage tourists to visit their respective places. Some buildings are symbols of entire states.

The American Statue of Liberty (the full name of the monument is “Liberty Enlightening the World”) is the main American symbol, personifying the freedom of all the American people. This architectural structure was a gift from France on the anniversary of the American Revolution.

During the construction itself, it turned out that there was a catastrophic lack of funds for the construction, so various methods of collection were invented: concerts, lotteries, articles in newspapers and magazines to attract public attention. On the creation of sculpture, in addition to the whole group professionals led by the architect Frederic Bartholdi, Gustav Eiffel himself worked. In the summer of 1885, the French finished their work.

At that time, the statue consisted of 350 different parts, which were transported to America on a special frigate. After this, a grandiose assembly began, and in 1886, on October 26, a festive opening took place. The monument itself was erected in significant place- on a pedestal at Fort Wood, which was built back in 1812 in the shape of a star. But only in 1956 this place was renamed Liberty Island.

The height of the monument itself is 46 m, and if measured from the ground to the torch - 93 m. The crown has 25 windows - precious stones, and the rays symbolize 7 continents. At one time, the statue served as a lighthouse, and now it is a navigational landmark. In the left hand there is a sign on which is written the date of the US adoption of the Declaration of Independence - “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI”, or translated July 4, 1776.

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Tip 4: Statue of Liberty: Some Construction History Facts

The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of the United States of America. This unique architectural structure has been delighting the eyes of Americans and tourists from all over the world for more than a hundred years.

One of the main American attractions, the Statue of Liberty was presented to the country by the French as a sign of mutual friendship and cooperation, as well as to mark the centenary of the American Revolution. This happened back in 1886. Since then, for everyone who came to the USA for new life this amazing monument became a symbol of freedom. The author of the project was Richard Hunt. It took him nine months to create this masterpiece. In New York, at a ceremony that took place in August 1885, the statue was laid.

American specialists were to work on the pedestal, and the frame itself was entrusted to the French. One of the massive stone inlays was chosen as the pedestal for the monument. But problems arose during installation. What was needed was a lightweight but at the same time very durable material. The monument was created from 300 sheets.

French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The frame was designed by Gustav Eiffel himself, who had a hand in creating the most famous French architectural structure. From the outside, the sheets were held using rods placed through the labyrinth.

The location for the statue was chosen back in 1877. The work of art was supposed to be located on Bedlow Island (renamed Liberty Island in 1956).

The entire construction process was completed in 1886, but there were still several months left before the opening of the structure.

Only in October 1886 did the grand opening take place, which was attended by the president of the country. In honor of this event, a parade was held and a colorful celebration was given.

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Currently, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable architectural structures in the whole world. Even those who have not yet been lucky enough to see this miracle live can admire it from TV screens, via the Internet (via online cameras), see it in textbooks, in books, and even purchase it in stores as souvenir figurines.

How did the Statue of Liberty appear?

The Statue of Liberty is a national landmark and one of the main symbols of the United States of America. This one was given to the United States by the French people, supporting them in their struggle for independence. According to the architects' plans, the Statue of Liberty is positioned as a symbol of democracy and independence.

The idea of ​​this architectural structure appeared in 1865 and belongs to a Frenchman named Edouard de Laboulaye. A then unknown sculptor named Frederic Auguste Bartholdi helped him put this idea into practice. As a result, it was decided to design a huge lighthouse in the form of a woman holding a torch in her outstretched right hand. According to the idea, it is the torch that lights the way for sailors heading to the New York port.

This lighthouse monument was designed and built by the famous Gustav Eiffel ( Eiffel Tower in Paris). The result was a steel frame weighing 125 tons and 93 meters high including the pedestal. The lighthouse is built in such a way that you can move freely inside the statue and climb the stairs to the main observation deck, located in . By the way, the lighthouse has already been restored several times: lighting elements (laser illumination) were added to it.

Where is the Statue of Liberty

It was erected by Bedlow (Liberty Island) in New York. The opening of this architectural landmark took place in 1886, accompanied by cannon shots, fireworks and a siren. Since then, the legendary Statue of Liberty greets ships entering the port of New York every day and receives tourists from different parts of the world. By the way, the full name of this monument is: “Freedom illuminating the world.” Currently, there is the very first model of the Statue of Liberty, which can be seen in Paris near the Eiffel Tower.

Why is the Statue of Liberty in New York?

The fact is that the location for the future lighthouse was chosen by the sculptor Bartholdi himself. It was he who decided that the future pedestal should stand on Bedlow Island (Liberty Island), located 3 kilometers from southern Manhattan. The sculptor assured that the best solution was to place a woman with a torch, who would meet ships heading to New York day after day and light their way. According to Bartholdi, it is Liberty Island that allows the original idea to be brought to life most fully.

According to some reports, they initially wanted to erect the Statue of Liberty in Port Said, located in the Suez Canal, which, in turn, connects two seas - the Red and the Mediterranean. However, this project was not implemented, and they decided to build the future lighthouse in the United States.

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On October 28, 1886, amid cannon shots, blaring sirens and incessant fireworks, the most famous monument of the United States of America - the legendary Statue of Liberty - was unveiled. From this day on, every ship entering the port of New York is greeted by a stone statue of a woman with a torch of freedom in her hand, outstretched to the sky.

History of the Statue of Liberty

Surprisingly, main symbol freedom of the United States is the brainchild of French masters. It was in Paris that the Statue was born. It was then dismantled into pieces and transported across. Here it was reassembled and installed on a powerful plinth, which the Americans themselves built Bedloe’s Island, now Liberty Island. Liberty Island, where the statue is located, is federal property in the state of New York. The island is located closer to the New Jersey coast, which is why some people mistakenly classify it as New Jersey.

The idea of ​​​​creating the Statue of Liberty appeared in 1865 from academician Edouard de Laboulaye. The author of the Statue of Liberty itself is a sculptor from Alsace, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, at that time still a young and unknown master. A few years earlier, Bartholdi had planned to build a huge lighthouse on the Suez Canal. According to his plans, this lighthouse should be in the form of a female figure. The sculpture was supposed to hold a torch in its hands, the light from which was supposed to illuminate the way for the sailors. But at one time the idea of ​​a lighthouse on the Suez Canal was rejected. That is why the young sculptor responded with great enthusiasm to the idea of ​​​​Edouard de Laboulaye.

When creating the sculpture, Bartholdi more than once turned to Delacroix’s painting “Freedom Leading the People to the Barricades.” It was the image of Liberty from this canvas that became the main prototype for the Statue of Liberty. According to one version, Bartholdi even had an American model: the beautiful, recently widowed Isabella Boyer, wife of Isaac Singer, an entrepreneur in the field of sewing machines. "...As the beautiful, French widow of an American entrepreneur, she proved a suitable model for Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty." (Ruth Brandon, Singer and the Sewing Machine: A Capitalist Romance).

Engineer Gustave Eiffel was invited to create the statue, who would later become famous as the author of the famous. Eiffel designed an ingenious metal frame structure that was supported by a central support pillar. On this movable frame the outer, that is, visible, shell of the statue made of copper with a thickness of 2.4 millimeters was strengthened. Bartholdi began by building a small figure, only 1.2 meters in size, and then made three more, gradually making them larger. They were adjusted and refined until the optimal option was achieved.

By mutual agreement, America was to build a pedestal and create a statue and install it in the United States. To avoid financial difficulties, special funds were organized that searched for funds. In France, funds were raised by organizing entertainment events and lotteries. They organized theatrical performances, art exhibitions, auctions and boxing fights. However, fundraising for the pedestal was slow, and Joseph Pulitzer (known as the founder of the Pulitzer Prize) issued an appeal in his World newspaper to support fundraising for the project. This had an effect and contributed to an increase in donations from Americans.

The statue was completed in France in July 1884, and was delivered to New York Harbor on June 17, 1885 aboard the French frigate Isere. For transportation, the statue was disassembled into 350 parts and packed into 214 boxes. The statue was assembled on its new base in four months. The inauguration of the Statue of Liberty, which was attended by US President Grover Cleveland, took place on October 28, 1886 in the presence of thousands of spectators.

In 1984, the Statue of Liberty was inscribed on the World Heritage List. In 1986, before the centenary, the monument was temporarily closed for careful restoration and reopened to visitors on July 5, 1986.

Features of the Statue of Liberty

Today the Statue of Liberty is one of the national symbols of the United States. Rising at the mouth of the Hudson at the entrance to New York Harbor, a woman in graceful, flowing robes carrying a torch personifies the freedom and opportunity of the country. On her head she wears a crown with seven teeth, representing the seven seas and seven continents. At the woman's feet are the torn shackles of tyranny. In the woman's left hand she holds a slab with the date of the American Declaration of Independence inscribed on it - July 4, 1776.

The statue was made from thin sheets of copper hammered into wooden molds. The formed sheets were then installed on a steel frame.

