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Hamlet's Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission Through Myth

Giorgio de Santillana,

Hertha Von Dechend

4.27 · Rating details · 597 ratings · 70 reviews

Ever since the Greeks coined the language we commonly use for scientific description, mythology & science have developed separately. But what came before the Greeks? What if we could prove that all myths have one common origin in a celestial cosmology? What if the gods, the places they lived & what they did are but ciphers for celestial activity, a language for the perpetu ...more

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Paperback, 450 pages

Published March 24th 2015 by Nonpareil Books (first published 1969)

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Sep 28, 2011 Jeremy Orbe-Smith rated it it was amazing

Utterly brilliant, groundbreaking, necessary book, which overturns many flawed and biased assumptions about the "primitive" past. The mere 450 pages are so densely packed that it took me almost three stinkin' weeks to read, but it was worth every frustrating minute.

The fundamental narrative structures of popular stories are clearly derivative and based not on a convergence of psychological archetypes but rather on older forms which have been widely diffused throughout seemingly-unrelated ancien ...more

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Jul 18, 2009 Clay Kallam rated it really liked it

Shelves: philosophy, history

I read this book long ago, and just as with Calazzo's "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony", it made a lot more sense when I read it the second time. (Thus inspired, I will soon try Robert Graves' "The White Goddess" again.)

There is really no way to summarize this book, as Giorgio de Santillana wants to tease out how preliterate human beings viewed the universe. One of his basic assumptions (which is hard to argue with) is that a human being from 20,000 years ago had the potential to be just as i I read this book long ago, and just as with Calazzo's "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony", it made a lot more sense when I read it the second time. (Thus inspired, I will soon try Robert Graves' "The White Goddess" again.)

There is really no way to summarize this book, as Giorgio de Santillana wants to tease out how preliterate human beings viewed the universe. One of his basic assumptions (which is hard to argue with) is that a human being from 20,000 years ago had the potential to be just as intelligent as a human being today.

Given that premise, de Santillana uses ancient myths to uncover the archaic (for lack of a better word) mode of thought, remembering that the framework for any system was totally different than our literate one. For one thing, "Hamlet's Mill" doesn't claim to reveal a complete or even consistent system -- instead, it gives modern readers a glimpse of something wondrous strange.

"Hamlet's Mill," though, has precious little to do with Hamlet, except that he is related to Amlethus, a mythic figure who owned a powerful mill. That mill's wheel, as it turns out, is the turning of the stars in the sky, and its axle is, more or less, the axis that runs from the North Pole.

de Santillana spends a lot of time linking various myths to show that the idea of the great wheel in the sky as the arbiter, and even instigator, of events on earth was the basis of archaic thought. In fact, he says, one of the major differences between the archaic world view and ours is that the only measure used was that of time, and time was measured only by astronomical occurrences.

With the introduction of literacy and spatial measures, human beings conjoined space with time as the two primary means of dividing and understanding the universe, an undoubtedly richer and more standardized system. But de Santillana's reconstruction (whether wholly accurate or not) of an archaic mode of thought shows us that not only were ancient humans as capable as we are of devising a complex intellectual structure, but that, as the wheel of the stars continues to turn, with zodiacal age replacing zodiacal age, we too will be looked on from some distant future as hopelessly simple and barely worth of attention.

Without mechanics, without a means to measure, without a language capable of grasping and communicating complex ideas, de Santillana claims that Hamlet's Mill was used as an explanatory device in many disparate, and occasionally contradictory ways. In other words, if an event needed explanation, some aspect of the wheel of the stars and its axis was called on: For example, the great flood (most likely the abrupt filling of the Black Sea basin some 8,000 years ago) was caused when a mythic figure pulled the axle of the wheel from its mooring, allowing the waters to escape.

Now we believe the great flood happened when the barrier between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea abruptly gave way many thousand years ago, but our confidence in the mechanical could turn out, when Hamlet's Mill has turned many more times, to be no more justified than the archaic world's belief that as above, so below. ...more

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Apr 13, 2019 Erick rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: alternative-history

This book was interesting, but the authors went a bit further than evidence permits in theorizing astrological underpinnings for numerous world myths. I would certainly be willing to acknowledge an astrological influence in some of the myths they explore, just not in all of them.

The discussion of the myths themselves was certainly engaging. I was not aware that Shakespeare had been influenced by an earlier Scandinavian myth revolving around a person named Amleth. Other discussions like that on This book was interesting, but the authors went a bit further than evidence permits in theorizing astrological underpinnings for numerous world myths. I would certainly be willing to acknowledge an astrological influence in some of the myths they explore, just not in all of them.

