COULD THE SPARTANS BE DESCENDED FROM THE TRIBE OF DAN?

[ItalianZionist]

What do you guys think of this?:

There appears to have been a relationship between the Spartans and the Jews. In the Apocryphal we read: ’It has been found in writing concerning the Spartans and the Jews that they are brethren and are of the family of Abraham.’ (Maccabees I 12:21)"

[Van Buren, p. 45]



Aside from the fact that the Spartans wore long hair as a symbol of their power (like Samson) there is a legend written about the son of Belus, king of the Spartans -- in which is given the story of one named ’Danaus,’ who arrived in Greece with his daughters by ship. According to the legend, his daughters called themselves Danades. They introduced the cult of the mother goddess, which became the established religion of the Arcadians and developed over the years into the worship of Diana. . .The Spartans so loved their king that they called themselves Danaans -- long before they adopted the name of Spartans. Also in the legend is a record of the arrival of ’colonists from Palestine.’ Please note, the man who headed the expedition was named Danaus. He may well have been of the tribe of Dan, and thus would have been the progenitor of the ancient Spartans."

[Ulli]

I know, that some Jews have visited Sparta in ancient times. I heard, that the Spartans were friendly to the Jews and the other way around.

But after all I know belong the Spartans to the Greek tribe Dorian. The Dorians came from the North to settle in the Peleponnes.

Because of this I think, that they are no lost tribe.

[mord]

We know that many of the children of Israel eventually wound up in Europe after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but Dan may have been the first to go, long before the Assyrian captivity. About 300 B.C., the king of the famous Spartans of southern Greece wrote a letter to Jerusalem, which said in part:

 

Arius, king of the Spartans, sends greetings to Onias, the chief priest. It has been found in a writing concerning the Spartans and Jews, that they are kinsmen, and that they are descended from Abraham. Now since we have learned this, please write us about your welfare. (See I Maccabees 12:19-23.)



      The letter from the Spartans was written shortly after the death of Alexander the Great. Alexander himself claimed to be a descendant of Achilles, who was worshiped by the Spartans. Achilles was the hero of the Trojan War and the central figure of Homer’s Iliad. Josephus, a Jewish historian of the first century, also mentions the letter from the Spartans and says its “seal” was “an eagle, with a dragon in his claws.”5