Aventinus 45

Johannes Turmayr's 1520 History of Bavaria, Chapter 45 - translated and annotated by Ras Feqade, AD 2020.

* Previous Chapter: Aventinus 43, 44
* Next Chapter: Aventinus 46
* (To Table of Contents)

45. Of the mightiest and most famous hero in the world, king Lybis in Egypt, commonly called Hercules and called Lehabim in the Bible, of Bavaria too that he would be here, as Schreitwein and Freithilf, the earliest Bavarian historians, signify.

[Lehabim in the Bible was a son of Misraim, who like Apis was a son of Ham; he and Hercules Lybicus were thus first cousins, not the same individual.]

When this famous king Gampar ruled in Germany, there was a great fire, the mountains burned, that now divides Hispania and France. That is why the ancient Greeks and Latins called it Pyrenee, a German and Greek word, in High German the Prenner; now it's the Runzifal. There was a big famine in all the world; seven years had been plentiful beyond measure, seven evil years came on each other, change nothing, was very expensive. It was a plague from God. Hail and shower struck cities together. It was otherwise also a bad year: the weather was wrong, if it should rain it was nice, when it should be warm it was cold. According to this, no grain was reaped in all lands, but in Egypt (which was also a prototype before the times of the city of Rome, the ancient Roman empire) Joseph had a lot of boxes built, the grain has the seven years since it was plentiful and nobody is eight, even just bought up, picked up and kept, as was then announced by God and from the same because of grace and great favor with the said pharaoh or king, Libys.

[The fire in the Pyrenees, from which they got their name, occurred ca. 1997 BC, during Gamber's reign. The seven years of famine under Joseph were well after this, 1892-1885 BC, but Biblical events continue to be out of synch from the computations of Jerome.]

Then there were still many giants in all countries, namely **Anteus** in Africa, the other **Typhon** and **Busiris** in Asia. In Hispania and Italy there was a whole company, called **Lonnimii** and Lestrigones, in German Lonimmer and Lestrer. The giant **Mylein** from Candia had the whole sea in his grasp. They were wildly furious, ate people for game meat, pretens sotens threw their horses as for fodder, who had been raised and went by vülweis. Has everyone from in blackness overloaded, mighty, printed hertiklich country and people, drove a lot of will, had also made a covenant, they wanted all heroes and princes like King Oryz, who was mourned very much, to strangle, to stüken and their whine to feed for owners.

[The giants named here are among those who had joined the Curetan alliance against Apis, some of whom had been his own governors.

Two paragraphs omitted, mostly repetitive, including the fanciful story of how Hercules' brothers Thoth and Horus were trained by Joseph, and assisted Hercules in defeating the giants.]

But I'll come back to Hercules. He moved with many and many people in Asia, strangled the giants Typhon and Busiris in the country that was later called Troy, placed there a son of the queen Omphale, called **Atus**. He moved as far as Germany, with the king Gampar’s daughter Araxa, he produced five princes, named Tuscus, later king in Italy, Scythes the younger, Agatyrsus, Peucinger, and Gutho. He went later to Africa, the third part of the world, strangled the giant Anteus, named it after him Lybia, as it is still called in Greek. For then over in Hispania, he similarly strangled the giants of that country, occupied the country with loyal captains. And like the need for something back then, like we are tortured now, he puts a lot of pain in there, so he still keeps his name. He moved on through the country, as is now called France, to the Rhine, he also wanted to visit the Rhine, the second largest water in Europe, like his father, Oryz, the Danube.

[After the assassination of his father Apis in 1995 BC, Hercules Nebtawyre swiftly went around the Mediterranean defeating these rebellious governors, as mentioned before. Whether Libya took its name from him or his cousin Lehabim, or somewhere else, is difficult to say.]

At that time beyond the Rhine was a king, called **Kels**, who had a daughter, called Galtei. At the Spanish Hercules made a son named **Gall**; the land of Galreich was named after him, in Greek Gallatia, in Latin Gallia. Some wanted him to settle in Alsace, others in High Burgundy. German people afterwards also took to him, those whom king Gampar had sent him; he moved with military power to Italy, where were many mighty giants; in ten years he killed them all. And when he conquered all of Italy, he ruled there for twenty years, brought the country and people into good order, appointed his son **Tuscus** from the river Don outside of Greater Germany, gave him Italy. Then went back out into Germany to the origin of the Danube, through France into Spain; a giant rose up against him, called Gerion, whom he killed. And Hercules also died there in Hispania, whence he is also called the Hispanic Hercules.

[Kels or Celtes ruled Samothea, naming it Celtica, from 1997-1942 BC, and was succeeded by his grandson Galathes I, son of Hercules and his daughter Galathea. Hercules had expelled the renegade Lestrigon from Italy in 1985 BC and ruled there, defeating the Curetans again when they rebelled in 1965-1960 BC, then continuing to rule Italy to 1929 BC, when he left Italy to Tuscus, and took over Hispania from his own grandson, Hispanus (whence the name Hispania). Hercules ruled in Hispania after his grandson until 1921 BC and was buried in Tarragona. Gerion aka Deabus is completely misplaced here; he was a Curetan who had conquered Spain and ruled it from 2047 to 2012 BC, when he was defeated by Osiris Apis and the three Lomnini succeeded him, it was these Lomnini whom Hercules drove out of Spain, instating his son Hispalus there by 1994 BC. The conflict between Geryon himself and Hercules comes from later historians who thoroughly confused the details, resulting in such confused chronologies as Aventinus presents here.]

He and his mother Eisen invented ore and the people learned the power of the herbs, which is why we still call a number of herbs eisenkraut, as verbenas agrimoniam. His brother, the aforementioned Mercurius, is therefore called the greatest triple, that he was the greatest king, greatest philosopher, and greatest theologian. He has written two books and they are still available.

[This seems to refer to the *Hermetica*, but I am skeptical of this claim to know when or by whom this was authored.]