Urban Myth: the Zodiac revealed his true identity.
This myth is surprising persistent even though common sense says it is probably false. What follows is part of an updated version of a post I made some time ago on another website.
Solving the riddle is a two-stage process and reveals quite a lot of information about the Zodiac’s beliefs; it does not, however, reveal his real identity.
To make sense of the first seven letters and/or symbols we need to do three things:-
replace the Taurus symbols with the letter ‘e‘;
replace the archaic form of the Greek letter theta (the cross surrounded by a circle) with ‘th’ its Romanized equivalent;
and rearrange the letters ever so slightly.
When we follow these simple rules, we get the Greek word ‘anetheke‘. Originally meaning ‘to set up’, it eventually became a standard formula for dedicating a votive offering to a God. When a Greek named Paktyes dedicated a cup to Hera, for example, he had the cup inscribed with the following words: ‘Here [Hera] anetheke Paktyes’.
Since my original post, I learned an eagle-eyed contributor to zodiackiller.com had already found the word ‘anetheke’ inscribed on a Temple to Poseidon at Cape Matapan in Greece. The inscription, which included the archaic form of the letter theta, is shown below.
At the time of the original post, I wasn’t aware of either the inscription or the fact that it had been published on zodiackiller.com. The inscription provides evidence that the Zodiac dedicates the ‘slaves’ he kills – or sacrifices – to Poseidon.
The temple’s location on the southern tip of Greece is another important clue. Not far from the temple is a cave which was thought to be a gateway or entrance to the underworld. This was one of several pathways to the House of Hades and was used by Orpheus in his failed attempt to rescue Eurydice and bring her back to the land of the living. It was also the route taken by Heracles (Hercules) when he raised the brother of Orthus, the hellhound, Cerberus, from the underworld to the surface of the Earth.
The final six letters can be used to elicit the ‘name’ of the Zodiac. The solution is a two-step process and involves the use of the standard (QWERTY) typewriter keyboard:-
The first three characters represent the rows on the keyboard. The first character, the letter ‘M’ is on the third row. Taurus, is the second sign of the Zodiac and refers to the second or middle row on the keyboard. The final symbol is the inverted sign for Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac, and refers to the top row of letters.
The order in which the rows appear indicates the number of letters to be drawn from each row, i.e. three, two, one indicates that only one letter is to be drawn from the third row; two are to be drawn from the second row; and three are to be drawn from the top row.
The final three letters point to where we should begin to select the characters from each row. That is, the pointer in the bottom row is the letter ‘N’, the pointer in the second or middle row is the letter ‘A’, and the pointer to the first letter in the top row is ‘W’. (Note: the pointer on the top line is ‘W’ not ‘M’ because both it and the symbol for the top line (Aries) are upside down).
Beginning with the pointers, and selecting characters across the keyboard from left to right gives us N-A-S-W-E-R or ANSWER. Since the answer is definitely not ‘ANSWER’ the approach needs to be refined.
The solution is to begin with the character immediately to the right of the pointer on rows one and three giving us M-A-S-E-R-T or MASTER. Some might not like the idea that the method used to select characters from rows one and three differs from the method used to select the characters from row two. The simple answer is that 2:1 ratios and relationships are used extensively in Zodiac’s riddles and puzzles.
As the man says, the answer to this part of his puzzle is MASTER. Since the Zodiac ‘s letter containing the riddle spells ‘kid’ as ‘cid’ – clearly an intentional error – and the title Cid means Master, the Zodiac has not only given us a valuable clue but the actual solution to the puzzle.
There is another clue that the Zodiac is sacrificing ‘slaves’ or members of ‘the herd’ to Poseidon. The presence of so many Taurus symbols in the puzzle reminds us that one of Poseidon’s epithets was Taureus because cattle were sacrificed to him. On a final note, the Zodiac’s identification with Poseidon undoubtedly explains why his earliest attack sites were associated with water, i.e. Lake Herman Road, Blue Rock Springs and Lake Berryessa.
But not everyone agrees that the figures in the puzzle are Taurus symbols. They maintain they are letter 8s. Now three 8s are not a name, but they are the number of a name. Irenaeus, the second century Bishop of Lyon, claimed the number of the name of Jesus was 888. So which is it: Taurus symbols or 8s? Why not both, i.e. Christian ‘cattle’, after all, as we shall see, Christians are ’slaves’ par excellence.
The reason the Zodiac calls himself MASTER will be the explored in upcoming posts.