The height of the Statue (by the way, it was originally called more pathetically - “Freedom, bringing light to the world”) is 46 meters, so, if we also take into account the 47-meter pedestal, the top of the torch is at a height of 93 meters above the ground. The weight of the monument is 205 tons. The length of the right hand, in which the torch is held, is 12.8 meters, with the index finger alone having a length of 2.4 meters, the width of the mouth is 91 centimeters.

A spiral staircase inside the statue leads tourists to the top. The statue is usually open to visitors, who usually arrive by ferry. The crown, accessible by stairs, offers expansive views of New York Harbor.

In 1972, the Museum of the Settlement of America was opened inside the Statue itself, which can be reached by a special elevator. The entire history of the country is presented here: from the ancestors - the Indians who inhabited the then unknown continent, and right up to the mass migration in the present century.

Opinions about the Statue of Liberty are completely contradictory. Nothing like this had been seen in America before the construction of this sculpture. Connoisseurs noted the high technique of execution, the clarity of proportions and the grace of lines. But opponents of those who recognized the Freedom Monument as the eighth wonder of the world noted that the symbol of Freedom in the form of a statue was interpreted too coldly and dispassionately. It is no coincidence that the epithet appeared that Freedom is “blind”, and greatness is conveyed only by large sizes.

However, evil tongues are not a hindrance to Freedom. All over the world, the Statue is considered a symbol of the United States, embodying the democratic principles of which this country is so proud.

But look at another topic wandering around the Internet:

At first glance, everything is known about the Statue of Liberty. It was given to the United States by the French for the centenary of independence. The monument, created by Frederic Bartholdi and Gustav Eiffel, was inaugurated on Liberty Island at the mouth of the Hudson River on October 28, 1886. "Lady Liberty", which meets ships arriving in New York, is very ponderous. It contains 204 tons, of which 90 are copper blocks with which the figure is lined.

It is these 90 tons that have been the subject of heated debate among historians for many years. different countries. It is clear that the supplier of such a huge batch of non-ferrous metal must have made very good money - the cost of copper at that time averaged $2,500 per ton. But the question of who got this money still remains open. No documents relating to the purchase of copper have been preserved, and in the memoirs of people involved in the creation of the Statue of Liberty, the topic of the origin of the metal is strangely hushed up.

A little historical background:

The creation of the monument was entrusted to the sculptor and architect Frederic Bartholdi. A deadline was set - the monument had to be completed by 1876, coinciding with the centenary of the US Declaration of Independence. It is believed that this is a joint French-American project. The Americans worked on the pedestal, and the statue itself was created in France. In New York, all parts of the Statue of Liberty were assembled into a single whole.

After construction began, it became clear that much more funds were needed than originally planned. A large-scale fundraising campaign, lotteries, charity concerts, and other events were initiated on both sides of the ocean. When calculating the design parameters of the huge Bartholdi statue, the help of an experienced engineer was required. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the creator of the Eiffel Tower, personally designed the strong iron support and frame that allows the copper shell of the statue to move freely while maintaining the balance of the monument itself.

Americans were reluctant to part with funds, and therefore there were difficulties in collecting the required amount, so Joseph Pulitzer wrote a number of articles in the pages of his World newspaper, addressing representatives of the upper and middle classes and urging them to allocate money for a good cause. The criticism was extremely harsh, and it had an effect

By August 1885, the United States managed to collect the required amount; by that time, the French had already completed their part of the work and brought parts of the statue to New York. The Statue of Liberty was divided into 350 parts and transported on the frigate Isere in 214 boxes. In 4 months, all parts of the monument were assembled, and in front of a huge gathering of people, on October 26, 1886, the opening ceremony of the legendary monument took place. It so happened that the 100th anniversary gift was 10 years late. It is worth noting that the hand with the torch was assembled even earlier and was even exhibited at an exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876

Let's return now to the material:

They tried to solve the mystery by comparing the lining material with samples taken from the world's largest mines. The experiment brought even more confusion, versions grew like mushrooms after rain. Copper samples with similar compositions of impurities were discovered in the English mines in Swansea, in the German Mansfield and in the Spanish mining region of Huelva. Norwegian scientists have little doubt that Bartholdi purchased 90 tons of copper from the Visnes mine, which was developed in the 1870s on the island of Karmøy in the North Sea. Moreover, the company that owned this mine was managed by a Frenchman, and its headquarters were located in Paris. The Norwegians so wanted to consider themselves “suppliers building material for American Liberty that they ordered a spectrographic analysis from Bell Laboratories. His results showed that copper from North Sea very similar to the one with which the statue is faced, but not identical. And this gives a chance to develop another theory about the origin of the metal - this time Russian.

Nizhny Tagil, Copper mine. Fox Mountain

From the Urals to Paris

Bashkir scientist, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences Miniakhmet Mutalov and employees of the Vysokogorsk mining and processing plant have no doubt that the copper for Lady Liberty was purchased from the industrialists Demidovs, who owned the Nizhny Tagil mines. True, they are guided by their experience in mining, and not by the results of research from American laboratories. However, one cannot but agree with them that in the 1870s Russian copper was indeed very popular in the West, where it was called “Old Sable”. The Demidov mines could undoubtedly provide the required volume of production. In 1814, a huge copper quarry was opened on Mount Vyiskaya near Nizhny Tagil, and by 1850 copper production there reached 10,000 tons per year. By comparison, the Norwegian mine - the number one candidate - was then producing only 3,000 tons.

Nizhny Tagil copper was sold mainly in Western European markets, despite the fact that the mine was very far from the consumer. In 1851 on the first World's Fair in London she received three bronze medals, and in 1867 the Demidovs took first place at the Paris Exhibition.

In France, they had heard about the successes of Russian miners before. French specialists often came to the Urals to study. In the Nizhny Tagil archives from the 19th century, hundreds of contracts with foreigners who were hired by the Demidovs were preserved. They employed 42 foreigners - English, Swiss, German, Belgian, Italian and 14 French. The personal consultant of the industrialists was a mining engineer from France, Leple, and his compatriot by the name of Bokar worked as an administrator of the Nizhny Tagil plant. Such close cooperation greatly contributed to the establishment of metal supply channels to Western buyers.

Secret signs

Conspiracy sources also support the version of the Russian origin of the Statue of Liberty. It is known that Bartholdi and Eiffel were members of the French Masonic lodge, and it was the “freemasons” who helped them raise 3.5 million francs to make the statue. The construction of the pedestal was financed by the Masonic Lodge of New York. Media tycoon Joseph Pulitzer donated about $100,000 to it with the condition that a note with his name and the words “Russian emigrant and Jew” be placed at the base of the monument. Moreover, according to official data, he was born in Hungary and it was from there that he moved to the United States.

It is known that the French and American Freemasons maintained fairly close relations, including those of a business nature, with the Russian “free masons.” And the Demidovs occupied a very high position in the Masonic hierarchy of Russia. After the Decembrist uprising, the emperor banned Masonic lodges, and they had to go underground. “Free masons” from the capital’s aristocracy and bourgeoisie hastily got rid of images of compasses, trowels and pyramids on clothes, carriages and house facades. The Demidovs were the only ones who continued to openly demonstrate Masonic symbols - a silver hammer and a tool similar to a trowel were depicted on their family coat of arms.

Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, who in the 1870s headed a complex of Nizhny Tagil enterprises, spent his youth in Paris. In the mid-1860s, after graduating from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, he continued his education under the guidance of the famous scientist, publicist, politician and... freemason Edward Rene de Laboulaye. At the same time, the young, promising sculptor Frederic Bartholdi was sculpting a bust of his idolized Laboulaye.

In one of summer days In 1865, the flower of French Freemasonry gathered in Laboulay’s house: Oscar and Edmund Lafayette, the grandchildren of the Marquis Lafayette - the Masonic brother of George Washington, the historian Henry Martin and, of course, Bartholdi. Edouard Rene shared an idea with his friends: what a beautiful gesture on the part of the French Republicans it would be to give the Americans, as a sign of their friendship, a memorial symbolizing freedom! Contemporaries called Laboulaye “the main admirer of America in France,” among other things, the gift was supposed to highlight the contrast between American democracy and the repressive political methods of the Second Empire. For 31-year-old Bartholdi, who, without hesitation, took up his older comrade’s idea, this was a chance to demonstrate his talent to the whole world.

It was not built right away

The implementation of the idea had to wait until the end of the Franco-Prussian War. In 1871, Laboulaye invited Bartholdi to go to America and do everything necessary to ensure that the monument was opened on July 4, 1876, the centenary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Without money and a sketch of the monument, but with a heap of letters of recommendation to his American brothers, the sculptor sailed to America. The idea for the statue arose in his head when he was already sailing towards New York - Frederick quickly made a sketch.

