original article text

Summary

Zoidberg, originally Zeitrburg, is a spirit of the Eastern Woods that first appeared in tales of early Germanic settlers. The tale of Zeitrburg found it's way down to what is now Italy at about 900BC where it made its way across the sea and to Ancient Greece by traders. The story of Zeitrburg got a Greek twist over the years and made its way into Greek mythology. "Zeitrburg" was adapted to Greek phonology and named "ζειτωβες" (Zeitobes).
But even with his adaptation to fit into Greek mythology, the spirit of the woods never made it into the ranks of the better known gods and demigods. Zeitobes was even rejected as a spirit of the woods[1], and is said to now reside in the underworld as a servant to Hades whilst Persephone is gone. Zoidberg (or Zeitrburg), and Greek ζειτωβες, is a lesser wood spirit in ancient Germanic and Greek mythology. Special interest arose due to the fact that tales containing the same character are found in both locations which is seen as a proof of at least indirect relations between both peoples.
[edit]Rediscovery

Due to its late adoption into the Greek mythology, Zeitobes is not mentioned in any of the greater tales of ancient Greek mythology. The earliest recorded evidence of there being a "ζειτωβες" in Greek mythology was in 1923 when a German historian Viktor Ebenstark was running an expedition in the Greek island Patmos, when he came across a stone carving of Hades sitting on his throne with a servant at his side. Ebenstark managed to cut out the stone carving, and he brought it back to his home in Adelsheim, Germany, near the town of Heilbronn. The carving has since been lost. It is believed to have been destroyed during World War II. Studying the carving of Hades and his servant, Ebenstark noticed that the servant had a resemblance of the early Germanic Zeitrburg, a spirit of the woods that was in the stories of early Germanic settlers. Although Zeitrburg and the servant in the carving had resemblance, there was no information about this figure anywhere else than in obscure German and Greek texts. Ebenstark left the idea at this point to go back to his main study of Norse gods. Six years later during another expedition to Italy, Ebenstark came across several old documents in a Catholic church near the coast of the Ionian Sea. These documents contained information about everyday life in Italy during the early 1400s. Upon further reading, Ebenstark discovered there were points in which name similar to that of Zeitrburg's were mentioned as a spirit or mythological creature. These documents were proof that the tales of Zeitrburg had at least made it to the Ionian Sea. Ebenstark then went back to the island of Patmos again a few months later and hired local townspeople to scout the area for any other ancient Greek carvings or buildings. Just a few hundred meters from where Ebenstark had found the original carving, a stone shrine was uncovered. However just below the carving there was text, most of which was weathered and illegible, but once again the name Zeitobes was mentioned. Ebenstark came to the conclusion that German mythology had made its way down to Greece and mixed with the Greek mythology.