The discussion of the myths themselves was certainly engaging. I was not aware that Shakespeare had been influenced by an earlier Scandinavian myth revolving around a person named Amleth. Other discussions like that on the legendary primeval Persian king Yima were equally interesting. I had noted the parallels between the fall of Yima and that of Lucifer before, but the writers show convincingly that Yima parallels the Roman god Saturn as well. Both Saturn and Yima (also known as Jamshid) ruled over a primordial golden age. Both also were superseded by another ruler and another age. Philosophy that utilized myth is also referred to. Ancient philosophers such as Plato, Plutarch, Macrobius, Proclus, etc, are great sources for myth and astrology.

The myths and literature that they explore is rather wide, spanning different continents and civilizations, so one could argue that when drawing from such a vast well of information, they could find seemingly relevant data to support many theses that would be quite untenable given a more appropriately restrictive criteria. One must accept the assumption that civilizations separated by oceans had some contact. If one does accept this supposition, it simply begs other questions such as: how does stock astrological myths get shared by civilizations that are also separated by language? On the strictly human plain, the presumption seems to face more than one obstacle.

It can hardly be denied that astrology was incredibly important to ancient civilizations, but the theory that even seemingly un-astrological myths also contain oblique astrology would be a difficult thesis to maintain without substantial evidence. That disparate civilizations shared this base astrology would be equally difficult to prove. I'm not sure the writers prove that case convincingly across the board, but the investigation and discussion was worthwhile. I give the book around 3 to 3-and-half stars.

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Oct 08, 2008 John Henry rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: ANYONE

This book is essential for anyone wishing to learn about the links between mythology, zodiac, precessional cycles, and transmission and creation of knowlegde in pre-industrial and ancicent civilizations. An absolute classic and opus magnus of the archaeo-astrology and mythology genres.

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Jul 18, 2012 Jönathan rated it it was amazing

I would give this book six stars if that were possible.

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Apr 18, 2013 David Montaigne rated it it was amazing

This is a dense analysis of ancient mythology in which the authors explain that most myth is not about the adventures of historical human characters but of astronomical bodies. There are similar stories and themes in myths around the world, not necessarily because there was an Atlantis providing a cultural heritage for everyone on earth, but because everyone observes the same skies. The sun always appears to make the same annual journey through the background stars, and ancient cultures were als This is a dense analysis of ancient mythology in which the authors explain that most myth is not about the adventures of historical human characters but of astronomical bodies. There are similar stories and themes in myths around the world, not necessarily because there was an Atlantis providing a cultural heritage for everyone on earth, but because everyone observes the same skies. The sun always appears to make the same annual journey through the background stars, and ancient cultures were also very much aware of precession. This is where it gets the most interesting. It's all well and good to notice Mars takes roughly two years to complete an orbit, and to write stories about a character with warlike attributes who returns after a two year journey, as von Dechend notes in the preface to the book. It's much more impressive to see that many cultures understood the almost 26,000 year cycle of the precession of the earth's axis. Such knowledge tells us civilizations were devoting a minimum of several centuries to careful astronomical observation, because it would take generations to notice a one degree change. It would take thousands of years to notice the vernal equinox sun or winter solstice sun moving through various constellations. Yet many cultures did notice, and when they pass down stories involving zodiac signs we need to decide if they are extremely ancient clues which time the stories to distant epochs. Is a golden calf about the vernal equinox sun in the Age of Taurus? Is the golden fleece about the sun in Aires? Are stories of lions about the age of Leo? If so, then civilization goes back much further than we have been taught to believe.

Themes the authors focus on include the "Mill" of the title, with spinning millstones representing the circular rotation of planetary orbits and our own planet around its axis, generating our view of a spinning sky. As so many ancient cultures have myths about the world tree (used as an axis shaft) being chopped down or having its roots gnawed away at, or the sudden unhinging of the mill peg, and the destruction of the mill, we must wonder why ancient writers did not view the pole of rotation as a permanent fixture. Is it merely because they noticed gradual change, with a series of pole stars over the 25,800 years of precession? Or did they survive more than mere gradual change? Were there sudden pole shifts in which the entire surface of the earth suddenly changed position, with earthquakes and tidal waves and the demise of great civilizations? The authors, early on, mention "catastrophes and the periodic rebuilding of the world." (p. 3) Such events would certainly be the focus of any writing done by survivors in the generations following such an event - and one good way to convey knowledge of such ideas through generations of post-catastrophe dark-ages would be to simplify the scientific and mathematical principles into myth. So we see the same unusual numbers in Egypt, in Norway, in India, in Mexico... and we are taught some science without necessarily realizing what we pass on to the next generation.