Three years later, Bartholdi returned to France, where he established the Franco-American Union to raise funds for the construction of the monument to “Liberty Enlightening the World.” Soon he began work on its creation together with the Parisian company Gaget, Gauthier & Cie.

The sculptor copied the face of “Freedom” from his mother. First, he made a four-foot clay model, then a nine-foot one from plaster, then he began to proportionally enlarge each of its parts nine times... But the deadlines were delayed due to a constant lack of funds.

Although more than 100,000 French people donated to the monument, the Freemasons managed to raise the necessary money only by 1880. The Americans probably gave them the missing amount. It was not without reason that Bartholdi invited United States Treasury Secretary Levi P. Morton to install the first piece of copper cladding on the big toe of the statue’s left foot. On July 4, 1884, two months after completion of the work, the monument was officially presented as a gift to the US Ambassador to Paris Levi Morton. For another two years, Lady Liberty stood in Paris, waiting for a pedestal to be completed for her in Hudson Bay.

On August 5, 1884, under heavy rain, which forced the cancellation of the Masonic parade (there would not have been enough space for it on the tiny island anyway), a ceremony was held to lay the first stone on the pedestal of the statue. Then under it was that famous “box with a secret”, in which, in addition to the names of Masonic presidents and Pulitzer’s strange statement about his Russian roots, they say the names of all the people who took part in the creation of “Lady Liberty” were indicated, but for some reason reasons not admitted to it.

In June 1885, the statue, disassembled into pieces and packed into 214 containers, arrived in New York. It took another 15 months to collect it, and finally, on October 28, 1886, the gift from France appeared before the Americans in all its glory. The opening ceremony of the monument was presided over by the President of the United States, Freemason Grover Cleveland. The monument was consecrated by the Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of New York, Henry Potter, also a member of the Freemasons Lodge. The Grand Master, Senator Chauncey M. Depew, delivered the solemn speech.

And only Russian Masons could not openly announce their participation in the construction of the monument - most likely, they would not have been praised for this in their homeland. Perhaps this is why all documents indicating the sale of 90 tons of Russian copper to France were carefully destroyed.

Marriage of convenience

In general, the policy of the Russian tsars regarding lodges was not consistent. Thus, while persecuting the “free masons” in his country, Alexander III nevertheless actively collaborated with the French Freemasons. The desire not to get involved in international adventures and wars pushed him towards a rapprochement with Paris, where at that time the ball of the lodge ruled. The sovereign had no choice - Great Britain encroached on Russian territories, Prussia was too aggressive. Alexander had to accept the foreign policy line of rapprochement with France, which was proposed to him by Foreign Minister Giers.

Alexander only benefited from cooperation with Masonic France - huge investments flowed into the country. In 1888, the emissary of the French banks, Gosquier, arrived in St. Petersburg for negotiations with the Minister of Finance Ivan Vyshnegradsky, who subsequently began to manage the capital of all members of the royal family. In November 1888, a decree was issued on the issue of a Russian four-percent gold loan.

Initially, its amount was only 500 million francs. But already in February of the following year, Alexander ordered the issuance of a consolidated loan of the first series in the amount of 175 million rubles for the conversion of five percent bonds of numerous railway loans of the 1870s. The French actively subscribed to it, seeing in Russia a guarantor of protection against the Prussian threat, and thereby stimulated St. Petersburg to expand business contacts.

The deal took place, and already in April the so-called loan of consolidated Russian bonds of the second series appeared in the amount of 310.5 million rubles. It was released jointly with the Rothschild bank and was also a huge success. After this, the French began a virtual “economic occupation” of Russia. They invested in the construction of railways and factories, cut down mines and erected oil rigs. This continued almost until the outbreak of the First World War.

Perhaps if Russia and France had become friends a little earlier, the sale of copper for Bartholdi’s ambitious project would not have had to be hidden. But now the historical truth is no longer so important; anyway, the statue remained in history not as a Masonic symbol, but as a talisman of emigrants coming to New World in search of a new life.

But look at another example from history, like one person, and here with. Yes, and if you also remember something about large transactions, for example The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

For those who arrived in search better life Migrants' first introduction to America was the Statue of Liberty. One of the most enormous sculptures in the history of mankind, it welcomed millions of people from all over the world who crossed the ocean in search of better opportunities. No monument in the United States is as closely associated with America as the Statue of Liberty. Gifted by the people of France in 1886 as a sign of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, over time it has evolved into an ideal of human freedom and independence, one of the most recognizable symbols of the United States.

The design of the Statue of Liberty is deeply symbolic. The robed female figure represents the goddess of freedom; in her raised hand she holds a torch, in the other - a book (code of laws). The broken shackles of tyranny, broken at the feet of Liberty, symbolize the end of the era of tyranny and oppression. The book in the left hand with the inscription July 4, 1776 (the day the Declaration of Independence of the United States was adopted) reminds all visitors of the American ideal - “all men are created equal.” The torch in the high raised right hand symbolizes illumination of the road to freedom and independence. The seven rays on the crown symbolize freedom stretching across oceans and continents. The cap on the head resembles the headdress that Roman slaves received when they acquired their freedom.

Statue of Liberty: history of creation

The idea of ​​giving the United States a monument in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the state and a sign of the friendship between the United States and France, cemented during the Revolutionary War, first arose in the summer of 1865 at a gala dinner at the house of Edouard de Laboulaye near Versailles. The French writer and publicist Edouard de Laboulaye, as if by the way, expressed the opinion that “if the monument is erected in the United States, it will be natural if it is built by the joint efforts of our two peoples.” The young sculptor Bartholdi, who was present at the dinner, really liked the idea.
In November 1875, the Franco-American Union was formed to raise funds. The French must finance the creation of the sculpture, and the Americans must pay all the costs of constructing the pedestal. The future statue was given the name “Freedom Enlightening the World.”

The fundraising campaign was actively held in France. For this purpose, the famous French composer Charles Gounod wrote a song, and in the spring of 1878 they held a lottery, fortunately, French law allowed this to be done for charitable purposes. By July 1882, the required amount of $250,000 had been raised. All the money was received through charity; the French state did not allocate a single franc from the treasury.

In America everything was much more complicated. The American committee to build the pedestal, formed in January 1877, encountered enormous difficulties. The international financial crisis in 1873 led to a period of prolonged economic stagnation that lasted for most of the decade. The required figure of $125,000 soon doubled, but virtually no funds were forthcoming. The press was indifferent to the project; there were few people willing to finance the construction of the New York Lighthouse. By the way, the Statue of Liberty was not the only project that experienced problems with financing: the construction of the Washington Monument also stalled for many years.

A new fundraising campaign began in 1882. The committee organized a large number of propaganda events, in which the poet Emma Lazarus was invited to write poetry. She initially refused, citing the fact that she could not write poetry about the statue. Later, the sonnet “The New Colossus” written by the poet raised $21,000 and received first prize. Years later, a plaque with lines written by the poetess was installed at the main entrance to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

The owner and editor of the New York World newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer, took an active part in the fundraising campaign. Thanks to his campaign, the idea that the Statue of Liberty was a gift to all Americans, not just New Yorkers, gained widespread acceptance. In August 1883, all the necessary money for construction was collected.

On August 5, 1884, during a ceremony, the first stone was laid for the construction of a pedestal in the center of Fort Wood, built in the early 19th century. On April 22, 1886, the pedestal was ready to accept a generous gift from the people of France. It became the largest concrete structure in the world at that time.

How the Statue of Liberty was assembled

To create the monument, a lightweight yet durable material was required to withstand a long sea voyage. The material must be water-resistant and easily tolerate the salt-laden, humid climate of New York Harbor. The French sculptor chose copper.

To create the monument, Bartholdi made a sketch model with a height of about 1.25 m. From this model he reproduced a copy of the statue with a height of 2.85 m. Using the same method, he made another model with a height of 11 m. Then the 11-meter statue was divided into a large number of fragments and increased it fourfold.

When creating the Statue, copper sheets with a thickness of 2.57 mm were used. Carpenters made wooden forms in which, using a hammer, the sheets were given the desired configuration. More than 300 fragments of individual copper sheets formed the figure of the statue that we can see today. The internal frame of the Statue of Liberty was developed by the French engineer Gustav Eiffel, the author of the world famous Eiffel Tower in Paris.

By the beginning of 1884, all parts of the Statue of Liberty were assembled together, and, like a real Colossus, it towered over the rooftops of Paris. Bartholdi dedicated 15 years of his life to the monument, investing his talent as an extraordinary sculptor into it. It became the author's best work, thanks to which his name is forever inscribed in history.

Before shipping, all fragments of the statue were packed into 214 specially designed containers, each weighing from several hundred kilograms to several tons. On June 17, 1885, the ship delivered the monument to New York.

The opening ceremony

The unveiling ceremony for the Statue of Liberty took place on October 28, 1886. First, a solemn parade was held on the streets of New York, which was watched by hundreds of thousands of citizens. Only invited dignitaries took part in the opening ceremony on the island itself. US President Grover Cleveland presided over the opening.

