Eagle calendar marker

There are two main eagle calendar markers which later became "mythologised". One is double headed eagle, like this Hittite one from Alaca Höyük...

This symbol was derived from annual vulture mating "synchronised flying" ritual, where two birds fly next to or on top of each other...Which from the ground looks like this...

In Eastern Anatolia, Northern Mesopotamia and Central Asia this coincides with the arrival of rainy season...Which is why in these areas this calendar marker was associated with rain and rain gods...Hence this eagle dude from Bactria, c: 2500-1500BC separating summer and autumn (winged lion) and winter (boar). I talked about this in my post "Double headed eagle" 

This guy also has two vulture heads pointing to two opposite directions...The way a couple of vultures looks like during their mating synchronised flying from the ground...In November, when rain clouds arrive. Which is why he is fluffy, like a cloud. Bezoar cloud is there too as Bezoar goats mate at the same time too. Bactrian. 

From my post "Fluffy" 🙂 about Bactrian bezoar goat and eagle seals... 

The "eagle dude" (vulture god) with one or two heads appears is found in exactly these areas of Western and Central Asia... 

The second eagle calendar marker which later became "mythologised" is "Eagle killing snake".  

Like this one on one side of this Greek coin which has Zeus on the other side...

Or like this Roman statue

In the old times, before the discovery of the animal calendar markers 🙂, this symbol was interpreted as solar eagle killing chthonic snake...The problem is snake is not a chthonic but a solar symbol, representing sun's heat...I talked about this in my post "Chthonic animal" Bactrians knew that too...Here is a sun god with sun rays coming out of his shoulders and two snakes. 

I talked about it in my post "Bactrian snakes and dragons"... 

But Bactrians also had the "Eagle killing snake" symbol too. Here it is on this seal...

Sumerians had it too (I will talk about his soon)...So what does this symbol mean and what is it derived from?

Enters this cool dude: The short-toed snake eagle (Circaetus gallicus), a medium-sized bird of prey, found throughout the Mediterranean basin, into Russia and the Middle East, and parts of Western Asia, and in the Indian Subcontinent and also in some Indonesian islands...

This eagle, as its name says has short toes 🙂 And eats snakes. And in Europe, it is a migratory bird, leaving for Africa in Sep/Oct and returning in Apr/May...So this eagle disappears with snakes (goes to the underworld 🙂) and reappears with snakes (returns from the underworld)...

The only time you can see this scene is during summer and autumn...Beginning from Apr-May...Beginning of summer...Which is interesting, because in Europe, Apr-May is also the beginning of the Thunderstorm season...

Hence Eagle (Thunder god) fighting Snake (Sun's heat)...

This fight intensifies as the summer goes on, reaching crescendo at the end of Jul, beginning of Aug, right when Slavs celebrate the victory of their thunder god Perun (Eagle) over his enemy, the great serpent (Veles) who stole heavenly cows (clouds)...You can read more about the thunderstorms in Europe in "A Climatology of Thunderstorms across Europe from a Synthesis of Multiple Data Sources" 

Cool, right? This is why we have ambiguity when it comes to the eagle symbol...It is both symbol of thunder and sun (gods 🙂)...This is also why it both snake and eagle are linked to a bull...Because this epic battle between eagle and snake starts in Taurus, Bull...

Oh and by the way, In Bactria, the snakes disappear in October, November, just when the cold and damp part of the year starts, and just when the double headed eagle appears in the sky (vulture mating starts). Bactrian seal, double headed eagle fighting two snakes. End of 3rd, beginning of second millennium BC. 

It the climate thingy...It's all linked, it's all so simple and it's all so beautiful...And suddenly everything makes sense...Well at least to me...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...