"Hamlet's Mill" would have benefitted greatly from better editing. A huge mass of relevant material is presented, but not organized with the flow of a well-honed argument. I think the information presented was ground-breaking, and as an author myself, I found it extremely useful. My own discovery of specific patterns in ancient writing may not have been deciphered had I not read "Hamlet's Mill" and other great books on mythology and astronomy and ancient history. Readers interested in an analysis of ancient myth may want to read Joseph Campbell's "The Mythic Image" or for an archeoastronomical denconstruction of myth, perhaps Hancock and Bauval's "Message of the Sphinx" or Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods." "Hamlet's Mill" merely hinted that major religions may really be more about astronomical processes than we thought, but for more such astrotheological analysis of the major religions read books by Acharya S like "Suns of God" or "The Christ Conspiracy." Weidner and Bridges' "The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye," Michell's "The Dimensions of Paradise," the Flem-Aths' "When the Sky Fell," Montaigne's "End Times and 2019" and Hapgood's "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings" are probably all of great interest to anyone who likes "Hamlet's Mill." ...more

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Feb 25, 2009 James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, anthropology

This is a book that reminds me of the mythological discourses by Joseph Campbell. It is an anthropological detective story that traces the origins of myths throughout the world and finds common elements in their origins. One finding is that the geography of myth is not that of the earth but rather is celestial. For anyone who is familiar with Greek mythology this is not a surprise, but we find here again that mythological language transcends cultural and geographic boundaries. The author explore ...more

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Aug 15, 2013 Christy rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2013

Fascinating, if somewhat dizzyingly presented and unsystematic. The project is to show that mythic ideas about cyclical time, world ages, their characteristics and dominant players, were actually based in close observation of the heavens and the complex apparent movements of planets and constellations, and particularly the precession of the equinoxes. Since the whole universe was thought to be ruled by the same living, volitional forces, it was by no means a simple “primitive” or childlike fanta ...more

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Mar 17, 2016 Amanda at Nerdification Reviews rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

This text is extremely dense and was definitely not read in one sitting. In fact, it was not even read within one year.

This book is groundbreaking because it was both pioneering in the subject matter, and written by individuals with the necessary credentials to present the subject matter. Traditionally, individuals who are strongly opposed to alternative theories of ANYTHING choose to pick apart the education of anyone who brings forth a new idea. And yet, in this case, both authors are highly ...more

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Sep 05, 2009 J rated it liked it

The inspiration for Fingerprints of the Gods.
Difficult read. I skimmed it while reading F of the G's.

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Oct 24, 2013 Anne Hamilton rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Six stars at times. One star at others.

Brilliant but so discursive. Full of shining gems of thought, encrusted with all but impenetrable allusions. Without a knowledge background in half a dozen different mythologies, there are many sections here so difficult to understand. There are paragraphs with references to five different myths (for example, American Indian, Finnish, Hindu, Greek and Egyptian) and, although I have a passing acquaintance with some, I was often lost.

It's like walking in on a ...more

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Jul 26, 2008 Phred Padgett rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Patrick

Recommended to Phred by: Many references to it in other works.

This is my favorite book of all time. An essay on worldwide myth and legend. He is an MIT professor; 2/3 of the essay is his, the last 1/3 is the appendix by Hertha von Dechend, Hamburg U. I used two bookmarks and always read her remarks. Simply boggles the mind that ancient stories could be so similar while so geographically distant from one another. The "Mill" of the title represents the earth's wobble, which takes nearly 26,000 years to complete, and the ancients knew this. How could they? Th ...more

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Dec 15, 2013 Gavin White rated it really liked it

Shelves: cosmology

This is one you have to work at. The second time I read it I started to understand the thesis and the mode of argument. It presents an important thesis - that ancient cultures encoded the skies in their mythologies.
The book is dense, has endless digressions, and doesn't quite prove its case. However it presents enough of the picture to show that the heavens and their architecture are fundamental aspects of traditional lore. In this it provides a valuable alternative to the ideas of Carl Jung an ...more

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May 23, 2013 George Mills rated it really liked it

Amazing scholarship combined with exceptional thought and analysis make this an essential work. The book is marred however by the lack of an hypothesis as to the reasons why our ancestors went to so much pain to pass on the knowledge encoded in the myths. It uncovers many mysteries but it does not offer any answers.