Terrorist attack on the Black Tom Peninsula and the Statue of Liberty

On July 30, 1916, German agents organized sabotage on the Black Tom Peninsula, where a large ammunition depot was located. On the night of the attack, a total of about 1 kiloton of ammunition was stored here. The power of the explosion was estimated at 5.0 to 5.5 on the Richter scale. Even residents of the neighboring state of Maryland felt its consequences. The fragments of the explosion flew long distances, some of them hit the Statue of Liberty, and some, having flown 2 km, damaged the clock tower building in Journal Square and stopped the clock.

As a result of the terrorist attack, the monument, especially the hand and torch, was damaged. From that time until today, the torch has been closed to the public. It is interesting to note that the Lehigh Valley Railway Company attempted to recover damages from the German state and succeeded. In 1953, Germany agreed to pay the company $50 million (equivalent to approximately $452 million in 2010). The final calculation was carried out in 1979.

Reconstructions of the Statue of Liberty

On December 2, 1916, US President Woodrow Wilson solemnly turned on new system lighting. The Statue of Liberty was illuminated by spotlights installed along the walls of Fort Wood. Architect Gutzon Borglum redesigned the damaged torch, replacing many of the copper pieces with textured glass.

A green coating began to cover the surface of the Statue of Liberty immediately after 1900. By 1906, the shiny copper outer surface had completely oxidized and developed an attractive light green patina, protecting the metal from exposure to wind and rain.

In 1882, after a thorough study of the condition of the Statue of Liberty, American and French experts came to the conclusion that the monument needed serious restoration. The iron frame inside the monument was heavily rusted, and about 2% of the copper fragments needed replacement.

In 1984, the statue was closed for restoration. The torch, through which water had penetrated inside the monument since 1916, was replaced with an exact copy of the architect Bartholdi. The entire internal frame and some parts of the copper surface were also replaced. The pedestal and figure were illuminated by new metal halide lamps. On July 5, in the presence of Presidents Reagan and Mitterrand, the Statue of Liberty was reopened to the public.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Liberty Island and the monument were immediately closed to the public. In 2004, the pedestal was reopened to the public, and the crown became available for visits in 2009.

Statue of Liberty: Practical Information

The monument is open to the public every day, including weekends and holidays. Those wishing to visit Liberty Island (where the Statue of Liberty is installed) can purchase three ticket options to choose from:

1) Simple ticket - includes a ferry ride to Liberty Island. A simple ticket saves time: instead of waiting in a long line, it gives you priority pre-boarding access to the ferry. The ticket does not entitle you to visit the pedestal, the museum located there, the observation deck and the crown.

2) A ticket with the right to enter the pedestal includes a trip to the island by ferry and additionally provides access to the pedestal, a visit to the museum, gives the opportunity to see the internal structure of the statue, climb to the observation deck of the pedestal, visit Fort Wood (the star-shaped structure on which the statue stands ). This type of ticket does not include access to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Tickets for access to the pedestal must be ordered no later than two weeks before your scheduled visit. On very hot days, visiting the crown is prohibited.

3) The Crown Admission Ticket provides access to the spiral staircase to the top of the Statue of Liberty. To climb to the crown, you need to climb 354 steps (corresponding to approximately the 22nd floor). Visitors climb to the crown in groups of 10 people under the guidance of a service employee national parks, but no more than 3 groups per hour. The number of such tickets is limited and must be ordered three to four months in advance or even longer (up to one year). From here you have a magnificent view of the New York skyline.

Every 30-45 minutes from 9 am to 15:30 a ferry departs to Liberty Island. Best time to visit early in the morning on weekdays to avoid crowds on weekends and holidays.

The waiting time in line for the ferry takes about 90 minutes. The wait is significantly longer during the high travel season from June to September.

Having tickets in hand, it is advisable to arrive 30 minutes before the ferry departure, as the pre-boarding procedure will delay passengers. The ferry ride lasts about 20 minutes.

According to the National Park Service, only 240 people per day are allowed access to the crown, 3,000 visitors per day to the pedestal, and 12,000 visitors per day to Liberty Island. More than three million people visit the Statue of Liberty every year.

With the purchase of a simple ticket, visitors can visit not only Liberty Island, but also Ellis Island, the largest immigrant reception center in the United States, receiving more than 12 million immigrants from the opening of the immigration office there in 1892 until its closure in 1954. Ancestors of more than 40 percent modern population The US went through Ellis Island Immigration. Therefore, for Americans, Ellis Island is much more important than the supposed landing site of Christopher Columbus back in 1492. The former immigration building houses a museum dedicated to the history of US immigration. It contains exhibits, photographs, memories of eyewitnesses, there is a library and two cinema halls. The Immigration Service building is one of the largest historical museums USA.

In 1984, the Statue of Liberty was included in the list World Heritage UNESCO.

Inside the pedestal are photographs, videos, stories about the construction of the Statue of Liberty, engravings, diagrams, historical details, a plaque with Emma Lazarus' poem “The New Colossus,” and an original torch from 1886. After climbing 192 steps, you find yourself on an observation deck overlooking New York Harbor.

Statue of Liberty reflected on postage stamps, paintings and books. Her image is widely used in films, television programs, music, videos, computer games, on commemorative coins and in theatrical productions. Hundreds of copies of the monument are installed all over the world. To this day, the image of the Statue of Liberty continues to be America's most popular international symbol.

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On the day of Satanic Halloween celebrated in the West, we will talk about the statue that has become a symbol of the new Atlantis, as some of the United States of America are called. The Statue of Liberty was officially unveiled in New York on October 28, 1886. What is it dedicated to and who does it represent?

This is what our article is about.

Official story

The sculpture was a gift from France for the 1876 World's Fair and the centennial of American independence. The statue holds a torch in its right hand and a tablet in its left. The inscription on the tablet reads “English. JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (written in Roman numerals for the date "July 4, 1776"), this date is the day of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. “Freedom” has one foot on broken shackles.

Visitors walk 356 steps to the crown of the Statue of Liberty or 192 steps to the top of the pedestal. There are 25 windows in the crown, which symbolize the earthly gems and heavenly rays illuminating the world. The seven rays on the crown of the statue symbolize the seven seas and seven continents (the Western geographical tradition counts exactly seven continents: Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Antarctica, Australia).

Statue of Liberty in numbers:

• Height from the top of the base to the torch 46.05 m
• Height from ground to top of pedestal 46.94 m
• Height from the ground to the top of the torch 92.99 m
• The height of the statue is 33.86 m
• Hand length 5.00 m
• Index finger length 2.44 m
• Head from crown to chin 5.26 m
• Face width 3.05 m
• Eye length 0.76 m
• Nose length 1.37 m
• Right arm length 12.80 m
• Right arm thickness 3.66 m
• Waist thickness 10.67 m
• Mouth width 0.91 m
• Sign height 7.19 m
• Sign width 4.14 m
• Plaque thickness 0.61 m
• The thickness of the copper coating of the statue is 2.57 mm.
• The total weight of copper used to cast the statue is 31 tons
• The total weight of its steel structure is 125 tons.
• The total weight of the concrete base is 27,000 tons.

The statue was constructed from thin sheets of copper hammered into wooden molds. The formed sheets were then installed on a steel frame.

The statue is usually open to visitors, usually arriving by ferry. The crown, accessible by stairs, offers expansive views of New York Harbor. The museum, located in the pedestal, houses an exhibition on the history of the statue. The museum can be reached by elevator.

The territory of Liberty Island was originally part of the State of New Jersey, was subsequently administered by New York, and is currently under federal administration. Until 1956, the island was called “Bedloe’s Island,” although it was also called “Liberty Island” since the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1883, American poet Emma Lazarus wrote the sonnet “The New Colossus,” dedicated to the Statue of Liberty. 20 years later, in 1903, it was engraved on a bronze plate and mounted on the wall in the museum, located in the pedestal of the statue. The famous last lines of "Freedom":

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

In the Russian translation by V. Lazaris:

“To you, ancient lands,” she shouts, silent
Without opening my lips, I live in empty luxury,
And give it to me from the bottomless depths
Our outcasts, our downtrodden people,
Send me the outcasts, the homeless,
I’ll give them a golden candle at the door!”

In a translation closer to the text:

“Leave, O ancient lands, the praise of centuries to yourself!”
Calls silently. "Give me your tired people,

The Statue of Liberty (yes, with a small letter), if you look at it without the propaganda tinsel - this giant woman in a crown with seven rays, with a book and a torch in her hand... who is she? Another fairy tale about the American dream and the ideals of democracy, the national pride of a non-existent American nation? It is not customary to talk about the true origin and ordeal of the sculpture, about its origins originating in incompatible cultures or about the financial side of the “lady’s” existence. The fable of a gift in honor of the friendship between France and the United States travels around the world as traditionally as the ruddy Santa Claus - another child of commerce. But we will still turn a few pages of history back and see how everything really happened.

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The idea of ​​​​creating the statue belongs to Frederic Auguste Bartholdi - if you can call the idea of ​​​​creating an unoriginal monument that can only boast of fragments of classical art, yes gigantic size. Bartholdi was born in 1834 into a wealthy Jewish family and studied with the famous masters of Paris - without much zeal, but filled with ambitious plans. To get out into the world, Bartholdi resorted to the help of influential relatives who were directly related to the Freemasons.

Quite a lot is known about the influence of Freemasonry on the creation of the United States, from the founding fathers to the symbolism of the dollar. Pyramids, steles, all-seeing eye, etc. also decorate various government buildings in the United States. Let us recall that on July 4, 1776, representatives of their brotherhood signed the Declaration of Independence, which opened the way to the creation of an independent state (we wrote about this in the article “What is the USA or why was this state created? (Part One)”).

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However, about the most important symbol of the United States - the Statue of Liberty - as a rule, no connections are made with Freemasonry.

Egyptian sketches

In the 70s of the 19th century, under the control of Freemasons in Egypt, the construction of the Suez Canal took place. The young, ambitious Bartholdi came here, and his imagination was struck by the majestic monuments of this region, which had survived thousands of years. Thus the idea was born in his head to create something equally colossal and impressive that would forever immortalize his name. Meeting with the head of the construction, Ferdinand Lesseps, Frederick convinced him to petition for his plan. The proposal looked like this: install giant statue at the entrance to the future channel - it was supposed to be twice as high as the Great Sphinx and serve as a lighthouse.

Bartholdi decided not to wait for the muse, but to whip up some kind of model for consideration by the local government (it was he who was credited with the supposed funding of the project). And there was no need to invent anything - this was already done by the ancient Greeks, who created the Colossus of Rhodes - one of the seven wonders of the world - around 280 BC. This huge statue of an athletic youth, looking out to sea, was erected at the entrance to the harbor of the island of Rhodes and was subsequently partially destroyed by an earthquake.

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Bartholdi “dressed” the model in Egyptian clothing, placed an amphora in his hand, and crowned his head with a wreath. But Lesseps advised him to use the attributes of the ancient Iranian god Mithra - the god of peace, harmony, and subsequently the sun.

Notes in the margins

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Mithra is the Indo-Iranian god of light and sun, close to the ancient Greek Helios. His usual attributes were a chariot and a golden throne. Over time, the cult of Mithra penetrated into Asia Minor and changed significantly. Mithra became the god of friendship, who united, reconciled, protected, and enriched people. He was depicted as a young man in short, flowing clothes and a Phrygian cap. The cult of Mithra at the beginning of our era spread throughout the Roman Empire, enjoyed the patronage of emperors, and was later supplanted by Christianity.

Special photo of the head of the Statue of Liberty at the World's Fair in Paris in 1878. http://gorod.tomsk.ru/uploads/34046/1285959951/45270518_Exposition_Paris_1878.jpg

When the cult of the god Mithra spread in ancient Rome, the following legends began to be told about the sun god. He was born from a rock at sunrise. In one hand he held a sword, in the other hand a torch. Mithra fought with the Sun, conquered him and thus became his ally. After this, he subjugated the bull (a symbol of ancient civilization), dragged it into his cave and killed it there. The blood of the bull fertilized the soil, and plants, fruits and small animals grew wildly everywhere.

The Sun God was revered throughout the Roman Empire. This is evidenced even today by four hundred places of sacrifice that have been preserved from those times. The god Mithra was especially revered by ordinary people who performed cult rites in his honor. Thanks to the soldiers, Mithraism became known throughout the then world. The places of this cult known today exist mainly as altars in the rocks.

Miter with rays and an eagle, which later became a symbol of the USA http://geo-politica.info/upload/editor/news/2015.12/567f624427790_1451188804.jpg

Along with numerous symbols, the signs of the zodiac are engraved on them. The god Mithra himself always takes the place of the Sun on them - the central constellation of the ancient Romans.

Thus the statue received a torch and a seven-rayed crown from the god Mithras, although there is another deity that looks similar. Have you started thinking about the title: “Progress Bringing Light to Asia”? Or replace “progress” with “Egypt”? And then we remembered the popular painting in France “Freedom on the Barricades” by the romantic painter Eugene Delacroix. The word “freedom” was already temptingly attached to the statue project, but the government refused to spend money on a gigantic idol - so Bartholdi returned to France empty-handed.

French incarnation

Eugene Delacroix “Freedom on the Barricades” http://iknowit.ru/image_base/2010/pimg_1063_1306.jpg

The time of creation of the statue coincides with Bartholdi’s entry into the Masonic lodge (Alsace-Lorraine branch) - it was 1875.

And 1876 was approaching - the centenary of American independence. Having heard complaints in a political circle about the lack of genuine masterpieces of art dedicated to Freedom in America, the French senator and member of the same Order of Freemasons, Edouard de Laboulaye, decided to revive the project that had failed in Egypt. All this, of course, had to be correctly presented to the masses: it was decided to “donate” the statue to the States “as a sign of friendship between the peoples of the two countries.”

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But the “gift” had to be paid for - both by French and overseas ordinary citizens. An entire Franco-American Union, headed by Laboulaye, was urgently established, and committees were organized in both countries to organize fundraising. Moreover, the head of the French headquarters was none other than our old friend - Ferdinand Lesseps! The fundraising campaign in the States was led by Joseph Pulitzer, later known as the creator of the most prestigious journalism award, and then also the publisher of the New York World newspaper. With an understanding of all the subtleties of influencing the masses, he criticized rednecks and moneybags, turning to ordinary Americans (the businessman was no mistake - this significantly increased the circulation of his newspaper). No one will tell us exactly how much money the friendly gentlemen laundered through this good cause, but in the USA alone, $100,000 was withdrawn from circulation in this way.

The main work on the creation of the statue was done by the famous French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (Bonnickhausen), then known for his adventure in embezzling huge funds for fictitious work during the construction of the Panama Canal, but became famous thanks to the construction in the center of Paris.

Eiffel was also a member of the Masonic lodge, and another lodge brother, who at that time served as Prime Minister of France, helped him get out of the Panama scam.

French engineer Gustav Alexandre Eiffel (left) and Auguste Bartholdi (right) http://gorod.tomsk.ru/uploads/34046/1285959951/29.jpg

Eiffel made all the calculations and also designed the iron support of the monument and the supporting frame, which was then covered with metal sheets. Then Bartholdi took up the matter again and added several modern details: at the feet of the statue he placed “broken chains of tyranny,” more like the chains with which the statue itself was bound.

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He placed the Book of Laws (Declaration of Independence) in his left hand and dressed the now “lady” in Roman clothes.

Some believe that Bartholdi gave her the facial features of his mother, Charlotte Beiser, although the model was the recently widowed Isabella Boyer, the wife of Isaac Singer, an entrepreneur in the field of canal equipment and sewing machines, who sponsored Jewish socialists along with Rothschild.

Isabella Boyer http://communitarian.ru/upload/medialibrary/5a2/5a21489c57af5e18a8688a105ada4d2a.jpg

The process of making a statue in pictures

American life statues

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After production, the statue, hopelessly late for the event to which it was dedicated, was brought to the USA and installed on Bedlow Island (it was renamed Liberty Island only in 1956). Later, it was here that business districts, dizzying skyscrapers appeared, and in general the largest financial center in the world was formed.

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The official unveiling of the statue on October 28, 1886 was attended by representatives of the Freemasons, including US President Grover Cleveland. The pathetic speech was delivered, apparently to pay tribute to refined sarcasm:

“We will never forget that Liberty chose her home here, nor that her chosen altar will never be abandoned.”

At first, masculine “freedom” did not evoke any enthusiasm or patriotic feelings among people. And Bartholdi had to somehow explain the suspicious symbolism of his brainchild: the torch is supposedly an attribute of the Enlightenment, and the crown is a symbol of the seven oceans and seven continents.

And now the time has come for the First World War - the right moment to cash in on the patriotism of gullible ordinary people.

Hello! This is FREEDOM speaking - we need millions of dollars and we need them NOW https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d2/55/0f/d2550fe57a244f3b857eaaec4ae7f6e7.jpg YOU buy freedom loan bonds so that I don’t die On the seals: “Get behind the government. Liberty Loan of 1917". - “Stand behind the government. Freedom Loan 1917." http://huntington.org/uploadedImages/Files/images/ycc_libertybond_400.png

The funds raised from the sale of these multi-colored pieces of paper (under the guise of a genuine symbol of American Freedom) covered almost half of the military budget.