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Oct 18, 2010 Nathan Miller rated it liked it

This one took me about two years to read.

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Aug 02, 2019 Erik Graff rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: archeoastronomers, mythologists

Recommended to Erik by: john McGough

Shelves: sciences

This is a difficult, demanding work which basically asserts that the ancients, some of them, knew more astrophysics than is commonly recognized and that this knowledge is reflected in myths throughout the world, many of which can be read both as simple fantasies and for their esoteric meaning. Most commonly, the authors assert that these myths, while seeming to refer to the earth or to the underworld, actually refer to astronomical phenomena such as the precession of the equinox.
This book range ...more

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Aug 21, 2015 A. McMahon rated it it was amazing

I should make clear straight away, given the five star rating I have given this book, that Hamlet's Mill is actually not all that well written. Santillana and Dechend write tortuous sentences that are difficult to follow; the material, which is often complex and detailed, is often poorly presented and their points are not always obvious. A page turner it is not. However, their thesis is so radical and their scholarship so thorough, that it has undeniable claims to be one of the Great Books of Hi ...more

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Apr 17, 2015 Jase Woods rated it it was amazing

Brilliant! This is not an easy book to read and understand. it requires thought and study...really thinking.to understand it we need to look outsude our normal way of understanding earth and how it works. And when we understand what the author is pointing at, it requires acceptance of something that is difficult to accept. Every 26,000 years, earth's climate and ways of operating are changed by cycles of time that threaten human existence and earth's other life forms with extinction. It isn't wr ...more

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Feb 12, 2013 the Skrauss rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

It's all connected! In more ways than one. Myth continues to open its vastness to me, yet withholds its secrets. Why are all myths all over the world so similar? Because they contain astronomical and mathematical knowledge and are the vehicles used to transmit this knowledge to the future.

Brilliant thesis. It raises the question, why do we stop looking? Why stop there? Where ever "there" happens to be, it is not the final answer and ceasing investigation stifles human growth. Yet here we are be ...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Frank rated it liked it

The subject matter was very dry reading until I started seeing the linkages,. The basic idea is that our pre-history is recorded in the myths and legends passed down to present day, and further that all cultures are passing down the same historical information.
It is fascinating book if you are interested in the material and an impossible read for those who are not.

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May 10, 2009 Rochelle rated it liked it

I was probably too young when my dad recommended this book to me as a "must-read." Slogged through diligently only to feel deflated and relieved that it had come to an end. Although, who knows, it may have altered my brain, and thus explain my current obsession with Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces, and other such books. I am wary of recommending it to others.

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May 24, 2013 Robert Snow rated it really liked it

Giorgio de Santillana a Professor at MIT looks at mythology, astronomy, precession of the axis and of the Zodiacal stages of precession. Now... take all this and maybe the ancient myths have been misconstrued. I found it interesting but somewhat dry and laborious. This is along the notions of Joseph Campbell's works.

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Jun 10, 2008 Mary rated it really liked it

An intense overview of the common origins of science and myth. One example being the European myth of Hamlets (Ahmlodhi's) Mill and the scientific concept of the precession of the equinoxes. A facinating read.

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Dec 24, 2008 Godine Publisher & Black Sparrow Press rated it it was amazing

"A book wonderful to read and startling to contemplate. If this theory is correct, both the history of science and the reinterpretation of myths have been enriched immensely."
— Washington Post Book World

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Dec 02, 2017 Gregory rated it really liked it

An academic perspective on myths and legends and their sources. After reading you will no longer see Shakespeare as the primary source of some of his plays. A great book interested in deep patterns of myth and archetypes.

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Jan 26, 2008 Sally rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, mythology

Fascinating account of the relation of mythology to astronomy.

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Mar 26, 2008 Arefin added it

A study of human imagination beyond the science

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Jul 21, 2008 Trevor Luke rated it liked it

A thesis that is ultimately dubious, but a fascinating read.

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Nov 09, 2015 Giorgio Comel rated it it was amazing

brilliant writing, very interesting thesis accurately proven. a bit lengthy, but always deeply magnificent.

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Mar 02, 2014 Jeff rated it it was amazing

I only understood about a quarter of this book, but I found it fascinating and remarkable.

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About Giorgio de Santillana

Giorgio de Santillana

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Giorgio Diaz de Santillana (30 May 1902 – 1974) was an Italian-American philosopher and historian of science, and Professor of the History of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).