Inscriptions on a poster from the First World War: STANDING BEHIND the guys in the trenches. Victory. Buy Freedom Bonds https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/images/War-Poster-Bonds.jpg

Statue of Liberty - goddess of darkness

It's time for us to move on to the most interesting part. We previously indicated that symbolically the attributes of the Statue of Liberty can be attributed to the ancient Iranian god Mithra, whose cult spread throughout Ancient Rome, the heir of Egypt (where all Western civilization originates), however, we indicated that there is another deity that looks similar.

Some believe that since the statue depicts the goddess of freedom, it means Libera (Greek Kore or Persephone), who was the deity of fertility, but also the underworld in ancient Roman mythology and religion. She was often identified with the goddesses Proserpine (Persephone among the Greeks) or Ariadne and was the wife of Dionysus-Liber.

Notes in the margins

Bacchus (among the Greeks - Dionysus) is the patron god of vineyards, winemaking and wine. His wife was the goddess Libera, who helped winegrowers and winemakers. The holiday in honor of this married couple was celebrated on March 17 (close to the Ides of March, read about them) and was called liberalia. In the cities on this day, in addition to solemn sacrifices, theatrical performances were held, and in the countryside it was marked by cheerful processions, jokes, dances and feasts with an abundance of libations for Bacchus Liber, “freeing man from all kinds of worries,” and his wife Liber. During liberalism, sacrifices were also made to the goddess Ceres. The sanctuary of Liber and Libera was located in the temple of Ceres. The cult of Bacchus-Liber was very close to the cult of the Greek Dionysus.

Dionysus, in turn, is a late interpretation of the ancient Egyptian god Osiris, in connection with which many authors saw in Liber the widow (the widow emerges again) of Osiris Isis and the mother of Horus.

However, some oddities can be found here - why is the goddess of freedom holding a torch in her hands, and not a cornucopia? And the mentioned fertility goddesses, for all their similarities, were traditionally depicted differently.

Persephone-Kora-Libera with a cornucopia and a plow http://fb.ru/misc/i/gallery/31953/1150776.jpg painting by J. Collier “Priestess of Bacchus” http://prerafaelit.ru/gal3/15-3.jpg

But the goddess Hecate, who was the mistress of hell, darkness, night visions and witchcraft, was depicted with a torch and horns-rays on her head (according to legend, there were also snakes in her hair, like the Gorgon Medusa). By the way, it was believed that she was close to various goddesses of fertility in her chthonic functions and in many ways close to Persephone, who was the wife of Hades, the god of the underworld.

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She was identified with the moon goddess Selene, the mistress of the underworld Persephone, and the patroness of wild animals Artemis. Endowed with ambivalent functions. Acts as the leader of the “wild hunt”, binds world of the dead and the world of the living. Statues of Hecate with torches and swords were placed at forks in roads and in front of houses in ancient times to “keep evil spirits at bay.” Her image is most clearly characterized by her connection with the moon, which was considered to bring madness or obsession and generally personify the dark side of the feminine.

Hecate is associated with magical traditions and rituals. In ancient times, people tried to appease her by leaving chicken hearts and honey cakes in front of their doors. On the last day of the month, gifts were brought to crossroads - honey, onions, fish and eggs, with sacrifices in the form of dolls, baby girls and female lambs. The Sorcerers gathered at crossroads to “pay their respects” to her and to such characters as “Empusa” - the brownie; "Kekropsis" - poltergeist; and "Mormo" - vampire.

One occult appeal of polytheists to Hecate was recorded in the 3rd century by St. Hippolyte of Rome in “Philosophumena” (the full title is “Philosophical opinions or denunciation of all heresies”, which consists of 10 books; in the first four books the author examines the opinions of Greek philosophers and the traditions of ancient pagan magic and astrology, which, in his opinion, were the sources of heresies in the Christian world; five books discuss heretical teachings, starting with the most ancient and ending with the sects of the 2nd century - the Callistians and Elkazaites; the tenth book is a reduction of the previous ones):

“Come, hellish, earthly and heavenly Bombo (Hecate), goddess of wide roads, crossroads, you who travel to and fro at night with a torch in your hand, enemy of the day. Friend and lover of darkness, you who rejoice when the bitches howl and warm blood flows, you who wander among ghosts and graves, you who satisfy the thirst for blood, you who cause fear in the mortal souls of children, Gorgo, Mormo, Luna, in a thousand forms, cast your merciful gaze on our sacrifice" (Russian translation, see "Orthodox Review" for 1871 Archpriest. Ivantsov-Platonov, "Heresies and schisms of the first three centuries of Christianity" / modern. Iz-vo Book House "LIBROCOM", 2011, Series: Academy of Basic Research: History).

It is characteristic that the work of Hippolytus of Rome itself became known only in 1841, when the Greek philologist Constantine Minoida Mina allegedly acquired in the Athos monastery for the French government part of the 14th century manuscript of “Revelation,” which, based on its subsequent location, was called “Parisian”: Parisinus suppl . gr. 464 saec. XIV, bombicinus, truncus, foll. 1-132, 137, 133-136; 215×145 mm (textus: 160×105-115 mm, 23-28 versus), it was a partial copy of the Philosophumena, which was previously associated with Origen, but later the authorship was recognized as Hippolytus.

According to the Philosophumena, Hecate’s power extended to the three-part temporal sphere - past, present and future. The goddess drew her witchcraft power from the moon, which has three phases - new, full and old. Like Artemis, she was accompanied everywhere by a pack of dogs, but Hecate's hunt is a night hunt among the dead, graves and ghosts of the underworld. They sacrificed food and dogs to Hecate; her attributes were a torch, a scourge and snakes.

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Occultists found a correspondence to Hecate in Indian mythology - Kali - the goddess of time, destruction and transformation. The period of time to which modernity belongs is called Kali Yuga in Hinduism, i.e. it is Kali (Hecate) who “protects” him.

Caves were considered the cult places of Hecate. Her ancient altars were circular, with different inscriptions on them. For divination, the Greeks used the so-called. "Circle of Hecate" - a golden ball with a sapphire inside. How it worked is not very clear.

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Other chthonic deities (Hermes, Hades, Persephone and Gaia), as well as Zeus, Rhea, Demeter, Mithra, Cybele and the solar gods Helios and Apollo, were most closely associated with Hecate. The names of the chthonic gods - Hermes, Hades, Persephone and Gaia - are also most often found on defixions (curse tablets), and Zeus and Rhea appear in the “Chaldean Oracles” (with Zeus as the central deity).

Over time, several other goddesses were partially or completely identified with Hecate - such as Brimo, Desponia, Oenodia, Genetillis, Kotida, Krateida and Kurotropha. In addition, she began to be brought closer to, and often identified with, such goddesses as Artemis, Selene, Mena, Persephone, Physis, Bendida, Bona Dea, Diana, Ereshkigal and Isis.

Hecate was often associated with Hermes, since of all the male representatives of the Greek pantheon he was most closely associated with the ideas of boundary and threshold. On defixions, Hermes Chthonius is often mentioned together with Hecate Chthonia.

Hermes with the baby Dionysus. Sculpture of Praxiteles. Mid-IV century BC http://www.istoriia.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/132.jpg

The statue of Hermes of Propylaea, who stood, according to Pausanias, at the entrance to the Athenian Acropolis, performed the same protective function, as the images of Hecate Propylaea. And in the binding spell from the Greek magical papyrus 22, the names of these two deities are even combined into a single name:

"Setper of traps, Mistress of corpses, Hermes, Hecate, Hermecate."

IN ancient times there was a peculiar practice. Lead tablets were compiled (lead is the metal of Saturn), buried in the ground or lowered into burial, in which the petitioner addressed Hermes the Underground and Hecate the Underground with the intention of causing harm and causing damage to his enemy. For example:

“I commend Ophelion and Canarides to Hermes the Chthonic and the conqueror Hermes. I curse Ophelion"

For curses, in addition to Hermes and Hecate, Gaia, Persephone and Hades were called upon. A formula like this is often found:

“Just as this lead is dry and soulless, so let the deeds of my enemy be dry and soulless.”

More ancient roots

If we look more broadly, then Isis, Persephone, Hecate, Ceres, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis and many, many other female goddesses are, in one way or another, reflections of the ancient antediluvian cult of the mother goddess.

Often the mother goddess is associated with the earth; she is the complete embodiment of the feminine creative principle. Like the goddesses of later religions, whose image goes back to the prehistoric image of the mother goddess, she is also associated in various cultures with caves (which are perceived as the womb of the goddess), water element, vegetation, astral objects, which indicates the universal nature of the cult of this deity. The mother gives life, so her most important attribute is fertility. But in ancient mythology, the mother goddess not only gave life, but also took it away. Hence, she is often the goddess of the underworld.

The oldest known cults

In ancient times, the cult of the Mother was almost universal. Archeology provides evidence of the widespread use of the Mother cult in the Stone Age. Over a vast area from the Pyrenees to Siberia: in pre-Aryan India, in pre-Israeli Palestine, in Phenicia, in Sumer, female figurines carved from stone or bone are still found today. Such figurines are called Paleolithic “Venuses”. They have common features: large breasts, hips, belly. The head and arms are not expressed or absent.

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5013/13719937.a6/0_99508_8a4e7732_L.jpg

In the Neolithic era, ideas about the feminine as the source of all things were transformed under the influence of changing living conditions, but did not lose their original essence.

It should be noted that different cultures entered the so-called Neolithic period in different time: In the Middle East, the Neolithic began around 9500 BC. e., that is, approximately 11,500 years ago, just after the global catastrophe, which entered the myths of many peoples as the Great Flood. Therefore, some transformations of the ancient cult are not surprising.

In Neolithic art, the mother goddess was sometimes depicted with a child in her arms or as a woman giving birth (in Çatalhöyük she is depicted giving birth to the heads of bulls and rams - symbols of antiquity, by the way). The image of the mother goddess is a “projection” of the mature stage of a woman’s life, in contrast to the other two - the images of the young Virgin and the old Ancestress. This cult survived into historical times in the collective image of the Great Mother of the Middle East and the Greco-Roman world. Its religious continuity is clearly visible in the images of such famous goddesses as Isis, Nut and Maat in Egypt; Ishtar, Astarte and Lilith of the Fertile Crescent region; Demeter, Kore and Hera in Greece; Atargatis, Ceres and Cybele in Rome (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8F-%D0%BC% D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C)

In Celtic mythology it was the goddess Danu.

http://www.dopotopa.com/images/danu_1.jpg

The cult of the mother goddess is most clearly manifested in Celtic mythology and, first of all, in the best preserved Irish and Welsh sagas. In Irish mythology and fasting, the goddess Danu was considered the Great Mother of the Divine Creator or the Great Mother of Planet Earth. Danu was recognized as the mother-progenitor of the gods, who were part of the pre-human divine race of the inhabitants of Ireland (and Wales). This race was called the Tribe or Family of the goddess Danu or Tuatha de Danann, which again takes us back to the antediluvian times, when the past global civilization was divided into two races: long-lived, therefore almost gods, the race of masters, and short-lived slaves, from which, after the global catastrophe, modern humanity came. Read about this in the article “Atlantic prehistory of slavery of the current planetary civilization”

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The main gods and goddesses of the Tribe of the goddess Danu were Dagda, Manannan, Ogma, Lugh, Morrigan, Bridget and others. They were tall, superbly built, light-skinned men and women with light brown, golden (according to some sources, reddish) hair and blue eyes. The male gods wore beards and had an athletic figure, the female goddesses had a slender female figure with long legs, thin waist and irresistible appearance. The gods and goddesses of the Tribe of the goddess Danu were considered solar gods and goddesses, which is confirmed by the widespread belief that Danu was the wife of the sun Belenus.

On the one hand, Danu was considered the goddess of fertility and abundance, that is, everything that grows and develops, on the other hand, she was the goddess of the underworld - the world of death. Danu also acted as the goddess of light and water. In the rare images of the goddess that have survived to our time, she was depicted sitting in the sky, in the underworld and turning into a heron.

Some researchers believe that the symbolic image of Danu among the Celts and Gauls were statues, bas-reliefs and drawings of three matron deities nursing babies, holding a cornucopia or baskets of fruit (symbols of abundance, fertility and saturation), associated with the cult of Mother Earth (http://www.dopotopa.com/emansipirovannye_zhenskie_obschestva_-_vzgljag_iz_glubiny_vekov.html).

Among the Sumerians

The Sumerians are tribes of unknown origin, at the end. 4th millennium BC e. mastered the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates and formed the first city-states in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian period in the history of Mesopotamia covers about one and a half thousand years, it ends at the end. 3 - beginning 2nd millennium BC e. so-called III dynasty of the city of Ur and the dynasties of Isin and Larsa, of which the latter was already only partially Sumerian.

One of the most typical images used by the Sumerians is the image of the mother goddess (in iconography she is sometimes associated with images of a woman holding a child in her arms), who was revered under different names: Damgalnuna, Ninhursag, Ninmah (Mah), Nintu. Mom, Mami. Akkadian versions of the image of the mother goddess - Beletili (“mistress of the gods”), the same Mami (who has the epithet “helping during childbirth” in Akkadian texts) and Aruru - the creator of people in Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian myths, and in the epic of Gilgamesh - “wild” man (symbol of the first man) Enkidu. It is possible that the patron goddesses of cities are also associated with the image of the mother goddess: for example, the Sumerian goddesses Bay and Gatumdug also bear the epithets “mother”, “mother of all cities”.

In the myths about the gods of fertility, a close connection between myth and cult can be traced. Cult songs from Ur (late 3rd millennium BC) speak of the love of the priestess “Lukur” (one of the significant priestly categories) for King Shu-Suen and emphasize the sacred and official nature of their union. Hymns to the deified kings of the III dynasty of Ur and the I dynasty of Isin also show that between the king (at the same time the high priest “en”) and the high priestess, a ritual of sacred marriage was annually performed, in which the king represented the incarnation of the shepherd god Dumuzi, and the priestess - the goddess Inanna, which the Akkadians later began to call Ishtar.

http://arhe.msk.ru//wp-content/uploads/2014/10/%D0%98%D1%88%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%80.jpg

Pay attention to the symbols of owls, lions, snakes (hair of Ishtar) later taken by the Freemasons.

http://www.dopotopa.com/images/Inanna_243v6xge.jpg

Sometimes she was depicted with a star on her head:

https://demiart.ru/forum/uploads5/post-765010-1270375400.jpg

The content of the works about Innana-Ishtar (constituting a single cycle “Inanna-Dumuzi”) includes motives for the courtship and wedding of hero-gods, the descent of the goddess into the underworld (“the land of no return”) and her replacement with a hero, the death of the hero and lamentation for him and the hero's return to earth. All the works of the cycle turn out to be the threshold of the drama-action, which formed the basis of the ritual and figuratively embodied the metaphor “life - death - life”. The numerous variants of the myth, as well as the images of departing (perishing) and returning deities (which in this case is Dumuzi), are connected, as in the case of the mother goddess, with the disunity of Sumerian communities and with the very metaphor “life - death - life” , constantly changing its appearance, but constant and unchanged in its renewal.

In the 2nd millennium BC. e. the cult of Ishtar spread widely among the Hurrians, Hittites, Mitannians, and Phoenicians (corresponding to the Phoenician Astarte). Three main functions of Ishtar are distinguished: the goddess of fertility and carnal love; goddess of war and strife; the astral deity, the personification of the planet Venus, is associated with the day of the week - Friday (now the day of general drinking after the work week).

Ishtar is a female deity in Akkadian mythology, corresponding to the Sumerian Inanna. Ishtar is the goddess of war and love. She offers her love and protection to the famous hero Gilgamesh. But he refuses, knowing the evil fate of her former lovers. Ishtar takes revenge on Gilgamesh by sending the terrible heavenly Bull (again, this symbol of ancient civilization) to his city. However, Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill him. Ishtar also descends into the underworld for her beloved Tammuz, threatening the goddess of the underworld Ereshkigal to release all the dead on earth. But Ereshkigal kills the goddess of fertility and only by agreeing to the persuasion of her advisers does she sprinkle her with living water. After this, Ishtar returns to earth along with the rescued Tammuz.

http://i47.fastpic.ru/big/2015/0505/b0/376c1ff34d88d6119ebb2405a66298b0.jpg

Period of ancient civilizations

The Egyptian, Greek and Roman periods of the life of the mother goddess can be seen through myths and legends ancient egypt, ancient Greece and Rome. Above we wrote about Isis, Hecate, Persephone and other hypostases of the mother goddess, so we will not go deeper. But the medieval period in the life of the mother goddess is characterized not only by the cult of the Mother of God of Jesus, but also by the cult that gave it its beginning.

Early Middle Ages

We wrote in an article about Ivan the Terrible () that in the history of the West there is a widespread myth that the Middle Ages in what is now Europe were a time of constant wars and the Inquisition. The Belgian financier Bernard A. Lietar has a different opinion on this matter, which he outlined in the book “The Soul of Money” (Bernard A. Lietar. The Soul of Money. - M.: Olimp: AST: Astrel. 2007. - 365 p. ). In his opinion, from the 10th to the 13th centuries, Europe flourished economically, it was during this time that a huge number of temples were built, people consumed good food and were taller and healthier in stature than the Europeans of the Dark Ages.

“Some historians even claim that the quality of life there were ordinary people highest in European history during a particular economic boom! Here are the statements of French historians. Historian Forget: “For France, the 13th century was the last century known as “general prosperity.” Historian François Ixter: “Between the 11th and 13th centuries, the Western world flourished, as evidenced by a population explosion unprecedented in history.” Historian Damaschke: “The time between 1150 and 1250 is a period of rapid development, economic prosperity that we can hardly imagine today.”

Between 1000 and 1300, the population as a whole is estimated to have achieved unprecedented growth, doubling in size. In fact, it was only by 1700 that the population of England had recovered and reached the level of 1300!”

As for religion, the prevailing opinion on this issue is that almost all of Europe was Catholic, especially after the division of churches in 1054. However, Lietar has a different opinion. He discovered a connection between the economic prosperity of European society and a religious system, which he called: “The Cult of the Black Madonna.”

1. Contrary to modern Christian traditions, all official documents... always put the name of the Black Madonna before in the name of Christ.
2. A number of famous religious figures, who later became saints of the Latin Church, worshiped the Black Madonna. Joan of Arc prayed to the Black Madonna, known as Notre Dame Miraculeuse (miraculous). Legend claims that Jesus Christ himself, surrounded by four evangelists, worshiped the statue of the Black Madonna.
3. The first unusual feature of the legend attributed to most Black Madonnas - and only to these types of statues - is the claim that the statue was not made, but necessarily found nearby or even in the most ancient pagan symbolic place, such as a dolmen.

Moreover, these statues turn out to be important markers on the road to Santiago de Compostela.

https://energyleadershipblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/camino-de-santiago.jpg

This road is one of the oldest pre-Christian routes in Europe, as evidenced by markers dating back to the Stone Age. All this means that the cult of the Black Madonna belongs to the most ancient religious cults, known person. French author Jacques Bonvin concludes:

“Only the Black Madonna was able to crystallize all the beliefs of pagan traditions with Christian faith, without falsifying even one of all the countless beliefs. This is what makes the Black Madonna unique.”

1. No original Black Madonna dates back later than the 13th century.
2. The sculpture is always represented by the “Virgin in Majesty”, where a seated Mother and Child look at one point in the distant perspective.

https://adinah.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/003.jpg

1. She is always invariably placed at the site of the pre-Christian cult of the Celtic or other pagan Mother Goddess. Even when a whole cathedral was built for Her, she always kept in a crypt under the cathedral.
2. Shrines were often located near holy springs or wells, or near the stones of prehistoric cults.
3. The legend associated with the statue usually has a clear east element: the crusader who brought the statue from the east, the pilgrims to the holy land, saved, awakened by Her, etc.
4. The official title attached to this statue is Alma Mater- “Noble Mother.”
5. The Virgin's face is always and Her hands are almost always black, thus justifying Her name - “The Black Madonna”.

Blackness was systematically reduced by the Roman Church. Until today, the church has tried to explain blackness as accidental, the result of smoke from candles. But if the face and hands of the Virgin and Child were originally black, why weren't their multi-colored clothes also bleached, and why didn't a similar process happen to other statues from the same period? In a number of historically proven cases, priests subject to Rome repainted the face and hands of the shrine white.

In the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders ancient world, revered completely black goddess statue. It was in this city that Mary is supposed to have lived after the death of Christ, and Her Ascension took place in a place called karatchalti(literally “black stone”).

Mega Spileon Monastery. Greece. It is believed that this icon was created by the Evangelist Luke. http://www.tury.ru/img.php?c=22&ex_id=1909&pid=118549&v=n

Mother Earth

http://coollib.com/i/6/272106/i_005.jpg

The question of deciphering an image is multi-faceted and probably depends on the morality of the applicant for the secret meaning. The most literal reading is that the Black Madonna symbolizes Mother Earth, and the Child represents humanity, each of us. Moreover, one of the first images of the Virgin Mary giving breast to the Christ child was located in a Christian monastery in Jeremiah, Egypt's Sahara, and was apparently inspired by Egyptian iconography of Isis nursing Horus.

By the way, legend says that in Egypt people adored the “Virgin Mary” even before the birth of Christ, because Jeremiah predicted to them that the savior would be born of a Virgin. Standard encyclopedias devoted to classical mythology contain entire sections devoted to the “identification of Isis with the Virgin Mary.” » .

Bernard Lietard found that the fall of the cult of the Black Madonna occurred simultaneously with a change in the financial system and was “accompanied by a massive decline in the standard of living of ordinary people.” In a book with a significant title " Before Black Death" the author brings the research of that period to the modern level and refutes the previous idea that the Black Death was the cause of the decline. On the contrary, the plague turns out to be consequence economic decline that began 50 years before.

Today

One of the most interesting images of the mother goddess was created by the Jewish artist Leon Bakst in his painting “Ancient Horror” (1908), in which he depicted not only the ancient goddess, but also the flood that destroyed the previous Atlantean civilization.

http://rusmuseumvrm.ru/data/collections/painting/19_20/zh_8135/2053_mainfoto_01.jpg

Interesting details: on the left side of the picture there is a dying city with a huge statue of a warrior, and on the right there are buildings that are architecturally close to Egyptian, surviving on a hill. In the middle, in the classic Masonic colors: white, blue and red, is “Venus” herself, melancholy looking at the disaster and smiling, somewhat mysteriously, like Leonard’s Mona Lisa, holding in her left hand a dove, which has become a symbol of peace.

http://kotomatrix.ru/images/lolz/2013/12/05/kotomaritsa_Ts.jpg

It should be noted that since the mid-20th century there has been an active promotion of feminism, the beginning of which many attribute mainly to the suffragette movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, in which the key issues were property rights for married women and the right to vote for women. This process is accompanied by the emergence of female symbols in culture.

In addition to the total use of the image of women to influence the instinctive programs of men, who are not far removed from baboons in the type of structure of their psyche, images of “strong women” appear more and more often in mass culture: from politicians and public figures of various levels to cinema.

We found an interesting “feminized” sculpture of the attribute of the “messenger of the gods” of Hermes Trismegistus - the caduceus (the Latin word caduceum comes from the Greek “messenger, harbinger”, and in Greek it has a common root with the word rooster, the great harbinger of the morning and the Sun), which was sculpted by James N. Muir (James Muir), made in the form of a figure of a woman entwined with snakes, wearing a seven-rayed crown (like the Statue of Liberty) and with wings (like the goddess Ishtar). At the same time, the caduceus, as it were, hatches from the planet Earth, split at the feet of the statue.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kontinent_mu/65124989/217549/217549_800.jpg

Does all this mean that someone, losing control, is trying to return the ancient cult of the Mother Goddess, which for a long time was deeply sealed inside the secret order structures?

http://editorsguild.ru/upload/medialibrary/17c/17cfdfaa711763c4faa2da6cc9c8cf4f.jpg

It may well be...

Conclusion

Today, the Statue of Liberty is promoted no worse than the Eiffel Tower and the pyramids in Giza, continuing to bring income to the circle of the “selected”. And the statue still stands on a pedestal, at the base of which the words are carved:

"Give me your tired people,
All those longing to breathe freely, abandoned in need,
From the narrow shores of the persecuted, the poor and the orphans.
So send them, homeless and exhausted, to me,
I raise my torch at the golden gate!”

Just which gate? The gateway to which kingdom? Underground? Darkness, hell and the underworld? Symbolically, it may very well be... Although the symbolism of female goddesses goes back to the deep past and is associated with the cult of Mother Earth. But, if we talk about the Statue of Liberty, then it is most similar to Hecate.

The main symbol of the USA is none other than a statue created by the hands of a French Freemason, depicting the ancient deity Hecate, who traces her “ancestry” to the antediluvian cults of the mother goddess, who has always acted as the guardian of the underworld.

By the way, the traditional rivalry between France and England also left its mark on the history of the creation of the statue. France supported the efforts of American Freemasons to gain independence from Britain, with which it was then in conflict. Versailles clearly dreamed that London would cease to claim maritime dominion. Is it not because of this that the seas and continents are symbolically given over to the power of the goddess of darkness, who placed her feet behind the pillars of Hercules?

Will Americans be able to overcome in their culture the dark chthonic past of the goddesses of darkness, night, underground kingdoms dead and make the Statue of Liberty a statue of Mother Earth? At this stage - unlikely.

This is a brief history and an excursion into the background of the main symbol of the United States, which, in fact, has a rather sinister origin.

http://loveopium.ru/content/2012/05/statue/912.jpg

Materials:

Statue of Liberty - goddess of darkness
http://communitarian.ru/publikacii/istoriya_taynykh_obshchestv/ctatuya_svobody_-_boginya_tmy_04072013/

What does the Statue of Liberty really symbolize?
http://origin.iknowit.ru/paper1306.html

Emancipated women's societies: a view from time immemorial (about the leading role of women in the development of human civilizations and the existence of states and peoples governed by women). Great Mother Goddess (White Goddess)
http://www.dopotopa.com/emansipirovannye_zhenskie_obschestva_-_vzgljag_iz_glubiny_vekov.html Goddess Ishtar
http://lia-lu.blogspot.ru/2011/10/blog-post_11.html

Statue "Caduceus", ("Caduceus" St. Louis University), USA
http://kontinent-mu.livejournal.com/55633.html